Here is a summary of a phone conversation I had with Shelly Humer, biology teacher at Elizabethtown High School. My prompts are in bold with Shelly's responses below. Prior to the summarized interview transcript is what I learned from the conversation in green text.
It was nice speaking to someone else who uses technology in the classroom. In my department, there are a few who readily and often use cell phones, but I wanted to speak to someone outside my own district. Shelly teaches biology at Elizabethtown High School. I learned that in a similar high school science classroom like mine, technology tends to be used in similar ways. Kahoot is an example of how cell phones can be used to quickly assess where students are. I, too, like to use websites like Kahoot and Quizizz for this purpose. I don't usually find that school policy prohibits cell phone use altogether. Interestingly, Shelly's school is nearly the opposite of mine. My students are allowed to have their phones in the hallway, but are not supposed to use them in class unless the teacher OKs it. Shelly's school does not allow them in the hall. It gives me insight into what battles administrators decide to fight with cell phone use. Shelly's experience with parents is also similar to mine. I am usually met with positive parental feedback, if at all, unless a parent encourages me to take their child's phone due to poor grades. I have had this happen. In some ways this validates my own level of cell phone use. I feel that I am not a dinosaur when it comes to technology use in the classroom. At the same time, it reminds me that there is room for improvement. Part of being a teacher is evaluating techniques and adopting them if they benefit the students. What is your school's policy regarding cell phones? School policy says that cell phone use is up to the discretion of the teacher. There is separate wireless for BYODs where they must log in using their own student information. Some teachers are against it and some are for it. Cell phones are not allowed to be used in the hallway. So, how have you used phones in the classroom? I have used Twitter for homework or questions. I have also tried Kahoot in class for quick formative assessments. My students will also use their phones to take photos or videos during labs. I like to have them use a "StopMotionStudio" app to make stop motion videos for mitosis and meiosis. Many of my students will use Google Docs on their phones which allows them to quickly share certain projects with me. What has been your experience with parental involvement and feedback for student use of cell phones? In general, parents don't get that involved. They can also follow my Twitter which would give them access to homework reminders. The little feedback that I have gotten is that they appreciate technology being used in the classroom. They appreciate me having their students use cell phones for non-social uses. What technical challenges have you faced in trying to use cell phones in class? Obviously when wireless is down, but they can always use their data. I don't like having them use their personal data because it could cause them to go over their data limit, and I don't want to be responsible for that. Anything we do on cell phones can be done on shared classroom iPads. Sometimes students are using non-approved apps on their phones such as Snapchat. Like any other disciplinary issue, if they abuse it, the privilege is lost and they might have to do the assignment at home. Have you encountered anything you would consider as a policy issue? No, I don't think so. Cell phone use is up to the teacher, so you don't have to get special approval or anything. What have you learned from the experience? I learned that I don't like Twitter. Some students are like, "oh, hey Mrs. Humer" and it isn't being used in an appropriate way. I really like Kahoot because I can see where students are in a quick fashion. We don’t have to log in to computers, so it's very fast. I've learned that students appreciate it and are not as distracted by their cell phones as I thought they would be. And since they don't use it in every classroom, there is a novelty aspect to it in my class.
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This week, I experimented with three new Web 2.0 tools: Mentimeter, StoryboardThat, and Padlet. Here is my review of each with comments on how I have or might use them in the classroom. Mentimeter I took a stab in the dark and decided to look at Mentimeter. It was recommended by Kathy Schrock's guide to everything under Online Survey/Feedback tools. Each year I survey students on my performance and one comment I get a lot is to provide more feedback, so perhaps a tool like this will allow me to meet this need. As I poked around the website, my first impression was that this was very similar to Nearpod, which is something I use a lot in my anatomy and physiology courses. I teach in a rotational model with my A&P sections and Nearpod allows me to present material to only a small subset of my students. It also has a great way of embedding quizzes and poll questions within the presentation as a means of formatively assessing students and providing feedback. So the question was, do Nearpod and Mentimeter occupy the same space in terms of capability? If so, I should only determine if this is so and then leave Mentimeter out of my instruction as I am already invested and accustomed to Nearpod. I was pleased to find that Mentimeter has some very cool features that I may use in my classroom. Firstly, it has a wider range of question types that are embeddable into the Mentimeter presentations than Nearpod. My favorite is the 2 by 2 matrix. This is great way for students to evaluate information. For example, I created a 2 by 2 matrix to have students evaluate four websites I commonly have them use as resources for a respiratory disorder project; a clip of the matrix question is below. They also have quirky question templates like "Who will win?" in which you add three contestants and let students vote on the victor. This might be a great way to inject a little fun into presentations. In a lesson on ecological relationships, it would be a hoot to have trophic level battles by asking which of three common predators would 'win' in a battle royale. The humor might continue into battles for the primary consumer level (i.e. herbivores) and even producers (i.e. plants). Two more templates that separate Mentimeter from Nearpod that I fancy are the "image choice" and "scales." The image choice question lets students vote on images. It might be an interesting way to look at psychological and stylistic biases. I often talk about how humans are pattern seekers and are 'programmed' to see faces when they are not really there. An image-based multiple choice showing objects where faces could be interpreted would be fun to add to that discussion. This would be great to show the rule of thirds preference, too. I would set up a series of image choice questions with two options. One option would be a subject in the center or edge of the frame and the other would place the subject according to the rule of thirds. Again, this would be a fun way to create an interactive discussion on our cognitive biases. Mentimeter is a freemium-style application. The free version is limited, but not enough to warrant my purchase of the basic or pro versions. In the free version I am allowed to make an unlimited number of quizzes, but can only add two questions per quiz before they limit the type of quiz questions asked to a simple multiple choice type. I believe this would suit my needs in the short term. I could also get creative and create several two-question quizzes and use them consecutively in order to use the more interesting question types. The basic paid version is eight dollars per month. I pay eight dollars for an entire year's subscription to Zipgrade which I use at least three or four times per week. Mentimeter checks almost all of my criteria for educational Web 2.0 tools except when it comes to cost. StoryboardThat Several years ago, I decided to allow students to make a video that demonstrates their understanding of geological concepts instead of taking a traditional paper-pencil assessment. One of the most successful videos made was one where Invader Zim was the main character. The student animated the entire project and used Sony Vegas, a video editor, to bring it to life. Importantly, this student utilized storyboarding before she did the computer work. I was inspired and began suggesting students do a storyboard before the video, but very few took me up on it. I did not make it a mandatory part of the project as I believe it is important that students have some choice in how they draft and arrive at a final product. My initial hopes are to use StoryboardThat as a way to incentivize using it as a creative process to improve the student's final product and perhaps learn a new skill. Some of the newer Web 2.0 tools that I have used have amazed me with their simplicity. I love when students do not even have to sign up. These are usually code-based, where the student uses a teacher-provided code and their digital footprint is often anonymous and represented by an avatar and a computer-generated name. I like this ease of use, but with a creative tool like StoryboardThat, having a dedicated login makes sense. After all, students would likely start a project and continue revising it over the course of a week or more. StoryboardThat has a surprisingly robust editor where students can make comic book-like scenes. There appear to be hundreds of characters from all sorts of genres…I mean, Greek mythology is a category from which to choose characters! For my more creative students, they would really appreciate the choice. The web tool feels an awful lot like making a PowerPoint slide, which is a good thing. The learning curve on StoryboardThat would be quite low for my students and that means they could get started quickly and be producing high-quality work in very little time. One of the most important things I looked for was a community library of searchable material. There does not exist one. After making a sample storyboard, I saw that you can change the privacy settings from a fully protected "class only" designation to "public" which means anyone with the link can access. This level of privacy is probably a good thing, but it limits it as a tool for me to use to find and display the creative works of others. For example, I might like to show a well-made storyboard on the topic of volcanoes as an alternative to showing students a video. This issue is a minor one as this web tool is clearly about getting students in the driver seat and having them create. That is exactly how I would use this resource in my class. This may be a useful way to get students accustomed to presenting material to their peers. I would ask students to make a storyboard that contained scenes and characters with speech or thought bubbles but without any text. The dialogue of the characters must be performed by the students as they stand at the front of class. For 9th grade students presenting is often just reading verbatim from PowerPoint slides. This way, the students might appreciate the idea of presenting visuals for an audience to see, while expecting the talking from the presenter. I would ask students to consider this as we graduate to more traditional format of presenting their ideas or information they have found. The negative aspect of this tool is that it is not free or even a freemium style. I would prefer a completely free version with limited scenes and character options to use indefinitely. However, just because this is the first time I have heard of this useful tool does not mean my district has not already paid for it. This is something that occurred to me with ActivelyLearn, as my district recently paid for the license but had not yet advertised that fact to its high school teachers. I also was disheartened to find that lesson plans exist for numerous topics but not science. Digital storytelling like the kind possible in StoryboardThat should certainly be integrated into STEM subjects! Here is a copy of the body of an email message I sent to the company: I first would like to thank you for creating a truly inspiring product. I am a high school science teacher looking for ways my students can create original products they can be proud of. Clearly, as a creative tool, your product is simple to use and my students could very easily make use of it. But I sighed when I saw your Teacher Guides and Lesson Plans feature was lacking any STEM support. Digital storytelling is something not often linked to science content, but I would like to see more of it. As a user, and often purchaser, of Web 2.0 tools for education, I would love to see some lesson plans for STEM topics in the future. The next day, here is the response email from Brett at StoryboardThat. Hi Marshall, Thanks for your feedback. We agree! We are planning on adding more STEM content in the future, so stay tuned :) Best, Brett Padlet A teacher down the hall from me uses Padlet occasionally. She has mentioned it but I had not taken a closer look until this past week. As time with my anatomy and physiology classes came to a close with the end of our 3rd marking period, I decided to use Padlet as a way to see what health-related careers my students were interested in. I provided a link to a website full of new videos outlining what it is like to be in a healthcare job. I asked students to watch three of them and then choose their favorite. They were then to post on the Padlet wall 1) the career they chose, 2) a brief list of duties that the profession would require on the day-to-day, and 3) the education and time requirements to become a person in this field. I believe it was a way for students to view things they were interested in and the Padlet wall was a very quick and easy way for the students to demonstrate what they learned. The beauty of it was that the results were viewable by all students. This way, one student who summarized the information for a nurse practitioner was able to also get some information on being a phlebotomist even though she didn't have the time to watch that video. I included a clipped image of some of the notes from this particular Padlet wall. The names of my students have been blacked out. One thing I did not like was that the notes students posted were all over the place. I was not hoping to get any particular order on screen but I found myself managing the notes and trying to spread them apart after they were created. It was only later that I found the "grid" setting which automatically organized the notes into columns. However, the idea of being able to stick the note anywhere on screen has a lot of potential in my classroom. I could use this to have a 'silent' debate in which I have students post their position on a controversial topic in science. Where at student stands on the issue could be represented as an area to the left or right of the screen. For example, I typically do a debate with my 9th graders on systems of measurement and whether they are for the metric or imperial system. I usually ask them to physically move to one side of the room or the other depending on their position. The debate gets deeper than that simple question, but I could use Padlet as the space where they could post and support their position. In the settings, I see that I can even give the option to have students comment on the notes, which could add to the debate. The ability to organize the notes into a stream similar to a discussion thread is another nice feature which I could utilize in the classroom. One idea I have is to play a version of six degrees of separation as a vocabulary exercise. As a means of review, I would provide students with a list of all vocabulary terms from a unit. I would start the stream by adding a vocabulary term and then ask students to add the next term in the stream which connects in some way to the first term. Of course, the students must explain how the chosen term connects to the first. We would continue until it becomes quite difficult to connect the more disparate terms. It might be fun to have incentives for whittling the total list down to a certain number, or for connecting an especially 'isolated' term. Overall, I think Padlet is a fantastically simple tool to use in the classroom. Its simplicity and ease of use is what makes it easy to use it creatively as a teacher. For this blog post, I am reviewing three tools: tinyURL, QR Codes from Delivr.com, and the Printliminator. The samples of what I've produced are at the bottom of the blog post. I have used web address shorteners before, but tinyURL is super-fast and easy. I updated several of my assignments to include shortened URLs so students could get to the required links quickly. My one complaint is that it is sometimes difficult to create simple URLs as many are already taken. This may require the use of numbers or codifying a simple series of words in order to make the resulting URL as short as possible but also easy to remember. I recall seeing QR codes when I got my teaching degree 5 or 6 years ago. I feel that they have gone by the wayside in education, but I do like them for personal use. For example, I printed the QR code that links to ScienceNewsforStudents.org and taped it to my bathroom mirror. This way, I could get a reminder to scan the code each morning and search for an interesting science news story to share with my students. I would also find it fun to use a QR code to link to a daily puzzle to stimulate the mind. In fact, I would consider posting something like that in my classroom to use as a starter for students or as an option for students who complete their work early. I do not know how I have never head of Printliminator. I frequently wish to print out articles from the web but it always seems to come along with some ads from the website margins or with the website title obnoxiously occupying a third of the printed page. Highlight a website component and X it by clicking enter...I love it! 1. My course website: http://tinyurl.com/TradBio2 2. QR Code to ScienceNewsforStudents.org 3. The Printliminator
In this post I seek to explore the usability of one Web 2.0 tool from each of three categories, Social, Creative, and Curation. In these categories respectively, I have chosen Twitter, PiratePad, and Symbaloo.
The Twitter website is a lot like other news sites or apps with featured 'tweets' relating to pop culture, sports, news, etc. The blurbs are then curated and, based on algorithms, featured on the site. The biggest difference is that the 'tweets' are generated by people and institutions instead of produced by the outlet itself. This is the distinction between sites like BuzzFeed, who have a staff of writers, and Twitter (…and SnapChat, and Instagram, and Tumblr…) who let everyone do the talking. It is a powerful medium. My impression of the website, or more prudently the app, is one of respectful declination. I respect Twitter for what it is and the instrument of global connectivity, education and change that it can be. However, I choose not to participate as an author of content or as a consumer. In fact, I don't publish my opinions online anywhere (except perhaps as a data provider of internet browsing and purchasing history, though reluctantly). Back in 2008, before Twitter could boast 1 million users, Grosseck & Holotescu theorized educational uses for Twitter include collaborating across schools, assessing opinions, fostering interaction about a given topic, and facilitating virtual classroom discussions. This article seems so out of date now. This article even pre-dates the common vernacular of the tweet. Grosseck & Holotescu amusingly refer to the act of using Twitter as "Twittering." More recently, doubts have been cast as to whether Twitter truly has educative power. Dhir et al (2013) and Raes et al. (2016) found that students generally have high expectations about Twitter in higher education. However, when asked about their experience using Twitter, only a moderate preference exists. One reason for this is the 'faded borders' between education and private life, which is a transition that students in the Raes et al. study did not like. A meta-analysis on using Twitter in education found that causality between Twitter use and learning performance remains to be established (Tang & Hew, 2017). I do find it fascinating how some have used Twitter to mine opinions for data. For example, in 2016, McGovern et. Al, analyzed more than 8,000 tweets which contained the keyword CPR to assess the public sentiment regarding CPR education to improve the training itself. So, one way I might use Twitter would be to introduce students to this kind of data-mining, and to perhaps ask research-oriented science students to propose and carry out similar studies on questions of their own. PiratePad PiratePad is a simple live real-time notepad for participants to type collaboratively. Sounds a lot like Google Docs doesn't it? Except, there is a single important difference…different members automatically have a different text-color. Why Google Docs doesn't support this is beyond my comprehension. This allows teachers to know exactly who contributed what to a collaborative document without the tedium of reviewing the search history. It is a great tool for students to track their own contributions and there are no sign-ins or accounts…simple. I used this once by the request of a workshop facilitator at my local IU. This tool would be great for creative projects in any class. Have three people write a poem where each writes one or two stanzas independently and then organize them after composing for artistic impact. Or for a daily review, assign a letter of the alphabet to a group of students, ask them to choose a word that best describes a theme of the day's lesson and support their choice. Another option would be to have students use it as a brainstorming tool prior to starting a project. The teacher can easily see who is taking leadership roles within a group and could use it as a means to give roles. I might use PiratePad as a live Q&A support system for studying students over weekends or during the lead-up to final exam week. Students could drop in to ask their questions and myself or other students could answer. Group studying is something for which I have long advocated but for which I felt I didn't have a user-friendly tool. Symbaloo Symbaloo is something that I have heard of but never used or learned much about. It is quite a visually appealing website. It appears that symbaloo took the idea of smartphone app styling and grouping and applied it to the bookmarking of websites…smart! Though not manipulated in the same way as an iPhone, you can create groups of tiles of a similar theme or subject called 'webmixes.' This would be a necessity for me as I would like to curate websites by topic. I wanted to know how others might use Symbaloo though, as my lack of creativity only sees it as a hub location for websites on my professional teacher website. Mimi, on theedublogger.com, highlighted 11 ways to use Symbaloo. Many overlap in terms of their goal or content, but some are interesting and add usability in the classroom. For example, she suggests having students use it to manage their most-used websites. As a high school teacher, I can attest that this is a skill that students have not learned intuitively. Most use the school district website as their default webpage (not a bad choice), but it could be so much more convenient for them to have a link to their email, to all of their teacher websites or Schoology pages, and perhaps a webmix of their favorite 'free-time' websites. Having this compartmentalization on their screen might help them realize they should do the same with their time in life. I also love her suggestion to use Symbaloo as a hub for video playlists and to manage student-produced digital portfolios (Mimi, 2014). A key functionality of Symbaloo is that they allow a webmix to be embedded as a widget into a blog or professional website. It also allows for a Google search bar to take a position among the tiles within the webmix. Although this doesn't seem to prevent students from accessing inappropriate websites, it makes finding the useful ones so efficient that perhaps it would limit 'shenanigans' by limiting the number of frustrated idle hands in the classroom. References Mimi. (2014, April 9). 11 ways to use Symbaloo in the classroom [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.theedublogger.com/2014/04/09/11-ways-to-use-symbaloo-in-the-classroom/ Dhir, A., Buragga, K., & Boreqqah, A. A. (2013). Tweeters on campus: Twitter a learning tool in classroom?. J. UCS, 19(5), 672-691. Grosseck, G., & Holotescu, C. (2008). CAN WE USE TWITTER FOR EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES? . ELSE. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from https://adlunap.ro/eLSE_publications/papers/2008/015.-697.1.Grosseck%20Gabriela-Can%20we%20use.pdf. McGovern, S. K., Blewer, A. L., Murray, A., Leary, M., Abella, B. S., and Merchant, R. M. (2016). Abstract 19063: Characterizing the lay public’s perception of cardiopulmonary resuscitation education through twitter. Circulation. Raes, A., Adams, B., Montrieux, H., & Schellens, T. (2016). Using twitter in higher education: What are students' initial perceptions and experiences? Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Social Media, 324-331. Retrieved March 19, 2017. Tang, Y., & Hew, K. F. (2017). Using Twitter for education: Beneficial or simply a waste of time? Computers & Education, 106, 97-118. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.004 The first time I heard about Class Dojo was in another graduate class from a friend who works at an elementary school in our district. I thought, "what a great tool for managing young student behavior." This goes to show my lack of imagination. I find out this year that a colleague in my department is using it with 10th graders! I had to know more about this as I dismissed this tool already as not appropriate for older students.
Jim Hovan is a biology teacher extraordinaire at Conestoga Valley. He is always pushing and innovating with technology in the classroom. I sat down with him to find out what I could learn from his experience. Marshall: How did you decide to use this tool with your students? Jim: I wanted a way to document behavior without being a pain. The alternative is using communication manager*. Marshall: What obstacles did you encounter while using it and how did you overcome them? Jim: In general I struggle with the 'nanny state' that we deal with in the classroom of having to document every little thing. [With Class Dojo,] it only takes seconds to provide feedback, both positive and negative. Parents and students have instant access to [the feedback]. And when I send a positive badge to a student, the sound it makes lets everyone know somebody got a positive. (Jim demonstrates this to me from his phone, through his stereo speakers in the classroom) Marshall: So, it creates a positive culture? Jim: Yes I think so. You can take photos and send them to parents within the app itself too. There is a feature called "Your Class Story" which could be picture of students working on a lab which would keep parents informed on what's going on in class that day. Marshall: And what about parents? Have you had any obstacles there? Jim: I haven't had any push-back from parents, but to be fair I only have one parent using it so far. Marshall: What advice would you give someone like myself seeking to replicate your efforts? Jim: Give it a shot with one class before rolling it out to all classes. It might not fit all situations and needs. I am still thinking of whether to use the app with traditional sections of Biology. Marshall: Thank you, Jim. Jim: No problem…anytime. My thoughts on using Class Dojo in the high school classroom have certainly changed after my interview with Jim. I would heed his advice and start with only one class to see if it fits with my style and makes an impact. I just had a day with my 9th grade class where they reminded me of such energetic children. I think they might really enjoy the playful atmosphere using the Class Dojo might promote, but more importantly, I think they would really respond well to having immediate positive feedback. Our digital native students are used to getting instant feedback from their technology, but there is more to it than that. We all like to receive responsive, meaningful feedback regardless of our age. *Communication manager is part of our grade management system. We were asked to put all discipline and parent/guardian contact into it. Jim is right…it is time-consuming. |
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