Teachers do it in Front of People (Tech Tips)

I've never had a class on how to use a pen. I've also never had a class on how to use an eraser. I haven't had special seminar on how to put plastic page folders into a three-ringed binder or write with chalk either. I didn't have to have special training for any of those tools, because I saw them in use. I went, like everyone else, into the classroom and I saw my teachers using a pen, an eraser and putting pages into a three-ringed binder and use the occasional piece of chalk. These things were just tools to help my teachers, and eventually me, do what I wanted to do, teach.

Ed tech is just another tool. It's not a panacea for all that ails nor will it make teaching easier for you. In fact, it adds complication to an already dynamic and complex context. It does however, allow you do some new things that you couldn't do before and that's where we should be looking when adopting technology. The questions that I keep asking again and again, is "wouldn't it be great if we could extend guided writing by..." or "It would be much more visual for students if they could..." With these questions in mind, ed tech becomes very easy to integrate.

My advice for anyone wanting to use technology in the classroom is to get comfortable using it yourself first. No expertise is necessary, just a general feeling of comfort with it. If you have a site or app that you use and it's appropriate for the class, share it like it is. Plan and think about how to make your process visible to your class as you are using this bit of technology. It also helps if the technology is a means to an end and not the end itself. But slowly release responsibility to students so that they can use ed tech independently and to enhance their own learning. If we all used technology in a way that students can see, we could spend more of our time helping our students creating or realising their ideas rather than boring them with lock-step instruction.

Quill.org - edit to get it (grammar)

Quill.org is a wonderful service to help students of many ages develop grammar awareness. It does this from an "editing point of view" where the student is given a passage and they need to identify the errors in the passage. The software then identifies the changes that were made correctly, incorrectly or changes to the passage where there was no error. Based on the results of the student, the site then tailors a set of exercises for the student to practise. 
What I find particularly interesting with this service is that it makes the student type the complete sentence and not just the missing word. By doing this it reinforces good habits in editing, such as re-reading from the beginning of the sentence, following other previously learnt grammar conventions and also good typing practice for students that are developing in that area.

Quill.org is platform agnostic, but because of the typing requirement, it seems to work better on devices with keyboards. It also looks like it might be useful as a way for a whole class to engage with the programme as a shared writing activity. I have to play with the site a bit more, but I think it keeps drawing as many exercises as needed from a database, so having it on the projector you could model where you, the teacher, identify the problem the problem and do a think aloud as to how you would correct this sentence and finally make your correction. Feedback is instant and the site highlights what was done. Quill.org might also be a great activity to have at a station for students to work on independently or possibly for fast finishers. Let me know how you use it. 

Quill.org is a free site and looks like an interesting way to develop your editing skills regardless of how old you are.

For more information about Quill.org check out their YouTube channel on how to get started, 

Seesaw - digital portfolios

This week, we've been playing with Seesaw in the office. Seesaw is a very easy way for teachers, students and parents to view comment on and track learning.

What we love:

• easy for teachers to use in the classroom
• easy for students to use (shared devices can use QR codes to login)
• very simple workflow, but robust
• It stores evidence of student work in a Facebook like news-feed
• allows students to explain their work with virtual whiteboard features
• allows younger learners to leave oral comments on their own work
• allows the whole class to access others' work
• any post can be pushed to a class blog
• controlled and safe environment for students
• Let Seesaw store your students' work

Here are the features in action:

QR Code login

Creating a journal - there are even more features available now that are not in the video

How we will be using it:

The hardest part that we see in getting teachers to use ed tech in lessons is getting teachers familiar and comfortable using technology first. So what we're planning on doing is having teachers use Seesaw to create journals of their co-planning and make the material visible so that they will have an artifact for later that they can refer to and possibly use as a discussion point for reflection after planned lessons, and comments can be written in to support next year's lessons.