Just when you thought Hangouts couldn't get any cooler...

There was Business Hangouts.If you go to the Google + page listed to the left, you can gain access to their site. I was able to sign up for free.

BH and BHO take what is great about Google Hangouts and Google Hangouts On-Air and amplify it. Now, you can plan hangouts ahead of time, view your audience map, view a 3D replica of your audience, record chat sessions, moderate the chat, raise your hand, remote desktop, and more. It really is a one-stop shop.

I was able to use it successfully on my Google Apps for Education account and my personal Gmail account. Sadly, I don't know how long it was stay free, but in the meantime, it is great to use.

Check it out!





Another great use of Google Hangouts is the Geekouts put on by the National Writing Project. These can be replicated at any level and give students ownership in their learning and the chance to connect with other students and educators. I am anxious to try these out with my elementary tech stars!

Putting learning in the hands of the learners

In a recent ISTE article ("Taking Aim at Innovation" by Grant Lichtman) from Learning and Leading, I read an interesting line: "As a group, schools are still mired in the mindset that technology is the innovation, not that it is a tool embedded in innovation."

As I look around my campuses and what we have marked as our successes, I realize that we, too, are victim to this method of thinking. We have  deemed our successes by being a Google Apps for Education district, BYOD, 1:1 at the 9th and 10th grade levels, and have rolled out a variety of new technologies. Though these are all part of being innovative, they are not the innovation. Rather, they should be the tool that helps enable the innovation. Therefore, what is innovation? What is evidence of innovation at our district? We know the tools that we have put in place to help innovation, but do we know what innovation has actually occured?

If innovation is "preparing students for the future, not the past," what does that look like? The concept of a flipped classroom is gaining momentum - allowing students to watch videos and lectures at home so that classroom time is devoted to discussions and enhancing learning. This is innovative. However, it is not flipped learning. The author brings up a great point of the difference between a flipped classroom and flipped learning. Oftentimes, students go into classrooms and ask "what are we going to do today" or "what are we going to learn today." Sadly, though, that means the students have no responsibility or say-so in their learning.

Last week, I mentioned the lack of passion in students - this apathy for learning and the future. What if we did ask students to think of their learning as their own journey? What if we asked students to define their learning? In doing so, we would be preparing students for the future. The technology we once deemed as the innovation would be come the tool for helping students with their learning paths. It goes back to JFK's infamous quote: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Learning is not about what we can do, but what it will bring to our group.

Likewise, technology is not the innovation. It is a great tool for making innovation happen. When this is realized and addressed, I believe, true innovation will occur.

What network makes you connected?

As I think about connected educators' month and I prepare for our inaugural Google Ninja Academy, I think about the difference between educators and connected educators. Since starting the GNA, I have had countless teachers ask me about the format of the summit and how to choose sessions. It had not occurred to me that teachers would have difficulty with this. When I attend a conference, I select sessions, but I am also there to connect with other educators - face to face and via social networks. I find it is these connections that improve my learning and teaching and grow me and an educator. However, many of my staff members have not encountered this type of learning space - one of learning freedom. I anxiously await our GNA to see how educators respond. We have purposely invited outside educators so our district employees can connect outside of our little hub. Though there are non-EdTech conferences our educators can attend, I don't know how many have attended those. Likewise, I know many conferences have yet to take the unconference model.

I think there is a shift in not only learning in the classroom, but in PD that is foreign to many educators. And, that I believe, is the difference between a connected educator and an educator.

I was privileged to be introduced to METC (Midwest Educational Technology Conference) my first year of teaching, allowing me to view a new style of PD and a new way of learning - through connections and collective intelligence. However, many are not so lucky. How do we give and promote these opportunities for all educators/

It starts at your campus - providing PD that is based on learner needs and is build around collective intelligence and collaboration. When this happens, educators can be opened up to the world of Twitter, Google +, and more.

What do you think?

Starting up a new hangout series!

Recently, I collaborated with three other women to start the EdTech Women - Austin chapter. Our goal is to build authentic connections to improve learning. Essentially, we are connecting the tech sphere with the education sphere to bring in better quality technology as well as teacher-driven technology. We are also working to increase the number of women in the edtech start-up arena. Female teachers still far out number male teachers in elementary school. However, when you look at EdTech Austin, representative of many edtech spheres, the make-up is primarily 20 to 30 year old males. We have posed several essential questions:

• What does technology in education look like to you?
• What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your Edtech/Startup journey that you know now?
• What do you need to be an innovative educator?
• What comes to mind when you hear these quotes?
• “Gender barriers were there because I put them there myself”
• "Investing in girls education “is the most inclusive cause you can embrace” because it impacts everyone"
• "The first step towards narrowing gender divide in tech: teach tech-related material while girls are still young."
• How can we challenge dismissive attitudes towards women in edtech?
• What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Check out our first hangout on-air tonight with InstaEDU. We will broadcast the link to the YouTube feed at the time of the event.

Overcoming apathy in students

Recently, I was having a discussion with another edtecher regarding 1:1 rollouts and student responses. In my own experience with rolling out 1:1 laptops at the 9th and 10th grade level, I had experienced similar reactions - apathy. When students were handed a nearly $700 device, they were emotionless. And, when they were asked to think of dream jobs, they were dumbfounded. And, when they were asked to type on the keyboard, they were stuck. Why - in this generation of "digital natives" would students be apathetic and lackluster in regards to technology? These students represent the America we are producing, the jobs we are securing, and any innovation.

When I work with students at the elementary school, I am revered as almost a "tech god." They are passionate and they can give you ideas of all of the careers they would like to pursue. If they don't know how to do something, they will ask and they will problem solve. In fact, they have many of the skills we want in our future leaders.

So, what happens between early schooling and high school? What is flawed so that our students, on the brink of entering their adult lives, are apathetic? As a former high school English teacher, my students used to comment that the books in the secondary curriculum were all dark whereas elementary reading was about learning, exploring, and growing. And, perhaps that is true as well. I think back to my curriculum - and it was a lot of literature of the past and literature reflective of hard times. Though, I like to think that cannot be the only reason.

Is it that we have been giving our students too much credit for being digital natives that we have failed to teach them the skills necessary to be successful? This is what rings most true for me. We shower them with devices and think that, because they are using a variety of devices, they know and understand the skills necessary to use them and to make a valuable contribution to society.

The problem, though, remains. How do we reach these kids who are on the brink of adulthood who are apathetic? Are they apathetic or have we failed to instill in them skill sets to empower them? Do we teach tools and shower them with tools and mistake that for literacy? Do we just throw in a tool and use it in the same regard as what they would have done in the past?

My aim is to find solutions to connect teachers around the world who face this same problem. Though, throwing technology at the situation will not solve it - I don't believe - using technology to collaborate and network with other educators may. Using the power of crowd-sourcing ideas and resources, can we work to redirect these students and re-map our educational framework?

On the hunt for some new Web 2.0 tools

Last year, Smore took my campuses by storm and has become a staple within my campus. More teachers are communicating electronically and collaborating as a result of it. Therefore, it has made a positive change on my school. We also brought all teachers onto Edmodo and Remind101 last year and those have also become staples and have changed our school culture.

Now, I'm looking for a new tool that will enhance collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and learning at my elementary and high school campus.

Since we are not a Mac-friendly district, I need tools that are not specific to iPad apps. Suggestions?

Making information accessible

This semester, I started teaching an educational technology class to future teachers at a local university. Recently, a discussion about information equity was brought up - specifically - equal access to information.

One of the things that makes the internet great (and is also a source of concern for others) is how it makes information available to the public. Of course, you have to factor in - do people have access to the internet and is their content filtered. Those points aside, technology has still made information more accessible to the public. In fact, it's also given more people authored voices through social media, blogs, etc.

However, Google recently unveiled a new project - Google Constitute - that takes information access one step further. It helps digitize constitutions and allow for researchers and drafters to gain access to the world's constitutions.

Further, it helps create equity within the information realm and allows for constitutions to be put in the hands of future creators - our students.

I plan on looking further into this resource to see how it develops. Check it out!