Thank You Mrs. Wideen! - Some terrific ideas for using technology in the classroom!

I happened upon Mrs. Wideen's Blog today and found several terrific posts! Her post from Saturday, Different Ways to Generate Ideas Using Technology , shows how she has used Popplet and Padlet (with Chirp) and Write About. Take a look at her examples!


The other one I explored was her post from September - 6 Ready to Go iPad Centers! Here she has links so you can download them and use them the next day!

• The first one uses the app Write About which has a free version. The "write about" can be sent to the Camera Roll as a picture and/or students could record themselves reading their "write about." From there, the possibilities for sharing are endless!
• The second one is a fluency station using Audioboo - also free. I would suggest that you check your settings and not allow location services and teach students not to upload their own photograph. We have developed a similar workstation. Here are links to our documents. Workstation and Rubric   There is also an Audioboo app in the Edmodo store - $4.99 for unlimited use with your groups. I think it might be a little more secure, but I don't yet have experience with it.
• The third one uses the Pocket Zoo app. The app costs $2.99 and looks really cool. If you don't have the money to spend, I'm wondering if you could find some free animal cams - such as this one, and still use her recording sheet (or create your own)!
• The fourth one is a math center using the Draw and Tell app. It costs $1.99. Again, if looking for free, I think you could create a similar experience using EDUcreations, ScreenChomp or ShowMe.
• The fifth one uses a recording of The Napping House by Audrey Wood from YouTube. I don't know how she had the YouTube app going directly to the recording, but you could use a QR code reader app to scan a QR code you had made or create a "web clip" to the recording. Then, the students use Explain Everything, a $1.99 purchase by you could also use EDUcreations, ScreenChomp or ShowMe.
• The sixth station is a measurement station (non-standard measurement) and uses Explain Everything as well.

Thanks again to Mrs.Wideen for sharing. How can you modify or tweak her workstations to work for you and your students? Please share your ideas below!

Google in Education Online Courses

Google has released several self-paced online courses designed to help you meet your teaching and learning

goals. For teachers in Spring Branch, the following courses would be most beneficial:
Google Drive for Educators
Chrome and Chromebooks for Education
Internet 101

By registering for the course, you can track course progress and take the assessment(s).
To received district PD credit for taking the course, simply request out of district credit in Workshop and attach documentation.

Formpl.us - Add File Uploads to your Google Forms!

Wow! Have you ever wanted to have people actually attach a file to a Google Form? Form+ (Formpl.us) does just that. Watch Randy Rodgers short video and learn how! It's as easy as adding the Form+ app and creating a form!  I can see teachers really enjoying this capability. Students could attach Word documents, pdfs, pictures, and more...

AND, a big plus - you can access the Camera Roll and Camera on an iOS device! So, teachers could use these forms to collect work done non-digitally at a workstation!
Thanks Miguel Guhlin for sharing!

Confused, and yet, very excited... living in the education world

Last week, I found some time to watch one of Will Richardson's ISTE Conference sessions AND a TEDTalk by a Jinha Lee.

Together, both have left me pondering ever more so how rapidly the world is changing. That's not to say I didn't know it already, but after exposure to both of these presentations in the same week, I feel even more confused. I'm left wondering how on earth are we are going to move this ginormous floundering world of K-12 public education to meet the needs of students - students like Jinha - students who are designing and creating things I can't even wrap my head around.







Will makes the following points:

• Change always starts with confusion. We are in a very confusing moment in education.
• Traditional education (delivery/just in case) is no longer relevant today when we carry the "sum of human knowledge" around in our pockets. 
• We don't need to be "better" educators, we need to be "different" educators.

3 Starting Points to help us be "different"

1. "Knowmadic" learning/self-organized learning: based on passions and interests at the moment; reference - Knowmad Society
2. Design Thinking: problem solving model; reference - Design Thinking for Educators
3. The Maker Movement: we can create products to solve problems; reference - The Maker Education Initiative and the book Invent to Learn

Questions that now come to mind...

• Are enough educators (I guess I need to include... and policy makers) confused now that we can make change happen? How do we give kids more opportunity to learn? 
• How do we help them get the skills they will need in a world we can't even imagine (but they can and they do)?
• How can we get started at the local level?

Did these videos get you thinking too?

PS. Want to learn something today? You might be able to use this resources that Will shared this site in his presentation. The EduPunk's Atlas of lifelong learning

The Flat Classroom 15 Challenges

While I can't seem to make it through a MOOC (maybe I'm just trying to learn too much at once), I am managing to keep up (somewhat) with my readings. These next challenges are related to Chapters 4, 5, and 6. Chapter 4 focused on communication. I was introduced to the term technopersonal and was reminded how our students from impoverished homes (and districts) are lacking in the development of their technopersonal skills that are essential for success in today's world. However, we still are faced with educators who don't have time for their students to use Google Docs in 5th grade because the students need to learn cursive in order to be successful on the SAT. Seriously? Yes, I was told that today! In Chapter 5, the Enlightened Digital Citizenship model was shared. I think it points out the complex nature of something that many adults take for granted. Educators are tasked now with finding room for it in their already crowded curriculum; but in the lives of our students, I would argue is more important than a lot of the content there. The chapter also talks about copyright issues, which again, are big and complex. So, onto the challenges!

Challenge 4: Communicate with New Tools
This challenge is to use an asynchronous tool and a synchronous tool that were discussed in the chapter and share them on my blog.

The synchronous tool is easy. Today, I participated in a Google+ Hangout with one of the developers of Tynker.com. There were 5 of us in the hangout. We were able to share information and questions, Kevin was able to share his screen with us, and we were able to use the chat feature as well. It worked really well and was all for FREE! (I should have taken a screen shot during the hangout!)

Unlike Jarod in the video, educators in SBISD allows educators access to Google+ and therefore, Hangouts! We are planning to use it as part of our Connected Learning Networks this summer. I am really excited about it!

For the asynchronous tool, I used Google Docs. Shelby Acevedo at NHS, shared a presentation and was soliciting feedback. I was able to insert comments when I had a few minutes. She can read them when she has an opportunity to return to the presentation later today. You can even give voice comments now which I should have used just to give it a try! Had Shelby been online at the time, we could have used the chat feature to converse synchronously. While I didn't use that feature today, Sheri, Carrie and I employ that capability all the time. It is one of the great features that I find invaluable and one of the reasons that One Note falls short for me!

Challenge 5: Go Mobile
For this challenge, I am to use my own mobile device and find at least one educational way it may be used. Gee, which way... We encourage teachers to use tools such as Socrative for formative assessments in classrooms. We are a BYOD district so what a better way to encourage the use of cell phones in the classroom. How about using Twitter? Teachers can create a classroom hashtag and use Twitter as a backchannel, as a summarization tool, find "experts" to follow.. the list grows everyday. How about using Audioboo as a way students can self assess fluency? I worked with a teacher to develop an Audiobook workstation in the classroom complete with a rubric and step-by-step directions (more for teachers than the students). We also have teachers and students creating tutorials (recording the lesson on the iPhone or using EDUcreations, Show Me Interactive Whiteboard, etc. on the iPad) and uploading them to YouTube. Our challenge is that YouTube is not accessible within the district right now on iOS and Android devices. We are working with our content filter to get that changed.

Challenge 6: Create a Classroom Monitoring Portal
This challenge is a little more "challenging" for me. We are to create a CMP (classroom monitoring portal) for our classroom. I'm not sure that I totally understand all of the components of a CMP... Here is go, none-the-less.

(I have been holding onto this post for a week or so. I cannot seem to figure out the RSS. I have contacted The Flat Classroom folks. they are working with me but with everything else going on here right now, it will be another week or so before I have time to move on! So, I decided to go ahead and post Challenges 4 and 5!)

Microsoft Partners in Learning

Recently, I attended a two day Microsoft Innovative Educator training. It was fast paced, fun and full of terrific resources for teachers that I didn’t even know existed! Here’s a quick run-down on one of those resources! Certainly worth a look!

Microsoft Partners in Learning Network

You’ll find some terrific free Microsoft software as well as some rich resources for teaching and learning! To begin with, you’ll need to create an account. Once signed in, select the resources tab and then Free tools.

Resources>Free tools

Here, you’ll find an extensive list of tools, many of which are free software along with tutorials and learning activities. Here are a few tools we explored during the training that you could use in your classroom today:

Windows Movie Maker - A free movie making tool. During the training I was able to use Community Clips to create a short video tutorial for Windows 8.

Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 - A powerful computer algebra system, with step-by-step equation solver and powerful visualization tools, that will help students grasp mathematical concepts.

AutoCollage - Select several images and the software will generate a collage in seconds!

Songsmith - Songsmith automatically generates musical accompaniment for anyone’s voice. Get rappin’ today!

WorldWide Telescope - Explore outer space from your classroom!

These are just a few of the many tools there. Spend some time - there’s something for everyone.

Another category certainly worth your time is Professional Development and then 21st Century Learning Design.

Professional Development>21st Century Learning Design

As part of the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research (ITL) project, rubrics were developed that help educators identify and understand how they can build students’ 21st century skills into their lessons. There are 6 rubrics of 21st century learning, each one an important skill for students: collaboration, knowledge construction, self-regulation, real-world problem-solving and innovation, the use of ICT for learning, and skilled communication. You’ll find the rubrics here (well worth your time) as well as examples of learning activities from around the world.

The Partners in Learning Network is a place where you can come to learn on your own or find and connect with other educators around the world! I'll be sharing more from the training in upcoming posts! Thanks Robyn and Sarah!

Voice Commenting in Google Docs! Can it get any easier?

Collaborators can now comment on documents in Google Docs which is a terrific feature for classroom teachers! How? You'll need to install the free app Learn.ly to your account, open the file differently, click record, and then share the recording with collaborators. It is really easy. Watch this brief video which walks you through the process!

I have failed or "seen the light!" I can't do it...

FOR you. It has taken me nearly 20 years, but I NOW GET it!

In my current role as an educational technology facilitator, I spend a lot of time developing trainings for teachers that will help them integrate technology into their instructional program. After "discovering" the technology tool(s) and seeing ways that can be used to engage learners, I develop the content, organize it and then create a training, nicely packaged. Teachers come. They learn. I try to make it easy for them! I am there to guide and support them, keeping them from frustrations (at least some of them).
We have fun! Despite my best efforts (and the efforts of the teachers) the training so many times isn't implemented. There are a myriad of reasons, but I think the biggest is that I was trying to do too much FOR them.

The piece that really takes the time is the shift in pedagogy that comes with using technology in new ways. Very few come prepared for that. First, we are asking teachers to create more student-centered classrooms. Technology (the piece we have advertised) comes after that. There is really no way that a teacher can come and shift their practice to facilitator, learn the tool, see the implications for integration with the content, and understand how to introduce it in the classroom in a few hours. In fact, this blog post The Ugly Truth of Technology Integration by Mark Fijor says it well.

Constructing and communicating knowledge is personal, is messy, and takes time, whether it be teachers or students. If we can help teachers see the opportunities and then commit to spending time developing their understanding and skills, we will all be more successful, students included. I hope that I am prepared to make the shift to facilitator as well!