Using Padlet in the Classroom

One new web tool that I discovered at ULearn14 was Padlet.  This awesome little app allows students to share ideas and understandings in a collaborative way.  You are able to add text and upload images.  Padlet works really well when a copy of it is displayed to the whole class or group on a larger screen.

In class we have used Padlet for problem solving in mathematics.  Initially the students were reluctant for other groups to see their answer and copy them.  After a class discussion we talked about how the maths we were doing was not about the answer it was about their explanation and proof that their answer was right.  It was also about coming up with the very best answer we could as a group.  The ability to take photos is allowing students to take photos of diagrams and tables they are using as proof in their mathematical thinking. 

A fun addition that I have used with one class is password protecting the Padlet with the answer to a 'rebus' puzzle.  This just adds a fun lateral thinking component and adds to the discussion on the small groups.  An example of this is: IN     VADERS - which is of course - space invaders with a space in the word invaders. 

Our syndicate has also used Padlet to check facts knowledge after watching a video on the topic we are doing or to gauge the current knowledge of students on a topic.

Padlet is becoming one of the go to apps when we are sharing information and ideas in a large group and it can be shown in its free-form style or as a list of posts. It can be exported as a PDF and printed as handouts or to be displayed. 

So give it a go and see what your students can share and learn from one another. 

Acknowledgement:

Maths Problem from the NZ MATHS website.

ULearn14

So ULearn14 is over.  It was an amazing four days of learning and it's great to be challenged to the point that you feel you have changed as a person from the experience.

A lot of the breakouts I chose had a leadership and big picture thinking slant to them.  It made me realise the importance of having a vision for what you do as a school.  Dr Julia Atkin's work came up a lot and the ideas make sense.  What does your school believe is important in education and then work out your school's principles and practice from there.

The changing face of education became apparent too.  After spending a year working towards having a more digital classroom it is easy to feel like you are working towards the sharp point of 21st century practice but after listening to Professor Yoram Harpaz, Mark Osborne (Core Education) and Luke Sumich, Blair Giles and Barb Dysart (Summerland School) I realised I have a lot more work to put in to be the best I can be and more importantly knowing that I can't do it alone!

A lot of my focus over the past year has been developing resources and tasks that make the most of the digital technology.  But reflecting back on this now I realise that a lot of my time and energy has been put into what I am going to do TO students to improve learning rather than what I am going to do FOR students.  The difference here is subtle and it is easy to get your back up over the idea that you are just doing stuff TO students even though you are grouping for learning and/or making resources for them to use.  But the idea of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) takes this a step further.  It focuses on what we are doing FOR students.  Mark Osborne from Core Education backed this up in his BYOD breakout when he said:   Design for the edges - don’t assume that everybody is average and ‘normal’.  Give kids a wide range of tools to access to do what they need to do to be powerful. In class this is so much more than just developing tasks that are engaging. It means providing your teaching in a way that is available to students when they are ready to learn. It means giving your students real and diverse choices in how the present their learning and understanding. It means gathering feedback from your students about YOUR teaching, providing yourself with real feedback and data to REALLY base the changes of your practice on.

There is just so much that I learnt over the last four days and far too much to bore people with a single blog post about it all.  So the next few weeks will be about taking the time to go over notes, understand and synthesis the information and decide on the direction I should take.   I don't want to rush out and make knee jerk reaction based change without thinking though how and why I will be making the changes.

So thank you to all the people involved with ULearn14, you all did a fantastic job making it all run smoothly.

My ULearn14 Digital Badges

1:1 Devices... Do we really need it?

Today was the first day of ULearn14, ULearn Mobile.  It was a great day! More than made up for the early morning start with the thought of 40 percent of my holiday spent at conference!

So one of the things that came up today that I have been seeing a lot lately is the Effect Size.  I know John Hattie's meta-analysis work has been around for a long time, I can remember him speaking to our cluster when I was a fresh beginner teacher, but it keeps coming up and I have seen other schools calculating their own effect sizes too.

I attended Mark Osborne's (Core Education) presentation on Effective BYOD Pedagogy and there were some awesome points raised for the importance of digital learning tools of some shape or form.  Little facts like simply using word processors is enough to; get students writing more, have students write to a higher quality, improve student engagement and improve achievement rates - especially for low achievers.  All that just from using a tool, then you add in the quality teaching.

An interesting fact was the comparison of effect size based on the size of the group sharing a device, with .40 being an average effect size.  Large groups sharing a device ranked lowest with .39,  next was individual use with .42, pairs of students step it up with .69 and lastly is small groups with a massive .96 effect size.  So what does this mean?  Different people will take it different ways.  Some will say we shouldn't move to 1:1 environment.  Personally I still value a 1:1 model.  It offers choice.  What I believe this shows is that as teachers we need to be thoughtful about task design and how we scaffold our students.  The knowledge our students bring can be invaluable for the success of the class as a whole and tapping into that through collaboration is highly effective.

I come from an environment where I work with small group to device ratios and yes it is effective when students problem solve and collaborate around one device.  But there are times where students need to reflect as an individual, or practice skills using an app by themselves or just write independently for a little bit.  At these times there is no choice, we are limited by the technology.  So 1:1 give options, options that as teachers we need to exercise for the benefit of our learners.

As a final plug for students having their own device... the comment was made today about why you implement a BYOD programme.  One school that was discussed believed that the device was there not just to teach the children, but the benefits would help the families of these learners too.  Isn't that what we are about... to give our learners the best opportunities possible? To build our communities into places of joy and excitement?  To have a community that understands and supports the school and the children?

...I think so, and as I learnt today... Start your digital journey with the why... why are we doing what we do? Then build your programmes from there.

Setting Up a Better Room

Well Term 4 is a week away and I went into school today to set up my classroom.  Tidying up and setting up for the new term made me realise the sheer volume of junk we teachers accumulate; paper, pens, "resources", weekly overviews, term overviews, copies of newsletters, notes home... the list is huge.

The point is this, what is it all for? Do we really need it? Couldn't we do it a better way?

This term I will be getting stuck into the Syndicate 'Hub' an online space were planning and resources can be kept in an attempt to go a little more paperless.  I have seen this in action at other schools.  Granted they are new schools that have had the time and resources to set them up properly.  Full time teaching sometimes keeps you a little busy for the optional extra's like this.

The key online spaces we will need at a syndicate level will be:
1) Planning space and Resources - Links to Google Drive
2) Notes and Admin - A place to put all of the things that you need to keep but don't really want cluttering the place up
3) Professional learning - Places or link to places where our syndicates professional learning notes are kept.
4) Syndicate calendar - Will be able to share events with key people.
That will be a good start!
The value of online hubs like this are clear on a school wide level and developing an Admin Hub to keep everyone informed and collaborating in the same direction.

This term I am also using furniture to break up my classroom into distinct work spaces based on the 7 spaces for learning.  Not sure if I like some of the spaces I have made but trial and error will be the key here.

So a busy term trying to find tune some of the practices we have been experimenting with. But long term it will be worth it.  Students will have a classroom that better reflects the kinds of learning we want to take part in.  The online 'hub' for the syndicate will streamline work and allow teachers to be more collaborative. It means that the call I made today to get my teacher desk out of the room will be workable long term.  Because without a desk I have no where for the mountain of paperwork I accumulate throughout a year.

Google Docs vs. Googe Sides

One of the problems I encountered early on using Google Docs was the lack of formatting options.  A few people that I talked to said they preferred Word because you could do more with it.  After playing around for a while I found that Google Slides provided a way to make documents with set formatting and I was able to achieve almost anything I wanted.

Our school produces very 'pretty' student portfolios with many of the teacher taking a lot of time to make good looking assessment samples and graphic organisers.  Google Slides was perfect for this... but, as time went on I began to question some of the documents I was making.  Did it need to look good?  What was the real purpose of this sample?  Was I inadvertently hamstringing what I was trying to achieve because I was trying to make it look good?

The answer was yes and no.

For some samples we wanted the wow factor,  for others the task itself was more important.  Student collaboration and refection was required and a document that grew and provides space for students to show learning was needed.  In this regard Google Docs was better, despite having limited formatting.

We used a Google doc to share out the learning intentions and tasks for  Narrative writing, this allowed students to type work, upload photos of their handwritten work and allowed them to make ongoing changes based on teacher and peer feedback. It meant that all of the student work was in one place, a huge bonus when it came to assessing student learning.  This term we are trialling using a discussion paper about planets in our solar system using Google Docs because it allows for collaboration and growth of ideas.  Because isn't this the kind of learning students take part in in higher education? In the workplace? Isn't our job to teach and prepare them for their future? Whatever it looks like.

So really, like anything in teaching, it's about selecting the right tool for the job.  When you want a 'pretty' summative assessment, Google Slides will do the trick perfectly.  But, when you want living, growing collaborative work that's powerful and engaging... It's going to get messy - Use a Google Doc.

What are your thoughts for using these Google Tools?

First Post!

Hi everyone,

welcome to my blog.  This site will be were I share my reflections, learnings, successes and failures in my education journey.

I am currently implementing Google Apps For Education (GAFE) into my class and have been using Hapara as the administration tool.  Hapara is an incredibly powerful tool for teachers to monitor and share out documents with classes, groups and individual students.

I have only begun to scratch the surface with the tools I could use in class, this year has been about finding the tools, and experimenting with how they work in the class.  We pretty much threw ourselves in and waited to see what stuck.  I am looking forward to next year where our school will be able to more clearly plan out the direction of our ICT tools and how we plan on linking them to our school curriculum.

So stay tuned for more posts about some of my findings, thoughts and  professional learnings.  Please let me know about some of your ideas about what works and what doesn't in your school!