Ever feel like you're talking to the walls. Let the walls talk to YOU for a change!

This blog post finds me buried deep in the process of learning how to explore and harness Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for pedagogical purposes. I was first exposed to the idea of augmentation a few years back, and got REALLY excited about it (like I do about everything new), but after playing around with it, decided that it was just too fiddly and complicated. Since then, different apps and opportunities have been developed, and this exciting option for the classroom is getting more accessible all the time!

"Wallame"  is one of the simple apps that can be used in location-based learning, to spice up a task, get students to work together, actively and interactively. It really is easy, but dependant upon a few things:

1) Participants have to install the app. (Having said that, if you get people working in groups, only one has to actually install it)


2) You have to be AT the location: both for devising the activity AND participating in it. (Which is actually something I love about it because it gets the students OUT of the classroom and INTO the world.) 

3) Good Wifi is a definite advantage (if not - a good, fresh Internet package).   


Using walls, signs, artwork, anything that is tangible and in a specific location, you build a virtual layer needs to be discovered. The virtual layer of information will seem to appear on the wall when scanned. The virtual layer can be a message for a Treasure Hunt, another picture, or any digital object.  Here's how it works:

1) Install the app. (Be sure that your GPS is open)

2) Click on the + to make a new Wall,

3) Take a picture of the object upon which you want to embed another layer of information. 

4) Add either text (as I did here) or a picture (with or without text), or draw something! Then save it. 

5) Have participants search for the "Walls" around them. 

                             

Yesterday, for example. I used it in the Museum for Eretz Yisrael in a fascinating anthropological, historical exhibit about Tattoos in different societies throughout the ages. We had to make up a sample Wall, in order to experiment with the tool. While in the museum I remembered a fantastic story about a TOI blogger I follow (Sarah Tuttle-Singer) and her story of how she got a tattoo. Low and behold, the tattoo artist who performed the body art on her, was shown in the exhibit! So with my team, we prepared a Wallame leading participants to Sarah, and to find the connection between her and tattoos through reading her blog post. If you go to the museum, you are invited to seek it out and tell me what Sarah's metaphor for mermaids is!

Use Wallame for a Treasure Hunt, or a fun way to review a topic taught, or as a trigger for a new topic! The hard part is thinking about how it can help  YOU liven up your teaching. The EASY part is making it, with Wallame!  :-)

So! What are YOUR ideas for using this tool? Download and sign up for the app. Play around with it. Share your ideas below!

Digitally yours!

@dele

United we Sit: Embarking on a journey of cross-lingual teacher collaboration

After months of dreaming, planning, talking, thinking, wishing and hoping: it finally happened! The Start up Event for a new GEG IL (Google Educators Group of Israel) for Teachers of Languages. The kick off was in Google Tel Aviv, but the continuation will be regional. (Because what isn’t accessible, isn’t sustainable).

I am an English teacher. I am also a kibbutznik. Both of these roles afford me inspiring opportunities to work together with others, to build something that is bigger than me, letting me rediscover daily that : “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” (Phil Jackson)

While psyching myself up to write this blog post, I went hunting for definitions and quotes about collaboration. I especially liked the third definition given by my Ole’ Faithful Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Because that is basically the essence of what we are trying to do in our spanking new GEG IL (Google Educator Groups of Israel). “...to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected.” Therein lies the spark, the innovation, the brilliance from which we can all benefit.

English teachers are a great bunch of professionals when it comes to collaborating. We have ETAI and ETNI, as well as a gazillion facebook pages, and we are probably the largest group of professionals who teach any one language in Israel. Even larger than Hebrew teachers! (I figure this because English is mandatory from 3rd - 12th grades, as well as passing a proficiency test in any institue of higher learning in this country.) Other languages are far less prevalent and have a much smaller critical mass of teachers with whom they can collaborate.

Concepts, skills and tools used for teaching a language often cross the lingual barriers, and so my dream for the past few years has been to encourage teachers of all languages in Israel to share their tools, experiences, insights especially on the digital front! The Internet and digital technology are giving birth to new apps and tools on a daily basis. No one can possibly know them all. There is always so much to learn - so why shouldn’t we learn from and with each other?

Of course the www enables collaboration to all those who wish to reach out to teachers of their own language - experts even - from all over the world. But sometimes nothing beats being in the same room at the same time with the people with whom you are collaborating.

The people at Google recognize this fact, which is why GEGs are popping up all over the world. I had the great privilege to be among the 50 or so educators who participated in the very first Google Teachers Academy in Israel in 2011. I can say in all honesty that it was a life altering experience. Despite the fact that  such GTAs are few, teachers can still experience the magic without attending a rare academy! The GEGs are able to bring Google to the teachers. Independently, we will be able to devise our OWN agendas, seek our own directions, provide for our own needs!   

And so, GEG for Teachers of Languages was conceived. (The "teachers of other languages" being the "agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected".) But, essential to its success is its accessibility. GEGs need to take root all over the country. Luckily, I have found some other first followers, who were willing to go out there on a limb and not leave me to be the lone nut prancing around. (If the reference is lost on you, you MUST watch this.) Because “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Together with Leah, Irit, Rania and Hanan and with the encouragement and support of Bar - the head nut GEG IL - we brainstormed, hoped, planned, discussed  and built our way. Joined by approximately 40 teachers of languages (English, Hebrew, Arabic and French) from around the country, who travelled - some for hours- battling the weekend Tel Aviv traffic after a long day at work, we held our gala Start up Event at the Google Campus on Thursday November 10th! (40 more first followers…. I’d say we’re a Movement! :-)

The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other. —Thomas Stallkamp

The evening began with a short intro and then we dove directly into “tasters”. We set up four activities at four different tables in the Hackspace of the Google Campus. Leah’s table was all about context. Rania took playdough and, using an animation app, made a movie which was shown to participants before the evening was over! Irit introduced participants to the coolness of Quizlet Live and I shared the addiction of the Google Translate Community Competition with my participants. The participants divided up into the different groups, and after 8 minutes, moved on to the next activity.

 

The excitement in the air was palpable, and it was clear that people wanted more. We then moved into the Small Space where teachers were asked to write on  post-its what they wanted from their own communities , and then to respond to others’ ideas.

  

Each of the regional leaders spoke a few minutes about themselves and the regional group they were dreaming of. Bar (our GEG IL mentor) provided the bigger picture of GEGs in Israel and abroad, and Yael (Education Head of Google Israel)also shared a few words. Rania screened the clip she had made earlier in the evening, with participants of her Creative Flexibility activity!

Time on the 34th floor flew by and in the end, we left excited, invigorated and Googled up to our eyeballs, happy to meet new colleagues from different languages and in anticipation of regional meet ups of teachers of languages with a passion for teaching and digital pedagogy.

We are finally organizing  teachers of of all and any language in Israel to share, explore, innovate and learn how to harness the power of the digital tools we all have at our fingertips, to further our teaching goals. So please share this with colleagues who teach EFL as well as other languages, join our new FB group, and find (or build!) a GEG IL for Teachers of Languages near you!!!

We're in this together, and if we united and we inter-culturally cooperated, then that might be the key to humanity's survival. —Jeremy Gilley, TEDTalks lecture

If you're interested in finding out more about our GEG IL and how YOU can participate (or lead!) please fill in this form.

It's FUN to be WINNERS!!!! (Especially when EVERYBODY wins!)

Last spring, I launched a pilot competition for bringing Google Translate into the language classrooms in Israel. The innovation was sparked by a request I received from the Google Education Lead in Israel, +Yael Doron Drori . She asked if I could think of a way to get students involved with the tool which Google had devised in order to gamify the process of gathering translations. The aim is to improve the ability of Google Translate to provide more accurate translations when used when translating between English and Hebrew, and English and Arabic. 

Google Translate needs help because the translations between English and Hebrew, and English and Arabic just aren't good enough. The reason for that is the lack of a critical mass of online webpages which Google needs in order to develop accurate translations. Relative to more common languages, such as English, or Spanish, there is a much smaller quantity of webpages and digital online content in both Hebrew and Arabic. Although Arabic is spoken far more widely than Hebrew, much of the Arabic speaking population is not online. Another barrier to quality translation for Arabic, which I just discovered after meeting our group of winners, is that the Arabic used on the web is mostly literary Arabic, and the great need  for translation, is for spoken Arabic.

So I sent out a call to ALL teachers of languages in Israel - but mostly to teachers of English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian, to join us in our efforts to make a difference in the abilities of Google Translate, by having their classes participate in a competition. The first place prize: a fun visit to Google Israel!

51 classes from around the country registered in last spring's competition. The overwhelming majority were English classes where the students' mother tongue was either Hebrew or Arabic. The timing was VERY problematic. It was May - the season for many missed lessons (Holocaust Remembrance Day, Independence Day, English Matriculation....) and only 8 of those classes made it to the finish line.  I ran a website dedicated to the competition, which was the hub of it all. It included the submission forms for registering, for keeping track of the class' achievements, anecdotes and teaching ideas that participating teachers shared, as well as a weekly Leader Board to keep participants informed and to spice up the motivation! 

Do you know what happened? Google San Francisco called Google Israel and told them that they were OVERWHELMED with translations from our groups: both English/Hebrew and English/Arabic! They knew we were running this competition but HUGELY underestimated the results! During the month in which when we ran the competition, Google Translate received 50 times as many translations as they would normally receive! In other words: OUR Arabic and Hebrew speaking students have already made an impact on the world!

ALL of the classes that stuck it out until the end, were sent SWAGs with the Google icon on them. The class that had the highest number of  submissions per student, won a fun morning with a visit to Google Offices, presentations by Google Ninjas and a tour of the coolest spots in the Google Tel Aviv offices! 

And THAT took place LAST WEEK!!

Last Thursday, I left behind everything I was doing in my home on the border, in order to go to Tel Aviv and join in the festivities! I HAD to meet the winners of our competition! When they arrived, I saw a class-load of students and their teacher piling out of their bus.... wearing...... GOOGLE shirts that they had made specially for this visit!

After having the honor of congratulating them in person, and welcoming them to Google, I was followed by Lee, who kick-started their morning of fun by explaining just how extraordinary their achievements were!

Yael continued where Lee left off, by talking about the concepts of gamification, about learning and playfulness and how it helps us learn better by making learning a lot of "boring" material, fun. She gave the example of an online Spiderman game, where players actually learned all the streets of New York as a by product of playing the game! She explained how learning will become even more interactive and engaging in the future, by virtually immersing learners into the venues of the topics being learned, for example, by using CardBoard and other virtual reality tools. Yael described a true instance, when a teacher in Israel, who was teaching her Jewish-Israeli students about the pilgrimage to Mecca. By using CardBord, she enabled the experience to come alive for them by sending them on a virtual pilgrimage, where they were able to virtually experience it, 360 degrees, for themselves! Yael introduced them to Voice Search (using OK Google) and inspired them with Moonshot Thinking: where by asking huge questions, we can find radical solutions that work!

"Do you know what Google's mission is?" Yael asked the students. After a few suggestions, she sent them into their smartphones to find the answer to her question. (Do YOU know? Google it!)

The students agreed with the answer they found, and explained how excited and motivated they were by the competition - even making their school postpone a physics exam so that they could post more translations before the end of the competition! They explained that they realized that they were literally doing something not only for themselves. They told us that even though it was Ramadan, and they weren't eating during the day, they were motivated to translate. They realized that it was helping them with their own vocabularies in English AND that they were improving their understanding of grammatical structures of sentences. On top of all that, they understood that they were doing something important to help Arabic speakers around the world!

Their teacher. Rozeen Daw said: "I have always told my students not to use Google Translate because it's bad, but I think this contest helped me see this tool in a new light. It's no longer the source of badly written sentences. I have learned how to integrate this tool in my classroom. It can be a beneficial tool for teaching, not only translation, but also in teaching writing."

She also told me that through participating in the competition, she realized that they can fix the translation tools. Moreover, it enabled her to encourage her students to talk about language.

We then broke for lunch (because.....Google)! After the meal we went on a tour of the Google Offices, which was (as always) amazing! We took them to the floors inspired by the Israeli outdoor market, the night life of Tel Aviv, the realm of the imagination and the orchards!

The tour was followed by a talk by Sarit about what Google R&D are doing in Israel, including the "Mind the Gap" initiative. Finally, we heard from Liat (and her dog, who, it turns out, also works at Google) about Google Doodles! 

 

Meeting these talented, motivated teens and their inspiring teacher, was the perfect send off that _I_ needed to get THIS year's competition - which will be even bigger and better - off the ground! In light of our successes from last year, Google has built a special dashboard, which will make it easier for us to keep track of the competition! (Making MY life a WHOLE lot easier!!! Thank you Google!!!!xxxx) In addition, we will be running the competition for three months, rather than one, and there will be PRIZES!!!!! Ever class who passes the 400,000 mark will win a Google CardBoard for EACH of their students! (FYI: two of the classes from last year, including the winning class, submitted  over 300,000 in only a month. A third class came close to that number.) And, again, in addition, the winning class gets a special tour of Google!

Have I whetted your appetite? It's FUN to be winners - especially when, like in THIS contest, EVERYONE WINS!!! To find out more, keep your eyes on the Ministry website (Stay Up To Date) and the English Teaching Community's Facebook page, where it will be formally announced at the end of this week! (Just in time to start the New Year with something AMAZING!!!!)

Looking forward to LOTS of action this year, and even MORE improvement of Google Translate, thanks to the efforts of our students!

Digitally yours,

@dele

(That's me in the middle photo-bombing the class before they left Tel Aviv :-)

P.S. Also got the ultimate compliment: "Thank you and you were cooler than we expected"   This is my 36th year in the classroom. I say: one HAS to be "cool" to last that long! :-)

Getting students an online presence while protecting their identities

I truly believe that if my students leave school without at least a basic digital proficiency I am doing them a disservice. I do not know what they will grow to do in the future. And as they say, the jobs that many of them will have in 10 years' time probably don't even exist today. But I have NO doubt that the Internet is here to stay, and that it will continue to be a major part of their lives. So I want them online and doing stuff. 

But sometimes I want them to do things online with and online profile but without them exposing their pictures. (Most high school students are minors.) 

A really simple of doing this is by having them devise an avatar to represent them! And a fun tool that can get them there is Androidify. I came across it after seeing a cute avatar representing one of my Google-teacher colleagues. 

To set an example (since I am starting to use NEW Googlesites, which are REALLY COOL and easy! As well as venturing into Google Classroom) I made my own avatar. But I plan to have my students do so, after they write a 6 Word Memoir for themselves, and based upon that, they can make their own avatars.  So that they can "be together. Not the same."

Here is my avatar.

Her name is @dele, and I am really kind of getting attached to her. 

Can YOU think of other opportunities for using this tool? I would LOVE to hear them!

Digitally yours,

@dele



HT: Irit Merchav  

Starting the year off right! Getting to know your students.

It's August 31st, the day before school starts. 

This will be my 36th year in the classroom, and you know what? I STILL get excited (and nervous) before a new school year. I STILL spend hours and hours getting myself ready for my classes. (And as I keep saying: the year I do NOT get nervous and excited is the year I step away from the classroom!)

I have these..... "Getting Ready Ceremonies". 

One of them is preparing a yearly plan, with a line for each week. (When I first started teaching, I would do it meticulously on lined paper. Then I moved it over to WORD. Today I do it in Googledocs! (Which is why I can share it here!) You can make a copy and use it if you feel it will help you!

Another "Ceremony" is getting to know my students. I need all sorts of information from them. 

I want to know how THEY write their names in English.
 
I want to know their mobile phone numbers (to build a WhatsApp group.... I am considering using a broadcast group this  year instead of a regular group... any thoughts on that?)


I want to know if they all have smartphones (because I like incorporating smartphones in the lessons and I need to know what to expect)


I always use an email group (even though I am considering using Google Classroom this year... but I still haven't decided about that finally). 


I also want to know what learning styles work for them. 


I have not yet decided for sure which literature to teach, and I would like to know what genres interest them. Not that they will decide, but again - I want to know my audience. 


Finally, since I am getting a new class of 11th graders, I want to know if there is anything THEY think I should know about them. 

Of course, we will be doing an icebreaker activity, to get to know each other, but that's not enough. (Sharing that here, too - it's based on an activity from Jennifer Gonzales' "Icebreakers that Rock".) I want this information to come to me, individually. Which is why I make a Googleform to gather all of the information that I want. I embed it in my class website, and post a QR Code below it so kids will be able to scan it and respond in the lesson, on their smartphones. 

So... that's it! I guess I'm ready! 

Roll on September 1!!!!

What do YOU do to get YOUR new school year started?


Have a GREAT school year everyone!!!!

Digitally yours, 


@dele

BLOG FLASH! Adding a Googledoc to more than one folder

It's summer and I have been ultra-busy doing stuff ASIDE from Digital Pedagogy and English teaching (who knew?! I actually DO have a life!!! ;-)  

I am now busy gearing up for the new school year, in which I plan to get into GOOGLE CLASSROOM! I will keep you updated about that, but while I was doing OTHER stuff, (hint: it's connected to next  year's Google Translate Community Competition... will uncover that when it's ready) I came across something that is REALLY handy. 

So I thought: I'll incorporate a series of short and sweet "Blog Flashes" for when I learn something useful. A "Blog Flash" will not be a regular blog post (which I usually spend quite a bit of time composing and investigating) rather I'll just shoot it off - then can share on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and it's here for safekeeping!

So here is my first discovery!

I gave a talk at the summer ETAI in Ashkelon about the Google Translate Community Competition. I wrote it up in Googledocs and it was in my Drive in a folder for "ETAI 2016". But I need that data again now, as I prepare for the coming year, and want to be able to access it easily when working on this year's competition. However I ALSO want to leave it in the "ETAI 2016" folder in my Drive. 

I considered just making a copy - but then, any changes I make on one, will not show up in the other. So I Googled my query :-)  and to my joy, found the solution I was looking for, on a site with tech guides called: "Digital Inspiration"!

From Digital Inspiration:

How to Add a File to Multiple Folders in Google Drive

Here’s how you can place existing files or folders inside different multiple folders on Google Drive without making copies of the file.

 Open the Google Drive website in your desktop’s web browser and select one or more files or folders. You can use the Control key on Windows ..... to select non-consecutive files and folders. Now press Shift + Z and you’ll see an “Add to Folder” pop-up....... Next select the folder where you wish to add the selected files and click OK.

 That’s it. You have neither copied nor moved the files to the destination folder, you’ve merely created references or aliases to files inside the other folder. You can use the Shift+Z keyboard shortcut again to add the selected files to any other folders in your Google Drive.

To read the rest of that site, click here. 

I hope you are all as excited about the new school year as I am! (36 years in the classroom and still excited, mostly thanks to the digital age which opened a whole new world for me! Woohoo!!!)

Digitally yours,

@dele

Learn to Hyperlink Like a Pro!

Most of the time I write about different tools that teachers can use in their work for and about education, but sometimes one needs to stop, look around and see if there are some basics that people seem to have bypassed without realizing their importance. In a course I am co-presenting, I noticed that many of the participants are not using hyperlinks, and when they do, they just stick the entire endless URL in and let that hyperlink automatically. 

So I'm taking a step back, to help some of you jump ten steps forward.

The URL (internet address of a webpage) is long and complicated. I can remember when the Internet first came into my life, you used to have to go to the browser window and type in the whole interminable thing (MAN am I dating myself now! ;-) Even though on most digital platforms where you stick a URL (a website, an email, a wordfile, a Googledoc, etc) the gobbledygook URL automatically turns it into a live hyperlink (it gets underlined and turns blue without you having to worry your little head about it) but still ...it looks... how shall I put it...? Awkward.

In order to prevent this, there are three things you can do.

1) You can add a hyperlink to a word, phrase or object (ex. picture/graphic) which, when clicked on, will take you to another website.

2) You can make a long URL shorter. You would want to do this for digital products that are going to be printed out, or presented via an online  platform where hyperlinks are not live and clickable, or if you want to project something for an audience, so that they can go into a website (like with the new Q&A app;A tool for Googlesides that I wrote about in my previous blog). 

3) For when you need to kill off a few trees and print material out hardcopy,  or project it on a screen because you want an audience to go into a website, you can also turn the URL into a barcode. Barcodes are fun, and get people using barcode scanners. I did that - and wrote about it - in an activity last year, although that blog was about the activity rather than the technicalities of how I made the barcodes). But fear not, for Google URL Shortener (one of the tools I talk about in this tutorial) will do that for you easily. 

I hope the following tutorial, which introduces bit.ly, tiny.url, goo.gl url and the (ridiculously simple) art of hyperlinking,  helps you get your head around this, in under 6 minutes. 

If you have any questions; if anything isn't clear, please write in the comments. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Promise :-)

Digitally yours,
@dele


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Google Presentations latest capability: Q&A Live

It's REALLY new, hot off the virtual presses: the ability to really interact with your audience, real time, regardless of how many people are there! It rolled out at the beginning of the month, and I had the opportunity to try it out this week at a workshop I gave!

Here is a short explanation of what it does:

And this is Karissa Bell's blog post on "Mashable" explaining a bit more.

It sounded so exciting, that I decided to jump straight into the deep end (that's the ONLY way to learn how to swim, right?)

I made my presentation using Google Slides, as you normally would. When it came time to start the session, I clicked on the "Present" button. With Q & A, you are given the options of "Presenter View" or "Present from the beginning". In order to use the Q& A, you want the first option.

Once you open that "Presenter View" you see a screen that looks like this:

Click on "Audience Tools" and another window pops open, giving you a short (relatively) URL, and you can see the window where all of the audience questions will be visible. The URL will be viewable at the top of each of your slides throughout the presentation.

Another convenient tool that is here is a laser pointer - try that, too!

The tool worked really well. The only suggestion would have are the following:

1. Since the screen that is projected is the same screen you are working from, the audience can see all of the questions. They can ALSO see the questions on their devices, of course, which is where they write their own questions and vote for questions they "second". However while I was giving the presentation, I wanted to check the questions on my own, to see when they were coming in. I was not happy with the fact that I couldn't do that without obstructing my presentation slides. In future when I use this tool, I will have another device (either bring my laptop or view on my phone) so that I can check audience feedback without interrupting the flow of the presentation.

2. It would be REALLY helpful if, in addition to the URL, there were a barcode (which is easier to scan than it is typing in the letters).

I DEFINITELY plan to use this tool in future presentations, and highly recommend you try it, as well! It is a tool that will be making appearances in my future sessions and my high school classes! How about YOU? Have you tried it?

Digitally yours,

@dele

PS (I must admit that until now, I have used PowerPoint presentations more than Google Slides, but with this new function, it could be a game changer for me!)