The Danger of TTWWADI, or "That's the Way We've Always Done It"

Sitting in class today, we read an excerpt from Understanding Digital Kids by Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Lee Crockett. The authors discuss the challenges we face in educating the new kind of students we encounter in schools. Our schools are not designed to educate these students, because neurologically, these students are different than students of the past.

So then why do we continue to educate students the same way? And many times, the answer is Because "That's the Way We've Always Done It" or as the authors call it- TTWWADI. Here is that excerpt called "The Five Apes" from Understanding Digital Kids we read in class from an example of why TTWWADI is dangerous. It's time to start asking the question- WHY NOT?

“Inside the cage, a bunch of bananas are hanging on a string and a set of stairs is placed under the bananas. Before long, one of the apes will see the bananas and start to climb the stairs to get to them.


As soon as they touch the stairs, you take a fire hose and spray all of the apes in the cage with ice cold water until you knock them down and drive them away from the bananas. Sooner or later another ape makes an attempt and, again, all the apes are sprayed with cold water.

Pretty soon, whenever another ape tries to climb the stairs, all the other apes will attack that ape to try to prevent it from going for the bananas because they don’t want to get sprayed by the ice cold water—another attempt, another attack, another attempt, another attack. Before too long, all of the apes know what will happen to them if they make a move.

Now, put away the fire hose and the cold water, remove one of the original five apes from the cage, and replace it with a new one. Of course, the new ape will see the bananas and attempt to climb the stairs. To its surprise and horror, all of the other apes will attack that ape to prevent it from climbing the stairs because they don’t want to get sprayed with ice cold water. Another attempt, another attack, another attempt, another attack.

Pretty soon the newest ape knows that if it climbs the stairs, it will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with new one. As Yogi Berra says, this becomes déjà vu all over again—the scene will repeat itself—and the first ape we replaced will actually take part in the punishment of the newcomer with the greatest enthusiasm!

Likewise, replace a third original ape with a new one, then a fourth and fifth. Every time a new ape tries to climb the stairs, it gets attacked. Interestingly enough, the apes who are beating him have NO IDEA why they are not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape. After replacing all the original apes, none of the remaining apes have ever even been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no ape will ever again approach the stairs to try for those bananas.

The question we need to ask is why not? And the answer is because as far as the apes in the cage know . . . well, that’s just the way we do things around here.”

Google Forms Tip: Changing Response Destination

Here's a quick tip for teachers who teach the same content in multiple periods. In a few quick steps, you can have students in separate periods take the same form, with all the responses in the same document but each class will have its own sheet. This tip is especially helpful if you're using a script like Flubaroo for grading, and want to e-mail grades separately for each class.

1. Create your Form. If you have the setting "Always Make a New Spreadsheet", then in your Google Drive there will already be a Spreadsheet with the same name as your Form (Responses). If not, click Send Form, e-mail the Form to your first class, and create a new Spreadsheet.

2. Make a copy of the Form by going to File -> Make a Copy. Rename your copy with the Class Period.

3. When the copy opens, go to Responses -> Change Response Destination. Then select New sheet in existing spreadsheet, followed by Choose. 

4. Select the original spreadsheet.

5. Open your original spreadsheet and you will now see an extra sheet at the bottom of the document. (You can rename each sheet by class period by selecting the arrow next to the current name and then Rename.)

6. Repeat steps 2-5 for as many classes as needed. Enjoy!


If you have any questions, leave a comment! Until next time!

TIP: Embedding Videos in your Google Forms

In the past month, I have given a few Professional Development workshops on Google Apps for Education. A common question I get is "how do I add videos to my Google Form?" So, here is a quick tutorial! Keep in mind, at this time you can only embed videos that are found on YouTube. However, this is such an extensive library, that shouldn't be limiting. Happy Form-ing!

Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!

"The endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula in the Republic of Cascadia, peacefully frolicking in the conifer trees."

Not only is pulling an April Fool's Day prank on your students a great way to take a break from the seriousness of pre-high stakes testing, it can also provide a learning experience!

By coincidence, today my class was scheduled to visit the Media Center to work with our Media Specialist +Danielle DeCarolis on using databases such as EBSCO for finding resources for their Infographics. I took the opportunity to discuss source reliability by visiting the ever-popular (and very fake) website about the  Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. As a Do Now, I asked students to visit the website and fill out this graphic organizer with information from the website. After about five minutes of silent reading and recording, I asked students to share out what they learned. 

Then, I hit them with the big question- "Did anyone find anything STRANGE about this website?", followed by a HUGE laugh from the class, and "I can't believe we fell for that!" Next, we followed up with a discussion on reliable sources. We discussed the features of the website that made it seem real, and discussed why having sources such as newspaper or journal articles and encyclopedia entries are more reliable than trusting every result from a search engine. 

We had a great laugh together, and I think they learned something too! I'm sure they will not forget the Tree Octopus!

"If This Then That"- Google Drive Edition

As teachers, we can at times feel isolated from others. You might be "locked in a box" with 25 students all day, or you might teach 6 different periods during the day. As a Special Education teacher, I tend to feel even more isolated because there is no one else in my district like me- no other Middle School teacher who teaches all four subjects. As isolated as we may feel during the day, however, we can reach out to others through social media.

My PLN (professional learning network) that I've formed through social media such as Twitter and Google+ has opened me up to new ideas and has kept my classroom interactive and exciting for the past two years. However, with so much information at your fingertips, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. 

I am a serial "favorite"-er. I favorite or +1 tens of things in one sitting, but then when I want to go back to that resource, I can't find it! Thankfully, If This Then That (ifttt.com) has the solution!

If This Then That allows you to make connections between certain events that you always want treated the same way. For example, "If I upload a picture to Facebook, then post it on Instagram". There are thousands of "recipes" out there that you can use. But some of my favorite recipes have to do with archiving my social media finds. 

If This Then That has a whole Google Drive Channel that allows you to link things you do every day to your Drive. My favorites so far have been: 

The first recipe takes anything you favorite on Twitter and saves the author, tweet address, and any address contained in the tweet in a spreadsheet. All the favorites are then time stamped. This makes it easy to access the links from tweets on your own time.

The second recipe also takes anything you favorite on Twitter, but saves the entire tweet in a Document by tweet author. This allows you to search for content by the author of the tweet. These two recipes have helped me organize my workflow and I am no longer worried about losing that great site I found on Twitter!

What are your favorite ifttt recipes?

Until next time....

Google Form Tip: How to Prepopulate a List in "Choose From a List"

As I'm sure many of us know, even when you think you are well-versed in any aspect of life, there is always more to learn! Case and point- this trick from my colleague +Kevin O'Donnell . He created a Form  for his students in his 8th grade technology classes this semester. Students will work for the first 10-15 minutes independently on https://educourses.withgoogle.com.  After completing the independent work for that class, students will report their progress using the Form.

Upon first seeing the drop down boxes, I was shocked how much information Kevin had put in and thought of how much time that much have taken! Until he stopped me in the hall later that day and explained that he prepopulated the dropdown boxes using a list. Genius! What a time saver! View the tutorial below and find out how to use this time-saving trick yourself!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Forms! Day 7- Drop Box

If you are anything like me, when you first started with Google Apps for Education, your "Shared With Me" folder quickly exploded with students submissions. You had a powerful new tool, and you were excited to use it! However, the organization quickly becomes a nightmare.

There are many different ways to organize your assignments from your students. You can have students share a folder with you, but then you have to go through each folder individually to search for assignments. I just started using gClassFolders, which creates a specific Assignments folder, but you will have to look for different Assignments folders for each class or subgroup.

Or, you can use a Form! This is another form from the Template Gallery, and it was created by Todd Roth. Think of it as the application Drop Box- because that's what it is! Students fill out basic information such as their names and class period, along with the Title of the assignment. (As a side note, creating a specific naming convention for all assignments such as LAST, FIRST PERIOD # DATE can make your life a lot simpler, and then you won't have students asking every time).Then, students simply copy and paste the URL of their assignment. Students needs to make sure that under Sharing, they select you specifically, or Anyone with the Link so you can view the assignment.

Once all students have submitted the Form, all of their assignments will be in one Sheet, and it will be quite easy to access. Here is the link to the Form from the Template Gallery.

Thanks to all of you who have checked back each day to see my Favorite Forms. It has been a challenge to blog every day, but I have reached so many new people in doing so! In the coming weeks, I hope to dive in a little deeper into Forms and other Apps.

Is there something else YOU want to know about Forms? Any other topics you'd like to see me cover? Let me know! Until next time...