Saturday, July 01, 2017

Using fidget spinners to target literacies

Fidget spinners were the end-of-school-year passion for students. A fidget spinner is a small device, usually with three “arms” and a ball bearing center. The basic spin has the user holding the fidget spinner between the thumb and forefinger of one hand and spinning it with the other hand. The ball bearing in the center allows the spinner to spin for a long time. My $17 heavy metal spinner spun for over five minutes and I was anxiously watching the clock the entire time!
I can understand why fidget spinners were banned from many classrooms. First, the distraction of one student having one and spinning away, and students who did not have one being mesmerized by their classmate’s spinner might be a problem. Secondly, someone watching the clock to time their spinner or trying fidget spinner tricks could also be distracted from learning. In addition, fidget spinners usually cost between $2 and $10 but some, like the SunnyTech Silver Fidget Spinner, can cost as much as $460! Although the high-end fidget spinners are not found in most classrooms, there is also the worry the more expensive ones might “disappear” from a student’s desk, so teachers would rather they stay in the backpack or locker and out of the classroom.
However, as with any new trend, what about embedding it in the curriculum? Get a classroom set of fidget spinners and see what creative ways students and you can come up with using them to support teaching and learning. The cost to get involved is under $50 for twenty-five students, and you can always label them “physics support devices” on the purchase order!
There are plenty of educators who have embraced the fidget spinner and are using it to support a lesson or unit.

LESSON IDEAS

Carla, a preschool teacher, reminds the reader that one of the best ways to teach science is to make each lesson personally relate to the student.  With that in mind, she ordered a pack of fidget spinners for the classroom. Carla then developed a series of STEM challenge cards. These STEM challenge cards combine the principles of science, technology, engineering, and math with fidget spinner tricks. The packet contains activities for preschool students, elementary students, and some blank cards so your students can create their own challenges for the class.
Erin Flanigan’s blog post includes a wealth of information about the use of fidgets spinners to support the STEM curriculum. Her project has students…
  • observing their spinners
  • developing a spinning technique
  • investigating the length of time of their spinner stays spinning
  • finding the average spin length
  • graphing the spin times
  • comparing and graphing class data of all of the spinners
  • responding to critical thinking questions
  • looking at how human error can influence the data
  • using what they learned to design their own spinner
  • creating a slow motion video of their spinner (because) slow motion videos can help students observe motion and understand more of the science behind how things work
Matt Richard and Meg Richard provide an explanation of the how a fidget spinner works and the physics principles behind it in this Teaching Channel post. They also provide activities for middle and high school students which include both the use of a fidget spinner, as well as the creation of one, coding related to fidget spinners, and the scientific method of discovery!
This Education Week blog post article showcases Amy Garay, a third-grade teacher, who utilizes fidget spinners with her students to support some science and mathematics standards. She has them reflect on why some spinners spin faster or longer than others and if the circumference or weight make a difference. Amy has students make predictions, conduct test trials and then graph the results. Also included is an engineering design lesson by Nolan Wrage, a middle school engineering tech teachers, who has his students design and 3-D print their own fidget spinner.
Dan Bowen provides an overview of thirteen ways to use fidget spinners in the classroom that range from using it as a time to using the spinners to teach probability. Sound ideas that you can embellish for inclusion in a classroom activity.
Any Cohen provides a wonderful overview of fidget spinners and how to use them in this Science Budding blog post. She also provides some lesson plan ideas, adaptations of existing lesson plans on the Science Buddies site, and links to additional STEM content that could be enhance the usage of the fidget spinner.
This informational articles intended for Internet marketers, explains the “viral loop” process in business and gives tips on how to find these trendy items. This article would be a great addition to a high school marketing, business, or entrepreneurial class.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

There are a number of other neat things about fidget spinners on the Web.
What are your thoughts about the use of fidget spinners to support teaching and learning? Do you have any special ways you have students use them in the classroom? Please share on Twitter! #kathyschrock
Posted by at
Labels:

Thursday, June 01, 2017

Promoting inventiveness in the classroom

We are all familiar with invention—the process of creating something new and useful. But what about the creativity factors that play a large role in this process? The creative bridge between invention and innovation is called inventiveness. How can you lead your teachers or colleagues to promote inventiveness in the classroom?

The Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development at the University of Iowa includes a great overview of inventiveness in their “Invent Iowa Curriculum Guide”. Invent Iowa, started in 1987, was created to help teachers promote the invention process in their classrooms as well as allow students to showcase their inventions at state and local conventions. The Invent Iowa guide states inventiveness includes four components.
  1. Fluency– the ability to brainstorm
  2. Flexibility– the ability to think in new and different ways
  3. Elaboration– the ability to add details or missing parts
  4. Originality– the ability to create things that are new
In this program, the grade 3-8 students are encouraged to use a series of problem-solving steps when during the invention process.
  • They begin by identifying or finding a problem that might be solved or lessened with an invention.
  • They then gather information about related inventions.
  • Before an inventor begins creating, he/she explores the idea in-depth.
  • Finally, the student inventor imagines their invention idea and begins creating it.
As the student inventor explores their idea in depth, he/she needs to answer the common thinking questions to prompt them to think of all the aspects – who, what, where, when, and why. There is an additional question the inventor needs to think about, and that is “how” – “How can I make the invention?” “How can I get investors?” “How can I market the invention?”
The Invent Iowa Curriculum Guide includes a rubric which can help the classroom teacher develop the timelines and task goals with the students. It includes the problem, the solution, the explanation, the uniqueness, the benefits, the inventor’s log, and the invention itself. The higher order thinking skills of evaluating, analyzing, and creating, as well as the importance of reflection, comprise a large part of this process.

The curriculum guide also provides some tips for teachers for instilling a climate for inventiveness in the classroom.
  • Create challenge and motivation
    • Stimulate student questioning
    • Asking questions calling for creative thought
    • Discuss the “unknowns”
  • Encourage students to challenge their assumptions
  • Provide freedom for exploration
    • Establish trust and openness
    • Defer judgment whenever possible
  • Use affirmative judgment
  • Permit liveliness and dynamism
    • Encourage student involvement and ownership
  • Encourage playfulness and humor
  • Allow for examining differing ideas and viewpoints
  • Minimize conflicts
  • Encourage risk-taking, rather than “safe” responses and conformity
  • Provide time for thought and action
However, to spur the creativity and have students adopt the inventiveness mindset, there some interesting ways for the classroom teacher to foster creativity in the classroom. Kristin Hicks, in an Edudemic blog post, provides five ways to bring this about. Her thoughts and ideas deal with student choice, and include:
  1. Allow students choice in the format of their assessments. Even have them mix and match formats, for example, a video with a recorded podcast review.
  2. Try to set aside some time each day for students to follow their passions. Create a “genius hour”.
  3. Use technology to broaden your idea of assignments. For instance, use Google Maps along with a novel, have students interview experts on Skype and follow experts on Twitter or in a Reddit group to gather their information for a research paper, etc.
  4. Make sure your tech toolbox includes some unconventional tech tools. Have students create a TED talk about a chapter in the science book, have them draw an XKCD-like comic strip, or create a Fakebook page for an explorer. (I have tons of categorized online tools on this page for you to investigate!)
  5. Encourage discussion among students, using the Socratic seminar method, so students are not afraid to take a risk, learn how to formulate good questions, and how to respect the opinions of others. (Take a look at a recent Kathy’s Katch blog post I penned, Civil Discourse in the Classroom, to investigate more about helping students learn to value someone else’s point of view.)
I also am a fan of Stacey Goodman’s methods of encouraging divergent thinking in his classroom. His expected results would lead to a climate of inventiveness, too.
  • Problem-based learning: Instead of giving the students the problem to solve, have them create the problem questions based on their own knowledge and passions.
  • Setting norms: Develop activities that encourage students to defer judgement. If students know they will not be immediately judged, they are more likely to offer divergent ideas.
  • Inquiry and observation: Have students spend time observing, hold back on expressing their likes and dislikes, and follow-up with statements or questions such as “I noticed…”, “Why…?”, and “How…?”.
  • Encouraging play and managing failure: Develop activities that encourage students to play and experiment, followed by reflection and iteration until they are satisfied with the result. Help them learn not to be afraid to make mistakes.
  • Use art strategies: Goodman is an art teacher, and he presents some art activities in the article that would easily work across the content areas to promote inventiveness.
Another succinct overview of the components that can help lead to creativity and inventiveness has been developed by Tanner Christensen.


After looking at both the Hicks and Goodman criteria, I don’t believe inventiveness is tied just to the invention process. I think it is a natural part of the creative and divergent thinking processes, too. For some fascinating reading, the Creative Something blog, written by Tanner Christensen, explores the science of how creative thinking works to help his audience “use it every day to create, empower, and motivate”. Isn’t that what we want for students?

Allowing students to pursue their passions, in a way meaningful to them, is a process that can be mentored and practiced in the classroom. By giving students both time and practice in questioning, collaborating, researching, designing, iterating, re-designing, and reflecting, we will be empowering and motivating them to apply the process of inventiveness both in and out of the classroom!

How do you target the inventiveness process in your classroom? Share with the rest of us on Twitter! #kathychrock
Posted by at
Labels: ,

Monday, May 01, 2017

Resources to support STEM



I like this definition of STEM from WhatIs.com:
STEM is an educational program developed to prepare primary and secondary students for college and graduate study in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In addition to subject-specific learning, STEM aims to foster inquiring minds, logical reasoning, and collaboration skills.
I prefer this definition because, in addition to including the curriculum content areas, it emphasizes inquiry, reasoning, and collaboration skills. Not being a science, mathematics, or engineering technology teacher, I won’t be recommending sites to support the curriculum side of STEM in this post, but I will cover the career readiness and skills needed to excel in a STEM career.

ENGINEERING AND INVENTIVENESS

At the 2014 ASEE Annual Conference, Glancy, et. al., presented a paper entitled “Examination of Integrated STEM Curricula as a Means Toward Quality K-12 Engineering Education“. In this document, they outline the components of a quality K-12 Engineering Education curriculum.
  • Process of design:
    • Problem and background: identify the problem and research it
    • Plan and implement: brainstorm solutions, judge the importance, and create a prototype
    • Test and evaluate: create hypotheses and design experiments to test the prototype; reflect and redesign
  • Apply science, engineering and mathematics knowledge: utilize all three disciplines  for  interdisciplinary study
  • Engineering thinking: independent and reflective thinking; learn from failure
  • Conceptions of engineers and engineering: understand what an engineer does
  • Engineering tools and processes: become proficient in engineering processes, techniques, tools, and skills
  • Issues solutions and processes: understand the impact of their solution on the issues and vice versa
  • Ethics: think about the ethical situations in the practice of engineering
  • Teamwork: participate as a contributing team member
  • Engineering communication: Learn how to effectively communicate understandings to others
I have been conducting some workshops surrounding the theory of inventiveness, which targets many of the same aspects as the curriculum above. The University of Iowa holds an “Invent Iowa” event each year, and they simplify the inventiveness process.
  1. Inventiveness involves the ability to brainstorm. (fluency)
  2. Inventiveness involves the ability to think in new and different ways. (flexibility)
  3. Inventiveness includes the ability to add details or missing parts. (elaboration)
  4. Inventiveness includes the ability to make things that are new. (originality)
Take a look at their curriculum guide when you get a chance. It is outstanding!

LITERACY AND STEM

In addition to the use of the disciplines of math, science, and mathematics, there are other projects that tie in literacy as a component of STEM. The PictureSTEM project “includes instructional units for K-2 classrooms that use an engineering challenge and picture books as supports for learning science, mathematics, engineering, computational thinking, and reading”. For instance, the kindergarten lesson has students making paper baskets for transporting rocks. The unit utilizes the picture books “If You Find a Rock”, “I Get Wet”,”Pattern Fish”, “The Most Magnificent Thing”, and “Rocks, Jeans, and Busy Machines”. The students learn about the properties of paper when wet and dry, learn about rhyming words and pictures as well as patterns for weaving, build a prototype basket, test it, and communicate the results to the class.
The Novel Engineering project, for students in grades 3-8, provides students with the opportunity to “use existing classroom literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills”.

CAREERS AND STEM

Another area of STEM programs should provide students with the overview of the careers available in the many fields encompassed by the STEM disciplines.
  • KidsAhead: in addition to articles and activities, this site includes a section on jobs in science and math in areas from crime scene investigation to extreme weather to the animal kingdom
  • Cool Science Careers: this Rice University site provides simulated exploration of STEM careers and includes handouts for the teacher to use with the students
  • The Occupational Outlook Handbook: this wonderful reference source compiled each year by the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides students with in-depth information about hundreds of jobs. It is a great place for students to browse and learn about STEM occupations.
  • Discover Enginering™: this comprehensive site includes information on the reasons to love engineering, the career outlooks, engineering careers, and what engineers do
  • STEM Career Websites for Students: the Science Pioneers site, a non-profit organization in Kansas City, offers tons of links to more specific STEM career sties for students.
  • Discovery Education Streaming has over 1300 videos and clips for grades K-12 dealing with STEM careers which explore the role of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in their jobs. In addition, there are curated content collections at each grade level range dealing with STEM careers that include videos and images.
Many private organization sites often provide a list of careers that support their particular mission. For instance, the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League), which supports the use of amateur radio worldwide, includes a comprehensive list list of related careers on their site. In addition, they provide a look at what amateur radio as part of a STEM curriculum looks like in a real classroom.

Do you conduct multidisciplinary lessons or units that include the STEM disciplines and other disciplines? Do you have a resource or a method to share to get teachers and/or  students excited about careers in STEM? Please share on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Posted by at
Labels:

Saturday, April 01, 2017

Celebrating Earth Day every day


Earth Day 2017’s campaign is Climate and Environmental Literacy, which they hope leads to student attainment of these literacies by 2020. The Earth Day Network site has a downloadable toolkit for educators who are planning an event, as well as a place to register their project and locate other projects in the area. The site also includes downloadable lesson plans to support the teaching of climate and environmental literacy topics during the week of April 22-27, 2017. These lesson plans target both the NGSS and Common Core science standards. There is also an overview of the importance of green schools including data and statistics on their site.
However, teaching specific Earth Day topics during a “special week” reminds me of the Hour of Code  that is worked on in schools during its own “special week”. I feel, if we want students to become stewards of the planet or coders for life, as educators we have to include these topics and related lessons across the curriculum and throughout  the school year. Students need to internalize best practices by getting a chance to explore many different avenues and aspects of these topics.
Think of yourself when you attend an educational conference– you go to sessions with speakers with great ideas, take hands-on workshops,  and collaborate with other educators for a few days. If you don’t continue to explore the things you learned or continue to communicate with your new conference PLN, you often don’t think about what you learned or  see how it relates to projects you are creating throughout the school year. Learning should be a constant event for both teachers and students.
GREEN SCHOOLS
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It is one of the most recognized of green building certifications. There are many schools that are LEED Certified, whether this occurred during new construction or renovation. The LEED Certification for K-12 Schools takes into account the health of the students, the ability of the environment to become “an interactive teaching tool” by embedding environmental lessons across the curriculum, and the variety of different types of spaces in a school.
Even if your school is not trying to get LEED certified, the idea that the school environment can become a teaching tool in the area of environmental stewardship is a great one! Following are some resources to help students attain environmental literacy skills by using the school building.
BULLETIN BOARDS
All schools have bulletin boards, and having one or more environmental-themed boards, changed out monthly and attractive and applicable to students, can help students learn some important environmental lessons. In addition, adding student “voice” to the bulletin boards engages them even more!
Here is one I like!


PROJECT IDEAS AND LESSON PLANS
The Ian Somerhalder Foundation offers a quick overview of twenty-one green project ideas ranging from using only recycled paper in the school to setting up a rain barrel and using it for watering the plants outside the school.
The Population Education site offers even more projects that can be implemented to “green up” a classroom. My favorite idea is:
Data, Data, Everywhere: Practice graphing and data analysis skills by creating a “green data wall”.  At the end of each week, count up the number bottles and cans in your recycle bins and weigh recycled paper.  Create a graph in your classroom to track your recycling efforts over time.
I would also suggest students use the data they collect to create infographics to inform and persuade others to “go green”. Students could also create informational infographics for their school similar to this one which was created for businesses.
Scholastic offers some larger-scale projects that help students realize the importance of the environment with these ten topic overviews.
The Oregon Green Schools site offers a huge list of 125 different ways for students to help their school go green. The list is broken down in the categories of Waste Reduction, Recycling, Composting, Water Conservation, Energy Conservation, Hazardous Waste, Green Procurement, Transportation, and Communication.
The Greening Schools site, a joint project of the Illinois EPA and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center  provides a huge list of lesson plans for all grade levels in their comprehensive collection.

Do you celebrate environmental stewardship all year long in your classroom? Do you have other ideas for using resources found at your school for embedding environmental literacy skills across the curriculum? Please share on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Posted by at
Labels:

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Traditional literacy ideas and resources

This article originally appeared in the Discovery Education blog "Kathy Schrock's Katch of the Month" in March 2017 and is re-posted here with permission.
__________________



I have identified thirteen literacies I feel our students need to succeed.  One of the skillsets is the “traditional literacy skills” of reading and writing. Because March is  NEA’s “National Read Across America Month“, I thought I would concentrate on identifying resources for the traditional literacy skills of reading and writing.

Reading and Writing Non-Fiction

One of the students in my Wilkes University/Discovery Education Masters program, Lisa Francis, recently wrote the following:
In English, there is a great push on understanding non-fiction and difficult materials. There is also an emphasis on creating arguments and persuasive writing. I believe that students could embed media to understand these elements of reading and writing. For example, students could interview their peers on a non-fiction topic in order to make an argument or counter-argument. This exercise could eventually lead them to follow the same kind of structure in their writing, but it allows them to work with a medium they already know – technology and video.
One article dealing with the use of multimedia to support non-fiction reading is this one from Reading Rockets. In addition, Reading Rockets also offers a great overview of literacy instruction with digital and media technologies. The articles are older, but the main points are still very appropriate today.
Discovery has an online series called Spotlight on Strategies (SOS). These integration strategies provide the teacher with the background and implementation strategies, as well as a video, for teaching and learning across the content areas. Many of the SOS strategies are used by teachers in support of literacy, and teachers who are using them in unique ways are highlighted on the Discovery blog “My SOS Story“. Here are a few of those SOS stories that can help in the area of reading and writing non-fiction.

Science SOS:  The Question Is

“The Question Is” is a teaching strategy that requires students to reverse the common order of question-and-answer. The teacher provides a content-related answer and students write a variety of questions that could work with the answer.
Sarah Yuska, a 7th and 8th grade science teacher, explains how she used this SOS strategy. “Students were asked to read a section in their textbook that outlines all of the functions of the organelles. It is a very dense section, and I knew the students would not be able to absorb all of the information in one evening. It can also be very confusing, especially for those students who have some differentiated learning needs. I knew if I could get them up and moving while trying to recall the information they read the night before, it might make more of an impact than sitting and taking notes.”

Science SOS: Six Word Story

The “Six Word Story” is a teaching strategy that allows students to practice summarizing and selective word choice. Students use an image or an article as the basis for a story that conveys a big idea using only six words.
Jen Cucchiarelli has her first grade students conduct bat research and then write a six word story. There is no better way to help students pick out the most important ideas than using this strategy!

ELA SOS: A-E-I-O-U and Half the Story

“A-E-I-O-U” is a teaching strategy that asks students to interpret information from images or videos they have viewed and write down their thoughts next to five descriptive categories: A-E-I-O-U. Afterwards, students pair-share their favorite parts.
“Half the Story” is a teaching strategy that uses images to encourage students to process information and make connections. The teacher zooms in on a selected image, to show only part of it, and asks students to make predictions about the topic of study and explain their reasoning.
Marvin Rainey, a PreK-3 school principal, uses various SOS strategies to engage students in reading. He states, after mentoring a first year teacher, “The students are smiling with excitement because the learning process is fun and filled with innovation.”

Interactive Online Traditional Literacy Resources

Karen Ogen, a DEN GURU, has a wonderful collection of interactive Web resources on her Interactive Sites for Education pages. These support many content areas for grades K-5, including reading and writing, which is found here:  http://interactivesites.weebly.com/language-arts.html

The Read, Write, and Think site from NCTE, includes many interactive sites for grades K-12, in the areas of organizing and summarizing, inquiry and analysis, writing poetry, writing and publishing prose, and learning about language. These online interactive may be found here: http://www.readwritethink.org/search/?resource_type=16

What are your go-to interactive Web resources to support reading and writing?  Share with us on Twitter! #kathyschrock
Posted by at
Labels:

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Ignite your passion and share

As educators, we are very passionate about teaching and learning. We each have our areas of expertise, and now, with accessible tools that make it easy to create a presentation, podcast, video, or animation, we can share our passion and expertise with others.
One popular model for sharing is the Ignite model. Ignite talks are usually given in person. Each presenter giving an Ignite talk is allowed twenty slides, which advance every fifteen seconds, giving the presenter five minutes to give the talk. Customarily, there are multiple Ignite presenters during an event. Here is a little background on the Ignite talk model.
Although not exactly adhering to the Ignite model,  but close enough, I presented this 5:36, 16-slide informative talk at iPadpalooza 2016 in Austin, TX. You can view other presenter’s Ignite-like talks here.

DISCOVERY EDUCATION’S “IGNITE YOUR PASSION” PROJECT

Dean Shareski, of Discovery Education, has been utilizing the Ignite model for the past few years as part of Discovery Education professional development for teachers. The DE Team holds an informal networking event with 8-10 educators each giving a 5-minute Ignite talk. Discovery Education provide presenters with a common prompt for their talk.
One of these prompts was “What are you curious about?”
Some of the titles for the these Ignite talks were:
  • A bit of a thing for wood
  • I like big books and I cannot lie
  • Storytelling is not enough
  • A buffet of Discovery
  • Prairie lighthouses
  • From hibernation to transformation: An obsession with learning
  • How to grow a loaf of bread
  • Connecting
  • Are you busy?
Rex Ferguson-Baird, who was curious about leadership, entitled his Ignite Talk “Leadership: A constant process of identity reinvention” and you can view it below.
This year’s Discovery Education “Ignite Your Passion” talks prompt is  “I used to ______ but now I ________.”
The presenters picked a wide range of topics to present about!
  • “I used to paper, but now I tech”
  • “I used to be bald….”
  • “I used to stress but now I Ommm”
  • “I used to think boxes were for packing stuff in, but now I now they are for letting things out.”
  • “I used to blab…But now I sit back and watch”
  • “I used to lay on the couch…’
  • “I used to only have iPads, now I have choice & community”
  • “I used to think community was important…”
  • “I used to pull out my hair, but now I’m painting rainbows”
  • “I used to blame parents but now I have kids of my own.”
Tara McLauchlan, a DEN Star, entitled her Ignite talk “I used to read books…” and you can view it below.
Discovery held an Ignite session at FETC17, too. Read about it here!
OTHER EDUCATIONAL IGNITE SESSIONS
I attend lots of conferences throughout the year, and many of the conferences have an Ignite talk session. In an hour time slot, allowing for each presenter to get to the podium and put on the mic, there usually are 8-10 talks. Some conferences record and archive this presentations, and here are some for you to view.
ISTE is one of the conferences that has included concurrent sessions in the Ignite format for the past few conferences. Here is one of the Ignite sessions from 2015.

 HOW TO SHARE YOUR PASSION IN AN IGNITE SESSION

Although some Ignite sessions are informational, most are reflections of the personal passion of the presenter. By watching a variety of these Ignite talks, you will see many types of presentation styles and slide formats. Some talks are emotional, some humorous, some sarcastic, some timely, and some defy classification! However, I do feel all of these Ignite sessions could be classified as very tightly-knit digital stories.
The Digital Storytelling at the University of Houston provides a good starting point when beginning digital storytelling with their Elements of Digital Storytelling. Consider these aspects when developing your Ignite session.
  1. Point of View:  What is the main point of the story? Who am I telling the story to?  Why am I telling the story now?
  2. A Dramatic Question is a key question, obvious or subtle, that keeps the viewer’s attention and will be answered by the end of the story.
  3. Emotional Content: Research has shown that emotion enhances knowledge and understanding.  Serious issues that come alive in a personal and powerful way can connect the audience to the story.
  4. The Gift of Your Voice: By using inflection, you can personalize the story to help the audience understand the context.
  5. The Power of the Soundtrack: Music and sound effects can add another layer of meaning and embellish the story.
  6. Economy: Use just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer.
  7. Pacing: Viewers need time to absorb and process the information they have been presented with. (In an Ignite session, this sometimes is hard because of the slide timings required by the model.)
  8. Deciding on the overall purpose of the story— is it to persuade, inform, instruct?
  9. Attention to the quality of the images and videos included
  10. Attention to good grammar and language usage
The process of planning and creating the Ignite talk takes some practice, too. Here is a simple overview of one person’s Ignite talk creation workflow that might work for you. This second workflow is pretty similar.  They both involve storyboarding or outlining, digitizing the storyboard and creating your speaker notes, fine-tuning the timing, developing the visuals, and practicing the talk. Practice recording the talk right within your presentation tool, to see how well you adhere to the automatic timings. Then, find a colleague or two who can give you some feedback on the content and your presentation style during the talk.
Once you feel comfortable with your Ignite talk, consider submitting to present it at a local or regional conference. Ignite session audiences are the best– they love the fast-paced style and learning from many different presenters in a short time!
If you don’t feel up to presenting at a conference, you can use a Google Hangout on Air to record the presenting of your slides and your face at the same time.
Have you ever given an Ignite talk? Want to share some of your tips?  How about a link to your talk if it is posted online?  Share it with us on Twitter! #kathyschrock
Posted by at
Labels:

Sunday, January 01, 2017

Bring the world into your classroom




The overview of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) includes a three-dimensional framework that has students actively engaging in scientific and engineering practices, using these concepts across the scientific domains, and the inclusion of a focused core curriculum of instruction and assessments to ensure students attain the information they need to succeed.
One interesting method of communication, amateur radio, also referred to as ham radio, meets the criteria of a disciplinary core curriculum because of the many features and domains it involves.
  • Within the broad field of amateur radio, the inclusion of electronic circuits, transistors, filters, amplifiers, signal processing, study of the ionosphere, solar weather, communications systems, unit conversions, prototyping, and CAD design targets the physical sciences, earth and space sciences, engineering technology, and mathematics.
  • Amateur radio can be a key tool for communicating with others for collaborative purposes and learning, as well as for individual and group problem-solving
  • There are social applications of amateur radio, too. These radio networks are used for radio operators, as first responders, to report to agencies during emergencies and natural disasters and for local weather-spotting in conjunction with weather agencies. Amateur radio networks work when other traditional networks are down. Students also learn the skill of communicating clearly and concisely during a time of crisis, which is an important, life-long skill.
  • The teaching of the concepts and practice of amateur radio can be started simply, and then built-upon as the students get older.
Take a look at a part of a high school grant proposal which maps the use of amateur radio to the NGSS. And this page contains links to documents that tie amateur radio to various state standards across various disciplines.

Here is a fun video to share with students! In 2005, Jay Leno had a contest on his television program pitting a Morse Code operator and an SMS texting guru to see who could complete a message first.

PROJECTS AND LESSONS
There are many examples of amateur radio being used in schools all over the world and each of the projects has a different focus.
  • The Fox River Radio Club (IL) set up a program to get amateur radio into their local elementary schools. The national amateur radio organization, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), did a write-up of the rationale and process of the project. This would be a great place to start to learn more about partnering with a radio club in your area to get started. In addition, local and regional radio clubs often plan “Field Days”, which allow visitors to both observe and try radio communications with a licensed operator. Field Days are a great way to introduce students to the many aspects of amateur radio.
  • The Dorothy Grant Elementary School in Fontana (CA) has an Amateur Radio Club for students in grades 4 and 5. The goals of the club, as stated on their site, are to:
    • Promote community-wide understanding of amateur radio communications
    • Promote interest and proficiency in the use of amateur radio communications
    • Conduct activities and programs to advance the general interest and welfare of amateur radio in our community
    • Help students learn the necessary skills for obtaining an FCC license
    • Help students to enhance reading, writing, mathematics, geography and communications skills
    • Help students learn about electronics and radio communication techniques
    • Have fun with amateur radio
Watch the video below and learn more about their program.
  • The ARRL has put together a compilation of lesson plans both created by teachers and amateur radio instructors that teachers can download and edit to use with their students. The lessons and activities are broken into six categories– basic electronics, amateur radio, satellite communications, radio science, remote sensors, and MAREA (a robot). They also have a Radio Communications curriculum for students studying to attain their license.
  • The ARIIS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Space) project was created and is maintained by both amateur radio associations and world-wide space agencies.  This communications project allows students to speak directly to the crews on the ISS via amateur radio.
  • SARCNET is a great Australian-based site that has tons of information and activities for schools and amateur radio!
  • My son works for an amateur radio company, Remote Ham Radio, that allows amateur radio operators to use their computer or Chromebook via Internet to to get access to remote antennas and then go out over the airwaves. They have a youth project and a monthly contest for students who are FCC-licensed.
Although fluency with Morse Code is no longer a requirement of the entry-level amateur radio license, students are fascinated with it! They love tapping out their name on their desk and learning how this method of communication is still used. There are even online Morse Code translators which can help students develop an “ear” for listening to Morse Code.
To learn more about students (and you) obtaining an FCC license, take a look at the ARRL licensing information page. If you already use amateur radio in your classroom, please share on Twitter how you use it and any online material, images, or videos you have posted. Having an educational amateur radio network of K-12 students would be a lot of fun and bring the world into our classrooms!
Do you already use ham radio in your school or classroom? Share your ideas on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Looking backward and forward





What was hot in educational technology in 2016 and what are some cool new things that are on the horizon for 2017?
Let’s take a look backward and forward in case you missed anything or want to start planning for some new technologies!


VIRTUAL REALITY

Virtual reality hit the educational community in 2016 with the release of the low-cost 360° cameras (like the Ricoh Theta series) and the prominent use of Google Cardboard headsets for classroom use. Discovery VR, Google Expeditions (iOS | Android), and ThingLink VR are some of the large-scale projects in this area specifically targeted for education.
In my Kathy’s Katch April column, I covered how and why educators might want to use virtual reality in the classroom. Since that time, I have spent time teaching teachers how to have students create 360° images and share these online with others. The ability to share and use local landmarks, trips, buildings, etc., with others around the world helps increase the global literacy of our students.
I have created a Flickr group where teachers and students upload their 360°images for others to transform and use. With a simple app on a smartphone, such as Google Street View (iOS | Android) to create the image and a set of low-cost headsets, students can both share and view images from around the world. I also have a page devoted to both augmented reality and virtual reality that includes successful practices and suggestions for both of these technologies.
Here is a group of 360° images I shot in Sydney, Australia this year. You should be able to scroll around the images with your mouse.

BREAKOUT EDU

One of the most innovative new things to show up in the classroom in 2016 is Breakout EDU. If you have not participated in a Breakout EDU session at a local, regional, or national education conference, you must do it the next time you see one offered. This is not just a technology experience, but the online collaboration and sharing among the many educators using creating these immersive learning games qualifies this item for a 2016 edtech trend in the classroom.  Breakout EDU experiences have been used at faculty meetings, parent nights at schools, at all types of education conferences, and, of course, in many classroom settings. Breakout EDU games teach critical thinking, teamwork, complex problem solving, and can be used across the curriculum.
Here is a video that gives you a quick idea of how Breakout EDU works. However, you really need to feel the excitement for yourself by participating in a session!

POKÉMON GO

Who would have predicted this card game of the 1990’s would lead to a world-wide, real-time, collaborative crowd game in 2016? Everyone seemed to get caught up in this fun, outdoor scavenger hunt. It was so interesting to be part of it and finding new “friends” everywhere who would share their tips and locations to visit to gather new objects. In addition, the ability to find cool new things in both my town and in larger cities was really interesting. Did you know that there is a large Statue of Liberty reproduction in an office lobby in Boston? Or that you can find a monument to the now-defunct elevated artery in Boston?
While looking for items to collect and Pokemon to capture, and as I found these fun places, I began to think about the use of this game in the classroom. I started to take my own photos of the interesting spots I visited. I also began to look at the large database of information I was collecting in the game– the number of each Pokemon I captured, the points I received, the “power rating” of each Pokemon I had collected, and the actual time and date each event happened.
Because data literacy is one of the life-long skills we want our students to attain, having them use their Pokemon Go data and photos to write a story, create an infographic, and enter and evaluate their findings is a great way to target the data literacy skills. My August Kathy’s Katch column provides many other ways this phenomenon can be used to support teaching and learning.
The lesson I learned with Pokemon Go is not that gaming and gamification are essential to learning. My idea for the use of this particular game had more to do with using student passions to drive teaching and learning in ways we might not have thought of before.

CHROMEBOOKS

The Chromebook finally came of age in 2016. They became a bit more powerful and speedier, their screens became easier to use for extended periods of time, the touchscreen Chromebooks allowed additional ways to input information (a big help for those that needed accessibility options), and the newest Chromebooks even began to run  apps from the Google Play Store (the apps that run on the Android phones).  I have the Asus Chromebook Flip C-100 (under $250) and it has an all-day battery life, a beautiful touch-screen that can be folded back and be used as a touch-screen tablet, and it is one of the first Chromebooks to run the Android apps.
But it is not just the hardware and software improvements of the Chromebook that have made it a choice for many schools. Thanks to the developers who create online tools, many of these powerful tools now work with the Chromebook. Since the heavy-lifting is done on the Web site’s server, the Chromebook does not need to do the processing locally, and the online tools work great!
I have a page devoted to the tools that work with Chromebooks and laptops, broken down into thirty categories such as animation tools, audio editors, citation makers, curation tools, coding tools, collage tools, image editors, drawing tools, concept mappers, podcast creators, timeline makers, video editors, word cloud generators, and more. I can find an online tool to replace almost any software that runs on a computer, thus opening up the field to the low-cost Chromebook. Getting a device for every student that is low-cost, durable, lasts an entire day without a charge, and can do almost anything is a worthy goal for schools!
That being said, I still believe that the iPad has an important place in the classroom. The simplicity and power of  single-purpose creation apps allow students to easily create a product to showcase their acquisition of content knowledge. I recommend a mix of devices in a school setting so students and teachers have access to the best tool for the job!

LOOKING FORWARD

I could go on and on with the trends that I have become excited about in 2016– coding, sketchnoting, Open Education Resources (OER), and design thinking are others that come to mind. But these are just my opinions. To take advantage of the expertise of a group of very smart people involved in K-12 educational technology, you should take a look at the NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: K-12 Edition.
The Horizon Report is put out each year. The panel of educators and technologists who investigate and come to consensus on the upcoming trends start off with over fifty important trends in technology that could have an impact in schools. These are narrowed down to six over the course of the creation of the yearly report. However, these trends are not thought about in a vacuum. While debating the choices, the participants are also considering these three questions.
  1. What’s on the horizon for K-12 education institutions?
  2. Which trends and technologies will drive educational change?
  3. How can these institutions strategize effective solutions to difficult challenges?
  4.  Give the entire report a read when you get a moment!

THOUGHTS

What are your thoughts on what was trending in educational technology in 2016? What are your predictions for 2017? Share with us on Twitter! #kathyschrock
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)