Startup culture ate one of my stories this year and I just found out about it this week.

I check for broken links on my blog. It’s mainly because I don’t like getting emails that such-and-such link doesn’t work anymore from a reader. I try to repair what I can and I remove what’s dead (sites and apps die a little too frequently).

One of my favorite posts from a couple of years back had a broken link, so I went to check it. Turns out, Storehouse, a great storytelling app I used for a while, closed shop in July. Along with it went my photos, videos, and stories published. No notice, no warning. Just gone.

The story embedded on the page? Gone. Replaced with the sad face.

The video of my daughter learning to crawl? Gone.

Shame on me for not backing up better. Shame on us for pouring our stories, images, and videos into a culture that packs up and moves on with no warning.

I’m working with a group of teachers to run a mock election this week. They had a basic Form set up for students to vote along with two other “pie-in-the-sky” ideas:

1. Assign electoral votes by homeroom to simulate the Electoral College.
2. Have a live-update view of the election teachers could show in their classrooms.

## Electoral Votes

To set up the electoral system, we created a database sheet in the workbook. We listed each teacher in the school and then assigned an electoral value. The next eight columns are used to tally votes per candidate per homeroom. I was able to do this using the `COUNTIFS` function to match the candidate **and** the homeroom teacher.

Another sheet was added to do the electoral tallies. This formula is a little more complex. I needed to grab the data from each row, find the max, and then check which candidate matches the max column. My final formula was:

`=if(and(voteTotals!$D2=0,voteTotals!$E2=0,voteTotals!$F2=0),0,if(max(voteTotals!$D2:$F2)=voteTotals!D2,voteTotals!$C2,0))`

Broken down:

1. If all candidates are 0, leave as 0 (it was assigning electoral votes to all three before this)
2. If 1 is false, check if the `MAX` value for that row is the same as the candidate header.
3. If 2 is true, assign the electoral votes. If false, leave as zero.

It works well and calculates instantly, which is really nice. The columns are then summed by candidate.

## Popular vote

The electoral vote took care of the presidential candidates, but I still needed popular vote totals for all of the candidates. That was a simple `SUM` function pulled from Sheet 2 which aggregated votes by homeroom. I didn’t need to worry about cross-checking against candidates because I was just interested in the totals.

Now that the tallying is done, I turned my attention to the live updates. My first testing was with a published chart from the spreadsheet. You can publish them without exposing the underlying data, which makes sharing results much simpler. But, it turns out, that leaving the chart options as “automatically publish updates” means anywhere from 10-30 minutes later. Not great for a live-update.

After some digging, I settled on the fact that a custom chart built with the Google Visualization API would be the best way to immediately show poll data.

## Coding the Chart

This took much longer than I expected because the Google Visualization API expects you to send a `QUERY` call to get data from a live spreadsheet to draw the chart. I’ve not used the Query language much, and in the end, my data wasn’t structured well enough in the spreadsheet to easily get what I wanted.

Using Google Apps Script, I was able to grab the spreadsheet data and create my own array to then give to the API for the chart.

## Displaying Popular Votes

The teachers also wanted to display the popular vote for all of the elections (President, Governor, Senate, House) next to the electoral data. This wasn’t too bad and I was able to set up a simple HTML table (using CSS `display: table`) to load the live data using AJAX.

Instead of having teachers reload the page every few minutes, the last two lines on the client-side code will re-run each script with fresh data, updating the site on it’s own.

## Why use a web app?

This is definitely more complicated than it could have been. But, I went with a web app approach for two main reasons:

1. Simplicity for the _user_
2. Data security

They’re collecting some demographic information that they don’t want published, which is one of the problems with just sharing the sheet out with the entire school staff. They also wanted to make sure the vote wasn’t damaged by someone accidentally changing some of the cell calculations.

The nice thing about running a web app is that I can still require a school district login to see the page. Additionally, even if the page were public, it hides the original spreadsheet key because you don’t need it in the client-side scripts. So that spreadsheet data is relatively safe from prying eyes.

Watch for a follow up post with the election results and a wrap up on how using the app went.

• • *The featured image is a [flickr photo](https://flickr.com/photos/nikkacorsino/4334364416 “Mock elections 2010”) shared by [Two2Travel](https://flickr.com/people/nikkacorsino) under a [Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

We’re using Canvas this year in our district and I’m trying to figure out how to actively (and successfully) utilize the Learning Mastery gradebook alongside the traditional gradebook…sort of a hybrid SBG.

I have Outcomes set for the entire year (the AP Bio curriculum) and I’m assigning Outcomes to each assignment. This is transferring nicely into the Learning Mastery gradebook. At the same time, coursework (labs, tests, etc) are being entered as normal assignments in the traditional gradebook. What I’m trying to figure out is how to weigh the Learning Mastery gradebook into the traditional.

Right now, as far as I can tell, you cannot have the Mastery gradebook results pushed directly into the traditional gradebook. So, I would have to copy each individual Outcome I’m assessing as an individual assignment in the course. I can do it, but it’s far from ideal.

I’m sure there are some of you out there who also use Canvas and hopefully, the Learning Mastery portion of the gradebook. What advice do you have? Any tips?

Our students are required to have their student ID on when they come into the building each day. This is mainly for security, but their ID also allows cafeteria, library, and other office staff to scan their ID for various clerical tasks.

When a student *doesn’t* have their ID, they’re issued a temporary wristband so faculty and staff know they’ve checked in for the day and that their record has been updated. The update process involved a paper copy made at a cart with wristbands being passed to a secretary who would then look up the student and add it to a spreadsheet before adding it to our SIS. Dang.

The head secretary (Deb) and I worked out a Google Sheet that does all of that (minus the SIS portion, but that’s coming soon).

I’ll outline the functions below, but you can [grab a copy of a blank sheet to play with](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MHrQVM0tPql8gx2tKfFlJwc5teNyDx8-LJ1FRulKFv0/copy) if you’d like to tinker or improve.

This is a new post format I’m going to try out from time to time. I don’t remember where I saw the original idea, but that person suggested going back, reading old posts, and then commenting on changed perspectives as a method of reflection.

I use [Alan Levine’s](http://www.twitter.com/cogdog) [PHP script to dig up wold WordPress posts](http://stackoverflow.com/a/27569816/2278429) by simply visiting [blog.ohheybrian.com/random](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/random) and re-reading. Try it yourself for some vintage bennettscience.

_If you’d like perspective, [here is the original post](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/2014/10/the-new-education-economy-of-free)._

Paying for software continues to be a four-letter word in EDUland. Some of the reasons free services are important are legitimate (I only have so much of my own money to spend) and some aren’t (I’m a teacher, help me out). In particular,

We need to differentiate between the free sharing of ideas and the free sharing of products.

Also, there seems to have been a rise in EDU-ratti who suggest that you give away lessons and your custom materials away for free as long as you remember to buy their book on 50 ways to do that. There cannot be a double standard.

Alan (he’s shown up a lot in my posts lately) [says it much better than I do](http://cogdogblog.com/2016/10/flickr-cc0/):

I get hired to provide them as a service, despite the fact people can use my stuff for free. You make a living from providing services, consulting, ideas, not from digital stuff. If I was a pro photographer, I would hope to make money from the service, not the products. I would get more clients if they can find examples of my work in the world.

Looking back at the original article, I think that was the point I was trying to make. It’s not selling the product (the book, curriculum…whatever) that’s worth the cost, it’s the **service you provide in creating that product.**

The distinction is very small, but again, it gets to the idea that we have to value the time and effort – the service – that goes into creating any product, be it a book or software.

Consider the tools you’re using now. If it’s free, there is usually an option to send some love to the developers through a donation. If not, send them a note and ask how you can buy that person a beer.

My father-in-law came to me with an interesting idea. He wanted to create video kiosk for our church which would play videos on different mission organizations we’re involved with. The wall – previously – had photos and text about each missionary or organization, but he wanted to revamp.

We initially tried to use PowerPoint and a custom keyboard to jump to different slides, but maintaining and updating that system wasn’t going to be very elegant or user friendly. So, about a year later, I had an “oh, duh” moment and realized we could do it as a static, locally-hosted website. It would be easy to build and even easier to maintain, so that’s what we did.

In this post, I’ll talk about the hardware and software we used to get it finished. There are still some things to hammer out, but the bones of the project are done and tested successfully, so it seems like a good time to document it.

sudo echo `date '+%s' -d '+ 10 minutes'` > /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm

Consider the train problem:

A train is barreling down the tracks. At a fork, you have the option of flipping the train to the left branch or the right branch. On the left side is someone you know, tied to the rails. On the right, there are five strangers.

Which way do you throw the switch?

A philosophy professor posed the question to his two-year old.

The great thing about this is that he was still solving a problem…it just wasn’t the expected problem.

I think a lot of frustration can come up in a classroom comes from ambiguity. I may have a problem and anticipated solution, but if that isn’t clear to students, conflict can pop up when they take a different path. Even more, defining specific solutions to problems worth discussion is a poor teaching method.

Next time you’re given an unexpected solution, consider the validity of a different point of view.

I was talking with our school librarian today about why we don’t offer ebooks for students to check out. It came up because I grabbed a real, hardcover library book six weeks ago and had _just_ finished it this week. It’s only 400ish pages, and taking that long to read a short/medium length book was a little embarrassing.

Compared to reading on my phone or my Kindle, it was an eternity. I like the portability of ebooks. I like being able to pull it up on my phone and read a little when I’m sitting, waiting for something. Especially this year, as I move all over the district day to day, carrying another book in my bag is precious space that’s often wasted due to time.

Ebooks sound great, but I got thinking about [Maha Bali’s post on “owning” a domain](http://blog.mahabali.me/blog/educational-technology-2/i-dont-own-my-domain-i-rent-it-dooo/) and [Audrey Watters’ fantastic take](http://hackeducation.com/2016/08/23/domains) (rebuttal?) on the topic. [I even weighed in a little bit](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/2016/08/flipped-learning-as-a-way-to-build-an-online-presence/) on how teachers can start to build that identity.

I don’t want to encourage a culture where ownership is a burden. Moving school libraries to epubs sounds great: access! they’re on their phones anyways! Kindle!…

…but in practice, it’s a school, paying a company to _licence_ titles. Each borrow by a student turns into dollars paid to an outside entity for the privilege of licensing the book. Libraries cannot give the books away or even recoup shrinking budgets by having used book sales. It’s a expenditure, through and through.

All of that, of course, is ignoring the DRM hurdles put on certain publications, which are only accessible through certain platforms. Ebooks aren’t “just like” books, only in bits. It’s a completely new market geared for one thing: making a profit.

At whose expense?

[|](https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8751/17140910740_dc6fcd4ca2_z.jpg)|

[Hybrid Pedagogy](http://www.hybridpedagogy.com) is a publication you should be reading. It’s completely open access, written, edited, and published by educators. The article authors and editors are laser focused on the deeper questions within technology use in education like innate power structures, programmed bias, and the fact that technology is _not_ agnostic by nature.

This week I read [Beyond Surface-Level Digital Pedagogy](http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/hybridped/beyond-surface-level/) and was introduced to HybridPod, a companion podcast to Hybrid Pedagogy. The article linked and [Martha Burtis’ keynote at the 2016 Digital Pedagogy Institute](http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/hybridped/making-breaking-rethinking-web-higher-ed/) really push hard on the idea that all instructors and all students should really be doing stuff on the web. Learning stuff. Breaking stuff. Just stuff.

Tying the two together is this idea (posited in the first article):

“…if our institutions of higher learning ignore the calls for critical digital pedagogy a vast number of K-12 educators will continue to look for shiny tools to cover up education’s most difficult problems.”

Granted, higher education has been involved in the making (and breaking) of the web since the beginning while K-12 has really started using it in earnest with students in the last ten years. There’s history there, in higher ed, that isn’t present in K-12. But, are we learning lessons from that history?

In particular, have K-12 teachers really recognized the enormous value in making and sharing things online? I’m not convinced that lesson is one that’s been learned, nor is it one people want to learn. [Martha’s discussion of the LMS is describing the current state of K-12 education](https://hyp.is/IcOormpnEeaYFytVzSeXnA/www.digitalpedagogylab.com/hybridped/making-breaking-rethinking-web-higher-ed/):

I think the Web hit us at a critical moment in higher education where we were already struggling with doing our work less like schools and more like businesses, and the tech industry and its vendors had already begun to infiltrate us with promises of how technology could help us achieve this goal. We had already bought into student information systems (which eventually became everything information systems), and with the promise of those systems came the promise of lots of data which would allow us to become more efficient and streamlined.

As the web becomes more sterilized for our students, we have important pedagogical decisions to make.

Flipped Learning, given its popularity, is often the first place teachers are confronted with working heavily in the online space. Many are already constrained to the LMS and find the shortcomings frustrating to work within. So, they work around.

That process of working around limitations exposes teachers (and by extension, students) to the potential of working in an _open_ web space rather than a _closed_ web space. Flexibility and customizability become the expectation rather than the “nice-to-have.” And it’s not just about the look of the space: flexibility in functionality – the experience students have – can strongly influence their experience in learning (it’s a _hybrid_ experience, remember?)

I agree that Flipped Learning, at first does not necessarily push a shift in instructional methods. But, when you’re used to teaching in a very straightforward manner, whether in person or online (in an LMS, perhaps) making an instructional shift is very difficult because of the mindset change involved. I’d like to propose that the first shift be to look outside the provided methods of organization and begin to explore the messiness of digital learning through open spaces.

Martha’s suggestion is simple: set up, and run, a domain. The easiest thing to do is purchase a domain name and start a blog. Start sharing. Start reading. Reflecting on practice in an open environment invites comment and outside input to your pedagogy. Being transparent and vulnerable in what we do with instruction will begin to inform those instructional decisions and help bring about a shift.

As you get more comfortable with your space, you’ll feel more comfortable pushing your students to do the same. Our students are creating digital footprints in spaces where there is no control. In schools, it’s in the LMS. Outside of school, it’s through social media (no, they do not own their tweets, snaps, or likes).

Improving in the use of technology is more than just being able to whip out the right app at the right time. It’s being able to critically pick apart the explicit and implicit nuance in function while at the same time enhancing the learning experience. Use the challenge of flipping to really push your thinking about how technology can truly change the teaching and learning experience in schools.

• • *[flickr photo](https://flickr.com/photos/astrid/17140910740 “Harbour”) shared by [AstridWestvang](https://flickr.com/people/astrid) under a [Creative Commons ( BY-NC-ND ) license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)

Patrick Donovan put out a tweet the other day with a screenshot to a Chrome extension he had just put together. It caught my attention and led to this post because it’s a really, really good idea.

Got my Chrome Extension created, now to refine and then publish to our organization. Thank you @curt_truc #COL16 pic.twitter.com/HosZU52r2t

—Patrick Donovan (@donovanscience) July 22, 2016

I tracked down Curt Schleibaum whose website included a demo to his Chrome extension idea. In short, he provided a template which included all of the necessary files to have a simple popup Chrome browser extension. It was quite clever – instead of having the user change code for the extension to push information, it had an embedded Google Doc that you use updated with new information. It also included links back to the district website, tech support, etc.

It got me thinking about how the extension could be improved, so that’s what I put together last night. The source is on GitHub so you can see the nitty gritty. My extension builds on Curt’s original idea – allowing a teacher or admin to use a Google service to push announcements out to extension users. Instead of a document, mine uses a spreadsheet and watches for an update to publish and then badges the extension when new information is available.

If you want to play with this yourself, follow the steps below (mostly proof-of-concept at this point, lots of refining to do).

I’m on a new team with the school district (I don’t think I’ve written about that change yet…). I’m teaching one section of AP Biology and working the rest of the day with an Instructional Technology Specialist team for the whole district. The goal is to build out a program to support anything to do with…well…instructional technology.

Part of our big “here we are” message is a Google Form available to anyone in the district. We’re in week 1 of school and we’re already getting requests for classroom visits, app support, and staff PD across the district. These spreadsheets, if you’re using something similar, can get really big, really fast. Puzzle piece number one.

To help organize our projects and day to day tasks, we’re using [Trello](https://www.trello.com) as a team. We can create lists to categorize cards with specific tasks. As they change status, drag a card from one list to another. We can also comment, assign team members, and attach files to the tasks to keep our email from exploding all over the room. There’s a web app and a mobile app so we’re all in touch. Puzzle piece number two.

Now, I don’t want to check a spreadsheet to go and manually put a PD request into Trello. Luckily, Google Sheets allow you to `POST` data to other apps through APIs on the web. Doubly luckily, Trello has an API.

Long story short, I had an _awful_ time getting this started because Trello required a particular form of authorization that Google no long supports in Apps Script (go figure). So, I Googled and Googled until I came across an [old post by Riley Pannkuk](http://www.rileypannkuk.com/js-google-form-trello-integration.html) who was doing something similar for bug tracking for his app. So, I sent him an email. He wrote back with a solution; I’m not sure how he found it because it isn’t in the Trello docs (shame shame), but it works.

The problem was that no matter how I authenticated, Trello didn’t recognize my permissions in the app. Riley pointed out that there was a missing parameter on my authorization request: the `response_type` field needed to be set to `token`. Again: not in the docs.

So, step one was to set up a Trello board and then grab my API key from (the developer options page)[http://trello.com/app-key]. Then, I sent an authentication request via URL with the following information:

– key = My app key

– name = arbitrary name to identify the app by in my settings

– scope = level of access needed by the app (in this case, read & write)

– expiration = how long should the app have access?

– response_type = token

The authorization request looks like this when you’re ready to send it:

`https://trello.com/1/authorize?key=YOUR_APP_KEY&name=APP_NAME&scope=read,write&expiration=never&response_type=token`

This returns a webpage with a long string of letters and numbers that need to be included in the script (see below) to post when the sheet is updated.

Here’s the script with comments so you can see what’s going on:

Rather than sharing a pretty team-specific Trello board, the last step in the function is to change the Google sheet status to “In Progress” so others can check up on what needs to be done.

The next step is to add something called a **webhook** to watch the cards as they move through the Trello board and update things like the team member assigned, completed, etc. I’ll add another post when that’s done, complete with code.

In 2011, I wrote a post in which I strongly declared that Flipped Learning [is not about the videos](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/2011/10/video-is-not-the-answer/).

But what if it is?

flickr photo shared by cogdog Creative Commons Attribution BY license.

The whole idea of Flipped Learning is moving from directing instruction in front of the community to allow active learning practices to prompt learning experiences in students. In order to do that, time has to be reclaimed somewhere…something during the class has to be sacrificed.

For many, the way to do that is through video.

So, it _is_ about the video, but only in the sense that it allows the teacher to explore other methods of interacting with students within the context of the class. The transition from instruction in the room to instruction as a recording is a small leap; accessible to most teachers where they are _now_ and one that can lead to deeper learning opportunities.

Obviously, the video is only an enabler of change, not the cause. There is still an active decision made by the teacher to change their classroom practice for students. It is not the only way to effect change in practice, but it is (or seems to be) quite popular.

Beyond offloading instruction, the video doesn’t do much. Without taking steps to improve the learning experiences students have in the classroom, then no, nothing has changed. Use that time to push yourself and students into new experiences and allow those videos to help support the change.

A week or two back, Lisa Dabbs, known for starting and moderating #ntchat wrote a post (a second post, actually) on why new teachers should use Periscope with their students.

There are some concerns with the Periscope terms of service and privacy policy that come up when the teacher is broadcasting students across the app. I posted a comment on Lisa’s blog, but after some tweets and awaiting moderation, it isn’t live, so I’m posting it here because the discussion is valuable. I hope Lisa and others are willing to comment on some of the points below.

Hi Lisa,

I want to push back on the idea that new teachers should jump into using Periscope. Yes, it’s important to share and get feedback and it can be a great way to do that. But jumping right in and sharing student images and student information without at least mentioning the Terms of Use and Privacy Statements is, in my opinion, dangerous.

From the Periscope Privacy Statement (my emphasis added):

We use and store information about your location to provide features of our Services, such as broadcasting with your location, and to improve and customize the Services. We may infer your location based on information from your device. If you have turned on location services for Periscope, we may share your precise location.

There is no limitation on how long they store that information. If a new teacher is broadcasting and a student with limitations from their parents is included in that broadcast, that can lead to serious issues. Broadcasting specific location data is never a wise idea, especially when minors are involved.

From the TOS:

You agree that this license includes the right for Twitter, Inc. to provide, promote, and improve Periscope and to make Content submitted to or through Periscope available to other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Twitter, Inc. for the syndication, broadcast, distribution or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use.

Often, this licensing is so Periscope can rebroadcast your content, much like other services ask for the same permission to share materials you create on a wide basis and not case by case. But, this can also include use in advertisements, promotional materials, etc. Again, broadcasting the images of students and having a company with their own profit in mind with no control over how or why those images are stored perpetually can lead to liability problems at some point.

You are responsible for your use of Periscope, for any Content you provide, and for any consequences thereof, including the use of your Content by other users and our third party partners.

In other words, “If someone misuses your content, it’s your fault for posting it.”

The teacher is responsible in loco parentis. We are representatives of the school district. Any liability the teacher takes on using any application can come back to the district. This is an express agreement that is glossed over in most cases. Periscope, because of its public nature, brings a unique challenge.

All I’m saying is that twice now you have implored new teachers to jump into a service with no mention of repercussions that could come from tacit use. You have a great amount of influence and a lot of people look to you for guidance. Please consider taking explicit steps with these recommendations to outline Privacy and Terms of Use considerations for apps and programs. Especially for new teachers. They have enough to worry about already.

As always, comments are open.

[|](https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5533/10176913895_fb59a06963_z.jpg)|

[flickr photo](https://flickr.com/photos/bennettscience/10176913895 “DSC_0149”) shared by [bennettscience](https://flickr.com/people/bennettscience) under a [Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

I heard the first periodical cicada of the summer yesterday. Before I could find him, he stopped buzzing. I’ll have to pay more attention this afternoon and see if I can track him down.

17 years ago, I was in my first biology class. I still remember my teacher: Mr. Brown. He was a certified master diver and knew (it seemed) just about everything. He was the one who really made science alive for me. He was just one of the teachers who made me want to eventually get my degree in biology and teach.

Science is _real_. Our students need to experience the world around them and have opportunities to really see that we can learn through observation and inference. Hearing a cicada that has been underground for 17 years, only to emerge for four weeks to make more cicadas is one of those experiences.

I’m teaching AP Bio next year for the first time since the redesign in 2013. I’m excited to get back to the realm of the living (chemistry is great…but…it can’t really compete) and giving students a chance to be a part of the cycles happening all around us every day.

Learning is more than the cycles, charts, and facts. It’s living and breathing with the rest of the world.

News came down this week that [Zaption](http://www.zaption.com), a popular web app that layers quiz question and other interactive features on top of videos, is closing it’s doors on September 30th.

Unlike some of the [other](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/2016/06/the-education-freeconomy-gobbles-up-another/) [recent](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/2015/03/another-casualty-of-the-free-only-economy/) closures, [Zaption is being purchased by a finance firm](https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-06-30-zap-zaption-sold-to-workday) (Workday) located in San Francisco. The terms of the sale aren’t public, but my guess is that Workday wants to expand it’s learning service to include interactive features for their client base. It adds value to something they’ve already built out and saves the hassle of licensing fees.

Here’s the kicker: Zaption, as far as I can tell, has no information in their [Terms of Service](https://www.zaption.com/terms) or [Privacy Policy](https://www.zaption.com/privacy) about what happens to user data. Nothing came up when I searched the page for **sale, sold, acquire, acquired, bankrupt, bankruptcy purchase, purchased, asset, assets, or close.**

User data is valuable in most cases. The immediate concern is that user data will be transferred in this sale with no prior disclosure. I’ve reached out to Zaption via Twitter asking for clarification on the plan for that data. Given the buyer and Zaptions offering, I’m hoping data transfer isn’t in the deal and that the purchase is for the codebase.

There are two important things to remember:

1. “Free” always has a cost associated with it.
2. Read the Privacy Policy and Terms for the apps you use.

What happens to data in these situations is important. If you’re looking for a good place to start, [Bill Fitzgerald](http://www.twitter.com/funnymonkey) worked on a project with Common Sense Media to create a [Privacy Policy Browser](http://privacy.graphite.org/) covering the conditions for some popular educational websites and apps. Check it out and see what you’ve agreed to. Being informed is important.

ISTE 2016 is in full swing and right on cue, my hype-o-meter tolerance has dropped significantly. A huge concentration of edtech vendors and Twitterati all in one place can lead to a lot of mumbo jumbo. But, we’ll power through the next four days and try to pull the wheat from the chaff.

Two big things that come up in waves each year: A) If you’re looking for tech, free is what you deserve as a teacher, and B) If you’re creating things, it should be given freely to the rest of the teaching world.

Free is king in edtech and it’s killing good tech.

Exhibit A:

Teachers shouldn’t pay teachers. Teachers would be sharing willingly for the benefit of all kids. #ISTE2016

—?????? ?. ???????? (@web20classroom) June 26, 2016

He later goes on to say:

No one. If a teacher creates something truly amazing, they have a moral obligation to give it away.

—?????? ?. ???????? (@web20classroom) June 26, 2016

The idea that resources for teachers should all be free because of a moral imperative is dangerous and devalues the hard work that goes into creating content.

If you go through the tweets, the main argument is that a lot of the materials on Teachers Pay Teachers (or similar) are really crappy. There are a lot of crappy products available that I choose not to buy. The guy selling it is perfectly within his rights to sell a product to compensate for the time put into creating it. There has to be some kind of recognition that all work is not equal and that being paid for significant time and effort to create a product is completely appropriate, even for teachers.

Second, my moral obligation is to my students first and foremost. I don’t charge them for resources I create, much of it on my own time. I also choose, freely, to give a lot away to the teaching community because I don’t feel the time I’ve put into those resources was significant enough to ask for compensation.

Expecting teachers to work for free devalues those hours and allows edtech companies to fill the gap and make good money while they’re doing it.

There’s another parallel to explore: expecting free software for the sake of teaching devalues the hard work of development, QA testing, troubleshooting, and maintenance of code. The time is valuable and it is completely appropriate to be compensated for that time.

The free-as-best mindset is a dangerous delimiter being placed on what is valuable or invaluable in education based on price alone.

Unfortunately, in order to appeal to the education community at-large, the free-as-best standard is being encouraged by edtech companies. The following was shared by PhET Sims:

The image is well-intended. But, the message is the same one that’s plaguing edtech: all software should be free. (If you’re not familiar with PhET, it runs from grants and individual donations. I’m a big user of their sims in my own classroom and I’ve taken the step to donate some money to the continuation of the project.) I’d be willing to bet that the developers working for PhET to create and maintain the simulations like to be paid for their work. The sims aren't free and the cost is not exposed clearly enough to the user.

ISTE concentrates these ideas and feeds the perception that price point is the main factor in the usefulness or value in a product. There are costs everywhere and to keep doors open as a company, you have to meet those costs. If you’re not paying cash for a service, that cost is most likely data you’re contributing, and that’s for another post.

If you’re at ISTE right now (or if you know someone who is) please keep this in mind as you research and share about new tools. Don’t perpetuate the free-as-best narrative because in the long run, it’s going to cost us all.

I’ve started using the [Hypothes.is](http://hypothes.is) annotation tool more lately, mostly at the behest of [Kris Shaffer](http://www.twitter.com/krisshaffer). He started writing about it’s potential for [public discourse on research](http://kris.shaffermusic.com/2016/04/hypothesis-public-research-notebook/) back in April and has since created [Pypothesis](http://kris.shaffermusic.com/2016/06/introducing-pypothesis-1/) to turn his annotations into a blog post using Python and the [Hypothes.is API](http://h.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/).

The API is pretty simple – it can take a call for various requests (username, annotation, etc) and return information to use within your app. Kris used Python to create a Markdown page to post on a GitHub-based blog. Coming from K12 land, I see Google Docs serving as the larger research-curation hub and I figured, why not turn this into a simple Google Apps Script?

So I did.

It’s nothing fancy, but it works. It’s nice that the API is so straightforward…Kris mentions how easy it is to jump into if you’ve got even a little experience with scripting. The hardest part, in the Google Script world, was interacting with the JSON. But, I managed to get that worked out.

As you can see, this will search for annotations under my username. There are other parameters you can use in a search, including multiple at a time. [Read more about those in the docs](http://h.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/). Also, [John Stewart](http://www.twitter.com/jstew511) has a [much more thoroughly developed Google Spreadsheet](https://t.co/ntZ5M0BcI3) which takes multiple search terms and returns results from an API call. Very cool application to play with.

Free in education is a big deal. Don’t bother mentioning paid apps in front of teachers because you’ll lose the group. Last year, we saw [Geddit](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/2015/03/another-casualty-of-the-free-only-economy/) close it’s doors. This year, there are two notables closing shop before the fall: [Curriculet](https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-05-25-curriculet-closes-shop) and [Snagit for Chrome](https://feedback.techsmith.com/techsmith/topics/snagit-for-google-chrome-end-of-product-support-announcement). The two are in slightly different boats but they’re closing for similar reasons.

Curriculet was a text annotation tool built for schools. You could rent (much like a library) an ebook and then add annotations on top in a user community. The idea was that teachers would be able to assign a novel and have students socially annotate their learning. It was a really great idea and implemented rather well. They were never free, which is unique for an edtech startup. They recognized the cost up front and tried to cover their bases with subscriptions.

Unfortunately, they were up against the publishing world. Plus, if a school already has hard copy books, why invest in a digital copy? I think social annotation is on the cusp of becoming something larger (see the work being done by [Hypothes.is](http://hypothes.is)) and that Curriculet may have been in front of the curve too much. I think this idea will have more legs, either from a standalone company like Curriculet or through traditional publishers (maybe), in the future.

Snagit for Chrome was another beast. TechSmith, already popular with flipping, was trying to jump into the Google Apps for Education space. There are a *ton* of independent developers doing cool things and sharing their work through the Chrome browser. It’s nice because Chrome levels the device playing field – teachers can use apps and extensions on traditional desktop or laptops through the browser and students can rely on a stripped-down Chromebook to access the same material.

Google Apps may be “the great leveller” (more on that in another post) but it’s also siphoning the ability for software developers to run sustainable businesses. Everything in the Chrome store is *free.* There are some paid apps, but most have a free user version. The lowest common denominator soon dominates the system. When a company, like TechSmith, comes along and tries to run a traditional business model within a free-only economy, they need to evolve (which is unlikely given that it’s a single product in a larger portfolio) or they have to jump ship.

In the meantime, teachers are caught in the middle. There is a large amount of trust for name-brands getting into the Chrome space. Many relied on Snagit because they trust TechSmith. Now, they’re left to change their entire system. Again.

Welcome to the land of the Free.

—

I’ve written other posts on the idea of free software. [Check them out](http://blog.ohheybrian.com/tag/free/) if you want more stories of great companies being run out of business.

A while back, I had looked at automating tweets from a Google spreadsheet to reduce the insane number of clicks it takes to do in TweetDeck and HootSuite (5 clicks? Really?) I hit some roadblocks and let it slide because in the long run, it wasn’t really important to me. More of a fun experiment.

I jumped back into it a week or so back to try and solve the last little problems. [I was able to create a script](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kbFIfYGm2sGQJ5TistkaxMzqUqQ8HbgUvJUM8MohOb4/edit?usp=sharing) which loops through a spreadsheet checks the current date and whether or not the tweet has been sent. If those conditions are met (TODAY` and `NOT SENT), it will automatically post the tweet.

The sheet, like all the other Twitter sheets I’ve used, is run with [Martin Hawksey’s](http://twitter.com/mhawksey) fantastic TwtrService library. It allows you to authenticate and tweet right from Google Apps Script and saves a _ton_ of time.

I ran into a problem that is [as-yet unsolved](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37308911/pause-a-loop-to-wait-for-rest-api-response): I can’t get the sheet to stop after posting one tweet. So, if you have multiple tweets on a given day, it will send _all_ of them at once. That’s not good, especially if you’re promoting an event over a period of time. I’ve tried a number of solutions, but I can’t seem to find one that works. I’d love to hear if you’re able to take the source and tweak it to work.

In the meantime, Martin also took a (much more elegant) pass at the task. [His sheet is also available](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10U7Rrr7lfbRS2A8QYRUWL8enlJfat75-QuGm7slKXRE/edit#gid=0) and works really well. The goal is the same, but his mechanics and implementation are much more refined and effective.

It’s a good example of multiple ways to skin a cat. I’m a novice coder (I tell people I know enough to break something) and he’s an expert doing all kinds of things. The great thing is, all of this code is open and available. I can make a copy of Martin’s page and dig into his solution. I learned a few tricks about checking for multiple conditions, which is what I was struggling with. I became better at scripting through my failure and his success.

I absolutely hate teaching bonding. The abstract nature of atoms, the minutiae of nomenclature, and the details of writing formulas bog students down and I struggle to meet their needs. So, we do POGILs, simulations, speed dating, labs, and drills. Lots of time is spent trying to correct patterns of work to meet the learning objectives.

This year, I just can’t seem to meet those goals. I feel like I’m at my wits end and I’m just ready to move into something else for the plain sake of mixing it up a little bit.

I know it’s not my fault entirely. I know I can rely on the multiple short assessments – formative and summative – that I’ve given over the last three weeks (almost) checking on progress. I know I’ve recovered and retaught major points of confusion.

I also know I can’t force students to do something they’re patently disinterested in doing.

Standards based grading is a double-edged sword in that regard. They’ve done plenty of work, but there is still a major lack of understanding of the main ideas, so I cannot report, through the grading system, that they’ve learned the objective. Ethically, I’m not willing to cross that line. At the same time, I question the level of expectation I’ve set up as students work to demonstrate what understanding they have. Am I expecting too much?

The line between high expectations and impossible expectations is thin. Trying to walk it is an exercise in rationalization and stubbornness.

• • *_The photo in this post is a [Public Domain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_triangle#/media/File:LargeTribarGotschuchenAustria.JPG) photo of a [Penrose Triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_triangle). It looks like it should exist, but in reality, is an impossible shape._