Tecnología, clases remotas, comunicación

Welcome to my blog! ¡Bienvenidos!

The only blog that I have ever spent time exploring has been that of a friend of mine, a former ESL teacher. It was amazing how much I learned about my friend, whom I didn't meet until about 23 years ago. I loved to read her uninterrupted thoughts, memories, ideas. 

I have started this blog for a class I am taking this summer 2020 through CARLA, the University of Minnesota. I chose this class, because since the birth of my son already 9 years ago, I only took summer classes the first 3 or 4 years of his life because he slept a lot and I could get away with it. Timing of this is a bit more difficult. When I chose this class, it was based on some classes I had taken probably 15 years ago already. A French teacher colleague and I traveled to Minnesota and stayed a week at UMN. I loved it because it was challenging and fun. 


My first question is about Blogger. Will this be something that is useful for communication for my high school students? It reminds me of the Genius Hour idea that our feeder schools were exploring. Immediately after hearing about it, I was incredibly interested. Then the reality of being on a team, not teaching sola, and feeling that one entire period a week spent on the Genius Hour would make it difficult to "finish" what my teammates and I decided was most important. They did not seem as excited as I was. In the end, I spoke with my classes about it, and did not follow up, did not create the Genius Hour four our class.

If you do not know what the Genius Hour is, the idea is that 20% of class in a week is spent on the student's passion! So! Talk about creativity! High interest! And we could do it all in Spanish. Creations could be individuals or pairs. 
What it is:
Skills and Standards:
A video for Students:
2016 Genius Hour examples

Maybe remote learning or a hybrid schedule will afford us the possibility of doing Genius Hour - Topics, Research, Answers - can be shared on Blogger. Maybe using Blogger for the Genius Hour is just what we need to encourage students to come up with their own content, interests, and explore them through Spanish. One of our classmates in CARLA said something to the effect of organizing something and letting students just have at it, and see what happens. I love that idea! And isn't that what this Blogger assignment is modeling also?

My next question is about H5P. I have reviewed the following website for H5P. There have been so many posts in our class, it made me curious. Some technology and websites give me an eerie feeling, and this is one of them! I'm not clear, yet, if I can actually use H5P on Schoology. I have to ask. Eerie because it's just not a "friendly" looking site. 

I found this YouTube video that demonstrates how to attach H5P materials to Schoology, my district's LMS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbCguwSwgVw The video itself is 3 years old, and the Schoology page on which the author of the video, Paul Beckermann, embeds his H5P content looks a bit different from that which I am accustomed. That alone made me a little nervous. I do need to ask our Tech department about whether use of H5P is permissible. The video made me laugh because there is a part where Mr. Beckermann says that you don't need to worry about the coding that is created to embed. Just seeing it made me more nervous! His explanation, however, was very easy to follow... and a great example of how to record your screen, talk over it, and publish it to YouTube. He is thoughtful in what he thinks people may worry about. He anticipates his concerns. And the fact that there is a way to use H5P on Schoology just makes me hopeful.

What have your experiences been?

Mr. Beckerman just published this on July 1, 2020. How to use H5P. I'm going to check it out now.

Comments

  1. FlorenciaJuly 6, 2020 at 7:35 AM

    I love the idea of Genius Hour! I would only offer a word of caution if you plan on sharing student creations in a public blog like this one: student privacy and FERPA. This Educause article might help: educause.edu/ero/article/your-use-social-media-ferpa-compliant.

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  2. FlorenciaJuly 6, 2020 at 7:36 AM

    There is also an H5P group on Facebook you can join and get answers to your questions:. It's called "H5P Ask and Share": https://www.facebook.com/groups/h5pinteractivecontent/

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  3. ChristaSGouldJuly 6, 2020 at 11:09 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. ChristaSGouldJuly 6, 2020 at 11:13 AM

    I also feel a little hesitant about H5P, Elizabeth! I had not heard of it until the past year when I started a new job and a few of my new colleagues were using it because it is integrated with our LMS. Because I was trying to adapt to my new work environment, I didn't have much time to explore how to create H5Ps, but my colleagues were generous to share the ones they had created. Usually for videos, I use Edpuzzle, which I find very user-friendly. I'm wondering how these 2 apps might be similar or different.

    Also, thanks for sharing that Facebook group, Florencia! I was able to join it, so I'll have to do a little exploring this week.

    The genius hour idea is really interesting too! I'm wondering if this has been done much in higher education?

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  5. AnonymousJuly 7, 2020 at 4:04 PM

    Elisabeth,
    It's the first time I hear about the two ideas you are sharing here. I love the Genius Hour! I think it is very versatile and it sounds like it is something that could integrate language (presentational mode) and the current STEAM trend. I teach Spanish immersion in 5th grade so I think that initiative could be perfect for me because I'm also in charge of teaching Science and I can see how I could combine language, engineering skills and students' interests with this initiatives.

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    Replies
    1. ElizabethJuly 7, 2020 at 9:56 PM

      Alexis, I think that your scenario is perfect for Genius Hour. The first time I heard about it was from someone working at our feeder schools... K -8. Today when I was poking around Twitter, one of the first names that came up when I went to Twitter was hers: @garnet_hillman. An amazing resource.

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  6. ElizabethJuly 7, 2020 at 9:52 PM

    Ah! Yes! It came to me after reading one of Greg's posts about how of the 5 Cs, Communication is where teachers concentrate their efforts to the detriment of the other 4Cs. Constant reminder that it's all important.

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  7. ElizabethJuly 7, 2020 at 9:59 PM

    Christa,
    I'm not sure about how much in high education... but, I think it could literally be developed as a class itself, or be used as a unit, or in so many ways. If you're not familiar with how it started, Google incorporates it. Many of their projects have originated in the time spent in Genius Hour.

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  8. ElizabethJuly 7, 2020 at 11:19 PM

    Christa,
    Maybe some sort of Genius Hour with "wonderings," "updates," and word walls on FlipGrid...

    ReplyDelete

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