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.

"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!!

Chromebook Hacks... a "quick-start" guide for students and teachers (and my foray into infographic creation with Canva)

As the next school year quickly approaches, I got the dreaded email requesting teachers "please return the Chromebooks you borrowed for the summer so that they can be distributed to students in September."

I knew it was coming... but it sucked the wind out of me.

I've spent the summer immersed in all-things-Chromebook; I tend to learn by experiencing and manipulating things (my science-teacher persona) and then I feel pretty competent. All of a sudden, though, I realized that without the Chromebook to use for myself during the school year, I'd revert back to doing things the Windows-way (school) and Mac-way (home).

Chromebooks are pretty simple machines. But like most teachers, I want my instruction to be poised and polished and don't really look forward to stumbling as I guide students through their own getting-to-know-you process with the new Chromebooks. To help teachers like me as well as our students, I created a "Chromebook Hacks" Infographic that can be a quick reference guide. I included those terms and processes that students are likely to hear during the course of instruction from any teacher using 1:1, focusing on the functional things that are unique to Chromebooks. Why "hacks?" Might as well play to my main audience: 5th through 9th graders who love getting sucked-in by clickbait!

The bonus is that I got a chance to experience using Canva, an online graphic design tool that I just needed a good reason to explore (more on that below).

See the clickable, full-size PDF version of my infographic here (that's what I will be sharing with colleagues and students). You can also share by Tweet, Facebook post, or link.

So what about Canva? I found it pretty intuitive to use, and simple to drag/drop/redesign text, images, and a library of free extras. The pre-made layouts are plentiful and for me were mostly useful for generating ideas and reminding me of what "works" for an infographic. In the end, I started with a blank background and built from scratch.

Would I use it with students? Not as a first-introduction to digital graphic design, but perhaps as an advanced tool. Students without more basic instruction (good practice with design using Google Drawings or Microsoft Publisher is a nice start) would get bogged-down in all the options. As students become better designers (and more accustomed to producing a visually-appealing product for an audience), I could see introducing Canva as one choice from the several good, free-to-start, online design tools (like Piktochart, Venngage, and more).

Last note... Infographics aren't designed to be the final destination for information, but are a great quick-reference guide. Be sure to supply your students with a way to access tutorials or help pages. And the next time they say, "how do I...", think about your response and whether it should simply give them the answer or lead them to figure it out on their own.

Is your hybrid (classroom) good for the (learning) environment?

Each year, our North Country schools invest more time and money to bring technology into classrooms. We're getting more devices and better connectivity, but now what? We hear a lot about 1:1 computing initiatives, blended learning, flipped classrooms, instructional technology, even online testing... it's clear that our schools are going digital.

What's also clear is that the integration of technology relies on the teacher to make sound curricular and instructional choices for the classroom. This is no different than at any other time in educational history. But, we all know that it IS an added layer (and often added pressure) for the teacher to manage.

What are hybrid/blended/flipped classrooms?

Blended classrooms "integrate online with traditional face-to-face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner." The professional development article that referenced this quote by the Online Learning Consortium is worth the read for anyone new to the concept.

Why move toward a blended classroom?

Simply put, we need to be thinking about instructional strategies that will help prepare our students for life beyond our classroom walls. (In fact, maybe our classroom shouldn't really have "walls..." but that's for another post when we could discuss global citizenship.) It would be hard to argue with the 21st century skills that we are frequently directed toward when designing instruction:

Image: http://projects.upei.ca/ed626-2015/2015/07/24/4-cs-21st-century-skill-for-success/

But pause for a moment. There's something extremely important that all stakeholders (teachers, administrators, board members, parents, students...) need to understand:

Creating the contemporary learning environment that addresses these 4 C's is a whole lot different than simply digitizing instruction. (Take the time to read Heidi Hayes Jacobs' post about this issue.)

In an article written for ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), Nicole Krueger writes:

Bringing technology into the classroom is the easy part. Integrating it seamlessly into a lesson plan is another matter. Blended classrooms, or those that use online content and tools as an integral part of instruction, go beyond using the latest gadget to get kids’ attention. They apply technology to expand classroom learning into new realms, providing unique learning experiences that enhance, rather than replace, face-to-face interaction.

In all of the searching and reading that I've done recently about blended classrooms, I feel like Instructional Technologist and blogger Amanda Dills' ideas about technology integration really resonate the most. She suggests that teachers shouldn't think about the first step of IT transition as "digitizing" as much as we should think about "maximizing." Because face-to-face classroom time with students is a teacher's most valuable commodity, instruction needs to be both impactful for students and rewarding for teachers. When you identify the most valuable instructional activities (she suggests categories of presenting, responding, questioning, connecting, facilitating, and coaching), you can start thinking about how to best utilize the precious face time that you get with your students.

The next logical step is digitizing. Maximizing classroom time requires a set of tools (technologies) that will allow you to assign work to students outside of class time that typically would have been done in class (this is where the flipped/hybrid/blended idea comes in). Technology can aid the process of in-class learning as well, from the sheer efficiencies provided by dynamic and accessible documents (provided by Google Classroom/Drive) to the real-time collaborative capabilities of a whole host of Web 2.0 tools.

How can I maximize when I need to spend time teaching students the digital process?

Of course it takes time for students to master digital skills (just like it does for any other idea they need to learn). Establishing new routines, expectations, and classroom culture will not happen overnight. Start small. Don't throw too many new tools at them and expect students to respond happily just because they enjoy the novelty of getting some screen time. Besides - I don't know about you, but I really don't have time to reinvent every bit of instruction into something digital. Make your initial investment in those activities and assignments that you can reuse year after year or for multiple instructional purposes. Your prep time needs to be maximized, as well.

Remember - if your digital assignment is "worth it" (you identified that the learning objectives were valuable) - you've already decided that the increased feedback/collaboration/productivity/efficiency/rigor provided by digitizing is beneficial to your students. Making the up-front time investment in "teaching the technology" will pay off in the end. The more comfortable students become with technology, the more you will be able to "flip" your classroom so that students spend in-class time with you face-to-face rather than face-to-screen.

Finally - one added benefit to moving toward a blended classroom is the reduced need to get all your students' attention at once - something that most teachers feel greatly reduces their behavioral management needs (and makes your time more productive!).

Resources to help you make the leap:
Arm yourself with background: https://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=117
Build up your repertoire: http://themaximizedclassroom.blogspot.com/2015/11/40-ways-to-digitize-instruction.html
Join a supportive community: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/105027787430185650434