Instructional Technology Weekly Update-Andover High School & Wood Hill Middle School-Andover Innovation Lab September 29th-October 3rd 2014

This week we I the opportunity to learn more about Nettexts at Woodhill Middle School. Sara Mensale the Digital Learning Specialist at Woodhill Middle School and I participated in professional development with several groups of teachers from the school. Nettexts is a web based application for a variety of platforms which enables the creation of lessons,units and entire curriculums using Open Educational Resources often called OER.  It was great to get a refresher on how this software can help manage open educational resources for teachers who want to implement them into their courses.

At the Andover Innovation Lab and Help desk we had a busy week with students preparing their Project Development Forms which help them outline three formative projects they will be working on over the next several weeks. All of the students are very motivated to work on this phase of their projects and they have all been so productive this semester so far. I really expect that in this phase we will really see their projects take shape and they will start to see their research pay off. This week Andre D.  is a student of the week he has been busy working on his Android Studio project and is finding resources to get his project moving.

To view these documents and the students blog please visit:
http://www.andoverinnovation.com

All of the blog entries found on the website this week will relate to the students ability to complete the Project Development Form and give us more insight into what their thoughts are about their projects as they move forward. Take a minute to view the finished blog entries on the website and read all the entries for this week.  The students  have all shown a great level of interesting applying technology to their learning.

In terms of assisting teachers around the high school this week Bryce Corbitt started with updating the iPad cart for the Social Studies department. Bryce was eager to get started with this and learn how the iPad's could be updated and how new apps need to be added to the iPad's and need to be cleared for new projects. He will continue working on these projects for teachers in the next coming weeks. Be sure to check out my screencast video of the expectations of this week's work and what the potential projects and items on our to do list where.

This week Dr. Lord decided to share out many department members websites that have been in the development over the past couple weeks. Here is a  link to his blog which contains the links he shared out in the past week. 
Dr. Lords Blog
I had a great time collecting them from teachers. With speaking to teachers about these blogs I had great discussions about the content and the direction they were thinking of taking. In the past week I've also had an amazing opportunity to begin the training of some of the high school teachers with the use of Google Sites and Google classroom.

Many teachers have decided to build websites not only by working with me but also taking the TechByte  trainings with Joanne Najarian at the central office on Tuesdays. I've begun to introduce teachers to the classroom and how the documents can be easily shared amongst each other. I think one of the huge benefits of working with in the high school so closely is my opportunity to sit down with teachers in their break rooms and discuss how I can help them with technology. One of the departments that I've gotten to know more closely is the World Language Department in which we can share a variety of strategies for organizing audio files and also creating websites to help them teach. We have also worked closely to create forms for students to submit information for quizzes and surveys in a variety of languages.

This is an exciting time of year with teachers and technology. We are in a time of great experimentation and transition. Each week I see a transition of skills and adaptability to use technology in the classroom.

Instructional Technology & Andover Innovation Lab Updates February 24-28,2014 Andover High School

The state of teachers engaging in new projects with technology at Andover High School!

On Monday, the help desk received some older laptops to assist with projects for blogs, web development and using Google tools. Myself and the Lab Coordinator Zachary Griffin worked with Social Studies staff during their department meeting time to add links of resources, images and presentations which were organized according to different courses. The staff did a great job at learning how the technology worked and could immediately benefit from sharing between course and curriculums.Teachers have been very open about making regular appointments with me to learn more about Google Drive, Forms and Google Groups. 

The teachers are fine tuning their knowledge with Wikispaces and using hardware such as scanners and their interactive boards. I have spent the past week working with 5 teachers beyond the Social Studies department with improving their skill base with Wikispaces to enhance in their classroom web space.

On Tuesday I met with Dr. Allen from the World Languages department and we circulated ideas surrounding the creation of a website for the World language department at the high school. The page would focus on sharing the focus of the program at the high school and also spotlighting its great faculty. Myself and the help desk will provide the layout and we will work to get them started.

Paula Westmacott a Special Education teacher at the high school dove into learning more about using her interactive board when she with me on Wednesday. I was able to walk her through step by step related to the Epsom Interactive hardware, software and pens. She will be mainly using a series of websites and documents with the interactive board. She is excited to integrate this knowledge into her SMART goals as an educator and use it in a variety of collaborative classroom activities.Additionally, I was able to assist Physical Education teacher Carol Martini with the creation of a portion of her slide show for her “Warrior Way” program she will be presenting to students over the coming weeks. She made a great slideshow using her iPhoto tools and I worked with he in iMovie to add 2 different songs over the photos. She then embedded this video into her presentation.

Health teacher Holly Breen is using the sharing options within Google Drive toenable students to share work more efficiently and return feedback to studentsfaster. She has also adopted the Chrome Browser for the use of Youtube resources in the classroom as well.

 On Thursday I was able to attend a training based in the development of an advisory program at Andover High School. We read a variety of interesting and intellectually stimulating articles surrounding the development of students emotional and intellectual well being. We were also able to thoughtfully consider what a program the High School would look like and who it may serve. I look forward to being part of this process moving forward. 

Also on Thursday, a great article featuring the Andover Innovation Lab & Help Desk was published in the Andover Townsman. Dustin Luca included great photos from students projects at the help desk and highlighted some of the benefits we bring to the school.

Here is the link:http://www.andovertownsman.com/education/x1196458307/From-support-squad-to-innovators

To close the week I finished the final draft for a potential grant from the AEA for some Google Chromebooks for the Innovation Lab/Help Desk. Here is a link describing more about what this web based laptop has to offer students. We hope to integrate tools like these at the help desk moving forward and provide a model of success related to technology integration.

Instructional Technology Update Andover High School Week of January 27-January 31 2014 -Daniel Downs

This week at the Andover Innovation Lab & Help Desk we got off to a great start with the addition of 10 new students beginning projects using technology. The student projects range from learning Java, creating websites and also developing business plans for innovative products. In the next week we will be posting blog entries from the students describing their first week at the help desk/innovation lab.

Some of these students have been able to assist teachers in their role at the Innovation Lab/Help Desk  with a variety of technology. Students have assisted in setting up wireless projectors,adding email accounts to phones and downloading the Chrome browser on the new MacBooks.

Students at the Innovation Lab are also piloting the use of district based Google Drive accounts. Students in the lab will be urged to use these tools to assist in their research,share documents,videos,images. At the end of this semester we will ask students about their use of these tools and use their opinions to help develop a list of benefits these tools can bring to the district.

Photo:Help student Viabhav Patel installs PC for Innovation Lab students at help desk.

This week I worked with Adriana Gonzalez a teacher in the Foreign language department. I assisted Mrs. Gonzalez with creating shared Google Documents which contain her course homework. These documents enable real time updates of assignments and provides a consistent and reliable link for parents and students . Using a link shortener named Bit.ly we were able to also shorten the Google Links to personalize and shorten links. These links were then placed on the X2 portal.

Teachers are also beginning to use Google Groups to create collaborative web portals for students to ask questions,post comments and share acquired knowledge. The groups enable teachers to organize a collaborative web based environment on individual emails. Students and the teachers are sharing information simultaneously and are notified whenever someone adds to the discussion. These groups are widely used in higher education for collaboration I have included the link from Brown University who uses these groups consistently.

Link To Brown University Google Tools Site

Lauren Ream Social Studies teacher has ambitiously developed a blog to host her course materials this semester. Mrs.Ream has organized her course materials and hosted a variety of web based documents using Google Drive on her Blogger blog. Over the course of the semester she will have students commenting on discussions directly in class and will also enable students to share quickly and efficiently the course assignments and homework postings.

I was able to work within Mrs. Reams classroom this week and assist her with adding existing lessons and editing them to be posted on the blog. We also added students to become readers of her blog.  Her students blog posts engaged students with not only with learning technology skills but also improved engagement with her content. At the end of the class students could scroll through student responses and view a variety of opinions related to subject matter content. These changes will enable Mrs. Reams class to continue to develop  web based lessons and ready access to assessments.

In the coming weeks I will be offering out to teachers

more technology training after school to assist in understanding their MacBooks “System Preferences” and “Commonly Used Web Apps” such as Evernote and Skitch.

Additional training opportunity will include beginning teachers with Google Drive and Documents. I want to enable to teachers to improve their adaption of tools to their existing lessons and classroom environments.

Instructional Technology & Digital Learning Andover High School Week of January 13-17

Instructional Technology & Digital Learning Andover High School Week of January 13-17

Daniel Downs

During a week in which most teachers are preparing for the end of semester exams many teachers are still working at integrating a variety of tools into the classroom. I had a chance at the last faculty meeting to present some of the components of using Google Docs with files and some of the benefits of collaboration with these tools. Being able to share these tools has opened up a variety of conversations with teacher’s which has extended from just creating Gmail accounts and exploring the collaboration features to developing Google Forms for Assessment in the classroom.

Teacher Highlights:

Teachers in Foreign Language are integrating variety of podcast tools in the foreign language department to help students learn language. Students can participate in lessons driven with native speakers and deep embedded vocabulary.

For the purpose of improving her connection to her students with web based content a teacher is developing a blog using the Blogger format from Google. She has developed a variety of lessons and media to support her existing curriculum. She will be rolling out the website in the new semester. I have had the benefit of working with her to develop the technology which supports her teaching methodology.

Teachers in the Social Studies department are in the process of reviewing web based tools in which to store and share links of curriculum content to share and collaborate with. Teachers were introduced to tools such a Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/), Portaportal (http://www.portaportal.com/), Urlist (http://urli.st/) and https://delicious.com . These tools can add layers of productivity and collaboration between teachers. For the document outlining these tools click here.

Teachers are beginning to integrate Apple TV into their classroom environments either by projecting their desktops to their class or using the built in applications. Apple TV is an additional piece of hardware which enables “sharing“of Apple devices (IPad, MacBook’s, and Phone’s) to the projector. This technology is particularly beneficial to classrooms in which has access to the IPad or MacBook carts so that students can project their device as well. To learn more about this technology check out this page from Apple.

Co-Teaching Experiences

I had the opportunity to go back into Karen Stevens-Mazmans' class and teach a web design lesson using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for a marketing webpage assignment she is giving to students. Students are creating promotional websites based on a product. Click here to see her lesson write up. Going into her classroom is a great opportunity to share my skills and deepen the skills learned in the Marketing curriculum. It’s great to see the student’s interest grows as they learn how to code and change the appearance of websites.

Andover Innovation Lab/Help Desk

Students are in the final phases of their independent technology driven projects at the Innovation Lab. We currently have a student creating a mobile application (Eli Gukovsky), researching Minecraft in Education (Viabhav Patel) and learning the programming language Lua (John Makiej). These students will be presenting their final projects during the finals week in an online platform. For more information visit:

http://www.andoverstudentrunhelpdesk.blogspot.com .

Teachers are well into the swing of adapting to all the new technology provided to enhance their teaching and learning. Wireless projection and understanding the intricacies of their new MacBook’s  is beneficial to student engagement but we also want to continue a deeper level of integration of a variety of web tools such as Google tools, Workspaces and a variety of Ipad applications which enhances student understanding of core concepts. In the Science Department a recent influx of new applications for their Ipad carts has enabled them to demonstrate Physics, Engineering and core Physical Science content online.

These updates are just some of the continual evolvement that is going on with technology driven initiatives at the high school across curriculums.

Wiki Spaces Presentation at Wheelock College TSTT Conference

     It has been nearly a month when I began my first day at Andover High, and as I look forward to my two week break, I reflect on the time I spent working with Dan and the students on developing professional portfolio pieces in the field of technology. Between the flexible schedules, the presentation at Wheelock College, and the comfortable environment I work in, I can safely say I will not shudder the end of my two week break when the time comes. 

    As of right now, all three of our students will be developing their final projects over both the vacation and the first two weeks after they come back before the next semester. Eli is working on his app for the Android which he is moving on heavily, Viabav is continuing his progress on his Minecraft videos, and John is furthering his skills in code. With all of our students currently focused with interest on their projects, I am confident that they will work hard on their projects during their vacation.

     Here is a link to the program TSTT in Wheelock College, Boston. there I presented the importance of Google Doc's and how students can use them in a professional environment.

http://www.monroe.edu/AAE.cfm?subpage=1135

Zach

Learning Lua in the Andover Innovation LAB / Help Desk / John M.

Over the past month I have familiarized myself heavily with the programming language “Lua.” While it is mainly used for apps and video games, Lua can be used for a lot of other things. I go to the Help Desk multiple days a week for 45 minutes to work with Dan on understanding the world of Digital Design and computer programming. I have found some useful resources while at the Help Desk such as online compilers and tutorials. As of right now, I have 3 small projects due for the Help Desk before one big project.

            My first small project is to be completely fluent in Lua. I want to be able to read any Lua code and understand it thoroughly, as well as the ability to effectively write it. My second small project is to develop some tutorial videos (around three) to showcase what I have learned in Lua during my time at the Help Desk. My last small project I am currently deciding between making a mod for one of my favorite games “Garry’s Mod,” or create a medium sized program (more than 70 lines of code to make a game). My big project will to develop a video game of small or medium size.

            As this month was more focused on brainstorming, the next month will involve more coding and further brainstorming on projects to complete.

Not Tech Savvy??? Mr.Downs is Here!

A special thanks to the Warrior Weekly staff for writing up this article about my arrival in Andover.
I am here to help!


Not Tech Savvy??? Mr.Downs is Here!

Integrating Google Docs Into The French Foreign Language Classroom-Andover High School Instructional Technology

I recently had the opportunity to assist a French teacher with introducing Google Docs for creating a survey in his French classroom. Prior to me coming to his classroom and working with his students we discussed how we could use Google Docs so that students could share surveys that they create in French with each other more easily. The French teacher also wanted to streamline the process of having availability all of the surveys available on the web organized by class. This teacher was very open to the different possibilities of using Google Docs for integrating these surveys in his classroom.

Prior to me coming to his classroom the students typed up the surveys in Word document format. To assist this teacher I came into the classroom to coteach and show the students how to create a Google form and how to edit the different types of questions and explain how they had many options. Students learned how to create a form, change the name of the form as well as choose a template for the appearance. Even though I knew Google Docs to be very popular tool amongst high school students I was very surprised that many had not created a form before. The students did a great job working within the Google interface and the options for forms is very intuitive and allows them to choose the different types of questions(multiple choice,text,paragraph,checkboxes,choose from a list). Form questions also enable for adding help text to each question and also gave an options for whether or not the question was required or not.

One of the most interesting components of this lesson was teaching students how to add the accent to specific letters in the French language using the American keyboard. We used a webpage with the keyboard shortcuts on the board to assist students with what they needed to type in order to get the accent to show. Many students entered their survey questions in a very expedient way and successfully created their forms. I then was able to show them the live link in which they could then share their form with anyone. I had them copy their link and add it to a document in which I shared with them. Students enjoyed editing the document collaboratively and seeing live the addtion of each survey to the shared document. The final document had all of their surveys links and names on it. I shortened this link and made it so the French teacher could then share these surveys with another class in France to comlete so that the American students could review the responses.

The students in this class were now easily able to share their surveys with each other and were able to practice creating them using a tool which was intuitive and allowed them to create a variety of questions(multiple choice,text,paragraph,checkboxes,drop down,grid,choose from a list,scale). The sharing feature is valuable in that a variety of settings can be set once and editing by different people can be controlled. The person who created the form or anyone else can edit or not based on the settings. The form can be made available to the public or kept private. Google enables specific editing features for each document created.

The opportunity to use the language lab was a great benefit to this group of students. This lesson could be done in any computer lab or classroom which has internet access. Google Docs provides a great free way to create surveys or web-based forms in which you can collect data about a variety of subjects. It is very user-friendly and with just a few simple steps can be applied to almost any classroom. It can be used to help with assessment by creating test or quizzes or even in a flipped classroom model so that students can answer questions at home and then have a discussion about them when they get to school.

An Introduction To Net Texts Online/Flipped Classroom Learning Platfrom

The uniqueness of Net Texts is the ease of applying outside content to the organization of units or lessons online. Net Texts enables students and teachers to work from one portal and simplifies the process for teachers who want to work from one device or are part of a district 1:1 implementation. Net Texts has integrated a variety of different tools from the web such as Khan Academy,CK-12 and made these resources easily searchable for teachers. The interface allows for adding content in an organized efficient ways and streamlines the process of adding videos,lectures and course documents and assessments in purposeful and meaning full ways online. Teachers have access to existing web based course collections as well as the opportunity to design the course from the bottom up using resources collated from the web.

The Net Texts students view on devices(Android,Ipad application) is organized and clearly outlines the course content,videos and documents. Teachers can receive emailed spreadsheets of student results in their portal as well. Like many current note taking applications Net Texts interfaces are consistent between devices and enables students to quickly add notes and find course materials efficiently.

Net Texts is ideal for districts looking for a singular interface for students to interact with course content and also streamlines how teachers organize online content. This tool is ideal for balancing the learning curve for teachers in creating a flipped classroom mode and enables sharing,content management and specific subject area materials. This tool is even more beneficial for teachers who truly know how they want to organize their flipped model and can draw their course materials from previous materials(speadsheets,docs,pdf) and have a strong plan for the organization of lessons and what resources will be necessary to teach a lesson and keep it aligned as they move forward. Newer teachers would want to plant specifically around the content they may want for their course before they fully committed to designing the course. 

The application has a main dashboard which allows teachers to mange what content and what web based materials support the flipped classroom instruction. Different flipped models could be used with this tool as well and instruction could be based on singular components of media being assigned for homework and then viewed in class or a teacher could develop a hybrid based on the accessibility of tablets or computers for student access and use Net texts as tool to assit in connecting to specific material.

Ultimately it is still up to the teacher to create the collaboration this tool would bring to the classroom. Teachers need to find resources which support their instruction or have additional professional development which supports them in creating screencast videos or managing a variety of web based documents such as pdf's,images and docs. 

Net texts supports the integration of OER resources(open education resources) in order to help organize teachers in developing content and choose sources. Some of these source which can benefit a Net Texts users are CK-12 for the sciences,www.net-texts.com/collections,Khan Academy and the OER Commons located at http://www.oercommons.org . Net texts is looking to assist in applying these resources to their platform as quickly as possible to assist in integration of their platform.

One of the largest  benefits for this platform is the ever evolving development of trusted web based materials which teachers can search and utilize quickly to develop a new course or assist a teacher created lesson.  After attending a training with the Net Texts Marketing staff I could recognize their commitment to embracing the use of the Creative Commons and building in this important component into their tool. Their staff highlighted in their presentation several videos and engaged in rich discussion about this feature. I have included links to this information as well as Net Texts youtube video. 

search.creativecommons.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AdtwhLJg3g

Mowhawk Video video on Creative Commons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e2WMlL6jlI

Net Texts 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AdtwhLJg3g

What Is The Andover Innovation Lab?

What Are We About!

The Andover Innovation Lab is a unique opportunity for students who wish to develop their own independent technology driven project. Students have the opportunity to come to the Innovation Lab and create a proposal for a self driven project. Students are also mentored and supported by experienced technology educators who can assist them at finding the resources and tools to complete their projects and create real world experiences. This includes reaching out and making real world connections for potential internship experiences,professional connections and personal growth.

If you are a student in Andover High School or you know a student who would benefit from the great benefits of a personalized,self directed and technology rich experience let them know about this opportunity. The students participating in the Innovation Lab also serve as the first line of support for the student run help desk. Students can expand knowledge in the areas of networking,hardware and also troubleshooting technical issues.

Potential Independent Projects Include:

• Developing A Mobile Application or Web Based Application
• Creating A Website Or Blog For A Business or Personal Interest
• Developing  A Game or Multimedia Project
• Developing A Network Design Plan
• Building Computers or Studying Hardare
• Learning More About Social Media & Professional Networking
• Using Lab Time To Work On The Technology Centered Components of Another School Projec

MassCUE 2013- Andover Student Help Desk Experience- Vaibhav Patel

We went to Mass Cue Conference, at first we went looking for the 30 hands learning vendor, but we could not find it at first, so we went to the vendors and met the exhibitors and learned a lot of stuff about technology, I also did Virtual Welding. We also tried to get some internships and connections to people associated with IT. Before lunch, we found the 30 hands learning vendor and met Eric Braun, Owner of the 30 Hands Learning, and he gave some nice advice about using technology for myself, and it was useful. Then we had to eat lunch and finally after that we went to work the Einstein Bar, where I assisted people with technical Issues, so basically a help desk. There was one lady that came for help, her problem was that she couldn’t turn up/off the sound in her Mac. Overall a very rewarding experience and great to meet so many entrepreneurs and see the range of employment opportunities in technology.