It has been some time since I last posted due largely to a shift in employment. I am now working as a digital technology teacher at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, as a course creator for http://www.codeavengers.com and as the director of http://www.learningdevelopments.co.nz
Much has changed in the education sector in this time. Digital technology is now a part of the New Zeland curriculum. Communities of Online Learning have been established and 21CLD is becoming the expectation. I am working solely in online education now and the demand for the medium is only growing. I am excited to be a part of it. If you would like to keep up with my new blogs, please check out my new blog channel at https://www.learningdevelopments.co.nz/blog
I am a very happy teacher indeed with the outcomes my students are producing inside Minecraft. There are many schools around that have used Minecraft to build collaborative projects and even build their own school. My students too worked together across year levels and gender, 2 year 9 girls, 1 year 11 and 2 year 12 boys collaborating in their own time. They built everything from a model of the school to a reproduction of the 9/11 tragedy in New York when it was being studied in their social science class.
The student that I am most proud of is Jonathan Ashworth, a year 12 computer science student. Hue used Minecraft to create a fully working model of a Full Adder, the core component of an Aritimic Logic Unit which in itself is the core element of the Central Processing Unit of the computer your using right now.
He used Redstone and switches to create the logical AND, OR and XOR gates and then assembled them in the correct way to make the Full Adder work. An outstanding achievement for a year 12 student that shows his creative ability and his in depth working knowledge of the concepts. This project truly opened my eyes to the power of Minecraft to be much more than just a glorified reason to play games instead of doing real work in class. It even aligns with some of the modelling and prototyping technology standards for NCEA!
If you haven’t done so already and can not think of a real world project for your class then I reccomend you don’t, instead use the approach we used as part of the http://www.mineclass.org team of teachers. Just tell them go and get creating and take you on the journey, with a little bit of teacher direction you will soon have them contextualising their work and developing 21st century skills at the same time. Check out Minecraft in Education to become more involved.
So in America school has just restarted and as I announced yesterday that means great deals on the Surface 3, it also means Google is promoting that they are catching up with Microsoft technology in their latest blog post. Microsoft has plenty of new tools too, which you can find out about in the O365 blog but for now this post focuses on a retort to the Google release that has teachers talking.
Schoolwork, please do some work
Writing papers has always been easy in Word, you can search with Bing or Wikipedia right from word. You can search without even leaving Word, and once you find the quotes, facts or images you’re looking for, you can add them to your document with just a couple of taps. That means less time switching between apps, not like that’s a problem of course as with Windows you can have multiple apps open side by side and drag and drop between them. I think this is a Microsoft Win here.
With Voice Typing, you can record ideas or even compose an entire blog post without touching your keyboard. To get started search for ‘Speech’ with the magnifying glass when your on Windows 10. Then, when you’re ready, not only can you speak to have the text appear, you can also control your computer! Microsoft supports 141 Languages but not all come as standard for voice. Another win to Microsoft here.
Office has been making it easy for you to tell which author added or deleted in Office since at least 2007, with track changes. This in combination with version control and you’ve been able to come into a shared document and see the changes or pick up right where your classmates left off. Major win to Microsoft here.
Excel Survey helps you get a lot of information easily and in one place. When you want to vote on your class field trip or collect staff opinion on a new initiative, you don’t have to sort through dozens of emails or deal with piles of paper slips. Granted Google, Microsoft does need to allow embedding code and or some stylisation. Small advantage Google.
Templates
Creating presentations, crafting newsletters and managing budgets has always been easy and looked great in office with the thousands of templates. Not only do the templates help you make things look good, many of them are designed for purpose, need a CV, Meal planner, Newsletter, its all there and has been for nearly as long as office has existed. So you can focus on the data you put into it and let others worry about the design. Check out templates.office.com, Win Microsoft.
Charts
With Charts, you can spend little time trying to decipher your data, and more time making is visual. Charts creates charts, go figure, so you can visualise trends and understand your data in seconds. With all the available options this is another win to Microsoft.
Mission Control
O365 teamsters and OneNote. Now I do take issue with some of the items in Google video here, firstly don’t expect me to be online when your doing your homework and secondly you should be collaborating with your classmates and the global community, not just relying on your teacher. Secondly, pushing out information and controlling your students devices does not teach Self regulation and I can tell you from experience of using applications like this on Windows for many years, learner do not like losing control of their device. If a teacher can’t get all the students on the same page there may be other issues at play. So I think mission control remains a matter of opinion but I do eagerly await O365 class dashboard. Check out the webcast here.
However it seems to me that Google users are forgetting why they left Microsoft in the first place. Google Docs was designed to only have 10% of the functionality of Office, thus dumbed down for the masses. But now it seems the new approach is to aim for 85-90% functionality and upskill the masses. So why not get 100% functionality now, because, as always office has always been the benchmark.
Be Awesome every school year with O365. Your next assignment? Try some of these old features, which have been around for years!
If you are in the market for a new BYOD device, Microsoft are doing a great job with the September package deal on the Surface 3, Pen and Type Cover!
September Surface Special
This truly is a great package that will empower your students and teachers through the power of the pen. By combining the Surface 3 with the bundled OneNote software, touch type cover and pen, Microsoft gives students and teachers the opportunity to work at the highest levels of blooms digital taxonomy, creating. The surface is truly a creative powerhouse as it is not targeted at passive consumers of information like the iPad and Galaxy tab. Having a pen bundled with the device allows a greater level of cognition, as evidenced by this great research on the effectiveness of different note taking modes.
I have been using a Surface 3 along side my i5 Surface 3 Pro, sharing with my teaching colleagues since it’s release earlier this year, you can read my initial impressions on my previous blog post. Three months on and the surface is proving to be the device of choice for our teachers and students just like those from Saint Andrews College, as discussed in their blog post. The graph below shows their teachers opinion of the Surface Pro 3 and how likely they would be to recommend it to another teacher. These devices truly make a difference.
You can get aftermarket pens for most devices and I have trailed many of them, on an iPad, Galaxy tab and Windows hybrid devices, but no other can perform as well as the Surface pen. It comes down to the combination between the screen and the Bluetooth paired pen, there is custom pressure sensitivity adjustment so that you can make it feel arguably better than writing on paper. At $799 for a Surface 3 with Keyboard and Pen, this is far better value for money than the recently released Samsung Galaxy A tab which is limited in screen size, memory and has a pen the size pencil I used to use as a child at Pizza Hut.
The Surface 3 runs the full version of Windows 10, unlike it’s poor little brother the Surface RT that was limited by the short lived BING OS, the Surface 3 can handle running teaching software like the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 suite without any noticeably lag, this is what truly sets the Surface 3 apart from an iPad or Galaxy Tab. Students and teachers can run the full versions of desktop applications like Adobe Photoshop and create artworks by painting on canvas using the pen, or develop cross platform applications for IOS, Andriod and Windows with Visual Studio or touch develop.
The Surface 3 is your device of choice to enable your learners to work creatively at a great competitive price!
I am going to keep this post simple as I think the results speak for themselves.
What technology should we be using in our schools to give our students the best possible employment opportunities?
For this I used www.seek.co.nz and searched for jobs by both company and OS. For example I searched both Microsoft and Windows, Apple and IOS, Google and Android. I would just like to note that these results are indicating Apple to have a higher number of jobs than there actually is, unless you are looking for a job in an orchard that is.
So what is the result?
Most jobs from Microsoft
So is your school using and teaching Microsoft technologies?
Microsoft has just released an updated version of their popular snipping tool for taking snapshots to insert in your documents, class notebooks or ever so easily share online with mix.office.com. Now you have a digital whiteboard that you can write onto and record your voice at the same time. It also still allows you to take screen clippings and now also offers a shortcut to the camera
Snip tool from Microsoft
It is a light weight and very easy to use tool designed to be used frequently and simply, an extension of the office mix toolkit for “Microsoft publisher. It lets you take screenshots that you can then write on and add your voice to them if you so desire, of course you can just keep the image if you please.
A couple of months ago I managed to buy an Xbox One for my classroom. It certainly gathered much attention and has raised a few eyebrows around the school since then. I have also purchased the Project Spark game, a Kinect sensor and some movies, the console also came bundled with Halo and Forza Horizon 2.
The following is how I have found it most useful so far for you to consider if you are wanting one for your classroom, like this teacher. Feel free to share this with your accounts holders to help get one for your students.
Level Two NCEA Digital Technology AS91371
The 91371 Achievement Standard addresses Human Computer Interfaces and using your body to control the computer is one fun example of this. It lines up with “suggesting improvements to a given human-computer interface based on an evaluation in terms of usability heuristics.” It is one third of the 4 credit standard, so we can easily spend a couple of hours playing with the interface.
Level One NCEA Computing US5943
The 5943 Unit Standard is a two credit standard for reviewing leisure based applications. We play some games and all the kids have opinions about how good or bad they are, the reports come straight out of their mouths and we have no problem getting them to engage with it.
Programming
I am investigating using a game called project spark for storytelling and game design, early days on that one but there are teachers who have made a career out of building learning into project spark games. I would like to make this part of my programming unit along with touch develop eventually actual design games for the Xbox. This of course lines up with all of the Achievement and Unit standards from programming in both digital technology and computing in the NZQA system.
Kinect Sensor with Electronics
Future Kinect developments are in the area of using it as a sensor, this can be related to Physical real world problems like measuring the volume of a cylinder in the dairy industry. Say for example you have a silo that is filled with animal feed from a spout in the centre at the top, it will fill up as a cylinder but have a cone on the top, so traditional sensors do not actually give an accurate measure. Using 3D camera technology multiple points can be mapped. This is conceptual stuff, making a 3D Scuplute of your students is not conceptual, its a real world hack you could try. This aligns with all of the electronics based digital technology standards as well!
Media Server
Xbox Video
The Xbox One is also media server that allows me to download and store videos to show the students on demand. I don’t need a DVD player or a rack full of disks. I had a decommissioned NAS box that I attached and have started using as my media server for use with Xbox Video and look forward to growing my digital library. If I don’t have time to download a movie then no problem, the Xbox One is also a DVD and Blue Ray player so I can just grad a disc off the shelf. This is great for those teachers that where frustrated with having to use VLC Player in Windows 8.
Games Club
There is the obvious games club at lunch times and the offer of reward which never goes a miss for motivating kids.
Please get in touch if you would like future information and enjoy your teaching.
Hi everyone, I just started using office sway again to make some resources for my classes to share with anyone, anywhere who has internet access and my word has it improved! Office Sway is now a really easy to use, fast, responsive HTML5 drag and drop web design tool. You don’t need any web design experience and it links to all your digital resources with drag and drop functionality, and it automatically resizes based on the devices screen size. You can use your OneDrive, Twitter feed, Facebook or any internet resource, even files on your computer, they all just drag and drop straight into the design interface.
Sway makes Blendspace look more like Blandspace. Use the remix button on Sway to instantly try different styles, layouts, fonts, colours and navigation styles. Can’t find a quiz tool in Sway like there is in Blendspace, no problem, link to an excel survey and have the results save to your OneDrive. There has been a huge amount of development go into this tool and it has produced a smooth, refined easy to use tool that is available to anyone with a Microsoft account. Look for it next time you click on the waffle.
Click on Sway
Five ways you could use this in your class today…
Get your students to make a SWAY showcasing their learning
Making a PowerPoint? Why not make a SWAY instead and share the link with your students
Make an online CV using SWAY for yourself or your students to share with prospective employers, they will be amazed at how professional it looks!
Sick of marking presentations or posters for student assessment? Get them to make a SWAY instead.
Put your next lessons learning content on a SWAY and link to it.
Flipping your classroom, ‘podcasting’ or just making video tutorials is so easy using OneNote and Office Mix. Office Mix has the built in record your desktop feature which allows you talk over your screen recording as well. From here I use Windows Live Movie Maker which is free to download and use, it’s a lite video editing application that is super easy to use and allows you to trim out any mistakes or parts wher you may have been thinking a little long.
Once you have edited your video the next question is where do I put it? Now this is something I have spent much time considering and trailing with myself this year. I have tried YouTube where I have my own channel I have played around with for a number of years. However this maybe blocked in yoru school or you might not want to manage a YouTube account. I have also tried using O365 video and storing them on the domain, however if you move the video or rename it you will have to update your links, also you may not want to manage another video server.
So where do you put it, what’s easiest for us teachers who are so time poor and just want it to work quickly? What I have found is the best palce for it is in the class notebook it self, not embedded but linked. Careful now as you have the option, if you embed it then you are increasing the size of your OneNote book and will use up disk space on any synced devices, it will also take longer to sync or download in the first place.
Where you want to put it, is in the OneNote Class notebook creator folder and link to it, then you are using your teamsite page to save the video. Obviously this is only a recommendation based on my opinion and you can store your video where you like.
Also until the OneNote team allow us to play videos inside OneNote we have to launch the video in a video app, so you probably want to consider if your sending your studnets to YouTube to watch a video or if they are going to have there media player show the video, I know which I would find less distracting!
Microsoft have recently revised their tablet hybrid offering, now including the fully functional Surface 3 to their line up. This device replaces the Surface RT devices that were limtied in functionality and lacked processing power. The new device is the true little brother to the powerhouse device of the year Surface 3 Pro. The Surface 3 uses an Atom processor in place of the i3, i5 or i7 in the Surface 3 Pro, and this means big power savings and only surprisingly minimal loss in computing power. I have been trailing the Surface 3 in place of my Surface 3 Pro and have found it’s smaller form factor to be very handy in the classroom and more comfortable on the couch or beanbag. The stand out surprise for me so far is it’s sound quality, with dual front facing speakers it blows the iPad and Galaxy Tab out of the water when watching video clips.
I have noticed the Atom processor adds a couple of seconds to the loading time of applications, but once running I don’t notice any difference, granted I am not playing advanced games or running Adobe premier, but it is fully capable of doing so, which sets it apart from it’s predecessors and it’s competition. The Surface 3 runs the same OS as it’s big brother and works with all standard desktop applications and windows store applications. The Surface 3 is now the recommended device for our students at Te Aroha College, as it brings the power of OneNote and the surface pen with a very affordable price point. It really is OneNote and the pen that makes this device so great. Research shows that learning impoves when students use a pen to record their ideas in place of typing notes.
“Pen interfaces that support writing numbers, symbols, and diagrams substantially increase students’ ability to generate hypothesis when solving science problems.”
The pen is faster and allows abstract ideas to be easily formulated. The pen also has great programmable touch sensitivity which allows amazing artworks to be created, my creative students just love it. Our school is now realizing the benefit of the Pen with OneNote like this pioneering schools before us.
I congratulate Microsoft on the Surface 3, it honestly surpasses my expectations in performance. This should be on the stationary list of many secondary schools for next year, it is certainly on ours.
Troy Smith Microsoft Expert Educator New Zealand 