Recharge Your Inner Artist - Teacher PD 2014

I presented to a group from our ISD this week about integrating creativity and technology into PBL. As usual, my session allowed for time for teachers to explore the tools and work in groups. I ran it as a project-based learning activity for them, in which they chose the content they were learning or practicing.

As I said in the presentation, I like to dump a truckload and let them sort it out.

If you're interested in the resources, you'll find two items below.

• First, here is the website where I housed the lesson the teachers worked through. There is a lot there, since I want my sessions to be useful to everyone regardless of their level of expertise with technology. The lesson is designed to be completed with any computer and possibly an iPad. They had about two hours to get started and most got about halfway through the standard project.

• And here is a copy of my slide presentation. It might not make much sense without me talking, but you'll see the main points. I compiled many ideas from this blog and my Teaching Like an Artist blog.

 

How to Be Good with Tech - Part 4

I've been posting some articles the past several weeks about how success with technology is not just about talent and experience.

Being good with tech is primarily a way of thinking.

In Part 1 and Part 3 I addressed some common myths that hold people back. In Part 2 I pointed out that successful people think "big picture" when they use technology, not step by step.

Now I want to get practical. Let’s look at the best advice I know and a few tips that will help you take it.

Tip #2: Move ahead fearlessly.

About a year after I started my job as an instructional tech coordinator I was helping a teacher learn to use a SmartBoard and student response system. She wanted to show the students an online quiz, gather answers from them and work out the problems on the board.

I spent her lunch period setting it up, then she came in the room with only a short time left before students returned. I showed her the basics of controlling the computer through the board.  I was not an expert on the equipment myself, so we ran into some glitches. I was running a demo and a test at the same time and it was going as poorly as you might expect.

As students were entering the room, I felt I hadn't given her much to work with. I probably had even made it look harder than it was. I told her I could come back later that day or early the next to figure it out. She surprised me by saying she would give it a try as soon as the students were all seated and ready to begin.

That was the first time I realized courage to move forward in the face of uncertainty beats any of the reasons to wait for preparation. After several more years of teaching people to use technology, I’ve seen this over and over...

Getting started makes all the difference. 

Imagine a spectrum where, on one end are those who avoid technology no matter what opportunities lie before them. On the other end are the people who will use it no matter what obstacles are in their way. Almost everyone will be at some point in between, but what matters most for success is which end you’re closest to.

Getting started trumps talent. Don’t think “good at tech” and “bad at tech”, as if those lead to effective use. Think “get started right now” versus “wait until ________”. Skill and knowledge follow getting started, not the other way around.

Getting started at the right time (i.e., as soon as you’re done reading this) makes everything else easier. All those misunderstandings about how hard or easy the tools are? Experience will make them disappear. Developing that big picture thinking? Start exploring on your own and you’ll see it forming in your mind.

On the other hand, have you felt the frustration of trying to get started too late? When the pressure is on, but you haven’t worked through the tipsheet since that training several months ago? Is it really a surprise that the encounter with tech ends in frustration?

Comfortably uncomfortable

The people I talk to who move ahead with new tools right away are not doing it because they’re comfortable, at least not in the ways we might think. The most innovative teachers I work with don’t have all the answers and all the bases covered in the first moment of truth. Being prepared to that level would take forever. When they jump in, they are simply comfortable with being uncomfortable.

It might look like they’re calm and collected, but they’re not resting in the familiar. They don’t know everything is going to work or exactly what they’ll do if it doesn’t. Instead of confidence in what they know, they have a confidence that they can figure it out.

It’s a step back from knowledge on the surface or all the emergency tools within reach. It’s being at ease with adapting and learning quickly, even if it’s in the heat of the moment.

This is a change in thinking, but you can start moving in that direction immediately.

Obstacles to get past

You might still see some looming obstacles keeping you from the first step.

If you’re afraid you’ll mess something up, start with something simple and small. I have my favorite example for easy exploration at the end of this article.

And remember what I said before about the tech being easier now. It’s very unlikely you’ll do serious damage when using a tool as intended. Deleted files can be recovered, crashed programs restarted and the physical equipment itself is built to take a few blows.

If you’re afraid of failing in front of others, practice will lessen this. Also (unless we’re talking tech for brain surgery) fail a few times (or have the tech fail) even when it matters. You’ll see life goes on. The times it does work will be well worth the experience in comparison to those minor setbacks.

Encouragement to move forward

If you still need encouragement, keep in mind...

Flexibility is a good thing. It is an essential skill in our quickly shifting world. Think about all the benefits to being able to deal with change. Obviously it makes for less anxiety, but think about the positive side. Being able to adapt to the unexpected will help you feel better about the situation and yourself. It’s a great relief for me to feel competent with new technology when I’m with people who are twenty or more years younger than me.

And beyond self-image, I’ve seen firsthand how important it is for others to view you as flexible. I work with administrators who oversee adults. I know how teachers view students. Whether we like it or not, flexible people are valued over inflexible. When you’re perceived as flexible and capable of learning it opens up more opportunities for you for growth and success.

I’m sure genetics and personal experience factor into our level of flexibility in new situations, but if it’s a skill, it can be developed. That won’t happen if you don’t start practicing the right thinking and the right actions.

Remember the overall goal. As I stated in my previous article, the goal of technology is not to make things simpler, but to accomplish more amazing things. The quality and quantity of your best work will improve and that’s exciting. Let the promise of accomplishing impressive things overshadow the discomfort of taking on a new tool. The clumsy first steps, the new tools you have to use but don’t care about, those are all just practice for eventually doing something big.

How successful people move ahead fearlessly

Tip #3: Know how to get back. 
Find Undo and locate the Home button. Save frequently or be sure the program automatically saves. We all make mistakes when we’re learning, but if you can get back to familiar state (even if that means rebooting the device) you can explore freely.

Tip #4: Trust the programmers.
When you forge ahead, trust that the people who set up the program did it with some logic. Trust you’ll be able to figure it out. I see some people struggle with new tools because they perceive the first error message or unexpected result as something wrong. It’s that stupid technology or that confusing computer stuff again. On the other hand, those who pick it up quickly will try to understand what caused the “problem”. They know there’s a logic behind it. There’s something to learn and they know they’ll be able to learn it given some time and effort.

Tip #5: Start with something that doesn’t matter. 
The quick studies do this a lot. When the trainer is telling everyone else where to click, the self-starters are zipping through menus and trying out buttons as they make a sample whatever. It almost certainly isn't something they'd use later. They’re not worried about doing it right. They don't feel they're wasting time. They just want to see how everything works. Try it. You might be surprised that you can do all that and still catch it when the trainer points out the real important stuff.* Better yet, do it before anyone even offers the training.

Your first assignment

So as an example of doing something relatively simple that doesn’t matter, I suggest playing around with Pixlr Express to edit a photo.

It’s a great application for fledgling explorers because it’s intuitive. It works on computers, iPads or Android devices. It has useful tools for cleaning up an image, but it's also filled iwth fun tools for adding effects and text. Just in case anyone has already used it, there’s always more to explore, better images to create and different devices to use it on.

So take 30 minutes right now to edit a photo with Pixlr Express. Use it to make something that didn't exist before. For extra credit, stick your results on Facebook when you’re done and tell everyone you wanted to do something new.

I’m not going to link to the site or tell you where to find the app. Just start with Google if you can’t find any other way. I’m resisting my teacher urge to give you a step by step** on getting a picture or importing it into the app. I'm not even putting an example here of a final result.

Your 30 minutes starts at whichever point you need to begin learning. Find the tool and do something with it.

Every minute is an investment for your future success.

Now, GO!

*If you do mess something up or you have to ask the person next to you what the trainer just said, so what? As long as it’s a rare occurrence, laugh it off. Have your impressive experiment on the screen when attention is drawn to you. Say something like, “I learn best by exploring on my own.” Maybe you’ll be an example to those around you.

**OK, I couldn't resist. If after five minutes you are still hopelessly lost, you can watch this short tutorial I made for the teachers and students in my district. Just don't count the tutorial time in your 30 minutes and be sure to do more than what I show there!

How to Be Good with Tech - Part 3

This is the third article in my series about how successful people think differently about technology than those who struggle with it.

In the first article, I addressed the myth that technology is difficult to learn and use.

In the second, I offered a tip: Step by step thinking is not a good way to learn new tools. Instead, we should try a “big picture” approach. I didn’t give much advice on how to do that, but it’s coming.

I just need to get one last obstacle out of the way first:

Myth #2: It should be easier than this.

But didn’t you say…

I originally said it’s a myth that tech is hard. Now it might seem like I’m contradicting myself, but that first article was about tech in general. That addressed the people who stay at a distance because it looks difficult. Others apparently make it work with ease, so they figure they just don’t have what it takes.

Now I’m talking about that moment when you try to learn something new and it’s more than you care to deal with.

I am often told it should be easier when I teach someone how to do a specific task. At that time, we’re more or less past Myth #1. They accept that maybe they can do this. But eventually they conclude the process is hard to remember, it has too many steps or something isn’t working exactly as it should.

We’ve all had that feeling. Certainly it should be easier than this, right?

To move past this we have to look at two factors--our expectations and our goals.

Our expectations

This is first a matter of having accurate expectations, and accurate expectations will come with experience. It’s toughest when you’re getting started because inexperience is the very thing making it seem harder than it should be.

Just remember that the required effort is what it is. Like anything in life, there are parts I wish were easier. My body requires sleep and regular trips to the restroom. Age is frustrating. Raising my two teenagers is a chore beyond what I anticipated. Heck, even the limits of time and space can still feel constraining after all these years.

I'm exaggerating, but like anything requiring work, there will be obstacles that we could point to in hopes of avoiding it. But with technology, just look at how many people just do it regularly. It can be done. If we have some ideal in our minds that it should be easier, where did that come from?* Probably not from successful experiences or trustworthy sources.

Don't let wishful thinking hold you back.

Some people are successful with new tools or challenges because they have developed an accurate feel for what to expect. They have a pretty good idea upfront (without even thinking about it) what will be required, whether it will be counted in minutes, hours or days. These accurate expectations give them the edge for success.

If they don’t seem to mind a process that looks too long or hard to remember, be assured they’ve wrestled with far worse. All of us who are good with tech have struggled with it at one time or another. I usually do my struggling alone--me against the computer, for hours--trying to make things work. Most people I train never see those times. New equipment, new programs and updates pose problems for everyone. After working through a few of those tough challenges, we can take the routine obstacles in stride.

On the other hand, when you’re unfamiliar with most programs and processes, every step is something to remember. Every procedure can seem too long and every obstacle looks like a mountain. Experience is the key to accurate expectations and in the early stages you’ll just have to remind yourself of that regularly.

The real goal 

Along with accurate expectations, people do what it takes to use tech because they know the goal is worth it. The harder the task, the more important it is to know the importance of the goal.

This reminds me of teaching math. Whenever the work got hard, I could count on someone to ask the big question: When are we going to need this?

So, with technology, why are we doing this? What is the overall goal? We could be specific if I knew your job and the tasks before you, but let’s start very general. What’s the purpose of technology?

When I ask students that, I am almost always told it is to make things easier. That is partly true. Certainly every technological advance from the wheel to the microwave oven to the mobile phone could be viewed as making some task easier. But it is dangerous to stop there. Easier shouldn’t be the final goal.

I talked to a farmer once and was surprised by how far their tools have advanced. He told me his newest tractor used GPS technology to steer itself in perfect rows across his fields. Just the tractor alone makes it far easier than trying to drive a team of horses to pull a plow, but now he doesn’t even have to steer?! While that part of the job takes far less effort due to advances, I’d be a fool to walk away thinking farming is easy.

This is true in any area of work. Some tasks become easier with new tools, but it doesn’t stop at easy. Overall we still work hard because we’re expected to get more impressive results.

Sure, some people make easier the goal, but in the big picture success comes from using the tools to increase productivity and quality. That’s the real purpose of technology.

It's huge to see this difference in thinking. Because of or in conjuction with this myth of “tech should be easier than this”, too many people spiral down this train of thought:

1. Technology should make a job easier. 
2. For guys like Mike, tech is easy. It probably does make work easier for him.
3. When I try to learn it, it’s sure not easy for me. 
4. To each his own. I don’t mind a little work. 
5. I’d rather do it the old way.

But contrast that conclusion with this fact that some of us live daily:
Every step you take toward using digital tools more effectively will increase the quality and quantity of the work you are meant to do.

I am convinced of the truth of that. No matter what you do, the best tools for the job will help you do it better.

In most cases, at least some of those tools will be digital and the skills you need will be tech skills. Helping people increase and achieve their potential in this way is exciting to me. I am grateful for the chance to do it daily.

We aim too low when we approach technology as a source of entertainment, just another thing for the job or a way to make things easier. Instead, think of it as a way to do incredible things you didn’t think were possible.

Dream big!

Here is one of my most popular images I created this past school year. It resonated with a lot of teachers, but the truth goes well beyond just a classroom setting. It's not about the tools or just getting something done. Let’s make amazing the goal!

The bottom line

Technology is changing rapidly. For any of us, it takes time and effort to learn what we need to do our best work. If anyone promises a different formula than time and effort, they’re lying. If anyone is waiting for an easier approach, they’re foolishly letting more opportunities slip by week after week.

Start with the goal of improving the quality or quantity of your most important work. Find the tools that can help you do that and set some realistic goals for learning to use them. That will require a commitment of time, but realistic goals will require only reasonable commitments. I’m not suggesting loads of hours in the weeks ahead.

Putting in the time and effort will do more than just help with the tools at hand. You’ll also quickly develop more accurate expectations. You’ll even find it will help you pick up other new tools faster too. Every step is an investment that pays off later.

Coming up

With a couple myths out of the way, an accurate picture of what success will require and some goals in mind, now we are ready to get practical. My next articles will point out specific ways some of us think about tech tools that give us an edge over those who find them challenging.

*As one who works in education, dealing daily with the process of learning new things, I find this to be a fascinating question. Where do we get this idea of how hard things should be? When do we allow the obstacle to become an excuse so we can stop? Who have we listened to and allowed to shape our ideas of what success requires? Almost anything we would call too difficult, there is someone who does it regularly without complaint. How we view the tasks before us determines how far we go. 

Google Tools for Teachers - Virtual summer PD, because tech waits for no one

Our high school is getting Chromebooks this fall, so I have been doing weekly technology professional development sessions for any teachers that want to get a jump on learning. The Google Apps for Education domain in our district will be new to them, so I made a series of videos, pointed out some existing tutorials and suggested practice that should take about 15 - 30 minutes for each session.

The videos I made have some content related specifically to our domain, but the features will work the same way with any Google account. The only difference is we restrict sharing to only accounts within our domain. If your admin doesn't restrict it or if you just have a standard Google account, you won't have the same limitations that I refer to at some points.

Here are the sessions:

Session 1:  Overview of Drive

Session 2:  Creating, editing and commenting on Google Docs (This session has a document to use for exercises, but it's only shared in our domain. You can use this copy of the document instead when you get to that part.)

Session 3:  Creating and posting assignments (I use Edmodo as the example, but the process will be similar for any classroom management system you use.)

Session 4:  Using Forms for feedback and assessment

Session 5:  Google Slides overview

Session 6:  Google Calendar overview (This one is based exclusively on videos from others sources.)

Session 7:  Making a simple website with Google Sites

Session 8:  Chrome Apps and Extensions for Education

Session 9:  Chromebook basics

Comments and feedback are very welcome so I can improve this series.

How to Be Good with Tech - Part 2

This is the second in a series of articles. If you haven't read the first one yet, it will be best to start there.

Helping teachers and students to use more technology (and working with some who resist) has driven home one point time and time again:

Being “good with tech” is largely a way of thinking.

There’s no magic involved. I'd even argue there aren't hours of training sessions involved. Instead there are mindsets and resulting practices that make it easier for some to pick up the new tools. In other words, these are things anyone can learn and improved tech skills will be the result.

So in this series I will point out a few myths the tech challenged believe that hold them back. I’ll also offer tips and strategies the rest of us use that give us an advantage in keeping up with the never-ending stream of new.

If you read through this article and, at any point, can't accept what I'm saying, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I hope to use any feedback to improve this series.

__________________

This time around I want to expose what I see as the get-rich-quick lie of learning technology. It’s a promise to those struggling the most that the job will be easier than it is. Instead of leading to success, it provides a false security and even hinders real progress..

If you've struggled with computers for years, you've most likely fallen into this misleading approach. You’ll probably think I’m making too much out of nothing. I urge you to keep an open mind as you read this, though, and try to see my point.

Instead of phrasing this as a myth to avoid, I’ll be positive:

Tip #1: When approaching a new tool or task, try to think “big picture”, not step by step.

There is a temptation to think knowing more steps will lead to success with technology tools. While it might help in the short term, I never see it lead to deeper, effective learning.

This is not just in the domain of technology. I saw it first when I tried to teach math. Struggling students would take pages of notes filled with lists of steps. They’d follow them faithfully to finish homework. Then they’d try without success to remember them all on the tests.

Now when I train teachers, those who are less comfortable with technology often ask for steps in tipsheets. They want training sessions where we go click by click through a new tool. When they realize I don’t usually start that way, they frantically write down notes thinking it will help later. When I do send a tipsheet out for some essential process, they file it away for when they need it. It's as if getting all the steps is the goal.

It’s easy to see why. Following steps can give a sense of accomplishment. The task at hand often does get done. There’s also comfort in knowing the list is nearby when needed.

The problem is I’ve never seen these teachers reach a level of competency with technology in general. Those people are the first to call when a problem arises. Regardless of how many times I explain the solution or how to work things out themselves, it never seems to stick.

When I start teaching and they start writing steps, I know right away I'll be back soon when they are stuck.

On the other hand, the students I work with in class or the teachers doing the most with technology adjust quickly to new tools. They almost never ask for step by step directions.

Preferring the steps is not a learning style. It’s a shortsighted approach that actually keeps the learner from ever seeing the necessary big picture.

Maps are better than lists

I recently had to find a friend at the University of Michigan. I haven’t driven those winding, busy streets in several years and I never really knew the layout of the campus. I don’t use a GPS, but I did grab a screenshot of the directions from my map app. I also took one of the map showing the general area.

When I neared the exit from the expressway I looked over the directions again. As soon as I got on the roads of the campus traffic was bad and I missed a turn within minutes. The name of one of the roads I was on changed at one intersection and I wasn’t sure if I was still on track. When I stopped at lights I quickly looked through the steps and scanned the scene for road signs to determine where I was in the list.

When I finally had a minute to gather my thoughts, I brought up that map instead. With just a quick glance I got my bearings straight. I knew the direction I was heading and the general direction of my destination. I knew immediately that even if I missed the next road I could take other side roads to get to the right building. I was even able to take in more of the surroundings, which will undoubtedly help the next time I have to visit.

I can’t emphasize this enough. When it comes to competency, the big picture perspective is essential to the learning process. Waiting for someone to tell you the steps and relying on lists for procedures will never be sufficient. Obstacles, problems and changes (which steps can never fully account for) will always lead to frustration in the times you most need to get where you’re going.

The best way to see that there is a real, significant difference between these two types of thinking is to ask a question to someone who is competent in any domain. Ask about directions to a location is in an area the person is familiar with. Ask a tech person to tell you the steps for some process. The first thing you’ll notice is they will have to translate from how they think about the task to steps. They never rattle off each turn or each click as if they’ve memorized them.

The thinking that leads to success comes from relationships in our mind between ideas, tools and experiences. They are connected in multiple ways like rooms in a building or locations across a landscape.  The mental organization necessary is too complex to be contained in lists of steps. A map is a better way to imagine what’s going on in the heads of those who successfully navigate from problem to solution.

A couple clarifications

To be clear, I’m not saying steps are useless. I still look up those “click here, then press this key” lists now and then. Those are best for the first time you have to use a tool to get something done. They’re handy for important tasks you only complete once in a while with tools that aren’t used otherwise. There will always be those tools you really don’t have to master and steps are good reminders.

Also, I am not offering any practical advice here on how to see the big picture. There are some things we can do to form those essential mental maps. My goal for now is only to relentlessly call out this important distinction and to point to a better way for success.

Where are we going?

I keep referring to success with tech tools, but let’s get more specific. This goes beyond just doing routine tasks. It also includes:

• Learning new tools quickly
• Applying the tools to new situations
• Communicating effectively to a variety of audiences through the tools
• Finding a solution when something goes wrong
• Using the tools in new ways to create things that didn’t exist before

These skills make up what we call technology literacy. At that level, people are thinking with and through the tools. That level of understanding is required for problem solving and meeting specific needs with the tools at hand. Achieving such a high level of comprehension requires a higher level approach.

If thinking in steps is like getting only where the roads and sidewalks already exist, technology literacy is like finding a new path to a new place no one has visited. Imagine how that’s easier with a rugged mountain bike compared to someone who wants to keep their training wheels on. After a while, wanting the training wheels on is probably what’s making it harder.

True literacy and expression through the tools requires a deeper understanding of what they can do. More than just how, it also grasps the why behind the various tools and elements of a problem or task. Meaning is significant in the process.

Imagine learning to write by simply copying down words void of their meaning. I could probably get a good student who doesn’t speak English to copy all the words of this paragraph. In the end, every time he does it, all he could ever say would be what this paragraph says.

Being literate with tech tools goes beyond forming letters and then words. It’s using those letters and words to write the sentences, essays, poems and more that only you can write. And then it’s saying those things with enough volume and clarity to reach more people more effectively than you ever could have otherwise.

You can see examples of this in projects I’ve written about on this blog. Here are two of my favorites:

• Ecosystem and game design lesson for middle school science 
• Smart Jams music video project at the elementary level

In those we accomplished new things with a personal touch and then presented them to the world within constraints formed by our skills, personal experiences and resources. To accomplish that, we had to approach the work from a big picture perspective.

On the other hand, limiting yourself to memorizing steps is limiting how far you'll go.

Getting personal

I wonder sometimes if those people I train ask for steps because they really think steps will help or if it’s just a way to put off the real work of learning. You will have to decide that for yourself. I only hope my examples and analogies here have made the options clear.

In that way, this article is a call to clarify the level of tech use you want to achieve. Do you want to just finish the routine tasks or do you want to use technology to accomplish far more of what you love to do?

I think it’s valuable for anyone to become more literate with digital tools. In many fields where we help others, we owe it to them to learn more so we can do our best. Still, learning happens best when everyone sets their own goals.

If do you want to develop that essential “big picture” thinking, please check back over the weeks ahead. Upcoming articles will provide practical ways to accomplish it. Also, please send along any comments questions so I can better suit the series to your needs.

How to Be Good with Tech - Part 1

Photo from Kevin Jarrett from Flickr -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/

I’ve been working with computers for over 30 years. I have also worked with teachers and students as an instructional tech coordinator for the past six years. Helping them use more technology (and working with some who resist) has driven home one point time and time again:

Being “good with tech” is largely a way of thinking.

There’s no magic involved. I'd even argue there aren't hours of training sessions involved. Instead there are mindsets and resulting practices that make it easier for some to pick up the new tools. In other words, these are things anyone can learn and improved tech skills will be the result.

So in this series I will point out a few myths the tech challenged believe that hold them back. I’ll also explain some approaches the rest of us use that give us an advantage in keeping up with the never-ending stream of new.

Since I work in education, I’m often thinking of the teachers and students I encounter there, struggling or resisting to use more technology for learning or sharing ideas. Beyond that, though, I’m writing to anyone who finds digital tools to be an obstacle, but knows the tools can help them accomplish more of what they want to.

If you read through this article and, at any point, can't accept what I'm saying, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I hope to use any feedback to improve this series.

And for now, I will start by tackling the biggest myth of all:

Myth #1: Technology is hard to learn.

I start with this myth because:

• For as often as I hear it and the thoughts resulting from it, I don’t believe it for a second.
• Believing it leads directly to some of the other inaccurate thinking I’ll address later in the series.

When a new tool comes along, maybe you fall victim to a very real fear because of this myth. It’s hard to learn and no one wants to look dumb, right?

And of course many have discovered this view of technology makes an easy excuse to avoid the necessary work of learning or using something new. A good share of the population heartily agrees that computers and all those gadgets take more effort to learn than they’re worth. Point out just one instance when time was lost, more problems arose or someone was frustrated by a new tool and nearly everyone in the room agrees: There’s no time for learning that complicated stuff. Back to the old way!

Regardless of why you’ve held to this notion, until you get past the false perception of how hard it is to use technology, you’ll always see yourself in the ungifted group. You’ll keep waiting for some convenient time when you have days to learn and nothing else to do. In other words, you’ll never start.

I hope by the end of this article you'll be open to this simple fact: Learning to use technology effectively is not as hard as you think.

A simple first step

So let’s start with an exercise. Next time you’re amazed when you see a person (maybe even a child) do something impressive with a new tech tool, don’t immediately attribute it to a gift you'll never possess. Instead, be open to the possibility that digital tools are simpler than they used to be.

I feel like I’m giving away a secret here. I like to appear really smart when I help teachers with new programs. I love it when I’m the hero that bailed out the teacher in front of the whole class. (Early elementary students will break into applause for these feats. It feels amazing.)

But I’m just trying to be honest. Instead of new tools confounding me now and then, I am regularly amazed at how much simpler they are.

Yes, I remember how long it took me to hook up a new printer or connect to a new internet service years ago. New software was hard to configure, and that was if I managed to install it correctly.

I understand that many adults of a certain age had years of those experiences (or maybe, years of witnessing others going nuts with those experiences). This formed the idea that technology is hard to use. 

Now, relatively speaking, that’s simply not true.

Photo from Brad Flickinger on Flickr -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56155476@N08/

Think about this for a minute. I mean no disrespect to your kids or grand kids, but isn’t it possible that all those young people who quickly learn to work the new gadgets simply don’t hold this myth in their minds? They come at the new stuff thinking it’s meant to be intuitive and work effectively. They act accordingly and success is the result.

Technology is wildly popular and used throughout our society now not because the younger generation is so much smarter. It's largely because the tools are easier to use. Nowadays if a new tool is hard to use, you’ll never see it survive the market long enough to reach the masses.

But what about...

Before you hit me up with recent horror stories of incompatible software destroying your meeting or network failures that brought the office to a standstill, please keep a few things in mind.

First, I’m talking about technology that’s working as intended. Realistically speaking, that happens the vast majority of the time. Organizations dealing in a day with hundreds of times more money than you and I make in a decade trust their fortunes to this fact. It doesn't let them down in any significant way.

I’m also talking about average use. The amazing wizardry we see from people who live in front of their computers, have budgets for the what’s beyond the cutting edge and who work in specialized fields is difficult to replicate. That's why they are paid good money to do it.

But I’m taking about common tools that allow normal people to achieve more than they do without them. And that's an important goal I'm glad to help people move toward.

And if you’re still doubtful, I’m not saying the skills are so simple that no brains or effort is required. My later articles in this series will address what and how much is required to become competent.

Examples of positive change

To get specific, here are a few ways I regularly notice the tools have become easier over the years:

• Language in the apps is far less technical than it used to be. Menus, buttons and even error messages use common words instead of all the specialized terminology we used to see.
• Help features of programs are written better and many are making excellent use of video to explain exactly what you need to know. I’m very impressed with the quality of virtual training involved in much of the new software I encounter.
• Apps only do a few things, so options are limited. It used to be software companies boasted of all the things their programs could do. I guess the goal was to make tools like Word, Publisher or PowerPoint so flexible they could be used to turn out many different types of content. That made software complicated, with features buried in menus requiring many steps. Now apps are specialized. You find out what you need to do, look up the best app for it and it does just that with a few taps.
• There is more consistency across tools. Yes, we still have the PC versus Mac and iOS versus Android divides, but overall similar icons and terms appear across many common programs. Once you realize this, it won’t look so mystical when your teen figures out your new iPad app within seconds of opening it. 
• If common problems and questions weren’t addressed in the Help features of the software, they are only a web search away. Anyone who works regularly with technology will tell you the power of a simple Google search when it comes to using a tricky feature of a new program.
• You can hook up most new hardware by plugging in a cable. Sometimes you have to download a driver first, but do I even have to give examples of how difficult this used to be? I am continually grateful for these improvements.

_________

I’m not expecting now that you'll sit at a computer and churn out an amazingly easy, yet visually stunning video to upload to YouTube. I’m just hoping when the next person bails you out a tech bind you won’t immediately attribute success to his or her mad skills. Instead, think...

Maybe the tools are easier now. Maybe I could learn to do that too.

Try thinking that way for a few days. Once you’re open to that possibility, you’ll be ready to take the steps I’ll address in part 2.

How to make games of any type using my Game Idea Template

As you might imagine, I encounter a lot of students who want to make games. Most of them have ideas for the digital variety, but my experience in game design still leaves us a lot of common ground for discussion.

I have several resources on the blog about game design already, but I added one more today that means a lot to me. It is my Game Idea Template. 

I have written elsewhere about how I develop my game ideas in a notebook over time. This template is just my attempt to organize all the key components that usually end up in the notes. It can serve to remind the designer of essentials, but it also can prompt with questions to help him or her break new ground.

Because of my own interest in tabletop games, this lends itself to those kinds. I'm convinced it still has much to offer for someone (especially newcomers) creating any type of game. It is a working document and I'm continually taking input from other game designers. All comments are welcome.

Game Idea Template by Mike Petty

Some other important resources on this site:

• How to Make Games (Part 1) - It's in this video that I talk about keeping a design notebook and how I use it to develop ideas. It provides a good background for how to use the Game Idea Template.
• How to Make Games (Part 2) - This second video focuses on playtesting and it can help a designer fill out that area of the Game Idea Template.
• 8 Things I Emphasize in Game Design Lessons - This has practical tips and several links to other resources I've written or found helpful.

Mythology Memes Project

As I often do near the end of the school year, i joined the remaining students in our high school Mythology class after the seniors graduated. We took two class periods to try out a creative project based on popular memes.

This was an entertaining project that provided room for humor and plenty of room for references to material the students learned previously in the semester. Below I'll present the outline of what we did and also the presentation I used in class. At the end I'll give a few other thoughts of how I'd improve the lesson next time.

1) I introduced the project with a definition of memes, some examples and an explanation of why I find them valuable for a lesson.

2) We played a caption game using funny pictures I found online. See below for more details on the game.

3) I presented a few memes I created that refer to the mythology class or myths in general. (The teacher wasn't too thrilled with my couple jabs at the course, but I'm a former math teacher and the Mythology class is one of the most popular in the high school. I guess I was bitter!)

4) After that, I gave them the assignment of creating four memes using the pictures I saved to the network drive.

5) The next day I started with some thoughts about copyright and fair use.

6) I showed examples of memes that combine two or more pictures along with some text.

7) I assigned the second part of the assignment which required them to create one of these more complex memes.

Here are the slides for the presentation. I made some minor adjustments after the lesson, but this will give you a good idea of the flow and it includes all examples I used.



Other notes and thoughts for improvement:

• The lesson could be expanded to allow students to explore the copyright issues surrounding memes themselves.
• I planned on getting pictures of the students and the teacher so we could make our own memes, but we ran out of time.
• The teacher and I agreed that next time we need to give them more material to work with. I would list some myths and characters that they could refer to specifically in the memes. I also needed to provide some specific examples along those lines.
• I wanted to have students share their memes on social media and get extra credit if they received any attention from friends and followers. Again, there wasn't enough time for this part of the activity.
• For the creativity game, I chose one student to be the judge. I displayed one of the pictures you will see in the presentation. I gave the other students about two minutes to write one or more captions for the image. I read them (making sure they were appropriate) to the class and the judge picked his or her favorite two. We only had time to do this with three pictures, but it was good practice that loosened everyone up for the creativity required for the memes. See this page for many other examples of my creativity games for the classroom.
• I was going to use the meme creator at imgflip.com to create the memes, but there couple that were slightly inappropriate. I downloaded the blank meme pictures and showed the students how to use Paint to make simple memes. That very basic program worked well enough for the first part of the project, but it was tricky to use for combining elements in part two. I would have preferred to use GIMP, but we didn't have time to learn that more complex image editing program.
• As you might imagine, it did take some effort to make sure students were keeping their memes appropriate for school. I had to remind them a few times, but overall they were a great group to work with. Depending on your students, you might have to provide more boundaries on possible humor or limit the options in the pool of meme templates.

Four Tips I Learned in the 2013 - 2014 School Year

I just finished up 20 years in my career in education. Many times I said it was my best year yet. I saw students get excited about using their talents and pursuing their dreams. I worked with some great teachers who were stretched and who stretched me. I received heartfelt thanks from administrators, colleagues, students and a few people who encountered my work online or at conferences where I presented.

I also had some setbacks. Several teachers took action through the local union in response to a professional development program I had been excited to share. This year also marked my sixth full year as an instructional tech coordinator. In evaluating overall growth of the staff over this time, I had to face some harsh facts. Not everyone has been following where I'm supposed to be leading. I have to claim responsibility for my shortcomings and oversights in that area.

In reflecting on the highlights and challenges, I came up with these four main lessons I found.

Teach like an artist.
Just before school started last year I wrote a blog post about some parallels I see in teaching and creating art. It struck a chord with some teachers and it fueled my passion for months afterward as I put the principles into practice.

In short, it is my way of staying inspired so I can inspire. It involves chasing a vision. Pushing through all the fear, risk and doubt, we do what it takes to make that vision real in our classrooms and for our students. Everything I learned and continue to learn about this shows up at my new blog.

It's OK to learn together.
I worked with a few teachers this year on ambitious first time projects. They made for quite an adventure. Either I or the teacher started things off saying something like, "This is the first time any of us have tried this, so we're not sure what to expect. We need your help."

Contrast that with the classroom environment most of us grew up with. In the past the teacher was the expert in the room. He or she had the answers. The game was to guess what was in the teacher's head. I consciously made it a goal in my writing to simply tell the teacher what she had told us. I knew it would earn the A. And why shouldn't it? There was comfort in certainty. The right answer was known and had been spoken.

But now the only certainty is that there's more to know. This is not just true in the classroom, but everywhere. When the goal is to do better, the learning never ends. The comfort of knowing right answers is gone.

This year the students I worked with saw me turn to Google more than ever when it came to a new tech obstacle we encountered. I had to take notes and tell them I'd look for solutions after class. I had to admit I was stumped. I had to thank students for finding an answer before I did.

Giving up my "expert at everything" status is still uncomfortable at times. It is hopeless to perpetuate the illusion, though, and it is far more important to model good learning strategies.

Go with the goers.
There's nothing fresh or insightful in this thought on its own. It's obvious that personal growth takes place most when we surround ourselves with others who are growing. I most recently reflected on this, though, when I read Jeff Goins' blog about what makes a great leader. Quoting one of his mentors, he put it that way: Go with the goers.

I will add only two thoughts here. First, it might be easier for writers and speakers to hang out only with the movers and doers as they share their insights with those who pay to hear what they have to share. Those of us in education are paid to reach everyone, though, and that means we also have to stay in touch with those who are not yet goers.

And I also have to speak to the power of connection and my virtual PLN. Going with the goers is a lot easier now when we can almost continually be in touch with experts online. I learned so much this year skimming recent blogs in Feedly and finding wisdom and best practices on Twitter. This year more than ever my online presence transitioned to face to face meetings. I was able to see the reach to which my thinking was bound and I found help in stretching beyond that.

Find strength in personal growth.
I rarely hear this advice offered, yet I had to return to it a lot this year when it was tough to go on. I hear my colleagues turn to any number of hobbies and (more or less jokingly) chemicals to recharge amid the stress of the school year. I want to submit this additional option:  Take strength in measuring your progress toward your personal potential.

I know it can sound very prideful to point this out, especially within the circumstances and conversation in the teachers' lounge. I can only say there's a strong spiritual element in this for me and I see the insight, practice and the strength I find in its truth to be a gift. It is with gratitude and humility, not my own ability, that I return and rely on the blessing.

Lifelong learning is a process of becoming who we were meant to be. The journey will be necessarily difficult. There's nothing innately wrong with recharging through moments of recreation, but let's remember when there's no time for that, fulfillment of purpose and further steps toward our potential provide deep peace and energy necessary to continue.

As teachers (the lead learners) we should know this best and pass the lesson along to our students.

Along those lines, I'll end with a suggestion to all teachers: Take a few hours to reflect on what you gained this past school year. If you write anything online, please share it in the comments.

On to Something Good (Right Now) - Motivational song for the classroom

Here's a song I wrote based on several thoughts I've posted elsewhere on the blog. It would be appropriate as a motivational song to start the day in an elementary classroom.

The main idea is that students can be learning for something big now, not just some date in the future.

John Dewey said it this way:
"Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living."

I put a few of my usual thoughts and sayings in there such as, "It's a great time to be alive." It brings to mind that we are connected and therefore on the edge of doing something meaningful. It has reference to passion, purpose and potential, the ingredients of a full life.

Also, the bridge of the song is based on my old "key to success":

Always do your best

at what's most important

whether you feel like it or not.

Crystal Owen performed the vocals. She is the music teacher I worked with on our Smart Jams math music video project. When we presented at the MACUL conference in March I asked her to sing this song with me.

The music for the recording was done mostly on my iPad using GarageBand. I recorded her vocal and my guitar part using Audacity.

Two Great Party Games for the Classroom

Here are two great party games that never made it to the shelves of Walmart, but that have entertained us for years. I enjoyed them with friends and with students when I ran the game club.

Both can be played with homemade cards, so with some work you could tie them into your content area.

First is Thingamajig.

Because of its elegance, it is by far my favorite of the "guess the word" variety of party games. The boxed version comes with the Thingamajig--a small electronic device that reveals a single word when the button is pressed.

The active player must give a "definition" of that word to the other players. They all write down what they think the word is. If a player guesses right, he or she gets a point. The player who gave the definition gets a point for everyone who scores it, except if everyone guesses it. That's the twist that makes this game so amazing! If everyone guesses it, that player gets 0 points.

I've found this game to be an excellent study in communication. It quickly reveals how good or bad a person is at thinking from the perspective of others. By seeing the word yourself, it feels like every clue you give is too obvious. Then when you hear the answers, it's often clear you overlooked a variety of interpretations. Good stuff for further exploration.

One time I used this game with a small class of around 15 students. We played as a class, so it had an interesting dynamic. There was the possibility of getting a big score, but there were some other issues with playing this way that made it less than ideal. In general I'd recommend it for groups of five or six students.

Full rules for the game (which are still very brief) can be found here. As a bonus, if you have the Thingmajig device or you have your own set of words, here's a list of variations or other games you can play using it.

Next is What Were You Thinking?

I had almost forgotten about this fun game (which was created by the designer of Magic: The Gathering, if that means anything to you), but recently I dug it out to try with my two teenagers at home. They loved it and I was again reminded of the fun we'd had with it in class.

There are several types of questions in this game, but the general idea is that you don't necessarily score for getting right answers. You score if you match answers of other players. So, it's not great for review in class. On some questions, the winning answer might be the most popular wrong one!

For certain topics, especially pop culture or opinions, it works very well. My favorite type of questions are the ones where you are required to list four or five things in a category. For example, we had one that asked us to list celebrities who go by only one name.

After a minute or so, each player reads off his or her list. For each item, the players who had that item (including the reader) raise their hands. Each item is worth the number of hands raised. So every item is worth at least one point since you can count yourself!

This game lends itself to some interesting discussion as you'll often have to decide if two people have the same item, though they worded them differently. The rules indicate that a general answer (like "super hero movies") does not match a specific answer (such as "The Amazing Spider-Man 2").

I don't recall ever using this game with a whole class, but I think it might work with a relatively small one. Small groups of four to six students will have a lot of fun with it. Official rules are here, but I'd suggest ignoring the spinner. Just make interesting questions and write one per note card.

Note that some questions in the boxed version of this game (which is probably hard to find anyway) might not be appropriate for the classroom. Also, there are penalty cards that the lowest score player has to read aloud each round. Some of those refer to drinking.

If you're new to this site and you want some games designed for the whole class to play, here are a few links to start with:

• Many ways to use my party game What's It to Ya? in the classroom
• A ton of resources on creativity style party games
• I made some activities for North Star Games' great hit Wits & Wagers. One is for U.S. History and the other is for Life Science.

Three Simple Tutorials for Creative Project Based Learning

I'm preparing for a P^3BL session I'll lead this weekend and all that work is filtering into my Teaching Like an Artist blog. I didn't realize I hadn't updated this one in over two weeks!

Here are three tutorials for short digital projects that are worth pointing out:
Narrated Image Slideshows using Pixlr and Videolicious on iPad - These make great ways to present spoken poems or short stories.
Narrated Image Slideshows using iMovie and GarageBand for iPad - This is another method for creating slideshows. By using Garageband for the narration it also allows the opportunity to make up simple music too.
Quick Songwriting with UJam - I have created other tutorials for UJam on this blog, but this one shows the simplest way to turn a short tune into an mp3 of a fully arranged song.

Using Google Drawings for Comic Creation

I was reminded recently that Google Drawings has Callouts in the shapes of speech and thought bubbles. Used in conjunction with the app on a mobile device, this makes a great tool for collaborative comic creation.

I put together this quick sample using a few pictures I had on my iPad from a PD day in our district. Ideally the pictures would be of actors or maybe toys or other objects set up according to a script.

Here's the process:
1)  Take pictures of the actors or objects for the comic. You could draw these on paper and take pictures or make them in a graphics program too.

2)  Upload the pictures to Google Drive using the app (if using a mobile device) or with the computer (if you created them in a graphics program on a computer).

3)  Using a computer, create a new Drawing in Google Drive. Share it with anyone who will be working on the same project.

4)  Set the background color.

5)  Add each picture and edit/arrange them. I found this order worked best overall. You'd repeat this for each frame of your comic on the page:

• Import the picture.
• Crop it with the crop tool.
• Resize it as necessary.
• Set the line width and color if you want borders.
• Move it to the correct place.
• Add the Callouts from the Object dropdown. You'll see speech bubbles in a few shapes and a thought bubble. 

• "Draw" the speech or thought bubble on your picture. 
• Drag the "tail" of it to the person talking or thinking.
• Type the text in the speech or thought bubble(s).
• Resize and move the bubble and text as necessary.

6)  Add any other text boxes or text to the Drawing.

7)  Download as a jpg image and share with others if necessary.

8)  Copy or import the image file into a shared Google Document. There it can be a page of a book made up of a series of such pages/images. You could put it in a Google Presentation too if it's more likely to be displayed that way.

17 Short Learning Activities for Extra Computer Time

I wrote this list of learning activities for middle school teachers so they'd have some options to give to students who finished work early in the lab. There's nothing terribly innovative here, just some open ended starting points that result in exploration and a written reflection or summary of what they learned.

What are other sites or activities come to mind for this purpose?

This is the list as a Google Document.

Complete one of the activities below.  In each case there’s an opportunity to learn something new and to sum it up.  Do not copy and paste writing from websites unless it instructs you to.  All assignments will be checked for plagiarism.

1)  Wolfram Alpha - This is a computational knowledge engine that creates knowledge by combining several sources.  Go to http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/ and see some examples.  Click on one that looks interesting.  Search for something similar and write a summary of what you find in either a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation.

2)  Wikipedia - Start with an article related to a personal interest.  In that article, find a link to another article that teaches you something you didn’t know.  Read that new article and write a summary of what you found interesting or what you learned.

3) Physics Simulator - Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/by-level/middle-school  Browse and experiment with the simulator.  Summarize something you learned.

4)  Blogs - Search for a recent blog or news article about something that interests you.  Summarize the author’s points and write your response.  Be sure to quote parts of the original blog post or article in your response.

5)  Reviews - Read a review about a movie, book, music or game that you like.   Summarize the author’s opinion and write your response.  Quote parts of the original review in your response.

6)  Another Middle School - Look up a website of a middle school that you don’t already know about.  Browse the pages of their website until you have learned some things about the school.  Summarize what you find.  Here are some questions you might answer:  What appears to be the best thing about that school?  What suggestions do you have for their website that would help you learn more or make it easier to use?  What do you dislike about the school based on what you see on the site?

7)  World News - Use Google news to find a current World News event that is of interest to you.  Summarize the article and write your thoughts about it.  Be sure to quote parts of the news article you read.

8)  U.S. News - Use Google news to find a current U.S. News event that is of interest to you.  Summarize the article and write your thoughts about it.  Be sure to quote parts of the news article you read.

9)  Local News - Use http://www.mlive.com/flint/ to find a current local news event that is of interest to you.  Summarize the article and write your thoughts about it.  Be sure to quote parts of the news article you read.

10)  Khan Academy - Watch a video on any topic you don’t already know.  Summarize what you learned.

11)  Fascinating Facts - Make a PowerPoint presentation with at least five interesting facts about a topic of your choice.  Pick facts that might make anyone want to know more about your topic.  Make a slide that lists the websites you used for your information.

12)  Found Poem - Read this article about how to write a found poem:  

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/found-poetry.html  

After reading it, find any webpage that you want to use and create a found poem from it.  Write your poem and list the URL for the webpage that you used.  Write a sentence or two explaining why you picked the words and phrases that you did for your poem.  

13)  Suggestion for Class - Find a website, game or online program that you wish a teacher would use in class.  Write the URL of the resource and explain why you think a teacher should use it and how they could use it.

14)  Computer Terms - Find definitions for 10 of these computer terms.  Copy and paste the definition you find online, include the address of the site where you found it and then rewrite the definition in your own words.

Hard Drive Monitor VGA Cable Processor Speed RAM PDF Desktop CPU

USB IP Address HTML URL PNG Intranet Internet GIF

Browser Search Engine mp3 Open Source Blog Virus GUI Router

15)  Make a Timeline - Use this online tool to make a timeline with at least 6 events from start to end.  It can be about your life (from birth or maybe just a single season of life) or it can be about some famous person or event(s).

http://www.softschools.com/teacher_resources/timeline_maker/

Get a screen capture and paste it into Word.  If it’s too long to fit on the screen, copy it in parts.

16) 100 Word Challenge - Go to http://100wc.net/ .  On that blog you will see many prompts and some links to responses that other students wrote.  The object is to write 100 words based on the prompt.  Pick a prompt you like.  You might have to do a lot of scrolling and go to other pages to find one.  Write 100 words as a response.  You can read some sample ones first if you need to get an idea of how these should look.

17)  Career Research - Do some research online and find information about a job that you would like to have.  Summarize information about the career and explain why you think it would be a good career for you.  Also copy and paste the address to the website(s) you used for your research.