People who have heard me speak recently concerning our own school district technology initiatives may remember an analogy and model I have used. I have employed this model to illustrate the target at which we need to aim, in our district and as educators in general. The model consists of a "Golden Circle," three concentric circles. The inner-most circle contains the word "Why," the second "How," and the outer circle "What." In aiming at the center of the target, we must clearly define the "Why" we are engaging in this thing we call education.
I borrowed the model from a TEDx Puget Sound talk by Simon Sinek. If you would like to view the whole talk, I have posted it below:
A key portion of Mr. Sinek's talk hinges on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. It is interesting that I find myself writing this post on the 50th anniversary of that historic moment. Sinek powerfully points out, "People do not buy what you do. They buy why you do it." Dr. King, he says, gave the, "I have a Dream" speech not the "I have a Plan" speech.
Why do you go to work every day?
As a leader in our district, I want to challenge others to define why we do what we do. Our technology initiatives should then follow those values. If we can agree, we are all invested in helping students fulfill their purpose and the dreams they have.
New technology devices and services are coming. I challenge you to choose caring for your students and equipping them with skills to meet world prepared. The journey you take with your students will involve technology. What matters is why, how, and what the people do, not the device.
Chris Jenks is the instructional technology coordinator for the Tuscaloosa City Schools. Follow him on Twitter, where he goes by @chrisjenks.
If you are reading this blog, it is very likely that you are not completely opposed to the use of technology in the learning environment. You may even be a strong proponent of the purposeful use of digital and technological tools to maximize student learning, as I am. To this presumably supportive audience, I have this admonition: beware of falling for the myth that technology is a panacea. Because it is false, this is a particularly dangerous myth because in being proved inaccurate, it too often makes educators overly cautious or even unwilling to make technology an integral part of their teaching.
In point of fact, technology does not fix anything when it comes to teaching and learning. Technology amplifies the pedagogical expertise educators already have. If you already know that frequent, individualized, targeted feedback is essential to student learning, there are many tools that can make the execution of this practice more efficient or manageable. For the teacher who believes that each student should be taught at the point of his/her mastery, digital tools for differentiation are easily accessible. Dozens of options are available to streamline the process of providing a steady stream of information to parents regarding their children's academic progress.
To be clear, technology can also amplify poor instructional practice. Worksheets can be digitized, but they are still worksheets. Poorly constructed writing prompts can be posted to online student collaboration sites. Students can be guided to complete ill-conceived "web-quests" that focus exclusively on answering recall questions instead of requiring or promoting higher level thinking at all.
My challenge is a simple one: don't foolishly ignore the powerful tools technology offers in support of learning. Recognize, however, that technology is only as good as your ability to wield it effectively. Pick up the megaphone and speak powerfully into the lives of your students this year.
Andrew Maxey is the principal of Rock Quarry Middle School. He blogs at nothingthatprofound.wordpress.com and tweets from time to time as @_ezigbo_.
The machines issued in the TCS English and math 8-12 classes for the 2013-2014 school year are HP Pavilion 14 Chromebooks, most notable for their 14-inch screens.
Check out the short video below from SlashGear for a little tour of the Chromebook you'll be working with, which includes information on the available ports, battery life, and other features.
So what does this mean for our daily classroom use?
First up, the USB 2.0 ports allow you to access files for upload and use in web apps (think photos needed for presentations and photo-editing apps or Microsoft Office documents you might want to access via Google Drive). You can also use these ports for peripherals like USB headsets or mice.
The HDMI port is handy for video output and will allow you to display your work on a separate monitor, TV screen, or through some projectors. Most of our classroom projectors use VGA instead, though, so these aren't likely to work with them. The good news is that everything students and teachers might create and want to project will be stored in the cloud and easily accessible from any computer with an internet connection, so swapping out machines attached to a projector in class probably won't be necessary.
The 4-5 hour battery life means that on days of heavy use you may want to plan for a quick mid-day charge to keep your devices going until the last bell. Your mileage may vary when it comes to battery life, so gauge your usage in the first few days and weeks, and establish a plan that works best for you.
You'll also note that there's no option to hook up a Chromebook to a printer. There are work-arounds, but the best advice I've heard is this: "Don't print. Create, publish, share." The how of that will come in blog post form soon.
Do you have practical tips about the Chromebooks or observations to share? Post them in the comments below!
This post is Part 2 of an ongoing series intended to orient teachers to their new devices as part of the Tuscaloosa City Schools 1:1 digital conversion. You might also be interested in Part 1:
Laren Hammonds is an 8th grade English teacher at Rock Quarry Middle School. She's @_clayr_ on Twitter and blogs about her classroom experiences at Game to Learn.
Our system hosted our two-day best practices with technology conference this week. #TCStech Days were a place for brand new teachers, new to our system teachers, and seasoned teachers to collaborate and play with new tools. The focus of #TCStech Days is to enhance learning, not just use shiny and snazzy technology. We had three time slots of concurrent sessions in the morning and then two open work sessions in the afternoon. Here is the Google spreadsheet of our schedule.
On the first day of #TCStech Days, this inspiring tweet showed up in my feed.
That quote resonated in my mind. "Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching." What does it mean to never stop learning? To me, "never stop learning" means never stop asking for help, sharing successes, sharing failures, asking opinions, researching, brainstorming, or connecting with other educators. In a word, "never stop learning" means collaboration.
Collaboration is the heart and soul of a connected educator. Collaboration is why I love Twitter. Twitter is almost instantaneous professional development, tailored to your exact needs and in real time. Many educators have said they learn more from Twitter than any conference they have attended. Not only does Twitter provide PD, but Twitter is also a continuous, ongoing dialogue with other educators. Our system was looking at implementing Chromebooks, so I asked the Twitterverse who would know about Chromebooks. @web20classroom connected me with @kylepace, who then agreed to a Google Hangout with @chrisjenks and I to discuss Chromebooks. Chris and I were looking at learning management systems for our district, so I tweeted out this Google document and asked for feedback. Eight colleagues - some I know and some I do not - collaborated on the Google document. Through one tweet, I was able to connect with three other educators I have never met to answer my questions. Thank you @clonghb@mosspike and @davidtedu!
If I need a question answered, I tweet it. If I'm looking for a resource, I tweet it. If I have an awesome anything to share, I tweet it. If I need feedback, I tweet it. I tweet lots of things. I tweet because it is my main way to collaborate outside of whatever walls I may find myself in on a given day. I tweet because I don't know everything. I tweet because I need to perfect this craft of teaching with other people who have the same mindset I do - to never stop learning.
It may be the fact that I was raised by a Nationally Board Certified Library Media Specialist and twice Teacher of the Year, but I truly believe that as an educator, regardless of age or experience, we must collaborate or we will go extinct. My mother taught me that you can always learn something from someone, even if it is how not to do something. Twitter provides a place to share what we learn - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The first part of collaboration is to share. If you are on Twitter, don't just browse or retweet. Join the conversation! Look at this Google spreadsheet of twitter chats you can join any day of the week. The second part of collaboration is to put to action what you have learned, to try something new or different regardless of the success it may yield. As teachers, we must continually learn so that we can provide the best process for our students to learn. A teacher cannot use the same lesson plan every year. Besides, that information needs to be refreshed and updated in times such as these. As teachers, we can never stop learning because that's what we expect from our students, right? So model it for them. Show them how to learn. Provide an environment for them to love learning. If we don't teach them how to do that, who will?
Melinda Sears is the Title I Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Tuscaloosa City Schools. Check out her website or connect with her via Twitter.
If you're a TCS math or English teacher in grades 8-12, you're likely coming back to school this year with a cart full of Chromebooks to use with your students. Check out the tips below for a bit of guidance on getting started and managing them for student use. Please note that this is not a post about transforming your instruction but rather a bit of practical advice for getting acquainted with your new devices. Future posts will discuss possibilities for classroom use and share specific ways TCS students and teachers are harnessing the power of Chromebooks and web tools to make meaningful shifts in learning.
First up, what's a Chromebook? It's not exactly a laptop. It's clearly not a tablet or desktop. Check out the video below for a brief overview.
So here's the gist: Google Chrome is a web browser, not unlike Firefox or Internet Explorer. A Chromebook uses the Chrome operating system. This means that everything you do on the Chromebook is web-based. You start out with a basic suite of tools like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and other resources, and you can easily add other apps from the Chrome Web Store based on your needs and the needs of your students. Because everything is web-based, the work your students do is not tied to the device they work on or to the school network. It's stored in the cloud, so the kids can access their stuff from a variety of devices - at home, at school, anywhere - by simply logging in to their Google accounts.
Number and assign your Chromebooks. When you begin distributing the Chromebooks among your students, you'll want to make sure that there's some level of accountability in the event of any issues or damage. Some prefer to attach small labels; however, I find that fidgety fingers tend to make short work of these. Grab a sharpie, and write small numbers (1-30) in an inconspicuous spot on the outside of the Chromebooks. I recommend not writing the numbers on the inside of the devices because you don't want to have to open every Chromebook up each time you need to place it back in your cart. Speaking of the cart, once your machines are numbered, place corresponding numbers in each space in your cart to provide a designated space for each Chromebook's storage and charging. The final step, once you've got your rosters for the year, is to assign each student to a Chromebook. This will be the device they will use for each work session, so if you ever have questions or concerns about one, you know who to talk to. Keep your Chromebook assignment lists stored or posted somewhere for easy access throughout the year, and make sure that you distribute the devices to the students yourself at least the first several times they are in use to ensure that students get in the habit of getting the same assigned machine.
Secure your cart key. This is a very small piece of advice based on personal experience. If your cart has a keyed lock (and odds are it does), make sure that you pull the key out of the lock if you're moving the cart from room to room. Narrow doorways can be deadly for keys left in the cart locks; I've got two key fragments in my classroom to prove it. On a related note, when your cart is locked, keep the key somewhere secure. Though it may be handy to hang the key on the cart via a lanyard, this practice pretty much eliminates the effectiveness of locking the thing up.
Get your students logged in. Logging in to a Chromebook requires a Google account. If necessary, both teachers and students can log in using an existing Gmail address and password. However, current TCS students also have Google accounts through our system's Google Apps for Education. All they need to do is log in here, reset their passwords, and they're ready to start using Google Apps and the web. I suggest assigning one time (for example, all English 9 classes) for taking care of the initial login process to make this first step more efficient and to avoid overlap. Folks at the CO will be distributing student login info soon.
Assign student helpers. Pick a student or two per class to assist you in collecting and plugging back in the Chromebooks once they're returned. Having a few extra hands to facilitate the shuffle, along with beginning the process a minute or two before class ends, will help to reduce moments of frenzy between classes and ensure that the next class starts with a clean slate.
So that's it for now. One of the best things about Chromebooks is that setup is a breeze. What tips or questions do you have about getting Chromebooks student-ready? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Upcoming posts will recommend great apps to use, share instructional practices, and help to answer a very big question: what happens to these things when the network goes down? Stay tuned!
Laren Hammonds is an 8th grade English teacher at Rock Quarry Middle School. She's @_clayr_ on Twitter and blogs about her classroom experiences at Game to Learn.
