October 16, 2024 • 16 mins
In this episode of Practical Access, hosts Lisa Dieker and Rebecca Hines explore innovative educational tools with guest Bryan Dean, an innovation specialist at CAST. They focus on Corgi, a free digital graphic organizer designed to enhance student collaboration, engagement, and critical thinking. Built on a Google platform, Corgi includes features such as embedded teacher instructions, multimedia integration, and flexible permissions. Whether for middle school science projects or other subjects, Corgi’s versatility helps students visualize their ideas, collaborate, and easily revise their work. Bryan also shares how Corgi can be utilized by parents, homeschoolers, and pre-service teachers to foster deeper learning. If you're seeking a user-friendly, flexible tool to organize thoughts and lessons, this episode offers a fantastic introduction to Corgi’s potential in the classroom and beyond.
We love to hear from our listeners! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We look forward to receiving your questions on Twitter (@Accesspractical) or Instagram (@Practical_Access).
Corgi website: https://corgi2.cast.org/login
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
Music.
Lisa Dieker (00:07):
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa
Dieker.
Rebecca Hines (00:10):
And I'm Rebecca Hines and Lisa, our listeners
don't know this about you, buttrust me, everyone, Lisa loves a
deal. Lisa loves to shop, andshe loves a deal. So today's
guest is perfect because he'sbringing something that all of
(00:31):
us can use for free. Lisa, whatdo we have?
Lisa Dieker (00:34):
Well, today we're continuing with this season's
focus on math and science, andwe have with us. Bryan Dean, who
is an innovations an innovationspecialist at CAST, talking
about a wonderful piece ofsoftware called Corgi that is
free, as Becky said, give me acoupon any day of the week. So
(00:55):
Bryan, we're so happy to haveyou with us.
Bryan Dean (00:58):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for the the invite andthe intro, and I have to tell
you, Lisa, if you want to talklater, I got a bridge that I'm
trying to unload. If you've got,if you've got, you know, a
couple, you've got some extrachange right around in your
pocket. You may be the owner ofa of a bridge from here to
Canada.
Lisa Dieker (01:18):
Well, Becky will tell you I like a deal, but I'm
very frugal and I'm prettysavvy, so we'll see.
Rebecca Hines (01:24):
It is true, but
Bryan Dean (01:25):
this may not be the deal for you. I'm looking for
investors who have more money.
Lisa Dieker (01:32):
So anyway, well, we're thrilled you're with us,
and so Bryan, do you want tostart off by giving us just a
little bit of what is Corgi?
Sounds like a beautiful dog, butwe know it's much more exciting
than that too.
Bryan Dean (01:44):
Well, it is a beautiful dog, and it is our
kind of our mascot, but Corgi,which you can find at
corgi.cast.org is actually a setof of graphic organizers,
digital graphic organizers builton a Google platform so they are
shareable. They are you can coedit those as you are working,
(02:06):
and they are collaborative. Andwe kind of based the routines
that we have. So we have severalroutines, which I'm sure we'll
get into, but we've based thoseon the Sims project out of out
of KU so we put them together,and we put in some supports for
accessibility, and some built-inUDL supports, and we unleashed
(02:27):
it, let it go.
Rebecca Hines (02:28):
It's out there.
It's out there. Well, Bryan, oneof the things about Corgi, I
know that it's it listen. I'm ahuge graphic organizer, fan. I
hope all of our listeners areprobably the best tool, you
know, for all students, just asa really nice anchor to every
lesson. But there's, you know,you provide a guide on Corgi so
everybody's not just scramblingto figure out exactly what to
(02:52):
do. Can you give us a littleoverview of like that guide and
the intention behind that guide,so that everyone get what they
need out of their graphicorganizer?
Bryan Dean (03:02):
Yeah, well, so let's, let's actually take a
step back and look at the designproblem. If we could around that
kind of inspired Corgi. So, so Ilove graphic organizers, too. I
think if you're in education, Itaught, you know, I taught
secondary education quite a fewyears, and I had taught in
special education, and I taughtwith some unique students, I
(03:23):
taught in juvenile correctionsystems. And so you get students
coming in, and a lot of themhave not really been able to
visualize analytical thought,and oftentimes graphic
organizers are great, but theyare linear and they are static.
There's not a lot that you canadd to them. There's not a lot
that you can besides words,right? And if, maybe, if it's
(03:47):
usually presented in likesomething like Microsoft Word or
or something like that, youmight be able to add a picture,
but there's formatting issues.
So, so that was part of thedesign issue is, how do we how
do educators really get to seewhat students are thinking each
step in a graphic organizer,especially one of the Sims like,
you know, claim evidencereasoning or compare and
contrast. How do students get tochange that as their views
(04:08):
change, right? So, how can theygo back, revisit their
organizer, maybe edit it withouthaving to tear everything apart?
And then also, how do we aseducators see our students as
they think through those pieces,right? Oftentimes, we have to
interpret what has happenedafterwards and say, Well, maybe
there was a problem in stepthree or step four, step seven,
or whatever. But in this case,with a graphic organizer, with
(04:31):
Corgi organizer, you can go inand you can see directly where
the step started to fall apartor the reasoning started to fall
apart and need some morescaffolding or some support, or
whatever else. And so in ourgraphic, in our kind of our
guide to get you started, it, itgives you that information, and
like this is how you can hearsome of the features that that
(04:54):
we have put in, that you canadd, such as teacher embedded
instruction for each step of theof the organizer, which maybe
video or maybe, you know, mightbe a YouTube clip. It might be a
diagram, might be aninfographic, or just some words.
And you can do that on each stepwhen you when you then share it
out with your students to kindof dive into that guide will get
you set up and get you runningwith Corgi, but it gives you
(05:16):
some like I said, some of thosefeatures helps you understand
the permissions that are beingasked, because the permissions
are the biggest, probably one ofthe biggest hurdles, sometimes,
with creating, with startingyour Corgi account as an
educator, or in education,because we want to keep data
private, and Google asks a lotof permissions, and they ask
(05:39):
them in Google ease, as I liketo say, which sometimes makes it
hard to kind of distinguish whatthey are. So, so it kind of goes
through how to set up thosepermissions and what those
permissions are really askingfor. Talks about
teacher-embedded instruction.
Talks about student interface,how to add multimedia to your to
the questions that are beinganswered or asked, tips around
(06:02):
what essential questions are andhow to kind of construct those
for your students. So we don'tjust kind of stick to here are
the nuts and bolts of Corgi inour get started guides or our PL
resources, we also talk aboutwhat is the pedagogy behind it,
what is the instructional use ofit, and how do we see students
using it in multiple ways.
Lisa Dieker (06:22):
So imagine I'm a new teacher. I go out to Corgi
and I'm like, alright, I got akid who won't get started, and
we're doing a science project,or just writing in general.
What, what would be your onelike, you know, make sure you do
blank when you get to Corgi toget yourself started, besides
(06:42):
login and go to the site, I getthat but, but what would be some
of your go-to, and then I wouldlove to hear you talk a little
bit too about about thisembedded of pictures and some of
that multi-dimensional piecesthat are in there. But where
would I start? And like, whatwould be one or two things,
like, Lisa, your maps will bebetter if you do blank?
Bryan Dean (07:01):
Alright, well, I will be honest with you,
Google's kind of like Visa,right? It's everywhere you want
to be, right? So you can jump inand you can decide, well, I want
to see what a Corgi looks like,right? What does this Corgi
guide look like? For compare andcontrast, let's say or question
exploration. We have a libraryof lessons that we put together
with with the University ofKansas, around the 5e model.
(07:25):
They're all science lessons formiddle school, but they all have
attached Corgi Corgis to them,Corgi guides to them. So you can
click on those, and you can viewCorgi guides that way. You can
start with a sample. You cantake a look at some of our PL
information that we have some ofour PL resources that will give
you a structured Corgi guide,and how to use it with your
(07:48):
students. If you have studentsthat are having a hard time
starting a Corgi guide, that'sthe beauty of that teacher,
embedded instruction at everystep within Corgi. There is a
place when you sign in as ateacher that you can embed
information, right? You can alsofill out parts of the Corgi and
then send that to your students.
So if you want to use it as aguided notes tool, you
definitely can. If you want togive them some you want to give
(08:11):
your students some morescaffolding and say, you know,
put in certain steps likepossible or feasible answers.
You can do that. If you want togive your students essential key
terms for this lesson, or thisCorgi, or whatever it may be,
you can also add a key termslist that then students can add
on as well. So we've really kindof designed it. It is now. This
(08:32):
is my this is my coining. It isa thermos technology. I like to
call it thermostat educationbecause the beauty of a thermos
is that it doesn't matter ifit's hot or cold. It doesn't
care what it goes into it. Itjust knows to keep it hot and
cold, right? So there's immenseamount of flexibility in the
simplicity of it. So, so withCorgi, there's immense amount of
(08:54):
flexibility with the simplicitythat we've designed it, with the
with the outward simplicity thatit shows. And I think that's
actually one of the one of thebest parts of our UX is that
it's very simple and and easyfor students to grasp onto.
Whether the classrooms that wehave put it in, I will tell you
our students run away with itand show me new things all the
time about it. So, so it'sactually, it's that that's where
(09:17):
I would suggest we got any wayyou want to fit in and get in.
We got it for you.
Rebecca Hines (09:24):
So Bryan, Bryan, so let me, let me ask you for a
Lisa Dieker (09:24):
Great.
specific example, if you couldprovide that for us. So let's
say I'm a, I'm a high schoolscience teacher. How might I use
this? You mentioned you knowthat that co-organizing is such
a big piece of this, and I thinkthat's a novel piece of it. Can
(09:44):
you walk it, walk that through?
If I'm a science teacher, andI'm thinking, Yeah, I'd like to
add more of this. But how doesit look on the instructional
side?
Bryan Dean (09:52):
Sure, so, so one of the things I love about Corgi is
that it offers this opportunityfor student collaboration. So
you can have student groupsconducting one Corgi and
building it together, right? Andthen you so what I would say,
like, depending on what we'rewe're working with, let's say
(10:13):
we're working with a compare andcontrast, right? I would have
the student, I would build anessential question, and I would
put that essential question upon up on the board for students
to kind of play off of and thinkabout. And then when they get
into their Corgi, the firstthing they do is they they enter
in the essential question, whichis, you know, crafting an
essential question is actuallydeceptively difficult, right?
(10:35):
Because it is this bigphenomenon that doesn't
necessarily have an answer,right? But you're asking this
big question. And oftentimesstudents will ask a question,
but it's a pretty finitequestion, and it's building off
of that finite question intobuilding a larger essential
question. So either A - I couldstart, I could help my students
by starting out with anessential question, or I could
have them put into Corgi aquestion that they want
(10:57):
answered, and then from that, wecan take a look at it first
thing, and we'd say, so, is thisan essential question without
really an answer, but one thatwe can kind of get to, or is
this pretty finite in that wecan answer it and from there,
once we've kind of establishedthe essential question, each
step is a new screen, right? Or,or a new place, right? And
there's prompting directly inCorgi to say, so based on your
(11:19):
essential question, like, here'syour essential question, which
is always at the top. You know,what are the things that are
comparative in this or what arethe things that are contrasted?
What traits are contrasted? Whatare the traits of A and what are
the traits of B? And make thepairs that are comparative, that
make the pairs that arecontrasted, and why? And so you
(11:40):
can watch your students do thatdirectly. If they're if you have
a small group of students, youcan watch that over time. You
can see the revision history orif they're working
collaboratively, they can addand they can subtract on their
own. And it creates this greatkind of system for us evaluating
our ideas and having our peersevaluate our ideas without it
being in front of the entireclass necessarily, because
(12:01):
sometimes that anonymity isreally important for students as
well as they're as they'rebuilding something because
they're sure or they're unsure.
Does that, does that kind of getayryt it Rebecca or?
Rebecca Hines (12:09):
Yes, yeah just.
Bryan Dean (12:10):
Do you want more?
Rebecca Hines (12:11):
Yeah, no, no. I wanted our listeners just to
have an idea of of where to gowith this. And I think that
especially using it as astudent-to-student tool, and
people working together to buildand it's not just teacher and
student as the co-organizers, Ithink is a great point.
Bryan Dean (12:26):
Yeah.
Lisa Dieker (12:27):
Yeah, and my last question, go ahead.
Bryan Dean (12:32):
Well, I just want to tell you one of our one of my
favorite features, is how youshare a Corgi. We've got it. We
put it down so that you can, youcan share Corgi as a PDF, right?
You can print the thing out. Youcan share it as a you can share
it right in Google Classroom, ifyou use, if you're a Google
Classroom, you know district. Oryou can turn it directly into a
slide present, a Google Slidepresentation, just by one click.
(12:54):
So if you want students topresent on their ideas with
solutions and and, and all theall the pieces of thinking that
they put into it, one clickturns it into an editable Google
Slide presentation that they canturn in, or they can add more
to, or they can changebackgrounds on. I mean, they can
fully customize that as well. Soanyways, I want to get back to
your question Lisa Dieker.
Lisa Dieker (13:13):
Yeah, no worries.
So my last question for youwould be, so I love, as Becky
said, free, free, free. That ismy favorite word. But I've been
wondering if I'm a parent athome, and I'm either doing some
homeschooling, or my studentsare really struggling and
getting started with an essay,and maybe my teacher is not, you
know, signed on to Corgi.
(13:33):
There's any reason familiescan't sign on and use this just
like everyone else. Am Icorrect?
Bryan Dean (13:37):
Yeah, if you've got a Google if you've got a Google
ID, a Google account, pleasejump in and sign in. I mean, if
you want to compare your401(k)s, or investment options
or buying a house, we invite youto use Corgi for that too.
Because really, what Corgi boilsdown to is not necessarily its
interface, or not even that ithas graphic organizers, but it's
but it's the thinking behind it,right? It's the habit of mind
(13:58):
that it creates an analyticalthought. So you can use it for
anything and everything that youwant to use it for. In fact, we
encourage parents to log intoit. We encourage educators to
share it with parents so thatyou know that they can see what
their what their students are,what their learners are working
on, and if they can help them. Imean, that can't be bad, right?
(14:20):
You know, again, getting as manypeople around students learning
is, is what it's all about,really. Yeah, so there, it's
open to everyone and anyone. Youdon't even have to have
Rebecca Hines (14:30):
I love it. I love it. Have you? Have you done any
students.
work with pre-service teachersand in training pre-service
teachers to use this or it'sjust?
Bryan Dean (14:41):
You know that we would love to, we, we've, we've
done it, not officially, right?
So we've done it kind of ad hoc,random, but yeah, if you want
to, I mean, if you want us tocome in and speak and show Corgi
at pre-service classes, I mean,I think that's fantastic. I love
helping new teachers walk inwith a set of tools that maybe
(15:05):
others haven't seen, that willmake their lives easier as they
start in those first four years,right? We all know those first
four years, first five years,really, but like those first,
that road to induction can bereally difficult. It can be
really stressful. We want, wedon't want you sitting at your
at your in your classroom tillnine o'clock at night planning.
We want to help you, get you outthere, and enjoy your life
(15:27):
balance, you know. And Corgi, Ithink it's a tool that can help
with that for sure.
Rebecca Hines (15:31):
Perfect, thank you,
Bryan Dean (15:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Dieker (15:33):
Well, thank you, Bryan, you don't lack any
passion on the topic, and wereally appreciate all the good
work that you've done for thefield. If you have further
questions for us, please send atweet at Access Practical, or
you can send us a question onour Facebook page. Thank you
again, Bryan for joining ustoday.
Rebecca Hines (15:49):
It's great to have you.
Bryan Dean (15:50):
Absolutely. Hit it.
Hit us up at Corgi, if you wantto, if you want to, you want to
learn more directly from Corgi,either hit me up at
bdean@cast.org, or hit us up atCorgi. Drop a message there and
well get we'll get to you.
Lisa Dieker (16:03):
Alright, Thank you so much.
Bryan Dean (16:03):
Thank you so much.
Music.
Lisa Dieker (00:07):
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa
Dieker.
Rebecca Hines (00:10):
And I'm Rebecca Hines and Lisa, our listeners
don't know this about you, buttrust me, everyone, Lisa loves a
deal. Lisa loves to shop, andshe loves a deal. So today's
guest is perfect because he'sbringing something that all of
(00:31):
us can use for free. Lisa, whatdo we have?
Lisa Dieker (00:34):
Well, today we're continuing with this season's
focus on math and science, andwe have with us. Bryan Dean, who
is an innovations an innovationspecialist at CAST, talking
about a wonderful piece ofsoftware called Corgi that is
free, as Becky said, give me acoupon any day of the week. So
(00:55):
Bryan, we're so happy to haveyou with us.
Bryan Dean (00:58):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for the the invite andthe intro, and I have to tell
you, Lisa, if you want to talklater, I got a bridge that I'm
trying to unload. If you've got,if you've got, you know, a
couple, you've got some extrachange right around in your
pocket. You may be the owner ofa of a bridge from here to
Canada.
Lisa Dieker (01:18):
Well, Becky will tell you I like a deal, but I'm
very frugal and I'm prettysavvy, so we'll see.
Rebecca Hines (01:24):
It is true, but
Bryan Dean (01:25):
this may not be the deal for you. I'm looking for
investors who have more money.
Lisa Dieker (01:32):
So anyway, well, we're thrilled you're with us,
and so Bryan, do you want tostart off by giving us just a
little bit of what is Corgi?
Sounds like a beautiful dog, butwe know it's much more exciting
than that too.
Bryan Dean (01:44):
Well, it is a beautiful dog, and it is our
kind of our mascot, but Corgi,which you can find at
corgi.cast.org is actually a setof of graphic organizers,
digital graphic organizers builton a Google platform so they are
shareable. They are you can coedit those as you are working,
(02:06):
and they are collaborative. Andwe kind of based the routines
that we have. So we have severalroutines, which I'm sure we'll
get into, but we've based thoseon the Sims project out of out
of KU so we put them together,and we put in some supports for
accessibility, and some built-inUDL supports, and we unleashed
(02:27):
it, let it go.
Rebecca Hines (02:28):
It's out there.
It's out there. Well, Bryan, oneof the things about Corgi, I
know that it's it listen. I'm ahuge graphic organizer, fan. I
hope all of our listeners areprobably the best tool, you
know, for all students, just asa really nice anchor to every
lesson. But there's, you know,you provide a guide on Corgi so
everybody's not just scramblingto figure out exactly what to
(02:52):
do. Can you give us a littleoverview of like that guide and
the intention behind that guide,so that everyone get what they
need out of their graphicorganizer?
Bryan Dean (03:02):
Yeah, well, so let's, let's actually take a
step back and look at the designproblem. If we could around that
kind of inspired Corgi. So, so Ilove graphic organizers, too. I
think if you're in education, Itaught, you know, I taught
secondary education quite a fewyears, and I had taught in
special education, and I taughtwith some unique students, I
(03:23):
taught in juvenile correctionsystems. And so you get students
coming in, and a lot of themhave not really been able to
visualize analytical thought,and oftentimes graphic
organizers are great, but theyare linear and they are static.
There's not a lot that you canadd to them. There's not a lot
that you can besides words,right? And if, maybe, if it's
(03:47):
usually presented in likesomething like Microsoft Word or
or something like that, youmight be able to add a picture,
but there's formatting issues.
So, so that was part of thedesign issue is, how do we how
do educators really get to seewhat students are thinking each
step in a graphic organizer,especially one of the Sims like,
you know, claim evidencereasoning or compare and
contrast. How do students get tochange that as their views
(04:08):
change, right? So, how can theygo back, revisit their
organizer, maybe edit it withouthaving to tear everything apart?
And then also, how do we aseducators see our students as
they think through those pieces,right? Oftentimes, we have to
interpret what has happenedafterwards and say, Well, maybe
there was a problem in stepthree or step four, step seven,
or whatever. But in this case,with a graphic organizer, with
(04:31):
Corgi organizer, you can go inand you can see directly where
the step started to fall apartor the reasoning started to fall
apart and need some morescaffolding or some support, or
whatever else. And so in ourgraphic, in our kind of our
guide to get you started, it, itgives you that information, and
like this is how you can hearsome of the features that that
(04:54):
we have put in, that you canadd, such as teacher embedded
instruction for each step of theof the organizer, which maybe
video or maybe, you know, mightbe a YouTube clip. It might be a
diagram, might be aninfographic, or just some words.
And you can do that on each stepwhen you when you then share it
out with your students to kindof dive into that guide will get
you set up and get you runningwith Corgi, but it gives you
(05:16):
some like I said, some of thosefeatures helps you understand
the permissions that are beingasked, because the permissions
are the biggest, probably one ofthe biggest hurdles, sometimes,
with creating, with startingyour Corgi account as an
educator, or in education,because we want to keep data
private, and Google asks a lotof permissions, and they ask
(05:39):
them in Google ease, as I liketo say, which sometimes makes it
hard to kind of distinguish whatthey are. So, so it kind of goes
through how to set up thosepermissions and what those
permissions are really askingfor. Talks about
teacher-embedded instruction.
Talks about student interface,how to add multimedia to your to
the questions that are beinganswered or asked, tips around
(06:02):
what essential questions are andhow to kind of construct those
for your students. So we don'tjust kind of stick to here are
the nuts and bolts of Corgi inour get started guides or our PL
resources, we also talk aboutwhat is the pedagogy behind it,
what is the instructional use ofit, and how do we see students
using it in multiple ways.
Lisa Dieker (06:22):
So imagine I'm a new teacher. I go out to Corgi
and I'm like, alright, I got akid who won't get started, and
we're doing a science project,or just writing in general.
What, what would be your onelike, you know, make sure you do
blank when you get to Corgi toget yourself started, besides
(06:42):
login and go to the site, I getthat but, but what would be some
of your go-to, and then I wouldlove to hear you talk a little
bit too about about thisembedded of pictures and some of
that multi-dimensional piecesthat are in there. But where
would I start? And like, whatwould be one or two things,
like, Lisa, your maps will bebetter if you do blank?
Bryan Dean (07:01):
Alright, well, I will be honest with you,
Google's kind of like Visa,right? It's everywhere you want
to be, right? So you can jump inand you can decide, well, I want
to see what a Corgi looks like,right? What does this Corgi
guide look like? For compare andcontrast, let's say or question
exploration. We have a libraryof lessons that we put together
with with the University ofKansas, around the 5e model.
(07:25):
They're all science lessons formiddle school, but they all have
attached Corgi Corgis to them,Corgi guides to them. So you can
click on those, and you can viewCorgi guides that way. You can
start with a sample. You cantake a look at some of our PL
information that we have some ofour PL resources that will give
you a structured Corgi guide,and how to use it with your
(07:48):
students. If you have studentsthat are having a hard time
starting a Corgi guide, that'sthe beauty of that teacher,
embedded instruction at everystep within Corgi. There is a
place when you sign in as ateacher that you can embed
information, right? You can alsofill out parts of the Corgi and
then send that to your students.
So if you want to use it as aguided notes tool, you
definitely can. If you want togive them some you want to give
(08:11):
your students some morescaffolding and say, you know,
put in certain steps likepossible or feasible answers.
You can do that. If you want togive your students essential key
terms for this lesson, or thisCorgi, or whatever it may be,
you can also add a key termslist that then students can add
on as well. So we've really kindof designed it. It is now. This
(08:32):
is my this is my coining. It isa thermos technology. I like to
call it thermostat educationbecause the beauty of a thermos
is that it doesn't matter ifit's hot or cold. It doesn't
care what it goes into it. Itjust knows to keep it hot and
cold, right? So there's immenseamount of flexibility in the
simplicity of it. So, so withCorgi, there's immense amount of
(08:54):
flexibility with the simplicitythat we've designed it, with the
with the outward simplicity thatit shows. And I think that's
actually one of the one of thebest parts of our UX is that
it's very simple and and easyfor students to grasp onto.
Whether the classrooms that wehave put it in, I will tell you
our students run away with itand show me new things all the
time about it. So, so it'sactually, it's that that's where
(09:17):
I would suggest we got any wayyou want to fit in and get in.
We got it for you.
Rebecca Hines (09:24):
So Bryan, Bryan, so let me, let me ask you for a
Lisa Dieker (09:24):
Great.
specific example, if you couldprovide that for us. So let's
say I'm a, I'm a high schoolscience teacher. How might I use
this? You mentioned you knowthat that co-organizing is such
a big piece of this, and I thinkthat's a novel piece of it. Can
(09:44):
you walk it, walk that through?
If I'm a science teacher, andI'm thinking, Yeah, I'd like to
add more of this. But how doesit look on the instructional
side?
Bryan Dean (09:52):
Sure, so, so one of the things I love about Corgi is
that it offers this opportunityfor student collaboration. So
you can have student groupsconducting one Corgi and
building it together, right? Andthen you so what I would say,
like, depending on what we'rewe're working with, let's say
(10:13):
we're working with a compare andcontrast, right? I would have
the student, I would build anessential question, and I would
put that essential question upon up on the board for students
to kind of play off of and thinkabout. And then when they get
into their Corgi, the firstthing they do is they they enter
in the essential question, whichis, you know, crafting an
essential question is actuallydeceptively difficult, right?
(10:35):
Because it is this bigphenomenon that doesn't
necessarily have an answer,right? But you're asking this
big question. And oftentimesstudents will ask a question,
but it's a pretty finitequestion, and it's building off
of that finite question intobuilding a larger essential
question. So either A - I couldstart, I could help my students
by starting out with anessential question, or I could
have them put into Corgi aquestion that they want
(10:57):
answered, and then from that, wecan take a look at it first
thing, and we'd say, so, is thisan essential question without
really an answer, but one thatwe can kind of get to, or is
this pretty finite in that wecan answer it and from there,
once we've kind of establishedthe essential question, each
step is a new screen, right? Or,or a new place, right? And
there's prompting directly inCorgi to say, so based on your
(11:19):
essential question, like, here'syour essential question, which
is always at the top. You know,what are the things that are
comparative in this or what arethe things that are contrasted?
What traits are contrasted? Whatare the traits of A and what are
the traits of B? And make thepairs that are comparative, that
make the pairs that arecontrasted, and why? And so you
(11:40):
can watch your students do thatdirectly. If they're if you have
a small group of students, youcan watch that over time. You
can see the revision history orif they're working
collaboratively, they can addand they can subtract on their
own. And it creates this greatkind of system for us evaluating
our ideas and having our peersevaluate our ideas without it
being in front of the entireclass necessarily, because
(12:01):
sometimes that anonymity isreally important for students as
well as they're as they'rebuilding something because
they're sure or they're unsure.
Does that, does that kind of getayryt it Rebecca or?
Rebecca Hines (12:09):
Yes, yeah just.
Bryan Dean (12:10):
Do you want more?
Rebecca Hines (12:11):
Yeah, no, no. I wanted our listeners just to
have an idea of of where to gowith this. And I think that
especially using it as astudent-to-student tool, and
people working together to buildand it's not just teacher and
student as the co-organizers, Ithink is a great point.
Bryan Dean (12:26):
Yeah.
Lisa Dieker (12:27):
Yeah, and my last question, go ahead.
Bryan Dean (12:32):
Well, I just want to tell you one of our one of my
favorite features, is how youshare a Corgi. We've got it. We
put it down so that you can, youcan share Corgi as a PDF, right?
You can print the thing out. Youcan share it as a you can share
it right in Google Classroom, ifyou use, if you're a Google
Classroom, you know district. Oryou can turn it directly into a
slide present, a Google Slidepresentation, just by one click.
(12:54):
So if you want students topresent on their ideas with
solutions and and, and all theall the pieces of thinking that
they put into it, one clickturns it into an editable Google
Slide presentation that they canturn in, or they can add more
to, or they can changebackgrounds on. I mean, they can
fully customize that as well. Soanyways, I want to get back to
your question Lisa Dieker.
Lisa Dieker (13:13):
Yeah, no worries.
So my last question for youwould be, so I love, as Becky
said, free, free, free. That ismy favorite word. But I've been
wondering if I'm a parent athome, and I'm either doing some
homeschooling, or my studentsare really struggling and
getting started with an essay,and maybe my teacher is not, you
know, signed on to Corgi.
(13:33):
There's any reason familiescan't sign on and use this just
like everyone else. Am Icorrect?
Bryan Dean (13:37):
Yeah, if you've got a Google if you've got a Google
ID, a Google account, pleasejump in and sign in. I mean, if
you want to compare your401(k)s, or investment options
or buying a house, we invite youto use Corgi for that too.
Because really, what Corgi boilsdown to is not necessarily its
interface, or not even that ithas graphic organizers, but it's
but it's the thinking behind it,right? It's the habit of mind
(13:58):
that it creates an analyticalthought. So you can use it for
anything and everything that youwant to use it for. In fact, we
encourage parents to log intoit. We encourage educators to
share it with parents so thatyou know that they can see what
their what their students are,what their learners are working
on, and if they can help them. Imean, that can't be bad, right?
(14:20):
You know, again, getting as manypeople around students learning
is, is what it's all about,really. Yeah, so there, it's
open to everyone and anyone. Youdon't even have to have
Rebecca Hines (14:30):
I love it. I love it. Have you? Have you done any
students.
work with pre-service teachersand in training pre-service
teachers to use this or it'sjust?
Bryan Dean (14:41):
You know that we would love to, we, we've, we've
done it, not officially, right?
So we've done it kind of ad hoc,random, but yeah, if you want
to, I mean, if you want us tocome in and speak and show Corgi
at pre-service classes, I mean,I think that's fantastic. I love
helping new teachers walk inwith a set of tools that maybe
(15:05):
others haven't seen, that willmake their lives easier as they
start in those first four years,right? We all know those first
four years, first five years,really, but like those first,
that road to induction can bereally difficult. It can be
really stressful. We want, wedon't want you sitting at your
at your in your classroom tillnine o'clock at night planning.
We want to help you, get you outthere, and enjoy your life
(15:27):
balance, you know. And Corgi, Ithink it's a tool that can help
with that for sure.
Rebecca Hines (15:31):
Perfect, thank you,
Bryan Dean (15:32):
Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Dieker (15:33):
Well, thank you, Bryan, you don't lack any
passion on the topic, and wereally appreciate all the good
work that you've done for thefield. If you have further
questions for us, please send atweet at Access Practical, or
you can send us a question onour Facebook page. Thank you
again, Bryan for joining ustoday.
Rebecca Hines (15:49):
It's great to have you.
Bryan Dean (15:50):
Absolutely. Hit it.
Hit us up at Corgi, if you wantto, if you want to, you want to
learn more directly from Corgi,either hit me up at
bdean@cast.org, or hit us up atCorgi. Drop a message there and
well get we'll get to you.
Lisa Dieker (16:03):
Alright, Thank you so much.
Bryan Dean (16:03):
Thank you so much.
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