Blog Posts

March Toward Effective Instructional Practices with Technology

3/1/2019

Have you ever wondered what really makes a difference in student learning? Over a decade ago John Hattie released Visible Learning, as an attempt to get at educational efficacy. Hattie looked at factors from student home life to teacher preparation programs and developed an effect size for each of these factors. The effect size can be calculated as such:

The meta-analysis showed that the average effect size was .4, so, thus, anything with an effect size of over .4 is considered to be positively contributing to student growth in the zone of desired effects - the “hinge point”.

But how do these instructional practices translate to a tech-rich classroom environment? This month we will be exploring high effect size instructional strategies and how to incorporate technology into those high effect size instructional strategies. The strategies that we will be featuring this month include:

March 4th: Questioning (.68 effect size)
March 11th: Jigsaw Method (1.2 effect size)
March 18th: Reciprocal Teaching (.74 effect size)
March 25th: Concept Mapping (.64 effect size)

So flip that calendar and get ready to get your March on!

~Gina Rogers
~Mindy Cairney
Digital Learning Consultants

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Getting Started With Tour Creator

3/1/2019

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An night scene of Big Ben and the houses of parliament in London, England

If you've been mesmerized by the virtual tours in Google Expeditions and have wondered about creating your own, then Google's Tour Creator is exactly what you need. Tour Creator makes it easy to build immersive 360 degree tours on the web with a Mac, PC, Chromebook or iOS device. Viewers can watch your tour on the web, on a mobile device, or in a VR headset, and if you sign in to Tour Creator with the same account you use for Google Expeditions, you can even lead your students through your VR tour via the Expeditions app!

From Consumer to Creator

When Google Expeditions first came out, it wowed us with its immersive views of locations all around the world. Well crafted tours that include multimedia elements and good probing questions help involve students in the learning, but the logical next step was to move from consuming tours to creating tours.

Tour Creator is a web-based VR tool that gives you that ability. You can access it by visiting, vr.google.com/tourcreator. Teachers can log in with their school Google accounts, however, it is not part of the core tools provided by G Suite for Education, so when creating tours with students, it is probably best used with kids aged 13 or over.

How to Create with Tour Creator

Once you login you can choose to create a new tour from scratch, or to build a tour from one of Google's template tours. The templates give you a better idea of what a finished tour looks like, but if you've used Google Expeditions before, you will already have a good sense of what a completed tour looks like, so don't be afraid of starting from scratch. Here's how it works.

Upload a cover image, and add a title, description and category for your tour.
Add a scene. Search Google Maps for a Street View image or upload a 360 image of your own. Add a title and add any notes, questions or talking points to the description box.
Include Audio. If you want you can upload an ambient audio track to help people experience your scene as if they were there. You can also add an audio narration to help describe the scene. Both are optional, but if you are interested, simply upload an MP3 file as required.
Points of Interest. You can add additional information to a scene with points of interest. All you do is click the points of interest button on the right-hand sidebar and then add a title and a description. You can add an image overlay and/or an audio description for each one you add.
Publish. When you are done, hit the Publish button and choose whether you want your tour to be public on the web, or unlisted (anyone with the link can access). Tours are published to Google Poly where you can view your tour or share to social media, grab an embed code, or use in Google Expeditions.

Screenshot of the Tour Creator editor showing a scene at the Google Campus in California

5 Top Tips for Tour Creator

To use a Tour Creator tour on Google Expeditions, connect your Android guide device to Wi-Fi and the tour will automatically appear in your My Tours Library on the latest version of the Expeditions app. Hopefully this feature will come to iOS too, but right now it is Android only.
Set a starting view for each scene by clicking the button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Click and drag around the image to choose what you want students to see when they first view each scene, and think about ways to use this to your advantage!
Use a 360 camera like the Ricoh Theta to capture your own images for use in Tour Creator. If you are a school in the Grant Wood area, you can borrow one of our cameras. Contact us!
Joli Boucher recommends using the YouTube Audio Library to find ambient music for your tour. Grant Wood AEA schools can also use Soundzabound. You can see more royalty free music options are here.
To edit a tour after you have published it, log in to Tour Creator and click on the tour to open it. Next, choose the scene you want to edit and click Publish to update and save your changes.

If you are interested in learning more about Tour Creator or want to explore different ways on how to involve your students in virtual or augmented reality experiences, please get in touch!

Jonathan Wylie | Digital Learning Consultant | Grant Wood AEA | @jonathanwylie

Don’t Be Afraid of Creativity!

2/25/2019

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Picture of man hiding. Text: Don't be afraid of creativity.

Gina: You know the feeling...the sweaty palms, the swampy armpits, the pit in your stomach that arises when someone says, “Just be creative.” I know that when someone tells me to be creative I think, “Great, I have to dust off the old markers and make a poster” or “Time to build that diorama”. But is that really all there is to creativity?

Amber: Mental Note: figure out a different way to encourage Gina to be creative.

Gina: Leave me alone - my creativity is expressed in the written word.

Amber: I see this a lot. It’s very easy to say, “I’m not creative.” And then it’s an easy out to not engage with the creative process. It is easy to fear creativity, but I encourage to lean away from that fear. When you are creative, it is hard to hide yourself. But, just think of all the ways we are creative. Your prior knowledge, the ways to solve a problem are out there for the world to see within what you create.

Gina: And, it is super scary. When being creative there is always an end product, something that is on display. Whether it is the new gallery wall that you created in your dining room or the new workflow process that you created to encourage students to collaborate in your classroom, the end product is out there for everyone to see...and judge.

Amber: The judgment can be intimidating. We live in a world of ‘likes’ and comments. Sometimes comments can feel threatening. Yet, when we create, even simple things it helps to make you feel alive. The reward of creating needs to be viewed as greater than the risk of sharing. Would you rather live in fear or feel alive?

Gina: Ok, there hyperbole pants. Let’s bring this back down to reality, like thinking about all the ways that we really are creative and we don’t even think about it as creativity.

Amber: Like creating interesting titles for people? Hyperbole Pants? Yes, I agree you don’t have to be an artist or musician to be considered creative. Think about all of the 4Cs that have been shared during Digital Learning Month. You can be creative with the way that you communicate with parents.

Gina: You can be creative in your approaches to connecting with students. You can be creative in finding options to learn and grow as an educator when budgets are tight. You can be creative in your solutioning when conflict arises in between students in your classroom.

Amber: Exactly! I think that another important way to think about creativity is to consider different options that you are offering your students to test their individual creativity. Creativity is not something that can be used up. We need to think of it more as like a muscle that can be strengthened within our students. We can include simple techniques in our daily routines to encourage students to think of more than one solution to a problem through brainstorming or have them rework a story problem in a textbook.

Gina: So what’s our takeaway message here, Amber?

Amber: Fear of creativity is real, yet as educators we need to model and maintain environments of creativity in our classrooms. Don’t feed the fear of creativity and pass that down to your students.

Gina: Acknowledge the wide range of creativity that you see in your classroom in your students. Praise their creative and unique thinking, along with the creative ways that they express themselves.

Amber: You got it! The more we value creativity in our students the stronger they will become in their creative mindset. I value your creativity in writing this blog post with me, Gina.

Gina: Thanks...I value all of your creativity, Amber!

Written By: Amber Bridge and Gina Roger
Digital Learning Consultants
@abridgesmith and @grogers1010

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Questioning + Reflection + Goals = Critical Thinking

2/17/2019

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Using Questioning, Reflection, and Goal Setting as a means to Critical Thinking

Teachers often gravitate toward Project Based Learning (PBL) as the means to bring critical thinking into the classroom. While we think PBL is an amazing way to engage kids in authentic problem solving and critical thinking, making the instructional and pedagogical shifts to PBL can feel daunting.
So, how do we weave critical thinking into the fabric of our classrooms? How do we make critical thinking less of an event or initiative and more your standard mode of operating as an educator?
Think back to a time you’ve had a young child a car with you. Little kids ask lots of questions because they are curious about the world around them. What does that sign say? Why is there a speed limit? How do cars work? Are we there yet? We don’t know about you, but indulging kids in thinking is part of the fun of a road trip! Often questions lead to more questions and opportunities to have kids think and reason.

What does that sign say? leads to What letters do you see? What pictures do you see?
Why is there a speed limit? leads to What do you think? What might happen if people drove really fast or really slow?
How does a car work? leads to probing about different parts of the car such as How do you think the wheels work? The windows? The steering wheel? How do all those parts work together?
Are we there yet? leads to Think about the last time we made this trip. What did you see as we got closer to Grandma’s house? How do you know when we’re getting close?

Whether intentional or not, we’re engaging kids in the car with questioning and reflection strategies as a way to get them to think critically about the world around them. Engaging kids in the classroom doesn’t have to be the result of monumental changes in practice. We think it can be done with small changes to the way we use questioning, reflection, and goal setting.

Questioning
Beth recently saw the tweet below and we were reminded how important questions are in our classrooms. We also had the opportunity to learn from Weston Kieschnick recently and he shared that questioning has a 0.48 effect size in John Hattie’s meta analysis. (0.4 = 1 year’s academic growth)

Learning Strategy Interactive Video (.60) Questioning (.48) Direct Instruction (.60), Peer Tutoring (.55), Concept Mapping (.64), Worked Examples (.48), Self-Assessment (1.44), Reciprocal Teaching (.74), Problem Solving Teaching (.63), Spaced Vs. Mass Practice (.60)

Weston Kieschnick presentation at Grant Wood Area Education Agency

But, how do you do it?
Teachers need to let kids ask the questions!

Critical Thinking stems Who, what, where, when, why and how

Reflection

After students are comfortable with asking questions, you can also engage them in reflecting about their thinking (aka meta-cognition) and processes. As a college student, Corey had a professor that allowed students to resubmit one missed exam question with an explanation of the misconception at the time of the exam, the necessary adjustment in thinking to grasp the concept, and what students did to change their thinking. It was a powerful way to engage students in thinking about their learning, reflecting on their process, and better understanding how they can clarify their own misunderstandings. Whether intentional or not (we may never know) the professor was utilizing evaluation and reflection, which has a 0.75 effect size in Hattie’s meta analysis.

Teachers in Grant Wood Area Education Agency school districts are also providing students with opportunities to engage in reflection and growth. A teacher at Tipton Middle School uses the daily reflection log below to help students reflect about both their engagement and understanding of concepts.

Daily Reflection from low to High How engaged was I on this lesson? How well do I understand the learning?

A secondary teacher at College Community Schools uses the reflection sheet (right) to help students keep track of their progress through blended learning stations and also reflect on their employability skills.

Both are great examples and provide the educators and students an opportunity to reflect on the learning, engagement, and processes within the classroom. You could even use a Google Form to quickly collect reflections and send a copy to the student. We wonder what the educator and student could uncover by looking for patterns in responses over time. Are you using this strategy in your classroom? We’d love to see more examples!

Goal Setting

We are a goal oriented society. And school is not different - or is it.
We know from Hattie’s research that goal setting has a high effect size - 0.68 effect size for Learning Goals vs. No Goals as listed in this Fisher & Frey Article But, I wonder about the goals that we often talk about in the classroom.

# correct words on a spelling test
# pages read over time
Increased quiz scores

Are these actually learning goals or are they process goals?

Beth has the privilege of visiting classrooms across Grant Wood in her role of supporting Blended Learning K-12 classrooms. One benefit of these visits is a wealth of pictures of classrooms examples .

This image, from a College Community teacher, stands out as a way of demonstrating learning goals. The teacher has set the standard for the day with "Today, we will.... " Then the context is added to that standard with the “So, we can…” language. And the 'Why" is established. With the “I’ve got it when…” language the teacher explains the criteria for students to know what is required to meet that standard.

Now, you could argue that these goals are set by the teacher, rather than the student. But, we feel that this type of clearly defined learning goals sets a strong foundation for students to be able to answer these three important questions for themselves.

And answering these questions throughout the day each and every day has the potential to transform student learning.

Take a bit of time this week to think about critical thinking in a new way. Start your deeper journey toward critical thinking by using questioning, reflecting and goals in your classrooms.

Follow us on social media all week for a series of challenges, to get you thinking and sharing about critical thinking. We look forward to learning from you!

Corey Rogers and Beth Swantz
@corey_rogers @betswan

Digital Learning Consultants, Grant Wood Area Education Agency

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Guest Blog: Sharing the Story of #SpartanShare

2/15/2019

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As part of our continued celebration leading to Digital Learning Day on February 28, the Digital Learning team is encouraging our Grant Wood AEA educators to join in the celebration and to share their digital learning stories. Read below as guest blogger Miranda Kral, Solon Community School District teacher librarian, shares the story behind Solon's collaboration for #SpartanShare.

Sharing the Story of #SpartanShare
Blog written by Miranda Kral, Solon Community School District teacher librarian

As a teacher librarian for my district, my presence and time in each building is limited. One challenge I have faced in my role is having time to interact and collaborate with all staff. As a way to overcome this challenge, the instructional coach at Lakeview Elementary, Maria Schroeder, and I started a video series called #SpartanShare.

This has become an exciting collaborative effort with the Instructional Coaches throughout my district! The name of the series came from an idea that was shared by a teacher at our elementary, Jan Johnson, who wanted a space (through Twitter) to share the fantastic instructional practices and ideas taking place in classrooms throughout our district.

The purpose of our video series is to provide educators in our district insight into tools, resources, and instructional practices, as well as highlight the amazing things that happen in our schools' classrooms. Our approach is light-hearted, somewhat humorous, and time conscious (we know how valuable time is so we keep our videos fairly short). Breakout EDU, student response tools (such as FlipGrid & Padlet), and digital citizenship are a few of the ideas we have focused on throughout the series.

#SpartanShare has been well received by our staff and we continue to promote the use of the Twitter hashtag, #SpartanShare, throughout our district and video series.

To see examples of the collaborative videos, explore the #SpartanShare hashtag and our #SpartanShare YouTube channel.

Miranda Kral, Solon Community School District teacher library
@MirandaKral
@SolonMedia

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Collaboration is KEY!

2/11/2019

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Week 2 of our month-long Digital Learning celebration is upon us! This week the focus is on collaboration. As a kickoff to this week’s sharing, Maggie and Lynn share their reflections of what collaboration means to them in a fast-paced vlog! Check it out!