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New TCEA Online Courses to Keep You Learning

by Lori Gracey July 6, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

Whether you will be back in a physical school classroom or will be teaching online in the fall, I think we can all agree that we need to upgrade our daily practice with a variety of teaching resources. And there is no better way to do that than to take advantage of one, two, or many of the online, self-paced courses that TCEA offers.

These “do in your own time at your own speed” courses are focused on real-world application of technologies and their best uses into the classroom. They include the latest research on good teaching strategies and brain learning. With a mix of short video segments and text, the courses also include DIY learning labs to ensure that you have the chance to practice your new skills. They are completed in Canvas and, upon completion, provide 12 hours of CPE credit, a digital badge, and a digital certificate.

About the Courses

Individual courses start at just $29 each and include a complimentary year of TCEA membership (normally $49 by itself). Discounts are also available if a campus or district registers 10 or more people for the same course.

Individual Online Courses

Here are the current offerings to increase your skills.

Chromebook Educator
Google Educator Level 1
Google Educator Level 2
Google Certified Trainer
Google Classroom
Remote Learning Educator Certification (12 hours CPE + 6 hours G/T credit)
Screencasting for Educators
Seesaw Educator

Bundled Courses

Courses that make sense to take in sequence have been bundled for additional cost savings to educators and school districts. The following bundles are available:

Become a Google Teacher – Includes Google Educator Level 1, Google Educator Level 2, and Google Classroom. The bundled price for all three courses is $75 ($65/person for groups of 10 or more from the same campus or district).
Become a Google Trainer – Includes Google Educator Level 1, Google Educator Level 2, and Google Certified Trainer. The bundled price for all three courses is $75 ($65/person for groups of 10 or more from the same campus or district).
Certified Google Educator Level 1 and Level 2 – Includes Google Educator Level 1 and Google Educator Level 2. The bundled price for both courses is $54 ($44/person for groups of 10 or more from the same campus or district).
All Google Courses – Includes Google Educator Level 1, Google Educator Level 2, Google Classroom, and Google Certified Trainer. The bundled price for all four courses is $99 ($88/person for groups of 10 or more from the same campus or district).

Upcoming Online Courses

TCEA is working on a number of additional online learning experiences for you. These include the following with their projected release dates. (Please keep in mind that the release dates are our “best guesses” as to when each course will be ready for participants.)

Canvas Educator – July 13-17, 2020
Bitmoji Classroom – July 15, 2020
Strategies That Work, Part 1: Core Components – July 15, 2020

Other courses, such as Brain-Based Learning Strategies, Social/Emotional Learning, Robotics Certification (EV3), and G Suite EDU 101 are also in development. You can look for all new courses to be posted to this website as they become available. If you have questions about any of the course content, please contact either Miguel Guhlin (mguhlin@tcea.org) or Peggy Reimers (preimers@tcea.org).

What Others Think about the Online Courses

Here are just a few of the many positive comments made about the online courses and how they are helping educators be better teachers and leaders:

“Just wanted to let you know that I logged in…and saw PASS. Thank you so much for the prep! I feel more confident now as I move onto Google Level 2! I appreciate all the work you did, all the videos, and the added websites. All of them truly helped in my passing!”

“I have never used Google Classroom before. This course is very detailed and step by step! It’s wonderful! After this course, I feel like I have the skills to set up my classes and utilize Google Classroom to facilitate learning with quicker response times on grading. Thank you!”

“I found the course to be easily accessible and provided resources as well as scenarios that will help me prepare to obtain Google Certified Trainer status.”

“The TCEA Level 2 Google Educator certification was terrific! The facilitator not only knows the ins and outs of Google’s plethora of products, but he is also engaging and interesting to listen to during the instructional videos.”

Be fully prepared for innovative teaching this fall by enhancing your learning and your instructional strategy tool bag with these courses designed specifically for dedicated educators. We’ll see you online!

July 6, 2020 0 comment

Launching a STEM Academy

by Jonas Greene, Guest Author June 25, 2020

written by Jonas Greene, Guest Author

National trends show the STEM job market is increasing exponentially. Students, however, are not always prepared to pursue those careers. In Lewisville ISD (LISD), our goal is that all of our students enjoy thriving, productive lives, and we want to make sure the programs we create are preparing them for that future.

To help us create programs that provide rich learning opportunities for students, LISD surveyed parents and found that the vast majority wanted to see an increase in STEM programming. These factors led to the district designing and developing its first STEM Academy. The following are a few strategies we have implemented to make our vision for STEM teaching and learning a reality.

Start Early and Support the Transition to a STEM Focus

We began preparing for the opening of the first STEM Academy at Donald Elementary about 18 months in advance, working with campus leaders, teachers, parents, and the community. We wanted to assure our community that our STEM Academy would be built on research and best practices in STEM, so we initiated a partnership with the National Institute for STEM Education (NISE) in 2017. The NISE certification process offers teachers professional learning and best practices in STEM education. It also provides accountability so our community knows that an LISD STEM Academy is not just something we labeled “STEM,” but would be vetted and recognized nationally by an outside organization.

During the 2017-18 school year, 22 teachers at Donald Elementary completed the National Certificate for STEM Teaching (NCST). With the support of a virtual STEM coach, they developed digital portfolios demonstrating their understanding of 15 STEM Teacher Actions across three domains: Creating an Environment for Learning, Building Scientific Understanding, and Engaging Students in Science and Engineering Practices. Additionally, the school completed its requirements for the National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE)–Campus Certificate, developing a digital portfolio demonstrating the application of the 15 STEM Teacher Actions.

The LISD STEM Academy at Donald Elementary earned the NCSE–Campus Certificate in May 2018 and opened its doors to students in fall 2018. Since then, the program’s popularity in the LISD community has led to its expansion to other campuses. The LISD STEM Academy at Polser Elementary and LISD STEM Academy at Valley Ridge Elementary opened for the 2019-20 school year. To date, more than 60 teachers have gone through the certification process. Our district has plans to open additional STEM Academies in the coming years.

Motivate STEM Academy Teachers to Learn by Making It Voluntary

One key to our program’s success is that it is all voluntary. Leaving it up to people to be intrinsically motivated to learn creates more interest than if we had required them to get the certification — and teachers are more interested than we ever imagined.

All of the principals, assistant principals, and instructional coaches at the STEM Academies have also gone through the certification process, and they worked alongside the teachers. It is helpful for them to know what teachers are learning so they can support them in the learning process as well as during implementation.

Create an Integrated STEM Program that Students Experience All Day Long

Our STEM Academies integrate STEM practices into all instructional areas, including language arts, math, science, social studies, physical education, art, and music. They also provide instruction in engineering every day for every student. Since there were no state standards for engineering in the elementary grades, LISD designed its own. In addition, students experience instruction in robotics, computer programming, and career exploration. The instructional hours at a STEM Academy are 25 minutes longer than a typical LISD school day to allow for additional STEM learning experiences.

As part of the integrated STEM curriculum, students learn content through project-based learning. We integrate inquiry-based learning and problem-solving across the content areas. We call our model of instruction “STEM Plus.”

Build a Common Vocabulary

Having a common vocabulary helps us talk about what we mean by STEM in our STEM Academy program. For example, before our launch, there were misconceptions about “integration” being the same as “replacement.” Many teachers thought if they did an engineering task, then they did not have to teach science that day. However, science skills are critical to the engineering tasks students are working on. Integration is not about replacing; it is about making connections from one content area to another. Having this common vocabulary helps ensure that every stakeholder is on the same page.

Make the STEM Academy Replicable

The STEM Academy program, which is an LISD school choice program, has attracted new students, resulting in increased enrollment at the three elementary schools. During the application period for 2019-20, parent information sessions were attended by more than 400 families, and the district received applications for more than 450 students.

Having a streamlined method of professional development and curriculum development has helped expedite the replicability of our STEM Academy program. While each campus has its own personality and culture, the certification process helps us ensure the program offers the same quality and standards at every campus. Our STEM Academies are already seeing positive changes. For example, students are showing more creativity and critical thinking, and they are excited about learning and enjoy going to school. That is our goal — not to improve a test score, but to create engaging learning experiences that help each student develop creative thinking and problem solving skills.

Photos courtesy Lewisville ISD.

June 25, 2020 0 comment

CTO/CIO Leadership

Becoming a Technology Director

by Miguel Guhlin May 27, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you ready to make your next career move? Want to know how you can achieve escape velocity and get into the tech director orbit? Every other week, someone will ask me, “How do I begin my journey to becoming a technology director?” When I left the classroom, my goal was not to become a technology director. Rather, it was to learn what I needed to know. Every time I thought I knew enough, I would find out I did not. Then, I realized that I needed the authority and responsibility to advance teaching, learning and leading with technology. Why couldn’t the current technology director get the job done? Why did students and staff have to wait on time-sensitive solutions? These all motivated me to keep learning.

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

If you are on a similar journey, you may find the following tips useful. After reflecting on my journey, I’d like to share those insights. In this short blog entry, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned. The rest, you may need to discover on your own.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

Planning for Success

You can divide the steps to success in myriad ways. Here are the steps as I see them:

Achieve escape velocity
Prepare well
Distinguish between management and leadership

Let’s take a moment to review what each of these mean.

#1 – Achieve Escape Velocity

Are you familiar with the term, “escape velocity?” It popped into my head one sunny afternoon. A technology applications teacher was sitting in my air-conditioned portable building quizzing me. She asked, “How did you get to where you are?” The question took me back in time. I realized that my journey was completely different than what her’s. That said, it had some similarities. The first is that she would have to achieve escape velocity:

In physics, escape velocity is the least speed needed for an object to escape. Escape from what? Escape from the gravitational influence of a massive body. The escape velocity from Earth is about 11.186 km/s (6.951 mi/s; 40,270 km/h; 25,020 mph) at the surface.

When your boss, your organization thinks they know you so well that you have little more to offer, how do you escape? How do you achieve escape velocity? The truth is, you will have to leave. Instead of claiming the comfort and shelter of a familiar space, you will need to embark on a journey. And, as Bilbo Baggins told Frodo in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings:

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

That’s the truth. If you’re OK with that, then follow these steps:

Be visible at the regional and state level (e.g. TCEA, ISTE, CoSN, TxDLA, ASCD/Texas ASCD, CAST)
Build professional relationships, PLNs, PLCs
Adopt a growth mindset
Be able to discuss state/federal expectations
Develop infinite capacity in these areas:
- people (e.g. Crucial Conversations, job descriptions)
- budget (e.g. district technology, campus tech, proposals)
- technical (e.g. equipment repair, operating systems)
- network (e.g. configuration, WiFi setup, monitoring, cybersecurity, servers and more),
- instructional (e.g. benchmark tools, STEAM, robotics, digital citizenship)

Consider this self-assessment for chief technology officers and staff. How do you measure up?

#2 – Prepare Well

Ready to go to your first interview? Before you say “Yes,” ask yourself about the following:

Is there a roadmap to success that identifies best path, common roadblocks and detours?
Do you have an eportfolio? That is, a digital portfolio that highlights your strengths? That identifies areas of growth? Each illustrated with real life examples from your experience?
Have you aligned your skills, certifications, and experiences to the job announcement expectations? Do you know YOUR stuff?

This can be the challenge. You are going to spend a lot of time preparing for the job. While some people “luck into” the job because of the relationships they have, you will need to know your stuff. And, there is no quicker way to find out what you lack in experience than real-world situations. Get the experience before you start a new job.

Here are the ABCs of preparing well:

A- Build Your PLN

One way to start is to build your professional learning network (PLN). The toughest challenge isn’t keeping up with the technology. Rather, it is understanding how to leverage it for your organization. In the past, we faced limits. Now, learning isn’t restricted to a special event bound by time and place.

Our learning takes us beyond a meeting, or a conference or from 8:00 to 3:30 PM when school is in session. Today, we tap into a flow of conversation, a web-based learning ecology, that we can learn from 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

B- Seek Insight

Leaders often face a blind spot. Ask yourself how much you know about the real story compared to what your current leader does. Chances are, you have some operational details they would love to have but no one wants to tell them. You may want to read First Things First: A Technology Leader’s First Steps blog entry.

When you can’t gain insight, try to learn as much as you can. Refer to Wakelet collection for links to resources.

C- Learn All You Can, Then Practice It

Get free professional learning or low-cost online via YouTube and other sources. Some websites and resources include:

TCEA Certification Courses

TCEA PD Events

SysAdmin Conference – Focus: Technical
Technology Leadership Summit – Focus: Leadership
Google Certified Administrator/Trainer sessions (View Google Certified Admin video series)

Technical Resources

#3 – Management vs Leadership

The questions you start with determine where you end up. For example, you could ask the following:

How do you bring about change in an organization that doesn’t want to change?
How do you start and put in place projects to achieve success?
How do you change policies and procedures, or work around them?

Or, you might ask, “How can I build relationships with everyone to increase the trust factor? How will othes perceive me when I deliver on my word and get things done in a strategic way? How can I have crucial conversations that build mutual purpose and respect?” These are all powerful questions to ask. You may end up answering all.

One of my favorite fables for leadership is Kotter’s Our Iceberg is Melting. Here’s a quick video overview:

Watch video

This is an amazing fable with profound implications. Be sure to read the book.

Here’s a tip. When you have to exert top down authority that your organization has granted you, you’re done. Time to reflect on your mistakes, and begin again elsewhere.

You will need relationship smarts to navigate any number of roadblocks and challenges. If challenges were dances, your dance card would be full up. You must learn to dance with change and love it even when you get stepped on, kicked, or worse.

Some of my favorite topics include:

Identifying Top Tech Priorities for the District
Keeping Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Metrics
Establishing a service level agreement
Formulating a policy that addresses infrastructure and equipment upgrades
Crafting job descriptions for staff
Tracking official documents like Texas ePlan
Developing people’s awareness of the need and setting up a data warehouse
Setting up or maintaining a phone system
Planning for disaster recovery and business continuity
Safeguarding Sensitive Data
Managing social media for schools, district leaders

And this list only scratches the surface. What do you do when principals complain about tardy equipment deliveries? How do you tell the superintendent it’s the warehouse’s fault, not your technicians? It’s all about emotional intelligence, trust, and relationships. Management of complex projects is one thing. Leadership is another.

Ready to start?

Still motivated to pursue a technology director position? Your journey may be only beginning. Keep hold of your tenacity, determination, and lifelong learning ambition. You’ll need them.

May 27, 2020 0 comment

Uncategorized

Remarkable Remote Learning: 3D Design Contest

by Andrew Roush May 20, 2020

written by Andrew Roush

In March, TCEA made the difficult decision to cancel its 2020 State Computer Science and Robotics contests and turn its 3D Design Contest into a virtual event in response to the threats and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those challenges, however, were faced head-on by the students and sponsors at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, New York, and Brazoswood High School near the Gulf Coast of Texas, each team collaborating remotely to put in the educational work required for the contest, all amongst changing schedules and changing lives. While the changes in teaching kept many schools from submitting to the competition, these two teams stayed the course and completed their projects.

“3D design is really great,” says Molloy sponsor Edit Boral. “It integrates so many skills: artistic skills, math and statistics, engineering skills. And this competition was extremely good because we developed team-building skills also.”

The 3D Design Contest

TCEA’s 3D Design Contest is designed to promote STEAM thinking. Teams develop and design an invention to solve a real-world problem, using the Engineering Design Process and 3D modeling software to research, design, and promote a solution.

This year, teams were posed the challenge of the 2019-20 Australian wildfires and charged with “designing something to help meet a need or solve a problem associated with wildfires,” whether a completely new product or an improvement to an existing one.

For this years’ teams, the project began before schools were physically shut down. Molloy sophomore Amir, the team’s leader, describes a daily process of meeting to develop the team’s design. “We would brainstorm, we would review yesterday’s research, and we would split up our work evenly, depending on who needed to do what.”

“We worked to our strengths,” adds ninth-grade student Charles, the lead designer for the Molloy team. “So we all worked to our abilities and made a good team.”

The Solutions

“We went through a couple iterations of the design,” Charles says of their idea to build a robot to fight fires. After considering the potential pitfalls of vehicles shaped like cubes or tanks, they took inspiration from the snowcat all-terrain vehicles used in frigid and harsh environments. Then they went further, considering ways to create an autonomous vehicle to reduce danger to machine operators and firefighters.

Their final creation, the Zeus, has two independent tracks for locomotion, and is designed to clear combustible vegetation, dig firebreaks, and create defensible space, all without an onboard driver.

At Brazoswood, Brad Whitehead’s engineering students dug in with gusto. “The first day, we got together,” Whitehead says, “and we probably brainstormed 40 or 50 ideas.” They picked the top three to investigate further. One was a sensor that could attach to trees and detect favorable fire conditions, with many sensors connecting through a wireless network. They also considered designing improved face masks to protect nearby human populations from smoke inhalation, but found that safety concerns in designing such a product difficult to navigate.

Another idea was a tree house designed to create bird habitats in deforested areas, specifically for the unique fauna of Australia. They followed this path after finding out the the sensor network idea was a real-world proposal.

“There was an existing product that was almost identical to what we were thinking.” Proof of a good idea, perhaps, but Whitehead’s student chose to develop a novel product, the custom birdhouse.

Brazoswood’s Bird Boxes were designed to house seven common Australian bird species. The designs could be downloaded as files for computerized routers or cutters, allowing individuals to make their own with minimal supplies (a single sheet of plywood and zip ties will work) and easy upkeep.

Lessons Learned

But during the contest, the world changed. Schools closed, schedules flipped, and in New York especially, people were getting sick.

“On March 12, when we went home and started distance learning, it was a real shock, being in New York City,” Boral says. Family members and colleagues were sick, even hospitalized. “It was emotionally very hard for us to adjust.”

“It was kind of hard at first,” says Xavier, a member of the Molloy team. “We were used to seeing each other face-to-face in the classroom.” But they found their rhythm, he says. “It wasn’t that bad after awhile.”

Both teams had organized online even before closures, and could keep tracking their work in learning management systems, by email, and even by text message. And soon, they found themselves excited to have a project to focus on.

Finding Focus

“It was a nice escape, for me at least,” Charles says. “If I’m stressed by work or school, or what’s going on, it’s nice to just sit down and focus on one thing for an hour or two.

“In the midst of all these changes, the one stable thing we had was this competition, which we’d been working on for a while” adds Samantha.

Each team dove into the design process, brought to bear their STEAM skills, and completed their doubly challenging tasks. And they learned even more beyond that, as the world continued to change around them.

Things were different for the Brazoswood team, as local precautions and ordinances were different from those in New York, where the virus has hit hardest in the U.S. Still, the contest gave Whitehead’s students a chance to stay connected during a sudden isolation.

Amir says he hadn’t always enjoyed working with other students. “But when it came down to this project,” he says, “I found out that working with other student is quite a pleasant experience. And when they’re your friends, it’s even better.”

“And they did it,” Boral says. “They’re amazing.”

May 20, 2020 1 comment

Educational Trends Good Teaching

Five Resources to Help with Remote Teaching

by Dr. Bruce Ellis May 14, 2020

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Remote teaching has its challenges. Though you may be able to tweak many of your classroom lessons to work in a remote learning situation, you may discover that the learning activities have to be completely rethought.

Here are several resources for ideas and support as you look to make learning for your students meaningful and fun without driving their parents crazy.

TCEA Community – Remote Learning Resources

The Remote Learning Resources group is focused on resources, ideas, and solutions for enhancing student engagement in digital learning. Share best teaching practices, websites, apps, tools, and creative ideas for helping students to learn with technology. Access to this online community does require TCEA membership. Other Community groups include Student Engagement, Ask Your Fellow Techsperts, STEM, and Robotics, as well as others.

COVID-19 Parent/Teacher Learning Resources (SplashCircle)

The Parent/Teacher Learning Resources group is a Facebook group that has lots of ideas and support to help teachers and parents manage the shift to remote learning. You’ll find answers to questions, learning resources lists, daily schedules, interesting links, tips, and updates related to PreK-5 learning.

Educator, Parent, and Caregiver Resources

The Ohio Department of Education has provided a nicely categorized set of Parent and Caregiver Resources to help support engaging students in learning during the school building closure period. A separate but equally organized set of Educator Resources is also provided. Consider exploring both lists for helpful ideas and activities.

Scholastic Learn at Home

Scholastic Learn at Home contains four weeks of activities to help your child with day-to-day activities to foster reading, learning, and growing. Besides the grade-level grouped resources, you will also find a section for families, teachers, and tips and tricks.

Teaching Ideas Group

The Teaching ideas is a closed group on Facebook and averages about 75 posts a day. Even if you don’t post, be sure to look through what others are asking and the resources shared. If you are a “specialty” teacher, then here are some groups that may be a better fit for you: Teaching Theatre thru Remote Learning, K-12 Art Teacher Group, Teaching Choir Remotely, Early Years Remote Learning, and Remote ASL Teaching.

What other resources would you add to this list? Be sure to let us know in the comments below. We look forward to hearing from you.

May 14, 2020 0 comment

Announcements/Important Dates

TCEA: 40 Years Young and Growing

by Lori Gracey May 4, 2020

written by Lori Gracey

It was the 1979–1980 school year, and across the state of Texas, some new technology began appearing by ones and twos in classrooms: personal, desktop computers. Whether they were Commodore 64’s or Apple IIe’s, they were new territory to teachers and leaders who had lots of questions and few answers.

TCEA

There Was a Need

A number of educators were interested in investigating, or already involved in utilizing the new computers that had started to appear on campuses. Several of these educators decided they needed to take some instruction in programming as that was one of the main ways to interact with a computer at that time. So they enrolled in a night course at North Texas State University, taught by Dr. James L. Poirot.

Two of these educators, Vicki Smith and Diana Radspinner, stayed after class one night and initiated the thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way to share ideas and network information among the teachers in the state using or interested in technology?” Dr. Poirot responded that he would be willing to organize a meeting to discuss this if they were willing to do a “little” paperwork. The paperwork soon became an immense undertaking as these two educators from Dallas ISD mailed out fliers to other educators, sketched out a logo (see below), and created an organizational name.

TCEA

On May 3, 1980, an organizational meeting took place and was attended by 135 educators from around the state. Those attending the meeting joined the new Texas Computer Education Association. And that was our beginning. A few months later, on October 4, 1980, TCEA held its first official conference at North Texas State University. A constitution was adopted and the first board of directors was elected. After that, the first newsletter was published and the organization formally exhibited with its first official booth, table, and handouts at the National Education Computing Conference (now known as ISTE) in Denton in the summer of 1981.

TCEA Grew Quickly

TCEA From early Saturday meetings where educators were encouraged to bring their own floppy disks (and disk notchers) and make legal copies of MECC software to use in their classrooms to conferences with sessions like “A Plan for Improving Education through Computer Use” and “The Word Processor and the Teacher” to time learning the new communication system TENET, TCEA quickly became the go-to expert in how to best use technology for learning. Fast forward 40 years and TCEA is still that resource for more than 34,000 educators around the world.

That growth is directly attributable to two groups of individuals. The first group is composed of all of the absolutely amazing leaders we have had over those 40 years. From our founding father, Dr. Jim Poirot, through to the current board of directors, from the SIG leaders to the Champions, dedicated educators have willingly served countless hours to provide extensive planning, professional development, and resources to anyone interested in educational technology. They’ve helped TCEA grow from doing just one professional learning event to an organization that provides more than 200 opportunities to grow in a wide variety of formats each year.

The second group that has helped TCEA grow so much, and without whom we could not even exist, is our members. To those of you who present at our events, to those of you who share our mission and vision, to those of you who answer questions in the Community, we thank you. We appreciate those of you who put on programming contests and train students to take part in robotics events. We thank the CTOs and technology directors who plan and implement technology initiatives. Our thanks go to the network guys and the technicians who keep everything connected and working and to the library media specialists who often act as front-line ed tech experts. We applaud the C&I staff and campus and district leaders who help everyone to integrate technology into learning. And we especially thank all of the front line teachers who use technology make a difference for students every single day. All of you have had a big role in helping TCEA grow and prosper and achieve so much.

Where TCEA Is Headed

While none of us can predict the future with 100% accuracy, I think we all can agree that the importance of technology for learning can only increase. The recent crisis with remote teaching and learning is just one indicator of the need for continued development in the use of technologies today and those coming tomorrow. And TCEA will be right there with all of you as that future comes closer.

Happy Birthday, TCEA!

The first 40 years were unbelievable. I can’t wait to see what the next 40 have in store for us. Tremendous thanks go to each and every one of you who has been a part of our journey thus far. What can’t we accomplish together????

May 4, 2020 0 comment

Educational Trends

Ed Tech News Roundup: Getting Connected

by Andrew Roush May 1, 2020

written by Andrew Roush

Howdy, folks! Welcome to another in a series of periodic ed tech news roundups. We hope you enjoy this one, and if you have a story you’d like to see included, let us know.

Connecting with Students

Among the issues and disparities highlighted by the world’s transition to remote learning, broadband internet access has been a sticking point for schools and districts everywhere.

In Georgia, an education professor and former educator is working to create awareness of the connectivity issues many students face today. [All on Georgia]
Meanwhile, schools in Maine serve as a microcosm of the struggles that teachers, students, and parents face when it comes to access to learning technology. [The Portland Press Herald]

Future-Proofing

A new kind of normal is likely to emerge from this period of remote teaching. What that “normal” looks like is only now being revealed.

Close to 1.4 billion students are taking part in remote learning. Here’s how the World Economic Forum predicts this era might change education for the long run. [World Economic Forum]
At the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, a new course in educational technology is helping educators precisely when it’s needed. [UMass-Lowell]

Helping Hands

As changes to teaching and learning develop, students and educators are offering support in a time of need, from practical innovations to emotional support.

In the Abilene area, robotics students are supporting local health workers through an inventive and impactful project. [Raise Your Hand Texas]
As the transition continues, educators are sharing stories of support for their colleagues, students, and community. [The Washington Post]

…And Finally

Has your school’s tech team been putting in a Herculean effort to keep everyone connected? It’s the same at a Miami school — except their tech team is made up of dedicated students. [CNN]

Photo: Maria Teneva

May 1, 2020 0 comment

Robotics

Unboxing SPIKE Prime

by Peggy Reimers April 23, 2020

written by Peggy Reimers

The fourth generation of LEGO Robotics was released in January 2020. My SPIKE Prime arrived shortly thereafter and, with the shelter in place, I finally have time to unbox the brand new TCEA set. Check out my first impression of the new robot on the block.

The SPIKE Prime Programmable Brick

Programmable brick is named Smart Hub
5×5 light matrix
6 input/output ports
Integrated 6-axis gyro
Speaker
Bluetooth or USB connectivity
Rechargeable battery

The SPIKE Prime Software

Software is available for Windows, Mac OS, iOS and Android tablets, and Chrome OS
Visual coding language based on Scratch
Lessons (Invention Squad, Kickstart a Business, Life Hacks, and Competition Ready)
Getting started tutorials
Building instructions
Help

A table comparing SPIKE Prime to EV3 — Created by author.

LEGO SPIKE Prime numbered cellophane bags. — Numbered Cellophane Packages. Screenshot by author

The Ultimate BEST CHANGE EVER!

Unboxing a set is so easy – just POUR the numbered bags into correct compartments in the top two trays. No more sorting piece by piece! Anybody who has sorted a brand new kit will JUMP FOR JOY at this change.

The Other Best Changes

The sensor and motor cables are flat and you can build around them.
Includes an extra packet of 108 replaceable parts (Wishing for an extra ball and housing among this bag of parts, but there is one in the Expansion Set)
New names for the sensors: touch = force and ultrasonic = distance
The SPIKE Prime Expansion Set has an extra color sensor and large motor.
I have high hopes for the newly designed wheel.
The battery has a flush fit with the Smart Hub.
The Smart Hub has lots of attachment points.
The programming software has the same interface so it does not matter whether you are on an iPad, Chromebook, or a PC/Mac computer.

Features I Miss from the EV3

The cardboard insert for the bottom of the storage bin. (I made my own.)
No plastic storage for expansion set
The bazookas are gray, not the EV3 shade of red.
The connector pegs are the tan (less friction), not the blue.
Charging the battery with a power cord. SPIKE only comes with a USB cable.
To be contest ready, purchasing the Expansion Set is a must.
No backwards software compatibility with the EV3.

Base plate, frames, integrator bricks, wire clips, and biscuits.

Well-Designed New Parts

Larger frames (7×11 and 11×15)
2×4 bricks with a cross axle hole
11×19 base plates
Wire clips (keep your cables in check)
3×3 biscuits (the biscuit allows for easy change of build direction)

In conclusion, I love the new parts and the color scheme of SPIKE Prime. Right in line with the previous three generations of LEGO robotics, the system just keeps getting better and better. LEGO is aiming the rollout for sixth to eighth-grade students. But in my opinion, SPIKE Prime can easily be introduced at the fourth-grade level. SPIKE Prime will be accepted for the 2020-2021 TCEA Robotics Contest.

If you are unboxing your SPIKE Prime now, please drop a comment and let me know your discoveries. Go Bot Go!

Featured Image photo by LEGO Education.

April 23, 2020 5 comments

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Remote Learning Tools for Schools

by Miguel Guhlin March 9, 2020

written by Miguel Guhlin

Remote learning providers are moving in a fast way to make their services more available in the wake of COVID-19. At the same time, K-16 educators and their organizations are working hard to put in place the ability to offer remote learning. In light of the prompted social distancing, this work is life-saving. Children who may carry the virus can infect vulnerable parents and grandparents. Providing at-home learning opportunities may lessen the exposure for immune-compromised individuals.

In this blog entry, we’ll explore over twenty resource links and solution providers. The goal of sharing these with you is to assist you in launching remote learning for your school or district.

This blog was last updated 08/2020 with new information and digital tools.

Resources and Assistance Abound

If you have additional resources, be sure to add a description and link in the comments section for this blog entry. In the meantime, you might want to check this School Closure Planning document via educator Nicole Zumpano. EduroLearning also offers a fantastic site replete with resources.

The CDC mentions social distancing as one of the ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

The community can take measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Currently a vaccine or drug is not available for COVID-19.

The CDC points to community-based interventions such as the following:

School dismissals
Event cancellations
Social distancing
Creating employee plans to work remotely

Social distancing is “a term applied to certain nonpharmaceutical infection control actions” (source). Public health officials take these actions to stop or slow down the spread of a disease and thus reduce virus transmission. This happens when people increase the physical distance between persons. It can also happen when you reduce the frequency of congregation in certain places such as schools and/or workplaces. Per research studies, social distancing is effective at reducing disease spread. Many universities have taken this step. K-12 campuses and districts may follow as needed.

Students Need Home Internet Access?

If low-income students need Internet access at home, consider these solutions:

Hotspot Donations and $10/Month Wireless Access for Education – With nationwide school closures due to COVID-19, educators can request wireless hotspot donations at Digital Wish, then get Mobile Beacon’s unlimited high-speed 4G LTE mobile broadband service for only $10/month. Each donated hotspot ($70 value) has a 10 hour battery life and can connect up to 10 people to the internet. Use hotspots to set up a lending pool that will provide equitable internet access for students and teachers. A one-time $18 admin fee applies for a single hotspot and the $120 full-year service subscription must be paid in advance. Learn more and get your hotspots here.

Lifeline. “Lifeline typically provides up to a $9.25 monthly discount on service for eligible low-income subscribers.” Learn more about Lifeline from this FCC.gov website.

Comcast is now offering “Internet Essentials.” Comcast is offering, effective Monday, March 16, 2020, two months free to new Internet Essentials customers. Click here for more details. Xfinity WiFi from Comcast will be available as well.

Spectrum will also offer 60 days of free internet to households with K-12 or college students who lack a Spectrum account. Their WiFi hotspots will be opened for public use. Read this ABC News article for more providers.

Another great idea is equipping your school buses with Cradlepoint WiFi and park those around the District.

Just-in-Time Online Learning Support

Many individuals, businesses and non-profits are now offering free professional learning to educators. The professional learning focuses on how to teach online. Here is a quick round-up of some of those resources:

Organizational Resources
Individual Tip Collections and Tutorials
- Emma Pass’ Online Teaching in the Time of COVID-19 is a must-read for many
- Teacher Tools and video tutorials for COVID-19 school closures.
- Kasey Bell’s Online Learning Tips
- Rushton Hurley’s website focused on emergencies and online learning

Flipgrid has curated a variety of resources for educators:

Remote Learning with Flipgrid
Learning from Home Disco Library Playlist
Add your name to the inspiring community of educators willing to help and share remote learning ideas.
Share this Family Learning post with parents or guardians looking to engage their child at home.
Help onboard your community with a Flipgrid overview session at blog.flipgrid.com/flipgridpd

Wondering what to do about students taking home a school device? You may want to watch this March 18, 2020 (on demand after date) webinar, Preparing Your District for CIPA Compliant Device Take Home.

Services Listed

How do you reduce social distancing in schools? One part of the answer involves moving teaching and learning online. This can be a challenge for schools since students and/or teachers may not yet have learned how to function online. Below are some recommendations that Cary G. Hart gleaned from international educators:

Keep it simple
Use ONE method to communicate with parents, not multiple
Use already-introduced platforms as much as possible
Train teachers now while you can
Offer tech support for teachers, students, and parents

Getting up to speed in a short time may not be possible. That aside, online learning providers have rushed to make their solutions available. Many educators are compiling and sharing resources for online learning.

In the space below, you will find the most current list of services offered in alphabetical order. You may be aware of free or almost free services like Flipgrid, Seesaw, Wakelet. Each has a set of features that is available at no cost (e.g. Flipgrid, Wakelet, Seesaw). Others (e.g. Seesaw for Schools) have a cost associated for more features.

Other video conferencing providers, such as Zoom, while not designed for school use may very well be a go-to tool that offers some free services. For example, Zoom is lifting limits for K-12 schools provided they complete an online form. Services offered include any or all the following:

Video conferencing (Google EDU, Microsoft, Zoom)
Learning management systems (Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Education Perfect)
Curriculum and training (Tynker, Microsoft, G Suite EDU)
Online teaching and learning assessment tools (e.g. EdPuzzle, PearDeck, Book Creator)

Explore the services below.

Achieve 3000

Message from Achieve 3000: “As many of you are moving to or have moved to a remote learning model, we understand that a sweeping change like this brings challenges. As your partner in literacy instruction, Achieve3000 has created the Achieve3000 Remote Learning site to support your at-home learning plans. Our site provides free resources to any school in any of our partner districts. We have created solutions that are accessible to all students in your district, including digital access for all and print resources for students without internet.

Please find the link to Achieve3000 Remote Learning that you can share with your students and families. On this page, you’ll find more information about each of the solutions available.

Adobe

Adobe is now offering free home access to their Creative Cloud apps. Access will be free of charge through May 31, 2020. Students can request it online. They are also offering free 90-day access to Adobe Connect, a web conferencing solution, until July 1, 2020.

Amazon Prime Video Free Family Titles

Whether you have Amazon Prime or not, a free Amazon account gets you and your child(ren) access to free family titles. These titles are age-appropriate, include PBS Kids Series titles. These are shows your kids are sure to love (mine did!) and will help whittle away the hours.

A&M System

The Deans of Education of the A&M system would like to share some exciting news regarding free access to professional learning resources. After speaking with Veronica Calvo (Sr. Manager, Partnerships at Sanford Programs) we are pleased to announce, given the current COVID 19 situation, TCEA members are now in a position to access free educator professional learning opportunities. This access is made possible through the generosity of Mr. T Denny Sanford and the efforts of the team at National University .

Next steps

Please access the courses via this link
Once you click the access course link you will be asked to create a profile
Please ensure you identify TCEA as your organization when creating your profile. This step will enable us to monitor the number and type of modules our members are accessing
1. Note, when creating your profile, if your postcode includes letters please list the numbers as letters only as the registration software is not set up to accept letters in the postcode field.
Once you have created a profile you can immediately access the modules and sign up for webinars.
1. Sanford Harmony, is a PreK-6 social emotional learning program.
2. Sanford Inspire provides educators and pre-service educators with online professional learning for creating inspiring PreK-12 classrooms.
  1. Each module ends with a self assessment and a certificate of mastery when the user successfully completes the assessment. This is a useful tool for teacher educators who are looking for innovative ways to supplement field based learning during school closures.Harmony at Home Toolkit
    Sanford Programs has also created the Harmony at Home toolkit to ensure that parents and children continue to have high-quality learning experiences during the period of school closures. Harmony at Home provides a variety of lessons, activities, and resources from our Sanford Harmony and Sanford Inspire programs to help parents navigate the social and emotional needs of children during this difficult time. You can access the Harmony at Home toolkit via this link
    
    Next steps

If applicable, share the Harmony at Home link with your local school districts and partners
Watch the Harmony at Home training video
Review the annotated Getting Started Guide to navigating the Sanford Harmony Online Learning Portal and other materials.
Explore Everyday Practices at Home
Explore the Lessons & Activities at Home.
Register for a live training webinar

Watch this video about SEL for parents from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Audible

We know listening to stories has the same benefit as reading with one’s eyes. Audible Stories is now offering, at no charge, a collection of audio stories. Stories are organized into a variety of categories, such as the following:

Littlest Learners
Elementary
Tween
Teen
Literary Classics
Folk & Fair Tales for All

Their stories are also available in various languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian and more. No login is required.

Book Creator

One of my favorite tools for creating ebooks and comics, Book Creator offers a free version. It is augmenting its free offering with a 90-day premium feature access. They are offering the following two features at no cost:

The ability to collaborate together on books in real-time
A list of ideas for using Book Creator for remote learning

Find the list of ideas online.

BrainPop

Need some instructional materials that explain the COVID-19 virus to children? Look no further than BrainPop’s multi-lingual resources (view Spanish version) on the subject.

Bulb

bulb Digital Portfolios offers their flagship education product, bulbEd, available at no charge to educational institutions around the world. bulbEd is free until the end of summer 2020. Per this announcement,

bulb Digital Portfolios is prepared to deploy and support remote teaching and learning needs at scale. bulb’s customer care team is ready and on-call to help train administration, educators and students. bulb’s robust library of resources includes access to grade and subject-specific templates and assignments, so virtual learning experiences can be up and running in a matter of days. Mr. Goldreyer said, “bulb is an all-in-one solution for remote learning. bulbEd is accessible anywhere, anytime on any web-enabled device, iOS, and Android.” bulb is FERPA, COPPA, and GDPR compliant; safe, secure, and ad-commercial free. It also integrates with Google and Microsoft education tools along with learning management systems.

Learn more online.

Buncee Learning

Get free access to Buncee Classroom if you are in an affected area. Consider what Buncee offers:

With Buncee’s assortment of media options, creating a virtual lesson is quick and easy. Teachers can include text, video, audio, or even links to additional resources. Record your lesson using the video feature, or create an activity template for your student to complete at home. The classroom dashboard can then be utilized to share and track assignments. Teachers could also create a Buncee Board, so students can access materials, share their work, interact with their classmates, and participate in class discussions no matter where they are.

With Buncee and Microsoft Immersive Reader, teachers can ensure all students, regardless of their individual needs, can learn remotely as well. Students can use Immersive Reader to read the material at their own pace, and in a way that’s comfortable for them. Immersive Reader ensures learning is accessible for all types of learners both in the classroom and beyond. (Source: Supporting Remote Student Learning)

Canva

Canva has made available a free Education product with the world as teachers, students, and educational institutions transition to online learning during this time. This product is Canva for Education. You can check out a quick overview of C4Edu here:

Chemix Lab Diagrams

Chemix Lab Diagrams is now offering all their features for free for one month. And, they have extended their trial period for the Boost plan from seven to thirty-one days. Read this blog entry to find out how Chemix can assist you as a Physics/Chemistry teacher. Learn more about the COVID-19 related offer.

Classtag

Used by over 57,000 classrooms and 2 million parents/teachers across the U.S., Classtag is a free communication platform for schools that’s designed to boost parental engagement. Teachers can message parents directly (via SMS or web) and even translate their messages if English is the parent’s second language. Plus, it serves as a fully-functioning classroom management system.

It’s been especially useful to have during the transition to education going remote, as keeping parents and students engaged is priority number one for schools. Explore their Remote Learning resources.

Coding UnPlugged Resources

Need to teach coding but don’t have an Internet connection? Check out this Wakelet collection on the subject. You are welcome to make a copy and if you know of other resources, please share them in the comments.

Education Perfect

This New Zealand-based company offers a learning management system (LMS) at no cost to schools that is in wide use across many countries.

“As we finish our 4th week of online learning (thank you COVID-19) all I can say is EP has been a lifesaver… I can monitor students, comment on their progress and reassign tasks based upon their understanding. Brilliant.”

Learn more online at their website.

Educreations Pro

“We’re offering free Educreations Pro upgrades to teachers through May 1, 2020. You can take advantage of this offer by clicking the button below. This offer is not available for current Educreations Pro subscribers.” Want to take advantage of Educreations Pro account offer? Use this link. Note that their Pro features require an iPad. Some of Educreations Pro features include the following:

import documents, presentations, webpages, maps, and images
save unlimited drafts so you can work on multiple projects at once
5GB of cloud storage, enough to store over 150 hours of lessons
use the pointer tool to direct student attention
export your lessons as MP4 video files for uploading to other platforms

Those are in addition to their features for free accounts:

record and replay your voice, handwriting, and drawings
add typed text in a variety of colors and sizes
import content from your Google Drive, Dropbox, or the Web
draw on top of everything with the drawing tool
edit out any mistakes with the built-in video editor

If you use an iPad with your students and they have the same, then Educreations will be useful to you. One key point is that you can save your lessons as MP4 video files. Those MP4 video files can be saved online via YouTube, G Suite EDU, and other places.

EdPuzzle

Need to connect with students or insert assessments into videos you create? Some of what EdPuzzle makes possible include:

Access to more than five million videos
Ability to create your own interactive video lessons
Add questions, audio, and notes
See detailed analytics on your students’ results
Get storage space videos

EdPuzzle makes that all available and more at no cost to affected schools. Apply online to gain free access.

EPIC!

Looking for a free source of books and audio books? Check out epic! which offers free teacher accounts through June 30, 2020. It’s easy to get setup as a teacher, then add your students. Creating the students’ accounts is as easy as copying-n-pasting their names into a text box.

You can find quite a bit of content online, and your students will have easy access. Here’s some of the content, featuring audio and video books:

Flipgrid

This is a fantastic, FREE, and easy tool you can use with teachers and students to stay in contact. Above, you will find a list of some the remote learning resources Flipgrid is sharing. Flipgrid offers a one-page PDF that will help you set up Flipgrid for a remote classroom. Be sure to watch these FlipgridPD webinars to learn the basics of Flipgrid. Share this simple guide to “help the families in your community use Flipgrid to keep their children active, connected and engaged while they are home from school.”

Gale Resources

Gale is offering educators, librarians, student and parent free access to digital content and resources to enhance instruction and learning. Resources include: Interdisciplinary, curriculum-aligned resources to support online learning from pre-K through undergraduate; Live and on-demand training materials to help you optimize your existing resources; Professional development eBooks to help transition to and strengthen virtual learning and Authoritative Gale resources on health-related topics and global issues.

Access Gale resources here: https://www.gale.com/covid19support

Get More Math (GMM)

Get More Math® (GMM) is offering complimentary use of their program across the state of Texas. Teachers can assign work, monitor students in real time, send personal messages to kids as they are working online. They can also track progress. GMM is TEKS aligned grades 4 through 8, Algebra 1 and Geometry. Alignment for grade 3 and Algebra 2 is not complete. Despite that, there is quite a bit of content already available. Need a contact person? Reach out to Shelly Pelton, Account Manager, via email at spelton@getmoremath.com. You can register for a Get More Math® account.

GoNoodle

GoNoodle created a free online resource GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home. It includes premium content and learning materials including movement and mindfulness videos as well as downloadable learning resources and ideas for off-screen activities – and if you sign up for email updates, they plan to send new ideas, activities, and tools to you weekly. There’s also a Good Energy channel on all GoNoodle home apps (iOS, Android, AppleTV, Fire, Roku) where all the best GoNoodle videos can be used by kids directly. Whether it takes the form of a family dance party, a song and activity that reinforces something kids are learning at school, or a mindfulness or yoga video to help us all relieve stress and get a break from the intensity of it all – let’s all work to create Good Energy with our kids during this stressful time.

Goosechase

Goosechase is now offering free-of-charge upgrades to the Educator Plus tier of the GooseChase EDU platform until September 1, 2020 for all K-12 educators. If you are a teacher looking to utilize this upgrade to engage with students during school shutdowns, please complete the form linked here.

Grammar Check

Grammar Check offers a free, safe, and secure online tool to proofread any English text with a simple “Copy & Paste.” All texts get processed instantly and deleted immediately after processing your text. You might combine this with Hemingwayapp.com to improve your writing (or as a set of tools to share with your students).

G Suite EDU

Google is now offering free access to advanced Hangouts Meet videoconferencing capabilities. This free access will be available until July 1, 2020 and is available to all G Suite and G Suite for Education. The feature includes the following:

Support for larger meetings (up to 250 participants per call)
Live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain (e.g. Ardent ISD domain or your district)
The ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive

The last piece is important since it makes it easier for schools to share content. G Suite EDU admins may find this walk-through helpful. This enables asynchronous sharing of content. This free access is rolling out now for Hangouts Meet and Google Classroom.

Internet Archive – National Emergency Library

Heard the announcement? If not, here it is:

During this unprecedented time in history, access to printed books is becoming difficult or impossible. COVID-19 is forcing students, educators, and everyday readers to rely on digital books more than ever before. That’s why the Internet Archive has temporarily suspended all waitlists, allowing you to immediately check out any of the 1.4 million books currently in our lending library. Until June 30th or the end of the US national emergency (whichever comes later), every borrowable book will be immediately accessible by anyone—creating, in effect, a National Emergency Library.

You can check out to ten of anything, “whether you need classic literature, science textbooks, genre fiction, or even just bedtime story material.” Start browsing here.

Kami App

This online services seeks to make transitioning from paper to digital easier. To achieve this, it suggests you can load any document into their system. This can include assignments, book reports, team projects, website research, homework, and surveys. Once loaded into their system, you can type, write, or draw on the document(s). You, as teacher, can share the document, embed images, comments, audio, or video clips to instruct.

To claim a free school-wide license, send an email to support@kamiapp.com. Each school license will be valid for seventy days. This license will extend Kamifor so long as schools have shut down.

Khan Academy

This provider is offering student schedules. Explore this Google Doc online.

KERA Programming

KERA is offering a new curriculum-based television lineup offering free PBS programs and digital resources aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards. The new At-Home Learning schedule will air weekdays from 6am to 6pm on KERA TV with specific blocks of time for pre-K through 12th grade levels. This special programming block also will stream live on learn.kera.org, expanding access to this free educational content and enabling students to watch the programming on mobile devices. You can find the program schedule and more information at learn.kera.org. The weekday television lineup is segmented by target grades:

6 a.m. – 8 a.m. – Programs for kids in pre-K to 3rd grade.
8 a.m. – 2 p.m. – 4th through 8th-graders.
2 p.m. – 6 p.m. – 9th through 12th graders.

In addition to the new on-air programming, KERA is sharing an At-Home Learning Toolkit, which includes a curated list of educational resources and a weekly calendar with fun and engaging KERA Kids activities for the entire family. The Toolkit includes links to subscribe to KERA’s two education email newsletters – one for parents of young children and one for educators. It also includes a link to PBS LearningMedia, a large, FREE collection of curated TEKS-aligned resources for teaching. Many of the videos, lesson plans, handouts and other materials come from great shows like NOVA, Nature, Masterpiece and Sesame Street.

Children can still watch all their favorite PBS Kids programs around the clock on KERA Kids 24/7 on digital television and channel 13.2 for over the air viewers. You can also stream PBS Kids shows anytime you want from our website. Find the KERA Kids schedule and the streaming link at kids.kera.org.

Kialo Edu

Kialo Edu is a custom version of Kialo (http://kialo-edu.com/), the world’s largest argument mapping and debate site, specifically designed for classroom use. Its clear, visually compelling format makes it easy to follow the logical structure of a discussion and facilitates thoughtful collaboration. Kialo’s mission is to promote well-reasoned discussion online, and to that end, Kialo is free for educators to use. Check out their Twitter page to hear what teachers have to say about Kialo Edu.

Legends of Learning

Legends of Learning offers 2,000 3rd through 8th-grade math and science games and simulations correlated to state standards. Teachers create playlists of games based on standards and students work through completing each one, while the teacher receives real-time data from each student. Using our various assignment options, teachers can create custom playlists, or have a playlist built for them with a top-rated game.

The basic Legends of Learning site is always free. We are offering free access to all premium features for schools closed due to the outbreak for the duration of their closure. This includes assigning an unlimited number of assignments, creating customized assessments for students, and integration with Google Classroom, Clever, Classlink, or Schoology.

Logo Design

This site shares share “twenty-six of the most fantastic and productive graphic design resources that will keep the kids engaged when you can’t go out due the coronavirus pandemic (or otherwise). These will help them learn something new, and may enable them to develop a new hobby or think of a future career choice. Learn more online.

MackinVIA

MackinVIA has compiled free content, helpful videos, links, downloadable resources and more to help you with this distance learning transition. MackinVIA offers two main resources:

Be sure to review their resources.

Merge Cubes

Students can print and build their own paper Merge Cube, then download Merge EDU apps for hands-on augmented reality experiences that kids and parents will love. Merge products are simple and easy to use, and even younger students can complete activities with accessibility features like Immersive Reader. With over 10 different languages, students from all over the world can continue learning wherever they are. Access Remote Learning with Merge online.

Microsoft

The Microsoft Teams for Education offering provides schools with an online classroom space that is free for schools and universities. What’s more, Microsoft has some on-demand webinars you can watch. Each showcases Microsoft Teams as a way to support student-teacher, student-student interactions. You will need to register to watch the recording.

To gain access, your school district will need to deploy Office 365 A1 license (which is free to education). Once your district enables MS Teams, you can access it at https://teams.microsoft.com. Learn more about Teams availability for schools and businesses.

MobyMax

MobyMax is offering remote learning guides and free webinars on how to teach from home. They are also offering:

MobyMax is offering free licenses for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year to districts and schools that would like to leverage Moby as a remote learning resource while their schools are closed.

Here’s the list of resources you can explore at no charge:

Part 1: Quick Guide to Using Moby from Home (English) (Spanish)
Part 2: Monitoring Usage and Setting Goals tutorial
Part 3: Communicating with students
Video 1 – How to create assignments for your students at home
Video 2 – How to prepare and send a video lesson to your students at home

MobyMax hopes you find these resources useful during this time.

MyList

Teachers can create a personal list of the online learning tools they are using, add notes for each tool and publish it out to parents. It is really simple to use: they search a library of 7,000+ edtech tools, click the “add” button, add any notes (optional), publish, and then share. See it online.

NearPod

Need access to a teaching, learning, and assessment platform? NearPod is another digital tool making itself available to affected schools. NearPod makes it easy to create interactive lessons, create quizzes, polls, and more. It integrates with Google Slides and you can synchronize lesson slides across all remote learners. It’s a must-have tool in your toolkit and one of my favorites. You can learn more about it online.

Northwestern University and Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research

Elementary educators looking for a free resource to teach students about the Coronavirus and COVID-19 will have help from a zany book character named Mrs. Can. Thanks to a grant from Northwestern University and its Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research, a free download of “The Class That Can: Coronavirus” will be available to teachers nationwide, along with a virtual resource to libraries and school systems by request.

The book features third graders from a fictional “Class That Can” who are learning from home because of the Coronavirus. The students are excited when their teacher, Mrs. Can, introduces them via computer to her friends, Dr. Kenneth Fox and Dr. Ruchi Gupta, both of whom are real-life, seasoned pediatricians.

“Teachers create meaning for students, and this resource can be a powerful part of their toolkit as they boldly innovate in the age of COVID,” says Dr. Fox, a pediatrician for more than 30 years and Chief Health Officer of Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district. “The Class That Can: Coronavirus is written in a fun, honest voice that kids can understand and that our times recommend.”

Get the book online.

OneScreen Hype with Zuni Learning Tree

Get free-of-cost access to the powerful distance and blended learning package, OneScreen Hype with Zuni Learning Tree. It is available to any public or private school in the United States wanting to take their classes online. The software allows teachers to conduct online video classes for their students ( just like Zoom), but comes with additional features and educational resources for educators.

OTIS For Educators

Need free professional learning on Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams? OTIS for Educators has made their professional development content available for no-cost to teachers on an individual basis or schools. Here’s their announcement:

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are making all of our PD courses FREE to help schools implement distance learning and online professional development. Individual teachers, sign up for a FREE Basic account. You will be automatically upgraded to a full subscription for free.

Schools fill out the following information and we will assist you with setting up your free accounts. If you need immediate assistance setting up an account for your school, please call 877.455.9369

Learn more online.

PearDeck

PearDeck makes adding interactivity to Google Slides easier. It’s integrated with G Suite EDU already. This makes it easy to share and save work via Google Classroom. You can get free access to PearDeck online. They offer 30-days free to all new users. They extend that with a 90-day premium access offer. You can request individual or district access via their online forms. They are now hosting live, daily remote learning webinars.

PenPal Schools

PenPal Schools is offering free access for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. With schools closing around the world, parents are scrambling to find online learning resources that are effective and engaging. Isolated learning software doesn’t cut it – students need to be connected to be engaged. PenPal Schools is so engaging that we have quickly grown to nearly half a million students in 150 countries. Teachers and parents are invited to enroll for free at
penpalschools.com. PenPal Schools connects students from around the world to learn together! Students collaborate through online projects ranging from human rights and the environment to fake news and robotics, all while practicing literacy, technology and social-emotional skills.

Promethean Online Learning

Promethean has free resources that they are offering teachers. Schools can use their free software, ClassFlow, to communicate and share resources with their students. See those resources online.

Ranger Rick Magazine

Need some exciting reading material? One of my childhood favorites was the Ranger Rick Magazine. They are offering three months of free access to all games, jokes, videos, awesome animal articles. This offer is good through June 30, 2020. Sign up online.

Seesaw

Seesaw offers incredible, age-appropriate tools that teachers can use with students and parents. Learn about their remote learning offerings. Per Seesaw’s website:

Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links.

Seesaw is easy to use and get started with. It offers many powerful features for free, even more at cost. Teachers can get started here. Here is a quick tutorial video for home learning codes for all students in your class.

Showbie

Showbie is a real-time application for communication and assessment tool. Showbie is providing free additional licenses to existing customers. These additional licenses cover all staff and students on Showbie Pro and Socrative Pro through July 31, 2020. For non-customers, free access to Showbie Pro and Socrative Pro will be provided through July 31, 2020.

To take advantage of this opportunity, please have your school or district administrator in charge of your COVID-19 response plan, complete this application form. Our team will get back to you within one business day with setup instructions and next steps.

This tool works on desktop/laptop computers, tablets, iPads, and/or mobile phones.

Slido

“We have just launched Slido for Education (with new integrations with PowerPoint and Zoom Webinar) which will be free for all teachers and students until July 1st,” says Juraj Pal, Slido. Slido already integrates with Google Slides. What is Slido? It is a tool designed to assist lecturers. The goal is keep them connected during virtual or live classes. It powers two-way interactions. Learn more about Slido for Education, a new offering, online.

STEM Fuse

STEM Fuse is offering their entire suite of distance learning and training resources at no cost. All courses are CSTA aligned and very easy for teachers to use. Learn more about it in their guidebook. At this link, you will find a form that teachers can use to automatically get access to the course(s) of their choosing.

Texthelp

Texthelp is currently providing FREE access for students, teachers, and parents to Fluency Tutor for Google Chrome through the end of the school year. With Fluency Tutor teachers can assign reading passages from over 500 built-in, leveled content pieces and students can practice reading aloud, building fluency and understanding, before submitting their recordings to their teacher. And because it’s web-based, it’s great for remote learning.

If you’d like to learn more about Fluency Tutor, you can visit them online.

Tynker for Schools

Need access to a how-to-code curriculum for your students to engage in at home? You will want to explore Tynker for Schools. They are making their offer available to all K-12 schools. You can read their announcement:

If your school or district is planning a closure for preventative health-related reasons, please complete this form to get full access to the entire Tynker curriculum and platform at no cost. This will give you and your students access to our self-paced, on-demand courses until May 2020, but we will happily extend this offer until your school reopens.

In addition to our existing free online professional development, we will be running a series of webinars to train teachers on how to use Tynker in a remote learning environment. Please visit our training page for details and schedules.

This is a generous offer of accessible curriculum and training for schools.

WriteReader Lesson Plan and Book Templates

WriteReader, which is free, is offering lesson plans and book templates. Teachers can use these to enhance how they are planning activities for students stuck at home during COVID-19.

Xtensio

If you want to make your teaching easy and streamline during COVID 19, use Xtension. Using this, you can create, manage, and present the course syllabus, and with ease sharing features, share it with every student.

Furthermore, to make studies intuitive and interesting for kids, you can create stunning presentations with images and videos using this tool. Xtensio also allows students to study with their fellow mates under one team space. The best part, its extremely secure, as its plans include 128 bit SSL encryption and backups. This means you can add passwords to turn on/off links.

Get started with Xtensio.

Vook

Teachers get a year free of access to Vook. This is also open to homeschool educators. From their website:

“Vooks brings children’s books to life with animated illustrations, read-a-long text and narrated story. The ad-free platform features a variety of titles that have been engaging students all across the world. Whether being used as part of the lesson or to wind class down, Vooks is a fun and versatile tool for the classroom.

Learn more about Vook content:

Learn From Home Club

Self-serve learning platforms Codecademy, Duolingo, Quizlet, Skillshare, and Brainly have teamed up to create the Learn From Home Club – a joint offering of free learning resources for teachers and students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (offer details for each company are available at the link provided). The offering was announced Monday, April 6, 2020 in a tweet by Codecademy CEO Zach Sims. The participating education companies have a combined reach of nearly 600 million users. The participating companies are as follows:

Codecademy is a platform for learning programming, web development, data science and other technical skills online. They have given away over 100,000 free Codecademy Pro scholarships to students so far.
Skillshare is an online learning community where millions come together to take the next step in their creative journey.
Quizlet provides free study tools including flashcards, practice questions and games for students and their teachers. Choose from 400 million study sets or create your own.
Duolingo is the world’s most popular language-learning platform, with the mission of making education free and accessible for everyone.
Brainly offers a free learning platform, where students and parents get homework and study help from peers and experts. Brainly is democratizing access to education and helps students answer questions. Students from anywhere can ask about their doubts and get a step-by-step explanation from others.

As part of the offering, Codecademy will be hosting Learn From Home Day on April 10 at 10 AM Eastern. The day will be marked with a free educational web conference dedicated to togetherness and self-betterment through learning online. Throughout the day, attendees will join interactive breakout sessions with Codecademy and other participating companies.

Powerful Tools At Hand

These are all powerful tools made available for educators. Whether COVID-19 prompts social distancing in your area, you should know what tools work best. Be sure to coordinate with other educators and school administrators and decide together how to best approach teleschooling and remote learning. Looking for more resources? Check out Loreen A. Sullivan’s Wakelet collection. You may also find Clay Smith’s collection of interest. Finally, this Google Doc may be of interest. It shows education companies offering free subscriptions.

“Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate” -M. Leavitt

Note: This blog has been updated to reflect new services as of 3/14/2020. Check back since new services will continue to be added as we become aware of them.

March 9, 2020 12 comments

Android Coding/Computer Science Robotics STEM/STEAM

Resources for the Raspberry Pi Enthusiast

by Dr. Bruce Ellis February 26, 2020

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

What can be better than a computer designed to inspire children? That was the motivation for creating Raspberry Pi even as early as 2006 when it was just a concept. At the end of 2011, 25 Raspberry Pi boards were assembled and tested for market. The next year, these were auctioned off on eBay with official sales to the public starting in February of 2012. The board with the serial number 01 was the last to auction off and sold for £3,500 (approximately $4,508.70 in today’s dollars).

Fortunately for educators, we don’t have to vie for limited quantities for historical purposes. We have choices today, such as the smallest and simplest of the boards, the Raspberry Pi Zero, for just five dollars, to the newest and most robust microcomputer, the Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM, for only $55 — with none being much larger than a credit card.

With such a low entry point, it is clear why many educators are introducing their students to microcomputers. These boards allow students to learn algebraic thinking and reasoning, coding, basic hardware/software interfacing, and physical computing by incorporating sensors, motors, actuators, LEDs, speakers, and more. Many students have found Raspberry Pi to be an entry to programming using languages such as Scratch, Python, Ruby, C, and C++. To help you introduce Raspberry Pi to your students (and possibly to yourself if you are a n00b) or extend the learning possibilities, here are a few resources that I’ve curated for you to enjoy.

Books

Excited About Coding! – An Introduction to Coding Using Scratch 2 Software on the Raspberry Pi 4 Computer
Author: Grant H. Williams
Age Range: 9 and up
Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: Grant Williams (November 22, 2019)
ISBN-10: 0692197281
ISBN-13: 978-0692197288

Raspberry Pi Projects for Kids: Create an MP3 Player, Mod Minecraft, Hack Radio Waves, and More!
Author: Dan Aldred
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: No Starch Press (December 2, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1593279469
ISBN-13: 978-1593279462

Sensor Projects with Raspberry Pi: Internet of Things and Digital Image Processing
Author: Guillermo Guillen
Paperback: 157 pages
Publisher: Apress; 1st ed. edition (December 19, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1484252985
ISBN-13: 978-1484252987

RASPBERRY PI 4 PROJECTS FOR THE EVIL GENIUS: A Comprehensive Guide to Setup & Developing Raspberry Pi 4 Projects
Author: John White
Paperback: 150 pages
Publisher: Independently published (September 13, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1692743295
ISBN-13: 978-1692743291

The MagPi Magazine – The Official Raspberry Pi Magazine
Published by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, you’ll enjoy monthly tips, tricks, how-to’s, and projects for you to get the most from your Raspberry Pi. You can subscribe and get a discount from the price you’d pay if you bought if off the magazine rack.
NOTE: You can download the magazine as a PDF for free, going all the way back to Issue 1, May 2012!

HackSpace Magazine
This magazine is also published by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and has lots of ideas not limited to just Raspberry Pi. At the time of this post, Issue 28 has been released and covers adding audio to Raspberry Pi projects, as well as how to design a vase in Fusion 360, making things with toothpicks and getting stronger prints with your 3D printer.
NOTE: Issues of HackSpace can also be downloaded as PDF files for free!

Websites

Instructables – Though you will need a login (which is free) to access the Raspberry Pi projects, this site is known for its wide variety of crowd-sourced ideas and projects. You will also find great contests and classes to challenge you and extend your learning. You can even take a short class to learn how to write your own Instructable to share with the group.

Hackaday.io – With over 1,000 projects tagged with “Raspberry Pi,” you are sure to find some interesting things to spark your own creativity. More than 23,000 projects are shared at the time of this post, so you are definitely looking at having any free time filled. You are sure to find interesting projects for kids, by kids as well.

Top 20 Raspberry Pi Blogs, Websites and Influencers in 2020 – Be sure to look this list over and explore some great resources that you didn’t realize existed.

Top 20 Raspberry Pi 4 Projects That You Must Try Now – Seeed Studio put together a list of great and fun projects for you to try with your Raspberry Pi 4. Some are definitely more involved, but are still worth the effort and time to create. Which will be your favorite?

Raspberry Pi Resource Guide – Mitch Allen created and maintains the DesertBot website in order to share his love for robotics with other hobbyists. In this post, he shares various resources for you to consider if you are interested in Raspberry Pi … and possibly robots.

Groups

Meetup – Here is a list of search results for various meetups around the globe that have Raspberry Pi User Groups or Raspberry Pi-related events. If you don’t see one close to you, then touch base with one of the many groups clustered around programming languages or makerspaces to see if they will be planning one soon. Or, start your own Raspberry Pi User Group!

Reddit – There are several different groups to check out on Reddit that address Raspberry Pi. Consider joining each group to stay current on what others are doing, as well as having a lot of like-minded nerds available to assist you with troubleshooting. Groups to check out include:

r/raspberrypi – 26.3k members – Created August 2011
r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS – 61.8k members – Created August 2014
r/raspberry_pi – 1.7m members – Created October 2011
r/raspberryDIY – 8.5k members – Created May 2014
r/RetroPie – 84.8k members – Created May 2014

Twitter – Follow the #RaspberryPi hashtag to get numerous ideas of how Raspberry Pi is being using around the world. This is great if you have students with languages other than English, since there are people in many other countries tweeting their ideas, projects, questions, etc. Be sure to check out the photos and videos link as well to get more ideas.

Facebook – Don’t overlook Facebook as a source of relevant groups to check out. Here are a few groups to get you started.

Raspberry Pi – 74k members – about 20 posts a day
Raspberry Pi 3 & 4 – 27k members – about 20 posts a day
Raspberry Pi and DIY Projects – 25k members – about 60 posts per day
Raspberry Pi Zero – 2k members – about 10 posts per week

YouTube – And let’s not forget all the folks who share via YouTube. Here, you’ll find the videos posted this year, curated playlists, and channels dedicated to Raspberry Pi. Here are a few to check out.

Raspberry Pi Projects (playlist) – 114 videos – Last updated: July 2019
Raspberry Pi Projects for beginners (playlist) – 38 videos – Last updated: December 2019
leepspvideo (user) – 100+ videos – February 2020

Your Recommendations

Have I left anything off that you would recommend? Post in the comments below and share what other resources you have found helpful, and what types of projects you enjoy working on with your Raspberry Pi. We look forward to hearing from you!

February 26, 2020 0 comment

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