A Quarter of Innovation

My middle school technology wrapped up their latest Innovation Projects this past week. Since this is a semester course, it was their first round of innovating.  Since I love to showcase student work on this blog, please click the links as you are interested!

Waite used his Lego skills to create a Star Wars stop motion video. He admitted to me in the proposal stage that he was familiar with stop motion, but he wanted to learn how to edit and insert sounds.  

Kate wanted to learn about the Revolutionary War and presented that knowledge in her first ever blog. She did a great job of including pictures, quotes, and her own narrative. 

Connor has taken my class before and his first Innovation Project was a web site displaying his graffiti art.  This project was another web site about another hobby -- knife flipping.  He included videos of his tricks plus lots of text about the tricks and the history of the knife brand he uses. 

Daniel started this project with the goal of creating his own video game using C++.  It wasn't long into the project that he realized he was in over his head and we shifted the focus. He is now enjoying teaching himself Java and will eventually grow into the bigger stuff. He created a video to show off his newfound skills.

Dom is sports monster. I would not be surprised if you hear his name in college and pro ranks down the road.  He took his love of sports and created a highlight reel of our school's middle school football team.  

Drew has also taken this class. Last year, he created his own song on Garage Band.  This year, he wanted to try his hand at MineCraft. Actually, he used an app called Eden that I'm not familiar with and recreated MetLife Stadium, where the New York Giants and Jets play football. 

Sam wanted to learn MineCraft and did so by creating a pyramid with a maze inside to hide the treasure.  He ran into some troubles, mainly because he built the pyramid in the air. His final project include a few smaller pyramids around the main one, and I must say it looked great overall.

Justin also wanted to learn MineCraft and attempted to build the Empire State Building. Sadly, he learned a lot about MineCraft crashing on him.  He wound up with no final product to show us, but talked about the things he did accomplish and learn.  I tried to encourage him that sometimes bad things happen and what counts is how we learn from them. 

Jacob has had some MineCraft experience but really wanted to branch out.  He created his own working amusement park. (Keep in mind that I had a group of four students do this project last semester.)  His final presentation was a video taking us through the amusement park. The video is awesome, and I'll link it here when I finally get it uploaded to YouTube. 

Cooper walked us through a video game called Killer Instinct. Obviously, with a name like this, I was concerned about promoting violent video games within the school context. We agreed on a T for Teen version and to keep the violence to a minimum. Cooper did not want his work posted online, but he talked us through the history of the game and some playing tips, then presented a video showing us how to play the game. 

Matthew did something similar playing a game called Skyrim. His final project was to talk to us about the history of the game, show some playing tips, and walk us through a video of how to play the game (keeping the violence to a minimum).

Overall, I'm quite proud of these students for the hard work they put into these awesome projects. I hope you enjoy them.  Feel free to drop them a note on their product, or send me a message, to tell them how awesome they were!

Help! My #MineCraft Project Disappeared!

Justin has been working merrily on rebuilding the Empire State Building on MineCraft during his Innovation Project time. With one week before the due date, he came to me to tell me it's gone.

I know nothing about MineCraft, so I can't help him.  I have questions. Can you help me with answers?

• Is this typical? 
• How does this happen?
• Is it possible to retrieve his project?
• How do we fix it?

Thanks for your help! Justin thanks you for your help!

Can You Help My Student With MineCraft?

Sam's Innovation Project is to create a pyramid with a maze to Pharaoh's loot inside the maze.  He included two pictures in his update, and I'm really excited to see his final product.

However, there is a problem.  Something about the roof of the world and floating in air.  I'm quite MineCraft illiterate.  Is there anyone out there who can help Sam solve his problem? 

I ran into my biggest fear. I had made my pyramid in the sky so I could get a flat area. But the pyramid was to tall and hit the roof of the world. And it was right after I had finished the maze. I am stuck in deciding to start over or just make that a open top to look through for my presentation. 

Thank you!

Ride the Rollercoasters #GeniusHour #edtechex

My middle school Tools for Tech class decided that their 2nd quarter Innovation Project would be a MineCraft version of an amusement park.  They originally decided to recreate Kings Island (a major amusement park north of Cincinnati) but then changed their mind to create their own rides.Somewhere along the line they switched from MineCraft to Tekkit, which they tell me is a version of MineCraft.

Overall, the project seemed to go really well. They spent Fridays huddled around a laptop, planning and getting things done.  They logged on to the project at the same time at home and used Skype to communicate to each other.  A virus attacked their park toward the end and they worked together to fix the problems and recover the rides that were destroyed.

We agreed that their presentation would take me on a tour of their amusement park and put me on the rides.  I also asked them to share it with me in a way that I can share it with you.  If you have 10 minutes or so, click the video below and enjoy the rides.



I think this was a great project for a few reasons.
1. They did something they are interested in. MineCraft and amusement parks? What teenager these days doesn't love these?
2. They created. That's the point of this project to give them room and time to create something really cool.
3. They worked together.  Face-to-face interaction, working online, and talking on Skype.  They had to learn to cooperate and deal with different work ethics and schedules.

Yes, I'm proud of this one.  Nicely done, guys!

Next Up...

THIS. IS. COOL!

Yesterday, we ended one Innovation Project and today we started a new one.  The guys (I have only 4 students in my class, and they are all boys) have been asking me about doing a group project. So, today I gave them the chance to discuss it.  

We started off with a class discussion. They were all interested in the possibility, but there were concerns about group dynamics and such a large percentage of the grade being a group project.  (20% of class time = 20% of the grade) I loved how one student put it. "Working together would be more like real life."  I could not have said it better myself!

Finally they asked to be able to talk about it without me, and I joyfully stepped aside. 

They sat in a corner and brainstormed....

The conversation was all over the place.  

• Let's do a zombie MineCraft.
• Let's make a horror movie!
• Let's make Pop Tart guns. (Or maybe I didn't hear that one right.)
• Let's not do a group project.
• Let's break into two groups. 
• No, there's not enough technology in that project.
• Last year, someone made a...

I generally just sat in the back of the room and listened.  Once in a while I'd throw out a thought and watched them deal with it.  

The end product sounds really cool!

They are going to create a MineCraft version of Kings Island (our local amusement park). Keep in mind that Mine Craft is blocked at our school, so they knowingly committed to doing extra homework for me. They talked about Skyping each other from  home to discuss things and I mentioned using Google Maps for a flyover view of the amusement park. Apparently, they are going to make the rides work, and they plan on taking me on a "rollercoaster" for the final presentation.  

Now, I have no idea what the end product will actually look like, but this has potential to be my absolutely favorite Innovation Project so far!

Innovation Day!

My middle school Tools for Tech class wrapped up their Innovation Projects yesterday. Since this is a technology course, the only major stipulation is that there needed to be a tech angle to the project.

Overall, I liked their projects.  I had two music creators (GarageBand and Dubstep), one pixel art drawer, and one web designer.  Their final projects were good.  Good music. Nice graphics.  It was good for 7th and 8th grade work.

I loved that my GarageBand guy put together a Prezi for his presentation and included an Animoto video of his song.  My pixel art student did a great job of combining web building with his artwork.   There was some good work out there!

However, there is always room for improvement...

• I was discouraged that two of my four students "turned in" edit versions of their projects, not something published.  As you'll see on the links below, you'll have a hard time observing their work.
• We signed contracts at the beginning, but I think they forgot to check the contracts before they finalized things.  

You can find the projects below.  I'd love any feedback you have for me!

Max: http://dubstepo.weebly.com/index.html

Evan: http://minecraftpixelcreations.weebly.com/

Cole: http://prezi.com/isawlp1vjlff/my-inovation-project/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Mason: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1q0s3voHM2mhv8LYT7wuKZ1Ol_Dq2tYuzrJyXVhJOD6g/edit#slide=id.p

eTech -- Real Classrooms #oetc13

Perhaps the most useful session I participated in was called "The Real Classrooms of Technology," in which we videoconferenced with three teachers and their students to see how technology is being used in actual classrooms. 

I don't mind talking educational theory with people.  That's an important step in innovation.  I don't mind the occasional "preach to the choir" moments when we all nod our heads and agree with what the speaker or tweeter just said.  However, I want -- nay, I thrive on -- is to see what's really happening and working in the real world. That's what this session was all about.

The three teachers we visited we of different grade levels and curricular disciplines, and we covered a lot of ground in those classrooms.  Here are some takeaways.

• I'm a project-based kind of teacher, so it was great to see Leah LaCrosse (@llacrosse) using her iPads for PBL. When she first got the iPads, she asked, "What apps do the same thing I've always done?" That's a great place to start. 
• A good app will have multiple ways to share work.
• Write grants.  Mrs. LaCrosse and I have started tweeting (I think I sent her my first tweet while she was sharing with us in Columbus) and she told me she writes 5-7 grants a year and wins 1-3.  However, with all that work, she has gotten her hands on a class set of iPads and Lego Mindstorm software, among other things. 
• Students love using Minecraft to learn. Mike Pennington (@professormike1) is using Minecraft as a way for students to build a Medieval world -- learning about the Middle Ages.  Get this... Minecraft is blocked at their school.  Students are voluntarily doing this at home.  That's awesome!
• Mr. Pennington works closely with two other teachers (one across the hall, the other in another district).  They Skype just about every evening, create flipped classrooms together, and even have their students collaborate together.  It's common for kids to communicate with students in the other school just like they are collaborating with a group member sitting next to them.
• Students use Weebly to create their own sites and keep information there.
• "I can't possibly be an expert on it all." More and more, I see that the teacher can't pretend to be the source of knowledge.  We have to point students to other sources when we don't know it. 
• Jim Harmon (@jimharmon) simulates Twitter so students can tweet Shakespeare. This puts students in the character and causes them to digest what the characters are thinking and feeling. 
• "Subtext is an eReader on steroids." Mr. Harmon uses Subtext with students in small, flexible groups as they read. 
• All three classes were highly collaborative.  Cooperative learning was a major theme in the session.  Teachers may have used some direct instruction, but there was a lot of student interaction.

Here are other apps/software referenced during the session that I may not have mentioned above:

• CargoBot: Teaches students how to write code. 
• Tinkerbox: An app that enables kids to explore the laws of Physics. 
• Google Docs
• Edmodo
• Keynote
• Todaysmeet: A great backchannel site where students can pose questions or submit responses. 
• Wordflick

Thanks to each of these teachers for sharing their work with us and contributing to helping us be excellent.

eTech 13 - Overview #oetc13

I had the privilege of spending two days this week attending the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in Columbus, OH. For two days, I was totally immersed in educational nerdom, both live and on Twitter, and loved it!  Over the course of the next few days, I'll debrief myself via Blogger and hopefully share some great insights with you as well.  For now, I have some quick hits before I go prep myself for classes today.

• Innovate or become an afterthought. Like it or not, technology is changing the way education is being done. Schools, administrators, and teachers need to learn how to innovate with the times to stay on top of the technology.  The way we did school is obsolete.  How can use technology to be relevant?
• You have to meet students where they are to reach them. I'm slowly starting to see that I can reach students better through gaming than I can through text. I'll get into this more later, but teachers have students building Mine Craft games, I am piloting a word game to teach Tier 2 Vocabulary, and I'm going to look into a game building software for my middle schoolers. No longer can I expect them to meet me in my world and my vocabulary; I at least need to appear to meet them half way.
• Sometimes the best way to learn is to connect to others. I'm happy to say that I walked away from this conference having started conversations with other educators, and I hope that this networking will lead to learning on both sides of the email or tweets.  I even got a bit geeked out when I got to sit next to one of my favorite presenters and tweeters.  It's about connecting with each other and sharing what works and doesn't work.
• Be very very careful what you post online. I'll get more into this later, but I saw first hand how dangerous it is to be online. In this age when nothing is private, we have to be careful to protect our privacy... and to teach our students to do the same.
• I really like sushi.  I've never had sushi before, but one of our school's vendors sprung for a huge sushi dinner for a few of his clients.  I. could. not. stop. eating. sushi.  Wow! 

That's it for now.  I have to prep for my classes.  Maybe I'll write more later today.