tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10071501099393690862024-02-06T20:20:22.590-08:00T.O.P. 5. Tools Opinions TechnologyStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-57660293922733711182017-03-21T16:40:00.002-07:002017-03-21T16:48:38.129-07:00Seesaw wish list...<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I knew that Seesaw was a great tool when I first saw the (at the time) innovative QR login. Here was a company that seemed to understand that creating a tool that is easy to use for students will in turn make it easier for teachers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After using as a school admin, teacher and parent, I now have a few ideas of where the next innovation could be;</span></div>
<ol><a href="http://21stcenturyed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/badge.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for badge up level" border="0" src="http://21stcenturyed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/badge.png" height="192" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" width="200" /></a>
<li style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>'Gamification' and simple teacher posts. </b>Imagine a bank of 100+ badges that teachers could assign to students in seconds...(aka Class Dojo). Yeah, it only takes 30 seconds to post 'Joe moved up Reading Level's today. He has been working really hard and we are all really proud of him' but imagine a badge like this that teachers select and assign.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> And if Seesaw can go there with badges, it could be pretty simple to gamify it, with a points/badge system for some real student motivation!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The ability for parents to post into connected students journal. </b>The very idea of the name 'Seesaw' is going back and forward between home and school. What better way to allow for this to happen than the ability for a parent to post into a child's account, either with their child or independently? I could see families on an overseas trip using Seesaw as an 'online journal' to share their discoveries, or 'family home learning tasks' where challenges are set (e.g. 'go on a nature walk') and completed and posted on Seesaw. </span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Parents to be able to invite other family members and manage connected adults. </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The QR letter Seesaw generates is </span>genius<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, but getting this letter to Nana on the </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">other side</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> of the world is not so easy, nor is it necessarily easy for Nana to connect up, even if she does have the letter (Nana looking in the Yellow pages for 'App Store'....). I would love to see an 'invite family member' button that connected parents (who have used the QR code from school) can click on to generate a link for family members that allows a 'click on this link and join into this child's Seesaw account'. In correlation with this idea, it would make sense for the first parent that connects to the child (through the QR letter) to be able to manage other connected adults. How is a teacher supposed to know if Joe Bloggs is really someone's uncle?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>'Learning Task creation'.</b> As it stands, I recommend using Seesaw alongside either Google Classroom or Hapara Workspaces. I would love to see Seesaw go into the 'task creator space' whereby teachers can post and manage learning tasks within Seesaw. It would need its own section ('Learning/Teacher/Classroom' 'Tasks/Feed') that only students see (so parents did not get notified when a teacher flicks a YouTube video for students to watch and respond too). The main integration I can envisage is teachers posting media that students annotate or respond too. I have used Seesaw to complete this sort of task, but it is currently too complicated.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Better Google Drive integration. </b>This was the number one reason for not initially switching to Seesaw from Kidblog, and the number one reason I still think Google Sites is a great option for online portfolio's. What I really want is an 'insert from Google Drive' option, which brings up the users (would have to be signed in with Google account) Drive. Class Dojo, Kidblog, Slideshare, to name a few, have this option. I even looked up one of the tools that allow for this integration (<i>if a Seesaw tech happens to be reading this..</i>.) <a href="https://www.filestack.com/">https://www.filestack.com/</a></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWpo92aa3W1qftv7VouZx4wy_p-5XOy7ghLsRn8allJ0eSRI6l_CzwWW2R4iUuVX344HflXg1A2ylPKAH7SL03ao5JQRZOa-M6RUHW8aUNwILmAyZvjSK_Tk0srMIpTM7jcMtEM6fS33c/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWpo92aa3W1qftv7VouZx4wy_p-5XOy7ghLsRn8allJ0eSRI6l_CzwWW2R4iUuVX344HflXg1A2ylPKAH7SL03ao5JQRZOa-M6RUHW8aUNwILmAyZvjSK_Tk0srMIpTM7jcMtEM6fS33c/s640/Capture.PNG" width="640" /></a></li>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Bonus </b>-<b> Chromecast posts from iPad App</b>. Easy. Just like Facebook, a 'cast' icon to cast media (video, audio, picture) to a Chromecast from the Seesaw iPad App. I selfishly want this as we use iPad's (and Chromebooks) with Chromecast's.</span></ol>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-61184114995156482972016-07-26T04:57:00.002-07:002016-07-27T04:00:36.290-07:00New Google Sites<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Switching over to the new Google Sites is like moving from Microsoft Word to Google Docs. The first thing you observe is 'where is everything' (i.e. the plethora of buttons) then you start creating and think 'why did I ever need to....anyway'.
5 Things Google have got right with the new Sites; </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1<b>. How easy it is to add content. </b>Google have removed alot of stuff that was unnecessary to 95% of users, things like exclusive buttons for horizontal lines, Apps Script and +1. It has been replaced with ....simplicity. e.g.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>How to Insert a Google Presentation/Slides.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Classic Google Sites (left) New (right)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>2. How easy it is to 'manage the site layout'.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Classic Google Sites has an entire menu for managing the Site Layout. To do something like nest one page under another, you have to click on at least 5 buttons for each page....the same task is completed with a 'drag and drop' approach in the new Google Sites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Changing the page layout and 'nesting' menu headers in the new Google Sites.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-2hcSq6fPZqBWvkXs817RhCZ3QKHL6TNGAPxIp5Xrgl7PahOngWwN2mSghhtYqEU_PxZC45wiE5aWnhFae736Q-Jz-MX0zThX-VxVrQsobxDhDFOyaaWPqRhrhArfuZbdZn-pS2GS1A/s1600/_.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-2hcSq6fPZqBWvkXs817RhCZ3QKHL6TNGAPxIp5Xrgl7PahOngWwN2mSghhtYqEU_PxZC45wiE5aWnhFae736Q-Jz-MX0zThX-VxVrQsobxDhDFOyaaWPqRhrhArfuZbdZn-pS2GS1A/s400/_.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. <b>Sharing, Saving and Publishing. </b>Anyone who has used other Google Apps before will find this familiar. No 'Save' button appears (like the old Sites) instead, content is saved as it is created and live collaboration is in place. Sharing is also not buried 17 levels deep, but right in your face, on the main page.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBROSLoHnavNDbsFNcaCPZMDBQyawL3wtFhbim4KgS-Q7Idsrso3R2FeFOjTMcsvor2gdrhgew2evREVevm_9JMBXRYQO1ccfeBFNR3dALZh4HU6jCEuFmWLUtnGjTThkCd_b7Dpckco/s1600/17z0ty.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBROSLoHnavNDbsFNcaCPZMDBQyawL3wtFhbim4KgS-Q7Idsrso3R2FeFOjTMcsvor2gdrhgew2evREVevm_9JMBXRYQO1ccfeBFNR3dALZh4HU6jCEuFmWLUtnGjTThkCd_b7Dpckco/s1600/17z0ty.gif" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>4. Mobile Friendly. </b>Though the focus seems to have been on creating Google Sites that looked great on Mobile devices, I also believe that the new Google Sites will be very 'tablet friendly' and could imagine creating an entire site, from start to finish, on a tablet.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUKBeOBwsoOIv7C_EGPhNgKnPqUWJRilzZoq56RgG0F5sdPZbUlscUdQDsVdjvByL5dSQ4vMApsE2lkoi5PTMuoLN5dkNRcc3Rxn2CjARbcu2mG_4ng0IJFOzS8EIMbrJJ9GT8KHtOANI/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUKBeOBwsoOIv7C_EGPhNgKnPqUWJRilzZoq56RgG0F5sdPZbUlscUdQDsVdjvByL5dSQ4vMApsE2lkoi5PTMuoLN5dkNRcc3Rxn2CjARbcu2mG_4ng0IJFOzS8EIMbrJJ9GT8KHtOANI/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">5. <b>AI</b>. Alot of the 'fiddly' annoying things have gone with this update. Stuff like positioning multiple pictures (automatically done) changing layout (drag'n'drop) and making text on images readable (font automatically changes when images are inserted) Intuitive is the word that kept coming to mind! </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">It is only a little thing, but I am also loving accessing and creating Sites through Google Drive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As Google Sites is still in a pilot mode, I am assuming the following will be taken care of before launch;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. Way more fonts and themes - currently a small handful</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. Ability to see and edit the HTML of a page - for when the theme just doesn't work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. Inserting embed codes (possibly the only 'gadget' from the old Sites I will miss if it does not return)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4. The Search bar in the header - acts as a search for your Site.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">5. More options to customize the header - especially changing the height of the header!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The new Google Sites will not be the go-to tool to create a complex website for a large business (or school) due to its (current) lack of customisation. It will however be a simplified way for <i>any </i>teacher to create a quick website in the same amount of time it takes to create a Google Presentation.</span></div>
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-7782787351052262992016-06-04T04:53:00.000-07:002016-07-13T05:24:34.391-07:00Dear App Developer....<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have spent time recently downloading and trialing heaps of new (and old) 'educational Apps' on our family iPad, both for my 5 year old and classes I teach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I feel like I keep experiencing the same problems, so here is my 5 pet-hates for any Educational App.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't have large 'Sign-Out' buttons that children can access on subscription based Apps.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't have links to social media (or have the option to turn this off).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't have 'games' where a child can hit every single answer on the screen until the correct one lights up. Tapping an incorrect answer should result in feedback that stops the child making the same mistake nest time.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have less buttons/options. Make it two/three choices per screen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't have small icons that need to be dragged from the sides - I actually need to take the cover off our iPad to access some of these!</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now if only I could delete these Apps from my purchasing history, it is now overrun with Apps that have not made the cut...</span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-47014961435607029022016-04-01T01:33:00.000-07:002016-04-07T12:06:30.760-07:00Filling the void...Life without SAMR<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Despite previous ramblings, I do like a lot about the SAMR model. It is a guided focus for professional discussions and personal reflection. For many educators it is also inspirational, with Modified and Redefined tasks a 'holy grail' that can be strived for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is easier to criticise than to create, so my challenge has been to create an alternative to SAMR, something that is equally aspirational for educators.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To achieve this task, I have considered learning experiences that are exceptional and found common the threads between them. As per my previous SAMR post, I believe 'Redefined' tasks should not be limited to tasks completed with technology. 'eTools' are just that - electronic tools for learning. They cannot be put above other learning tools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I would like to disclaim that this is Version 0.1. I have already changed words multiple times...Like any blog post, here is my current thinking.</span><br />
<img src="https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1961eVdMd51fxhMvmPFLoek8CiWAN8CCoXwZZJ1yjw94/pub?w=725&h=721" />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-78473265951396639322016-03-21T21:04:00.000-07:002016-06-10T22:25:13.499-07:00SAMR - Some Apps Model (without) Research<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Recently, I was googling (creative commons free) images of the SAMR model and saw these images;</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I could not help to question.....2 weeks later and I am making my own meme.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHBHoR1BYlydPCUnYRY_eVCfxDqK9X6FwKY1gJILKjiAnYxmEms5gCDxAOJRBiLUcJYyeLhrzZ92Pzh10YJ1kgQgHNWqTj27p_pyjZyFjeaZgvFNBMSZvAKdl24n0AuqEEGz_lll5PL2c/s1600/samr_coffee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHBHoR1BYlydPCUnYRY_eVCfxDqK9X6FwKY1gJILKjiAnYxmEms5gCDxAOJRBiLUcJYyeLhrzZ92Pzh10YJ1kgQgHNWqTj27p_pyjZyFjeaZgvFNBMSZvAKdl24n0AuqEEGz_lll5PL2c/s640/samr_coffee.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why SAMR is like ordering 'pumpkin spice'.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>There is no research behind it. </b>This shocked me. I have seen SAMR all over the show, at conferences, in publications and referenced by people I respect. How could it be that a model so widely used has <a href="http://www.e-ohagan.com/a-critical-review-of-puenteduras-samr/" target="_blank">no research behind it?</a> What is confusing is watching Ruben Puentedura (the creator of SAMR - yes he has a PHD after his name, but for Chemistry - not Education) talk. He mentions research throughout, even stating that <i>"redefinition tasks <b>can</b> improve student outcomes by as much as the equivalent of roughly 2 letter grades".....</i> the study that shows this 'jump' is unseen, like all of Mr Puentedura<i>'s </i>research<i>. </i>Equally unfortunate is that he simply states 'student outcomes' without defining what student outcomes means. Does it mean progress, engagement, ability?<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Research from other people is cited in his talks, which is genuine, such as having an authentic audience improving student motivation, but no research is available that shows the SAMR model improves student outcomes. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Without research, I think it gets relegated to an idea, not a model. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>It is misunderstood. </b>Countless examples of the interpretations of SAMR are around to the point that I do not even know what the correct interpretation is. I have watched Ruben Puentedura describe SAMR as a ladder model, with the end goal to reach redefinition. I have seen it being used as a planning model, with teachers assessing what 'level' of SAMR a learning activity or (gulp) App is. I have always thought of it as more of a 'check in' - something for teachers to consider, mainly to ensure they are not always at the 'substituting level'. By definition a model is something others can follow and we have no shared understanding about what SAMR is about.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>What is wrong with substituting? </b>At times, substitution is fine, possibly essential. We may want to take notes on a device so we don't lose them or so we can copy and paste them into another tool at a later time to further analyse key ideas. Or we may find it quicker and more convenient to read a book on an eReader. The point is, there is no point analysing what 'level' a task is, as there is a time and place for all learning tasks.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">What is so great about redefinition? </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By definition, a redefinition task is a task that was 'inconceivable' before the tech. So that means cyber-bullying would fit great into redefinition, as would re-sharing cat videos on Facebook and messaging</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> friends instead of visiting them. Newer is not always better. Sure, SAMR advocates would say 'of course these things are not redefinition</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> - they are not even learning tasks' which is exactly my point. The model is not even about learning - it is about using technology. Which segways nicely into...</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Why are we placing technology on a pedestal?</b> This has always bothered me. Why do we have a model that is supposed to 'level' a learning task only apply to learning with devices? Can other tools 'redefine' learning? I have seen some amazing Enviro-School projects that allows for tasks 'inconceivable' without a school vegetable garden. Are these tasks as important? Do we need a model to show 'types of Enviro-School tasks'? Would it improve our collective abilities to use school vegetable gardens if we did? </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think the SAMR idea is an OK reflection 'tool' for teachers, whereby teachers can look back at their technology integration over a term/year and reflect on their use of technology. Has it always been simply substitution? Or has the technology gone beyond simply replacing 'pen and paper'? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Until some serious peer reviewed research occurs, I believe we should focus on a more simple model - "Use technology purposefully'.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">References</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://charlielove.org/?p=10025">http://charlielove.org/?p=10025</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://royanlee.com/?p=3375">http://royanlee.com/?p=3375</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://cognitiverigor.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/mapping-samr-to-blooms-taxonomy-no-can.html">http://cognitiverigor.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/mapping-samr-to-blooms-taxonomy-no-can.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://cillajohansson.se/?p=533">http://cillajohansson.se/?p=533</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://spelvetenskap.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/open-letter-to-dr-ruben-puentedura.html">http://spelvetenskap.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/open-letter-to-dr-ruben-puentedura.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.e-ohagan.com/a-critical-review-of-puenteduras-samr/">http://www.e-ohagan.com/a-critical-review-of-puenteduras-samr/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://thelearningcounsel.com/article/what%E2%80%99s-wrong-samr-education-0">http://thelearningcounsel.com/article/what%E2%80%99s-wrong-samr-education-0</a></span></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-2351098484171144942016-03-21T02:24:00.001-07:002016-03-21T02:24:37.912-07:00Presence. Amy Cuddy <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Judging by the fact Amy Cuddy's “Your Body Shapes Who You Are" is the 2nd most-watched TED talk in history (behind Sir Ken Robinson) I am probably in the minority in that I read (or listened in my case) her <a href="http://amycuddy.com/presence/" target="_blank">amazing book 'Presence' </a>before watching her talk. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The video is a must watch for all, but the book goes so much deeper, into a wide range of tools, research and strategies. I have found myself recommending the book to everyone, to the point that I wish it was the compulsory Year 9 English text.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are my 5 takeaways for educators.</span></div>
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<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Presence is about being our truest selves.</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> This means believing in our own abilities, values and feelings. If we do not trust ourselves, others will never put their trust into us - and trust is the medium that ideas travel though. As teachers, we need to ensure we are not trying to make 'imperfect versions of ourselves' and allowing each individual student to shine. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Expectations. </b></span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">One of the best things we can do is have high expectations for all students and believe in their abilities. Amy notes the 1970s experiment where teachers were told a random selection of students were expected to have phenomenal learning growth over the coming year. No surprises that these randomly selected students had phenomenal growth over the year due to the teachers high expectations.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Self Affirmation Theory</b>. Self affirmations should not be about lying to ourselves, trying to fool the brain into thinking we own something we have no idea about. Rather, research shows self affirmations work when we recall times that we have demonstrated values that are important to us. As teachers, we can help students get through stressful situations by having students write about when they have demonstrated their values. The research shows that this will keep cortisone (stress hormone) levels steady in stressful situations.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Our bodies change our minds. </b>The studies in this book demonstrate that by positioning our bodies into powerful poses (power posing) hormonal changes occur that configures our brains into being less stressed and more assertive, confident and comfortable in ourselves. 'Power posing' for 2 minutes before an important exam, speech or event would be a great 'life skill' for everyone. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">If there was ever evidence to finally squash the idea of children sitting on the mat it lies within this book. 'The mat' is a submissive position for students and power position for teachers. Yes, there may be times where students need to sit for short periods of time, but squashed on a mat will not allow students to be their best.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>I'm excited.</b> Another study with implications to education is what to do when a student is stressed. The answer is not telling the person to calm down, rather it is telling the person to get excited! This shift, from nervous to excitement is easier and more beneficial than attempting to shift from nervous to composed.</span></li>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-2420120205160739852016-03-15T17:48:00.000-07:002016-03-17T19:24:34.998-07:00Learner Agency - when does it stop?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We are born with 'learner agency'. No one would question the intense learning all babies work through; learning to walk, communicate and keep themselves safe. When we are learning these important skills we are very much independent; a parent does not set up a 'walking timetable' with weekly 'check-ins' and monthly 'assessments'. Rather, the job of the parent is to provide opportunities (like a trolley or pram to push) encouragement and a safe environment to practise in. The child is in control of this learning. They self-regulate, making independent choices. Children and (most) parents are not phased by whether others are walking or not, it is a matter of when, not if.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Moving forward to pre-school years and learner agency is still dominant. New Zealand ECE's are set up with student choice in mind, the teachers support learners to make independent choices and follow their passions. In the pre-school years, learners have the power to act and are actively involved in their learning. The teachers are creating a safe environment for learners to explore. I have never seen a student sitting on the floor saying 'they do not know what to do' at an ECE.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When students enter school the great work of parents and ECEs can become unstuck. I question the idea that schools need to 'support' students to being agents of their learning, they have done nothing but that right through to the day they started school. Sadly when students start school their agency is frequently taking away from them through teachers taking ownership of the learning, telling students what they need to learn and when. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are 5 ways in which students can keep retain their agency when they enter their formative school years.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>High Expectations. </b>Four year olds think of themselves as undestructable. They dream big and persevere. Much like a Year 13 student at High School, 4 year olds stroll the grounds of their 'campus' with confidence, helping, questioning their peers and teachers and making independent choices. When they hit school they are so little in comparison to others that we seem to have an intrinsic need to 'mother them'. Sure, we need to help them transition in, but we need to maintain high expectations of how independent they are.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Better ECE/School links. </b>Spending time in ECE's always shows how our young tamariki are so independent. It is pretty crazy to think most New Entrant teachers get no or very little time observing their new students in action at ECE's. The more school teachers see of ECE's, the higher their expectations will be.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Focus on 'yet'. </b>It is difficult not to have national standards at the fore-front of our decision making. Until children get to school there is a universal understanding that different kids have different strengths; some kids can swing on monkey bars, some can write their name. Both will learn to do the other, in their own time. But when we reach 5 the assumption switches to all students needing to learn at the same rate. In the right environment all students will learn to read and write, it just may be they cannot 'yet'.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Control</b>. Students quickly learn that teachers are in charge at school and that they will get praised for doing exactly what the teachers asks them. I believe students, especially younger students, spend alot of their thinking resources into understanding what teachers want from them, rather than thinking about what they need to do. Students are praised for their quick responses to teacher commands rather than their independent action. Teachers need to 'flatten the hierarchy' and emphasise the importance of our students own active choices over passive responses to teachers .</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Decision Making. </b></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No one learns to make good decisions by having decision made for them. Like a busy parent who makes lunch for the kids because it is quicker and easier than having the child make it themselves</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, we are often time poor and find it easier to tell students what to do rather than allowing them the time to think for themselves. It should be a 'quality over quantity' approach when it comes to learning to learn.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By the time learners are 10, they have been at school half of their lives and can be 'institutionalised' to the school system. For some learners, the idea of having the power to act is scary as we have taken it away from them. Let's make sure we never remove it in the first place.</span></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-2967636057615566962016-02-23T02:39:00.001-08:002016-02-24T01:42:51.082-08:00Engagement - At What cost?<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No one can would deny the importance of student engagement, and I am not going to dismiss it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As professionals, we should always question the 'unquestionable'. The 'technology is essential' 'class size is paramount' and 'testing is bad'. Everything has its place, but within reason. I see student engagement as no different. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Five (possible) consequences of student engagement at all cost.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Students do not 'expand their world'.</b> Students following their passions is popular, no doubt because of the engagement that 'passion led learning' brings. No one would question the great integrated learning that can occur, and the high levels of student engagement. However, if a student is not exposed to new ideas and concepts, their 'passions' would be very limited. How is a child meant to know they love Space, Africa or Maui Dolphins without being exposed? When does a child move beyond their 'Train and Truck' fascination and into Nanotechnology without exposure? As teachers, we need to know our student passions, and at times allow them to follow them. However, I would hate for us to forget to introduce them to potentially new life-long passions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Extrinsically motivated kids eager for the end (extrinsic) outcome</b> Another possibility for teachers that want engagement at all costs is to extrinsically reward students for an end result, not progress, effort or resilience. <a href="http://linkis.com/www.edutopia.org/blo/N1oKJ" target="_blank">I recently read a post about an American school that had charms</a> (i.e. charm bracelets) that students received when they passed specific maths tests and completed a series of reading books. With any reward system, I would question if the engagement is with the end reward or the journey to get there. In other words, does the learner that progresses in their maths thinking, takes a risk in their learning but ultimately fails a test resulting in not getting a 'maths charm' feel engaged to take another risk next time? Or will they attempt to rope-learn the 'teachers answer' in order to get an extrinsic reward.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Subject Bias. </b>'Either reward everything or reward nothing'. In many ways, I agree with the above statement. By having some learning areas 'reward worthy' e.g. Maths Charms (above) and other learning areas left out (as usual, Science is probably the loser) we are telling our learners "This is important, this is not". </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Fixed Mindsets. </b>If we reward a child for winning and scoring highly in a test, that child learns that winning or scoring high in tests is something ingrained - they are a winner, they are smart. But if winning makes us a winner and scoring high scores makes us smart, then losing makes us a loser and scoring low makes us not smart. (Josh Waitzman). </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>No control of student learning pathways. </b>I love the fact that students can have multiple learning pathways to reach the same learning outcome - that one learner can sing a song, another record a video, another create a model, yet all achieve. Where we need to not throw the baby out with the bath water is forgetting to ensure students have a wide variety of learning opportunities. Yes, some learners may be highly motivated editing videos, but if they are not forced into other pathways (acting on the video) a fixed mindset of 'I am good at editing and not acting' may eventuate.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My thinking in this post has all come about from my daughter attending her second ever school assembly and being presented with a certificate. Every day since I have been asked if it is Assembly day, and every Assembly Day since a look of disappointment has set in from the lack of said extrinsic reward. The thing is, she loves learning and loves school, the certificate was like a drug, giving her instant gratification, but she is now hanging out for more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My ideal would be a balance. Students who are engaged, but not through extrinsic sources and fun for the sake of it, rather through intrinsically feeling great for taking a risk, through adults praising them for their efforts and for passionate teachers exposing them to the world.</span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-8641912930217306782015-08-19T02:48:00.001-07:002015-08-22T00:37:38.560-07:00What no one ever told me about Twitter<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I joined Twitter six years ago with the promise of a tool that will keep me connected, be easy to use and keep me up-to-date with best practise. I eagerly jumped on and started looking for people to follow. My criteria for people to follow was 'anything that interested/inspired me'. It was this vague criteria that ultimately led me to never getting into Twitter. I had followed multiple news organisations and companies. I had followed authors and international speakers. I had followed my favourite sports teams and musicians. I had followed to many people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fast-forward a few years and I have had another, more successful, go with Twitter. </span><br />
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Here are the 5 tips I wish I knew back in 2009.</span><br />
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1. <b>Limit the people you follow (to begin with).</b> As mentioned above, following to many people can become overwhelming at first. Because you can follow anyone on Twitter, it is tempting to go crazy, hitting follow on all sorts of accounts. I liken this approach to trying to read 10 daily newspapers </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">simultaneously. You will inevitably get a lot of the same information - while also missing a lot of great stuff.</span><br />
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My more thought out approach is to follow local educators, people I know (or know of) and - most importantly - only Educators. </span><br />
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I consider my Twitter as a professional learning tool. If I really wanted to I could have a second 'personal' account - but I do not have a need for this currently.</span><br />
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If you are just starting out on Twitter, experiment with only following 10 - 20 local educators. You can always add more people as you get to understand the tool more.</span><br />
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2. <b>Twitter Chats.</b> One great way to discover local educators that actively use Twitter is joining in on a local Twitter chat. You do not need to join in the chat - or even follow it live. Simply search a hashtag within Twitter like #edcahtnz, #BFC630NZ or</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> #scichatnz and you will be able to read through tweets published under these chats. See something that inspires you? Favourite and/or retweet it then Follow that user!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Twitter chats are a great tool to prompt reflecting and critique your own practise, as well as gain insights into others ideas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An awesome guide to #edchatnz (that can also be applied to other chats) is over at <a href="http://www.edchatnz.com/getting-started">http://www.edchatnz.com/getting-started</a></span><br />
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3. <b>Tweetdeck. </b>I watched a couple of Twitter Chats in complete disbelief before I discovered Tweetdeck. I could not understand how people could possibly follow that many ideas at once! Tweetdeck changes all this and makes Twitter chats completely manageable (most of the time).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Others have explained Tweetdeck better than I can - like the explanation at <a href="http://www.theedublogger.com/2014/06/25/twitter-chats/">http://www.theedublogger.com/2014/06/25/twitter-chats/</a> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just know that you should use it to be a part of Twitter Chats.</span><br />
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4. <b>Purpose - It ain't email! </b>Talking of following twitter chats, an important lesson that I never grasped in '09 was Twitter is not email or Facebook. You do not have to read every tweet in your feed. No one is going to require a response from you or be disappointed in your lack of 'liking' something. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Twitter is more like that old school friend that you never catch-up with, but when you do you hit if off every time. So do not worry if you don't catch every tweet sent - I estimate I would only read 10-20% of my twitter feed!</span><br />
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5. <b>Saving content for later reads. </b>Often something will grab my attention but I will not have time to follow-up. I used to 'favourite' items, but soon discovered that I had a heap of favourite tweets - and I had no way of filtering them (yes, I admit I once copied and pasted all my favourite tweets into a Google Doc...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My solution to this now is a quick 'favourite/star' within Twitter which then triggers a recipe to run in IFTTT that in turn creates a note in EverNote. The advantages of this is that I can organise these tweets within EverNote and delete them when I am finished with them. If you use Pocket you can use a similar recipe. <a href="http://mytop5tips.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/making-internet-be-pa-you-will-never.html" target="_blank">See my post here for more IFTTT recipe recommendations.</a></span><br />
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<a class="embed_recipe embed_recipe-l_30" href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/317459-organise-your-favourite-tweets" id="embed_recipe-317459" target="_blank"><img alt="IFTTT Recipe: Organise your favourite Tweets connects twitter to evernote" src="https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/317459" style="max-width: 100%;" width="370px" /></a><script async="" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js" type="text/javascript"></script></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, what no one ever told me about Twitter is that it is actually not a 'simple tool'!</span><br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sketchnote?src=hash">#sketchnote</a>: Should You Use Twitter?(Flowchart) cc <a href="https://twitter.com/coolcatteacher">@coolcatteacher</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/edtech?src=hash">#edtech</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/edutopia">@edutopia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TeachThought">@TeachThought</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED">@MindShiftKQED</a> <a href="http://t.co/O6PbzAeW9t">pic.twitter.com/O6PbzAeW9t</a></p>— Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth) <a href="https://twitter.com/sylviaduckworth/status/634297545699815424">August 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-43647298138949658392015-08-16T18:26:00.001-07:002015-08-21T18:46:31.013-07:00EduCamp Quiz<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 3 short months I have now experienced the complete suite of EduCamp goodness - from going along as an attendee (Auckland), to presenting a few slides in a SmackDown and running a breakout (Napier) to organising an event (Hamilton). I have seen EduCamp's from many perspectives and know that it is learning that works for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are EduCamp's for you? Take the EduCamp Test* and see... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>* (This is a completely anonymous, tongue-in-check reflection).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="850" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oywyZLEbgmMX5mALTSAGnu97iqCLMfPbG4yKvQXpodY/viewform?embedded=true" width="700">Loading...</iframe></span><br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-73349067844616996422015-08-09T16:48:00.000-07:002015-08-09T15:47:01.171-07:00The Power of "Tell me about ..."<div dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When my daughter was 2 years old she went to Playcentre. Playcentre is an Early Childcare provider where the parents are the educators - a beautiful concept. In order to secure government funding (I assume) parents need to gain some qualifications (makes sense). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My wife, who is not a teacher, completed a Playcentre creativity workshop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the stand out messages in the resource she brought home was a simple phrase that adults should use when talking to children about their art work<b><i> 'tell me about your picture?</i></b>' </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a simple idea but the more I use the 'tell me about..' phrase the more I realise the deep importance of allowing a person to tell you about something they have created.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, here are my 5 reasons why you should use 'tell me about' when talking to children about their learning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) <b>It stops your judgement</b> <b>on their ideas</b>. Though <i>"I like your picture of a witch - she looks scary"</i> sounds like great praise, if the little cherub is actually attempting a beautiful princess this comment will cause her to do one of 3 things; a) Cry b) Lye ("yes - it is a good witch") and/or c) never want to attempt to draw a beautiful princess again. Enough said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) <b>It allows 'authors voice'.</b> Often artwork, movies, TV shows and books are more enjoyable to the viewer when we hear or read the creator talk about them. I recently read a biography on Walt Disney, and immediately watched (and appreciated) a series of old Disney movies. The enjoyment comes from understanding the intention of the artist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3) <b>It encourages story telling.</b> The 'tell me about it' question to my now 4 year old has often lead to great stories - about how the circle and stick (princess) is trying to find a true friend (scribble with stick) or how the tiger is chasing the man through the forest because he is crazy. The questions allows for the art piece of art to be a true form of communication.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4) <b>Growth Mindset </b>- You value the process - not the end outcome. My favorite piece of art that my daughter has made is by no means her best picture - but it was the idea that went with the picture - something I would have never known if I had have praised with a 'I like your car'. The conversation went something like this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Me: "Tell me about your picture " (I never say "You finished" - who am I to say a picture is finished?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 year Old: "They are driving to get married"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Me: "Can you tell me more?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 year Old: " They are smiling because they are happy - there are 3 sisters and a Mum, all the girls are in this car. They all have hats on it is a special day"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Me: "Weddings are special days. You have thought really carefully about making your picture a wedding day - and I like your idea of putting hats on all the girls. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 year Old: And dresses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Me: "I think you have done a great job because you thought carefully and tried really hard - and you took a long time to add all of your ideas into the picture"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am no Growth Mindset expert, but I am pretty sure this conversation would develop more of a growth mindset than "You are great at drawing cars and people - I love it - it looks like our family going to the beach!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5) <b>Insights. </b>This approach can (should) also be used in other curriculum areas. Before reading a piece of writing I try to ask a child "Tell me about the writing you have done". 9 times out of 10 the piece will reflect exactly what they have said (my trip to the ice cream store) but occasionally the answer will give an insight that astonishes me - "I was wanting to write about how much I love my family, but all I could do was write I love you with a list of reasons why I love them. So I wrote about the time we went for ice cream so I could show how much I love them." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Often in maths I will ask the student to 'tell me about what they have done' when solving a specific problem. Their answer to this question always gives you far more knowledge than reading what they have written.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Really, the 'Tell me ...' approach works in everything with life. There is nothing worse than people assuming something about you and jumping in with opinions before asking you a question. Take the time and listen :)</span></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-8479791649930900612015-07-15T21:51:00.002-07:002015-07-16T02:06:51.132-07:00Sunk Cost Bias in Education (and Life)<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have enjoyed listening to the book Essentialism. The Disciplined Pursuit of Less By Greg McKeown over the last week. Many ideas have challenged my thinking, but one that I want to act on is a relatively well-known theory - The Sunk Cost Bias. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Sunk Cost Fallacy is explained on <a href="http://freakonomics.com/2014/01/21/meditating-on-those-sunk-costs/">Freakonomics</a> as;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> A “sunk cost” is just what it sounds like: time or money you’ve already spent. The sunk-cost fallacy is when you tell yourself that you can’t quit because of all that time or money you spent. We shouldn’t fall for this fallacy, but we do it all the time.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found it remarkably easy to think of times I have falling to this fallacy. I guess like anything when you are aware of a problem you are halfway towards a solution, so I write this post to aide my awareness (and yours...);</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. <b>Do you pay</b> <b>more to maintain technology than you would pay to purchase it if you did not own it?</b> E.g. spending hundreds on technicians servicing computers that you would not purchase in their current condition for more than $50<i> if you did not own them.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The hard thing about this is research has proven we value things we own <i>more </i>than things we do not own. So we may only be prepared to sell something we already own for $200 - but if we did not own it we may only be prepared to buy it for $100. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Counter: </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i>Ask yourself how much money you would spend if you walked into a store to purchase the item before you commit to spending more on its </i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i>maintenance. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. <b>Do you spend money on a service or product because 'you know how to use it now' or you spent a long time setting it up? </b>When a product or service is complicated to set up and learn I believe you are far less likely to move away from it - even if it is no longer meeting your needs. Any product in which individual accounts have been created for every student seems to stick around longer in schools than products with minimal user input - which seems completely counter-productive; but if you have invested time in setting something up you often want to 'reap the rewards' even when the ship has long since sailed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the reason so many companies offer 'free trials'. They know that once you have invested your time into learning their system you are likely to use it.</span><br />
<i style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Counter: </b>Balance the time you will save with the superior product - and acknowledge that time spent on the old product served its purpose and probably provided you with transferable skills. Understand that ongoing commitments to services, ideas or products should depend on their continuing usefulness - not their past history.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. <b>Do you persist on using an idea you have spent lots of time with </b>- <b>even when it does not work effectively?</b> I was once part of a group that spent alot of time with an external facilitator on an Inquiry Learner Model. The more time we spent with the facilitators model, the more we knew it did not met our needs; but the more time we spent the harder it was to let go of - after all we had invested so much time!</span><br />
<i style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Counter</b>: Chances are there will be takeaways from any learning - even if you ultimately do not fully subscribe to the ideas. Recognise that knowing what you do not want is just as important as knowing what you do want.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. <b>Do you use technology for no purpose</b> - <b>because you previously spent money on it and time to learn?</b> I often wonder why teachers can fall into the Substitute trap (i.e. SAMR model). Thinking of the Sunk Cost Bias it makes some sense, time and money has been invested in this new device - so it needs to be utilised now - even if it is not achieving anything beyond what pen and paper could. A classic example is seeing calculators being utilised on devices - even though a set of class calculators has gathered dust on the shelf for years before the shiny new device was brought in!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i style="background-color: #cccccc;"><b>Counter</b>: Utilise the Sunk Cost Bias productively by having teachers spend some time learning something new; be it attending a conference in the school holidays or joining in a twitter chat. Know that by investing some time we will be more likely to invest further time - no one wants to invest something and see no rewards from it! </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. <b>Do you continue with a lesson/idea/project - even when the students have lost engagement? </b>When you have spent hours over the holidays planning the most amazing learning for your students but the students do not share your enthusiasm....how easy do you find it to flag the concept, talk to your students about alternative ideas and forget about the late nights you spent researching ideas and developing resources? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i style="background-color: #cccccc;"><b>Counter</b>: Don't spend hours planning something for others, thinking that your excitements means others will also be excited! And if you still find yourself in this situation, remember you cannot reclaim your time! </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cccccc;">Be proud to admit your mistakes - and have an honest conversation with your learners to show that you have a Growth Mindset.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This article on LifeHacker explores some way in your personal life that the Sunk Cost Fallacy may take over. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-makes-you-act-stupid.html">http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-makes-you-act-stupid.html</a></span><br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-78568872546027767372015-07-06T15:12:00.001-07:002015-07-06T15:14:30.895-07:00I have been binge thinking about #bingelearning <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While writing my 'Neflix Generation' post I become more and more interested in the concept of Binge Learning, so much so I decided it needs its own post...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>What is Binge Learning?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To define Binge Learning, you first need to define binge-watching. Cue Wikipedia; <i>"Binge-watching, also called binge-viewing, is the practice of watching television for longer time spans than usual, usually of a single television show".</i> Therefore my definition is;</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Binge Learning is the practice of learning content for longer time spans than usual. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>When is Binge Learning effective?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Binge learning is usually not 'cramming for an exam'. The difference lies in the <i>why</i> you are binging. I once watched the BBC for 4 hours while waiting for a plane - why? I was a captive audience, there was no other channel. Binge learning should be something the learner is fully immersed in - they do not want the learning to end. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By definition, Binge learning is any learning that continues for a longer time than normal. It may be as simple as flagging writing as the students are so gripped in solving a question in maths - or as complex as an entire term in a completely integrated topic about 'flying'.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, why Binge Learn? </b><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Binge watching and learning means you <b>do not forget</b> what happened last time, making the viewing/learning more enjoyable. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It allows for <b>more complex storylines/learning</b>. If a viewer/learner has to wait a week between shows/lessons the emphasise then becomes on either catching them up with the action or having episodes/lessons that sit in complete isolation (they can be viewed/taught without any previous knowledge). This leads to shows and lessons that are, to be kind, simple. One off shows/lessons may be enjoyable enough at the time, but you are probably not likely to lye awake at night thinking about them!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Binge watching/learning is <b>more exciting</b> as you know your learning/viewing will not come to an abrupt</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> stop. I feel this allows you to 'let go' more and become <i>emotionally invested </i>in the viewing/leaning.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Time is not an issue</b>. So often in our learning, time becomes a barrier. It may even be the reason we use to many closed and not enough open questions in our teaching. Binge learning allows us to throw away the clock and focus on the learning - no matter how long it takes. Not worrying about time also allows students who may be slow to pick up a new concept - but fast to apply concepts learnt - a chance to succeed.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Better lesson design. </b>Often our lesson planning restricts around chunks of time, so our thinking as to possibilities stays within these windows. Planning for Binge learning means we can get more creative - we can allow for more options for students and free ourselves up to support individuals more effectively. One of the aspirations of Binge learning should be to have students <i>emotionally invested</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>in their learning. To do this, we need to plan exciting and relevant tasks. Binge lesson cannot truly occur with worksheets!</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Want to set up Binge Learning for you students? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The conditions to help make Binge Learning happen are;</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Content that is relevant and engaging</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ....to the point that the learner is </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">emotionally invested</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> in it. To really have the learner emotionally invested, you may need to have a 'so what' or 'action to take' outcome in your learning. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The content is all there for the learner.</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Binge learning can not take place with a worksheet. Why? Worksheets end - like an old school TV show. Just as Netflix releases the entire season of a TV series, we need to release entire 'units of work'. Giving learners all the content at once would have created a huge 'paper monster' with 30 'baby paper monsters' in the past. With the advent of devices, content can now be made available through a series of online resources that students can navigate through at their own pace. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take them on a journey.</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The most popular 'binge watching shows' are those that have story-lines that flow into each other like chapters in a book. Likewise, to design Binge Learning we need to 'map out' the learning. Pose some questions or a problem, alongside some tools and resources that will guide thinking. Watching TV is not as fun when you know what happens - likewise telling the learner what is going to happen (</span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and when we finish you will make a video about ...)</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> is not as gripping. </span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-34553902337439629162015-07-04T01:48:00.003-07:002015-07-04T13:37:42.467-07:00#bingelearning. The Netflix Generation.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently I realised that I had not watched more than a few hours of live TV all year. Only 5 years earlier I would have returned home from work to turn the TV on in time for the news (OK - maybe Home and Away at 5:30...) and the TV would have been on until I went to bed. Where has the 5 hours+ per night of TV watching gone? I would love to say solely into more productive pursuits, but mainly it has gone to Online TV streaming services. The interesting (exciting) thing is my 5 hour a night habit is now more like a 1 hour a night habit. I genuinely look forward to it and actually gain pleasure from it - a big shift from the 'flick through until I found the best of whatever's on' years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I believe there are some parallels with teaching to my (our) new TV viewing habits;</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Modern Classroom Learning</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Binge Watching. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Viewers becoming so engrossed in a show they continue it for the entire day/week rather than stop watching after 45 minutes to move onto the next show.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Binge Learning. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Students becoming so engrossed in a concept they continue it for the entire day/week rather than stop learning after 45 minutes to move onto the next lesson.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flexible Viewing.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Viewers watching content when it suits them through the use of on demand services. They can pause, rewind and repeat shows through the use of technology.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flexible Learning</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Students learning content when it suits them through the use of flipped classrooms and flexible timetables. They can pause, rewind and repeat learning through the use of technology.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Passion Viewing. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Viewers get deeply involved in the shows they watch - they follow news feeds about them, tweet and blog. They make connections with other like-minded </span><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px; white-space: pre-wrap;">individuals</span><span style="line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to deepen their understanding of the show (e.g. GoT fever)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Passion Projects. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learners get deeply involved in the lessons they engage in - they follow news feeds, tweet and blog. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">They make connections with other like-minded </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; white-space: pre-wrap;">individuals</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to deepen their understanding of the learning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personalised Viewing.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Viewing habits are monitored and suggestions and recommendations given based on their individual interests and history of shows watched. Feedback after each show is seeked to better understand the viewer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personalised Learning.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Students learning is monitored and suggestions and recommendations given based on their individual interests and history of learning. Feedback after each lesson is seeked to better understand the learner.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Viewer Agency. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The viewer has choice in what they watch - they are not restricted to what’s on - they can make their own decisions around their viewing. The viewer is able to use technology to create their own show and share with the world. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student Agency. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The student has choice in what they learn- they are not restricted to what’s on - they can make their own decisions around their learning. The learner is able to use technology to create their own lessons and share with the world. </span></span></div>
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<img alt="Chart: Traditional v online TV" src="http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/423211b8-bb70-11e4-a31f-00144feab7de.img" /></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-12790838097800894742015-06-22T20:19:00.000-07:002015-06-22T20:19:30.786-07:00Digital Badges - Part 2 of 3. Why use Digital Badges.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not matter how I look at it, badges are a form of motivation. I am not comfortable with the 'carrot and stick' mentality of learning - do this and you get this. I want students to be intrinsically motivated and have growth mindsets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, I believe that Digital Badges have a lot of other positive attributes, and as far as motivational tools go are better than certificates, awards and stickers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To ensure I encourage growth mindsets, I would like to see Digital Badges feature a wide range of 'Growth mindset qualities' - badges for 'taking a risk' by tying something new 'Obstacle Clearer' by persevering despite obstacles, 'Action Your Feedback' for taking on feedback and 'Feedback Giver ' for giving feedback to others learning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With these disclaimers in mind, here are my reasons for using Digital Badges in the classroom.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are <b>student driven</b> and student managed. As outlined in my previous post "Setting up Digital Badges" I recommend having the Digital Badge process student driven - where students decide what badges should be awarded for (along with you) and students create the badges for everyone. Likewise, I believe in 90% of cases students should be able to determine if they can 'award themselves' the badge, according to the criteria set for each badge. All this means students have ownership and autonomy over the badge system.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Reflection</b>. As a teacher, my purpose of having students post badges on their blogs is not so their blogs look cool, filled with funky badges. Rather, it is for badges to provide a catalyst for reflection, feedback and discussion. When a badge is posted on a blog the expectation is for some reflection to be posted alongside it. Sentence starters like "I am proud of this badge because..." or "This badge demonstrates my problem solving/creative thinking/perseverance because..." allow for the reflection to be focused on the process of gaining the badge - not the outcome of achieving it. Having other students, parents and teachers comment also adds to the depth of learning and reflection.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Fair. </b>Compared to other 'awards' badges are fair. Watch any Assembly where certificates or trophies are handed out to see the disappointment that comes with the many that miss out. Why should this be? If 20 students have succeeded in fulfilling the criteria, why should they not all get an award? Digital Badges place no limits - if a cohort of students are amazing problem solvers, they may all earn the 'Solve it in Multiple Ways' badge - rather than the 'top' problem solver chosen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Expectations.</b> We all know that 'what gets measured gets taught'. Likewise, 'what we award, students (and parents) will aspire towards'. By having badges for specific activities, like 'Lead a student workshop' or 'Taking a risk in my Learning' we make clear what we value as educators.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Identity. </b>In today's world of selfies and self-promotion, students want to show their peers how they are unique. When a student gets into a Rep Sports team, they can post a photo, when they perform at a concert they post a video - but what about students who have skills that are not as 'visually tangible'? How does the student that collaborates effectively share their identity with others? The advantage of sharing your skill-sets with others is more than just an ego-trip. In the classroom, it allows for students to see who has strengths in areas they need support. It allows for students who may otherwise go unnoticed to be recognised by their peers. In an ideal setting, I imagine students approaching peers for help. One way to make this happen is for students to have a true map of their peers strengths - and this can effectively be achieved through badges.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My finial thought is to reiterate that Digital Badges should be used with careful consideration. Though they are a strong motivational tool for students they should not simply be used as a carrot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Interesting Reads around Badges</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/i-dont-get-digital-badges/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I Don’t Get Digital Badges</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2397" target="_blank">More on Badges and Assessment</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.hastac.org/blogs/slgrant/2012/09/11/intended-purposes-versus-actual-function-digital-badges#comment-19941" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Intended Purposes Versus Actual Function of Digital Badges</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.educatornetwork.com/HotTopics/personalizedlearning/digitalbadges" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boosting Intrinsic Motivation with... Extrinsic Motivation?</span></a></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-85941980757327050492015-06-21T03:01:00.002-07:002015-06-21T15:35:56.719-07:00Digital Badges - Part 1 of 3. Setting up Digital Badges.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post is intended to be the first of three posts about Digital Badges. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part 1 is the 'How' Part 2 the 'Why' and Part 3 the 'Outcomes'. I am writing the 'How' before the 'Why' as I am still grappling with an idea - <i>"Do Digital Badges led to extrinsic motivation and fixed mindsets'?</i> (would love anyone's opinion on this)....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Digital Badges are 'Brownie Badges for your Blog'. They could be for any achievement; from completing Triathlons to Learning a musical instrument. Here is my recommended process of how students can earn these badges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) <b>Explain the concept of Digital Badges</b> to your students (maybe bring a Girl Guide/Brownie/Scout uniform to show 'old school badges') <b>Have students brainstorm a list</b> of what badges could be awarded for. This list does not have to be definitive. I had 3 criteria for my students;</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has to be an achievement that is accessible to anyone i.e. winning a musical scholarship for 10 year old is accessible to all 10 year olds as any 10 year old could apply. Riding the tallest rollers coaster at Disneyland is an achievement - but not everyone has the opportunity to do this.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has to be able to be self-managed by students. By this I mean students need to be able to know if they have achieved this, so a 'kindest person in the class award' is not appropriate as it would require others (teacher) to determine. Having 20 'gems' in your writing book can be self managed though, as the teacher indicates these in their feedback and students can count them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has to be measurable. 'Being good at cricket' is not measurable. 'Being in a Rep Team for cricket' is.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) <b>Have student make badges. </b>I used <a href="http://www.openbadges.me/">www.openbadges.me</a> as it works with our students iPads and Chromebooks and is pretty easy. You could also use Google Drawing or Paper and Pen (then take a photo). You only want one student making each badge, so have students write their name or cross out ideas as they begin to create their badge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3) <b>Store badges in a shared location <i>or </i>have students share badges with you. </b>This is where my method splits into 3 methods.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>Method 1</b> </i>(quick and easy) is to have all the badges stored in one Google Drive folder that is shared with all students. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Method 2</i> </b><i>(requires some work from the teacher - but may be essential) </i>Is to have <u>all</u> the badges, along with a description of how to achieve them, on a Class Website/Blog.</span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are all about quick and easy jump down to Step 5!</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Method 3 </i>(slower, but with more transparency) is to have students share the badges with you, then....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4) <b>Create a Google Form for each badge</b>. See the form example below. The main purpose for having a form is so a teacher can look at the 'Google spreadsheet' that the form automatically creates and quickly see students that have been awarded badges. The Google Form collects students login name, adding extra transparency to the process. Overall, I feel that the form makes students take more responsibility than simply having a folder they can access and download badges from - but really depends on the students as to what method to use!</span></div>
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<img src="https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1jT6Xn3jGyD43pEWNEihqACjqlWEOS90YnE623UUxB4M/pub?w=700&h=695" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Forms would then need to be embedded or linked from a central location (your class blog/website) for students to see what badges are available.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZqSVC9BlTqKL4j2hM36LPFm9eo-zrr7rPa9e7_yhACM/viewform?usp=send_form" target="_blank">Here is a link to a live form to see how they look.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5) </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let students Save the badges and upload to their Blog. </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At any time, students can go to the shared folder or Blog/Website that hosts the 'Badge Forms' or 'Badge Images and descriptions' and save/copybadges. They will then need to upload/paste the Badge Image into a Blog Post or Digital Portfolio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My expectation is that some reflection needs to be included when students post their badges to their own blog. e.g. <i>"Here is my Eco-Warrior badge for being part of the Eco-Warrior team in 2015. I am proud to be in this team as a lot of students wanted to be in it. I am also proud because I think the work we do is really important, like composting and recycling".</i></span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-15556849780507659812015-06-16T19:06:00.001-07:002015-06-16T19:14:25.952-07:00Embed a Google Drive video<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Videos are so important in sharing learning. I have found the most effective video sharing tool to be Google Drive as;</span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">- It is really easy to add videos to Drive from any device - including iPads and Chromebooks</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">- Videos can be shared with others easily (i.e. a video project can be shared with each member of the group)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">- No 'related videos' that appear to the side and at the conclusion of your video (like on YouTube)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">- Can be embedded just like a YouTube video. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This last statement does not seem possible at first, so here are my 5 steps to embed a Google Drive video into any website.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Go to Drive and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">open the video (it will open in a preview mode)</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once the video is viewable - Click the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">open button</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (this will open the video in ‘full’ mode).</span></span></div>
</li>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img height="234px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gkk7M78FVSz6oiIEUjk-37iMNOmyeTobrzwSlMf9BlSqskJIwgQVfSGk_3SqfTOidwXIQcmZgpg9ezJNkS9ht9EFNvE1VkpJPO04qyTQQvFJlfug4ICGx0qsfMBioIsSq0GlFqw" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="580px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline;">3) </span><span style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline;">Click the Share button </span><span style="line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline;">(persons head) and ensure that other people can see your video. By selecting “Anyone with the link can view” only people who have the exact url will be able to view. </span></span><br />
<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RwMCINDICm0J7PNunP-XND4YNoB4YGiFaN30CyAu1M_sQ27KaevrgwGmP2EfIMFVLss6GCAvwA3N0mZZXH9v2wGzkWS6MBdSZsHHoWFnjIIC7J9oT0pTu6VX1hEJhiHY19QPkhg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RwMCINDICm0J7PNunP-XND4YNoB4YGiFaN30CyAu1M_sQ27KaevrgwGmP2EfIMFVLss6GCAvwA3N0mZZXH9v2wGzkWS6MBdSZsHHoWFnjIIC7J9oT0pTu6VX1hEJhiHY19QPkhg" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="473px;" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-55b77538-ff3d-6c7c-2caa-c0ebe23343c4" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Click the Menu Bar (3 Dots) you will </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">click on the “Embed Item”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> option.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7bFTaQldbMpVKF_lYq6T005tAbIkW7St73W4lWPB6_HZyhGrOBHG1h6vo4GwstTVuaxeFX-xHcEXs0kPLIFf-rzfQ0NkpitLuIhsraGTkz-ka-bbCj8OanUx_UnK4IumvRTcBJdEsD_g/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7bFTaQldbMpVKF_lYq6T005tAbIkW7St73W4lWPB6_HZyhGrOBHG1h6vo4GwstTVuaxeFX-xHcEXs0kPLIFf-rzfQ0NkpitLuIhsraGTkz-ka-bbCj8OanUx_UnK4IumvRTcBJdEsD_g/s640/4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-55b77538-ff42-e4ea-8dde-7110061be73b"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) Copy the embed code</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (click once and the whole code will be selected, then COPY).</span></span></div>
<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img height="153" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_ioNYlgh3b3avHl3UrBrcGvRwRAuUEBWmt2UVlzse9SQkTb8rRk0PhNWa4j_4pDCQgiQsgWdCf8FhOiXcHO_s4rOD2EWQl77jvOfurOuqohVnJXdgepKXpKyH8IubbxYN4VV8Qc" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="400" /></span></span><br />
<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>On an iPad</b> you </span><span style="background-color: white;"> need to go to</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="il">drive</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">and click the info icon next to</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="il">video</span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then click on Get Link - it will copy the URL link.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then paste this link into a browser (Chrome).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can then get the <span class="il">embed</span> code the same way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A little harder, but works well.</span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-49578459682884789702015-06-02T02:32:00.002-07:002015-06-17T00:35:26.092-07:00Making the Internet be the PA you will never have...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">IFTTT (If This > Then That) is a tool that creates recipes. A recipe is something that happens as a result of a 'trigger' such as when you Dial 111 from your phone a Text Message is sent to your partner.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The 'digital eco-system' you use will dictate exactly what recipes you can use.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a Google Apps/Blogger/EverNote/Android user, I have found the following recipes - that have taken seconds to set up - save me the most time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlPw8GyxJC57AvSRhfDQm5pw_83OEGSJ24r7qtUCrLra8IGBp9qdbuJQb8EGXb2IWjG_IcRy6Xm7gOiJeFsH1kNjLMlayM4Y9E79JeID9L1St9Tsa9nJ7VGtZQZ9qkLQxnk8-PJnAVJA/s1600/Photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<a class="embed_recipe embed_recipe-l_57" href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/296284-save-photos-i-take-at-school-to-a-folder-in-google-drive" id="embed_recipe-296284" target="_blank"><img alt="IFTTT Recipe: Save photos I take at school to a folder in Google Drive. connects android-photos to google-drive" height="108" src="https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/296284" style="max-width: 100%;" width="640" /></a><script async="" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Photos taken in the area of my school (from my phone) get saved to my Google Drive account. If you take a lot of photos this recipe is great as it means you can safely delete any 'school photos' on your phone, knowing they will be accessible in the cloud. I used to tell people (but always forgot myself) to open their Google Drive App and take photos from within the App - this recipe eliminates the need to remember!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a class="embed_recipe embed_recipe-l_99" href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/296273-when-a-form-is-submitted-receive-a-text-google-sheet-tools-notification-rules-email-first" id="embed_recipe-296273" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;" target="_blank"><img alt="IFTTT Recipe: When a form is submitted, receive a text. (Google Sheet > Tools> Notification Rules > email first). connects gmail to android-sms" height="107" src="https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/296273" style="max-width: 100%;" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">2. When a Google Form is submitted, receive a text message. This is a 3 step recipe. When you create a Google Form a Response spreadsheet is automatically created to collect all responses. Within this spreadsheet, go to Tools> Notification Rules and decide the frequency you want to have responses emailed. You then need to look at one of the reminder emails about this event and copy an exact string of unique words into the 'search' box of this recipe. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">I use this with our 'IT Helpdesk' and could imagine it being used for absentees.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">
<a class="embed_recipe embed_recipe-l_71" href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/296289-get-a-text-to-remind-you-of-that-meeting-you-always-forget-or-duty" id="embed_recipe-296289" target="_blank"><img alt="IFTTT Recipe: Get a text to remind you of that meeting you always forget (or duty...) connects google-calendar to android-sms" height="108" src="https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/296289" style="max-width: 100%;" width="640" /></a><script async="" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. When a specific event is about to happen, get a text reminder. I love Google Calendar SMS reminders, but recently Google announced that they will soon be ceased https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/45351?hl=en</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am finding this recipe works great as it only reminds me of events I tell it to - ones that I add a #DF (Don't Forget to). You could equally set up a recipe that reminds you of all events on your calendar - depending on how fill your calendar is this may be a bad idea!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<a class="embed_recipe embed_recipe-l_23" href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/296265-finally-leaving-school" id="embed_recipe-296265" target="_blank"><img alt="IFTTT Recipe: Finally Leaving School! connects android-location to android-sms" height="108" src="https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/296265" style="max-width: 100%;" width="640" /></a><script async="" src="//ifttt.com/assets/embed_recipe.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. When you leave the area of your work, send a text message. Stop texting while juggling laptops, books and car keys and get IFTTT to do it for you :)</span><br />
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<a class="embed_recipe embed_recipe-l_60" href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/296286-harvest-all-the-links-shared-in-edchatnz-into-a-google-doc" id="embed_recipe-296286" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><img alt="IFTTT Recipe: Harvest all the links shared in #EdChatNZ into a Google Doc. connects twitter to google-drive" height="108" src="https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_img/296286" style="max-width: 100%;" width="640" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. IFTTT works a treat with Twitter. You can set up recipes for IFTTT to</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> filter tweets from a specific user, #hashtag or with links. Adding</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">-RT</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">to the end of your search string (after a space) removes any retweets. Here is an example</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">from:username #tag filter:links -RT</em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">. A great research method!</span><br />
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-90690640586329343602015-05-05T20:38:00.002-07:002015-05-05T23:17:59.187-07:00Do you teach Science? Or Inquiry?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently I had a conversation with an on-to-it 10 year old about school. </span><br />
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They stated they 'did not do' Science at school.</span><br />
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On the surface this may be concerning, but it went deeper - this student was in the middle of an Inquiry with a heavy Science focus. </span><br />
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When I asked this student what their favourite subject at school they answered 'Inquiry'. Why? 'I like the experiments we do and learning about real things'. </span><br />
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Obviously this student was learning about key scientific principles - but had no idea this was Science. Maybe this is just semantics but I see this as a problem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before I continue I would like to point out I have no issue with an Inquiry Learning approach. With this statement in mind, here are my Top 5 reasons we should stop calling our Science/Social Studies/Arts subjects 'Inquiry'.</span><br />
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making Connections. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Adults talk about Science and History - kids bundle all these things into a 'subject' named Inquiry (see above). This makes it harder for students to make connections with the world outside of the classroom.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-e0deafd8-27db-4bea-6654-0f04cfa7df67" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
</span><br />
<ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's a Learning approach - not a Subject! </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only calling some subject areas 'Inquiry' and not others implies (to teachers and students) that the Inquiry approach to learning only lends itself to certain subjects. This is wrong. Why not call Maths 'Inquiry'? PE 'Inquiry'? I know many teachers use an Inquiry approach for these subjects, but imagine if every time we did an Inquiry process in Maths we stopped teaching Maths and started teaching 'Inquiry'. </span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Subject Bias</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. By removing the word 'Science' from our teacher vocabulary (just look at any primary teachers planning to see how hard it is to spot this word) we emphasise subject importance to our students. Of course our students struggle in Science - they don't even know it is a subject! Every 7 year old could explain what they learn in Maths - ask them what they learn in Science...</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<ol start="4" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Further Subject Bias. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maths and English is put on such a pedestal that we even tell students what area of the subject we are learning e.g. Geometry, Narratives, Statistics etc. I have yet to see a primary school teacher (including myself) put on their timetable Chemistry, Sociology or Physics. Are we teaching these things? Absolutely. Can young children learn the various sub-areas of Science and Social Studies? Of course - they do for Maths and English.</span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<ol start="5" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it even always Inquiry?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> To me, unless the students are going through some sort of 'Inquiry cycle' it is not really Inquiry Learning. </span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will put my head on the block and say that I taught a 2 week integrated unit about Waitangi Day and wrote 'Inquiry' on the board every afternoon. Did we have a true Inquiry process? No. We went through some Inquiry </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">aspects </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- but no more than what I would in Maths or Reading. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe if I had have written 'History' on the board for 2 weeks a Grandfather may have seen it and offered to talk about his experiences, or a seed may have been planted for a child that they enjoyed learning about something called 'History' that stuck with them. Maybe a child would have made a connection with the outside world and realised the 'History channel' on TV was relevant to something they are learning at school...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, lets either stop calling it 'Inquiry' or start calling every subject 'Inquiry'. The name of a subject holds more importance than we give it credit.</span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-62110827089034485082015-04-21T17:33:00.002-07:002015-04-24T20:31:10.360-07:00Why I can now see the wood from the trees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have now been without my 'own class' for 18 months*. Having been in the classroom for 8 years prior to my break, I worried I would miss the craziness of never having enough time, the constant interactions with people and deep down I worried I may 'lose it' and slowly exit out of the education world for good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I do not think I have 'lost it' - in fact after 18 months I finally feel like I have the inspiration, networks, skills, vision and inquisitiveness every teacher should come out of university with. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*I should clarify I have not been on an extended holiday - just taking a step out of the classroom to look after our 2 little ones for 3 days a week and work 2 days at school :)</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here is my list of things I have discovered that inspire and challenge me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. <b><a href="https://www.ted.com/" target="_blank">TED talks</a></b>. I stumbled across TED when our bank gave us a new TV with very few apps (hint - if you live in NZ - buy Samsung TVs - not Sony). One of the few Apps was TED. For close to 6 months I had TED talks on in the background for some part of the day during my time at home. I did not exclusively listen to the Ed talks - though a Growth Mindset talk by <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QyCkwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fcarol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve%3Flanguage%3Den&ei=IagnVfOIOcLAmAWu-oH4Cg&usg=AFQjCNG-m6Lxu_VdjNqsb8_l5tzGe0RHqA&sig2=0IWLpz2TRby-CymFBP4sAQ&bvm=bv.90491159,d.dGY" target="_blank">Carol Dweck</a> set me off on a self-discovery voyage about Mindsets that has become a new passion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. <b>Twitter</b>. I heard of the educational possibilities and signed up for Twitter at a uLearn conference in 2009. In November 2014 I finally got round to writing a Tweet. My favourite discovery has been the #Edchat discussions, using Twitter to search (true story - I had never used anything but Google) and building some connections with like-minded educators.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. <b>Podcasting</b>. My wife reintroduced my to Podcasts on a recent road trip when we listened to show after show. Like TED, I listen to a variety of shows outside of education, including technology and politics (what else influences education more?) though I now religiously listen to the<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/istes-podcast/id269480016?mt=2" target="_blank"> ITSE #epicYEN podcast's.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. <b><a href="http://www.vln.school.nz/" target="_blank">VLN</a></b>. Again, the virtual learning network was something I have known about for years but never contributed to. The importance of the VLN is in clichés like 'no man (school) is an island' 'two brains are better than one' and 'If you see a path that you want to follow, first talk to those that have walked it'. I guess what I am saying is the VLN gave me a place to learn from other school's that faced similar challenges to our own and help other schools who now face challenges similar to what we have overcome/learned to deal with!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. My Own <b>Project-based Learning.</b> During my part timing I have kept busy with numerous projects, some successful (building a school website) some not (attempting to build a school App). Some of these projects have been implemented school wide (Digital Citizenship curriculum) while others have yet to see the light of day (watch this space..). All of these projects have had one thing in common - I have had to be the learner - reading, asking questions and taking risks. All things I did not have enough time for when dealing with a classroom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I would like to think I have created some habits that will stick when I get back into full-time teaching. In reality I know paperwork will bog me down, but at least I will have 'inspirational vehicles' to go back to so that I can continue to grow my mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-43159010363483103532015-04-07T20:35:00.000-07:002015-04-10T04:50:11.484-07:00KidBlog Version 4 - Review<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">OK, so we are potentially in the minority of schools in that despite being a GAFE school who live within the Google EcoSystem, we do not use Blogger, instead we use a blogging platform called Kid Blog. I would like to complete a direct comparasion between Blogger and KidBlog at a later date, but for now I am going to present my initial impressions of KidBlog's new platform. </span><br />
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-d464e8d1-970c-0c38-b663-b41791de0f22"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Good:</span></b><br />
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d464e8d1-9715-2d07-2476-d9ecf6356f65" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="clear: left; float: left; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>1. Publishing options</b>. KidBlog is now unique amongst the major Blogging platforms in that every post a user makes gives the blogger up to 4 publishing options, depending on what options the teacher has allowed.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/m3PvhkTbuxfMUA-kSdCCJOVDqrWbW0xs5YofmMIbzb1T2KbssK431XoPW_c0l1WHzM2ctA1LWntqgxubiSuCETAMZOkG-H7hsCv0Qo4tYWC_TnChEPHmkpW60punXZZvofnY9N0" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/m3PvhkTbuxfMUA-kSdCCJOVDqrWbW0xs5YofmMIbzb1T2KbssK431XoPW_c0l1WHzM2ctA1LWntqgxubiSuCETAMZOkG-H7hsCv0Qo4tYWC_TnChEPHmkpW60punXZZvofnY9N0" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="572px;" /></a></div>
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="48"></col><col width="131"></col><col width="143"></col><col width="152"></col><col width="147"></col></colgroup><tbody>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teacher</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #cfe2f3; border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Classmates</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #cfe2f3; border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connections</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #cfe2f3; border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Public</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>What</b></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Need to login to view, then only the teacher, student that has posted and any connected parents can view.</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Need to login to view, then students in the class can view.</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Need to login to view, then students in all connected classes (i.e. within the school) can view</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does not require login, just need to go to correct website to view.</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 40px;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>When </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(suggested use)</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personal goals - assessment</span></div>
</td><td colspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most posts from students. Posts from teachers that include student photos etc.</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid #000000 1px; border-left: solid #000000 1px; border-right: solid #000000 1px; border-top: solid #000000 1px; padding: 9px 9px 9px 9px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All Teacher notices for parents and students.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student posts that require a larger audience</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Media Library and image editing</b>. Our students were very engaged at this great update. Images can now be edited within KidBlog, including overlaying stickers and text, adding borders, cropping and enhancing . The below image is in my media library, so I can quickly insert text into the graphic. </span></span><img height="240px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_w-Ae_tBaf_rMemNrN8m-HPKYbaZXK_lEkRC1oR9XJCuxn-JgC7KEhFNT44QN46udet0cJzvOiS82c13nQiCgY-xvEavyHnb9u4u4OK3-6oiurIuKIjVzZHJgknjoVmxLYdsIPo" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0rad); border: none; font-family: Arial; transform: rotate(0rad); white-space: pre-wrap;" width="624px;" /></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Google Drive integration</b>. KidBlog has always been a winner in my mind due to its integration of Google Drive. Past version have been temperamental in allowing instant embedding, but this appears to have been perfected. What does this mean? That any Doc, Presentation, spreadsheet, PDF, image and video can be inserted into a post with 1 click. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img height="112px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ccfhQ0mssxFc3g6FN1uLtjcd8E-5rhLznjuIZgZZ1Itz0RQ7XevrAgdoJUzTxw1MTrNfbqUTeKvfzweQ-O_bGBjTL14b9Rc-Qp8fAbN2K5K2q5dIbKZFv9Ppme95xsfALEu1ZXY" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="625px;" /></span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Post to multiple blogs.</b> Post Broadcast has long been a popular feature of KidBlog. This great feature is now simply ‘Add to another Class’ meaning any post can be added to any blog the poster is a member of. Teachers can use this to post notices or learning links syndicate or school wide, while students can use this feature to add posts to other blogs they are members of, such as the Enviro Club or Maths Group.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img height="304px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/kFrZZ41p709N7igLoipu_0wtfY9R_Svny81loGhrfbkMmzHIurNAPl0qvl27yjp2qTnw24EaZhcjLFU8I1pKcV4TqKUK-BYwMju8rpDk6HqAkgckhLVm53c1Jzi9UHf-iTbpVEs" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="478px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5.</span><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Mobile Friendly - for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">any </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">device.</span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I have always appreciated that Kid Blog has a native IOS App, especially for inserting photos and videos directly into Kid Blog. This App has now been superseded by the KidBlog website been completely mobile friendly for any device. This means users are not restricted to a certain device, allowing me (for example) to take photos with my Android Phone within KidBlog and upload into posts.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img height="276px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/6tOxrjVUm3iQ1wfgRzqHJiGMF9bEJO0gsBXYK1KWll1UWyaxht_8L_93v5JFcsUjJ8qAueDUN8Zts1aOEiHl-ZsUxaX--YrfMST_GZbjrdjx-04T7zvT075LmZKAZcK3UojTnl8" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="198px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bad/Unsure?:</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Historically I have vouched for KidBlog's great <b>support</b>. With the advent of their latest update it would appear that their time is being taken up in ironing out issues with Version 4 and not responding to individual user issues. I would like to think their support will be back to its high level in the near future.</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Administrator options.</b> In Version 3 an administrator had a lot of options - from resetting teacher passwords to changing the author of a post. These privileges appear to have been simplified with Version 4.</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ability to only <b>show posts from Admins/Teachers only on the front page.</b> This was a great feature of previous versions of KidBlog, basically allowing only teacher postings to be displayed on the landing page. I liked this as notices, learning links and workshops were always visible to students and parents, whereas now they can be overseen by students postings.</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Group posting. </b>There is still no way of groups that work together posting to all their blogs at once - or a teacher to post to another students blog. This creates a ‘double handling’ situation for me, where a collaborative video that multiple students have worked on has to be posted by every student in the group, rather than a ‘copy’ type feature where members can add other students who have contributed (yes, I know about tags and categories but I save these for other classifications - not users). The ability for a teacher to post to a students blog is also still missing - something that would make the portfolio process so much easier, especially in the junior years.</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Notifications</b>. Email notifications for teachers and connected parents when posts and comments are not (yet?) available. For the teacher that does not use Kid Blog day in day out, this is problematic, as students may be posting without their knowledge. It also takes away one of the greatest benefits for parents of being alerted to new posts. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Conclusion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The features KidBlog have included with this update are next level. Some I had never thought of, but immediately made sense, while others I had been hoping for for a long time. The current problems are hopefully teething issues as the new version is still in BETA testing. Ka pai KidBlog :)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Related - <a href="http://mytop5tips.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/top-5reasons-i-like-kid-blog.html" target="_blank">Why I like KidBlog</a></span></span></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-47785624330619751552015-03-12T04:23:00.003-07:002015-03-12T04:32:06.583-07:00Effective Language for Learning<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do you have any bad language traits you need to break...</span><br />
<iframe width=600 height=929 frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https://magic.piktochart.com/embed/4859565-effective-language-in-learning"></iframe>
<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-19799602569741941202015-03-02T13:30:00.000-08:002015-04-10T04:47:42.178-07:00Your device is not a typewriter...Moving on from Publishing<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The importance of the SAMR model lies within moving on from the purely 'substitution' level where a book is replaced with a device to higher levels of thinking where devices enhance learning beyond what is otherwise possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My first term teaching Year 1 and 2's I had a 'publishing' cycle going on for weeks - and most students never finished their initial story. As we had limited devices, students using them as typewriters resulted in others not being able to use devices to enhance their learning :(</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Publishing on a device with students incapable of typing 10+ words a minute (usually 5 - 7 year old's) is a poor use of everyone's time - and obviously at the substitute</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> end of the SAMR model. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>But</b>, I had a vision of their stories being on the wall, in books for their classmates to read in the library and in the school newsletters. I wanted parents and our older buddy class to read our stories on our blog and give us feedback. I wanted Nana's around the world to read and - most importantly - <i>I wanted the kids to know they were authors.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, how to publish Junior writing to reap rewards without the pain?</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Adult (Parent) or older student helpers.</b> Obvious, but often underutilised. Most parents run away from fundraising and working bees, but getting to take home 10 books to type up in the comfort of their home is far more palatable. If you are lucky enough to organise some typists, I recommend them typing up stories in Times New Roman with no formatting, so students have some ownership by changing fonts, adding titles etc. I also once had a group of keen Year 5 - 6s come in one lunch a week to type a few stories each.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Using photos/scan of students work</b> for blogs. If possible, take the time to teach them to take their own photos! At least once a term I used to have my class bring any learning they were proud of to the library photocopier and let them scan away. We would then post our proud learning moments to blogs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have students <b>select one or two 'gems' of sentences to publish themselves</b>, which they can then type themselves. This is a great method when you want to surround your walls with effective language. By only selecting one sentence, your walls will be filled with rich language not "I went to the..."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Use voice to text Apps</b>. Honestly, I wish this was the only idea in this list, but the truth is I have never had great success with them, to the point that I would not recommend any I have tried, but if you know one that works - good for you (and please tell me!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Don't type - record! </b>Is a story made into a multimedia visual extravaganza still a story? I think so. Use Apps like Puppet Pals, Book Creator, Adobe Voice or Sock Puppet. Or record students using whatever video/audio recorders you can find. Creating these text-less medians is great for blogs - but not for your walls. My solution to this? <a href="http://mytop5tips.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/top-5creative-christmas-card-ideas.html" target="_blank">QR codes</a> and with book/movie covers on the wall.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, to collaborate, question, discuss, critique and evaluate content, the content must first be made available. Allowing the time to be spend at these higher level activities and not the typing is the message.</span></div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-41953294991345756882015-02-22T23:02:00.000-08:002015-02-23T00:29:19.142-08:00Setting up Growth Mindsets in your class<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Watching this talk leaves the viewer with no questions as to the importance of mindsets - rather<b> "how can I ensure a growth mindset is installed into my students."</b> Here are my Top 5 tips to achieve this.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Teach </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">your students what a growth mindset is - and most importantly, have them give you feedback if you are using growth mindset language in your interactions.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Remind yourself</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and students to use growth mindset language through visual posters in your room.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh93MmmII9ffBvbXK7pRRbrMHECWbbqDtAZKZnEv9mhVKJwC8GW9woLguTTbyrwlLSktUWeU3iaq3Itm0FKI0pjq6o6Nc3hLxjGUH9rnddI_jx-O6dl4WMqY-5KSjdb6ffG4wPpsnDahNk/s1600/Mindsets+550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh93MmmII9ffBvbXK7pRRbrMHECWbbqDtAZKZnEv9mhVKJwC8GW9woLguTTbyrwlLSktUWeU3iaq3Itm0FKI0pjq6o6Nc3hLxjGUH9rnddI_jx-O6dl4WMqY-5KSjdb6ffG4wPpsnDahNk/s1600/Mindsets+550.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider what you are giving </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>feedback</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, praise and awarding certificates/awards for in your class and school. Ensure awards are for process - not outcome.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change the way you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>set tasks</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It is hard to give praise for anything other than the 'end process of a correct answer' when you ask the question 5 X 5. Asking the question of 'The answer is 25 - how many ways can you obtain this answer using only odd numbers' allows for students to demonstrate their perseverance, effort, focus and creative thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allow time for students to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>reflect</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on their mindset at regular intervals. Create rubric based on effort, perseverance and risk taking to structure students growth mindset.</span></div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1007150109939369086.post-87353170883887639442014-12-16T03:05:00.001-08:002014-12-16T11:48:18.778-08:00Top 5...Ways to shorten an Apps Wishlist<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of the exciting/daunting tasks of rolling out our BYOD programme was giving parents a list of Apps to download for their students iPads. When googling various schools lists, I got a shock that some lists came in over $100 and looked like they would leave little room on a 16GB ipad for media content.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our aim in keeping our list short was wanting students and teachers to maximise the full potential of a few Apps rather than skim the surface of 30 odd Apps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enough people with more knowledge than me have shared lists of 'the best Apps for schools'. Here is my list of how to shorten these 'wishlist' of Apps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1) </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Workflow. </b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Workflow with any device is crucial. I was once at a school where a student proudly told me about a video they created. When I asked to see it, they said the video was on iPad #7. This is a direct response to not thinking through the workflow of Apps. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All content created on an iPad should be able to be shared - with or without the original iPad it was created on. The answer to ensuring good workflow is ensuring your Apps work with;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-Your</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> L<b>MS/blogging platform App </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">- <b>Web Storage App. </b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For us, this was Google Drive. Google Drive is our go to App to save photos and videos.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I am surprised at how many Apps do not produce embed code to add to blogs or upload options other than taking a screenshot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2)<b> Integration. </b>As a GAFE school, we prioritised some Apps over others due to Google Integration, other Apps were winners as no sign-in and passwords were required. Apps that required users to be 13 and older / use Facebook to sign in had to be put to one side.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3) <b>Avoid Duplicates. </b>No school App list should contain Apps that achieve the same purpose. Obviously, all Apps have slight differences, but think about why you would use the App and if another App achieves this on your list. For us, <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Explain Everything,iMovie and </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Book Creator for iPad take the place of alot of Apps! </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7347/12306803713_c86df6159c_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7347/12306803713_c86df6159c_b.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>4) The </b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Substitution Test</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>.</b> I do not believe that all Apps fit nicely into the SAMR model, in fact, give me any iPad App and 10 minutes of quiet thinking time away from kids and I could think of a possible Modification or Redefinition task. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Where we did use the SAMR model was the Substitution test - are we just substituting something we already successfully do with an App? We have great hands on maths equipment, do we really need fake alternatives when we have the real thing? Likewise, our kids successfully gather around big bits of A2 and mindmap collaboratively. By each sitting in their own space and mindmapping on their own device, is the learning really enhanced?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>5) Play, Test and Check! </b>Sometimes, I download an App, <b><i>play</i></b>, and fall in love. "It is essential!" I tell myself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Then, I </span><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>test </i></b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">it. I use it as it is designed to in the classroom. I start a task and complete it in its entirety, right down to posting the finished content on a blog. Only when wanting to post an Adobe Voice did I discover I had to have an Adobe account - and that I had to be 13 and above to do this. Likewise, some Apps respond well with limited text or images, bit soon 'run out of screen space' or lag. In my testing phase, I try to involve students, who often </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">tell me things I never thought of - like "the web version of this is way better" or "I just use this other App (I already have) to do the same thing".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">My final task is to <b style="font-style: italic;">check </b>about all the things people complain of. Is the keyboard consistently responsive within this App? Can you easily navigate? Does it close off every time you attempt to save a video? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">With all this in mind, here is our current 2015 Year 5 -6 iPad App list. </span>Feel free to leave a comment about 'the best App' that we have not included! </span><br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14540669640089293782noreply@blogger.com0