Ditch That Textbook!

Ditch That Textbook is the brainchild of US Spanish teacher Matt Miller. Although the 'ditch' approach, as the name suggests, obviously advocates moving away from a dependence on textbooks, it involves much more than that - it is about ditching a textbook approach to teaching and learning. Matt's website is full of useful blog posts that suggest many different ways to approach ditching. 

The 'DITCH' part of Ditch That Textbook is in fact an acronym which stands for:

• D - Different - trying out different approaches to pedagogy in the classroom
• I - Innovative - coming up with new ideas, or modifying great ideas from other teachers, without being afraid to fail now and again
• T - Tech-laden - making use of the latest digital technology and incorporating it where appropriate for the material
• C - Creative - giving students the opportunity to explore their own creative potential
• H - Hands-on - giving students more opportunities to engage in active learning

Ditching is a great way to customize materials for classes to make them more relevant for your own particular students. For example, if we are studying invasive species in my biology class, instead of using examples given in the textbook, I can provide my students with case studies based on invasive species here in Thailand, such as water hyacinth. In our evolution topic, I can draw on the most recent research into the evolution of resistance to antimalarial drugs on the Thai-Cambodian border. 

As can be seen from the acronym, the use of tech tools forms an important strand of the ditch philosophy, the 'T' standing for Tech-laden. The use of learning management systems like Moodle, and more recently Google Apps for Education (GAFE) tools, like Google Classroom, lend themselves perfectly to a ditching approach. Another great way to ditch using tech is through Hyperdocs.

I was already moving away from a reliance on textbooks in my classes when I discovered the weekly #DitchBook chat on Twitter. By participating regularly in this chat, I rapidly accelerated my ditching journey. Although I still find the need to use textbooks in class occasionally - plus students find it useful to have reference materials in one place in our exam-heavy system - I am using them less and less. 

A new 6-week Ditch That Textbook study group will be starting soon on Twitter, using the hashtag #DitchBook. The Team Ditchbook stalwarts, including Sandy Otto, Karly Moura, Chantell Manahan, Rachel Marker, Sean Fahey, and of course Matt, are always happy for new ditchers to join the chat! The first chat is on June 23rd 10pm EST / June 24th 9am Bangkok time.

Using citizen science to support global learning connections

Last week's #AsiaEd slow chat on Twitter discussed how we as educators can help our learners become globally connected citizens. As a follow-up I will outline what I think is a great way to do this, which is by encouraging students to get involved in citizen science. I have written previously about how I have introduced my students to citizen science, which is essentially science carried out by amateur, non-professional scientists. In this post I will outline various citizen science projects and websites which offer opportunities for students to participate in citizen science. I will also explain why I think these kinds of projects are useful for helping learners to become globally connected citizens. 

Dr Lin Chambers from NASA has a videoconference with students who participated in the S'COOL project.

NASA


NASA has a number of citizen science projects, for example the CloudSat and S'COOL projects. Students participate in these activities by making careful observations of the sky conditions - cloud cover, cloud types etc - then uploading these data to the respective project web sites. One of the aims of these projects is to reconcile surface observation data with observations made by sensors on satellites, in order to try and improve the accuracy of the sensors. By taking part in these projects students can make connections on a global scale. This includes making connections with the science, for example the global nature of climate science. It also includes making connections with a global community of both citizen scientists (other schools who are engaged with these projects) and professional scientists, for example NASA climate change specialists. Students at my school have participated in videoconferences with NASA scientists and with a school in the US which also participates in the S'COOL project.

A student presents some data for the NASA S'COOL project videoconference.

SciStarter

SciStarter is a very useful website which contains links to a large range of different projects in which volunteers can get involved. Their website has a search function that allows you to select and search for a variety of topics and activities. There are links to many different projects across a range of fields. 

Zooniverse

Another great website which has a variety of citizen science projects across a range of disciplines is Zooniverse. Projects include Snapshot Serengeti, where volunteers help to classify animals in photos taken by camera traps, and Asteroid Zoo, where work is conducted to identify near Earth asteroids. 

Journey North

Journey North is a website dedicated to monitoring wildlife migrations and seasonal change. It also has a number of resources for educators, such as activities, slide shows and teacher guides. 

Project Noah

Project Noah is an online tool for documenting biodiversity around the world. Anyone can join, and once signed up members can upload photos of wildlife they have taken, along with details of the organisms they spotted. This information can then be used by ecologists in various ways, for example to track the spread of invasive species, or to determine if climate change is having an impact on the geographic range of a species. 

Summary

Citizen science affords students the chance to make global connections between what they are learning in the classroom, and the community of practice of scientists. It also provides them opportunities to become globally connected with other learners around the world. There are many different citizen science projects with which learners can sign up to and get involved. By encouraging our students to engage in these kinds of activities we can provide fantastic opportunities both for learning about real science in an authentic fashion, as well as affording rich experiences for learners in a globally connected environment. 

Reflections on teaching and learning during an urban biodiversity project

This semester my Grade 10 students conducted projects which contained a number of elements considered to be important for project based learning (PBL). In this post I will describe the various activities carried out by learners as part of these projects, along with reflections on how I implemented each activity. This will be followed by a summary of learners' own reflections on the projects. 

A screenshot of the front page created by students.

1. Driving question

The driving question for these projects was 'What biodiversity can we find around us, when we live in a large urban centre like Bangkok?' On reflection, next time I would spend longer having students developing their own driving questions related to the theme of urban biodiversity. In this way learners would have more voice and choice over the direction their project took. 

2. Opening event

Groups of students were asked to take photos of various wildlife that they spotted around Bangkok. Back in class the following week, I asked learners to upload their photos to the biodiversity monitoring website Project Noah. I have blogged previously about how Project Noah is a great way to introduce learners to citizen science. This was the opening event for these projects, and aimed to give learners a sense of how their own photos and observations may be used to inform real-world science. 

An example of Bangkok's biodiversity.

3. Creating authentic products

In order for learners to exercise some creativity, and make good use of the photos they had taken, I asked for each group to create a web page for their photos within Google Sites. This was also where students were able to reinforce what we had been learning in class about scientific naming and classification of organisms, habitats, and community interactions. 

Additionally, I asked each group of students to create a video based on their observations and photos. They had a choice of approaches here: a series of their photos put together as a movie, a filmed piece to camera, a video with a voiceover etc. These videos were then posted to YouTube (for example here), and so represent an authentic, public product.

5. Learners' reflections

At the end of the project I wanted students to have the opportunity to reflect on their learning throughout the projects. This would also act as feedback for me, affording me insights into what could be improved about the projects in future. These reflections were recorded by having students complete a questionnaire created using a Google Form.

All but one student (27/28) completed the reflections questionnaire. 25/27 students responded that they had learned something new about biodiversity in Bangkok. Many students expressed surprise at the range of biodiversity they discovered in and around Bangkok. 

A number of students expressed the opinion that going out finding wildlife of which to take photos of was fun, not boring, and in the words of one student '(felt) free, not like doing work'. Some students enjoyed making the videos, while others stated that they enjoyed putting their web pages together. 

When asked what was the most important thing they learned from the projects, many students noted that they had learned a lot about biodiversity and the relationships between living things. Other students highlighted team working skills as an important aspect they had learned from the projects. Some students talked about specific technical skills they had learned, such as building web pages and editing videos. 

When asked what they would change about the project, many learners responded that they wouldn't change anything. A few students suggested that there may be better options than Google Sites for building the web pages, since it is somewhat limited in the choices available. A couple of students also noted technical difficulties when it came to making the videos. 

Summary

My own personal feeling about these projects is that they were successful in many respects, most importantly that the majority of students felt that they had learned something new from them. I think next time I would spend longer in the driving question development phase, giving students more opportunity to have their input. Also, I would consider ways to give learners more say in the choice of what their final product should be. I still like the idea of having a website so that the whole group can collate their work in one place, but within that there could be a wider range of ways to display their findings. 

I would be interested to hear other views on these projects, along with suggestions for improving them. 

Five reasons I like Google Classroom

This semester I have been trialling Google Classroom for the first time. I've rolled it out for the basic biology course I teach with my Grade 10 students. I'm still using Moodle as the primary LMS for this course, but instead of having students return assignments via Moodle I'm now using Classroom as the primary productivity platform. Not surprisingly there has been a bit of a learning curve for both myself and my learners. However, there are a number of features - pedagogically, administratively, and aesthetically - that Classroom offers which I really like, and I will outline here. 

1. Fostering collaboration

Google Classroom integrates seamlessly with Google Apps productivity tools such as Docs and Sheets. This means learners can work on shared documents with each other in real-time, whether they are sitting on opposite sides of the classroom or in their rooms at home. What's great to see is learners finding out for themselves what works for them when using these kinds of collaborative tools. For example, whilst working on one assignment, I observed one student rapidly typing an answer in Thai into a shared document, while on the other side of the room another member of her group was industriously translating and typing the answer in English. 

2. Rapid feedback to learners

The speed and ease with which I can provide feedback on learners' assignments is a really big advantage afforded by Classroom. While students are working on their assignments in a shared Doc they have all ownership and editing permissions for that Doc. Once they submit their work, however, ownership permissions are transferred to me, at which point I can add feedback directly into their Doc. Once I have finished checking all of their assignments, I simply click to return all work and the permissions switch back to the students. This kind of rapid feedback provides a lot of scope for effective formative assessment. 

3. Easily keep track of student work

Classroom makes it incredibly easy to keep track of student work. When assignments are created within Classroom, folders are automatically created and named, and all assignments are saved in these folders. There is no longer any need for piles of reports on your desk, or an inbox overflowing with assignments submitted via email. This paperless aspect of Google Classroom is another very attractive feature. Depending on how assignments are organised and distributed, Classroom also offers scope for creating digital portfolios for students in a single, easy to locate place. 

4. Students like it

I haven't yet had chance to formally evaluate my students' opinions on their use of Classroom. However, my observations so far suggest that they enjoy using it. They have submitted a number of assignments now, and I have not heard any negative comments regarding it. This is despite, as I mentioned earlier, there being a bit of a learning curve, and some technical issues. For example, there were a few difficulties early on with students creating documents outside of Classroom, then uploading them when they were complete. This causes slight problems with the naming and storing of these files, and also with the transfer of ownership between learner and teacher. However, I think this was mainly due to unclear instructions from me as to how they should go about this, it being a new system for me as well. 

5. It looks good

Lastly, Google Classroom just looks really cool! It has a very clear and straightforward interface and, up to a point, it can be customised and individualised, for example by adding your own photos to the top of the page. While this may seem less important in terms of learning, I think it does actually matter to learners if what they are looking at and navigating is aesthetically pleasing. 

Summary

So, to summarise, I feel that Google Classroom is a useful tool for both learners and teachers. It offers important pedagogical features, such as facilitating collaboration, and enabling the rapid feedback which is so essential for effective formative assessment. It provides teachers with a great way to organise students' work, and the potential for digital portfolios. Learners appear to like it and have taken to it quickly, and as an added bonus it looks good. The next step will be to roll it out for my other classes.

If anyone would like to share how they are using Google Classroom, I'd love to hear about it!

Mastering academic writing with EALs via formative assessment

I recently wrote about an extended piece of scientific writing I assign to my Grade 12 biology students. This is to be a fully cited and referenced piece, and in order to guide my students I set them a small number of brief pre-essay formative assessments relating to paraphrasing, summarising, and how to correctly use a consistent style (e.g. APA) for in-text citations and reference lists. Since these are formative assessments, and therefore assessments for learning, I check them and provide feedback but do not grade them, although students do get credit for participation.

One of the recurring problems for my learners when looking at author lists for their citations is determining an author's family name. This sounds like it should be straightforward, except that in Thai culture the family name is very rarely used, except in very formal situations. While someone's given first name is used slightly more commonly, it again is generally used in more formal situations. Mostly, people go by their ชื่เล่น (chu len), or nickname. This does somewhat simplify things in most day-to-day interactions, because Thai official names can be very long. For example, someone called Chattamachode Krassanairasuriwongse may go simply by the nickname 'P'! But it does bring me back to my original point - that Thais can find it difficult to correctly ascertain a Western author's family name when writing their citations and references. Carrying out formative assessment is a great way to identify these problems and provide learners with rapid feedback about where they are going wrong. 

Paraphrasing and summarising academic writing can prove difficult for many learners, but may present EALs with a much bigger challenge. Although there is some evidence to suggest that EALS can have an advantage when it comes to certain linguistic skills, there are some difficult challenges to overcome when learners' first language is so very different, and this is compounded in this case with the use of academic English. My students are often shocked when I point out that when writing literature reviews, authors must summarise entire research papers in a couple of lines. Again, I am hoping that by having learners engage in these formative assessment tasks they will gain a much clearer understanding of what is required for their final essay task.

A big help this year in providing timely feedback for learners came from using Google Classroom. This allowed me to distribute the formative assessments to students easily, and to then provide direct comments in their text and where they made errors. What I am also able to do, which was more difficult when using our previous LMS, Moodle, is to offer students the option to share their early drafts with me. This will allow me to give them real-time feedback on the development of their essay. Obviously I will not be re-writing their work for them, but I would like to scaffold them to achieve a level of mastery in academic writing, which will be more feasible with this kind of ongoing support. I will be interested to see how this approach affects the essays which get submitted at the end of the semester.

Using Google Classroom for the first time

The new school year has just started here in Thailand, and one of the changes I am planning this year is to use Google Classroom. I have used various Google Apps in class previously, and found them to be very useful, particularly as collaborative tools. However, this will be the first time I have used Google Classroom itself. 

I will be piloting the use of Classroom with my Grade 10 students as part of their basic biology course. A key thing when integrating new technology is not to take on too much too soon, so I'm not rolling it out for my other courses as yet. For now I will also continue to use Moodle as an LMS for posting resources such as videos, links to useful websites and so on, but any productive work such as written assignments will be done via Classroom.

The school band playing as school opens for the year.

Pedagogical rationale

As with any EdTech integration it is important to think about pedagogy first and then see what technology may be suitable in achieving the pedagogical aims. 

In this case the rationale behind using Google Classroom includes the following:

• To facilitate more collaborative learning
• To make learning more visible, by allowing rapid feedback to learners, from both me and, just as importantly, from their peers
• To clarify and consolidate links between topic areas within ecology
• Following on from the previous point, to enable stronger links to be made between the classroom and the real world, by demonstrating more clearly how the different sub-topics relate to the overarching theme of the interdependence of living things with each other and their environment
• To form the basis of a digital portfolio

I foresee a couple of potential hurdles with this approach. There may be technical issues, such as how to deal with group work assignments, although there are a few workarounds for this. Classroom is still a work in progress, so there may be other, unforeseen technical challenges. Also, there is a danger of 'Google fatique', if learners become tired of using the same platform repeatedly. Hopefully, however, this project will proceed smoothly and according to plan. Alternatively I may be pulling my hair out and spending a lot of time lurking on the Google+ Classroom community page!