My current teaching contract commenced in 2004 and soon afterward social media, for me, sky rocketed. A short time later, most of my communicative life moved into what very few people at the time knew as “the cloud”. Facebook was still locked to the universities and Yahoo! was still a huge stock option for many people. I left a district that provided me a laptop with administrative rights and didn’t filter online sites. I came to a district whose Electronic Users Policy included not putting a flash drive anywhere near their computers.

Honestly, in the last five years the resistance I’ve seen from my district, at different times, has been really difficult on many levels. But it’s changing. While my current administrator has publicly said he’s a relative luddite, he’s open to our visions. In the meantime, some of my colleagues are starting to come around asking “how’s this work?” in terms of technology. Some of them were open to tech earlier but things were (a lot more) clunkier than they are now.

Early this October, my admin told me a local junior high school was doing “interesting stuff with computers”… and he wanted me to visit the school with him. We were off for two weeks and the next time I saw him he told me he was setting up a tour and also a few other things were in the works. I was intrigued. He added that he wanted to send a group of us to a Virtual Schools Symposium in Indianapolis.

Friday morning my administrator, assistant principal, a math teacher, and I headed over to Willis Junior High School in Chandler, AZ where we met with Jeff Delp, the school’s administrator. Jeff started a district pilot program on blended (some call it hybrid) learning in the junior high school by randomly selecting 105 honors students and four teachers (one each from Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies) at a traditional junior high school. The school decided to start with blended rather than a full virtual program, in part, due to the younger age of the students. A blended program offers stronger communicative connections between students and instructors and more guidance in general. Next year an application process will be put in place due to the wildly positive response to the pilot. Jeff has students who “want into the program but has none who’ve attempted to opt out”, and home Internet access isn’t a prerequisite. On the accessibility concern his philosophy and mine mesh; if students need more time online they can visit libraries, come to campus earlier, stay after, etc… In the Chandler District, for example, most high schools are linked to a city library that is an extension of the campus that includes a full computer lab and other workstations within the building. Not to mention several computer labs exist (depending on the site) and student stations in some teacher classrooms.

Jeff stressed that touring other school’s successful programs was essential when developing this pilot. For us, this may include a future trip to Vail School District in Tucson, AZ that seems to be ahead of the game with technology, including wifi-enabled school buses. Professional Development is the key to Willis’ program, which includes understanding that administration and faculty who successfully navigate these programs need to understand an entirely different skill set that comprises of highly collaboration, student generated creations, and evaluation programs. When building his program, Jeff toured schools in both Chicago and New York City.

Teachers must have more freedoms. This includes opening Twitter and blogging in the schools. Blogging and twittering for the Willis team is now unblocked and YouTube is unblocked for all adult logins district wide (not for students yet). Jeff who, tweets as @azjd, uses the #edchat hashtag to continue building dialogue and learning from administrators nationally who are further along in this journey. An aside: Two years ago my own blog was filtered after my using it as a my classroom webspace for four years. In a post I used the euphemism that “so and so must be on crack to believe “… whatever it was I was discussing. It was obviously a euphemism for “crazy” but now it was blocked for “drug promotion”. Shortly after the district’s rule of thumb was that anything that was a blog was automatically blocked.

Jeff encourages his teachers to stretch their ideas and learn about technologies that may confuse them, but he also reminds them that we don’t do technology in the classroom for technologies sake. Sometimes the best lesson doesn’t include any technology (and recently our district computers were off line for an entire school day – no one died & learning continued).

This year Willis uses Edmodo coupled with Google Apps for its pilot; while the district limits Google Apps to only Calendar and Docs, we both hope that other apps will be added as the program develops into next school year. The district is also moving to a new domain name on July 1st and it would be ideal to build Google Apps around that domain name. We’ll see. The district recently approved BrainHoney as their LMS and Pearson’s on board so there may be some shifts away from a purely open source model for the 2012-2013 school year. Jeff also discussed his partnership with Gangplank owner Derek Neighbors who has been in my own social business circles through Gangplank in one way or another for years. The partnerships we Chandler educators are building with local collaborative Chandler technology consortiums are arguably essential as some models of 21st century learning move out of the classrooms and into the apprenticeship and internship areas.

While the Chandler District is behind the curve in terms of technology implementation with our 21st century students, Dr Camille Casteel’s, our district’s superintendent, main concern is student safety. Dr Casteel wants what is best for students and in our case we need to be able to show how we want to use whatever technology, why we cannot do whatever it is without it, and then how we’re going to keep the students safe. The potential for eventually broadening Willis program into the high schools is exciting, as part of the student safety concern is the age of the students. Today’s pilot is with junior high students and tomorrow’s application may be with high schoolers. (Their age seems to be the predominant reason the Google mail App is not currently being used.)

CC image posted on Flickr by Devon Christopher Adams

Part of Jeff’s philosophy that he emphasizes with his teachers is the Flipped Classroom model. I realize I’ve used this model for years by promoting content consumption outside the classroom while focusing class time on the creation and synthesis of key curricular concepts. This concept is not new. It’s called homework, but now traditional approaches to homework and how students are consuming it has shifted and become a lot more interesting. For example, if Susie has grasped a certain math concept, she can move onto the next one while Billy may still be working on the former concept. Willis teachers use screencasts and take Cornell notes on their needs before applying that learning in class.

One nice example Jeff Delp mentioned is trying to increase access to YouTube (perhaps through a school YouTube channel) so, in class, students and the teacher can better individualize learning where one group may review a certain video while another group views a different video. It is not feasible to have the teacher show 10+ different videos throughout the class for different small groups but if the students had access to do so, they’d arguably learn more effectively.

Our high schools have always struggled with textbook management and most of the schools in this district do not have a bookstore (we have a bookstore manager but we are responsible for disseminating, collecting and recording our own books). This is a hassle. I can’t wait until virtual textbooks at our level works smoothly; we’ll save so much money and time (our textbooks now do have an online component, but we still purchase paper copies). Part of what Jeff said when we discussed Google Docs and online text(e)books was that he can use funds that once purchased thousands of reams of paper on more netbooks for the classrooms.

Jeff took us on a tour of a Language Arts class in a computer lab. The students were reviewing their content through the online textbook and working on reading responses in Google Docs. While I’ve used Google Docs for collaboration for probably close to six years now, one thing that I liked that his LA teacher did was to give the prompt/response directions/questions to the student via a viewable Google doc. Then they made a copy and wrote into it before sharing it back to the teacher. No more paper. While I’ve done that before, it was never for work completed IN CLASS due to the fact that I could not be sure every student had access to the document. While Jeff did mention the use of mobile devices on campus (and his campus is wireless) and high schoolers tend to have even more wireless mobile access, not everyone does.

CC image “Netbook Shelf” posted on Flickr by Enokson.

We also visited with the Social Studies class who had groups of 2-4 students around the room collaborating around HP Mini netbooks. He chose netbooks because battery life lasted the entire school day and they’re relatively cheap. This year Edmodo is the LMS of choice, in part, because of the approachability and Facebook like interface which is familiar to so many. Other technologies Jeff and his team use with the students include Twitter, Glogster, and Poll Everywhere, and while none of them are new novelties to me and my (tech) colleagues, it is a relief to see Web 2.0 being better embraced and unlocked by our district’s powers that be.

I’m relieved in many ways that this program has emerged and while I don’t know the background or what it took to get this far, people like Jeff Delp and his visions at Willis Junior High School are what we need to bring our district forward… for the sake of the kids.

Ok, ladies & gentlemen, drum roll please!

You can now a Google Document and/or Google Document Folder with a Google Group. When you do, every member of that group is now shared to that Google Doc file/folder. I teach high school using Google Docs and have 100+ students in Google Groups. I use to have to keep a separate mailing list and batch email people to files I needed them to be able able to collaborate. (I realize if you just want them to see the a single file, a weblink is quick and dirty, but I want them to collaborate!)

Now, it’s no more! Now I can click on a file and add the Google Group address, and presto! 100+ kids just read and edited a proposal by a classmate! Wow.

Now, in theory, let’s take it one step further. We should also be able to Group share folders. Even though I’ve not tried it yet, I wonder if we can Group share a folder and if you then want it collaborated to the entire Group (think peer editing or building course rubrics with student input), you can just dump the file into that folder. Now for each class, I can have a Google Doc folder and then two sub folders. One called “View” and one called “Collaborate”. Google’s like a fine wine.

(CC) image posted by Ray Weitzenberg on Flickr.

For years I’ve worried about storage and losing files. I’ve been online continually since 1992 now and have way too many files. Everything anymore to me are zeros and ones, and a few years ago I moved to Google tools for most everything. I am a Google whore, just short of flying to a Google teacher day (missed December’s deadline). The one tool I’ve never hooked onto for Google is their photo repository, Picasa. It just never made sense to me, and by then I’d been enmeshed in Flickr for two years (please please buy Flickr from Yahoo, Google!). Everything else has been Google for me.

In 2005 my daughter, Claire, was born and I videotaped my parents meeting her at the airport for the first time. I exported that video to an external hard drive that proceeded to crash and burn. I lost the video. I lost everything. You cannot replicate that sort of thing. I needed the cloud. I recently talked to a photographer friend who suggested that Flickr is my cloud repository for photos, but I need something for all sorts of files. I checked out DropBox, but didn’t like the pay scale. I considered Mozy or something like that, but still, not what I needed.

And then today. Tonight, I saw the follow Tweet. “Google Lets Users Store More Files Online – NYTimes.com http://bit.ly/6isWSp” from Traci Gardner . I immediately clicked on it and was thrilled. The title reads “Google Lets Users Store More Files Online”. Google’s mythological GDrive that’s been floating around the ‘nets since 2006 is coming true. For free, 1g has been added to your Google account now to upload any type of file with a maximum of 250mb per file (sorry videographers). This storage, your Picasa storage, and Gmail storage will equal close to 10G for free. You want more? I know I do! It’s $0.25 a gig annually. That means for $40 a year I can back up my entire hard drive, and for me that rocks!

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn cool. You access everything through Google Docs, which for me is just ok. I’d like to see a file structure similar to a gui in Windows or OSX, but that’s because that’s the design with which we’re all familiar. I’d like to be able to set some files (or even folders) to nonsearchable (i.e. I know they are there, but they don’t show up in my everyday file searches… like archives that I need to keep. For example, grade sheets I will never need unless a student contests something).

DropBox seems to be a biggie right now, and wouldn’t it be cool for the Google API to offer something similar between GDocs and your desktop (I can see the arguments against this right now with the cloud, netbooks, tablet PCs, mobiles, etc… why bother with files locally?) My thought here is I want to sync my new GDisk directly to external hard drives (yes, I keep THREE now as backups). Talk about redundantly important. I don’t think we need (internal) computer hard drives that match or are larger than our personal cloud storage or external hard drive backups, but why can’t the netbook/laptop/tablet act as a funnel between the cloud and external backup drives? I bet they can! (Disclaimer: I am not a coder, but I bet one can comment below and tell me if: 1) this is a pipe dream or 2) this is already being done (provide me a link!)

A few other notes I saw when researching the GDisk include a YouTube sync that includes, for example, a button “Do you like this video? Save it to your GDisk now!” Google doesn’t necessarily need to make another copy of the file, but it can give you, the user, access to that same file. The same with uploading music. If the song already exists, give us access to that file rather than wasting some of our storage space by uploading another copy of that file? One user on the Google blog even mentioned, and I paraphrase, “If I upload my whole iTunes library, then I’ll have my personal streaming music anywhere I have internet!”.

And I leave you with “I want my GDisk!” (sung in Sting’s Voice from 1981.)

Your thoughts? Leave a comment!

Earlier today I got a cryptic message from a student that Google Docs was down and they couldn’t get to their directions for tomorrow’s project. Now mind you, I assigned this over a month ago so why wait until today to go and begin to do your work? Later I got another message from a student at a different high school doing the exact same project with the same complaint. I personally went to Google Docs from my mobile and my MacBook Pro with NO problems at all. None. So I called a colleague at the other school who was having the same exact issue. They were all getting this error. Stoopid.

Did Google Doc fail today, or did a link path break?

Now, I think I have a solution. Too many people don’t realize that there are so many EASY ways to get to certain Google places. Want mail? Try google.com/mail. Want calendar? Try google.com/calendar. Want scholar? Try google.com/scholar. Want voice? Try google.com/voice. Want docs? Try… you betcha… google.com/docs. Now when I try this, I am in like slim. The file is up on my machine in nanoseconds. Kiddies are going to gmail, click on email that notifies them that I shared something with them (cause, they won’t look if I don’t tell them it’s there!), and then the path is messed up. Bummer. So yes, something is messed up today, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a very little error for such a ginormous company that does a pretty good job of running the world.

My response is 1) you shoulda not procrastinated. Your procrastination does not constitute a problem in my life. 2) there are 90 kids in my AP and several sections of Crabtree’s. I bet one of the over achievers downloaded the file weeks ago. This is what Google Groups is for (and I bet you know the URL for that one). Ask away. 3) be creative and try to figure it out. And by the way, in case it does work, here’s the BHS direct URL to the assignment.

Update two hours later…: Here’s an update after two hours of talking to students, colleagues, and researching online (just what I want to do on a Sunday!). The problem is NOT Google. It IS Microsoft. No one who has been using Firefox has any problem whatsoever. Every single person using IE cannot get to Google Docs. Microsoft sucks. Not Google.

So your solution is: Install a real browser like Firefox and proceed.

Frankly, I am getting a little bored doing the similar presentation over and over. Although I can tell you it’s well received and needed! I just need Google to call me up and pay me, or at least give me a free tour or something. I’ve worked on this with Shelley Rodrigo at probably four conferences so far. I am looking to do something a little different maybe. Something with portable apps or production of literacies in the 21st ct. But anyway, here’s today’s presentation. It was well received.

Shelley Rodrigo and I have worked on a presentation on Google Apps, which I am ready to adapt, develop, update and add to. It’s a work in progress, but here’s what I have so far. I am running it by a few colleagues tomorrow as a sort of preview to larger things down the road, I hope.

| View | Upload your own

We’ve begun going to talk to the current Sophomore Honors students about AP English & American Studies. Mostly the course curriculum they disregard until we get going because there’s just too much, and typically they can’t wrap their minds are AP vs American Studies vs AP Exams vs Dual Enrollment. I get a lot of the same questions each year, and I should start an FAQ or something! Anyway, this year we decided to start them on the technology early early… Like Now. Students are required to log into Gmail and create an account. My goal is then to reply immediately so my email is in their address book. I then add them to gTalk and open their contact book where I add them to my APES 0809 mailing group. Some of the students are also NHS now, so I add them to that, too. This way in July, I don’t sit for hours doing this. I’ve begun finding some on chat and one even thanked me for forcing the classes to use this set up!

This student also wanted to know when I would set up a Google Group for the 08-09 APES. I told him to remind me tomorrow night and I would do it. The group’s main purpose is to be a space where the students can begin dialogging about the course, the summer reading, the teachers, etc… I think it’ll really help.

Earlier this week in a staff development meeting we reviewed student work and rubrics. The rubrics we examined were from our colleagues and most were pretty bad. Now I was first introduced to rubric writing in 1999, and I think I can do an above average job. Later this week I was preparing a project for the AP classes, and my colleague and I printed the rubric we created last year. We immediately realized that it wasn’t good. It wasn’t that it was terrible, but it didn’t really measure what we wanted. Part of the problem was language. For example, one line read “student attempted to not include silly answers” while measuring multiple choice test answer writing. The students wanted to know how I knew if they “attempted to not include silly answers” … as if they’d attempt to do a bad job on their work.

Another area of issue was the differences between a check list and rubric. A check lis is for completion and really didn’t address if they did it well. For example, if I give 5 points for writing answers A-E then does it matter if they write something good or not? In the case of a completion checklist, then NO. Unless I could give one point for writing answer and another point for writing a good answer. Or do you give a half point for a bad answer and a full point for a good answer?

Mrs Crabtree & I decided to take the idea to the kids. These are the smartest kids in their class, so we decided we’d ask them. When we approached our classes with the rubric and asked for their opinions, we got blank looks. After trying to pull teeth for 15 minutes, we realized that no teacher had ever asked the kids to help writing the rubric. Mostly they were told “do this, and it’s worth #”. But we wanted them to help us decide how they’d be graded. We weren’t lazy, but we wanted them to better understand the process and to have more agency over their learning.

After the blank stares, we told the kids we’d revisit this Monday. In the meantime we put the rubric on Google Docs and shared it with all of them as collaborators. We told them it was their job this weekend to add comments, fix the rubric and make it wonderful. Monday we will take the rubrics and grade the same assignment from someone from last year and grade it. Then maybe they will better understand how to build rubrics, and how to better build the rubric for this assginment.

Last night I was grading and went to refresh Google docs. Suddenly everything looked a little different, and I suddenly realized they made a format change that gave me several options I’d been praying for before bed for months. Where to begin?

Page breaks – Google docs now let’s the user set his or her own page breaks, which really helps me break up really long documents.

Horizontal Rule Breaks - This is an old school formatting style that also helps break up sections, but you don’t see it that much anymore.

Label colors – just like in gmail labels, you can now color code your Google doc labels! Woohoo! For optimum use, color them the same as the gmail labels to which they correspond (e.g. all emails from English 101 people are labeled “Eng101″ and are red in color. all docs and spreadsheets from English 101 people are labeled “Eng101″ and  are read in color) Woot!

Attach doc – Now you can attach your currently opened Google doc directly to an outgoing Gmail.

Owner options – You can change ownership of docs, so if you are quitting an ongoing project, etc…

Text format Styles – You can now format text headers like Titles with H1, H2, H3, etc… which correlate nicely to word processing programs to create Table of Contents.

Now I think what I haven’t seen, but I’d like is the ability to select multiple files and archive them all into a zip file automatically. I have old class files I will probably never need again, and I’d like them off Google docs, but I don’t want to do download them one at a time. Ugh!

We always make the kids put away phones, ipods, etc… but should we? Today in school the kids were studying for the rhetorical schemes quiz, and most had printed pages from Google docs where we had the definitions saved, and some had nothing, but this one kid was sitting in the back of the room scrolling through his iPhone. Most teachers may’ve just went back and grabbed the thing or told him to put it away, but I jokingly went back and took it. He said “but, I’m studying”, and even though I took it mostly because I wanted to play with it (come on, Sprint! get the iPhone!), I did look down. He had Google Docs opened through Safari (I can excuse his using Safari), and he was studying his words, definitions and examples. I smiled and handed back the phone. I thanked him for giving my blog fodder, he laughed, and I moved on.  Here is just one way that kids can use this technology for school. Maybe he planned to review online or maybe he just forgot the papers, but he used it the right way!

As for the whole Google Doc thing, I tried something new here. I added my 180 students as collaborators to the document, and I let them find the examples. I gave them the definitions (which they could edit) and let them find the other information. My colleague and I stayed away from the document (for the most part), but we were more than willing to answer questions before the quiz. No one asked questions in this class, but after the test they complained that some of the examples were under the wrong terms. I asked them why it was my problem. Maybe you’d say “because you’re the teacher!” but I did teach them something. I taught them that they need to be able to evaluate information and to be culpable for their own learning. There’ll be teachers out there who teach definitions and ask them to regurgitate, and then there are educators who lead the way and wait for them to follow. We hold their hands when they need it, and we stand behind them and push when they need it.