LEARNING IS A JOURNEY, AND IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE THAT STORY. CAPTURE HIGH-QUALITY MEDIA WITH LOW-COST TOOLS. EXPLORE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES THAT ANY TEACHER CAN USE ANY DAY TO CAPTURE BETTER IMAGES, MAKE MORE POWERFUL MEDIA, AND REACH MORE AUDIENCES. PHOTOGRAPHY, AUDIO RECORDING, VIDEO CAPTURE, EDITING, AND PUBLISHING TIPS WILL BE DEMONSTRATED, ALL WITH DEVICES READILY AVAILABLE IN MOST CLASSROOMS.
(from STI 2016)
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Everyone Can Code!
Everyone Can Code!
an ESU 8 Wednesday Webinar from Katie Morrow
Everyone Can Code is an initiative recently launched by Apple to make coding with the Swift programming language even more accessible to all. Learn about Swift Playgrounds, a free app designed for middle schoolers on up, accompanying Teacher’s Guide, and related resources to give even novices more opportunities to reach students interested in coding.
Everyone Can Code (and Swift Playgrounds)
Wednesday Webinar 10-5-16
Swift Playgrounds app
*Requires iOS 10.0 or later
Designed for Middle School Students
Swift Playgrounds Teacher Guide
App Development with Swift
Designed for High School or College Students
App Development with Swift Teacher Guide
Additional Resources
- How to Learn to Code in Swift on a Chromebook - blog post by Kelly Croy, Wired Educator (and other blog posts related to Swift here)
Coding STEM kits available for check out through the ESU 8 Media Center
Tickle app (free, but requires newer iPad)
Ozobot for pre-coders
Coding for Kids blog post by Katie Morrow from last year
Impact Your Audience: Presentations that rock!
Are students disengaged with your traditional presentation design? Are staff members turned off by your presentation delivery? Find out ways to improve your next presentation, whether for professional learning experiences or everyday classroom instruction. Explore concepts in layout & design, strategies for engaging your audience, and presentation techniques used by some of the world’s best speakers. Make your next presentation rock!
Resources to accompany “Impact Your Audience: Presentations that rock!”
Resources to accompany “Impact Your Audience: Presentations that rock!”
Curated by Katie Morrow
Books
- Brain Rules by John Medina
- Resonate by Nancy Duarte
- Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
- The Pin Drop Principle by Lewis & Mills
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Free for iBooks
- Design Secrets Revealed by Keri-Lee Beasley
- Keynote for Mac Starter Guide from Apple Education
- The Joy of Professional Learning by ADEs
Presentations About Presentations!
- The Art of the Presentation (Sound of Music references)
Recommended Media Sources
- Pixabay (CC0 licensed content)
- Unsplash (CC0 licensed content)
- Noun Project (icons)
- Slides Carnival (free slide themes & templates)
- Dafont (fonts)
Additional Resources
Tools for Audience Interaction
- Twitter hashtag & schedule Tweets
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Exciting updates with Challenge Based Learning
Whether you are familiar with Challenge Based Learning (CBL) or not, the time is ripe for newly updated resources surrounding this student-centered learning framework.
Our students are eager for meaningful, applicable learning experiences and CBL provides just the right amount of scaffolding to impact any classroom or campus.
Begin by downloading a brand new users guide, available for free in the iBooks Store.
This resource is jam-packed with insight. From the history and foundational thinking of CBL, to a simplified 3 stage process, to connections other pedagogical approaches- each page adds exciting knowledge to any educator's expertise.
Also, be sure to explore the newly updated CBL website, shared by Digital Promise at http://cbl.digitalpromise.org. In addition to the rich resources here, registration is currently open for a global challenge based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
What an exciting time to be an educator! Join the hundreds of thousands of teachers and schools who have already seen the impact of CBL on their students and communities. Join the #CBLWorld movement today.
Monday, April 25, 2016
NETA 2016
Another NETA Conference is officially in the books, but as always, the learning doesn't stop at the Century Link Center. Here is a quick collection of how my time was spent learning this year at NETA 2016.
I presented three sessions this year and have linked the slides and resources for each.
Learn about the process of publishing on the iBooks Store from start to finish including topic and project ideas for both teachers and students, content development in iBooks Author, and the submission and approval process from iTunes. Whether for classroom use or personal professional use, anyone has the ability to become a published author on this powerful platform!
Do More With... Keynote (NETA 2016)
If you thought Keynote was simply used to create slideshows, you will be amazed! See creative ideas for alternative uses of Apple's Keynote app for either Mac or iOS. Coding, animation, holograms and more... and all experiences are easy enough for beginning users. Learn and apply innovative ideas to do more with something you already have access to: Apple's Keynote.
GameShowification (NETA Ignite Talk 2016)
Learn about lessons for education gained from my personal experiences playing a TV Game Show - Family Feud! Google slides with notes: https://goo.gl/R7aJRU
As always, the NETA Keynotes were first-rate. This year they featured "NebEdTalks" - shorter style Nebraska Education "TED Talks" - from 4 different presenters. Leading off was Bob Dillon, Director of BrightBytes Institute who reminded us to slow down, notice and appreciate more.
Jennie Mageira, however, encouraged us to get motivated to let go and take risks with her talk centered around "Courageous Edventures."
Day 2 Keynotes included Rafranz Davis on Diversity in Education and Nebraska native, Tony Vincent, who encouraged us to "Reset the Presets."
For me professionally, there were too many valuable sessions to even begin to list. However I did see many common themes. Over and over again, we were reminded in the power of failure- both for our learners and for ourselves professionally. "Play" and gamification, both in teaching and in PD were repeated frequently. Google Cardboard and the MakerSpace/Maker movement were also a common interest for participants. Blended Learning continues to be an important topic for schools as well, and NETA provided numerous sessions and resources for it.
Additional personal highlights for me came from secondary experiences related to NETA. I participated in a BreakoutEDU session and thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative challenge of breaking out of Dr. Johnson's Lab. The educational opportunities that exist with this concept excite me for schools. Learn more at breakoutedu.com.
NETA also sponsored its first ever 5K fun run/walk. We woke up early on Friday morning to take a short run across the bridge into Iowa with fellow NETA participants. Again, sometimes it is the peripheral experiences that provide the richest learning opportunities.
To follow some of the many tweets from #NETA16, check out this Twitter archive - rich with links and commentary.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Power of Public Sharing
Lynch, Nebraska, population 236 (2013 census) to me has always been the epitome of rural community pride. It is home to thriving businesses, genuine people, and a great getaway for anyone desiring a break from the beaten path.
Lynch Public School continues to try and push the envelope with technology amidst the realities of declining population, waning financial support, and public opinion encouraging consolidation or closure.
During the current school year Lynch Public School set a goal to host a Technology Fair with the intent of showcasing technology usage across the K-12 school. Efforts began early, and by partnering with ESU 8, teachers were provided related training and ongoing support. Teachers chose a variety of projects and tech skills to implement in their classrooms and subject areas. Plans were shared across the staff so that duplicate ideas were avoided and a wide variety of exemplars could be showcased.
For the Tech Fair each teacher hosted a “booth.” All students were encouraged to attend and demonstrate technology skills they had gained from their classroom experiences. The entire community was invited to attend, and like any good open house, refreshments were served. :-)
On their own initiative the staff worked together to create a plan for the delivery of the experience, open to the public. They set up projector screens back to back in the middle of the gym and positioned additional tables around the outside edges of the gym. Every available projector from a classroom was moved to a table station. Some stations required speakers and/or headphones, while others just required iPads or laptops to demonstrate.
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| Click the above image to view the Flickr album of photos from the event. |
Some of the high level student work that was shared included:
- iMovies of classroom activities (“A Day in the Life”)
- Instructional videos (PE and Industrial Tech skills)
- Augmented Reality projects (“About Me” and science…)
- Robotics
- iXL Math
- Kahoot online quiz games
- Digital books created with iBooks Author (World War II)
- Digital books created on iPad with Book Creator app (Weather Instruments)
- 20% Project Presentations (student-directed scientific research projects)
- Green screen videos (music videos and more!)
- Online portfolios (Art portfolios built with Smore)
- SMART Board activities in English Language Arts
- Learning journals with the SeeSaw app
- Sketchup (3D design)
The event was well attended. Many parents, grandparents, and additional family members were treated to a more in-depth personal exposure to each student’s learning experiences with technology. Another positive outcome was the visitors who were not necessarily relatives of the students, but simply interested community patrons. To be able to demonstrate the value of tax payers’ money and the purposeful impact the school is making for youth is an absolute win-win for all.
I have often said that it is our personal responsibility as educators to promote the positive things that are happening in our classrooms. Lynch Public School took on this task and more with their collective efforts around the Tech Fair. They proved once again that no matter your school’s size, you can be an example to others— an example that I hope to see others following in the near future. Whether through online spaces, in the media, or simply inviting the community in for an experience like a Technology Fair, we all can be advocates for technology-enhanced education through the power of public sharing.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
4th Grade Nebraska Project with HyperDuino
For as long as I can remember, the O'Neill Elementary 4th Grade Nebraska Fair is an exciting opportunity for young learners to begin to develop critical research skills and is a must-see for all parents, grandparents, and community members. My youngest son, Drew, is a 4th grader this year and we eagerly anticipated this memorable project in his academic career.
In the fall I heard about a Roger Wagner product called the Hyperduino from Kelly Croy's Wired Educator podcast. The concept is a combination of a Hyperstudio's multimedia creation software and an Arduino board. With a "Makerspace" feel, this kit allows students to explore principles of STEM with still incorporating physical creation, construction, and design. I immediately knew that Drew would love to incorporate circuits, LEDs, and sensors into whatever physical representation of his Nebraska history project he decided to build. We ordered a kit and eagerly waited for the time of the year that the 4th grade classes began their research.
Drew decided that his topic would be the thing about Nebraska that he loves the most--- Nebraska football-- and quickly got his topic approved by his teachers. The students completed their research questions, fact-finding, and report writing all at school, but parents were encouraged to help students with some sort of display to accompany their project for the Nebraska Fair. This is where the Hyperduino came into play.
The physical model could literally be anything-- the kit actually comes with a small cardboard volcano model and another example video features a solar system model board. (For more ideas, visit the HyperStudio and HyperDuino Central Facebook group.) We decided that a replica of Tom Osborne Field at Memorial Stadium would give us opportunity to connect LEDs and sensors to trigger different multimedia videos that Drew would create to enhance his project. We used a bulletin board, but any kind of cardboard, foam, or display board would work just as well. We knew that we would need to plan and decide:
Drew and I worked through the example volcano project with little difficulty. We quickly discovered that we didn't even need to learn Hyperstudio to link the media-- that it all could now be done with a free Chrome web app in the Chrome browser. He decided to create 5 videos of his own and use one on the history of Husker football that he found on YouTube. The media that you connect to the Hyperduino can be any YouTube video or website URL which really opens your options for media creation. Drew made three videos with the Explain Everything app and filmed his live tour of Memorial Stadium with the built-in camera and edited in the iMovie app. All videos were uploaded to my YouTube channel and I added them to a playlist, simply for ease of finding later on.
Next we built the physical model of the football field. At the predetermined places Drew and his dad poked holes for the Hyperduino cables and attached LED lights and sensors to them. The Hyperduino is fairly small and can be awkward to access once everything is hooked up, so I used Post-it notes to label each connection with the corresponding number code from the Hyperduino. This made the programming for the Chrome app much more efficient.
We also read about a motor that comes with the kit that you can program to turn. Drew's dad helped him rig up a small hackysack-type football that would spin once we programmed a sensor to do so.
The final, and most important step, was to create the "Playlist" in the HyperDuino for Chrome app that would run the project when launched. While we still are not experts in this, this is how we did it:
1) Loaded the desired video in YouTube.
2) Clicked the + to add new media that is currently open in your browser.
3) Chose the timecode of the video that we wanted to play.
4) Clicked the blue drop-down arrow to set inputs and actions.
This is an example of the sensor connected to the A0 port that is set to Analog mode and will respond from 0 to 255, which means that if the sensor's light is blocked, that it will trigger the playing of the video.
In this second "line of code" the same video is used, but port 9 is set to Output -- High when arriving at timecode 00:13 (light turns ON) and Output -- Low when leaving timecode 00:35 (light turns off).
You can view our final Hyperduino for Chrome Playlist here.
Through trial and error we continued to program the Hyperduino app to interact with our media. The spirit of experimentation is so crucial here. We definitely had more failures along the way than successes, but now feel equipped to build a Hyperduino experience next time that is much improved from our first project. We did figure out how to start a video with a sensor and then make an LED light up at key moments in a video. We got the football to spin (although it did begin to be less dependable after hours of demonstrating to audiences) and added some final labels to the physical project board, just to make the demonstration more self-explanatory. You can view Drew's final project with Hyperduino interactions here:
The Nebraska Fair at O'Neill Elementary was a resounding success and Drew's project was well received by all who visited it. For me personally, it was a great time to experience something as a learner myself, and I cannot wait to pass along the knowledge I gained to the next person who would like to try a similar project. And even more importantly, it was great to learn something new with my 4th grade son.
 |
| 2016 O'Neill Elementary Nebraska Fair |
In the fall I heard about a Roger Wagner product called the Hyperduino from Kelly Croy's Wired Educator podcast. The concept is a combination of a Hyperstudio's multimedia creation software and an Arduino board. With a "Makerspace" feel, this kit allows students to explore principles of STEM with still incorporating physical creation, construction, and design. I immediately knew that Drew would love to incorporate circuits, LEDs, and sensors into whatever physical representation of his Nebraska history project he decided to build. We ordered a kit and eagerly waited for the time of the year that the 4th grade classes began their research.
Drew decided that his topic would be the thing about Nebraska that he loves the most--- Nebraska football-- and quickly got his topic approved by his teachers. The students completed their research questions, fact-finding, and report writing all at school, but parents were encouraged to help students with some sort of display to accompany their project for the Nebraska Fair. This is where the Hyperduino came into play.
The physical model could literally be anything-- the kit actually comes with a small cardboard volcano model and another example video features a solar system model board. (For more ideas, visit the HyperStudio and HyperDuino Central Facebook group.) We decided that a replica of Tom Osborne Field at Memorial Stadium would give us opportunity to connect LEDs and sensors to trigger different multimedia videos that Drew would create to enhance his project. We used a bulletin board, but any kind of cardboard, foam, or display board would work just as well. We knew that we would need to plan and decide:
- - number of videos that would be activated by his project
- - what the triggers would be for each
- - how the LED lights would interact with the videos (when in the videos and where on the board)
- - how far apart the Hyperduino connections would stretch to allow us to connect everything to the Hyperduino
Drew and I worked through the example volcano project with little difficulty. We quickly discovered that we didn't even need to learn Hyperstudio to link the media-- that it all could now be done with a free Chrome web app in the Chrome browser. He decided to create 5 videos of his own and use one on the history of Husker football that he found on YouTube. The media that you connect to the Hyperduino can be any YouTube video or website URL which really opens your options for media creation. Drew made three videos with the Explain Everything app and filmed his live tour of Memorial Stadium with the built-in camera and edited in the iMovie app. All videos were uploaded to my YouTube channel and I added them to a playlist, simply for ease of finding later on.
Next we built the physical model of the football field. At the predetermined places Drew and his dad poked holes for the Hyperduino cables and attached LED lights and sensors to them. The Hyperduino is fairly small and can be awkward to access once everything is hooked up, so I used Post-it notes to label each connection with the corresponding number code from the Hyperduino. This made the programming for the Chrome app much more efficient.
We also read about a motor that comes with the kit that you can program to turn. Drew's dad helped him rig up a small hackysack-type football that would spin once we programmed a sensor to do so.
The final, and most important step, was to create the "Playlist" in the HyperDuino for Chrome app that would run the project when launched. While we still are not experts in this, this is how we did it:
1) Loaded the desired video in YouTube.
2) Clicked the + to add new media that is currently open in your browser.
4) Clicked the blue drop-down arrow to set inputs and actions.
This is an example of the sensor connected to the A0 port that is set to Analog mode and will respond from 0 to 255, which means that if the sensor's light is blocked, that it will trigger the playing of the video.
In this second "line of code" the same video is used, but port 9 is set to Output -- High when arriving at timecode 00:13 (light turns ON) and Output -- Low when leaving timecode 00:35 (light turns off).
You can view our final Hyperduino for Chrome Playlist here.
Through trial and error we continued to program the Hyperduino app to interact with our media. The spirit of experimentation is so crucial here. We definitely had more failures along the way than successes, but now feel equipped to build a Hyperduino experience next time that is much improved from our first project. We did figure out how to start a video with a sensor and then make an LED light up at key moments in a video. We got the football to spin (although it did begin to be less dependable after hours of demonstrating to audiences) and added some final labels to the physical project board, just to make the demonstration more self-explanatory. You can view Drew's final project with Hyperduino interactions here:
The Nebraska Fair at O'Neill Elementary was a resounding success and Drew's project was well received by all who visited it. For me personally, it was a great time to experience something as a learner myself, and I cannot wait to pass along the knowledge I gained to the next person who would like to try a similar project. And even more importantly, it was great to learn something new with my 4th grade son.
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