SCSD2 Tech Blog

The link below is to a blog all about visual writing prompts…  put the images up on your big screen and see what kids come up with!

http://visualwritingprompts.wordpress.com/

One of the unexpected learning benefits of students having iPods or iPads in the
classroom is the use of “recaptured minutes” – the few minutes before class
starts or as class ends. An iDevice makes it simple for students to use this
time to complete a quick math or language arts activity or game. And they learn.
Can we do this with 1:1 laptops? I think so, and here is a strong contender for
what to do: Headmagnet. From their homepage:

Headmagnet creates a model of what’s going on in your head. It predicts what memories have
faded away, and what memories are still inside, allowing you to quickly get
things in your head and keep them there. The more you use headmagnet, the better
it gets at modeling what goes on in your head.

Conceptualization of a Knowledge Management System

I recently came across a neat project funded in part through cooperation with InfiniteCampus, which happens to be our student information system.  So it got my attention. We may end up using it one day! The project, in short, attempts to create a learning management system that allows student performance data to drive personalized instructional decisions. So, for example, a student completes a formative assessment and based on that data in InfiniteCampus, the teacher (and/or the database?) is able to target a learning object from the “knowledge warehouse” for that student.

Great concept. And it’s been around for a long time. Nobody I’m aware of has really made the idea work. The Blackboards and WebCTs of the world, and the data warehouses and curriculum management tools, the CompassLearnings, and a host of other companies and organizations have tried to make it work, but it’s never really caught on as an effective (or cost effective) strategy for teaching and learning.

So for grins, let me share what I think InfiniteCampus could do to truly make a system to support classroom teaching and learning. The most effective way we can use technology to increase learning that I’ve seen research support is formative feedback. And by that I don’t just mean frequent quizzes and test. What I mean is the flip side of that, which many seem to miss: formative feedback (see my post prior to this one). It’s the personalized teaching through this feedback loop between teacher and student that is so powerful. That is part of the Professional Learning Community model for schools. Learning is the constant. Every student learns the essential content. And the feedback loop is the process that occurs until the required learning is achieved.

How can InfiniteCampus enable this? Well, the way I see the grade book is sort of as a final statement for each piece of learning. The student got a 90% here and a 50% here and so on. But what if we created each assignment as a technology-enabled feedback loop? For example, a student submits a work artifact of some sort… maybe a paper or picture or video or worksheet form. This artifact shows up in the teacher’s inbox for the specific assignment (tied to an essential learning outcome) and the teacher is able to assess the work according to an associated rubric or a checklist. The rubric allows for the teacher to provide typed and/or audio comments and link those specific comments to audio or video lessons hosted on a platform such as Safari Montage or Discovery Education or CompassLearning or even YouTube or Khan Academy.
The student then is able to log into their Campus portal and see all the feedback and links to knowledge resources. He studies and makes adjustments to his work and resubmits it along with comments to the teacher about the changes he made. I suppose it is sort of a versioning. The teacher in her grade book sees that the student has added a revised version of the assignment. She can look at the comments she made prior, check the student description of what he revised and again assess the work. This process continues until the learning goal is met. Only then is a grade “finalized” in the grade book. Parents and students then have access to a de facto learning portfolio, a technology-enabled conversation between teacher, student, and parent concerning the student’s learning.

And then how about adding in a social component? When a teacher assesses a student’s work, how about the student receiving a text message or a notification via Facebook?

This is the system I’d be excited to see InfiniteCampus pursuing. I, of course, don’t know the specifics of the project and I don’t know the goals of the pilot school, but I’m afraid it may end up being more of the same sort of content management that’s been tried for years.

I’ve recently been reading a book by David Perkins entitled Making Learning Whole. In one section he discusses three types of feedback: corrective, conciliatory, and communicative. In his description of communicative feedback – feedback that is structured to ensure good communication – I couldn’t help but think of this video about Google Docs because it so wonderfully exemplifies the progression of communicative feedback.  The (rough) progression is this: gaining clarification, identification of the positive, and sharing concerns and suggestions with the goal of improvement.  See if you agree:

“Growth of a Google Doc by the eyes of a student.”

(Youtube link: http://youtu.be/jPXOnTMp49A)

How will you teach this kid when he shows up in your classroom? How will you keep him interested and engaged? How will you tap in to his world – a tech world he began taming at age two?

ManyEyes is a free online data visualization tool.  You can upload your own data or use data in the public gallery uploaded by others.  This has some great potential for hands-on work in any course where data is organized/compared/analyzed/evaluated.  Below is a short introduction to the tool from Youtube.

(link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aAYDBZt7Xk0)

Kids don’t have to get images from a Google/Bing search!  Check out www.morguefile.com or photl.com.

Note:  The content that follows has absolutely nothing to do with William Shatner.  I just like the image.

Below is a link to a TED talk by Salman Khan, the creator of a popular free website that contains thousands of instructional videos on topics such as math, science, and economics.  There are a few teachers in the district I know of using these videos as an instructional support.  about 6 minutes into the presentation he discusses using his videos in a way that I first was exposed to a couple of years ago – the idea of “flipping” your classroom.  In a nutshell, the concept is that you provide students with the lecture part of class at home and the homework part of class at school.  Flipped.  The benefit of this is that students are able to rewind, pause, and replay  the instruction as often as they need to in order to grasp a concept.  And then the practice (when students need their teacher the most) occurs at school.  This also opens the door to more creative and problem-based classroom activities as well as true differentiated learning.  Another way to think of it is that the students work on the knowing and understanding part of learning at home, and work on the applying, analyzing, and creating part of learning at school.  Sounds fun, right?  Watch the video and let me know what you think!

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Update:

Here’s another resource to learn about ‘flipped” instruction:

http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/2010/09/flip-your-classroom-through-reverse.html

An email message came in to me today concerning students using Google Images as a search tool for their classwork.  Specifically, the email asked if we can ensure students won’t see inappropriate images.  The short answer to that is “no.”  In terms of technology safeguards, the only assurance we can give is that searches performed within the district network are set as a “safe” search in Google and other popular Internet search engines.  That lowers the chances of an inappropriate image popping up, but doesn’t eliminate it.

So what options do teachers and students have for performing research and acquiring multimedia resources? I do have a solution that should please even the most concerned users.

The Wyoming State Library has purchased access to a nice collection of online databases specifically designed for use in elementary schools and these databases contain high-quality (and safe!) content including thousands upon thousands of images.

One that I like for elementary students is called Kids Search.

You can get to it a couple of ways:

1) Browse to www.gowyld.net and select “online databases.”  Then, select “Kid’s Resources.”  You’ll see a list of all the databases for kids. Scroll down until you see “Kids Search” and click the link. (But check out the others while you’re there!)

2) I’ve linked Kids Search to the web address www.scsd2.com/search.  Type that into your browser and you’ll get there the fastest.

Here are a couple of resources to show you the basics of using Kids Search:

Video (this may take a minute to load)

Powerpoint