Google Expeditions!

Virtual Reality in the classroom seems like a far away place, or something that's very expensive, or supremely technical to get into. Teachers are unsure of how to implement it, how to set it up, or how it applies to the curriculum that they're currently teaching. With the Google Expeditions Kit put together by our wonderful friends in District Technology you can bring Virtual Reality to your classroom in a free, very easy to use fashion. 

What is Google Expeditions?

Google Expeditions is a teacher directed Virtual Reality experience using 360° still images to immerse students in different environments and places around the world. It uses themed images and questions to guide students through different experiences around the world.

How does it work?

Google Expeditions is an app that works on iOS and Android devices. Expeditions has two sides to the app. There is a "Guide" side, and an "Explorer" side. 

• The Guide will be able to direct the expedition, control whether students will be able to use the viewer, point things out on the screen, and tell how many people are logged on at a time. 
• The Explorers will be able to view the experience on their devices when they are connected.

In order to start an Expedition, you'll need all of the devices to be attached to the same WiFi network. (The District kit does this very simply), and then have the Explorers choose "Follow" inside the app. Once they've done that, they're ready to go!

Who can run the Expedition?

Ideally, a teacher. 

But I had Grade 5 students run the kit and lead Expeditions for Grade 2 classes in our school. The reason a teacher is ideal is that it is a guided process. Guiding questions and pointing out things that you're looking at with your students are very helpful in leading discussion about what is being viewed.

What do I need to do?

As a teacher, there's a little more prep to do ahead of time for this to be successful. There is a listing of all of the Expeditions available, and it's worth a look to try to check some of them out beforehand. Getting the app on your own device could be a good way to preview some of the Expeditions, but if you plan on using the kit from District Tech, they've got a tablet that can be used for this. Once you've figured out which Expedition you'd like to lead your class through, it's time to start. Luckily, there's a start up guide.

What benefits are there to using this?

This is a great opportunity to talk about different environments and places, how those things affect people, and to see places and things we wouldn't normally see at school. Our kindergarten kids were very excited to see jungles and the animals that lived in them. It is a great opportunity for inquiry based approaches as well, as the expeditions lead well into questioning and getting kids to ask questions about what they're viewing. This is a great opportunity to get to see things that maybe your field trip budget won't allow for, and using the Google Street View app with some of the older kids would allow unguided exploration of some areas, too! (It's worth checking out beforehand).

How have other teachers used the kit so far?

At Balwin, a lot of teachers used them for guiding younger kids to see things they normally wouldn't. Our junior high students used them to inspire questions about what they were viewing and how it applied to what they're learning. The kit comes with a Theta 360° camera which allows us to take pictures and create content in a unique approach, allowing us to think about and find inquiry based opportunities around us.

What problems might we encounter?

The most common problem that we encountered was that the devices weren't always on the same WiFi network, which was a quick and easy fix with the router provided. The other thought was that we needed lead time to take a look at the Expeditions and think about how we wanted to apply them. 285 of them is a lot. With our use, there wasn't many problems that we encountered. It was a very straightforward process. 

In short, Expeditions is a great way to show your students other places or things around the world, and is an amazing way to start a discussion with students of all ages. We'd really like to look at creating content at Balwin, and were very impressed with the experience. Kids were always asking when they could use the kit next. I'd love to hear what people do with the kit as time goes on, and how they've used it to attach to their curriculum. 

Throw Out Those Clickers and Use Plickers!

Are you tired of having to change the batteries in your clickers or having to fork out thousands of dollars for interactive response systems? Are you getting frustrated with hooking up cords to your computer or waiting for students to logon to a personal device for assessment?  Well, let Plickers help make your formative assessment in your classroom a breeze with absolutely no cost to you.

I have been using Plickers in my classroom for about a month now and the students get very excited about bringing out their Plicker cards and "showing what they know".  It is a fantastic way of gathering formative assessment to guide your teaching and student learning.  I encourage you to give Plickers a try.  You and your students will be glad you did!

What are Plickers? 

Plickers is an app that can be downloaded onto an Android or iOS device.  With only one device and some printed cards, teachers can quickly assess or poll their students by asking multiple choice or true/false questions.  The students hold up their cards a certain way (see below) to submit their answers while the teachers stands at the front and scans the class therefore receiving their responses.

Why use Plickers?

• easy to use and setup
• completely free (except for printing the cards)
• excellent formative assessment tool or for polling students
• students love it! (speaking from experience)
• inclusive for all - no personal or electronic devices needed for students (only one teacher device)
• no batteries to replace or expensive equipment to purchase

What do I need for Plickers? 

• 1 Electronic Wifi device with the Plickers app installed (Android or iOS)
• 1 Plicker card for each student in your class (Plicker Cards)
• 1 projecting device for questions (although you could have questions printed or written on the board)
• registration for a free account on Plickers.com

How do Plickers work?

1. Create a class on your Plickers account (each student you add gets a Plicker card assigned to them).
2. Create questions from the "Library" tab on your account and assign these questions to your class plan.  You can have multiple classes and the questions can be assigned to each class.
3. Print out student Plicker cards, cut them out, and hand to the assigned student.  Each card has a number which corresponds to the student that you added when creating a class.
4. Log into your computer and your device from the Plickers.com website.  Click on "Live Class" from your computer and choose the question you would like to ask from your device.
5. The question will be displayed from the projector and the students hold up their card a specific way to show their answer (more on that in the "How do students answer?" section)
6. The teacher then clicks on the "camera" image on their mobile device and then scans the classroom.  As the teacher scans the classroom, the camera recognizes the student's answers and records them.  The students will also see on the screen that their card has been scanned by having a check mark beside their name.
7. The teacher can then share the results on the screen with the students in the form of a bar graph.

The following quick video shows how the teacher collects responses. 

How do students use the paper clickers?

The Plicker cards are really simple and easy to use. You can download the Plicker cards here.  Take a look at the Plicker card below.

Tips for Plicker cards

• Plicker cards can be used for multiple classes.
• Print the clicker cards on card stock or glue them onto heavy cardboard.
• If you laminate the cards, use a matte film as it could be difficult for the mobile device to scan the card due to glare.
• Train your students to hold the cards straight up and down and not diagonal.  They should also be taught not to bend the cards or have their fingers in front of the image as the mobile device will not be able to read it.
• Paste the card on both sides so the student does not have to look at the front of the card.
• I put Velcro on the Plicker cards so the students can attach them to the front of their desk and easily find them when needed.
• Teach your students to ensure that nobody is blocking their card.

Here is what my classroom Plicker cards look like.

Printed on very heavy card stock

Attached with Velcro on front of desk

How do I create classes and add students?

Please watch the very short video tutorial I created showing how you can easily create classes and add students.

How do I add questions?

Below is a quick tutorial showing how to create questions and then assign them to a class or classes.

Give Plickers a try in your classroom and let us know how it went in the comment section below.

Android Apps And Grade Two, Part Two

Android Apps And Grade Two, Part Two

I was so excited to hear that my new school had tablets; I even did research over the summer. I do a lot of centres in class across the curriculum and I anticipated that tablets would enhance them. Then I started to look into how to use them and my excitement waned.

So, getting started with our tablets was not as smooth or as quick as I had hoped. It is almost November but we are finally going to start using them in classrooms.

Road Blocks

I know tablets are intended to be single user devices but I had seen iPads used successfully without too much headache in a kindergarten classroom. Being an Android user myself, I was pleased that we had Android tablets. However, Apple has somewhat of a way to help schools manage iPads and apps. It has not been as simple with the Android tablets. Here are some of the road blocks:

• Logging onto the WIFI is not simple for younger students (and reminding users to log off WIFI when done).**
• Paid apps are user specific.
• By using the Google Play store, the tablet automatically connects to your Google account. You have to delete your account EACH time after using the Play store.
• You have to go into Settings, then select Accounts, then select Google and then select the option "remove account".   

** We still wanted to be able to track individual users and that is why we still want to have students sign on to the WIFI with their own usernames and passwords.

Work Arounds

• Like all technology, it is important to take the time to teach the skills to students and provide them opportunities for repetition so they can become proficient at logging in and out of WIFI.
• NO paid apps (means many free apps have ads)
• Plan ahead - get a list of all the apps you want to install on the tablets so the long process of signing into Google Play and then removing the account only happens a few times.

Resources

• Android4schools 

Android Apps And Grade Two

I will have access to Samsung tablets this school year. In anticipation, I have played around with some Android apps on my Nexus 10. These will not be full reviews yet, as they have not been tested out in a classroom setting. 


The blog post 50 Ideas For iPads in the Classroom has some iPad specific items mentioned, however, it includes great ideas for procedures and is well worth a read for people starting to use any tablet in the classroom.

Common Sense Media has some reviews on Android Apps as well. They provide the age the app is intended for, they give it a learning rating and a quality rating. When you read a full review, they also provide information about: ease of use, violence, sex, language, consumerism, drinking, drugs and smoking, and privacy and safety. Their audience for these reviews are parents, however, not teachers in a classroom setting.

I've started by trying the free versions of all the apps if a "lite" version was available. The majority of free apps are supported by ads. I would not recommend using the "lite" versions in class. If you do, it is recommended that lessons around consumerism and advertising are a part of your preparation for teaching students how to use the tablets. Common Sense Media has a lesson called "Things For Sale". 

Android Apps Previewed

BrainPop Jr. (free)
This is app gives the user access to the current movie of the week plus an easy and a hard quiz about the movie's topic. As well, it gives the (free) user access to six additional free movies. For those who have a subscription, you can also access other educational videos, games, quizzes, and activities. The free movies are about:

• classifying animals
• bullying
• nouns
• US symbols
• tally charts and bar graphs
• Internet safety

Will I Use It? Yes. Five of the six free movies are things that fit with the grade two curriculum. I would use this app as a centre activity when we are exploring those topics in class. 

Google Earth (free) 
This app does not have the full capabilities of Google Earth. In theory it would be a great resource for students to have quick access to satellite views of the Earth but I found it glitchy and slow when I used it. 
Will I Use It? Maybe. I'll try it again on the tablets at school and see if it functions better for me on them.  

Guardian Eyewitness (free) 
This app has great pictures but I think it is better suited to division II and up. 
Will I Use It? Not with grade twos. 

SpellingCity (free*) 
Unlike the website, the (free part of the) app gives you basic spelling practice from ten sample lists that go from kindergarten to grade twelve. If you want students to be able to access the spelling lists you have created on SpellingCity.com (with your free or paid account), then you will have to pay $1.99* for each mobile device for what they call a Mobile Pass. The downside is the user is  logging with the teacher account, unless you purchase the classroom premium subscription of $49.99.
Will I Use It? Yes. I think it is worth the $1.99 to try!

RAZ-Kids (app is free but it is based on a subscription)
I have used RAZ-Kids with my grade two classes for the past four years. It is a great addition to reading centres. It costs $89.95 for a subscription. The app connects to this subscription, so students can access their account using this app. 
Will I Use It? Yes.  

iStoryBooks (free) 
Common Sense Media summaries this app well: kids' reading skills may not get much of a boost as reading level is typically too high for the targeted ages and writing style is not exceptionally engaging. iStoryBooks offers kids free access to colorful books but would benefit from higher quality literature and a better user interface.
Will I Use It? Maybe. I plan to use RAZ-kids on the tablets. While it is a free app it prompts the user to buy more books. 

Math Pack Flash Cards (free) 
This app has a variety of "flash cards"/questions for math operations for  kindergarten to eighth grade kids.
Will I Use It? No. The layout and organization of the site is not ideal for grade twos in a centre situation. 

NASA (free) 
The NASA app provides information, videos and photos about space. This would be a great app for any grade six classroom! 
Will I Use It? No. While anything about NASA is very cool,  I do not see a direct link to grade two curriculum. 


TangramHD (free) 
There are many tangram apps. For classroom use, I did not want one that was based on levels or scores.  This one has categories of puzzles that the user can select from: people, animals, boats, numbers and alphabet, stuff and buildings, and geometry. It does have advertising for its other game but it is minimal. 
Will I Use It? Yes. 

Apps On Deck For Preview

The following apps are ones I have seen suggested during my research:

Bad Piggies (free) - puzzle games
Cash Cow ($4.03) - a math puzzle game that uses money
Doodle Fit Free (free) - spatial puzzles
Dragon Dictation Lite (free) -    voice recognition dictation ap

i-Prompt (free)- Tele-prompting software
MathBoard ($4.92) - math drills
Math Workout (free) - 

Minecraft Pocket Edition (free) - open-ended activity that is about exploration and creation

Mobile Mouse Lite (free)- makes your tablet a wireless remote for your computer/whiteboard 
My DPS (Digital Problem Solver) $0.99 - it teaches emotions and coping strategies

Story Dice ($2) - dice with symbols for telling stories

Where's My Perry? Free (free) - a puzzle game
Where's My Water? Free (free) - a puzzle game

What's Next For Div1Edtech?

The themes for my posts for the 2013-2014 school year will be Android Apps for division one, UDL for division one, as it relates to educational technology, and digitally connecting division one students with other students from outside their school.

Android Apps? Why Not iPad Apps?

The new school I am working at in September has Samsung tablets. I am excited to look at how these can be effectively used in the classroom. I was disappointed to find out when doing research on Android apps that most discussion out there is around iPad apps. The limited discussion around Android apps for education rarely included division one apps. However, Google Play for Education is supposed to launch in September! Please leave a comment with any Android apps you think I should check out!

UDL? 

Universal Design for Learning is something that I learned about last year. The principles of UDL fit with my educational philosophy. I read Jennifer Katz's book, Teaching to Diversity: Creating Compassionate Learning Communities, this summer. 

Digital Connections

Off and on over the past ten years I have included pen pals, or some variation, in my teaching. Initially I used ePals, which I would still recommend to teachers looking for unique opportunities to connect their students with other students around the world. With EPSB going Google over the past few years, it seemed like a good time to try a Google product platform. So I began to explore how to effectively use Blogger with division one students. Please leave a comment if you are interested in connecting digitally (gmail, Blogger, etc.) with another division one classroom. I started a community on Google+ that is meant to help teachers find other classes to connect with on Blogger. Check it out!