Week 5: Is there anything Google doesn’t do?

On this, the fifth and final week of our journey into educational technology we will be taking a look at Google Classroom.  This tool was released in 2014 to help streamline classroom activities and allow teachers more time to teach.  In the first year after its release it already had nearly 10 million teacher and student users.  As a non user seeing how quickly it was adopted has me very optimistic.

Without digging to deep I already see many benefits that using Google Classroom can provide.  Teachers can create worksheets digitally and keep their paperwork for all their classes organized in one dashboard. Homework can be assigned to each class roster with a few clicks.  Sharing and collaboration are simplified through toggling the editing functions for delivery to peers or students.  Quizzes can be given out and graded in real time, rather than waiting to return paper copies for review.  Websites and other content can be shared to the entire class at once.  With this also being my first time using the product I have found it simple to use and surprisingly intuitive.

The two things that have me most excited about this tool come from it being a discreet web based classroom.  I think that the ability to provide unique assignments or content to groups or individuals that may be struggling is a game changer.  Being able to give the extra learning materials without drawing attention to it can help alleviate any embarrassment a student might feel from not grasping a concept quite as quick as their classmates.  The web based nature of the tool also can be huge in keep students who miss class up to date, or ensure the class stays on task during a teacher absence.

Have you found any other hidden benefits using Google Classroom?

Bonus Blog: To Tweetfinity and beyond!

I’ve spent roughly the past month exploring the Twitterverse.  Prior to entering the realm of hashtags and retweets I was very skeptical of how it could benefit me and my growth as an educator.  Now that I have taken the time to do some exploring I believe that the possibilities are limitless.

I will admit that I have spent a majority of my time lurking.  With the overwhelming amount of content available I feel like that was my necessary starting point to find other contributors that spoke to my interests.  Now that my follow list has grown a bit and I have been more actively tweeting I am starting to get feedback of my own.  Obviously, the latter is what you work towards as the more you put in, the more you get out!

One of the great things about Twitter is that it is accessible on your computer, laptop, tablet, or phone.    For teachers, this means you have access to thousands of teachers with varied backgrounds and experiences that can contribute to your professional growth, virtually anywhere you go.  I have also experimented with Tweetdeck to help organize my feed.

Putting myself out there on social media has made me think more about personal branding and the permanence of digital communication.  These are very important areas to engage our learners in early and teach them responsible digital citizenship.  If young adults begin cultivating their brands in high school, their online reputations will grow positively and strengthen over time.
As a future Business teacher I see myself connecting this to my teaching if the school doesn’t already have a program in place.

Do you have a Twitter account?  If so who have you found that is worth following?  Do you feel like you can grow yourself professionally through its use?

Week 4: Flip or flop

Have you ever heard of a flipped classroom?  I hadn’t until this week.  With most of my traditional learning long in the rear view, and my trek to become an educator just beginning, I was pretty excited when I started to dig into this topic.  The article I read, by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams breaks it down as a change from standing and talking at a group of students for thirty to sixty minutes at a time to more of a learning coach.  By taking their lectures and turning them into viewable content online they turn classroom time into a period for answering questions, working with small groups, and helping to guide individual students.  That kind of agility in the classroom allows you to take a struggling student or students and have an impromptu tutorial of the subject matter with those that need it most.

This shift in role for the teacher also allows them more time for observation from the teacher and collaboration among the students.  I was in a military training program where the setup was similar to this with a significant amount of peer to peer learning.  While the teacher will always be the subject matter expert in the classroom, the connection that students from the same peer have can lead to alternative, but still highly effective pathways to learning.  

Jonathan and Aaron believe that much of the success of the model comes from students identifying learning as their goal, instead of the completion of assignments.  They have found the response from students to be tremendously positive, though for some it takes time, when they shift their view of class work from busywork to meaningful activities.  

Have any of you taught in a flipped classroom?  Learned in one?  Please share your experiences, the good and bad.