Optimism for 2015

photo credit: Puzzler4879 via photopin cc

What Does Glancing Back Tell Us About Looking Forward?

@joe_edtech

The first time I got to meet with students from Deerfield High School, freshmen orientation back in August, I told them that my job makes me optimistic for the future. I told them that students have more opportunities now to learn, create, share, collaborate, and publish than they have ever had before - and I can't wait to see what they accomplish in their four years as Warriors. In education, each new year should bring with it a new burst of optimism, and that has been especially true for me this year.

Yes, I am aware that we have had some challenges this year in education and out.  I was born and raised in the St. Louis area and spent much of the year focusing on the headlines coming from there. I am also aware of the challenges we have yet to solve as a nation and as a global community. But I remain fiercely optimistic. I think teachers have to be optimistic, otherwise why would we put all of this effort into helping new generations students reach for new heights?

I always like to end the year by sharing Google's Zeitgeist video, the collection of the things we "searched" for this year. 2014 was in many ways a challenging year, but there was still an awful lot that happened to make us hope for the future. And someday we'll look back on 2014 and remember that we spent the whole year singing a song called, "Happy."

Google's "Year in Search 2014"

What will you search for in 2015?

Link to the full Google Year in Search site.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2014 was also the year of the rebirth of the Deerfield High School Optimists Club. The Happy Warrior logo was designed by our Art Teacher Chris Sykora as a symbol of our optimist. Here's to that smile getting even broader in 2015!

FTT -Socrative

photo credit: albertogp123 via photopin cc

Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment with Socrative

@joe_edtech

This topic is much bigger than this relatively short blog post. However, virtually every successful 1:1 teacher I've talked to says the same thing. The ability to use the technology to weave formative assessment into the classroom frequently and relatively seamlessly helps lead to increased student achievement.

Scholars Ian Beatty and William Gerace (2009) believe so strongly in the research behind technology-enhanced formative assessment that they built their entire pedagogy on it (click here for the full article). They wrote that the classroom should not only be student based, but also assessment based, and that formative assessment should be used to:

1. Motivate and focus student learning with question-driven instruction.
2. Develop students’ understanding and fluency with conversational discourse.
3. Inform and adjust teaching and learning decisions.
4. Help students develop metacognitive skills (see full citation below).

Socrative, a free, online, classroom response system can help you accomplish the goals outlined by Beatty and Gerace above. Once you go to Socrative.com and create your free account, you have several options for interacting with your students:

You can create a quiz in advance, and lead your class through it as graphical displays of responses appear on the screen, or you can put the students in groups and have them work at their own pace. You can also create questions on the spot or use the "Space Race" (students square off against one another in teams) to add a competitive gaming element to the classroom. At the end of the activity, you can get a report of how each student did on the quiz.

Socrative's brief video tutorial is embedded below:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference:
Beatty, I. D., & Gerace, W. J. (2009). Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment: A Research-Based Pedagogy for Teaching Science with Classroom Response Technology. Journal Of Science Education And Technology, 18(2), 146-162.

1990s Vision of Ed Tech

photo credit: splorp via photopin cc

It Really Isn't About The Tools...It Is About The Teaching

@joe_edtech

I'm not always sold on Apple products or their philosophy about software. In fact, OS 7, 8, and 9 made my skin crawl just a little bit. But you have to hand it to Apple's education department. Even before OSX, even before the iPhone and the iPad, someone there had an instructional design model in mind that would prove to be transformative.

This video, which was created before most of our students were born and before the Internet was ubiquitous and interactive, predicted maker spaces, interactive learning environments, teachers using technology to facilitate supportive communities of practice both professionally and in the classroom. It is funny to see the images they conceived, but it is a nice reminder that good teaching is good teaching regardless of the technology tools we use.

Posted by Matt Maxwell

----------------------------------------

I'd love to hear your reaction to this video.

FTT - Gliffy.com

From the Gliffy.com page

Creating and Sharing Diagrams Online

@joe_edtech

Not that I'm planning ahead for the cold dark winter to come, but years ago, all of our departments would create emergency phone trees with a piece of software that some called "inspiring," but it was really very expensive for software that was limited to simple diagrams and mind mapping. Frankly, there are too many good, "Free" options to pay for that kind of software.

In an earlier blog post, I discussed mind mapping tools like bubbl.us, and those are easy to use sites with great visuals for creating mind maps. However, Gliffy.com might be the better option if you have to build something a little more complex. If you are diagramming a process, creating an action plan, organizing a design team, or developing an app for instance. Here is the intro video Gliffy.com posts on their website:

While you can pay for an upgraded account, you can create, share, and export diagrams for free. The process is fairly simple. Just choose your shape, click on the drawing space and build your diagram with additional shapes. You can also connect your shapes with customizable lines and arrows. The newest version of Gliffy.com also features color themes that can be applied to add a little flair to your diagrams.

Image Credit: xmimex
Licensed for non-commercial reuse

Gliffy.com offers examples for users to make:

• Flow Charts
• SWOT analysis
• Venn Diagrams
• Network Diagrams
• Organizational Charts
• Technical Drawings

And more. When you are finished, you can take a screen shot or export your diagram and embed it in emails, websites, or on your blog.

---------------------------------------------------------

If you have a better diagramming tool that is free, include it below. 

Computer Skills for the 21st Century

http://www.morguefile.com/

Looking Under the Hood

@joe_edtech

Thanks to a colleague of mine, I read a very well written blog post recently titled "Kids Can't Use Computers...And This Is Why It Should Worry You," by Marc Scott. In it, the author makes the point that we frequently confuse the ability to navigate the Internet or connect to legions of friends through social networking tools with real computer knowledge. Being Tech Savvy and being Internet Savvy are not the same thing.

I should point out here that I don't agree with some of my more hard core ed tech colleagues who insist that you really don't know anything about computers unless you can program them. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should know something about coding, but I don't think programming is for everyone.  While I spent hours and hours in my basement learning BASIC, creating fairly lame graphics on my Texas Instruments Computer, I'm not sure that kind of thing is as important for the general population as coding evangelists seem to believe.

As an analogy, I think it is important that everyone who drives knows how to jump a battery, change the tires, and add washer fluid. I don't think it is nearly as important for everyone to know how to change their spark plugs or reattach hoses or really even change their own oil (although it is worthwhile to do that by yourself just once). In other words, drivers need to know how to handle emergencies, to diagnose a problem when something is seriously wrong, and to clearly express that to the professionals who will handle the repairs.

In parallel, it is important for computer users to know how to handle emergencies, to diagnose problems when something is seriously wrong, and to express that clearly to the professionals who will handle the repairs. That means all computer users should be aware of what is in "Settings" or "Control Panels," and how to connect to WiFi, and how to do things like repair permissions or remove malware (or avoid it in the first place).

As a way to defer the cost of registration, I provided free tech support at one of the conferences I attended last year, and I will say that I helped a number of educational professionals, who were about to make presentations on using technology in the classroom, do simple things like extend or mirror the computer display while using a projector. While it made my conference cheaper, I found it a little disheartening.

Do you know your personal settings?

My take away from the "Kids Can't Use Computers" piece is that Mr. Scott is right. Kids do need explicit instructions on managing their computers or tablets. But I think that starts with making sure that our teachers get explicit instructions on managing their computers and tablets. Next semester I'll be offering several Computing 101 session for teachers who want to be more self sufficient on their computers. And that will all focus on understanding Control Panels and Settings in both Windows and Chrome.

-------------------------------------------------------

Do you think all kids need to know how to code? How much coding should be required?

FTT - Online Mind Mapping

From the Bubbl.us page

Reading Tragedies... Wait, Are We Talking About Shakespeare?

@joe_edtech

My daughter, 13 year old Princess in training, has an IEP because she struggles with reading comprehension. I am just not sure if her case manager likes it or loves it that Katherine's dad is a professional educator. I think she hates it because I ask questions that can sometimes be pointed (maybe she thinks snippy?). For instance, this year I asked what "reading strategies" she had used in the classroom. The answer was, "I'm sorry, what are 'reading tragedies?'" - Yes, I actually felt my aorta pulse when she said that.

So, after the meeting, I went right to the source. I asked my daughter if she learned more from her reading teacher at school, or from the private reading tutor I hired. After I got past the initial discussion about, "Dad, I love all of my teachers equally," I finally got the answer I was looking for. "Well, the stuff that I read in school is all pretty much the same, and very boring. The stuff I read from the reading tutor is a lot more exciting, and I understand it and remember it a lot better." Of course, her comment speaks to the importance of reading selection, but she went further. "With [the private tutor] we make a lot of mind maps and it helps me remember things a lot better."

Mind Mapping! Concept Mapping! How often we forget to take such a simple step even when we know most of our kids are visual learners. In my district, we used to use a very expensive piece of software to do this; but in the era of budget cuts, we may or may not have access to expensive, limited use pieces of software. However, concept maps are important whether we are talking about reading strategies, note taking strategies, or simple brain storming activities. I know of two great Web 2.0 tools for creating concept maps collaboratively, without spending a single dime.

The map above was created in a Web 2.0 program called bubbl.us. For free, you can go to bubbl.us, create an account and start making concept maps. What's more, you can create teams and collaborate on concept maps with other users. With a simple click, you can download your mind map as a .jpg or .png and embed it in a document or on a website.

Google Draw Screen Capture

An often overlooked tool for mind mapping is Google Drive. In addition to docs, spreadsheets, and presentations, you can create Google Drawings. Once in the drawing, you can add, and add text to shapes and "call outs" (think the comics page in your Sunday Newspaper). As with all Google Drive products, it is simple to collaborate and share your work with other users. Drawings can be embedded on Google Sites, in Docs, and in Presentations, or you can simply download them as .pdfs.

If your class is BYOD, or uses iPads or iPhones, there is an excellent iOS App called iBrainstorm that allows users to create simple concept maps with sticky notes. Collaboration is possible, but trickier on the iPad App. But if you connect several iPhones to the same iPad, you can actually "flick" sticky notes from one device to another.

The Chrome Web Store offers several others that might be worth a try, including: ConnectedMind, MindMap, MindMeister, LucidChart, Mindomo, and Mind42.

----------------------------------

I'm aware of free software packages like Vue or FreeMind, but are there other Web 2.0 solutions out there like bubbl.us? If you are using Mind Mapping Software in your class, please share your favorite in the comment section below.