Digital Whiteboard + Word Clouds + The Kid Should See This

Aww Web Whiteboard and Google Classroom

Finding ways for students to easily collaborate is always something I am searching to find. Aww Web Whiteboard is a digital whiteboard space in which students can  annotate, draw, and share easily with Google Classroom integration.

The tool is easy for both teachers to set up, and students to use. Click here for a tutorial on how to get it up and running in your classroom.

Word Clouds

Word Cloud infographics are becoming a popular way to share information. They are visual, eye catching, and fun to create.

A word cloud is a graphical representation of word frequency in which the size of each word indicates its frequency of use or importance. The example above shows data from a Twitter survey from 350 teachers telling their favorite classroom technology app.

Click here for an article by Eric Curts showcasing the best Chromebook tools for create word clouds with your students.

Some ideas from the article for using word clouds could include...

• Students can analyze their own writing to see which words they use often (perhaps too often).
• Brainstormed ideas from the class can be collected to see which ideas rise to the top.
• Text from famous speeches and writings can be displayed in a cloud to reveal keywords and themes.
• Submissions from polls and votes can be imported to see the most popular responses.

The Kid Should See This is a great site that features tons of highly engaging short videos to spark curiosity. Categories include art, science, technology, food, and pretty much anything you can think of. It can easily be used to build background information on a topic, or to extend beyond. Great for all grades. Click here to check it out.

iPad Apps

Here is fun graphic I came across the other day for iPad users. Click here for more information on it. Enjoy!

Please contact your Digital Learning Specialist if you would like additional information on these digital tools or any other digital learning tools.

Closed Captioning, Print Friendly Web Pages, Edulastic

Closed Captioning

Closed Captioning is an underutilized digital learning tool!  It is not only necessary for our students who have this in their student plans but it is a great literacy tool for all students.  Schools in Finland are mandated to use Closed Captioning for anything projected on a screen or for student viewing.  They believe their literacy rates improved because of this.  They do have the highest literacy rates in the world. Encourage parents to use closed captioning at home for ongoing literacy practice. If you need help learning how to use CC, please ask your Digital Learning Specialist.

Print Friendly

Print Friendly is a Chrome Extension that makes any web page print friendly.  Try it out and then add it to Chrome.  You will find this extension in the Chrome Web Store.

Edulastic

Edulastic is a great digital tool for assessment for all grade levels. It also gives teachers the option to create word sorts.

Favorite Digital Tool

Do you have a favorite digital tool you would like to share with us?  Please complete this form and we will share out!

EdTech Team Graduate Credit Opportunities + Desmos: Free online graphing calculator featuring Ryan Brown

EdTech Team Graduate Credit Opportunities

The EdTech Team offers professional development designed for educators to develop their technology efficacy. They offer several self-paced, online options including a 6 credit teacher leader certificate cohort, 1 credit book studies, and 1 credit courses.

Teacher Leader Certificate Cohort:
EdTechTeam Teacher Leader Certificate is an online cohort that will inspire and empower teachers to make a difference in their classroom and change their learning environment. A Teacher Leader is committed to the ideals of Courageous Leadership, Empowerment, Student Agency, Inspiring Spaces, and an Engaged Community.

This 12-week cohort will embrace emerging technology and current research and best practices to take an organic look at how teachers can successfully guide students to optimum success and learning. Teachers will spend 2 weeks on each of the 6 courses: Global Collaboration and Community, Project Based Learning, Flipped Learning, Visual Literacy, Assessment and Redesigning the Learning Space.

For each course, participants will be required to spend 2 hours reading and reflecting. They will spend 4 hours completing individual activities that will build on the learning outcomes for the course and 3 hours collaborating with either cohort members or in a live hangout with experts on each topic. Each course will end with a final project that teachers will be able to take back to their classroom and immediately implement. Upon completion of the Cohort, teachers will receive an EdTechTeam Teacher Leader Certificate and 6 Graduate Credits.

The next cohort runs January 9th, 2017 - April 3rd, 2017. The cost is $1099.

Book Studies:

Take a closer look at the books that are being published with EdTechTeam Press and then join the authors in an online course to dig deeper into the content.

The next book study, The HyperDoc Handbook, runs from January 9th, 2017-Febuary 6th, 2017. The cost is $149.00 for the book study and an addtional $65.00 for the graduate credit. 

One Credit Courses:

These 1 credit courses focus on particular topics and include 15 hours of deep learning, application, and authenticity. Each course will connect you to global experts on each topic and build you a valuable and supportive learning community. Topics currently include: Google Drive and Docs, YouTube in the Classroom, The NEW Google Sites, Math and GSuite, Assistive Technology and GSuite, and more.

Desmos

Desmos is a free online graphing calculator that allows students to explore math concepts with dynamic graphing software.

Compared to traditional graphing calculators, students can build a more intuitive sense of how graphs of functions work. Using Desmos, students and teachers can graph functions, find derivatives, plot data and model it with equations, and create animations with graphs. More information about how to get started can be found at learn.desmos.com

In addition, Desmos has also created a classroom lesson activity builder which is found at teacher.desmos.com. Here, teachers can choose from a wide variety of pre-made lesson activities that have been produced by the Desmos teaching faculty as well as other users around the world. Teachers can also build their own lessons through the Activity Builder using their Google account information.

Desmos activities run very similarly to a PearDeck or Nearpod activity, but with fully integrated Desmos graphing software. Using the teacher dashboard, teachers can efficiently moderate a classroom conversation about the learning that is taking place and highlight student work (anonymously if needed) for all to see. Teachers can also view the progress of each of their students as they work in order to provide personalized feedback. Teachers also have the ability to toggle between student/teacher paced or to pause the activity to direct the classroom conversation. The Desmos activity builder also features card sort activities as well as a graphing game called Marbleslides - each of these can be built from scratch in the activity builder template.

While Desmos and Activity Builder are clearly geared towards teachers of mathematics, the activity builder interface could be used in any content area. The graphing calculator also lends itself to other courses where data collection is used to make predictions.

Desmos tech tip written by Ryan Brown, Math teacher at North Campus

Collecting Files With Google Forms + Globally Collaborative PD

Collecting Files With Google Forms

Google Forms just got even more powerful. Users now have the ability to add "File Upload" questions to their Forms to collect things like images, videos, audio files, PDFs or Word files. This addition gives teachers another way to collect student work and check for understanding. This will also be useful for office staff looking to collect files from building staff or parents. 

First, add a "File Upload" question to your Form. Respondents will attach their files when filling out the Form. Files that are submitted are organized within a folder in your Drive and a link to each file is posted in the responses spreadsheet for your Form.  

You can read more detailed information on how this works here.

Education On Air

This weekend Google is hosting Education on Air, an online conference featuring speakers from all over the globe. Tune in to participate in sessions on a range of topics designed for teachers, school leaders and IT professionals. Check out the video below to catch a glimpse of what last year's event was like. 

"Share with and learn from other educators. Hear from inspiring speakers. Get tips and tools to help boost student engagement, collaboration and productivity and in the classroom."

REGISTER HERE

(FREE)

Recap, Free coding class, Symbaloo links to tech tools

Let's Recap

Recap is a free student video response and reflection app. It gives teachers and parents insight into students’ learning and progress. Recap provides evidence of critical thinking, improves formative assessment, and supports personalized learning. It is fun and easy to use.

Free Coding Class

Are you interested in learning how to code? There is a free workshop in St. Paul on December 3, 2016 from 9:00 - 3:30. Click here for more information and to register.

Tech Tools for your Classroom

Here is a Symbaloo webmix with links to some of our favorite digital classroom tools.

Please contact your Digital Learning Specialist if you would like additional information on any digital tools or have questions about the 4 C's.

Padlet + Inforgraphics w/easel.ly + Quizlet Live

Padlet

Padlet is a versatile and easy to use tool to promote collaboration among your students. Think of it like a virtual wall that allows users to share their thoughts using text, images, videos, documents, and more. It is easy for teachers to set up, share out and can be used on any device.

Book reviews, topic summaries, question walls, and student reflections are just a few ideas on how Padlet could be brought into your classroom.

Click here to view the example below from a 5th grade discussion on the different types of conflict in literature. It was used as a reflection piece for the students to think about their own reading.

Click here for a YouTube playlist on how to get started using this tool.

Infographics with easel.ly

Infographics are a visual representation of data. They can be a visually effective way to deliver content to your students, and for students to share their learning. Easel.ly is a tool that makes creating and sharing infographics easy. Start from scratch or use one of their many templates.

Take a look at these examples. Content is visual and engaging for learners.

Here is also a quick video that shows the benefits of using infographics in your classroom.

Quizlet Live

Quizlet has an engaging in-class team-based learning game called Quizlet Live. Use study sets that you create to have students work together to correctly match the set’s terms and definitions. It's a blast for students to play and can make reviewing concepts a can't wait experience.

Click here for a guide on how the game works. There is also a live demo you can try out here to get a feel for it yourself.

Please contact your Digital Learning Specialist if you would like additional information on these digital tools or any other digital learning tools.

New Google Features, 3 Chrome Extensions, Pear Deck and Learning Spaces.

Creating Interactive Google Slides

This video shows how to create a Google Slides presentation with clickable hyperlinks.  A hyper- linked slide presentation allows students to go to different slides based on their choices.  This has many applications for differentiation, literacy, assessment and more.

Alice Keeler also has a great tutorial and lesson ideas.  Click this link for her website.

3 Text-to-Speech Chrome Extensions 

great for supporting struggling readers and English Learners

Find these in the Chrome Web Store

• Speak It!
• Announcify
• Read and Write for Google

Pear Deck

Pear Deck is an interactive presentation application. Pear Deck can be found in Google Drive.  Our district has purchased this application.  This link contains video and explanations of how to get started with Pear Deck and the new features that were added this fall!  If you want additional information or PD on Pear Deck please make an appointment with your Digital Learning Specialist.  Shannon Treichel says, " this is my favorite tool by far!!!!"

Classroom Design around the 4 C's

Here are some great resources for design and implementation ideas for your classroom spaces.  November's DLS focus is on classroom space.  Brainstorm with your DLS on how to create the best space for student learning and the 4 C's classroom.  

                                                              

Pushing Chrome Apps to Students + RealTimeBoard Application

Pushing Chome Apps to Students with Google Play

Chrome Apps are web-based applications that run in the Chrome browser. Teachers can push these applications to students' Chromebooks by following these simple steps:

1. Go to Google Play for Education (play.google.com/edu). If you haven't logged into your isd624 Google account already, log in when prompted.

2. Click on "Chrome Apps" on the left side of the screen. The apps are broken down by subject area.

3. Click on the desired app and click "install."

4. Type the email of the student or group of students that you want to push the app out to. Click here to see a short video on finding pre-made groups for your classes. Your student groups should populate upon typing the name of your class(es).

There are many great content applications, but there are also general tools that you can explore! For example, you could push students the Google Keep application covered in last week's tips! Students find the applications that have been pushed to them by clicking the circle in the lower left corner of their Chromebook screen.

NOTE: Not all applications available in the Chrome Webstore are available to be pushed out to students through Google Play for Education. If there is an application you available in the Webstore that you wish to push to students, please submit a Bear Tech Ticket with this request. Google Extensions that are available in the Chrome Webstore add features to the Chrome Browser. They cannot be pushed from Google Play for Education. If you would like your students to have a specific Google Extension, please submit a Bear Tech Ticket. 

RealTimeBoard: A Chrome App for Collaboration

RealTimeBoard is a Chrome application currently available in the Chrome Webstore or at https://realtimeboard.com/app that serves as a collaboration space. You can add pictures, drawings, videos, sticky notes, Google Drive files and more on an endless whiteboard canvas. Watch the following video for a quick preview of this application:

Google Forms Quizzes vs. Flubaroo + Google Keep

Google Forms Quizzes vs. Flubaroo

One of our tech tips last week showed how to create a self-grading quiz in Google Forms. Since that tip went out we got many questions about how Google Forms quizzes compare to another popular grading tool for Forms, Flubaroo. Flubaroo is an add-on for Google Sheets that allows you assess student responses to a Form and send them feedback. This short article by Eric Curts gives details on the benefits and limitations of each. I'll include the summary chart below for a quick way to compare your formative assessment options for Google Forms. 

New Google Forms Quiz option vs Flubaroo Add-on	Forms Quiz	Flubaroo Add-on
Requirements
Add-on required	No	Yes
Google Sheets required	No	Yes
Question Options
Can grade multiple choice, checkbox, and drop-down questions	Yes	Yes
Can grade other question types such as textbox	No	Yes
Option to hand grade subjective questions	No	Yes
Option for alternate correct answers	No	Yes
Option for partial credit	No	Yes
Option for case sensitivity	No	Yes
Option for range of mathematical answers	No	Yes
Option for extra credit	No	Yes
Results for Teachers
Bar graph of grade distribution	Yes	Yes
Average quiz grade	Yes	Yes
Median quiz grade	Yes	No
Range of quiz grades	Yes	No
List of most missed questions	Yes	Yes
Scores for individual students	Yes	Yes
Scores for individual questions	Yes	Yes
Results for Students
Option to give student results immediately	Yes	Yes
Option to send student results later	Yes	Yes
Results shared via email	Yes	Yes
Results shared via Google Docs	No	Yes
Include missed questions in student results	Yes	Yes
Include correct answers in student results	Yes	Yes
Include points in student results	Yes	Yes
Feedback Options for Students
Specific feedback for a wrong answer	Yes	Yes
Specific feedback for a correct answer	Yes	No
General message for entire class	Yes	Yes
Specific message for individual student	Yes	Yes

Google Keep

On the surface, Google Keep looks like yet another sticky note app. While it does provide the ability to take quick notes, it can do so much more. You can attach pictures and links to your notes, color code them, add labels for easy sorting and also set reminders. Notes can also be collaborative when shared with other users. 

Keep is a tool that you could use to help organize your professional life. It could also be used by students in the classroom. Notes could be shared between group project members as they collect research. A student might also use it individually to keep track of their to-do list.  I encourage you to at least try Google Keep for a while to see how you might make use of it.

To get help using Google Keep, visit the Google Support Center or contact one of your Digital Learning Specialists. 

Google Form Quizzes, Google Cast for Education and more great Chrome extensions for teachers

Google Form Quizzes, Google Cast for Education and more great Chrome extensions for teachers

Google Cast for Education

Google Cast for Education is a free Chrome app that allows students and teachers to share their screens wirelessly from anywhere in the classroom. Cast for Education carries video and audio across complex school networks, has built-in controls for teachers, and works seamlessly with Google Classroom.

The Cast for Education app runs on the teacher’s computer that’s connected to the classroom projector, and it doesn't require new hardware. Teachers receive casts through the Cast for Education app, and students share their screens using the latest version of the Cast feature in Chrome.

Click here to download Google Cast for Education

Click here to find helpful hints and easy steps to set up your Cast for Education app.

Quick Share Screenshot by Alice Keeler

This is an extension that saves your screenshots instantly to Google Drive. A link to the screenshot is saved to your clipboard allowing you to quickly share it.

Google Chrome App and Extension Database for Teachers and Students

This database has over 100 apps and extensions recommended for teachers and is searchable and filterable. Some good examples are Poll Everywhere for Google Slides, Boomerang for Gmail, and Apps Launcher.

Google Form Quiz

You can create a quiz with correct and incorrect answers for questions with multiple choices, checkboxes, or drop-down options.

Features of the quiz include:

*assign points to questions

*add explanations to answers

* see automatic summaries of the responses

*choose what students can see after they submit

*send results via email

*grade individual responses

Follow these step-by-step directions to set up your first quiz.

Please contact your Digital Learning Specialist if you would like additional information on these digital tools or any other digital learning tools.