Review and Reactions: Tech and Blended Learning @ P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School's

I noticed that PK Yonge School's model of blended learning and highly integrated technology were featured on edutopia--and what a great and inspiring model it is.

Here are some of my reactions and what I noticed, both in reviewing this promotional video and other media items on the school's site:

1. Students review lessons through teacher screencasts, students apply their own understanding by developing their own screencasts, and a fair amount of teacher intervention/instruction is seamlessly integrated.

2. Students use a variety of hardware and tech media to realize learning: laptops, home computers, iPads, and smartboards.

3. Students still insist on keeping the teacher on-line, as it were, both in the classroom and beyond (through screencasts).

4. While the video features a math/science HS classroom, I could imagine something very similar in the humanities in which students review key skills, prepare readings and presentations for teachers and peers, and collaborate in focused ways towards goal- and standards-focused projects.

5. And as a writing intensive/workshop-oriented teacher, I'm inclined to explore this model further: I already pursue the flipped model of applied writing in the classroom, and pre-writing/revision at home. Journaling, Outlining, and even Drafting generally happen in my classroom anyhow, I would just need to continue to flip the model in a more sustained and integrated way.

6. I imagine that this would demand lengthy prep to translate materials for my classroom into screencasts and (generally speaking) independent/standalone materials, though I do think that one of the next steps is to get over the screencast hurdle and see if I can run a week of school in such a radically flipped manner (i.e. take myself out of the "live" picture in the classroom and assign students to watch screencasts for homework, followed by applied work in the classroom).

7. This is entirely unrelated, but I love the idea of high schoolers designing lessons to teach elementary school students. I think that they could absolutely do this and learn much about the trans-disciplinary work needed for good teaching: scaffolding knowledge (architecture), anticipating goals for understanding (pedagogy), translating their own knowledge into that of a different developmental stage (psychology)!

Here's the video in full. For more videos and testimonials, check out the school's media site here.

How do you annotate student writing? Exploring solutions for Haiku and iPad Apps

This post focuses entirely on the challenges and possibilities for annotating on the iPad in both the Haiku and iPad app environment. As an English teacher, this is a central and regular task for receiving, annotating, grading, and returning student work--so developing workable solutions for this aspect of my job is a strong priority.

Before iPads:

• Student work was paperless on Haiku
• Annotations were added using Haiku's somewhat awkward annotation system
• Annotated and graded student writing were returned via Haiku
• The interface was a PC (keyboard, mouse, etc)
• Advantages of Haiku annotations
• I type faster and far clearer than I hand-write
• I enjoy the centralized aspect of Haiku grading. All feedback is kept in the assignment gradebook, and all grades on each assignment are automatically inputted into my Haiku gradebook.
• Haiku annotations seem faster than downloading and/or printing work and grading through a different medium (word's track comments, hand grading/scanning/uploading, etc.)
• Disadvantages:
• Haiku grading is slow--it is not, in any form, a track comments interface. I don't quite understand why this must be the case, but one must click on an assignment, click on a student, and then click to annotate/grade. Then, once grading, one has to click on the pdf and insert each comment as a little "notch" in the document. 
• Visually, Haiku annotation is unconventional and generally misaligned with general teacher goals and processes: it doesn't offer a clear path for simplifying or encoding comments without even more clicking.
• For students, Haiku annotations are difficult to view unless they download the document as a pdf and then open it in a pdf reader

Basically, Haiku is the most efficient way, but it is the most work-intensive and least logical and aesthetically pleasing medium for teachers to generate and students to access. Given the disadvantages, I'm excited to explore alternatives for the ipad. I've found a handful of free apps that allow for easy annotations on pdf docs. Here's what I've found:

• TinyPDF: an excellent medium for easily downloading from Haiku, scrawling or typing on a pdf, and then sending it back through the Haiku dropbox.
• Textilus: a far more limited app for annotating (in its free version) that has comparable functionality as TinyPDF.

I tried both for annotating student work. And then I realized: I gave up on writing on student papers years ago. It's too work intensive to scrawl tailored comments, and I have terrible hand-writing. I embraced Haiku's annotation system for this very reason. Sure, I could type comments on a pdf in either app, but I might as well just use Haiku's integrated interface to accomplish that. 

What I'd like to do next is explore an app that is built to for teachers' annotations of student writing, something that mimics, in some way, a more robust track comments environment--or that at least has a clear library of pre-set and standardized comments. 

Again, the biggest issue for an English teacher is time. Teachers want to give meaningful feedback, but with 80 student papers, they can't afford to spend time downloading, uploading, and dealing with the glitches or quirks of an annotation environment (it's likely for this reason that many teachers still stick with the paper and pen model!). Haiku is still the most efficient model for me, the grader, even if it is the clunkiest visual model for students. I also have a hunch that I should be harnessing Haiku's integration of turnitin.com for turnitin's built-in rubric features--this may kill 2 birds with one stone, too. 

Next Steps:

• Explore turnitin.com rubrics feature for standards-based grading (right now I design my own rubrics for each assignment and then paste the rubric into each comments section on Haiku)
• Explore apps designed for annotating and grading that aren't just the free ones available in itunes. At first glance
• TagNotate: Allows for annotation and assigned tags (removes need to rewrite "comma splice")
• PDFReader: This might just work--it has fantastic features: drag over text (for highlight, underline, squiggly one, cross out), voice comments, and easy bubble comments. I'm especially interested in trialing spoken comments this year, as I think that may, in fact, be the most efficient and meaningful way to give student feedback.
• GoodReader: A fun interface that allows for multiple forms of annotation types (this seems to be its particular strength)
• Readers, what annotation apps do you use in your English classrooms? Again, please offer apps that streamline student feedback in a meaningful way--and that reduce teacher redundancy and maximize teacher efficiency and productivity.

Distillation: Some Reflections on iPad Integration (thus far)

As I wrote in my first post, my classroom was a paper-less, Haiku-based classroom prior to iPad integration.

Thus, while I've challenged myself in this blog to develop iPad-specific classroom and homework experiences, I've decided to shape my inquiry to maximize my own efficiency and avoid redundancy. Thus, I've set a few guiding principles for my own goal-setting as I embark on this journey:

• An iPad at every desk means that each student has a word processor, internet, and a working video recorder/camera at a moment's notice. That's great!

• If transitioning from one digital medium to another is redundant--and the benefit of interface does not outdo the cost of redundancy and time loss--then I will stay with the original medium.

With that said, I think that it's a time-saver to have a device that can immediately transition on/off (as opposed to a chromebook in a school cart). Just today, I had students work on membean.com, respond to others' discussion board posts, and still have plenty of time to transition back to a writing/seminar class setting.

First Week Review : Looking Forward and Further Questions

This week was a truncated week at SAR HS; in what follows, I review what happened and clarify some open questions to be pursued over the next week or so:

In the classroom:

• Vocabulary Instruction: Students were introduced to membean.com, a portal for differentiated and "guided, engaging, multimodal vocabulary instruction". I'm excited to further students along the membean path and monitor the progress, as well as roll out differentiated quizzes along the way.

• Classroom Journal: Students must keep a classroom journal and were encouraged to use a google doc, a notability file, or a journal app. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, and I stressed student choice along the way: google docs are easy to share, but don't allow for drawing within the app; notability allows for typing and drawing (a tablet strength), but is a slightly steeper learning curve than a simple google doc; journal apps are really fun and highly personalized, but each has its own method for exporting and sharing (I check students' journals periodically over the course of the year).

• Haiku Discussion Boards: Students submitted their first discussion board posts through some training and introduction to the interface. I plan on using discussion boards as preparatory activities or extensions of classroom conversations, and I'm excited for students to engage with one another in a professional though somewhat more conversational matter in this medium.

On my end:

• Annotation on the iPad: As an iPad newbie, I think that one of the strengths of its interface is its tablet nature (i.e. the ability to actually write within one's hand on a document). I'd like to optimize that feature this year in my written feedback to student work, though without too much shuffling In the past, I've used Haiku's clunky annotation system, so I hope to trial some annotation apps over the next week or so for actual, written feedback onto student documents. For it to work, it will have to move somewhat seamlessly out of and back into the Haiku portal.

• Prezi: I've solved the Prezi mirroring question--I can now mirror and cycle through a Prezi presentation with my iPad as projected onto the Smartboard. I plan on using this system for back-to-school night presentations next week.

• Smartboard Notebook: I plan on tweeting directly at Smartboard to inquire about the lack of a "full screen" option on the smartboard iPad app. As I mentioned previously, the app is robust and syncs with Google Drive (the location for all my Smartboard files). This will simplify my "drawing" on the smartboard, too, if I can do it via iPad mirroring. 

All in all, a great week, though with some glitches (see my previous posts). I rolled out membean, though students struggled with signing on at first (the correct website is membean.com/enroll!). I used a Prezi to review classroom procedures, but I couldn't mirror via the iPad until it was too late. And I used my Smartboard files for classroom activities/homework announcements, but I didn't use the iPad app. 

To be continued....

Day One: Google Classroom, Smartboard App, and Prezi - Trouble Along the Way

It's Day One! It feels great to be back in it again.

Background: Day One in Mr. Broder's 9th Grade English

I like to start to get to know the students through writing and a bit of discussion for a whole set of reasons (start with the routines of the class through performance, let the students voice their thoughts about the summer reading, identify different sorts of learners, etc.).

Narrative: What Happened

While my class is paper-less, I gave the students the option, on the first day, to "hand-write" their first responses. Those who were inclined to join and log-on to my class on Google Classroom were able to access the assignment through a Google Classroom assignment. They weren't, however, able to edit the document.  Those who were savvy were able to copy and paste onto a google doc and then return it to me. Others had much trouble with every step along the way: adding a class on Google Classroom, accessing the assignment, etc. It was fine for a trial run, but perhaps a confusing experience for Day 1 of class. Most students hand-wrote their assignments. Finally, I demo'd my Haiku page, but it shut down (servers overloaded on Day One?). I'll have to think carefully about how to introduce students to all features in Haiku, as the class is paper-less and primarly through Haiku portal.

Post-Script: What Didn't Happen

I had wanted to show them my daily classroom slides (off of Smartboard and Prezi) with the corresponding apps but encountered the following issues, too, in my prep time before class:

• I couldn't make the Smarboard app go full-screen--is that a glitch in the app? I can do it from the software on my classroom computer.
• I was able to mirror my Prezi presentation on the smartboard, but I couldn't toggle through each slide in any obvious way. Why not? I just use the buttons on my computer when projecting from a PC--how is there not a comparable feature for the iPad app?

Take Away: For Next Time

• Figure out how to make docs in Google Classroom editable upon student reception. Was it because I used a word doc and not a google doc? Yes, I think. 
• Smartboard App--I can't believe that it doesn't have a full screen feature! I also discovered that it has Google Drive integration, which is amazing, as all my files are on Drive. If I can get the full screen feature, then I'm sold. 
• Prezi--I've got to figure out how to work it on the iPad app. There must be a way to mirror the Prezi slide feel.