Free Agent Learners, EdTech 50 Best Blogs, Google Education Online and Dallas Makerspace

Posted by Dr. Faustina DuVall 

Free Agent Learners - Students creating opportunities to learn for themselves
Project Tomorrow, SpeakUP 2015

Does this sound like the students in your class or your children at home?

“I have many apps on my phone that help me at school a lot. I have a homework app that organizes all of my homework and reminds me when something is due. Also, I have another app where it is like an online note card and it’s easier for me to test myself on a subject outside of school instead of bringing my papers where I go. On my tablet, there are applications that have almost every subject and teach you lessons for instance, a lesson in algebra 2 or how to balance an equation for chemistry. I find all of these apps very helpful because of technology.” Female student, Kennedy HS, Guam (SpeakUp2015). 

Understanding technology and the effect it has on teaching and learning in the lives of today's students is on the minds of every teacher, principal and parent.

Julie Evans, is the CEO at Project Tomorrow, a national educational organization, which has surveyed 4 million parents, students and teachers since 2003 about STEM education and digital learning.  (jevans@tomorrow.org).

Evans points to the key trends and data from the 2014 Speak Up data:

• Increased urgency around digital learning
• Interest in new models - mobile, blended and flipped learning
• Usage of digital content in classroom on the rise
• Recognition that teachers are pivotal to adoption
• New approaches to measuring impact
• Focus on using technology to personalize learning

The Project Tomorrow survey data shows that students are using a wide range of technology tools outside of the classroom and school to:

• Reinforce learning concepts at their own pace best suited to individual learning styles
• Explore related academic topics and ideas to a deeper level and challenge the learner with new ideas and different perspectives
• Develop college and career 21st century skills (critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration). 

As educators implement blended, virtual, STEM and mobile learning environments for digital natives, Evans and the Project Tomorrow SpeakUp challenges us to address two big questions:

1. Are we ready to support a new kind of educational ecosystem that acknowledges learning as 24/7 enterprise?

2. What do we need to do today to enable and empower these kinds of student-centric digital learning experiences for all students?

Educator Learning Opportunities and Resources: 

1. Blogs: One way educators can get ready for the 24-7 learning enterprise and and provide student-centric digital learning experiences is to follow EdTech's 50 Must Read Blogs for 2015. This year's list highlights blogs from innovative teachers, technology directors and educational technology experts.

These expert blogs cover STEM classroom resources, student engagement and digital leadership, new channels of communication, student led education resources, Google education solutions, video and learning platforms and empowering teachers to transform traditional teaching with technology and thousands of other educational technology topics.

2. Google Education on Air - a free, interactive online conference that will take place Friday, May 8 from 10am-3pm EDT and throughout the day Saturday May 9.
Topics include inspirinig learners with the power of storytelling, the skills of the future, tools for creative problem solving and 100 other topics and sessions.
To register go to: https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/live/2015-may

3.The Dallas Makerspace is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, shared community workshop and laboratory. An organized group of local artists, engineers, makers and thinkers work together to provide tools and learning resources to the public. These resources promote science, technology and art and encourage learning within the community.


Resources:

http://www.tomorrow.org/about/about_PT.html

http://www.slideshare.net/ProjectTomorrow/ten-things-mobile-learning-speak-up-j-evans-april-2015?related=1

http://www.portical.org/blog/say-hello-to-the-free-agent-learner-that-is-a-typical-middle-school-student/2164.htm

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2015/04/50-must-read-it-blogs-2015

https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/live/2015-may

http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU14StudentReport.pdf

http://dallasmakerspace.org

Quizizz: Game-Based Student Response System

Quizizz is a new multiplayer, game-based student assessment tool that can be used on any device with a web browser. One of the things that sets Quizizz apart is that it is self-paced and quiz questions, answers, and leaderboard all show on the student device.

Getting Started

• To get started, create your FREE account at Quizizz.com. 
• As a teacher, you have the option of choosing a quiz from the online community, or you can create your own quiz. I especially like that hovering over a quiz gives you an at-a-glance preview of the questions, so you can quickly determine if it fits your needs. If you select the quiz, you get a preview list that shows all questions and answer choices.
• If you choose to create your own quiz, the process is simple and fast. Quiz creation happens in split screen. Meaning, as you type your question items (multiple choice or true/false, with or without an attached image), you are also seeing what the question item will look like for students. You also have the option to set the response time limit anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes for each question.

Playing the Game

• Much like Kahoot, students use a code to join your quiz, so there is no need to create student accounts, and there is no app to download. 
• Choose the quiz you want to administer, and select your options such as jumbling question order for students, showing/hiding the leaderboard, show memes after each question, etc. 
• Once you proceed, students navigate to join.quizizz.com and enter the quiz code projected on the screen. Once everyone is in, you’re ready to start the quiz. 
• Quizzes are self-paced. When participants finish the quiz, they have the option to review their answers while they wait on others to finish.
• As a teacher, you can download the student responses in to an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet provides data not only on the class as a whole, but also for individual students. 

(click here for video)

Tips:

• Do you plan certain subjects or lessons for your team? 
• After you create your quiz, share the link with your team members. 
• Want to challenge another class? 
• Share the join code with the other class. Since all questions, answer choices, and leaderboard rankings appear on the student devices, players don't need to be in the same room. 
• Want students to get to the join page faster? 
• When they visit the join page for the first time (on an iOS device), have them add the link to their home screen for easy access next time. 
• Have a feature suggestion for Quizizz? 
• Tweet them @quizizz and let them know! They welcome teacher feedback.