Stream Teaching- Part 3, Not so passive learning

I've had a vision for this process ever since I saw it being implemented by a friend in South Florida. My goal has always been for the students on both campuses to be active participants in the sessions. I've never wanted the students at Jones to just be passive listeners and viewers of my class learning. Today, I felt like we entered a new phase of learning between the sections.  All the students were able to see the other students responses to questions I asked to the whole class, they were able to respond to them, and we all learned together.

Today, we tried to create a more interactive environment for the students.  The past few lessons, we've wanted to get the students more engaged, but haven't figured it out.  We met as a team to discuss this.  The platform we are using, Safari Montage Live, has some great features in it like a chat box for discussions and a poll feature for answering questions.  We tried this previously with TodaysMeet, but it just moved too quickly for the students to actually see what the other students were saying.  The chat feature today allowed for the responses to be seen longer by all the students and both teachers so we could respond to what they were thinking and saying.  I was actually able to respond directly to students at Jones.  I asked them to expand on their comments, or to tell them that I agreed with what they were saying.  I told one student that she had some good insight, and I was able to hear her say thank you back.  I asked one boy to elaborate on his response, and he did so with more details.  It was great to encourage them to think deeper.  I think it helped them seeing my students responses as well.  I think it is definitely a step in the right direction.  We are talking about having the students work in collaborative groups between campuses for activities using Google Docs and other collaborative tools.  We have a lot of room to grow, but I'm excited about where we're heading.

If you are interested in learning more about this, please email me: stewart.parker@ocps.net. If you are interested in seeing what we are actually doing, I can send you an invite to view our sessions as well.  We are always looking for suggestions for making this even bigger and better.

Stream Teaching: Part 2-- Our First Day

Today was the day.  We had a few dry runs last week to figure out some technology issues.  We figured we had as much figured out as we could, and we needed to give it a go for real.  David and I planned to do a lesson where the students would work in groups to create a list of characteristics they believed would be used to describe More Developed Countries (MDCs), Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs), and Less Developed Countries (LDCs).  We figured this would be a great way to have the class interact with each other in a non-threatening way because neither group had been exposed to these concepts in class.  This activity was created as a type of pre-assessment for the class.

We don't have exactly the same bell schedule, so that will definitely pose a few issues as we move forward in the year, but I figured a way to get my students working on something for the 5 minutes before David's day began.  Once his class started, we got going with the lesson.  The students were in groups on their respective campuses figuring out what qualities they believed would be used for MDCs, NICs, and LDCs.  After 5 minutes, we came back as a whole class to discuss it.  Both David and I were at the board collecting the answers from both campuses.  I would have my groups share out for the students at Jones to hear, and we would write the answers on the board.  David would have his students then share out what they had come up with for the qualities of the types of countries.

There are still some kinks to figure out (sound being the biggest one to overcome), but I can not even begin to say how happy I was with the overall lesson and set up.  I am even more excited now about the future of the program.  I know there will be days that I will say it was a complete disaster, but that happens in my classroom sometimes as well.

We've scheduled our next session for Friday.  I will be updating the blog after every installment (well, at least that's my goal here).

Until next time...

Stewart

Stream Teaching part 1-- A New Adventure

This year, I am trying something that I've never done before, and I've only seen done by one other school.  Now, this isn't to say this type of teaching isn't being done around the country or world, but I've not seen anything like it before.  We've combined the aspect of team teaching with live streaming to create our "Stream Teaching."  I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this project.

So what exactly is this "Stream Teaching?"  I am partnering with a teaching at one of the lowest performing schools in our district.  Through this partnership, we will be team teaching our classes a few days a week using a program, Safari Montage, Live!  David is a brand new teacher and thus a first time AP Human Geography teacher.  David and I will be connecting our classrooms by live streaming both of them.  I will begin the teaching process since David is learning not just content, but also classroom management and other skills you pick up your first year teaching.  So, David's students will be watching me teach the lesson just as if they were in my classroom with my students.  I will be projecting his class on a screen on my side wall so that the classes can interact with each other when the time comes.  My goal is to not create two individual classes, but one class on two campuses that are interacting and learning together.  I don't want this to be just a class for David's students where they just watch me teach and watch my students learn.  I want to create an environment where the students are seamlessly learning together.  I want them to know each other and learn from each other.

I cannot wait for the first lesson to happen.  We're almost there.  I will be posting about this experience throughout the year.  Hopefully, you will join us on our adventure this year!

Augmenting High School

As I see more and more Augmented Reality being used in the classrooms, I am surprised how little I see it in the high school.  Most of the apps and such are designed for younger learners.  I've seen the power of this technology in a high school classroom, and I want to see used more!

Why should we see more Augmented Reality in high schools?

1.  High school students want to be engaged.

There have been blog posts and articles written about following a high school student for a day.  The bloggers comment on how little the students moved or interacted with other students.  Their day is filled with a lot of sitting and getting.  I know this is the case in my class some days as well.  High school teachers believe the information we are giving is so important that the students need to get it from us first hand.  Giving the students interactive lessons creates a more engaged classroom which, in turns, creates more retention of material.  I have seen this first hand as my students did significantly better recognizing population pyramids using an AR lesson than students in the past that did the same lesson without the Augmented Reality.  The students want engagement.

I have found this even more true with my standard World Cultural Geography course.  These students, for the most part, are not in many honors classes.  They feel all the cool applications and technology in education are saved for those students in Honors or AP classes.  So, when I introduced some basic augmented reality lessons in that class, the engagement increased dramatically, any discipline problems were non-existent on those days, and they didn't want to leave because they weren't finished!  It has changed that class in amazing ways for me.  I look for ways to incorporate the technology in meaningful ways in my geography classes all the time now.

2,  High school students feel all fun is out of learning.

Augmented Reality is "fun" to the students.  They love using their phones in the classroom for true educational learning.  The enjoy the excitement that comes with using Augmented Reality.  One of the government teachers on campus did a lesson using Augmented Reality.  I talked with one of the students, a senior, about the lesson.  He said it was a lot more engaging and fun (his word, not mine) than the usual lessons.  It takes a lot to impress a senior in their last semester of high school, but Augmented Reality did that!  He had fun that day in class.  Our English teacher created a lesson, and after using it in class one day, a student tweeted out the experience because it said it was the coolest thing he'd ever done in an English class!

3.  High school students love to create their own Augmented experiences.

What I've found most exciting is getting my students creating content.  We all know that when a students creates something, they are learning more than just sitting and listening.  When I had my students first create their experiences, they were thrilled (and surprised) with how easy it was to create something that looked so difficult to create.  Many of them loved creating augmented experiences, and have continued to do so for other projects in other classes.  They know are looking for ways to incorporate this technology in all aspects of their education.

High school teachers, please consider using augmented reality in your classroom.  It will radically change your classroom and your students.  It is worth the time and effort.

Augmenting Mapping Labs

I love using maps in my geography class.  I believe teaching a geography class without using maps is just like teaching an English class without reading anything, or a science class without performing any experiments.  It is how we as geographers see the world.

One of the best resources I've used for years is TCI's Geography Alive Mapping Labs.  They are a great way for students to see various aspects of a region.  The students would use the placards provided by TCI and a transparency with a map as the overlay to locate where things are.  This is a great skill for the students to acquire, but it became troublesome.  The transparencies would began to smudge and not be usable after a few classes, students would be absent so they would have to come in sometime to complete the task, or the placards would get ruined.  All of these problems were solved when I augmented the lab!

Now, all the student needs is the target image and a device with the DAQRI app, and they can complete this assignment wherever they are.  My students have loved the augmented mapping labs.  It really has increased their engagement in an already engaging learning experience.  Here are the targets I've created for the lessons.

Target for Monsoon Asia Mapping Lab

Target for Latin America Mapping Lab

Target for Africa Mapping Lab

Target for Southwest Asia Mapping Lab

Target for Europe/Russia Mapping Lab

Target for US/Canada Mapping Lab

Student Created Augmented Reality Target

I love augmented reality and using it in the classroom.  I've had students create before using various platforms, but I wanted my students to start creating with DAQRI's 4D studio.  I had them create their own DAQRI 4D studio accounts, scheduled time in the media center, and let them create.  It was a hard task to start because the creation studio was more difficult for them to learn than I expected.  But most got the tool much quicker than many of the teachers I've worked with before, which didn't surprise me at all.

As I circulated throughout the computer lab, I notice the students were talking about what they were going to do to make their experience more interesting and exciting.  It was great because they were searching for the best way to describe and show popular vs. folk culture.  They knew these would be posted around campus, and the other students would be able to look at it.  Knowing this made some of them even more engaged in the activity.

We were in the lab for 3 days.  At the beginning of the 3rd day, I had the students publish their experiences so they could see what they had done so far.  In all of my classes, it got a rowdy when they viewed their experiences for the first time!  They were so proud of their work.  They were calling their friends over to see what they made.  It was awesome!

Here are just a few of the targets the students created.  I can't wait to see what they will do with this throughout the year.  I'm excited about the potential!  If you are considering using 4D studio with your students, please do!  It is a project they will be excited about creating and showing to their friends and family.

*** To view these, download the DAQRI app (it's free) and then scan the images.  You can do it on the computer to see them.  There is no need to print them out.***

Augmented Reality Takes Over Winter Park

September 24-26 were some pretty amazing days at the Winter Park 9th Grade Center!  Brad Waid and Drew Minock were on campus training the entire faculty on augmented reality and using DAQRI in the classroom.  I cannot say how impressed I was with the faculty.  We are a great group of teachers, but technology forward group really isn't something I would use to describe us.  Brad and Drew did a great job with an overview of what DAQRI and augmented reality is, so the faculty was ready to come back the next day to create DAQRI lessons.  Some of the teachers have shared what they created during our training sessions.  Here are some of the things that have been created and already used in the classrooms at Winter Park's 9th Grade Center!

This is a map I created for my World Cultural Geography classes.  Every unit, we look at maps to learn about the region.  Prior to creating this map, the students would each have a transparency to overlay on a base map.  The problem came that I lost base maps, the transparencies would smudge, and students could read them anymore, and I students would only be able to work on this activity in my classroom.  Now, all of those issues have been resolved with DAQRI.  Check it out!

An English teacher created this map for his students while they read The Odyssey during the 3 hour training in the morning and then used it in his class that afternoon.  It's impressive!

One of the Biology teachers was uncertain about using the technology in her classroom and taking the time to create it.  She make this experience of the cell.  It is quite impressive.  She was very excited to show Brad, Drew and I on Friday.  She even took time at Open House to talk with the parents about it.  I'd say she sees the power augmented reality!

The Physical Education teachers decided they wanted to make a target to hang in the weight room for the students to know how to properly use the machines and what exercises they could do to strengthen specific muscles.  This will allow the student to stay active even if they've never used the equipment before because they now have video of a professional using the same equipment they have in the weight room.

One more of mine... this is the lesson that started me on my augmented reality pathway.  I have the students analyze population pyramids and discuss what's happening in the country.  Using DAQRI, I took it to a new level.  My students loved this lesson this year, and many of them picked the wrong answer just to get the response they get when wrong.  This is just one pyramid, there were 10 of them throughout the classroom.

I hope this inspires others to start using DAQRI 4D Studio.  It is a great tool to enhance learning in the classroom.

Stewart