Collaboration Without Boundaries

Hello fellow teachers,

First of all, I would like to thank you all for allowing me the use of the Livescribe pen. It did sit for a few weeks on my to do list and in part, because I did not know how to use it. I found quickly that the pen is very user friendly. The only glitch I had was that when the battery got low it would not stop recording when hitting the button. Also, I have not used it with the notebook software yet. I have used the recording device for a few things with my Learning Assistance students which I will elaborate on slightly.

· The Livescribe pen as a spelling tool

o I originally tried it as a spelling test tool, with the student sounding out the sounds as they spelled the word. This was partially successful. Then I used it as a “pre spelling” device. Students would listen to the spelling words spelled out and then copy the words. The following week they would then do the actual test, reviewing the spelling words from the week before if they spelled them wrong. This was very successful for a student that gets the same three words wrong week after week. Also, since it is a cool gadget, the students seem to be motivated to do the activity.

· The Livescribe pen as a K/1 problem solving helper

o For one of the K/1 centers I had a pre-recorded word problem on the page. Students were to listen to the problem and then on another page solve the problem. Grade Ones wrote their “problem sentence” with the Livescribe pen so that I could review it later. My only regret was making the problem too complex. I had to go back and review the steps and make the problems simpler. I really love the pen for this task and the students did too! I think you could also add a feature with the solution so that it could be self checking.

I see on your site multiple other ways to use this device and I am enjoying seeing how other teachers are using the pen. I have thought of trying it in French class (to pre record the pronunciation of words for students to practice) and have also used it as a testing device for the vowel sounds (a sort of spelling test where I say the sound and the student writes the letter). I love the fact that students are getting the motor combined with the oral and the visual while working with this device. Thanks again for the wonderful opportunity!

Serena
LA/RT
K/1 Classroom Teacher
Intermediate French

One of the aspects that I love about digital portfolios is the idea of live recordings of students completing assessment activities. I have used the livescribe pen to record writing and thinking that students are doing with me (running records), independently (journal entries) and with other support staff in the school. We have also used our iPods/iPads to record oral reading, take pictures and record thinking or events that happen in our class.

Recently we have been working on equations in our class. As part of my assessment of the student’s understanding of addition and subtraction I gave them number sentences and students were to come up with “stories” that described what the equation described. We came back together as a group and shared our stories with each other and recorded them using the iPods.

Students were very respectful during this session listening and learning from the other students so the recording were quite good. I also would recommend using a tripod to record. I then took the footage and edited in iMovie to create these little clips which are posted on our class blog (HERE) and if students wanted to they could post them on their personal blogs (HERE). I will then take these clips and file them in their Evernote assessment portfolios as well they may choose to post them on their personal blog portfolios. I will then ask students to reflect on their story by writing or discussing them with me.  This activity created an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning, me to evaluate their progress of this concept and parents to get an direct view of their child’s undersand.
Here is an example of what we did;

How else do you use recording devices to collect data about student’s progress?  How do you have students do self-reflection about their learning?  Do you have any ideas of ways to capture student learning?

In December, my English/English First Peoples students created a scavenger hunt for their K/1 Buddies at EagleView Elementary.   The scavenger hunt idea was inspired by Laura Murray’s book, “Gingerbread Man Loose in School” but we wanted to use the Livescribe pens as the medium for leaving clues.  The Grade 10 students worked in small groups to create a 4 line poem, AABB rhyme scheme, that was place specific at the elementary school.

” This is where you go

When you sprain your toe

Here you’ll find a friend

A band-aid he will lend.”

Handwritten poems were then distributed out to the other student groups; each group had 5 different poems to record onto a Livescribe pen.  My students had used the Livescribe pens previously in class to record their own spoken word poem so they were familiar with the pens. My students were amazed to realize that their recorded voice/poem was easily accessed by simply touching the pen to a “dot” on the paper. My students were blown away, for this activity, when I used a paper punch to punch out the dot, glued it to another piece of paper and it still worked!   I wish I had recorded the demonstration because my students’ reaction was priceless! I felt as if I were a magician.

Each group was responsible for recording the 5 separate poems on the Livescribe pens, punching out the dot and gluing it to a color coded paper square.  My Grade 10 students were quick to complete these tasks; it took less than a class period in total time. The hardest part was when I had to figure out the order of the color coded groups so that we did not have 2 groups at one station during the scavenger hunt.  There must be a mathematical algorithm to figure that one out!

This was a great opportunity for both Grade 10 and K/1 students to practice their Oral Language skills!  The Grade 10 students were able to record and re-record their poems to ensure that they were clear and well paced.  The K/1 students could touch the Livescribe pen to the “dot” as many times as needed in order to listen to and solve the clue.

Do you think you would consider using the Livescribe pens in a similar way?

How do I edit the iPod video to fit fullscreen in iMovie?

Last week I used my LiveScribe pen in a meeting. I took notes as the group assigned jobs and set dates for tasks to be completed. The beauty of using the LiveScribe pen was that I was able to go back and filling in information that was not clear in my notes.
But, one must about caution using the LiveScribe pen in meetings. General rules about privacy need to be instilled in the user. I made it clear to the group that I was using a recording device and wanted to try it with their approval. In meetings it is easy to get off topic. Discussions and comments take place, which when taken out of context can be misinterpreted. Yes, the pen has a pause button, but you must remember to use it. So I began to wonder what are people’s thoughts on a recording device being used in meeting or conversations?

This past week was a very exciting time for me and my own professional learning.  In our class this week, we brought out our 3 class ipads, a few lap top computers, one  ipod and the live scribe pen all at once!  I was concerned, would students share without complaining, would those not using a piece of technology stay on task,  would everyone in our class be moving their learning forward? So what happened… complete class engagment!  Patterns were being explored with pattern blocks, and with the glowdraw app on the ipads.  Numbers were being written and recorded using various means of technology and reading was being practiced as students engaged with each other reading math story books, as well as reading the picture and label directions on various web sites.  My favourite moment was watching the live scribe pen in use.  How intriguing to see a young student so excited to write the numbers from one to ten, say them and then listen to themselves saying the numbers they had written!  There was no problem for this young student in learning to use the start and stop functions on the live scribe paper, nor was there a problem learning how to jump over (fast forward) the recordings so they could skip the recording of me giving directions and proceed right to listening to themselves!   For me,watching this student be so engaged in figuring things out, was priceless!  Not only did I get to see and hear what the child knew about numbers, I was able to listen to myself giving directions and reflect on how clear/unclear I was when instructing. Ahah… another use for the livescribe pen!  So what does this mean for next week?  It means I now need to learn how to download and post the contents of the pen, to our blog so others can see and hear also!  Happy learning everyone!  How are you learning about your method of delivery of instruction in your classroom?  Is this something we need to monitor if our students are learning?  

Happy livescribing!

Christina

So today we tried the livescribe pens!

I introduced this tool early in September to my K/1 class but have been hesitant to use it. Why? How will it work? Is this a tool that my students will make good use of?

Well today we tried.

I gave the pen to 2 students who are keen writers. One student is in Kindergarten and the other is in Grade 1. Guess what they did? Well they wrote!! Exactly like they were meant to. Their hearts were keen, their efforts amazing! I am wondering when I am going to learn to just trust the process. It will happen, it will work. To borrow a much used phrase “Just Do It!”

P.S. I had no idea that she was recording…….

My piece of our project is mainly about digital assessments.

My original idea was for students to create a digital portfolio of their learning that parents could access that was an authentic display of their child’s  progress. After much discussion with colleagues, fellow teachers on twitter and much research I realized that I needed to create 2 portfolios.

The 1st portfolio will be created by students and will be embedded in their Kidblogs.

I love kidblog.

It is simple, easy to use, free and most importantly easy to use for Grade 1′s. I am hoping the Kindergarten students who have joined us will also find it simple. Kidblog is not as flashy as some blogging platforms but I like it. I plan to use this blog as a collecting place. Students will learn to embed various online applications, add photos and add audio recordings. This blog will also be a record of each student’s writing progress. Parents and families will have access to this blog at home anytime. In all of this process my students’ safety is my primary concern. Parents have been informed all along the process. Each child has signed school AND specific classroom permission forms in order to create these blogs. We will also be reviewing and following our Blogging Guidelines

The 2nd portfolio is designed to be what I am calling an assessment portfolio.

This portfolio will also be digital, but it is my goal to work smarter, not harder. I plan to use

as my platform.

I have created an anonymous notebook in Evernote for each student. These portfolios will not be available to parents online, but will be accessed when we meet to discuss their child’s progress.   There is an option that I can share these portfolios with parents using email but I haven’t investigated this option much yet.  These notebooks will be tagged with each child’s initials so they are easily pulled up when evaluating or discussing progress.  This portfolio will include each student’s blog as well as audio recordings, photos, pdfs, livescribe pencasts and notes on progress.  As well as these assessment portfolios being evidence that is collected by me, I am hoping to have students choose evidence of their learning themselves and add a self-evaluation piece.

Wow!

Even just writing it all down makes it seem a little overwhelming. 

Is it going to be perfect the first time? No!

  Am I looking forward to learning, changing and working through this process?  Yes!

Do I need a little help from my friends? Yes!!

Please comment and let me know how you are using these tools in your classroom.  Please share links to your examples of student portfolios or how you are using technology to work smarter, but not harder.

The new school year is just around the corner,  I am starting to get butterflies in my stomach.  It has been a nice slow start up, beginning with learning modules -Touch ‘N Go newsletter4-1 that have been offered by Heather Stannard as part of our registration at  Touch ‘N Go.  One of the videos she shared with us was Philip Zimbardo’s, The Demise of Guys TED talk.  As a mother of 2 boys I was intrigued and by the end of it I was concerned.

What kinds of experiences can I craft that will give  students, particularly boys, the opportunity to learn in a social way?

I worry when I see any child isolating themselves whether it be on electronic devices or on the playground.  Some children do need quiet time to process and connect to learning, but I believe learning is social.  Encouraging children to share experiences, explain their learning and teach others helps children to connect knowledge to their lives.

My thoughts mixed with your thoughts create new thoughts.

We need to encourage the social piece of all learning.  That social aspect has been one of the best parts of this learning journey for me, how technology has been a connector of  ideas, colleagues and practices.  I want  to create opportunities for technology to do that for my students.

So I am ok with having two or three children or even  five children working together to create and learn on one device.  I am hoping that once we have learned procedures for classroom management the sharing of the devices will be a positive in that each child is not isolated, but sharing a device and learning together.

What a weekend!

On Friday, part of our order arrived and was ready to be picked up.  I spent the weekend setting up the iPads, an iTouch, and the LiveScribe Pens.  I am a PC person and so this was my first encounter with setting up and using anything Apple.  The LiveScribe pens were also new to me.

My part of this project is a student created news show called What’s Up at AJ?    We will use the iTouch to film our segments and iMovie on the iPads to do the editing.

I decided to take my first look at iMovie last night. I shot a short video clip, opened the app, and couldn’t figure out a darn thing! I tweeted that I was going to have to find a how to video to help me get started and in no time at all Jonah Salsich, a fantastic teacher in my PLN, sent me a great link to a You Tube video.

I am also looking forward to attending Touch’N Go 2011 – Cowichan Technology Camp later this month with Sarah. I am signed up for a full day of iMovie and a half day of Garage Band. Hopefully this will help get me ready for September and even if I am still stumbling a bit, I know that I will be able to learn from and with my students as we figure things out together.

Here are a few of the things I learned this weekend:
1. LiveScribe pens come with the greatest manual I have ever seen. All instruction manuals should be interactive
2. Shopping for apps in the iTunes store is highly addictive!
3. App Tracker is a great app that lists apps that have been reduced in price (found some great 2 and 3 dollar apps that were now free).
4. You cannot clone/mirror one iPad (with apps organized into folders) onto other ipads (I finally had to contact Apple customer service after many failed attempts to make this work). This was the only part of the set-up that didn’t go smoothly.
5. This is going to be one exciting year!

Christmas in August!

The summer is the most wonderful time to plan and imagine the possibilities.  This summer has been particularly invigorating as we start to think about what this project could look like in our classrooms.  Our hardware is starting to arrive and I can feel excitement building.

I only know what I know and this project is all about the things I don’t know.  So many questions are running through my head. How to manage devices in our classrooms?  What do I need to learn?   Is my head going to explode from all of this?  I also can’t wait to work with some amazing educators in my district as we stumble through this path together, committed to supporting each other.

We have been lucky enough to order Ipod touches, Ipad2s and Livescribe pens all to help families be more connected to what is happening in our schools.  We have committed to maintaining this blog as a way to document and share our learning with each other and the world!  Please check back as things get up and running, it will be updated regularly.

Just one little management idea:

How to keep all the cords, devices and other  organized.  First I found Tony Vincent’s post about Ipod Do’s and Don’ts and used his idea of numbered wallpaper, but this didn’t quite work for me.  I kept Tony’s numbers in the photo section of the Ipod so they could be easily identify but then  I made these little bags out of scrap material I had.   I took a picture of the bag and turned it into wallpaper on ipods and ipad2s.  Everyone then knows which bag to put things away in.

I’m off !