Thursday, October 29, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Get rid of unwanted emails with unroll.me
This morning I got into work and checked my email, a regular first of the day occurrence for many people, usually followed with some dread, not from their respective employers, but more for how many irrelevant and commercial filled emails fill their inboxes. There was nothing important, nothing pressing, nothing even worthwhile in the inbox. Instead I found a slew of unwanted emails. Many of which from companies I don't remember signing up to receive emails from. At the same time my co worker shouted out that his goal for the morning was to unsubscribe from all unwanted emails. I quickly decided to join him in this worthwhile quest. Another co worker told us about unroll.me and both of us jumped at the chance to rid ourselves of unwanted messages in our inboxes.
I feel like I need to add that I have a filter set up and many of the emails sent to me are automatically added to the spam folder.
Quick rant: I really dislike companies that make it hard to unsubscribe. Why should I have to type my email in a box and give reasons for ending an endless barrage of unwanted emails? I shouldn't. And neither should anyone. We should be able to click unsubscribe and never be bothered again.
Thank you unroll.me! All you have to do is enter your email address and then make a few decisions. After typing in my email I found that I had over 80 subscriptions (found out that was well short of everyone else in the office), many of which I never signed up for. (I know some of them sneak it in if you use their site and automatically add you to a list. With this service you can decide if you want to unsubscribe completely or get a daily digest that comes when you want, morning, afternoon, or evening. The digest has a screenshot of each email and short summary. I thought this was nice. I don't know if I want to never receive a Groupon again, but I am tired of at least one email a day. I imagine somedays I may just delete the digest email other days I may take a peek. Either way it's at my convenience.
One click to unsubscribe and no dumb reasons to sort through. I get that businesses may want feedback, but I imagine for most of us we just don't want to see their emails anymore. And that's the point of unroll.me we don't have to continue to see emails we don't want to anymore. Spread the word and take control of your email.
I feel like I need to add that I have a filter set up and many of the emails sent to me are automatically added to the spam folder.
Quick rant: I really dislike companies that make it hard to unsubscribe. Why should I have to type my email in a box and give reasons for ending an endless barrage of unwanted emails? I shouldn't. And neither should anyone. We should be able to click unsubscribe and never be bothered again.
Thank you unroll.me! All you have to do is enter your email address and then make a few decisions. After typing in my email I found that I had over 80 subscriptions (found out that was well short of everyone else in the office), many of which I never signed up for. (I know some of them sneak it in if you use their site and automatically add you to a list. With this service you can decide if you want to unsubscribe completely or get a daily digest that comes when you want, morning, afternoon, or evening. The digest has a screenshot of each email and short summary. I thought this was nice. I don't know if I want to never receive a Groupon again, but I am tired of at least one email a day. I imagine somedays I may just delete the digest email other days I may take a peek. Either way it's at my convenience.
One click to unsubscribe and no dumb reasons to sort through. I get that businesses may want feedback, but I imagine for most of us we just don't want to see their emails anymore. And that's the point of unroll.me we don't have to continue to see emails we don't want to anymore. Spread the word and take control of your email.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Quizizz-Your new formative assessment
At ISTE I heard about Kahoot while in the poster sessions. It was a quick view with little more than "we started using Quizizz, it's like Kahoot only better." If you have been to the poster sessions you know that they aren't the place for tutorials so jotted down Quizizz and moved on through the throng of people and noise. After getting back I reviewed my notes and decided to check out Quizizz for myself. This is what I found:
The biggest complaint about Kahoot is that if you are in large group, those in the back of the room can't see what is on the screen, cause the choices are at the bottom of the screen. This is alleviated in Quizizz. The answers are on the bottom still, with the same layout and color configuration, but you can read the choices on your device. Clearly a much needed upgrade.
Because Kahoot is set up in game show fashion you are competing against everyone in the room, this may or may not be at your pace. If you can't keep up it get's frustrating and many just give up. Quizizz is set up so that the experience is totally self paced. You are still competing but you go through the questions at your own pace by looking at your device, not the main screen. This automatically makes the experience unique and properly paced for each participant. You are still competing, and your score is based on accuracy and speed, but you can move through the game at your own pace.
One thing I really liked was that you could see what all the questions were without having to preview the quiz
Most everything is else is just like Kahoot. You can find premade Quizizz in the public forum and copy and modify them how you like. You can download the results in a csv file and import to a spreadsheet.
The only thing I didn't really like was after each question it shows a meme if you get the question wrong or right. You do have the option to turn this off in the settings so if you like it you can keep it, if not just turn it off.
A few features that would be nice to be added: being able to select more than one correct answer, being able to remove images from a question without deleting the question, and being able to size images and move text.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Fooling yourself effect
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool" Richard Feynman
When it comes to being aware of our learning this can be tricky. Sometimes we think we are learning and we really aren't and other times we think we didn't really learn and we did. Knowing whether you are learning is difficult because we can fool ourselves. Research has shown that there are many times students think they are learning and they are not. This is due to the fooling yourself effect.
Students don't arrive with blank slate, everyone comes in with preconceived ideas and misconceptions of what they think is right that in fact inhibits and impedes the learning process. As teachers we need to teach misconceptions to help students understand fact from fiction. This is on of the best ways for learning to stick long term (and let's face it, if it's not long term was it really learned?). Studies have shown that when misconceptions are taught students learn better even though they may not feel as confident with the material. Many times students feel confident but perform poorly because they didn't really learn. In other words the background information students brought in made them feel comfortable with the learning process, but they didn't really learn. This is where we live up to the quote.
As educators we have to be fully aware of this effect and really get students to feel uncomfortable about the learning. They need to be stretched and challenged. They need to experience first hand the 'why' and 'how'. Learning needs to be an active experience, it needs to be one where students are really pushed to consider multiple perspectives and the one they bring with them may need some reshaping.
If we aren't challenging our students then we may be fooling ourselves.
When it comes to being aware of our learning this can be tricky. Sometimes we think we are learning and we really aren't and other times we think we didn't really learn and we did. Knowing whether you are learning is difficult because we can fool ourselves. Research has shown that there are many times students think they are learning and they are not. This is due to the fooling yourself effect.
Students don't arrive with blank slate, everyone comes in with preconceived ideas and misconceptions of what they think is right that in fact inhibits and impedes the learning process. As teachers we need to teach misconceptions to help students understand fact from fiction. This is on of the best ways for learning to stick long term (and let's face it, if it's not long term was it really learned?). Studies have shown that when misconceptions are taught students learn better even though they may not feel as confident with the material. Many times students feel confident but perform poorly because they didn't really learn. In other words the background information students brought in made them feel comfortable with the learning process, but they didn't really learn. This is where we live up to the quote.
As educators we have to be fully aware of this effect and really get students to feel uncomfortable about the learning. They need to be stretched and challenged. They need to experience first hand the 'why' and 'how'. Learning needs to be an active experience, it needs to be one where students are really pushed to consider multiple perspectives and the one they bring with them may need some reshaping.
If we aren't challenging our students then we may be fooling ourselves.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Thinglink
With the new Star Wars movie coming at the end of the year I thought it would be fun to show off Thinglink with an interactive Star Wars image. If you are new to Thinglink you take an image and make it interactive. There are so many possibilities for educators. You could create one for your class, you could have your students create them for really any subject and for any purpose. Basically what you do is add an image or many images and place a 'tag' or a button on the image(s) that will give information or link to video or just enhance the experience. You can then share your thinglink by embedding it or with the link.
Here is my Stars Wars themed thinglink. If you are a fan of the series this should be nostalgic. If you are unfamiliar, well this will get you caught up on the characters, though nothing can replicate watching it for yourself.
Enjoy
Here is my Stars Wars themed thinglink. If you are a fan of the series this should be nostalgic. If you are unfamiliar, well this will get you caught up on the characters, though nothing can replicate watching it for yourself.
Enjoy
Thursday, April 30, 2015
5 things I have learned in last 5 months since starting at UEN
I got hired at the Utah Education Network on Halloween of 2014, I started working in December. The past five months have been a fantastic ride in which I have learned a lot about so many different aspects of education. It has been neat to be able to go to different districts around the state and meet hundreds of dedicated educators making a difference to their students daily. It is interesting to see how the different districts handle the intricacies and evolving technologies and overall landscape of education. It has been refreshing to see different and creative approaches to solving the complexities that come with education.
Here are the top five things I wish I had known before I started at UEN:
1. Network of teachers
2. Noodle Tools/Pioneer Library
3. Culturegrams
4. World Book Encyclopedia maps
5. Canvas modules
Teaching is tough, for so many reasons. Just knowing what is effective, what is a good use of time, what is free, what is worthwhile, is important in not only planning but actual implementation of everything you do. Sometimes the four walls in your class seem like they block you out of everything going on in the outside world, and your class feels isolated, withdrawn, and disconnected. Knowing that there are others with your same struggles outside your class and school walls is invigorating and helps you feel connected. One thing I have definitely felt is the vast web of educators, especially in Utah that are doing all they can to be the best they can be. I don't mean for that to sound cliche or even trite, I love working with educators and find them to be thoughtful, determined, and compassionate. There is a weekly forum for Utah educators to connect, share, and meet other like minded individuals from around the state and even nation. Wednesdays at 9 pm using the Twitter hashtag #UTedchat educators from around the state connect and have a weekly topic that drives discussion. The UCET conference is another great opportunity for Utah educators to share ideas and connect with other Utah teachers. Held annually around spring break this conference focuses on effectively using technology in the class. I always get a lot of great ideas, but perhaps more important is the network of educators the conference connects. I have met many great teachers from around the state at UCET. Another option is taking professional development courses and signing up for other conferences. I would encourage anyone to do so not just for the knowledge, but for the opportunity to meet other people as well. There are many ways to connect with other teachers. Find a way that works for you, and remember while it might be okay for you to be a hermit its not okay to disconnect your class from the outside world. Get connected and you will find that there is a fantastic web of educators in your own backyard.
Free tools are great, really good free ones are even better. Pioneer library and Noodle Tools are two such options that I wish I had known more about. It's funny, now I can't really imagine doing a research project without using either. Pioneer library has many great resources, among the free tools are databases for research. Rather than have your students do a Google search and either pick the first site, or look up Wikipedia, Pioneer has easy to use academic articles that are easy to cite and include in research. Honestly there is no need to have students search out there on the world wide web when the state has such a great free resource in Pioneer. Among the tools is one called Noodle Tools which helps students organize, cite, research, and write their own paper. This is the tool I wish I had known about. It's intuitive and easy to use and will change the way you and your students use the internet for information.
Culturegrams is a fabulous part of the Pioneer family. It is social studies based and has so many great capabilities for any age student. You can look up any country and get information and then compare that with other countries. One of my favorite uses is to have students make and compare their own graphs and tables. Just about any data you are after is available for comparison. If you are having students learn about particular places or compare and contrast places, this is the place to go for information.
When I was much younger my parents bought a set of encyclopedias for our family. I would use them for reference or just to learn about stuff. However they were static and limited. To stay relevant encyclopedia companies have had to adapt to the changing landscape. I like the a lot of the features in World Book, but my favorite and the one I so wish I had known about was the outline maps. Most maps I had were from the text book company and all of them were limited in some way. The last textbook the district purchased had the worst maps of any book we had ever used. World Book offers the ability to print your own outline maps, which is really nice. What is even better is that they are high quality and just what you want. You also have the option to have them include the names of places or not.
I started using Canvas three years ago. At that time I was figuring it out and trying stuff here and there, I liked it, but didn't see it for all that it could do for me and my classes. Over the past couple years I blended more and more of my class, and really liked the results. One thing always bugged me though and that was it always felt chaotic and messy. Since coming to UEN I have realized how much modules can help not only organize, but declutter and arrange your Canvas in an orderly and clean fashion. As much as I like having a cleaner Canvas, students really like the look and feel and organization of modules. As the teacher you can lock modules until a certain date or upon completion of certain assignments. I always felt like my Canvas looked like a messy desk with folders and paper all over. Modules have helped me organize the material and arrange my class in way that is clean looking and easy to navigate. If you don't use modules, you should, I guarantee that you will like it and your students will too.
There are plenty of other things I have learned over past months but these are the top 5, if you aren't using them I suggest you investigate and learn more about the free tools that are there for you and your students to use. If you feel like you need some help getting started, feel free to contact me or the UEN professional development department, after all this is what I do now.
Here are the top five things I wish I had known before I started at UEN:
1. Network of teachers
2. Noodle Tools/Pioneer Library
3. Culturegrams
4. World Book Encyclopedia maps
5. Canvas modules
Teaching is tough, for so many reasons. Just knowing what is effective, what is a good use of time, what is free, what is worthwhile, is important in not only planning but actual implementation of everything you do. Sometimes the four walls in your class seem like they block you out of everything going on in the outside world, and your class feels isolated, withdrawn, and disconnected. Knowing that there are others with your same struggles outside your class and school walls is invigorating and helps you feel connected. One thing I have definitely felt is the vast web of educators, especially in Utah that are doing all they can to be the best they can be. I don't mean for that to sound cliche or even trite, I love working with educators and find them to be thoughtful, determined, and compassionate. There is a weekly forum for Utah educators to connect, share, and meet other like minded individuals from around the state and even nation. Wednesdays at 9 pm using the Twitter hashtag #UTedchat educators from around the state connect and have a weekly topic that drives discussion. The UCET conference is another great opportunity for Utah educators to share ideas and connect with other Utah teachers. Held annually around spring break this conference focuses on effectively using technology in the class. I always get a lot of great ideas, but perhaps more important is the network of educators the conference connects. I have met many great teachers from around the state at UCET. Another option is taking professional development courses and signing up for other conferences. I would encourage anyone to do so not just for the knowledge, but for the opportunity to meet other people as well. There are many ways to connect with other teachers. Find a way that works for you, and remember while it might be okay for you to be a hermit its not okay to disconnect your class from the outside world. Get connected and you will find that there is a fantastic web of educators in your own backyard.
Free tools are great, really good free ones are even better. Pioneer library and Noodle Tools are two such options that I wish I had known more about. It's funny, now I can't really imagine doing a research project without using either. Pioneer library has many great resources, among the free tools are databases for research. Rather than have your students do a Google search and either pick the first site, or look up Wikipedia, Pioneer has easy to use academic articles that are easy to cite and include in research. Honestly there is no need to have students search out there on the world wide web when the state has such a great free resource in Pioneer. Among the tools is one called Noodle Tools which helps students organize, cite, research, and write their own paper. This is the tool I wish I had known about. It's intuitive and easy to use and will change the way you and your students use the internet for information.
Culturegrams is a fabulous part of the Pioneer family. It is social studies based and has so many great capabilities for any age student. You can look up any country and get information and then compare that with other countries. One of my favorite uses is to have students make and compare their own graphs and tables. Just about any data you are after is available for comparison. If you are having students learn about particular places or compare and contrast places, this is the place to go for information.
When I was much younger my parents bought a set of encyclopedias for our family. I would use them for reference or just to learn about stuff. However they were static and limited. To stay relevant encyclopedia companies have had to adapt to the changing landscape. I like the a lot of the features in World Book, but my favorite and the one I so wish I had known about was the outline maps. Most maps I had were from the text book company and all of them were limited in some way. The last textbook the district purchased had the worst maps of any book we had ever used. World Book offers the ability to print your own outline maps, which is really nice. What is even better is that they are high quality and just what you want. You also have the option to have them include the names of places or not.
I started using Canvas three years ago. At that time I was figuring it out and trying stuff here and there, I liked it, but didn't see it for all that it could do for me and my classes. Over the past couple years I blended more and more of my class, and really liked the results. One thing always bugged me though and that was it always felt chaotic and messy. Since coming to UEN I have realized how much modules can help not only organize, but declutter and arrange your Canvas in an orderly and clean fashion. As much as I like having a cleaner Canvas, students really like the look and feel and organization of modules. As the teacher you can lock modules until a certain date or upon completion of certain assignments. I always felt like my Canvas looked like a messy desk with folders and paper all over. Modules have helped me organize the material and arrange my class in way that is clean looking and easy to navigate. If you don't use modules, you should, I guarantee that you will like it and your students will too.
There are plenty of other things I have learned over past months but these are the top 5, if you aren't using them I suggest you investigate and learn more about the free tools that are there for you and your students to use. If you feel like you need some help getting started, feel free to contact me or the UEN professional development department, after all this is what I do now.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Augmented Reality in Education
If you haven't heard of augmented reality, here is a quick video:
When I first downloaded the Aurasma app and pulled out a $20 I thought this was as cool as anything I'd seen. I remember the Harry Potter movies with the moving pictures and thought well now there's an app for that. There was a lot of wow factor with apps like Aurasma, but I didn't really know how to make this work in my class. Sure it was cool, but that's not really a reason to use it in class. There has to be educational value other than the cool factor. I was interested, but I had a lot on my plate and didn't really have time to play around with an app and try to figure out some way to make it educational. The UCET conference was at the start of April and is always a great time for new ideas. I saw a class on the agenda about augmented reality and thought that it was time for me to take a more in depth look at augmented reality and see how other teachers were using it in the class. You can guess that since I'm writing this post that I found what I was looking for.
What I was after was practical application and use of the app. The cool factor makes augmented reality unique, but there has to be educational value in using it. After UCET I did a lot of research on my own and have come up with the following list of ideas. There are two lists one for the school as a whole and one for individual classrooms. This list is by no means comprehensive and I have taken many ideas from other sites and compiled them here. If you have other ways to use augmented reality in the class, feel free to comment to add to the lists.
For the school:
Faculty Pictures: Tag the faculty pictures with teachers introducing themselves. You could have them tell the school what book they are reading among other interesting topics.
How to videos: Create how to videos like opening a locker or how to navigate the lunch line. Set these up at back to school night so that parents and students get to know more about the school.
Library Book Reviews: Create a section in the library where students can find books in which other students have given reviews. This would work as a great way to get rid of the traditional book report and give students an authentic audience to share their book review again and again.
Student of the Month Showcase: Students could record video and tell the student body about their favorite things.
Yearbooks: Parts of the yearbook are brought to life with video from actual events. Remember when the girls volleyball team won the championship? Now you can relive it again and again.
Deaf and hearing impaired: What a great way to have your deaf students express themselves. Lots of possibilities with augmented reality.
Staff Meeting Agendas: Quite a few ideas here, you can tag items on the agenda or have an item on each table with the agenda.
Back to School Night: What a great way to get students/parents excited about school. You could have a scavenger hunt, school tours, how to videos, interesting school facts. Endless amount of options.
For the teacher/student/class:
Word Walls: this is a nice starting point for using A.R. in the class. Take the vocabulary words (this will work in any class, not just English) and have your students make each word into an aura. Great way for your students to learn the vocabulary without realizing they are learning.
Reports: Students research and write a report about a topic they then record some highlights about their topic and make their report much more interactive. You can have your students researching, storyboarding, making a video, doing voice overs, and finally creating an A.R. moment to go with their report. Sometimes projects can drag, but by having it broken into bite size parts and having a carrot at the end of the stick (the A.R.) they will work through the drudgery to get the carrot.
All About Me/Meet the Class: I have seen this assignment in every grade K-12 and with A.R. it can really come to life and add a personal touch you wouldn't get any other way.
Virtual Field Trip: There are so many options with this activity: you could print off pictures of a place and have students create an A.R. for each picture/place, you could link video to each picture that gives background information to preview a book or topic, really you could use this in just about any way you wanted.
Flashcards: I'm not sure there is a more practical way for students to get engaged in studying and learning the material than creating interactive flashcards.
Homework with mini lesson. Teachers make the actual assignment into an A.R. You could give a brief explanation/summarize the assignment and/or show how to do a few of the problems. Students would be able to watch the A.R. over and over until they understood it.
Rubrics embedded on the assignment: You could link the rubric to the assignment and then students would be able to have the rubric with them and view it as many times as needed.
Scavenger Hunt: I loved creating and doing scavenger hunts with my class, especially in the spring when the weather was nice and testing was over. The problem I always had was things got lost throughout the day, misplaced, or even stolen. Being able to tag and object with a clue would be such a great way to have your students complete the scavenger hunt.
Preview material and give extra commentary: You could find places in the text that you want to highlight with either more commentary or give essential background information. This is a great way to have your textbook come to life.
When I first downloaded the Aurasma app and pulled out a $20 I thought this was as cool as anything I'd seen. I remember the Harry Potter movies with the moving pictures and thought well now there's an app for that. There was a lot of wow factor with apps like Aurasma, but I didn't really know how to make this work in my class. Sure it was cool, but that's not really a reason to use it in class. There has to be educational value other than the cool factor. I was interested, but I had a lot on my plate and didn't really have time to play around with an app and try to figure out some way to make it educational. The UCET conference was at the start of April and is always a great time for new ideas. I saw a class on the agenda about augmented reality and thought that it was time for me to take a more in depth look at augmented reality and see how other teachers were using it in the class. You can guess that since I'm writing this post that I found what I was looking for.
What I was after was practical application and use of the app. The cool factor makes augmented reality unique, but there has to be educational value in using it. After UCET I did a lot of research on my own and have come up with the following list of ideas. There are two lists one for the school as a whole and one for individual classrooms. This list is by no means comprehensive and I have taken many ideas from other sites and compiled them here. If you have other ways to use augmented reality in the class, feel free to comment to add to the lists.
For the school:
Faculty Pictures: Tag the faculty pictures with teachers introducing themselves. You could have them tell the school what book they are reading among other interesting topics.
How to videos: Create how to videos like opening a locker or how to navigate the lunch line. Set these up at back to school night so that parents and students get to know more about the school.
Library Book Reviews: Create a section in the library where students can find books in which other students have given reviews. This would work as a great way to get rid of the traditional book report and give students an authentic audience to share their book review again and again.
Student of the Month Showcase: Students could record video and tell the student body about their favorite things.
Yearbooks: Parts of the yearbook are brought to life with video from actual events. Remember when the girls volleyball team won the championship? Now you can relive it again and again.
Deaf and hearing impaired: What a great way to have your deaf students express themselves. Lots of possibilities with augmented reality.
Staff Meeting Agendas: Quite a few ideas here, you can tag items on the agenda or have an item on each table with the agenda.
Back to School Night: What a great way to get students/parents excited about school. You could have a scavenger hunt, school tours, how to videos, interesting school facts. Endless amount of options.
For the teacher/student/class:
Word Walls: this is a nice starting point for using A.R. in the class. Take the vocabulary words (this will work in any class, not just English) and have your students make each word into an aura. Great way for your students to learn the vocabulary without realizing they are learning.
Reports: Students research and write a report about a topic they then record some highlights about their topic and make their report much more interactive. You can have your students researching, storyboarding, making a video, doing voice overs, and finally creating an A.R. moment to go with their report. Sometimes projects can drag, but by having it broken into bite size parts and having a carrot at the end of the stick (the A.R.) they will work through the drudgery to get the carrot.
All About Me/Meet the Class: I have seen this assignment in every grade K-12 and with A.R. it can really come to life and add a personal touch you wouldn't get any other way.
Virtual Field Trip: There are so many options with this activity: you could print off pictures of a place and have students create an A.R. for each picture/place, you could link video to each picture that gives background information to preview a book or topic, really you could use this in just about any way you wanted.
Flashcards: I'm not sure there is a more practical way for students to get engaged in studying and learning the material than creating interactive flashcards.
Homework with mini lesson. Teachers make the actual assignment into an A.R. You could give a brief explanation/summarize the assignment and/or show how to do a few of the problems. Students would be able to watch the A.R. over and over until they understood it.
Rubrics embedded on the assignment: You could link the rubric to the assignment and then students would be able to have the rubric with them and view it as many times as needed.
Scavenger Hunt: I loved creating and doing scavenger hunts with my class, especially in the spring when the weather was nice and testing was over. The problem I always had was things got lost throughout the day, misplaced, or even stolen. Being able to tag and object with a clue would be such a great way to have your students complete the scavenger hunt.
Preview material and give extra commentary: You could find places in the text that you want to highlight with either more commentary or give essential background information. This is a great way to have your textbook come to life.
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