Fighting Inertia

Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion (this includes changes to its speed, direction or state of rest). It is the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at constant velocity. 

"Inertia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

Just as inertia can be observed in physical object, so too can it apply to virtual ones, such as a blog. A blog without posts tends to remain without posts because the author has allowed so much time to slip by that now she's rather embarrassed with herself and is somewhat avoiding her blog. 

Yeah, so I haven't posted in a while. And now I am. I'm going to stop resisting this blog's state of motion, so matter how small or inconsequential the post!

Bonus: check out this great YouTuber (Flipping Physics) who actually helped me understand my inertia metaphor:

P. S. Is it any coincidence that my resistance to blognertia ended the same day #GoogleEI applications were due? Not hardly! #fingerscrossed #pleasepickme

Where no third grader has gone before...

It's still hard to believe that this is my JOB. When the Google Expeditions team announced they were coming to Indy, I hoped against hope that they might visit our district. I was beyond excited when we got the confirmation that they were! 

I got to spend the day at Cherry Tree Elementary and experience the moment when the cardboard googles came to life with class after class. It never got old. 

It was incredible to see everything from Machu Picchu to giant insects in the forests of Borneo to otherworldly looking ocean sunfish. And while it was super fun to consume all this great content that the Expeditions team has put together, what really got me exited was thinking about how we might start creating content! 

A few weeks ago I was chatting on Twitter during the weekly #ditchbook chat and we starting batting around some ideas on how the Google Cardboard technology could be used to create virtual field-trips around the state of Indiana. Local schools could pick locations close to them and create virtual experiences that could be used by classes all over the state. So if a trip to the statehouse isn't possible, you could take the next best thing!

I was also chatting with a middle school journalism teacher about the possibility of using 3D photography as a part of student publications. What an awesome idea! To me, educational technology starts to get really exciting when students (and teachers!) become creators and not merely consumers of content. I can't wait to see where Expeditions will head next!

Google for Education Certified Trainer = Me

Overwhelmed. Humbled. A little nervous. SO. EXCITED!!!!!!

I got the long awaited acceptance email back in December and spend most of that weekend reading through posts on in the trainers group page, submitting my info to the database and general geeking out. And of course, I immediately put my shiny new badge into my email signature and sidebar of this very blog. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of applying for this certification. It was A LOT of work, but well worth the effort. Until this application, I really hadn't don't any training videos that involved me on the screen talking. It's still a little weird to sit an edit a video of myself, but doing for this application has shown me that I can and spurred me on to create more mini training videos in the (hopefully near) future. 

Bringing this journey full circle, I just submitted a few presentation proposals for the EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in Franklin, IN this April. It was at this AMAZING conference last year that I first started on the road to becoming a Certified Trainer. Really hoping that I get to share some of the Google love and put my trainer cred to the test at this year's summit. 

Google Expeditions Pioneer Program

So. Excited. SO. EXCITED!!!

Tomorrow, one of the elementary schools in our district is hosting the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program. I had a chance to take a little preview of the program at this year's HECC conference, and it is amazeballs.

Here's the basics:
Using Google Cardboard viewers and a class set of Android devices, teachers lead students (using a tablet) on a 360° virtual field trip. The teacher device has a script to follow and allows the teacher to see where all of her students currently are in the virtual environment. She also has the ability to point out areas of interest (which students will see in their viewers). There are trips to museums, the rain forest, even the moon!

I got a Cardboard viewer last year and have had a blast exploring the different apps currently available for the iPhone. I'm even toying with the idea of getting a pre-paid Android to use for the wifi so I can play around with the #360Video channel on YouTube and really use the Google Cardboard app. 

But my favorite viewer by far looks like this:

I know I've got my original knocking around in a box somewhere, complete with Muppets and Sesame Street picture wheels. 

Can't wait to share this experience with the kids tomorrow!

my wish for education

For this post to make any sense, you'll need to watch this video first. Go ahead, I think it's worth the four minutes. 

I remember the exact moment I first watched this little gem from Hank Green of Vlogbrothers fame. I was sitting in a lime green wing-back chair in Union Station during the lunch break of day 1 of the HECC conference. I'd just finished eating the first ever REAL SANDWICH I've ever received in one of those normally lack-luster boxed lunches you get when you attend such conferences. Was it the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my life? Hardly, but it was one glorious, transcendent, totally unexpected thing: gluten free. Having been actually, medically necessarily gluten-free since I was two, I'm very used one of two outcomes in a mass boxed lunch situation like this: 1. No idea what gluten-free is or 2. The same lunch everyone else got, minus the sandwich plus an extra apple or bag of chips. This was neither of those things. This was a pretty basic turkey and cheese with lettuce and tomato. But. It. Was. On. Real. Bread. That I could eat! AND there was a slice of flourless chocolate cake. I mean, come on!! 

So I was both happy and full and then I watched this video and was struck with a question: what would it be like if our students had moments of such unbridled excitement and enthusiasm in our classrooms? What kind of space would we need to build? What kind of culture would be need to nurture? Really good questions. Not sure that I have really good answers. Yet.

Need more excitement in your life? Here's my new favorite video:

#googlecardboard

I feel like Google Cardboard has been in the air this week. It keeps popping up on Twitter and in my Feedly reader in many blogs I follow. It was even on NPR on my way home from work one night this week!

It started with the new of Google Expeditions, the new program to bring virtual field trips to classrooms all around the country. I admit I get a little jealous when I see the posts of students and teachers alike mesmerized by the 360 degree view they have of a previously inaccessible-to-them part of the world. You can find out more about the Expeditions Pioneer Program here: https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions. 

Then I heard an interesting piece on All Things Considered on NPR about how the New York Times is using their capacity for old-school media distribution to send Google Cardboard viewers to their print subscribers so they can view the new VR content they are creating. They have one story already released, with more to come. You can listen to the whole story or read the transcript here: http://n.pr/1PGVAcA. 

Tech Times gave me yet another reason to want to move to New Zealand (other than the obvious reason that then I'd live in Middle Earth) - boxes of Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal come with DIY cardboard viewers! http://bit.ly/1PGXOZu. All you need are scissors, a butter knife, and tape (and an empty box of cereal) and you can build your own. Talk about buying cereal for the prize inside!

And then there was a great post on the EdTechTeam Google+ community page from Molly Schroeder on how students can use Google Street View to create something called photospheres that can then be viewed using Cardboard - so cool!

She also shared the fantastic resource embedded below, with LOTS of ways to get started with Cardboard in the classroom. Check out her presentation page here: http://bit.ly/1PGXx90. 


I can't wait to see where #googlecardboard pops up next!

Woo hoo!

There's a little bit of a funny story to this AWESOME badge (and why there isn't a Level 1 badge to match...yet!). I signed up to take the Level 1 exam at the beginning of October, since I'd made a promise to the Twitterverse that my professional goal for October was to become a Level 1 Google Educator. 

But then, I happened to pick that one afternoon last week when there was a wee little glitch with the Google. You may remember from the apocalyptic tweets that were blowing up Twitter that day. I guess it just goes to show how phenomenally consistent Google is with being not-down that it sends the digital world into a frenzy when there's a blip on the radar. 

Anyhoo, I wasn't able to finish my exam that day (and currently have a big fat fail on my exam record, which my type A side is having a bit of an issue processing, truth be told). I was actually kinda bummed because I though the scenario part of the exam was really pretty fun! 

So I thought, what the heck, let's go for Level 2 and a little less than three hours later, one super shiny badge to post for all the internet to see. 

I'll keep you posted on how Level 1 goes...