Connections at #ConnectEdCA

 

Well. it’s the end of day 2 of the ConnectEd Canada conference here in Calgary.  Today, I had the privilege of connecting with some great and caring educators from all over Canada.

I had the honour of leading one of the conversations that occurred today.  I entitled it, “How do you Connect with your Community?” The notes for the session are posted in this Google document.  Thank you to the participants in the session for adding their comments to this document.  Also, thank you for sharing your expertise.

My goal for the session was to talk about ways to connect with your school community.  I showed my personal blog and twitter account and also the blog and twitter account that I developed for my school.  We had a great conversation about ways to communicate and connect.  We talked about the importance of two-way communication.

A few remarkable things happened during the session.

Nick, who was my student host at the Calgary Science School became involved in our discussion.  He was able to share his point of view and was able to field a few questions.  Little did I know that Nick was having a conversation with one of the adult participants in the Google document…check it out.

Also, there were some obstacles with some of the technology.  As a group, we were quickly able to iron out the problems.  Hey, this was supposed to be a session about connections…not technology.  Then it hit me.  Katherine, who attended the session, was having issues with Google documents.  This was preventing her from being an active member of the discussion.  What it took was someone to sit beside her and make sure that she was ok…making a connection!

Mark Scharenbroich (one of my mentors…I spoke about him in the session) speaks about Acknowledging, Honouring, and Connecting.  In my work in schools, I have always tried to create connections.  Connections between people, departments, teams, clubs, etc.  These connections are made by first acknowledging and then honouring.

The most significant things that I learned/reinforced through the conversations in the session today…wait a minute…I was leading the session, I’m not supposed to be learning stuff!?!  <sarcasm>

• Connecting with your community looks different in different places – what works in one school will not necessarily work in another.
• All of us are smarter than one of us.
• Talk to the members of your community – what do they need? What are they comfortable with? What tools will work best?
• Decide what you want to teach and then decide how you are going to teach it.
• The teacher is the lead learner.
• Everyone has something significant to share.

I am looking forward to Day 3 tomorrow.

Using Social Media on a School Trip

We have a group of students that are currently in Disneyland performing and learning about music and drama.  I was very impressed to see that one of our parents who is along on the trip mentioned our school Twitter profile (@AustinOBrienHS) to share some photos and to let us know what a great time everyone is having.  Here are some of the tweets that I received:

@AustinOBrienHS at #disneyland twitter.com/EdmontonTouris…

— Robyn(@EdmontonTourist) May 14, 2012

@AustinOBrienHS #disneyland twitter.com/EdmontonTouris…

— Robyn(@EdmontonTourist) May 14, 2012

and my favourite…

@AustinOBrienHS Zyp & Chip at the AOB Concert ensemble #disney #preformingarts twitter.com/EdmontonTouris…

— Robyn(@EdmontonTourist) May 14, 2012

Our Drama teacher hamming it up…as always.
I am always amazed at the many ways that social media can be used in a school environment.

Kids Motivated by Technology?

Just a really quick post today…

I just love this post by Bill Ferriter entitled Are Kids REALLY Motivated by Technology?

It is so true, kids are not dazzled by technology…kids are dazzled by great teachers, interesting content, relevance, and LEARNING!

We can’t expect kids to instantly be hooked by magical technology and Pink Fluffy Unicorns.  As educators, we need to model and support learning, whether we are using technology or not.

“Technology is evolving but basic principles stay the same.” ~ author unknown

Pink Fluffy Unicorns

At a techMentor session this morning presented by Danny Maas and Daniel Espejo, we viewed the following video.

So what does this have to do with technology in the classroom?

Technology can sometimes be used in classrooms as a Pink Fluffy Unicorn. Look how cool this is? Look at the fun things that you can make? Isn’t this magical? We prepare our students for all the superficial content but when they are asked to apply what they have learned, they can’t do it. Just like in the video, when the question about texture of the fur is asked, there is confusion. Through out the video, the look on the musician’s face doesn’t change. This is similar to the way that many of our students go through their school day. Smile…that’s all I need! Sometimes learning is tough and it involves learners (students and teachers) being confused. It is our job as educators to help kids (as well as each other) through this, sometimes messy, learning process.

As educators, let’s not lose focus of the reason that we are using technology…to help kids to learn and to deepen their understanding. 21st century learning is not all about the technology…it’s about the quality of learning!

I look forward to reading your comments.

More ways to use Twitter in the classroom.

Just a really quick post today.  Recently I received an email from Tim Handorf, a writer at bestcollegesonline.net, asking if I would mention or feature this piece entitled, “20 Innovative Ways High Schools Are Using Twitter” on my blog.  I have read the post and I must say, it contains some really great ideas.  If you try/have tried some of these techniques, please leave a comment on this post.

New Tool – InstaGrok

For those of you who loved Google Wonder Wheel, you are going to love InstaGrok! This is a great search engine and learning tool for students and teachers. After you quickly sign up for a free account, you can start to learn about anything that you want.

For example, let’s say I want to learn about plant cells. Next, I will get a visual similar to Wonder Wheel, breaking my search topic into subtopics…vesicle, cell wall, mitochondria, etc.

On the right side, I see Key Facts…these facts change as I click on the subtopics. Also, on the right side I can search Websites, Videos, and Images. Each video has a word cloud which, at a glance, tells me about the content of the video.

The most impressive part of the site experience is that I can take a quiz about the content that I am reading. Teachers can set up classes and have their kids log in using the class code. This way, teachers can see how there kids are doing. I would like to encourage teachers to try this and let me know how it goes.

InstaGrok also has a Journal feature. I can take notes as I learn and the notes will stay on the site for the next time I log in.

Instagrok is an awesome tool. Oh right, when we were playing with it today, we found out that it works way better with Google Chrome. Special thanks to Mario Cabral (@MarioCabral) for sharing this great tool with me.
This is a review of Instagrok by Columbia University
Derek

Do a Few Things Well

As a technology leader in my school (and in my school district), I find myself a little overwhelmed with all of the technology tools which are available to us. Just when I think I have a good understanding of the tools which are available, I read about something new.
I am starting to notice that many of the web 2.0 tools duplicate the functionality of other tools. For example, I was recently reading about Edmodo and I was quite impressed by what I learned. As I learned more about Edmodo, I realized that the Sharepoint Virtual Classrooms that we use in our school district could do virtually the same thing as Edmodo. Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not bashing Edmodo…I think it is brilliant…even more so now that they have added Google Docs.
Anyway, back to my main point. I shouldn’t feel bad about not using every tool which comes along. I think what I need to realize is that it is ok to use a few tools…and use them well. When something else comes along…take a look…is it better than what I use? Can I enhance what I already use?
This makes me think about a tradesman who has a box of tools…he will only replace a tool if it is broken or if one comes out that makes his job easier…and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! Very few carpenters use hammers any more. Why? Because air nailers are faster, more accurate, and affordable.
I have always prided myself on being a “jack of all trades” …even when it comes to technology. But, at the rate that new things are being discovered, there is no way I will be able to know it all. The key has become knowing where to go to help people find their own solutions. Also, it is important to be a learner and know what is out there, even if you have no intention of using it. For example, I don’t use “Dropbox” but I understand how it works….and, more importantly, I know some people who use it religiously so I can direct any questions that I may get to that person.
What are your thoughts?

Latest use of Twitter at a High School

At the beginning of this year, I started a Twitter account for my school which I called @AustinOBrienHS. We use it to tweet out information, reminders, activities that are happening at school. Every week, we receive a few new followers. We have been impressed by the results that we have seen so far this year. We are followed by students, staff, alumni and many others.

Today, an interesting thing happened. This is definitely a sign of our digital times. We received the following direct message:

I know that this particular student is one of our student leaders, so I took the tweet seriously. Locker 442 had a large amount of flies flying in and out of it. The student who owned the locker was called down to clean and disinfect the locker…but that is not the point of this post.

There have been posts written about using Twitter in a high school (this one is by my mentor, Bill Ferriter, who inspired me to become involved on Twitter). The tweet (above) was an unexpected but extremely effective and efficient way to send a message to the school administration. The student who sent it obviously felt comfortable sending the information in that way.

This would be proof that we need to meet our students where they are and become involved in social media.

If you are looking for a great book on this topic, I would highly recommend, Communicating and Connecting With Social Media (Essentials for Principals). This is the book that inspired me to create a digital branding for our school.

I look forward to any comments.

Staff Room Chat

A member of our staff was telling a story today at lunch in the staff room.  It was a tale about a teacher who had the entire English 10 course on an overhead projector transparency roll, which had been written with permanent marker.  When the teacher retired, a young teacher asked for some materials for this course.  The seasoned teacher handed over the roll and said, “Here is the entire course, day by day, just start at the beginning and work your way through.” 

After hearing the punch line, the staff room erupted in laughter.  For a good two minutes, the staff members laughed and laughed until one teacher interjected with, “Tell me how that is any different than PowerPoint.”

Silence.

Technology Tools

I was reflecting recently about the learning that I have done over the past few years in terms of technology.  A few years ago, I attended a conference in Calgary, AB and I had the pleasure of listening to Ian Jukes and Will Richardson.

These two individuals, among others, blew me away!  I was absolutely amazed by what they knew about technology and its applications to education.  I remember Ian Jukes telling us that schools of today are doing a great job of preparing kids for the year 1965.  Will Richardson was talking about becoming a digital citizen and having an on-line presence.  During one of the breaks, I bought Will’s book and I began reading it in the hotel room that same evening.  As I read through the book, I made up my mind that I would try to become a technology leader in my school and in my district.  At that time, I had no knowledge of blogs or wikis and I had only dabbled on Twitter.

As the years have progressed I have been intrigued by a wide variety of technology and Web tools.  I have concluded that it is impossible to use all of these tools, but I have been able to incorporate some of them into my work.  The purpose of this post is to share the tools that I use most often.

Twitter – the most important learning tool that I have ever used.  I have had the pleasure of learning and sharing with a group of fine educators.  I think I have learned more on Twitter in the last year than I have in the last five years of PD sessions.  I wrote a blog post about how I use Twitter.

Blogs – I think about blogs as tweets that are longer than 140 characters.  There are many blogs that I follow regularly so I have added them to my RSS reader in Outlook.  This way, I can read my favourite blogs when I read my email.  As you can see, I have also started blogging myself. It is a great way to reflect on my practice, share my learning, and record my thoughts so I can read and refer to them later.  I use wordpress because it is so easy to post and to add web parts to my site.

Diigo – is a web-based bookmarking site.  Whenever I find a great article, I bookmark it using Diigo.  If you tag and organize your bookmarks, they are so easy to find at a later time.  I also have Twitter set up so that when I mark a tweet as a favourite, it automatically sends it to Diigo.  Diigo also allows me to share my bookmarks with others.

Posterous – is a service that I use to keep cool images or quotes.  When I post something here, I have it set up so that it will automatically share the post on Twitter.

Lino it - allows you to set up an on-line placemat where anyone can place a sticky note.  We have used these at meetings and during Master’s classes to share thoughts and ideas.

Todaysmeet - this is a twitter-like microblogging service which allows us to have a back channel during a meeting or class.

Prezi - by far the best presentation software.  Try it and you will never use PowerPoint again.

Google+ – I just started using this one recently.  My favourite feature so far is the Google Hangout which allows up to 10 people to have a face to face meeting without being in the same room.  We are currently planning an Edcamp in Edmonton and all of our meetings have been Google hangouts.  Google+ is a cross between Twitter and Facebook which allows you to share things with certain “circles” of people.  For example, I can share something with my family that my colleagues will not see.

Hootsuite – my apologizes to the owl…I posted this and then remembered what a timesaver Hootsuite is.  Hootsuite helps me to manage 3 twitter accounts (2 personal and 1 school @AustinOBrienHS), a LinkedIn account (that I don’t look at very much), and my WordPress account (I was amazed to find out that I could post to WordPress from Hootsuite).  This is an awesome application because you can be in many places at once without jumping around and logging in multiple times.  You can also manage other SM (Facebook, myspace, etc.) with Hootsuite.  The link shortener is a nice feature!

Just are just a few of the tools that make my learning more authentic.  I have come a long way since the conference in Calgary where I felt like such a noob with all of this technology.

My last word…there is so much technology out there, yo u never have time to use it all.  You need to find the tools that make your life (and learning) better and easier.  I believe that if we model this type of learning, it will be the best way for our students to learn.