The Vault: Posts through August 2015
SPAM Bots took over the comments! But I am unhiding these temporarily.
We just finished three days of faculty professional development at the school where I work. About 17 faculty members and 10 student leaders designed, planned, and facilitated a variety of workshops. The first two days focused on current research and how we apply it to our technology integration choices. The third day focused on giving the brain a break from the norm and trying out experiences that otherwise might not be available or accessible to participants. If you want to see descriptions of the sessions in which over 70 faculty members participated, scroll down. I recently learned about Postach.io from @gregkulowiec and found that it provided a great way to quickly share artifacts during the workshop while also allowing me to add to my existing repository in Evernote. You can view all of the shared artifacts here: http://reshanrichards.postach.io. Communication Breakdown
Feedback should be nuanced, layered, and developmentally appropriate. Come explore and create types of feedback that students can (and might actually) use. Examine tools such as Evernote, Word/Acrobat, TurnItIn, NoodleTools, and SoundCloud for providing timely and useful feedback. LibGuides: It's Not Just for Research Projects Thoughtful scaffolding for lessons, projects, and units can be incredibly powerful for the learning experience. Become familiar with and create LibGuides to unlock new affordances and opportunities that are different than other tools we have access to. Organizing Student Media for Assessing the Big Picture Students are creating more and more digital media (photos, movies, presentations) as representations of their understanding. How do we as teachers collect and organize these artifacts to be able to assess the big picture of where a class is in their collective learning? Explore approaches such as AirDrop, Email, Evernote, Dropbox, and more for making collection and organization more accessible, and access to collective student resources more meaningful and useful. iPad Workgroup For MS and US iPad Pilot participants as well as all interested PS Faculty members. Collaborating in the Cloud We'll look at three levels of using Google services - Docs for collaborative writing and collection, Drive for file sharing, Hangouts for video conferencing - to promote collaboration among students, faculty, and leadership. Lemmings or Detectives Ever wish your students questioned more and readily accepted less? Explore a few easily-integrated strategies to create a questioning atmosphere in your classroom. We’ll use Padlet and commenting features in Adobe as a springboard for helping your students become positive skeptics and serial questioners. Blended Learning: Promoting student mastery How do you use technology tools to help students master material outside the classroom to free up time in the classroom? This session provides time to discuss and explore tools to help support this type of learning environment, and it draws connections to the Blended Learning session offered in the afternoon. Blended Learning: Flipping the Classroom or Restructuring it? The flipped classroom is all the rage these days. This workshop would be a forum for discussing how to best use the time in the classroom, if you're using a flipped model outside the classroom. What sort of things can/should students be doing that require physical proximity? Making the Most of your Mac: Efficient Shortcuts for Your Computer This session is for anyone who wants to become more comfortable with their keyboard and mouse through shortcuts to find ways to speed up their everyday computer use. Shortcuts range from the basic to the obvious: things like two finger scrolling to switching between apps to pulling up reminders with your trackpad. Postach.io and Evernote Learn how to use this tool to create a dynamic blog using only your Evernote account. This is the tool that was discussed during the morning opening. Prezi Learn how to use this popular web based presentation tool that lets you create non linear presentations with sophisticated templates, tools, and navigation options. Prezi recently updated their editing interface, so this session provides people familiar with the tool time to explore the new version. Creating Educational Media Using Adobe Photoshop CS6 The MacBook Airs have the newest version of the Adobe Suite. Learn how students can use Adobe Photoshop to create class-related media, such as an informational poster. Skitch & Fluid This session combines two very different apps. Skitch is an app that lets you annotate photos and documents with a simple interface that also can directly sync to your Evernote account. Fluid lets you take any website and turn it into an application with a custom icon and a clean and focused interface. Google Apps: Basics and beyond If you have a Google account (Gmail or one associated with another email address) you may not be aware of the amazing tools and features you have free access to. Explore Google Docs, Presentations, Google Drive, and more. Super PDFs Learn how to efficiently scan papers with the copiers, archive documents in Evernote, combine PDFs with Acrobat, and create electronic forms from a PDF. Haiku Deck & Class Dojo (for iPad) Haiku Deck is a presentation tool for iPad with a simple interface and access to millions of creative commons licensed photos. THough Class Dojo bills itself as 'behavior management' software, the feature set can be used to create engaging opportunities. Classtools.net - Fakebook, FakeTweet, FakeText What would Shakespeare's Facebook page look like? If Caesar was tweeting, what would he say? Play with fun and dynamic templates for creating mock Facebook pages, Tweets, and Text Message conversations which many young people may relate to. Apple TV, Airplay, and Wireless Projection Learn how you and your students can wireless transmit audio and video from the Macbook Air laptops to the Apple TV in the classrooms. In addition to hands on practice, we'll also discuss the decision making factors for when to use the wired connection vs. when to use AirPlay. Book Creator and Strip Designer (for iPad) iPad Creation Tools Evernote: The Basics If it's been a while since you used Evernote or you would just like a refresher on how it works and can be used with students, this is the session for you. Care and Feeding of Your Laptop Back by popular demand, learn ways to optimize and maintain Mountain Lion for better day to day performance and a better overall experience. Mountain Lion 101 Follow up to morning opening - Notifications, Messages, Apple ID, Gestures, and Features of the MacBook Air Open Work Time Use this supported time to explore an idea or play with a tool that you learned about today. Work individually or ge ta a group of colleagues together to plan a lesson or project. 3D Design and Printing Sketch a simple 3-dimensional object, create a digital 3D rendering, and print it out on a 3D Printer. Acting Games, Exercises, and Improvisation Many of the exercises used by actors to warm up, to connect with scene partners and to hone their craft can also be easily applicable to other subject areas. In this session, we will play each game and do certain exercises and then discuss ways they can be shaped to work in other units of study. At the very least, all of what you will experience are great ways to get a class to 'change thinking gears', get their 'creative brains moving' , work well in a group project or just wake up! DIY Healthy Eats Hungry, but pressed for time? Worried about your carbon footprint in the kitchen? How can one prepare quick, healthy, more wholesome meals that don’t break the bank..and STILL taste delicious? Feel the Pulse (for non-musicians) Experience and refine the art of collaboration using the senses. Explore how music and time play together and how a pulse keeps music alive. We will use a variety of percussion instruments to experience how musicians communicate, assemble music and share it with others. Feel the Pulse (for experienced - or former - instrumentalists) Experience the fun and wonder of making music with others by remembering how musicians communicate, assemble music and share it with others. Create a common pulse, divide and expand it, create "color" combinations of sound. The Jewels of Montclair: Nature Walk + Picnic Take a 3 mile (mostly downhill) walk visiting 4 parks along the way. Enjoy a picnic lunch in Brookdale Park. If you like, participate in a nature scavenger hunt. Learning to Code We use computers every day, in school and out, but have you ever wondered how the sites and services you interact with actually are built? No programming or computer science experience is necessary for getting started in building your own simple interactive experiences. MakeyMakey & Scratch 2.0 "MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It's a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything in-between" "With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations" Minecraft In this session, participants will get a firsthand chance to explore the incredibly popular game/design environment of Minecraft. MinecraftEDU is a modified version of Minecraft created by a teacher in New York City. Printmaking How did we get from there (cave paintings) to here (Mac, Internet,Video, 3D Printing)? We will be using "found" and constructed/modified objects to make prints using inks, dyes and paints.
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Here is a video of the TEDxNYED talk I did several weeks ago. I shared some thoughts about how the term assessment is being misused to represent grades and data, when it should be about guidance and support. I also talked about how design of educational technology should not be about controlling the learning experience, but instead about providing an open and flexible canvas for people to create and manipulate knowledge and ideas. I think I was pretty ambitious with how things were staged on the slides because the editing doesn't always match what you see with what I am saying. It was an honor to be able to present on that stage with so many other terrific speakers. On Saturday I'll be joining an incredible lineup of educators and thought leaders at TEDxNYED (www.tedxnyed.com). Tickets are still available (click on 'Attend).
I'll be sharing some thoughts on Formative Learning and Assessment and do my best to connect them to the day's theme of Inside-Outside. I'm having fun putting together the visual elements - references to look forward to include: King's Quest, Zelda, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto, Back to the Future, Toasters, Inkjet Printers, The Terminator, and more! Hope to see you there! This week I'll be heading down to the iPad Summit in Atlanta. I'm putting two links that will be used in one of my sessions titled Explaining Everything: Screencasting and Qualitative Formative Assessment. Option 1 (Suggested for 8-9 People) https://www.dropbox.com/s/k7vvnet02w4t47q/bradybunch.png Option 2 (Suggested for 3-4 People) https://www.dropbox.com/s/xyr3iy99z0wew6b/muppetIntroBG.png The use of these images falls into a grey area of education fair use. Will take down links upon request from copyright holder! Also, check out the screenshot below. It's from the iPad App Store in Australia and New Zealand. Explain Everything was featured as on the front page as the first app for all categories. Pretty cool! Here is the slide deck for my session (content will probably be updated as the date nears): http://www.haikudeck.com/p/29wctjexHc/ipad-summit-2013
It's always nice when my daily Google searches come up with something like this. She described an app used in the first-grade classroom called Explain Everything, which allows a child to record his own voice describing materials found on a nature walk, or interviewing a classmate about “what makes it rain.” “It’s inquiry-based,” she said, “and it’s a very different model from what parents in the U.S. are doing right now, where we’re looking for apps to promote literacy, or expose children to words, and expecting this moment of learning, instead of looking for apps that make the iPad a tool for allowing them to create.” It's from the Adventures in Parenting blog on the New York Times. Here is the full article: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/parents-of-the-touch-screen-generation-dont-free-your-ipad-yet/
It is a response to another article that recently appeared in The Atlantic. Yesterday I mentioned that one of my three big projects for 2013 was writing a book. My colleague, Stephen Valentine (@sjvalentine), and I are making a bold attempt to both articulate and model leadership and collaboration in a time where access to information and people are ubiquitous and The challenge is to produce something that is relevant, interesting, and innovative while not presuming, overstating, or generalizing. Steve has written about this project on his blog: www.refreshingwednesday.com. Last year I attended a talk by Dr. David Reinking about his work with design experiments (same vein as design-based research). In this presentation to Teachers College doctoral students and faculty, he said that one of the best things about this type of research was that even if a design study appears to be a failure from the outside, there is always something to write about as the reasons for the perceived failure are helpful for other design researchers. So if Steve and I should stumble, or even 'fail,' we still will learn and acquire new insights to share with others. I don't see how any aspect of this experience can be a failure. There is a community that gets together on Twitter every Saturday morning for something called #satchat, a conversation for school administrators and educators to discuss different ideas and challenges. We want to add to this type of dialogue by engaging a conversation about leading in an online world. So starting this Thursday 1/3 at 9 PM ET (after the kids have gone to bed) Steve and I are going to moderate a weekly chat with the hashtag #leadingonline to share and explore ideas that up until this week have been brewing in a shared Google Doc only accessible to me and him.
The first topic will be: Asking For Help. This is timely, as Steve and I will be asking for help from the greater education leadership community as we work on this project. Dissertation, Explain Everything 2.0, and a Book Doctoral DissertationI'm already in the participant selection phase for the first of three case studies that are part of my doctoral research. I am exploring the relationship between teachers' beliefs on learning and their instructional practices, using mobile screencasting and qualitative formative assessment as lenses for this examination. My methodology is what I am calling 'Design Based Case Study Research.' Explain Everything 2.0I've been bad about posting stuff on this blog mostly because I have spent less time investigating new tools and more time working on getting an upgrade to Explain Everything ready for public release. The feature that I am most excited about is the ability to insert and annotate over videos - live and imported. I'm excited to see what people come up with. YOu can learn more about what's going on with EE 2.0 by clicking here. A BookLast summer a colleague and I led a workshop called 'Leading Online' at a couple of summer educational technology conferences. After putting some time into both the planning and the execution of this workshop, we considered ways to take what we had done and allow it to evolve in some other format. I have enjoyed getting familiar with iBooks author where I have been putting together a manual for Explain Everything. We are considering using the iBooks ecosystem for distribution of the book. Tomorrow, I'll post some more about our ideas and plans.
This free app is incredibly engaging. You start with four elements (air, water, earth, and fire) and are required to combine elements to make new materials. Right now there are a total of 330 possibilities and that list keeps growing. While it is not a true scientific environment, it does afford the chance to think about the relationship between certain elements. For example, when you mix water and earth you get mud. Or when you combine lava with air you get stone. There are some silly combinations as well. My favorite so far is that a sword and the energy element combine to create a light saber. Add a human and you've got a Jedi! The logic of this activity reminds me a lot of the crafting aspect in Minecraft. Some Middle School students at my school have been showing me how to create things in Minecraft worlds, and I soon learned about how intricate the crafting interface is.
Infographics are the new thing it seems for telling a story or supporting an argument. Easel.ly is a free web-based tool that lets you work with templates for creating really elegant visual representations of information. There are a bunch of templates and objects that can be added to the infographic, and you can upload your own content. The interface is very simple and easy to navigate. While I love the updates to the Prezi editor and have generally thought that Glogster is a interesting presentation medium, I find that Easel.ly has better web-based interface design for visual content organization. My only gripe is that it doesn't work well on the iPad! With this growing use of infographics, I like to remind myself about how easy it is to be persuaded by the arrangement of information rather than the facts. I think it is a skill to create persuavive materials, but I also think that a fine line has to be drawn between persuasion and deception. What would you think if you saw this infographic at the top of this post?
I might be taking a break from Prezi for a little while and start using HaikuDeck for all of my presentations. This really well-designed app for iPad forces the user to focus on the most important point of any slide by limiting the amount of text and images that are on the screen at any given moment. What is most impressive is the amazing and seemingly endless collection of professional photographs which can be used as the backdrop for slides (you can also import photos from the photo roll or take a new picture). It's a free app and it comes with a bunch of great default themes (you can buy more 'themes' as in-app purchases) I made a few slides for a presentation yesterday and ended up taking screenshots from my device so that I could import them into Explain Everything. I did find that you can export the file. It downloads as a .pptx file though you have to manually append the extension. The slides above are embedded from HaikuDeck.com.
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August 2015
Header photo by Robert S. Donovan
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