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Ed Tech News Roundup: Back-to-School Updates and PBL

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of biweekly ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy — and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

Making a Plan

As the new school year beckons, a few folks are thinking big when it comes to learning. The Maker movement is marching past isolated building activities into a framework for learning, and immersive learning is offering new paths to engage students.

  • Digital Promise, an ed tech nonprofit, has revamped their Maker Learning Leadership Framework, designed to grow maker learning in education. [Digital Promise, STEAM Universe]
  • Immersive learning often refers to learning facilitated by multi-sensory digital environments. The underlying notion of using space to enhance learning can refer to physical spaces, too, and spaces where the physical and digital overlap. [School Planning and Management]

Kids These Days

The students funneling into classrooms across the country represent Generation Z and Generation Alpha (the children of Millennials), digital natives whose behaviors and preferences, always crucial to educators, are starting to gain the attention of the wider world.

  • NBC News jumps into the world of Gen Z looking for insights on the generation’s tech and social media use, which includes some interesting results (they don’t, for example, watch much TV). [NBC News]
  • One seemingly unstoppable trend among younger generations is a huge — and lucrative — fascination with esports. Take a peek into the first Fortnite World Cup with 12 year-old gamer “H1ghSky1.” [Vulture / New York Magazine]

Project Management

Engaging students with project-based learning can help them understand material in hands-on, real-world ways. But using PBL in the classroom can be a challenge. Luckily, lots of smart educators are sharing a wealth of experience.

  • Going deep into in-the-field experiences with PBL can help teachers solve some of their most common issues. [THE Journal]
  • For those putting together PBL lesson plans, reviewing a few do’s and don’ts can help avoid issues, too. [Ed Tech]

…And Finally

Ed tech innovations often reach students through a screen. But could new ways of delivering education through technology actually reduce screen time? This startup says it can.

Photo: Peter Gonzalez

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Good TeachingSTEM/STEAM

PBL Your STEM Projects

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Looking for exciting ways to engage your students? Combine what you know of Do It Yourself (DIY) STEM activities with project-based learning (PBL). In this blog entry, we’ll explore some great STEM ideas and then blend those into an engaging problem. Before we do that, allow me to introduce you to two book authors.

Introducing Simple Steam

Watching webinars can be a bit tedious. But I didn’t feel that way at all as I hung on every word of one speaker. As I struggled to multi-task, balancing work projects, I listened. What hooked me? The exciting possibility that STEM need not be complex. Wouldn’t that be an amazing possibility?

The webinar speaker referenced Debby Mitchell and Marnie Forestieri’s book Simple Steam: 50+ Science Technology Engineering Art and Math Activities for Ages 3 to 6. In the book, there are a variety of STEM projects geared for younger students. As I read about them, it occurred to me there was a road map to making them even more engaging.

Creating Engaging Learning

To create engaging learning opportunities, you can take advantage of many strategies. Engaged learning, research shows, increases their attention and focus. One engagement strategy involves leading dynamic discussions. John Hattie, oft-cited for Visible Learning, found classroom discussion quite important because it has an effect size that exceeds the “hinge point.” The hinge point refers to a students’ year of growth in the same amount of time. With a 0.82 effect size, a student has the potential of two years academic growth in half the time. All this from “meaningful classroom discussion,” says Maggie Bruski.

The question is, “How do YOU craft engaging classroom discussions?” The answer is that you PBL the dickens out of them.

PBLing Your STEM Lesson

Let’s examine how this might happen. We’ll rely on Mitchell and Forestieri’s book examples to start. The steps are straightforward:

Step 1: Craft a Problem Narrative 

Problem-based learning (PBL) uses real-life problems. Model these after a contemporary or historical case (e.g. use of airdrops to deliver supplies). This engages students as they pursue specified learning outcomes aligned to academic standards or course objectives. Four questions I ask when formulating a problem include:

  • What do we want them to learn?
  • Why is it important they learn this?
  • What problems or issues would they be able to resolve with the information?
  • What process do we want them to follow?

Example:

In Simple STEAM, one project involves students learning key concepts about air resistance, force, gravity, and mass. A potential problem narrative go this way:

“Help us please! Without the vaccines in those crates, people will die of the infection.” Five operatives race up the stairs. They have a difficult task ahead of them and everything hinges on their work. The fire is spreading, too fast to stop, and forcing them up. The arsonists have blocked the way down. City fire and police are too overwhelmed to help. They reach the roof of the building, a few doctors and nurses milling around in panic.

The last cases of the anti-virus wait for helicopter pickup, but no helicopters are coming.  They must think up a different way to get the crates of vaccine down from the skyscraper. But how? Number Three thumbs the mic on the team talkie to contact the team on the ground.

Then, Number One sees some supply closets. Desperate hope rises as she thinks. Number Two smiles. “Then, it falls, a flower on the wind.” They get to work.

Step 2: Identify PBL Stakeholders and Hunches

pblOnce students are engaged in the problem, they begin to write down their hunches about it. They will need to identify with a stakeholder. It may seem like there is only one stakeholder in this scenario, but you can see several more, right?

This is an important action. After introducing the problem, it determines what happens next. You can say to students the following in regards to the stakeholders in the problem:

“To help them, let’s share what our hunches are, that is, our best guesses about three things. The first is this situation. The second is what we know based on a reading of the text. The third is what we need to know to help the person/people in this situation. What guesses can we make about what is happening in the story?”

We want to collect these hunches so that all students can see them, then move to asking questions. The focus of questions is to identify other questions about what we know and what we need to know to help the stakeholders. One approach for accomplishing this is the use of a KWHL chart:

  • Know – What do we know based on our reading of the problem? (K)
  • What – What do we want to know about this? (W)
  • How – How are we going to find this out? (H)
  • Learned – And, after the activity has moved on, what have we learned about this problem?

Inquiry and investigation builds a basis for students to design a solution product.

Step 3: Bins or Baggies

Cluster materials in bins or baggies depending on how much scaffolding students need to get started. Point older students at a collection of bins; provide younger learners with a baggie. Student will soon find themselves working through the problem as a stakeholder.

Your job as the teacher is to act as a guide as students explore the issues. Their job will involve formulating questions, conducting research, and making observations. They will then engage in rapid prototyping (solution development and testing). In the end, they will recommend a solution.

Example:

Students have several options to solve this problem. You can steer them in one direction (the use of parachutes). Make materials available such as a plastic grocery bag, string, and various “crates.” These could be multi-sized plastic containers with a lid so you can adjust item quantity. More items result in a heavier weight. Depending on the age, students could figure out what their parachutes can best support.

Technology Connection

As students design their parachute, have them document the results. This can involve pictures and video. After each test, students can chart the rates of descent in seconds for each of the different objects. Then test their solutions against a “standard” set of objects to see if they work. Have students report their observations via Seesaw. Set up tests using green screen technology to simulate a towering inferno or news reports from the scene. Students can present alternative news perspectives. This could involve arsonists or virus-infected individuals waiting for the cure.

PBL Your STEM Projects

As you can see, PBLing your STEM project involves some clever storytelling. You can blend various technologies to deepen the fiction and the storytelling.

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PBL
Digital LiteracyGood Teaching

Gamifying PBL: Smashboard Edu

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Want to increase students’ retention of content? Want to help students leave school prepared for deeper learning, higher-level thinking? Then Project-Based Learning (PBL) aligns wells to your goals. Extensive research over time supports PBL as THE best response to tough questions. In this blog entry, we’ll revisit some of the research. Then we will explore a new tool that facilitates gamifying PBL.

Revisiting the Research

No matter where you look, whether in K-12 or higher education, PBL stands tall. Want to become a doctor? Problem-Based Learning (also abbreviated as PBL), a close sibling to project-based learning, is a pedagogical practice. Structured PBL units empower students to “create conceptual models” to solve a problem. From K-12 to medical school, PBL is the go-to multi-disciplinary system. It encourages self-directed learning, targets higher-order learning, and engages students (source: Journal of Biological Chemistry).

PBL has found its way into many classrooms. You can see my own journey with PBL in this wakelet on Exploring PBL.

PBL

Key Components of PBL

Various researchers have cited the following elements as essential to PBL success. These elements include:

  • Starting with a real-life problem that is high interest and aligned to the curriculum
  • Structured cooperative learning that is interdependent and features team rewards and accountability
  • More than one opportunity for assessment, differentiated learning outcomes, and presentations
  • Connecting learners to other learners via a learning network.

Each of these points aligns to the ISTE Standards for Students as well.

Aligning the ISTE Standards for Students

Consider the corresponding ISTE Student Standard Connection for each point above:

  • Element #1: Real-Life Problem
    • Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions.
  • Element #2: Cooperative Learning
    • Global Collaborator: Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.
  • Element #3: Differentiated Learning Opportunities
    • Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
    • Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others
  • Element #4: Connected Learners
    • Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

Blending technology into PBL makes problem solving, learning, and solution making a digital reality. Aligning it to the ISTE Standards for Students makes it a fantastic opportunity. Yet in the fast-paced video game environment our children learn in, how can we make PBL even more?

Gamifying Problem-Based Learning

Many of our children play games that engage them with problems. The Pew Research Center has made some relevant findings that gamifying learning stimulates interest and deep engagement with content. John Seelye Brown, as cited here, describes the power of accidental learning. Accidental learning is learning on the go, solving problems as they appear. Accidental learning relies on failure. “The chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate,” says Brown.

Smashboard EDU is “problem-based learning & the design-thinking process smashed into a gamified experience.” Their goal is to be encourage creative solutions to a relevant, real-world problem. It follows a simple process:

  • Prep: Pick a Problem to Smash!
  • Setup: Each group of three or four receives a set of cards and a device and selects a note-taker.
  • Play: Follow the steps for each card in order. Use the SOS card ONCE to ask for help from the facilitator.

Watch this short video for an overview.

Let’s assess this new website. We’ll use the key elements to successful PBL to guide our exploration.

Element #1 – Real-Life Problem

“My 6th graders have smashed energy conservation, ecological concerns, and social awareness issues,” says Marilyn McAlister (@MarilynEDU). Does Smashboard Edu present students with relevant, real-life problems aligned to curriculum? Yes, it offers a variety of pre-set problem cards. You can also rely on authentic situations via online websites. Read more about Marilyn’s experiences with SmashboardEdu:

One of our favorite problem-solving structures is #SmashboardEdu. It is a gamified process for solving problems. Over the course of two class periods, students identify the problem, research, solve, share, and reflect. Shout out to Ed Tech Team leader, @DeeLanier, for his fabulous bank of resources here. We used this slide deck to guide our sessions.

Elements #2 and #3

Does Smashboard Edu enable you to use digital tools to empower collaboration and communication? The answer is a resounding YES. Consider this Flipgrid where students share their reflection of the problem-solving process. Meta-problem-solving can be a real aid to students working together.

PBL

Empowering students depends on how they use Smashboard Edu. Learners may use it as a springboard to produce creative artifacts, as shown in the image below.

PBL

Image Source:  https://twitter.com/cmsbusiness1/status/1096404176744169472

Element #4

Smashboard Edu makes it possible to have students learn in an interconnected, digital world. This is less about Smashboard Edu and more about the tools (e.g. Flipgrid) that students choose to use. Encouraging students to work well together, in the classroom and across classrooms, is important.

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Photo by Simon Hurry on Unsplash
Good TeachingMicrosoft

Lesson Planning: 5E Model + Tech with the ISTE Standards (Part One)

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“How do you blend technology into a 5E Lesson Plan?” The question motivated me to write the blog entry, Lesson Planning: 5E Model + Technology. In conversation with a colleague just this  week, we reflected on the power of collaborative lesson planning. Co-planning lessons, including those that blend technology, enhance the actions and impact on students. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a portion of the 5E Model plus Technology in the context of the ISTE Standards, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and TPACK.

5e model
View this as a Google Slides Infographic Template You can Adapt for Your Own Use

The Value of Co-Planning Lessons

“Lesson planning is too important, challenging, and time-consuming to try to do ALL of it on your own…It’s wonderful to utilize the experience of other teachers and time-tested instructional strategies so you don’t have to spend as long planning out your lessons,” says Angela Watson in her blog entry, 6 Ways to Make Co-Planning Lessons More Efficient.

My first experiences as a first year teacher included trying to figure out how to best introduce a lesson to students. For me, the emotional hook, like the lead of a blog entry, had to be compelling. I often failed my first year. What saved me was taking the time to create a lesson planning template. Today, 5E lessons can take the shape of hyperdocs. If you must plan alone, remember there are many websites that offer suggestions. Let’s check out 5E Model plus technology in the context of the Dust Bowl.

Did You Know?

TCEA offers teams of educators, as well as individuals, certification in the ISTE National Education Technology Standards (NETS).  ISTE Certification is a new competency-based, vendor-agnostic educator certification based on the ISTE Standards for Educators. This digital credential recognizes educators who understand how to use edtech for learning in meaningful and transformative ways. Find out more.

About the Dust Bowl

Not familiar with the Dirty Thirties? This time came to be known as the Dust Bowl due to intensive plowing on the Great Plains that removed the deep-rooted grasses. These grasses trapped moisture in the soil during periods of drought and high winds. When drought plagued American prairies during the 1930’s for eight years, high winds kicked dirt and dust into the air. “The drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres,” states a Wikipedia entry.

ISTE NETS

The infographicabove addresses three of the relevant NETS. Those include Innovative Designer, Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator. The infographic shares activities that address each standard.

5E Lesson Plan

Let’s review some of the main points of the 5E Lesson Plan, as well as explore the technology connections possible. You can find the 5E + Technology Lesson chart in this companion blog entry. You will also find an infographic depicting some of the main ways the ISTE National Education Technology Standards (NETS) are represented in the lesson.

ENGAGE

  1. How? Activities that capture the students’ attention, stimulate their thinking, and help them access prior knowledge.
  2. Technology? PBL component, creation of video/audio explorations of a topic
  3. What Success Looks like?

“Quick, Jennie-girl,” cried Grandma, “cover the beds!” The clouds appeared on the horizons with a thunderous roar. The turbulent dust clouds came in from the North and dumped a fine silt over the land. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and I stayed inside the house. Sheriff Marcus would always come by afterwards–“How you farmers doing?”–to check on us after a dust storm. Each of us wore a handkerchief over our nose and mouth. When Pa went outside, he wore googles over his eyes because the wind was so hard. My job was to plug up all the holes, ripping up cloth and sticking them into cracks in the walls, doors and windows. It didn’t make much of a difference, though. The silt, like Ma’s talcum powder, found its way into everything. During a storm, Ma waved wet gunny sack through the air and tied damp sheets over our beds so the dust wouldn’t settle into our sleeping sheets. Pa’s face was gray; the wheat crop was dead. “Oh,” I cried, “how can we stop this from happening?”

Get a copy of the Google Slides version of this infographic

EXPLORE

  1. How? Enable students to explore their ideas, singly and in groups, in the classroom or at a distance. Provide students time to think, plan, investigate, and organize collected information.
  2. Technology? Students are guided through the PBL process, composed of the following steps:
    1. IDENTIFYING HUNCHES: WHAT WE KNOW, WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
      Ask the following questions and have students work to identify their responses to the following:
      What hunches, or guesses, can we make about the problems, the people in the problem?
      What do we know for certain about the problem? Be sure to explain to students that these are certainly in the text kinds of answers rather than extrapolations based on what they have read.
      What do we need to know in order to help Jennie?

ONLINE ACTIVITY – To get this activity going, use a wiki page (or Google Doc/OneNote/Word Online) for each area with the titles above. Group students and encourage them to fill in this information.

  • IDENTIFY AND EXPLORE STAKEHOLDER ROLES
    Now that we know what we need to know, what stakeholders can we identify in the problem? Some sample stakeholder roles for this problem include the following:
    Farmers
    Local authorities, like police
    Crop buyers
    The government
    Children/Spouses of farmers
    Local business people
    Note: As the lead learner, I would not provide this list to students. They should tease it out of the problem engagement.

TPACK, Anyone?

You can also make TPACK connections for PBL models:

Content: In this lesson in particular, the required content knowledge is science, specifically the causes of weathering. Students need to develop a strong understanding of weathering, identifying what farm practices turned grasslands and wilderness into dirt and dust.

Pedagogical: The required pedagogical knowledge is the best practices for middle school students. PBL research studies at middle school indicate that this approach enhances group dynamics, student collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving. It also increases students’ motivation and engagement (Sources: BIE, TFO, ASCD).

Technological: Students work in collaborative teams to develop documentaries that present the Dust Bowl problem from a stakeholder perspective and offer a relevant solution (Model to Follow, NonFiction Documentaries). Students also have the option to re-create physical spaces in virtual space using tools like Minecraft: Education Edition a la Block by Block approach. Students would also be encouraged to explore a variety of creation tools, ranging from WeVideo, Toontastic, or iMovie, and are invited to incorporate green screen technologies.

EXPLAIN

  1. How? Students acquire opportunities to connect their previous experiences with current learning and to make conceptual sense of the main ideas of the topic being studied.
  2. Technology? Giving this a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) spin, consider the following connections possible:
    • Multiple means of representation:
      Encourage students to organize their data gathering–and illustrate through multiple media–about their problem, stakeholders, and solution, as well as plan their documentary video (e.g. traditional or Minecraft-based screencast or blend per student choice). The organizational tool would be Microsoft OneNote, which provides ample ways to students to interact with content. Both students and teacher(s) can create visual guides students can interact with (e.g. semantic webs) with audio/video narration embedded. OneNote would facilitate decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols. Although students are not working with many other languages in this scenario, they could rely on tools like Google/Microsoft Translator apps to promote understanding across languages.
    • Multiple means of action and expression:
      Given a combination of available apps and software tools, students would have the opportunity to rely on multiple tools for construction, composition, and communication. Students could also rely on teacher-created rubrics for virtual space design (e.g. recreating the Dust Bowl situation and factors that led to it in Minecraft: Education Edition). Rubrics would assist student groups in self-monitoring progress.
    • Multiple means of engagement:
      Students will work in collaborative groups self-determined from their interest in stakeholders embedded in the PBL scenario relevant to the Dust Bowl disaster. They will work together to develop problem solutions that consider various demands and resources. The success of their solution development, whether as a documentary or virtual world, will be evident and defined by the rubrics they develop to assess their success.

Wrap-Up

We’ve only covered the first three “Es” of the 5E Model. Elaborate and Evaluate remain to be shared in Part Two (read it now).

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napkin pd
Content AreasiOS Tips and TricksProfessional Learning

Napkin PD: Solving Problems Together

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Creating engaging professional learning sessions that model PBL in a device-agnostic environment can be challenging. Come along as we explore a workshop design that focuses on solving problems together in a BYOD setting. You will also get the chance to see some of our favorite teacher-created products in this one and a half to three hour session.

Essential Elements

Before we jump into the project stations, let’s review a few components common to each. Each project station includes three components:

  • Explore
  • Adapt/Create
  • Share

In the Explore portion, participants are presented with a simulation of a real-life problem. They work to develop background knowledge in the key concept shared. In the Adapt/Create, they make connections between their own experiences as learners. Two ways to accomplish this include adapting an existing work in light of new information. The second way is to create a new product. After they create or adapt, they share that online with a global audience. Sharing is accomplished via a Seesaw Class space.

All project stations are designed to facilitate hands-on learning experiences. You can learn more about the reason why PBL remains a solid hands-on learning strategy to engage learners of any age. Let’s get started.

An example of a fanciful way of removing trash

Project Station #1: Dealing with Trash

In the Explore stage, participants are introduced to a problem. The problem is about communication, and involves learning how to use various iOS apps. In this case, the scenario is simple:

Your editor has just noticed a news story about trash on a small island. The problem involves local trash disposal issues in your hometown. The task involves providing information, raising awareness, and preparing a call to action for this Sunday’s television editorial.

Participants are encouraged to create a product that models various ways to solve the problem or interview experts on how to best get rid of trash on the island and around town. A variety of apps are provided.

Remember you can “app-smash” or combine the products of multiple apps into one. Participants also have access to other resources, as needed:

The goal is to provide time and an incentive to model collaborative problem-solving as learners explore various technologies intended for use on the Apple iPad, a device many districts have available.

Project Station #2: Parking Lot Solution

napkin pd

One example of a teacher-created product

In this project, a problem that takes advantage of drawing and communication tools is presented to participants. The first stage, Explore, includes the following:

In the school parking lot, there was a car accident between two teachers. Both complained that in the parking lot, the spaces were poorly designed and hard to navigate. How could you redesign the parking lot to minimize the likelihood of accidents and maximize the number of parking spaces?

In the Adapt/Create stage, participants are invited to use one of the tools below to redesign the parking lot and create a product they can share with the team.

A popular activity, participants found various ways to showcase their parking lot designs.

Project Station #3: Ghostwriters to the Rescue

In this tragic problem, participants assume the role of ghostwriters, called upon to finish a task.

A celebrated illustrator and author created beautiful picture books. Unfortunately, she died before she could finish. Help her editor and family create an illustrated story. Together, select pictures from the web and develop a story that models story/plot development. Create a short video with the first elements of a story.

Learners are encouraged to use one of the tools included to create a short video.

  • Image Sources
  • Google Slides
  • Screencastify
  • Nimbus Screenrecording

Participants are also invited to add interactive elements by incorporating a variety of media with a MMTS or inquiry-based hyperdoc. Resources include the following:

Creating hyperdocs or multimedia text sets can be engaging, if time-consuming for some participants. Often, working with video serves as a convenient alternative.

 

Watch video. One of my favorite creations. This team’s inventiveness captured the fun of the Elementary Technology Conference.

Project Station #4: Weather Forecast Needed

Ready to put your green screen skills to the test? Consider this scenario:

Congratulations! You have been selected as the new weather forecaster/meteorologist at the local news station. Budget cuts have made it impossible for you to travel to locations in the viewing area. The first weather forecast is coming up at 5:00 p.m. today.

Breaking News: An oil spill has taken place on the Galveston coast in the midst of a water spout.

Working with your team, take advantage of green screen technologies to create a weather forecast report for the local news broadcast. Your end product will be a video that will be run on the evening news.

Participants explore the DoInk Green Screen app (Watch the video ), as well as watch this Jonathan Wylie created sway. Participants are also encouraged to visit the Go Green resource page. It features videos, blog entries, a sketchnote of ten ways to get started with green screen for under $5, and much more.

This has resulted in several inspired creations that are sure to make you smile.

More Project Stations

The session includes two additional project stations focused on encouraging participants to collaborate and create an infographic or digital story of a screen play. In the last project station, participants rely on paper slides to create a presentation to address a serious global problem.

Turn Napkin PD into a Reality

Want to schedule TCEA professional learning for your school district that focuses on project-based learning? Fill out a TCEA logistics form, as well as attend our face-to-face conferences and the annual TCEA Convention. We can help you turn your napkin professional development plans into a reality. And be sure to check out other  “napkin PD” blogs here.

 

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Social Studies

Napkin PD: A PBL Approach to Texas History

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Like Davy Crockett, I got to Texas as fast as I could. Arriving as a ten year old, the son of a Swedish immigrant family descendant (my father, who served in the army during the Korean Conflict) who married a Panamanian educator (my mother), I grew up studying Texas history. As a Texas immigrant myself, the fictional tales of Texas settlement and independence enthralled me. Forget the Alamo had yet to inform educators of what actually happened and why. As an educator, I often wished that I had easy access to fantastic resources and projects. One resource I missed completely included the Texas General Land Office (GLO). In this blog entry, we will explore a few projects based on Texas GLO Education Resources and Lesson Plans.

 

texasglo

Image Source: Texas General Land Office (GLO)

The General Land Office’s main role is to manage Texas’s publicly owned lands, by negotiating and enforcing leases for the use of the land, and sometimes by making sales of public lands. Royalties and proceeds from land sales are added to the state’s Permanent School Fund, which helps to fund public education within the state.[2] The agency is also responsible for keeping records of land grants and titles and for issuing maps and surveys of public lands. Since 2011 the GLO has managed The Alamo in San Antonio (Source: Wikipedia)

A PBL Approach to Texas History

Having grown up in Texas, I often consider the rich (albeit problematic) history of Texas and how it influences the current state of affairs. One way to introduce students to the approved version involves implementing a problem-based learning (PBL) approach. I like PBL, not only because it is well supported in the research, but because it takes a fresh approach towards old problems. What student of history hasn’t asked himself how he might have responded in a different way to historical problems? PBL puts students in the situation and forces them to consider it from a stakeholder perspective. In the projects in this blog entry, you will get the chance to see some examples of that. These activities pose a scenario and a project task.

Each project involves three steps, including:

  • Step 1 – Choose a Project or Come Up with Your Own: While a project is suggested, since participants are adult learners, they have the option to develop their own task. This step presents a problem scenario and a task.
  • Step 2 – Explore and Create: In this step, adult learners explore a variety of resources that can help them achieve the task. These often involve focusing on the various technologies, as well as other curated items.
  • Step 3 – Share: In a final step, participants turn their final project in. This artifact will often take the form of a video, image, or link to a digital document (e.g. OneNote, Slide deck, Google Doc).

As you can see, these steps provide a consistent framework that allows participants to move from project to project, exploring tools and topics of interest. Include QR codes on the one pager to make it easy for students to access projects.

NapkinPD

Get your own copy of the infographic via Google Slides

Let’s take a brief, closer look at some of these PBL activities with a focus on the Texas GLO resources embedded in each. For fun, here’s another one I made just in case folks were bored:

View digital version: https://go.mgpd.org/ccptm

Project #1 – Victory or Death

In Victory or Death, participants are engaged with the following scenario and task:

Modern students are wondering how Commander Travis could have done a better job asking for help. As a result, the 21st Century Historical Time Bureau has contracted with your team to re-think Commander Travis’ call to action. Take a moment to read the letter, then come up with a 21st Century equivalent to a call for action. Create a product that models various ways Commander Travis could have sent out a more effective call to action.

Workshop participants rely on a variety of tools to create their 21st Century call to action. In this activity, participants can use tools like iMovie (free), and/or PicCollage (example). These have resulted in some fascinating examples and creations from past workshop participants.

The real star of the show is the Texas GLO education resources that include the following:

SAVE THE DATE:

Attend the Annual Save Texas History Symposium. Learn more at this fun event.

Project #2 – Digital Commemorative Map

In Digital Commemorative Map, participants create a digital version of a traditional commemorative map.

The local historical society has bemoaned that students in your classes lack a real appreciation for commemorative maps and history. You and your team resolve to make a digital tour that honors the state’s past around a particular subject. How could you create a digital, interactive commemorative map or document that features maps?

The Texas GLO website includes a variety of map-related resources. For example, the Launch Texas Hidden History provides an interactive map of Texas. You can click on icons that show what Texas looked like then compared to now.

Image Source: Texas Hidden History

Want To See More?

Want to see what other incredible resources Texas GLO Education Resources have available to support projects in your classroom? Be sure to visit the resources for my session, Class Collaboration Projects.  The GLO resources include Texas history and coast  lesson plan and activities. You can also find other interesting resources at the main GLO site.

Turn Napkin PD into a Reality

Want to schedule TCEA professional learning for your school district that focuses on inquiry-based learning? Fill out a TCEA logistics form, as well as attend our face-to-face conferences and the annual TCEA Convention. We can help you turn your napkin professional development plans into a reality.

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kindling stem
MicrosoftSTEM/STEAM

Kindling STEM Learning in Your Classroom

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

At Houston Baptist University’s 10th Annual Teaching and Learning Symposium on Saturday, April 14, 2018, the keynote focused on Making Fire: Kindling STEM Learning in Your Classroom. The presentation focused on introducing STEM teaching and learning strategies that work. Allow me to share with you three of the five tips presented. As you read this blog entry, ask yourself which ones of these have you employed successfully in your classroom?

Why STEM?

Educating students in STEM subjects (if taught correctly) prepares students for life. Those subjects teach students how to think critically, how to solve problems. These skills can be used in life. Source: Adapted from Why STEM?

What’s your child learning in middle school? Does it include Python? I wish I had found a way to introduce my daughter to Python. It would have prepared her for the future. If she had learned Python in middle school, she would have had an easier time in college. Neither of us could predict that she would need it as part of her career in digital mapmaking with ArcGIS.  We must encourage all our children to begin with coding.

Tip #1 – Encourage students to engage in solving real-life problems

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) helps students foster team-building and solve real life problems. Ninety-three percent of Generation Z students prefer real life problem solving. A PBL activity presents a real life problem that captures students’ imagination. It engages them emotionally and intellectually. Over time, they learn to see this problem through the eyes of all stakeholders and develop a multi-faceted solution.

STEM Problem Design

Anne Jolly suggests some criteria for selecting STEM problems. Those criteria, quoted below, include:

  • Real: The problem must be real. It must involve an authentic engineering challenge grounded in compelling societal, economic, and environmental issues that affect people’s lives and communities.
  • Relate-able: Students must be able to relate to the problem. This needs to be a significant challenge students care about.
  • Do-Able: The problem should be “doable.” For a STEM project to be successful, students should have access to the resources, knowledge, and skills they need to solve the problem—and the scope of the problem should be manageable.
  • Parallel Problem-Solving: The problem must allow for multiple acceptable approaches and solutions…each team of students might choose a different approach for solving the problem, and several different solutions may work.
  • Divergent Solutions-Oriented Process: Students should use an engineering design process—drawing on science, mathematics, and technology skills and concepts—to solve the problem.
  • Standards Aligned: The problem should align with grade-level standards for science and mathematics.

Examples

Consider these three examples of student robotics projects that caught my eye at the TCEA 2018 State Robotics Competition. Can you identify how each meets the criteria shown above with the information provided in the photo?

Remember, begin with an engaging problem that invites parallel problem-solving. Students will work hard to solve it. They may work even harder if you empower them to develop the problem.

Tip #2 – Promote intercultural learning, real-world opportunities for students

With quick access to various communication technologies, why not provide meaningful, relevant, inter-cultural, real-world opportunities for students?

  • Create a school hashtag to build a global presence and organize activities (#stemeachday)
  • Create a global conversation around student work
  • Enable students to research wonders or problems in their community and post their solutions on YouTube

One successful strategy involves virtual field trips. Curious about how to take your students on virtual field trips? Be sure to review the Skype in the Classroom Getting Started Guide or connect with others using Google Hangouts in Education.

Digital Connections Made Possible

There are many types of connections possible. Explore a few listed below.

As you might imagine, the possibilities are endless for connecting with educators passionate to unite globally, and what a great opportunity for your students.

Tip #3 – Invite young people to become virtual architects

In a previous blog entry, I pointed out how Minecraft: Education Edition can be used as a virtual construction space.  For the folks at Block by Block, this is a real-life exercise in improving common spaces. The work taps into young women from slums who work as design architects and urban planners. Their workspace is Minecraft’s virtual space.

The Block by Block project is the work of UN-Habitat – the United Nations agency for sustainable urban development – together with the makers of the hugely popular world-building computer game Minecraft, Mojang. (Source: Dezeen, 3/7/2017) | Watch the video

Minecraft facilitates communication about re-designing public spaces (see examples). Students go from physical space to virtual to redesigned space. Students are able to work to solve real problems in virtual space. Officials match funding to student-created solutions. Once funded, designs are implemented in physical space. Amazing. Students learn computational thinking as part of their STEM problem solution development.

Ready to Create Fire in Your STEM Classroom?

Get started with do-it-yourself STEM learning in your classroom. Sign up for one of the upcoming learning opportunities at the 2018 TCEA Microsoft Academy or a professional learning opportunity near you.

 

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Microsoft
MicrosoftProfessional LearningSTEM/STEAM

2018-2019 TCEA Microsoft Professional Learning Opportunities

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you an Office 365 school district and wondering how to maximize professional learning opportunities? Then bookmark this blog entry so you can check what exciting professional learning opportunities are upcoming this spring and summer. In this blog, I’ll share some of the events taking place that you will want to attend. Remember that in addition to these activities, you can always request a dedicated session, like Area 2 has done for a two-day Minecraft: Education Edition Academy.

Did You Know?

Want to sign up? Go to http://ly.tcea.org/attend to register for Lunch and Learns! TCEA Lunch and Learn events do require a TCEA membership ($49). If you have one, then the event is free.

Benefits of Attendance

What is in it for you? Attending TCEA Microsoft workshops and academies garner several benefits, including:

  • Membership in the free, Texas-wide community of Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE). You get to interact with educators in public/private schools, as well as Microsoft, who are committed to accelerate your learning. Come learn with us!
  • Earn digital badges and certificates via the Microsoft Educator Community (MEC). All workshops, academies, and events earn you points that enhance your status in the MEC. And those certificates and badges can be easily printed to share with your employer.
  • Share your insights with others about using Microsoft products in your work. How are you using Microsoft Teams to transform communications in your district? Assist others as you learn more yourself.

If those aren’t enough reasons, you will also get access to a wealth of professional learning via TCEA, a non-profit education association dedicated to advancing teaching and learning through the use of technology.

Did You Know?

Join the TCEA MIE Facebook Community and connect to Texas educators from all around Texas, as well as Microsoft folks.

2018 Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities

Attend these regional events in Fall, 2018. Registration is open now. Click links to access information form and registration link for each session.

October, 2018

November, 2018

Questions about content?

The facilitator for all sessions listed above is Miguel Guhlin, MIE Certified Master Trainer. Reach him via email at mguhlin@tcea.org or on Twitter @mguhlin

Professional Learning for Summer 2018

Robyn Hrivnatz, Keynote Speaker, 2018 TCEA Microsoft Academy

An amazing amount of TCEA learning opportunities abound. Let’s focus in on a few where Microsoft professional learning will be available.

Webinars

Not able to join us for face to face sessions? Then be sure to jump start your learning with online professional learning offerings via our Lunch and Learn series as well as other offerings. See you soon!

Did You Know?

TCEA features a team of MIE Certified Master Trainers, Certified Minecraft Trainers, as well as Google Certified Trainers and Administrators. They are ready to help you learn, whether that involves a technology audit or amazing professional learning experiences.

But wait, there’s more! Check out this collection of one hour, free webinars from Microsoft on a variety of popular topics. Topics include the following:

  • Six Steps for Building a Collaborative Classroom with Microsoft Teams
  • Bring the World to Your Students with Skype in the Classroom
  • Build a Digital Classroom with OneNote
  • Authentic Assessments with Forms, Sway, and More
  • Ten Things You Can Do with Office 365 Online that You Never Knew

Don’t wait. Time to get busy learning.

Past Events

  • 9/27/2018 – 1-Day Physical Computing and Its Role in Education – FREE EVENT
     Location: Arlington, TX
  • 9/13/2018 – MIE 1-Day Office 365 Teacher Academy (BYOD) – FREE EVENT
    Location: Arlington, TX
  • 9/1/2018 – MIE 1-Day Office 365 Teacher Academy (BYOD) – FREE EVENT
    Location: Edinburg, TX
  • August 2-3 – Two-Day Minecraft Education Edition Teacher Academy: This exciting two-day event, closed to the public, will be available for Burleson ISD teachers. If you would like a similar event for your district, please let us know. Location: Burleson, TX
  • July 12-13 – 2018 TCEA Microsoft Academy: The keynote speaker will be Texas educator and Microsoft Fellow Robyn Hrivnatz. In addition to sessions that will have an immediate impact on your classroom and use of Microsoft tools, attendees at the Academy will also be able to earn badges. Digital badges will be available in the Microsoft Education Community. Two  six-hour academies will be available. The first is the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Certified Trainer six-hour session. The second is the Minecraft: Education Edition Certified Teacher. Location: Austin, TX
  • July 17-18 – Minecraft Teacher Academy: Attend one of the all-day Minecraft: Education Edition academies being held at the Denton ISD Technology Integration Academy (TIA). You can register online at the TIA Conference website.
  • July 24-26 – Technology Learning Extravaganza: Come join us for three days and gain a wealth of knowledge and first-hand learning experiences in our Technology Learning Extravaganza in San Angelo, July 24-26. The sessions will provide educators learning opportunities to enhance knowledge in a variety of Microsoft-related areas such as Office 365, OneNote, Minecraft, Makecode, and more. Location: San Angelo, TX
  • July 31 – MakeCode for Micro:bit and Minecraft: Education Edition: The micro:bit is sweeping the globe as an accessible, inclusive approach to computing education that combines the magic of making with the power of code. The maker education movement has proven to engage and interest girls and other nontraditional CS student populations through creative, personally meaningful projects. Learn how combining the maker mindset with computational thinking can result in transformational learning experiences for all students.By the end of this session attendees will know how to construct and download simple programs to their micro:bit, and they will know where to find curriculum & resources for their classrooms. You will also learn how to use MakeCode to control the Agent in Minecraft: Education Edition. This is a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) hands-on session for all levels (no prior computer science experience required). Location: Austin, TX
  • June 4 – MIE 1-Day Teacher Academy: Ready to begin your journey as a Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE)? You will get certified as an MIE and receive support and guidance on this journey. Location: Laredo, TX (Area 1)
  • June 10-12 – Elementary Technology Conference: Read more about this conference online. There will be several Microsoft sessions offered at this event. Location: Galveston, TX
  • May 9 – PBL in the Minecraft: Education Edition Classroom: In this session, you’ll learn how to design Problem/Project-based Learning (PBL) experiences in virtual worlds like Minecraft: Education Edition. Participants will also experience PBL lesson-based design opportunities. They will develop a lesson plan, build a sample student product, and engage in world building. Location: Amarillo, TX (Area 16)
  • May 15 – Productivity Tools for Administrators: This conference will feature a variety of Microsoft tools that can enhance your productivity as an administrator, an administrative clerk, classroom teacher, or docent. Sessions offered will allow you to earn MEC points and/or digital badges and certificates. Location: Austin, TX (Area 13)
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CTO/CIOCybersecurity

The Game: When Disaster Strikes (Part 3)

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“It’s the processes and procedures, working with all the other customers. We have to get them to understand the importance of planning. One way is to do tabletop exercises as practice to see what we would do in the event of a disaster,” said Mark Gabehart (Round Rock ISD). As Mark’s voice filled the respectful silence as he spoke, his turn of phrase caught my ear. Whatever did he mean by “tabletop exercises?” In this blog entry, we’ll discuss the value of tabletop exercises for being prepared when disaster strikes in the areas of cyber security, disaster recovery, and business continuity. You will also find a complete game that you as a technology leader can use right away.

Developing the Tabletop Exercise

Upon looking up the phrase, I stumbled across this definition:

The tabletop exercise is a meeting to discuss a simulated emergency situation. Members of the campus review and discuss the actions they would take in a particular emergency, testing their emergency plan in an informal, low-stress environment.

Some suggestions for developing tabletop exercises include the following:

  • Exercise(s) should engage participants.
  • Participants with diverse backgrounds should be expected to work together to craft an organizational response to a hypothetical incident.
  • Each scenario requires knowledge of, as well as presents the opportunity to enhance, actual cyber security, disaster recovery, and/or business continuity plans.
  • The exercise makes manifest opportunities to hone team member strategies and skills to capably resolve real life problems.

Problem-based learning (PBL) often finds its home in emergency planning. In an actual disaster recovery situation, the natural process for school districts to follow involves dealing with the consequences, reflecting on what happened, determining how to best mitigate the consequences, and then working to ensure the incident does not reoccur. Depending on the severity of an emergency, putting the pieces of status quo back together again may be difficult. Doing so in the days and weeks after an event may prove impossible. How can schools and districts solve problems in advance?

Let’s take a closer look at the theoretical, research-based underpinnings of learning by experience.

Power of Experiential Learning

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience,” says David Kolb (as cited in source). This may actually resemble the diagram shown below:

the game
a Scenario-based Learning Model

While each disaster has its own mix of consequences unique to a situation, following an experiential learning approach (a.k.a. scenario-based learning, as my colleague Diana Benner (@diben) pointed out to me) to prepare can save the day. Let’s walk through what this process may look like.

The Game

When Round Rock ISD’s Chief Technology Officer suggested tabletop exercises, I imagined having access to a digital card deck of scenarios. Below, please find a link to my ongoing effort. It features twenty plus scenarios with more in the works. As you can see, it is modeled after a card game with a similar name. However, this version features embedded videos.

View the Game | Get a free copy (requires Google Suites account)

The Game will provide school district and other teams with a variety of scenarios from my own experiences, as well as YouTube news video clips of actual events. The scenarios address cyber security, cyber safety, disaster recovery, and business continuity. As such, they are a perfect tool for small and large district Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) seeking to mobilize their emergency response teams.

For the sake of organization, allow me to rely loosely on the aforementioned scenario-based learning model.

1. Scenario/Story Presentation

Cross-functional teams, including members of Business (Risk Management), Curriculum, Transportation, and other key areas, would be present.

2. Hands-On Lab

In the hands-on lab, each group would investigate and evaluate their respective plans to see if it deals well with the scenario. For example, while the technology department team might have strategies for encrypting data on hard drives, the business department might lack a policy for requiring encryption when exchanging data with third party vendors. This can be significant. Loss of a laptop with encrypted data falls under the Texas Safe Harbor laws. Decrypted data exposed while in the hands of a third party vendor (e.g. Texas Department of Agriculture, for example) does not.

Group members who detect an absence of a strategy (e.g. failure to protect data via encryption) must prepare action steps to formulating one they can bring for team discussion.

3. Team Discussion

After reviewing internal policies and identifying gaps and weaknesses, group participants work together to craft a comprehensive solution that makes one policy of multiple approaches to a problem. Individual teams will prepare their work and share it with the whole group for assessment with more probing analysis for alignment.

4. Homework/Decision-Making

In this final stage, all are committed to continuing to fine-tune existing disaster recovery and continuity plan to address unforeseen scenarios. This step involves presenting to the superintendent’s cabinet. Engage everyone responsible via professional learning.

Get Started Now

Players, get your teams together! It’s time to solve those tough problems. You won’t be wasting your time, not with over 1,200 cyber security incidents and countless data breaches affecting millions of people in 2017 alone.

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research tools
Good TeachingGoogle Tips and TricksLibraries

Research Tools for Young Learners

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In a connected world, there are ample research tools available. Helping students learn how to use them grows more important with ubiquitous access. In this blog entry, we explore several online research tools that can facilitate student research.

Setting Up Class Debates

In the Hyperdoc The Great Milk Debate, fifth grade students find themselves facing a challenge: Their principal, Mrs. Hilcher, has banned chocolate milk. Here’s one possible scenario to present students with:

Students: To improve your health, after consulting with school nutritionists, we have decided to no longer allow chocolate milk to be served during breakfast and lunch. Sugar and sweets present one of the greatest threats to human beings ever. “One carton of chocolate milk includes about 40 percent of the recommended daily allowance of sugar in a child’s diet,” said Mr. LK.

Students are encouraged to explore both sides of the debate. Learners are tasked with examining:

  • Claim: For example, “Flavored milk gets kids to drink more milk.”
  • Evidence: “Research shows that flavored milk, which delivers nine essential nutrients, contributes just 3% of added sugars to kids’ diets versus sodas and fruit drinks.”
  • Reasoning: “Studies show that school-aged children who drink flavored milk actually drink more milk overall, have better quality diets, and do not have higher intakes of added sugar or total fat.”

The Hyperdoc provides students with a means to discover this information. The teacher who creates the Hyperdoc provides the resources students can explore. It may be advantageous for students to do their own research.

research tools

Five Online Research Tools for Children

  1. KidRex – Powered by Google Custom Search, Alarm.org’s KidRex is a search engine designed by kids for kids. Check our their page for Parents. Compare it to Searchquarium.
  2. KidzSearch – Easy-to-use search engine.
  3. Kidtopia – Provides access to a wide variety of topics, but also allows for keyword searches.
  4. Sweet Search – A search engine that provides filtered search capabilities.
  5. Fact Monster -Easily explore and learn new facts at Fact Monster by using their well-organized categories.

What’s Next

In the Hyperdoc, students take their research and use it to craft a persuasive letter attempting to convince others.

Test your preparation and your public speaking skills in The Great Milk Debate. You will be assigned to a debate team. Together you will go through each of your letters together and develop an argument defending your side against another debate team who will defend the opposite side. Each side will get two minutes to present their arguments. The winning debate team will be voted on by the audience.

Kid-friendly search engines can introduce students to search strategies, alleviating educators’ fears of encountering inappropriate content. Give them a try in your classroom.

 

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