Hyper about HyperDocs

http://hyperdocs.co/ 

I'm using this tomorrow!

These are my favorite words to hear during a professional development workshop. When I hear this, I know I have shared something with teachers that is relevant, applicable and scalable. I also wasn't surprised to hear this during a workshop in which we used a HyperDoc as our main tool.

If you haven't checked out HyperDocs from Lisa Highfull, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis, you definitely need to. On the surface, HyperDocs are Google Docs that are visually attractive and provide links to users to different information. But at their heart, HyperDocs are a student-centered, constructivist approach to using technology for student-driven learning. HyperDocs are organized with key words that invite users to be active members in their learning. The Google Docs are framed around verbs like: Engage, Explore, Explain, Apply, Share, Reflect and Extend. The "Engage" section might have users watch a video that sparks their curiosity. The "Explore" links might lead to websites that have further explanation about a topic. "Explain" might ask students to make their own video or voice recording about what they have learned or this might even be a face-to-face component of the lesson where students are asked to turn and talk to one another. As the verbs get more interactive in nature, there are more opportunities for student creation of products and collaboration among students. I particularly like the "Extend" idea which gives students that are really intrigued by the topic further opportunity for exploration.

Templates: http://hyperdocs.co/templates 

In the professional development workshop that I was co-leading, we created three different HyperDocs using one of the amazing templates available on the HyperDocs site. The workshop was about differentiation so we had teachers self-evaluate and choose a HyperDoc based on their knowledge and use of stations for differentiation. Teachers then used this HyperDoc to organize their learning for the session. In our case, each step in the HyperDoc was also a station and we asked teachers to physically move as they completed each step. This was useful for pieces of the HyperDoc that involved physical things (like manipulatives) and for promoting group discussion. Using the HyperDocs kept learners on track and clear in the steps they needed to take. The HyperDocs kept all the links in one place so there was no confusion about "where to go" for certain activities. And, above all, it ensured that our learning was student- (or in this case teacher-) centered and active. We did not stand and deliver a lesson on differentiation, teachers experienced a differentiated lesson and the HyperDocs helped us manage it.

Since that day, I have had numerous teachers share that they have moved to the HyperDoc as a way to organize their instruction. I love that this resource has thoughtful and intentional pedagogy embedded in it. While I'm sure some teachers can adapt a HyperDoc to make it just an electronic worksheet, I think the way Lisa, Kelly and Sarah have created and organized the HyperDocs really lure all teachers into crafting a more student-centered and activist approach to learning. I found it to be simpatico with my creed of Ask, Create, Play, Solve, Share. I believe that just seeing the examples on the HyperDoc Girls website, encourages teachers to think more about what the students are doing and less about what they as teachers will be saying. Their excellent book and website both have loads of tips and background about their thinking behind HyperDocs that are worth checking out. Let me know how you are using HyperDocs in your school. I, for one, am thrilled with a tool that is easy-to-use and has meaningful instruction at its center.

Personalized Learning via Crowdsourcing

"That was the best homework assignment I've ever had." 

This is not what you usually hear from middle school students. In fact, sometimes we get excited if they remember there was homework. But this is what an 8th grader recently said to his science teacher. Why? What was it about this homework assignment that made it stand out above all others?

"I was doing something that was just right for me."

If you are like me, you are imagining that his teacher stayed up to all hours searching, curating and refining an individualized learning path for each of her 120 students. After all, sometimes when we hear the term "personalized learning" this is how it is described. Students coming to school and getting a series of assignments that are designed for their ability level and current achievement. These programs are very impressive and often require a major fiscal investment from the school. I think this can be a very powerful part of learning and look forward to working with teachers to develop some lessons and units this way.

So what had this teacher done instead?

https://flic.kr/p/7EbF92

She crowdsourced! Crowdsourcing is when a large group of people all contribute to the success of a project, often monetarily. Luckily this teacher didn't ask her students to donate money to a cause. What she did was ask each of them to go out and find a resources that taught them about a specific science concept. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't in place of her teaching. She had already done several lessons on this topic using a variety of instructional strategies. But she knew from formative assessments and her excellent teacher instinct that some students still weren't getting it. So she put it back on them.

"Find a video, a cartoon, a simulation, a website that explains this concept in a way that makes sense to you."

Brilliant! The students found loads of excellent materials and posted to her Google Classroom. She shared that students that never hand in homework, submitted cool resources. And, she now has loads of great resources for when she teaches this concept next year. And because students had found materials that applied to their learning styles and needs, they were able to learn a concept that they had found challenging.

So, why did students respond so well to this activity? My thought is that it is personalized learning, just with a different definition than we've become accustomed to. In this case, instead of a student being handed a series of assignments that someone else (or something else) has decided are right for him or her, he or she gets to be the one to say what learning resource meets his or her needs and interests.  Students have the opportunity to create a meaningful learning experience and own their own learning. This reminds me of what has been termed the "IKEA effect." Mike Norton, Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely found that when participants in their study put together furniture, they placed it at a higher value than similar furniture that was store-assembled.

So much of what students do in school happens to them. They walk into class and wait to see what the teacher asks them to do, they go home and work on homework the teacher assigned, they take tests when the teacher says. Students today are hungry for the opportunity to contribute, they way they do when they build their own levels on Geometry Dash, or code mods in Minecraft or post their photography on Instagram. Crowdsourcing is a way to shift this dynamic. Now students have a chance to contribute to the learning plan. Someone is asking them what they think and how they want to learn.

Give it a try. Not everyday, every topic, of course. We know, as teachers, that we offer expertise and wisdom that our students don't yet have, but why not give them a chance to contribute to their learning plan?

Keeping the "We" in WeVideo

I am lucky enough to work in a school district that uses WeVideo as part of our 1:1 Chromebook approach to blended learning. If you aren't already familiar with WeVideo, it is a fantastic tool that let's students create, edit and publish videos in the cloud. Students can collaborate on projects and teachers can create sets of media for students to use for video projects. Finished videos can be downloaded or uploaded directly to Google Classroom. It has been loads of fun getting to know this powerful tool for student creativity this year. I have been a part of really innovative WeVideos and I've been a part of WeVideos that felt like any other school assignment that gets completed just because it was assigned. Here are some of my observations of what makes a WeVideo stand out in terms of the student learning experience.

https://goo.gl/images/fq2GRY

Collaboration. An obvious plus to WeVideo is the ability for multiple students to work on a video project at the same time. In the world of Google Docs and Google Slides, students have come to expect to be able to share a project with a classmate and have dual editing rights. WeVideo is a little tricky this way since only one student can be editing one video clip at any one time. This can be a great benefit though since it creates the need for more coordination, communication and planning among the students. For instance, if two students are making a Google Slide presentation together, two things often happen. One, the students divide up the slides and they each make their slides without checking in with each other about the content or style of their slides. Two, one student does all the work. With WeVideo, students need to plan out the video into media and video edits. Some students can be responsible for gathering the media needed: images, video filmed via phones, photos, music, audio. Other students can be responsible for assembling the media into a video edit. This creates a natural need for students to truly collaborate and not just divide up the work. The editor needs to be able to tell the media managers what they need. The media managers need to check back in with the editors to see how the media works in the videos. Being intentional with students about this is essential, helping students understand how the program works and how to communicate with other students will make the video project much more enjoyable and the final product much more meaningful for all.

Student Created Rubrics. Let's face it. Our students are huge consumers of video. They know what makes a good video and what makes a great video. Make sure to take some time to have students brainstorm what makes a quality learning video. Ask students to work in pairs to identify the characteristics of videos that are informative while fun to watch. Use their thoughts and ideas to build your rubric. Of course, you likely will have to add some components that students might not consider but having their buy-in on what the final products should look like will pay off in the long run. As you do more and more video products, be sure to save the quality examples. Show these to students and have them evaluate what makes them good. You will see an exponential increase in the quality of what students produce. They will feel much more connected to the project when they have helped build the rubric.

Student Reflection. Here's the great news, you've already laid the ground work for this one! Remember that student-built rubric you made with the students? Now, they can look at the rubric and reflect on what they did. In addition to checklist types of reflection questions (did you do this? did you have this?) be sure to include questions about what they learned from the project and, most importantly, what they would do differently next time. I always find that I learn as much from what students put in their project reflections as I do actually viewing the project itself. This also gives students another opportunity to share their view of the project. As educators we need to keep our focus on how students are experiencing the learning opportunities we provide in our classrooms.

https://goo.gl/images/ZbSY9W

Celebration. There is nothing worse than working really hard on a project and having your teacher move right on to the next topic, or the next project. Be sure to take time to celebrate the products students have created. Whether you have a movie day where you watch each of the projects or you have an evening presentation where parents are invited, be sure to plan time to view and celebrate the projects. This is a great opportunity to invite your administrators in or at least the tech coaches (we love this stuff!!). Consider having students write positive notes to their peers about each video. While sharing a glow and a grow is common practice, I find letting students just focus on the "glow" provides a more positive flow in the room and gives us all a chance to go full circle back to that original question of what makes a quality learning video.

I'm sure it is very intentional that the first ISTE Standard for Students is Empowered Learner. The Empowered Learner is one that "takes an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences."* Keeping this in the forefront of our minds when planning video creation lessons will ensure that students see themselves as part of the process, not something the process happens to.

*2016 ISTE Standards for Students, ©2016, ISTE® (International Society for Technology in Education), iste.org. All rights reserved.

You've done mystery location, now what?

I've had the lucky opportunity to plan and coordinate Mystery Location calls for all of our sixth grade social studies teachers in my school. It is so fun to help arrange their line ups and to co-teach the lessons as often as I can. I love watching the students try to solve the puzzle of where the other school can be from and the level of collaboration that is necessary for success. If you haven't done a Mystery Location call yet - definitely try it out. You'll be hooked. Want to know more? Check out Who Doesn't Love a Mystery?

Because of our success with sixth grade social studies, I had a few other teachers approach me and ask what kinds of global connections they could make. We also had a lot of fun with some Mystery Calls and wanted an excuse to call those same classes back. So I poked around and read about Mystery Number.

Mystery Number follows the same premise as a Mystery Location call. This time each class picks a number. The range of numbers can match the level of students. For very young classes you might limit it to 0 through 20. For our self-contained Special Education class we did whole numbers between 1 and 100. This year we are hoping to do 1 through 100 but to the hundredths decimal place.

Once each class has picked their number, each side asks a yes or no question. We tried questions like "Is the number even?" "Is the number prime?" "Is the number greater than 50?" We practiced the day ahead by having small groups pick numbers and ask each other questions. It was a great way to review academic vocabulary like even/odd, greater than/less than, and prime. Some of our students even tried using multiples and factors which was excellent. I'm looking forward to the questions our decimals class will ask.

Our students found it very helpful to have number charts that they could mark up. The classroom teacher I worked with had clear folders that we could slide the number chart into and then mark up with dry erase markers. This was definitely ideal.

I also found it helpful to have one class ask questions until they guessed and then switch and have the other class ask until they guessed. When we do Mystery Location we always alternate questions but with Mystery Number that transition seemed harder for the students. Play around with it to find a format that works for your students.

There are several reasons to try out a Mystery Number call. First of all, it is so important for students to have the ability to reach beyond their classroom. There is something about communicating with a class in a different part of the country that slowly opens their eyes to the world beyond them. Mystery call have sparked political, social, cultural, and economic conversations in our classes. Secondly, it is an authentic opportunity to put into practice something they've been learning. Suddenly there is a reason to know which numbers are prime beyond that "it will be on the test." Now knowing which numbers are prime helps you narrow down your choices, plan your next question and accurately answer questions from the other class. Thirdly, Mystery Calls give all students a place in the classroom. Students that I've never seen speak up in class have a chance to get in front of the web cam and ask a question to a class across state boundaries. Students that are careful note takers become invaluable because their number chart is the reference point. Each time I do a call there is a least one student who surprises the classroom teachers with their interest and level of participation. So, give Mystery Number a try. And if you are looking for a partner class please leave a comment below so we can get in touch!

Increasing Student Engagement with Nearpod

Can it really be three years since I first wrote about Nearpod on this blog? I just read through what I wrote back in the fall of 2013 and the tool is still holding up! Since then, my school division has purchased teacher licenses and the middle school where I work now has a 1:1 chromebook program making Nearpod more relevant than ever.

Why should you use Nearpod?

The number one reason is to increase student engagement in your classroom. 

Nearpod is a presentation tool that allows you to add interactive tools frequently throughout your presentation. Students can respond to a multiple choice question, give their opinion in a poll, draw a response or answer an open-ended question. Instead of having one or two students answer your questions, now all students can answer. Used well, these tools can access background knowledge, promote critical thinking, and show their thinking in multiple modalities. There are actually many tools a teacher could use to do these same things, but Nearpod allows you to do it smoothly as part of a presentation AND to share student responses back out to the class easily. Which brings me to the second reason you should use Nearpod.

Nearpod gives all students a voice and provides modelling.

Imagine you are trying to spark a class discussion in a strictly no-tech atmosphere. You ask a question, a few students respond. Now, with Nearpod, you can ask the question, give all students a chance to respond (in a written format) and then you can share out a few key examples for the rest of the class, anonymously. You can now provide a model (see how this student cited text in their response?) or provoke more discussion with out singling out a student (how many of you agree with this response?). Students who might never have raised their hand, or been able to express themselves in front of their peers, now have the opportunity to see their work shared with the class. Students that really don't yet know how to write a supported response to a question can see examples of what their peers are doing. We can not underestimate how important it is for students to see modeling from their peers or to be selected as the model.

Nearpod can be used in small groups or in stations.

Nearpod now has a student-paced option with each presentation. Teachers at my school love this as a tool for station work or literature circles. Students can work through the content and interactive tools in Nearpod at their own pace in a station. Here you lose a bit of the peer modeling but you gain the different pacing that some students need. Teachers have found that students are more accountable for completing Nearpod assignments than they are to complete other kind of station work. They like the opportunity to share their responses frequently throughout an activity and teachers like that they can add web content, audio and video.

Nearpod presentation can easily be duplicated, shared and adapted.

We have a high number of English Language Learners in our school. Nearpod allows teachers to add audio to a slide so that teachers can read the text aloud. In addition to providing this scaffold, teachers can easily change slides to add definitions to words or provide sentence starters to open-ended questions when needed. Furthermore, teachers could add extension slides into presentation for students that are ready to take their knowledge in a new direction. Working with a co-teacher? Share your presentation with them and they can make modifications for their students.

But, like all tools and all technology. Just using Nearpod does not mean all your students will be engaged. Teachers still need to be intentional and thoughtful in how they use Nearpod. To get the most out of a Nearpod lesson be sure to keep the following in mind:

1) Use a variety of interactive tools. Vary the kinds of questions you are asking. A multiple choice question after each slide will begin to get dull and students will begin to click on anything to get it over with. Use all the tools - especially open-ended questions, draw it and polls to keep students thinking and to promote conversation.

2) Pair up students. Having two students per device is a great way to add a new layer to Think-Pair-Share. In this format, students should discuss the questions before agreeing on the response they will enter into Nearpod.

3) Unplug! Unlike SMART Notebook or PowerPoint, there is no reason to project what you are seeing as the teacher. If you have a wireless device, go ahead and walk around the room as you are moving through the presentation. Kids have the slides on the screen in front of them, they don't have to look to the front of the room. This gives you the opportunity to manage by proximity (my favorite method!). You'll be surprise how this small change shifts the dynamics of your classroom.

4) Personalize. Nearpod has a wonderful library of presentations that are already made. As teachers we often reinvent the wheel when there is already a great presentation out there. Nearpod awesomely lets you edit any presentation that is already in their library. Kids really appreciate seeing content that reflect their class or interests, so go ahead and change some slides to include details from your own class. Also, be sure the content connects to your school and state curriculum. While it is great to have some of the content already made, go ahead and edit any slides that don't match up with your own learning objectives.

5) Share. Nearpod makes it so easy to share presentations with colleagues. If you've made a great presentations that all the 7th grade teachers in your building could use, go ahead and send them a copy. Teachers can then save to their own library and edit it for themselves. Professional generosity is a treasured characteristic. Who knows, if you share with them, they might share with you!

If you haven't checked out Nearpod yet, it is time. You can easily bring in slides from SMART Notebook, PowerPoint or Google Slides, you won't have to start over! Nearpod is a great tool to have in your toolbox and will quickly become one of your go to tech tools for assessment, direct instruction and station work!

Storytime with StoryKit

Sometimes the simplest apps can make the most powerful lessons.

A few weeks ago, I was brainstorming a lesson with a 7th grade Life Science teacher at my school. She had a unit on symbiosis coming up and she wanted to assess the students in a new way. We bounced around a lot of ideas: green screens, music videos, cartooning sites but what we landed on was StoryKit. StoryKit is a free app from the folks at the International Children's Digital Library (which is a great resource in itself if you aren't already familiar with it!).

StoryKit lets you create a digital book. For images, you can draw your own, import from the web or use your camera roll. You can simply add text with a text box. You can arrange and format the images and text as you like. A great feature of StoryKit is that you can add audio. Just click and record yourself reading the story out loud. You can even record word by word or sentence by sentence! This was just what we were looking for, a tool that let's the students' creativity shine without too many features or distractions in the creation. And... and.... what if we planned on reading the stories to an 2nd grade class at a nearby elementary school?

My job was to introduce the tool which was easy because StoryKit is so intuitive. I just walked the kids through the features and made a silly story as a sample. Students literally had no technical questions or problems. If there weren't sure how to do something, they quickly figured it out or asked a friend. It was seamless.

Their stories were fantastic. The teacher assigned a symbiotic relationship to each group of students. The task for the group was to write a children's story that told a story about that relationship. She made a model first to show them and reinforced Language Arts skills by using the same story graph that their Language Arts teacher had used with them earlier. Kids came up with adorable ideas and clever plot twists to demonstrate what they knew about symbiosis. And the best stories would go in person to an elementary school to read to a class. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Sloth and Algae Reunite
Lola and Charlie
Sandy and Randy's Adventure: Lost at Sea

I might have loved these stories, but the 2nd graders loved them even more. We had a great morning where the 7th graders first had to explain the four types of symbiotic relationships in 2nd grade terms (smiley faces did the trick) and then read their stories in small groups. The 2nd graders learned so much - they could identify the type of relationship in every story. And the 7th graders learned so much - how to explain what they know in a compelling, interesting and memorable way.

What I learned from this lesson:

1. The simplest apps are often the best
2. Having a real audience for school work results in better school work
3. Asking students to explain what they know in simple terms demonstrates whether they know or understand an idea
4. 7th graders are their best selves for 2nd graders
5. Kids learn when we tell and share stories

And guess what app the 2nd graders asked to use next time they could use iPads?

3D Printing in Social Studies

People who know me know I've been talking about 3D printing for years. I get giddy when I think about how accessible 3D printing has become and that my children are growing up in a world where they can print their own tools, toys and trinkets. Therefore I was over the moon when my director purchased a 3D printer for us to bring into the schools where we work.

I had one teacher who was interested right away. A sixth grade social studies teacher had been going through our technology professional development program, Teacher Leadership Program, and was looking for a project he could dig into. Together we developed an idea to have his students design a coin about one of the first five presidents (a topic directly from our state standards). Each class would vote on the best design and then we would print the best ones.

There was a serious buzz in the room when I brought the 3D printer in. We have a Makerbot Replicator Mini which is compact and light-weight, so I carried it into the room myself. Students were full of comments and questions:

• "It's smaller than I thought it be."
• "How much did it cost?"
• "How long does it take to print?"
• "I want one!"

First I reviewed some key aspects of the software we were going to use to design the coin. We decided to use 3D Tin by Lagoa. This software allows students to log in with a Google account and since our school has Google accounts, this was perfect. 3D Tin has some great starter tutorials as well so students were encouraged to watch several of these before getting started. Students took to the software well and taught each other many of the less intuitive aspects of the program. 

Designing in 3D is definitely easier for some students than others. Some got frustrated quickly while others drew complicated objects while I was still getting some students logged in. Showing students how to return to a home view or rotate objects were two key techniques.

What I loved about this lesson was that students got more creative due to some of the limits of the program. They drew images using small blocks (like one might in Minecraft). They got more symbolic than they might have been given other projects where they could copy and paste images or long passages of text. I also loved how they inspired each other. One students would figure out how to draw, say, the Washington Monument, and suddenly you'd see others working on a drawing of the Capitol. Our English Language Learners did fabulously with this lesson. Since most of the modeling is visual, they had no problem creating great images for their coins.

I also loved all the natural curiosity the 3D printer brought out. Students started showing up before school and during lunch to watch it print or to ask questions about how it worked. Some students that aren't your typical high achieving or tech-geeky students were the best at finding creative ways to make their 3D model or to help out with the printing process. My heart is always lifted by lessons that draw new students into the learning process.

5 reasons we are playing MinecraftEdu at our school

We are finally doing it! Playing MinecraftEdu in school! Like many things in my life, I can't remember when I first heard about Minecraft. I think I just began absorbing thoughts about it when reading game based learning articles or hearing educational technology gurus giving talks. I know I introduced my kids to it about three years ago when they were 5 and 8 and our home has never been the same. They quickly surpassed my skill with building, exploring and creating. I quickly learned that this was a powerful game that empowered kids and gave them a world to shape unlike any other. (I also quickly learned to set the timer when they were playing so that their little eyes didn't turn into grass blocks). And while I loved watching them play, I wasn't sure how to bring it into the classroom.

Just in case you haven't hear of Minecraft or seen it being played, it is a virtual world where students can use virtual blocks to build stuff. In many ways, it is like playing with building blocks, plastic animals, and dolls in your basement, except because it is digital, you have endless choices of blocks, plastic animals and dolls. And the animals and dolls move. And you can fly. And you can dig underground. And a hundred other things that you can't do in your basement with blocks, animals and dolls. (For a more detailed description, check our "What is Minecraft All About?" by MineMum)

While I was holding back from a school implementation and just watching my kids play, loads of other educators took the plunge. As Minecraft rose in popularity in the lives of my children and their friends, it also was embraced by innovative teachers that came up with brilliant ways to teach content using Minecraft. Therefore, when I signed up for a MOOC this fall on teaching with MinecraftEdu, I realized that there were tons of materials to support me and that teachers far more talented than I had already created wonderful lesson plans that the teachers and students at my school could try. For some great stuff check out: EduCrew YouTube Tutorial Series, Joel Levin's lesson plan on EduCade, and the MinecraftEDU Wiki.

But just because the resources are there and other teachers are doing it, isn't enough of a reason to start. So, why did I decide that our kids should be playing MinecraftEdu in school?

1. It is active. Sometimes when I am visiting classrooms, I realize that students are spending a lot of time listening or passively completing worksheets. When you see students playing Minecraft, they are busy. They are leaning forward, they are intent, they are engaged in the actions they are taking. Using a game like MinecraftEdu in the classroom takes students out of the" sit back and soak it in" mode and into a create, experiment and take risks mode.

2. Kids become the experts. In every classroom, there is a student who is a phenomenal Minecraft player who is not a phenomenal student. When you introduce Minecraft in these classrooms, this student comes alive. They are able to explain how to play to other students, they suggest new lesson plans to the teacher, they take on leadership roles in the classroom. I believe that when students are able to be experts in the classroom, they become better learners. They come into class believing they are valued there and are more open to learning.

3. Tinkering. In Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager's Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom, they define tinkering as "a way of controlling the environment and a vehicle for intellectual development" and advocate that "children should engage in tinkering and making because they are powerful ways to learn." This becomes evident when watching students play MinecraftEDU. Instead of finding the only right answer to put in the blank, MinecraftEdu has lots of right answers. In the Genetics lesson I watched, there were hundreds of choices for students, from what color to dye your sheep to what shape your fence was to how you named your sheep and your ranch. When we can tinker, experiment and take risks, we learn by doing.

4. Content connections. I work in a school that has to meet state standards on testing. We can not afford to ignore our required curriculum or assume it will be taught another year, in another course. Minecraft is so open-ended that you can easily teach your content while letting the students play. Teachers and students can and should be able to tell what new content or skills they learned while using Minecraft in schools. The math, science, social students, world language, language arts standards can should be carefully considered and directly relate to the Minecraft activity the students do.

5. Simulated worlds. The lesson I watched gave students a way to apply what they were learning about genetics. They could certainly never actually breed sheep and complete Punnett squares, but in Minecraft, they could simulate this in a class period. Student generated questions arise during simulations that can lead to deeper understanding of the content being taught. For instance, in every class I observed, some student noticed that pink and purple sheep made pinkish-purplish sheep. This lead to a spontaneous lesson on partial dominance, which never came up during the direct instruction part of the lesson.

I would be interested to collect more quantitative data on Minecraft in the classroom and I wouldn't want to see students playing every day or all day, I do believe that Minecraft should be added to the learning toolbox as a innovative, creative way to get students to interact with content in a meaningful way.

#STUTECH2015 Letting Students Take the Lead

On Saturday, January 31st, I got to watch as two of my students presented at an international, student-led virtual conference about technology in education. The Student Technology Conference 2015 included presentations and participants from around the world. I first learned about the conference from an update via The Learning Revolution and Steve Hargadon and knew that it would be a great opportunity for some of the students I get to work with.

I pitched the idea to a class of seventh-graders back in October. The two seventh-grade girls took me up on it, authored and presented a session called "Is Google Drive For You?" These seventh-grade students gave their presentation in both English and Spanish. Attendees from the Philippines, Ukraine, the Bahamas and many cities in the United States were very impressed with the girls' knowledge about Google Drive. Watch a recording of their presentation to see for yourself!

These sweet girls would meet with me during their lunch. Neither had access to a computer or the Internet outside of school. So, during lunch time, they selected a topic for the conference, wrote a proposal for a session and finally, prepared their presentation. They wanted to present about Google Drive because they feel that this technology has had the biggest impact on their learning in school. I am so lucky that in my school division, all secondary students have access to a school Google Drive account. Jenny and Mikaela created their presentation in Google Drive using the Google Slide feature. This allowed them to revise and edit in real time. It also gave them an example of the usefulness of Google Drive for their presentation!

Not many kids are willing to come to school on a cold, wintry Saturday morning, but these girls were excited to share what they know with the world. Jenny and Mikaela used a product called Blackboard Collaborate to web conference with attendees from around the world. The girls logged in, tested their video feed and microphone, uploaded their slides and began their presentation. It was exciting to watch students and teachers log in from around the world. Jenny and Mikaela were able to explain how Google Drive has impacted them as well as answer questions from participants about how Google Drive works. The session was very well received and and the girls are planning on presenting at the conference again next year!

Participation in this conference was one of the highlights of my year. It was so amazing to watch these girls develop their presentation, work on it diligently, argue over how to say "PowerPoint" in Spanish, and edit and revise their presentation. But the most rewarding part was seeing their response to the enthusiastic attendees of their presentation. Both girls were bursting with pride as they read through the comments in the chat of the presentation and saw that teachers and students around the world learned from them.

If you didn't get a chance to participate in #STUTECH2015, be sure to sign up for The Learning Revolution emails and watch for an opportunity to participate next year. Whether you have students that present or you just join the sessions to learn from the students, you won't regret it.

Most powerful PD strategy? Let teachers share

I am so lucky to have a job where I get to shape professional learning experiences for teachers. One of the programs I get to work on is something our school division calls Teacher Leadership Program (TLP). I'll save the full details of TLP in another post but today I want to talk about one thing we do at every meeting that I think has the biggest impact on participants' teaching and learning.

We let teachers share.

It is pretty simple. We set aside 30-40 minutes of our session (whether two hours after-school or an all day workshop) and ask 4-5 teachers if they'd be willing to share something they've tried in their class since last time we've met. Usually one of the facilitators already knows something fabulous that has been going on, but sometimes we ask not knowing exactly what they'll end up sharing. Each of the sharing teachers then sits at one table in our meeting room and the other teachers gather around them. The sharing teacher talks about what they tried, how it went, why they did it, what worked, what didn't and what they'd like to try next. The other teachers get to ask lots of questions. This whole process takes about seven minutes. A timer goes off and the listening teachers rotate to another sharing teacher. The sharing teacher repeats his or her mini-talk to the next group of teachers. Repeat until all teachers have had a chance to meet with all sharing teachers.

This is always the most exciting part of any meeting.

It is unbelievable listening to teachers talk about how they planned a lesson: what they considered when planning (Special Education, English Language Learners, Honors students, time, resources, student interests), how they organized their classroom, what order they chose to do activities in. And then hearing them describe what the kids got out of it: Joey finally spoke up, Jose laughed out loud, Norhan showed leadership, Emily really knows how to add fractions now. And then reflecting on how it went: next time I want to add sound, next week we'll try again with headphones, next lesson I want to preteach the vocabulary. Teachers think about so much all day long and have such great insights about what is happening in their classroom. And it is wonderful hearing how real kids are impacted by the strategies teachers are trying.

Listening to teachers' share their reflections is precious.

I also love hearing the questions the listening teachers ask. Did any kids get lost? How long did it take you to make this? What did your principal say? You can learn a lot from what the teachers are asking as well. It is also great to hear the praise they give each other. This is such a good idea! Do you mind if I try the same thing? Could you share your graphic organizer? I'm so excited to see this lesson!

Giving teachers a chance to show leadership benefits all.

The name of this professional development series is called Teacher Leadership Program so we do try to keep the leadership component in the front of our mind when planning. These sharing sessions are often the first step for teachers to see themselves as leaders. They realize that they have something valuable to share. They experience that sharing with other teachers can be fun and rewarding. They are encouraged to keep trying new things in their classroom. These quick, informal sharing sessions become a stepping stones for sharing at grade level meetings, faculty meetings and the division-wide technology gallery walk we host every spring. Many teachers catch the presentation bug and begin a blog or apply to present at conferences.

And I get new ideas!!

One of my other favorite benefits of these sharing sessions is that I get new ideas about how technology can be used in the classroom. Yesterday, I saw a teacher use Aurasma to have a students' mom remind him to do his homework (Ha! I never would have thought of this). Another teacher used Symbaloo to share Spanish resources for dual-language teachers (Perfect! So useful!). Another teacher had students do a practice run of peer-editing in Google Drive (Brilliant!). These sessions also give me a wealth of ideas to share with other teachers and to try myself.

I never would have heard any of this if I spend the whole session talking.

It is tempting to spend professional development teaching new strategies or showing off new digital tools. There is so much to show! So many important ideas behind good technology integration! But I have learned that setting aside this teacher sharing time develops more in a teacher than listening to me. So I will keep doing this. I will make sure I put my teachers first and let them lead sessions, share what they are trying and encourage them to do so with larger and larger audiences.

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I would love more ideas about how to incorporate teacher sharing in professional learning - if you have thoughts, please share!

What a Skitch!

One of the great things I get to do at my job is to facilitate a teacher-led professional development series called TLP-C. Basically, we meet online monthly and teacher shares a cool tool they've tried in the classroom. We learn a bit about the tool, hear about how the lesson went, talk about advantages and disadvantages and share ideas about integration. It is a great low-key, high-impact professional experience.

Below is a summary of our October session that can also be found at: http://blogs.acpsk12.org/tlpc/2014/11/05/what-a-skitch/

A big thank you to Lois Lansing, 3rd grade teacher from MacArthur Elementary School, for sharing how she has used Skitch in the classroom. It was so helpful to hear her ideas about how she used Skitch and to listen to stories from her classroom. If you missed our live session, you can watch the recording by clicking right here:

Recording of TLP-C Skitch Lessons You Can Use October 30, 2014

Skitch is an app as well as a desktop application that allows you to annotate images   with captions, arrows, and other drawing tools. This is a great tool for anytime you want students to show what they know about an image. And, it is a great tool for app-smashing because the images you annotate in Skitch can be pulled into other apps or software or websites to create awesome digital stories and presentations.

Lois shared a wonderful lesson she did when she was a 2nd grade teacher. After spending a few days learning about erosion, students were charged with the task of identifying erosion around their school building. Students then used Skitch to annotate those pictures: using arrows to draw attention to what they saw, using text boxes to explain what they saw and using other drawing tools (circles, squares) to highlight these examples of erosion. Next, Lois had the students import their Skitch images into PowerPoint to make recommendations about what the school should do to improve the school and slow down the erosion.

As we discussed using Skitch, we talked about some good tips like:

• giving students some “play” time to take selfies and learn the Skitch tools
• be clear about expectations if taking iPads outside
• have iPads set up to email images to teacher to use the images with other applications on the computers OR set up Dropbox accounts on iPads for image sharing
• partner students to promote collaboration

Another great tip Lois shared was that you can use the blurring tool in Skitch to blur students faces. So if you want to post public pictures of students but don’t want them to be identifiable, you can use this helpful tool to do so!

Lois shared another fantastic way to use Skitch which is for highlighting text features. This was a really neat idea where students could highlight topic sentences, add questions they have, or even point out citation information like the URL for the website. More ideas that were shared were:

• let the students take the selfies and then label (eyes, ears, nose) in a target language (Spanish, French, Chinese, etc.)
• take pictures of student artwork and have students label skills they are working on (perspective, lines, negative space, etc.)
• have students make addition stories using counting bears and use Skitch to explain the addition
• take pictures of primary sources or maps and have students label important items

Have your own ideas about using Skitch or questions about how to use Skitch? Leave a comment below!!

Does adhering to copyright increase student creativity?

I was happy to help out a colleague last week when she asked if I would appear as a guest on a webinar hosted by Michigan State students in the Master's of Arts in Educational Technology program. The topic was "Copyright in Education." Copyright is a topic which constantly needs to be addressed and readdressed both as the digital world changes the implication of copyright and as educators continue to be made aware of their need to adhere to copyright laws. Participating in this webinar ended up being a great opportunity to learn about new resources for teaching about copyright and a thought-provoking conversation about how copyright influences student creativity.

I was joined on the webinar by Jeremy Whiting and Kate McCallum, two awesome journalism and media teachers that really knew their stuff and have daily experiences of working with students to more deeply understand copyright. I loved the ideas they raised about making sure your administrative team understands copyright and how you may even need to educate parents about copyright laws. I admire their ability to stand up to parent pressure over senior videos (but it's always been done like this!) and to administrators that might not understand your expectations for students (but no other teachers require students to do this!).

By Denise Krebs:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/8710565083/

Hopefully I had a few good bits to add about educating students about copyright (LOVE Common Sense Media lesson plans on this topic) and resources for copyright free images (Morgue File, Pics4Learning, Creative Commons). I strongly recommended sending students to the advanced search section of Google Images and showing them how to search for images that can be shared, modified and even used commercially.

The turn of the conversation that I thought was most interesting was the idea that getting students to comply with copyright laws actually introduces more creativity into the classroom. We all had experiences where students chose to compose their own music, draw their own pictures or use their own photography instead of searching for copyright free images. I love this idea that the limits of copyright actually increase critical thinking and innovation, especially since that is part of the whole reasoning behind copyright law in the first place, to foster creativity!

If you'd like to view the webinar yourself, below is a YouTube video of the conversation. There is also a TitanPad that would let you follow the conversation. Probably the most helpful thing for most teachers, would be this Google Doc that contains a number of helpful resources about copyright, copyright myths and good resources for copyright-free materials.



I'd love to hear more ideas about how you help your students and teachers understand copyright laws and what impact you feel like it has on learning in your classroom. Leave a comment below!

Drones in School?

My job is so much fun. In the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of watching a group of seventh graders figure out how to operate a drone. Yes, a drone. Last year an amazing teacher at our school had her class writing grants for different science-based change projects. One class was working on raising awareness about and reducing light pollution. They wrote a grant to purchase a drone so that they could take pictures over our city to compare light pollution on different days. But now that project is over.... so.....

The students in my Student Technology Assistance Team (STAT) found the drone and learned how to make it work. They figured out how to set up the wireless network and connect a device (phone, iPad) to it. They figured out how to fly it and how take pictures and videos as they flew it. It wasn't a smooth process. We had trouble remembering to charge the battery, we had a few crash landings, we might have tried to put it together backwards. *grin* But overall, these seven students now know more about drones than any of their teachers.

Which brings me to our next project. The other day the STAT kids shared what they knew with 30 teachers from across my school division. They prepared their presentation and wrote a script explaining what a drone is and how they might be used in society. Then they modeled how to fly the drone. But we all know modeling isn't enough when teaching. So, next, they let the teachers try out the drone for themselves. Teachers had a blast trying out the drone and loved being taught by students.

But now what? We have this really cool drone, we know how to fly it, we know how to take pictures with it. Some teachers know about it. But how can it be used from here? Our students have come up with a ton of lesson ideas which I think are really cool. I'd love to hear more ideas or if you think these ideas are even plausible.

World Language or Beginner English Language Learner classes

• Use target language to give directions to the pilot
• Ex: Arriba!
• Use target language to describe what is being seen

Math

• Take aerial shots to study perimeters or other geometry concepts
• Comparing how things look from the side, from above, etc.
• Make a giant graph, drive the drone to specific points
• Teach the concepts of X, Y and Z

Civics/Social Studies

• Debate about privacy rights
• Take aerial shots to compare to historical maps
• Practice map skills (north, south, east, west)

Science

• Understand lift and flight design
• Aerial shots of erosion, watersheds, etc.

Physical Education

• Aerial shots of students playing sports for analysis

Technology

• How does it work?

English

• Write pro/con debates about the use of drones

Art

• Aerial shots to draw from
• To teach perspective

Vokis Can Bring out Student Creativity

(this piece was also posted at: Voki Guest Blogger/)

I still remember the first time I was introduced to Voki, I was at a tech conference. The presenter was showing a number of different fun, new, tools, but Voki stole the day. Honestly, I can't remember the next 20 minutes of the presentation because I was so busy having fun playing with Voki, recording myself, giving myself new outfits, sending emails back to my boss saying things like "Vokis are so much fun!" I was immersed in learning the new tool and practicing my digital literacy and fluency. It is the same for our students.

Voki opens up a world of hands-on creativity for your students.

Show any classroom of students Voki, and you will immediately see them trying it out in a myriad of ways. I had the pleasure of joining a student tech club after school one day and I did a quick demo of Voki. The teacher and I had a plan that they would use their Vokis to introduce themselves to me (a visitor for the day) and then we would share what each student did. It was a nice plan, and the students would have done it. But we quickly realized, we had set the bar way too low, these kids had more ideas about what they wanted to do!

Voki lets you have your Voki speak in several languages.

Some students immediately started playing with the language feature of Voki. While this tech club is in a richly diverse school, where many languages are heard every day, these students still had a great time listening to phrases spoken in languages they had never heard before.

Voki allows you to re-record until you like how it sounds.

Some students probably practiced what they wanted to say 5-7 times before they saved their Voki. This repeated practice is fantastic for English Language Learners and other students working on their oral language skills. Asking a student to re-read passages can be tiresome, but ask them to make a Voki and they will repeat the passage until they like how it sounds, over and over again.

Voki lets students play around with identity.

Let's face it, not all students are pleased with their self-image. I've seen students change their avatar dozens of times to find a "look" that they want to project. Don't overlook the importance of this! As students travel the weary path of adolescence and pre-adolescence, they crave opportunites to try on different looks and personas. Using Voki to do this is a safe and fun way to change your hair color, add an earring or see how a British accent sounds. Letting students play with these avatars as they complete a content-based assignment is as developmentally appropriate as free play in Kindergarten.

Voki is a great way to discuss Digital Citizenship.

Our students might not need our guidance when it comes to figuring out how to make a Voki, but they do still need our guidance about what makes a good and appropriate Voki. Voki is a fun way to get students talking about what make a quality presentation. If the assignment is to have an Abraham Lincoln Voki talk about three of the most important parts of his presidency, showing him with sunglasses on isn't the best way to convey your message. Likewise, students should never use Voki to share too much information about themselves or to embarrass others. It is imperative that we have these conversations with students and why not do it with a tool they love!

Voki can be used in any classroom:

Science: Make a Voki to explain the outcomes of a lab. (I've seen students do this for their Science Fair presentations!)
Social Studies: Choose a Voki of an historical figure and have them give three important facts about their lives.
English: Make a Voki that represents a character from a novel. Have them "saying" the theme of the novel.
Math: There is a lot of vocabulary in Math. Have a Voki provide definitions for key terms.
World Language: Provide a description of a person in the target language, see if the students can make a matching Voki.
Physical Education/Health: Let a Voki give facts about staying fit and healthy.

To get the most out of Vokis, make sure you give your students time to play when making their Vokis, you'll be surprised with the results!

"Ask yourself, would you do this offline?

This isn't the tagline from a digital safety website, this is a submission for a new laptop background from a 6th grader at my school. Each 6th grade submission was full of great advice like this. Reading these submissions was so satisfying because it was clear that kids now understand a great deal about what is and what isn't okay to do when online.

I was thrilled that my school elected to spend 4-5 lessons of an advisory period on digital citizenship. Digital citizenship has become more and more important to me as I've watched my own children experiment and explore digital media and as I see more and more teachers using Web 2.0 and social media tools in the classroom.

I am a tech geek so I am excited about the digital world our children and our students can explore. The possibilities for young people to impact the world and to leave a positive digital footprint are unlimited. But we also know that there are many misteps along the way as well. Many a student will upload a silly-to-the-point-of-gross YouTube video of themselves or leave a comment that they think is funny but is actually hurtful. So we need a chance in school to get them thinking and reflecting about what online posting is all about. These 4-5 lessons were a great start.

We wanted a curriculum that was developmentally appropriate and that would loop each year, exposing all students to important topics each year of middle school. Sixth graders would study Internet scams and cyberbullying. Seventh graders would consider copyright and fair use issues in a unit called "Yours, Mine or Ours?" Eighth graders would delve into the murky world of social media and discuss what staying safe online really means. We were able to adapt all of our lessons from Common Sense Media, an organization devoted to educating and advocating for sensible use of today's media.

Common Sense Media's K-12 curriculum was the perfect starting point for our lessons. They had great activities and resources for the kinds of topics we wanted to pursue. We adapted the lessons to fit our time and format and then referred teachers to the website if they needed more ideas or information. Teachers appreciated having the lesson materials and kids liked the updated and relevant activities.

But what I really loved about our units were that each one ended with an authentic assessment. The 6th graders were asked to design a laptop background. The top winners across the school will actually become the background of our school computers next year!

The 7th graders produced "Creator's Checklists" - a list of items students should consider when creating with digital content. Again, the best examples will be used to make a creator's checklist that will become part of the published student agendas for the next school year. That's right, the best checklists will actually be printed in the student calendar/resource that every students carries around every day, all year long!

And finally, our 8th graders were asked to make Public Service Announcements (PSAs) about staying safe online. Now, I have to say that asking 8th graders to take on a task like this in the spring was a major challenge. I am looking forward to moving this digital citizenship unit into the fall for next year when I think we'll get much better responses. *smile*

I am really proud that the staff and the administration at my school understood that we needed a systematic approach to teaching digital citizenship at our school:

• lessons that every student were exposed to,
• tasks that were engaging, relevant and authentic, and 
• materials that any teacher could use and that any students could understand. 

If these desktop background submissions are any indication, our kids have learned a lot about how to be digital citizens now!