Quizlet Diagrams - revise knowledge with clever visuals

Quizlet remains as one of those Swiss Army knife style apps that you end up repurposing and going back to time and time again. Last year it got a significant revamp with the Quizlet Live game feature and now there is a clever addition called Quizlet Diagrams.

In essence using Quizlet is a perfect approach to get students to revise new terms or develop and broaden their vocabulary. In Economics I want student to use the appropriate terms and words to explain the nuances of complicated concepts and models. For instance we want our students to confidently use the term 'appreciation' rather than trying to just say that a currency has gone 'up' In my experience Quizlet is a pretty good tool to help develop this basic knowledge.

The new diagrams tool goes further adding a really clever visual layer. You can pin a term to a specific part of the diagram and then the students use the match or learn tools to revise which term matches which part.

How do I use?

• You need to sign up for a free Teacher account with your GApps account
• Search the diagrams examples for your subject
• Duplicate an existing set of flashcards or create to start a fresh
• Drag a screenshot or image into Quizlet
• Use the pin icon to add terms.

Are there examples I can look at?

There are lots of really clever examples already created and available online. You can share any of these with your students by posting the link into our Online Learning Platform (Teamie)

Have a go and test yourself first !

1. Biology Cell Structure Diagram
2. Soil Layers Diagram - Science and Geography
3. Match the European Country
4. Spanish Vocab - el desayuno (what's for breakfast I think :)

How do students access?

You can copy the link directly from Quizlet and send this to your students with the Online Learning Platform (Teamie) The two best modes from students to practice diagrams are Learn Mode or Match Mode.

Learn mode is very clever and randomly gives students either match or multiple choice questions based on the set of flashcards you have created and it helps students track which ones they find easy and those which are harder. Match mode is probably the best supported to diagram and give the students a random challenge based on the flash cards you have added to a diagram. See below

via GIPHY

Passwords - @re y0urs awes0me or awfu1?

The longer the password, the harder it is to 'guess.' But the easier it is to type incorrectly...

Many systems require passwords to be at least 8 characters and include at least one capital letter and at least one number.

Of course nobody would write their password down on paper, or in their organiser... Would they? DON'T write it down, but it is a good idea to type all of your account passwords et cetera somewhere safe, and easy to access, maybe a draft email? A private Google Doc? A note on your PIN protected phone?

Use a Master Password

A master password is short simple word that contains a capital letter and at least one number, you use this in ALL your passwords, just adding on an extra word (or even 2?) that relate to the different accounts you use.

For example let's say my master password is Koala, turn the o and the l into numbers - K0a1a. Now when you create a new account, let's say to use here at UWC, my new password would be K0a1aUWC. Easy. 

Now apply that to other accounts you use, eg:

K0a1ahotmailhome

K0a1ayahoo
K0a1agmailwork

K0a1afacebook

K0a1atumblr

This way you avoid using the same password for everything, but in a way, it also is one password for everything. Nice.

Obviously keep your master password top secret—a note on your (PIN protected) phone? And just in case someone does get a peek at your list of passwords over your shoulder, don't type out all the characters, just create an an obvious clue to you, but not to anyone else, example:

Skype username: thingummywhatsit

Password: Master/Dad's dead dog: K****P****3!

As you use your Mac password to unlock your Mac probably 20 times a day, (or, you should be) it might make sense to use the master password on its own, to make things easier. You will be using it a lot, so you will be able to touch type it in no time.


View the Prezi below for the ultimate guide, and use this with a class to guide students through the process of creating their own secure passwords, note that is plural!

Passwords; are yours awe50me or awfu1? on Prezi


When you use the change password feature in Google (at school or at home) this also updates the school password.

Here's the link: https://webapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/chgpwd/Login.aspx

Top Tips

Use a master password, and combine that with other words for different accounts.

If you speak a language other than English (LOTE) that is perfect for words to make a password that will be harder to hack, if the language doesn't use the roman alphabet, you can use phonetics to adapt it, eg namaste, kimchee, shalom, you get the idea.  

Brainstorm a 'collection' of passwords you can cycle, use, reuse.

• Maybe places you love, 
• OLD phone numbers? 
• The first line of an address of a member of your family, eg Grandad? 87Sn0dberrylane
• A deceased pet? 
• A member of your family’s middle name? Grandparents first name? 
• An obscure town village you know well, eg How about ba11yki55ange1?

Then combine two of these to make a much tougher password, ideally words that are NOT in the dictionary, but definitely words that are not related, eg mine+craft!

Create an online (eg, in Google Drive/Dropbox/Draft eMail) private document to record these, type these with asterisks and one character clue, eg *****3t***3* to indicate character count, and a clue as a prompt, eg, My Dad's dead dog and cat.

That way if anyone does read your document, it's still no use to them, but still very useful to you.

Substitute numbers for letters that look similar. The letter ‘o’ becomes the number ’0′, l = 1, 5 = S, eg p455w0rd!

Substitute random character like: ! = i, $ = S, @ = a, and of course ? at the end.

Use something that will not change, because it is in the past, eg NOT your 'best friend'.

Posting tips for better formative assessment

The Online Learning Platform in Middle and High School is our key tool to both share resources and communicate with students.

The post option has lots of hidden tricks allowing you to collect student responses, develop polls for students to vote on or share Google Docs. Have an explore through the slides below for examples to explore and try with your class.

Report Writer

Everyone knows that writing reports is one of the highlights of every teacher's academic year, and while this may be hard to believe, adding technology to the mix can make this delightful experience even more rhapsodical, efficient, pithy, oratory, and timely (see what I did there?).

Here's a couple of report writing tools that may be of interest...

https://schoolreportwriter.com/ is not going to win any prizes for web design any day soon, but it's free and it does what is says on the tin:

http://www.reportcommentbank.co.uk/

A small group of teachers and put this system together a few years ago to make report writing less hassle for themselves and their colleagues.

You can access it straight from a Chrome App (free on the Chrome App store) as well

The free version allows you to:

• Create reports 
• Create your own comments
• Edit comments
• Access shared comments

Of course there are lots of other great features available of don't mind paying £10 a year ($20 SGD) for them.

They have really impressive range of comments.

Google Sheet Report Writer

This Google Sheet is very handy, make a copy and tweak to your purposes. The reports it generates require very little tweaking to get right, and many teachers have used it and attest to its effectiveness. It's not as polished as the other tools here, it doesn't come with built in comment banks, but... it is free, easy to use, and easy to use as a team, as everyone can collaborate on building the comment bank and then make copies to use with their own classes! 

Tips

Some common errors - even with British spelling, spell program when referring to a computer program  (not programme) we all use the American spelling, because they invented it!

ICT (Information Communication Technology), ICTs or 'digital technologies' is preferred over IT, IT is the engineering, the workings of the machine, the engineering, and coding, whereas we are really only concerned with the use of the machine, for communicating understanding , the C , in ICT.

Avoid using the term 'technology' to refer to ICT, although it is commonly used as a shortening of the full 'Information Communication Technology' it makes the mistake of assuming that all technology is digital, which it is not, ask any engineer, or maybe even Google:

technology

• the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.
• machinery and devices developed from scientific knowledge.
• the branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied sciences.

Digital Approaches to Activating Prior Knowledge

In our staff meeting we explored ways that technology can really enhance our ability to activate and assess prior knowledge and to introduce concepts. We all have approaches to pre-assess students understanding some of which involve technology.

There are specific digital tools when used a part of our repertoire can amplify the process of activating knowledge. In clever ways they help assessment, monitor, track and provide the data to help us differentiate learning in the face-to-face classroom. Overtime we should be comfortable with the following and use them to help assess and support differentiation.

• Teamie Discussions - tutorial and examples
• EdPuzzle and YouTube - tutorial
• Padlet - tutorial and example
• Google Forms and self-marking - tutorial

If you teach Maths there is an amazing range of specific adaptive tools at your fingertips. (MangaHigh, Khan Academy, My iMaths) 

First steps:

We all provide students with materials to look over before class, such as unit pages in Teamie, chapters of a textbook or to watch a YouTube video. We also use formative assessment tricks at beginning of lessons such as questioning, mini-whiteboards to connect back to prior knowledge.

Isnt this enough?

Well, yes but with a few tweaks if can be significantly amplified. If we want students to be watch a video or to read an article we should be setting them some questions to focus their thinking.

Technology can really help with this process by letting you

• Track and monitor if students have actually watched or read the material
• Automate collecting responses from the students
• Help you see a collated view of responses and flip between questions or students.

Challenges and thoughts:

Timing:

A few table groups spoke about the timeliness of pre-assessments. If you really wish to differentiate you need adequate time to analyse how students have performed.  For instance if you are beginning to explore a new concept, students can engage with a homework task in the days prior but does this give you time to modify what you were planning to do?

Participation:

Suppose instead of having a mini-lesson during class time explaining a concept, that you record yourself with a document camera and have students engage with this ahead of class. What if only half of the students look at the resource? Do you repeat yourself or split the class into groups. Overtime I would suggest that students understand why you are exploring this approach and help them see it as part of the routine and to be prepared. We also need to do something in the first part of the class that explicitly refers back to the homework and references the prior knowledge so they understand how it connects to the learning. If they come to class prepared and yet that work is not referenced by the teacher they will be less willing to do the pre-assessment next time.

Time: 

To be organised in advance and to preset some homework preparation requires some effort. If you also want to create your own material to support the course it can be extremely time consuming.

• Start with using a Teamie post to ask a simple question about a resource. This can be a virtual plenary to your lesson. Lock the comment if you don’t want students to see each others comments and then unlock when class begins and get them to read or reply to each others responses.
• Take an existing good resource or video and repurpose using EdPuzzle.
• If the approach works explore making your own resource. Try a screencast on your mac using Quicktime, or borrow a document camera to record a mini-lesson.

Presentations - click to end to see department ideas

21st Century Spelling

Spilling had never bin maw impotent

Spelling has never been more important, as my example above attempts to illustrate. In an age dominated by screens, misspelling is tantamount to an admission of idiocy—but the way we teach spelling needs to evolve to take advantage of the unique affordances and challenges of spelling in a screen environment. Please note that none of the words in the title are actually misspellings, but mistakes they are, and a right twazzock you will look if you spell in a way that is overly reliant on proofreading tools as a safety net. It's time we took account of the fact that in a world where screens are ubiquitous, the ways we teach spelling needs to evolve to take advantage of the unique affordances and challenges of spelling in a screen environment.

These days the likelihood of interacting via text with others in a digital environment is commonplace. Even more critical, people who misspell in these environments are generally assumed to be less intelligent, less articulate, and despite their possible intelligence/experience, any perspective they offer is then likely to be dismissed or demeaned if it is littered with misspellings.

It has never been more important to master the ability to spell correctly. 

Unfortunately most schools, despite the criticality of spelling in the 21st-century, still rely on 19th century strategies to teach spelling. This really does need to change. So, with that in mind...

Critical considerations:

1. Children (and adults) can only spell words they know, sounds obvious, but so many of the spelling lists that are used with students contain words they do not know, so could not possibly be able to spell, other than through guesswork, which leads us to... The corollary to this is the simple fact that the skill of knowing or suspecting that a spelling is wrong is an essential aspect of learning how to spell, especially in a world where checking a spelling is as easy as 'searching it up' in Google, or just asking your smartphone to spell it for you. 
2. There is a much greater validity to the skill of being able "guesstimate" in a TELE (technology enhanced learning environment), and ‘phonological awareness’ is more essential than ever, as an accurate phonetical estimation is relied on by computers to substitute for a correct spelling. A student who cannot phonetically 'approach' a word is unlikely to be able to approximate something that a computer can correct. Related to this is the critical importance of being able to spell the first half of a word correctly, most modern computing devices can now auto complete a word if a student is able to spell the first half of it correctly. Apple's 'QuickType' in iOS 8, and apps like "SwiftKey" utilise this approach very effectively, and the power of Dictation (speech to text) has never been greater, but it will still struggle with homophones (same sound different spelling and meaning). An alternative approach in a traditional 'spelling test' context is to award 2 marks to each word, one mark for being able to spell the word phonetically correctly, or for spelling the first half correctly, and 2 marks if the word is perfect. 
3. Stop using spelling tests for whole classes with lists of words, this is a nonsensical approach, considering the sheer quantity of words in the typical English dictionary, somewhere in excess of 400,000 words. The words that children learn should be unique and curated from their own literacy life, related to their own writing, reading and speaking, and viewing and listening experiences, or related to specific vocabulary that they are using/used will need to use.
4. Wordlists curated by students should be seen as a source of vocabulary expansion, not just for spelling. Becoming a personal thesaurus/glossary that they should review regularly when writing to enhance the richness of their prose; use it or lose it.
5. Listening matters just as much than looking (Riesenhuber, 2013). If you can see the word before you spell it, then you're not learning how to spell, you're practising short term recall. Listening is also essential for checking spelling, now computers have the option to speak any word you can type, select the word and have the computer read it out loud, is this the word you were trying to spell?
6. Less reliance upon "spelling rules" which are very rarely consistent, and in many cases can lead to a great deal of confusion. Like when students are asked to note the position of a certain vowel in a word and its impact upon other vowels or consonants within that word, also using acrostics like 'big elephants can always understand...' you get the idea, and of course they only work for one word… Instead focus on more reliance on building familiarity with the way words look and the way words sound, so 'look say cover write check' still works well as a useful skill/drill practice, (or better still: listen say type look) but with fewer words, more often. This is strongly related to the student's reading life as a synergetic enabler in their spelling life. This becomes a context where students are encouraged to see words as 'friends' and building a large community of 'familiar faces' ie, the more they see these words the more likely they are to be able to spell them, or arguably just as important in the 21st-century, to recognise when the word is not spelt properly, ‘it just doesn't look right'. We see words like faces? Yes, believe it or not, this is exactly what neuroscience (McCandliss et al, 2003) has taught us, more on that phenomenon below... 
7. Skill drill tasks (practise makes permanent) should also be related to an activity that reinforces their comprehension of the meaning of the word, so ideally students should also invent (not copy) a sentence that uses the word, or even better, more than one of the words in the same sentence, that clearly demonstrates that they can use the word/s with an understanding of it/them. After all, what is the point of learning how to spell a word if you don't know how to use it? For some students it might be better for them to make an oral recording of them speaking the sentence rather than writing a sentence, if the writing is a challenge to reluctant writers, as the focus is on understanding meaning, and oral recall can be just as effective for building meaning, this is especially important with homophones.
8. More recognition of the kinds of spellings that are particularly tricky in a screen centred writing environment, this means a greater emphasis on distinguishing between words with similar sounds and different patterns, homophones, homonyms, homographs and heteronyms.
9. Making smarter use of digital tools to facilitate this kind of practice, while spelling games that are built on skill drill using pre-set wordlists are useful, but you should also encourage spelling drills that are built on individually curated wordlists. However these kinds of Apps are not very common, but at least one that does this very well is Squeebles SP, more on this below...
10. Use any text app or word processor to spell check, before using a teacher. This could be a simple as a notes app on a mobile device, this will enable students to check spellings without the tedium of using a dictionary. Then a far more appropriate use of teacher time is to review spellings for careless mistakes, or more likely mistakes resulting from misconceptions about phonetics/word structure, especially spellings that alter the meaning of a sentence. Students need to be empowered to build habits of capturing/collecting words that they know, but cannot spell in their curated lists. The point is, it is better for the student to attempt to type the word in a text application and have the computer suggest corrections than it is for them to try and search for it in a dictionary. While the latter is still helpful, the former is a better cognitive process for learning the spelling of a word, and is also more relevant/likely as an activity or skill set in the 21st-century. Very few adults look up words in a dictionary, most rely on the prompt given by the computer in a word processing environment. Even better, if this list is 'situated' or cloud synced (Google Doc, iCloud Notes) they can access, add to and augment that list from home or school. 
11. Encourage students to learn how to use the "define:" search term in Google, effectively turning any Google search window into a handy Dictionary, eg - define:magnificent
12. Digital technologies are changing which words are traditionally understood to be "tricky" words/sneaky spellings… so for example any word typed in a text environment will automatically switch the 'ie' in a word like receive. These old-fashioned spelling rules just further complicate matters. “I before e except after c” works for only a handful of words. It has so many exceptions (like the words “science”, “sufficient”, “seize”, “weird” or “vein”) it is another rule and laborious chore we could do without.

Don't teach, facilitate

Neuroscience over the past decade* reveals fascinating insights into the way our brains learn words. Studies indicate that we use the same parts of brain (both left and right) to process face recognition that we use to process word recognition. So much so in fact, that as we move from early childhood into adulthood and become more proficient in word recognition, our capacity to recognise and process faces is diminished—such is the veracity of the connection. 

The parts of our brain (The Visual Word Form Area) that recognise and process faces are the same parts that recognise and process words. This emphasises the fact that spelling is primarily visual and aural, so a rote learning, rule based model is less effective than building an awareness of the unique formation of every word through familiarity, not drilling lists.

Even more fascinating, the VWFA area, "when volunteers listened to spoken sentences, all their brains showed similar responses." When we read, we recognise words as pictures and hear them spoken aloud, we literally “hear” written words in our head (Dehaene & Cohen, 2011).

Words are fundamentally processed and catalogued by their basic sounds and shapes, through visual and aural practice. Think of the way we learn to recognise faces, and pronounce words—certainly not by processing and practising lists of them, we learned them through exposure, and continued feedback, and it just so happens that screens are ideal for immediate, context specific feedback, in way that spelling on paper can never hope to provide. Provide lots of opportunities for students to learn how to spell through this kind of exposure, not through drilling them in lists that have little or no relevance to their own reading, writing, listening or speaking experiences. 

Squeebles Showcase

Squeebles Spelling - multimodal drill and practice

I'm not usually one to emphasise a tool, but from time to time a tool emerges that has affordances that are ridiculous to ignore, Squeebles Spelling is one of those. Digital tools like Squeebles can transform spelling practice by making traditional equivalents pale in comparison, consider the following:

Flexibility

Click to see Squeebles in action in 2BSc! 

Kids can 'masquerade' as a parent or teacher to curate their own lists, careless errors are mitigated by the built in spell check—obviously this feature is not activated when they are actually practising! Alternatively, there are a wide range of built in word lists to choose from that cater to all skill levels.

Multimodality and meaning

It's not enough to spell a word, they need to know how it sounds and understand the meaning. In Squeebles kids can record the sound of the word, as well place it in a sentence, eg "Pear. I like the taste of a pear better than an apple. Pear." Better still make it fun by having the kids make up silly sentences, as long as it shows they understand the meaning anything goes! This makes the activity aural and oral - this way the kids say the word, hear the word, and see the word. 

Immediate feedback - differentiated

No need to wait for a teacher to collect in all the spelling tests, then wait a few days to get them all back, even then, actually acting on the spelling errors is a chore, never mind tracking these over time. Squeebles provides immediate feedback, but even better keeps a record of any errors in a collection called 'Tricky Words' that reflect the words that this individual is struggling with.

Motivation

Last and maybe least, Squeebles 'gamifies' the successes into mini games, so kids feels a tangible sense of reward, over and above the real reward—improved spelling.

Further reading

http://doverliteracy.blogspot.sg/2014/09/individualised-spelling-practice.html

http://mrsevonsthirdgrade.blogspot.sg/2014/08/words-thier-way-spelling-11-classroom.html

http://smartblogs.com/education/2014/02/03/5-reasons-to-teach-spelling-handwriting-in-the-new-year/

A summary of the neuroscientific research is available here, with links to the original sources.

Chevillet, M. A., Jiang, X., Rauschecker, J. P., & Riesenhuber, M. (2013). Automatic phoneme category selectivity in the dorsal auditory stream. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(12), 5208-5215.

Dehaene, S., & Cohen, L. (2011). The unique role of the visual word form area in reading. Trends in cognitive sciences, 15(6), 254-262.

McCandliss, B. D., Cohen, L., & Dehaene, S. (2003). The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus. Trends in cognitive sciences, 7(7), 293-299.

iPads, Radiation & Airplane Mode

From time to time articles or videos appear with alarming headlines that connect mobile devices with harmful effects on children. It is of course completely understandable that parents become concerned when they see these things. The College places the safety and well being of our students above all other considerations and we monitor official advice around all aspects of safety that affect our students. Most recently, a video has been circulating among our parents about the possible harmful effects of radiation from mobile devices like iPads.

When looking at any health or safety issue we need to make careful decisions about where we gather our data from. In this day and age it is an easy process for an individual to present a specific viewpoint and to easily spread that message via the Internet. We also need to bear in mind that there are reasons for people and organisations to do this other than a genuine concern for public welfare. An article with a dramatic headline or video with lurid claims, attracts traffic and that traffic can generate revenue from advertising for example.

As an example of how individual sources can easily contradict each other, consider this Forbes article and this article from Wired Science, which both offer a strong counterpoint to the video mentioned previously.

The underlying issue here is, given that individual representations or newspaper articles are not necessarily reliable or often contradictory, where does the College look for direction?

Two places:

• Large bodies of collated research, generally called meta-analyses
• Expert advice from leading health authorities such as Ministries of Health and the World Health Organisation

We are not aware of any large body of research that shows a causal link between mobile device usage and radiation that result in any negative impact on people’s health. Furthermore there is currently no advice from any world health body that we are aware of that advises that children be protected from such radiation emitted by wireless devices such as iPads.

We take this issue seriously and monitor the medical advice from recognised institutions around this issue. The welfare of the children in our care is paramount to us and we will respond appropriately in the event that the advice from the leading health authorities changes at any point.

As a college we understand why parents might have concerns about the potential negative effects of using mobile devices after watching videos like the one linked above. A parent's concern for their children's welfare is of course understandable, but please rest assured that we take this issue seriously and monitor the medical advice from recognised institutions around this issue. The welfare of the children in our care is paramount to us and we will respond appropriately in the event that the advice from the leading health authorities changes at any point.


Here are some further points that may be helpful in setting the overall context:

Screen time

The actual percentage of the school day our students use these devices is relatively small. A common misconception is that the provision of a device per child increased the amount of time our children spend using a device, but that is not why we have 1:1 devices. We use 1:1 devices so it is easier to manage student content, and so students don't accidentally delete the work of other students, for more about this please see this post.

Students certainly never use the devices in close proximity to their heads, which is one basis of the research that makes claims about damaging radiation from mobile devices, nor do our iPads contain mobile SIMs that generate GSM frequencies.

Airplane Mode

Having the College iPads in Airplane mode is not practical. We rely on wireless connectivity to manage and monitor these devices, as well as to share children's learning with parents via platforms like Seesaw. This will also have a minimal impact on the overall amount of waves in the air, given the large number of services being beamed around the island to support mobile phones, wireless, television, etc.


Ben Morgan & Seán McHugh