4 Paradigm Shifts Supported and Accelerated by Technology

The development of significant paradigm shifts, representing 21st century learners, priorities, and skills, parallels the rapid influx of tech tools, creating infinite options for mobility, individualization, and transparency, as well as redefining the role of teachers.

Mobility 

24/7 access to class resources, activities, and assignments allow for increased mobility. A specific space becomes less important when “stuff” is removed. Technology eliminates traditional office supplies; nothing to purchase or carry! Instructional time is maximized when there are no papers and other supplies to distribute, manage, and collect. Extreme mobility is achieved through technology and allows for infinite off-site options, including the potential elimination of snow days, and the creation of virtual schools.

Role of Teachers

The guide on the side is replacing the sage on the stage. The saying goes that, the one doing the talking is the one doing the learning. Technology is helping create studio-like classrooms, collaborative spaces, where engaged learners take an active role. The audience and the speaker are eliminated, and lectures become obsolete when curriculum is individualized. The role of the teacher is evolving into that of a facilitator, differentiating instruction, and assisting each student with just what each student needs at each moment. Instead of focusing on a one size fits all approach to each class, the teacher can learn about each individual learner, setting the stage for effective individualization.

Individualization

The need for individualization has always existed, but now the options are infinite. Tech tools allow for teachers to build support and enrichment into every learning experience. Classes no longer need to move together in lockstep. Instructional time is maximized when each learner begins at his/her own level and proceeds from there. Innovators, like Tom Vander Ark, are creating opportunities for students to articulate their interests and design personal digital learning programs to meet their very unique goals, calling into question one size fits all curriculums.

Transparency

Everyone is in the loop thanks to technology. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators have 24/7 access to up to the minute information. Student grades used to be kept on paper, by one person, in one place, and required manual calculating. Now grades, behavior management details, assignments, and resources are easily accessible. Parents can know in real time how their student is doing before it is too late to change course.

College and career readiness does not look the same as it used to.  Many traditional educational approaches were developed in different time periods to meet obsolete objectives. More than ever, the nature of the learner is being taken into account, and the result is empowered learners developing relevant skills.

Questioning the Role of Penmanship Going Forward

                                  

Penmanship is a physical skill, an art form too. Secondary courses do not provide instruction for this, yet lack of this physical skill could cause students to fail required courses. As per Regents and Common Core grading rubrics, "A response that is...illegible...must be scored as a 0." See the rubric here: ELA Scoring Rubric. Declaring illegibility is subjective, thus a slippery slope.

My solution: Go digital (of course!) and let's relegate penmanship development at the secondary level to art electives. Students with interest or parents who feel strongly could opt for an art elective on handwriting. What a cool class that could be - maybe look at the history of writing, penmanship, hieroglyphics, perhaps some handwriting analysis, practice letter formation, ...

After exploring the handwriting issue closely for over a year now (and casually for over 19 years, the duration of my career), I realize I've opened a can of worms; the issue of penmanship and the associated expectations placed on students and teachers is thorny and multi-faceted.

Bottom line:  I do not think that most of my students will go into careers where their penmanship matters or will play an important role, if any role at all. 

What's best for students? College and career readiness!

Much of my clarity on this issue has come from going paperless over a year ago. I've seen the other side and it's beautiful!

Hindsight 20/20!  Poor penmanship can be a roadblock to success for many students. Not to mention an inconvenience. What a waste of time and energy to scrawl by hand when there are so many more effective and efficient ways to record and convey information. Also not to mention, what do students write on? Pieces of paper that are vulnerable to so many mishaps and loss, but that's a whole other article!

Some students would rather go chop a load of wood over sketching out each letter of each word of each sentence of each paragraph of each essay or report. It's practically manual labor! Think of how that time and energy could be better spent!

Sad to see handwriting fall by the wayside? People were probably sad to see quill pens and ink wells go away at one time too. Some probably experienced discomfort and mistrust moving from stone tablets to making marks on slices of papyrus too. And that all seems rather ridiculous now.

I have found myself in some debates on this topic in the past year, most notably with a class of college students who I expected to be the most cutting edge of my audiences. After getting real about penmanship's role going forward, the friendly argument always somehow turns to someone (desperately) saying that citizens of the future should at least be able to write a grocery list. If a citizen of the future was indeed determined to enter a store with reminders on a piece of paper, he/she could draw a loaf of bread and a cupcake, and I say that because each person's penmanship, nearly as unique as fingerprints, is a set of highly individualized symbols anyway. 

With each student's interpretation of letters varying drastically, even day to day for some students, on paper assignments, I used to find myself doing as much decoding as reading.

I fought the good fight for nearly two decades, really digging in and trying to work with specific students on the way they formed specific letters. Changing the student's style was really the only hope before the recent and massive wave of tech integration. What did I discover? That at the high school level, students' handwriting styles were already set. I did not see any improvement. Moreover, the more students wrote, the more ingrained their poor penmanship habits. 

I did discover a number of unintended benefits. Using tech tools allowed students access to proper spelling. Not only could students look up words, they were alerted to misspellings immediately. No need to go get a dictionary. No need to guess at spelling or go unaware of misspelling until an assignment was returned with the misspelling marked. Another unintended benefit was the elimination of the blank page in writing. Somehow a new doc is way less intimidating and stressful.

Of course, always use the best tool for the job, never tech for the sake of tech. Taking that into consideration, I can think of a few circumstances where handwriting could be valuable for students, as opposed to cumbersome and inefficient as it often is.
Elementary - I understand the importance of and fully support children learning to form letters and the physical skills involved. 
Memorization - Studies show that handwriting aids memorization. (No need to memorize an essay!)
Field notes / lab notes - Outdoors and science labs may require more portability and weather-proofing than technology provides.
Drafting - I encourage students to draft however they think best, at a keyboard or writing by hand.

Recently and very notably, the Common Core standards don't require handwriting instruction. Some are concerned that cursive may already be dead.  As pointed out by Ruth Graham in a Boston Globe article, "Is handwriting, particularly cursive, really necessary in the digital age? Increasingly, the answer is not really." ("Fighting to save cursive from the Common Core")

NYSCATE The Power of Paperless Workshop Agenda

The Power of Paperless Workshop Agenda

Thanks to the power of The Cloud

Thanks to the power of The Cloud, my students and I:

have nothing to purchase or carry.

are automatically organized.

can access any assignment, assessment, or discussion from any point in the school year.

have 24/7 access to class resources.

work at individual paces, at differentiated levels.

receive an abundance of data to reflect on and be motivated by.

discreetly submit assignments on individual timelines.

receive immediate correction on spelling. 

work together in real time.

do not need to be in the same physical location to work together.

do not have to speak to ask a question or communicate.

maximize class time focusing on skills and concepts, not paper collection and distribution.

can locate facts, diagrams, statistics, or anything that we need or want to know.

do not exchange germ ridden objects.

do not have to attempt to listen, watch, and do the same thing at the same time.

are free to process information at individual paces.

are not limited by important information written on a single object, in one physical location.

have enrichment and support built in to each class session.

receive immediate results and feedback.

And all of this happens anytime, anywhere, and from any device!

There are so many benefits to The Paperless Classroom! 

Read more: Why go paperless? Why not?!

LMS Showdown: Google Classroom VS My Big Campus VS Edmodo

I love the seemingly infinite buffet of tech tools for education, including learning management systems. I use a combination of Google Classroom, My Big Campus, and Edmodo. I can't commit to just one; there are too many great features out there.

Of course, educators are at the mercy of which subscriptions their districts select. For example, I've heard great things about Schoology, Blackboard, Moodle, and others, but I have no experience with them. My district is a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) school that also has a My Big Campus subscription. Edmodo is free.

I use each for very specific purposes and have discovered strengths and weaknesses.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom's greatest strength and weakness is its simplicity.

GC is simple to set up, simple to use, and simple to look at.

Teachers can set up classes in under a minute. The options for "classes" are infinite. I know a middle school teacher who sets up a new "class" for every unit she teaches. So instead of having 1st period, 2nd period, 3rd..., she has a mythology class, a research class, a Shakespeare class, and a poetry class.
My building used a class for a paperless faculty meeting. The media specialists at my school have various book clubs set up as classes. Most teachers set up traditional classes by class periods, but, like all things tech, the options are infinite for how the groupings of classes can be used.

It's simple to make announcements or to set up assignments on GC. Teachers can quickly and easily add links, videos, Google Drive items, and other files to assignments and announcements.

There is little to no learning curve because the features are practically intuitive, like all things Google. I know a few teachers who have one toe in the water with Google Drive and Docs, so they are having students share assignments with them. That's a nice way to start, but their drives will be a hot mess in no time. Not to mention, how do they easily identify which students have and have not submitted the assignment? Where are they going to put the grade? As a comment? Where will they track the grades for the class? How do they know who handed in what and when, and if anything was handed in late? Google Classroom organizes and tracks all of that, with the information offered all at once, at a glance.

The built in features of Google Classroom are not as robust as those on My Big Campus and Edmodo, but sometimes robust features means the main page will be a busy place, to the point where students may need assistance navigating. Those simple features on GC are a Stream, a Students tab, and an About tab. The About tab is a perfect place to keep class resources. What does a class need besides announcements, assignments, and resources?  

I am not a fan of class discussions on Google Classroom. The stream quickly becomes long and jumbled. GC recently added an option to assign questions and comments. I tried it and it's just not as organized and as user friendly as holding discussions on My Big Campus.

My Big Campus

Since My Big Campus is a subscription, classes are automatically set up, new students are automatically added. Even though the Groups on MBC are set up according to scheduling, there are other options for using Groups, such as for a book club, or for a specific topic, or for a school club, but the set up is not as quick and simple as on Google Classroom. There is no join code; teachers have to look up and add everyone they want to place in a group. And as nice as it is that MBC syncs with the school scheduling data everyday, there are drawbacks to that. For example, every time I added the special education teacher I work with to a class, or Group, she was refreshed out every night at midnight.

At this point, I only use My Big Campus for class discussions. It's very organized, easy to see which responses go with which comments, and offers an option to assign a grade and track participation. Each group has its own Discussion tab where all discussions are listed.

The layout allows students to place responses to other students' comments right under the comment, instead of one long unorganized stream. The discussions take place on separate pages not just adding to the long stream of everything including class assignments and announcements. Students and teachers can easily reference a discussion from months ago. For example, a discussion from the first week of school could be reflected on the last week of the school year. It's not long lost on an endless and unstructured stream (or long lost forever like a traditional class discussion). Once in awhile, I even use the discussion feature on MBC as an exit ticket, where students need to answer a single question.

I used to use the MBC library to allow students video access. The MBC library lets teachers select videos, add them to the library, and then share with students. This year my students have YouTube access, so there is no need to go through the MBC library. Before they had YouTube access, the MBC library was a handy way to use videos with students in a way that would otherwise be rejected by the school filter. In short, the MBC library could be a powerful resource if your school filter rejects student video access in general.

The biggest drawback of My Big Campus? Glitches galore! All sorts of glitches on all features. Some options work in Firefox, but not in Chrome. There are glitches in grading and grade recording. The Drive or MBC cloud is no exception. I have had students lose work and that is the worst! Previous to being a GAFE school, the MBC cloud was the best and only way to save work, not on the school server, or to a particular device. When the glitches occur, they are usually widespread. What a morale killer to have a class steadily crafting a piece of writing all period and then getting an error screen when trying to save at the end of class. It hurts to look around the room and see 28 screens with the same error message. The MBC drive is great when it works, but you really can't count on it, unlike like Google Drive, now there's a cloud I trust.

Other drawbacks to My Big Campus include overly complicated assignment creation. A first time user will most likely need guidance from a more experienced user or to consult a tutorial video (thankfully there are plenty!) in order to set up and assign anything. Many teachers in my building have become fans of Bundles (collections of videos, resources, tasks, infinite options) on MBC, those who have the patience for the extensive set up.

My Big Campus is about to become a non-factor in learning management systems as it is scheduled to end in the summer of 2016. Heavy users of MBC should migrate their content to elsewhere this school year.

Edmodo

I like Edmodo for the poll feature, quizzes, Snapshot, apps launcher, and for student teachers.

The poll feature allows me to ask the class a question and then immediately charts the results as they come in. I use this for things that I used to request a show of hands for. Last year, I began using it for exit tickets. For example, I could ask students about their progress on a piece of writing, offering options like: planning, drafting, editing, done. I could then see at a glance what I needed to know to plan for the next day and students could gauge their progress against that of their peers. Any paperless exit ticket is better than a paper based one, but that's a whole separate article...

I love giving quizzes on Edmodo. My favorite feature is how students slide their options around for matching questions. Quizzes are a breeze to set up and quick and simple to assign, so quick and simple that I wait to push out a quiz to students until the moment they are ready- desks separated and quiet, instead of having the quiz pre-set up and waiting for them as they each log on at different paces. Students get to view their results immediately and I can view the grades at at glance, as well as an abundance of pretty color-coded data.

Snapshot is huge for Math and ELA. Teachers can assess and track the progress on each Common Core learning standard (and sub standard!) for each student, class, and entire population. By simply selecting specific standards, each student is assigned vetted (and rigorous!) Common Core aligned questions. Last year, I used the data gleaned from Snapshot to inform my SLO rather than the team benchmark.

I just started using the apps launcher, but I'm already very impressed. The apps launcher allows students access to sites often used separately, but through the apps launcher, the outside accounts are linked with their Edmodo accounts. For example, I planned to use NoRedInk this year with students and set up accounts on NoRedInk. Instead, students just go through the apps launcher on Edmodo to use NoRedInk. There are a variety of app options. If nothing else, it's one less login.

Since Edmodo is public and free, it's a great option for student teachers. Cooperating teachers don't have to share passwords and account access, which gets especially sticky when email and drives and accounts are meshed. Student teachers can set up their own classes, small groups, and special groups according to their objectives. They have complete control over how they present themselves and can manage anytime, anywhere, and from any device.

Students like the social media-esque  look of Edmodo. With that, the main page is a busy place, where students could get lost, but notifications help students see what pertains to them.

Edmodo works with Google Drive and gives students and teachers access to Office 365 tools when they are creating content on the site.

The drawbacks of Edmodo are few. Since it is public, some school filters may not allow access, especially at the elementary level.

Final Verdict

Who knows what LMS will be created next, but for now I'm glad that I'm not limited to just one. Google Classroom's simple features somehow allow for infinite options. Edmodo offers a wide variety of apps and features in a fun environment for free. It's time for My Big Campus to get out of the game, and apparently they agree, but in the meantime, I will hold class discussions there.

Projector Diet - The next step in taking full advantage of tech tools

I'm fortunate to have a mentor who says the things that are tough to hear, the things I most need to hear to become a more effective speaker, writer, and educator.

An innovator and a visionary, she experiences paradigm shifts and then plans strategies to essentially revolutionize my educational approaches and practices. She notices what isn't working and creates solutions. She notices what's working well and figures out how to take that to next level.

Usually her targets are archaic educational practices that are going unquestioned, accepted as the way things are done.

The backstory of my projector diet begins in June when my mentor popped her head in my door, looked around, and asked, "How attached are you to this space?" Just the fact that she was calling my assigned classroom a "space" let me know this was going to be big.

"Not at all. Why? What are you thinking?"

She wondered if I might want to go mobile with my classes next year and experiment with the ability to work out of various locations.

"Sign me up!"

The super supportive administrative team embraced the idea, brainstormed possibilities, and implemented the details.

It's the third week of school and I'm loving the simplicity brought about by internet access and the fun of working out of different rooms.

Like last year, when I first went paperless, everything my students' parents used to buy and my students used to carry around is online: docs, folders, binders, texts, highlighters, dictionaries, variety of writing implements, notecards and flashcards, etc. That list could go on and on!

Since the only need my students and I have is the internet, we can work out of any space - a science room, a tech lab, the auditorium, a gym, a hallway even. Actually, we don't even necessarily have to be together in one place at one time...but that's a whole other article.

Anyhow, what an education and a pleasure  to see up close the set ups and procedures my colleagues have in place! My students and I have sampled a small variety of rooms thus far and my new roommates have been welcoming, accommodating, and interested in my students' mobility options.

I wanted to make things as seamless as possible in the rooms my classes used. I realized the potential to cut into another teacher's class time if on back to back periods, we each needed to log on/off the classroom workstation hooked to the projector. Well that is simply unacceptable, with each teacher needing to make full use of each class period.

Neat solutions presented themselves immediately - a projector input splitter, a mini ultra portable projector to connect to any device, and the potential for wireless projection.

After giving projection options more thought, my tech mentor had ideas to share....

She started with something along the lines of that she was disappointed in us and that we were better than this. I've learned that with her, the heavier the opening constructive criticism, the bigger and better the idea or plan she has for me. So this is going to be good if she is "disappointed" in us!

She questioned why I was relying on a projector with all the tech tools available to me and my students. Further, she pointed out that acting like I needed to stand front and center and reference something on a single surface was perpetuating a model of education that was very 1800's.

Oh she's had another paradigm shift!
Immediately I saw the light. She was so right!

And she was already full of specific ideas: How about incorporating more Nearpod? How about a daily interactive agenda with links that could be posted on Google Classroom each day? 

She pointed out what a powerful, empowering, and useful resource it would be to make the daily agendas an ongoing doc where any student could reference any resource from any day of the year (and of course- anywhere, anytime, and from any device). Everything could be linked there- every assignment, survey, class discussion, text, video excerpt, quiz, form, exit ticket, everything! With YouTube access for students, there is no need to try to watch videos as a class again. Now each student can pause, rewind, replay, fast forward as needed, in addition to selecting the perfect lighting and sound levels.

This conversation took place mid-day. I changed stream immediately, adjusting my plans to enable going projector-less in my afternoon classes.

I agreed to go as projector-less as possible going forward.

Even so, I voiced a few erroneous exceptions...

"What about Kahoot!?" I asked. "My students love to Kahoot! I have to project for that."

"Check out Quizizz. It has all the info on the student devices."

"Ok, but what about open house?"

"You can Nearpod your presentation onto Chromebooks or iPads, and parents can even choose to join on their own devices."

She has all the answers! 

Thus my projector diet has begun...

The Transformative Role of Technology: New York Smart Schools Commission Report

A "heavy" document indeed, but a great read as far as reports go, I highly recommend the New York Smart Schools Commission Report to any tech integration enthusiast.


New York Smart Schools Commission Report

Peruse at least the first 20 pages for a great overview of the envisioned transformative role of technology in education going forward.

My favorite part is the framework of tech integration. 

See below or Doc pg 13, Scroll pg 15. 

Education is REDEFINED at the highest level of tech integration, where:

"Tech allows for the creation of new tasks previously inconceivable."

AND

"Technology profoundly alters all or part of the task/assignment, providing students with an enhanced educational experience."

Read more about the online learning movement:

Online Platforms Revolutionize Student Motivation and Engagement