Education technology and game-based learning resources, tool tips, innovative pedagogical musings, and general "thinkalouds" of a Digital Learning Consultant. Follow my educational journey on Instagram, X , Threads and Bluesky @watsonedtech, my Facebook Page (facebook.com/edtechelixirs), and the blog hashtag #edtechelixirs. Note that opinions are mine alone, and reviews/mentions of edtech products do not qualify as an endorsement. Subscribe to the blog at bit.ly/signupedtechelixirs.
Showing posts with label concurrent classroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concurrent classroom. Show all posts
Like many districts across Kentucky, tomorrow is Shelby County's first day of school: my ninth one since joining the district in 2014. Also tomorrow, back in the district where I live, my youngest daughter will be starting sixth grade. I'm definitely experiencing a lot of emotions as I look back both at my professional journey in Shelby as well as thinking about my daughter reaching the halfway point of her schooling.
Today, however, was celebration and kickoff. Shelby held its Opening Day ceremonies at the Martha Layne Collins High School gym. One of the highlights was members of the Shelby County High School Rockets choir treating us to a lovely rendition of "True Colors":
In the opening remarks, there was discussion about promoting the legacy and story of Shelby County, including our recent mention in Forbes!
A quick recap for context: back in 2020, Lora Shields (the former Shelby County Public Schools Staff Developer) and I co-created and co-led our first "Shelby Speaks" vodcast series where we interviewed staff during the pandemic to share their challenges, their successes, and how their learning was going to be applied post-pandemically. Several months later, I created and led the second "season" in the vodcast series, with SCPS teachers sharing strategies on how to teach in a hybrid/concurrent model. The vodcasts were highlighted in a national report by Next Generation Learning Challenges -- with Shelby the only Kentucky district mentioned by name. (For more on the report itself, click here; for more on the vodcast series, click here.)
Explain Everything is a tried-and-true digital whiteboarding tool that has been around for many years, although in full disclosure mode, I have been more familiar with a similarly functioning iOS app ShowMe (one I've mentioned several times on this blog). Both of these have mainly been known as tablet apps. However, I discovered that Explain Everything now has a browser-based version, and even if the phrase "game changer" is way overused, I think it applies here -- especially if you're looking for a useful presentation tool while facilitating a concurrent or virtual classroom.
How does it work?
Firstly, you will want to make an account. Free is an option (but see "Downsides" below for more on the paid options); you can use Google or create an account through any email. This will enable you to save and revisit "Projects" as well as collaborate with others. When you first use the site, you need to allow it to access your microphone.
Explain Everything can be used presentationally or collaboratively. Its robust features that differentiate it from other types of whiteboard tools start becoming apparent from the minute you launch it -- you can choose a blank canvas, but several useful project templates are also available like storyboard, timeline and Venn diagram.
This is an example of the Explain Everything template "Meeting."
Your annotation and presentation tools are along the left side. They include the usual suspects such as a Hand (selector), Draw, Highlighter, Eraser, Shapes, Text, Add Media, and a laser pointer. You can zoom in and out of your Project in the bottom left.
Another innovation for Explain Everything is how collaboration can occur. In the upper right, once you are signed in, you will see an Invite Code for your Project. This can be shared so that others can instantly join you, from either entering the code at the main Explain Everything site or as an option when someone first launches the browser app.
If you click on this invite button, you can see other options. You can share a URL to your Project, change your access permissions (for example, anyone with the link can only view), or change the Scenario from the default of "open collaboration" (everyone works together freely) to "presentation" or "interactive broadcast" if you plan to screenshare your Project. Using your microphone can allow your collaborators / viewers to hear you as you whiteboard.
Lastly, there is a screen capture tool that allows you to record, or screencast, whatever is within an adjustable frame, which can also include you narrating from your microphone. Creating a screencast will also open up some video editing features, but there are limits in exporting video with a free account. (Note that when "Adding Media," one of the options includes using your webcam to take a picture; you can also insert existing audio.)
For a short overview of how the internal screencasting and clip editing can work, watch the following video (2:04):
How could you use it?
Explain Everything creates an immersive interactive space to collaborate and ideate with colleagues. Students may do the same, especially with working through a compare/contrast of two concepts, making a storyboard plan before recording a film, or capturing prototype ideas during design thinking.
You could also use the tool presentationally to an audience. This audience could be experiencing your Project live via screensharing during a teleconference meeting, or asynchronously by watching a screencast recording.
Lastly, and obviously, Explain Everything is perfect for a concise explanation of a concept or process, in a way more engaging than simply narrating as you click through static slides. Explaining math processes in particular would be a natural for such a tool.
You might consider getting around the limitations of video exporting by screencast recording with another tool (like Screencastify or Screencast-o-matic), but the trade off would be the inability to use Explain Everything's internal editing, or potentially sharing videos on its own cloud service.
Downsides?
The free version of Explain Everything only allows up to 3 projects, 1 slide per project, and 1 minute of exported video. Because of these limitations, you will likely want to consider getting a paid version of the tool. Current pricing is reasonable, however; for $24.99 a year, you can have unlimited projects, slides, and recordings, as well as 1 GB of cloud space. Also, if you use Chrome, make sure hardware acceleration is on or else you will have to use another browser.
Explain Everything was already (and remains) a highly useful tablet app, but this new browser-based version means theoretically that any laptop or Chromebook can now use it too. Consider it as an alternative to Google Jamboard or Padlet the next time you want to collaborate in a small group, or as a new way of presenting your ideas to an audience.
Do you use Explain Everything? Do you have a different favorite digital whiteboard tool? Share in Comments below!
Back in May of last year, I shared in Edtech Elixirs that Shelby County launched a vodcast series on YouTube titled "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward." The videos consisted of interviews with our district educators which focused on answering two main questions: what new things are you trying during this non-traditional instruction (NTI)/emergency distance learning, and how might that transform your teaching or classroom in your future?
In November 2020, I discussed our support for teachers attempting a concurrent/hybrid model of teaching (i.e. teaching students at home and in person at the same time). One of the important pieces of this support was creating a Concurrent Classroom Dashboard Doc, which contains resources, tips and strategies; as part of those resources, we were blessed with Shelby educators who created self-made videos to share what they were doing that was helping them be more effective. Via screencasts, recorded teleconferences, or cellphone filming, our staff discussed everything from hardware configurations to online discussion strategies to virtual classroom management to basic blended learning best practices. In several cases, educators that shared their reflections in "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward" returned to discuss how their experience last spring led to continued growth and success this fall.
We soon realized that was a lot of valuable footage which could be helpful beyond our own district needs. What could we do with those videos? And how could we further celebrate their work beyond the Dashboard Doc?
The answer to those questions -- and the bringing together of both threads above -- lead us to our newest vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: The Concurrency of Our Classrooms." The videos are on our Shelby County Public Schools YouTube channel, and the Playlist for the series is here. When all editing is finished, we plan on publishing a total of thirteen episodes.
As an excellent example to showcase the series, here's episode 3 with Kelly Hudson. Ms. Hudson, an eighth grade ELA teacher at East Middle, emphasizes the importance of consistency and norms in a concurrent classroom. She also shares her digital organizational structures to ensure that learning is the constant, regardless of where the students are located, or whether it is a synchronous or asynchronous environment:
We definitely are grateful to Kelly and our other Shelby educators who took the time to make the original videos. Special thanks to our district PR Coordinator Cyndi Skellie for editing the footage and publishing our newest series!
We hope you find these educator insights helpful in these challenging times.
Like nearly all districts in the world right now, our instructional classroom model has to remain, to put it mildly, flexible. We began the school year with non-traditional instruction (NTI) with students at home. We then gave students the option of "@Home" or "@School." In some schools, the numbers of these two categories allowed a teacher to teach only virtual students while another teacher taught only the students in person. However, the reality is that the proportionality of student numbers often made such binary choices impossible, combined with the fact that a temporary quarantining of an entire classroom or athletic team made such numbers at best a moving target. More often than not, our staff have had to adapt to a new concurrent model of blended learning, teaching a roster of both @Home and @School students synchronously and asynchronously. And as of this posting, our state governor has mandated NTI to begin for all secondary Kentucky schools next week and will last until at least the end of the year (and elementary schools until at least December 7).
As educators, we are all leaning on each other to thrive and progress forward in such challenging times.
School leaders have been generous to share their thoughts, advice and expertise about teaching during a pandemic in nearly real time. The humble purpose of this entry is to throw my own hat into that ring, and to share some of our district resources as well.
Firstly, here are my top 5 tips to consider when planning for edtech in concurrent and NTI classrooms:
1. Reflect on your "learning hub" (Google Classroom, Bitmoji Classroom, learning management system [Edmodo, Schoology, Empower, etc.], website page) through the lens of your student and your parents. Get feedback from a non-educator spouse, relative, friend. Is it:
easy to find?
consistently used?
simple to navigate?
2. When using a digital tool, evaluate it through an appropriate lens. For example:
Consider your mission, vision, core values. How does the digital tool integrate with what you believe is important for student learning? For example, we have recently drafted SCPS CBE Core Design Principles, and our district page with highlighted/recommended edtech now makes concrete linkage to how these tools connect to such principles.
Think of the tool via functions of engagement, a phrase I learned from the very useful and recently published The Digital Learning Playbook (Fisher, Frey, and Hattie, pages 104-111). For example, does the tool involve finding, using, creating or sharing information? Will it enable opportunities for self-directed inquiry or for robust peer-to-peer discussions?
3. Avoid digital tool fatigue not only for yourself, but especially your students and parents.
Always remember your academic objective. If a student must spend more time learning how to navigate and use the tool rather than learning and applying content, reconsider your choice.
Start simple and slow. Better to use three tools deeply all year long than three dozen superficially in a month.
Vet every tool beforehand as much as possible from a student's perspective before implementing it in a lesson plan. A third grader may use it differently (or have different challenges) than a sophomore in high school. From the hardware perspective, will it work on the student's device? Is the site unblocked on the district's network?
4. Always make a backup plan. At some point, things will inevitably not work for some, if not all, of your students. How will they ask for help? What should they do instead if there is an issue or delay?
5. Concurrent doesn't always have to be digital work. Analog work is not only okay, but recommended occasionally for a change of pace. If you can plan a weekly system for students and parents to pick up physical math manipulatives, photocopied work kits, etc. at your school location, do so and communicate accordingly.
Secondly, with the generous help of our Staff Developer Tracy Huelsman, our Instructional Coaches, our technicians, and our teacher leaders, we have created a Shelby County Public Schools "Concurrent Classroom and @Home Dashboard Doc." This is not only a curation of various outside resources but a collection of internal ones as well, including videos/screencasts made by our staff that highlight their innovation and solutions to make concurrent classrooms effective. (Note that while most of the hyperlinked resources are open and helpful to all, some doc access may be limited to our SCPS domain or specifically apply to SCPS needs.)
Here is a video I made to briefly highlight the Dashboard Doc (7:05):
Last but not least, here are some other resources I've created.
This is a screencast video about the opportunity for students to take Virtual Field Trips that I made during last spring's NTI (38:16):
Here are some blog entries from the past year that may help:
"Nearpod, SAMR, and Transitional Pedagogy" (9/3/19; may be helpful to put NTI and Concurrent Classrooms in the context of transformational teaching and deeper learning edtech integration)
