Is Technology Changing Education?

OF COURSE IT IS! 

Of course technology is changing education. If I were to ask my 4th grade teacher in 1996 if the mid 80's (likely donated) Macintosh that we were allowed to play educational games on when we finished our work early was changing education, what would she have said? YES! That answer remains the same but now has so much more depth. 

In that 4th grade classroom we were rarely using the computer but when we were, we were learning how to manipulate a keyboard, save progress to a 5.25 inch floppy drive, while playing educational games to pass our time while our classmates finished up book work or tests. 

I was recently reading an Ed Tech article and it became very apparent how much education has and will continue to change with the incorporation of technology. 

Ed Tech Article - Check out the article here. 

The article discusses the following items: 

Virtual Reality (VR)  Learning - 

From the cheaper and more simple things like Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR to the more expensive Virtual Reality systems such as HTC's Vive these virtural reality systems can give students a virtual, yet real feeling look at jobs, locations, experiences, that students have not been able to experience or imagine before. How cool would it be for a student to be able to virtually escape to Egypt and walk around a Virtual pyramid while discussing that exact object in World History? 

*I recently had the chance to try out the HTC Vive and it is unimaginable how real it is. I was able to explore landscapes, draw 3'd objects and see them from all sides (how cool would that be for creating and then being able to print to a 3d printer?), as well as fight off zombies (I actually had to stop during this one because it was too real and was making me sick.)  

3D Printing

3D Printing has been making waves in education in current years. With the incorporation of makerspaces to urge students to attempt to be engineers, students along with teachers have started to dream, think, and create all kinds of objects. Some objects for fun and some to be functional to solve a problem or fix a broken piece. 

IoT (Internet of Things)

IoT or Internet of Things was a new term for me but not a new idea. IoT is referring to how devices feed information and data into the Internet to make everything work or sync together. It is how we want all of our devices to share information so all of our information is at our fingertips at anytime! I know how true this is just when I think of how I like to be able to read an email and check Google Classroom while checking in on my amount of steps taken per day. I like to be able to find this information from my phone, desktop, laptop, chromebook, and possibly even my smartwatch, if I want. We like all of our data to mesh together in a way that works. 

Wearables

Wearables in the article were referred to the current star of the Internet of Things concept. Wearable items that can count your steps, track your heart rate, send you calendar reminders, collect your text messages, and alert you of events all from your wrist are the big IoT trend. Sometimes I think of these items as something more for adults, but not really. I see kids younger and younger showing interest or having their own wearable devices that show that they like to linked into this trend just as much as the next person. 

Interactive Technology

The last item in the article discussed interactive technology in the way of things like robotics. The main thing that interested me on this subject was the rise in robotic toys that are used with special education students. It discussed robotic toys that served as counselors and playmates to children with various disorders or disabilities. How crazy is it to think a child could be paired with technology to help them feel as if they have a friend or someone to talk to when they may be struggling in ways that makes it difficult for them to make friends. Obviously, this route may seem a little concerning but it is also a very interesting way to think about solving such a problem. 

Feel free to take a look at the article. Above are just some of my thoughts as well as sort of a summary of the 5 Tech Trends that are thought to possibly change or reinvent education in 2016. 

As educators, I do feel that we do need to be aware of these changes and be thinking about how we can use them to keep our students engaged and learning as times change. Technology is not a fad, technology is here to stay. However, the types of technology are only going to continue to grow and change. With so many options we might as well jump on board the technology train and find out what works for us and our students! 

What technology trends are you most excited about? 

Quizizz vs. Kahoot

During the last few years the use of technology in classrooms has blown up! Even schools that are not 1:1 do have laptop carts or classroom iPads to give teachers and students options. One thing teachers are always requesting and administrators are always wanting to see are different ways to assess student knowledge. Just a few short years ago teachers were assessing student knowledge with exit tickets on paper written with pencil, or if they were creative they might be answering with whiteboards and dry erase markers. Now, teachers and students have more options with the incorporation of technology.

Beyond a classroom's daily use of a LMS or Learning Management System such as Google Classroom, Canvas, My Big Campus, or Blackboard there are tons of websites and apps to use to help assess student learning. The one that I am going to focus on today is Quizizz.

If you have been using Kahoot and enjoy it then Quizizz might just be your new best friend.

First, lets talk Kahoot basics, if you are not already familiar. If you are just go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. Kahoot is a easy to set up, easy to use assessment tool that for the last few years teachers and students have really enjoyed using. Even the least "techy" teachers have jumped aboard. Kahoot is helpful and easy but it does have some downfalls. The downfalls for me were that you always had to complete it as an entire class. Sometimes I really would like students to be able to play on their own when they are finished with an assignment. The questions and answers do not show up on the student devices only the projected screen and sometimes it proved tricky to get students to click what they actually meant to click, then causing frustration and less than perfect feedback. However, kids were exited. It is great for review. It is easy and quick to set up and it doesn't limit me on how many questions I can put on a quiz. To try it out, if you have not, you should! Go to https://getkahoot.com to sign up for a free account. There is a whole library of free options to see what it can look like for you.

Quizizz is another option for assessment. It is also easy and quick to set up and gives you plenty of options. The benefits of Quizizz over Kahoot fall in the options. With Quizizz you can schedule quizzes, you can assign them as homework for individual students to complete or you can let the whole class take it together. Like Kahoot students can race each other and get more points based on how fast they answer. As a teacher you can project the quiz and move through the questions together or you can request students to complete it on their own. For students, they can actually read the questions and possible answers on their device without having to look back and fourth with the confusion that Kahoot sometimes can cause. 

The feedback on Quizizz is also nice. It is very colorful and easy to see what questions student's know or are possibly struggling with. As a teacher you can also access student reports later on, so you do not have to worry about logging out and losing information. 

To try using Quizizz for yourself you can visit http://quizizz.com/ to set up your free account. Quizizz also has a library of pre-made quizzes to try. In my experience so far my students did say that they prefer Quizizz over not only Kahoot but also Quizlet Live. They said they like the format and being able to see the questions and possible answers on their individual device was really something that won them over. They also shared they they felt it was equally competitive so it kept them involved and trying. Another winning component of Quizizz for the students were the correct/incorrect memes that were shown in a humorous way between questions on their individual screen. The memes seemed to keep the learning fun and interesting as students moved through questions, the memes were like pleasant, funny surprises. 

If you have a specific question or thought please share in the comments!

Padlet Intro to Child Development 2 Class

Padlet

I was just introduced to Padlet and wasn't sure how I wanted to use it but knew I would like to try it out.
Padlet basically lets students send responses from their device (cell phone, tablet, computer, etc) straight to the screen where everyone can post ideas and thoughts about something.
It was super easy to set up and has some basic choices but also allows for pictures and things to be uploaded.
What they post can go straight to the screen or it can be first viewed by the teacher before being approved to go to the screen. 

How I Used Padlet - 

I split students into groups to read sections about Emotional/Social Development just as an intro to some discussion information about where children are in their emotional social development between the ages of 4 and 6. I asked them to bullet point some information about things that characterize emotional/social development of children between 4 and 6 after reading with their group. 

Here is a link to what they came up with. I did not filter it and got something about poop - I was able to delete that after a threatening glare in the direction I was sure it came from. 

http://padlet.com/adevore/emotsocdev

Students seemed to like it for the most part and some commented that they thought it was pretty cool. In a class of 25 none of them said that they had used padlet before. SCORE ME! 

Obviously, this was not anything huge and only took maybe 10 minutes but I am excited to use it as something more soon. 

Students can post links, pictures, video, etc... with their comments - today we just did a very basic "see how it works out" activity. I think it could have a lot of uses! You can set it up like a stream, or random, or in a grid where it would almost look like Pinterest. 

Below are some random pictures of students learning to use padlet. Most used cell phones, I did have maybe one IPad and 1 Kindle or tablet user. 

Please let me know how you have used this or any ideas you have. Thanks for checking in on my blog!