VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

VSTE Voices

Technology Considerations for English Learners

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Due to a sudden shift in virtual learning, how can we effectively use technology with English Learners (EL) in a virtual classroom setting? How can we communicate effectively with ELs? Incorporating technology in the virtual classroom with ELs is an excellent way to support the four language domains. With technology, students can listen, speak, read and write.

A reciprocal relationship exists between reading and writing and reading informs writing. Speaking and listening are the foundational skills for reading and writing. These four language domains are essential for our ELs as they are learning English and with technology, ELs are able to produce and express language. Furthermore, technology allows ELs to have equal access to the language as their native English speaking peers.

Here are a few considerations to keep in mind as you shift to virtual learning for ELs:

immersive reader icon

1. Use trusted translation and interpretation based on the guidelines set by your district

Two excellent tools to use are the dictate feature and immersive reader in Microsoft OneNote and Word. If you have a student that is unable to write in their native language but can speak in that language, it is an excellent way for them to show what they know! Seeing the joy on a child’s face when they see their speech come to life is so exciting. Immersive reader will read text aloud highlighting text as it reads and the language can also be changed for translation.

2. Use audio books for ELs to hear and read text

Another way I love using technology with ELs is by giving ELs access to audio books. The technology we have at our fingertips is just phenomenal. Students are able to listen to a text in their native language and then hear it in English. Additionally, they are able to see the text on the screen. You can even change the interface to the native language. One of my favorite free websites to use for this is Unite for Literacy. (uniteforliteracy.com or Unite Books app) Students can explore a wide range of texts in a variety of languages with beautiful graphics.

3. Utilize multi-modal resources

Another great technology resource for ELs is Discovery Education. The amount of multi-modal resources within Discovery Education is outstanding. For the videos, ELs greatly benefit from the closed caption and transcript features. Being able to listen and see the text on the screen and in print supports ELs with their language development. For the reading passages, the audio feature allows the text to play and students can change the speed of the audio. Students can even see the text be tracked along the screen as they listen. Additionally, students can go on Virtual Field Trips which is so important right now! If your district doesn’t already have Discovery Education, they are offering districts free accounts during the closure.

4. Tech buddies for ELs

Consider having a tech buddy for ELs. Assign an online tech buddy, either a same language student or a tech savvy classmate to support ELs with tech. Additionally, ensure ELs know where and who to go to for tech support when they need it.

5. Clear and concise Communication

Ensure when you are giving information through tech resources that it is clear and concise. Remember that both families and students will need support with the tech resources you share, less is more!

During this time, if technology is unavailable for an EL, consider the phone capabilities they may have. Perhaps they can email or text. Consider having printed paper copies with offline resources of daily or weekly choice boards they can complete with no tech requirements! These activities could include listening, speaking, reading and writing activities. It is vital to ensure during this extended closure that our ELs are still able to access the learning materials even if they do not have technology available to them. With or without tech, our goal for our ELs is to allow for opportunities that they can actively engage in listening, speaking, reading and writing! I hope you will find these resources to be useful with your ELs!

Written by Mandy Livings. Mandy is an Elementary English Learner Program Specialist in Prince William County Public Schools.

Recommendations For Moving Your Classroom Online

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cartoon speech bubbles with quotation marksAs schools close for what may be an extended length of time, many of us are entering the new and unfamiliar experience of working with our students in an online environment. While we can’t anticipate every issue you might face, VSTE has some basic recommendations gathered from some experts in this area. We hope these will help you with the adjustment. 

  1. Use the tools you already have.

Many school divisions already have arrangements to use distance learning tools like Google G Suite for Education, Microsoft Office 365, BlackBoard, and Schoology. Not only have these products been vetted by your division for student privacy and data security, you likely have someone assigned to your school, such as your ITRT or other technology coach, who can help you with problems. Familiarity will help both you and your students feel more comfortable as you move into an online environment.

  1. Avoid registering for new and unfamiliar products.

In response to this crisis, many technology companies are offering free or discounted versions of their products to teachers and schools. While these are generous offers, it is likely that these apps will create educational records (essentially any personally identifiable data). Schools must follow FERPA when sharing educational records with a third party, regardless of the age of the student, and regardless of if it is the student or the teacher is the one signing in. These tools  may also have provisions in their terms of service that violate the intellectual property rights of your students. Your school division has already negotiated contracts with many online products. Check with your ITRT or tech coach to confirm which products are available and how to use them with your students. DO NOT create accounts for your students or staff without first checking to see if the product has been approved as you do not want to risk your students' privacy. (The Department of Education has more guidance about FERPA and COVID-19 here.)

  1. Remember that not all of your students may have the same access at home.

Even in the more affluent areas of Virginia, we have students whose parents cannot afford high-speed internet access and who may be relying on public access that could become unavailable. In other areas, connection speeds could be slow or unreliable. If cable is available, check to see of the company is one that is offering free broadband to low income households right now. You may be able to help your students and their families get online during this crucial time. Some phone providers have lifted data caps and overage fees as well. However, keep the varying level of access in mind as you plan for the activities you may want them to complete during this time. For example, some students may not be able to join if you try to have video conferencing sessions. Asynchronous activities or recordings can help ensure access. Students will also be using a variety of devices for online access that will impact their ability to use tools. Best advice: keep it simple. 

  1. Work first on building your students’ online skills.

We all know that kids are great at communicating with each other using their personal devices. Those skills don’t transfer directly into learning in an online environment. As you get started, emphasize extending the community you’ve built in the face-to-face classroom to the new virtual classroom. Think of this as an opportunity for students to improve their digital learning skills.  Start simple with discussion boards, comments, or quick postings. Progress to more advanced online activities.

  1. Practice safe and secure networking.

Don’t share passwords, especially not through email or chat. Your division will provide guidance on how to reset your own and student passwords. Follow their directions even if it takes longer in a completely online environment. Ask your tech support person about division policies regarding sharing student passwords with parents. You should not allow others to use your division-owned device and make every effort to separate your work and personal data, preferably with different profiles. You should not use a VPN for personal Internet access or sync division content to personal cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive. 

  1. Connect with your colleagues.

Although it will be temporary, the time you will be teaching online can be a great learning experience for you as well. Share what you discover with other educators from your division, around Virginia, and beyond, and learn from them. Twitter is a good place to start a discussion (just don't put your students on Twitter). You'll also find many teachers who blog about their work.

VSTE is here to help you get started: you can follow us on Twitter, check our Facebook page, join our Facebook Group and browse the resources at Virginia's #GoOpenVA site. We are also partnering with UnisonEDU to offer free online coaching and support. Learn more here. 

 

 

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.