Waiver Day Information Video on Why & When to integrate Technology

Our Waiver Day was cancelled and instead made a calamity make up day, but there was some information that we planned to share on the day that we now have to find a new way to share.

One of those bits of information is for those still trying to get a grasp on their place in the whole 1:1 thing.  For them, these two questions come up quite often: What should be my purpose for integrating technology, and How do I know when integrating technology into my lesson is a good idea?

Well there are a couple of mental "checklists" that I've found useful in helping me answer those two questions.  I planned to share them, as well as illustrate them with digital tools as examples, on Waiver Day.  

Since it's not something that could now be done in person, I thought, Hey, why not put them in a video?  I share those lists in the video below, along with an email from the parent of one of Sara Lang's students (thanks for letting me share it, Sara) that I think is right on the money and proof positive about why what we're doing with our 1:1 program is so important.

Also, I've made a list of resources to illustrate one of those checklists.  They include some sites and functions I incorporated in the video, as well as interactive sites I've found that you may want to add to your arsenal of digital tools (I also tested them all out on the Chromebook). I'll add more interactive websites as I find them.

The checklists give me a lens through which to view technology, and I hope they'll provide you with a little focus as you consider why & when to integrate technology. 


         

Just a bit of FYI related to this video. I knew it was possible to add links (hotspots) in Youtube videos, and since I always like to challenge myself to learn/try something new on every project I start, I thought I would make the 1:1 video more interactive by adding places where the watcher could click on the actual video to get more information.  I made the video with that in mind.

Well, to quote Gomer Pyle (remember him?!), Surprise, surprise, surprise! 

When I went to add those hotspots, I realized that now only certain types of links can be embedded in a Youtube video (like links to Google Sites, for instance) -- but not just any link I wanted to use.  So I had to go back earlier this week and do some re-editing to the video to adapt to that little surprise. For this reason, the page of resources is linked under the posting date of the video on Youtube.

Staff Meeting, Feb. 24.2014

1:1 Essential #1

There are 4 key 1:1 essentials:

1. Having a digital “Home base” to create, make available, and receive student assignments and information.
2. Managing a 1:1 classroom
3. Creating & managing digital assessments
4. Setting Goals (to maintain focus and build confidence)

Today: Digital Home Base

Having a “home base” to create, make available, and receive student assignments and information is essential for any 21st century classroom. Teacher websites are the most common format for this, but there are other learning management environments -- teachers are limited only by their purpose, skill base, and creativity.

   Some may wonder if having different formats for different classes/teachers is an impediment for learners.  If you ask me, students need to develop an ease in navigating a variety of learning platforms. And as it turns out, students will generally adapt to differing online formats much the same way they adapt to different classroom setups, teaching styles, and teacher personalities.  It just takes a little time, exploration, and patience.  

Additionally, teachers who want to get better at integrating technology must explore the use of many possible technologies until they get one that is the right fit for them.  Teachers need to be comfortable in their Home Base and not have it ascribed to them.  So having choice is, in my opinion, very important.

A few options:

Classroom websites, which are the most common choice for a classroom Home Base, are popular in this district. Google Sites, probably since it is part of the Google family of apps, seems to be the most-used tool.  There are many fine examples here at the middle school (see below), as well as at the high school, which would show why they're a mainstay classroom learning environment.

Here are just a few examples from the high school that show the versatility of a website:

• Mr. Comeras utilizes many engaging tools and posts his daily agenda with links (anyone who might be absent can still work from home)
• Mr. Nethers' cool, clean format is easy to follow and maintain. He helps students stay current with their assignments; he also has separate tabs set up for assignment turn in and weekly objectives. He has chosen to maintain a different website for each different preparation as well as for each period (Sociology and World History).
• Mr. Zidron's site is blog style as is Mrs. Dudgeon's. Mrs. Dudgeon uses a separate tab for her classroom notes.

You can review more Licking Valley High School Google Sites HERE

Now for a few here at the middle school, some of which are Google Sites, some not  (These teachers will be giving us a virtual tour of their sites at our Staff Meeting on Feb. 24.)

Google Sites

7th grade team (with links to each teacher)

  

Adam Britton                                           

Christy George

Nikki Thompson
Stacey Hamilton 

Sara Lang

Wix and Weebly Sites

Justin Fickes

Melanie Strock

 Kristin Dennis

             Middle School

             Elementary School

(Wix and Weebly are free, easy-to use website builders: check them out HERE and HERE)

Tutorial Videos

Weebly tutorial that starts at the beginning  HERE and HERE 

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From the Wix site, a good series of video tutorials to get started.  

And from youtube, some good editing ideas for Wix.

A couple of other non-websites
 to consider as a Home Base:

Edmodo: it looks like Facebook and is more social in format and use. Students can also turn in assignments and take quizzes. Information and learning guide

How a teacher uses it to flip his classroom and a bit of how to

Livebinder:  Livebinders is a tool that organizes information and shares via a set of tabs. Livebinders has been around for a while but has recently added a lot of new features that make it more versatile and "Home Base" friendly.

Examples of the old Livebinders Format:

As a teacher website:  old look
P.E. Resources

Family & Consumer Sciences resources

Gluten info 
How Art Benefits Students with Special Needs

Projects and portfolios

Livebinders Classroom Website Pages: New Look

Mrs. Gurney
Mr.'s Gibson and Irby

In the end, whatever you decide on as a Home Base, what is important is that you have one.  Try different things and look at what other teachers have done/ are doing.  With some due diligence -- and yes, time invested, you'll end up with a place that will make you and your students feel at "Home."

Find the random name generator we used, as well as other fun teacher tools, HERE.

1:1 Meeting Tidbits

In a 1:1 meeting today which also included the superintendent, treasurer, high school principal, and IT & Technology staff, Scott presented his choice for student devices, provided an update on our tech status, and shared ideas for a support plan.  The discussions were very positive.

Some notes:


Our device of choice:  the Lenovo x131 Chromebook   






The Carrying Case:  InfoCase (very sturdy; the device need not leave the case to be used)






Also, 

• MS Teacher laptops will not be replaced at this time
• We are increasing our bandwidth (for faster internet)
• There may be a few upgrades that need finished, but by and large, that's about done.
• Both the larger and smaller (room 146) computer labs will stay functioning as they are at least for next year (for testing purposes).
• Other physical changes are still being discussed, but it's possible the "fishbowl" will be a technology support center.  Some high school students might also be recruited, esp. for the beginning and end of the day and/or during lunches to assist.

Jazz Up Your Website

If you're looking to "jazz" up your classroom website, here are some ideas presented at an after-school session.

Peruse below or CLICK HERE for a link to get your own copy of my session resource sheet.

Ask for help if you need it -- I'm glad to help.

 

Student Google Logins Are Available

Thanks to Mike, TJ, and Scott for sending out the "all clear" for teachers to begin working with student district Google log ins.

The lists of student user names/ gmail addresses are in a folder on the Staff Shared Directory under “Google Student Account Info”.  You’ll need to know that location if you want to import them for sending of group student emails (instructions for doing that are below).

Information on passwords is provided below:

WHY ARE THESE COMING OUT NOW?

We’re sending these out now because some teachers have expressed an interest in getting started/ experimenting a bit using Google docs with their students.  In fact, Melanie Strock and Ara Fee (among others) have already started experimenting – Melanie to post, track, and receive assignments and Ara as a way for students to turn in assignments and take quizzes using his website.  Some others would like to use online resources that require a student email.  Please know that nobody is being required to use these now, but there’s certainly no time like the present to get started if you’re ready.    

WHAT CAN I DO WITH THEM?

1. Get students into some of the Google Apps (like Google Docs).

 – and if you have a website and would like students to “turn in” Google docs assignments on it, I’ll be showing everyone how to do that in Google Forms training in February, but I’m very happy to show you before then – just let me know and I'll show you how).

2.  Maybe you’d like to use an online resource and students need emails for registration purposes.

3.  Once students have email addresses, you can send them email reminders, assignments, make up work, etc. 

• How can I make contacts out of all those names and send a mass email to all or some of my students at once?

• To set up groups and create mailing lists for them, here's my how-to video (and as always, I’m also happy to show you in person).

HOW SHOULD STUDENTS LOG IN? 

AND how can students get forgotten passwords reset? 

 AND how can I get my own STAFF password reset? 

Ask students to use the the DISTRICT Google Login. Depending on how a teacher decides to share information, students may not have access to everything if they don't; in addition, students won't need to remember the long log in username.

The district login link is in 3 places on the MIDDLE SCHOOL edline site: Student Links (Google Apps for Education Log In (District) and Staff Links(Google Apps for Education Log In (District); it’s also the first link under Links.  It’s also on the LV District site).

   

WHAT'S THE LOG IN AND PASSWORD? 

Since this is a public site, please log in using your LV District Google account information and then click HERE.

I now have access to the dashboard, which allows me to reset passwords & add and delete students; I can also now reset staff passwords, so please let me know of issues related to these functions.

Microsoft's Answer to Google Docs and SmartBoard Online

Check these out...
 (and let us know what you think)

1.  SkyDrive from Microsoft

UPDATE:  the name has been changed to ONE DRIVE (read about it here)

One 1:1 issue that's garnering plenty of discussion is what happens if students no longer have access to Word (or other programs in the MS Office Suite) but teachers still want to use some Word docs they love and continue to create assignments using Word.

Teachers have said they would like to be able to...

• Create a "Word" (or PowerPt or Excel) doc that has a link, just like a Google Doc does;
• Get a link to that Word document that is both shareable and embeddable in a website;
• Allow students to be able to type on and make changes in that Word document, even if they no longer have access to the MS. Suite;
• Upload and get a link for an already-created Word doc with images/graphs so it doesn't have to be redone (because Google docs often loses image/chart integrity in the upload process);
• Be able to work with that document across other devices (like an ipad) and sync it.

Here is a possible solution --from Microsoft itself -- that's been out there but, in my opinion, has not been publicized nearly enough:

SkyDrive is Microsoft's answer to Google docs.  It works through Microsoft Live and does all the things I just listed... for free, in the cloud, with a simple registration process.  

The SkyDrive version of Word does not have all the bells and whistles of full Word software, but it has the most important functions.  Also, teachers, whenever you create a SkyDrive document, you have the option of creating it using full Word or the online version (as long as your computer already has the full version, of course).

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Signing up is easy (and if you already have a hotmail account, you're already there):   SIGN UP

Learn more about Office Web Apps

Download the app for your device

Very good tutorial with some time-saving hints

Notice that once I have Skydrive, it automatically lists on my drive:

                                        ***********

I've been playing with SkyDrive a bit and find it pretty easy to use -- please let me know what you think/ come see me with questions.

2.  Smart Notebook Online

Both of these Smart Notebook Web options are relatively new and still in development, but according to the website, you can now "View, save, and interact with Smart Notebook Files" online.

The "express" version HERE allows you to save.  Lessons are also easily shareable online and across devices.  Here's a nice little overview video. 

There's a beta version HERE (they're still testing it);does not allow saving for now.

(source: http://www.simmonsinclass.com/2011/06/08/smart-notebook-in-the-clouds/)

Experiment ... and let me or your Tech Team Leader (Adam Britton, Justin Fickes, Ara Fee) know what you think.

  

Some Words of Introduction to Adam's Guest Blog and Video

Before you watch the video about Adam...

Whenever I work on a project that I know will take a lot of time to complete anyway, I always make sure I learn something new in the process -- I love a good challenge.  Well, in creating the video to accompany Adam's blog, I wanted to try to do something with video editing I'd not done before, namely, layer in some video of him in the classroom to complement his preference for talking tech via a Google Hangout (which, as he says in the video, he did because he also wanted to learn something new).  I also needed to edit down our original Hangout to about half its length and hoped to create at least a somewhat cohesive final product.

The software I decided to use, Camtasia Studio, I had on a 30 day trial; somehow the nice Tech Smith people forgot to remove my ability to use it after my 30 days were up, so I thought I was lucky.  As it turned out, eh... not so much: I believe the software slowly self-destructs after the trial period, because whole slices of video were playing back empty or black, the software froze up after about fifteen minutes each time I used it, and it didn't like the format of the video I was using, even though it was the required type. 

So this little video project, which I originally thought might take me a few evening or weekend hours here or there, has ended up taking almost a month. It's also very imperfect, but I'm ok with that because I'm learning something new.  I also ascribe to the notion, whether it's about integrating technology or about life in general, that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

All the little bits and pieces across the bottom (eventually) became the final video.

Although that "free" software ended up costing me a lot of time, I still leave the experience feeling satisfied about two things:  I did learn how to do some simple layering of video, and -- most importantly -- I can now share my results, imperfect as they are, with others who I know will learn a lot from watching and listening to Adam's realistic take on becoming a "tech genius" and his plans for next year.

Believe me when I say that not all video editing software is as aggravating as what I chose to use; in fact, the title slides and music I added using MovieMaker, which is pretty user-friendly -- happily, Adam's blog also includes his document listing user-friendly screen cast tools.

As Adam says and writes below, using technology requires being ok when efforts are imperfect -- just be proud of the challenge you took on and CLICK SOME BUTTONS! With those words, I'll send you to Adam's guest blog and video.  I know you'll be inspired!