Geek Squad Presentation at #DLAchat Conference

Today, 10 Rainbow Eggheads who have been contributing to the Tech Times newsletter over the past two years were asked to present at the Digital Learning Advisory OCDSB conference. We decided to live stream the workshop through Google Hangouts Live on Air. As before, we struggled to get this working perfectly! A great example of having to be flexible when using tech!

Below are two videos showing MOST of the workshop. Unfortunately, the Chromebook's batteries ran out during Hannah and Madi's Skype presentation. Hopefully, they'll be willing to film themselves doing it and we can share it on here!

Daybook by Vickie
Google Apps  by Hunter
Assistive Tech Through My Eyes by Skye
iPads by Gabby
Social Media by Camden, Johnny
Using Tech for Charity in the Class by Pat
Madi, Hannah did theirs live and of course I didn't catch it!
Maker Movement by Fiona



We hosted a "Today's Meet" for our presentation. Check it out here.

Some feedback from participants
-The student presenters are proof that tech can support oral communication, reading, writing (and even drama!!!)
-I am very impressed with how engaged all the students are with the use of technology. They are all so knowledgeable as well!
-Skye, your story is inspiring. Thank you for sharing it so eloquently.
-Wow! Blowing my mind with all the fantastic initiatives you've got on the go. Eggheads Rock!
-Current tech experts here, future tech leaders!
-I'm so impressed! Thank you. I am leaving here with many great ideas for my classroom.
-I wish my high school students made slideshows that looked like this, keep doing them like that (less words, more images)!

We only wish that more educators had joined us. I could not be prouder of these Eggheads and their peers for the work they've done this year and the incredible way they're willing to mentor and share with others within our school and the world beyond!

Chromebook Workshop: Collaborative Spring Poems with Heather C’s Class

Aargh! I wrote this post yesterday during EQAO testing and then promptly deleted it this afternoon! I have tried several ways to revert to the earlier post, but can’t figure it out.

Heather C's 1/2s joined us for a Collaborative Poem writing workshop. In Room 209, we love writing poems together, especially on the Chromebooks!

The steps for writing collaborative poems were as follows:

1. Big Buddies from Room 209 paired with Little Buddies from Heather C’s class.

2. The Big Buddies became “Co-Pilots” and the Little Buddies became “Pilots”, in charge of what was going on

3. Pilots selected a topic related to spring

4. Together, Pilot and Co-Pilot began writing a poem on the Google Drive, focusing on using sensory information, alliteration and rhythm to make their poems very powerful

5. After five minutes, Pilot and Co-Pilot virtually “passed” the poem to another group by sharing the doc on the Google Drive

6. Pilot and Co-Pilot then took five minutes to read and continue the poem they received

7. Poems were passed five times

8. After adding to a fifth poem, Pilot and Co-Pilot returned to their original poem and edited and revised it, making sure they liked the sound and feel of the poem

9. PIlot and Co-Pilot then formatted the poem, changing the font if they wished, adding a photo to enhance the poem, and adding an optional photo of the poets who started it.

Please enjoy their work!

Butterflies, a poem started by Hunter and Noah

Butterflies, a poem started by Laryssa and Amira

Blowing, a poem started by Camden and Grayson

The Ceiling, a poem started by Jack and Charlie

Trees, a poem started by Ellis and Orayo

Hello and Goodbye, a poem started by Johnny and Trey

Spring Makes Me, a poem started by Molly and Ava

Spring Flowers, a poem started by Nat, Mackenzie and Annika

Spring Flowers, a poem started by Erika and Rowan

Spring, a poem started by Aaron, Madi and Ian

Sun, a poem started by Vickie and Frances

These workshops have been so valuable for the Rainbow Eggheads. It’s been great to share  our skills and resources with other classes and collaborate to create interesting projects.

Cozy Coding - Collaborative Slideshow About Computer Programming!

A few weeks ago, we had our highly anticipated "Cozy Coding Day". Room 209 came in jammies and brought stuffies and blankies and we coded for a big chunk of the day.

Check out the slideshow we collaborated on about our experience!

Last Year's EduGala Innovation Award video!

Digital Degus, remember this!?

Chromebook Questions

Skye had an awesome idea and it was to include parents in our Chromebook pilot project by hosting an information night for them about the devices and how we plan to use them. We talked about the options of having the teacher present, doing small student-run presentations for a group of parents or "Speed Geeking" (using a "Speed Dating" model to have students share apps, projects or ideas as parents rotate through stations). If parents are interested in an evening event to learn about Chromebook use, please get in touch with Shauna and one will be arranged!

Many students returned to school today with signed Appropriate Use of Chromebooks agreements. Some very interesting questions and issues were raised. Please remember that this is a learning process for ALL of us: admin, teachers, students and families! Please continue to raise questions and make comments as you notice issues.

Here are my thoughts on questions that were raised with the agreements.

"Students have no expectations of confidentiality or privacy with respect to any usage of a Chromebook. Teachers may use monitoring software that allows them to view the screens and activity on student Chromebook."

How will this happen? What are the consequences for students not doing what they are supposed to be doing?

For now, I will be monitoring the screens of students physically and having them live-blog/tweet or share their work on the Google Drives, so that students are accountable for their time online with the Chromebooks. Students will have clear guidelines and expectations of what they are to be working on and I will regularly check in with them to ensure they are doing so. If students are not working on approved tasks on approved sites, they will lose privileges. After an initial poor choice, the student will lose access to his/her assigned device for the remainder of the day, and have a discussion with the teacher. Next time, he or she will lose access for a full week. Finally, if it happens again, we will collaborate to find an appropriate consequence.

As we get things up and running, I've learned about some ways that I can see all student screens at once. There are a couple of possible ways to do this. NetSupportSchool and Hapara have systems that can be purchased and allow a teacher to monitor a class set of Chromebooks, by being able to view all users and what is on their screen at any time. Below is a video from NetSupportSchool showing how their system works.


"I will not download or use programs that my teacher has not approved."
What is the approval process? 
For the first several weeks using the Chromebooks, students will all be using the same online programs, websites, apps and extensions. I am doing a lot of research on which programs, apps and extensions will enhance and transform our learning and have several to train the students in. When students learn about apps/extensions of programs they would like to add to our repertoire (Clara has already shared about things like Lucidchart and Powtoon), they can share information with me and I will make a decision about how to introduce and use them in class. Students and I can work together to formally create an approval process for when it becomes necessary.

"I will log on to the school network and my Google account using only my own credentials (username and password)."
Will students be asked to only use their OCDSB Google account?
For now, yes. One of the great things about Google Chrome is you can have multiple users logged in at once. For example, I have a "teacher" account (with a ninja image) and a "home" account (with a little kitty) open in seperate tabs and don't have to log in and out several times a day. Right now, students will set up their cloud.ocdsb.ca accounts. Some students have their own gmail accounts and we MAY, in the future, add those as well. The main reason for adding a second account would be that, right now, on our cloud.ocdsb.ca accounts, we can't access Google Hangouts (Google's version of Skype, with other functionaliites), and Google Hangouts would be very helpful for us to collaborate with another 1:1 class, such as the students in Ms. Robin's class in California. We'll deal with this after all students are comfortable first using their own cloud.ocdsb.ca accounts.


I am open to input and ideas, please feel free to share comments here or send in a note or email!

Chromebook Arrival - First Unboxing

After much anticipation (Ellis was sure we'd been waiting 5 months). the 31 Chromebooks for our 1:1 pilot project arrived!

We went over our Chromebook questions from last month and then worked on a document of Chromebook Expectations. Students took a copy of this home tonight to read over with their parents and sign. This is working document which is their contract and acceptable use policy.

Some students stayed in at recess to do the very first unboxing. OC's name was drawn and she got to unbox Chromebook #31 (our "spare"). Aaron put together a little video to show our excitement.

There are still some things to discuss and look at before everyone is assigned a device. For the first few weeks of using Chromebooks, we'll be working slowly and on the same tasks. We are going to make sure that everyone can effectively use these tools before students can "take their ideas and run with them".

Some of the things we'll be doing the next few days include unboxing and labelling all the Chromebooks, setting up our charging stations, logging into them for the first time and setting up user accounts, and watching some training videos.

We'll start with Introducing the Chromebook:



We'll watch a video giving a Chromebook Education Overview:



We'll talk about how to care for and handle the Chromebooks.



Then, we'll practice how to use the Chromebooks (before we even get our hands on them!).

Finally, students will unbox Chromebooks and set them up for their first charge!

We couldn't be more excited to get started and look forward to learning with this new technology and sharing our progress and challenges!

Now, to think about screen time limits...

Huge News!

As always, we've been keeping very busy in Room 209. So busy, in fact, that this poor little blog has been rather neglected as of late. Not for long, however. This blog is about to get a whole lot more contributors, maybe before next month!

As you know, we applied for a grant from EdTechTeam after I attended the Google Apps for Education Summit in Montreal. Students worked incredibly hard, even with me out of the school, to complete an excellent application. We've been waiting, crossing fingers, toes and eyes, hoping to get news. Every day, several sentences begin with, "If we get ChromeBooks, we can...".

This evening I got wonderful news. Room 209's grant was accepted and ChromeBooks will be on their way shortly! Students and parents got the news minutes after I did and my inbox promptly filled with enthusiastic replies:
Aaron is "over the moon", as his mom says;
many students, like Millie and Mel wrote obviously enthusiastic replies in all caps;
Hannah was concerned with details and made sure that EdTechTeam knew about our new student, Philip, she also thinks we should have more cake (after two days in a row already!);
Skye's mom filled an email with more than 10 exclamation marks for only two sentences of text;
Vickie used her mom's email to say that she was speechless (for once!);
Fiona is floored that out of potentially hundreds of applications, we won;
Erika wrote a 5-line exclamation to show her excitement;
Hunter's email was completely incoherent, from excitement, I hope;
I don't think Miguel could believe the news, as he confirmed with a quick, "So, we got ChomeBooks?"reply;
Apparently both Molly and Clara nearly made their mothers deaf with their happy screams;
Gabby told her mom she couldn't believe it.
I can't really believe it either. We thought we'd be getting the news on Thursday, and after not hearing for so long after when we thought the "official" announcement was, we figured we hadn't gotten the grant.

I've never seen so many "OMG"s in one night. I feel the same way, Rainbow Eggheads. I feel the same way.

We have SO much to talk about and so many lists of Success Criteria to come up with! We have lots of work to do together before we even get the ChromeBooks (which I think will be very soon!).

Something else that I've been thinking about tonight is how we can share with others. I know that we'll be blogging and tweeting about our adventures with the ChromeBooks, but we also need to think about how to share our learning with other students in our school and be role models for the use of technology. After all, this grant is designed for for classes doing "pilot projects". How can we share our learning with our Buddies and our friends who help make up "Room 208", the other grade 5/6s in Room 207? I look forward to coming up with all kinds of generous, creative, thoughtful ideas with you!

I can't wait to see your smiling faces tomorrow!

No Internet for a Week! Could You Do It?

NO INTERNET WEEK: FULL DOCUMENTARY from Mother on Vimeo.

This is an hour-long documentary about several people trying to make it through a week without using the Internet. At all.

Just thinking of that makes me jittery. I can't imagine going a day, let alone a whole week without Internet. That makes me think that it would be really important for me to try. Anyone want to join me for an Internet free day (to start!) in January?

There are so many things I use the Internet for every single day, and having access to it at every instant on my phone has made me totally reliant on the Internet. If I went offline for any amount of time, I feel like I would need to warn people well in advance. On the Internet.

I will test myself tomorrow and see how long it takes from when I wake up to when I check something online - email, social networks, Google Drive, the weather, directions, play a game, or finding an obscure piece of information.

I think going Net-Free for a bit of time could be really cleansing, allow me to be more mindful and hopefully feel more relaxed. Why is it, then, that I get jittery just thinking about turning away from the Internet?

Let me know in the comments below if you think you could do it - go Internet free for a day, for a week or for longer. Also, tell me what would be the most difficult parts of going Internet free for you.

Living in the Jetsons: Amazon Drones

Midway through an amazing Tech Week last week, Allison told us about the Amazon Drones that are being developed to deliver packages right to your door. I didn't believe her that it could possibly be true, but she proved me wrong with this video.

Someone recently said to me that we're "living in the Jetsons".

Comment here and tell me if you anticipate any problems with Amazon Drones and/or if you know what "living in the Jetsons" means!

Your Hour of Code Mission!

Hello Rainbow Eggheads,

We are doing our Hour of Code today!

Visit this link and get to work!

Once you've finished your Hour of Code, please leave a comment on this post telling everyone how many lines of code you wrote today. Also, tell us if you enjoyed your coding time and what you found rewarding or challenging.

For more opportunities to code for FREE, visit code.org or codeacademy.

Add to Our Global Connections Map!

I have so many wonderful ideas and inspiration to share with the Rainbow Eggheads from my weekend in Montreal at the GAFESummit. Since we're having "Tech Week" in our class, I'll be telling stories and sharing ideas all week!

First off, please visit this link on MapsEngine Lite and double check on our class map to add locations of global connections we've made. So far, I added a pin to Whistler Mountain, from when we Skyped with my parents last spring! Please feel free to add photos from the web (they will be linked back to the original source) and information about who we connected with!

Make sure you don't delete anyone else's pins!

Ignite Presentations

Today, we started work on our Ignite Presentations. We watched a few examples of Ignite videos and talked about some characteristics they all have in common and some techniques each presenter used in unique ways to make his or her presentation particularly effective.

Some Examples:

Why Blog?

My Beautiful Wheelchair

How and Why to Make Video Games

We are starting out by planning our Ignite Presentations on paper (that we folded into eighths) and will talk about next steps later this week. Some students already have ideas of how they want to create their slideshows. Many think they'll use the Google Drive, Molly wants to teach people how to use SmileBox and I think I'll show people how to use Prezi!

Here is what we've talked about so far (this is also a Google Doc that has been shared with all students in Room 209)

Ignite Presentations

-planning on paper first! Use one side of your paper!

Criteria for Ignite:

15 seconds per slide

20 slides

5 minutes

Criteria for Room 209 Ignite:

-title

-what you learned this year at school

-you MAY include academic lessons, social lessons, physical lessons, lessons about yourself

-follows Ignite rules

-speaks clearly

-credit for photos, information

-CREATIVITY!

-be aware of your audience to engage them

Steps:

1. Fold your paper into eighths

2. Design your slides and think about what you will say

Tech Innovators and Altruism

Digital Degus, you continue to amaze me.

 

Proposal: Fin’s idea: If we win $5000, we give each of the other schools $1000, so we’d still have $3000 left

Sharing of ideas:

Pat: We could donate $1000 to RE Wilson for technology, too

Gabby: I think we SHOULD donate the money, because what could we do with $5000?

Fiona: We should get a few iPads for the primary classes – it’s a great way to learn, for the first stages of learning

Hunter: I don’t think we should join the winners up, I think the other schools will have all kinds of expensive equipment already. I think we should take half and give it to RE Wilson and take half of it and give it to another charity.

Vickie: I think it’s a really good idea. You really want to win it because you really want to give it away, because then we can share what we have with other people.

Madi: I think Finley’s idea is an awesome idea, I think we could give some money to RE Wilson and Fielding. We do a lot of charity work and we could give some to one of the charities.

Ethan: I totally agree with Hunter. We were born at the same day at the same time! I think giving $1000 is a little much, I think $250 or $500 or $750.

Kaleigh: I think it’s a good idea, but would we give some money to other classes in our school too? Would we still be able to get apps for us too?

Miguel: I say we should keep $4000, because all the computers in the computer lab don’t really work and we can supply the other classes with new tech and give the rest to charity.

 

Mel: Ithink we should give $500 to Fielding and $500 to RE Wilson and $500 for a charity and $200 for each of the other schools if they are runners-up. And the rest can come for us and if we have leftovers, we can give it to charity. To me, it’s too much. Kinders should have at least one mini-iPad per class. We have SO much and if you compare it to another school, our class might have more than a whole school! We use them, but I think other schools might need more.

Fin: Maybewe could do some Kiva donations or UNICEF donations. I noticed that everybody is agreeing in a different way. There’s no right and wrong answer.

Thomas: It’s important to remember we might not win. The computers in the lab are REALLY slow and a lot of them are down. I like Finley’s idea, but maybe not $1000, maybe $750 or $800, but save enough for iPads for the younger classes.

Liam:I think we should give $500 to the other two schools, RE Wilson and Fielding. And then we can split the rest of the money between all the classes at Churchill. Would we be able to get a giant cheque or a regular cheque?

Dan: I think we should give however much money RE Wilson needs to go on a field trip and to other schools to go on field trips.

Jack: I think that we should give $1500 to RE Wilson and $500 to Fielding and the rest for our computer lab.

Hunter: I really think we should donate to hospital charities. Maybe someday, if someone had cancer and got better, they might grow up and become a billionaire!

Gabby: When we’re going to Fielding, maybe they could come to our school sometime.

Erika: Maybe we could give half of the money to a hospital and half of the money to RE Wilson.

Fiona: I really like all the ideas, but remember that the reason we entered was to get more technology for schools. We could maybe enter something else to get money for charities in general. I really like the idea to get technology for RE Wilson and Fielding and some for the runners-up. If we were to win and give some to Fielding, we could give it to them on the field trip.

Pat:I think that we should be careful how we say this. Something like, “In our minds, you guys are all winners” instead of, “Nice try, too bad”. That might sound like bragging and we’re not a bragging school. We only have a ⅓ chance of winning.

Molly: I thought maybe we could give half of our money to Uganda because they don’t have any technology except for the principal.

Miguel: Some of the computers in the lab were made in 2001 and many of them crashed. Isn’t the money supposed to be for technology in Ottawa?

Hunter: Even if we don’t win, we could still fundraise for technology for the little kids at our school. We could give iPad lessons or something. Our class is pretty techy and could do iPad lessons for fundraising.

Fiona: If we win and if we keep any money, I think the primaries should come first and we should the same amount of money for each class and they could get the technology that they need. We don’t know if they’d really NEED an iPad.

Miguel: We could get some iTunes gift cards. If we win, we could buy some more computers and screen covers (iGuys) for the iPads.:

Math: Working with Coordinates

 One of my very favourite things about having all the great tech in our class is seeing how well all the Digital Degus learn in different ways on different days and differentiate their learning about any topic. When Kit was reviewing how to read a map with coordinates, students tried a whole bunch of different activities. Some read a giant map of Gatineau Park in a sort of "Treasure Hunt".

 Some students played an Ancient Civilizations low-tech version of Battleship.

 Thomas and Haydon played an app called "Coordinates" that lets you go on a Treasure Hunt, design your own maps and find hidden shapes.

Our Tech Innovators Slideshow

Students in Room 209, especially Hunter, Vickie, Rickie, Thomas and Fiona, worked really hard on this slideshow that we shared with an organization called Ottawa Network for Education. They wanted to learn about innovative technologies that are being used in schools around our city. After ONFE saw our slideshow, they selected us as one of three finalists to possibly win a $5000 grant to spend on technology for our school! This will be presented at an EduGala event later this month. On Monday, May 13th, a camera crew from GAPC will be coming in to capture some of the exciting things that we are doing!

Below, check out last year's three finalists.
http://www.onfe-rope.ca/programs/capital-educators039-awards/attend-edugala/innovation-award

Pulleys, Levers and Gears - demonstrations by students in Room 209

Today we watched an awesome Disney Imagineering video about Pulleys and Levers and were inspired to go on a Simple Machine hunt throughout the school. We shared our information in different ways!
-Show Me by Fiona and Lauren


-Youtube video by Laryssa, Liam and Cohen
-Show Me by Jack

List by Pat:
Today in class we did a science mini project. In it, we had to go around the school and find simple machines. Here's mine! Enjoy!
Display screen, globe, hamster wheel,  axle on clock, axle on door, wheels on moving desk, wheels on cart, wheels on moving chair, hands on clock, door, door handle, light switch, pencil sharpener, pins, and sand timer.

Many more episodes of "Fantastic Pulleys, Levers and Gears!"

Steve's Visit - by Hunter

Steve (Millie's dad) makes Adobe after Effects and teaching us about visual effects.Like when you make something that is not actually there.Now he's teaching us about motion graphics when you make something that is not there for real and make it move.Its All really cool and we are the first class to see the new adobe after effects logo!

-Hunter

We even got to write our own Annoying Orange scripts and Steve will be putting them together into a video for us! We'll post them here soon!

Our First Technology Times Articles Are Published!

Shauna's Skype interview --by Fiona

After school a few kids got interviewed for our promotional video. We had a camera crew here to film us! Today was a pretty cool day.


By: Fiona

Face Time with Gabby in Florida!