Social and Professional Networks

While Social Networking sites were initially created to do just that, get people to be social, I feel Twitter has evolved into something much more professional, particularly for those in Education. I initially got created a Twitter account at the request and prompting of some students. For about 4 years it sat untouched. I didn't do a thing with it, wasn't even sure what my login information was. Then I started getting curious. I had been seeing the "experts" talk about it, about PLN's, chats, etc. I started logging in and checking it out. By a stroke of luck (the planets were in alignment, the Gods were smiling down on me, you make the call) I began following a group of educators from Nebraska. Come to find out, they were the right group of educators because they got me started chatting in #nebedchat on Wednesday night. A new Twitter bird was born!

I have since moved to using Tweetdeck so I can follow multiple hashtags conversations and lists that I create. The picture above is just a screen shot of my Tweetdeck. I currently have 17 columns up and running (granted a few were there when I created the account, but I do use them). I adjust them periodically based on conferences or meetings I want to follow, particularly if I cannot attend.

The professional connections I have made on Twitter are irreplaceable. These are colleagues in the education profession I would never have found without the use of technology. I attended a conference last year based on recommendations from these people. And the crazy thing is, I have only met a small handful of them face to face, but I feel I know them almost as well (or better than at times) as those I spend all day with at school. For an educator to spend their nights and weekends sharing resources and responding to requests for information from others through technology, you know they are dedicated and passionate about their work.

I am passing my passion on to the staff members at my school by teaching and challenge teachers to use Twitter. This month they are participating in a March Madness Twitter Challenge. For those that had not used Twitter before, it's a great way to learn some basic skills used when tweeting, as well as sharing resources. My hope with this project is that these same teachers will find that technology has the added benefit of finding and sharing resources with those in their same content area, giving them connections outside the building and expanding their Professional Learning Network (PLN).

What I especially like is that I can get updates on my phone when there is activity on my account. Expanding on that, I have created Twitter accounts for all my classes. I post reminders and pictures from class for students and parents to follow. Now this is only one piece of technology I use for communication (Remind101 works great, and we're also using GroupMe now that we're working on simulations) but I keep in mind how I can best reach the students. While all technology might not be classified as "social", I feel if they are communicating with people in a way that is live and creating a digital footprint, I get the opportunity to teach them about proper communication, proper etiquette, and correct grammar and writing skills.

The photos above are examples of students using GroupMe to look for help in our Accounting simulation. The first one is my favorite. A student posed a question, and before I could answer, another student stepped up and answered! The perfect example of collaboration! AND using technology to do it! The others are pictures student sent with questions. Helps to see what they are doing, and it's in real time and can access GroupMe either on a phone, through an app or on the web.

Students might not see this as educational, necessarily. In fact, in the beginning, it was more of a game, "texting" each other using this app about non school related things. This did, however, give me the opportunity to educate about appropriate material being sent, and reminding them that we all could see EVERYTHING, including me, their teacher! Now that we've gotten into the simulation work more, they see it as a tool to help them. If you haven't tried this, I highly recommend it.

Web 2.0 Tools

When you first started your career in education, did you ever dream of having a plethora of resources to help engage your students in the content? How about tools to challenge the high flyers? What about something to help out a struggling student? If you are involved in education today, a teacher, an administrator, counselor, and yes, even parents, you have more tools at your fingertips (literally) than you can ever learn, and new ones popping up everyday. While they may not look like the resources you're used to, they're out there if you are willing to look for them. They're called Web 2.0 tools and they are AMAZING!

My position has changed this year and being in the classroom only one hour a day has allowed me the time to dive into more Web 2.0 tools and discover ways for teachers to integrate them into their own classrooms. This is what I love most about my new technology position! This past week I focused on Thinglink. I've been hearing about it, seeing tweets about it, but just needed to sit down and jump in.  And I am so glad I did.

First thing when I signed up I started looking for people I knew out there and what they had done. Mickie Mueller (@mickie_mueller) is the Tech Integration Specialist at Norfolk Public Schools in Norfolk, NE. She is my idol! I love seeing what she's been up to, what she's tweeting about and blogging about, so I looked her up. I found several examples by her (Nebraska History was my favorite) and got motivated.  Because we were starting simulations in my accounting classes, I decided to take the opportunity to use a picture I'd taken of the packet and Thinglink it.

I have 3 different accounting classes and some independent study students. All will be working on the packet, but some will miss the class lecture/instructions. I created this picture with audio clips I created in Sound Cloud (another Web 2.0 tool) to give the students information on the pieces of their packet. While we discussed this in class, those that were gone can have the information, or go back later and listen if they have forgotten. Now keep in mind this is my first attempt at Thinglink. I was excited about what I had done (and it really was easy to do), but wouldn't be blue ribbon quality if I were trying to convince a teacher to try it.

Now take this tool and flip it around. How can a student use this technology to complete a project or assignment and show learned content? I tried to look at other content areas and apply this. For instance, a student in a math class could take a picture of a completed math problem, all the steps written out, and add descriptions or links to the steps he took, applying what he knows to possibly help explain the process to another student (learn by teaching to another).  In a history class, students could take battle field picture, and dividing it into sections, critique the strategies used by the commanders, try to interpret what strategy they might have had that led to that decision, devise or construct alternate attacks or plans that could have been carried out.  And if students took opposing sides of a conflict, they could anticipate an alternate ending to the battle based on changes they put into place. 

No matter what level of thinking on Bloom's a teacher expects in the outcome, Thinglink would allow students the creativity to do that, as well as research and integrate other technologies, compare and contrast written sources and correctly cite them.

How Will My Instruction Need to Change?

As I completed my assignment of reading about schools providing blended and online learning, and I checked the reflection questions for this portion, it's obvious that my teaching is going to have to change! Heck, we're talking about less face to face time with students, how could it stay the same? I'm going to be delivering content through videos I create or find, written instruction that I need to be sure the students will comprehend, possibly some online hangouts or Skype, email communication, possibly texting, holy cow! Not only with students have 24/7 access to the course work online, they're going to have 24/7 access to me! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Ok, come back down a few steps on the ladder Holly, no reason to hit the top and jump. Take a deep breath and think, what do you need most to be able to juggle all of this?  Time Management!  I currently have a room full of students at the same scheduled time each day, I have their undivided attention for 50 minutes. We all are in the same physical building all day long, they know where my office is, I know what their schedules are (not memorized or anything creepy like that, what I know where to find them.) Communication is not an issue because we always know where to find each other.  But if this were taken out of the equation, I'm going to have to make some adjustments, and having a student text me at 1:00 am when they are working, and get stuck, is not an option.

To begin with I need to make sure initial instruction is precise and clear. There will need to be some sort of formative assessments as we move along each unit or chapter. I see this as a simple check point, similar to a 5 finger test or a quick thumbs up/down.  I'm not going to have the immediate feedback of the "deer in the headlights" look, I have to plan to gather more information as we go and make adjustments quickly. If the initial instruction gets students moving in the right direction, we'll be off to a good start.

In order to be accessible, I want to have specific "office hours" when I will make myself available to be online and have back and forth interaction with students (email, discussion forum, hangout, etc.) If a student has to go more than 24 hours without feedback from me, they'll become frustrated & distracted, and their interest in the course will start to diminish. This might not occur everyday, but if the dates and times are set ahead of time, or consistently the same days of the week, students will be able to schedule accordingly and have their work and questions ready.

I also want to provide the opportunity for students to help each other, all answers do not need to come from me, and if students can help each other they are developing a community they can rely on.  This is where the discussion boards can be so important to start with. The tips we have on how to encourage good feedback in a discussion, and draw out more deep thinking will be crucial for me to do.  I envision as a class progresses, students could do hangouts or Skype with each other, I would not necessarily need to organize it.

Because of the lack of face to face communication, simple multiple choice assessments will not do the trick. I'm going to need more open ended, thought provoking, higher level thinking activities throughout a unit and in the assessments to check for learning.  Each unit will need something a little different. Too much of a good thing turns it sour.  Group activities are a must and need to be incorporated often to help build community.

So what tools can I use to facilitate this? I don't think I even know all the possibilities, that's one thing I hope to learn from this course. I'm sure there will be a few technologies I'll use more than once, but I also want to expose the students to different ones, encourage them to try something new.  As long as I keep trying new things and sharing it with them, even if I make mistakes along the way, I can model to students that it's ok to put yourself out there and maybe fall once in awhile, just as long as you pick yourself back up and keep going.

The New Look of Schools

This week one of our assignments in my LEC course was to review the profiles of schools providing online and blended learning.  I chose to read and learn more about Carpe Diem Collegiate High School and Middle School (CDCHS) in Yuma, AZ. I chose this one primarily because I have been seeing this school featured in other educational magazines and publishings and have been intrigued by their curriculum and design.

Students (Grades 6-12) attend school 4 days a week (8am to 4pm) 145 days a year, for a total of 1,007 hours of education time. During their time at school, they receive both direct instruction and online instruction, rotating between the two throughout their day.  There are 300 individual cubicles for students to work in and complete online work.

The school employs only 6 full time certified teachers (for 273 students): Math, Language Arts, Science, Physical Education, Social Studies & Electives. So, for instance, a Math teacher at CDCHS teaches ALL students in the school at one point or another, through direct instruction. The only content not having a virtual curriculum is Physical Education. During the time a student is receiving online instruction, there are "assistant coaches" to offer assistance. These assistants are described as highly qualified paraprofessionals, but not necessarily certified teachers. 

They have been ranked first in the county in student performance in math and reading (2010) and in the top 10 percent of AZ charter schools. 

I am utterly intrigued by this school! I have often contemplated a summer vacation to Yuma to visit the school and speak with the administration. I love the idea of blended and direct instruction all happening during the school day, and the rotation process of students.  Could this be possible in most high school environments? YES! Do all teachers and administrators have the vision to implement this? Maybe? 

My district has a version of this, I believe, in that we have a room where online instruction happens through a program called OdysseyWare. The difference is this is not necessarily related to content being delivered in the classroom, but in place of many times, for credit recovery. We have one science teacher that is currently using components of OddyseyWare for part of her curriculum, but not in the same way Yuma is, I don't believe. 

300 computers sounds like a lot, but with desktop and our 1:1 devices, my district exceeds that. What we don't have are individual spaces for all. This would be crucial for the quiet, direct learning time while doing online work. I view this as the ultimate blended learning environment. AND by providing the technology to do the online piece, in house, students who might not otherwise be able to access online material from home are not exempt from this curriculum. (The profile states that there is very little or no work done by students outside of the school day, which is a positive vote for the longer days.)

I would like to know what a day looks like for a certified teacher here. Do they have regular prep time to look at assessments, grade students work, provide feedback, alter their instruction? Do they ever provide assistance during online learning time? Is the 5th day of the week, when students don't come in, a time for professional development and collaboration with the other certified teachers? Do they provide one on one help before or after school? Is there time for this built into the day? Or because of the online work, is that what the direct instruction time has become?

We also had videos to watch, and this one, Susan Patrick: Why Online Learning is a Smart Solution really spoke to me.

This quote stayed with me: "The state of GA has 400 High Schools, but only 89 qualified, licensed Physics teachers." How are they able, in the state, to service all these High School Students and offer them the education they are entitled to? And we're only talking about Physics, what about all the other core content areas, and electives? If we start looking at other states, how would they measure up? This reinforces for me that teachers need to embrace online & blended learning, it's here to stay!