Help students manage their digital footprint and effectively participate in social media - 140 Character Conference

I am presenting at The 140 Characters Conference in New York City on April 20th. This event is the largest worldwide gathering of people interested in the effects of the real-time Internet on business, education, and “we” the people. Some of the other speakers include Ann Curry, NBC News (@AnnCurry), Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy, (@chrislehmann), Donny Deustch (@Donny_Deutsch), Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump), and MC Hammer (@MCHammer).

I will be a part of the Twitter and Education panel and joined by @mbteach, and @kjarret, with @parentella moderating. Specifically I'll be discussing:

1) Teaching Kids how to manage their Digital Footprint
2) Why social media curriculum is critical in schools
3) Ideas for parents interested in helping students manage their digital footprint and effectively participate in social media.

In anticipation of the conference I'm writing about each topic. You can read what I wrote about Teaching Kids to Manage their Digital Footprint here and Why social media curriculum is critical in schools here. For this post I am addressing:

Ideas for parents interested in helping students manage their digital footprint and effectively participate in social media.

As children enter their teenage years they begin participating more and more in online environments and parents are often at a loss for guidelines around how to offer their children support and guidance. In many cases parents may ask their teachers for advice on how to help their children engage effectively in online environments. Here are three simple ideas teachers can share with parents interested in helping students manage their digital footprint and effectively participate in social media.

1. Help teens take control of their digital footprint

2. Help teens determine what their digital footprint says about them
   

3. Connect with others with your passions and interests

1) Have a conversation with teens about taking control of their digital footprint
I was recently at a conference where educators were discussing whether or not teenagers should use their real names online. One of the women in attendance felt strongly that in their teenage years students should begin using their real names. She posed the question, "If we don't take ownership of our digital identity who will?" This is a powerful question and brings to light the concept of active and passive digital footprints.

A 2006 Pew Internet report indicates there are two main classifications for digital footprints: passive and active. A passive digital footprint is created when data is collected about an action without any client activation, whereas active digital footprints are created when personal data is released deliberately by a user for the purpose of sharing information about oneself.

The question becomes, this. Do you want to deliberately be aware of and control what you stand for online or do you want that to be left to others? Parents who agree the teenage years are the right time for students to begin identifying what they stand for and who they are can begin helping their children establish a purposeful digital footprint. Teaching students the lesson of responsibility and accountability early on can result in a future payoff of giving them a name they can proudly stand behind. If we teach a student to automatically think about what their online behavior and words say about what they represent and remind them that their words leave a digital footprint, how might this change how they interact?

It can be very powerful for students to begin developing their identity at this stage of their life and extremely impactful if parents guide and support their children in doing this. But who are your children? What is the message they want their digital footprint to convey? How do they know what it is or should be? How could they find out? The answer to that is in the second idea.

2) Help teens determine what their digital footprint says about them today

Of course the most obvious way to uncover your digital footprint is by Googling yourself. When you do so, what comes up? Once you explore that, decide, is that what I want people to see when they Google me? If it is, terrific. You/your teen is doing a great job. If it's not, think about what it is you want to have appear when someone Googles you. What do you stand for? I asked myself this question two years ago when I started my blog. I decided that I wanted to be the number one topic that came up whenever someone searched for "educating innovatively." To make that happen I began considering and implementing Ideas for Making a Purposeful and Professional Digital Footprint. Now, two years later, I dominate the page for that search term. Work with your child to think about what their defining phrase, statement or idea may be.

Here are some innovative and not-so-obvious ideas for parents exploring the digital footprint of teens who use Twitter or Facebook. Parents and their teens can start exploring their digital footprint with what I call "Recap Apps." Recap apps let you take a look at who you are online in a variety of ways using your words, photos, and updates over a period of time you specify (i.e. the last month, three months, six months, or year). The apps are free and it only takes minute or so to generate each one.

A parent and teen can do this together and discuss what the word clouds, status clouds, or photos say about them. Parents should ask their teen how they feel about this digital footprint. Here are some ideas for questions they may discuss.

• What do they like?
  
• Is there anything they are proud of?
  
• Is there anything they are embarrassed about?
  
• What might they want to change?
  
• What might they do to more effectively represent how they want to be viewed by others?
  

You can find out more more about how to use recap apps in these posts.

• Facebook Recap Apps That Inspire Fun and Personalized Learning in the New Year
• Whachu Talking 'Bout? Find Out with Facebook Status Clouds

3) Connect with others with whom you share passions and interests

Once you help your teen to discover what their digital footprint says about them and they decide they want to take control of it, they'll need to do some thinking about what it is they really stand for. They'll want to explore their interests. In fact, some, like Sir Ken Robinson, would say that perhaps the most important job of a parent or teacher is to support children in discovering these talents, interests, and passions. The internet provides opportunities to do this and connect with others ways never before available.

Watch your child when s/he uses the internet. As Sir Ken suggests, "Kids give you messages." Our job is to watch, guide and listen. He shares that you may be surprised what it is your child loves. "When Olympian Bart Conner's mother noticed he walked on his hands as well as his feet, she noticed, "Hey, he's a gymnast!" "Some are drawn to drawing, some are making music all the time, some love moving around. You have to see and hear the message your child is sharing and encourage it because when you find your talent your whole life changes." Finding your talent gives students, "purpose, meaning and fulfillment" and what more could a student hope for from their parents and teachers.

While it is certainly important to be aware of how your child's passions, interests, and talents may manifest themselves in the real world, the online world is also important connecting individuals to people and places, never before possible. Remember too that anytime your child engages online they are creating a piece of their digital footprint. Whether it is a tweet they send out on Twitter, a status update they write on Facebook, a comment they leave on a blog, or a conversation they engage in on a discussion board, these all contribute to who your child is online. As a parent you can serve a crucial role in your teen's life, by helping him/her engage responsibly and effectively with others who share your child's passions and interests. Not only will this help him/her on the road to developing an active digital footprint, but you are also helping your son or daughter develop an important life skill.

To illustrate this point I am sharing the story of a student that attends The Island School about which I wrote You Can Get a Dalton Education at a NYC Public School. This is a school that lives and dies by the belief that the most important part of their work is to help students find and develop their passions, interests, and talents. I had the pleasure of visiting the school and speaking with students and teachers. Every student who attends this elementary/middle school is told that this is a place they will be exposed to, find and develop their passions and talents. Some shared that when they started school they were nervous because they didn't think they had any talent or passion. By the end of their first year at the school every student knows they've got talent, interests, and passions.

There were so many wonderful students at this inner city public school on the lower east side of Manhattan, but one that particularly stood out was a young man who just loves buses. Yes, buses. The things that take people around New York City. With the help of his parents and teachers this student began a physical and virtual exploration and development of his passion. First any time he road a bus, he studied it. Is this really the most effective layout of seats? Could the onramp for those with disabilities be designed better? What about the fuel emissions? Could there be a way that buses ran cleaner? He also visited the MTA and museum and spoke to experts there and, of course he spoke with bus drivers, but some of his strongest connections were those he made online.

This student began reading blogs about buses. Yes there are many. He began commenting on these blogs. He started interacting with others on MTA discussion boards. He could read newspaper and magazine articles and comment on those with authors and experts on the topic. He knew how to find the latest news about buses by using search terms on Twitter, and he could follow those with relevant Tweets. And, he could Tweet too! Before you knew it, this student had begun developing not only a strong personal learning network, but he was also laying the groundwork for a purposeful digital footprint. An interesting thing about this is that expertise has no age barriers and this students thoughts, comments, and ideas sat right beside others in the field and he was quickly establishing himself as an expert on the topic, even though he was only in middle school. This student had big ideas, big plans, and a respectable digital footprint. His principal shared that from her school he went on to Automotive High School and she expected he would soon move on to an engineering college to pursue his passion of bus design and engineering.

Parents who can work with their children and teachers to discover, uncover, and develop their students passions and interests using both traditional and digital tools, will provide students with some of life's most valuable and memorable lessons.

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I very much look forward to discussing this on the Twitter and Education panel and I hope to see other innovative educators at the conference as well. If you are thinking about attending #140conf NYC you can register to reserve a ticket at a cost of $140 for the two day event or $80 for one day. You can register here to guarantee youself access to the event. The format at the #140conf events is unique. Individual talks are 5 and 10 minutes, keynotes are 15 and 20 minutes and panel discussions are no more than 20 minutes. During the course of the two days more than 140 people will share the stage at the 92nd Street Y in about 70 sessions. To get a feel of the energy you may experience click here to review the videos from the 2009 #140conf NYC. The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter and the real-time internet will have on business and education in 2010 and beyond.

Innovative Ideas for Using Cell Phones for Homework and Practice

Editor's note: This is part four in series of posts focused on the nine instructional strategies that are most likely to improve student achievement across all content areas from the book Classroom Instruction That Works by Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock.

Homework and practice are instructional techniques that give students the opportunity to deepen their understanding and skills relative to content that has already been presented to them. Research cited in Classroom Instruction that Works, indicates some interesting findings including that the purpose of homework should be identified and articulated and if homework is assigned, it should be commented on. Of interest to parents is that there is research showing minimal or even negative effects of their involvement in homework. Further studies suggest findings about parental involvement could be a result of the type of involvement and that there are indeed conditions under which parental involvement enhances homework (Epstein, 2001; Epstein & Becker, 1982; Van Voorhis, 2003). They recommended interactive homework in which 1) Parents receive clear guidelines spelling out their role, 2) Teachers do not expect parents to act as experts regarding content or to attempt to teach the content, and 3) Parents ask questions that help students clarify and summarize what they have learned. Good and Brophy (2003) recommend that homework that for parent-child relations purposes assignments calling for students to show or explain their work to get their reactions are useful (Epstein, 2001; Epstein, Simon, & Salinas, 1997) and that it is effective to have students interview their parents to develop information about parental experiences or opinions relating to topics studied in social studies (Alleman & Brophy, 1998). Assignments like these result in students and their parents or other family members becoming more engaged in conversations that relate to the academic curriculum and thus extend the students' learning. Furthermore, because these are likely to be genuine conversations rather than more formally structured teaching/learning tasks, both parents and children are likely to experience them as enjoyable rather than threatening. (p. 395).

Here are some specific ways that homework and practice can be enriched with the use of cell phones.

• Classroom Practice in Assigning Homework
  Research on homework indicates that it is useful if parents help students ensure they are on track and on task with doing their work. Additionally, assignments that clearly articulate the purpose and outcome of homework result in greater student achievement.
  
• Subject: Any subject
  
• Topic: Any topic
• Cell Phone Tool: Swaggle
  
• Lesson Overview: Parents and teachers can partner to ensure that students are doing homework more effectively using a group texting service such as Swaggle. Teachers can group text their students and parents daily or weekly with assignments including due date, assignment purpose, parental role and questions for students and clarifying and summarizing questions for parents to discuss with students. Parents can then set a daily alarm to alert them to check in with their child using a text. If the parent knows the purpose of the assignment and due date, if time allows, they can support the teacher in being an additional person to comment on the homework as well. This also serves the purpose of providing recognition for the students in doing their work.
  
• How technology enriches the lesson:
  
• Using a group texting feature like Swaggle enables a teacher to write one message and instantly connect with students or parents.
  
• A group text, not only helps to strengthen the home/school connection, but unlike a note in the backpack, the message won't get lost. It is also a great way in general to keep parents in the loop, in the know, and to keep lines of communication open.
  
• Having a parent set a daily reminder time to check in with their child provides students with a consistent check in to help ensure they are on track. Additionally, if the parent is still at work, doing this is less disruptive then making an actual call, but still holds the student accountable.

• Classroom Practice in Practicing Skills - Charting Accuracy and Speed
  Research shows that skills should be learned to the level that students can perform them quickly and accurately and to facilitate skill development, students should be encouraged to keep track of their speed and accuracy.
  
• Subject: Math
  
• Topic: Multiplication tables
• Cell Phone Tool: Poll Everywhere - Polling question
  
• Lesson Overview: A fun way to use cell phones to chart the speed an accuracy of a class of students is to use Poll Everywhere. A school that promotes the use of personally owned technology might encourage a grade-wide competition of student speed and accuracy in multiplication tables. The way this would work is that at the beginning of the unit each teacher would encourage students to respond to a Poll Everywhere question about the speed and accuracy of completing their multiplication tables. Students would be asked to text in their speed and accuracy using a Poll Everywhere polling question. The caveat being that their parent/guardian would need to sign off on the students response. This serves the added benefit of the home/school connection and keeping families in the loop on their child's progress. At predetermined intervals classes would chart their speed and accuracy which could be shared on a school web page with privacy predetermined (i.e. just for school members, students, and families, or open to the public). The class that had the biggest overall gain (by percentage) could win an award such as a certificate, free time, pizza party or something of their choosing.
  
• How technology enriches the lesson:
  
• The use of Poll Everywhere to chart speed and accuracy of a class provides a quick, simple, easy, and visible (to selected audiences) way to instantly see progress.
  
• Using Poll Everywhere to chart speed and accuracy provides motivation for a class as a whole to improve on their work. If they don't try hard to achieve, they'll let down their class. If they do try hard, they help their class.
  
• The use of Poll Everywhere has the additional benefit of providing recognition for a classes hard work and growth over time.
  

Cell phones can provide great assistance with homework. Simply encouraging students to use their phones in conjunction with their homework will act as a motivator. Many of the age old frustrations with homework like getting stuck, not having any help (text the teacher, friend, expert-perhaps on ChaCha), forgetting to do it (put in your own reminder or get one from a parent or teacher), or not being home long enough to do it (do it anywhere you have your phone) are all remedied through the use of cell phone technologies. Students, parents, and educators all get frustrated when students get "stuck" on a problem in their homework and do not complete the assignment. With text messaging, help is few thumb strokes away. Setting up peer tutoring through text messaging is a great way to support all levels of students. Even teacher teams can divide up certain days and times and be available to answer homework questions through text messaging without a lot of extra time or effort. Some innovative educators even set up panels of experts in the community to be available to students during certain projects or for certain assignments. Partnering with local colleges or libraries can also provide additional text help available for students.

Cell phones provide an effective way to support students in doing their homework and tracking the speed and accuracy of the skills they are practicing. Stay tuned for future posts featuring other research-based strategies to engage students and increase student achievement.

iPads? Eh! Social Reading from Your Phone? Now That's Innovation!

IPAD FEVER? For some iPads are all the rage. For me, I'm not impressed or inspired. If I want to read I do so just fine on my iTouch, Tablet, or Blackberry. I don't need another gadget to lug around...or possibly lose (The Innovative Educator's Amazing Race to Find Her Lost Pocket Book). However, regardless of the device on which you are reading I find the real innovation is social reading. Social books are powerful because they unlock reader’s voice and provide opportunity for conversation.

If this is appealing to you, you'll be excited to know and check out BookGlutton which works great on the iPad right out of the box - and it's the only community reading experience on a tablet. And, you don't needs an app. Just open your browser and type in bookglutton.com, open a book and read. See this shaky mobile video for a demo of how it works on an iPad.


If you don't have an iPad, you can also log in and pick up where you left off on an Android, iTouch or iPhone device for a seamless and interactive reading experience across all your devices by visiting http://www.bookglutton.com/mobile. You can also just read from her laptop by visiting http://www.bookglutton.com.

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Related reading:
See the conclusion this innovative educator came to when he pondered the question, "Is iPad just another iFad?" Read: Is the iPad Coming to Your Classroom?

Begin Harnessing the Power of Cell Phones in Class Lessons

While many educators have never considered harnessing the power of cell phones in education, and some are downright hostile when the suggestion is brought up, there are many terrific ways cells can be used to enrich learning while empowering students to use these devices to capture knowledge in engaging ways. Educators are embracing the use of cell phones around the world, and these educators know it's not if we should be using cell phones and other personal learning devices in school, but when. These teachers are both in schools where they must think outside the ban and incorporate cells outside the school day as well as in schools and districts that empower educators to make their own decisions for their student's learning. Some of these teachers are even in schools where they have partnered with phone service providers to give their students phones.

While integrating cell phones into instruction can be a great way to engage learners and enrich instruction it is important to ensure you are doing both. Just using a cell phone itself will lose its appeal and value quickly if it doesn't actually enable students to either do things better or do better things. When using cell phones in instruction educators should ask themselves if the use of technology will actually enhance the unit or lesson and how. As educators think about integrating cell phones into a unit of study they can use this planning tool.

Teacher	Grade	Room	Content Area	Unit Overview	Innovative Ideas to Enrich this Unit	ISTE Student Profile(s) / Standards*	Content Standards	Type of Support Requested (i.e. demo lesson, team teaching, instructional coaching)	Support Date / Time	Support Duration

Thinking of how cell phones maybe be used in general in a unit is a great place to start. The planning tool enables teachers to think of broad ideas for use within a unit as well as ideas for support that might be helpful. Note that support may come from a district or school-based coach, a teacher, a leader, a parent, a student, etc. Once the teacher comes up with ideas to enrich instruction they can drill down to a particular lesson they may want to teach.

A basic lesson might contain the following components:

• Subject:
• Lesson Title:
• Lesson Overview About two sentences (May include goals, objectives, teaching points)
• Lesson Description: You may want to draft this in word and then paste here.
• Here's How... Provide a how to guide for how educators can use this tool.
• Useful resources Please share any useful resources and include resource name, url, and brief description
• Explain how the use of cell phones enriches this lesson.
• Special Notes/ Additional comments:
• NETS Student Standards Addressed (see: http://tinyurl.com/netsstudents)
  
• NETS Teacher Standards Addressed (see: http://tinyurl.com/netsteachersnew)
• Research-based instructional strategies:
• Tools Used:

Below are several sample lessons which can be modified to work with any range of grade levels. The lessons included are:

Literacy
Bring Poetry to Life with A Cell Phone and A Voki

Social Studies
Using Google SMS to Enrich Social Studies Instruction

Science
Current Event Analysis
Celebrating Science Fair Projects with Twitter

Learners of Languages Other Than English
Google Voice as a Powerful "Get to Know You" and Speaking Fluency Tool

In an effort to collect ideas around how cell phones are being used to enrich instruction, I am calling upon innovative educators to contribute lesson ideas by submitting them to http://tinyurl.com/cellphonelesson . A math lesson would be great! Whether you are already doing this type of work with your students, or you are just starting to consider the possibilities, your ideas are valuable. Submitted ideas may be selected for publication in a variety of arenas (providing full credit to the author) and enabling teachers everywhere to start collecting smart lessons that incorporate using cell phones. Creating a cell-phone enriched lesson generally doesn't take any longer than a traditional lesson which generally can be written in one - two class periods. If you are using cell phones for instruction for the first time however, you will need to incorporate additional time for setting up accounts you may be using.

If writing a lesson isn't for you, don't worry. Try one of these lessons out and share how it went at http://tinyurl.com/cellphonetestimonial .

Using Cell Phones to Prepare for Standardized Science Tests

Another in the Innovative Educator's "Cells in Ed Lesson Series." This lesson is designed for science teachers who are interested in harnessing the power of cell phones in instruction to prepare for a standardized test and was used in a class where the teacher allowed students to bring cell phones to class.

Subject: Science

Tool(s): Poll Everywhere, Wiffiti, Google Forms, Wall Wisher

Lesson Overview:
This lesson is intended to review past science material for an upcoming standardized science exam by incorporating a current event.

Lesson Description:
In our middle school science course we have been preparing for the upcoming standardized tests by exposing students to current events that relate to material from past science lessons. We normally do this by having the students blog outside of class about various current event articles. However, this particular lesson took place in the classroom. We decided to have our students take a closer look at President Obama's decision to build new nuclear power plants in the United States. This lesson would easily be adapted to any current event issue that has a pro and con side.

We began the lesson by creating an online poll using http://polleverywhere.com. This poll asked students whether or not they believed it was a good idea to build new power plants in the United States. The students had the option of voting with their cell phones or logging into our content management system and following the available link to vote with a laptop. Due to the students willingness to share cell phones, all students voted in the poll long before the first laptop was logged in.

After the students took the poll they were given two articles. The first dealt with President Obama's plans and the second discussed the pros and cons of nuclear power. The students read the articles in groups of two or three and were told to write three to five main points from each article. After the students finished reading and writing their main points they were instructed to come to a group consensus on the topic. The group was asked to summarize their opinion in 1 to 2 sentences and post it using their cell phones to a Wiffiti board (http://tinyurl.com/nuclearpowerwiffiti).

Once all the groups comments had been posted, read, and discussed the students watched a two-minute video (http://tinyurl.com/obamanuclearplant) that served as a great summary of the discussion. The lesson came to an end with the students once again taking the same poll they took in the beginning of class. Poll Everywhere enabled us to instantly see that after doing some reading, talking and thinking about the issue, many had changed their opinion.

Here's How...
We did some pre-planning before the cell phones were used in the classroom. We did this by using this Google form http://tinyurl.com/HanoverCellSurvey to survey our students to learn more about their cell phone use and access. Based on survey results we ensured all students who didn't have cell access were partnered with someone who did. We also had students use the http://wallwisher.com online bulletin board to post possible rules for using cell phones in the classroom. Their ideas are posted here http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/cellphones. We used this as our class's acceptable use policy for cell phones...no fancy district or school policy required. Additionally we sent this letter http://tinyurl.com/Hanoverparentletter home with the students to explain our intentions to parents. We set up in advance Poll Everywhere, Wiffiti, Google Survey, and Wallwisher accounts as described in the useful resources section.

Useful resources

• Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com): This resource allows you to set up a poll where students can submit responses with their cell phones. The poll can be reset making it available to be used with multiple classes.
• Wiffiti (www.wiffiti.com): Wiffiti allows students to submit a text message an online bulletin board. Messages can also be submitted to Poll Everywhere, but the Wiffiti board is large and animated. Not to mention the students love the fake names it assigns to their posts.
• Wallwisher (http://wallwisher.com): Wallwisher allows you to leave virtual ‘post it’ notes in one place on the web. In addition to text, you can also embed hyperlnks, pictures and video. The Wallwisher online notice board maker is ideal for making announcements, keeping notes, and basically anything you can do with Post its and more.
  
• Google Forms (http://docs.google.com): With Google Docs, you can quickly create a form or survey share it, and keep track of the answers in one spreadsheet.
  

Explain how the use of cell phones enriches this lesson.

• Students love using their cell phones! I think this is sometimes an understated reason for doing things in education. How can you go wrong if the students are excited for class before you even tell them what they will be doing?
• We handed out two articles consisting of four pages of text to eighth graders. There was not one groan, whine, or complaint! I think the student's eagerness to read the articles so they could send another text message speaks volumes.
• Every eye in the class was glued to the Wiffiti board to read the next posted comment.
• Every student had the opportunity to voice their opinion in the pre and post discussion polls.
• The students left the classroom and raved about class and using their cell phones during the periods that followed.

Special Notes/ Additional comments
In addition to my high school courses, I am currently teaching half a day at our middle school. I had the pleasure of working with Lisa Smith, our afternoon science teacher, in developing this lesson.

NETS Standards Addressed - Students

• Communication and Collaboration - Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
• Research and Information Fluency - Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

NETS Standards Addressed - Teachers

• Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Research-based instructional strategies

• Summarizing and note taking
• Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
• Cooperative learning
• Setting objectives and providing feedback
• Generating and testing hypotheses
  

Written by: Jason K. Suter - hanoverscience@gmail.com

Title:Teacher

Subject(s) I Teach: Physical Science, Biology, Environmental Science

Grade(s) I Teach: 8 - 12

City, State: Hanover, PA
Blog: http://nativeclassroom.blogspot.com

Innovative Ideas for Using Cell Phones to Reinforce Effort and Provide Recognition

Editor's note: This is part three in series of posts focused on the nine instructional strategies that are most likely to improve student achievement across all content areas from the book Classroom Instruction That Works by Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock.

Reinforcing effort and providing recognition are instructional techniques that address students' attitudes and beliefs. According to research cited in Classroom Instruction that Works, not all students realize the importance of believing in effort and students can learn to change their beliefs to an emphasis on effort. When it comes to recognition research shows that recognition is most effective when it is contingent on the attainment of some standard of performance and that abstract symbolic recognition is more effective than tangible rewards. Here are some ways that reinforcing effort and providing recognition can be enriched with cell phones.

Classroom Practice in Reinforcing Effort: Teaching about Effort

While students might not be aware of the importance of believing in effort, they can be taught. Teachers can share stories of famous people who succeeded by continuing to try or a teacher can ask students to think about and share their own stories. Such examples and personal stories are an effective way to help students understand the importance of effort.

• Subject: Literacy
• Topic: Memoir
  
• Lesson Overview: In this lesson the teacher will use Voki to have students record their voice via telephone to share a short personal story about a time when they or someone they know accomplished something important because they didn't give up. These will all be embedded on the website, blog, or wiki used by the teacher. Each story will be titled and students will be asked to provide a Voki comment on the stories that touched them.
  
• How technology enriches the lesson:
• Technology enriches this lesson over traditional methods because it puts in one place the entire classes inspirational stories. Students will have the opportunity to learn a little more about one another as a result.
  
• Vokis provide the option to comment so students can comment on one another's work helping to elicit conversation that does not generally happen when students hand assignments into a teacher. Even when those assignments get posted in the classroom or on a bulletin board.
• Creating an "Effort" page for a class provides the teacher and school with material that can be shared and celebrated with parents and the community. It is also can be used on parent/teacher night when waiting parents can look at such work from the class and during parent conferences this story will serve as a nice common ground for the teacher and parent.
• Using a Voki to capture a verbal story can be an effective option for English Language Learners and students with special needs. It allows them to convey a story as they would naturally speak and they can record the story as often as they want if they don't get it right. Additionally, they can do the recording privately so those that are shy don't have to be concerned with speaking in front of others.
  

Classroom Practice in Keeping Track of Effort and Achievement

Research on effort indicates that it is powerful to help students make the connection between effort and achievement. One way to do this is by having students keep track of their effort and achievement. Classroom Instruction that Works suggests using an effort and achievement rubric that ranks each on a scale of 4 (excellent) to 1 (unacceptable).

• Subject: Any subject
• Topic: Any topic
  
• Lesson Overview: Cell phones can be used powerfully to support students in seeing the relationship between effort and achievement in school using a Poll Everywhere Poll. This can be done by using the Effort and Achievement Rubric in Classroom Instruction that Works (figure 4.2 pg 52) to create personalized polls for each student. This could be set up in two ways depending on teacher preference. One way is that the teacher can have an effort rubric and achievement rubric for the entire class on one page. This could foster some competition and enable students to see the effect on effort and achievement not only in themselves, but also in others. The other option is to set up a page for each student that enables students to just see their own correlation between effort and achievement. By setting this up as a Poll Everywhere poll an instant graphic representation can be seen by teacher, student, parent or family.
  
• How technology enriches the lesson:
• Using Poll Everywhere sms texting technology provides a fast and easy anytime/anywhere method for students to instantly log results that can be seen by all important stakeholders...the students, the parent/family, the teacher, the guidance counselor.
  
• Using a digital poll provides an instant graphic representation that may be easier to interpret by viewers about the correlation between effort and achievement.
• Placing the results from the class in an online forum can create a competitively spirted sense of accountability to increase effort. Note: the pages can be kept as viable as the teachers wishes i.e. only to students, to students and parents, or it can be public.
  

Classroom Practice in Providing Recognition

Providing recognition enhances achievement and stimulates motivation. Recognition that is personal and concrete is most effective. This means there should be a direct recognition about something specific rather than a general recognition about something vague. For example, if a teacher says good job on the civil rights unit class, that will not be as a effective as if she speaks directly to a specific student about a specific strategy employed in that unit of study. Direct specific feedback about a goal a student was working to accomplish is an effective strategy.

• Subject: Student Achievement
  
• Topic: Any topic
• Lesson Overview: Once a teacher or leader has set specific and measurable goals they can use a Wifitti digital bulletin board to capture personal and concrete recognition of their students. Wiffiti.com is a great tool that can be used to provide personal and concrete recognition to students in a particular area of focus. An example of this is if a school was measuring progress on test scores. They can set up a bulletin board and name it something such as "ABC School Scores on the Math Regents," then write a Wiffiti.com update on those students who were making the most progress on practice tests and indicate the strategy they were using that help them succeed. The educator can set the account up so only s/he contributes, or they can invite students and/or parents/guardians to contribute.
  
• How technology enriches the lesson:
• Using a resource like Wifitti provides a forum for students to be recognized and celebrated in a way that can shared with the school community and beyond.
• This lesson can empower various stakeholders (teachers, leaders, parents, guardians, students) to recognize the accomplishments of students.

Cell phones provide a free and easy way to reinforce effort and provide recognition to students. Stay tuned for future posts featuring other research-based strategies to engage students and increase student achievement.