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This kind of class is my favorite. Getting a list of tools to explore and working with them is pretty cool. And when my kids walk by and I ask them if they’ve used a certain tool and they say no, I feel like an explorer of sorts. Maybe I can teach them something, I tell myself. And perhaps they represent my students and their familiarity with these tools, I think. But I am not sure. I’ve been teaching 19 years and never has the profession been at such a crossroads. We can’t make this business as usual. This is a growth moment for us as a profession as much as it is for ourselves as educators. We get a chance to do things differently because we need to do things differently. And what did I do differently? I played with Flipgrid. There is a lot of hype around this tool. No, not the kind of hype Kanye is getting by perhaps running for president (can you imagine what his signature shoe— the Yeezy— would look like customized on the campaign trail?), but the kind of teacher hype where you KNOW teachers are using this tool and enjoying it. So I played with that a while. I also played around with Loom, which is essentially a really easy to use quick video looping tool. Need to send out a quick message and get your voice and tone in it? I think Loom is good for that. Flipgrid and Loom both worked. I think Flipgrid would be great to get kids interacting with one another. And I think Loom is great for reminders or messages where you want some personality in them. I think the only barriers are going to be with Flipgrid, and that’s pretty minimal. Kids will just need time to learn the tool. That is something I think about a TON. If a student has six teachers and each has a series of pet-tools, there could be a huge learning curve there. Likely there will be overlap but that could be four or more new tools per teacher? 24 tools or more?? That’s a lot of learning JUST ON TOOLS and a lot of email signups. I think video as assessment is interesting. If we are using a distance platform for education, I do think it could be really powerful to see what kids think and connect with their thinking in that way. Writing is great but is limited. And if kids don’t show their face on Zoom, this might be all we have for that personal aspect of learning. |