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Blogging with primary students

Today (Wed. May 29th, 2013)  I will be interviewing  Waterloo Region District School Board  teacher  Jenni van Rees  at 4:30 (EDT).

Our discussion topic:  blogging with primary students.

Catch the live broadcast by visiting the   QueST Radio 1-24   website.   I will also be writing an upcoming blog post featuring Jenni’s work in this area.

~Mark

Call to #WRDSB teachers

Ed Doadt, Principal at Huron Heights Secondary School and I will be presenting at the Canadian Association of School Administrators (CASA) annual conference in July. The theme for this year is ’Technology Meets Pedagogy: Hardware Meets Headware’. Our presentation will focus on how the use of web 2.0 and social media tools positively impact student learning and engagement.

If you have a great story to share about what has occurred in your classroom, we would love to hear from you.  Please  add your story/journey to our Google Doc.

~Mark & Ed

Student Voice: social media in the classroom

My daughter Charlotte just completed a grade 11 online secondary school course (HNC3OE) on fashion & creative expression here in the Waterloo Region District School Board.  She was recently sharing with me,  her work completed for the summative project on the topic of creative expression. There were 4 components to the work in addition to a personal reflection on the course.

The first component of the summative was a research assignment that reports on sweat shops in the apparel industry. The report is called  The Ugly Side of Fashion . Another component was to review wardrobes used in a high profile event such as a fashion show, new collection, red carpet event or video. Charlotte chose a  Costume Review.  One of the aspects of the summative that Charlotte really enjoyed was designing new clothing.  Her Fashion Design (graphic) was prepared using a drawing tablet and multi layer capable software called Art Rage 3.

The last component of the project really captured my interest. The idea was to research and explore, in a real life manner,  how personal  perceptions of attractiveness relate to how others see you.  The research methodology included comparing the subjects opinions of themselves, Charlotte’s perceptions  based on knowing the subject and input gathered from others who did not know the subjects.

Charlotte has an active online component to her life as a fan fiction writer and co-administrator of 3 blogs.  The one blog, administered with 2 online friends from Malaysia, is  kpop fans can relate, and has over 15,000 followers. This blog was used to gather anonymous input from people for the research.  I thought this was a great use of social media and crowd sourcing some feedback to provide an authentic context to research.  This also demonstrates an example of why students should have access to social media and web 2.0 tools to support their learning. The topic, research and findings are presented in this Fashion Video (12 min.) which was planned, filmed and edited by Charlotte.

Note: All noting and final documents were prepared using Google Drive. The video was produced in iMovie and uploaded to Google Drive.

I enjoyed learning how social media added a key component to this learning opportunity.

~Mark (& proud Dad!)

Student Voice: A visit to MsJWeir’s Classroom

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Ms. J. Weir’s classroom at WRDSB’s  Southwood S. S. to meet her students and gather some feedback about their online writing project. I was immediately struck by the calm and trusting atmosphere in the classroom. It was obvious that the students were very comfortable in this learning environment — a wonderful tribute to the teacher! The dialogue flowed freely and students were at ease contributing to the conversation.

I posed the following guiding questions to the students to facilitate our discussion regarding the project:

  1. How has writing online changed your learning?
  2. Is writing online what you expected?
  3. What would be the effect of removing the technology?
  4. Describe the pros and cons of back channelling (Today’s Meet and Twitter)
  5. What were the challenges?

The actual discussion happened in a rather free flow manner. I have grouped the responses to follow the question sequence outlined above.

Many students commented about the ability to ‘organize on the fly’ and being ‘in the moment’ when they write online because the process feels more natural.  Capturing ideas and shaping them is much easier electronically. The students also made that point that they felt more ownership for their work.

When asked question 3, the responses were unanimous: removing the technology would be a step backwards, poorer organization, less motivation and anticipated drop in achievement.

In terms of back channelling and online forums, many students commented that the variety of options to contribute to class discussions (Face to Face (F2F), EdmodoToday’s Meet and Twitter) enriched the discussion, drew more students into the conversation(s) and created a much stronger sense of community within the class.  The students all indicated that having the comfort level to participate was a key ingredient to their learning.

In the area of challenges, a few things were identified.  Access to resources is dependent on a wifi connection. We talked about the importance of wifi reliability and high levels of up-time.  I was impressed by the fact that the iPads used for this particular project were set up with a small number of key apps that were aligned with class needs and learning goals.  This was a welcome observation on my part as people often become app focused rather than learning focused. Well done! Students also talked candidly about the need for a level of self discipline. Having wifi enabled devices in the classroom certainly support student learning, and a more personalized component to the learning. Yet, the potential for distraction is still there — it must be managed.

I found this to be an excellent classroom visit. I appreciated the candid conversation with  Ms. J. Weir’s class. The approach to learning in this classroom needs to be shared and replicated.

Related Resources

Ms. J. Weir’s Blog

~Mark

Skinny Down Your Technology

The other day I was reviewing some draft system communications with @maryhingley and she commented that we should “skinny this down” to a cleaner more streamlined document.  While the comment regarding the document  we were reviewing was bang on,  it also made a connection for me to an earlier conversation that day about the constant evolution of technology tools. The context of the technology tools dialogue was around the challenge of building capacity in teaching when the tools evolve so quickly.

Fact:  We are all on a continuous  learning curve, new technology,  new apps, new potential to improve improve learning. There is certainly plenty of discussion around the notion of welcoming teachers with this new ‘technology enabled learning’ world – online, web 2.0, anytime, anywhere, digital, shared documents, authentic audience (etc.).

As we become more thoughtful about professional learning, determining the best point(s) of entry and consider learning continuums for staff, there is a greater realization that it is too easy to overwhelm.  People need safe and doable entry points with high success rates.  The fact is, people do not need 100′s of tools to start on their journey.

Challenge:  a call to experienced teachers using web 2.0 and social media tools – skinny down your tool list

Categorize the software, apps and web 2.0 tools you use into the following categories:

a) must have, use daily, addresses some important need

b) use regularly (a few times a week but not daily)

c) once in a while (a few times per month)

d) tried it, don’t use it regularly at all

Skinny down your list and share your suite of must have tools in this google doc.  Include your name, twitter ID, blog/web site and must have list.

Thanks in advance for sharing.

Related Resources:

I just can’t imagine teaching without ….

Cross posted to VoicEd.ca

~Mark

Google Chromebook: first impressions

Last week I felt a bit like a kid waiting for Christmas. I knew our shipment of Google Chromebooks was on the way, and very soon I would finally get a chance to try one out myself.  ”Chrome Day” has now  happened, I have have spent a couple of sessions with a Chromebook.

Out of the box, the Chromebook was dead easy to setup up – no written instructions needed. Simply power up the device, answer a handful of setup questions, connect to wifi and presto. I logged into my Google account and everything was there: bookmarks, docs etc. – easy.  I must admit I was impressed with the ease of this process. I think I was online in less than 5 minutes.

The screen is clear and easy to read. (12″ diameter or roughly 7″ x 10″). Processor speed seems decent, and the battery life is solid so far.

Now that I have tried this ‘unmanaged’ approach, I need to investigate setup this up through the managed interface for comparison. It will be interesting to use a device where literally EVERYTHING is online. My testing will be with an eye to classroom applications and ease of use. Certainly from an IT perspective, the devices offers the browser interface for access to web content and web 2.0 tools for writing, communicating and collaboration with minimal maintenance.  I look forward to learning more about file management in this web only environment.

I will share my learnings and observations in a future post.

Related Resources

Google Chromebook
Samsung
Wikipedia

~Mark

WRDSB BackPack

WRDSB has recently introduced the ‘BackPack’ option for secondary school students. This web site provides a mechanism for students to access their Board computer file storage from home.  The login process is active directory compliant.

Login Screen

User Interface

The user interface is simple to use, providing icons for file the typical management functions: uploads, downloads, rename, add folder etc.

The solution is based on java based open source code.  Future plans will add functionality for all students. Many thanks to the WRDSB ITS staff who worked on this project to support student learning.

~Mark

Online orientation

While participating on the OTF21C panel discussion this past week, an interesting point came up.  Since the discussion, I have been thinking about this:  What is your online orientation?

1. Are you offline, and you choose when to go online?

or

2. Are you online, and you choose when to go offline?

Please leave a comment, or connect via Twitter or Google+

~Mark

Digital Storytelling Resources

Today I had the pleasure of tuning in to a webcast presentation by Alan Levine about digital story telling resources. I ideas were great and the chat window was action packed with comments, ideas and positive feedback. I wanted to share a list of a few of the resources that were highlighted.

Dipity
Vuvox
Glogster
Zooburst
Google Maps
Pixton
ToonDoo
Flickr
Blabberize
Jaycut
Animato
Slideboom
Vcasmo
Prezi

This is a great set of tools to support digital story telling. Visit Alan’s blog and wiki to get the full story and lots of good ideas. Everyone has a story to tell. Give one of these great tools a spin today then do something fun. innovative and engaging with your students!

Thank you to Sheryl and the PLP Network team for setting up this learning opportunity with Alan.

Related Resources

Alan’s 50 ways
Alan’s wiki
Bitstrips for School (licensed for use for Ontario publicly funded schools by OSAPAC)

~Mark

Teaching the Facebook Generation

I came across this post today via Twitter from @pmcash.

The article covers the use of social media tools with in Australian schools. Based on the article, the general approach seems to be cautious about allowing access. Concerns raised include safety, teacher awareness of how to use the tools and online relationships between teachers and students.

In my Board (WRDSB), we have been making great strides in moving forward with the use of social media tools. Facebook and Twitter (and other tools too) are open for use to support curriculum delivery. These tools offer incredible opportunities to connect, collaborate and access real world information and events in real time. Teachers are finding many exciting uses for these technologies within the classroom.

Currently, teachers are using Facebook for:

  • fan pages to distribute classroom resources to students (& parents), raise awareness of issues etc.
  • study and enrichment groups
  • online writing (poetry, character analysis, debates/discussion re current events etc.)
  • opportunities to share student work (within groups)
  • online galleries (artwork, student created music and videos etc.)
  • teacher feedback and peer review
  • ‘ask a question’ homework groups
  • casual writing for learning second languages
  • teaching digital citizenship in a real world context

It is critical that staff and students understand the importance of having their privacy and security settings set up appropriately. This must be part of the education process.

In terms of staff/student relationships in this environment, it is business as usual in many respects. Any online relationship must follow the same professional conduct as any situation whether it is in the classroom, on the playground, on a school trip or in an extra curricular situation. Relationships must be kept at the professional level. No one should put themselves in a risky situation.

These social media tools are powerful — we need to leverage their power to support curricular delivery, while educating staff/students about appropriate use and maintaining the required professionalism within these environments.

~ Mark

Up next: Demonstrating Twitter to our Trustee group on March 7th.

 

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