Shortcut of the Week - Desktop

You know when you have a heap of windows opened and you want to get to something on the desktop. You have to go through the process of minimizing each window. How painful!

May be you're a bit more efficient, and have found the "minimize all" button at the bottom right of the screen. But, did you know there is an even more efficient way to get to your desktop?

Shortcut of the Week - Undo Redo

This weeks shortcut of the week is well known and loved by many.

Shortcut of the Week - Copy Cut Paste

If there is one technique you can use to significantly improve your computer efficiency, it would be keyboard shortcuts. This series of blog post will share one key-board shortcut (or logical groupings of shortcuts) a week. Try using them for the week, and see your computer productivity rocket.

Copy Cut Paste

These are among the best known keyboard shortcuts, but I still see people right mouse clicking to copy, cut and paste.

eLearning Tools for Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Any educator has hear of Bloom's Taxonomy along with it's various iterations. If you haven't, there are some excellent resources available at Educational Origami.

To help classroom implementation, I have categorised eLearning tools according to Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. This is just a beginning, and it will grow, so check back for more.
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, by damienmurtagh

Mobile Devices and Education

The Report

The recently published discussion paper Technology, Distraction & Student Performance has led to renewed calls for the banning of mobile phones in schools. The paper assessed the impact of mobile phone bans by comparing pre-ban and post-ban standardized test scores. The authors concluded:

• Mobile phone bans improved student performance on standardized tests by 6.41% of a standard deviation.
• The distraction of mobile phones can have a negative impact on productivity.
• Low achieving students are more likely to be distracted, while high achievers are barely effected.

While I can see no basis for questioning the validity of the statistical findings, I do have concerns about the assumptions on which the conclusions are based. The first assumption I am concerned about is equating educational performance with standardize testing results. Any teacher, or administrator, working in schools knows how poorly these tests assess what education is about.

The second assumption I'm concerned about is the belief that disadvantaged students cannot develop the impulse control of high achievers, and, therefore, need to be protected from their mobile phones. In other words, deficit thinking.

While both of these assumptions might make sense from an economic point-of-view, they have no place in a pedagogical framework.

An Alternative Approach

In response to these assumptions I would like to propose two alternatives. Firstly, that education is about helping students to develop the skills they will require to live a fulfilling life as a member of their society. The second assumption is, that every student is capable of developing these skills. The fact remains that mobile phones will distract students, particularly disadvantaged students, but using these two assumptions will lead to a very different resolution.

Firstly, mobile phones are not seen as problems that need to be removed from education. Rather, the new approach acknowledges that mobile phones are part of the student's society. Therefore, students need to learn the skill of appropriate use of mobile phone. They need to learn how to be productive while having access to their mobile phone.

Secondly, instead of believing that this skill in simply indicative of high achievers, the new approach looks at high achievers as an example that students can be productive while accessing their mobile phone. Therefore it is a skill that all students can be taught.

Consequently, I would like to propose an approach where schools teach students how to not be distracted by their phone.

Practical Application - The Pomodoro Technique

Just like the teaching of any skill, there are uncountable possible approaches. What follows is an approach that I have found to be effective. A small caveat, the subjects that I teach contain a significant component of individualized project work.

For a while now my classes have been using the pomodoro technique. It is a common technique for focusing on work, and curbing distractions. This technique involves breaking your work into focus blocks, separated by small breaks.

I use this technique when students need to focus on producing work (eg. assignment writing, or completing individual tasks). The process is as follows:

• Preparation
• Students log onto computers and open required programs.
• Students cue up enough music to last for the focus block.
• If they use their phone for this then it must be on no notification (ie. not even vibrate) and face down on the desk.
• I set up a timer on the projector (I use moosti, but there are plenty more).
• Focus Block
• The timer starts and students start working (15 - 25 mins).
• During this time the only person students can talk to is the teacher.
• If they think of something they need to do or say, they make a note of it, and get back to work.
• Break
• When the focus block ends, the short break starts (3 - 5 mins).
• During this time students stop work and:
• physically stand up and move around
• attend to the distractions they noted down during the focus block
• talk to their friends
• send all those 'emergence texts' to mum

The anecdotal evidence which I can provide suggests that this technique has been effective in helping students focus and reducing distraction. Even the students who struggle with focus work well through this process. I suspect there are two interrelated reasons for this:

• The process is about delay not abstinence. Students seem happier to accept "not now" rather than "no".
• The working block is small enough, that students are willing to postpone their distractions. This is reinforced by the timer which show how little they will have to wait.

There is one more aspect of this process worth mentioning. In introducing the process I explain the rationale behind it. Students are informed of the recent research which show why multi-tasking doesn't work. I find that students accept the process more readily when they understand that it is based upon scientific research, and not just some arbitrary decision by their teacher. I have found that this 2 minute video from CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta is a great way to get this message across.

Conclusion

I know that mobile technologies can be extremely distracting, and that adolescents, by their nature, have very poor impulse control, but I don't not see this as an excuse for teachers, to shirk our responsibility. Our students will be inhabiting a world with increasingly pervasive technologies, and therefore need to develop the skills required to be productive in this world. As a teacher, I believe that this is one of the skills I am responsible for teaching.

Google Educator Certification - Docs and Drive (Session 6)

We're now up to Lesson 8 of the Docs and Drive Level 2 training. This is a huge lesson, so it is probably best to cover it in a number of sessions.

Today we will look at the first section Sharing, Privacy, Printing, and Publishing.

We will continue to take notes on our collaborative document, and don't forget to share classroom ideas.

Google Educator Certification - Docs and Drive (Session 4)

Today we will be looking at Lesson 5 and Lesson 7 of the Docs and Drive Level 2 training. Lesson 5 deals with Slides, the presentation tool, and Lesson 7 looks at the Google Drawing tool. We'll leave lesson 6 until next week, as it deals with Forms, and I think it would be best to dedicate an entire session to this.

We will continue to take notes on our collaborative document, and don't forget to share classroom ideas.

Now that we will soon be on holidays, I'd suggest that you should take the time to complete your Google Basics Exam, and get your certificate. I heard some good advice from the Google Education Podcast - When completing your Google exams, using Google is not cheating.

Google Educator Certification - Docs and Drive (Session 5)

Today we will be looking at Lesson 6 of the Docs and Drive Level 2 training. This lesson deals with Google Forms. A Google form is an information collection tool. The information is collected in a Google sheet, which makes it a sinch to analyse.

We will continue to take notes on our collaborative document, and don't forget to share classroom ideas.

Locking down Facebook

Being an education professional mean maintaining a professional profile, and many education institutions believe that your public image impacts upon that professional profile. Social networking sites have become a big part of your public image, and, if you don't manage them properly then they could have a significant impact upon your professional profile.

This short video explains the current privacy setting on Facebook.

Edvertisement: Google Ate My Excuses

How to set this up

I believe that the best practice for setting up sharing with students in Google Drive is to have them create a folder for you class, and then share that folder with you. This normally takes 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of the the subject.

Once the folder has been shared, anything that the student creates in that folder, you automatically have access to.

The video below show the steps needed to make this happen.

Tips: Resetting your student's passwords

At our College, students have a number of different passwords, and, inevitably, they will forget them from time to time. Fortunately, as a teacher, you have the ability to reset two of these.

When you do rest them, remind students their passwords will need at least:

• 8 characters
• An uppercase letter
• A lowercase letter
• A number
• A symbol (like * $ . ! etc)

myBCE Account

Student's myBCE is provided by Brisbane Catholic Education and is used by students to access their email. The video below show you how to reset this password.

Google Apps for Education

The College provides students with a Google Apps for Education account. This account is used for students to access their Google Drive and other Google services. The video below show you how to reset these passwords.

Edvertisement: PowToon

PowToon in a web based presentation tool. It is simple to use tool has powerful animation effects, resulting in quite beautiful animations. PowToon allows you to upload voice-overs, and has a library of background music.

Using in the Classroom

The obvious use for PowToons is presentations, and students find it simple to use.
Our year 8 ICT used PowToons for an anti-bullying task. Using easy to find tutorials, they produced presentations of the quality below.

Getting Started

To start, go to www.powtoon.com. This is a freemium service and you can sign-up for free using your Google account. The free account has some limited services, but provides plenty of material for students to use.

The video below shows you how to use PowToon.

Google Educator Certification - Docs and Drive (Session 3)

Today with our Google session we will be looking at Lesson 4 of the Docs and Drive Level 2 training.

This lesson introduced Google Sheets, which is the Google Apps spreadsheet tool. Since the lesson assumes a little understanding of spreadsheets, first we might look at what spreadsheets are.

We will continue to take notes on our collaborative document, and don't forget to share classroom ideas.

Edvertisement: Chrome Apps and Extensions

Google Chrome is the world's most used browser for many reasons, and two of those reasons are Apps and Extensions. So what are they?

Apps

Apps are in-browser applications. That means that they are build in the web infrastructure (HTML 5, java etc), but more and more are becoming usable off-line. They are comparable to phone apps, programs that run within the Chrome.

An example of the Chrome App is the Biodigital Human which is a 3D anitomical model in which lets you explore all the body systems. You can turn systems on and off, zoom in, turn labels on and off. Look at the video below to see what I mean.

Extensions

Extensions are little add-ons which make Chrome easier to use. They may provide you with short cuts to web services you use, or spell and grammar check you on-line typing. Again there are is an huge range, so your best bet is to go look at them.

Using in the Classroom

Apps and extensions are so diverse, that the classroom opportunities they present are astounding. I would suggest that if you are looking for tool for you class, to go to the Chrome Web Store and search for that type of tool. You will most likely find something to meet you needs.

To give you a taste, I've included links to some apps and extensions that you might find useful for teaching:

Apps

• 3D Functions Plotter  an on line application to plotting two-variable real functions and integral and derivatives calculations.
• 3D Solar System Simulator is what it says it is
• Ancient History Encyclopaedia a website that provides free peer-reviewed ancient history information
• Biodigital Human a 3D anatomical model
• Cal Concentration a handy calculator for preparing solutions and buffer
• ChemReference: Periodic Table a powerful periodic table and chemistry reference tool.
• Chords Free ear training application
• Geograbra is free dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education 
• Lucidchart for Education diagramming software
• Planetarium An interactive sky map for exploring the stars and planets
• Ray Optics Simulation simulates reflection and refraction of light
• TimeMaps: World History Atlas easily navigate to any time and place in history. 
• Timer is a simple timer with countdown and count up features

Extensions

• 1 Click Timer is a quick countdown timer
• Adblocker blocks ads from appearing on pages in Chrome
• Awesome Screenshot captures a whole page or any portion for annotation and sharing
• Clearly makes blog posts, articles and webpages clean and easy to read
• Creative Commons Flickr Search searches Flickr for images and videos licensed under a Creative Commons license.
• Diigo Web Collector bookmarks, archives, screenshots & markups webpages
• Extension Defender provides malware protection for Chrome extensions
• Google Dictionary lets you view definitions easily as you browse the web.  
• Grammarly for Chrome a grammar and spell checker for the web
• Hola Better Internet lets you access websites which are block via countries
• Print Friendly & PDF removes ads, navigation and junk before printing of saving to pdf
• Read&Write for Google Text-to-Speech engine for Google Chrome 
• Save to Google Drive saves web content to your Google Drive
• Search by Image allows you to initiate a Google search using any image on the web

How do I get started?

The two thing that you will need to use Chrome's Apps and Extensions is to have installed Google Chrome onto you computer, and to have a Google Account. 

Once you have done that, go to the Chrome web store, and then adding apps and extensions is as simple as one click. If you want more information, watch the playlist below.

Google Educator Certification - Docs and Drive (Session 2)

Today is day two on Level 2 training for the Google Educator Certification. Last week we got through lessons one and two, so today we will start with lesson 3.

Don't forget that we have our collaborative note taking document. There is also a collaborative document to share any classroom ideas that you think of during the sessions.

1000 Views

Just a quick post to celebrate this blog ticking over the 1000 views mark.  What I find really interesting is that a blog written to share information to my work colleagues in Australia, has had so many international viewers.

The international audience include people from:

• United States
• Germany
• Switzerland
• France
• Malaysia
• Poland
• Indonesia
• Ukraine
• Spain
• Belgium
• Lithuania
• Cyprus
• Macedonia
• China
• Canada
• Argentina

Thanks to all of you for your support.

Edvertisement: Soundation

The ease of music creation in Soundation means it lend itself to a wide range of possible uses. It is quick and easy to make music. The loops are all in key with each other, and adjust their speed to the set BMP, so it is just click and drag.

This is the service that I used to create the background music for the Edvertisment videos. The footage for the Edvertisement video above was the entire production of the song below.

Soundation is also powerful enough to create complex pieces of music. Unlimited tracks, effects and automation will please the most demanding composer. Soundation is a freemium service, which means that you can pay for more features. These features include extra loop libraries, and the capacity to record straight into Soundation.

Using in the Classroom

Soundation uses fall into two categories. The first use is as a source of music for production purposes. Soundation creaes royalties free music that can for use in anything which requires a backing track. A second way I've had students use Soundation is for them to create backing tracks that they can then rap over or sign over. I have found this effective in with some students whom I was struggling to engage.

How do I get started?

You can get to Soundation by going to soundation.com. You can create an account, or just log in using your Google account. The site has a pretty good 'How to' section, including some helpful videos.

Do I need a paid account?

The two reasons you would have a paid account is more loops, and being able to record straight into Soundation. I have used Soundation for many years, without a paid account and this is why. The number of loops available provide plenty of scope for a wide range of music, so I see no need to buy more. Secondly, to record, download the wav file, import it into a free audio software (like audacity) and record in there.

Google Educator Certification - Docs and Drive (Session 1)

Today we start on the Level 2 training for the Google Educator Certification. Each course is fairly long, and very comprehensive, so I am uncertain as to how long this will take. 

We are going to start with the Docs and Drive course. To assist in the training I have created a document for collaborative note taking. There is also a collaborative document to share any classroom ideas that you think of during the sessions.

Finally, following on from our two sessions on Google Basics you might want to take the Basics Exam. Upon completion your certificate will be emailed to your account. Therefore, you might want to log into your personal account to take the exam.

Edvertisement: Google Earth

Using in Class

Google Earth has an extensive array of classroom applications. It can be used for everything from exploring the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and teaching geologic map interpretation, through mapping global energy consumption or glacial change, to mapping journeys from literature or exploring "All Quite on the Western Front".

Basically, if your subject involves the world, then there is probably a way that Google Earth can enhance your teaching, and the tour feature would be fantastic for multimodal presentations.

How to get started

Google Earth is a desktop application, which you will need to install on your computer. You will need to download it form this site.

Once you have installed the program you will need to know how to use it. The playlist below has six videos which introduce you to Google Earth.

Resources

Now, armed with your new understanding of Google Earth, it's time to look at applying it to your classroom. I think the best place to start is the Google Earth Section of the Science Education Resource Center website. Beyond that there are countless other websites and resources, below I have collated a sample of some of them, but if you really want to explore, just search for Google Earth Lessons.

• Google Earth Tour Builder
• Google Earth for Educators
• Google Earth for Educators: 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom
• Google Earth Lessons

Google Educator Certification Training (session 2)

Welcome to the second session of the Google Educator Certification training. For those who were not here last week, the plan is for these to be support sessions where we, a a group, work towards becoming Google Educators. The idea is for use to work through the training offered at the Google for Education site.

Initially we are working through the basics videos on six Google tools. Last week, we covered Docs and Drive, Search, and Sites.

This week we will look at:

• Calendar
• Chrome
• Gmail

Don't forget, that as we work through these tools, we're trying to keep a record of ideas for their classroom application using this document, and links to all websites we discus will be kept on the Tuesday Arvo Sessions Diigo group. There is a permanent link to both of these resources in the blog sidebar.