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iOS Tips and TricksSTEM/STEAM

Bring Digital Media into Your Classroom with Kid Pix

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In the old days (circa 1990s), there was only one creation tool that mattered. Sure, word processors were plentiful.  For classrooms, though, Kid Pix ruled supreme. Today, a new version offers current content creators an even more powerful toolkit for creativity. Let’s take a quick look at the new Kid Pix 5, which makes digital media in the classroom easy.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Before we do that, let’s recall some of the main features of Kid Pix. These videos provide some awesome memories for those of you who had the chance to use it with students. I was one of those classroom teachers who loved to see what kids could come up with.

Kid Pix Goes Mobile

The new version of Kid Pix, version 5, includes an iPad version ($9.99). The desktop version costs $39.99 and a 15-day trial version is available.

digital media

Connect with Shirley Boyd to learn more about Kid Pix

The new version, focused on STEAM learning, seeks to combine art and science. Students are able to create digital stories while designing interactive quizzes. Students can create learning games, as well as be the narrator in their own documentaries. Animated characters can share the small stage as well.

Some notable, new features include the following five:

  • Collaborative video narration. Students using the iPad’s built-in dual camera can create a video narration. This makes it possible for them to appear in animated costume frames and appear as characters in digital stories.
  • Interactive tappable objects. Students can create interactive characters that react when tapped. This means the interactive characters can tell a story, sing a song, or make a funny noise.
  • Full-length voiceovers. Students can record full-length narration for their slideshow. They can also assign voices to all the characters in an animated tale they create.
  • Triple soundtracks for projects. Three soundtracks make it easy to combine voice and other audio. This makes it easy to create digital documentaries, stories, and presentations. Exporting it as video even results in an enhanced podcast published via YouTube!
  • Publish and share to many locations. With this version of Kid Pix, you can publish direct to YouTube, but also share to Google Drive (unlimited storage for G Suite EDU), Dropbox, or elsewhere.

Those are some of my favorite new enhancements to Kid Pix 5 for iPad. One additional feature I would like to see is green screen support. This would make combining content with the over 163 video backgrounds even better.

digital media

Visit the Projects Gallery

Curious about what your students can create with Kid Pix 5? Check out the Kid Pix Gallery. Amazing children’s voices find expression via Kid Pix. Ask yourself, how are you amplifying students’ voices with the technology you have now? If you’re stuck for answers, why not give Kid Pix a try?

Research on Kid Pix Use

Surprising as it may be for such a longstanding tool, Kid Pix is often dismissed as a drawing tool for children. Yet it offers many of the features we look for in drawing, animation, and story creation.

More importantly, there is a wealth of research supporting programs like Kid Pix for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Checkpoint 2.5. That checkpoint includes the following:

In formal schooling, there is a marked tendency to present the majority of information in language. That is, in printed text.  Many students for whom language is not a particular strength thus face persistent barriers not experienced by others. The experimental studies on the option of illustrating key concepts non-linguistically listed here span a range of media.

There is extensive research to support the representation of information through a variety of formats: video, diagram, image, music, animation, and more. The scholarly reviews and opinion pieces provide more classroom-based perspectives on the importance of using a range of media to convey content to students.

You can see the research on illustrating through multiple media online at the UDL Guidelines website. What’s more, in their book Digital Media in Today’s Classrooms, the authors point out:

  • When students create original products with multimedia, gains in achievement result (Goodlin, 2012).
  • Student-created digital media has demonstrated a positive effect on student achievement. Performance on high-stakes testing improves.
  • When students have the opportunity engage in active processing, academic achievement increases. Active processing includes five different levels: selecting words, selecting images, organizing words, organizing images, and integrating words and images.
  • Learners make sense of visuals sixty-thousand times faster than text.

Digital Media in the Classroom

Ready to get your students processing visual information sixty thousand times faster? Get them to start making things in tools like Kid Pix 5.

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seesaw
AndroidChromebooksGood TeachingiOS Tips and TricksWeb 2.0 Tool

Learning to Juggle with Seesaw

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Are you a juggler when it comes to education?

Have you ever wanted one spot to keep track of everything as a teacher? Sometimes, we educators feel learning something new is “just one more thing to add to our plate.” But being a digital leader means sharing and collaborating effective, efficient ideas and tools. Seesaw Learning Journal is such a tool. It even can help educators communicate effectively and efficiently with both students and parents.

Seesaw is a platform to encourage student engagement online, where they can showcase their voice and ownership in their work. It is a student-driven online journal that can be used in many ways and is available through the web, iOS, and Android.

Ups and Downs of Seesaw

seesawThere are several benefits to using Seesaw. Students are able to showcase their best work for parents, peers, and teachers. Students are able to explain their masterpieces, and take pride in ownership through their use of camera, video, drawings, and notes, especially when they know it is being published. This helps shy students who want to speak but are not very vocal. Teachers benefit from Seesaw by being able to use the student journal as a paperless storage for work samples, to show and discuss at parent conferences, and even use as an assessment tool. Additionally, teachers can make private notes and give feedback.

Seesaw is also user-friendly for families. Parents can see and comment on all their child’s masterpieces, and they can communicate one-to-one with the teacher. Best of all, multiple parents or any family member can join and comment. I have one student right now that has her grandma, aunt, and mom connected, and they all comment on her work!

The core Seesaw service is free for teachers, families, and students. It is a key part of their mission to impact as many students as possible. They also offer Seesaw Plus and Seesaw for Schools, which are optional paid upgrades for teachers and schools who want to do even more with Seesaw. You can view a comparison of Seesaw, Seesaw Plus, and Seesaw for Schools features here.

As for the disadvantages of Seesaw, if students are signing in through a class QR code, they are not able to edit previous work. This requires the teacher to navigate this extra step. The appearance of the dashboard needs to be updated to be more appealing to the student. The disadvantage for the teacher is printing out invitations to the parents. You must download the entire class PDF file, not just one student’s, in order to send the QR code home. The con for the parents is the lack of push notifications on iOS and Android. On tablets, students are not able to draw on a still picture while recording their voice. For example, when my kindergarteners are reading a list of sight words, I like them to check them off as they read. They can on Chromebooks, and it may come Android soon.

Using Seesaw Learning Journals

Teaching students to use Seesaw Learning Journal is an easy task, even for kindergarteners. First, students can sign in either by email (recommended for grades 3-12) or by QR codes (recommended for grades PreK-2 ). I teach kindergarten, and in my classroom of 19, the students log in and add their “Wow Work” (best work) themselves on Chromebooks and tablets by signing in with a class QR code.

Next, students can add content by camera, video, notes, Google links, drawings, or even by uploading a PDF. My students this past week chose their “Leaf Projects” to showcase. They appsmashed with Chatterpix and uploaded it to Seesaw. Some then chose to type a sentence about their projects; others choose to type describing words. It was their choice, their voice, and they have ownership in their work.

Third, students have a choice when it comes to assignments within the “Activities Tab.” The assignment can be specifically for a certain student or be the same for the whole class. Finally, the student logs in and clicks his name, then his activity tab. After they complete their assignment, they save it to their Seesaw account.

Grown-Up Growth

Teaching the adults to use Seesaw is my favorite. After using Seesaw for six years now, my interest sparks each year as Seesaw is updated.

As a teacher, the class is set up by entering your students’ names and their email addresses, if you chose for them to sign in with emails. The teacher is then able to let students upload their work and can give feedback and comments about their work. Teachers also have the option of giving the students more power by letting them comment on their peer’s work. This is recommended as long as a digital citizenship lesson has been provided.

Next, teachers get to differentiate student work in the activities tab by only assigning certain work to certain students or the whole class. The activities tab provides teachers with a single place to see who has completed and turned in their assignments and who is still working on them. Teachers can also tag certain TEKS/objectives to certain activities. This makes it easy to pull up reports on a certain TEK and see if you need to reteach that concept, or if your students are grasping the lessons.

Seesaw has a plethora of activities already made for you. They are sorted per subject, per grade level, and are available to add to your students’ accounts. No reason to reinvent the wheel! The teacher can simply copy and adjust it to the student’s needs. The Skills tab on Seesaw is a great way to assess a child on a four-star scale.

Staying Connected

Another great part for teachers is the parent communication. For years, I used Seesaw, Class Dojo, and Remind for parent communication. I was all over the place, with some parents connected to this one but not that one. The last two years, I have only used Seesaw, and all my parents are connected in one place.

This makes it easy to send out announcements for the class, to send flyers home, or even a quick message. You can communicate to the parents/families, or just to the students, or just to one parent. It is a great way to send weekly personalized messages out on how their child is learning and participating in class. I also send out a weekly announcement on what their child is learning in my class for that week. I was able to embed my link to my Google document to sign up for parent/teacher conferences and was able to get real-time feedback.

As you can see, there are many pros and just a few cons to using Seesaw Learning Journal. Overall, Seesaw is user-friendly for the students, parents, and teachers. Give it try!

Laressia Martin is an educational technology leadership expert and elementary educator. You can learn more about her on her website or on Twitter.

“Vitz-9572”by Jon.Proehl is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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software updates
Educational TrendsTechnical Support

Summer Software Updates from Adobe, Google, and Microsoft

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

In a world of digital software, it seems as if patches, updates, and upgrades are happening constantly. For educators, it can be nearly impossible to keep up. Sometimes we know about the updates, and sometimes apps and programs are updated automatically. Ever feel behind the times? TCEA is here to help.

Below are some recent updates for popular educational software. Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean you can’t stay up to date.

The Spark of Creativity

Adobe updated its Spark family of graphic-design products for social, web, and video. The updates include features targeted to educators. According to Campus Technology:

The latest release added functionality of benefit for education users. The program, which is free for students and schools, whether K-12 or higher ed, now supports live collaboration through the web. Students and instructors can begin a project and invite others to work on it by adding their email and sending an invitation to make edits. Shared projects appear in a new tab in the project organizer, and edits made to the project will be visible to collaborators.

Notably, these changes only apply to desktop and laptop versions.

Noteworthy Updates

Microsoft has released a number of recent updates for various programs. In June, it announced 30 updates for OneNote and Class Notebooks, including the ability to pair OneNote with TurnItIn and a way to create math quizzes right in OneNote. You can check out all 30 updates here.

The company’s Teams for Education digital hub is also getting a major facelift, according to a Microsoft announcement. You can read about new features, and see a few in action, at Microsoft’s Education blog.

Searching for New Features

Google has also heralded a number of updates for Google for Education, including rubrics, a new grades page, and changes to Google Forms.

From Silicon Angle:

“Instructors enrolled in the beta program can create a rubric and attach it to an assignment, giving students full visibility into how their work will be evaluated,” Brittany Mennuti, a Google Classroom product manager, wrote in a blog post. “Instructors can then use rubrics while grading to select rating levels and give consistent and efficient feedback.”

 

Meanwhile, Gradebook, a feature previously available in beta that allows teachers to track student’s grades over time and evaluate their performance, is now generally available.  …

 

Google is also making available a “locked mode” in Google Forms… With locked mode, students are prevented from being able to navigate away from the quiz until all of their answers have been submitted, helping them to focus on the task in hand.

What software updates have you been watching? Which changes would you like to see explored in TechNotes? Let us know in the comments.

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Chrome browser
ChromebooksGoogle Tips and Tricks

Make Your Chrome Browsing Experience Even Better

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

There are many things I enjoy about the Chrome browser, including a wide array of extensions I can use, assigning my startup pages so they automatically load when I open the browser, and being able to cast my browser to my TV for group viewing. Needless to say, I was excited when I found out about various new features that developers are testing to see if they are worthy to become full-fledged features in Chrome. Here are some of my favorites.

A Word about Chrome Flags

First, I need to give a disclaimer.

When developers are testing new features that may not be ready for prime time, they push them out as experimental features. You can find these features by typing chrome://flags into your Chrome browser and hitting return. You want to be careful when altering flags, as it may have unintended consequences. And, if you feel you’ve gone too far and want to undo your changes, just click the “Reset all to default” button at the top of the flags page. But, if you are like me and interested in what might be coming down the road, taking a look at flags can be a sneak peek into what the developers are thinking. Also, because flags are considered experimental, they may disappear at any time if it is decided to abandon a flag. Since flags are testing grounds for features, some of them may actually make it to the prestige of becoming a “real” feature in Chrome.

Enable Reader Mode

Enable Reader Mode (#Enable-Reader-Mode) opens a new page that has been stripped of ads. This is great when you are wanting to share a web page with others, but it is cluttered with ads that distract from the page. Chrome extensions that are similar to Reader Mode include Clearly and Print Friendly & PDF. To enable Reader Mode:search for #enable-reader-mode in the search box at the top of the experiments page. Click the blue button on the right and select “enabled.” You will be prompted to relaunch Chrome to have the change take place.

To use Reader Mode, go to a website of your choice. Click on the Customize and Control icon (the three vertical dots) on the top-right of your browser. Select “Distill page.” Your page will refresh to a simplified, less cluttered view. To leave the distilled page and return to normal viewing, just click the back button. This mode is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.

Focus Mode

Focus Mode will pop out the current tab into its own window. To make use of this feature, you’ll need Chrome 7.6 or higher, which was not yet out at the time of this writing. If you like to be on the cutting edge, though, and want access to this (and other) features before they are rolled out to the masses, then consider using Chrome Beta. Chrome Beta allows you to preview features before they are released. This is great if you work in a support capacity or you find that you are the geekiest of your group of friends.

With this flag enabled, you can right-click on a tab to get the contextual menu to appear. Notice to the right in the menu that “Focus this tab” is now in the list. Select this item. The tab will be removed from the current window and will reopen in a tab-less window with no omnibox. To restore the page, click on the Customize and Control icon and choose “Open in Chrome.” This feature is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. #focus-mode

Extensions Toolbar Menu

When the Extensions Toolbar Menu flag is enabled, Google will place an icon in the top-right corner of your browser in line with the omnibox. If you like a clutter-free browser toolbar or you are making screencasts, you will find this to be a handy feature. When you click on the icon (which looks something like a bad puzzle piece or a odd ship in Star Wars), you will be able to view and access all your enabled extensions via a drop-down list. Having your extensions in this folder-like feature provides a wider omnibox for viewing URLs.  This feature is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. #extensions-toolbar-menu

Tab Hover Cards

Tab Hover Cards replace the traditional tool tip. This is great if you have multiple tabs open but have trouble identifying the difference between them. While this isn’t a huge improvement over tool tips, it may be easier to see, especially if others are looking on at your computer.

Tab Hover Cards are much more relevant when coupled with Tab Hover Card Images. This flag will generate a thumbnail of any background tabs when you hover over them. For me, however, this seems a little slow to load the image; I’m not sure if that is due to needing some more efficiency in the coding of the flag or it is the way it is intended to work. Both flags are available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS. #tab-hover-cards #tab-hover-card-images

 

More Information At Your Fingertips

For more information on Chrome flags, check out these resources:

If you have worked with flags before or come across a great article that shares some interesting flags, jump in the comment section below and let me know. I’d love to hear from you!

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interactive maps
Content AreasWeb 2.0 Tool

Bringing Geography to Life with Interactive Maps

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

Geography plays a crucial role in connecting the social studies disciplines, giving students a concrete understanding of how people move and interact, how the landscape can shape behavior and social structures, and more broadly, how the world we live in today came to be.

But year after year, the same headlines seem to appear:

“U.S. Students Are Really Bad at Geography”

“Most Young Americans Can’t Pass a Test on Global Affairs—Can You?”

“New Study Shows U.S. Students Miss Boat on Geography”

The good news is that ed tech can help us make geography, a foundation social studies area, more engaging for learners. Despite challenges, a student’s understanding of the intersection between physical and social worlds is vital in informing their understanding of history, civics, even life and earth sciences. All of those are brought together with interactive maps that facilitate active learning.

Setting the Standard

The importance and interdisciplinary nature of geography is made clear in the TEKS, the statewide educational standards in TCEA’s home state of Texas. An understanding of geography is included in standards from kindergarten through high school graduation.

Joseph Kerski, of the GIS firm Esri and a former president of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), calls geography more than just “a ‘nice to have’ subject for an already-crowded educational curriculum.” Instead, he claims, it  bolsters “the critical-thinking skills, technology skills, citizen skills, and life skills that underpin all other disciplines. It is essential for grappling with the essential issues of our time.”

interactive maps

A Trusted Navigator

Technology can help bring geography to life. There’s no need for maps to be static. In fact, they can be dynamic, even interactive. That’s the premise behind MapMaker Interactive, a hands-on learning site developed by National Geographic. By pairing National Geographic’s world-class maps with powerful customization tools, educators can mark, label, bookmark, and save maps that are custom-built to match lesson plans.

Students studying the Great Migration, for example, can automatically measure distances from the population centers of the Deep South to urban areas in the north and west by drawing a line between two points. Further, they can add pins, tags, and images. Even adding a population density overlay is simple and demonstrates the lasting influences of the historic movement of African Americans in the 20th century.

Just about any social studies lesson can be enhanced with custom maps. Let students create their own, or bookmark and save maps for use in future instruction.

The Cartographer’s Toolkit

interactive mapsinteractive mapsinteractive mapsinteractive mapsinteractive maps

With the basics out of the way, here are a few of the tools built into MapMaker Interactive:

  • Country Facts and Flags: This allows students to absorb basic national facts while also customizing border colors to make a unique, personal map layer.
  • Custom Text, Photos, Videos: Students can use a vast array of markers and shapes to tell stories or display layers of data.
  • Saving Custom Maps: You must provide an email address to save a map and generate a link to edit and share it.
  • Pins, Markers, and Custom Drawings: Maps can be edited and adjusted in a number of ways with self-made labels, markers, lines, boxes, and more.
  • Pre-Made Layers: Want to see the population density of Denmark? A map of big cat territory around the world? An overlay of the African American population in 1960? MapMaker comes with all that and more. You can even adjust the opacity of these layers.

Scouting the Terrain

It’s a powerful tool, to be sure, and this brief introduction couldn’t cover everything that MapMaker is capable of. Luckily, National Geographic has an entire playlist of video tutorials outlining the tool’s features, so you can learn how to best to implement it in your classroom.

What’s more, National Geographic also provides a number of written tutorials outlining everything from how to create “geotours”—a set of mapped bookmarks—to charting the biodiversity of the Amazon River basin.

Going Deeper Into Interactive Maps

For those looking for more, National Geographic Education also offers a number printable, black and white, one-page maps that emphasize a number of thematic components. You can access those here (requires Flash). In addition, educators can access large maps, printable in sections, that students can work together to compile and fill with information by drawing or coloring directly on the map, similar to the digital tools offered in MapMaker.

Looking for more geographic fun?

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word cloud
Web 2.0 Tool

Word Cloud Tool: WordWanderer

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I really like the concept of word clouds. I think they can be a great resource in helping to determine what is important in reading, both for students and adults. They work well for getting to the heart of a piece of writing, whether that is the Declaration of Independence or Moby Dick. And there are a lot of good, free word cloud tools available with a nice variety of features: WordClouds.com, ABCYa! Word Clouds, Tagxedo, Wordle (website is no longer available, but there are desktop versions), TagCrowd, and Pro Word Cloud (which works inside PowerPoint), just to name a few. But there’s a word cloud generator available that has something the others don’t, and that’s an easy way to manipulate the cloud that is created. Say hello to WordWanderer.

How This Word Cloud Tool Works

Just like any other word cloud tools, WordWanderer allows you to copy and paste text into a box and then creates a “cloud” grouping of the words in the text with those words that appear more often in a bigger font size. The ordering of the words is alphabetical from top to bottom, left to right. When hovering over a word, its relationship with other words, in terms of their rate of proximal co-occurrence in a text, are highlighted in color.

word cloud

Adding a Context View

WordWanderer goes on to add a contextual view however. Clicking on a word selects it for the context view. Then the word sizing corresponds to how often the other words occur in the text near the selected word: the larger the word, the stronger the association between the words and the selected term. Vertical positioning is alphabetical and horizontal positioning represents sentence positions relative to the selected word. When in context view, the instances of the selected word are displayed below the visualization.

word cloud

The Comparison View

And there is a third way to view. Dragging a line between two words triggers the comparison view. In this view a word’s size corresponds to the combined association strength with the two words. Here, the horizontal position represents the difference in association between the two selected words. If a word occurs more often with the left word, it will be placed more towards the left side of the screen.

To find a specific word, they’ve added a search function above the visualization. Simply type in a word and hit enter to activate this function. There is also an options feature (top right of the screen) which lets you set which types of words are included, based on their parts of speech. So you can hide common words like the, is, etc. All of the three views show a limited a number of words.

word cloud

Using the Tool in the Classroom

WordWanderer includes six different pieces of literature as samples, so there is something for your students to practice with. These range from Hansel and Gretel to Jekyll and Hyde. This is a great resource for examining not only important documents and stories, but also critiquing their own writing. Are they using the same words over and over? Have they created strong relationships between words and ideas? Is the big idea that they are trying to convey coming across clearly? For other ideas about how to use word clouds with students, take a look at this article.

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Content AreasProfessional LearningWeb 2.0 Tool

Make Your Next Lesson, Presentation, or Meeting More Interactive

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Would you like to make your next lesson, presentation, or meeting more interactive and give everyone an equal chance to participate? If you answered “yes,” then you’ll want to try Sli.do. Sli.do is an audience engagement tool that allows you to crowd source questions or provide polls.

How It Works

Here’s how Sli.do works:

  1. Go to Sli.do and sign up for a free account.
  2. Create an event. The event can be a presentation you are doing or a meeting you are having. It could it even be a classroom lesson you are teaching.
  3. Name the event and enter a start and end date.
  4. Create the event and then you’ll be able to crowd source questions or create polls.
    • To crowd source questions, click on Go To Questions and give your audience the URL, which is http://slido.com and the code, which begins with a hashtag (#). The code can always be changed by clicking on the name of your event. Your audience can ask questions anonymously or they can enter their name. This feature of Sli.do reminds me a lot of Google Slides Q&A.
    • To create a poll, click on Create a Poll and then select the type of poll you would like to give. You can choose from Multiple Choice, Open Text, Word Cloud, or Rating. Once you create your poll, make sure you activate it. Your audience can answer the poll by going to the same URL, which is http://slido.com and entering the code for your event.
interactive

My Favorite Interactive Features

I created a meeting event to test this tool out and it was incredibly easy to set it up. It provides you with an overview of how many active users are logged into your event, how many questions have been asked in order of popularity, and how many poll votes have been taken. In addition, an infographic can be created from the results, which can then be shared or embedded.

Another thing I liked was the Word Cloud poll. I’ve always been a fan of word clouds, so I was excited when I saw this as a feature. As the audience enters words, the size of the word changes dynamically depending on how many times your attendees submit it. I can see this working well with one-worded or short responses, which can then be easily displayed on screen.

Lastly, I love the brainstorming option, which you can read more about below.

Brainstorm Ideas

I have always been a fan of brainstorming. It is a great way to collect different viewpoints and encourage critical thinking. It also helps with team building. There is a feature in Sli.do, called Ideas, currently in beta, that allows for brainstorming.

To turn this on, click on the name of your event and then click on Features. From here, you can toggle the switch to turn this on. When you do, you will see a new Ideas tab appear. From here, you can create a topic about which you want your audience to brainstorm. Once the ideas start coming in, you can star them, highlight them, or even respond to them.

What You Get For Free

Sli.do can be used for free. With the free account, you can crowd source questions with up to 1000 audience members per event. You can have up to three polls per event. For brainstorming, you can create one topic per event. In addition, you can change the hashtag code for your event.

Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t let you change the privacy settings. Therefore, your event will be public until the date you set for the event to end. In addition, another thing to note is that with the free version, you can’t moderate incoming questions. They will appear live as they are entered.

There are special educational plans if you want the additional features that Sli.do has to offer, such as password protecting your event and exporting event data.

Google Slide Integration

Currently, with Sli.do, there is a Switcher app you can download for Windows or Mac. This allows you to seamlessly switch between your PowerPoint or Keynote and Sli.do. Google Slide integration is coming soon. If you want to take advantage of early access to the Sli.do add-on for Slides, sign up here.

Get Started with More Interaction

As you get started with Sli.do, you might want to review these handy tips. They will really help you have a good experience with using Sli.do and will help you get the most out of the interaction with your audience.

I would love to know what you think of Sli.do. Let me know in the comments!

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research
Educational Research

Findings from the Latest Ed Tech Research

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

It’s important for educators to stay current on best practices in teaching and learning. Every day, new research articles appear with the latest findings. Let’s take a look at what the most recent studies have found regarding the use of technology for learning. I’ll be referring to the report “Will Technology Transform Education for the Better?” from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab’s North America office.

Access to Technology Isn’t Enough

The latest research is clear: Providing greater access to technology and the Internet don’t make any difference in learning UNLESS the teaching is also changed. While having more access to devices does improve student proficiency using computers, it does not automatically equate to a rise in test scores. In order to see greater learning, how teaching is structured must change to include student voice and choice as well as a redefinition of what must be learned to be successful.

Online Learning Must Include the Personal, Too

“We found that relative to courses with some degree of face-to-face teaching, students taking online-only courses may experience negative learning outcomes,” the report says. This report found that the teacher/student relationship is key to long-term learning. So if students are enrolled in online-only classes, there must be opportunities created for them to really get to know their teacher and each other. This is why blended learning is such an effective strategy. It combines both the power of face-to-face interaction and the personalized aspects of online study.

“Nudging” Parents and Students Can Help

Text and other technology-based messages to students and parents can be an affordable way to make a meaningful difference, the J-PAL North America team concluded. This could include tips of helping with reading for parents of elementary children and information about grades, attendance, and work that is due for secondary students. To be most successful, the nudge must encourage specific, one-time actions.

If you would like to learn more about these research findings and others, consider having your campus or district take part in the empowerED program with TCEA. The program is based on conclusive findings of what works best to accelerate student achievement and includes a component on how best to implement blended learning. It is extremely cost effective, starting at just $56/educator and includes hands-on professional learning, online resources, and the opportunity to network and share with your peers. Registration is open now for the fall.

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Educational TrendsGoogle Tips and Tricks

Create a Mobile App from Google Sheets in Minutes

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

updated 04/29/19

Did you know that you can easily create a mobile app from one of your Google Sheets?

Glide is a service that lets you add information to a Google sheet, then quickly create an app from its contents, all without coding. Just pick one of your sheets and Glide assembles it into a polished app that you can customize, share with a link, and even publish to the app store.

Using Glide

It’s simple to use Glide. As a matter of fact, I can create an app in less than five minutes—and I know if I can do it, anyone else can. Follow these easy steps below:

  1. Go to the Glide website.
  2. Click on Create an App and sign in with your Google account.
  3. Click on New app and search for your Google sheet.
  4. Wait for your app to be created.

Customizing Your Mobile App

In addition, you can customize your app’s color, logo, and name. You can also create a URL for it. Most importantly, you can password protect it if you don’t want it to be public. If you need extra help, short, built-in videos will talk you through each step. In addition, the Glide Community Forum offers help and feedback on your apps.

Once you are done, you can share your app via its link or open it in a new window. When you do this, the app will appear on your web browser. You can view it there or  scan the QR code that is automatically generated. After scanning the code with your mobile device, add the app to your home screen.

Cost of Glide

Glide can be used for free. With the free version, you can create unlimited apps and share them using a link. There are also paid versions that allow you to remove the Glide branding, as well as push the app out via Apple’s app store and Google Play.

Types of Apps Being Built

Many different types of app can be built using Glide, from school directory apps to school project apps. If you are looking for ways Glide is being used, check out these samples.

For instance, the Objectives app allows you to track objectives or goals in order to keep everything aligned. Another example is an Employee Directory app which helps locate people quickly. You can even copy and customize these sample apps to make them your own. On Twitter, #madewithglide showcases the amazing apps people are making.

Be aware that users must be at least 18 years of age to use Glide, according to Glide’s Legal Terms and Privacy Policy.

Updating the App

A great thing about Glide is the two-way connection between the app and the Google sheet. The app automatically updates from your sheet, so you don’t need to do anything for it to work: it’s automatic. This means edits and changes to your Google Sheet update quickly and without the need to relaunch the app.

Give It a Try

I challenge you to try to create an app using Glide. You’ll be surprised at just how easy it is! Got a great idea or an example of how you use Glide? Let me know in the comments!

To learn even more about Glide, listen to the podcast by David Siegel, in which he explains the history and ideas behind Glide and be sure to follow @glideapps on Twitter.

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Google Translate
Content AreasESL/ELLGood TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

Using Google Translate in Sheets to Differentiate

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Many teachers may have students in their classrooms that have a different home language than English. While this can be an advantage to the student in many ways, it can also provide some challenges. One challenge that can happen is the lack of parental support that may be given. Also, if the student speaks little English but is fluent in another language, it may be hard for you to build on prior knowledge, especially if you do not know the academic vocabulary in the target language of the student. This is a perfect time to use the Google Translate function in Google Sheets!

I originally came across this Google sheet online while reading through various forums. The initial sheet allows you to enter your vocabulary words in the first column (far left). The words will be translated into the other languages using the function: GOOGLETRANSLATE(text, [source_language, target_language]). You can obtain and modify the original page at http://bit.ly/2EBD9p0.

Create Your Own Translation Spreadsheet

If we tweak the spreadsheet some, though, we can make it into a great tool to help us differentiate vocabulary words for students. Follow along with me as I make the alterations to the file so that we can have a nicely tailored list of vocabulary words that can be shared, printed, or saved as a PDF. If you want to access the finished file that you can copy and alter, then go to http://bit.ly/2Ev13lY and make a copy. You can use the drop down cell (cell B2) to select any of the languages to which Google can translate. For this sample, we will be creating a seventh grade science vocabulary list.

  1. Name the blank sheet VocabularyList.
  2. Put a title in A1. A title is helpful if you plan to print this page or save it as a PDF.
  3. Select A1 and B1 and click the Merge Cells icon so that the title can span over both columns that we will use.
  4. Enter “Vocabulary Words” in cell A2.
  5. The cells below A2 will be used for vocabulary words. Enter as many as needed. As mentioned above, our list happens to have science vocabulary for seventh grade listed.
  6. Insert a New Sheet (SHIFT + F11 or INSERT→New Sheet). This sheet will contain the languages which you want to make available to your users.
  7. Name this new blank sheet LanguageCodes.
  8. Go to http://bit.ly/2Ev7zZP and transfer the languages into column A on the new sheet and the codes into column B. You are now ready to create the magic!
  9. Go back to the VocabularyList tab.
  10. Click in cell B2 and click DATA→Data Validation.
  11. For the criteria, “List from a range” should be selected. To select the area, click the “select data range” icon and then click on the LanguagesCode tab and click/drag to select column A cells that have languages identified. Your dialog box should look like the image below.
  12. In cell B3 enter the following formula: =GOOGLETRANSLATE(A3, “en”, VLOOKUP($B$2,LanguageCodes!$A$1:$B$64,2))
    A3 refers to the vocabulary word in column A to the  left of B3 where we currently are
    “en” identifies that our starting language is in English
    VLOOKUP is the function that will look up the contents of a given cell based on the criteria
    $B$2 is language that we will be looking for in the formula
    LanguageCodes!$A$1:$B$64 is the range of cells on the tab named LanguageCodes where the information is that we need
    2 identifies that what we are looking for is in the second column and adjacent to the language as identified in $B$2
  13. You may now copy/paste the formula you entered in B3 to the remaining cells in the column where a translation is needed.
  14. If you want, change the color of the drop down cell so it is easier to see which cell to adjust.
  15. Your vocabulary list is ready to be played with. Select a different language in the drop down cell and watch the translations update. You may see a brief error message while the function is looking up the language code in the other tab and translating each word; this is normal. Your final sheet should look something like the image below.

Finding Already-Created Vocabulary Lists

Dolch Word Lists – This set of words is the most commonly used set of sight words in the English language.

Fry Word List – This is the most commonly accepted list of 1,000 words that students will encounter in reading and writing. The main list is broken down into sets of 100 words and identified as to the grade level at which they are typically encountered.

Vocabulary Spelling City – Here you will find lists of words categorized by grade level or content area.  Within the content area, words are then grouped by category (specific subject area).

Words by Theme – This site has over 100 lists identified, each with its own list of related words.

Comprehensive English Vocabulary Word Lists – This site has tons of lists that you can use and is great for expanding vocabulary beyond typical grade level words.

Inserting into Google Sites

If you want to make your word wall more available to your students when they are not in your classroom, consider inserting the spreadsheet in a Google Site. This will allow students the ability to access the words (and translations) anywhere they have Internet access.

Because the drop down box does not work when the spreadsheet is set to view only and embedded in a Google Site, you’ll need to decide how you want to tweak the spreadsheet and make it available. You have several options:

  • Create a single Google Sheet document with each sheet having its own language. Be sure to name the associated tab with the language that is the target language.
  • Create a single worksheet in which each column is a different targeted language. Students won’t have to go to a particular tab since all the translations will be on the single sheet.

Once you’ve decided how to best make your spreadsheet, it is time to insert it into Google Sites. Be sure that you set your share settings on the Google sheet so that anyone with the link can view. Then, you are ready to follow the steps below to insert your vocabulary translation spreadsheet:

  1. Create a new page in the Google Site for the vocabulary spreadsheet.
  2. On the right-hand side of the Site editor, click on INSERT→From Drive.
  3. Locate your vocabulary spreadsheet and click Insert (or double-click the file).
  4. If your spreadsheet has more than one tab, click on the gear icon that appears just above the inserted sheet (when it is selected) and select the desired sheet from the drop down list.
  5. If needed, you can extend the “window” of your spreadsheet by dragging the bottom handle down.
  6. Voila! You are done. Now all you need to do is publish your site.

NOTE: The user can click on the various tabs that are visible, so you may want to hide the tab with the language codes since it is irrelevant to the user. Also, remember that the drop down list does not work when set to view only and is inserted in Google Site. To make the drop down list work, it is recommended that you set the sharing to be able to edit and then users will need to have the sheet pop open in a new window to change the language choice.

So how will you use the Google Translate feature? This is just one way that you can use it to support students of different languages and students in foreign language classes. If you create your own translatable page, let us know and share it in the comments below!

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