My Thoughts on the Chromebook for Elementary Education

I have been using a Chromebook for a couple of weeks now at school. Students in my Grade 3/4 class have been using it to do research, upload pictures to their blog, and write posts. I was curious what the limiting factors would be in our Elementary class, so I have been trying to use the Chromebook as my only computer.

The 11.6 in. screen is reasonable, and helps to keep the form-factor small, and light. I have previously owned a 10.1 in. netbook, and found the screen to be too limiting. The keyboard was also cramped on that netbook. The keyboard on the Chromebook is full size, and the trackpad is quite good as well. The learning curve was short, it took me a while to figure out I can tap with two fingers to "right click", and that was about it. Out of the box the trackpad reverse scrolls webpages like a Mac. If you are used to a windows machine, this is easily changed in the Settings menu. 

The iPad is famous for "there is an app for that". Well I imagine that Chromebooks will use "there is an interactive web app for that". In the two weeks I have been using the Chromebook I have had few issues that couldn't be easily worked around. 

It plays most video files, music files, reads and copies files from SD cards, easily connects to both a LCD TV, and a projector, and accepts usb flash drives, hard drives, mice, and keyboards. Bluetooth is reasonably good, but I did find some minor issues with lag on one specific bluetooth speaker. The great thing about all the things that work, is that they just... work. No loading of drivers, no searching, no 3 minute delay. It just works, or it doesn't, but at least you know right away.

I love how quickly it wakes up when the lid is opened. There are exactly 0 programs working in the background when I am on the internet, the computer doesn't want to update in the middle of a Twitter chat, and no virus apps are running a scan when I least want them to.

I have been using Google Drive for a while, so for me it was an easy switch. We have used online apps to edit photos, play and mix songs as virtual DJs for our Christmas concert, brush up on our math skills, create a slideshow, and take screenshots. I will admit that the Chromebook is less useful if you are unwilling to move your workflow to the cloud. 

It doesn't replace an iPad, which is a terrific device for many activities. Many creative tasks seem to be easier to produce on an iPad. The more traditional work tasks: word processing, spreadsheets, slideshows, and building websites are easier to accomplish on a Chromebook with a keyboard and trackpad. 

Offline apps are starting to show up in the Chrome Web Store, allowing access to, and editing of work when no wifi is available.

It doesn't work with external cd/dvd drives, and it doesn't really print at this point, in many ways it is a hybrid between a tablet device like an iPad, and a traditional computer.

The battery life is as good as its claim at about 6 and 1/2 hours. More if you keep the screen brightness down. Overall it has been a very positive experience. The students quickly acclimatize themselves to the two finger scrolling, and the two finger tap to "right click". They don't see any difference from a computer, except that it is "much faster to start doing things". 

I will post about apps that we are using with the Chromebook that work well for school purposes. If you have questions, leave them in the comments section below.

An Hour of Code, An Awesome Opportunity!

This week my class participated in Code.org's Hour of Code. This well laid out course of basic code skills was excellent, and very engaging for my Grade 3/4 class. Millions of students have participated this week from all around the globe. 

To fit in with our Inquiry-Based approach, I had planted a seed a month earlier when students were deciding what they would like to learn about. One of the ideas on our "Awesome Ideas" board was learning to code a video game.

In the computer lab we watched the introduction video together, and then we began. At first some students needed a little help, until they understood how to work the controls. Once everyone was started, I stepped back and let them help each other. As students began to finish, they helped other students who were stuck. The whole group working away to help everyone to succeed in the challenge. It took us longer than an hour. The lunch bell rang, no one wanted to stop or leave. Everyone finished their hour of code, and they took home their certificates to prove it!

What's next? For those students interested, we have Daisy the Dino ready on the iPads. When they are comfortable with that app and its challenges, we have Hopscotch for the iPad. Once they have been successful with those two, they will be able to move on to Scratch, an online Coding application developed by MIT. Scratch requires a computer, or a Chromebook, as it is not HTML5 yet, and doesn't work on the iPad. With Scratch they will be able to reach their goal, and create their very own video game!

A big thank you to Hadi Partovi, founder of Code.org. You can follow Code.org here on Twitter.

A Field Trip to a... Field!: Project-Based Learning and the Maker Movement

The weather was blustery and cold, and snow was falling steadily. It was a perfect day for a field trip. We would be outside most of the day, and it wasn't raining, so... all in all, perfect weather. We loaded up on the bus and headed out to build! Today we would have the opportunity to build our own Rat Trap-Powered Cars!

I have tried to engage parents this year as local experts in various subjects that students would be interested in learning about. I quickly discovered the many diverse interests and talents available and I am trying to leverage this large pool of talent in our classroom this year. 

I was talking to one father and explaining what the idea behind Project-Based Learning was: how we would like to actually do, and make things, not just read and write about them. He thought that was great, and he offered his metal-working skills, and his shop for a class trip.

He offered the idea of a Rat-Trap-Powered Car, he created the design and sourced all the parts we would need. I kept what we were making a surprise for the class. The week before the trip I started a blog post with pictures of various parts we would use to make our project, inviting students to guess what we might be creating. Here are some of the parts I showed before the trip:

The class guessed all sorts of possibilities: a crane-style arm, a working elevator, a boat, a car, and a robot. Lots of great guesses, and lots of potential future projects! Today they finally found out what we were making. Each student was asked to bring 4 CDs, which they would use for wheels. The rat trap would be the chassis. The axles attached at either end of the trap.

The children used a drill press and an electric drill while creating their cars. They were well supervised, they worked hard, and were very focused on their creations. No one had to be reminded to be careful, or to pay attention to what they were doing.

When the students weren't working on their Rat Trap Cars, they were outside at one of the three activities. In previous years, I would carefully plan out various centres where the students would do a prescribed activity in small groups. Every group would do the same activity in the same way, and record their learning, or answers as they completed each task. 

This year instead of planning activities, I issued challenges. Each group chose how to create, modify, or rework their ideas to meet the various challenges. 

One challenge was:

The corn maze groups employed compasses and various items borrowed from our Phys. Ed. equipment room. While we did lose one bowling pin, we lost zero children, so I considered this activity wildly successful.

The second challenge was:

There was a lot of creativity, one group decided to use a hockey stick shaft to measure metres. With this tool they measured the distance between buildings, and landmarks. Another group took some string, measured out 50cm for each walking stride, and recorded a metre for every second step they took. This will allow them to later create an accurate map in Minecraft.

The third challenge was:

The groups started out with games similar to Lacrosse at the beginning, but this morphed to more of a Survival game with students playing the part of different animals, hunting, and evading each other in the bush.

For each centre the group could choose to play the game set up by the last group, modify and then play it, or just make their own game. Each group recorded their game for the next group when they were done. 

All in all, it was a great day. Outside the students created and led their own activities, and in the shop they created fantastic Rat Trap-Powered Cars. I imagine there will now be a lot of interest in various ways to design and build different vehicles, with various sources of propulsion in our class. I think December will be an exciting month!

Rhythms with Drums, Patterning with Rhythm

For many years I have introduced my class to Stomp. They loved the ideas presented in the video, and I would guide them, teaching specific beats, rhythms, and techniques. I would give them different materials to play with, and we would have a good time. 

Live performance of Stomp.

This year I have tried to step back as we have been working through a project-based learning model. Instead of specifically telling my class what I wanted them to do, I just showed them the video. I didn't micromanage any part of what happened after they watched Stomp. I showed the video, and then I let them think about what they would like to do. As a result I have seen more great ideas, and unique ways to create the performance, than in any of the other years I have taught.

Unique sounds with unique instruments.

Students were coming up with their own ideas, their own beats and rhythms, and putting it all together quickly. In the past when I tried to get this independent thought process going, it was a bit of a struggle. This year I have a class that is developing confidence in thinking for themselves. It has become natural, they are no longer constantly looking to an adult for answers. They formed drumming circles and started to jam.

Lots of "found" instruments creating different sounds.

Playing with the different ways to make sounds with an instrument.

Happily this confidence continued when I issued a challenge to the class at the end of our jam session. We have been studying patterning, and I asked them to represent their drumming somehow as a pattern. As a BYOD class, I had everything from paper and pencil, whiteboards, to music apps on devices. There was a great variety of answers, and they all made sense and showed the rhythms, beats, and/or instruments that groups had been using. I think fractions might be discovered next as we explore at the different rhythms in class.

Actual instruments visually represented with the number representing percussion.

Recreating the pattern in Garage Band.

Pattern represented with sequence of musical notes.

Stomp is going to be our Christmas performance this year. I was hoping they would think of that! As we use technology daily, my students are naturally think ing of how to integrate some of the technology into the show as well. When someone mentioned it would be cool to see a video close up of the drummers techniques while they are on stage, another student suggested using Facetime with two iPads: one filming the close ups of the performance, and the other broadcasting the video to a projector. 

The most exciting part is that they have three weeks to create their performance. The scariest part, as a former micromanaging teacher, is that I have no idea what it is going to look like yet. But I am sure that it is going to be fun, engaging, and memorable!

Mystery Province with Google Hangouts and Today's Meet

My class had a pretty cool experience today. We met up, hung out and talked with Bridget Scott's class in Prince Edward Island. We used Google Hangouts to meet and ask questions to try and discover which Province the other class is from. Students also asked each other questions via Today's Meet, trying to glean clues from the other class. I have been trying for a while to set up meetings with classes in other Provinces. The trick is knowing which social network to use.

I tried to set up meetings with teachers outside of Ontario through Google+ and Twitter. I am fairly new to the whole PLN thing, and I was very impressed by how quickly people were jumping in, and offering to help. The hard part is getting it organized with another teacher in a different province, and time zone, and coordinating when we are studying Provinces and Territories. 

I found http://eduhangout.org/, a great site set up by Brent Catlett. This was perfect for finding classes in the United States, and other countries, but less so for Provinces. Brent was however, very helpful and set me up with educators in other Provinces. 

I set up a Google community for Canadian Teachers who want to meet up with classes from other Provinces. It hasn't quite gotten off the ground yet (5 members if I include myself). I thought this would be a good idea for other teachers, as this is a unit of study across Canada in Grades 4 or 5. 

I also tried to find people through Twitter, and had some success there as well, but it wasn't coming easily. I know that I have to connect with more people to make Twitter work better. I have people I follow from BC, and Ontario, but other Provinces are harder. 

I would love an opportunity to connect with a class from the Yukon, Nunavut, or North West Territories, but no luck yet.

So I turned to a social network I hadn't thought of before. I asked fellow co-workers, and parents of the students I taught, or have taught in the past. Everybody knows someone, or has a cousin out east, ect. This has been the most successful Social Network so far. I imagine as I meet more people on Twitter, and through Google+, I will make more connections there as well. In the end, it doesn't really matter which social network the help comes from, the best part is just how helpful everyone is. Thanks to everyone who helped me make a connection!

Recipe: One Kid-Created Play, with a Dash of SAMR

I was so proud of my students on Wednesday evening. They had been working on a play that they performed for their parents, and they pulled it off without a hitch! The reason it was so impressive was because they had total ownership of the design, backdrop, props, set, and all changes to the script. As we have been working in an inquiry-based model this year, there have been a lot of opportunities for students to shine in class when they share their learning, or creations. But the play was something everyone came together to do, and I wasn't exactly sure if it would all turn out.



As a teacher used to leading everything, I stepped back and let them figure out what they need to change and what they need to do to make it successful. The end result wasn't perfect, but it sure was amazing! The excitement on stage was palpable, and they did an awesome job of acting. 

The growth I've seen in my students is hard to describe. They have carried this project through, took on all the work themselves, and have become successful in producing their very own finished product. Everything was designed and made by the students. They used digital technology to create backgrounds with Minecraft, which were very effective in giving a backdrop to every scene. 

They used technology to record their voices over a music track in a loop it so that it would play in between each scene, giving information to their audience. They designed, built and modified a web page for the play until they were happy with the result. The website shared information about the upcoming play with families, and also with students from another school. Their self-authored website is here.

We were lucky enough to be able to perform our play for a live audience at our school, and a virtual audience as well. We wanted to share our play with students from another school. We realized we had to figure out a way to do it without busing them here. Happily, technology was there to make it easy for us. Using a Google Hangout, we were able to link up with the class and not only have a live audience, but also a virtual audience watching our play all at the same time. The definite highlight of the day for me was the first time I heard virtual laughter streaming out of the computer as the other class watched the play. 

This is the SAMR model of how people use technology, developed by Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D. This helped me to think about how we could best utilize technology when working on our play. I had heard of this concept for the first time this year, and it really fit with what we were doing in class. It forced me to look critically at how I am using technology, and to make me really think about how I could better use it to expand our learning opportunities. Reflecting on my own practice, I could see that the top two levels were what I wanted to achieve this year. That is when I decided we would try to promote, and share our play with others beyond the four walls of our school. The resulting experience was well worth the effort.

I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Michael Frey and his class. They were on the other side of the Google Hangout, and they provided us with critical feedback the following day through Today's Meet.

Inquiry-Based Learning+Open-Ended Math (Student Choice+Student Voice)=Engagement!

Differentiation and engagement: two big concepts for me in my class this year. When I am able to ensure that both are a part of my teaching, then I know that students will have opportunities to be successful. 

Over the last couple of years I have been using more open-ended math questions. These are math questions that have more than one possible solution, or more than one possible way to solve the problem. It gives students choice, and that allows them to really think about the math they know, and what mathematical strategies they can use to solve real-life problems. 

For me, the best part of open-ended math questions is the multiple levels from which students can engage with the problem. Everyone can get the answer, using their own level of ability, and feel successful in their mathematical learning.
For example: If I want to know what two numbers could be subtracted to equal 123, I could get two very different answers from students:


  234                                   9, 012
- 111        or                      - 8,889
  123                                       123


I have found this increases the confidence of students who would  be overwhelmed by a page of 30 math facts, and take over an hour to complete the page. They can do the math, but not as quickly as other students. In the same way, I don't have students done in ten minutes, claiming they are bored. Everyone is engaged at their level.

This year inquiry-based learning has really expanded the opportunities in math. Open-ended questions have become even more open-ended as we use more personal choice and technology to create, remix, and design our math work. Students love having the choice, and when the opportunity is available, they will stretch their thinking with topics that are of high interest.

Today I posted a math problem on the whiteboard.
     

                "The answer is 7323.
             What was the question?"


Everyone decided what their question would be about. Then they searched for images using CC Search. The math was figured out on scrap paper, on whiteboards, or directly on devices. 




One of the added bonuses with BYOD and technology in general is that paper use is greatly reduced. I have seen on Twitter that some classes have measured how much paper they have reduced over a year, and calculated how many trees they have saved. It sounds like something we might like to do at the end of the year, maybe we can plant a tree to celebrate. In our class this year, variety is the spice of life. Everyday is different, and that is starting to become the "same old, same old".

Inquiry-Based Learning in a BYOD class

I attended a workshop this summer on Inquiry-Based Learning. It is happening in Kindergarten this year in our school, and it seems to be a fantastic way to engage the students in class. I wanted to bring this approach into my classroom this year. I tried this in a limited way last year, we called it "20% Time". I had heard about this at a Google Summit I attended in Kitchener, and it was very intriguing. So after Grade 6 testing was finished, the last month of school, my students were involved in several projects around the room. Some were instantly engaged in an activity they wanted to pursue, others joined in to something they thought was interesting, but in the end everyone got involved in something. It was difficult for the students at first, because they were so used to being told what they were doing, and what they need to learn.

This year I decided it would have to be a consistent part of my classroom culture if it was going to be successful. It would have to be something we do, an organic part of the learning that goes on in the room. It was hard to understand how it would look, or how it would work, or even if it would work. But I was determined to give it a try.  We created an "Awesome Ideas" board in our room. Students could post ideas here that they would like to do in class.

At first I thought that the whole class should be involved, a project that everyone was excited about. We were reading a book that the class really loved, and I thought they might really enjoy turning it into a play, so I started planting the idea with little hints. It worked, and the whole class has been excited and focused on creating, and practicing their play to perform for others. When we are working on this task everyone is engaged and focused, they are making something that they wanted to do, and they are naturally interested, as it is their own creation.

Engaging the whole class doesn't always work though. It is a group of students with many different interests, so they will naturally gravitate towards different things. I decided to create a space in the room for their ideas, so we could put them up for everyone to see. I initially thought this would spur everyone on to the same idea, but instead it helped me. I began to see that they have different ideas, that are all really great ideas. This was when I began to realize that my model of an Inquiry-Based class would have to change.

With their own devices at school, and the internet at their fingertips, students are starting to realize just how quickly they can learn about something they are interested in. We have spent time learning how to search effectively to find the information we want.

Two girls came in from recess and asked if they could do some research on berries they had found at recess. I let them slip off to work on it, as they were willing to share their results with the class. They came back, and asked if they could speak to the Principal. It turns out that the berries are poisonous and the girls saw younger students playing near them. They were concerned, thinking they might be poisonous. They presented their information to the Principal, backing up their argument with the research they had done on the internet.

On Friday, our class was working together on something that I thought everyone would be engaged in. However, there were three boys at the back of the room who were not. They're currently interested in slingshots, and had created a model out of paper clips and elastics. My first instinct was to tell them to put them into their backpacks and pay attention to the lesson. I realized that they still wouldn't be engaged in what I was teaching. How do I get them to work, and to learn something?

"Those are actually pretty cool, I like the design of them. Would you like to write a blog post about how you designed and built them?" Three excited faces nodded. Off they went, and they were focused until the lunch bell rang. Next week I think they might want to learn how the slingshot has been used throughout history. They could be researching on the internet, reading about a topic that is a high interest topic for them, analyzing information and deciding what to share with others about slingshots. A well placed question might get them researching how the Aboriginals in Canada used slingshots and that might lead to the other weapons that were typically used.

It is hard to take a step back and give up some of the control. I have always been the voice at the front of the class, sharing knowledge, inventing fun and interesting ways to try to get everyone involved in the lesson. Now I am beginning to realize that there are 24 people in our room with great ideas, and varying areas of interest. As we learn about all the great things that catch our interest, my role is to ensure that we still cover the curriculum. I am still the leader and I still have a vision of where we need to get to, but there is more than one path we can take, and as Robert Frost wrote:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Minecraft in Math: Problem Solving and Failing without Fear

I noticed something a little peculiar this year. Whenever it was time for math, there was an almost universal groan. My class had a phobia, there was a real fear of failing. When doing a problem in class, if they did not get the correct answer on their first attempt, students felt that it was too hard. They were so worried about getting something wrong, that their creative thought process was stymied.

There had to be a way of motivating the class to feel like they can take on the challenge of math, and to do so with a positive attitude. I tried to think of a situation where children regularly have to problem solve and fail in order to figure things out. With a built-in structure that allows them to start over until they find success. 

Video Games!

Video games have a built-in structure that challenges the player enough to make the game interesting, and to make them want to succeed. But when they fail, they are able to start the level over with confidence, and knowledge gained by their progress in that level up to that point. Video games help them to accept failure and realize that by persevering, and learning from their mistakes, they can succeed. 

I wanted to engage the students using real life math and by attempting to use Minecraft for creating our graphs. We graphed the results of our food drive. As they created their graphs errors were made, but the groans and furious sounds of erasers rubbing out mistakes was gone. Students calmly smashed blocks that weren't working, redoing their graph with nary a complaint to be heard. The expectation was that it wouldn't all work perfectly the first time and they were prepared to back out, see the big picture, and swoop back in to rebuild their graph.

As a BYOD class, there is never only one way to complete a task. Students had the option of using Minecraft, interactive whiteboard apps, or paper and pencil. In some instances students showed their work in two different ways to decide which worked best. 

It was not universal, diversity reigned. Some students preferred making the graph on graph paper, some liked the graph paper background in Educreations, and others liked the constuctivist approach of Minecraft. At the end of the day, everyone had successfully created a graph. They had succeeded beyond my expectaions, and they were eager for the next challenge in Math.

BYOD - Fits, Farts, and Misstarts

When the option to bring in any device that works wirelessly is available, the diversity of devices that comes in is amazing. It is both a blessing and a curse. When everything works it allows for a wide variety of ways to create a finished product. For example a girl in my class was wondering what kind of spider she had caught at recess, so she searched for the spider using her iPod. She then found some information, put some notes on her device, and then shared it with the class. In that moment BYOD feels great. The wide world of information is at our fingertips, just waiting to be tapped and harnessed, but... it isn't always that easy. 

Sometimes the internet and the device don't seem to be willing to get along. The moment of excitement, and engagement can be lost. But here is when the variety of devices becomes a good thing. Another student has a Blackberry device that finds the wifi signal, when an Android device won't, and so two students partner up and all is well. 

I often feel like I am in an infomercial when I stand in front of my class. I am there to sell them on the next awesome idea that we are going to start to explore, or on their own capabilities to succeed. Once I have everyone on the edge of their seat, I bring out the new technology that will help us to reach our goal. It is the first time they have seen it, and it should be magic! But sometimes it isn't. 

One day this week everything that could go wrong... did. A perfect storm of electronic mishaps, that ended with a class slipping away from the moment. Attention spans stretched to the breaking point, chairs shuffled, and the dreaded sound of off-topic giggles began. I lost the moment when the technology didn't work the way it was supposed to. The moment of engaged excitement had passed. 

That is why there always has to be a backup plan, waiting in the wings, engaging, interesting and on topic. The analog savior, to our digital disaster. When the internet is not cooperating, when the Google Doc is insisting they have a log in on devices, when the QR code creator, that worked flawlessly for two years, suddenly doesn't work anymore, when the Google Maps Street View of Nunavut is unavailable without a Google account on an ipad, then it is time to power down, and switch gears.

I constantly try to let my students know that failure leads to success, and that we can't be afraid to fail, whether we are conducting a science experiment, or working on a math problem. I have to remember that the rule counts for me too. Letting them see that I fail too wasn't easy, but role modelling patience, and perseverance as we went through the process of problem solving was a good experience. 

Today the same lesson worked, the glitches were fixed, and groups were working successfully. We learned that things can be difficult, but every problem can be solved if we are willing to keep trying, and work through the problems. I guess in the end, we learned more than I thought this week. 

BYOD in Grade 3/4

Last year was my first time trying BYOD with my class. It was a Grade 5/6 class, and we spent two weeks discussing Digital Citzenship, and how to be safe online. Then the permission forms went home, and the devices came in. It was a great experience, and it was well worth the effort. I was told at the end of the year that my next teaching assignment would be Grade 3/4. 

I was a little hesitant as to how successful BYOD would be. After all there is the reality of Galaxy Tabs, and iPads in a room full of 8 and 9 year olds, who don't always remember to push in their chairs, or how to walk instead of run. But the trade off was that if we could care for the equipment and be respectful of everyone's technology, then a whole new world of opportunities awaited.

So we spent a week learning how to be safe on the internet, how to care for our equipment, and how to be good digital citizens. Then the permission forms went home, and the devices came in. At first the overpowering urge was there to do something... ANYTHING! with their devices. And I let them. I set up a Today's Meet when reading a chapter of our read aloud. I let them show their math work in Blackberry, iOS or Android apps. 

As we progressed through September, they started to recognize which activities were just quicker and easier to do on paper, with a pencil. I never needed to tell them what they could use, they just started using the best tool for the job at hand.

Today we started working with weight scales. There were four large boxes of random, mixed-up weight scales in the Math Area of our school. I was told that some were broken, and some parts were missing. I thought what a great way to start measurement!

The class was offered a challenge. Work together as a class, 30 minute time limit, and see if you can get the scales working. 20 minutes later we had a room full of working scales. 

Problem: Missing Parts

Solution: String, Tape, Found Material

The students problem solved their way through building and piecing together the scales. When parts were missing, or extra, they went to other groups and collaborated to get all the scales built. Sometimes other materials were grabbed from around the room to "McGyver" the weight scale. What is especially interesting is that they didn't immediately search on the internet, rather they looked at the real world around them first. 


When a more challenging problem presented itself, a student first worked his way through the other groups, then approached me for some help. He had a weight scale that obviously was missing parts, but no one was familiar with the design of the weight scale. 

I asked him how he could find out more about the scale.
 He said, "I could use the computer to check the internet. But I don't know what this scale is called."
 I asked him what phrase  he could start with, and he decided upon "weight scales." 

He limited his search to images, looking until he found the design he was looking for, then clicked the image to discover both the name, and a close up of the missing parts he needed to finish building his scale.  




While jotting down their ideas on what was hard, challenging, and successful about assembling the scales, some students wrote on paper, and some used their devices. 

When working on their finished explanation, some students used paper, and other students used devices, but everyone was able to share their learning. Truth is, our class isn't a BYOD class, it's just a class that uses everything we need to be successful, and learn... and have a little fun along the way!