Archive for 1-1

Teaching in a Tech-Rich Environment

May 6, 2013 1-1 No comments

Tom King asked me to stop by his class at St. Thomas University tonight.  Here’s the preso I plan to share.

Design Thinking and Maker Resources

March 5, 2013 1-1, professional development 8 comments

Design Thinking and Maker experiences have been hot topics at my school recently.  I’ve been trying to find K-12 teacher specific professional development in these areas, but I haven’t had a ton of luck.

I know several people who’ve done training with Stanford, but they’ve ended this program.  MIT had a couple of pieces mentioned on their website, but nothing seemed relevant to K-12 education.

Promising Events:

There are a number of podcasts available in iTunesU that look promising.  I’ve bookmarked my links in Diigo and on Pinterest:

Any favorite sites/resources/opportunities in this area you’d like to share?

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Note:

Since doing this post, I’ve received info about two trainings happening at Columbia University.

Thanks to Vinnie Vrotney for sharing Gary Stager’s Constructing Modern Knowledge in June and to Lucy Gray for sharing Open Webinar on Design Thinking tomorrow.

Richard Kassissieh just mentioned Leading is Learning. It’s a hands-on summer program involving high school students working with their teachers as they learn the design process together.

Keep them coming!

Why use technology?

February 5, 2013 1-1, 21st Century Skills, Bookmarked sites One comment

This morning SPA was fortunate to host an MAIS Affinity Workshop for a group of 60 or so independent school educators interested in learning about flipped teaching.  I presented some tech tools useful for a flipped environment.  Rachel Hatten and Kathleen West presented about a blended high school English class they taught.  Tim Goodwin presented about a constructivist approach to teaching science and how he utilizes flipped concepts.  One common edtech thread – sometimes technology can make a huge difference in learning, but it needs to be used for the right reasons.  There are times we do tech because it’s cool, but we really need to do it because it’s right for our kids (even when it isn’t in our comfort zone).

Shortly after the workshop, I ran into one of my middle school science teachers and had a conversation that lead me to ask – Why use technology?  Keep in mind that he’s an incredible teacher and regularly makes excellent use of technology to support learning.  He explained a dilemma about a tool he had really hoped would be useful (widely used in many areas in our school) and how he’s reconsidering its use.  All I could ask him was “Is it the best tool for the kids to use for what they need to do?”

Sometimes it’s hard to answer that question.  There’s a lot to consider when choosing a the right tool(s); it isn’t always black and white or a question with the same answer for every situation.

Why use technology?  When it does one or more of the following:

  • Provides access to a resource or resources you can’t get any other way
  • Makes something possible that can’t be achieved in an analog (aka paper) situation
  • Transforms a necessary task into something more engaging without becoming a distraction (note – this isn’t a “one size fits all”)
  • Is easy to learn and learning it is worth the effort
  • Simplifies the teaching and learning process or makes the process more efficient
  • Means more student/teacher or student/student contact/support/discussion time (think flipped classroom)
  • Gives students more control of and choice in their learning without sacrificing the content to be learned
  • Supports 21st Century skills, providing extended opportunities for collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and/or critical thinking
  • Promotes information literacy and/or technology skills
  • Promotes personalization of learning – supporting learning differences and differing learning styles/needs
  • Extends learning by providing real-life, authentic, engaging tasks
  • Is so good that it justifies the time/energy necessary for it to be well-used

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if technology is the right tool.  Sometimes we get so involved in making it work that we lose sight of what’s really important – maximizing student learning and opportunities.  Sometimes a tool or technique that works well for an individual or group may not be best for all – personalizing the choice may be necessary.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!  Please add comments.  What am I missing?  Anything above you don’t agree with?

From TIES ’12 – Daily Life with 1:1 Devices: What I wish I knew 10 years ago!

December 14, 2012 1-1 No comments

I presented a session on Monday at the TIES Conference in Minneapolis: Daily Life with 1:1 Devices: What I wish I knew 10 years ago!

I’d originally hoped it would be a “birds of a feather” collaborative discussion, but the conference organizers decided not to do these any longer.  Instead, I shared a mega-list with all the pieces I could think of to consider in a 1:1 program.  One of my fav principals used to say that the devil was in the details.  Well, here are the details (many I wish I’d thought of before they became an issue)…

Device selection

  • What are your instructional goals?
  • What integration is already in place?
  • What tools can’t you live with out?
  • What can you live without?
  • How much training/PD is realistic?
  • How much local storage is needed?
  • Which hardware?
    • For students
    • For teachers

 Ownership Models

  • School-owned
  • School-leased
  • Tech fee to cover lease
  • Family-owned
    • BYOD – open vs spec-based
    • BYOC – computers only
    • Choice of fee or purchase

Don’t forget…

  • IWBs
  • Projectors
  • Document cameras
  • Clickers
  • Dongles
  • Cameras
  • Printers
  • Cases
  • Classroom lighting
  • Flash drives, SD cards, external drives
  • Spare chargers
  • Power strips
  • Styli or graphics tablets
  • Headphones
  • Microphones

Content management

  • Kids under 13? (CIPA/COPPA and online subscriptions)
  • Clouds still need to be managed.

What’s your process for:

  • Teacher-sharing
  • Student to student collaboration
  • Student to teacher (handing in)
  • Feedback loop
  • Long-term storage
  • How much space is needed?
  • Where do parents fit in?

 Software, Apps, Subscriptions

  • Kids under 13
  • Free or paid?
  • Alternative To – http://alternativeto.net/
  • Ownership impacts licensing
  • Who owns the app? Software?
  • Lowest common denominator – teaching  and learning on the cloud
  • Free isn’t always inexpensive…
  • Library & databases

Support: What if it breaks?

  • Loaners
  • Warranty
  • Repair
  • Tolerable downtime
  • Access
  • At home?
  • Theft/loss
  • Reimaging
  • Backing up

 Helpdesk models

  • Online
  • Video tools
  • Teacher mentors
  • Student provided
  • DIY / crowdsourced
  • Tech staff
  • Deployment and refurbishing

Infrastructure

  • Wiring the wireless
  • Bandwidth
  • Filtering & firewalls
    • Network-based
    • Device-based
    • Can parents install their own?
    • Procedures for unblocking
    • Admin vs managed accounts
    • Network (or not)
    • Printing (or not)
    • Security (virtual and physical)

Parent training

  • Prior to roll-out
  • Home tech needs
  • Printing
  • Wireless (or not)
  • Social networking
  • Device capabilities
  • Device care/management
  • Online grade access
  • Digital parenting strategies

 Wellnology

  • Skills training for the kids
  • Survival skills
  • Hardware care
  • Responsible use
  • Digital citizenship
  • Ergonomics
  • Keyboarding (or not)
  • Balance…
  • Responding to digital parenting

Expectations…

Professional Development

  • Skills development
  • Naysayers vs Early Adopters
  • Mentorship
  • Curriculum development
  • Other curriculum demands
  • Just in time training
  • Skills mapping in curriculum maps
  • How much troubleshooting is realistic?
  • Integration support models

How will you deal with:

  • What happens outside of school? Summer?
  • Misbehavior?
  • Families who want to “opt out” ?
  • Financial concerns?
  • Subs
    • Access
    • Training
    • Expectations
  • Special needs?
  • Naysayers?
    • Reluctant adopters?
    • Early adopters?
    • Loss/theft/abuse of hardware?
    • Support needs?
  • Bullying? Porn?
  • Lockers & locks
  • Building security

Anything I’m missing?

Symbaloo as a Middle School Tool

August 11, 2012 1-1, Bookmarked sites, Online tools & sites No comments

Every year, I try to find ways to help my middle school students get off to a good start with organized links and files.  In the past, we had students copy a set of folders – one for each academic class – to use for file storage on their laptops.  Inside the master folder, we also had shortcuts to frequently used sites.  This helped a number of our kids, but it still seemed messy.

I’d planned to put all the links on a single page, so when I found Symbaloo, I realized I’d found a tool that could be really great for my students.

Here’s what I came up with.  I’m sure it will change as they year goes on, but the concept is solid.  I’ve used the embed code on my course pages for easy access from anywhere, and now I have one of my language teachers hooked enough to demo it to her faculty.  Symbaloo is iOS friendly and is great for traditional screens as well as touch screens, so it feels like a good fit for most educational environments.  There are a number of links you can add to a new page, but making your own for custom resources is really easy.

A basic account is free.  Here’s info about the professional accounts.  There’s also an app for using Symbaloo on iOS devices.

Here’s the User Guide, but I have to admit I was able to create mine with no trouble.

How would you use Symbaloo? Any great example pages to share?

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