Without research, we stagnate. Without research, we may keep our vision, but we risk not keeping up with what is relevant. With research, we create new learning pathways for ourselves, which lights the fire within. With this fire, we can light the path and learning opportunities for our students.

What role does research play in my daily practice as an educator? I’ll tell you what role; it is at the center of everything I do, it is the one ring… It is what keeps me awake at night, looking for the next app to integrate into lessons, a scandal to hit Facebook, or what on earth is a blockchain!

Researching Research

I love research – whether this is reading the latest COETAIL report recommendation, watching a YouTube video on how Amazon (according to Simplilearn) uses the data it collects to make suggestions for our next purchase, listening to a TWiT podcast on Google Dashboard (see below), talking to the design teacher on how best design a yearbook (Pictavo) or chatting with students about which social media apps are most popular in their home country (it is how I found out about Kakao Talk).

Actually, on that point of speaking to people, children or adults, what I have come to appreciate is that everyone is an expert in something, therefore every conversation we have – we have the opportunity to carry out research (10 Ways to Having a Better Conversation by Celeste Headlee). For example, in the Unicef Report – Children in a Digital World, it talks about the ‘Goldilocks’ approach to children’s screen time (could they use Forest?) – and how we should be concerned with what they are doing online and not how long they spend online. In fact, in the past I have introduced to families the Family Media Plan (American Academy of Pediatrics), which is based on a similar principle to ‘Goldilocks’, to help families create a structure for digital media consumption.

Proactive not Reactive

My active research begins when I wake up first thing in the morning. Apart from pressing the snooze button several times and wishing that Shanghai was 23 degrees celsius at 6 am and not 3 degrees* (my apartment is so cold that when I wash the dishes the water freezes to my hands, which I need to warm up on my portable heater). I open my phone and start either a TWiT or Stuff You Should Know podcast; ok this may be a bit unhealthy, going straight to my phone first thing in the morning, but I’m addicted to my OnePlus 5T, perhaps I should practice what I preach 🙂

I quite enjoy listening to educational things in the morning, and it leads me to listen and read more throughout the day, and in turn, ask more as well. Just recently I asked all of my Grade 7 students to record how long they spent each day on their devices, which we broke down into websites, apps, and games they were on and what was their purpose/goal for using these. After the students collected this information, we were able to start a discussion on how their use of digital products, and whether or not students were using these for wants versus needs. E.g. I want to play Fortnite (or is it Apex Legends now), but I need to get my summative done for tomorrow.

Create a Positive Impact Through Active Research

I plan to ask (through Office 365 Forms – sorry Google Forms, I live in China) students who their favorite YouTubers are – Why? Because, I will watch a couple of these YouTubers’ videos and perhaps try to adapt some of the features that our students find so amazing in the first place, into my own screen-cast tutorials that I make for the students; without being too cringe; there is definitely a high chance of this happening! In the Living and Learning With New Media report, it talks about how teens displayed their musical preferences on MySpace (how old is this report?), and it states the “pervasiveness of gaming”.

Of course, the popularity of gaming is old news, but through reading about it all over again, and reflecting on this, it has dawned on me that gaming is the new social media #boldpredictions- it is where our kids/students are hanging out  “Kids Living and Learning with New Media”. Socializing through gaming is more organic than the old school posting we see on Facebook (COETAIL Learning goal?) – do any under 30’s still use it? My continued research of what my students find interesting can help me understand their wants and needs, which can then influence me to choose which tech, topics, and tutorials to introduce in lessons – in a meaningful, creative, and productive way.

Indeed, just this week, after listening to yet another TWiT podcast (my holy grail of research these days) I found out about Google Dashboard. Have you heard of it? Well, I had not, and neither had the vast majority of staff and students (yes we are in China remember) that I have talked to so far. In any case, I did have a look at this mythical Google Dashboard and I was amazed at the amount of data that I was creating, and that Google was collecting; thanks for creating this User Interface Google; by the way Microsoft, where is your dashboard? I digress. I used this active research, as mentioned above, to introduce Google Dashboard to staff, and then to Grade 9 students during their digital citizenship lesson – to give them a chance to explore their personal (big) data. And boy was that an eye-opener…

Long live the digital revolution, and space heaters.

A Screen to Hide From or Platform to Project From?

I try to be the same offline as online, in as much as I can. However, as has been addressed perhaps in thousands of comments, blogs, vlogs, articles, and books – assuming a different online persona gives us confidence – although some would see this as a screen to hide behind; I see it in a more positive light – a platform to project from. Please read on to see how to make online connections.

Lurker or… Observer/Learner/Reader

When I picture a lurker, I imagine a person skulking in dark corners, sneaking around to see what opportunities might arise for the least amount of effort. I think it is perfectly fine to be a lurker as long as we call it something else, like observer, learner, or reader; and with this name change comes a perception difference as well.

I have been an observer for quite some time, in most cases. Part of this process involves me learning from the various online communities available today. I do sometimes add to the conversation but only if I feel it is needed, or if I believe it can drive the conversation forwards. I am wary about contributing all the time, as through my observations from reading various blog post comments, there are an awful lot of experts out there giving their opinion; regardless of whether or not they add to or diminish the discussion. Also, sometimes I find myself wanting to add what I perceive to be a constructive comment, only to have this last-minute fear of thinking that my question has already been answered back in 2012, in a related post.

Call me what you like; I may be a bit lazy when contributing online but I always bring my online learning (#onlinearning) into the classroom, and for me, that’s what is most important. However, after reading through the importance of contributing, and potentially helping to shape the discussion of topics that our students need to succeed in school and beyond, I will make a real effort to become a conscientious contributor and connector.

Content With Your Connections?

I believe that the internet is both a sprawling mass of content and connections. The user is only beginning to understand how to connect the dots, but the collectors (e.g. Facebook, Google, AWS), are only too aware of how this works and are doing so to meet their hunger for money and power.

To demonstrate my understanding of this question, and the question of how to make online connections, I will address two key areas that I believe would be most relevant to our students – Gaming and Social Media. Addressing these points will help me address one of my learning goals – becoming an empowered learner.

Gaming – I will use Fortnite as an example. It is a popular game with students at my school, a lot of whom are in Grades 6-8. Although they cannot play the game on the school network, there is plenty of evidence of their love for the game through overheard conversations, keyboard decals, and desktop backgrounds. Now of course they are consumers in the first instance, through playing the (free to play) game; Epic made a profit in 2018 of $3 Billion. But they are also making connections as they do so, both offline and online. Offline through the conversations about which new skin they bought, or how they want to be a professional gamer and earn $500,000 a month. And online by creating a Youtube channel and uploading a Twitch stream, for others to watch and comment on.

Social Media. For me, this is a little easier to explain how connections are made. Most of my students don’t use, or don’t want to admit to using Facebook – but they would openly tell me that they use Instagram; it is lost on most that Instagram is owned by Facebook.

They read share, and comment on posts, images, and videos with their friends. Through their likes, they are acknowledging their connections, to these posts, and in turn, perhaps unbeknownst to them, they are helping shape the public discourse and making millionaires of a few YouTubers, and other social media purveyors.

Dreamer or Visionary?

I am a lifelong learner, jumping between the roles of the dreamer; having great ideas, but not doing too much with them – and the visionary; having those same ideas, but actioning them. In fact, since starting my new role as Technology Integration Coordinator (TIC), I am pretty much in the visionary part of the Venn diagram. My role as a TIC has provided me with the space, autonomy, and resources to integrate tech into learning – so that it is truly meaningful, relevant, interesting, fun, and embedded in the students. I am so incredibly happy in my current job, that I said – rather cliched – to my boss that this is my dream job because I am helping students’ dreams come true; to which he hysterically replied you are like a walking Ted Talk 🙂

I hope you enjoyed my first COETAIL unit post, and it would awesome to hear how you make online connections.

References

1. Sarah Frie, Mark Bergen, Mark Gurman, and Gerrit De Vynck, “Apple Punishes Google by Revoking Its Ability to Test Apps”, Bloomberg, 1st February 2019, accessed 5th February 2019,https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-31/apple-is-said-to-take-action-on-google-apps-following-facebook
2. Jon Russell, “Epic Games, the Creator of Fortnite, Banked $3 Billion Profit in 2018” (blog), Techcrunch, 27th December 2018, accessed 5th February 2019, https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/27/epic-fortnite-3-billion-profit/
3. Tae Kim, “Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Explains How He Makes More than $500,000 a Month Playing Video Game ‘Fortnite’”, CNBC, 19th March 2018, accessed 5th February 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/19/tyler-ninja-blevins-explains-how-he-makes-more-than-500000-a-month-playing-video-game-fortnite.html

I just found an app that you can plant trees in! I like trees, they look pretty, particularly the ones in Shanghai called London Plane trees. Anyway enough about that and more about the app itself. Essentially it is a focus app. It helps you direct your attention away from your phone and onto what tasks need to be done.  

The Forest App works by you deciding how much time you should focus on – anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. If you stay on track for the allotted time and don’t touch your phone a tree will grow, and over time a forest. However, if your phone addiction gets the better of you, and you let your green fingers touch your phone, the tree will die, and a sad, leafless tree will be planted in your forest instead of a healthy one. Making it look more like a forest from Morodor than the lush woods of County Antrim.  

I like this app because it gamifies the process of focusing, which is a nice hook for when introducing it to students.

Download Forest App for free on Android or $3.99 on iOS.  

Watch the Techned review/tutorial here.

Here we go, three ISTE Standards, of the student kind, on which I have based my own COETAIL learning goals on. These are: Digital Citizen / Empowered Learner / Global Collaborator

ISTE Standard: Digital Citizen

My COETAIL Learning Goal: Is for me to create a learning environment where students have a clear understanding of what it takes to be an upstanding Digital Citizen

Influence and Impact: In my opinion, this is the most important of all the ISTE standards, given how much time a lot of students are online and how they communicate. Sure there are plenty of programs out there, with a few new(ish) ones as well from Google, Common Sense Media, UK Safer Internet, and so on, but these have a very short shelf life. Most of the students, certainly at the last two schools I have worked at, are considered to be digital natives; someone that has grown up in the digital age, so perhaps these digital natives know best how to act online…Of course, this is not the case, and all too often we, as educators, are having conversations with students about something negative that has happened outside of school online, and supporting them to make the correct decisions. It is ongoing, and I think it is only being addressed superficially. This ISTE standard has helped me to develop my goal of teaching students how to become upstanding digital citizens.

ISTE Standard: Empowered Learner

My COETAIL Learning Goal: Is to provide students with the confidence to take control of their learning environments and for them to come up with solutions to existing problems.

Influence and Impact: I have chosen this as I want to be able to provide a safe learning environment for my students, where they take ownership of their learning through the knowledge of what they can accomplish. This standard has influenced my goal as I see students using many different technologies/apps/websites to accomplish a variety of tasks, and sometimes these may not be the best fit. By providing them, initially, with different tech options, our students can begin to take control of their learning by selecting the most appropriate tech solution for a given problem.

ISTE Standard: Global Collaborator

My COETAIL Learning Goal: To provide opportunities for students to collaborate meaningful on a global scale.

Influence and Impact: In 2019 students have the opportunity to learn on a much larger scale than they have ever had before, using platforms provided by, but not limited to, GSuite, Office 365, Book Creator, Wix, Fusion 360, Weebly to name but a few. Services like these, are giving students the chance to collaborate on a multitude of different projects, completed on various devices, working on them at home, in school, or on vacation – anywhere, where they are online! Currently, I do provide a lot of opportunities for students to collaborate on a school-wide basis, but as mentioned above, I have yet to fully realize the potential to collaborate on a city-wide scale – let alone countrywide or on an international basis. I am looking forward to exploring the possibilities to create a truly global learning environment for my students – helping them to prepare for their graduation from school.

Let’s go get those COETAIL learning goals…

Should your students learn to touch type? Yes – in my opinion. It helps them get things onto the computer much quicker! It helps to develop their fine motor skills, as they are searching for the correct keys to use according to the challenge/game on the screen. I found it fantastic for my EAL learners, particularly those who had just joined our school. It provided them with a different way of learning new vocabulary, in a meaningful and fun way. They also made a lot of progress quickly, which was a great confidence boost for them.

Gamification

As I have alluded to above, Typing Club gamifies learning; as so many programs/apps do. And it works! There are over 600 lessons, free for an unlimited amount of students, and these vary from typing tests to little games such as popping a balloon once the correct key has been pressed. I have tried and tested it, successfully, with students as young as 7 years old. You can keep track of their progress as well, and in quite some detail. From when they last logged in, to how accurate they are and what their average words per minute are – I never thought I would hear the day a 3rd grader would be boasting about how many words per minute they could type.

Summary

This website is great and I think touch typing is an invaluable skill – that is until everyone is using voice-activated typing. My only issue with using it is fitting it into my lessons throughout the week. Therefore I decided to launch it in class first – set the students up with their login details, and talk them through how to complete the first few lessons. Then, I got the students to complete a certain amount of homework each week which I checked up on through the admin interface. I am still progressing through this, but I have already noticed a big improvement in their typing skills.

• Title: Typing Club
• For: Learning how to touch type
• Ages: 8-80
• Cost: Free & Paid
• Release Date: 2011