This week’s readings were so heavy, that my poor little Northern Irish brain was exhausted from reading the acronyms alone! Reading the frameworks was like the Crossfit equivalent to the Open workout 20.3 – where we had to do 21-15-9 reps of 315lbs, intersected with 21-15-9 handstand push-ups. At least in the Crossfit workout, we had the option to reduce the weight, and there was a time cap of 9 minutes! COETAIL and Crossfit analogies aside, let’s get to unpacking these frameworks.

What is Tech Integration?

This is surely a conundrum in each and every school, as there are simply so many different variables to consider. Moreover, having worked in schools and educational technology for 15 years now, it is still not fully understood by admin; although I have to say, and I hope not in a sycophantic way, that my current principal understands this and has fully embraced the concept of tech integration.

There is also a wide range of variables, or many parts to the machine, which we must understand before defining the role, such as:

• Which country is the school in re-access to open and free internet?
• The demographics of the student population?
• Is it a BYOD school?
• Is the network infrastructure capable of supporting wide school tech integration?
• Are faculty and admin open to change, and the constant need to adapt?
• Level of enthusiasm, knowledge, and personality of the people facilitating tech integration; including faculty and families?

I have named but a few, but I do come back to these on a regular basis, to try and keep myself grounded. And unlike machines, they do not always need to work together in perfect harmony.

So, how to sum up tech integration? Maybe it looks like this:

“Students are willing to learn new things, collaborate with one another, and take risks with technology to increase their understanding of this rapidly changing world.”

And there, of course, there is the question of what does a tech integrator look like? I did find it amusing that Kim Cofino’s colleague said his goal is to “work himself out of a job” as I did say something very similar to my current principal* But perhaps I could sum up what a tech integration looks like? 

*I said, “if I am doing my job successfully, teachers and students will not need me to come into lessons as they will know all there is to know about tech integration.“

Same Same but Different – Frameworks

The main goal of an educational framework is to support learning – so I suppose I should use this as a starting point when it comes to similarities.  Furthermore, in terms of how the frameworks of both SAMR and TIM are structured, they clearly build upon each other, with each level of framework becoming increasingly difficult, much like the levels in a computer game getting more and more difficult as the user progresses through. 

TPACK, also has similarities in this area too, as the Venn diagram clearly shows that the goal is to combine technology, pedagogical, and content into a superhuman learning machine. I think out of the three, this is the most organic and the most well-rounded. Even the mere mention of pedagogy and content reverberates to something much more encompassing!

Let me give you an example, using all three frameworks. In the SAMR model, we begin with Substitution. This looks like an (offline) PowerPoint in the classroom, used to prepare a presentation of a given compound in a science lesson. Now if we then add the functionality of the features of any presentation software/app like spell checking, formatting changes plus maybe a little extension called Grammarly, then we moved onto the next level of Augmentation. As we progress to Modification and Redefinition, with the integrated features on offer, something like Google Slides, come into play, such as students being able to collaborate with not only peers in the classroom, but their families, friends, and new students and educators across the globe (TIM – Collaborative Transformation). Other Redefined features include; using the explore feature to find new material and embedding files from outside of Google Slides, into the presentation. Publishing the content onto a blog and getting feedback. 

Garnering new knowledge and points of view, something that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Moreover, knowing all of these technical aspects of Google Slides requires some firm technological content knowledge (TPACK).

Out of the three frameworks suggested here, I do like SAMR (check out my QR code lesson for a Modification example) for its simplicity and openness to interpretation. It feels less constricted, a little MYP perhaps, than the other two. Having said that, I will use the delightful rubric of the TIM Matrix for advice; whilst all the while keeping a watchful eye on TPACK…

Reflect and Move On Meaningfully

Back when I taught in the UK, my technology teaching looked a little like this in the TIM Matrix.

	Entry	Adoption	Adaption	Infusion	Transformation
Active				X
Collaborative		X
Constructive			X
Authentic			X
Goal-Directed			X

This was mostly down to the pressure of getting results for GCSEs. We focussed too much on how to use software rather than how to integrate it. Ultimately this leads to a lot of student projects looking very similar, but they were safely guaranteed a good grade. I think that I was also conditioned not to take too many risks with new technology back then – which is an awful shame now when I think about it.

Risk Taker

Nowadays I take, I sometimes, too many risks. This is in part down to the lack of government top-down directives and an open and positive admin team. And you know something, it is going blisteringly well! And to top it off, my role as a tech integrator/coordinator fits our school mission like a glove; “To develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring learners who contribute positively to their communities.” As an example, our digital citizenship program aims to guide our students to contribute positively to their online communities.

To pinch an idea from the 2 Sigma Shift on computer use effect, I have just recently collected feedback on any lessons in which I am going into support tech integration so that I can improve my practice. Reflection plays a huge role in learning and improving our practice, ignore it at your peril!

Even as I type this blog, I have thought of an idea of how to SAMR(ise) Digital Citizenship learning for my Grade 6 students. They are in the final stages of completing their DQ World, an awesome online platform to upskill yourself and your students in 21st-century digital citizenship skills. The website certainly allows for the Augmentation of acquiring new knowledge, but there is little beyond this. 

So how can I provide an opportunity to move up into Modification and Redefinition?

Well for starters I will ask our students to design a two-slide presentation summarising the 8 key skills (CARP principles applied), using PowerPoint 365; so that they collaborate and work together to produce something meaningful. Furthermore, I will organize an asynchronous learning opportunity using Flipgrid based on the question “How am I using my DQ World skills to become a better Digital Citizen”; they can also use their slides as a visual aid. We will then invite one of the other schools participating in the DQ World program to respond to our students’ videos and vice versa. I envisage a wonderful opportunity to genuinely participate in meaningful learning!

Long live frameworks.

I have delivered a few professional development sessions in the past. Including, small one-to-one sessions for teachers on everything from how to use Nearpod, to using Cospaces to teach English as an additional language. I have also introduced a whole-school technology session (in Cambodia) to nearly 200 people and presented a digital citizenship session at ACAMIS this year. So I felt pretty confident going into this one, it was just the timing that was hard once again which there is no getting away from.

Design Challenges

Our group chose to recreate the design challenges from this course, including:

1. Creating a design artifact based on the design principles and elements.
2. Reviewing an existing digital slide based on contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.
3. Creating or recreating an infographic and self-assessing it.
4. Looking forward to how they could use the design knowledge, skills, and understanding in their subjects, departments, and schools.
5. Reflect on Flipgrid.

We choose the following ISTE standards:

ISTE Standard	Why?
4.b. Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues	The infographic design challenge allows the participants to choose whatever platform they feel most comfortable with. There are also check-ins with clock partners so that the participants can discuss their learning.
4.d. Demonstrate cultural competency when communicating with students, parents, and colleagues and interact with them as co-collaborators in student learning.	As with 4b, students can choose not only the platform in which to create their infographic, but they can choose to recreate the infographic (make it better) or they can choose to create their own type. At the end of the challenge, they will also upload their reflections on flipgrid.
6.d. Model and nurture creativity and creative expression to communicate ideas, knowledge, or connections.	As with 4b, students can choose not only the platform in which to create their infographic, but they can choose to recreate the infographic (make it better) or they can choose to create their own type. At the end of the challenge, they will also upload their reflections to flipgrid.

Growing as a Collaborator and Facilitator

I had good intentions to start earlier with this project, but I found it hard to carve out the time. My teammates were fantastic though, and all contributed amazing information, ideas, and tasks! However, I had more success at school. This course has totally reinvigorated me to collaborate with teachers in school as it was so much easier to meet and talk to people there. For example

1. I co-planned the beginnings of an awesome unit using CoSpaces and collaborative learning.
2. I launched Nearpod in an Individuals and Societies lesson
3. I am currently working with 5 teachers and over 30 students on the Yearbook; last year it was me and my pal!
4. Used flipgrid in 3 lessons with over 60 students and across 3 subjects.
5. Set up two mentoring sessions with 2 former colleagues – surprisingly I am the mentor

So although I still need to be better at working more collaboratively in COETAIL, my offline collaboration has grown new roots.

I have done a lot of collaboration in the past, and it is just the best as you get to work with some great minds, and everyone brings something new and interesting to the table. The biggest difference this time, of course, is the fact that we are not in the same room. It is also different as I have been on the same COETAIL learning journey with Liliana, Reyna, and Caitlin so we knew where to pull a lot of information from.

The final project related to learning through the design challenges and collaborative/cooperative tasks we implemented in the PD plan.

Pro D Design Challenge

The challenge began with a cooperative learning structure, talking chips, where participants had to discuss what they felt made an effective infographic(hopefully making the connection to the previous sessions). Next, they will get up and complete the See/Think/Wonder structure, when investigating the infographics. The slides themselves do not contain too much information, based on the design principles from the TEDx talk by Phillips. As the slides did not contain too much information we created a Google Site, which participants could refer to throughout the session, to check instructions and access links. We also utilized different platforms such as padlet for collaborative learning and wakelet for even more links!

Google Slides Presentation

I first heard about Flipgrid back when it was released, but I never got around to using it! I guess I was too busy to find carve out the time to investigate it further. Ironically, having now used it today, it is blisteringly easy to use and it has bags of potential for empowering learning in any environment where you can share ideas. I just loved recording a video and taking 5 takes to do so. It really made me think about 

• What was I saying?
• How I was saying it?
• How might it be interpreted?
• How will the audience react?
• Could my audience hear my voice over my shuffling flip-flops or the 16-bit sounds of the Shanghai electric bikes? 

The best part about Flipgrid is that it is free to use. No pricing plans to look at. No purchase orders are necessary here my friends! It is also so easy to use, that as is stated on Flipgrid marketing, it could be used by pre-k students. All students have to do is:

Flipgrid in the Classroom

I have a plan to use this tomorrow in a Grade 7 Science lesson, that I am co-teaching. The students have to create an infographic based on their understanding of cell types. My job is to teach the students how to use canva to create the infographic.

Before the students enter the (flip)grid they will need a bit of front loading. I will use a cooperative learning structure (Jigsaw) to first teach about some of the key principles of an infographic. The key design principles are:

Then we will move on to Flipgrid. Students can choose to discuss between 2 and 4 design principles based on the example infographic supplied (the one I created in week 3). After they have uploaded their responses, they can choose to respond to each other to deepen the conversation and learn from each other. After this absolutely vital stage of understanding infographics is complete, will they then begin creating their own infographics. I really do believe, by approaching the learning this way, students will remember not just how to create the infographic, but the design principles as well. And I hope that they will carry this knowledge, skills, and understanding into other parts of their learning.

Unite for Change

The chapter on diversity and social justice serves as a wake-up call to us all; particularly agents of which I fit the criteria. But I am not afraid to rock the boat and to look out for those with different needs and abilities than mine. The reading has strengthened my will to do more to understand my students and colleagues, their backgrounds, their lives outside of school, and what they are passionate about. As mentioned in my video I will look to the bigger picture as well, whilst not ignoring the smaller day-to-day things.

Take this scenario as an example. Recently we reviewed magazine covers as part of a design exercise. We focussed on magazines that were written in English and were primarily western relating to the theme. The next time I do this review, students will, of course, be free to review magazines from their home countries; after all, they may be able to relate to this content authentically.

We must unite to make change possible!

007

Unfortunately, Harro was not talking about 007, when he discusses agents in the Cycle of Socialization. I am a white, middle-class, able, 40-year-old heterosexual, and under his definition, this is an agent who has access to things only other people (targets?) can dream of. I feel a certain amount of shame being attached to this group, but I want – no need to interrupt the system.

If I am being honest I would say that being part of this group has allowed me to get where I am today. I am an international school teacher, paid a much larger salary than my, peers, teaching in local schools in my host country. I do feel some amount of guilt, which has led me to do service work in the past. Although this is not all based on guilt, I also want to help others who are not as fortunate as I am; and unfortunately, that may mean having been born into an agent group.

This inner feeling of a need to do service led me to teach in Cambodia in 2014; my first experience as a teacher, not teaching in my home country (internationally at least), in a little school in Cambodia.

The school was made up of a long wooden structure, measuring about 4 meters by 12 meters, which was then split up into 3 classrooms. The students, 25 per class, sat at small wooden tables, on little benches resting on the ground below. For air conditioning, we used the breeze, as the gaps because there were no walls – only beams holding the roof up. We taught English there, and the students were split up by ability, not by age; so it was not uncommon to have an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old in the lesson. The students were so happy to learn taught English. They would always turn up on time and be so eager to get started. It was the first time that I truly knew my good fortune. And it was genuinely the first time that I fell in love with teaching.

So how has being part of an agent group impacted who you are today and how you interact with your colleagues and students? Well, it continues to impact me every day. It reminds me that I must do more and be grateful for what I have. It never ceases to prompt me to see things from other peoples’ points of view. It has taught me to be reflective and patient. And it has educated me to see the good in people.

Infographics are simply the best for communicating information as quickly as Short Circuit’s Johnny Five can read a book. Moreover, they are brilliant to help EAL students learn facts quickly about a given topic. I mean who doesn’t love a pimped-up poster!?

Purpose

For this task I used Canva to create an infographic for the contentious Irish/Northern Irish border; to be used as an exemplar in an Individuals and Societies lesson.

Why create it? The infographic should inform the audience about the concept of borders, and what this looks like for people who cross one on a regular basis.

Target Audience

The first and most important thing was to decide what the needs of the audience are. After all, if an infographic fails to deliver its message successfully to the audience, it’s as useful as an air conditioner for the Arctic in winter or a chocolate teapot. So, here are my audience’s details:

• Grade 6 and 7 students
• Know nothing about Ireland/Northern Ireland
• Do not have English as a first language 

Armed with this information, I set about planning what and how much information I needed to put into my infographic. In addition, I will consider: 

1. What color scheme to use? 
2. What symbols to use? 
3. Font family, color, kerning, spacing? 
4. What vocabulary should I use? 
5. How to compress the data into easy-to-read visualizations or effective visual metaphors – as laid out by Anders Ross.

ll of these questions will be answered in my infographic, which you can check at the end of this post.

Creative Process

This process was entirely different from anything I have done before. I really did think, then rethink using the questions above, about how this information would be processed and acquired by our Grade 6 and 7 students. I watched Schrock’s presentation on Infographics, went through a lot of the examples on her website, and investigate, with great curiosity, the history of infographics. It was a little overwhelming, given the volume of information that Schrock gathered, but I feel it can be perfectly summed up with the delightfully simple lego infographic.

Once ready I began to collect the raw data/information that I needed – this is when the real work began…

Research

I initiated my data search. There is more than enough information on the Irish/Northern Irish border, as it is somewhat of a sticking point in the Brexit process. But, as I was to find out, not all of it is accurate, and there is a good deal of misinformation out there….

I read reports carried out by the European Parliament, articles by reputable news organizations such as The Belfast Telegraph and The Guardian, blogs by independents, *an infographic by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, raw data regarding how many vehicle border crossings there are, cross border reports on road crossing by the Department of Infrastructure and the Department of Tourism, Transport, and Sport! I had all the pieces of information I needed for the infographic, but it felt like I was starting a 5000-piece jigsaw.  After not knowing where to start, I slowly began to sort the data into piles…

Finally, after sifting through all of the above, I headed over to the Flaticon and The Noun Project (not to be confused with Noun Town) to get some free-to-use icons for the infographic. And only then, was I ready to begin the infographic!

Ready To Start

Finally, armed with my icons, sentences, and color scheme I headed over to Canva to create my infographic! Here are some of the design decision highlights:

• I used the same blue background color that is used in the EU Flag.
• The color of the transport symbols is the same color as the stars in the EU Flag. I did this to symbolize that EU member states are free, currently, to cross the border.
• All transport logos came from the same icon pack in Flaticon, in order to maintain consistency.
• I used several principles from Design Secrets Revealed, particularly the following:
  • Spacing/proximity/repetition of the icons, 
  • Consistency of logo size
  • Sans serif fonts throughout
  • Capitalized titles
  • Contrasting colors
• Interestingly I used the colors of the Irish Tricolour in the main title, and for the arrows pointing out the border;
  • Orange for the north – to symbolize the protestant majority
  • Green for the south – to symbolize the catholic majority
  • White for the border – to symbolize neutrality
• Every icon color* (and key numbers in the text below) is also deliberate as well;
  • Purple for the scissors –  independence
  • Red for the border length – danger/warning
  • Brown for the number of crossings – dependable
  • I used different shades of green for all of the border spending icons and key text. I felt that this symbolizes growth, renewal, and prosperity. I was careful not to replicate the green as is used in the Irish flag, to avoid confusion and bias.
  • *using colorpyschology as a guiding torch

Feedback

I did get feedback from colleagues during the process of it, and some changes were made. Their reaction was positive. Some people did pick up on the blue background being the same as the EU flag, but not the yellow in the transport symbols, and in the other symbols. They did like that the vocabulary was easy to process and it stuck to the facts. Someone suggested that I should use different shades of green for the spending icons (I did), as it was too similar to the green in the flag. 

But the final and most important piece of feedback must, and will, come from my target audience – The sixth and seventh graders! I will gather this after the holidays and make the necessary improvements.

I feel like I need to go back and change not just one slide that I have made, but all of my slides from all of my presentations – someone please grab the visual first aid kit!

I exaggerate. I do tend to keep the amount of text on the minimal side, but I have made some basic errors such as being addicted to white backgrounds, and not using animations and contrast to direct the audience’s attention to where I want it to be. In this week’s task, I will also incorporate elements of storytelling as set out by Garr Reynolds; interestingly I have worked with a professional storyteller before – Phil Dermott – the man is a legend, and brings stories to life. Also, I will adopt almost all of the David Phillips suggestions.

Light Bulb Moment

I have been using PowerPoint, Google Slides, and occasionally Keynote for years. I knew that I didn’t like the templates that come with the apps, so I would more often than not make up my own or download from third-party websites such as Slides Carnival.

I would pick the one that best suited the theme of my lesson (technology) and that was pretty much my only criterion.  The only other thing that I paid attention to was making sure the text was easy to read, and that it wasn’t Comic Sans!

Watching and reading this week’s material truly felt like a light bulb – moment, in terms of what I wasn’t doing!

I have decided to go with the following, truly boring and uninspiring slide, I had in a presentation on how to create a positive digital footprint. The target audience* for this was school leaders and college counselors at an ACAMIS conference, so I felt that I could make it look like this; I promise that the other slides were much more interesting – in fact, I used Petcha Kutcha for the remaining section * later I would also use the same slide with grade 11 students preparing for college applications.

You can see I put little or no effort into this slide. It literally has a white background and black text. What was I thinking!? It was a hugely important slide, as it contained the instructions for the main group activity for that session.

Feedback Protocol

So I set out to get feedback from teachers and Grade 12 students, using a variation of the Equity Protocol. I spoke to the students and teachers, giving them the context of the presentation to build up a solid level of understanding. I then asked them to write down on sticky notes, answers to the questions below. Each person had 90 seconds to answer the following 3 questions (I based these on the essential questions from the unit):

1. What did you see that would make it engaging to the audience?
2. What do you think could be enhanced?
3. What do you see that would hinder learning?

Afterward, the group placed the sticky notes on the whiteboard, in the correct question category. I then read the responses. Finally, I reflected on the group on what I had learned; hoping that my colleagues and students would not make the same mistakes as I did!

Here are some snapshots:

1. What did you see that would make it engaging to the audience?

• Easy to read text overall
• The title was larger than the rest of the text

2. What do you think could be enhanced?

• Add color
• Add images to enhance to presentation style
• Give out printed version for referral during the task

3. What do you see that would hinder learning?

• Too many instructions
• The text is too small
• It is not exciting – nothing there says, this sounds like a fun activity!

Based on this feedback and the design principles from this week’s resources – I will aim to do the following:

1. I will design the slide to cater to my initial target audience – teachers.
2. Have 1 message on the slide, instead of the 4 messages currently on it; remove the nonessential.
3. I will create an additional 3 slides, again 1 slide per message.
4. I will summarize each sentence into a word or picture.
5. I will use a dark background with contrasting text.
6. I will use animations to change the color of the text during the presentation; not shown in the screenshots.
7. I will use a maximum of 6 pieces of information per slide.

Putting Pen to Paper

Now, onto the new slide design, on paper, and with no tech! I annotated each design, which you can see below.

Seeing the World Differently

I really enjoyed this week’s task, as I learned some basic tricks that can have a huge impact on visual aids in the class. It certainly has me rethink my use of presentations in the classroom, never again will a sentence find its way onto my slide shows. I found it quite fun to do away with my laptop when redesigning the slide, as it forced me to think more deeply about the message I was trying to convey.