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TCEA Responds: Digital Fax Solutions

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #8.  Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is digital fax solutions for your school or district.

Dear TCEA Responds:

Do you know of a reliable cloud fax service that I can use in my school district? I’m a technology director and need to know who you use and what your experiences have been. Also, how does it work with people sending and receiving faxes? Thanks, Charles

Dear Charles:

Thanks for your question. When I worked as an instructional technology director in a large urban school district, one of the challenges was finding a fax machine to get faxes sent. While most have shifted to using a document copier (or mobile app) to scan documents to PDF and then email them to the recipient, there remains a need for faxing documents. The main benefits of digital faxing include the following:

  • Send a fax (single or multi-page) from your computer, smart device, or integrated Multi Function Products without print-to-scan
  • Eliminate on-site fax telephone lines or costly fax telephone service
  • Receive faxes by email
  • No computer or server software to install
  • No telephone system integration required

There are several ways to accomplish this goal of digital faxing. Here are a few possible solutions for your consideration:

Solution #1 – Digitize Paper with Inexpensive Tools

Using mobile device apps like Microsoft Office Lens (free for Android, iOS, Win10) and Readdle’s Scanner Pro (alternate iOS/Android app: Fast Scanner: PDF Doc Scan), you can quickly scan and save to cloud storage. Or use a solution like a Fujitsu scanner to capture information to PDF quickly. These inexpensive devices make scanning documents via your desktop a snap. Their low price point meant every secretary in my school district had one handy to digitize content. You can archive these files in traditional file folders on your computer, in the cloud, or a note-keeper program like Microsoft OneNote (free).

Solution #2 – Setup Your Network Copier as a Scanning and Fax Machine

Most copiers in schools today are connected to the network. Make sure that when you purchase a network copier, you get the fax module. This lets you set up a phone extension for each user mailbox, which allows incoming faxes that support extension dialing to reach your users.

Solution #3 – Use a Cloud Fax Solution

When I think of a digital fax solution, cloud fax solutions like eGoldfax, eFax, or hellofax come to mind. Depending on the service, you can receive faxes sent to phone numbers and these will be auto-delivered to an assigned email address or email group. Faxes can also be sent via email, allowing you to send documents straight to your digital fax solution. The digital fax then securely delivers it on your behalf.

Making the Right Choice

The right choice involves shifting from analog/print to digital. How you get there will depend on the size of your organization, the level of support your end users need to make the transition, and the budget available. For the low-budget, once-in-a-while fax, consider digitizing content with a copier/scanner and then emailing it to the recipient. Or use Hellofax. If you need industrial strength faxing for multiple phone numbers, then eGoldfax or eFax may do the job for you.

Other Solution?

Have another solution your district uses? Please share in the comments!

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OneNote
Announcements/Important DatesMicrosoft Tips and Tricks

Enhancing Parental Access with OneNote Class Notebook

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

On April 19, 2017, Microsoft made an announcement that a lot of classroom teachers had been eagerly awaiting. Microsoft announced that teachers can now get read-only links to various aspects of the OneNote Class Notebook Content Library, as well as individual student notebooks. This is a much anticipated feature since it facilitates parent/guardian access to student work. If this were the only new feature add-on for Class Notebook, that would be enough. However, Microsoft also released three additional enhancements to a product teachers and students use every day.

OneNote Class Notebooks have a personal workspace for every student, a content library for handouts, and a collaboration space for lessons and creative activities (source). Get the OneNote Class Notebook add-in for OneNote desktop (2013 or 2016). It is designed to help teachers save time and be even more efficient with their Class Notebooks. The add-in includes page and section distribution, quick review of student work, and assignment and grading integration with many Learning Management Systems LMSs). No integration with Microsoft Teams, which takes the place of Microsoft Classroom, is available yet.

About Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a digital hub that brings conversations, content, and apps together in one place. Educators can create collaborative classrooms, connect in professional learning communities, and communicate with school staff all from a single experience in Office 365 for Education. Find out more

Feature #1: Delete Student Content from OneNote

Teachers sometimes need to remove a student and that student’s content. Using the Manage Notebook web interface, teachers can now remove a student and then select a check box to also delete that student’s content. Here is a screenshot illustrating the feature:
OneNote

Feature #2: Permissions in the Collaboration Space

As mentioned earlier, the OneNote Class Notebook Collaboration Space serves as a common area for students to work together online. The teacher can divide students up into various groups, facilitating project-based learning (PBL) and collaboration. The new Class Notebook enhancement makes it easier for teachers to allocate student permissions for each section. The benefit is that the teacher can decide whether or not students in one group can see or interact with content in another group’s section. This makes it easy for a group of students to co-create projects and then. when appropriate, that content can be viewed by other students.

Feature #3: Extending Learning Management System Support

Microsoft has continued to expand support for third-party learning management systems, student information systems (SISs), and parent portals. This expanded support comes after an announcement earlier in the year . That announcement focused on richer grade scales, including custom points, letter grades, and pass/fail percentages supported by Canvas and Skooler, two learning management systems. Connecting your LMS/SIS has never been easier.

Kudos to Microsoft’s Commitment

I applaud Microsoft for adding these critical enhancements for educators using OneNote Class Notebook in Office 365 districts. These enhancements affirm Microsoft’s commitment to listening and implementing changes teachers that recommend.

One desired enhancement, relevant to Microsoft Classroom (now, Microsoft Teams since Classroom will be sunset July 31, 2017), I have heard from teachers is the inclusion of a “lite” gradebook. Another is easy embedding of straight MP3 audio files into OneNote pages that results in an embedded player. What enhancements would you request from Microsoft to make teaching and learning easier?

 

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Microsoft Classroom
Microsoft Tips and Tricks

It’s Microsoft Morphing Time

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

On May 2, 2017, Microsoft made several exciting announcements that were just plain incredible. Now that the dust is settling, interesting assertions about Microsoft Classroom are being made based on evidence not widely published or shared. What a perfect opportunity to shine some sunlight and see what we can see!

What’s the Change?

Amidst other incredible changes announced, Microsoft Classrooms (still in Preview mode for many districts) will now be merged into Microsoft Teams. Let’s read what Microsoft has to say on this:

The new classroom experiences in Teams will help teachers manage their daily workflow more easily than ever before. Using Teams, they can quickly and efficiently create classes with automatically populated student rosters from their school information system; share files and teaching materials; make announcements; divide the class into project groups and monitor progress; create, distribute and grade quizzes; deliver personalized learning with OneNote Class Notebooks; and distribute, collect and grade assignments.

And because Teams is a digital hub, students can work together anytime, anywhere, and on any device; teachers can connect with their peers and continue their own development in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs); and school administrators can communicate and collaborate with their entire staff…Teams gets even better with partners, and today, we’re announcing four new integrations from education tech leaders busuu, Canvas, Flipgrid and Kahoot!

Now that’s pretty exciting! But wait, let’s take a moment to think it through. This has implications for school districts that are currently using Microsoft Classroom or had planned on implementing it next year. Let’s review those implications:

  • On July 31, 2017, support for Microsoft Classroom Preview will be discontinued.
  • Microsoft Classroom Preview will continue with current functionality until July 31, 2017.
  • Teachers will not be able to create notebooks or assignments after July 31, 2017.
  • Current classes and associated content will continue to be available as Office 365 Groups.

That’s pretty incredible. Teachers who have created information-rich OneNote Class Notebooks will need to take action. Let’s review some ideas for that.

What Action Should Be Taken?

Classroom teachers should probably create a regular OneNote Notebook, then use OneNote 2016 to copy their instructional content from the Class Notebook(s) into the regular OneNote Notebook. This is solid practice because it gives you a OneNote you can copy content into Class Notebook. The same goes for any campus/district administrators using Class Notebook as their school policy handbook repository. On the back end, School Data Sync remains, so we can hope that few changes are needed.

What Should We Hope For?

With this change, we can hope for better integration between Office 365 and Teams, as well as new features. As I have mentioned before, I hope that MS Classroom/Teams will provide some features that TCEA members have long requested, such as an assignments list with grades in traditional gradebook view and improved integration with OneNote Class Notebook. It would also be great to see better OneDrive integration, Microsoft Forms quiz functionality, and grades integration. Educators have long wanted quiz grading results from Forms dropped into MS Teams/Classroom gradebook. Finally, let’s hope that this roll-out happens quickly and K-12 education users are not stuck in preview mode for another year.

Learn more about Microsoft Teams for Education online.

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OneNote
Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Get Organized: Productivity Tips for OneNote

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Looking for productivity tips and tricks for keeping yourself organized?” I asked an audience of campus and district principals, their secretaries and clerks. The response was a resounding “Yes!” Since that session to a packed room, I’ve found myself hunting ways that technology can enhance productivity for those tasked with office work. This blog explores approaches on how you can leverage OneNote to achieve office and professional organization.

Note: Welcome to this third blog in the ongoing series on productivity tools for leaders and do-ers. Check back often to see more!

Digitize to Facilitate Access

“I have so many papers to sort through, how can I better keep track of these?” my secretary JoJo, asked me one day. I hadn’t given much thought to keeping her organized. After all, that’s why I hired her. She had excellent project management and organizational skills. “I have all these purchase orders to keep track of.” We realized that there were TOO many papers, most of them trapped in three-ring binders that bulged around her or were in labeled manila folders in behemoth file cabinets. In theory, we had everything we needed at our fingertips. In practice, finding something for an audit was impossible.

To better facilitate access to thousands of papers, we made the decision to digitize everything. We had one of those fancy copiers that would convert copied pages to PDF. So we used that to create digital copies of all of the department’s documents. This was a great improvement over the paper copies, but still gave us a headache. We ended up with hundreds of folders with PDF documents in each. How could we take the next step to make them searchable?

One solution was to digitize documents, save to a OneNote notebook, and then add search tags for each document. For example, you can create a OneNote digital notebook for each school year. Add tags to each page that describe the item and make it searchable. New documents could be dropped in via email to “me@onenote.com” and sent to a specific notebook section without even opening OneNote. This features makes it easy to snap a picture of a document with Office Lens app and then send it to OneNote, or use OneNote’s built-in imaging tool.

Record Your Meetings

While you won’t want to record every meeting you go to, there are some that are invaluable. That’s why OneNote has built-in recording capabilities, allowing you to save searchable audio recordings along with your handwritten (a.k.a. digital ink) or typed notes in OneNote.

Attach Supporting Documentation

While digitizing to facilitate access works great for paper documents, you can also take existing digital documents relevant to a meeting or project, then drop them into a OneNote page. This is simply drag-and-drop. If a document or resource is on the web, copy and pasting a portion of the document will also include the website where you found it. This makes keeping track of resources online incredibly easy.

Track Problems with Pictures

“Do you see the hole in the ceiling?” I pointed out to my supervisor. This was but the first of several instances where I captured the failure of the maintenance department, who vehemently denied that there was a problem. Who should the supervisor believe? With photos you can take with OneNote, you can capture anything from holes in the ceilings to rats under your desk to how solutions are implemented. These pictures can be quickly organized into OneNote, sent in via email to “me@onenote.com,” or saved directly using the OneNote app on your mobile device. You can also take pictures of problems that arise on your computer and include them. This is helpful for recording strange errors and issues that others need to know about.

Make a Checklist

Create a collaborative checklist that you and your team member(s) can add to, append, or edit. OneNote makes it easy to create To-Do lists and checklists.

Find Out More

Want to learn other ways to save time and be more productive at work? Attend the Productivity Tools for Administrators on Thursday, June 15, 2017 in Austin. The one-day learning experience is guaranteed to provide you a wealth of hands-on activities to ensure you walk away with the tips and techniques you need to do more in less time. Register here.

 

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text to speech
AndroidChromebooksESL/ELLGood TeachingGoogle Tips and TricksiOS Tips and TricksMicrosoft Tips and TricksSpecial Needs

Transform Learning with Text to Speech

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

One of the biggest strengths of using technology to transform learning comes from its ability to help us solve common problems. A great example of this is the current crop of text to speech solutions that are available. Text to speech remains critical for teachers and the learners they serve, regardless of age. Consider that tools like ReadItLater’s Pocket make it easy to transform web pages into spoken-text audio that is easy to consume. And the research says that listening to audio while reading text improves reading skills.

Benefits of Text to Speech

Studies show that “…listening while reading helps people have several successful reading events in a row, where they are reading with accuracy and enjoyment…listening has been shown to help with decoding, a fundamental part of reading.” Colleague Kasey “Shake Up Learning” Bell points out the benefits of text to speech for students:

  • Relieves the burden of decoding
  • Focuses on comprehension
  • Improves fluency and endurance
  • Identifies and corrects more errors

If research shows this is effective, let’s clarify some ways to actualize this text to speech, speech to text connection in the classroom.

Speech to Text

  • OneNote with Learning Tools add-in: Use the free OneNote program with the Learning Tools add-in to dictate your speech (or student’s speech) and then have it appear magically on the screen as text.
  • Google Docs: Did you know Google Docs features speech to text? It’s called “voice typing.”  Find out more. In a similar vein, consider the VoiceNote Chrome extension.

Text to Speech

Whatever your device, text to speech solutions abound. Most solutions require a dedicated internet connection since the bulk of the processing occurs via remote web servers. Let’s take a quick look at this round-up of apps, browser extensions, and computer programs.

  • OneNote with Learning Tools add-in: Use the free OneNote with the Learning Tools add-in to quickly capture images, grab text from the image (Optical Character Recognition, OCR for short), and then save that text into a OneNote page. Use the Learning Tools addition to read the “OCR’d text” to learners. Wow, that means you can grab any picture off the web, then grab text, and play it as audio.
  • Google Keep: Use Google Keep to quickly grab a picture, then grab text from the picture and save it as text. On Android devices, you can take advantage of Google’s Text to Speech engine. “From within any app that contains highlightable text,” shares John Dye at Android Authority, “you can now instantly conjure the voice of your preference to read the content aloud.”
  • Dragon Dictation (Free iOS app) – “Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages.”
  • Chrome Text to Speech extensions: Chromebook or Chrome browser user? Give these  text to speech extensions a try. Each boasts various features you can use. These extensions include the following: Announcify, SpeakIt, Read&Write for Chrome, and JustRead. See other great tools online at Eric Curts’ Ctrl-Alt-Achieve blog.
  • Voice Texting Pro (Free iOS app) – “…Speak into the microphone and convert your speech into text. Then directly send your message to email, SMS, Twitter, or Facebook. You can also send it to your clipboard (copy) and paste the dictated text in any other application.”
  • Speech Notes (Free iOS app) – “Speech Notes is a note taking app that can convert speech with the help of an internet connection. Just tap on the mic button and, once done, hit again to start converting voice to text.”
  • Voice Assistant ($1.99 for iOS app) –  This translates your voice in text and then enables you to share it with other iOS apps.

Now that you have access to multiple solutions for text to speech, speech to text, how could you transform learning in your classroom? The research is clear. What isn’t clear is how educators are adapting these technologies in the classroom. Please share your students’ success stories in the comments!

 

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gamifying
Microsoft Tips and Tricks

Gamifying OneNote Learning

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin
gamifying

Get PDF | PPTx version

At the recent TCEA 2017 Conference, my plan for gamifying participants’ exploration of OneNote was foiled when I neglected to print my game board. Fortunately, I can share my “Learning OneNote Game Board” with you and make it up to those who attended my session, as well as others!

Learning OneNote Game Rules

The rules for the game are very simple. They include having fun as you complete as many squares as you have time for. If you discover something cool or want to celebrate your experience, post it in the padlet created for that purpose. For now, let’s take a quick look at some of the tasks on the game board, from easiest (bottom) to hardest (top).

OneNote Version

Are you able to distinguish between the various versions of OneNote? As time goes by, it’s getting a little harder to see the differences. Remember that the OneNote app, which works on Windows 10, iOS, and Android, comes with a variety of features like its big brother (OneNote 2016 for Windows and Mac), but has a simpler interface. While all versions of OneNote are compatible with Class Notebook, OneNote 2016 is the real powerhouse since it makes copying/moving sections easy. And if you’re looking for a quick way to share OneNote via the web, OneNote Online is your go-to. This gives non-OneNote users access.

What kinds of media can be embedded in a OneNote page?

If you haven’t seen Marjolein Hoekstra’s tutorial on embedding content in OneNote, you are missing out! You can embed all sorts of media, and I keep a OneNote page with all the latest examples (including Marjolein’s example).

How does Onetastic enhance OneNote?

If you haven’t explored Onetastic, you definitely need to investigate it. For $15 a year, Onetastic enables you to add a truckload of macros. These OneNote macros automate tasks as well as expand the functionality of OneNote. Need to crop an image directly in OneNote? Generate a table of contents for a notebook, a section or pageful of headers? No worries, Onetastic to the rescue.

Conclusion

At the high end of the game board, you will see other ideas such as using Class Notebook, using checkboxes and tags to keep track of projects, as well as organizing with sections and section groups. Why don’t you give the game board a try?

 

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splash of colors
ChromebooksESL/ELLiOS Tips and TricksMicrosoft Tips and TricksWeb 2.0 Tool

Visualizing Our Understanding: Graphic Organizers

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“The use of graphic organizers,” says the El Campo ISD’s Intervention Warehouse website, “is a powerful tool that is easy to integrate into daily instruction.” The ECISD site then goes on to share access to several sources for graphic organizers for visualizing learning.

Graphic organizers are teaching and learning tools; when they’re integrated into classroom experiences, students are better able to understand new material. Creating a strong visual picture, graphic organizers support students by enabling them to literally see connections and relationships between facts, information, and terms.
Source: Teaching Graphic Organizers

As a writer, I often skip outlining and note-taking as ways to organize my writing and notes. Instead, I create graphic organizers to capture ideas and map out my writing. When taking notes, I capture powerful research concepts using a graphic organizer instead of laboriously writing out page after page of notes This approach helps me build a gestalt of the ideas presented.

The Problem with Graphic Organizers

Imagine that when someone says to you, “Could you read this technical text and summarize it?” you could ask yourself, “Well, which graphic organizer should I select?” Then, after some deliberation, you would pick the appropriate graphic organizer and use that one. You wouldn’t be limited to the default spider web graphic organizer with a main concept in the middle. Instead, you would just use the right one for each task.

Unfortunately, that has always been my problem with graphic organizers. Although I know there are different types (e.g. Problem-Solution, Fishbone, Time Order, etc.) for various functions, I never know which one to rely on. To this day, I still rely on the easiest graphic organizer: the spider web with main topic in the middle and ideas radiating out from the center. Also, drawing graphic organizers by hand can be cumbersome since mistakes are tough to correct.

Solutions for Visualizing Our Learning

“To know” goes the old constructivist saying, “is to know how to make.” When teachers pre-print graphic organizers for their students, they inadvertently do several negative things. Those things include:

  • Modeling the use of a graphic organizer appropriate to a text, and thus:
  • Removing the responsibility and ownership of selecting the correct graphic organizer appropriate to a text from the learner

Obviously, if students have less of a say in exactly what graphic organizer to use and when, their long-term use of this tool may suffer. This is because graphic organizers are visual representations of what we store in our brains. This can lead to challenges in comprehension. That’s pretty profound, isn’t it? That’s why it is so important to get students to create their own graphic organizers.

Let’s explore three tools you and your students can use to create graphic organizers via digital devices.

Hand-Drawn Graphic Organizers with OneNote

If you’re not familiar with OneNote, it is a phenomenal mobile app that makes digital ink a reality for those with touch-screen computers or Surface Pro/Android/iPad tablets. With digital ink (that is the ability to draw on the tablet screen with a stylus or fingertip), students are able to finally create graphic organizers that are representative of their own visualizations.

Computer/Browser-Based Tools

If you have access to a Windows, Mac, or Chromebook, then tools abound for creating graphic organizers. Here are my top two favorite free tools, but there are many more available, also known as “mind-mapping tools.”

  • Draw.io: Looking for an easy to use, browser-based diagramming or graphic organizer creator? Look no further than Draw.io! It works in your browser, but allows you to save to whatever cloud storage system you prefer, such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive.
  • yED Graph Editor: yEd can be installed on your computer (Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux) and works fantastically well. You can create graphic organizers using its simple layout. It also scales up to meet the needs of grades 9-12 and adult learners.

Conclusion

I still remember my first copy of Inspiration graphic organizer software. I was amazed at what I could create to represent my understanding of a process, a concept, or a text. Learning how to use graphic organizers, short of learning to read/write and use technology, remains one of the best lessons my high school teacher taught me. How are you teaching your students to use graphic organizers?

Get 80 Graphic Organizer Templates

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assessment
ESL/ELLMicrosoft Tips and Tricks

Multimedia ELL Assessment

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Most language learning assessment tools are rooted in paper and pencil. As Surface tablets, iPads, and Chromebooks find their way into teachers’ hands, new technologies can move us one step closer to multimedia assessment techniques. For example, in the area of assessment, the use of Microsoft OneNote can be helpful for recording observational notes. In this article, let’s consider how OneNote can enhance a type of assessment known as anecdotal records.

Towards Authentic Assessment

In the Language Learning classroom, Microsoft OneNote can be used to support various types of assessment, such as anecdotal records. As discussed in 50 Strategies to Teach English Language Learners, using OneNote can greatly enhance the assessment process, through the following steps:

  1. Decide on a system for collecting assessment.
  2. Choose what to document/schedule.
  3. Conference with students to set growing goals.
  4. Use records for planning hands-on, cooperative learning.

A campus team, such as a department or grade level group, can take advantage of OneNote to facilitate observational notes and collection of student work. Growing goals can be set in collaboration with students, and the digital version can be updated.

Anecdotal Records

Anecdotal records are a form of authentic assessment. These observational notes allow the teacher to record authentic experiences, unintended outcomes of literacy development, levels of engagement, curiosity, motivational factors, and more. For teachers, these records facilitate assessment conversations between educators and others.

assessmentAnecdotal Records Assessment (ARA) with OneNote

In his article, Focused Anecdotal Records Assessment: A Tool for Standards-Based, Authentic Assessment, Paul Boyd-Batstone outlines several ways ARA can be used. Let’s review some of his suggestions for OneNote usage:

  • Observing children in instructional settings: In this suggestion, Paul points out that students may be observed in small groups of 2-4. One of the concerns is that the teacher may forget the observations. He suggests observing different students throughout the week to build an observational record. Furthermore, using the Office Lens app, the teacher can capture student work, photos, and images and place them directly in the anecdotal record notebook.
    OneNote Connection: Teachers can create a page in OneNote for each student, adding video/audio recordings of the student, while quickly switch back-and-forth to make notes about specific students.
  • Maintaining a standards-based focus: Maintaining a focus on a particular standard or set of standards enables the teacher to better keep track of what he/she is observing. Paul cites specific verbs that the teacher can use. For example, in writing, verbs would include: write, print legibly, summarize, describe, and others.
    OneNote Connection: Teachers can keep a list of standards they copy-and-paste into OneNote as needed. These become checkboxes participants could use to quickly check off standards observed.
  • Making and managing of anecdotal records: Paul suggests that a single-page form can facilitate managing records (see example in OneNote).
    OneNote Connection: Create an anecdotal record form as a OneNote page, then set it as a page template that you can insert when taking notes. Here’s a blank form, as well as a sample that you can review (get the PDF version of both). As you can see, having the form in digital format makes it easy to include audio/video annotations as well as traditional text.

Conclusion

Assessment in the language learning classroom can be aided through the real-time recording of student work towards academic outcomes. OneNote facilitates this process for teachers, enabling them to record their own observations in digital format and quickly embed media (e.g. audio, video, images) that enhance those recorded notes.

 

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Typorama
iOS Tips and Tricks

Quote Makers, Engage!

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Leaders, looking for an easy app to use to spice up important quotes that you include in your staff missives, parent newsletters, or student projects? How about a simple way to highlight key ideas in assigned student text? Typorama may fit the bill for iOS device users!

Quote Makers, Create!

I love collecting quotes, often snapping a photo of my favorite quotes at Buc-ee’s while I’m traveling or jotting them down in my handy notepad. The best part of being out on the road is encountering truisms, as well as listening to K-12 and adult learners share their stories.

Just last month, I spent some time in Edinburg facilitating Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) professional learning. We kicked off the session reflecting on a powerful quote from Microsoft. Using Typorama, I recreated the quote below.

quote

Don’t you think this is more engaging than words on a slide? Typorama is a VERY COOL iOS quote app! Once you start using it, you won’t be able to stop.

quote

Scan this image with Aurasma to listen to the audio introduction from Dr. Katie Alaniz, author of “Digital Tools for Today’s Classrooms,” the book from which this quote was taken.

Quote Makers, Adhere to Copyright!

Typorama combines a wide range of copyright-friendly backgrounds and text styles and allows watermarks to be inserted as well to advertise your campus, district, organization, or event. What’s more, you can use pictures from your camera roll and then add powerful quotes from students, staff, or even your own creations.

Note: Don’t have an iOS device? You can make your own image quotes with Google Draw or Powerpoint, but you might also give one of these a try:  Recite.com, Quozio.com, BeHappyMe, and/or VizzBuzz

Not satisfied with the pictures that come with Typorama? Save pictures from any of the popular free image sites, several shown at the bottom of this blog entry, to your iOS device and then add your quote. The New York Public Library just released their digital collection for use, so be sure to include that in your list of image sources.

Learning Connections

As written in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), “Students must develop the ability to comprehend and process material from a wide range of texts.” Using a quote generator like Typorama, you can help students identify topic sentences or key ideas represented in text.

Tap into the excitement students experience when creating quotea work of art. This work can be displayed via social media or made into a “mini-poster” for bulletin board placement. And you can also help students “summarize the main idea and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning.” Whether for professional development (e.g. book study, article jigsaw) with adults or ask ing students to work in small teams with a buddy to analyze text, this type of activity is powerful for engaged learning.

 

Quote Makers, Share!

Learners can, as encouraged in Digital Media in Today’s Classrooms, “Collaborate to create an online clearinghouse of student-created media.” This clearinghouse can serve as a resource for students to use as they support one another in preparing for exams. The clearinghouse can be any one of the following:

  • quote

    OneDrive-based Image Clearinghouse

    Hallway bulletin board

  • Google Photos – Easy to create a shared album, enable multiple staff/students to add content.
  • OneDrive Photos – Easy to add images to a folder, as well as share edit rights or view only link.
  • OneNote Online Notebook
  • School or classroom Instagram account

Steps to Make and Take

quoteHere are the steps you can take to create your Typorama quote project. Remember, these techniques can be used whether you have the app or not. If you and your students are on a computer, try one of the aforementioned, browser-based, free quote generators.

  1. Read a selection of text, online or from paper.
  2. Choose your favorite quote or come up with your own based on what you have read (better activity).
  3. Start up Typorama, select a background from their image search results or use a picture you have taken with your camera. Remember, you can always find a picture online. The image should reflect a key word in the quote text.
  4. Modify the text and image features and then share it online.

Enhance with Augmented Reality

Using the iOS app Aurasma, you can convert these student-created image quotable quotes into “hyperlinked” images. That is, you turn each image into a “trigger” that when students point their iOS device to it, it has students reading the quote aloud, sharing a short anecdote.

Reminder: TCEA members, don’t forget about the upcoming January 25, 2017 Augment Your Reality Lunch-and-Learn webinar where we will share more ideas for using AR in the classroom.

quote

Use the Aurasma app on your Android/iOS device and scan the quote picture above to listen to audio via Voxer!

More Than Quotes

This is a perfect app for both adult and K-12 learners to use. You can use it for creating memorable vocabulary words, summarizing fictional texts, and posing problems in social studies or history class. Please comment below and share how you would use Typorama in your classroom.

quoteList of Copyright-Friendly Image Resources

  1. iClipArts for Schools
  2. Animal Photos
  3. Car Pictures
  4. Classroom Clipart
  5. ClipArt.com: School Edition
  6. Compfight
  7. Creativity103
  8. Creative Commons Search
  9. ClipArt ETC
  10. Discovery Education Clipart
  11. Free Clipart
  12. Free Icons
  13. Free Images
  14. Free Images Collection
  15. Free Foto
  16. Free Photo Bank
  17. FreePik
  18. Internet Archive
  19. Pexels
  20. Pics4Learning
  21. Pixabay
  22. School ClipArt
  23. Teacher Files Clipart
  24. UnSplash
  25. Wikimedia Commons

 

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OneNote
iOS Tips and TricksMicrosoft Tips and Tricks

Improved Teaching with Microsoft

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“We sure wish Class Notebook worked in OneNote Online,” several teachers remarked to me at a Fall Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) session. Microsoft was listening. On January 18, 2017, Microsoft improved teaching and learning with OneNote! These new features expand integration for OneNote’s most popular add-ins, Class Notebook and Learning Tools.

Big Announcements

Today, in the announcement, Microsoft shared their two popular add-ins are now available for OneNote Online, as well as OneNote for Windows 10 (the free version that comes installed with Windows 10). Some additional enhancements were also covered.

OneNote Enhancements

You already knew that YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare, Sway, Docs.com, MS Forms, and Office Mix could be embedded into a OneNote page for easy student access. As of today, you can also embed Quizlet, ThingLink, GeoGebra, Wizer and Sketchfab 3D! Check out Marjolein Hoekstra’s (@OneNoteC) example OneNote Notebook (as well as her demo of Padlet embedding!). OneNote has also been enhanced to include stickers for student feedback. These stickers won’t peel off!

improved

improvedClass Notebook

For teachers, Class Notebook for OneNote Online and OneNote for Windows 10 means easier distribution of content to all students in a class. It also empowers teachers to review student work sequentially (click and grade your way through a class roster with ease). This is phenomenal since it adds class management functionality the online and app versions of OneNote 2016 (the cadillac version). These features are rolling out on January 18 for OneNote Online. A new version of the Win 10 OneNote app will allow you to enable the feature via the settings in the Options menu.

Learning Tools

Learning Tools, which provides access to the Immersive Reader, dictation, and more, has now been expanded. It works on Word Desktop, Word Online, OneNote Online and Office Lens for the iPhone. A great dictation feature translates you when you say “period” or “question mark” and inserts respective “.” or “?” inline. Other new features include six new languages, as well as the addition of three dictation languages.

Office Lens Adds Immersive Reader

You may have missed the message that Office Lens for iPad and iPhone now includes Immersive Reader, which “lets you hear text from a scanned page read back to you as words are highlighted,” functionality. This is an incredible addition!

 

 

 

Microsoftastic Updates!

Thanks to Microsoft for modeling continuous improvement, listening to teachers AND students, and implementing these changes.

 

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