Fear is not an option when it comes to social media in schools

By Chris Casal + Lisa Nielsen

Cross posted at http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com

Innovative educators know first hand that social media like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Instagram can be a powerful tool for teaching, learning, leading, and strengthening the home-school connection. In many cases though, others may need to be brought on board. Especially when parents are expressing concerns and unsure of how a platform can be used successfully.

It is the job of innovative educators to ensure parents, colleagues, and administrators know how to embrace the power of social media and also how to address their concerns.  

Here are suggestions for parents, teachers, and administrators in schools embracing social media.

Year 12 is under way. And it's looking great...

Tomorrow may be the first Monday of my 12th year as a teacher, but last week's four days mark a number of new beginnings. It's year twelve. It's a new school. It's a new district. It's a new town. And I'm more excited than ever.

A new school year, a new adventure

So begins the 2014-2015 school year. And so ends my time as a New York City Department of Education teacher.

I am leaving the friendly confines of the NYCDOE after 11 years. It's been a great run. I've taught in a computer lab the entire time, everything from Kindergarten through 8th grade. We've researched, presented, blogged, tweeted, and most everything in between. The DOE has provided me with invaluable experiences and amazing memories. But, alas, other opportunities and adventures await...

Hoboken, NJ's failed 1:1

This post originally began as a response to the WNYC article "Why Hoboken is Throwing Away All of its Student Laptops." I posted this response it two different Facebook groups (here & here) discussing the article and thought I should expand some thoughts in this post. Here is my original response...

My Google Gradebook

There are a lot of apps out there for classroom management, seating charts, and grade books. I decided to give a Google spreadsheet s try.

I wrote about the start of my experiment at the beginning of this past school year. I think it went well. Having it as part of my Google Drive (we are a Google Apps school) meant it was always accessible, as well as mobile, I edited the sheet on my iOS app while walking around the room, grading assignments, and so froth.

Here's what I did...

Update Flash - a NYCDOE centric tutorial

The below tutorial was created with the New York City Department of Education computers and network in mind. That said, however, the idea behind finding a way to easily batch-update Flash on student computers carries over to users and networks beyond the NYCDOE.

So, while the tutorial may be NYCDOE centric, if you are in a Mac environment you can most likely follow the steps to push out Flash updates in your lab setting as well.

Hope this helps folks out...

School Technology Summit 2014 presentations - #NYCSTS14

Welcome to my portion of the School Technology Summit 2014, presented by the Division of Instructional & Information Technology of the New York City Department of Education!

This is the second year for the Tech Summit. My materials from last year can be found here. Just like last year I have created this post for my session slide decks. Once again, the day looks to be an amazing day of learning with a lot of great session opportunities. I am putting all my presentation resources here, in this one post, to make it easy for everyone to have access to my content, even if you are unable to attend in person.

I hope you find my material & presentation valuable.

Enjoy the conference!

"Corporation" doesn't have to be a dirty word

This is a cross-post from Lisa Nielsen on her Innovative Educator blog. She turned one of my Facebook comments on professional development into a blog post. I've re-posted her post here (unedited)...

I have had the pleasure to be involved with creating partnerships between innovative educators and the companies that provide them with resources. This currently includes companies like PBS, Common Sense Media, Google, and, Microsoft, SMART, and Edmodo. 

Unfortunately, for some, when the word corporation comes up, there is immediate distrust. This is a big PR problem that corporations need to take seriously. Fortunately, many corporations are excited about the opportunity to provide support to those who use their products and the teachers are benefiting in many ways.  

Don't blame social media if students are distracted...

Note: This post started as a comment on “Filtering social media in schools because it’s a ‘distraction’” which appeared on Scott McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant blog and then first appeared as a guest post on Lisa Nielsen's blog, The Innovative Educator.

Social media is no different than pencil and paper. I doodled a lot in the margins of my physics book. It wasn’t Twitter and Facebook that made me doodle but I doodled nonetheless.

Social media can serve as the new platform for distraction but not a new cause for it. Doodles, passing notes, sleeping in class, all of the “analog” forms of distraction, have just morphed into branded platforms.

The difference? 

Taking Google Apps Data With You...

This post originally appeared on ps10tech.blogspot.com as a tutorial for 5th graders who were graduating and leaving the school but wanted to take their Google Apps data with them.

5th graders,

Over the last few years you have created quite a lot content here at PS 10. Between your classroom and the computer lab you have produced a lot of great work.

In the last year everyone has been using Google Drive to create and store projects.

Here is how you take it all with you: