Distractions are as old as time. Think back to high school when perhaps you were doodling on a pencil case or passing notes to friends. What is different is that the very tools that allow us to access such wonderful learning and communication opportunities, can also have the power to distract us.
In the presentation below, you will find ideas and suggestions on helping students develop good work habits, practice self-tracking, and also provide suggestions for parental monitoring - IF it gets to that stage. We hope you find something of value for your family.
We also have a Padlet where we are collecting your great ideas! Please feel free to add a suggestion.
At a recent parent forum, we had requests for a workshop on Google Apps, so parents can understand what their child is doing at school and support them at home.
We focused on Google Docs, Google Drive and GMail. You can see a summary of what we spoke about in the presentation below.
We have chosen to give our students in grade six upwards their own Macbook. This has obvious benefits to their learning allowing them to create, collaborate and communicate with digital tools that they always have at their disposal. However, as Spiderman said:
There's no question that digital tools can be tremendously distracting. Our students have told us that, typically, they will go through a period of "experimentation" when they first get a new tool, join a new network, or find a new game. This stage (hopefully quickly) reaches a peak followed by students discovering strategies to help themselves deal with the distractions. Interestingly, they told us that what they really need is a consequence, like a bad grade, to make them realize just how much this is impacting them before they take steps to regain control.
Here are five tools that you can use to help deal with the digital distractions:
1) iProcrastinate is one of the most popular applications for our students. It lets you create "subjects" that can match your school subjects and then create "tasks" for those subjects. You select the "due date" and can set them up for repeat if needed.
For example, you might create a subject like "Activities" and set up a repeating alert for "Paws for a Cause" that meets every Monday at lunch. iProcrastinate lives in your menu bar at the top of your Mac and you can easily pop it open to see what you've got coming up.
As a bonus, unlike simply using calendar notifications, you can create "steps" to complete each task and even associate files that are relevant to the task.
This is a great program to use if you find yourself forgetting assignments or meetings and to organize all the bits and pieces that go along with them.
2) SelfControl is an application that you can configure to block certain web domains to help you not be distracted by the Internet. You can configure the app to prevent incoming email, block Facebook, web-based games, or any web domain or IP address.
Once you start SelfControl, you move the slider to block your listed sites for a set amount of time. The best part is that you can't undo it once you've started, not even by restarting your machine!
This is good for those times when you have a couple of "culprit" sites that suck away your hours (I'm looking at you Facebook).
3) OMMWRITER is a funky text authoring tool that you can fire up when all you really want to do is write. It is a full screen app so blocks the view of everything else with a simple, zen-like background.
OMMWRITER would be a great addition for anybody who finds themselves distracted during the writing process by the temptation to try every font, color, style and layout found in full-featured word processing apps.
4) Pomodori puts a timer with a tomato (italian - Pomodoro) icon on your Mac. You can use it to set a specific amount of time for yourself to focus on one task. The idea is based on the Pomodoro Technique of setting the timer manually which gives you a physical cue that now is the time to focus on work for a 25 minute period. As a way to motivate yourself, and prove that you're actually on task to your parents, you can tally up the Pomodoros as you complete them.
5) Set up a "Study Buddy" account with Parental Controls if you find yourself unable to resist the urge to open Skype just for a little chat while you study. Note: students do quite often use Facebook, Skype, and Twitter for homework help. But, if you think the balance might need adjusting, one approach you could take is to create a restricted account on your Mac.
Basically, what this means is that you can still maintain your regular account with normal access to everything (and everything that could pull you off task) and you create one or more accounts that you manage with Parental Controls.
Then, when you want to work in an environment with less distraction, simply log in to the "Study Buddy" account and away you go. Check out the guide to 1) setting up the account and 2) configuring folder sharing so that you can access folders from the Study Buddy account.
What apps do you use to help you avoid distraction and stay on task?
How do you know what you look like when performing a physical skill?
This is a question I ask myself again and again on the golf course when the round ends up going south. Was it my elbow, my grip, am I shifting my feet, not keeping my head down?
For anybody who's watched an instructor demonstrate a skill I'm sure you know the feeling... 'Am I doing it correctly?'
Video on mobile devices has great potential to provide visual examples to learn from and feedback on performance.
We are fortunate to have a very progressive, committed team of Physical Education teachers who participated in an INSET day lead by the three digital literacy coaches. Here's what happened...
using mobile video to reinforce teaching Here, we produced some short videos with teaching points included so that students could refer to the videos during the lesson on an iPod Touch when they may not have constant access to the teacher. These videos can be made quite quickly once you've got one set the way you like it, simply duplicate the project in iMovie and swap out the video segments and change the text.
using mobile video for peer feedback A peer can be a really good coach when learning a new skill. The great thing about using peer feedback is that a lot of learning can take place for the person giving the feedback as well, not just for the person performing. We talked a lot about being mindfully active and that's really what we're practicing here. Students shoot short segments of video (10 secs or less) on an iPod Touch, capturing only the action, and use it to help give feedback. Having a video to "back-up" what you're trying to say can really help you make your point and we find that it also breaks down barriers that students may have. If they're shy, having the video immediately shifts the focus off of them and on to the person performing the skill. A member of the PE department also brought up that video is great for capturing non-skill based behaviors like cooperation, team-work, leadership, and focus.
using mobile video for self-analysis & goal setting We shifted devices to the iPad 2 here so that teachers could get experience with shooting and doing simple edits using iMovie on one device on the spot. The idea here is that students could have a peer record them performing a skill early on and then do a self-analysis by using the voice-over feature of iMovie. They can edit the clips, split the clips and even capture stills at particular points in the video simultaneously pressing the home button & power button while the movie is paused in full screen.
using mobile video for assessing progress Students can go further with the video they capture of their performances and take video at different intervals during a unit. These videos can be exported to their MacBooks to take full advantage of the editing tools available in iMovie for OSX. Using slow motion, reversing the video direction, and using picture-in-picture we can get a detailed view of different aspects of performing a skill. The aim here is to show progress in specific aspects of a skill. The product is a video that can be a central part of a student portfolio for P.E. These portfolios can be shared with parents and could be used as assessment evidence. But mostly, it's really nice for students to be able to see how far they've come, especially if they feel like they're not being successful at all. The video can often reveal the progress they've made individually instead of what may be the tendency to compare yourself to the best person in the class.
Nuts & Bolts: using mobile video
Creating videos - Making a bank of teaching videos can be a collaborative effort and once they're done, you can reuse them again and again. Also, you may want to consider having students produce them (Digital Media Team or Techxperts possibly?). Once you've done one in iMovie it's a really simple work flow to just duplicate the project and then insert the new video clips and text.
Getting Video On - Uploading videos to your YouTube or Vimeo channel and then emailing the link to the device (MS/HS iPadiPod) is an easy solution but requires good access to wifi (which we found, could be a limitation in some teaching spaces). Alternately, you could ask the IT Dept. to upload a set of teaching videos to iTunes on the devices if you had enough lead time (1 week).
Shooting tips - Turn the device to landscape, keep it still by holding with two hands and bracing, think about the angle - side, back front... what's best to see the action?, capture only the action - not before and after, shoot SHORT segments - less then 10 seconds is often sufficient for skills and several short segments are easier to deal with than one long continuous shot.
Getting Video Off - from the camera roll send email to individual email accounts if segments are short and there aren't too many. Alternately, plug the device in to the laptop and import to iPhoto or iMovie. DO NOT upload to a personal Facebook or YouTube account as the account details you enter will stay on the device and the next person to use it will be able to also access your private accounts!
Deleting - Take time at the end of a lesson to make sure all media has been deleted from the camera roll. Actually have the students show you the camera roll so you can verify that it's empty as you collect the devices back in.
Editing - Making a clip shorter can be done on the iPods, but that's about all you could comfortably do. If you want to edit directly on the device, iMovie on the iPads is one option. To do advanced edits (slow-mo, reverse, crop, p-in-p) you'll want to ramp up to iMovie on the MacBook.
Publishing - We have a college Vimeo account that could be used to publish exemplar videos as well as highlighting the best in the eDunia. Individually, if students have their own personal YouTube or Vimeo accounts they can publish there or they can all use their college Picasa accounts. Video loaded to these sites can be embeded in Mahara and become part of their ePortfolios.
This little gem of an idea, came to the Digital Literacy Team at UWCSEA via Robyn Treyvaud, who had been visiting our school to work on the initiation of our generation safe project. Robyn's idea - so obvious I don't know why we hadn't thought of it before - was to include students in the presentation to parents about social networking.
We created a sign up sheet for our workshop, and asked parents to outline the sort of things they were concerned about and/or what they wanted to focus on. Below is a Wordle of parent concerns.
Jeff asked which students in the class he was teaching would be interested in sharing how they use social networking with parents. He got at least 10 students who were keen to help out. I must stress that students were not pre-selected - we only asked for interested individuals, and we didn't prep them as to what to say. Rather, we provided them with talking points to which they responded.
We scheduled a meeting at lunchtime where we shared a wordle of parent concerns, and they talked about their responses to the concerns, and explained to us the different ways they use social networking. It was fascinating just listening to them. At one point during the discussion, I thought, "We should be videoing this!" so turned on PhotoBooth (all that I had available at the time!) and listened.
Here are some short segments from that video which show the sort of things they were saying.
The following day, we had a huge turnout from parents. We sat one or two students at each table with parents, and did a brief presentation from the school's perspective.
We encouraged parents to ask the students about their concerns and turned it over to the kids. It was amazing to see the positive body language of the parents, and see how engaged both groups were in listening and talking with the other.
We asked for some verbal parent feedback at the conclusion of the session, and received some very lovely comments from the parents. One parent said from his discussions with the student at his table, he learned he needs to trust his children more, and involve himself in what they're doing.
Others spoke very highly of the students involved, and said it was much easier to talk to someone else's child about these sort of issues than have conversations with their own children. That said, they now felt more comfortable about initiating the discussions with their own children.
One of the most touching things I saw was one of our Grade 10 students giving the parents at her table her email address, with the words, "If you have any more questions, just send me an email." How great are our students?!
Laptops in the hands of our student present an enormous array of opportunities for learning. They also present several significant challenges that we must work to overcome, especially for those of us who are relatively new to a one-to-one learning environment. There are several things that a teacher can do to maximize the potential for learning and minimize the challenges.
Why?
Always begin with the why. Why are students going to be using technology in this lesson? What is the learning?
These questions are the critical first step in defining what you use and how you use it. As you plan your instruction, consider how you're using the technology. The SAMR model by Dr. Puentedura can help elucidate the different ways we can use technology in learning.
Spacing and Timing
The deployment of technology in time and space in a lesson can eliminate a lot of distraction and maximize the learning.
Time the technology so that it doesn't "compete" with other activities. Maybe that means starting with large group discussion and then breaking out into small group work with the laptops. The leave the laptops in the bag until they actually need them.
It's also important consider the spatial arrangement of the room. When students are working in groups, do the all need to be on their laptops or can you do three or four students to one computer. As Sugata Mitra points out, it can be really effective way to learn with a group of people around asking questions and giving encouragement to the person driving the computer.
A great post was written by Bianca Hewes on Edmodo about matching the physical arrangement to the learning goal in both online and offline learning activities. She advocates for three spaces, though I think you could easily come up with more: The Campfire - a place to learn from experts or storytellers. A place for whole-group discussions, The Watering Hole - a space for small group discourse and collaboration, The Cave - a space for individual study, reflection, quiet reading and creative flow.
Take care to arrange the physical space in your room and choose the right online environments depending on the type of interaction you're looking for.
This is a tool that you can use to accomplish a variety of tools in your class.
Including:
Instant Polling
Testing
Share your screen
Share student screen
Blank screens
Control Web access
Control App access
Send/Receive files
Take over student computer
and more.
There are great tutorials that show you all the features of LanSchool.
A really important thing to keep in mind however is that there are significant issue with student privacy. When they join your class, you potentially have access to their entire file structure and could take over control of their machine. It pays to have a conversation with the students in advance of using LanSchool and to establish with them the "rules of engagement" for using this tool in the class.
How will you use LanSchool in your class? How are you finding it? Please share by commenting on this post.
The Digital Literacy Coaches have put together a site for today's Professional Learning day centred around ways we can demonstrate student and teacher learning.
The Digital Literacy Team at East is pleased to welcome parents to our first Coffee Morning - this time focusing on: Social Networks: Why they matter, and how you can help your child develop a positive online presence.
We looked first at what was worrying you about Social Networks. Here is a wordle which shows your concerns:
The Digital Literacy Team has looked carefully at these. We have examined recent research, talked with students and other parents and teachers to put together some information regarding these issues. We hope you can see your concerns as opportunities to open the doors of communication with your child.
1. Time
How much time with technology is too much? What's appropriate for a child at a particular age? The answers to these questions will be different for every family, and depend on a variety of factors - making it a difficult one to answer!
The DLT team recommends having a discussion with your child about what is reasonable. Homework, outdoor play, relaxation etc are some of the considerations to think about. Obviously the age of the child makes a difference too.
We advocate a balanced approach, where screen time is only part of a set of varied after school activities.
Common Sense Media has some great articles on managing screen time:
One concern we hear often from parents is the worry that students will be contacted by strangers, who may try to track them down and possibly attempt to meet them. The statistical probability of this actually happening is very low.
"Our research, actually looking at what puts kids at risk for receiving the most serious kinds of sexual solicitation online, suggests that it’s not giving out personal information that puts kid at risk. It’s not having a blog or a personal website that does that either. What puts kids in danger is being willing to talk about sex online with strangers or having a pattern of multiple risky activities on the web like going to sex sites and chat rooms, meeting lots of people there, kind of behaving in what we call like an internet daredevil."
For more information, you might like to read the following articles:
A digital footprint is not necessarily something to fear! Will Richardson, writing for the journal Educational Leadership states:
As the geeky father of a 9-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, one of my worst fears as they grow older is that they won't be Googled well. Not that they won't be able touse Google well, mind you, but that when a certain someone (read: admissions officer, employer, potential mate) enters "Tess Richardson" into the search line of the browser, what comes up will be less than impressive. That a quick surf through the top five hits will fail to astound with examples of her creativity, collaborative skills, and change-the-world work. Or, even worse, that no links about her will come up at all. I mean, what might "Your search did not match any documents" imply?
We want to help students develop a positive online presence, ensuring they understand the 'stickiness' of online information, and how to make good decisions about what is shared publicly.
4. Distractions
Part of learning to work effectively in the 21st Century involves managing distractions. Recognizing that homework may take longer if you are distracted, and taking steps to reduce that distraction is an important part of growing up for today's students.
Some of the suggestions we gathered from students, parents and teachers may help:
- Put your Skype on invisible so others think you are offline.
- Turn off Chat in Facebook/Google Chat
- Turn off Twitter notifications (or turn it off entirely)
- Work in a public place (e.g. Kitchen table), so other people can keep you on task
- Take regular breaks
- Set targets and reward with social networking check-ins
- Make homework a family time, where everyone works at the same time
- Work in Fullscreen view, to eliminate 'visual noise'
- Download Self Control, an OSX app that allows users to block certain websites for predetermined time periods.
Common Sense Media's article on Managing Multitasking provides suggestions at different age levels, which you may find a helpful starting place.
5. Access to Inappropriate Content
At UWCSEA we are of the opinion that educating students about what to do when coming across inappropriate content is the most effective long-term strategy. We can't control what people put on the Internet, but we can control our reaction to it.
As part of our school-wide focus on Digital Citizenship, teachers discuss strategies students can use if/when they come across inappropriate content. Some suggestions include:
- Closing the window
- Covering it with your hand
- Changing your search terms
- Letting a teacher know
- Scrolling down the page
- Hitting the 'back button'
We encourage students to be responsible, and not make a big fuss - the worst thing they can do is to draw attention to it.
6. Kids Knowing More Than You
The short answer is, they probably do! That doesn't mean they don't require teacher/parental support in using technology.
You can help by staying interested in what your kids are doing. If they are interested in a particular game, ask them to teach you how to play. Talk to them about what they like to do. Share your favourite YouTube videos. Just keep the conversations going!
