The Best Job in the World

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Digital Literacy Coach, Computer Teacher, Technology Integration Teacher, I think we have a very cool job no matter what you call it.

Here at UWCSEA East we are called Digital Literacy Coaches. But what exactly does that mean? What role do we play at school and in the classrooms?

A quick look on dictionary.com showed the following definitions for ‘Coach’:
- a person who trains an athlete or a team of athletes
- a private tutor who prepares a student for an examination
- a person who instructs an actor or singer
- a playing or non-playing member of a baseball team at bat who is stationed in the box outside first or third base to signal instructions ot and advise base runners and batters

If you throw technology into the mix, what would the definition look like?

We were very fortunate to come together with a fantastic group of educators at the recent Learning 2.012 in Beijing, China. During the conference we had a morning together to explore what it means to be a coach and how we can be the most effective in our positions. We started the workshop by asking participants two questions; What does it mean to be an effective coach? and What worries you the most about your coaching role? The thoughts that were shared with the whole group were so interesting that we thought it worthwhile to share.

An Effective Coach

This was our first question to the group, What makes an effective coach? The answers to this question reaffirmed our own thinking about our roles. The group put great value on listening, empowering, building relationships and supporting curriculum. Here are some examples of what was said:

An effective coach...

- is creative

- builds trusting relationships with colleagues and let’s colleagues know they are working together

- is able to solve, or help the teacher find a way to solve, problems

- empowers students and teachers to use technology in their classrooms and beyond their classrooms

- enables and creates change that is positive

- is approachable, encouraging, and supportive

- doesn’t get frustrated very often

- actively listens

- spends quality time with teachers

- is someone who knows about the subject and wants to share what he/she knows, yet is also willing to learn

- shows practical applications rather than theoretical

- knows their own strengths and weaknesses

- focuses on leveraging student learning, not fixing teachers

- works at another’s pace

- supports and develops ideas and curriculum with the school community

- is able to lead teachers and students down roads they did not think possible

- cares first, coaches second

- anticipates problems, is not arrogant, has both broad and specific knowledge and knows the curriculum

- is a people person first and a geek second

- is able to work in a multi-disciplinary team

- values time

What Worries Me Most About Coaching

This was the next question we posed to the group. The answers to this were just as diverse as the above but there were some common threads - how can I ensure that what I do makes a difference, am I creative enough, and how can I approach a teacher who doesn't want to be coached:

What worries me most about coaching...

- day to day maintenance / tech issues eat up time that should be used to work with students and teachers

- that I am not creative enough

- when ideas / projects ‘go bad’ and are less effective than anticipated

- not having an impact

- keeping current with the latest developments in ICT and having the best solutions to teacher’s ICT needs

- having all the answers that are needed

- it’s new

- crowd reaction

- that I become a crutch rather than a coach

- not being able to achieve change (probably because we just can’t find a way to connect with a very busy teaching staff)

- that I cannot do enough - and too many people do not get the help they need

- people will not appreciate how I can help

- disappointing people

- what to do when people do not want to be coached

- being misunderstood

- not being there when students need me

- when the tech gets in the way

- when we over geek things

- my lack of experience

- pd for me as a coach

In another blog post coming really soon, we will further discuss these results. 

Talk nerdy to me... using Siri, Dictation, Speak Text, and Google Voice Search

As I was prepping for a recent demo-slam event, I took some time to explore and rediscover some cool voice features on your Mac and iOS device. In this post, I'm going to highlight six cool things with you can do just by talking nerdy to your computer.

System requirements: Mac with Mountain Lion 10.8.x; iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch device with iOS 5; internet

Dictation on iOS devices -  Dictation came along with iOS5 and is available on our new iPad 3s. Whenever the keyboard is visible, the dictation button will be just to the left of the spacebar. Press it and speak and whatever you say will be translated into text. Dictation gets to know your speech (and you'll adjust as well) so that the more you use it, the better it gets at transcribing what you say.

1. Write in Google Docs: using dictation on your iOS device, you can open and edit Google docs. Open the Google doc you wish to edit and press the "edit" button. Then, place the cursor where you'd like to write and press the dictation button. Speak what you'd like to write and it will appear as text in the Google doc. 

Dictation on your Mac - Dictation comes to your Mac running OS 10.8.x "Mountain Lion." By default, it is activated when you press the "fn" key twice. I'm actually writing the rest of this post by speaking directly to the computer. To use dictation on your Mac, you need to put the cursor in the document in the place where you'd like the text to appear. The next, you press the function key twice and speak. Your speech is transcribed as text.

2. Comment on a Google doc: use dictation to speak your comments. In the Google doc, highlight the word(s) that you'd like to refer to in your comment. Select the "Insert" menu and choose "comment." Then press the "fn" key twice and speak your comment. Press enter when you're finished an your comment is transcribed. 

Siri - OK, so Siri, Apple's voice activated personal assistant is not exactly new, but I really don't see people using it around campus. (Maybe it's because she can't understand their accents?) Siri is functional on our iPad 3s we have available for check-out. What you can do:

3. Open applications: ask Siri to "Open Brushes" and the brushes app will open automatically. This is great when working with younger children who would have difficulty navigating and finding the right app or searching using the keyboard.

4. Find answers: when you ask Siri a question that is part of Wolfram Alpha's vast database, (see examples) she'll return the answer to the question and valuable background information related to the topic. 

Speak Text on your Mac - allows you to select text from anywhere on your mac and have it read back to your. See this guide on how to set it up.

5. Give your eyes a rest: reading on screen (or in print for that matter) is not recommended for extended periods of time. Optometrists recommend following the "20-20" rule - take a twenty second break to focus your eyes on something distant every twenty minutes. Open up the web-page text you'd like to have spoken, highlight it, right-click and press "speech" and "start speaking".

6. Proof listen: by using text to speech, you can listen to your written work and sometimes catch mistakes that your visual processing centers would not have caught. 

Speak Text on your iOS device - works similarly to the way it works on the Mac. Enable it following this guide, highlight the text you wish to have spoken tap on it and select "speak".

Voice search in Google - this feature doesn't work from every localization of Google (google.com.sg for example) so you need to first type in the URL for the non-localized search http://www.google.com/ncr

Happy searching!




What wonderful ways can you think of to use voice tools on your Mac or iOS device?  I'm thinking a conversation between Siri, Dictation and Speech to Text is in order.

Date Night with Your Mac

As promised here is a synopsis of what was shown during the Demo Slam at Date Night on Friday November 23, 2012. If you would like to learn more please see the person who presented: 

Phil Meehan share two of his favourite email tools. First up was 'Undo Send' which gives you a 30 second window to 'unsend' an email. You can turn this function on in your Settings menu under 'Labs'. (Undo Send can be found by clicking on the Gmail setting gear, then the Labs tab, search for Undo Send, click enable and save)
Next Phil shared Boomerang For Gmail an add on in Chrome. 

"Boomerang allows you to schedule messages to be sent or returned at a later date. Write a message now, send it whenever, even if you're not online. Track messages to make sure you hear back, and schedule reminders right inside Gmail"

Dave Caleb shared his favourite Mac tips and tricks
- Caffeine keeps your Mac from going to sleep
- Hot Corners - configure the corners on your Mac to do things for you
- Folder Clean Up
- Reflection - an app run on your Mac that allows you to wirelessly project onto your IWB (works like magic!)

Jeff Plaman focused on "finding your voice" during his slam.
- Siri (on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices) allows you to speak and dictate a wide variety of actions. Press and hold the "home" button and Siri can be used to dicate notes, write emails  and search the web. This could be really useful for students who can't type well yet to search for info. 

- Wolfram Alpha is a computational search engine that Siri calls on when you ask technical questions like "What's the boiling point of ethanol?" "How do you find the area of a right triangle?" or "What is the frequency of Middle C?" Wolfram gives answers and mini-lessons that explain the result. 

- iOS 5 (the most recent operating system on iPads etc) has the ability to do dictation. When you open anything where the keyboard pops up, you'll notice that there's a little microphone icon just to the left of the space bar.  Pressing it activates the microphone and you can speak your text and your device will turn in into type. (NOTE: you have to manually enter punctuation) This feature also exists in the newest OS on the Mac, Snow Leopard (you can get upgraded at IT Support).
Jeff showed how you can open a Google doc from your Mac running Snow Leopard, insert a comment and use dictation by pressing the "fn" key twice to speak your comment. 
(You can't actually write into the body of your Google Doc for some reason using dictation on the Mac, but you can do this from an iPad. Just open a Google Doc on your iPad, put the cursor where you like and press the dictation (mic) button and yammer away)

Keri-Lee Beasley shared the cool functions that can be done in Preview:
- get rid of a background on a picture
- adjust the colour of a picture
- annotate on top of a picture

Katie Day rounded off the sharing with a demonstration of Google Reader, managing your settings in Chrome, and using shortcuts to enhance a Google Search. 















We would like to say a special thank you to Jabiz for his inspiring opening about creating on line and off line spaces where our students feel safe and valued. Thank you to everyone who shared and thank you to those of you who came out to spend time with us on a Friday night after a busy week at work. We look forward our next Date Night in the new year.

Rubicon Reserve Wines had some awesome wine for tasting - a special favourite was the Maccari Prosecco. If you would like to learn more you can contact them by email: sales@rubiconreservewines.com

An Introduction to Google Docs

We make extensive use of Google Docs here at school and think it may be a great tool for our Class Parents to use, especially when there is a lot of organizing to do.  

This video 'Google Docs in Plain English' by commoncraft explains why we use Google Docs:

What is a Google Doc? 

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_docs)

Why do we use Google Docs? 

These applications can be accessed and used by a number of people simultaneously. Since the information is stored on the Internet and not tied to a single computer, it becomes easier to share information. Working on a document simultaneously also saves time when undertaking large projects or collaborating across long distances. (http://curiosity.discovery.com/)

How do I use my Google Docs? 

We have put together a Google Presentation that works through the basics of using Google Docs. 

These are the things we talked about in our mini-workshop:

1) When you are in your Google Drive you can choose to 'Create' a document or 'Upload' a document. We recommend Creating, as sometimes formatting can get mixed up.

2) Think carefully about the name of your document so it is easy to find using the search function in your Google Drive

3) Think about your share settings - public on the web, anyone with the link or private

4) Think about editing rights - can edit, can comment, can view

5) You can share the document from your Drive in the share settings by adding email addresses and a message - or you can copy the link and put it in your own email. 

6) Revision history is a great tool:

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides have a revision history pane that allows you to view at a glance all changes made to a document by each collaborator. While it may not work exactly like a track changes tool, the revision history tool lets you view and revert to earlier versions of your document, spreadsheet, presentation, or drawing and see which collaborators made edits to any of these versions. (support.google.com)

7) Using the 'Comments' can also be helpful:

Comments are a handy way of adding notes to your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that are visible to viewers and collaborators. These can be invaluable for communicating with collaborators about specific parts of the document, as well as making notes about changes you've made or would like to make. (support.google.com)

And that is the basics of using Google Docs. We will be offering a workshop in the new year that continues on from here and explores using Google Forms and Google Spreadsheets.