Resources for a "blended learning classroom" in '11-12

A "Blended Learning Classroom" seeks to use technology to empower students to extend their own school day beyond the final bell. There are as many definitions of "blended classrooms" as there are blended classrooms. But usually they consist of a class that meets as part of a regular school schedule and uses that time to help students orient themselves to tasks and resources that are available to them any time of day. This post just shares a few readily available tools that could help you and your students move toward a blended learning paradigm.

1. Edmodo. Edmodo has become very popular over the past two years. Think of it like a safe and secure version of Facebook or Twitter wherein students can only interact with entire classes in which they are registered. You can post assignments, grade assignments (there's a built in grade book), carry on class discussions, flexibly and responsively create working groups, and post due dates and important dates (there's a calendar). Unfortunately, Edmodo doesn't integrate with Google tools (like Google Calendar)... yet! But supposedly they are working on that! If you need support joining up with the rest of the Bellingham School District, contact Cathy Gersich!
2. Moodle. Ever taken a class online using Blackboard? Moodle is kinda' like that. It lets you create and host classes online. Initial setup could require some support for you, but Ken Russell in our district can help you get started! The advantage of Moodle over Edmodo is that it lets you create a template of a class (assignments, links, discussions, projects, grading scales, etc) that you can use over and over or tinker with each time!
3. Google Apps: This is the big name that Google applies to their online productivity software. Google Docs includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation app, and a drawing app. Google Calendar is, well, a calendar; but it's a really good one you can get to from almost anywhere and that people can subscribe to. Google Sites is a website creation tool. Technically, it is a Wiki. But it lets you really easily paste together all these other Google tools into a website that could also support a blended classroom. Add an email link for students to submit their work and the communication loop is complete! If you need assistance, you can contact Brian MacNevin.

I know that there are lots of other options out there. I tried to just give you three to chew on over the Summer. If you have other resources to share to support a blended classroom, please share them in a comment to this post.

Back up your 2010-11 files to the cloud with Google Docs!

CD-ROMs are just unwieldy and get damaged easily. Flash drives get lost so easily! Dropbox (previously discussed in this post: link) is awesome; but at only 2GB for free use, that might not be enough space for your files. But there is another option for backing up the files from your h-drive: uploading and entire folder of documents to Google Docs!

Here's the process in 4 easy steps:

1. Point your browser to Google Docs.
2. Select the UPLOAD button and then select the FOLDER menu item.
3. Navigate to the folder name that contains the files you want to store in the cloud.
4. UNcheck the option "convert to Google Doc" if you want your word files remain word files and your excel files remain excel files (etc.) and then select OKAY.

And you're done! Your entire folder and its contents will be uploaded and stored for you to access anywhere you have Google Docs access!

Have an exciting and stress free last few weeks of school! 

Do parents and students want to receive your blog posts in their mailbox? Can do!

Having a blog is a great way to store information or share information. But it sure is a hassle if you have to go and FIND the blog you want to follow. Wouldn't it be great if you could get those blog updates in your mailbox instead of having to hunt them down?

Well now there is!

Google has created a gadget version of their feedburner subscription system! Parents and/or students can now register to have your blog posts sent directly to their email mailbox!

Here's a video tutorial to get help you get this added to your blog:

Using iTunes with multiple devices

Another tip from Lisa Christensen--this one shares how to use iTunes on multiple devices.

Click here to learn more!

Wiki for educators using iPads in classrooms

From Lisa Christensen at Lowell, here's a wiki I came across that is geared to educators using ipads in classrooms:

Click here to check out the wiki

Professional Learning Networks on Twitter: Now in BSD!

What is a PLN?
Do you sometimes find that you wish you had more brains to bounce things off of? As a recent arrival at a very small school where I'm the only person teaching what I'm teaching, I find myself missing the collaboration expertise of my middle school science colleagues and my mentors from the North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership (NCOSP). But there is a way to tap into that kind of collaboration and expertise from all over the country and the world: create a professional learning network (PLN) on Twitter (recently opened up to teacher accounts on the BSD network).

A PLN is a collection of people whom you follow and who follow you. You can ask them questions; share professional development articles, videos, resources, practices; you can ask for their advice or offer some of your own. A PLN lets you access the minds of way more people than just yourself.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a short message micro-blogging service. Your messages are limited to 120 characters, which really makes you think about how you'll type something! But everything that anyone types is viewable by everybody else.

Twitter can be imagined like a single large room and everyone is chatting about all sorts of things -- this is playfully referred to the Twitterverse (similar to the idea of the blogosphere). Twitter listens to all of these conversations and displays to you the things spoken by people you know, trust, or learn from (these are people you "follow"). Many people also label their conversations with tags preceded by a pound symbol (like #scichat, #edchat, or #edtech) that describe the conversation. You can tell twitter to display to you these labeled conversations even if they include people you don't follow. So there's no such thing as a truly private conversation in the Twitterverse, and therein lies its power.

So how do you get started with twitter?
First of all, be prepared to feel a little overwhelmed at first. There is so much going on all the time in the Twitterverse, that you have to give yourself permission to explore and get your bearings.

But many many teachers have made this journey before us, so here is some help to get you started: Blogger and education technologist David Wees shared with me his page of eight screencasts to help you get started on Twitter [link].

Okay, I'm in... but who can I "follow"?
There are so many people you could follow and so many PLN's you could listen to. Here are a few starters:

• You are welcome to follow me: @bjmacnevin (I've got to get a friendlier picture up there). Likewise, there are many other Bellingham teachers and employees on Twitter. Anyone with a twitter account can add your Twitternames as comment to this post so we can all find each other out there!
• The #edchat conversation is a general conversation about education issues. Conversations are going on all the time and you can find some more people to follow there.
• The #scichat conversation is dedicated to science education.
• The #mathchat conversation is about... well... math education.
• The #edtech conversation is about technology in the educational setting.
• The #cpchat conversation is about connected principals! These people have found a way to make one of the most isolating jobs in public education more connected and collegial. They also have a wonderful website that's chock full of resources at connectedprincipals.com.

Want to remove the Blogger navbar from your blog?

If you're blogging through Google's Blogger service (and let's face it: it's free, so a lot of people are) you have probably noticed the ubiquitous navbar at the top of the page that includes some nice navigation and search tools, but which also includes the distracting and sometimes disturbing NEXT BLOG button.

"Next Blog" takes you to some random blog on the site and sometimes you don't want to be the launch point for your students or parents to be sent to silly topics and/or discussions.

So -- and this is a great pedagogical discussion for another arena -- as a teacher, do you want the navbar? If you are teaching your students to be self-reliant responsible digital citizens, then you welcome this link to randomness. But if your aren't focussed on that, then here's all you have to do to remove it:

1. Go to blogger.com and on the dashboard for the blog you want to change, select the DESIGN tab.
2. Select EDIT HTML.
3. Find the line that reads </b:skin>. Just before this line, paste-in this chunk of css code:
   #navbar-iframe {
   height:0px;
   visibility:hidden;
   display:none
   }
4. Select SAVE TEMPLATE.

That should be it. I have never experienced a problem with this solution, but the potential is there that it may conflict with the template you have chosen for your blog.

From what I've read, this does not explicitly violate your blogger terms of service and it may save you from the embarrassment of explaining to a colleague, a parent, a student, or a potential employer about why they jumped from your classroom blog or online resume to the "LOL Catz got Mohawks" blog.

Cheers!