The Web20Classroom

MARCH 18, 2020

This is the first in a series of videos I want to do while many of us are facing an unprecedented time of isolation. If you have an idea for something you want me to talk about, academic or not, let me know on Twitter, @web20classroom. Over the last the several days many adults and kids have had their world turned upside down with the closure of school and recommended social distancing to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

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Exercises Twitter Video Course 231

The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

A while back I was having a conversation with a colleague about creativity in learning. We debated back and forth about what creativity looked like and could you really teach creativity. All this stemmed from a comment I made about me not being creative. Sure, I’ve written books, I talk in front of teachers and leaders often and create professional development to deliver.

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Facebook STEM Software Outcomes 362

The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 8, 2020

January 14-17, 2020 brings us another awesome gathering of educators from all over the U.S. and beyond. Descending on sunny Miami, Florida the FETC Conference kicks off with tons of opportunities for all of us to learn, share and grow. I am honored to be a Featured Presenter again this year and will be there all week sharing and presenting along with countless other wonderful educators.

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The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 8, 2019

Recently, I was talking with a few school administrators on how they could better communicate with their parents and the community. One obstacle that many schools and districts face is figuring out the most effective ways to ensure all are well informed and have all the information. Traditionally, notes home in a Wednesday Packet or using a website have been used.

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 12, 2019

I recently returned from a trip to Billund, Denmark. To many, a trip to Denmark is one of a lifetime. For me it was especially so as Billund is the home of LEGO. From the time I was a kid I have been surrounded by legos. I could spend hours upon hours building my own utopian town, a scene from the old west, a spaceship or something else entirely. Even in my adult life I am still surrounded by these magical bricks.

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The Web20Classroom

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Feedback is one of the best ways to support student learning. According to John Hattie , Feedback has an effect size of.64 and is often considered as one of the top 5 influential factors on student learning, BUT… it is also the most variable. Most of the time the feedback students receive consists of answers to the questions: Where am I going? How am I going?

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Assessment Secondary Examples Microsoft 185

The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 26, 2019

This summer my oldest daughter, Reaghan, discovered a love for coding. After spending a week at a coding camp she has gobbled up every book, YouTube video and resource you can imagine teaching herself not only the fundamentals of coding but experimenting with what she can do. Her ability to try something, have it fail and then figure it out again is inspiring.

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Robotics Professional Learning Course STEM 168

The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 12, 2019

My oldest daughter, Reaghan, is getting ready to be a 5th grader while my youngest, Chesney, will be a 1st grader this year. Heading back to school with them is one of the busiest times of year. There are lots of meetings, papers to read and fill out, and new things to learn about her school. As a parent, I rely heavily upon the communication efforts of the district and her school.

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Social Media Facebook Twitter Video 132

The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 5, 2019

Ever since I was a little kid I have enjoyed anything Disney. Even with my own daughters I have enjoyed seeing their faces light up when they walk down Main Street at the Magic Kingdom and they see Cinderella's Castle, even though they've seen it several times. We've visited all the parks and done a cruise. So when the team at Disney Youth Programs reached out to me to come down and check out all they have to offer I jumped at the opportunity.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 22, 2019

It started with some tweets. "You are a vile human being!" "I can't believe you are allowed to say the things you do." "I want you dead." I was hurt, confused and shocked. What had I said or done to make people say these things to me? And they came in a flood. Over and over for several days, several years ago. Then I started doing some searching of my name.

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Social Media Digital Citizenship Twitter Facebook 139

The Web20Classroom

JULY 2, 2019

I love to read. If I am not working or spending time with my daughters I am reading. But when I was in elementary school reading was what I dreaded the most. In my classes we had the "blue birds" and "red birds" reading groups. I was a blue bird. A weak reader. Stuck in a group with the other weak readers. Thinking back on that time as an adult it was a deflating time as a kid.

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The Web20Classroom

MAY 19, 2019

Professional learning for educators comes in many flavors: Face-to-face, blended, online Content-driven, instructional practices, Edtech focused Faculty meeting, half-day, conference session If we were all to think long enough we could come up with a list of the best professional learning we've participated in and what made it great. For me it was learning where I connected to the presenter and the presentation immediately.

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The Web20Classroom

APRIL 19, 2019

Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner. ( Merriam-Webster Dictionary ) As a father and an educator, an important aspect of learning that is difficult to teach is empathy.

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The Web20Classroom

APRIL 8, 2019

I recently returned from a trip to Paris, France where I attended a gathering with over 250 educators from across the world. In their respective countries, these educators were the best of the best; innovative, creative and focused on creating student-centered learning for everyone. While I have traveled internationally before (Qatar and the UAE most recently) this was my first trip to France where I would be immersed in the French language.

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The Web20Classroom

MARCH 4, 2019

It can be a struggle to best help students understand what they are learning or for students to articulate their learning in meaningful ways. This was especially difficult for me starting out in on my teaching journey. Based on how I had been taught to be an educator the best ways to know if students are learning was to give them a test. If they failed, it was their fault and they needed to do better next time.

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Learning Social Media Assessment Classroom 279

The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Opportunity to learn with renowned education researchers and practitioners rejuvenates the mind and reignites the passion in many educators. In the second of our two-part series, Shaelynn Farnsworth and I share what we learned from the Visible Learning Institute in San Diego, this time with a focus on literacy. Head over to part one to see our initial thoughts and shares.

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Learning Strategy Collaborative Learning Classroom 111

The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 10, 2019

This week, roles were flipped as Shaelynn Farnsworth and I had an opportunity to learn from John Hattie at the Visible Learning Institute in San Diego. Hattie, a researcher in education, studied more than 150 million students, synthesizing more than 800 meta-studies to determine the effect size various influences have on teaching and learning. His work disaggregates not only what works in education but what works best.

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Learning Assessment Study Groups 111

The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 17, 2019

In all the work I have done with countless educators from across the world I believe we can break them down into two groups. Good Teachers and Great Teachers. What separates the two is effectiveness. Effective Educators are those that have a set of truths that they live by. It's what they wake up everyday thinking about and striving for. It doesn't mean they aren't human.

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The Web20Classroom

DECEMBER 11, 2018

As a former Director of Instructional Technology I was tasked with training all district and school leadership on the process of walkthroughs. We’d spend 2 days reviewing protocols, analyzing data and how to lead conversations. Afterwards they would go out and conduct their walks. When I would visit schools and talk to teachers about walkthroughs, their purpose or how they were using the data they were often confused with observations.

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The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

Engagement versus effectiveness. This is a conversation I have been having with educators and leaders all over the country for a while now. Just because we see students engaged in learning might not mean actual effective learning is taking place. When we throw technology into the mix it can appear that students are learning a great deal because they are creating a podcast or making a video or using some game to review for a quiz but are these instructional methods actually effective?

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 8, 2018

In our next collaborative post, Shaelynn Farnsworth (@shfarnsworth) and I discuss how schools and districts can make the best technology purchasing decisions. Recently I was talking to a Tech Director colleague that was in the middle of a purchasing battle with a principal. The principal had been approached by a well-known technology vendor wanting to sell the school some hardware and software to help students in literacy and math.

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Technology Software Student Data Privacy Data 124

The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 3, 2018

When I was teaching Middle School Science I always tried to encourage academic discussion among my students. As a group we would debate results from various experiments, attempt to understand current events in science and talk about how science was all around us. Like many other teachers on my team (or other teachers anywhere really) promoting true collaboration and sharing in the classroom is a wonderful goal to have but ultimately difficult to achieve.

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The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 23, 2018

When I was a Director of Instructional Technology it was always a fun day when we could deliver brand new devices to a school. The students and teachers were always excited and ready for the new possibilities ahead. Then after a few weeks frustration would set it. Students would loose work, teachers had to spend hours trying to figure out which document belonged to whom and we’d see lots of devices in the shop for repair.

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The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 17, 2018

This post is sponsored by ThinkCERCA , an online platform designed to empower teachers to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines. Just as literacy is a part of every classroom at every grade level, writing is a powerful component of the curriculum. Writing is generative in nature and helps students uncover thoughts bubbling in their heads that haven’t reached the surface yet.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 26, 2018

For some time now Shaelynn Farnsworth and I have been reflecting on our own learning and professional development practices, looking for gaps in instruction and aiming to improve our craft. One of our longest conversations has been around research. In the work we do, we are constantly reading and attempting to understand the research behind the popular instructional movements of today.

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Strategy Data Accessibility Study 120

The Web20Classroom

JUNE 8, 2018

As the end of the school year approaches my daughter’s backpack is filled with fliers from her elementary school. Everything from summer reading lists to stacks of classwork that are finally being sent home. Nearly every night my inbox is full of emails from the school reminding us of this and that. It seems like they are trying to pack everything we need to know for the summer into the space of a few days.

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Social Media Facebook Survey STEM 110

The Web20Classroom

MAY 2, 2018

When I walked into the Houston Convention Center a few weeks ago I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had never attended a FIRST LEGO League World Championship. Walking through the doors I was in awe. 15,000 kids from nations all over the world gathered to show off their robotic and LEGO creations and compete for the title of World Champion. I heard multiple languages, adults reminding kids about how they got there and some of the craziest chants you’ve ever heard.

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Robotics STEM Meeting Groups 185

The Web20Classroom

APRIL 11, 2018

Lately, the work I’ve been doing with teachers and leaders has centered around the engaging and effective use of technology. In addition to developing a guide for how teachers can plan better using technology and what leaders can look for when doing walkthroughs, I have had many conversations around the transformational use of technology. Specifically, what does that look like?

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Education Assessment Technology Outcomes 277

The Web20Classroom

MARCH 19, 2018

A few weeks ago I asked a group of teachers to describe a lesson where technology was used effectively to impact learning. After some thinking, one of the teachers described a lesson where students were using Google Maps to take a tour of different parts of the world. They were to visit some predetermined places, go into street view and answer a few questions.

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The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

Do you struggle with effectively integrating technology into learning? Do you wonder how your pedagogy must change to respond to the technology choices you and your students make? Do you wonder what tools are out there other than what you’ve heard about on Twitter or read on blogs? Influential educators Shaelynn Farnsworth and Steven W. Anderson introduce a course where you can find the answers to these questions and more.

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The Web20Classroom

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Co-Written with my friend and business partner Shaelynn Farnsworth In all the work that Shaelynn and I do with teachers across the US and beyond we see educators creating amazing learning environments for students. From the use of 1:1 technology to enabling students to learn authentically, these really are incredible times to teach and learn. However, among all the flash and pageantry there is struggle.

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The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 28, 2018

Last week I had the honor to work with educational leaders and teachers from Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. Our goal was to examine the role of technology leadership in and out of the classroom and to better understand how technology can enhance learning. It was a unique opportunity for me because normally when I do professional development like this I work with one group or the other.

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The Web20Classroom

JANUARY 5, 2018

When I was leading an Instructional Technology program, one of the hurdles my team had to overcome was the lack of involvement from our leadership on the professional development we were delivering. In the feedback we would get from teachers we would hear that the learning was good, but that their Principal, AP, Curriculum Director, whom ever, didn’t know what they were learning, or why they were learning it.

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The Web20Classroom

DECEMBER 6, 2017

Unless you just haven’t noticed, trees, lights and ornaments are going up on businesses and homes all over the place. Commercials on television highlight sweaters, coffee and fireplaces. It’s hard to ignore we are in the holiday season. And, if you are like me you mind turns to the long list of things you have to get for everyone in your life. Gifts for kids, family, friends, the mailman, bus driver, front office staff.

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Learning Professional Learning Mobility Libraries 118

The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Recently most of the world has become familiar with the term “fake news.” These alternative facts are pervasive and infect all facets of our lives. From our twitter streams to talking heads on television it seems like we can not escape facts being outright fake, or the perception that they are. What’s worse is most students can’t determine whether what they see or read is real or fake.

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Social Media Video Twitter Report 167

The Web20Classroom

NOVEMBER 5, 2017

My daughters, Reaghan (8) and Chesney (4) are like your average kids. They love to play and pretend and have all sorts of fun, especially when it comes to technology. And just like your average kids they are hard on the technology they use. Reaghan has had an iPad since she was 2 years old, using it to learn letters and shapes (although these days its for YouTube, coding and Osmo ).

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The Web20Classroom

OCTOBER 28, 2017

Written with Shaelynn Farnsworth , post is sponsored by ThinkCERCA , an online platform designed to empower teachers to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines. There has been no greater impact on differentiation and student achievement in recent years than the effective integration of technology in the classroom. Traditionally, literacy educators spent long hours gathering resources, developing tasks and extensions, and reading and analyzing assessment to determine if the instructio

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