For the Love of Technology

              Last week, educational technology brought tears to my eyes, as it often does. However, this time, they were tears of happiness not frustration. I was in the office when a new student, who had enrolled that morning, was being picked up by her father after her first day. Brianna is from Brazil and speaks little to no English. She was surrounded by girls chatting and laughing. Upon closer inspection, every girl had their phone out. They were using the Google Translate app to communicate with her. A huge language barrier was nothing to them. They figured out a way around it, and made this girl feel at home.  The next day, I watched a student teach an eighth grade teacher how to use it to communicate. This experience struck a chord with me this week as my classmates and I have been exploring technology that can be used to enrich and improve instruction in our classrooms.

                The technology we looked at this week touches every aspect of education.  One area of edtech is apps that aid in organization and record keeping. Rank One sports makes caring for our student athletes and organizing student activities significantly easier. Showbie, the paperless classroom app, has huge implications for teachers, students, and parents.  Teachers can assign tasks, provide feedback, and even collect assignments through this app. 

                There are several programs and apps that offer an alternative to your old power points. Emaze is an online presentation software that offers 3D zoom and moving backgrounds for free, and presentations can be accessed from anywhere.  Powtoon creates animated videos and presentations. It can be used by teachers to present to students or by students for classroom presentations. With Swivl, you  have a hands-free way to record lessons or presentations.  Use these in  a flipped classroom or embed them into a  presentation.  Apple TV has endless possibilities for the classroom. I have used mine for years to watch YouTube videos and Netflix, but never thought about the many uses it could serve in my classroom with my mobile device and all of the excellent presentation software that is available.

                Other apps engaged learners by enriching lessons.  Nearpod was one of my favorite edtech tools we looked at.  Nearpod allows teachers to immediately assess students’ learning and actively engages the students in discussion using technology.  Photomath was an excellent app that allows students to take a picture of a math problem. The app then solves the problem and shows all the steps.  Parents can use it to help students with difficult homework. Klikaklu was interactive picture treasure hunt that can be used with iPads or phones.  The Pebble Go program is an excellent resource for teaching elementary students research skills in a fun and appealing way. 

We even looked at apps to help students emotionally. SAM, Self-help Anxiety Management, is a psycho-educational app that allows students to manage and control anxiety. It can help identify times of the day that cause the most stress and offers ways to deescalate when anxiety occurs.

Like it or not, technology is and will continue to be a pervasive element in schools.  How can we use it to truly enrich the lives and learning experiences of our students?  Keep an eye open, and they just might show you a trick or two.

Flip it. Flip it good.

I have long been an opponent of  homework. When I began to teach math about halfway into my teaching career, I realized that some of my struggling students would take home the 20 problems I had assigned them and practice them wrong.  As a result, not only was I dealing with students who didn’t get the concept when I taught it, I was dealing with a student who had practiced it wrong twenty times!  I then had to reteach AND undo all that bad practice. 

Enter the flipped classroom.  A flipped classroom takes the idea of the traditional classroom, in which the teacher delivers instruction at school and the independent practice takes place at home, and turns it upside down.  Instruction takes place at home in the form of a video lecture or even an online chat, and activities typically reserved for homework take place in the classroom under the supervision of the teacher.   

Flipping a classroom opens the door wide for an extended time of guided practice.  Often, this is the hardest part to fit in to a 45 minute class period; however, it is one of the most important elements to providing mastery of a concept.  If the passive learning can be done at home, the classroom time can be filled with activities, discussions, and practice (guided and independent) that are all supervised by the teacher.

My own kids are digital natives. They can learn how to do anything by googling and watching a YouTube video. Hairstyles, makeup tips, dance steps, and song lyrics are popular topics with my thirteen year old daughter. Her younger siblings are looking for more practical applications such as Minecraft hacks and practical jokes to play on your older sister. If children are independently seeking knowledge in this format, why not use that to our advantage in education.

One of my students who is typically not one to participate in homework has been placed in a partially flipped eighth grade math class.  When I ask him if he has homework, he says, “No, I just have to watch a video.”  I like to think of it as covert homework.  Learning when they don’t even realize it. 

For my students that have slower processing time or struggle with attention and focus, the flipped classroom can prevent them from missing valuable information that they wouldn’t typically get from a classroom lecture.  At home, they can watch the video two or three times until they are fully grasping the content of the lecture.  Scott Haselwood, a flipped classroom guru, would give his high school students packets to follow along with and fill out as they go, a fantastic idea for everyone but especially kids who struggle to remain engaged.

As a classroom teacher, flipping a classroom opens a thousand doors.  Many of us have brilliant ideas for active learning.  We are brimming with lessons full of discovery, movement, and creativity.  Our biggest enemy is time. Flipping the classroom gives us that precious time to be able to explore, investigate, and allow our students to have authentic learning experiences. 

A Day in the Technologically Dysfunctional Life

I have a confession. In our technologically advanced society of today, I am dysfunctional. I rely heavily on the techno-savvy adults around me and, yes, my children. My eight year old twins can navigate even the newest of devices. However, even in my dysfunctionality, technology is embedded in every facet of my day.

I awake each morning to the sound of my alarm clock, otherwise known as the smartphone. This amazing device has taken the place of clocks and calendars, and serves to complete many of the tasks I formerly used my desktop for. I peruse Facebook, check email, and review my schedule, all before leaving the comfort of my own bed. 

My Google calendar is linked with my husband’s and my daughter’s. We have almost eliminated the need for communicating.  I simply add an event to the calendar and they know where they are supposed to be. We can easily navigate who’s taking to dance, who’s going to the track meet, and who’s supervising music lessons.  

Google has bettered my world in other ways. My husband can send documents for proofreading through GoogleDocs, and I can easily edit and return quickly.  My daughters and I can share books and music on Google Play. Even though we are a house divided (I love my android, and my daughter and husband are staunch iPhone users), Google Play is available on every device and makes sharing convenient.  My music can be plugged in to my car stereo and is organized into playlists that I can choose based on my mood.

At school, I check voicemail on my IP Phone, retrieve school email, and login to the online gradebook to take attendance.  The Individualized Education Plan that I wrote the evening before is waiting on our online system, EdPlan, to be printed for my IEP meeting.  Bellwork is shown on my Smartboard so I’m prepared when students arrive.  My students use Successmaker, a computerized reading and math remediation program that gives me immediate feedback regarding what specific skills the students are struggling with. I can login and reassign lessons or print skills work in any given area.  Gone are the days of flashcards for vocabulary.  Middle schoolers in my class use flashcards and multiple choice templates on Smartnotebook to study academic terms.  My drama students use their phones to video themselves practicing monologues. They can peer review themselves and are their own toughest critics. United Streaming, YouTube, and Netflix allow us to view media on any subject.  I use all three to support what I’m teaching in the classroom from literature to geography and Shakespeare to Broadway.  We use computers for research projects with our English students. No topic is so new that information is not yet readily available. 

Some say technology has made the world smaller. I would say the world has expanded beyond our wildest imaginations.  No corner of the world is too far that we can’t explore through technology. We can go anywhere, see anything, and experience all that our great world has to offer while in the comfort of our homes and classrooms.