MATRIX 1: Digital Learning Resources

The term Digital Learning Resources (DLRs) refers to digital resources such as applications (apps), software, programs, or websites that engage students in learning activities and
support students’ learning goals. There are three categories of DLRs: digital academic content tools, digital productivity tools, and digital communication tools. DLRs as defined
here do not include the hardware or infrastructure needed to use the digital resources.
DLR Category Definition Category Types and Examples
Software, applications • Interactive tutorials or lessons (adaptive and other) that guide students in learning and demonstrating new content or skills,
(apps), programs, or such as an interactive lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly or a math tutorial on fractions.
websites that offer • Practice and assessment tools that provide activities to review concepts and skills, such as a math app that provides multiple
academic content Designed opportunities to practice addition skills.
resources and/or engage learning activities • Dynamic modeling or simulation tools, such as a physics simulation that lets students manipulate virtual equipment, change
students in activities to
parameters, and see the results.
Digital learn academic content or
• Virtual worlds that immerse a student in a fully interactive environment, such as one that allows a student to roam in a period of
Academic skills, including, but not
past history or explore a desert environment.
Content limited to, language and
Tools literacy content or skills. • Dictionaries, encyclopedias, e-books, topic blogs, and/or topic-focused websites that serve as information resources, such as an
References/ online encyclopedia that offers students pictures, facts, and videos about mammals or a digital dictionary.
resources
• Visual and auditory topic-related resources such as a YouTube video on earthquakes and plate tectonics.

• Translation tools that assist students by providing a translation to another language.

Language resource
• Articulation tools that assist a student to accurate production of a language, such as by showing images of how a sound should
tools
be produced and/or by letting a student record and listen to his/her own voice to compare with the model.
Software, applications • Presentation and publication tools that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned about a topic or to publish a
(apps), programs, or Presentation tools
digital story about a memorable day. These may include music, images, and/or video.
websites that students use • Word or text processing tools that enable students to create, edit, and print documents such as in creating a newspaper based
to plan, document, Word processing tools
Digital on topics from history class or reporting on a field trip.
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organize, and analyze

Productivity Information • Spreadsheet and data analysis tools that allow students to organize and analyze information, such as tracking local rainfall over
content. They do not
Tools contain academic content.
analysis tools time or analyzing and summarizing factors that led to the migration from the American Dust Bowl to the West in the 1930s.
• Concept-mapping tools that let students visually represent relationships among sets of information, such as creating a mindmap
Information of the American Revolution or a concept map for the causes of the Civil War.
organization tools
• Story templates that assist students to communicate a narrative using text and/or images, as in retelling a story they have heard.
Software, applications Asynchronous/ • Discussion boards or forums that provide platforms for students to post reactions and/or comments and share perspectives,
(apps), programs, or synchronous such as in providing analyses of a novel they have read and sharing feedback on their peers’ analyses.
websites that students use text communications • Emails, text messaging, chats, for example, using a chat function to share peer feedback on a report.
to communicate,
collaborate, network, or Reflection • Blogs or student journals that allow students opportunities to share and/or reflect on their learning experiences, such as a
Digital tools student who uses a journal entry to reflect on her understanding of particular math concepts.
Communication present information. They
Tools do not contain academic • Videoconferencing or meeting tools that provide a remote means of seeing and speaking with others in real time, such as in
content. Videoconferencing/
enabling a science class to see and talk with NASA experts, or allowing students in a Spanish dual-language class to see and share
meeting tools
a geography game with Spanish-speaking peers in Mexico.
Project collaboration • Document or project-sharing tools that provide an online platform where students can work on products together, as in jointly
tools editing a shared book report.

Multiple individual DLRs can be combined in an Integrated DLR Set

A structured combination of individual For example, a math program for grades 6–8 that combines visual lessons with embedded
Integrated DLRs to provide a complete core or Core Curriculum Integrated DLR Set assessments, productivity tools, and flexible class management tools into one package.
DLR supplemental curriculum. Often, DLR
Sets sets are licensed as a package by a For example, a math intervention for at-risk students in grades 6–12 that provides tutorials,
Supplemental Integrated DLR Set practice activities, and progress monitoring tools to inform instruction.
school district.
Note: This summary matrix was adapted from Zehler, Annette M., Yilmazel-Sahin, Yesim, Massoud, Lindsey, Moore, Sarah C., Yin, Chengbin, and Kramer, Kat. (2012, April). Technology-based resources in instruction of
English learner students. Poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service. (2018). National Study of English Learners and Digital Learning Resources. Washington, DC:
Author.
 MATRIX 2: Digital Support Features

Digital Support Features are specific embedded features in digital learning resources (DLRs) that assist students in understanding or communicating the content and/or activities
provided in the DLR. This is a preliminary list to prompt further discussion among developers and educators.

Support Feature
Category Definition Category Examples
Provide visual images or other
visual supports to assist a Visual definition Links to a video or image(s) providing a visual definition of a concept or word.
Visual student in understanding
and/or communicating a Manipulable visual representation of a concept, such as a graphing calculator feature integrated into a DLR, providing
Support Interactive visual features
representations of concepts based upon information that a student enters.
Features concept or idea.
Text shown on the video screen provides print as well as audio that is useful for English learners still developing their
Closed captioning
ability to understand spoken English.
Provide speech or other use of
sound to assist a student in Auditory definition Allows students to click on a word to hear a definition of a concept or word.
understanding and/or
Reads aloud text such as a selection on academic content, a story, directions for a lab experiment, or math questions;
communicating a concept or Text-to-speech for text
Auditory might include options to play, pause, adjust the volume, and/or control the speed at which the text is read. The language
idea. selection
Support used may be English or another language, depending on the materials used.
Features
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Text-to-speech for
Allows readers to hear an individual word or phrase.
highlighted word
Enables students to record their voice; replay it so that they can hear their own voice, perhaps make adjustments to
Record and replay voice and/or practice pronunciation, practice their part in a presentation, or save for sharing with others.

Provide embedded functions to

translate from one language to Spoken word translation Enables a student to hear a spoken translation in his/her home language of an unfamiliar English word.
the other, in either speech or
print, and for either a word or Printed word translation Enables a student to view a written translation in his/her home language of an unfamiliar English word.
Translation limited text.
Support
Features Spoken text translation Enables a student to hear spoken statements in one language as spoken in another language.

Printed text translation Enables a student to view a section of text in one language as written in another language.

Embedded functions that

Collaboration students use to communicate, Document sharing Allows multiple students to share a digital document and use annotation tools to add notes or comments.
Support collaborate, work, or share
Features information about academic Collaboration based on Allows students to collaborate with peers according to their proficiency levels (e.g., peers at the same Lexile reading
content. proficiency level comprehension level).
Note: This matrix is a preliminary summary of supports created for the toolkits based on insights gained through the NSELD research.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service. (2018). National Study of English Learners and Digital Learning Resources. Washington, DC:
Author.