For part three of this series we will examine creativity tools. Creativity tools are unique in the world of educational technology because they by their nature are not content or use specific. They are not reading, math, or typing programs designed to lead students through a series of drills (game based or not) and practice. They are not meant to provide remediation or score students (though they can be used for assessment). They are not tutorials. And though they have a specific use as in video, art, or audio creation, they do not have a specific use in a classroom. Creativity tools allow students to create and because they are creating they are by nature thinking more critically (and creatively). Creativity tools also allow students to express themselves in various mediums and in ways not possible with traditional tools.
The very best creativity tools are widely accessible, have an easy learning curve, and are adaptable for a multitude of use cases. I am going to briefly talk about three creativity tools that do vastly different things and then give a couple of examples of how they might be used in a classroom. Each of the three tools have a few shared characteristics. First, all three are web based and device agnostic. Second, all three are free and ad free. Third, all three are easy to use and have a robust help resource. Fourth, although they each had a different specific purpose (video, graphical, and audio) they can be used in multiple contexts.
Adobe Spark is a multi purpose tool that allows users to easily create custom graphics, logos, single page websites, and videos that are beautiful and functional. Spark also has a large educator library for those with education accounts. You can easily build from templates or start from scratch, but the program is designed to ensure you finish with a visually pleasing final product. There are other tools that can do the graphical elements (such as Canva and Piktochart) that I prefer over Adobe Spark because they can be interactive and offer more customization, but when it comes to video Spark really shines. Spark isn’t a video editor, instead it helps you build a compelling story with video, images, background audio, and your voice. The templates are designed to walk you through each step of the story, or you can build from scratch. From there students can start to build their video by using high quality stock photos and videos from Adobe or add their own. They then select their background music and record their voiceover. The final product is a professional looking video.
The downside to Spark is that it isn’t a video editor. You cannot split, trim, or cut video together. If you don’t like the sound of your voice you are out of luck because you have to narrate. Though you can collaborate on the projects, you cannot work simultaneously like you can with Google products. This means you have to plan collaborative projects accordingly. I have used Spark for personal and school related projects as well as giving it as an option for students. The students and I both agree that way Spark is laid out makes it much less anxiety inducing to create a video based product.
Piktochart began as an infographic builder but has sense evolved into a full fledge interactive graphic design tool. If you have used Canva or Spark you will notice the interface is similar with a main canvas in the middle and nested tool bars along the left or right edge. Where Piktochart shines is its ability to incorporate interactive elements like videos, charts, and animations. Additionally any Piktochart can be turned into a presentation, shared on the web, or embedded into a website–as long as it isn’t WordPress :(. Here is an example. The downside to Piktochart is that it has so many options it can be overwhelming to use at first, so it is best to pick one of their professionally designed templates if you are a new user. The other downsides are the free account only allows you to create 5 projects and you cannot collaborate with others. Overall I like Piktochart as a creation tool though its overwhelming feature set and limited storage size might push users to Canva.
Anchor is a free podcast recorder, editor, producer, and publisher offered by Spotify. Podcasting can be a difficult medium to figure out as a novice. There are so many steps required to make a podcast and you need the skills of an audio engineer, writer, researcher, voice actor, web developer, and content distributor. Anchor takes care of all of the back end work so you can just focus on recording your content. The editor is easy to use and offers music integration with Spotify, transitions, listener messages. The program automatically processes the audio to normalize the volume and enhance the vocals. Building episodes are extremely easy with drag and drop abilities. The major drawback for Anchor is that it is not designed to be used by students. It can be monetized which means ads. This limits its usability for younger students. Because it is an audio publishing tool, it is obviously limited in how you would use it. With that said, the content, audio, and goal of a podcast is wide open. So even without video stimuli, podcast can get some mileage as you can see by simply scrolling through podcasts on your favorite podcast service. I like using Anchor for podcasts because it greatly simplifies the process, but students are less apt to use it because 1) they have to hear their own voice, and 2) you can’t edit takes so it results in multiple recordings of the same take.
Use Cases
I’m not going to go into depth cases for all three creativity tools, instead I will talk about two uses for Adobe Spark and how they stack up to SAMR and TPACK.
Use Case 1
During a research unit in AP English III, students were investigating solutions to a global problem of their choosing and offering solutions. The students utilize databases for research, conduct interviews with experts via Google Meet, and publish their research via Google Docs and Sites. But there is an additional part of this project. I want them to share their solutions with the world. This is where Adobe Spark came in. Students created either videos, posters, or websites to highlight the problem they researched and their proposed solution(s). They then published those to their websites and shared it out on social media and with the experts they interviewed. They were able to practice and implement their writing and research TEKS (C), complete a PBL based unit (P), and utilize the social sharing nature of Spark (T).
Use Case 2
As I spoke about in Part 2 of this series our student interns keep portfolios for the work they are doing throughout their internship. One piece of that portfolio is their teams OKRs and design SPRINTs. The purpose of their design SPRINT, which is completed the summer before they begin their work, is to utilize the design thinking process to develop the project they will be working on throughout the year. The final piece of that is to present their plan to their director for approval. The primary tool the interns use to present those plans (and the quarterly updates) is Spark. Each team of interns will use the part of Spark they feel communicates their plan best. So some will do a video pitch, others an infographic, and some a website or flyer. Part of the reason this is done this way is because the teams are very rarely physically together at the same time so all of this collaboration is done virtually and their pitch is typically done virtually as well. The instructional goal of teaching the entrepreneurship skills: ideation, design thinking, goal settings, and presentation/pitching (C) is easily accomplished in this format. The format of the SPRINT encourages collaboration, critical thinking, and creative thinking (P). Finally, the ability of Spark to be flexible and allow asynchronous collaboration (T) provides a means by which the interns can create powerful and persuasive pitches.
Conclusion
Creativity tools have a powerful ability to “trick” students into higher order thinking and creativity because they don’t a predisposed academic purpose. They are also tools that are applicable in all areas of life and work which give them real life authenticity that a purpose built academic program doesn’t afford.
In part two of ours Tech-Play-Test series we will examine ePortfolios and “folio thinking”.
Before diving into ePortfolios it is worth while to spend some. time talking about folios. Folio thinking is the acknowledgement that you can’t truly know what some knows or what skills they possess from traditional assessment tools. It requires a broader approach that can look at both learning/growth over time and the full breadth of skills, experiences, and knowledge one possesses. Also with folio thinking is an element of self reflection. A person with folio thinking is looking back on what they have accomplished and learned, and setting goals to propel themselves forward. They realize that there is more value in seeing themselves move over time instead of judging themselves from one snapshot in time.
Portfolios, wether electronic or physical, are an excellent way to live out folio thinking. Regarding the first point (assessment by others), portfolios are much more beneficial than traditional forms of assessment such as exams, essays, and homework. Though traditional forms of assessments can give a you a snapshot in time of how a student is doing on a specific skillset, they cannot, by their nature, tell a full story. Traditional assessments are meant to be norm referenced and comparative so they have to focus on narrow parameter. A portfolio can include those snapshots as part of a larger picture of a student.
Take this as example. Below is an extreme closeup of a piece of art. It is a snapshot of the picture from a very narrow parameter. It is ugly, undefined, and doesn’t really look like the artist knows what they are doing.
Close up of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night
But if you zoom out and collect enough information you can see the whole picture.
Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night
To see and appreciate the genius of the work (or student) you need to see the whole picture.
As a learner portfolios are superior as well. They afford the learner the opportunity to receive feedback on their work as they progress through a course or program of study. Something as simple as writing portfolio allows a student to collect feedback, make revisions, and see the growth of their writing over time. It makes them better writers by providing a mechanism to reflect back on writing. Artists are able to reflect over the evolution of their work over time and across different medium as they build and refine their portfolio.
Portfolios also include elements of self discovery. There are times as you are looking back at your work and setting goals for what is to come that you begin to realize a passion or direction that might otherwise have hidden. Students tend to jump from one activity or assignment to the next without consideration about how they connect or what the personal connection is to the work they are doing. Portfolios force that to happen. Rarely does an exam, homework assignment, or essay elicit that same response on its own.
In talking about which I prefer: traditional assessments or portfolios, I think it is important to consider the context. When it comes to a certification, traditional assessments win all day long. That isn’t just because that is how it has always been done. It is because they are less subjective. I know X,Y, and Z or I don’t. I don’t want to rely on someones interpretation of what I know, I want it to be as clear cut as possible. Regarding almost any other scenario, portfolios come out on top. As I have said earlier portfolios allow the affordance of a broad lens to view skill set and understanding while also showing the ability to grow and adapt (necessary life skills). Most of life (work, schools, relationships, etc.) lives in shades of gray and assessing value in a way that ignores the gray for the simplicity of black and white is silly and short sighted.
So portfolios are the clear winner, but when do you use portfolios and when do you use eportfolios? The purpose and usecase for both are the same. Both are about created a curated selection of work that includes reflection and vision and that paint a full picture. Paper portfolios are best in a situation where the work presented is written (essays) or graphical (art or photography) and/or the audience does not want or have access to the internet. Eportfolios add the affordances of multiple types of media (print, images, video, audio, etc.) hyperlinking of information, interactivity, easy updating/sharing, and portability. Because of the nature of my work eportfolios are the best choice for what I do.
Now that I am done pontificating about portfolios, let’s talk about specific portfolio tools. Like Part 1 of this series I will talk about each and give you my take aways. The three eportfolio tools are: Google Sites, Bulb, and Wakelet.
Google sites is a free to use part of Google Workspace and integrates tightly with other Google Workspace apps like Drive, Docs, and Slides. For schools that already use Google Workspace for EDU. It is an easy to use website creator that is ideally suited for eportfolios. It does not allow the ability for replies or discussions and the content management features are not as robust as other paid eportfolio tools. There also isn’t a way for templates to be created or shared.
Bulb is a freemium web-based eportfolio tool popular in K-12 education. Anyone can sign up for a free account that provides a full range of portfolio features and limited storage. Schools or districts can purchase upgraded licenses to add management and moderation features that might be needed in an educational setting. Bulb does integrate with Google Workspace and has an easy to navigate interface and editor. Accounts stay with the student for life which means they can continue to use Bulb post school. Bulb does allow teachers and administrators to create templates to share with students. Also, Bulbs can instantly be turned into interactive presentations for presenting eportfolios.
Wakelet is also a free web-based eportfolio tool that looks more like Twitter than a traditional eportfolio. It is based on the principle of collaborative portfolios. This is a great option for group or team portfolios. It does host a full set of features and integrates with multiple other platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Flipgrid. It also features moderation and content control features like Blub, but they are free for K-12 districts. The major drawback for Wakelet is its organizational structure. It is hard to build organized eportfolios if you wish to maintain a traditional style.
For my eportfolio I am using Bulb because of its organization, ease of use, and novelty. ( have used the mess out of Google Sites). Bulb has a very low learning curve for teachers and students, but is robust enough that it can be adapted for whatever might be happening in the classroom. A robotics teacher might have their students keep their engineering notes in Bulb including snapshots of their build taken with their phone. English classes could keep writing and reflection logs. Science could keep lab notes. LOTE can keep audio and video recordings of their oral speaking along with reflections of their reading and writing.
I have used Bulb before with students and teachers:
Chrome Squad
The Chrome Squad is a student internship that focuses on entrepreneurship and computer science. They work in teams on various projects throughout their internship and keep track of their progress in an eportfolio using Bulb. The eportfolio is both individual and collaborative. The collaborative elements are their Objective and Key Results (goal setting protocol) and Design SPRINTs. The individual elements are the artifacts from their projects and reflection from their OKRs and projects. Each week the teams give me an update on their progress and updates their eportfolios. The portfolio includes video, audio, graphics, and text. The interns are constantly providing feedback to their teammates and setting goals based off their progress. This approach has pushed the interns to have a growth mindset, strive for their own growth, and think in terms of “moonshots”.
These eportfolios are on the Transform side of SAMR and address the following elements of TPACK:
C- Interns work collaboratively and autonomously to accomplish goals and further the district vision.
P- Goal setting, collaboration, reflection, and self reported grades (Haddie)
T- Eportfolio allows for the collection of multimedia artifacts, synchronous collaboration, and interactivity.
LEAD Learners
As part of a larger professional development program, we utilize micro-credentials as part of a program called LEAD Learners. Teachers earn badges for utilizing edtech tools and strategies that enhance or improve: students’ growth in content knowledge, agency, collaboration, and impact. To earn these badges the teachers must keep and update an eportfolio in Bulb that documents their use and reflection. After each entry the teachers request their new badge to put on a poster outside their door. This program is hugely popular and helped create an environment of continual learning and reflection.
These eportfolios did not require anything but pictures and text and were not collaborative so they would set on the Enhance side of SAMR. It does address the following elements of TPACK:
C-Teachers will grow in the meaningful integration of technology and reflect on its use.
P- Self directed learning and choice (Knowles)
T-Eportfolios allows for the collection of artifacts.
So there you have it. Eportfolios are a powerful tool for assessment, reflection, and growth.
In part one of this series we are going to take a deep dive at blogs. A Blog, shortened from the term “weblog”, is possibly the mostly easily accessible way to establish an online presence outside of social media platforms. Blogs are a format of online publishing that can range from self published articles, to tutorials, to very public diaries. They are primarily texted based with embedded images, graphics, and videos although there are offshoots like vlogs (video based web logs) and glogs (graphics based web logs). As far as organization, blogs are typically organized in reverse chronological order so the most recent “post” is what first appears. Blogs may also be organized by topic, strand, or category, and are searchable by “tags” placed in the blogs metadata. Blogging became a mainstream possibility in the late 1990’s when posting to the web became a possible without a background in HTML or coding. It wasn’t until the 2000’s that blogs became common place 1. This is in part due to the the creation of dedicated blogging platforms like Blogger and the adoption of blogs by organizations and publishers.
There is an element of social networking that happens with blogs (even more so with micro-blogging platforms like Twitter and Instagram) but it is rudimentary at best. This began with the ability for blog readers to subscribe and comment. When a reader subscribes to a blog they are agreeing to receive notifications, typically by email, of new blog posts as they are published. This is also possible with blog aggregators like Feedly, Flipboard, and Pocket. The ability to leave and reply to comments on a specific blog post created an avenue for pseudo-discussion boards focused on the content of the post.
Speaking of blogging platforms, I took three for a spin: Blogger, WordPress, and Wix. All three share similar affordances, but there are trade offs with each. All three or are technically free (WordPress is free but you must pay for server hosting), and relatively simple to use from the start. All three platforms give you the flexibility to create multimedia blogs, vlogs, and/or glogs. You can also create multiple pages to house different topics or additional content besides your blog (much like a traditional website). A selection of organized themes are standard for all three platforms with Blogger being, in all honesty, the ugliest and WordPress and Wix being the most visually pleasing. Additionally, all three allow for multiple authors and editors, have moderation tools for comments, and allow customized domains (for an additional cost).
As I said earlier, each platform have unique benefits and trade offs:
Blogger
Benefits
A part of Google suite of products so it integrates well for Google Workspace users
Largest free blogging platform in the world
Large user and help community
Google Analytics integrated
Trade offs
Dated design
Lack of plugin or widgets
Limited post formatting options (i.e. custom headers and post layout)
Wix
Benefits
Intuitive interface
WIX ADI makes creating blog very easy
Modern and pleasing themes
Helpful plugins
Trade offs
Can be overly feature rich for a new user
Publishing post takes more clicks
WordPress
Benefits
Completely open design experience
Unlimited themes and plugins
Trade offs
Very complicated for first time users
Requires purchasing a hosting service or to host on your own server
Blogs as an educational tool affords many possibilities. They provide an avenue for students to publish their work for a real audience. It give teachers and students alike a voice and a larger audience than those in the four walls of a classroom. They can be used to create and share portfolios, discussion forums, and repositories. Blogs give students a means to practice written communication and teachers a way to share additional learning and resources with students. For professional development leaders, blogs afford the opportunities to extent the PD session beyond the bounds of the session. For example, you will often see PD leaders post not only the content of their sessions, but also further commentary, videos, etc. on the topic.
I can think of two specific use cases for blogs based off my background in English/Language Arts and Instructional Technology.
English/Language Arts
One struggle I always had with teaching English is getting students to write authentically about what they are reading. Something I have done in the past is to create a blog that had multiple threads. Each thread has a genre of writing or reading that the students will be studying at that time. The students would, for example, during the argumentative text unit respond to a given prompt with their argument using evidence from documents discussed/read during class. Each student would be an author for the blog so they could post their writing as post on that thread/page. They could also use the comment feature to respond to classmate’s posts.
This would facilitate students thinking, writing, and communicating at analyze, evaluate, and create level of Blooms. It promotes agency and communication while also scaffolding because students that struggle with a task will be able to see examples from their peers to model. This approach uses all the features of blogs: public facing, multi authoring, and dialogical. With that said it would likely only be in the enhance area of SAMR because although it makes the sharing easier, it can be done in a classroom setting on paper using the Kagan strategy Think-Write-Round-Robin.
Chrome Squad Portfolios
A second strategy that I have implemented in the past is using blogs as a portfolio tool for my student interns, the Chrome Squad. The Chrome Squad is organized into teams that work on specific job related tasks. For example, the podcast team writes, records, edits, produces, and publishes podcast. They are required to keep a portfolio of their work over the year(s) they are in the program. They have used these portfolios to successfully earn scholarships, get admitted into colleges, and find employment. Each intern creates a blog, with most using either Blogger or Bulb. They keep artifacts of the projects their team has worked on , a history of their design thinking progress, and a log of their OKRs. OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results and is a form of goal setting that forces them to create “moon shot” goals with no more than a 60% chance of success. They then have to create a measurement metrics for the goal and track their progress towards that goal over time.
Their portfolio includes videos, images, graphics, audio files, embedded elements, and of course writing. These portfolio force them to think at the create and evaluate levels of Blooms. The idea of tracking their progress and reflecting on their work is based on Haddie’s Visible Learning which identifies goal setting, reflection, and meta-cognition as having large effect size. The ideas of moon shots is based on the work of Astro Teller and is well documented in the business world as a way to encourage risk taking and agency. Blogs are perfectly suited for this because they can organize the blog in either a stream of consciousness, chronological, or topical format. It also allows them to uses multiple forms of media and embedded items.
Conclusion
Now there are limitations to using blogs. First, they require time to be spent teaching both yourself and students how to use them. Second, there are privacy concerns particularly with younger students. A product like Bulb or KidBlog might be a better solution, or using Google Docs/Sites as a sort of pseudo-blog. Third, blogs are difficult to grade. If each student has a blog that they post to once a week, and you have 150 students. That is 150 individual links to be clicked and read. (Here is a hint. They don’t have to be graded to have value. They just have to have real readers.)
Despite this, with the right training and oversight by the teacher the benefits of blogs outweigh the concerns. Blogs have the power to give students a voice and make the world feel smaller. When I had my students blogging they found they quickly had real life people reading and responding to their posts from all over the country. It brought value to what they were doing and made them want to write more often and better.
Preface & Introduction to the New Pillars of Modern Teaching
Welcome to the Preface and Introduction to The New Pillars Modern Teaching. In the preface, Will Richardson sets the stage for the book with a brief history of essays and books that were predecessors to this series of books from Solution Tree called the Solutions for Modern Learning series. In this section, he describes how we have reached this point in education and what our next steps might be.
In the introduction, Gayle Allen provides a description of how the book as arranged to best address where teachers, who are surrounded by technology, will address this in their teaching. She explains that she wrote the book to help us understand the “why” of it all, and to address the question of how and why to allow access to the wealth of knowledge surrounding us inside of the classroom.
Using the comment tool at the bottom of this post discuss. Please label your posts as Q1 for answers to question 1, etc.
Introduce yourself and tell us where/what you teach?
Why do you feel it is important to read this book?
Describe the shift to the new pillars of pedagogy. Does this shift seem to apply to your classroom and way of thinking about curriculum, instruction, and assessment?
In what ways, if any, do you feel we have already started addressing this shift on your campus or in RCISD?
Feel free to reply to the comments of other learners.
FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible. Please focus on positive discussion and sharing. Happy reading!
Welcome to the first part of the Better Conversations book study. This chapter, in a nut shell, introduced us to the two main pillars of the book: creating better conversations by building better communication beliefs and habits. It would be good start off this book study with a couple of questions to get us thinking about habits and beliefs. Using the comment feature at the bottom of this post discuss:
How has education started to change from a “banking education” mindset?
In what ways are you and/or your schools still functioning as “top down” communicators?
What chapter or Conversation Belief/Habit do you most look forward to learning about?
Feel free to reply to others comments.
FYI. Names are posted, and the website is visible, so lets focus on building up instead of ranting.
