Learning in a Pandemic Year

For my faithful blog readers I apologize for my absence.  As you can imagine I was called to serve Denver Public Schools (DPS) for long days weeks and months supporting online learning.  Now that I have a moment to catch my breath (not that it’s over) I thought it would be helpful to share things I’ve learned over the past year.

1.  Google Meet Enterprise is just as good as Zoom for meetings and learning.  With the enhancements Google added to its Enterprise version the playing field has been leveled.  Take a look at this chart I created for the side by side comparison. 

2.  Just because you know how to use an online tool, doesn’t mean the learning will be effective.  We are still in need (if not more so) of training/development for facilitators of synchronous and asynchronous courses.  I’ve been active at DPS creating support materials, models, and starting two communities of practice that meet monthly.  One  is focusing on our LMS-Schoology-and the other group concentrates on synchronous delivery in Zoom or Google Meets.

3.  Non-verbal cues become very important in managing meetings online.  Especially in larger meetings protocols using hand gestures make online meetings run more smoothly and quickly.

4.  Two monitors are better than one, for catching non-verbal cues but also managing a presentation and meeting tools at the same time.

5.  Blended/hybrid professional learning will return.  I predict that after we emerge from COVID restrictions the value and efficiency of blended/hybrid learning will remain a viable delivery system.

6.  Video and audio production skills come in handy and still sound. Top five pieces of advice I give out are:

a. Use landscape format on your phone

b. Record in a quiet room/space

c. Get close to the camera

d. Avoid bright backlight (e.g. windows)

e. Add light to your face if needed (with lamps)

7.  The time for short and engaging webinars has arrived (thankfully).  For years I preached the benefits of shorter webinars and the importance of engaging the attendees throughout the session.  I believe the benefits of these practices have been made evident.

8.  We need breaks from technology too!  Spending all day at our computers in online sessions can be draining on our bodies and minds.  Don’t forget to take a break!  Now that you’ve finished reading this blog post, it’s your turn!

Virtual Stickies Continued

As part of my PaperSavers initiative I wrote previously about virtual stickie or “post it” notes.  Recently I came up with a very simple solution that anyone with access to Google apps can use.  We used this as a collabortive tool during a webinar and it worked out really well.  And, unlike paper stickie notes on a poster board there was no need to transcribe it later.  Here are the steps to follow:

1. Open a blank Google slide presentation in Google apps/Drive
2. Next, populate the slide with a text box that is the approximate size of a post it note
3. Fill the text box with a color that simulates the stickie note
4. Copy the text box and move it to another location on the slide
5. Repeat the above steps until you have filled the slide with enough boxes/stickies
6. Share the slide so that anyone with the link can edit.
7. Share this link to your participants.

Here’s what it will look like after participants have filled in the boxes:

Of course you or the participants can move the boxes/stickies if you want to do some sorting/organizing during your activity.

Here’s a tip if you like this process/activity:  After creating your first slide with blank boxes, make a copy and title it as your template to use over again.  Another tip is that you can adjust the slide size to mimic a vertical poster and it would look like this:

You can actually make the slide any size you wish.  And, you can copy the slide to have as many “posters” as you like.  If you are going with the standard slide size though I recommend that when you create the text boxes choose a 9 pt font size so text fits easily.

In the end, you’re not only saving paper, you’re saving these collaborations in a way that can be searched for, revisited, commented on and copied later.

Hope you have fun creating virtual stickie notes and helping save our resources one piece of paper at a time.  Don’t worry, they’ll add up!

Challenge Accepted

My team has been leading sessions on Improvement Science and using a video on PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) cycles to orient workshop participants.  The problem with the intro video they had been using is that it is focused on the health care industry and not education.  My boss challenged me to create a new introduction video with an education focus.  To up the ante, my team also  requested that I include references to Culturally Responsive Education.  I accepted the challenge and with the help of two teammates-Jenny Jackson on scriptwriting and Alex Maddock as narrator-I produced a concise (3 minutes in length) new video that is getting good reviews among our team.  Here’s a look at the video:

Are you teaching about PDSA Cycles?  If so, feel free to use this video.  And I welcome your feedback and questions.

My Year Without Paper in Review

Well,  it’s the last day of the year and I couldn’t let this end without posting a brief review of my year without paper.  I was successful in not printing anything at work this year and I rarely use paper anymore.  When I do, it’s second chance (immediately recycled paper).  I’ve found many creative solutions to using paper in my every day work.  Even at home I’m using less paper as I’m relying more on my Rocketbook and Elfinbook (a less expensive alternative) for note taking, list making and even songwriting.

The PaperSavers tribe at work has grown and we found an ally at the Office of Sustainability.  Also, the head of our Division funded us for 50 papersaver gift baskets.  We’ve begun distributing them via contests and targeting of teams who use the most paper in the District.  I’ll be sharing our tech alternatives at a national conference next year on online learning.

Here are some photo highlights:

The money bags on top of my desk continue to be a good conversation starter.  They represent the 3 million dollars spent on printing at our District copiers.

Members of the PaperSavers tribe have placed informative signs(written on second chance paper) near the printers on our floor.

These are some of the assembled papersaver gift baskets.

This teacher was one of the happy recipients of a gift basket.  She won this through a district-wide contest where we asked employees to share their papersaving tips.

So, what’s next? Our work and my avoidance of paper will continue into 2019.  The next goals are to distribute the remaining gift baskets-along with training sessions-, get budget numbers for our teams to compare, and find ways to call in rather than call out people using large amounts of paper.

Here’s to a wonderful and productive new year in 2019!

Closed Captioning Made Easy

The demand for closed captioning for video and webinars is increasing at my workplace.  I agree that it is essential for us to create accessible material.  In the past Youtube videos were one DIY way to comply.  You can read a past post from me on this here.

This week though a brand new free tool appeared and it has me really excited.  You can now do live closed captioning with Google Slides played in the Chrome browser.  This tool is free and easy!  I can see facilitators using this in face-to-face presentations, webinars and screencast recordings.  The only possible drawback is that there is no way to edit the captioning, but I have found it to be 95% accurate in its voice to text translation.  Here is a very short tutorial I created to help you use this tool right now:

Screencast Tips

A recurring workstream for me is designing and producing screencasts for people in the district.  Since so many people ask me for my advice and production help I decided to capture many of the tips I give when we first meet to plan their screencast.  In this way I can share the tips before we meet, and then we can discuss the particulars of their project and focus on design.

To share these tips I decided to use two formats.  First a simple Google doc with detailed text, secondly an infographic with a quick overview in a visually appealing layout.  For the infographic, I used the free online platform Canva which can be customized to fit your needs.  For the content I aimed at a first time audience who might be using me as a producer or considering recording on their own.

Here’s what the infographic looks like:

If this might be useful to you, feel free to use or adapt.

Alternatives to Paper when Brainstorming

A very popular use of easel pad paper and post-it notes are for brainstorming sessions with groups. My team and many others at my workplace use these materials for generating ideas and then sorting them. What they may not know is that that easel pad of paper costs approximately $40 and the post-it notes are $24 for a box. That’s some expensive brainstorming that happens simultaneously across the district and the cost is multiplied.  So…what are some non-paper alternatives to use for these exercises? Here are possible apps to use: Padlet, Google Doc templates, Google Slides, and Lucid Chart-a Google add on.

Padlet is a free cloud-based software that provides an online space that looks a bulletin board, a wall, or many custom backgrounds. After you open a Padlet page you give the link to others and they can add what really looks like post-it notes and then you can move them around to organize them. Some things I like about this software is that there is a mobile app and everything is user-friendly. Padlet is often used in K-12 classrooms so I know that adults can handle it easily.

Google apps provide multiple options to consider. Google docs has many templates such as for SWOT input. Take a look at a nice graphic one here.   You can also just insert a simple 4×4 table like this.  Alternatively I’ve used Google slides with users creating their own text boxes on a slide. Of course these text boxes can  be moved around, resized and reformatted. I’ve also used the comment feature to facilitate discussion around the ideas on a slide.

Finally, Google docs has an add-on called Lucidchart. I started with a P&ID basic design, took away the connectors and made the boxes look like post it notes. NOTE: for users to interact, fill in and move the idea boxes you have to share the design in Lucidchart. After it’s moved over to Google docs it can’t be edited. Editing has to take place in Lucidchart.

Here’s what my self-created chart looks like:

Hope these suggestions give you some ideas to move away from using paper.
Do you have alternatives for paper brainstorming that I haven’t included here? Let me know via comments!

Paperless Update

Four months into my year without printing things are going surprisingly well.  Members of my team produced a video (spoofing The Office) to encourage others to save paper/printing.  I compiled a comprehensive list of high tech, low tech, and no tech paperless solutions.  This Friday we’re making our first pitch to a curriculum team who will experience a dramatic presentation, with props like these  showing how much the District spends on making paper copies.  After sharing my paperless solutions, they’ll receive a gift basket (paid for with personal funds-no District money was used) from our Paperless Tribe. 

We’re asking that everyone cuts paper use/copying by just 1/3, not as drastic as my paperless path.

So…how is your year going?  Have you tried any paperless solutions?

Webinars on Location

This school year we’ve started a monthly webinar series called “Schoology Stars” that features power users and creators on our Learning Management System(LMS).  Usually I co-host the webinars from my central office building.  But we decided to change things up and assemble a panel of teachers and bring the webinar to them.  It meant packing up some equipment and being creative with the setup but it was worth it.  We had the highest attendance of the webinar series so far and the energy of a professional panel certainly helped.

For my fellow techies I’ll give you the details of the setup, including some make/model info on the equipment I used.  The library that you see in this panel photo

was not the first choice for a location.  The first choice that was suggested for us to use was a computer lab in the basement that had inferior lighting (for a camera) and a noisy ventilation system.  The library, in contrast, turned out to be perfect for lighting, sound, and a very appropriate background/backdrop for teachers.  In the photo above you’ll also see my webcam (Logitech HD C920) attached to a library cart with a gorillapod and some duct tape to keep the camera angle constant.  On the table are 4 Shure microphones on table top stands.  These were connected to my Alesis Multimix 8 usb mixer-seen below:

The mixer connected to my Mac and then the Zoom webinar software we used.

Now one of the problems we had to solve for was how these five teachers and panel host were going to share the screen views of their online courses in Schoology.  The solution was for our panel host to use her computer, have each teacher’s course open in a browser tab and then project it on a screen facing them so they could see what we were sharing to the virtual audience.  This is what is looked like from the panel perspective:

Also in the right side of this photo are other staff members who came with me to help with setup, monitor the broadcast and during the webinar check the chat and pass messages and audience questions to the panel host.

BTW, you might wonder where the students were.  Well, this was a professional day for teachers (known at DPS at Teal Days) and so the date was perfect for teachers to attend in person and online.

How about you?  Ever hosted a webinar like this?  Any tips to share?

Photography Workshop

Last week I led a photography workshop for my team at work.  The aim was to help them become familiar with our team-owned SLR camera and give them basics to capture better images-with the SLR, or any camera really.  The training document that I created is here.
Today I want to share with you some of the props, homemade accessories and teaching aids I assembled for the workshop in case you might want to incorporate them into yours.

First, here’s a teaching aid I created using two household sponges.  I thought it would be a good visualization of the grain you might expect at those ISO settings and to show the concept of how fast light would be absorbed, relating it to water absorption.

I borrowed some coffee cups from the team kitchen so everyone could practice adjusting depth of field.

Have a ladder nearby reminded me to tell them about trying out different angles-high and low and how that brings new perspective to photos.

Having some props to play with also helps make the workshop fun.

Finally, I’m not afraid to show how to create homemade photo accessories like this light reflector, made from cardboard and aluminum foil.

Have you ever led a photography workshop?  What are your tips to add?