Monday, June 16, 2014

Looking Ahead to ISTE 2014

ISTE 2014 is just around the corner and the excitement is building.  If you’ve never been, it’s an educational technology candy store with something for everyone.  This year I’m fortunate to be attending and presenting.  While I’m presenting several times over the four day conference there are two overarching themes that I will be sharing.  These include Making Thinking Visible through Choice, and Building Student Learning Networks to Connect with the World.  For those unable to attend ISTE let me share some of what I plan to share.

Making Thinking Visible Through Choice

I have been extremely fortunate to be in a 1:1 iPad situation for the past two years with my grade one students in Surrey, British Columbia.  This has allowed my students and I to explore different open-ended creative apps for making thinking visible.  Student choice is also key as my young learners often chose how they want to show what they know.  With the larger learning intention in mind, my students pick the tools to practice, show and share their learning.  It helps foster self directed, independent learning at a young age.



Our classroom open-ended creative apps tend to fall into three main categories - documenting with images, documenting with voice, and documenting through stories.

Documenting with Images

At present my students three favourite apps to document with images include PicCollage, Skitch, and Poplet lite.  These free apps allow my students to show what they know through images.  Specifically, PicCollage allows my students to arrange images to demonstrate a concept. They can create their own images in another app or with a photo of their non digital work and then combined their ideas together into a collage.  Text can be added to the collage.  Skitch allows my students to add text and arrows to further explain what their image is demonstrating.   Popplet lite allows my students to create a graphic organizer with images and/or text to show information about and/or relationships of concepts.

Documenting with Voice

With the introduction of technology and more specifically the ability to record voice my students now have many ways to add voice to their digital and non digital creations. Some of the tools they can choose from include Croak.it, AudioBoo, Tellagami, Chatterpix, Draw and Tell, Educreations, and Explain Everything .

Croak.it allows you to record up to 30 seconds of voice. You then receive a unique link which can be shared with parents via email, or can be used to create a QR code to add to a student creation.  Tellagami, and Chatterpix are fun ways to add voice directly to an image.  Tellagami creates an avatar and the student records what the avatar should say to explain the learning behind the image.  Chatterpix adds a mouth to an image so it looks like the image is talking.  Draw and Tell, Educreations, and Explain Everything are three similar but different screen casting apps.  Each are chosen for different reasons to show learning.

Documenting with Stories

Stories can be shared in many different formats. Typically my students share their stories in book, movie, or presentation form.  Our favourite book creating apps include My Story  and Book Creator.  In these apps my students create both fiction and non-fiction books to show/share their knowledge.   Movie making is also extremely popular. iMovie is very popular. Other tools we’ve explored to share in video form include 30 Hands, GreenScreen  , and iMotionHD.  Haiku Deck is another excellent and easy to use tool to share a story.

You can find me sharing making thinking visible through student choice during the following ISTE sessions.

Primary kids can! Let's tweet, blog, or Skype to connect [Poster Session]
Saturday, June 28, 7:00 pm–8:30 pm
GWCC Murphy Ballroom Galleria, Table 21
Genius hour 20% time: Best practices inspire creativity not chaos [Panel]
Sunday, June 29, 12:45 pm–1:45 pm
GWCC Sidney Marcus Auditorium

With iPads you're never too young! Capture, create, document and share [$ Workshop]
Sunday, June 29, 4:30 pm–7:30 pm
GWCC A406/407
Making Thinking Visible with iPads and Young Learners [Presentation]
Interactive playground featuring iTunes U, iBooks Author and iPad
Tuesday, July 1, 9:00 am–1:00 pm (9:30 am presentation, 10 - 11 app exploration)
GWCC Building B, Level 3 (near Room B313)

Visible thinking: BYOD tools for quality questioning and formative assessment [BYOD]
Tuesday, July 1, 1:15 pm–2:15 pm
GWCC A402/403

Building Student Learning Networks to Connect with the World

Building student learning networks to connect and learn with the world is another one of my greatest passions these days. I am always looking for ways to connect, learn and share with colleagues.  I want the same for my students too. Some of the ways I do this with/for my students is through blogs, twitter, video conferencing, and co-creation.



Blogs

I maintain a class blog (with help from my students) and my students maintain their own individual blogs.  Both blogs are open to the world to read and comment on.  Commenting is one way we connect with others as we visit other class blogs and learn with them.  

Twitter

We use Twitter to share our learning. The simple fact that we share on twitter invites others to learn along with us. We create hashtags such as #lrrh13 to tweet in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, or #2d3dshapes to share facts and clues about two and three dimensional shapes.  We tweet from a class account @MsLsClass and invite others to join along and learn with us.  We’ve met and connected with many classes from around the world through sharing on twitter.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing has been another way for my students to expand their learning communities and connect with the world.  My students have learned with other classes, app developers, various experts, and authors. They have also used video conferencing to teach others.

Co-Creation

Co-Creation is yet another way my students connect and learn with others.  We have used the iPad app Book Creator in conjunction with Dropbox to co-create stories.  We’ve used iMovie and dropbox to co-create movies with other classes around the world.  This fall we invited classes from around North America to submit to our two global read aloud projects.  Co-creation is another way to connect with children beyond the physical classroom.

You can find me sharing building student learning networks to connect with the world during the following ISTE sessions.

Primary kids can! Let's tweet, blog, or Skype to connect [Poster Session]
Saturday, June 28, 7:00 pm–8:30 pm
GWCC Murphy Ballroom Galleria, Table 21

Building Student Learning Networks in the Early Years [Presentation]
Little learners, technologies and big learning -- come play in our playground
Sunday, June 29, 12:30 pm–4:00 pm [2:30 presentation]
GWCC Building B, Level 3 (near Room B313)

With iPads you're never too young! Capture, create, document and share [$ Workshop]
Sunday, June 29, 4:30 pm–7:30 pm
GWCC A406/407
Making Thinking Visible with iPads and Young Learners [Presentation]
Interactive playground featuring iTunes U, iBooks Author and iPad
Tuesday, July 1, 9:00 am–1:00 pm (9:30 am presentation, 10 - 11 app exploration)
GWCC Building B, Level 3 (near Room B313)

Visible thinking: BYOD tools for quality questioning and formative assessment [BYOD]
Tuesday, July 1, 1:15 pm–2:15 pm
GWCC A402/403


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right

 When things aren't working in my classroom, I take a step back, reflect, reassess, and then try a  different approach.  Sometimes the new approach works, other times it doesn't and I repeat the process again.  In all cases though my goal is for student success.   I'd love to apply this to the labour negotiations BC teachers are in the middle of.


Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Early Primary Maker Space Resources

Last week I was given time to work on a primary maker space resource for my school district. After crowd sourcing on twitter and google plus, and checking out blog posts and websites I created the beginning of such resource.  It can be found on my district website here.

I have continued the journey (with hopes in the future I will be able to add it to my district resource as well) on a Google Doc which I've made public to the world.  If you are an early years teacher who has been dabbling in the maker movement I'd love some feedback from you as well.  While the document I've created is not editable to anyone other than myself, the comment feature is open to all. Please feel free to add ideas, suggestions, or feedback to the document.  My goal is to create a comprehensive one stop document for early primary teachers.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

Here is the link to my Early Primary Maker Space Resources