My Edublogging experience

Well, seeing as if you read the title you already have an idea of what I'm about to talk about, let's just dive in shall we?

My experience was a little weird.

When I went on the hunt for edublogger to respond to, I initially ended up finding a couple of them that really spoke to me as both a tech nerd and an aspiring teacher.  One of them even asked for suggestions about what to do with his new iPhone 6 (apparently this man had been living in some kind of hellish Mad Max type reality in which phones only had access to EDGE speeds.  I have heard whispers of such torture).   This seemed great!  I could proselytize about one of my favorite mobile devices, AND help a colleague puzzle through how to better use the booming number of student mobile devices in the classroom.

But alas, the comments section was closed.

This would turn out to be a familiar theme (which, If I have to be honest simply means these people are smart; have you seen the comments section on stuff like YouTube?  It's the worst.  It is truly why we cannot have nice things, like open comments sections on blogs- but I digress.)

When I finally did find a blog that interested me, and had open comments however, I discovered that it was something of a comforting experience.  The blogging teacher in question was publishing his own insecurities and fears, which I realized were MY insecurities and fears.  Knowing that I was not alone, and that even practicing teachers were puzzling through the problems of how to, (for example) keep the quality consistent in a lesson from one class period to the next (this particular teacher was struggling with the realization that his first hour class always got the rough version of his lessons.) was really eye-opening, and comforting in that misery-loves-company kind of way.  If I had to really nail down what it was that I got out of this part of the blogging assignment, it would have to be that feeling of shared community and struggle.

It's nice not to be alone.

Tech Tools in Use

I have to say, out of all the tools which were presented, the one which I was most intrigued to hear about was Audacity, due in no small part to the fact that podcasting as a medium is something which is near and dear to my heart.  I must say, after having seen Audacity, and had the opportunity to think through the possibilities presented by internet-published audio,  I couldn't be more enthused.

Let me be clear, I don't necessarily think that this is an everyday-use kind of tool.  I feel like it really only needs to come out for "special occasions." As a result, I think the complexity that it brings to the table (ordinarily something which would make me reticent to use it in the classroom) can be offset by its use, long-term, around a single, special activity.  I'm thinking of a summative assessment type thing, where students r-enact famous moments in history through their voices, or produce radio interviews surrounding historical personnages or events (my focus here is history, but I think the possibilities content-wise are pretty broad.  You could even use it as a group presentation medium, where groups are asked to produce an "episode" of a podcast which their fellow classmates can then listen in on, rather than bore people to death (and take up class-time) with your standard stand-at-the-front-of-the-room-shaking-like-a-leaf reports.  Again, ordinarily a tool with a learning curve as steep as this one (i.e. more than about 5 minutes) is ordinarily something I would shy away from using with students, but for longer-term projects I think it would be worth it.

Prior to this presentation, I never really considered audio productions as something which could be brought into the classroom, but now, I am wholly intrigued.

Guest Speaker- Liz Kolb

So, first, let me just say that Liz was an absolutely wonderful speaker, and I think her insights on teaching with technology in classroom are particularly useful, especially given the role which she played as the ad-hoc IT department for her local school back in the early aughts, when such a thing really didn't exist.  I am a self-identifying mobile device nerd, and so I was very interested to hear her thoughts about the use of such devices in an academic setting, and I have to say I was not disappointed.

One of the concerns that instantly comes to mind when I think of using mobile devices (or really any student-owned device) in the classroom for educational purposes is less about students messing around on their phones (twitter and Facebook are usually blocked, and, lets be honest, if it wasn't their phone, it was going to be something else.), but rather I was more concerned about the technical back-end of ensuring that whatever activity I was doing, everybody would be able to participate, and do so at roughly the same speed.  These days we are fortunately reaching a point in smartphone (or information phone, as I have heard them called) performance is "good enough" to accomplish most basic tasks in roughly the same amount of time (browsing the web, sending an SMS, pulling in email, etc.) However, even among these basic tasks, there are little idiosyncrasies which are nothing about nothing on their own, but which represent a vast minefield of potential problems if they are being relied upon.  What browser do they use? Does it work in one and not the other? Does it work in one version of said browser and not the other? Is the device too old to upgrade to a version that does work?  Does one phone have a tweak which wreaks havoc on school WiFi connectivity, while another student's phone runs like a dream?

I guess the long and short of this is that I don't want to be an IT department for my class each and every time we have to whip these things out.  On top of that, because most schools have building wide policies restricting use of mobile devices unless specifically invited in by the teacher, there is the problem to consider wherein students could be bringing their device into the building only for my class.  For me, (after I get done with the fun, shiny 'oooh look at that 60 fps opening animation' phase,) technology is fundamentally about "scratching an itch" or solving a problem. As of right now, I have not seen a burning problem which persistent or consistent, routinized use of a mobile device in the classroom solves for me.

Now, granted, this comes with the caveat that I am currently in a district where the technology is up to date and readily available.  If the ONLY access to a reliable internet connection was through a mobile device, or if school machines were simply too antiquated to perform the tasks I needed, that would be "problem" enough.  But as it is, in my situation, I think that mobile devices in the classroom are still a solution in search of a problem.

The tech found in my placement: A less horrible experience than I anticipated.

So this topic actually touches on a hobby of mine- armchair critiquing of technology implementations in large institutions!  I have had a couple of diet pepsis and a coffee as I write this, so this journey could get real interesting real quick.  Let's see where this goes.

To kick things off, it should be noted that my placement actually has a vast array of technology available for both students and staff, and, with the exception of the Promethean boards (I have never really been sold on the value-add of those over a simple projector screen- I mean sure, you could have students experience the pain and frustration of using 90's ATM touch-screens while trying to teach historical concepts, but why would you?) But anyway, I digress.  With the exception of the boards-which-shall-not-be-named, the technology in my placement seems to all have a purpose, and be reasonably well supported by the district IT department.  As a district, we use Google Apps (google hosted email, google docs, sheets, presentations and calendar), which means that for the most part, email and other things function as expected.  For staff, we have pretty much full access to the web, including YouTube, which has proved indispensable to my mentor teacher on numerous occasions.  Twitter and Facebook are not supported (i.e. they're blocked) , but hey Google+ works just fine, so, well, there you go,  When it comes to the students, I have noted that their email is, while still Google Apps, hosted on a different domain (.net vs. .org), and has additional restrictions, such as YouTube blocking.  When it comes to students working with computers, I have found that, while plentiful, computer access is not terribly convenient on a day-to-day basis, requiring teachers to plan ahead and sign out either a Chromebook cart, the library, one of the Windows-based computer labs, or the single Chromebook lab.  As a result, while there is a lot of tech in the school, the day to day usage is mostly restricted to teachers, and using smart boards for instruction.

In the end, while the attitude of tech acceptance is encouraging, I can't help but feel that to a certain extent "technology" is simply the latest buzz-word, and a way for schools to remind everyone that they are relevant and keeping up with the times.  If so, this enthusiasm for technology will eventually fade (but not disappear), eventually simply becoming an unremarkable part of everyday classroom instruction, rather than a separate topic unto itself.  And, as much of a tech fan as I am, I think that can only be a good thing.

Connection Across the Disciplines: Bringing Your Own Device to Discover New Tree Species

When reading through the lesson plan for the group of Sarah Adcock, Jesse Antuma Wilbur Tong and Sara Abraham,  one thing which struck me was its practicality.  It brings student devices into the classroom (something which always seems to prove popular) while emphasizing their use as a tool, and allowing for much more direct interaction with nature than the traditional classroom bound activities.  From a pedagogical standpoint, the lesson is interesting as it has the opportunity to promote student construction of knowledge, in opposition to the more traditional teacher-provided model.
On element in particular which I find very admirable, is the promotion of technology as a tool for academic work, as opposed to a toy which has no place in the life of a "serious" student,  I feel all too often that we as teachers and adults come across as "anti-technology," or "begrudgingly accepting" of technology in the classrooms, giving the impression to our students that we don't see the potential for such devices to work as anything other than toys.  Students intrinsically know that their iPhone or
Android device is not merely some toy, and I think they resent the implication that as adults we sometimes tend to give.  This lesson plan provides the opportunity for students to not only use their technology, but use it in an active, outdoor setting, and have a concrete example of its use as a tool in the real world, doing real academic work.

Organizing Your Online Life

For the Organizing Your Online Life assignment, I was tasked with reviewing the website/service known as Blendspace.  Blendspace is a neat little tool which allows teachers to create interactive and semi-collaborative lessons on almost any topic.  Conceptually speaking, they are kind of like "PowerPoint on steroids," with the presentations using the "slide" metaphor ubiquitous to PowerPoint presentations, but augmenting them with the ability to embed live web-views, YouTube videos, and even multiple choice quizzes.  Due to the incredible breadth of the website in question, I found it a somewhat daunting task to boil it down into a 25 minute presentation.  In order to do so, I had to prioritize.

For starters, I decided to focus on the aspects of the site which were most novel and/or, not as easily available on other platforms.  So, although Blendspace does have the possibility of being very similar to PowerPoint, I decided to go for the full monty, and create a sample presentation which showcased all of the various features in ways which would at least seem to be semi-organic.

When it came to the handout, one of the things I noticed a bit cumbersome for novice users was the on-boarding process, which required several steps, as well as access to a pre-existing Google account.    As a result I primarily used the handout to help users with getting access to the site in the first place, making the judgement call that after they were signed-up, they could, if needed mess around with the site on their own indefinitely if need be.

On the increased use of computers to administer important tests.

In thinking back to our second class session, and the discussions which were had regarding the Better Balanced Assessment, one of the things which struck me was the increasing move toward students taking standardized, often very important tests, on computers.  

In preparation for this post, I went back and took another look at the Smarter Balanced practice test and one thing immediately stood out to me.  The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) were bad.  Really bad.  And while, on the one hand, I am tempted to dimly shake my head and think, 'ah, well, let's be honest, do we really expect these guys to be designers?'  I have to realize that students are actually going to be using these and taking these.  Not only does that pose a problem for the all-digital future (if it comes to pass,)  but in the present I find it quite troubling, because it suggests to me that computer-taking students may be at a decided disadvantage to their pen-and-paper brethren, if for no other reason than the fact that the web page layout and system controls are poorly thought out.  Again, this does not take into account all of the OTHER reasons why computers as the sole means of administering standardized tests could pose problems (lower reading comprehension of text read off a screen as opposed to paper, the necessity of all schools to purchase enough computers to serve the student body, etc.)  Based merely on the UI/UX alone, I feel that some students may be placed at a disadvantage.

Now, in the fullness of time, if all students are taking test electronically (and ONLY electronically) this would theoretically shake itself out, perhaps with students simply getting lower scores across the board.  However, because the electronic nature of the exam requires far more input controls than a paper test (pencils don't need a detailed formatting menu or color palette options), every test will be a little bit different, and sometimes ALOT different, with some exams being well thought out and designed, and some of them being so kludgy and disgusting as to make moving from one screen to the next an exercise in mental focus and discipline.

To this problem, I have no real answers.  There are a great many decided advantages to taking a test electronically, insta-scoring and reporting chief among them, however I am not confident that the gains which we receive from pursuing a digital-only strategy in this particular case outweigh the potential harmful affects to students.

Death in Rome: A Simple (Yet effective, Flash-based game)

So, I have just finished playing "Death in Rome," A murder-mystery whodunit focusing around the death of one Tiberius Claudius Eutychus in Rome in the year 80 A.D.  (or C.E. for those who prefer the newer system).    SPOILER ALERT: Poor Tiberius died not of foul play, but of malaria, as is evidenced, by among other things, the mosquito bite mark on his neck, the evident blood letting on his arm, and the presence of honeysuckle in the room, all of which indicate a treatment for malaria was underway.   The cool things about the game however, and where it proves useful, is in the game mechanics- you have  limited amount of time, and every time you choose to investigate something in the room, the timer reduces by a little bit (to be honest I didn't pay too close attention to exactly how much time you lost per object.)  Once you were investigating whatever object it was which struck your fancy, you had the opportunity to ask for more information from several modern experts, along with a panel of three witnesses, to better help you understand what you were looking at, and give you more historical background knowledge.

 The verdict?  It was hoakey, it was cheesy, but at the same time, it was kind of fun, and I know that at least for the moment, I now remember that honeysuckle was used to treat various illnesses in ancient Rome, a fact which I did not know before.  In addition, I could see a game like this being very useful for younger players, as it forces them to make decisions about what to spend their time instigating, helping to hone discrimination skills.   That being said, I feel as though the utility of a game like this one is relatively limited to fact acquisition (which is not in and of itself a bad thing; without having basic factual information, it becomes difficult to move on to higher order thinking.)  However, I think I would put a game like this into the same category as something like a "Math Blasters" (a Windows 3.1 math game I still fondly remember), insofar as it really only teaches basic knowledge and skills, without going too far into addressing higher order thinking.

All that aside though, not a bad game for something written by the BBC.  ;)

BYOD and Dilemma It Poses

In the reading "should students use their own devices in the classroom?" They begin by citing an example of a teacher whose class was saved by the fact that most of her students had personal devices (in this case, cell phones) which allowed them to connect to the internet even when the school's own connection went down.  While I think that this is a shining example of BYOD in action, I think that there are a number of pitfalls and hurdles to BYOD in education which call into question it's prudence.  On the one hand, we have a teacher who says that students

"had done exactly what we educators always dream of: they assessed their learning needs and found the right tool to satisfy those need without adult intervention."

This is wonderful.  Not only are the students learning to problem solve independently, but they are also learning to use the technological tools they have at hand as exactly that- tools, as opposed to status symbols or expansive toys.  This is the kind of learning which I believe Dewey would have advocated; by way of experience, the students were learning not only new skills, but also a new way of looking at their own tools.  However.  With BYOD, one cannot ignore the socio-economic implications of the practice, as mentioned in the same "should students use their own devices in the classroom?" article.  Where BYOD has become a growing (and mostly successful) practice across college campuses and within companies across the country, one of the fundamental differences between these two organizations and the public school system;  In universities, you generally have a group of people who are all willingly subjecting themselves to the financial rigors of school, and in companies you have employees who are being paid to be there, the public school system is unique in which you have a group of students from potentially wildly varying socio-economic backgrounds who are required by law to attend and co-exist.  As a result, BYOD in public schools adds a dimension of both financial and social stress to students' lives which they neither explicitly signed on for nor are they being paid for, and which in some cases is unavoidable.  As a result, for all the good BYOD can bring (better equipment sooner, training on the latest OS's and hardware) it comes at a potential social emotional cost which may not be worth the risk.