Literacy Now

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

Recently, I’ve been engaged in several professional conversations about the role of a teacher in today’s world. As the debate rages on, I couldn’t help but wonder: If we, as educators, are resistant to change, are we really looking towards meeting the needs of our digital age learners? Are we strictly content disseminators? Do our students need us for that anymore?

Where do we fit into the picture?

As teachers it is our job to help every child grow and move along the learning continuum, but are we doing that if everything that we teach them could have been answered or found easily with a simple Google search? Is that really educating students? Is it about giving them simple facts they all could have found using the devices they have in the palms of their hands?

Of course not! Our jobs are to teach these students how to find the relevance in their education and apply it to other aspects of their lives. Today’s students are looking for meaningful ways to use what they are learning in our classrooms to create something new to share with one another or to apply it to solve a real, authentic problem.

Today’s students expect more than many of us received in our education. However, with these changes comes a new set of challenges. We now have an overwhelming amount of content to absorb and process before learners begin synthesizing, evaluating, and critically thinking about publishing something new for their audience. The vast quantity can easily become unmanageable and chaotic for our students, causing them to lose focus on their objective. How can we help our students curate and organize their content in a meaningful way?

Here are three ways that my students and I have found to curate information that assists students in gathering their content before they begin walking down the publishing path.

Wikispaces. Wikispaces, now called Wikispaces Classroom, was the very first collaborative tool that my students and I began using. I loved it instantly because multiple users from different locations could add, edit, and revise each page. If you have ever used a word processing document, using Wikispaces is intuitive. With Wikispaces, in addition to adding text, you can upload all kinds of files: audio, video, URL links, images, Word Documents, PowerPoint, and spreadsheets. Also, you have the ability to embed projects from other sites such as Voki, Voice Thread, Padlet, ToonTastic, Glogster, Google maps…the list can go on and on. Whatever content you or your students locate online can be connected and housed within Wikispaces.

One of the exciting parts of Wikispaces is that they are always listening and changing to meet the needs to today’s teachers and students. Wikispaces has added an easily manageable private social network to their pages where you and your students can communicate about the content being added to the wiki. It stretches the classroom time beyond school hours and gives students the opportunity to work collaboratively, leaving one another notes or comments upon their work. As the teacher, you have the ability to monitor complete history of student discussion, writing, and file uploads, giving you the ability to formatively assess their learning.

Through Wikispaces, students receive the support that they need to curate relevant, meaningful content for their publishing and adds the authentic audience and social aspect that today’s learner craves.

LiveBinders. I know that I have written about LiveBinders previously, but this is a tool that easily helps students (especially older students) manage the digital content that they encounter while building background knowledge. Because students are familiar with the organization of binders with tabs, this is a format that will be familiar to them. LiveBinders easily formats and organizes web pages, PDFs, videos and images all in one place. Instead of students running around all over the Internet, everything is housed right there in the binder ready for them to analyze and synthesize into their writing and publishing. LiveBinders also offers a collaborative aspect as binders can be shared and built upon by more than one user, which is great for students working together in group projects. In addition to being an online tool, LiveBinders is offered as a free app giving you and your students more flexibility in curating content.

EdCanvas. EdCanvas is the relatively new kid on the block when it comes to content curation, but it offers a lot of options that make one sit up and take notice. Once signed up, a user builds canvases of Google, Flickr, Educreations, DropBox, YouTube, Google Drive, URL bookmarks, and much, much more. You can even upload slideshows, PDFs, media, and audio files. All of these are all done within the dashboard of EdCanvas. Once an item is located within the dashboard, you can drag and drop it into the canvas. As a teacher, you can monitor the amount of time students spent on different resources within the canvas and see student’s comments or requests for help.

As an additional note, a couple of weeks ago, I was using EdCanvas with my students and was having some technical difficulty. I tweeted about this glitch and within a couple of minutes, EdCanvas began helping me troubleshoot and solve the problem. They are hands down the best tech support that I have ever had. They are very dedicated to providing teachers and students with a quality tool while continuing to update and adapt to meet the needs of today’s digital learner.

There are a multitude of uses for these curation tools across content areas and grade levels. I love that these tools are flexible for the students or the teacher to use, from school, home, or around the world. I have used each of these tools to curate content that I wanted to give every student access. But, we also have used all of these tools to curate a collection of each student’s work on one topic, such as their Innovation Day projects that they published on Wikispaces at the Twitter request of a class in Canada. With these three tools, students, parents, and our global peers have easy access to our writing and publishing.

So as the debate continues about the role of teachers, one thing that does not change is our privilege of working with students and guiding each one towards reaching their highest potential. Today’s world is ever changing; thankfully, we live in a time where, with technology, we can rise to challenge and provide our students with the best learning opportunities possible.

Join @JulieDRamsay & @IRAToday for a Twitter chat on "Writing in the Digital Classroom."  The chat will take place on July 18th at 8pm EST. Use #IRAchat to join the conversation!

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.

For my recent Engage post, I asked my students to review apps we had used to create presentations in our classroom. The apps included a variety of tools for making traditional slide show displays. But the beauty of the devices we are using in our classroom is that we can go so much further, and break past those conventional boundaries.

With that in mind, I would like to share some of the apps my students utilized in creating presentations that were of the less traditional variety.

Pic Collage

We used Pic Collage (available for Apple and Android devices) for a variety of projects, but it was especially useful early on when my students were first learning to use their iPads. Before we got into the more complicated apps, Pic Collage gave them a chance to start learning how to navigate on their device and use the media they captured with the camera.

p: flickingerbrad via photopin cc

Our first project of the year was a "getting to know you" presentation in which students created a collage of pictures to represent themselves, which we then shared and discussed. We also used it to create photo collages around topics or characters we were studying, which students could then use to explain their ideas to their peers.

My students liked Pic Collage because it offered a variety of tools, options, and fun extras that they could use to make their photos and presentations unique. It was easy to use, reliable, and didn't require an account log in. They ran into some issues with editing/cropping photos, but nothing that made it unusable. This is an entertaining (free!) app that students enjoy using, and a perfect choice for simple classroom projects.

Prezi for iPad

We were pretty excited about the free Prezi app (available for Apple devices), as the web version creates such amazing, beautiful presentations. And these presentations can be viewed, presented, and to an extent edited on the iPad app. Unfortunately, the app does not contain all the templates and tools that are available on the web version, which seriously hampers its usefulness in the classroom. We hope that an update in the future will bring more functionality to the app.

For my students, it was not convenient to have to wait until we had access to the computer lab to set up or make certain changes to their presentations. We needed a stand-alone app, and that is not what this is. But the app does allow for access to the free services of the Prezi site, and is certainly useful for presenting Prezis that have already been made, as well as doing some limited editing.

ScreenChomp

Screencasting and flipped classrooms are all the rage, and there are a ton of apps out there designed to facilitate these types of learning. We used ScreenChomp (free; available for iPad) as more of an in-class tool to teach and discuss concepts. It functions well as a whiteboard, allowing for annotations as well as voice narration and video creation.

The app is similar to its peers, but it does have some advantages over others that make it very useful for the classroom. First off, no account is needed. This simplifies things and makes it very quick and easy to utilize. The tools are basic and simple to use, making it perfect for younger students. My students liked the ability to add a slide as well as the ability to erase mistakes. Sharing is quite easy, and the finished video can be downloaded from the web.

The drawbacks are that the simplicity means it may not be quite as versatile as other apps in terms of tools and capabilities, and direct export onto the device isn't supported. But if you are looking for an easy-to-learn tool for creating quick explanations, this is an excellent place to start.

iMovie

This app ($4.99; available for Apple devices) is at the top of the list for classroom creation and presentation. For one thing, kids love to make movies. We used it to make videos about Martin Luther King, Jr., to explain aspects of weather, to record their reflections of our iPad classroom, and for a multitude of other projects. In my classroom, I had to specify that my students couldn't use iMovie for certain projects, in order to push my students out of an app rut.

iMovie is simply an incredible tool for creating video presentations. It can be used for anything from simple photo slide shows to more complex narrated videos. My students liked that all their media was easily accessible from within the app, and they loved using the premade formats for trailers. They also liked that they could use their own music as well as the provided tunes. Sharing and exporting were easy, and a number of options for social media sharing are built right in to the app.

iMovie has some drawbacks, as most apps do. The cost is prohibitive for some classrooms, although it does qualify for the educational discount. It is fairly easy to learn the basic functions of the app, but the more intricate tasks require some instruction and guidance from someone who is experienced with the app. It was not one that I could turn my students loose with and expect for them to discover all of its capabilities. One aspect that my students disliked was that text-only slides had to be created in another app and then imported as an image, as text creation is not an option within the app (except as captions).

Overall, though, iMovie is a flexible and incredibly engaging tool for students, and I cannot imagine my classroom without it.

The opportunity for creativity, for both students and educators, expands exponentially as technology becomes readily available in more and more classrooms. Moving beyond the barriers and expectations of the past is imperative if we want to see the full benefit of classroom technology, and apps like these are helping to bring about this exciting revolution.

Lindsey Fuller is a sixth grade teacher in Decatur, Illinois. Her interests are classroom technology integration, literacy instruction, and Common Core curriculum development and implementation. You can read more from Lindsey on these topics at her blog, Tales of a 6th Grade Classroom.

One of the great advantages of having readily available technology in the classroom is the opportunity it provides for students to teach each other. As teachers, we become accustomed to seeing the process and outcome for every student's efforts in the classroom. But when students are given the opportunity to share their work in an engaging way with their peers, learning reaches new heights.

p: adamtr via photopin cc

In the past year, my students have presented research projects, book reports, lessons, speeches...you name it, and we've probably done it. Besides the obvious benefits of learning how to create a presentation and talk in front of a crowd, the simple fact is that kids know how to reach each other.

I recently asked my students to tell me the benefits and drawbacks of some of the apps we have utilized when we wanted to create a traditional slide show presentation. These apps aren’t perfect—but they have been used and reviewed by students to give you an idea of what might be worth a download.

Pixntell

This app allows the user to create a video out of photos, and then add their own voice to narrate. The free version is limited to five photos per presentation. A full version can be purchased for $0.99, which allows up to 70 photos to be used per project. Another upgrade allows the user to enter text-only slides, similar to a PowerPoint presentation. Pixntell EDU offers both of these upgrades for $1.99, and qualifies for Apple's education discount. All versions are available for both iPhone and iPad; an Android version is due out this year.

My students were excited to use this app. They thought it looked fun, and that they could create a unique presentation. Due to the type of presentation they were working on, the five-picture limit was a little too restrictive, but it would certainly work for shorter projects or book reports.

Unfortunately, the biggest difficulty wasn't the photo limit, but that they couldn't record their narration—the app crashed repeatedly when trying to save the recording. And while we loved that users can edit a project, my students found that when they tried to do so, the app would instead delete the project.

On the positive side, they found Pixntell very easy to operate, outside of the operational glitches. The students were able to create a simple slideshow, but there are probably better apps for that task. We were unable to try out the EDU version, so we cannot report on whether or not the same problems exist within that app.

Pixntell has a lot of potential. It clearly has some bugs that need to be worked out, but once those are resolved it would be an excellent option for short presentations. The concept is great—I'll be keeping an eye out for future updates.

Deck Slideshow Presentations

My students were able to make very nice presentations with this (free!) app. They were pleased with the option to use their own photos, especially since the built-in image search is limited. They mentioned their appreciation of the ability to caption photos, and that the app was not at all difficult to use. But what really roped my students in with this app were the animated themes and transitions—these options made for a very professional-looking presentation, and they loved the final results.

A 60-character limit per slide forces the user to be brief, and while my kids struggled with this, in the end it was a beneficial struggle. They encountered some trouble with being able to select desired photos, and reported that the app did crash on occasion. It also took them a while to figure out that they had to choose the number of slides when they started a project, and couldn't add more on later—this was very frustrating at times. Another drawback was the lack of sharing options; currently, no web-based sharing is supported. Presentations can be emailed, but the recipient must have the app in order to view them.

The app seems to have a lot of “limits,” so it may not be appropriate for all classrooms or projects. But overall, my students were able to make it work and were quite pleased with the results. The app, formerly $2.99, is available for free for iPhone/iPad and Android as well.

Haiku Deck

This is perhaps one of our favorite apps for creating presentations. The user enters the desired text, and then can use the app to search for related photos to use as slide backgrounds. All of the resulting photos are Creative Commons offerings, so there are no copyright issues. The user can also select their own photos stored on the device to use as backgrounds.

Perhaps what makes this app so incredible is that despite being free, it offers an astounding number of options and tools. Users can choose from a variety of templates when creating a project, photos can be cropped, filters can be applied, bulleted lists and graphs can be created...and the list goes on. It is a well-designed, highly adaptable tool for the classroom, and contains a plethora of options for sharing finished presentations.

Once again, my students found this app to be easy to use, and it must be noted that these particular slideshows were incredibly beautiful. Since the presentations can be as simple or elaborate as the individual user chooses, it might be a good option for younger students or those with limited technology skills. Teachers should monitor closely, though; the app is not designed specifically for schools, and any term could be put into the search engine. It is only available for iPad currently.

Few apps are perfect, and this is especially true for those that come free. While all of these apps have their drawbacks, we also found each had a useful place in our classroom—and we hope you will find the same to be true in yours.

Lindsey Fuller is a sixth grade teacher in Decatur, Illinois. Her interests are classroom technology integration, literacy instruction, and Common Core curriculum development and implementation. You can read more from Lindsey on these topics at her blog, Tales of a 6th Grade Classroom.

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

p: infoxchange_australia via photopin cc

As we approach the end to another academic school year, many people (not in the educational field) keep asking me if I'm counting down the days or looking forward to having a couple of months off. I'm sure other educators hear similar questions and I have to say that those questions frustrate me a bit. I feel like they imply that I can't wait to get out of the classroom and away from my students, putting us in the stereotypical school situation...which we are not.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy being with my students. We have fun in our classroom together where we all learn together every single day. It's bittersweet for all of us when they pass on to the next grade because our tight-knit learning community is breaking up as they move forward to the next step in their learning journey. I'm proud of them and I know that they are more than ready for the next grade, but I also know that I will miss them.

Teaching is a constant journey that causes us to reflect throughout the year on what went well and what we want to change for the next group of learners headed our way. With that in mind, I am always searching for new resources, tools and insight on what will reach my individual learners best wherever they are in their learning journey. My summer fills up fast with conferences, un-conferences, and workshops.

I know that funding is tight (or nonexistent) in many of our systems. That leaves us with the responsibility to either pay out of pocket to attend conferences and professional learning events or go without. But are those our only options? In today’s digital world, is it possible to continue our professional growth without shelling out our hard earned dollars?

The answer is a resounding “YES!” I thought I would share a few ideas on how you can harness the power of today’s technology resources to help you get the professional learning for which you are searching all for the low, low price of…FREE!

Let’s Discuss!

No matter what your interest or certification, there is now a host of learning communities in which you can engage in conversations. In addition to blogs written in formats such as IRA’s Engage, just about any professional organization has an online community where you can register a user name and begin posting ideas, questions, strategies, or tools.

These discussion boards, such as this one from Thinkfinity, become asynchronous conversations where practicing classroom teachers can all share their experience to benefit everyone within the learning community. What I love about these message boards is that I am getting relevant information from teachers who have actually used these tools, strategies, and lessons plans with actual students.

Tweet Away!

Another way to connect and grow professionally is through Twitter. I know that many people have written Twitter off as a waste of time. After all, who wants to know what celebrity is having trouble deciding which latte to get this morning?

However, Twitter is as useful as you make it. If you want to professionally grow in a certain area, look for other educators who are experts in that area. Twitter is all about the connections and relationships you build with other tweeters. Don’t expect to sign on and post a question and immediately get an answer. Other educators need to ”know you.” Send a tweet introducing yourself and join in the conversations. If you are unsure of where to begin, take a look at this list of educators.

Also, many people are not aware that there are real-time tweet chats on just about every subject that would interest an educator. These are informal learning times where a topic has been selected and educators chime in with their resources, lessons, ideas, and strategies within that particular hour. Here is a list of educational Twitter chats to get you started. Tweet chats are fast paced. You wouldn’t believe how fast an hour long chat will fly by or how many practical ideas and resources you will gain.

Also, most conferences now have Twitter hashtags, like #IRA2013, where you can follow all of the ideas, insights, and resources shared by the presenters and attendees.

Getting a Little More Formal

Do you enjoy learning in a more formal manner? Just like with blogs and discussion boards, most organizations offer webinars of live or recorded sessions. One of my favorites is Classroom 2.0 Live. They have at least one live webinar a week complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing, and sometimes even video. These webinars are led by today’s leading educators and you can learn from them, ask questions, and get a multitude of ideas all from the comfort of your home or local coffee house.

The great thing is they archive all of their other webinars and you can gain access to for free. Want to learn about LiveBinders, educational apps, or blogging? They have a webinar for that. Want to learn from your favorite authors? They have webinars for that, as well. One great perk is that after you view one of their webinars, recorded or real-time, you get a link to print out a certificate for professional development hours.

Taking the Time You Need

During the summer, I do thoroughly enjoy having some time where I don't have to set my alarm clock and I can meet friends for lunch. Also, I do (like many of you) cram a lot of professional learning into those two months off because I'll have more flexibility to read and participate in professional learning throughout the summer months.

My husband once laughed and told someone that real teachers don't get time off. They work just as hard, if not harder, during the summer as they do during the school year. The only difference is that we aren't in classroom with our students. We're out there learning to become the best teacher we can be for our next group of students.

So this summer, as I strive to learn as much as possible from all of you, I hope that we can connect and learn together. Because learning together (like in many of our classrooms) is what is going to impact our students most. Providing them with as many opportunities to create, collaborate and work together in authentic learning activities while supporting their work with relevant tools is really what it's all about.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

For many of us, this is the last big push before the end of the school year. Not only do many of us face the dreaded days spent administering standardized test to our students, but we are also trying to impart those last lessons that we hope that our students will take with them for a lifetime.

We have spent a fantastic year where the students have been a community of readers, writers, debaters, publishers, communicators, creators, scientists, artists, historians, and mathematicians. Recently, my students have begun asking me, “Will you keep up all of our online work?” I reassure them that I have no intention of taking down any of their fantastic work.

Their question caused me to pause and think upon my own experiences; when my book was released, it was the tangible quality of holding it in my hand that validated all of the hard work that had gone into it. For our students, of any age, it is powerful to write a piece for others to read, discuss and contemplate. Even in our digital world, students still need that tangible quality of a final project that they can hold and share with someone else that will validate their work.

My students use a wide variety of digital tools for publishing their work for a much wider audience. They love all of the different publishing tools that they use (and are constantly finding new ones), but they still crave creating their own hardcover book. They are always creating little paper version with paper folded in half and stapled together. So how do we provide students with publishing options that will meet their digital aesthetic while providing them with the physical copy of the book?

One tool that we stumbled upon several years ago is StoryJumper. On StoryJumper, the students have the ability to create digital picture books. The creators of this tool did a fantastic job of creating the shadowing and animation of an actual book. One student commented, “Wow, it’s just like a real book.” It is a book; it is just digital. Every year when my new group of eager writers sees a StoryJumper book, they are immediately drawn to it.

Teachers can easily set up an entire class so that each student can create their own book. There is not only a large collection of clipart and backgrounds to choose from, but also a user can create and upload their own illustrations, graphics, or photos, making their book unique and personal. My students love that their book is different from every other book ever published because they can easily customize it to what they envision.

The StoryJumper templates guide students into creating a front cover, title page, dedication page, and each page for their story. Because it is digital, students from different locations can easily collaborate and publish. Once a book is complete, the students can share it through email or they can purchase their hardcopy version to keep and share with others.

The options for this tool are only limited by your writers’ imaginations. My students have created family and regional cookbooks, anthologies of fables and poetry, short stories, expository pieces on habitats, family histories, how-to books, and informational books of their favorite topics. One student even created a joke book.

My learners love the fact that their StoryJumper books are both digital and hardcopies. They can share the digital version with all of their global peers and family members who live a great distance from them. Then they can also have purchase a copy to carry with them to share with all of those important people in their lives.

It still surprises me that with all of the other digital tools that they use, my students thoroughly enjoy—and seek out new opportunities—to publish a hardcover, hardcopy version of one of their pieces of writing.

Sometimes our students enjoy having that tangible book in their hands as evidence of their hard work. They like taking it to share with others. My authors love taking their books to read to younger students and we keep a library of their books for them to be read by everyone in the class. They are shared with anyone who will take time to listen and look at their books. Their books always receive a lot of attention at our Young Authors' Conference because they look so professional, and my students are so proud of and enthusiastic about what they've created. After all, they created it so that others would read it.

So next time your students begin to publish, remember that sometimes students want to have that tangible book in their hands to share with others. It's a way for them to receive validation for all of the hard work that they've done now, and in the future.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.