Why I teach

               So everything that you will see in the video was done on my cell phone, except for the editing of video itself, which was done on windows movie maker.  The reason I bring this up is because I want everyone to see just how easy using mobile technology like this is today.  As my last post indicated, with the access that students have today to cell phones it would be a shame not to use them in the classrooms today.  This is just a simple example of what I am talking about. 

Cell Phone Use in the Classroom

                In today’s digital world you are never out of reach of someone who is looking to get a hold of you.  Now your opinion on if this is a good change in our society or not, the fact is that to our students being connected 24 hours a day is now a way of life.  With the proliferation of cell phones in today’s society the question of whether or not to use these revolutionary pieces of technology in the classroom is one that all districts and teachers need to address.  While a problem for all teachers, this issue is more tailored towards the secondary teachers and the unique characteristics of teaching students who are driving and often times have jobs outside of school.  For most of these students having a cell phone is as important as their friends and cars.  With that in mind, I interviewed a fellow teacher who uses cell phones fairly regularly inside her classroom.  During this conversation we discussed some of the problems and benefits she has faced allowing her students to use cell phones.

                Christine, who asked that I not use her last name,  is a high school history teacher in the Lake Washington School District.  For over a year now she has been using cell phones in her classroom as a formative assessment tool.  This is done using a free website called Kahoot.  This website allows anyone to create a series of multiple choice questions.  On the first page of the quiz is a code that you text into a specific number that then registers you for the quiz.  Using your cell phone you then can answer the question you see on screen which scores you based on accuracy and time.  The top five people are displayed for the class to see, adding to the tension and competition of the assessment.   Christine reported that the one downside is the competitive nature of the activity as the students get really excited to see their names on the leaderboard, basically she said, “It is not a quiet activity.” 

                The district we both teach in has a policy regarding cell phones that if they are not be explicitly used for educational purposes they must be put away and out of reach of the student.  Luckily our policy does allow for the educational use of cell phones in the class so that was something did not have to be addressed prior to the use of this activity.  Christine mentioned that the feedback she had received from the use of this program in her class has been entirely positive.  She also pointed out that this site can be used by those students who do not have cell phones by having them log onto the website and completing the quizzes with the rest of the class through that medium.  Her principal even requested to observe a lesson in which she used this because she had heard such great things from the students.  It is actually from her administrator, who shared it with mine, that I became aware of her use of this technology.

                As for challenges that she has faced, Christine reported that it was really just being able to create quality questions.  At first it was hard to come up with questions that accurately judged the students’ knowledge of the topic and not specific random facts about it.  The cell phones allowed for greater participation, but not necessarily better results on the tests because the questions she was asking were not appropriate to the goal that she was trying to achieve.  After practice with her questioning however, she has seen an increase in test scores and higher work completion in other areas of her class. 

                The use of cellphones in the classroom is something that districts will need to start addressing.  As more apps and websites become available that use this technology, the talk might shift from why are you using cellphones to why aren’t you using them.  I know I use a service called remind to text information out to parents and students.  The idea of not using a resource available that can positively impact students is something that I can understand.  As Christine pointed out, “Technology is a tool, it is how you use it that determines its worth.”

New websites to try

              In this post I will be exploring three new Web 2.0 sites that can be used for educational purposes.  None of these sites were truly designed with education in mind, but a number of fun assignments can be developed off of them and applied to a wide variety of classrooms.  Instead of reviewing three sites that are fairly similar, I purposefully have chosen three sites that allow for dynamic presentation in three unique ways.  Each site I will also review using the five criteria for evaluating website for educational purposes as discussed by Steve Dembo and Adam Bellow in their book, Untangling the Web.  Throughout this post I will provide some ideas for classroom application and I would love to hear about how you have adapted these or other sites for use inside your own classroom.  Please post a comment below to share your ideas.

The first site I am going to review is pixton.com, which is a website that allows you to create comics online.  There is the option of having a teacher account that is private and safe from inappropriate comics that other users have created.  However, this option costs you $8.99 a month and allows up to 200 students to sign up.  As I am just reviewing this website I choose the free option which provides you some of the features available on the site.  The biggest downfall to the free option is the fact that you cannot upload your own photos to the site.  One of the reasons that I choose this site over other similar sites was because of the ability to upload your own photos and then put animation bubbles over those images to tell the story.   A few other problems that I ran into, was with the free account there are only a limited number of characters that you can choose from.  While you can pose and change the faces of these characters, the ability to change their clothes is not possible.  So while I choose to make a comic set during WW2, I could not find any characters that were in uniform to use.  On the positive side, the site is very easy to use and create comics that look professional with little effort.    As for the educational possibilities there are a number of ways in which this type of resource could be used in the classroom.  You could have the students be a person involved in a historical situation and tell a story from a first person perspective.  (See my example)  Another option could be to have the students create a situation and then address the problem in their comic, for example immigration or Westward expansion.  As for the evaluation of this website, by paying to use the teacher service all the criteria are met.  However, the free option does expose students to randomly chosen creations for students to view.  While the site does employ language filters, that is no guarantee.  Overall the website could offer some valuable activities and learning for the students, especially if you are willing to pay for the added security.

Created using Pixton

                  The second website that I will be reviewing is easel.ly which is a web based platform that allows you to create online visuals, posters, that can then be shared or embedded across all digital platforms.  As with pixton, this site has a free option and pro option that provides the user with more graphic choices from which to create your visual from.  The site provides a number of premade examples that you can edit and change to fit your specific needs.  These are even categorized, so you can search for ones that only deal with history or technology, to just name a few.  This was all very easy to navigate and intuitive.  However, when you get to the actual creating of your visual things are much more difficult as any keyboard shortcuts you might want to use no longer work.  The biggest issue I had was trying to delete items off of the example I choose.  You must use their icons on their tool bars to do any adding or subtracting to your creation.  I also found it very difficult to move items around on the page once I had created them.  Often times I would grab the object to move it, only to discover that I was just resizing the object and I would then have to go back and fix everything.  Eventually, I got the hang of things but there is definitely a learning curve associated with the site.  As for educational benefits, the site does allow you to create very visually pleasing posters that are easy to use on digital platforms, but I believe there are better programs out there for this.  Even using Microsoft publisher will give to the same capabilities, minus the ability to embed the object that this program does.  If the site improved the creation process by allowing keyboard shortcuts like deleting and copy pasting, this site would be a real treasure for most teachers.  I emailed the creators of the site my suggestions and I will update this post if I hear back from them.  My evaluation of the website does raise a few flags to be aware of, the examples are randomly generated, while I did not see anything objectionable, that does not mean there is something out there.  There was also no way to set up a class to have everything grouped together, in order to see the students work they would have to send it or post it for you to view.  Overall this site has promise to be a real benefit to educators, but it is just missing a few finer touches that would make it perfectly suited for schools.


Created using easel.ly

               The final site I reviewed is ujam, an online music creator that allows you to mix, record and arrange music without having to have an entire recording studio.  This site allows the user to sing their own music and arrange it how they would like or remix other songs.   Just so you know, the prospect of singing for other people to hear is absolutely terrifying to me, so with that in mind I recruited my son to read a poem and then I put it together with his help.  The result that you can hear took us less than an hour to complete and I think sounds surprisingly well done, considering neither of us really knew what we were doing as we started this process.   Example Song  The difficulties that we faced was really with the fact that it was difficult to edit the song and align the different parts, chorus and versus with what was actually done by my son.   As for adding background music and changing his voice that was done really easily by simply dragging the effect you want down onto the active bar.   If you are a music teacher this site could be invaluable to you to have the students record themselves singing or playing and then creating songs to accompany their performances.  As a history teacher, you could have the students create their own songs about a historical topic or theme that is being discussed in class.  For English teachers, maybe creating a playlist of music that a character in the book would be listening to as they progress throughout the novel would allow you to assess the students understanding of the complexity of the character.  You could create any type of assignment using this site and easily tailor it to fit a wide variety of different levels and subjects.  As for the evaluation of the website, this site is free to use but does not offer an educational space.  Those examples that are present on the main page have been reviewed by the curators of the site and were appropriate for anyone to listen to.  As for publishing your work, you have the option of downloading an MP3 version of your song or linking from their site to a third party site like a blog or website.  Overall this site could be very valuable to educators in a wide variety of different disciplines.


Throughout this process I found a number of valuable resources that could supplement the amazing teaching that goes on throughout America every day.  By using these and other sites, hopefully you will be able to truly assess the learning that is occurring inside your classrooms.   In today’s digital world you are really only limited by the creativeness of your own mind, and hopefully after reading these website reviews you are able to be inspired and change the future of your students.



Time Saving Strategies: For the classroom

             In today’s crazy digital world the amount of information that each person must remember is astronomical.  From passwords and usernames, to the name of that amazing website you just visited and are trying to tell someone else about, all of it needs to be transmitted and communicated quickly and easily.  However, with URL’s that can drag on for lines or the need to quickly get everyone to the same location online teachers need a way to get this information quickly and easily to our students.  TO that affect, this post will be discussing URL shortening, QR codes and ways in which to use can use bookmarklets.

The first technology that I found to be incredibly useful was the ability to shorten the URL for a specific webpage.  While domain names are relatively short, you often times want to send people to a specific page on that website which can result in long URL’s.  I know that with students, trying to copy down a long string of random numbers and letters will ALWAYS result in at least two students being unable to get to where you need them to be.  To the rescue is Tinyurl.com.  I like this particular website because it provides you the option of creating a custom alias for the URL you are trying to shorten.  Now, I was going to show you how this would look on my class website but because of restrictions placed by my district that proved impossible.  Instead I am linking you to a video that I created with my son earlier this year.  When I posted it to Youtube I received the following URL, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfVx5rtgRVM.  Which if I wanted anyone to see my video would be next to impossible for me to communicate to them over the phone.  However, after visiting Tinyurl I now have the following link to the same video, http://tinyurl.com/EDIM511vid.   This I can easily tell people over the phone or write on the board for students to type in and visit.

The next time saving piece of technology I am exploring today is a QR code creator.  A QR code is basically a barcode for a digital item.  By simply using a QR reader on any smartphone, people can instantly be linked to any information on the internet.  For instance, I start off my second semester of the school year with a quick survey that I want the students to complete.   What I would do is go to delivr.com and create a QR code for my survey.  I would then post that code on the door for the students to scan as they come into the room.  With the QR code I know that everyone is going to the right place and the students are providing me valuable data.  With delivr.com, you can also keep the same QR code but change the link, meaning that QR code you have on the door to your room can lead the students to a different place everyday . 

 

              Finally, I looked at a bookmarklet for a website called keepvid.com.  I know that with the CIPA, websites like Youtube can be a dangerous place for students to venture.  However, with keepvid you are able to download the video clip that you would like and then embed that clip in a PowerPoint presentation.  That way the material will have been screened by you as well as making sure that there are no adds or previews for other videos that are not appropriate.  All you need to do is drag their icon onto the links toolbar and while watching a video simply click the button to download the video.  It is incredibly easy to do and offers a wide range of video sharing websites that it supports.

Taking these three ideas in their totality would allow anyone to simplify their digital lives.  From creating short URL’s that can easily be shared to links to specific websites with just a click of your phone, the digital world is becoming easier to navigate.  Hopefully you were able to grab onto some ideas for your classrooms, but if not just using these in your everyday lives will makes things easier. 

Social Interactions With Web 2.0

               In today’s day and age classrooms have access to information from around the world with only a click of a mouse.  However, this information online is not simply for viewing anymore.  In the classroom of today students, and teachers, have the ability to connect and interact with others as never before.  From a Skype call to another classroom to a presentation made through google docs, the ability to quickly and effectively connect with others from around the country or world is now possible.  With this in mind, today I will be reviewing three different websites that do just that.  The three sites will focus on the social interactions possible today, the creative ability and the ability to store and easily access your favorite resources from the web. 

                With the world connected through social media, I feel that exploring the social possibilities of a particular website is the perfect place to start.  I choose to review a website called Remind, which is a free text message service that allows the teacher to text out a message and for anyone subscribed to that class to receive the text.  (As a side not they also have an app that you can download for your smart phone.)  This is an incredibly valuable resource for today’s students, because they might come to school without their backpacks but they always have their phones.  This resource also allows parents to sign up, meaning that if a message was sent out to the class reminding them about a test each parent would also get that message.  Student’s private information is also never accessed as the only information that is provided to the website is their cell phone number.  Throughout the entire process the students, and teachers, personal information is not displayed so students can’t send you annoying texts.  Resources like this truly allow educators to provide every opportunity for their students to succeed by reminding them outside of class to work and study for tests and assignments.  At my school a number of teachers use this service and have found that both parents and students really appreciate the extra reminders and the accountability that it provides.  For any teacher, especially secondary, this website/app is something that you should consider using with your class, as it is free and easy to use with a huge upside to your students and their families.

                As a social studies teacher I am constantly struggling with finding creative ways for my students to present the information that they have learned.   Let’s face it, you can only sit through so many PowerPoint presentations before you, and the class, want to beat your heads in.  To that end, I have found that by having students put information down chronologically in creative ways helps solidify their understanding of the material.  Now creating timelines on word documents is next to impossible and is basically an act of frustration, but today there are great resources online to help with this.  The one that I found is a site called Timetoast.  This online timeline creator is free to use and can easily be embedded in a presentation or a link emailed for an assignment.  The website also offers each person the ability to have their creation be public or restricted to only those with a specific link.  While you do need to register for this site by providing an email address, that is all that is required.   When I asked a fellow teacher about this site, they raved about how it provided students with the flexibility to be as creative as they wanted while still maintaining the educational goals of the assignment.  What this teacher did was have the students create a timeline about an absolute monarch of Europe and then embedded that information onto a wiki site.  The students then visited each other’s sites and quickly could grasp the main points of the monarchs rule by examining the timelines that were created.  To the students it was more entertaining than a presentation and for the teacher it allowed a quick assessment to see if the student truly understood what an absolute monarch was.

                The final site that I choose to review is one that allows any user to quickly and easily assemble all of the websites that you use frequently.  I know that for me, as I go through out my day teaching I have about four or five different websites that I frequent.  Well Symbaloo puts all of your websites on a homepage where they are within one easy click for you to access.  Using a 10X6 grid there is more than enough room to get your favorite sites organized however you like.  All that is required is your email address and then you are up and ready to start organizing your digital world onto one easy to use platform.  While this is a great resource for teachers, this can also be used with students as a great starting off point for research projects.  As the teacher you can create a webmix and then share that with your students.  On this webmix you could have already bookmarked a number of trusted academically relevant sites for the students to use to start their research.  Regardless of the age of your students, that function alone is worth the time and effort of setting up your account with Symbaloo. 

                Hopefully, you will find one of these sites a benefit to you and your students.  If there are any other sites that you use that fit either of these categories let me know by leaving a message at the bottom of this post.

Using New Technologies; An Interview With An Expert.

                As I delve deeper into the world of Web 2.0 I am often left wondering how you can determine which sites are worthwhile for the students.  The amount of time and effort that needs to be invested in some of these resources is daunting, so I want to make sure that the end results are worth it.  While googling the question, “Best Web 2.0 tools for teachers” get you some results, 1.8 million, how can anyone determine what sites are actually worthwhile.  With that in mind I interviewed a fellow teacher who uses technology exceptionally will in her classroom.  Aside from being an excellent teacher she is also one of my building technology people, meaning she attends monthly meetings and helps other teachers in the building with their questions and concerns.  As any teacher or professional would know, often times the best resource is someone who has experienced the same issues that you are struggling with and overcome them.  With that in mind I sat down and talked with Jill Berge a 20 year veteran teacher.

I first asked Mrs. Berge about how she decides which web 2.0 and technology tools to use with her students.  She responded that, “She is constantly looking for new ideas, and try to choose tools that will appeal to students.  The biggest consideration however is will this offer a fresh way for them [students] to accomplish the task they need to do.”  That statement really struck me, if the resource you are trying to use is not appealing to the students, then what good will it provide you in the classroom?  It also brings up the notion that technology should not be used and incorporated into the classroom simply because it is technology.  It needs to serve a purpose and add to the content that you are already teaching.  Forcing a resource onto a student, simply because it uses technology, will often have the opposite effect of what you were trying to achieve.

I then discussed what obstacle she has needed to overcome to obtain permission to use technology with her students.  “I’ve had to work with our district filtering system to get certain sites approved, and with the publications department to get certain platforms approved for use.”  The filtering software in our district takes the approach that it is better to block everything rather than let in one thing that might not be appropriate.  While definitely the safe approach for a district to take, especially considering CIPA legislation, it is frustrating for teachers.  Basically, it makes it so a teacher must be planned out weeks in advance in order to assure any new technology that will be used in the classroom will make it through the district filters.  With this in mind Mrs. Berge concluded by saying, “I’m sure I’ve also used some tools that were not approved by the district, but weren’t blocked, so I used them anyway.”  This seems to be the approach of most teachers in my school, if the filters are not blocking it just go ahead and use it.

The final question I asked was what advice she would give to a teacher seeking to replicate her efforts.  Her response was short and to the point, “Try things out.  Be willing to have the kids take something and run with it, even if you’re not an expert with it.  Learn from students.”  Great advice to any teacher regardless of what they are trying to achieve.  I know that when I first started teaching there were many ideas and activities that I tried with students that just did not work the way I wanted them too.  What I learned was that is okay, just be honest and ask them for advice on how to change things up.  Not only will your lessons and activities improve, but students will also appreciate the input that they are able to provide.  In this day and age, teachers must realize that most of the students sitting in front of them are far more tech savvy than we are.  They are a resource that must be utilized, just as Mrs. Berge stated in her response.

Throughout the interview the underlying theme that was present was the idea to constantly be adapting and changing.  Do not become rigid in what you do and above all else try new things.  Without the need to innovate and explore, more effective techniques are not discovered and student learning suffers.  So educators, I implore you to look at what you are doing and try something new, while it might be difficult at first the rewards are worth the risk.

CIPA, COPA and AUP's

My district takes the issue of internet safety very seriously and has a number of meetings throughout the year around this subject.  At the start of each year we review FERPA, COPPA and CIPA and how those would look in our classrooms.  Our district AUP is extensive and references the above laws a number of time throughout.  After reviewing my districts AUP I can safely attest that my district is following CIPA laws above and beyond what is actually outlined.

CIPA can basically be broken down into three sections; Schools must filter material, must monitor student activity and must educate minors on appropriate behavior.  In regards to the filtration of material, my district uses a program called Lightspeed which is our brute force filtration software.  I classify it as brute force because it basically blocks everything until the district comes in and specifically allows that website to access.  For instance, ESPN was blocked for a while because of its repeated references to balls.  As for the monitoring of students who are using the internet my district has started using a program called DyKnow.  Because each of my students has their own laptop it is impossible to see everyone’s screen at the same time.  DyKnow allows the teacher to sit in the front of the room and see everyone’s screen on our own computer.  This allows all teachers to monitor the students and make sure the material they are viewing is appropriate.  Finally, once a month during our homeroom class time students go over anti-bullying information or computer awareness training.  This includes what should and should not be posted on social media sites and other smart practices with computers.  These actions together clearly demonstrate to me that my district is meeting the law as outlined in CIPA.

Unfortunately my district AUP has nothing in it about using new technologies with students.  When I asked one of my building technology people about this the reply was that it was up to the teacher’s discretion when using third party websites.  They followed that up with a rule of thumb, if the students do not have to enter any personal information then most likely the website is fine to use.  As for bypassing the filters, that is not possible.  Although a number of students have figured out ways around them.  If you want to use a website that is currently blocked, you need to email the district with the URL and an explanation of why you want the site unblocked.  I had to do this last year with a site called blabberize, while time consuming it was not overly difficult to go through the process.  I wish there was clear guidelines to follow, but again it is being left up to teacher discretion. 

My district AUP is a fairly restrictive document that does try to limit the amount of websites that students can use.  It also was written to apply to grades K-12, something that is not truly possible to accomplish.  At my high school we don’t have to worry about COPPA because all of our students are over the age of 13 so we have more flexibility then the elementary and middle schools.  That being said, the three laws together definitely try to restrict the use of new technology in the classroom, but by not concerning ourselves with COPPA we are able to introduce new technologies into the classrooms fairly easily.  It is simply a matter of justifying the resource to the district, basically the same as trying to teach a new curriculum or novel in your class.  If you can show the academic relevance of the material, and how it applies to the standards, then you may use the resource with no worries.