If Technology Hurdles Provided Real Exercise...

Day 2.  Issue 1.

New technology in a new building...well there are bound to be some bugs, but we can work through them.  I'm not ready to give up just yet!

I have previously blogged about BYOD. I am a tireless cheerleader for the cause.  I had great success last year at the high school. However, being back in the middle school for most of the day, I realized that it was quite possibly built as a bomb shelter, because there are very few places where wireless signals can penetrate.  Another sigh.

I am not sure yet how I will resolve this issue.  Today, we texted (even though some did not work) just to practice using polleverywhere and then when there were reception issues, students shared their responses aloud.  I also got feedback from one student that she preferred raising her hand and answering orally -- who'da thunk it?  That actually make me think that perhaps the polling activity in some situations might be better done given student choice of how to respond -- with or without tech, at least when I'm looking for background knowledge like I was today.  I definitely still have some thinking to do on this.

Issue 2

Gmail.  I referenced this issue yesterday, and I figured out the problem with students setting up their accounts in school. In order to avoid creation of spam email addresses, Google restricts the number of gmail accounts that can be created from one location.  So, when my entire class tried to create accounts simultaneously from the same location, we had no success.  Unfortunately, after I created a certain number from home (not nearly enough) I encountered the same issue.  Google Apps is not a possibility because I do not own my own domain, and it is not supported at my school.  I am not willing to make waves on that at this point, because I just got an OK to get Evernote on all of the computers, and I am so thrilled that I don't dare ask for anything else for at LEAST a week.  :)

OK, so this one isn't really too crucial.  My students really can create their own gmail accounts from home, and it will be OK, really it will, this one is just a personal letdown because I had wanted things to go smoothly, and planned, and tested it, and.....time for plan....C

When Technology Fails (or Why Flexibility is One of the Two Most Important Words in Education)

FAIL.

That was my relationship with technology today.  The first day of school.  Sigh.

The sad part is how long I spent prepping today's lessons.  And to be fair to myself (which I really don't feel like doing at this moment in time) my four classes at the middle school went fine.  My embedded Prezi apparently no longer exists, but it was on the Prezi website, so it was all good.  (Always have a plan B.)

Then I went to the High School.  I had reserved the laptop cart; I had my wireless keyboard and mouse set up and tested; I was good to go!  Or so I thought.  The students couldn't log on.  I checked everything (I thought), and then (mercifully) my sophomores had to go to an opening day assembly, so I called for tech support.  Our Goddess of Technology (Cyndee Brazill) came down to my classroom, did a recheck, and (with a smile) pointed out that my ethernet cable wasn't plugged in.

FAIL!!  Did I say my sophomores were out of the classroom?  They were, but I have two freshmen and a senior who were there to bear witness to my moment of stupidity.  Oh, it gets better.  One of the freshmen is my darling daughter, so you KNOW when I'll hear the end of THAT one...just as soon as her sister stops reminding me that the toaster won't work unless it's plugged in...but I digress...

So we were all plugged in, ready to go, waiting for the sophomores, trying to log in...and...FAIL

The almighty Ms. Brazill returned (nope, no chasm opened into the earth for me to disappear), but as it turned out THIS time, it wasn't my fault!!  The new laptops hadn't been properly configured.  Brief relief, but still no tech.  SuperCyndee invited us to the computer lab.

Step 1:  students set up gmail accounts....FAIL due to....I'm not really sure, but it works on my home computer, so something at school is blocking it.  OK, move on...I can set up the accounts myself later....

Step 2:  BREATHE...

The rest of the lesson went along quite smoothly all things considered....if you don't mind a large shadow in the middle of the projector screen, but I think I have proven my adaptability, and I wasn't going to let a shadow get me down at that point!!

Here is my point:  technology can be a friend or a foe.  There will always be those FAIL moments.  If the lab hadn't been open?  I would have punted, and done something else.  It bears repeating:

ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN B.

Even those of us who use technology in our classes will have moments where we just go dim (really, you have to plug it in) or when technology fails us -- even the experts, and I am far from one of those.  Don't be afraid to try.  This is what we ask of our students every day -- especially in foreign language classrooms.  We ask them to sound silly -- in front of their friends, and generally take major social risks.  We need to be willing to do the same, and laugh at ourselves when we fail.  And at the risk of sounding corny, this has been tweeted repeatedly over the last couple of weeks, and I just love it:

First
Attempt
In
Learning

It's all part of the process, so don't be afraid.

More on the Student PLN

OK, so if you follow my other blog then this video should look familiar from my last post.  It's Adam Grant's TED Talk about gratitude, teacher burnout, and why you should always wear a dark suit.




Soooo....how does this connect to student PLNs?  Two things came to mind:

1.  Grant talks about connecting with alumni.  Social media makes that much easier than in the past.  My thought is to contact former students -- particularly those who have continued with the language -- and invite them to contribute to the #parlons Twitter hashtag.  It gives students another dimension to their PLN, extra support when they are struggling, and perhaps inspiration to continue in the language.

2.  I love the idea of gratitude.  I think it's something that doesn't necessarily come naturally to teens, and I think, particularly in a "professional" capacity, that it is a skill we should develop in our students.  To that end, I propose incorporating #jvvr (je voudrais vous remercier) into #parlons.  I am not entirely comfortable with using #FF, because students suggesting follows is a little bit too far outside of my comfort zone, and I like the direct "thank you" of #jvvr.  I do like the idea of designating one day a week for this, perhaps Friday for the sake of consistency.

What do you think?

Why I'm not sold on IWBs

In the numerous #edchat and #langchat sessions I have participated in where technology has been a topic, there are always several people (often myself included) who address the fact that pedagogy must come before technology.  In last week's #langchat, a newbie (identified by her egg) asked how to tell whether you were using technology just for the sake of using technology.  My response to her was to teach the same lesson high-tech and low-tech, and then reflect on what (if anything) was gained (or lost) by using technology.  The bottom line is that every lesson should be planned around learning objectives -- EDU 101.

So this brings me to my current dilemma.  I just took two three-hour workshops on using the Promethean Board and ActivInspire.  My school district has spent thousands and thousands of dollars equipping almost every classroom with an IWB.  Here's my problem:  unless I'm missing something (which I freely admit, I may well be), there's not a whole lot an IWB can do for me that I can't do using free web 2.0 tools more easily, and my students can access everything from home with an internet connection -- no downloads.  I am also struck by the fact that many of the suggested IWB activities seem to be centered around lower-level thinking skills.

Another problem I have, is that while two students can be interacting with the IWB (only two pens), with an unconnected dry-erase white board or personal whiteboards, I can have the entire class actively engaged.

Here is the rest of my disclaimer:  I have taken two workshops, and as yet I have absolutely no hands-on experience with an IWB.  Maybe I am missing something.  That is actually part of my reason for this post -- if I am wrong PLEASE comment and show me the light, because while I am always looking for more effective ways to do things, what I do not want is to find myself using technology simply because it is there.

What do you think?

Globalize your Classroom

Every other Thursday at 7PM EST Jo and Phil Hart present their Serendipity "unwebinar".  Attendees bring topics of interest, all attendees are polled, and the evening's topic is chosen.  Last Thursday's topic -- Projects for Classes and Global Sharing -- was somewhat of a hybrid, since there were many suggestions, and no clear poll winner.  It was a great topic, very applicable to Foreign Language teachers, and may ideas were discussed on the whiteboard, over the mic,  and in the chatbox.  In this post, I'm going to focus and expand on some of the ideas I'd love to see developed among FL teachers on a global level (any takers??)

1.  This idea immediately brought to mind the film short "The Red Balloon" which is a suggestion that comes up without fail as a possible movie for FL week.  The film might serve as a great lead-off to this collaborative storytelling activity.  The idea is to tell the story of a balloon that floats from school to school (in different countries around the world) to seek adventures and learn new things.  So here's my (rough) take on this idea:  using a cloud app like empressr.com have each class create a slide telling their balloon adventure, in their language, including a photo of themselves with a red helium-filled balloon.  Subtitles could be added to the finished product so all slides are in all languages.  

This one has me so excited, I think I'm going to run with it.  I think I can swing classes from France, Australia and Mali, so I'll be looking for other interested balloon adventurers!

2.  The Lunchbox Project is a collaborative wiki project including photos and podcasts designed to compare school lunches around the world.  So far there are 11 participating countries.  Join the wiki if you are interested!

3.  Two ideas that came up were sharing pictures of your favorite local food, and creating a wiki with favorite recipes.  I have drawn up plans for a similar research project for my classes, and I would love to make it more collaborative!  Here is the link to my gdoc Check it out, and let me know if you are interested in participating in some way (perhaps the Google Map)

4.  The Global Student Blogging Challenge is a very cool idea that could be undertaken as a class with a class blog, or by individual students with their own blogs.  What a great way to have students publish their work to a global audience and get authentic feedback!

On a final note, if you've never attended one of Jo & Phil's sessions, you're truly missing out.  Stop in Thursday (7PM EST) to talk about e-toys.

I'd love to hear your ideas about globalizing your classroom!

Word Clouds in the FL Classroom

Tonight's #langchat topic (boy was it good to be back!) was web 2.0 tools in the FL classroom.  A tool that came up was word clouds.  I checked my trusty "idea wiki" and found a number of possible applications for word clouds that I hadn't yet explored, so I thought a blog post was in order.

Word clouds are something that I really didn't understand -- even up to the first time I used them with my students. My first application was to have students choose 20 words (about a francophone country they were researching), enter them into the text box, and create their word cloud.  Not very clever at all -- especially given what I have learned since then!

So I'm going to start with the suggestions from #langchat.  The first one (courtesy of Katie Aebersold @klafrench) stunned me with its simplicity.  I doubt there are very many FL teachers out there who are not familiar with the flyswatter game.  Project a word cloud onto a whiteboard, and swat away!  Love it!

The next idea (courtesy of Sara Cottrell @SECottrell) is to select vocabulary from an authentic text, show it to students via word cloud prior to having them approach the text itself, and have them hypothesize about the topic.

The last (courtesy of Don Doehla @dr_dmd) is to post select vocabulary in a word cloud, and use the word cloud as a writing prompt.  There was some concern that this idea lacked authenticity, but in my opinion, it could be an effective bellringer activity, activating the vocabulary for students at the start of class.

Moving on from the #langchat discussion, the next idea is original, but the rest originated from 101 ways to use tagxedo (Hardy Leung).  I will offer these ideas, but "tweaked" a bit for the FL classroom.

I see word clouds as a way for beginning students to build circumlocution skills.  Students could be assigned a vocabulary word, and create a word cloud of related words.  Classmates would need to identify the source word from the word cloud.

Students could create a self-portrait word cloud using tagxedo (which allows customized shapes created from your pictures).  The words could come from a paragraph in the target language that students write introducing themselves.  This word cloud could then be used as a SM avatar.

I really like the next one for reviewing and expanding adjective vocabulary:

Make a list of 100 values or personality traits

Each person give a score for each value (0-100)

• Love:100 Coolness:50 Control:20 Flexibility:70

Feed the data to Tagxedo

• Use the "Deja Vu" option, show maximum 50 words

Normalize Frequency - forcing a ranking

Make Tagxedoes and compare

The next one Leung calls "Collective Wisdom".  It involves asking a question, and soliciting short answers.  The responses are then collected and used to form the cloud.  This idea immediately makes me think of a website called VYou.  Students could each come up with their own question, and record a video of themselves asking the question, and send it to their classmates, who would respond to either all classmates' questions, or a specific number of classmates' questions.  This would incorporate oral work, listening, and writing.

The last idea comes from 64 Interesting Ideas for Class Blog Posts, and combines another web 2.0 tool with word clouds.  It's a brainstorming activity involving http://answergarden.ch/.  Answergarden is another sort of polling tool, but the responses can be exported into wordle.  Sadly, it appears that answers must be typed in via computer, and cannot be texted, but it could be a neat homework assignment that would set up into a future lesson.

One of the great things about blogging, is that it helps me to process so many of the ideas that percolate through this imperfect brain of mine.  If you have underestimated the usefulness of word clouds like I have, I hope this has been helpful.

What do you think?

Building Student PLNs

PLN -- Professional....Personal...Passionate...choose your adjective....Learning Network.  I have been actively building my PLN for about five months, and as I have repeatedly twittered, it has changed my professional life!  I have learned more than I can even put into words from the amazing educational minds I encounter in the twittosphere.  That said, I have been trying to figure out a way to bring the power of Twitter to my students next year, and help them build their own PLNs.  I created a page on my "brainstorming wiki" that I use to park all of my ideas in progress, but hadn't really come up with a whole lot after several weeks.
Lucky me!!  the 8/2 noon #edchat topic was regarding SM and student PLNs.  Sadly, I could only participate for about 10 minutes before having to rush my DDs off to band camp...which is why archives and summaries are such a blessing!
Lucky me again!!  Last night's #langchat touched on the topic as well....as I noted in the summary since I missed the actual chat (end of band camp....FINALLY!!)

All that said, here are my thoughts going forward:

1.  The most appropriate starting point is to connect students with their classmates.  It seems to be a no-brainer for students who forget to write down homework, or who are struggling with something and may be able to connect outside of school.  They do this anyway, why not encourage it!  By having them create twitter accounts for class, they will also have access to classmates they may not normally socialize with, but from whom they may be able to learn.

2.  The PLN should be expanded to included students from other classes -- including other levels.  This provides an opportunity for students in upper levels to informally tutor/mentor students in lower levels, in a flexible way and a format that is comfortable for students.

3,  The next step might be to try to connect with classes outside your district.  For example, my students will be collaborating with classes in Paris.  We will be doing formal activities in class, but I hope to encourage them to continue their relationships on their own, choosing to focus their communication on students with interests common to theirs.

4.  The #langchat summary provided me with this gem -- the #parlons hashtag (#charlando for Spanish). Other French teachers will have their students tweeting here in French, and hopefully students will make their own connections, further expanding their PLN.

I think the overriding theme here, is that we guide students in the initial establishment of their PLN, but as it grows and develops, they need to own it, and control who they choose to learn from, in the same way we do -- personal, and passionate.

Stay tuned for updates as the year begins!

PS:

Google + is  one of the most frequently brought up SM tools for PLNs.  I am not leaving it out for any reason other than I'm just not comfortable enough with it myself at this point, to introduce it to students.