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Tuesday, December 01, 2020
Experiencing Curiosity, Play, and Joy in Learning @ ISTE20 LIVE
ISTE20 LIVE is here and it is incredible.
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Switching Cameras on Zoom = Document Camera
I found the answer to the question that many educators have been asking:
The answer is:
SHIFT-COMMAND-N (or Alt-N for Windows users)
What does this mean, you say? This is your Keyboard Shortcut for Switching Cameras.
THE DOCUMENT CAMERA CHALLENGE
You want to share papers or browse through books or write formulas on paper in such a way that your students can see them. The problem is how can they will be able to see them? You probably can't bring home the document camera from school or maybe you can't figure out how to integrate your document camera into your Zoom session.
THE ANSWER
The answer is to use another camera that is held by an overhead camera holder. This camera holder could be one that you purchase (gooseneck or tripod) or a DIY camera holder. The camera could be your webcam, your phone, or a tablet. Just as long as it is connected to our laptop with a USB cable. (You could use wireless, but it can be trickier.)Position the camera above the paper and plug it into your USB port. Write on the paper and it will be captured through the camera.
The problem has been how to switch between cameras? What do you click to tell Zoom to transfer from your laptop camera to the USB camera and back again?
The popular answer to this has been to make your changes through the Share Screen menu. This meant that you had to click on the green box and then change the source for your sharing.
Then came SHIFT-COMMAND-N (or Alt-N for Windows users)
This is a Zoom Keyboard Shortcut that will quickly switch between your laptop camera and your USB camera. You can talk with your students face-to-face and when you want to show them how to create a graph on paper, you just hit the magic keys and it switches to your USB camera over the paper where you can demonstrate the process. Tap those keys again and it will return to your wise face so that you can tell them more about it. You continue to use the same microphone in each case so you can talk while their eyes are trained on paper.
AMAZING, ISN'T IT?
This can be used for any situation where you want to show something other than your face - playing the piano, looking at a map, demonstrating chess moves, conducting an experiment, drawing a picture . . . the list is endless.
I know that this shortcut has been around for a long time but it is the first time that I put the two together so I thought you might like to know.
Have you already been using this? If so, what have you done? Just respond in the comments below.
Looking forward to hearing about your adventures.
Z
A question was raised about how many cameras you could use simultaneously. We tried plugging 3 cameras into USB ports and the "magic key" combination progressed from one camera to the next in rotation. Imagine if you set it up so that you used your laptop camera for you, one webcam over a sheet of music, and another over your piano keyboard so that you could demonstrate various fingerings and techniques. Exciting, eh?
image: info.squarecap.com
Thursday, October 15, 2020
I Have Been Online TOO MUCH!!!!!
Monday, August 24, 2020
Looking for a Break while Zooming?
Today, out of desperation, I found another answer to my dilemma.
What do you do?
Monday, June 29, 2020
9 Secrets for Successful Global Collaboration Projects
work with people from anywhere in the world. They get to share their ideas and collaboration to create wonderful projects. They can definitely change your viewpoint about the world and those who inhabit it.
While Global Collaboration is a valuable learning opportunity, it can also be fraught with many challenges. Educators are working outside of their classrooms and many times outside of their comfort zones. Since they are engaged with students in other places, there is always the opportunity for miscommunication and confusion.
I would like to share 9 Secrets for Success in your collaborative projects. They won't come as a big surprise because they involve many of the strategies you use when you are teaching within your own class, but I just want to remind you about them so you can use it as a check-off list when you are planning your projects.
PLEASE NOTE: These are not listed in sequential order.
These secrets are useful for classes from K-12th grade but some examples will come from higher education
#1 - Decide on YOUR Level of Engagement
Global collaboration projects have a wide range of Engagement. These projects vary in length and complexity and it is necessary for you to decide the level of involvement that you want to experience. Taxonomy of Global Collaboration in their book, Flattening Classroom, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time (2012). It identifies five levels of engagement. Some of these are reflected in these 9 secrets.Your first obligation is to identify the scope of the project you want you and your students to experience:
- Length: Some may last an hour where classes connect, interact, and disengage. (i.e., Mystery Skype) Others might last 5 weeks while two classes in different countries collaborate to develop teacher lesson plans. The time commitment will be more than what you do with your regular curriculum.
- Developer: Do you want to experience a project that has already been developed and refined or do you want to create the project yourself?
- Sign-up for a Project - If this is you are new to global collaboration, you may find it easier if you sign-up for a project that has already been created, implemented, and coordinated. There are a number of companies that develop and support projects. (i.e., Flat Connections, iEarn, or TakingItGlobal)
- Develop Your Own - Adventurous educators can contact instructors they know, design a collaborative project that fits their subject needs, and engage their students in their projects. If they know what they want to do, but don't know any partners, There are resources that provide a database where educators can leave their names, subject areas, and contact information for other educators to contact to create their own projects. (i.e., Classroom Bridges)
#2 - Develop a Passion
Connecting with other classrooms around the world is an exciting experience. It will take you far beyond your comfort zone so you need to have a passion for what you are doing that will take you where you want to go.Passion for the Process - Global collaboration projects open the door to the world outside your four walls. Making this a reality for your students requires you to have an ambition for making a difference. It is your passion for making these connections with preservice teachers in Miami or 4th graders in Beijing or high school teachers across town adds a taste of reality that learning. This sharing process is something that you must desire.
Passion for the Project - As you select your project, choose something that will answer some questions you and your students have about the world. You may be studying about Sustainable Development Goals in your class in Iowa, but how is it being pursued in Manitoba or Alabama or South America? Make it meaningful to you as well as your students. Engage your students in providing clean water by developing water purifiers for kids in Mozambique while learning about their African culture. Reinforce the commonality of mankind by communicating with students in Peru and learning about how their lives are similar to ours and how they are different. Feed your passion to open the world for your future citizens.
#3 - Prepare Yourself
Prepare yourself personally and professionally. Whether you are signing up to participate in a predesigned project or you are creating this project on your own, it is good to know your colleagues in the project. If possible, learn about them and their interests through the Web. Have a couple of informal Zoom meetings where the goal is more about getting to know one another than preparing for the project. This can lay a foundation for your working relationship with your new colleaguesYou are coordinating work between learners of varied interests and backgrounds. They may live in different cities, states, and time zones. Their schedules, subject areas, and background experience probably don't match. You need to prepare yourself to succeed. Research other projects similar to yours and learn what they achieved and how they accomplished it. You don't need to copy their projects, but previous experience can provide a pathway for your success.
#4 - Prepare Your Students
You must prepare your students both personally and academically.A 5-week global collaboration project is a major undertaking. You have and will do a great deal of planning and supporting throughout this project but remember how your students must deal with this. Working with strangers at a distance is something they probably have never done before.
- Begin by studying a subject area in your curriculum (e.g., sustainability) Introduce a strategy for solving a problem or learning more about a topic that interests them.
- Pique their interests by investigating into an area of study (i.e., how the conservation is being integrated into schools.).
- Explore how it is done at your school and then challenge them with "How do you think this is achieved in other schools?" THEN, you offer them the opportunity to connect with students in another school through your global collaboration experience.
- You will have already made the arrangements to engage them in the global project, but this is a useful and meaningful lead-in to the activity.
#5 - Practice Collaborating and Using Tools
Collaborating with students from another location can be challenging. Making connections, scheduling work time, and coordinating work require skill and patience. It will be less challenging if your students have an opportunity to "test drive" collaboration on their "home turf. "Engage them in a collaborative project between themselves before they venture beyond their classroom walls. This doesn't have to be something added to your curriculum. It could just be another way of completing the project they usually do BEFORE you get to the topic of this global project:
- Break them into small groups.
- In the online project, you will want to create Inter-Campus Groups to foster distant collaboration. This would mean that a group of 4 would include 2 from the distant campus and 2 from your class.
- Require them to only communicate with each other through their computers or mobile devices.
- Engage them in using Zoom or WhatsApp for video conferencing.
- Use Doodle to coordinate schedules.
- Collect data and develop projects using the Google Suite.
- Ask the students to synthesize their work in a final project. It doesn't have to be as elaborate as you plan to do in your inter-campus project.
If each of the classes involved in the project involves their classmates in this initial rehearsal before they collaborate with outside members, it will ease the transition so that they can concentrate on the content instead of the process.
#6 - Identify Doable Projects
Sometimes our imaginations can extend beyond what is practical. Consider your global collaboration projects as a learning opportunity for both you (the teacher) and your students. Hopefully, this is a process that you will be able to use with all of your upcoming classes. Here are some things to consider as you identify your projects:- Begin small and expand with later projects.
- Explore subject areas and topics that you are already studying
- Extend classroom projects
- Collect and compare data from different sites
- Use your findings to support cultural conversations. (Finding similarities and differences between counties and states can be just as interesting as differences between countries.)
#7 - Consider Your Groups' Characteristics
Matching up classes of students can be tricky at times. It is ideal to connect students in similar courses, but it is not always possible. There are many specific situations that need to be considered. These may seem obvious, but consider each carefully so that it doesn't sneak up on you in the middle of your project:- Subject Areas and Learning Outcomes - While a global collaborative experience can be enlightening, the projects you complete must augment the required outcomes for the class.
- Student Status - Education programs serve both undergraduate students (pre-service teachers) and graduate students (in-service teachers). Connecting these two groups can be quite productive, but consider the differences in background and skillsets.
- Face-to-Face or Online - Some classes may meet face-to-face 3 times a week while other classes may be taught completely asynchronously on-line. It is an online project, but the students meeting regularly have more support from their instructor and can be
- Scheduled Sessions - If both classes meet regularly, often it is difficult to have direct communication if they don't meet on the same days and at the same time.
- Student Schedules - While some students remain on campus the whole semester, other students may have a program where they need to spend a week away from campus so it will can in the way of group collaboration.
#8 - Agree on Outcomes and Assessment
Coordinating projects between instructors can be tricky. Educators can have varying interpretations of what is expected of the students at each level of the project. One professor may have different expectations for a lesson plan than the other. Professors may disagree on the value of one part of the project over the other. This can be a problem because the students in the same group on different campuses would receive varying evaluations which would lead to confusion and frustration.Before you even begin your global project, the professors must discuss and reach agreement on:
- The Desired Final Product - Groups should be given choice about how they will complete their collaboratively-created final product, but there should be an understanding about the options available to the students.
- Set Rubric/Expectations for the Final Project - Professors need to agree on what is expected. Well-written rubrics don't need to constrict creativity, but students on all campuses need to know how their work will be evaluated in how well it reaches expectations.
- Identify Benchmarks along the Way - A final product is usually the result of a number of stepping stones along the way. Learners will only see success in reaching the desired final product if they are given formative assessment from their instructor or peers throughout their journey. If your students are creating a video, they must know what is expected and receive feedback about their idea, script, storyboard, rough video, soundtrack, and final video.
- Set Rubrics/Expectations for Benchmarks - Once again, professors need to agree on what they want to see with each of these benchmarks. They don't need to be formally graded. You might have different professors specialize and provide feedback for all of the scripts or each of the storyboards. Students will learn more through rich feedback than a letter grade.
- Provide Examples - Examples can be useful to guide learners in their endeavors. Your project may have examples. It may involve finding solutions that were never done before. You may not want to influence their creativity by giving examples. Providing a spectrum of examples or similar solutions expand your learners' creativity rather than limiting it.
#9 - Celebrate Your Achievement
- Collaborative Presentations by the Learners Broadcasted through Social Media (Zoom)
- Good Health and Well Being - Developed Lesson Plans
- Butts on Bikes - Investigative Report
- Group Awards presented in Various Areas
- Completion Awards
Global Collaboration can be INCREDIBLE!! We have the opportunity to connect with other students on other continents and collaborate with them to learn and apply new ideas. The key to success is planning, engaging, and celebrating. Hopefully, these secrets will help you in your adventures.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Confronting the New Norm in Higher Ed: My CoVid Journey from In-Class to On-Line Teaching - Wk 1
The biggest issue was how to support the most important ingredient in the soup - my students. These students were in the last half of their spring semester. They had already spent 8 months of their 10-month school year creating their world. Their bedrooms were decorated just the way they wanted. Their daily menus were relatively standard. Those who had jobs (most of them) had crazy schedules that enabled them to work a sensible number of hours to support their schooling and still allowed them to have enough time to attend class and complete the required studying. Their friends were around the corner or down the hall. For the most part, life was good.
Then came CoVid-19. At first, it was a distant discussion point that was happening somewhere on the other side of the world. Then it crept into their Instagram threads. Then their professors were talking about the pandemic and the possibility of their classes "going online." The day that it was announced that students would not be returning to campus for face-to-face classes after Spring Break was when it became real. In the middle of Spring Break, our students were told that they had 5 days to move out of their dorms. This was startlingly real.
My job was to support these displaced students. Most of them moved home or into familiar surroundings. Even though this is were they grew up, they were not the same individuals who left home in August. They had to move back into a world where they may no longer fit. Besides that, their homes may not have some of the necessities for our Educational Technology course. ALL of our assignments and the tools that create them are online. Some of my students live where they don't have Internet access. In some cases, it is because they can't afford it but in other cases, they may have moved back to their rural farm that can't be connected. I know that I have at least one student who has this problem. One option is to go to a friend or relative's house to work on their assignments but that doesn't always work either. After it was brought to my attention, it was my responsibility to work with this so that they could succeed.
Finding the Best Online Format for Our Students
We have three instructors on our Ed Tech and Design team who teach the 9 sections. We design, develop, and refine our course together. All of the assignments are the same as well as the rubrics we use to assess them. We share schedules. The only differences we have, overall, involve how we introduce and teach the material in class. We discussed how we were going to approach this new online format. Interestingly, one instructor said that she was going to transfer it over into the online format that we already had developed. Another professor decided that she would continue to teach her students during their designated class times twice a week.
I decided that I would just transform my two classes to the online format that we already had developed. I would hold Zoom Student Hours (same as office hours) at the same times as when they had been taught on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays - 9:30 and 12:30. These would involve me opening Zoom and sitting at my computer waiting for students who had questions or wanted to talk about something to visit me. The first Tuesday of Student Hours came and went. I only had one student visit and that was because she thought it was required. I had hoped that more students would seek my consultation, but that was not the case.
The full Ed Tech and Design team discussed our situation at a Tuesday afternoon Zoom meeting. Based upon our discussion, we have adopted a variety of support strategies. Some strategies are universal across all nine sections, others are instructor-specific. I am sharing my strategies in this reflection.
Based upon the lack of response in the Tuesday Student Hours, I decided that I needed to meet with all of my students. I decided to require then to meet me online on Thursday. My goal for our Thursday meeting was to give my students a safe place to "check in" and discuss what they had been experiencing. I wanted to learn more about how I could better support them.
Student Check-in
Support Our Students
I tried to address these needs. They needed tools to help organize their lives. We needed multiple opportunities and methods to communicate. Up to this point, I had provided them with:- An Introductory Video that introduced them to the online version of our class, reviewed their responsibilities to complete this class, reviewed my responsibilities to lead them, and discussed the additional support I intended to provide.
- Student Hours through Zoom would be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 and 12:30. I selected these times because they were the times we met on campus and it would provide some consistency. We could also arrange individual hours if students couldn't attend my Student Hours.
- Our Einstein Room was a discussion forum where students could post questions that they might have about the assignments or due dates or whatever is unclear. They used to send me an email, but then I would only reply to them and the rest of the class would miss out on our exchange. This way, responses could be shared with the whole class AND students could respond to the questions if they know the answers.
- PLN Brag Sheet was a tool that we used in class. Our PLN (Personal Learning Network) assignment asked them to make 5 connections with other educators or educational resources throughout the semester. This is a semester-long assignment that students might put on the "back burner" until it's due. When we were in our classroom, we used a low-key recognition strategy by asking students to write their names on a whiteboard if they had completed one of the PLN connections in the past week. This gave us an opportunity to discuss their achievement and give other students ideas for the coming week.
- Weekly Checksheets were exactly that. Although I provided them with a semester-long schedule identifying due dates, this checksheet is shorter-term and less threatening. It also provides me with a venue where I could update them on suggestions for getting their lives organized and the latest developments related to their schooling.
- Remind.com is a lifesaver. It enables me to contact my students through group text messaging. Great way to emphasize the importance of something or remind them of what they need to do to prepare for our meetings.
- Weekly Videos to accompany the checksheets. We pride ourselves on how we integrate UDL (Universal Design for Learning) into our program. These videos would provide a "personal touch" to the written word.
- Periodic Videos would be created when I believed that instruction needed some enhancement. Sometimes, after I have introduced something in class but wasn't satisfied that I got the point across to my students, I create short videos that further explain and demonstrate the process being taught.
- Delay Due Dates for the next three assignments. My students needed some transition time so I met with my colleagues and we decided to delay some of the due dates. There was a collective sigh when I introduced this through Zoom. It was only about a week, but it would give them some relief.
Taking Tally of their Preferences
- The first question was "Have you watched the Intro Video that Dr. Z released." I may have asked this to soothe my ego, but I also wanted them to know that the videos I release are important.
- The second question asked them to rank the various strategies that I had used or was planning to use. I asked them to "identify the top 6 strategies" out of 8. I also added a line where they could identify "Other." These strategies included:
- Weekly checklists
- Weekly videos created by Dr. Z
- Student Hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays
- Meeting on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays through Zoom to discuss assignments and questions.
- Einstein Room
- Using Remind.com to text you with information and reminders.
- Google Calendar containing all of your assignment deadlines.
- PLN Bragsheet for posting your progress
- Other.
Reorganizing Based on Data
Looking Towards the Future
Monday, March 23, 2020
Educators: How are You Introducing Your Students to the New Online Format?
Jumping from Blended to Online Learning |
Making this jump can be tough for your students. Earlier this semester, they were bathed in your warm and understanding classroom presence, and now they will be Zooming and emailing with you. The hardest part of this transition is keeping your teacher-student connections alive.
Creating a Transitional Introduction Video
While there is little research into effective ways to change your course into remote teaching halfway through the semester, there is research that introductory videos can be beneficial for your students before an online course. Your online persona and the format of the course will be different so they need to be introduced.This introduction could be presented in either video, audio, or text, but the most effective format would be the format you will be using - video. Your students need to be reassured that parts of their course will remain the same while some have been modified. They also need to be informed of the additional services/tools that you have implemented to support their success.
Introductory Video
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Resources for Educators, Parents, Administrators, and Students to Deal with Temporary School Closings.
- Teachers need to learn how to teach online and facilitate their student's learning from a distance.
- Parents need to decide how to deal with closed schools and childcare.
- Administrators have the incredible responsibility to make the decision to close a school and then how to deal with the ramifications.
- Students need to make decisions about how to remain positive and change their learning methods from in the classroom to online. This may not be much of a change for some, but it will be a unique experience for most.
Support for Teachers
An Emergency Guide (of sorts) to Getting This Week's Class Online in About an Hour (or so)
Concise description of plans for developing Course Content, Activity Creation, and Course Communications. Matt Crosslin's instructions are practical and useful. Provides a variety of useful links too. Must Read.
Preparing for Just-in-Time Remote Teaching/Learning
Dr. Jon Becker provides fundamental ideas and suggestions for developing a productive mindset when working with your students after you have transitioned to online classes. He provides useful insight.
The COVID-19 Online Pivot (Higher Education)
Martin Weller shares some resources of institutions that provide models and suggestions for making the move to online learning.
Teaching in the Context of COVID-19 (Higher Education)
Questions to Ask Students about Resources, Expectations, and Needs for Succeeding in Online Learning (Higher Education)
A dozen questions you might use in a questionnaire to learn about your students' situations and needs. Even if you don't use these questions, they make you think about aspects that you may not have considered.
Tips and Tricks for Using Zoom Successfully in Your Online Learning Class (Twitter Thread)
Dr. Ryan Straight provides 29 suggestions (in no particular order) for using Zoom in your online courses. This Twitter thread even links to other threads that will deepen your understanding.
Step-by-Step Guide to Using Zoom
Lucy Gray created this guide for her school today and is sharing it with the rest of the world. Zoom is by far the best video conferencing tool for schools. Review this and engage with Zoom. Thanks, Lucy.
Support for Administrators
Support for Parents
Support for Students
8 Strategies for Getting the Most Out of an Online Class (Higher Education, High School)
These strategies are written for the college student, but they are just as applicable for high school students. It stresses self-discipline and addressing this class the same way you would approach a face-to-face class.
How to Make the Most of Online Courses (Higher Education) (Video)
Practical suggestions for succeeding online. Many of these plans would be productive in any face-to-face as well. Divides the strategy into Clarify Your Goals, Use Dedicated Time and Space, Use a Study Buddy, and Reflect on the Process. Uses Sketchnoting for video impact. This is a MUST WATCH.
About Coronavirus 19
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Dr. Z in Star Trek
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Barbara Bray and Dr. Z discuss Making Learning Meaningful in a Global Society
http://bit.ly/DrZInterview |
Barbara Bray is an amazing woman who is totally dedicated to improving the learning experience. She is an author, speaker, podcaster, coach, and difference-maker who is passionate about transforming teaching and learning. I have known her for many years and value her as a friend.
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
What Would You Ask a Real Teacher?
amandajohn.weebly.com |
Imagine connecting with practicing teachers on your own and asking them about their opinions concerning teaching. This is something that we are challenging our students at UNI to do. We are asking them to expand their PLN (Professional Learning Network) to find teachers in the field. Once they have found them, we are asking them to begin a discussion with them about teaching. In some cases, it is a one-shot experience and in other cases it turns into an on-going connection. This is a process that we use with our future teachers, but it is a practice that could be just as valuable with other practicing teachers.
Finding a Teacher
themuse.com |
Twitter #Hashtag:
Global Collaboration Databases
What Should I Ask?
- What skills (technology and otherwise) do you wish you had when you started teaching?
- Why did you become a teacher?
- What have been your favorite projects and learning opportunities you have had with your kids?
- What global collaboration projects have you done? Tell me some stories.
- How diverse is your class? How do you use technology to enhance your classroom's cultural inclusivity?
- Do each of your students have their own computer/tablet? If so, how has it changed the way you teach and how they learn?
Thursday, July 11, 2019
The State of EdTech 2019-2020
What IS the State of EdTech?
- The increasing importance of STEM
- Big companies will be more involved in EdTech
- Computer Science has ARRIVED!
- Virtual Schooling
- Coding
- EdTech Leadership
- Career Preparedness
- Celebrating Teachers
- eGaming/eSports in schools
- Redefining Literacy
- VR, AI, and VR in the Classroom