Twitter Chats are an awesome opportunity to engaged in some right on time, relevant professional development! By simply searching for the hashtag of your choice, you are immersed into deep conversations with educators all around the world that are just as passionate about what you are! They are fast paced and full of goodness so you have to keep up! A great tool to do this is TweetDeck. This allows you to monitor your Twitter feed, notifications, messages and Twitter Chats in an easy format! Try it out if you haven't. It literally takes 2 seconds to set up.
This challenge came right on time! Last night I participated in the #squirrelschat. This is a chat facilitated by different educators once a month that are a part of the Alpha Squirrels. Alpha Squirrels are educator ambassadors for the Reflector App. This chat takes place on a Thursday night at 8pm EST once a month.
I have also recently participated in the #gaetc17 chat within the past week as well. What I love about participating in different Twitter chats is that you gain the perspective of educators all around the world. Now that Twitter has a capacity of 280 characters vs 140, the conversation that takes place has even more content and meaning.
The list of Twitter Chats that are out there is HUGE! Cybraryman has curated an extensive list that I can't wait to delve into and explore. Another awesome thing about these chats is that you can start your own! All you need is a hashtag and the conversation can take off! Recently, I was able to train one of our assistant superintendents to host her own Twitter Chat with her region principals. It's taken off and she's now had 2 of them! She used TweetDeck to facilitate her chat and schedule her posts. Doing so, she finds, allows her to be more engaged in the chat as opposed to worrying about posting the questions/prompts and then being active in the conversation. It's really been an amazing opportunity!
Have you tried a Twitter Chat before? What are your favorites?
Today's challenge asked that we spend an hour previewing educational technology content and using EduClipper to keep track of what we find. Being 100% transparent, I had never used EduClipper before so I deferred back to what I know and am familiar with, Pinterest! Who doesn't love Pinterest? I know that I do! I did create an EduClipper account and played around with it, but to save time and really delve into the content exploration of this day's challenge, I went back to what I know. I will revisit EduClipper at some point though.
I have created 2 boards that really speak to my work. I sometimes find myself getting lost in what I call the Pinterest "time suck." I mean, I could spend hours on end looking around on Pinterest for tech related resources, recipes, DIY activities, home decor ideas, etc. I LOVE all of the educational technology resources that are out there. Pinterest doesn't just have to be for all of the girly froo-froo stuff, but there are a ton of resources out there.
https://www.pinterest.com/nrachell/google-classroom/
The first board that I'd like to share covers a bunch of Google Classroom and G-Suite resources and articles. My board titled, "Google Classroom," has a ton of resources that I've found about how to use each of the tools in the G-Suite and innovative and creative ways on how to integrate them into the curriculum.
https://www.pinterest.com/nrachell/21st-century-education/
This board, titled, "21st Century Education" has what I refer to as all of the other resources that aren't Google related! It really is a hodge podge of resources and I probably need to streamline it a little bit more. When ever I find a tool that's not related to Google, I drop it on this board. It could be about an app, a website, a tool, anything that has to do with technology integration and what that looks like for K-12 students and teachers.
Did you attempt day 4 of this challenge? What tool did you use to curate your resources? Did you find any resources that stood out to you?
Today's #courageousedventures Challenge was to spend an hour on educational technology YouTube playlists. I spent some time on the YouTube channels of Tony Vincent, EdTechTeam and Teacher's Tech (Jamie Keet). You definitely want to search for all of these on YouTube and follow their channels as they offer a TON of educational technology information, how to videos, tutorials, etc. You could really fall into the YouTube "time suck" with these channels!
Tony Vincent in the man behind the website, Learning in Hand. You definitely want to check that out as well! He is chalk full of all kinds of information from creating your own avatars, to using emojis, all kinds of web 2.0 information and everything else in between! You can find a ton of videos on his website, but his YouTube channel also provides a lot of great videos as well. I love the ease of his videos and how when he teaches you something, he goes step by step.
EdTechTeam is another channel that I spent some time on today. I love this channel because there are so many different "presenters" of information that you get to gain a ton of different perspectives and you are able to learn a lot of information from a lot of different people all across the world! I may be a little partial to this channel because I was able to present at the Best Year Yet Virtual Summit last month! I blogged about it when it happened and I am still in awe that I was given the opportunity to present alongside some of my educational technology idols! I digress....this channel is definitely one that you need to check out and subscribe to for all kinds of ideas! Here you can find live author chats, demo slams, recorded webinars, etc!
The last YouTube channel that I explored today was one called Teacher's Tech and Jamie Keet is the man behind the channel. He pretty much walks you step by step through different educational technology tools and resources. His videos are really simple and streamlined. I like that he makes all of the content simple and easy to understand to the point that you could follow along with him and do what he's doing at the same time. He has playlists for EVERYTHING!!! His tutorials are Google and MAC heavy and that works for me, because so am I! Like the two previously mentioned channels, subscribe to this one as well!
I loved being able to explore different educational technology YouTube channels. I heard recently, at a conference, that people are relying more heavily on learning how to do things via YouTube rather than looking for the information on Google. With the videos that these three channels have created, I can definitely see this being true. About a year ago I was putting together a piece of IKEA furniture for my mother and instead of reading their instructions, I found someone on YouTube that had put the same piece of furniture together and followed along with them! If we do that for our day to day activities, like putting furniture together, then why not for learning how to better incorporate technology into our classrooms?
There you have it! Day 3....DONE! What YouTube channels did you explore today?
Today's #couraeousedventures challenge was to commit to a conference. Jennie asks that we research different educational technology conferences and commit to attending at least one. Once we have selected that conference, we are asked to blog about why we chose that specific conference and what we wish to learn as a result.
Every year, edSurge puts out a visual wheel of the top K-12 Education Technology Conferences. Here is a link to the wheel.
I print this wheel off every year and post it up in my office for a few reasons:
To see the latest and greatest conferences that are out there to attend.
As a reminder to possibly present at at least one of these conferences.
As a reminder to hop on Twitter during these conferences to see what's going on.
Every year I make it a point to attend the Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC) and the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) Conference. I have presented at GaETC a few times as well as in the Exhibit Hall at ISTE. I absolutely love the energy of the passionate educators at each of these conferences. ISTE presents a global perspective of instructional technology as there are presenters and attendees from all across the world. These 2 conferences are no brainers for me! They happen every year! I have toyed around with the idea of not attending ISTE and going to FeTC instead or Miami Device, but I always come back to ISTE. There really is no other conference out there that brings like minded, techie people together!
Hopefully, I will be attending Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) this year as I have been accepted to present on a panel with some of my fellow Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert colleagues! This presents an amazing opportunity to share the story of how 2 districts have been able to partner together and become educational technology partners.
This challenge did indeed force me to take a look at different conferences that are out there, but honestly, these 2 conferences provide me with something new each and every year! I hope to add TCEA to this list of conferences this year.
Which conferences do you attend every year? What do you get out of them?
Recently, I've been extended an AMAZING opportunity to be engaged in some professional development that I can't wait to share with you! More information coming soon. As a part of this opportunity, I've been doing some research, watching a lot of Ted Talks and inspirational videos. This has brought me to a wonderful book called "Courageous Edventures" by Jennie Magiera. I have not been able to put this book down since I got my hands on it!
Towards the end of the book, Jennie gives a seven-day challenge for those that want to power up and reignite their innovation exploration plan! If you know me, you know I love a challenge! I gladly accepted the challenge and even tweeted about it to hold myself accountable! This challenge encourages you to spend 1 hour a day for the next 7 days completing tasks that will lead you to a renewed sense of innovation and thinking about a new challenge that you would like to identify, pursue and solve!
Today is the first day of the challenge and according to the book, I needed to spend an hour on what Jennie calls, a "blog bender!" I was to spend an hour searching for different educational technology blogs and then start a blog if I didn't already have one. Well, I already have a blog so I spent my time searching the web for some inspiration!
My thought for today's challenge was that I would research a few new blogs and see what they had to offer. I went to Google and searched, "educational technology blogs." Sure, a TON of blogs populated, and then I had a squirrel moment....what else is new? I remembered that Leslie provided her website information during her session at GaETC, so I decided to go visit! I literally just spent the last hour on Leslie Fisher's website, lesliefisher.com. I have followed Leslie on Twitter for years. I always attend her sessions when I'm at a conference that she's presenting at, however, I have never visited her website. I have no idea how that's even possible, but it is! Well, I do now and it's just as amazing as she is!
Now, the challenge was to spend an hour searching for blogs. Leslie does indeed have a blog on her website but I spent the majority of my time searching all around her website and found a TON of cool tools that I can use! She has an older video on her blog about changing the resolution to something other than the suggested resolutions when presenting on a Macbook. I found the most value in the section called "Resources." Leslie has graciously listed .pdfs of a lot of her sessions. I may or may not have spent more than an hour searching through these. What I appreciate about Leslie is that she provides information about all kinds of topics: IOS, Android, Chromebooks, Web 2.0 resources, iPads, photography, Twitter, etc! You really can get lost in time on her website....I did! I HIGLY encourage you to go over to her website and delve into all that's there! It won't be as fun as seeing her present in person, but it will definitely give you a sense of her great personality and all of the ed tech knowledge floating around in her brain!
I loved this first day of the #courageousedventures challenge! I loved having this hour set aside to engage in some professional development for myself. I use Twitter a lot for my PD as I have the best PLN in the world, but I could definitely see me spending some time doing some organic searching of blogs in the future.
Did you take on the challenge? Which blogs did you come across? Did you start your own blog? Share it below so we can read all about the things you are doing!
In the world of instructional technology we hear about the SAMR Model ALL the time! I must admit I've heard it talked about for years but just recently got super excited about it and its implementation into the world of #edtech. It's really a true no brainer. So, let's dive right in!
Recently, I participated in the EdTechTeam Virtual Summit and one of the things that I talked about was the SAMR Model and how, if used correctly, will allow you to be more intentional with your technology integration in your classes! That's the goal, right! Someone took a screen shot of the slide in my presentation that talked about the SAMR Model and it got a lot of attention, so I knew that I needed to delve in further!
It's important to keep in mind that when we choose technology tools to use with our students that we don't just select a tool for the sake of introducing a tool. Rather, we want to REALLY understand what it is that we want our students to know and be able to do as a result of our teaching. THEN we can pick the tool or tools that will compliment the delivery and make it understandable for our kids. The tool is the vehicle!
Here's a quick video that I found on YouTube that provides a great snapshot of what the SAMR Model is all about!
So, let's break it down!
The purpose of the SAMR Model is to see and understand how technology impacts teaching and learning. The model presents a progression of technology integration. One reason that I love it is for those teachers that "think" they are integrating technology by simply projecting their lessons on their interactive panels (for example). The SAMR Model, when presented to teachers, gives them a guide to REAL technology integration through the different levels. The key to the model is that students must be engaged in their learning through the technology. Integration should never be viewed as "something else to do" but rather it should be woven into the culture of the classroom. When this happens, we are properly integrating the SAMR Model. Of course this requires having access to technology but you can properly integrate this into your classroom practice even if you don't have access to a ton of technology. With a little technology, you will just have to be a little creative with how you go about doing things, but it can be done!
As we go through each of the steps, think of an assignment that you have given to your students that has not required technology (examples: a worksheet, an essay, note-taking, any kinds of formative assessments, etc.).
Substitution-In substitution, technology would be introduced into the lesson, however there would be no change in the outcome of the task. For example, instead of a student writing their notes on a piece of paper, in substitution, they would take their notes in a Google Doc or in Microsoft Word. The content of the notes doesn't change. They are the same notes on paper as they are on the computer.
Augmentation-In this level of the SAMR Model, the integrated technology provides students the opportunity complete a task in a different manner. A teacher may have asked their students to write a paragraph about the difference between a plant cell and an animal cell. If we are making it a point to augment this lesson, we could ask the students to use Flipgrid to record a video of them explaining the difference between these types of cells. The teacher and other classmates could then provide feedback to their student's videos.
Let's take a break! Get it? Break dancing? I crack myself up! LOL! As students move through the SAMR Model they should become more transformative in their learning as a result of being able to integrate technology. Substitution and augmentation should enhance the student's learning. All this means is that what we are asking our students to do will be enhanced as a result of integrating technology. The products that they produce are a little more "shiny and blingy" as a result of integrating technology! Modification and redefinition should transform the student's learning. This is where the magic happens! This is where the transformation happens in learning and it becomes more student led rather than teacher led. Learning happens on a global level...yes, all because of technology integration!
Modification-In modification, we cross over from enhancement into transformation. At this level, we may ask students to take what they've learned and create a blog in Google Sites or Blogger. They would complete all of the research, all of the editing, and all of the publishing themselves while the teacher kind of takes a step back and becomes the facilitator in the learning process. Students are able to find the answers to their questions and even begin to raise awareness on topics that matter to them. Modification gives them the instructional technology vehicles to be able to make a difference using their voice.
Redefinition-The last phase of the SAMR Model, redefinition, allows students to produce new tasks. They are taking their notes from the redefinition example, their Flipgrid from the Augmentation example, and embedding them into their Blog in the Modification example. They are then sharing this blog with students in another country that they communicate with via Google Hangouts or Skype. They are not only co-writing blogposts but they are even creating videos and posting them on YouTube. They've researched the material to create videos, they've edited them and added a creative touch. Together, they collaborate and create a total package, if you will, that allows them to share with the world! Learning is totally transformed!
So there you go! SAMR in a nutshell! Once I broke it down in this manner it made a lot more sense to me. I hope it does to you now as well!
How are you incorporating the SAMR Model into your practice?
WOW! I am still floating on cloud 9 from my experience presenting yesterday afternoon with EdTechTeam at their Virtual Summit! Yesterday was definitely a spaghetti taco moment for me! My presentation focused around the critical thinking strand of the 4 C's: communication, creativity, communication and critical thinking. Critical thinking is often the least favorite of the 4 to present on, however, I welcomed and appreciated the charge of making it more engaging, liked and fun through this presentation. Molly Bennett from EdTechTeam put this all day virtual experience together and it was AMAZING! Participants literally participated in PD in their PJ's! I learned so much from the other 11 presenters and am so eager and excited to begin implementing what I learned! See my previous post before this one for more details and the schedule of the day!
I was truly honored to be presenting virtually alongside such #edtech leaders as Dee Lanier and Holly Clark (Hyperdocs anyone???)! Like I totally had a few fan girl moments! Like, what did I do to be able to present with these phenomenal #edtech gurus?!?!?!?
Part of my presentation focused on choosing "tech with intent" and being intentional about what you want your students to know and understand before you choose the tool that will deliver the content. I also talked about a video (included in my presentation) that I recently watched about a mom that works for Buzz Feed that did an experiment in which she told her kids, "yes" every day for a week. One of her kids wanted spaghetti tacos for dinner!! What?!?!? Well, since she was doing this experiment, she had to say yes! LOL! And guess what....her kids ate, and ate, and ate those tacos some more....something they don't normally do. Her kids will ALWAYS remember the day that mom let them eat spaghetti tacos. This got me to thinking that we should be creating those "spaghetti taco" moments in our classrooms and with our teachers. What will they walk away and remember from their interactions with us? Think about the teachers you had while growing up. What made them memorable? Was it the content, or HOW they made it interesting, relatable, and fun?
I also shared how we can integrate the SAMR (substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition) to improve and increase thought processing with our students. Engaging students in activities that encourage critical thinking will create those spaghetti taco moments that will drive the content. The technical tools are not what's important. All the tech tools do is deliver the content that we want to and are charged with getting across.
I received some awesome feedback in both the chat on the live stream as well as through Twitter. I definitely blushed a few times at the comments that came through Twitter:
The event was over 5 hours long and included not only the presentations from the 12 presenters, but a TON of awesome giveaways! If you missed it, you missed out. But don't fret! Because it was streamed through YouTube, you can totally watch it again, and again, and again!
All of the presentations were amazing and chalk full of information! My presentation began at the 4:33 mark and ended around the 4:51 mark. I would be honored if you took a few moments to check it out!
As you are putting your lesson plans together and thinking about what you want your students to know as a result of your teaching, I encourage you to think about creating those spaghetti taco moments that they will always remember....
