Middle School News Team

One of the many things I love about my school, Wabash Middle School, is that we offer something for every student.  I have never seen such a small school with so many opportunities for diverse student interests.  We offer everything from tennis to Spanish Club.  Our newest edition is the APAX News Team.  Since our school is 1 to 1 we have incredible digital potential.  We have about 20 students who do a variety of jobs.  We meet everyday in our after school Computer Club.  Some days we have several stories to cover, on slow days we just hang out and think of fun things to include in the next broadcast.  I work with another teacher-sponsor who was a journalism major at one point.  She writes or at least edits most of the script, and I handle the video editing.  We are planning to hand this off to the students eventually, but its middle school.  One the things I love about this is the diverse group of students who are involved.  We are attracting new members all the time and the APAX News Team is all the rage in Wabash.

This is a perfect example of the fantastic opportunities afforded to 1 to 1 schools.  This would be very difficult without our infusion of technology.  You can follow our broadcasts at our website found here.

Computer Club

The summer before my school went 1 to 1, we tried to prepare for any foreseeable problems our students, parents, or teachers might encounter.  One issue was Internet access. There are many in our community who suffer from unemployment or underemployment and roughly 70% of our students receive free or reduced lunch.  What are students supposed to do if they have homework and they need the Internet to complete their work?  While they likely have local hotspots, friends, or relatives who have Internet, as a school we can't ask them to "just figure it out" without a reasonable option.  My experience has been that students are efficient excuse machines, and if given any legitimacy, they, and their parents, will overrun you.

Thus, the creation of Computer Club.  Computer club is an after school, supervised place for students to  work on homework or just hangout and use the school's Internet access.  This is also a place to get help with computers.  Teachers often send student to me in Computer Club to learn how to use iMovie, iPhoto, or some web tool.  Teachers themselves regularly drop in to get tech advice or troubleshoot a problem.

To be fair, lots of kids come to Computer Club to play non-educational games like Minecraft, and hang out with their friends. However, one could argue this is a great alternative to having them walking around town getting into trouble or returning to an empty house because their parents are at work.  Last week I sat up and surveyed the kids in Computer Club.  There were several athletes using it as a pre-practice study hall, there were 2 kids discussing their new blog and how to promote it, our APAX News Team was planning their next broadcast, about 12 hardcore Minecraft builders hunched over their computer, and another 6 or 7 kids floating from group to group socializing and casually working on homework.  It was exciting to see kids engaged in what they were doing and having fun in school.  Computer Club has been an integral part of our 1:1 plan, it has also become a time for clubs to assemble like APAX News Team and the new upstart SWAT Team (Students Working to Assist Technology).  Great things are happening in little Wabash, Indiana, and like our announcements regularly say, "its a great day to be an Apache".

Why Chrome is the Most Amazing Browser

People don't like to talk about religion and politics because people are generally set in their ways and emotions gets high.  This is how I feel towards web browsers (nerd alert), and like any religious zealot, I am completely convinced I am right!  However, this is no leap of faith.  Google Chrome is, by any measure, the best web browser available and anyone who doesn't agree simply doesn't know what Chrome can do. This is especially true for educators and students.

Speed is thought to be a major issue with web browsers, and you can find speed tests that favor just about any browser, except maybe Internet Explorer.  I personally think Chrome is faster after using IE, Firefox, and Safari on a fairly regular basis, however, Internet speed is more linked to your Internet connection and computer processor than it is to your browser.

The real beauty of Google Chrome is the apps and extensions.  For those who don't know, web extensions (also called add-on too) are essentially mini-programs that work within your web browser.  Some of my favorites are Evernote Web clipper, Diigo Highlight/bookmarking tool, Explain and Send (screenshots), Black Menu (for easy access to all your Google Apps), and Aviary image editor for Google Drive--this is important when working in Google Presentation to edit and crop images.  The Google Chrome Store is full of thousands of other extensions and apps such as Ancient History Encyclopedia--and they are almost all FREE.

There are many other benefits too.  Google Chrome automatically updates, so there is no need to ever update the software.  Do you ever leave your browser open so you don't lose the tabs you have open?  Chrome allows you to close your browser and continue where you left off.   Possibly the greatest benefit is the fact that it is 100% web-based.  What does that mean?  I can log into Chrome (Google account) on my desktop and have the same apps and extensions I have on my laptop. I can log into my account on my friend's computer, library computer--ANYWHERE and have all the same apps, extensions, web history, bookmarks, etc. as I do on my personal laptop.  Not to mention the incalculable value of all the other Google Apps, which I've blogged about before here and here.  I don't want to live in digital world without Google.  You won't either when you discover the glory of Google.

Writing in Google Doc's

This year I have really embraced the fact that literacy is the foundation of everything we do in school.  I  am trying to inject more non-fiction reading and formal writing into my social studies class.  As students write, they need formative feedback.  Assigning a paper and waiting a week before we cover it in red ink is assigning students to failure.  Ideally, I would like to sit down with every student, everyday while they write.  With classes as large as 28 this year, I would need to budget 1.7 minutes for each student as I guide them toward better grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, summarizing, etc. 

Luckily, our school has Google Apps for Education.  Every student has a Google account, so when they write, they do it in Google Docs.  They share their paper with me and I have 24 hour access to their work.  I sit down face-to-face with as many students as I can during class, but I look at every paper, everyday.  For the students I don't sit down with, I insert comments into their paper.  Comments are great ways to have a discussion without marking up their paper.  Students can respond and you can easily have a conversation about their work.  I keep track of who I talk to in person and who I comment on to keep balanced and keep track of formative progress.  By the time the paper is due, I rarely need to do any "grading" and there is no need to turn anything in.   Another major benefit is the "dog" can't eat it, they can't forget it at home, and since it's saved in the cloud any online device can access it.  Revision history is another tool that allows you or students to recover their work in case of a problem.  You can also do research without leaving your doc. 

Managing all of the paper is an issue for many teachers.  If you have several hundred students it can be difficult to manage that many docs.  Its important to use collections/folders and be proactive in managing your files.  I would also recommend teaching student about email notifications.  Every time someone shares a document with you, they can send an email to notify you.  If you are expecting their work, you don't want to clear several hundred email from you inbox. 

The way I manage my student work is by having 2 Google accounts.  I have my school account and my personal account.  When I'm online, I usually operate out of my personal account and forward all my school mail to my personal account.  I have students share their work to my school account, so 90% of the documents in my school's Google Docs account and my personal account isn't cluttered up by other people's work.  I really don't know why every school doesn't take advantage of Google Apps for Education.  Docs and formative assessment is just the tip of the iceberg.  

What's Bad About Education Technology

I want to start by saying that I am a huge advocate of technology in education.  I work in a one-to-one school and infuse technology into every activity and project in my class.  That being said, all great power can be wielded positively or negatively There are definitely some negative outcomes that can occur as technology floods into education.  Here are a few that a can lead educators and districts down a bad path.

Sorry Apple, but tablets that don't have full computer capabilities are are mistake as a one-to-one device.  You can try to make this square peg fit into the round hole of education, but you will have to jam it in to make it work.  I love my iPad, but I find it increasingly difficult to use compared to my Macbook when I do school work.  Problems with typing, moving from app to app, file management, compadibility, etc. can doom a one-to-one initiative if it becomes more cumbersome than paper and pencil.  I understand the cost prohibitive of a Macbook, but by the time you buy an iPad, accessories, apps, and other required equipment, you can nearly afford Macbooks, considering Apply will knock down the price on a large education purchase.  Don't go one-to-one because all the cool kids are doing it--with some device that "is good enough"--it will end up costing you more in the long run.

While we are talking about technology devices.  I have to get in a few shots at SMART Boards (SINO--smart in name only).  Spending valuable tech-dollars on SMART Boards is not a good investment of money or pedagogy.  These are a gargantuan waste of money for most classroom applications.  I can see the usefulness in a small elementary or special needs classroom, but in a classroom of 20+ students from middle school up--the only real purpose SMART Boards serve is a $8,000 projection screen.  Technology needs to be used for creation--student creation--not content delivery.  This leads me to my next point.

Using technology to replace or support traditional methods of direct instruction is a misuse of technology.  Computers are tools of creativity.  Schools are not going one-to-one to save paper.  Running worksheets through the Xerox machine to turn them into PDF's and digitizing multiple choice quizzes, based on a boring lecture are tech-crimes that should be met with corporal punishment at the very least.  This is bad and students will know it right away.  This stale method is not engaging to say the least, and it will lead to cheating and other discipline issues.   

Webinars are the absolute worst form of professional development and should be avoided at all costs.  If the video and audio feeds actually work, which is rare in my experience, a webinar is one of the most disengaging forms of learning I have experienced.  Short tutorials are useful, but a 5-person, conference-call-styled presentation is awkward and borderline absurd as a learning methods.  I understand if it is the last possible option, but it too closely resembles traditional direct instruction, only you're not in the same room--a method most effective teachers would laugh at.

My Favorite Web Tools Part 2

About a month ago, I posted some of my favorite web tools.  I wanted to mention a few others.  Of course, there are bloggers who make a living reporting and reviewing web tools, but as a teacher who actually uses these on a regular basis I hoped to provide a different perspective.

I can't say enough about Twitter.  I learn more on Twitter in an hour than I do at most 2-day professional development seminars.  This is not just another social network.  Too many people hear Twitter and they think Facebook.  They couldn't be more different.  I once heard, if Facebook is the mall, Twitter is a specialty store, especially when you use it strictly for professional purposes.  For people who are reluctant to join, you don't need to "tweet" anything.  You can just sit back and learn.  I recommend using TweetDeck.  It allows you to follow the topics you are interested in.  In case you don't know, topics are organized by "hastags" (#).  Since I am a social studies teacher I follow #sschat and #socialstudies, but I also love #edtech, #elearning, #edchat, #educoach, and a few others.  Tweetdeck allows you to view the "tweet stream" of all of these topics simultaneously, where as the Twitter site allow you to view one stream at a time.  Twitter is a great first step to building a PLN--professional (or personal) learning network.  This is the professional development of the future--personalized, individually driven, and organic. 

Thinglink is a fairly new site.  It allows users to make images interactive by adding "tags" to selected areas of an image. You can see an example I made of India here.  This is a great way to bring content to your students, or better yet have them create content. These can easily be embedded into a website or blog and Thinglink lets you create 50 for free.  Last year, my students struggled reading complicated graphs and charts, so this year I want them to upload the chart/graph image into Thinglink and explain the various parts with tags.

Students could also create a basic timeline in a spreadsheet (one of my favorite ways), then take a screenshot, and tag it with information, videos, and webpage links to annotate the timeline and bring it to life. You could also take a screenshot of an assignment and give instructions through the interactive tags.  The same idea could work for teaching students new technology.

PaperRater is a great website.  Unlike other similar sites, PaperRater will evaluate the vocabulary level and "grade" the paper.  When you copy your text into PaperRaer, you can select the type of writing and intended grade level.  The spelling and grammar do a nice job of explaining why something might need changed, so students learn some basic mechanics in the process.  I sometimes use it for this blog--probably not often enough.  I always use it when I put together text resources for my class--it can help identify the reading level.  Next year I plan on encouraging students to use it too.  This way they can focus on the content of the paper and get some feedback aside from me. 

Tech Lag

It has always been obvious that a massive chasm exists between technology innovation and the average user's knowledge.  From phones to computers, most users are aware of 1/10th of a given gadget's capability.  This same phenomenon is rampent in the education world.   Every time I am involved in professional development, I am surprised to see people who don't know the basics of general computer literacy and troubleshooting.  Even technology people work too hard and spend too much in counterproductive ways.  To be fair, many teachers are too busy learning their content, pedagogy, professional requirements, building requirements, coaching obligations, not to mention trying to balance a personal life to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of educational technology.  Edtech moves so fast its hard for technology people to keep up, make good decisions about what to commit to.

However, there are countless web tools and gadgets to make their life easier for everyone.  The question is how can we professionally develop teachers in a way that is efficient, meets their needs, doesn't overwhelm, and is cost effective?  I don't think there is a silver bullet that can span all school districts systematically.  Just like our students, each school corporation, each building requires a unique plan of professional development.  However I think there are a few things like Google Reader that make learning easy and fast, but that is another post.

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All too often teachers are given some technology, such as a SMART Board with very little training, so the technology actually ends up more frustrating than their older paper and pencil methods.  This is an example of the problem with efficiency and bad tech decisions.  "SMART" Boards can cost from $4,000 to $8,000 or more if you get all the bells and whistles.  However, for the way most teachers use SMART Boards the same technology is FREE online--all you need is a $300 dollar projector, a wireless mouse, and a bed sheet to project on--I can guarantee it will work more often too.

Technology in and of itself is not the answer for education--that is not what I am saying.  It is a tool... actually it is a massive warehouse full of millions of tools and if we don't let teachers in the warehouse and give them a guided tour, they are going to walk the other way.  This is going to have negative effects on their classroom and school corporation as a whole.  Education is moving quickly into technology, we have to equip or teachers with the tools and support they need to embrace this movement, not fear it.

My Favorite Web Tools

My school went 1:1 with Macbooks for several reasons.  One of the reasons was the creative software, which at the time came standard on all education purchases.  The iLife software is really unmatched as a package of creative software.  That being said, there is a wealth of free web tools available online that meet any need, regardless of the operating system or software package--the only exception would be some mobile devices that might not have corresponding apps.

There are countless great bloggers out there that make half a dozen posts EVERYDAY about great web tools.  People like Richard Byrne are more valuable than any one of these web tools--he will keep you in the know about new and FREE tools to keep your digital class running smooth.  However, not every blogger is a classroom teacher, so I thought I would give the fulltime teacher prospective of really useful web tools that I use in our 1:1 school.  I will probably post a few of these over the summer.

Not sure how to put this--I don't know how much I would enjoy 1:1 as much as I do without Google Apps.  Google Docs, Sites, Reader, Gmail, Chrome, Calendar, Voice, Maps, YouTube, SketchUp, and others make Google an absolute necessity when going 1:1.  I highly recommend Google Apps for Education.  Its amazing and free.  It will revolutionize your school's communication, given the PD to support it.

LiveBinder is a great tool that will allow you to insert a website into a "binder" that remains "live"--so when the website updates, the tab in your binder updates too.  Teachers can collect websites of content in a LiveBinder and share it with students.  Make a Google Doc public and include your own content, educational games, videos, quizzes, collaborative notes, etc.  You are limited by your own creativity.  I would like to see LiveBinder add an annotation component, but you could do this with something like Diigo or Awesome Screenshot.

In a 1:1 situation, you will inevitably be working with video--collection, editing, creation, etc.  When you want to keep the actual video file you find online, KEEPVID is a very simple tool.  You simply copy and paste the URL and download the file type you want.  In addition, KEEPVID lets you download only the MP3, so if you want only the narration, so students can create a new video from the narration--KEEPVID is a nice tool.