Feb 28, 2014

George Lieux #tie14 arktie#2014

George Lieux #tie14 arktie#2014

Linoit - We used Linoit.com to post takeaways about previous sessions.

For student use: anonymous assessment. Exit slips - Different colors could mean different things. Green - learned, yellow - something not sure of, red - did not understand, etc

Connected learning is agnostic in the delivery and resources used. Connect learning to real-world engagement. This is not new, but we now have tools that make it much more accessible. Widening gap between "haves" and "have-nots."  The inequity is expanding even though the technology itself is much more prolific because students do not have access to the technologies and opportunities.

Padlet - padlet.com Double-click to add your post to the wall. This used to be WallWisher.

SAMR model for technology integration. Info: http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

S - Substitution, tech just replaces something you are already using
A - Augmentation, tech enhances something the students were doing, but not replace the task
M - Modification, tech allows major task redesign around the heart of the initial task (writing a collaborative essay instead of a single-author essay, edit cycles, etc)
R - Redefinition, tech allows for creation of new tasks made possible by the new technology. Essay now changes into video or digital storytelling and then students become mentors to other students.

We viewed several different videos and then talked in groups about where on the SAMR scale the sample lessons fell.

Hackpad - hackpad.com - Collaborative board site.

Looking at unit development:
McKenzie's Questioning Toolkit - http://fno.org/nov97/toolkit.html

LessonWriter.com - Helps create lessons.

Diigo group for Graphic Organizers: https://groups.diigo.com/group/graphic-organizers-fsps

Assessments: http://learninginhand.com/blog/show-what-you-know-using-web-mobile-apps-infographic.html

How do we know they learned "it?"
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1UAb9w_L5fhp6HGIzPFesVqPEVCw6Grn1Rco7-JtF4i0/edit

How will they learn "it?"
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1lkMjceWfqeiHHmI0ufwBHyPvLC2H5g1RH1IlF1BGwLI/edit

Sites with lesson plans:
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1t3XaOcvbcpuoow58VKumcTXjcWrt_RBciIYRWpmHl9U/edit

TIMS - Tech Integration Matrix

We used a Moodle course that George created called "Reduce Stress from TESS" (TESS is the new teacher evaluation system in place in Arkansas): http://swaecmoodle.k12.ar.us/course/view.php?id=8 - the passcode is: TESS








Richard Byrne #tie14 #arktie2014

Richard Byrne #tie14 #arktie2014

Google Preso in which participants added images and questions students should try to solve:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-8SW4VOiG8mzetHLxD3M4tHfYjK9Gi2Jis7y4ycQFf8/edit#slide=id.g1c9cff962_30

Worksheet in using primary sources, wikipedia, etc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z-vO0HsJPYp-MSuM96VoTMnkbnZ36E_YJeAHUZBNtUw/edit

What are some things left out of secondary sources? Very good to use with videos, especially. Ex: Crash Course Odyssey.  What was left out? What was emphasized that maybe shouldn't have been?

CloseTalks:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0OBhP4GLnKsEvJoqM4jnFkFHb2Se9nlV3vxMigJI2c/edit

Allow your students to make comments as they read the article and have class discussions.

Can use primary source documents - interpretation and its role within a document. Stamp Act, for example. What does it say and how was it manipulated through interpretation?

Video project:
- Develops research skills
- Develops organization and planning skills
- Creates engaging demonstration of skills and knowledge

Engagement, Accessibility, Community

Types of video projects: Documentary, Instructional (quick overview of a unit, ex), Creative/Entertainment

Nextvista.org - Share videos. All videos must TEACH a lesson.
Black Death in 90 seconds
My Name is Michael

Public Domain, Fair Use, Creative Commons. Ideally use something student(s) create(s). Otherwise, get permission, find public domain or creative commons and worst-case Fair Use.

Home-grown
Public Domain
Creative Commons
Fair Use
("Harry Potter Can Fly")

Video creation: http://richardbyrnepresents.com/?page_id=36
-- Animoto.com - Short story (about students as intro), biographies of other people (Presidents, ex) - Why did we choose certain pics? What text can support images? Music: What are we using and why?

-- YouTube Photo Slideshow. Sign in, click Upload. Photo Slideshow. Add photos, pick music, choose audience (public, unlisted, private).

YouTube annotations to create hotlinks to other videos (video choose your own adventures!). Video manager, pick video, edit, annotations. Add annotation (choose type), add text, click Link and enter the url to another of YOUR videos.

WeVideo.com - Online video editor. Free and integrates with Google Drive accounts. Save other media for use in multiple projects. Limits: Can export 15 minutes of video per month. Watermark on video. Use fullscreen to see all the tracks.

Google Maps "thing" - Mapmaking with Google Maps.
Gear icon lower right, My Places, Create a map.
Up to 3 layers on each map for free. Can have different people work on different layers in same map (like google docs)

Can use a spreadsheet. Must have location (lat, lon or city,state) and place name.

Have students map out items related to class. Ex: key events in Revolutionary War; Locations of famous author birthplaces; etc. Add image/description about event/site/person in each marker and maybe links to further info/reading.

Google Lit Trips. googlelittrips.org - Requires Google Earth.

You can do an advanced search for KML/KMZ and load walking tours, etc.

Slides/info: http://bitly.com/tieslides

Feb 27, 2014

Susan Gilley Google Stuff and more 2nd half #tie14 #arktie2014

Susan Gilley Google Stuff and more 2nd half #tie14 #arktie2014

This is the 2nd half of Thursday's preso from Susan Gilley.

Flubaroo can assign point levels to various questions. Then, tell the program which answers are correct. Choose one set of answers as the correct answer key. Scores dumped into Google Sheet, build charts regarding results. Use to determine which topics need review or show proficiency.

Formulas and functions
Transpose - convert data from horizontal to vertical and vice versa
Use the sheet's unique key - importrange to create sheet other users cannot alter
Concatenate - combine cell contents and/or combine info

List of formulas and functions: https://support.google.com/drive/table/25273?hl=en

Can also do LEFT,A1,1 / RIGHT,C9,4 etc to select certain characters

Create Flash cards. Create Spreadsheet. Or use a form to collect the info! One column has "side 1" next column has "Side 2"
Publish web page. Use Flippity.net to paste the link and create cards!

CountIf("students"C,A3)

Susan's awesome Delicious bookmarks: https://delicious.com/sgilley

PD? Use Twitter.com and use hashtags. Ex: #tical14, #iste13. Assign to various staff. Have them follow the tags and then present what info is being shared! Virtual PD transferred to live PD.

Use Google calendars and HTML to grab link and build one long URL for a shared public calendar.
Ex: http://harrison.k12.ar.us/2013-14_calendar

Use Autocrat script to create letters to Santa in a MadLibs style! Also to create form letters. Create the letter, then create the form. Be sure to run on first item before running for real.

Doctopus scripting for sending docs to groups of students!




Susan Gilley Google Stuff and more 1st half #tie14 #arktie2014

Susan Gilley Google Stuff and more #tie14 #arktie2014

sgilley.com - Conference Notes.

Easy Blog Jr - easy blogging for young writers

Use Chrome tab pinning to save tabs - Point to tab at top, right-click, Pin This Tab

Create your own certificate using Autocrat and Google Forms.

BatchGEO - Combine it with a Google Form and get information. Takes the information and creates a map of the information and info about you. Classroom setting: President Hometowns, NASCAR Driver info, Author birthplaces, etc. Activate a pin and have student ocme present - no powerpoint, etc. Just present!

Doctopus - Push documents to student folders

DocAppender

Goobric - Design rubric, score document, Doctopus sends doc to student.

Scripting not available in the new Google Sheets yet! Go to settings and revert back to old Sheets.

Discipline forms

Google Forms will create charts and graphs for you based on data.

Surveys, etc

Use Tab Scissors and Tab Glue to show a test and answer key on same screen easily. Scissors will split tabs, glue puts tabs back.

Flubaroo - script that be used to grade assignments

Within a Google Doc, you can click on selected text, search and apply the link. Search is not working in Google Docs at the time of this writing.

Research Tool - select text, use the Tools Menu and Research, choose the format (APA, MLA), drag into doc. Adds footnote with link in chosen style.

Keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks:
http://www.chromebookforum.com/forum/17-chrome-os-software-forum/227-chrome-os-keyboard-shortcuts.html

Use "Make a Copy" to save yourself from losing your original document. Use revision history to review changes, saves, etc.

Google Image Search by Image: http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en

Create a template for sharing with your teachers. Have them publish it and send link to webmaster for district. Future revisions will be automatically updated from Google Docs. No new link needed.

Get templates. Create a new doc, file new from template. OR, add this to your drive:
http://www.steegle.com/news/google-drive-create-from-template

Social Media in Schools: FB, Twitter, Instagram, OverGram, Remind101, G+, etc all from the Principal/Supt







Harry Dickens AppSmash Pt 2 #tie14 #arktie2014

Harry Dickens AppSmash Pt 2 #tie14 #arktie2014

Google add-in script called MCQ. Grades assessments, emails students, also can provide links for explanations of missed questions.

Drop images, videos, and much more into Google Forms to create quizzes.

Hand scanner - http://www.amazon.com/Vupoint-Solutions-Portable-Scanner-PDSWF-ST44-VP/dp/B008FSEWS0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1393532781&sr=8-6&keywords=magic+wand+scanner

Use page breaks in forms in conjunction with answer routing to help shape and or guide students through an assessment. You could also have students watch a video first, then answer questions. Based on their answers, route them accordingly. Students could create "Choose-Your-Own-Adventures" based in Google Forms.

Use educreations for formative assessment - have students post results to student folders. Virtual manipulatives can be stored in DropBox and then have students access those from within educreations.

Classflow - interactive whiteboard with or without a whiteboard in the classroom. Connect to DropBox for images, etc. It also has a resource folder and you can drop their resources into your own Resources folder.  Can embed Google Form, Doc, Etc as well.

Bookry.com creates book widgets.

What are other tools you can use for formative assessment? Think about it and let me know!

Ex:
iTunes Course created by Tonia McMillan and Harry Dickens -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/designing-student-assessments/id824284265

iRubric iPad/Android/Google app.

gClassFolders - Google class folders.

Helpful tool for teachers: Doctopus script - copy documents to students, keep track in spreadsheet, attach rubrics, etc.

Looked at Front Row Math app

VideoScribe - app and website

Animation Creator - offers "onion skinning" for animation. Also Smoovie for stop-motion movies has "onion skinning" overlays.

NumberKidz - fractions, etc.

Harry Dickens AppSmashing - #tie14 #tie2014

Harry Dickens AppSmashing - #tie14 #tie2014

Participants are divided into color groups. Those groups then attend assigned sessions on a rotation basis. My group was assigned to Harry Dickens' session, and thus these notes are taken from that session.

AppSmashing - Using multiple apps in conjunction with one another to complete a task.

Isometric - create a design, then shared it with camera roll.
Pxl - Create other designs and saved image
ImageBlender
Photobooth
Photoshop Touch

Create app flows to create products. How do we accomplish tasks by combining apps?

Later - how do we create a formative assessment without it looking like a test?

My group decided to focus on a lesson in which students would be assigned a topic (or have several to choose from) and then break into groups to argue point/counter-point on the topic. Students would have to first formulate the guiding question within each group for the topic. Then, the end product is a video production. Using the concept of AppSmash, students are free to use whatever apps they need/want to accomplish their goal using certain criteria and parameters. For example, the video might have a certain length. They might have to include a certain amount of text, include images, etc. Or not. The teacher would have to determine what needed to be included in the formulation of the final assessment. May have to have X "for" and X "against."  The students, working with the teacher, could help generate that rubric.

Rubric could be created in Google Form, then data can be evaluated and saved!

This covers the FIRST PART of our session. I will create a new entry for the second part of our workshop, if needed.

BTW, here are the standards we cover:
CCSS Content Standards:w.7-12.1, whst.9-12.6, whst.9-12.8,
ISTE Standards Students:S1, S2, S3, S5, S6
ISTE Standards Teacher:T1, T2

Here is the ROUGH work-up of our thinking:
Claims and Counter-claims for their topic. Students will work in groups to research their selected topic. Topics are given by the teacher. Ex: Minimum Wage, Immigration. The topic can be assigned to the whole class or students may have a list to choose from.
Students must formulate debatable questions with opposing viewpoints. 
Students use different apps to produce a final product. Ex: video with back-and-forth discussion/debate to support the various viewpoints. Final product is a video, but students have freedom to choose the manner in which that video comes to fruition.
Students would be given a list of apps as a starting suggestions, but they would be free to use whatever apps they wanted.
App to record information from sources (notes, audio, etc).
Ex: Side-by-Side (linear notetaking), Dropbox, Camera, Photos App, XTraNormal, Slideshow App (ex: SnapGuide, Thinglink, ProShow Web Slideshow Creator), iMovie, PuppetPals, Popplet (Graphic Organizer), ScreenShots, Stop Motion Studio, other videos (YouTube, Vimeo, etc), Symbaloo (graphic online bookmark tool, teacher could set up links to the resources the students should use. Teacher could also use it to showcase the student end products - videos, blogs, etc)
Requirement: Students must list the apps they used to create their project as a way to share their creative process(es).
Students may need to use an app to create a slide of their information, take a screenshot of the information (pictures, content, etc) and incorporate that into their final product. Exs: Photosnack (upload photos, put into template, share it) and PicFlow uses pictures from Instagram for uniformity, ProShow Web Slideshow creator.

Richard Byrne Keynote #tie14 #arktie2014

Richard Byrne Keynote #tie14 #arktie2014

Freetech4Teachers.com

Do your kids know what happens when THEY get Googled? Jobs, dates, schools...

Jobs that went out (Ex: phone operators, ice delivery, stenographers, etc) in which people never saw as going away. Our job as educators is to identify those jobs that will go away. How do we prepare students for that transition?

What are some examples of jobs around today that will disappear in 5-10 years? (backchannel - www.todaysmeet.com/jobs)

Some jobs changed for the better: dentists, forestry, agriculture, etc.

(I got called out to provide some tech support for another meeting)

I came back to a conversation about MOOCs - OpenCulture.com - Lifelong, ongoing learning

The time to sit and reflect is essential. You can get lost in Google, Feedly, etc. We must encourage our students to think about the information they have taken in. It is through reflection time in which we come up with our next ideas. Let our imaginations go wild.  Napoleon Hill "Think and Grow Rich."

Two kinds of imagination: Creative imagination (writers, artists, etc) and Synthetic Imagination (Vision and Development, Synthesizing ideas - ex: Steve Jobs)

Aurasma - augmented reality - Students take info, make a video, and scan an object that is used as the trigger to launch the Aura.

Remixing videos, music, etc.

A lot of things happen in Study Hall. How can a student be a writer? Blogging, writing, publish via sites like CreateSpace, Lulu, etc. Ex: "Art of Non-Confomity"

YouTube as a money-maker. Everything is a remix. Ex: Kutiman-Thru-You on YouTube.

Soundcloud - share your sounds.

Encourage our students to take the risks. Put it together and show it to the world.

Richard's sessions will focus on tying all these things into CCSS.

Haiku Deck (and others) - presentations

Southwest Airlines gives employees the flexibility to deliver the message and have fun doing it. We should do the same with our students. Why force them to use a particular program or why force them to make a video? Let them meet the goal in the way THEY want to.

Arkansas TIE Conference Keynote/Thoughts #arktie2014 #tie14

Arkansas TIE Conference  #arktie2014 #tie14

The 2014 Arkansas Technology Infused Education conference kicked off yesterday (Wednesday). We had a great opening session filled with tips, tricks, sites, apps, and more. We showcased the DoubleRobotics robot and talked about uses for the classroom (homebound students, etc) and for virtual workshop attendance, etc.

We had a slam that included Chrome add-ons such as "tldr (too long, don't read)" which summarizes a long web page into a paragraph, tab scissors and tab glue which does screen splitting, and others that presently escape me.

Some of the sites covered included oercommons.org, http://www.edudemic.com/, the ABC Hen House on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/abchenhouse/), Goorulearning (http://www.goorulearning.org/#discover), and http://www.teachersfirst.com/index.cfm to name a few!

As I write this, it is Thursday morning and our keynote speaker is Richard Byrne (https://twitter.com/rmbyrne). Throughout the day, I will post entries for each session I attend as I am able. TIE tends to be VERY interactive and does not necessarily allow for long blog posts.

You can follow along on Twitter by following #tie14 and some folks will use #arktie2014 as a way to distinguish our conference from the other "TIE"-named conference that have nothing to do with our TIE.

Feb 22, 2014

Watching #Blackfish


CNN happened to be showing "Blackfish" about killer whales. Since I have expressed certain opinions about the whole premise without having seen it, I decided to watch.

First and foremost: These are KILLER whales. Like any wild animal, these whales have instincts and attributes that will never be fully tamed.

According to NatGeo, roughly 75 human deaths occur (have occurred?) as a result of various captive animals. Note: No timeframe is given by NatGeo, so we have no idea if this is per year, per day, per week, per decade...

My father-in-law raises cows. Every now and then he pulls the calves away from the cows in order to take them to market. The cows bellow and hollar. Blackfish manipulates the viewer by trying to say that the noises being made by the whales are grief, etc. While  I don't disagree, the fact is that other animals do the same thing. Killer whales are no different than any other animal in that regard. Much like in a courtroom where certain parties try to play on our emotions, I see that storyline as no different: the makers of the film are simply trying to play on the emotions of people watching. Sorry, show me the facts and keep your emotions to yourselves.

Having said that, there are certainly some facts to be considered.  Tilikum attacked and killed at least one trainer and seemed to "want" to attack another. There is some information that seems to be contradictory (how long they live, for example).

In another few clips, we learn of various attacks. One man managed to narrowly escape after a whale grabbed his foot and dragged him to the bottom, lifted him up, swapped feet and repeated the process. How the trainer managed to remain calm through the ordeal is incredible.

As I type this, we are about halfway through the program. My thoughts are:

  1. These are KILLER whales. They are wild animals that we've put into captivity. They are dangerous. If we believe anything else, we are only fooling ourselves.
  2. We need bigger tanks and better parameters for keeping whales.
  3. Not all creatures behave the same. There should be provisions for removing animals exhibiting aggressive behavior, but always remembering that the animals could attack at any moment.
  4. The programs need to be reworked to help limit the possibility of trainer accidents and deaths.
  5. All wild animal parks need to be more open, honest, and forthcoming about the accidents that happen within their walls.
My heart goes out to the families of those who have been killed by whales. Though I fully believe this "documentary" was created to send out a message of shock and awe, it only shows the tragic side of what parks like Sea World provide. The same would be true if a "documentary" were to be made showing only the tragedies suffered by roller coaster riders. Looking at anything from only one side is manipulative, plain and simple.

Further Reading:

Feb 7, 2014

Work Life: Moodling Around in Windows

We have a couple Moodle servers running at our facilities. One of those runs on an older Server 2003 box and is running v2.1.2 of Moodle. Since Moodle is now up to 2.6.1 (at the time of this post), I thought it would be a good idea to get the Windows install up to date.

The first thing I had to do was stop Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Easy enough, usually. But, in this case, mysqld.exe would not quit. I finally had to force it down.

The next thing I did was to delete a couple large log files:
  • In the apache\logs\ folder, delete "error.log" (mine was 90GB!!)
  • In the mysql\data\ folder, delete "mysql_error.log" (mine was 1.5GB)
At that point, I copied my "Moodle" folder to another location.

Once that was done, I started MySql again and fired up the trial version of "Navicat" in order to do a MySql backup. Though, I believe this is an unnecessary step since everything in my Moodle installation falls under one "moodle" folder. Better safe than sorry.

Because I was running 2.1.2, I had to upgrade to 2.2.11 before moving to 2.6.1.

I deleted everything in my "moodle\server\moodle" folder EXCEPT for a folder I had created to store some external files and the config.php file.

I started Moodle (apache, mysql, php) again and went into admin mode to upgrade. NOTE: I found instructions online that said to copy the blocks, mod, and theme folders from your old install to the new one. That did NOT work for me. When I tried that, my install never would give me the "Upgrade" option.

Well, in case anyone else runs into this, here is what I did:

Added the following lines to the end of my moodle\config.php:
ini_set ('display_errors', 'on');
ini_set ('log_errors', 'on');
ini_set ('display_startup_errors', 'on');
ini_set ('error_reporting', E_ALL);

That gave me an error about a moodle\search folder not existing. Sure enough. That folder was in 2.1 but not the 2.2 distro. I copied it out of my 2.1 and at least got through things.

I notice it is also not in the 2.6 distro, so I assumed I would have the same problem. I ventured forth anyway. I copied my now-upgraded 2.2.11 folder out and replaced it with the 2.6 folder from the download. I then put back my config.php and any folders I had specifically created at the file level.

Once that was done, I fired up the XAMPP and went to my site for set-up.

Everything seems okay, though 2.6 is WWAAAAYYY slower than previous versions. There are a few lines of code that can be used in php to help this, supposedly, so I will give that a shot.