Optional Post #2: Tis the Season of Giving

This week's assignment is optional--you only need to complete it if you missed one of the previous weeks' posts. In the spirit of the holidays, I thought we'd give someone who isn't in our class the gift of something you've learned. Here's how it works:

1. Look over the past posts and find something you think you'd like to pass on to someone else.
2. Pick a person on your staff to receive your "gift of knowledge."
3. Visit that person and say, "Hey, do you have minute so I can show you this cool thing I learned?"
4. Show them. (Don't forget, let them "drive." Only in dire situations should you take over the keyboard or mouse of another person--we learn best by doing.)
5. Come back here and tell us what you shared and why, and a little bit about the experience.
6. Enjoy your break!

Week 8: May I Present . . .

Sick of PowerPoint? Yes, there are other presentation tools out there. To see how many just take a look (right) at the array of Web 2.0 tools tagged with the word presentation. Some require a download, so you and students could use them on your personal devices, but not on school computers. Others live entirely online--nothing to download.

For this week's post I'll feature two options and one resource you might not be aware of.

Google Documents has a presentation tool. (I know I said no more Google last week, but I can't help it.) It works pretty much just like an older version of PowerPoint. Its main virtue is that it's collaborative; something that PowerPoint definitely is not. Several people can view and edit the same presentation (as I recall, up to 25 people can edit at the same time). Imagine that! Instead of your students saving their PowerPoints to the public drive or passing around a jump drive, their team project can live online--they can access it from home and school! Another benefit is that when they share it with you, you can see the revision history. Did someone say they did all the work? Well, why not just take a look. NOTE: To use Google Presentations, you need a Google Account. To have a Google Account, you must be over 13*. Another NOTE: If you want to learn more about using the collaborative nature of Google Docs, make sure you attend the Summer Conference--we'll definitely have some classes.

And now for something entirely different! Prezi! You've got to see this one to believe it. (Here's the link to the Prezi pictured to the left.) It's a zooming, non-linear presentation editor. Unfortunately, Prezi restricts its use to those over 18*, so it's off bounds for most of our students. However, if a student has parental permission, they may use it if they are over 13. (Also, they recently launched a educational licensing--so check that out if you want to use with students over 13.) I can easily imagine some of you using it in place of PowerPoint for some of your own presentations. When I first started playing with Prezi a couple years ago, I faced a steep learning curve because I was so used to the linear format of PowerPoint. Nonetheless, I loved the idea. So much more interesting than a traditional PowerPoint--watch the 1-minute video at their site to get the idea.

Finally, do you know about Slideshare? Slideshare is a presentation hosting site. Folks from all over upload and share presentations they've made. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yes, someone probably already has made a presentation about your topic. I like browsing to see what's  available for my own learning, for examples of good (lots of images/little text) and (unfortunately) bad (few images/lots of text) presentation examples, and for slide shows I might be able to use myself.

Bonus: One more thing (sorry): Do you know about Pecha Kucha? Pecha Kucha is a presentation format devised in Tokyo in 2003. Presenters get 20 slides and 20 seconds to talk for each slide. The slides are forwarded automatically while the presenter speaks. Pecha Kucha Nights are held all over the world now. Maybe there's a Pecha Kucha Day coming to a classroom near you? Let me know, I'd love to come.

This week's assignment (choose one of the following):

1. Investigate Google Presentation, Prezi, or one of the other web 2.0 presentation tools. What do you think? Report back here.
2. Check out Slideshare's collection of presentations. Here's the link to their education section. What did you find? What could you contribute?

*I mentioned age requirements twice in this post. Why? Because we need to make sure we're aware of the age requirements sites have AND that we're having students comply with them. It's not okay to tell students to lie about their age in order to use a site. You can find age requirements in a site's Terms of Use. (Yes, you should be reading the Terms of Use--especially if you're using the site with students.)

REMINDER: This post isn't due until after break. Next week I'll post an optional assignment for those who need to make up a week they missed.

Week 7: Can't Get Enough of Google

So, last week I asked you to submit some information using an embedded survey-like tool. (Thanks, by the way.) That tool was actually a Google Form which works with Google spreadsheets to help you collect information in a VERY EASY way. I embedded that form into the blog post, but I could have just as easily shared a link through email or as a hyperlink in the post. So, like I said, it's easy to create a form, but the best part is that as folks submit their information, that information is sent directly to a spreadsheet. You need a Google Account to create a form, but anyone can fill one out. Oh, and did I mention it's easy? Need convincing?

Here's a little video showing just how easy creating a form is.

Using Google Forms from 10Tech on Vimeo.

Anyone who has the link to your form can submit answers--respondents don't need a Google Account, so yes, using this with students of any age would be easy. Just post the link on your SWIFT site. You could probably even embed the code into your SWIFT site--I just haven't tried that yet. (If the words "embed code" just freaked you out, don't worry--no one expects you to do this.)

If Google Docs are new to you, you might want to learn a little more about them here.

So, for this week's assignment, two options (choose one or do both for extra credit*):

1. Give Google Forms a test run. Try it out and make one. Even if you only share it with your significant other, collect some responses. Come back here and tell us about your experience. OR
2. Can you imagine using Google Forms in your classroom/professional role? If so, how?

*No, there's not really any extra credit. :) But if it will help, I will put a star by your name in the "grade book."
Finally, I'll try not feature Google again next week. It's hard though, there are just so many cool things.

Week 6: Mid-term--How's it going?

Well, we're a little past the halfway point. How is it going?

For this week's assignment, I'm asking you to do three things:

1. Provide a little bit of information about your experience so far by answering these questions:
2. Revisit two of the previous blog posts (find access to the archived posts in the lower right corner hand of this page), and read through folks' comments. Find at least one thing to comment on and "reply" to that comment by clicking "reply" and leaving an insight, answer, or suggestion to that comment. One of the benefits of blogging is the conversation it allows for. Imagine if we had done this class via email. I could have sent you each week's post in an email and you could have responded to me with a reply to that email. However, notice how much richer it is to see and respond to each other's thinking using the blog instead.

3. Leave a comment to this post with your "mid-term" reflection. Anything you want to share is fine, but here a few questions you might want to consider: How is this set up working for you? How does learning this way stack up next to more traditional ways of learning? Have you learned anything about the way you learn that might impact how you teach? Any suggestions for the second half of the class? Remember--commenting on someone else's post counts. And, of course, thank you for your feedback!

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bybri/2604493952/

Thanksgiving Week Optional Make-up Post

Well, we've had a couple snow days, then Thanksgiving was upon us, and, of course, what did I do? Totally spaced this week's optional blog post. Sorry about that. So here's what we're going to do--if you missed posting a comment so far, and were counting on this opportunity to make it up, I'd like you to think about how technology is making your life easier. What are one or two ways that you are thankful for technology? Think about it, then post your thoughts below. :) Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 5: What a View!

Have you checked out Google Street View yet? You should because Google Street View has probably already checked out you! You’d be surprised where you and your class can go. Reading a book set in Iowa? Might as well “drive” down Temple Ave. in Shell Rock so that students can get a glimpse of the vast terrain. Or maybe “drive” by the Guggenheim on 5th Ave. in New York City. It’s easy—just visit Google Maps, plug in an address or just zoom in on an area you wish to “visit.” Look for the little yellow guy and drag him over to one of the street views that are available in that area (available streets will be highlighted in blue).

This week, tell us how you might use Google Street View in your classroom. Be creative! It’s not just a mapping tool. When I looked at my house using Street View, I was able to use clues (evidence) in the view to determine the day and time (well, I narrowed it down to a 4-hour period) they must have driven down my street.

OR

If there isn't a way you could use Street View, visit the Google for Educators page or the Google blog (side note: it's really amazing what Google offers beyond search) to to learn about some of the other great resources Google offers that might be useful to you and your students. Let us know what you find and how you might use it.

Week 4: Seek and Ye Shall Find

This week's lesson isn't really about a tool, it's about how solutions to challenges and new possibilities are just a Google search away.

To begin, we'll start with some background on a challenge I faced last year with this very class.

Successful online learning and engagement depends on having a way for participants to exchange ideas with others and discuss the class topics. Many of our teachers are using the discussion feature of their SWIFT sites to host online discussions with students. Some teachers use it as homework prior to an in-class discussion and some as a way to extend lessons beyond the school day. If you want to learn more about using the discussion feature of SWIFT, see page nine of the SWIFT User Guide. One of the limitations of the SWIFT discussion feature, however, is that the discussions aren’t threaded. This means that as students post comments, the comments simply appear in chronological order, making it difficult for a student (or the teacher) to respond to a particular comment that may have appeared early on in the discussion. Threaded discussions allow people to respond to particular comments; they allow the conversation to branch off into different directions.

Unfortunately, Blogger (the tool we’re using for this class/blog) also doesn’t offer threaded discussions with its embedded commenting tool, making it difficult for me (or you) to reply directly to someone’s comment. However, we're not using Blogger's embedded commenting tool. Instead,  I uploaded a third party application that replaces the Blogger commenting tool with one that allows for threaded commenting. Yippee! 

This is how it happened: Last year when we started this class, I knew Blogger didn’t offer threaded discussions, but I figured that I’m not the only person who wished it did, so I Googled “adding threaded discussion to Blogger.” That led me to a blog post about third party applications I could add to the blog to increase interactivity. That’s where I learned about Intense Debate—the application I’m using to provide threaded discussion for our class on this blog. Within 15 minutes I had followed the step-by-step directions for editing the blog template, copied and inserted the HTML, and—voila!—we had threaded comments on the blog. Did I really know what I was doing? No. I don’t know HTML. I don’t know how to edit a blog’s internal template. But I do know how to search for an answer to a question/challenge I have AND I know how to follow directions. That’s all it took.

So, that's this week's theme: If you believe it should be possible, it probably is—all you have to do is look. I offer this anecdote as evidence that there is a solution out there for most of our challenges if we look and are willing to invest in a little risk taking. If I had seen this issue as a problem, I might have just begrudgingly accepted my plight (no threaded commenting) and would not have investigated further. However, I felt comfortable taking matters into my own hands and did some self-directed learning—something I think we (and our students) are going to be expected to do more and more of in this new digital world. In my role, I am confronted by this reality day after day, yet every time I am amazed and delighted. What about you?

a. Share a time you went online with a question/challenge and “taught” yourself how to do something new.

OR

b. Do it now . . . what’s a question/challenge you have in your class right now? Go online and look for your solution. How did it go?

Week 3: You're #1 with Teachers First

Great ideas and comments last week--check them out if you haven't already! I hope some of you may choose to create an assignment like this for your students. If you do, let me know--I'd love to help you do some of the pre-planning and thinking. Last year, someone in the class commented that now she needed to learn how to make the videos. I really believe students, when shown examples, can figure something like this out. We don't have to be the experts (thank goodness!). But we do have to help students learn how to learn and provide clear rubrics that spell out the expectations. That doesn't mean they won't need help, stumble as they go, etc. but I think we need to embrace that and make it part of the assignment. Okay, enough of that . . . on to this week's topic.

New Web 2.0 tools and digital resources come online every day. Many of these tools and resources offer intriguing possibilities for teachers in our district who want to leverage technology to meet one or more of the components of Classroom 10. Others are simply Classroom 1 and 5 content and activities dressed up in digital attire. In order to avoid the trap of using technology for technology’s sake, savvy teachers need to make thoughtful choices about which tools and resources they want to use with their students.

Some teachers read blogs like Free Technology for Teachers and Moving at the Speed of Creativity to find out about new tools. Another resource is the TeachersFirst website. This site “is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. [They offer their] own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus.”

One feature of TeachersFirst that I particularly like is their weekly email that contains a link to the featured sites of the week. When I click on this link each week I can quickly scan through the dozen or so sites, each listed with a brief description including grade-level appropriateness, and select which ones I want to investigate further.

This Week's Assignment
This week spend some time at TeachersFirst. Sign up for their weekly email or just search for tools/resources by grade-level and subject area. Get a taste of the featured sites for this week. Poke around and find one tool or resource that is intriguing to you. But don’t fall into the “technology for technology’s sake” trap. Find a tool or resource that could be used to meet a Classroom 10 learning goal in your classroom.

Have fun exploring, then come back here, and post your find (include the link to the site) explaining how it could be used to meet a Classroom 10 learning goal. (Don't worry--keep it simple, you're not writing a lesson plan here, you're just sharing an idea.)

Week 2--Simple: More Complicated Than It Seems

Welcome to week 2. :)  Way to be a life-long learner! If you haven't checked out people's comments from last week, you should take a quick look at the variety of participants' backgrounds and interests. We've got a great group. Let's get started with this week's topic.

Last week I mentioned the folks at Common Craft and their Plain English videos. One of the things I find so intriguing about their product (simple explanations) is that the technology they use to make their videos has been around for decades. Twenty years ago, if you had some dry erase markers, a white board, paper, scissors, and a video camera (and a clever mind, of course), you too could have made similar videos.

However, it’s only in the last few years that you could have so easily created a market for your product. Social media like YouTube, Twitter, and blogs allow content like that offered by Common Craft to be shared both effortlessly and quickly. Indeed, the world our students will live and work in is rapidly changing. Someone with a good idea and an internet connection can start a business, find an audience, and/or collaborate with others from around the world.

This week I’d like you to do two things:

1. Visit the Common Craft site and do some self-directed learning. Want to know more about Twitter? Watch Twitter in Plain English. Want to really understand how the Electoral College works? Watch Electing a U.S. President in Plain English. Or, perhaps you’re new to social networking—check out Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English. Perhaps best of all, timing couldn't be better for Zombies in Plain English.

2. Consider how the simple explanations that Common Craft produce actually require some fairly high-level thinking. In order to produce a simple explanation for a general audience one needs to have a thorough understanding of the concept and the ability to tease out its essential components, an understanding of people’s background knowledge, possible misconceptions, etc. Sounds like complex thinking to me.

Now for your prompt: How might you capitalize on the thinking required to make such videos? What possibilities exist in your class for students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept by making a “plain English” video? Share a concept from your content area that you could ask students to demonstrate in this manner. Then, identify one criteria you would want to include in a rubric if you were actually going to assign and grade a project like this. (Essentially, I'm asking you to offer characteristics of what makes a good "plain English" explanation.)

Welcome to the Secondary 10Tech Learn and Earn Class!

Welcome, everyone!

Over the course of the next 10 weeks (excluding breaks, of course), I'll be sharing a variety of technology tools and resources with you. I'll be using this blogging format to post a new "lesson" each week (on Tuesdays). Along with reading and following the directions in each week's post, I'll prompt you to offer a comment related to that week's lesson.

Since we're using a blog for this class, this week's lesson is intended to help you become familiar with how blogs work. Begin by watching this short video from the geniuses (I think) at Common Craft:


If you liked the way the Common Craft folks explain things, check out their other Explainations in Plain English; you'll be glad you did. (I particularly like Zombies in Plain English, but I digress.)

As mentioned in the video, one of the perks of blogging is the community it creates. One way we'll be taking advatage of that feature is through commenting. Commenting on a blog is easy. Simply look for the comment link at the bottom of a post. Click on it to leave your comment. After you've typed in your comment, you will be asked to identify yourself. This video shows you how:

Posting a Comment to the Learn and Earn Blog from 10Tech on Vimeo.

So there you have it! This week's lesson is nearly complete. But before we're done, you need to post a comment. Since we're just getting started I'd like your comment to introduce yourself. Include why you're taking this class and what you're hoping to learn.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

Just a reminder, comments are due by Tuesday morning, 8:00 a.m. NO LATE WORK. (However, I do know that sometimes life gets in the way of even the most interesting of blog posts, so during the week of Thanksgiving and again during the winter break, I'll post an optional prompt. These two posts will not be required required for clock hours UNLESS you have "make up" work to do because you missed responding to a post (or two).) Have a great week!