FTT - All Of Them

Unveiling the District 113 Technology Learning Center

@joe_edtech

I believe teachers learn best when they can explore new things at their own pace, can select the tools that best suit their needs and purposes, and are provided with both formal, delivered instruction and 1 on 1 time for deeper questioning and exploration (sounds like it would be good for students too - hmm). That said, in order to facilitate that kind of exploration and learning, today's Free Tech Tool is actually a collection of all of the Free Tech Tools that I've discussed this year.

In the first truly collaborative project between myself and my new partner, Lisa Berghoff, Director of Instructional Technology at Highland Park High School, we are unveiling our new district wide support site for innovative teaching with technology. It is tentatively called the "District 113 Technology Learning Center." However, it is still a work in progress. While this will eventually be the spot where you can go to get information about all kinds of Open Educational Resources, the latest and greatest regarding Google Apps for Education, full-blown professional development modules on integrating technology into the classroom, and information about technology tools specifically designed to level the playing field between advanced and challenged learners, the "Free Tech Tools" page is up to date and available beginning today to anyone interested.

All of the Free Tech Tools have been categorized by purpose (for example, tools for flipping your classroom, tools for global education, tools for formative assessment). Then, on each page, there is a short description of each free tool followed by a link to the original blog post with training materials, and then a link to the tool itself:

From the "Social Media" page - Each entry uses the same format.

Lisa and I both believe in sharing our products with other teachers, and neither of us believe that this is the perfect website. If you know teachers in other districts who would benefit from our "Free Tech Tools" page - please send them the link. If you have suggestions on how we can improve the site or any of the entries, please let us know in the comment section below.

We hope you have a great summer! And, Mom, I hope you will come back to read more of my blog entries in the Fall.

Summer PD

Um...What?

Summer Professional or Personal Development

@joe_edtech

Summer must be approaching because my daughter keeps saying things like, "One more Monday of school!" or "4 more wake ups til no more alarm clock!" My schedule doesn't work exactly like that anymore, but I remember really looking forward to summer vacation, except for one thing. Preparations for the Fall and professional development responsibilities coupled with all of the responsibilities of home really can create a whirlwind.

The summer should afford us the time for deliberation and study, but too much of our professional development models resemble the "Networked Professional Development" schematic embedded on this page. A LOT of things to do and talk about in a very little amount of time - usually in a poorly lit classroom with sketchy air conditioning. With that in mind, I suggest you take matters into your own hands and engage in Personal Development in addition to your summer workshops and classes and, and, and...ad infinitum. 

Pick some good books to read. This summer I'm going to read two books (both of which I've previewed, neither of which will take much more than a complete weekend to read). First, "The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined," by Salman Khan. Mr. Khan has a Harvard Business background, but has turned his tutoring business into something incredible, Khan Academy. I may not agree with all of his conclusions, but I do think that we should ask some big questions about how we got to our current primary education system and about how we might redesign it for the 21st Century. Secondly, I'm going to read "What Connected Educators Do Differently," by Todd Whitaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas. This book is about establishing powerful personal learning networks with other teaching professionals across the globe. Selfishly I want to read this because I think that such PLNs have a tremendous amount of potential to offer us all informal PD and support as continue to grow and improve as teachers and school leaders. Also, one of the authors, Jeffrey Zoul, is an Associate Superintendent at one of our sender schools, and I am always interested in pursuing a closer relationship between the high schools and the K-8 schools.

Next, watch some inspirational speakers - even if it is only on YouTube. If you want to get charged up about teaching with digital tools I suggest watching Kevin Honeycutt, former art teacher and current school board member, as he discusses the importance of authentic learning environments - helping students pursue their passions to the point of creating real and marketable products. Jim Sills, very Googley, is another expert in teaching digital media. At the Google Summit in Glennbrook, IL over spring break last year, he taught about telling a story with video using just four shots. It was amazing.

Finally, learn something new that is just fun to learn. I suggest subscribing to the Google Gooru and trying some of the tools in Google Chrome and in Google Apps not because you are ready to use them in your class, but just because they'd be fun to try. I love learning about Space and our place in it even though it serves me no professional purpose. So I installed "3D Solar System Web" from the Chrome Store and I'm going to play around with making my own 3D Solar System tours over the summer. 

Regardless, teaching and using technology should be fun. So take some time this summer to do something fun!

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What do you do for Personal Development over the summer?

FTT - Published Goobrics

From "New Visions Cloud Lab"

Shared By Professional Educators For Professional Educators

@joe_edtech

It's funny - in life in general, I am not a collectivist. I believe strongly in the power and rights of any individual to pursue his or her own passions and to achieve based on that pursuit (yes, I do know that Thomas Jefferson said it better). However, in education, I very strongly believe in the power of collaboration. Whether we work in PLCs inside our buildings, or PLNs made up of real and ethereal connections, there can be little doubt that there is a lot to be gained from the shared resources of our professional educators. Maybe it is one reason I bristle at the idea of treating schools like businesses. We aren't creating widgets and the power isn't in competition with one another, but in collaboration to provide as many opportunities for students as we can. - And that in a nutshell is why I believe so strongly in both the Google Education Community and the movement to pursue Open Educational Resources for schools, both topics I've written about in blog posts before - here and here. When we create resources that are good for students, and share them with other professionals, we have the potential to improve things for an exponentially greater number of students than the moments when we work in isolation.

Andrew Stillman and his fellow geniuses at New Visions Cloud Lab have been creating and sharing awesome educational resources for a number of years, and their library continues to get more impressive. I have already written about some of their awesome add-ons, like autoCrat, and just a few weeks ago I wrote about integrating Doctopus and Goobric with Google Classroom. 

Goobric, my loyal readers (Mom) will remember, is a tool to integrate writing rubrics pretty seamlessly into Google Docs. One of the very few drawbacks to Goobric was that there weren't many exemplars or samples to choose from. Recently, New Visions Cloud Lab went a long way towards solving that problem by posting libraries of "Goobrics" to their website. So far they have posted rubrics from New Visions for Public Schools, the Literacy Design Collaborative, and the New York Department of Education, which has already been a huge contributor to the OER movement.

The libraries of documents can be added as "View Only" docs to "My Drive" in Google Drive. From there, you can use them as is and attach them to any assignment as a completed rubric. Or, as is the case with any Google Doc, you can make a copy and adapt the rubric to your assignment.

This is a great addition to the New Visions Cloud Lab arsenal, and it promises to grow.