Redefining Podcasts for Students and Teachers

I don't listen to podcasts. I mean there are times I've even tried to be really intentional and make educational podcasts a priority but I came to the place where I realized that mode of learning just isn't my favorite. I would rather read a blog post, scroll through Twitter, watch a youtube video, or choose a book to learn new things. One reason I don't enjoy podcasts is that they seem to take so long! I'll be driving down the road listening and all of a sudden I realize I haven't really heard the last 10 minutes! I know for some people, podcasts are their "go to" because of ease of access and how you can listen while doing other things.

While at the Alexa Conference in January, I sat in on a panel discussion about podcasting and the VoiceFirst industry. The well-known podcasters were trying to navigate the space between the explosion of voice user interface and podcasting as they knew it. I remember sitting there listening and Steven Goldstein, CEO of Amplifi Media made this comment, "We have to stop trying to make our content fit into the voice realm and start rethinking what content should look like." BAZINGA! As an instructional technologist, I deal with this concept every day all day long. Teachers wanting a digital platform to work seamlessly for a mostly analog curriculum leads to frustration. Whenever new concepts enter the market, whether it be voice or a learning management system, we must step back and rethink our current models to see what this new platform brings that could make things better or at least different!

Having zero experience in creating podcasts or really even listening to them regularly, it became easier for me to reimagine podcasts using voice than some of the people sitting around me. I had no preconceived notions I was trying to apply. I liked the idea of creating a flash briefing using Alexa as a podcast for several reasons:

• It can't be more than 10 minutes. I realized that's my big beef with podcasts, how long they last often. Someone on the panel said that the average commute in the United States is 26 minutes. This platform seems to make the concept fit. 
• On-demand content by creating a flash briefing, listeners don't even need an intent word. They just enable the flash briefing and ask Alexa for their news or flash briefing daily.
• It seemed creator friendly. Even though I really had no knowledge of how podcasting works and the tools I would need, the process seemed easy to adapt to which means the potential for student creation exists.
• Potential for interactive entertainment/learning. I haven't figured out how to create interactivity with a flash briefing but voice user interface lends itself to this feature. This is on my radar. 
• Discoverability. The beauty of creating a flash briefing is that your skill has the potential for a global audience. Another thing that was an immediate plus for me was that if you name your skill something that reaches a broad audience, whenever someone searches for that in the regular Amazon store, you skill actually shows up as one of the options. 

I created my flash briefing skill "Voice in Education" last week with lots of fanfare. My plan is to create weekly updates that help educators integrate voice first technology into the classroom. This flash briefing podcast will include tips and thoughts on intentional use of a voice user interface for learning. While at this point my focus is mainly on Alexa, the opportunities are out there for all voice speakers. You can enable "Voice in Education" on your Alexa device and it becomes a flash briefing for you when you ask Alexa what your news or your flash briefing is. You don't even have to remember the name of the skill to invoke it! 

I already have purchased a better mic system and have been brainstorming potential weekly topics. I am excited to see how I can help other educators through my continuous learning on the subject. Follow the hashtag #voiceEDU and let's share ideas with each other for intentional utilization of this tool that's price point makes it a possible "must have" in future classrooms. 

When an Edutechie's mind won't shut down...

Can being a connected educator be a bad thing? Hear me out. Every year at this time of year I find myself in an edufunk. What's an edufunk? It's that moment when you realize that some of the goals you had for the school year are not going to come to fruition. It's when you feel like you have been swimming upstream and you are just weary. It happened last March for me and now again this year. So I find myself reflecting.

I consider myself a hard core connected educator- like if I did tattoos, it might claim that on my forearm. Just kidding, but you get my love for connection. Being a connected educator helps me grow professionally, vet ideas for the future, reflect and evolve to better myself. Just like with all information on the internet, the amount of good stuff I see happening in schools or new ideas I see is overwhelming at times. The upside for me is that I can share the things I learn about with MANY different teachers. I'm not trying new things on the same students over and over.

I believe there is value in the tried and true. Many of our students need consistency in learning because constant change throws them into a state of disruption. Some kids just don't like change. I have a daughter like that. I am someone that loves surprises and I thrive on change and the unexpected, she melts down. For a while (much longer than I would like to admit) I saw this as a limitation for her and tried to change her. I now realize it takes all types to make the world go round. I push for new/different opportunities and she thrives in sameness.

I think it is good for her to be pushed out of her comfort zone some, but it is also good for me to find the balance in routine. This is where I think some teachers are pushing the innovation envelope too far. We, as educators, should always be trying new things to better meet the needs of our students but we also need consistency to know what works and what doesn't.

There is such a great wealth of teaching ideas and strategies out there for us on social media but we have a responsibility to curate that information. Some educators "ooo" and "ahh" over every new idea they see. I think owning a few new concepts and ideas yearly is a better direction for innovation. What are your goals?

• Do you want your students to be more connected to the outside world? Perhaps blogging, mystery Skype, or contacting an author/skilled subject matter expert while teaching the skill of business letters and email etiquette would be a good thing to take on.
• Do you want your students to create ways to share their learning other than a test? Perhaps give your students opportunities to do a slide share, podcast, or video and grade them based on a rubric. 
• Do you want your students to learn how to do research on a subject matter and curate information? Try these search education plans https://www.google.com/intl/en-us/insidesearch/searcheducation/ or teach them how to use https://www.instagrok.com. Show them databases that your school has access to that will help them find quality information.
• Do you want more opportunities to consume reading and videos for learning? Try accessing OER options like www.ck12.org, khan academy, youtube, https://www.gutenberg.org and SAS Curriculum Pathways. 

Technology definitely can add some depth to your lessons but there is a need to be intentional in it's use. Pedagogy before technology best meets needs.

Introduction to Canva- a fast graphic arts option for educators!

Canva makes me look good! I love good visual graphics and believe they help draw readers in. I use canvas to support my weekly #ChattTechChat Twitter chat. I also sometimes use canvas to create graphics to go along with blog posts to support visually what I am discussing.

All the free options of Canva have allowed me to do anything I have wanted to do for quick graphic arts options. Its easy to use, allows you to be creative and adjust "canned options" to become your own. It could be used in a classroom setting for teachers to create graphics associated with units or lessons, it could allow teachers to create a "classroom logo" for correspondence as well. Students could use  Canva in app-smashing opportunities within slide presentations, Canva could be used for branding your school on social media. The possibilities for educational use are endless!

I do suggest going to the website using a laptop/desktop computer- I found trying to navigate the browser on a tablet device cumbersome. Overall, I believe Canva is a quick alternative to add a little umph to your communication!

(Click below to watch my introduction video to Canva)

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. 

The 4 C's of Technology Integration (Part 1 of 2)

If you google "Four C's of Technology Integration" you will get links to a myriad of "C-words" including: Creativity/Creation, Consumption, Curation, Connection, Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking. All of which are important elements of learning and can be enhanced with the use of technology. 

For the sake of this blog, I am going to focus more on what devices themselves can do, so my four C's include:

• Creation- Allowing students to use technology for creation purposes allows students to tap their creativity juices for presentations of knowledge learned. There are an unending number of ways this can be done via apps and websites (see this spreadsheet for some of my favorites https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mbeadniHaSTZDDGh2U5KhqH1KqHiOUdAro0JOyfWDBU/edit?usp=sharing). Opportunities for creation are only limited by the students inability to think creatively and any limitation you as a teacher place on your students. I am a fan of not limiting the students and allowing them to choose how they want to "present." A well written rubric allows a teacher to grade any content in any type of presentation fairly. I prefer one rubric for any presentation styles for a project but Kathy Schrock has a great list of rubrics here http://www.schrockguide.net/assessment-and-rubrics.html that you might find helpful when creating rubrics for yourself.
  
  

• Consumption- Allowing students to use technology to ascertain large amounts of knowledge gets a bum rap at times. When iPads first came out there was a large vocal group of people that said "all you can do on an iPad is consume" and they were developed for consumption but since their inception, app makers have changed and developed how we view devices. I think the educational community has felt the need to stand up for the iPad so much that many have stopped seeing the value of the use of technology for consumption.
  
  I love the fact that I can read on a device because it is always with me. It is my choice of consumption much of the time, but not always. I also find great value daily of watching Youtube videos to learn more as well. There is great value to me as a teacher and an individual to always have access to information. I even CHOOSE to sometimes read on my iPhone and even create there! There is data out there that says students don't learn as well using a device to read but also some very recent reports that say that isn't always the case. As screen displays continue to improve, I think we will see more and more schools choosing to use e-books and assign work electronically to model to their students the green behavior of a "paper free" classroom. This is a great article that weighs the pros and cons of pixel vs paper (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/)
  
  
• Curation- According to Beth Kanter, "Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme." (http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/). While Google does this based on factors we may or may not agree with within a simple search, true curation using a device is driven by a person through research. Teaching our students how to sift through all the topical information available to them on the world wide web is a valuable tool. We are at a place where it is harder to ascertain good sources from bad. We are also at a place where it is unclear whose job it actually is to teach a student how to do good web-based research. How does your school teach your students and teachers how to curate? Does your school force students to use educational databases for their research? Do you teach them how to curate using Google? Do you just accept anything as long as it is cited correctly? This is the area I feel I have a lot of room for growth in.
  
  
• Connection- One big advantage to technology is that it allows the teacher not to be the only authority in the classroom anymore. So many teachers are connecting with other teachers, writers, authority figures, and leaders for their students to learn more about the topics addressed in their lesson plans. Whether through FaceTime, hangouts, Skype, e-mail, or Twitter posts, teachers are contacting others to knock down the 4 walls of their classrooms and allow students to see beyond their current worlds. Last year I worked with a sixth grade Eastern Civilization social studies teacher while her students were studying the Philippines. We Skyped with a friend of mine that is a teacher and Philippine nationalist. The students loved it! Another valuable tool is allowing students to connect to each other through collaboration. We see shared notes, allowing students to proofread each other's writing, and group projects taking connectivity to a new level that can only be achieved through the use of technology because of the immediate feedback Google drive allows. 

So this question begs answering..Are you using all the 4 C's of technology integration in your classroom? Do you see the value of all four? Just like we don't want to limit our student's learning, why limit the tools we place in their hands? We have to be careful in finding the balance of the 4 C's that best meets the needs of our students. We have to be careful not to allow technology to become a babysitter; but when used appropriately as an enhancement to learning, technology offers things to our classroom that have never been available to the teaching profession in the past. I find that exciting because I think we are more likely to teach our students to be lifelong learners now more than ever before, partly because access to information and a constant audience is just so ding dang easy now.

My Part Two of this topic will be a future blog discussing the 4 C's  that can be enhance with the use of technology in the classroom:

• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Communication
• Collaboration