Technology Bytes Newsletter - May 2014 by Kim Berg

I NNOVATIVE E DUCATOR C ONSULTING ’ S

TECHNOLOGY BYTES

“Inspired Technology Leadership to Transform Teaching and Learning”

M AY 2014

INNOVATIVE EDUCATOR CONSULTING’S

TECHNOLOGY BYTES Naomi Harm, CEO ◆ PO Box 188, Brownsville, MN 55919 ◆ (608) 386-2018 ◆ naomi@naomiharm.org ◆ http://naomiharm.org

PO Box 188 Brownsville, MN 55919 Phone: (608) 386-2018 Email: naomi@naomiharm.org http://naomiharm.org #nharm

S TAY C O N N E C T E D ! Click on the appropriate app icon below to download our app! https://itunes.apple.com/us/ app/innovative-educatorconsulting/id737480444?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/ apps/details? id=com.conduit.app_2318c8d33 d6845f6824c2a14923576f9.ap http://www.amazon.com/ Conduit-Innovative-Educator-

Greetings and Happy May! Well after the returning snow, up and down temps, pouring rain, and the raising water, we hope to finally see some pleasant and spring-like weather coming our way. We certainly deserve it and like many of you, we just want to be outside and enjoy the fresh air. This past month has been extremely busy as members of the IEC team prepare for a busy summer of events throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference in Atlanta, training in Washington D.C., and work with Seven Oaks Elementary in South Carolina. You can see our local upcoming events listed here inside Tech Bytes. We have events lined up to cover Google Tools, iPads, Classroom Redesign, as well as Makerspaces, Coding, and much more to spark new and unique offerings to bring back to your classroom this fall. We hope to see some of you this summer as you get out to explore your own professional development opportunities. As the year winds down and things heat up a bit we want to remind you of the important work you do each and everyday with your students. Although this time of year is difficult as you plan what needs to be covered yet, remember to slow down, enjoy the company of your students, have fun, laugh, and learn together. All the Best, The IEC Team

INSIDE THIS ISSUE IEC’s Inspiring Professional Development Workshop Opportunities ........................................................................................................... 2 From the BLOG Shelf .............................................................................................3 Googly About Google ............................................................................................ 3 IEC’s 20% Time Contest Winner ................................................................... 3 Show Me the Money: Contests and Grants............................................... 3 The Benefits of Going All In on a 1:1 ............................................................ 4

Flourishing Creativity Through Creation ..................................................... 5 The Power of Play .................................................................................................. 5 Welcome to Twitterverse .................................................................................. 6 Sharing Compassion ............................................................................................ 8 The Digital Buzz Radio Show............................................................................. 9 Chats with Deb ....................................................................................................... 9 School Year Wrap-Up ......................................................................................... 9

I NNOVATIVE E DUCATOR C ONSULTING ’ S I NSPIRING P ROFESSIONAL D EVELOPMENT W ORKSHOP O PPORTUNITIES These innovative technology events will offer dynamic learning opportunities to focus on building a collaborative culture to learn and lead in the digital age. The technology infused sessions will inspire team collaboration, sharing of digital resources, and investigating and tinkering with new ideas. Participants will be able to pick and choose their own learning adventure, while naturally creating spaces for peer-to-peer learning, collaboration and creativity throughout each session.

June 11 - 13

August 11 - 12

Summer Tech Splash

Host Site: Portage School District Session topics to include Flipped Teaching, Makerspaces and Robotics, Digital eBook Creation w/ iBooks Author, Everything Google and Student Projects, Multitude of iPad Creation Literacy Center Activities, BYOD and SAMR, and Minecraft and Gaming in the Classroom

Host Site: Wisconsin Rapids School District Session topics to include Everything Google and Student Projects, iPad Content Creation, Flipped Teaching, Robotics, Redesign Your Classroom

June 18

Innovation Matters: Welcome to the World of Makerspaces

Summer Tech Splash Host Site: Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau School District Session topics to include Everything Google and Student Projects, iPad Content Creation, Flipped Teaching, Robotics, Redesign Your Classroom

July 16 - 17 Summer Tech Splash Host Site: Iowa-Grant School District Session topics to include Everything Google and Student Projects, iPad Content Creation, Flipped Teaching, Robotics, Redesign Your Classroom

August 5 - 6 Innovation Matters: Welcome to the World of Makerspaces Host Site: Winona School District DAY ONE: “Invent to Learn” workshop led by Sylvia Martinez. Join colleagues for a day of hard fun and problem solving -- where computing meets tinkering and design. DAY TWO: Participants will pick and choose their own learning adventure, while naturally creating spaces for peer-to-peer learning, collaboration and creativity throughout each session.

August 13 - 14 Host Site: Elmbrook School District Session topics to include Tinkering Learning Labs with DIY, Makerspaces and Robotics

August 19 - 21 Get Your Google On Tech Academy Host Site: Altoona School District Three day immersion of everything Google Apps has to offer, embedded with mobile assessment, student projects, Google Drive workflow, Chrome, Apps and Extensions, power searching, add-ons, scripts, and so much more! Facilitated by inspiring Google Certified/Qualified Teachers from MN and WI.

Sylvia Martinez, co-author of the book Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, will be leading the August 5 - 6 Winona Makerspace learning event! Sylvia is president of the international non-profit Generation YES, evangelizing student leadership and empowerment, STEM, and technology literacy. Sylvia also brings her real world experience as an aerospace engineer, video game designer, and education leader.

All workshops are available for graduate credit. Click on the workshop title to download individual flyers with more details including fees, session topics, and links to online registration.

F ROM

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BLOG S HELF

Tammy’s Technology Tips for Teachers by Tammy Worcester It’s All Good by Sue Gorman EduTech for Teachers by Jamie Forshey A Principal’s Reflections by Eric Sheninger Education Technology and Mobile Learning by Med Kharbach, Founder and Editor

Janelle Disher of Hayward Community Schools

Janelle is the winner of IEC’s 20% Time Contest! See the official selection screencast here

G OOGLY A BOUT G OOGLE Android Wear - Are you ready for the next movement in wearable technology? This project is bringing Android to a wearable watch! This video shows how Android Wear will be changing how we interact with technology with spoken words or even just a glance. Google has created several stand alone mobile apps for Docs (iOS & Android) and Sheets (iOS & Android). Slides is “coming soon” as well. These apps also bring built in offline support so you can easily view, edit, and create files without an internet connection! 18 tips for Google Apps Users and Admins

Janelle will receive a FREE TEAM PASS to one of this summer’s Tech Splash Events worth $750. Janelle we look forward to seeing you at one of the Summer Tech Splash Events this summer! The random name generator shown was from Primary School ICT. Feel free to use this in the classroom to randomly select students for prizes or sharing opportunities or try some of the other tools listed below. ClassTools Random Name/Word Picker MiniWebTool Random Name Picker

Sync Multiple Google Drive Accounts to your Desktop Crop, Rotate and Add Borders to Images in Google Docs Randomize Answers in Google Forms Google Unveils NEW Google Tools--Welcome Google Classroom

S HOW M E THE M ONEY : C ONTESTS AND G RANTS Device Grants for Google in Education The Pigeon Builds a Story Deadline: October 31, 2014 by 5:00 PM CST AR Toys Competition Deadline: June 15, 2014

Guest Posts from our Ed Tech Teacher Friends

T HE B ENEFITS

G OING A LL

IN ON A

1:1

W RITTEN BY B RIAN Y EARLING Instructional Technology Coordinator, School District of Waukesha In college I worked a lot of jobs. Some weeks I put well over 40 hours in at work between my collective jobs. Full time employees beside me were working in excess of 40 hour, but they were making serious cash and buying new trucks and toys, but I just never saw those benefits. Instead of working in one less flexible, full-time position, I was splitting my time between two or three employers. The flexibility of schedules was a necessity for me, but as always, there were tradeoffs. I never earned benefits, I always made less than those who worked in the full time positions beside me, and I never earned overtime pay. I learned a lesson that has since stuck with me. While dabbling in something has advantages, it isn't until you move all in that you can realize all of the benefits. When my district started talking about a 1:1 program, when the idea was in its infancy and could just as easily have been considered a bigger burden than it was worth, our team made a recommendation to go "all in" with our program. We decided that instead of allowing our staff to self-advocate for their desired 1:1 starting date by classroom or grade level, instead of providing the technology to small pockets of specific teachers or to specific departments, our buildings needed to move as one unit down the 1:1 pathway. Leaders who felt they had the capacity to move an entire building applied for their entire building to become a 1:1 school, but when questions arose about breaking the implementation into smaller pieces, the mantra was simple and direct -- the whole building goes 1:1, or nobody goes 1:1 in that building. This decision was not without its critics. Some felt we should first pilot in small groups and bring others on board in due time. Others felt that teachers should be able to apply for devices in their classrooms even if others in their building were not ready, suggesting that these early adopters would later become mentors for others. These and other suggestions had merit. They offered advantages. However, we knew then already that we would not get the full benefit of our 1:1 implementation if we didn't move entire buildings into our 1:1 implementation as a unit. Some of those benefits we were able to forecast. Others have been positive, but they were unforeseen. Here are just some of the benefits we gained: ✦ Building leaders were able to focus on sending a message of readiness to all staff members as all staff members would need to be "ready" for technology-infused classrooms at the same time. Nobody was exempt from this messaging (as all staff were knew to the idea), and a consistency of messages and goals across the building was a direct the result. ✦ Collegial technology and instructional strategy support teams (vanguard teams) were founded and charged with the same mission -support every colleague in this building as we aim for a consistent "launch" date. These people felt both the energy and the stress of readying themselves and their teammates/colleagues as they were all readying for something new together. That energy was inspiring and infectious. That stress added credibility and authenticity -- the cheerleaders were also the critics. It was a powerful message and encouraged natural buy-in from reluctant staff members. ✦ Cultures of safety and support developed naturally as most were new to the concept of 1:1 schools and nobody/ few had experiences that made them the go-to expert on what a tech-infused classroom might look like. Staff was going to be sinking or swimming together in this. ✦ Surprising staff leaders stepped forward that otherwise have not taken that position. There are many reasons for this, but universally, there was more need for leadership and more room for these new staff leaders to step forward. This unforeseen benefit has been a key to building our capacity as an organization for our 1:1 implementation and other work we are doing. (Continued on page 7)

F LOURISHING C REATIVITY T HROUGH C REATION W RITTEN BY J ENNA L INSKENS Instructional Technology Consultant The 21st century Bloom’s Taxonomy lists “Creation” as the highest order of thinking skills. There are Seven 21st century Lifelong Skills students are expected to develop, and again creation is listed among them. Consistent in Bloom’s, the 7 Lifelong Skills students need for the future, the Constructivist Learning Theory, and the International Society for Technology in Education standards, creativity is what experts deem as a highly important skill. Tools that promote creativity allow students to express their learning and understanding in unique and meaningful ways. One of my favorite tools that promotes creativity is Animoto. It is a video tool that is available to individual educators for free. It takes some navigating through the website to create your free Educator account, but it is well worth the extra clicks. If you sign up for the Basic account, you will only be allowed to use a limited number of images, audio, and backgrounds to create a 30-second video. Once you sign up for the Educator account, you will be able to choose multiple backgrounds and create videos up to 10-minutes long. Teachers will also be given a special code that can be shared with up to 50 students so they can also have the same level of access to the Animoto tools. Animoto includes images, video clips and music that you can use, or you can import your own. Videos can be created using the website or a mobile device application. Once produced, students can share their creations through an email link, upload to YouTube, or embed on a website. Videos can also be downloaded to a computer and saved to a DVD. The use of Animoto promotes creativity, publishing and, sharing of knowledge. I have worked with many K-12 educators who have used Animoto in their classrooms in many different ways to promote student creativity. Sixth grade students created videos using text and free images to share their monthly book reports, such as a summary of an autobiography or fiction chapter book. In a high school language arts class, students created travel videos outlining locations in the story The Odyssey. In social studies, students collected data, and created videos using free images and text to summarize the information. A teacher put together a video on Cyber Safety to use as an introduction to using social media. A kindergarten teacher created a video using all of the images of students’ and the many activities they did throughout the year to share with parents. In a science class, students created a 30-second public service announcements on health topics. The key, I have found, is for the teacher to be open to whatever the student creates, only guiding them with a rubric and minimal requirements. To allow students to be creative when assigning a project, be it a brochure, pamphlet, poster, means to provide them with tools beyond paper and pencil. Give Animoto a try and discover how it can help you and your students.

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W RITTEN BY R OBIN H OSEMAN Talented and Gifted Teacher, School District of Holmen

Tony Wagner’s TEDx Talk on “Play, Passion, Purpose” has been making the rounds since its debut in 2012. Many educators have been working to shift their learning environments to include more play-based explorations for students with the goal to support the development of innovative thinking and skills in collaboration. Other teachers in education have always included and honored elements of play in children’s learning spaces. It is hard to argue with the benefits of play: engagement of the hands and mind, authentic social-emotional landscapes and encouragement of self regulation. However, it can feel overwhelming to embrace play in traditional classroom spaces. Are you interested in doing the same but struggling with where to start? Do you feel overwhelmed by the idea of adding yet another “thing” to your teaching day which is likely already overwhelming? (Continued on page 8)

W ELCOME

TO T WITTERVERSE !

W RITTEN BY S UE G ORMAN Institute of Professional Educator Development I have been blogging a lot lately about the power of twitter. For those who have not embraced the twitter love, let me explain my passion for this amazing tool. First of all, here are some basics about twitter. Twitter is a platform where users share their thoughts, news and passions in under 140 characters of text. It allows you to communicate with and reach out to people all over the world 24/7. Your posts are in real time. Users ‘follow’ each other to stay updated or talk to specific people or groups in order to stay informed. From twitter’s help site, “ What is an @reply? • An @reply is any update posted by clicking the Reply button on a Tweet. • Any Tweet that is an @reply to you begins with your username and will show up in your Mentions tab on the Notifications page. What is a mention? • A mention is any Twitter update that contains "@username" anywhere in the body of the Tweet. (Yes, this means that @replies are also considered mentions.) • We collect these messages, as well as all your @replies, in the Mentions tab on the Notifications page. • If you include more than one person's name in your Tweet and you use the @username format, all of those people will see the Tweet in their Mentions tab. How to find people by name: • Type the person's name into the search box at the top of your Twitter homepage. Your results will show a combination of people and Tweets related to your search. • Refine your search by clicking on the people, photos, news, or videos tab on the left side of your search results page. Using hashtags to categorize Tweets by keyword: • People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search. • Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword. • Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end. • Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics. Example: In the Tweet below, @dkapuler included the hashtag #FF. This stands for "Follow Friday," a weekly tradition where users recommend people that others should follow on Twitter. You'll see this on Fridays.

Here is an amazing list of weekly twitter chats and times compiled by @thomascmurray, @cevans5095, and @cybraryman1. Checking my twitter feed is the first thing I do in the morning. It gives me the daily updates on the amazing world wide educators that I follow. You give to it, and it grows and gives back. If you are afraid to start tweeting, I would like to recommend an article that I wrote for Education week. It talks about overcoming fear in order to be current and to take a jump into unfamiliar waters. (Continued on page 7)

W ELCOME TO T WITTERVERSE ! (Continued from page 6) I truly cannot imagine not being able to reach out to my twitter PLN. They are some of the most passionate, encouraging and amazing educators I know. If they can’t help me, they will suggest someone who can. How awesome is that kind friends? I have also witnessed the power of twitter in the classroom. Your students have a story to tell! Let them tweet it out to the world and let the world respond!

THE BENEFITS OF GOING ALL IN ON A 1:1

A great way to find out who to follow is by finding an educator that you would like to follow. Then go to see what lists they follow. This is a great way to start you PLN!

✦ Teaming between teachers happened naturally. In the chaos of pre-1:1 preparation and learning, in the effort to make sense of how to use the technology meaningfully, people had to open up and find support where it was available. They turned to their colleagues and doing so created some natural relationships that did not exist previously.

To subscribe to/follow other people's lists:

✦ Buildings have received more attention, support, and assistance with planning than they would have had they moved to a 1:1 in smaller stages. Buildings were upgraded with infrastructure, leaders were supported in leadership and planning, professional development was locally offered at the building, all in an effort to ready that building for the transition it was about to go through. These are things that often fly under the radar in smaller rollouts when a grade level, department, or small teacher group would receive devices.

• Click on Lists when viewing someone's profile. • Select which list you'd like to subscribe to. • From the list page, click Subscribe to follow the list. You can follow lists without following the individual users in that list. I hope this has been helpful! Please reach out to @nharm, @sjgorman, @deb_norton and @teach1tech. We would love to be a part of your PLN and add you to ours as well! Welcome to twitterverse!

(Continued from page 4)

Conversations at the district level have shifted to focus on supporting these larger 1:1 implementations, including conversations about e-texts, app purchase, policy, and other topics. Again, with smaller rollouts, these conversations may seem insignificant as it only impacts a small group. When it impacts the entire district, though, district leaders have to prepare more holistically. This is just a small list of the benefits we have witnessed already. We are continually running into additional benefits that we can strongly attribute to the decision to move entire buildings into our 1:1 instead of breaking the implementation into smaller units. Understandably, most people's initial reaction to the concept of moving entire buildings into a 1:1 implementation as a unit without phases is not favorable. It may seem as if doing so might create more work than can be reasonably handled and that staff won't be as prepared as they could be. However, that hasn't been our experience. The reality is this: We would have done this work anyhow, but in many ways, we are doing it better today because it has a bigger impact on more students and staff. In smaller rollouts over more time, the work would have nickeled and dimed us, constantly there but never being a primary focal point. In our present position, it is the focal point and we can give it the full attention and resource it deserves. As far as staff readiness, there is only so much a staff member can or will do to prepare themselves in advance of the device arrival. Like most things in life, you cannot fully prepare for it until you are entrenched in it. This is a sentiment that has been echoed by some of our teachers about our 1:1 implementation. The decision to go all in and move entire buildings into our 1:1 implementation has been an element that has encouraged our success to date. While it may seem contrary to our natural instinct, remember the worker with benefits and pay at a full time job almost always outpaces the guy working just as many hours at multiple jobs. Sometimes, you just have to go all in to get the full benefits!

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(Continued from page 5) If so, take a few moments as we turn toward summer--the season made for play--to explore some of these ideas. Consider how you might take a small corner of your classroom or even just one day and devote it to inviting your students into some form of play-based learning. I guarantee that it will rejuvenate your practice and connect you with one of the most fundamental of human learning modalities. Playing with programming: Take your kids to the computer lab and play with MIT’s Scratch. You may have heard everyone raving about this site. What are you waiting for? Spend a half hour of time at www.scratch.mit.edu on your own first. It’s fairly easy to learn if you make peace with failing a little at first. Remember: FAIL=First Attempt In Learning! You can play on the site without going through a login process, but work can’t be saved. Trust that your students will learn and teach each other with time and permission to do so. Play with recyclables: Before you haul your recycling bin to the curb for pick up, consider what your students might build with those items. Set up a design challenge corner in your classroom for “early finishers,” “young innovators” or students who needed summer to start in January. Give them a design challenge with marbles or a bouncy ball. For example: Challenge them to create a design for the marble that uses an incline, a distance to travel or a targeted goal at the finish line. Turn them loose and see what they create.

Play with gamification: Are your students struggling to master a concept through standard instructional methods? Challenge them to create a game around it. It could be as simple as having them mimic a favorite board game and include the concepts or skills you are trying to teach, or it could be reinventing a classic game. Regardless of the approach, shifting to a non-threatening game design can yield amazing results in mastering concepts. Ponder play together: Ask students to discuss or blog about their best play experiences in their lives outside of school. Challenge them to think about how play “works” and how we might include more of it in our days. Check out the following websites for more inspiration: Tony Wagner’s TED x Talk Institute of Play is an amazing resource for expanding your understanding of games in education. The Association for the Study of Play maintains a list of academic journals devoted to studying play in our lives. Check these out if you are interested in learning more about the research on play.

S HARING C OMPASSION Collectively more than 6,000 art panels have now been installed in The Pump House Regional Arts Center located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It will be on view for the public from May 2 – June 28, 2014. This project showcases work from students of the La Crosse School District K-12 art students. Each of the participating students received a 6-inch-by-6-inch art panel to draw or paint their idea of compassion. This project aims to educate the practice of compassion through both art and writing. You can see the news channel 8 story here! If you would like to recreate the project take a look at La Crosse’s Project Overview and be sure to visit http://thecompassionproject.me/ The project is also occurring in Appleton, WI and their project is highlighted here. Lessons for Teaching Compassion in the Classroom: K-2 Lessons 3-5 Lessons 6-8 Lessons 9-12 Lessons Scholastic’s Kindness and Compassion Resources Discussion Questions, Writing Assignments, Activities and More Compassion Lesson Ideas

T HE D IGITAL B UZZ R ADIO S HOW May 2nd brought the new episode of The Digital Buzz discussing Inspiring Student Year End Projects. You can listen to it here. The list of projects discussed was adapted from resources from Edutopia and Scholastic’s Year End Projects. Edutopia Year End Projects Grade 6-8 Collaborative Year-End Projects To listen to the live broadcast, you can tune in here. This monthly radio show is broadcasted live the first Friday of every month at 9AM CST and found on The Digital Buzz channel on Spreaker. You can also tap into the archived radio broadcasts from the past two years. In addition, join the Intel Teacher's Engage Community to continue your learning on more collaborative and shared resources from The Digital Buzz radio show and Intel Teacher’s Engage learning community.

S CHOOL Y EAR W RAP -U P At the end of each year as a teacher I always considered how to best “close up shop.” What things did I need to prepare before the end of the year. I always reflected on all the growth and progress my students had made over the year (one of my favorite things to reflect on.) But how do I ensure we keep the momentum going well into the summer so they do not lose their newly gained knowledge? Parents often speak with me to get resources or ideas of what they can do at home to continue supporting their child(ren) at home. I always try to create lists of websites to help students continue to learn, making sure to include their favorite educational game sites as well. To curate these lists I have created lists on Symbaloo or List.ly that I can then share out with parents. They are fairly simple and it makes a great support system for summer learning. Also, using these tools you can create links to different educational apps you use in the classroom to highlight mobile learning apps your students have used throughout the school year or ones that will continue to support their learning. Try it! YouTube can be a great place to see online tutorials and will easily walk you through creating lists with either of these tools. Also, see some of these activities for further support: Summer Reading Bingo Family Education: Summer Learning Resources Scholastic's 50 Ideas for Summer Learning Pinterest: Fun Learning Activities for Kids

C HATS

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“Mrs. Norton’s Neighborhood” This month’s focus is on book projects. In this video, Deb Norton talks about creating Book Trailers using iMovie. Click here to watch this Chat with Deb video. R ESOURCES

SHARED IN THIS VIDEO :

Planning sheet iMovie Drawing Pad Trailer Planning sheets (these are awesome!) In this video, Deb Norton talks about creating eBooks and eStories Click here to watch this Chat with Deb video. R ESOURCES

SHARED IN THIS VIDEO :

ScreenChomp Free Write About This $3.99 (I'm using the Lite free version) Book Creator $4.99 Deb’s email: nortond@ripon.k12.wi.us

The Innovative Educator Consulting team would like to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful end of the school year. You play a vital role in our world and because of your tireless efforts students have so much to look forward to. Thank you for ALL that you do! YOU MATTER!

We hope May provides for you a wealth of opportunities of inspiration, happiness and gratitude! #TogetherWeAreBetter from the Innovative Educator Consulting Team!