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Educational TrendsGood TeachingProfessional Learning

Detours Around Blended Learning Roadblocks

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Would you be available to help with a short webinar on blended learning?” asked a local district technology director. In the webinar, I explored the gap between expectation and reality. Our goal was to resolve critical roadblocks to blended learning implementation. In this blog entry, I’ll share some of the roadblocks and detours around them.

Blended Learning Roadblocks

In my webinar, I shared how to overcome three challenges, or roadblocks. Those included the following:

  • Disengaged learning
  • Old content formats
  • Siloed learning

As you review that list of roadblocks, what detours come to mind?

Roadblock #1 – Disengaged Learning

“We need an educational system that encourages self-direction,” shares Ken Kay. Ken is the CEO of EdLeader21. How do we do this given all the new tools available?  One detour I offer is to use project creation stations.

Detour #1? Project creation stations.

These stations have a simple purpose. The purpose is to introduce learners to content creation and curation tools. They make this happen via a variety of mini-lessons. These mini-lessons follow a formula. May I share it with you?

Project Creation Station Mini-Lesson Formula

The formula is as follows:

  • Present a real-life problem through a work of creative non-fiction. You can do this with a video, audio, or textual narrative. Stories that present a problem are best.
  • From the problem, a task of appears. This is a task that becomes obvious as learners read the problem.
  • Share relevant background knowledge or information. Include digital (or physical, as appropriate) tools that learners will use to create. Don’t be afraid to craft activities that focus on knowledge building. One example could be student-authored ebooks, videos, websites, presentations, hyperdocs.

These stations are self-directed and groups of learners can use them in tandem. Some examples:

Explore more PBL and 5E Model Enhanced Lessons.

Roadblock #2- Old Content Formats

Did you know that the average attention span of a Generation Z learner is about 8 seconds? Information expressed in long, flowing text passages is, well, less effective. This raises the question, what works better?

Detour #2? Create munchable learning opportunities.

These are short, “munchable,” modules. This “snackable learning”  is bite-sized and intended for quick consumption. It can include images, infographics, short videos,  memes, and quotes. Assign activities that provide choice and that are device neutral.

Some ways to create munch able modules include:

Roadblock #3 – Journals, Conferences…Inadequate

“Break your own mold. It can make you stronger, more confident,” says Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo. What’s more, she says that it will enable you to “reach higher levels in your life.” How do you make that happen? Follow Thomas Oppong’s suggestion.

“Seek out discomfort. Be deliberate about doing things that push your limits magnificently. Difficulty helps you to grow.” (Source)

From personal experience, I know how hard this can be. Every time I know I am seeking out discomfort, something comes along that kicks me in the teeth. Then, I realize that I wasn’t pushing hard enough. I find I am not creating new perspectives, acquiring new skills, and pushing my boundaries.

What might this mean for you? Ask yourself, “Am I feeling uncomfortable about the pace of my learning? Am I feeling uncomfortable about anything?” If yes, in a paradoxical way, you may be doing better than someone who says, “Yes, I’ve arrived! I’ve got it together, baby!”

Detour #3? Build your professional learning network and a community of co-learners.

If you already have an active PLN, then start your own webcast using a free tool like Zoom.us, Appear.in, or Facebook Live. Start a district twitter chat. Each approach can assist you in getting access to new information. If writing a blog seems insurmountable, begin one. If interviewing instructional leaders in your district is frightening, do it. What have you to lose? The opportunity to grow is like a kite rising against the wind.

Working on your own? Consider these sources of potential learning (besides TCEA):

  • Microsoft’s Educator Community: This online community provides access to free, online professional learning courses.  You can get started using your free Microsoft account (go to login.live.com if you don’t have one yet)
  • G Suites Learning Center: This website provides access to various facets of Google Suites for Education. Definitely explore it to develop your learning.
  • YouTube: Many millennials and Gen Z’ers grow up learning and doing on their own. How? They watch YouTube. Search online. Find a topic and learn (e.g. take notes, make a mneumonic song, wrestle with ideas). Apply what you watch.

Detours to Blended Learning Roadblocks

Finding detours around roadblocks is easy. Look for the signs. To grow and become more than you are, make your own detours.

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hands typing on laptop keyboard
ChromebooksGoogle Tips and Tricks

Top Three Google Workspace for EDU Questions

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

What are recent questions educators have had when using Google Workspace for Education (a.k.a. G Suite EDU)? In this blog entry, we explore three of their top questions.

Question #1: What Gmail add-ons and extensions or apps do you use?

“My school just switched our email to Gmail (finally!). What are the Gmail add-ons/extensions/tools you can’t live without?” asks Amanda Golby.  Several respondents offered some suggestions. I share my thoughts after each.

  • Boomerang: This add-on makes it easy to write an email, then schedule it to send later. I suppose this is handy if you’re French. Its best feature is the ability to track when people read your emails.
  • Grammarly: As a writer, I find myself relying on the Hemingway Editor (web | Win/Mac app). If you need more support than that, this add-on may be worth the price. It will check your grammar, spelling as you type. The paid version expands the errors it can detect, suggestions it can offer.

As you can see, most of these are Chrome browser add-ons, rather than Gmail apps. My two favorite Gmail apps in the G Suite Marketplace include:

  • Dropbox for Gmail: This makes viewing attachments and saving to Dropbox a breeze.
  • Track and Sort: This app converts your email into a Google Doc “Email report” for sharing with others. Teachers might find this helpful when dealing with a long conversation thread. To print each email or copy-and-paste it would be time consuming. Instead, use Track and Sort to put into a nice format for sharing as a printable, single Google Doc. See example.

Explore the G Suite Marketplace to see what might catch your eye.

Question #2: How Do I mark up a Google Doc?

“Does anyone know of a Chrome extension that you can use to write all  over Google Docs for feedback?” asks Cheryl Morrow. She’d rather do that than “printing off essays…the old fashioned way.”

Some relevant responses appear:

  • Google Classroom: Open each document in Google Classroom and then adjust as needed. The document, along with your color-coded text, will be saved as a PDF. See instructions.
  • Kaizena: Use this to leave voice feedback on Google Docs. Visit their website to see great examples that include audio and explainer videos.
  • CheckMark: Add comments from a bank of remarks with this Chrome add-on.
  • JoeZoo: Offers many features as a G Suite Marketplace app, including color-coded commenting.
  • Record a video: Use a screencasting tool (e.g. Screencastify is my favorite) to record video comment.

For those that have access to Google Classroom on a tablet, you can write on Google Docs students create. Isn’t that amazing?

Question #3: How can I create a works cited page?

“What FREE app or add-on do you recommend for eighth graders to create citations and works cited pages?” asks Cynthia Smith.  Several responses include:

  • Mendeley: This cross-browser and platform citation tool makes capturing web-based citations a cinch.
  • Zotero: It is a free, easy-to-use, open-source tool. Zotero is also cross-platform and works on the web. Its goal is to assist you in collecting, organizing, citing, and sharing research.

All tools offer citations in a variety of formats, such as APA and MLA. Some are free, while others cost money or do not come well-recommended. The latter include Apogee, BibMe, Cite This For Me, and EasyBib in case you want to try them out.

Top Three Google Workspace for EDU Questions

Do you have practical, “tire meets the road” questions about G Suite in Education? Share them in the comments. Figured out some of your own solutions? Include them in the comments or send us a tweet @tceamg with the hashtag #tcea.

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administrator
Good TeachingLeadership

Exception or Extinction as an Administrator: It Is Yours to Choose

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

If you are like many educators, you may really enjoy teaching. But at some point, you may want to move up the ladder to work in administration. Having classroom experience can give you a tremendous understanding when working with other teachers. The dilemma, though, is that the further your position is from your classroom position, the less likely you are to remember what it was like (REALLY like) in the classroom. If you don’t make the effort to keep in touch with classroom teachers and their reality, you as an administrator run the risk of becoming extinct and of less value. But, with some effort, you can find that you are the exception to that rule (and possibly some of your colleagues) and are able to continue providing extremely relevant support.

In order to help you maintain value, you need to regularly engage with classroom teachers, have discussions of their troubles and their triumphs with their students, and learn how various programs are impacting their classroom instruction. Here are a few strategies and tools that you can use to keep in touch with classroom teachers so you can be the exception to the rule of becoming extinct.

Strategies for Staying in Touch

Make Scheduled Classroom Visits – It is very easy as a district administrator for your time to be consumed by the important but mundane tasks that go along with the job description. If you aren’t careful, you may find that without intentionality, you can go weeks without setting foot in a classroom! To help prevent this from happening, choose one day every week in which you will visit classrooms. Depending on how many campuses your district has, you may find that only a few hours for that day is adequate for you to stay acquainted with what is going on in the classroom. Besides looking for particular aspects of your content area within classrooms, consider asking questions such as the ones listed below.

Questions for Teachers Questions for Students
  • How can the district better support you as a teacher?
  • What additional tools or resources might you need to be more effective?
  • What are some of the successes you see in your classroom?
  • What are you working on?
  • How do you know when you have done well?
  • What can you do if you don’t know what is expected?
  • What would you like to do when you graduate?

Recognizing Success and/or Effort – Many teachers are doing a fantastic job. Unfortunately, they may invest many hours a week that go unnoticed and thus grapple with how to successfully differentiate instruction so they can best meet their students’ needs. In recognizing educators for success and/or effort, you need to have a general  understanding of what the teachers are up against. Is it a mismatched curriculum that they are expected to align themselves? Are teachers having to be creative and resourceful in order to provide adequate access to engaging content? Is there adequate training and ongoing professional development to understand how to implement research-based strategies with fidelity? The better you can understand what your teachers are experiencing, the more meaningful your recognition will be.

Annual Focus Group – It is likely that you have many teachers in your district that care enough about teaching to give honest feedback. Consider identifying some of these teachers from a variety of campuses and a variety of content areas and ask for feedback. Provide the questions ahead of time and then make yourself available at a convenient time and place for them to share. For those that aren’t able to attend in person, allow them to share via an email or form. Gathering input from your teachers will give you great data to help inform possible needs for the next budget year.

Tools to Assist in Staying in Touch

Appear.in – This no-brainer online conferencing tool doesn’t require anyone but you to have an account. Consider using this tool to have virtual office hours or just-in-time professional development and discussions. Besides the basic video conferencing you can do, you and participants can also share their computer desktop and chat via texting within the tool. This freemium tool allows up to four people to collaborate. Additional tools are available in the pro version for administrators wanting a more robust product.

Zoom.us – If you are wanting a simple webinar platform to connect with and collaborate with teachers, consider giving Zoom a try.  The free version allows up to 100 participants, but limits you to 40 minutes per meeting…which may be perfect for most of what you want to accomplish.

Google Voice – Being available to others sometimes means sharing your phone number with them…but you may not feel comfortable sharing your personal number with everyone. That’s where Google Voice is a perfect solution. You can set it up so if your office or other number(s) ring, it will automatically be directed through your Google Voice number. What I like most about having a Google Voice number is that it texts me a transcription of the voicemail that the caller left; for me, checking texts is much faster than listing to a long voicemail. Google Voice is free, so it fits every budget!

Otter Voice Notes – In this technological age, why not have artificial intelligence help you out and make life easier? If you are having a face-to-face meeting, a phone call/conference, or a video conference, Otter Voice Notes will listen and transcribe everything for you. The audio and text are conveniently synced making it easy to search later. You can also easily share the transcript. Otter also identifies keywords to help you find information quickly. You can even train Otter to recognize voices, learn special terminology, and improve accuracy.  The free account allows up to 600 minutes of transcription per month!

Voicea – Similar to Otter Voice Notes, Voicea uses artificial intelligence to assist you in turning talk into action. EVA, the Enterprise Voice Assistant, joins meetings (personal and online) and takes notes for you, which allows you the freedom to focus on the meetings instead of being distracted by taking notes. Identify key words for EVA to listen for during meetings. Notes and action items can be automatically sent to email, Slack, and other applications to assist in keeping everyone on the same page. The free version allows up to 25 minutes of audio recordings per meeting with up to 150 minutes per month in transcripts and predictive highlights.

Flipgrid – If you find that it may be like herding cats to get everyone together for a meeting (even an online meeting), then consider using Flipgrid. You can create video conversations that can be reviewed at anyone’s convenience and transcripts can be generated on the fly. You and teachers can give feedback via text, video, and/or social liking. This is an easy way to document and share great teaching that is happening in one classroom so that other teachers can benefit from viewing it, though they may not be able to physically visit that classroom due to time or distance constraints.

Whether you choose one of these strategies or tools or a combination, you are sure to have a better understanding of what teachers experience in the classroom. That experience will pay off by allowing you to design better supports and structures as you continue to strive for excellence in your role.

Other Ideas for Staying Connected

Have you moved up from the classroom, but have been able to stay connected and “in the know” with what is going on in the classrooms? If so, leave us a comment and share how you have made your experience the exception in order to provide the best service possible for your teachers. We’d love to hear from you!

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Technology Applications

Seven Keyboarding Tutorials to Share

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you a touch typist or do you thumb and one-finger type your way through life? For a year, I learned how to be a two-fingered typist. Then, I took keyboarding in high school and I no longer agonized over every key’s location. When people comment on how I get work done so quickly, a part of me says “Thank you!” to the matron who drilled us in touch typing. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a few keyboarding tutorial programs.

typing tutor

Source: What Makes a Faster Typist? (April, 2018)

Keyboarding Research

Is teaching keyboarding necessary? My own children thumbed their way through many an essay or poem. On Twitter a few days ago, I read a teenager’s poem where he describes the joy of writing on a small screen. Of course, he’s not handwriting on a small screen using Google Handwriting Input app. Using the built-in keyboard to his iPhone, he’s two-thumb typing. Let’s hope he doesn’t get smartphone thumb, a painful inflammation of the thumb tendons.

Poet: J.E. Guhlin (@jguhlin)

Dr. Leigh Zeitz shares a recent roundup of research relevant to keyboarding. A slight paraphrase of his text appears below:

Keyboarding is a life long skill. It has evolved from a transcription typing skill to generative typing. Transcription typing involves typing hand-written content. Generative typing involves composing original thought at the keyboard (Cooper, 1983).

Student writing develops faster through generative typing. It facilitates the review and revision learning process. Efficient keyboarding skills allow students to emphasize concept development instead of key location.

Source: Zeitz, L. (2008). A New Look @ Research-Based Keyboarding Instruction. Chicago, Illinois: Sunburst.

Learning to type with a full-sized keyboard may be passe. Brain chips and other interfaces offer hope. One day, we may shed the keyboard as an input device. Until then, learning to use a keyboard may remain our best option.

Type Faster on Your Mobile Phone

Have you tried one of the various keyboard apps that make typing on a small screen easier? To type faster on a small screen, consider these tips:

  • Use emojis
  • Enable always-on number row
  • Turn on text correction and next word prediction
  • Empower contact name expansion

Find more tips available for Android and/or iOS. Of all the typing tutors reviewed, only Z-Type offers a browser and smartphone-friendly app (more on that below). For now, let’s take a look at some full-sized keyboarding tutors.

Typing Tutorials

Ready to explore a few typing tutorials? Here are a few you may want to introduce to your children and/or students. They range from boring to engaging games.

Tutorial #1: Doorway Text Type

“Doorway Text Type is a touch typing tutor (TTT),” says their website. It “takes learners from the home keys to mastery of the whole keyboard and typing sentences.” It is accessible to visual impaired learners. You can get a CD for offline access.

Tutorial #2: Dance Mat Typing

This site offers four levels to play. Each level is divided into three stages.  The end of each level allows you to test your typing speed. It appears intended for a younger audience.

Sense-Lang’s Meteor Game

Tutorial #3: Sense-Lang

This keyboarder’s dream offers lessons as well as a plethora of games. One of my favorites includes Meteor Game.  You will stumble on that past level sixteen of the keyboarding lessons.

Tutorial #4: Peter’s Online Typing Course

Peter’s Online Typing Course is just that, a rich assortment of lessons. It has several distinct web pages displayed in a table of contents. Each leads you to a lesson that you read and then practice on.

typing tutor

Z-Type

Tutorial #5: Z-Type

My favorite typing tutor, Z-Type turns you into a starfighter pilot. You zap letters and words as they fall towards you (compare to the author’s XType 2012). It reminds me of my old Apple //e typing game. If this is too tame for you, older learners may appreciate the Typing Game of the Dead. This is in Adobe Flash and has you slay the zombie horde one-at-a-time with a quick-typed word. The use of weapons, while not approved for school, is tame compared to Fortnite, and other FPS games.

Z-Type is available via Google Play store and iOS App store, making it ideal for thumb-typing practice.

typing tutor

Typing Lessons’ TypeLift

Tutorial #6: TypeLift

This browser-based solution offers “a free touch typing courseware.” Get started via their website. Sporting a clean keyboard look and the use of lorem ipsum text, you will soon find yourself “turning off” your reading for comprehension, letting your eyes and hands take over as they type information on the screen. All the best typing tutors will move you into the zone at the higher levels.

Tutorial #7: TypingClub

TypingClub is a free web-based site. They have made a promise to always remain free for both individuals and schools. You can keep practicing your typing skills until you get five stars.

Thanks for joining me on this quick exploration of seven keyboarding tutors you can share with K-12 students or adult learners. Each has something to offer to a particular audience, whether its striving for perfection or avoiding certain death. What’s your preference? While you are pondering that, you may want to check out Timothy Cayer’s list of best keyboarding sites.

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Google Forms
Google Tips and Tricks

Five Hacks for Google Forms

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Do you use Google Forms? Every educator I know relies on Google Forms in some way for projects or assignments. You can see a list of handy ideas about using Google Forms in the classroom online. At the TCEA Campus Technology Specialist Academy, Dr. Bruce Ellis amazed participants as he shared several “game-changer” add-ons for Google Forms. In this blog entry, let’s take a look at five Google Forms hacks you may find useful. These may make your Forms experience more impactful.

Note: Follow @DrBruceEllis for more great tips on using G Suite for Education tools. Be sure to check out the TCEA TechNotes blog as well.

You may know how to create forms. The process can be as simple as going to Google Forms website. Once there, you can use existing templates or make your own.

If you go to the Template Gallery, you can add your own templates for others in your organization to find and use. Still need to find examples of Forms? Consider the pro tip below:

Pro Tip: Use the Google search engine to help you find Forms. You can enter your search terms AND site:https://docs.google.com/forms

A search would look like this:

checklist site:https://docs.google.com/forms

Did you know that you can do so much more with Google Forms? Let’s explore these five hacks.

Hack #1 – Creating Pre-Filled Forms

Having a pre-filled form can make a big difference for folks who must fill out a form quickly. Pre-filled forms assist in increasing the completion rate of a form. Ready to give it a try? Follow these steps:

  1. Create a one-question form.
  2. Click the gear icon. Select Get pre-filled link option.
  3. Fill in and complete as needed.
  4. Click the Get Link button.

You now will have a pre-filled form that respondents can finish off in a quick manner.

Hack #2 – Adding Add-Ons

What makes G Suites tools so excellent is how many add-ons are available. You can find a list of some of my favorite add-ons in this blog entry, Five Hacks for Google Sheets. Add-ons are easy to incorporate into Google Sheets. What some are unaware of is that Google Forms has add-ons as well. To access them, click on the jigsaw puzzle piece in the top right-hand corner of your Google Form screen, as shown.

hacks forms

You can access more add-ons, too. Click on the “skinny snowman,” that column of three dots between the SEND button and your profile picture. You will see the MORE ADD-ONS option in the menu that appears.

As you can see, there are several available. Let’s take a look at a few.

Hack #3 – Certify’em

Wish you could create online certifications and email custom certificates to students and staff who finish an exam? Then the Certify’em add-on is for you.  Certify’em describes itself in this way:

Do you need to test and track knowledge or proficiency with employees, team members, students, or customers? Do you need to provide proof of certification for people in your school, club, sports team, store, or office? Now there’s a simple and easy way! Don’t be uncertain about peoples’ knowledge… instead, Certify’em!

Here’s what Certify’em comes with, all for free:

  • Professionally-designed certificate templates
  • Ability to create your own using Google Slides
  • Ability to issue participants their own personalized copy as a PDF email attachment
  • Each certificate comes with a unique serial number
  • Tracking spreadsheet that Certify’em creates and maintains for you

Give it a try.

Hack #4 – Advanced Summary

Have you heard of Awesome Table add-on? It makes it easy to display the content of a Google Sheet. Working with records in a Google Sheet can be cumbersome. Instead, Awesome Table transforms your Sheet of columns and rows into various views. View types include simple tables, directories, Gantt chart views, Google maps, card views, and more. It even comes with a template gallery to get you started.

forms

 

 

 

 

But, wait. I bet you’re wondering where Advanced Summary hack comes into play. Advanced Summary, a complementary add-on, takes advantage of Awesome Table.

Advanced Summary “generates charts and filters based on a Google Form responses.” It makes it possible to isolate and analyze any subset of data collected via Forms. You can then show charts of that data subset.

Hack #5 – Form Approvals

“A workflow signifies a series of tasks that, when completed in a certain order, achieves a specific outcome,” says Tina Eaton. She asserts that “disjointed forms…prove to be the inefficient, expensive, and time-draining.” You can create a workflow using the Google Forms add-on, Form Approvals. With Form Approvals, you can do the following:

  • Set sequential or parallel approvals
  • Add static or dynamic approvers
  • Set routing conditions using logic
  • Set up one-click approvals from email
  • Approve and track requests on the go (online) or mobile with responsive web design

The pricing chart highlights available features:

forms

As of December 1, 2018, Form Approvals will cost money. That said, organizations may find this a less expensive solution than other commercial ones on the market. Looking for education pricing? Note this response in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of their website: “The majority of our users are from education and non-profit organisations. With this in mind, we have priced the application as low as we possibly can.”

Bonus Hack: Digital Badges

“Wouldn’t it be neat if we could offer digital badges to workshop and webinar participants?” I asked a colleague not too long ago. G Suites add-ons to popular tools like Forms and Sheets make that possible for small organizations. For example, Digital Badges add-on relies on images in your Google Drive so that you can then assign the badges to students.

Did You Know?

Open Badges is a standard for digital credentials originally developed by Mozilla and now embraced by IMS Global. It’s now a popular and widely-adopted standard used by many organisations involved in skills, education and training. Learn more.

Another add-on, Open Badges, makes it easy to use Google Form submissions. These submissions turn into digital badges. Wondering how it works? A student fills out a form. The form is submitted when a task is done. The Openbadges.me uses the data submitted and matches it against the badge’s criteria. If the submission meets the criteria, then the submitter receives the badge.

Five Hacks for Google Forms

Adopt these hacks to step up your work with Google Forms. You will be able to get more done and collaborate with others in new ways.

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woman with oculus rift virtual reality mask on face and controls in hands
Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Your Must-Have Microsoft Gadgets and Apps for the Holidays

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you making a list and checking it twice? As you prepare your list for Santa Claus, give some thought to these Microsoft gadgets. Here are three Microsoft tools that are definitely on my list. Since it’s the season of giving, I’m following those up with three of my favorite apps. Here’s wishing you happy tech-ing!

Gadget #1 – Microsoft Surface Go Tablet

The Surface Go is portable and compact. It makes on-the-go work simple. Featuring Windows 10 enhanced performance, it’s ultra portable and convenient. What’s more, the LTE version is now shipping, making access in a non-WiFi area possible. While the WiFi version may provide what you need in K-12 setting, the LTE version offers more. You won’t get stuck trying to access critical work files when the WiFi in your building fails. Parents, students, and staff are eligible for special pricing.

You can get the 64GB/Intel 4415Y / 4GB RAM/WiFi version for $359.10. Compare that to the 128GB model with 8GB RAM WiFi for $494.10. The LTE model of the 128GB model with 8GB RAM is $611.10. For each of these models, you will need to pay extra for the Surface Go Signature Type Cover and Surface Pen.

Order now.

Gadget #2 – Oculus Rift + Touch

Ready to immerse yourself in virtual reality? Give the Oculus Rift plus Touch ($399) a try. (Just make sure to check your computer’s compatibility first). You get a headset, controllers, and six free games with this device. The games include Robo Recall, Lucky’s Tale, Quill, Medium, Dead and Buried, and Toybox. Here are some of the claims about the VR immersion experience from the Rift website.

  • The headset is light, adaptable, and comfortable. When you‘re in VR, the headset goes away, and you go somewhere incredible.
  • Touch brings the magic of hand presence to life in VR.
  • Rift users enjoy integrated audio. This design takes VR immersion deeper than ever.

Gift Oculus Rift + Touch and embark on a virtual journey of discovery.

Gadget #3 – Razer Blade Gaming Laptop

Need a gaming laptop and productivity workhorse? Sending a child off to college in the fall of 2019? Check out the Razer Blade – 15.6″ Full HD GTX 1060 Max-Q Gaming Laptop (256GB SSD). Boasting a 256GB solid state drive, the Razer Blade comes with 16GB of memory. You can save 20 percent on HyperX gaming accessories when buying this laptop. The laptop is eligible for discounted pricing for students and military personnel. The cost is about $1,709.10.

The 8th Generation Intel Core processors deliver power and responsiveness. Make photo and video edits with ease. Switch between programs and windows quicker than ever. Consider getting a few games to go with it.

Change someone’s life with the Razer Blade Gaming Laptop.

Now that you’ve seen my top three gadgets, here are a few of my favorite apps you may like for your Android or iOS device.

App #1 – Microsoft Launcher

Curious about Microsoft Launcher? It’s an app for your Android phone. You can rely on it to open items from your Windows PC. Items you can open include calendar, documents, and recent activities.

One of its best features is that it continues on your PC. Let’s say you take a picture on your phone. Want to move that picture to your computer? Launcher makes it easy. Working on an Office 365 document? Keep editing on your device of choice with Launcher.

Put Microsoft Launcher to work for you. Note that this link will not work unless you are using a personal Google account. This is because it connects to the Android Google Play Store. This free app is Android only.

App #2 – Friendly

Managing many social media profiles? Want to block fake news stories via keywords? Give Friendly for Facebook a try. I switched to Friendly as my go-to app on-the-go for Facebook, Twitter, and Medium. It allows me more control over several Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The keyword filtering feature lets you hide posts and articles containing certain words. Any posts that have those keywords will not appear. You can choose to seek out posts with keywords. This makes it easy to highlight topics (e.g. micro-bits, TCEA, cats, OneNote) you do want to see more of.

Start with Friendly for Facebook. This app works on Android or iOS. This app has in-app purchases, but they won’t set you back much.

App #3 – Xodo

Need a quick way to view or sign PDF files on the go? Xodo’s handy app (Android or iOS) makes it a cinch. Use the app to edit, annotate, sign, and share PDFs. Rely on the Xodo web app, too. It makes merging many PDFs, from either your computer or Google Drive, easy. You can insert, delete, reorder, and rotate pages in a PDF document.

Manage your PDFs with Xodo.

Gift Yourself Microsoft Gadgets and Apps

I hope you enjoyed the chance to see some of the gadgets Santa Claus may drop under your tree this holiday season. And don’t forget to play around with the apps to see what might work well for you. Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear what’s on your Microsoft wishlist this year!

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Good TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

Six Google Strategies to Challenge Students

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Facing a difficult challenge? You want/need to spur students to self-assess to achieve greater learning? In this blog entry, you will learn six exciting strategies based on G Suites tools that can help to motivate us to accomplish more. You can also visit Peggy Reimers’ companion website  to see examples in action.

 

1- Ease Self-Assessments with Self-Grading Quizzes

Students with opportunities to self-assess believe they impact their own learning. Students will attribute their success to their own learning, effort, and study. Per research, this means several things. One, students “develop internal attributions, a feeling of empowerment.” Two, they develop “a sense of autonomy” (source). These are the same feelings that empower adult learners. Several ways exist to encourage students to self-assess and reflect. One is to provide them with tools. Another involves having them create their own tools.

With G Suites, have students create self-graded quizzes for themselves and others. Each collaborative group of students can create a quiz. This quiz can be about a jigsawed piece of content. These quizzes they create are helpful in and of themselves in that they can be used as an exit ticket for other groups. Empower students in various groups to prepare and complete quizzes. Set up a class leaderboard to capture success.

Wait, can’t I go low-tech, too?

Don’t want to use G Suites tools for everything? Waco ISD’s Assistant Director of Technology, Lisa Monthie, shared these low-tech strategies: 3-2-1 Summary, Careless Clueless via Lead4ward, QR Codes MatchUp,  Stars and Steps Chart, and Twitter Ticket.

2- Create Study eBooks

How can student show they’ve learned something? It could be a way that has them synthesize data and information. Their proof might include finding new ways to apply that learning. Another involves facilitating reflection on how they have grown. How do you achieve these? A fellow edublogger has a specific suggestion to address these challenges.

In her Cult of Pedagogy blog entry, Jennifer Gonzalez suggests a student-made ebook. “Have students create their own…e-books, packing up some aspect of their learning,” she says. These will result in a “finished digital product they can enjoy and share for years.”

“It is not the reader of a text who learns the most,” says Stephen Knudsen, “but rather the author. When a student makes a textbook in a course, the student engages daily in all classifications of learning. When students make a textbook, they must remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. The results of this process are often nothing short of astonishing!” Read this TCEA blog entry on creating a digital textbook.

Students have access to a wide variety of copyright-friendly media. You can broaden student awareness of these with multimedia text sets (MMTSs). These present a wide variety of specific resources around a focused topic. Students can work through an MMTS or choice board to gain a deeper knowledge of what works.

Top image search sites, from Pexels and Pixabay to UnSplash rely on Creative Commons to share. These shared images provide the raw, albeit distinctive, graphics students can use. You can use Google Docs with its built-in ePub export tool or Google Slides. The latter features inserting an image via Google’s built-in search. Students can storyboard/outline and then create. Afterwards, they can share their ebooks. You can embed your students’ G Suite files (i.e. Docs/Slides) into a new Google Sites location. Push students to create their own digital textbooks or capture learning for a unit of study.

Creating ebooks has never been easier with the addition of new tools. If you haven’t kept up to date, you’ll want to read this blog entry. It demystifies key elements. Those include locating ebooks, ebook formats, converting eBooks, and creating ebooks. I also share more sources of copyright-safe media. Read the blog entry.

Need some more copyright-safe media? Check out this short list of image, audio, and video content locations.

3- Infographics Made Simple

Google Slides and Drawings make it easy for students to work with a blank canvas. They are able to add text, shapes, lines, cropped/masked images, and more. As they complete these, they can create a digital gallery of infographics. Easel.y has an introductory blog entry on using infographics in the classroom. They suggest that infographics enjoy a high level of effectiveness. Here’s why:

  • Students work to organize information in logical ways.
  • It empowers students to display their content knowledge in various ways.
  • It develops and strengthens critical thinking skills.

An infographic gallery can serve as a repository for public service announcements (PSAs). Each PSA can challenge conventional thought and encourage civic responsibility. Organize your PSAs in Google Photos. Read more about this approach in my Infographics Made Simple blog series. Be sure to check out the companion website.

4- Make Interactive Posters

Use Google Slides/Drawings with Thinglink to create interactive posters on current events. In Google Slides/Drawing, students can create a digital poster or infographic. Then, using Thinglink’s hidden icons, students can create a challenge for poster viewers.

You could present a challenge to students that involves finding a revealing fact or insightful idea. Using hidden icons, or hyperlinks embedded in Google Slides/Drawings objects, offer more. The “more” could be a link to contradictory or less than common perspective.

5- Craft Animated GIFs

Did you know that the most engaging animated GIFs contain faces and motion energy? The more a GIF’s images enjoy uniformity, resolution, and consistent frame rate, the more engaging they are. Animated GIFs are “more engaging than text, photos, and videos” according to research. This make creating them a priority for students and educators who want to engage others.

Have students create animated GIFs conveying critical facts. An alternate approach may have them suggest points of view that have changed over time. One challenge you can use involves G Suites version history. Read more about it in this blog entry, Making Animated GIFs with Google Drawings.

6- Photo Comics

Do your students see a real-life problem in the community? Have them trace its history and develop a comic slide show. Students can take pictures of each other in character to capture the issue. One approach might be to find past issues in the community or of historical interest. Then, have students take pictures of students impersonating a stakeholder role. Students would appear in costume.

After students take photos, they add speech bubbles in Google Drawings or Slides. You can share the photo slideshow as is or create a screencast and then share it as a video via YouTube or Google Drive. Challenge students to capture the past perspective from historical information.

Six Google Strategies to Challenge Students

These are only six of the many ways you can use Google to challenge student thinking. Push for inquiry-based projects that put students in the driver’s seat for creativity. They won’t disappoint you.

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closed captions
Google Tips and Tricks

Closed Captions in Google Slides

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

*Updated 12/2/19

Last month, Google rolled out automated closed captions for Google Slides. Thanks to this exciting update, now when you present with Google Slides, you can turn on automatic captions to display your words in real time at the bottom of the screen.

The Advantages of Closed Captions

“Closed captioning in Slides can help audience members … who are deaf or hard of hearing, but it can also be useful for audience members without hearing loss who are listening in noisy auditoriums or rooms with poor sound settings,” G Suite Accessibility Software Engineers Laura D’Aquila and Abigail Klein wrote in a blog post about the update. “Closed captioning can also be a benefit when the presenter is speaking a non-native language or is not projecting their voice.”

Closed captioning can also be a game-changer for educators in the classroom. Closed captioning can help meet different students’ learning styles. It will also support your students who are second language learners. And of course, always providing access for students with disabilities is a must. Therefore, check out the steps below in order to use closed captions with your Slide presentations.

Steps for Using Closed Captions

Below are the steps for using closed captions with Google Slides:

Step 1: Set up your microphone

  • Your microphone needs to be on and working in order to use captions with Google Slides.

Step 2: Present with captions

  • Open your presentation in Google Slides. You must be using the Chrome browser on a Mac or PC.
  • To start presenting, click Present.
  • Click CC to turn on captions. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + C in Windows or Chrome OS, or the Command key + Shift + C if you’re using a Mac.
  • Begin speaking. As you speak, captions will appear at the bottom of the screen. Note that captions don’t include punctuation and are not stored.
  • To turn off captions, click CC.

The captions are powered by machine learning. They are heavily influenced by the speaker’s accent, voice modulation, and intonation. Currently, Google Slides close captioning only supports English. However, Google hopes to expand the feature to be available in other languages soon.

Tips for Using Captions

Before you begin using closed captions, you might want to let your audience know beforehand. Google recommends asking your audience for their preference before enabling captions. Some people find them more distracting than helpful. It’s also worth noting that captions and your microphone automatically turn off if there’s no activity on your computer for 30 minutes.

Put simply, closed captions has many benefits for everyone. When presentations are accessible to learners of all abilities and learning styles, everybody wins. Give it try!

Update

In October of 2019, Google added the ability for users to personalize caption text size and position while presenting in Google Slides. These features can help make captions easier to read, like ensuring all audience members can view captions in a large room. Or, you could make your text smaller to maximize the number of words on screen at once.

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creative writing
English Language ArtsWriting

Unlock Your Students’ Stories with Tools to Support Creative Writing

by Susan Meyer
written by Susan Meyer

Creative writing is the makerspace of the mind. A truly open assignment where students are free to follow whatever crazy directions their stories takes them? This is a priceless avenue for invention.

Right now, we’re nearing the end of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). This is a 30-day period when writers around the world write like the wind. The goal is to produce a 50,000-word novel during the month. This writer has personally started and failed the challenge three times. But luckily, I never consider the undertaking truly a failure. After all, even if you don’t hit a certain number of words, there are always things to be gained from writing stories. Writing builds confidence, encourages creativity and self-expression, boosts the imagination and problem-solving skills, and helps you learn to clarify your thoughts.

I want to share some tools to get your students writing down their craziest, most outlandish, off-the-wall stories. Here are some ideas to get started.

Spark Inspiration

Writer’s block. Sometimes the most difficult task is overcoming the blank page. Here are some tools to help your students answer the question: What should I write about?

Thanks to the collective hive mind of the internet, there’s no shortage of writing prompt generators. These provide free plots ideas to start a narrative. This site lets you choose your genre and what type of ending the story will have. And this one from Scholastic lets you choose your grade level for age-appropriate writing projects. This Google Doc option doesn’t create full plots but instead offers imaginative phrases to get those wheels turning.

For your more visual writers, check out this Emoji Writing Prompt Generator. A few randomly-selected icons might spur your students to write the next great American novel.

Finally, if you don’t want a whole plot mapped out for you, there’s this fun generator that creates the first line of a story for you. This could be a fun classtime writing activity if you assign all students to write using the same first line and discover all the different directions their stories can go!

Write Online

Once they have their idea, the next challenge is putting pen to paper. Or, times being what they are, fingers to keyboard. Typing out a story has some distinct advantages. You can easily share it with others for collaboration. It’s often faster than writing by hand. And you don’t have to worry about your only copy blowing away or getting thrown in the fireplace or some other very literary scenario. Here are a few places students can start their next writing project:

Of course, it would be impossible not to include Google Docs. This tool makes word processing in the cloud simple. Changes are automatically saved and your students can also easily share their work with you or other students for comments.

Draft is another free tool designed for online word processing. It has some unique features that make it great for young writers. It provides a word count at the bottom of the screen and lets them know how many words they are writing per day. It also allows them to make “to do” notes in their stories so they can easily come back to things they want to elaborate on more.

Of course, there are also some downsides to writing on a computer instead of in a notebook. Namely: distractions. Calmly is a writing tool that tries to keep the writing process distraction-free. When you start typing, all of the distracting menu options disappear, so you have a blank canvas to work on.

Refine the Work

One of the fun things about creative writing is you can let all the ideas flow freely and not worry about editing. Those NaNoWriMo winners who get to 50,000 words certainly don’t end up with a completely polished, ready-to-publish piece in 30 days. While the goal of encouraging creative writing might not require polishing, you can still provide some tools if your students are happy with their story and want to take it to the editing phase.

Grammarly is a free proofreading extension you can add to your web browser. It will correct typos and grammatical errors in everything from your emails and social media posts to your creative stories and poems.

Hemingway App is a way for writers to improve the readability of their work. It highlights sentences that are hard to read and offers suggestions for fixing them. Depending on their personal style, your budding writers may or may not find this useful. If they enjoy figurative flourishes and are more of a William Faulker than an Ernest Hemmingway, this might not be the tool for them.

Go Forth and Create

In the same way that students can find value in makerspaces by creating things without strict parameters, so too is there great value in free writing. Allowing students to use their imaginations to whip up whole worlds from thin air is powerful. Do you have any favorite writing tools? Please share them in the comments below!

 

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soldering iron on a circuit on a board
RoboticsSTEM/STEAM

Engaging Strategies for Physical Computing

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“I enjoyed the hands-on and engaging session,” said one workshop participant. “It was awesome,” said another. The session was Physical Computing and Computational Thinking. How can we make connections between teacher as facilitator and computational thinking? Let’s explore key design principles aligned to the ISTE Standards for Educators.

Did You Know?

You can get ISTE Certified via the TCEA’s ISTE Certification program. This digital credential recognizes educators who understand how to use edtech for learning in meaningful and transformative ways. Learn more about that opportunity here.

ISTE Standards for Educators: Facilitator

Though there are seven ISTE standards for Educators, the Facilitator one stands out. It stands out because it shifts our focus from the teacher to student empowerment. In the Facilitator standard, educators ease learning with technology. They do this to to support achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students. Several ways they make this happen include:

  • Fostering a culture where students take ownership. Students own their learning goals and outcomes, as individuals or as part of a group.
  • Managing the use of technology and student learning strategies. This happens with digital platforms, virtual environments, hands-on makerspaces, or in the field.
  • Creating learning opportunities that challenge students. Two ways to assure this include design process and computational thinking. The purpose of using these two approaches is to scaffold innovation and problem solving.
  • Modeling and nurturing creativity and creative expression. This is to make communicating ideas, knowledge, or connections more effective.

Let’s take a look at the first three points (fostering, managing, and creating). We can look at these via the lens of Physical Computing.

Physical Computing

Not familiar with the term “physical computing?” Wikipedia defines it as “building interactive physical systems.” You make this happen through the use of software and hardware that have senses and respond to an analog world.  Handmade art, design, or Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects use sensors and microcontrollers. These devices translate analog inputs to a software system and/or control devices.

A host of small micro-devices are available in classrooms. From the Ozobot to Adafruit’s Circuit Playground Express to Micro:bit, they are legion. Even more of these small devices comprise the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT may reach 50 billion devices in 2020. Learning to code, control, design, and deploy is thus all the more important.

Strategy #1 – Fostering a Culture of Ownership

For students, owning an idea can mean having access to resources to make. In maker-rich environments, students identify a problem or innovation they want to pursue. They may solve an existing problem or develop a new way of getting something done. A culture of ownership moves beyond providing resources. It involves making an emotional connection that engages students in a problem. One way, aside from humor and personal stories, involves activating students’ imagination. This can involve students imagining a scene from a text or visualizing a historical scene. It can also involve taking an imaginary journey or teaching with controversy. You can learn more about using emotion to increase engagement and student ownership.

Make the Physical Computing Connection

If you want to foster a culture of ownership with physical computing, then try the micro:bit Global Challenge. Their challenge asks students, “Can you help solve a problem in your community using the BBC micro:bit?” They include cross-curricular resources such as lesson plans, classroom presentations, and student worksheets. See their teacher resources online.

Strategy #2 – Managing Technology and Learning Strategies

In this strategy, teachers assist in the selection and use of digital platforms. This can range from learning management systems to social media tools. In many situations, students and teachers may not have a say over what digital platforms they can use. The district or school governing authority may have said, “Microsoft Teams must be the one” or Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, and host of other LMSs. As educators, we must speak up and choose the LMS that least restricts student learning. LMSs in the past have shut the virtual classroom door. Today, LMSs are often working to serve as a gateway to learning beyond the confines of a classroom.

Make the Physical Computing Connection

Want to use a digital platform to engage and connect with others outside the classroom? Create a hashtag for Instagram and Twitter. Use your class Instagram account to share images of a problem in your community. Invite others to devise a solution for it. One example may be to create a night sensor for areas that are not well-lit at dark. Learn more about this idea.

Strategy #3 – Create Challenging Learning Opportunities

Creating challenging learning opportunities for students can involve design thinking and computational thinking. Both approaches expect students to break down complex steps into simpler algorithms. Computational thinking is a way of solving problems. This thinking has four elements which include decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm design. Watch this video. Computational thinking does not mean you must be a computer science whiz.

The four elements of computational thinking appear below (Source):

  • Decomposition: Breaking down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts
  • Pattern Recognition: Observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data
  • Abstraction: Identifying the general principles that generate these patterns
  • Algorithm Design: Developing step-by-step instructions for solving this and similar problems

The goal is to make these elements student accessible.

Make the Physical Computing Connection

Students can learn to use diagrams to express a solution. This involves abstraction, or identifying general principles that generate recognizable patterns. Students make up rules that reflect an observed pattern. The Rock-Paper-Scissors activity with the micro:bit is one way students learn that. Students use “on shake” to create a reaction (e.g. rock, paper, scissors). Over time, students may notice a pattern. These patterns for playing the game (e.g. scissors, paper or rock) are observable. Students program the micro:bit so it can understand the game’s logic. Students learn to figure out the game in a way they can code into a computer (Source).

Want to Try Physical Computing?

Want to give physical computing and computational thinking a try? Contact TCEA for a face-to-face workshop. Don’t take my word for how much fun learning can be. Listen to Julie, and  Ethel, workshop participants, share.

References

Feature image. Available online

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