If so, we'd like to ask you to invite you to participate in a survey research project. For the third year, WCET is partnering with the Campus Computing Project to conduct the Managing Online Education survey. The survey focuses on...

Finding a way to visually depict things that are hidden from view can facilitate learning. Create a magnified graphic in 5 steps.Post from: The eLearning CoachHow To Create A Nifty Magnification Graphic

"Everything you can imagine is real." - Pablo Picasso The last day of school has come and gone, the halls are quiet now. Summer is time to recharge and reflect. Accordingly, my next few posts here will be a retrospective look at the school year. What’s gone well? What could have been better? What changes are needed for next year? First up … our new classroom learning space. Almost exactly a year ago at this time, I found myself immersed in the hard work of creating my new room, entirely from my own vision. Time was of the essence: I had less than 80 days to do it. The process actually started months before as I consulted with critical members of my personal learning network - among them: Christian Long, David Jakes, and Chris Johnson. Early conversations with them made it clear that I had to start by asking students questions. Our first: find out how they like to learn. Interviewing the students was great fun and a terrific way to end the school year last June. They were as excited as I was about what lay ahead. Soon, Christian suggested I read Make Space, the acclaimed learning space design bible by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University ("the d.school.") . He also provided me two fantastic texts on modern school architecture, The Language of School Design and The Third Teacher (by his own firm, Cannon Design. They literally "wrote the book.") These resources were invaluable. They guided me throughout the summer’s work. I wanted to create a classroom learning space that: was flexible, mobile and fun; was all about possibility and wonder; could support the wide range of hands-on (and messy) learning I knew was ahead. The room transformed quickly. The chalkboards came down: IdeaPaint went up: Words of inspiration were added above the bulletin boards: Crazy, whimsical clocks (funded by local and distant families via a Donor’s Choose campaign) were added: Foam cubes (for flexible seating) were acquired thanks to our local education foundation: And finally, we got the requisite tables and the most comfortable plastic chairs I could find for group project and laptop work: And with that, the space was finished, ready for the new school year. Fast forward one year … and a whole lot of learning. What’s gone well? Overall, our student-centered learning space is flexible, fun, and full of wonder & possibility. The "Messy Area" worked out perfectly as we had many, many projects that required "getting dirty." The foam cubes were a HUGE hit, probably the single most popular design item in the space. The projector (thank you, eBay) in the "Messy Area" - not something I’d planned for originally - proved invaluable in many lessons. What could have been better? Our IdeaPaint wall was underutilized - mostly because the finish is slightly off. :/ The SMARTBoard is too high for students to reach easily. If only the windows opened… What changes are needed for next year? I’m going to use different color lines at the back of the room to make it easier for the kids to line up during transition time. Perhaps we’ll add another coat of IdeaPaint? The new learning space was, almost without exception, everything we’d hoped it would be. Flexible. Efficient. Effective. Fun. Just ask the kids! All along, I realized that creating the new physical classroom would be the easiest part of my new program. Next up: a look at my lessons - what worked, what didn’t, and what will be changing next year. -kj-

Been a busy couple of months of elearning road-trips. From EDUCAUSE to Online EDUCA, from WCET to WICHE, from DevLearn to AECT (with a little bit of virtual Sloan-C tossed in for good measure). Literally thousands of plenaries, presentations, and...

You could almost spend your entire summer taking webinars there are so many. Check out this list. Many are free. Post from: The eLearning CoachWebinars In June 2010

What a summer it’s been! I have been incredibly busy since school let out in June. (Hyperactive people like me actually find being "busy" to be "relaxing." Nutty, ain’t it?) I did a LOT of driving. Well over 2,000 miles, with the unofficial summer mission of visiting and photographing as many County Fairs as I could. I took a LOT of pictures. Over 8,000 by last count. You can see some of the better ones here. I spent a LOT of time with other people. I helped run two Edcamp (teacher professional development) "unconferences," one in North Brunswick and another in Galloway Township. I even went camping in Gettysburg with a great group of families from Northfield and beyond. And I met up with members of my PLN (personal learning network) all summer in a variety of places for a variety of reasons. This is all important because it means I had a lot of time - the entire summer - to think. What worked well last year in my class? What could have been better? What do we need to do differently this year? Image credit: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/ What Worked Well #1: Engineering is Elementary (EiE) We managed to get one EiE unit done per grade level last year, which isn’t that bad, considering we were in a brand-new space, had just implemented Chromebooks, and were dealing with a lot of upheaval in terms of pedagogy and expectations. The EiE units were, in my view, the absolute highlight of the year. We got dirty. We made things. We experimented. We failed. (A lot.) We did things that we never had before. It was incredible, pushed us in new directions, and made us all think about our learning like never before. We got recognized for the effort: The Museum of Science in Boston profiled our students in an issue of their glossy (non-Internet) magazine this past winter. We also inspired kids; one second grader started his own business selling his own brand of homemade Play Dough (he’s going to be featured in an upcoming issue of the Museum of Science in Boston’s magazine, too.) I heard many, many stories of kids excitedly bringing home evidence of their learning to share with parents.   #2: Our New Learning Space There is almost nothing I’d change about our new space (except maybe covering another wall in IdeaPaint). Kids love the space and the freedom it gives them. The foam cubes were a huge hit and held up well in terms of wear. We had plenty of space to spread out, and, when needed, make a mess. (Two sinks also helped a lot during cleanup.) The natural light is amazing. Even our traditional tables and chairs worked well. It’s an ideal space for what we’re trying to do. #3 Chromebooks and Google Apps We had some rough sledding in the first few weeks with the Chromebooks but once Google worked out some kinks in ChromeOS everything went smoothly. We rarely had connectivity problems, kids were immediately productive with their Chromebooks, Google Apps was a breeze to use, projects got done faster/easier than ever before. Students got online (and to work) quickly. They figured out features on their own. They shared their work and collaborated. They accessed work from home, continuing the learning outside school. #4 Keyboarding Sounds "old school" to be worrying about keyboarding in a 21st century learning environment but I’m sorry, it’s a crucial skill and one we will continue to focus on. We use the web-based, inexpensive and excellent Typing Pal service, which the kids really seem to enjoy. Several completed the entire curriculum AT HOME on their own time well before school ended. In my experience, the better kids are with a keyboard, the more enjoyable and productive technology projects are. (The inverse is VERY true…) What Could Have Been Better #1 More/Better Use of my Old Lab Between rolling out Chromebooks and a lot of new activities (EiE plus other STEM-related lessons), we didn’t get into my old lab as much as we should have. As a result, kids didn’t have Windows-based lab projects as mucg as we would have liked. We live in a blended world, and kids need experience on different platforms, so, we’re going to fix that going forward. #2 What’s my username? And my password? I truly believe that remembering (and managing) user credentials is the original 21st century skill. We struggled with this for much of the year. Second graders, in particular, had a really tough time, but it’s not really that surprising they had trouble; kids that age don’t use email (the "@" symbol is new to them), they don’t understand that you can’t put spaces in a password, that case matters, and that mistaking even one single password character will stop you dead in your tracks. Computers are not very understanding or forgiving… #3 Infrastructure Well, we had grand plans last year to "flip" my classroom … it just didn’t happen. There were lots of reasons, but the biggest was infrastructure. I recorded a series of video screencasts like the one above, only to discover that 24+ Chromebooks pulling down video wirelessly was enough to overload the network. We came up with a workaround - putting screencasts on SD cards inserted into the Chromebooks - but even that was a little clunky. I’m excited to say however that some pretty massive infrastucture upgrades are underway and will be completed soon enough to revisit this concept again this year. What We’ll Do Differently STEMLAB "2.0″ is going to feature some pretty significant changes … a few of which I alluded to above. We’ll be making better use of my old lab and its Windows PCs for lessons and projects. We’ll be measuring 4th grader technology skills with Learning.com’s Tech Literacy Assessment program. We’ve developed a new, comprehensive, standards-based "skills matrix" we’ll be using to ensure complete and thorough coverage of state technology standards and to measure student growth objectives. I’m close to finishing a skills badging system built with http://www.forallbadges.com/. We’ve coordinated passwords on our network and Google Apps and our various Web services, meaning kids will have only a single password to remember (once they choose a secure one). We’re going to be diving into programming with LEGO WeDo robotics kits. Finally we’re going to be giving kids in Grades 2-4 lots of projects using Wixie, a very powerful, highly intuitive, web-based multimedia authoring environment. And that’s just the beginning. Stay tuned! - Mr. Jarrett

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Keeping with the reflection I posted recently, our first week of the 2013 school year saw a mix of old and new. Kindergarteners’ first experience in the STEMLAB was distinctly non-technological (a scavenger hunt!) while first, second, third and fourth graders got to be the star in our Grade-Level "Expectations" Presentation(s) created with Haiku Deck. All but First Grade also used the Chromebooks to make creative "selfies" that answered the question: "How do you like to learn?" First graders also got a quick review of the Chromebook which was followed by a performance-based "live" quiz. Week ending 09/13/13 - First Week of School! Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: The main goal of our first lesson in the STEMLAB was to get kindergartners comfortable with the learning space, everything in it, and each other. We started with a walking tour (if you haven’t seen the classroom, this picture will help, as will this one.) We talked about the crazy clocks, the nifty foam cubes for seating, the Chromebook laptops we’ll be using, the "Messy Area" where we will be doing our most of hands-on inquiry work (when the laptops are put away). That gave me the opportunity to talk about the science we’ll be doing and a context to introduce the main activity of the day, a scavenger hunt. We gathered on the cubes in front of the SMART Board and watched a quick Sid the Science Kid movie about a classroom scavenger hunt. Students were then sent scampering around the room, magnifying glasses in hand, locating various objects I’d placed for them to discover. Back at their tables, they drew pictures of what they found. We took photos of their discoveries, then everyone shared what they found on the SMART Board. We finished with a few rounds of Sebran (a great, free program you can download and play at home) to get kids comfortable with using the board. What I observed / inferred / connected: This is a VERY talented group of Kindergarteners! I am seriously impressed with their knowledge, energy, kindness towards each other, hunger for learning, and general awesomeness! It’s going to be a great year! What students can do at home: This lesson is super easy to replicate, all you need is some paper, crayons and imagination! You can even extend it as it is presented in the video by emailing photos of the students’ discoveries to friends and family. (We didn’t do that part of the lesson for a variety of reasons…) If you haven’t seen it already, my Kindergarten Symbaloo Page (http://ncs-tech.org/embed/kdg.html) is chock full of great learning activities, explorations and fun. We have one for every grade level! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students and I reviewed a quick presentation highlighting the Chromebook’s hardware and keyboard, which was followed by a performance-based "quiz" where students had to find and identify the various parts on demand, which I verified visually. We used the Haiku Deck application to create "Classroom Expectations" which are now running on a slideshow loop in my room. Finally, we introduced everyone to the "Webcam Toy" Chrome App for a little bit of fun at the end of class. What I observed / inferred / connected: First graders seriously impressed me with their knowledge of the Chromebooks! I honestly expected a lot more "review" would be necessary. Not so! These kids are ready to go! Their suggestions of and their acted out representations of our classroom expectations were excellent, effective and quite humorous! They loved being the "star" of the show! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the single best sound in my classroom is laughter. The "Webcam Toy" Chrome App DELIVERED! We didn’t have much time to explore it but they really, really enjoyed themselves. What students can do at home: Ask your child to share some of the "Classroom Expectations" we came up with. They may not remember many, but I bet they will remember a few! If you have a Chromebook (and I know some do!) check out the "Webcam Toy" Chrome App. There is also a web-based version. We didn’t use any of the programs on the First Grade Symbaloo (http://ncs-tech.org/embed/gr1.html) but it’s worth checking out anyway!   Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Since these students were all familiar with the STEMLAB, a tour was not necessary, but a review of ‘expectations’ certainly was. I decided to make it into a fun, engaging project by utilizing the free and fabulous Haiku Deck application on my iPad (which I mirrored to my SMART Board using Reflector.) Students took turns suggesting and modeling classroom expectations, which we annotated using Haiku Deck (you can see a sample above). The second part of the lesson involved use of the "Webcam Toy" Chrome App to create "selfies" in which the kids answered the question "How do you like to learn?" What I observed / inferred / connected: The "Expectations" project exceeded my … expectations, mostly due to the way the classes lit up when they saw themselves on the SMART Board as I used the Haiku Deck application to create the slides "on the fly." They generated great ideas, enjoyed acting them out, and were extremely creative every step of the way! I wish I could publish the final product, but I can’t. It is visible in my classroom every day though, please stop by, either at Back to School Night or anytime! I got the inspiration for the "I like to learn by" selfie project from my friend and colleague Christian Long. While I am happy with the results, in retrospect I wish I’d done a better job explaining / framing the question and generating conversation before letting the kids loose. But, it all came out okay in the end. Some of my favorite answers are represented in the animated image below: What students can do at home: Have a conversation with your child about how they like to learn, then explore what that means for them at school, at home, and in life! We didn’t use the Chromebooks but you can check out the grade-level Symbaloo pages here. Second: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/gr2.html Third: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/gr3.html Fourth: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/gr4.html

One of the reasons I attend learning technology conferences is that they offer a highly efficient way to scan the horizon for emerging trends likely to affect learning technology adoption. Conferences also provide a chance to see which "idea seeds"...

Without adapting learning experiences to the learner's cognitive architecture, instructional design is hit or miss.Post from: The eLearning Coach20 Facts You Must Know About Working Memory

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergartners learned about Chromebooks and practiced (sorely needed) mouse skills; first graders learned about "power keys" and created their own paper laptops, complete with keyboards, mice and illustrated screens; Second, Third and Fourth graders benchmarked their keyboarding skills with Typing Pal, and Fourth graders got a taste of the Technology Literacy Assessment we’ll be baselining with next week. Week ending 09/20/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Our goals for this second week of class together were to a) introduce the Chromebooks and b) give the kids some practice using an external mouse. We began with a quick presentation to provide an overview of the main Chromebook parts and also introduced the concept of tabbed browsing in ChromeOS. We then introduced several of our favorite early-year activities designed to help students develop fine-motor mousing skills: Bees & Honey, Roly Poly, and Mousing Around. What I observed / inferred / connected: We typically start the school year with a large number of Kindergartners who are either completely new to mouse use or who need lots of practice. This year is no different; in fact, I’d say 40% or more of the Kindergarten class needs substantial practice with an external mouse, including how to hold it properly, which button to use, movement on the desk, etc. What students can do at home: Practice! Bees & Honey, Roly Poly, and Mousing Around are all excellent, but know that the latter goes on for quite some time - longer than your child will probably want to play! Check out the fun activities and skill builders on the Kindergarten Symbaloo page: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/kdg.html First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students constructed "paper laptops" using manila folders and other components I’d prepared in advance. We used blank Chromebook keyboards to identify important keys (spacebar, shift, enter & power) and blank screens which the kids filled with images of their favorite computer-based activities. They decorated everything, including the mice. (The photo above is in the early stages of the project.) What I observed / inferred / connected: Kids love, love, LOVE to MAKE things. This lesson is a great example and a favorite every year. We use these paper laptops to help the kids learn the location of important keys, to practice proper laptop carrying techniques, and, honestly, just for fun.  I am constantly amazed at how these creations captivate the children - they seem never to tire of them - and they are very effective at what they are designed to do. What students can do at home: The paper laptops will be coming home at the end of this week, and once you have them, you can ask your child to identify the space bar, shift keys, enter key and power button. Ask them what’s drawn on their screen and why, let them explain the activity (and possibly show you in real life). Spend some time together exploring the First Grade Symbaloo: http://ncs-tech.org/embed/gr1.html. Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: The main goal of this week’s lesson was to baseline students’ keyboarding ability. We track this data over time to measure student growth. Our online keyboarding system, Typing Pal, utilizes a new password scheme this year and that took some getting used to. The pre-test is a little long (especially for second graders) but everyone powered through just fine. Third Graders (most classes) created "STEMLAB Journals" they will be using for reflections on our projects throughout the year. Fourth graders were given a preview of the Tech Literacy Assessment tool we’ll be using this coming week to baseline students’ knowledge of computer applications. This too is to measure student growth. What I observed / inferred / connected: This was mostly drudgery but necessary, too - no way around it. The kids all worked hard and did their best. What students can do at home: Relax and have some fun that doesn’t involve a screen! GO OUTSIDE! Seriously, there will be plenty of work to do all year, fun applications to explore, plenty of opportunities to build skills. Let ‘em have some time to rest!

The December 15, 2011 Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus blog by Marc Parry shared news about a groundbreaking project we have taken on at WCET. It describes our efforts to create a single, federated database of de-identified student records...

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students learned how to log in on the PC desktops in my old lab, then had a tour of the Windows Desktop and finally ended up creating some artwork on ABCYA’s PaintGO app. First graders also learned how to log in on the PC desktops in my old lab but did so with their four-digit lunch numbers and district-assigned passwords, quite an accomplishment for most of these kids. Second graders dove into the Engineering is Elementary unit "Improving a Play Dough Process" with a whole-class reading of the story, "Michelle’s MVP Award." Third grade students brushed up on their PowerPoint skills with a refresher designed to test their memory as well as our network IDs and file shares. We used the great children’s book "Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type" as the context. Fourth graders completed the Learning.com Tech Literacy Assessment (results will be available soon). Week ending 09/27/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We introduced the students to Elementary Computer Lab #1, my old classroom (most have never seen it before) and learned the PC login process. It’s asking a lot of Kindergarten students this early in the year to locate CTRL-ALT-DEL on a keyboard and enter credentials into login boxes; but, it’s important because our  classroom computers all require these logins. I use a short presentation (screenshots above) to give them the particulars and then we let them loose. Once they successfully logged in, we reviewed the "Desktop" and its components (icons, Start Button, Task Bar & System Tray.) Finally we headed over to the Kindergarten Symbaloo Page and whipped up some art with the ABCYa PaintGO app: a self portrait including themselves with some sort of computing device. What I observed / inferred / connected: I have mixed feelings about doing this lesson this early in the year. (Normally, it would come later.) Developmentally, students are still acquiring fine motor skills needed to operate mice, they are still mastering letter identification, and the coordination necessary for the "three finger salute" (CTRL-ALT-DEL) isn’t trivial. Heck, some of their fingers are so small that they can’t use "Bunny Ears" (left hand, index & middle fingers) - they have to use different a combination of fingers. Locating the mouse cursor and getting it into the correct boxes for the login is also tough. I will say this, when successful, they are VERY proud of themselves! I think we’ll be doing this lesson later in the school year going forward. What students can do at home: If you have a PC at home, have your child show you the CTRL, ALT & DELete keys and ask them to explain what they are for. (Remind them that your home PC is different than a school PC and CTRL-ALT-DEL isn’t necessary. It’s still good for them to visually identify the keys and practice the motions, however. (They can do so when the computer is off.) Much of the work we do in Kindergarten is art-based and the ABCYa PaintGO application is excellent. They will master it in short order. The Kindergarten Symbaloo Page has that app and many more to explore. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Learning to log on with CTRL-ALT-DELete is challenging enough but this year, the NCS Information Technology department instituted a new requirement for default passwords and we had to go with that for the lesson. Students reviewed the login procedure (essentially identical to the Kindergarten method except for the credentials used) and then did their best. Once they got logged in, I showed them how to log OFF (and back in for practice). By then most of the period was over and we ended with some free time for them to explore the First Grade Symbaloo. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was a great challenge from a few perspectives. First, many students didn’t recall the process from last year (we weren’t in the lab very much, but did do cover the login steps towards the end of last year.) Second, kids are still mastering the keyboard and it takes time to find the letters and numbers they need. Finally, the letters and numbers used were challenging because zeros look like O’s and ones look like l’s. Not to mention the fact that spaces sometime enter the mix (by accident.) Fortunately the classroom teachers have developed a system using large Popsicle sticks onto which the student IDs and passwords are written. This worked well because each student had something to refer to, but, they still struggled (in many cases) to identify the correct letters and numbers. Eventually all were successful though and as with the Kidnergarteners, they were very excited and proud afterwards. What students can do at home: Letter recognition, particularly using a keyboard, is a great start. Ask your child if they remember their "lunch number" and password for Computer Lab. If they do, you can work with them to identify the keys they need. This would help us tremendously. Check out the activities on the First Grade Symbaloo. Many will be used for later lessons but all may be explored now. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: This week marked the start of the Engineering is Elementary unit, "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process." In this unit, students are read (I get to read!) a short story with an engineering design challenge they have to solve themselves. The story is about Michelle, a young girl from Canada with Down’s Syndrome that plays recreational hockey with her older brother, Tim. They need to raise money for their team’s trip to see the Toronto Maple Leafs, so they decide to have a booth at  their school fundraiser making and selling homemade play dough. Along the way, the students learn about chemical engineering concepts as they improve the play dough that is created. What I observed / inferred / connected: We only got through the first three chapters of the story, but it was great fun, as I really enjoyed both the "story" and the "telling" aspects of reading to the class.  My delivery needs a lot of work, and I need practice remembering my position in the book as I read, but overall, the kids seemed to get the key points (as they did in First Grade when I read their EiE story). In one of my classes, there were questions about Down Syndrome, leading to some very rich and powerful discussions about what it means to be different and how we all struggle with different things. (In the story, Michelle is a terrific artist but is less confident about her athletic skills. Her sports-minded brother Tim, a star player on the hockey team, isn’t very artistic.) Though I wasn’t expecting the questions, I was prepared, and my explanation for one class earned me praise from several other teachers in the room, which made me feel pretty good. There are many themes in this story that make it easy for the kids to relate to: the age of the characters, the activity they are involved in, hints of bullying (and appropriate responses to/children’s thoughts about it), the roles of adults in various leadership positions, particularly those who work in engineering. I really, really enjoy these stories. They are very well done. What students can do at home: Since we are covering the story in class, the best thing to do at home is to talk about the characters, the problems they’ve encountered, what your child thinks about them, how they would have reacted, etc. We will finish the story in next week’s class. Have your child check out the Second Grade Symbaloo Page for fun learning activities. Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We needed a refresher on PowerPoint to ensure kids had the skills needed for projects later this year, and, to ensure the network file shares and logins all worked properly. I located a reading of the classic "Click, Clack, Moo - Cows that Type" which provided me the perfect contextual frame for a brief PowerPoint. We watched the movie and then had a brief discussion, followed by instructions on how to access the PowerPoint template I’d created. Students then answered the questions, adding text and graphics as needed. Finally, students saved their project to their network home drive. What I learned / observed / inferred: This went about as I expected for the most part. Students logged on quickly and had no issue finding the template. Some had problems following directions (not that unusual) and some sailed through the assignment and went beyond. Everyone was successful in the end (we will be finishing the project next week). What students can do at home: If you happen to have a computer at home with PowerPoint, any exposure you can give your child to the program will help. The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Students completed the Learning.com Tech Literacy Assessment to gauge their skills and knowledge at the beginning of the school year. This took the entire class period. They will take a similar test at the end of the year so we can determine how much progress each child has made individually (as well as the entire grade as a whole.) The content of the test is aligned with New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for skills and knowledge the children must have by the end of fourth grade. What I observed / inferred / connected: I’m thrilled we’re finally using this tool, paid for by a generous PTO grant. (I’ve been trying to get it years.)  This assessment is the only one of its kind certified by the New Jersey Department of Education as an qualified measure of technology competencies. Once the data is analyzed, we’ll be sharing the results. Look for an individualized report to come home with your student within the next few weeks. What students can do at home: Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.

Get lots of tips from an expert for pulling off super webinars. Post from: The eLearning CoachWebinar Best Practices: Interview With Karen Hyder

I'm still a little uncomfortable using social media when it comes to sharing really sad news. And yet, I know that tweets and posts and blogs really are the fastest way to share. It is with this in mind that I wanted to let my elearning peeps know that our friend and colleague Tim Martin passed away unexpectedly on Monday 27 February at his home in Forestville, CA.   Many of you know Tim from his years at the eLearning Guild, while others of you may remember him from his days at Allen Interactions, or through his work with the eLearning! Media group this past year. Tim was a feisty, funny, snarky, passionate guy who poured his heart and soul into his art, his friends, and his profession. He loved his partner and his son. He wanted to make the world a better place.  Thanks to those of you who have been quietly reaching out to ask about services, memorials and the like. His family is still reeling and dealing with all those things that must be done. As soon as I have any news to share I will post it here. Gonna miss your fire, big guy. RIP.

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students learned how to use digital cameras during a "photo scavenger hunt" in their regular classroom; First Graders created cool picture storybooks illustrating the grade-level character pillar. "We Are Fair;" Second Graders finished the Engineering is Elementary Storybook, "Michelle’s MVP Award" and prepared to mix their own play dough next week; Third Graders finished their "Click, Clack, Moo" PowerPoint projects from last week; Fourth Graders had a lesson on research basics in general (plagiarism and paraphrasing in specific). Week ending 10/04/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Our Grade-Level "Focus Area" for Kindergarten this year is "Using Digital Tools to Explore & Explain the World Around Me." This lesson is a great example yet of that focus in action. I arrived in the classrooms with digital cameras and sets of pre-printed item cards. We began with an exploration of the cameras and their features including the all-important "Safety Strap." We had a brief demonstration at the front of the room using two volunteers, then students from each table were sent off, working as a team (one as the "Finder," the other as the "Photographer") to locate and photograph the various objects. While they waited, students colored in a digital camera coloring page I created. When everyone finished, we reviewed all the photos on the SMART Board, often with unintentionally hilarious results! What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson is one of my favorites every year because the students are in charge of their own learning and teamwork is required. We had NO issues whatsoever this year, no dropped cameras, no teamwork issues, nothing. I made sure everyone got multiple turns as "finder" and "photographer". The class really flew by, the photos were excellent, and everyone had a great time. What students can do at home: If you have an inexpensive digital camera, work with your child regarding its safe usage, them let them go! As long as some sort of wrist or safety strap is attached, there should be no problem, and the images they create will entertain them for a long time! Check out the Kidnergarten Symbaloo page for fun learning activities. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We began the lesson by brainstorming what the phrase "We Are Fair" meant as a class. We had some examples on the SMART Board and many others were suggested. Fairness is a familiar concept and the discussions were great. I demonstrated the ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker and sent them off to their Chromebooks to start creating. What I observed / inferred / connected: This ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker site is terrific but has one frustrating aspect - entering text. It’s harder than it should be! Kids were able to get their text entered but in many cases it took repeated attempts. As expected, student’s creativity was unleashed in this project, resulting in many thoughtful, funny and interesting compilations. What students can do at home: Try out the ArtisanCam Picture Book Maker - and be sure to use the "Send" feature to save a copy so it’s viewable later! Check out the activities on the First Grade Symbaloo. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: As a class, we finished reading the story, "Michelle’s MVP Award," setting the stage for next week’s play dough mixing. There is an unexpected, very satisfying twist at the end that made the story special. What I observed / inferred / connected: The kids did a great job listening attentively as I made my way through the story. Having the story graphics on the SMART Board helped, again. I tried not to be too over-dramatic but almost certainly failed in spots. After two weeks of reading, the kids are ready to get their hands dirty, and boy, will they! What students can do at home: Talk to your child about the story - the plot, characters, setting, anything - have them give you the highlights or attempt to retell the entire story. (I remember when my kids were in Second Grade, and it’s a great age where the sense of wonder and suspension of disbelief really take hold. Though it was realistic fiction, it was so very believable! Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students navigated the network shares to locate their saved PowerPoint files, opened them, and completed the projects, adding text, images and design elements as needed. What I learned / observed / inferred: With Office 2013, Microsoft has complicated the PowerPoint interface rather than simplifying it. Worse, the constant changes mean kids have to regularly learn new menu navigation. I’m all for making progress, but, change for the sake of change (when no improvement in functionality is evident) just wastes time and effort. What students can do at home: If you happen to have a computer at home with PowerPoint, any exposure you can give your child to the program will help. The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Word Processing and Online Research are both focus areas for Fourth Graders this year, and I wanted to see where the kids stood relative to their paraphrasing skills, so I designed this simple activity. They are currently studying the Human Body, so, I located a website on the skeletal system for them to source information from, had them create a Google Doc, copy a section of text into it, then paraphrase. They did this twice, then shared the document with me. What I observed / inferred / connected: Though it sounds simplistic, it’s fraught with difficulty for some, and so, this collection of skills is something we will be strengthening this year. Copying and pasting, in particular, is harder than it sounds for two reasons: First, extra formatting often "comes along for the ride" when kids don’t select text exactly right. Second, because Google Docs does not have a "paste as text" option, even the most accurate copying will result in basic formatting (fonts, colors, highlighting) being pasted into the destination document. Thanks to continued exposure to Google Docs (and the Chromebooks) by the fourth grade teachers, kids’ skills in these areas are good and always improving. Paraphrasing skills, on the other hand, need a great deal of work. Google Docs is perfect for research like this because it’s easy to gather text (and to cite the source, something I intentionally left out of this lesson due to time constraints). Having the source and rewritten text in one place makes it easy to see what was changed. What students can do at home: Paraphrasing is a key research (and writing) skill. Have your child practice using a piece of writing or subject that is important to them - something involving a sports team, or, perhaps, Minecraft. Have them write down (or copy) the original and then immediately below it, come up with a paraphrased version. See how they do. Help them with the process! Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.

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You may have noticed that I've been kinda quiet on the blogging front. It's not for lack of things to say, exactly. More that there has been so much sound and fury around the emerging topic of learning analytics that I've wanted to listen to what was going on before I added my .02. But there have been a few things on my mind, especially now that we are well into the second year of our work on the PAR Framework. And we are coming up on fall conference season, where I expect we will all be hearing a lot about learning analytics solutions. As you gird yourself for the coming onslaught of emerging thought leadership that will swirl around us regarding learning analytics, big data, and the like, just remember: Yes, it's hard to turn mashes of clicks into anything meaningful when you are dealing with something like learning, which, like it or not, is like a religion to many people. Anybody who tells you otherwise does not understand your work.  Don't be shy about pushing back a little bit and asking for clarifications. The answers to learning questions - enterprise, individual or otherwise - are not likely to emerge fully formed from the mists of Apache Hadoop, Google Analytics or Adobe Omniture. All of which are very cool technologies. But seriously, they can't make up your mind for you. It's not the data, the metadata or the paradata, nor is it necessarily the analytics we perform, that matters the most. What matters is what we DO with the information coming from these analyses, that will help us achieve results that matter to our stakeholders.

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten students followed up their "classroom photo scavenger hunt" with a variety of activities that leveraged pics students took, including are you ready for this, Google Docs! First graders beefed up their knowledge of Windows PC and website navigation skills; Second graders mixed their own play dough in the culminating activity for their Engineering is Elementary (EiE) STEM unit; Third graders worked in Google Docs and learned about the Research bar and citing images; Fourth graders began reading the storybook for their EiE STEM Unit, "Erik’s Unexpected Twist." Week ending 10/11/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with some activities designed to increase keyboarding awareness - ABCYa’s excellent Uppercase/Lowercase Letter Matching and Keyboard Zoo. We then got to play with some puzzles I made on the Jigsaw Planet website utilizing student scavenger hunt photos. Finally, students accessed and entered text into a Google Docs presentation that also utilized student photos. What I observed / inferred / connected: I knew this would be "stretch" activity for the little ones, but it has been successful in the past - it was this time, too. The keyboarding was challenging but mainly because Google decided to put lowercase letters on the Chromebook keyboard (unlike almost all other computers I’ve ever seen.) The result is a bit of confusion as our youngest learners learn the keys, though it does reinforce knowledge of upper/lowercase letters in the process. The main activity for the day was entering text into a prepared Google Docs presentation template. It didn’t take long to instruct them. Once underway, it became evident we need additional work on using the space bar, backspace key, enter key and cursor keys. They enjoyed it however and made great progress! What students can do at home: Anything involving keyboard use would be great! Check out the Kidnergarten Symbaloo page for fun learning activities. First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: After a quick warmup utilizing a keyboarding activity of their choice (from three options I gave them, based on ability) we settled into a presentation/discussion of PC-based website navigation. While many First graders are reading now, some are not, but all need to be able to "…navigate in virtual environments that are developmentally appropriate." (NJCCCS 8.1.2.A.5) So this lesson was designed to make sure they understood tabbed web browsing, including page and site navigation, and decoding visual / graphic cues. After the presentation, the kids as a performance task completed a 10-question screenshot-based paper quiz as I walked them through the concepts in review. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson worked well, though I haven’t completed reviewing all the quizzes yet. The ones I have seen confirmed that we still have a problem with errant tab closure (so many kids think the "X" is where you are supposed to click, as in, "X marks the spot." We struggle with this through all of First grade but by the end of the year, they have it under control. Even non-readers were quick to learn/show their ability to get around our school intranet, the websites Starfall.com and StorylineOnline.net, among others Combined with the ability to use headphones, this gives the students the ability to work independently on classroom computers when needed - a terrific asset! I understand this lesson was extremely popular with the kids and several went home and used the First Grade Symbaloo to locate and work with several sites. Excellent! What students can do at home: Check out the activities on the First Grade Symbaloo, particularly anything involving keyboarding, or, the reading sites I mention above. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: For the culminating activity in our EiE STEM unit "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process," students mixed flour, salt and water and made their own play dough! We started by examining store-bought play dough for its properties including texture, scent and color. Then I illustrated the "wrong way" to make the play dough (by inverting some of the steps) and showing the kids the gooey mess that resulted. (Hilarity ensued as I got the material all over myself and in some cases, on the floor.) Working in teams, students completed the process the correct way, resulting in the play dough samples brought home (parents - sorry about the mess!) What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson was fun but difficult to manage in spots as kids did all the measuring and mixing (new this year). Flour and salt got spread EVERWHERE in our "Messy Area" (which is why we have it, of course) and clean-up was a real pain (and only survivable thanks to help from my classroom teacher colleagues and several fantastic parent volunteers.) I’m convinced the act of creating the dough was the most memorable aspect of the lesson - we’ll see next week as the kids will be completing a custom assessment I’ve designed to see what they learned. What students can do at home: Our recipe was simple: a quarter cup of salt, warm water, a half cup of flour, mix, done. However, here is an even better recipe: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/. Again, sorry parents, but, learning can be messy! Check out the activities on the Second Grade Symbaloo! Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Google Docs is a powerful platform (and the foundation application for technology skill development in my lab). Kids need to be able to use the Google Docs suite effectively and that is becoming easier and easier thanks to continual improvements by Google. One example is the "Research Bar," which brings Search directly into Google Docs, but more importantly, automatically adds citations when assets are dragged and dropped in. This is a huge benefit, and today’s lesson, while simple, was a great illustration of the capability. What I learned / observed / inferred: Kids need more/continual practice with their Google Apps logins. If they only use them in my class, they will continue to struggle all year, and be less well prepared for 4th grade than they should be.  If your child needs their access credentials, they should use this form to request help from the NCS I.T. department. What students can do at home: Give Google Docs a try! The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: We began the EiE STEM project, "No Bones About it: Designing Knee Braces" by reading the first few chapters of "Erik’s Unexpected Twist," the storybook that accompanies the lesson. Here’s a summary from the EiE page: Whenever Erik goes camping, disasters seem to follow. He’d much rather stay at home and skateboard with his friends than go with his Papa on a camping trip in Germany’s Black Forest. When Erik realizes that a rival, Matthias, is going on the trip as well, he’s even less excited. The trip takes a surprising turn when Matthias, not Erik, hurts his knee. The campers realize they need to design a knee brace for Matthias. With Erik leading the charge, can the crew get Matthias out of the woods? This was read as a whole-class activity, which *I* enjoyed immensely. The kids seemed to as well, based on their reactions to the comprehension questions that were asked as we went along. What I observed / inferred / connected: Fourth graders can actually pay attention for a long time if you’ve captured their interest! What students can do at home: This particular story focuses on Erik, a forgetful, skateboard-loving, accident-prone kid, and his relationship with "Mathias," his once-close friend who is "perfect." As with all the EiE stories, it is wonderfully written and provides great context for conversation. The characters are easy to relate to, their experiences mirror those our kids could have, and the entire context is engineering in real life. I can’t say enough about these stories and this curriculum. I absolutely adore it. Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.

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Marc Prensky once famously accused instructional designers of sucking the fun out of learning at an EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Conference a number of years back. As you can imagine, instructional designers were not amused.  I was reminded of Marc's quotable quote during a recent conversation regarding the value and role of structure and specifications - or the lack thereof - for designing learning experiences. This is a more nuanced conversation than differentiating between formal and informal learning, or whether one is online or on-the-ground. This also includes things that lead to immersion, augmentation, mobility, and personalization. It inevitably leads to thoughts of learning analytics. Life-long learning tracking even. It's almost as if today's emergent designers want to dance on ADDIE's grave and declare that ID funsucking is a thing of the past. Which brings me to my point. It is inspiring to know that there are exceedingly passionate designers out there who want to create learning experiences that engage and inspire, helping the world see new possibilities with fresh eyes. Good on ya. The world needs you.  But designers also must bring order to chaos. Most of us work in settings where we are mostly responsible for the practical, pragmatic applications of design principles to achieve tangible measurable results for individuals AND enterprises.  It does not matter if we believe something to be true with total heart and soul if it cannot demonstrate tangible value of those beliefs to stakeholders. Not in the future. Now. So here is a message for the "true believers". When someone tells you than an idea is a little early for their stakeholders....it doesn't mean he or she "don't get it", nor does it necesarily mean that she or he is a pin-headed, short-sighted idiot. It simply means that the case still needs to be made. To be clear, if it weren't for people believing that they have a better way of doing something and being willing to social the ideas ad nauseum we probably *would* still be sniffing ditto copies in our obligatory F2F training sessions. All *I'm* saying is that visionary awesomeness on its own probably isn't enough. Sometimes it might just take a few funsuckers to spin all that straw into gold.    

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This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarteners learned about healthy eating habits with a variety of (literally) hands-on activities as a class and on their Chromebooks; First graders went to the "old" computer lab for a their first-ever Powerpoint project; Second graders completed an assessment of the EiE STEM Play Dough unit we just finished; Third graders were introduced to Spreadsheets via excercises at Learning.com; and Fourth graders finished reading the EiE Storybook, "Erik’s Unexpected Twist," concluding the reading portion of that STEM project. Week ending 10/18/13 Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: This week’s topic was healthy eating. We started be identifying some plastic food representing the food groups and had a discussion about processed vs. natural foods. Using the SMART Board (and in a few classes, some websites) kids identified proper food group items. We then introduced the kids to Gumdrop, the Computer Lab mascot, and the world of Webkinz (which, years ago, nearly every child would be familiar with; now, barely a handful in the entire grade knew what a Webkin was.) Using the Webkinz website, we played with Gumdrop (getting some much-needed exercise) before heading out for some grocery shopping and snacking. After that, students completed a simple sorting activity on their own using SMART Notebook Express on their Chromebooks. What I observed / inferred / connected: Kids have a very solid understanding of what foods are healthy, unhealthy, and why. This lesson was very active, fast-moving and got kids out of their seats a lot. The Chromebooks performed well and the SMART Notebook Express software worked as it should have. Kids learned the user interface quickly and were instantly productive. What students can do at home: Have a conversation with your child about healthy & unhealthy foods, let them show what they know. Check out the healthy food activities on the Kindergarten Symbaloo. Play together! Work on keyboarding skills, too. The Kindergarten Symbaloo has what your child needs! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Working in the "old" Elementary Computer Lab #1 (with PCs), students logged in with their IDs and passwords, then used a template I’d created to record information about a favorite object. They entered their name and other text, practiced writing uppercase letters, chose a theme and saved their work. What I observed / inferred / connected: As complicated as PowerPoint can be, it’s still suitable for lower elementary student projects (with enough advance planning). This lesson went really fast and kids picked up the concepts quickly. Letter recognition / keyboarding skills were the biggest challenges. What students can do at home: Talk with your child about a possession they care about. Ask them about it. Let them use vivid language to express themselves. Have students explore the First Grade Symbaloo, particularly the keyboarding activities. It’s just so critical they get these skills early on. Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students used SMART Notebook Express to complete an assessment I created regarding the EiE STEM unit "A Work in Process: Improving a Play Dough Process," designed to see what they retained from the experience, including the story as well as the hands-on activities. They also worked on keyboarding skills using a variety of activities on the Second Grade Symbaloo. What I observed / inferred / connected: This worked well for most classes but not for all. The SMART Notebook Express software was finicky; when it was good, it was very, very good … and when it was bad it just didn’t work at all. On two occasions I had to "punt" and do the lesson as a whole-group activity. We’re trying to isolate the problem (network connectivity; site slowness; Chromebook Flash player issues) but until we get everything figured out we’ll be sticking to the "old" Computer Lab with its PCs for these types of assessments. What students can do at home: Ask your child about the story. What do they remember? What resonated with them? Ask your child about the Engineering Design Process. What are the steps? How can they be used to create technologies? Take a look at this page from the EiE website - it will give you additional ideas for discussion and exploration. Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We are starting a unit on spreadsheets and utilized Learning.com to communicate basic concepts and lay a solid foundation. We’ll be continuing with this next week. Learning.com exercises are super because they are performance based; kids have to correctly do as they are instructed in order to proceed. Gentle reminders keep kids on track when they make a mistake. I really love this service. What I learned / observed / inferred: Once kids are logged in, this application holds their attention like no other. We didn’t even get to keyboarding this week! The kids are THAT focused. What students can do at home: Work on EasyTech! It’s the ideal app for home use. I have provided the login information for Learning.com before but if you need it, let me know! The Third Grade Symbaloo page has a lot of great learning activities to explore. Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: We entered Week 2 of the EiE STEM project, "No Bones About it: Designing Knee Braces" by reading the last half of "Erik’s Unexpected Twist," the storybook that accompanies the lesson. What I observed / inferred / connected: Since the 4th graders are studying the human body right now, the timing was perfect ("I love it when a plan comes together") - the kids literally lit up when we started talking about bones and ligaments and tendons. Good stuff. Kids REALLY enjoyed this story, much more than the one they did in Third Grade. Not sure why. Maybe I’m getting better at storytelling. I’m certainly enjoying it! What students can do at home: Ask your students what happened in the story; how the relationship between Erik and Matthias changed; how the Engineering Design Process helped in the woods; what ligaments are and how they work (anything about the skeletal system). Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo page, especially including the Typing Pal application, as keyboarding is a perfect skill to practice at home.

Important questions can get swept aside when the rumble of excitement about future possibilities are loudest. Nowhere is this more clear than in the emerging arena of learning analytics. The fact that we can track information just about anytime, anyplace and on any device boggles the mind with possibilities. But it also begs a few questions: Does the fact that we will eventually be able to collect, track, link, visualize, tokenize, correlate, factor or parse data pulled through APIs mean that we should? When we can collect everything, will we know what to look for when applying various analysis technique among the research protocols? Will we recognize the answers we are looking for when we see them forming in the mists or hanging from the branch of a CHAID tree? Perhaps even more to the point - will we be able to do anything meaningful with what we find? What are we going to DO, once we know? The notion that all learning should be tracked, or that there is value to tracking activity stream level information, or that Hadoop-like pattern-seeking technologies will serve the needs of the learning enterprise in meaningful ways, must also consider what that capability is really worth to the enterprise.  It  presumes that once we DO recognize new patterns of loss, momentum and opportunity that we are going to be able to do something about what has been found.  But most people do not understand how long it is going to take the learning world at large to think of data as his or her friend. To see the results of analyses as benchmarks for better understanding performance, not as red flags requiring an intervention. One can only wonder how many enterprises will be slow to collect learning data worrying that they can't afford the Burden of Knowing what their data will reveal.       

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