Timed Test of Two Technologies

Today the students helped me perform an experiment timing the new equipment against the old. We set up two Chromebooks and scrounged up two of the old laptops. Everything was set up with the black screens. We timed how long it took to go from black screen to Drive. Four students worked at each setting and called out the word Drive when they had successfully accessed their Drive.  The results were amazing:

Chromebook 1 -- 24 seconds
Chromebook 2 -- 28 seconds

Laptop 1 -- 5 minutes, 40 seconds
Laptop 2 -- 10 minutes, 30 seconds

Even if the lowest laptop time to access Drive, 5 minutes, is considered, that would mean 4 1/2 class periods of the 44 days of instructional time to get to the work that needs to be done for the course. Rounding up the Chromebook time to 30 seconds would bring the lost instructional time to 22 minutes.

blog.thistle.com

Minutes to Seconds

luxist.com

Additional aspect of the change from laptops to Chromebooks: timing the start up.

The students want to do an experiment tomorrow. We going to set up two laptops and two Chromebooks to time how long it takes to get logged into Chrome on each one.

I feel certain we know the fastest option, but how fast?  What measure can be put to the time it takes to get into the task at hand?

Chromebooks arrive, orientation is done....

Today the Chromebook orientation happened with all four classes. The IT Department specialist visited from the School Board Office to walk the students through the process of logging into the network then signing onto Chrome. The various classes addressed the orientation in different ways.

After the business of getting onto the network and into their work was accomplished, first period [class of students new to this research course] spent all their time playing with background images and avatars and basically playing with the look of their Chrome profile. When they were told the students who come after them on the machines may change the background, they were a little bummed but not enough to stop experimenting with uploaded images.

Using the Chromebook webcam as a tool.

Second period [the research course veterans] immediately began to use the Chrome Books as a tool. One student doing a project about chickens and eggs had made a stuffed chicken as part of presentation showing how chickens are crammed into a battery cage. With the help of her colleagues, she shot a picture of the chicken with the Chrome Book webcam and sent it directly to her blog. We posed it with proper lighting and staging -- it looks like a studio photograph.

The students explored settings and options. Two discovered they had access to YouTube, an application we are not supposed to access, and a discovery I was thrilled with because that meant the YouTube videos on our class Google Site would be accessible. But, as is the case, someone spilled the beans to IT as though it was a new trick he learned how to do...which of course IT snapped to immediately. Other students kept giving the student the evil eye saying in meaningful ways. "NO, you are mistaken as usual!"  No middle schoo student likes to be shut down, so he fought back proving that yes, YouTube exists! The veterans took the opportunity to go to Google Site for the class and watch the tutorials for the course.

Later in the day there was no YouTube.

Tomorrow will be their first day using the Chrome Books for their work. It will be interesting to find out what their perception of how learning and research has changed.

Mid-Semester Survey

Actually, the Chrome Books arrived right at mid-semester, the perfect time since the class moves from the lessons right into the active research for their projects.

With the new equipment now in-house, it is a good time to catch immediate perceptions with a survey. Today, I am considering a survey limited to 4 or 5 items to gauge the immediate perception of the differences between old and new ways. After conferring with my adviser, the questions will focus on work differences. Initially the questions will have a ranking scale, each one followed up with a short text question for further comment:
1--getting the work session started (logging on);
2--accessing resources;
3--collaborating with others;
4--amount of work accomplished; and
5--school and home experience (comparison).

The students will have about a week of Chromebook use before I give the survey. That way the laptops will still be remembered, and they would have gotten used to the new set-up.

Although I would like to say I know what they'll say, I am curious to find out to what extend the view of their projects change when the frustration level is lowered/eliminated from the classwork equation.

godsownamycolleen.blogspot.com

...Oh NO!!!

I arrived to my office earlier than usual yesterday because I was leading a field trip at 8am and therefore needed to set up the laptops outside my door into the library, with all the appropriate cords and power strips, so the students would get the best connection possible without the librarians having to call IT.

bugeyed.usgrit.net

Upon opening the door I saw the new Chrome Books on the table where the laptops had been. I knew I was supposed to be thrilled [at any other time I would have been] but at the time I was furious. There had been no notice, no warning, or training or orientation for using the new equipment and I was leaving in 45 minutes...and leaving students with no laptops and no way to use the new stuff.

I never did so much hustling and preparation for alternative plans [Plan C] if Plan B did not work out...which was to work some political magic to get the librarians to let my students use all the library computers for two periods!  Luckily, she worked around some classes that were scheduled to arrive and my students got the desktops for the morning. Thank You Librarians! I had to make sure the IT folks knew not to do anything until I returned. I was NOT going to have my classes oriented to equipment I had not touched myself.

Later when I returned I learned the IT folks from the SBO couldn't get the Chromebooks to connect to the internet anyway. The lead expert said it was because they did not recognize our domain yet. Yikes!!  My students would have been sitting and waiting for the NEW equipment to log in?  Their confidence would be lower than it already IS!

We are scheduled for a Monday orientation so hopefully all will be well at that time.

Typewriter Boy

The student who is moving away has stopped doing his work in several of his classes. My class and the English class are taking the biggest hit with failing grades. He has stopped using his blog to post his lessons and the connections to his project about typewriters because, he says, the laptops don't work. He has the latest technology at home and when he is in class all he talks about is when he can use the collection of old typewriters I have.  Since he has essentially done the same thing in English (not producing any evidence of learning), the English teacher and I have joined forces.

commons.wikimedia.org
Underwood manual

His project is about typewriters, and all his missed and late work can be done on the old typewriters. That way he gets caught up in English and can therefore transfer a much better grade to the new school. That way he gets data he can post first-hand observations about in his blog. He will end up writing a summarized research paper describing the differences between manual and electronic typing from first hand point of view for my class. That will give me something to grade for his elective grade.

etsy.com -- Smith Corona portable

His mom is thrilled; guidance is pleased; the English teacher is appeased; the student is excited. Today was his first attempt at re-typing an essay he wrote last week but never turned in. There were a lot of mistakes, and he had to retype it (which he initially balked at until I told him that's how people used to type -- there was no cut and paste, or backspacing to delete words/letters).

  

etsy.com    

So far, success. The Smith Corona Coronet Electric Portable was the first typewriter he used for a big assignment he never turned in. It is a clean typing machine that hummed as he typed. He made a lot of mistakes and was surprised when I expected him to redo his work to have fewer errors.

The next day he tried the Royal Alpa 2015. This was the generation of typewriter that was categorized as a word processor. It came right before the personal computer.

Midway Muddling

It is midway through the semester.

The students are losing interest in the work.

Unfortunately, the equipment has begun to affect their grades. When they can't submit their quizzes, or have to fight to stay logged into their blogs, they quit. Many students did not have all the posts they were supposed to have had for the recent check. The excuses varied from 'I tried but...' to 'When I don't have to re-do it over and over, I'll do it.'

Yes, this sounds like my students are belligerent do-nothings, but they are fed up. The technology they have in their pockets, and in their lives outside of school, is a different world. School is where everything is slow and frustrating, whether is it paper or what we're doing now. They cannot use their own devices because cellphones and iPads are not allowed in school, so it is supposed to be a secret that they carry them.

Every day I watch the students try to log into Chrome over and over, only to be confronted with a System is down or System cannot be found  page that pops up showing the broken robot caricature. This week they are starting the active research using search engines, databases, and Son of Citation Machine.  They are clearly tuning out. If we had used the index cards, there would not be so much disappointment.  "When do we get the Chrome Books?'

When indeed?  I am feeling guilt and helplessness asking them to continue working this way with equipment that clearly cannot support the required tasks. In my gut I know when they finally DO arrive, I'm supposed to be happy and falling all over myself in gratitude.

Another Insight

Another aspect of 'blogging' about the lessons and the thinking process attached to the research process has been the quick turn-around remediation I can do before the quizzes. I have quick access to what the students are doing, and what  they are understanding or NOT understanding. I can check the blogs (used as journals) frequently during the week so any misunderstanding can be corrected quickly.

That's been worthwhile.

Authentic Data

Surveys can be valuable for
collecting opinions
or identifying trends.

The students are starting to work on their authentic data constructions. Interviews, surveys, and experiments generate data that can prove or disprove a project's essential question. For the surveys, the students will learn how to use Google Forms and Spreadsheets. This will be far and away a more efficient way to gather data and make graphs.

Lessons Almost Done

The research lessons are almost done....only a week away. The assessments have gone well this semester, in spite of glitches with the technology which has been documented. There are some striking differences between the paper and digital versions of this research class that are worth noting.

www.gabrielweinburg.com

1) Students are doing more writing in their blogs than they did in their journals. While it is true the students who were always writers still write, overall the amount of writing has been more extensive. The connection between the lessons and the projects has been more detailed, and have been illustrated. More connections are being made.

2) The assessments, overall, have shown the students are understanding the lessons without having to re-teach portions of the lessons for re-testing. In semester's past, the quiz would indicate portions of the lessons I thought were understood were, in fact, not. This led to re-teaching and re-testing. This semester, the first test is all that has been needed to show that students have connected concepts to their research topics. Students may miss one or two questions, but in my opinion the blog writing has helped.

3) I can access their writing without having to ask that journals be left behind. I can make comments and move on while they work. So, the students know I can see their writing immediately, they know their blog is open for others to read, and they know their parents can read the blogs. All around, it is not as easy to slip through a class period anonymously and then end up with an empty (or token) journal at the end of the week.

Frustration

Yesterday the level of frustration with the wireless connection sent several students at one school into overload, expressing by slamming shut their laptop lids and refusing to work further. Two of these students had taken the Packet 4 quiz three times without getting it to submit properly due to equipment lock-up or shut-down. The IT person for the school visited the class twice.

www.electronicstakeback.com

Today, a thought came to me about why it is that one school has more troubles than the other one with the same type/age of equipment. What I did this morning was to take all the laptops out of my office and set them up in the library where the wireless connection box sits on the check-out desk. So far there seems to be an improvement with connectivity.  Of the two classes, the IT person only had to visit once and that may have been because the student anticipated the usual trouble. By the time IT arrived (within a few minutes), the student had figured out something and all was well.  Clearly, the plan for that school is to arrive early, roll the laptops on a cart 10 feet from my office, plug them in, and we're good to go.

flatclassroomproject.org

more about Distance Learning

Some students did, in fact, access their blogs and took the quizzes. They came back to school after the snow day prepared to move on with the lesson previously planned for the day. Others had excuses about web access,  parents not willing to give up the computer, and just plain forgetting they could had access to school work at home.

In Chicago, school districts have planned distance-learning days for the purpose of practicing learning from home in case of blizzard or flu pandemic. I know very little about the results of those trials. I wonder if students get used to doing distance learning if it would be more utilized and therefore become routine.

Distance Learning

sophlylaughing.blogspot.come

A snow storm is coming. The students are excited. The students were surprised when I said they are still held  for their quiz and blog/notes check on Thursday.  Being on the Cloud allows for access anywhere and this will be the test since everything they need is available: lessons through next week, rubrics, quizzes, grades, spreadsheets, research sources....it's all there for retrieval and self-pacing.

March 1, 2013

No ChromeBooks. Students have been bringing it up everyday when their machines lock up, turn off, or lose access to Google and/or the wireless connection.  Today, students began mentioning their parents are asking.

paulgotthardt.com

Several have lost posts they've worked when their machines lock up, or turn off without warning. It takes quite a while to log in and repeatedly try to sign into Chrome to get to their lessons and blog. When I use my desktop, I get right into Chrome with no trouble. But when I use a laptop it is chancy if I can get to Chrome much less use it. Will these issues be present with the ChromeBooks?  The second school I work with has far fewer problems with the machines and the connection. The curiosity is present with those students but not like the level of frustration I see in the students during the first two periods of the day at the first school.