Chris Aldrich (boffosocko.com)The fact that an empty TiddlyWiki file is named index.html gave me my answer: set up a GitHub Pages-based website and simply connect it to my domain! However, as simple as this pathway may seem to some, I thought I’d briefly document the process I took so others can do the same for themselves.
Hi Chris,
This worked very well for me, I already had some git hub pages so just added another directory https://git.johnj.info/tiddly/
Took a few goes to get the settings to stick but I got there. I also found if I had two browsers open saving failed. Get the odd save error, but it seems to sort itself out in the end.
Not sure what I am going to do with this as I’ve a couple of other Tiddlywikis, but it is fun to play with.
The last two week were a first, teaching my class online. I’ve seen a tremendous about of activity and discussion of this over twitter, blogs and in my in box. A lot of companies offering free services for a limited time. It is hard to know where to start.
Over the years I’ve participated in a few different online learning experiences 1 What has characterised these courses was a wide amount of personalisation and choice, open ended tasks and no real deadlines.
I’ve even run a couple of short online courses, Blogging Bootcamp & Blogging Bootcamp #2.
I don’t think these experiences gave me the answer as how to run a primary school class online. The courses I’ve joined in I’ve often dropped out, and popped in again in a interest driven fashion. They have taught me a lot about the tech side of being online and made me think a lot about engagement. They have shown that what works to keep me engaged: open ended tasks and individual encouragement and connections. I am not however an 8-11 year old in lockdown.
We didn’t have much time for that. I use a lot of digital tools but I don’t use a lot of online communication in my classroom day to day. I have a loud voice. Over the past few years I’ve dipped into quite a few tools. But my go to method of digital communication in the classroom is AirDrop.
Apart for internet search, research and finding resources, the one online tool my pupils use most weeks is Blogs. We use glow blog e-Portfolios. We used other tools now and then particularly to discuss and to learn about the technology, email and Teams. The children are frequent editors and creators of digital text, audio, images and video.
As it became clear that school closure was coming I made sure all the pupils could access their glow email and a new class team. The pupils didn’t get the chance to become fluid using these tools.
This was not too complicated and will probably change. Every week I’ll make a blog post (week 2 example) with a weeks worth of instructions. I recorded the text as audio too. I email the pupils and get the school to email their parents. I try to have Teams open and respond quite quickly there. Keeping it very light. I share the link in teams and email. Unfortunately I told the class to leave the “got It” feature of online outlook alone as it was driving me daft in class.
In the two weeks from my class of 24 8-11 year olds I had:
I have no idea if that is good or bad?
I do have a bias towards blog posts for keep a record of some learning, the children are somewhat in charge and we get a permanent 2 record. The detail in the posts was a bit less than it is in class when I can suggest, advise and nag.
We had not used the assignments feature in Teams but I did try a wee test with the children who are using Teams this week. A poll of devices being used. I had 9 responses.
I don’t really have a very good picture of where and how the pupils are working either. What sort of support they have or what connectivity or devices. Some of them will have home schedules that don’t allow them time for this. Some will have parents that are tech savvy some not. Some will have good spaces to work…
We have seen a lot of discussion of this, both for school & work. Zoom’s rise and problems are well to the front.
It is likely our option is going to be Microsoft Teams. Again we had really briefly tested this in class. Last week I had another test with 8 or 9 pupils and a fellow teacher.
Teams in glow is limited in that pupils can’t turn on their video, only audio. This seems like a fair choice to make. There will be a lot of teachers dipping their toes into the online for the first time. Also audio is likely to use less bandwidth, Teams seems to have struggled a bit with the surge in use.
It was really nice to hear from pupils I’d not seen for a fortnight. There will be a lot of work to do around turn taking if there are going to work for anything other than good vibes1.
There was also a great difference in what different pupils could see. It was hard to tell if this was due to device, bandwidth or the fact teams is being a bit overwhelmed. Some pupils could see the whiteboard some could not, some could see a powerpoint other not.
Teams meet has a nice integration with the chat function. This seems to be a desktop only function. On tablets and phones you are ‘taken out’ of the video conference and back to the chat tab in Teams. Again physical space will make a difference. Will the pupils be in a quite place, or amongst other members of their family.
I think running a class via video conference successfully probably needs a lot of thought, practise and planning, if the object is a bit more than keeping in touch.
I expect we will be getting some guidance from Local Authority and National level as to how to proceed after the spring break. This would be what I’d want to try if given the choice.
I guess my plan looks a lot like the Flipped model. Without the emphasis on video and with online comms replacing the classroom side of the flip.
I imagine when we get to it, I’m kludge and fidget my way through. The main idea I have is to keep it simple and the tech as low-fi as possible.
I am also going to keep in mind that some of my pupils will have better learning in their than I can provide. I’ve already seen some of this from reports by children and email from parents.
Featured Image by Heather one of the talented Banton Biggies. She share this in our class team, the mouse was released unhurt. Used with permission.
Aaron Davis (collect.readwriterespond.com)I know that emojis have been an issue in the past, however I manually remove it from the slug these days (see url https://collect.readwriterespond.com/indigenous-for-desktop/). The only emojis are in the title? I think that you have touched upon my only concern/frustration with Micropub/sub Readers....
Hi Aaron,
I find emoji anywhere in Response Properties makes them vanish on publish. Lots of folk use them in twitter names, and if I’ve been too lazy to look at the details, boom.
Indigenous seemed to fill the response properties in an emojiless post, but I needed to update the post manually to get them to show on the front end of the blog.
I’ve got Default Status for Micropub Posts set to draft, and posting from Indigenous’s post section respected that, but replies didn’t. I need to test a wee bit more.
I guess I want cake and eat it, quick posting and the ability to edit quotes etc. Unfortunately I don’t have the ability to dive in and do this for myself.
I’ve been much encouraged to see that MS Teams supports markdown in posts and in the wee praise ‘badges’. Makes things a little neater than unruly long weblinks.
Wondering if #RadioEdutalk could be of use now.
https://edutalk.cc
If you are an educator (non-commercial) and want to broadcast audio or podcast please get in touch.
Watching Higher Ed from afar and seeing some discussion of online teaching, in the face of the coronavirus, from school teachers, Alan’s post is really valuable.
But really, if I was helping folks, my suggestion an strategy would be… do as little as possible online. Use online for communicating, caring, attending to people’s needs, but not really for being the “course”. Flip that stuff outside.
I am reading that along with: HEWN, No. 344 – HEWN (Hack Education Weekly Newsletter):
‘This may be our moment,’ ed-tech folks exclaim, giddily sharing lists of their favorite digital learning tools (with little concern, it seems for questions of accessibility, privacy, or security) and tips for quickly moving ‘to the cloud.’
In schools I have no doubt that there are some (more than some?) classes that are already tooled up and are fortunate that their pupils all have good access, practised with the software and savvy parents and teachers. If not diving into high bandwidth apps or ones that need the ability to navigate a complex UI might not work that well.
Athole has been teaching primary online for 6 weeks:
@IanStuart66 @Sfm36 @johnjohnston #TeachMeet Virtual Learning Scotland – meet up to share tools, pedagogy and banter to help Scot teachers to support one another and prepare in case of school closures – from one who has now been teaching exclusively online for 6 wks! A goer???
— Mr M (@athole) March 10, 2020
I suspect his pupils might have better home kit, access and tech support? Athole I’d love to know.
My thoughts at the moment are, unless there are school, LA or national diktats :
I am sure if I am in the situation of teaching from home my instincts would be make something, but I think that might serve my own itchs rather than my pupils.
I might be tempted to try a multiplayer Minecraft Edu edition as we have dipped our toes in it for maths work, but it might be quick tricky across different home networks. My pupils enthusiasm for the game might make it worth it.
I am glad I am not in the position of supporting pupils heading for exams.
At School we just used @TinkeringStudio’s Cardboard Automata project to do some ‘cardboard engineering’ I was pretty pleased with the way it came out. I was fairly prescriptive with the first mechanical parts and gave almost no advice for the creative bit.
Working with a multi-composite class made this pretty interesting. If I’d just had p6-7 I would have probably given them the instruction sheets and let them get on with it helping where needed. As it was I managed to split work into sections and gave verbal and demos for each without, I hope, frustration the older children too much.
We managed to incorporate a fair bit of maths (measure, division, shape) along with skills for work, problem solving and creativity which I think justified the time spent. I hope to try out some of the other TinkeringStudio projects.
There is a quick video of some of the finished results on the class blog.
I’ve got a wee system for making simple Tarsia puzzles, not particularly beautiful, but quick. I am putting them in OneDrive as I go in case they are useful. Tarsia A few primary maths ones to start with.
I don’t seem to be able to link to a grid view…
“We’re delighted to launch our new #microbit coding platform, created with @Nominet, including new resources & #microbitClassroom - a unique coding space for 2 minute lesson setup! https://t.co/B7It8jPyjs #edtech #edchat #STEM #coding”
micro:bit classroom
This looks as if it might be a really neat idea, local storage, no sign-in for teacher or pupils. Download everything and resume session later.
I am wondering if it will, now or soon, work with the iOS micro:bit app?
My class enjoyed trying a tarsia puzzle on Friday. I’ve started a wee SuperCard project to generate these. (There is a windows app but I could not find a mac one). A very simple start to break up a weekend of report writing.
