Category: Thoughts (Page 11 of 18)

ISTE 2018 & Open Source

August 18, 2018 / Troy / 1 Comment

I’ve been ruminating about ISTE 2018. I’ve held off on posting this for a while. Now it’s time.

When I went to ISTE 2018 this year, I had a couple of goals. One goal was to look at Sketchnoting (which I’ve written about). Another goal that I had was to check out some of the Open Source opportunities that exist in education.

Now, I know that ISTE is a conference largely driven by the Sponsors and Vendors. We need sponsors and vendors in education. Districts can’t afford to only be open source. Many districts don’t have the technical background to implement very much open source at all. That is something that I was hoping that ISTE 2018 would be able to help address.

Keep in mind the Vision of ISTE:

Our Vision

ISTE’s vision is that all educators are empowered to harness technology to accelerate innovation in teaching and learning, and inspire learners to reach their greatest potential.

For me, empowering all educators involves open source options as well as the paid, proprietary ones.

Now I was able to attend one (yes, one) session that was an open source session. The session was quite good with lots of resources. However, I would like to see more. Much more.

A Proposal

I would like to see a track or least notation of open source presentations. I little bit of support and acknowledgement could go a long way. There are some open source alternatives that could help empower all educators and students.

This would not be the end of the Sponsors and Vendors. They would still have a role. They would probably have an even bigger role. Vendors could tout how much better and easier to use their product is. They could solve issues and provide opportunities that open source just wouldn’t.

There is currently a push to incorporate OER (Open Education Resources) into curriculum. This has taken a long time. It still has a long way to go. But, at least that push has started.

ISTE has a lot of educational leaders attending. (This is always interesting to me. I always expect more teachers to be in attendance. There seem to be a lot of Technology Directors/Coordinators and Technology Coaches in attendance). These groups should be leading the way for knowing our options. Not just the “shiny” ones, but all of them.

I would like to throw down the gauntlet to the wonderful ISTE leaders to use their influence and power to make open source truly part of the educational process. This will truly help EMPOWER all educators.

ISTE 2018

August 8, 2018 / Troy / 1 Comment

ISTE 2018 is now in the books. I’ve had some time to process the information and the experience.

ISTE is always overwhelming. There is a lot going on. There are thousands and thousands of people. (I know that they said they had the highest attendance ever, but I never heard how many). According to what I heard, there were over 18,000 people.

I didn’t feel as though I saw everything. There are poster sessions, presentations, and meetings that I would’ve liked to see but missed. This has always been the case. There is simply too much going on.

However, I always have a perspective of what I want to get out of the conference. For me, this year was about not getting caught up in the “shiny things”, but trying to focus on substantive topics, ideas and learning. I still believe that we get way too caught up in focusing on shiny things.

Observation 1

MicroSoft really, really, really wants back in on education. Chromebooks have eaten their lunch. MicroSoft took some really specific actions. They bought Flipgrid and made it “free” (there is an event set for August 1st which should provide more information (i.e. will an account be necessary? will students need an Office 365 account to use it?). Secondly, MicroSoft had a really big area in the vendor showroom. MicroSoft also has released a small tablet (the MicroSoft Surface Go), for the education market.

MicroSoft also had vending machines that gave out some swag provided that you tweeted with a given hashtag.

Observation 2

There were a great many more people creating Sketchnotes than I’ve ever seen. Sketchnotes are graphical notes. I went to a couple of sessions at a previous ISTE to learn about Sketchnotes. I also went to a couple of sessions specifically to learn and practice how to do Sketchnoting. However, even at sessions that had absolutely nothing to do with Sketchnoting, there were several people taking notes via Sketchnoting.

I’m still processing how this plays out in classrooms. I think that for many students, this could be a wonderful tool/strategy. It is clearly not a silver bullet that will fix everything, but the brain research seems pretty solidly behind this. Creating graphical notes seems to help the brain truly remember and understand the material. Which tools and how remains to be seen. iPads seem to have an advantage over Chromebooks for this task. However, iPads in schools come with many other issues.

Did you go to ISTE2018? What are your observations?

Good with Tech

June 3, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

This phrase seems to be coming up a lot these days.

Kids are all “good with tech”.
The new teachers are all “good with tech”.
Principal so and so is “good with tech”.

All are very well meaning. But what does “good with tech” really mean?

Let’s start with kids. Are all kids “good with tech”. No. (All kids aren’t good just about anything). Are some kids “good with tech”. Absolutely. But let’s define what “good with tech” means.

Mostly kids aren’t afraid to push buttons. They do “stuff” on technology items. Some of them have worked extremely hard and put in lots of time to understand varies technologies or skills. This background can be very advantageous and useful. However, this doesn’t make all kids “good with tech”.

So, how about those recent college graduates? Certainly, they must all be “good with tech”. Recent college grads grew up completely within the time frame of readily available technology. (We’re going to partially ignore those non-traditional college grads who had gaps between high school completion and finishing college). After all, these college grads grew up after the Internet was widely available. They don’t know of a time when computers were NOT readily available. They grew up with the iPhone. They grew up with the Internet already available and moving into every home. Thus, they do have a grasp of what technology can do.

How about Principal “so and so”? Well, just like above, Principal “so and so” may not be afraid of pushing buttons. Principal “so and so” may use more technology than his/her/they peers.

And one could argue that all of these nice folks similarly lack a fear of pushing buttons. These things do not, however, make one “good with tech”.

To be perfectly honest, we are still figuring out tech. We know what a lot of the research says. We know that technology is not a magic savior by itself in its current form.

There is one of the pillars of “good with tech” for me. To be “good with tech”, one should have a firm grasp of what tech can and can not do. One should intimately understand many of the basics of technology. To be “good with tech” means that one doesn’t use the phrase “can’t you just…” when talking about technology. To be “good with tech” means understanding some of the unintended consequences. To be “good with tech” means considering how something is used and implemented. To be “good with tech” means that one considers whether the problem is best solved by technology or not. To be “good with tech” means to not try to rely on technology solve problems that are best solved by humans.

Are you “good with tech”?

#GoOpen

May 8, 2018 / Troy

Michigan, like several other states, is adopting the #GoOpen movement. Michigan is planning on rolling out their #GoOpen site in June of 2018.
I think that this is great news. I’ve long been an open source advocate. I believe that you are investing in yourself or investing in someone else. Teachers have long created a wide variety of materials. Many of these excellent materials could be shared and utilized across the state (nation, world).

Challenge

Quite frankly, I’d like to call on Michigan to really #GoOpen. Let’s have school districts across Michigan utilize open source and share those resources. Let’s see Michigan start developing (or coordinating the sharing from districts) of a wide variety of open source projects.
Most school districts have similar concerns. We have similar needs. Let’s start with some curriculum resources. Michigan is doing that with the development of Michigan #GoOpen hub on OER Commons (or see OER Commons).

Kudos

This is a great start (at least it will be when unveiled in June of 2018). But why stop there? Why not work with great educators around the state (and maybe even some college students who are studying programming at some of our fine colleges) to develop resources for teachers? For example, many students learning programming need a real world project to help them learn and refine their skills. Why not take some of the open source projects and specifically adapt them for educational use in Michigan?
Michigan has adopted the Ed-Fi platform for sharing information. According to what I’ve been told, this has resulted in improvements and sharing between Michigan and at least one other state.
Michigan has also developed some textbooks that are OER. The Michigan Open Book Project is great. This project has created some good social studies materials.
However, Michigan chose not to use open source software to provide professional development (instead going with a vendor who gave them a “great deal” for a couple of years – a vendor that has a history of losing money to gain customers).
Anyone who reads this knows that I’m a big supporter of Moodle. It’s open source, free and can be pretty and effective.
However, there really are a lot more open source options that Michigan could lead the way on implementing.

Options

Here is a quick list of open source software that I’ve used:

Moodle– powerful, efficient, pretty learning management system.
WordPress – powers about 30% of the web. Give every teacher the power of a blog.
Anki – powerful, intelligent flashcards. A great tool that supports retrieval practice (spaced retrieval).
LimeSurvey – survey software
Scribus – desktop publishing. Schools need to do a variety of desktop publishing. Some of these revolve around security.
Linux – operating system. Lots of tools.
OpenBoard – Interactive whiteboard software. Can be used with a variety of interactive projectors/boards.
H5P – creates interactive tools to use within Moodle.
GIMP – Image manipulation. This is powerful, but training is important.
Mahara – ePortfolio solution. We have ours integrate with Moodle for a wonderful user experience for students. Imagine students being able to create portfolios and “take them with them”.
Pressbooks – create books that can be shared and repuposed.
Hypothes.is– annotate the web. Also bookmark and share the web.
VUE – mindmapping and non-linear presentation software.
Blender – 3D creation suite. Give students the power to create.
OpenShot Video Editor – video editor.
Minetest – game creation engine (developed in conjunction with MineCraft).

Potential Projects

Just about every school district will have some needs that open source software can help address. Things like HelpDesk software and approval processes. Michigan could lead the way in coordinating options for schools. This could be high leverage, low cost for Michigan.

Final Thoughts

I’m sure that I’ve missed some software that I use frequently. Not every school district would want to implement that same options. Different schools have different needs. However, our needs are close enough that opening up these options and creating these resources could open up a great wealth of money for schools to use in other ways.
Come on Michigan, Let’s Truly #GoOpen!

Padlet

April 15, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

Padlet has apparently changed their plans. According to Richard Byrne, Padlet is now limiting free tier users to three boards. Now, I’m not a really big Padlet user. Ever since I a teacher contact me because the kids were swearing on her Padlet and she wanted to know who did it (no way to tell as it is anonymous), I’ve not been really big on it. For what the teacher was doing (short book reviews), Moodle worked so much better (and there was accountability for the students).

But I do understand that some like the easy of use and the visual presentation of Padlet. I get that. I also know that ultimately things are not free. Padlet has expenses. They have bills to pay. It is important to know how sites are paying their costs. Padlet has a paid tier. Obviously, they need “enough” people on the paid tier to pay for the free stuff.

Padlet’s paid plans are $8.95/ month or $99/ year. The paid plans will give you unlimited Padlet walls in your account. It’s also worth noting that the free plan will display advertising.

I guess I have a tough time seeing why people are upset. Padlet seems to be doing the “right” thing, each user gets three Boards added to their total. Padlet isn’t taking anything away from users. They are making a business decision. Remember, you are always investing in someone else or investing in yourself.

For me, I’ll continue to utilize Moodle. Moodle provides a safe, attractive place of students to collaborate. The skills that I’ve learned in using Moodle continue to serve me well. My investment in me is a good long term investment.

For collaborating with the rest of the world, I’ll keep on using this blog.

Passion

March 24, 2018 / Troy / 1 Comment

I love to listen to people who are passionate. Elizabeth Stanny is obviously one of those people. I don’t know Dr. Stanny at all. However, she has a blog post (Why SSU should continue with Moodle), that is filled with passion.

She also makes some really great points:

Why switch from an open source learning management system to a proprietary one while switching from proprietary textbooks to open source textbooks?
Why spend time evaluating an alternative to Moodle when 80% of the faculty are satisfied with it?
Why redo connections (that may not be able to be redone) that work?
What are the attributes of a “next-generation” Learning Management System?

She makes some excellent and passionate points. She has done her homework on Canvas. Part of that homework was reviewing some of Canvas’ financial reports. Part of that homework was reviewing a presentation to Investors (you know the people that give Canvas money).

A few excerpts, (please do go read her post):

Canvas executives have no experience in the educational market, but lots of experience marketing.
Concern about stricter privacy laws in the EU relative to the US
For every $1 of revenue, there are 63¢ of Sales and Marketing expense
Large losses now for future profit
Only Canvas can host

All great points. I’ve talked about how you are either investing in yourself or investing in someone else. With Canvas, it is pretty clear that you are investing in Canvas and that bill will come due someday.

So, I did say that Dr. Stanny was passionate. She uses Moodle in conjunction with r-exams. She has obviously invested quite a bit in this workflow. So much so, that she states

If SSU continues with Moodle, I will offer free training and support to anyone that wants to learn how to use r-exams. (emphasis mine).

It is also noteworthy that Canvas is not even an option for r-exams output.

All in all, an excellent write up from a passionate fellow Moodler. Go give it a read.

3 Ways to Stop Blended Learning

February 20, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

The wonderful Mr. Chris Kenniburg has authored a great post called Top 3 Ways to Stop Blended Learning. I love his take on this. This is done firmly with tongue in cheek.

His Top 3 ways:

Blame the Current LMS for Lack of Adoption with Staff
Technology Makes Teaching and Learning Easy
Change…Because What You Have Isn’t Working

Plus, a Bonus Tip:

Let Each Teacher Decide What Tool to Use

Seriously, go check out the article, then come back. I’ll wait.

Next, he provide three ways to help break the cycle and actually develop technology tools and skills that make a difference with real teachers and students.

Keep It Simple
Be Consistent
Do the Work

Now, I was lucky enough to have some discussions with Chris about the post. He drafted the post and shared an early version with me. He did a great job with the post. It is right on and well worth a read.

I especially love the parts about investing in yourself. It is crucial that educators do the work to learn and implement effective methods of teaching and learning.

Seriously, go read the article.

Moodle Lesson Plans

January 24, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’ve been meaning to develop and post some Moodle Lesson Plans for a while now. I’ve decided that it is time to stop meaning and start posting. So, I’ve posted a couple (Say “Hi” in Moodle and Picture to Story. Say “Hi” in Moodle is a way for students to introduce themselves to the class. Picture to Story is a creative writing assignment.

I would really appreciate feedback on the posts, the Master Moodle Site, and the concept. If you find it useful, please let me know. Have an idea to make it better, let me know. A particular lesson that you would like to see implemented in Moodle, let me know.

Aw shucks

January 23, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

I received a “shout out” on Twitter from the EduPaths folks.

Check out this reflection from @Smhearty about the @EduPathsMDE MOOC! http://troypatterson.me/edupaths-mooc-2017-final-project/ … Are you looking at ed cert renewal in June? A new MOOC starts January 29 for 20+SCECHs. Register here – https://www.smore.com/x5qz1 @MichiganASCD@MEMSPA@MEMSPAchat@MAISA_ISDs

Glad to have been part of the project.

If you are a Michigan teacher looking to earn SCECH’s for FREE, check out the course.

EdTech Trends – Part 4

January 15, 2018 / Troy / 0 Comments

Let’s finish up our look at the EdTech Trends of 2017. In previous posts, I’ve looked rising trends and the waning trends. Now, let’s review the “just emerging” trends. As previously noted, I

took note of:

“Seamlessness” in digital instruction
Moving beyond teacher skill development

Seamlessness

This is where we’ve been heading for a while. This is actually very good news. Digital tools and resources are becoming just tools and resources. We have finally hit a point where technology is starting, just starting, to become just part of the process.

We certainly aren’t there yet, but we are heading toward a time when using technology will be nothing special. Technology will just be a “thing” that you pick up and put down as needed.

Teacher Skill Development

I’m not so sure about this one quite yet. Teachers certainly need to develop skills (heck, we all do). From what I’m reading around the web, teachers are not quite at the “moving beyond teacher skill development”. If the teachers don’t have the appropriate skill, they will not implement new things in the classroom. We’ve seen continued growth in using technology, but we still have a long way to go. Look around at the headlines:

1001 Tech tools that you need to implement in your classroom
101 Tech tools that you should master
67 Tech tools for writing

OK, I made these up, but you’ve probably seen many just like them.

So, I think we’ve got quite a ways to go on this one yet. I hope that I’m wrong and that we will see the need to develop teacher skill be unnecessary soon.