Monday, May 28, 2018

South View Digital Use Awareness Pilot

Recently, my department was approached about the possibility of testing out locking pouches to explore limiting access to cell phones by students during the school day. To be honest, I was skeptical, because I knew that while it is clear, some students (and adults) are addicted to their device, I was concerned that students would not be able to complete certain tasks. (It is hard to take a video or picture for an assignment with a conventional, non-touch Chromebook, for example.) Students come to school today with devices in their pocket that are more powerful than the computing power that put a person on the moon, and yet teachers sometimes want to ignore that reality. We know that there are many beneficial aspects to mobile tools for learning, AND, we know that for many people, even having the device in one's pocket can be detrimental to attention and impact learning
A few staff at South View Middle School were interested in the idea of using the locking pouch. Rather than treating it as a "punishment" for student misuse, instead they looked on it as an opportunity for student reflection on what it is like to go without a cell phone. I decided that it would be good for me to get to experience a couple of days without my device as well, and so I decided to participate.
At the end of the experience, students will respond to the following questions:
“Why do I NEED my phone right now?”
“What else could I do to get what I need?”
Here is the letter that went home to parents explaining the program.

At the start of the day, the instructors in three Advisory classes presented the following to students:

Careful! That pin is sharp!
Students then added their phones into the pouches, knowing that in an emergency, they could go to the office, or back to the Advisory classroom to unlock the pouch. (Being careful not to impale themselves on the pin!)

Below are my reflections on going without a device... 

Day 1 

As soon as I put the phone in the pouch and made my way out of the building, I thought about how I was missing the opportunity to respond to an e-mail or two, or check my calendar for the day as I walked back to the office.

Later in the day, we had guest speakers at a district meeting, and I so wanted to take a picture and tweet out some of the great information they were sharing, AND look up some of the resources they shared. I did have access to my laptop and solved the latter problem that way.

At the end of the school day, I went in and unlocked my phone. Caitlin Bailey, one of the teachers piloting the project noted that students had a hard time getting over their initial feelings about the pilot being "punitive." One student went so far as to insert a pad of post-it-notes into the sleeve to trick staff into believing the phone was secured. Still others texted parents, claiming their 4th Amendment rights had been violated! Bailey noted that as a social experiment, it has been extremely revealing at how emotionally students have reacted to not having instant access to their device. It is giving students first hand evidence of possible "addiction." 
Another teacher mentioned that he had to use one of the pouches when he went to a concert at Paisley Park, as they have a no cell policy, so it isn't just schools exploring this issue.
 As I expected, at least one student cut themselves on the pin at the top of the case. Overall, I was able to navigate my job without my phone, fairly well. At least I didn't miss any meetings, which for me was my biggest concern. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Day 2

As we met in Advisory for Day 2, students discussed their anxiety about not having access to a device. To avoid this, many kids chose to leave their device at home. Once concern that at least one teacher mentioned was the anxiety that kids were feeling after the school shooting in Texas last week. What if there was an emergency, and needed to get in touch with their parent? Good questions, and it speaks to the importance of thinking about the impact to student's mental health, both anticipated and unanticipated when considering a solution like this.

Another aspect of this is the overall policy at South View. Three years ago, the school instituted a "no cell phone" policy, as the school has 1:1 devices through our eLearning2 program. While students may have mobile devices, they are only to be taken out at teacher discretion, if needed for a photo or video for example. Bailey notes that had the pouches been tested a few years ago, there might have been more of an impact on behavior. Now, if kids are going to be off task, they are usually on their 1:1 device rather than phone.

I found I was less likely to reach for my phone today, though there was that moment I wanted to send a text to my wife and realized I couldn't! 

Day 3 and 4

The pilot moved to new classrooms. Students seemed to be reluctant to participate, though many did, or chose to not bring their phone to school. We did find some students went to extreme measures to access their phones, and a couple chose to tamper with the pouch.  Still others discovered that other magnets were able to release the mechanism. We did have a few parents e-mail to say they didn't want their students participating. 


After the two days, we asked students to reflect on their experience. (As I write this, the pilot is ongoing. I will try to update with results of the student reflections later.) Here are a few of the questions we asked them to ponder:

  1. How often did you reach for your phone during the 2-day pilot? (Estimate)
  2. Please rate your level of discomfort (FOMO = "Fear of Missing Out") during the 2-day pilot?  (0 = "None" and 10 = "Significant")
  3. Were there any SCHOOL RELATED (classroom) activities that were more difficult without your phone?
  4. In what classes? (check all that apply)
  5. Were there any SOCIAL SITUATIONS that were more difficult without your phone?
  6. In what situations? (check all that apply)
    • Connecting with Friends
    • Connecting with Family
    • Coordinating After-School Activities
    • Other
  7. Overall, to what degree do you think these pouches are HELPFUL to maintaining focus during the school day?   (0 = "Not at All" and 10 = "Extremely Helpful")

Media Coverage

On day 5, a local TV station came to do a story on the pilot. Note at the end, kids who still had their phones made a connection with a local celebrity!

Now What?

If we are going to have kids reflect on their use, and they find they have a lot of anxiety around access to their phone, what can they do? I put together this resource for parents and students to consider as they reflect on the activity. 


Final Thoughts 

As I stated previously, there are many great ways that mobile technology can benefit, but there are also addictive behaviors and distractions that can take away from the learning process. The teachers who are exploring this and are looking for ways to mitigate the distraction. Those featured in the news story are doing some great projects involving digital age learning in their classrooms to provide pathways for students to access content, engage in the content and express their learning. Hopefully this activity will raise awareness in students on how mobile technology impacts their learning and take steps to ensure that they avoid distracting behaviors.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017



Design Mindsets
  • Tap Into Your Creative Confidence
  • Learn from failure
  • Embrace Ambiguity
  • Be urgently Optimistic
  • Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
Why Human Centered Design? 
Education full of challenges and opportunities
Focus has been on tweaking the system that is fundamentally the same
Human Centered-We are designing for real people
Creativity-harness the potential

Incubators were expensive
Children were dying from low birth weight.

  • Discover
    1. Innovation
    2. Insight
Define: What is the real challenge?
  • Design
    1. Ideate
    2. Prototype
  • Deliver
    1. Implement
    2. Refine

Next what were our assets and liabilities?

Define Methods...Playing field
What would a "home run" look like?
What would be fair? What would be foul?

Norms for Design:
  • Defer Judgement
  • Encourage Wild ideas
  • Build on each other's ideas
  • Have one conversation at a time
  • Be visual
  • Stay Focused
  • Go for quantity
Rapid prototyping
Design space to deliver

#TIES17 Ken Shelton: Designing A Culturally Relevant & Responsive Pedagogy

Ken Shelton followed up his Monday Keynote with a session on Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy.

Shelton noted that there are many instances where students are funneled to different classes based on gender and skin color/ethnicity.

In his experience, he was the only person of color in the AP and upper level classes when he was in high school. This is his story. What are the stories of the students coming in to our schools?

Game of Phones- (Nice tech infused Community Building activity)

  1. Introduce self
  2. Last picture taken-That's appropriate! Context
  3. Group Chooses top photo
The talk had 3 main parts:

  1. Culture
  2. Learning
  3. Technology
Much of this talk is based on the work of Pedro Nogieri.
The addition that Shelton makes to this work is technology, as he believes that today it is not culturally relevant not to include it!

In school, he wanted to be in the front, but was always told to go in back.
If instruction is only happening in front, that is a problem.
If raising your hand is the only way you'll get called on, 85% of the people called on will be in front. 
He used a back channel to encourage EVERYONE to contribute to the conversation.

If students don't have hope, they will not be successful.

5 Characteristics of a Culturally Relevant Teacher
  1. Socially Conscious-If you're not on social media or aware of how they communicate and make connections, you aren't relevant.
  2. Students backgrounds are ASSETS, not liabilities!
  3. Identify/Create a moral imperative that EVERY student can be successful.
  4. Know your students lives
  5. Technology-What do we have access to to make learning contemporary and relevant!

Are we designing lessons for the high acheivers, low achievers, or are we making it possible for every student to be a part of a shared learning experience in accordance with their needs?

Adaptable Learning Environments
Is there a prescribed formula for success? If a "rubric" is a prescribed formula...Shelton says that won't cut it. The high flyers will only do the minimum. It MUST be adaptable! The intended learning outcome must have multiple pathways for the student to demonstrate mastery.

Equity-Giving people what they need based on their individual needs
Equality-Giving everyone the same thing

6 Themes of Culturally Relevant Education
Engagement- where the student is
Relationships- what kind are we encouraging and modeling? With peers, too! 
Cultural Identity- What do I identify as my culture and how does it fit into the learning environment?
Vulnerability- Am I willing to make a mistake and own them?
Asset Focused Factors- Students backgrounds are assets not liabilities
Rigor- Higher order thinking  and deeper learning

He then asked us to fill out this form with a partner. All but the last one seemed fairly clear.

For question 1, Shelton notes, you can't have Rigor without Engagement!! In some cases there are multiple options.

Merging the use of educational technologies with culturally responsive learning experiences to help students develop essential skills!

Shelton noted that learning about stories (Fables and Myths) requires tying in to cultural relevant themes. 

  • Game of Phones was an example of Cultural Identity, Engagement and Collaboration.
  • The backchannel combines engagement and cultural relevance for many in the audience.

Tequity Assets- is a link to resources Shelton shared.

He encouraged us to take a look at a current lesson and use the Techquity lens to see how it might be improved and share out with the world!
Here is the transcript of the backchannel.

#TIES17 Keynote: Jennie Magiera- Our Untold Stories

Jennie Magiera, Chief Program Officer for EdtechTeam was the Tuesday Keynote at the 2017 TIES Conference. 
She began by crowd-sourcing the best recipes for Tater-Tot-HotDish. 

Telling a story touches your emotions and touches your identity, giving a part of yourself to the audience. Teachers do this every day.

She told the story of a little girl from Seoul, South Korea . Her father immigrated to New York, but she was unable to go right away. When she looked at the streets, being told they were paved in gold, she was disappointed. The next day, she learned she would be going to City Hall to get a new "American" name. The name, suggested by a neighbor was "Carol!"  The clerk asked for the spelling, and her mom didn't know. The mom, with Korean pronunciation said, "Kello." 
Her first teacher asked her name and how she got it, and she said, Well it was kind of a mistake.
Her peers bullied her because of this. 
In 4th grade, her teacher asked her, "What do you want to be called this year?"
She responded, "Katie!"
She grew up to be strong, brave and Jennie's mom.....

Growing up, Jennie's mother said, listen to your teachers because...
Teachers can help you be your whole self!

The Danger of a Single Story- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Stereotypes aren't untrue, they are just incomplete, and become the only story that is told

Chapter 1
The Story of Student Self-Image
Last year, Jennie's school district won a grant for Dash-N-Dot robots to encourage coding in the elementary schools. She imagined all the kids running in like "Black Friday" excited!
Instead, she saw a group of girls with the robots pushed aside, saying, "Ms. Magiera, we can't code, we're girls..."
This caused her to get upset, but as a district administrator she knew she needed to step back...She said, "I believe you can code, and I tripple-dog-dare you the challenge that if you can't code by the end of the week, they could do whatever they want. Here's what happened!
They had created the code by Thursday!
They said they they hadn't learned it all, but decided that that was what they wanted to do. "Did you know coding is a language and that you can use it to solve problems?" They decided to code "Dash" to be the 4th girl in the dance they were doing. In the end, they were embarrased that they felt like they couldn't do it, and created a viral video encouraging girls to code!

How do we unlock this:
The Untold Story of Limitless Potential

Chapter 2
The Single Story of Teachers
In talking about identity, Magiera's husband is a Cub fan, loves craft beer, but doesn't consider his job to define who he is.
Magiera on the otherhand wears the fact she is a teacher on her sleave. All because of Ms. Buckman in 4th grade...Ms. Buckman asked the students to help her find her pet dinosaur...Then she said, 
" Sorry, I forgot I left it at home next to the fountain of youth..Sit down, I'm Ms. Buckman, get ready for an adventure!" Everything she did was intentional to introduce students to the topics they would be learning about that year.
Buckman shared "The Hobbit" with Magiera. Gandalf says to Bilbo, "I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging..." 
Magiera's take, "OMG- Teachers are Wizzards!!"

How do we unlock this story:
The Untold Story of Wizzards

Chapter 3
The Single Story of What We Tell the World
Magiera shared the New York Times article, "Don't Let Facebook Make You Miserable!" People spend 6 times the amount of time washing dishes then they do playing golf, but no one tweets or instagrams about washing dishes...
Circus Circus has the same number of rooms as the Belagio, but the Belagio has 6 times the number of check-ins.

The National Enquirer has many more subscribers than the Atlantic, but the Atlantic has 45 times the number of article shares!
"Don't compare your insides to other people's outsides!" We never see people's insides...
How can we as people break this cycle? Compare Facebook posts to Google searches. Google is much closer to reality...

Magiera did a look at her wall and found she had many #bestlifeever posts.
She decided that the next time she had a struggle she would post it on Facebook. She and her husband had spent 6 years to start a family, and they were struggling. When you struggle, other people's posts make things much harder. 
She decided to post that they were starting IVF after 6 years of struggle. Soon she had over 288 comments and e-mails from people with similar struggles and doubts, and that she wasn't alone. Magiera talked about how freeing it was to know that she had a community behind her to walk with her on the journey. It has given her strength to try and do things that never would have happened had she not shared her struggle.
How many untold stories are out there about struggles that educators face?
While teaching in Chicago, she had created several videos to support student learning in the classroom. The kids were silent listening, and she felt like a wizzard. Then one day, she thought she had synced a video on pyramid volume, when in fact she linked to Hot Tub Time Machine, and she didn't discover it for 3 minutes! It's important to share the failures on our innovation journey just like the successes!

How do we unlock 
The Untold Story of Our Inner Selves

Chapter 4
How Does Technology 

Technology should enhance our connection to each other!
We need to share our untold stories with one another! Now, you can tell your story and then get an audience.
You can use tools to amplify your story and share it with the world!

Students said having the opportunity to amplify their voice and tell their story was the best part of learning in her classroom! Students became more open about sharing and reminded them of who they are!

We can allow students to remember that they matter everywhere, even when we aren't sitting with them in the classroom. 
She closed with the story of Lyndsay, a story "This isn't Chirac" Students share with reporters that outsiders really don't know them and they're neighborhood. 

How can we use technology to shatter the single story.
She is starting a non-profit, "" to give students a voice. In addition, OurVoiceAcademy is allowing teachers of color to connect and share their story. She challenged us to use our phones to share our story with the world sometime today at TIES. 

Chapter 5
The Blue Bird
Magiera finished by sharing that she knew she wanted to be a teacher, and went back to see Ms. Buckman. She tracked her down and they met for lunch. She was so excited to see her and tell her that she was going to be a teacher. Before she could get that out, Ms. Buckman said, "You are going to be a teacher in Chicago Public Schools. Buckman then pulled out an envelope with letters between her and Jennie's mom that had been going on since she was in the 4th grade!

Magiera said, "I'm going to be just like you!" Buckman said, "No. I don't want you to be just like me. I want you to be you. Don't try to be your role model, be better!" Buckman then pulled out a ceramic blue bird that had been on her desk and invited her to use it as an inspiration, but everything else in the classroom needs to be 100% YOU!"

Magiera challenged us to find and tell our Untold Stories and set them free!

Monday, December 11, 2017

#TIES17 Monday Keynote: Ken Shelton-The Power of Voice in the Digital Age

The TIES 2017 Conference kicked off with Ken Shelton, an educator, educational consultant, new media designer. The theme of this year's conference is "What Is Your Story?"

Shelton spoke about the importance of "story," which is the representation of our voice. Technology gives us the opportunity to amplify our voice, both positively and negatively.
He had us share our prediction of what our story would be 3 days from now.

While many see tech as making us less social, Shelton sees it amplifying our connections and stories, in ways that are exponential. The 2017 Internet minute looks like this:

The world online is becoming more connected, with more platforms that can amplify our voice, just like this ad...


With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility!

-Voltaire (Stan Lee)

We can use tech and this power to establish a digital footprint. 

If you think about the power of our voice, then it gets retweeted, shared, reposted...but with that power comes responsibility.

Justine Sacco's story...

When she posted, she had 200 followers. After that tweet, by the time she landed, #hasjustinelandedyet was trending for over 6 hours. She was publicly shamed, which is the same as bullying. 
(Shelton pointed out later in his talk that due to this incident, groups raising funds for AIDS research and support in Africa increased dramatically.)

Now there are sites like and Xpire to help you control your social media. 
"Don't you already have control of your social media?"
It's really a Digital Tatoo...

Shelton shared the story of Celeste Davis-Carr and Aaron, a teacher who learned that one of her students was experiencing homelessness, and the aftermath.
What if there were a Story Corps booth at every school?

Justice Page School
Shelton pointed to the story of students at Alexander Ramsay Middle School (In my neighborhood) that worked to change the name to Justice Page School, after they learned what Ramsay did to promote mass genocide of native peoples. Shelton visited with Justice Alan Page, who told him that football was secondary to him growing up. He realized by 9th grade that he loved words and their power.

If students are active members of their community they will have ownership of that community.
Leyden School district in Illinois uses this to turn negative social media to tell a positive story.
Nina & Airbnb
Nina really wanted to work for Airbnb but struggled to get their attention. She decided to make a Website that mirrored Airbnb's site. She was of Jordanian heritage and after tweeting out the link, Queen Noor retweeted it, and it ultimately led to her being hired.

Gramming for Good is a site that matches people with local non-profits to post images that they can use. 100 Cameras allows students to take pictures to tell a story, so that the "danger of the single story" doesn't happen. This gives students agency.

Shelton shared a video of a student in Utah who wanted to read, and the man who learned of it, shared the story and then was able to get several donated books the child. What was really cool is now the student is hoping for more, so that he can share with other classmates who like to read.

Shelton shared the story of a trip he took recently to Lebanon, where he met a young woman who had started the an organizaton to empower women. Along with three other students, they started Nour International and used online funding to raise over $30,000 to support education in refugee camps for students to learn english. "Don't lose a generation to a lack of education!"
Think of the power of kids who do not have as much hope as they should, but understand the importance of education and are working to break the cycle of poverty and lack of hope.

What are all of the platforms that we have available to amplify our voice and tell our story?
We ALL have the power to do that and to amplify one another. 
Why do todays students have to wait to solve the world's problems?
They should not have to wait to become "adults" to make that happen. We should be encouraging them to use the tools they have available to make it happen now!

It was an inspirational kick-off to the conference. Now to throw cold water on some of it with the importance of knowing Terms of Service and Privacy Policies on the tools we use with kids! 

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Minnesota Personalized Learning Summit: David and Jonah Stillman GenZ Keynote

David and Jonah Stillman were the "Father-Son" keynote on Day 2 of the Minnesota Personalized Learning Summit. David is a generational expert, and co-author of "When Generations Colide." They have teamed on a new book called, "Gen Z @ Work."
They have developed a company GenZ Guru, designed to interact with those born between 1995 and 2012.

They are concerned that educators are not focused on "GenZ" and assume that they are Millennials. 
This is similar to when society treated GenX'ers like Baby Boomers.

David shared a story of when he and his son were supposed to go to a meeting, and Jonah showed up via Skype, when David thought he would be there in person. Using the tool, they polled the audience. 51% thought David was right.

In order to get to know GenZ we need to look at key influences:

Parenting- GenZ kids have a tight relationship with their parents, but they were raised differently than Millennials. Millennials were given participation rewards and stickers for doing well.
GenX parents don't believe in this.

David played "Eye of the Tiger" before Jonah's T-ball game. 

GenZ is similar to Boomers in that they are pretty competitive.

Technology-91% of GenZ says that tech sophisticaton impacts their desire to work at a company. However, GenZ is much more private. Millennials were very public, launching Facebook. GenZ is much more private, using Snapchat instead. In order to connect with this generation, they need to use the platform that they are using. They are knowledge horders, similar to Boomers when they neared retirement, that they felt information kept them relevant. 
We need to teach kids what is private and what needs to be shared.
New office space that is Collaborative is geared toward Millennials, but 35% of GenZ would prefer sharing socks with someone to sharing an office with someone. They also would rather avoid group work.

Recession-The median net worth of GenX fell by 45% during the recession. The number one concern of GenZ is the economy. Look at the entertainment industry. Millennials were given Harry Potter. GenZ was given "The Hunger Games." GenZ is in "survival mode." What do they need to survive?
75% believe that there are multiple paths to success besides college. 
67% say their top concern is what career they want prior to going to college. Boomers thought college was where you figured it out. 

Impacts on Education
Capstone programs, Post Secondary Options allow for more personalized, and connected to the real world. 
This helps engage GenZ students. 
61% of GenZ is willing to stay with a company for 10 years. Loyalty is back on the table.

Traits of GenZ (There are 4 more in their book.)

The line between the physical and digital world is blurred and in many cases the same. Pokemon Go is an example. The real and physical world overlaps. 50% of GenZ believes an online degree is the same as traditional. True digital natives. They aren't as excited about new products as GenX or Boomers, it is just expected that something like this would happen. Difference between expecting technology and accepting it. For the first time in history, the youngest generation is the authority and most skilled on tech.

Literacy-"This generation can't write well! Thinking visually in symbols is how they communicate. Emoji's 

The crying emoji was the word of the year.  
The preferred mode of communication in the work place, 84% said face-to-face communication! Even if you are on Skype, they consider it to be face to face.

GenZ wants personalized custom options. 

Iowa State Admissions office personalized acceptance.

Between 2000 and 2010 there was a 15% increase in students developing their own majors. This will make it harder for workplaces to compare two candidates. 
57% want to customize their job description and 62% would like to customize their own career path. 
Look at how Gen Z customizes their news. This means that the filter bubble world causes people to only hear their view point. Stillman argues that it is important to expose students to multiple view points in the classroom.

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out
65% of Gen Z sleep with their smartphones near their bed. 
They want to know what is happening as soon as possible. When they can't, they get FOMO, which is now a diagnosed anxiety. Working WIFI is more important than a working bathroom!
Jonah told the story of a meeting where he took notes on his phone and was told to put it away. 
They argued that in the classroom, we need to negotiate access. 
Gen Z is also pushing the pace of career, as 75% would like to have multiple roles within one place of employment. 
Gen Z's attention span has been defined as 8 seconds. Companies are struggling with this. Teaching this generation the difference between a fad and a true trend.

Teachers need to push the value of "ruminating on something." Valuing thinking, brainstorming, and process is important.
Because of FOMO, keeping kids in the loop is important. Increasing access to content and feedback is important. Having faster formative feedback is crucial. 

Not ALL FOMO is bad. GenZ doesn't fear failure, but they do fear not getting the opportunity to try!

In the Q and A, they noted that Gen Z students like being mentored, but also like to mentor.
Digital detox for an hour or two is great, but not for months.
Millennial parenting, getting screens out of the car is helping with this.

Millennials want meaning in their job, $ was 6. For Gen Z, money is number one on the list.

Embrace the differences in generations, AND know what makes them tick!

Monday, July 31, 2017

Minnesota Personalized Learning Summit Keynote: John Spencer



No one has dysentery in Oregon!


Making is magic, and makes us human.


Our devices have connected power and great creative potential!
There are outliers...
Kids making a functional graphing calculator in Minecraft

The outliers have a "Maker Mindset."
Sudents need to be wildly different



Launch Framework

  • Look, Listen, Learn-Goal is awareness
    • Could be a product
    • Observe a phenomenon-NASA studying Geckos to learn about adhesives
    • Awareness of an issue
    • Geeky Interests
    • Problem to be solved
    • Empathy-Caring about an issue. 

  • Ask Tons of Questions
    • Gift baskets for the custodial staff
  • Understand the Process or Problem
    • Research that fuels ideation
    • Innovation doesn't happen in a vacuum
  • Navigate Ideas
    • Brainstorming
      • Alone first
      • Then meet as a group w/ no judgement untimed
      • Outside members to add ideas
      • Combine similar ideas
      • Develop final idea
      • Find the PARTS
        • Product idea
        • Solution-What problem was solved?
  • Create a Prototype
    • Sometimes it's physical
    • Sometimes it's virtual
    • Sometimes you make a difference! (Service Learning
    • What if you don't have the best materials?
      • Every road block is a chance to solve a problem!
  • Highlight what works, fix what fails Itteration
    • Every failure is one step closer to success! Iteration!
    • Celebrate creative risk-taking!
Ready to LAUNCH

They send it to an authentic audience
Sharing your journey is so important. 

What if...

It's not a silver bullet...


A student asked Spencer why did we do this?

