Tag:

collaborate

Five Tools for Creating Global Perspective in the Classroom

by Guest Blogger August 10, 2017

written by Guest Blogger

The August issue of TCEA’s quarterly magazine TechEdge focuses on how educators can integrate global connections and global perspective into learning to help broaden students’ experiences. Today, we’re sharing a bonus article on the theme with our blog readers. If you enjoy this article, you’ll love the upcoming magazine. If you’re a TCEA member, check your mailbox soon for your copy. If you’re not currently a member and would like to get this fantastic resource with the latest news and real stories from educators in the classroom, learn more about joining TCEA here.

The inability for a student to physically travel the globe no longer limits their ability to have global experiences. Technology provides a way to expand our frame of reference or point of view, as learners, through a lens that moves beyond the borders of time and space. These enriching experiences can come through videos, virtual tours, online live connections, and interactive activities that move learners to a deeper understanding.

Creating Authentic Experiences

A more authentic experience can take place when we bring the world to our students. Students can take virtual tours of historic landmarks and investigate global cultures and geography via virtual opportunities like Google Earth. They can participate in Mystery Skypes and build a capacity for asking high-level, probing questions of students across the country or world to reveal their “secret” geographical location. They can virtually interview students from different cultural backgrounds to identify common characteristics, explore differences, and dispel potentially inaccurate perceptions.

Building an opportunity into our instructional day to allow students to explore the breadth of the world can offer a new perspective of the environment they live in day to day. Tracy Cates, a K-2 GT teacher at Clyde Elementary said that through Mystery Skypes, her “students realize better that learning is occurring all over the world. They are sometimes jealous of the things that other schools are doing or participating in and wish that we could do those things as well. At other times, they are thankful for how things are done here in Clyde.” She communicated that she too has created global connections through the process and continues to collaborate with her Google friends through Google Communities. What a great concept: working together to make the world a better place!

Five Tools for Building Global Connections

Through ever improving technology, we can now communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere and potentially through the watch on your wrist! Students can collaborate with students down the street, across the continent, or on the other side of the world to solve problems, create projects, and form learning communities, even if they don’t speak the same language.

The walls of classrooms dissolve through opportunities for students to connect with others across the world through platforms like G Suite, ZOOM, and my new favorite, Belouga.

❏ G Suite applications provide collaboration on demand. They allow connectivity through multiple opportunities like Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets that can be shared with multiple contributors and without time zone barriers. Visit edu.google.com to learn more.

❏ Google Communities provide a platform for students to connect in multiple areas of interest and in an authentic way by contributing and consuming as digital learners inside the communities of their choice. Join today at plus.google.com.

❏ Connecting through Google Sites allows for students to create ePortfolios to show their learning and connect with others through the digital sharing of their learning. Create your site at sites.google.com.

❏ ZOOM is a user-friendly platform for video conferencing that includes features of screen sharing, document sharing, and recording. ZOOM allows for multiple participants and the ability for multiple hosts. Visit zoom.us to learn more.

❏ Belouga not only connects classrooms of students and perpetuates the opportunity for global collaborative learning and education, but it also gives students the opportunity to earn reward points and then donate them to help provide educational opportunities for students who live in under-resourced communities. People helping people through collaborative connections is truly the spirit of perspective expansion. Connect your classroom today at belouga.org.

The Value of Global Perspective

When students have an opportunity to expand their global point of view through choices in their education path, they take ownership of their learning, find their voice, and share their experiences with others. And all of this takes place in an authentic learning environment.

Students tend to take the initiative to explore other perspectives with the smallest sparks of encouragement from teachers. Now is the time to gift global perspective and connection to our students. For some, this will be life altering in a way that we can never measure with a project or a grade.

This is a guest blog by Angela Thomas. Angela is a curriculum consultant with fifteen years classroom experience and an increasing passion for meaningful technology integration into instruction.

August 10, 2017 0 comment

Brainstorming and Voting: Getting Staff Input Easily

by Lori Gracey June 16, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

A campus or district administrator has a lot on his plate these days, including getting faculty opinions and buy-in on both small and large initiatives. What he doesn’t have is time to solicit that buy-in.

Now there’s a free tool that can help. Tricider offers fast and easy brainstorming and voting so that people can collaboratively make decisions. Unlike common survey tools which require set responses, it allows participants to add their own ideas, arguments, and discussion to a Tricider question. When the deadline for discussion and brainstorming is up, participants are asked to vote on the ideas presented. With its simple ask a question, brainstorm and discuss, and then vote process, this is one tool you’ll use over and over again.

The author of the question can invite participants via a shared link, email, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. And there are lots of ways to customize the discussion, from having new or better ideas emerge to the top to including pictures and links. No registration or log in is required, which makes Tricider very easy for everyone to use. But if you do register, then you are given a plethora of additional features, all included free.

To see how it works, I’ve posted a sample question below. Just click on the Add New Idea button and put in your answer. You can then add an argument, if you wish, or vote for one of the other choices. Please try it out.

I can see Tricider being used with students, particularly for small group work. You could even use it for entire classes or grade levels to discuss and vote on favorite books, prom king and queen, cafeteria rules, etc. And if your family is trying to decide on a vacation location or a gift to give Grandma from all of you, it will do the trick. You can set the poll to be private or share it with the whole world, which opens even more opportunities for collaboration. It’s just such a great, quick tool and I hope you’ll give it a try!

June 16, 2016 0 comment

iOS Tips and Tricks

Collaborative Note-Taking on the iPad Just Got Easier

by Lori Gracey March 14, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

Having students collaborate while taking notes or working on a project on the iPad can be a real pain. Getting everyone’s email address so that they can share the document, finding where the completed version is stored in the cloud (or on the device), getting to the document without Internet access — all of these can give a teacher a big headache.

But now there’s an app that can solve the biggest challenges of working collaboratively. MolaSync works on any iOS device, and it’s completely free.

MolaSync is a full-featured collaboration app that also includes many special communication tools. When you first open it, you’re greeted with a blank screen with a selection of drawing tools around the edges. You can invite someone to collaborate with you via email, iMessage, and Twitter with just one tap.

Once you begin drawing, writing, or recording your voice (yes, it includes a handy voice recorder so you can explain your document!), all of your work will be automatically saved to the cloud. If you don’t have access to the Internet at the time, your work will be saved to the device and then automatically uploaded to the cloud once you have access. You can export your creation to iTunes, Photos, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, and Baidu Cloud, or you can open it up in another app (like Explain Everything). You can even bring in Google Maps with the simple touch of a button. And don’t worry about filling up the page; MolaSync provides you with an unlimited long/wide page design that’s perfect for big projects.

MolaSync is an excellent tool for storyboarding presentations or projects, taking group notes on a complex subject, explaining a math or science problem, designing a solution to a PBL question, and so much more. It is one of those must-have apps for the iOS world because even very young students are able to master it. And it makes learning collaboratively simple.

March 14, 2016 2 comments

Educational Trends

Tips for Hosting a Twitter Chat

by Diana Benner January 22, 2016

written by Diana Benner

A few months ago, a colleague asked me to co-host a Twitter chat with him. Never having done so before, I began investigating why I would want to do that and what it entails to host a productive Twitter chat. Hosting a Twitter chat means that you act as the facilitator for others who join you with a specific hashtag at a specific time to discuss a specific topic. As the facilitator, you develop the parameters and questions for the chat, but do not have to be the “expert” on the topic; you just guide the discussion. It’s a great learning opportunity for a school district, a campus, or even a particular department to offer because it’s quick, doesn’t cost anything except a little time, and can result in improvements in teaching and learning. Below are some tips I discovered for hosting your own Twitter chat.

Tip #1: Participate in chats first and understand how they work.
Since I have been a participant in Twitter chats before, I really feel like I understand how they work. It is very important that you know how a Twitter chat works in order to successfully host your own. If you are looking for some chats to participate in, you can find some listed at the links below:

Tip #2: Make a plan.
When hosting a Twitter chat, some items need to be pre-planned. These items include the following:

Choose a hashtag – When choosing a hashtag, it needs to be short and unique. It is also helpful if it is easy to remember and easy to type.

Schedule a time and day – Choose a time and day that works best for you. You might also want to ensure that no other major Twitter chats about the same topic are occurring on the day and time you pick. When selecting a time, think about your audience. If the chat is for high school band directors, then immediately after school probably won’t work.

Choose a topic and create questions – Once you decide upon a topic, come up with five to eight questions that will be used to guide the chat. It wouldn’t hurt to add a few additional questions just in case you need to increase interaction among the participants. The questions should be ones that can be answered with a short response, but not “yes” or “no” answers. Asking participants to share favorite resources, web tools, or ways to help a particular student are all great questions to pose.

Consider inviting special guests – Bringing in guests on a particular topic is a great way to get first-hand knowledge and expertise for your chat participants. Make sure you clearly communicate the chat schedule with the “expert” and send him the questions in advance so that he may see and offer input on them.

Tip #3: Promote your chat.
Promote your chat using social media. In a Twitter chat, the more the merrier! In addition, creating an announcement web page, like a Google Site, to use as a reference point is always a good idea. This page can serve as a landing page that explains what the chat will be about and gives the details about the chat. In addition, it can contain things like how to participate in a chat, how chats work, etc. Some of your participants might find this very useful.

Tip #4: Conduct your chat.
When conducting your chat, think about including these items:

Introductions – Welcome your participants to the chat and allow them to introduce themselves.
Announce the topic – Announce what the topic is for the chat and tweet your own ideas about the topic.
Ask questions – As you ask questions, label them as Q1, Q2, etc. Allow your participants at least five minutes per question to share their ideas.
Encourage participation – Share some related resources or links and ask your participants to do the same.
Announce the end of the chat – Warn the participants that the chat will be ending.
Conclude the chat – Thank your participants for participating in the chat and tweet any final remarks or thoughts. Also, announce the next chat day, time, and topic.

Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are both great, free tools for conducting your chat.

Tip #5: Analyze and archive your chat.
After your chat is over, reflect on how the experience went. Perhaps write a blog entry about it. Also, you might want to create a transcript of your tweets. Storify is a great tool to use for this.

Have you hosted a Twitter chat before? How did it go and what tips would you offer? Share with us in the comments!

January 22, 2016 0 comment