TCAPSLoop Podcast

EdTech Loop Episode 107: The Return of ESports

The EdTech Loop Podcast is joined again by the folks from MiHSEF to update Danelle and I on the current state of ESports in Michigan. Check out the MiHSEF website for all the resources regarding how to get a team started at your school.

TechNollerGist Episode 15: Creativity in the Classroom

The @TechNollerGist, David Noller shares some ideas on how to include the creative process in your classroom and some additional resources to help get your students to explore their creativity.

EdTech Loop 106 - Inquiry Mindset

Episode 106 of the EdTech Loop Podcast features special guests Andy Phillips, TCAPS Director of Curriculum and Dave Johnson, Northern Michigan Learning Consortium Instructional Consultant, in one of our most informative podcasts we've dropped. We dive deep into Social Studies Standards and the Inquiry Mindset. Transcripts for this show will be coming soon. 
Resources Discussed on the POD today:
ISTE Standards for Students
http://www.c3teachers.org/
https://www.misocialstudies.org/
http://ss.oaisd.org/about-giants.html
http://textbooks.wmisd.org/
http://textbooks.wmisd.org/InquiryHub/index.html
 
Tech Tools of the Week: 
Danelle Recommends 
Dive Into Inquiry and Inquiry Mindset - both by Trevor MacKenzie
Great exclusive content online on Trevor’s website: trevormackenzie.com/exclusive-content
Webinars, companion resources, book club resources, sketchnotes, videos, etc.
 
Dave Recommends:
Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiry in Social Studies - Kathy Swan, John Lee, and S.G. Grant
Blueprinting an Inquiry-Based Curriculum: Planning with the Inquiry Design Model - Kathy Swan, John Lee, and S.G. Grant

EdTech Loop Episode 105: #DigCitCommit

The EdTech Loop Podcast revisits it's favorite subject: Digital Citizenship! We discuss the latest METS Group Virtual Rally, changes and improvements to digcitcommit.org and the five #digcit ISTE competencies and so much more in this jam packed episode.
“I want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people’s lives?” - Barak Obama
Useful Links:
Lauren Villaluz @senoraluz - Dig Cit Commit: Reflecting On Our Practice as Coaches & Leaders
Standards - DigCit found in Coaches, Education Leaders, Educators (citizen strand)
AI and Humanity Study Group
https://learn.kqed.org/discussions
Podcast - Note to Self - How to Create Good Digital Citizens
Nancy Watson - @nancywtech - infographic and app (https://digcit.glideapp.io/) - question starters for kids
Follow @digcitcommit on Twitter - also #digcitcommit - Poster
Show Transcript
Larry Burden 0:05 Look at this neat stuff you can do with technology, it's great.
Yeah, I host a Tech podcast. I like GIFs.
It's Episode 105 of the EdTech Loop podcast, my name is Larry Burden and she's just got back from Iowa after developing a voting app that probably shouldn't have made it past beta, it's Danelle Brostrom. Too soon?
Danelle Brostrom 0:34 No, I like it. I love it.
Larry Burden 0:36 I may have rushed the intro, but meditated thoughtfully while considering this week's moment of Zen.
Moment of Zen 0:42 Slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects.
Larry Burden 0:49 The delegate from Sabin has chosen not to abstain from voting for this week's meat of the show, Dive into DigCit. So, I think earlier this year we were going through our, the different topics that we're going to cover, and we're discussing digital, digital citizenship which we are want to do, and I think at some point in time we were like, you know what, we've probably done too much. We've probably done too much digit digital citizenship. And I would say, I disagree strongly with the delegate from Sabin. I think this is probably the most important topic we ever cover on the podcast for a number of reasons, and by the amount of notes, that you have I'm pretty confident that, that's an accurate take. So, go ahead. I've got some thoughts but you had, it was like stream of consciousness, Google Doc-ing. It was amazing. I'm like, Wow!
Danelle Brostrom 1:49 It really was stream of consciousness Please don't copy and paste that into the show.
Larry Burden 1:52 It's going, For sure.
Danelle Brostrom 1:53 Um, okay so let me kind of frame today's discussion, huge, huge shout out to the METS Group, The Michigan Educational Technology Specialists. On Friday, January 31st, they held their 2020 Virtual Rally, and it's a half day, it's all online, it's different sessions. They had sessions on accessibility, Copyright, PBL, giving quality feedback. The quality of these sessions are just top notch. They're phenomenal. And I love that they're all recorded and online, so those of us who may have missed a session because of a meeting, or had to teach in the morning, or whatever, they're all there and you can watch the sessions, right now. So I do want you to include that link in the show notes because I think that is really important that does frame our discussion today. My favorite session was by a Tech Integrationist from downstate Lauren Villaluz. You can find her on Twitter, she's @senoraluz. She did a session called DigCitCommit, reflecting on our practice as coaches and leaders. And honestly Larry I went into the session like, oh I know a lot about digital citizenship, let's, let's see what she's got to talk about, has to share. And wow, I feel like I knew nothing, because it was all brand new and I want to be honest I'm, I'm nervous that I'm not gonna give this topic what, what I could. There's, there's just so much here. So, ISTE recently released five competencies for digital citizenship. So instead of having this conversation be one of fear and negativity and this list of don'ts. They're really shifting it to this list of do's. They're shifting the conversation to one of inclusivity, and empathy, and action. And it all started out with these five competencies, and I guess it was like, ISTE put out this call to action and 2018 that asked educators to do one thing, one small thing to advance, advance digital citizenship in the world, and then they were going to kind of look at the impact of all those small things combined. And now it's grown into this DigCitCommit movement, which I want to talk about today. And it just continues to grow. Like, these competencies are amazing. So I do want to go through them.
Larry Burden 4:13 Before you do because I, when I was going through this in my negligible research, it struck me that, as we've been covering digital citizenship and as you said, it's been kind of the don't do's, as opposed to the do's, and I think it was because we were trying to fit what our concept of, an old concept of citizenship was in a new model, or a new environment. It's taking a new definition of citizenship to fit with the new environment. What we were doing before was not working.
Danelle Brostrom 4:48 Right.
Larry Burden 4:49 It probably shouldn't have because this was a developing concept. I think the fruit is ripened, and you could tell by the, by what your research had come up with, and how surprised you were with what was there when you started diving in. I'm really excited about this because this is, this is the I think the start of that redefinition of what citizenship is. And as we've, as I've stated before, and as we've talked about before. The kids are ahead of this, are way, way ahead of what the new environment, what citizenship in the new environment is. I think it's going to be a lot harder for the teachers, and a lot harder for other adults, because we are stuck in an old model.
Danelle Brostrom 5:32 Totally. There is a really great podcast I want to plug to, "Note to Self," did a podcast called, "How to Create Good Digital Citizens," and um, Manoush Zomorodi she's the host of that one, she talked to Richard Colada, who's the CEO of ISTE. And I love how they set it up. They talk about these five competencies, but they set it up like, so we live in a society, and to be a citizen of this society you have to follow certain rules. And, you know, you stop at stoplights, and you pay your taxes, and they're their rules that you follow. And then they're also those unwritten rules like: you're sitting next to someone at a cafe, you don't reach over and steal their fries or take a slurp of their coffee because it looks good. There are just things that you don't do, but then what would it be like if we had this world that didn't.
Larry Burden 5:59 You haven't seen me in a coffee shop. Sampling as I go.
Danelle Brostrom 6:25 You didn't ruin my train of thought at all Larry, I'm gonna keep going.
Larry Burden 6:29 Cafe' Au Let, Ooh yummy.
Danelle Brostrom 6:30 But what do you do in this world, it, when, when there aren't rules and what would that be like, and well that's kind of what we've got going on online right now, and that our kids are poised to be this much more civilized digital universe, but only if we'd start teaching them now. Otherwise, nothing's going to happen. So they really go through the five competencies one by one and talk about them. I think it's really worth a good listen. But, um so those five competencies: the first one is inclusive. I'm open to hearing and respectfully recognizing multiple viewpoints, and I engage with others online with respect, and empathy. What a beautiful world. Right?
Larry Burden 7:12 Yes. Yes. I'm let you go through them.
Danelle Brostrom 7:16 Number two: informed, I evaluate the accuracy, perspective and validity of digital media and social posts. Number three: engaged, I use technology and digital channels for civic engagement to solve problems and be a force for good in both physical and virtual communities. I love that, force for good.
Larry Burden 7:36 I want to stop here, if I could, because that one struck me in a negative way. Because, observing what goes on online, especially in social formats, I tend to disengage, because it's very difficult to engage constructively, because that's really not the way citizenship works online currently. But I like the concept behind what that said. I just didn't know how plausible it was, or what actions would have to happen to make, make it plausible. And what I came up with, it, just you know after a few seconds was, all we really need to do when looking at all these, and we'll continue with the other, the other two. Two? Is put them all under one umbrella and just say slow down. Because you're not going to be able to focus on any of these without slowing down. And that in the environment, the digital environment is Go, Go, Go, fast, fast, fast, whether it's on purpose, whether it's the thought or the mindset that we're bringing into it, or a model that is trying to drive attention needs you to not recognize and think thoughtfully about what you're doing you're mindful about what you're doing. Going into any of these, we need to slow down, and that and be mindful and recognize where we're at so then we can actually make these standards actionable.
Danelle Brostrom 9:17 Yeah, that's true.
Number four: balanced, I make informed decisions about how to prioritize my time and activities online and off. And then number five: alert, I am aware of my online actions, and I know how to be safe and create safe spaces for others, online. So what's pretty cool is that ISTE has taken those five competencies and they are working with Common Sense Media and a lot of other awesome organizations.
Larry Burden 9:44 All the, all the organizations.
Danelle Brostrom 9:46 All the organizations who are already working in that digital citizenship realm. They kind of came together to commit to bringing high quality resources in one location. So, I mean there's resources everywhere and this is a collective effort to bring it all together and found that digcitcommit.org. Wow, what is on here is incredible. Like I said, Common Sense Media, Brainpop, DigCit Institute. There's some new resources that I hadn't heard of. There's some resources specifically on the intersection of AI and humanity, which I'm totally interested in. I just joined the AI and humanity study group from the Digital Citizenship Institute. Larry, they are going to talk about Black Mirror episodes! What! I'm trying to talk to people in my life about it and they're not interested, so I need, these are my people. I'm totally hooked on these discussion topics from KQED.org. They're under the, "Learn," section and there are topics that you can give to, they say Middle and High School, I think it could even do some of these with upper El. And just things like: should the US have universal healthcare, should be raise the federal minimum wage, can we trust social media influencers, should we get rid of the Electoral College, should zoos exist, should school start later? And they have these little videos that are backed by research. And then on this site kids are actually sharing their responses, and I think you could do some awesome things in the classroom with these real, authentic issues. There's just so much here. It's brilliant to put it all in one place, this DigCitCommit.org.
Larry Burden 11:24 Without being negative, it almost, it almost was overwhelming, but the fact that it was all, all there, and all the disparate groups, like all of them, were represented, tells me that things are starting to coalesce into a more cohesive message which is so necessary. Because it is. We go to ISTE, we go to digitcommit, we go to Google, we go to Common Sense Media. All these different places were kind of all saying similar things and we were touching on all of them. Guess where they're all at now. They're all, they're all in one one spot and I named, some of them.
Danelle Brostrom 12:04 Yeah,
Larry Burden 12:05 But they're all there. So, all the people, and that's the wonderful thing, or one of the really hopeful things about the digital culture is the fact that all these people could actually go, Oh, we're all part of the same community. Let's get together and really leverage our voice.
Danelle Brostrom 12:26 It, it is building a culture. It's not doing one lesson in February, or one lesson when you talk about this specific unit, it really is building a culture where you're talking about real issues with kids that, that they're struggling with. And, and digital citizenship is in the Educator Standards from ISTE, and it's in those Ed Tech Coach Standards, but it's also in those Educational Leaders Standards. So as an administrator, one of the ISTE Standards is: Equity and Citizenship Advocate. So how are you not only telling the teachers to do digital citizenship, but how are you modeling that in your own life, and I think that's important too. I mean, as an educator, there are kind of different levels to this. You know, are you, are you just grabbing images from Google and creating your stuff? Or are you, you know, going through and citing where you got those images from, and talking to your kids about citations, and why you chose this image over this one, and how to find appropriate images. All that kind of stuff that just happens organically as you're teaching, that's that's how this should be. It should be a part of, a part of culture, and I think these five competencies are going to help get there, and man, this DigCitCommit, there's a lot there. But I think the important thing is, is that at least it's all in one place now and these groups are kind of working together. I think what all of us should do is we should commit to do it like, like what the CEO of ISTE said at, in 2018 commit to doing one thing, pick one thing you're going to try. Nancy Watson, she's @nancywtech on Twitter. She created this cool app using "Glide." We talked a little bit about "Glide," before, it's "Glide," app and you can create, you put things into a spreadsheet and then it bumps this really cool app. Yeah, yeah David was really excited about it. But if you go to digcit.glideapp.io. It's this app that she created, and you can click on, "Primary," you can click on, "High School," and it gives you these easy questions starters within those five competencies. So, I love that there are people out there that are trying to create and make this usable. I think we commit to doing one thing and I really think we just, we...this is the start. It's all here, and then I think the next step is going to be to try to curate it, and what's good for you and what's good for other people, and just try to organize it all. It's just amazing. Anyway, think about that Barack Obama quote: I want us to ask ourselves every day how are we using technology to make a real difference in people's lives." And I think that this stuff is going to make a real difference if we help it grow.
Larry Burden 15:00 You know, you're, you're, you're talking about the conversations that can be had. The important conversations that can be had, online. I think one of the things that we've struggled with is how, what is the appropriate way to have those conversations. We're now setting some societal rules, or considering setting some societal rules on how to have that discourse online, and we're starting to come to a consensus around what being a good digital citizen is.
Danelle Brostrom 15:33 For sure, and I don't think you can say anymore, I don't teach tech, I don't have time for that. This is so essential to society.
Larry Burden 15:43 There are so many resources on this site for ways to incorporate. Some of them aren't going to work for you. Just do one, give it a shot. If that doesn't work, there's another, don't worry about it.
Danelle Brostrom 15:56 And there are resources on there for families as well. I know that they linked up Google's, "Be Internet Awesome," created some family resources, and those were on that site as well. I was looking at those discussions. Those are discussions I can have with my family, and with my own children at home. So there are things that I can do as a parent, and there are things, I mean, we all know adults should be looking at these competencies to and try to clean up our digital footprint. Right? Fair enough?
Larry Burden 16:24 I'm speechless really.
Danelle Brostrom 16:26 But I just, I think that this stuff is good for everyone.
Larry Burden 16:30 When you're having these conversations with your child. Allow the time to have the conversation. Give them the time to consider. Because some of the conversations, some of these thoughts aren't necessarily going to be things that they're going to want, A: want to have conversations around, and B: have thoughts ready. They're going to need some time to kind of consider. And if we're rushing, there you're going to feel rushed and frustrated and then that conversation is not going to take place. So if you are having that conversation, make sure that you're giving the time for the conversation to really unfold because these are not yes or no answers. These are conversations to be had, and probably some tough ones, because more than likely, as adults, we're not modeling the greatest behavior here.
Danelle Brostrom 17:22 And now Larry you have older kids so maybe, I mean tell me if I'm totally off base on this one but, I think it needs to be a conversation to, it doesn't need to be you know preachy because I think that it's valuable, their opinion with technology. And you know, that they see it as an extension. And there was an article, I just shared it on Twitter, and it was from a 17 year old who quit social media, and his point that everyone else is on social media and kids think I'm weird because I'm not. Like, that's a perspective that we might not have considered. So to recognize that perspective, and have a conversation about that perspective, instead of coming in preachy as an adult, I think that's important.
Larry Burden 18:03 I think in many ways, their relationship with their digital lives is much more mature than adults are. And when I say mature, it's not that they're more mature than adults, but their digital lives have matured as far as their understanding of a digital life, has maturity because they've been on it more. The person that they're bringing isn't as mature, necessarily, but how they're interacting oftentimes is. And I think we need to when we're having those conversations, respect the fact that the information that they're giving us is probably going to have more depth and breadth than we're giving it. And we could probably learn a lot from, how they're interacting with it. Because really our depth of knowledge in the digital environment is going to be, most likely, less than theirs.
Danelle Brostrom 18:53 I think the more you can have it be a conversation rather than a preaching, the farther you're gonna get. But adults need to learn these competencies too. I just wanna say that.
Larry Burden 19:02 And to be honest, I mean that's really what our, what our what this podcast audience is, is adults,
Danelle Brostrom 19:06 For sure, we all need to look.
Larry Burden 19:08 We have to recognize, and I think any adult that's listening to this, is listening to it because they're thoughtful about this topic. So, when we, when we're reticent about bringing it up as adults, it's very clear why, that there's work to be done.
Danelle Brostrom 19:25 There is. So check out DigCitCommit. You can follow them on Twitter. There's also a DigCitCommit hashtag, and then DigCitCommit.org. And again, huge shout-out to the METS Group and Lauren Villaluz for bringing this to that virtual rally, yeah.
Larry Burden 19:42 Awesome. Tech Tool of the Week?
Techtool of the Week 19:43 Tech Tool of the Week. There is an event coming up. This DigCitCommit group was putting together a DigCitCommit Virtual Congress. They're doing it February, 11th and 12th. Informative inspirational, virtual event, and they've got students speakers, they've got teachers, keynotes, youth leaders, lightning rounds, spotlights of successful digital initiatives. It's super, super cool and there's stuff going on for two days straight. So I would, I already signed up to attend and I'm just gonna check on the ones that fit with my schedule. But I think this is so cool, and you can use a lot of these with, with students, check that out. I'm DigCitCommit.org and it's found under the events section.
Larry Burden 20:30 Awesome. Tutorials and Updates, just want to let you know there's gonna be more posts coming soon. I have to get a TechNollerGist podcast out here relatively soon. But on my end, there's a lot of, I was backed up with a lot of editing. So there's a lot of stuff that is going to be happening hopefully soon on the EdTech Loop podcast so stay tuned. For instance prepare for the return of transcripts. I'm like six episodes behind on transcripts so those will be coming up because we do actually respect some of those ADA requirements and, I really want to make sure that our podcast is available for everybody.
Danelle Brostrom 21:05 Very inclusive of you Larry,
Larry Burden 21:06 Yes we're, we're trying, we are definitely trying. This is something new that I'm going to bring up, and I just came up with it so.
Danelle Brostrom 21:12 Is that why you didn't prep me ahead of time?
Larry Burden 21:12 Absolutely. This is not really a segment. This is just I want to end, I want to before we go into the closing, I want to put this in there. And we need to title because my title is, "I Demand Answers," but that seems a little forceful. But I want to have a question at the end of every pod, every pod to spark that discussion. And this one's really simple. How do you included DigCit in your, in your curriculum? We know what needs to be included. There's not necessarily any spot specifically for it. So I'm really curious on how educators are attempting to incorporate digital citizenship and those lessons into their, into their curriculum, how do you make it work?
Danelle Brostrom 21:32 And how you make it work after listening to this podcast today?
Larry Burden 21:53 Bingo, Bingo. So, in closing, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @tcapsloop,
Danelle Brostrom 21:58 @brostromda,
Larry Burden 21:59 bringing my A game, subscribe to the podcast on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in Downcast, Overcast, Google Play Store, Spotify or wherever else you get your ear candy. Leave review, we love the feedback. And again, answer that question, just #edtechloop on Twitter. With that answer, and thank you for listening and inspiring.
Danelle Brostrom 22:22 There's a group that's going to talk about Black Mirror, What!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
 
Tech Tool of the Week:
DigCitCommit Virtual Congress
 
I Demand Answers!
How are you including #digcit in your classroom? (respond using #edtechloop)

TechNollerGist Episode 13: Lids Down or Managing Devices in the Classroom

Episode 13 of the TechNollerGist Podcast featuring Traverse City Area Public Schools EdTech Coach, David Noller, sharing some great tips on managing digital device usage in your classroom.
 
Show Transcripts:
David Noller 0:06 Legos on it you step on them and say things. Then I respond. That's how this works.
Larry Burden 0:10 Scream in pain.
David Noller 0:11 I can't tell you how excited I am.
Larry Burden 0:17 It's Episode 14 of the TechNollerGist podcast I'm Larry Burden and he always feels like somebody is watching him, or at least should be. It's the TechNollerGist, David Noller.
David Noller 0:27 For full entertainment value, should be.
Larry Burden 0:29 Should be, and maybe for the safety of others but that's,
David Noller 0:32 Not participating, just observing.
Larry Burden 0:35 Exactly.
David Noller 0:35 Fair enough.
Larry Burden 0:36 Today's topic should you choose to accept it, Keeping the lids down or managing in-class device usage. So you just showed me your, your show notes. And I had mentioned, I'm just going to ceed the floor because we've talked about several of the items that you had sent me previously in other pods, and anybody that has digital devices in their classroom, which is pretty much everybody. I mean, K-12, at this point,
David Noller 1:03 Right,
Larry Burden 1:04 How to manage that device and make it a successful learning tool, I think is...any advice is good advice. So,
David Noller 1:11 Yeah, I'm going to start with something I see at the high school every day. When I walk in and I parked in my spot. There will often be a parent, waiting for their student, parked in the handicapped space. That driver does not have a tag or a license plate. It's just a convenient place to pick up their child from school. They know they're not supposed to park there, but they do it anyway because it's convenient. Every day we see people drive through those stop signs. Like the Michigan rolling stop, and sometimes just there's nobody in the crosswalk we're just going to go.
Larry Burden 1:42 I've been in your high school. Oftentimes is not a rolling stop there's no consideration of stopping whatsoever.
David Noller 1:47 I'm being generous. So, you know, they know they're not supposed to, but it's not convenient for them to stop for some reason so they just keep on going through, often with their students in the car with them and what they're doing is demonstrating that rules are for sometimes, and when you're confronted with legal and ethical dilemmas you can kind of determine your response based on whether or not anybody's watching.
Larry Burden 1:49 You're not breaking the law unless you get caught.
David Noller 2:16 Well there you go. It's not illegal unless you're caught. You're still breaking the law.
Larry Burden 2:20 yeah, valid
David Noller 2:20 So the reason I bring that up is because of what I want to bring up with the, the first item, which is; within the ISTE standards, there are standards for students, and there are standards for teachers. And for the student it says that, students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online, or when using networked devices. We give them network devices, the ISTE standard is that they will engage in use those tools in a legal, ethical way. But there's also a teacher strand, to the ISTE standards, and under Citizen, 3.C., mentor students and safe, legal, and ethical practices with digital tools, and the protection of intellectual rights and property. And 3.D., model and promote the management of personal data, and digital identity and protect student data privacy.
Larry Burden 3:14 I see where we're going here.
David Noller 3:15 Yeah, so, like the parents or others who drive through a stop sign or wait to pick up the child in the handicap space, we as teachers need to model legal and ethical behavior for our students if we're going to ask them to do the same. And that has a lot to do with device management as it turns out.
Larry Burden 3:37 Okay,
David Noller 3:37 Because modeling legal and ethical behavior doesn't just mean citing your sources. Using pictures in your presentation and citing them and making sure that you're using them in a legal and ethical way. It also has to do with how that students participating in the social world of the classroom, and that we've responded to some of the challenges we've had with mobile devices by just banning them. Kids can't have phones in the room because they don't know how to use them properly and so we're just going to say, you can't have them. But everybody's got a laptop. And you still have to manage their participation in that community in a way that they can demonstrate legal and ethical behavior. And for that to happen I think teachers need to structure their lessons so that the student is in the habit of using that device in the educational model, and that's it. And not using it to distract themselves, etc. I think that gets into maybe not the legal aspect, but the ethical aspect of using the tool.
Larry Burden 4:36 I like to compare it to a hammer. It's a great tool for what it's used for. But you don't go, you know what, there's no nail around here right now, so feel free to do whatever you want with that hammer.
David Noller 4:48 I love that. Yeah, there's no nail so use it for whatever you want to. And honestly, I think that's a great metaphor for what happens in classrooms. We start students on a task, maybe there's not a, an end game, or a time limit and kids finish and then all of a sudden they're like, well?
Larry Burden 5:07 I've got this hammer.
David Noller 5:08 I've got this hammer to use, let me, let me pound a hole in the wall. And I think, in part, this might be based on some of our old practices. The old devices we used to have in the classroom took like 30 seconds to a minute to boot up, and make some of the teachers of my generation are used to seeing open laptops, because to shut them down, and then to open it back up again. You lost a couple minutes of instructional time.
Larry Burden 5:31 I remember having conversations, not long ago where we would discuss, okay we have to understand that there's going to be a boot up time right and be patient with that.
David Noller 5:41 Right. These Chrome devices, boot up instantly. So, I've even changed my practice where we had a warm up question where they responded on, on Google Classroom. Then they close their lids. I gave them a little bit of information that they needed in order to do the next task, open your lids. Do that task. They had seven minutes to do that task, close your lids. We did, we played a game today, we did a simulation of village building, world building, in my sociology class. Lids were down for that, and then last three minutes, open up your laptop and respond to that review question after the experience. So it was up, down, up, down, up, down, all throughout the day, and not once did a kid have enough time to do my task and get distracted away from the learning of the day. I had a kid fall asleep, that had nothing to do with the device, didn't go to bed till four in the morning. So it's not perfect, but it wasn't the devices fault that somebody got off task. And it wasn't my lack of managing their experience with the devices fault.
Larry Burden 6:50 I completely see where that paradigm is changed from the past where a teacher would have a laptop time, open them up, recognize it's going to take a minute and a half to get the laptop up, and we're going to do whatever we can while that while that lid is up, and then when we close that lid, it's done.
David Noller 7:10 I used to actually scheduled warm ups, during open the lid time. So we get the computers, bring it back to our tables, open them up, set the power, and then do like, our opening question while it powered up. And in that, you know kids are constantly going back and forth checking to see if it's up okay now it's time for my password. So that kind of stepping through a lesson, I guess I'm jumping back to the example, that kind of stepping through the lesson when it's intentional, and you're like, this is a question that's going to take three minutes and then close your lids. Then you do your instruction, whatever you're going to do for the day. If they are ready to respond, then they open it back up again. I think that's something that we're not seeing a lot of in the classroom. That we're not seeing teachers manage the availability. And I, that as an opening step, it's actually very easy to do. It's something everybody can do. And I think it's going to resolve a large percentage of problems that people might be having already in the classroom. I have some other ideas for other things, but that's probably the biggest, easiest one to do. Just managing is it open or closed.
Larry Burden 8:18 Lid's up, lid's down. I think that makes a lot of sense. It's very easy for the teacher visually to see...
David Noller 8:24 Oh, that's the thing.
Larry Burden 8:25 where you are.
David Noller 8:26 When you say, close your lids please. And I'm always very nice about it, close your lids please. They all go down. And there's the one kid who's like, maybe he's just trying to finish that question, and maybe he's, right? But I know, and I might give them like time, just to like, once I'm ready to launch into my thing and then if I have to say it again it goes down. They're not going to fight about that. In regards to like the stepping through the lesson, I set many deadlines, and I put up timers. I don't necessarily have the timer on the board. I'll have it on my watch so I can then say, well I'm going to give you a couple more minutes. Plus, I don't really like the kids knowing how much time they have. At least on a countdown timer where they can be like, let's see we got five minutes, well, hey by the way we're going after school for pizza, you know,
Larry Burden 9:12 30 seconds,
David Noller 9:13 you've got a couple minutes.
Larry Burden 9:13 30 seconds before the timers up,
David Noller 9:15 So I manage the time on my watch, but I tell them, You have five minutes to answer this question. And then if I see that they're still engaged in the question, and most people are still writing or whatever they're doing that I'm asking them to do. Yup you have one more minute, and then that minute turns into a minute and a half and sometimes two.
Larry Burden 9:34 If the classroom is engaged, you have the ability to say,
David Noller 9:37 Yeah, and then as I see like half of the kids are done. 30 seconds. I know that was a long minute sorry everybody, I lost track. 30 seconds, you know, I kind of pretend that I wasn't paying attention. Those mini timers have made such a difference in my class in terms of helping kids manage their time by me managing it for them. And sometimes there, there's kids who are slow and processing, and I'll tell all of my students look, we're not all going to process at the same time, if it takes a little extra time to do something, we can manage that, or we can account for that. But so often these small things are like formative assessment, anyway. And I'm just stepping through the lesson. And it also goes back to the idea of engaging all of your students whenever you can. Instead of asking a question and then saying, who knows the answer and having those two, three kids always raised their hand. This is part of that process I've talked about before of, everybody's engaged in the material, and then we go to volunteers for the explanations and things, so that even if I don't get everybody talking in a, in a classroom, I've got everybody thinking and writing before that even starts.
Larry Burden 10:45 It's a great way to manage your classroom momentum to. You're eliminating a lot of dead time.
David Noller 10:49 When other people are answering a question that they've been called on verbally, students can tune out. When everyone's engaged and answering the same question at the same time and you have three minutes and tick, tock, and here we go, 30 seconds. Okay, write your last sentence. Okay, time's up. There's a positive sense of urgency about that. The process just lends itself towards more participation and more engagement.
Larry Burden 11:11 Learning is hard work. It's mentally taxing. Or, we hope it is, and the model that you're talking about is actually pretty similar to kind of a common practice right now among Creatives. The Pomodoro technique for timing, where you, you work in four 25 minute cycles. So you work for 25 minutes. Take a five minute break 25 minutes, five minute break after four of those you take a 15 minute break, and then you continue that cycle. So you're not, you have a minute or five minutes every 25 minutes to take a step back, regroup and then jump back in, and that kind of keeps that creative momentum going as opposed to kind of slogging through something. Which, now, how long is the attention span of a teenager.
David Noller 11:59 Exactly. And so, you know, part of what we're talking about here is how device management leads to improved learning. It's not just about maintaining discipline, it's about improving instruction. And I think those practices of stepping through lessons, providing mini timelines, things like that. I think that's going to improve instruction at the same time that improves the relationship everybody has with the device in the room.
Larry Burden 12:23 Two birds one stone. Very simple,
David Noller 12:25 A couple more things, one is being very transparent about what you know as a teacher, with your students. I have demonstrated to my kids what texting under the table looks like, what texting from a backpack looks like, what texting from inside my purse looks like. I know what those body shapes look like. But you've got a kid kind of leaning back, he's got one hand down at his side and he's got his hand in his pocket, but it's only halfway in his pocket, and he's kind of looking at the outside of his pocket. He's texting somebody. I know what that looks like. So I'll demonstrate it to him and say, look, I shouldn't see any of the following postures, and they kind of laugh, and they kind of, they get it, they're high school kids. But I also point out things like, "game face." I never want to see your game face, and they're used to hearing game face like sports. But the game face that I'm talking,
Larry Burden 13:18 This is a, this is an audio pod and you're going to show me the game face and I'm going to be like I really wish. So explain this.
David Noller 13:23 I'm gonna be descriptive becuase I know this is an audio pod. Game face happens when the kid has his Chromebook open, and he's got two fingers on either side of the keyboard right down where the shift key is, and then his eyes are staring, his mouth is open, and his face is slack, and you can tell he's doing something like playing the snake game, or Tetris or something that's taking all of his attention. Because he looks focused, just not focused on you. And if he's only using those two fingers for like the arrow keys and the shift, he's not typing a paper. So, game face is another thing that I bring up, and I say, I know what it looks like, I know what you're doing. When you say, No I'm not. I say yes you were. And then we will both say, No I'm not, and I'll say yes you were, and then we'll agree that you were doing it and then we'll move on. And, you know, again, maybe it's because it's high school, I get to use that kind of humor as a way to bridge the gap between, I'm recognizing it, but I'm not shaming you, but we all know you're not supposed to be doing that so let's not.
Larry Burden 14:27 Yeah,
David Noller 14:28 I'm just transparent with them about what I know, and what I see, and what, what I see means. The last thing that has to do with management has to do with community standards. You know, we encourage our students to be good digital citizens, and we encourage them to be part of a community. And at West we have the standards to treat all people with dignity, honesty, respect and trust. And part of respecting other people has to do with ensuring and helping to accommodate their success. And so I tell my kids that if you have a friend, or table-mate, or somebody nearby who you see as distracting themselves. You know that you want that person to do well, it's okay to say, maybe you should do the thing that we're all also doing. To say something kindly and respectfully, to encourage that student to get back on track. And that can be a tough thing to do.
Larry Burden 15:18 I was just gonna say that's, that's a tough ask, but I would say, more, more likely to be effective, because it's peer to peer.
David Noller 15:26 And it is a tough ask in a normal classroom. It's not a tough ask in a band or in a choir or in a football team, or in a theater department. It's tougher in a classroom where there's less natural affinity and less natural...
Larry Burden 15:41 There's not the natural common goal.
David Noller 15:43 Yeah.
Larry Burden 15:43 Let me change that. There's not a perceived common goal. There is a common goal. The common goal's there. We're supposed to be learning the content and demonstrating our learning in the class. For whatever reason, oftentimes, that's not a perceived common goal.
David Noller 15:59 Right. I can't obviously judge a kid whether or not they're able to get somebody back on track, but I'm hoping that by offering that as something that would be a good thing to do, somebody's going to take advantage of that, and be the good friend and help their buddy get back on track.
Larry Burden 16:13 If you get one or two a year. Awesome, awesome. And you know what those one or two probably created a preventative environment for 7, 8, 9, 10,12 other ones, so.
David Noller 16:24 One final thing I would add; if you are somebody who you see a lot of these violations that you think are problematic in your classroom, and you know you're constantly doing battle. Review the acceptable use policies once in a while. You know, freshmen coming in might have signed that page without even reading it.
Larry Burden 16:44 What?
David Noller 16:45 What? AUP is the acceptable use policies. Get a copy, go over them with your students. Use them as a reading strategy, figure out what they mean, and encourage them to read and understand what it is that they've agreed to when they've signed that paper to get that device. I think, taking one of those,
Larry Burden 17:04 Great tool by the way for later in life when they're signing those agreements, or clicking on that, "I agreed the terms," and
David Noller 17:11 Yeah
Larry Burden 17:11 yeah
David Noller 17:12 I didn't read, yep, except you know certain places and certain organizations are going to hold you accountable for those, and there's going to be consequences from the, you weren't really planning on. So yeah, I think reviewing those acceptable use policies is totally fair game in any class where you have concerns over how students are using devices.
Larry Burden 17:30 Absolutely. You have physical arrangement?
David Noller 17:33 Thanks for reminding me of that because I didn't read it in my own show notes. A lot of teachers have a problem with offering online test taking environments because they're afraid of cheating. I understand that. I try to give tests that are less cheat-able. By being less knowledge based and more like application, higher level thinking...
Larry Burden 17:55 Show me your work.
David Noller 17:56 demonstrations. But there are times when you've got to ask, do you know what this thing is. And sometimes that involves multiple choice. So there's a couple strategies, ones not physical, one's physical. The not physical one is using, like when I use Google Forms to create quizzes, I have a couple questions and then I put in a section break so that when that kid hits next those two questions and his answers are now off his screen. So unless everybody goes through at the same pace, they're not going to have the open paper. Or that that smart kids answer key, and the Scantron, that's not going to be up. Okay, so one is organizing your, your exam if you're using an online one in such a way that they step through in, in steps instead of doing it all in one screen. The physical arrangement, and my kids, my students are always surprised that I do this, and I think it's because others don't. When they take a quiz, I have them move their chair from where they're, it normally is where they're looking at the front of the room, and they put it on the other side of the table so they're looking at the back of the room.
Larry Burden 19:02 Okay.
David Noller 19:02 And we tip our heads. Why, because then I see their screen. And if I stay relatively in the back of the room, they can't see where I'm looking. I might be looking at your screen, I might be looking at somebody else's screen. I tell them if I see your screen flashed to another tab. I'm going to assume you're cheating and you're going to take a zero, and I'm going to apologize if you didn't cheat, but that's the behavior of cheating. So stay on your quiz tab, don't leave it. When you're done, close your lid. And so, when my kids take a quiz.
Larry Burden 19:39 Clear and specific instructions help as well.
David Noller 19:41 I see all of their screens. I know that they're on the quiz tab only. They close their lid when they're done, and I can see who's on and who's not. So my physical arrangement by just simply having them sit on the other side of the desk. I have full view of their screens.
Larry Burden 19:57 You know my initial thought was, why don't you just go to the back of the room and that way you don't have the kind of chaos of the move. But I was thinking more deeply about it and by changing the environment, you've created a different mindset in the student as well, just by having them move. And now they're in test mode.
David Noller 20:17 That's part of it, it's test mode, the things they normally have access to look at in the room tend to be at the front. So I removed that distractor from it. I also put them in a position where they're less certain about where I am. Because if I'm in the back of the room there's only a few places for me to go because of how the class is arranged. The front of the room has more space for me to move around. So I can very quickly and quietly moved from one part of the room to another without anybody seeing me in their peripheral vision. Maybe that just means I want to be a spy or a ninja.
Larry Burden 20:50 Which is true.
David Noller 20:51 Those things might be true.
Larry Burden 20:52 and I think, I think might is not strong enough.
David Noller 20:55 But I like being a spy, ninja teacher too.
Larry Burden 20:57 Is there anything else before I move on.
David Noller 20:59 No, go ahead.
Larry Burden 21:00 This Pods Getting Gamey!
David Noller 21:07 So last year I started developing this, and, I teach Sociology so I get to play along. I get to play around with society stuff. So I developed a kind of society building game, where they get a number of points to spend each round on upgrades to their village, and based on the combinations that they choose, I have predetermined like consequences for that. So, there's always a group that wants to pick in the first round, improved weapons and military training. That group didn't do anything with food. They all of a sudden become beholden to another society that took agriculture. But then they can trade their defense, their defensive capacity for the food that's available at that other place. But that's just the first round, by the time we get to the third, fourth and fifth round. We've got groups that are attacking other villages, other villages that are saying, we'll help you defend against them if you'll do X, and it becomes a lesson in how societies structure themselves around a common goal, how societies will create alliances with other groups within the society when it's convenient, but are quick to abandon those when it no longer becomes useful or advantageous. And we talked about structural functionalism, conflict theory. We can talk about tribalism, there's so many things that that can come out of that. But the first few steps feel like a game, and then it feels like survival. Like the first few steps, they're like, oh yeah we'll take horse trading, or we'll take, caravans, so we can move around. And then they realize, well if they took caravan and economics, and food storage, they can now provide food to all these other people and manange the whole trade system. Where the warfare people, they realized today, they said, whent can we attack and I said right now and we started rolling dice. And I put the dice roller in the screen, and everything was determined by the dice roll. And I just made this all up as we went. This might not be for everybody, but I will say, whether the game comes from your head or it comes from a box, no matter when I use it, kids always say that's the most fun I've ever had learning. The kids are learning a lot about values, and social structure, and organization, and power discrepancy and all that thing. It's as a result of participating in this simulation that's happening.
Larry Burden 23:30 I would love to see how you incorporate your teaching, in the game, in the moment. Whereas where you're pointing out what these things are and what this moment represents or how you do that.
David Noller 23:41 Yeah, you know it's interesting because I don't talk a lot about it during the game and let it play. Because I want to keep everybody as active and then into it as possible. So we're going to play another 15-20 minutes on Monday and then I'm going to ask questions about how does this relate to the concepts that we've been studying all week.
Larry Burden 23:59 I'm gonna let it go because we can keep talking about this. In closing, follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @tcapsloop
David Noller 24:04 @technollergist
Larry Burden 24:05 Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in, Google Play Store, Spotify or anywhere else you get your ear candy. Remember, you're never too old to play.
David Noller 24:13 Play a game today, they're good for you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai

EdTech Loop Episode 104 - Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Danelle says: Search smarter, not harder! This episode of the EdTech Loop Podcast has some great tips for getting more out of your search. 
Databases - mel.org search vs internet search
Go through the databases offered and when you might use them:
Britannica Fundamentals K-2
Britannica School Elementary 3-4
Britannica School Middle
eBook K-8 collection
Spanish Encyclopedia
Explora for Elementary Schools
PEBBLE GO PreK-3
World Book Early Learning
World Book Kids
Gale Power Search (mentioned in TechNollerGist)
Super cool specialized Google searches - https://www.lifewire.com/other-search-engines-4039631
Google Trends - explores how Google data can be used to tell stories
Google Patents - search to see and read patents from around the world (more info)
Google Scholar - Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.
Tech Tool of the Week:
Global School Play Day - Feb 5, 2020 #GSPD2020
CALL FOR TOYS - Tell your class to bring anything they wish to play with to school on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. The only restrictions: they must bring toys and these toys may NOT require batteries or electricity. No devices. Give them some ideas, since today's kids rarely play and often own very few toys: board games, dolls, Legos, blocks, trucks, cars, racetracks, playing cards, empty cardboard boxes, markers, jigsaw puzzles, blankets (for forts), social games (charades, Pictionary, etc.) The only exception on the electronics rule would be a board game that has an electronic timer, an electronics play kit, or similar. How about taking your students out in the dirt or snow to dig, explore and get messy? You may want to show your students photos of past GSPD events to open their eyes to unfamiliar types of unstructured play.
PLAY! NO SCREENS - NO STRUCTURE - ALL DAY LONG
On February 5, 2020, allow your students to spread their toys out around the room or take the kids outside and just PLAY!
 
Don't organize anything for your students.
Don't tell them how to play with the toys/games.
Don't interfere with your students unless you see something that could get you fired or would physically hurt a child (this does not include something that may be physically uncomfortable for a child.)
Don't Leave Them Unsupervised as the day is unstructured by adults, but not unsupervised.
 
 
Other than taking a few pictures/videos, try to be invisible and let the kids play. This is a day of unstructured play, not playful teacher-led lessons. You will be amazed at what your kids come up with!
What If?
What if... you can't run your Global School Play Day on February 5th? Do it on another day! The important thing is your kids and colleagues need to be free from thinking that play is a waste of time and begin to see the value in it.
What if… you don’t want to play ALL day? That’s fine. Make it the hour of play. Again, the point of Global School Play Day is to raise awareness and start discussions. We do encourage you though to take the plunge and dedicate a whole day to unstructured play. You will cause others to ask why you would give up a whole day "just for playing."
What if... you want to do #GSPD with your high school or college class? Go for it! Big kids need to play, too!
What if… you want to jump in and play with your kids? Can adults play, too? That’s up to you, but the concept of GSPD is to get kids playing freely without adult intervention or structure. If you get down on the floor with your kids, be sure to let them just play. Resist the temptation to organize, discipline, and teach.
What if...you want to have your students use iPads or computers? Well, no one is going to tell you what to do, but this is NOT the concept of Global School Play Day. GSPD is a day to get away from staring at screens and instead interacting with peers. [Note: the organizers of GSPD are NOT opposed to technology use for children.]
 
WIREDTC - mark calendars, big announcements, including keynote, are coming SOON.

EdTech Loop Episode 103 - Cut Through the Clutter

Episode 103 of the EdTech Loop podcast has Danelle braking out the oversized scissors to help you cut through the digital clutter.
Cut Through the Email Clutter: GmailIncrease productivity by sorting (star before folder names)*Action Required - green tagged
*Waiting for Response - yellow tagged
SettingsShow “send and archive” button in reply
Smart Compose (predictive writing suggestions appear as you compose an email)
Smart reply (three suggestions for replies)
Templates - “save draft as template”
Cut Through the Grading Clutter: Streamline grading processCatlin Tucker high school English teacher and a featured speaker for MACUL 2020 - video:LIVE at Fall CUE 2019: She talks about the struggles with grading. “It’s time to rethink our workflow.  The teacher is doing the lion share of the work in the classroom. We know that the person doing the work is the person who is doing the learning.  Why would we rob our students of the opportunity to learn. We have to reimagine our workflow so that our students are doing the work in the classroom.”  Her example of a student led workflow:Student completes assignment.
Student corrects mechanics using Grammarly before it’s “done.”
Teacher gives students an exemplar and a rubric.
Student is asked to look at what they did, compare it to the exemplar, assess their own skills using the rubric.
Student reflects in a learning log.
In this scenario, the students are doing the heavy cognitive lifting.  They are doing the learning. Instead of asking “How can I”....reframe the question as “How can the students…”  She shares some pretty awesome key shifts in the YouTube video - Teach students to track, monitor, and reflect on their progress, provide timely actionable feedback in class AS students work, make time to grade student projects with the students sitting next to you, partner with students and prioritize their agency
Research to support student directed learning - it’s all throughout the ISTE Standards for Educators and Students.
 
Cut Through the Distraction Clutter: New Year, New You, Digital Wellness - https://istedigcitpln.wixsite.com/home/digital-wellness (go here during pod), based off Manoush Zomoradi’s book: Bored and Brilliant:How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self builds on that experiment to demonstrate how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in this new digital ecosystem. Zomorodi explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without totally abandoning our gadgets in the process. Grounding the book in the neuroscience and cognitive psychology of “mind wandering,” she illuminates what our brains do when we’re doing nothing at all. Also a TED talk 5 days - Keep phone in pocket, photo free day, delete that app, take a “fauxcation”, one small observation, dream house (creativity exercise)
Data Savvy Project: https://istedigcitpln.wixsite.com/home/data-savvy-series
FYI-Manoush is coming to MACUL 2020 and has two awesome podcasts, also started The Privacy Paradox (take back your digital data): IRL - “Online Life is Real Life.  Privacy breaches, closed platforms, hacking, fake news, or cyber bullying, we the people have the power to change the course of the Internet, keeping it ethical, safe, wierd, and wonderful for everyone.” 
Note to Self - “Is your phone watching you? Can texting make you smarter? Note to Self explores these and other essential quandaries facing anyone trying to preserve their humanity in the digital age.”
 
 
Cut Through The Edtech Noise
 
Use your experts - everyone has a site online that will “help your students flourish” and will be the “gamechanger”.  Use your experts and ask their advice! They have studied this stuff, they know the research, and if they don’t, it’s their job to do the digging for you….EdTech Coach
Tech Dept
REMC/ISD
Another Useful Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/yves_morieux_as_work_gets_more_complex_6_rules_to_simplify?language=en#t-4333
Tech tool of the Week:
New Year, New You, Digital Wellness - https://istedigcitpln.wixsite.com/home/digital-wellness
 
https://medium.com/@whenifeellike/what-ive-learnt-as-a-17-year-old-who-deleted-all-social-media-d282274d4edd
Transcripts will be coming.

TechNollerGist Episode 12: EdTech Resources You Should Be Using

The TechNollerGist shares some #edtech resources you should be using but might not be, as well as an update on his classroom gamification, it's Monopoly time! 

EdTech Loop Episode 102 - Tips for New Teachers

The EdTech Loop is back from winter break and ready to enrich your practice with potentially useful, "Tips for New Teachers."
 
Transcripts coming soon!

EdTech Loop Ep. 101 - 5 Favorite Things

Our annual, "5 Favorite EdTech Things," podcast for in 2020. Show notes and transcript will be coming on the horizon. Enjoy the Pod!