Blogpost the latest...well late anyway...

That's what happens when you work late and hit "save" instead of "publish"...

In our last round of technology tools I was surprised to find one I really liked. Other's I was familiar with and have only limited use for, for assorted reasons I'll go into.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11132
Turns out I really like Picture Story. I did have difficulty making it work at first. The first laptop I tried it on worked well for getting the photos downloaded and lined up, even edited. However, the microphone did not record sound well at all. The first few words would be clear enough, but then fade out and the background static was terrible. However, my tablet computer recorded really excellent sound and compiled the video well. Saving it to google drive then let me move back to the first computer to check the video for function and playback. At which point I took out the included music because, while it sounded fine on the tablet, on the PC speakers the music was really distracting. Probably something different in the balance settings. Or that laptop just has really bad speakers compared to my tablet (which is made for viewing media and has very good sound). In any event, I'm going to introduce it to my students as an option for making reports and presentations. It wasn't exactly fast to make the story, but it wasn't hard.

Flickr
On the one hand, it would be nice to use Flickr, since my students are already generally used to it. On the other, controlling the content is a worry and it is blocked by my school network anyway.

Pinterest
Same problems as flickr, really.

Virtual Field Trips

A long, long time ago I picked up a HTML 4 for Dummies book so I could work on a web page and charge $15 an hour for it. I didn't know much about web design, but what that page needed was some updating and toubleshooting. So, for a ten dollar reference I made about seventy-five and headed out of town for the weekend.

That bit of HTML coding experience has served me very well over the years. However, it's hardly needed these days. If anyone wants to make a blog or a site, multiple sites will all but make it for you.

What I can't do is take my classes to the White House. Now, I don't need to.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about/inside-white-house/interactive-tour

I'm absolutely going to use this in my US History class. Set aside a class period, check out the laptops, and just let the students explore. They've had a number of questions about the White House already, so I know they are interested.


http://naturalhistory.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/

Since I'll have the laptop cart anyway, might as well send the science classes on a virtual field trip as well.

I think it will also make a nice backup plan for upcoming testing. We have classes in the afternoon after they've tested all morning, and it would just be dumb to not take that into account. Good day for a virtual field trip, I think. Lots of options at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech071.shtml

For science review, I like the looks of the Amusment Park Physics game at http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/

I'll have to explore that one more.

Beta testing, it's a good idea.

As part of the last assignment we had to set up an online meeting. I used it to pre-test some video conference options we were considering for an upcoming trip. Good thing too. Three laptops running windows, one android tablet, and one windows 10 tablet and five or so conference options later, we did manage to get Google Hangouts working acceptably. Not perfect, but acceptable.

http://www.google.com/drive/about.html

I already use google drive to move files between computers. I have used shared drives, network drives, usb flash drives, and probably some others. Between computers at home, network drives across the LAN are the way to go. However, if one computer is at home and another at school that doesn't work. Google Drive has been reliable for uploading files and keeping the designated folder current with the online version. By keeping things like my in class slideshows in the Drive I can work on them at home and then use them at school. However, if there is an internet connection problem either at home or school or somewhere between, it can be a problem. Doesn't happen often, I think only once since I started using it, but one does have to keep in mind it can fail.

https://www.dropbox.com/

My school already uses dropbox quite a bit. In class, I prefer to use some physical flash drives I had on hand since they don't depend on a data connection or online sources. However, if students need to transport something between school, home, or work at the library, a physical drive can all to easily go missing. So, setting up a dropbox for them to keep classwork in tends to be a better solution. This does still require a data connection and a computer, so frequently limits my students to working at school or at the library (lots of them don't have any kind of computer access at home).

https://join.me/

I have participated in join.me video conferences before. A few of the online continuing education courses I took as a lawyer used it and it always seemed to work well. From my end. This was one of the tools we tried on our own computers and setting it up was a somewhat different story. I'd like to make more use of something like this to bring classrooms together, say conferencing between my science class and the other 6th grade science teacher so our classes could compete during test review or something like that. However, that would mean two teachers being on track that day and I well know that the other teacher and I are far too alike (aka not well organized) for that to be likely to happen without a LOT of preparation. Still, would be cool.

Module 5 Blog Post

Technology is wonderful and can be a truly useful tool...when it works. When it doesn't, it can easily double our workload to troubleshoot whatever went wrong and also make some way to accomplish what we were trying to do before the gadgetry died.

Case in point, online submission of work can take a lot of problems out of collecting assignments. Right down to enforcing deadlines, since the way they are turned in can just shut off at a particular time. Unless the time gets set wrong or the time tracking device goes haywire. Hence, right now I am unable to submit the quizlet homework. It is done,

https://quizlet.com/127330109/etec4810-flash-cards/?new
password: etec4819

In this unit we have taken a look at even more potential technology resources.

http://quizlet.com/

Quizlet I had seen previously. It does let you make an online repository for questions and quizzes, as well as using ones made by others on the same topic. Personally, I don't have any real use for it. For this to be a useful tool, it must be accessible for all students. My students do not have sufficient and consistent access to reliable technology for me to rely on online questions or tools. Basically, if I counted on students accessing something like quizlet, there are some students it would be guaranteed to be left out. So, I avoid the problem by simply not relying on that sort of tool.

http://www.activelylearn.com/

Actively Learn looks to be useful for enhancing text for in class reading. This actually would work really well with how I have set up my in class social studies matierials. Students are able to run the smartboard to display the section summary, select sections to read, take turns reading, and answer the questions in the summary. With this, I could import the pdf summaries and add even more to the reading, which the students could also control through the smartboard. The downside, and what will likely keep me from integrating this anytime soon, is that the preparation time and pre-planning needed will be fairly extensive. Right now, that time just is not available. If I teach social studies again next year, it will definitely be worth it, but that is far from certain.

http://www.quia.com/web

Quia is the one that looks most useful right away. There are a number of already constructed quizes and games based on a large number of topics. I was able to find over a hundred in the area of sixth grade science. One I plan to use is a battleship style game that asks questions you have to get right in order to keep your "hit" (https://www.quia.com/ba/334435.html). While this also requires computer and internet access, this could be used in the classroom setting with school computers as part of review exercises. I have used battleship style games before, and ran into the problem that students were not familiar with the actual Battleship game, so the variant was just confusing for them.

More Tech!

Further showing there is, literally, no end to the potentially useful technology resources out there, here's three more that I like.


TeacherTube
http://www.teachertube.com/

My school network blocks YouTube by default. While there are some ways around this, they don't always work from every (or any) computer every time. TeacherTube has a lot of the same available content and usually isn't blocked. Plus, it is less likely to bring up any inappropriate suggestions for next or related videos. However, it does have ads and ad overlays that can make it slow or interfere with playing the videos. Always pre-load the videos.


Voki
http://www.voki.com/

If they ever send me the email so I can verify my account and actually log in, I'll probably use this one a fair bit. I like the idea of being able to insert voice. Using the embed code in PowerPoint actually works quite well. Does require an internet connection and it does take a few seconds to load, so make sure you have a good internet connection if you plan to use it. Check out the test character I made:
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=12460202&height=267&width=200


Jing
http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

Seems like every week or two somebody needs a quick tutorial on how to do something. Like, how to get information that's in a pdf into an editable format so some changes can be made, then the new one uploaded as a pdf. Well, there's a way to do it that works with the software at my school and on every computer it's been tried on. Explaining it is a bit of a pain, so I made a tutorial that used a whole lot of screen caps to show where menus and such were. With Jing, I can just make a video, with commentary and directions, directly from my computer. Since all our work laptops are pretty well identical, anyone should be able to follow it without trouble. In theory. I do have some concern for file sizes when it comes to sending out the tutorials, but I'll have to use it to see.

Too much of a good thing...

Resources are good. Too many resources...well that can be the difference between "it's going to snow" and "we're going to have a blizzard". Since Louisiana doesn't really have winter maybe it is closer to the difference between "rain" and "hurricane".

I already have a folder on my computer where I save examples, presentations, link lists, and even whole project ideas I find online, from other teachers, as part of professional development, from courses, or anywhere else I run into them. For the most part, things just get dumped there. Every now and again I search through it, usually when something comes up and I think "You know, I remember seeing something like that..." Happens a few times a year, less than monthly but more than once every three months, best guess.

That folder was a way to deal with the sheer number of things I ran into as a new teacher. The number of times someone would say "I can send you a copy if you want..." was getting overwhelming. So, my answer always became "Yes, I will totally take a copy of that." and I just dump it in that folder.

This unit has totally become one of those moments. There's so much obviously good stuff on the presented resources that trying to even skim it all would be a full time job for a few weeks. Since I already have a full time job teaching and a daughter that gets a bit...insistent...if she doesn't have enough time with Dad, that just isn't going to happen. But I do have the best of intentions as to the following three resources related to the unit material:

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html
Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship looks like a good organization for all those things to keep in mind when students use technology. The variation among students of their comfort and knowledge of technology is huge. However, I often find that they don't really know what they are using, just how to use it. For example, the number of times I have to explain that Google is not a source, it searches sources, that the answer to "where did you find that?" is not "Google", is frankly astounding. I've considered doing a one to two class period introduction set on pretty much exactly what the Digital Citizenship covers, but never had a good framework for it. Now I do. I'll likely set up some way to make this a class exercise with online quiz that has to be completed before students can use online research in my classes. The challenge will be setting that up and making sure to take the class time to cover this topic. With the pressure to use instructional time for instruction and the number of things we're supposed to be teaching, that can be quite the challenge.

http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning
http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/project-based-learning-where-start
Way, way too many interesting topics on edutopia.org. However, since I primarily teach science, project based learning is something I want to do more of. My social studies students (and math last year) were subjected to my attempts to bring labs into other subjects (some worked out better than others...Math Labs last year were definitely experimental). I think any science teacher can see how students enjoy and engage in lab activities, so it's natural to want to do more with them. However, it's also easy to see students wander off topic and not get as much from the lab as they could. Keeping in the range of letting students explore and experiment but also keeping them on track is tricky at best. Just taking a look over some of the topics, I think the second link especially will help me be more organized with my activities and make them more useful. Of course, I'll have to find the time to actually read them and implement the information I find. There's always more to do than there is time to do it. Always.

https://udlhcpss.wordpress.com/brain-networks/
How we learn is, obviously, of interest to me. I was a student for a lot of years. Graduated High School, undergraduate, two graduate degrees (and would have been three but they told me to go away), I am quite familiar with how I learn. Which, as time goes on, I'm finding is not the same as other people learn. Often, not even close. Yet, I've been told I'm a good teacher, both by formal students and just people I've tried to help understand a concept (from what to do if you computer at home had an internet connection and now says it doesn't to how the baking soda and vinegar volcano works). So, if I don't learn like other people do, how am I somehow able to translate that into things that people do learn from? The modes of learning, types of thinking sort of frameworks don't seem to answer that. I'm hoping that the framework presented in the brain networks information will. This may well lead me to a good conceptual framework to make consistent themes in how I present class material. As is, each topic gets done a bit differently than the last, depending on the topic and where the emphasis lies. Some topics are all about vocabulary, getting down the basic concepts. Some are all about the application (Newton's Laws of Motion) and being able to see how they apply to a range of potential situations. This runs into the same time problem: How do I find the time to go through all that? This also has the additional complication of requiring a good bit of reflection time to figure out how to make that part of my instruction.

Oh well, I didn't get into teaching because I thought it would be easy.

Post, the second

In an effort not to lose track of my blogging, I'm going to try to put one in every so often, whether there's a specific assignment or not. Mostly, I want to make sure I'm giving the blog concept a fair evaluation outside of what I have to do as assignments.

Also, the last blog was largely how I won't use these technology examples in class. I'm not generally against technological assistance, just to be clear. My parish issues laptops, so there is a lot of use of those tools. School email, Infinite Campus for grades and student information, PowerPoint for class presentations, Word for reports and worksheets, Excel for data tracking, lots of PDFs, in class smartboard and projector...I could probably think of some more if I took time for it.

On top of that, I make a lot of use of my own Android based tablet. What I have is a Lenovo Yoga Tab 10", which I highly recommend. I bought it for my online courses about three years ago, mostly because buying electronic versions of my textbooks saved more than the cost of the tablet over the paper versions. I'm a big fan of this particular tablet because it has a built in stand, matching bluetooth keyboard which also acts as a screen cover, battery that lasts all day, even with constant use (though it also takes all night to recharge), and the rounded spine is very comfortable to hold for reading. I said more than once, if it handled Flash web content better, I'd never buy a regular computer again.


So, when I started teaching, it came to the classroom with me. When my laptop was being used for presenting class, I could use the tablet to record attendance, look up grades, do quick on the fly information searches, display content for individual students, check email, and even take occasional photos or videos. Then I started adding apps for use in class. Adding a timer was a big step forward. I could say "you have three minutes" set the timer and then set the tablet where it could be seen so everyone would be able to see the time. I use Hybrid Stopwatch and Timer because I can pick colors easily visible across the room and select alarm tones (using the rooster alarm gets attention, and the emergency siren works well too). I probably use that ten to twenty times a day. More if we're doing a lot of quick exercises.


I also have some noise apps. Too Noisy Lite displays the room noise level on a large dial and changes the background when it is too loud.

Sound Meter works similarly, but also logs the noise level on a graph.

I even found a frequency generator app for use in class when we discussed sound and wavelength in science class.

I even installed a large display clock for during tests so students could easily track the time.

The best has been Splashtop. This let me connect my tablet to my laptop and control the laptop using the tablet touchscreen. The laptop has to stay connected to the assorted wires for the smartboard and projector. This lets me walk around holding my tablet and still control the screen, be it websites, power point slides, or whatever else I might need. I'm going to test out a new version that has a virtual whiteboard as well, so I can highlight and draw from the tablet as well.

So, when technology helps, I'm all for using it. I just don't see how the prior tools help me do what I do. Yet.