Back To Basics: Device Tips For #BackToSchool

When I was a Director of Instructional Technology it was always a fun day when we could deliver brand new devices to a school. The students and teachers were always excited and ready for the new possibilities ahead.

Then after a few weeks frustration would set it. Students would loose work, teachers had to spend hours trying to figure out which document belonged to whom and we’d see lots of devices in the shop for repair.

The focus on our instructional technology team was on the “stuff” kids could create when we should have started our conversations on the obvious.

Creating cool stuff is great but there has to be basic foundational skills first.

Norms are important when it comes to using technology. (Of course technology allows us to do things truly transformational and we will deviate from the documented ways tools are to be used.) We might believe that students are “digital natives” when in reality they are trying to figure this stuff out just like the adults in the room are. The difference is our approach and mindset. That said, having a basic set of norms in place across classrooms will be important to any successful technology device use.

Digital Citizenship-If there isn’t a long standing conversation and fully-integrated approach to digital citizenship then the validity of any technology implementation has to be called into question. Full stop. Simply teaching one lesson at the beginning of the school year or having students sign some meaningless “acceptable use policy” isn’t enough. There has to be a constant and ongoing conversation about all aspects of digital citizenship.

Digital citizenship is more than just making sure kids don’t cyberbully or know how to spot fake news. There are actually 9 parts to digital citizenship and we don’t take enough time to talk about any of them. Items like health and wellness, actually taking a break from technology. Or raising questions around access and equity so all understand. These are just as important as protecting our personal information and etiquette.

CommonSense Education has an amazing K12 Digital Citizenship curriculum that is free and easy to implement. Lessons cover every aspect of digital citizenship and are designed for every classroom throughout the year.

Naming Conventions-This one bit me and my students more than once. With the advent of Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom and other digital platforms it is much easier for students to turn in work electronically. Mine and my students problem was probably one faced by many educators. Because most adults have been using technology for a while now we have developed our own methods of naming files. The problem is many students haven’t developed that skill. (Heck, even getting them to put a name on their paper is still a problem!)

Having a consistent naming convention will not only save you time and energy but will also teach students the same. This works best when you talk about it as a school or a team. Talk about the various assignments and projects you will have students turn in throughout the year. Come up with a constant naming convention that is consistent for all teachers and students. Starting with the date an assignment is due is a visual reminder to the student and the teacher what the assignment is. Include the first initial/last name of the student, assignment short name and the class name and period number. If I am submitting my plant identification notes to my 3rd period biology class that is due on September 1, 2018 I would name it “090118_SAnderson_PlantID_Bio3.” Yours doesn’t have to be exactly like this but work as an instructional team to find what works for you. This saves you from having 30 files all called “Doc1” and also helps with revisions as well.

Folders and General Organization-Following along with consistent naming conventions, teaching students good digital organization skills will be something students (and the adults too) will look back upon and be grateful for. Many digital drives like Google Drive and OneDrive have powerful built in search features that allow you to find what you are looking for if it gets lost. However, if we organize things from the very beginning we don’t have to rely on the search at all. Have students create folders for each class and for each assignment. Use your naming convention strategy to keep things consistent.

Organization goes beyond folders and files. Students need strong curation skills as well to make sure that the other digital information they find can be retrieved. Helping them understand how and having a program like OneNote, Pocket or Diigo to tag and organize sites, articles, and visualizations can save all of us from a lot of frustration.

Saving And Backing Up-Good or bad, saving documents or files has become almost a non event. If we are using Word Online or Google Docs the files are save automatically and everything syncs everywhere automatically. But reminding students that saving regularly should be a part of their workflow is important.

Setting up for offline access can also be a great way to allow students to keep working without having to rely on internet access. If you allow students to take devices home find out how to set-up files and folders for offline access. I was recently in a district talking to some high school students who were taught from early on to sync all their files in their digital notebooks locally to their laptop at the end of every period so that they could keep working no matter where they were. When they got back to school the next day everything synced automatically and went back into the cloud.

Whatever method you use students (and the adults too) should be saving and regularly backing up their work. It’s just a good digital practice to have.

Permissions-With a lot of the creative work that we will have students do using their devices having the appropriate permissions will be key. Students may need access to the camera, mic, USB or other ports. Be on the lookout for those pop up messages. On iPads and Chromebooks they are pretty easy to spot but it can be tricky. Find out the process with your devices to ensure those permissions are set-up for what you need before you need them. Keep in mind if your devices are centrally managed you may have to talk to your technology team.

Care and Maintenance-Lastly, devices are a generally a large investment by any school or district. Therefore making them last, problem-free, should be a constant reminder. And these are good habits to form now rather than dealing with an issue in the future.

Sometimes we expect kids to respect the technology we give them but they need to reminded. Keeping liquids away, not throwing them or just tossing them in a bookbag, keeping the keys on the keyboard, keeping them charged, anything you’ve seen or experienced yourself make for great talking points. Have students brainstorm a list of care and maintenance tips and help them take ownership of their devices.

Embracing Formative Assessments This School Year

For me, the beginning of the school year was the best time of year. I always enjoyed getting back into my classroom, setting things up and getting pumped for the journey ahead with my students. The beginning of the year was a good reset. I could reflect back on the previous year, examine what I had learned over the summer and plan for a better year coming up.

One area of improvement still to this day I wish I could go back and improve even more was assessment. Mainly, embracing formative assessment.

In my first year of teaching I taught the way I was taught to teach. Delivering content to my students, assess at the end, remediate if necessary. With that cycle, I always had kids who were behind, who never seemed like they could catch up.

I was talking with a teacher friend the summer after my first year and she suggested something simple. Put a large piece of paper next to the door. Give every student a pack of sticky notes. On the way out the door they could put their thoughts about what they didn't quite get or what they were still having trouble with. They could leave their name or not. Either way it gave valuable insight to how the students were learning but also could help shape the lesson for the next day.

What a difference that made.

The following school years that board became an important place for myself and my students. It provided them a way to tell me what they needed and a place for me to reflect on my teaching and give my students what they needed.

Now, as 1:1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are taking over our schools, it's becoming even easier to formatively assess what our students know and for our students to leave feedback as to what they need because of this ready access to technology. However, look at my former classroom. I was able to embrace formative assessment without the need for any devices. The technology certainly helps but isn't always necessary.

Here are a few of my favorite sites and apps that can help you more easily fit formative assessment into your classroom this school year.

Online Sticky Notes- Just like the physical space in my classroom there are lots of virtual sticky note sites out there. Two of my favorites are Padlet and Lino. These provide a virtual corkboard for students to leave notes or questions or comments on their learning. Both sites are easy to set up and free. Best part, kids don't have to have an account to leave a note and they can do it any time, anywhere. All they need is the address. (So you don't even have to be a 1:1 classroom or BYOD. The kids could do them from home.)

Backchannels- Hugely popular at conferences and other educational gatherings the backchannel provides a way for participants to share in conversation while participating in learning. In the classroom they can be a way for kids to collaborate without shouting across the room. In terms of formative assessments, questions at various points through the lesson could be posted there and kids could respond. My favorite backchannel service is TodaysMeet. Again, simple to set up (all you need is a room name and to decide how long you want the room to be open). Free as well, it's available any time, anywhere.

Plickers- A tech tool for the non-tech classroom students merely need to hold up a card with a QR code on it. Using the free Plickers app, teachers then scan the room. The app reads the QR codes. The way the student is holding the card corresponds to an answer choice or letter or whatever you want that end to represent. Once the teacher scans the room you can see instantly who answered what and respond accordingly. It's a quick and easy way to use the power of technology to formatively assess without all students needing the technology.

Kahoot- Kids love friendly competition. And Kahoot is a formative assessment tool cleverly disguised as a game. Simply enter questions into an easy to use template and then students, either as individuals or as teams can see who can gather the most points by answering the questions as fast as they can. For the teacher there are dashboards that show who answered what and that, along with the instant feedback when the questioned is answered can be a great way to introduce and use formative assessment.

Poll Everywhere- This is another one of my favorites, simply because of the variety of uses and methods of submitting responses. Similar to the others, the teacher can create a simple feedback poll or leave the question open ended. The students can respond via text message, website or even Twitter. Again, the point here is we can capture the feedback from the students using a variety of methods, almost instantly. Another great feature of Poll Everywhere is the data analysis you get. You can export results to create more ways of analyzing data. (Like if the questions are open ended, you could export the results to put them into a Wordle to see what terms are showing up the most.)

Socrative- This one is quickly become a go-to app for formative assessments for educators everywhere. The teacher creates an account and a room (for, you guessed it, free). Then the students go to the site (either through the app or through a browser), enter the room number and they see a question or a open response question to answer. I like this one a lot because of the variety of choices for questions to answer. One is even called Exit Ticket where kids can quickly summarize what they learned and tell you what they need for tomorrow.

Quick and easy, six tools you can use this school year in your classroom to help improve formative assessment.

These certainly aren't all. What are some of your favorite sites or apps to help with formative assessment in your classroom? Do you have a suggestion about formative assessments? Leave some feedback below.

photo credit: GettyImages-Examen via photopin (license)

Setting The Stage For A Great School Year

Back when I was in the classroom this was the most exciting time of the year for me. I always enjoyed heading back to school more than any other time. Getting back in my classroom and getting things set back up, buying new supplies and planning for all the great things I learned over the summer were just some of things that excited me. I couldn’t wait for kids to get back in school and for learning to start again.

While back to school can be a fun time it can also be a challenge. It should be a time where we set the stage for a great year. However, there is always so much going on and so many things to do it’s easy to get bogged down in the weeds of endless meetings, paperwork and lesson planning.

There are many things you can do to help yourself and your kids at the start of school to have a great year. Here are just a few.

Get Connected-One of the most important ways an educator can grow and learn is to get connected. Reading blogs, contributing to an online community or checking out a Twitter Chat are all ways that you can hear about the good things that are happening in other classrooms/schools and learn from others. These places can also serve as a virtual sounding board when you run into a problem or need a solution. Coming up in October is Connected Educator Month so there are many opportunities to learn how to be a connected educator including book studies and free webinars. And speaking of books (shameless plug) you can check out my book, The Relevant Educator: How Connectedness Empowers Learning that can help guide your connected learning.

Create A Virtual Classroom-My school website was the way that I let the world know what we were learning in our classroom. I could post notes from class, any files students needed, use the calendar to post homework and curate a list of resources for students to use outside of class. It’s important today to create a virtual space for your classroom. Some districts provide a website for educators to do this, while others allow them to create their own. There are a wide variety of products out there (like Edmodo or Schoology) to do this so spend some time finding one that suits your needs. You’ll also want to examine how you can extend conversations from your classroom to the virtual spaces as well. Taking your classroom into the cloud allows you to create a private space to post questions, comments, blogs and more. These online spaces allow learning to happen not just in the schoolhouse but after hours as well.

Set Goals And Reflect Often-As an educator it’s important to reflect on the previous years, the high points and the low points. Use those reflections to build personal and professional goals for the new year. Maybe you want to learn a new technology skill or challenge yourself to grade differently. Whatever your goals, make them actionable and reachable. Students can do the same. Set aside time to have students create learning and personal goals they want to accomplish throughout the year. Develop a plan to check in regularly and report back. Using something like Google Docs or Forms makes collecting and sharing those goals easy. Or if you want to take it to the next level, using Recap, students can record those goals through video as part of a larger portfolio to keep track of their learning all year.

Add Something New To Your Technology Toolkit-Odds are over the summer you learned about something new to try in your classroom. The beginning of the year can actually be a great time to think about new ways to integrate technology into learning. One of the tools I learned about this summer is EdTech Software. This is a textbook ebook solution for the classroom. If you use any kind of adopted textbook the EdTech Software can organize all those companion ebooks into a shelf for students so they can access them easily. But it’s much more than that. We know many textbooks aren’t all that flexible. With Shelfit you can supplement with videos, links and other resources to extend the ability of that static textbook and provide a customized learning experience for students. You can check out what it can do here and sign up for a free trial.

Establish Relationships-Getting to know my students was the first thing I did every year I taught. There was always that pressure to get started with the content but I found that if I made connections with my students, I could more easily teach them. I understood who they were, their passions, and their interests. Take the first few days to learn who your students are. The time taken will pay off in the end. And keep those relationships going. Schedule time to talk with students 1-on-1 as often as you can. Even a simple conversation in the morning or in the hall can prove to be beneficial.

Remember, this really is an exciting time of year. Take time to enjoy it!

What are your favorite ways to get ready for a new school year? Leave some thoughts below. 

photo credit: Homeschool Supplies via photopin (license)

Back To School Follow Up-How Do You Have A Great Start To The Year?

Last week I asked what you do to have a great start to the year. The results are pretty cool. Loads of great ideas you can take into your first couple of days with your kids.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Take the time to smell the roses! Listen - really - listen to the kids and enjoy the moment of the first few days. There will be plenty of time to catch up after the first few days. Get to know the kids, the staff, and parents. You can't turn back time no matter how we try. 
• "I teach middle school math to grade six students who are at our school for the first time since we're a 6-8 school. They love to know about their teachers, but also love to tell about themselves. The quicker I KNOW them as individuals, the better. I always take photos of them the first day which I use to learn names as quickly as I can.
• Don't dwell on what has been, always keep forward and never regret anything, life goes on and on :)
• Have students fill out a "getting to know you" questionnaire that includes their hobbies, interests, activities, favorites, etc.  It give you a way to get to know your students and make connections with things outside the classroom. 
• "Begin with a poem such as George Ella Lyon's, ""Where I'm From"" to invite students to begin creating a community of readers and writers. Write your own ""Where I'm From"" poem, and ask students to write theirs as well. This idea comes from Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them.
  www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html"
• Get enough sleep so you can laugh with your students
• Don't be afraid to ask your PLN for assistance and collaborate with your students as you develop a classroom syllabus and/or policy.
• Find out what makes each student tick by asking them. Find out what do they want to learn. Assess for reinforcement desires, learning styles, interests, and share the same about me. Do team building games. Discuss the standards for each subject and let students vote on what they want to learn first. 
• Have high expectations for the new year, bur remember that flexibility is essential.  Oh, and lots of chocolate in your drawer!

Those are just a few of the over 100 suggestions. What I found really interesting (and really great) was that many involved writing. And that writing was about self-reflection. Most of you know I am big on reflecting, both publicly and privately. Having kids write the first day allows them to do both. The key is keep that reflection up through out the year. Take time every so often and have kids just write about their progress or how they are doing. Even better, do it on a class blog or an individual blog. Make it public and allow anyone to comment.

Here is the rest of the list.



Did you see something that piqued your interest or something not on the list that you do? Add it to the comments below.

Here's to a wonderful start to the school year!

5 Sites To Explore This School Year

In my neck of the woods schools have already started or will be starting soon. As we are going back and thinking of new tools to try or sites to explore I wanted to give you a few ideas of each that you may find have a place in your classroom this year. These are quick and easy ways to do something fun and use a little technology along the way.

Wallwisher
Think of Wallwisher like a corkboard and push pins. Basically you go in, choose a title, background color and custom URL and you are set up. You then give users the URL and they post digital stickies on the board. The catch is they only have 140 characters (like Twitter) but they can include links to other sites, sounds and videos. I have seen these used tons of way to collect information on what kids did over the summer to a ticket out the door where kids summarize what they learned or what questions they still have. This would be great for spelling words. Instead of having kids write out sentences that no one will see have them do it on the Wallwisher and share their learning. Mark Warner, creator of the Ideas To Inspire Website has created a slideshow showing all the ways educators are using Wallwisher.


What ideas can you think of?


Google Squared
I have written about Google Squared in the past but it is still one of those search tools that has yet to catch on. Great for research, put in any type of search term that might be part of a list. Baseball Parks, Presidents, Countries in Southeast Asia. You are presented with a table of information based on what you searched for. Below you can see an image of a search for planets. You can add columns of information or take columns away. Google Squared is a great, easy and fast way to compare items from the same general list. Think of it as a starting off point for good research.

It is easy to see how you could use this in science or social studies but what about an English or math class?

Diigo
This is another tool that think every educator (and student) should be using. Think of all those bookmarks or favorites that you have. They live on your machine. If you save in Diigo you can take those saves anywhere. And you can organize them with tags (keywords), highlight and make notes on webpages that you can share with other teachers and students. And you can create accounts for your kids and they don't have to have email addresses. One of my favorite things to do is explore the many groups that are there to find new and interesting sites and articles for my teachers.

Here is a video that describes a little more of what Diigo can do.




Glogster
Gone are the days of collecting old magazines from doctors offices and your grandmothers Good Housekeeping. The poster has gone digital. Thing of Glogster as just that, a digital poster. Instead of cutting out pictures from those magazines kids can get images from the web, video, record their own audio, to create a truly living document. Easy to use and easy to set up Glogster is a great way to get kids excited to show what they have learned.



Accounts are free for educators but there is a premium education account that you can pay for which gives you more options. How do you think you could use Glogster this year?

Creative Commons
One of the issues that seems to be forgotten by many educators is the issue of copyright. I think it has more to do with lack of understand than anything else. I often seen kids go on to Google Images or other similar sites and just copy images or use music in their projects that they did not create and do not cite. Even when they do cite it they may not have permission to use it. That is why I tell educators to use Creative Commons. By used the search engine at CC you can search all the CC images that people have posted on several different websites. It will also search audio and video files. Many of the file types you find you can remix and build upon, all depending on the licence.

The CC site is also good to learn about licensing your (and your student's) work so that others can use it and build upon it. After all, learning is sharing!

So those are the 5 sites I am going to share with my staff as we start the year. What will you share? Leave some comments below.

How Educators Connect With Kids On The First Days Of School

Last week I asked for your ideas on how you make connections with kids on the first days of school. I am overwhelmed by the response. With right at 80 ideas there is surely something here for everyone, or at least a new idea to try.

I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites:

• On day 1, I introduce my new gr. 7 students to their Google Docs account, along with the help of the my gr. 8 students who used it last year. All students fill out Google Forms  (What are your interests?  Learning Styles, Class wiki scavenger hunt). By the end of the day, we all know a lot more about each other and they are comfortable with Google Docs.
• I teach third grade and I am going to use backchanneling with them on the first day using TodaysMeet.  I am hoping that the students will connect with each other and not feel intimidated by some students that are more outgoing.
• On the first day we play the name game, going throughout the room telling each student's name and something cool about them.  They get to pick the style of voice.  The next student has to repeat everyone before them then their own name and something cool until we get through the whole room.  I have to bat cleanup and repeat everyone.  We also get right into the computer lab to make Wordles for each student to use as a locker poster.
• I plan to do an activity where we make paper airplanes individually - no help, all quiet, fly them, then do it again only this time with help from whoever and fly them again.  Then discuss that the difference and how they learned the second time. I have done this activity a couple of times and it usually works pretty well.
• I take digital photographs of all the kids and we create a get-to-know you presentation that runs during the first couple of weeks as a journal prompt.  We continue to add to it throughout the year.  They love it! So do the parents by the way :)

You can view the rest of the responses here and I have them below also.



Did someone leave out something? Do you have an idea to share? Leave it in the comments below.

Have a wonderful start to the school year!

Back To School-The 23 Things Project

Over the past few days I have been writing about ways to get your year started off right. I gave some resources on introducing your school or district to social media. I also gave some advice to school leaders and administrators as we move education into a more digital age. Today I want to introduce a Professional Development opportunity that I have been working on over the summer.

Schools and districts are having to become more creative when it comes to professional development. With tightening budgets and staff reductions we all have to find to do more with less. Even though we are having to make cuts we still need to do what we can to introduce technology to our classrooms and students.

My goal is to infect every classroom, around the world with technology. But I can't be everywhere at once. (I have a hard time managing my day-to-day life!) Its hard for tech. trainers and regular folks to teach and learn about all the great tools available for classroom use.

To meet this need I have created an 8-10 week professional development series called The 23 Things Project. Originally developed by Helene Blowers, the goal of the project is to introduce teachers and other school leaders to a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools and their potential uses in the classroom.



Participants work each week, completing activities and reflecting in a blog that they create and maintain throughout the project. The idea here is that work is self-directed, with videos, web resources and personal experiences that help participants gain an understanding of how to use the tool and how it can be used in the classroom, with the ultimate goal of each tool being use with students. Topics include:

Blogging
Wikis
Social Bookmarking
Twitter
eBooks
Customized Search Engines
Photo Sharing
RSS/Newsreaders

I am putting all this online for anyone to use any way they see fit. Maybe you are a teacher who wants to learn more about Web 2.0 tools or maybe you are a school leader/administrator that wants to bring these tools to your school or district. Or maybe you are a technology trainer who is looking for another way to get the message out. Who ever you are or whatever you do The 23 Things Project is there for you to use to change the way you teach.

So I encourage you to visit the project and see what it is all about. If you have any questions about how you can use The Project in your school or for yourself don't hesitate to contact me!

The 23 Things Project


Thanks to Elizabeth Farmer for creating the Logo.

Back To School-Leadership

Several months ago I participated in Leadership Day 2009. In that post I talked a little bit about leadership and support from school leaders. In the spirit of the First Days of School series I am reviving that post and adding some more ideas and resources for administrators and school leaders to help change the culture of technology in their schools. In my last post I discussed how to introduce social media into your school or district. In order to do this is it important to have strong leadership and the desire for change. But how, as a school leader do you do this, where do you begin?

There is so much pressure on school leadership in this day and age. School budgets are growing tighter and tighter. More, now than ever, schools and districts are facing the real possibility of laying off teachers and not having enough in funds to to even keep the doors open to some schools. The vast majority of districts across this country have had to make hard decisions regarding budgets; many of them deciding to make drastic, but necessary cuts in order to save jobs and still give students the best possible education.

There is pressure from state and federal mandates on testing. I see it all the time in the schools that I visit; administrators staring in to computer screens, pouring over spreadsheets, trying to figure out where their students are and where they need to be in terms of testing. Many spend late nights in their offices in April and May thinking of ways to give their students the edge they need to pass the test.

With all of these external pressures there is little time for school leadership to encourage teachers to take risks in their classroom and be creative in terms of technology. However, I believe there are 5 simple things that school leadership can do to help teachers as they transition their classrooms to Web 2.0 learning.

1) Why do we even need to be having this conversation? Why do we need to change? Watch Did You Know 3.0 to understand what will happen if we do nothing. (Also check out this post on the best TED Talks for School Leaders.)



2) What do good school leaders do? Watch this short presentation on Leadership Principals in Technology. Which do you exhibit? Which do you need to work on to support technology in your school or district?

Leadership Principles In Technology

View more presentations from mwieduwilt.

3) Become familiar with the NETS for Administrators- At NECC (National Education Computing Conference) this year, the National Education Technology Standards (NETS) for Administrators were unveiled. (This was their first major revision since first being introduced in 2002.) According to the NETS website: "The NETS for Administrators enable us to define what administrators need to know and be able to do in order to discharge their responsibility as leaders in the effective use of technology in our schools." The NETS provide guidance to school leadership on everything from learning culture to professional practice to digital citizenship. Many of the Standards only require the encouragement, vision and assurance from the administration to ensure that technology is being used to re-shape learning in their buildings.

4) Grow your PLN- Just like teachers, administrators and school leadership need a Professional Learning Network (PLN). Your PLN is there for you to share ideas with, listen to your problems but most of all help you grow ideas you have. Your PLN consists of people who are just like you, that you can turn to when you need that point of view you can't get from anywhere else. One of the best and easiest ways to create a PLN is to join Twitter. There are 100's of school administrators there right now waiting to network. Check out the Principalspage on Twitter4Teachers to start. (Oh, and if you need more information on how to get the most out of Twitter or how it works, visit my Twitter Links on Delicious.)There are other groups too like Classroom 2.0 on Ning and groups on LinkedIn. The point here is that you are not alone. Learning does not take place in isolation. Reach out and learn and share with others.

5) Provide Time and Encouragement-This is the one that inevitably will be the hardest to do. School leaders have to provide teachers the time and opportunity to learn about new tools and techniques for their classroom. I have already documented all of the pressures on school leaders but in order for our students to be successful we have to understand that the face of education is changing. The way the students learn is changing. Most teachers are not going to be able to make the drastic changes needed overnight. They are going to need time to learn. It is vital that school leaders provide the time needed. More over, and I believe, more important, school leaders must provide an environment in their school for teachers to take risks and encourage teachers to make the change in their teaching. Teachers are not going to make a change or take a risk if there isn't support from their school leadership.

Reflection is an amazing thing. I have been very hard on teachers in the past. However, they can not go it alone. They must have school/district leadership that understands why we need to change the way we educate students. These five things should be just the beginning for school leaders. Administrators and school leaders need to be agents of change. It should not be the teachers who have to fight for change in their classroom. The should be able to walk hand-in-hand with their administrators to make strides in changing our classrooms from the 18th century to the 21st.

Back To School-Intro To Social Media

It seems like the Social Media Revolution has exploded over the last year. With services like Twitter, Ning, Facebook, You Tube, and others, our students are spending more and more time online, making connections. Schools are, all be it slowly, realizing that they can embrace these Social Media sites to create truly, dynamic and engaging classrooms. They also are finding that they can better reach out to their parents and community.

Is your school or district using any of these sites or services? Are you using them in your classroom with students? Where do you start? Here are a few resources that you can use to get a handle on Social Media and how you can leverage it to create Connected Classrooms, Schools, Districts, Students, Staffs and Communities:

Social Media In Plain English



Second you need to go through this excellent presentation on Social Media and how to use it in eLearning.

Social Networking

View more presentations from rgibson.

Recently some administrators got together on Twitter to talk about Social Media. They came up with a great reading list and more resources for other administrators and school leaders.
Social Media Reading List Wiki

Does your school or district have an Acceptable Use Policy for computer and Internet usage? Does it address student blogging, wiki use or cellphones? Check out this great resource for creating Social Media Friendly Policies.
Social Media Guidelines Wiki

And remember, with all the collaboration and sharing that occurs with Social Media tools and Web 2.0 tools we still need to remember copyright and fair use guidelines. Check out this great video on the use of Open Education materials.



What are some other resources you have used to introduce Social Media in your school or district? What is your opinion on Social Media in schools? Does it have a place? How much "connectedness" is too much? Are we even doing enough? What are your thoughts. Leave me some feedback below.

Image-Flickr Creative Commons. View the original here.

Back To School-Animoto

Some have already started, others are going back this week and some still have Summer left. Which ever group you fall into, its Back To School Time. Over the next few posts I want to give you some quick and easy ideas of some really cool tools and resources you can use for those first days back. (Really they can be used any time...but you get the idea!)

Earlier in the summer I collected a great list of Back To School Tips, Tools, Resources and Advice. (You can read my summary here.) One of the tools that came up several times was Animoto. In fact here is a tweet I just saw as I was writing this post:


You may have seen other teachers using the program or heard about it through a friend. You may be wondering how it works or how it could be used in your classroom.

First an example. Below is a video from a good friend of mine, Shelly (@ShellTerell) put together to explain what #edchat is on Twitter. (If you want to know more about #edchat, read this great post from another friend of mine Mary Beth (@mbteach)





I have put together a presentation and guide to help you get started with Animoto.

The Presentation

The Guide

The Digital Classroom Animoto

View more documents from Steven Anderson.

The presentation and guide go hand-in-hand, so be sure to check them both out.

Remember the tweet from above? That was from another friend of mine, Jerry (@jswiatek). Over at his class wiki, he as some great instructions on that Welcome Back Project.

Recently I had the joy to work with educators on Animoto in Cabarrus County, NC at their Tech Camp. At the end of the session I asked them to brainstorm ideas on ways they could use the program with their kids. Here is a portion on the list they came up with:

• Use it to review specific concepts or as a review game.
• Use it as a way to show parents what their child has been doing in class like on a parent night or at an open house.
• Use as a virtual school tour
• Use as a contest with students to show school spirit or what the school is "all about."

So now you have everything you need to get started with Animoto. As you use it I would love to hear your ideas on how you use it with your kids. Share your success stories and videos you create. Also, share suggestions and tips that you have for other teachers. Head back here and leave me a comment.

Now, go forth and create!