SAMR and coffee

Since this blog IS the Kaffeeklatsch, I thought I should share some of the ways people have been using coffee analogies to explain the SAMR model. I cannot vouch for the analogies, but thought it was interesting this seems to be a common practice!

The SAMR Model

The image below was created by Jonathan Brubaker and appeared in a blog post here.

SAMR vs. Latte

Email me with any other coffee analogies you find in the education arena!

Sharing is caring

(I wrote this blog post on the plane home from the ISTE 2013 conference in San Antonio. I wanted to give myself some time to reflect on it and add some additional resources before posting it.)

ISTE 2013 was a tech-filled extravaganza and I left with my head spinning with new thoughts and ideas! However, looking back, I realize the best part of the conference for me was the conversations I had with educators from all over the world. I was greeted by so many who knew me from my work, and I used that connection to continue the conversations with them.

I learned about district-level initiatives and projects for first graders. I discussed the merits of tablet platforms, 1-to-1, and badging. I offered opinions about items I was passionate about. As an ISTE Board Member, I also had some perks, like being able to wander in and out of ticketed workshops to both thank the presenters and learn new things at the same time. In Ginger Lewman’s PBL workshop, I became a member of a PBL group and made an iMovie traileron the iPad with three other educators in under thirty minutes. None of us knew how to use the software, but were able to get the job done. Take a look if you wish: https://vimeo.com/68951420

Continuing the conversation with colleagues after a face-to-face conference is not difficult. There are many ways to keep up with your new contacts, get answers to questions, and offer your own thoughts. Collaboration comes from the Latin word collaborare which means “to work together” and you want to make sure that happens!

Working together in a virtual space can be synchronous or asynchronous. Even asynchronous conversations allow us to work together. There are popular tools for each of these methods readily available.

Asynchronous sharing

Twitter

Twitter is my go-to place for both sharing and getting new ideas. It is surprising how much you can impart to others with only 140 characters! Here are some of my top Twitter tips….

• If you follow a lot of people, your Twitter stream can quickly become overwhelming!   It is a good practice to make lists and file the people you follow into those lists. They will still show up in your main Twitter stream, but sometimes it is easier to click on a classified list of people and read “like” information in a single stream. This makes it more likely that you will add to the conversation, too, since you are more likely to come up with a resource or tip to share if you are reading information on a related topic or by perusing your list of school administrators, teacher librarians, etc.

• To find new people to follow and collaborate with, look at the lists created by others or whom they follow. You can grab one of their lists for yourself, and, after monitoring it for a while, can find new people who you want to follow.

• If you are not a Twitter user, take a look at the Twitter advanced search page (https://twitter.com/search-advanced) and search popular hashtags like #edchat or #iste2013 to see all the tweets tagged with that hashtag. Hashtags help tweets hang together when tweeters include them in their posts. Here is a page (http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html) with tons of popular educational hashtags. Another cool new site is TagBoard (http://tagboard.com/) which both allows you to view tweets tied to hashtags, as well as create a hashtag of your own to monitor and share.

• Oftentimes, when sharing URLs via Twitter, the URL itself uses up many of the 140 characters. To allow yourself more space to add information, use a URL shortener. A URL shortener allows you to paste a long URL into a box, and it presents you with a shortened version to use. When users click on the shortened URL, their browser is re-directed to the actual URL. I use the Linkyy (http://linkyy.com) URL shortener. One nice feature of Linkyy is the ability to create a meaningful short URL, like http://linkyy.com/ipad, which leads to one of my iPad support pages.

Some other social networks to use for collaboration with others include Google+ (http://plus.google.com), Edmodo (http://edmodo.com), and EdWeb (http://edweb.net). Each of these tools allows you to create your own community on a topic you are interested in or passionate about. Once you create a community, tweet out the information to your followers and they will come!

Synchronous sharing

Google+ Hangouts is one of my favorite places to meet and share things with other educators in real-time. A Google Hangout allows you and up to nine others to have a meeting with all participants having both video and voice. It is easy to share your computer screen or other assets (like a YouTube video) with others in the Hangout. One interesting aspect of Google+ Hangouts is that it is “noise activated”. This means whoever is talking is showing up as the main speaker and the others as smaller.

However, this also means, if a participant is typing loudly, they will show up as the main speaker most of the time. Be sure to use a headset/microphone combo or keep your mic shut off when you are not speaking. This makes the Hangout go much more smoothly.If you want to record the Hangout, chose to make it a Google Hangout on Air. This publicly broadcasts to anyone who wants to watch the Hangout, too. Once the Hangout on Air is complete, the recording is sent to the your YouTube account for future viewing. You can make the recording public or private, allow embedding or not, and assign a Creative Commons license to the work if you wish.

I will be hosting a Google Hangout on Air on September 16, 2013 at 7pm ET. The Webinar will be in conjunction with the Wilkes/Discovery Instructional Media Master’s program. The topic of the 30-minute conversation will be two upcoming MOOC’s that Wilkes will be offering to educators. (If you are on the DEN mailing list, you will receive further info about it soon.)

Some other popular ways to synchronously collaborate with one or more colleagues are via FaceTime for the Mac/iPad and Skype (http://skype.com), which works on all platforms. And Padlet (http://padlet.com) and Today’s Meet (http://todaysmeet.com) allow real-time, text-based idea sharing that can be archived and shared when the conversation is complete.

Remember… 

The main point is to continue the conversation by whatever means works best for you. Email, Facebook/LinkedIn posts, and phone calls can work, too. And be sure to make arrangements with your new colleague to meet up again in-person at the next ISTE or other conference you both attend. I have found that hugging is so much better in person! 🙂

SAMR Model Musings

I have been asked to elaborate on my understanding of the SAMR model, a model written about extensively by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. This model suggests a structure for the design of embedded technology use in the classroom to have a significant impact on student outcomes.

My feeling is this model supports teachers as they design, develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences. Along the continuum, the student engagement becomes more of the focus and students are then able to advance their own learning in a transformational manner.


Puentedura's visual of the SAMR model is self-explanatory, as seen below.

I decided to take the typical classroom process of note taking to demonstrate my thoughts for how the SAMR model might look in a classroom.


SUBSTITUTION LEVEL

Note taking is traditionally done with paper and pen/pencil.

At the substitution level, you first have to think about what will be gained by the use of technology for the task. You want to make sure you are not advocating technology use just for technology's sake.

In the case of note taking, however, the benefit of having notes in a digital format for ease of sharing and uploading, and providing access to them anywhere, any time, is a useful substitution activity. 

At this level, the technology substitution, with no real change in student engagement, would be the use of a stand-alone or cloud-based word processing program.

AUGMENTATION LEVEL

At the augmentation level, there again is a direct tool substitute, but there is some improvement in student outcomes. At this level, one of the benefits is teachers can receive almost immediate feedback on student level of understanding of material and students can also learn from others.

One way this can occur is by the use of a backchannel tool (such as Today's Meet or Padlet) for whole-class note taking. The augmentation level starts to move along the teacher/student-centric continuum. The impact of this immediate feedback and collaboration is that students should begin to become more engaged in the learning process.

MODIFICATION LEVEL

Modification allows for a change in the task redesign. Students can be asked to take notes using a screencasting tool and then later go back and add the audio component and post these online for their peers and anyone else who wants to see them. Because they are working for an public audience with this task, each student has a personal stake in their note taking.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/channels/clj6hlnqU

Another modification option for note taking using technology would have students creating mind maps or concept maps as they take notes. Again, these can be easily shared. A collaborative version of this mapping could be implemented as groups of students take notes on certain aspects of the lecture, presentation, reading, etc. and then pull all the maps together to complete the picture. (I call this the "Ancestry.com" model!)

https://library.usu.edu/instruct/tutorials/cm/Samples_files/cm.gif

REDEFINITION

With redefinition, the emphasis is on student-centered learning. The student learns new skills and concepts as they complete the task. Sketchnoting, or visual note taking, is a way for students to practice listening as well as planning an organizational strategy for taking notes. There are drawing and note-taking apps for all platforms available for sketchnoting. (A lot more about sketchnoting can be found here.) A redefined task would be for students to sketchnote, share online, and provide answers to questions about the content included in the public venue.

http://networkedmedicine.tumblr.com/post/43788097011/sketchnote-that-i-drew-reflecting-class-discussion

MAPPING BLOOM'S AND SAMR

Below is a visual of my initial thoughts on the relationship between Bloom’s and the SAMR model. I feel teachers need to both create tasks that target the higher-order cognitive skills (Bloom's) as well as design tasks that have a significant impact on student outcomes (SAMR). It's as simple as that.

Educators will argue that they have seen redefinition tasks that only target the remembering level or have a creative assessment that is only at the augmentation level. Of course that is true, but I believe we should be planning for technology tasks, activities, and assessments that include both the higher levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and the transformation area of SAMR model.

I have created a page of SAMR resources if you want to learn more and come to your own conclusions about how it might be implemented in your classroom.

Comments? Thoughts?  Email me or find me on Twitter @kathyschrock

Stay connected all year long with your PLN!

Intro

Connected Educators Month runs during the month of October 2013 and there are hundreds of events, classes, meet-ups, and ways to use social media scheduled to allow educators around the globe to connect! But “connecting” should not just occur during this time period.

There are ways you can re-connect with other educators and connect with new ones throughout the year. This blog post will offer tips that can help you broaden and sustain your personal learning network.

Sue Waters, on her blog, way back in 2008, when there were few personal learning networks, asked educators to answer some questions about their use of personal learning networks. One of the questions she asked was “Why is a personal network important to educators?”

I loved these ideas from Derek Wenwoth from New Zealand–

• Help each other solve problems
• Hear each others’ stories and avoid local blindness
• Find synergy across structures
• Keep up with change
• Reflect on their practice and improve it
• Build shared understanding
• Find a voice and gain strategic influence
• Cooperate on innovation

And Robin Ellis, from PA, stated her heart-felt reason PLNs were important to her…

• The most important aspects of personal learning networks for me are the ability to connect, communicate, and collaborate globally.
• The network is always on 24/7/365 and always willing to share ideas and offer help.
• It is a way to build relationships otherwise not possible.

There are many ways to both build and maintain your personal learning network. I have found, as I become interested in new topics, I grow my network to include experts and practitioners in that topic. I learn from them, have a chance to ask questions, and provide feedback on my thoughts, too. Remember that a PLN is a two-way street; you have to “pay it forward” and contribute, too! Everyone who teaches is creative, smart, and resilient. It’s the way we are. You all have great ideas and reflections to share, so please post to social networks, create a curation page with your favorite (annotated) links, and offer suggestions in Webinar chat boxes!

Alec Couros has created a wonderful graphic that illustrates what the networked teacher looks like. You can see the networked teacher is both a consumer and a creator of digital content and shares his/her expertise!

   

Ways to connect

Create a survey and share

One way I find educators to connect with is to create a survey on a hot topic that I am interested in, spread the word through my social media channels, and tell the respondents that I will share the collected data with them. Since people have to give me their email address if they want the data, after looking through the answers, I often find some creative new item or idea, and I can contact that person and connect for more information. And then, of course, I follow them, G+ them, LI them, etc., to keep up on the cool things they are doing!

Join online communities

Another way to find new colleagues to connect with is to follow some of the online communities sponsored by organizations and companies, like the ISTE’s Wikispace, EdWeb, Adobe’s Education Exchange, Discovery’s Educator Network, and Sony’s Education Ambassadors. As you peruse these communities, and find information that is useful or interesting to you, you can personally connect with the author and add them to your PLN!

Sign up for Twitter

Twitter is the most important tool in my PLN toolbox. It is easy to both share and receive information.
Some of the key points of Twitter are…

• It is an online messaging service, like instant messaging, but it is one-to-many as opposed to one-to-one. It is not truly synchronous like IM, but, it can be pretty close to it.
• The messages you post on Twitter are public and can be found in a Twitter search by anyone.
• A Twitter message can only be 140 characters long.
• Users can decide to follow your posts and you can choose to follow theirs, or not.

The most important aspect of Twitter to learn about is how to find experts to follow. The social networking component of Twitter helps with this. Once you find one good person to follow, you can look at the people that person follows, look at their tweets, and add them to your Twitter feed!

There are also lists of twitter users by category, like the Twitter4Teachers Wiki, which has teachers arranged by teaching topic and WeFollow, a directory of many topics to pick from.

Another useful aspect of Twitter is the use of the hashtag. A hashtag is used in a Twitter message to allow many  messages to be gathered together in one place. There are hashtags set up for conferences, classrooms, and regular Twitter events like #edchat, that sponsor an online chat at a certain time each week on a topic of interest. You can conduct a Twitter search on a hashtag, even if you are not a Twitter user, to get some great information and find smart people to follow!

There is a new online tool called Tagboard that allows you to search a hashtag and see all the “hits” and also limit it by type– Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. You can also set-up your own hashtag and share the tagboard with others.

Multimedia

Multimedia can be part of creating your PLN, too. One way to both learn from others and to gain a following of your own is to create or subscribe to a podcast or video series.

The first thing you need to subscribe to a podcast or videocast is a podcast aggregator such as iTunes. Whether or not you use any Apple products, iTunes is a great organizer of audio and is available to download for both Windows and Mac computers.  People who have podcasts list them in the iTunes podcast store (they are not actually housed in the iTunes store), so that is one place to start looking for podcasts to subscribe to. Podomatic is another place to find podcasts to follow, since they actually host all the podcasts created on their site.

Once you feel comfortable about how podcasts work, you can create one of your own! For free, with Podomatic, you can create a podcast via your phone or computer microphone or upload an audio file. The uploaded file automatically gets the feed address that you share with others or register with iTunes.

One of the reasons many educators create videocasts is to demonstrate to students how to do something. A videocast which captures everything on your desktop is called a screencast. Screen-cast-o-matic is a free, online screen-capture program that allows you to capture up to 15 minutes of audio and video and host it online at YouTube or download it as an FLV, mp4, or avi file.

Blogging

Blogging can be another component of your connecting toolkit. You can read and subscribe to blogs, create your own, or join a group blog.

To subscribe to blogs, you need to use a newsreader, such as Feedly. Once you sign-up for a newsreader, you only have to visit this single place to find out about any new posts on any of yous subscribed blogs.

However, the hardest part about following applicable blogs is FINDING the ones that will help you the most. There are a couple of ways to do this…

• If you know an expert in your field’s name, do a phrase search on “name’s blog” and you will likely find a blog maintained by this person
• Many bloggers include a blogroll, a list of blogs THEY follow right on their blog, so you can check those out, too.
• There are several directories of edubloggers out there, like the The International Edubloggers Directory and the list of Education Blogs by Discipline

Once you spend some time reading and commenting on the blogs of others, you might decide to create your own. Most educators use Blogger, WordPress, or eduBlogs. Whichever one you use to make your blog, make sure to add it to the lists of educator-created blogs to make sure people come visit, subscribe, and comment on your blog! Comments are what creates part of the collaboration component of your PLN.

You might also decide to create a group blog. A group blog is a blog with postings from various contributors. One example of an education-specific group blog is Edutopia, which has many blog posters. A group blog takes advantage of the expertise of many to create a well-rounded blog.

Online conferences and Webinars

Many educational organizations and groups offer online Webinars or conference presentations by experts. During the presentation, the best part is sometimes the “backchannel”, which is the conversation that is going on among participants while the presenter is presenting. This is often done in a chat area, and you can find some great resources and educators to add to your PLN during these chats.

Finding listings of these Webinars is not easy but you usually wind up hearing about them either from others in your subject area, your professional organizations, or those already in your PLN.

Unconferences/EdCamps

An unconference ,or edcamp, is a participant-driven meeting. Many times these un-conferences are held before a regularly scheduled national or regional conference since participants can come a day early and attend the un-conference.  Usually, a small committee reserves a room, a mic, and tables and chairs. Early on the day of the conference, the time periods are put on the large screen, and participants vote on topics for the day. Educators volunteer to lead and moderate these sessions. It is more a conversation than a presentation. At an unconference, you really have the time to talk to others in an informal way and add them to your rapidly growing personal learning network.

I hope I have given you some new ideas to grow your personal learning network and collaborate with others all year long! 

iMovie trailers across the content areas

I have finally had time to work with iMovie movie trailers on the iPad, and it is so much fun! A movie trailer is a perfect summarizing activity.  It can also act as a “teaser” as an introduction to a presentation or student paper. A movie trailer can readily showcase the acquisition of knowledge of a lesson or unit.

A movie trailer includes many of the literacy areas. There is a component of information literacy as students search for and gather assets to include in the trailer. There are reading and writing skills (traditional literacy) as students write out their ideas and scripts. There are elements of media literacy as students identify their audience, use words to persuade viewers, and maybe transfer another mode of publishing (like a research paper) into a video. Visual literacy comes into play with the choice of colors and font.

The movie trailer component of the iMovie app for the iPad includes several themes to pick from. The transitions and animations are already built-in, but students can do some editing of these themes to showcase their work in a different way.

The first step in making an iMovie movie trailer is taking a look at the script and storyboard pages. It is a good idea for students to spend some time thinking about the theme of the trailer they want to use and start gathering the pictures and videos to use in the production.

One great site by Timothy Jefferson includes PDFs of all of the theme scripts so students can work things out on paper first, as they are going through the development process.  

Some ideas for using movie trailers across the curriculum include:

• Have students create an “end of course or class” trailer to introduce others to the course
• Students can create an advertisement for a product they created in a STEM class.
• Movie trailers can put a new spin on the “all about me” presentation.
• Students can help create promo pieces for upcoming school events, class elections, and fund-raising activities
• A movie trailer can be a very short, but exciting digital story, summarizing the content and/or process in any curriculum area
• Roz Linder’s ideas for using movie trailers as a way to introduce different viewpoints
• Filmeducation.org’s  great resource about the use of film trailers in the classroom
• Mr. Manion’s Movie Trailer Analysis which could easily be turned into a rubric

You can also find many tutorials which include instructions on the process of using iMovie movie trailers on the iPad

• From MacLife (written)
• From Make Use Of (written)
• From Pasco Schools (video)
• From Jim Gates (video)

Discovery Education Streaming, with its editable videos and hundreds of images, is a wonderful set of resources to use in iMovie movie trailers.  I decided to utilize DES to make an iMovie movie trailer and only use the iPad.

I logged in to Discovery Education Streaming, did three searches (tornado, storm, lightning) and limited the search to images. I added the images to My Content. When I had collected enough (with three personal ones also), I opened each one and “saved to library” which then put all the images into my Photos app Camera Roll.

I picked the Scary trailer theme, entered the credits information, and added the images to the storyboard, as you see below. I adjusted some of the Ken Burns transitions to highlight the important parts of the photos.

I then simply sent the completed movie trailer up to YouTube! Give iMovie movie trailers a try today!

Snugg iPhone 5 Pouch Case

I admit it...I love distressed brown leather. I guess the reason I like it is that it looks better the more it gets used and all banged up. The sign of well-loved distressed leather case is the marks it bears!

When Snugg wrote me and asked me to review an item from their site, I was drawn to the Snugg iPhone 5 Distressed Leather Brown Pouch Case for two reasons. The distressed leather material caught my eye, and, even more importantly, this case was an updated version of my favorite iPhone case of all time!

I always try to find a tight-fighting pouch case for my phone. A few years ago, Brookstone sold an iPhone 4 pouch case that had a tab on the back to pull up the phone for easily getting it out of the case. However, they have no plans to make one for the larger iPhone 5.

I was so excited to see this Snugg iPhone 5 Pouch Case which has the same feature-- a tab on the back (that magnetically sticks to the back of the case) which is attached to an elastic strap to pull out the phone. It also includes a credit card slot on the front that will hold a one or two cards. 

I made the short video below which demonstrates how well the tab works. This is my dream  iPhone 5 slipcase-- distressed leather, thin and tight-fitting, protective, and an easy way to get the iPhone 5 out!

The Snugg iPhone 5 Distressed Leather Brown Pouch Case comes in distressed brown leather, black leather and tan suede. It is also available for the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Pebble Watch: First Impressions

I ran to my Best Buy store on Sunday, the day the Best Buy was slated to start selling the Pebble Watch. However, due to the holiday the week before, the shipping schedule was off and there were none yet in the store. However, the Best Buy employee assured me he would call me when they came in, and he did, and I was able to get one (of the two!) that arrived.

It is definitely a cool device. However, since there are not a lot of them out on the street yet, it is truly an early-adopter's dream! I had to work hard to learn how it worked and, more importantly, the best ways to make it work for me. 



The Pebble, for those of you that do not know, is a smartwatch that interfaces with your Android smartphone or iPhone via Bluetooth to provide notifications on your wrist. I would call it a pseudo-smartwatch since you cannot use it to send anything back. You can receive phone call info and SMS messages and you can control the music on your iPhone via the Pebble, set up to four reminder alarms, and, of course, change your clock face at will!

The Pebble watch has an e-ink display (like the original Kindles) and can be easily read in the sunlight. There is also a back-light for use in the dark and you can simply shake your wrist to make the light comes on.

Here is an unboxing video posted on Sunday from a user who has an Android device, but the set-up on the iPhone is pretty much the same.

It does not come with any real directions, probably because it is still a work in progress, but Pebble has information on their site to help you out. If you start searching for ideas, you might get confused between the Android phone owners and the iOS phone owners as to the capabilities of the watch. The new iPhone iOS 7 is going to allow notifications from third-party apps and to devices via Bluetooth which will be a boon for the iPhone/Pebble-owners crowd.

Here is the link to the user guide from the Pebble site: http://help.getpebble.com/customer/portal/articles/957384-pebble-user-guide

I started to use some workarounds with Pushover and IFTTT, which will work for some things, but once I realized, if I only had everything I wanted to be notified about sent to SMS, I could easily receive the updates on the Pebble.

Since I already had my Twitter direct messages sent via SMS, I asked Adam Bellow to send me a DM so I could see how that worked. He is too funny!

I wanted my iCal appointment reminders to go to my Pebble, but, as the iOS instructions for setting up notifications page states, that functionality is coming soon to the Pebble. 

However, I knew there had to be a way to make that happen and I searched "sending iCal reminders to SMS" and came up with this great workaround that totally makes sense-- just use the email equivalent of your mobile phone number (mobile phone number followed by @ mobile company designated address) and send the appointment reminder to that email address! Here are the instructions and it worked like a charm!

Another tip-- if you cannot get an app or watchface to install from your phone app, use the desktop, go to the site, download the .pbw files to yourself, and install them via the email app on your device. Pick them to open in the Pebble App.

Tip #3: You can make a QR code and put it as a watchface in your Pebble and you will always have your contact info ready to share! It needs to be 144x144 pixels.

Do you have a Pebble watch yet? Any ideas for use in the classroom?

IMHO...

IMHO or Why give constructive criticism?

I recently had a brutally honest day. I was asked to review a new book coming out and write a blurb for the back cover. The title was something I was interested in, so I agreed. As I read along in a chapter about change, I came across the line. “Everyone knows that teachers, especially, are resistant to change.” Hold on! This book was written for educators– why dis' them in the text? And who is “everyone” and why are teachers more resistant to change than anyone in a different profession? I re-wrote the sentence to be less insulting.

As I read on in the technology sections, the exemplar lessons were pretty much the lowest level of technology use. The assessments were used to inform instruction but did not gauge student acquisition of content knowledge at all.

So, as I found things that I felt could be made better and more meaningful to the proposed audience, I jotted them down and included additional ideas, quotes, and links to resources. I sent them along to the editor with a note stating I did not feel comfortable offering a blurb for the book because I did not believe in many of the tenets that were put forth. It was probably too late to do anything about the content, because the book looked like it was in its final form, but I felt compelled to do it.

The same day, I was sent a lesson planning white paper that was released by a company. It was already on the Web. However, there were no author credentials on the pages and, since it was pedagogical in nature, I wanted to know that someone who was (or had been) a K-12 educator had written the piece. It was also a bit “preachy”, so I reworked one of the paragraphs to something a bit different, without changing the content. I sent my thoughts along to them.

I guess the point is, in education, where others sometimes tell us things we don’t agree with or we feel would never work in a regular classroom setting,  it is up to us to give constructive feedback when you see something that you don’t like or don’t agree with.

The important thing is to provide something other than simply writing “that sentence seems to put down the whole teaching profession”. Re-write the content so it will not be demeaning to teachers and will  make the teachers take more notice and continue reading the book or article. Provide links to resources that are, in your opinion, more appropriate   than the samples that are provided in the article, book chapter, Tweet, or GOOGLE+ post.

This goes for educational trends, too. Although it sometimes seems, IMHO,  educators jump on lots of bandwagons for new pedagogical models, I don’t always initially agree with the idea or the implementations of the new idea. I read about it, look at successful practices, and then comment, constructively (I hope!) about it. For instance, I passionately disagreed with this blog post about turning Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy on its head.  In this case, I publicly disagreed in the comment area, but oftentimes I may just write to the blogger directly and offer some alternatives for her/him to think about.

Following are some links about constructive feedback and criticism. Most are not directly related to education or even the online realm, but you should garner some good ideas. As with anything you are passionate about, you need to wait a few minutes before posting a bit of constructive feedback to someone else. Passion in print comes across differently than passion in person, so you have to plan your responses carefully. Write a draft, look it over, take a walk, and then push the send button.

• 5 steps to providing good constructive criticism
• Peers working in the open
• You’ve been doing a fantastic job. Just one thing….
• How to give feedback
• Giving effective criticism
• Constructive criticism is a sign of your potential

We need to encourage constructive discourse in our profession. I also feel we should to step back and think about all aspects of a plan or trend before becoming enamored with the idea just because everyone else is. Maybe parts of the new concept are useful to help students acquire both the 21st century skills and the content knowledge they need. But, perhaps other parts of the new idea won’t work in your situation and you have already discovered alternative methods that work well. You need to share those alternative ideas with the rest of us!

Don’t be afraid to constructively criticize and don’t be afraid to be criticized, which you might be. If you are passionate about something or think something is not quite right about an aspect of education, write the company, the blogger, the Tweeter, the President, and let them know. Sometimes people just don’t know what they don’t know!

Do you have any specific thoughts on ways to give online constructive criticism/feedback? There are not a lot of good ideas out there…please share via Twitter (@kathyschrock), Google+, or email me at kathy@kathyschrock.net!

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Review

I was contacted to see if I wanted to do a product review for Staples, and, of course, I agreed! I chose the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to review. 

The model I received has 2GB of RAM, is WiFi only (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, and has 16GB of memory storage, expandable to 64GB via a microSD/HC slot.

Some other important specs include:

• 8" screen with a 1280x800 resolution
• Quad-Core, 1.6GHz processor
• Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) 
• .73 pounds in weight
• 5MP rear and 1.3MP front cameras

General overview

The Galaxy Note 8 is just the right size to hold in one hand, so I found myself keeping it n portrait mode most of the time, except for when using email, since the extra width is helpful then. It has a beautiful, bright, white screen which is the type of screen I like. I call it a "cool" screen as opposed to the "warm" screens  of some tablets which are off-white.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has some useful features not found on every tablet. The first thing I noticed, and wondered why all tablets don't have it, was a full QWERTY and number keyboard. It was so nice not to go back and forth between number and letter keyboards, especially for passwords! The keyboard can also be split or floating, which some people prefer.

The second cool thing I discovered was the ability to use a "face scan" instead of a swipe to unlock the device. (They give you a PIN back-up plan, too!) Now, I simply look at the lock screen and the Galaxy Note 8 unlocks!

I also appreciate the inclusion of a physical "home" button on the front of the device. I would rather use a button than swipe through pages of apps to get to the main page of my device!

Another nice feature allows you, when typing passwords, to turn off the brief display of the characters you are typing. I wish other tablets had this feature since, when I am projecting and presenting to an audience, they can always see my password as I type it!

The addition of the "S Pen" stylus adds a lot to the device. The stylus has a button on it and is not just a "dumb" stylus. For instance, to take a screenshot, you simply hold in the button on the stylus, tap and hold the screen, and the screenshot is taken. You can then crop the image from that same screen and save the result to the gallery. It is so easy! In addition, when you remove the pen from its slot, a page pops up with items specific to use of the S Pen. (You get a special page popping up, too, when you plug in headphones.)

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 also has an infrared port which allows you to turn your device into a remote control. In addition, if you have a Samsung smartphone or other Samsung device, there are ways to share your screen with those via the AllShare Cast app. I could not try the AllShare cast process since I did not have those devices.

Samsung has thought of everything! On most tablets, you have to set the amount of time for when the screen will timeout. This usually causes you to make it longer than you need just in case you do need a longer period at some point. The Galaxy Note 8 includes something called "Smart stay" which causes the screen to stay on as long as you are looking at it. It looks for your eyes!

Cool and useful software

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has really good handwriting recognition and turns your printed words into text. You can use the S Pen or your finger in any app that allows for text input to write your notes or emails! The tablet also comes with a Microsoft Office compatible application, called Polaris Office, for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Polaris Office

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is, of course, tightly integrated with the Google tools and apps, including Google Drive, Talk, Google+, Picasa, Maps, Local, Latitude, and the Play Music and Book Stores. Once you are signed in to your Google account, you have access to all of your tools and media!

There is voice recognition in addition to handwriting recognition on the Galaxy Note 8 and any number of Samsung apps that take advantage of the S Pen for journaling, reminders, and note taking. The S Note app includes templates for taking all types of notes at meetings, in school, and while traveling. One type of note allows you to record both your drawing and your voice in real time. The recording and the voice recording are not put together, but you can easily view the drawing as it is created and start the voice recording to listen at the same time.

As far as video playback goes, I did not watch any movies on the device itself but did stream both movies from Netflix and my soap opera via the SlingPlayer app, which allows me to watch recordings from my home DVR over the Net, and it performed well on both accounts with no stuttering at all! The speakers are mounted on the front and they are very loud!

Of course, there are all types of accessibility options built-in to the tablet, too, including font size, background color, length of tap and hold, etc. 

Cameras

The back camera is a 5MP camera, and takes good images. However, there are all types of settings you can use to enhance your photo. You can also take panoramic pictures or videos, cartoonize an image as you take it, have the camera wait until the person smiles to actually snap the photo, and more! Once the image is taken, it is easy to share it with DropBox, Facebook, Picasa, via Bluetooth, or to additional apps and sites. I was able to send the photo from the Galaxy Note 8 to a Nexus 7 tablet, but was not able to transfer it that way to my iPhone.

Backing up and storage

Another perk with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is that is comes with 50GB of DropBox storage space for 2 years. That comes in so handy when moving files from device to device as well as sharing documents with others.

You can also use Samsung Kies, which is Mac or Windows desktop software to sync your device and move contacts, images, and update software on the Galaxy Note 8 via a USB connection or wirelessly between the tablet and the desktop. There are some additional cloud solutions for back up, but I always like to have the back up on my computer.

Summary

There are many choices for small size (7" and 8") tablets on the market right now. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8, with its large number of hardware and software options built-in to the device, has to be the most full-featured and fun one of them all!

Full disclosure: Staples.com provided me with this product for review. The thoughts and opinions expressed are strictly my own. Feel free to shop their entire line of tablets online.

Wacom Bamboo Capture ideas

I was given the opportunity to award a Wacom Bamboo Capture bundle to an educator. (See my review of the Bamboo Capture here.)

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I asked teachers to submit their grade level, an idea for use of the Wacom Bamboo Capture in their classroom, and an idea, if they had one, for use of the device with online classes, Webinars, or Web 2.0 tools.

I used a random number generator to pick the winner, who is a Technology Specialist in a grade 1-4 school in Texas.

His idea for the use of the Wacom Bamboo Capture is:

My school lets our 4th graders sign up for various clubs that meet monthly throughout our year. I'm in charge of the Computer Club, and have for a while now, set up Glogster.edu accounts for the kids to show off their creativity. They've truly enjoyed it, but I've longed for a tool that would allow them to create their own items, rather than just do the typical Google/copy/paste thing. With the limited time I've got that's been our only effective method to date. With the Bamboo Capture at our disposal, I can just imagine the difference in what my kids can create! No more borrowing my iPad to use a drawing app; upload to my cloud acct.; download to their Glog creation. Now... it shows up on their machine, they import it, viola! The kids now get to customize the products I've been dying for them to create from the beginning. This... it would be a game changer! Thanks.

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All submission ideas for the use of the Bamboo Capure in the classroom

Grades 9-12
Editing graphics for yearbook and game design classes. 

Grades K-5 Technology
I would love to use the Landmarker software to easily record the locations of all of the classrooms we connect with through online collaborative projects and Skype. 

Grades 6-8
I love the wireless feature! Would make it possible for students or teacher to demonstrate a technique in Photoshop/ Flash or share a project on the whiteboard from anywhere in the classroom! 

Grades 7, 9, 10 and 12
I teach Social Studies in a f2f environment and I am writing an online class this would be great for presentations. for both environments. I use maps and charts a lot and it would be great to use a tool like this to show trends and activities on maps. 

Grade 6
I have been using the original Graphire from your picture for a long time. I use the software "Deskscribble" (http://www.deskscribbleapp.com/) which is awesome. It gives me smartboard style drawing options, screen captures and more. I am able to face my class instead of turning my back on them. The Capture with this software would free me from having to always be at my desk. This would help with class management, as well as making it easier for students to participate using the tablet from their seat. Wireless would be great and I'd love to win. I think getting 11 years out of a $79 Wacom has been pretty good and it's time to move on. Thanks for your article! If I don't win, I'll be buying one. 

Grades K-12
I immediately thought of the students who struggle with words for self-expression but use their hands, hearts and minds in thoughtfully illustrating their learning. 

Professional development
The Bamboo Capture would be a fabulous tool to share with the many teachers I work with across the Northwest in my role as Technology Evangelist for Southern Oregon Education Service District, trainer Oregon Virtual School District, and NCCE Board member. Often, I use a new tool to launch a PD session to demonstrate its uses, then hand it off to a group of teachers for project-based learning activities within the PD. 12 Let students in technical writing course use it to annotate their screencasts while thinking what their audience will see and hear. 

Grades 5-12 
I believe that pairing the capture with Microsoft's OneNote would be an ideal way to infuse the technology into a math classroom (or really any classroom). With OneNote setup on a network users can create and share a digital notebook. As a instructor he/she could keep a running notebook with chapters, sections, and pages for their class - they could even drill down to pages for individual students. Using the equation editor in MS Word educators can create problems and easily copy and paste them or just save them into OneNote. During class time this shared notebook can be opened up by the students and the problems can be solved through the use of the Bamboo tablets. The teacher can easily project each students work up onto the board and have them explain the answers from their seat, annotating the problem as the students are explaining. After class this notebook can then be easily saved as a .pdf and posted onto a Moodle or Google site - or any web product for that matter. Students can then access the problems answered during class and annotated by the teacher. The problems you complete on the board are then never lost. Teachers love annotating the problems via the bamboos also. :)

Grades 9-12
I am making screencasts of Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver tutorials for my Multimedia class. Using Bamboo Capture would make this process so much easier and I could demonstrate more advanced skills because its challenging to draw with a mouse. I like using layers in Photoshop because I can create a rough sketch on one layer using the pen tool and then add a layer for the fill and another layer for the outline -- then hide the sketch layer. 

Grade 7
With the Bamboo Capture, I will be able to write out note, especially for struggling students and send them directly to their classroom iPads no run into the problem that these student struggle to keep up in class sometimes when we are taking notes. This way, they can still try but then will receive the regular copy to study. 

Grade 1
I teach in a Title I, large ESOL population that are learning to speak, read and write the English language. many are not literate in their native languages and have limited experiences, so vocabulary acquistion is difficult. I would use the Bamboo Capture by having my students learn vocabulary by drawing or animating words to be learned. I could also draw and animate for the students as a reference source. 

Grade 1
I would love to use it for a class daily journal. Each child would have a rotating turn of being the day's recorder. They could write about it, draw illustrations, and add to any of the photos from the day. 1-5 We have recently added a graphic novel unit in the 

Grade 5
A graphic novelist Skyped with us and showed us how he uses something like that to do his drawings. It would be great to have one for the students to use as they work on their own brief comics. 

Grades 6-12
I would use the tablets for practicing Chinese characters, so the class could write and dissect them together, everyone learning from everyone else by displaying via projector; I cold also use it to draw and projectt so that students can watch me. 

Grade 4
I don't have an interactive whilteboard and this could get me started! It would be great to use with my document camera when we are solving math problems. I could demonstrate art techniques as well....maybe even do some cartooning with the kids. The handwriting recognition feature is great. I have the kids do math, idiom and vocabulary notebooks and I demonstrate notetaking. This would be a great way to record my notes electronically.

Elementary
Teach Symmetry. Students begin a simple geometric shape on one side of a drawn vertical line and a partner continues it on the opposite side as closely as possible to create a symmetrical shape. Using graphics like butterflies, faces, etc, students can visualize how symmetry is all around them.

Grades 6-12
I would use it to pass around to students to interact with Web 2.0 tools projected from my computer! We could all take part in creating a Glog on Glogster, for instance, when the classroom laptops were not available (which happens often enough during testing time!) 

Grades 10-12 "I would love to have this to support grammar activities. With rough drafts displayed on the computer, I could let students take turns marking mistakes using editors notes. This would save a lot of paper and increase engagement! " 

Grades 6 and 7
I work with Life Skills students and this tool would be a valuable asset in helping these students to see their writing come to life in text. It would also help the teachers to read their writing more easily. Some of these students need to work on their fine motor coordination. 

Grades 9-12
I want to have remote control of my laptop that will be plugged into the projector to be more interactive and walk around the room while instructing. 

Grades 9-12
My students will create quick group logos, using the stylized, hand-drawn initials of each member of the group. These digitized logos will be printed or projected to identify group work on the bulletin board and to select random students for participation in class activities. 

Grades 7-12
Use it to develop skills inside Photoshop using the paint tools. Start with landscapes then progress to free art. 

Grades 9-12
I am planning to ""flip"" my classroom next year and will definitely need innovative photo editing in order to pique the interest of my students. When I create my short video clips, I can involve my students in the story prompts in the target language (Spanish.) I also believe that students would be happy to try this device as a way to contribute to the class with funny collage layouts of their fellow students. I think they would love to read bizarre (and appropriate) stories about each other. We could write a book as a class. Students could each add a chapter and/or paragraph complete with photos, clips, etc. in the target language.

Jr. High Art
Show sketching and drawing on a screen for students to watch as I sketch, rather than on an easel and drawing pad.

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All submission ideas for use with online classes, Web 2.0, or Webinars


Grade 6
The software allows you to write on a white or black background, or what's on your screen. I write on top of pdf's everyday.

Grades K-12 Professional development
The Bamboo Capture would be a perfect tool to support a Flipped Classroom initiative. It would be especially useful in schools who do not yet have wireless and do not have the money to implement tablets. Also, the Bamboo Capture would be an excellent tool for online and blended classes, because it would allow the teacher to do live online demonstrations using Webinar software and also capture the demonstration or explanation to post in the online class for other students.

Grades 9-12
A teacher at my school uses a Bamboo pen to screencast math lessons because she finds it easier to write math problems and diagrams with the Wacom pen.  She imports the math workshop into Photoshop and then uses Jing or Camtasia to create her math screencasts on her computers.

Elementary
In a tutoring situation, I frequently use sketches to help my students visualize concepts, from math to science to history.  This tool would allow this dimension in online tutoring.

Grades 1-4
We don't have the infrastructure for Webinars... but... I can see myself doing the next best thing and creating an unlisted YouTube channel for tutorials over our new tool.

Grades 6-12
I could use it when creating screencasts about how to use different tools; it would be very helpful! My writing or drawing with a mouse leaves a lot to be desired...

Grades 6 and 7
Bamboo Capture would be great tool for making visual graphs as you teach a lecture or even for a student to quickly take notes and have it organized quickly.

Grades 9-12
You could illustrate flashcards with a photo or make a game with vocabulary. You could make flashcards involving the students in order to make the class more personal. You could illustrate a story with photos of crazy or bizarre scenes, however not inappropriately.( It might take the mundaneness out of the online courses.) You could altar a relevant photo and students must express what is wrong or missing in the photo.

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Thank you to all who took the time to submit an idea! Do you use use a Wacom tablet in your classroom or have some ideas to share? Please leave a comment!