Google Glass in the classroom...some ideas

I thought it's really cool that Google is working on an experimental project with lots of potential like the  Google Glass, and I am sure it would just be a matter of time, perhaps really soon, before its initial potential could be seen in the classrooms. And perhaps to get the ball rolling, here are my 5 initial thoughts on how it can be used in the classrooms.

1. Have the Glass networked with one another and the teacher's, and students would then be able to  see a virtual board on their screens, or see the Google Docs that the teacher has opened from his/her shared Google Drive. Very useful when used out of the classrooms, say during field-trips or school outings to locations out of the school premises
2. Conference calls, hangouts, Skyping using the Glass would be an even better experience with the Glass. Students and teachers could work from different locations, even different countries, and lessons could be done via the video tool. In fact, recording the lessons would be a natural thing to do, followed up by perhaps a review of the lesson/s.
3. Alternatively, the concept of a Flipped Classroom could be greatly enhanced here. Students would be able to learn content before their lessons, from other sources, and then present them to their classmates during lessons. In fact, why not enable multiple screens to appear on the Glass, so that there could be one-to-many interactions.
4. Allow the teacher to form groups within the class through linking the Glasses together, and get students to then collaborate on working on a project whilst leveraging on it. It could be a small group of students working on a media coverage of a school event, but being in different locations and reporting in ala a news network, at different times of the event.
5. Link up the Glass with sketching elements like a stylus, or why not enable the finger/s of the Glass wearer to be the stylus. Students would then work on sketching their ideas, on say, a subject area on coming out with designs to solve a physical problem. If networked, small groups of students would be able to work on these set of sketches concurrently! In fact, if computing power permits, why just work on 2D....let's have 3-dimensionality in these Glasses as well. SketchUp on Glass anyone?

These are just my initial thoughts of the potentials of Glass in classrooms, that I can think of at the moment. There's definitely more ideas out there, on top and above what I've read about in some of the comments and articles. Perhaps the above might work in the first versions...or not. But whatever it is, the Glass would definitely open up newer unimaginable possibilities to the teachers in the classrooms.

Teaching concepts: Eliciting the 4 concepts in 1-point perspective

As part of the professional development (PD) exercise in my current institution, I recently volunteered to be a participant in a PD sharing session on Conceptual Teaching. It definitely is an elucidating session for me, and what I took away from that session is a clearer idea of what concepts are, and how a teacher can deepen the students' learning through the idea of teaching concepts.

Well, certainly teaching concepts in the classrooms is not an easy exercise on its own, as it does require a certain significant degree of preparation and set of examples, and counter-examples, of what concepts are. But what I do appreciate most is the idea that for learning to be really deep and significant, the ability to deepen the students' conceptual understanding, and then perhaps being able to get students to apply and transfer these concepts into other contexts, is THAT thing that would be the epitome of what effective LEARNING is all about. If students do not just merely regurgitate nor memorise, but more importantly, being able to have a deep understanding of the materials being taught, and then, being able to apply them into other contexts, that is perhaps the ideal model of what learning is all about.

I was initially a bit skeptical about how to apply Conceptual Teaching into a topic or into content areas that is primarily skills-centric, but nonetheless, being the adventurous me, I decided to give it a shot! Loo and behold, I did manage to work on developing concepts on what 1-point perspective is all about, or not. Here are the 4 concepts that I've managed to elicit from my interactions from my 2 classes of Year 1's (12-13 year olds). Here are the 4-concepts, taken from the white board.

4 key concepts to define a 1-point perspective drawing, plus an optional
working concept, for my students

What do you think of these 4 concepts? Are these enough to define that a perspective sketch is 1-point, versus one that is not? Let me hear your thoughts.

iPadifying my classroom: Explain Everything...Part 1

I am currently very actively looking at a model of flipped teaching, and the likes, and am exploring the use of the Explain Everything app on the iPad as a tool that would help me to get to that eventuality in certain aspects or content areas of my lessons.

Screen grab from their web site

It has been a mix of both good and trying experience in using the app so far, but more good has so far come out of my experimentation, rather than the bad. In fact I have just managed to finish working on my second clip in class earlier today, and am definitely looking at a model whereby these recordings could be used again, and even retrieved by the students during their practise or revision sessions later on, or when I am not present for lessons.

In case any of the readers reading this blog have any experience using the app, or are also using the app for their own teaching and learning, please do share with me on some of your thoughts or ideas. We could perhaps learn from each other too. I'm contactable at the usual links that you read off the side of this blog page.

5 things I like about the Paper app

Screen-grab of the Paper app

I have been using the Paper app by FiftyThree for almost a year now, and I must say it is still one of my favourite sketching tool, no...make it my MOST favourite sketching tool in my iPad. And with my recent upgrade to the Retina display version of the iPad, it has been a godsend too.

Let me just state why it has been my app of choice for most of my sketches:

1. The look-and-feel: The look-and-feel of the app is just...how shall I say it...just right aesthetically. The team at fiftythree has spent a lot of effort, and indeed being voted as a winner in 2012's Apple Design Award is, I think, one of the more deserving accolade that they should win, perhaps of many more to come. The clean and simple interface just smacks of simplicity and zen-ness, whilst still maintaining a certain level of functionality in giving the users options and choices, to pursue and peruse the app in their own desired way.
2. Undo: I find the undo concept, akin to the rewinding of a turntable, a very innovative one. Viewing the interview video done with the design team, I can now understand the background behind this unique design. It is indeed an efficient tool for me as a user.
3. Colour palette: The updated versions launched recently includes a colour palette that enables users to have better and more control over the colour. I thought this is a neat idea, given the fact that I usually use several tones of some hues for some of my sketches.
4. Sketchbooks: The idea of incorporating 'sketchbooking' elements rather than loose sheets, like some other sketching apps, is also a step in the right direction for me. It helps me to organise my sketches, and allows me to clarify my ideas and thoughts better too. With the added functionality of copying from one page of a book, to another, it makes the experience even better!
5. Pay for what you use/need: Yes, although the basic edition is free, you can still upgrade, but just pay only for those that you use or need. But if you are like me, just get everything!

I guess there are several more reasons that I can quote, but the above are perhaps the major reasons, not in any particular order, that have made me really love this app.

But I do admit it is not perfect! There are some nice-to-have functions that I wish they could have added on, but alas, that in itself could be one post that I might be doing at another time then. In the meantime, I am just enjoying what they have to offer, and perhaps doing a little more sketching too!

For a look at some of my works, you can Like my id.design(ology) page on Facebook, or view my 'A Sketch A Day Project 2013' (Twitter hashtag: #aSkaD2013) HERE, plus my other sketches and contributions. You can also see my works specifically on the Paper app on my Behance page HERE.

5 ideas to improve Edmodo

As I've said in my previous post, I have only been using Edmodo for 4 weeks. These are 5 ideas that I thought would help to make the platform more effective, but then again, these are only ideas from me as a very early adopter, and my teaching and learning workflow could be different from others...or not. So here are my 5 ideas to improve Edmodo:

1. Show more preview of the attached files: I thought having the ability to show a little more of the attached files is a good idea to have, akin to how one can browse through the pages of a .pdf document in the Finder window on a Mac-based system.
2. Being able to simultaneously dictate posts: Currently I have to rework on another assignment post if I were to assign the same assignment to different classes, at different times of release. I know that we could just edit the original post, and add in the target groups or classes later on, but I thought being able to do these staggered timings at one go early on, and once only, would be a better and more efficient way of working.
3. Reorganising small groups: Currently the small groups are pretty much fixed, and when one needs to regroup the class into other variations for a new assignment, the old group would not stay, unless one takes the effort to create a new cluster of small groups! This might make the organisation of the small groups function a little unwieldly, especally over time. I thought it is good to have some form of a memory-system in place, so that for each of the assignment assigned to a batch of smaller groups, the teacher/user can make references to which students are in the particular small groups, for a particular specific assignment. This could also be extended to the Turned-In submissions, as only the particular student who submitted on behalf of the group would have the Turned-In status on. I thought having the status for the rest of the group members at the same time would be a bette means of indication.
4. Editable grading for students: Something small, but I thought it would be good for teacher/users to be able to edit the listing descriptors whenever they are marking the students' turned in assignments. Descriptors like 'A Rockstar' might be helpful in certain contexts...but might also not be helpful in others. Best if this could be linked to some sort of a user-defined rubrics too.
5. A much better in-built chatting/private messaging tool: I thought having this tool built in into Edmodo would be helpful, akin to Facebook's Chat and Google+'s Hangout concepts. It would help students to make connections and give feedback more quickly, within the system, rather than having to alternate to another tool to do so.

Disclaimer: Although these are ideas/suggestions from me that I deemed to be non-existent yet, I might be wrong in certain areas, and there might just be turnarounds to the challenges that I face above, that I have not discovered just yet. I would definitely love to hear from any Edmodo users out there, for some of these turnarounds, if any. Or perhaps I might have been doing some aspects wrongly, hence the shortcomings above. But whatever it is, I do hope that some of these improvements are things that could be in the pipeline, and who knows, the list above might just get a little shorter once I am done with it by the end of the year!

10 things why I like Edmodo

Screenshot of the homepage

I have been using Edmodo.com for about 4 weeks now, and I must say it has been a good experience thus far. Here's my 10 reasons why I like to use it for my lessons:

1. It is similar to Facebook: The fact that the interface and the way it works is similar to Facebook, perhaps the #1 social media tool used by my students, is already a plus point in itself. Students would have a very short learning curve to work their way around the interfaces and being able to 'recognise' the similarities between Facebook and Edmodo.
2. No ads: At least not now. The fact that there are no ads help teachers like me to focus more on what is the main intent of using Edmodo, that is for teaching and learning. Having no distractions like advertisements, however appropriate (or worse still, inappropriate ones!) is a godsend, as it just looks a little cleaner to me, for my intended tasks.
3. Closed system: The fact that you can control the level of privacy of your group/class is another tool that is useful. Whilst this is also possible in tools like Facebook and Google+, I thought the fact that the focus of Edmodo, being a tool more for educators, than the former two, just helps to redefine and make the system more exclusive, and thus enhance the closeness (or openness), of it.
4. Assignments: The ability for the teacher-user to define the assignments and immediately upload the posts, or having them posted in a delayed manner, is a good tool for me, especially when I can key in all the assignments to my classes at one go, but then stagger their uploads/posts onto the main public board, according to the timings that I dictate
5. Linkage to G-drive: Having the Library function linked to you selected Gmail account, and consequently, the corresponding Google Drive is a good step, as it helps me to just keep track of the single folder or G-drive account that I would need to monitor, for all my lesson materials, that I would want to upload, or refer to.
6. Ability to monitor students submissions: One of the shortcomings of using other social media tools, is their inability to monitor closely the submissions by students. Hence the ability of Edmodo to give the teacher an overall view of students' submissions, is indeed useful. More so too if you have more than one class/group to teach.
7. Ability to differentiate instructions through small-grouping: Being able to form smaller groups within the class is another useful tool...in my opinion. Teachers like me can better manage their assignments, and shall there be a need to, use differentiated instructions methods to targeted groups, for a more effective learning environment. 
8. Polls and Quizes: The use of polls and short quizzes, with time limits, is a good tool for one to use, as it helps to complete Edmodo, as a tool for teaching and learning. As of now, I have not use this tools yet, but I thought having them as part of the suite of tools made available to the teacher-user, is indeed something worth exploring, and using, later on.
9. Commenting on students' submissions: This must be one of the tool that I have been using the most thus far. Especially when one talks about submissions of digital artefacts that are subjective or aesthetics-based in nature. The ability of the teachers to include personalised comments, and suggestions, is really a wonderful one!
10. Badges as rewards: I guess students are also motivated by some form of rewards, and having this small, but useful feature, is a step in the right direction, towards affirming students works and/or efforts.

And there you go, the 10 things that I like about Edmodo.com, not in any particular order. There are still a few more that I might have missed over here, but it is definitely one tool that educators should try to have a go at, even if its not on a 1-to-1 computing classroom model.

Do give me a tinker if you have ideas, or would like to share with me your thoughts on this.

Experimenting with Doodlecast Pro app

My initial experiment with the iPad app Doodlecast Pro.

One of the things that I did not realise was its ability to record sound, which was rather a good thing actually!

I envision using this later on for my future lessons and being able to record them and upload to YouTube within the same hour or day.

In the sample clip on the site, there are lots of possibilities, hence I'm kind of excited to see what other possibilities would this app be able to pull off.

Storyboarding and Camera Angle exercise

One of the submissions done by my students on 'Storyboarding' and 'Videography'.

The whole idea of this exercise was to get students to be aware in the use of different camera angles, and understand the intent and purpose of the differing angles.

With the use of storyboards, students were able to visualize their stories better, and henceforth, be able to suggest angles to better tell their stories.

To make the exercise challenging, only the last scene/clip was given to the students, i.e. the picture of a broken pencil. Students, working in pairs or trios, were free to explore the storyline that leads to that final scene/clip.

Above is just one of the storylines done up by the students.

Audio was recorded in post-production, and clip was done using iMovie by yours truly.

When being Innovative is more important than being Creative

I had some time to think things through this 'debate' the last couple of days, on what makes somebody creative or innovative. And perhaps the debate on whether it is more important to be creative, or innovative. The debate seems to stem from the idea that I had that there should be a balance between the two, especially in my approaches towards teaching my charges this idea of 'creativity versus innovation'. But could there really be only one thing that one should focus on, in order to give that sense of value-addedness? 

I was reminded the other time about how Apple is not necessarily the most creative company in the world. A case in point was that they were NOT the ones who invented the portable digital music player, nor the mouse, and neither the tablet. But what they did to the idea of

• how a portable digital music player should be part of an 'ecosystem', 
• how a mouse should operate buttonlessly and 
• how a tablet should look like and be experienced with multi-touches and gestures...

now...these are indeed examples of innovation. Yes they were not original ideas, nor their overarching concepts of working totally original, but the very fact that they have managed to leverage on an existing design concept, and work on how to transform these elements into a 'disruptive' tool to the current status quo...now that's innovation at its finest.

So perhaps creativity does have its place in the whole scheme of things, but in order for things to get really moving, and exciting, the innovative piece of the puzzle must also be present, and in order. And then perhaps...just perhaps, things could move along along a more 'disruptive' mode!