One of the fun things about using more tech in the classroom is the process of trial and error. I think I have a good handle on things, only to try putting it into action and realizing all the little microsteps that I hadn't thought through. I only teach each class once, so I don't really have a "guinea pig" class to try things out on so I can refine it for later classes. Things work, or they don't and we have to adapt.
Little example: today, I started my 10th graders on their lit circles for Aquariums of Pyongyang. I had created a Google doc with their instructions, but when I directed them to it, I realized that there were two groups who needed to create their schedules. I quickly made a copy and shared the link on our class Facebook page, but when the second group tried to access it, they found they were still competing with the first group. As far as I could tell, they were working on the copy doc, not on the original since I saw the guest symbol at the top. That made me wonder if a copy correlates to the original or if there was some glitch in the system because we were all working at the same time.
I also realized that since they would be using this doc to submit their Lit Circle materials, the link wasn't the best option, so quickly added their emails to share the docs.
None of these things were especially time-consuming or problematic, but I realize that a little more planning and playing around with the system would have made things much smoother.
There's always next time!
Little example: today, I started my 10th graders on their lit circles for Aquariums of Pyongyang. I had created a Google doc with their instructions, but when I directed them to it, I realized that there were two groups who needed to create their schedules. I quickly made a copy and shared the link on our class Facebook page, but when the second group tried to access it, they found they were still competing with the first group. As far as I could tell, they were working on the copy doc, not on the original since I saw the guest symbol at the top. That made me wonder if a copy correlates to the original or if there was some glitch in the system because we were all working at the same time.
I also realized that since they would be using this doc to submit their Lit Circle materials, the link wasn't the best option, so quickly added their emails to share the docs.
None of these things were especially time-consuming or problematic, but I realize that a little more planning and playing around with the system would have made things much smoother.
There's always next time!