The Schoenblog

My lessons this week rely on Google Classroom, Forms, Docs, GMail, Remind, and so much more. In my mind each has a distinctive purpose and my choices support learning objectives and outcomes. But my mind is a weird place--it’s a chaotic mashup of tech and pedagogy, where my long, sometimes convoluted workflows work for me--but do they work for my students?

Are we giving our students too many options and norms? Is my tech-infused style of communication and feedback too much of a good thing?

Last week, I wrote about the power of Google Forms in addition to, or even instead of, collecting and providing feedback to students in Google Classroom. Click here to read #GoogleClassroom vs. #GoogleForms for Interacting with Student Work. With more reflection, I’ve started to think about the self-efficacy in technological communication. With technology, my communication and feedback can be more meaningful, specific, and efficient than ever before, and it also has permanence. Transparency and accountability increases when the reliability and consistency of communication improves and we have timestamped records of submissions and online interactions.

Still, when I return student work on Classroom, students find their feedback on Classroom or in their e-mail. When I automate a Google Form, it’s usually through e-mail, too. But then our gradebooks are in the school’s learning management system, so no matter where the grades started, they end up in the LMS gradebook. This is where the averages are calculated and the students information is communicated to parents and administration.

Are we giving students too many choices or destinations?

I see a clear and distinctive difference in the apps and how and why I use each to return student work. Still, if the destination for that returned work changes every time, than the execution is flawed no matter my intent. I need to students to be able to easily and consistently read, use, and grow from my feedback and communication.

Building an E-Mail Culture

So far, I’ve asked more questions than I have answers for. Do we teach students to value the app-smashing mindset that I live by--or do I need to adapt to streamline my work to meet their needs? I think the answer lies in a balance, and in the end I need to do what works for my students, just like you do for yours.

For my students, I think that means that building a culture where e-mail matters. With texts and social media, most of my students don’t use e-mail the ways I do--as a personal and professional form of communication. Many don’t even know how to write a formal or professional e-mail or letter. But this type of communication is essential in 21st century learning

This year, I’ve used e-mail to provide feedback on student work, automate responses on Forms, express concerns about student work, and make contact with parents. Sometimes this works great. Sometimes my students don’t check their e-mail and my message is lost. E-mail and technology can never replace face to face conversation--and that’s something I think I need to consider more often--but has much more value than my students give it credit for. I want to teach my students to write e-mails and to make checking e-mail regularly a norm in my classroom and school.

Since Classroom notifies students of new assignments and work through e-mail and my automated Forms does the same, that might just solve my problems for now. If students check their school e-mails regularly, we can use technology to communicate more effectively and make feedback matter.

Still, my concerns remain. How much is too much?

How do you find the balance in communication and feedback? What tools do you find most effective? Does education have too much of a good thing, and if so, what are the consequences? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter.

One of technology’s greatest gifts is the manipulation of time. In my experience, no amount of prep periods can ever be enough for the time and effort teachers spend working. Whether it’s the planning, grading, and teaching or time spent working with students, parents, and administration, the school day is packed. We need to use our time effectively.

Take this week for example. In addition to my regular teaching and coaching, I have district meetings, interview committees, and a site visit. I know that some of my classes will have subs or be cancelled, and I wanted to plan ahead. I love that my students can check my Google Site or Classroom for updates and reminders, but sometimes I want more control over the details, like scheduling.

Thankfully, there are technology tools that help us get the job done. It’s great when that technology can help make communication easier and more efficient, but it’s even better when it can improve your planning and workflow. Sometimes, it’s okay to give students a lot of information at once, but there are times when I wish that technology could be used to plan things on my schedule. And now it can.

With these free tools, you can not only improve your communication but plan to do it better by scheduling the release of your communications. These are tools that I stand by and use regularly to make simple communication easier, more efficient, and more automated in my teaching practice.

For more tips on using technology to improve communication, check out 

Better Communication, Better Learning.

4 Tools to Schedule Communication

1. Google Classroom

All of the work in my classroom is organized with Google Classroom. One of the great things about Google Apps for Education is the iterative nature of the product: it always gets better. For example, the ability to reuse posts and save drafts were great additions. Two weeks ago, another important update rolled out: scheduled assignments.

You can now create your assignments and schedule them for timed release in advance. Unfortunately, you can’t yet schedule a timed release for more than one class at a time, so rely on the reuse post feature for that one. Still, this is a powerful new update for Google Classroom users. For more info, check out Dani Kennis’ blog post, Google Classroom: Scheduling Posts.

2. Remind

I love Remind. The product is great and the Remind team is wonderful, too. I wrote about them almost a year ago in Why I Remind, and they certainly deserve a spot on this list. I use Remind regularly to do the job the name implies--to remind my students of stuff. Whether it’s a change in the schedule, a homework reminder, or an update for parents, Remind is my go-to site and app. Earlier today, two students chatted with me about a grade, and I was able to reach out to another student who is home sick to check in.

Most weeks, I schedule a dozen reminders on Monday. When my class is cancelled tomorrow due to meetings, I have three reminders scheduled already to remind my students about their work and responsibilities. When an essay or project is due, reminders are scheduled with helpful hints. Sometimes, I just send reminders with jokes. No matter the purpose, I almost always schedule them in advance and send them to multiple classes at a time with the click of a button.

3. Tweetdeck

I love Twitter and Tweetdeck is my favorite tool to manage the Twitter feed and workflow. The site lets you organize Twitter by search terms, like hashtags, notifications, and more. For example, I currently have columns open for my notifications, scheduled Tweets, and hashtags #edtechchat and #satchat. I’m also logged into multiple accounts on Tweetdeck at once, so notifications for @TheEduCal and #TheEduCal are there, too.

In addition to making Twitter easier to manage, Tweetdeck allows me to schedule my Tweets in advance. I do this when I have individual Tweets to schedule; for bulk scheduling take a look at Postcron below. Every day, I schedule the #JokeoftheDay for a 2:30 PM release with Tweetdeck. It’s the most important tool for my day-to-day Twitter use. 

One of my goals as a teacher is to help my students grow as independent learners. Inherent in that goal are essential skills like accountability and communication and qualities like motivation and reflection. Often, these are lessons learned through experience and are hard to teach to students, no matter the age.