Student collaboration on shared documents: prepare for disaster ahead of time!

How much experience do you have with students collaborating on shared documents? Sometimes, it goes surprisingly well... small groups with each member working on the same digital graphic, pairs of students peer-editing essays, or partners collaborating to write a two-voice poem.

Other times... yeah, it all falls apart and goes very, very bad. As in, someone thinks that the whole thing needs to be changed to purple sparkly font bad. Or that each slide transition needs to show a cheeseburger bad. Or even random screaming Donald Trump memes bad. (Yes, sadly those have all really happened in my classroom.)

Worse yet is that collaborative projects open students up to deliberate sabotage by others, which no matter how much net etiquette and community-building you've practiced (preached!) in class, can and does happen. Thankfully in all of these cases, collaborating in Google Suite products means that as the instructor you can go back and revert to the appropriate copy of the students' work by checking out the revision history. You can also figure out which of your 28 mutant kindergartners eighth graders needs a visit from the discipline fairy.

Having attempted lots of successful collaborative projects and my fair share of failures, I've found that the shenanigans tend to happen with more visual products such as Google Slides. With a couple of projects my students are working on, my ultimate goal is to have each student produce a small number of slides that will then become part of a larger, whole-class presentation for us to use as a long-term learning resource. With several dozen students all working at the same time in one slideshow, this is NOT the time to have to deal with student sabotage. It would be nice to think that I've (you've) been able to build an entire classroom community of students who purposefully support each others' learning. Hmm...

Is there a better way to end up with the same collaborative result while ensuring that the quality of all students' work is preserved? YES! There are two suggestions I have:

(1) Students can create individual sets of slides in their own Google Drive and then copy entire slides to insert into a group presentation. Then they can get all of the layout figured out ahead of time without anyone else needing to step in with unwelcome "advice." This ensures that the original copy of the slide is preserved in the student's own Drive. However, it doesn't prevent others from manipulating the layout after it's added to the group presentation.

(2) Students can create layouts of any paper / slide size in Google Drawings. The way you manipulate the drawing tools is so similar to Slides that students have no trouble transitioning to this less-familiar tool. The great thing is that once the layout is fixed, a student can download the whole thing as a .jpg or .png image file.

This composite image can now be used in all sorts of ways, one of which is inserting the composite image onto a Google slide. Now, the whole image layout is "fixed" and cannot be accidentally or intentionally changed. Sure, it can be deleted from a slide altogether, but this is pretty rare for students to try knowing that it's super easy for a teacher to pinpoint the exact culprit from the revision history.

Regardless of what you do, it's important to be upfront with students that you can (and will) do regular integrity checks while students are working collaboratively. Reassure them that accidents happen, too, and that the "undo" button is always the easiest way for a quick fix. And take it easy on those 8th graders - they learn by baby steps.

Tricks for Screencasting your iPad

Have an iPad for your classroom and wish that your whole class could see it on the "big screen?"
No problem! Here are quite a few wireless solutions for you...

(1) Apple TV - Go ahead, spend the money. In its fourth generation, Apple TV is definitely pretty cool and will hook directly to your projector system, but it comes at a cost of close to $150 (the 3rd generation can be found for almost a third of that price now, and completely serves the purpose you'll need). You'll be able to Air Play any Apple device (even newer MacBooks), link in to your Netflix account (plus lots of other content), and might even be able to stream YouTube without it being blocked by your school's web filter (Bonus!!). It's a great solution, that is, if your projector is new enough to have an HDMI input. If you're old-school VGA like most of us, you're out of luck.

(Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Apple_TV_2nd_Generation.jpg)

(2) Reflector 2 - This is just one of several apps / website solutions that can be used to screencast your device. Reflector 2 allows you to mirror multiple devices to your computer, which then allows for projecting. At $15 for a single user license (multiple users can get a discount) the cost is much less prohibitive than the Apple TV option. With a little bit of work, you can mirror multiple types of devices (iOS or Android) at the same time within the same system. This offers an advantage over the Apple TV which only works with iOS devices.

(Image source: http://airsquirrels-images.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/press/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/23114506/Reflector-2.png)

(3) Zoom Screen Share - The Zoom app is primarily used for web conferencing, and it's one of the better ones I've used when it comes to maintaining a good connection. Like many videoconferencing apps, it comes with a screen sharing feature that supports iOS devices like your iPad and iPhone. And guess what? It's got a free version! Set up a Zoom meeting on your desktop computer and connect to it with your iPad via the meeting code. Voila! Free screen sharing for up to 40 minutes with just the basic version of the App. One thing to note - you can screen share within an app that you're using on your iPad and it works great. True mirroring (so that students can see your desktop icons, every tap you make, etc.) requires both devices to be on the same (wireless) network.

(Image source: https://zoom.us/)

The Zoom app would provide a great way for you to test out the features of the iPad (or connect via Android devices as well) and see how much you would truly use it during instruction. You might find that it's enough for the purposes you'd use it for, or it would be a good way to make the decision about whether or not to spend the money on an Apple TV.

"Upgrade the Worksheet" - My Humble Attempt

Since really diving into professional development networking on Twitter over this past summer I've come across so many fantastic ideas, many of which have come from the same set of amazing educators. Weeks ago I ran across one of many great ideas on Alice Keeler's Teacher Tech website (via a tweet): a post encouraging us to Upgrade the Worksheet. For elementary math teachers, it's a great way to engage students in an authentic critical thinking experience as they practice place value skills.

Of course I ran across this post just a few days too late to actually use it in my class (though it's filed away for review time and for next year!). Thankfully, though, it put that seed in my head that kept nagging at me to create a good "math lab" of my own.

Here's the result (as well as a link so you can make your own copy):



NOTE: Wondering about how to share a document that automatically prompts others to make a copy? Yup, that's Alice Keeler's help too, in this tutorial.

My students that will be working on this activity have just been introduced to multiplying whole numbers by decimals, and it's time for some good practice. This should do the trick. It's also a great opportunity to have the discussion that multiplying by a decimal is like talking about "parts," "percents," or "fractions of the whole." With a decimal as one of the factors, the product should be smaller than where you started. If you were to visit a smaller planet with less gravitational pull, your weight should be less than it is on Earth. That's a nice visual way for students to think about this concept.

We're fitting this activity in to the day before Thanksgiving break, so 40 minutes is really all the time it's going to be able to take. My students have very little experience with spreadsheets, so I'm hoping the format is user-friendly. One of the sheets allows them to check their answers - the best way to free up the teacher from having to constantly give directions and provide basic feedback just on facts. Students working on these problems can be a little more independent, allowing the teacher to work more closely with those needing greater skills development, or to ask more probing questions about a student's thought process.

The immediate action I'd take to really up the value of this activity is to have students do their own research to find the gravitational values of each solar system object on their own. Here's a link to a NASA site for those of you who'd like to do that. It could also give you a chance to review rounding if you'd like the students to have gravity values to the nearest hundredth.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I, for one, am deeply thankful for the ideas of other educators that consistently prompt me to do something a little bit better each time I share it with my students. I'm so humbled by the many educators who so freely share their great ideas with the rest of us. THANK YOU!!

"Do the Math" with Google Forms

One of the best reasons for adding technology to the classroom is that it can have an immediate impact on the quality of formative assessment. With technology, teachers can collect student responses and aggregate data in real time. Formative assessment only really works when teachers can turn this data into feedback for students, and tools like Google Forms make this entirely possible.

I typically love Google Forms for its ease of use. It mimics other Google products in the idea that you can start really simply and gradually build in more complex functions. Math teachers might not agree. There is not a built-in equation editor like with Google Docs, so entering algebraic expressions becomes a bit cumbersome.

Of course, there's an Add-on that can step in and help. The gMath Add-On is available for Google Docs, Forms and Sheets (use the "Add-On" menu within each app to search for and add gMath).

From there, there are multiple ways to create a quiz with even the fanciest of math expressions (or graphs if you are feeling particularly adventurous). Regardless of your method, you will need to get used to the format of typing in math expressions (you can use some basic text entry like 3x^2 + 1/2 x - x^2 and it will help you with the format - or you can choose pre-made pieces of the expression and then edit the variables using LaTeX). There is always an image preview so you really just have to keep adjusting the expression until it looks correct. Here's a LaTeX / Docs tutorial if you need more of an introduction.

I test-drove a bunch of different ways to integrate gMath and Google Forms; here are the options I liked in order of increasing complexity...

Method #1: 
Write your expressions in Google Docs (it's kind of nice to see all the problems before you build the actual quiz) and then add the images to Forms.

Here's a tutorial for that (it's the old version of Forms but it's all the same function as the current version). I put this method first because the video shows a bit about how to edit the LaTeX expressions - helpful if you've never done so.

For this type of quiz (as well as Method #2) you are creating a quiz that is formatted with technically two fields for each question: Image 1 (the "question" - your expression, graph, etc.) , Answer 1. Image 2, Answer 2. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Method #2: 
Use the gMath add on directly in Forms to "Create a Math Expression." With this method, there is no need to work back and forth with Google Docs.

When you are ready for a question that requires an expression or graph, choose gMath from the Add-Ons menu in Forms. I was able to experiment with all the options except for "Multiple Choice." I'm not sure if it's a bug or just something wrong with my technique, but the directions in that choice were blurred out and I was left to just guess how it worked... unsuccessfully.

Instead, keep it simple and just write a new expression. When you do so, it inserts the expression as an image field, and adds an answer field directly after the question. You can always change the type of answer to something other than the default short answer text.

Method #3:
Use Google Sheets to create a question bank of images. You can create the images with the gMath Add-On for Sheets, or even find existing images from the Web. Have access to online databases of questions? You may be able to add them to your question bank.

 You can add a different expression or graph to each of the cells in Google Sheets. If you want them in a certain order, work only in one row or column. Each of these cells is going to become a different question - so think about how you want the text or directions to appear as well as the expression itself (you do this all with the gMath Add On the same way you create the images in methods 1 and 2 above).

The next part is the cool one - select ONLY the questions you want to build into your quiz, and use the gMath "Quick Quiz Creator" to make a new form. Once again, the new form is built in the same format with an image field followed by an answer field. You can edit the form after it's built to enhance how it looks.

The BEST part of this is that you could create a continuous bank of quiz questions throughout the course of the year. Then, select only the questions you want before building the quiz. It would be great as you go along as well as during review time.

Method #4:
Use Google Sheets to build your entire quiz - questions, answers, everything. This is an advanced technique, but in the end so much better than trying to build complex questions individually in Forms. When the questions and answers are on a Spreadsheet, you can easily look through them, re-order, edit, etc.

You'll need the formCreator Add-On for Google Sheets. Once it's installed, run the Add-On so it can format your sheet. It will put in all the column headings that you see below.

Use those column headings to add two types of questions. The "Image" type should be your gMath expression. Run the gMath Add-On while you are in the cell for ImageURL and add your expression. Follow that up with another question type such as Multiple Choice, Text, Check Box, etc. This is where you should set up your answer field if you want your form pre-populated. Do this for as many questions as needed. Using the Multiple Choice option will allow you to run your Google Form as a Quiz and enable Auto Grading.

When you are ready, use the formCreator Add-On to create the actual Form. In the end, it might be worth the trouble of figuring this way out because the format of the Spreadsheet makes entering questions / answers really quick - not just for math quizzes but for all subjects.

***One note: I had to edit the ImageURL text to be sure that the URL is https:// and NOT http:// like it defaults - I'm not sure why it wouldn't create my Form otherwise. If you've stuck by this method this far, you'll know how to do that! (Save time and run a "Find and Replace" from the Edit menu. Have it search within formulas to find every instance of http and convert it to https.)

I'd love to hear if you try it out! Unfortunately there are aspects of each method that are just not intuitive - you have to play with it and go through the experience to see what works best for you. At any point if (and when) you get stuck - just post a comment and I would be happy to help you out!

Embracing a "pay it forward" mentality

Years ago, I followed what I still consider to be the best professional advice that I've ever received; my teaching internship mentor advised me to join the OMNI Mentor Network's science email listserv. My primary NYS Regents course being Earth Science, I quickly learned that the ESPRIT network of educators was a wealth of knowlege. (I wonder how many cumulative years of teaching the hundreds of participating educators have??)

Over time, I've built my Earth science curriculum by begging and borrowing from fellow ESPRIT participants. I've come to recognize the names and work of the list's "experts" without ever having met them face-to-face (every once in a while I've made a random connection at a science conference, which is a neat experience). These educators from across New York (and now farther!) selflessly offer advice, share lesson plans, and collaborate on some pretty complex learning opportunities, all as an online community. Sometimes I've been enough of an expert myself to give back and contribute to the conversation. But mostly, I listen and learn and absorb the hundreds of years worth of knowledge being shared. 

These listserv communities, and the ever-increasing professional development teachers can find within the Twitterverse, are an excellent example of having a "pay it forward" mentality. Educators post and share resources with no expectation of personal repayment. We do it because it's what's best for our profession and, in turn, for our students. It's professional development at its best; it does not take long to realize that by putting yourself out there, you are really getting "repaid" tenfold.

Why then, are so many educators excited to share with a virtual personal learning network, with folks who don't even know each other personally, but are reluctant to do so within their own schools? Maybe we walk into professional development with the expectation that it's going to be poorly managed or of little value (guilty!). Maybe we are too comfortable with each other and don't think there is anything else we can share. Maybe we are overwhelmed just keeping up with our own schedule and don't feel that there is time during the day to network. Maybe we don't recognize that a teacher's expertise in a different subject and grade level really can be worthwhile for our classroom, too.

I ran across a Huffington Post article recently about paying it forward in the business world. Author Tammy Leigh Kahn presented four common roadblocks that are entirely applicable in education as well:

"I believe we can all embrace the “pay it forward” mentality, no matter what phase of business or life we are in, provided we can get past a few roadblocks that stand in our way. 

1. My neighbor’s success somehow makes me a failure.  

2. I don’t have anything to pay forward. 

3. The world doesn’t care about me. 

4. I feel guilty for my success." 

When it comes to professional development, we don't always need to pay an expert, take a course, or look online. We simply need to accept that another teacher's expertise does not undermine our own. Think of how much can happen if you consciously listen and learn and absorb the hundreds of years of experience right in your own building.

Lastly, have the expectation that your time and knowledge are valuable to others as well. Put yourself out there before someone even has to ask for help. Embrace the pay it forward mentality and prepare to reap the rewards. We relish the times when our students finally recognize our generosity; why not set ourselves up to feel the same with our colleagues? The feeling of communal success is better than the individual any day, and it's contagious.

 

Wireless screencasting with Google Cast for Education

One of the best features of a Chromebook is its portability. That's also perhaps its downfall. Sometimes you want to be "plugged in." For example - projecting a screen to the front of your classroom to guide students through an activity. That can be accomplished via an HDMI cable, but a lot of older school LCD projectors are still kicking from the dark ages of VGA. Previously, going wireless meant investing in a secondary device to act as a receiver for your projector (such as Chromecast or Apple TV). There must be a better way.

Enter the new Google Cast for Education App, available from the Chrome Web Store. Teachers at schools using GAFE accounts can download the app to their Chrome account on whatever device is hardwired to the projector. Students (or the teacher on a portable device) can download the Google Cast Extension for their Chrome browser.


Google's hook straight from the Project Manager:

"Teach and learn from everywhere in the classroom with Google Cast for Education"

Once the teacher broadcasts as a "Receiver" and shares with groups of students (you can share with an entire Google Classroom group at once or single users), students can click the Cast extension in their browser window and choose which receiver they'd like to cast to.

Here's a link to the support page from Google. I just tested it and it works great. Keep a couple of things in mind:

• The computer receiving the information needs to be running the App.
• The computer casting (sending) the information connects through the Extension.
• You can share with as many user groups as you want. To restrict access (and avoid a hostile takeover by one of your students) you can adjust the settings so that users looking to cast have to be approved before their view is shown.
• Users who are casting can choose to display their entire desktop (helpful for walking students through Chromebook tutorials, etc.) or just one browser tab (protects privacy of the casting user and keeps the receiver user a bit more focused).

Perhaps you'd like to cast a view of your own Chromebook's desktop up onto the screen so that students can follow along with your instructions. Yes - that's possible. Use the App on the projector computer, and click the Cast Extension from your Chromebook's browser.

Maybe you want one student to share a screen with another. Students can download the App too and act as a Receiver.

Want to showcase a student's work in front of the whole class? Have them cast to your Receiver.

Looking to push out information from the teacher device to a student one? Having a student computer as Receiver effectively lets the teacher device cast to and "take over" the student device with the content you want them to see.

Finally - don't worry if you don't have Chromebooks - any computer with a Chrome browser affiliated with a Google Apps for Education account can screencast to another one. It would be a great way to look at student work from all the different desktop computers in a traditional computer lab, as well.

Summer Snapshots... #3 - Grow your social network

Think for a minute about the types of professional development available within your school, or perhaps your larger regional network (BOCES districts for us NYers). Is it more like a delivery system or collaborative network?

In a large district, there might be the luxury of having multiple teachers per grade level or subject discipline. Schools might employ their own curriculum coordinators, instructional technology coaches or department chairs tasked to organize professional learning teams/networks (PLT's / PLN's). A collaborative network like this requires a critical mass of educators all working together toward common goals; if not, the "delivery system" method of PD is what we tend to experience.

In the North Country, we need to broaden our reach outside of our local buildings and collaborate regionally. One easy start is to enhance our own professional development by building an online professional learning network. Because it's done virtually, this requires taking a leap - often an uncomfortable one - into the world of social media.

Here's a great post about using social media for professional development (as well as the etiquette and housekeeping involved in doing so).

Start small; Google+ and Twitter are easy to get started with. If the thought of posting and commenting scare you, it's OK to remain a "listener" as you gather up others' great ideas.

Google+ (Google Plus)



If you've never explored this social network, now would be a great time, because there is a great local upstate NY presence.

Google+ Communities are moderated groups of people all gathered around common interests. Currently, over 300 upstate NY educators connect with each other on Google Plus. All you have to do (once logged in) is request to join this local community (GEG Capital Region Upstate New York). Not only do they have great EdTech ideas, they often advertise local events, workshops, and conferences. It's nice to hear what other educators are doing in our area.

Google+ Collections are posts curated about a topic all by one person, and you can request to "follow" the collection. There is a great GAfE Collection by Michael Fricano II, an EdTech educator from Hawaii (also follow him personally for other EdTech collections and ideas - +Michael Fricano II)

Twitter

New to Twitter? Not sure if you know your #hashtags from your @mentions? Twitter can seem confusing to a novice, but you can use it completely anonymously for a while until you get used to the way it works. You can follow other educators and groups on Twitter (I've also included some Google+ links for those who are on both sites) and search hashtags by subject without ever having to post a tweet of your own. Once you get comfortable with that, start "liking" or "retweeting" posts and you will build yourself a nice stream of information that you can easily refer back to.



Follow other educators and groups on Twitter (often also on Google+):

Carol LaRow @larowc +Carol LaRow
Alice Keeler @AliceKeeler +Alice Keeler
Matt Miller @jmattmiller +Matt Miller
Brad Currie @bradmcurrie +Brad Currie
Christine Pinto @PintoBeanz11 (also #GAfEforlittles - especially for primary education)

Google for Education  @GoogleForEdu (also #gafe) +Google for Education
GAfE Help @GafeHelp

Hashtags sort and link all of the posts that are related to the topic following the # (hashtag). Just enter the hashtag in Twitter's searchbar and check out all the recent posts. There are some pretty popular ones used in the education community and some even have specific "chat" times where people will all tweet and discuss resources at a given time (you don't have to actively tweet, just view the posts). #edtech, #edtechchat, #gafe, #gafesummit are just a few; here's a comprehensive list (start exploring by your subject/grade/content level, too!).

So jump in; what are you waiting for? The best part of a professional learning network is that you don't have to be the expert all the time (you're too busy for that, anyway!). Be a curator of good things: the tips, tricks, and new ideas you want to try in your classroom. In the back of your mind, remember that the ultimate goal with building your digital PLN is that you'll begin to pull in other educators in your school and region. Wouldn't it be great to have a North Country Google Educators Group someday??