Blog Posts

Top Ten Technology Changes Over the Summer

9/10/2015

Welcome back! The beginning of any school year can be overwhelming. A lot of time is spent getting your classroom setup and preparing your lesson plans. It can also be a stressful time trying to catchup on all of the technology changes that have occurred over the summer. With this in mind I thought I would give you some help. Here are the top ten changes in educational technology over the summer. In no specific order...

Google Docs adds text to Speech - You can now use dictation within your Google Doc. Once in your Google Doc click on the Tools Tab>Voice Typing. A microphone icon will appear on the left hand side. Click and start dictating. Works great!
Updates to Google Classroom -

Students can now ask and have questions answered by classmates as well as the teacher
Teachers can now reuse posts from other classes, new or old
Teachers can now pin posts. A teacher can move any post to the top of their classroom announcement stream to make it a priority
You can now Whitelist a domain - If staff and students are in two different domains you can now use Classroom
You can now share url links to students via the ‘Share to Classroom’ Chrome extension
Calendar integration coming soon

Google Slides, Sheets and Docs added templates in their individual app pages (You cannot access these via Drive at this time)
Google Forms - Saw some graphic upgrades you can now customize colours, input images and upload backgrounds
Google Sheets - Quickly see charts and analysis created for you using the 'Explore' button in the bottom right corner of your Sheet(s)
Read & Write for Google have added voice notes for Google Docs. Word prediction is also now available in Google Forms and D2L (coming soon to Slides). Last spring saw the addition of French predication and dictation also added.
You may have noticed you are getting better battery life on your laptops, Chromebooks and Android devices? Wonder why? The latest version of Chrome now uses a lot less power as flash is intelligently paused when it is not needed.
Gmail officially launched 'undo send' as part of their standard gmail application (no longer in labs) you can now pull back emails 5,10,15 and 30 seconds after you send them.
Changes to Google Education Centre and certification process - Big changes came this spring/summer to the Google Education Centre and the certification process. Educators are now able to complete two levels of validation to show their understanding of Google tools. Google also rebranded their former ‘Google Education Trainer’ and ‘Google Certified Teachers’ to ‘Google Certified Trainer’ and ‘Google Certified Innovators’. For more information on these changes check out the Google Training Center website
Updates to Google Hangouts:

Hangouts on air used to be linked to your Youtube account and could only be started from within Youtube. To currently create a Hangout on Air it is now done within Google+ check out this Hangouts on air link
Google also created a singular Hangouts webpage. You can use this new page to manage all your various devices and chat options see hangouts.google.com

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It's Time for a Change!

5/27/2015

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I was recently on a long drive, where I had some time to think and reflect on the school year. One thing you may not know about me is I am never happy with the status quo. I am constantly trying to improve my practices to instill positive change with staff and students. As I continued winding through the country I started to reflect about how professional development is delivered and how in so many ways it doesn’t reach the needs. As fate would have it I came across a blog post from Tracy Clark @tracyclark08 called “10 Things Your Professional Learning Partner Should Want to Tell You” It really struck home!

Tracy outlines so well how I have been feeling. She talks about ten key points all professional development should have. Here is her list:

1. We want professional learning to look like what we hope to see in our classrooms.

2. We want to give educators voice and choice when it comes to their learning.

3. The details really do matter.

4. We want the administrators to stay and be a part of the learning.

5. We want to show this is more than theory

6. We would rather build capacity than dependence.

7. We want your honest opinion

8. We want learning to be about creation not consumption.

9. We want to play the long game when it comes to involvement and impact.

10. We want to try new things.

I strongly encourage you to take a look and read Tracy’s post. We need more educators and PD providers to understand these needs. After all it is your professional development and it has to be meaningful to you!

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It's Time We Reached All Students with Universal Design for Learning

4/7/2015

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I am often asked by educators for tips and techniques to support Universal Design for Learning (UDL). My first piece of advice is to throw away any pre-notions you have on how your students learn best. You don’t! Plain and simple! No one knows better than themselves how they learn. So ask! Don’t be afraid to engage in those discussions with your students. Find out what works for them and then come up with a plan. The most common mistake I see educators making is they tend to favour how they, as individuals, learn best. They take their prior learning experiences and try to instill them in their students. The problem with this is they often do not work. Sure, you may reach a few students, as they learn in a similar manner as you, but do you reach all of your students? UDL is about allowing all students to learn in the best possible way, it is not ‘a one size fitsall’ lesson.

So what is UDL? Let’s start with understanding what Universal means. Students have their own strengths, interests and weakness. In order to reach all students we need to understand these aspects to ensure learning can occur. Once we have a strong grasp of our students’ needs, we can then look at Design. This is where we develop our goals, lessons, materials and assessments with our students strengths, interests and weaknesses in mind.

Many educators often plan their lesson first and then try to come up with strategies to meet different learning styles. To me this is backwards. It is kind of like trying to fit a square into a circle… it can’t be done. Students’ learning styles need to be a forethought not an after thought. We need to be thinking of these styles while designing. There are three things we need to keep in mind (Methods, Materials and Assessments) Here are a couple of tips to think about when designing a lesson:

What do I want my students to learn/know/get out of the lesson/activity (curriculum expectation)?
What barriers will stop my students from learning (reading, writing, speaking)?
Does my lesson allow for engagement in a variety of ways? (offer options such as videos, hands-on activities, books, etc)
Does my lesson allow for multiple ways of showing knowledge and understanding? (slideshow, written report, diagram, etc)

To me, UDL is essential for all students to maximize their learning and growth. The reason we become educators is to reach all students not just a select few. So the next time you are designing a lesson or activity, think of all your students and ensure it truly is a universal design.

image from woodlywonderworks

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When is it too Young?

2/5/2015

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Over the past couple of months I have been continually asked a similar question, "At what age should we be starting students on computers?" This is a great question with a not so easy answer. I'll admit, I sometimes feel like a cop-out when I give my answer... "It depends". To me, there is no age set in stone. It truly does depend on the individual and the motive behind their usage. I think children should be exposed to electronic devices at an early age in school, as they need this knowledge and understanding to be successful in future years. Like it or not, technology is here to stay and we need to start developing basic skills early so scaffolding can take place to ensure student future success. But what are those "skills? Many of you probably think I am referring to abilities like; how to log in, keyboarding and mouse/track pad skills. While some of these may seem important, are they really necessary for our students? Sure they need to have some ability to turn devices on and get to the application they are using, but with the continuing changes and advancements in technology such as touch screens, wearables, voice commands, are those "basic skills" necessary or even relevant? To me, the real skills we need to spend more time developing are showing students how to use their devices effectively to create content and access knowledge that could not conceivably be completed without the technology. I hate when educators use the term digital natives. Students are not digital natives, sure they have grown up in a digital world. Sure they know how to turn a device on and play, but do they truly know how to use it? Do they know how to build content? Do they know how to access information and then apply it? In many cases the answer is no, they don't. This is why I refer to them as digital tourist. They can navigate the device and explore different apps and programs, surf the net, but they often lack the ability to find, learn and show their understanding with digital content. It is for these reasons I believe we need to start to develop skills at a young age. Students need to be given the chance to explore technology in a safe environment. They need exposure and guidance so they can use these tools effectively. They also need to understand the impact technology can have on them both positively and negatively. To me, all students need to understand what being a good digital citizen is and how it can impact them for the rest of their lives. I believe these conversations and skills are essential for our youth and we need to start the process at an early age.

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