Ipad Summit Reflection Part 2: Learning from Tech Giants

A number of times throughout the day I was confronted by the quote we are all "standing on the shoulders of giants." This quote was mentioned in a number of conference sessions throughout the day, and it hit home with me. In developing my professional learning network over the last year I have found many incredible teachers, via twitter and blogs, who have shared their incredible work. These "giants" have helped to reshape  and redefine my role in the class and the type of teacher that I want to be. Today, it just so happened, is also a day where I finally got to meet some of my "giants" face to face.

When I first discovered Greg Kulowiec (@gregkulowiec) on twitter, his work on app smashing re-shaped the way I viewed technology in the classroom. We have had a few conversations on twitter over the last year, and he is always more than willing to share ideas. Today his session focused on students using appsmashing to be truly creative. He shared many interesting ideas, but to me, the most thought provoking idea he shared was the idea that if students open an app, and there is already something there they are not really creating. The program is telling them what to do. He presented about using multiple powerful tools that force students to create (explain everything, iMovie, garage band, paper 53, imotion hd, etc.) that students can use to create content individually and then pull all these pieces together to create authentically unique projects. His project was fast paced and informative, and it is clear that his ideas are constantly evolving and advancing.

My mind was a buzz after leaving my first session. That feeling continued for the next hour as I was drawn in by the intense enthusiasm of another giant from my learning network, Shawn McCusker (@shawnmccusker). From the movement he started talking he wove a masterpiece, explaining how he has worked to create a culture of learning and research in his class. He spoke with purpose and passion. He showed some technology examples of student work, but his emphasis was on the process, not the technology. I think that is something that many people lose sight of when they start infusing technology in their classroom. He shared his rule that if technology is interfering in learning or relationships we need to put it away. He also talked about student choice. He gave examples of times that students wanted to take their learning in a different direction, so he went with them and supported their learning. These examples helped reinforced that my current beliefs about student choice are on the right track. The work I have started in this area will be further enhanced by "standing" upon the work that Shawn has done.

The first afternoon session was parented by Amy Burvall (@amyburvall) where she discussed remix culture in education. This concept was completely new to me. I had actually decided previously that I would attend a different session during this time slot, but in my morning session Greg Kulowiec mentioned being blown away by a discussion with Amy the night before, so I figured I needed to check it out and I was not disappointed. She shared many interesting ideas and examples of what remix culture is and how we can use it in our class. However the most important take away from this session was the connection between education and pop culture. I think this is a hook that will draw students in, and the area of remixEd is so broad that there is a lot of different ways students can explore and differentiate their learning. Many examples she shared made me realize that a lot of teachers have dabbled in remixEd but have not clearly defined or extensively explored the concept. By exposing students to different examples of remixed work, they can support students to further develop creativity utilizing technology as a tool to get there. The entire presentation was built upon the idea that nothing is unique, everything is built upon previous people's ideas. (This reinforced the "giants" theme for the day.) She shared many examples of remixed work to emphasize that remixing is a powerful way that students are already using to commicate, which I believe makes it a powerful outlet to engage students in learning. This is a completely new concept to me, and has helped me redefine what it means when we say we are encouraging students to be creative.

Today was an amazing day of learning. I got to meet and learn from people whom I have admired for a long time, and I was exposed to a new "giant" that I can learn from in the future. Can't wait to get started today!

Ipad Summit Reflections Part 1: Collaboration & Back Channeling

I am currently attending the Edtech Teacher ipad summit in San Diego. I am planning to blog reflections each day to reinforce my learning and to share some of my main take always from each session. 

Yesterday I attended the pre-conference workshop on creating digital content, facilitated by Carl Hooker (@mrhooker) and Jo-Ann Fox (@AppEducationFox). They did a great job presenting a number of apps and encouraging engagement throughout the session. There was a lot of collaboration between throughout the workshop. This is my biggest take away from yesterday. A few of the tools they used yesterday were very user friendly, and could easily be incorperated into a classroom to increase collaboration, and ultimately increase student engagement during class activities. 

I have dabbled with the idea of back channeling during class via twitter using our class hashtag. I have asked students to share ideas, responses, or questions during their learning to get a gauge of what students are thinking during a course related video or activity. In the limited amount that I have utilized this assessment tool, I have seen value in it. Yesterday reinforced this concept ten fold. The first tool we used was today's meet. It wasn't the first time I had seen today's meet, but the way that Carl and Jo-Ann used it as the backbone for the day helped me to see that back channeling can and should be more of a focus in my class if I want to encourage student voice throughout the learning process. Throughout the workshop, the facilitators referred back to today's meet and used it to address questions, or highlight shared resources from other attendees. This helps even the quietest members of the group have their voice heard, which can be a major challenge when working with shy teenagers.

In addition to modelling the power of back channelling, a couple of other tools they presented helped me to develop some additional ways to use technology to increase collaboration. Padlet was the first tool that stood out to me, it is basically an interactive wall the you can create that allows students to post virtual post it notes for everyone to see. This is a great tool to help facilitate collaborative brainstorming, developing questions for inquiry, or debating controversial issues. This has many cross curricular applications.

The last tool that could be useful in class to encourage collaboration is ask3. This is a program that allows multiple users to collaborate on an interactive whiteboard. Teachers can post a video to pose a question and every student can log into their numbered class, much like socrative, to respond to the question right on the original whiteboard. Then students can create their own interactive presentation and post it to the class bulletin board, which other students can access and respond to. There are many potential applications for this device in my classroom. Students in math class can post a video explaining their process when solving a problem, then other students can watch classmate's videos to provide feedback or alternate methods of problem solving. In history or social studies a student can use this tool to examine and explain a primary source and post their response for their classmates to critique. This application spans across all subject areas and has potential to develop the collaborative spirit I want to achieve in all my classes. 

I have only touched on a few of the tools that we discussed and reflected on in the workshop. I have focused on the tools that were the most transformative for me. We discussed the applications of many other programs and apps, some of which I have used in the past and seen value in. I have listed the other apps below if you are interesting in finding apps that promote the creation of digital content in your classroom. 

Evernote

Tellegami

iMovie

Thinglink

Chirp

Explain Everything 

Book Creator

That is all for my day 1 reflection. Looking forward to another day of edtech innovation! Thanks to Carl Hooker, and Jo-Ann Fox for a great day of collaboration and learning! 

Emphasizing Historical Concepts and Skills

In Manitoba, we are lucky to have the Big Six: Historical Thinking Concepts included in our curriculum. These concepts emphasize historical perspective,  ethical dimensions of history, establishing historical significance, understanding cause and consequence in a historical context, identify continuity and change, and analysis of primary source evidence. These concepts force students to interact with content. They must gather, analyse, inference, and synthesize information in order to create a finished product to demonstrate their understanding of a given concept. These skills and concepts are the backbone of my teaching, and most importantly the focus of student learning in my history course. Because there are only six main concepts, it allows students to re-visit these concepts multiple times over the course of a semester. By re-visiting concepts it allows me to scaffold student learning, and allows students to formulate more complex understanding of historical events over the course of the semester. Perhaps most importantly, when I assess concepts multiple times throughout the year, I am gathering a variety of data. This leads to more valid assessments and ultimately more accurate grading.

Traditionally, the teaching and learning of history has emphasized content related goals. The end result of emphasizing content in isolation is a number of assessments that rarely rise above lower level thinking (multiple choice, true/false, short answer, etc.). These assessments measure a student's ability to memorize information rather than their ability to think critically. In a world where content is easily accessible through technology, it is logical that we must take advantage of the increased access to content and ask students to do more with this information. By emphasizing concepts and skills, I am forcing students to develop critical thinking skills that are infinitely more important in the long run, than the ability to memorize the facts and figures of historical events.

By providing feedback and revisiting concepts multiple times, ultimately we can hold students to a higher standard because we are supporting the development of the advancement of these skills. This has forced a growth mindset in my history course until the end of each semester. We are never "done" a concept. In a class that emphasizes content, once the unit test is complete, they no longer have to worry about improving their understanding. As my course progresses we are working to constantly advance understanding of the essential concepts. Students are encouraged to use feedback to improve understanding and applying these concepts to new content in order to show an improved understanding. By providing feedback for students as the course progresses, they can further develop their understanding of the major concepts that underpin the history curriculum and ultimately show stronger, more well rounded understanding of history.

@mrridgen

#Twitter Chats in High School History

Last Thursday I used twitter as a tool to generate a discussion with students in both of my Canadian history classes to formatively assess their understanding of the concepts related to cause and consequence (Seixas and Morton). The idea of using a twitter chat came from the process of developing my pln. I have been participating in various #edchats and have found that they were very engaging to me. They are engaging because of the global connections I have been able to make,  forced reflection, and most importantly the real time feedback. So I thought if it was engaging for me, perhaps this concept could be extended in my classes. I gave students in my history classes 3 days to research the Red River Rebellion, with the understanding that they would be answering questions in a twitter chat. I invited my pln on twitter and a few friends/colleagues to join to show the students that we were part of a bigger discussion. The kids were very engaged, even more so when they realized that there were "visitors" in our discussion.

I archived both chats below.

Red River Discussion AM
Red River Discussion PM
**Note: If you have not done a #chat, these chats follow a question and answer format. In these archives the chat begins at the bottom, and the conversation moves to the top.

My ultimate goal with this concept is to have my students facilitate a Twitter type discussion with a class from outside our region. I would love to compare views of an international event like the War of 1812 with a history class from the US. It would be interesting for students to see a completely different perspective, and of course, share our Canadian perspectives with a receptive American audience!

This chat was valuable to me, and I will do them again. Each student was responsible to contribute to the conversation by sharing their own individual response to each question, and also to challenge other people’s ideas in a responsible and academic way. It made students accountable and forced participation from students who would not have participated or even paid attention had we had a traditional class discussion. Lastly, the impact of having "visitors" in our chat changed the dynamic of the discussion. Students took an interest in asking visitors questions, and began to formalize more thorough responses based on the feedback they were getting from others within the discussion.

If you are teach high school history and would like to connect with my class through a twitter chat, feel free to contact me.

@mrridgen