UNLEASH

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  • ERO strikes again. Seriously!?

    In their latest document of propaganda, ERO have made the following recommendations for schools to work towards improving the way they deliver education for their students. It is, however, only in draft format in it’s present state, but makes pretty clear the direction that they’re heading. It’s called “Effective School Evaluation”. Within it they have a table which includes examples of shifts in practice that schools have made to improve outcomes for learners. Their words, not mine.

    In it, they have different headings and different recommendations within each one. I’ve had a quick perusal through them, and there are a few that stand out that I wish to bring to your attention.

     

    Educationally powerful connections and relationships

    FROM: 15% attendance by parents and whānau at interviews – TO: 85% after introducing a whānau tutor system and giving parents and whānau a 20 minute interview with one teacher.

    Shifting from 15% of parents and whānau turning up to 85% turning up is not as easy as writing it down in a statement and assigning a “whānau tutor” . I’m not sure where ERO get their 15% of parents turning up for interviews, but I can only assume that it was from a school who was REALLY struggling.

    15% of a class of 28 (the current funding ratio for class sizes) is 4.2 families. At a meeting of 10 minutes each, this impacts on a teacher of…, wait for it,  42 minutes of additional non-contact time expected of teachers.

    ERO would like to increase attendance to parent-teacher interviews to 85% through the use of ‘whānau tutors’. Who will these tutors be? You guessed it – teachers. Who else is there?
    What will we be expected to do? And how will that ensure that parents come to teacher meetings if they are busy, or can’t make it, or are sick or looking after the tamariki? Seriously. It’s almost like ERO have no touch on reality.

    ERO also mentioned that the expected length on such meetings would be 20 minutes so that discussions can be in depth and meaningful.

    85% of a class of 28 (the current funding ratio for class sizes) is 23.8 families. At a meeting of 20 minutes each, this impacts on a teacher of…, wait for it, 476 minutes. That’s a total of 7 hours and 55 minutes additional time expected of teachers.

    Now; let us assume that in an alternate universe where teachers would be paid by the hour, and the pay rate would be on par with other trades at $80 an hour. We can safely assume that this would happen after school hours, so we’d have to pay time and a half. However, let’s be generous and just charge out the usual rate (That is the usual treatment of teachers time these days anyway!).
    So at $80.00 an hour, for 8 hours, that is $640 per teacher. That’s just for the interviews. That does not take into account the “whānau tutoring” that will also be expected of teacher’s time. I’m not sure when I last had 8 hours of additional time in my already jam packed schedule. Or are we expected to come back on the weekend to meet with parents?

    This goes along the same lines as a PacT Tool Workshop that I attended, in which they said that it’d probably take 25 minutes for each child when you first start doing it. I worked that out at the meeting and it was the turning point in my support for it. It worked out to be an additional 11 hours just to create an OTJ for every student in the class; something that should take no more than 30 minutes in my opinion.

     

    Responsive Curriculum, effective teaching and opportunity to learn

    FROM: Teaching Writing – TO: Teaching Writers

    Move from Teaching Writing to Teaching Writers.

    They think that this is a clever statement to cause thoughts and shifts in thinking. There are a few flaws however.

    To be a writer, you need to know how to write. Many new entrants do not know how to write, and yet we probably should teach them something about writing?

    Secondly, let’s look at the language being used.

    Writing – noun. The act of writing. A subject of study.

    Writers – noun. A person who writes.

    The shift ERO want us to make is from teaching a subject, to teaching the people. However, as a teacher, what am I doing when I teach Writing? I’m teaching students how to write better. What am I doing when I teach writers? I’m teaching students how to write better.

    Well, it would seem I can tick that one off the list of things to do.

     

    Responsive Curriculum, effective teaching and opportunity to learn

    FROM: Deficit thinking and blaming students for poor outcomes – TO: Teachers recognising the need to improve their teaching.

    Finally (for this post anyway), the last recommendation I’ll touch on is this. ERO wish us to move from deficit thinking on why students are failing, and instead, focus on how teachers can teach better.

    Go on. Bash away. We know you don’t respect us enough to give us credit, or even acknowledge that some of us (if not all of us) are actually doing the best we can with what we’ve got. They also forget that most of the students we teach are doing the best with what they’ve got. But the truth of the matter is there are other impacts on a child’s learning beyond that of their academic ability and the teacher’s adequacy in being able to teach. Poverty, hunger, broken families, abuse, violence. Need I go on?
    No. It couldn’t possibly be any of these mitigating factors. No. It’s because we are not teaching them well enough that there are poor outcomes.  Pffft. To suddenly start blaming ourselves for why students are not progressing is just as counter-productive as saying it’s the student’s fault that they aren’t succeeding.

    It’s enough to make my blood boil.

    At least I’ll stay warm while the educational winter is setting in.

  • Te Reo Māori Wallpaper

    So last week I came across a neat little graphic someone had made with some Te Reo Māori requests / instructions on them.

    I was thinking tonight, that there has to be a way that can be a quick reference for me in class to access these. I realised that a graphic on my phone would sit in my photos album and I could remind myself of them every now and then.

    But I wasn’t happy with that.

    No. I needed somewhere more accessible.

    Like on the lock screen.

    So I downloaded a template for the right sizes (for my iPhone 5S) and set about converting the original graphic into something somewhat pleasing to look at, all with the Te Reo kīanga (phrases) to jog my memory until they become part of my every day kōrero.

    Because I’m a bit of a geek, I like having the same (or nearly the same) background for my lockscreen and home screen, as the icons appear to zoom as you unlock. To help with this (but removing confusion of overlapping text from app icons) I’ve created a ‘home screen’ background as well, which contains the same background, less the Te Reo Māori phrases.

    Hopefully many of you will also find some use for them.

    iPhone 5S
    744x1392px

     

    Lock Screen

    		  
     Home Screen

    Note: I have the intention of making these for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in due course. Android users may just have to make do with the sizes that are a closest match.

    Enjoy!

  • Inherit Racism in NZ Education

    Time and time again, we are told about the ‘long tail of underachievement’ and the hideously stereotyped over representation of Māori students within it.

    And because there is a ‘problem’, it seems that everyone is solely focussed on the achievement rates of Māori students. Ministry advisors visit principals and ask how their Māori target students are doing.
    Upon visiting ERO’s website, we see that they have a new approach for accelerating Māori achievement. Their major focus on any school they visit now is ‘How effectively does this school respond to Māori students whose learning and achievement needs acceleration?’
    In addition to this, we’ve heard from the Auditor-General that the supposed answer is more data on Māori students. All of this in an attempt to address the ‘problem’.

    It amuses me that ERO state that their reason  for targeting Māori student achievement is in an attempt to achieve ‘…equity and excellence of education outcomes for all New Zealand’s children and young people.’
    In other words; by targeting and singling out the failing Māori students, we are making schools more equitable for all students.

    This itself is incredibly insulting, and does nothing but reinforce the already very presumptive notion that Māori students are failing, as well as implies that Māori students are not intelligent, and aren’t achieving.

    What began me thinking about this was this video. It is a reaction towards the racial unrest happening in the US today.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj19qIgkJUs

    It was very eye opening for me, especially when she says that there is only one race, and that is the human race. Races are just a construct that people have made to  over others.

    For years, ever since entering the classroom, I have rarely ‘seen’ the colour of my students. Obviously, some are white, like me, and others are brown; being Maori, Samoan, or other ethnicity where the pigment levels are higher than my own. But internally, in the way that I treat students, in the way I talk to them about their learning, their behaviour, their life; the colour of their skin has not even come into my consciousness. Interestingly, as I reflect on this fact – the students themselves don’t distinguish between being Māori, European, or Pasifika. They’re friends with whoever they want to be friends with; they work with whoever they want to.

    However, I’ve been made to feel bad about this. Evidently, by not noticing the colour of their skin, I am not addressing THEIR needs as a Māori student; even though I am treating them on an equal and level playing field as the many other students in my class. 

    Jane Elliot (of the prior video) illustrates why we should not say “we don’t see colour”. She has two people from a group come to the front, one white female, one black male, and asks what is the first difference the group notice. Someone says “male”, and Elliot asks if being a male is important to the man at the front. He responds appropriately. She asks if he would want others to see him as male. “Of course” he says. The next difference is his skin colour. “Is being black important to you” Elliot asks. 

    “Very important” he states.

    “And do you want others to see you as black?” 

    “Absolutely”. 

    It’s a part of who that man is. It makes up his identity; it’s part of his story of who he is, and he would want it to be valued by others just as he values it.

    We should absolutely see colour and value it as a factor in what makes up an individual’s identity; but that should have no bearing on the way that we treat them.

    Each child has their own culture, background, family situation, background, living environment, demographic, and world view (even if that has been constructed mostly by their parents and whanau at their age). Each child has their strengths, each child has their weaknesses. Being good at Mathematics, or succeeding in Reading, or creating amazing work in Writing has little to do with the colour of their skin or their whakapapa (genealogy), just as it has nothing to do with being right or left handed, which gender you are, or if you have blue or brown eyes. Intelligence, or educational achievement is not determined by the level of pigmentation that students are born with.

    No doubt; being of Māori descent has a lot more to do with a person than the colour of their skin; just as having Irish, Japanese, or African origins would as well. We’ve been told to “help Māori achieve as Māori“, and there has been endless discussion as to what this means, and what it looks like in the classroom. In a nutshell, teachers need to ensure that each child is valued for their culture. In particular, this statement refers to our Māori students. However, it is my belief that teachers already are doing this – certainly all the ones I have been in contact with over the years. Valuing a student’s culture, and treating them as important is completely independent of their intelligence or educational achievement. No matter the ethnicity, there is no evidence to suggest that a person’s culture or ethnicity has anything to do with their level of intelligence. There’s no evidence, because it simply does not exist.

    Of the many classes I’ve taught, there have been many, many students who have succeeded. Many, many of my best students (in academic regards, as well as all-round individuals) have been Māori, and despite the ongoing stereotype that they ‘should’ be struggling, have left other students, some Māori, some non-Māori, in their wake. In addition to this, many, many of my students have fallen short of the farcical ‘National’ ‘Standards’ level for their year group. Many of these students have not been Māori, and many have been girls – even though the presumption is that those that struggle most are Māori boys. Many of the best students in my class have had blue eyes, and some have had brown. Others have been left handed. And all of them have had some other random categorical anomaly that we could use to put them in a box.

    It wasn’t that long ago when children attending school were discouraged heavily from using their left hand to work. Starting back in the middle ages, left handers were believed to be of the devil, and “…discriminatory practices and attitudes against left-handers persisted well into the 20th Century. At mid-century, eminent American psychoanalyst Abram Blau was still suggesting that left-handedness was merely due to perversity and the result of emotional negativism, on a par with a child’s obstinate refusal to eat everything on its plate.”

    Yet now, it would seem completely ludicrous to begin collecting data on left handed students and pouring over their academic results in an attempt to prove or disprove their academic ability. Likewise, if blue eyed students were disproportionately making up the ‘long tail of underachievement’, then you would say that it would be a complete waste of time to begin targeting these students, over-testing them, collecting and analysing data to see what kind of teaching is going to best suit students with blue eyes. These two examples both seem ludicrous because a) they are, and b) we KNOW (or assume) that neither left-handedness or iris melanin levels have anything to do with a person’s academic potential or ability.

    maxresdefault

    So what is the solution? Well, if you can answer that, then you could probably make yourself quite a bit of money.

    All I know is that there are a myriad of things that allow students to achieve well academically.

    • Sometimes it may be their ability to focus and remain on a task.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to retain information, whether from visual (pictorial, or words), aural, or kinesthetic.
    • Sometimes it may be the support they get at home to assist with their learning, or the development and engagement they get from adults in the household.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to overcome distractions, health issues, or learning difficulties.
    • Sometimes it may be the amount of food they have to eat each day.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to deal with stress, depression, or other mental struggles.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to lead others, or work with others in collaborative ways.
    • Sometimes it may be their ability to use their own experiences to inform and make their  learning personal to them.
    • Sometimes it may be the importance or priority that education has in their family.

    Very few of these have anything to do with ethnicity. Regardless if you are left handed, blue eyed, Māori, Samoan, Irish, Japanese, African, or European, your ability to have academic success is largely based on things other than your culture or ethnicity.

    But most importantly, let’s abandon this construct of race. Regardless of who you are in New Zealand, we cannot change the past. Yes, there have been some atrocities carried out by the European’s upon arrival and colonisation – but none of them are alive today. Likewise, those that these acts were carried out against are no longer with us. Instead, it’s about time we begin moving on as one nation – together.  We are New Zealanders. We live in Aotearoa. We’re in this boat together.
    We cannot keep separating ourselves, and we cannot keep ‘targeting’ Māori students because they’re susceptible to failing. That merely provides and enables the box to keep them in – the very box we are trying to get them out of! It puts Māori in an inferior place – even if only subconsciously – and keeps them there by continuing to revisit, deliberate, collect data, analyse and otherwise pull apart every aspect of any test students sit. Instead, we need to see each student as individuals. If they need help academically, we provide them with the skills they need to hopefully succeed, regardless of their race. We value students of any nationality, ethnicity, culture, or eye colour. We consider this as an important part of each child’s character, and we use it to their advantage wherever possible. We ‘target’ the students who need help, and we celebrate the success of students, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, and eye colour.

    This essentially gets rid of the box.

    This essentially creates “…equity and excellence of education outcomes for all New Zealand’s children and young people.”

    Ki te kotahi te kakaho ka whati, Ki te kapuia e kore e whati

    Alone we can be broken. Standing together, we are invincible.

     

     

     

    Please note; as I write this, I want to maintain a very independent view. However, being of NZ/European descent, I have a certain point of view which may be different to others. I do not wish to speak for Māori when I say ‘get rid of the box’ – though I would very much assume that Māori wouldn’t want that box anyway!

    In all seriousness though, I cannot and will not speak for all people, and the views I share are my own. I am not an advocate for racism and sincerely hope that none of my statements have caused offense in regards to race. I am also not an advocate for ‘anti-racism’ or ‘reverse racism’, such as being annoyed or disgruntled at the priority placed on Māori students and not students of other ethnicities. Such a view is not helpful and shows a distinct lack of understanding of key issues relating to race and ethnicity prejudice.
    The statement of ‘Māori achieving as Māori’ has very much been difficult for me to get my head around over the years. This is mostly because I don’t see the relevance of defining a person’s culture with anything related to achievement.

    Please comment below, or get in touch with me if you would like to discuss any of the points raised, or to put me right in any of my statements.

     

  • Coding in the Curriculum

    In 2018, the New Zealand Curriculum is destined to have a new addition to its subjects.

    From the age of five, children will now be taught about coding, logic, problem solving, if-else statements, app making, social media analytics, and probably hacking as well.

    But there is a lot, a LOT, of apprehension about this, even as a techie myself (for instance – I design websites, and have coded for much of my adult life). Put it this way; I’m not jumping up and down about this announcement.

    Who?

    I don’t know about you, but the first thing I asked was who is going to do this? I have met many a good soul who dedicate their lives to teaching students, but who’s computer literacy is extremely limited.

    And while the content knowledge required to for Level 1 of the curriculum will be very basic, it still requires a great deal more teaching knowledge to be able to teach it effectively. What are students getting stuck on? What are the next steps? How do I solve the next problem?

    Take for example Level 1 of the Reading curriculum. It’s fairly straight forward. Most, if not all (fairly presumptive, I know) adults could achieve this. Now think of the teaching knowledge you would need in order to teach it effectively. The sounds, the blends, the phonics, digraphs, vowel sounds and rules around their usage, the common pitfalls and sticking points as well as the various strategies required to assist and help students to progress to level two. And that’s just scraping the surface of teaching students to read.

    Imagine the level of teaching knowledge that is going to be required to effectively teach digital literacy.

    And now take that to level two, and level three of the curriculum.

    My current estimate, based on my current place of employment and the various other schools I have worked in, would be that about 10% of teachers would have the skill set required to teach digital literacy if it was introduced tomorrow. And that 10% is probably generous. Most of what makes a good programmer, coder, or even just a ‘tech guru’ is the ability to solve problems. When something goes wrong, you need to know what to do to fix it, systematically, step by step, eliminating variables as you go. From experience, many teachers struggle to problem solve why their projector isn’t connecting, or why the sound isn’t working on their laptop. How do we then get to a place where teachers are teaching students even more complex problem solving when you introduce if-else statements that don’t work!

    Many non-tech-savvy people turn to one demographic for help. Young people. Why? Because they’re already up with the play on technology. Their desire to explore, to learn, to develop skills with technology seems to happen automagically, and I can only see teachers and schools getting in the way of that. As well as this, I read an interesting post about ‘future-proof’ learning, predicting what the future holds for our students, and how we can’t and shouldn’t be including things in the curriculum that are a phase, or a fad.

    (Note: I realise that schooling exists past primary school; but we already have specialist subject teachers at Intermediate and High School level, and so schools would merely employ a specialist ‘digital literacy’ teacher.)

    How?

    Another aspect that may or may not have been considered is how schools are going to teach it. You know, the practical side of it. You see; I’ve only once had to write down a piece of code on paper (during a Comp101 exam I took in Uni). It was nigh on impossible not being able to check and edit the code to improve it or to see if it worked. A lot of coding is trial and error.

    Essentially, if digital literacy is to be taught, then students will need devices. Doing it with pencil and paper will only last so long.

    Now I’m not sure about your school; but our decile 2 school has only just got to the point of having 1 device between 2 in the senior school, and 1 to 4 in the junior school. Yes; we can combine sets of these devices to allow every student to have access to one, but my point is, there are lots of schools out there who wouldn’t have this level of technology in their school yet.

    With more devices comes more problems. More students who run into connection issues, which in turn requires the teacher to know how to solve that problem (many of which once again, don’t know how to go about doing this on their own laptops as it is).

    When?

    Ultimately though, when are teachers going to fit this in? Or is it going to be integrated throughout the day? I guess that comes down to the individual teacher. But I know for one, I would love to spend more time teaching students how to use the Chromebooks, how to code a website, and more; but the reality is that I have a hard enough job covering the rest of the curriculum sufficiently, as well as the ever increasing demand on Maths, Reading, and Writing, without adding more to that workload.

    Gripe

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m not having a go at my colleagues or other teachers. They all have strengths and are all marvellous teachers. I merely see a massive gap between adding a subject to the curriculum and the current knowledge of those that have to deliver content about that subject. Massive gap.

    I can see my job as a tech-savvy teacher becoming more than it already is, as I can see me having to assist with other classes tech problems more than I already do, provide support for when tech devices go wrong, and provide ongoing P.D. as teachers encounter problems or inspiration that they want to explore.

    Once again – not sure when I’m going to actually get to teach my own class.

  • F03 – Read favourite books again and again

    https://youtu.be/OZjv8orVuBo

  • C04 – Retell the story in sequence

    https://youtu.be/a2NC-nA71fk

  • C03 – Monitor and Fix Up

    https://youtu.be/LAl_VVLG7b4

  • A04 – Read the sentence again and say the first sound

    https://youtu.be/oU5yNbMsxr4

  • How to use Realtimeboard in the Classroom

    Yesterday I posted about Realtimeboard, an online whiteboard I have begun using in my class to collate and collect the work that we work on together.

    Today I plan to take you through the steps for getting started, making your first board and general use of the app. I’m sure that I won’t be able to cover everything that the app can do, but hope to give you enough of a start so that you can realise for yourself the power of this software and how you might start using it in your classroom.

    Step 1. Getting Started

    I am going to assume that you’ve managed to get yourself signed up, and hopefully have managed to get approved for an educator account. If not, I highly suggest that you do. Go to realtimeboard.com/education/ and fill in the form. They actually get back to you a lot sooner than they suggest.

    Once you have signed in, you’ll be greeted by your dashboard. You may get a “What’s New” as is customary these days with these kinds of apps.

    The dashboard is relatively straight forward. You have your created boards at the top, and some demo boards below.

    Clicking on the Google inspired blue “plus” circle will create your first board.

    Realtimeboard has done well to make this app resemble any of the native Google Apps, by including “Shared with me” and “Last Opened” menu filters on the left hand side.

    At the top right, there are account links and settings options.

    Click the plus to create a new board.

     

    Step 2. The Workspace

    Navigating

    The Realtimeboard workspace is essentially an infinite ‘canvas’ or board stretching out beyond the edges of the screen. There are a few, quick tips you’ll need to know for getting around.

    1. Using the mouse roller button, or doing two finger scroll on most trackpads these days will zoom in and out from your canvas. It zooms towards or away from the position of the mouse cursor on the screen.
    2. Clicking on the canvas and dragging allows you to move around the canvas at the current zoom rate.
    3. Clicking on an object selects that object and allows you to perform different operations with them.
    4. Double clicking will centre and zoom (in or out) to fit the selected object to the whole viewport.
    5. Arrow keys also allow you to move around the canvas
    6. Esc key exits from the current operation. If you are typing text, it will go back and show the selection of the text box. Pushing Esc again will deselect the textbox. Obviously, if you’ve only selected a shape, pushing Esc once will deselect it.

    Zooming in and out allows you to get right into the little details, as well as zoom out to see an overview of your board. Using these together, especially with frames mode creates great transition animations as the viewing screen zooms in and out to fit the screen.

    Top Left

    The top left, as with many Google Apps that Realtimeboard has mimicked, includes the Title & Document Name and a Home button to return you to the Dashboard.

    In addition, Realtimeboard offers an “Export” button, which allows users to save the board off in a range of different formats. This is incredibly useful for a number of reasons and uses, such as including the board in a different document, keeping an archived version of the board, or merely just backing up. It also allows you to save it straight to your Google Drive; if you have linked your account.

     

    Tools

    Realtimeboard includes all the tools you would expect to find in such an app. Each tool even has a shortcut key which is incredibly helpful for quickly changing tool. I’ve included these in square brackets.

      The pointer tool has two options. One is the standard Select tool [V], and the other is the hand, or Pan [H], which allows users to drag the viewport around the canvas. The select tool defaults to the hand tool when clicking on the canvas background instead of an object on the board.
      The Text tool [T] brings up a standard text cursor that users can use to create text boxes on the whiteboard using click and drag
    Hello Sticky Notes [N]! This is possibly one of the cooler tools that can be used to show key bits of information, or student’s ideas and suggestions. You can post one at a time, square or landscape, or create multiple notes at once. Great for writing down different student views from around the class!
    It wouldn’t be a whiteboard without the Shape [S] tool. Gone are the days of teachers having to practise drawing perfect circles on their blackboard. Now, just select the shape and then click and drag it to the desired size on your canvas.

    You can also add text to shapes!
      The Pen [P] and Eraser [E] tools are great additions for the whiteboard. You can quickly select the desired size and then free hand draw or write onto the canvas with a selection of colours. While these are initially limited, you can also add your own custom colours from the spectrum.

    The eraser tool works really well, but only for lines drawn with the pen. It does not erase shapes for example.

     
    Comments [C] are integrated into Realtimeboard much like they are in Google Apps. You can even mention other collaborators directly. Like in Google Docs where you can assign comments to words or lines or sections, you can place comments on any part of the canvas.
       Undo [Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z] is the most used tool, and it’s no surprise that the folk at Realtimeboard have built this into their app, along with the common shortcut people will be used to.
       Lower down the tool menu, Frames [F] (which I am quite impressed with as mentioned on my overview). This tool allows you to create “pages” or “views” within the whiteboard. You can then navigate between them using the arrow keys (only when in Frames). When using this tool, you can select the size and drag it to incorporate whatever you like to appear in the ‘view’.
       Fullscreen does just that. No bells. No whistles. But quite useful none the less, especially when displaying this on an actual whiteboard.
      The last tool is the Minimap [Z], or zoom tool. This essentially allows you to return to the default zoom or size of the document, as well as showing a mini-map of your board (remembering that it could be gigantic on an infinite whiteboard!).

    Inserting Media

    The other tool is at the top of the whole list. It allows you to do a range of different things:

    • Choose a template from a range of different layouts and examples of what Realtimeboard can be used for.
    • Uploading images, files from your local computer.
    • Uploading images etc from a URL.
    • Screenshot of a webpage.
    • Recently uploaded files that you’ve already uploaded.
    • Files from the Realtimeboard Chrome Browser Extension.
    • Files from your Google Drive (if you have connected your account in settings).
    • Wireframes are great! They are a quick-select library of templates or layouts which are quick and easy to add into your board. See below for the examples.
    • Tables and Charts to give a quick visual of data or statistics is built into this app nicely.
    • IconFinder allows you to add a selection of icons to make your board more visually rich.
    • Vimeo allows you to select video from Vimeo.com.
    • Adding videos from YouTube.
    • Add images from Google Image Search.

     

    Top Right

    Once again, Realtimeboard have been smart in keeping the same kind of features they offer in the same location as Google Apps. In the top right, includes a Share button to add ‘viewers’ or ‘editors’ and ‘collaborators’. You can invite people using their email addresses, and you can set the level of privacy, from ‘Can View’, to ‘Can Comment’, and ‘Can Edit’. You can also get a ‘Public’ link that allows you to easily share it out to everyone.

    Next to the share button are the ‘Comments’ that have been made, all available in one place.

    The Information button gives you quick links to feature pages of Realtimeboard. These are not related to the document.

    The Search button does just that; searches your board for a given word or phrase.

    Other Features

    The only other feature is key to real-time collaboration with others, and that is the Chat Feature in the bottom right corner. Video Chat requires a premium account, but screensharing appears to be available – although I have yet to try this. I can imagine this might be quite useful for view only collaborators.

    The other great feature of Realtimeboard is that it automatically saves, just like Google Apps.

    3. Creating Content

    Adding Text

    One of the most common tasks you’ll want to do is adding text.

    1. Select the Text tool [T]
    2. Click on the board where you want the text to start.
    3. Start typing…

    As with most text tools, there are a number of formatting tools for use. From left to right;

    • You can choose the font size
    • Set the text as Bold, Italic, or Underlined, or a combination of all three.
    • Change the font colour, or the Fill colour. The fill colour sets the background of the text box to the colour you select.
    • Set the alignment of the text within the box, from left, centre, or right.
    • Create a bulleted list.
    • Create a link.

    Modifying Objects

    With all the objects placed on the board, the orange outline shows the object that is selected. This goes away when another object is selected, or you click off that object (or press Esc).
    The white circles around the outside of the selection allow you to change the dimensions of the box by clicking and dragging them in the appropriate direction. The corner circles allow for diagonal adjustments, and with text boxes, or if you hold down shift as you drag, these will keep the proportions as you adjust them. The circles in the middle of each outline allows for adjustment in either the horizontal or vertical direction only.
    The arrow on the end of a looped three-quarter circle allows you to rotate the object through 360 degrees.

     

    If you right click on an object, there is a drop down menu that will appear with a range of options. These are different depending on the type of object. Most of them however include the following tools:

     

    Right click menu on any object

    		  Right click menu on any image  

    Right click menu when multiple objects are selected (using Shift)

    Holding down Shift as you click on different objects allows you to select multiple objects at once. Right clicking on these selected object then allows you to group and/or align objects together, as well as other functions.

    The key menu items I use from these are definitely the ‘Bring forward’ function, or the ‘Send backward’, which allows me to put things behind or in front of other things, particularly important when adding shapes and text to work in with each other.

     

    Examples

    I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Below I’ve just put up some examples of the content our class is currently experiencing through the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme run by the New Zealand Police. I spent a bit of time after our last session going through and adding a bit of flare to the content, more to show what is possible. I’ve included a few notes about how each was created.

    Example 1

    • Square shape, dragged to rectangle, filled with black.
    • Text, text colour changed to white.
    • Text, header box given a ‘pink’ fill, text colour to white.
    • Same pink colour for down arrow (Shape).

    Example 2

    • Square shape made into rectangle, thick border, purple/blue (custom colour)
    • 4x text boxes for each numbered point. Bold first line. Examples unbolded.
    • Text header, given same fill colour as border of square. White text colour changed.
    • Post-it Note added to right hand space. Font changed on note to ‘handwritten’.

    Example 3

    • Star Shape, Yellow Fill.
    • Star shape (small), orange fill, duplicated 4x.
    • 4x text box next to each small star.
    • STAR heading. Rotated 90 degrees. Bold text.
    • S.T.A.R, bold first letter. Bring to front over top of Star shape.

    Each of these examples look like a Powerpoint slide, but these are just the tip of the iceberg of how you can create content, and then add to it to make it visually impactual for your class. Adding in frames allows you to present it like a slideshow, or simply use the Pan tool [H] to move around the content. Each of these three examples exist on the one Realtimeboard, and are visually linked by arrows that viewers can follow the lesson progression as we worked through it.

    Right. That should be enough to get your feet wet. I’m sure that you’ll get the hang of it in no time, and begin creating a variety of creative and amazing content that will engage and inspire your students.

  • Realtimeboard: The Online Whiteboard for Teachers

    So you need some whiteboard software?

    Basically, there is software that is out there that mimics a whiteboard.

    Then there’s Realtimeboard.

    Online, creative, systematic, intuitive, custom, automatic, flexible. All the things you want in many software apps. But without adding so many options that it wipes out any function.

    I’ve been using Realtimeboard for a while now, but was always limited by their “3 board for free” policy, where free account users could only create three ‘boards’. Being that I would probably prefer to have one board for each subject, or one board for each topic, or even one board per lesson, the 3 board for free policy wasn’t really going to work.

    Recently, there has been a big push (even by Apple) for schools to ‘prove’ that they are a school, in order to offer educational packages to certified education institutions. Realtimeboard recently created a ‘education’ account that educators could sign up for. Their education package includes essentially their premium features, for the free package price. You can’t complain about that!

    Features

    Six-hats

    Below are some of the features that make Realtimeboard my new app of choice:

    Online

    If you want your app to be successful, it needs to be online. No question about it. People need to be able to access it on any computer, or even, any device; phones, tablets, netbook, notebook, laptop, or desktop computer.

    Realtimeboard is exactly that. It runs from the website, realtimeboard.com, much like Google Docs does, or WordPress. And like those, it has a dashboard that you’re taken to when you log in, with a grid or list view of your ‘boards’. As mentioned, the free account allows you to create only three boards, however, with the Education or Premium plan you can create as many as you like.

    Sharing

    To spread the use of your app, there is one thing above all else that will do that. The ability to share. Google does this seamlessly with their host of apps, all tying into Gmail and user contacts.

    Likewise, Realtimeboard allows you to send your board to any email address to share it. You can set the privacy to be view only or edit – though I suspect that such users may be required to sign up to the Realtimeboard service as well – which is how they spread their product.

    Sharing, in turn, also leads to collaboration, and is a key buzzword with anyone talking about technology and teaching together.

    Google Drive

    Integrating with a larger company’s product is a must. Realtimeboard not only allows you to sign up to its services using a Google Account, but then allows you to link with your Google Drive, and use your existing Google contacts list. This makes sharing boards a lot easier, especially with those on the same domain or those who also use Google Apps (which is most teachers these days). Add to that the fact that this will also work for students on Chromebooks, and it makes Realtimeboard an incredibly powerful tool.

    Web App on Chrome

    So more and more people are using Chrome, and people are discovering that they can add Web Apps to the home screen. Realtimeboard also does this, as well as having a Google Extension that users can add to quickly copy content from webpages into a board of their choice in Realtimeboard.

    The web app itself is little more than a link to Realtimeboard.com, but it sits nicely next to your Google Apps to remind you that it’s there, waiting to be of service!

    Templates

    With Realtimeboard, you can create a blank board, or use one of numerous templates which come pre-built with different layouts, different features, and different looks and feels. With that said, I mostly use a blank template to begin with, but in time, I can see the benefit of the templates if you have a specific learning module that requires one of the layouts seen in a template.

    Presentation

    Using the ‘Frames’ mode, users can use a frame to show a progression, turning Realtimeboard into a powerful presentation tool, much like Prezi or Impress.js. Each day in a series of lessons, or each lesson in a unit over the course of a term could be ‘framed’ up and put into a selective order. This makes it very flexible and usable for more than just keeping notes, or jotting down brainstorms.

    More

    As I say, I have only just started paddling in the pool of possibilities with this app. There is no doubt a range of uses and applications for it, both in the classroom as teachers, but also for students.

    So go ahead and get signed up. Get using it. Explore a new realm of possibilities in real time.

     

    Keep an eye out for an upcoming Check out my post on this site for how to use Realtimeboard, with real screenshots of the different tools and functions that the app offers.