Google Apps for Education

This past weekend I spent two days at Charlottesville High School immersed in a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit.  While we are not yet ready to adopt GAFE, I did learn some useful information, particularly surrounding the Chrome browser.

I’ve used Google Docs for years, even before it was Google Docs and was known as Writely.  With Google Docs, now Google Drive, there is really no need for Microsoft Office – as long as you have Internet access.  You can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, along with drawings and forms that have many uses.  Any of these can be downloaded in Microsoft format.  The best thing, though, is they are automatically saved to your Google Drive account which you can access from any device with Internet access –smartphones, tablets and computers.  These documents can easily be shared with others – fellow teachers can collaborate or simply have a copy.  In GAFE schools the teacher can share a template or other document with their students who then make their own copy and share back with the teacher.  The teacher can then follow progress on the document, even leaving comments for students just as with a paper document.  No need to print anything unless there is a need.

I spent many sessions at the summit learning more about Chrome, one of the fastest browsers.  While I have long been an advocate for Google Apps for Education I was really thinking simply in terms of Docs/Drive, calendar, maps, etc.  I wasn’t thinking along the lines of apps for the Chrome browser.  If you have a Google account and log into Chrome and then switch devices, your Chrome “experience” is the same.  For instance, I tend to use one laptop at school and another at home – I can add apps and extensions to either laptop and they automatically appear when I open the browser on the other laptop.  With the dictionary extension double click on any word on a web page and you will get the definition along with an icon to click to hear the word.  There are plenty of apps, many of which are free and most of which automatically direct you to a webpage.  There are apps for Quizlet, StudyStack and many other flashcard generators.  Want typing practice?  There’s an app for that!  More than one, actually.  There are math game pages, mostly geared towards math facts for elementary students.  Higher level math courses can make use of graphing calculators and equation editors.  Those teachers might also want to look into Geogebra and Sketchometry.  Biodigital Human offers the human body, male or female, in 3D layers.  You turn on/off the skeleton and numerous other systems of the body – lymphatic, muscular, nervous, reproductive, endocrine, digestive, etc.  There are apps and extensions for home, school and business.

While our students don’t have Google accounts, these apps can come in very handy in the classroom as long as you have an account.  Most teachers now have an interactive whiteboard (IWB) of some type, simply display the app and let students interact with it on the IWB.  If you don’t have a Google account (you don’t have to create a Gmail account, you can use your ACPS email account), you will need to create it at home.  Once you have it created you will be able to sign in and use it in the school system.

 

Kidblog in the Classroom

Guest Blogging this week are Candi Conner and Casey Gillikin.  In my travels I learned that they had began this year to use blogs in their fifth grade classrooms at Metompkin Elementary School.  I asked if they woiuld be willing to write a Treasure Chest Post about this experience and they promptly produced the piece below.  My comments are added in italics.

     At the beginning of the year we decided that we wanted to use technology in our classrooms in a way that engaged the students and made it easier for us to share information as teachers. We created blogs with the intention of giving resources to students and parents and getting feedback from our students. We also wanted the students to learn how to use technology in an appropriate way. We use our kidblogs to post links to websites we like for different subjects, to give project rubrics, to allow students to write their writing pieces, and for editing in writing. (Teachers can give grades and comments to individual students which only they can view.) Students may ask questions to us or the other students and may upload anything they create. This allows for parents to see the products that their child creates at school and to feel like they have a sense of what is going on in the classroom. With technology being all around us we feel that the blog has made students more accountable for what they say and do which has taught them online etiquette. We approve every comment made on the blog before it is posted. The students simply log in with their name and password and get to work. Throughout the year we have thought of many ways to incorporate the blog for the years to come. The link below is to one of our blogs.
www.kidblog.org/msgillikinsclass

If you click on the link above, rather than reading through their student's postings, you'll learn how secure this site is.  Ms. Conner and Ms. Gillikin have their site set up so that only class members and their parents can view what has been posted.  Their are many security settings a teacher may chose between.

Kid's Reaction: Students love anything technology and anything that they can call their own so the blog increases student engagement immediately. It also is a great way to decrease the student excuse of, "I lost it" because anything can be posted. When students are able to login to their own space of the blog the quality of work that you receive changes. They know that their peers can see what they are working on and they feel more of a responsibility.

 Also, by having a classroom blog you as a teacher will begin to feel more comfortable with technology and branch out to other forms. The blog is great because you can use it as little or as much as you want. It's very easy which is important for the hectic life of a teacher! Students also like easy and if they can have all their materials and expectations in one place they can focus on what really matters.
   
To set up a blog site for your class, simple create an account at kidblog.org.
If you'd like help or suggestions on ways to use a blog, see your friendly neighborhood ITRT

Children's Engineering Convention

I went to the Children’s Engineering Convention not knowing what to expect.  A few initial observations: 

·         This was a national convention, with people from all over the U.S., it has doubled in size in the past two years.

·         Mainly elementary teachers attended, this means that the convention on engineering was 85% female, which seemed a bit odd to me, but, it figures.

·         Both sessions I attended started out making a  big distinction between science and technology.  My reaction was—Who cares?  But, the feeling seems to be that teachers must come to appreciate this distinction if they are going to be convinced that engineering and technology need to be included in their instruction.

I had expected to get a blog post per session out of this—giving me eight or so posts by the end of the conference.  However, I was called home suddenly and unexpectedly when we had a little family emergency.  Therefore, I expect this will be the only post directly related to the convention. 

 

You’ve heard a lot about STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.    You might get the impression that a big emphasis is being placed there. International  standards for engineering have been developed, and there are SOLs for Technology.  However, these standards are not tested on the SOL tests, and that means they are typically ignored by teachers.  The convention seems to have been birthed to address this problem.

The term “design brief” was new to me, but perhaps it is already moving into the “buzz word” category.  During the process of becoming certified in technology integration, I stopped using the 1970s term “simulation” and upgraded to the latest jargon-- “PBL” meaning project- or problem-based learning.   In PBL, if the simulation requires engineering to arrive at a solution, then the correct terminology for the assignment itself is “design brief.”  The teachers brief the junior engineers on what it is they have to design.   

To explain this further let me tell you about a session I attended in which the session participants simulated being part of an engineering team.  The facilitator read  us an abridged version of the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (English SOL—reading comprehension).  We were informed that we were to build a windmill which was to be a freestanding 60 cm (or more) in height and would withstand the “wind” from a hair dryer.  Our materials included a sheet of paper, 12’ of masking tape, 2 straws, 4 craft sticks (popsicle sticks) and  a small  container of Play dough, and, most importantly, a pinwheel.  For tools we were given a pair of scissors, a ruler and a meter stick. 

The challenge, evaluation criteria, materials and tools are referred to as the “design brief”.  We were then to follow the “technology design loop” or the “design process”—state the problem, brainstorm a solution, create the solution we thought was best, test our solution, and evaluate our solution.    The measuring addresses math SOLs, writing up our experience addresses additional Language Arts SOLs, and plenty of science SOLs are addressed, such as 3.11, investigating renewable sources of energy.  

The assignment clearly brought out the engineer in each of us, our group had a great time solving this problem—yes, I’m pleased to say that our windmill met the height criteria and withstood the wind—not all the groups could say that.  I have always felt that the “Unit Study” approach is the best approach to teaching.  Students from different grade levels could work on this project together if need be.  Again, math, science,  technology, engineering, English, and literature were all involved.  Come to think of it, the story of the boy who harnessed the wind also involves social studies.   What a great way to stir up some enthusiasm for subjects students might otherwise think of as boring.  

I return from the convention with a changed point of view.  Prior to attending I figured I was going because I was asked to go, but, it really didn’t concern me too much, it doesn’t involve computers and computers are my job, right?  Now, I see the value of this type of assignment and figure that if my job description doesn’t  include engineering, well, it should.  During the next couple of weeks I’ve decided to do a good job of something that I had been halfhearted about—probe ware.  ACPS has purchased probe ware—equipment for measuring temperature, light, impact, and I don’t know what all-but, I intend to find out.  You will probably see future posts on my findings, and perhaps I’ll be volunteering to come into your class and demonstrate the use of some of this probe-ware of which you may be only vaguely aware now.   Hands on investigation—I’m inspired now.