Throughout college I had the pleasure of being on the student end of an e-learning software program named Moodle. Moodle is a cloud based service which allows instructors to upload anything from a simple assignment to an entire lecture with Power Point which the student is then able to access and use as instructed. While at Anderson University I was able to take exams, grab assignments, and watch or listen to lectures I had missed (or skipped). This type of service goes far beyond just simple assignment management though, my professors and myself were able to track grades, start discussions to ask questions, and stay in constant communication with everyone in the class. Each course has it’s own space on Moodle so I was never getting one class confused with another. As a student I loved to be able to go home and ask a question to my prof and the class, check any assignments, and to be able to do my work online and not have to worry about printing something out and taking it to class. As a teacher now I love the idea of being able to use a service like this in my class in conjunction with my students being provided with laptops, it would be awesome! I can imagine a nearly paperless classroom with so much being done online. I could use the service to upload my lecture and notes for all my classes and take more time in class to have more activities, simulations, and other interactive lessons. Now I am not talking about cutting notes out completely from my class, but you never know, with what is available today you may just be able to do so after some trial and error. Being able to have the test online with laptops in the classroom, the students would be able to take the online test in class, with me monitoring, and then BOOM! instant results and grades after they are done. It isn’t just about making teaching easy, it is about using things that the students will be able to take advantage of. Let’s face it kids today… I wasn’t one too long ago too… are more accustomed to using their computers at home for all kinds of things, most would find it “cool” to do their homework and some classwork on their laptop or online, versus taking out a notebook and a broken pencil everyday. So lets start investing more in some of these tools that can help everything from grading tests to class discussion!

Hopefully by this point most people in education know what Twitter is seeing that many of their students and school systems use the micro-blogging service. I hear students each and everyday talking about Twitter and what their friends are Tweeting. Last year I opened a Twitter account and at first I almost questioned why I did it. I mean I’m a huge geek and all but Twitter never seemed like something I would use since I had Facebook. Now, two hundred and some odd Tweets later I have two accounts and love the service. I use Twitter mainly to follow journalists, fellow geeks, and lately other educators which all together provides me with a tailored feed of news updates, geek updates, and teaching strategy updates. I read far more Tweets than I write at this point, but that is just the way I use Twitter right now. When I have a full time position and my own classroom I will be Tweeting all the time to give students and parents classroom updates! While some do use the service to simply post when they are going to the bathroom or what they are about to eat I have found that many users truly provide great information dealing with their field. If you use Twitter to follow those in your field or an area you are interested in you usually end up with some great info, if you follow Jimbob down the road, well you might be disappointed.

So Twitter can be useful personally and professionally for information distribution and gathering, but how can it be used in the classroom? One of the best ways I have thought is using it for real time updates of important class information. If you create an account that would be used just as a teacher and tell your students to follow you, it would be super easy to send out deadlines, reminders and links for everything from a quick assignment to a major project. Twitter users can even set up their account to send and receive updates via text message alerts or awesome smartphone apps so that students can check anytime what you have Tweeted lately. Students who follow you would also be able to shoot you a quick message asking a question about an assignment so that you can provide them with a quick response! Another great thing is that since Twitter limits the number of characters that can be used you (and the student) are forced to be straight to the point with each update or question asked.

Another way you would be able to use your Twitter account is to give the account to the parents of students in your class that way they can follow the same updates as your students and keep their student more accountable at home. Parents of course would also be able to ask questions through Twitter the same as students. Even though a lot of teachers have websites that are up to date, with Twitter you can push out instant updates which can then be sent directly to various devices allowing parents to keep up to date without having to check an entire website all the time.

One more use for Twitter is that most school systems have a Twitter account (I’ve noticed this when I’ve visited sites looking for jobs) which would allow you and your students to keep up to date with school events and even closings.

These are just a few of the ways Twitter can be used to make education a little better and keep everyone more connected. I’m sure a lot of teachers out there have a lot more ways to use the service as well and feel free to share them. Check out Twitter, and if you feel like you could make good use of it do it and start sending out those Tweets!

(I can be found on Twitter  @joshuasepos (Personal) and @seposteacher (Professional))

So I figured my blog would be a great way to explain a bit more in depth! As I Tweeted back, I think the idea of students (especially high school students) with laptops in the classroom is a tremendous idea! I recently graduated college and have spent about a year and a half in the classroom since, and the classrooms I have been in where the students did have laptops were geared for learning much more than others in my humble opinion. By the way some of those students were in middle school even!

So here are a few of the reasons of why I think this is a great idea… seriously I could write a book on this just to let you know. Quickly though, I would hope that the school would provide for the laptops, either for all four years or even just a students junior and senior year to prepare them more for college. Now lets start with the fact that students with laptops would have the world at their fingertips, if those laptops are equipped with internet access, and if the school invests in fast connections versus cheap connections. Some would argue that the access be limited in school to only research sites and not include some sites like Facebook or Twitter, I would leave that to the administration to decide. However there are pros and cons for both, and I will say I have seen on more than one occasion… a lot actually… students using those services to keep up to date on school stuff… I even have a Twitter account just for teaching. Also YouTube is a great tool for teachers and students, for old video clips of speeches to cool student projects, sadly most schools block YouTube these days. Organization is another area, students would be able to keep better organized throughout the school year, no need for a backpack crammed full of wrinkled papers when they can have it all (we will get to ALL in a bit) on their laptop. Most students can often type faster, especially in their text and IM style shorthand than they can hand write notes. That being said, being the teacher I could move through notes a little faster than I would normally be able to because I wouldn’t have to wait for students to take out a notebook, turn a page, or find a pen that works before and during notes. Having notes and lecture moving faster I would have more time for fun, interesting, and interactive activities. In addition with many more students having smartphones and laptops themselves, applications like Evernote (or other cloud services) would be huge tool for students to upload their notes so that it is always available to them and even to a student who misses class. My lecture notes could be interactive too, with fill in the blank style Power Points I could email the students for example. The laptop would go far beyond note taking though, I would be able to create interactive assignments, lessons, projects, and simulations that would allow students to upload, not print, their homework and other activities when they are done, during study hall, class, or at home. I wouldn’t have to wait for a student to get home to type their homework up they could just do it at school during study hall and email me or upload it to a service like Moodle (or again another cloud service) for me when they are done. This would also work to the student’s advantage because they would be able to keep a lot of school work at school and have their afternoons and evenings to themselves to be kids, instead of being bogged down with tons of school work when they get home because it needs to be completed on a computer. Ecologically it make’s a lot of sense too. With a class of 25 students and seven classes a day or more, that is 175 sheets of paper just for one assignment, not even counting the extras I will need to make for mistakes. With laptops I would be able to send out an email with the assignment to every student in the class in one shot, and they would be able to complete it and send it back with out a page printed. Even editing drafts would be a lot simpler for me, with Tracking in Pages and it’s counterpart in Word I can make virtual highlighted notes throughout a paper which the students can address one at a time, once again with no paper. With Tracking I could even easily give final grades on assignments, from papers to worksheets, with notes of where points were missed, again with no paper. Projects would have the opportunity to be a lot more tech centered for the students who enjoy working with computers. Students who aren’t comfortable making a raw materials project could make an interactive Power Point with videos, questions, and pictures. Students could make a video project, upload it to YouTube and I could watch it at home, or they could come in and hook up their laptop to the projector to show the class. If every student had a laptop they would be able to take advantage of sound and video tools to create and edit awesome visual and musical projects. Being a history teacher I would love my students to be able to do in-class research without booking a computer lab, and I can speak from experience, about 75 percent of the research I did in college was done on the internet and I know the same, or more is true for high school. The students and I could use social networking sites or sites like Moodle to our advantage creating discussion boards, forums, or even Tweets to ask a question about an assignment, or to email me or other students questions. I would then be able to answer those questions in an instant from home in the evening rather than making them wait to ask the next day. Students could easily access my teacher’s website to grab files, notes, and my dream… podcasts of each class! The only thing I envision being a problem in the classroom is student’s using their laptop for something other than schoolwork or what we are doing, what they do at home with it is not my business as long as it doesn’t destroy the school’s investment. I wouldn’t want students gaming it up on WoW or watching a movie while I am trying to teach. However I think with a creative teacher and lesson plans that show the potential of how much more fun school would be with the laptop a lot of students wouldn’t even bother. Plus with creative interactive lessons, the student wouldn’t have the time to mess around instead of learning. Let’s face it the students are already in love with the idea so why not play into that? These are just a few things I decided write about, I could far beyond what is just here, but I think you get the point.

Education needs to be about what will help our children learn best, not what make’s it super easy on the teacher (like re-using the same worksheet every year). The students in the classroom are often already familiar with the technology, they know how to use it, and can pick up on new things so quickly it would be easy to implement in many ways. Let’s face it, it would be good for the students, it would be good for the teachers, and in the end it will be good for the community and the globe. The opportunities with a laptop in the classroom are endless. I have taught in classrooms without and I have always felt limited, maybe it is because I am a geek, but seriously, paper and a pen versus a laptop with internet access… who wouldn’t say the opportunities are endless with the laptop?

Now I mentioned things I wear as well and this is way more simple, I really hate clothes with crazy logos on them. Now this might not be all that minimalistic just a preference, but it just isn’t something I like to wear, other people I don’t care. I like some shirts with sweet designs but overall give me a simple T, button-up, or polo and I will be happy. I’m not a girl so I don’t wear jeans with designs all over them.

Lastly, the things I use. Whether it’s my phone, my laptop, desktop, or hell the bag I throw everything in, I want it to be simple and functional. Pretty simple, I don’t want some skin for my laptop with crazy colors and designs, I don’t want to have something similar for my phone, I just want to have something awesome that works well and I feel like I’ve got both for now.

So, to wrap up, this may all change tomorrow, although I doubt it, but in general I try not to have things or use things that are like draw tons of attention to myself. If it does, oh well, yeah some people will notice the phone I use, or the laptop I use because they are a geek, and I’m cool with that because that’s what I do! But I try not to make it a point of drawing attention to the things I have, wear, or live in, I guess it all comes down to being just myself, and maybe these days and after a bit I’ve just become stripped down myself… who knows.

1. I am tall.

2. I look scary.

3. I look like an ogre.

4. I look nice.

Every once in a while I am surprised and subbing does provide some reward. The week before spring break this was the case. I had taken a job to sub for a class described on SubFinder as “Autism.” To be honest I was a bit nervous, I have had experience with special needs students in my class, all of which who are inclusion students, whose needs still allow them to be in mainstream classrooms. I knew that this group of students would be much different and that their needs would be much more severe than I have had to deal with in mainstream classrooms. I had an idea of what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of my expectations to be wrong. I expected to have one of the hardest days of subbing and it turned out to be the complete opposite.

I had four students and the help of two aides (which were a huge help). Each of the students had severe cases of Autism and brought with that a variety of needs big and small, mentally, and physically. Each student was one of the happiest kids I have ever met though and you could just see joy on their faces all day. They were a bit scared of me at first since I was a new strange teacher (and a lumberjack), but as the first few hours passed they really opened up to me. By midday we were having a blast. We hard art class, read books, watched some movies, had individual learning time, the whole nine yards. At the end of the day we took them out side and had our own little recess for an hour or so because it was so nice out.

As I was driving home I just thought to myself of all the fun we had throughout the day and what a great group of kids the four was. These kids would have medical problems for the rest of their life and they were as happy as can be. They showed their joy to each person they came across and were kind to each other, other students, and teachers. As I drove home I began to think about the day as a whole and how awesome it was. I thought about all the things we did with the students, the different activities, and the fun we had, and then I began to think, what awesome kids, these students were. I though of how much they could teach us about being open, caring, and joyful in ways we can sometimes find it hard to be. It truly was an awesome day.

Views from the final days.

The final day started out a bit different from the others. We decided that it would be a good time of reflection to set out in intervals of a couple minutes or two so we could spend some time alone on the trail. We also decided to be silent for a bit not bothering one another so that we would be able to reflect and take in all that was around us. On these last couple days our hike was spent on large mesa like areas, hiking for hours at a time and only crossing the river several times in a day because of its depth. At times we were up pretty high on the canyon walls following thin trails through these areas, other times extremely low. The deal was though you had to follow the set trail, unlike the other days if you went off the trail you could easily get stuck somewhere and have to spend double the time hiking back to where you needed to be.

I had been hiking for 45 minutes or an hour, mostly up hill, and I came to a point where I had to cross a small ledge. The trail was basically thin gravel at this point, and on the left of the trail was an extremely steep slope going down at least 75 feet or so. I had to walk across the ledge with my pack and all on, it was barely wide enough to be able to walk head on, so I looked at it for a minute or two and then set out. About halfway across my feet slipped out from under me, a flash of the rocks below went through my mind, I had to stop myself now before I fall completely over

Jeff looking at the view.

and slide head first into the rocks and ground below. The next moment I found myself jamming my hiking poles into the gravel praying they held onto something, thankfully they did. I was in shock, I almost fell 75 feet down and these two think metal hiking poles saved me. I just stood there, it felt like 5 minutes maybe it was two, the next thing I remember is hearing Jeff (who had caught up to me some time before) saying, “put your left foot up,” as I did, I began to evaluate my situation and a minute or two later I was across.

Would I have died if I had fallen? I have no idea, but it was a crazy moment to be sure. I only regret that I didn’t take a picture after the whole thing to remind myself of that moment. What is the point of all of this? I have no idea, but it was a hek of a way to start out the last day.

Shadows upon murky waters.

Probably the most amazing thing on the last day was the way the others helped me out. I was an idiot on this trip and brought a tent, which I only used the first night, the others I slept out under the stars (truly amazing). On the last day I was pretty ragged and while I was keeping up, the others could tell the weight of my pack was bringing me and my spirits down a bit. I had been hiking on my own for a bit, I could see Larry ahead of me, but wasn’t trying hard to catch up or anything, just keeping him in my sight. Larry stopped for a minute and let me catch up. he asked how I was doing and I told him pretty good, a bit tired but pretty good. Before I could say anything else he was taking the tent off my pack in order to lighten my load. I told him it was ok, but he said he wanted to take it because he knew it would

help me and make the last day less of a burden and more enjoyable, even though I knew it would make his more of a burden. This experience was awesome, as much as it pains me to say I was relieved to have the weight off my back at the time, and it was awesome that I never had to ask for any help, and while I was keeping up the other guys, they knew it’d help to take some of the weight off my back. The comradery formed on this trip was an amazing part of the whole experience, while I didn’t know some of the guys I was with very well we were all willing to help one another in whatever way from day one.

The path leading out of the Paria...

I don’t think I can really describe everything from the trip here in these words. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Everything about the trip, the views, the challenges, the towering walls around me all meant something different. There are times I long for

to be back in that canyon, away from it all, yet experiencing an insignificance (John Piper) that makes me truly recognize why we are all here on this Earth and what an amazing creator we have.