Google Chrome Extensions for the classroom

Teachers and presenters, if you aren't using Google Chrome you are missing out on one of the best web experiences out there.  For those of you that are...below are my favorite Chrome extensions that are guaranteed to help you be more productive:

Simple QR code generator - Generate a QR code from any website that you're currently on.
This is awesome for BYOD classrooms.  If you or your students are trying to share a website quickly you can click this button and get a QR code that can be scanned by the mobile devices in the room.





URL Shorteners - Much like a QR code generator, these little gems can quickly make any url short and easy to communicate to a class or audience.  Bit.ly or goo.gl are my shorteners of choice.  Try some out and see what works best for you.


Evernote web clipper - If you aren't using evernote yet, you should seriously give it a try.  Evernote's chrome extension can capture URLs, full webpages, and notes from webpages and save them all to your Evernote account.  This one is great for students doing research also.

Citable - If you've used Zotero for Firefox, this is similar and Zotero compatible.  Citable allows you to take notes and quotes from websites and auto saves URL, author, date, etc.  You can export to Zotero for full APA, MLA formatting.

ChromeVox - Add a voice to Google Chrome for students with special needs.  (View all extensions for accessibility.)

Awesome Screenshot - Don't have a screenshot application.  This little extension is all you need.  Great for teachers wanting to go paperless.  Easily pull examples of student work without divulging confidential info.






As the web browser becomes more and more versatile and better equipped to handle advanced tasks, tools like browser extensions can really make life and work on the web much more efficient and enjoyable.

Becoming a Tech Facilitator: Part II

This post is probably better titled "Becoming an EdTech Leader/Innovator."  I spent almost 4 years a TIF.  It was a blast!  It was one of the few jobs I felt that I really excelled at.  So for Part II let me share with you 8 things that I believe make a good EdTech Leader.  (If you missed Part I, click here)

1. A Spirit of Service - Most technology staff in any school district are really 'Support Staff.'  It is important to remember that your job is to do anything you can to help make the classroom environment better.  For me, this meant remembering how difficult it can be to be a teacher.  Knowing when to do things for teachers to save them time, when to try to teach a new skill.  Above all, your service should be driven by a desire to understand and serve your teachers, their students, their curriculum, their problems, and their teaching styles.
2. Life-Long Learner - Technology changes fast!  In the past 30 years, it has been phenomenal to watch.  But if all you are doing is 'watching,' you will fall behind.  An EdTech leader must have a desire to  find answers to questions, learn and search out things that they don't know, etc.  I can't tell you how many times teachers, students and administrators have asked me questions that they could've found easily themselves on the internet. (LMGTFY) Many desired answers but not learning.  I love helping though, because I'm guaranteed the learning, while they are guaranteed only answers.
3. Connections & Resources - Many times referred to a PLC's.  Any EdTech leader worth their weight has multiple networks and resources that they rely on for their own learning.  These networks should be both digital and personal; online and offline, global as well as local.  I don't see how anyone can consider themselves an EdTech leader without a social network presence.  On the other hand I also don't think one can be a leader without being personable either.
4. Research & Development - A great deal of effort needs to be put into researching and testing any technology that is deemed worthy of trying into the classroom.  But there are 2 philosophies here:
1. The Google method - Get a good understanding of the product and it's workings and take it to the classroom with the understanding that things will be new and exciting, but not perfect. They will require polishing, but a learning experience is guaranteed.
2. The Apple method - Research, test, and polish; then do it all over again until you have a perfect product that will work just as promised.  This method takes longer and perhaps no amount of testing can equal true classroom integration.  (I sat in a meeting this week where the State Dept. of Ed. said they would be testing a new tool for  evaluating tech integration over the next 18 months before it would be rolled out to districts...my grandma moves faster in her sleep than this.  News flash: It will be obsolete when it's released.)
5. Addicted to Change - To be a leader in educational technology, you have to love change.  This desire is the fuel that keeps you on top of emerging technologies.  Staying on top helps you to see a bigger picture of technology and direction you will need to go in the future.
6. Cutting edge vs. Bleeding edge - Knowing the difference between the two and important to schools.  You want your students and teachers to have the latest and greatest, but if you're on the bleeding edge it will backfire and ruin the trust your teachers have in you and technology in general.  It requires the learning of emerging technologies, while possessing the maturity to know when to wait for the shiny appeal to wear off and the bugs to be worked out.
7. Desiring to solve problems with streamlined processes - One factor drives the technology industry today, more than most others.  It is the desire to find technology solutions to problems that people may or may not be aware of.  Today's classrooms are being pulled in hundreds or thousands of directions, whether from stdudents, parents, administrators, or even worse... legislators and governments.  Be an advocate for teachers and their classrooms.  Try to find tools or create ways to use existing tools that will create solutions, streamline processes, save time, and improve instruction in the classroom.
8. Passion - Perhaps above all the previously listed traits in this post, we must have passion for education and technology.  Let your passion show!  Let your passion help you create, innovate, and share with other educators.  Believe that EdTech can change instruction.  Believe that technology can place powerful tools in the hands of any human being, and any person with those tools can do wonderful things to change the world.

These are a few of my beliefs according to what I've seen through my experiences in edtech.  If you disagree of have anything to add, please leave me a comment.  If you like what you've read, please +1 or thumbs up below.

Becoming a Tech Facilitator: Part I

About a month ago I was asked by @pronovost, via twitter, to do a post on becoming a Technology Integration Facilitator.  So I'll take a just a few moments today to tell my story.  Consider this Part I: How I became a 'Geek Teacher'.

Classroom Blog
My path toward educational technology began with a blog; SURPRISE! SURPRISE!  That blog taught me a lot about the internet and the power behind communication and transparency with parents and students.  Perhaps the best part about blogging in my classroom was that it helped me reflect on my own classroom and teaching.  That reflection helped me become a better teacher, then the technology encouraged me to continue improving and innovating new ways that I could get my course content into my students hands.  This is precisely why I continue to blog today.  The reflection time it takes to write each blog post helps me collect my thoughts, consider my methods, and refocus my energy toward worthwhile goals.

My blog began as a daily journal of classroom activities.  In fact, check out my very first post below:

It was my best answer for keeping that every day classroom management problems to a minimum.  The monotony of answering "Mr. Ashby, did we do anything important while I was gone yesterday?" was killing my instruction time, not to mention my morale.  The blog fixed this.  I started conditioning my students to go to the blog before they asked me what we did in class yesterday.

Within a few weeks my students were emailing me from home in the middle of the day, asking me when that day's blog post would be up.  I discovered that they didn't want to fall behind.  All I had to do was make the information available to them and they would take care of the rest.

During my first interview to become I technology integration facilitator I was asked to show my blog.  I'm convinced that my blog played a major factor in me getting hired.  It really couldn't have been bubbly personality :)

Posting documents:
A few weeks later I was posting documents.  In one case I posted a study guide to a test.  A few days later I posted the answer key to that study guide.  For some reason I decided to use that study guide as the actual test...I didn't change a thing.  Most of my student's grades went up a little.  One student, however, scored a 32%.  Her mom came into my classroom after school and demanded to know what was going on.  I pulled up the blog, showed her the study guide, then the answers, and then showed the student's test.  The mom turned and smacked her daughter on the back of the head!  "What were you thinkin'?" she asked.  "He gave you the answers, and you still failed."  The student didn't fail another test that semester.

Interwrite slate by eInstruction. My first IWB.

Interactive Whiteboard:
As I got better with my blog, I decided that I could do more with it.  I found out that my campus had interactive whiteboard software.  Instead of trying to learn it first, I decided I would just start using it...Cold Turkey!  My students laughed at me as I fumbled through it.  But over the next few weeks I got better, I let them use it, they got better, and we learned a new piece of technology together.  It set a tone in my classroom that I had never seen before.  It was powerful.

The interactive whiteboard helped me solve 2 big problems:

1. I had a student who was visually impaired.  She couldn't see what I wrote on the whiteboard, and she needed a hard copy of all the notes I took in class.  The IWB software enabled me to print a copy of everything I wrote on the board.  Then I found out that her specific disability she couldn't read from a white board, but she could, however, read white on black if the writing were big enough.  The IWB helped this student and I bridge a gap that we had both struggled with for months prior.
2. The screen capture and recording feature of the IWB enabled me to create my own tutorial videos.  My students were more often inclined to watch a video of a concept and rewind it as often as they needed instead of asking me, and having to deal with the societal pressures of asking questions in front of their peers.  It also helped them view the videos according to their own busy schedules and not just during my 3 hours of tutorial times during the week.

I began posting these to my blog.  I setup my own routine of recording the videos 2-3 times a week during my planning period.  That was also when I posted to my blog.

CPS clicker by eInstruction

Response clickers:

The next step in my classroom evolution, was CPS response clickers.  My school's Educational Technologist helped send me to TCEA conference of 2008.  While working the vendor floor, I won my very own set of CPS clickers.  I learned them backwards and forwards.  My students and I used them 3 days out of 5.  It helped me acquire data about my students knowledge and skills, which I turned around to use to re-teach and plan lessons targeted at the deficiencies of my students.  They also allowed my students to gain instantaneous feedback about their own performance.  The era of spending a day or two grading and then handing back assignments only to see them end up in the trash minutes later, were history for me.  Grading papers by hand was inefficient.  Today's teacher needs to use time better to find students' needs and plan lessons designed to captivate students while filling those needs.

Multi Media:

I had at my disposal a Sanako audio language/computer lab, where I could have my students sit in a cubicle and record their speech while I teamed them up with any group of students in the classroom.  I made every effort I could to learn that system backward and forward so that I knew what it was capable of and could build lessons on top of.  I found that the playback of recorded audio was priceless to my young language learners.  So I branched out and started having my kids do video.  I didn't have video cameras at my disposal.  I found that many kids had camera phones, point & shoot cameras, and other devices that also recorded video, so I had the students team up and use their own equipment at home to record movies, cooking shows, and more.  The playback was entertaining, but it was also much more...It was teaching the students to look and listen to themselves and compare themselves to the accents they heard of natives and their peers in the classroom.

Sharing with Colleagues:

Sharing my knowledge and ideas with my colleagues is very important for me.  Like my blog, it allows me to throw my ideas out there and start conversations and collaborations with peers.  I use these conversations and collaborations to: 

• Polish and develop my ideas
• Continue to learn
• Create team work opportunities
• Establish rapport 
• Learn from the creativity of others
• Bring recognition to the creativity and accomplishments of my peers & teachers in general

The four walls of the classroom can be very isolating.  Technology can break down those walls and open opportunities for learning, not just for our students but for ourselves also.  Technology helped me see teaching, learning, myself, and the world in a much different light.  It gave me the confidence to try anything, even pivoting my career.

How iTunesU Online School Model Can Democratize University Education?

Today I have a guest post from blogger Marina Salsbury, who discusses how iTunesU is affecting education at the university level.  Guest posts are always welcome.  Please drop me a line if you are interested. 

iTunes University is an application available for Apple iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone. This application is designed to allow educators to put together distance courses that are accessible to everyone at a low cost or for free. The powerful iTunes University interface allows instructors to include videos of lectures and demonstrations, textual information, as well as audio and other multimedia content.

iTunes University puts education in the hands of the masses, because you do not need to be enrolled in a university to view the course content and follow along with the lectures. These online school courses are offered completely free of charge, either as a public service or in an effort to give potential students a taste of what an online education at their university or institution would be like. For example, Harvard University currently offers more than 150 online courses, and they make a handful of lectures available free of charge on iTunes to give students a sense of what distance education at Harvard is like.

iTunes University may become instrumental in driving down the cost of a university education, according to Sean Decatur, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Oberlin College. iTunes University and other digital resources provides students with interactive and textual content at a much lower cost than traditional textbooks and resources. While digital content can't reduce the cost of instruction, grading, university infrastructure and other key costs, it can reduce the cost of delivering the content, according to Decatur. This savings is directly passed along to the student.

One drawback to viewing college course content in this manner is that you will not receive course credit unless you enroll in the university program and pay for the credit hours. This means that while you may have gained the knowledge, you may not be able to demonstrate it to an employer or use the experience as proof that you have a college education. Many universities offer their online content on iTunes as the lecture part of an online course, and require that students use another interface, such as Blackboard or Web CT, to turn in assignments at regularly scheduled times. Additionally, the technology itself has limitations. You cannot gain practical experience in a laboratory setting or in a studio under the direct supervision of a qualified instructor, and for many hands-on courses, this experience is essential. 

However, iTunesU is an excellent resource for those who are considering a college education or continuing education at a particular university or in a particular subject but want to sample courses before they pay the fees at a university. Additionally, iTunes University is ideal for those who just wish to gain job skills, or enhance personal knowledge. For example, you can find free or low-cost courses on everything from woodworking to accounting or even literature. Instead of paying to audit classes, you can view them free on iTunes in many cases.

iTunes University will not change education entirely because the basis of most university programs is direct student-professor contact and guidance, either online or off. However, courses delivered on iTunesU can provide students and potential learners with a way to sample courses or learn a new skill on their own and at their own pace. For this reason, universities will continue to create course content designed to be viewed on iTunesU.

Pitfalls of Mobile Devices in Today's Classroom

Over the last year or so I have become an advocate for using mobile devices in the classroom.  Mobile devices like the smarthphone, iPad, & iPod touch have helped educational technology spread in classrooms due to their enormous popularity, lower prices, and size for mobility.

However, over the last few days I've become aware of some problems with mobile devices, that all teachers should be cognizant of and try to avoid.

Mobile devices were originally designed and created for 1 purpose...Content Consumption!  Although many of these devices are now acquiring more apps, like iMovie that allow for creation and productivity, the entire platform of mobile was built on consumption.  Let's go back to the Bloom's Taxonomy.  Where would you put digital consumption?  (Pretty hard question, wouldn't you say?)

While I will continue to be an advocate for mobile devices in the classroom, I am now making a more concerted effort to help teachers find ways in which students can do more creating.  Whether that creation happens with the mobile device or traditional computer doesn't matter, so long as the student gets the opportunity to learn how to use technology to create and be productive.

A quick example I have are QR codes.  They've infiltrated many schools in the last 2 years, and most teachers love the lessons they have done with them.  But lets ask this question..."If all your students do with a QR code is scan it with their phone, what have they learned to create?"  Lets be more open to students helping us create more elements of our lessons and consequently new skills that teach our youth the power of creation vs consumpiton.

A generation of consumers who don't know how to be producers is a dangerous imbalance in any economy.  Let's make it a goal to let students do more creating with technology.  Creating websites, blogs, documents, presentations, movies, music, art, newscasts, podcasts, timelines, web 2.0 things, etc.  Creation requires knowledge, ingenuity, creativity, and discipline.  Those are the higher order skills that we are striving for as 21st century educators.