learning.21st

Superhero: Join us!

2011-05-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Join us for Superhero!

2010-10-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Join us for the next Google Workshop for Educators

Saturday, December 4^th, 2010

@ TIES Technology Conference

Hyatt Regency Hotel

Minneapolis, MN

8:30am-3:30pm

Bring your own Laptop

Join us for the first Google Apps for Education Workshop

Sunday, December 5^th, 2010

@ TIES Technology Conference

Hyatt Regency Hotel

Minneapolis, MN

8:30am-3:30pm

Bring your own Laptop

More information on each of these events can be found here.

We can bring the Google Workshop for Education or the Google Apps for Education Workshop to you or your school district!

Please fill out this form to bring this professional development opportunity to you!

Workshop Request Form

Newest Collaborative Experience

2010-10-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

Using Images in the Classroom!

This presentation grew out of a conversation with a colleague that stressed the importance of having concrete strategies for the classroom that they could use with their IWB. The desire was to get past the bells and whistles and use real stuff that actually resulted in academic gains.

Although you can use these strategies without interactive white boards, these proven strategies should be an easy entry point for IWB users. If someone is struggling to authentically use their IWB, an image is a natural first step.

What are some innovative ways you use images and graphics in your classrooms?

*Make sure you open the speaker notes to see notes about each page.

Please add your strategies. Use as many slides as you need.

Google Workshop for Educators - TIES

2010-02-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

TIES is excited to announce the next Google Workshop for Educators!

Google Workshop for Educators
@ TIES May 15, 2010

Cost $260 Lunch Included

1667 Snelling Ave N. St. Paul, MN 55108

Presenters: Google Certified Teachers

Molly Schroeder, Ben Friesen & Sean Beaverson

Bring your own laptop!

Search, learn, share! Brought to you by the producers of the Google Teacher Academy, the nationally acclaimed Google Workshop for Educators (GWE) introduces participants to innovative ways Google tools can be used in education. The one day workshop includes a full day of fast-paced presentations and hands-on activities including experience with advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications, and inspirational instructional strategies. Google Certified Teachers share ways they've implemented tools such as Google Docs, Google Earth, Google Sites, and... even more. Participants who complete the event are given access to the Google Workshops for Educators Network (GWEN), an online community focused on supporting educators as they learn more about the power of Google to drive student learning.

We are looking for creative participants (eager beginners to advanced) that have a desire to build on current skills and integrate relevant technology into the classroom. Participants should have a desire to collaborate online with other educators from the workshop and help support each other with questions and successes. Participants should bring their own ideas and be willing to look at big picture when pace is fast and dive into the relevant details during time set aside for application.

Register Google Workshop for Educators!

Location: TIES 1667 Snelling Ave N., St. Paul, MN
Date: Saturday, May 15th
Time: 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM (w/1 hour lunch provided)
Register Information: http://ties.k12.mn.us/Professional_development_workshops.html
Questions? Contact Dorothy Harmon @ TIES 651-999-6503

Quotes from GWE past participants…

“Thanks! By far the best and most beneficial technology workshop I've attended.” – Nicholas, ISD 138

“This was a great workshop. I want more.....” – Cathy, Edina Public Schools

“This was fabulous! I'm excited about putting this to use with the teachers and students in my district.” –Penny, Orono School District

“All educators should have the opportunity to attend a GWE.” – GWE Participant, Hopkins, MN August 2009

“I dreamt of google last night!! Wish it was Monday so I could start working with teachers on the amazing things I learned at the #gwevegas”
@joleneanxalone via twitter.

Google Workshop for Educators - TIES

2009-12-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

Only a few more days...

We're looking forward to the Google Workshop for Educators at TIES on 12.13. Check out our agenda.

MN Geology with Google My Maps

2009-11-23T17:29:00.000-08:00

Over the last several classes the students have been creating MN Geology Maps in Google My Maps. This is a repeat assignment from last year with a few notable changes for the better. The biggest change was adding a rubric the students used to assess their placemarks. In the past it was very difficult to assess the maps, but this time I used more specific criteria like links, photos titles in addition to the content. I also simplified the login process by using a single login for the entire class (+30 students). Finally, I created a Google Site to use as the source based on the Virtual Egg Carton from the Minnesota Geologic Survey.

View B3 - MN Geoolgy Map in a larger map

Please check out the rubric and create a copy and modify it yourself. Please comment with criteria you would like to see added.

2009-10-04T13:16:00.001-07:00

We are excited to announce the

Google Workshop for Educators
@ the TIES Technology Conference
December 13, 2009
Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis

Let us know you are interested!
Fill out this form and we'll forward you the registration information as soon as it becomes available!

Search, learn, share! Brought to you by the producers of the Google Teacher Academy, the nationally acclaimed Google Workshop for Educators (GWE) introduces participants to innovative ways Google tools can be used in education. The one day workshop includes a full day of fast-paced presentations and hands-on activities including experience with advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications, and inspirational instructional strategies. Google Certified Teachers share ways they've implemented tools such as Google Docs, Google Earth, Google Sites, and... even more. Participants who complete the event are given access to the Google Workshops for Educators Network (GWEN), an online community focused on supporting educators as they learn more about the power of Google to drive student learning.

We are looking for creative participants (eager beginners to advanced) that have a desire to build on current skills and integrate relevant technology into the classroom. Participants should have a desire to collaborate online with other educators from the workshop and help support each other with questions and successes. Participants should bring their own ideas and be willing to look at big picture when pace is fast and dive into the relevant details during time set aside for application.

Quotes from GWE past participants…

“Thanks! By far the best and most beneficial technology workshop I've attended.” – Nicholas, ISD 138

“This was a great workshop. I want more.....” – Cathy, Edina Public Schools

“This was fabulous! I'm excited about putting this to use with the teachers and students in my district.” –Penny, Orono School District

“All educators should have the opportunity to attend a GWE.” – GWE Participant, Hopkins, MN August 2009

A Bakery, Pharmacy and a Snack Shop: Microloans from Students

2009-10-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last week I introduced the students in learning.21st to the idea of microloans. I was partially inspired by a blog post but mostly by a lesson my wife was doing with her 2nd graders. It is not often when a lesson can be interchangeable between 2nd graders and freshman. I started the class with a good old fashioned read-a-loud of One Hen. A short clip from a PBS Frontline episode provided a nice personal narrative of how the love of peanut butter leads to direct support of small business in the developing world. It also gave a nice overview of how microfinancing and Kiva.org works.

The students were asked to consider their criteria for lending money and worked in small groups to choose a person from Kiva.org to support. Each group had a few minutes to introduce their candidate for funding while we looked at the business profiles and saw each location in Google Earth. After the pitch, we voted via a Google Form and the top two candidates received $25 microloans.

The challenge for me is to take the lesson to the next level. There was great discussion about equity, privilege and life experience. We lent money to groups of people to causes we deemed worthy. I would like to take the lesson to the next level so please share your ideas in the comments. Other than commenting on the lender pages and sending messages I feel I am missing an opportunity to build on a great first-time lesson.

At the end of class there was a mystery donation of $20 from one student. I quickly made a additional loan to a small bakery in Samoa hoping it would maybe in some small way offset some of the recent tragedy as a result of the tsunami. The lesson clearly impacted one student all by itself, but now should I build on it to further it in for the rest?

1st Day of School

2009-08-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

Sometimes an image is worth a thousand words and it sums my goals for the next school year perfectly. Stay tuned...

Thanks to @gardenglen for the image!

Google Workshop for Educators - MN

2009-08-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

The Longfellow 10

2009-05-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

For a few weeks this Spring I tried an experiment in my classroom. One of my sections joined the super hip student-run Longfellow 10 Productions. The LF10 is a loose confederation of unknown students in undisclosed locations in cyberspace looking to promote awareness of important literary terms (and Science Concepts!) through absurd stop-motion films. Check out our Longfellow 10 movies here. For information on an upcoming film festival, click here.

Mr. Mayo and one of the LF!0 give valuable advice via Skype.

Instead of doing the usual assignments, labs and activities we got into groups and began working on stop-motion movies around science topics and concepts. Each group got a piece of butcher paper for story-boarding, a bag of materials and a topic. Five class periods later we posted eight new videos to the LF10 site.

LF10 member (MN faction) shows off storyboard for Orographic Cooling

One of the coolest parts of the project was a very valuable 15 minutes of advice from from the Maryland faction via Skype. It was the first time I skyped in classes but I instantly realized the value of this tool. We learned that there were lots of bumps in the road, that it took a lot of time to make a good movie and music and sound effects are critical for quality movies. The students saw other students being successful and caught a glimpse of the classroom of the future. I'm looking forward to finding authentic reasons to incorporate Skype next year.

Anyone interested in connecting classrooms? Check us out!

Twittering the Solar Oven Cookout!

2009-05-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

"Twitter?!...that is like Facebook for old people" - 8th Grader

Every year, the big finale for our Earth Science course is making solar ovens. Students parade into school with boxes made of foil, plastic wrap, construction paper, mylar, and spray paint. There are ovens that somehow get colder when put in the sun, ovens that are 100% created by parents, and ovens that light themselves on fire. If you doubt the ability a cardboard box to cook hot pockets, I assure you that it is possible. The high temp on Friday was 305 F.

This year we tried an experiment. I put a desk on the field within range of the wireless and we live-blogged and twittered the events on the web. I have done online chats with students before and from my experience it was most successful when focused on an event. For example, the homework/review session chats didn't work at all, but the lunar eclipse chat had 20 students chattering like monkeys for over an hour.

The Solar Oven Cookout was the perfect opportunity for the students report the events live. In one block we live-blogged and for the rest of the classes we Twittered. Check out our SO09 tweets and blog posts from Friday. I would highly recommend setting up a Twitter account for your classroom. For privacy reasons, I will not follow my students, but the Twitter account gives us a chance to broadcast events with one button. 140 characters forces the students to be concise and I think the next time we watch Bill Nye the Science Guy, the students at @science619 will be tweeting summaries, science connections and applications to the topic of the day. Check us out and see how our experiment evolves.

How do you use Twitter in the classroom? Please comment!

Silo: Oink, Mooo, Cluck

2009-05-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

The other day I walked into the computer lab and saw a group of students using Google Docs to work on cool Supreme Court case assignments. I chatted with the teacher and saw a cool extension of the assignment that I never though of (more on that in a future post). In the distance I heard a cow moooo, a chicken cluck and a pig go oink. I am living in a silo. I am one of the Tech Integration people at my building and I have no idea people are using the same tools that I have been trying to hype.

Teachers (at least I do) live in silos. We are in our rooms, doing our thing and occasionally we get out to see that is happening around the barnyard (I have failed in my goal to each lunch in the lounge). The busier I get, and the more things I have on my plate the higher and more constricted my silo gets. The tools, like Google Presentations, are intuitive and do not require a lengthy sit-down. I'm not frustrated that people are not getting me involved and asking for help, because they are plenty capable. I am frustrated because I would like to collaborate and have discussions about new ways of doing things and making the classrooms more relevant.

I know there is a discussion happening about silos of information in education. I know that we shouldn't be in them.

Don't you wish you had more time to collaborate with those around you?

I do.

photo: onlinewoman

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Google Workshop for Educators

2009-04-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

The Finished Project

2009-03-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the best slides created by my students related to Global Warming and The Greenhouse Effect. Again, the emphasis was tipping traditional presentations on their head. We talked about design, marketing, using images and conveying your idea in one single slide (we also talked about science). Unfortunately, the drawing feature in Google Presentations was added after we finished and would have been very useful.

One thing that is interesting is how many slides took the form of flow maps. We use a lot of these at our school and it is encouraging to see students actually use them to organize their thoughts. One question that I am still trying to figure out is how to make sure students are learning and constructing knowledge when they do these presentations. Any ideas? Are there always a few students that will spend a day working on a slide and miss the main idea? Next time I would like to incorporate the Presentation Chat feature so that we can all interact with the presentation.

Greenhouse vs. Global Warming

2009-03-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

science619 is starting another Google Presentation project. This time we are taking two days to research and present the basics of the Greenhouse Effect and Global Climate Change using exactly two slides. I wanted to build on a few aspects from the last presentations and focus more on the the following. Thanks to UF for these ideas.

Use good images
Avoid bullets and lists
Think about design
Begin building knowledge by using links
Examples are better than definitions

I also decided to make a planning sheet that looked more like a website and less like a worksheet. Supposedly kids are screen-first and should take to this layout better than a piece of paper with lists of expectations. We'll see.

Lastly, I am also going to use a Google Custom Search Engine instead of providing a list of websites that I have previously vetted. This is a great tool to help scaffold searches. Despite the reputation that students are tech wizards it can be absolutely painful to watch them search the web. By previously defining the sites I want them to use they can still feel like they are part of the process and I know the information is solid. Next time I use Custom Search I plan on throwing in a few distractor sites to see how the students filter content. Stay tuned for a few samples.

Snowshoeing with an Android

2009-02-25T20:08:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend I downloaded some new applications for my Android G1 and thought I would give My Tracks a try while out on a leisurely snowshoe. While taking my GPS enabled phone on a quiet snowshoe through the woods in the middle of Minneapolis seemed wrong, I decided give it a try anyway.

The purpose of this post is say that despite all the gadgets in my life...I can still get out and go for a simple walk in the woods. Rats!

Here are my stats.

Total Distance 1.95
Total Time 01:00:07
Moving Time 00:39:15
Number of Tracks 1
Average Speed 1.95
Average Moving Speed 2.98
Elevation Gain 378
Min Elevation 716
Max Elevation 892

Google Workshop for Educators

2009-02-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

Announcing the Google Workshop for Educators (formally the Google Learning Institute) in Hopkins, Minnesota on August 6-7, 2009.

Search, learn, share! Brought to you by the producers of the Google Teacher Academy, a Google Workshop for Educators (GWE) introduces participants to innovative ways Google tools can be used in education. The two-day workshop includes a full day of fast-paced presentations and hands-on activities including experience with advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications, and inspirational instructional strategies. A second day will be devoted to development of a proof-of-concept project and classroom application. Google Certified Teachers share ways they've implemented tools such as Google Docs, Google Earth, Google Sites, and... even more. Participants who complete the event are given access to the Google Workshops for Educators Network (GWEN), an online community focused on supporting educators as they learn more about the power of Google to drive student learning.

We are looking for creative participants (eager beginners to advanced) that have a desire to build on current skills and integrate relevant technology into the classroom. Participants should have a desire to collaborate online with other educators from the workshop and help support each other with questions and successes. Participants should bring their own ideas and be willing to look at big picture when pace is fast and dive into the relevant details during time set aside for application.

This workshop is designed to give participants an introduction to various Google tools plus an extra day to develop a "proof of concept" idea/lesson to be implemented in your own classroom. The Google Workshop for Educators is designed as an entry level workshop into the world of Google with room for personal adaption to higher level application.

Youtube - The Bombproof Sub Plan

2009-02-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

Last week I created the bombproof sub plan. Seven minutes of quirky teacher-ness that the students would be accustom to and information about expectations and such straight from the horse's mouth. The Youtube video was embedded on the class website and was recorded for the intended audience...the students.

The problem is that they never saw it. For some reason the sub never played it for them. A sub's dream...push play and kick back. Students would magically do what they were supposed to do and questions would be answered. Of the 102 views in one day on Youtube not one of them was for the intended audience.

Try it! The Youtube quick capture video really is the ultimate sub plan, just make sure you tell the kids in the event the sub is a dud. Train a few kids in each class to be the tech helpers and make sure your sub gets to the class website for the day. I did this, but next time I will make sure the students insist on watching the sub plan as a large group to start class.

learning.21st (2.0)

2009-02-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

Students will soon be registering for classes at WJH and I am hoping that learning.21st will take off next year. After a successful first year with 17 students, I am ready for the masses. Bring it on...and tell your friends to sign up too.

Teaching 2.0

2009-01-30T09:44:00.001-08:00

Try and describe to 8th graders how transfer pictures and sources from 3 different computers using a server or USB drive to a common computer so you can make an iMovie. Then tell them that they have to huddle around one computer so they can "work together" and make a movie. Look at their faces. Hmpf!

After my Voicethread project went up in flames minutes before the bell (Java issues) I found myself scrambling to the the old iMovie standby. After a week of planning an authentic collaboration lesson (unfortunately, I didn't try it on a student computer) I was listening to the words coming out of my mouth and thought they sounded stupid, dumb and ridiculous. Why would I want to have my kids huddle around a computer to make a movie after getting them excited about the idea of them working on common project from different computers? Everything suddenly seemed so difficult. They were going to annotate, talk, type and video comment and now they are trying to figure how to swap pictures from different computers and how to change the length of titles.

Giant leaps....backwards! I took and deep breath and switched to Google Presentations. After a seven minute overview and sharing session I didn't really have another technical question for the rest of the block. There was one group, however, that forged ahead with iMovie, but they pulled out the USB drive during the saving process and lost their project to an error. The other groups don't have to worry about USB drives, saving, swaping, or sharing because I'm already a viewer on all their projects.

The Google Presentations highlight how technology should work in the classroom. It should make things easier, allow authentic collaboration, and be applicable to all the classes, not just this one project.

Chatting in Google Presentations!

2009-01-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, our school had a 2-hour late start devoted to technology integration. The first hour was a large group session where we overviewed Web 1.0 vs. 2.0 and introduced Google Docs and ways it could be used in the classroom. The second hour was breakout time related to a specific topics (Activboards, Moodle and Google Docs).

During the large group session, the staff was invited to join the presentation online and follow along. What is nice about the Google Presentation tool is that it has a chat column that the audience can use for questions or comments. During the presentation I made the comment that students want to create and be active participants with technology and not just click links and watch. The comment/chat column in the Google Presentation is really great because it allows the audience to do more than watch and listen. There was a running commentary/dialogue that was approximately following the presentation and adding insights along the way. I thought everyone was very well behaved...was it because they were actively participating? Hmmmm.

There were a dozen or so staff members that jumped in and I decided to post some of the comments and chat topics during the presentation.

Congress has it's own youtube channel now.

There is some research out there that argues wikipedia is more accurate than an encyclopedia...I read a study where a person made over 30 deliberate mistakes, and theywere all corrected within an hour
I've been using Google docs to get my ski team to sign in for races. It's pretty cool
For our ALC team meeting notes, I type them in Google docs, and then we all have accessto them at all times - and can make additions, as necessary.
the cool thing is that I can actually edit the document or make notes right on theirs as they type they like that immediate response
google docs has a tool call revision history, too. So that if there was an innapropriateaddition to a document you can actually fetch back to the time before they added thatcontent and delete it.
Sean and I used Google docs to write behavior contracts - we were both editing at the sametime. Worked perfectly.

Plate Tectonics...In Google Earth!

2009-01-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

Google Earth is the textbook! It took a couple of classes but I finally figured out what to say to the students that were trying to figure out why we never seem to use a textbook while learning about new topics. For my most recent project the students used a customized KML file in Google Earth to explore the idea of Plate Tectonics. Students navigated different areas of the Earth to learn about the different plate boundaries and the landforms associated with them.

Every region of the Earth is paragraph in the textbook. The Pacific Northwest - Cascade Mountain Range is a paragraph. Iceland and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a another paragraph and so is the Mariana Trench.

All the placemarks that have been deliberately created are sentences (I created them in Google My Maps). Every YouTube video, every image and every word is helping to tell the story and emphasize the main idea.

Although I spent a lot of time putting the content together, I could finally sit back in (not really) in class and watch the students take it in at their own pace. If a student wanted more, we turned on the Wikipedia or volcano layer. If a student was struggling, we focused on the videos. Easy!

This book is different than the ones I never use in the class. It is dynamic. Almost every class period used different KML file because I would discover errors or glitches and correct them for next class. It is differentiated. The content can easily be adjusted based on the learner. It is also chalked full of media. I heard an NPR story about curiosities at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and the next day students were watching relevant YouTube videos of the only liquid sulfur cauldron this side of Jupiter. That wasn't known when my textbook was published.

Just saying. Thoughts?

Click here for the most recent version of the Plate Tectonics KML file.

MEGAmap - MN Geology via Google My Maps

2008-12-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

The nine map...five class...differentiated...jigsaw My Maps project was a success. Here is a link the to the actual student-created interactive map. After completing the project I gave the students a survey using Google Forms. Surprisingly, they loved the survey and gave me great feedback. Here is a glimpse.

One thing that was encouraging was the relatively small number of issues there were related to the technology. I suspect the number one issue that teachers might have wading into a MEGA-technology project would be the tech issues. In reality, the trouble spots arise the first day when a small handful of students will struggle to remember a password or a login name. Other than that, there are a few issues related to embedding but the groups usually help eachother out with that.

The two best parts of a project identified by the students were working in groups and learning about iGoogle (all students signed up for iGoogle and subscribed to an RSS feed of my homework). Hmmmm, interesting. The two worst parts were other people editing placemarks and not having enough time (at least 3 hours of classroom time).

After the map was complete, the students were given a take-home exam and the task was to teach an adult about the MN geologic history using the their notebooks and the Google Map.

The response from parents? iGoogle was cool and it was neat to see what their kids created. Success!

Got a idea for a project? Post it in the comments! Thanks!

learning.21st - Formative Assessment

2008-12-10T08:38:00.001-08:00

Since I don't know the end goal of this process I can only get an occasional look in to see the progress. I set up Google Analytics account on a Site I created for TIES and also on this blog. Out of curiosity, I checked it today to see there was any increase in traffic. While I never used the Site until TIES, the blog traffic increased only as much as if I posted a new post.

Conferences can sometimes be a disjointed bunch of sessions that fail to connect to the classroom. Web 2.0 as a stand alone does not need a conference, but to connect it to the classroom it is beneficial to see some applications modeled. I did see a few good sessions and got a little inspiration for doing things differently. I developed more confidence to articulate the vision of getting my students connected from day one and more forcefully lobbying the issue in my building. I also made a few connections with other people doing the same thing with similar visions.

This post is my formative assessment. The last two days outside my classroom were worth it. I connected with people and expanded my network. I grew...and now let's move on.

TIES - learning.21st

2008-12-07T20:31:00.001-08:00

Will be presenting this tomorrow at TIES. Looking forward to a couple good days of networking and learning new things. Here is the Site I created for TIES with all the goodies on it. More to follow....

The Ultimate Jigsaw! My Maps

2008-11-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

I have been struggling to do something cool with Minnesota History for some time. According to our department, it falls inside the personal 20% that really isn't essential but still fun/important to teach. This year I came up with the ultimate jigsaw where I divided up my 15o students by ability group, across 5 blocks and made a Google My Maps Project. The process of getting started was a bit of a beast but today we were full throttle ahead and real progress was being made.

click to enlarge!

The students are in the process of creating content, links, pictures and constructing their knowledge from resources I pulled together in a public Google Doc. Occasionally a student embeds a surfing video to highlight Minnesota's ancient oceans, but we talk it through until it connects back to limestone and sandstone. Whether the final version of the map will convey that connection is unknown.

When I think back to eighth grade, the only thing I remember about my science class is my teacher using catapults to launch erasers across the room. I was concerned about my jeans, shoes, friends, girls, sports and if I had $.63 for a taco after school. Big picture....the students are learning how to create using the web and picking up a little MN history in the process. Really, how many states can claim lava rock? The students are collaborating with students in other classes. They are learning how to manage browser tabs and become a little more web savvy. With luck, they will also continue to add their maps over a long Thanksgiving weekend. If they do....without being told....then it was worth it.

Stay tuned for a link to the final map!

A Historical Night & Wordle

2008-11-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

Check out Wordle! This is a Wordle created using the text from Barack Obama's speech on election night. Wordle is a great tool because it can quickly highlight the main idea of a body of text. How could this be used in your classroom?

from Wordle

learning.21st - Google Docs Podcast "I Have A Dream"

2008-11-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

My new course, learning.21st, is now over. Based on discussions and feedback from students, it was a major success! The final project was producing a podcast about the big idea they wanted everyone at school to know about. The four big ideas the students gravitated to were cyberbullying, Google Docs, tricks and tips, and social networking sites like Ning.com. The students used an adapted template to put together their podcast and developed the content on their own. The groups used their newly honed 21st century skills to develop the script in Google Docs and also used a Google Form to submit their group self-evaluation. After a quarter of micro-projects, it was great to watch them use the skills they learned in class and work over several days to complete their final project. It was also rewarding to sit back and hear student discussions about how these tools are benefiting them as learners.

Who said students can't engage in metacognition?

Here is the Google Docs Podcast! Listen to what the students are saying...and then check it out for yourself.

Merely Another Weapon

2008-10-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

While exploring the topic of cyberbullying, the students in learning.21st had an opportunity to ask the School Police Liaison questions, discussed some student case studies on Netsmartz and also watched a great video from digizen.org. To my surprise, the students took the topic of cyberbullying very seriously.

This is a student blog post about the topic by Jack.

Bullying has existed since people first started interacting with each other. To bully can be defined as the act of physically or mentally intimidating another person or persons. When we think of bullying, the thought of kids on the playground may come to mind. However, we live in the 21st century. The same way everything else has evolved, so has this child's cruel game of torture.

As we have become slaves to the social networking sites, they have become merely another weapon in the hands of a bully. In the same way a nuke can decimate so many more lives than a conventional bomb, cyberbullying can so much more thoroughly destroy one person than conventional bullying by bringing the insults world wide. On the netsmartz videos that we watched, we saw what cyberbullying did to two different individuals. One guy went on to a sight and rated some girls but ended up facing a possible expulsion and the other girl shared her password and had her myspace modified badly.

When you are on the web, it is probably a good idea to think before you do. The guy who visited his friend's website and rated the girls should have ignored it and done something else. As for the girl, the thing about the password is like your toothbrush is a good piece of advice.

Student Blog Post: Microsoft vs. Google Docs

2008-10-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

This is a student blog post by Mariah in response to our classroom experiment using Google Docs on a collaborative project. Please Note: By installing Google Gears you can work in Google Docs offline.

"Create and share your work online! Edit anytime, from anywhere! Share changes in real time!" reads Google's advertisements for their product Google Docs . There are multiple possible arguments about which program is better, Microsoft or Google Docs. In the next few paragraphs I will explore the pros and cons for both Microsoft and Google Docs.

When it comes to computers kickin' it old school can be a high price to pay. What I am trying to say is that with all the new computer technology out there today, like Google Docs, Microsoft is a thing of the past. There are tons of more productive ways to write an essay, create a group power point, graphs, and other projects. A very large conflict with Microsoft is that you have to repeatedly save your work. If your work is not saved and your computer shuts off, you could be left with a 16 page essay that you have to start over because it wasn't saved. On Google Docs the web is constantly saving your work for you so you don't end up re-typing a month-long essay in one night. Google Docs creates a whole new meaning to a document. The fact that you are on the web gives you the power to collaborate with with your group or partner when you are both at home. You can talk to them and work on the project at the same time, and see their work as you go. This can be extremely convenient for large groups so you are not all huddled around one computer to do a project. I can relate to this problem. Last year in 8th grade speech our teacher assigned us a travel speech. I was in a group of three (not exactly a large group, but still there were problems) and each one of us had to do a different part. I ,of course, got the big responsibility of making the power point. With Microsoft technology this meant I would do all the transferring of work. If one of my group members found a good picture I would have to stop my work, go to the website they were at, and put the picture into the power point. If we had been using Google Docs, then my group member could have put the picture in the power point for herself, and I wouldn't have had to have lifted a finger. As you can see Google Docs can be the smartest choice to use when you are writing an extremely long essay, or working on a group project. It ensures your documents safety, and cuts the working time in half.

26 years of service and improvement. The program Microsoft has been around since 1982. When it was first created there wasn't even a mouse to go with the computer. That shows how much it has grown since those days. Microsoft's newest version, 2007, comes with a new design and more features, and a lot more than Google Docs. There is much more freedom, choice, and creativity for your projects with Microsoft. For me, I have always used Microsoft since I was little so it is very familiar to me. When we used Google Docs in class
I was a little overwhelmed, and extremely confused. Plus you don't need internet connection for Microsoft. If you are like me and live in a home with ssssslllowwwwww computers you would understand why this is quite the bonus. Just yesterday night my internet was down all night long, if my family had decided to rely on Google Docs instead of Microsoft and I had to type up a paper, I would have been screwed.

As you can see there are many pros and cons for both Microsoft and Google Docs. Only time can tell whether Google docs will ever get its recognition, or if Microsoft can bust out new and better products before it falls into the shadows.

Google Docs: In Plain English

2008-10-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Student Blog Post: Not surprised... Unfortunately

2008-10-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is a blog post by Mykael in response to the PBS Frontline: Growing Up Online

Really, I've got to say that i am in no way surprised by the video we watched in class today, in fact I'm more shocked by how little parents and teachers know. Kids have been getting in to trouble since the beginning of time and when parents invade on their fun they move on to another activity that the adult population hasn't stumbled upon yet. The thing that I don't understand is that the internet has been a problem for a while now and the movie we watched in class is one of many that has come out over the past couple of years. Even if parents haven't heard of myspace, Facebook, or Youtube they have got to be wondering what it is that keeps their kids entertained for hours on end.

Instead of just making videos about what today’s kids are doing/saying/posting online, why don't they try and come up with a more effective way to stop these kind of things from happening, or better yet use the same technology to their advantage. Think about it, if kids are using "Spark Notes" on all their assignments, then come up with an assignment that they can't use spark notes to cheat with. If kids are using forums to give one another encouragement for doing something as stupid as anorexia, then create a site where anonymous recovering anorexics can get support. A great example of a helpful solution to one of our problems is "Turnitin.com", it helps to prevent plagiarism from text found on the internet. If all else fails, you can always fall back on the good old saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." I don't think parents realize how much of an advantage sites such as Facebook give them. If they want to know what their kid was doing last Saturday, who they're dating, where the next party will be, who does drugs, ect., all a parent has to do is log on and look at their child's profile. Chances are a whole lot of information and insight in to their kid’s life is right at their finger tips. Let's be honest, most kids my age aren't that smart. We just aren't, i mean come on, who the heck puts pictures of themselves drinking on a site where anyone can see it, so why wouldn't parents use this stupidity to their advantage. Things like Myspace should be a parent's best friend, it's kind of like a diary left laying on the kitchen table with a big flashing sign that says "read me!" If parents could just figure out that today’s technology isn't too much for them to handle, they would know a lot more about their kids.

The thing that we have to except is that it is impossible to stop kids from getting in to trouble when we have something like the internet. There will always be adults figuring out ways to stop us and there will be people making new websites to keep pace with the ones that are being brought down. Even if we fixed everything bad going on the internet, it doesn't mean anything other than kids have come up with a new way to communicate with people and have been successful in keeping it on the down low. No matter what kids are going to do stupid things, and as horrible as it is, there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

learning.21st: the class

2008-10-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

This quarter I am teaching a new course to 9th graders. It is a first run (with 18 students) and so far it has been very successful. Over the next few blog posts, I want to highlight a few activities from the class and post some of the student blog posts related to the course content.

Here is the official first draft overview...

The course, learning.21st, is a nine week elective designed to directly address the use of technology in the classroom and help the students become proficient with a suite of web-based applications and model skills that will help them become better 21st century students.

Students are largely on their own when applying online skills and resources to school because they are not covered in the traditional classroom or are addressed at drastically different levels. Students may be well versed in the standard suite of education applications, like Microsoft Office, but technology is quickly moving away from such programs to a more user driven, free, and non-licensed platform. Although the computer has been a mainstay in the schools since the early eighties, the web and user defined content is pushing technology from something done in the computer lab to a integral part of the classroom. This course would deliberately teach 21st century learning skills to a population that is increasingly living online but never had a forum to apply knowledge to the academic setting.

The Day After...

2008-09-27T10:54:00.001-07:00

I have not been able to stop thinking about the ideas that were hatched in Chicago. I know most of the Google tools and the applications of them, but the GTA connected me to the people to implement my ideas. Naturally, you drink a little Kool-aid and get excited about all that Google has to offer, but the thing I really walked away with is the instant network I became a part of and the potential for more in everything I do.

One thing that I want to work on is my 20%. What can I do for an hour a week with my kids that is outside the box and will better prepare them for the world they are entering? I am kicking around an interdisciplinary online collaboration around the idea of place. I would naturally throw in some earth science but I would want it to be accessible to other disciplines too. I already have four burners going so my 20% might be on top of an already full plate. I'm sure most other educators are in the same boat so maybe I ought to just jump in.

Stay tuned for more on The Place Project! Anyone interested?

Google Teacher Academy - Chicago

2008-09-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

Back from Chicago and looking forward to implementing some of the ideas and plans that were hatched in Chicago.

Details to follow...

Update: The New Book of Knowledge

2008-09-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

"All books on this cart are garbage. Please throw away."

Apparently there was another set of The New Book of Knowledge floating around the school. What amused me was these books are not just headed to the garbage, they are garbage.

I'm inclined to agree, but the wording is a little strong. I would offer an alternative. "All the information in these books is already on Wikipedia, please recycle."

tweet tweet!

2008-08-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

School starts in a week and I will have to adjust a few of my habits. For one, I am addicted to Twitter. My school blocks Twitter, which may be a good thing, because I'm not sure I would get much done. Twitter is a way to post stream of consciousness thoughts limited to 140 characters. Here are some sample tweets from my last week of summer.

can you eat sukiyaki one-handed?

making enchiladas and looking at a 3lbs bag of tortilla chips!
i won a $25 dollar prize in a raffle! success!

Now, there is a community of people that actually collaborate and effectively use Twitter for professional reasons. I'm not sure I could do that, or be that committed to keeping up. There are actually entire conversations that play out using less than 140 characters at a time. Check out the example of a Twitter feed from the Cool Cat Teacher Blog where good things are happening on the professional development scene.

What I will miss is keeping up with friends and tracking the minutia of daily life. I have friends that don't have phones, but I could send them a tweet and they would be able to meet me for lunch. I actually...gulp...twittered throughout the first 16 hours of my wife's labor. We had friends and family on both coasts tracking the tweets for news of a baby.

If you haven't checked it out, you should. If your school hasn't already blocked it, tweet like its going out of style...because it won't be long.

The New Book of Knowledge!

2008-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

I found this set of "knowledge" while cleaning out cabinets that are slated for renovation. I wonder if they have ever been used? I had a flashback to 1994 when I sent my first email and began using Gopher and clicking through menu-based links and Netscape. Just a little show and tell for the last post of the school year.

It's a good thing Pluto was demoted!

2008-05-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Grumpy Blogger Alert!

I'll tell you what, it was a good thing Pluto was demoted as one of the nine planets because I won't have time to teach about it because of the mandated MCA tests (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment). The Science MCA is a computer-based test and is spread out over two class periods. While I am being dramatic, the amount of time spent gearing up the MCA tests results in less time for just about everything else. I lost seven 88 minute classes this year because of the MCA. I thought I would just bullet a few of the frustrations.

Ummmm.... I lost seven 88 minute classes this year because of the MCA.
The tests need to be cached. This means that before the test is given it is grabbed from the testing site and put onto the district server. This can take over an hour. While you can plan ahead the success of the testing should not fall on an overworked tech support person to show up on Monday at 5 am.
The technology support people have the worst computer to tech support ratio in the business. These poor people have to maintain computers for users that by their nature want to pluck out keys and wallpaper the desktops. I heard someone say that this should have been done on Sunday. I disagree.
Our school gave students water and mints for the Reading and Math MCA. I think this is a good idea other than the huge volume of plastic bottles in the garbage. For the computer-based MCA the students didn't get the same treatment because water and computers don't mix.
I was told that Monday was a bad day for testing because so many schools are doing the test on Monday. Well, Friday was a field trip and there is something else on Tuesday and Thursday is a bad day too. There are no good days for these things but the point is that if you are going to do it then it has to work. If you can blame it on a Monday, you should question whether you should be giving it at all.
Our school has done a great job of preparing kids to write constructed responses. Not that it is always done well, but there has been a school-wide effort to focus on writing skills. There have been a number of students over the course of the MCA who have not been able to type a full answer for a constructed response because there is a limit on characters. I feel like they should let you know there is a limit like on those online customer comment forms. I also feel like the students should be able to write at least two sentence before being limited. Who knows, maybe it is a computer issue....
Luckily we have decent computers. Can you imagine the chaos of a school where there are 36 in class with 27 working computers.
Insert your frustration here!

Does what happened today in Lab 611 determines whether my kids learned this year? I sure hope my kids got all those fossil questions right because I cut that unit as a result of losing so many classes to the MCA's (this is just an example...I did sign the non-disclosure form).

Desktop Post-it Note:

2008-04-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

This computer sucks!!!!! The internet dosn't work and like a bazillion things pop up. so find a diffrent computer!!!!! somebody thought they were super funny and made it so everything popped up 5 times each!!!! NOT funny!

(this post-it was on a desktop in a student computer lab because someone changed the settings to open every application at startup.)

Poll:

Should schools lock computers down so that kids can't mess with the settings, change desktop images and install Pac-Man Widgets? (This allows students to be less distracted and keeps the over-worked tech support people happier)

Should schools leave computers "open" so that students can use them them way they were intended and deliberately teach students how to maintain and use computers? (This eats into class time, but will always insure that a student can access the built-in camera and change various settings depending on the project.)

I think schools wrestle with this on a day-to-day basis and just wanted to see that people think. Please vote on the poll to the right.

Mario Chalmers, Moodle and Online Assessments

2008-04-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

The NCAA tourney is over and my Jayhawks won it all. Thanks to Mario Chalmers I got my first good night of sleep in weeks. As I was drifting off my brain started thinking about school, but just for a moment of two.

Standardized test season is upon us. This year we are adding an online science assessment in addition to the usual pencil and paper varieties. I have a few thoughts on these new online assessments and wanted to share them with a larger audience to see what the response was.

(some low scores out of 40)

Last week I gave a short online Moodle-based test on material that was largely review. There was some stuff on phase change, pressure, and other weather related items. The scores were abysmal. I remembered something I heard from students last year after a Moodle test.

"I like Moodle tests...they are so easy. It is so easy to click when you don't know the answer...it doesn't feel like a real test."

Hmmm, I don't think students take a lot of online test so maybe it is more like a video game. Maybe the students think they are simply deciding how to cross a river in Oregon Trail. Should we caulk the wagons and float it or just pay for the ferry? In a game, it is an easy decision and there are no real-world consequences.

Tests are not necessarily the same because there are real-world consequences. I currently dedicate one block to helping my students to prepare for the high stakes standardized tests. Our school does a good job of organizing this and dividing up tasks. As more tests go online, I think that we'll have to rely on more on our anecdotal experiences and the growing research base to address how students approach online tests.

Will those online test taking skills need to be deliberately taught? Is it really any different than paper/pencil? Are the scores really lower or is it just easier to generate statistics? Are some students more disadvantaged because of tests going online?

Oregon Trail

2008-03-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

At a staff development a few months back a very good point was made about the stigma of math in schools (life). Something along the lines of "grumble, grumble....but that is math....and I am not a "math" person...grumble, grumble" As someone who has struggled with math, checkbooks, budgets, gas mileage and measuring I was surprised to find myself entrenched behind the front lines and going to bat for them. How can kids like math if they are constantly hearing the grumbles about the woes of math and how everyone is so bad at it. I have to admit I have changed my tone. I don't have a lot of opportunities in my class, but I now approach density calculations with the same vigor as someone standing on a bridge with big banners supporting their candidate before an election.

What does this have to do with technology? Well, when I read this blog post (Edublog post of the year for 2007) it was clear there was a connection.

The Fischbowl: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? via kwout

If I could celebrate the genius of mathematics in my classroom there should be some other human out there that can turn on a LCD projector and begin throwing some wiz-bang at the kids. Seriously, that is where we need to start. Wikis, blogs, Moodle, Voicethread, iMovie, Garageband, Twitter, Ning and all that other stuff can come in due time but we ought to begin moving forward without grumbling. When I was roaming the halls of my elementary school we got to go to the "technology room" to play Oregon Trail to learn about MATH...sorta. That was 1985ish. Computers are not going away and we ought to saddle up and begin lumbering along. If we run into an obstacle, we'll caulk the wagons and float it.

XOXO

2008-03-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

I finally received my XO -- One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computer and I love it. In December, OLPC was running a Give One - Get One program and for $400 bucks you could get two computers. One gets shipped off to some distant land and you get the other. I jumped on it because I thought this little thing was too good to be true. Now, you can buy one on ebay for $400.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC), getting started: opening the laptop via kwout

While I was getting used to the shrunken keyboard and checking out every Wi-Fi signal in my neighborhood I was imagining some student in some far off land trying to figure out this new gadget. For me it was a toy, but for the other kid it was a glimpse into a unknown world...maybe. It could be the first camera, audio recorder, notebook, video game, internet access, encyclopedia, light...the student owns...all in one...for less that $200 bucks.

When you think how you could transform the classroom for $200 bucks/kid it really gets you thinking. The XO has this great handle. Students could carry it with them to class and you wouldn't have to go to a "technology room" to do technology. Imagine! The XO also forces you to rethink the notions of Microsoft, Apple and Adobe which is a good thing because the equivalent is out there for free.

I recently put in a grant for an iCart. 32 computers that would have missing keys within a few months (or weeks). They would get lots of wear and tear and be shared by at least 6 other students during the day and most likely be farmed out to other classes at every free moment. For the price of the Macs, I could GIVE every student I teach (~175 students) an XO and have them bring it to class. Not just my class, but every class!! Eight times the fun!

I can foresee a few issues with the XO. It might not be as slick as a Mac/PC and you have to work a little slower, but what if every student walked in the door to your class with a real life 21st century notebook?

One of my favorite things about the XO is that there are no instructions....not really anyway. There are a series of pictures that lay out a few ground rules along the lines of not leaving the XO out in the rain. Clearly, times are changing. Computers come in the mail with no instructions and you can figure them out despite it being different than the traditional platform. On top of that, it only costs $200 (unless you go to ebay).

I Huck Bloom's Taxonomy at my Students!

2008-03-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

I have often been heard muttering something about pictures being worth a thousand words. I actually say it...and believe it. I like to draw little cartoon animals on my Activboard that are somewhat relevant to a main idea. I once drew an convection oven (to illustrate convection) that the students couldn't quit talking about. For some reason, our students that constantly play vids and watch TV seem to like visuals. Here is a picture of my oven.

(I don't think it is that good.)

I recently started showing interesting images to my classes and then having the students work their way up Bloom's Taxonomy by asking questions about it. I didn't come up with it, but I sure do like the strategy. You can find the original source at this blog . I also embedded a glimpse of it into the my blog using http://kwout.com/. You can embed into Moodle too.

A simple inquiry-based lesson | Thoughts on teaching & educational technology via kwout

In all seriousness, you can ham up how lame basic questions are with the students and how they don't really result in any interesting conversation. The more Bloom's you throw at them the more they enjoy it. Seriously! By the end the students all want to illustrate, contrast, estimate, compare, extend, infer, analyze, and predict. It is really a fun strategy and all you need is a good image and your little Bloom's flipchart thingy. I included a sample below.

Enjoy...and make sure you check out the original source and http://kwout.com/ too.

Finally...Success with Moodle!

2008-03-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to lie to you. I have used Moodle for two years and recently had one of my first real successes. My site has all sorts of bells and whistles and is a record of just about everything I have ever done in my classroom. If a student was sick they would be able to get just about everything they need to get caught up, but they don't! If someone has difficulty taking tests...they could take a pretest from home and practice, but very few do. Why do I put hours into it? I'm not sure.

I guess I am looking for the hook. When do they buy in and when can we really start making progress? Apparently, it is when you give them a chance to take control and stop the top-down approach. I recently created a forum where the students got to post their own content and they went bonkers. Here is the prompt...

At last count when I closed the forum after two weeks or so there were 46 posts. Every post happened outside of the school day and I got around to responding to about half. All the forum posts related to how the class connected to the students' lives. Granite counters, eclipse, sunsets, lava, vacations, the earth exploding....

Here is a sample.

In my opinion, the kids are not so engaged until they have a stake in it. When you give them a chance to produce they jump on it. I think Myspace would be boring if they just got to look at it. Luckily, they can customize it so they are engaged. We are just learning that. Because of the web, we can connect with our students beyond the classroom and so we should. If we bother, they will respond.