Seesaw wish list...

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.

After using as a school admin, teacher and parent, I now have a few ideas of where the next innovation could be;

1. 'Gamification' and simple teacher posts. 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. 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!
2. The ability for parents to post into connected students journal. 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. 
3. Parents to be able to invite other family members and manage connected adults. The QR letter Seesaw generates is genius, but getting this letter to Nana on the other side 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?
4. 'Learning Task creation'. 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.
5. Better Google Drive integration. 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 (if a Seesaw tech happens to be reading this...) https://www.filestack.com/
Bonus - Chromecast posts from iPad App. 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.

New Google Sites

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; 

1. How easy it is to add content. 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.
How to Insert a Google Presentation/Slides.
Classic Google Sites (left) New (right)

2. How easy it is to 'manage the site layout'.

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.

Changing the page layout and 'nesting' menu headers in the new Google Sites.

3. Sharing, Saving and Publishing. 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.

4. Mobile Friendly. 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.

5. AI. 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! It is only a little thing, but I am also loving accessing and creating Sites through Google Drive.

As Google Sites is still in a pilot mode, I am assuming the following will be taken care of before launch;

1. Way more fonts and themes - currently a small handful

2. Ability to see and edit the HTML of a page - for when the theme just doesn't work.

3. Inserting embed codes (possibly the only 'gadget' from the old Sites I will miss if it does not return)

4. The Search bar in the header - acts as a search for your Site.

5. More options to customize the header - especially changing the height of the header!

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 any teacher to create a quick website in the same amount of time it takes to create a Google Presentation.

SAMR - Some Apps Model (without) Research

Recently, I was googling (creative commons free) images of the SAMR model and saw these images;

I could not help to question.....2 weeks later and I am making my own meme.

Why SAMR is like ordering 'pumpkin spice'.

1. There is no research behind it. 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 no research behind it? 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 "redefinition tasks can improve student outcomes by as much as the equivalent of roughly 2 letter grades"..... the study that shows this 'jump' is unseen, like all of Mr Puentedura's research. Equally unfortunate is that he simply states 'student outcomes' without defining what student outcomes means. Does it mean progress, engagement, ability? 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. Without research, I think it gets relegated to an idea, not a model. 
2. It is misunderstood. 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.
3. What is wrong with substituting? 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.
4. What is so great about redefinition? 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 friends instead of visiting them. Newer is not always better. Sure, SAMR advocates would say 'of course these things are not redefinition - 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...
5. Why are we placing technology on a pedestal? 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? 

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'? 

Until some serious peer reviewed research occurs, I believe we should focus on a more simple model - "Use technology purposefully'.

References

http://charlielove.org/?p=10025
http://royanlee.com/?p=3375

http://cognitiverigor.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/mapping-samr-to-blooms-taxonomy-no-can.html

http://cillajohansson.se/?p=533

http://spelvetenskap.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/open-letter-to-dr-ruben-puentedura.html

http://www.e-ohagan.com/a-critical-review-of-puenteduras-samr/
http://thelearningcounsel.com/article/what%E2%80%99s-wrong-samr-education-0

Presence. Amy Cuddy

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 amazing book 'Presence' before watching her talk. 

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.

Here are my 5 takeaways for educators.

1. Presence is about being our truest selves. 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. 
2. Expectations. 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.
3. Self Affirmation Theory. 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.
4. Our bodies change our minds. 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. 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.
5. I'm excited. 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.

What no one ever told me about Twitter

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. 


Fast-forward a few years and I have had another, more successful, go with Twitter. 

Here are the 5 tips I wish I knew back in 2009.

1. Limit the people you follow (to begin with). 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 
simultaneously. You will inevitably get a lot of the same information - while also missing a lot of great stuff.

My more thought out approach is to follow local educators, people I know (or know of) and - most importantly - only Educators. 

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.

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.

 2. Twitter Chats. 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
 #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!

Twitter chats are a great tool to prompt reflecting and critique your own practise, as well as gain insights into others ideas. 

An awesome guide to #edchatnz (that can also be applied to other chats) is over at http://www.edchatnz.com/getting-started


3. Tweetdeck. 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).

Others have explained Tweetdeck better than I can - like the explanation at http://www.theedublogger.com/2014/06/25/twitter-chats/ Just know that you should use it to be a part of Twitter Chats.

4. Purpose - It ain't email! 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. 

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!

5. Saving content for later reads. 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...)

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. See my post here for more IFTTT recipe recommendations.

 

Finally, what no one ever told me about Twitter is that it is actually not a 'simple tool'!

New #sketchnote: Should You Use Twitter?(Flowchart) cc @coolcatteacher #edtech @edutopia @TeachThought @MindShiftKQED pic.twitter.com/O6PbzAeW9t

— Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth) August 20, 2015

Embed a Google Drive video

Videos are so important in sharing learning. I have found the most effective video sharing tool to be Google Drive as;

- It is really easy to add videos to Drive from any device - including iPads and Chromebooks

- Videos can be shared with others easily (i.e. a video project can be shared with each member of the group)

- No 'related videos' that appear to the side and at the conclusion of your video (like on YouTube)

- Can be embedded just like a YouTube video. 

This last statement does not seem possible at first, so here are my 5 steps to embed a Google Drive video into any website.

1. Go to Drive and open the video (it will open in a preview mode)
2. Once the video is viewable - Click the open button (this will open the video in ‘full’ mode).

3) Click the Share button (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.

4) Click the Menu Bar (3 Dots) you will click on the “Embed Item” option.

5) Copy the embed code (click once and the whole code will be selected, then COPY).

On an iPad you  need to go to drive and click the info icon next to video.

Then click on Get Link - it will copy the URL link.

Then paste this link into a browser (Chrome).

You can then get the embed code the same way.

A little harder, but works well.

KidBlog Version 4 - Review

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. 

Good:

1. Publishing options. 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.

	Teacher	Classmates	Connections	Public
What	Need to login to view, then only the teacher, student that has posted and any connected parents can view.	Need to login to view, then students in the class can view.	Need to login to view, then students in all connected classes (i.e. within the school) can view	Does not require login, just need to go to correct website to view.
When (suggested use)	Personal goals - assessment	Most posts from students. Posts from teachers that include student photos etc.		All Teacher notices for parents and students. Student posts that require a larger audience

2. Media Library and image editing. 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.

3. Google Drive integration. 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.

4. Post to multiple blogs. 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.

5. Mobile Friendly - for any device. 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.

Bad/Unsure?:

1. Historically I have vouched for KidBlog's great support. 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.

2. Administrator options. 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.

3. Ability to only show posts from Admins/Teachers only on the front page. 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.

4. Group posting. 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.

5. Notifications. 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.

Conclusion.

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 :)

Related - Why I like KidBlog