Show me your dID!

And by dID I mean your digital identity. There was a lively conversation on Twitter tonight for #edtechchat about digital citizenship. One specific question posed has really made me reflect. Since the thought stream is more than 140 characters, a blog post reply was necessary.

Out of curiosity (and wanting to make sure I did not spread any false rumors), I googled the topic and read multiple articles to find valid resources. I wasn’t wrong about reading about this as a legal case. There are actually two different legal actions around employers asking for employee passwords for social media websites and/or requiring them to log in during an interview.

The first series of legal maneuvers are by states making the practice illegal. So far there are six states taking the side of the worker and their right to privacy.

The other legal action is being drafted by Facebook. Forcing someone to share their login goes against the user ‘Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.’ If people thought that everything would become public, Facebook would lose even more popularity then when parents joined.

Another discovery on Google place on Mashable article on the same topic: “What to do when a potential employer asks for your Facebook password.” There are some points that I agree. You should word your refusal eloquently without it sounding like a complete negative. You should also suggest they check other social media sites.

I would expand the suggestions specifically for an education setting. There is value to a teacher who embraces social media and can model appropriate and effective interactions for students. Part of social media is managing your brand. Through social media I can clearly communicate who I am as a teacher, my pedagogy, my teaching philosophy, and my inspiration. I would encourage people to read my blog posts, follow me on Twitter, add me to a Google+ group, or view my pictures on Instagram. In fact, my brand is clearly displayed and linked together at http://about.me/lisa.butler. Facebook is not part of my brand, which is why it is closed and unsearchable. Part of the fun of social media is connecting with friends. That is a private interaction.

A life lesson that students (and teachers and parents) need to know is the duality of the digital ID. There should be a separation of professional and personal social media. But for this to be successful, you have to understand the privacy settings of each website. You also most use them consistently. Twitter has always been my professional and Facebook has been my personal. On my personal social media sites, I do not hide my relationships, my religious beliefs, or my political views. These do not come up frequently, but I have the right to have views without fear of ramification. How could an employer remain unbiased and honor the nondiscrimination clause of hiring if they has had easy view of relationships, religion, etc? These are topics they are supposed to avoid during interviews. I see it as a legal thorn. If those hiring demanded to see someone’s Facebook page and did not offer that person a job, how can you show that it was not discrimination against something seen on Facebook?

I passionately believe that students need to understand the power and responsibility of having a digital identity. Students do not have a single dimension. So how can they only use social media for academic or professional reasons? Since the purpose or the excitement of social media is the social element, wouldn’t that imply with friends? Students need a teacher to model responsible social media use. The perfect example would be a teacher who has private Facebook settings that keep content hidden to an employer or an outsider.

Position Wanted: Social Studies

My dream job is digital content curation; however, it would not be a good match. I am too much of a perfectionist and could not finish projects in a timely manner. If you ask me how long something took to create, you should probably multiple by three to find out the truth. It should not take that long, but I want things exactly the way I envision. I don’t want to discourage my colleagues from trying something new so I shrink the number of hours.

My new business cards are from Vista Print. The personal statement line captures my passion perfectly: culture and technology enthusiast. I have been teaching Spanish since I graduated college and earned my first job offer. However, I do not feel like I can be defined by a single subject. As a cultural enthusiast, I also have a love of social studies. Maybe it is the seven year itch, but I am ready for a change and social studies is calling my name. Here is my “evidence” of why I will make a great social studies teacher.

Twitter Connections

Animoto Video: Social Studies Dream

My travels and global friends provide a plethora of stories that will bring social studies alive. The students live in a world connected by technology, but that does not mean they understand what they see or perform their duty as global citizens. They need a cultural guide and someone to model global citizenship. The world often does things differently without being wrong. By the same token, not everything done by the United States should be assumed to be globally great.

So back to my opening statement: my dream job is digital content creation to bring content alive for the students. While teaching Spanish, I have created a digital Techbook, media for each chapter of Pobre Ana, and much more. I am ready to find new inspiration, from new content, for new digital creations.

EdCampMetroDC

Wow! Another amazing EdCamp – I’m so glad I drove down to Metro DC yesterday. While driving home I mentally categorized my learning into a few groups: Generally Awesome Items, Tech Club Ideas, Social Studies Resources, and My Shares.

Generally Awesome Items:

• Tellagami - an iOS app that creates a customized animated character to tell a short story. The example provided by @jcwastler was using the Gamis for flipped faculty meetings.
• Two goals of FedEx PD: Must present a creation the next day (hypothetical conversations do not count). The focus must be on student learning. Show the faculty that what they do has value by filming clips and sharing with students or the community.
• ProfessorWord – turn any website into a study guide for SAT/ACT key vocabulary. It functions similarly to Lingro, except Lingro is for translation and ProfessorWord is focused vocabulary definitions.
• Paper Slide Videos Explained – the style made famous by Common Craft.
• Cycloramic App – take 360 degree picture taken with iPhone 5 vibrate. This might not have tons of education application, but it is a fun find from @thechemmeister.
• There were a ton of other ideas and apps shared at the Smackdown, here is the link to the Smackdown GoogleDoc to see everything. The Smackdown is one of my favorite parts. I liked having it right after lunch, it was a great transition back.

Tech Club Ideas:

• Read the blog of Wes Fryer (@wfryer): Moving at the Speed of Creativity. I loved the opening quote “We need to play with media to become more effective communicators.” I think for the second year of BYOT^4 club, that will be our guiding statement.
• MineCraft – have an older ‘expert’ student lead the design and creation portion. The teacher moderator would just have to walk around the virtual world. It would be interesting to create a MindCraft version of our school or the town of Hershey. There is a MineCraftEdu - and we would need to purchase a license.
• LiveCode with RunRev.com – the download allows coding for apps, games, eBooks, and comics. This would appeal to the group of club students who are very interested in coding. Maybe we could run a club session that has some students coding and some students doing other activities.
• Scratch - I’ve played with Scratch before. There were a ton of resources shared by people to help students successfully use: Scratch Tutorials, MaKey MaKey, Super Scratch Programming Adventure Book, and @ScratchEdTeam on Twitter.

Social Studies Resources: It should not be a surprise that while in the nation’s capitol, there were a large variety of social studies and humanity resources shared.

• National Archives Summer Institute for Teachers - I’m adding this to my personal wish list of PD. 
• Library of Congress Teacher Resources (www.loc.gov/teachers/) – there are so many great resources listed here. I circled the best in the screen shot. Classroom materials can be searched by common core standards or state standards. The Library of Congress has already created sets of Primary Source materials, so teachers do not have to compile all the resources themselves, they can find they already grouped by topic. During a session on Re-envisioning Professional Development, the self-paced online modules from LOC were also shared. The fact they are self-paced means you could get exactly what you needed to out of the lesson.
• Also related to primary sources is DocsTeach.org. The website pulls the primary source resources from the National Archives and makes them more classroom friendly. There are also lessons created by others to share the documents with students.
• PenPalNews – it is as the name implies. Students communicate around current events with students from around the world. It is a six week program for middle school or high school students.
• C SPAN Student CAM Contest – video contest for 6th to 12th grade students. They themes are social studies in nature. This might not be something I require students to do, but it would have enrichment potential and connect with tech club.
• Mission-US.org – Digital missions that teach students about key moments in American History.
• EDSITEment - their slogan is the best of humanities on the web. They offer resources, scholarly articles, copy right free images, and lessons for teachers based on topic. Searching a topic will pull up across the humanities – not limited to a specific subject, which allows for cross-curriculuar integration.

My Shares:

• I shared formative assessment tools Socrative and Infuse Learning. I’ve previously blogged about how I use them in my classroom and the advantages to each. I’m grateful that the people in the session were willing to play along and answer silly questions for the demos.
• BYOT^4 is our after school Tech Club – specifically Bring Your Own Tech, Tips, Tricks, and Tools. This is the link to the club website and blog. I also recently reflected on my blog on the successes this year and things that could improve for next year.
• Sketch Nation App – students create their own Doodle Jump Style game. If you are creative with the naming of the power ups or death objects, it can become a review game. The disadvantage is it does not share across devices.
• Aurasma App – Create Augmented Reality games using images instead of QR Codes. At EdCamp Philly I saw a school create a Latin game around their campus. Sometimes the images just triggered the Latin translation other times it was Latin history. The projects were overseen by Giselle Furlonge. Words cannot describe how amazing this was and the engagement level of the students who were presenting.
• Aris App – Another way to create Augmented Reality games – this is based on GPS. I created one for around town (which was our Spanish topic), as students visited different places in the community they picked up different objects.
• Copy - like DropBox – but currently easier to get extra space in the Cloud. You get 5 GB just for clicking the link, signing up, and downloading app. Once you sign up you get your own link to share and gain more space. I always need ways for students to submit projects and movies – this is my new solution. If you decide you don’t like it, you can always delete it later. It is free, so there is no risk.
• Educreations and Explain Everything as screen casting apps for the iPad. I love both, but for different reasons. Educreations gives you student accounts that are connected to the teacher; these accounts do NOT require email for the students. Explain Everything allows you to save your work and re-record the audio for individual slides.
• Fotobabble and Pixntell- both let you upload or take a picture and add spoken comments. Fotobabble is a single image. Pixntell will allow up to 5 pictures with the free account. The end result of Pixntell is rolled together into a movie that can be shared. I love both tools and find creative ways to use both. Like having students complete the homework than take a picture of the homework and explain how they did, what they enjoyed, what they struggled with, etc.

Of course EdCamps would not be successful without the passionate sharing of educators – I created a Twitter Group for EdCampMetroDC because I hope to continue sharing ideas and stories with many of those I met. Some of the best take-aways and inspiration to finish the year off strong came through the informal conversations while sitting outside enjoying the spring. I think laughter and sunshine are catalysts for great ideas. In honor of those moments I offer the following hashtags:

#TeachersHavingFun #EdCampNorms #buffaloshrimp #awesome

Learning Opportunity

Harrisburg U with a view (and the most awesome chandeliers)

My professional life has come full circle. In July 2009, I took LTMS600 and loved every minute and every lesson learned. I created my blog after learning about blogging and seeing the potential for public reflection and connection. Since I took LTMS600, my blog has had 25,000+ views. My first blog posts were all related to the tools and content of the course. Now I am [potentially] teaching two sessions of LTMS600 this summer at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

The official details are on the HU website: Course Description (page 198) & Summer Schedule (page 12-13).

However, I think their description is vague. I want to clearly explain what to expect of the course, because it is a great summer learning opportunity. I can say this with confidence as both a former student and the current professor.

LTMS600.01 is offered face-to-face at Harrisburg University and synchronously online (LTMS600.02). The University lists the course as lasting 15 weeks, but who wants to invest that much of their summer for a graduate course? The course will meet synchronously one week than asynchronously for the next two weeks. That means there will be assignments, readings, and reflections, but they can be completed at any point during those two weeks. By not having mandatory classroom time, it will free up more time to play with the new tools. So, instead of meeting every Wednesday through the summer, the required Wednesday meeting times are May 8, May 29, June 19, July 10, July 31, and August 14.

LTMS600.03 will meet at Harrisburg University every other Saturday starting mid-May:  May 18, June 1, June 15, June 29, July 13,  July 27, and August 10.

When I thought I was going to teach the Fall section of the class, I created an iMovie trailer to showcase the course.

The goal of the course is for educators to learn about educational technology. The target audience for the course is between basic user to borderline advanced. Basic users would benefit from the opportunity to take the class in a classroom. Teachers need to learn how technology can improve their practice and professional collaboration with social media, blogs, and digital curation tools. The course will also discuss the legal issues and teaching philosophies that have come about with the new technology and with so much information being published online. Obviously the biggest portion of the class is Web 2.0 tools that can be utilized in the classroom. The tools and skills are not limited to one subject area, they can be applied across content areas.

The summative project is taking something that is done in the classroom and turning up the H.E.A.T. (Higher Order Thinking, Engagement, Authentic Assessment, and Technology). It was interesting looking back on my project: Backchannel Chat en Español. In a few years, the tools I said I would use have changed. The tools have either gone from free to paid subscription, or educational friendly to full of inappropriate ads. I still like the project, it has just transformed to adapt with the current tools.

 

If you know anyone who might benefit (including yourself) – this has been my shameless plug for Web 2.0 in the Classroom. Your location does not matter too much, as long as you can occasionally connect online between 6-9pm EST. For more information check out HU or contact me through Twitter @SrtaLisa.

Apple Flavored Kool-Aid

Have I drunk the Apple flavored Kool-Aid? And would it be such a bad thing if I had? It started gradually when I wanted to understand what the students used to study and entertain themselves. I bough the iPod Touch 2nd Generation when it first came out. I loved the simple ability to connect to wi-fi. For people with smartphones this is a ability that is often taken for granted. I learned the advantages and disadvantages of having a small computing device, all conveniently located in a pocket. I am not proclaiming all advantages for Apple, in fact I heard a great presentation at PETE&C about Android Tablets in education. I believe the advantage is for the user to be familiar with the tools they utilize.

Last year I joined the smartphone ranks which was quickly extended to include an iPad. My primary focus was to figure out how to integrate it into the classroom. However, once I used it personally, the devices became more natural. To complete the circle, for next school year my laptop might get traded in, and traded up, for an MacBook Pro. Secretly I am most excited about iBooks Author. I love creating for the classroom. Pre-iBooks, I created my digital Techbook using the website creator Weebly. I went with Weebly because it automatically created a mobile version of the website that students could view from any device.

There are so possibilities to make the content more friendly for student devices. To get excited about the potential, I checked out a PETE&C session called Throw an iBook at Them. I’ve already read the online version of iBooks Author for Dummies. However, the recent review of the newest version of iBooks Author still does not allow the viewing of iBooks on iPod Touches or iPhones. I would continue using the 3rd party Book Creator app. The disadvantage of iBooks Creator is that students can not highlight and leave notes in the finished iBooks. The final product is still visually pleasing and professional looking, like the example I created to introduce BYOT and students are able to view from the smaller (and currently more popular) mobile devices. Apple needs to realize the educational market is not just limited to iPads.

BYOT with Fotobabble/Educreations

What does BYOT actually look like? I know there is not a single correct answer, but this is the reality in my room: The majority of students (75% or more) have a device that can connect over wi-fi and text. Most of those are smartphones or iPod Touches. There are a handful of Android devices (2-3 per class) and everything else is iOS. In all 6 sections of my class, only 2 students bring their own laptop. An interesting observation about students who bring tablets (iPads, iPad Minis, Kindle Fire, etc) – they tend to share the device with another family member, so they do not have it everyday. However, they tend to have a secondary device like an iPod Touch. The chart is an estimate and does not represent definitive numbers, especially since so many students rotate through which device they have during the week.

Now you can visualize the number and type of devices, so let’s discuss lessons. The goal for yesterday’s lesson was to have the students explain their understanding of Spanish definite and indefinite articles. It is a minor topic, but it is interwoven throughout our larger clothing unit.

I suggested two iOS apps for the students: Fotobabble and Educreations (only for the iPad users). Fotobabble is a free iOS app and website. One student ran into problems because her iOS was too outdated to install the app. Educreations is also free, but it is a screencasting app for iPads/iPad minis. The students with Android devices found an app that would add audio to a photo, which was the production goal. They (Android users) are more responsible for finding their own tools. However, as long as the teacher provides specific expectations for the learning and production, they are generally successful and help each other.

All the students were partnered up. Every group had at least one device that could complete the task. They began by creating a visual to explain either definite or indefinite articles. After creating the image, they took a picture with Fotobabble and recorded audio of them explaining the topic. Their finished products were shared on Edmodo. The difference for students using Educreations, they could create their visual by drawing on the screen. It is surprising how the little things really excite students, but it should not be a surprise because they love low-tech whiteboards too. Educreations allows teachers to set up a class and provide students with a code, which links their account directly to the teacher, and does not require an email. I love this feature.

To really understand how this works, you need to envision the learning environment. I model sharing by lending out my own personal devices (which is less of a leap of faith now that I can set Guided Access in the Accessibility Settings). Students are willing to pair up. They share responsibility, turns, devices, and knowledge. It is not the haves vs. the have nots. It is a single class.

The way I give directions has changed. I give specific and detailed instructions for the learning goal. For the technology I am intentionally vague. Nine and a half out of ten groups will figure it out instantly, almost instinctively. The one group that needs guidance knows they can ask without fear or reprimand or ridicule. They are comfortable asking another student too, which frees me up to help with content questions. I see this as a life lesson. The technology and tools are changing rapidly and radically. Students (and teachers) can not be expected to master every single tool we use, but we need to be able to use logic and play to figure out a wide range of tools. Some purists would argue that I should not even recommend optional tools, but I think that is too extreme for middle school. If students find something they prefer, of course they many use their own tool as long as it will meet the objective.

Reflection for yesterday’s lesson: It was organized chaos, but if you listened to the noise, you heard happy and engaged voices. Two classes embraced the task, yet they interpreted the directions differently and produced two different styles of the end product. This is perfectly fine since both satisfied the learning goal. One class did not get to participate in the activity. They were distracted by their devices during the direction portion of class, and after multiple re-directs, the task was pulled. They had an alternative task that did not involve random pictures of their eye balls.

¿Qué lleva el Gingerbread Man?

The success in one class is multiplied by the fact that it is hard to get them all on task and excited. They want to do something similar again, and I am already brainstorming how to incorporate Fotobabble and Educreations in the future. I think it would be entertaining and educational to have them draw an outfit on a Gingerbread Man-esq figure. I will provide them the digital copy to use and/or a paper copy. From previous activities they know how to Save an Image, Upload it to DoodleBuddy, and Draw. The digital picture can be saved and uploaded to Fotobabble. Or they could draw on paper and take a digital picture after they are done. Once they have a picture of the outfit, they would need to use the microphone to describe it in detail in Spanish. This would be a great formative assessment leading up to the summative Fashion Show.

How quickly the technology changes

I think using student response systems as a formative assessment is pedagogically sound. I don’t want to say that I jump on the technology bandwagons, but I do like to explore the constantly evolving tech landscape. In the past five years there have been numerous systems in place: ActiVotes, ActivExpressions, ActivEngage, Socrative, and finally Infuse Learning. Yes, in five years I have had five different tools for formative assessment. The first three changes were out of my control. The first two, ActiVotes and ActivExpressions, were physical devices that we kept on the desks in cute baskets. The ActivEngage was a program that had to be installed on the student netbooks.

After those were redistributed to other teachers, I had to find my own solution. I found and fell in love with Socrative. I have supplemented my use of Socrative with the extra question options in Infuse Learning. Socrative is web based, but there is an iOS app that makes it easy for students to use. Infuse Learning is just web based with a mobile friendly (but not Internet Explorer friendly) website.

There is a great blog post by Bob Deneau that compares the features of Socrative and Infuse Learning. His conclusion was that both are great tools and the final decision comes down to teacher preference. I’m taking the analysis a step further and I’m saying that the benefit of the tool can be determined on a task-by-task basis.

Socrative wins in my book for the ease of access. The wi-fi network slows down at inconvenient times during the day. The app is direct; the students do not have to log in to a netbook and go through a series of links to arrive at Socrative. Instead, they can access it in a single click on their own device.

I also love the ease of creating quizzes and re-using them for multiple classes on Socrative. I even leave practice quizzes overnight so students can use it to study on their own time. I do wish that multiple choice answers could be duplicated with a single click. Frequently I want the same possibilities for multiple questions.

Infuse Learning wins for the layers of options. On top of the multiple choice questions and short answers that Socrative offers, they also have draw response, true/false*, sort & order*, numeric, and Likert scale*. The starred* options offer sub choices. For example, true/falso questions can also include IDK. That way responses are not skewed for lucky guesses. The Likert scale offers the option for a confidence poll, which I like to use after new material is presented.

The coolest option by far is drawing. This can not be part of a programmed quiz, but it is perfect for on the fly formative assessment. It is easiest with a touch screen device, but can be done with less artist flare using a netbook touchpad.

The activity where I first tried incorporating the drawing on Infuse Learning was the clothing unit. My students were using a variety of devices – including just the mouse pad on a netbook. These are images of students responses from yesterday’s activity. There was a variety of artistic skills displayed, but they all achieved the learning goal of demonstrating understanding of vocabulary for clothing and a review of colors and adjectives. I’ve used traditional whiteboards, but did not have enough for each student and we were limited to a couple colors. Using Infuse Learning, I see the response from every single student in a wide variety of colors. They were so proud of their work. The laughter over some of the pictures made the learning environment positive and amusing. No one was ashamed of their work because it was challenging to use a mouse pad on the net books. There was some frustration with the slowness of the wi-fi signal or the delays on the website. At one point everyone was kicked off and had to log back in to the room. The positives far outweighed the negatives.

The clothing vocabulary practice went so well with my 6th grade Spanish students that I decided to try it with 8th grade since we had an extra 10 minutes after a quiz. They illustrated an entire phrase, which raised the level of complexity (and also humor.) I liked that I was able to be spontaneous; there was no pre planning necessary. I know I could set things up ahead of time, but many times formative assessment is based on what is going on in the moment.