Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 19 – Collaborating with Google Docs

Today’s 10 minutes of connecting is a beginner’s look at collaboration with Google Docs.

There are very few places that don’t use Google Drive today to collaborate on notes, projects, presentations, thinking, etc.

Google Drive allows you to create different types of shared files, like spreadsheets and presentations. Google Docs is a starting place for getting used to using cloud storage and sharing documents with others.

We have embedded two instructional videos that begin at the very beginning – creating your own Google Drive.  It’s a bit longer than 10 minutes, but we suggest that you watch them as far as you need to, and then go to your own Google Drive and practice.

For those already using Google Drive, this would be a great time to nurture others in learning to collaborate online using this tool.

If you are a Google expert, what resources would you suggest for those just beginning to use collaborative documents?

If you need more help with Google Docs or Google Drive, please feel free to tell us in the comments, or on Twitter @OSSEMOOC

 

Resources:

Google Drive Help Centre

Collaborative Note-Taking with Google Docs by Shake Up Learning

Google Drive Resources by Shake Up Learning

Going Google with Google Drive

Sample Shared Google Docs:

Digital Storytelling Resources (Alec Couros)

Twitter Chat Times (a “Google Sheet”)

 

Ten Minutes of Connecting: Day 16 – RSS Feeds, Another Way to Personalize the Content You Receive

Today we are taking a step back to our work on content.  A tweet yesterday, by Heather Theijsmeijer, has been retweeted countless times, and it has inspired this post on how to work smarter, not harder.

 

We KNOW educators are very busy.  The OPC/UWO report on the role of the Principal in Ontario is a sobering look at the hours required to manage schools and lead learning in this province.

Today we explore another tool that will help you streamline the content you view each day.  In the comments on a previous post in this series, a colleague asked us how to quickly follow blogs using RSS feeds, so that she could visit one site and read all of the postings.

RSS, or “Really Simple Syndication” allows you to aggregate a number of sites into one place, allowing you to quickly check in and scan a number of feeds at the same time instead of visiting a number of different sites.

While there are many options to choose from when you are looking for an RSS Reader, we are going to walk you through Feedly.

When you go to the http://feedly.com site, it looks like this:

 

You are asked to pick some topics that interest you to begin.  Like other tools we have used (pinterest, flipboard, zite), you will be able to narrow this search to personalize your feed. 

Choosing #Education brings up some possible blogs/sites to follow.  Click the green plus sign to start following.

 

Feedly will then signal you to sign in with a social media account.

Once your account is created, you continue to add the blogs and sites you want to follow.

 

The blogs and sites you follow will then appear on the left side of the page.

 

How do you follow a blog that does not automatically appear in Feedly?  Let’s look at how to follow this blog.  At OSSEMOOC, we make this blog very easy to follow.  We will look at three different ways to do it.

To begin with, OSSEMOOC provides an opportunity to follow by email update.  We cater to new users, and this is the simplest method to follow every update.  But not every blog or site provides you with this option.

 

 

OSSEMOOC also allows following by RSS. If you click on RSS – Posts,

you will be taken to this website:

 

 

Copy the web address by highlighting it and using the keys (held down together) <CTRL c >(<Command c> on a Mac).

 

Go back to Feedly and “Add Content”.

 

Paste the address into the dialog box by using the keys <CTRL v> (held down together) (<Command v on a Mac>).

Now click the green + to add OSSEMOOC to your feed.

 

It will look something like this:

You can choose what collection or stream you want OSSEMOOC to appear in.

 

To start using your Feedly reader, simply click on “all”, or on specific collections.  When you see an item of interest, simply click on it and you will be taken to the original site.

 

Of course some blogs and sites, like OSSEMOOC, make it simple to follow on Feedly by clicking on the Follow button.

 

 

 

Now you can start building your personal feed so that you can simply follow your favourite blogs, news sites, research sites, etc.

Remember to share your best findings with your PLN.

Day 23:Leaping Ahead With Our Own Learning

Written and shared by Brenda Sherry.

The original post can be found here: http://bsherry.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/otrk12-and-google-summit-learning/

OTRK12 AND GOOGLE SUMMIT LEARNING

My friends Donna Fry and Mark Carbone, co-creators of the #ossemooc  have put out a call for us to share our learning during this month of April and, as always, it takes me a little while to get my posts onto the blog!

Luckily for me, I had two great experiences last week,  one at the #otrk12 conference and one at the #gafesummit in Waterloo.   Starting withStephen Hurley’s examples of passion-based learning at OTRK12 was wonderful and I enjoyed presenting to the e-learning teachers about creating dynamic virtual discussions and seeing Jaclyn Calder’s presentation about the Grader App for D2L with awesome options for providing differentiated and timely feedback to learners.   It’s wonderful to see what an amazing teacher like Jaclyn does with technology!

While I could share all the tips and tricks that I learned at #otrk12 and the #gafesummit,  I think I’d rather share a few observations that I have mulling around and arising from these 2 great learning events.

A principal from my school board approached me at the Google Summit a little distraught that she had perhaps purchased the wrong technology this year. She has provided her teachers and students with a variety of tools like  ipads, laptops, desktops and Chromebooks.  She seemed a little worried that she had made a wrong choice and should have bought more Chromebooks.  I reminded her, that regardless of how ‘feel good and for the cause of all children and teachers everywhere’ this event undoubtedly was, it was also a Google event after all,  and their mission was to make her feel as though Google products were the bomb. Obviously – they succeeded!

I assured her that an effective technology ecology in her school would also include some higher-end media creation tools like her computers and her ipads, and that she’d want to remember that the ability to do some computing with computers is also a really important skill for our students today.

I remember when Nicholas Negroponte from MIT started to predict that ubiquity would be a game changer in our adoption of technology but that rather than getting simpler, as they should over time,  there was this interesting phenomenon with computers called ‘featuritis’ whereby software developers keep the software getting more complex and complicated (bloated and expensive) rather than cheaper.  Google seems to have figured that out.  Make the browser do most of the work, and the machine could remain inexpensive,  although not as robust.   Maybe robust is not what we are looking for in education anyway.  Easy (for teachers)  seems to be the preferred approach when it comes to technology.   I’m not in complete agreement with this, but I’m learning to accept it.   It is what it is.

People often ask me if I think things are suddenly changing, and while I’m hopeful,  I’m still cautious because I’m not sure it’s the technology that has been holding us back.   We’ve been able to connect our students around the world with blogs since about 2005 and with global projects using forums and list serves since the 1980s.  How many of us jumped on board?  We’ve had extremely rich sites sharing how-to’s of authentic learning and Project Based Learning for more than two decades.   Were we on board then?

We have had Ministry Licensed products that allow multimedia creation and assistive technology for our students for another decade or so.  Were we all making use of these?  When I tell people that my students and I were blogging with other classrooms across the world almost 10 years ago now, and we did this by taking turns all throughout the day on two desktop computers,  they sometimes look at me strangely – like they couldn’t imagine doing that without the Chromebook cart rolled down to the classroom or students 1:1 on their own devices.   They complain that there isn’t enough technology, and yet their classroom computer is often sitting silently in the corner reserved for teacher email.  What’s up with that?

I’m reminded that early adopters will always be willing to put in the countless hours that lead them to mastery of technology tools (and other things) if they feel that will  transform their classrooms – that hasn’t changed much since computers were first introduced into classrooms.

Despite my observations, and my confusion about slow progress in educational technology, I refuse to become cynical.  Instead, I’m telling myself that it’s the ubiquity and access that will make the difference this time around.  Now that educators can leap ahead with their own learning through connected networks, they are not bound any longer by the limits of their own school building or in-services for learning…they can connect with and  support each other and learn not only how to use these tools, but what effective use looks like.

Now that we can share our success stories and connect more widely through social media and through networks like the #ossemooc there is no reason to ‘wait for the learning’ – we can just go out and get it!  It was exciting to see so many educators at OTRK12 and GAFE Summit finding their community and learning together!

Brenda Sherry is an education leader from UGDSB.

She shares her learning here:

Presentations, workshops and publications
On Twitter @brendasherry
www.diigo.com/user/bsherry
http://delicious.com/bsherry
http://www.slideshare.net/bsherry
www.tech2learn.wikispaces.com

 

Day 17: Using Twitter for Professional Learning

Written and shared by Brandon Grasley

About a year ago I wrote a blog post called “How I Use Twitter Professionally – Updated!“. Since then I’ve refined or changed my use a bit more, so I thought it was worth refreshing the post again. So, the content below is the same as before, but with current stuff.

My tweets are public.

I’m trying to encourage conversation and collaboration, so my tweets are globally accessible. This also means I don’t make statements I wouldn’t be comfortable with anyone reading – my family, my students, my employer….

I don’t follow a lot of people.

I currently follow 292 people (that’s a big increase in the last year; about doubled), of whom about 200 are actively tweeting (let’s say at least weekly). Some of these aren’t related to education; for example, I follow The LEGO Group (@LEGO_Group).

I can’t read all of the stuff they tweet. I’m relying on my tweeps to retweet the really good stuff so I have a better chance of seeing it, or to mention me if it’s something they think I ought to notice.

I accept anyone as a follower, pretty much.

Except for a few obvious accounts, I let anyone follow me. Since my tweets are public, anyone can read them (even without a Twitter account), so letting people follow me doesn’t reveal anything extra. Plus, it’s easier when you don’t have to approve people.

I don’t follow back as a courtesy.

Before I decide to follow someone, I take a look at their tweet history. Is their stream of tweets going to enhance my experience? Will I learn from them? Or will I only learn what they had for breakfast?

I’m a fan of some personal stuff on Twitter, but if you post 300 times a day just to talk without conversing, I don’t need to see it. It’s not about you, it’s just that your use of Twitter doesn’t fit with mine.

Today I noticed that I have 3 fewer followers than I did a few days ago. Since there were a few new followers recently that means that more than 3 cut me off their list. That’s totally expected, and is actually pretty great. I think your lifestyle on Twitter should be like the Law of Two Feet: if it’s not working for you, move on.

I don’t accept Direct Messages (DMs)  from people I don’t follow.

This cuts down on the spam. Now it’s just mentions, and there aren’t too many of those. This is a good idea for anyone, so I thought I’d list it here.

I follow hashtags for a while.

Recently I followed #OTRK12 (our annual conference in Mississauga) and #GAFEsummit. I don’t follow the very busy tags, although I sometimes apply them to my posts (#D2L, #onted, #blendedlearning, #edtech).

I try to follow the people in Northern Ontario. We face many of the same issues, and perhaps we have solutions to help each other. I like that idea.

I don’t cross post to Facebook anymore.

I tweet too much. No one on Facebook wants to read all of that stuff. The handful of FB friends who do are also Twitter users and teachers, so they just go to Twitter to find me. When I write blog posts WordPress will publicize them on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, and I’m certain that’s plenty for the FB crowd.

I use Tweetdeck; it rocks.

Chrome has TweetDeck as an app; I like that I can have columns for a variety of things I want to look at. Currently I have my Twitter timeline, my Twitter Interactions, my Twitter Messages (DMs), columns for #edCampSault, #OTRK12,  #OSSEMOOC,  @timrobinsonj’s eLC list, @MeglioMedia’s Tech Enabled Learning list, @ColleenKR’s SGDSB list, and #niprockart. It’s great.

I say things for myself, and I say things for others.

I tweet things that I want to remember or revisit (great for “note-taking” at a session/workshop/conference). I also tweet things to inform others or start conversations. My tweets (of links and such) aren’t endorsements, but since people sometimes view them that way I try not to share stuff that I’m not at least familiar with.

I talk a lot, but not too much

I try to ask questions and help out when others ask questions. I’m proud to say I am included as an honourary member of the SGDSB educators list because I help out the teachers up there, so I think my contributions are valued.

More importantly, I’m developing relationships with these distant folks, and the growth of my PLN has helped me out in my work as well. It was very exciting recently at OTRK12 to meet people whom I knew only through Twitter, and it was surprising how natural the face-to-face interactions felt. We were already friends. So thanks, tweeps.

If you want to follow me…

I’m @bgrasley. No pressure, of course. Use Twitter however it works best for you!

Brandon Grasley is the eLC for Algoma District School Board and the chair of the recent OTRK12 Conference.

Day 14: Words That Resonate – Inspiration from Google Summit 2014

Created and shared by Bea Meglio

Bea’s Piktochart can be viewed here: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1671747-words-that-resonate

Screen shots of the graphic can be viewed below.

Please take the time to comment. Do you agree? Start the conversation!

Bea Meglio, with over 25 years of classroom experience, is a passionate advocate for empowering teachers and students to always strive to reach their potential. Currently as an Education Officer with e-Learning Ontario, she works towards supporting digital opportunities for all learners.

Follow Bea on Twitter: @megliomedia

Day 13: Our First Edcamp

Whole-Hearted

one of three workshops put on for our first Edcamp

How can we possibly find the time to give teachers opportunities to learn about new technology?  There is no question that we need to find a way to change the way we deliver PD.  Teacher learning needs to be embedded and easily accessible so that everyone can keep up with all the changes being brought on through Google, Apple, chromebooks and apps apps apps!

We are experimenting with a version of the edcamp model. To do this, I gave over our regular meeting time (once per month) and allowed teachers to sign up for three 20 minute workshops.  Fortunately, we had three staff members who were willing to present.

I don’t think this is how a regular edcamp would work, but we were dealing with limited time and no more than 15 staff.

The model needs some work, but…

View original post 350 more words

Day 12: Supporting Educators and Promoting New and Improved Learning for Our Students

Written and shared by Deborah McCallum

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what learning is going to look like for our students in the future, and how education needs to change, to meet the needs of society. There are great leaders and movements starting up in Ontario that are helping to support educators and promote new and improved learning for our students.

Indeed, I believe that these new movements need to include embracing eLearning and blended learning environments as frameworks and catalysts for facilitating and activating successful learning for our students.

Today’s education system is outdated in many ways. Structures and institutions are built upon values from the Industrial era. Our students are no longer growing up in this era. There are new opportunities to learn, and learning can look different in different communities and families, cultures. Society has changed in many ways. As Steven Hurley stated in his opening speech at the On The Rise Conference (OTRK12) – desks may be organized in groups, but alas, they are still the same desks!

We have new technologies that have permeated the rest of our world, our economies are changing rapidly, and job security and stability will not mean the same things for our children as they did for our parents generations.  Further, due to the rapidly changing society of technology, there will be different futures emerging for our students in terms of what jobs will be available. We have opportunities now for students to engage in a variety of learning experiences and a variety of literacies that we can promote to help them navigate uncertainty and follow their passions – literally right at our finger tips! Indeed, it is a very exciting time.

What do students need to succeed?

As I consider what it is that our students will need to succeed in their futures, I always come back to ‘Higher Order Thinking Skills’.  Without a doubt, these are the skills that future generations need to count on to succeed in any job, career, or learning environment.

Knowledge construction, metacognitive elements of learning, reflection, critical thinking, flexible decision making, imagination and creativity are just some of the skills that will be necessary.

Technology has come so far that it is so intuitive for anyone to use, but, the higher order thinking skills still need to be in place to make the most out of these learning opportunities and technologies. eLearning and blended learning environments will continue to grow, and therefore, we need to consider how to apply higher order thinking skills to the eLearning environment.

eLearning & Blended Learning

I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a workshop at ORTK12 where we co-created an iBook on eLearning. What a brilliant idea to bring together educators to help describe this as something beautiful that can be presented to parents, teachers, students, administrators to understand these new virtual learning spaces that we can create for our students.

I look forward to these new spaces and places for learning, and more importantly learning how to effectively integrate the higher order thinking skills into these new paradigms of learning!

Deborah McCallum

Educator and Learner investigating the intersection between Knowledge Building, Indigenous perspectives, Edtech, Digital Citizenship & New Pedagogies for the 21st Century. Desire2Learn Instructor for AQ & OntarioLearn Highered; Teacher-Librarian Specialist; Science & Technology; Counselling Pychology, GD.

bigideasineducation.wordpress.com

@bigideasinedu

www.facebook.com/thebigideasineducation

Photo Credit:

alles-schlumpf via Compfight cc

Day 8: Feeling Off-Balance is Okay

Written and shared by
Julie Balen

Last week, we were asked as a staff to once again articulate what technology needs we  have. Like many schools and school districts, we are working hard to upgrade our infrastructure and our hardware. This is necessary work, to be sure. But as I listened to the ‘wish list’ that teachers have, I reflected on how this conversation about tools did not stem from the need to change practice.

And maybe it can’t. Maybe the process of the integration of technology and shifting practice has to happen at the individual level.

 Photo Credit: Mark Hunter via Compfight

I have a class set of Chromebooks, and the impetus for acquiring them was not pedagogical. In the fall of 2013, I was asked to teach grade 10 communications technology, and the Chromebooks were purchased to support that course. But I had them, so why not use them in all of my classes? This could be a bit of a pilot program, we (the principal and I) told ourselves. Let’s see how these devices work out in the non-tech classroom.

The Chromebooks worked marvelously.

I didn’t.

Sure, I knew how to use the machines and the apps. I knew how to set up student blogs and wikis. I knew how to organize documents and folders, to comment, and to share. What I didn’t know how to do was to integrate the devices into the teaching that I do.  Let me try that again. What I didn’t know was that I needed to see the curriculum (English) in a completely different way. What I didn’t know was that ‘changing my practice’ meant reconsidering every aspect of my practice from how I structured the course (traditionally thematically) to what essential skills I believed my students needed to have and how they would/could demonstrate them.

Here’s an example: Senior students need to demonstrate their ability to research, organize ideas, write, revise, format for publication, and cite sources appropriately. For many teachers, this translates into a research report or essay that is produced in Word or Google documents and that is printed or shared. Is that traditional research report/essay format still valid? Do I need to teach them how to produce their thinking in this manner because that’s the format required or expected in higher ed? Or can students research, curate, embed, link, write, and cite in a wiki? Or is the conversation really about choice?

This past February, I had a conversation with Steve Anderson (@Web20Classroom ) about content curation, in which I raised these same questions. His response? We need to understand that “there is no final solution when it comes to [student] learning.”

No final solution. No one way. No program. No script.

What I learn a bit more each day is to be okay with feeling off balance as I figure out what to hang on to from how I taught before and what to let go of. And this, I think, is not something that anyone else can do for me.

Julie Balen has worked for the Wikwemikong Board of Education on Manitoulin Island for the past 13 years, mostly as a high school English teacher, but also as a system-wide literacy coach.

Julie Balen

Blog: http://connectingtolearn.edublogs.org/

Twitter: @jacbalen

About Me: http://about.me/julie.balen

Day 2: Keep It Short!

Make it short….  that’s what I learned today!

When I posted my 4th instalment in my “Gedding It” Series yesterday, I knew it was still way too long.  In this age of the global information trough, I knew no one would get to the end. So why did I sweat over it so much?!?

A few months ago I saw Seth Godin’s blog and thought: that’s what I need. Short quick posts that don’t need a lot of time to read or write.

Then the same idea popped out at me this morning in Designing What’s Next in Teachers’ Professional Development by @mpelochino (ironically in a long post worth reading to the end).  Short, quick, 2-minute PD!

And then it came up this afternoon again, in a SimpleK12 webinar on the value of making short chunked screencasts — for students and teacher PD!

OK universe. I finally get the message!! (-:

Make it quick, get to the point. Provide links for the people who want depth. Don’t sweat the small stuff (except the links). Imperfect’s better than not done at all.

And that just makes everything a whole lot easier on everyone.

Written and shared by Cathy Beach

Recently Retired and Loving I.T.!

Optimistic about the future of education; still busy learning and sharing the connected learning.

 Blog:  Journeys Off the Beaten Path

Twitter and Skype:  @beachcat11

Google Plus:  +Cathy Beach

Celebrating Ontario Education Bloggers

Here are a few new posts written by Ontario Educators over the past few days.  Let’s support our bloggers who are making their thinking visible, reflecting on their learning and sharing with others.  Continue the conversation by providing feedback in the comments.

 

Deborah McCallum:

http://bigideasineducation.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/it-is-not-about-the-technology-it-is-about-what-we-do-with-it/

 

 

Paul McGuire:

http://paulmcguire1.wordpress.com/

 

 

Lorraine Boulos

http://raine6.blogspot.ca/