Battle of the Blog

Click for source.

I have to admit that before I began my course, blogging was a something I was interested in learning more about so that I could use it in my class.  When I would explore other blogs I became intimidated by the look of the blog and all the work that seemed to go into creating one.  My teaching partner, Chantelle Davies, used blogs this past year and ensured me that it was not that difficult to create but I still wasn't convinced but promised to try.  After only a few weeks using a blog I find it fairly simple to use and feel confident that I can follow through on one of Chantelle and mine goals:  create a class blog.

Website vs. Blog

The question before us is why a class blog and not a website?   Though both seem to do similar things, I find them quite different.  Both a blog and websites offer information on various topics.  In a website, the information remains static.  It is placed on the site and rarely updated.  This is fine if a teacher plans to create a website for a unit where students can gather information about a topic.  If the teacher's need of the tool is to only share and distribute content then the website is a good tool.  However, if the teacher would like a collaborative and interactive site then a blog the best tool for this application.  The blog allows the teacher to post update and current content and allows others to interact with that content.  It is a way of sharing and building upon content.  So the answer to the question: blog or website really depends on how the tool will be used in the classroom.  

Websites and Blogs both have a use in the class.  Just to create the tool serves no purpose unless children are explicitly taught what each tool is for and explained how to use each as a learning tool.  However, when I think of a website I think of big name sites(PBS Kids, National Geographic Kids, etc.).  I was wondering if anyone has created a class website and share it as an example.

A Shared Collection Using Delicious

My teaching partner, Chantelle Davies and I have created a Delicious account that we are sharing together.  We Both originally had accounts of our own, but thought that it would be beneficial to create one account where we could both save resources for teaching our common subject area and as a place to collect resources for our students to access.

Recently, we have been collecting a variety of video's to aid our grade 5 students in their understanding of our science unit:  Forces Acting on Structures.

You can view what have have in our collection so far here:
Grade 5 Forces/Structures on Delicious

One activity we have planned is related to our look into the power of natural forces.  In an effort to have students use resources to engage their higher order thinking skills we have created a task using Google Docs where they can collaborate with other members in their group on the videos they will watch.  The video's are available through the Delicious link above if you add the tag "natural forces"  to the collection that is already there.  However, we have also added the links to the Google Documents students will be working on.

Here is the Google Docs assignment for our students:  The Power of Natural Forces

Some Ideas and Thoughts on Universal Design for Learning

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As I work through the course Integration of Technology into the Classroom, along with my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies, we continuously reflect on our past year and consider our upcoming year to come up with ways to improve what we have done.  We have created some work that we are proud of but we seem to ask ourselves the same question at the end of the planning.  Will our struggling students be able to do this?  Our answer to this is usually to add assistive technology for the struggling students.  The problem is that this can further isolate these struggling students because they have been "made to use" the technology.  At the same time there may be a number of students that become upset because they do not get to use the technology.  To overcome this problem we need to apply the Universal Design for Learning Theory.

Universal Design is the idea that assistance targeted for specific group can help or have benefits for all.  According to Education For All, Universal Design for Learning or UDL's aim in education is to make curriculum accessible to everyone regardless  of age, skill or situation.  Each student in unique and as a result, the idea of UDL helps provide a pathway for each student the reach learning goals.  As we move forward, Chantelle and I need to keep the ideas of UDL in mind in order to create content that is flexible, supportive and adjustable in order to ensure access to content and to success for all students.  

As a result of reflecting on the past and looking to the future, Chantelle and I have created a list of teaching strategies/ideas that use technology in order to enhance learning for all students not just struggling students. 

1.  Recorders of Learners 

We have discussed this strategy in a previous post  Recorder of Learning - Using Photo Editing Apps.   This ideas is that students will document key learning moments in the classroom to share with the class at the end of the week.  All students will benefit by having a peer created documents that sum up the weeks learning to reflect and refer to in the future.  It will make learning accessible to all anytime they need it.  

2.  Deliver instruction through multiple forms.  

One way we plan to try this in the upcoming year is to embed lessons into Desire 2 Learn.   Prerecording a short lesson or sharing a clip allows all students to watch and learn at their own pace.  The students can watch the clip several times or refer back to the clip if they need as they work on tasks and build new skills.  This also allows the teacher to work with small groups in order to give further support if needed. Finally, this strategy will engaging as we access the students and communicate with them on devices they are more comfortable with.  We will no longer isolating the struggling group by making them use technology. Once again, learning is accessible to all students.

3.  Gather information and give immediate feedback.

Exit cards are a great strategy to help gather information and allows teachers to see where further instruction is needed.  In D2L, a quick way to do this is through the quiz feature.  One nice feature about this is that you can set up your quizzes in a way that will not open new content until the student receives a satisfactory mark in the quiz.  As the instructor, you have the option to have the student take the test over until the reach that mark.  Another option, which works well for all students in the class is to create a test that sends students on various paths according to their quiz result.  For students who reach a satisfactory mark, the instructor may add an extension task or may have students move on to the next skill.  Those who may have not met the required mark may be given a task to support the learning that needs to be down.  In either case, the students are receiving the support they need and are continuing their learning.

4.  Use technology to define key terms.

As new units begin we always wonder how to introduce vocabulary?  Many times the dictionary can be confusing and true meaning is difficult for many students to grasp.  A way around this that would make vocabulary terms and definitions engaging is to let students use technology to show meaning.  There are many tools and formats that could be used to display. Some tools to display meaning include GlogsterEDU, Pic Collage, VoiceThread, MindMeister, Lino.  With many option and ways to present terms students can use tools they are most comfortable with.  Students who may struggle with reading tasks will have many options on how to show their learning.  An engaging activities for all that will be available to all students to refer back to when the term comes up within a unit.

5.  Use of audio recording tools to capture learning.

Capturing learning by allowing students to record their voices is not a new idea for those who struggle.  This is a great way to get around the frustration many students have in getting the ideas they have on to paper.  One way I have debated on using this type of tool is when doing DRA.  For some, writing down ideas gets in the way of what they truly want to say.  If the student is allowed to orally express their thinking they may be able to give greater details to support their thinking.  The idea of getting thoughts on paper is one that most students struggle with so again this is an idea that can work for the whole class. If the response must be written then the students can use their recorded answer to help them recall key ideas.   

Chantelle and I are wondering how UDL has enhanced the learning in your classroom?

3 Great Assistive Technology Tools

This is a guest post by my teaching partner Chantelle Davies.  Together we are exploring the use of 21st Century Technology in the classroom.  Great job explaining the three tools. 

All students are different and need varying support in reaching common goals

Looking deeper into some of the 21st Century tools that we have been exploring, Chantelle and I believe some of these tools will be very valuable for our students who require some extra support.  However, the great thing about many of these tools, is that they are also beneficial for all students.  In the link below Chantelle will demonstrate the use of three great assistive technology tools; VoiceThread, Idea Sketch and Read and Write for Google.

Assistive Tech VoiceThread

Our Top 10 iPad and Chromebook Apps

In thinking about what we have planned for our students this year, Chantelle and I have bee thinking about all the key resources we will be pulling form for our students to use.  Since we both have access to a set of iPads, we are trying to explore more apps that will benefit our students.  As we, with 15 Chromebooks available to us, we are also exploring a variety of apps for this device that will help to enhance our student's learning experiences.  We have selected ten resources that we hope blend seamlessly into the learning that our students are doing so that the tools are not only used in isolation.  These are not in any particular order.  

  1.  Pic Collage is an app that will allow you to take multiple photos and group them into a collage.  It is easy to use and is fast because you can load multiple pictures at once into the collage.  Pic Collage allows you to add text over the images and has some fun stickers and fonts that the students can play around with. 

2.  Created by Evernote, Skitch is an app that allows you to take any photo, screenshot, webpage or map and draw on it or write on it.  As a teacher the teacher the feature I came to love most about Skitch was the ability to blur out sections of a photo.  Your edited work can then be shared on several of the social services, if you wish.

3.  VoiceThread is an app for communicating and sharing ideas. It is available through the Chrome store and can be used on mobile devices.  VoiceThread allows users to share images, video and audio clips and slides.  VoiceThreads can be shared with specific people or groups.  Comments can be made using microphones, webcam, text, phone and audio file uploads.  

4.  Lino is a sticky note app available online.  You can use Lino to post lists, ideas, questions or sort and organize ideas.  The great thing is they never fall off the wall.  I once used Lino to create a math TLCP board.  I posted learning goals, success criteria and work samples.  Children were able to add stickies as new learning was done.

5.  MindMeister is an app for creating, editing and sharing mind maps.  It is available through the Chrome store and the iPad app store.  The free version allows you to create up to 3 maps.  Students can simply delete the boxes and start fresh if they need more.  Upgrading to the Pro version allows you to create unlimited maps and has added features such as adding photos to topics and exporting the maps to MS Power Point.

6.  GlogsterEDU is available through the Chrome store and is an app that lets students create multimedia posters.  Students can add text, photos, graphics, sound and video links.  Within the site, there are numerous examples of posters organized by subject and tags.  With a webcam you can record video, audio or take photos of yourself to add to the poster.  This poster can be shared by email or added to blogs. 

7.  With the importance of keyboard, Typing Club is a great app available through the Chrome store.  This app will help you learn how to type properly and improve your speed through lessons and games.  There is also a school portal for teachers that allows the teacher to track student progress.  An upgrade is available that offers a number of features, however, the basic typing skills and lessons needed to learning to type come with the free version.

8.  TechSmith Snagit is a Chromebook app that lets you capture screen images or record you screen.  In order for this app to work you must also get Snagit Extension.  Snagit lets you share work with others and to give feedback with tools that let you add arrows, shapes or record you voice.  

9.  Idea Sketch is an iPad app that allows you to draw a mind map or flow chard.  It will change the map into a text outline format an do the reverse.  You can even copy text from another app or the web and import it as one of you idea bubbles.  Idea Sketch is a great tool for brainstorming, planning paragraphs, planning story outlines and much more.  An upgrade to the plus version ($3.99) is required to create more than one idea map. 

10.  Read and Write for Google Docs is an extension available through the Chrome Store.  This tool has built in text-to-speech and translation software, that remains available even after the 30 day trial.  The text-to-speech tool has a dual highlighting feature that highlights the sentence in one colour and the word it is reading in another.  During the 30-day trial and if your are willing to upgrade, you have access to additional features such as a word predictor tool, picture dictionary and collecting highlighted material.  

D2L and Blended Learning

Through our exploration of 21st Century learning opportunities, my teaching partner, Chanttelle Davies and I have deepened our understanding of blended learning. Now that we plan to make frequent use of the Desire 2 Learn platform offered by our school board, we see that it lends itself nicely to blended learning. Below is a slide presentation illustrating how D2L lends itself to creating a blended learning environment.

Using 21st Technology to Talk about 21st Century Skills in the Classroom

Today's post deals with a task that my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies, and I worked on discussing how we have used and will use 21st Century skills in the classroom.  We have embedded a video that discusses some of the skills we have developed with students and where we plan to go to next.  At the end of the task besides sharing what we have done, we learned a great deal about technology, collaboration and ourselves.

Our first learning experience came with the exploration of how to create a video that we could embed into a post.  Our first idea, coming form our comfort zones, was to use a video camera and then transfer the clip to our computers.  Then with the encouragement of Zoe Branigan-Pipe, we decided to explore other options.  Our first experiment was with Google hangout.  Though we were able to record our conversation during our test run, we could not find a way to have bout our images recorded. We had hoped to be able to split the screen to see both our of images and to record the audio.  We discovered we required a third party program to record this.  We were unable to achieve a split screen without purchasing a recording tool.  We tried recording with Camtasia's trial program, but it blocked the microphone on Google hangouts.  We were unable to troubleshoot this.  Thus, our final decision was to record our conversation using Skype and a program appropriately titled, Free Video Call Recorder for Skype.

The recording was a very interesting learning experience.  As we began to practice and record trial takes, we began to remember what students might be feeling when they present.  We had giggles, nervousness, tied tongues and forgetfulness.  This lead to our second learning experience in the task, when collaborating, team members must be supportive and positive as the work progresses.  Even after a dozen attempts, we continued to smile for each other and be supportive.  As we watched the video each time we were able to give feedback that helped improve the video and as we followed this process we learned some things about ourselves.  The final product is not of a professional caliber by any means.  Given more time we would have liked to add music and visuals to help make it more interesting than just listening to us talk the entire time.  For that we have a lot more learning to do yet. Top 10

As we worked through this task, we both commented on how this task did not make our list of Top 10 Things To Do.  As we watched and listened to the video, we challenged ourselves to move beyond our comfort zone.  We took a risk to try something new to both of us in order to expand our learning and skills.  The true learning of the task is not reflected in our final product, the true learning occurred in our journey to create the final product.  In order to understand student's true learning, we will encourage students to use technology to reflect and share their journey of learning.  We hope to be able to encourage students to share their journey of learning was they have worked through tasks.

Without this blog post, we would not have shared all the learning that has occurred with this task, so our question is how do teachers ensure that culminating tasks allow students to display all of the learning that has occurred along the way?

ePortfolio - Google Drive or D2L

My teaching partner, Chantelle Davies and I were planning on having our students create ePortfolios this year. We were going to have them open up a folder in Google Drive to do this. Toward the end of collecting their evidence of learning, we had thought about having students build the collections into a Google Presentation as a way to showcase their work.

Now that we have explored the Desire 2 Learn platform offered by our board, we have re-thought this. We are leaning toward using this platform instead for our student ePortfolios.

Here is a brief presentation outlining a few features and drawbacks of each. Let us know your thoughts.

Thanks Chantelle for putting this presentation together!

Some Thoughts on Google Docs vs. One Drive

To grow is to change and to have grown much is to have changed much.  

This past year, my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies, and I began to explore the use of Google Drive,  The reason for this was the purchase of Chromebooks by our school.  When we first learned that Chromebooks did not have hard drives to save documents, we were uncertain how the students would use this tool.  Would they all need flash drives?  Would we use one flash drive and share?  Then we discovered Google Drive.  This tool was new to both of us, so to learn more about it we decided to spend a day at an in-service and learn the basics.  After exploring and learning about Google Drive, we would need to share all our new found knowledge with the students.  As the year came to an end we learned that our school board is introducing Office 365 which includes One Drive.  The question we are now faced with is, do we change to One Drive or continue using Google Drive? 

Overall, Google Drive and One Drive offer similar tools for students to use in class.  Both allow for collaboration: meaning students can work on a single document at various locations at the same time.  Both systems also let the users share work by inviting people or making it open to anyone with a link.  Another feather offered by each system is the auto save.  This is a great feature as many students often forget to save and have to restart their work.   Finally, Google Drive and One Drive offer similar tools for students to work with. 

Click for photo source.	Click for photo source.
Document	Word
Presentation	Power Point
Spread Sheet	Excel
Form	Excel Survey

 For more information about Google Drive and One Drive follow the links:

 Google Drive vs One Drive (You Tube)  

 Microsoft Office Online vs Google Drive the online office (Blog Post).

So the question remains, do we change systems or not?  When we introduced Google Drive to the students, there was a learning curve involved.  It was a new format and layout that many of the students were not familiar with.  We also had to teach the children how to share and submit documents.  When I explored One Drive, the first thing I discovered was the familiarity of the format.  Our students, may be more comfortable using One Drive because it looks and acts like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, which is already on our school computers.  When comparing the tow formats, I find the Google DRive apps have fewer options that One Drive.  This is not necessarily a bad feature as fewer features make may make it easier for students to navigate through the tools.  One drive seems to have a few more features and can be lined to Microsoft Office, giving the user full use of all features offered in programs such as Word and PowerPoint. In the end, the decision of which format to use in the classroom will come down to our comfort level and what is best for student learning and collaborations.  

On a final note, one feature that does stand out is OneNote.  This is a tool that allows the user to easily gather, organize and share information.  The tool makes it easy to add a quick not or photo,  I could see using this tool to gather student work and to make quick observational notes about student work.  OneNote gives the user the ability to create a book which is then divided into sections and then pages.  I explored the tool a quickly created a page with images and and sample comments.  To see the sample click the link: Module 1  and then click the tab on the left labelled Module 1.  I plan to further explore this tool and consider how to use it to for assessment.  

This post is only a brief overview of Google Drive and One Drive.  Chantelle and I were wondering what features you like about Google Drive or One Driven when using them in the classroom?  Do you have a preference?

Did You Know About HWDSB's Virtual Library?

Did you know that one of the resources available to teachers within the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board is a Virtual Library?  You may have answered yes to the question, but do you really know what the Virtual Library is all about?  As I began to explore the HWDSB Virtual Library I quickly reflected back on a few planning sessions I had with my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies.  At the end of these sessions we would discuss the resources we would be using.  This would usually result in our decision to try and find sites on the internet and books within our school library on a particular topic.  The challenge or question of how to find leveled resources for our students always came up.  Did you know that the Virtual Library offers leveled resources for students?  This year, as we plan, our goal is to integrate these resources into our work.  

The virtual library offers links to elementary, secondary, and professional libraries.  The Virtual Library is divided into sub categories:  Databases, ebooks and Audio Books, Virtual Tools, School Library Catalogs, Readers Advisory and Trial Resources.  For the purpose of this post I will "let you know"  what is available in each of the categories in the elementary library and some of the resources that Chantelle and I are considering using this upcoming year with our students.  

Databases:  Bookflix, Image Quest, Learn360 and PebbleGo

Image captured from HWDSB Virtual Library

BookFlix  pairs classic fictional video storybooks with non-fiction eBooks to reinforce reading skills and develop essential real-world knowledge and understanding.  When I opened this resource, I found popular fiction books linked to non-fiction books on various topics.  One feature of BookFlix is the ability to have the book read to students.  While the book is being read, the words are highlighted.  This is a great feature for students who struggle with reading.  In the non-fiction book, key words are highlighted.  When these words are clicked, a definition is given to the student.  After reading the books, students may choose to do a follow up activity, meet the author or explore the web.  There are activities based on the fiction and non-fiction text.  In the page I explored, I was to retell beginning, middle and end events by dragging photos to the appropriate place.  In the non-fiction text I was to match key terms to definitions.  In meet the author, a bio is given about the author of the fiction text.  Finally, in explore the web, students are linked to related sites about the topic.  The one downfall is that no audio is available to the students when they explore the web.  Overall, a great tool to peek the student's interest through the use of the fiction book and a way for struggling readers to successful researchers.

Image captured from HWDSB Virtual Library

Image Quest  is an image database containing over 3 million images.  All images are rights-cleared for non-commercial education use.  I played with this by searching various topics the students might explore and found many relevant photos.  Some other features that this tool allows for is to create a catalog of photos related to a topic and to create a picture dictionary.  How much more engaging and meaningful would vocabulary or key terms be if the students were able to create their own dictionaries?

ebooks and Audio Book:  eduCan Ebooks, eMax, ICDL, Open Library, Free Animated Books

Image captured from HWDSB Virtual Library

eMax  allows students and teachers to access ebooks and audio books from the HWDSB Digital Library.  The student must have his or her own library card number and not have any conditions of their borrowing account (fines, lost books, etc.).  While exploring, I was able to find a variety of books popular with young readers.  To encourage the use of this tool, HWDSB offers a summer reading contest.  As students download books they are entered in a draw to win a prize.

Virtual Tools:  ArcGIS, E-Stat, Knight Cite, World Atlas, Atlas of Canada, Comic Life, Merriam-Webster, Word Central, Bitstrips, Gismos, Premier Literacy, Easy Bib, Homework  Help (Grade 7-10), OERB

Image captured from HWDSB Virtual Library

Easy Bib  allows students to cite work and to create bibliographies by filling in basic information.  After filling in the information a citation is created along with a bibliography.  As new citations are created, the tool also updates the bibliography list.  There are a variety of sources that can be cited including books, websites and newspapers.  Some other sources that can be cited using this tool includes artwork/paintings, television/radio and advertisements.  This version only supports MLA style.  You must upgrade in order to have APA and Chicago styles supported.  Overall, this is an easy tool to use as long as the students are able to keep track of basic information.  The tool can search for items.  For example, if a student puts in the title of a book or the ISBN number, the tool will do a search and fill in some of the information automatically.  A tool to ensure students are giving credit to others.

These are only a few of the resources available to HWDSB teachers.  As Chantelle and I move forward, we will begin to make better use of these resources.  The resources and tools allow for differentiated material.  It also makes searching for relevant material easier for students.

As teachers, how do you find and explore new resources for your students?

Delicious - Bundles and Tagging

This is a guest post by my teaching partner Chantelle Davies.  Together we are exploring the use of 21st Century Technology in the classroom.  Thanks Chantelle, for exploring the use of Delicous within our school setting.

Click for photo source.

For about a year now I have been using Evernote as a bookmarking and catalog tool.  Recently Ray and I start using Delicious as another bookmarking tool.  I thought maybe this would have a separate use in addition to using Evernote.

Because Delicious catalogs the sites you save as a list, we thought this might make for a great thing to share on our classroom blogs.  I created an account that Ray and I could share that would be related to our curriculum.  This way we could keep a list of resources that students could use to enhance their learning.  I like that Delicious automatically suggest a variety of tags  that you could use from scanning the site you are saving; something that Evernote does not do.  It is also nice that you can bundle tags to pull up a group of items.  However, what wasn't ideal was that there was  no way of filtering the tags I didn't want to show.  For example, I was hoping that we could share with our students the bundle I created with tags; science, grade 5, structures, forces, student resource.  Unfortunately, a number of my sites tagged as "teacher resource"  also came up in the bundle because they also had tags such as science, forces, structures, grade 5, etc.  This could pose a challenge if you had bookmarked sites you wanted to save for your own reference only, such as lesson and test ideas.

I prefer Evernote for my personal cataloging because it will scan images for text as well as documents and webpages, and having to come up with my own tags is only a minor inconvenience.  I think I will continue to use Evernote for myself and I will continue to explore Delicious for student use.  Perhaps I'll have to limit it to only things I want students to have access to (too bad for the purposes of sharing resources with Ray).

Finally, the other challenge I had was finding a way to put a delicious widget onto my blog.  According to some forums I read, Wordpress once had a dedicated widget, but it appears they no longer do.  I can't find a way to get the HTML code for a widget from Delicious to add a text based widget.  Any suggestion are welcome.  For now, here is the link to our bundle of resources.

https://delicious.com/daviesswinarc/tag_bundle/Grade%205%20Forces%20Acting%20on%20Structures

Recorder of Learning - Using Photo Editing Apps

This is a guest post from my teaching partner Chantelle Davies. We are working collaboratively to explore tools and resources  and how we can make better use of them in the upcoming term.  The post is focuses on photo editing apps how to use them in the classroom.  With her expertise and knowledge I hope how to learn to use these apps in our "Recorders of Learning" task.  Thank you Chantelle for you expertise and leadership.

The past year I started to explore the world of classroom blogging for the first time.  Because I was still learning how to make the most of this great idea, while at the same time learning a new grade, and exploring other 21st Century tools for the first time; the blogging did not evolve into all that I had hoped it would be.  As you may know, my teaching partner, Ray Swinarchin and I are working through a collaboration of teacher inquiry process this year, revolving around how to better integrate 21st Century learning tool into our lessons.  I refuse to give up on blogging as I have come to believe it is such a valuable tool for learning and teaching. I am going to tackle it again and Ray has decided to join me for the ride.

Last year my blog became a great place for homework to be posted, for students to share summaries of what they were reading, and the occasional post (through shared writing lessons)  on a topic we were learning.  This year I WILL do more with it.  Since Ray and I want our blogs to encourage more interaction and collaboration among students, we are brainstorming ways to do that without creating a tremendous amount of extra work (meaning time) required by us.  Ray and I have come up with a few ideas, but for the purposes of today's post I'm gong to tell you about our plan for The Weekly Recorders of Learning.  

We will have two students be responsible for this role each week.  Together they will be given a few minutes each day to record a few notes to remind them of the key ideas that they learned that day.  We will also allow them to take photos to document lessons and their learning that they can then use at the end of the week to aid them in writing a blog post about what the class learned over the week. In order to make the most of these photos, we are going to teach them to use a few of the photo apps we have available to us on our class Ipads.

The first of these apps that I came to love last year, was Skitch.  Skitch is an app that allows you to take any photo, screenshot, webpage, or map and draw on it or write on it.  As a teacher the feature I came to love most about Skitch was the ability to blur out sections of a photo.  Although most of my student's parents were okay with them blogging, a few families did not want their child's photo published on the blog.  Skitch allowed me to continue publishing shots of students in my class, while not scrapping the whole photo because one of the students photos could not be posted online.  This year we will teach our student the ins and outs of using Skitch so that when they are composing their blog posts for Recorders of Learning, the student can use the features such as arrows, boxes, writing text, etc. to annotate their photos and highlight the key feature that show the learning the are reflecting on.  

In addition to Skitch, we are going to introduce Pic Collage app.  Simply put, this is an app that will alow the students to take multiple photos and group them into a collage.  Pic Collage allows you to add text over the images and has some fun stickers the students can play around with.  It does not offer not offer the blurring or arrows that Skitch does, so we often use them in tandem. 

The third photo app that we are exploring is Snapseed.  Snapseed is new to both of us and we'll have to see if it's worth the time teaching this tool in addition to Skitch and Pic Collage.  My concern is that students might spend too much time playing with their photos and not enough time completing the task.  Snapseed allows you to play with effects on a photo, adjusting things like brightness, contrast, blur strength, etc.  You can also change the look of your photo through special effects tools like red-eye reduction, cropping, and straightening.  I like all of the options for this app, but even I got caught up in playing around with the different looks I could achieve. It may be distracting for some of our students.   

Either way, each of these photo editing apps is sure to engage our students this year.  It's also a great learning experience to add to our blog lessons because blogs without images are boring!

Chantelle and I wondering if you have any other Ipad apps that are easy to use (kid friendly) and useful for classroom blogging?

Voice Thread - Create - Share - Assess

Click for source of photo.

This past year, while I was taking Integration of Technology Part 1, I discovered a great new tool - Voice Thread.  In general, when I explore a new web tool I follow inquiry process.   My overall question when I begin to learn  about the tool is how can I apply this in the classroom?  My learning then goes as follows:  read an overview of the tool, explore the tool, become frustrated because the tool is not doing what I expect it to do, find someone who knows about the tool and ask questions.  As I explored Voice Thread, or VT, last year I decided to try and use it with my class as a diagnostic tool.  I created a VT for my class and shared it.  Then my frustration began.  First, my class could not find it, then I received an e-mail from a teacher asking if I shared something with her.  She told me that she was exploring with VT as well and shared and let me know that I had shared the video within the board.  I realized that I needed to find someone who could share the basics of VT.

After learning the basics about VT, here I am ready to reboot for the following year.  My teaching partner, Chantelle Davies and I are planning to use VT as a class tool.  One idea we have discussed is for a couple of students to be recorders of the week’s learning.  As VT allows creators to use images, videos and text, the idea is for the students to capture key learning ideas of the week and share it with the class.  With this single idea, students can create, share and be assessed.

The nice thing about VT is that it addresses a variety of learning styles and can be used to capture students knowledge in a creative way.  VT allows the user to read text and see images (Visual Learner), listen to comments (Auditory Learner) and engages students through the use of technology (Kinesthetic Learner).  It allows struggling writers the opportunity to share their knowledge orally.  This allows students a differentiated way of sharing their knowledge.  Think of the success and confidence a student might show if they were given this tool as opposed to a pencil and paper when given a reading response question.  

As students use this tool to share their knowledge comments can be created by peers and teachers.  As stated in previous blogs, comments should lead to new learning or should lead to questions.  VT leads to open dialogue and the opportunity to observe other student work.  This makes each student more accountable and leads to deeper understanding of content.  A student can post work that is not complete and ask for feedback or comments that may improve the work.  As comments are added it is easy for those with access to see if the student uses the feedback and makes changes to the work as they continue with the task.  

If the tool is used for open dialogue and the tool is used to record learning then it becomes easy for the teacher to see the learning that has occurred over time.  As VT has the ability to allow others to comment, a teacher can give feedback as the student creates new VTs. We know that many times students either ignore written comments or need clarification because they are unable to read my writing.  VT offers a more personal approach by allowing the teacher to video oneself while giving a comment/feedback.   A more personal connection is made if a student is able to hear the audio or see the teacher.  Over time, a learning portfolio can be created as the student adds new work and builds upon comments and feedback.  Students can also comment individually about the growth they had in their learning and make suggestions of next steps for themselves.  As the student records thoughts and reflections the teacher can observe the growth and also comment on strengths and needs.  

So where does this leave us in our inquiry process?  We are back to reading more about the tool before we dive back into trying to create a VT.  In our recent readings we have found a few links with some interesting ideas of how to use VT in the class. The first link is to the blog Teaching Without Walls by Michelle Pacansky-Brock.  The blog post gives the basics about VT and offers video tutorials. The second link is to NED’S KEEPER by Lea Anne Daughtry.  This blog post offers a list of suggestions of how to use VT in the classroom.  

Chantelle and I would be interested to hear your experiences with VT.  What creative way have you used it the classroom?

Lesson Planning for the 21st Century

 

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As my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies and I discuss how we want next years classes to go; we know we want to embrace 21st Century technologies more. It is our hope that through teaching our usual content lessons through blogging and other digital tools, we will excite our students and transform their learning in a way that encourages deeper thinking skills. In an effort to prepare for back to school, we have begun to develop some initial lessons that will help us get started in discussing how to safely use the internet, how to find/use/source fair use material, and how to develop good quality comments when blogging. Attached in the links below are the lessons we have created so far. We owe a lot of credit in our planning to some fellow, more experienced bloggers. As we are fairly new to the idea of blogging in our classrooms, we have borrowed a lot of ideas from other teachers such as Kelly Jordan, Kathleen Morris, and Mrs. Yollis. We highly recommend checking out their classroom and professional blogs; they’re fantastic! Without their examples, we would have been much more intimidated about making this learning leap with our students.

 

Student Safety Online

Writing Quality Comments

Copy the Right Way
 

What types of lessons do you do early in the year when introducing 21st Century technologies to your students?

Collaborative Teaching Inquiry

Teacher Inquiry and Knowledge Building Cycle 

to Promote Student Outcomes

This past year our school purchased 15 Chromebooks and 10 mini IPads. As a result my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies and I had the fortune or misfortune, depending on one’s point of view, of being the first to use this technology in our school. We were going to have to teach children how to use Chromebooks despite our lack of knowledge of the new tool. Thus we began our journey into collaborative teacher inquiry.  The need for the students to learn about Chromebooks was the catalyst for us to learn about Chomebooks, Google Drive, and to revisit our approach to teaching.

The cycle in the diagram, Teacher Inquiry and Knowledge Building Cycle to Promote Student Outcomes, illustrates the process we went through as a team.  In the end we were able to teach students how to research, collaborate, and create; while engaged in their own inquiry learning process.  As we reflected on our work, we realized that our students needed more exposure to 21st century technologies and that lead Chantelle and I to further explore the use of technology in the classroom.  

To further explore 21st century technology, we as a team, decided to enroll in Integration of Information and Computer Technology in Instruction Part 2.  Our goal for this course was to apply our new knowledge to improve student learning.  We originally thought that we would collaborate together while taking the course or in other words, discuss tasks and support each other.  Once we enrolled and discussed the course with our instructor, we discovered that we would be able to continue with our collaborative teacher inquiry.  What this means is that Chantelle and I were able to use this course as a way of meeting the students needs for the upcoming school year.

In order to meet the needs of our students, we looked at the tasks and requirements for our course and modified them (as best as we could within the confine of the course)  to reflect the learning outcomes we expected for our students.  We have been given control of the direction of our learning, while keeping our students in mind.  This has allowed us to focus on the tasks and to go deeper into content.  We are no longer covering the material, but are considering and reflecting on how this will enhance student learning.  Our reflection has lead to many, MANY hours of discussion of what our students needs are, what learning they need, and what learning or inquiry we will proceed with.  Sometimes our reflective thinking has us so caught up in what is best for our students, that we have gotten side tracked from completing tasks for this course.  The challenge has been how to fit what we want to learn in greater depth in with the modules required by the university  and the OCT.  We are grateful that our instructor, Zoe Branigan-Pipe has been patient as we muddle through this.  We have decided to explore specific tools and resources that will be used and applied in our classrooms in a way to create new tasks that challenge our students to think deeper, create and collaborate more often.

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As we entered this journey of learning, we both realized we entered this process at different points. Our comfort, knowledge, and abilities with technology differ. By applying these entry points to the SMAR model we can see where our focus needs to be and what our next steps are to move to a new level.  To learn more about the SMAR model follow the attached link: SAMR Model.  In the past, I have been primarily using technology to show content through projectors and have students research (substitution).  My partner had begun to use technology to do blogging, record assessment, and create interactive smart board lessons (augmentation). Collaboratively, we used technology that allowed our students to work together in order to share information (augmentation).   Though our entry points differ in regards to our knowledge, our end goal is common to use technology to redefine tasks. 

We are working together to grow our knowledge and learn from and with each other. Prior to the start of this course we were reflecting on what we had done with the Chromebooks and IPad minis and we were brainstorming ways that we could help our students get more out of their use next year. Already, this course has given us time to think about lessons that redesign our original pen and paper tasks of the past; and in some cases, we have started to plan student tasks that will help us transform student learning. Hopefully it will be as successful for us when we put theory into practice.

How has collaboration changed your teaching practice?  Where and when do your best conversations with your teaching partner take place?

Disclaimer: This post was co-written by myself and my teaching partner, Chantelle Davies. It has been adapted for each of our blogs.