This week I had the opportunity to attend my first EdCamp at Chapel Hill 7th & 8th Grade Center in Indianapolis. If you’re not familiar with their Google EdCamp, it’s an “unconference” which means that it’s participant driven, with conference attendants being in control of what sessions will be held and who will facilitate those sessions.
For this particular EdCamp, there were three main “strands” that all the sessions fell under: Teachers; Technical Management; and Leadership and Planning.
The day started with attendants telling the conference facilitators about the topics they were interested in learning about to help create the schedule for the day. Over the first 30-45 minutes of the day, the schedule began to take shape, and more and more people arrived with ideas on what they wanted to learn about. Then we were off!
The day started with attendants telling the conference facilitators about the topics they were interested in learning about to help create the schedule for the day. Over the first 30-45 minutes of the day, the schedule began to take shape, and more and more people arrived with ideas on what they wanted to learn about. Then we were off!
The ever-growing schedule for the day
Session 1 | Blended Professional Development
For the first session of the day, the focus was on how to create blended professional development sessions that combined the best of face-to-face time and online learning. The main idea that was reached between teachers, administrators, and tech coordinators, is that professional development generally works best when teachers have a choice not only in the material they're learning but in the delivery of that material as well.
That being said, everyone also agreed that even when online/digital learning is a component of PD, it helps to bookend it with in-person face-to-face sessions as well, just so there is some actual human interaction that takes place and keeps things grounded and connected to the school.
Some of the specific tools that were hit upon, and that people found useful were:
In the end, we discussed the importance of sharing what we're using, what we've learned, and what works, rather than every school district having to reinvent PD all over again. In Indiana, the #INeLearn hashtag is great for that, but it'd be nice if there was something....... bigger picture.
That being said, everyone also agreed that even when online/digital learning is a component of PD, it helps to bookend it with in-person face-to-face sessions as well, just so there is some actual human interaction that takes place and keeps things grounded and connected to the school.
Some of the specific tools that were hit upon, and that people found useful were:
- Blogger: For teacher blog creation and reflection on PD activities and implementation.
- Voxer: Similar to Twitter but you can post voice messages instead of text.
- TodaysMeet: Create a virtual room to discuss, post, and share content.
- Slack: An "Email Killer" that covers all types of staff communication and collaboration.
- Google Classroom: The new(ish) LMS from Google, definitely worth checking out.
In the end, we discussed the importance of sharing what we're using, what we've learned, and what works, rather than every school district having to reinvent PD all over again. In Indiana, the #INeLearn hashtag is great for that, but it'd be nice if there was something....... bigger picture.
Check out Voxer!
Session 2 | Google Apps for Education (GAFE)
For session 2, I wanted to get a little more technical and see some behind the scenes of Wayne Township's setup. They're a pretty enormous district (over 10,000 devices total) and are also 1:1, primarily with Chromebooks. Since my only past experience has been with districts who only have laptop cards, or iPads for teachers, I was curious to see how a district of this size managed such an enormous technology load.
We discussed Google's Education YouTube Channel, scanning for inappropriate language in student emails, and how they managed year-end changes (grouping students by graduation year, not by grade level, and students in 6th grade or under being in a "no email" group, since Google doesn't allow for those under 13 to have their own email address). But for me the most useful portion of this session was the specific tools they discussed which made network administration easier for a Chromebook district with so many devices:
We discussed Google's Education YouTube Channel, scanning for inappropriate language in student emails, and how they managed year-end changes (grouping students by graduation year, not by grade level, and students in 6th grade or under being in a "no email" group, since Google doesn't allow for those under 13 to have their own email address). But for me the most useful portion of this session was the specific tools they discussed which made network administration easier for a Chromebook district with so many devices:
- Google Apps Directory Sync - Automatically add, modify, and delete users.
- Google Apps Password Sync - Keep your users's passwords in sync with AD passwords.
- Dito GAM - Open source command line tool to manage domain & user settings.
- General Audit Tool - Awesome resource for audits and analytics.
Session 3 | Chromebook Rollouts
Session 3 was lead by Amy Borns and focused on the practicalities of rolling out Chromebooks. This session was a mix of IT staff, teachers, administrators, and tech coaches, and there was a ton of great ideas and discussions.
Starting simple, schools have to make sure their infrastructure can actually handle a large number of devices that are going to be constantly online and sucking up bandwidth. In addition, the school's faculty has to have clear and specific policies in place for how they're going to handle every possible incident that can happen with Chromebooks (or any devices) in the classroom. Here are a few ideas:
Other ideas discussed were chargers (people liked the idea of students keeping their chargers at home and having a few extra chargers per classroom), behavior (cracking down on misbehavior quickly and early in the year so that students understood expectations), and professional development (a lot of Indiana schools use Five Star, but PD can be more relatable when it's done in-house).
Some of the specific tools that were discussed were:
And one of my favorites that wasn't brought up is GoGuardian, which lets schools monitor, filter, and provide anti-theft solutions for Chromebooks.
This session was also the source of my favorite quote of the day from Amy, "Kids don't know the technology that you want them to know." Which was aimed at the idea that just because we think students today have grown up with technology and are "digital natives," it doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to actually use any piece of technology that is set in front of them.
Starting simple, schools have to make sure their infrastructure can actually handle a large number of devices that are going to be constantly online and sucking up bandwidth. In addition, the school's faculty has to have clear and specific policies in place for how they're going to handle every possible incident that can happen with Chromebooks (or any devices) in the classroom. Here are a few ideas:
- Milan Community School Corporation Chromebook Policy
- Tomahawk School District Chromebook Usage Contract
Other ideas discussed were chargers (people liked the idea of students keeping their chargers at home and having a few extra chargers per classroom), behavior (cracking down on misbehavior quickly and early in the year so that students understood expectations), and professional development (a lot of Indiana schools use Five Star, but PD can be more relatable when it's done in-house).
Some of the specific tools that were discussed were:
- Common Sense Media: Age appropriate lessons on digital citizenship.
- Hapara: Student management for Chromebooks.
- AmplifiedIT: Offering Google Apps for Education audits for best practice.
- Annotate.Net: Turn your PC or Tablet into a whiteboard.
- Dell P22T Chromebook: Everyone's new favorite Chromebook option.
And one of my favorites that wasn't brought up is GoGuardian, which lets schools monitor, filter, and provide anti-theft solutions for Chromebooks.
This session was also the source of my favorite quote of the day from Amy, "Kids don't know the technology that you want them to know." Which was aimed at the idea that just because we think students today have grown up with technology and are "digital natives," it doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to actually use any piece of technology that is set in front of them.
The Dell P22T Courtesy of CNET
Session 4 | Google Professional Development
The final session of the day was led by the wonderfully enjoyable David Bagwell. It was essentially an immense sharing of useful links, resources, activities, and apps. So, let's just get down to it:
Google Doc containing a TON of links and resources for all sorts of activities.
Google Communities: Great for collaborative PD sessions.
Flippity: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into flipcards, a quiz show, or other things!
Draft Back: Watch the creation process of a student's essay.
Monica Martinez: A great collection of resources for EVERYTHING Google.
Google Doc containing a TON of links and resources for all sorts of activities.
Google Communities: Great for collaborative PD sessions.
Flippity: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into flipcards, a quiz show, or other things!
Draft Back: Watch the creation process of a student's essay.
Monica Martinez: A great collection of resources for EVERYTHING Google.
Use Flippity to turn Google Sheets into basically anything
Odds & Ends
Finally, in addition to the sessions I attended and a TON of others, Wayne Township also had an amazing Makerspace set up in their media center with a MakerBot, LittleBits, lessons on 3D photography, and much, much more. And if that wasn't enough they even provided games of cornholes in the cafeteria for those who needed a break from all the tech.
It was a wonderful day and I cannot thank Wayne Township, Pete Just, and the rest of the district's tech team for putting on such a wonderful conference.
It was a wonderful day and I cannot thank Wayne Township, Pete Just, and the rest of the district's tech team for putting on such a wonderful conference.
LittleBits!
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