PP2 (project post #2)
Time, time, time. If anyone has ever taught students how to use a new program, let alone how to use a laptop in Grade 4, you will know exactly how much valuable class time is spent, doing this. During the past 2 weeks I have tried to work with all of my students one on one, in small groups, as a class, and in pairs, (all while trying to maintain some sort of distance) how to record their own video on Flipgrid. Let me set the stage:
Digital citizenship lessons were taught prior.
We have less than 2:1 student devices.
Only 5 students used laptops last year.
2 students were somewhat familiar with Flipgrid.
First, we watched a few introductory Flipgrid videos from our partner class with @ChrisBEducation. Most students were quite intrigued and I could tell they were taking mental notes. Several students giggled because they were imagining themselves doing this and were immediately shy, and embarrassed! We spent a couple of lessons preparing for our videos, by writing down what we felt was important and safe to share. Some students wanted to get right to it and record ‘off the cuff’, and some still had a ‘deer in the headlights’ look.
As much as we think students are so ‘tech savvy’ and can figure this stuff out very quickly, I had many students who struggled logging in and navigating to our Flipgrid app. In our school division, students have a one-stop shop, and this is Clever. It is a single sign-in experience for students that houses all of the apps and programs used within our school division, and can be accessed from home or anywhere. Families need to add a chrome extension to access Clever, which was quite the process when we began online learning. I would say the biggest challenge this week was taking the time for students to simply practice logging in to Clever, then Flipgrid, and then logging out of each of these. We did this over and over and over. It is somewhat easier now, but I am truly looking forward to the day when it is smooth sailing.
This week, viewing the introduction videos from another class created excitement in some, and a bit of fear in others. We talked through what made us apprehensive, what scared us, what excited us, and what we would be learning about ourselves during this whole process. These discussions are extremely important as we set the stage for learning about healthy digital footprints. I am always intrigued at how reflective some children are, how some are impulsive, and how others simply follow along. This translates to adulthood with similar behaviour in our own peer population.
The students who were ready to record their introductory videos (wished I had watched this first) got right to it – I sent them to a quiet place in the hallway (mistake – as there is no quiet place in an elementary hallway), and gave them free reign to record, delete, try again, whatever they needed to do. Well, that went well…for maybe 1 student. I had to troubleshoot log in issues (some needed help typing it in again and others forgot to log out), general laptop issues, and every video picked up all background noise! Ugh…Delete! Let’s try again, with my one and only headset that has a microphone. Off they went, but one by one, sanitizing and sharing one microphone headset. I will be exploring and searching for more in the school. We need the proper equipment if we are going to be successful with Flipgrid. Throughout the week we successfully recorded 12 videos! Several students asked me throughout the week if they could practice recording until they got the video they liked. Heavy sigh inserted here…I gave them only 1 extra attempt and then we needed to move on. In the middle of this messy process, (students in and out of the room, managing those trying to work in the class, troubleshooting laptop issues, viewing and uploading videos) our Director of Education walks around the corner…
Needless to say, he caught us in authentic action.
The goal is to complete our videos next week and move on to creating what Flipgrid calls “Learning communities”. I am finding it difficult to find the time to explore everything our class can learn with Flipgrid, but I am hopeful that once my students are more familiar with the app, and with log in processes and classroom transitions, they can help me explore what Flipgrid has to offer. I was feeling quite exhausted after school one day this week, and I received a support email from the Flipgrid team at that exact moment. Was this a sign?
About The Author
Lynnette Farris
Welcome to my blogging journey! I am a leader in education, a Mom, wife, and a learner. I have previously worked with Saskatoon Catholic Schools and I am currently a Vice-Principal with Regina Catholic Schools.
Oh boy, reading this gave me a little bit of anxiety because it put me RIGHT BACK in the moment of teaching grade four/five and being a connected educator for the first time. I completely recognize the stress and the frustration of getting everyone to just ACCESS the technology – let alone use it authentically for learning. I also remember very clearly feeling like there was time to get them to use the technology properly, to really understand and feel comfortable reflecting with it OR to cover curricular outcomes and not BOTH. I know this isn’t necessarily practical advice but I would just try to encourage you to really keep your goal in mind. Is it to get everyone recorded in a certain time frame? Is it to get everyone familiar with the application? Is it to encourage reflective practices? I know I would never ever be able to get all three done in my first attempt with the devices so I feel like its more than understandable you wouldn’t either! It will get easier! It sounds like you’ve already made so much progress!
Thanks Victoria!
Haha I bet it brought back some memories! I am finding out very quickly how to organize the room and centers to accommodate learning with technology, and shifting my timetable so it fits in my day. Each time we use technology it does get easier but I also have a couple of students who are low functioning so they need a couple of adaptations – which will be in my next post. I really appreciate the suggestions for keeping my goals clear. You are so right – what exactly do I want to accomplish each week? What is my purpose here? I must set a realistic weekly goal, and continue to plan around it!
My advice is to start small. Teach students the basics and build upon them. I know that this can seem like a waste of time, but I think we often forget that students need to be taught how to properly use technology even if they are using it every day to game or fool around on social media. It’s important that we scaffold the use of technology just like we would in anything else. It’s awesome that you are able to have access to that much technology, and I think the students will catch on bit by bit as you go. Setting and enforcing clear expectations is key. I use a lot of checklists to keep students on task and keeping the goals at the forefront of their learning and experimenting with the technology. I haven’t taught grade 4/5 so this may be different, but I am excited to see how you manage this and the learning that will come from it.
Exactly Kelly, keep the goals attainable, and practice each step with clear expectations. They are coming around for sure, and I now have a little network where a few of my students do the troubleshooting! So far so good this week!
I am having flashbacks after reading your post! Teaching students how to navigate the digital world when we are the first to be introducing this purposefully and for educational purposes is a BIG FAT HEADACHE! We think our kids are so tech saavy but the truth is they are using it in very specific ways that provide them with immediate gratification. I found there is very little perseverance when trying something new and that frustration set in quickly. However, I also found that the hard work in the beginning really paid off. Last year was the first year where I had access to a class set of Chromebooks 50% of the time and it was AMAZING. I really feel for you under such limited conditions and applaud you for still jumping in despite the limited tech. I was hesitant to jump in when I shared a full set with four classes. So seriously, well done!!
Haha thanks so much Gillian! After I get finished with this crew it is smooth sailing for their teacher next year! I am so lucky to share 1 device between 2 kids – I honestly am so fortunate. Our school has a few connected educators but they are with Grade 2 and 3 and they use tablets. The other class is Grade 6. All the rest of the classrooms share and we are lucky to have very close to 1 device per 2 students, depending on the class. There is so much we can teach with technology, sometimes I find it difficult to cool my jets and focus on one small step at a time!