Tag Archives: edtech

Sifting through the sea pt. 3: A few web 2.0 tools for the Humanities Classroom

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The snow day has allowed some time for me to get back to this blog and post about four useful tools we use with our American Studies students. In a world where edtech tools for science and math dominate, the beauty of these tools is their utility in the humanities classroom.

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1. Edublogs: After using WordPress last year, we made the switch to Edublogs this year because of the easy interface and ability to easily provide each student with their own blog that links to our blog. We use our blog  to post assignments, provide links, and also as a platform for students to publish their work. Although this is still a work in progress and we don’t feel we have mastered the use of blogging in our classroom,  we have had a much greater degree of success because of this tool. Students feel more ownership over the process, and we have found it far easier to assess individual blogs. I highly recommend taking at look at edublogs if you are looking for an easy to use platform for students, especially high school students. I have also created a blog for my ESL History students which you can locate here.

Image2. Peerwise:  Every year we have a sizable group of students who prepare to take the AP US History Exam out of our course, and we have found this tool invaluable. Peerwise:, created by Professors at the University of Aukland,  is a free tool that allows teachers to create classes where students create, answer, and discuss multiple choice questions. Taking a social media approach, students can rate questions, earn badges, and compete for slots on the leader board. This is the third year we have used Peerwise:, and we have had a tremendous amount of success using this tool because it enables students not only to practice multiple choice, but also provides for seamless review as each question must also have an explanation. It is also incredibly helpful for students to learn how to write multiple choice questions. While many schools are using Peerwise:, it is still quite easy to sign up for a school account and the people handling support are incredibly helpful and readily available.

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3: Prism– Although I did post on this tool last summer, I hadn’t really had time to play with it until this fall. Prism is a a tool that allows for the “crowdsourcing” of interpretation. You can create a Prism from any text and then provide three attributes for students to identify in the text.  Students provide an interpretation of the text by highlighting words to fit each of the attributes which contributes to the generation of two different visualizations one based on size and another one based on color coding. For example, this fall while reading the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass we worked on mastering and identifying different rhetorical devices. I created a Prism based on a significant passage and then allowed students to highlight which passages represented the different devices. Prism provides endless possibilities for use in the humanities classroom, and in fact one of the best exercises is for students to create their own Prisms and set their own attributes, and then share them with their peers.

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Video.notes allows students to take notes on youtube videos and save them directly to their google drive. In the age of the “flipped classroom” this tool provides students with the ability to take notes in real time and the notes are synced with the time of the film so it is easy for students to navigate. We use documentaries frequently in our class as a method of content delivery, and this tool allows us to view students notes not only as a mechanism for holding them accountable, but also as a way of assessing their note taking skills. Our ESL students have found this tool especially valuable as they are able to review significant moments from the films easily. Here is an example that I created to introduce our students to this tool in conjunction with our study of the Spanish American War using the film Crucible of Empire. I look forward to using Videonot.es during our Civil Rights unit when at home viewing of Eyes on the Prize provides our students with the majority of content.

The Revolution Continues: Edcamphome 2.0

Posted on by under 21st century learning, edcamp, Edtech, habits of lifelong learners, inspiration, resources for teachers

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Last July I attended the first Edcamphome , and today those same amazing organizers brought us back together along with some new folks for the second edcamphome. Armed with experience, Kelly, Shawn, David and Karl created an even richer experience for the participants who gathered to talk about everything from GAFE in the classroom to the Concept and Practice of Rebellion. The sessions were all published on youtube, and you should definitely check them out if you have the time (session 1 and session 2).

I’ve written before on the unconference format of edcamps and its virtues. Online edcamps like edcamphome or edcamp online take edcamp to a whole other level. Although there are obvious technical challenges to hosting synchronous google hangouts (challenges dealt with brilliantly  by our organizers), the ability to connect with teachers from across the nation and even the globe about shared concerns, challenges, and sources of inspiration is mindblowingly awesome. This edcamp experience was by far the most valuable one I have had to date mainly because I connected with teachers and began really vital conversations about questions that have long been on my mind. 

The session I was most excited to attend was one suggested by Peter Gow who posed a question that has been on my mind for as long as I’ve been an educator: What do independent and traditional public schools have to say to one another?”  Although the conversation only included independent school educators, we had a rich conversation about some of the challenges we face as connected independent school educators in terms of creating deeper connections both amongst ourselves and with our public school peers. Discussing the seeming dearth of independent school educators connected on twitter or attending events like Edcamp home with  Chris Thinnes, Chuck Maddox and Vicky Sedgwick was fantastic, and we began a conversation that I hope will continue via a new, yet to be determined hashtag and twitterchat.  We all left the session excited to meet up again and perhaps begin to bridge the divide both between independent school educators and public school educators, and address the gap that exists between connected independent school educators and those who aren’t yet. Talking with such passionate, experienced, indy school educators certainly made my day, and inspired me to get back to the work of this blog which I have been long absent from, and for which I am exceedingly grateful. 

The second session I attended was on the subject of rebellion, and although I did not have the chance to participate for the full session, I again left feeling inspired and energized by the fantastic educators who shared their time to talk about the role of rebellion in education. The greatest conclusion we came to when addressing the question, how do teachers become accepting of rebellion in the class was to pose rebellion as really just critical thinking in action. We want our classes to be places where students question and examine all sources, ideas, and assignments with a critical eye. Believing that education is the basis of informed citizenship, I left the chat thinking that actually what we meant by rebellion was really active participation. We want our students to actively participate in every aspect of our classes even if that means questioning our assignments or our ideas, and if we build a community that allows for this type of questioning then we have done a good part of our jobs. 

So again edcamphome was revolutionary. It was definitely a great way to wind up winter break.  I look forward to future edcamphome experiences and to maybe even using the experience as a platform to bring more independent school teachers into the fold. So again, we all want to change the world and edcamphome  has allowed us to find comrades with whom to take a few small steps in our own edurevolutions.  We are, afterall, always #bettertogether. 

For Further Reading: 

Peter Gow’s post on Edcamphome and the dialog we need

Markette Pierce on “Chillin’ with my edcamp Homies”

 

 

Podcasted: Podcasts for Professional Development and in the classroom

Posted on by under 21st century learning, amstuds, Edtech, habits of lifelong learners, podcasts, resources for teachers, social studies, web2.0, youtube

As a teacher and lifelong learner, I absolutely love podcasts. You can find limitless inspiration and terrific resources via the talks, videos, and conversations broadcast with teachers in mind. Rita Pierson’s Talk is one of my favorites and something I believe every teacher should watch. I subscribe to a bunch of really good ones including the ones at Teacher Cast and NPR Education and Ted Talks Education.

We also use podcasts in our American Studies Class as well for example: Studio 360’s American Icons episode on Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and The History Guys episode on the War of 1812. Most of our students love the podcasts although some of them have stated that they would prefer a reading as they have a hard time concentrating for long stretches of time and are afraid they are missing key points. I am  a huge fan of audio books as with 4 children it is often the only way to satisfy my appetite for books and keep up with our crazy, busy life, so I don’t necessarily understand how hard listening or viewing at home  is for some of our kids.

I think one of the problems is that they are often listening on their phones while simultaneously being bombarded by texts,notifications, phone calls and who knows what else.  We try to circumvent distraction by giving our students listening guides  and viewing guides so they have a purpose. Learning to watch and listen with a purpose is a vital academic and life skill, and one sometimes I fear we are losing as we become more and more screen driven.  This year we  will be using VideoNot.es when our kids are assigned videos to watch like episodes of Eyes on the Prize during our Civil Rights Unit. VideoNot.es is an incredible tool that allows you to take real time notes on videos from Youtube, Vimeo, Udacity, and Khan Academy that are automatically synchronized with the video and saved directly into your google drive.  Here is a terrific tutorial on how to use Videonot.es

Again as with everything on the web the resources and available material is overwhelming. In addition to the links above here are a few other great indexes and resources if you are looking for great podcasts:

For great resources from the New York Times including podcasts visit the education blog.

Edudemic’s 10 Best Podcasts for Teachers

TeachThought’s 51 Education Podcasts for the 21st Century Teacher

Discovering the Wonderful World of Wiki’s: Part 1

Posted on by under 21st century learning, humanities, inspiration, teaching, Uncategorized, Wikis

Wordle: WIki
I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but I haven’t until now delved into the world of Wikis. Sure like the rest of the internet using world I have used Wikipedia, and  I have also seen them used to a great deal of success by my PLN on twitter and have visited various Wikis that archive twitter chats, but I haven’t ever created a Wiki or used one in a class. That is all about to change and I am so grateful to Shelley Paul @lottascales and her 23 things class for pushing me in the Wiki Direction.

So for those of you who are new to Wiki’s like myself I thought I would chart my learning process. I began by viewing this video: Intro to Wikis and by exploring some great Wiki’s Shelley had selected for us. I really appreciated Thousand and One Flat World Tales where I found the stories written by Korean students incredibly insightful and informative given my ESL teaching experience with our wonderful Korean students. What I most liked about Wiki’s is the ability for many people to collaborate in real time and to create something together. I plan on using a Wiki with my ESL History students this year and may even start one to help students find resources for their research papers.

A few other interesting Wikis for those teaching Social Studies:
Resources for History Teachers is an award Winning wiki with boatloads of great resources. I found the APUSH resources especially good.

Cool Tools For Schools is another award winning Wiki that is incredibly well organized and links to tools students can use to collaborate, create presentations, film and edit movies, record podcasts, organize projects, and stay on top of homework.

So what is your favorite Wiki and how do you use them in your classes? Leave a comment to start a conversation!

Sifting Through The Sea pt. 2: More Edtech that Works

Posted on by under 21st century learning, Edtech, inspiration, Wikis

images-1Here are some free web 2.0 tools I’ve discovered or just gotten more proficient with because of our 23 things class.

1.Bubbl.us– is a cool concept mapping tool that allows you to brainstorm, visually outline ideas, and has some easy to use shortcuts that make the processes simple. I have used Inspiration with visual students in the past, but you have to pay, and bubbl.us is free. I will definitely turn my kids onto this tool especially when we begin the research project this fall.
2. Haiku Deck– A wonderful presentation creation app that is free and visually beautiful. I have seen some really terrific presentations from ISTE and on twitter. This is a tool I will definitely use this year and teach my students.
3. Timetoast- Since xtimeline no longer seems to work well, perhaps we will use timetoast this year instead. Although you cannot create collaborative timelines, students can create individual timelines and then put them on our class blog. The interface is really easy to use and I can see the utility of this tool for group and individual projects in the upcoming year.
4. Voicethread– A great tool that allows you to record voice comments to videos, pictures or documents. There are so many possibilities for this tool. You could use it to give feedback to students, have them give feedback to each other, or create a narrative for a picture or video. The possibilities are endless and this is the tool I am probably most exited about using this year. I think my ESL students will love using it to practice their spoken English and interact with each other. I think we may use it this year with our WPA poster project in American Studies.
5. Weebly– Our school has used Weebly in several classes, and this year we will go back to having students create a website based on an artifact from Special Collections at the University of Virginia. We did this two years ago and it went really well, but we had to rely on google sites and they just aren’t as slick as what students can create with Weebly. I am also going to have my ESL History students creating sites based on famous Supreme Court cases as a way to introduce them to the constitution and the Judicial Branch of government.

Great Places to Find More Tools:

Dirt– “This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively.  Whether you need software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, Digital Research Tools will help you find what you’re looking for. We provide a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools in which we not only describe the tool’s features, but also explore how it might be employed most effectively by researchers.”

Webtools4utouse Wiki – A great site with a terrific layout that provides you with great tools to do everything from screen casting to pod casting, web sharing, and curating. I will be spending a great deal of time exploring this site in the coming weeks.

Teaching in a 2.0 World: Why Tech Matters, but not as much as some would make us believe.

Posted on by under 21st century learning, amstuds, digital texts, Edtech, humanities, Uncategorized, web2.0

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I am currently taking an online class offered by k12learning20 based on the 23 things program to introduce teachers to different Web 2.0 resources. Although I am already fairly fluent in many of these tools, I am very much looking forward to expanding my skill base. Our Thing 3 assignment requires us to complete a blog post on the meaning of teaching in a Web 2.0 world which is fortuitous because the questions presented have been bouncing around in my brain for a while now. This post is just the first part of what I am thinking of as a series examining my experience teaching in a web 2.0 world and the continuing relevance of the traditional tools of teachers.

First of all, I believe in technology and I believe that every teacher has not only the opportunity, but more the obligation to become fluent in the latest tools of the trade. My teaching has improved as a result of the resources and ideas I have gotten from twitter chats, my experience at edcamprva, and other professional development opportunities. Our American Studies class is very techie, and so is pretty much every class I teach. We use a variety of web 2.0 tools and our students have benefited from our increased knowledge.

All that said, I have to say that I think we are overestimating the impact of web 2.0 tools. Sure they are great and readily available, many for free even, but a good tool will never replace a good teacher and too much of the language bouncing around the educational world seems to suggest otherwise. I also worry about how quickly the standby tools of the trade i.e. lecture or even the idea of the teacher as the expert are so quickly dismissed as  20th or 19th century ideas that are some how no longer relevant in today’s 21st century world.  I disagree. I think that every teacher has a toolbox of things they do well some are cutting edge and some are older than any of us. The goal of education especially in the humanities classroom is to teach students to think critically, develop a level of cultural literacy, and frankly be able to retell the stories/histories that make up our curriculum and give each story their own slant. Web 2.0 tools definitely can help with that process, but so can great lectures, in depth reading, and other tools that have been around centuries. Furthermore, I refuse to believe that we live in a world where knowledge no longer matters.

I also believe that we have an obligation to our students to be fluent in their world and their world is certainly increasingly a web 2.0 world full of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr to just name a few. We, as teachers and really as people sharing the world with the generation of digital natives, should also understand and be able to participate in this world.

So what is the meaning of web 2.0 in the world of education? My answer: The tools available to us in the Web 2.0 world are what we make of them. It is  a world we need to own and share with our students, but not rely on to the exclusivity of all the other tools in the box. I’ll be writing on much of this in more detail in the coming weeks.

Textbooks: The Value of Paper in an Increasingly Digital World

Posted on by under amstuds, digital texts, Edtech, humanities, reading, teaching literature, textbooks, texts

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Right now in American Studies we use both traditional books like The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volumes A-E, American Spirit Vol. 2,
Masur’s 1831 and Gordon Wood’s American Revolution. a mash up of historical texts that we post in unit folders on livebinder (Here is our first unit folder).

We are about 60/40 paper to digital right now and next year we are ditching the document book and will be more at a ratio of 50/50.  Yet, while we are teaching in a digital world and moving more towards digital texts, I thought it worthwhile to provide a synopsis of why paper books still hold value in an interdisciplinary American Studies classroom, even a tech based one like ours.

Because we teach a course that combines both history and culture, I have found that basically we have evolved to a philosophy where short assignments, traditional text book readings and documents are posted online while our lengthy assignments i.e. 20 pages or more are handled via paper. This is what has worked for us, and here are a few reasons why paper books have retained their value in our classroom:

1.Books are still better teaching when students how to read closely and discuss literature.   We mainly read the literature of the course i.e. As I Lay Dying, A Streetcar Named Desire,White Noise, the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Claude McKay to name a few, in anthologies.  We very much like using the anthologies as it is important to us that our students learn how to mark up texts and turn many pages. Yes, students can highlight, take notes, and underline on many digital platforms, but I have yet to see students  consistently do so when reading digitally as they do when reading lengthier assignments on paper. Their digital annotations are just not as meaningful or well done. For now, the technology is just not seamless enough, and it takes to much sustained effort.

2.For literature discussions it is quite helpful to actually be able to turn to the same page, and it has been problematic for our students who do read digitally to follow along and locate passages on the electronic versions.  Our students bring their own devices and so are reading many different versions of texts which can be confusing and pull energy away from our discussions. Furthermore, there is  evidence that students have a harder time recalling and placing information especially when reading longer assignments.

3. Many of our students and some of us teachers find it easier to read lengthy assignments on paper both in terms of our eyes and our ability to focus only on the text. Books do not have pop up chat windows or internet. Furthermore, books don’t run out of power. I think it is a valuable skill that we impart to kids when we ask them to focus on something that doesn’t run off of electricity.

4. Finally,  we enjoy seeing how much pride our students take in the vast amounts they have read. I know they would be reading the same amount on a device, but there is something about holding a 2000 page anthology and realizing that you’ve read over half of it that is incredibly gratifying and  lost by our digital readers.

So while we will become even more digital in the next year, and there are certainly many benefits to digital texts, for now at least, paper still holds value for us and our students.

Part II of Why I Love Twitter: Twitter Chats

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I’ve already written about my newfound love for twitter, and why I think it is the best free tool for teachers seeking professional development out there.   In the past two weeks, I have taken my engagement to the next level and participated in four twitter chats, two  #sschats, one #21stedchat, and one #engchat. A twitter chat for those who don’t know takes place at a set time and all participants use a hashtag to follow and continue the conversation. It is an amazing way to connect with educators from all over the world who come together to share resources, explore challenges, and ask questions.

The experience of following and engaging in a twitter chat is invigorating. I found myself constantly bookmarking, emailing links, and retweeting or favoriting resources and ideas from fellow participants.    #sschat is particularly lively and active, and I picked up many tips and resources for our American Studies course and about teaching in general.  Two weeks ago the topic was Evernote and Livebinder. I already use livebinder extensively and was able to both contribute tips for newbies and learn a great deal from educators far more proficient than I am. I already had Evernote on my ipad, but I had only experimented a bit with it. This chat really got me thinking about transitioning to Evernote, and for the past two weeks I have used it exclusively to create and archive lesson plans, keep track of handouts and readings, and manage my bookmarks. I’ll discuss the benefits of Evernote later in a post. Suffice it to say, I am now hooked and this chat has already had a significant impact on my teaching and given me a new mechanism to keep track of everything in my teaching and personal life. Pretty cool!

This week the topic of #sschat was Women’s History, and I again gained valuable resources and exchanged ideas with insightful and engaging educators.  I am sure the quality of different chats varies, but I am definitely hooked on the ones I have tried so far. I highly recommend trying a chat out or viewing the archives of past chats.

If you want to find out more about how to find chats to serve your purposes or for some guidance on how to use twitter and engage in twitter chats, please check out the board I made on Learn.ist where I compiled the best advice I could find and a directory of hashtags and twitter chats.

I hope you will try out a chat. I’d love to hear which ones you have found most valuable. Who knows maybe I’ll even see you there.

Why I love Twitter: The Best Professional Development Tool

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ImageI know that to some degree I am late to the Twitter game. Educators have been using twitter and creating hashtags like #sschat #edtech and #edchat for years. Yet, while I have had a twitter handle for two years, I mainly used it to read news and connect with friends, former students and family. I tweeted links to articles, pictures on instagram of my four munchkins, and other links I found interesting.

Yet, I was missing the proverbial boat. Twitter is an invaluable tool for educators as I discovered this fall when my students needed to create timelines and xtimeline was no longer functioning as it had in the past, and one of my colleagues advised me to tag my tweet with #sschat. I received many useful tips and alternative tools to use in our American Studies class.

Since that first tweet, my eyes have been opened to the endless possibilities and professional tips that educators on twitter provide every moment. Some of the greatest tech discoveries I’ve made have occurred via twitter. I heard about learn.ist, socrative, todaysmeet, and muraly all on twitter. I’ve gotten fantastic ideas and material from fellow teachers that I’ve incorporated into my lessons all from people I follow. Recently,@jeremyneely, an American history teacher from Missouri who I followed tweeted this picture of a Klan wedding from 1926 that went directly into a Prezi I was creating on the complex racial issues of the 1920’s.

I am lucky to work at a school that prioritizes professional development both by providing valuable inservice training and allowing us to pursue our own professional goals by attending conferences and taking classes, but twitter has been the best professional development I’ve experienced. So, if you aren’t on twitter yet or you are only using it sparingly, here is my advice. Get on twitter; Begin following master teachers like @DebMeier, @mikeherrity or @mseideman  and professional organizations like@Edudemic @ASCD, @21stCenturyTch,@CESNationaland @SHEG_Stanford. Figure out which #hashtags to follow and search for them.

In an age when our time is at a premium, twitter is one investment that I guarantee is worth it. It will inform, strengthen and deepen your appreciation of the world of teaching and provide you with invaluable connections and resources.  Feel free to follow me @Mamarobertson4. I’d love to continue the conversation and I promise to follow you back:)

Sifting through the Sea: Edtech that Works

Posted on by under amstuds, Edtech, web2.0

Listed below in absolutely no order of preference are web tools and applications we’ve used successfully in our class room this year.

1. Socrative– I’m pretty new to using this tool, but it has been a great addition. We’ve used it to get feedback from students about what they’ve learned from readings, lectures, and films. It has also helped us to make the  connections between the different lessons we teach during our double period class clearer to our students. The ability to give auto-graded quizzes which output into a spread sheet is a definite bonus. Students can use their phones, tablets or computers which is nice in a class where not everyone has a laptop.

2. WordPress– We created a class blog this year stabamstud.com. Students have posted information on their research paper sources, shared responses to the 2012 election, and we have also used it to share information with them. We will probably use it more next year when we plan to have students blog about all of their sources instead of handing in an annotated bibliography.

3. Livebinder– This site which allows you to create online binders to store and share material has been a godsend for us. Since I teach with a team, we have used this to share resources with each other and have shared binders with students. Here is a binder we created for our opening unit:http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/453144

4. Google Aps– As you can see from my post about using google docs to give students feedback about thier writing, we really value this platform. It makes it easy for our team to collaborate when making tests, creating lesson plans, and writing assignments. We have also used google forms to create surveys for our class and to get feedback via anonymous course evaluations.

5. Learnist– This resource was one of the best discoveries I’ve made recently on twitter.  It is much like Pinterest, but easier to navigate and with an audience that seems to involve mainly educators. It is so easy to make boards and there are already great resources on the site.  It is incredibly easy and user friendly. Here is one board I made for our upcoming unit on the Great Depression and this one on tech tools we use.

7. Prezi– Although I have to say I have not yet mastered the art of making great Prezi’s, this is a fantastic tool and one of my teammates is incredibly proficient. We have used Prezi for many different presentations and it is incredibly useful. I particularly like the ability to imbed all different kinds of media. There are also some great ready made prezis available through the search function. Here is one I am working on right now for the day we go back to school. I will be talking with the kids about the historical forces that set the stage for the Harlem Renaissance and some of the key artists/intellectuals involved. Here is one that I used when talking with students about First Wave Feminism

8. Mural.ly– This is another recent discovery. A bit like Prezi, I find it slightly easier to navigate. Like Prezi, it enables you to embed a variety of different types of media. Here is one we just started working on for the same unit on the 1930’s.

9. Dropbox– A great way to share and save documents. We also used shared folders to transfer material from one teacher to another.

10. Itunes U- We have used a variety of the resources both as ways to deliver content to our students either in class or for homework. We have also used some of the courses especially Berkley Professor Michael Cohen’s American Studies Course.