Changing the World Part 2...

With the posting of this last blog for this series I must say I have a feeling of true accomplishment. When I first set out two months ago to find one answer to a teacher’s question for an interactive whiteboard solution, I never imagined I would be where I am now. It is because of that journey starting with one question that I reached the point I am at now where I have found answers to a host of questions. And the funny thing is I never intended to answer more than that one question.

In the coming weeks I plan on looking at more apps and websites on the market for teacher interaction. I fully intend to continue this journey as far as it takes me. So without further ado, my final blog is here. This is the most comprehensive and detailed display (In the form of Youtube videos, including the comments section of each video which has additional information and links for help so check that area out as well while watching.)of supplemental resources I have created thus far. I am excited to be at the point where I am now. The main support structure of what I want to accomplish will be completed with this last blog on Technology in the Classroom with Dynamic Web Environments. Good times, good times indeed!

The first video I have below shows anyone how to quickly set up your Google Chrome browser as an Interactive learning environment. You do this using the FVD Speed Dial Extension that you would download in the Chrome Webstore.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fvd-speed-dial-3d-wall-sy/llaficoajjainaijghjlofdfmbjpebpa

Once this Extension is installed you can add specific websites and apps as you see fit. Then using the website tabs (Found in the middle of the browser) or the apps found on the left side of the page in a column, you can set up a highly dynamic web environment that essentially could have ALL of your lesson resources in one interface.

This allows the teacher full interaction and mobility depending on their available technology. With an interactive whiteboard of any type the teacher can remain in the front of the room and engage their students on a level they may not have been able to before using this configuration.

Or a teacher could use an IPad/IPhone or Android device to take over the desktop of their computer and interact with the Chrome browser in real time while moving through the room and collaborating with their students on the fly.

Using these solutions, and the power of the Chrome Webstore (Keep in mind that Google Play is ALSO available on the Chrome Browser so essentially ANY app you have already purchased for your phone or touchpad for an android device can be accessed in this way as well. This is just another way of MANY to engage your students in ways that were never available until now.

The next video below shows how easy it is to set up an Edmodo account and use all of the basic features available for student and teacher collaboration. There are five main modes of communication; Note, Alert, Assignment, Quiz, and Poll. Using these communication tools a teacher can collaborate not only with their students on anything from assignments to quizzes, but they can also collaborate with other teachers in their network  (This could be as close as grade level, then school, then district, then state, so on and so forth.) and share such resources with one another in real time.

www.edmodo.com

Finally, the best part of this is the fact that the teachers have all sorts of resources available to them to use to help enhance their learning management system. They have the calendar, alerts to send text messages to parents or students, and a grade book to monitor and keep a tally of their students’ progress through assignments, quizzes, and polls.

There are other Learning Management Systems out there that are similar to this one but Edmodo has seemed very intuitive and user-friendly to me. Not to mention it is free.

Other available LMS solutions are below for you to consider. Any of these will work. And the ones I have listed are free.

www.moodle.com

www.mybigcampus.com

www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/openclass/ (Open Class is an LMS that requires your entire district to embrace it. While the above links such as mybigcampus, moodle; and even Edmodo you do not have to have your entire school district sign up to experience the magic of the LMS. While this is one disadvantage to using Open Class, the big factor here is that several districts across the US are embracing this new LMS option because it is absolutely free, and it is backed by both Pearson AND Google, two massive powerhouses for the education field.

Either way you look at this, all of these options can only mean one thing for our teachers, innovation and revolution in the classroom. By breaking down the barriers that the four walls of a school create, we can reach students in ways we never could before.

My final video below shows how to create a very basic, streamlined website using Google Sites. With just a few minutes of your time, and your online resources available, you can link them all in one easy to access website interface that you can tailor to your own taste and style. You can make it as basic OR complex as you like depending on the time you have available. I show how easy it is to create a quick intuitive/ interactive website that can be up and running in minutes thus optimizing the power of your technology and taking one step closer to answering the question of how to implement common core into your current lesson plans.

I wanted to add the links to the template page that shows where I found my simple template.

https://sites.google.com/site/arctemplates/templates

And this final link is directly to the website template I used in this video.

https://sites.google.com/site/templates2point0/

I want to thank everyone for your time put into reading all of my blogs and videos during the course of this series. Please stay tuned and I will let you know when I begin the next sequence I partake in. I welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have as well.

Aaron

Changing the World Part 1...

How do we change the world?

We do it one classroom at a time.

We do it through dynamic teaching, reaching students on a level that they understand, that they already have mastered. Teachers attempt to reach their senses of hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling so that they can etch the lessons into their minds.  This is an art that cannot be “taught” but rather discovered. There are those instructors around us, and you know the kind I write about, that are so amazing at what they do, so innovative, that they change the very dimension of teaching. By their very nature, they flip the classroom upside down and those students that would be discipline issues for another teacher are attentive and adherent learners in their apt hands.

I speak of the teachers who look at our students and don’t just see them for WHO they are, but for WHAT they can be. They see little Johnny as a struggling fifth grader, but on the other end of the pendulum they see him as a scientist who may find a cure for cancer. They look at the worst in a child and see the best.  They take water and turn it to wine so to speak. They see the “half-full” arguments and say the glass is actually only “half-empty”.

My first and second grade teacher was this way. She managed to see me for my potential and not for the tangled mess I really was at the time. With her guidance and faith in me, I was able to learn in ways I never fathomed. To this day I still find myself doing touch math for a tip at a restaurant and assessing the value of need versus want before I decide to buy something. These lessons may have been taught to me a lifetime ago, but I still apply them on a daily basis. Mrs. O'Hara will always have a special place in my heart because she was one of the few teachers in my journey that showed me, quite frankly, at the start of my learning experience, that I could learn in ways that I would never forget once I applied them.

For my story, I know there are thousands more out there. I know that some of you reading my words even now contemplate back to a time when you had a teacher share with you and entrust in you, a lesson or series of lessons you have never forgotten. It is because of their advancement of you and that you are the person that you are today. It is because of their guidance, support, and nurturing love that we have seen the success of our own abilities take flight and soar higher than anyone could imagine. 

The joys of this are that there were plenty of teachers in my life I will NEVER forget. It wasn't just one or two teachers that molded, defined, and helped identify the man I am today. No, it was a collective effort, across years of my existence, from kindergarten well into college. I had several teachers I will never forget; the ones who taught me that no matter what obstacles life throws at me, no matter what hardships may come, never give up and always stay true to myself.

So looking at my words now you understand that innovation in the classroom starts with the teacher.  Couple that with the way our students learn in today’s environment versus thirty years ago, and you  see a landscape totally different. While our world of k-12 back then was made up of crayons and markers, it is now comprised of a digital nature. It is a place where 1 and 0 collide in holy matrimony. It transcends any physical boundaries we could ever set for it and has made the classroom transform from a platform of learning inside the 4 walls of a specific place, to a vast digital landscape riddled with possibilities. It has redefined the roll of the teacher in ways never before expressed, and because of this has allowed, for the FIRST Time, the teacher to decide their own fate.

Teachers across the globe are using this digital landscape to create a classroom environment they never could have before. They have invented a learning model based on student interaction anytime, day or night, Christmas Eve, or at the Thanksgiving table. All the walls and boundaries that once held a teacher’s knowledge and skills at bay from their students, has now been unleashed in ways never before seen.  Using websites like Edmodo, Moodle, and even Pearson Open Class, teachers can have collaboration with their students day and night, vacation or not, holiday or furlough. The idea is simple. Give the students the tools to succeed at all moments, NOT just the moments inside the classroom.  And these tools are showing an increase in student interaction across the boards at least where I am at.

Several surrounding counties have put millions of dollars in technology implementation (Teach 21 Initiatives and other such programs) into the classroom.  In 2011, Pickens County Schools surpassed both the state average and all of our neighboring counties in standardized test scores in the realm of End of Course Testing for 9^th thru 12^th grade. Just this year we have begun to receive funding (SPLOST) for new technologies in ways that other counties have had for several years. Yet we have continued to innovate and increase test scores in all subject areas.

This says a lot about the teachers we have here in Jasper. I have to say this and be very firm on this, even before the sweeping changes that came in 2010; we were an amazing school system. The fiscal year ending in 2011 showed one of the greatest strides in testing scores, achievements, drop out decreases, and overall improvements in a myriad of areas.

It continues to be my firm belief that we are a city on a mountain top. Our teachers dot this city in bright lights, illuminating an entire landscape with their qualities, with their morals, and their values. We see their inspiration in a community of volunteers during the most difficult times, we see a host of social events they are a part of, intertwined with our business leaders, our church leaders, our political leaders. We see a place where true magic has happened for years and it is because of a group of dedicated teachers and the support structure of the great community they call their own.

I always have believed in our teachers. Do I believe that every single one of these teachers is motivated and dedicated as our trend-setters? No, of course not; but that doesn't make it any less credible. My credence comes from the teachers I never expected to share their passion with me in the ways they have. Teachers who have spent their entire careers making a difference in their students’ lives. I had a teacher just last week tell me if I can reach just one student and make a difference in their life then it’s worth it to me. The tears are worth it to me. The pain is worth it to me. That alone is enough to fuel me to my last dying breath with what little I do right now.

In writing this blog, I’m pouring out my words in the best way I know how I can. I only hope it reaches the right person, I can only pray that what I am sharing now will make a difference. Even if it is in the life on just ONE teacher, then that to me is worth it. It means that what I am doing is needed and is justified and not just a filler for the internet. To the naysayers I can’t explain why. So many ask me why? Why do I give so much when I am not even considered an employee of the system I support? Why do I push so hard when in the end when all that will happen is politics and people pushing in the end? Why do that to myself? To that I say one word… Hope. I hope for something greater than me, something greater than my post, something greater than I could ever be.

I hope for a change that no one can stop. I hope that what I am doing now will birth a true enlightenment, an innovation beyond basic explanation, and through it see our teachers take flight and soar into the heavens. See them go to places they have yet to experience, and only ever dreamed of going. To take the sands of time and scatter them across the heavens in a glittery cosmic collision of innovation none of us can stop.

This past school year I was able to personally be a part of something truly innovative. For the first time we had two students graduate from our Pickens Mountain Education Charter High School (An evening high school that uses a state-of-the-art online interface that allows the students to learn at their own pace with certified teachers on hand to answer any questions they may have during their learning process.) that were inmates at our local Pickens County Jail. I worked closely with our administrators of PMEC and this local Jail, with the help of our Sheriff Donnie Craig, to make this option a possibility. After a great deal of planning and execution we were able to set up a reliable hard-lined network to connect the students the way they had to be connected.  Using the power of Skype, the classroom interface of Novanet Courseware, these two students were able to finish their remaining classes up and obtain a fully accredited diploma from Pickens Mountain Education Charter High School. Being a part of that was more inspiring to me than I can ever put into words.

Seeing the parents of both of these students in tears during the entire graduation ceremony was enough for me to realize there is something greater here than just the four walls of a High School. When you see the mother of a child at the moment of something never imagined, it honestly is life-changing. These two kids were already a lost cause in most people’s eyes. They had already been put in a place for their choices and the last thing anyone would have ever expected was them to go into Pickens County Jail as a drop out and walk out a graduate of a fully accredited high school. To be a part of something like that is indescribable.

Imagine being just a spark of something magical like that? Imagine being a part of change the likes of which no one ever saw coming? This is what I am talking about. I know what is coming in 2014 and I am offering a way, showing a way for our teachers to see this for what it is, cost effective for one because it is absolutely and undeniably FREE. The second point is that the change is coming no matter how much we try to stop it so we might as well embrace it and adapt now.

 See the changes for what they are, use them to our advantage. For the first time, in all of my time working in the education field, we can meet this change head on, long before it comes to fruition, and we can make the changes now. We can show our teachers they don’t have to have a doctorate to understand how to make the new changes work in their classrooms.

All of these changes can be made now, with what we already have in our classrooms. As long as you have internet access as a teacher, a laptop or desktop at your disposal that you use for instruction, and some other interactive device (Whether that be an interactive whiteboard or software such as Smoothboard or Splashtop to control your desktop computer/laptop through your wireless device/tablet.) In my final blog I will list my last set of videos showing how to install, configure, and implement these various options into your classroom environment. (I will post these last series of videos by Wednesday the 21^st.)  In the end, if and when you decide to use them, you will have already understood what it means to bring Core Curriculum into your 21^st century classroom and integrate it into your current lesson plans.  Once you understand HOW to do this that is half the battle. The other half is engaging your students on a level only you can and seeing them in ways those of us that are not teachers can never see them.

While we may see Sandy as a trouble maker, you see her as tomorrow’s head of the Democratic party.

We see little Mark already as tomorrow’s criminal when you see him as a seasoned counselor/teacher reaching troubled kids on a level we never would be able to.

Its Inspiration and Revolution like that no computer or Siri can ever replace. It’s the human aspect of this digital future that makes all the difference. The students of today may be our future, but it is our teachers from the Past, the Present, and the Future that make it all possible.

Thank you again for reading this blog.

Aaron

2014

Will we be ready? In two years will we be prepared for what is expected of us? I know I continue down this path of what is still to come, but Rome wasn't built in a day. As is with our current state of affairs. We have entire school systems totally and utterly clueless as to what is about to come in less than two years. We have administrators and staff who are so perplexed by what is expected, they don't even know where to start.

That is putting it lightly for the rest of us. The ones trying to plan ahead. The ones attempting desperately to be proactive and NOT reactive in this deluge of change that approaches our shores. No matter what defenses we may put up, no matter what deceits we can whisper to ourselves at night, change is coming and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it.

There are two types of people in this world. The ones that Do and the ones that Do Not. We are at that point now where we must realize we have asked so much of our teachers already. Compared to the educators of the 1780's our teachers now have a host of responsibilities thrust upon their plates. Keep this in mind as you read my words... In the past 220 plus years of education our nation has provided its students, only ONE constant has remained. The time our teachers have our students has not increased an hour once. Keep that in mind as your eyes continue to scan my words.

Looking back to 1776 and the great Revolution that birthed our nation, the only thing that changed is the scope of responsibility of our teachers. Back in the late 1700's our teachers only had to show our children how to read and write. Two subject areas and that was it. Nothing more and nothing less. Now, in 2012, our teachers and staff in the USA are responsible for feeding our children 2/3 of their daily meals, ensuring they have adequate heat in winter, and air conditioning in warmer months. They are responsible for bully control, sexual education, substance abuse, drivers education, the sciences, the math field, the social studies of the world, and the psychology of whole-body self; they must teach obesity and eating disorders, information technology issues, social media, and the list only continues to grow with each passing legislative session. In a nutshell our teachers ensure the proper dosage of academic, social, psychological, and medical needs is met on a daily basis. The sad reality is that our educators are raising our children whether we like it or not.

I, for one, would like to be the one to say when is enough going to be enough? Sadly I cannot though. It is not my place to. For one, I am not a teacher. I do not instruct our children and I do not have the honor of calling them my own, this league of extraordinary individuals. Oh, how I wish I was though. The music we could make if I was...

However, I CAN make a statement to those who would hear me. Those beyond the four walls of education. Those who may gleam some hint of information from all of this. This journey we are on, the dynamic digital landscape as I so aptly put it. It started with a simple web browser and now has morphed into so much more. I now see so much more potential than I ever did at the start. And I only got to this point by realizing the boundaries that kept me shackled down. I realize now that there is no ONE way to do any of this. The idea, the premise behind free-flowing innovation is that it is NOT defined by a narrative.

I see the digital landscape as undefined now and I know when those who make the decisions realize this too, that is when true innovation will happen. My point is this, there is no wrong or right way to reach a dynamic digital landscape. The idea is simple, create an ever-changing digital canvas with dynamic web environments in a cost-effective model. This can be done in a plethora of ways... Edmodo using web links and videos embedded inside of the interface. Interaction is intuitive and streamlined for the teacher making it virtually possible to create any platform for learning regardless of subject matter. www.edmodo.com

I also see a vast amount of potential in Google docs for education. Just by creating a general account like I have; I have gained access to a host of options I never would have had 5 years ago. I have the ability to create wikis, websites, and interactive blogs such as this one at the touch of a button. And that is just the beginnings  There are also calendars, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations I can create and share across the globe for collaboration with students in real time. The possibilities here are endless.

There is also my initial discovery of Google Chrome and how it could be implemented as a simple, streamlined interface, using Google Drive to house all of your interactive data, and link it all into one highly dynamic and interactive platform. My Youtube videos showcase this idea in a variety of ways. This interface is the most simple by far, but requires the use of more apps and websites to complete the fusion of the final goal than anything else I have discovered. The best part is that it is all linked to your Google drive account/email so no matter what, your favorites that you set up and the apps that you decide to use in the classroom, make the interface intuitive enough to set up per subject level and prepare ahead of time for your students... As seen below...

I even see the potential using Livebinders to create a single interface, single website link, that you can combine every bit of your data, videos, websites, and any other interactive links in one convenient location. You can then share this with your students, or even use in your classroom environment on an interactive whiteboard or using an Ipad (with Splashtop or some other desktop controlling software app) you can interact with this website to engage your students on a totally different level. All of this in ways you have never been able to do in one place and the video below gives you an example of how to do that...

I know that all of these links are from previous blogs but I want to simply build upon what I have already started in my earlier blogs. So if you have seen the videos already, no worries, just move on to the next area, because I am going to continue to innovate and share my ideas as I can. Below you can see a link to one of the websites I have created. I have done my best to make it simple so you can navigate it and see how all of this connects and hopefully in the end it will all make sense.

https://sites.google.com/site/aaronstechstuffs/ One of my websites. This website alone has a host of features on it that demonstrate the power of Google. Using links directly to Youtube, Google Blogger, and Livebinder I can streamline all my data into ONE interactive website that I can use as my platform to get to all my other crucial links for information in one place. And the beauty of this model is that the changes I make on the other sites do not effect this main navigation site so this will ALWAYS stay the same.

In the next week I will be exploring Edmodo, Moodle, and a few other available Learning Management Systems with Online features to round out my solutions using Technology in the classroom with Dynamic Web Environments. In the end I want to have a host of solutions available for this issue so stay tuned. Thank you.

Aaron

The Dilemma of Half Empty or Half Full

Let me start with this one word so I can  continue a clear understanding of what i am saying... free. What I am writing about and sharing, all the ideas, supplements, thoughts, and solutions revealed are of no cost. So if you see me use the words "Cost-effective" that, in my humble opinion is my language for FREE...

I see a limitless potential in Web 2.0 apps and collaborative software to bridge the gap of learning in our classrooms. DNA evidence of this is scattered all around us in digital formats of every kind. We have Khan Academy shattering the ideas of a traditional classroom environment. Then there is Pearson Open Class that is revolutionizing content delivery and learning management systems, bringing together all forms of educational resources in one platform. Imagine a seamless environment where the framework of learning is literally in the hands of every student.

The wireless world we live in continues to breathe and expand by leaps and bounds with each passing day. No longer are the tethers of wires, the chains of textbooks, and the cuffs of tradition holding us down. The world looked to us for well over two centuries as the trend-setters and leaders in this global economy. Now, with such countries as India and China, we see that the principals that once made us the focal point in the eyes of the world have now shifted.

Our business leaders have said to our education leaders that our students need to have certain abilities etched into their skill sets by high school graduation. Such abilities as critical thinking, collaboration both in person and across vast distances, and a host of other skills geared toward a global work place. The digital landscape we live in now has changed the very dynamic of the world stage. Innovations in communication and trade software, and even the global delivery model of goods, has allowed this free exchange to transform everything we ever thought we knew about business .

Due to these changes we see ourselves at a crossroads as a nation. We are no longer the world leader we once were. We have fallen globally in the areas of graduation. Our dropout rates have increased all the while as well. For the first time ever we are now looking to the rest of the World for guidance. We are looking at India and China for our answers. While I respect those countries for their strides in the global enterprise, I can’t help but cry out for our own sea to shining sea.

We created this country with innovation, with revolution. We went from being the leader in agricultural exports to the leader in industrial exports. While the world itself has changed from what it was over two centuries ago, the principals are still the same. Innovation, revolution, these words begin with an ideal and they become a movement. From the movement action occurs and then change is birthed. We are a nation of diverse cultures, peoples, ideals, and religions. We are a land of immigrants as well as natives. Our very diversity is a method for change.

 Our education field has the opportunity, right now, in this very moment as I write these words, to rise up as Samuel L. so eloquently put it about the Atlanta Falcons. As a whole, as a unified, breathing cosmic galaxy, we can transform the landscape that has sought to define the rules we live by. With the power of the internet, the inspiration of our educators, and the tools of such innovators as Google, Pearson, Livebinder, and a host of others we can bring teaching to our students in ways we never could five years ago. With the evolution of Web 2.0 apps and the digital transformation of curriculum available online, we can create a classroom not defined by walls or desks, chalkboards or textbooks. We can mold a place where the students can form strategies in unison, with guidance from their teachers, all in one seamless place, free from the confines of a boring structure.

With a dynamic, ever-changing digital environment nothing would ever be stale, everything streamlined, simplified for teacher use, and able to be scaled/tailored to their skill level. In the end they would be able to gather the data needed to “prove” their lesson plans with screen shots, pdf, and video capture modules. Imagine all of this rolled into one, easy to use, simplified, streamlined, fiscally sound, and practical answer to that same question I keep asking. “How can we make this easier?”

I have the answer. It is through a virtual classroom environment, and it is so easy to accomplish once you understand the simplicity of its execution. Those who look at the glass as half full will see it as half empty…

I have taken you on a journey these past several days, trying desperately to paint an overall picture of where we are at in the education field. To do this on such a GRAND scale is no easy task and it takes more than just words. I have taken so much time; hours and hours, days, weeks, and even months, to assemble all of this information. I have taken this time to coagulate all of this “stuff” into meaningful, measurable, practical, but most of all RADICAL data. By the time this series is done in a few more blogs I want ANYONE to be able to read from the first to the last blog and have a clear and concise understanding of what I am trying to say.

The argument is simple. It is only going to get harder for our teachers to continue to do what they are supposed to do, teach. And all the while they are asking what can be done to make their jobs just a little easier? All the while more and more responsibilities are being “Dumped” on them with each passing legislative session.

My answer is simple. I mentioned it above. I will say it again. It is the basis of my entire blog series. Technology in the classroom with dynamic web environments is the answer. Is there a simple way to do this? Yes. Is there a way to streamline this all into one easy to use interface for teachers and students to share? Yes. Is there a way to link this in current environments to prevent GLOBAL change to get the results desired? Yes. Can we as teachers realistically create the environments we need with minimal time and ease of use? Yes.

We do this through simplifying our distribution of information. Instead of using a search engine to find something relevant to our teaching subjects, we find a single RELIABLE source and go from there. Link it from THERE. Instead of having 3 different platforms to teach the same subject, a Powerpoint, a youtube video, and an obscure website passage; we meld all of these into one interface, a platform to share them with. We do this through a MULTITUDE of solutions such as Moodle, Open Class, Google Chrome, or some other intuitive interface that gives our teachers that dynamic ability.

By giving our teachers a simplified platform to manage and mold, we give them BACK the ability and TIME to teach that they once had. Using such apps as Realtime Board and Glogster, teachers can save sceenshots, PDFs, and the likes at a point in time such as midterm, end of year, etc. Having that kind of documented proof is half the battle with the coming changes of 2014. Meeting the change with dynamic answers from the start is how you answer those questions.

Giving the teachers the tools, and not just stopping there; but showing them how to apply them in the classroom via supplemental examples is the other half of the battle. Meeting these needs head on, now, not in a year or two when the change has hit us full on.

Below you will find a video showcasing my idea of how to streamline this structure using just ONE tool available to our teachers. It is called Livebinder and it is a simple way to combine ALL of your links (Web pages, videos, or even flash-based sites;  you can also post slideshows,  power points, spread sheets, or documents too!) into ONE link that can be posted anywhere. Taking all of these capabilities and rolling them into one platform is a no-brainer. I hope you enjoy the video…

The link below is to my Livebinder shown in the above video...

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/660042

Thank you again for your time in reading this blog.

Aaron

The Drum of the Heartbeat Plays a Song of Numerical Invention

What does it mean to create? What does it mean to inspire? What does it mean to spark light, infuse someone with hopes and dreams, cascade their every wish like a waterfall within arm’s reach. So close the mist consumes them and makes them close their eyes and take flight, soaring high above the vast backdrops of creativity, the sheer snow kissed cliffs of inspiration, and the warm embrace of the dawn of a new day.

Every single day our teachers instill this into our children. Our little dreamers, our future blinkers, they stare quietly, intently, and purposefully at those instructors, each and every moment passing for the first time and the last time. For no second that has been spent will ever return. It is here one instant and gone the next. To have such a calling, such a credence thrust upon them takes a true calling to accomplish.

My wife teaches fourth grade. She has taught for 14 years. I admire her for this. I truly admire anyone in the public education field. To live a life of service, to help mold our children, strengthen them, and tune their dreams into something attainable is honestly a gift. It is my belief that all teachers who genuinely have this calling have the propensity to be great; great in ways they can never fathom. It is my own creed that with a little innovation, a little nudge into the unknown, a slight shove off that precipice of innovation I mentioned in my previous blogs, teachers can reach heights they on no occasion knew they could. I believe this because I have seen it more than once. I have seen a teacher so apprehensive towards technology that they feared its use. Yet with just a little guidance they blossomed into something amazing.

So I sit here again, another evening in my attendance, writing my thoughts. Hoping I can make sense of what I know is true. I know the question that so many in the education field have. I know they want to know, “How can we make this easier? How can we do this a better and easier way?”

I believe that teachers, staff, and administrators are inundated with so much information that it is sensory overload. Imagine a warehouse full of red balls. When they opened the door to this warehouse a flood of red balls came crashing down upon them the likes of which they had never seen. Red balls of every shape and size, texture and mass. So many red balls that they didn’t even know where to start. They didn’t know how to even begin to separate them into discernible groups because each one was so uniquely different. In this analogy I akin the digital landscape of core curriculum, collaborative tools, web 2.0 resources, such a smorgasbord of options it is dizzying to say the least.

I believe in a streamlined environment. Even in this digital revolution we are in, I trust that sense can be made out of the chaos that surrounds us. I know that there is a way to sift through all of these things, the apps, the websites, the programs, the vendors, and really get down to the meat and potatoes of what really innovates in the 21^st century classroom environment.

In the two months I have been discovering this vast landscape myself, I have found an order to this chaos. I have realized that there truly is a clear and concise way to file through all of the data and assemble it in a relevant way that is meaningful to a teacher. To give a little more information on where this is going let me give direction on what I am talking about…

After about a week of searching for interactive websites that would be useful with SMART Boards and other similar devices, I stumbled upon what I like to refer to my diamond in the rough. I had managed to find at least 50 to 60 relevant, meaningful, and informative interactive websites at this point and it was then that I ended up following a link from one of those websites to another interactive lesson. However, this particular lesson required me to install Google Chrome. This was the first such “app” based approach I had seen on the PC browser based atmosphere I have known for so long. Yet here I was scratching my head asking myself how such a thing was even relevant? Why make an interactive lesson browser specific? Then it hit me…

Apple. This has been the Apple model since time immemorial. Since their inception, Apple has held a tight rein on who develops what for them and how they disseminate it to their consumer base. So, in a sense, this was nothing new to the digital landscape I write about so often. Yet, this tiny discovery made me realize that there is this whole other side of the internet that I never realized was there. At least in the aspect of a PC based environment like 95 percent of our school district is.

Thus I immediately downloaded the Google Chrome web browser and quickly began to explore its many distinct functions. I must say, though, once I discovered the Chrome Web store portion of the browser, this changed EVERYTHING for me. It made me realize that I had found, at least in one way, a specific answer to that eternal question our educators have always asked. Using the Chrome browser, the web store, and the countless apps, interactive games, resources, and educational areas within its navigation, I was able to find a viable cost-effective (Essentially FREE) interface. Chrome allows a teacher to link their relevant web pages, specific documents, presentations, and apps all in one seamless platform. Essentially a teacher could deliver their entire lesson from the front of the room using an interactive whiteboard or virtually anywhere with a tablet with desktop controlling software such as Smoothboard air with duo or Splashtop.

Using a combination of interactive websites I had already found and the newly discovered Google Chrome interface with its many extensions and apps, I created a virtual playground that could be the potential canvas of creativity for any teacher. And the beauty of the entire discovery was that this whole solution would work with ANY interactive whiteboard so every single teacher in the county would benefit from its use.

Below are two videos I created using Cam Studios software (A free software program I found for Windows XP/Vista/ and Windows 7) and a simple microphone.

http://camstudio.org/

The software captures the activity on your desktop and allows you to record your voice for explanation of what you are doing onscreen. The potential of this software in our learning environment is already being applied by several teachers. Classroom flipping for one, and supplemental videos to help teachers incorporate technology into their classroom are all essential to the changes that are on the horizon. Not to mention that everyone learns differently. Some like to read through instruction manuals and have a set of chronological steps to a solution, while others like to have visual guidance. I feel that this solution is best for a great deal of our teachers because they are already on borrowed time, every second counts so SEEING and HEARING at once brings the best results in my humble opinion.

I made these two videos just as a demonstration on the Google Chrome interface and its use with the Smoothboard software that we have a few teachers using at the High School. The videos are meant as supplemental material and not as official training videos in any way. The idea is to get this information out so our teachers have access to relevant and meaningful data that they can use and see results immediately.

The first video can be found here...

And the second video can be found here…

Thank you again for your time and I hope this blog is beneficial to you.

Aaron

Epic websites and other such tidbits

The last two blogs I have written were a kind of foundation for what I am trying to do. I wanted to get the message out there in any way that I was able to and now that it is I am going to focus on what my main goal has been from the start. This entire string of first blogs have to do with the main issues with today's classroom environment.

With increased budget cuts on a National level, State funds getting harder to attain, E Rate criteria getting tougher to qualify for, and even Title 1 funds being reduced have all led to a decrease in moneys available for the betterment of technology. Whether you are a teacher in Florida, Georgia, or pretty much anywhere else in this great Nation then you know its only going to get harder from here. Yet here we are in today's society where everyone, and I mean everyone, expects us to adapt to the ever-changing learning canvas. With core curriculum pushing teachers to use technology in their lesson plans, we HAVE to answer these questions in a sound, concise, and fiscal manner. By 2014 it wont be a matter of if we will answer these questions but HOW.

This is where I believe that innovation in the classroom plays an integral part in becoming a solution to this very problem. By answering these questions in a unique way we bring antidotes to the table that we never would have thought of before. As I stated before, two months ago I never would have thought I would be where I am now. Looking down off this cliff of uncertainty. Seeing the precipice stretched out before me in a deluge of misfires and collisions. If we don't get this right then its not just we who suffer, but our kids, our students, our very futures.

I don't mean to paint a bleak picture. There are answers out there people. That's the point. The idea is to find the right answers for our own unique situations. So my dilemma isn't just Jasper, Georgia, but for surrounding areas as well. I have a genuine concern for the success of not just our schools, but our administrators, our teachers, and our students.

I am fortunate to be where I am. In a system where test scores have been on a consecutive rise for well over 6 years now. Our number of graduates increases, and AYP (While no longer a factor in measuring a school's performance) being met by all schools for the past several years. We have continued to bring about new programs, evening schools, housed our Special Education and High Risk students within our own county saving us virtually hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. All the while we have increased our infrastructure and bandwidth to deal with this added stress on our system. We truly have come a long way since I started working for Pickens County Schools over six years ago.

 Yet, just like every good action movie sequel, It never matters what you did in the previous episode, because the world, yet again, is about to end and its up to all of you to save it. So with this in mind I write again, spilling the proverbial beans, splashing paint on a digital wall trying desperately to scribe some semblance of meaning out of such abstract words as Wiimote, Interactive Whiteboard, and Epic websites. Like I said, two months ago all of this would have been foreign to me, and now I navigate the ocean of  little-known creativity, finding other ships on course. I am finding other people with similar goals and ideas, hoping to illuminate the dark halls of schools that have never had a chance to adopt innovation. The wind takes us in directions we don't yet know, but realize that it can only get better from here.

In my two months of searching for an Interactive Whiteboard solution I found the Wiimote whiteboard answer I revealed in my last blog. And along that same journey I found other techs out there, even other teachers who were eager and willing to do whatever they had to so they could bring a whole new dimension to their learning environments.

One teacher in particular gave me direction to begin searching for interactive websites for the Wiimote smoothboard system. It was brought to my attention early on that the Smoothboard software had nothing in the realm of interactive resources as the other big named companies out there such as SMART Board, Mimio teach, or Promethean Planet. Again, after looking at this teacher's blog and reading several of his posts on what he had come up with (He has been successfully using the Wiimote Whiteboard in his classroom for more than a few years now.) His name is John R. Sowash and his blog can be found here...

http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/search/label/wiiboard

What he revealed, along with a few of his cohorts in the education field, was that there was an unlimited amount of interactive websites already out there. Once I saw this I realized very quickly it was just a matter of figuring out how to properly LOOK for these resources, separate the cracker jack box simpleton versions from the Disney world folio masterpieces. If you did a standard Google search for interactive education websites you would imagine that you would have a list of millions of sites that claimed to be that. After clicking on probably forty to 50 of these websites I could see a pattern where junk was being shoveled in with the good stuff. The key to a lot of my searching was finding ONE good resource and then moving from it to ANOTHER using it's "Other links" page, or "Recommended sites". Once I was able to master this, the true art began and that abstract splash-top wall I mentioned a few paragraphs back began to take shape into something amazing.

The websites I list below are just a FEW of the ones I have. I am currently compiling a master list of interactive websites for k-12 education. The idea is to have something for every subject and every grade level. It is my hope that these sites, when seen by teachers, will help instill a sense of innovation and unleash a creativity that the classroom has never seen before.

My biggest goal for any sites that I look for is that they are interactive, they fall into the common core, they meet the curriculum of that particular subject, and that they are cost effective. (In all cases I try to find websites that are totally Free.) I understand that some sites provide crucial learning skills but may not fall under ALL the guidelines I use when looking, and the idea with these websites is to understand that they are a supplement. They can be used in conjunction with what a teacher is already doing and teaching to enhance to learning environment overall. So with this in mind, even those websites that adhere to only one or two of the guidelines I use are still included in this list. Below is a list of a few websites as an example for the High School level. Again, in the coming weeks I will share the master list I have been working on but at least this will give anyone reading an idea of what I am trying to accomplish here...

Math websites 9th-12th. (Later blogs will have more subjects and more websites per grade level so stay tuned. Same bat time, same bat channel.)



http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/ - The learners top link is to the activities they can try in the lab after you go over stuff with them in class. There are like 250 plus activities. They just choose what subject (Algebra) then whatever part of that subject (If it is available.) Again I am not a math major but maybe once you take a look you can see the resource as being full of good information or not enough. The instructors top link is the Lessons, and on that link you can choose your lessons based on subject just like the Learners link. Just remember at the TOP of the page is where you can click on subject like Algebra, Geometry, etc. You can even search for items.

https://www.desmos.com/calculator - It is a pretty simple graphing calculator website that has the visual grid as well so would be perfect for front of classroom on projector or having students all expirement on different problems in a lab environment. 

http://www.mathdisk.com/pub/gallery?page=1#.UJU7LcXA-So - This website has definitions and examples of rules such as area by integration, pythagoras theorem, etc.

 http://www.memrise.com/topic/maths/wordlists/ - I added memrise.com to this list because I think it could be a great homework website. Massive list of topics, not just math but any subject. You can search for specific methods and lesson plans that allow the students (Or anyone for that matter, I love art so I was looking up lessons on how to guess who made what art pieces, foolish I am sure but a very entertaining way to learn!) to view them and learn in a different way.

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ - This website is full of resources on math for teachers. It has some pretty cool lessons and activities for students to do in the classroom with the teacher (Print outs along with interactive activities as well). You can either go straight to the activities link or use the lesson links, filter by grade 9-12, then subject , algebra, then check the box that says Show only lessons with associated online activity.

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra - Finally, I am sure you have heard of Khan Academy, the free online web resource for teachers and students from Bill Gates of Microsoft. It has a massive amount of videos that explain lessons in a variety of subjects (Primarily in the Math and Science fields) that help anyone understand certain conepts in different ways

Of all the websites listed above www.desmos.com is the only one that will not work with Internet Explorer in Windows XP. You either have to have Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox installed to run it on a Windows XP machine. Windows 7 it works fine as long as you have IE 9 or better.

There are many parts to this story of course, and this is just about where the interactive websites came from. Ultimately my entire direction was shifted once I stumbled upon the infinite possibilities with the Google Chrome web browser and its host of countless features. (My next blog will address this)

Happy Veterans day to all those who have served, are serving, and will serve our great Country.

Revolution...

The thought of revolution should stir a kindred spirit in all of us. It was revolution that birthed our nation, revolution that conceived the very principals this great nation was founded upon. An ideal etched upon the bedrock of the dreams, the ideals, the principals, and the convictions of an entire people who looked into the face of tyranny and said, "No, we will not lay down silently, we will not fade into the night."

I don't think it would take too many people in the education field to realize that we are currently experiencing a revolution in the education field. Read the latest blogs or the latest articles in mainstream and you will see the consensus is ever pointing in the same ostentatious direction... Forward.

We have a world of change coming our way. No child left behind has now been blown to bits, scattering its enriched guts across the collective landscape in a promise of yesterday, only to be replaced by "Race to the top". The idea is simple, instill a sense of meaning, definition, responsibility, and self-worth into our children in   a k-12 environment using such tools as core curriculum  collaborative learning techniques, and a host of new standards aimed at having our students work together. This is the one fundamental job skill all employers around the world have asked be assumed upon entry.

Many teachers get it already, more responsibility, more bang for their buck, and the literacy landscape of learning that is ever-changing only gets more responsible for them. Before the naysayers attack me for such notions of "It's their job anyhow, they should be doing this by default!", let me remind you from my last blog, teachers of today are not just instructing the core curriculum, but are acting moderators, mentors, protectors of all things relevant to a child's well-being, the list continues to grow.

I am not even a teacher and I am required to go to bully training every single year. I am required to go to sessions on a host of ethics based issues in the education field that, in most cases, don't even relate to my area of expertise, but do to legislation and a host of laws in place, I partake in to protect our system from potential lawsuits.

We live in a digital age people. Our testing modules are fully online at the high school and the very threat of questionable activities during that testing window have made several teachers literally fear the prospect of being a proctor for such high stakes environments. It is a sad fact when the view is so strewn out before our teachers, they tend to embrace "What if's" more than they do the prospects of innovation.

I am a realist in all honesty. However, I do see the potential to such volatiles as dreams, innovations, critical thinking, even change... Or dare I use the word Revolutions?

Thus I come to my point countless paragraphs later, looking into today's classroom, seeing us on the precipice of change. No matter how you see that change, welcome or forced, it's coming my friends. And there is nothing we can do to stop it. Therefore I find it an enigma that technology rarely innovates us, but rather, it is we that use technology to innovate. In this case, where I am now, where we all are now, it truly seems technology for the first time has set the standard. Technology has begun the Revolution I write about.

That digital scene before us has raced forward so fast we have tried to catch up and it's like a true epiphany when we realize the potential, when we realize the strands of music, the sheets composed by the unifying language that is a 1 and a 0; that is to say this... we are forced to swallow hard and understand that sometimes, just sometimes, technology is the Artificial Intelligence we never expected it to be. It moves like a mosaic across a vast landscape of white, and becomes blues and grays, hashes and decimals, and soon forms into something more complex than we ever could imagine. It leaves us found weighed, measured, and found wanting. It takes us on journeys to places we never could go in a thousand lifetimes. With one click of a mouse we could visit the snow kissed Alps, or grace the halls of the Palace of Versailles.

This is my dilemma. While I write these words and express what I can in the best way I am able, I find it hard to put into words such a complex equation, such an infinite course of impossibilities. My journey has expanded ten fold in the past two months and it is all because of one thing. One single object has become a pathway to change, to purpose, to revelation, to Revolution...

The Wiimote.

That's right... One simple device. An entertainment "toy" that I play with my kids every weekend has been the catalyst to my own discovery. Two months ago I was already on top of my own game as far as job knowledge was concerned. There was never a problem I wasn't able to fix or at least have the resources to find an answer for. Then came the day that I had a teacher ask me for an interactive whiteboard solution. Honestly, I had heard of a host of products that could answer her inquiry; the SMART board, the Promethean Board, Star board, etc. I was even on the bandwagon of Mimio teach at the time and I gave that as my initial answer. Yet as the days passed, I found myself looking across the vast montage of the internet for a viable, cost-effective solution and I stumbled upon the Wiimote Whiteboard solution.

Way back in 2007, a man named Johnny Chung Lee figured out a way to use a Wiimote, an IR pen, and his own software, to transform any flat surface into an interactive environment using a projector and a computer.

Using the basic premise that I found I began to scour the internet for more resources on this, more data. I quickly found 3 businesses here and 2 abroad that provided a full hardware and software solution using this breakthrough technology for pennies on the dollar versus traditional interactive whiteboard methods. While SMART board re-sellers boast install packages as low as 2,000 dollars, Promethean upwards of 2,500 dollars, and even Mimio teach systems as low as 800 dollars, the wiimote suite of products can be purchased in a commercial environment for as low as 120 dollars.

www.wiiteachers.com 

The website above shows you how cost-effective this solution can be. There are other permanent solutions, and one we have found now is from IR Great innovations. This company provides a ceiling mounted solution with permanent power, a remote for turning the wiimote off and on when you want to use it, and the most up to date software in a commercial setting for 200 dollars (Negotiable of course based on number of units sold just like any other interactive whiteboard solution)

http://www.irgreat.com/

The latest software used in these commercial versions, called Smoothboard Air with Duo, allows any wireless device, handheld, tablet, or laptop/desktop based regardless of operating system, to communicate with the teacher computer. This feature alone is worth the price for the whole system in my humble opinion because it answers the question to Bring-Your-Own-Device scenario.

www.smoothboard.com

Of course with any emergent technology, there are always questions that are raised, and in my case, I had some opposition to say the least. The good news is, with the introduction of this new technology we were able to "Pilot" these systems in 3 classrooms (Including one of the classrooms of the teachers that asked for an Interactive Whiteboard solution in the first place) We have, to date, had plenty of time to see how effective this technology has been in these three classrooms. One teacher has reported actual classroom interaction and overall quiz scores are up because he bases his students use of the new technology on their performance on such scales. We also have a myriad of data from the middle school where we had a teacher there who wrote a grant for these devices, and was actually able to get enough funding for 7 classrooms! The systems work and they are an amazing solution to a very touch monetary question.

Thus the conclusion to this message. A teacher request, an honest effort to find a cost-effective solution, and I find myself now in a whole new environment. Here I am writing a blog using blogger, on a web browser I once swore I never would use, listening to music on Youtube through another tab on that very same browser; that same music laid before me now, through innovation, through Revolution I realize now what has been here the whole time. Change is here. It's not coming, it's not a year out or a decade out, it is living and breathing among us. It is in the eyes of the students that sit before us. Students born into a digital age where the worse technology they EVER had was an IPad 1.

Think on that for just a moment... In my day (I am 37 years old in about 5 hours from writing this) the Atari 2600 was the worst technology of my day. Their worst could display graphics in 3D, in HD, go totally wireless, and interact with a countless host of apps that only enhance its capabilities. This is the digital landscape we live in. Not Y2k, Not 1990, Not 1980, but 2012. So unless the world ends in a little over a month we have an unbelievable, undeniable Revolution unfolding before us...

Aaron

In The Beginning...

There is a fine line between epic failure and a mosaic of digital beauty in the online world. I have found in my years of supporting countless computers in an ever-changing web landscape, nothing is ever what it seems. What worked yesterday is never guaranteed to work today and when you plan for tomorrow there is already someone out there looking two days ahead. I have always been a proactive Technology Support Specialist where I work and have been a part of some of the most innovative changes our county has ever seen. Using a critical thinking mentality we have always been able to anticipate almost every major scenario, both good and bad, and have a contingency in place without fail.

This is why I am here now, writing words on a blank canvas of white. It was an idea at first, something birthed in whispers from teachers who didn't know where to start or who to ask. Sure we have always tried to help our teachers succeed in all they do, but we have never truly been an integral part of their teaching strategies or been a part of that process where we helped them fit the technology into their teaching model.

Our district has roughly 2500 computers in it, all of which have at least Windows XP, and of those, 500 are Windows 7. Our high school has 12 labs for student use, some are comprised of laptops, but most are desktops. Using the annual technology inventory we provide for the state and a recent survey done by Brent Williams from Kennesaw State University, we have a very diversified portfolio of good, useful, and relevant technology.

We have managed to stay ahead of the game in a myriad of ways just by creativity  We use a recycling program from the CDC that allows us to acquire computers that they would otherwise scrap and use in our own schools in any way that we are able. We have gotten desktops and laptops, monitors, network printers, and even medical equipment for our Health department. All of this has been at no cost to us. We also repair and upgrade our current computers for a fraction of the cost for replacement. This takes some skill of course, but our Technology department luckily has been grounded in this tradition of half-life operations. Finally, we work with a vendor to purchase refurbished machines at a highly reduced cost, with a full 3 year no questions asked replacement warranty. These machines also come with Windows 7 at a minimum so we remain modern in that aspect of our deployment and replacement model.

With all of this said, we have been able to perform the End of Course Tests through the Pearson Testnav software 100 percent online for 6 years now. That is every department at our high school, including Special Education and Math, for every testing window. At any given time we have up to 14 testing environments going with an excess of over 400 students testing simultaneously as well.

This brings me back to my opening statements, we are in uncharted waters now. We are at a place now where we are finally able to gain new technologies to enhance our classrooms in ways we never were able to before. SPLOST dollars have been dedicated to the deployment of these new technologies and because of this a renewed zeal has begun to slowly take hold in our schools. We have teachers eager to embrace this technology and they want to have the answers to the questions they all ask. These questions are not new. They are questions that have resonated for years, through pursed lips of a dedicated group of professionals who take our children and mold them into tomorrow's leaders, tomorrow's innovators.

For so many years our teachers have been asked to do more and more. Think about it, with every change of leadership, from the top down, a host of new standards and measurements floods the desks of our men and women who instruct our children. Year after year they are asked to give more and more. Thirty years ago they were expected to teach our kids to read and write, count, and tell us what the continents are. Now, in this day and age they are asked to be that and so much more. They are asked to be mediators, mentors, confidants, bully stoppers, moral instructors, bastions of safety when our children don't have proper clothes or food. In the 21st century a teacher is more than just an instructor, they are a literal lighthouse for our children.

That question I mentioned is the one that resonates even now as you read my words. And honestly, its not even what you think it is. It's not the obvious one we all think they would ask. It's not, "When is enough going to be enough?"
It's not, "What else do you expect me to do?"
No, the question our teachers ask silently is a simple one. It is one grounded in an obvious fact. Technology is the future and that future is here now. There is nothing we can do to change that. It's like a tube of toothpaste. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, there is no way to get it back in. So that question on the lips of our educators? Are you ready for it?

I am going to pull a Ryan Seacrest here and explain one more thing so you understand why this question is so simple. With the rise of new technologies and the countless number of companies out there that have offerings to our teachers, just making a choice of what technology to go with is a daunting task to say the least! Not to mention the fact that no matter what technology you choose, there is a learning curve with it. Whether its the IPad, or Samsung Galaxy, the Nexus 7 or 10, or any of the countless interactive whiteboard suite of products out there on the market. Each one of these technologies has a host of interactive products that go with them (Or software packages such as the Active Inspire for Promethean, or SMART notebook for SMART board.) All of these have a particular learning curve associated with them and in the case of any of the interactive whiteboard products, their software packages require some form of in-depth training to get the best use of their offerings.

The number one commodity of a teacher in this day and age is Time. The grains of sand that run through an hour glass with each passing second, precious moments lost never to be gained again. Now, back to that essential question...

"What technology can I use that is easy enough to not take weeks to learn and hours to set up for use in the classroom but help me engage my students in ways never done before?"

The link at the bottom of this blog is a Tech issue I wrote for our High School letting our staff know what we have going on this year alone. I used a website called Flipsnack.com to convert the PDF I created to a cool looking flipbook that anyone can do.

That very question is the one I will strive to answer with this series of blogs. In the coming weeks I will share videos, links, and web 2.0 resources that, I have seen with my own eyes, revolutionize the way teachers engage students in the classroom. So in closing I leave you with the one thing that drives me in all of this...

"Why just plan for tomorrow when we can go light years beyond?"

Aaron


http://share.snacktools.com/ACE7A797C6F/fztjyjjh