The More Things Stay the Same, The More They Change

A few nights ago an Eric Sheninger tweet caught my eye.  It referenced a Muse article called "10 Annoying Buzzwords the Whole Office Would Be Better Without."  I am a bit of a junkie for lists like this.  In fact, this is my favorite of these types of lists; reading it has become a New Year's ritual for me.  I keep waiting for the annoying habit of adding -out to verbs (like "share out" and "tweet out" - why do we need the out?) to end up on this list, but, no luck so far.  Anyway, I couldn't help reading the article.

The article highlights a lot of jargon-y words that people use, like leverage and disrupt and iteration, more often than they should be used.  A new one for me was "double-click" to replace one of my hated phrases, "drill down."  I hope I don't have a mouthful of diet coke the first time I hear someone say they need to double-click an idea in a meeting.  A spit take is likely.

I couldn't disagree with most of the entries on this list, but, from an edtech perspective, I have another I would like to add.  It's not a term; it's a presentation device.  Our schools or classrooms haven't changed in the last 100 years.  Just look at these pictures.  They're the same.  That's what's wrong (or what's symptomatic about what's wrong) with education.  If you see enough keynotes, you'll hear this a lot.  I take issue with this logic for a couple of reasons.

First, it's not really true.  Sure, there are a lot of similarities when you stare at two rooms that happen to have a teacher desk and some student desks in rows.  All it takes is an evening of stories that my father tells about his school days and I realize how much school has changed in fifty years.  When I think about how education has changed in my twenty-four years, I can only imagine how much it has changed in 100 years.  In some ways, I think I have reinvented myself in the last five years.  And my reinvention was a third or fourth iteration of me as teacher in my career (iteration, heh heh).  Every year I make changes, some big and some small, to meet the changing needs of the students I teach.  As I watch my colleagues doing that too, I am saddened by the pundits who keep banging the drum of "school never changes."  This minimizes the many ways teachers adapt and grow every year and inadvertently places the blame on the same teachers who spend their salaries on classroom improvements because they are tired of waiting.  

Second, that school hasn't changed much is maybe a little bit true, but I am not sure that's so bad.  The basics of education - a well-qualified, passionate teacher who finds a way to help students discover things they didn't know or didn't know they didn't know before - should never change.  Another tired phrase has become that "the best device in the classroom is a talented teacher."  If the teacher is talented, it doesn't matter if the desks are in rows or the students are in stations.  Learning will be the priority.  Plus, we have fundamental ideas and concepts that people need to learn as building blocks.  I remember the first time I visited the Montessori school where my children eventually enrolled.  I marveled at the variety of lessons and work that was happening all over the classroom.  It was quite a bit different from how I remembered elementary school and I questioned the teacher about mundane tasks like spelling lists and math facts.  "Oh, we still have those," she answered.  Maybe they are not the focus all the time.  Maybe we approach them in different ways.  But we still have to learn some basics before we can attack our passions.

Look at all the other settings that haven't really changed much in 100 years.  The grocery store still has shelves of food and someone located in a central-ish area who rings up the sale and asks you to pay.  The doctor's office has a waiting area with a person who tells you when it's your turn and then a doctor who asks some questions and makes a recommendation.  The courtroom has a judge up front and two sides for the participants with some rows for others to participate.  I never read any articles about, or hear a keynoter mention, how none of these settings hasn't changed enough in 100 years or about how if we don't make sweeping changes right now, we'll all starve with poor medical care and no justice.

So, please, let's stop talking about how the reason to change is that we haven't changed.  Let's talk instead about being well-qualified educators who are willing to try whatever is in their bag of tricks, and learn new tricks, to help students find ways to discover things.  Let's change when it makes sense to change because we evaluated many options and this one is best.  Let's have sound reasons for trying whatever we try.  And let's stop minimizing the craft of the hardest working professionals on the planet.

Using a Lab to Answer a Student's Question

One of my constant sources of inspiration is the work of Dan Meyer.  Dan's recent post "If Math is the Aspirin, Then How Do You Create the Headache?" explores the idea of how to introduce a concept or stir up interest in a concept so that math is authentic.  I struggle with this a lot in chemistry, especially since students begin the year with very little foundation on which to draw.

As I planned my acids and bases unit this spring, I was trying to incorporate an inquiry-based lab that involved the properties of acids and bases.  Initially I thought I would give students unknown solutions and some equipment and ask them to identify the substances as acids, bases, or neither.  Maybe I would make it more relevant by using household or common substances.  I opted against that because it felt too elementary and, if I am being honest, wouldn't they just measure the pH and call it a day?  I had to miss a day for inservice, so I left them a great PhET simulation to discover answers to some questions about strength and concentration.  The image above is from that simulation; it shows the difference between an acid's strength and its concentration on a particle level.  

When I returned from my absence, I still had not settled on exactly what we would do in the lab and my students had questions about the simulation.  In my second period class, when I asked for questions from the previous day, one of my students said that he understood what they were supposed to get from the simulation, but he didn't feel he knew the right answer to the question of which property - strength or concentration - had a greater effect on pH.  I started to answer, to tell him which one it was.  But then I didn't.  Instead, I said, "I am so glad you asked.  Tomorrow we will explore that question in the lab."

The next day I provided two solutions, a solution of hydrochloric acid (a strong acid) and solution of acetic acid (a weak acid) with equal concentrations.  I labeled the solutions as A and B so they wouldn't know which one was which.  They had to use what they knew about pH to decide which was strong and which was weak.  I also provided pH paper and asked them to design an experiment to answer the question "Which has a greater effect on pH: acid strength or acid concentration?"  Their homework was to write a lab report.  Here are some excerpts:

It's always fun to watch groups work on days like this.  Some were completely mystified about why the pH wasn't changing as they added equal volumes of acid and water.  It was a great lead in to our lessons about pH and especially the logarithmic nature of that scale.  Students often smile and nod as I describe the scale as being powers of ten, but this year they had experienced firsthand how drastically different, in terms of dilution, a pH of 2 is from a pH of 3.  The lab really got them thinking about the difference between strength and concentration too.  Since those terms are used interchangeably outside of science - a strong drink is typically a very concentrated one - it is important to help them understand how different they are in chemistry.  I think, based on the writing they did following the lab, that most did understand this difference.

When I do it again next year - and I will definitely do this one again - I will also provide a solution of a sodium hydroxide and ammonia so that they can use a strong base and a weak base in their experiments too.  The trick will be, of course, getting a student to ask the question again!

Design Something Cool with Nearpod

Participants at EduDesign Shop await proposal pitches.

About year ago I had a really amazing experience.  I was selected to participate in EduDesign Shop, a design thinking weekend organized by Jessica Artiles, a graduate student at MIT.  100 people - 25 educators, 25 policy makers, 25 designers, and 25 students - met on a Saturday morning, ready to solve a problem in education that focused on incorporating arts in STEM education, motivational structures, or retention and support for diversity in STEM fields.  It was reality show-esque:  We learned and worked all day Saturday and Sunday in teams of 4 to ideate and prototype an idea and then pitch it in a 2 minute proposal to a team of experts.  Watch my team's pitch here.  I have never had a crazier weekend.  And I loved every minute of it.

With no experience in design thinking, it was a tremendous experience for me.  Because I so enjoyed the weekend of design, I was thrilled to read the news today that the movers and shakers at Nearpod, one of my fave webtools, collaborated with the designers and thinkers at Stanford to create a high school introduction to design thinking.  The premise is very cool.  First students answer questions in order to partner with someone.  Then they tackle a PBL with a goal of creating something that will help the partner's morning get off to a better start.  The Nearpod Presentation walks the teacher and students through the process, alternately teaching some design thinking and challenging students to apply the steps to the problem at hand.  By the end of what seems like two class periods, the students should have prototyped their ideas.

The materials developed by Nearpod and Stanford are detailed enough that I could do it with little background but rich enough that I don't think I would need to supplement the project.  They supply the presentation you can use in class, a template you can alter for a different version of a task, and a teacher guide.  Take a look:



One of the things I like best is that they show how this tool can very much be used to support inquiry learning or PBLs.  At first glance Nearpod looks like it could be just a lecture enhancer.  This terrific set of tools shows that Nearpod is so much more.  I am looking forward to showcasing this presentation next month at the Educate to Innovate STEM Conference at Clarion University.

If you are a high school teacher and you use Nearpod, I recommend you check it out.  If you don't already use Nearpod, this might be a great time to take a look at this tool.

You'll Never be Bored if You Storyboard That

In February I attended a webinar, hosted by Richard Byrne, on the terrific features of Storyboard That.  I was immediately impressed by the variety and versatility of this tool.  I couldn't wait to try it out.

The picture at the left is a storyboard I created with Storyboard That.  I started with a template and customized the headings and colors of almost everything I added.  The characters are posable and customizable too.  Many (many!) backgrounds are available.  Filters are available (black and white or sepia and so on) and many features in the background can be customized.  I like the idea of creating storyboards like this one for the families of the periodic table.  It was a lot of fun to create this board and it looks like a high quality visual.

I enjoyed Storyboard That so much that I designed an extra credit project for my students to see how they liked it too.  Over spring break, students could choose one of my templates or start from scratch and make boards that show chemistry concepts.  There were many excellent and hilarious submissions.  Here is one of my favorites, by Taylor H:

  
Here is a quick list of features that I think set Storyboard That apart from other tools:

• It's so easy to use.  As my children - ages 9 and 11 - watched me make the first one, they were begging for their own accounts.  Many new tools have a steep learning curve, but this one was very simple.
• Everything is so customizable - change the hair color, shirt color, background color, poses.  With a few clicks you can get exactly what you want. 
• There is a great variety of characters, backgrounds, images, and photos.  The possibilities really are endless.
•  There are a great variety of templates to start with, but you can customize all of those too.  If you want a standard three cell starter, that's available.  Add more cells, a title or description?  That's easy.  Frayer model, web, timeline - all these and many more.
• Excellent teacher guides - you can see the example work of many other teachers with descriptions of how they use the boards in class and background information too.  

 And speaking of teacher guides, I put together 5 boards about atomic structure and a teacher guide.  These were added to the Storyboard That collection last week.  Here is an image from one of my boards about atomic number and mass number:

Storyboard That is loads of fun and a great web tool.  I almost wish there was more time left this school year so I could use it again.  Almost.  Definitely at the top of the list for next year! 

Comparing 3 Popular Presentation and Student Response Platforms

After I blogged about the new features of The Answer Pad, I received this comment on Google+.





I put together a nutshell chart comparing Nearpod, Pear Deck, and The Answer Pad because I see a lot of overlap between them.  Please don't see the YES or NO as an endorsement or lack thereof.  Sometimes a NO is a strength!  These are all great tools that I encourage teachers to try and regularly use.  I would be hard-pressed to choose any of them as the greatest.

I also just learned of a similar feedback tool called Formative.  I hope to try that one out this week or next with my students and then I will add it to the above chart.

I will put together a similar chart about Socrative and Kahoot and a new favorite, Quizizz, soon.  

Simple Stop Motion Animation with Parapara

Earlier this week I read about Parapara Animation in a headline of Free Technology for Teachers.  I am always on the lookout for a quick and simple way to animate molecular motion, so I thought I would check it out.  Richard Byrne's post gives a great overview to the features of Parapara.  

I headed over to the Parapara site and clicked around a little.  After a few failed attempts where I figured out how things work, I was able to create a simple animation of 2 water molecules.  It looks like I should have used a different colored background, but, otherwise, I am pretty happy with my first attempt.



I love that this is a free tool and does not require any account or registration.  When you finish your animation, you get a link and a QR code.  When you click your link to see the animation, you also get the embed code and the option to like it on facebook and to tweet it.

I would use this to create animations to show particle interactions to my students.  I might also give my students a challenge to show me things.  Maybe everyone gets a different chemical reaction that they have to animate?  Or groups do different chemical processes or mechanisms that they animate and share.  The tool is easy enough to show it and create something in less than a period.  It's definitely going on my "try this with students" list for next year.

Collect Student Responses Easily with the NEW The Answer Pad

One of my favorite student response systems is The Answer Pad.  This week The Answer Pad released a new version of itself, a sleeker and cleaner interface with some excellent new features.  I participated in the beta testing and am anxious to start regularly using this new version of a great tool.  The color scheme and graphics look new and fresh, but those changes are just the beginning.  

 Here's what you can look forward to:

Log in to the new version and you are greeted by a new home screen with six choices - set up answer sheets, interactive, reports, portfolio, library or news.  I clicked on Interactive first because that is the way I like to use TAP best.  Here you can send out screens for students to answer the questions you ask on-the-fly during lessons.  There are some significant changes here.  First, a new option for Quick Connect means that students no longer need accounts to use this tool.  Now they can use a 5 letter code to instantly connect.  This is a major time saver and a significant plus in the new version.  Once in interactive mode, teachers can send out screens for multiple choice, true/false, yes/no, thumbs up/down, a fill-in box, a slider, or a blank drawing for students to use for responses.  Teachers see the responses in real-time and can capture and save to a portfolio.  There are also 12 free templates available in the free version and the ability to upload templates in the premium version.  I like that users can now designate templates as favorites and those are stored in a favorites folder so if you never intend to use the music staff or clock faces, you don't have to favorite those.

In addition to using The Answer Pad interactively, you can also create answer sheets that students can use with a paper test or quiz (free version) or paperlessly (premium feature).  These will be graded by The Answer Pad and reports are stored in the account.  Here is a chart that shows some of the different features available with different accounts:

The Answer Pad is an easy to use, intuitive tool, but they offer lots of help too.  Click on LEARN in the upper right hand corner of the screen and you'll go to a tutorial area with 13 videos, each showcasing a different feature, and a presentation that you can use for training.  I clicked through the slides and learned a few things.

In my classroom I have enjoyed using this tool on iPads using an app formerly called TAPit that will now be called Answer Pad (formerly called TAPit).  The iOS app is not yet ready, but is expected at the end of April.  The Android app is available.  For now, it can be accessed on any web-enabled device.  

This was already a great tool with a generous free account.  Now it is an even better one.  If you are looking for a quick way to gauge student understanding during lessons while engaging them in the content, check out the new version of The Answer Pad.