Sharing Rubrics in Schoology -- It can be done!

During a PD session on October 3rd, Ben Summerton (@bsummerton), Jay Londgren, and Cassie Summerton did a fantastic Schoology help session. And during that session we discovered a work-around for sharing rubrics from courses that is pretty clever. If you want to share a rubric with a colleague the first step is to add them to your course and make them an admin. Once they are admin of the course, they can go into grade book set up and copy the rubric to their courses. It is a little clunky and tiresome, but a great way to share a rubric. If you are worried about them being an admin of your course, once the rubric(s) are shared, simply remove your colleague from your course.

Request Read Receipt in Gmail

Sometimes you simply want to know if someone has read the email you sent or not. Gmail has this feature and it is called Request Read Receipt. It was formerly in the labs section, but now has become part of the standard Gmail. You can find it in your compose window in the more options drop down menu.

Interview from the Digital Showcase Asia

Sharing Settings on a Google Form

Today one of our English teachers, Jim Burwell, stopped by the EdTech office with a great question. His problem was that everyone had permission to edit his Google Form. After some hunting around on Jim's part, he discovered the the share settings for Forms work a little differently now. Now that the spreadsheet and form are completely separate from each other, the Form settings assume that you would want people to fill it out, so you can embed or email it to people without making it public, because the public refers to who can edit the form. Let me write that again, because it is very important -- public means people can edit the form. If you don't want people to edit your form, make it private or share it to only the people you want to collaborate with. This is a large change from the way forms perviously worked, so please be careful. Now go forth and collect data!

Getting an iTunes U Course into the Catalog

If you use iTunes U, then you have probably ran across the "publishing the course dilemma." To publish a course is a two step process that starts with the author of the course. The author must make a request to add his/her course to the iTunes U Catalog, then the Site Manager can add the course to the institutions iTunes U Catalog in the iTunes Store. It is one of those cumbersome little tasks that only needs to be done once in a while and is easily forgotten until the next time it comes up. The screen shot should help, at least until the next time the UI is changed.

Grade 6 Science and iPads

Students filming the reactions of static electricity with an iPad.

Our Grade 6 (G6) Science team wanted to improve the quality and excitement around their current unit on Static Electricity. We came up with a great way to use the iPads to capture the static electricity in action and add video to the standard lab reports students create. It was simple and effective and produced some great reflection on learning. We have a cart of iPads in the secondary, so we used six to give each table team an iPad to film with. I walked the class through a quick download, install, and tutorial on Instashare (took ten minutes) and then turned them loose with the iPads to film the learning about static electricity in action. As students completed the different tasks, they were sharing their videos via Instashare between the iPads and their computers. After gathering all of their video clips, they used a science lab template that we created in Keynote to include the written lab work and the videos. Awesome!

Can static electricity move an aluminum can?

Can static electricity hold a balloon to the wall?

Deleting a Blogger Blog

I know you have been wondering about it; I know you have been staying up awake at night worrying about it; I know you have been pulling out your hair trying to find it, so here is the solution to your problem -- how to delete a Blogger blog in two easy steps. Somebody at Blogger thought that it would be great to hide the delete button in an obscure place that is difficult to find. It is under Settings in the Other tab and at the top of the screen. The screen shots to the left will help you find it and go through the process. After you hit the delete button there is one more chance to change your mind, which is always nice; plus, on the same screen you are given the option to download the blog.

Schoology User Guide 3: Tests and Quizzes

Schoology User Guide: Test/Quiz by Tim

Schoology User's Guide -- The Basics

Schoology Guide -- Basics

Back in the Classroom Again

Last year I started feeling a little disconnected from regular classroom teachers because I was ending my second year as a full-time EdTech specialist at Korea International School, which meant that I had been completely out of the classroom for two years. The classroom is my laboratory, where I experiment and test different hypotheses. Without that environment, I felt that I was loosing touch with what really works in a classroom setting. How can I recommend something that I haven't done in a real class? I approached my IT Coordinator, Ben Summerton (@bensummerton) and explained my frustration and concern. He was very supportive and pointed out the many contributions that I make to the EdTech team and, as a former classroom teacher, he understood exactly why I was feeling the way I was feeling. He asked me how I felt about being in a classroom situation as well as continuing in EdTech. We came up with the proposal that I could teach one 75-minute block class on the rotating high school schedule and budget in 45 minutes for prep time as well. This translated into me being in the classroom two to three times a week with one or two shorter prep periods.

We then pitched it to the high school principal, Don Drake, who was ecstatic to have me in the classroom again in his building. The English department needed some redistribution of class loads and my Creative Writing course would help with that problem. Although it has meant some extra work for me, it has been totally worth it thus far. I'm very happy to be back with students on a regular schedule in an actual teaching role. I am also advising two clubs and still continuing my EdTech duties -- offering PD in the Fish Bowl, supporting teachers with iTunes U course development, supporting the G4 team with an iPad implementation, co-planning and co-teaching lessons, and helping teachers with Schoology. The plate is full, but I'm loving it. It feels great to be respected enough by my administrators to be given an opportunity to explore, change, and grow. Plus, it is great being with students in an elective Creative Writing course that allows us the freedom to explore and learn together.

SoundCloud on your Blogger

Step 1: Go to your SoundCloud Profile, select Share and copy the
Widget Code.

If you are a musician, or simply a person who loves music, and you want to share this passion via your Blogger, but you don't know how to tackle the problem... Continue reading friend, because I will walk you through the process of making a SoundCloud feed on your blog. The more I use Blogger, the more impressed I become with its functionality. The Gadgets are truly amazing and allow for almost any HTML code to be embedded in the top, bottom, or side bar of your blog. The screen shots in this

blog post walk you through the process step-by-step.

Step 2: In Blogger, go to Layout and select the Add a Gadget button.

Step 3: Select the HTML/JavaScript Gadget.

Step 4: Give your Gadget a title and paste the code.

QR Codes in Art Education

Art installations enhanced with QR codes.

When a person thinks of QR codes, they rarely picture art work or artists, but at Korea International School things are a little different. Our Art department has a spring art show each year where our students showcase their artistic endeavors. The art teachers adopted online portfolios for high school students two years ago, and this year they added the middle school students to that initiative.  So the art teachers started wondering, "what else can we do with technology?" QR codes in the art installations! Now a student creates an art installation for the spring art show with QR codes included that direct the audience to the student's online portfolio. Instead of posting a reflection or additional information about the art piece next to the art work, they can save space by simply placing a QR code next to the art work. Audience members can use the QR code to listen to a reflection about the piece, or look at other art pieces by the student.

Example of an audio art reflection linked to a QR code.

It is a simple idea that adds great value to the art show and allows a student to share more art work with the audience members. Genius!

KIS Secondary Art Department: Sara Arno, Sondra Mullenax, Sallie Inman, and Angel Catholic

Twitter Feed on Blogger

Once you follow the steps in this blog post, you will have a Twitter feed in your side navigation bar.

Do you want to add a Twitter feed on your Blogger? If the answer is yes, then this is the blog post for you. There are several steps in the process, but the reward is having a Twitter feed in your Blogger sidebar. I have added several screen shots to walk you through the process. Good luck!

Your journey begins at Twitter. You will need to log in to your Twitter account and then go to the following URL http://twitter.com/settings/widgets.

Select the type of widget that you want to create. You can make a feed that follows one person, a list of people, or hash tag. Hit create widget and you will receive the embed code you need for your Blogger.

Your embed code will magically appear in the window. Copy it! Now you are ready for Blogger!

In Blogger, go to Layout. You will now click on the Add a Gadget button in the side navigation bar.

The list of Gadgets will pop up and you will scroll down to the HTML/Java Script. Pick this option.

Give your Gadget a title and paste the embed code into the window. Hit the save button and you have a Twitter feed on you Blogger site. Congratulations!

Engaging a Student's Passion

I'd like to talk about student engagement; I'd like to talk about allowing students to follow their passions and supporting them.  I'd like you to consider how Facebook and other social media sites can make your students develop and grow in ways they are interested in, not in ways they are told to be interested. This is a piece of evidence from Korea International School. Colin is on of our students; Colin happens to be a very gifted piano player. This is Colin's SoundCloud page. Look closely. Do you see the number of followers he has on his page? 12,958. 12,958! Almost 13,000 people listen to this kid's music. By the time you read this blog post, he will have more than 13,000 followers. Amazing! And how has this impacted Colin? His confidence in his musical abilities has grown; his confidence in himself as grown; he is a musician with an authentic audience. This has occurred because we do not blog Facebook or SoundCloud at KIS. In fact, we don't block any social media sites at KIS to encourage innovative collaboration among students and teachers. We don't recommend teachers friending students in social media sites, but we do encourage using features like groups and pages within social media sites. Many of our teachers supplement course instruction with Facebook groups; almost all of our clubs are ran by Facebook groups and most of these are student led. Below is a screen shot from my Film Makers club. More correctly, I should say the student's club, because three students who are passionate about film making approached me last fall about being an advisor for their club. Here are three students who are very passionate about a topic that used Facebook to promote and manage a club. Now there are 20 students in the club and they organize and arrange filming for club block and outside of club block via the Facebook page. They remind each other to bring costumes, props, equipment. This type of engagement could be done in Schoology or Edmodo, but the students prefer Facebook. They feel like they have ownership when they use the tool that they prefer, not the one we prefer. If you are blocking social media sites at your school, stop. You can tell yourself that you are protecting students and teachers; you can tell yourself that you are modeling best practice with technology; but in reality, you are simply slowing down the learning and collaboration for everyone.

Three Take-Aways from Alan November's (@globalearner) TCIS Visit

Over the weekend Ben Summerton (@bensummerton), Steve Katz (@stevekatz), and I (@tsbray) had a chance to go to TCIS and listen to Alan November (@globalearner) talk about education. Many of the thoughts and tools that Alan shared weren't new to me, but it was great to hear a noted speaker and educational guru confirm what we are doing at KIS. The three main take-aways for me were -- the importance of having students ask their own questions, the importance of effective and efficient searching, and the importance of authentic global audience. I'd like to thank Joseph Fambro (@krea_frobro747) and all the teachers who helped from GSIS and TCIS to make the Alan November event happen... And of course, I'd like to thank Alan November.

The importance of asking questions: 

Students certainly don't need us to spoon feed them answers to questions, what they need to be doing is generating their own questions and finding answers to those questions. Innovation and creativity will never truly develop, if questions aren't asked. Sadly it is difficult for many students to ask their own questions, because they have never been taught how; or, they have had the fear of not being correct forced down their throats. Learning is about asking questions and learning how to find answers to those questions. In order to compete in the modern world, students will need to understand how to learn and that won't happen unless they know how to question. The people in my generation were expected to change careers seven times during our life times -- that involves learning new skills. Students from the current generation will change careers even more, because in the future many current jobs simply will not exist. If you can't learn new skills, you won't have work.

The importance of effective and efficient searching:

Just Googling it isn't quite good enough anymore. If you have seen Eli Pariser's TED Talk about how search engines are tailoring your searches, then you will understand why this issue is major in education. If you haven't watched it -- YOU MUST! Seriously, go watch it now and if it doesn't scare the life out of you in some way, then you have some major character flaws. Students are going to need to know how to trick search engines and luckily Google allows us to do this by using Search Operators. The operators help you better define exactly what you are looking for and who you are getting it from.

The importance of authentic global audience:

I've been a huge proponent of this idea for years, but Alan turned me on to something I hadn't really thought about -- the importance of anonymity as well as audience. His example is the website FanFiction, which has thousands of contributors who all use anonymous identities to share their writing. One example we looked at showed a list of people who had written short stories in the style of J.K. Rowling  (famous for the Harry Potter series). There were thousands of stories by hundreds of writers and some were 400,000 or more words in length... 400,000 words! When was the last time one of your English students wrote something that long? I bet the answer is never. I'm right, right? No one is getting paid; everyone is anonymous -- so why? These people are simply sharing their love of writing with each other for pleasure, but they do it anonymously, because that way the critique is about the writing, not about them as a person. I remember working in Turkey our English department would trade (or share) grading of exams -- that way students didn't feel that one teacher was grading too easy or too hard, because their exam was graded by everyone. This trading allows someone completely objective to view the work and the students don't take the comments personal, because they don't know that person. This allows the regular teacher to help the students understand the critique without emotions getting in the way as much; furthermore, it doesn't make difficulties in the student-teacher relationship.

Flickr Slideshow in your Blogger Sidebar

You want to place your Flickr Photo Stream in your Blogger Sidebar, but you have no idea how you would accomplish this task. This post will walk you through the process.

First, go to Flickr and copy the embed code from your Photo Stream.

After you have that code, you can go to you Blogger account. Go to the Layout section and add a HTML/JavaScript Gadget. Then you will need to click on edit to adjust the size of the gadget.

When you are in the HTML/JavaScript editing window, you will see two numbers. They are circled in red in the photo below. You can adjust the size by experimenting with the numbers. I found that 200 and 200 worked really well for my blog.

When you are finished, it will look something like the one below. Enjoy!

About.me on Blogger

Great news! Now you can embed your About.me on Blogger. The steps are simple and the results are great.

Get the embed code from your About.me account Dashboard. Copy it. In Blogger, go to Layout and add a new Gadget for HTML/JavaScript. Paste the code in the Gadget and save the arrangement. Now you can view the blog and enjoy the new feature. It looks like the image below.

What is on in Math with EdTech at KIS?

Action Research: Gamification in the Teaching of the Scientific Method

Gamification in the Teaching of the Scientific Method.pdf Download this file

I'm very excited to share this Action Research project with the educational world. Working with one of the KIS Biology teachers, Jeff Boyce, we looked into the use of games in the teaching of the scientific method. This PDF version of the results is free for all to download, use, and build upon. I have uploaded it to the iBook Store, but while we wait for it to appear in the store, and for those who don't use an iPad, I have supplied it. 

Enjoy!

Chrome App: PDF to Word File Converter

So you have a PDF file and you want to edit it. What do you do? Nothing, because PDF files convert poorly into Word or Pages files, right? In the past, yes, but now you can! The Chrome App PDF to Word Converter will convert the PDF file to a Word file and keep the formatting. Your old problems are gone -- now you can convert any PDF into a usable document file that can be edited. The user interface (UI) is simple and easy to use (image below).