The Power of a Twitter Hashtag

While discussing the pros and cons of using Twitter in the classroom with a group of teachers, one teacher, who's not a Twitter user...yet, asked me what a hashtag is and what its purpose is.  Of course, I explained all of this to the group, but upon reflecting on the conversation, I realized I have been missing an opportunity with Ed On Tech.  From this point forward I'll be adding the #edontech to all of my Tweets.

My recommendation to the teachers regarding hashtags was to develop a class hashtag and/or unit hashtags, and have students use that tag in all of their class tweets.  It not only makes the discussion easier to follow but also makes the conversation searchable.  Using the hashtags for class discussions removes the barrier of the school walls.  Students who are out sick or on vacation can still take part in the discussion.  Students who are shy and reluctant to raise their hand in class (I was one of those kids ) will participate in the the discussion.

Try it out in your classroom now so you can make adjustments over summer break.  See what the power of a Twitter hashtag can do to your classroom.

EdCamp NKY: An Imminent Reality?

With regularity over the past year, I've watched Tweets about various EdCamps pop up on my devices.  I've always wanted to attend a virtual EdCamp, but my job responsibilities have prevented me from attending.  As I've researched EdCamps, I realized how relatively easy it would be to create one for the Northern Kentucky area I work and live in.  

My goal is to have the first ever EdCampNKY up and running sometime in the 2013-2014 school year.  I know I can pull it off with the help of my friends at the SimpleK12 Teacher Learning Community, contacts at the Kentucky Department of Education, as well as my fellow 20 to Watch colleagues.

I look forward to starting EdCampNKY and look forward to any input anybody reading this post may have.  I firmly believe educators can do great things and drive education forward when we put our collective minds together.

Teachers With Apps

Today's post focuses on another of my fellow "20 to Watch" colleagues.  Jayne Clare is a special education teacher in New York.  Jayne co-founded Teachers With Apps (TWA) with colleague and early childhood educator Anne Rachel.  Their goal is to help educators everywhere select the best and most robust apps for their students.

What makes the Teachers With Apps reviews unique is that they are field-tested with a cross-section of students and teachers in their school.  This means you can be confident the reviews TWA provides are data-based and student reviewed.  I have already recommended this site to all of our iPad teachers and administrators.  They are all grateful to have such outstanding information to base app purchases on.

Check out Teachers With Apps today and see what you think.

Digital Learning Standards

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a Digital Learning Summit in Frankfort, KY.  The mission of the Digital Summit is to "Provide evidence that digital and blended learning in Kentucky schools and districts is having an impact on the preparation of all students to graduate college and career ready."

Part of the discussion centered around the proposed KY Standards for Digital Learning.  The intent of the standards is to fulfill the mission statement listed above.  However, the standards really they've developed don't really differ from what good teaching is anyway.  If you really think about it, good teaching is good teaching whether it's online or in a traditional classroom.

Having some time today, I did a quick search for Digital Learning Standards and found several education technology groups such as ISTE and iNACOL already have Digital Learning Standards available, which means we have folks in the state trying to re-create the wheel.  If somebody has already created the wheel, let's make their wheel better instead of trying to design our own wheel.

Oddly enough I also had the opportunity to participate in a Blended Learning webinar today provided by K12 focusing on a school in Colorado Springs, CO.  There were some great points made in that webinar that will be the subject of a future post, but it basically laid out how the district reimagined learning and the space it occurs in.  I'm looking forward to getting the recorded webinar and accompanying presentation to go through it with a fine tooth comb.

I'm a huge supporter of blended learning, and would like to see more of it not only in my district, but also throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  If you've got ideas or plans your school or district has used, please share by responding to this post.

Spring Break 2013: Hiatus

As this post gets published, Spring Break will be starting in the Kenton County School District.  As I usually do, this blog will be on hiatus from April 6 through April 14.  Assuming we don't have major technology issues to recover from after a week off, I'll be posting again on April 15.

Project Explorer: Go Global

Technology and Social Media allows teachers to expand education beyond the four walls of a classroom.  Tools like Twitter, Facebook, and the Internet all allow teachers to bring the world to their students.  Now you can add Project Explorer to the list of tools teachers have available.

Project Explorer, founded by Jenny Buccos in 2003, has a mission "To bring the world into the classroom with free multimedia content and lesson plans that improve students’ global awareness and cross cultural understanding."  Through a combination of corporate, government, and individual sponsors, Project Explorer is able to provide these outstanding learning resources FREE to teachers all over the globe.

Project Explorer offers teachers lesson plans, videos, and educational blogs that cover all subjects and foster cross cultural understanding.  Students can follow the footsteps of Indiana Jones and fly above the desert in a hot air balloon in Jordan, climb ancient temples and swim with sharks in Belize and Costa Rica, and celebrate Carnival (not the cruise line) on a quick trip to Haiti.

The list of awards Project Explorer has earned is numerous.

• ProjectExplorer.org Founder Jenny M. Buccos named 2012 White House Champion of Change.
• 2011 GOLD Parents’ Choice Award for the highest production standards and universal human values.
• 2011 Non-profit Standard of Excellence Award from the Web Marketing Association.
• ProjectExplorer.org Founder Jenny M. Buccos named 2010 Woman of the Year by She Takes On The World.
• 2010 Winner of Best Use of Educational Video from EduBlogs.
• 2010 National Award for Citizen Diplomacy for ProjectExplorer.org’s Jenny M. Buccos. The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy recognized Buccos for her exemplary work as a citizen diplomat.
• 2010 recipient of the EduNet ChoiceAward (Canada).
• 2009 Top Pick Website by Education Week Magazine for innovative approach to tech in classroom instruction.
• 2009 GOLD Parents’ Choice Award for the highest production standards and universal human values.

And to top off this list of impressive awards, Project Explorer founder Jenny Buccos, like me, was name as an Education Technology 20 to Watch by the National School Board Association. She is one of the few non-profit organizations to receive this prestigious award. As an educator, it was an honor and a privilege to meet Jenny, and I look forward to working with her in the future.

As for Project Explorer, I plan on introducing this series to all 18 of our schools, and can't wait to see where Project Explorer takes us next!

Feedly & Prismatic: Alternatives to Google Reader

By now we all know Google Reader is shutting down.  This news prompted me to search for a replacement for all my news feeds.  I didn't have to wait long for suggestions with Twitter exploding with suggestions from people everywhere.  The general consensus seemed to be Feedly was the best alternative.

With this in mind, I checked into Feedly.  Overall, it was very easy to transfer my Google Reader feeds into Feedly.  Designwise, Feedly is looks much like Google Reader, but it also adds a snapshot of the feed (see below).

Like most Feed Readers, Feedly also has an iOS app (I don't have an Android so I'm not sure if there's an Android app).  The Feedly app puts Google Reader to shame.  For each feed, it will show you all of your unread feeds.  By doing a large left swipe across the screen you can easily mark them all as read.  If you swipe down, you can access the next page of articles (if there were more than what fits on the screen).  Feedly also offers a Save for Later option so I can go back and read the post later.  It's nice to have this all in one app.  We'll see if I choose to drop Pocket and start using Feedly.

Upon Tweeting that I was going to use Feedly, I received a reply from the Prismatic team asking me to give Prismatic a try.  Logging in and transferring my Google Reader feeds was simple enough, but Prismatic also assumed I wanted other items of interest such as assessment, textbooks, and other educational topics that might have something to do with what I'm following.  All it did was cause me more work to uncheck feeds I wasn't really interested in.  My other issue with Prismatic is that it doesn't show me my feeds on the main login screen.  I'm immediately shown the top news for some of the suggestions Prismatic made.  There is a Prismatic iOS app, but I didn't even bother downloading it because of the frustration I experienced with the web page.  For me, Prismatic has too many bells and whistles.  Sometimes simplicity is good enough.

I'm sure you've figured out by now that given these two choices, I'm going to go with Feedly.  For me, it's clearly the better option, particularly with the iPad app.  Try them both and and judge for yourself.  And remember, like Rushton Hurley said at the ISTE Leadership Forum, "It's okay to not like a tool."

Teacher Tech Knowledge: A Need for More PD or Are We Making Excuses?

I recently had this Twitter conversation while attending the annual KySTE Conference in Louisville.

JA: Some teachers do not understand technology terms, need to help them like we guide our students,make it relevant,#kyste2013 teach the teacher

Me: lack of teacher tech knowledge is failure of admins. Teacher standard 6 has been in place for years.

JA: I disagree. Yes, is standard, but tech is only one piece. Admins have little PD time to spread out on important topics 

ME: tech has been on teacher growth plans for 15+ years. Tech integration HAS to be a priority 4 21st C learners

JA: agree, but quality#edtech use is a fast-moving target for (many not all) teachers who learned typing on a typewriter.

For background, Kentucky Teacher Standard 6 states the following: 

STANDARD 6:  THE TEACHER DEMONSTRATES THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

The teacher uses technology to support instruction; access and manipulate data; enhance professional growth and productivity; communicate and collaborate with colleagues, parents, and the community; and conduct research.

This standard has been around in one form or another since I started teaching 17 years ago, and I'm quite certain every other state now requires to have some level of technology proficiency.  Technology was prevalent while I was still a student at Thomas More College.

In my view, teachers should know technology terms by now.  Computers have been around and in schools for over 30 years.  I know for a fact that technology has been on teachers' professional growth plans since I started teaching 17 years ago.  If teachers haven't learned technology terms by now, I still insist this is failure on the part of the administration not only in schools, but also in school districts, to properly monitor and assess teacher growth plans.  How would parents react if we told them we didn't have time to teach their students social studies, science, or music because reading and math were more important?  

Students being born today are likely to live to see the 22nd Century, and we're still having conversations about 21st Century skills and how we're going to teach them.  We're now 13 years into the 21st Century and we're still talking about integrating 21st Century skills?  We're dealing with 21st Century, connected, mobile kids.  If we aren't providing them with a quality 21st Century education, then we are failing them.

With the Common Core Standards in place in 45 states, and with technology being integrated into the Common Core, it is no longer acceptable to push technology professional development off for teachers, nor is it okay for teachers to continually put it on their growth plan and make no progress.  Teachers and schools should be at a point where technology should be an almost invisible tool in the classroom.  For the sake of our students and future leaders, it MUST happen now!

Complicating this are the Teacher Preparation Programs which are simply not doing enough to produce technology proficient teachers.  Our new teachers should be able to step into a classroom knowing how to use products like Office, tablet devices, and Web 2.0 tools like Prezi, Popplet, and Live Binders.  It's time for the Colleges and Universities to step it up and produce a technology proficient teacher.

Let's quit making excuses and make it happen.  And if you're a state or federal Congressman, or a Governor or even President of the United States, it's time to quit bickering, quit posturing, and give educators and kids the technology tools they need to make true 21st Century learning happen.  Let's all DO WHAT'S RIGHT FOR KIDS!