Evernote

   Digital Porfolios archive students work without taking up notebooks or having to worry about the dog eating a student's homework!  This idea really excites me.  I teach a two year culinary program where students should be keeping evidence that showcases skills they have learned throughout the program.  These artifacts can be used for applications into culinary schools and scholarship opportunities.  But I have had problems in the past with students bringing back papers from the prior year.  During the summer they throw things away even after they have been told to hang on to these documents.  Well, Evernote to the rescue.  I will be using this to digital notebook to help my students organize their professional portfolios.  Below is a snapshot of how my students will be setting up their portfolios.

Gamification Delivery Systems

 For those of you who have been following my blog this semester you have seen a transformation in my ideas about gamification in the classroom.  I first started by thinking that games in the classroom were a waste of time.  As I have processed information throughout the semester I have become excited about trying some gamification in my class next year.  In fact, most of my summer will be taken up by getting this in place for school to start in the fall.  I could buy some already created simulation type games.  And I still may.  But my focus right now is to set up a system like what I have been doing for my grad class.  It's not so much a game to play, but a series of activities where points and badges are earned.  And to some extent, a competition between classmates.  I have become a bit envious of other students who have completed levels before I have and that has propelled me to keep working to achieve.  I hope that will be the case for my students when school starts in August. 

   This assignment for this blog was to compare different gamification systems.  What type of features do they have?  How much do they cost?   I choose to compare Reezly (what we are using for our grad class), CANVAS (the LMS my school system provides), and Schoology (suggested by another grad class I have taken). 

   Reezly is a 3D game simulation platform.  The quests are teacher designed and students can earn badges and points as they level up through the activities.  Activities can be anything from readings, to blog posts to creating presentations.  Because it is all teacher created it can be used for any content area.  Students work through at their own pace and new activities can be accessed as quests are completed.  There different features that can be accessed.  The basic edition is free.  More features and number of students can be added for a price.

   CANVAS is a learning management system that can be used for many different tasks for teachers and students.  Teachers can create "cards" for each class that will allow for assignments, announcements, tests, etc.  It can be used for delivering content in a more traditional sense or in a gamification mode.  CANVAS provides access to badges and other applications work with CANVAS to add badges.  It is free to teachers and students who are in a district that has a contract with Instructure, the provider of CANVAS.  Pricing for that was not available.  

   Schoology is also a learning management system like CANVAS except that it does not require a school system to purchase a contract.  It is designed to easily accommodate gamification into its use. Its base applications are free, but additional applications that would mainly be used by administration may be purchased.

   All three systems are teacher and student friendly.  All would be good choices for teachers wanting to implement gamification into their classes.  I am choosing to work with CANVAS.  Mainly because my district already has access to it.  I know from limited experience with it that I can have assessments directly added into the lessons and the program will grade the activity itself.  It also is synced with our grading system so my rosters will be automatically uploaded.  This will make much of my administrative duties with it easier that starting from scratch.  

Diversity, Cultural Understanding and Global Awareness

   I must admit when I first read the instructions for this post I was a bit confused due to the lack of specific instructions or supplemental material.  The instructions seemed somewhat vague.  So, I decided to research a bit.  I came across a paper written by Dr. James Hollenbeck and Darina Hollenbeck titled Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in the Multicultural Classroom.  This article gave me some thoughts to reflect on.

   One point they made is that technology is the one thing we all have in common.  It doesn't matter what culture, socio-economic background, learning style, or political affiliation we are.  Technology is the new "melting pot."  Almost everyone has some sort of technology accessibility and our students know how to use it.  As teachers, we can capitalize on that.  Students who may not excel in the traditional pen and paper education can excel using technology. This fosters self-esteem in our students.  Technology can promote creativity and imagination that may not be present in traditional methods.  It can also help those who need help with spelling and grammar.  For ESL students, it can be a way of effectively communicating with other students as well as teachers.  The rise of technology has made the world on big classroom. For all students, technology is a way of understanding cultural differences by creating opportunities to see other ways of life.  In fact, with options such as Skype, students can collaborate with others from all around the world as well as those in the classroom.  

   For my classroom, I would like to add Skype to talk with other culinary students and chefs.  A fellow culinary instructor and I have talked about having our students work together on a project to improve cafeteria lunches.  There has been much said about school lunches in recent years.  The cafeterias are under very strict regulations about what they can and can't do.  But they do not have a lot of time or money to search out recipes that will meet the standards and still be palatable for most students.  The aforementioned teacher and I have discussed having our culinary students work together to come up with ideas, test out recipes and present to our local Child Nutrition Program Directors and eventually the state CNP Director.  For this collaboration to take place, Skype would be a great tool.  Our schools are about 2 hours away from each other so one on one contact for the students is not available.  

   For communication with parents I use Remind.  This application allows me to send out messages to students and parents about assignments, upcoming tests or whatever announcement I need to make.  It works basically like text messaging but recipients do not have my personal phone number.  I have different group numbers for each class, club, and sport that I lead.  My parents seem to like it as well.  

Top Mobile Apps for Education

   As technology becomes the way of instruction in our 21st Century classrooms, it is inevitable that applications will be coming out of the woodwork.  But not all applications are created equally.  And not all applications would be beneficial to all teachers.  So, when I started looking for applications to use I decided on some parameters.  In my district, we have some technology devices that students can use.  But, and this is a big but, we do not have the resources to provide a device for each student.  As much as we would love to have a 1-to-1 program, it is just not realistic at this time.  Because of that our students are encouraged to bring their own devices whether it be their own laptop, tablet or smartphone.  We do have 2 computer labs available for classes but they must be reserved.  And many times, not all those computers are in working order.  I personally have 15 laptops in my classroom I purchased with some funds.  Because of these extenuating circumstances, not all devices are of the same formatting. So, my first parameter was that the app would have to be universal, work on any type of device whether it be iOS, Android, Windows, etc. 

   My second parameter was that it would have to be free.  As I mentioned above, our finances are low.  It is hard to find money to spend on applications.  Plus, I do not want to choose anything that would cost my students money if they are to download it onto their own device.

   My third parameter was that it would be applicable to any grade level.  I teach high school so I could have chosen applications that were geared to only high school students.  But with the idea of sharing this information with other teachers I decided to pick items that were applicable to all.

   I also tried to find a variety of options.  I am interested in trying the flipped classroom approach next year, at least in some units, as a trial run.  So, I was looking at different apps I could use.  I found Formative. Formative is an application that does formative assessment, hence the name!  Formative assessment is a not so formal way of assessing how your students are doing daily.  An example may be on the lines of a quiz as opposed to a test.  I liked Formative because of the options it had in creating the lessons.

   I also looked at Google Classroom.  This is an organizational tool used to distribute and receive activities to students whether it be a lesson, quiz, test or other type of activity.  It would be a great tool for flipped classrooms, distance learning, or independent study courses.

   The third application I found was OneNote.  It is a Microsoft application that allows students to take and organize notes.  Students can take notes, add videos, add pictures, etc. to help clarify the lesson.  If a student has a touch screen they can hand write notes and the application will convert to type.  It also allows students to draw into their notes.  If a student needed to draw and label a diagram they could do that with this program and then submit to the teacher.  

   The fourth application I chose was Slack.  I started using this with my brothers when my dad got sick.  We were having issues with group texting being delivered to everyone on the conversation.  My brothers had both used Slack in their businesses.  After the success, we had with it, I looked at it for my classes.  Part of 21st Century Learning Skills deals with collaboration.  This would be a great tool for students to communicate with each other as well as I could monitor the conversation and offer ideas or help with confusion.  

   The last application I suggest is Cite This for Me.  I have gotten so sick and tired of students copying and pasting information on projects that I could just scream!  I have set in my mind to be diligent next year with making students do more summation, citing their sources and quoting when necessary.  This would be a great tool for them as they produce a product as well as for me in checking it.  The application guides students through proper citation and has a plagiarism check.  I could also use it to check for proper citation and plagiarism.  

   Below is a chart I created to organize the information about each application.  I included a video link to how each can be used.  I also included the website URL for further exploration.  

 

Wearable Technology

   I not only teach but I am also the cross country coach for Holtville.  So, when instructed to look for wearable technology my thoughts went straight to what I or my runners could wear that would help with tracking and timing.  My search led me to “The Best Wearable Tech for 2017 article (https://www.cnet.com/topics/wearable-tech/best-wearable-tech/).   And I found two there that hit my fancy.

   The first is “Milestone Pod.”  It is a very simple device that links to any device.  It can” track pace, distance, stride length, foot strike and other metrics.”   It does not track other types of activities.  For runners, it would be a great tool for training.  And it only cost around $25.   https://www.cnet.com/products/milestonepod-2016/review/

   The second app I found through the same article is the Garmin Forerunner 735.  It is a “waterproof watch equipped with GPS tracking for a variety of sport and a heart-rate sensor.”  It can track activity all day, can toggle between sports (like during a triathlon) and is compatible with other Garmin accessories.  It is much pricier than the Milestone Pod coming in around $450.  For the real sports enthusiast, it would be the better of the two picks even though it costs a lot more.   https://www.cnet.com/products/garmin-forerunner-735xt/