Category Archives: Technology

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Collaborative Writing Via Google Docs and Skype

Today we experienced the best collaborative writing experience I’ve ever been part of. Lisa Parisi and Christine Southard’s 5th grade class in New York is involved with my class and a group of other teachers around the country in a writing project using the book “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.” I blogged about it the other day. Lisa’s class and mine are paired up for this project and today we had our classes collaborating in two innovative ways.


Students discussing their shared story while co-editing it in real time via Google Docs

The students are collaboratively writing stories in groups of 3 or 4 using Google Docs. Today they logged into their shared Google Docs so they could write and discuss the stories they have been brainstorming at the same time. What made this truly transformative was we also set-up computers in our rooms with web cams and had the students working on the same stories discussing characters and setting and plot and everything else involved in their stories over video-Skype, while at the same time editing together via Google Docs. So they were discussing and watching each other edit and add content while seeing and talking to each other at the same time.


Google Doc – students used different colors to keep track of whose work was whose.

I was being observed by a mentor teacher and her 3 mentees during this time … they were blown away by what was happening. Read Lisa’s post to learn about her experience with her principal.


Students discussing comments being left by their writing partners 2,500 miles away.

We are hoping to recreate this experience and maybe even have more computers to Skype with so conversations can continue.


Afterwards I had my students blog about the experience. We used these questions to drive our thinking. Note the word bank we were developing at the bottom.

Learning is messy!

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Integration Help

I received the following email today (edited very slightly and name withheld). I will answer the best I can, but I sure don’t have all the answers. Anyone willing to share their ideas here?

“I am a fifth grade teacher who really wants to integrate technology but is having a difficult time of it.  There are a lack of resources, administrative support, and my own lack of knowledge.  That being said, I feel knowledgeable about technology, just not how to effectively integrate it into lessons.  I was wondering if you would be willing to give me some pointers on how to add it to lessons.  I am specifically interested in furthering my use of blogs, wikis, and podcasts.”

Please go at it in comments with ideas and resources.

Learning is messy!

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NEA Magazine Article: “The Technology Divide”

The National Education Association magazine “neatoday” published an article today (or at least that’s when I got my copy) The Technology Divide. It includes a piece about my classroom and is also available online. It includes several photos of my students with their laptops (in the print version) in the snow, in the high desert – sagebrush and rabbit brush poking through the snow. I’ve only read part of it so far, but it seems like an informative article.

Learning is messy!

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Trying Out A New Toy

Today I picked up a wireless modem card and service. I’m using it for the first time to make this post. I’m excited about the possibilities this provides. Now I can be online from anywhere I can get cell service … and it is respectably fast. Imagine being able to Skype or Ustream field trips and other experiences even when you are away from your network. And the best part is … someone else is paying for it for a year!!! How cool is that!

I wonder if any other teachers have used a set-up like this to connect remotely? I think I’m going to have a great time thinking up powerful ways to use this as a learning tool.

Learning is messy!

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Report Calls for Ed. Tech. Training

Here’s an study reported about in Education Week that might interest you:

“If teachers around the world do not take part in more professional-development training in information and communication technologies, or ICT, they will continue to lack the skills necessary to integrate technology into the classroom and improve student learning, concludes a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization .”

So says a new report by UNESCO, the Paris-based body of the United Nations that promotes international cooperation in education, science, and culture.

According to the article in Education Week:

“UNESCO’S goal in producing the report is to establish a basic set of skills and qualifications that educators must acquire and to encourage countries to provide professional development to help them develop those skills.”


As we all know this report will make the difference and finally put us on the road to quality training for teachers in technology … hey I can dream!

Learning is messy!

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8 Years Old … How Old Is That In Tech Years?

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I realized today that the Apple iBooks my students use turned 8 years old in the last month. I’m amazed by this in that we blog and Flickr and make wiki pages and more with them and they just keep going … on the flip side when they just won’t do it anymore I have NOTHING to take their place. I’ll be back to 30 minutes a week in the computer lab and begging the other laptops we have that are under demand by other classes.

I know … at least I have that when others have much less … but it will be hard to step back. Even having old slower computers for each student is powerful.

Learning is messy

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Our Blog Video – How We Blog and Why, Is In Production

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Besides video-Skyping today with new friends in Florida we started doing the real work of making a video about how we blog. Last Friday we started brainstorming all the steps we go through and then breaking it down into scenes. Next we assigned each group a different part of our blogging procedure to video. Students are designing how they will “tell their part of the story” and then storyboarding and writing the narration. Everyone has to take part in the group … even out 2 non-english speakers will do some of the narration in english with help and support from their groups.

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As usual the biggest part of their grade is based on how they work in their group. From my experience when that is the main focus of their grade the most learning takes place. Why? Because when students cooperate and include everyone, everyone is involved in what they do and the thinking that goes into it. I always tell them that I might ask anyone in their group what they are doing and why … and they better be able to tell me … that forces them to stop and explain what they are doing and thinking and why they are doing it to each group member and include them. Students get to hear ALL the thinking of what is going into their project … and that is key. We even role play doing that. Kids feel good about being an involved part of the group AND being one of the people that sees to it that everyone understands. When it is humming along with that attitude going in the room – it reminds you why you teach.

My students were simply awesome today. They have to design their scene, storyboard it, write the dialog, practice the speaking parts, practice how they will show that on tape, and then when they are ready show what they are planning to the whole class for critique. We haven’t gotten to the “showing” part yet, but Wednesday some groups, maybe most, will be ready.

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Last year when we made the “Inclusion” video we followed many of the same steps but I probably shot half the video and did all the editing with input from the class (that was their first experience with video and they were 4th graders). We started learning more about editing with iMovie today using the famous “Dog Wash” tutorial that used to come with iMovie. The student laptops are so old they will only run iMovie2, but it works and all their almost 8 year old iBooks have Firewire so this should be fun. We plan on having each group shoot all their own video, edit it, do the voiceover narration and then run it back to video and probably my laptop for a final assemblage of all the scenes into a final product. Truly “MESSY” learning at its best.

Learning is messy!

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More Skype Connections

Today we video-Skyped with Paul Schwan’s fifth graders in Florida. Wes Fryer suggested we touch base with each other to work on some future projects … and today was the day. Dealing with the 3 hour time difference (or any time difference) is always part of the fun.

On a side note, last year when my class started Skyping here and there, we had to learn about time differences … “What do you mean its a different time there? . It became a teachable moment. We pulled up a sunlit earth map (follow the link then click on View Equirectangular Chart) that shows where the earth is light and dark at any given moment. We also shined our projector (the Sun) on our earth globe so they could see how it works that way (my ActivBoard comes in handy sometimes in ways I don’t think they envisioned). The upshot is … now they get it.

Paul and I connected just before his kids were going to recess, and just before my students came in to start the day. When a few of his kids heard me say that, they commented that we started our day kind of late (since they had already eaten lunch) Don’t worry … they’ll get it Paul! (see above for ideas)
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We introduced our classes to each other … discussed where we were and the make-up of our classes … and then just shared the kinds of things we were both working on and answered a few questions. At one point I had my kids raise their hands if they speak a language other than English and all but 3 hands went up. Paul’s kids raised their hands if they had been to a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral and hands went up all over his room. Later this year we are planning to share some of our learning this way with each others’ classes.

This was a new experience for Paul’s class, and you could tell by their reaction. What I think is really neat about the whole thing is that my class has done this enough now that its just something we do. Sometimes we go to the library or go online or go on a field trip or work on our reading or math … and sometimes we talk to other students 2500 miles away for free. Its just what we do.

UPDATE: Paul’s class brainstormed this great Venn diagram of our Skype conversation.
Learning is messy!

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Animal Ark “Design An Animal” Video Available

Here in the Reno, Nevada, area have a fantastic resource for studying animals, namely Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary. I learned about Animal Ark in 1993 when I first taught in a classroom here. I had the good fortune of having a student in my class whose parents train big cats for the movies. They had donated some lions to Animal Ark, and at their suggestion I made my first of many visits and field trips to this fantastic facility.

Last year we took a field trip there as part of our study of animals and specifically animal adaptations. We took photos which you can see on our class Flickr page.

Years ago when I was teaching a 4-5-6 Image class we were returning from a trip to Animal Ark when a student suggested we visit their web page. I replied that they didn’t have a web page … and the students decided we should make one for them … which we did. It won several awards, but it died 2 years ago of neglect … and the fact that Animal Ark has long since developed their own web site. Then wikis came along and so we made an interactive wiki web site for them.

Each group of 3 or 4 students in my 4th grade class last year made three wiki pages (over 20 total pages) about the kinds of animals at Animal Ark. They searched the web for the best sites they could find about the animals they were assigned, looking specifically for information about adaptations, how they obtained food and so on … all per our science standards. They also had to pick sites that were easy to read for students their age and they had to rank them from what they felt was the very best site they found to the next best … you get the idea.

Once that was done we used our site ourselves in the way it was actually intended. We used the sites to learn about animal adaptations and survival and then had to design an animal to live in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada where we live. Students had to design each part of their animal from eyes to feet or wings or nose to survive the climate and conditions here. We shot video of the process – and now it is finally posted and linked from the wiki page.
Check out the wiki page project and the video.

Learning is messy!

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Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The K12 Online Conference Is Coming!


Click on the image above to get a page size printable flyer to put up at your school or place of employment. Also note the conference web site:
http://www.k12onlineconference.org/ As the flyer states … the conference is FREE, Flexible (participate when you have the time) and Forward Thinking. As a bonus you can check out my keynote on Obstacles to Opportunities and see if I manage to pull it off or not. I’ve been planning and writing feverishly whenever I get time … but I have a ways to go. PASS THE WORD!!!

Conferencing is messy!

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