Top 5 Tools for My Classroom

As a teacher who is interested in teaching with technology, I am fortunate to teach in a 1:1 classroom where every student has a computer every day. This has allowed me to use technology to get students more actively involved in the lessons, give more timely and better feedback, and better customize learning opportunities for all students. The effect of all this is that students are writing, editing, communicating, and thinking more about their work than they did B.C.--before computers.

The top 5 tools that I have my students use that facilitate student achievement in our 1:1 classroom include:

5. Moodle
I have used Moodle less this year than the last few years because of some of the other tools on this list, but it still is an effective platform for an online class. My favorite feature is the report that enable teachers to track student use of the site. My least favorite aspect of Moodle is the very linear and limited appearance, and sometimes cumbersome features (like creating quizzes).

4. CoveritLive
CoveritLive is a live blogging tool. I love CoveritLive as a platform for backchannel classroom chats during videos or student presentations, and to conduct evening study sessions. The sessions are easily embedded onto other websites and an archive of the session is automatically created at the conclusion of the event. CoveritLive is my preferred tool for synchronous class events outside of school hours.

3. Ning
Since social networking sites have become the way students primarily use the internet to connect and share with others it only makes sense that students have the opportunity to learn in that way in school as well. Ning is a nice site because it allows for an ad free service for educators and is easily customized to the privacy and learning needs of a k-12 class. I set up a private Ning site called iCitizen for a Citizenship unit. Students created profiles, joined groups, added videos and events, and asked and answered questions related to the unit. The great benefit of Ning was that it provided an authentic voice for students who are either shy or who are bored in a traditional school setting.

2. Google Docs
The primary way students submit work, collaborate with one another, and manage their assignments is with Google Docs. Google Docs (and Moodle) has allowed for my class to be virtually paperless. It has also taught students the importance of creating an online system of organization. The downside is that students have figured out how to pass notes with Google Docs (not that students ever passed notes before).

1. Wikispaces
I love wikis! The students use their Study Hall wiki on a daily basis to post assignments, take notes, post content related resources, ask questions, and learn from each other. In the beginning of the year I did most of the posting, now I may do 10-20%. It is pretty much a student run resource that has essentially taken the place of Moodle as the primary online class resource.

So, what are your favorite tools for the classroom?

Backchannel Engagement in the Classroom

Backchanneling in the classroom seems to be a hot topic recently. A March 18th blog post entitled Backchanneling in Middle School Social Studies caught my attention because 1) I teach Middle School Social Studies, and 2) I just had my students backchannel for the first time during a movie.

My main concern about having students chat during class is that it could divide their attention and cause students to miss important information. According to Dr. John Medina people are incapable of effectively multitasking. Medina's Brain Rules book and website illustrate that multitasking raises error rates. If this is the case then should we even consider having students backchannel chat during class? Another point that Medina makes is that people do not pay attention to boring things. My question then is--Can backchannel chats in the classroom help prevent boredom by engaging students in thinking about class content as it is presented?

To determine if backchannel chat will work I used it with the movie Great Journey West about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Instead of forcing students to backchannel during the movie I let it be an option. This allowed me to see how many students would freely participate, as well as to allay my concern about students dividing their focus. My observations show that some students are more adept at dividing their attention and being able to refocus than other students. I also have a concern that students who have poor typing skills will spend an inordinate amount of time typing to the exclusion of actually watching the movie. I used Coveritlive as the platform for the backchannel chat since the students and I were already familiar with how it works. I created a couple of polls and found a link to the Journals of Lewis and Clark prior to the event. My only instruction for students was to use Coveritlive to ask questions they did not understand during the movie.

The results impressed me. I had about a 1/3 of each of my classes actively asking questions during the movie. All of the questions were genuine and were answered right away either by me or another student. A majority of my students participated in the polls, while nearly all my students at least kept track of the chat periodically while they watched the movie. Some of the deeper questions that were asked during the chat were then discussed as a class after the movie. These class discussions led to the students asking even more questions. I have not had the chance to backchannel during a movie since this time, but I have had a number of students ask when we can do it again.

Whether one can effectively multitask or not I believe that it does have a place in the classroom. If done properly I believe it can lead to students becoming more engaged in the content by being encouraged to ask and answer questions in real time. This real time, active participation by students is what they do in their own time when they IM and text, so why not incorporate it into the classroom if you can. With every student having a computer in my class every day, I have the ability to use this technology to encourage students to think in a way that is natural for them.

I would love to hear other ideas for using backchannel chat in the classroom to engage students. What ideas do you have???

photo credit: serkaner at stock.xchng

Class Discussion at 10:00 pm???

Why not?  During the Vice Presidential and 3rd Presidential debates over 40 of my students watched while almost 20 students took part in a live blogging session hosted by me using Coveritlive.  I embedded the Coveritlive  session in my Moodle course to provide a bit more security and to monitor who showed up to watch.  

The quality of the dialogue was impressive for 8th graders discussing serious national issues. Having nearly half of all my students  show up at night to voluntarily discuss political debates illustrates the power of technology to foster learning.  It also reaffirms my faith and optimism in this generation that barely remembers 9/11, and doesn't remember a time before the Clinton's, the internet, or cell phones.  

Next up--live blogging election night with 8th graders!   

Top 10 things I learned in Web 2.0 Class

This week I've been taking a Web 2.0 grad class at Harrisburg University. The instructor is Jim Gates of Tipline: Gates' Computer Tips fame. This course is easily the best class I have taken in years. I am learning so many new ways to teach and to learn. My greatest challenge now is to sift through all the resources to find the ones that will work for me and my students.

To help my sifting process here is a list of the top 10 things I learned this week:

10) Pecha Kucha--A great suggestion for presentations: 20 slides, 20 seconds each. This forces the presenter to be prepared and to tell a story to keep the audience happy. Here is an example of a Pecha Kucha presentation by Dan Pink:


9) ePals --I think I like ePals, but I'm still waiting for my student blog site??? I have my profile and email account, but why so long for the blogs? Maybe it's my fault, no, on second thought I can't remember the last time I made a mistake. Early onset senility has its advantages. Anyway, I do like the fact that you can search for classrooms around the world looking to virtually get together. The email and blogs can also be moderated.

8) Creating forms in Google Docs --On the first day of class Jim Gates had us fill out a form with our name, address and years teaching. Instantly we could see the spreadsheet Jim made filled in with our information. We then viewed a scatter plot graph showing the years of teaching experiences for the teachers in class. The coolest part was viewing Google Earth with pins locating where we all lived. Very cool mashup!

7) Live Blogging with Google Docs --It never ceases to amaze me what you can do with Google. Create a Google Docs presentation and you can live blog the thing. Amazing!

6) Thomas Friedman's MIT Milestone Presentation Keynote Address
Fascinating view of how technology is changing our world. Usually, people don't realize what's happening until too late, and then are forced to be reactive to events instead of proactive. Thankfully, Friedman's thesis of the flattening of the world and the forces that are causing this to happen helps to explain the current state we face in the world. This makes what we do as teachers even more important to help keep the U.S. relevant, competitive, and creative.


5) Coveritlive --Being new to live blogging I think I like it. I will need to participate more in live blogging events to be sure I like it, but the ease at which it took to set up an event made me want to give this a try.

4) Embedding UStream into Coveritlive --Now I think I really like Coveritlive! I still need to get a cam (I'm sooo last century), but once I do watch out! Until I get a cam I could still find a UStream and embed it into a Coveritlive session. Again, the ease of embedding UStream in Coveritlive makes me want to at least give it a whirl.

3) Diigo Groups --I love Delicious, but I never knew what to think of Diigo. Actually, I'm still not sure what I think of Diigo, but I now see a feature that I like. Diigo has groups of like minded people who share links, ideas and discussions in a professional network setting. I signed up for the Educators Group, organized by Coolcatteacher Vicki Davis; the Classroom 2.0 Group, organized by Steve Hargadon who formed the Classroom 2.0 Ning Group I already belong to; and the Social Studies Group, organized by Adrea Lawrence who I don't know (virtually speaking).

2) Today, Jim Beeghley of Teaching the Civil War with Technology blog was sitting beside me -- and I didn't realize it. Earlier when we were sharing blog posts I shared one I recently read from Jim's Blog on tagging flickr photos to Delicious. Two hours later he came in to observe the class and he sat next to me, with me, of course, being oblivious of who was sitting next to me. I actually thought Jim was some sort of Harrisburg U administrator. After I found out who he was and introduced myself, I let him know that I was the teacher he blogged about in his post More Uses of Web 2.0 Tools--"Oh, you're Mr. T!" "Yep, I'm Mr. T" Funny how you sort of know someone from reading their blogs, but when you meet them in person it makes the virtual connection real. Very exciting. Can't wait to have Jim come to Hershey and share his love of the Civil War with my students.

1) It's not just about technology. It's about how technology enhances our professional communication, networking, and learning, in order to improve the learning experiences of our students. This may not be something I learned this week, but it is something that was reinforced reinforced.

What a fun and exhausting week!!!