Welcome to a series that examines the process of research. The first few posts will include that important pre-search process. In this series you are sure to find something that will fit any classroom  First, to ensure you do not miss one of these valuable posts or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS.  As always,  I invite you to follow me on twitter (@mjgormans). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on. Have a great week – Michael Gorman (21centuryedtech)

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Please contact me soon if you have an interest. My winter, spring, and summer for 2014 PD dates  are already beginning to fill fast! 

10 Steps For Pre-Search Strategies… Digital Literacy Series Part 1 – Michael Gorman (http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

The internet is an amazing place filled with a wealth of information.  In fact, there is so much information, students must be given the skills on how to search and evaluate in order to utilize the amazing treasures that can be found in an ever running faucet of information.   While skilled researchers have developed meta-cognitive skills in order  to prepare for their encounter with their favorite search engine, this is not always the case of students in the classroom. This article does not involve my lessons of facilitating the search using the Google Advance Search,  or my A-G method for evaluating websites..watch for updates on these posts in the future.  Instead, I wish to discuss the strategies that are important to research before a student enters that first key word in the research portion. The next post in this series will introduce you to 15 valuable tools you can use to facilitate the pre-search.

1. Design the Question – As a teacher it is important to understand the purpose of the research activity. This helps in designing the research question that is to be used. Is it a question with a definite answer …or is it one that is open ended? There is a big difference between the two as students are facilitated through the process. A simple research question (What elements make up water?) may be easily answered through a search engine. In this case, there may be minimal time spent on pre-search, with an emphasis  more on web page evaluation and search strategies. On the other hand, it may be the question is more open ended… (Is there enough safe drinking water in the world?). In this case there may be a need for pre-search strategies , although even simple questions can also be served by some pre-search activities.

2. Emphasize The Need To Know – To begin we must understand that research really does involve student inquiry. Perhaps before answering a question… we ask students to ask more questions.  Often this is called the “Need To Know”.  A good open ended question that drives research does not always have a clear and precise answer. In other words, it may not be Google-able. Instead students might ask “Need To Know” questions that can be answered in a simple search. It may also lead to more questions, allowing for divergent learning. Teaching students to first ask great questions might be more important then starting the task by finding answers. Even in a simple question, (What elements make up water?), students may have to answer the question (What is an element?). This emphasizes the related topic below.

3. Clarifying the Question –  Often students do not even understand the question being asked. In this case the question needs to be simplified. There may also be a discussion needed allowing students to clarify the question. This may involve the ” Need to Know” described above. It may also necessitate that students break down the question and get definitions to words being used in the question. This might facilitate the need for students to find synonyms, antonyms, and associations… before diving into the search. It could involve a mini search, where definitions are found for word meaning. In this manner students find success at researching manageable tasks. This can be especially powerful when students are allowed to collaborate together seeking the answers.

4. Creating Student Journals – Educators must encourage students to keep a road map of their pre-search journey. It might include words, definitions, reflections, and  “Need To Know” questions, This can be done using a reflective journal.  One might ask students to write entries to reflect on their research journey activity. The teacher might develop a rubric that uses components of critical thinking. These components of critical thinking can be discussion prompts in the student journal.

5. Defining the learning goal/target – Please remember that research is a process. While the end goal is to try to find an answer, remind students they may run into more questions first. It is only through though this process that real learning takes place. The focus must be on the process and not the answer. This has its formation in the pre-search time period. If there is no pre-search time given… possibly the end product has become more important then the process.

6. Defining the answer – There may even be times when there is no answer, and students must formulate and must create their own answer. This can be discussed in  this important pre-search process and students may need to determine which type of question they may have. In this way, students learn that the internet does not always have the answer.  It also allows students the the powerful process of  creating their own new knowledge, which in turn allows for better understanding.

7. Allowing for Formative Assessment – It is important to use formative assessment techniques in order to assess students while allowing for future instruction.   Include  pre-search learning activities, look for feedback, devise rubrics, celebrate success, and be ready to provide guidance in any set backs. This might include a exit slip that asks for student understanding of an important word, which must be understood in order to find success in the next phase of the process.The next post in the series will include tools for possible activities.

8. Encourage collaboration –  Encourage collaboration during these the pre-search phase, and later. Working with others will help build confidence and can also assist in developing understanding. A collaborative and engaged group can often promote rigor by challenging and questioning each other.

9. Utilize Internet Tools –  There are numerous internet tools that can help students and teachers through out the pre-search process. They are engaging while also promoting the important meta-cognition needed to really look for and create answers while researching.  The next post in this series will contain about fifteen possibilities … one good reason to subscribe now!

10. Create awareness beyond the search engine – Many times students not only fail to practice any pre-search strategies, but they go instantly to Google. They must see that it is important to understand the question before prompting a search in a search engine. Discussions on different ways to find answers can also be part of the pre-search. What subscription data bases do they have access to, what might be in the library, are there are other search engines, are there non-traditional research sources such as interviews, museums, transcripts, the hidden internet, or other possibilities? Examining this concept could make the research time more productive.

In conclusion, it is essential to block out time for pre-search.  After all pre-search is the process of learning how to ask good questions, discovering  with answers. and coming up with more questions. It includes the act of  defining the question while building an understanding of important word meanings. It allows for formative learning, while also incorporating the power of collaboration to explore and understand. Also of importance is understanding there could be many ways to answer a question, and some questions might not be answered. Most importantly, some of those answers may be their own student creation from information they have learned along the way. As these skills are emphasized, students will become masters of 21st century learning, a concept that will be so important to their future of challenging and exciting problems. Please join me in my next series post where I examine 15 powerful web tools to facilitate the important process of pre-searching.

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century resources.  Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Digital Literacy, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy.  I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans.  I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Interested in having me visit your school , organization, or conference… check my booking information… 2014 is filling fast! Keep  up the amazing work,  have a great week, and enjoy the resources! – Mike Gorman

Booking Info - Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Those 2014 dates are going fast.

You use Google Docs and Sheets to get all sorts of stuff done—whether you're staying up late to finish that final paper or just getting started on a new project at the office. But to help take some of that work off your shoulders, today we're launching add-ons—new tools created by developer partners that give you even more features in your documents and spreadsheets.

To browse through add-ons for Docs and Sheets, select Get add-ons in the Add-ons menu of any open document or spreadsheet. (Add-ons for spreadsheets are only available in the new Google Sheets).

Once you install an add-on it will become available across all of your documents or spreadsheets and you can start using it right away.

Here are just a few examples of how add-ons can help you do more with Docs and Sheets:

Print address labels and name tags 
With Avery Label Merge you can seamlessly import addresses or names from Sheets into Docs for printing. Just pick the type of Avery labels you’ll be printing and your document will be formatted to match the layout of your label pack.
Create a bibliography without leaving Docs 
Citing sources is about to get much easier for the millions of students who use Google Docs to write papers. The EasyBib Bibliography Creator helps you cite books, journals, and websites in MLA, APA, and Chicago style by entering in titles, journal article names, and websites right inside your document. 

Send customized emails 
With Merge by Mailchimp you can send customized emails from Google Docs. Use merge tags to pull info from a spreadsheet into your document. Once your data is merged, hit send and your personalized emails will be delivered.
Get approvals from Docs and Sheets 
Need to gather approvals or feedback? Letter Feed Workflows routes your document to the right people and adds a simple “Approve” button right inside your document or spreadsheet. You’ll be notified as soon as it’s approved, and can publish the final version with a single click.
These are just some of the many add-ons that are available for you to use right now in the Docs or Sheets add-on stores, with lots more on the way.

Posted by Saurabh Gupta, Product Manager

I had two administrators approach me yesterday and start a conversation.

One told me about how their IT department had closed all social media in their school and about how their fear that if they were to open it.  The fear shared was that their would be so many more issues of cyberbullying, inappropriate content shared, amongst other things.

The other told me about how their school district has all social media sites open to their students and have very few issues.  In fact, he had shared that since the network was opened, the issues lessened because of their focus on teaching digital citizenship.

Huh.

The question that came to my mind was, are these districts talking to one another?  My other thought was, do the districts that have things opened even try to talk to the ones that are open?  Seriously, people have open networks and have very few issues yet so many others with closed networks talk about the fear of what could be if schools decided to open their network.

Does looking only within our own organizations and focusing on the “fear factor” really help our students?  I am guessing you can figure out what I think.

If you are interested, here is a simple rubrics to start a conversation on this topic: Is Your School’s DIgital Citizenship Practice a Pass or Fail?

For preservice teachers (PTs) to be able to teach well, they need to "get it" -- that aha! moment when they truly understand what good teaching looks like. My PTs often do not witness close reading (identified in the Common Core State Standards as a critical skill) modeled in their practicum. Fortunately, free high-quality video of this skill being taught can be found on the Internet and is among the most effective teaching tools I use.

read more

In my previous post, I shared how I use freely available video in my reading and literacy methods course to help my preservice teachers (PTs) understand close reading instruction at a level that could not be attained through reading and discussion alone.

Below is my curated collection of videos for general Common Core info, as well as videos to teach the close reading, text complexity and informational texts standards.

read more

Welcome to a series that examines the process of research. These first two  posts include information and resources on that important pre-search process. In this series you are sure to find something that will fit any classroom  First, to ensure you do not miss one of these valuable posts or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS.  As always,  I invite you to follow me on twitter (@mjgormans). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on. Have a great week – Michael Gorman (21centuryedtech)

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Please contact me soon if you have an interest. It is not to early to think about planning PD for the next school year …. dates are  already beginning to fill!

15 Amazing Web Tools Facilitating Pre-Search Strategies… Digital Literacy Series Pt 2 – Michael Gorman    (http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

Last time we reflected on the idea of the internet being an amazing place filled with a wealth of information. I addressed what I feel are ten important pre-search strategies when beginning research with students.  You can read about these strategies in the prior post. In this post, I wish to build on  the steps outlined earlier. I would like to introduce some tools that can be used to help facilitate the pre-search period of time with students. By understanding the need for pre-search one can see how these tools, some of which you may already know, can be used in a different way to help students as they get ready to research.  Please enjoy the tools and let me know of other that I can include in a future post.

1. Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary —An amazing web tool allowing students to  look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Students will learn how words associate and will come up with new possible search terms. It is easy to enter words into the search box. Students can than look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. When the mouse hovers over a node, one can see the definition. You can even click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.  Note from developer: “Visuwords™ uses Princeton University’s WordNet, an opensource database built by University students and language researchers. Combined with a visualization tool and user interface built from a combination of modern web technologies, Visuwords™ is available as a free resource to all patrons of the web.”

• It’s a dictionary! It’s a thesaurus!
• Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
• The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
• No membership required

2. Wikipedia - As you may know, this is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. The name “Wikipedia” is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning “quick”) and encyclopedia. Of course, Wikipedia is not the only source of research, and as in all sources should be confirmed with other resources. Wikipedia can be a great place to start because:

• Wikipedia’s articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. These links can be powerful at providing insight into the search and possible information.
• There are words in a Wikipedia article can be recorded as possible keywords for a future search. As students record these  words they may also wish to figure out meanings with a simple Google (define:) search.
• Wikipedia can give some beginning information that can help define and set the pathway for research
• The Wikipedia end of article sources can be invaluable in the research and search process.

 3. Wordle - This website   allows for the generation of “word clouds” from text that is provided to it. These clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text that was input. Students can tweak these word clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. One pre-search strategy would involve placing an article on a topic into Wordle… perhaps from Wikipedia. Once the common words are eliminated the word cloud is made. This is now a great time to discuss and investigate words that are more prominent. Could these words be valuable in the research that will take place?

4. AnswerGarden - This site is best described as a minimalist feedback tool that is easy to use in the classroom. A teacher can create an Answer Garden by entering a topic on the Create New Answer Garden-Page. From there you will be redirected to your newly created Answer Garden Website. Since no-one has posted an answer yet, your Answer Garden will still be empty. The next step is to share your Answer Garden URL. Use it live in the classroom, to pose a question, or place (embed) your Answer Garden on your classroom website. A Driving Question could be posted with a request that students post their Need to Knows. There are countless possibilities. All student feedback  is than represented in your Answer Garden. One neat feature is to be able to export the feedback into a Word Cloud using Wordle or Tagxedo! Imagine the possible reflection and discussion that can spark great research.

5. Text 2 Mindmap -This website allows for a wonderful way to organize thoughts before performing a search. In order to encourage the use of mind mapping, Text 2 Mind Map has provided a free and simple mind mapping tool online.  The easiest way to learn Text2MindMap is to play with it and you will see that your students understand it fast.  Some tips:

Write some text in the text area, use the TAB key to indent text lines, and click the “Draw Mind Map”-button to see what happens. Each text line in the text area will become a separate node in the mind map. Indenting the text (using the TAB key) starts a new branch of nodes in the mind map. Also, have a look at the Options to style your mind map.

How might your students mind map their pre-search strategies? This is a wonderful way to get students to see the pre-search and research process and all of the possible connections. It could be a part of their blue print for that eventual encounter with the search engine.

6. Diffen - A very interesting tooll that lets the user compare anything. What is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R? What is the difference between an apple and an orange, or  an alligator and a crocodile?  How does the work environment at IBM compare with working at Microsoft? How does living in Seattle compare with living in Amsterdam? What is the difference between a Plasma TV and an LCD TV? How about Cal Tech and UCLA or the Yankees and the Red Sox? These comparisons might clarify some Need To Know question and also provide words that will be valuable in the research process.

7. Thesaurus - Every month more than 50 million users across the globe visit this online English dictionary and thesaurus. That makes it the world’s largest and most authoritative free online dictionary and mobile reference resource.  A thesauruses is invaluable at finding words that might just lend themselves to the research process. It can open up a whole new line up of search word terms.

8. Wordsift - This is a wonderful tool for classroom use. Students can  enter a word into the WordSift “box” and a semantic map appears with different synonyms for the word. It is great for those looking to find research keyword possibilities. When a user hovers over the word, or its synonyms, a  definition is produced. Clicking on a synonym brings up a semantic map for that specific word. Each word is accompanied by Google images that illustrate different aspects of the word. Another great way to get students brainstorming and thinking about research possibilities.  A user can link from a word on the list to the same WordSift features.  With  just one click on a word in the list, students will get the same features, as if they had entered it into WordSift.

9. InstaGrok - This tool allows students to research a topic with an interactive map. They can customize it with facts, links, and videos. It is also possible for them to share it to show what they have learned. A wonderful way to journal the research process.

10. Interactive Webbing Tool - Students can use this  interactive from Read-Write-Think to create free-form graphic organizers,. They can drag  ideas around in the organizer to arrange any layout and relationship that they want. They can use circle or box (rectangle) shapes to appear on the chart and each layer on the chart will have a different color border for the shapes chosen. Imagine how this can be used to show the path and process in research.

11. Fishbone Diagram - This incredible digital tool from Classtools allows students to breakdown their  per-search ideas and thoughts while providing details and definitions. A Fishbone Diagram has always been a wonderful graphic organizer on paper, and now it can be part of your digital toolkit.

12. Google Image Search - It has often been said that a picture paints a thousand words. Your students can locate images and brainstorm possible search terms that these image provide. Not only will this be powerful as students begin to get ready to search, it is also a wonderful meta-cognitive activity

13. Dictionary - Not much explanation is needed as to why the dictionary can be an important tool in the pre-search time period. Perhaps students need to look up a word in order to understand a question, or an answer. This is just one example of many dictionaries online.

14. Google Drive (Docs) – The ability to collaborate together in the brainstorming portion of the pre-search strategy can be amplified by the ability to share digital documents. Your students can share documents, and also use Google’s drawing tools to collaborate, record, and journal their research journey.

15. K-W-L Creator –  Discover another great digital tool from Read-Write-Think. K-W-L charts have been widely used to help students prepare for research by organizing what students know (K) and want to learn (W) before they research, and then reflecting on what they learned (L). This helpful interactive tool is equipped with the work-saver functionality so that students can save their work at different stages in the K-W-L process. Users also have the ability to embed text links, giving an extra level of interaction and explanation.

As stated in the last post, it is essential to block out time for pre-search.  After all pre-search is the process of learning how to ask good questions, discovering  with answers. and coming up with more questions. It includes the act of  defining the question while building an understanding of important word meanings.  I do hope that some of these tools will help you and your students discover amazing ways to make use of the incredible resources on the internet. Using these tools to facilitate those pre-search skills will allow your  students to become masters of 21st century learning, a concept that will be so important to their future of challenging and exciting problems. Through out the coming posts, along with other educational topics, I will continue this exploration as we go from pre-search to research. Please join me, sign up today… and enjoy these tools!

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century resources.  Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy.  I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans.  I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Keep  up the amazing work,  have a great week, and enjoy the resources! – Mike Gorman

Booking Info - Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Those 2014 dates are going fast.

This morning at the NCTIES conference I facilitated a workshop about using Google Maps and Google Earth in social studies, science, language arts, and mathematics. Below you can see a list of resources we looked at and directions for creating placemarks in Google Maps Engine Lite, directions for using Classic Google Maps, directions for creating tours in Google Tour Builder and in Google Earth.

Science

English/ Language Arts

Math

Social Studies

Lucidchart is a great tool for creating flowcharts, mindmaps, and graphic organizers. This week Lucid Chart added the option to include interactive tables and notations to your charts. Now you can right-click on any shape in your mind map to write and add a note about it. The new tables option allows you to add spreadsheets to your Lucid Chart flowcharts.

Lucidchart offers a simple drag and drop interface for creating flow charts, organizational charts, mind maps, and other types of diagrams. To create with Lucidchart just select elements from the menus and drag them to the canvas. You can re-size any element and type text within elements on your chart. Arrows and connecting lines can be re-sized, repositioned, and labeled to bring clarity to your diagrams. Google Chrome users can use Lucidchart offline through the Lucidchart Chrome app.

Applications for Education
Lucidchart charges business customers, but makes all of their tools free for teachers and students. Lucidchart is a good tool for students to use to create charts that explain processes in science or to simply show the connections between key concepts in a course.

In my previous post, I listed the steps to create awesome, virtual flipping books using Google Docs and the website Flipsnack. Here is the most thorough step-by-step guide you’ll ever need for you and your students to embark on this excellent endeavor.

Student Examples

The links below are examples from grade 3 students at Singapore American School.
Feel free to leave them a comment!

• Snow Skiing by Kourtney
• Dogs by Brady
• Sharks by Samantha
• Minions by Harrison
• Dolphins by Elizabeth
• Minecraft by Hikaru

Happy flipping!

This is a guest post from Holly Clark at EdTechTeacher.org an advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers.

Subtext and Tellagami are two amazing free apps that can expand the way you discover information about each student’s reading comprehension. By using their combined power, students can produce and publish valuable information about their reading comprehension to help their teachers better understand them as learners.

First, begin with the Subtext App. Subtext is a collaborative reading app - also available a online at Subtext.com - that allows students to collaboratively read together. After you have downloaded the app, sign in using either a Gmail or Edmodo account. Once inside the app, you can search for an informational text or short story and add that selection to a “Group” as explained in the video tutorial below.


Students join the group and read the material - whether it be an eBook, web article, or even a PDF document. Teachers can populate the reading with discussion questions as well as other formative assessments like multiple choice questions. This allows the students to work in a collaborative reading environment where they can work together toward a richer comprehension experience. Instead of reading alone, students have the opportunity to discuss their reading together, and teachers can use their discussions and responses as a rich formative assessment tool. One amazing feature of subtext, is that it allows you to add into the reading videos and images that help the student visualize the text. The Common Core asks that teachers add visuals to texts and Subtext makes this easy to accomplish. See example below.



Once students have commented on and finished the reading assignment in Subtext, it is time to switch apps and complete one additional step. This involves having students make a summative recording of the reading that they just completed. One of the great features of recording an additional segment is the ability to have students explain the main idea of the reading in an articulate and easy to understand way - a speaking literacy that teachers often have trouble finding time to include. This additional step also allows teachers to gather valuable information about each student's reading comprehension. To complete this step, students describe the reading using a recording platform that captures their ideas quickly and easily. In this case, I have chosen Tellegami - a recording app that generates a video of an avatar repeating the recorded ideas of the learner. Here is an example of a summary paragraph using a Tellagami.


After the students have finished these steps, they can share their final product with the teacher by email or by uploading the Tellagami generated video to their Google Drive account and sharing that with the teacher. Teachers now have two ways that they can gain valuable information about student reading comprehension. Together these two apps provide rich information about how the student is doing with reading comprehension.

Learn more about Subtext and Tellagami in a number of the EdTechTeacher Summer Workshops. You can also learn from Holly at the EdTechTeacher Learning Futures Summit.

In last month's issue of The Digital Shift I featured the site Book Trailers for Readers. Book Trailers for Readers was developed by teacher-librarian Michelle Harclerode. Over the weekend Michelle sent me a link to a nice infographic that she created about book trailers and Common Core Standards. The infographic provides a great outline for the process of creating book trailers. Click here to see Michelle's helpful infographic.

If you want to have your students create their own book trailers in lieu of a traditional book report, you can find a helpful outline of the process here. I have written about the book trailer idea in the past too. The three video creation tools that I currently recommend for book trailer creation are WeVideo, Animoto, and YouTube's Photo Slideshow tool.

WeVideo is my favorite online video creation tool. In the video editor you can upload your own media clips or use stock media clips to produce your video. The video editor provides tools for trimming the length of display and or sound of each element you add to your video project. A large collection of transitions and special effects are available in WeVideo's media gallery. The WeVideo Google Drive app allows you to save all of your video projects in your Google Drive account.

Animoto is the old-reliable in this list. Animoto makes it possible to quickly create a video using still images, music, video clips, and text. If you can make a slideshow presentation, you can make a video using Animoto. Animoto's free service limits you to 30 second videos. You can create longer videos if you apply for an education account. Animoto offers free iOS and Android apps.

The YouTube photo slideshow creation tools allow you to specify the length of time that each image is displayed for. After uploading your images you can use the annotations tool to add as much text as you like to each frame of your video. Directions for creating a YouTube photo slideshow are available here.

I’ve used “backchannel” websites and collaborative documents MANY times with teachers during professional development sessions and conferences, as well as with graduate and undergraduate students in classes. Monday I substituted for one of our fifth grade teachers who was out sick, however, and this provided me with my first chance to use a text backchannel with two different classes of fifth graders. Free “interactive writing” websites like TodaysMeet, EtherPad documents hosted free on sites like TitanPad or MeetingWords, or a Google Doc set to allow open editing can be helpful spaces to solicit student thoughts in a lesson. Since I have an iPad cart in my STEM classroom (and Monday is my planning day, when I’m not required to substitute teach) I decided to utilize my iPad cart as a sub. Here are a few of my lessons learned about this initial backchannel experience with fifth graders, as well as some details from our math lesson which might include things you could try with students using iPads.

Every single time I’ve ever provided upper elementary students with an open space to text chat with each other, at least one student always “blows it” within the first five or ten minutes. This happens no matter how much preparatory discussions we have about digital citizenship, being accountable for what you say in online spaces as well as face-to-face, etc. It just comes with the territory, this is what students do: Explore and push the boundaries. And I’m OK with that. Over time I’ve come to understand that these conversations about appropriate use of text chat, and having a student sit-out for a short time from the synchronous online chat as a consequence of a poor decision, are EXACTLY the kind of conversations and interactions I want to be having regularly with students regarding interactive digital media. Whether we’re using the open chat features of MinecraftEDU or using TodaysMeet, I’ve learned to expect some students to “mess up” but the conversations we have as a result to be important, needed, and beneficial.

Anticipating that at least one student in each class would post something in our TodaysMeet that wouldn’t be kind or appropriate, I chose to let the room expire / go offline after just 1 day. This is a very good thing, since I didn’t particularly want to archive the formative interactive writing experiences we had for a long time. When you first setup a TodaysMeet room, you decide how long the room will stay online. Weigh different factors when making this decision. For me in Monday’s situation, a 1 day room was perfect.

I always make a rule with text chat environments that students use their real first name. No one is allowed to be anonymous or use a pseudonym. If students need to change their name (to their real name) they can simply refresh their Safari browser window and then JOIN the TodaysMeet again with their correct name.

The fifth graders I was teaching on Monday had been studying fractions, percentages, and interpreting pie graphs. Rather than do a provided worksheet on pie graphs, I decided to use some current statistics from the winter olympics, have students create their own pie graphs, and then blog a screenshot of their pie graph with a challenging question other students could then answer via blog comments. Last semester in November and December, I taught both these classes of fifth graders how to blog with both text and images using iPads and the KidBlog app. Since their classroom KidBlog sites were already setup and they knew (most of them) how to post to them, this proved to be a relatively engaging and successful lesson.

I started the lesson with a discussion of the winter olympics, and we used the backchannel to share about our favorite Olympic sports. I wanted to lead up to a discussion of the science of figure skating and share an ASAPscience video about that, so I shared the 5 minute video “OLYMPIC GAMES CLOSING CEREMONY Javier Fernandez in the Figure Skating Gala Event 2014.” We used the backchannel to share ideas and responses to this figure skating performance. I prefaced the video with some questions about how figure skaters spin fast.

We discussed what we’d observed in the video, especially with the figure skating spins, and then watched “The Science of Figure Skating” by ASAPscience.

I shared these videos from my iPad2, mirroring its display through my laptop with AirServer to the classroom Smartboard. I joined into the TodaysMeet backchannel using my iPhone during the videos, since both my iPad and laptop were tied up sharing them.

After watching this second video, I muted and replayed it as we discussed some of the terms and math statistics from it. Some of these had been shared by students in the TodaysMeet backchannel.

After that discussion, I explained to the students that they were going to use data from the 2014 winter olympics medal counts to create a pie graph today. I love how simply Googling “2014 winter olympics medal count” produced an interactive table of statistics we could use for this project. Students explored and learned they could click on individual countries and events to get more details. We discussed how some countries with higher total medal counts were ranked lower than others who had a larger number of gold medals.

I shared the link to that Google Search with students using a QR Code. I used the free iPhone app (on my iPad) QR Code Beamer to create the QR Code “on the fly.” I used the same app to next have students link to the free NCES “Create a Graph” website. It does not require Flash so it works great on the iPads using the Safari web browser.

I showed students how to create a simple pie graph using a title and “3 slices” or data points, for the gold, silver and bronze medals a particular country earned in this year’s winter olympics. I reminded students how they could take a screenshot of their iPad screen, when they were zoomed into the “preview” of their graph, and then crop that picture in the Photos app before posting it to their classroom KidBlog site. Here is a screenshot of one of the students’ posts, which includes their labeled pie graph and question, along with classmates’ answers.

During the lesson when I shared QR codes with students, they scanned them using the free i-Nigma QR code scanner app. It’s the fastest QR code scanner I’ve used and seen for the iPad.

I’ve always liked math assignments where students are required to come up with questions about a particular topic or skill. This assignment did not lead to lots of deep and complex thinking about pie graphs, but all the students in each class were able to successfully create and post a pie graph using their iPads and most of them also answered some of the questions their classmates had posted. As a “teacher” and administrator of their classroom KidBlog websites, I was able to moderate both student posts and comments in class so they could see and respond to each others’ ideas. I felt it was a successful lesson overall.

I did not tell students the direct link to the TodaysMeet backchannel we used during the lesson, but instead had them connect to it using a QR Code. At the end of the day when some students had finished their work and had a little free time with their iPads, some of them did return to the TodaysMeet and chat some mildly inappropriate things to each other. This was easy to identify and address because of the laughter, as I circulated around the room, and also led (as before) to some important and needed conversations on responsibility and accountability for online behavior.

This was the first time these fifth graders had ever used iPads during their “regular” math class, and the first time they’d used a backchannel of any kind in school. They’d used iPads and posted to KidBlog with me in STEM class the previous semester, but a lot of what we did technologically was new. As the novelty of using a backchannel would wear off, if this was something they did on a regular basis, I think the amount of off-task and inappropriate use of the backchannel would also subside. All of these dynamics reinforce how important it is to regularly check-in with students during a lesson to confirm they are on-task and making good decisions with their technology tools. It also demonstrated the benefit of having a backchannel space which expired in 1 day.

I feel thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to teach with an iPad cart both in my classroom and in the classroom where I substituted on Monday. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, all our students will have iPads or laptops which they can use to regularly engage in “interactive writing” like we did together for these integrated math lessons.

Technorati Tags: blog, cart, ipad, science, writing, interactive, graph, olympics, asapscience

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Check out Wesley's new ebook, "Mapping Media to the Common Core: Volume I." (2013) It's $15!

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If you're trying to listen to a podcast episode and it's not working, check this status page. (Wes is migrating his podcasts to Amazon S3 for hosting.) Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Common Core / Curriculum."

Backchannel with 5th Graders & Pie Chart Questions on the Winter Olympics originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 25, 2014.

SpeakPipe is a neat little service that allows visitors to your blog to leave you voice messages without picking up a phone. I had it installed on a classroom blog for a while. Until this week the only way to have SpeakPipe appear on your blog was as a pop-out widget. Now you can embed the recording widget directly into your blog (the sidebar is the ideal placement).

With SpeakPipe installed on your blog anyone can click on the "send voicemail" button and leave a message for you. When a visitor clicks the "leave voicemail" button she will be prompted to allow access to her computer. Then the visitor can start recording a message for you. Visitors can, but don't have to, enter their names and email addresses for you. You can listen to and download the messages left for you in your SpeakPipe inbox.

Applications for Education
When installed on a school website SpeakPipe could provide a good way for parents to leave voicemail messages. SpeakPipe messages can be downloaded to your computer so if you need a simple way for students to record their voices for use in a multimedia project, SpeakPipe might be handy to have on your classroom blog.

Last night I hosted a free webinar about digital storytelling with comics. The webinar was sponsored by Storyboard That. In the webinar we discussed how to create comic strips with Storyboard That and how to use them in other services including WidBook and WeVideo. The recording is embedded below.

StoryBoard That offers free and paid plans. The free plan is adequate for classroom use. The paid plans offer a slew of extra features like classroom account management, uploading custom images, and more storyboard formats. Through Friday Storyboard That is offering a 25% discount to readers of Free Technology for Teachers. To get the discount just go to storyboardthat.com/FreeTech

Purpose Games is a free service that allows users to create custom games, share games, and play games. There are two styles of games that you can create and play on Purpose Games. The simpler of the two styles is a fairly basic multiple choice game. The other style uses images and maps on which players have to name the places represented by placemarks on the image or map. For an example, try this game about the skeletal system. Purpose Games gives game creators the option to make their games public or private. If you select the private option, only the people to whom you send invitations will be able to play your game.

Applications for Education
There are hundreds of places to find educational games and quizzes on the Internet. That said, sometimes you still cannot find quite what you're looking for. In those cases a tool like Purpose Games can be useful. You might also consider having your students create their own review games on Purpose Games.

Kaizena is a free tool that you can integrate with your Google Drive account to leave voice comments on the the documents that your students share with you. With Kaizena authorized to access your Google Drive account you can highlight portions of your students' work and add voice or text comments to it.

Until this week Kaizena only allowed you to import one Google Document at a time. This week Kaizena announced support for importing entire folders from your Google Drive account. An archiving option was also added this week. The archive feature allows you to remove a document from your account, but the student retains the voice comments.

Applications for Education
Kaizena may not save you time in giving feedback to students. However, for students who need audio support Kaizena could be an excellent way to provide that support while giving them feedback on their written work.

In an earlier post I featured a free tool for adding voice comments to Google Documents. That tool is called Kaizena. In the video below I provide an overview of how to use Kaizena to leave voice comments on documents that are shared with you through Google Drive.

Using the commenting feature of Google Documents is a good way to create a record of classroom conversations about an article that you have shared with your students. Using the commenting feature is also a good way to have the conversation about an article occur entirely online. In the video below I give a demonstration of how to do this.


Click here if you cannot see the video.

Earlier today I posted the picture you see to the left on my Google+ page with the comment "I decided to play with some new fonts found in Google Drive." A couple of people asked how I added new fonts.

To access and add custom fonts to your Google Drive Documents and Slides select "add fonts" from the bottom of the font selection menu that you've always used in Google Drive. Selecting "add fonts" will open up a new menu in which you can mix and match fonts to your heart's content. The screenshots below provide visual directions.

Click image to view full size.

Click image to view full size.

Merriam-Webster's website has a neat feature called Trend Watch that highlights words that are trending in news and popular culture. Trend Watch includes an explanation of why each word is trending, a definition for the word, and a picture that is representative of either the word or the cause of the trend.

Applications for Education
Trend Watch could be a good source of words to include in the vocabulary lists students are studying in a language arts course. Trend Watch words could provide a good tie-in with a current events lesson.

Because of the wide variety of words that pop-up in Trend Watch I probably wouldn't send younger students to the site on their own. Instead I would bookmark the list and select appropriate words for my students.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo. 

Alphabet Organizer is a great little tool from Read Write Think that students can use to create alphabet charts and books. The idea behind Alphabet Organizer is to help students make visual connections between letters of the alphabet and the first letter of common words. This is accomplished by having students choose a letter of the alphabet, write a word that begins with that letter, then upload a picture that is representative of that word. For example, I chose "D," wrote "dog," and upload a picture of my dogs.

Alphabet Organizer allows students to create charts or simple booklets from the words and pictures they've uploaded. Completed works can be saved as PDFs, printed, or emailed to teachers.

Applications for Education
Read Write Think offers a bunch of lesson plans based around the use of Alphabet Organizer. Some of those lesson plans include alphabetizing with original stories, creating ABC books as assessment, and learning about the alphabet book genre.

Google Books is a great place to find books and old magazines, but if it is newspapers you're after then check out the Google News Newspaper Archive. In the archive you will find hundreds of newspapers that have been digitized for reading online. You can search for a specific newspaper by title or browse for articles by date and title.

Applications for Education
The Google News Newspaper Archive could be a great resource for history students. One of the activities that I might have students do is select a significant event like a Presidential election and compare how it was reported by newspapers in different parts of the country.

H/T to Lifehacker. 

Like many of you, when I was in middle school and high school we were taught to create index cards to organize our research. After creating the cards we sorted them into an order to support writing our research papers. That same concept can be applied to organizing research with Google Slides. In the video below I demonstrate how this is done.
Click here if you cannot see the video. 

Alphabet Organizer is a great little tool from Read Write Think that students can use to create alphabet charts and books. The idea behind Alphabet Organizer is to help students make visual connections between letters of the alphabet and the first letter of common words. This is accomplished by having students choose a letter of the alphabet, write a word that begins with that letter, then upload a picture that is representative of that word. For example, I chose "D," wrote "dog," and upload a picture of my dogs.

Alphabet Organizer allows students to create charts or simple booklets from the words and pictures they've uploaded. Completed works can be saved as PDFs, printed, or emailed to teachers.

Applications for Education
Read Write Think offers a bunch of lesson plans based around the use of Alphabet Organizer. Some of those lesson plans include alphabetizing with original stories, creating ABC books as assessment, and learning about the alphabet book genre.

 

Welcome to a post devoted to turning STEM to STEAM. It is exciting to cover the topic of STEAM since it is important to include the Arts.  I have also included 25 resources to help make it happen! Don’t miss any  posts.You are sure to find something that will fit your classroom in the very near future.  First, to ensure you do not miss one of these valuable posts or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS.  As always,  I invite you to follow me on twitter (@mjgormans). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on. Have a great week – Michael Gorman (21centuryedtech)

Booking Info – Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Please contact me soon if you have an interest. My winter, spring, and summer for 2014 PD dates  are already beginning to fill fast! 

It actually is quite obvious that the Arts should be included in STEM education. A look at the works of Leonardo da Vinci will attest to this! The very first time I heard the idea of integrating the Arts into STEM education was while watching a keynote made by Daniel Pink at the NECC  Conference in Washington DC… yes prior to ISTE Conferences!  Pink presented strong evidence that educators must include right brain lessons in addition to the inclusion of historical left brain activities. A reading of his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, is a must for any educator, especially those interested in STEM education. It is evident that inserting the A (Arts) in STEM and creating STEAM allows for true innovation, and it is innovation that will allow students to be successful in a flat world. Bringing the Arts to STEM allows students to remember the creative juices that come with the smell of a Crayola Crayon, the engagement of Tinker Toys, and the creation and remixing of that first Easy Bake Oven. It is the STEAM that allows students to not just be technology consumers, but technology creators! Proper infusion of the Arts will create a STEAM culture that engages and promotes intrinsic learning. In the space below I have included some sites that may just allow educators to integrate the Arts, allowing STEM to become STEAM! While there is a lot of talk on STEAM Education, it is difficult to find a lot of material. I hope you enjoy what I have gathered and please let me know what I should include in an up-date post.

NPR Where Science Meets Art - Some exceptional Podcasts integrating Science and Art. Many of these titles will allow for student reflection and questions as they begin to see how the Arts and Science can be integrated.

Arts Edge - A fantastic resource from the Kennedy Center hosting numerous lessons that integrate Art in the curriculum.You will discover a focus  on ways to support innovative teaching with the arts, and meet changing trends in education and to accommodate the ever-evolving impact of technology in our lives. This amazing collection of free digital resources—including lesson plans, audio stories, video clips, and interactive online modules—has been streamlined for easier browsing and upgraded to leverage best practices in educational media and multimedia-supported

How to Smile -  Discover this group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. Find new ways to teach kids about math and science.  Discover activities that meet you where you live, whether your “classroom” is an active volcano, the shark tank at the local aquarium, or your own kitchen table. SMILE is collecting the best educational materials on the web and creating learning activities, tools, and services.

Discover Engineering – Innovation is important and must be part of any STEM curriculum. At this site you will discover a video that showcases the art of engineering? You may find a  hands-on activity that covers some amazing STEM content.? There is a large database of sort-able ideas for you to engineer in your classroom.

PBS Learning Makers Party – Thus initiative encourages people around the world meet up, learn to make things, and share what they’ve made online. This wonderful collection is designed to support the Maker Party by providing a one-stop shop of STEM and digital making resources that focus on the problem, technology, or process behind object creation.

STEM to STEAM -The STEM to STEAM initiative, championed by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), is supported by teachers, researchers, policy makers, students, and business people from RISD and beyond.

DIY  –A great way for kids to get skills, innovate, and meet others who share the same passions Kids can make their  own portfolio where they share what they make and do. They also earn embroidered skill patches for completing sets of challenges. Educators may wish to consider starting a DIY Club or DIY Classroom.

Makey Makey – OK… it is not free, but it is very inexpensive. Students can let their imagination run wild as they construct new games and even possible put together a band where their instruments are fruit.

Why Scientific Innovation Needs The Arts – Explore this wonderful article from the Guardian that explains the connection of science and the arts. Great read to support STEAM thinking in any educational setting.

OER Commons – Take a look at these results from a search I did for  STEAM based activities. There are some powerful lessons that bring the arts into the classroom. Since it is OER (Open Education Resources) it is free.

Odyessey of the Mind – This  international educational program provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems.

Autodesk Digital Steam Workshop - Digital STEAM projects are designed by Autodesk’s network of expert educators, designers and student alumni as exciting complements to core Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Art (STEAM) curriculum. Each project aligns with common core and national standards, and delivers measurable learning while using free software.

PBS Design Squad Nation – Turn the innovation on in your classroom.  Use Design Squad Nation activities, animations, video profiles, and episodes in classrooms and after-school programs, in libraries and museums, at events and at home. This will engage your students in some amazing activities.

National Gallery of Art  - You will find organized into thematic units, each grade-level-specific lesson plan focuses on a single work of art and can be executed within one to two class periods. These lessons meet the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Visual Arts curriculum standards

Exploratorium - Take a look at the entire site, but especially explore the Art related material. You will find lessons that allow you to connect with other subject areas including the STEM disciplines. You will get a new definition of exploring through the Exploratorium,

The Art Institute of Chicago – Explore these wonderful lessons that cover Science and the Arts. It just might have you and your students look at Art in a whole different way. Best of all you will discover some STEAM possibilities.

Lesson Plans and resources for Art Integration – This Edutopia Article has a rich assortment of lessons and resources to integrate Art into curricular areas including Math, Science, and Design. A great read that will lead to some wonderful opportunities.

CIESE Online - CIESE  (Center for Innovation and Science Education) sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet.  Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports

Masterpieces to Math – A wonderful article that focuses on how to incorporate art in math. Learn how to use Art to teach fractions, decimals, and percent equivalents. You will look at Math in a whole new STEAMie way.

Space School Musical – Your students will enjoy joining teenager Hannah on a trip through the solar system in this ultra-cool edu-tainment “hip-hopera” that uses song and dance to introduce the planets, moons, asteroids and more. Educators can download the lyrics for students to learn and perform the routines for themselves or just play the videos in class. There are also links for more in-depth activities.

Cardboard Challenge – Not everything needs high tech and expensive resources. A lot can be done with a cardboard box and a lot of imagination. Check out this amazing challenge from the Imagine Foundation. Take a moment to watch the video. You and your students will want to be involved with this amazing low tech, high engagement possibility.

KinderArt – Discover Fine Art lessons as they apply to all different subject areas. Lessons are searchable by grade and subject. Some great ideas to integrate with.

ArtSTEM – Claims to be a site where the Arts and Humanities meet the STEM Disciplines. Wonderful collection of blog posts that contain both writing and multimedia to display the Art in Science.

Scratch –  With Scratch, kids can program their own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively . All of this is possible while essential skills for life in the 21st century are facilitated.. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.

Teacher Vision Art and Math –Students will enjoy participating in math class with our art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school.  You will find opportunities to mix numbers with creativity and art activities that your students will love. There are lessons for creating counting books, crafts that encourage measuring, geometry printables to color, sculpting activities, and much more!  Introduce new concepts or reinforce topics your students have already learned.

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century resources.  Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy.  I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans.  I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Keep  up the amazing work,  have a great week, and enjoy the resources! – Mike Gorman

Booking Info - Are you looking for a practical and affordable professional development workshop for your school or conference?  I have traveled the country delivering PD relating to technology integration, PBL, STEM, Digital Literacy, and the 4 C’s. I have done 100′s of workshops and presentations.  Check out my Booking Page… Those 2014 dates are going fast.