Teacher's bits and bytes

Teachers, stay safe.

2012-03-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

There has been an awful lot posted online about how to keep students safe on the Internet. However, I haven't run into very much focusing on teacher safety. Perhaps we tend to think that, as adults we're savvy enough to avoid online blunders. I thought that about myself until I started doing some research. The following list is by no means comprehensive, but it's a pretty good starting point. Please keep these tips in mind whenever getting on the Internet.

1) People lie.

Ya, I know this one is pretty obvious. Be honest, though. Have you ever forgotten a key piece of information for your class and needed to look it up really quickly? The shape of a molecule? An important date? The difference between affect and effect? Be especially careful when you’re in a rush!

2) Plagiarism sets a bad example.*

Forget about the legal ramifications of plagiarism. OK … just for a second forget about it. Have you ever gone online looking for a picture to use for your PowerPoint? Ever cite your sources? Have you ever copy and pasted quiz questions you’ve found online without telling your students where you got them? Your students will find out. (Mine did.)

3) If you don’t want it on the Internet, don’t put it on the Internet.
I have no idea who first said this, but it’s brilliant. Here’s the big point: Everything you put online for someone else to see can stay there forever. In spite of “privacy settings” there are hundreds of ways to transfer what you have online to some other computer. Even if you delete it, there’s no way of getting rid of it. Think twice before mentioning your school or colleagues.

4) Set your filter to “safe”.
Its true that you’ll be missing out on some good things if you do this. However, you’ll be saving yourself from all of the problems that surround pulling up an inappropriate website. If a student is exposed to a single inappropriate image, you are setting yourself up for uncomfortable discussions.

5) Students don’t have privacy on school computers.
This is a bit of a strange issue. Many students get offended by a teacher looking over their shoulder to see what they’re up to. Many educators seem to buy into this attitude thinking that students should allowed to work largely unsupervised. When students know they’ll be monitored, they tend to stay on task.

So what do you think? Did I miss anything? Do you disagree with anything I’ve written here?

*Thanks to Deb Ng inspiring much of this blog post.

Classroom communications and the computer

2012-02-28T05:06:00.003-08:00

We're in the communications business. We need to get our lesson across to kids, let our administrators know how well we're doing in the classroom and help parents understand how to help their child succeed in academia. As in all other communication fields, there are 4 primary ways we get information across. Each of these is important and each can be improved by technology.

1) Electronic

This includes things like email and teacher webpages. Really, it should just be used to pass along information like homework assignments, powerpoints or weekly lesson plans.

This is NOT the place to try to inspire or motivate your students. While sites like Edmodo have some motivational items (badges, for instance), these sites are primarily for relaying content.

2) Phone

Telephones are mainly for short conversations and for the assurance that a teacher has actually made contact with an adult. While there's no way to know for sure if a note was read, the voice on the other end of the line lets you know the message was received. Most teachers keep a hand written log of their calls. There are sites, however that will provide verification that phone calls were indeed made when you said they were. My favorite is Google voice. Here, you can make calls for free strait from any computer. This is a one of a kind service in that it provides outside verification and it is searchable. You can quickly and easily bring up the number of calls you made to a student's home and the exact dates and times you did so. The fact that you can add notes allows you to keep track of what was said during each conversation.

3) Handwritten

This may be the most personal of all communications. As we move closer to electronic classrooms, this really needs to stay in place. Consider the fact that we'll put little notes in a scrapbook, but we forget about an email in two weeks time.

Right now, tablet devices like the iPad are the means by which people are adding handwriting to their electronic media. I use PDF Notes Free. It's an app that lets you bring up any PDF document on the iPad and write whatever you like. When you're done, just email the annotated PDF to whomever you like.

4) Live communication-

This is the one time people get those compliments, smiles, and handshakes they don't find elsewhere. This is also where relationship building really happens. We need to take advantage of the fact that people can see our facial expression, here our tone of voice and read our body language to get the full meaning of what we say to them. While nothing electronic can really take the place of face to face communication, there are some tools that can bring us closer when we can't meet in person.

Skype is probably the best known, but any online video chat will give you good results. These services allow you to see one another while you chat, adding a personal dimension to a tutoring session or parent conference.

Consider these methods of communication in your own professional work. I've mentioned a couple of useful tools here, but I'd love to hear what other online tools you come across to improve your own communication. If you think of something, please leave a comment.

Teachers of robots so students can learn more

2012-02-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

As teachers we are charged with increasing the amount of knowledge in the world. We work with our students whatever their age to help them gain skills and information. Most of us, though (myself included) are in the business of spreading information rather than generating new knowledge. Now, what if you knew you could aid researchers by playing online games? What if, just by goofing around on the internet, you could add to the knowledge pool in addition to passing it on to students? Well, you can.

One such game is devoted to fixing mistakes in an index of old Finnish newspapers. These fixes increase the accuracy of text-based searches and therefore increases the amount of information available for all of us online. The site is called Digitaltalkoot. The games are set up with moles as the characters. In the game, you are to double check the computer's reading of a selection of text. You get points as you play.

Perhaps more well known are the games designed to increase scientific knowledge. These online games include Foldit and EteRNA. Both of them deal with solving biological puzzles involving shapes. Foldit deals with proteins while EteRNA deals with RNA. You earn points by making shapes that are likely to to exist in nature. The games have worked so well, Foldit players have been able to help in AIDS research!

These are great examples of how digital systems can improve our understanding of the world. Here is proof positive that a well designed system can help the world learn new and important information from people who are just having fun!

Digital substitue teachers

2012-02-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

Technology can improve learning on days that teachers have a substitute teacher. The teacher and the sub can both make online preparations to ensure a sick day is still a day full of learning.

Lets first consider the classroom teacher. There are any number of ways that you can prepare for a sick day. Traditionally, a teacher will have a subfolder prepared with a map, the teacher's schedule, trustworthy students and some simple lesson plans. If you know in advance, you can also have some worksheets printed off for the students to work on or an on-topic DVD to play for the class. These are all great, since you don't have to explain anything before they're able to take over your class. Plus, you don't have to worry about trouble shooting technology. However there are a few severe limitations as well. It's not dynamic for one. Unless you throw something out and re-print it, the folder will never be updated. It's also limited by size and location. You cannot put a year's worth of material in there, for example. And if it's ever lost, you'll have to make a new one.

A great digital alternative would be to make a class website. Today, there plenty of free website services. The great advantage here, is that you can update the site on the fly. You just need to tape a sign on your desk to tell your sub to go to your website and follow the directions. Here is an example. You'll notice that there are still a few documents that you'll have to have as a hard copy simply because of privacy issues.

Another great option is to have an Edmodo account. Edmodo is a way to safely stay in contact with students online. It also allows you to put class content online so that only authorized people can access it. For your sub, make up a fake name (Sub Teacher, for example), and give them access to class materials for the day. You'll also easily be able to stay in contact with your sub.

Now consider the experience from the sub's point of view. Occasionally, the lesson plans are lost or missing, which puts you in the awkward position of maintaining order with nothing for the students to do. Wouldn't it be great to have a few on-topic games on hand to play? Take a look at this list of interactive games. The links here are really designed to work with interactive white boards, but the vast majority of them work fine with just a computer and a projector.

You might not have access to a computer or projector, though. As long as you can get online (if you have a smartphone, for example), there is still help available. Check out this PDF. Its a list of closure activities that you can use to keep the students busy and learning at the same time. This is especially useful for when the plans that you are left don't provide enough for the kids to do. I recommend downloading it to your device so you have it handy as a resource.

Substitute teaching can run into a lot of snags, but hopefully these tips will help ensure a smooth and productive day.

Digital reading and 'riting in education

2012-02-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Reading and writing used to be much simpler. We would get some sort of sharp stick (a pen or pencil) and scratch at paper until the marks we made could be interpreted by someone else. Well, our writing has evolved somewhat and along with it, so has our reading. Nowhere is this change more evident than in the home of reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic... academia.

Lets start by looking at our writing tools. Lets start off with PDF's. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, PDF's are files that can't (of themselves) be modified. Admittedly, this is kind of a strange place to start. After all, they're designed to be immutable. The funny thing is, that unchanging nature lets us write in a special way. On my iPad, I have an app called PDF notes free. With it, I can highlight, jot down notes, or add doodles. I can't call this idea new, really. I mean, students draw in the margins of books all the time. In my case, though, I can erase everything whenever I want.

Interactive whiteboards (IWB's) like Promethean and Smartboard are also great ways to work with PDF's. Most worksheets come in PDF form these days and can easily be imported and used on an IWB. If your favorite handout doesn't have a digital copy, you can make one by scanning the sheet and saving it as a PDF. You could either use a scanner or the scan function on your copier. That PDF can then be imported and projected onto the IWB so that students can write on or highlight the important parts of the worksheet. The process of working on a handout becomes far more participatory this way.

Digital tools are great, but has anyone really tried to make a better pen? Yes, as a matter of fact. Livescribe is an extraordinary tool that looks and writes like a regular pen, but records information like no other divice out there. Whatever you write with the pen is recorded along with the audio it picks up. Later you can relive your note-taking and watch as your words and drawings apear in time with the teacher's lecture. This adds two new dimensions to traditional note taking. Audio is one of them of course, and can help you keep up with fast talkers. The other (and less obvious) dimension is time. When you see when items are added you can put them in context.

Reading, too has changed dramatically. Consider the flood of electronic textbooks that have come out in the last year or so:
iBooks
Chegg Etextbooks
Amazon's Kindle Fire books
Kno
Pearson success net
Glenco online additions
...or just Google eTextbooks to see a huge list pop up.

Students don't have haul 40 pounds of books around. Okay, so in theory they wouldn't have to if they all had iPads, Kindle Fire, Nook tablet or the Acer Iconia. Really, any tablet would do. Lets just pretend that school districts had all the political and financial capital to make that happen. With all of this digital material, kids no longer have to worry about forgetting to bring their book to class since it's always on the device. More importantly, these textbooks interact with the students as well as the outside world. Students can watch film clips. End of chapter reviews can be interactive games. And updates can happen overnight. Textbooks are notorious for getting out of date but if they are electronic, scientists can update the material as it becomes available.

Perhaps one of the most interesting changes in reading is the newspaper. News used to be delivered to the reader in one format. If you were interested, great. If not, you were out of luck. Zite has changed all that. This is an app that works with most tablet and smartphone devices. It brings the news to you based on the categories you select. Then it does something amazing. Based on what you say is good (thumbs up) or bad (thumbs down), it will seek out and find blogs and news stories you probably want to read.

How about that? Finally, there is a piece of software that helps you discover and learn exactly what you are interested in. This is the ultimate in differentiated instruction.

Reading and writing have come a long way. It's fascinating to see how they are still evolving!

Digital Common Formative assessments

2012-02-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

Teachers around the U.S. are struggling with just how to create common formative assessments. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than just coming up with a little quiz or thinking up an exit ticket at the end of class. A lot of the work deals with meetings within our department. We get together to discuss the scope and sequence of what we teach. Then we have to generate the actual assessment.

Once the assessment is deployed, of course it has to be analysed. We once again have to get together with our department to figure out how our students are doing compared to the students of Mr. Smith down the hall, for example. If my students didn't do as well, I need to figure out what Mr. Smith does better so that my students learn more.

Typically this kind of work leads to improved education. Its extremely valuable. You've got to admit, though- this is a whole lot of work.

Technology can make common formative assessment far easier and often more productive. Let's start by looking at the creation. To make any assessment common requires collaboration on a single file and there are some great online tools to make that happen.

Google docs: This tool provides teachers a way to work on the same document at the same time online. When a group works together on a single document, everyone can see what everyone else is typing, teachers can ask questions of each other or make comments in a side bar as the assessment is being created. On the other hand, if everyone just wants to work on the document when they have time, that's fine as well.

Edmodo: This is a safe, secure social network for teachers and students. Individuals in a department can post questions as status updates. Other teachers can then make comments on those questions or suggest modifications. These conversations would be restricted to the department. No one else in the world would be allowed to see these interactions without explicit permission.

Skydrive: For those of you who work in an exclusively Microsoft world, this is your best bet. Much like Google, Skydrive is a way of working on Word, Excel and Powerpoint projects collaboratively. Your team may want Skydrive instead because formating does not carry over well. While Google docs is probably the best and most reliable cloud storage to date, converting documents to their format can be a real pain.

Now that you've all decided on the nature of the assessment, its time to present it to the students. There are several digital tools that can help you with that.

Clicker technology (eInstruction and Promethean)- This is probably one of the fastest and most useful tools available for conducting formative assessments. There are a two main reasons. First, students usually enjoy it. You don't have to worry about them just putting in an answer because the reward for getting the right answer is "winning". Students who are all voting simultaneously get to be part of the group that got it right whereas those who do self paced tests get to win at what is in many ways a video game. Second, the data is stored immediately and can be analysed in useful ways.

Online quizzes: (Edmodo, Openclass, others)- There are numerous free sites which allow teachers to create sophisticated quizzes for students to take online. The advantage here is that students can use any internet ready device. The big disadvantage is that these devices are often more difficult to come by (you have to check out the laptops or the iPods for example).

Soapbox: This is a great site for gaging the engagement of a class or giving quick quizes. Since there is no way to tie results to any one student, however, it serves as more of a "quick and dirty" digital assessment of a whole class. Soapbox works best if the students are already using laptops for your lesson.

When the data is collected, it's time to get the department together again to go over results. Instead of forcing everyone to gather in the same place at the same time, you could go back to the collaboration tools I mentioned above. These tools make it easy for teachers to add comments next to each question in the assessment noting the percentage of students who got the question right. They could also mention useful strategies for teaching that concept.

If you still want some face to face interaction but your having a hard time getting everyone together in the same place, consider Google Plus. This social network allows you to hold video conferences at the same time you work on a Google doc. So you can see and speak to one another while writing on the same document.

Common formative assessments hold so much power to improve learning. The digital tools I've mentioned here can make the creation, deployment and analysis of those assessments far easier than ever before.

Critical thinking and internet research

2012-01-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

Critical thinking has always been tied to the search for answers. In the past, this search involved speaking to respected leaders and reading authoritative books. Now of course, we type in a few key words into our favorite search engine and hope to find the answers. For students, this is often a haphazard affair. It is important, however that they understand how to critically search for good information. I developed a search guide for students to address this issue after I was inspired by another article written about scientific literacy (How to Read a Scientific Paper, Posted on: January 10, 2012 11:10 AM, by Chad Orzel).

Feel free to copy, use or modify this guide as you see fit:

STEP ZERO: Know what you want.
Before doing anything else, make sure you know what it is you hope to get out of this search, because that will dramatically change how you do it. Many research questions do not lend themselves to a systematic and analytical approach. You must be very careful.

Activity:

Write your research question. For example: To what extent did General Zia ul-Haq influence the people of Pakistan?
Decide if you have an answer in mind you want to defend or if you are honestly searching. Is this a historical or philosophical work? Are you looking for hard, numerical data or personal interviews?

STEP ONE: Know the structure.
The basic structure of all search programs is pretty standard. There is a search box which may or may not allow you to do more advanced searches. The programs search for combinations of key words. Now, if you can shorten your question to the one or two most important words in the question, you’ll probably get a good search.

Activity:

Pick out the key words and phrases (a phrase should not be more than 3 words long).
Order those key words from most relevant to least. Consider which word or phrase would give you the best results as a search term.

STEP TWO: Know the types of searches.
There are many types of search programs out there, but you can roughly divide programs into a couple of categories.
The most well know programs are Internet search engines. These include Bing, Yahoo Answers and of course Google. Google is the most popular because most of the time it gives you the sites your looking for. Thats not to say it provides accurate information. Consider the search “9/11 Truth”. This will bring up sites devoted to the idea the government was behind the events of 9/11.

Similar to this are databases. These are designed to search through reputable articles and books. Typically, this is where you will go to find primary documents. Unfortunately, they are also subscription based.

Another very important type of search program is the calculator. These programs allow you to solve math problems of course, but also to see how to do chemistry or adjust a recipe. There are also word calculators to help you fill in the missing letters of a word if you leave a bl_nk in the middle. I would put dictionaries and thesauruses in this category as well. These would provide you with definitions and similar/ different words. For an excellent example, look at Wolfram Alpha.

Finally, there are searches within sites. These are often hit or miss. They sometimes bring you the information you want, but often do not.

Activity:

Use your #1 search term to find good information. We will use Google scholar and Google books.

STEP THREE: Read the Summary.
Most of the time, the summary will tell you what sort of website you're dealing with. Combine that knowledge with your goal from Step Zero, and take the appropriate action. Keep in mind that students have limited time and energy. It's vitally important that they look over the summary before clicking on a website.

Activity:

Look over your first page of hits.
Quickly decide on the best one.
Click on it and look over the information.
Write down how useful the site was.

STEP FOUR: A picture/map is worth a thousand words.
Sometimes doing an image/map search will lead you to more relevant information.

Here are the results I got from entering my search term into Google maps. Note the two countries that the General's name is being used. Also note how easy it was to find the location of his tomb.

Activity:

Enter your top search term into Google maps and images.
Describe the results.

STEP FIVE: Command F.
When you have a web site up in front of you, glance at it to get a feeling for it’s trustworthiness (does it have a date, an author, a method of contacting the institution, etc...) then hit command F.

A “find” box will come up. Enter in your key word or phrase and hit return. The program will find that term for you. This is a huge time saver. It avoids wasting precious time and energy sifting through useless information to find the nuget you need.

External memory

2012-01-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

Today I had so much to do I barely had time to stop for lunch. The day started with a long list and then I started to get emails requesting technology help and teaching opportunities. Without a list, I would have been sunk. I just cannot keep all the information that I need inside my skull. Physical notes are fine, but with the tools Google provides me, I don't even bother.

When I need extra memory for the day, I turn to Google. Their most important product for me is Gmail. This is a service that goes way beyond typical email programs. Oh, the email is great but it is so much more than that. First of all, the search capabilities are lightning fast. When I need to find some piece of information, I typically type a few key words and viola! I have what I need. I can also sync my Gmail to any other system from Outlook to Apple Mail.

Better yet, every email is tied to my contact list so that when I click on the name of the sender and I can see important information like their class schedule or room number. That allows me to stop by whenever it's most convenient for them.

The part of Gmail that really helps me out are the tasks. I can convert any email into a task on my to-do list. That's great for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a quick way of creating a reminder straight from someone's request. When I'm reading an email, I just need to click on the "more" button, then click "add to tasks". Done.

GoTasks

It gets better. While I'm moving from place to place helping people, I want to travel light. Besides a few odds and ends, I really just have my iPad. On it, is Gotasks. It's on my phone as well, but I mainly use it on the iPad. This is an app that syncs to my Google tasks. It allows me to keep my to-do list in front of me at all times. I can even rearrange my tasks in any order I choose. So completed items go on the bottom and high priority ones are at the top.

With this small arsenal of tools, my memory can expand beyond the limits of my skull. Good thing, too. I'd never be able to keep track of everything without a little help.

An online place for everything

2012-01-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

Teachers have a lot of stuff. Never mind all of the posters and popsicle sticks we reuse year after year. I'm thinking more about what we have electronically. From lesson plans to movie clips, there's an awful lot of valuable material on our computers. Should that computer get lost or damaged, all of those wonderful resources will disappear. There is a safe place to keep it all though- or rather safe places. Not every service is right for everyone. You have a lot of material in a lot of different forms so its important to chose your storage service carefully. I want to talk about a few of those services. Full disclosure here- I am a cheap skate so I only use free services.

Google:
Google docs- We cannot have a discussion about cloud storage without bringing up Google Docs. This is a powerhouse of document storage. Anything you have created in Word can be converted to Google Docs format. As long as your files are converted to Google's format, your storage is unlimited and files can be edited and shared online. You can also store a finite number of all other types of files in your account to share and download.

Two other Google services that allow you to store a limited number of files are Gmail and Google sites. With Gmail, you need to attach a file to an email and save it as a draft. Google sites lets you upload files of a limited size as well and store them in a "file cabinate". While this would be a little awkward, it does provide an alternative place to store your materials.

Microsoft Office live: Formatting is typically lost whenever a word document is changed into a Google document. If you are looking to store, share and edit a Microsoft document, presentation or spreadsheet online, this is the way to go. You will maintain all of your original formatting and you can feel safe knowing your document is stored in the cloud. You will also be able to edit a document with your coworkers online.

Zoho: This is another one of Google's competitors. You can store a gigabyte of data here and work with coworkers and collaborators on Zoho friendly documents. One thing that this site does that no other site can do (or will do) are databases. If you need a free program that will work across platforms, try Zoho's database option.

Dropbox: This is a service that is designed to save important files online. A Dropbox folder is placed on your computer. Any file saved in this folder is then copied to the internet. If you need to access the file from elsewhere, just open the Dropbox and grab your file. No worries. It works well and is reliable. You can also share files with whomever you wish.

CX: Nearly identical to Dropbox, it makes file sharing with colleagues a little easier.

Edmodo: This online social service is often overlooked. While it has been primarily designed as a way to keep in contact with students and parents, it also works as a way to store small files. You can upload any file (up to 100 megabytes in size) to your Library. Once those files are there, they can be downloaded by anyone you choose- parent, teacher or student. You can also choose to keep these files private.

Google voice: Teachers need to keep track of who they call and when. Calling logs are great, but they have an inherent weakness. They assume that the person filling them out is honest. Google voice allows you to call parents from you computer for free. It records the time you called (or when the parent called you) and stores that information online. There is also a place for notes. You can keep an accurate record of all parent phone calls for years with this service.

Youtube: If you have video clips, youtube is a good place to keep them. You'll be able to keep them 100% private or you can choose to share with fellow teachers or students. If you decide to download them afterward, simply go to "My Videos", click on one of your movies, and download it.

These are just the services I've grown to love. If you have other online storage ideas, please share!

Learn anything...really?

2012-01-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

There is a flurry of competition in the arena of free online education. Major universities have put classes online for free. There are dozens free books, movies and courses available from Openclass. Site like HTMLGoodies is a great place to learn how to work with computers. Lets not forget about Khan Academy. The most recent news story is about Apple's push into education via iBooks2, iTunesU and iAuthor. All of this provides the world with an (up till now) unbelievable amount of free, authoritative, trustworthy and understandable education.

Can we now expect droves of people flocking to public libraries and hunching over cell phones in hopes of improving their lot in life by improving their minds? Maybe. I'm reminded of Thomas Paine when he said “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." Free public education is esteemed so lightly that laws are in place to force students to attend classes. Libraries have long held texts filled with information the general public could use to educate themselves. So far, few people have taken full advantage of these resources.

Thankfully, there are some distinct differences between past attempts at providing free learning and what is going on now. Free public education has been run on a strict schedule and in a defined location where students are forced to associate with people they dislike and sometimes fear or hate. Now, the learning can happen whenever it is convenient and wherever students are most comfortable. There is no need to sit next to a bully or sit quiet and still for an hour or more. Furthermore, students can access courses that are most relavent to their lives. Perhaps the most important aspect of online learning is that it can be as minute as looking up proper spelling to being as in depth as learning basic Spanish. And all of it is nearly instantaneous.

Libraries have had their own barriers. Like all buildings, they have a specified schedule and are located in a specific place. If you have a hard time getting to that place at the specified time, you're out of luck. Perhaps two of the least obvious roadblocks were literacy and (more often than not) sight. Youtube and recorded lecture/ podcasting has drastically reduced that barrier.

More and more, the internet is becoming a place of astounding resources for improving people's lives. God willing, the trend will continue.

Searching for lesson materials

2012-01-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

As teachers, we search a lot. We go online for a more useful lesson plan, a good picture to go along with our powerpoint or even a quick fact check before a lesson. Even though we're all pretty good at finding what we need, it always seems to take a bit longer than it should to find what we want. It doesn't have to be terribly difficult to get good things fast. Here are my recommendations for getting your hands on quality online material.

Useful lesson plans- 40 Places to Find Free Lesson Plans Online
This is a pretty comprehensive list describing the most popular sites online to find quality ideas for new lessons.

Handouts, handout creators- Handout Maker and Teachnology worksheets
Best for middle school, this is a great place to go when your short on time, but you need a handout for kids on a specific topic. Make crossword puzzles, traditional worksheets and even mazes.

Good pictures- Pics4Learning
Need some images to add to your powerpoints? Do your students need to complete a project involving pictures? Here is a great place to get photos that are free, copywrite friendly and most importantly safe.

Quality movies- Youtube/education and Discovery Education* (paid subscription)
You can now find great videos for your classroom on youtube! This has been a long time coming. Some of the best educational youtube videos have been put in one place. Plus most browsers have a way to download youtube videos to watch them later. Chrome makes this especially easy. Discovery education is probably the best source of educational video on the internet. Unfortunately, it is a paid subscription. If you have the means to pay for it, I highly recommend it.

Audio- Internet Archive
This is a great place to find stories, songs and sound effects. It's especially nice if you have a short story you would like to have the kids listen to in class.

Fact checking- Wolfram Alpha
Forget Google. They're only interested in providing you with relavent websites. If you're looking for some fact checking, this is the place to go. It will perform calculations, find the relavent facts on historical figures or fill in the blanks for n_t_. Even better, they provide references for all the information they provide you.

Calculator- Desmos or Wolfram Alpha
If you're trying to do some basic calculations, either of these would work fine. However, if you want to do a word type problem (what is 20% of 1.6?), Wolfram Alpha is the way to go. If your goal is to calculate algebraic expressions, Desmos will work a bit better. This is also an excellent replacement for a graphing calculator and can handle enormously complex equations.

Do you have other suggestions? Please let me know!

I, Robot, have a PLN

2012-01-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

A PLN is a personal or a professional learning network. Typically, they consist of a group of people who help you learn and grow in whatever it is you do. This covers everything from rock climbing to high school administration. These networks have always consisted of other humans. The internet, though has changed all that in amazing ways. Robots now join in the mix. Please don't start to picture Rosie or C3PO. No, I'm talking about computer programs that are able to bring you important information. Programs have become sophisticated enough to listen to what a room (that is, an online group) full of people are saying and make sense of it. I'd like to introduce three of my favorite robots.

First, there is the hashtag robot. A hashtag is really just the # sign put in front of a word. The convention started with Twitter. People wanted an easy way to search for tweets based on key words. The hashtag became a way for people to mark specific terms as most important. Twitter employs a program that scours all the tweets online, looking for these small symbols and organizes tweets accordingly. So if you write #edtech for example, the hashtag robot will put your tweet in a list with all the other tweets containing #edtech. That means that you can do a simple search for that term to get thousands useful tweets about (in this case) educational technology. The robot has become a vital part of learning networks for educators.

Zite is a mobile app that works as an electronic magazine. When you first download this free app, it asks you to describe the kinds of articles you'd like to read. You can choose from sports, politics, gossip... whatever you like. Then it does something amazing. It begins to learn from you. You tell the robot back at the Zite company when you like an article and it will bring you more of the same. Tell it when you dislike an article, and it will bring less. What's even better is that on a tablet, it brings up some key terms. You can tell Zite to look for articles in your genre with those key words. For example, I've taught Zite to fetch me articles on Technology which also deal with education, tablets and Google. I get all the educational technology news I want from Zite's robot.

Google Plus is bringing a new robot on the scene. The robot is called Search+ and it works by looking at your Google plus social network to bring you material it thinks you would be most interested in. Since it is only now being rolled out, I haven't had much time to test it out to see what it will bring to me. The implications are huge, though. If this robot is able to make sense of your network on Google plus and truly bring you relavent results, you should be able to find quality resources more easily and in less time. I think this would work best if you were careful to use Google plus just for professional networking. Having your friends in the mix could skew your search results giving you some great gift ideas, but not really showing you want you want for work.

Don't get me wrong- none of these PLN's could function without the people who make them up. I'm just saying that now we're going to have to welcome the newcomers. Now, we're working with robots.

2012-01-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

Just for fun on a friday, I thought I'd throw this in. The original is from mastersinit.org, an online review of IT masters degree programs.
For the record, I'm stuck between geek and nerd.

From: MastersInIt.org

Tech provides more usable time.

2012-01-12T19:20:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons teachers use technology is that it saves time and effort. Of course many tools are designed to reduce the time and effort it takes for instructors to produce material. Examples of this include test generators and word processors. Today, though, I want to focus on our students during class time. Unfortunately, students can be left to stare into space as we take time to draw something out on the over head or sketch an equation on the whiteboard.

One of the greatest tools I have found for math teachers is the Desmos online calculator. The power of this application lies in the fact that a teacher can manipulate equations and the students can instantly see how the graph of that equation changes in response. A teacher told me recently how excited he is that he no longer has to sketch graphs out by hand while teaching. "And you know that half the kids start day dreaming when we do that", he added. With Desmos, he can use his time to explain concepts and cut down on the wandering minds.

There are also several interactive science sites that are very good. The Dynamic Periodic Table is excellent, for example. During a lesson, you need only hover over sections of the table to bring up important information. It's great for answering student questions or covering material clearly and quickly. Biology teachers love the Cells Alive online cellular models for the same reason.

For language arts, Google docs is a great time saver. This online suite of programs allows users to create presentations, documents and spreadsheets for free. It also allows users to collaborate on any of those files in real time. The reason this cuts down on dead air is that no one has to wait around for group members to read over material and make comments. Everything in the document is written simultaneously, so everyone in the group can read everything while it is being typed. You as an instructor can also comment on student writing in real time. This means that an entire class can be writing while you make encouraging comments on each paper. All of this is done simultaneously and all without interrupting anyone's train of thought.

Class time should really be used for learning, not waiting for us to draw or read over material. The technology I've discussed is a great start, but there's so much more. What sorts of tools have you found to get more learning out of the limited time you have in class?

Contributing to digital literacy

2012-01-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Most teachers think about digital literacy on a daily basis even if they don't use those exact words. Instead, conversations center around the "junk" kids find on the internet. Or maybe they complain about students believing that a human can also be part tree because of what they saw online. The solution is typically to chat with the kids about taking ideas with a grain of salt. We teach critical reading, listening and thinking. As always, we are hard at work teaching our charges to be literate about their world.

There is a part of digital literacy we don't always think about, however. That is, we are often responsible for putting content online. Is the content we add valuable? Is it authoritative? If you are on Twitter, consider the things you post. Every time you link one of your posts to a blog, you increase it's rank in Google search. If you comment on blogs, those comments add context to the original post. Your online footprint adds to what is online.

Since we want our students to be able to evaluate internet material for bias, authority, timeliness and relevance, we have to do more than just talk a good talk. We need to do what we can to add to the quality of the internet. In many ways this is a classic dilemma for every teacher. Our calling is to teach kids how to be upstanding adults. Our actions in public teach students more about how to be grown up than anything we say in class. In the same way, we teach kids to be good digital citizens. We must therefore be careful about what goes into our online footprint.

Possibilities, limitations

2012-01-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

Technology has so much potential in so many ways that we are often disappointed when we spot some of the weaknesses. Today I gave a training on using eInstruction's CPS clickers. They a tremendous number of uses from quick formative assessments to making movie watching more interactive. Everyone was interested in the software and equipment.

Unfortunately, there were some limitations. There was only so much equipment to go around. Teachers would have to share. It would also take a bit of work to learn the new software and set up the self-graded quizzes. As a general rule, we don't have a lot of spare time and energy. Then there was the fact that technology could fail.

One of the great thing about teachers is that we are not deterred by limitations. Everyone I spoke to thought of ways to get around the issues. People agreed to swap clickers. It would be worth the time and effort in the short term to save hassle in the long term. And hey- even pens leak and calculators putter out. They could deal with the rare equipment fizzle. That's a great part of being a technology coach. I have the opportunity to work with professionals who are consistently able to overcome challenges. As a friend of mine once said, you can't be a teacher without being able to tap dance.

Effects on student writing

2012-01-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

Student writing is taking an interesting turn, don't you think? There are currently far more forms of writing than ever before. It ranges from traditional hand writing to the recent social media phenomenon. These writing mediums are all influencing one another in subtle and not so subtle ways. Lets take a quick look at some of what's going on. Contrary to popular opinion, there is plenty of handwriting going on. For example, it's still taught in primary schools whereas students don't learn to type till much latter. Plus, nearly everyone handwrites their class notes largely because there aren't many alternatives to pen and paper (especially in math class!).

On the other hand, do kids even pass notes in the hallway anymore? I think they only text each other to keep up with the local gossip. Once they get home from school, they start working on homework... right after updating Facebook and Tweeting a little. They let their friends know how they're doing in 140 characters or less. Texting and posting on social media is an amazing feat of of encapsulation. They take dozens of feelings and events and boil them down to just a few sentences! Imagine how great it would be if students would apply that ability to summarize our last lecture.

Of course, word processors are ubiquitous in education. Whether using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, students nearly always type essays or research papers. And it makes sense. Their teachers really don't want to deal with paper fringes or sloppy penmanship. Plus, there are no spell checkers in a pencil. What student would ever want to turn in a paper without a computer to proof read it for them.

So what are all of these writing forms doing to a student's ability to put thoughts down on a page? One clear effect is on spelling. In the past few years I've seen students inserting "cuz" instead of "because", "pple" instead of people or even "l8r" instead of "later". These text abbreviations are even put into graded essays. The other thing that I've noticed is a decline in complex sentences. Most of my students write in small, easy to read sentences. Since these are the same kids that send short blurbs to others everyday while texting, its little wonder that sentences should shrink. Word processors have actually improved student writing, though. Or at least they can. A word processor can allow students to easily brainstorm, manipulate text and edit on the fly. If they are using an online editor like Google Docs, students can also collaborate on writing and teach each other in real time.

So it's clear that student writing is going to continue to evolve. It also seems clear that much of that change will be driven by the multitude of writing media available today.

On Tradition

2012-01-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

We do what we have always done because it works. And hey, why reinvent the wheel? Besides, we have so many things we have to get done that it's hard to find time to learn a new way of doing things. The thing is, it turns out that our ways are often inefficient or less productive than some alternatives.

With a new semester upon us, it may be time to try a few new tools. Below, I list some of my favorite online tools to improve teaching in the next 18 weeks. Give them a try. You may find yourself getting more done in less time, for free.

Google docs + Google calendars
I've written about this mash-up before. Google calendars is an easy to use schedule that you can work on at any time and on any computer that's handy. Calendars also has a nice feature that allows you to attach any file to an event as long as it is already in your Google docs account. That opens up the possibility of attaching lesson plans, tests and student samples. Since you can make any of those files private, you never have to worry about anyone else in the world seeing sensitive documents.

Edmodo
Students love social media for good reasons; it's fun, engaging and it makes learning easier. Unfortunately, there are so many dangers and pitfalls to using sites like Facebook or Twitter. The solution is a site designed specifically for educators to communicate with their students. Parents have full access to their own student's activities and teachers moderate all discussions. There is no outside communication and students don't have the option to talk to the outside world. Better yet, you can make self-grading quizzes and polls for free!

Desmos Graphing Calculator
Students are given all sorts of wonderful technology in schools. They are still being asked to buy expensive calculators. Finally here is a free online solution. Help kids learn to do math without expecting them to buy equipment.

Prezi
Perspective matters. Much of what we talk about in class deals with large scale vs. small scale. Consider these questions: What does a water molecule have to do with whether you have a desert or grassland? How did the Delaware river affect George Washington? What does the hight of a tree and the length of it's shadow have to do with a protractor you hold in your hand?
Prezi is an online presentation site that creates unique, beautiful presentations. Kids love them!

Educational Youtube
Finally! A way to get good educational videos at school! You don't have to worry about crude jokes or wardrobe malfunctions. Its all good stuff here. Well, that's mostly true. Unfortunately, suggestive videos are still sometimes suggested on the right hand side of the screen. You can't watch them, but the suggestive picture is there along with the provocative title. You'll just need to be a bit careful even when the video you want to watch is great.

Holiday cookies

2011-12-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

There are lots of things to over indulge in during the holiday season including late nights, fatty food and sweets. Most people don't think twice about the number of internet cookies they get into their system, though. In fact a lot of people don't even know what a cookie is or how it is used. Lets get that part out of the way first.

What is a cookie, anyway?

A cookie is just a small piece of text stored on your computer. It cannot gather data or crash your hard drive. It is just a short bit of text that a website sends to a browser like Firefox or Safari. That browser then stores that little bit of text for later. When you go back to the site, it will ask the browser to look up any cookies they might have sent you. The browser then sends the same text back to that site. So why do browsers do this? Well, look at what a cookie contains. Here's an example- ID=195AY2 www.website.com. In this cookie, the site just wants to be able to know that it's YOU coming back and not Joe Shmoe. That way they can say "Oh, hey Ben! Here are some new books we think you'd really enjoy." It makes the internet far more personal. Internet banking and online shopping depend on also cookies to function.

As with everything, there is an evil side to cookies. You don't necessarily want everyone knowing who you are all the time. You may not want Nike (for example) sharing your ID with Facebook to increase advertising revenue. It really comes down to an invasion of privacy. So what do you do? You may only want to get rid of cookies from a few websites you don't trust. Or you may want to delete all of your cookies and just start fresh.

A word of caution here... Don't delete all of your cookies unless you know the username and password to all of the websites you visit. If you go to a site that "just lets you in" it may use a cookie to do so. Erasing all of your cookies may prompt the site to ask you for your username and password. If you don't know them, you may be in for a few headaches!

Here is a list of three browsers and how you can delete the cookies you may have picked up during the holidays.

	Chrome Click on the little wrench on the upper right hand side of the browser. Go down to "Tools". Next click on "Clear browser data". You'll be given the option to clear your history, cookies, passwords and the like. You'll also be given the option to erase the information from the last hour, day, week, month or the beginning of time.
	Firefox In the top tool bar, click on "Tools" then "Clear recent history". From there, choose wich cookies you'd like to delete. Read this excellent tutorial for more.
	Safari This is the easiest browser to delete cookies from. Click on Safari, then go to Preferences. Go to the privacy tab. There you'll see how many cookies you have. Click on the "Details" button. You'll see this window pop up. Notice two things. You have the ability to remove ALL of the cookies if you want. Do this with caution. You'll also see a search bar at top. There, you can search for cookies from specific sites. Here, I've found a cookie from Facebook. To delete it, you could just hit "remove all" or you could choose the cookies you want to get rid of and hit "remove". You'll need to hit "done" when you are finished getting rid of the cookies you don't want.

Socializing productively

2011-12-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

This has been a great break. It was wonderful being able to chat with family and friends, many of whom I haven't seen in ages. Now I have to buckle down and prepare some lesson plans get ready for the upcoming semester. I could sit down create new and (hopefully) impactful lessons all on my own or I could start socializing and let my online community help me out.

Socializing professionally is not like chatting with folks over the holidays. The goal here is to decrease work wile at the same time increasing student performance. Here are some tips on how to use the online community to reduce your workload and improve your teaching. There are three main ways to go social on the internet. First, you can get in with a group and just wait to see what goodies show up. That's what most teachers do. Second, you could interact with some of the people in your group by answering some questions or making a comment here or there. The third and most time consuming activity is to actually share some of your ideas, ask some questions or publish some lesson plans.

Consuming content

Like I said earlier, the majority of us use the internet as a sort of treasure box filled with goodies. We go in, find some wonderful ideas for a class we're doing and move on to our grading or call some parents. I personally like to get ideas over email. As a member of NSTA, I get to be on a listserve for biology, chemistry and technology teachers. For anyone not familier with the term, a listserve is an email service which lets you send and receive email to and from a group. I never read new emails. Instead, I treat it as an idea bank. When I need a new idea for an upcoming lesson, I go into the folder I've stored them in and just perform a key word search.

Using Gmail, I can easily find what I need.

For example, when I would need advice on how to teach respiration, I'd go to that folder and search for all emails containing the word "respiration". I'd always find some great advice or a worksheet someone was willing to share. Since it all came from teachers who actually used the material in the classroom, I could have confidence in the material.

Reacting to content

The next most common way teachers use the internet is to interact with others online. This means going to sites to get the answer to a question you have or perhaps to comment on what someone has written in a blog or post. These sorts of sites about and include Yahoo Answers, Linkedin, or one of the many other sites found here. Perhaps my favorite place to interact with teachers is Edumodo.

This is a free, secure online social network designed to look and feel just like Facebook. However, it has several security features built in to make it teacher and student friendly. For example, the site does not have the ability for students to communicate with the outside world (except for their own parents). Instead, they can only hear from and write to their teacher and classmates. Really the only people interested in joining Edmodo are teachers and their students. That makes this site the perfect place to go when you have a burning question or an issue you'd like some advice on. Oh ya, did I mention you don't HAVE to put in your actual name? Use a pseudonym if you want some extra privacy and don't plan on using it for your students.

Creating content

By far the most rewarding thing that you can do online is create content. This means publishing your ideas, writing articles and advising other teachers. Of course, this is going to be the most time consuming and will require far more effort on your part. The benefits are huge, though. Giving over your ideas will tend to prompt others to give you their stuff. It becomes a virtuous circle. If you are going to be sharing your ideas, I would use Blogger, Diigo or Edmodo.

I've already spoken about Edmodo. Diigo is a social bookmarking site, allowing you to save and share websites you find interesting with groups of people. Blogger is, of course, where you can set up and write a blog. Any of these would be a fine choice. Really, whether you are just looking in and getting good ideas or helping others get advice for their classroom, try going social this year. You wont regret it.

Really, whether you're just looking in and getting good ideas or helping others get advice for their own classroom, try going social this semester. You'll love the results!

Gmail equals productivity

2011-12-26T12:06:00.000-08:00

One of the best ways to keep contact with parents, administration and parents is with email. That way, there is an indelible, time-stamped communication log to fall back on should there be any misunderstandings. Whenever possible, I always recommend using email as one of your primary communication tools.
Unfortunately, email can be a hassle. I can get a few dozen per day myself. There are important one, interesting ones that you don't really need to read and the emails that are just kind of dead weight. It can be a hassle sorting through this constant electronic drizzle. Once you do sort through the emails you get, it can be difficult to find an email when you need it later on. Worse yet, if you store your email on a your computer, you could loose precious information. If you keep a copy of your emails on the local server, you run the risk going over your email quota.
Gmail can solve all of these problems. You can have all of your email sent to Gmail (yes, any and all of your email accounts can easily be routed through Google) where it will be stored for free. You won't have to worry that you could loose important emails just because your laptop crashed. You also don't have to worry about going over your limit. I have 12,598 emails and my account is only 27% full (using 2078 MB of my allotted 7656 MB). That's huge! I don't have to take the time to sort through old emails, trying to decide if an email is worth keeping or not. With Gmail, I keep everything, knowing that I'll have an email if I ever need it again.
Of course, that begs the question of search. In my sea of 13,000 emails, how could I possibly hope to find what I need in a timely mannor? Like most Google products (Google calendar being the most notable exception), search in Gmail is excellent. I can find most emails I need within 30 seconds. Obscure emails take a few minutes. However, I have never failed to find what I need.
Want more information on how Gmail can improve your productivity? Tweet or email me.

PDF's change. This is how.

2011-12-23T16:44:00.000-08:00

PDF's are a great way to get your material out into the world. These files are relatively small and readable on nearly every divice from PCs to smart phones. They are also the go to format if you want to publish something that you don't want modified. While certain aspects of a PDF are a bit tricky to change, its no longer the case that they're immutable.

Apple has changed the PDF legacy for good. Take the program Preview. Unless a file is protected, you can add text or simple shapes as well as highlight or underline important sections of a file. You can also add notes which is nice if you are reviewing an article. Preview is also pretty good at character recognition, so you can copy sections of a document and past them elsewhere.

Pages, Apple's word processor, is an even more powerful way change up a PDF. It takes far more work, but the results are proportionately more aesthetically pleasing. With this program, you first must open a blank canvas from the template chooser. You can find this option under Page Layout (see the picture below).

Make sure that you have several blank pages ready before you start. Its easier to delete extra pages than to create a few new blank ones.

Next, just click, drag and drop a page from your PDF onto one of the blank pages you've just prepared. It will appear small and off center, but that's easy to fix as I'll explain in a moment.

The PDF will be outlined in blue and have small handlebars (little white boxes) surrounding it. That shows that it's selected and you can work with it. Now open inspector. In the illustration below, it is labeled with the numer 1.

Once inspector opens, click on the Metrics option (#2). For Size, type in a width of 8.5". As long as the Constrain proportions box is checked, the PDF will grow to a hight of 11". With that, your PDF is the proper size (#3).

Now you just need to change the position. Don't try to do this manually. By default, it's put into the background, so you can't grab and move the thing. Instead, use the Position indicators to adjust the placement (#4)

What you're left with is essentially a blank word processing document that has the original PDF in the background. Now you can make all sorts of useful changes. Cover up unwanted content with white squares. Fill in blanks using text boxes. Add pictures or other art. The possibilities are only limited by your creativity.

If you want to keep the PDF format, no problem. Just hit print. Apple gives you the option to save anything as a PDF that you would be able to send to a printer.

Browsers do matter

2011-12-22T07:39:00.000-08:00

A browser is a program that allows you to use the internet. Familiar browsers include Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome. Not much thought goes into choosing a specific browser most of the time for most people. They all bring you to the same internet, right? Well, if you use a wide variety of websites for your class or yourself, you know that some sites work better in one browser rather than another. The trick is to learn which browser to choose for a given site. Often, this is just trial and error. There's also a very good chance that your students will be able to tell you which browser will work best for what you want to do. Before asking students to do any work online, of course it's always wise to try out a couple of browsers in case one doesn't work well.

Something that many teachers often forget about is the fact that browsers offer different services. For example, Chrome provides simple youtube video downloads. Safari on the other hand works best with Apple products. For example, you can send pictures directly to iPhoto from most websites just by right clicking. Firefox has a reputation for being one of the most secure browsers out there. It also has a video downloading extension, but it's a bit more cumbersome than what you get with Chrome.

With all browsers there is the option to save bookmarks and settings in a place other than your computer. Chrome gives you the option to store your information online. Safari keeps everything in iCloud. You can store bookmarks for Firefox and I.E. as well with special add-ons.

Even if you've found a browser that you love, consider trying some of the others out there. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Google knows best?

2011-12-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

It is assumed that young people simply "know" how to use technology well. While it is true that children are growing up with the technology, most are unaware of how to use it effectively. A perfect analogy is the book. A kid who has grown up reading fantasy does not automatically know how to use a text book.

Students need to be shown how to identify and use appropriate technology. One of the most basic skills is how to search for valid information online. One study found that students trust Google to tell them which sites are most trustworthy rather than depending on their own judgement. With the internet generating astronomical amounts of media, students face an increasing threat of deception.

There are some simple things that we can do as teachers. We can regularly ask students to consider the source of any information they get. We can ask students to question what they are told (even when it comes from us). Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to regularly insist on analysis. Of course this is just good all around teaching. In our new online world though, this takes on new importance. When students get in the habit of thinking about what they are told, they will be less likely to be swayed what they see online.

Education's changing role

2011-11-26T13:10:00.001-08:00

William Butler Yeats said: "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." That may be more true today than ever before.

The reason of course is the explosion of high quality, free lessons online. Nearly anything you want to learn is there waiting to be accessed by anyone with an interest in trying to absorb it. These aren't just courses by random bloggers, either. Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Berkeley and MIT all have classes available free to the general public. As repositories of knowledge, most of us are woefully outmatched.

Paradoxically, most students aren't sure how to leverage the internet to squeeze the greatest amount of good out of this endless bounty. That, I believe, is where we can serve as guides. By daily teaching critical thinking, study habits and organizational skills we can help students gain the mental agility to glean the fruits of the internet. Our role is changing from someone who helps build up a knowledge base to a trainer for thinking skills.

Data Driven Classroom

2011-11-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

I was recently talking with a teacher about the common formative assessments her department uses to gage learning in the classroom. Most teachers, she told me are using paper based methods. That can be a very effective way to find out what the students are understanding from your lesson. They come in a variety of forms including bellwork and exit tickets. Unfortunately, these assessments are often hard to grade just because there is so much physical paper to sort through and record. After all, teachers are notoriously stretched for time and energy.

An alternative to using paper would be to use a clicker system or other electronic data collection tool. Clicker technology has been around for quite some time and includes systems such as Promethean and CPS. Both of these products are great by themselves. However, you need to be careful not to have both programs on your computer at the same time. They don't play well together.

Some other methods of electronic assessment involve the internet. Free online testing websites have exploded over the past 6 months as institutions such as Blackboard, Pearson and Google have invested in what is known as open course technology. The idea is that companies stand to gain big bucks if you use the free testing material, since you'll be more likely to buy their other products.

My favorite (free) online testing sites are:
Openclass
Blackboard's coursesites
Google forms (part of Google docs)

Professional development

2011-10-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the best place to get the kind of professional development you are actually looking for is online. Most of that content is going to be passive. That is, you will simply read, watch or listen to something that will improve your performance.Some of it will allow you to interact. Much of this includes the social networks such as Linkedin or Google plus.
Once in a while you will run into something that is designed to actually learn your preferences and deliver content that suites you and your interests. Netflix works this way. It suggests films you may like based on what you have watched in the past. I regularly use an app called Zite. This is a free, personalized iPad app which learns your preferences and scours the internet for stories and articles that you are likely to enjoy reading.
There is so much out there, each and every person can find a good way to learn anything you like for free!

Cirriculum mapping

2011-10-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Curriculum mapping is a powerful tool. It is a process of recording everything that is taught and assessed in order to improve instruction in a department. This can take some time, since each person in a given department has his or her own way structuring a class. In biology, for example, one teacher may want to start with chemistry and another prefers evolution. To add to this, there are different ways of scaffolding information and assessing what has been learned.

Google products can make this process more manageable.

In Google docs, all of your assessments from worksheets to tests can be stored and shared securely. By putting these documents online, other teachers can have access to your materials. Students can easily be blocked from seeing them however, making the system both secure and collaborative.

Google calendars increases selective collaboration even more. Here, you can enter the topic you are covering, the standard, performance indicator or essential question the topic covers. You can also attach any document you have in your Google docs account. Here's the really magical part of all this- it is secure!

If you only share your test with faculty members, then students cannot see it. However, any other teachers can take a look at what you're testing and adjust their teaching accordingly.

At the end of the year, when it comes time to map the curriculum, simply search for the standard, performance indicator or essential question. Every date in which the indicator was typed will show up instantly. Click on the date and the details of the entry appear. If you've attached a test or assignment stored in Google docs, you can share the material.

Using this method would not only benefit the department, but individual teachers. They would never have to wonder what they did last October. If they want to know how long they taught osmosis last year, they just look it up. Which handout went along with that lesson on rain forests? It's attached to the lesson.

Google docs combined with Google calendars is a powerful way to improve education.

Less Stupid

2011-04-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

A while ago an article was written on how Google is making us dumb. In a nutshell, it states that when we read material online, we skip through most of the content to get to the nuggets of useful information. We skim, search out bullet points, and try to find the main ideas.

Then we jump to our conclusions.

One way to get more out of our online experience is to add audio and video to our online experience. When we listen to podcasts or watch a video, we are less likely to miss out on important but subtle points.
So consider downloading a few podcasts this week on education material. Its a great way to improve your own learning!

Socializing

2011-04-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have a concept that I want to illustrate for my students. An activity or a game would be perfect, but first I need to find something. I could use something like Google and hope a good resource surfaces. However, that doesn't always work. The alternative is to use one of the social bookmarking sites out there and see what my colleagues recommend.

Diigo is an online bookmarking and discussion site designed to help people keep track of sites they like and see what other people have found noteworthy. With this service, you can build a community of like minded people then search through the sites those people have publicly bookmarked. That's exactly what I did. I found a great little activity on predator-prey relationships that fellow educators bookmarked. Since this is something my peers have found worth saving, I can assume they find it valuable and feel confident trying the activity with my own classes.

For anyone who is interested, you can see the original activity here.

Flairs

2011-04-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Little pictures are extremely useful on computers. Not only do we use them as icons for programs or thumbnails of larger pictures, they also help us organize things in a more intuitive way.

In Google Calendars, you can add small pictures to events you create. These little pictures are called "flairs".

I do my lesson planning in Google calendars and I use flairs to help me find things faster on the "month" view. Here is a summary of the flairs I use:

	Tests and Quizzes
	Labs we completed
	Homework that was due
	Vacation times
	Lectures or notes for that day.
	Movies we watched

They work really well, but sometimes the system malfunctions. When trying to add a flair, calendars informs you that there was "an error in downloading" or that you must click on a button to grant the program permission to add the flair.

The solution is to open up your Calendars in another browser. If you use Safari, try opening Firefox.
Once you have the other browser open, the program lets you add the flair. This also fixes the problem in the original browser.

Broken technology

2011-04-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

      When a pencil breaks, paper rips or someone uses a permanent marker on a white board, we don't stop using pencils, papers or white boards. We figure out better ways to use those tools.
It is the same with internet technology. This week, Google is having a printing error. The documents that I have created will not print out the way I expect (or need) them to.

It's a problem that is frustrating time consuming.

I'm not about to give up on the technology, though. It has served me well in the past and I know the company has a reputation to uphold. For now, I will find a way to work around the problem and wait for someone to fix the problem.

Science Vocabulary

2011-04-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

Biology students are taking a quiz today on vocabulary related to taxonomy. They have been preparing for this quiz all week. The list of terms was given to them at the end of THIS PACKET, created in Google docs.

The vocabulary list was created on its own before adding it to the final packet so that I could manipulate it in other ways later on. Last night, I simply made a copy of that list and erased the definitions.
Viola`! I now have a vocab quiz I can give to my students. Its also simple to accommodate learning disabilities. By keeping the definitions and just erasing the words, students who qualify can get a modified version of the same test.

Once the tests are made I can organize them into collections and use Google calendars to save them in my lesson plan- privately! {Click here to see an event with a test saved as a private attachment}

It is all easy to work with, saved online and secure. Google docs once again provides me with the tools I need to be more productive!