Social Media: What Teens Can Teach Us

The first thing I did when I opened by computer today was read "tweets" from sophomores in the Honors World Literature class here at CJ. They were tasked with summarizing sections of Oedipus Rex in 140 characters or less and to share them in a forum on their Moodle page. I had helped the teacher design the assignment earlier in the week, suggesting a discussion forum on Moodle as a venue for students to share/turn in their Tweets. 

Though the students mostly ended up paraphrasing instead of summarizing, the result of the assignment was a "feed" of "tweets" that both captured the essence of the play's drama (they were working with the end of the play - secrets revealed, eyes gouged out, etc.) and displayed a witty use of that simple symbol that has taken over social media - the hashtag. I had to share a few of them here:

The teacher who gave this assignment was pleased with the results and is considering make it a regular task in the class - good practice with an essential skill and a little bit of fun make for a good assignment in my eyes. That the students embraced this assignment and got creative with these hashtags signifies a victory - and I'm pretty sure the teacher (not on Twitter or Facebook... or any social media, if I recall correctly) learned something about Twitter and hashtags via this simple assignment.

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A bit later, another colleague stopped by my desk to share a blog post with me... and it was very enlightening. I'm sure it has made its way around social media already, since it is all about social media, but I'd still like to share it here. And wow, did it make me feel old and out of it...

The author, Andrew Watts (@thatswattsup), gives an overview of what he has observed about social media from the perspective of teens - and between his initial article and a follow-up post, he covers all the big ones.

I hadn't heard of many of the apps and platforms he explains, and many of them just don't seem relevant to me at this stage in my life. But as an educator working with teens and technology, it's good information to have.

Time to go exploring...

Small victories with Google Sites

I spent the spring and summer creating a website that would be home base for a technology professional development program at CJ. I created it using Google Sites, partially because I was modeling it after a program that had been done on Google Sites and partially because I just wanted to explore yet another of Google's products.

I'm a little obsessed now.

I know that my work isn't the most complex when it comes to  web design. I still haven't learned HTML code (when I asked a friend who works in web publishing for a big newspaper about recommended font and font size for a text heavy website, his response that his paper's "tags are 1.4em on a line height of 1.6em" left me dumbfounded). And I still don't understand a lot of what goes on in the background of websites regarding analytics and search engines. But for designing a site that is really only meant for internal use at work, it was an excellent tool for this amateur.

The Tech Charge Challenge website is staying private right now, so I made a copy of the website (small victory when I discovered how!) to make public and removed any personal data from teachers. That's what I've linked here. It isn't perfect (still needs a few tweaks and tutorials), but I'm pretty proud.

A few weeks ago, I decided to make another, much simpler, website as a home for any and all technology-related professional development resources and opportunities at CJ. Small victories all over the place as I set up this page. I created links using images to represent my main websites. I embedded a Google calendar on an "announcement" page. I even figured out how to give only teachers at CJ permission to edit a "list" page (and only that page) so they can add web tools to the list. Now I'm ready to put tools into the list and find a reason to use other templates.

Sometimes on a Monday, we just need to celebrate those small victories.


For more info about Google Sites, check out...

• Beginner's Guide to Creating a Site from Google Site's Help Center
• Mary Fran's Getting Started with Google Sites (a Google Site from a Google Certified Teacher)
• 47 Page Guide to Google Sites for Teachers from Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers

Curious how you can use Google Sites in the classroom? Check out...

• How to Manage Classroom Digital Portfolios by Using Page-level Permissions in Google Sites from Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers
• 5 Ways to Use Google Sites in Schools from Richard Byrne
• Google Sites for Teacher Web Pages and Student Projects from Flipped Education - this page contains links to many example pages and resources

Sharing some SAMR examples

Substitution.

Augmentation.

Modification.

Redefinition.

SAMR

I recently introduced this acronym to the CJ faculty and asked everyone to reflect on where their teaching generally falls in this... spectrum? Is that the word? Like Bloom's good old Taxonomy, I find that our use of technology can and should fall in each of the "levels" at different times, but we do need to reach for redefinition when possible and applicable.

I shared the following videos and resources on an internal website:

• A YouTube playlist of four videos
• Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything - SAMR
• Excerpt from Ruben R. Puentedura TPCK and SAMR – Models for Enhancing Technology Integration (2008)
• Flowchart of the SAMR model from ICTEvangelist

However, some colleagues expressed interest in more examples; hence, this blog post.

Many of the explanations online are either general descriptions of the framework or use what seems to be the easiest concrete example to demonstrate - a writing assignment. Math and science teachers in particular wanted examples of how it can apply more specifically to their disciplines. The list below gives more examples - some specific to math and science, some general.

• Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklotsch - "SAMR model musings"
• SAMR in a 1:1 Math Classroom blog post from a teacher - gives some specific examples of how SAMR can apply to math
• SAMR Lesson Design Presentation from aharris425
• The SAMR Model on Apps-a-Daisy (blog) - quick chart shows examples of SAMR use in math
• SAMR Examples Prezi by Michael Hornback - gives examples of SAMR applied to English and math
• EdofICT wiki page of SAMR Examples across the curriculum
• SAMR: Model, Metaphor, & Mistakes blog post from Tech Tips for Education blog 
• Using SAMR to Teach Above the Line blog post from GettingSmart.com - gives an interesting visual representation of SAMR in a history project

Have any other good examples you'd want to share? Comment below!

Thanks, Kathy Schrock! I want to use PowToon now!

The ALS ice bucket challenge has been blowing up my personal Facebook newsfeed. I've seen quite a few fun videos, including ones from coworkers. I've escaped being called out... so far.

Scrolling through my Twitter feed (@mfankopedia) tonight, I came across the following tweet:

My "virtual" ice bucket challenge response! http://t.co/g5CWiRRvkR #icebucketchallenge
— Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) August 21, 2014

Watch her video. It's awesome. I love the hand sliding things in and out of the frame.

I had never seen PowToon before. Excited to show it to teachers and make my own PowToons. Just logged in using my Google+ account, which makes it easy (you can also use LinkedIn or Facebook, or create a separate log on). Once in, I can choose from ready-made PowToons or start from scratch; dynamic presentations (slides?) are coming soon. Excited for the beginning of the school year chaos to calm down so I can explore.

For now I await what I assume to be the inevitable ALS ice bucket challenge...

I love Edutopia: Sharing a blog post about tech in the classroom

Quick share, then I promise I'll get back to my "real" work for today. While researching just now, I visited Edutopia.org, which is one of my favorite ed tech websites. In my former life as an English teacher, I loved receiving the print copies of Edutopia in my mailbox and was bummed when I read that it would be discontinued in 2010. Published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, it was a free magazine full of articles and ideas (and ads for amazing technology!) that inspired me to try new things with technology in the classroom.

I have come to terms with the loss of those colorful pages in hand as I have personally rethought the way I publish resources for my colleagues (formerly in an emailed newsletter formatted in Publisher, now here in this blog and via various email updates... hopefully linking them to this blog) and have discontinued my personal newspaper subscription because I just wasn't getting around to reading it, instead getting the highlights from social media. But I still miss the magazine and my newspaper. They just aren't always the most logical options these days.

I digress. Edutopia.org. The top headline today was a blog post titled "The Digital Lives of Teens: 'If You Don't Have a Plan for Them, They Will Have a Plan for You'". Well, of course that caught my attention. Blogger Matt Levinson, a school administrator and author of From Fear to Facebook: One School's Journey, begins with a story from a TV show to get his point across - we have to meet the students where they are with technology. It's a challenge to do so, but so essential today.

I just want to leave that link for you. A quick read, entertaining, and good to keep in mind as we turn the corner on the July 4th holiday, which to me has always signaled the turning point of summer - after this, it's the down slope headed back to another school year...

It's all about being a good digital citizen

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm working on a large project right now. A project that is awesome, but a time suck. Every aspect of it has me jumping online, looking for resources, ideas, tools, etc., and those just lead me down new rabbit holes that get me excited for all the new things I discover. Today, I'm investigating the topic of digital accountability. It's a BIG one. So important. So simple, yet so complex.

In my meandering through the interwebs, a Google search led me to a Pinterest board, which led me to a blog post that contained an infographic I liked. Of course, that led me to clicking on the link to the original source of the infographic, which just led me to another blog I want to follow. Phew. So much.

Sharing this infographic because I think it really simplifies all of the ways we can be responsible digital citizens. Thanks to Mia on An Ethical Island for sharing it... and all of her work. She has all of her infographics in a shared Dropbox account and licensed under Creative Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. (share for any non-commercial use - no editing). How generous! I'll be adding her blog to my reading list...

URL: http://anethicalisland.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/digital-citizenship/

Edcamp Excitement

Just a quick post about my experience today at my first unconference, ConnectED Leaders sponsored by ConnectED Learning. It was a short, half-day conference, which was actually the perfect length for me today (middle of the summer). Three sessions at 45 minutes each were enough to get into some interesting conversations, share some of my own insights and projects, pick up some ideas, and leave energized for my summer projects and next school year.

The unconference layout had me a little nervous. I felt like I should put something up on the board, but two things held me back. One, my brain just wasn't working - I couldn't come up with anything to discuss. Sad, I know. Two, there were already great session topics up and I didn't want to miss any of them, especially when I saw the names of some of the facilitators, who I had seen present at METC and/or followed on Twitter.

One of the few rules of an unconference is the rule of two feet - if you don't like a session you are in, get up and leave. Well, I followed that rule today. Twice. It wasn't that I didn't like the sessions; they just weren't as relevant to me as I had hoped... and having my TweetDeck open showed me that a more beneficial conversation for me might be going on down the hall. It felt awkward, getting up and walking out of a discussion that only had a dozen or so people in it, but in both instances, I'm glad I did. Grateful that they put that rule out there from the get-go. I knew the facilitators wouldn't be offended.

And the networking! I left there with a bunch of new Twitter followers (@mfankopedia), even more names to look up and follow, and an anticipation of the next time I get to interact with these people in person again. I joined an entire new professional learning network that can last long past 11:30 this morning. One of my new Twitter friends got me excited for EdCampSEMO this fall - it's only an hour away, so I might actually swing it. Missouri Summit on Google Education is also on my calendar for the fall, and EdCampSTL and METC are definite for me next February. Until then, there's Twitter and #moedchat, #connectedleader, and various other hashtags to follow, along with the new Twitter handles I'm following.

Speaking of people I follow, remember Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne), my technology blogging guru at Free Tech for Teachers? Tonight he started following me on Twitter. The tech-nerd in me feels like I just made friends with a big celebrity. That notification in my inbox (and seeing "follows you" on his profile) was kind of like an "I made it" moment for me in ed tech.

And that's it, maybe. Today helped me dive into my new professional learning network/community. Much needed, since I'm the only person in my position at CJ. Thrilled to have this community and ready to get more active in it.

Tool Review: Popplet

I'm in the midst of setting up a technology professional development program for our school. Basically, I'm creating a Google Site full of information, tutorials, and tasks for our teachers to explore. When I wanted to start organizing the pages and content, I decided concept mapping was more my style than outlining for this project. And since online graphic organizers are a part of my site, I figured I'd try one. Enter Popplet.

Popplet is a free tool, but with a free account I can only make a limited number of popplets (charts). Fine by me. I can choose for my popplets to be private or public, and search through public ones.

The Popplet interface is just fun and welcoming, especially if I were introducing our students to it - I think they would like it. It's also easy to use. The map below took me just a minute or two:

When I add a "popple" (content box), I have the option to insert a picture or video, draw something in the box, or type text. I can also change the color of the box. A few examples below...

A few things I wish Popplet allowed are to insert hyperlinks in the popples (like a link to the library's summer reading club site or story time schedule) and to change the color of the text. I can change the size of the text and its justification, but changing the color of the text would allow another level of organization or differentiation. Maybe it's because I'm using my Popplet as a kind of checklist and want to highlight the completed popples, but that would really be helpful to me.

Popplets can also be collaborative. I have the option to share in various ways:

If I add a collaborator (colleague for me, classmate or teacher for students), he or she can add to or critique my concept map. See those little thought bubbles next to each popple/content box? Those allow me or others to comment on content. These comments become hidden popples that we see when we click on the comment icon (thought bubble):

The settings menu gives me quite a few options, too:

• Edit gives me the options to Undo, Copy Popple, and Paste Popple.
• Organize allows me to align popples, snap them to a grid, etc.
• Add content links me to Flickr, YouTube, and Google Maps.
• View takes me into Presentation Mode options - you can use this as a Prezi-like presentation!
• Export gives me options to save as a JPG, PDF, etc.
• Lab... is something I have yet to explore, actually.
• Popplet linker allows me to insert a popplet into a popplet (well, isn't that fancy!).
• Duplicate popplet creates a copy - great for keeping a template for yourself and sharing a copy of collaboration with students!
• Print brings up the print dialogue for the browser.
• Languages allows me to embed Japanese, Korean, or Hebrew text.

I highlighted my two favorite features from the settings menu above, since I think they really increase the ways we can use this tool.

My sample popplet here is nothing compared to the breadth of my popplet for the website project, for which I haven't really used all the multi-media options. I simply keep adding layer upon layer to the map to the point where I can't read any of it when I view the whole thing on screen. I'm beginning to think I need to start using the comments button more. Hmm...

Loving this tool so far. Create a free account and get started. Which reminds me of one minor downfall - make that account BEFORE you start creating a popplet. I had a decent chunk of mine made, clicked "create account", set up my account, and bam - my work was gone. Fresh start. Oh well. I had a college professor who always told us to rewrite instead of revise, because our ideas are always more organized the second time around, so I'll hope that's true with this...

Oh! Almost forgot - It has an iPhone and iPad app, too!

Cool Tool: Wordmark.it

Not a lot of time to write, but I just stumbled across this tool while researching information about blogs (thank you to GCFLearnFree.org!) and had to share.

I have a love-hate relationship with fonts. I despise a boring document. When I can make a title or heading fun, I do it. One reason writing within Blogger bugs me a little - not a lot of font options here. But it gets the job done.

If I'm designing something in any other program, though, you bet I'm going to use fun fonts. And thanks to our school yearbook, I have A LOT on my computer. But part of the hate aspect of my long-term relationship with fonts is finding the right one for the text I'm working with. The process goes something like...

• Type in the text
• Highlight it
• Go to font menu
• Hover over the name of the font I'm interested in (IF I'M LUCKY! Depends on the program) OR Select the name of the font I'm interested in
• Repeat for various fonts until I find the perfect one

...UNTIL NOW

Enter WORDMARK.IT. I go to the website, type words into a box at the top of the page, click "Load Fonts" and voila! A preview of said words in every font on my computer. And the ability to change various aspects of it in the preview (all caps, font size, etc.). Mind blown. Time saved. Creativity enabled. Love it.

Breaking bad habits... how hard can it be?

Just a quick post today to share two finds from Te@chThought.com, a new favorite resource.

It takes 21 days to develop a habit. That's a generally accepted... myth? Really, how long does it to make (or break) a habit?

Researchers at University College London have found that 21 days is actually too short a time. Published in the European Journal of Social Psychology in 2009, the study followed 96 people for 84 days as they attempted to make small changes to their lives  On average, participants in their study took 66 days, as explained in a blog post from 2012. Yikes. That's a long time.

My thinking is that breaking a bad habit is actually the process of developing a new, good habit, right? So we need to allow a bit of time to do so. This is something to consider as we wind down this school year and have a chance to maybe "forget" some bad teaching habits over the summer break.

What bad habits do you need to break? 

This list from Te@chThought is a great checklist to use for reflection. Click here to read the full blog post.

I can't decide if the number 4 in the title of this graphic is a legitimate typo or is trying to call our attention to the bad habits by not proofreading on purpose...

Time to form some new habits...

Don't worry. I'm not going to leave you on a negative note. A separate (but related!) Te@chThought post provided this infographic, borrowing a list from AlwaysPrepped. Something to think about. I'll bring it back in August as we head into the new school year...

Which of these do you want to make a habit? And can you master it in 21 days? No pressure :)