Tech Directors

I met with some other Technology Directors. I got on my soapbox to discuss a variety of subjects. The Technology Directors that I meet with are a great bunch. They are working really hard to provide a positive learning experience for students. Most of them do not have a teaching background. The variety of experiences and perspectives makes for good discussion.

So, what were my soapbox moments? Well, a couple that I remember:

• avoiding shiny things
• pedagogy vs fun

I am passionate about avoiding “shiny things”. I get that we are human and we like shiny things. However, the problem is that these shiny things take away from important and crucial work. Instead of making inroads with skills, opportunities and resources that make a difference for students, we spend time looking at shiny things. It is much more insidious than one thinks.

The shiny things issue is related to the pedagogy vs fun issue. Too often educators get caught up in doing fun things rather than addressing sound pedagogy. Like shiny things, this is much more insidious than first blush.

I was also fascinated by a discussion about classroom set up. One of the participants was adamant about having a “wonderful” classroom set up. The set was one that I’ve seen in a few places. Multiple working “pods” that seat 6-8 students with a monitor at the end of the station. Usually there are 4-6 of these pods around the room. I don’t necessarily think that this is a “bad” set up; I just don’t think that there is anything really special about it. Students can group together in multiple ways. I think that they are far more likely to group around a much smaller screen (Chromebook, iPad, laptop) and collaborate.

We also chatted about trends in education. I may have shared my experience in teaching in an open concept classroom. The point was that trends in education can come and go. I was fascinated by one of the other Technology Director who wants to predict the “STEAM end” (i.e. when the current focus on STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Math) will be replaced by something else.

Wes Fryer has a wonderful write up over at Moving at the Speed of Creativity. He talks about VLAN’s, switch management, fiber, MDM’s and more. These are things that many educators don’t understand but impact them every day.

Phones

I’ve spent a lot of time working on phones. Turns out implementing a new phone system has uncovered lots of potential issues. Some of these are long standing issues that we didn’t really realize were an issue. I’ve been dealing the following acronyms quite a bit:

• PRI,
• ISDN ISUP
• DID’s
• BCA’s

I also worked on installing some new phones. All these are things that I didn’t really expect to be working on ten years ago.

Personal

Good news from my daughter. I always love getting good news from the kids.

Moodle

I did spend a bit of time working in Moodle this week as well. I’ve been working on some professional development. As part of one of those projects, I was implementing the H5P Interactive Video content type and hit a bug. Turning on “Prevent Skipping forward…” means that the “Submit screen” doesn’t pop up. This is a known issue that was “fixed”. It did take a while to figure out the connection between “Prevent Skipping” and the “Submit screen”. I’m still not sure if the update fixed this or not. More testing is needed.

I also worked with Chris Kenniburg on course views in the Fordson Theme. He does a great job of focusing on student learning. I get to walk in and provide feedback on things that he is working on. I frequently reference “The Design of Everyday Things”.

A teacher also reached out to work on a Senior Mock Election project. A bit of updating (we did this last year), and we were all set. This is one of the efficiencies of doing things digitally.

Google

Every week involves Google in some fashion. This week I added some conditional formatting to some of the documentation that we use. The formatting that I added automatically shades a row yellow if we are putting the item on hold and green if we are actually working on it.

Next, I’m going to be adding checkboxes to the document. This will allow us to have a running record of items that are done and yet to be done. Plus, we’ll create two extra worksheets. One will automatically fill with items that are done. The other will fill with items that are, hold onto your hat, not done.

I love to be asked how to do something. Especially, when it is “how do you…in Moodle?”

Recently, I was asked by a teacher how to embed part of a video in Moodle. The teacher wants the students to watch a bit of the middle part of a video on YouTube. Hm. I know how to have the video start at a certain point. I’ve done that frequently.

To start a YouTube video at certain point, click on the Share button. There will be a “Start at” box toward the bottom of dialog box. *As a bonus, if you scroll or watch until the time that you want to start the video, that time will be the default in the “Start at” box.

But, what about only playing a portion of the video? What about starting in the middle and stopping before the end? YouTube does not offer an easy, official way of doing this. However, YouTube is scriptable. The nice people over at Digital Inspiration (written by Amit Agarwal) have a very nice write up with the code that you need.

<div data-video = "VIDEO_ID"  
         data-startseconds = "100"         
         data-endseconds = "200"    
         data-height = "480" 
         data-width = "640" 
         id = "youtube-player">
    </div> 
    
    <script src="https://www.youtube.com/iframe_api"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      function onYouTubeIframeAPIReady() {
        var ctrlq = document.getElementById("youtube-player");
        var player = new YT.Player('youtube-player', {
          height: ctrlq.dataset.height,
          width: ctrlq.dataset.width,
          events: {
            'onReady': function(e) {
              e.target.cueVideoById({ 
                videoId: ctrlq.dataset.video,
                startSeconds: ctrlq.dataset.startseconds,
                endSeconds: ctrlq.dataset.endseconds
              });
            }
          } 
        }); 
      } 
    </script>
    

This code can be used in Moodle quite easily. Using the code above, you can put a video on a page in Moodle and have the only part of the video play. You can also put part of a video in Quiz question. I believe that you can place the video with the time restrictions anywhere that you have a “html” button in the Moodle editor. (I’ve confirmed the page and Quiz options.)

Here’s how to add the video on a page:

• Add a new page using the Add Resource or Activity and then choosing “Page”.
• Give the page a Name.
• In the Contents section, click the “Show/hide advanced buttons” button on the editor to display more editing options.
• Click the HTML button

• Paste the code from above

Now change the code to match what you want.

You really only need to change the top three lines:

• Copy and paste the last bit of the YouTube URL over the “Video_ID” (leave the quotation marks).
• Enter the starting point for the video in seconds (you may need to do a bit of math here).
• Enter the ending point (this is from the beginning of the video – again some math may be needed).

So let’s say that we wanted to focus on a part of the excellent video that Chris Kenniburg did. The whole URL for the video on YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5W1RVU7DKE. We want to focus on the Tuck Everlasting part from 1:50 (one minute and fifty seconds – 110 seconds) until 2:20 (two minutes and twenty seconds- 140 seconds). I want to play these 30 seconds for the students.

<div data-video = “u5W1RVU7DKE”
data-startseconds = “110”
data-endseconds = “140”

Now I could scroll to the bottom and click “Save and display”. If you want to do a bit of additional editing, you could click the “HTML” button again and add text, images, etc. (*Note that in my testing, the video does NOT display in the visual editor, but setting the cursor shows a big spot. I would add my text above or below where the cursor is flashing by hitting return and then typing above.)

If you want to change the size of the video on the page, you could adjust the data height and data width to different numbers. (However, 480 by 640 is a very standard size for good reason).

data-height = “480”
data-width = “640”

That’s it. Copy and paste a chunk of code. Copy and paste part of a URL. Enter the time to start and stop. Done.

If you find this useful, please let me know.

I often advocate for understanding what we are paying for. On another site that I’m involved with, Middle School Matters, I made the mistake of not following up on that. See, a long time ago, I set up Paper.li to create a newsletter. I entered some keywords and sites that we (I share the podcast with the wonderful and talented Mr. Shawn McGirr) generally support. Paper.li would create a “newsletter” and tweet the link out.

This worked pretty well for a long time. I stopped paying tons of attention to it, OK, I paid very little attention to it. Then, someone notified me that the Middle School Matters (MSMatters) twitter account was filled with hashtags that do not support my beliefs at all.

I was horrified. I quickly closed the account. However, I didn’t want to lose everything. Since I know that you have 30 days to resurrect an account, closing seemed the best thing to do.

Next, I looked at my options to delete tweets. Fortunately, I found Cardigan. Cardigan is an open source project (yea!) that allows you to delete tweets. I was able to look for the hashtags that I found offensive and delete those tweets. Cardigan is very clear about what is happening. After looking for specific hashtags, Cardigan clearly identified the tweets. Then, I could delete those tweets. I was informed that it may take some time.

So, now the twitter account is once again available. Paper.li is now dead to me. Lesson learned. Sometimes doing things the easy way is anything but.

The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

When, The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink is another in a great line of books by Mr. Pink. When continues on with the style of Mr. Pink’s previous books. This is a good thing. The book is extremely easy to read and follow.

The underlying theme of the book is that When we do things can have a great impact on what and how we do those things. As humans, we frequently discount the concept of when. Mr. Pink makes some great arguments for understanding the power of when.

The book begins with the Hidden Pattern of Everyday life. We learn about the power of napping (limit to about 29 minutes), resting, and socializing.

We move on to the power of Beginnings, Endings and In Between. Stories are told throughout the book to reinforce the concepts. These stories help cement the argument.

Finally, we get to Synching and Thinking. Here we learn about the power of being part of something larger than ourselves. We also get a peek at the impact of working together.

All in all, a very quick read. I enjoyed the information. The book has reinforced many things that I’ve learned in a variety of previous experiences as well.

The following video was shared with me recently. I think that it is GREAT. It’s all about making a difference. We often don’t realize that we make a difference. I’ll let the video speak for itself.