From fire to Google Glass: a technology timeline

I was privileged to spend an hour after school with a group of 2nd year teachers in our district to talk to them about strategies to promote metacognition via the design thinking model.  Before we got into the nitty-gritty of it all, we had a conversation around what the word technology really means and how a new perspective on it can impact our understanding of how to infuse technology into our instruction.  By today's standpoint, we typically think of educational technology as an electronic, computerized, online tool that can be used to enhance and engage students during our instruction.  However, if you really think of the word in the context of the definition, technology really is just something designed/built/created for the purpose of making life better/faster/more efficient.  When you think about it this way, it really opens the doors for conversation on what exactly we are implementing into our instruction because...HINT... it can definitely go beyond computerized tools.  

When you think about the use of the word over time, it makes it seem that technology did not exist before the early 1900's, but that simply cannot be the case from our mindset of what the word really means today.  If technology is anything that has been created to make life and learning more efficient, what items can you think of that belong in the gap of time where the word was virtually non-existent? 

I put the 2nd year teachers to the test (this was an activity that I picked up on in grad school and tweaked a bit).  Their quest was to create a "history of technology"... a tech-timeline if you will... that had them use post-it notes to map out what technologies have improved and directly impacted life and learning over time starting from fire and going all the way to Google Glass.  Here is a snapshot of the task (if you'd like the full lesson I used with students in the past, check it out on Google Docs here).

With a timer of 2 minutes on the board (via eg.gtimer.com), the results were extremely creative and thoughtful as the activity pushed the teachers to think differently on how they viewed technology.  There were post-it's that included...

• slate
• hieroglyphics/development of language
• heater
• toilet
• shoes
• printing press
• ink
• wheel
• dry erase

...and the list went on - it was amazing to see all that could be conjured up within 2 minutes! We stopped our activity with the Tech Timeline there, but if you'd like to do this with students there are definitely numerous talking-points to tie into this to make it something larger (see earlier link for activity on Google Docs).

How can you use this in your classroom?  How can you use this with staff in your building to create a mindset shift on the purpose for integrating technology?

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Presentation Formats that Light Up 21st Century Thinkers

With dozens upon dozens of presentation tools and strategies out there, here are a few tips along with some "hidden gems" that allow students to gain control of their learning experience and coast students into avoiding dull, text-rich presentations.

Letting go of control & honoring choice
For a unit 2 classroom assessment, 8th grade language arts teacher Di Ander found the learning outcomes for her students to be incredibly successful after giving students the reigns to control their learning experience.  The students are given an assessment known as a Real World Experience in which they had to persuade others to support their Not for Profit organization financially. All kids received 5,000 fake dollars to donate to a charity of their choice and present their ideas to their peers. The students were all about integrating technology to have a more powerful 1-2 minute presentation and were very curious of their options on what they could use.

The current teaching and learning shift we are experiencing that places the role of the student  at the center of the learning experience is reshaping relationships between teachers and students.  Something that we all accept as a known fact is that the person who does the work does the learning.  Today's students need to be given an opportunity that takes their own work a step further.  True ownership in learning goes beyond just "doing the work".  Let your students do more learning by providing them with the tools and steps they need to take to be successful, but find a way to honor their choice at the same time.  Choice in note-taking strategy.  Choice in collaboration/communication outlet. Choice in presentation tool. 

"Students need to become contributors to their work.  Shift from the teacher at the center of curriculum, designing tests, to the network of children who are helping one another learn" (Alan November). 

Set your vision, set your goals and parameters, give the students a learning target, and allow them the opportunity to discover how they can accomplish it. Allow students to seek out their own learning.

Di Ander's class at work.

Communicating Effectively: Less is more
Although the style/tool used for student presentations were open to allow for student choice, the vision that Di had in place for the format of presenting was clear.  The students were to follow Pechu Kucha 20x20 - a "simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images" (http://www.pechakucha.org/), or in Di's students' case, 10 images for 20 seconds a piece.  Popular tech-tool students chose for their outlet of accomplishing this included Google Presentation, Prezi, and the newly launched (but still in Beta format) Haiku Deck.

Even though full-class presentations for the most part are becoming less mandatory after an inquiry project than before, it all still depends on what you want students to get out of their learning experience.  In the case of Di's class, not only were they set to master a set of skills/specific standards, they also were coaching one another on how to present information in an effective and engaging matter.  In a sense, they needed to learn how to present to get audience members to care - to see why something they care about matters.

There's a great article called the Latest Annoying PowerPoint Survey Results that details how presentations become annoying, uneffective, and pretty much and overall bore for audience members.  Here's a few take-away items they found:

• The speaker read the slides to us
• Text so small I couldn't read it
• Full sentences instead of bullet points
• Overly complex diagrams
• Poor color choice
• No clear purpose
• No flow of ideas

Catherine Carr of Haiku Deck created the following presentation on how PowerPoints go bad

I implore you all to check out Haiku Deck.  It'll change your world AND 
forever change the way you present information!

Share the awesome learning

If you're doing some awesome learning and you're not sharing, it's selfish. Share your #eduwins with fellow educators in your building or share the wins on social media. Increase traffic to student-centered posts on Twitter by adding #comment4kids.  Either way, share the successes (and share failures... you'd be so surprised to see the amount of incredible educator-strangers that will come to your rescue on Twitter if you ask for help!). Imagine the learning experience for the student who not only just presented on a topic they were passionate about in a way that makes sense for them, but then add on that educators can learn from the experiences of that student online.

Here's an example of Di sharing her eduwins with the outside world.  Note that the student chose to present without notecards and instead used his cell phone as his springboard for notes!

Happy learning!

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Tech Feast is DEAD! Welcome W.E.13!

Coming to Woodridge School District 68 on December 13th, 2013!

What once was our one-day technology inservice, Tech Feast, is now re-branded as W.E. 13: We Engage 2013!  

For the last few months, I have been brainstorming to reinvigorate our December tech feast day into an event that showcases the extreme talent we have in our district. The event will have sessions on tech integration as well as non-tech related best practices used to implement our FOCUS and the ATP. Every session will have explicit connections to one of the 4 C's of 21st Century learning and at least one of the letters of the FOCUS acronym.  We are going beyond learning about tech tools and incorporating strategies for boosting Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity for all students in your classroom!

I encourage you to watch the teaser trailer video below and sign up to present at this event!  To all District 68 administrators and staff: You have ideas worth sharing!  Help make this event a success by signing up to be a one-hour presenter at W.E. 13!  

Sign up information is located on THIS GOOGLE FORM.  Sign up by Nov. 1st to solidify your spot as a presenter at W.E. 13.  Presenters will meet with me for two half-days (one in the beginning of November, and one towards the end) to discuss planning and presentation strategies! 

We Engage 13's theme is the Control Shift.  Here's the idea behind it with a quote from Alan Novembers book, Empowering Students With Technology:

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