Schooooooool's out! for! summer!

On Monday, I had my last session of Teaching With Technology until September. The activity from that day that stuck with me most wasn’t actually technology-based, which isn’t unusual for this class. (More on that later in this post.) Four of us volunteered without knowing what we were doing, and we were sat down at tables facing away from each other. At first, I thought we were going to do something competitive, but I was happy to find that, in fact, we were working as a single unit. I much prefer working as a group than working in competition – competitive games are zero-sum, and I hate the added dimension of the impossibility of everyone coming out happy - if you try your best, you please your teammates, but it means the other teams are more likely to have an unhappy outcome. Furthermore, it means keeping discoveries from people on the other team, which in turn complicates even sharing these discoveries with people on your team since you don't want the "others" to hear. When everyone works together, there's none of that inner-conflict, so it's all about problem-solving, curiosity, teamwork and fun.

Each table was given an envelope with puzzle pieces and we had to piece together the puzzle. The thing is that we each only had half the puzzle, so we had to figure out how to put it together, without seeing the pieces the other pair had. First, we figured out more or less what we had, and put together a decent chunk, and then we started talking with the other pair. I systematically went through the pieces, from bottom left to bottom right, then the next row up, etc, until we had accounted for every piece. It was a fun and satisfying game. But what's it got to do with technology?

One thing I love about this class is that we never start with technology and try to find a lesson to fit it. We start with problems and then we try to figure out how to solve them in our class discipline, and then we see where technology fits into the picture. I like this method a lot, because I'm starting to see how tech really does fit in to a lot of lessons in a logical and useful way. Now that I see how tech can expand my students' options, if it's used correctly, I have a much more positive attitude about it.

 It’s been a really great class, and I’ve learned a lot in this short time. I wouldn’t say that my technological skills have increased drastically, yet I’ve learned to use a number of new programs. To be honest, I don’t think I even used a shared GoogleDoc until starting this program (and I’m trying to accept that having shared spreadsheets means sometimes giving up the idea of alphabetization, since most people just add themselves to the bottom of the document. In case anyone reading this is wondering, I am the one who’s been putting everyone in alphabetical order when we make contact-sheets, dinner plans, etc.) I think the biggest thing for me was just becoming more familiar with different computer programs, and realizing that using new ones isn’t so daunting.

Edited August 6th: Apropos of using "new" programs – I've just made my first PowerPoint Presentation! I am inordinately proud - I think I am now officially as technologically advanced as the average Victorian... maybe even the average Edwardian! Anyhow, glad I got that milestone over with before starting to teach on my own.

EduBloggers! (Because two-word portmanteaus are for the weak.)

This weekend, I looked at a couple of edublogs for my Teaching With Technology class. I skimmed a few weeks of Langwitches, reading 4 or 5 posts in-depth, and read a few posts of Teachers At Risk. It's been really cool reading my colleagues' amazing blogs, seeing their different takes on the same or similar readings and classes that I've experienced. It's also nice to read the blog of someone who hasn't been following more or less the same path as me this last month and a half. I think I'll start reading these, and a few more edublogs, on a semi-regular basis.

One of the first things that struck me while reading Langwitches was the importance Tolisano gives to authorship. The latest entry (at the time I'm writing this) is about creative commons copyright. To those unfamiliar with CC, the idea is that anyone can use the images, text, etc that you post/publish/leave lying around your living room labeled as CC - as long as they credit you, and as long as they don't make any attempt to profit off of your work. It's beautiful and idealist, like CouchSurfing before they sold out (a rambling post for another day), a testiment that people are basically good and that the internet is a great way to foster communication and collaboration. Tolisano makes an all-too-common lament that people, for various reasons, subvert the purpose of CC, particularly with leaving off authorship. She lists a number of reasons people seem to do it, ranging from malicious intent* (claiming her work as their own) to simple ignorance**. I'm glad she addressed the fact that many people break copyright law online simply because they don't know any better. We have to remember that many users of the internet are children, or adults with limited technological literacy/experience. All the more reason to educate people about important internet norms.

Scrolling down to June 11th, you can see some e-books her kids made about animals. I clicked through (totally worth it - they're adorable!) and was struck by two things. 1) There was some misinformation in the book about sharks, so fact-checking wasn't as emphasized as it could have been (humans are NOT a major food source for sharks!) and 2) the e-books ended with a bibliography. Yes, the bibliographies had only one book each. But Tolisano is teaching the kids, early on, that it's important to cite your sources. This message cannot be given early or often enough!

Langwitches is filled with useful tutorials and flow-charts, including a poster about how to use e-mail for school, and how to use different tools. I think I'll find this website pretty useful for getting more familiar with common technology. I was pretty turned off by one post she had, though, about how technophobes need to "just get over it!" While you don't want teachers who don't know basics, like how to check email, telling those of us with lower technological literacy to "get over it" is not particularly encouraging. In fact, in makes me less likely to want to read her blog, and thus less likely to learn to use what she's berating me for not already knowing. Maybe she was just trying to blow off steam after a particularly frustrating exchange with another teacher. But blogs are editable, and she should have changed the title of that entry by now.

The other edublog I read was Teachers At Risk. I really liked the entry titled Nine Questions I Ask My Students on the First Day of School. She wrote it for her special ed math class, but it's easily adaptable to any subject matter, and seems like a great way to set a positive tone on the first day, while also getting a good idea of what areas/skills your students will be able to leverage well, and what will need more scaffolding***.

Does anyone else have an edublog they would recommend? Comments welcome!

* Kate Beaton's reaction to the Grumpy Cat people stealing one of her jokes to make a profit.

** FAQ for Hyperbole and a Half. Scroll down to see Brosh address reposting without crediting the author.

***Did I really just write scaffolding in my blog? Alternately, p<0.005.



EDIT: Thanks, Anne, for catching the spelling error! I had interpreted it as a sandwich of languages, instead of a magician of languages. That would have made it difficult for people to find the blog, in case of link-failure!

EverNote and Primary Pad

I'm usually a pretty reluctant adopter of technology, but I've surprised myself this week by starting to use two new programs since my last blog post. One of them, I learned about in the class where I presented about XMarks, and the other we used in class on Monday.

Over the weekend, I started using EverNote, and I'm pretty happy about it. I'm just using it for class notes and for a to-do list, but it's really helpful. My to-do list is in different colors depending on what class it's for, or if it's a non-school-related obligation. With everything in one place, it's much easier to see what I need to do, and it's satisfying to click those “done” boxes. I know I could just make something similar in word, but having this on EverNote makes it easier to find, and if I don't have my computer, I can reach it from online.

In terms of notes, I'm still on the fence. I really like having all my notes all together. It will make things especially easy for cross-referencing between readings and between class lectures. However, I don't like the outline form. I am used to using an outline form in Open Office that alternates numbers and letters. Using EverNote, all of the numbers and letters are just numbers, so it's not as easy to keep track of where you are when you're writing or reading notes.

Right now, I'm still taking my notes in OpenOffice and then copy-and-pasting them to EverNote. But if I ever edit the notes, it messes up the outline form. So it's a process.

The second thing I started using was Primary Pad. You use it to make a text document with other people, and everyone can work on it simultaneously. It was really cool to use it while working with two others on our lesson plan. The text of each person who edits the document is highlighted a different color, so you can keep track of what you've written, and what other people have written. I really liked working on it simultaneously, because we could be editing different paragraphs at the same time, and didn't have to wait for each other to get to the keyboard. It's also cool to use when we're not together. It's nice that we'll all have access to it, like a GoogleDoc, and that everyone's different colors will cue us in to what parts the others have edited since the last time we looked at the doc.

One problem I have with Primary Pad is that it requires the internet. I'm reluctant to use anything in my classroom that requires a connection. While I always have a back-up plan, especially when technology is involved in the activity, it's frustrating for students to have to change gears abruptly when they're really getting into something, and the internet connection suddenly fails. At least with EverNote, you can edit things without an internet connection, you just can't synch it, but with Primary Pad, you can't really do anything while the internet's down. Still, it could be used in the media center, where computers often have wired access to the web.

The moral of the story is that even I can start to use technology, and it may even make me more organized, which is something I sorely need. Does anyone have any advice on the whole outline-form in EverNote thing? Any other advice for using tech in general?

See you all in class!