I agree a set of rules should be established. Every day I see people of all ages posting things that they really shouldn’t. That stuff doesn’t go away, particularly if it’s embarrassing.
As for the schools mentioned in the article who ban social networking outright? I’m waiting for them to ban computers and start teaching how to bang rocks together. When it comes to technology, you can’t TEACH it if you can’t USE it.
Social networking is one of the things that permeates the internet right now. If I had to ban all social networking tools from my classroom over half my curriculum (including Edmodo, which is a spectacular teaching tool) would be toast. I’d be back to teaching just MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for 180 school days.
When building your own CampITC, Plan the Who, What, Where, When, Why, & How first. Set guidelines to narrow things down.
“Scout out” your tools ahead of time. Google Apps, Elluminate, etc. Start early to help people adjust to the format.
@misteryork1 That’s an issue with any conference. I always check what organization the speaker represents in the schedule. (In reply to Mr. York complaining about sales pitches disguised as sessions.)
“Chat & Chew” sessions – time for discussion vs. lecture.
Establish “Camp Rules.” Guidelines so that participants know what is expected from them and from the “Camp Counselor.”
One of the #CampITC rules: “Reflect & implement new strategies.” THIS CANNOT BE EMPHASIZED ENOUGH! (Emphasis mine.)
#CampITC Schedule: Session 1: Getting to know your camping guide (Pedagogy)
#CampITC Schedule: Session 2: Take a Hike (Prep/Planning)
#CampITC Schedule: Session 3: From Camping to Classroom (Putting it together/Reflecting)
#CampITC use a variety of tools for communication/evaluation – Email, wikis, “corkboard” sites, etc.
#CampITC Give stuff at the end. Certificates, raffles, door prizes, etc.
I really like the idea of doing a #CampITC. Thinking of setting one up for my building.
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Ready for the session on screencasting to start in rm 318. What’s this about a web based screencasting app?
Many people here have already made screencasts. Starting off by bringing the rest up to speed.
Screencast: Recording of whatever is seen on the screen + voice, often for making tutorials.
(Screencasting is also often used when creating machinima or streaming video games.)
RT: APPlied Club @APPliedClub Those who suggest blocking everything as a solution to distraction problems have no idea how to teach technology. @theartguy
RT: APPlied Club @APPliedClub Tons of enthusiasm about meeting students where they already are, take the learning to them. So awesome and inspiring! @theartguy (NOTE: Not sure we were in the same presentation.)
Because someone might want to look at this and before long going back through Twitter will make it too hard to see these posts, here’s a (not so) brief summary of my observations. I’ve placed gaps to show where I went from one session to another.
My hat's seen better days.
Up early for a full day of #CGMD12 … As soon as the caffiene kicks in.
@MatthewWinner Not today, no. I look forward to seeing you in my session tomorrow! (That means I’ll have at least one person there.)
It begins! My presentation has remained largely unchanged for weeks, and I just thought of something new to add.
Not 10 minutes after getting here I was recognized twice and high-fived once. I <3 #cgmd12.
A little worried – apparently my #CGMD12 session is at the same time as tomorrow’s keynotes. Might have a room to myself.
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In room 321, ready to see Doug Johnson present on using personal devices for education. I’m in the seat next to the outlet.
Some would find this purchase to be somewhat odd. Indeed it is, somewhat. Those who know me have heard my rants about needing a “real” keyboard. My typing skills are not the best by any means but I seem to be able to do it faster and with fewer mistakes if I can get a tactile response that’s more than the whole device vibrating.
It’s why my last computer purchase was a tablet PC – and mind you, I don’t regret that purchase. That computer does almost everything I intended for it to do. I enjoyed the challenge it gave me to install and configure Linux on a computer with a touch screen, and for times that I need to use Windows (they do occur) I have to say Win 7 is the nicest version of that OS that I’ve ever seen.
But here I am, now owning a tablet. I use it for the following things:
Netflix
It has a 10.1″ screen, which is large enough for anything I don’t intend to use at more than an arm’s length away. To that end I’ll often go through a Dirty Jobs (or other show) marathon while grading student work on my main computer.
Audible
I love Audible for many of the same reasons I love podcasts. I spend a decent amount of time commuting, and good audio content keeps my mind active. My mind also tends to wander when trying to read nonfiction, so it’s a good way for me to digest that information if I have someone reading it to me. The only downside is that since I refuse to pay for a 3G tablet I have to download the books before I head to the car, but that’s not hard to do.
Schoolwork
The first school day after I purchased my tablet I decided to see if I could leave my main computer at home. As it turns out SchoolMax (our content management system for grades, attendance, and other student records) works just fine with any Android browser, as does Edmodo. Edmodo even has an app for that, which I recommend. For an intense “grade everything and grade it all now” session I still prefer a more powerful computer, but for what I normally do it works quite well.
Reading
Google Books, the Kindle App, and more are available for most tablets. My tablet weighs about the same as some books I’ve read and much less than others. One of the biggest selling points I can see for schools switching to a 1:1 ratio is the replacement of dead tree textbooks with digital equivalents. Are there more reasons? Of course! But the biggest complaint I hear about moving to a 1:1 ratio is the cost. Tablets are cheaper than most computers, and the more $50+ textbooks they replace, the better.
Beyond that, there are several apps that make browsing online content very convenient. I particularly like Feedly, though there are others with the same functionality. It has the ability to sink up with my Google Reader feeds and display them in an almost magazine style format that allows me to skim through content without the usual feeling of being overwhelmed.
Games
I fully admit it, I’m a gamer. Puzzle games, adventure games, MMORPGs, I like most categories. There are a wide variety of games available for whatever tablet OS you care to use. My favorite, currently, is Robo Defense. It’s one of the few apps I have that wasn’t free, and it was totally worth it.
Next up, I’ll make a post about the things I don’t like about tablets.
Reaching A High Score Presentation[ 29:25 ]Download (371)
Last year I rewrote my curriculum to make it into a game, and doing so helped my students master the content. This is my presentation on what I did, as given at this year’s Powering Up With Technology Conference.
Apologies for the poor audio quality, I was projecting (using my “teacher voice”) to the participants and that tended to overwhelm my mic every time I was next to the computer.
Due to reasons beyond my control, I won’t be anywhere near the internet for most of this Thursday. In fact, I won’t even be in the same state.
Naturally, the first thing I thought of was the first grade kids I had been planning to teach!
Now, most of them are able to log in on their own, but most is not the same thing as all. I could have them do an online lesson, but instead I pulled out a project I had my students do a fewyears ago back when I didn’t have a computer lab to call my own.
With some construction paper, a little glue, and some markers/crayons/colored pencils, we’ll be making our own laptops. The point of the lesson will be to talk about how computers are used to communicate with others online. The end result will be a neat toy laptop to call their own.
This episode of Academic Aesthetic is brought to you by antibiotics and cough drops. You see, early last week a combination of lots of talking (occupational hazard of teaching), and post nasal drip caused by a sinus infection made me lose my voice. It’s better now, but can only talk so long before my agonized squeaks become a source of amusement for all around me.
So submitted for your approval is an interview of me done by Dr. Kavita Mittapalli, someone whose name I most likely just mispronounced horribly so I won’t try to say it again.
The good Doctor visited one of my 1st grade classes last week, before the whole AWOL voice incident, and recorded a conversation with me afterwards. I rambled on, and then made the bad decision of requesting a copy of the interview.
And I still haven’t learned, as I’m now making another bad decision and playing it for you. Enjoy.
It’s that time of the year again, when I devote two days to education and technology … er, more so than usual, at least.
As usual, my conference was full of fun, excitement, and learning – so much so that I forgot to take proper notes! I did not, however, forget to post on Twitter up through the end of Tuesday’s keynote, so rather than reinvent the wheel I thought I’d copy/paste the highlights here.
The keynote itself was presented by Chris Lehmann (Website) (Twitter), principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA.
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theartguy Aaron Smith
Up at 4:30 / Whose bright idea was this? / Oh yeah, it was mine. #haiku #mset11
theartguy Aaron Smith
At the conference / No one at Registration / Opens at seven. #haiku #mset11
Oh yeah, games in education. I started in Episode 174 by giving a background of what I’d done up to that point, which I suppose means that’s not when I started at all, but that’s the post I named “Part 1″ so I’m just going to leave it at that.
In Episode 175 I discussed my current thoughts about turning my own Middle School curriculum into a game, including several problems and solutions I’d encountered. Some problems had multiple possible solutions, and I’m not quite sure which ones I’ll pick when I’m done.
Now we’re up to the errata, the extra things, the little details that help the big picture idea without making or breaking it. Also, keep in mind the disclaimer I offered in Part 2: All of this is not yet implemented and is subject to change based on whims as well as school policies. If my principal glares at me and says “Mr. Smith, stop being an idiot,” I’ve no choice but to salute and about face.
(FYI: My wording here is for effect. My principal might tell me “No,” but she would word it in a much nicer way than I did.)
Quest Types
When adopting a game-themed teaching strategy, assignments become known as quests. My students who have played any RPGs (A.K.A. Role Playing Games, such as Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, etc.) will already be familiar with the terminology, and those who have not will still hopefully be able to make the adjustment.
Projects = Standard Quests
The word “standard” is used here only to differentiate these from other quests. Students select these, attempt them, and if they fail they can try again. When they succeed they get the points attributed to the quest and move on to their next chosen quest. Students cannot get credit for completing the same Standard Quest twice, though they can attempt to redo a failed quest as many times as is necessary. The only thing they miss out on is time.
Homework and Warm-Ups = Daily Quests
Some RPGs have a quest type known as a “Daily Quest.” This quest is repeatable – you guessed it – once per day. Rather than have the students copy/paste their work from previous days, these quests would be worded so that the work done would vary each time. Sample quests could include “Write down two things you learned in class today,” “Listen to this audio file and write down what you think is the main idea,” and “Leave a comment on Mr. Smith’s blog where you ask one question about your current project.”
The quest text could be the same each day or be selected from a pool of quests, but the point is these quests are meant to be repeatable with different results each time.
Oh, and like Standard Quests, these can be repeated if failed. They just can’t be successfully done more than once per day.
Quizzes and Tests = Boss Battles
In the “real world,” so to speak, a boss is an employer – someone who tells you what to do and (hopefully) pays you for it. In most video games, a boss isn’t your employer. Instead, they’re bigger, nastier enemies for you to take down. This is compensated by earning better than normal loot and XP (experience points, remember) when you win. My quizzes and tests fit well into this category. Quizzes and tests as a whole are worth only a small percentage of my students’ final grade, but as I give far more projects than quizzes each assessment becomes worth more individually than any single project.
As with the quests, these boss battles should be repeatable. If a student takes a test 20 times to pass, but then passes, then they’re showing they’ve learned the content being covered. Getting it right the first time becomes less important than getting it right eventually.
Content Management Software
A component that has been part of my course since my first day on the job has been the submission of work online. I just don’t see the need to require an assignment to be created on a computer, then be transferred to a dead tree, then have its grade placed back on a computer. That middle step seems pointless and, considering the days where my wife’s health issues have kept me out of the building, a major road block at times.
I’ve tried multiple solutions for online assessment, including Drupal, Status.net, WordPress (the self-hosted version), and Edmodo. I’ve been quite happy with WordPress, as it solved several problems I had last year with Edmodo (I’ll get into those in a little bit), is simpler to use than Drupal, and doesn’t allow the students to send private messages to each other like Status.net. Unfortunately WordPress lacks an addon that will manage points the way I want to manage them.
Fortunately, Edmodo does that part perfectly. Using my old grading system I chafed at the way Edmodo totaled up points when I graded assignments, but their method of counting up all the points equally will fit right in with the new standard for my class.
A previous issue I had with Edmodo, where students submitted the wrong file for a project and had to wait for me to delete their submission so they could try again, has been resolved. Students can resubmit a project as many times as they want until I grade it. As I won’t grade them until they’ve completed the quest, this works out very well.
My only misgiving with Edmodo at this point involves student profiles. They have the ability to change their profiles, including their avatars to whatever they want. This could give rise to issues ranging from inappropriate imagery to students changing their names to attempt some form of anonymity while they harass someone. I’ve dealt with one student this year already who thought nothing of insulting other students online, and that was on a site that afforded me a lot more control over student accounts than Edmodo ever did.
That issue makes me think of proceeding with caution, but unless I find a better, more controlled solution, we’ll be using Edmodo when I start using my Game strategy. After all, I can always set an offending account to “read-only” until the issue that made me take action is resolved.
Classes
In most RPGs, players are able to select different classes, or archetypes for their characters. Common class examples in existing RPGs are warriors, mages, rangers, hunters, rogues, priests, paladins, and so on. While I’m not planning on implementing this idea right away, I’m toying with eventually allowing my students to pick a class while … um … taking my class. Since I teach at a Creative & Performing Arts Academy, classes can align with the majors that are available.
Students could choose to be bards (for the music-themed or drama majors), artificers (visual arts), performers (drama or dance), or go with the catch-all technologists. Each class could have specific requirements (Mandatory quests? Specific boss battles?) and / or perks (Bonus points when completing quests that align with their class?).
Naturally something this complicated will take a lot of planning to use in an effective manner, so I’m starting to think about it now, long before I intend to try it out. With luck I’ll be able to work out the details over the summer and have students selecting classes when they take my course next year.
Well this concludes my brain-dump for now. Rest assured there will be a Part 4, but don’t expect it right away. I’ll write that one out when I have enough new content to make it worthwhile.
RT 
