Technology does not always cooperate.
After a championship season coaching high school boys' soccer, I used all my post-season free time to create a slideshow using photographs taken by a talented senior who made it out to many of our games. I inserted 250+ action shots into an Apple Keynote presentation that I would turn into a self-playing slideshow with transitions between slides set to the beat of my hand-picked audio. Aside from my incessant analytical tendencies regarding sequence and sizing of the photos and recording the audio and transitions, the process seemed to go smoothly. I finished the Friday before our Monday awards night...or so I thought. Sunday evening my wife asked to see the completed recording, and when I played it back in its entirety, the show didn't work past 29 seconds. The next 24 hours felt like a mad dash to solve the problem before I would show it to the guys and their families.
Over time I have learned a few lessons about the problems that are sure to arise when using tech, in education, or really anywhere.
Always Have a Plan B
With all the things that could go wrong (the downloading, the uploading, the app crashing, the bandwidth overload, etc.), something will probably go wrong. Trying out first what you want students to do is so important; however, I've fallen prey to "winging it" with something I think I understand. There may be an update that makes it confusing for you to demo in front of the students. Or there simply may be a missing piece that you, well, missed. Have a back up plan. In my classes, I like to have some longer term project running in the background. That way, you can just say, "Well, it looks like we're blogging today!" or, "We can work on our poster presentations instead." My Plan B for my slideshow was to show the video recording silently through the computer while listening to the playlist from my iPhone.
Search the Message Boards
I don't know about you, but I tend to randomly come up with what I think would be great inventions. Wouldn't you know it that when I look into if my great idea would be plausible, I see that somebody's already invented it! The same is often true of problems that arise. It will be rare that you are the very first person to have the problem with your tech. Get on the Google train and research it out. Begin generally with your search, and you'll see what other people have been posting. Look for a question similar to yours and read what answers were given. Interestingly, I found that people were talking about the Keynote presentations recordings losing audio at 29 seconds, the same exact timing issue I was dealing with. In the end, even though I had to dig through the Apple support pages with the proper key terms, this is what solved my audio issue.
Sleep On It
I racked my brains toward insanity to solve the problem with the tech. Somehow we think that we can do the same thing over and over and get a different result. Realize that the problem likely will not get solved when you're in a frustrated mindset and unable to think of a creative alternative. It is at that point that you should just go to bed and try again tomorrow. I'm not saying you won't dream about it, but at least your brain will be rested enough the next day to start fresh. When I could not solve the problem with my Keynote on Sunday night, I finally went to bed and had new energy and a fresh look in the morning.
Stick With It
I feel like there are many students these days who do not stay with a problematic situation long enough to make progress. Persistence must be modeled, a sort of "stick-to-it-iveness" that my college professors always talked about. I'm often tempted to give up, but understanding that a failed attempt can lead to greater success later is a great motivator. I didn't have a chance to give up on my slideshow since I had previously told everybody it would be ready for Monday night. Without knowing it, I had forced myself to stick with it by advertising it ahead of time.
Stay Calm
I will often say to my students, "Relax." Giving in to panic just unleashes a whole lot of chaos. Take a breath and think it through logically. It's another trick in allowing your mind to solve the problem effectively. With my slideshow, I have to admit there were a few "arrgghhs" and balled fists along the way. After crossing my fingers and then running into the same problem, I gave in to frustration. But I was able to turn around and try again.
Ask an Expert
Chances are you know somebody more tech savvy than yourself. The thing about technology, though, is that there are so many different spheres. Try to find somebody who has experience with the particular problem you are trying to solve. When you don't know somebody who can help, search online--there's likely a message board or help topic listed somewhere. I talked to somebody from church who has experience with Apple products. I texted him and he offered to help me out, though I solved the problem before I met with him about it.
The Problem is Part of the Process
Take solace in the reality that running into problems with technology is just how it works. There are times when you will need to use your plan B or plan C, or even scrap the whole project because of time constraints. But more often than not, there's a fix for the issue, and if you go in with a patient attitude, you will figure out a way to solve the problem. Patience and persistence pays off. With my slideshow, I figured my Plan B (silent video and separate audio) would work for that evening, but I knew I wanted to present a stand-alone presentation that included motivating audio that would create the right atmosphere for our end-of-season soccer shindig. I stuck with it and realized again that the process allowed me to find ways NOT to solve the problem, which in essence led me to the solution.
When my slideshow finally worked as planned, the feeling of satisfaction was immense. Listening the my soccer players' reactions to their action shots--along with the music I had worked so hard to include--brought me great joy. In the end I had learned to roll with the punches, and I think I'm a better person for it. Our students need to learn to stick with a problem until completion, within reason. For them to feel the satisfaction and joy when they conquer the uncooperative technology (or really any problematic situation) will mold them into our persistent problem solvers of the future.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Musings from Fall CUE-with presenter links!
Fall CUE 2014. It was my first CUE conference--what a whirlwind! 10 sessions and 2 keynotes in 2 days. And no raffles won...oh well. I want to share some of my thoughts on each activity I attended, some semi-deep, some not so much. Maybe it'll be helpful for you; just skip the sections you don't need. The links will take you to the presentations or resources each presenter created for you!
The Great iPad vs Chromebook Showdown - 2014 with Jon Corippo and Chris Scott
It really comes down to preference. If we are teaching the students the presentation and not simply the technology, it really doesn't matter which one you use. iPad has lots of stuff. Chromebook has a good amount, too. If your school is 1:1, check your budget, make a choice, and enjoy learning how to incorporate the tech to deepen your content.
The Hour of Awesome with Sergio Villegas
We crammed into a classroom and heard many tips and tricks for teacher efficiency. We were encouraged to take away a few things that we could incorporate into our normal routine right away. The link below is to Sergio's resources. One thing I noted and have used since the conference is to share a folder from my school Google Apps account to my personal account. I had been frustrated with being able to only log in to one Google account per browser, but with a shared folder I can access many of my school files right on my personal Google Drive. Simple yet amazing!
Bit.ly/hourofawesome
Why I Love My (Google) Classroom with Lisa Nowakowski
Being relatively new to Google Apps for Education, I wanted to see how this whole Google Classroom thing worked. I enjoyed Lisa's energy, and she was able to walk us through how to get set up with Classroom. I introduced this to my sixth grade Language Arts students a few weeks back, and we plan to use it for the rest of the year. It's super-slick and pretty easy to understand, as is most everything Google. My students will begin writing their documents after viewing the assignment instructions in Google Classroom. They "turn in" their assignment to me, which gives me ownership, I check it, comment, and "return" it to them, which gives them back ownership. They can make changes and begin the process over. Fun stuff!
http://classroom.nowatechie.com/
The Wonderful World of Student Blogging with Travis Phelps
I attended this session because of some contact I had with Travis on Twitter about blogging, and I really just wanted to see what somebody else was doing with student blogging. Travis was spot on with his philosophy and encouraged us to set up a philosophy of our own before we started having our students simply throw ideas out into cyberspace. I set my student blogging up very carefully, and it was nice to see that he was as careful about it as I was. Some ways to use blogging in your class that we discussed in this session include genius hour, role playing, plain old writing, book reviews, and reflections. I've written a lot about my own student blogging experiences in my other posts.
http://bit.ly/PhelpsBlogging
Make Every Minute Count - Quality Instruction Using the Flipped Model with Lisa Highfill
This session was a great reminder for me to spend less time presenting in front of the class while allowing more time for students to create and explore. If I could curate video for the students to engage in at home, class time could be spent taking learning further with student activity, which is where the real learning occurs.
http://goo.gl/n1DdLp
Opening Keynote with Lucien Vattel
The founder of Game Desk offered us a huge free platform called Educade.org which includes free open source materials to use in our classes. Lucien Vattel stated that this was the "lowest hanging fruit" available to us as educators. I'm excited to explore what's available as we work with what already motivates students and add in these mechanics to our classrooms.
Stop Teaching and Start Learning with Diane Main and Karl Lindren-Streicher
If you've ever been involved in a Twitter Chat, this session was designed just like one of those, except we were all in the same room in a circular arrangement. The presenters had questions prepared for us to discuss, and the focus was on giving students ownership over their own education, encouraging them to do the work as we guide them along.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JRNAw4WPttmtTqkl9dJr6fNN_LuGlUmzbJamQfPJqp4/edit
YOU...Are the Infinite Thinking Machine with Mike Lawrence and Bill Selak
Another packed classroom found me in a corner, back against the wall. I wanted to experience the brains behind the show The Infinite Thinking Machine. The creators of the show shared some cool new tech with us in the form of the Pixton program, where teachers could have students create comics to tell a story or to report information. Again, I was reminded how important it is to get the students to create. Among other things, they showed us the latest unpublished episode on mystery skyping "hot off the press". It was a good time.
3D Printing in the Classroom with Christine Mytko
This session blew my mind! I have little to no experience with 3D printing, so what I saw in this session seemed way over my head. I felt like I stepped in to something beyond an intro college course on my first day as a freshman. As I tried to keep up with all the printing terminology, I realized that beginning 3D printing in the classroom wasn't that tough, especially with the price-drops in 3D printers these days. I also learned that a great group to be a part of was K12 FabLabs.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ye4XmaQzzjL_1l09S1eG-cm5Y667jMpmqkjsjpZQvxM/edit#slide=id.p
Level Up! - Classroom Gamification for even the Non-Gamer with Megan Ellis
This was by far my favorite session. Megan Ellis had set up a gamified classroom and shared with us how she did it and what her students' reactions were. As you can probably guess, it works really well for middle school aged boys, which is a huge part of my own target audience. Megan shared terrific resources and ideas to use in any classroom, elementary to high school.
https://sites.google.com/site/meganroseellis/gamification
The (Google) Classroom of the Future with Will Kimbley
I hit my second Google Classroom session, thinking from the title that it would be how Google was structuring Classroom for the future. It ended up being another walk-through, but I enjoyed listening to another person's interpretation of how to use it. And it was a great motivator for me to incorporate it as soon as I could.
https://sites.google.com/site/willkimbley/google-apps
Closing Keynote with Diana Laufenberg
Ms. Laufenberg brought the audience to their feet at the end of her inspiring talk. Early on, she hit on the way information has changed, especially since the rise of the Internet. She shared that an "Information Deficit shifted to Information Surplus". She said that even though the whole reason for school changed, our classrooms did not. A few more slides in her presentation stated: "We need to shift our expectations for the work from 'what do you know' to 'what can you do with what you know?'" Diana Laufenberg spoke matter-of-factly about changing education and then posed some great ideas and instances of how this could be done. Again, the role of the teacher must change and students need to be given greater autonomy. Laufenberg said learning should be experiential and creative, and we need to allow our students to take charge of their own learning, with well-designed activities directed by teachers.
https://sites.google.com/site/fallcuelauf/creating-the-classrooms-keynote
That was Fall CUE for me. I grabbed a lot of information I haven't even attempted to incorporate into my teaching yet, but as the year goes on, I look forward to trying new things and allowing students to try new things as well.
The Great iPad vs Chromebook Showdown - 2014 with Jon Corippo and Chris Scott
It really comes down to preference. If we are teaching the students the presentation and not simply the technology, it really doesn't matter which one you use. iPad has lots of stuff. Chromebook has a good amount, too. If your school is 1:1, check your budget, make a choice, and enjoy learning how to incorporate the tech to deepen your content.
The Hour of Awesome with Sergio Villegas
We crammed into a classroom and heard many tips and tricks for teacher efficiency. We were encouraged to take away a few things that we could incorporate into our normal routine right away. The link below is to Sergio's resources. One thing I noted and have used since the conference is to share a folder from my school Google Apps account to my personal account. I had been frustrated with being able to only log in to one Google account per browser, but with a shared folder I can access many of my school files right on my personal Google Drive. Simple yet amazing!
Bit.ly/hourofawesome
Why I Love My (Google) Classroom with Lisa Nowakowski
Being relatively new to Google Apps for Education, I wanted to see how this whole Google Classroom thing worked. I enjoyed Lisa's energy, and she was able to walk us through how to get set up with Classroom. I introduced this to my sixth grade Language Arts students a few weeks back, and we plan to use it for the rest of the year. It's super-slick and pretty easy to understand, as is most everything Google. My students will begin writing their documents after viewing the assignment instructions in Google Classroom. They "turn in" their assignment to me, which gives me ownership, I check it, comment, and "return" it to them, which gives them back ownership. They can make changes and begin the process over. Fun stuff!
http://classroom.nowatechie.com/
The Wonderful World of Student Blogging with Travis Phelps
I attended this session because of some contact I had with Travis on Twitter about blogging, and I really just wanted to see what somebody else was doing with student blogging. Travis was spot on with his philosophy and encouraged us to set up a philosophy of our own before we started having our students simply throw ideas out into cyberspace. I set my student blogging up very carefully, and it was nice to see that he was as careful about it as I was. Some ways to use blogging in your class that we discussed in this session include genius hour, role playing, plain old writing, book reviews, and reflections. I've written a lot about my own student blogging experiences in my other posts.
http://bit.ly/PhelpsBlogging
Make Every Minute Count - Quality Instruction Using the Flipped Model with Lisa Highfill
This session was a great reminder for me to spend less time presenting in front of the class while allowing more time for students to create and explore. If I could curate video for the students to engage in at home, class time could be spent taking learning further with student activity, which is where the real learning occurs.
http://goo.gl/n1DdLp
Opening Keynote with Lucien Vattel
The founder of Game Desk offered us a huge free platform called Educade.org which includes free open source materials to use in our classes. Lucien Vattel stated that this was the "lowest hanging fruit" available to us as educators. I'm excited to explore what's available as we work with what already motivates students and add in these mechanics to our classrooms.
Stop Teaching and Start Learning with Diane Main and Karl Lindren-Streicher
If you've ever been involved in a Twitter Chat, this session was designed just like one of those, except we were all in the same room in a circular arrangement. The presenters had questions prepared for us to discuss, and the focus was on giving students ownership over their own education, encouraging them to do the work as we guide them along.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JRNAw4WPttmtTqkl9dJr6fNN_LuGlUmzbJamQfPJqp4/edit
YOU...Are the Infinite Thinking Machine with Mike Lawrence and Bill Selak
Another packed classroom found me in a corner, back against the wall. I wanted to experience the brains behind the show The Infinite Thinking Machine. The creators of the show shared some cool new tech with us in the form of the Pixton program, where teachers could have students create comics to tell a story or to report information. Again, I was reminded how important it is to get the students to create. Among other things, they showed us the latest unpublished episode on mystery skyping "hot off the press". It was a good time.
3D Printing in the Classroom with Christine Mytko
This session blew my mind! I have little to no experience with 3D printing, so what I saw in this session seemed way over my head. I felt like I stepped in to something beyond an intro college course on my first day as a freshman. As I tried to keep up with all the printing terminology, I realized that beginning 3D printing in the classroom wasn't that tough, especially with the price-drops in 3D printers these days. I also learned that a great group to be a part of was K12 FabLabs.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ye4XmaQzzjL_1l09S1eG-cm5Y667jMpmqkjsjpZQvxM/edit#slide=id.p
Level Up! - Classroom Gamification for even the Non-Gamer with Megan Ellis
This was by far my favorite session. Megan Ellis had set up a gamified classroom and shared with us how she did it and what her students' reactions were. As you can probably guess, it works really well for middle school aged boys, which is a huge part of my own target audience. Megan shared terrific resources and ideas to use in any classroom, elementary to high school.
https://sites.google.com/site/meganroseellis/gamification
The (Google) Classroom of the Future with Will Kimbley
I hit my second Google Classroom session, thinking from the title that it would be how Google was structuring Classroom for the future. It ended up being another walk-through, but I enjoyed listening to another person's interpretation of how to use it. And it was a great motivator for me to incorporate it as soon as I could.
https://sites.google.com/site/willkimbley/google-apps
Closing Keynote with Diana Laufenberg
Ms. Laufenberg brought the audience to their feet at the end of her inspiring talk. Early on, she hit on the way information has changed, especially since the rise of the Internet. She shared that an "Information Deficit shifted to Information Surplus". She said that even though the whole reason for school changed, our classrooms did not. A few more slides in her presentation stated: "We need to shift our expectations for the work from 'what do you know' to 'what can you do with what you know?'" Diana Laufenberg spoke matter-of-factly about changing education and then posed some great ideas and instances of how this could be done. Again, the role of the teacher must change and students need to be given greater autonomy. Laufenberg said learning should be experiential and creative, and we need to allow our students to take charge of their own learning, with well-designed activities directed by teachers.
https://sites.google.com/site/fallcuelauf/creating-the-classrooms-keynote
That was Fall CUE for me. I grabbed a lot of information I haven't even attempted to incorporate into my teaching yet, but as the year goes on, I look forward to trying new things and allowing students to try new things as well.
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