5 Digital Tools to engage 100% of your class

 

5 Digital Tools to engage 100% of your class

You know that moment when the spotlight shifts from the teachers to the student, when you feel that you are in the background and your kids have take over and are completely engaged in learning? I love those moments and I try to create as many of them as possible. This process becomes so much easier with technology.

“We need to embrace technology to make learning more engaging. Because when students are engaged and they are interested, that's where learning takes place.” -Edtechreview

One of the realities that we face not only in school but in everyday life is that technology is all around. Why fight it? Why not use it to your advantage? Our students are bringing computers to school every day in the form of smart phones. Our schools are being outfitted with wifi networks so this eliminates barriers to access especially if you do not have a laptop or iPad for every student in your class.

1. Here is a guide to get you started if you have not ventured into the Twitter ocean.

  Most of your students are on twitter already. If they are not then it is easy to register and create a profile. Why not have a class twitter chat? You can create your own classroom hashtag and use it for review, or even assessment. I can see this as a great way for students to help each other and for your to provide a little assistance with homework or review for a test? 

2. One of the best features of Google Docs is that once it has been shared with another person, the ability to work synchronously on the same document is possible. This is a tremendous benefit for small teams to be able to edit and contribute at the same time on one file. So, let's say that you want your small groups to write a document that address a question or challenge pertaining to the objective of your lesson. They can do so in and outside of class together in their own homes remotely. This is a beautiful thing that only Google and technology has made possible! Here is a brief Google Docs Guide to give you more specific information.

3.   One of my favorites is Google Hangouts. Your iPad or smart phone to have a discussion/collaboration between small groups in your classroom and another classroom in the district/state/country/world. A colleague of mine just set up a hangout with a class in Spain. If you are interested in connecting with other professionals in and around the country/world I highly recommend getting involved with Google+ communities. You will be able to find others who are interested in connecting with you. Here is a brief guide to Google Hangouts.

4.   If you are looking for something to get your kids out of their seats and move around a QR code challenge is a nice way to get blood flowing to the brain and the body. You can create a QR code with free easy to use QR code generators like this one. I have taken YouTube video URLs and using smart phones or iPads, students can scan them and then complete the task that is assigned. QR codes are one of the most efficient and effective ways to direct students to a digital source. I would use them and put them on my walls in a certain order. The solution would be visible at the top of another QR code somewhere else in the room. So, if the team completed the math challenge and arrived at a solution that was nowhere to be found at the tops of the QR codes around the room, they knew there was a mistake. If their solution matched one then they went to that code and scanned. I usually offered a prize to the team that completed the whole set of challenges. 

5.   Padlet has really stepped up their game. If you have not used this tool for a while there are new options. They now feature the ability to upload voice/video recordings, attachments, take a picture or upload one that is saved, or upload  a link to a web page, or just write a few words in the note as has always been the case.

When you create a class padlet, you can utilize this forum in many different ways. It can be a "parking lot" for questions or insights into what they have learned (exit tickets). This can be a way for student to demonstrate mastery of a concept or skill by using one of the media upload features. The possibilities are endless.

How do you engage your students? Thank you for reading my post. Please pass it along to anyone who might be interested!

Wear Sunscreen

https://youtu.be/sTJ7AzBIJoI

Depending on when you graduated, and when/if you began buying NOW Cd's, you may recall a speech that was set to background music called, "Wear Sunscreen" written by a guy named Baz Luhrmann. This track was released the year after I graduated high school, and at the time, I can recall my youthful mind appreciating the advise. Sitting where I am now, 20 years later, I can appreciate the words even more than I did then. As the speech goes, "trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked." The one line that I could not completely comprehend back then was not to worry about the future. In the speech it is written, "don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. As of this year, 20 years later, this strikes me as particularly insightful, although still difficult not to worry.

I am, by my very nature, a careful person. I make every attempt to stay informed about as much as I can. I have become very effective at curating information of all types that have the potential to help me understand situations that arise around me. So, when situations occur that leave me totally blindsided, I lose sleep. One such professional situation arose not so long ago which had the potential to impact me and my family. I am happy to report that it was not grave, I was not going to be without employment, but it cast a wide veil of uncertainty. I am happy to say that this uncertainty has been dispelled and all is well.

My son, who is quite the household DJ, loves to go diving into our iTunes library and play what ever looks good to him at the time. One such afternoon, he played this song, and instantly it took me back to the wonderful years when my mind and shoulders did not yet have to bear the full weight of life. I was also intrigued how the words of the speech in the song held a different meaning to me now. How fondly we recall what was hopefully a lighthearted youth. Hopefully we can say that I would never trade anything for what I have now despite the struggles and difficulties we have faced and may yet still face. There are some things we can control, and some we can not. I heard once that worrying makes you suffer twice. I would like to try to avoid that. If you have figured it out, please let me know the secret!

The Stockdale Paradox

As an educator, I have often wondered how many other of my colleagues hold a similar view of the state of education. How many maintain a mindset that we have the power and duty to fulfill the charge to pass along our shared experiences and human knowledge from one generation to the next? Currently, I am half way through a book by Jim Collins, Good to Great. Collins wrote, leaders of companies who were instrumental in facilitating a transition in the corporations they worked in, from being good companies to being great companies, did so knowing and understanding the brutal realities and truths of their current situation. They did so, however, with a faith that they would prevail in the end. This is known as the Stockdale Paradox. This paradox is named for a Navy Admiral who was captured and subsequently tortured in a POW camp in Vietnam. He later gave an interview and described how he and the other men in the camp had to face the reality of their situation, but with an unwavering faith that they would inevitably prevail. Startlingly, I read his answer to the question, "who did not make it?" To which he replied, "the optimists".


I have long considered myself an optimist in many things, because I embrace hope and the positive affirmation that I can make a difference in the life of someone now or in the future. I live my life by the creed given to me by my faith: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Maybe the difference is that an optimist may not try and actively change his circumstance, but waits for it to change on its own. Whereas a realist with the Stockdale Paradox in mind will actively work toward improving himself and anything in the situation he can. In which case, I am the latter and not the former.

Common sense online.

About 3 years ago, I became affiliated with the organization known as Common Sense Media. Impressed by their commitment to provide resources and spread awareness of digital citizenship to parents, teachers, and students, I took advantage of the opportunity to partner with them to be a certified educator through their program. Later on a second tier of increased involvement presented itself and I was invited to participate as an ambassador who actively disseminates information to all stakeholders for the benefit of students to sustain positive digital citizenship.

I am proud that Hays CISD embraces the call to action and is taking steps to better ensure that students stay safe online in school and at home. The internet can be a perilous destination, but with the help of tools, resources, and educational activities, we can combat the hazards that plague those who are caught unaware. Hays CISD has earned the distinction as a certified Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship District. This means that Hays has provided its students and parents with information, and resources through lessons in classrooms, parent information events through community gatherings and a number of other engagements both face to face and digitally. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be an agent of change where I know that my efforts and the efforts of those who are of the same mind can help to protect our students now and in the future by equipping them with the knowledge to foster positive digital citizenship and maintain a good digital footprint.

Feeling like a car salesman

There are some days I feel like a car salesman, only I am "selling" the idea of using tech in a lesson to teachers. I offer to tell all about the new innovations included, the upgrades that have been made, the ways in which the teacher will save time, forms of creation and collaboration that can be sustained by students, and access to content that would not be possible with out the use of technology. In my case, and in contrast to a car salesman, I would not be in this position if I did not believe in the product and the real and genuine value that my product can bring to its adopter.

There is a local car dealership who's slogan is, "Whatever you need, anything we can do... we'll stand by you. I thought, that is great, because the last thing that a buyer wants is to sign on the line and then you are out the door on your own. I believe dealerships are trying to offer the sense of a relationship with their customers. I want to convey the same message to my teachers as well. That I will be here to support them as they take their first steps into trying something new. I am committed to supporting success beginning, middle, and end.

Also, similar to a car salesman, their job is made easier or more difficult to varying degrees based on the reputation of the manufacturer. If the car is know as being reliable and dependable, then quality is a commodity that sells itself. When the success of the tools you work with is predicated on the strength and reliability of the support system that undergirds them, there is only so much you can do in preparation for successful use. So many variables are out of your hands. In my world, the tools I work with are provided through a network. The program software design itself could have flaws.

I hope that people know when I make a suggestion, it comes from a genuine desire to help both teachers and student attain higher levels of academic success, personal growth, and preparation for the future. I also hope that people know I don't work on commission. 

Can you get me two minutes out of one?

During weeks like this, I am often reminded of a conversation I had with a friend of mine who, like me, is an instructional coach. We both agreed that we held a common fear of losing touch with what it feels like to be a classroom teacher. As a classroom teacher, I admit, that I would scoff at those who would try to give me advise on how to be more effective, or how to improve my practice especially if they had been separated from their classroom for any number of years. I would of course nod politely, while in my mind, scream thoughts of "if I could only get these hours back and give them to my kids!" My friend and I joked with each other that there has to be a statistical correlation between the number of years an administrator or support staff has been out of the classroom to the inverse effect it has on the reliability/believability/validity of the suggestions they offer. Sure things sound great on paper, and all manor of contingencies have been considered except one important, immutable, and unfailingly unpredictable factor: my students. So, yes, your research-based, best practice, pedagogically sound strategy or technique will get you published, but will it allow me to have greater access to the only thing that can improve scores with? Probable not.

By the way, the only thing, tried and true, 100% effective, that can improve scores in my opinion, if that is all you are in it for, is to have more time. Find a way for me to get two minutes out of one and I am all yours! When I was able to have more time with my kids, I could work miracles. In the precious and rare minutes that I was able to trade pieces of my soul for, I could open minds and clear confusion like Moses parting the Red Sea. All it took was a few extra minutes with my kids.

Believe me, when I approach a teacher with the latest and greatest technology app, or software, I won't sell it unless I can say, "Do you need more time? Well, this will improve the quality of the time you have and possibly give you more of it!" Sure there is disbelief, and even a struggle to comprehend to some degree. When I am able to sit down with a teacher and show them the magnificence of a really great tool that matches the outcome they want to see from their students, with the assurance that I am not going to abandon them once the meeting is over, I see a look, and I get a feeling that makes me know that I am fulfilling my purpose and honoring my vocation.

I know there will come a time when I finish talking to a teacher and they, like me many years ago, have the exact same thought as I did. That is just how it goes, but I hope to make the most convincing argument I can. At the end of the day, a teachers has to make a choice based on whats best for their kids. We have to trust in that.

Nature of modern learning

What is the nature of the modern world? I don't think a blog post could do the answer to that question justice, but here is a glimpse into current research that illustrates new learning principles connected with the modern world and the demands that students are facing as they leave their high school or university.

The principles of Connectivism written by Goerge Seimens is called a learning theory for the Digital Age. It seeks to explain complex learning in a rapidly changing social and modern world. Essentially, learning is a process associated more often occurring through connections in a network.

The principles of Connectivism are as follows:


1) Learning and knowledge rest in the diversity of opinions.
2) Learning is a process of connecting sources of information.
3) Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
4) Capacity to know more is more important and critical then what is currently known.
5) Nurturing and maintaining connection is needed to facilitate connected learning.
6) Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts, is a core skill.
7) Currency (accurate and up to date knowledge) is the intent of all Connectivist learning activities.
8) Decision making is itself a learning process.

The principle that caught my attention was the fourth. We can definitely see the shift from the world we knew a few decades ago to the present. Memorization was the key to success. Now, there is too much information to memorize, all you need to know now is how to locate it.

References:

Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge. Lulu. com. Chicago

Walling, D. R. (2014). Designing learning for tablet classrooms: Innovations in instruction. New York, NY: Springer.