ISTE: Expo Hall

Aside from all the presentations, workshops, lectures etc at ISTE there is an enormous Expo Hall. In the expo hall are over 3000 booths where people are there to present their educational resources, software, hardware etc. I mostly found the expo hall overwhelming, so I didn’t chat to heaps of people.

Google Booth

At the Google booth they were running mini-sessions. I got the links to three of the mini presentations, but was actually only there for one.
The first session, which I missed, was Tips for Using Chrome to Support Reading.
The other session I missed was Digital Differentiation using Google Forms – I really would have liked to see this one, but actually there was a mess-up with the presenters. It was supposed to be forms, but someone turned up and started presenting about Google Expeditions.

The session I did catch was Spice up your browser with Chrome Extensions, otherwise known as Pimp your Browser.

The presenter had a ‘big five’ extensions that he would recommend, the starred ones are the ones I have since installed and would also recommend:

Move It – it allows you to create alerts to get your class to get up and move at set time intervals. We all know that blood circulation stimulates the brain. It also helps restless kiddies cope with longer lessons.
One Tab – condenses all your open tabs into one page. The page provides all your URLs listed in order, it can also be shared as a web page. This could be really useful in a class setting when you have done group brainstorming. It’s an easy way to share all the sites with the students. Also for yourself when doing research, it’s a great way to just dump all your open tab links into one place.
Google Dictionary – Adding the dictionary to your browser allows you to highlight and look up the definition of words you see in a web page. It’s a handy quick reference tool.
Google Docs Quick Create – This allows you to create a document for your google drive in a single click form the toolbar. It means you can create documents quicker with less interruption to your natural workflow ***
Bit.ly – bit.ly allows you to quickly create a shortlink for any URL. ***

They aren’t anything fancy, but they are certainly useful for improving and supporting natural workflow.

Microsoft Testing Center

In the expo hall was a Microsoft testing center where you were able to complete Microsoft certifications for free. While I otherwise don’t really feel a need to have any kind of Microsoft Certifications, since it was free I was keen to give it a shot. So I booked in my free exam, and 45 minutes later I came out a Microsoft Certified Educator.

I don’t really know what it means to be an MCE, but i’m sure it provides some evidence that I know at least a little bit about education and it will look good on my resume.

Oculus Rift

Quite some time ago, I spoke to my computer science students about a cool VR headset that was in development called the Oculus Rift. At the Expo Hall I got the opportunity to give it a whirl.

I’m not interested in gaming myself, but the technology as a concept is quite interesting. I was impressed with the overall experience, it wasn’t particularly laggy and was quite cool to be able to look around you in all directions and have the images track based on your movement. I can imagine it would be awesome for a gamer to have an immersive experience.

The only thing I found is that you can’t wear glasses at the same time. Also some people experience motions sickness. So for me using it without being able to focus properly, after three minutes I was feeling a bit woozy and disoriented. I’m certainly glad I gave it a go though!

ISTE Overall

My experience at ISTE was overall quite a positive one. I learned some stuff and I made some new contacts in education as well as some new friends.

I will say though that I was rather shocked and disappointed with many aspects of the conference. I felt that there was a lot of hype and a lot of hoo-ha, but actually very little depth. I regularly experienced moments of ‘this is a really cool tool you can use it your class’ without any justification for how it should be used or what the actual educational benefit was. I have resources galore but little suggestion on how, when and why they should be used in order to improve the learning experiences of the students. Shouldn’t this be a primary focus for educators? We shouldn’t be using technology for technology sake – everything we should do should be linked to the educational outcomes of our students. I feel that this concept got lost somewhere along the way.

I feel that considering it is one of the worlds biggest EdTech conferences it really needs to step up – focus more on pedagogical improvement rather than the lure of shiny new toys.

ISTE: Interactive Infographics

Exploring Interactive Infographics was a short session run by Linda Nitsche and Erin Van Guilder. The aim of the session was to look at the visual and interactive communication of data through the use of infographics. Because our brains are visually wired, infographics are an easily digestable and engaging way to deliver content without overloading the brain. While there are many types of infographic, they generally fall into one of three categories:

• Practical
• Editorial
• Social

When designing an infographic (or evaluating one) then you need to consider the following aspects:

• the data in it
• the sources of data and whether they reputable
• the story that is being presented
• the flow through the data to conclusions (this is crucial to providing understanding of the content)
• the design style
• color and size of the infographics as a whole, as well as individual components
• the icons used
• the diagrams and charts used to present the data
• whether it is static or interactive and how that affects the overall impact or message being conveyed

These factors contribute to the overall effectiveness of the infographic. Certainly to achieve educational benefit from the use of an infographic it needs to be very well thought and planned. I think the key is ensure that you convey messages through images and graphs/charts more than text. So the text you do use needs to summarise the concepts in a very succinct manner, only conveying the important parts. Infographics are something that I personally really like. I don’t enjoy reading large blocks of text and find it difficult to focus, so I find it much easier to get a large amount of information from a well presented infographic.

Some good websites that can be used to develop infographics and interactive images are:

Thinglink – this is for interactive/clickable images
Piktochart – this is for infographics
ManyEyes – a cool aspect of this one is that you can upload data sets and it can generate some guiding questions based on the data

ISTE: Why Games? Why Now? Game Design in Schools 2014 and Beyond

Why Games? Why Now? Game Design in Schools 2014 and Beyond was the last pre-booked sessions I attended, and it was presented by Al Doyle.

Since I didn’t have much time when I was booking into sessions, I suspect I possibly didn’t read the session description properly. Based on the name, I had anticipated some discussions on when and why to use games to foster learning and how to design a game that supports the learning goals of the subject. When I got to the session however it was blatantly obvious that this was not what I was going to get. The presenter talked a great deal about playing games, demonstrated some games that he and that his students had made, none of which I saw educational value in.

We were provided with a handout that has loads of links to sites where you can create your own games, so I guess this was a positive. For me the session was otherwise irrelevant and I left one third through the presentation.

ISTE: Creative Coding with Functions

Creative Coding with Functions was run by Jean Griffin and Arta Szathmary.

The session was quite short but worthwhile. We learned a bit about functions, which I already knew, but through the explanation and resources provided I got some good ideas for ways in which I can teach the concept to my own class.

We had a look at the differences between block-based coding and text-based coding. Many teachers have found that the students (probably at the prompting of their parents) feel that block based coding is childish, it isn’t realistic and they aren’t learning anything useful. This started a useful discussion on how you can address that negative attitude. Believe it or not, block based coding is actually used right through university to teach computer science at some universities in the United States.

Block based coding looks easier, and it is, but it abstracts you from the syntax so that you can get the bigger picture. My own personal view is that if you can understand program flow and constructs, then once you move from block-based to text based, you are to learn the syntax for a concept you already understand. This is easier than learning the concept and the syntax at the same time.

I have felt for a long time that by teaching only text-based coding to students with no prior knowledge it makes the concepts much less accessible. I see real benefit in abstracting the syntax from the program flow and teaching them separately, as a progression. I also feel strongly that there should be a lower level, lead in, subject to the high level computer science subject that I teach. (I have roughly a 15% drop-out rate early in the year, based on the level of difficulty of the course, this rate has been decreasing, but is still alarming)

Through discussions with fellow computer science teachers, I did notice that I am basically the only one that takes a flying leap straight into coding with no prior knowledge. All the others I spoke to have a progression of increasing difficulty over a number of years.

In block based coding for lower year levels, such as through middle school, a recommended progression of learning is to start with Hour of Code activities as a taster, then move through to Scratch, progress on to Snap! and then engage in high level activities using MIT App Inventor.

For people wanting to learn Python, then Grok is actually pretty cool, free and Australian!

So all in all, I found the session was good, but the most useful aspect was in the discussions I had with fellow teachers.

ISTE: Gamification and Flipped Instruction

Philip Vinogradov and Michael Matera presented a session on Gamification and Flipped Instruction.

To start the session, someone without prior experience was asked to play angry birds and have the game play displayed on the screen. We dissected the play to help gain some understanding as to what gaming can provide.

• It was engaging for the player
• She improved with practice
• She was not willing to give up
• She was frustrated along the way, but felt teacher support when it was required
• She learned the rules as she went, adding to her knowledge as it was required. If the teacher had provided all the instructions on how to play before she started, she wouldn’t have learned as much herself
• The game provided positive reinforcement when she did well and negative reinforcement when she did poorly
• The game rewards mastery and mastery becomes compelling

These observations provide a case for gamification having a place in the classroom. We want students to be engaged in what they are doing, to learn along the way, to feel comfortable failing in order to improve and to feel compelled to learn more and to achieve mastery of a concept.

Having a case for gamification, both Philip and Michael have both gamified their classrooms but each in a slightly different way. Philip has gamified everything and students are required to play in order to get through the class. Michael has made it an optional extra, kind of like an extra curricular activity but it doesn’t contribute to a students grades.

No matter what gamification model you have for your classroom it is important that you have all your resources front-loaded and ready to go, they don’t all have to be visible, but they all need to be prepared. So you need to use a flipped classroom structure so that the students are able to progress at their own pace, supporting differentiated learning. As they progress through their tasks and challenges they earn points, badges and items and eventually achieve mastery in something. Once they have achieved mastery in something they can level up. As they level up, the new level provides access to the next set of resources, perhaps a new topic or higher challenges within the current topic. The students need to level up in order to gain access to the new stuff.

It is important that your game mechanics and rewards systems are well thought out and consistent. Points systems need to be directly related to the level of difficulty of the task, they need to be achievable and they need to be relevant.

Some suggestions as to how to make a gamified classroom work effectively, as well as ensuring that all the resources are pre-prepared, is to have a solid theme that has an overall mission that you need to complete. The theme needs to be supported with scenarios, characters and items that all relate to and contribute to the success of the mission. Providing the game a sense of purpose is more engaging, it’s not games for the sake of it, but working towards an achievable goal.

A major aspect of gamification is status. It’s important to use some kind of leaderboard to provide feedback and inspire friendly competition.

I was worried that the use of a leaderboard would result in students being discouraged if they start to fall towards the bottom. One way to minimise this is to use multiple ‘currencies’. By currencies I mean using a combination of experience points (XP), badges and items that students can collect. If you add in these extra dimensions (e.g. badges and items) with a  mystery value, then if a student is not at the top of the leaderboard then they still feel encouraged to participate because perhaps they have loads of cool badges or have some cool and useful items.

Another way to minimize students feeling left out and discouraged is to split the class into teams/houses/guilds (use whichever term is appropriate to your games theme). The student can feel like they are part of a collective and that together they are working their way up the team leaderboard or excelling in some way. It develops a sense of team spirit, allows for group challenges and encourages collaborative and constructive work.

I teach at senior secondary level (16-18 year old students). My students are aiming to develop skills and knowledge in order to progress to higher education (university or vocational) as well as the workplace. For these students I personally do not consider gamification to be a smart choice. I worry that if we gamify everything, students will need rewards in order to feel motivated to learn or participate, so once they hit higher education or the workplace they may not know how to engage effectively with it.

Despite the concerns I have for the high year levels, I think there is certainly a compelling case for gamifying a class. While I know I would find it daunting to set up, I think it would be fun to do it. I think it is a great way to get elementary and middle school students engaged in education.

As with any professional learning session, many questions about gamification and flipped instruction were answered, but also many questions were raised. I think it is a developing concept and one worth paying attention to and researching.

ISTE: Maximising Google Forms

Maximising Google Forms was a session run by Lisa Johnson-Bowers. I had heard about Google Forms and completed a few surveys using them, but had never had the time to actually look into how to create them and how to make use of them.

I’m not going to provide a walk through of form creation, but Lisa’s presentation does a pretty decent job of it. She was happy for me to post her slides in my blog post – so if you are keen to try Google Forms then work your way through this set of slides.

The session was well structured, and rather than just being told this is a form and thats what you can use it for, we were actually guided through the process of creating forms, customizing them and using some additional add-ons that can help us make more effective use of the form as well as the resulting data.

Some ways in which I think forms will be useful to me in my teaching:

• Lesson review – at the start of a lesson to recap what was taught in the previous lesson, or at the end of a lesson to summarise what was covered so a student knows what areas to brush up on
• Feedback – get student feedback on a topic, a lesson, a resource or your teaching
• Parent communication – a form could be used to get permission for an excursion, to get feedback on their questions or concerns about their child such as in the lead up to a parent-teacher interview
• Getting to know you – I always like to start my school year by getting to know some things about my students, so that I can connect with them on a personal level and then target my teaching towards their interests, ability and learning style (I’m also using a getting to know you style form to ask my blog readers – you – about your background and why you are engaging with my blog)
• Class quizzes – if they are multiple choice you can even auto-grade them using an add-on called Flubaroo

There are so many applications for forms in a class setting!
I really enjoyed the session and I do still have questions, but at this point I think I am more than capable of finding the answers myself. (Actually I was also capable of figuring forms out myself, but sometimes you just need to have a block of time dedicated to a set activity before you actually engage in it)

So…now that I know a bit more about how to use Google Forms, I have created one so I can get some feedback from you, as a reader:

Please complete my Reader Survey

ISTE Convention, Philadelphia – Reinventing Learning for the Always-On Generation

ISTE

ISTE is the International Society for Technology in Education, every year they hold a convention for people involved in education to provide a way of learning more about technologies available, ways in which to use those technologies and how they can benefit the learner. The convention is a great place to gather ideas and resources, as well as develop networks with other educators.

During the convention there are workshops, discussion groups, ‘playgrounds’ for you to play with technology, expos to meet educators as well as technology developers and many other activities.

I have enrolled in several workshops, plan to attend several discussions and spend a great deal of time exploring the expo hall to see what cool stuff is out there for me to play with, that I could use in my classroom. My first workshop was Reinventing Learning for the Always-On Generation with Ryan Schaaf.

Reinventing Learning for the Always-On Generation

I attended a 3-hour workshop with Ryan Schaaf to learn about how to engage learners who are digital natives. We covered “core learning attributes of digital learners” and looked at ways to support them.

We all know that there are millions upon millions of different apps and websites that we can use to help us present information and to help students learn. Often it is hard to identify what types of tools are useful for what purpose of for what type of learner.

Throughout the session we looked at the attributes and checked out different tools that could support each attribute. I guess it’s a positive that I had used a large number of the tools already, but I had hoped to learn about more new and innovative tools.

A summary of the attributes (and two example technology tools for each) are:

• Digital Learners prefer receiving information quickly from multiple, hyperlinked digital sources e.g. Google Earth & Google Lit Trips
• Digital Learners prefer parallel processing and multitasking e.g. Screencasting & Evernote
• Digital Learners prefer processing pictures, sounds, colour and video before they process text e.g. Animoto & Voicethread
• Digital Learners prefer to network and collaborate simultaneously with many others e.g. Twitter & Instagram
• Digital Learners are looking for instant gratification and immediate rewards, as well as simultaneously looking for deferred gratification and delayed rewards e.g. Gamification & Digital Badges
• Many of the digital generations are transfluent – their visual-spatial skills are so highly-evolved that they have cultivated a complete physical interface between digital and real worlds e.g. Virtual Field Trips & Geocaching
• Digital learners prefer learning that is simultaneously relevant, active, instantly useful and fun e.g. not technologies but more physical activities or scenarios

Working with teenagers and as a young teacher I do agree with these attributes, however using these technologies won’t necessarily improve their learning. I find that young people are huge consumers of technology and information but at a shallow level. We can use the technologies to hook them in, but then we need to follow through with deeper and more meaningful learning activities.

So from my perspective, I feel that I have access to a broad range of suggested technologies to use and reasons to use them, but not enough information on how to use them effectively to support meaningful learning experiences that work with the neurology of a digital native.