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Insights Learned From Your Speak Up Data

by Jennifer Bergland October 23, 2019

written by Jennifer Bergland

I am going to be very up front with my intention in writing this blog. My goal is to persuade school district technology directors or other administrators to seriously consider having their school or district participate in the annual Speak Up Survey.

Speak Up is a research tool districts use to learn what students, educators, parents, and the community have to say about educational issues. Yes, there are quite a few questions on the survey that deal with technology, but there are many other types of questions that will provide you with some much-needed insight into the attitudes of your stakeholders.

For example, in last year’s survey, they asked several questions about social and emotional learning. They also asked students how they prefer to learn subjects like math or science. Oh, and did I tell you that the survey is completely free and that they make it really easy for your district to participate?

A Texas-Sized School District

In order to help you see how a school district administrator could use this data, I’m going to take the state of Texas’ data and pretend I am the technology director of the “Texas School District,” covering the entire state. Let’s see what the data tells me about my district or what questions come to mind when I review the data.

Community

First, I’m very interested in the use of technology in my community. 78% of the members of my community use the internet to conduct research and 76% use mobile apps. 75% of my community use technology to watch an online video to learn how to do something. This tells me that a large portion of my community has internet access and is using it for research and to learn new things. However, it appears there is still some type of digital divide in my community. Is it an access or a skill problem, or both? I’m also surprised that only 26% of my community say they use Twitter. Since I spend a large amount of time on Twitter, I had assumed others did, too. This lets me know that I need to use a wider variety of social media to communicate with the members of my community.

Students

There are a series of questions in the survey that are posed to middle and high school students to see how often they seek ways to learn something because of their interests. This helps me see how students are using technology when they are looking for specific information or want to learn a skill. Only 9% of both middle and high school students post a question on a discussion board or a forum. Do we need to be more intentional in using this type of application? Do they just not know how, or have they found better ways to seek answers to their questions?

There are a greater number of students who are researching the internet for information: 32% of middle schoolers and 42% of high school students. Students are also using YouTube and other video services to learn how to do something. 42% of my middle school students and 57% of my high school students often use videos to teach them a skill. I need to talk to the instructional staff to see if we are taking advantage of this type of technology. Should we be posting short videos that teach one of the standards our students are struggling with? If so, what skills do my teachers need to know in order to do this and what technology do they need?

Teachers

Speaking of teachers, I really want to know what they are doing with technology. The data tells me that 45% of them are customizing digital content they find online to meet their students’ needs. This sounds an awful like Open Educational Resources (OER). Hmm, maybe we need to have more conversations about OER.

SpeakUp I also discovered that 43% of my teachers are facilitating student collaboration projects using online tools. This is such a great skill. How can I leverage these teachers to help other teachers do this as well? Also, I’m pleasantly surprised that 44% of my teachers are using an online curriculum. However, I want to know more. What is the frequency? Are they occasionally doing this or is this something they use every day? I also want to know what they are using. Are they using the district’s Learning Management System, or is it an online textbook?

I am a little disappointed that only 9% of my teachers are creating their own online professional learning networks. I had pretty high hopes that platforms like Twitter could help connect educators, especially those who may be the only one that teach their subject at their school. Maybe I need to do my own survey to see if, in fact, that is the case. Maybe the 9% are the teachers who do not have a colleague at their school that teaches their subject. Sounds like I need to do some more digging.

Finally, there is one question I am very interested in. It asks the teachers what they need to more efficiently and effectively speakup integrate digital content, tools, and resources into their daily instruction. 51% said they wished they had a classroom set of digital devices. 49% said they needed to know that their students had adequate broadband access outside of school and 46% indicated they were concerned that they didn’t have consistent, reliable internet access within school. Maybe I need to have my staff do some focus groups related to internet access and speed. Looking at my network resources, they should have adequate bandwidth, but maybe something is happening on campus that I am not aware of. While my team is on campus, I probably should also have them ask teachers about the availability of technical support since 47% of the teachers indicated it was lacking. And lastly, my teachers still need time to plan with their colleagues (60%) and additional professional development (50%). I need more staff to be able to meet this need!

Whew, I learned this much in less than an hour by looking at this data. This will come in handy when I go to the superintendent and tell her I need more funding to do the things she wants me to do. It will also help me know where I need to place my time and energy.

Your Turn

Seriously, I gained this information in less than an hour. Just think what you and your team could glean from your district’s data.

If nothing else, I hope you will sign up to watch one of their webinars so that you can learn more about the survey and how it can assist you in your work. On October 23, you can watch the livestream of Julie Evans, the CEO of Project Tomorrow, provide a congressional briefing on the latest data. Julie does an excellent job of weaving a story with the data. She is always extremely interesting. In addition, check out this site for other webinars the Speak Up team is hosting.

Register Now

The Speak Up survey is open until June 30, 2020. What are you waiting for? Register today!

Photos of student and teachers by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Photo of hands and laptop by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

October 23, 2019 0 comment

Bring the World into Your Library with Google Geography Tools

by James Allen, Guest Author October 17, 2019

written by James Allen, Guest Author

I’ve loved maps for as long as I can remember. I think I was in first grade when I saw and felt a globe with topography, where you could feel the mountains. Ever since then, I’ve loved exploring physical maps and atlases and creating my own. Thankfully for my map-loving self, technology offers us more access to information about our earth than ever before. I’ve used Google Earth for quite a while, and now that it is web based, it is even easier to access. In this post, I will point out some of its features, but also some other Google geographic tools you may be less familiar with.

Google Earth

Google Earth is that globe from first grade, but with so much more. First, when you enter from the https://www.google.com/earth/ link, the satellite cloud cover you see is current. It’s not exactly real-time, but it does update often. A major advantage of the “new” web-based Google Earth is that you can search locations just like you do in Google Maps by name or keyword. Adults, and kids if they know it, will often search for their address first thing, just to make sure this Google Earth thing is legit.

Next, grab Peg Man at the lower right corner and drag him over the earth. Any blue lines or dots that appear are either Street View images you can explore or 360-degree photos that individuals have uploaded and shared. To jump back out, just click on the yellow Peg Man again. If you don’t explore anything else, spend some time with the Voyager Stories. You can access those by clicking on the ship’s wheel icon on the main menu located on the left of your screen. These are curated and self-guided trips with a wealth of information. Many include photos and textual information. Some, like the “Carmen Sandigo” voyages, are fully interactive games. You can do a keyword search for Voyager Stories in the search menu. Story results will always display in the bottom of your search results.

My Maps

Most of us have probably used or been given Google Maps directions at some point. Google My Maps are maps that you can create yourself and with others. Just like other Google Drive apps, Google My Maps can be stored in your account and shared with friends and family, either to view or edit. This is an awesome tool for students to work on projects together. They can drop their own points of interest, complete with images, color coding, drawings, icons, and more. Another powerful feature is the ability to use spreadsheet data to automatically populate a map. Spreadsheets with location data can be automatically added to the map, along with other information in the sheet.

Street View

Google Street View is the up-close imagery that makes Google Earth and Maps so powerful. Google generates much of this content using their famous cars, but these photos can also be uploaded by individuals who are using a 360-degree camera or using the Street View app. The images usually stick to the street, but many go off road, under water, and more. Having your students create their own 360-degree photos, especially when they are on a field trip or other travels, is a great way for them to remember and share the experience with others.

Tour Creator

Street View is awesome, but what if you want to stitch together your own trip using those images? There is a Google tool for that! Google Tour Creator allows you and your students to use any Street View imagery, or personal 360 photos, to create interactive tours. These tours can include narration through uploaded audio files, image overlays, and points of interest. Once created, they can be shared with anyone. Check out this page for some great examples to get you and your students dreaming of the possibilities. If you are interested in creating your own photos and art, this page will give you a place to start.

Expeditions

Is a real-life field trip not in the budget? Then explore the offerings of Google Expeditions. These trips are filled with information for you to feature with your students just as a tour guide would in real life. It is immersive and also fun to share these using virtual viewers or Google Cardboard, but they can be enjoyed without those as well. You can search through a list of over 900 expeditions here. As phones and tablets become more powerful, we are also beginning to see more augmented reality content. Expeditions has some of these experiences as well. This makes it look like artifacts, models, and animals are right inside your classroom and can be explored from every angle.

Are you interested in data, geography, and programming? Google Earth Engine is a platform for combining the wealth of information available about our planet in creative ways. One example that will be of immediate use in your classroom is Google Earth Timelapse. This combines available satellite imagery of the entire planet into an animated time lapse. It makes visualizing change very easy. Some other Google Earth Engine projects you might want to explore are Collect Earth Online, Map of Life, and Global Forest Watch.

This post just scratches the surface of what is available to you and your students. If you would like some great tutorials and instructional ideas for Google Geo tools, my good friend and Google Earth Education Expert Donnie Piercey has put together a great collection of resources. I hope that you will explore these tools with your students and teachers. My first grade self, fascinated by maps, would so appreciate it — and you just might ignite this passion in your students, too!

Photo: henry perks

October 17, 2019 0 comment

Digital Literacy Libraries

Research in the Age of the Filter Bubble

by Heather Lister, Guest Author October 8, 2019

written by Heather Lister, Guest Author

We live in a personalized world. Everything from the music we listen to, the firmness of our mattresses, and the news briefings delivered to us online, it’s all personalized and tailored to our preferences. And who wouldn’t want to listen to a radio station that only plays music they like? Advances in technology have allowed companies to give a custom experience to each of its users — and those users include the students in our classrooms.

A Custom World

As educators, we typically hear the term “customized” or “personalized” in a positive light. Yet when seeking information, those customizations can actually translate to bias and ignorance. It’s what Eli Pariser termed the “filter bubble,” the algorithms used to provide targeted search results and tailored news feeds are creating a distorted and divided reality by only revealing one side of the story — the side you want to see.

Websites use massive amounts of data to create an experience that we’re more likely to engage and interact with. This data is often collected by “trackers” that exist on numerous websites. Google trackers can be found on the top 75% of the top million websites. These trackers do just what they say they do; they track. They track everything from the time you spend on a site to the type of computer you’re using to the time you typically wake up in the morning. All of this somewhat personal data is gathered and used without us being aware we’re even providing it. So for those of us that think we do a pretty good job of keeping our online lives private, unfortunately our actions and behaviors online can tell companies just as much, if not more, information about our lives.

For professionals dedicated to helping others search for facts and uncover the truth, this is obviously problematic.

Escaping the Bubble

Sadly, escaping this bubble is nearly impossible. Even methods that give the appearance of removing this bubble and putting the user in control of their data do very little. For example, private browsing such as Google’s “Incognito Mode” only prevents your browser history from being recorded on your computer and does not offer any additional protection such as preventing the websites you visit from collecting your information (e.g. your searches on a search engine). According to an engineer at Google, even when logged out, Google is still able to use 57 points of data to tailor your experience. Facebook’s privacy settings allow you to opt-out of seeing targeted ads, but they don’t stop the collection of data in the first place. This data and more is following us across the web, with vast implications.

So if the filter bubble is an issue, but there isn’t really a way to “pop” it, what do we do?

For better or for worse, customization is only going to get more precise and have a further reach. But unless you’re willing to go completely off the grid, we’re going to have to address this issue. This means taking a different approach to research and doing a better job of teaching students how the Internet actually works.

A Different Approach

For starters, if you’re giving students a list of “pre-approved” websites or databases, stop (for two reasons). First, by hand picking resources for students, we are robbing them of the opportunity to navigate the resources themselves. They aren’t always going to have someone there to hand pick articles for them and tell them whether they are credible or not. It’s a skill they need to develop themselves, and what better time to practice that skill than when in school? Second, there is no such thing as a 100% credible site. Even databases curate resources from the open web, so directing students to databases is a flawed practice as well. Several sites and authors that were once considered “trustworthy” and “academic” have been called into question due to bias, misinformation, or misrepresentation.

Additionally, students (and our colleagues) need to understand the existence of a filter bubble. They need to understand how companies are using data to tailor the results on nearly every site we visit. They need to understand that while their search results may have produced hundreds of “great” results, there are millions of other results they aren’t seeing. When we have students evaluate websites, encourage them to not only focus on what is in the article, but also what isn’t in the article. What perspectives are missing? What isn’t being discussed? Who wasn’t a part of the discussion?

Useful Resources

While librarians can be champions of this effort, it cannot be addressed by us alone. This is a societal issue and one that needs tackling by the community at large. While still limited, here are some resources to help teachers and librarians in this effort:

Checkology and The Sift from The News Literacy Project

Checkology is an online suite of tools aimed at making students better users of information. With lessons on algorithms, bias, identifying hoaxes, and more, it’s a comprehensive platform for addressing the many facets of media literacy. The Sift is a newsletter that shares current teachable news stories regarding misinformation, hoaxes, and other viral content.

Harvard’s Project Implicit

This resource includes a series of assessments aimed at identifying thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. This is a great tool for your older students or your staff to help become more self aware of the biases they may have.

Mozilla’s Teach the Web and Google’s Be Internet Awesome

Both organizations have an education branch focused on teaching how the web works. Yes, I recognize the irony, but they both have some excellent resources and activities.

Choose Privacy Everyday from ALA

Each year, ALA and other organizations celebrate #chooseprivacy week in May. This website hosts resources to promote privacy and confidentiality year-round. The site includes programming and lessons for elementary school through adults.

Photo: Lanju Fotografie

October 8, 2019 0 comment

Good Teaching Web 2.0 Tool

The Modality Effect and Wakelet Templates

by Miguel Guhlin October 3, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

Wakelet is an amazing (and free) tool for content curation for both students and teachers. To make it even better, there are fabulous templates available showcasing innovative ways to use the resource in your teaching, learning, and leading. There is also a modality effect that makes non-linguistic representation easier to achieve in your classroom. In this blog entry, you will find a host of inventive ways others are using Wakelet in the classroom.

Update (01/2021): Be sure to read about the all new Wakelet Templates that appear in this blog entry.

What Is Wakelet?

Wakelet is an all-purpose digital pinboard or social bookmarking site that makes it easy to add a wide variety of content to it. If you can link to a resource, then you can add it to Wakelet. This makes it a versatile, simple tool even for the technology-challenged educator. Here is a list of some of the content you can drop into it. Be sure to check out my Wakelet About Wakelet to see how it works.

Website addresses
Text
YouTube videos
Tweets
Bookmarks (in Wakelet)
Images
PDFs
Google Drive documents
Screencastify video recordings

If you like tools like Pinterest and Pocket, then you’ll love Wakelet. During the first week in October, 2019, Wakelet enhanced their feature set with Mood Board (see video below). Educators can use the Mood Board feature for many purposes, such as a:

Curated social wall for events
Reflection board for students during and after lessons
Way for project documentation
Visual, equitable, and collaborative group project tool
Digital, visual content blackboard
Virtual book clubs gathering space, digital maker space and school library tool (e.g. book talks)

And since Wakelet is completely free, and planning to stay that way, you know it will get only better.

Group Contributions Made Easy

Working on a big project that requires group collaboration? No problem; partner with other educators on your team to contribute to Wakelet. You can all add content, even if they don’t have a Wakelet account. This makes adding information and ideas to a shared Wakelet easy to do.

Contributors do not need an account to add to a Wakelet you create. Think about it. This means your under-13 year-old students can contribute to a Wakelet. And you keep editing control.

Explore my Wakelet collection, Templates for Wakelet:

Now, before you disappear down the rabbit hole of the Templates, let’s take a quick look at accelerating student growth.

Multi-Modal Learning with Wakelet

Think of Wakelet as a serving plate for great ideas in multi-modal format. Video, audio, PDFs, images, and text characterize non-linguistic representation. That’s important for many reasons, among them:

The modality effect refers to how learner performance depends on the presentation mode. Improve learning when you present textual information in enhanced mode. That is, when text includes auditory format, and/or visual materials. Visual materials could include a graph, diagram, or animation. Source: Visible Learning Meta X database

According to Universal Design for Learning (UDL), non-linguistic representation is a must. Multiple representations ensure information is accessible to all learners. It also makes content easier to access and comprehend for many others. The use of Microsoft’s Immersive Reader to make text “playable” with all text content is powerful. It transforms Wakelet into a powerhouse for processing text as audio with picture dictionary and language translation (shown below).

See how Microsoft’s Immersive Reader, built into Wakelet, transforms embedded text.

This instructional strategy (modality effect) accelerates student learning. It enjoys a Hattie Effect Size of .55. This is great because non-linguistic representation is so important; text can’t cut it alone anymore. Wakelet works as a digital mixing board, a plate where you, as the teacher, can organize content.

Wakelet Templates Explode in January, 2021

Templates can kickstart your thinking as to how to best organize content. In January, 2021, Wakelet announced a new feature, Wakelet Templates.

wakelet templates

Wakelet Templates comes with a wide variety of templates you can explore. For example, check out the categories:

Categories include entry and exit tickets, portfolios and resumes, and ice breakers. You can also see distance learning, collaboration tools. It’s a good start. In the meantime, here are some other templates educators have created.

A Few of My Favorite Wakelet Things

Ready to see how other educators are creating templates for you to use? How about ways that educators are teaching with the content creation tool? Here are five fun ways Wakelet is being used.

1) Reading Logs

Dr. Ruth Okoye introduced me to Kristina A. Holzweiss’ (@lieberrian) Wakelet as a way to conduct reading logs. Kristina includes instructions and various resources to get you started. You can create a template for your own students that makes it easy for them to record their reading activity. Some of the information to collect includes what they read, when they read, and how many pages are read each time. It’s also a great way to summarize what was read.

For fun, you might want to take advantage of this Reciprocal Teaching template I created to encourage student readers. Students can use online audio recording tools (e.g. Vocaroo Online Voice Recorder) or Screencastify for webcam recording, to post their answers to reciprocal teaching sentence stems. The link can then be posted in the Wakelet.

2) Newsletters

Many educators, including librarians, are embracing Wakelet as a newsletter template tool. Kristina Uihlein Holzweiss does a wonderful job explaining how she created the first newsletter template below, School Library Media Center Newsletter, September 2019. You can watch her video explanation via the 2020 TCEA Convention Facebook group. Find several newsletter templates you can copy for your own use online.

3) Research reports

One of my favorite templates is this sample research report about polar bears. Imagine how taking a chemistry lab report and putting it into the tool would make the process easier for the teacher to grade. Students could use the template, fill it in, and then submit it to the class assignment Wakelet when complete. This works well for other content areas, too.

As you can see in this example, the work features teacher instructions for students. What might they look like for your classroom?

4) The All About Me Wakelet

Whether it’s All About Me for students in English or Spanish class or a Meet the Teacher template, you can make it easy for students to share a little about themselves using the tool. Research shows that building teacher-student relationships has an effect size of .72.

The relationship teachers have with their students dictates the impact they will have on their students’ achievement.

When there is a positive teacher-student relationship, students feel safe and there is a strong bond of trust within the classroom. Students are not afraid to take risks and understand that making errors are all part of the learning process. Students are more likely to feel positive about school and have a greater chance of developing a true love for learning. (Source: Teacher-Student Relationships)

Breaking the ice with students early on and building that bond of trust can begin with a simple Wakelet.

5) Create Copy-Friendly Content

Ready to jump into template creation? Don’t be afraid to use this resource for digital breakouts, station rotation activities (e.g. Types of Cells), and green screen ideas for your classroom. You won’t regret adapting Wakelet for use in your classroom in simple, powerful ways that enhance learning.

October 3, 2019 1 comment

Good Teaching Professional Learning

Reflections: The Jigsaw Method in My Workshop

by Miguel Guhlin September 23, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

“I was using jigsaw with my students before,” said the science teacher at a private school. “Now that I know its effect size, I’m going to be using it even more.” The insight about the jigsaw strategy popped up after discussing John Hattie’s meta-analysis. If you’re not familiar with it, he analyzed a lot of research. His meta-analyses identified the effect size of instructional strategies used in schools today. Let’s take a moment to see how jigsaw works and in the context of educational technology.

The Jigsaw Method

“The Jigsaw Method is a teaching strategy. It is useful for organizing student group work,” says Jordan Catapano. “It helps students collaborate and rely on one another.” John Hattie found the jigsaw method to have an effect size of 1.2. What does that mean? Consider that the average growth any student experiences over an academic year is .40. This means that using jigsaw in a consistent manner can accelerate student growth. Students in your classroom will see greater than one year’s growth with the jigsaw.

As I was working on my PBL with Minecraft: Education Edition session, I realized I had a lot of resources to share. I asked myself, “Would the jigsaw method work well enough to get the job done?” Before I share how that worked out, it might be worth reviewing how the jigsaw method works.

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey suggest there are three types of jigsaw methods. After reviewing their list, I realize that they are right.

Approach #1: Jigsaw as Divide and Conquer (One-Step Jigsaw)

This was my first introduction to the term “jigsaw.” This ineffective application of the label serves as a way to divide a long article into pieces. Each group member takes a piece, then summarizes it for the small group (or large group).

Fisher and Frey share their opinion about this:

This “one-step” approach isn’t a jigsaw; it’s a divide-and-conquer approach to text. When teachers experience “jigsaw” in this way, they’re likely to replicate it incorrectly in their classrooms. Harm may be done as less effective readers share misinformation with the group and everyone’s understanding is compromised.

This approach may not be the best one to replicate.

Approach #2: Home and Expert Groups (Two-Step Jigsaw)

Only this summer did I attempt the home and expert groups approach to jigsaw. The process involved grouping students into “home” groups. Then, students chose one resource of the available list. Once students decided on their resource, they formed up into “expert” groups. The expert groups worked to plumb the depths of the same article. Then they discussed their takeaways with each other in their respective home groups. Here’s a link to the organizer my students used in Google Docs format.

jigsaw

This approach falls short as well, although not as much as the first approach. Frey and Fisher point out the following:

In this type of activity, learners still don’t have the opportunity to discuss how their assigned part fits within the whole text; groups just report on the particular section they read. And the critical thinking that’s accomplished through analysis and synthesis doesn’t happen.

How do you get students to do more than report on the particular section they have read? More important, how do you make analysis and synthesis to happen?

Approach #3: True Jigsaw (Three-Step Jigsaw)

The critical third step of the three-step jigsaw involves students returning to their expert groups. Once back in expert groups, they discuss how their part fits into the whole. Fisher and Frey describe it in this way:

In the third phase of the jigsaw, students return to their expert groups and discuss how their passage fits into the whole text, based on their discussions with their home group. The point of this third phase is to have students engage in a part-to-whole conversation in which they arrive at a deeper understanding about the text and its implications.

Students think about their thinking (metacognition) and synthesize and analyze ideas contained within the complete text. This process requires that students listen carefully to their peers and analyze the ways in which each part contributes to the entire text.

As you can see, step three of the this jigsaw approach involves heavy lifting. As such, I see the phases of movement as follows now:

Divide students into home groups to split up portions of text or resources.
Set up a way for students to group according to expert groups to explore their specific area.
Regroup into home groups to discuss findings.
Split into expert groups to consider the whole in light of specific area.

This constant movement of students from one group to another can be awkward. But let’s not forget how important movement is to the human brain and learning efforts. Without this heavy lifting, the jigsaw method in use may not be as effective. As you reflect on how you are using jigsaw in your classroom, which approach have you taken?

jigsaw

Reflections: The Jigsaw Method in My Workshop

In my face-to-face workshop, I relied on the two-step jigsaw. Rather than use a single resource split up into passages, I shared resources relevant to a theme. The theme? PBL in the Minecraft: Education Edition classroom. As I implemented it, students did not achieve the critical third level, but the activity did achieve my intended goal. Some of the participants were quite forceful in sharing their perspectives. You can see how this activity appears in my session materials. Visit Activity #1 – Exploring Possibilities to see it in action.

Some revisions I would make now that I know about the three-step jigsaw include:

Include a quiz or performance task at the end of the two-step version of the jigsaw. This would fall into step right after phase three movement.
Use some kind of metacognitive aid or scaffold (concept map?) to capture student discussion in the phase four movement. That’s the third step of the three-step jigsaw. In this phase, students move back into expert groups to discuss their learning in context of the whole.

What are your thoughts on the jigsaw approach and its use for professional learning or in your classroom?

September 23, 2019 4 comments

Chromebooks Google Tips and Tricks

Get Creative with Google Slides Creator Studio

by Miguel Guhlin September 18, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

Have you ever had a need to export a Google Slides slide deck as animated GIF, MP4 video format, or numbered images? If so, your prayers have been answered. A new add-on for Google Slides makes it easy to get those jobs done. Let’s take a quick look at it.

Creating Videos from Slide Shows

Before we jump into an overview of the new add-on, let’s review reasons why it might be great to have these features. Here are my top ones for any Google Slides user:

Make digital stories. Students can use Google Slides to make comic books and digital stories, add some copyright-free music to a slide, and then put it on YouTube. You can now do that with the Video with Audio feature of Creator Studio.
Export slides as pictures. You can now export slides as pictures, not one at a time (currently supported), but en masse. What a time saver to be able to export all slides as an image sequence!
Create an animated GIF. My old workaround was to save slides one at a time, then import them into Gifmaker.me to make an animated GIF. Creator Studio streamlines this process.
Share your slides as video. Turn your slide deck into a video that students (and others) can watch on any device.Now you can save it as a video using the most compatible video format, MP4. The video with audio feature makes adding music easy, as well.

Learn About Creator Studio Add-on

This Google Slides add-on, Creator Studio, makes it easy to export a slide deck in G Suites. The add-on states you can:

Convert Google Slides to GIF images and MP4 video files. Add background music or voice narration to your exported presentations. Export Slides as image sequences and they are uploaded to Google Drive.

A description of the features appears below, adapted from the Creator Studio website:

Animated GIF: Create an infinite loop animated GIF. Or make stop motion animation by keeping time interval low.
Image Sequence: These numbered PNG image file appear in Google Drive with thumbnails.
Video File (MP4): Create an MP4 video file using your slides. You can change the time interval on how quick slides appear in the video.
Video with Audio: Put any audio file in MP3 or WAV audio file format. The audio file will play alongside the presentation. This makes it possible for you to provide voice narration in the background as video plays. Note that audio files must be smaller than 10 megabytes; you may need to drop them into Audacity to shorten them.

These features are amazing to find in Google Slides. Microsoft PowerPoint users may have a ho-hum attitude as they’ve been able to export files as MP4 video for quite some time. While Google hasn’t provided these options (uh, what’s taking so long Google?), there is a clear need for them. Thank goodness Creator Studio makes it possible.

Creator Studio

This animated GIF created with the Creator Studio add-on using default settings.

Get Creative

When you first add Creator Studio to your personal or G Suite EDU account, you will be prompted with a security warning:

Creator Studio

Select OK to move past it. You will be dropped into a brand new Google Slides slide deck. Once you verify that Creator Studio is working, you can switch to any Slides deck and get creative.

Your next step is to open a Google Slides slide deck you want to get creative with. Here’s what mine looks like with Creator Studio open:

Creator Studio

Here’s what that Google Slides deck looks like as an MP4 video file with copyright-free music:

The default is 300 pixels output width and looks like this:

Compare that with 609 pixels output width:

You will need to play with the pixels output width until you get the desired quality. You can find the full-blown Slides deck here as well.

Tip: Wondering WHERE all your Creator Studio creations live? Creator Studio puts them all in a folder entitled “Creator Studio.” This folder appears at the root level of your Google Drive.

Premium Features

Wondering at the cost? For $29 a year, single license users get the following:

Create high-resolution animated GIFs, image sequences, and HD videos
Set custom time interval (in seconds) between slides
Add background audio and voice narration to the exported video file
All add-on branding is removed from exported images and videos
Complimentary technical support upgradable to one-on-one support

If you are part of a team or want to get this for your domain, that’s also reasonable. Creator Studio’s price breakdown is as follows: two users for $58 a year, three users for $84, four users for $116, five users for $145. If you want to get it for everyone in your G Suite domain, the cost is $299. It’s quite a bargain given the range of features.

Get Creative with Google Slides Creator Studio

If you have been looking for an amazing way to export slides as animated GIFs, videos, videos with audio, Creator Studio is your solution. Be sure to watch Amit Agarwal’s tutorial video on Creator Studio.

September 18, 2019 6 comments

Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks

High-Impact Classroom Discussions with Google

by Diana Benner September 16, 2019

written by Diana Benner

John Hattie’s research identifies classroom discussions as having an effect size on student achievement of 0.82, which means approximately two years’ of growth in one year. Do you have classroom discussions in your class? Do you use Google tools to promote classroom discussion? If not, let’s take a look at how you can use them to increase student learning in your classroom.

The Power of Classroom Discussions

Classroom discussions are an instructional strategy where students are invited to speak about the topic at hand. But it involves much more than just a teacher asking a class a question and then another, etc., It involves all students having robust discussion with each other in order to think more critically about a topic.

Using Classroom Discussions to Adapt Instruction

Classroom discussions allow students to improve communication skills by voicing their opinions and thoughts. Teachers also benefit from classroom discussion as it allows them to see if students have learned the concepts that are being taught. Moreover, a classroom discussion creates an environment where everyone learns from each other, which is the best kind of learning.

The key to successful classroom discussions is the feedback given by and the instructional adjustments made by the teacher. According to Hattie, “when implemented correctly, classroom discussions can be a source of rich, qualitative data – data that allows teachers to understand the thinking of their students more closely and determine if there are information processing errors that need instructional intervention immediately.”

Planning for Classroom Discussions

When planning for classroom discussions, teachers should consider the following:

Classroom Discussions

Share expectations. When planning for Classroom Discussions, it is important to share your expectations for participation, including the ground rules for the discussion. Sharing a rubric with students will help to clarify your expectations.
Create questions. Create a series of questions for the students to think about. Make sure these are open-ended and thought-provoking questions. Your questions could spark controversy or draw on common experiences. This way, you will spark a meaningful discussion.
Allocate enough time. Discussions take time to get started.
Ensure that it’s the students talking and not you. You already know the content being discussed!
Facilitate the discussion and adjust instruction, as needed. Monitor what is being said and ask students for clarification. This is where you get an understanding if the student understands the topic being discussed and adjust instruction as needed.
Deal with conflict. It is important not to ignore conflicts. If a misunderstanding occurs, make sure you step in and clarify. Do not let certain students dominate the discussion. In addition, make sure that students can freely express their opinion without being laughed at.
Summarize the discussion. Provide a summary or some conclusions of the discussion.
After the discussion, reflect on what worked well and what you might do differently next time. Think about the students that didn’t participate much or didn’t understand the topic.

Google Tools for Classroom Discussions

Classroom Discussions

Google tools can complement the effectiveness of classroom discussions. With online discussions, teachers can view and select individual student responses to deepen further discussion for the whole class. This way, the teacher is using the thinking of students to drive instruction for the entire class. Teachers can also use whole-class views to push students’ thinking beyond the material being studied. In addition, online discussions will give a voice to those students are aren’t comfortable speaking up in class. The main thing to remember is that the teacher must model how to post in the online forum. Below are a few tools to get started with.

Google Classroom – The Google Classroom question feature allows teachers to have their own version of an online discussion board. Simply ask a question and students can begin having a discussion online.

Google Slides – Teachers can have a classroom discussion using Google Slides. As Alice Keeler points out in her blog, you can post a question in Google Slides and then have the students insert a slide to respond to the question. Students can insert comments on the slides of other students to respond. Get the discussion template here.

Google Sheets – Google Sheets can also be used to facilitate classroom discussions. On her blog, Alice Keeler mentions how you can create a list of discussion topics on the first sheet and then run a script to create a tab for each question. Students can then respond to the questions collaboratively. Get the discussion template here.

Pear Deck Google Add-On – Pear Deck is an add-on for Google Slides that will allow teachers to ask students questions. Students will be prompted to answer your questions as you advance your slides.

Additional Digital Tools for Classroom Discussions

Some additional digital tools for classroom discussions include:

Back Channel Chat – Backchannel Chat is a class discussion tool that was designed to look like an online chat room. Teachers can control of all aspects of the discussions. They can remove messages and prevent students from posting, if the pace of the discussion is overwhelming and key messages are lost.

Flipgrid – Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that helps teachers see and hear from every student in class. Teachers can post a topic for discussion and students then respond by recording their thoughts via a short video clip. Students can then watch the videos of their classmates and respond back to them to generate further discussion.

Nearpod – Nearpod provides another way to hold classroom discussions. Students can answer a prompt by reporting their thoughts and feelings through open-ended text. When answers are submitted, the teacher can see everyone’s response on their dashboard. They can even push out the responses to each student’s device. The teacher can keep it anonymous or mention the student’s name.

Padlet – Padlet is an online bulletin board in which students can post responses to discussion questions. Teachers should instruct students to put their name in the Title of their Padlet post. After students have posted their response, teachers can reply to their post. Students can even attach files or links to their responses.

Try a Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussions can be a powerful data source for teachers to adapt instruction. Therefore, you should try a classroom discussion or adjust a discussion you already have. As a result, it will lead to increased student learning in your classroom.

September 16, 2019 2 comments

Android Coding/Computer Science iOS Tips and Tricks Robotics

AR with Rox’s Secret Code

by Lori Gracey August 28, 2019

written by Lori Gracey

Anytime you can combine augmented reality, cute robots, and coding fun, you are guaranteed student engagement. And that’s exactly what the Rox’s Secret Code app does. Available free for both Android and iOS, the app was designed to work with the book by the same name and teach coding to both girls and boys ages 4 to 8.

The book is the story of a code whiz who originally creates a “Chorebot” to help her clean her room, but is forced to readjust the code when the robot begins to act out on its own. Although the launch page of the app asks if the students already own the book, purchasing it isn’t necessary to enjoy the app.

How Rox’s Secret Code Works

Rox's Secret Code

Students first must design their own robot, building it from a variety of pieces that are available. The robot appears in AR immediately and is fun to see. My first robot is to the left. You can see it appearing over my laptop in my living room. The next step is to give the robot a name. Then you can take a photo of the robot itself or a selfie with you and your robot.

Introducing Coding

Your bot is now ready to begin learning to code. Students play with coding blocks and learn coding principles by making it pick up toys. The coding skills in the learn mode are put into action in the play mode, where they drag the “move action” blocks, which include move, rotate, and grab, to the code line. Once kids complete the code line, they activate their robot and watch it follow their directions. Rox informs players when there’s code missing or when the move action block does not match the robot’s path towards the finish line. The game becomes a bit more challenging, prompting for more move action blocks, when kids consistently code correctly.

Rox's Secret Code

While playing, students develop organization, planning, and sequencing skills, which transcend the world of coding. The graphics are colorful and appealing and Rox is available to talk the students through the activities. It’s especially wonderful that the app is available free. If you teach young students, I encourage you to take a look at it.

August 28, 2019 0 comment

Chromebooks ESL/ELL Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks

Timelines Made Easy

by Miguel Guhlin August 27, 2019

written by Miguel Guhlin

Why not introduce students to the concept of creating timelines to document their adventures? Consider guiding them through crafting timelines of their recent experiences. Demonstrating how to illustrate events with pictures and videos can be a powerful learning experience at any time of the year.

Timelines are critical components to teach. Students stuck in paper-and-pencil classrooms struggle to make them. I know I did when I was an elementary student. Sequencing and comprehension go together, per Reading Rockets:

The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts. Sequencing is also an important component of problem-solving across subjects.

Sequencing in a timeline aids comprehension for English Language Learners (ELL) students:

Sequencing [in a timeline]…provides comprehension support to English language learners (ELLs), helping them make connections and recognize patterns in a series or process. Because numerical markers such as hours, years, days or months are placed apart with plenty of space in between, timelines can appear visually less complex than pure text, helping ELLs more easily relate events to their corresponding times (Source).

Knowing how to make timelines is an important job skill. Don’t think of it as arranging pictures and dates in chronological order alone. Rather, think of it as an unfolding story about what happened, who did what, where, and when. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a free tool for creating timelines with Google Sheets.

Why Are Timelines Important?

“The project timeline is the beating heart of every project,” says Angela Bunner. “It captures the essence of what the project will accomplish and how it will be done.” As a technology director, project management always involved crafting a timeline. Bunner says that all timelines share common elements. Those elements include:

Tasks: A list of what must be done
Dates: A list of when tasks will achieve completion status
Duration: How long each task will take
Prerequisites: The order in which tasks must be done

For timelines that look to the past, there are more expectations. Jen Giambrone (History Associates) recommends you review this infographic. In “A quick guide to Timelines,” they ask a series of questions:

Is a timeline the best way to tell my organization’s story?
How do I pick a platform for an online timeline?
Who is your key audience for the timeline?
What are the project goals?
What are some of the important milestones?
Do you have a style guide?
How many entries will you have in your timeline?
What kinds of media will you include, and where will that media come from?

For classroom timelines, it may be easy enough to create a Google Doc with tables or a template like this one. Some may prefer to use a Google Sheet, inserting images, titles, and quick pictures. And you may want to see how to make timelines with Google Slides or PowerPoint. But another nifty tool is available. Care to take a look?

Introducing Timeline JS

Finding top-notch timeline making solutions (web or software) can be challenging. Often, they cost money, and who wants to pay for a timeline creation solution they may only use a few times?

Northwestern University’s Knight Lab’s TimelineJS offers a free, open-source tool. You can use TimelineJS to build an interactive timeline with rich visuals and add all sorts of media to your timeline, such as:

Twitter
Flickr
YouTube, Vimeo, Vine
Dailymotion
Google Maps
Wikipedia
SoundCloud
Document Cloud and more

Take a moment to watch their two-minute video introduction and how-to. It walks you through the process starting with a Google Sheet template that Knight Lab’s provides. In no time, you will have a timeline you can embed.

Timeline Making Tips

Some of the tips the Knight Lab folks offer appear below:

Keep it short, no more than twenty slides
Select stories that have a strong chronology
Embed each event in a story that encompasses all events
Be sure to blend in small events that lead to something bigger

You can see some of the timelines created. Find them online.

timelines

Making timelines means crafting a compelling story that arises from insignificant or significant events. These events, taken alone, may be inconsequential. When combined, they show what happened in a way that can have a profound impact. Use TimelineJS in your school, office, or classroom for timelines made easy.

August 27, 2019 1 comment

Good Teaching

Celebrate Smokey Bear’s 75th Birthday with These Free Digital Resources

by Andrew Roush August 21, 2019

written by Andrew Roush

This August marks 75 years of Smokey Bear, the portly park ranger who reminds us just who can prevent wildfires. Initially created during World War II to increase awareness of the need to protect west-coast forests from incendiary bombs and public carelessness, he’s since survived as an ambassador of America’s outdoors. Today, his furry face is attached to a number of free educational resources. Here are a few examples that caught our eye.

Editor’s note: Random-Access Memories is a periodic series highlighting the ways in which major historical events have influenced ed tech. Got an idea for a future edition of R-AM? Drop us a line.

America’s wildfire prevention campaign, the longest-running public service ad campaign in U.S. history, was already underway when its living mascot appeared in the forests of New Mexico in 1950. “Hotfoot Teddy,” as the cub found clinging to a pine during a forest fire was first called, became Smokey Bear soon thereafter. The U.S. Forest Service had found the cub in the Lincoln National Forest, and quickly named him after the recently-invented mascot for good forest stewardship. The cub, now called Smokey, was sent to the National Zoo. That Smokey’s gone now, but the symbol of thoughtful environmental recreation and exploration that he became is a national icon, one that turned 75 years old this month.

Since the creation of the modern Smokey character, the beloved bear has been a popular way to engage children with environmental and civic learning. On the occasion of his birthday, here are some ready-to-use resources that can bring Smokey into the the classroom.

Resources for Kids

smokey bear

Smokey Bear’s official website includes a wide variety of resources, some of which are perfectly designed for students to engage with directly. Combining language learning and environmental heritage, Smokey’s Story Maker—think Mad Libs—lets elementary students compose custom stories about themselves and the famous forest protector.

Ask Smokey is an interactive Flash game that students can play to learn about forest ecology and fire prevention. Students can even create a custom coloring book using the Design A Coloring Book page. Choose your favorite images, put them in frames, print, and go!

You can even have students send letters to Smokey. He has his own zip code, thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service’s parent agency.

Resources for Educators

The official Smokey Bear website is built for educators. It includes complete educator guides, lesson plans, activities, and videos, all of which you can use in your classroom. The trove of resources is organized into pages for elementary and middle school learners.

Smokey’s Story, a PDF document, includes all the basics to introduce young students to Smokey, including make-your-own stick puppets of the famous bear and his forest friends. You can even integrate art by helping students participate in the annual Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl Poster Contest.

Teachers can also work with Forest Service fire prevention planners to deliver talks and resources to their class. Explore fire prevention for grades K-5 with this guide. Learn how you can align all these resources with your educational goals here. Finally, SmokeyBearLive.com has a large collection of lesson plans on fire ecology and biology for every grade level K-12.

Can’t get enough Smokey? Check out the ongoing list of 75th anniversary celebrations here. And remember: Only YOU can prevent wildfires!

Images courtesy SmokeyBear.com

August 21, 2019 0 comment

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