Using Digital Tools: Inquiry, Collaboration, and Learning Microcredential
Program Description:
You've used Padlet. You've tried Nearpod. You've watched a colleague use Pear Deck and wondered whether your students were actually learning more, or just clicking more.
This microcredential is for K–8 educators who want to know the difference. Across four microcourses, you'll examine what digital tools actually reveal about how your students think, how they collaborate, and what they understand; and you'll redesign lessons you already teach to make that thinking sharper, more visible, and more useful to you as a teacher.
You won't start from scratch. You'll bring lessons from your own classroom—math, ELA, science, social studies, the arts, or any subject you teach—and use the course to analyze and enhance them based on evidence of how your students actually respond. Each microcourse includes a monthly office hours with instructor La Toya Caton, where you can discuss lessons in progress, share student work, and learn alongside other K–8 educators wrestling with the same questions.
The program also looks closely at access, participation, and digital equity, because tools that work for some students and not others aren't really working. By the end, you won't just have a stronger lesson, you'll have a framework for every lesson that comes after it.
Microcourse 1: Using Digital Tools to Reveal Student Thinking
Platforms like Padlet, Nearpod, and Pear Deck make student reasoning visible in the moment, including the reasoning that usually stays hidden. You'll examine real student responses, then design a short task that surfaces how your own students are actually thinking.
Microcourse 2: Supporting Collaboration with Digital Platforms
Three students working in a shared Google Doc isn't the same as three students collaborating. You'll study what genuine peer-to-peer interaction looks like in digital environments, then design and run a collaborative activity, examining who participated, who didn't, and why.
Microcourse 3: Using Digital Tools for Formative Assessment
Exit tickets tell you who got the answer. Digital assessment tools can tell you why, including the misconceptions behind "right" answers. You'll analyze student response data, build a formative assessment for your classroom, and use what you learn to plan your next instructional move.
Microcourse 4: Designing Technology-Enhanced Learning Experiences
The capstone brings everything together. You'll design and teach a lesson where technology does work that paper can't: making thinking visible, inviting peer response, opening space for reflection. You'll leave with a taught lesson, evidence of how it landed, and a clearer sense of when technology earns its place.
Dates & Registration
Format: Asynchronous Online Microcourses
Full Microcredential (Microcourses 1-4) Price: $425
Please Note: This microcredential and its individual microcourses have rolling registration. Once registration is complete, learners will have 6 months to complete their chosen course(s).
For more information, questions, or to register: Email tcacademy@tc.columbia.edu
Faculty
La Toya Caton
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the full microcredential, participants will be able to:
- Identify what a lesson is really asking students to think about, and design questions that make that thinking visible
- Choose digital tools based on what they need to see, not what's available or familiar
- Design lessons in which digital tools open up reasoning, collaboration, and reflection rather than substitute for them
- Read student responses captured through digital tools to decide what to do next
- Recognize when a digital tool is widening access for students, and when it's quietly creating new barriers
Participants will be able to:
- Identify the thinking a lesson is meant to produce, before deciding what tool to use
- Read student responses captured through digital platforms for evidence of reasoning, not just correctness
- Design a short task that prompts students to show their thinking, not just their answer
- Name what digital tools make visible, and what they can hide
Participants will be able to:
- Tell the difference between digital activities that produce genuine collaboration and those that just digitize individual work
- Identify the features of a digital environment that support real peer-to-peer academic discussion
- Design and run a collaborative activity built around a specific learning goal in their own classroom
- Notice who participated, who didn't, and what the digital format had to do with it
Participants will be able to:
- Read student responses on digital assessment platforms for misconceptions, partial understandings, and emerging strategies, not just right or wrong
- Design a formative assessment task that targets a specific learning goal using a digital tool
- Analyze the resulting student data to identify patterns in how students are thinking
- Use that evidence to decide what to teach next, and how
Participants will be able to:
- Bring together principles from across the program to design a capstone lesson where technology earns its place
- Teach the lesson, gather evidence of how students engaged, and analyze what the technology actually did
- Distinguish between uses of technology that deepened student learning and uses that simply moved learning to a screen
- Articulate a personal set of principles for when, and when not, to integrate digital tools in future instruction
Who Should Attend
This microcredential is designed for:
- K–8 classroom teachers who want digital tools to broaden student participation and accessibility
- Instructional coaches who support teachers with technology integration and want a shared framework to bring back to their schools
- Curriculum coordinators, department leaders, and district decision-makers responsible for selecting digital tools or shaping technology integration policy
- Special education teachers and multilingual learner specialists who use digital tools to widen access and participation for the students they support
- Pre-service teachers and recent graduates preparing to teach in technology-rich K–8 classrooms
Participants don't need to be experts in any specific platform. The course focuses on principles and practices that work across tools and subject areas, with examples drawn from platforms commonly used in K–8 classrooms. Participants should have access to a classroom or instructional setting where they can try out and reflect on at least one lesson during the course.
Upon Completion
Participants who successfully complete this microcredential course will earn a verified Certificate of Participation and an official Digital Badge—valuable credentials that showcase your commitment to professional growth and can be shared on LinkedIn or digital portfolios.
View our sample program badge and certificate below:
Important Notice: This is a non-credit program. Completion does not provide academic credit toward any degree program at Teachers College or other institutions. No transcript credit will be awarded.