Why have I never just made a movie using iMovie on my iPhone?

 

 

In his book 2 Second Lean, Paul Akers has a wonderful phrase “We want to have maximum value to flow to the customer.”

We just collected all of our 1:1 devices. Mostly it went well, but I messed up two things with sixth grade, which so far has taken me two hours to fix.  One was my fault, one was not.

So, the value of those two hours did not flow to the customer.  Students. Teachers. The larger Instructional Technology Resource Teacher group around me. The value of those two hours were eaten up by fixing the defects that I had created.

Paul talks about the concept of waste in Lean Production.  Getting rid of the waste is a thoughtful framework when looking to improve a process.

The canonical lean wastes are (This is from Wikipedia)

• Transport (moving products that are not actually required to perform the processing)
• Inventory (all components, work in process, and finished product not being processed)
• Motion (people or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the processing)
• Waiting (waiting for the next production step, interruptions of production during shift change)
• Overproduction (production ahead of demand)
• Over Processing (resulting from poor tool or product design creating activity)
• Defects (the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects)

Some people apparently add an eighth or ninth waste.

• Not using the people and talents in your building.
• Not meeting customer’s expectations

Book Trailers are a way for readers to preview a book and as students get the technology into their own hands, teachers are using it as an activity for students.

At our school we are looking at this. Here are some questions that we are thinking about.

• What language arts objectives mesh well with a book trailer format?
• What are the options for the book trailer? / How does the book trailer change based on what the needs are for the language arts objective?
• What are some different styles of book trailers?
• How much structure do you give students when doing their book trailers?
• How do you share the Book Trailers to create an authentic audience for the trailers?

I am going to write about each of those topics. I also feel like my understanding of those topics will change along the way.  For Nudging I made both versions public.  For these I might treat them more like a wiki entry and update them as I learn more.

 

 

I re-read my post about Nudging, and there is a LOT of I and me. The first paragraph has an I in every sentence.  Heck, the first sentence has three I’s.  Let me try rewriting it to be less me, me, me.

---

 

At my school we do the high stakes testing in the classroom. If you were a parent, where do you want your 9 year old to take their test? In the classroom where they learned the material, or in the gym with 100 other students?

This means every day during testing we are setting up computers, privacy folders, mice, headphones, and clipboards.  The students take a test.  Then, everything gets taken down and moved to a new location.

The problem is getting all the equipment back.  Even if you just lose one item per room per day, it adds up to a lot of money.

Headphones are the worst.  Each quarter we lose 150-200 dollars worth of headphones. Losing six hundred dollars a year on headphones is unacceptable. For that amount of money we could have a second STEAM Night!

After rejecting a few bad ideas (making people sign out for them separately, writing grumpy emails) I tried to think of a nudge.

I’ve never read Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge.  I should. The Freakonomics Podcasts has a few good episodes on the subject. The general idea is figuring out what small changes you can make to have a high impact.

For my nudge I decided to make a headphone wrap.  The Wraps needed to be . . .

• CHEAP:  We made them with blue duct tape and blank PVC Cards.
• CONNECTED  The headphones can’t separate from the wrap
• Organized: They can’t come back as a mess.

After way too many models and google searches, I came up with t

his.

It seemed to do its job.  100% of the headphones were returned without me having to nag.  One was damaged (a student took off the tape), but that was pretty easy to fix.  Even when they were not wrapped perfectly, it was good enough to keep everything organized.

This nudge was for something pretty small, and frankly not earth shattering. I wonder how we could nudge student achievement.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever ready Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge, but I probably should. I probably first heard about Nudge from one of the Freakonomics Podcasts on the subject. I try to keep it in the back of my mind of how I can nudge people in a direction I want to get them to go.

My latest nudge has been with testing equipment. Whenever we test on the computers we put out a lot of equipment, which we often do not get back. The worst offender are the headphones. The last few testing sessions I think I may have gotten a 60% return rate.

After rejecting a few bad ideas (making people sign out for them separately, writing grumpy emails) I tried to think of a nudge. How could I nudge people to return them.

I decided to make a headphone wrap for each that could not be taken off. It would be clear which headphones belonged to “testing.” Then, as an added bonus, hopefully they would come back wrapped.

After way too many models, I come up with this.  The headphone cable is taped into the opening, so they do not come out.  On later models the entire wrap is covered with electric blue duct tape, so it is easier to find.  And the wraps on the side are straight instead of diagonal.  

But, it so far, it seemed to do its job.  They were all returned without me having to nag or do a checkout system. One was damaged (a student took off the tape), but that was pretty easy to fix. So, a pretty good nudge.

This nudge was for something pretty small. I wonder if I could nudge some more instructional issues in the right direction.