Google Take Out- choices
Before I forget... if you are leaving your district, retiring or graduating- you can transfer your Google docs, etc. to a new personal account. You have a couple options, which Jenn Judkins explains in detail. Please check out her post here.
Richard Byrne also posted on his blog about this topic this week. He has similar ideas and included a couple short videos. Check out his post here.
Schoolytics
Schoolytics is a data dashboard that integrates with Google Classroom. It is free for teachers. I know that "data dashboard" may not sound really cool, but this one is! The information is presented clearly. The graphics give you tons of information at a glance. I can't see why any teacher or administrator would pass this one up.
In an interview last fall, Erin Sailor, Director of Professional Learning for Eduscape, stated, “Schoolytics provides the data insights needed to integrate educational technology and understand how to support students in any type of learning environment. Administrators and student support teams can identify learners in need of remediation and determine trends in technology use. Educators can access their Schoolytics Google Classroom information to gather insights on student progress and make informed instructional decisions." Check out the live demo of Schoolytics Keen
Keen... Google's answer to Pinterest?
I saw a post aboutKeen this week; I hadn't heard of it. I am not a Pinterest fan, as I get lost within seconds just about every time I use it. Yes, great ideas, etc... but I generally find a whole page of cool stuff to check out, click one link and can't get back to the rest... So, check this out, see if it makes you happy. It's another way to organize your favs, to share and collate collections. Wakelet for Students
Graspable Math
Graspable Math allows you to "Assign algebra tasks to your students and see live feedback of their step-by-step work. Discover, create, and share engaging math activities for 4th to 12th graders.
GM Activities is free for K-12 school teachers"
Ideas to Share
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Technology ≠ Learning
I met Tom Murray at at Future Teachers conference in Albany a couple years ago. A dynamic teacher/leader, he has been pushing educators to examine their process via Future Ready Schools program. Recently he has been talking a lot about wasting time on low level learning in the name of using technology. What do you think?
Vicki Davis interviewed Tom Murray recently about Time Wasting with Low Level Tech. Tom talked about this in his blog post- Need to Stop.
George Couros wrote a post about this back in January called, As Technology Becomes Easier to Use, Our Depth of Learning Needs to Continue to Increase. I liked this quote, "Technology has removed many barriers, but thinking should not be one of them." You can read his whole blog post here.
Scott McLeod over in Colorado was singing the same tune in a recent interview with EdSurge: How to Move From Digital Substitution to ‘Deeper Learning. Interesting article, especially the conversation about SAMR. McLeod: " Well the challenge with SAMR, which is sort of the dominant framework for K-12 schools right now, is that it’s a technology continuum, not a learning continuum." Yup, he's right. Check out the whole article here, or listen to the podcast. Phishing
We've all seen phishing scams come through our email, phones, etc. Last week a friend in Oklahoma, Wes Fryer, shared this phishing quiz from Google. Take it yourself, have your students take it. See if you can identify the scammers.
Wakelet
I've used Wakelet as a consumer for a while, mostly as a way to catch up on twitter chats that I miss. The other day I saw something from Matt Miller about using it as an educational tool. He has a post with lots and lots of ideas here. I must have missed a guest post back in August from Paul West- with more curation ideas.
I hadn't even looked at this tool as a curation/collaboration tool. So far, with just a couple hiccups, I really really like it. I wanted to have it as a Google Chrome extension and as an iOS app. The extension appeared to work, but it also killed off my speeddial2 extension that I really rely upon. Wakelet support responded really quickly with an idea for a multitab new tab link, that works for me. They have also reached out to see if I want to have a Google Hangout and talk more about how to use this tool in the classroom. They are starting to accumulate some ideas on their website and even have a newsletter that I found interesting. They have a how-to guide for educators ebook, and a blog post to walk you through the setup. All of these features are written up in The Wakelet Wave- a monthly newsletter. They also have aYouTube video channel with ideas, and tutorials. Where to find PD?
Teachers often ask me where do I find all these webinars, etc., and then the second question is always, how to carve out the time. My go-to resource is EdWeb.net. There are new webinars almost every day, with learning communities formed around the major topics. The webinars are online; they are free; and they are recorded in case you cannot watch them live. Everyone learns differently; everyone has different tastes. I try to catch webinars live, if possible, but like knowing that the recording and the CE certificates are available to me. The variety of webinars offered through EdWeb is amazing. Try it, you may like it.
Odds 'n Ends to Share
Googly Activities for Primary Grades
Eric Curts shared a post recently with lots of wonderful ideas. Check out Eric's work here.
Paul Reynolds at FableVision shared this one.
TelepromtMe is a free online teleprompter. Check it out here.
Sharon LaPlante, a special educator with over 2 decades of experience, recently recorded a webinar for Innovate CT. She presented on Enhancing Notetaking and Executive Functions with Educational Technology. You can find more about Sharon's work on her website, including her podcast.
Global Ed & EmpathyOne of the most effective ways I know to foster empathy is to demonstrate the similarities we share. Global education projects provide a great pathway. One of the nicest projects I came across last week is the Kindness Rock project. Our 4th grade teachers have embraced both global ed and several kindness projects which actually just enhance and continue their longstanding excellent class projects. For those who haven't seen the Kindness Rock project: Two of my champions of Global Ed have been hard at work this past week. Both Lucy Gray and Julie Lindsay have new projects in the works. Julie, over at Flat Connections, is offering a new PD program for educators that looks really interesting. After having taken her Flat Classroom course (twice), I know that I can recommend her professional development offerings for all who are interested in expanding their horizons with their students. This new series is called Playbooks and is divided up into 4 strands. You can read much more about it here. Flat Connections is also starting a new round of projects for students. The new project this round is Windows to the World for grades 3-6, as well as the familiar favorites. This looks like an updated, revamped model of the A Week in the Life project, which I helped moderate 5 or 6 years ago. Lots of fun, lots of learning. Check out all the projects that are on offer here. These are well managed, global projects that really help you and your students connect around the world. Lucy Gray is on the road again, currently at TCEA in Texas, then moving on to Mumbai, D.C and Boston. She and Steve Hargadon offer an incredible wealth of opportunities for teachers and students at all levels. Check out her upcoming work here. Scratch 3.0 PreviewFor all of the Scratch fans out there... it's almost here. Scratch 3.0 is due to be released in August, but... you can preview it now! Check it out herescratch.mit.edu/preview-faq. Lots of info on the FAQ page too. Even more info is available on the wiki. This is also the summer of the Scratch conference at the MIT media lab in Cambridge. Lots of fun, lots of learning. Amazing group of international educators. I can honestly say that I have met more people from other countries at the Scratch conferences I have attended than at ISTE conferences. I can sit and talk with folks from across the Connecticut River or sit and chat with friends from Mexico, France, Russia, Sweden, or Brazil. More info here. Curation, Fact-Checking and More...I had tagged a great article from Joyce Valenza- one of the world's greatest librarians- to share and then I listened to an excellent webinar from the folks over at Common Sense Media about a new game they are creating for middle and high school... but then I saw this image and post from Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. I am a dumper. I'll give you the links and maybe do a second blog post on our snow day tomorrow- but enough! I know I tend to overwhelm teachers I work with at times, but at least then I can go in to the classroom and help, can sit down and talk it through. After reading the examples she cited- oh, yeah. That's me. So... maybe tomorrow. As I mentioned in the email last week- the Tech Tuesday blog is having "technical issues". I checked with Weebly support again today- and it has been escalated... but no solutions yet. The post links seem to work, but when I link to just the site- it is missing the archives, and is squished, etc...generally a mess. So- hopefully this page will be the temporary solution while they figure out what broke. A couple of things that were in the post last week- but disappeared into cyberspace- Diigo Google Drive changes GOOGLE DRIVE CHANGESMatt Miller wrote an excellent blog post with ideas for how you can use the new changes in classroom. Here's a quick video tutorial from that post. Alice Keeler also has step by step written and screenshot instructions. If you have time, read her take on the use of this for differentiation- interesting. DIIGO Diigo is an online bookmarking service. This means that you can bookmark on one computer and see all of your bookmarks at home, or on another device. I've used this service since about 2008 and have over 11,000 bookmarks- all tagged and easy to find. The premium version will also allow you to save cached pages- so that when a site disappears, you can still access the cached version.
All students in grades 4-6 at HES have Diigo accounts. We have a teacher dashboard and can see all the sites the kids bookmark. This can be really helpful for collaborative projects. Diigo has outliners, annotation and has added a new screenshot annotation tool. If you haven't looked at Diigo in a while- check it out. This page has lots of different tutorials- but does not have the latest features, unfortunately This is just a quick update on curation tools. I participated in a webinar on Saturday which featured Brad Spirrison from Participate Learning. This is, at least to me, a relatively new tool and I was surprised to hear Brad say that his group has been working on this for years. They started out as Appolicious. This is a link to the Livebinder of the resources shared. So- what is it? It's a resource tool and a curation tool. I haven't explored all the resource collections - but it is growing and encompasses all grades/disciplines. These resources are being pulled together by educators, folks who have actually used them in their classrooms. The curation tool is the piece I have tried and can recommend. I know that most of you do not currently see Twitter as an educator's best resource... but honestly, it can be. It takes a lot of time and energy to follow the right people, the ones that push your thinking or have common interests- which is where Participate Learning can help. Twitter chats have exploded over the last few years and can be challenging to make time for and to follow, but can deliver just what you need- a group of people who share your interests, whether that is grade 4, or modern languages, history, or science- there's a chat for you. Participate Learning can make it easy to follow these chats and save the resources shared- whether you have time to actively participate in the chat or not. Why now? We are moving toward a more individualized structure for professional development. You have the power to create your own PLCs within the school, within the district and within the world of connected educators. Twitter is just one more tool in your toolkit to connect you with the world. Whether you teach English to seniors, work with struggling students or teach second grade, there's a twitter chat for you. So check out Participate Learning!Look at all of the chats you could learn from... and these are just today's chats It changes every day! Full Hour Long Webinar Recording People often ask how I keep up to date with what is happening online, with Google tools, etc. The simple answer is I cannot possibly know all there is to know about all of these tools. Perhaps if they all stopped changing, virtually every day... and time could stand still... perhaps, but doubtful. Here are some things I use and you will also find links to some free online courses you can check out for Google Apps Skills. But... wait... what if you hate learning online? What if you want a blended course- meet in person and work online? What if you need 1:1 training? My calendar is online... you can schedule time and we can see how to best meet your needs. EdCampsI attend edcamps when possible. Edcamps are a great way to choose your own PD. If you come away from an edcamp without meeting some of your PD needs, you have only yourself to blame. I have Edcamp Access, Edcamp Boston, Edcamp Grafton and possibly Edcamp Quabbin on my schedule for the next few months. I keep up with my PLN on Twitter. No, I don't spend my life on twitter, although one could. For those of you who are just starting out on Twitter, it takes time to find interesting people to follow, so be patient. I use PaperLi, Scoopit and other curation tools to pull the best from my contacts and deliver it to me via email. I do engage in educational twitter chats on Wednesday evenings, for an hour, and catch up on all things Assistive Tech, UDL and Computer Science K-8 by using TweetDeck columns or I can catch up with the Storify edition if I don't have time to participate. Google PlusI also use Google+ communities to keep up with topics of interest. I find it much easier to follow the threads of conversations on Google+ than on Twitter. The communities I follow include: GEG Massachusetts, CSTA K-8 Computer Science, EdTech Team Global Community.. and more. It is an excellent place for educators of all levels to find and build a PLN. I get notifications of updates, which aren't intrusive and can choose to look at articles or skip them. Social Bookmarking and RSSOne other way I stay connected is to get a daily or weekly digest from Diigo communities. These social bookmarking communities offer an excellent way to stay up to date or as a way to curate or vet information when searching on topics for classroom use. I also follow several bloggers and either use Feedly to get the current posts or for a few that I find really useful, get emails with updates. Free Courses/ModulesBelow are 2 series of free self-paced modules offered by Steve Wicks. Teach for Google_These are free or low cost courses from Texthelp- creators of Read & Write for Google. you get the first 2 courses free and then it's a subscription- I think ~$ 39 for the rest of the 25 courses. They track your progress, give you badges, certificates, etc. Google for Education TrainingMore training modules than you can shake a stick at. What are your goals? Where is your starting point? Google Training can take you from beginner to expert and all stops in between. Synergyse Training (free trial)This is a Google Chrome Extension which offers Just In Time training. They also offer a free 20 lesson interactive Google Classroom Course.
Time to spare? Time to breathe? Most of us find that we rarely have a spare minute in the day. Sometimes it feels like you can barely keep your head above water with deluge of information we get from all the various media in our lives. I've often heard the expression of drinking from the firehose to describe the experience of learners trying to filter online content.
That's why learning how to curate and save and share online content can be a real time saver. Don’t you hate it when you know that you saw a great image, or precisely the right article or video online and then can’t find it again? Curation may be one answer. Curation combined with collaboration may help your whole grade level or department. You all know what collaboration is, but what about curation? Isn’t that just for libraries and museums? No. Curation of online content can be done by anyone. There is simply too much information available today and aside from web site authentication, this flood of information is an ongoing issue, it’s just plain overwhelming. This is where your PLN, your peers, and the global network of educators can help. Fourth grade teachers across the country are all using very similar curricula. AP bio teachers all need to get through the same material. Teachers across the world routinely create, curate and collaborate. There are as many ways to curate information as there are people, so I will just go over a few of them. Teachers today can demonstrate and model the use of these tools to help students make sense of the information that they are inundated with. Social Bookmarking is an excellent way to save resources, to share to friends, a group or a class. Most social bookmarking platforms are set up so that you can use them across devices and access them anywhere that you have an internet connection. Teachers at HES are familiar with one of the tools, Symbaloo as we use it as a start page for students, as well as a start page for teachers. Here’s a short video from Beth Holland at EdTechTeacher to explain a little more about one of these tools- Diigo, which just happens to be my favorite. You can set up a class to use Diigo, set up or join Diigo groups, etc. Introduction to Diigo from EdTechTeacher on Vimeo. Social Bookmarking Tools:
These are a few of the popular curation and collaboration tools:
Diigo Symbaloo Evernote Aside from these tools I often use curation tools to pull from social media online. These are tools you may want to check out.
Does this take time? Yes. It is generally time well spent. Although I think that social media can sometimes be an enormous time suck, it is also critical to at least take a peek outside the bubble of Pioneer Valley and learn from other teachers around the globe. Hadley has plenty of silos already- open up your classroom walls and create, collaborate and curate with others. I spend about an hour a week on Twitter, look at the headlines from some of the other feeds and if something catches my eye, will investigate further. I learn something new every day- and it's not just about tech- it's about teaching. The tool I use constantly, on a daily basis, is Diigo. Everyone is different. Pick one tool, try it out. Model it with your students. |
AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
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