Organizing Your Online Life: Google Drive Edition

          As I went about creating my presentation on how to use Google Drive and how this website can benefit teachers and students, I tried to think about what logically made sense to me.  Many MAC students are very familiar with Google Drive already, but I never really used it much before starting this program.  I understood the basics of how to create a document and that multiple people could collaborate at once, but I had never shared an item with someone or uploaded my own documents into the drive.  In order to effectively present this website, I wanted to be knowledgeable about as much as I could, so I spent some time just exploring the site and seeing what I could do with it.  I also watched some YouTube videos that were very informative.

          Once I figured out the logistics of Google Drive, I began to think about what I wanted to tell the two MAC students in my group.  I decided to first go over what Google Drive is and why it is helpful, and what the heck this mystical "cloud" thing is.  Then I would describe in detail how to create documents, presentations, etc.  After this I wanted to describe how to share items with others and how the permissions worked.  Next, I wanted to describe how to upload documents from one's computer or other device.  Finally, I wanted to talk about how this website could help teachers and students in school.  This helped me get a good sense of how I wanted to organize my handout as well.  I thought it would be good to put everything on the handout in the same order that I was going to talk about it.  However, formatting issues prevented me from doing this (I think the images messed things up), so I was forced to change the order up a bit.  I don't think this really detracted from the presentation though because the information was still the same.  Also, when creating my handout I tried to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible because I know that I am more likely to look at a handout that is colorful and fun.

          I actually practiced going over everything I wanted to say in my presentation once the night before and it ended up being about 25-30 minutes, which was perfect.  I think going over this definitely helped me remember what I wanted to talk about and be cautious of how much time I should allot to each section.  During my actual presentation I stuck to the order that I had set up for myself and I think it went pretty well.  When I was demonstrating the sharing function my email was taking forever to load, so that was a minor set back.  While we waited I just described what would happen once I received the email, but thinking about it now, allowing the other two students to ask questions might have been a better use of time.  As I talked about the benefits of Google Drive in the classroom, I realized that I was just speaking and wasn't really illustrating my points.  Maybe if I had created a form beforehand to show how teachers could create surveys for students or created a spreadsheet to show how teachers could track grades, the other students would have been able to visualize the benefits better.  For some reason I didn't expect to receive any questions (what was I thinking?), but when I did I tried to answer them to the best of my ability.  Usually these questions were just to clarify on steps that I had demonstrated, so I did not have any problem answering them.

          I also enjoyed the other students' presentations about Blendspace and Endnote.  I thought they did a wonderful job explaining how to use these websites and how they related to the classroom.  I really liked Blendspace and it is something that I would definitely like to incorporate into my own classroom in the future.

Below is my handout:

Go play a video game!

          When we were first told in Educ 504 that we would be exploring video games that could be used to support learning, I must admit I was skeptical.  My initial reaction was that video games are for fun and I couldn't figure out how one could use these in a classroom setting.  Grand Theft Auto (GTA), which is definitely one of my favorite games, involves theft, weapons, murder, and general rule breaking, among various other things.  There is no way that this game would be appropriate for the classroom!

          Despite my skepticism, I remained open-minded as I began to read "Good Video Games and Good Learning," by Gee.  I realized that one doesn't have to necessarily bring the video game directly into class for it to support learning.  (Would any school actually be okay with students playing GTA in their building?)  A few ways that video games can influence learning are as follows:

• Players learn problem solving skills
• Games give feedback and new problems
• Lowers the consequences of failure
• Forces thinking about relationships between actions and skills
• Performance before competence

There are a variety of other ways that video games can influence learning, but I think one of the most important take home messages is that video games can help students gain problem solving skills.  The games can challenge players because they might encounter problems that they have not experienced before and might never experience in their lifetimes.  Players must figure out what the problem is, what skills they need to solve the problem, and the procedural knowledge of how to execute the solution.  Though the problems one experiences in a video game might be drastically different form the problems one must solve in school, the underlying thinking skills are the same. Gee helped me realize that video games are therefore an awesome way to influence learning by helping students solve problems.  If they can transfer these skills to the problems they face in their assignments, I think playing video games could be a fun way to supplement the objectives that are taught in school.

         Transitioning back to the video game I explored, GTA is an open world action-adventure game in which players take on the role of a character of their choosing and must navigate around the city to complete missions in order to gain points.  The successful completion of a mission allows players to challenge themselves with more difficult missions.  These missions require that players solve problems, take risks, and think about consequences.  GTA can also be converted into a multiplayer game in which one can play with friends or other players over the Internet.  This game also helps players increase their decision making skills because they must decide which weapons to use, which cars to steal (I like the fast ones), how to steal cars (beat people up!), and which direction to go in order to avoid the police.  Though is is unlikely that students will need to make these decisions in a school setting, the skills necessary to make decisions can be transferred to the types of problems students encounter in school.

          I don't think incorporating GTA into the curriculum or allowing students to play this video game during class time is a feasible, but I do think that it is a good way for students to learn many strategies that they can use in school.

Paper vs. Digital

          Thinking back to when I was in in primary and secondary education, I can remember several times when my school administered standardized tests, such as the MEAP and ACT, to the students in certain grade levels.  The students would come in and receive a test booklet and answer sheet to fill out with #2 pencils.  The mental image that I get when thinking of these wonderful test days (We got out of school early, what more could you want? Let's take a test every day! Sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm.) looks a bit like this:

However, a shift in testing format is occurring, in which paper-based tests are becoming less common and digital-based tests are becoming more common.  Rather than filling out answer bubbles by hand, students simply click on the answer they want, and voilà the bubble is filled in perfectly!  Now, the image I get of standardized testing looks like this:

          Just by looking at the second picture, it seems to me that taking these fate-determining tests on the computer would be a welcome change because there is more privacy, depending on the testing site of course.  When I took the GRE on the computer, I was at a testing site that looked very similar to the  one in the picture above.  I thought this was awesome because I had my own little cubby with dividing walls, so I couldn't see anyone else and they couldn't see me.  I was even provided with silencing headphones.  Sitting down to take this test, I was optimistic that this was going to be easy to take since I wouldn't have to flip between pages and make sure my answers were bubbled in dark enough.  Halfway through the test though, my eyes were watering and I had a headache (why did I choose to wear my contacts for a five hour test that consisted of starting at a computer screen?).  My experience with digital-based testing illustrates to me that maybe we need to rethink making the switch from paper to computer.

          In Educ 504, I attempted (and failed) to answer some questions from the 12th grade math portion of the Smarter Balance assessment.  On the first question, the calculator tool froze on top of the question and I couldn't get it to go away, so I tried to just move on to the next question.  This seemed like a logical idea, especially since students are often told to skip something if it's too difficult and then come back to it at the end.  Unfortunately, this assessment forces students to put some answer before moving on to the next.  I do not think that this is a good tactic because students might try to spend more time writing something in the answer space, which is very time inefficient.  Not all digital-based tests force this upon students, but there are other cons to taking a test on the computer:

• Navigating the pages might be difficult
• Students might not be familiar with the icons
• Split screens make things very busy
• Students can't really "talk to the text" unless they write on the screen (I think this is discouraged?)
• Inefficient scrolling techniques cause a loss of valuable test time
• The mouse might be hiding 
• Students might not be skilled typers
• There might not be any scratch paper
• Puts extra stress on students (especially their eyes...)

You get the idea, right?  On the other hand, there are some pros to switching to taking a test on the computer:

• The test is cheaper to produce
• Scores are received much quicker, if not instantaneously (it can feel like 7.5 months before you get the paper scores back...)
• There is no hassle of labeling the tests and sorting through them
• Students can tag specific questions to easily find at the end to review

         Even though switching to digital-based testing might seem like a really good idea at first, I don't think it is necessarily better than paper-based testing.  "Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: Effects on reading comprehension" was a Norwegian study that discovered that students who read texts in print scored significantly better on a reading comprehension test.  This research demonstrates that students do better on paper-based tests, so it is very confusing to me as to why so many people are advocating for digital-based tests.  Have these people never taken a test on the computer before?  Do they care more about costs than student growth and learning?  If money is the driving force behind this decision, then we need to elect new people to make these decisions.

          I believe that the most important aspect of standardized testing should be to try to assess what level students' are at in their learning in order to evaluate teachers and help these said teachers to revise their lessons to better equip their students for future courses and life in general.  The cons of digital-based testing outweighs the pros for me, so I think that it is important that we do not let paper-based testing become obsolete.  At the very least, we should give students a choice of how they want to take the test, such as how the MTTC test gives students a choice between paper and computer.

          Do you advocate for paper-based or digital-based testing?  Both?  What factor weighs the most in your decision?

Teach in this moment

          John Dewey.  What could this man possibly have to say about education that could be of any use to society today?  "My Pedagogic Creed" was published by Dewey in 1897, which is well over a hundred years ago!  Nothing he has to say about education and technology could be relevant today, right? WRONG.  Dewey made significant impacts on education, and without him, education and school as we know it today would probably be drastically different.  The question of whether Dewey's contributions should be revered or scorned is left to the reader's interpretation.  I, however, found Dewey's insights and beliefs to be influential and essential to the development of education.  Several of Dewey's points resonated with me and I can't believe that it has taken me until now to understand what seems like common sense to him.

          "I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living," is a quote taken directly from Dewey's creed.  As a twenty-three year old graduate student, I have spent the majority of my life in school.  From ages 5 through 18 (and even after), I was taught that I had to get an education to make something of myself.  Of course, I didn't mind this because school was my absolute favorite place to be, and I told everyone that I would stay in school forever if I could.  The notion that I would fail miserably at life if I didn't go to college was ingrained in my brain and I always kept this in the back of my mind.  After all, I didn't want to be that person who worked at a fast-food chain for the rest of my life.  With this mindset, I never questioned why every year my teachers said things like "you need to know this to advance to the next grade," and "you have to learn {insert confusing topic here} otherwise you won't be prepared for college," because that's just how things were.  

          "My Pedagogic Creed" opened my eyes about education as a means to an end.  After considering Dewey's perspective that school should represent present life, I realized that my entire education has been preparing me for "what's coming next."  I think that Dewey is correct and that we have to learn how to function in the present before we can think about the future.  He says that education is a social process and I took this to mean that education instills values and helps students learn how to develop and apply solutions to everyday problems.  These points made me think that maybe many students aren't engaged in school because they simply aren't thinking about the future that education is supposed to provide them with.  It is therefore important that teachers make changes and teach for the present.  At my undergraduate graduation ceremony, Dick Costolo (Twitter CEO) said something that has become one of my favorite quotes: "Be in this moment."  If we can apply this to our everyday lives, can't we also apply it to education? Teach in this moment?

          When considering what present life is like today, one of the first things I tend to envision is social media and technology.  If I throw school into the mix, it becomes clear to me that technology can be a very useful tool in the classroom.  Rather than spending agonizing lengths of time rifling through encyclopedias and dusty books, technology allows students to access greater amounts of information online in a shorter time span.  It also allows students to collaborate with their peers on projects (Google Docs anyone?), communicate with experts, and create things like brochures, among other things.  Some schools are already teaching students how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, so I definitely think technology is a good thing to include in the classroom. 

          There are so many benefits to using technology in the classroom, so to some people, it seems like taking things a step further and implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy is a spectacular idea.   The downside to using technology in the classroom, however, is the fact that the Internet can be incredibly distracting.  We've all seen what happens in our college courses, haven't we?  Students get bored and start browsing Facebook and before they know it, they're buying shoes and watching YouTube videos of grumpy cats.  I think if there were a way to prevent students from using their devices in an inappropriate way, more teachers would be on board for using technology.  It really comes down to a pros and cons list of whether or not to include technology in the classroom.  A major criticism I have of the BYOD idea is that it stirs up equity issues.  Not every study is going to be able to afford to purchase a device to use in class, so what happens to those students?  Do the students with a lower SES just suffer and sit on the sidelines?  If a BYOD policy is something that is going to be considered in the future, then teachers and school administrators need to consider how this will affect all students.  Despite the glaring problems with incorporating technology, I think it is a fantastic way to teach in the present.

Hey there!

     Welcome to my blog!  This space is going to be used for my thoughts about technology in the classroom and related education topics.  Though this blog was created for a specific class, I hope to continue writing in the future to document my experiences.  Happy reading!