7 Day Social Immersion Challenge

I decided to tackle both options for this week's assignment.  I'm not an overachiever or brown-noser, I just wanted to try both of them out.  The first was my first "Twitterthon" in which I followed 50 people and made 6 tweets per day.  The second was a 365 photo a day challenge divided by 52.

Twitterthon 2013 (November 18-24)

To begin, I had to create a new account with Twitter.  Very poor customer service in regards to remedying my issue with my original account.  But, I digress.  I created the @jahocking account and dove right in to the Twitterverse.  Like I said, I had an account previously, but I rarely used it. So, it was a fresh start.  I'll liken my Twitterthon to throwing someone into water who did not know how to swim.  Sure, I understood the platform, just never immersed myself in it.  And, it was actually a little exhausting trying to think up something relevant to post.

Anyhow, I needed to follow people.  I began by entering in #edtech in the search box.  I found several educators who seemed to be fully immersed in the Twitterverse.  And, as I watched their posts, I found other people to follow.  I also sent out a district-wide email requesting twitter handles.  I got 10 results from that.  I thought that was sort of a low number out of 120+ teachers and administrators.

After following people, some of them started to follow me.  I wondered why anyone would bother.  Who am I in this big world?  But, I suppose the answer is that people want to expand their own personal networks.  It was really cool to have something that I posted retweeted or even favorited.

I then needed to make 6 posts per day.  I think this was the really tough part.  I'm not trying to sell myself short, but I just never felt I had that much that was interesting to say.  Granted, that is not a requirement when making a tweet, which I also found out.  So, my tweets varied.  Sometimes I retweeted what other people stated.  Sometimes I selflessly promoted myself.  Sometimes I posted about what I did that day.  And, sometimes I searched for news articles and shared them.

I also participated in an #edchat.  Well, again, I never felt like I had much to say.  I need to be a bit more confident, I think.  Anyhow, I observed an #edchat on Tuesday night.  It was really interesting and really fast paced.  The question was about whether or not there is a fear amongst teachers that prevents them from using technology.  It was a lot to take in and so many people participated.  I had never seen anything like it before.  Really great incite on the topic, however, I would assume that those who are already on Twitter probably share the same answer to the question.  Either way, it was fun to watch.

My final take on the Twitterthon is that the #edchat (and other similar chats) was valuable, the ability to access twitter via phone and laptop was impressive, the amount of older people on Twitter shifted my view on education and technology (no offense to anyone), and the amount of connectedness was astounding.  I'm glad that I had the chance to participate and will definitely keep using Twitter to stay connected.

365 Photo-a-Day/52

I am no photojournalist, but this project made me feel like one.  I suppose I would liken it to a diary.  But, unlike having extreme depth, its a list of snapshots that capture a snippet of your day.  It was fun reflecting on each picture.

November 18

Had some fun helping out the percussionists in the Advanced Band at the Middle School on my 9th period Prep.  I'll never stop being a drummer, I hope.















November 19

 The Bethlehem Parlour opened today.  Its made by the same people who own Stefanos and The Mint.  The pizza was great.











November 20

 Long day.  Second day without the Internet at school and had an anti-bullying committee meeting after school.  Left for work around 5:30 am; got home around 8:30 pm.















November 21

Yay!  The Internet is back up at school.













November 22

One of the best perk of being an educator.  The kids will always find a way to make you smile.
















November 23

Our first turducken arrived today.  Ten pounds total.  Can't wait til next week to try it.












November 24

Been glued to this all day.














My final take on the 365 picture challenge was that it was interesting.  I do enjoy taking pictures, sometimes.  I think it would be difficult for me to mandate myself to doing this everyday.  It was fun to look back on the blog as I compiled it everyday.  One thing that I think I did wrong was that I did not publish the blog everyday.  I didn't really think about it until I sat down to compose my Twitterthon blog.  I did take pictures everyday and reflect, just neglected that aspect of it.

Again, the purpose for doing both was just to try them and record my results/observations.

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Integrating Social Networking

Integrating social networking into a lesson could boost students’ digital literacy and enhance their learning experience.  For this example, I am developing a lesson with project that integrates social networking and other web 2.0 tools for my 10^th-12^th Grade Personal Law elective class.  The reason I chose this class is because it is truly content/knowledge-driven as opposed to my other classes, which are primarily skills-driven.  Also, for your information, my district utilizes the Learning Focused Schools (LFS) model of lesson/unit planning, so the lesson will be organized as such.

Quick background/synopsis on lesson:

With this being my first year teaching this content and with a severe lack of established curriculum, I’ve been building this course from the ground, up.  This unit is on Contract Law and this lesson is on Offers, Offer Termination, and Offer Acceptance.

Lesson Essential Question: Basically, an essential question is an objective stated in the form of a question.    

How are offers created, terminated, and accepted in regards to contract law?  

Students will create a new notebook in Evernote on a laptop with the essential question as the name of the notebook.  Alternatively, students may use their personal smartphones and download the Evernote app on Google Play or iTunes.

Activating Strategy: The activating strategy is basically a part of the “anticipatory set” in which prior knowledge is diagnosed through an activity.

 

For this lesson, I would have the students create a KWL chart through Google Docs and invite all other students to collaborate through a shortened URL link via bit.ly on Twiducate (the invitation/link would have been sent out prior to class).

Students will then share their ideas on the K and W parts of the chart and “clip” the webpage to their phones or laptops via Evernote.  Of course, students will revisit the L part at the end of class or after class as an assignment and repeat the webpage “clipping.”

Acceleration/Previewing:

This is another part of the “anticipatory set” in which vocabulary is presented (accelerated and previewed for students who need it).

For this lesson, I would make a list of vocabulary terms that students need to define and post to Twiducate.  Each student would have 2 terms to define.  Students will then copy and paste all terms and definitions into an Evernote note.

Teaching Strategies:

This section is where the breadth of the content is delivered in specific manners (i.e. direct instruction, cooperative learning, independent practice).

For this lesson, I would teach the content directly in a Prezi and have students take notes and ultimately develop a backchannel log through Today’s Meet, which will be shared through Twiducate (the link for the example below is http://today.io/QXg7).  Every student must post at least 4 notes during the direct instruction.  Students will then incorporate the backchannel log into their Evernote notes.

Graphic Organizer:

This section is meant to ensure that students are getting graphic organizers that relate back to the essential question.

The students will create a flow chart graphic organizer using Google Drive Drawing that answers the Lesson Essential Question in a step-by-step manner.  Students would need to "clip" the webpage to their Evernote notes.

Extended Thinking Activity:

This is the section in which students take their learning to the next level.

Assign students to develop thoughtful questions, collaboratively find lawyers, share lawyers and contact information on Twiducate, and communicate with them via email requesting them to Skype during class on the topic of contract law and offers.  This way, students construct support for their own knowledge while developing a deep understanding for the law from a professional.  Students would be required to log notes on Today's Meet and add the backchannel log to Evernote through the link provided on Twiducate.  Alternatively, if students are unable to get a lawyer to Skype, they can have him/her answer questions on Socrative or Poll Everywhere.  Students will then discuss answers and take notes via Evernote.

Summarizing Strategy:

In this section, students summarize what they have learned.

Students will revisit the initial KWL chart developed on the Google Drive Spreadsheet and fill in the L section.  Students will then review other students' responses and ask any questions to other students about their responses on Twiducate.

Assignment:

The assignments include:

Evernote Notes, Google Drive Drawing - Graphic Organizer, Google Drive Spreadsheet -  KWL chart, Twiducate - vocabulary definitions, Today's Meet notes.  They should all be combined into a separate notebook within Evernote. 

Final Analysis:

I enjoyed challenging myself with creating this lesson.  The project itself would be the Extended Thinking Activity, although other activities are built within each section.  Integrating social networking is expected through Twiducate and even Skype.  Students also share notes and collaborate via Today's Meet and Google Docs.  And, of course, Evernote brings it all together in a medium that students have access to all of the time.

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Mobiles in the Classroom Interview

Jennifer Carey is the Director of Educational Technology and High School History Teacher at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, Florida.  She graciously granted me a 30+ minute interview via Skype on the topic of cell phones in the classroom.  To further engage myself with this week's theme of cell phones in the classroom, I conducted the interview and typed up this blog post on my cell phone (#bonuspoints @teach42).  I did, however, record it in GarageBand on my MacBook Pro so that I could go back if I missed anything.  I'll have to look into a good mobile phone recording app.

The reason I chose Ms. Carey for the interview is because of this article I found when I was searching for people to interview.  She seemed to be quite the advocate for using any technology in the classroom.  As a matter of fact, she attended the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit in Boston, MA this past week.

The first question I asked was, "What prompted you to try using cell phones in the classroom?"  She responded by stating that at the school she worked at, most, if not all, students had cell phones due to the affluent nature of her district.  Furthermore, she read a Pew research study about how smartphones were more readily accessible and used by those of lower socioeconomic status than traditional DSL Internet.  Moreover, booking laptop carts or computer labs can be problematic.  Besides, she pointed out that the power of smartphones these days are more powerful than the technology used to get man to the moon.

Ms. Carey explained that she originally had the students use cell phones as a quick reference device and a way to diagnose student climate on particular content via Poll Everywhere.  Socrative was a tool that she began to use in place of poll everywhere because she liked it more and students had access to 3g/4g internet.   She has also had students take notes.  She says that she has been able to manage disruptions and/or behavioral problems with a one strike and you're out policy and through moderation of use.

I took this break to ask Ms. Carey a personal question about advice she would give to me on trying to convince my district to allow cell phone use in the class.  She stated that her current school gives teachers the power to determine whether or not they want to allow cell phones in the classroom and that students do have the ability to use their cell phones personally, but only on break periods.  She also stated that a good policy for a school would be for students to "bring their own devices."  However, the issue of inequality would need to be addressed.  The biggest problem she has seen is cheating.  In addressing that problem, Ms. Carey believes that tests should be authentic and not based on facts that students could just google.

The next question was regarding school policy.  Again, her current school maintains a policy that allows teacher discretion in the use of cell phones.  She mentioned that in her current school, students in yearbook club or students on field trips were expected to buy disposable cameras, get the photos developed, and then scan the photos to be used digitally.  Not only does that cost a lot of money, but also time.

My next two questions were about student and parent response to using cell phones.  Ms. Carey stated that the students are always excited the first time, but then realize that is still work and thus becomes less exciting.  She states, in response to the second question, that she never told parents about cell phones in the classroom and no parents seemed to ever care or notice.  But, of course, when a cell phone is confiscated, the parents call.

I then asked Ms. Carey if she ever encountered technical problems with cell phones or technology.  She responded by stating that she never had any big problems technically, but that technology becomes a scapegoat for some students.  For example a student might say that they had trouble blogging, but in actuality he/she never even logged in.  So, technology has a way of verifying the truth about whether a student did or did not complete an assignment.

The final question I had planned was about the evidence that Ms. Carey has observed in justifying the future use of cell phones.  She stated that at her current school, all students have an email address provided to them and could access it from school computers, but they rarely checked it.  After being frustrated by this, she had her students get their cell phones out and had them sync their email accounts to their phones.  That was just a quick fix that cell phones allowed for.  Ms. Carey also applauded cell phones for giving students more autonomy, flexibility, and productivity with note taking via EverNote.  She gave another example abour how a student on a long bus ride to an athletic event can easily study or share notes.  Cell phones provide portability and flexibility.

I ended the interview by asking Ms. Carey if she had anything else to add.  She stated that kids are going to make mistakes whether they have cell phones or not.  We, as teachers, must guide students on how to use technology through guidelines and expectations.  Teachers need to learn how to use cell phones in the classroom through professional development and that administration needs to back policies firmly.  Banning cell phones, she states, simply does not work.

You can find Jennifer Carey online @TeacherJenCarey or check out her blog.

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Digital Story Created with a Cell Phone

This week's assignment was to create a digital story by using only a cell phone. I tried to take it a step further by downloading the blogger app and creating this post entirely on my cell phone. Anyhow, the first video you'll find below is a one shot, full hd video without any editing or use of any video tools hosted on Google Drive.  The second is created by using the same video plus music and images and mashed together in an app call magisto hosted on YouTube.  It doesn't really work well with one long clip, but if I made shorter clips I think it would have turned out better.  So, the second video was more for fun and experimentation.  I figured I'd document my trials so that if I come back to this, I know what worked and what did not.

Video1

Video2


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Discovering Something New

A big part of being on the cutting edge of technology is actually going out there and trying new things.  Luckily, several databases exist to expedite the process.  Still, the amount of websites and applications out there is mind numbing.  For this assignment, I was tasked to discover something new regarding the the web 2.0 tools that are out there.  I utilized the database Go2web20 in order to access new tools because it seemed easier to use with its filters.  Of course, when I started to seek out new sites, my tab bar started to look like this:

It's obvious that there are innumerable amounts of resources available.  Even though the assignment did not require me to evaluate education-specific cites, I did choose one that was education because it is a way for me to sharpen my online skills and fill up my toolbox even more.

After browsing several sites, I came across PowToon, an online cartoon maker.  I actually had been looking for a tool like this before.  I've used GoAnimate! and the recently closed Xtranormal, but I've found that PowToon is really easy to use after playing around with it for a little bit.  The site even has several easy-to-understand tutorials.  Simply enough, I registered via my Gmail account and confirmed through my email.  I did watch the tutorial that popped up after registration and then began to create a PowToon.  The cartoons you make are limited to 5 minutes, so I decided to create one on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey because that is what I am in teaching in my Guidance class.  I would explain the interface as similar to Microsoft Power Point because you have a slides pane on the left and an editing pane in the middle.  See screenshot below.  Many keyboard shortcuts work with the program like Command(CTRL)+C and Command(CTRL)+V for copy and paste.  Some shortcuts like Command(CTRL)+D for duplication and Command(CTRL)+Z for undo (my most used shortcut) did not work.  I ended up spending about 20 minutes creating a PowToon and I really thought it was neat.  I shared the completed video with YouTube and then embedded it into my website underneath the embedded Vokis.  The final part of the review is the most important.  PowToon is a "freemium" site.  Paid accounts allow for more toons, tools, and high quality downloadable videos.  Check out their accounts page.  $48 for a teacher account + 30 students accounts seems fairly reasonable.  Overall, I would say that PowToon was very easy to vet and has a certain educational value for students and teachers alike.

Finding a second site to evaluate was difficult.  I didn't want to just find any old site for the sake of completing the assignment.  I came across ResumUp and tried it out because it seemed interesting.  Several months back, my wife came home and showed me a resume that someone had sent in to her workplace.  It was visual and really interesting.  I think the person who created it used Photoshop and Dream Weaver or some combination of Adobe products.  I'm a total novice when it comes to those programs, so ResumUp intrigued me.  For a while, I've had the idea to create a resume on Prezi or Glogster to demonstrate my Web 2.0-ness.  ResumUp was easy to register for and easy to use.  You simply edited different boxes and put in your own information.  The only part I did not like is that some cities, like Belvidere, NJ or Stroudsburg, PA, did not show up in the pre-population box and therefore those cities would not show up in the resume.  See below.  The site provides the ability to connect with other professionals, find vacancies, and share your resume.  I did not want to share my resume, so I took a screenshot.

My final observation is that this site is geared more for business professionals, not teachers.  It would be interesting if a site like PAREAP or PAEducator would team up with ResumUp to provide this type of service to teachers.  There is definite potential for this site in education because it can be a more fun way to introduce the concept of a resume to high school students.  Overall, the site was fairly easy to use, but I do not know how much I would actually use it.

The third site I chose was Class Dojo.  Once I received Untangling the Web, I thumbed throughout it to see what I was in store for and tried some of the websites out.  After hearing my district's elementary school principal talk about Class Dojo, I figured I needed to try it out for myself.  The sign up process was simple, as most sites are, and I got to work right away.  I'm the kind of person who likes to try out new sites and, THEN, seek out tutorials if I need help.  Class Dojo works in the opposite manner, so that was a bit frustrating to me.  I just like to get in and get to work.  However, after following the instructions I could finally set up a class and import students.  The first day I tried out Class Dojo was Thursday of this week.  I teach a quarterly 7th Grade Computer Science class in which I have them complete typing exercises for the first half of the quarter (an eighth, I suppose).  The particular class I have now has really great students, but they are very chatty.  I offered incentives such as listening to music or playing typing games for the first and/or last 5 minutes of class, but it wasn't until I implemented Class Dojo that I saw them really understand the incentive system.  I simply plugged my projector dongle into my laptop and let them view their scores for the day.  I gave them a +1 if they were on task or a -1 if they were off task.  I said that if they were in the positive for points, they could play typing games at the end of the period.  It worked very well.  The next day, I acquired an iPad from another teacher so I could try the application out (I feel the website version is cumbersome in terms of finding students and then clicking several times to get what you want).  I also printed and distributed the student/parent logins for the students because I thought they could just sign in and view their progress instead of looking up at the projector.  This is one part I do not like about Class Dojo.  It requires that students input a parent's email address.  This was only an experiment for me and I did not want to get phone calls asking what the program was all about, so I aborted that step in the process and just continued the way I had before.  Maybe I misunderstood the process, but the students couldn't change their avatars without a parent's email address.  The only things I would like to see changed is the ability to change the order of students (alphabetical or by seating chart) by dragging their avatars.  I clicked on the "IDEAS" cloud on the bottom of Class Dojo's website and typed in my suggestion for including a seating chart style modification and will report their reply when I receive it.  Overall, Class Dojo was easy to use and is definitely educationally sound for both teachers and students.

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Fill Up Your Toolbox

For this assignment, I was tasked at trying out some newer technologies that enable expediency in the wide, Web 2.0 world :).  The following details my experience and opinions on each site.

The first site I tried out was the URL shortener goo.gl.  Seeing that Google will soon own us all technologically and that I use a Google Site as my primary website, I figured it was the best site with which to become acquainted.  I did check out bit.ly and TinyUrl to compare, but did not find any discernible difference.  I pasted my websites full address (http://sites.google.com/site/hurricanehocking) into the shortener text box, clicked shorten URL, and out came goo.gl/Jezk6l.

This is amazing and solves many problems that I oftentimes run into in class.  Look at my regular URL.  Students sometimes assume to type in www. or think that it is sites instead of site and vice versa.  Of course, once students get to my site, I have them bookmark it so we don't have to go through the painful process again.  Utilizing the URL shortener would mostly solve that problem.  I'm sure all of us would like to have www.ournamehere.com, but domain hosting is quite costly.  One caveat I noticed is that all letters are case sensitive.  The J in the goo.gl URL must be capitalized.  I tried it lower case and it did not work.  It's not a huge deal, but you do need to be very specific.  In contrast, typing in GOOGLE.com or GooglE.com will take you to the same place.

The second site I tried out was the Quick Response (QR) code generator delivr.com.  The site is set up very similarly to the URL shortener sites.  Simply paste a URL into the QR code generator and out comes a QR code.  I figured I would paste my new goo.gl URL in to see if I could blow my laptop's mind with web 2.0 awesomeness, but all it did was simply make a QR code.  Look to the right.

Believe it or not, I actually recently started to use QR codes.  In my Video Productions class, one of the students does a student survey via Poll Everywhere on a weekly basis for our weekly announcement projects.  He just distributes paper with the QR code, URL, and response options and students, during lunch, scan it with their phone and take the poll.  I'll have to mention utilizing the URL shorteners for that so students without a QR reader can participate a little bit easier.  I also envisioned utilizing the QR codes in class with the laptops.  Turns out, most readers for the macs cost money, but I did find one at http://dansl.net/qrreader/ and tried it out.  It didn't work.  Maybe because I do not have a steady hand or even lighting.  That is something I would need to research more before using in class.

The third and final site I tried out was the bookmarklet Quietube.  I was not very familiar with bookmarklets until after learning about them and trying this one out.  This was not as quick a process as the URL shortener or the QR code generator.  I'm a bit ashamed, but I had to watch the tutorial video.  After that, however, I did generate a Quietube URL (http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAYZBS40lcc) for a video I show my Guidance class.  And of course, to simplify things, I created a short URL http://delivr.com/27red (this time with delivr, obviously).  Now that I've tried delivr's generator, I think that the URLs generated are simpler than the other sites.

I do not think that I would use this site that much.  I much prefer to just embed videos on my Google Site.  I do understand the benefits of Quietube, especially if I were to send students a link, but I more like my way.

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Dig Deeper into the Mainstays

As the digital aspect of education evolves, specific sites have led their related genres.  Within this blog post, I will be evaluating Twitter, iPiccy, and Symbaloo from the social, creative, and curation genres, respectively.  I chose each site because I have little to no experience with them and wanted to see how they could be used to expand my digital repertoire.

Twitter is one of the mainstream, mainstay mediums of the social networking genre.  According to its website, Twitter is “The fastest, simplest way to stay close to everything you care about” (2013).  In the past, I did sign up for an account, but did not do much after that.  I understand the lingo involved and all that Twitter entails.  I just never really cared to give it a shot, I suppose.  So I must be doing things the slowest, most difficult way.  I digress.  The educational value of Twitter is evident, both for the classroom and for the professional teacher, independently.  My mind automatically thinks about the impact such an application could have when studying government, economics, or other contemporary social studies.  There is also relevance within studying the past.  Students can create accounts for historical, literary, or scientific figures and “bring them into the modern age.”  In my email interview with EricSheninger (@NMHS_Principal) from New Milford High School, he mentioned the importance of establishing Personal Learning Networks and how Twitter helps enable that (E. Sheninger, personal correspondence, October 31, 2013). 

            iPiccy is an online application that I had never heard of before unwrapping Untangling the Web.  I have used Prezi, Glogster, and VoiceThread somewhat extensively, so I wanted to branch out and learn something new.  Unlike Twitter, I had no experience at all with iPiccy, so I signed up for an account.  Wow!  It is impressive in terms of how much it allows its users to manipulate, filter, and edit their own images and it does not require sign up.  Despite my steadfastness to utilizing new technologies, I have to admit that this is one genre in which my skills are stale.  I typically use Power Point to manipulate imagery, but iPiccy is really advanced.  I think that iPiccy definitely has a place within education, but it is not a featured player.  It seems to act more as a supporting role of other applications.

            Symbaloo is an online curation application that allows users to socially bookmark favorite/important websites and other applicable applications.  I have used the site very, very briefly in another Wilkes EDIM course, so I am revisiting it more as a novice/newcomer.  I really like the layout of the site as it reminds me of my smartphone the way it is set up on a grid with application favicons.  As simple as it seems, organizing bookmarks in a graphic manner is what Symbaloo is all about.  It would be a great choice as a default home page in any browser for both student and teacher.  In my research, I came across the Tech Tips for Teachers Blog and found some interesting uses of Symbaloo.  A user of the blog, Jayme Linton (@jaymelinton), posted about how she uses Symbaloo for online fieldtrips and “webmixes” all different sites for students to explore and how engaging it is for students to be able to go somewhere else (digitally) every day (2013).  Embedding Symbaloo into my Google Site is something that I plan on trying out to give students a graphic visualization of the sites that they use and, of course, allow ease of access instead of typing in long URLs.

            Exploring new sites has always been very enjoyable for me.  I love that feeling that I get when my brain goes into overdrive thinking about how I can use a new tool in the classroom.  The three sites previously divulged will definitely give me something new to try and I am excited to do so.

References

Linton, Jayme (October 24, 2013).  Take your students on a virtual fieldtrip everyday.  [Web log comment].  Retrieved from http://techtipsforteachersblog.blogspot.com/?utm_content=bufferb105a&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

Twitter, Inc. (2013).  About Twitter.  Retrieved from https://www.twitter.com/about

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