Tech. Tuesday- Oct. 23

"The educational environment isn't exploiting digital content for all of the benefits that can accrue for today's learners.  The gap is widening for what we do in our lives- how we communicate, work, learn, and play- and how we're educating our kids."  (SEDTA, 2012)

The State Education Technology Directors Association (SEDTA) in the U.S. has recommended that all schools shift away from printed textbooks by 2017.  This shift would be done gradually as schools rotate through their natural textbook adoption cycles.

More and more, schools and universities are researching the benefits of and moving towards the use of e-textbooks instead of the traditional print texts.  As part of the 3-Year I.T. Plan at Ashbury, I am beginning to do this as well.  So far, my reading has yielded mixed results. Here is a summary:

• The benefits of moving to digital resources include:
• Digital resources can be updated easily and more frequently than textbooks- without reprinting costs
• It is possible that digital resources can be much less expensive than print textbooks
• They can be available for students, parents and teachers anytime and anyplace
• They allow for multimedia content, interactivity and online assessments
• Digital resources allow teachers to individualize content for all types of learners and even create their own content
• Students can annotate resources without damaging the the materials
• Reduces the need to drag heavy backpacks to and from school
• Options for resources, content and providers are increasing exponentially

 Those opposed to moving to e-textbooks and digital resources make the following arguments:

• Using e-books makes it harder to remember what was read.  An article published in Time.com proposes that:
•  studies have shown that on-screen reading is measurably slower than reading on paper
• While an additional study in England found that there is no measurable difference in student performance when using e-texts compared against printed text, there does seem to be a slight difference in need to read the material more than once.
• Context and landmarks are important when learning material.  These include remembering where on the page the material was read and what it was near.  Opposers contend that there are fewer spatial landmarks in digital content than in printed content
• Smaller screens may make material less memorable (Hmmm, what does this say about novels?)
• Physically flipping pages is less mentally taxing than flipping online pages

• There aren't enough options for digital textbooks yet.
• Purchasing e-readers makes the cost savings of e-textbooks a mute point
• University students are concerned that they cannot resell digital texts
• Students are worried that they might lose their notes if done digitally
• Some e-texts require so much storage space that most of today's readers do not have enough memory to provide any functionality beyond storing texts

 Within the same article, however, the writer admits that these issues probably boil down to the fact that students are simply not used to using e-text yet and that students who grow up using e-textbooks and resources will have far fewer difficulties.

So then I ask you...isn't this just another case for "What's new is less comfortable at first?"  Don't we just need to deal with it?

Just like we must face the fact that the time has come for us to all embrace new technologies in our classrooms, provide online resources by using course management systems and refuse to allow our fears to polarize us as lifelong learners vs. stagnaters, the time has come for us to really explore and consider the move to opening the doors to digital devices and the tools/resources that come with them into our classrooms. After all, if it is best for kids...isn't it just plain BEST?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.  In your opinion, what are the benefits and drawbacks to embracing these emerging options?

References:

• Out of Print:  Reimagining  the K-12 Textbook in a Digital Age- SETDA:  www.setda.org

• Report:  Schools Should Move from Print to Digital Content by 2017- Education Week:  http://blogs.edweek.org/marketplacek12/2012/09/tranistion_from_print_to_digital_2017.html?cmp+ENL-II-NEWS2

• Report Recommends Shift to Digital Educational Resources Within 5 Years-- THE Journal:  http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/9/24/report-recommends-shift-to-digital-educational-resources-within-5-years.aspx?admgarea=News1

• 10 Reasons Students Aren't Using Digital Textbooks- TeachThought:  http://www.teachthought.com/technology/10-reasons-students-arent-using-digital-textbooks

•  Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read?- Time.com:  http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/?iid=hl-main-feature

Building Our PBL Muscles

While I was employed in the Professional Development Center in Austin ISD, I had the privilege of working with the professionals at the Institute for Learning (IFL).  They are consultants in the areas of best practices and learning research.  They describe themselves in the following way:  "Located at the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh, the IFL works closely with both researchers and educators to translate research findings into practical actions that teachers, administrators, schools, and districts can implement to help close the learning gap and promote high student achievement."  One of the IFL's most important contributions to teaching/learning, in my opinion, is their clearly articulated Principles of Learning.  Of their nine principles, the most difficult one for teachers to embrace, thus far, is the principle of "Learning As Apprenticeship."  In a nutshell, this principle holds valuable the practice of organizing learning environments so that students operate much like the apprentice would while learning a skill/profession.  The emphasis, obviously, is on hands-on instruction.  If you would like to read more about the nine Principles of Learning, you can start here:  http://ifl.lrdc.pitt.edu/ifl/index.php/resources/principles_of_learning

In my current professional reading, I have come across a good number of articles highlighting the importance of project-based learning and problem-based learning as the standard best practices in classroom instruction.  At first glance, the two strategies seem basically the same.  In actually, their differences are subtle, but important.  A research article published online by the All Ireland Society for Higher Education (AISHE) in affiliation with the International Consortium for Educational Development, defined them best (at least for me).  Project-based learning is focused on a long-term group activity that results in a product, presentation or performance.  End products tend to be elaborate and require a great deal of planning.  Problem-based learning is "both a curriculum and a process" whereby problems are carefully designed by the teacher and solved by the learner.  While solving the problem, necessary skills and knowledge are built as a natural part of the process.  The end product is not nearly as important as the process that the students use to solve the problem.  Both are learner-centered approaches that require the teacher to take the role of facilitator or coach, rather than sage.  Both rely heavily on assessments for and as learning.  Furthermore, both are touted with developing more active and motivated students who assume more responsibility for their own learning that those in traditional classrooms.  This article also goes on to define the important features of the design stage of the lessons:
1.  Clear guidance about how to begin the project
2.  Detailed/written project specifications & project guide
3.  Careful piloting/testing of the projects to establish reasonable expectations of time
4.  Collection of sample projects as exemplars for students

To read the full article, go to:  http://www.aishe.org/readings/2005-1/donnelly-fitzmaurice-Collaborative-Project-based-Learning.html

I'm guessing that by now, you see why I feel that the IFL's work with "Learning As Apprenticeship" is ringing true to me even in my development as a student of learning today.  With PBL, students learn to think like scientists, mathematicians, writers, historians, etc.

Peter Skillen, respected Canadian educator and consultant, published an article in the July edition of Mindshift, attempting to demystify the characteristics of PBL.  I found this graphic quite helpful.

He also asks some really poignant questions related to each area on the continua that teachers can use as their classroom practice begins to evolve in this direction:
Trust:  Who is in control and who's passion is being ignited and honoured with this project/problem?  Who is responsible for setting the goals? (The obvious answer is 'the students.')
Questioning:  Who is asking the questions?  (Students)
Collaboration:  How much interdependence do the students have with one another?
Content:  Are there natural links to other domains that provide context?
Knowledge:  Are the students constructing their own new meanings and understandings or are the regurgitating what they have found in their research?
Purpose:  How authentic is the project or problem?  Are students being scientists, historians, writers, etc. or are they merely "studying" science, math, history, etc?

That last question is the one that I hope you will keep with you as you finish reading this article.  It certainly is the one I will keep with me as I observe, evaluate and learn from Ashbury classrooms and teachers.

If anything here has piqued your interest and you would like to learn more about this together, I would be happy to create a Professional Learning Group with this as its focus.  Please let me know.

What Was He Using?!

On Friday, Gary used two online applications that a number of you wanted to know more about:  Quizlet & Prezi.

Quizlet provides thousands of online study games and flash cards covering almost any subject.  Teachers (and students) can contribute their own as well.  The content can be presented as flash cards or it can be set up as test or competitions.  This is a free Web 2.0 tool that you may want to take a closer look at.  http://quizlet.com/about/

Prezi is in amazing online presentation tool that makes PowerPoint look sick.  To learn more or to create a free account, go to:  http://prezi.com

Killing two birds with one stone:  Check out this Prezi about some of the best educational Apps for the iPad or iPhone.

60 Educational Apps in 60 Minutes on Prezi

As always, if you would like to have a hands-on workshop about either of these, or if you would like help with creating your first set of Quizlets or creating your first Prezi presentation, please let me know.

Siri in the Classroom: "Siri-ous" Benefit or "Siri-ous" Risk?

As some of you may already know, with the release of the latest IOS (6), Apple has included Siri for the iPhone 4s, 5 & iPad 3.  For those who have never heard of Siri, in a nutshell, it is a digital personal assistant that allows you to create messages, search the web, check the weather, get directions or listings, make phone calls and find out answers to basic questions all by simply speaking into the device.  Siri is also smart enough to ask clarifying questions and learn about you along the way in order to inform its responses.
Here is a link to some basic information about Siri:  http://www.apple.com/ios/siri/siri-faq/

Our colleague, Ingrid Boyd, ran up against this earlier this week.  As you already know, she is piloting a 1:1 iPad program with her grade 4 class.  When she rolled out the iPads for the first time and began working with students in her introductory lesson, she was amazed that a number of the students knew about Siri and immediately began to use it rather than engage in the web search activity "the usual way."  So now, just like me, she is faced with wondering if this is a good thing in the classroom.

We already know that students are now afforded the luxury of having more information at their fingertips at any given moment than we could have dreamed of having when we were in school.  This is just a reality that we must deal with and so we modify our way of teaching accordingly.  We cannot control this, nor should we.  Nevertheless, Siri still gives me pause for thought.  If students begin using Siri to assist them with their interactions with technology, are they missing out on the benefits of knowing the "fundamentals" of using technology as a tool?  Or, do they really need to experience typing key words into a search engine, reading an online weather chart, writing their own emails or text messages, making their own entries into online calendars, etc?  Will their skills be poorer or their lives be negatively impacted by missing out on this?  I really don't know.

What I do know is this:  just like the computer, and the calculator before that, and the reference book before that...these tools are here, now.  While Ingrid may be able to tell her students to turn off Siri when using the Ashbury iPads, she cannot control the fact that it is on their personal iPhones, iPads and iPods.  They are going to use it at some time.  My initial response to her when she asked my opinion was to suggest that she take the time to explain Siri to her students and then explain her policy about using it in the classroom.  She should have them turn it off, unless she has instructed them to use it.  Then, just like she would for any other technology tool,  she will need to find appropriate times for her students to incorporate it into their repertoire of tools.

Here is a link to a pretty good blog post about the way Siri may impact education:  http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/11/27/20-ways-siri-may-forever-change-education/

Both Ingrid and I are interested in your thoughts about this.  What are the benefits of using Siri in the classroom?  What are the potential pitfalls?  Please take a moment to post a comment with your ideas.

Tech.Tuesday- Oct. 16

Last week, I stumbled across a tool that has the potential to be quite exciting. It is called Nearpod.  In a nutshell, Nearpod is a slide-based presentation and interaction tool that allows teachers to control content across their students' iPads (or other devices) from their own iPad.   Technology Director, Frederico Padovan from Immaculata-LaSalle High School in Miami, describes Nearpod as, "Powerpoint on steroids."  However, slide-sharing is only a small part of what this App can do.  It will also allow teachers to to add interactive elements such as polls, surveys, questions, interactive drawing spaces, assessments, etc.  Moreover, teachers will get live data from student input as soon as it is submitted.  Beginner teachers simply use an existing powerpoint presentation, JPEG image or PDF from their lessons, pop it into Nearpod, and away they go.

Here is a diagram from their website describing how it is done:

  Check out this video for more information:



If you would like to see this in person and tinker with it yourself, I am working on a demo that I will roll out soon.  Stay tuned!

Tech. Tuesday- Oct. 9

This week, I would like to highlight the blogs of two of our colleagues:  Ingrid Boyd & John Richardson.  In both cases, the blogs focus on the use of technologies in the classrooms (largely) and their perspectives are worth reading.  Secondly, I wanted to highlight these blogs as examples of how to use blogging in your classrooms.  Both of these blogs were created in response to expectations for university classes.  You could have your students write blogs as part of their summative evaluations, as a form of formative assessment, as a way of journaling their work for a larger project or as a form of online portfolio.  What other ways might you use blogging as a tool in your classes?

Ingrid's blog:  http://ingboyd.edublogs.org/2012/07/25/responding-to-literature-in-a-web-2-0-world/

John's Blog:  http://creepingsnail.blogspot.ca

Tech. Tuesday (on Thursday)- Oct. 4

Hello again.  The post will be devoted largely to providing more Mac tips as well as more support with working with Mark Book.  I hope you find it useful.

More Mac Tips:
1.  Customize Desktop Icons-  In the Finder, click View- Show View Options.  Use the sliders to select icon size, spacing and labelling preferences

2.  Set Login Items-  To add or delete Apps that start up every time you login (including shared drives), open the System Preferences- Users & Groups- Select the Login Items tab- Check or uncheck items already listed.  To select new Apps or files, click the + and browse to locate the items.

3.  Quick Calculations Using Spotlight-  Need to do a calculation on can't find your calculator?  No problem.  Just click on the spotlight icon (small magnifying glass in the top right-hand toolbar), type in your math problem and BINGO, the first resource that pops up is a calculator with the solution to your calculation.

4.  Define words within Apps themselves-  I love this one!  In most APPS (including web pages), you can highlight the unknown word (by clicking and dragging across the word) and hold down control-command-D.  The word will turn yellow and then a dictionary reference will pop up with everything you need to know about the word.  Try it out!!!

5.  Force Quit-  To force apps that have frozen to quit (close), click Command-Option-Escape and the force quit window (like the Task List in Windows) will pop up.  Select the App and "Force Quit."

These Tips came from Mac Tips: 25 OS X Tricks Every User Should Know. For a look at the complete list, go to:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/03/mac-os-x-tips-tricks_n_855102.html#s270739&title=Tap_To_Click

Mark Book Tutorials:
For those of you who prefer to learn about Mark Book via video, here are a few that discuss the items in the instructions that I sent all of you:

Creating a New Class:



Creating and Editing Mark Sets: