Technology in Gloria Glade

Earlier this term, we all explored what technology is available in our schools and what that might mean for our classes.  My high school (call it Erie HS...you know, next to the Erie River) appears to have many more resources than most other schools represented in our class.  I think this is largely due to Erie High being located within the city of Gloria Glade (or, G-squared, as they like to call it), which is home to a large university.  The city of G2 is relatively affluent with great resources available for students.

At Erie High, teachers can check out a cart full of laptops for classroom use.  In our survey, we discovered that the school (2000 students) has 11 carts, each with 30 laptops.  During class, teachers can then run a session that incorporates technology directly into the curriculum.  Teachers can give class time for students work on papers.  If they don't have enough class time, students can head down to the library and work on a school computer.  It is important to note, however, that all of the school computers can be monitored by the tech staff (which exist) for misuse.  Technically, there the school has filters, but to date, these have not been on.

All the classrooms are equipped with projectors and the teachers are assigned quasi-personal laptops that don't have any filtration software on them (and are not connected to the big-brother in tech).  Teachers can easily hook their machines up for presentations of any kind, be it a powerpoint, video, photo-journal writing activity, audio clip...etc.  In my classroom, we project the daily agenda as well as any bell work for students to start upon entry.


Overall, most of the students have some form of computer, but the school is well equipped to support those that don't.  The tech staff (remember those "big brothers" mentioned above?) are tremendously helpful and enthusiastic in connecting students with resources and well trained in helping them figure out how to accomplish certain tasks.  Regarding personal devices, the school (or at least Mrs. Anonimateacher) does not have a strict no-tech policy.  Cell phones are not allowed to be used for personal business during class, but some teachers will make use of the calculators/cameras/internet for classroom use.

I'm excited to use the many resources available to Erie High of Gloria Glade!

Science in the streets

Last week, we had a guest speaker presenting all about Flipping Physics, an example of a creative, well thought out flipped classroom.  Generally speaking, a flipped classroom has video lectures that students watch at home in place of their standard homework.  In class, students work directly with the teacher and in small groups working through the content and what would typically be considered "homework".  A major benefit of this is that the teacher can get one-on-one interaction with all of the students essentially every day.  Compare this to a "normal" routine where a good chunk of the day is spent in presentation of material vs. interaction.

A few ideas came from the presentation.  First, as a side note, he had a copy of a Dr. Seuss book which he read to his classes on the very last day of school every year.  Each year signed a page.  Flipping through the book, the first thirteen pages are filled with notes from students and signatures.  Just looking at this inspired me to think of a similar approach.  I think this sort of keepsake would be a powerful memento.

Now...back to the point.  Do I think a biology classroom could serve as a "flipped" class?  The answer...maybe.  A feature of this format is that students are watching a lecture at home while I would hope to veer away from a heavy dependency on lectures.  Additionally, having a very specific plan would almost restrict you from the flexibility of being able to change your schedule on a daily basis...for good or for bad.  However, to remove the "talking head" element from the classroom would free me up to lead experiments and demonstrations as well as work through tricky material.

What the presentation really inspired was helping me think more about my idea for a science busking character.  For those not familiar with busking, picture those street magicians and musicians who haunt big city squares and take donations for a living.  Imagine that, but with science!  I'd like to develop a side character to my classroom time where I go out into the city square with a simple science experiment to share with the public.  Donations would theoretically go towards classroom materials and such. A further element of this could be to have students volunteer to come out and assist with the show.  Perhaps it could be a "science festival club".

How does this relate to the flipped classroom?  Film them all.  Take a 5-10 minute segment from each of these busking days and I could start to compile a large database of really cool experiments for students to watch at home, share with family and perhaps learn something.  If I were creative enough, I could have classroom demos filmed in public so students could revisit them later.  The ideas are scattered and vague right now, but they're out there.

Google, oh benevolent overloard

I've always had a tough time with online integration of my life.  Every time I enter a new site, I'm asked the same series of questions.  No, I don't want to link it to FB, no I don't want to link to my gmail...honestly, I'd prefer that everything remain completely distinct and separate.  My name is common enough that it makes is pretty tough for individuals to track me down online with just my first and last names.  I recognize, however, that as I type this, I'm entering information into a massive database that is probably being scanned in some capacity somewhere.  It's entirely possible, the paranoia in my screams, that somebody can actually read this while I type it.  Honestly, it's not even that unlikely.  At my placement school, all the school computers, at least, have software installed that allows the tech specialists to mirror anything on the screen.  I doubt that they can mirror personal computers.

I digress.  In our last tech-ed class, we discussed integration of classroom assignments into a database like Google.  Google Docs allows students and teachers to generate word documents, spreadsheets and presentations.  Google Forms lets teachers create instant tests and share responses with the whole class in real-time.  Specifically interesting about these suites is that students can retain "ownership" of their documents in a way that regular submission of papers does not allow.  For instance, if a student turns in a paper they've spent days (or the night before) constructing and the teacher doesn't find it on his/her desk, it's simply one person's word against another.  Through the online option, students simply send a link to their teacher, who can see when it was completed, what revisions have been made and much more.  After the class is over, the students can revoke access to their documents and keep all of their content in one space through their entire HS career.

I have to admit that the permissions had not occurred to me.  Additionally, it would be nice to have ready access to all of the papers that I wrote in High School and college.  The presentation gave me new perspective, but I am still hesitant to turn to the dark side.  We trust our privacy to these companies, but I've seen so many policies change and completely violate our faith in them.  Who is to say that Google won't turn around in 10 years and release a paper I wrote when I was 18 to the media when I'm running for office somewhere?  I believe they won't, but it really relies strongly on trusting that there are people behind the algorithms.

For now, I'll continue to try to keep my online life as disjointed as possible.  As a teacher, I also must get past the idea that I have any privacy period and start to embrace some of the advantages of integration.  Someday, I'll have a plan...