HyperDocs Support the Six Arguments for Why Schools Should be Different

1. ARGUMENT 5: Schools are doing too little to create a culture of educational innovation that can respond to evolving student needs

1.1. Content can be differentiated to meet students’ needs

1.2. Activities can be designed to promote students to “take risks, try new things, and or think in uncharted directions” to support innovation in the classroom (McLeod & Shareski, 2018, p. 27)

1.3. Encourages opportunities for “genuine inquiry” to take place through student exploration (McLeod & Shareski, 2018, p. 29)

2. ARGUMENT 1: Our Information Landscape is becoming incredibly complex and students need the skills to navigate it effectively

2.1. Digital citizenship lessons can be used through the use of HyperDocs to teach students to analyze research for validity

2.2. Exposure to technology and different technological resources at a younger age allows students to develop strong digital citizenship skills

3. ARGUMENT 2: Automation and global hypercompetition increasingly define the economy that our graduates are entering

3.1. Students use digital tools to collaborate and communicate with individuals in an online environment

3.2. Students are exposed to activities that incorporate “Critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and high-level communication and collaboration skills” to better support them for the global transformation that is taking place in our economy (McLeod & Shareski, 2018, p. 13)

4. ARGUMENT 4: The Tasks we ask students to perform are often undemanding and tedious, leading to boredom and a lack of critical thinking

4.1. Different activities create interactive learning experiences that help promote student engagement and critical thinking

4.2. Students have access to different platforms that can allow them to create different products to transform their thinking

4.3. Students communicate their thoughts and opinions and think critically in order to evaluate and respond to others' responses rather than focusing on “ low level items of factual recall and procedural regurgitation, exactly the types of information that students can find with a two-second online search with Google or Siri” (McLeod & Shareski, 2018, p. 21)

5. ARGUMENT 3: The role of teachers as exclusive purveyors of information is obsolete

5.1. Students use different resources to develop their own knowledge and understanding of different topics instead of relying on teacher instruction to learn content

5.2. Students are able to make their own instructional decisions when teachers provide choices for different student-led learning opportunities (McCarthy, 2015)

5.3. Student interests can be embedded into the learning content to promote student ownership in the learning process (McCarthy, 2015)

6. ARGUMENT 6: The digital tools students will require for future success are too often unavailable to traditionally disadvantaged groups

6.1. Students gain exposure to different technology tools in the classroom setting to promote digital literacy

6.2. The design of activities can provide “higher-level instructional experiences and deeper learning opportunities” (McLeod & Shareski, 2018, p. 38)