Category: Personal Reflections

Juggling

I am lucky enough to get to drop in and juggle with the 7th grade drama class now and then. Today, however, I’m thinking about juggling in terms of how many projects I’ve committed myself to this spring and the dwindling amount of time in which to complete it all!

Big spring projects on my mind:

  • SimCity begins in the 7th grade in a week
  • MineCraft began today – we’re playing it with 6th graders in activities for the next 4 weeks
  • Trying to learn NetLogo well enough to do a pull out project in 8th grade history
  • Make a plan for efficiently collecting and imaging all the MS laptops
  • Creating a poster to present the SimCity project at ISTE
  • Beginning a Faculty Learning Group
  • Writing out a proposal for converting one of our classrooms into a Design Lab

Devices everywhere!

Today I found myself using three devices to work on one presentation: my MacBook Air, iPad, and iPhone. All. At. Once.

There will be a forthcoming post on reflecting about the process leading up my first presentation, but this is a step in that process.

I’ve decided to use Prezi as my presentation tool because I prefer the visual layout. As someone who needs the overall picture to understand the details, it helps me have a stage where everything is laid out and then zoom in to each element. But this isn’t a post about Prezi, it’s about multi-devicing.

So I found the Prezi app for iPhone and iPad and decided to explore. I found that while I don’t really like editing on them, using them to present is really helpful. Since we have Apple TVs in a few classrooms, I can actually connect to projectors with my iPhone to practice giving my presentation, which I did today with two colleagues. The interface on the phone is quite good and I was able to go straight to certain frames when I wanted and I was able to control the video playback. If I were actually using it for a formal presentation I would lock the orientation so that it doesn’t flip back in forth as I gesture.

But the true multi-devicing came today when I was working on typing out my presentation. I wanted to go from the presentation to a full write up in order to refine my explanations, especially about games, which I posted here. I set up with my iPad on the presentation and my laptop open to type in Pages. It was incredibly helpful to have the iPad presentation separate from my laptop screen. I thought immediately about this article that I read about The Avenues, a for-profit high school in New York that issues it’s students both a laptop AND an iPad because they are used differently for different purposes, they do different things and engage different skills.

Since we are currently exploring what device makes the most for our program, whether that means a combination of a couple devices or something other than a laptop, it was interesting to find myself in the shoes of a student using all three devices differently to work on one presentation.

What do you think about students having more than one device? Do you know of a program out there that has done this?

#FacebookFreeFebruary

I went on Facebook today. But not on impulse. Actually, I turned my computer on after the little one went to sleep and when I opened a new tab I saw the FB preview there… I resisted the urge until after I had done a couple things that I needed to do. I logged in and looked for pictures of a friend who just had a baby. I had 3 messages, so I read and replied, then I logged out. It feels good to have reconnected. I miss the people. And while it’s all well and good to say I should just make time to interact face to face, I don’t have the time or the flexibility in my schedule right now to do that.

This gets me to thinking about kids & Facebook (because it always comes back to kids). In their hyper-scheduled, overloaded worlds, they may not feel they have the time to hang out with friends face to face. Instead, they can do homework, watch a movie, Facebook chat with friends, catch up with statuses, and have a snack all at the same time, which is way more efficient. Maybe in order to help kids learn to disconnect, we need to give them back unstructured time, which adults could benefit from too.

Reading about gaming

SimCity

http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/simcityedu/

I got an email today about SimCityEDU and a Google Hangout that is happening tomorrow at 1pm. Unfortunately, I’m already triple booked at that time, so I won’t get to hangout, but you can bet I’m going to watch the video later and review the twitter stream #playtimers. As I read more about the Institute of Play, I stumbled onto website after website. Rather than tweeting the whole stream, I figured there must be a better way to share and curate all the URLs I was finding. Diigo!

It took a little persistence, because I had to remember the password, download the extension, fool around with lists and tags, refresh a couple times, check that it was working… but ultimately I think I successfully have this SimCity list to share with you. Like I said, it’s a collection of website related to SimCityEDU and gaming in the classroom.

This all came after a few discussions today about gaming during the school day. More on that to follow. I’m not quite ready to process my opinions and write them in an articulate way.

For now, three shameless promotions related to all this:

  1. My SimCity presentation at NCCE in Portland, 9:45-10:45 Friday March 1
  2. Playing SimCity with 7th graders in science again this spring
  3. Presenting a poster of my project and research at ISTE in San Antonio at the end of June

Harder than I thought

So this month I’m not using Facebook. I find myself thinking of posts during the day, like “First trip to the gym with Alexander – he did great!” or “I ❤ Saturday mornings: gym, starbucks, breakfast, baby playtime”. I debated (and quickly decided against) tweeting my status. Since my twitter is primarily professional, I didn’t think the personal additions would be welcome. Also, I have a few friends I primarily connect with through messages on Facebook, so I am feeling cut off from them. Overall, I am feeling more alone and cut off than I expected to.

Already, this is revelatory to me in how we assume it’s no big deal for students to be asked to disconnect from social media during the school day. Presumably, adolescents are at the point in their lives where they are more focused on their peer relationships than I am, and, according to this NY Magazine article Why you never truly leave high school: “In adolescence, the brain is also buzzing with more dopamine activity than at any other time in the human life cycle, so everything an adolescent does—everything an adolescent feels—is just a little bit more intense.” While for me, it’s a mild sense of disconnection from friends, to my students, it could feel like the end of the world.

This short month might just feel pretty long, even to my post-adolescent brain!

Facilitating my first video conference

We set up a video conference for a 6th grade student this morning. It was the first time that I have set this up and the first time that we have used the classroom for a student conference.

Reflections on how it went:

  • Admittedly, I was nervous since I’ve only connected with Jabber a few times and I don’t know all the ins and outs of the client, but I was nonetheless able to help them fix a few problems.
  • Having phone numbers to connect and help troubleshoot was really important.
  • I think the clarity of the sound and video made the interactions more seamless. There was a slight time delay, but pretty fluid.
  • I think next time I would sit teachers closer to the camera and potentially even zoom in on them when they were talking. I think it was hard to see their faces and thus their expressions.
  • Teachers were fantastic – ran it just like a normal conference. Didn’t sound stilted or nervous. They still asked questions of the student, which, to me, felt more natural.
  • I was impressed with how comfortable the kids seemed with it.

I am reminded again of the professionalism of my colleagues. They are compassionate, clear, prepared, thoughtful, and, perhaps most importantly, know the kids. I’m glad the technology was seamless enough to support that.

Facebook Free February

Yesterday I read this blog post by Hands Free Mama called “How to miss a childhood.” The balance of being a mom and technophile is particularly relevant to my life right now. While much of what she describes I have already consciously decided against, there were still things to reflect on.

  1. My phone is often in my back pocket, and if it’s not, the number one request to my spouse is “Would you get me my phone?” I pretty much do 5 things: Facebook, texting, email, Words with Friends or Scrabble, and taking pictures/videos. If my son is awake and playing, I don’t use it, unless I need to see my calendars or add a reminder. But it is still always there like a safety blanket.
  2. I admit that I check my phone at stoplights. Usually it’s scrolling through Facebook, sometimes it’s texting about daycare pick up with my husband, but it’s almost always of no consequence. I need to get out of the habit now before the carseat is facing forward and he’s watching me do it.
  3. We sit down to meals, whether at home or in the dining hall, and my phone is on silent. I’m careful about not having that be an interruption. Same with any family gatherings. There was one moment over winter break where the tv was on and 3 out of 4 adults were on a device. Not me.

This month I’m going to change a couple things:

  1. No Facebook – app will be deleted on my phone & iPad and I will practice self-restraint on the computer.
  2. iPhone dock on the shelf – when I come in, it’ll be out of my pocket and set down. The ringer will be on, in case someone calls, just like a land line. No carrying it around and leaving it everywhere. I will use a travel alarm as my alarm clock, so it won’t even be in the bedroom with me.
  3. Only important use in the car when I’m parked only – not every stoplight, not just to scroll emails. If it’s a long drive and I have time to call my Dad, that’s okay.

There is an additional goal with all of this that may seem contradictory. During this month, I want to tweet more and explore other apps for creativity. This is part professional and part personal. I find that most of my iPad or iPhone use is consumption, and I want to expand and enrich my online portfolio.

For the record, I’m not a Facebook addict. I don’t think giving up Facebook is going to change my life and make me a better person. I feel that I have developed a healthy relationship with my technology, knowing when to turn on or turn off, not losing hours to the internet. I’m hoping that turning off Facebook frees me to explore other opportunities with my technology and pushes me to learn, adapt, and change.

Here we go.