skip to Main Content

Travel Agent vs. Tour Guide

I’ve been buried deep in working on my dissertation proposal and have been finding it challenging to keep focused. I read someplace that using a metaphor, analogy, or story can add a level of cohesiveness to a paper. I may not write this into my paper, but taking that approach is helping me make a bit more sense of my work. I thought I would take a moment to share with my readers. Note – These are my views and are generalized to educational systems as a whole, not my employer.

So much of the “professional” development (PD) teachers experience these days is really administrative and not professional. Think about the last inservice day you attended (or planned). Were sessions focused on how to do any of these?

  • operate a piece of software or online service/tool,
  • improve classroom management or discipline,
  • navigate the latest teacher evaluation requirements,
  • prepare for the next round of standardized testing,
  • maintain needed safety measures on your campus,

While these topics must be covered to share procedures, policies, knowledge, and/or to meet compliance requirements, these are administrative development and have little or nothing to do with actually improving teaching practice. These sessions often place the learner (our teachers) in a passive role as they consume what is being shared by a presenter. Research shows that this type of PD may be useful for learning procedures but if a change in teaching practice or a change in paradigm is expected, the approach to PD offered must follow certain characteristics. If the desired result is change, “traditional” PD is not going to cut it.

My dissertation is examining the self-directed professional learning (SDPL) of teachers, the benefits/barriers experienced, and how a district/school can support their teachers’ SDPL.

I have provided (and will be providing) many “traditional” PD sessions. For example, I have spent the last several years teaching people how to get around in Google Apps and have shared ways it could be used to make life more efficient as well as how it can be used for collaboration by teachers and students. I have modeled its use. I have encouraged its use. Some people have taken the ball and run with it; some, not so much. I should not be surprised for much (or most) of the fault lies with the training provided.

Too much PD we offer is led by a tour guide. The teacher, if they are lucky, gets to choose the tour but they are led through the journey. Teachers are too often passengers rather than participants. The tour guide chooses what to show and what to say about each part of the tour. The passengers may (or may not) ask questions but can certainly choose to be passive consumers of the tour guide’s script. Weeks after the tour is over, they may remember a few bits and pieces of the tour but will likely be left with an overall impression rather than detailed memories. We certainly would not expect them to BECOME the tour guide after taking the tour once as a passenger.

A travel agent can provide a deeper experience. When it comes to SDPL, I envision the district/school (or those they bring in to run PD) in the role of travel agent. This is especially needed if we really want the journey to have an impact on the teacher and the way in which they teach and, even more so, if you want them to change how they teach. The travel agent keeps up with the available travel options (destinations, tours, experiences, interactions) and, after getting to know what the customer wants, provides them options to help them meet their goal for the trip. They consult with the traveler to lay out the itinerary and are there to provide support during the trip in case things go wrong. Sure, some people are ready to just go online and book all aspects of that big vacation but, not being the expert, may miss some real gems along the way. They may book a hotel that provides less than stellar service. They may sign up for a tour that hits all the touristy spots but bypasses the stops that give a real feel for the city. They would still have a good experience, one they chose, but by getting an additional level of support in the planning and execution of the trip, the experience can be that much deeper, memorable, and impactful.

Travel Agent vs. Tour Guide. I am going to try to be more of a travel agent rather than a tour guide in PD I offer from now on. That won’t be possible for required administrative development sessions but, when I can, this is the approach I am going to take. I am going to find out from my teachers what they want to learn and support them in that journey. Time will limit how much I can actually spend with each teacher but I can certainly help suggest resources for them to visit on the trip. There are many challenges in this approach – for me and for the teacher. It is usually easier to be the passenger. Taking a more active role in the process takes more time and effort but the result is more likely to be effective if we really want a change to occur.

The right way? Ah, if it were only so easy. Just like there is not one right way to teach students, there is not one right way to approach teacher development. Differentiation is needed to address the needs of adult learners. However, mandated PD is often focused on compliance and is less concerned with learning. “Attendance is mandatory but learning is not” (Kennedy, 2016, p. 29). Just as we focus on student learning, PD should be more about teacher learning. Until it is, we should not be surprised that learning is not happening and that change is not taking place.

Fake Facebook Page

There are a number of services out these that allow students to simulate what historical figures or literary characters might post on social media. A popular one is Fakebook. However, we wanted to manage this assignment using Google Classroom. While we did come across some Google Slide templates using the simulated Facebook layout, I just couldn’t find one that incorporated the more recent updates to the look. So, I made one. As always, I am sharing freely.

Here is a short URL to make a copy of the three-page template. Page one is a blank slide that uses the fake Facebook layout as the background of the slide. This makes it easier for the student to add images and text boxes without accidentally moving elements of the layout around.

https://bit.ly/fakefacebooktemplate

Want to peek at it first? Here is the original Slides file.

 

If you find this helpful, I would love to have you post a comment below.

 

The Takeaways – #ISTE2016 Day One

I figure since I am at ISTE in Denver and have been spending bunches of time in the Blogger’s Cafe, I should probably write a blog post while I am here. I am going to use my favorite question floating around the venue as my prompt.

“What are your biggest takeaways?”

Related to the conference itself, my biggest takeaway is that I absolutely made the right choice to not pack my schedule full of sessions. In Atlanta at ISTE 2014, I let FOMO rule my schedule. I bounced from one session to another, often standing in lines for hours to make certain I got it. I have chosen a few sessions to attend (mainly for the people presenting rather than the topics) and have left myself open to go with the flow – to follow the breadcrumbs, as I heard someone say. Because I followed that path I was able to:

  • be a part of team playing a brand new Digital BreakoutEDU game while sitting in the Blogger’s Cafe with one of the game designers and while we had a live audience. Yes, we broke out, and yes it was totally cool.

13497628_1019860478049140_3459505670247901295_o

 

  • attend an impromptu sketchnoting session given by the incredible Sylvia Duckworth. I learned so much about Procreate (iOS, $5.99) and how to bend it to my will. I feel more empowered know that I know the tool. Now I know I need to focus on the transference of what I hear into concise nuggets and then transfer those nuggets into images (I will likely use icons, especially those from The Noun Project, to begin). I am not an artist but I can trace and Procreate allows for that quite easily. Finally, it made me so much better to hear Sylvia say she traces as well. Tracing has too often felt like “cheating” to me. No longer!

13510953_1020426074659247_806897448404766375_n

  • go through the new BreakoutEDU bus with three complete strangers who have now become a part of my PLN. Our team, “Once Strangers, Now Friends” had the fastest escape time for Day 1. Go team!

13534276_860632110708098_389158937_n

 

  • spend two hours volunteering at the BreakoutEDU bus, giving back to the community that has given me so much over the past year. It allowed me to connect face to face with many of my PLN AND be a part of sharing the BOE movement with more people.
  • attend the EdCamp organizers meet-up where, again, I was able to see my digital PLN come to live before my eyes. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

13501876_10154305681223633_4451940270727561479_n

 

  • sit in a quiet hallway, charging my phone and decompressing a bit. That soon led to a conversation with some who recognized me from Twitter. A conversation that would have never happened with the previous ISTE strategy.

And all of that (and more) was Day One!

Day Two is half over and the trend continues (another blog post will share my takeaways after the day is done). As a matter of fact, as I sit here typing, I took a break when someone (I hadn’t met face to face) introduced themselves and we had a great chat.

THIS is what ISTE is about for me this year. The gadgets are cool; the sessions, informative (and a chance for many of my friends to share their awesomeness); the activities, well, exhausting but also entertaining because of the people attending. And, now, I will get off my computer and, well, do something. Not sure what yet but I have no doubt, it will be awesome.

awesome

Elementary Students Tweeting

I was so inspired by Alice Keeler’s recent post, Class Twitter Account: How Your Students Can Tweet, that I decided to take her idea and generate a Google Form for our soon-to-be-instituted elementary school student tech team to allow them to quickly submit tweets for consideration by our new Twitter feed. That part was easy but I also wanted to make it easy for them to see the Twitter feed as well. I decided to make a Google Sites page containing the embedded Google Form as well as a Twitter widget of the feed. For some reason, I just couldn’t get it to work so I headed to Google Search. I landed on a Tech Tip published by the IT folks with West Hartford Public Schools: Embed a Twitter Feed – Google Sites.

The steps are pretty straight forward if you don’t mind digging into HTML a bit. They suggest using Note Pad but I used Dreamweaver. If you are looking for an alternative HTML editor, try TextWrangler.

I created a Google Sites page and made it totally blank (or at least as blank as I could make it) and set the width to 100%. I embedded the Google Form I created on one side of the page and the Twitter Feed on the other. The end result looks like this:

tweet-page

Sadly, Twitter is blocked on our campus so a big gray area comes up when viewing this on campus.

Screen Shot 2016-05-31 at 11.02.41 AM

As a way around that, I headed over to IFTTT. I started with appending the tweet to a Google Sheet that I was going to embed in the Google Site. It just didn’t look right. I tried appending the tweet to a Google Doc which, again, just didn’t work for me. I ended up using a recipe to create a Blogger post every time the account tweets. I chose to grab the RSS feed for that blog and embed that beside the submission form. It still isn’t very pretty but, for now, it is functional.

Screen Shot 2016-05-31 at 10.58.37 AM

I’m looking forward to getting more of our elementary students practicing their digital citizenship skills while also highlighting the great work our students are doing at my school.

 

 

Five Faves: Chrome Extensions

Always on the lookout for handy lists? Here are five of my current favorite Chrome extensions.

Google Similar Pages – Discover webpages similar to the page you’re currently browsing. Enjoying the page you’re looking at and interested in other similar pages? Trying to find more pages about a topic you’re researching, but having a hard time coming up with the right query on Google? Google Similar Pages can help!

"Google Similar Pages: Chrome Extension
Chrome extension source viewer – Adds button to show the source code of a Chrome extension (crx file) in the Chrome web store (and elsewhere if wanted). View the source code of any Chrome extension in the Chrome Web store without installing it.

Chrome Extension Viewer
Google Scholar Button – Lookup scholarly articles as you browse the web. This extension adds a browser button for easy access to Google Scholar from any web page. Click the Scholar button to:

  • Find full text on the web or in your university library. Select the title of the paper on the page you’re reading, and click the Scholar button to find it.
  • Transfer your query from web search to Scholar. Press the Scholar button to see top three results; click “full screen” in the lower left of the popup to see them all.
  • Format references in widely used citation styles. Press the quote button in the popup to see a formatted reference and copy it into the paper you’re writing.

scholar-button
Make a GIF – Thanks to Holly Clark for this one! Quickly make animated GIFs! Warning – this is addictive!

make-a-gif
Extensity – Tired of having too many extensions in your toolbar? Quickly enable and disable any Chrome extensions. Just enable the extension when you want to use it, and disable when you want to get rid of it for a little while.

extensity
What are YOUR favorite extensions for Google Chrome? Post in the comments!

A Busy Summer Ahead

Here in the Memphis, Tennessee area, we are entering our final week of the 2015-16 school year. For me, that includes finalizing plans for summer conferences and professional development offerings. As usual, I have overpacked my schedule and adding graduate school courses to the mix is probably going to push me over the edge. However, most of the conferences at which I am presenting involve sessions I’ve done before so they only need a refresh. Many of the gatherings will have me on the other side of the podium which is far more relaxing that overbooking myself with presentations. I am super excited to be able to see (and, in some cases, meet for the first time face to face) so many in my PLN.

Here is where you might run into me over the next couple of months:

North Alabama Featuring Google for Education – June 2 & 3, Florence, AL (Presenting: Gobs of Goodies from Google; BreakoutEDU)

Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Teacher Academy – June 6, Memphis, TN (Attending)

LSS Technology Session – June 8 (Presenting: Hands on with Google Drawings)

LSS Technology Session – June 9 (Presenting: Hands on with Google Slides)

Illinois Summit Featuring Google for Education – June 15 & 16, Homer Glen, IL, outside Chicago (Presenting: Gobs of Goodies from Google; Build Your Own Chrome Extension; Getting Started with Google Apps Script)

LSS Technology Session – June 21 (Presenting: Hands on with Google Docs)

LSS Technology Session – June 22 (Presenting: Hands on with Google Forms)

PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator Summit – June 25 & 26, Denver, CO (Attending)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2016 – June 27, 28, & 29, Denver, CO (Mostly attending. Will be presenting “Hands on Activities w/Google Drawings” at the ISTE Google Playground (Table 3) on June 28 at 2 pm.)

LSS Technology Session – July 6 (Presenting: Become a Google Apps for Education Guru)

EdCamp US Department of Education – July 8, Washington, D.C. (Attending but hope to facilitate a session)

Tennessee Educational Technology Association (TETA) Summer Institute 2016 – July 12, 13, & 14, Collierville, TN (Presenting: Gobs of Goodies from Google; BreakoutEDU)

TETA Summer Institute 2016 Teacher Day – July 15, Collierville, TN (Presenting and Event Chair)

LSS Technology Session – June 19 (Presenting: Hands on with BreakoutEDU)

LSS Technology Session – June 20 (Presenting: Hands on with Google Classroom)

Tech Day at West Carroll / McKenzie Special School Districts – July 21, Atwood, TN (Presenting: Google Classroom; BreakoutEDU)

Google Geo Teachers Institute 2016 – July 25 & 26, Mountain View, CA (Attending)

In and among all of that I will be spending some time visiting family and taking my last two pre-dissertation courses through The University of Memphis: IDT 8600 – Seminar in IDT Research; EDPR 8562 – Designing Qualitative Research.

I hope to run into you at one of these events. I am very much an introvert and quite shy but love meeting folks from my PLN and talking about education and all things techie. If you see me, please say hi.

 

 

Back To Top