VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Journalism Students Collaborate in Google Shared Drive

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Sometime around the middle of October 2018, our Journalism I/II teacher, Mrs. Diane Cross approached Thomas Smith and me, as Instructional Technology Specialists, with a commonly seen issue in work environments. Mrs. Cross was new to First Colonial High School in 2018, transferring to us with many years of experience in a neighboring school district.

However, Mrs. Crossís prior school district did not have all of the technology tools and resources we are so very fortunate to have at our disposal in Virginia Beach. Not one to be scared off easily, Mrs. Cross jumped right into G-Suite and Schoology, platforms our teachers had been learning for several years. The issue Mrs. Cross had quickly discovered with her Journalism I/II students was that the students need to be able to view and edit each other's documents and photos.

So, Thomas Smith and I offered our services as Instructional Technology Specialists to the Journalism I/II students. To solve the problem, we created a Google Shared Drive for the students and their teacher. We assisted Mrs. Cross and her students with organizing their articles and photos in a Google Shared Drive.

This quickly and easily solved the setback created by trying to use other programs and it provided both the teacher and the students with an accessible virtual locker. Editors of the newspaper were given the permissions of Content Manager so that they could add, edit, move, and delete files as needed while the teacher maintained the drive as the Manager; Journalism I staff members were added as contributors so that they could add and edit their own files. This storage space allowed the class to create a virtual online newspaper that could be viewed by the entire student body.

As Instructional Technology Specialists, we provided instruction to the students on how to add, delete, and organize files within the Shared Drive. Working with the students during their class time, Mr. Smith and I were able to answer questions and give immediate feedback. The students discovered the benefits of cloud storage, learned about folder permissions, organization, and were able to collaborate in a way they had never experienced, but will certainly encounter again when they enter the workforce.

Written by Suzanne F. Flach, an Instructional Technology Specialist at First Colonial High School, @VBFlock; Thomas Smith, an Instructional Technology Specialist at Frank W. Cox HS and First Colonial HS, @ThomasSmithITS; and Diane Cross, a Journalism Teacher at First Colonial HS, @DianeCross5

When Hardware Leads to Hard Choices

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Everyone likes choices.

Teachers especially appreciate having options to accommodate the needs of their students. Today, the choices for instruction include an endless selection of apps for every purpose imaginable. Movement toward personalized learning that allows for student preference and keeps students engaged has led to a proliferation of apps that boast of specialized, customized, and interactive features, and teachers must be familiar with a large array of these tools and their purposes in order to select the most appropriate for the task.

But we often don’t have a choice about what type of hardware is deployed in the classroom, from the devices that students and teachers are using, to the type of projection displays in the classroom.

But even as the hardware choices for teachers may be narrow, one piece of instructional technology that has become more universal in nature despite that fact is the interactive flat panel displays now being utilized within many classrooms. Teachers can connect a range of devices by way of a choice of connection methods depending on the needs of the lesson, the needs of the students, or the preference of the teacher.

In addition, these universal interactive panels allow teachers to take advantage of the growing number of web-based presentation apps that can work on a variety of student and teacher devices, opening up the ability to collaborate with a wider audience and providing students with content delivered in an individualized setting.

Two popular apps for creating and delivering interactive presentations are ClassFlow and Nearpod. These apps are accessible on any device, for teacher and student. Students in the same room participating in the same lesson need not be on the same network or even the same type of device in order for all to collaborate. But the primary function of these apps that differentiates them from a traditional slidedeck-style presentation is the ability for the teacher to cast live content directly to the individual student device.

This can be useful for the teacher to control the flow of the lesson, allowing students to have direct access to the interactive materials embedded, while hindering distraction by directing their attention to a slide. Teachers can annotate or add content that can be automatically sent to the whole class or to individual students. Both apps also include the ability to embed standard document and slidedeck files that teachers frequently create, with Classflow also allowing teachers to import some proprietary file types for conversion. Both tools also offer a variety of quick, easy-to-create, and engaging app-specific activities that students can interact with during the delivery of the lesson.

With the support of these direct-to-device presentation casting tools, a teacher can create a classroom environment with a variety of seating options. Classrooms with seats arranged in straight, front-facing rows in order to passively observe the teacher are no longer necessary or ideal. Learning environments have evolved to include flexible seating options of desks arranged in pairs and small groups, and even some true “flexible,” non-traditional seating such as bean bag chairs or yoga balls. These seating arrangements need not directly face the “sage on the stage” in the front of the room, since these apps will deliver the content directly to the student’s device, wherever they are sitting and whatever direction they are facing.

Even with all the advanced features that these interactive apps have to offer, there will always be a situation where the simplest tool is best fit for the task. In cases where a substitute teacher may not have access to the class materials, or when just a quick sketch is needed to explain a concept, a board’s built-in whiteboard feature will do the job. Move this concept of a quick jot to the cloud, and Google Jamboard will easily upgrade the annotation by making it shareable.

These quick, primarily handwritten notes and explanations, automatically saved in the Google Drive, can easily be exported for use in other student resource tools such as a learning management system, where an absent student could still be a part of the moment captured in the classroom that they missed. Other apps used for this purpose may save to a proprietary file type or may require a few more steps and a USB drive to save and share annotations. Using the right web-based tool can take content from static to dynamic with the flick of a soft-tipped flat-panel pen.

Teachers must carefully consider the platform in which they invest their time into developing materials, as technology changes quickly and proprietary file types can unexpectedly become obsolete, leaving teachers in a lurch and looking for ways to salvage instructional materials no longer compatible with the hardware they have available. Taking advantage of the constantly updated and intuitive interfaces of web-based apps and moving toward a mindset of open-source materials will go a long way for teachers trying to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of instructional technology tools, giving teachers the freedom to make choices about their instruction that is in the best interests of the learners they serve.

Written by Amber Nordwall. Amber is an Instructional Technology Specialist at Plaza Middle, an IB World School, in Virginia Beach, VA.

Gamification in the Classroom

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In nearly ten years of teaching, I have done a variety of things. I have taught Special Education, General Ed High School English, and even middle school Technology Education. Every year I try new things. I look for a chance to engage my students and myself in a way that is different than the year before. I’ve tried a lot of things, but nothing had had the dramatic impact on my way of teaching and my classroom climate that Gamification has had.

I have never considered myself a teacher who struggled with classroom management, but every teacher deals with behavior issues on some scale, and that is normal. I was always looking for a way to encourage students to actively participate in class and behave in an appropriate manner. One day, a friend told me about a new game she was playing with her students. She was playing Classcraft, and seeing some pretty cool things. I decided that, as a person who already loves video games, this could be just the ticket.

student presenting at an interactive whiteboard

The difference was almost immediate. The students were taking a lot of the burden of behavior off of me and regulating each other. Each student was on a team of 3-5, and their behavior directly impacted their teammates. Teammates don't like negative impacts. At first I was worried that there might be some backlash when a student caused damage to the team, but instead there was something amazing. Teammates were happy to help each other, but they were also taking the student aside and encouraging them to follow the rules in the future!

There are times when being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs I can imagine, and then there are times like this when I remember why I do this job. One of those moments was watching middle schoolers coach their peers in a positive and uplifting way. There really is nothing like it.

students working in a classroom

In addition to the behavior aspects of the game, we went on learning quests together and students could test their knowledge against bosses like Drakans and Raptals. Boss battles are a great way to gamify review, like when we played "Jeopardy" in school, except WAY COOLER! Students get the chance to battle individually or as a team. They also get the chance to protect and heal one another. This is a great way to get the kids actively participating in a knowledge review in addition to working on their interpersonal skills!

I have been teaching for nearly 10 years, and nothing revolutionized student behavior and engagement that gamifying my class did. I no longer heard things like “is this for a grade?” and “what happens to my grade if I don’t do this?” It helped me create an atmosphere where I was only grading the things that really needed to be graded and not feeling like everything had to be worth points just to get them to do it. They also would come to me begging for opportunities to earn more experience points so they could level up and get the newest gear or a new pet.

students working in groups in a classroom

While I found Classcraft to be a great tool for my students, I have seen the concept of Gamification used in a variety of ways. I encourage you to look into this education trend and see how it fits for you. Take your students on epic learning adventures instead of just doing units. Battle a Dragos together where everyone wins or loses as a group instead of busting out that Jeopardy Powerpoint you’ve had for the last decade. Take a chance on something new this year!

Written by Arcadia Parson. Arcadia is an Instructional Technology Specialist in Virginia Beach, VA.

Common Sense Education Announces Digital Citizenship Implementation Guide

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Common Sense Education's Digital Citizenship Implementation Guide includes resources for school and district leaders to plan, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive digital citizenship program within their community. It is broken up into two sections:

  1. A 3-phase Framework for Digital Citizenship Implementation, including key questions for planning, downloadable templates and checklists to make it actionable....all aligned with helping schools and districts achieve Common Sense Recognition.
  2. A series of 6 case studies featuring school districts across the nation implementing digital citizenship in different ways.

Implementing digital citizenship in a school or district doesn't have to be overwhelming! With Common Sense Education's three-phased approach, you can thoughtfully and strategically implement a robust and effective digital citizenship program. Learn more: https://comsen.se/2Pgou8F

VSTE is pleased to partner with Common Sense Education to bring these resources to our members and friends.

Thinking Outside the Blocks

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Roanoke County Public Schools has access to Minecraft: Education Edition. While the elementary and middle school levels have had no trouble finding projects for students such as recreating Jamestown or showing fractions with the building blocks, the high school level educators have been a bit skeptical. This year, however, I have had more teachers hop on board, due mainly to the desire and begging of the students.

Stadium constructed in Minecraft(click image for a larger view)

A Sports and Entertainment Marketing teacher approached me with a project her students were working on, looking for ideas of where they could build a professional football stadium. The students had to select an area in the United States that did not have a professional football team, propose a team to the ìtown councilî, ìsecureî a local corporate sponsor, design logos and jerseys, set pricing for tickets and concessions, and much more. She wanted the final stage of the project to be to build the stadium, complete with gift shops, parking garages, concession stands with prices displayed, and more. It took the students, working in groups of 3 to 4, about 4 weeks working half of the 90 minute block every other day to build their stadiums. The results are impressive. However, the teamwork, collaboration, and communication was even more impressive. Students had to work together to be efficient and effective in their building process. Skill levels of Minecraft ranged from novice to expert but that didnít seem to matter, there was a job for everyone.

Stadium constructed in Minecraft(click image for a larger view)

An Earth Science teacher was begged by students to come up with a Minecraft project. She found they were even choosing to play Minecraft (and would build content related items without her prompting) when they had completed all of their work! When she approached me about a project, we decided that the students should be given some freedom in their construction. They had been studying oceanography and their requirement was to show all parts of the ocean floor, complete with sea life (real and fiction), tools to study the ocean, and ways to show the current. As you can see in the picture, not all students chose to create their masterpieces in the Ocean Biome world. This group created a viewing boardwalk complete to view their ocean aquarium. While the students were very creative and often exceeded the expectations of the project, the most impressive aspect was the conversations students held during the building process. The amount of science vocabulary they were using was more than you could draw out of them during a worksheet or independent task.

ocean world constructed in Minecraft (click image for a larger view)

Lastly, the World Geography teacher was discussing human impacts on global regions and decided she wanted the students to use Minecraft to show the dangers of human impact and ways that it could be reversed. Students researched a given biome and had to answer questions before jumping into the Minecraft portion of the project. Once again, the vocabulary that emerged during the project was more than just normal teenage vernacular. The students were discussing real global issues and solutions. They were helping each other find ways to show the destruction in Minecraft and were very creative in their final results.

Building and yard in Minecraft (click image for a larger view)

Some drawbacks of using Minecraft in the classroom? The biggest fear my teachers have is that the students know more about the program than they do. And I tell them that is just how it is! Embrace it. You are the content teacher, you have given them the assignment. It is up to the student to build (which the majority of them know how to do quite well). They will most likely only ask content questions anyways. If a student has a Minecraft question, they often refer to peers or YouTube.

The biggest take away is the opportunity to see your students flourish in an environment where they are the most comfortable. They are collaborating, communicating, using critical thinking skills, being creative, and, depending on the project, thinking about how they can be better citizens. When it comes to education technology, Minecraft is a definite way to think outside the blocks, er, box!

Written by Kelsey Huffman, an ITRT in Roanoke County Public Schools.