TechEDGE Un-Conference, October 19, 2019

We want to invite you to the Innovative Educator Un-Conference the morning of Saturday, October 19 at the UNL Hub in Henzlik Hall from 8:30 AM until noon. Come ready to participate in a technology playground project as you consider how such experiences could be integrated into your curriculum. Meet educators who are implementing innovative practices in their own schools and learn how they did it. And have conversations around topics you would like to consider in your own school. Learn more about UNL’s Innovative Educator Workshops you may want to join next summer. The Un-Conference is free, but you do need to register by October 1 to allow us to plan. We hope to see you there!  Register Here

For more than two years we have been collaborating with a Think Tank of innovators to meet the needs of innovative schools. We focused on preparing educators to be effective and confident in facilitating learning in innovative settings. School leaders have indicated a challenge in finding and retaining effective educators in innovative settings, whether project-based learning, virtual, hybrid, outdoor, or international. We created an Innovative Educator curriculum to supplement traditional teacher education. These courses support innovative schools by developing educators who can facilitate learning in a variety of settings using inquiry, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.

We offered these courses for the first time this past summer.

At the Un-Conference you will be able to meet some of the educators who participated in this program. Hear about the innovative practices they are implementing in their schools, and most importantly the processes they are using to make it happen. If you are thinking about updating your curriculum to be more student-centered while implementing technology to empower your students to demonstrate learning, consider attending this event. There will also be time to discuss and share ideas with other innovative educators in attendance. To quote Don Leu of the University of Connecticut, because of the incredibly rapid advancements in technology and learning, "no one person can be expected to know everything there is about the technologies of literacy; these technologies will simply change too quickly and be too extensive to permit any single person to be literate in them all. Each of us, however, will know something useful to others. (Leu, 2002, p. 328)

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Schedule 

8:30 Registration and Refreshments

8:45-9:30 micro:bits project-based learning

9:30-10:15 Panel of Innovative Educators sharing what they are doing and how they got there

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-11:10 Mini Un Conference Round 1  

11:10-11:45 Mini Un Conference Round 2

11:45-12:00 Closing Thoughts and Door Prizes!

The conference is free so please consider coming to share what you know that will be useful to others. We hope to see you at the Un-Conference on October 19 at Henzlik Hall! We can't wait to hear how you are considering or already innovating at your school!

Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

Unsplash.com photo credit

Universities today need to make learning accessible for all types of learners. Technology tools can help personalize information by allowing students to access course content in a manner that meets their needs. For students with disabilities, technology can support reading and writing using print and digital materials. In Google Docs, Voice Typing allows students to verbally state their ideas while the tool types it out. For a struggling writer this method helps get their good ideas on paper without struggling with the actual keyboarding or handwriting. It also fills the daunting empty page as one begins an assignment.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act require public colleges that receive federal funds to transcribe materials for students who need this assistance. Today YouTube provides transcription on many videos that instructors may use for Open Educational Resources. This service saves many working hours to manually transcribe materials. Voice to text tools also write transcriptions as a person reads the materials. The result is more students who succeed in college and graduate ready to assume positions in society.

University students frequently work to help pay for college so time is a premium, so listening to readings while commuting is more efficient. Also some come to college as slow or struggling readers so having text read to them can make the difference between understanding and not reading the assigned text. While there are many free text to speech tools for educators, one tool that I like to include in my syllabus for students is the website Natural Readers. This tool allows the student to cut and paste text, or simply open documents including PDFs, docs, epubs, PPTs, and jpegs and have them read orally. It can even transpose the text into Dyslexic Font to assist dyslexic students. As with all digital text, you can also adjust the size of font by zooming in or out on your screen to assist those with vision challenges, adjust loudness for hearing challenges, and adjust speed to increase comprehension.

Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash

At a time when recruiting and retaining students can be a challenge for universities and completing college work is for students, technology is providing personalized learning tools to make all students successful at learning. If you have other tools that you use with your students, please share them.
All the best as you plan your courses to meet individual needs in the most effective manner possible.

Student Projects that are Impacting Our World

Project-based learning motivates students to define problems in the world and find solutions when they see purpose and relevance to their work. Students will work for weeks at a time to find a solution to a problem to which they are committed. Here are three student projects arising out of class time dedicated to empowering students to make a difference in the world.

Students Make a Prosthetic Leg for a Duck, Showing the Value of Purpose in Learning

  Photo Credit

A woman found a duck that had it's leg chewed off by a turtle. She searched the Internet looking for a prosthetic leg for a duck. A group of middle school students in this small Arkansas town in Arkansas worked all semester to create a prosthesis for the duck using a 3D printer. They researched the Indian Runner Duck to find out how it bent it's leg to walk. After creating and revising 36 prototypes these three students attached the prosthetic leg to Peg the duck and watched him walk and even run! They documented their process using pictures and video.
http://www.kait8.com/clip/14024822/duck-gets-prosthetic-leg

                                                                                                                         

Sleeping Bag that Turns into Tent Could Help Homeless People this Winter
Groups of students at Carnegie Mellon's Integrated Innovation Institute participated in an "Impact-A-Thon" to create innovative and affordable solutions to help homeless people survive in cold weather. One team created an insulated sleeping bag that expands into a tent. They determined that it needed to be portable and durable so they fitted it with both wheels for pulling and straps for carrying.

Photo Credit

                                                                   
How Students' Project Honors Suburban Heroes at Pearl Harbor and Beyond
During a discussion about the Vietnam War, students at Rotolo Middle School became interested in the people from their county who died serving our country in wars. These 8th graders decided to research the stories of "the soldier behind the name."  They went beyond the Vietnam war to include the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, Cold War, Vietnam, Korea, and Persian Gulf. They visited cemeteries, read newspaper articles and yearbooks, consulted maps, drew sketches, coded to create the website, took pictures and videos to create a virtual memorial.  Do take a few minutes to visit their virtual memorial and celebrate the war heroes of Kane County. The project continues as more than 200 students have added information to keep it current. Their teacher notes that it is truly the students' project, she just asked "What if..." 

How can you spur your students to make a difference in our world today? "What if....." Let us know what your students decide to do!

Genius Hour: Consider Dedicating 20% of Class Time for Student-Choice Exploration

It's a new year! Classes are soon beginning in 2018. What will you do to empower your students to learn and make a difference in the world this year? I recently came across an inspirational video where students shared the projects they developed in Genius Hour. Not only did their projects motivate these students to research and share their learning, they made a difference in people's lives as they informed others about topics they felt strongly about. Take a look and see what you think!

                                           YouTube Credit #20Time projects in 4 minutes 

So how did these students accomplish so much using one hour of class time per week? It all began in the 1950's when 3M started a 15% Project. You may have heard the story of how Post-Its and masking tape evolved from this project. What initially looked like a failed experiment to create a very strong adhesive for the aerospace industry in 1968 turned out to be a very weak pressure-sensitive adhesive. It took multiple people experimenting with the adhesive over a period of nearly 10 years before 3M came up with the decision to market and sell the product in 1977.

To encourage and inspire innovation, Google asked employees to spend 20% of their time at work on a project of interest to them. Some of the products that have arisen from this effort include Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and Google Teacher Academy. "Using 20 Time in the workplace allows innovative ideas and projects to flourish and/or fail without the bureaucracy of committees and budgets." 20-Time in Education Inspire. Create. Innovate.

These business initiatives have now been applied to education to to a empower students to inspire, create, and innovate. MindShift offers some great suggestions to get you started with Genius Hour in your classroom this year. Sean Crevier has seen his students experience great success. He suggests breaking the project into three parts: the problem, the solution, and the product. Each student defines the problem he/she wants to investigate that can be completed within the allotted time frame (he uses 10 weeks). He meets with students individually and has them complete a diagram beginning with the due date and planning backwards to create their own timeline for the project. Students are responsible for keeping themselves on track using a Google Spreadsheet and reflecting after each period. He realizes that "it's all about the journey" and the problem-solving students do in the process. The product may not turn out as students initially thought (like the Post-Its) but it may be even more useful.

I encourage you to give this process a try! Genius Hour works in elementary schools too. Edutopia suggests setting it up providing Time, Reflection, Collaboration, and Sharing opportunities for students to work on topics important to their community. A great example of Genius Hour in action in middle schools can be found in Jen Schneider's work "How to Build Community Leaders of Today - and Tomorrow - Through Student Genius Hours." Challenge your students to innovate to better our world this year!

Start the School Year by Experiencing the Solar Eclipse

Photo Credit

Our school year begins on August 21, the same day as the long-awaited solar eclipse. And the total solar eclipse will be visible above our location as Nebraska is a prime destination for viewing the eclipse.  Check out this interactive map of the world to tell exactly when the partial and maximum solar eclipse will be in your area. What a perfect way to emphasize the STEM areas to begin a school year by encouraging students to question, research, and experience a natural phenomenon.

The Internet is full of resources for teaching the solar eclipse. There are books and articles you may want to check out to bring into your classroom for students to read. The official NASA Eclipse Website traces the path of the solar eclipse and provides video to observe the eclipse live as it occurs. In addition NASA shares information about eclipses past and future. Your students will enjoy the countdown until the eclipse and perhaps you can find an event in your area at this site. They even have directions to make your own 3D Printed Pinhole Projector in the shape of the United States or your state! And check out NASA's Math Challenges for all grades to perform basic math related to the August 21 solar eclipse. NASA Next Generation Science Standards approach to classroom instruction on the solar eclipse gets students to observe an anchoring phenomenon, ask driving questions, and set up investigations.  A great example of how to make students leaders in their active learning.

One of my favorite online news sources is Smithsonian TeenTribune. I appreciate the way they level current news stories so students from Kindergarten through Grade 12 can read the same story at their own level in English or Spanish. When it comes to news events there are no alternate stories for students who are reading below grade level, they need to know the same relevant information about events in the news, so this source is a great addition to the classroom. The current edition of TeenTribune explains the viewing tools you can safely use to view the solar eclipse.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will also stream live video remotely from the UNL Student Observatory and the UNL Minnich Solar Telescope. So if you want to watch the solar eclipse from your classroom with your students in real time go to the UNL website. Concordia University, Nebraska will host over 2,000 K-12 students from across the state, as well as the public, to view the total eclipse with university students in the stadium. Beginning at 11:00am the Science department will provide updates and commentary audibly to viewers with visual information showing on the stadium screen.

Some possible student projects to extend student learning include: (1) mapping the path of the solar eclipse,  (2) locating pictures of the phases of the eclipse and creating a multimedia presentation explaining each, (3) writing a blog or digital story about the experience including preparation, observing, and reflecting on the solar eclipse, and (4) creating a one-minute movie demonstrating the positions of the earth, moon, and sun during a solar eclipse. Possible technology tools to use include Google Maps, Google Images, NASA Image Gallery, Adobe Spark Page or Video, Blogger, and Swivl. Then be sure to have students share their projects and learning at your class/school website.

Enjoy the Solar Eclipse and all the best in the new school year!

Innovative Learning Spaces

The role of the educator today is changing. Based on the

International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (ISTE NETS*T) teachers should be able to apply technology to:

• facilitate and inspire student creativity;
• design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments;
• model digital-age work and learning;
• promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; and
• engage in professional growth and leadership.

And the Proposed 2017 ISTE Standards for Teachers view teachers as:

• Empowered Educators (Learners, Leaders, Citizens)
• Learning Catalysts (Collaborators, Designers, Facilitators, Analysts)
• The goal is to help students meet the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students as Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens, Knowledge Constructors, Innovative Designers, Computational Thinkers, Creative Communicators, and Global Collaborators.

While these expectations are quite different than the lecturer model education has used for many years, today's classrooms often don't look much different than they did many years ago often making it more challenging for teachers to modify their pedagogy.

Some innovative learning spaces are evolving to support teachers as they empower their students to learn in new ways. Educause (2015) offers ideas to design active learning spaces that support collaboration, project-based learning, inquiry learning, as well as traditional presentation and lecture methods. They suggest incorporating the following into innovative learning spaces to increase flexibility and technology use:

(1) Multiple writing spaces throughout the room (whiteboard ability on walls, tables)

(2) Presentation displays on multiple walls (no front of the room required so groups of students
can create and present on screens in their area)

(3) Internet connectivity to support all learners in the room

(4) Power throughout the room to charge students' multiple devices

(5) Movable furniture to provide flexibility in teaching and learning (tables & chairs with wheels)

Video source:Educause. (2015, June 22). 5 tips for active learning space design [Video File]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXDTxEeLLD8


As the second semester begins, consider how you

will teach and how you can arrange your learning space to facilitate that teaching and learning. How will you facilitate and inspire student creativity? How will you design digital-age learning experiences to help students construct knowledge? How can you provide opportunities for students to collaborate globally and present learning in creative ways? Perhaps the way you design your classroom will determine how learning will take place. I would love to see pictures of the creative learning spaces you design to facilitate student learning, as well as samples of student projects!

All the best in the new year!

Coaching for Technology Integration

This is the time in the semester when I get really excited! Preservice teachers in literacy practicum
have been in the classroom since the beginning of the school year. They have been teaching literacy courses as well as literacy across the curriculum, using their iPad to access lesson plans and online reading curriculum. They have received formal feedback on their teaching and are confidently managing the class. Additionally they have been creating technology projects to use in their practicum classroom. Now they are preparing to make their students the creators in demonstrating their learning using technology.

At the same time their cooperating teachers are beginning to listen to technology ideas as I share them with their preservice teachers. When cooperating teachers have a question about technology they go to their preservice teacher, and sometimes I'm lucky enough to be in the room to help out. One question this week was about how to search for images within Google Docs. Since the Research tool has been replaced by Explore, teachers have to change their visuals that demonstrate how students can add images to their research projects. A preservice teacher found that Explore let's you search the web, images, and your Google Documents to add information to your paper. She created a screencast using Screencastify to show students how to add images to their presentations. I was so impressed with the level of this screencast and others created this semester.

Additionally, we just had Tech EDGE 18 The Future is Now: Innovative Approaches to 21st Century Learning. A couple cooperating teachers and other inservice teachers led sectionals demonstrating creative ways they are integrating technology in the classroom. Student teachers, and some of these literacy practicum students, attended the conference along with some classroom teachers. When processing what they learned and wanted to use in their classrooms these beginning teachers discussed ways they could incorporate Genius Hour, Makerspaces, Google Classroom, interactive student responses, international collaboration, green screen videos, Google Draw, and much more. How exciting to send new teachers into the field with innovative ideas of what education can be along with competence in making it a reality. I am convinced there has never been a more exciting time to be a teacher, and am proud to coach amazing preservice teachers and their cooperating teachers. Now to prepare for more preservice teachers to observe classroom teachers using 1:1 devices with students at Tech EDGE Aurora on Wednesday! Let the innovation continue!