Graphite - Get Ideas for #DLDay

With Digital Learning Day fast approaching, I wanted to share a website that may provide you with ideas for this years #DLDay.  The image above displays one review from the Graphite site, and it looks like Quandary didn't rate well from this teacher.

Graphite is one of the many free services from Common Sense Media.  The site works from crowdsourcing classroom ideas/reviews from teachers and has only been around since last summer when they were offering gift cards to provide a certain number of reviews.  As USA Today deemed it, Graphite is basically Yelp for teachers.

Graphite provides teachers with an overview and review of different apps, games, websites, and curricula for the classroom.  There is also a board feature to collect resources as you find them within Graphite.  The board feature will most likely appeal to Pinterest users.  This site lets teachers filter items fairly easily in order to locate instructional technology tools that work for their unique classrooms.

For more information head over to the Graphite website or if you have vetted Graphite let me know what you think of this site in the comment section below.  The following video does a fairly good job of describing the website and Graphite's mission.

Constructed Response - EdTech/Literacy Collaborative

If you even kind of follow my blog, you may have noticed that I have been sharing a few slides from quick after school sessions to support teachers literacy instruction with EdTech suggestions.  This week these slides share more tools than literacy methods because teachers have already developed an instructional plan to teach students how-to respond to text.

Here are some basic K-5 ideas to practice responding to a reading without paper.  You will find that I suggest the use of certain tools for a specified grade level range.  Nevertheless, this is merely a suggested range determined by my perception on ease-of-use and the devices being used within grade levels at my school district.  For instance, grades K-2 use iPads while grades 3-5 use MacBooks.  Consequently, I choose more iPad apps or web-based technologies that would work with iPads internet browsers.

Digital Learning Day - #DLDay

On February 5th, many schools across the nation are engaging with various educational technologies for Digital Learning Day (#DLDay).  Many classroom's engage in digital learning activities throughout the entire school year.  But, #DLDay provides districts, administrators, teachers, and students with a specific date to attempt to bring everyone on board.  Here is a student-made video overview from the #DLDay website.

Start Planning Now

The first thing you will have to do is start planning your activities, and there are many resources available with innumerable ideas for classroom teachers (i.e. planning webinar, Edmodo group, Teacher-created idea document).  Many Twitter chats are discussing ideas right now and there is value in watching from the sidelines, chiming in, or sharing ideas with hashtags like #INeLearn or #4thchat.  For more on hashtags, take a look at one of my old posts on using hashtags.

I meet many teachers that are reluctant to use social media like Twitter or Google+ for professional development, but there is a lot of value to listening to the inspirational teachers and what they are doing in the classroom around the country.  To quote the First Days of School by Harry Wong, developing a professional learning network of inspiring teachers (through the use of social media) provides for the perfect opportunity to "beg, borrow, and steal" ideas for the classroom.  Here are the archived chats from two recent educational hashtags #INeLearn and #4thchat on planning for #DLDay.

• #INeLearn 
• #4thchat 

Definitely watch the #DLDay hashtag on February 5th, and maybe leave it running in the background, while teaching.  Here is an interesting idea from +Theresa Shafer from last year's #DLDay.

If you cannot watch the live #DLDay stream, I would at least review the tweets from the day - as displayed within the archived Twitter streams from #INeLearn and #4thchat.  What are you planning on doing?  If you have a specific event that you would like to share on the Digital Learning Day website, you can do so here on the event signup page.

Take the Pledge 

After looking into #DLDay and planning an activity or entire days worth of activities, take the pledge.  This will allow you to announce your goal to "go digital" on the 5th and allow you preview the #DLDay website.  By signing up through the pledge page, you can opt to receive information about #DLDay.  Do you really have to take the pledge?  Not really.  But, I would just to make it your goal to follow through and become involved.

My Random Ideas for #DLDay 

1. Continue what you are doing in the classroom but add an EdTech piece to instruction/learning
2. Engage students in an online discussion throughout the day using Today's Meet backchannel
3. Create several Kahoots to engage students in the content being learned throughout the day
4. Blog about anything throughout the day (Kidblog)
5. QR scavenger hunt
6. Have students continue activities from the #hourofcode or 20 hours of code
7. Teach from Edmodo or another LMS
8. Have students record math lessons with EduCreations 
9. Use the Discovery Science Techbook
10. Use Bubbl.us for mind mapping activity
11. Use Padlet to promote online communication
12. Use Mural.ly to create information webpages with students
13. Pick an web-based application idea from the ICT Magic Wiki
14. Teach digital citizenship lessons - CommonSenseMedia, Digital Passport, Net Smartz, or NSTeens

Apple Ideas

1. Use Photo Booth to create video exit slips
2. Use Pages to create brochures reflecting on the days experience
3. Use Keynote to apply reading comprehension strategies narrated slideshow movie file
4. Use Numbers to create a science lab report or various graphs for data collection
5. Use iPhoto to create slideshows with text describing a concept being learned
6. Use iMovie to create short video to play while student reads a writing piece from writer's workshop 
7. Use GarageBand to record a group of students discussing the recent section they read in a book as a podcast
8. Engage students with digital storytelling apps on the iPad
9. Engage students with various creation apps

Google Ideas

1. Teach using Google Apps all day
2. Use Google Docs for classroom communication
• Use whole class shared documents,
• Group shared documents, and
• Individual documents shared with the teacher
3. Create a Google Slide (Presentation)
• Whole group, 
• Small group, or
• Individual
4. Use Google Forms to formatively assess students
5. Give students opportunity to write a post for your classroom blog
• Use a Google Doc to collect student writing
6. Build a Google Site for sharing classroom projects 
• Create informational Google Sites with students like a Wiki
7. Use Google Hangouts to connect to other classrooms or professionals
• Find a virtual fieldtrip from the Connected Classroom Google+ Community
8. Use Google Tour Builder

Overall 

What student-level, classroom-level, school-level, or district-level events do you want to create for Digital Learning Day?  Can we make these epic events?  Let's do this together!

Another Web Search Blog Post

Web searches are an overlooked skill that need to be taught to students.  The following video resources were retrieved from GoogleHelp YouTube channel.  If you have a YouTube account, I suggest following this channel as they come out with a lot helpful videos related to Google Products. These resources were compiled here in order to provide help with Google Searches and can be good tips to share with students.  The first video shared above all of the rest is a basic set of tips that can provide help for any search.

Basic Search Tips

Specific Search Tips

The next set of videos are more specific search tips.  They are extremely short and straightforward, which is exactly what I like to see in a YouTube video.  I'm not a big fan of watching videos that are over ten minutes on YouTube.  For me YouTube is my quick and dirty way to learn something.  I say dirty because sometimes multiple videos have to be used and sped up to find exactly what you need sometimes.  Even though you might have to weed through a few bad videos from time to time, YouTube is still one of the fastest ways to learn a difficult skill that couldn't be learned through tinkering.

Ideas and Techniques

Although this document, which I believe was created by +Richard Byrne, provides a list of search techniques to try that will make a "Google Search Star," there aren't many examples displayed here.  The second tip has a video associated with it, but the other techniques do not.  That's where I challenge you to locate someone demonstrating these techniques on YouTube.  Use YouTubes search bar and locate the reading level filter.  Or if you are like me, try it first and then seek help from YouTube.  

The #Gamification of Education #Infographic

The Gamification of Education 

I wish I created the following Infographic, but regretfully I didn't.  Scanning through this infographic is a great gateway into the the concept of gamification.  To start, here are a couple gamification definitions to keep you in the loop:

1. "Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems." Gabb Zichermann and Wikipedia 
2. "Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging."  Gamification Wiki

Everyone loves games!  I will say it again.  Everyone loves games, but they might not all like video games.  Games are just fun, and create pleasureful chemical reactions within our nervous systems.

Nevertheless, since I was a kid in the 80s, video games have been getting a bad rap.  Not until I read the book Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal (TED Talk), did I feel proud to be a gamer. I've always had this in-the-closet mentality about my video game play--especially as a teacher. Teachers didn't ask in the teacher's lounge, and I didn't tell them.  However, rather than discredit video games' value or claim they are the reason behind unmotivated students, try to see the value in using existing video games or game elements in the classroom.  Heck, why not start to play video games yourself or better yet try to make your own basic video games through online platforms like: Scratch, GameStar Mechanic, or Spolder.

It's probably safe to assume that many teachers have used some type of game to promote learning.  The use of games for learning isn't really anything new and neither is video gaming in the classroom (i.e. Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego).  As a teacher, I have been gamifying (to a degree) non-game systems within the classroom for a while.  But, we haven't always been using the types of games near and dear to students' hearts.  For instance, Jeopardy PowerPoints created to review the concepts before a test are cool and all, but what student cares or even knows the Jeopardy theme anymore.  Most of the time, games within the classroom are arbitrary instances that are temporary solutions for engaging students.  I would like to see students engaged within a gamified learning system that occurs regularly.

The idea of using Game Elements, Game Design, and/or Games for Learning within the classroom, isn't a completely new concept, but has been intriguing me for the last two years.  I have always employed the use of games for learning, but I can always become a better classroom "game designer." If you want to join me in implementing game elements within the classroom, feel free to book a time with me to plan an on-going project.  If you aren't privileged to work with me on a regular basis (JJ), please comment with any Gamification ideas you have below.  Hopefully this infographic inspires some ideas for the classroom and/or makes you want to learn more about Games and Learning.

Two Questions  

1. How can we add game elements (especially from video games) into the classroom on a more regular basis?  
2. What other opportunities are there for gamifying classroom activities?  

 
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