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Lessons in Education, Featuring Gary Larson: Part III

By EdTechManiac, Darin Anderson

Many of Gary Larson's comic strips from The Far Side tell so much of a story without so much as a word of dialogue. With his brilliance - no matter how off-the-wall it might be - Larson can indeed draw a picture that is worth well more than a thousand words.

In Part III of the EdTechManiacs comical Gary Larson series (see Parts I and II here), we will discuss how the "delicious" dish of liver and onions relates to the kinds of products we deliver to our students in the classroom and to teachers in schools across the country.

Compare this comic to a classroom
setting from your past. What did you learn?

This Larson offering is both playing off of the innocence of youth and preying upon the insecurities of all of us. Remember, ages ago, when you would clamber outside at the very sound of the ice cream truck rolling down your street? Do you also recall the opposite emotions upon finding out that your mom was making your least favorite meal that night? (Mine was goopy and neon green split pea soup.) This cartoon sums up both the elation of summertime treats and the gloom of unappetizing fare.

Honestly, most of us are fairly competent at sniffing out each kind of opportunity. As the old adage goes, if it looks like liver and smells like liver, it's probably liver, no matter what lengths a person goes to in order to make it seem otherwise. Our students, on one hand, are especially keen at this - and the younger they are the better they are at it.

Kindergartners enter their first year of "official school" having gone through six years of questioning and inquiry and curiosity. Many times, they also lack a filter that typically comes with maturity and age. (This is why a 5-year-old can get away with calling a man fat, while a teenager would get scolded for not knowing better.) All of this results in groups of children who know what they want ...and also what they do not want.

Our students come into our schools with preconceived ideas about what they want to learn and what they will attempt to avoid at any cost. Granted, so much of their desires center around content that schools cannot offer directly, but the students still show up with that yearning to learn more about them.

Even as traditional school may be a chief contributor to killing that creativity and inquiry, this Larson comic speaks volumes about changing school culture at fundamental and actionary levels.

How can we better gear our kids towards reaching standards outside of their control while also allowing them to achieve their own learning goals? This becomes the $68.6 billion question that educators must try to answer.

Let's begin jumping into the answers to this deep and broad subject by posing a few more questions.

• How many educational opportunities are packaged as something inviting and cutting-edge, but really offer only outdated or irrelevant information and content?
• Or worse, why is something viable and meaningful too often delivered via a vehicle designed for carrying disgusting meats?
• How can we do it all without adding anything more to our already heavy plates?

To me, any response to this question begins with some analysis of your constituency - students, parents and/or staff. You may think you know what your kids need, for example, because of mandated testing, curriculum maps and such. But DO you really have a finger on the pulse of your kids? Or your staff?

Like the kids in the comic, you might be approaching them with some scrumptious liver...when they are actually looking for a dreamsicle. I mean, who would do that, right?

To a certain extent, our hands are tied when it comes to the WHAT in education. However, we have a multitude of options when it comes to the HOW. With that in mind, we can better serve others if we know more about what they like (ice cream) and what they do not (liver).

To begin, here are a few "Livers" (things that were once cool, but are now like the 8-Track) that might be better left behind:

• Introducing and delivering content via PowerPoint - They are essentially the same as paper, but you can't doodle on them during classes or PD days.
• Sit-and-Get lectures and PD offerings - Today's generation is mobile and agile; sitting is the new smoking
• Pencil and Paper worksheets, graphic organizers, and, well, anything - While I understand that pencils will never become obsolete, ummm, neither will technology.
• One-at-a-time student presentations - Not only do these take up valuable instruction time, they also take up way too much time. Did I mention that they are time-consuming as well as lengthy? Oh, and it's boring, too. 
• Teacher-Assigned Products or Projects - Honestly, the world does not need any more landfills full of dioramas and tri-fold posters.
• The Archaic "No Cell Phones" Poster - Nowadays, it's the same as telling folks to leave their textbooks and such at home. The mobile device is a powerful tool that can be used for good AND evil. The choice is up to you.
• Speaking of Textbooks... - With constantly changes research landscapes, textbooks are almost outdated the moment they are published. Up-to-the-minute information is available at the touch of a screen. Why fight a losing battle when learners will head to Google anyway?

Rather than rolling down the street in our Liver-Mobile - even with the catchy trolley-style music - we could approach our Cell Mitosis unit or Standards-Based Grading PD (or whatever) from a different perspective.

Try these on for size:

• YouTube - Your kids use it...so should you. Perfect for flipping or blending instruction and for anytime learning.
• Social Media - Of course, this is a biggie for most of us. So brainstorm ways to get your kids and/or peers discussing and collaborating on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
• 3D Printing - What if your 2D doodles could come to life as tangible 3D objects? This is a current craze that will only gain more ground as the products advance. What was once untouchable technology if now fairly standards in most schools.
• 4D Augmented Reality - Programs like Aurasma, Augment, and DAQRI have taken interacting with content to a whole new level. Once limited to just consumption, AR programs are now beginning to allow kids to create and publish their own 4D designs.
• Green Screen Technology - What used to be sophisticated and expensive is now available on laptops and tablets alike. Going green allows for creativity and expression while also producing quality content that is digitally shareable. Did I mention that it also saves valuable instruction time?
• Making the World a Classoom - Whether it is connecting with someone from abroad on Twitter or sharing resources with a classmate from across town on Google Drive, people are no longer limited to what they can see from their own location.
• Gamification - On the heels of the recent Microsoft purchase of Minecraft, the EdTech world is all the more abuzz about combining what many kids already know - gaming - with what they "need" to know (in an academic sense). With some creative thinking Clash of Clans can indeed become a viable curriculum.

As we look to advance our field and hone our craft, we will be in a constant state of research and reflection. Change is certain. No longer should we disguise liver and onions as quality education. One taste and they'll figure it out. 

As #educators do we provide #relevantinstruction for our schools or R we delivering #liverandonions? #EdReform pic.twitter.com/CSsavE6bHa

— Darin Anderson (@coachdarin22) August 3, 2015

ISTE 2015 Minis: Moving with Augmented Reality

The annual ISTE conference is always sure to deliver, and this year's version, which just wrapped up in Philadelphia, provided a much-needed spark to keep teachers and students alike on the tech move.

A series of Tweets from ISTE attendees says it all:

Sitting is the new smoking... Let that sink in. Phew. #AugmentedReality @jpk38 #ISTE2015

— Jennifer Weaver (@Jennzer) July 1, 2015

Tech that makes you sit, still not helping. Use tech to engage,not as behaviour management. #iste2015

— James Kapptie (@jpk38) July 1, 2015

#sittingisthenewsmoking. If tech makes our kids sit, what is the point? @jpk38 love this - the aussies are onto something. #ISTE2015

— Ashley Brown (@a_teachertechie) July 1, 2015

These are just a few of the many ISTE2015 posts alluding to the effective combination of technology and movement for our students. It came on the heels of a mass "field trip" that saw dozens of educators from across the country use Augmented Reality to experience downtown Philadelphia in a new and intriguing way.

Let the walking tour start on a escalator. #ISTE02015 pic.twitter.com/HAXbzMtlo6

— James Kapptie (@jpk38) July 1, 2015

Creating our own Auras on the AR Philly tour. #ISTE2015 pic.twitter.com/sVm5L2PmxB

— Lachelle Brant (@LachelleBrant) July 1, 2015

Rather than simply viewing historical sights via social media posts and Google Maps submissions, for example (which are very good ideas, in and of themselves), we must integrate movement into the lessons we teach.

Here are a few suggestions:

• AR Scavenger hunt for pictures or items across campus. Nearly any static object can serve as a trigger image for the variety of AR programs on the market.
• Place AR-enabled images throughout your classroom for gallery walks. Even movement within the room is better than sitting still for long periods of time.
• Use AR for student presentations. Instead of everyone sitting through multiple days of one-at-a-time presentations, use AR programs to embed student presentations into images. Shuffling kids through presentations in a gallery walk structure saves valuable instruction time.

• Apps like Google Camera and Google Photo Sphere allow users to take 360 degree photos of any location. Letting students view these "Spheres" from a directional standpoint - outside where they can "see" the Grand Canyon in relation to their own surroundings - is almost as authentic as being there in person.

Enjoy a full sphere of Downtown Philadelphia

• Download the following apps for AR experiences: Aurasma, Daqri, Quiver, and others.
• Daqri has a special surprise when students (and teachers) lock into their variety of apps and products. Viewers will especially like Elements 4D and Anatomy 4D. Trust me, you'll want to see this! 

Combining even minimal movement with lesson content has long been shown to be beneficial for students of all ages. From brain breaks to full-on integrated physical activity, getting our kids up and moving is the way to go.

With the technology available to us at little to no cost, it seems imperative that we give our kids a break from the monotony of traditional classroom procedures that fail to excite them on a widespread scale.

AR Technology and Movement - seems like a match made in Heaven!

Show Me the CCSS Part III: Tellagami for You, Sir!

In 1975, the fine ladies and gentlemen of Monty Python brought us what is perhaps the greatest movie of all time, at least in terms of famous lines repeated at parties and in thousands of classrooms across the country.

At least that is how it was at my high school back in 1990, where classmates and I just happened to watch "The Holy Grail," oh, about 11 times over 4 school days. And when we weren't laughing at its antics, we were busy replaying it scene by scene with the lines we memorized. It was good for raucous laughter and for impressing the girls (well, one out of two weren't bad, as it turned out.)

But I digress...

One of the singularly best lines in the movie was from the scene where Lancelot's concord gets pierced by an arrow and quickly announces, "Message for you, Sir." (Watch it below and tell me you did not laugh.)

What if we could receive similar kinds of messages - only without the fatal...er...mortal...er flesh wounds from flying arrows - from our students?

So much of the CCSS is about giving students more opportunities to explain their thinking and reasoning. Indeed, the "CCSS Shifts" ask students of all ages and abilities to go beyond simple recall and expand their horizons to include deeper DOK-level activities. However, as students are introduced to any given concept, there is always a certain period of time where learning cannot continue until the basics are mastered.

And what of mastery? As goes this series of CCSS articles, there are creative, quick, and unobtrusive, ways to have students show their teachers what they know. Here is another such example that students of all ages will love.

Oh, I could tell you how this works...but let me turn it over to "Peter" so he can give you the lowdown.

Tellagami Features*:
Text-to-Speech
Customizable characters and backgrounds
Text in 450 characters or :30 seconds of voice recording
Saves to device quickly and easily
Upload effortlessly to social media
*Note - some features are free and some require in-app purchases

Tellagami Ideas:
Tickets-out-the door
Short student presentations
Extended explanations with a series of videos strung together
Integrates perfectly with Aurasma and other AR programs
Easily embed Tellagami videos into teacher presentations

For Tellagami download information click here.

Also check out Tellagami EDU.

Follow the Maniacs and Darin Anderson on Twitter.

IPad Lit Circles: Daniel Pink, Aurasma, Wikispaces and Interclass Collaboration

While reading Daniel Pink's book Drive, I came across for me a very earth shattering passage. In his chapter entitled "The Rise and Fall of Motivation 2.0." Pink sets up a an interesting thought. To paraphrase, he asks his readers to imagine that it is 1995. He says, “I’m going to describe two new encyclopedias—one just out, the other to be launched in a few years. You have to predict which will be more successful in 2010.”
Below, I would like to set up his binaries.

Encyclopedia 1	Encyclopedia 2
Microsoft Funded	Doesn’t come from a company
Well paid Professional Writers	Written and edited by a thousands of people for fun.
Well compensated Managers	Contributors work 20 and sometimes 30 hours per week, for free.
Completed on time and on budget	There are no deadlines and no budget
Sold on CD Rom Later sold on the internet	The encyclopedia exists completely online and costs nothing

He continues saying "According to my crystal ball, in 2010, one of these encyclopedias will be the largest and most popular in the world and the other will be defunct."

Now, we are lucky to have the hindsight to know that Encyclopedia 1 is MSN Encarta, which Microsoft ended on October 31st, 2009, and Encyclopedia 2 is none other than Wikipedia.  Pink goes on to talk about why this is the case. I do not plan on getting into that today, however if you'd like to dive into that, I very much suggest you read Daniel Pink's Drive, or at the very least check out his Ted Talk.

After reading this, I wanted to test this out in a classroom setting. In our state, my Junior English Students are asked to do a lit circle at the end of the year. This body of educational evidence is known as "the Reader's Choice". In this assessment, students are to read a book of their choice and engage in class discussions surrounding theme, vocabulary, literary devices, special quotes and a handful of other topics. They are then asked to synthesize all of this information into a visual presentation.
I chose to do this a bit differently than what was done in the past.

All year long, we had done many group projects within classes. I felt like there were few combinations that I could make that hadn't already been done. So instead I took all 4 of my classes (this totaled roughly 105 students) and threw them all together in a pot. I wanted to see if I could have students working on a project completely online, and where they never once met face to face in person. I understand there are social aspects of group work that were missed here, but with our world operating on such a global scale, I thought this would definitely be a 21st century skill.

I began looking for an educational online platform where students could read, chat, post ideas,  and present their findings together. I essentially was looking for a wiki. I came across wikispaces.com.
I plan to post a few "how to's"  and specifics on what we were able to do with wkispaces. Suffice it to say, it had everything I needed and even things that I didn't know I needed that became essential to the process.

We essentially used 4 iPad apps for this activity:
Wikispaces
Bcontext
Aurasma
Todaysmeet

I will go through how we used all 4 of these programs in upcoming posts. This activity was extremely successful. Not just by my standards, but I used an anonymous poll and found that the kids really enjoyed it as well. The students mentioned that they "felt like (we were) doing something special every day." I also had one student say "I usually read something and then forgot it. With this project, I was able to see the progress and remember."
Our website, which I give complete credit to our students for what they created, was featured on wikispaces as an outstanding use of their software. As a representative of the class, I had the opportunity to do a google hangout with Wendy Gorton from wikispaces on how we used it in the classroom. You can check it out below.
Here is the article.

Below you can find the link to the wiki, if you'd like to check it out.

Mr. Einfeldt's Class Wiki Page