There is no privacy...

The dark side has light, and the light can
have a dark side.

Something that has occurred and is worth considering when using Google Docs is the dark side of collaboration. Some students (oddly the younger, 6th grade ones) use Google Docs as a chat room, passing comments back and forth to each other. Because they are young and haven't yet developed a sense of appropriateness, a Chromebook can be a hurtful tool. It is important that digital citizenship be taught, encouraged, and certainly monitored. It is also helpful to explain to students that within a school domain, there is no expectation of privacy. IT can see not only what exists, but what was deleted.

This is one of those times when I wonder if it wise to put the tools of technology into the hands of young people who still haven't mastered handwriting and social boundaries.

Learning from the Kiddos

Each day, I learn more and more from the kiddos who are now working almost exclusively on the cloud. We have build a trust between us that allows failure and success without reprisals. Some things we do work, some things we do don't. The beauty part has been that the more we've learned about Chromebooks and Google, the more willing we are to try new things and not be so quick to think we've met dead ends.

In addition, the students' work is becoming more sophisticated. Along with their blogs and notes, their use of databases has increased tremendously. The days of just Googling something have waned a bit.

Fall 2014

A new school year has begun and all the 6th grade students are getting Chromebooks. My research classes still have the ones I wrote the grant to get, but now my 6th grade students will have their own. Next year, all students will have them.

Initially, I can tell some students are more savvy than others. While having to walk some through the process of getting to their Drive to start and Share a Google Doc, others have already been there, Shared it, and are asking about embedding a Google Presentation they made at home over the summer into their Doc. What a wide spread of skills!

Oh My! Thank heaven the Google Site
is ready to go1

The research class has required me to adjust and, in some cases, delete, some of the lessons I routinely teach (or a should say, USED to routinely teach!). Since everyone is traveling at a different pace, I am grateful for the Google Site where all my classroom protocols, rubrics, handouts, and lessons exist. That is allowing for self-pacing and self-direction. Once that was a theory, but now that I see how broad apart the skill sets are, I am grateful for that piece of differentiation because, Oh My!, what would I do for those sitting around while I explain to one student how to find the apps grid, and then his/her /Drive?

New approach to handouts...

This semester, I'm going to try a new approach to the information available on the handouts. Instead of relying on the students to read the handouts, I'll prepare Google Presentations (ppts) with the critical information I expect them to know along with a variety of YouTube tutorials explaining the concepts: serious to comic.

More and more I see students engaged with videos. The learning videos on Khan Academy and Alex seem to engage the students for longer periods of time. Is it the chance to repeatedly see the information? Or, being able to stop and start the video as needed? I am curious to see if by using videos to teach a concept (Active Voice, for example), the lesson is applied quicker.

Last semester the students figured out how to split the screens on their Chromebooks to have the handouts side-by-side with the quizzes. They 'learned' the lessons according to the grades, but applying the lessons were a daily reminder and when the end-of-semester review quiz came along, few knew enough to pass it as a rate comparable to the previous semester (73% vs. 86% from the previous semester).

A Moment of Clarity in a Digital World

Even though the digital format of a class can make aspects of it move faster, and more akin to the speed students like, there are times when digital technology cannot replace paper and pencil....establishing proof.

The research students have to C3B4Me...a process of having 3 people read their research papers for 1) did it answer the essential question?, 2) does it make the argument in a logical and methodical manner?, and 3) is it written in active voice with no spelling or punctuation issues?   The students use a community spreadsheet to let me know they are ready by listing the three people.

The papers I read this semester canNOT have been read by three people...even if they are peers, much less teachers and parents.  Some students forgot to tell them what to read for, or 'fudged' the names entirely.  We will be returning to the form that lists the requirements for the proofreaders and asks for their signatures.

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways, and a signature is more than a name.

Guess who wrote this signature?

Letters to Future Research Students

It is the end of the semester and the time when the research papers should be written, and are not; when the displays should be almost finished, and they are not; when the students should be preparing their eye contact and speaking skills with each other, and it is not happening.  What happened?

Gifted thinkers do procrastinate for several reasons, but mostly because they believe they can whip out the work at the last minute OR they cannot make a final decision because of the number of available options. When the research was being done on index cards and card catalogs, there was procrastination but not like this semester. In the first couple semesters of this digital study, there was procrastination, but not like this semester. Today, in a verbal jam session, one student said "With speed there is no hurry to hurry because there's more time to procrastinate and see if some new information shows up somewhere."

MmMmmmm...could speed be enabling procrastination?

The students have agreed to writing letters to next semester's research students. Like advice to the lovelorn, the letters would give advice about target dates, using their blog for the practice session it is meant to be, and when speed buys extra time, use it.

Further Reflection about Digital Learning

Ruth Mellinkott wrote a cookbook
called Easy, Easier, Easiest Cookbook.
How to apply this theory to
teaching research to
middle school students!

Speed. The middle school students, almost 2 generations away from me, live in a fast and ever changing world. Although I intellectually knew this as fact, I now see I did not fully understand what that meant. Fast tools, a variety of access avenues, and individual access to information does not mean learning and/or teaching easier.  In fact, the students in the first semester of this study still had the memory of handwritten notes, and evenings of tallying surveys manually.  Each successive semester sees a growing number of students who expect more with less effort.  There is a fine line within the speed component to learning....and it's not an iPhone or a Chromebook, although those things can be part of the learning conundrum.

I see students waiting until they absolutely need knowledge before wanting it...and want the quickest avenue to get it. Asking me for the piece of information on the spot is most expedient way to access what's needed, but I am reluctant to be the parroting source of facts. I refer them to the class GoogleSite where all the rubrics, handouts, and flashcards exist along with my commentaries.  Eyeballs roll.

What's needed it seems, is a leaner GoogleSite, Blogger requirements, quizzes, and note making. Avenues where information can be accessed quickly, as needed.  The digital learning arena is a slippery slope toward student expectation that the research process should be easy, instead of easier. 

Underachievement Among Gifted Thinkers

It is apparent now that a student can be given all the bells and whistles of time and social collaboration, but if the student is not motivated into action, it is all for naught. So, we're back to how to motivate the underachieving gifted thinker! We're back to the teacher, teaching practices, and making learning real and authentic.

The student I speak of is doing a research project about survival. He has been reluctant to do much of anything outside of taking quizzes which can be prepared for, taken, and aced. What the Chrome Book is now allowing is freedom for him to document what he is doing as he builds his survival fort. In the real time action of learning, he has begun to ask questions and seek information. Taking pictures with his Chrome Book and annotating the images has breathed new life into a lethargic project.

This would certainly work for all students once they learned how to use the tool. Hands-on learning, especially in middle school, is deep learning....surely!

Student Responsibility

One situation that has become apparent with this study is the way students have been led to think they have limited responsibility for their own learning. It seems they come to class unable, or unwilling, to take ownership for what needs to be done. Parents back this notion when they contact me with concerns about their student's grades when he/she has missed deadlines, did not accomplish tasks during a grading period, or had internet issues at home for a day or two. I am expected to make everything right without mentioning the student's part in making anything right.

The biggest issue with digital learning, and using the web-based free apps, is that most students are unprepared to accept the responsibility that easy access to all necessary materials affords. They expect to be handed the work piecemeal, and pretty much dictated to about each step of learning. The education system has done that very carefully through all the grade and by the time I get them in 7th and 8th grade, students wait to be told what to do.  When tasks are not done, there are excuses, and reasons, and outright deceptions (dare I say it, lies!?). Once the excuse stage has passed, the parents are involved by whatever story is told at home to enlist sympathy.

Yes, having access to everything needed to be successful can be a blessing, but it can be curse as well. Next semester, I believe the first week will involve parents looking over the website and seeing for themselves what is available for the students to use to accomplish their work: lesson plans, rubrics, handouts, flashcards, quizzes with deadlines, and tutorials. It will also be made apparent that if there are internet issues, the student must be pro-active and ask for hard copies!  I am not a mind-reader. Gifted as I am, I have never mastered the art of knowing what's happening in someone else's home. Go figure!

Mind reading can be a messy business. Better to be
pro-active and ask for what's needed!

Testing Out -- another version of the plan

Here we are in another snow storm with a break from school, again. Some students are taking advantage of these windows of opportunities and working on their EasyBib notes and blogs. Some students, however, are falling further and further behind...as if the digital work does not exist outside of school. These few examples tend to be students who have not taken this research class previously, in any incarnation (written or digital).

All students have the opportunity to work ahead and test out of lessons. but that plan seems to cause confusion because from what I see they try to test out without reviewing the handouts and tutorials at the class website.

Hindsight: next semester, the website and test-out instructions will be sent home to students before the semester begins. In that way they arrive ready to start, either taking and applying the lessons from the beginning OR going directly to their projects. In this fashion, digital connections can be established up front before school starts. Parents will be involved immediately and students will be keenly aware of home-to-school connection of coursework.

Testing Out of Lessons

There has been a mix of students testing out of packets of lessons this semester: some veterans who want to get past the lessons to their projects and some newbies who are reading the handouts, reviewing the flashcards, and taking the quizzes.  One class in particular has 4 students -- 3 veterans (1 is a three-timer), and 1 newbie. The new student new to the course is testing out of the lessons, while the veterans are plugging along not testing out of information they should know.

Tortoise and the hare? or avoiding documenting research?  In an online Ophrah article, The 11th Hour: How Working Under Pressure Can Be A Strength, author Robert Biswas-Diener states, "Waiting until the last minute to tackle important projects doesn't mean you're a procrastinator—it could just mean that your mind works better under pressure." 

Photo Copyright 2009 by Jupiterimages Corporation

A Winter's Blessing?

Since the last post, this digital research class has had a couple challenges and therefore revelations. Overall, it is clear the motivated students will carry on no matter what external forces exert themselves. In addition, it is clear that the teacher needs to pre-plan to allow space for the high-achievers/motivated gifted to move ahead. I thought I knew this until reality clicked in and found how just how fast gifted thinkers can move!

First, there have been several instances when I could not be at class due to conferences, school board meetings, or testing overruns from one school to the other. Students know this ahead of time and will work or not depending on their willingness to push the 'I didn't know' button. To offset this occurrence, lesson plans are now posted on the classes website a week in advance.

There has been the revelation that gifted thinkers arrive knowing more about the topic than anticipated and should be allowed to move on instead of waiting around for others to learn. A fix to this, involving a lot of planning, has been to put a link on the course website with all the quizzes for the semester. When a student tests out of a packet of lessons, he or she can move on to other work.

Procrastination, a gifted trait, reared its head last semester when several students used their time to play instead of getting down to work and then became fretful toward the end when their research projects were due to be presented at an evening reception. So frequently have they been able to knock something at the last minute in their other classes that their planning skills are negligible at best. This was repaired by connecting deadlines to test-out opportunities and by making a planning calendar part of the blog rubric.

The highs and lows of a digital class are opportunities
to find and fix loopholes so students learn planning and
 responsibility skills as well as content lessons.

However, the grades and retained knowledge is far greater than it was prior to the digital format. Letting a student see what is going to be learned and giving them the tools to learn it on their own has been beneficial. It means more work for the teacher upfront, but afterward the students are doing the work. There will always be students who can get around 'the system' and in those instances there will be ways to close the loopholes.

Digital learning is still a work in progress!