ISTE Standards for Students -- Breaking Down Being an Empowered Learner

 In this post I would like to do a deep dive on the first ISTE Standard for Students -- Empowered Learner. Here is what that standard says directly on the ISTE site:

Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

1a: Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.

1b: Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.

1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

1d: Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

What do those standards mean? What does it look like in a classroom? I could easily share my own interpretation, but nobody needs me to do all their thinking for them. Why don't we jigsaw this! Let's have each building share their thoughts on one of the components in this Jamboard! Here's how to do this:

1. Open the Jamboard link.
2. Click on the arrow at the top (circled in green) to advance to the frame for your school.
3. Click on the icon to the left to add a sticky note (circled in red).
4. Add your comment to the sticky note. Change the color if you want!
5. Click Save (then click Cancel if you don't want to create another sticky note).
6. DONE!

Couple of tips: I added one note to each frame to help get the creative juices flowing! The ideas I offered are generic, but feel free to add specific examples from what you already do! Also, if the entirety of the text does not show on a sticky note, double click it to see the whole thing!

P.S. I've got fun Google emoji stickers for anyone who adds something to our Jamboard jigsaw!

Google Level 1 Certification -- The Time is NOW!

 If you have been kicking around getting the Google Level 1 Educator Certification, NOW is the time to do it! In the past, this certification has required an exam that was part multiple choice, part performance scenarios. However, the exam went through a big revamp recently, and it now consists of ONLY multiple choice-style questions. Those who have taken it have shared that while it is still a decent check of your knowledge and familiarity with Google Workspace tools, it is not as stress-inducing as the previous iterations of the exam. People are also reporting a higher passing rate than previous versions of the exam. In addition, there is still 3 hours allotted for the exam, but most people are reporting that they do not need more than 60-90 minutes for the test. So it sounds to me like anyone who wants to get this certification needs to strike while the iron is hot!

How do you do this?

• Review! Google has a free, online training site you can use. In addition, I have a website I use for boot camps (which needs to be updated with the newest exam information). There are also lots of free or paid resources out there. Do you HAVE to review for the exam? Not necessarily. If you feel pretty well versed with Google Workspace tools, then you can leap into the exam without reviewing! A nice thing to know is that you CAN use notes and you CAN use a second device to Google things or try things during the exam. You just CANNOT use another person to help you.
• Register! You register for the exam online. Once you do that, you will be sent a code, and you will have a week to complete the exam. The exam costs $10, which you can pay for yourself, or you can apply for reimbursement from the district (if we know ahead of time there are a lot of people who plan to take the exam, we can order vouchers so you each have a code you can use to pay the fee for the exam).
• Test! Once you take the test, you will need to know a few things:
• You have a 3 hour time limit to complete the exam.
• You sign an NDA, which means you cannot share specifics about the test.
• You need a webcam because your picture will be taken at the start of the exam and it will be checked at random times to ensure you are the only one working on the exam.
• You can use notes and another device to assist you during the test, but you cannot use another person for help.

Are you wondering why you should do this? Here are some reasons!

• Knowledge! This is a great way to learn about the Google Workspace tools! This familiarity will help make your work more productive, and you'll also be able to assist your students with confidence!
• Leadership! This is a great way to stand out as a professional in the education community. Google Certified Educators are well respected and recognized as top leaders in educational technology circles. Yes, YOU belong there!
• Badges! You get a cool badge you can use in your email signature, on your website, on a blog, etc. to show everyone what you have accomplished!
• Accomplishment! There is a great sense of accomplishment when you are recognized for your effort and expertise! 

I don't know if you know this, but I have long had a dream to have every teacher in Channahon School District 17 to be Level 1 certified. I don't know of any other school district where all teachers have accomplished this, and I think it would be a really cool way to distinguish the already impressive teachers in CSD 17 from everyone else!

Are you interested? Do you think you could do this by the time we start the 2022-2023 school year? If so, comment, "ME!" on this post!

P.S. Help me plan this by completing this form, please!

Cool Tool Alert: Chromebook Simulator

 I was watching a live video on some Chromebook features when the presenter used a Chromebook simulator. I thought, "That is really cool! I'm going to have to find out where she got this!" Lucky for me, I didn't have to look far -- she shared the link with us, and now I am sharing it with YOU!

The Chromebook simulator has a number of video tutorials that show how to do things like how to update your Chromebook or use the touchpad or open and edit Office files!

Check this simulator out and share in the comments which tutorial you think might be most useful for you or your students, and I'll send you a fun Google sticker!

Movies in the Classroom

 Anytime a teacher wants to show a movie in class, it generates immediate excitement from the kids! It doesn't matter if it's something purely educational or if it's for fun or a class reward, there's something about watching a movie at school that is fun -- maybe it feels like it's out of the ordinary, bringing a little bit of what we do for fun at home into the classroom. If you're a bit older, you may remember how excited you were when you walked into the classroom and saw this set up:

Now, we don't have to set up that contraption anymore -- we have streaming services! Hello, Apple TV, iTunes Movies, Netflix, Hulu, Disney +, Amazon Prime, etc.!

But wait. Not really.

Those subscription streaming services we use at home don't always carry over into use in the classroom. How come?

It's called High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). What this does, in the simplest terms, is prevent copying of digital audio and video as it travels across connections. Content is encoded to check to see if it is streaming through connections to see if they have the right permissions to play HDCP encrypted content. If it doesn't, then it won't play. In order for a connection to be HDCP compliant, it requires the manufacturer of the connection devices to obtain and pay for licensing. As you can imagine, many manufacturers don't want to do that because, frankly, it's of no financial benefit to them.

This all means that when you want to show a movie from a streaming service, even if it is for purely educational purposes, chances are it won't play for you here at school. Even if you're signing in with a personal account. It all has to do with the encoding and encryption in the content being streamed.

What it all boils down to is copyright. Technically, when we show a movie in class, it is considered a public displaying of that film, and that scary FBI warning at the beginning of a movie and the copyright information at the end basically say we can't do public showings of the films. 

So, how do you get around this? Well, the official answer would be you don't. Unless you go through the steps of being able to get the appropriate licensing to be able to have public showings of films.

The unofficial answer is get an external DVD player and show it that way. It bypasses the HDCP encryption (but if we are being 100% transparent, it's technically also violating copyright, so do with that information what you will).