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[APPLAUSE]
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: First of all, I want to say thanks for
allowing me to come here.
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you
about Canvas.
This is something that's really transformed our school.
We're in Iowa.
We're a very rural school.
We have about 160 kids in our high school.
About 600 kids in our entire school district, K-12, so
we're pretty small.
This has really helped us, not only educationally in our
classrooms, but sharing some of the resources that we have
to share due to our size, which I'll kind of get into
here in a little bit.
Just to kind of share with you our Canvas story, kind of why
we chose Canvas, a year ago I with a group of teachers and
administrators that went to the PLC Conference, Solution
Tree, down in Saint Louis.
We came back, talked basically the whole ride home from Saint
Louis, why do we want to change our classrooms, and how
do we do it?
And we had been in contact with Canvas probably for
about, I would say, three months prior to that
conference.
We got back and I kind of took the lead on playing with the
Canvas software, seeing how we could use it, changing some
things for us, that customized things for us in Iowa.
So that's kind of where we started.
We played with the sandbox model.
I started it this past fall, so in the fall of 2012.
And we started to really grow into it.
There were about three of us that started using it.
By, I would say, the middle of September, I went to our
superintendent.
I said I really think we need to purchase this.
So that's what we did.
I went to school board, we talked about it, and we
purchased Canvas which, I think our teachers would say,
has really improved instruction.
So we actually did this in the middle of the year.
The biggest thing we found after the PLC Conference and
from all of the things that we had talked about as a staff
was, this really comes down to learning.
And we know today, 2013, that our learners
are very, very different.
I graduated about 13, 14 years ago.
I can tell you the way I teach is very different than the way
my high school teachers taught.
And I would say if you even go back further than that, there
are things that are a lot different, not only with
technology, but instruction and all of the things that we
do in a classroom today.
Because our kids have cell phones, they have computers,
they have video games.
So we have to change the way that we teach.
So the first thing we said was, how
do we improve learning?
And, what should our schools look like?
One of the things our superintendent and all of our
administrators have kind of come to realize, we have to
tear down the walls of our schools.
I teach in a district, our buildings are
80 to 90 years old.
They're very old.
They're not nice, by any means, but the thing is, I
would say the stuff that's going on inside those rooms is
better than probably a lot of schools around us to have much
nicer schools.
And the reason is because we have focused more on how can
we change what those classes look like?
How have we changed our instruction?
So we have focused less on, what does the
building look like?
We're focusing on, how can we actually reach kids?
And I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the buzz
words that we've used in education and we kind of
taken, not only me, but other people on our staff have taken
to heart and really ran with.
In the state of Iowa, and I think this is kind of across
the country now, but we have what are called
21st century skills.
This kind of goes with the whole core curriculum part of
Iowa that we have really tried to emphasize here probably in
the last five to six years.
I kind of paraphrase these.
Obviously, collaboration is a big part of education today.
Our students want to work with others.
Regardless of what they might tell you, they want to work
with other students.
And that might not be sitting face-to-face with someone.
It may be using technology.
The second thing on there is working flexibly in ambiguity.
OK, we talked a lot about LTIs here.
We've talk about APIs.
We don't know what tomorrow is going to be.
We don't know what tomorrow in education is going to be.
So we have to know that there are going to be times where we
don't know the answer to the problem.
And for some of our teachers, that has been an issue.
Well, we have to know the answer.
Do you really?
And that's the question we have asked our staff.
The third thing, leadership skills and integrity.
I think that has been kind of a standard
that's been around forever.
It really just hasn't spoken a lot.
Initiative and self direction.
Here's something that we really struggled with.
How do we get kids to do things?
How do we get kids to take the initiative to start something?
And I think Canvas has that ability to get that piece out
there for kids to see, and then take it the next step
further, which I'll give you some examples that are going
to, I think, help you as you kind of get started with your
Canvas journey.
If you're already into Canvas, hopefully this can help you
even further what you're doing.
Productivity and accountability basically comes
down to doing your work, doing it on time.
Creativity, digital tools, and critical thinking skills, all
very important things, as you can see from everything you've
been to at this conference thus far.
Now, some of buzzwords, and I'm going to kind of elaborate
on these because I think they're really important, and
I think they are really changing the face of
education, and changing the way that we, as educators, are
doing business.
Flipped classrooms.
How many people have heard of flipped classrooms or are
doing them?
Great.
Project-based learning.
How many people have heard that word?
All right.
And then differentiated learning, I'm assuming all of
us have probably heard that buzzword, because it's a big
part of dealing with some of our students, and using the
tools that we have to help them learn even more.
Flipped classrooms really became a buzz word in our
school district about a year and a half ago.
We had a couple of teachers, and I'm really proud of this,
these are not people that are right out of college.
These are 20-, 30-year teaching veterans that have
said, we need to change, and to do that, we're going to
have to look at some other things.
And we've had a couple people that have bought into the
flipped classroom, and I'll share kind of
what they've done.
I've used it in a couple of different situations myself,
so I can say that I have done that as well.
Project-based learning.
We've talked about that.
We've talked about that.
In the state of Iowa, I'm a career and technical teacher.
We have to do project-based learning.
We don't have an option.
We have to demonstrate it.
The state of Iowa comes in and they say, you
better be doing it.
They evaluate that.
We have to show and demonstrate every part of it.
So for us, it's easier.
I think if I was a core teacher this might be a little
bit harder at times, but I think there's a lot of great
examples out there as to how we can do that in a math, or
English, or social studies classroom.
And then differentiated learning.
I think Canvas has really helped us with the
differentiated part, because of modules and some of the
assignments can be adjusted.
So I'll talk more about all of these in general, but I think
these three words really captivate the whole 21st
century skills.
Flipped classrooms.
Again, it's about the learning.
Canvas really helped us when we went to the Canvas platform
in November, because we had a teacher, she's a 20-year
teaching veteran.
She teaches the entry level math
classes in the high school.
She really was looking for something where she could do
her flipped classroom, and she could do it in one spot,
because the obstacle we had run into was, we could do
flipped classrooms, but we had to go to YouTube.
Then you had to go to another site to do some of the
activities.
Then you had to use some of the textbook stuff.
So we were piecing together about three different parts.
Well, when we got Canvas, everything really went
together very seamlessly.
So we use the modules.
We use the quizzes.
We use the discussions forms.
And our students, I won't say that we didn't have to do some
training, but it was very minimal.
Our students jumped in and they did it.
And in fact, I would tell you a lot of our students have
come back and said, you know what?
This really helped us learn math.
This really helped us learn the subject
that we were covering.
The other thing with the flipped classroom, and I think
where Canvas really helped us, was with the teachers.
I always heard this analogy when I was in college, and
then I saw it in action when I went out
actually in the field.
Who's doing the work in your room?
I talked to this teacher that went to the flipped classroom
and she said, I just went home every night, and I was
exhausted, and I had a stack of papers this big, and I
didn't know what to do.
Well, now it takes some of the responsibility off the teacher
and puts it on the student.
Here's what you need to do.
It's given to you.
It's given to you in a clear format, and now
you have to do it.
So the teacher becomes more of a facilitator, they're out in
the audience helping students learn.
And maybe Johnny is not at the same spot as Susie is.
That's OK, Because Johnny is in an accelerated program, and
Susie needs a little more help.
So that's where we have to use that technology such as Canvas
to make that transition for both of those students easier.
The other thing, students had to take responsibility for
their learning.
We felt that was really important, and we spent a lot
of time on that.
And our administrators supported our
staff in doing that.
And I think our students have really bought into it.
I'm not going to say that it's perfect, but for the most part
it has been pretty successful.
Again, the Canvas tools that really, really set this off
for the flipped classroom.
Number one, discussion forums.
OK, collaboration.
That's a big part of our kids' world today.
Again, they may not like to do it face-to-face, but they use
Snapchat, they use text messaging, they use online
tools, Google Hangouts, Google Chat, all right?
Our students used those tools prior to using Canvas.
Well, Canvas gave them the opportunity to actually
collaborate together, or they could collaborate with the
teacher, which is another big part of flipped classroom.
The other thing is with videos.
OK, the teacher put out a video.
I did this.
I teach an accounting class.
My students said the video will really helped them learn
some difficult topics.
The reason was, which they can do when I'm in the class, they
can have pause, and they can go back in the video.
Or they can just say, oh, Mr. McQuillen said I need to do
this, this, and this.
They couldn't do that before, and it really changed how they
were learning in class.
The Modules part.
In our math classes, they absolutely love this.
They had to do step one.
Then they did step two.
Then they did step three.
Maybe they took a quiz in there.
Then they did some other things.
So it really made them sequentially go through
things, but again, they didn't necessarily have to do it at
the same speed.
And you all have students that learn at
different rates of speed.
We know that.
Outcomes.
This is something we're still kind of working on.
With the Outcomes part, I think we're
making some big progress.
We are trying to get all of our classes aligned with Iowa
core curriculum, which is basically our
standards for the state.
And we could essentially point to, lesson one aligns with
standard 3-A, or whatever it may be.
That's what we're trying to get to.
Again, we're not quite there yet, but we are working on it.
The other part of the outcomes.
If you're doing an English project or something like
that, you can set up rubrics, and the rubrics show what you
are actually teaching.
And then the Quizzes part.
The Quizzes feature is much more advanced than anything we
had ever used.
You know, we weren't limited to true
false or multiple choice.
We could kind of open this up to some other things so as
short answer, or even essay questions.
We really, really bought into that, and that really helped
to get some of these flipped classrooms off the ground.
Project-based learning.
As we have all heard over and over again, how we get kids
engaged is by getting them involved.
And how we get them involved today is not, probably, going
to be the same as it was in the 1990s or the 1980s.
So technology has become a big part of that.
And yes, video, audio, even word processing or things of
that nature, but Canvas has a big part in this, because the
hands-on learning part can be organized by Canvas.
And this is useful stuff for kids, because if you think
about your job as a teacher, or if you're a tech person,
you have to organize what you're going to do.
You don't do something backwards and expect it to
work right.
So Canvas really helped organize things, put it in a
format that our students could understand, and I'll share an
example here in a minute of something
that I did in my classroom.
I teach a business class, and again, in the state of Iowa,
we have to show that we do things based on a project in
our classes, every class that we teach.
So one of the things that my students have to do is they
have to create a business, write a business plan.
They have to demonstrate what's the building
going to look like?
How am I going to make this work?
What's a budget look like?
So project-based learning in Canvas really gives you a lot
of features that you wouldn't have if you were just to hand
out a sheet of paper and say do these 5 things, or 10
things that it might be.
The Pages feature gives you an opportunity, if you're having
a project that's going to last the entire year or half a
year, you can use that as kind of your
wiki for your classroom.
So you can add to it as you go.
You don't have to give them all the
information on day one.
The Announcements part.
How do I get my students to know what's going on?
Sometimes you have to tell them, and the Announcements
part is, again, that collaboration piece.
You know, Friday we're going to have a project check or
something like that.
Modules.
If you're doing a project for English, or a social studies
project, and you know you're going to have about eight
different parts to it, you can put that
into the Modules piece.
You can make sure they do part one before they do part two.
Assignments.
Again, you can use the rubrics part of this
and it is very powerful.
Students know they can look at the rubric online.
They don't have to use the excuse, I
lost my piece of paper.
And then again, the Outcomes part goes with your standards.
Differentiated Learning.
How can we meet the needs of students?
If there is a part of this educational system that I
think has been emphasized probably more so than anything
else, I think is differentiated learning.
Again, as I stated earlier, we know our
students are different.
We know that we have students that learn at different rates
of speed, so we have to differentiate things.
We have to give them options, which is what Canvas is really
all about, options.
What can you do with Canvas that you couldn't do if you
simply just gave people a piece of paper?
So again, you have to ask yourself, do all of our
learners need to do the same things?
And most of the time, I think you can probably say, no, they
don't have to do the exact same thing.
So when it gets into the differentiate learning part, I
think a lot of our staff found that they had to get away from
traditional thinking of, everybody's going to do the
same thing at the same time, fifth period.
They had to move toward a belief that we're going to do
things a little bit differently for
each group of students.
And a prime example was in one of our science classrooms.
We had a teacher, again, another veteran teacher, who
changed his curriculum so he could meet the
needs of his students.
It was project-based learning.
It was some of the flipped classroom pieces that he put
together to give students the opportunity to succeed.
Again, I think the Modules part is a huge piece in this.
I think you have to have opportunities for kids to do
things, but maybe it's not going to look the same.
The Collaboration parts are digital tools,
and we all have those.
We all have digital tools that we have
available for students.
And again, you're piecing together, I think, the flipped
classroom and project-based learning to make this work.
I spoke to a friend of mine in last couple of days, you know,
where are we going with technology?
What's it going to do to education?
And that's the question we have to all ask each other.
How are we going to change?
Because if we simply stay in the traditional mode, which is
the easiest mode, but if we simply stay there, we are
going to go left behind.
And as we heard at the keynote this morning, we are tending
to run three to five years behind technology.
So what can we do to keep up?
And I really believe that's where Canvas plays a big role
with our educational system, because we have all of these
tools available to us.
And we can integrate a lot of the things that we use on a
regular basis right into the Canvas program.
Differentiated learning, again, goes back to our
at-risk students.
It goes to some of our special education students.
But I think it really goes into our general education
classroom, because we have to allow our students that
freedom to think big.
What can we do, you know?
And we're in Iowa.
Some of you are in major cities.
We don't really have major cities close to us, so we have
to use some of these pieces so our students understand this
is what's going on in Salt Lake City.
This is what's going on in Chicago.
Because otherwise, they don't get It.
We have corn fields, and that's about it.
All right?
So where we go from here?
I think our challenge is to look forward.
What can we do as educators to set the tone for the future,
and that not only get with the curve, but get ahead of the
curve, and maybe set it?
What can you do differently?
Again, technology is changing at an exponential rate.
How can we get there?
How could we get ahead of it and use it to the benefit of
our students?
The third thing, I challenge you to put your classroom on
the cutting edge using Canvas, using all the options that are
available to you, because I really believe it has the
opportunity to really change not only what your students
are learning, but how you are an effective educator.
So again, I want to thank you.
Are there any questions that you might have for me?
Yes.
AUDIENCE: What's the demographic makeup of your
high school students?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: Such as--
AUDIENCE: As far as ethnic background, maybe how much
money they're coming from.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: OK.
What is the ethnic, or what is the
demographics of our high school?
We are about as vanilla as they come, OK?
We have no diversity.
I would say, if you want to talk average income, somewhere
in the range of probably 50,000, somewhere in there.
Kind of a prototypical farming community.
AUDIENCE: So you don't have any issues with students
having access to internet or computers at home or anything.
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: We are a one-to-one computer school.
So every student in our high school has a computer.
Access?
Very minimal.
I would say less than 10% of our students
don't have the internet.
and I would say most of them find access if they need it.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: Talk about outcomes and what have been the
stumbling blocks for alignment.
Has it been Canvas or has it been knowing what it is that
you're aligning within the curriculum in places?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: What have been the
stumbling blocks with alignment?
I would say it has probably been, more so, how the state
of Iowa has kind of put out the core curriculum for us,
because it's kind of in limbo.
We don't know exactly what, exactly, they want right now.
But we're getting closer.
I think we're within six months of that
being really finalized.
Does that answer your question?
AUDIENCE: Kind of.
Yeah.
So you haven't really used outcomes yet to know how
you're going to--
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: We are putting in what we know is
finalized, but we don't know, some of the pieces are not
finalized, so we don't want to do the work twice.
So that's been the biggest issue.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Do you watch those flip flash
rooms before yourself?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: Yes.
AUDIENCE: I just kind of googled it because I didn't
know what it was.
My understanding is that you watch content-based
instruction videos at home and do more project-based or
inquiry-based learning in the classroom.
And I agree totally with that concept as a math teacher.
I'm a geometry teacher specifically.
But my question would be, first of all. are the kids
watching the videos at home even if they have internet
access and all that.
Because I know paper and pencil don't always get done
before they come back to the classroom.
So I would feel, probably, that I would have to spend
time on content again.
And the difficulty level.
Are they understanding the concepts from
watching the videos.
So I just wonder what has your experience
been in that regard?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: What has our experience been with flipped
classrooms, and watching the videos, and
comprehending things?
Truthfully, I think watching the videos
has not been an issue.
I'm not going to say that it's 100% because that would be a
lie, but I think the vast majority watch them.
And number two, comprehension.
I'm not going to kid you.
The flipped classroom, obviously, watching the video,
you hope that they get everything.
But there's going to be questions and that's kind of
what you're trying to move toward a little bit, is
getting them to ask the questions.
Why do you not understand this, or what part don't you
understand, maybe?
Anything else?
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: You said that you've made videos for a class that
you taught.
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: Mm-hmm.
AUDIENCE: What method did you go about getting the videos
into Canvas or linking videos for insert?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: I actually made--
the question was, how did I make my videos in Canvas?
I made them directly in Canvas.
AUDIENCE: Can you like show that to us so we can see what
that looks like?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: I wish I could.
I could afterwards, if you want to stick around.
But yeah, that's what I did.
I've also done them in YouTube as well.
AUDIENCE: How long can you make your videos and not use
up your storage space that you have in Canvas?
ANDREW MCQUILLEN: We try to keep our videos--
and the rule of thumb is, with the flipped classroom videos,
how long would you want to watch a video about math , or
accounting, or whatever it is?
We try to keep them under three minutes, because
otherwise, it's like her question, how many people are
going to watch the whole thing?
But if you keep them short and sweet, and to the point, I
think that kind of eliminates it.
I have used YouTube, and you can integrate that it right
into Canvas as well.
Thank you.
If you have any other questions, you feel free to
email me or stop me afterwards.