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Google Tips and TricksTechnical Support

Grow with Google: Students as Technology Support

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Do you know what an unrealized dream is for many technology directors? It’s how to convert passive students into campus technology leaders. A few educators have managed it over the years. To do it, they have had to overcome a variety of obstacles. In this blog entry, we’ll explore the idea of students as technology support and take a quick peek at the Grow with Google program, too.

Update 02/13/2019: Since I wrote this in late January, the Google Teacher Tribe Podcast has published an episode featuring the Royce City High School students. Listen to their story online.

The Biggest Obstacle

In my own experience, the biggest obstacle to having students as technology support staff involves shifting old mindsets. For some, allowing students (those irresponsible children!) access to district technologies (like district websites) doesn’t compute. Another belief is that providing technology support may distract students from learning as they support teachers and peers.

Source: @JFTech1 Tweet

Changing adult attitudes, however, have made students as technology support possible. Once you decide that you CAN trust students as to help, big benefits accrue.

Challenges that Student Help Overcomes

In 2011, Burlington Public Schools implemented their 1-to-1 tablet program in. With it, they started one of the first student-run help desk programs. They did this for several reasons, such as to:

  • Provide just-in-time, ongoing support to teachers and students
  • Model integration of the technology into instruction
  • Ease the technical support demand on limited technology staff
  • Create a culture in which students are “partners in pedagogy”
  • Provide a personalized learning experience for students
  • Support authentic, real-world learning experiences

Burleson Public Schools offers a few tips for this and they provide links to their many help desk student blogs.

Google Cloud Offers an Opportunity

Did you know that anyone can now become Google Cloud Certified? This presents many opportunities for student helpers. Chief among them is that schools who want to build up their certification options for students can do so by taking advantage of the free, online Google Cloud training.

In two hours and costing just $75, students can get certified in G Suite. The exam “verifies proficiency in key features of the G Suite platform.” Those features include Drive, Gmail, Hangouts Meet, Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Slides. A helpful outline exists, along with the Applied Digital Skills curriculum. This curriculum describes itself in the following way:

This resume-ready credential demonstrates to employers that you can use G Suite for your job. Get hands-on practice with real-world scenarios through the recommended lessons below.

Anticipating educators’ desire to prepare students for the future, Google has crafted a special program. The program is Grow with Google.

Grow with Google

The program has several components, including to:

These Google offerings suggest that teachers can begin preparing students at an early age when students are eager to learn more.

Not Waiting

Some teachers are not waiting for more offerings. Some, with students as young as sixth grade, are working to scaffold G Suite learning. In some places, students are working as tech support while earning Google Educator Level 1 and Level 2 certifications. Although these certifications are often reserved for educators, they are also a good investment for students given their low-cost ($10 and $25, respectively).  Jennifer Forsberg (@jftech1) shares the following:

This is our 3rd year certifying students in our student help desk.  They have three half day “trainings” and one half day for their test. It’s treated as a field trip and they are responsible for missed work. It’s been a wonderful experience for them and the teachers. We don’t do Level 1, just Level 2.

Learn more about Jennifer’s efforts and the student help desk. Meet some of the student help desk members via this profile page.

Students as Technology Support

Have you enlisted students as technology support in your district or school? Please share how the program started in the comments and perhaps you can inspire other educators and students.

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3d printer
Educational TrendsSTEM/STEAM

10 Reasons to Invest in 3D Printer Technology in Education

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Within a few years, the widespread use of 3D technology will revolutionize the manufacturing process. The ability to replicate objects will soon be as complete as those of the replicators on Star Trek. Set your phasers to stun because using additive technology in the classroom is increasingly important to impress your students. You’ll not only impress the kids, but also prepare them as future entrepreneurs, engineers, and creative designers.

How to Use 3D Tech in the Classroom

Additive technology encourages critical thinking, creativity, and classroom participation at all levels of education. In the Wells Primary School in Essex, England, ICT Coordinator Jane Rolfe commented on their 3D program: “The children were more engaged in solving problems with their designs than I have ever seen them and the realization that there would be a ‘real’ end product made a vast difference to their learning. Maths, computing, D&T [design and technology] overlapped seamlessly during lessons.”

With 3D technology, students can understand abstract problems. They can make mistakes and learn about the consequences. The following 10 ways are just a few examples of the possibilities of 3D in the classroom.

1. Chemistry Lab

Teachers can create chemistry labs with scaled models of atoms, molecules, and chemical compounds. You might remember ball-and-stick models used in high school when you were a student. Today, you and your students can print your own chemical compounds. All you need to do is locate the appropriate chemical compound by posting a four-step instructable to get the structure.

2. Topographical Maps

You can use 3D technology to raise geography to new levels by showing more complete topographical features. Chrissie Mahl, a Virginia educator, used 3D technology to teach students about the unique geographical features of Virginia. She and her students created models of the Blue Ridge Mountains, coastal plains, Piedmont, valleys, and the Appalachian Mountains.

3. Prototypes for Engineering Students

Teachers throughout the world are working hard to integrate STEM into their curricula. 3D printing can facilitate building models to learn about complex engineering and architectural design problems. It’s never too early to begin learning how technology and engineering integrates with math and science. Recent research suggests that American students are poorly prepared. The United States ranked 31st in math and 18th in science out of 35 industrialized countries.

4. Surgical Precision

Instead of dissecting frogs, students can assemble a frog, rabbits, or prehistoric creature from 3D parts that fit precisely. Students can learn about the amazingly complex relationships between muscles, bones, skin, and the circulatory system. It’s easy now to create a human skeleton without sending Igor on a graveyard mission.

5. Replicate Teaching Aids

New learning materials often come with high price tags, and many teachers buy their own supplies when bureaucratic approval becomes difficult to get when opportune teaching moments arrive. These resources can be easily and quickly duplicated with 3D technology at much lower costs.

6. Culinary Education

Cooking class inspires a new generation of chefs and restaurateurs in the age of celebrity chefs. You can inspire your students with the ability to create custom food molds to enhance the ability to create molecular gastronomy delights and signature dishes.

7. Design a Bug

Students can view accurate models of common bugs that are so incredible that nothing else is needed to gain their full attention. However, you can ramp up interest by letting students design their own bugs. Students will learn complex engineering concepts such as how to make the legs move and support the insect body’s weight.

8. Automotive Education

The days of dirty garages and shops often discouraged girls from learning about cars and their components. 3D printing allows teachers to replicate clean parts that are easy to handle in the classroom without taking a field trip to a garage. Students can take the components of a transmission apart and reassemble it. Complex mechanical problems are easy to understand with a hands-on approach that doesn’t always involve grease and oil.

9. Biology Class

If you need demonstration models of internal organs, 3D enables you to produce a heart, lung, kidney, or other organs. You can replicate any specimen or organ to produce as many items as you need with an astonishing degree of detail.

10. Graphic Design

Graphic design is where you can really engage your students because additive technology can bring art and video characters to life. You can model video game heroes and villains, crazy special effects, and characters from fiction. Students can create their own designs to really ramp up the “wow” factor.

Getting Started with 3D Education

Just a few years back, additive technology was an expensive hobby. However, prices are becoming more affordable, and your district can probably afford a 3D printer easily now, even if it’s only for shared use. Also, you can make a 3D printer with your students. There are also many affordable components like stepper motors for the 3D printer, and you can easily buy them online. The most popular size of stepper motors for 3D printers is NEMA 17, and most 3D printers use 1.8 deg/step motors. A few years ago, the price may have been a barrier, but this is no longer true. Printers are fast, reliable, inexpensive, and easy to operate, and there are many 3D printer applications for determined educators. You owe it to your students to prepare them for the paradigm changes that additive technology will bring to business, education, and manufacturing over the next few years.

This is a guest blog by Kuzma Cao. Cao is a stepper motor product engineer, specializing in the motion control industry for more than 10 years. Cao has a good background in technology is keen to provide news, views, and insight into the latest trends in 3D printing and motion across the board including the pioneering home users, the maker community, and industrialists for other motion control system.

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grant funding
Funding

Get Crowd-Sourced Grant Funding with DonorsChoose.org

by Peggy Reimers
written by Peggy Reimers

This summer I presented two sessions at the 2018 Statewide Conference for Education of the Deaf. I am thanking my lucky stars because I stuck around for Ashley Pickens’ session on grant writing. She shared great information on DonorsChoose.org. This educator knows what she is talking about. Check out her credentials:  

  1. Ashley is a Deaf Education Teacher in the Capital Area Regional Day School Program for the Deaf at McNeil High School.
  2. She is a Texas DonorsChoose.org Ambassador and Project Screener. Before every classroom project is posted and publicly searchable on DonorsChoose.org, trained teacher volunteers screen the project. These teacher volunteers verify that the teacher and the project meet the DonorsChoose eligibility requirements and follow up with any questions or concerns.
  3. Ashley’s first project for two Nook ebooks was funded in 2011. Year to date, Ashley has had 53 projects given the go ahead. Check out her DonorsChoose classroom here.

What is DC?

DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit organization that helps public school teachers create classroom project requests and allows donors to pick the projects they want to support at the level they can afford. Charles Best launched Donors Choose.org in 2000.

What can be funded?

There are three categories available for teachers seeking funding through DonorsChoose: professional development, materials, and field trips

Who can apply?

The following personnel working at U.S. public schools AND charter schools may apply for funding:

  • Teachers
  • Librarians
  • Head Start teachers
  • Counselors
  • School nurses
  • Coaches

What do I do to get started?

  1. Create an account (this is the longest part).
  2. Make your teacher page compelling, complete with a photo and blurb about your students.

Five pieces of expert advice

In her session on grant writing, Ashley didn’t just tell me about DonorsChoose, she also offered some valuable advice for making projects more successful which I will share with you, too. Here are Ashley’s top tips.

  1.  Keep the donation request from $100 to $400! Projects less than 400 dollars have a much better chance of getting fulfilled.                  
  2. Think of a clever title for your project.
  3. Don’t sound needy. Don’t beg. Be authentic!
  4. Wait for match offers before submitting your project. For example, a project of $300 can turn quickly into a project that only needs $150. From time to time, companies and foundations that partner with DonorsChoose.org will match individual donations if projects meet certain criteria. A double-your-match impact can be based on a topic or the location of your school. Check out current match offers here to see if your school qualifies for any.
  5. Get your project to rise to the top! It’s all about the website’s algorithm. Your project will rise in the ranks of available projects the more donors you have. Get 10-12 friends to donate a dollar. Donate a few dollars to your own project. This shows you believe in your own project.

Last But Not Least

Colorful thank you.
Image by Prawny from Pixabay

As people donate to your project, make sure you THANK each donor. These people havegiven their hard-earned dollars and have taken the time to search out just the right classroom to fund. Let them know how much you and your students will benefit from their support. 

You can find more great tips on getting your project funded in this blog. Good luck!

Featured Image: Screenshot by author.

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Good TeachingMicrosoft Tips and Tricks

Turbocharge the 5E Model with Microsoft Office 365

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to blend Microsoft’s Office 365 tools into inquiry-based lessons? Give those lessons a kickstart with Office 365 tools. Take your first steps with blended learning. Turbo-charge the 5E Model with Microsoft Office 365. Make learning more engaging!

Turbo-Charge the 5E Model with Microsoft Office 365

Made of five stages, the model can be better seen with specific examples. Let’s explore these below.

1- Engage

Boredom has a dire effect on learning. Bored students perform less well on tests (Source). In one study, over half of students said school is boring. The 5E Lesson seeks to engage students. This ensures they will retain learning. How can you make this happen with Office 365 tools? One way send students on virtual field trips.

Source: Dance of the Lemurs virtual field trip

Use the new Whiteboard app to speak with others at a distance. Students share ideas and images, having a visual conversation. This can happen, no matter their location (Source).

2- Explore

Empower students to curate content. Creating content on their own or in small groups becomes a natural, next step. Using OneNote Class Notebook, students can investigate aspects of a topic. OneNote makes arranging inputs (e.g. image searches, videos, text) child’s play. Learners can expand on concepts. They learn to pursue interests that deepen knowledge. Cognitive conflict forces students to engage in novel ways of thinking. One way to assist this process is to use digital breakouts. Watch this video by Nico Paphitis. It introduces OneNote Escape Rooms. Create a digital breakout using OneNote. This easy entry to escape rooms captures student interest. Students study details, like pieces of a puzzle. They work in teams, escaping school boredom as they learn.

Unsure of how to begin? View this step by step for math. Other examples abound. A few appear below. You may explore Jeanie Ingram’s ($2.00) tutorial guide. Those guides shown below are free.

Be sure to watch Jill R’s four part video series. You will learn how to craft your own OneNote, digital breakouts.

3- Explain

As learning facilitator, share your expertise with pupils. Scaffold student learning with Microsoft Sway. This can help them analyze aspects of an object, situation or event. A T-Chart makes it easy to compare and contrast ideas. You can create T-charts in Microsoft tools (e.g. Powerpoint, Microsoft Word). Available chart ideas and templates appear online. You can encourage students to make infographics. Use these Powerpoint templates to get you started.

4- Elaborate

Enrich a lesson for gifted students. Extend a lesson for students who need more. Students move at their own pace. Our lessons support them no matter their pace. HyperNotes, adapted from Hyperdocs, offer that opportunity. An excerpt from HyperNotes? Use Hyperdocs with MS Office 365: 

Ready to get hyper about Microsoft Onenote HyperNotes. These activities tap into a student’s sense of independence. They capture the fascination with multimedia. Set students up to create content. Sharing it with other learners is a click away.

5- Evaluate

Ready to measure student learning? Have students use Office 365 tools to create visual representations of their ideas. These creations can take many forms. Creations can be Microsoft Excel graphs of data. They may be live data summaries in Microsoft Forms. For example, students can design digital ebooks with Powerpoint and then export them to ePub ebook format. 5e model office 365

Putting It All Together

You may have read of all these approaches in TCEA TechNotes blog entries. Remember, the 5E Model can be combined with Office 365 tools. It’s easy to imagine any one approach as the only one to use. Blend them to create engaging lessons that showcase student learning.

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ChromebooksDigital LiteracyGood TeachingGoogle Tips and TricksiOS Tips and TricksMicrosoft Tips and TricksUncategorized

Lesson Planning: 5E Model + Tech with the ISTE Standards (Part Two)

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In Part One of this 5E Model plus Technology with the ISTE Standards blog, we explored the Engage, Explore, and Explain aspects of a 5E Model lesson plan. For fun, we took a look at blending the 5E Model with technology from the perspective of the Dust Bowl. In this blog entry, we’ll continue our journey through the Dirty Thirties, focusing on the Elaborate and Evaluate aspects of the ISTE Standards.

Get a copy of the Google Slides version of this infographic

ELABORATE

  1. How? Activities that capture the students’ attention, stimulate their thinking, and help them access prior knowledge.
  2. Technology? Some example activities appear below.
    _ Forum (Google Classroom)
    _ Product creation
    _ Virtual field trip
    _ Ask an Expert video chat
  3. What Success Looks like?
    1. Students develop a solution to a real problem that incorporates their knowledge, communicating that in a variety of media formats. Students would rely on a combination of audio/video creation tools to articulate their perspectives and then express those online, soliciting feedback from the community and knowledgeable parties.
    2. Students could rely on VOIP tools like Skype, Google Hangout Meet, or Appear.in to connect with other teams of students exploring the Dust Bowl in other classrooms around the district or globe as appropriate.
    3. After self-selection of a design process such as the Engineering Design Process, use video documentary creation tools and/or virtual world (e.g. Minecraft: Education Edition) to create their representation of the problem faced. Then they would offer solutions from various stakeholder perspectives pertinent to their own group. These would be incorporated into their digital representations/creations.

Did You Know?

TCEA offers teams of educators, as well as individuals, certification in the ISTE National Education Technology Standards (NETS).  ISTE Certification is a new competency-based, vendor-agnostic educator certification based on the ISTE Standards for Educators. This digital credential recognizes educators who understand how to use edtech for learning in meaningful and transformative ways. Find out more.

EVALUATE

  • How? Students, with their teachers, review and assess what they have learned and how they have learned it. Students can be given a summative assessment to demonstrate what they know and can do.
  • Technology? Some example activities aappear below.
    • Video feedback on product
    • OneNote notebook with feedback
  • What Success Looks like?
    • Students create a OneNote notebook (or Google Slides/Sites) with embedded videos reflecting on content.
    • Students’ creations are notated from a perspective of real life usability rather than teacher satisfaction with a transitional student product.

ISTE NETS Considerations

The primary ISTE Standards addressed include the following. How would you extend these?

  • Innovative Designer: Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
  • Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
  • Global Collaborator: Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

Digital Tools

Curious about some of the digital tools available that could be used to facilitate this lesson? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

  • Intended Use: Empower students to  create a digital memory box to better capture resources needed for digital stories expressed as video documentaries or Minecraft virtual creations:
  • Tools:
    • OneNote + Office Lens: These two free apps, which work on a multitude of mobile devices, allow you to store text, audio, images, and embed videos and could easily be used to collect information. The Office Lens app lets you digitize content, snap a picture of paper items or photos, and save them to OneNote, a digital notebook. With OneNote’s built-in digital ink, students can easily fill in the chart and storyboard their digital story. The teacher can take those student creations, combine them with the final products, and publish them on Docs.com as a OneNote Notebook (which is free for everyone and works great on iPads, Chromebooks, Windows/Mac computers, and Android).
    • Google Photos + Google Drive:  With these two apps, you can save photos or videos taken with your device to Google Photos, saving content online.
    • Assorted Image Apps: Collecting images can be straightforward with mobile apps like Camera Awesome (iOS and Android), Camera MX (Android), and Google Camera. Image annotation becomes easy with Annotate (iOS), Photo Editor by Aviary (Android and iOS), SnapSeed (iOS and Android), as well as EyeEm Camera and Photo Filter (iOS and Android). Don’t be afraid to take advantage of green screen apps (DoInk for iOS and Green Screen Pro for Android) to further enhance photos, making your own green screen with a $1.00 Dollar Tree store green plastic tablecover.
  • Intended use: Video Documentaries
    • Tools:
      • Mobile Apps like Shadow Puppet EDU, Adobe Voice, and Storymaker 2, as well as MS Office Powerpoint (Windows/Mac) and iMovie
      • Screencasting tools such as Screencastify or PowerPoint Screen Recorder
      • Google Slides/PowerPoint plus Gifmaker.me to create animated GIFs that can be incorporated into video documentaries
      • Green screen tools
  • Intended use: Virtual World Construction and Digital Architecture
    • Minecraft: Education Edition
    • Office 365 accounts for students and teacher(s)

Final Thoughts

Students have a wide variety of technologies available to them at no cost, as well as others that tap into the Windows laptops, mobile iOS tablets (e.g. iPads), and/or Chromebooks that allow them to interact on both small and large screens. This interaction is collaborative given the nature of built-in collaboration options available to Google Suites for Education, Microsoft OneNote with Class Notebook and Microsoft Teams. Remember to start your engaging 5E Model + Technology lesson with a problem scenario and/or emotional hook. Then set up collaborative activities that facilitate solution development.

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space
Google Tips and TricksScience

To Infinity and Beyond: Taking Your Classroom on a Journey to Space

by Susan Meyer
written by Susan Meyer

I’ve always loved learning about space. I remember as a kid seeing the first photos the Sojourner rover took on Mars. It was surreal to see real images of an alien landscape 33 million miles away. It made learning about the red planet so much more concrete.

We often talk about breaking down classroom walls and creating global experiences. But why limit learning to our little globe? Opportunities abound for students to experience our galaxy right from their classrooms. And they’ve come a long way since the mid-90s. We haven’t just upgraded our rovers and satellites; we’ve improved our ed tech as well. Today’s classroom space exploration has clear videos, opportunities for collaboration, and great resources! And these aren’t only powerful ideas for science class. You can use these across the curriculum.

Here are a few free resources to get students excited about exploring our universe and some ideas for how to use them.

With Google, the Sky Isn’t the Limit

Few people aren’t already on board with Google Earth. Satellite images that allow you to explore the far reaches of our globe with a touch of a button? I’m in. But turn the lens the other way and you get Google Sky , Google Moon, and Google Mars. These programs bring together tons of photos, both modern and historical. Students can search to find specific places or events or browse to see what they can discover. There’s also a Chrome experiment that lets you explore the billions of stars in our galaxy. You can zoom in to see our Sun or zoom way out to see the true enormity of our galaxy.

Lesson Ideas:

  • Ask students to find a constellation and research its background in mythology. They could even write their own story of how the constellation got its origin.
  • Provide news stories on recent NASA research and ask students to locate the stars or celestial bodies mentioned.
  • Have students collaborate in groups to create scavenger hunts for their fellow students. They can do research, write descriptions, and even provide coordinates. Groups can race to see who can solve each other’s scavenger hunt first.

Virtual Field Trips

“Traveling to Pluto” falls squarely into the “not physically possible” category of potential field trips. But as a virtual field trip? There’s no end to what you can do!

  • Here’s one exploring the International Space Station. It’s also available in 3D for a more immersive experience.
  • Take your own journey across Mars with these videos from the Curiosity rover.
  • This simulation lets you journey through the solar system and simulates the orbit of the different planets.

Lesson Ideas:

  • Give students some leeway to explore on their own. Before the trip, ask them to come up with questions they have and list what they know about the place.
  • Have students put together their own virtual field trip of a chosen planet, star, or space object. They can use simple video recording or presentation tools to share their field trip with the class.

Connecting with Astronauts

The life of an astronaut in space is endlessly fascinating. How do they do simple tasks like take a shower or make a bowl of soup in zero gravity? With video technology, these men and women don’t seem so far away. For a real treat, consider applying for a Skype chat with a working astronaut. It’s not a guarantee, but you can find the guidelines to apply with NASA here.

In the meantime, you don’t need an astronaut to come speak to get some of your burning questions answered. There are many videos online where astronauts on the International Space Station talk about what they do and what it’s like living in space.

Lesson Ideas:

  • Crowdsource questions the class has about being an astronaut or space exploration. See if they can find the answers to their questions through online research. They can even make videos from the point of view of astronauts answering the questions.
  • Have students write a story about what they think it would be like to live in space. They can share what they might do on a single day.

Don’t Let Gravity Keep You Down!

Literally, gravity holds us down here on Earth. But with a few online tools and some creativity, your students can soon be floating in space. From the physics of space flight to the history of astronomy and space exploration to the ripe atmosphere for storytelling, exploring space is the perfect way to create memorable, cross-curricular lessons for your students.

 

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Using Google with the 5e Lesson Plan Model
Content AreasGoogle Tips and Tricks

Google-izing the 5E Lesson Model

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

updated 04/26/19

Ready to blend Google Suites for Education tools into inquiry-based lessons? A wide variety of approaches exist, none more popular than the 5E Model. Let’s see how the 5E Model combines with Google Suites for Education to make learning engaging.

Google-izing the 5E Lesson Plan Model

The 5E Lesson Plan model has five components. Those components appear below. With these, you will see specific examples of Google Suites for Education tools.

1- Engage

Boredom in schools has a dire effect on learning. Bored students perform less well on tests (Source). In one research study, over half of students defined their school experience as boring. The 5E Lesson seeks to engage students so that they will retain learning. How can you accomplish this with G Suite tools?

One approach involves creating virtual field trips. Rather than giving students a textbook map, have them make one. Students can use Google Earth to create an interactive journey. You can check out this guide on how to create an interactive stories or maps here.

Another approach may involve having students craft their own infographics. View this social studies infographic that captures the essence of infographics in schools. You can see many more examples of Tony Vincent’s #classygraphics online.

2- Explore

Once you engage students in learning, make time for independent and group exploration of the topic. This allows them to develop and pursue interests grounded in the topic. Explore topics in such a way that students must figure things out without all the details being filled in for them. In PBL, this is known as presenting students with an ill-structured problem.

When using G Suites for Education tools, use Google Sites to create a digital breakout. Why does this approach work? It challenges students to pay close attention to details that lead them to create their own gestalt of the topic. The mind, psychologists say, has “an innate disposition to perceive patterns.” Not sure how to create your own digital breakout with Google tools? See this list of resources.

Another way to use G Suites is to create a digital choice board. Find ample examples here.

3- Explain

Students have had the chance to be engaged. They have explored the topic in detail, so now you can start to share your expertise with them. One way to scaffold student learning has them creating a T-chart to help them examine two aspects of an object, situation, or event. This allows them to compare diverse ideas.

You can create T-charts in Google Slides, Google Docs, or Google Drawings. In addition, Canva has a free online T-Chart maker. All you have to do is choose a template from the layout library and then customize it. Find other chart templates here.

4- Elaborate

Learners may often need to revisit a topic from a different angle. Using differentiation techniques, you can empower students to dig deeper. The purpose of the focused hyperdoc is to allow students to explore a topic from various angles. For example, elaboration may involve enriching or extending a lesson. For other students, revisiting an activity at a slower pace with more teacher support may be needed.

One simple approach involves a focused hyperdoc. You can create a hyperdoc that either extends, enriches, or scaffolds student learning.

5- Evaluate

Ready to assess? Have students use G Suites tools to create visual representations of their ideas. These creations can take many forms, whether Google Sheets graphs of data or something more creative. For example, students can design digital ebooks with Google Slides and then export them to ePub ebook format.

Putting It All Together

You may have read of all these approaches in TCEA TechNotes blog entries. Remember, the 5E Model can be combined with G Suites tools. It’s easy to imagine any one approach as the only one to use. Blend them to create engaging lessons that showcase student learning.

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kindling stem
Microsoft Tips and TricksSTEM/STEAM

Kindling STEM Learning in Your Classroom

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

At Houston Baptist University’s 10th Annual Teaching and Learning Symposium on Saturday, April 14, 2018, the keynote focused on Making Fire: Kindling STEM Learning in Your Classroom. The presentation focused on introducing STEM teaching and learning strategies that work. Allow me to share with you three of the five tips presented. As you read this blog entry, ask yourself which ones of these have you employed successfully in your classroom?

Why STEM?

Educating students in STEM subjects (if taught correctly) prepares students for life. Those subjects teach students how to think critically, how to solve problems. These skills can be used in life. Source: Adapted from Why STEM?

What’s your child learning in middle school? Does it include Python? I wish I had found a way to introduce my daughter to Python. It would have prepared her for the future. If she had learned Python in middle school, she would have had an easier time in college. Neither of us could predict that she would need it as part of her career in digital mapmaking with ArcGIS.  We must encourage all our children to begin with coding.

Tip #1 – Encourage students to engage in solving real-life problems

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) helps students foster team-building and solve real life problems. Ninety-three percent of Generation Z students prefer real life problem solving. A PBL activity presents a real life problem that captures students’ imagination. It engages them emotionally and intellectually. Over time, they learn to see this problem through the eyes of all stakeholders and develop a multi-faceted solution.

STEM Problem Design

Anne Jolly suggests some criteria for selecting STEM problems. Those criteria, quoted below, include:

  • Real: The problem must be real. It must involve an authentic engineering challenge grounded in compelling societal, economic, and environmental issues that affect people’s lives and communities.
  • Relate-able: Students must be able to relate to the problem. This needs to be a significant challenge students care about.
  • Do-Able: The problem should be “doable.” For a STEM project to be successful, students should have access to the resources, knowledge, and skills they need to solve the problem—and the scope of the problem should be manageable.
  • Parallel Problem-Solving: The problem must allow for multiple acceptable approaches and solutions…each team of students might choose a different approach for solving the problem, and several different solutions may work.
  • Divergent Solutions-Oriented Process: Students should use an engineering design process—drawing on science, mathematics, and technology skills and concepts—to solve the problem.
  • Standards Aligned: The problem should align with grade-level standards for science and mathematics.

Examples

Consider these three examples of student robotics projects that caught my eye at the TCEA 2018 State Robotics Competition. Can you identify how each meets the criteria shown above with the information provided in the photo?

Remember, begin with an engaging problem that invites parallel problem-solving. Students will work hard to solve it. They may work even harder if you empower them to develop the problem.

Tip #2 – Promote intercultural learning, real-world opportunities for students

With quick access to various communication technologies, why not provide meaningful, relevant, inter-cultural, real-world opportunities for students?

  • Create a school hashtag to build a global presence and organize activities (#stemeachday)
  • Create a global conversation around student work
  • Enable students to research wonders or problems in their community and post their solutions on YouTube

One successful strategy involves virtual field trips. Curious about how to take your students on virtual field trips? Be sure to review the Skype in the Classroom Getting Started Guide or connect with others using Google Hangouts in Education.

Digital Connections Made Possible

There are many types of connections possible. Explore a few listed below.

As you might imagine, the possibilities are endless for connecting with educators passionate to unite globally, and what a great opportunity for your students.

Tip #3 – Invite young people to become virtual architects

In a previous blog entry, I pointed out how Minecraft: Education Edition can be used as a virtual construction space.  For the folks at Block by Block, this is a real-life exercise in improving common spaces. The work taps into young women from slums who work as design architects and urban planners. Their workspace is Minecraft’s virtual space.

The Block by Block project is the work of UN-Habitat – the United Nations agency for sustainable urban development – together with the makers of the hugely popular world-building computer game Minecraft, Mojang. (Source: Dezeen, 3/7/2017) | Watch the video

Minecraft facilitates communication about re-designing public spaces (see examples). Students go from physical space to virtual to redesigned space. Students are able to work to solve real problems in virtual space. Officials match funding to student-created solutions. Once funded, designs are implemented in physical space. Amazing. Students learn computational thinking as part of their STEM problem solution development.

Ready to Create Fire in Your STEM Classroom?

Get started with do-it-yourself STEM learning in your classroom. Sign up for one of the upcoming learning opportunities at the 2018 TCEA Microsoft Academy or a professional learning opportunity near you.

 

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Good TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

Digital Bulletin Board Smackdown

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Looking for a free, simple assessment tool? Then this digital bulletin board smackdown is for you. First, however, let’s define what a digital bulletin board is. It’s not putting up decorative items on the TV screen in your classroom. It is a way for students to collaborate and learn together by digitally sharing resources, ideas, questions, and final products.

Before we jump into an analysis of some of the various bulletin board tools available, let’s take a moment to revisit why they are so awesome. Here are the two best ways to use them in the classroom:

  • Exit Tickets – Exit tickets can be a great way to set up the next day’s learning by allowing the teacher to discover what students learned (or didn’t learn) today.
  • Quick Write – With quick writes, you can ask students to respond to an open-ended question or prompt, which, if structured correctly, can move them up the level to Bloom’s Taxonomy in their learning.

“What are the best lesson ideas? How can you use [digital bulletin boards] in the elementary classroom and in high school?” asks Lucie Renard in her blog entry featuring thirty creative ways to use digital bulletin boards in your classroom. Let’s explore a few ways digital bulletin boards (DBBs) make learning possible.

Digital Bulletin Boards in Your Classroom

Digital bulletin boards enable anyone to post:

  • Videos
  • Images
  • Text
  • Thumbnails of Google Suites documents
  • Links to other documents

What’s more, these DBBs empower students to:

  • Summarize key concepts using text, video, or audio
  • Collect student work and assignments
  • Develop a graffiti wall
  • Curate a digital collage
  • Make a concept/mind map
  • Gather data about a particular phenomena or event
  • Share takeaways about a field trip
  • Share book talks
  • Analyze book characters

Check out a few more ideas online.

Digital Bulletin Board Tools

While there are a baker’s dozen of digital bulletin board tools available, including whiteboard solutions, a few popular digital bulletin board tools have risen to the top of the heap. Those top-of-the-heap tools include:

Each of these tools was assessed and assigned a score. Read on to see how each of them did.

Criteria for Digital Bulletin Board Selection

Ready to select a digital bulletin board for your classroom project? Here is a breakdown of the top four digital bulletin board criteria according to my preferred list of features. If you have your own preferred features, please add them in the comments section below.

User Management

  • Free
  • Allows user to use another account to login (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter)
  • Allows for multi-user collaboration

Features

  • Easy to add Post it or index card
  • Provides reminders on special days
  • Easy to embed images, video, text, thumbnails of digital documents (e.g. Google Docs, Slides)
  • Has a chat feature to facilitate conversation and collaboration between users (audio/text)
  • QR codes
  • Custom background/wallpaper

Technical

  • Mobile friendly with Android/iOS version
  • Requires Flash
  • Apple Watch compatibility

Digital Bulletin Board Smackdown

Ready to see how digital bulletin board favorites stack up? Let’s take a look at this chart. I encourage you to add your own favorites to the Google Sheets version of this smackdown.

digital bulletin board

Points to Remember

Classroom learning opportunities can be enhanced when students use visual tools like digital bulletin boards. Research suggests that visuals enhance students’ ability to:

  • Organize and process information
  • Practice higher order thinking skills
  • Have their various learning style preferences met

Make the effort to use a digital bulletin board solution in your classroom with your students. It can make a big difference.

 

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adobe mobile
Technology Applications

Create on the Go with Adobe Mobile Apps

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Creating digital media can be challenging. Some of us may not have learned graphic design, analyzed film, or studied art. However, with Adobe mobile apps, you can design and create amazing images, graphics, or videos to use for lessons, presentations, announcements, flyers, social media, and/or classroom websites.

Adobe-Blog-TCEA.png

Click on the image to download a PDF.

Adobe Spark Post

Adobe Spark is my must-have app for creating quick graphics on the go in less than five minutes. In a nutshell, Adobe Spark Post is a fun, fast, and easy way to create stunning graphics for anything you’ll need for the classroom (announcement, signs, flyers, posters, etc.). You’ll get advanced features typically found in pro-level applications in the palm of your hand. Make images/graphics like these that you can use for your classroom.

In addition to you using Spark Post, your students can also benefit from using this app to create content for their projects, essays, presentations, videos, etc.

Adobe Spark Video

Adobe Spark Video offers very robust features built into the mobile app. I like using it to create videos on the fly! In about five to ten minutes (depending on length of video), I can have a finished video ready to share. Turn your stories into narrated videos in just a few minutes like the following:

Putting a video like this together can seem daunting, but Spark Video makes creating one easy with the use of the built-in Story Guides. What’s more, your students can use these guides as story starters.

Story Guides

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  • Promote an Idea – Students can use this guide to create persuasive stories.
  • Tell What Happened – Students can use this guide to share what happened on a field trip or to celebrate classroom success stories.
  • A Hero’s Journey – Students can use this guide to to share how characters in stories overcame challenges.
  • Show and Tell – Students can share their collections, talk about their passions, etc.
  • Personal Growth – Students can share a story about how something impacted them to change their perspective.
  • Teach a Lesson – Students can create videos to help others learn how to code, build a bike ramp, draw, play a game, etc.
  • An Invitation – Students can use this to invite parents to back to school night, promote classroom trips, art shows, etc.

Adobe Clip

One of my creative passions is filming with my mobile device. Being mobile allows me to record video at any time. And when I’m on the go and want to edit a movie, my go-to app is Adobe Clip. You get big-screen results from a jam-packed app! You can record video, mix video clips with static images, edit clips, add title screens, and add sound. Check out this example and this one.

Not sure how to edit a movie? Adobe Clip has a very intuitive interface that is easy to follow. Add images and video clips and Adobe Clip puts them together. You then have the option to either manually customize your video, choose “Freeform,” or have the app do it for you using “Automatic.” Either option will give you plenty of creative control over your final product.

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Have your students use Adobe Clip for other creative projects such as Public Service Announcements (PSAs), short stories, documentaries, or announcements.

Adobe Photoshop Mix

Bring photo editing abilities to your mobile device using Adobe Photoshop Mix. Take a photo using your mobile device within the app, cut out elements from different images, blend layers, and/or add text. Although similar to Adobe Spark Post, Photoshop Mix gives you more control over editing the photos. One of the features I find very useful is the Cut-Out tool.  With it, you can remove backgrounds from images, blend them with solid backgrounds, and add text to create graphics for any use in your classroom.

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These are just a few of over 15 mobile apps Adobe has to offer. I focused on the ones that are applicable to creating digital media for the classroom. Whether you’re creating posters, flyers, book reviews, movies, or commercials, I suggest trying out one of these Adobe mobile apps.

adobe mobileThis is a guest blog entry written by Claudio Zavala, Jr. He currently works as an Instructional Technology Coordinator with Duncanville ISD in Duncanville, Texas.  He is an Adobe Education Leader and an ambassador for Flipgrid, Hoonuit, and Participate. Claudio is passionate about fostering creative thought and applying tools to enrich learning and experiences  in the classroom.  In his spare time, he enjoys blogging (iamclaudius.com), mountain biking, photography, and creating music with his band mates. Reach him on Twitter @ClaudioZavalaJr

 

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