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!