Mind-Reading at MACUL

I am an extremely indecisive person, so the long list of presentations in the MACUL conference program worried me immensely. As I scanned the list and came to the realization that I could probably only attend three or four presentations, I began to panic. How would I ever decide which presentations to go to? Answer: I wouldn't. I knew I could not trust myself to narrow down the list in a timely manner. Instead, my game plan was to follow a group of MACers and let them make all decisions for me so as to avoid the anxiety that inevitably accompanies all decisions I am forced to make. For the duration of the morning, my plan worked brilliantly. Then I saw the following presentation on page 41 of the MACUL program:

Mind-Reading With Technology Tools 

Andrea McKay

I had no idea who Andrea McKay was, but I could tell immediately she was a psychology teacher (all psychology teachers are connected by their mutual love for psychology). As I am always looking for opportunities to brush up on my mind-reading skills, nothing could stop me from attending her presentation. 

Andrea McKay is indeed a psychology teacher and she did not disappoint. She started her presentation with a demonstration on how to read minds. Being a psychology teacher myself, I was confident I could crack her demonstration within seconds. However, I (shamefully) admit I could not figure out how she was doing it. It appeared she was actually reading another MACer's mind. I was in awe. 

Eventually, Andrea did reveal her trick and proceeded to present on a tech tool called PearDeck. This tech tool seemed cool and I will be looking into it more, but the real benefit of this presentation for me was the experience. I will be teaching psychology next school year and I want to re-create such a captivating experience for my students. Luckily, I have inside information from Andrea so I can do the same demonstration in my psychology class. I plan on using it as an intro to my class to debunk myths about psychology as many students think it is all about psychics and mind-reading. I also want to use it to introduce students to the research process by having them generate hypotheses for how I am reading their minds (if I can get the same demonstration to work for me!). 

Not only did I get some ideas for psychology lessons, but I did actually learn about some cool tech tools. I was inspired to create a professional Twitter account and I have an entire list of tech tools to explore further. Needless to say, I was impressed with the MACUL conference. There was truly something there for everyone and it was great to see so many innovative teachers collaborating to transform learning from a chore into an exciting experience for our students!

Technology Teach-In: Beating Functional Fixedness with Social Media

Recently, I wrote an article on the use of technology in the classroom as part of an assignment. Originally intended to be an article describing only the use of Facebook in a specific social studies lesson, it quickly turned into an overall promotion of social media in education through a psychology lens. Included below is the introduction to my article:

"The internet has quickly become the new frontier in education and educators have exploded onto the world-wide web with ingenious ideas of how to utilize technology in the classroom. As a result, many teachers have explored this new frontier and implemented its vast resources to enhance student learning. There are some educators (and parents), however, that are more hesitant to share in the excitement and argue that there are dangers associated with bringing technology, specifically social media, into the classroom. Indeed, the use of social media in schools remains a source of contention among educators and some point to the distracting nature of social media and its difficulty to police as reasons for keeping it out of the classroom. While certainly legitimate reasons for dubiousness, this hesitation is rooted in the fear of functional fixedness. In short, functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits our ability to view an object's use to anything other than it’s intended function (Duncker, 1945). In this case, the fear is that students are unable to view social media as anything but a social space, thereby diminishing its effectiveness as an educational tool. The solution that follows as a result, is not to eliminate social media from the classroom, but to beat functional fixedness.

Today’s generation of students has grown up amidst the social media craze, so their view of social media as strictly a socialization tool makes sense - but it does not have to be their sole perspective. In fact, the cost failing to beat functional fixedness is too high. Social media is already infiltrating our classrooms regardless of teachers’ efforts to control it. Whether students access it stealthily via cellphones in class or under the guise of “researching” in the computer lab, the avenue for entry does not matter as long as it continues to be a distraction. Instead, let educators bring social media into their classrooms on their own terms. Educators, therefore, can help our students beat functional fixedness by incorporating social media in the classrooms and utilizing it in a way that not only enhances learning, but fosters creativity. Why not transform an otherwise distraction into a valuable learning tool that just might transcend school walls?"

After writing this article, I feel obligated to practice what I preach. Staying true to my original notion of using Facebook, I have since begun developing a lesson using this social media site. As of now, I envision this lesson taking place towards the end of the school year during either the Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome Unit. Because there tends to be a number of important historical figures involved in each of these units, I want to have students, working individually or in groups (I haven't decided), create Facebook profiles for their historical figure. As part of this assignment, they would create an "About Me" section, add a profile picture, and complete a the timeline of events for their assigned character. I also think it might be fun to create a Facebook event for a significant historical event that their character was involved in. Finally, I am entertaining the idea of having students post status updates as their character and then commenting on each other's updates, playing the role of their assigned historical figure.

I have not quite worked out all the details yet, but these are my initial thoughts.I explained my reasoning for using social media above, so I will not repeat it here. I will, however, mention that I think this type of assignment would enhance student learning. I think it is a novel way of enticing students to conduct research on a historical figure and perhaps presenting it in a way that feels more natural to them than I standard research report. In fact, I think in some ways it is perhaps even more complex in that it challenges students to present traditional content information in an unconventional way and it allows for more student creativity. In addition, I would hope that an assignment such as this might begin to beat functional fixedness and encourage students to see social media in a new light,  thereby extending the learning outside of the immediate classroom environment.

Finally I do anticipate some hesitation from my school (and possibly parents) regarding the use of  social media in the classroom. One alternative I plan to use as a Plan B is Fakebook - a site that has templates for fake facebook profiles specifically intended for educational use. This might be a safer option for my school and one that I think will still work. As I mentioned, these are only my initial thoughts on incorporating this type of lesson into my curriculum. I would be appreciative of any and all feedback/advice/comments/suggestions for the purpose of improving this lesson. Thank you in advance for your advice!

New Territory:The World of EduBloggers

Recently, I have scowered the internet in search of edublogs. Specifically, I was looking for blogs that I could use as resources as I continue to develop lessons and teaching strategies. I looked at a few blogs and commented on two, but there was one in particular worth mentioning. The was, of course, David Theune's blog (see my previous blog post for my opinion of Theune's teaching philosophy).  I decided to check out his blog after hearing him speak in class and it was a great life decision!!

Theune's blog was full of amazing, innovative ideas. The great thing about Theune's blog, and his ideas in general, is that though he is an English teacher, his ideas are easily translated across disciplines. Indeed,most of his ideas pertain to teaching philosophy and tend to focus on student engagement, relevance, and purpose. The second greatest thing about Theune's blog was that he did not just present ideas in isolation. Indeed, Theune had practiced what he preached and then provided an analysis of what went well and what needed improvement. I found this helpful as I tried to envision how I might incorporate some of his ideas into my own planning.

I was so inspired by Theune's post that I worked up the courage to post my own response to one of his blog postings. I basically geeked out and rambled on about my love of Theune's ideas and in a final moment of extreme courage I recommended a book to him. Obviously my meager contribution to Theune's blog was vastly outshined by the supreme intellect present in Theune's own posts; and yet, Theune still responded to my comment (in an impressively quick amount of time). I am unsure why I was so surprised by this, probably because my comment likely did not warrant Theune's precious time, but I should have known from the evidence in the blog that Theune would take the time to reply to me. I was more excited about his reply than I should probably admit, but anyone who has read his blog or hear him speak woudl not fault me for this I am sure. Seriously, though, I challenge everyone to check out his blog, comment, and not feel that level of excitement and honor!!

Check out Theune's blog at this link: http://www.educationaltransformer.blogspot.com/

Tech Tools: Socrative

In my Teaching with Technology course, we have been exposed to quite a few tech tools that could potentially be used in the classroom to enhance learning. I am hesitant to entertain the use of the presented tools in my classroom mostly because I am aware that I am in no way a tech-savvy person. I certainly appreciate technology and believe it has a place in the classroom if it is used effectively to enhance students' learning experiences, but I doubt my own ability to use technology in this way, especially unfamiliar technology. 

This course, however, forced me to research and explore Socrative, an online quiz tool, and I could possibly see myself using this in my own classroom - possibly. For instance, it could be a useful tool for short, quick assessments. It allows teachers to develop quick, one question quizzes, pre-made exit tickets, or longer quizzes. There is also the option of incorporating a variety of question formats, including multiple-choice, true&false, and short answer questions. All  student responses are easily downloaded to an excel format, which is a convenient feature. Personally though, I still struggle with online assessments. I like to afford students the opportunity to write notes or outlines and to cross off answer options. I feel like this initial strategic/planning stage is sometimes missing when moving to online assessments. 

One feature of Socrative that I particularly liked was the Space Race feature. It allows students to work in teams to answer quiz questions and displays their progress in real time using little rockets. This way the teams of students race to finish the quiz. The rockets provide a fun visual aspect and the race itself seems to be a huge motivator for students. This feature definitely has the potential to bring an element of fun to an otherwise boring assessment. On the other hand, I wonder if quality of thought is jeopardized as students may be rushing to answer to win the race and not focused on the actual content.

Overall, I think Socrative has some useful features that some teachers might love, but I am still partial to paper-pencil quizzes (or alternative assessments altogether). I am wondering though if this could be one option to harness the cellphone in my classroom. Students using cellphones for nonacademic purposes is an epidemic at my placement. Could a quick Socrative quiz that students take via cellphone be an option to shift the use of cellphones to serve an academic purpose?

Technology In My Placement

One of our assignments in our Tech Ed class was to assess the technology available to us and our students at our placement. We were required to do some research and then we posted our findings to a collaborative survey, viewed the results, and had a class discussion.

This was probably one of the easiest assignments I have ever had in bad way. There just was not much to research. My school has no technology specialist and limited technology. We do have computers and projectors in the classroom, but the internet is difficult to access outside of the computer lab ( at least in my classroom). Additionally, we still have good ole chalkboards!

What I found during the  research process was not surprising to me as I experience this every day. What was surprising, though, was seeing the results from the rest of the placements. Many schools had smart boards and tablets. Of course, I expected there to be some differences between schools, but the differences were astounding. My school was clearly the least equipped in terms of technology. The frustrating part was hearing how some schools were planning on ordering more tablets while my school cannot even afford whiteboards. The discrepancy in available technology across schools is staggering and somewhat shameful.

Though it is frustrating to see other schools have an abundance of resources that my students do not have access to, I think there is a silver lining to be found. While it is true that I cannot access some of the really cool resources that we talk about in class, I am forced to be creative. The situation challenges me to find ways to make learning fun without these tech devices. I definitely spend a lot of time pondering how to do this, but, in the end, I believe it makes me more thorough and results in more well thought-out lesson plans. Indeed, it certainly forces me to be prepared! There is nothing worse than coming to school with the plan to show a movie and the internet is down.When this happens i is just me, the chalkboard, and twenty mischievous eyes waiting to see what I will do.

I do not need to tell anyone that technology has its perks. It can be a great resource and an aid to learning - but so can creativity. It can be a powerful experience for students to to create something with just an idea and classroom items. I hope my school will eventually have the best of both worlds, but in the meantime we accept the challenge!

Fine "Theune"-ing Education: David Theune's Teaching Philosophy

David Theune is the man for two reasons. First, he managed to hold my attention for an hour and a half  after a 14-hour day- something I believed to be impossible. Second, he is an education superhero. His philosophy on education can be summed up in his own words:

 "Be the Inspiration, Not the Information." 

This profound statement resonated with me especially because it is something I have been struggling with at my placement. How do I convince my students to engage when all the information they can possibly want is at their fingertips? I think this is my answer. They might be able to Google facts, but Google has nothing on me when it comes to the experience of learning! I can be the inspiration - Challenge accepted!

In addition to altering my entire perspective of my role as a teacher, Theune shared some other practical ideas that he used in his classroom (he is seriously my hero!). First, Theune stressed the importance of giving students an audience. I think this is a fantastic motivator. It gives students a purpose for their work and a chance to be proud of what they have accomplished. Being the superhero teacher that he is, Theune had his students use their work to help out a local non-profit. Second, he invited the parents into the classroom. This not only provided the students with the most caring audience they will ever have, but it fostered parent involvement in the students' academic life. Brilliant, brilliant ideas. 

All I have to say is: David Theune. Look him up. Visit his blog.

Connections Across Disciplines

Recently, my classmates and I were given assignment that required us to work in groups with people not necessarily in the same discipline as us to design a lesson plan that incorporated the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) issue. It was interesting to see the lesson plans created by the different groups and compare how each group incorporated the use of technology. The substantial differences in the use of technology across these lesson plans attests to the possible positive implications of the BYOD policy.

Specifically, I found one group's lesson of particular interest.While most groups incorporated students' use of personal devices as part of the lesson, this group used the BYOD debate as a catalyst for discussion on inequality. The basis of the lesson was to consider the pros and cons of each side of the BYOD argument and discuss the possibility of inequalities resulting from the implementation of this policy. While this activity in itself has the potential to foster meaningful dialogue and critical thinking, the group took it one step further and placed this activity in relation to the "Separate but Equal" policies of the past. I found this connection to past policy to be rather brilliant. In my opinion, it gets students thinking, not just about their personal opinions on the issue, but the long-term implications of it. Placing it in relation to the "Separate but Equal" policy (and considering its significant implications), encourages students to consider the possible long-lasting effects of such a policy and its contribution (or lack thereof) to current inequalities. As a future history teacher, I found this lesson to be a great example of connecting past events to current issues to make history relevant, interesting, and engaging for students.