Global Collaborator: Unpacking ISTE Standard for Students #7

Global Collaborator: Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally. (ISTE Student Standard #7)

This standard is my hill to die on. If a student graduates from our school and doesn't know how to collaborate well with the world, then we have failed to equip that student for their future. The universe gets smaller every day. When I graduated from college (the first time), there was no internet access to the masses. I was pretty much competing with people within a 50-mile radius in the city I wanted to work in. There were some people willing to relocate but the bottom line was that 85% of the people that were after the same job I was would have been considered my geographical neighbor. Today, someone might need graphics work done and artists from all over the world can bid on that job. Due to video conferencing, smartphones, and wifi, the professional world has become more fluid in who we work with and also whom we compete with. The walls have fallen down and most jobs today require you to communicate with someone not in your community and maybe not even in your hemisphere on a regular basis. In the last year, I have worked strategically discussing the use of voice speakers in the classroom with people from California, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

So how do we prepare students for that world if the walls are still up in our districts and we can't reach out globally because of a lack of technology?

• Penpals. Remember snail mail? That's what I am talking about! Culturally connect your students to another school through snail mail. Depending on the age of your students, you can have them write individual letters or write a letter as a class. Ask each other questions relevant to learning. Challenge each other with quizzes or questions. It could be something that happens all year long. 
• If you are a teacher that has a computer with a webcam or you are willing to use your own phone, participate in a mystery skype opportunity. Do your legwork first. Communicate with the other educator and decide what your learning goals would be for your mystery Skype. Is it purely geographical or do you want your students to glean certain information from your connection? 
• Seek a local that isn't a local. We live in a transient world. Your school and students could benefit from the connections you have to other cultures. Sometimes those not like yourself seem intimidating or scary. Knock down the biased boundaries that exist and ask someone to come in and collaborate with your students about their culture.
• Get involved. My edufriend Jennifer Williams serves on the board of Global Goals Educator Task force. This task force works together with the UN to teach Sustainable Development Goals that would affect every teacher, student, and the world. Look for opportunities to talk about global needs and perspectives. TEACH SDGs is one option but there are plenty of other ways to help students to see outside the silos of their lives.

Check out the previous blog posts from the "Unpacking ISTE Standards for Students Techknowledge Gee" here:

• Standard #1 Empowered Learner
• Standard #2 Digital Citizen
• Standard #3 Knowledge Constructor
• Standard #4 Innovative Designer
• Standard #5 Computational Thinker
• Standard #6 Creative Communicator

Creative Communicator: Unpacking ISTE Standard for Students #6

Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. (ISTE Standard for Students)

So this may seem like a hard standard to pull off in a non-techie classroom but bear with me. This one is important! Some of the other standards are much more technical and forward thinking but the basic skill of communication is one that so many people face with emotional struggle. Adults often choose the wrong platform or format to share our grievances or we don't take advantage of the potential audiences we have for the worthy things we want to share. Or worse yet, we don't have the verbalization skills to share the great work that is being done. In this case, I'm talking about adults but it definitely transfers over to our students seven-fold!

I know we have already discussed digital citizenship in a prior blog post in this series but I believe communication is one of the most critical parts of being a good steward in the world of technology. I also believe that in today's society, we are losing our ability to have face to face conversations that are hard. (I'm preaching to myself here.) I hate conflict and would much rather broach a hard subject via email and then follow up face to face. Technology can make us lazy communicators and sadly it can also give us courage that we shouldn't always take advantage of.  

My husband makes fun of my girls and me because we will read a text and say, "Oh, she's mad!" He will then say, "How do you know? Did she tell you she was mad?" and my answer might be "Because she wrote in ALL CAPS" or "I can just tell." or "She used the angry face emoji." It drives him crazy. Communicating through technology often loses the nuances that face to face communication brings. That being said, to say we should strive to equip our students to be creative communicators is a vital skill for their future. There is not a single job I can think of in today's mainstream society that doesn't require the ability to communicate with others. So cheer up non-techie friends, even though you might not have the technology to support this, you will be aiding your students' ability to function in a face to face world even better if you make this standard a priority. 

• So what does a low tech or unplugged version of "creative communicator" look like? This year, one of our Bible teachers challenged his students to create memes after they finished the unit of the life of St. Paul. He told them to think of it like creating an Instagram post, but since social media is closed to students at our school, they created their posts using a slide deck. Their captions were full of written nuances that they gleaned from their studying. How brilliant was this lesson? He took a platform that students use every day and assessed their learning based on a current fad in society- memes. I love this idea! Did it have to be done on a slide deck? No. They could have done it with markers and papers just as easily. Or what if they had taken an actual photo and put the words right on top of it. Guys, that would be no different than app-smashing on an iPad (combining one or more platforms to create an original work).
• Remember oral reports? Hands sweaty, waiting for your name to be called so you can do your at least 3-minute speech on some topic. Sometimes you have a posterboard sitting next to you as a visual when you talk, sometimes you don't. Next time this opportunity arises in your classroom, stretch your students a bit. Tell them they have 3 minutes to be creative communicators instead of 3 minutes to give a book report. See what happens! Encourage them to build models, have visuals, and think about their intended audience. Open the door to increased connectivity and creativity. Give them a bigger audience than just you and their classmates. Ask in other classes, parents, or any visitor that would make the moment more special. Spend time beforehand teaching them skills of voice control, inflection, eye contact, and body language. You might not be teaching them digital skills but you sure will be teaching them the importance of being a creative communicator. Talk to them about what subject matters might benefit most from certain types of visuals. One day when they have the opportunity to use technology to enhance their already amazing communication skills, think about what they might do! Last week I had the honor of attending the Chattanooga Fab Institute and the keynote speaker for the first day was Shinjini Das, CEO and founder of Das Media Group (see her story here). Her charisma and ability to engage with the crowd is unique for a 27-year-old engineer. She has the face to face communication skills that don't necessarily fit with the stereotypical STEM field. She's a unicorn in her industry and we need to develop more unicorns in the STEM field. There is value in growing students that can not only DO but also SAY!
• Own it! Yeah, you the teacher. Your students may not have access to social media but you do. Find out your school district's stance on sharing student information/faces online and make sure you follow those guidelines. Then start using social media to show students when and how it can be a good platform for communication. Create a class blog and share the things happening in your classroom. Contact the author of a book with questions your students have curated while they read the author's book and send them to the author. Have your students create "how to" videos to relate to your curriculum and add to them yourself. Create a website using Google Sites templates and add poetry, photos, or well-written work. Seem like too much work? You don't have to retype everything they have turned in, take a photo and upload it! It is true, it does become a bit of extra work for you as a whole but you are modeling for your students how to be a creative communicator and adding value to the hard work they do in your classroom by showcasing to a broader audience. You are also showing your students how to add value to the digital world they live in. So much of digital citizenship focuses on a list of dangers and safeguards to be aware of but as a citizen, we also want to bring value to that world. Sharing learning and creating pathways for others to learn from our students does just that. 
• Be a trailblazer. Show students the value of communicating with new tools. Adopt the concept of using voice speakers in the classroom or for communicating with students and families. Create communication means meeting needs in effective ways. Why not choose the fastest growing platform since the iPhone to show students what it means to stay on the edge of learning? 

More ideas for no tech, low tech, and high tech teaching of this standard:

Check out the previous blog posts from the "Unpacking ISTE Standards for Students Techknowledge Gee" here:

• Standard #1 Empowered Learner

• Standard #2 Digital Citizen

• Standard #3 Knowledge Constructor

• Standard #4 Innovative Designer

• Standard #5 Computational Thinker

Teacher Tips for Canvas

As our upper school has started to robustly use the learning management system Canvas, I have a few tricks and tips that might be helpful on the educator side of things:

• Things to be aware of when creating digital quizzes (here is a video explanation of information below): 

• Options for shuffling answers. If you create multiple choice or true/false questions in a Canvas quiz, the correct answer will always default to the top answer (a) unless you do one of the following:
• When creating a question you can manually pull the arrow that points to the correct answer down in the question so that you are randomizing the answers yourself. OR....
• When setting up the quiz, choose the "shuffle answers" box so that the quiz itself with automatically shuffle the answers for you. The downside of this is that you can't use answers like "all the above" or "both B and C" because it may look different for your students. 
• Allowing for extended time on tests. If you are a teacher that sets an amount of time for a quiz or a time availability (a close time) when you assign a quiz that quiz will automatically be submitted when that time is up. If you want to allow students extended time for tests, don't use the availability but require an access code. This way once the class is over, the students can access the quiz afterwards as well. For this option I would suggest changing the access code after each class for integrity purposes.

• Using Calendar Events for non-graded assignments for students (here is a video explanation of information below). There is one way to add things to the students's calendars that does not impact grade book. (You can also create an assignment that is labeled "no submission" and it will allow you to put a grade in for it and will show up on your grade book. This might be a good choice for dressing out in P.E., or journal checks):
• Create an event. Choose to click on the calendar link on your blue vertical navigation toolbar. 
• In the top right corner of the calendar view click on the + to add an event.
• Title your event that lets your students know what the expectation will be. You can add more details by clicking on "more options."
• The event will default to being added to your personal calendar, so make sure you use the drop down box to choose the class you want to share the event to.
• Click submit. (The event will now show up on the students's calendar and "upcoming" list). 

• Deleting the MISSING label after something is turned it late (here is a video explanation of the information below). I feel like this is something Canvas should fix automatically but if a student turns in an assignment late and you put the grade in, you will need to:
• Click on the across arrow inside the assignment box for the student in question.
• When the sidebar pops up change the assignment to either "None" or "Late (blue)" based on your needs. This will remove the missing label in your grade book, the students view and the parent view. 
• It is helpful to look over your grade book occasionally to see if their are any pink boxes and whether they need to be fixed. 

• Moderating a quiz. There are times when students might need an additional attempt at a quiz (here is a video explanation of the information below). As a teacher, you can click on a quiz a student needs to access and then in the upper right corner clicking on "Moderate this quiz," then click on the pencil next to the student you want to moderate the quiz for. This allows you to:
• Give individual students multiple attempts at a quiz
• Give immediate access to individual students take a quiz without having to go through the process of reassigning the quiz to the student.

• Communicating with students inside of Canvas. Students are getting use to receiving information about their courses through Canvas. If you are in a situation where you need to communicate important information to your students quickly you have two options (here is a video explanation of the information below):
• You can create Announcements for your course that you can assign to all your classes or to individual classes. It could be useful if you were absent one day because you could actually delay when it is posted after creating it and allow your students to see it as they enter the classroom. You can also allow them to reply to an announcement if you need feedback before the next class meeting or ask them to "like" it to show that it has been read. To use announcements:
• Go to Settings in your class and move Announcements up for students to view.
• Click on Announcements
• Create the announcement and assign it to the class based on your needs.
• Using the inbox inside of Canvas allows you to send messages to whole classes, individuals or groups. This is a very quick way to get students use to going to one location to receive information from you instead of going outside of Canvas to check their emails. To send messages to your students:
• Click on the INBOX on your blue vertical navigational toolbar.
• In the middle top of the next page, click on the paper with the pencil icon.
• Create the message you want to send (you can even attach files or videos that you might want your students to be able to access) 
• Make sure you choose the correct course or people you desire to communicate with via Canvas email.
• Press send. 

Why an LMS? Why Canvas?

During the last school year our school announced that our upper school teachers would be required to use the learning management system (LMS) named Canvas in 3 significant ways forward:

1. All objective assessments would be delivered through the Canvas LMS
2. All students have the option to turn in papers digitally
3. All grades would be done through the Canvas grade book

With any change comes push back and fear. For us, all stakeholders have had to learn a new system- teachers, administrators, students and parents. Below are the benefits each group of our stakeholders can experience from using Canvas:

Benefits to Administrators: 

• Analytics- By creating expectations for students to take assessments using Canvas, we also have the ability to start to see patterns of each student's learning and possible gaps in mastery of concepts. While we are not a full fledged competency-based school in the way we teach, we now have a place where administrators can quickly have access to class averages on assignments and even dig deeper to see individual student results. 
• Compliance- In some ways using Canvas diminishes the silo effect that education can sometimes cause. When administrators can only get into a classroom for a few observations a year, Canvas allows admin to take a quick glance at assignments and quizzes to make sure all teachers are compliant to the goals and expectations put upon them for their curriculum.
• Scalability- We are in a school system where we have multiple educators teaching the same course to grade levels. By having those educators work together to create their Canvas-based curriculum it takes workload levels off everyone and allows systems to be in place regardless of the size of classes. Blended learning works well with Canvas. In our middle school math program we have been able to effectively increase class size by using this platform for students to navigate their daily needs. 
• Accountability- The realtime aspect of Canvas allows administrators to immediately see if lesson plans are both accurate and up to date for students with just a click of the mouse. 

Benefits to Teachers:

• Mobility and Accessibility- Students now have the ability to access their assignments easily as long as they have access to the internet. Being a 1:1 school with 100% at home connectivity (one of the upsides to living in Chattanooga, TN- home of the fastest internet in the country), this means our students now can access things without the excuses of "the dog ate my homework, I lost it, or I didn't know I had homework." 
• Deliver Content Instantly- Teachers now have the ability to deliver information to students instantly. Perhaps a classroom discussion spurs a teacher to remember an article they want to share. Utilizing an LMS allows the teacher to quickly upload it to the course for immediate and future reference. 
• Personalization- Canvas allows educators to assign things to individual students, give individual students multiple attempts to take a quiz, share different resources with different student groups, all without other students knowing that differentiation is taking place. This allows some students with IEPs to feel less self aware of their learning issues because others aren't aware that any accommodations are taking place. Have a student that can breeze through the curriculum? With mastery paths being utilized within Canvas, teachers can meet those needs by creating deeper learning or allowing those students to go further with their learning.   
• Multimedia Learning- The use of Canvas allows teachers to share videos, audio recordings, as well as continue robust face to face engagement with students that might be graded outside of a computer-based assessment. Sometimes students may not grasp a concept during a lecture but a teacher can upload a video of themselves or someone else teaching the concept and students can stop and start the video to make sure they have the concepts before moving on. 

Benefits to Parents:

• Transparent view- Parents have the ability to see exactly what their students are seeing by pairing with them. They can view the courses, the calendar due dates, and grades all from one location. In a world of constant connectivity, parents have the ability to know 100% what the expectations are for their child's classes because it is all listed in their Canvas courses. Nothing can be placed in a grade book without first being added as an assignment in Canvas.
• Click thru to assignments- Parents have the ability to see a grade or a "missing" label and then click directly through to the assignment to see the details. They can see everything their student can see, they just can't complete the assignment with their parent account. 
• Parent portal for accountability- Parents can set up to receive notifications regarding their child's account. If they choose to use the Canvas Parent App, they can have the app push them information straight to their phone about course grade levels, missing assignments, when a grade is above or below a threshold they deem important to know, and any announcements about a course. If they use the web browser access, they can set themselves up to receive emails for the same types of information in order to hold their children accountable in their learning process.

Benefits to Students:

• Single sign-on- One of the things we wanted to streamline for our students is giving the ability to go to one place and have fewer log-ins and passwords to remember for their educational process. Canvas allows our students to use their Google accounts for single sign-on capabilities. There are no longer multiple platforms and passwords to remember because all information and access goes through Canvas for our students. 
• Consistency- Students now know they can go to Canvas and click on "calendar" to see all the things due on any upcoming date that has already been assigned for any class they are taking. Students know that their "Upcoming" section represents a week glance. Students know that their "to do" list means things that they need to get done. Students now have one platform to go to see information shared by their teachers. While each class may look differently, based on how the teacher set their own courses up, the student experience remains significantly the same for access and turning in assignments. Now students aren't sharing a document  via Google Drive in one class but uploading to an LMS in another. Their experience and the expectations feel more the same from class to class. 
• Collaboration- Canvas allows for discussion boards and it connects with the school Google suites account for all students. This allows students to work together on a Google doc or slideshow, for instance by adding information or comments. Students also have the ability to participate in "peer grading" through the Canvas LMS platform. 
• Communication- Knowing that a teacher is communicating through one platform helps students to realize the importance of checking for communication more often. Canvas allows the students to expect all communication in one localized place- the place where they also see their assignments, turn in their assignments, and take assignments. 
• Immediate Content-  Canvas allows students to place their virtual hands on content quickly and efficiently based on teacher sharing. Students no longer have to go back to their locker to get a handout or call a friend because they lost the details of the homework assignment. Students can immediately access the content of their courses as long as they have access to the internet. 

With any digital plan, there are sometimes bandwidth issues, accessibility of device issues, quirks, and a learning curve for all users. It's not all benefits but as we are now a month into the school year, the benefits of this endeavor seem to quickly outweigh the detriments for our students. 

Educators as Learning Catalyst Analysts

Analyst- Educators understand and use data to drive their instruction and support students in achieving their learning goals. Educators:

• Provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and reflect on their learning using technology.
• Use technology to design and implement a variety of formative and summative assessments that accommodate learner needs, provide timely feedback to students and inform instruction. 
• Use assessment data to guide progress and communicate with students, parents and education stakeholders to build student self-direction. (ISTE Standards for Educators, 2016)

As a parent of two daughters that really struggle with test anxiety, I am thankful that technology can often create opportunities for alternative ways to assess. Having students create presentations of their learning allows for alternatives to the traditional formative and summative assessments of "test day." Creating rubrics can both guide students in understanding what they will be responsible for learning as well as creating an upfront knowledge of what will be assessed and how. As a sometimes Type A personality I have a daughter that truly does better on any paper or project if the parameters for expectations and evaluation are laid out clearly. Technology can aid in that.

One of the major efficiencies for technology in the classroom is in relation to digital assessments. Technology used for grading assessment gives faster feedback than ever before. Self-grading assessments, speed graders like in the Canvas LMS, and the ability to see all answers in one place allows educators the opportunity to truly use assessment data to guide their instruction not just to evaluate learning of the instruction.

Digital assessments create a series of data points that can readily be evaluated for individualized purposes. This can mean anything from competency based mastery path individualized learning plans to adjusting whole classroom instruction to best meet the classroom needs for the next day due to assessment results. Digital assessments allow for quick responses to all stakeholders- students, teachers, and parents. If it is in the form of formative assessments, it can show gaps or weaknesses that need more attention before a summative assessment takes place.

In today's world of adaptive software that adjusts to student learning, algorithms can serve the role of analyst for the educator while the educator spends more time in collaborator, designer, and facilitator  roles as learning catalysts described in the ISTE Standards for Educators.

The Beauty of Ownership and Belonging: Elementary Tech Teams

For this school year our fourth and fifth graders have the opportunity to participate in elective Fridays that change each quarter. Each fourth and fifth grade teacher and out of classroom educators then decided what elective they would like to lead based on their passions. Options included things like drumming, woodworking, crocheting, volleyball, and creative writing. These elective opportunities gave me the possibility of having an elementary tech team. You can look here to see what was taught weekly to the students and you can look here to see the end results that the students created this last quarter. The main point of this blog goes beyond the great resources the students made for our school community and it's more about how it made them feel in the process.

About halfway through this quarter I received an email from the Georgia Educational Technology Conference that included a submission link to be a part of the student showcase at the GaETC conference November 2-4th. Because this group of educators really seemed to be taking ownership of this new "tech team" concept, I chose to apply. Meanwhile, every single week our students were learning how to be technology troubleshooters and they were being empowered to be "go to" people in their classrooms.

How exciting it was to learn that our students were chosen from a competitive group of applicants to be one of the 24 groups to share in the student showcase! The pressure was on to create good resources to share at this conference. Every week, the students would earn a new badge (in the form of a sticker) to show they had completed the needed steps in the process of becoming a certified tech team member.

On the last Friday of the quarter all the students received a tech team t-shirt and their final "certified tech team member" badge/sticker. Then on Wednesday of the next week, 8 of the 13 students got on a bus at 6:45am to travel from Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA to "present." The student showcase is set up in the main hallway of the convention center and any educator can stop, ask questions, and learn about what the students are sharing.


Right before our day started I sat all 8 of my students down and said, "you can sit behind this table and be bored all day or you can go out and ask people if they want to know about your tech team and get this most out of this day." Our team became little salespeople, pulling people over to learn more...I mean, who can say "no" to a cute 4th/5th grader? I was so proud of them all. I only wish all 13 could have attended!

These students that chose to be a part of the tech team because that is what they are interested in, got to take part an educational technology conference and that was an amazing experience for them. They learned first hand the beauty of educational collaboration and communication to best meet student needs. They asked lots of questions about why teachers would choose to come to the event. There are times as an educator you try new things and you think "it was good but I should have done a) or b) or maybe c)." And occasionally you try new things and it leaves a happy little warm fuzzy in your heart because you see students rise to the occasion and grow in so many different ways. That was what the tech team did for me. I'm thankful for the joy it brought and I believe it will always be seen as a highlight of my educational career.

The Beauty of Students Using Mass Emailings

It's digital citizenship month and we tend to be focusing on protecting/preparing/preserving our students' identities from the "bad stuff." But this morning I had this moment that reminded me that students use the power of the Internet for GOOD a lot too.

One of my favorite chuckles when talking to my 16 year old this summer was when she said, "Mom, no one ever uses email anymore." Granted in her world of technology for communication, this is basically correct. She contacts her friends via snapchat, texting, Skype, and FaceTime. As a rule, teenagers don't use email to communicate with each other except when they need to get information to or from a teacher, etc. 

But this morning, my junior daughter that said that this summer was getting ready for school, her uniform was on and she was in my sock drawer looking for red socks. In our community, a neighboring school tragically had a death of an athlete while in the pool. Many schools in our area are showing their support for the family and friends of Sumner Smith by wearing red today (Baylor's school color). I asked her, "are you wearing red for Sumner?" and she said "yes." I said, "I didn't realize our school was doing that today." Her answer was, "I got an email from Hallie-Blair telling everyone to wear it." Hallie-Blair is a student in her grade. This got me thinking...There is also a member of her junior class that sends encouraging Bible verses/devotions out as well. 

We often give our students a bad rap for their inappropriate use of their digital environment but I am thankful for students that use it to change the culture around them for good as well. I'm sure there are other students that have done things like this that I am not aware of but how awesome is it that technology has allowed these nobel-minded students a path to touch the lives of those around them in a positive way in the midst of trial, crisis, or just weekly encouragement?

Think Star Trek: Next Generation- Technology as an Accelerator

I don't admit this often but there was a time in my life that I didn't miss an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation. Just for the record, before the judgments begin- I didn't have a Trekie costume nor did I ever go to a convention. This admiration is way before I had decided to be a teacher but the idea of holograph rooms, telaportation, and all the gadgets that went along with planet exploration kept my attention week after week. My "hay day" with being enamored with the show was circa early to mid 1990's. I think back to that time and see how real some of those innovative gadgets on that show really are today. For example:

• Augmented reality and holograph technology is here. It's being used in the classroom to pull students in, to give visuals that have never been available before in 3D/4D ability (for instance http://elements4d.daqri.com)
• Wearable technology is here; the weirdness level will become less weird and the price point will continue to drop. We will see more and more of the population, student and beyond, talking into the watch on their arm or blinking to see incoming emails, texts, or videos. Are we all going to be like "Data"?
• While telaportation for humans isn't here, with the use of Skype, Google Hangouts, and FaceTime we can communicate with each other in real-time meetings. With the very recent invent of Periscope and Meerkat we can also be a part of events anywhere in the world in real-time. It's not telaportation but it's getting there.

What does all this mean? Technology is an accelerator- in life and in the classroom. In twenty or so years since I watched Star Trek: Next Generation in an almost non-believable sense of futuristic nonsense, we are seeing those novelties come to fruition. For many of us, the greatest benefit of technology is that it allows us to get more done in a shorter amount of time- not in a lazy sense of "I don't have to work as hard" but in the sense of "I can focus on other things that I never could before" way.

Technology in an accelerator in terms of flipped learning. Students can watch videos and take pre-assessments as homework the night before a new unit and teachers can spend more time working one-on-one with the students in the midst of processing. This approach takes a day of instruction away because it is done at home and allows teachers to have more flexible time to meet curriculum needs.

Technology is an accelerator in terms of the amount and path of learning for our students. We give students topics for research and with a few key strokes they are on their way to discovering insurmountable amounts of information. They then start narrowing down their topic of choice and quickly curate all that information into usable data for the lesson at hand. What once meant going to the library, seeking the card catalog, perusing a few pages of several books, going back to the card catalog, and repeating now has been streamlined because of "one stop shopping" of research due to the Internet. Technology allows students to dig more efficiently. 

Technology is an accelerator in terms of assessment. Software and apps have intricate algorithms built into them that allows teachers to gather data quickly and often to assess student understanding. Teachers now have the ability to personalize learning more than ever before because of this capability.

Technology is an accelerator in terms of communication. In my entire k-12 experience I never once contacted one of my teachers to ask them a question outside of the school day. E-mail didn't exist, teachers didn't give out their home phone numbers, and the culture was different. Today, technology allows teachers, parents, and students to be in more constant contact (for better or worse) to meet the individual students needs in real-time (or at least in much sooner time) than ever before.

I found this quote on Twitter via Fishtree Education this morning and it inspired this blog: "Curriculum is the road, pedagogy is the driver, technology is the accelerator, passion is the gas, student learning is the destination." I like the overarching attitude about education indicated in this quote.

The Happy #TruthBombs of EdCamp GigCity

Yesterday, after weeks of preparation, EdCamp GigCity came and went. That sounded simple, didn't it? Ha! It was one of the most stressful days I've had in a long time and a completely roller coaster ride week but I want to share the powerful inspiration I saw from this exciting edCamp GigCity experience. I choose positive thinking.

• There is safety in cross-school collaboration. When you are in a room with other educators and transparency happens, it feels somewhat easier to share struggles and successes. I'm not sure why; Maybe it is pride in your "home school" about successes. Maybe it feels easier to share failures with outsiders because you realize all these other schools have them too. Sharing with educators in your building adds the fear of judgment, sharing with non-building educators doesn't leave that hanging over you- just a thought.
• There is beauty in corporate learning. Brainstorming, roundtable discussions where there is the ability to share and ask questions allows for maximum results of information. When I look at the shared notes folders that were set up for edcamp gigcity which can still be accessed at http://bit.ly/edcampgigcity  I realize just how much learning was going on yesterday. Before we broke up for sessions, questions were asked like "What's augmented reality? PBL? Flipped learning?" Things that I take for granted as an instructional technologist, but quite honestly those questions made me excited for the day- it meant some teachers were going to have their socks rocked off- and I'm fairly sure I'm not wrong. Which leads me to the next point...
• There is value in blowing someone's mind. It happens to me as well- I go to the ISTE conference and feel like I am in "information overload" mode but what happens is that after I self-curate all the amazing things I've learned I come out with a "nugget of wisdom" (or two) to implement. Sometimes conferences/edcamps/professional development days feel like learning through a fire hose, but the value is that within the overwhelming amount of intake usable information comes forth for future greatness.
• There is awesomeness in the fact that edCamps aren't Tech camps. I'll be honest, even though I repeated this 27 times, because I was pushing it, most teachers thought it was a tech conference at my school. I love edCamps because they are NOT tech camps, therefore the "techies" aren't the smartest people in every room. Everyone brings value to an edCamp because the path of learning is based on all those lovely little sticky notes that started the day- the ones where anyone in the room could say, "I wanna learn this!" edCamps tend to have many technology-based sessions due to the educators that tend to attend but it isn't locked into just that. I love this fact because it allows us to learn from everyone in attendance.
• There are outstanding educators choosing to better themselves on Saturdays. On. A. Saturday. Educators that worked all week dealing with the frustrations of "end of year personalities" choose to better their practice. They made the choice to be a part of learning ON. A. SATURDAY. Do you see the awesomeness of that statement? Yeah- 136ish educators that care enough about what they do to come to an unconference on. a. Saturday. Ok, ok...I may have gone to far with that point but what I am trying to say is that there are outstanding educators out there in our community and beyond. Everyday on the news we hear the negatives of schools in our area but I'm here to tell you that I met a ton of teachers and administrators yesterday that care about what they do and how they do it. They should be applauded.
• There is innovative dreaming for the future of education. I wrote a recent post about the value of innovation in education- yesterday I saw it firsthand. I saw teachers asking questions, leading discussions, weighing possibilities and thinking "what if..."- I totally, completely LOVE "what if" thinking educators. I was fairly busy doing behind the scenes stuff during the day but I did get to pop in and out of a few sessions. I myself have a "what if..." moment I hope to implement next year from listening to what the Sequatchie county school system is doing with a "student tech club." I can't wait to see what people had to say on their exit form to see what they got from the day as well.
• There are determined outstanding educators all around me. Wowsers. I loved listening to what was going on in the schools represented in those sessions. I was blown away by the intelligence in the rooms. We need to tap into this greatness. We need to visit each other and see what's happening. We need to grow these newfound relationships- after this weekend, our PLN (professional learning network) exploded. We don't need this to be the end, we need edCamp GigCity to be the jump off point for continued greatness and learning. We need to follow each other on Twitter and communicate via educational Twitter chats, we need to follow up with our home schools and make suggestions to those around us to connect with those we met. There is such great value in breaking down the silos of not only our own rooms but our own schools. One tweet I 100% agree with said, "Build collaborative culture not competitive - open the doors of learning from each other #edcampgigcity" -@hollowayreader. This is an opportunity for us- it is up to us to move forward with it. We talked summer "lunch and learn" networking opportunities that would continue to include private and public educators. This excites me.
• There are educational administrators that see the inspirational benefit of the edCamp model. I was thankful for the attendance and support of various administrators at this event. Educators that see their administrators value edcamps see the value themselves. Those are the type of principals/ administrators that see teachers willing to think outside the box because they feel safe to innovatively think. My "YES" moment of the day was when the assistant superintendent of Hamilton County schools tweeted  "Most significant edu discussion I've had in years #makerspace #edcampgigcity" -@RRSharpe. He's not even my administrator but to me this was an epiphany moment. He spent the day going from session to session, listening and learning. There was nothing he could really implement in the classroom but he was supporting the Hamilton County teachers there and listening to their hearts and minds. He got it.

I realize the experience may not have been what everyone was looking for but I woke up this morning tweeting the Chatt Tech Crew about things we could do to make the next one better. What a gloriously wonderful day of collaboration and learning that I now have in my educational toolbox for the future.

The 4 C's of Tech Implementation (Part 2 of 2)

                                                                (https://stocksnap.io)

I am a fan of alliteration, and this is part two of a series of posts. The first article was about "The 4 C's of Tech Integration" and can be found here: http://techhelpful.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-4-cs-of-technology-integration.html, in that article I discussed the fact that technology in the classroom can be used for "creation, consumption, curation, and connection."

In this article we will talk about "The 4 C's of Tech Implementation: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration." In other words, we will be looking at what can happen in the classroom when technology integration is implemented. I do not believe these things ONLY happen in a tech-rich environment, I am just sharing first hand with you what I have seen happen when technology is involved.

• Critical Thinking- Technology allows teachers and students to dig deeper than they ever have before. Less time has to be spent on facts because the students have the ability to research and CURATE facts quickly and easily. This allows the teacher to be able to ask deeper, "non-googleable" questions to spur more critical thinking. According to dictionary.com, critical thinking is "disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+thinking). By allowing students to use technology in the classroom, you open the door to leading them to find information, sift through it, and discern for themselves what they believe the "right" answer would be to any question we ask. We, as teachers, no longer have to be the only the authority in the classroom- the pressure is off. Our students are no longer limited to our view alone due to the enormous amount of information available to them on any given topic via the world wide web. This fact alone gives our students the ability to be critical thinkers more often because they always have to CURATE any information they CONSUME from the Internet.
• Communication- In the 80's, when I was in school, I would pass notes to my friends in the classroom when the teacher wasn't looking or between classes in the hallways. I think of that stack of notes I had folded in a box under my bed for years. Inside those notes were the latest grade-level gossip, the angst of a teen heart, plans for the weekend, and occasionally even things were discussed having to do with my education. Teens haven't changed, just the mode of communication has changed. Students now have the ability to be CONNECTED 24/7. While there are things about the ability for constant connection that infuriates me as a teacher, I can also see the benefits of it. Due to learning management systems, texting, and email, there is no reason students can't always be "in the know" about homework and lessons. We also now have the ability to communicate with ease with our students and parents more than ever before. It takes a village to raise a child- and the village no longer needs smoke signals to help a student be academically successful. We can CONNECT with each other easily thanks to modern day technology. I would love our school to have a goal to have all teachers at our school k-12 create a lesson plan online that would allow us to have one "snow day" that didn't count against us. In today's world, what a wonderful opportunity that would be, instead of making up days after that beloved day we've been striving towards all year as "the official start of summer."
• Creativity- Technology changes the dynamics in the way students can recall information back to their teacher. In the past, a three-holed punched booklet with yarn to tie it all together, a poster board, a diorama, a clay model, or a tri-fold display were among the ways students presented learned information to their classes. Now CREATION has more venues: slide presentations, graphic organizers, e-book creations, video presentations, whiteboard app creations, podcasts- all lend themselves to giving the student more options. Students love options in CREATION, and their audience can be the entire world now, not just the teacher of the 23 other kids in their classroom. As teachers, if we give our students a well written rubric, it doesn't matter how the student chooses to present. This freedom is good for the students but it also makes the grading of presentations less tedious for the teacher because every project isn't a cookie-cutter CREATION like the last. The implementation of technology in the classroom allows students to share their uniqueness more than ever before. They are only limited by their own inhibitions. Lately, students have seen the positives of "app-smashing" to create projects to wow their viewers. App smashing  is "the process of using multiple apps in conduction with one another to complete a final task or project" (http://www.techchef4u.com/ipad/thinglink-the-ultimate-app-smasher/).
• Collaboration- Unlike communication, collaboration is the act of working together to solve or learn. Technology takes the idea of group projects to the next level. No longer are projects confined to the four walls and time constraints of the school day, or even worse...a parents ability to get their student together on the weekend to "finish up that project." With the ability to constantly communicate using technology, students can much more easily work on projects together and hone their skills of becoming a "team player." With the invention of Google drive, students can all collaborate on a document in a shared folder anytime of the day or night. The ability to collaborate using Google Docs has also helped students learn to help each other. For example, students type their first draft of a report, share it with a friend in class, and their friend comments on it, suggests grammar corrections, and marks it up for revisions. This helps both students learn how to discern good writing and hurries the process of the writing assignment itself because the teacher no longer has 24 papers to look at, correct, and hand back. Step one makes for less revisions for the teacher to mark later. Some students are even taking notes in class together in a shared Google doc. What one student hears and adds to the document may have been missed by another, this allows each student the benefit of 3-4 sets of ears to record the "important" things in a lecture. 

By integrating technology in our classrooms, we are seeing an increased benefit of critical thinking skills being honed, communication being ongoing and more likely, creativity being maximized, and lastly, collaboration being able to take place like never before.