Chrome Music Lab

To get right to the point, Chrome Music Lab is wicked fun.

It is currently Music in our Schools month, So, I thought I might share a little bit related to music. I'm not a music teacher, but I am passionate about music and appreciate its power. Music is a magical form of communication that breaks down any barrier and brings people together.  I take any chance I can get to listen, create, or experience music. You can ask any one of my students, that if there isn't any music playing in my classroom, it's only because I'm not in school that day.  Music really does sooth the beast, and control the attitudes in a classroom. If you want high energy play some good Rock, if you want students to be chill and focus, play some good jazz (this is a good tune for when students are working in groups...watch out at 6:04, you might have an uncontrollable urge to shake your body!)

The Chrome Music Lab makes you feel like a kid again. It is really fun to create mini-tunes and take a break to just live in the moment. Sure, there are a lot of music making tools out and about, but this one is so simple. All you need is a bit of creativity and you are off. Enjoy the music and have some fun, check out Chrome Music Lab.

OK Google! Why do students struggle to find good information?

My generation was lucky enough to evolve with emerging technology. Thankfully, the technology did evolve. I remember having a rotary phone as the main house land line, watching the original Star Wars Trilogy on Betamax, playing video games like clowns and balloons on the Radio Shack TRS-80 color computer. (It must have been the model 4, I'm not that old) Eventually, the NES came along and our first, true home computer was fully loaded with Windows 95 that had to start from the DOS prompt for some reason. Social media was using EFNet IRC to slowly type a few words like "Hey. What's up?" However, before you got to the internet you were subjected to listening to horrible modem sounds and waiting for the dial up connection. Internet research began with Asking Jeeves about it's sexual orientation as well as how cool other classmates might be.

Now, fast forward about 25 years and thankfully, technology has become more sophisticated and easier to use. In that time, my lucky generation has become masters at asking Google questions and finding relevant information to satisfy the instantaneous need to know how much money Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom made on opening day, or trying to find the episode of Full House where DJ was caught with a beer by Uncle Jesse. Besides finding useless information, my lucky generation has also become "Google Ninja's" and can pretty much find valid information about any topic, and be able to learn enough about it to be able to show off the newly discovered knowledge. If you need a research paper, Google Scholar to the rescue. If you need specific information about a political issue in the last few months, Google Filters to the rescue. If you prefer to not be tracked and get faster answers that are from more trustworthy sites, then DuckDuckGo is the place to be. Similarly, we've evolved to be able to quickly type the Boolean lingo that we know the search engines want. If I want information about Carbon Dioxide levels from the previous ice age, and  not collect that from Yahoo Answers,  I can search for this in google:  CO2 and Ice Ages -site:answers.yahoo.com

OK, so what's the point of all this rambling, besides a journey down memory lane? Being in a time where technology is everywhere and information is easy to access, many students still do not know how to access this information. Many teachers, myself included, assume that students just know how to use these search tools, and know how to find the correct information. Similarly, we assume they know what sites to trust and what sites to take with a grain of salt. The reality is, they take it for granted that they have these powerful devices that are wicked good at playing games, and "socializing." Our task as educators is to help students learn how to harness the power of these devices. The first step is to help them learn how to use the internet to find good information. Google has a pretty significant hold on this generation. They have devices, they have tools in the cloud, they are taking over education, yet finding valid information can throw a typical student for a loop. My response to this task, as an educator, is to frequently respond to student questions with..."Hmm, that's a great question. I'm not sure, let's look it up." Then I'll model how to search Google for their question.

Google works best if you can summarize your question with short key words. Then, to obtain more relevant information, use the filters to adjust how far back to pull information. Many times I'll include the -site:answers.yahoo.com tag. Students are often told to stay clear of Wikipedia. My philosophy on that differs, Wikipedia is a great place to get some quick information. However, some other sites are not quite as trustworthy. I will typically  model the tag to show students how to eliminate sites that are not always trustworthy, like yahoo answers. Modeling this frequently has helped students hone in on their skills. Similarly, I create assignments that require farther research that encourage students to search Google for information. While students are overwhelmed with a sea of technology, mastering a basic skill provides students with a powerful tool to be lifelong learners.

Sign in, Sign Out on a pseudo-Droid? (Not BB-8)

Most schools have a policy that requires students to sign in and out of a classroom if they request to leave the room during class time or arrive late to class. similarly, most computer labs have a sign in and out book of some kind. 

Recently, my school Tech support person approached me about some very old Asus Netbooks that were really good at collecting dust and keeping papers from bowing away. I was asked if I had any use for them. Being the tech hoarder that I am, I immediately jumped on this opportunity and took as many as I could. Why would anyone want an Asus Eee PC seashell series Netbook you ask? Well, the intel atom process is perfect for running Android. That's right, Android. I grabbed up those paper weights, and put some of students on the task of cleaning them up, and creating one solid tweaked out Netbook. We downloaded a pre-compiled x86 branch of Android from the android-x86 project hosted on Sourceforge. We installed the operating system, and just like that, this paper weight was a newly rooted Android tablet. 

Why would we do this you ask? Well, I was getting annoyed with having to continuously clean up the fake names and doodles on my sign in/sign out book in my classroom. I was also annoyed with the occasional interruption in the middle of class because the pen or pencil was missing from the book. I decided to use this device to house a google form as my classroom log. This has helped to eliminated the fake names, times, and most of the fake reasons for leaving or arriving. I also haven't had to replace the writing implement yet! 

The device is a nice piece of equipment to leave near the door. I don't  really care if anything were to break. Similarly, if a student were to try and take it, the battery won't stay charged for very long, and being a pseudo Android, it only works if you have wifi. The device can't make calls, or use data. Since it is rooted device, I easily password protected all apps. A student wouldn't get very far. Unless they could hack my 5 sentence password. (shoot now they now it's 5 sentences. It still won't matter.) 

Here is my routine with the device:

1. First I made a Google Form to mimic my sign in sheet. 
2. I have the form set to require users to log in. 
3. I also made a fake google user in our domain to remain signed into the form during the day. 
4. On the android device, I made this form the start page for Chrome. 
5. In the morning, I unplug the device from the charger, sign in as the "science" user on the form and place it on the desk by the door. 
6. When a student leaves they sign out. When they return, they sign back in.
7. The form is also available to all students if they want to use their own device, however they have to log in with their Google Apps account to access the form. 
8. At the end of the day, I shut off the device and put it on the charger. Typically the machine has been holding a charge throughout the day. The Android spends most of the day in sleep mode anyway. (The Android is also set to wake without a password. Upon waking up, it starts in Chrome) 

Really, any device would work. All I'm doing is accessing a google form. I felt this was a good use of a piece of equipment that was heading for the landfill. It was also fun to turn this thing into an Android.