Personalized Learning

Interview Links:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lpOTp8BsrS71c8wQdqkhpU8SQKYE0y8J
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z5XraPdGdNfK6H4ek8KYkDaM-RqDOWLi

PowToon YouTube Video on Personalized Learning:

Alternate Link: https://www.powtoon.com/c/bRB5tWAoL3b/1/m
Magazine Link: http://flip.it/vwSZaa 

What do I know now that I didn't know before this course? 

To be honest, I feel as though I may be the exception in this course. While I did gain many, many insights and ideas from my classmates in reading their blogs and checking out their work, I feel confident that I generally knew (and occasionally had a very deep understanding) of all of the topics presented in this course. So, in all, what I learned the most or gained the most was perspective from peers who are just being introduced to this content. It was refreshing to hear (both the positives and the negatives) what everyone had to say each week!

What can I do now I couldn't do before? 

One major thing that I can do now that I couldn't (well, didn't) do before is double-check technologies that I thought I was an expert in. I should know this, but was not employing the concept: technology is ever-changing. I shouldn't bank on it staying the same old same old. That rather bit me in the butt for this course, as I didn't realize Screencastify, Prezi, and other techs had changed so crucially. 

Why does it matter? 

I think the course content for this class is EXTREMELY important. The reason I was so familiar with everything is because I consider these concepts to be the up and coming ways that classrooms should and will be structured. In fact, I hope it goes even further and we see more gamification in all content area classrooms. If we move towards modelling our classrooms more like what students will experience in the "real-world", I feel as though our students can only become more and more successful. 

As for my grade, I feel like a 20 would be too bold for someone who underestimated the changes in technology. I would probably rate myself an 18 or 19 for the final project. I feel as though I have thoroughly tackled all of the aspects in a neat, orderly, and detailed fashion. I poured a lot of effort into research and interviewing my two experts. I have enjoyed this class and look forward to the rest of the courses in my path. 

Video Games for Learning

Video games in education is one of the top strategies I'd love to incorporate more often in my classroom; it is up there with graphic novels. In fact, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a course on implementing graphic novels and video games into the ELA classroom during my undergrad at Shippensburg University. That class was structured like a real-life video game. We had core, story-line quests (assignments) to complete; optional, side-quests that we could choose a combination of to "level up" to the next grade level (each letter grade was determined by the amount of XP [points] you earned); and final bosses to tackle (final assessments).  

My professor, myself, and two of my classmates were even able to travel to NCTE's Annual Convention in Las Vegas to present on video games in the classroom. (Here is the Prezi we used at the convention, and here is the Prezi I created that delineates James Gee's Learning Principles in the popular video game Bioshock (has a seriously great story line and character development and setting and mood and I could go on and on). Both are more helpful with the actual spoken presentation, but I don't know where the transcripts for them are!) 

With that being said, I feel as though I've done a considerable amount of research on this topic prior to the class I'm currently enrolled in for my Master's at Wilkes. I think gamification in the classroom is a FABULOUS idea. A lot of people will immediately think, "woah, our kids play enough video games; they don't need to be gaming at school, too!", because to many people, video games are viewed negatively. So, gamification could come with a negative implication. But they're 100% wrong. Gamification doesn't necessarily mean students are playing video games in class (though, I have had students do that before--more on that later). Rather, gamification is the structuring of lessons and activities through core gaming principles, concepts, and theories (which can be nothing but positive for students and teachers alike).

In his novel, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Gee spends copious amounts of time describing 36 principles that are found (and used) in most video games that allow for optimal learning. Here are those principles:

1) Active, Critical Learning Principle
All aspects of the the learning environment (including ways in which the semiotic domain is designed and presented) are set up to encourage active and critical, not passive, learning
2) Design Principle
Learning about and coming to appreciate design and design principles is core to the leaning experience
3) Semiotic Principle
Learning about and coming to appreciate interrelations within and across multiple sign systems (images, words, actions, symbols, artifacts, etc.) as a complex system is core to the learning experience
4) Semiotic Domains Principle
Leaning involves mastering, at some level, semiotic domains, and being able to participate, at some level, in the affinity group or groups connected to them.
5) Meta-level thinking about Semiotic Domain Principle
Learning involves active and critical thinking about the relationships of the semiotic domain being learned to other semiotic domains
6) "Psychosocial Moratorium" Principle
Learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered
7) Committed Learning Principle
Learners participate in an extended engagement (lots of effort and practice) as an extension of their real-world identities in relation to a virtual identity to which they feel some commitment and a virtual world that they find compelling
8) Identity Principle
Learning involves taking on and playing with identities in such a a way that the learner has real choices (in developing the virtual identity) and ample opportunity to meditate on the relationship between new identities and old ones. There is a tripartite play of identities as learners relate, and reflect on, their multiple real-world identities, a virtual identity, and a projective identity
9) Self-Knowledge Principle
The virtual world is constructed in such a way that learners learn not only about the domain but also about themselves and their current and potential capacities
10) Amplification of Input Principle
For a little input, learners get a lot of output
11) Achievement Principle
For learners of all levels of skill there are intrinsic rewards from the beginning, customized to each learner's level, effort, and growing mastery and signaling the learner's ongoing achievements
12) Practice Principle
Learners get lots and lots of practice in a context where the practice is not boring (i.e. in a virtual world that is compelling to learners on their own terms and where the learners experience ongoing success). They spend lots of time on task.
13. Ongoing Learning Principle
The distinction between the learner and the master is vague, since learners, thanks to the operation of the "regime of competency" principle listed next, must, at higher and higher levels, undo their routinized mastery to adapt to new or changed conditions. There are cycles of new learning, automatization, undoing automatization, and new re-organized automatization
14) "Regime of Competence" Principle
The learner gets ample opportunity to operate within, but at the outer edge of, his or her resources, so that at those points things are felt as challenging but not "Undoable"
15) Probing Principle
Learning is a cycle of probing the world (doing something); reflecting in and on this action and, on this basis, forming a hypothesis; reprobing the world to test this hypothesis; and then accepting or rethinking the hypothesis
16) Multiple Routes Principle
There are multiple ways to make progress or move ahead. This allows learners to make choices, rely on their own strengths and styles of learning and problem-solving, while also exploring alternative styles
17) Situated Meaning Principle
The meanings of signs (words, actions, objects, artifacts, symbols, texts, etc.) are situated in embodied experience. Meanings are not general or decontextualized. Whatever generality meanings come to have is discovered bottom up via embodied experience
18) Text Principle
Texts are not understood purely verbally (i.e. only in terms of the definitions of the words in the text and their text-internal relationships to each other) but are understood in terms of embodied experience. Learners move back and forth between texts and embodied experiences. More purely verbal understanding (reading texts apart from embodied action) comes only when learners have enough embodied experience in the domain and ample experiences with similar texts
19) Intertextual Principle
The learner understands texts as a family ("genre") of related texts and understands any one text in relation to others in the family, but only after having achieved embodied understandings of some texts. Understanding a group of texts as a family ("genre") of texts is a large part of what helps the learner to make sense of texts
20) Multimodal Principle
Meaning and knowledge ate built up through various modalities (images, texts, symbols, interactions, abstract design, sound, etc.), not just words
21) "Material Intelligence" Principle
Thinking, problem-solving and knowledge are "stored" in material objects and the environment. This frees learners to engage their minds with other things while combining the results of their own thinking with the knowledge stored in material objects and the environment to achieve yet more powerful effects
22) Intuitive Knowledge Principle
Intuitive or tacit knowledge built up in repeated practice and experience, often in association with an affinity group, counts a good deal and is honored. Not just verbal and conscious knowledge is rewarded
23) Subset Principle
Learning even at its start takes place in a (simplified) subset of the real domain
24) Incremental Principle
Learning situations are ordered in the early stages so that earlier cases lead to generalizations that are fruitful for later cases. When learners face more complex cases later, the learning space (the number and type of guess the learner can make) is constrained by the sorts of fruitful patterns or generalizations the learned has founded earlier
25) Concentrated Sample Principle
The learner sees, especially early on, many more instances of the fundamental signs and actions than should be the case in a less controlled sample. fundamental signs and actions are concentrated in the early stages so that learners get to practice them often and learn them well
26) Bottom-up Basic Skills Principle
Basic skills are not learned in isolation or out of context; rather, what counts as a basic skill is discovered bottom up by engaging in more and more of the game/domain or games/domains like it. Basic skills are genre elements of a given type of game/domain
27) Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle
The learner is given explicit information both on-demand and just-in-time, when the learner needs it or just at the point where the information can best be understood and used in practice
28) Discovery Principle
Overt telling is kept to a well-thought-out minimum, allowing ample opportunities for the learner to experiment and make discoveries
29) Transfer Principle
Learners are given ample opportunity to practice, and support for, transferring what they have learned earlier to later problems, including problems that require adapting and transforming that earlier learning
30) Cultural Models about the World Principle
Learning is set up in such a way that learners come to think consciously and reflectively about some of their cultural models regarding the world, without denigration of their identities, abilities or social affiliations, and juxtapose them to new models that may conflict with or otherwise relate to them in various ways
31) Cultural Models about Learning Principle
Learning is set up in such a way that learners come to think consciously and reflectively about their cultural models about learning and themselves as learners, without denigration of their identities, abilities, or social affiliations, and juxtapose them to new models of learning and themselves as learners
32) Cultural Models about Semiotic Domains Principle
about their cultural models about a particular semiotic domain they are learning, without denigration of their identities, abilities, or social affiliations, and juxtapose them to new models about this domain
33) Distributed Principle
Meaning/knowledge is distributed across the learner, objects, tools, symbols, technologies, and the environment
34) Dispersed Principle
Meaning/knowledge is dispersed in the sense that the learner shares it with others outside the domain/game, some of whom the learner may rarely or never see face-to-face
35) Affinity Group Principle
Learners constitute an "affinity group," that is, a group that is bonded primarily through shared en devours, goals, and practices and not shared race, gender, nation, ethnicity, or culture
36) Insider Principle
The learner is an "insider," "teacher," and "producer" (not just a consumer) able to customize the learning experience and the domain/game from the beginning and throughout the experience.

Jane McGonigal pens a similar, but different list in her book, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. She calls hers "Fixes to Reality". She also has done a number of fantastic TED Talks on Gamification.

Fixes to Reality
Fix #1:  Tackle Unnecessary Obstacles. Games challenge us with voluntary obstacles and help us put our personal strengths to better use. Unnecessary obstacles increase self-motivation, provoke interest and creativity, and help us work at the very edge of our abilities.
Fix #2:  Activate Extreme Positive Emotions.  Games focus our energy, with relentless optimism, on something we’re good at and enjoy.
Fix #3:  Do More Satisfying Work.  Games give us clearer missions and more satisfying, hands-on work. They help us achieve a state of blissful productivity, with clear, actionable goals and vivid results.
Fix #4:  Find Better Hope of Success.  Games improve our chances for success and eliminate our fear of failure (by making failures fun and by keeping the game going.) They train us to focus our time and energy on truly attainable goals.
Fix #5:  Strengthen Your Social Connectivity.  Games build stronger social bonds and lead to more active social networks. The more time we spend interacting within our social networks, the more likely we are to generate a subset of positive emotions known as “prosocial emotions,” including happy embarrassment and vicarious pride.  Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) provide ambient sociability – the feeling of being around other people even when we’re physically alone.
Fix #6:  Immerse Yourself in Epic Scale.  Games make us a part of something bigger and give epic meaning to our actions.
Fix #7:  Participate Wholeheartedly Wherever, Whenever We Can.  Games motivate us to participate more fully in whatever we’re doing and help us enjoy our real lives more, instead of feeling like we want to escape from them.
Fix #8:  Seek Meaningful Rewards When We Need Them Most.  Games help us feel more rewarded for making our best effort. Points, levels, and achievements can motivate us to get through the toughest situations and inspire us to work harder to excel at things we already love.
Fix #9:  Have More Fun With Strangers.  Games help us band together and create powerful communities from scratch. They can build our capacity for social participation, connecting us in new ways.
Fix #10:  Invent and Adopt New Happiness Hacks.  Games make it easier to take good advice and try out happier habits.
Fix #11:  Contribute to a Sustainable Engagement Economy.  The gratifications we get from playing games are an infinitely renewable resource. Crowdsourcing games can engage tens of thousands of players in tackling real-world problems for free.
Fix #12:  Seek Out More Epic Wins.  Games help us define awe-inspiring goals and tackle seemingly impossible social missions together. Social participation games can help players save real lives and grant real wishes by creating real-world volunteer tasks that feel as heroic, satisfying, and readily achievable as online game quests.
Fix #13:  Spend 10,000 Hours Collaborating.  Games help us make a more concerted effort – and over time, they give us collaboration superpowers.
Fix #14:  Develop Massively Multiplayer Foresight.  Games help us imagine and invent the future together. They can turn ordinary people into super-empowered hopeful individuals – by training us to take a longer view, to practice ecosystems thinking, and to pilot massively multiple strategies for solving planetary-scale problems.

It is principles like Gee's and fixes like McGonigal's that are perfect for "gamifying" one's classroom to make it more friendly and accessible for today's student. Nowhere in those principles/fixes does it say a teacher needs to let their students play video games. It would be extremely effective for teachers to begin modelling their lessons, activities, and assessments using the above principles/fixes. These principles/fixes incorporate intrinsic and extrinsic motivators seamlessly.

However, I have used video games here and there over the course of my teaching career. in addition to video game/gaming principles/fixes When I lived in Buffalo, NY I was a science teacher at a Expeditionary Learning charter school. Students spent large chunks of time on an "expedition" (an overarching concept or questions) in all of their classes (cores and arts). For one expedition, students were learning about conservation, deforestation, animals, habitats, etc. We spent three days at the Buffalo Zoo learning about animal exhibits, conservation, and the like. As part of their final, cumulative project, students wrote persuasive letters to the zoo to try and convince them to build an exhibit for their chosen endangered animal, they did scientific drawings of their animal, they designed blueprints and descriptions for the exhibits/habitats among many other things. All of these things they would later set up into an exhibit (separated by Biome) which was attended by all of the Zoo docents, the students' parents and teachers, and the community. It was in this expedition that I allowed students to "play video games". For students who had completed all of their requirements, I encouraged them to create their zoo exhibit on Minecraft. I think you can view them here. I'd recommend Dolen's and the first half of Kainoa's.

Anyway, all this to say I think gamification is a fantastic idea for anyone open-minded enough to make it past the name. I note that I haven't said much about badging. I'm not sure if I'm meant to dissect badging with/by teachers or badging with/by students. I know that I can sometimes find it a little obnoxious when I receive an email and the sender's signature has a ton of badges (especially for obscure and/or super easy to accomplish things). I mean, I do have my Google Certified Educator badge in my own email signature, but that's it. I don't have my EDPuzzle Ambassador badge or my NoRedInk badge because they're silly and unnecessary. So, I suppose those are my brief, but honest, thoughts on badging. 

Flipped Classroom

The Flipped Classroom model is one that I have dabbled with here and there over the course of my teaching career. While I do not think it is a model that should be used every single day for every single lesson in every single subject, I do believe it has an appropriate time and place in 21st century learning. I use it sporadically over the course of the year in my 7th grade English classroom.

The Pros:

1. Students can begin to explore a topic on the surface level (read: an independent level) without using any of the 47 preciously short minutes of class time. This allows for additional time for deeper instruction in the classroom.
2. With resources such as ED Puzzle, Google Classroom, and FlipGrid, designing and assigning concepts and topics for students to learn is extremely easy from the teacher's end of things. ED Puzzle is ideal as it allows the teacher to sync questions along with the video. The video automatically pauses to allow students to answer each question. Students can rewind if they missed the answer/when it was discussed. Also, the teacher can see which students went back to rewatch before answering and how many times they did so; this provides valuable formative assessment information automatically. 

The Cons:

1. Not all of my students have internet access at home. Despite teaching in what is considered to be a fairly wealthy school district, I have students with zero access to internet or cellular networked devices at home. This makes the Flipped Classroom model a bit of a challenge. I actually have logged into Chromebooks on my account to enable student access to the work during the school day, when they really could not complete it at home. This is, of course, in violation of my IT department's policies, but I closely monitor the student as they're working. 
2. My school's IT/Admin have elected to ban all access to YouTube to student accounts. So, while I can project and play anything from YouTube I would like, students can not. Therefore, if I assign an ED Puzzle that functions off of an embedded YouTube video, students can not work on that assignment during study hall or at school at all. This just further prohibits the progress/participation from my students without internet/device access at home. 

With that being said, here are two ED Puzzles I have created and used with my classes this year.
ED Puzzle: MLA Citations
ED Puzzle: Clauses
The creation process for these videos is INCREDIBLY simple. ED Puzzle is user-friendly, even for the most primitive technology user. It's also fool-proof for students to use. Furthermore, it syncs directly with Google Classroom; you can seamlessly share ED Puzzle assignments with your students. Additionally, if your classes are like mine, you have a fairly high turnover rate. ED Puzzle offers a convenient "Import New Students" button that will automatically adjust your rosters based on your Google Classroom rosters.

I guess I should note that the Flipped Classroom model does not need to be so heavily dependent on technology. My district's overall goal this year, though, is to "ride the technology wave", so I've been doing my best to accomplish that. One other instance of the Flipped Classroom model that I incorporate into my classroom on a weekly basis is the article of the week (Aow). I flipped the way that Kelly Gallagher (original pioneer of the AoW) implemented it with his students. As described here, Gallagher's students began each AoW in the classroom and finished it out of the classroom; I have my students do the complete opposite. They tackle the content and base hashing out of the article outside of class, then we meet together to dig deeper into the concepts presented in the article. This requires absolutely no technology outside of the classroom, and is therefore a great way to begin implementing elements of the Flipped Classroom model with your own students even if you(r students) lack access. 

Learning Spaces and Design

It's interesting that learning spaces and design is the topic of the week. I recently found out that I will more than likely be able to make the shift to flexible seating in my classroom next year. I was given a budget of roughly $3,000 to enact these changes. With that in mind, I tackled this blog post accordingly (hopefully it won't be a problem that I altered the assignment a bit, but I figured it would make for an even better blog post if the response was truly authentic). To begin, I took a panorama of my classroom prior to any changes. This was the before:

In all honesty, I feel that I have a pretty decent classroom set-up if you pay no mind to the cold, hard rows of standardized desks. I find that my biggest challenge is the size and shape of my classroom. It is fairly skinny in width and very long in length. My Promethean board is permanently drilled into the far end of my classroom, so there is not too much room for movement and diverse set ups. Especially when you consider trying to find room for 30 desks with their chairs attached. As you can see above, I have had the desks in rows, two-by-two (a la Noah's Ark) for a while now. Please don't mind the hunched over students in the front of the room. I bribed them to help me move desks around and they begged to be in the picture. Apart from that, I feel as though I have a fairly welcoming classroom. I have a good deal of color, a large classroom library, and several inspirational posters. I also had stations across the classroom along the edges for students to access if need be.

I made a couple of quick changes to my classroom at no cost. If you take a look below, my "volunteer" students helped me to rearrange the classroom so that the desks are in fairly functional collaborative groups. It's hard to see, but at the front of the classroom I dragged in an old section of carpet that has been hanging out in our storage compartment for a couple of months since our last IKEA trip. Finally, I moved the supply stations to more accessible locations across the classroom. As they are now closer to where the students actually sit, I hope it will encourage them to use them more often. I think these minimal, but effective changes will be good for our classroom as a learning space. I was unwilling to make additional changes to displays/objects on the classroom walls though, as we are required to have everything torn down for PSSAs in a week or so. 

When it comes to conceptualizing a revamped space, I have done a TON of thinking and planning for it. I've taken a lot of inspiration from a 7th grade English teacher at my alumni middle school. Brooke Markle has written about her experiences with flexible seating on Edutopia here. Knowing that it has worked so successfully for someone who teaches the exact same grade and subject in the same state with the same expectations makes me hopeful that it will work for me too. Below is the floor plan I sketched out for my superintendent during the planning process for this endeavor. 

I started with the concept seen in college classroom across the country: tiered seating. Since my classroom space is shaped so inconveniently, I thought tiering the seating would maximize my available space and allow students the best view around the classroom. I also wanted to take a bit of a do-it-yourself approach after reading Emelina Minero's article on Edutopia. I think one of my favorite takes from the article was this quote, "When preparing kids for the real world, we want students’ learning environment to reflect the environment of the real world". Our students will not be sitting in molded desks with an attached chair for the rest of their lives; they should start getting used to working in a collaborative space. 

The items shaded in orange are the ones that factor in to my $3,000 budget with the school district. The rest of the pieces are things I already own and have in my classroom or plan to repurpose from my own home. For example, the kitchen table is something I plan to coat in a hefty layer of chalkboard paint to make them more interactive, like the standing whiteboard desks I plan to purchase. Not pictured are the three area rugs I plan to set down and all of the flags and strings of ambient lighting I plan to have throughout the classroom. I believe these changes will impact my students in a massively positive manner. Minero's piece cites, "A 2012 study from the University of Minnesota found that students participated 48 percent more in discussions in a classroom with collaborative group seating versus traditional lecture-style seating, and also improved their performance on standardized tests." I expect to see the same, or similar, results in my own classroom!

Quotes from:

Minero, E. (2017) Flexible Classrooms: Assembly Required. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/flexible-classrooms-assembly-required

Personalized Learning: a Curated Magazine of Resources

Personalized Learning FlipBoard

I've curated a magazine on the pros and cons of personalized learning. I chose to explore this topic because it is becoming one of my district's initiative, and I want to get ahead of the learning curve. When I'm thinking of sources, I like to get a wide variety of formats: text, video, audio, images, etc. I also like to vary the sources themselves: teachers, technology experts, students, parents, etc. I do think that I've established a fair balance of formats and sources that subsequently provide a comprehensive picture of personalized learning.

When I'm thinking of which sources I would like to utilize, I always try to keep the things I teach my own students in mind. I always, always, always tell them that they need to consider all of the alternative perspectives. If those perspectives/counterclaims are accounted for and properly refuted, it can only strengthen your own opinion and argument.

I'm not entirely sure how to approach finding sources that are going to challenge me or help me grow. The sources that I've included stem from strategies, concepts, and methods that I have already heard of or work with. If anyone has suggestions, please share them below!

Unit 2 - Civil Discourse

Introduction

Perhaps selecting Option "D" was a poor choice for me. I feel rather heated after reading just the article itself. Then I read the comments, breaking my normal internet rule of "stay away from the comments and the trolls that live in them". I can say that I thoroughly disagree with Dr. Gary S. Stager's claims in his article, "Caution: Chromebooks". I won't spend time outlining that here though; I will wait for the 4 Corners activity at the end of this blog post.

Highlight examples of great civil discourse where there is disagreement in a respectful and yet challenging manner. 

One example of "great civil discourse" where there is respectful, yet challenging disagreement is the following one from "Hive Knowledge". 

Hive Knowledge

Oct 3, 2017

"The Hive Knowledge Group is made up of professionals from a range of disciplines who have worked within education and commercial sectors and have come together to support improved learning outcomes through the use of digital tools, technologies and resources. We have experience of implementing Apple, Microsoft, Chromebooks and other, more historical solutions such as Acorn machines. Our members have been involved in projects that include supporting the development of a serverless primary school to the implementation of multi-data centre, Office365 roll out.
We have seen, and worked with, many different schools that use Chromebooks, Apple machines, Windows devices and even those that run Linux.
The best schools think carefully about the learning outcomes that digital tools support and then use a mix of different devices to support the needs of individual subjects/lessons.
Without exception, educational organisations that plan the use of digital tools carefully gain the maximum benefit from their use of digital technologies. Where such schools choose to make use of Chromebooks we have seen no evidence that they are not as effective as the use of other devices. For the majority of student work and lesson activities a Chromebook can be used as effectively as any other device and the potential for reduced support costs can be a major benefit to cash-starved schools. Good Chromebooks, used in a positive schools environment, are as reliable as any other device (we have still use one of the original Samsung Chromebook machines as a test device for various projects and even loaned it to a student to complete her final year work when her Windows powered laptop failed — she received a 1st!).
The choice of Chromebook, Windows machine, iPad or Apple laptop is less important to improving learning outcomes than the ability of the school to have a clear vision and develop an effective strategy to achieve that vision."

This is a respectful, yet challenging response for several reasons. One, there is no negativity directed towards Dr. Stager. The only negativity is towards his claims; they are met with strong counterclaims. This is, further, a challenging response because it is a credible source challenging Dr. Stager. Furthermore, they give examples, evidence, and anecdotal observations that directly contradict the claims Dr. Stager made.  

One other stellar example was from Michael Taggart. Much like the aforementioned example, Taggart does a good job of using anecdotal evidence, his expertise, and specific evidence to dispute Dr. Stager's claims. He never resorts to name-calling or personal attacks, but still directly refutes Stager's core ideas, offering that desired challenge. 

Michael Taggart in The Forever Student

Sep 30, 2017

Dr. Stager,

"I am a massive fan of Dr. Papert et al, but I feel like your understanding of “computing” in the classroom and the reality of what these devices do are at odds. With Chromebooks, students have a device with an all-day battery that can move where they go, are durable enough to survive childhood, and have a user interface that is developmentally appropriate. We provide machines from K-8, and I can say without reservation that macOS and Windows absolutely impede learning, not enable it. (This comment typed from a ThinkPad running Arch Linux, by the way, which will factor in later)
Maybe you’re thinking only of high schools here, but as the Director of Technology for a K-8 school, I’m here to tell you that there is real tension between “power” and “access.” I want children doing and creating, not futzing around with an operating system designed for professionals.
Students use Chromebooks for more than the exciting acts of creation you’ve mentioned, although honestly we 3D Print and program robots and write JavaScript on Chromebooks now with no issues — in fact, with much greater ease than we ever did with Macs. Ever install a driver? You won’t with Chromebooks.
But this is not the majority of the “computing” done by students. They’re exploring, using the internet for the wealth of information that it is. They’re creating documents of many kinds, working collaboratively with their peers and teachers. Yes, we use Google Apps — I’m sorry, “G-Suite.” Yes, I live in fear of the day their Terms of Service become untenable. But I have my massive onsite “private cloud” ready to roll at a moment’s notice if that were to happen. And by purchasing Chromebooks with x86 processors, I guarantee that the machines will be useful regardless of my Google licenses. Worst case: I have cheap Linux machines that still run well.
Another area completely overlooked: management. Gotta say, managing the new fleet of Chromebooks at our school is much easier than doing so with Macs or Windows machines. With my IT hours not going to management of these devices, my team is freed up for more service, more improvement, etc. With our Macs, we had to use a third-party system to deploy software. While it worked, it was hacky and took significant time to maintain and update our catalog of software. As things move to the web, yes, I’m paying more in subscriptions to services, but my team’s hours are used on much more valuable work than tedious maintenance.
Look, the reality of modern software is that the web won. Literally every piece of software that I have deployed to our students in the last year has been a web service. Like it or not, this is the platform developers have adopted. And honestly, I love that when there is a bug, the patch can be deployed instantaneously.
Lastly, due to the low cost of CBs, there may be room for both “real” computers and the Chromebooks. It is appropriate that districts deploy primary devices that accommodate _most_ use cases. But with the savings, more powerful tools in lower quantities become a financial possibility."

In addition, point out specific examples where the conversation turns personal or mean-spirited. 

Unfortunately, not every comment made was challenging and respectful. Some were simply rude (those trolls I mentioned at the beginning of my post). 

James Welbes

Oct 1, 2017

"Well that was a garbage article.
'the only time teachers say students love something is when they’re trying to justify a bad decision'
…. Or when the kids love something…
Just another old guy stuck in the old computing days afraid to embrace the much needed change in the world of computers."

Welbes turns the conversation markedly more mean-spirited than Dr. Stager's original article (though, personally, I felt Stager's original article was a tad on the mean-spirited side). Welbes resorts to unproductive name-calling, rude adjectives, and sarcastic comments. His own comment lacks any real substance, counterclaims, or evidence. 

There was one other comment that I felt walked the line between the two aforementioned categories. I felt Machamer's comment, while it remained mostly respectful with its anecdotal evidence, bordered on too personally impacted. Machamer used the "we" pronoun over and over, which (I think) is what brought it to a more personal level. While Machamer does not directly name call Dr. Stager, there are still comments and labels given that are almost too direct.

Jackie Machamer

Sep 30, 2017

"Wow. My “reptilian adult brain” can barely process this attack parading as enlightened educational theory. I find this elitist, out of touch and cruel. And ironic that I read it on the same day that I read The Hardest Part of Teaching. This is certainly a case of the perfect being the enemy of the pretty-darn-good. Educational practitioners are doing the best we can. I assure you that people making decisions to incorporate Chromebooks in the classroom are not treating students as second class citizens. We are not being thoughtless. We are trying to make the best use of limited resources to do what’s best for our kids. We are constricted by regulations made by persons who have little to know understanding of educational pedagogy then kicked in the teeth by others who have so much they need to shame us with how we are doing it all wrong." 

Spotlight on Strategies

Four Corners Statement:

Teachers should be trusted to determine which technologies are ideal for their classes. 

Strongly Agree: Who knows student technology needs/abilities better than teachers?

• IT professionals are not in the classroom day in and day out with the students; they lack that practical knowledge to determine technology needs.
• If the teachers are the ones teaching the material/the technology, they should choose appropriate tools commensurate with their own teaching abilities and with the learning capabilities of their students. 

Agree: Teachers have a strong grasp on student technology needs. 

• Teachers design the lessons/activities for their students and should be the ones to select the appropriate technology for their students.
• Teachers spend hundreds of hours with their students in every situation imaginable; no one is more qualified to determine technology needs. 

Disagree: There are better-qualified people to determine technology needs and solutions.

• IT professionals have gone to school for this entire task. 
• IT professionals have more time and more of a knowledge base to make these technological decisions.

Strongly Disagree: Teachers are incapable of making that determination. 

• Teachers have not been trained in technology and technological capabilities.
• Teachers are not spending their time researching and working with modern technology, so the decision should be left to more qualified professionals (IT).

References:

Stager, G. (Sept. 28, 2018). "Caution: Chromebooks". Medium. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@garystager/caution-chromebooks-5b019acb8c3d 

Stouffer - Unit 1 Blog

Where do you find the majority of your teaching resources?
For the most part, I create my own teaching resources. However, I do sample heavily from other sources. I follow a number of useful Twitter accounts, I attend teaching conventions and seminars as frequently as possible (NCTE is my favorite, though I think an ISTE conference would be amazing), and I troll Teachers Pay Teachers for inspiration quite often.

Who do you look to for support and research for new ideas?
I'm part of the technology team in my district, so I am able to get a lot of good research, support, and ideas from them and from our Google Group. I also look to my coworkers to see what they are doing, what they are finding success with, and what their students are enjoying.

Do you follow any particular blogs? If so, please share.
For the most part, the only blogs I follow are YouTube vlogs. I follow The Vlogbrothers, Crash Course, Sci Show, Veritasium, Minute Physics, Crash Course Kids, The Brain Scoop, Smarter Every Day, Grammar Girl, TED Ed, TED, & TEDx Talks.


What are some of the hot topics you face in your situation, particularly those that are controversial but also new challenges?
One major challenge is this year's district initiative. Our district is pushing for more and more and more use of technology. They want teachers using Chromebooks, using Google Apps for Education, and really using any technology we can. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough resources to go around to fuel this push for technology use. We have a few Chromebook carts, two computer labs, and some dinosaur laptops in the library. There is just no way for teachers to use the tech as often as it seems administration would prefer. Another challenge is that students can now (new for this school year), use their devices in the halls, during study halls, in the library, and in the cafeteria. This has caused, in my opinion, more problems than it has offered in advantages.

u07a1 - Stouffer

To begin, at this point I find it unlikely that I will use Glogster in my classes anymore. While I used to use it here and there, it is no longer free-to-use. That fact alone is a bit of a deal-breaker for me. I already invest a decent amount of my own money into resources, tools, and equipment for my students and my classroom; thirty dollars just for an individual use subscription seems a been steep for me, let alone the one hundred dollar classroom-sized subscription I would need to enable students to create their own Glogster boards.

This leaves the Discovery Education Board Builder. In all honesty, this project was the first time I ever used Discovery’s Board Builder. It was fairly easy to use as far as the user interface goes. The design and layout options are simple, yet visually appealing and linear. I think the limited design options would help to keep students focused on the content, rather than just on the design (clearly the content is weighted a bit heavier in importance than the design itself). There are several ways I think I could use the Discovery Education Board Builder to provide students with the opportunity and venue to develop their own respectful and ethical minds. One thing I do think my students would struggle with is the limited selection of pictures and videos that Discovery has to offer. To fulfill the image requirement for our project, I needed to extend my searches out to the free-to-use filter of Google Image Search, and then cite the images I opted to use on the board itself. While this would be great for students to practice ethical and respectful search criteria and credit declaration, my students still struggle with capitalizing letters without a Caps Lock button, so this aspect might be pushing it for them. 

Overall, however, I think it would simply be projects and assessments, like the one I created for this final, that help students to develop their respectful and ethical minds. The more that students work with people of other cultures, with each other collaboratively, and with diverse tasks and data, the more ethical and respectful they will become. It doesn’t need to be done on specific technological tools such as Glogster or Discovery Education. In fact, I think they may develop their respectful, responsible minds more if they are given their choice of technology/media to use to accomplish certain tasks.

One final note, I set the sharing settings of my board as instructed on live.wilkes.edu. Please let me know if you cannot access it, and I will share my login information with you.

Stouffer - u07a1

Video:
https://www.powtoon.com/embed/ftlOzEjc1we/

Video Transcript:
After reading Howard Gardner's book, Five Minds for the Future, there are several ideas I plan on implementing in order to continue developing each of the minds. More specifically I plan on working to develop the minds of my students, and hopefully my mind develops in the process. Despite being vastly different on the surface, Gardner's five minds (Synthesizing, Disciplined, Ethical , Creating, and Respectful) are closely intertwined in the classroom.

First up is the synthesizing mind. I would like to transform more of my assessments from traditional tests to projects. Gardner mentions projects and themed curriculum as being two ways to employ the synthesizing mind. This would be an easy way to begin developing my students' minds as well as exercising my own.

Second is the disciplined mind. I believe Google Classroom is one ideal tool for developing discipline. Gardner notes, "we acknowledge the importance of science and technology but do not     teach scientific ways of thinking", and while I'm merely an English teacher, I feel it is imperative to teach my students disciplined ways of thinking. Encouraging my students to take responsibility for their learning through the use of Google Classroom is one effective way of practicing this.

Next is the ethical mind. On page 19 of his book, Gardner stated, "Individuals without ethics will yield a world devoid of decent workers and responsible citizens: none of us will want to live on that desolate planet". For this mind, I would like to utilize Google's collaboration and editing features as often as possible. If my students are working to help their fellow classmates improve, they will be fulfilling the ethical mind by practicing serving the greater good and going beyond mere self-interest.

For the creating mind, I would like to use more applications like FlipGrid that allow students to fulfill Gardner's picture of the creating mind: a mind that goes beyond existing knowledge and synthesis to develop new questions and pose new solutions. FlipGrid and similar technology provide the blank slate and the tools that will allow students to employ this mind.

Finally, we have the respectful mind. For this one, I would definitely like to continue practicing activities such as Socratic Seminars with my students. It will be activities like these that help to teach our students how we relate, how we think, and how to value differences among us. All of these are described by Gardner as pillars of the respectful mind.

Reference:
Gardner, H. (2008). Five Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press

u06a1 - Stouffer

After watching and listening to Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis's virtual lesson on "Flattening Classrooms", my first thought was how old it was! It was recorded in 2012--over half a decade ago! Nevertheless, there were several conversations that occurred that prompted me to think of things I currently do in my classes with my students. One of the first things they discussed during the video was about student choice. This is something I see in some classes across my building, but definitely not all classrooms. I try to incorporate as much student choice as I can while still maintaining boundaries and high expectations in my room. For example, in class students often work on tic-tac-toe assessments where they choose three activities (in a row) to complete to demonstrate mastery (and win tic-tac-toe). Assessments like these let me easily manipulate what types of activities students are completing while still allowing for a ton of student choice. Another example is the weekly article of the week that students work through. I know how busy my middle schoolers are, so rather than give them this homework assignment and make it due the next day, I distribute it each Monday and it is due each Thursday. This allows students the choice of when to complete their own homework. Ultimately, I think that offering students choices when you, the teacher, can, fosters the respectful minds of your students. They may not express it outright, but they appreciate it when they can tell you are trying to make it interesting/accessible for them and that breeds respect.

Later in the video lesson, Lindsay and Davis discussed what a flattened classroom is per say. They generally stated that a flattened classroom is one that is "open to the rest of the world". Give all of the student privacy expectations in most districts, this can be a difficult feat to accomplish. However, when it is tackled, it helps to develop that ethical mind in our students. I can honestly say that due to my district's restrictions, I have struggled with this. Just this year, I reconnected with a former coworker of mine (we used to teach together in Buffalo, NY and he is now in Seattle, WA while I am in Hollidaysburg, PA). We discovered that we both were teaching lower-level 7th grade English classes (this was surprising to both of us, as he used to teach social studies and I used to teach science). We decided that each of our classes would do a Flat Stanley-style narrative writing project based on the novels we were reading in our individual classes. My classes read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and his classes read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. My students created "Flat Scrooges" which they took on 'adventures' that the real Scrooge never would have 'wasted' money on. His classes created "flat heroes" who went on adventures of their own. We then mailed each other our classes projects. My students continued the adventures of his classes' Flat Heroes, and his students did the same with our Flat Scrooges. We are nearly ready to mail them back, pore over them, and then set up a Google Hangout so our students can finally officially meet. This project has been so successful that I reached out to a former classmate of mine from undergrad who also has 7th grade ELA classes. We are in the midst of planning a project for our classes where they write, direct, and film video book trailers for their favorite books that we will then exchange with each other in another pen pal-like scenario. I think further opportunities like these can only help in developing my students' respectful and ethical minds.

Davis, V. and Lindsay, J. (2012) "Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis on Flattening Classrooms". Future of Education. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZuwIhjQvA

u05a2 - Stouffer

Spotlight on Strategies: Socratic Seminar

What instructional goal/challenge does your SOS address? 
To begin, my spotlight on strategy addresses a number of PA Common Core State Standards:
CC.1.2.7.B Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences, conclusions, and/or generalizations drawn from the text.
CC.1.4.7.I Acknowledge alternate or opposing claims and support claim with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic.
CC.1.4.7.U Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.
CC.1.5.7.A Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, on grade-level topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CC.1.5.7.B Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
Most importantly, my SOS gets students thinking. This is, in my opinion, the ultimate goal of every teacher of every grade and subject. It also utilizes different technologies and digital medias, which addresses the challenge of meeting our students at their level via their interests and learning preferences. 

What additional value does the integration of digital media bring to your idea in terms of students’ understanding of the concept or topic?
The digital media that I integrated into this Socratic Seminar strategy brings deeper reflection and deeper interaction and engagement between the students and the topic at hand. if students are engaging and reflecting on a deep level, they are more likely to not only understand the concept or topic, but understand it thoroughly. Incorporating the digital media that I chose, elevates this classic class strategy to new levels. 

u05a1 - Stouffer

Well, I sat down and spoke with a few of my yearbook students after school this week. Given the students I sat down to speak with, I probably got a bit of a biased answer! If I would have talked with some of my other students, I'm sure their responses would have been lackluster in comparison with a bit more, "Teachers should just let us use our phones and listen to music alllllll the time." 

When I asked my students the questions directly (What do they really value currently and/or what would they change about their learning environment when it comes to digital media and technology supporting creativity?), they give me a bunch of blank stares. So, I opted to reword the questions around a bit to get to the needed answers. I first asked what creative things they have done in their classes that they particularly enjoyed. Some of the responses I received were Google Apps, STEM Auto CAD [creating 2D designs], the 3D printer, Escape Rooms, their word processing class, their phones, and "the Internet". While the final two answers were a bit vague, I thought the initial answers were great. I was especially excited to hear that they enjoyed the Escape Rooms. I just started incorporating grammar lessons with Escape Rooms, so I'm glad it was a success. 

The second question I asked was how they used technology in their classes. I think one of the best answers I received was the Tiger TV class (the classes of students who write, practice, and perform live for our morning announcements. This is basically the perfect blend of technology and creativity. Students generally control the content and the features. Additionally, students are the ones controlling the camera, the mics, the boom, and the prompter screens. Overall, it seems as though our students are satisfied with the current levels of creativity and technology incorporation. 

u04a1 - Stouffer

To be honest, I was a little disappointed when I saw our task for this unit's blog post. Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, "How Schools Kill Creativity" is one that I have had to view over and over again in my education courses (both in my undergrad and during this grad program). I've frankly run out of things to say! I'll give it a shot though.

Do schools kill creativity?

The obvious answer to this question is yes. I would venture to say every student in this class is going to answer similarly, unless they work for some awesome Expeditionary Learning Charter School or something. Every public school teacher faces the ever-present dauntless task of preparing students for standardized assessments. Every public school teacher feels pressured by the administrators at their school to ensure their students perform well for one reason or another. This definitively causes a deficit of "creative learning opportunities" in the classroom, as teachers are focused solely on content, content, testing strategies, and more content.

The less obvious answer to this is no. More specifically: no schools do not kill creativity — state educational protocols (fueled by the need to acquire funding from the federal government) kill creativity. If less pressure was put on teachers to get students to perform well on standardized assessments, there would be more time for creativity and the arts. Sir Ken Robinson sums up this problem slightly differently in his TED Talk "How Schools Kill Creativity" when he states, "If you were to visit education, as an alien, and say 'What’s it for, public education?' I think you’d have to conclude, if you look at the output, who really succeeds by this, who does everything that they should, who gets all the brownie points, who are the winners — I think you’d have to conclude the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors. Isn’t it?". When we only focus on preparing students for tests, we are effectively accomplishing exactly what Robinson outlines above.

How can you use digital media to bring creativity alive in your classroom?

This is a much easier question to answer. My district is in the process of going one-to-one with Chromebooks. Currently only the high school has made it that far; the hope is to get 9th and 8th grade to one-to-one next year. Given our goals of technological advancement, we have seen an increase in available resources over the last two years. I have a Chromebook cart that lives in my room and is shared with the other teachers in my wing. I try to incorporate these into my lesson plans as often as I can without monopolizing them.

Here are some of the things I do with our Chromebooks that encourage creativity while still furthering the students' grasp of the content we need to master by the end of the year (read: by PSSA season).

FlipGrid: Occasionally when students do a Collins Writing, I will have them hop on a Chromebook and record their response or a summary of their response on FlipGrid. This may not seem hugely creative, but my students LOVE recording themselves, seeing themselves, and personalizing their videos. Are they still writing and analyzing? Yes, but in a much more creative way for the end goal. Linked to the title of this example is my students' most recent FlipGrids. They read an article, analyzed it, did a Socratic Seminar with it, wrote a Collins Type 1 reflection, and recorded a FlipGrid at the end. Check it out!

Google Slides: Google's G-Suite for education is really a dream when it comes to technology integration in the classroom. Linked to the title of this example is quite possibly the most boring topic we tackle in 7th grade English: PSSA Vocabulary Terms. While I do teach these concepts individually, students need to know the definitions as well. Rather than breaking out a dictionary, I have each class create their own visual dictionary using the integrated creative features in Slides. Check it out!

Pear Deck: This is an Add-On for Google Slides that I just discovered in the last few weeks. It turns a normal Google Slides presentation into an interactive one for students. While I cannot link a presentation that I've created (you need to view it live with a code), I did link an article that describes the add-on in depth and shows examples. Students have a device (a Chromebook in my case) while the teacher is presenting the Slides. There are slides interspersed that students must directly engage with. That could be a matching activity, a true or false question, a written response, etc. At the end of the presentation/notes/whatever the teacher can export the students' responses and use them as formative assessments if they wish. If anyone would like to see how it works live, I'd be happy to set up a time to demonstrate it.

Resources:


Robinson, K. (2006, February). Do schools kill creativity? Retrieved February 08, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

u03a2 - Stouffer

Prezi on MLA Citations and Plagiarism


The media-infused presentation I created can easily help to foster the development of both the disciplined and synthesizing minds. In Chapter 2 of "Five Minds for the Future", Howard Gardner argues that, "The training of disciplinarians takes place through ... the modeling of ways of thinking (“here’s how we go about proving a theorem of this sort”); the successful completion of certain signature assignments (“that’s a good analysis of Sonnet 23; let’s see whether you can carry out an analogous interpretation of Sonnet 36”); the provision of timely, useful feedback on earlier disciplinary efforts...and the passing through successive hoops en route to becoming a master of the discipline (“you’ve now learned how to write a good lead to the story; the next job is to order the paragraphs so that the important points will survive, even if the story has to be cut in half”)". I realize that is an exceptionally large quote to pull from the text; however, I feel as though I highlighted the key portions that are relevant to the presentation I created. The Prezi Presentation I created accomplishes the above steps from Gardner that delineate how to train the disciplined mind. This Prezi models how to go about properly citing texts in MLA, it shows the success criteria, it could be used to provide timely, useful feedback, and it scaffolds the "passing though successive hoops" on the way to mastery. 


This Prezi presentation also helps to foster the developments of a synthesized mind. Works cited pages are a literal demonstrations of synthesis in themselves. Further, the arrangement of this Prezi allows for it to be used in rather versatile ways. After initial instruction, students can come back to it as a means of reference so that they cited correctly in future assignments. It also provides a bridge for beginning interdisciplinary work. In Chapter Three of his book, Gardner states, "Perhaps the most ambitious form of synthesis occurs in interdisciplinary work" and "Even when students have begun to master the disciplines singularly, there is no guarantee that a combination of disciplines will be appropriately or productively linked". Learning how to cite sources correctly allows students to properly integrate sources of various origins and disciplines, thus accomplishing "the most ambitious form of synthesis". The mix of disciplines would then have been appropriately and productively linked, as students will have been able to use the Prezi on proper citations and plagiarism to accomplish this. 

u03a1 - Stouffer

https://educlipper.net/edu_clip_boards/5a7379855b9fb804566ef74b/embed

I chose to curate a EduClipper Board on a Socratic Seminar activity. The link for this board is hyperlinked above. I chose the topic of Socratic Seminars as we will be doing our first one of the year tomorrow, and we will build on them for the remainder of the year. I included a YouTube video demonstrating what a successful Socratic Seminar looks like, several images, a website to implement collaboration, a PDF outlining the process with graphic organizers, and a PowerPoint for enrichment.

As a side note, I found the EduClipper website a bit cumbersome to navigate. It is not very intuitive for new/inexperienced users, and it lacks some desired features. For example, I could not figure out how to unpin something from one of my boards. Given this, I would find it unlikely that I would use this website with my classes. 

U02A1 Stouffer

I created this image using https://ipiccy.com/ and I think it turned out well! I would use this image in my 7th grade English classroom as a creative writing prompt. Students would be able to practice the concepts, techniques, and skills that we have learned this year about narrative writing. I think students would be especially engaged by this prompt as it allows them to incorporate two of their teachers (Ms. Stouffer and Ms. Steele) in a fictional manner.

u01a1 - Stouffer