Socrative Evaluation Using Communication Rubric

Socrative isn't technically a "communication tool", but I'm calling it that because it enables fast communication of student understanding.  Teachers can create a question in literally one minute, students can answer on their devices.  Socrative provides both instant feedback in visual format on the class screen, as well as reports for the teacher on student achievement.  I love the option to do a "space race," where rockets race across the screen as students answer.  Teachers and class members can see how many students still need to answer.  Results can be formated so that names are not shown so that students with incorrect answers are not publicly shamed.  Teachers will still be able to see student-specific results in their records.  Teachers can draw from shared questions, or contribute to the bank of questions from which others can draw.  I love that questions can be written and saved ahead of time, or, for teachers who like to go with the flow of discussion, can be written quickly on the spot during class.

**Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Socrative using the rubric is my own thinking.

Edmodo Review Using Communication Rubric

Edmodo is a classroom workflow program that was created by two teachers.  This tool came onto the scene before Google Classroom, and was much like Facebook at its birth.  It has advanced to be an impressive way to manage assignments.  It does allow for teachers to archive assignments to access again in the future.  Google Classroom allows teachers to attach documents which have of course been saved in a Google Drive, so on that feature, both tools are tied.  Edmodo makes it easy to create "alumni" groups when a year ends so that students can keep in touch with each other, which is a fun option.  Teachers have power to moderate what gets posted.  One nice feature is the ability to create small groups WITHIN a classroom rather than creating multiple classes to assign more personalized content.  One area where Edmodo trumps Google Classroom is the fact that it has a standards-aligned question bank from which teachers can choose questions, create a quiz, and therefore take a snapshot of where students stand on a specific common core standard.


**Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Edmodo using the rubric is my own thinking.

Google Classroom Evaluation Using Communication Rubric

Google Classroom is one of the best ways to manage classroom communication and workflow that I have seen.  First of all, it is FREE!  Second of all, it does almost everything teachers need it to do, aside from provide the content to be taught.  I loved that I could set up "classes" for small groups or individual students so that I could easily personalize learning.  At the same time, I could set up a class for my entire class for general assignments.  Now, I think there is a feature that lets the teacher select who the assignment should go to, which eliminates the extra step of setting up individual classes.  Teachers can assign work, collect work, see how many students have turned in an assignment in real time, and ALL of this can be done without lugging a bag full of papers home to grade.  Assignments can be given right in Classroom with no attached "worksheets", or "worksheets" in the form of Google Docs can be attached for students to respond on.  There is a classroom conversation stream so that members can converse and answer their own questions without needing the teacher.  Links to web content, YouTube videos, and documents can be posted and assigned.  I appreciated that for younger grades, I could show a code that students could use to join since I couldn't invite them by email since they didn't have it.  I know there are classroom workflow systems that provide the content, but I love that this is free, AND I love that I can assign whatever I please.

**Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Google Classroom using the rubric is my own thinking.

Google Blogger Evaluation Using Communication Tool Rubric

Google Blogger comes with the normal benefits of anything Google- great archives and searchability. I like Blogger because I don't need to think about another host.  I'm always logged into Google, and therefore can always access my blog without any extra work or sign-ins.  However, at the same time, I don't feel like Blogger goes out of it's way to be ultra-snazzy or amazing.  It's format seems kind of dry, but it does gets the job done.  It is good to keep in mind that if Google decides to be done with Blogger, they could pull it offline and you'd lose what you'd written.  (I think the odds are minimal, and you'd be given a warning in advance.)  I do like that Google invests a lot of time in being accessible in a plethora of languages (over 100 and counting) and countries, and on any device.

**Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Twitter using the rubric is my own thinking.

Kidblog Evaluation Using Communication Rubric

• One could use Google Translate to create or read posts in different languages, but there is not a built in feature for translating text, so I couldn't give Kidblog a 4 for that standard.
• Kidblog is VERY kid-friendly.  My third grade students used it without any issues.  I know kindergarten teachers who have used Kidblog, and with practice, young students are completely capable of posting independently.
• There is a limited amount of video and photos that can be added using the free version of Kidblog.  Once you pay, you have much more freedom.  My kids always loved to include videos and pictures of their spelling study methods, so we finally bit the bullet and bought the paid version.
• Kidblog continues to make improvements to their platform.  They strive for "privacy, process, audience, and moderation. *"  Moderation is particularly important to me because I want to be cautious about what gets posted.  My class often would pull up posts or comments that were being written and discuss how they could be improved, or why I hadn't cleared the comment to be posted.
• Teachers have the option to archive previous classes.  I love this option because I could then use the work of prior students as examples for the current class.

*https://kidblog.org/home/kidblogs-new-platform/

**Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Kidblog using the rubric is my own thinking.

WordPress Evaluation Using Communication Rubric

• WordPress content, unlike content you put on Google Blogger, is owned and controlled by you.  If Google decides to pull Google Blogger, all of the information will go with it.  With Wordpress, your content would remain.
• WordPress blogs (they can also host websites, or BOTH your blog and website together, but we're talking blogs specifically) are almost completely customizable*.  There are a plethora of different themes and layouts available through WordPress.  This made me happy because I feel like Google Sites is fairly limited on the layouts that you can choose.  Ample plugins available should you need further options.
• WordPress Dashboard has over 50 language options, but in the grand scheme of things, there are more languages to conquer, so I couldn't give Wordpress a 4 here.  Blogger can do over 100 languages and counting.
• *One big thing to remember is that Wordpress is free to a point, but there is a charge in order to access most of the amazing themes and options.  Therefore, for education, it may not be the best choice.

*Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Wordpress using the rubric is my own thinking.

Google Hangouts Evaluation Using Communication Rubric

"Google Hangouts" is one of my favorite features that Google has to offer.  You can send text messages, make phone calls, have video chats, or do live Hangouts on Air that are archived on YouTube.  Is there a method of online communication that they've left out? I can't think of one.  I use the Chat feature every day. Think of how awesome texting on your phone is- quick, back-and-forth conversations that take little or now time to write and send.  "G-Chat", as it is frequently called, is just the same, except the chat window shows up at the bottom right of your computer screen.  If you're in Gmail, the Chat feature is already turned on.  Check out this link to get started.  We as a tech team use G-Chat if we need a quick, short response from someone.  When notifications are turned on, that person hears a sound when a message comes through, and doesn't have to look through emails to find it.  This is useful when someone may be in a meeting or teaching a class, and wouldn't necessarily check email but may glance at a message that pops up.  To make things even more fun, you can use Bitmojis (For anyone NOT using these, you should be! They can bring fun to even the most mundane of messages.  We have a school secretary who will write entire messages with Bitmojis, and it is hilarious.)  One nice feature is that you can turn off the history of a chat once you don't really need to see it anymore.  This is nice if we've chatted about passwords or certain bits of information that folks don't need to see.  We can turn off history, and the conversation will NOT be archived.  Otherwise, I love that I CAN find conversations by using the search feature in Gmail. When I search for a keyword or phrase, like "pinging printers", gmail will bring up both emails and G-chats with that phrase.  Google is the master of search, so it makes sense that you should be able to search through your own content via multiple pathways.

Overall, Google has figured out how to facilitate easy conversation for FREE in ANY format (online chat, live video, phone call...).  Content is archived for future reference or can by viewed on YouTube if Hangouts on Air was used.  Communication is INSTANT and in REAL TIME.  This means that EVERY classroom has a FREE window to the world, to experts, to sister schools...  This means that an authentic audience is available for student work, bringing so much more meaning and motivation to everything they do.  Google's mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" definitely shines through in their Hangouts feature.

*Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Twitter using the rubric is my own thinking.

Evaluation of Twitter Using Communication Tool Rubric

Twitter seems to be a pro at reaching the masses with an intuitive communication tool.  There is SO much information flowing via Twitter that I completely understand the requirement that users must be 13 years of age.  However, with thoughtful inclusion, elementary teachers can still take advantage of this tool.  For communities or classes new to Twitter, I think it will help to drum up some excitement in order to sway folks to agree about its value.  Classes could write Tweets together at the end of the day using a picture taken by the class photographer (who follows specific confidentiality rules such as refraining from showing student faces or last names).  Every day, a new student could be selected to be in the tweet.  Wow would that student be excited to run home and say they're in a Tweet!  At class and school events, signs with an appropriate hashtag could be posted around the school.  Even if folks don't want to write tweets, they could check for updates using that hashtag.  Twitter seems like a juicy tool to me because I tend to be too wordy, or to labor over what I'm going to say. With a limit of 140 characters, I'm forced to be brief and I'm less intimidated by the task of writing a "post" since it isn't going to take me an hour.  I can't wait to get our schools on Twitter in the fall!

*Rubric created in collaboration with Tricia Bursey and James Hoisington.  Evaluation of Twitter using the rubric is my own thinking.

Rubric for Online Communication Tools

With such a variety of communication tools available online, it can be hard to figure out which ones are best for use in the educational setting.  Our group of me, Tricia Bursey, and James Hoisington created this rubric to help with the process of evaluation.    Our next step will be to put it to work.  Please feel free to post thoughts or suggestions in the comments.

To view a larger version of the rubric, click here to see the original document.

Web 2.0 for Educators: My Top 3 Chapters

Virtual Environments:

This is my first time learning about Second Life (in Chapter 7- Virtual Environments), and I am amazed at how BIG it has already become.  I ended up watching several episodes on YouTube of The Draax Files: World Makers, a series that profiles the creative people behind many of the worlds and content in Second Life.  Over the last few years, I’ve gone from thinking of creating and functioning in virtual worlds as escapism and avoidance of real life to seeing the many benefits.  People featured in The Draax Files speak of how they’ve actually GROWN their friend groups and gained confidence to be themselves.  Second Life provides the outlet for everything they WANT to do but cannot in real life, either due to physical limitations, location limitations, financial parameters, etc.  Many people actually MAKE A LIVING in Second Life.  They create and showcase their artwork, musical talents (some folks in actually in bands with other people, or rather, with the avatars of other people), create movies, and more.  There are support groups, and many people feel like they’re are freer to talk in these virtual situations than they are in real life.  In The Draax Files: World Makers, Episode 13- Creations for Parkinson’s,” Fran talks about how Second Life has been huge for her after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  She feels like she is in Second Life, she gets to be the person she feels like in her head. There is a lack of dopamine that comes into the brain with Parkinson’s, and acting as her avatar in Second LIfe is a way of getting that back and having emotional, therapeutic experiences.  Her daughter Barbie Alchemy created a therapeutic world called “Creations for Parkinsons,” where people with Parkinson's can select calming or fun activities to do.  Barbie says that her mom used to hold onto her when walking to the car, but relays that Fran actually stated that she knew in her mind that her avatar could do it with no hands, and knew that she could, too, then actually DID walk to the car without holding on to anything!  Think about what this means for kids!  They can be the person they really want to be, act how they really want to act, create worlds of their favorite things, AND share these worlds with others!  Students could create virtual worlds as settings for their stories, recreate historical situations, and more!  I haven’t explored wether or not Second Life can be set to child-friendly settings, but I do know that Minecraft EDU has really given this some thought.  I would really like to devote more time to exploring how virtual environments like those mentioned in this chapter can be used more in school.

Blogs:

Blogs are another tool that I adore and want to encourage other staff members to use.  Solomon and Schrum write that “Because they are predominantly a written medium and are on public display, students have to learn to write carefully, think about their ideas, and communicate effectively.”  There isn’t the distraction of having to build a virtual environment before writing.  Blogs are about writing with the knowledge that other people are going to read your writing.  Students LOVE knowing that classmates will be reading their work!  There is always such excitement involved around logging in to read comments that people have left!  Much like virtual worlds, students can find and read blogs about topics that are of interest to them, but again, the focus is on writing and reading.  I would like to further explore using blogs as part of the writing PROCESS- having students do their pre-thinking via blog, rough drafts on blog, … and gather feedback from their peers along the way.  Most of what I’ve done has involved students writing a finished and final piece and then taking feedback.  I think it would be so valuable to embrace the interactivity of blogging and have peers to weigh in with advice for direction, intros or hooks, phrasing, and such.

Visual Learning Tools:

I definitely am a visual learner.  I much prefer to see an image rather than hear someone talking about it or read about it, so maybe that’s why Visual Learning Tools is one of my top three favorite topics from this book.  I also love digital visual learning tools for their ability to personalize learning.  Renee Owens is quoted as saying, “One of the greatest benefits of flipping with video in my classroom is the ability for students to rewind. They cannot rewind what I am saying and doing in class, but with a video that models the process, key ideas, skill, etc., they can rewind as needed. What this means is that a student who needs to hear it again, watch it again, stop and pause— can. In a heterogeneous classroom, how can you teach at the perfect pace? You will inevitably be too fast or too slow for someone.”  I am constantly aware that so many students are learning at varying paces, so to hand them the controls to the pace of learning is so valuable.  I also value visual learning tools when students can contribute to them, and often do so interactively.  I love that Google Slides can be an interactive process, with multiple students working on the same project at the same time.  Digital portfolios is a huge thing I’d like to push in my district, so finding a few visual learning tools that I favor and spreading their awareness will be a huge piece of what I do next year.

Solomon, Gwen; Schrum, Lynne. Web 2.0 How-To for Educators (Kindle Locations 608-609, 2587-2588). International Society for Technology in Education. Kindle Edition.

Module 3: Feeding on Blogs

Information constantly bombards me from a thousand sources, and I often catch too much of one thing, less of another, and leave some topics by the wayside when in fact they should remain front and center.  I'd used an RSS feed about 4 years ago, but gradually moved away from using it.  However, I'm in major information collection mode right now and using an RSS feed may be just what I need.

I selected five blogs to follow and made comments on three of them.

1. Markey's Musings-  Jason Markey is a principal in Franklin Park, IL.  I met him when I attended two of his learning sessions at the GAFE Summit in Montreal this past weekend and was very impressed with his thoughts on the role of principals.
• Comment: "As the observation unfolds it is the role of the anthropologist to look without seeing anything other than what is happening and not be swayed to believe they are seeing something based on previous experiences or assumptions." - Jason Markey. What an immensely valuable notion to embrace in the school setting: "As the observation unfolds it is the role of the anthropologist to look without seeing anything other than what is happening and not be swayed to believe they are seeing something based on previous experiences or assumptions."  Applicable to so many scenarios, but what first comes to mind is that often, teachers, schools, and/or school districts who have cruised along in a top bracket for quite some time would benefit from this lens to avoid assuming that students are being provided with the best experiences possible.  A newly-hired secretary has filled this role for one of our elementary schools this year.  Old habits die hard, but she's determined to be the honest eye we've needed!
2. The Making of an Elementary School MakerSpace- I used to teach at Dyer Elementary from whence this blog originates, and am completely excited to keep track of their work in building and running their new MakerSpace since I'm currently helping to do the same at my schools.

• Comment: “Staff meeting time is dedicated to tinkering and collaborative making experiences.”  What a valuable part of building whole-school buy-in!”

1. SketchPad- This is the blog of the Tinkering Studio located at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA.  
2.  EdTechTeam- I love everything this team embraces.  They're the planners behind the Future Ready Summits.
• Comment: Sylvia, Thank you for the suggestion to create a folder and drop in the links to areas where I'm least confident.  I definitely see that I'll be filling that folder faster than I expected!  Good tip.
• This comment was a learning moment- I got a message back saying that only members of the EdTechTeam can comment on the blog, so my comment was never posted.
3. Reflections of a Lifelong Learner-   Kim Meldrum writes this blog with a keen eye toward the integration of technology

 

My New RSS Feed, with blogs followed on the left

I have started following a few more blogs recently, but wasn't thrilled that the notifications of their publication were cluttering my Gmail's inbox.  I had put filters on my mail to mark such notifications as unread, but then I was doing the opposite and forgetting to read the blogs altogether.

It would be great if Feedly could change the way readers can view blogs.   I feel like if I click on the group of 5 that I'm following, I can either see a list of the most recently published posts, or a scroll of thumbnails to recently published.  I would like Feedly to allow for a way to view about 6 different blog thumbnails at one time, along with a little number by each one for the number of posts the author has written that I haven't read.  That would be the visual reminder I need about which blogs I'm actually following.  There are certainly other RSS feeds, and I'll be looking forward to reading the posts of my fellow classmates in EDU568 to find out what other feeds they liked.

I DO appreciate the fact that I can group feeds into "Collections," since there are so many topics I often read about.  The current 5 I'm following aren't really of the same category, but it looks like I can move them around.

As I read the blog posts of others, I'm seeing that even blogs associated with a school or someone's job tend to have a higher amount of information about the author than I would think to include.  However, after reading in Enhancing the Art & Science of Teaching with Technology about how "Mr. Flannery uses social media to support interactive engagement among his students," I may be seeing more value in creating those connections.  He starts the year by posting questions that get students to start talking about themselves, therefore helping them build connections with both he and their peers.  He responds to the inquiries as well so that students get a better feelings for who he is.  Another suggestion was to use positive emoticons to "demonstrate respect and value" to students (Element 39).  Using Bitmojis would be my go-to choice in such situations, since many of them are funny but still appropriate.  Students would probably LOVE to have a teacher who made personal connections with fun emojis and bitmojis.  That would be akin to a teacher drawing a distinctive happy face with flair on one of my papers when I was in school.  I thought it was fantastic!

There are definitely so many positives about blogging, both from the teacher and student standpoints.  I'm looking forward to feeling that incoming information is more organized as I set about to learn from other people. 

Source:  Magana, Sonny and Robert Marzano:  Enhancing the Art and Science of Teaching with Technology.  Marzano Research Laboratory:  2014.

Reflections on My First Twitter Chat

The value of Twitter has increased for me ten-fold now that I know how to participate in Twitter Chats.  For me, the number one reason to use Twitter is to accumulate new ideas, methods, and resources to better the work that I produce and my mindset as a professional educator.  Twitter Chats provide a way to have real-time conversations with other professionals about a topic that interests me.  Furthermore, the conversations are then searchable using the  corresponding hashtag (and even more detailed information), and I can refer back to everything that was said.  

There are several take-aways from these initial Twitter chats.  

• First, When I went back to review my tweets from the chats, I panicked when I couldn’t find all of them.   Then I realized that I was focusing only on my Tweets, and that I needed to hit “Tweets and Replies” to see more.  I wish now that I hadn’t hit the reply button during the Twitter Chat, but had just responded to a question using the appropriate hashtag and answer coding (A1, A6, etc.).  That way, the progression of thoughts that I was going through during the chat would be clearer if someone happens to scroll through my tweets and not my tweets and replies.
• These Twitter Chats were almost like taking notes., but with a fun adrenaline rush as I tried to keep up with the real-time conversation and respond with insightful contributions.
• I met people who are NOT teachers or at least don’t teach at the elementary school level.  It’s refreshing to hear from people who have an entirely fresh or different point of view than my own.  One of my current favorite mantras is “You don’t know what you don’t know.”  You don’t know SO MUCH that could potentially benefit you, and somehow you have to make yourself accessible to that information- to put yourself out there in the path of the oncoming traffic basically.
• I do like that anyone can access the information about the chat at a later date, but there was something so exciting about being very present in a conversation with people from all across the country and world.  I liked that both chats began by having participants introduce themselves because I was immediately hit with the fact that information would be coming from people in a wide cross-section of experiences, careers, and locations, but who all had a shared interest in the topic of conversation.  How valuable is that!

I appreciated the fact that even though I’ve been using Twitter for a year, I’d never done a Twitter Chat on my own.  I’d contributed ideas but not been the person tweeting, which this assignment forced me to do.  I will definitely participate in further chats in the future, and hopefully on a regular basis.

Module 2: Twitter Thoughts, Part 1

From reading of:  Fitton, Laura; Hussain, Anum; Leaning, Brittany (2014-12-05). Twitter For Dummies. Wiley. Kindle Edition.

• It's okay to have diversified interests on Twitter.
• I kind of view education as my business, and tweets as promotions thereof, so have held off writing more personal tweets.  However, Fitton and Hussain said that it was okay to post a few personal things so that your readers feel a greater connection.
• I need to make a habit of tweeting more frequently.
• As per Hussain and Fitton, when starting to tweet, it is a good habit to shoot for posting 5 tweets per day.  Unless I'm-live tweeting an event, I have thus far felt like that would be a bit too wordy for me to post directly.  However, if re-tweets could count as some of those, that makes sense.  However, maybe I need to get with the program and tweet more frequently.
• Thinking of ways to use Twitter in the classroom:
• Here's a scary one- think you're brave enough to try it?  Have parent volunteers tweet out what they see when they come into your classroom.  (You'd need to have some privacy guidelines for what gets tweeted).  Would it be the positive representation that you'd want people to hear?
• I think quite a bit about what Twitter can do for schools.  Neither of the schools I'm at currently use Twitter, and I'd love to get them hooked on it.  This quote is perfect!  "So why would a business want to establish a presence on Twitter? There are several reasons: To network with customers and see what they’re saying. To answer questions. To finely tool a company image. To poll and pull in feedback. To bring in new leads or customers. To take advantage of an innovative form of 140-character advertising. (If you have a limited quantity of something to sell in a short amount of time, you can’t find a better channel than Twitter to make it known.)"
• Fitton, Laura; Hussain, Anum; Leaning, Brittany (2014-12-05). Twitter For Dummies (pp. 14-15). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 
• First of all, how can a school afford to pass up this chance to get in the driver's seat in regards to the online rhetoric surrounding them!  Parents so often turn to Facebook and Twitter to air their frustrations.  Why can't a school be their own publicist or PR Rep!
• "network with customers and see what they're saying"- YES!  Parents and families are our customers.  We DO need to remain aware of what families are saying!
• "Tag clouds Tweet Cloud (http:// tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com) and TagCrowd (http:// tagcrowd.com), Trending Topics, and hashtags have something in common: They can generate a Twitter tag cloud, a visual display of words in which the relative size of the word corresponds to how many times it has been mentioned. Tag clouds provide an easy visualization of what’s going on in the Twitterverse in real time. Words that twitterers use a lot appear in the tag cloud, and the more mentions a word gets, the larger, darker, and bolder its display is. Tag clouds represent another, often quite visually appealing way to see what’s going on."
• Fitton, Laura; Hussain, Anum; Leaning, Brittany (2014-12-05). Twitter For Dummies (pp. 129-130). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 
• This would be a really great activity for morning meeting- check out the Tweet Cloud to see what's going on in the world.  For primary age, I would preview the cloud first to make sure it was safe.  I wonder if there's a way to do a Tweet Cloud sort of thing for NewsELA?  That would tailor the topics to be more school-appropriate.

More thoughts to come on Twitter, I'm sure, but for now, these were foremost on my mind.

Work In Progress? That's ALWAYS Me.

This school year finds me in a new job and a new position as a Technology Teacher and Coach.  In order to remain in this position, I need to procure my 680 Technology Endorsement, and this blog will document my progress throughout the first course down that new learning path:  EDU 568- Communication Tools for Teaching and Learning in Proficiency-Based Education.  It is being taught by instructor Sarah Irish through University of Maine, Farmington.       

There are so many things I love about life, but probably one of the biggest is that we, as humans, are capable of learning!  If we don't know something, it is only that we don't know it YET but can most certainly learn!  I ADORE my new job, but HOLY SMOKES- there is so much I still need to learn!  However, maybe that's why I adore it so much- it is prodding me to push myself and keep learning!    

It is with excitement that I find myself on this NEW path, in a NEW job, taking a NEW class with a NEW group of educators and mentors/resources/confidants/change-makers.  There is always something to learn, so let's get this party started!