I don't have a great memory. I can enter a room and be clueless as to why I came. And yet I remember stories from decades ago as if they were yesterday. Building tree forts. Ducking behind the fence as my buddy threw lawn darts at me. Getting stitches. Why do I remember those things: because I have reviewed them over and over. I have reflected on them. Sure, as I tell the stories to my own kids, some of the details have evolved. (the darts really did happen, though). But without reflection, the ideas grow cold. With that in mind, here are a few of the more memorable CBL experiences I had this year.
This was a great year of connections-based learning for me and my students. I remember the first week of school, I connected my students with Saul Mwame, a Sustainable Development Goals activist from Tanzania. I really had no definite purpose for this other than connection. Sure I thought he could shed some light on the lack of electricity in Tanzania. But it was the connection that was important.
Months after that first semester class is done, I see the ripple effects of that connection in my last semester's students' tweet supporting Saul's goals.
@SaulMwame
Nothing can stop you, can it? :) Made my day reading this article, makes you certain that sometimes people have bigger problems than you.
"Nothing can stop me but me. I dream that one day I will establish an aerospace university in my country": https://t.co/8cah9BOGwe
How can I stop connecting my students when passionate purposeful flames are fanned. I can't.
And what an honour it was for me to connect with champions of gender equality around the world as I prepared to speak at the Qatar Leadership Conference 2017. I couldn't have done it without connections. It speaks to the crucial nature of the CBL #CoOperate focus:
Another highlight for me this year was to watch what mentorship can do as we connect our students with the right guides. Microsoft Vancouver approached me to find some students that would be interested in connecting to utilize the MS Vancouver Garage resources: both tools and personnel. This gave students a chance to really press into the CBL #CoCreate Focus:
The human element is huge in these instances. If I asked students to educate themselves in coding and design through YouTube they would not have gotten as far as they did with a human connection. We went through the CBL #CoDesign focus to not only tease out our direction, but guide our work.
Such great progress was achieved between the time we spent time to #CoConstructGoals to the proof of concept demonstrated at the BC Tech Summit. Here is one students' goals at the beginning of the connection:
And here is a video of the product demonstrated at the BC Tech Summit:
What has been your memorable connections-based learning this year? I would love to see your tweets, hear your stories, listen to your Voxes (join the: CBL Voxer Community!!) and read your reflection posts!
Our district has been given a microgravity experiment chamber and cargo space aboard a rocket travelling to the International Space Station. That rocket will dock with the ISS and deliver the experiment to the astronauts living in the microgravity environment. While there, an astronaut will carry out the specific instructions of the experiment. Finally, the experiment chamber will be loaded up for transport back to earth. Meanwhile, the same experiment will be completed back in British Columbia. The control group and the experimental space group will be compared and the effects of microgravity on the contents of the experimental chamber will be analyzed.
Sounds fictional doesn't it. But it is actually true! The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) allows students to participate in a real-life science process. And real life science is competitive. There is one spot for which hundreds of groups compete. And I have students who really want to have that spot.
It is an amazing opportunity! The big question is: how do we best steward this opportunity? How do we maximize our talents? How do teams in my class get to be the ones who have their experiment taken to space?
If there is one thing I know from my work with Connections-based Learning, we can't do this alone. We used the Connections-based Learning lens to guide us as we created our experiments. The Collaborate component is not meant to be a prescription but is to be used as a guide to leverage the connected world to learn. Each facet reminds us how making connections can be part of the learning process. To create a great SSEP experiment, making connections must be part of the plan.
CBL Infographic by Sean Robinson and Leigh Cassell
Design
Immediately we got down to the business of design.
Using pages in our OneNote class notebook, students grouped up and began to brainstorm ideas about possible experiments. What do we as a global community need to know about microgravity? What are we curious about regarding gravity? What even wacky ideas do we have that we could try? OneNote documents were created for groups of three students and each student would add to the document from their devices.
On another OneNote class notebook page, students were asked questions about some of the non-negotiables of their collaboration. Goals and collaboration principles were established.
Network
As students searched through websites to see what has gone before, some contacted groups who had previously participated in the SSEP. Here is an excerpt from one of the students blogs:
Some connected with Simon Fraser University students to guide them as the students teased out meaningful questions to explore in a microgravity environment. As they emailed back and forth, students were able to build ideas about possible experiments.
Students we able to attend an SSEP gathering at Heritage Woods Secondary where they made even more connections with experts.
Create
Before the creation of an experiment could take place, students needed to develop competencies and skills in certain areas. I had to teach some students about the effects of different acids while some needed to learn about bacteria. We used agar plates to gather and experiment on bacteria. Students also examined what had gone on before during the SSEP flights. Each group studied a previous mission to glean important information to guide them in their own experiment. In the end, the students created an experiment of their own and began to write up their proposal to submit to the SSEP committee.
Celebrate
Students continued to document their process. They took pictures that they will later publish on their blogs. They kept track of emails they sent and information that they received back from collaborators. And as much as possible (this is a competition) they worked out loud, making connections with university students, other teachers, and the teacher librarian. All this will be published after the competition in their digital portfolios where students, teachers, and parents can read and comment.
Soon the winning experiment will be chosen and we will find out if one of our groups will be sending an experiment into space. Regardless of the outcome, participating in the SSEP experience was amazing and throughout the process, learning happened. That learning will be celebrated and shared out to support future SSEP participants. Moreover the meaningful learning relationships students made will be connections they can tap into for the future as they curate their learning network. This is Connections-based Learning.
I spent the last week talking digital footprint with hundreds of students at my school. As they develop their digital portfolios, we wanted make sure our students had a conversation about digital footprints, particularly their own. We asked students to Google themselves, to picture how their footprint is seen by others, and to reflect on some strategies to keep a good digital footprint.
I shared several videos on digital footprints with the students. This one showed the sheer vastness of information present online about us these days. From ultrasound pictures to RIP notices, our "digital dossier" grows at an alarming rate and sticks with us throughout our lives.
After sharing this video, I would relate true stories about online interactions that got people into hot water. A politician who had to step down, an employee who lost her job, all through online behaviour that that they had no clue would come to haunt them.
Another video, by Michelle Clark, included an excellent Spoken Word on the digital footprint. I emphasized this line in it.
"Whether its Youtube, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, before we upload, download,
type on those keys, press enter; we need to slow down, take time, think, consider; how will this instant information impact our hopes and our dreams, how could this careless communication be interpreted or released?"
And I think my students got the message. Here is a shot of their Padlet response to my presentation.
And while some might look at that and think: Good work Robinson, you got the job done, you got your point across, something inside me said otherwise. In fact, I think I missed the whole point.
What's missing?
What is missing is that yet again I had focused on the "Do Not's", the "Watch Out's", the "Caution's". Where was the inspiration? Where was the delight of sharing thoughts with people around the world? Where was leveraging the portfolio for global good? Nowhere. True, the students seemed to get the message of be careful online. But could I have sent them that message couched in an idea that their portfolio could have amazing potential?
As I returned to the classes to follow up, I felt I had to start things off differently. I first showed this video below by Bethanie Gourley a grade 11 student from Arkansas.
I love the message here. It wasn't just that Bethanie got to hear from Casey Neistat, her favourite filmmaker. It was that she used her portfolio for what she was passionate about. It showed the power of the digital portfolio. And her experience was such that she just had to share about it, and make this video. Showing this video to my students was a great jumping off point to have them consider their passions and how their digital portfolio could be meaningful to them.
I showed them my idea of "Random Acts of Commenting" where they could make an encouraging comment on a post that pops up on their reader.
I let them develop their portfolio, change the theme, make it their own.
I let them to embed a video meaningful them, work on their About Me page, and customize.
Then I let them play.
Really, in some ways it's out of my hands now. I may think I can control my students' portfolios ... but it's their portfolio. The more I hand it over to them, the more they'll manage it with care and attention. And the more I'll be surprised with where their footprints go.
This is the long awaited third and final part in a series on digital portfolio first steps. In this series, I have been sharing what I call keys to starting digital portfolios. In Digital Portfolios: Where to Start Part #1, I share that teachers need to have a digital portfolio themselves to have any credibility when asking students to develop theirs. In Digital Portfolios: Where to Start Part #2, I share that the second key is to take a look what others are doing with digital portfolios. I shine a light on portfolio platforms such as Freshgrade, Weebly.com, Bulbapp.com, Edublogs.org, and Kidblog.org and the teachers who are using them.
The final key to starting digital portfolios will maximize the potential of the portfolio. It is the real game-changer. Through this key you will realize that the portfolios are going to ask as much from you as they ask from your students. Student work is now on display and that work has to be individual, meaningful, and show growth over time. It's not business as usual.
Key #3: Teach differently: Ask yourself how digital portfolios will change your teaching.
The digital portfolio is not just a place where students can display their work. They can also demonstrate their understanding of an idea or their proficiency in a skill. They not only can give answers, but explain reasoning. And they now have to defend their ideas as others comment on them. This is no static summative display board. This is a dynamic learning and growing space.
How does that change my teaching? - now that I know that parents are looking at this, how does that change what I do in the classroom? - now that I know prospective employers are looking at this, how does that change what our projects look like? - now that I know that these are student portfolios (not teacher hand in boxes) how does that open the door for choice?
Let's think about that for a second. Would a completed integers worksheet be the best to demonstrate competency in a certain area, or would a video of the student explaining their understanding of integers be better? Furthermore, could that video in turn help a younger buddy class with their understanding?
And again, would a completed lab where students have followed the instructions to a tee be the best activity to show that students understand the scientific method or would students' own inquiry into their own question, creating their own experiment and data, best demonstrate understanding?
I saw this play out today as I looked at the Edublogs.org reader that updates every time a student in our school posts. Here are two of the posts that came up from Bree Mireau's Science 10 class (although I could have picked any number of excellent posts flowing through the reader).
Kinga and Mona: "Magic Science"
Matty and Jaron: "Science is Magic"
These student videos show so much more than a lab handout with all the parts filled in. The students got to choose an experiment that interests them. They got to show their competency in carrying out the experiment. They were able to explain what happened. There is no question that they know what happened during the experiment; they are teaching it! These videos are now a permanent part of their digital portfolios. If you were interested in hiring a lab assistant, would seeing something like this have an impact on your choice? I think it would. But portfolio content like this can only happen if the teacher opens the door for it. What will you open the door for with your digital portfolios?
This bookends Digital Portfolios: where to start? Thank you for walking
through this with me. More than providing a step by step method to
starting digital portfolios, I hope that you found something here to cause
you to think, that you will move ahead in your digital portfolio journey--possibly
not in the way you thought but maybe in the way you hoped, and that these posts
have inspired you. And where our inspiration leads, our feet follow.
In Digital Portfolios: Where to Start Part #1, I shared that the most important way to motivate students to embrace their digital portfolio is for their teachers to have a digital portfolio themselves. In fact, I make the case that the one requiring students to maintain a digital portfolio must not only have a place that they share their learning online, but be able to give stories of how it has made a difference. This allows teachers to not only model the process of keeping a portfolio, but illustrate reasons why keeping a digital portfolio matters.
While, the first thing to do is take a long hard consideration about managing your own digital portfolio, the second also requires some reflection. As with the first, it is not always self-evident, but when you take part in this key, you'll see why it really matters: Key #2: Get inspired: take a look at what others are doing
Jumping into a portfolio system without looking at what other educators are doing ignores the tremendous resources out there. All too often, the cart is loaded before one takes a look at the paddock of horses. It is crucial to take a look at what students are sharing and how they are sharing it. Here I will show just a few examples. There is no order to these links and it is definitely not an exhaustive list: simply a place to start. Click on the titles to see these portfolios in action.
Dan Boyle, a Humanities teacher at Triton Regional High School, decided to have his students build web pages over blogs. He shared this with me on Who needs a digital portfolio?:
I love how he uses a padlet to display student avatars that lead to the students' twitter feeds and web sites. The students' sites have a running blog plus multiple classroom links to a variety of shares utilizing a plethora of apps. Videos, Pixton comic strips, spiderscribe.net mind maps are just a few of the ways students show their learning. A look at Dan Boyle's students' portfolios will definitely expand your mind as to the possibilities out there.
Here I am using Freshgrade to capture a student's project
As a teacher interested in giving students opportunities to share learning and make connections, I have kept a connection with Freshgrade since 2012. Freshgrade is a platform that helps teachers capture evidence of learning in the moment. Whether it is text, pictures, audio, or video, the captured evidence is uploaded to a student's portfolio where students and parents can easily access it at any moment. The platform has been evolving over time. Now with parent and student apps available, I have been able to use Freshgrade as as Learning Management System, keeping a connection with students, sharing assignments with them, and giving feedback. For those looking for a way to share class activity in moment of learning, Freshgrade is definitely something to check out.
The Padlet that leads visitors to the Paul Solarz's student portfolios
When you visit Paul Solarz's Weebly page (Weebly.com), you find connections to all his students' portfolios over several years. Once again, a padlet is used to make getting to each portfolio easy. What a great idea to use a class picture to share the links to each portfolio. Here we find student created speaking avatars called Vokis, field trip and science fair Youtube and GoAnimate videos, podcasts and more. Paul has been called a digital portfolio guru and is definitely one to follow when embarking on portfolios.
Jodie Deinhammer shared with me her students' portfolios from 2014-2015 year as I made a call out over twitter. She uses a Google blogspot platform to lead to students' Bulbapp.com sites. Once again, these portfolios share a bevvy of different online technologies that students can use to share learning. As I looked through them I was drawn in by the excellent use of picture links to share post content. As I clicked on Ariel's, I was inspired by her Smore flyer sharing learning about healthy brains, her analysis of the white and gold dress, and her piktochart infographics. As one goes deeper into this portal, you can see thoughtful posts, effective use of media, and excellent citations.
Immediately, it is obvious that High Tech High's Media Arts ePortfolios seem completely integrated into the fabric of learning. Not only do you see easy access to the student portfolios from this portal, but you can see the teacher portfolios right there. You can feel the importance placed on digital portfolios right from the get go. This Google site is a portal to students' sites (Weebly.com again) that allow the students to embed downloadable documents, powerpoints, videos and pictures in each post. Navigating through the portfolios felt like travelling through a Wiki as project challenges and students projects all seem connected. It feels like teacher and student alike work at developing this learning portal together sharing their learning alongside each other.
Karen Lirenman on blogging in the early primary classroom
Karen Lirenman has been a longtime proponent of student blogging and shares her student's public portfolios using the kidblog.org platform. She tells how her students' digital portfolios help her students connect with the world in this video. What I love about Karen's students' blogs is that I can see the conversation taking place between student and teacher as she comments on the students' thoughts. If you thought that primary students were too young to maintain digital portfolios, think again.
At Riverside, we use an Edublogs.org platform for our students' digital portfolios. The above link is a flipboard magazine of some of my students' Science and Technology 11 blogs. While you won't find many online technologies used (our Canadian privacy laws keep me hesitant from having my students sign up for these), you might find that we work hard to encourage students to personalize their portfolio, share honest reflections and visit and comment on each others' posts.
And the list of excellent student portfolios could go on. . .
In putting together this post, my horizons were definitely broadened. It was wonderful to see how students embrace their portfolios, making them their storehouse of learning. I was impressed with the endeavours to have teacher and student learning alongside each other. I was amazed at the number of educational apps out there to help students share and connect. I haven't even scratched the surface of sharing the possibilities out there so please comment and share more examples of the amazing things students can do with their digital portfolios.
#digitalportfolios : Key #1 for student motivation
In Who needs a Digital Portfolio, commenter Kristine Hodgins asked about first steps for creating a digital portfolio. A great question. I answered, but I thought the question merited more reflection. Where does a teacher start when inspired to have students build digital portfolios (ePortfolios)? What are the next steps once the passion hits? You might be expecting me to start with: choosing a platform, getting admin on board, or informing parents. These are early steps. But I think there are three things that really should come first. I'll call them keys.
You might be surprised. These keys may be steps that you hadn't really thought of. They are, however, crucial in answering the question: Where to start? In order to give each of these keys some focus, I will give each a post. This first one of the three, I believe, is the most important and often the most overlooked:
Key #1: Develop your own digital portfolio
From a student on eportfolios:
In terms of promotion the problem is the people trying to explain it have probably never used it so in a way they have no clue what they are talking about, basically. To put it frankly – after listening to them you would be like, Okay so you as an outsider who never even used it is telling us we should do this because it is the best thing since sliced bread but you have never used it – you can’t find someone who did use it – you don’t have enough information to tell us how to use it – and now you’re telling us use it and we’ll grade you on it – this kind of makes it hard for students to accept or appreciate it.
- Tosh D. et al. (2005)
David Tosh, Tracy Penny Light, Kele Fleming, and Jeff Haywood, from universities in both Canada and the UK, did a study called Engagement with Electronic Portfolios: Challenges from the Student Perspective as they introduced ePorfolios to university students. They mention that most studies on portfolios look at the effectiveness of the portfolio from the teacher's perspective. This was a unique study in that its focus was the students' experience. The results were extremely telling and should be read by anyone planning to introduce digital portfolios to their students.
One message that came through loud and clear in their study was that the students had a hard time embracing a digital portfolio when they felt their teachers hadn't. It was like students were saying: "if a digital portfolio is so important, then why don't you have one? It can't be that important if the person who is asking me to do it doesn't even need it." This screams hypocrisy to our students and has a huge impact on student acceptance. Tosh further comments:
If students do not accept the e-portfolio as a holistic means with which to document their learning in different contexts and, more importantly, agree or wish to use the e-portfolio as an integral part of their educational experience, then the potential impact the e-portfolio could have on learning will not be realised. - Tosh D. et al. (2005)
The Tosh D. et al. (2005) article covers a range of important ePortfolio elements: buy-in, motivation, assessment and e-portfolio technology but their "bottom line is that students need to know why their knowledge is important." Not only do we need to share our examples of digital portfolios, we need to share stories of how our portfolios made a difference for us. How are our digital portfolios important to us? How can a student's portfolio be important to them?
I learned about the Tosh study from Dwayne Harapniuk (It's about Learning: creating significant learning environments). He had used my blog as an example of an educator ePortfolio. This lead me to read his blog post. The post is full of ePortfolio examples including ones from Teachers and Principals. Mr. Harapniuk's ePortfolio is an excellent example of an educator modeling an online portfolio. This he has been doing since the late 90's. He also is a firm believer that the educator asking students to maintain a portfolio, should have one to share. This perspective is painfully clear in the title of his post: Show Me Yours and I Will Show You Mine - Eportfolio Examples
More than acceptance, the digital portfolio requires "embrace-ment". Motivation is the crux of the matter. I mention to educators in a post called PBL:Q and A that:
One's soul must be mined. Mining is dangerous; but how else can the gems be found. I like to think that the best learning is better caught than taught and this mining leads to a better person facilitating the learning. Added to that, the students need to see their teacher as a risk-taker. If teachers can put themselves out there, the students will be all the more willing to do the same. - Robinson S. (2013)
In this post, I was referring to teacher as chief risk taker in Project-based Learning. But even more-so, this applies to the digital portfolio.
- One's soul must be mined (see what I mean in Kim Ondrik's blog (here)
- Passion for the digital portfolio is better caught than taught.
- The teacher must be the chief risk-taker as we ask students to put themselves out there in this digital world
I came into our school library the other day and my principal Anthony Ciolfitto (whose wonderfully thoughtful educational blog is here by the way) came up to me with a smile and pitched me an idea.
"How about we make this corner area here in the library a collaboration zone. We paint this wall with whiteboard paint and add a digital projector facing this wall here."
"For teachers or students?" I asked.
"For both. What a great area for students to come to and work on group projects together. But also, what a great way to let our students see us teachers collaborating. We can model what we are asking our students to do right here."
Amazing. Imagine teachers in the school library working alongside the students--pitching ideas to each other, brainstorming, planning. Imagine students nearby--watching, listening, catching the idea that we are all learners.
We can model what we are asking our students to do right here.
It works with a collaboration area, with project-based learning, and with digital portfolios. The students need to see it in action, not from a distance, but from nearby. From their teacher.
References
Tosh, D., Light, T., Fleming, K., and Haywood, J. (2005). Engagement with Electronic Portfolios: Challenges from the Student Perspective. Canadian Journal Of Learning And Technology / La Revue Canadienne De L’Apprentissage Et De La Technologie, 31(3). Retrieved from http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/97 Aug. 3, 2015
Robinson, S. (2013) PBL: Q and A.On the side of technology. Retrieved from
http://seanrtech.blogspot.ca/2013/12/pblq.html Aug. 3, 2015
In my previous #flipclass post, Four ways to make your flipclass awesome, I shared four ideas that I had at the end of a term of my first class flipping experience. These were not ideas I had done and tested, but more, thoughts that I had about what I should have done and committed to do in the next term. In keeping with my Cut the Cool Card philosophy, I was pretty open about the need for much more work done on my videos and better communication with parents. In fact, I made four claims about how to make the #flippedlearning experience awesome:
1) Make concise engaging videos 2) Start the year with the students creating the videos 3) Create an online culture of questions and learning 4) Make a flipped class parent video
What follows is my work on each of these points since that post:
Make concise engaging videos
I have begun to really hone in on the concept I would like the students to get from the video. The video that follows is less than 3 minutes long. I explain the concept I'm teaching, share some visuals and a question, explain the answer, and get out.
An example of my Flipclass videos to date: Referents in Measurement
I am hoping that I can continue keeping the videos short and relevant.
Start the year with the students creating the videos
This next point is really the kicker of this blog. I carved time out of a busy provincially examable course to have students make their own videos this term. It was well worth it.
One of the many student videos; this one is on trigonometry
First, seeing these students wrestle with finding screencasting apps and editing video was great. I watched as students solved issues around recording, editing, and presenting. I loved seeing the variety of apps the students used. I asked them what resources they used to make their videos and this is what they told me:
But second, as students participate in the video-making process, they become co-creators of the online learning space. They take more ownership of the class and I am hoping get more involved in watching and commenting on all the videos...including the ones I have made for them. This to me is Flipclass 2.0.
Create an online culture of questions and learning
The idea around creating a quality online culture is still something that needs some work. At this point, I use Edmodo to deliver the videos. I have students watch them and then then make a comment back to me. I have always hoped that the comments would create conversation among the students. Unfortunately, the dialogue has only been between the student and myself. I would love to hear any suggestions as to how other educators foster this.
Make a flipped class parent video
Often my blogs become commitments. If I share it here, it makes it tough for me not to at least make an attempt. So I followed my own recommendations and made a parent video. I thought to have it fulfill a couple of needs, not only explaining what the Flipped Classroom is but also what it looks like at home. Here it is below:
Parent video on Flipped Learning
I put a QR code on the course outline that I handed out Day 1 to be signed by all the parents. The code led to this video. Although I didn't get much feedback from parents about it right away, I knew that it "got out there" when I was talking to a parent. "We'll see how this flipped class goes" was her comment. To me, regardless of the parent response at this stage, I at least have had a chance to give my side of the story, to set the tone.
So that is where I am at today: my version of Flipclass 2.0. And I'm excited to see what Flipclass 3.0 is as I keep at it!!!
I recently had a conversation with a co-worker about twitter. I was sharing how it and other social media has helped me become a better teacher. She agreed that that was possible but her experience was that often the posts were simply showboating or lofty quotes. Not really that useful to her.
She had a point. Who wants to scroll through a bunch of people putting on their best, eliciting a response of either some kind of disdain or jealousy? Who wants to have the idea that you could (and should) be better than you are thrown at you. That caused me to wonder: how could two people's experiences be so different? What is it about the posts I focus on that lead me to be a better teacher, a better person?
I began to reflect back to posts that recently had affected me, that led me to respond and change. I didn't have to look very far. Within the last weeks several posts stood out to me. These were not the posts of jaw dropping successes but more so of risks, and failures (some quite drastic), and vulnerability. It was the sharing of these that stirred me, affected me, and led me to act, to respond. I share them here. And I implore you: be real. Be real online; be real in your communities, in your home. It is that reality that makes THE difference. . .that makes A difference.
In her post, Roni was open about a situation that happened to her. She took her readers through the story of this huge setback and how she learned from it. There were no excuses. Punches weren't pulled. And she had me. I poured through her recommendations; I evaluated my practices; I made personal commitments.
I also recently commented on Chris Kennedy's Culture of Yes blog: The Size of the Device. He shared about a leadership discussion he had with a class of Grade 11's and 12's. His lesson didn't go as planned and though his blog was focused on device size, he readily admitted he could have been more engaging and put more effort into classroom management. The superintendent of West Vancouver School District admitted he could have been better. Not only does that draw me in but it adds credibility to what he says.
Take Risks
Another thing that pushed me to act was this vid tweet here:
George talks about it here: New Project: #EDUin30. He had an idea to use the new twitter video feature to prompt educators to share their ideas. He admitted: "To be honest, it felt a little uncomfortable to share myself in a video. That was actually kind of the point. To stretch myself in this format as well." I can appreciate that. And it was a great idea. I, and many other educators, jumped on this. I loved hearing what others were doing in this new format. And I was able to share of myself looking at a camera, which is a little more exposing than a tweet or blog post. But it was the idea that he was stretching himself and taking a risk that drew me in. It is seeing these kinds of risks over and over again that lead me to take more risks in my classroom, in my life.
Be Vulnerable
This morning I read Dean Shareski's post: My Community Story. In it he re-caps his last ten years of making connections. One thing he says here:
While the journey and story of community continues I realize once again why we share. Those that read this story and relate are sharers too. They’ve been vulnerable enough at some point to take a chance and participate in community. They’ve been able to tell stories of moments that made them realize they weren’t alone, stories of insights they would never have considered, stories of people that have made a difference in their lives. - Dean Shareski
Dean lives it out. He seems to be a cheerleader of vulnerability. Just yesterday, he applauded Beth Woof who shared of something she did that she knew she could have done better in her post: I wish I hadn't reacted so quickly.... Vulnerability begets vulnerability. And this leads to change. Thanks Dean for beckoning us to share, instilling in us the notion that we are not alone.
A while back I had read this tweet by Chris Wejr. I couldn't agree more.
To me, we can't share change unless we are open with the before and the after, the successes and the failures. When I was a kid, we had this saying: cut the cool card. It basically meant: be real. We're all human so don't take yourself so seriously. We all put our pants on one leg at a time. In this new era of social media, the need to be genuine hasn't changed a bit.
Six months ago I made a goal to flip my Math 10 class. I had never taught Math 10 nor any other high school academic course, nor had I flipped a class before so once again, my reach exceeded my grasp. I learned a ton this first go-round. I guess the title on this post could be "Don't do what I did and your flipclass will be awesome" but as always, and like all of us, I am on a journey. Here are some of my ideas at this point on how to make your flipclass awesome.
1) Make concise engaging videos
My first videos were well set up for students who had carved out an hour or two of their time, sat down with a coffee (hot chocolate okay) and their workbook in hand, and poured through my super long drawn out videos finding all the nuggets contained within. Here is one of the first videos I made:
In the previous video, the teaching doesn't happen until 1:30 seconds. And its not really teaching, it's more like a glorified answer key. What is the learning intention?! Not totally sure. And apart from a slightly goofballish intro, the engagement factor is sitting at impotent proportions. Here is one of my latest videos.
Improvements made:
- The learning intention is front and centre: finding the greatest common factor and lowest common multiple
- Terms are defined and so is the concept
- The lesson is quickly taught and emphasizes ease and simplicity
Share your videos with other teachers and get feedback. Ask your students what they like about them and what you could be doing better. Your video skill will improve over time so don't hesitate to redo videos. Always keep this question in mind: would I sit through this?
2) Start the year with the students creating the videos
This semester I made all the videos: 46 in all. I would say that that took between 100 and 200 hours in all to record and edit them. That's a lot of work. It's not like I have a lot of time on my hands. And I am sure some of them needed to be bumped up in volume as they were made at 4:30am with an almost whisper so I didn't wake up anyone else in the house. It doesn't have to be that way. This semester will be different. I've already created a criteria sheet for our Teaching Video Project. Right at the start students are going to be making their own teaching videos and sharing them with each other. My hope for this is greater engagement, more interest in my videos, and more interaction around the videos.
3) Create an online culture of questions and learning
The flipclass is not just about the videos. It is about improving the learning outside school walls. That can take some time. If teachers feel that they are the sage on the stage and the keeper of all knowledge then they have got a whole lot of work ahead of them. But a community freed up and encouraged to become questioners and answerers (with the teacher keeping the discussion moving forward) can bring out the collaboration of the students. That's why I like Edmodo--a social learning management system. It promotes Facebook-like posts and responses. My plan is to ask more questions on our forum to engage the students more around the videos or simply around the learning. Here is an area in which I hope to report back on how it went.
4) Make a flipped class parent video
Not everyone quickly embraces the flipped classroom. Halfway through my course I thought I might be in danger of some kind of lynching. There was misinformation: I had parents hear that we spent all our class time watching videos. There was misunderstanding: many parents had no idea why I would give their children videos to watch for homework. And there was missed opportunities: how great it would have been to have the parents working alongside their children with the Math teaching videos as a priority.
This term I hope to have a parent video sharing that:
I flipped the class to spend less class time up front explaining and more time one on one with their children
I flipped the class because I was tired of students getting home and copying another's homework or the answers from the back of the book because they didn't understand what to do and the homework was too hard.
I flipped the class to allow students to watch, pause, rewind, fast forward, and watch again some of these difficult Math concepts. . .at their own pace.
And I flipped the class so that students that were sick, at sports games and competitions, and mid-school vacations could have access to all the explanations they would need to learn the material.
Basically, I would love the parents of my students to know that my flipping wasn't flippant. That there was thought, care, and carefulness that went into this. A parent video on the flipped class could help.
All of the above are things that I had wish I had done last term. But I'm not going to be hard on myself for not doing them. And neither should you. As @mwren13 reminded me just the other day: we all have trouble with "implementation of all of the great ideas". It doesn't mean we should stop trying.
In 1983, The Police performed at Shae Stadium in front of a shoulder to shoulder crowd of 70,000 exhilarated fans, topping the Beatles and any other band that had ever played there. In fact, near the end of the concert, Sting mused: "We'd like to thank the Beatles for lending us their stadium". Sting saw this concert as an Everest moment and soon began his solo career. And the demise of one of the greatest power trios in music history had begun.
My educational Everest was sitting in my classroom alongside my principal as my grade 7 students shared with me how they had changed the world. It was project-based learning at its core. I share about what my students accomplished here and here.
Then came the change: High School. A ball had begun rolling that led me to leave the comforts of my classroom home for 7 years and move to teaching Science and Math in a digital environment at the nearby high school.
My attempt at Elephant Toothpaste
Enter the rookie. Though I had been teaching for over 20 years, I felt like I had no foundation for my new role. It wasn't simply the new routines, new grade level, new curriculum, and new colleagues. It was my lack of understanding as to what good high school teaching was. I felt I had to change to meet the new routines, grade level, curriculum and colleagues. But I had no clue how to change, what to become. What did this new Mr. Robinson look like? I had no idea.
And the pressures came ... and I did succumb. I have found myself worrying over the sheer mountain of content. I have found myself racing through concepts. I have found myself focused on summative assessment. And I have found myself covering curriculum, not making it come alive. Here is all that I could blame:
Standardized testing
In BC we have government exams in high school. In grade 10 they are worth 20% of the mark. Although it keeps teachers accountable to cover all topics, it also puts pressure on teachers to move briskly through the curriculum. Who would want to be the teacher being cursed by their student during the final: "but Robinson never taught us any of this!"
Student motivation
I was completely surprised by my students' attitude toward assignments. I had an idea that motivation would be much higher in high school. Whether it was the fact that "failure" was a real possibility, or that careers were looming, or just the added maturity, I thought motivation would be something the majority of high school students would have come to terms with. Nope. So far with my vast 3 months experience, I have noticed that my students intrinsic motivation is even less. Students who would have struggled to complete assignments in middle, continued to struggle in high school.
Massive amount of content
Roots, radicals, trig, exponents ... Nutrient cycles, Bohr and Lewis models, ionic and covalent bonds ... DNA, codons, ribosomes ... all that is a drop in the bucket of the content and concepts I have shared in the last 3 months. It is shocking the sheer amount that we're asking high school teachers to communicate and high school students to master.
But if there is any blame, I take it upon myself. No one asked me to change.
I felt I had to become something I wasn't to meet the demands of testing, motivation, and content. Instead of molding the demands, I allowed the demands to mold me. In retrospect, I didn't have to let it happen. I allowed it. But I got to see the shining light of high school on the last day before Christmas vacation.
I have made many Christmas hampers over the years in my schools. But at high school, the students not only bring the food and presents to school but can drive to drop off the boxes. I accompanied two of my students (and it wasn't them accompanying me! I followed them to the location) who volunteered to deliver the Christmas hampers. What a blessing it was to see students, one of which I had taught in middle school, give of their time, drive to the location, greet the hamper family, and carry in the boxes. After the hugs, when we had all parted ways, I reflected on the great possibilities teaching at high school had to offer.
During this Christmas break I get a chance to reflect and refocus my efforts on what is important.
With 11 solo albums, all unique and yet graced with Gordon Sumner's eclectically tasteful style, Sting's choice to go solo was sound. Who knows what Police would have looked like beyond Synchronicity, their last album as a band. But either way, the only thing that stays the same is change. And sometimes it is amazing what a change can do.
I like how posts like these all take a different bent on the effect of tech on education. Some look at higher learning; some look at devices; most include some part of what's commonly referred to as 21st Century skills (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity). But all have a bird's eye, sitting in a comfy armchair, chin scratching and wearing a smoking jacket kind of view. What about the educator in the trenches? What has really changed day to day?
Not every teacher has gone "1 to 1", or done a Skype Chat, or got their students blogging. And collaboration and communication have been pillars of an educator's classroom for decades. (Remember Cooperative Learning?)
So here are my own four ways in which technology has changed education for me.
So many techniques, so little time
Educators have always felt constantly exposed to new educational techniques. Tech however has put our exposure into overdrive. Flipping, BYOT/BYOD, Project-based Learning, Inquiry: they all come at you quick, fast and in a hurry. You can Teach Like a Pirate. You can Lead From Within. Even if you are not looking for it, someone will share with you over some kind of social media something new that they are working on.
This can be great. Never before has the world been so small as to be able to build on ideas from around the globe. Never has sharing been so easy--a tweet, a blog, an update away. But without a modicum of restraint, it can be like drinking from a fire hose. The new ideas can come so rapid-fire that there is no depth to the learning. Patience is a virtue in this situation--a patient look at all the possibilities and patience with oneself. There is no law against slow implementation, nor restraint.
Collaboration over sleep
If you've ever found yourself in an educational conversation with a complete stranger that extended into the wee hours of the night then you are not alone. In fact, whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or an Edmodo community, these kinds of conversations are commonplace. Is this you? You are up in the middle of the night and you grab your phone. You open up twitter and see that Australia or some other country you could "dig to" is having a chat on something you've been thinking about. You introduce yourself, and despite the possibility of getting a pillow thrown at you by your partner, you begin to wax on about student voice or digital citizenship.
True: the level of connectivity we have in this day is amazing. But once again, boundaries need to be in place. I do believe that the global connections we make are meaningful. And it is wonderful to collaborate beyond the brick and mortar walls we find ourselves in day after day. But mantras like: "Family over Facebook" or "Buds over blogs" are crucial to keep. Next time a late night twitter chat catches your eye, you might want to put your phone down and catch some Zzzzs. You know you're going to need them.
Digital dependency deepens
It used to be that your tech success was based on how old the overhead bulb was. Now you need lab time, internet access, wifi, and multiplatform apps. The success of your spirit assembly rests on the downloading of a certain 50 Cent YouTube video. Your Air needs to Play; your Google needs to Play. And perish the thought if someone contracts a virus or your school Wi-Fi is overloaded with Ultimate Fail Video downloads. Now you have students sent to your class asking for your dongle. And then they tell you its not the right one.
I'm not too sure a way around this one. It seems once you leave the land of paper, you're stepping into a tech powder keg. My tendency is to ride the wave. Here we need a lot of grace. Sometimes you just don't have the Prezi reader that the student needs for their presentation; sometimes the internet is down. Try to be ready with a backup. But don't get so down if things aren't as smooth as you like them to be. There will just be those messy days. Typically the students don't mind a little mess here and there.
Differentiation desire
Teachers are now asking the question: how can I use technology to tailor my students' learning experiences. Whether it comes from within or without, there is a sense that tech can help in the tailoring process. Now you would never promote a "teaching machine" but you might ask yourself: how can tech in a way clone my efforts? How can it do what I don't have time to do?
EdTech is big business. And there are a lot of companies out there that would be glad to help you leverage tech for your students' learning. I would suggest doing your research before you start spending the PAC money, though. Utilizing tech to aid in the learning process is great. But even after you get into something, at some point take a step back. Ask yourself:
- is the tech really helping? or is it creating more problems?
- is the learning genuine? or does it poorly generalize to other situations?
- does it support the connection with the teacher? or does it diminish the relationship with the teacher?
You might find the tech produces amazing results. Or you might find that it is doing more harm than good.
In the movie Napoleon Dynamite, Kip loved technology. But he loved Lafawnduh more. If only we could keep our classroom priorities as straight as Kip's. I leave you with his moving love ballad.
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