Thing 31: Final Reflection

I have taken this class many times before and it is by far my favorite way to learn. I love the idea of exploration and choice. It feels a little like a treasure hunt, where you are in search of a tool that will shape student learning. In the past most of the tools were new to me and I would spend hours trying to narrow my assignment down to the right "thing" each time. This time I approached it a little different. I came in to each assignment knowing what I was looking for. Perhaps this is because I am more seasoned now and I am able to determine what specifically I am looking for when it comes to providing the right tool for the students, or it's because I have tried many things already and it's easier for me to pinpoint where I might still need a little more exploration. Either way, I feel like I found this years class to be refreshing and almost more meaningful to my immediate needs. In years past some assignments seemed a little forced, just so I could get the exposure. I hope I am making sense...

 I think the thing that is the most beneficial about this years course is that each thing is a resource to help make learning more student-centered. Having spent more time focusing on the diverse learners and their needs this year, I am truly focused on using technology to personalize learning. All the resources that I explored, and those that I didn't, can be used as options on a choice board for students to demonstrate what they learned. They could use Big Huge Labs to create posters, Anchor to make a podcast, or even DoInk to build a video to showcase what they have learned. The options are endless and up to the user.

I am so thankful for this learning opportunity and for each of the previous Cool Tools experience. I am sad that this is truly the end. Thank you for everything!

Thing 8: Digital Curation Tools

I have been working really hard this year to make my lessons more student centered. I try to approach each lesson with my learners individual needs in mind. Whenever I get the opportunity to build in choice and student-driven paths to learning I take advantage of it. Unfortunately this can be a challenge when I am pushing into classrooms and don't always have the decision of how a unit or lesson is structured. Nonetheless there is plenty of opportunity out there when I force myself to approach each lesson and unit through the lens of my diverse learners.

When approaching the topic of curation for this assignment I decided to focus less on curation for the teacher or me the librarian, and more on the students. I played around a little with Follett Collections last year, but fell short of making it a meaningful tool for students. So, when approaching this assignment I wanted to explore the tool more and also teach students the value this tool could have in helping them personally as a learner.

For this particular unit students in 5th grade were challenged with building a brochure that would convince someone to come and visit their preselected country. In the beginning of the unit students came to the library where we walked through the "Wonder" stage of inquiry and students collaborated on a Padlet, sharing ideas about what makes a country successful. After we determined that culture, economy, geography, history and government are all important to a country's success, we then had a plan for what information we needed to collect in the "investigate" stage of research.

Typically during the investigate stage, I teach students new resources that will help them with the specific topic of study. This is extremely valuable, but only scratches the surface of the skills during this stage of inquiry. In addition it also doesn't really personalize the learning for students, sure I am giving them an option for sources, but I am not teaching how to curate resources or giving them the ownership of evaluating their own resources. They are just using the tool I share to gather their information because I told them that it was a reliable and good resource. I would consider this to be a total teacher driven lesson. Wanting to improve this unit and focus on making this particular lesson more student-centered and applicable to learning beyond this particular lesson, I shifted my approach.

When we began the "investigate" stage we reviewed all the resources that they had already learned and which ones they thought would be useful for this assignment. I then shared a few new resources with them. I told them that I wasn't going to tell them what resources that they had to use for this assignment, but that they were going to have to use all the skills they had learned in the Fall for evaluating resources to gather reliable and meaningful resources for this unit. This created a need for them to have a place to gather their resources, which lead into a great discussion about curation. I then showed them how to use Follett Collections to gather their resources in one place. This tool is extremely powerful in that it allows students to add a bookmarklet to their toolbar so that they can add resources to their collection when they are on websites or in databases. I did run into a little bit of trouble adding the bookmarklet on a few of the devices and still haven't been able to figure out why, but other than that the tool was amazing for curating resources. They were even able to add resources directly from the catalog. I would eventually like their classmates to be able to search their collections, which is an option, but right now I have only been able to make them private. I see the option to make them available to other students at Lake George, but it is greyed out. Does anyone have experience with this tool and know how to do that? I think having a larger audience for their curation, puts more emphasis on the importance of curating quality resources, so I would love to add that option.

Along with teaching the tool, I used Jennifer Gonzalez's (who I love) verbiage of "curator or dumper" to drive home the point of meaningful curation. We brainstormed the benefits of this curation tool and one resounding takeaway was that it was going to help us organize our resources in one place so that when they went to take notes all their resources would be there. This led to a great conversation about how if the purpose of curating is to help us organize and make the note-taking stage easier then we may not want to dump every resource we find. Then we reviewed the valuable skills of meaningful curation, discussing the value of being a good consumer of information and evaluating the sources we decide to curate. A great deal of positive reflection was made about how they have the choice of what information they curate and how they curate, but the ultimate goal is to make the research process easier. Some students felt that dumping was easier for them. This was powerful, because we were able to have a great discussion about their individual learning behaviors. I was then able to share that if "dumping" works better for them and then going back into their collection and evaluating works, then they have that option. However, I did acknowledge that this might require them to go back out and gather more resources later if they find out they don't have enough good resources. I loved this discussion. It felt very student-centered and meaningful.

If you are a Follett user and you haven't explored "collections" I highly recommend it. Here is an example one of the students collections:

Next year I want to build in independent reflection time with each student to discuss the sources that they decided to curate and why. This would allow for positive student reflection and also be a great approach to assessment. 

Thing 3: Photo Fun

After partaking in the magical site-based learning field trip into our local community to teach students about urban, rural, and suburban communities, I wanted to market our experience so that these experiences can start to become more common. I began by playing around with some of the tools in the photo fun assignment. I didn't really find anything new that was unique and exciting until I tried the Big Huge Labs resource link. This is a pretty "bare bones" resource and didn't appeal to me right away. There were a ton of different photo options from creating movie style posters, to making film strip photos, to jigsaw puzzles and beyond. There was also a lot of advertisements on this site, which would shy me away from using it with students. However, it did end up meeting my needs really well.

I played around with several templates before discovering the best one for my needs. I started by making a magazine cover... which was cute, but didn't really work well for what I wanted. I could see this tool as something I would use for a later assignment. Here is what my product looked like:

After that I tried to make a movie poster, which again was unique, but didn't really have the effect that I was looking for.

Finally, I began exploring the motivational poster template design and found the perfect match. It was beyond simple to create these. All you need to do is upload your picture, add text into the corresponding box and submit. The one major downfall of the tool is that you really can't edit your picture in any way. You also have limited design options. Here is what I ended up creating.

I posted these on the library website and also added them to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

I would definitely recommend this tool to anyone who is looking to market an idea, program, or experience in a unique way. There are certainly and endless amount of ways you can use this tool with students as well, if you don't mind having the advertisements. 

Thing 13: Virtual Reality

I was super excited about this assignment. I have been working hard to design meaningful and authentic learning opportunities at the lower grade levels. I had learned about Google Street View 360 App at a conference (Innovation Summit in Boston) in the Fall and since then I have been storing it in my brain and not quite sure where it could fit meaningfully into the curriculum. Through curriculum discussions on our schools social studies committee, I began to make connections with areas of the second grade curriculum where we could meaningfully apply this tool for learning. Out of this grew a magical learning experience for our students.

The second graders have been studying communities: urban, suburban and rural. I had a vision that it would be fun to take our students on a "Magic School Bus" style learning experience. I shared my vision with the teachers of driving our school bus to each type of community, having our students take notes digitally (in Book Creator) on the "have's and have nots" in each community. They would do this on their iPads (we are a 1-to-1 school). In addition, students would capture a 360 image using Google Street View in each community and publish those images to Google Maps.  Since we would be using Book Creator to gather our information we would also add our images to Book Creator with a link to Google Maps. In the end students would synthesize their notes, comparing each community (part of the standards) and decide which type of community they would like to most live in and why.

The field trip was amazing! It was engaging, authentic and meaningful. I spent a class period prior to the field trip teaching students how to capture 360 views. Almost everyone was able to capture their photos with no trouble at all. We did have two students out of the entire grade whose cameras on their iPads weren't working. I was never able to figure out why, but other than that it was SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE. We did not have internet connection on our field trip so we were not able to post to Google Maps right away.

When we returned from the field trip I spent one class period working with the entire 2nd grade to discuss the "why" behind capturing the 360 images and publishing them. Students were eager to share how their images could help others. Students shared that people could use their images to:

• see what the different places looked like. 
• decide if it is a place they would be interested in visiting.
• determine if they are at the right location, if they were supposed to visit the location and had never been their before.

sample student work
 (each image is a clickable link to their 360 image in Google Maps)

During the same class period where we discussed the why, I also taught the students how to publish and search their images to Google Maps, and add them to Book Creator. After presenting to the students, I spent a follow up class period working with each classroom individually to apply the skills that I had taught. This was a fail forward kind of experience for me.

When working with the first class, I quickly realized that this is not a direct instruction kind of lesson. Trying to keep all the students on the same step at the same time was nearly impossible and took away the exploration of the app and the resiliency we are trying develop with the students. Due to the inconsistent layout of the App on each device it was also challenge to give whole group instruction because not everyones App, or steps within the App were the same. After reflecting, I decided that with the second class I would pull students in small groups. In their groups I would show them what the ultimate goal is, but share with them that we all won't be able to take the same path to get there, because the app is different for each of us. Once the students began working I asked guiding questions to fuel students thoughts as they troubleshot through the process. This was a much more successful approach and arguable a richer experience because we not only developed digital skills we also developed critical thinking skills.

Steps to creating 360 Street Views and publishing them to Google Maps and Book Creator (These may vary per app):

Creating & Publishing Image in App

• Access the 360 Street View App. 
• Click the camera Icon.
• Capture photo using camera. 
• Align the orange circles with the white circles in the view finder and rotate in a circle. Don't forget that once you have gone in a complete circle to point the camera up and then down to get photos from above and below. 
• Once you are finished capturing images, click the checkmark and wait while it stitches images together. 
• When your photo is ready an orange bar will appear allowing the picture to be published to Google Maps. 
• Select the location of your picture by typing in the location. 
• Your image will be published. 

Adding image to Book Creator

• Under the Explore tab in Google Street View search and select your image.
• Share your image by tapping the share icon. 
• Choose to share it with Book Creator- if Book Creator is not an option, select "more" and allow for it share with Book Creator. 
• By sharing with Book Creator the image will automatically be sent to the app.
• To add your image to your page, select the "+" sign, under all of the different options for adding there is a choice at the very bottom right of the toolbar to import shared items- select that option. Here you will find your image.
• Tap on your image to insert it. This will not be a 360 image, just a panoramic image. 
• When under the share import icon in Book Creator, you are provided with a web embed code for your picture. This is a great tool, but it will not send your reader directly to your image. In order to get a direct link to your image you will need to get the URL directly for your image. 
• To get the link for the image. Go to Explore in Google Street View App- search the location or name of your image that your published. Once you have found your image, select it and push the share icon. Under your options for sharing, select copy link. 
• To create a link to your image in Book Creator, select your image (the blue box will appear around it when it is selected. 
• Push the icon with the letter "i" inside a circle. Under the hyperlink box, paste the URL.
• To view put your book in play mode and tap on the image. 

Thing 5: Audio Tools

The second tool I used for Thing 5 was Anchor. This was the platform we used to create the student podcasts for the NPR podcast challenge. This a free tool that I learned about at the Innovation Summit in Boston. I was able to see it in action and thought I would love to try it out, both personally and with my students. It is a simple tool to use, with all the basic feature you will need. The only thing I find confusing about it is the main toolbar. It is not always intuitive for me to know how to get back into my episodes, but certainly isn't difficult, just cumbersome to navigate.

When actually making a podcast episode on Anchor there are four main options for adding content. You can record directly in the app, you can add messages left by your listeners using the Anchor Mobile App., you can upload audio files from your computer, and you can add sounds from their library. In order to add any content you simple drag over and drop your content in the workspace on the right side of the screen. Once audio content has been added to the workspace, there is a basic feature to split and cut audio. Once you are done creating your podcast it is shared to six different platforms: Anchor, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and Spotify. You can also download the episode and upload it to Sound Cloud or other podcast platforms.

As mentioned in the last blog, our students took part in the NPR podcast challenge. They worked in groups of three to create a podcast using Anchor. I gave the students a brief tutorial on the tool and spend several lengthy sessions discussing the content that goes into building a meaningful podcast and the important role that planning plays in building a successful podcast. The one challenge about this tool is that it isn't collaborative so only one student can be building at a time. Overall, our students did troubleshoot around this, but it would have been beneficial if they could all build at once.

Our students, spent independent work time, researching, conducting interviews, building narratives, and selecting meaningful audio sounds that would elicit emotions and tone during their podcast. Students were tapping into their critical thinking and digital literacy skills to find ways to include content elements that were not readily available to them. Students could be found using Zoom to interview people that weren't in our physical location and brainstorming ways to include sounds that weren't in the library that was provided to them on Anchor. It was fun to watch them design and create utilizing strategies, skills, and information that we have taught them. This was also an extremely eye-opening experience for us as teachers, because we were able to recognize some skills we now need to work on developing.  Students struggled with the abilities to collaborate and communicate with one another effectively. We spent a lot of time as "coaches" guiding them through their group work, helping to model and showcase effective skills for cooperative work. This is something that we are going to continue to hone and develop in our next assignment with them.

Once our students finished their podcast we downloaded them, and uploaded them to Sound Cloud, based on the requirements set by NPR. We then spent an additional class period having a reflection discussion and implementing individual reflection responses using Google Forms.

This was an amazing student-centered experience that was engaging and meaningful to our students. It was powerful as we watched students apply many of the information, digital, and media literacy skills that they have been taught throughout their time in the elementary school. Although the enrichment teacher and myself co-designed and taught this unit for upper elementary, this podcasting tool could be used with students as young as Kindergarten.

Here are links to the student podcasts:

Berlin Wall

Poverty

Perspectives on Gender Inequality

From Kid to Parent

In addition, I have been using this tool with Amy Carpenter, a fellow librarian to build our own podcast called Growing Librarians. We just launched our first episode: How to Grow as a Librarian and Stay Sane. We are still working to learn the tool and adjust audio ourselves, but we were pleased with how the first episode came out. One thing that we did include in our podcast that I didn't show to the students, is add an audio file from Google Voice.  Once you set up a free account on this, you will get a free phone number that people can use to call in a question or record a passage. This then can be uploaded into Anchor and be built in as a segment. We used this to  have librarians, phone in questions. It was extremely easy and effective.

Here is a link to our podcast if anyone is interested in listening and of course we would love your feedback!