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Shawn and Greg record live at the EdTechTeacher Boston Summit to explore many of the ideas that emerged from season one.
As an instructor for EdTechTeacher, I have the pleasure of working with teachers from all over the country. Recently while in California, working with special education teachers, we were exploring how the physical environment impacts student learning. Through our discussion of the physical environment, we began to consider the environmental impact for students with limited or no speech who use augmentative and alternative communication ( AAC ) devices and symbol sets. The good news is that we have many different options to support expressive and receptive language through AAC symbol sets. These sets can include drawings, photographs, objects, facial expressions,…
More than any other idea in education, the idea of student agency suffers from the greatest disconnect between intentions and outcomes. As I referenced in a recent post, emerging student-centered instructional models attempt to shift much of the ownership and control (agency) of the learning process over to students. Whether it is an approach that customizes the student’s path and pace through the curriculum, or is an inquiry-based environment that has students engage in a problem solving/design thinking approach, students have greater degrees of agency in new models of student learning. Yet this seems to be extraordinarily elusive when it comes to classroom practice.…
With the start of the new school year, Book Creator for iOS has launched an incredible update to an already versatile app. Students and teachers can now add just about ANYTHING into a book. In addition to creating multimedia books with text, drawings, photos, audio, and video, you can now add Google Maps, YouTube videos, web-based content, and even existing files directly into your project: PDFs, Google Docs, Sheets, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. My colleague, Greg Kulowiec, may have termed the phrase “App Smash,” but Book Creator has taken it to a new level. Users can combine content from practically…
Many teachers innately understand that technology should functionally improve students’ learning experiences in order to be considered worthwhile. Conversely, some teachers struggle to discover authentic ways to utilize technology in the elementary classroom. Over the past few years, we have discovered that teachers adapt faster to Seesaw the Learning Journal than many other apps, and quickly discover ways that it can create opportunities for everything from formative assessment to building a community of learners. Students can create and curate artifacts of learning using Seesaw, and teachers can use Seesaw to chronicle that learning over time, as well as connect with…
By Avra Robinson and Rosey McQuillan Differentiating instruction is giving students multiple options for taking in information, for making sense of ideas, and for expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues for students to acquire content, process ideas, and demonstrate their understanding (Tomlinson, 2001). As educators, we are always looking for ways to differentiate our instructions for students as they read, write, and explore new content and strategies in a variety of curricular areas. Google Docs has many built-in features that can support students as they work through the self-editing process. Text to Speech There…
By Avra Robinson & Rosey McQuillan for more from Avra and Rosey follow them on Twitter: @avrarachel & @romcquill Differentiating instruction gives students multiple options for taking in information, for making sense of ideas, and for expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues for students to acquire content, process ideas, and demonstrate their understanding (Tomlinson, 2001). As educators, we face student variability in our classrooms and are always looking for ways to differentiate instruction for students across the curriculum. Many school districts are using G Suite for EDU; therefore, in this post, we will explore how Google Docs can support student…
Over the past several years, Google for Education has become a mainstay in classrooms across the world. As these schools integrate the G Suite of tools in their classrooms they have a unique opportunity to really prepare their students for the future workforce. This is an opportunity schools cannot afford to miss. As a recent study by The Economist shows, only 44% of 18-25 year-olds believe their education provided them with the necessary skills needed in the workforce.[1] Likewise, the World Economic Forum predicts that ⅓ of jobs in 2020 will require skills not currently taught in today’s classrooms.[2] While these numbers are daunting, there…
Learn more from Tom by following him on Twitter: @Mr_Driscoll Over the past few years, in several different roles, I have researched and experimented with various frameworks and approaches to Personalized Learning. Despite the vast amount of resources out there that describe what personalized learning is and how to implement it, it is often difficult to find quality research that gets to the “why” of personalization. One of the most compelling arguments I have seen thus far relates directly to the idea of “learner variability.” In short, the concept of learner variability implies that all learners are inherently different across…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. Lately, I’ve been reading Peter Block’s The Answer to How is Yes and Robert Evans’ The Human Side of School Change. While Block’s musings are mostly philosophical and Evans’ primarily psychological, both authors address an essential and compelling question that befuddles administrators everywhere: How do we get those under us to change? In schools, many administrators are frustrated that after spending so much money on Chromebooks and iPads few of their teachers have actually changed their instructional practices. These administrators not only spent a lot of money on devices,…
Follow Mason on Twitter: @edtechmason All students can learn math. Better yet, all students can love math. And even more importantly, all students can excel at math. And when classrooms go one-to-one with iPads, this enhances opportunities to foster the mathematical mindsets of students in the classroom. Carol Dweck and Jo Boaler believe math is the subject most in need of a mindset makeover, and I think integrating technology helps with that transformation. Math class no longer has to be a traumatic experience for so many students (and their parents and teachers). This blog post is rooted in Jo Boaler’s…
Learn more about what Tom is doing with teachers by following him on Twitter: @Mr_Driscoll Although Personalized Learning has gained considerable traction in education, there is still much confusion and, at times, heated debate regarding what this set of ideas actually means and looks like in practice. Fortunately, there has been a relative convergence of key concepts and essential components of Personalized Learning (PL) that can help frame a more nuanced discussion moving forward as schools explore and implement different iterations of PL. As Larry Cuban referenced in a recent post, the core idea of personalized learning is far from new. For…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. In a few weeks, I will be instructing the EdTechTeacher “Teaching History with Technology Workshop” for the 16th straight year. Lately, I’ve been thinking about changes in technology since I first began leading the workshop and implications for teaching and learning. The most obvious difference is the sheer volume and diversity of technology tools that have appeared since I first taught the workshop in 2002. Back then, students were using laptops principally for taking notes in Microsoft Word, creating slideshows in Microsoft PowerPoint, and for research…
Want to learn what Ben is up to? Follow him on Twitter @Mr_Sondgeroth While completing my undergraduate degree in history education, I recall having to submit a written reflection after completing every lesson. I also remember being somewhat annoyed at the process and questioned the purpose of reflecting back on my work after already completing a lengthy lesson plan. Fast forward to my time as a classroom teacher and I came to realize that reflection served an invaluable purpose. Formal opportunities for reflection allow us to pause, look back, identify and analyze the points we should improve upon as we move forward.…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. “Innovation” initiatives have become the rage in many schools and districts. Some have hired an “Innovation Director” and others have created an entire Innovation department. Others focus on innovative pedagogical approaches, such as Design Thinking. Yet, it appears that few schools have constructed a clear definition of “innovation” and how student learning is supposed to change. Last week I ran a workshop on nurturing innovation for a group of teachers and administrators at a conference in Florida. One of my objectives was for the participants to…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. Millions of iPads and Chromebooks entered American classrooms between 2012 and 2015 and often joined laptops already in place. As a result of the influx, many schools decided to launch a 1:1 (device-to-student) tech integration program and many administrators held high expectations that technology would bring about substantial instructional innovation. What’s clear now is that few administrators had a vision of how instruction might change. As a result, that change has not occurred. I can remember visiting dozens of schools during the summers of 2013 and…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. Does the following seem familiar? “Okay, everybody, click here. Now, everybody click here. Now, everybody click here. Now, everybody read along with me. Now, everybody watch me.” Boring, right? Through the years I’ve seen many stand-and-deliver workshops where the presenter stands in front of attendees talking and pointing for long stretches of time. Invariably, some participants race ahead because the pace is too slow. Others get lost because the pace is too fast. Others tune out and start checking email. Long ago at EdTechTeacher, we developed…
Last week, I had the privilege of keynoting the first annual Inspired Learning Convention in Mendon-Upton, MA. Whereas many schools and districts talk about the need for innovation, educators in Mendon-Upton use the concept of inspired learning. As I wrote in a post on EdTech Researcher, I like this definition as it places the focus on the learner and not the teachers, the environment, or the technology. In inspired learning classrooms, students wrestle with messy problems that require convergent and divergent thinking as well as a deep understanding of a domain of knowledge. They view the experience as authentic in that it…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. “I don’t have time.” It’s teachers most frequently cited reason for not trying a new pedagogical strategy. At least it’s the reason I hear most frequently from middle and high school teachers who say they have no time to innovate because they have too much content to cover, “too much to do.” It’s understandable why teachers would cite lack of time as their primary reason for not trying something new. Teachers face a dizzying array of content standards that they are expected to meet during the…
We use search engines each day to help us search for information. Our biggest hurdle is the amount of information we need to sort through to find exactly what we want. Knowing how to effectively and efficiently search is part of being informationally literate. Teaching students to locate, evaluate and effectively use this information should be part of the instructional practices in every school. Google’s search Tools, allow the user to manipulate a search within Google’s main search engine. Learning how to implement these search skills is an important technique we can teach our students to help them cut through the clutter of…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. “Few individual schools sustain random acts of innovation over time.” -Stanford researcher Linda Darling-Hammond In schools across America, administrators and teachers are making forays into innovative practices such as design thinking, makerspaces, and personalized learning. These initiatives are often undertaken by well-meaning educators who believe that introducing these concepts at some level at their institutions will launch widespread classroom innovation. Often these initiatives are piloted in specific classrooms and sometimes result in the creation of a newly defined space (such as a makerspace). Unfortunately, select attempts at innovation by…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. Many principals and other school leaders believe it’s their duty to create a vision for their institution and to relay that vision to their staff. Many work extremely hard to craft meaningful and engaging goals for their community. Yet without a collective vision, one that is created and shared by both administration and staff, school leaders are likely to have difficulty moving the faculty in the desired direction. When I taught High School I can remember sitting through a series of faculty meetings where our head…
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. “Dysfunctional schools become even more so because thoughtful teachers avoid working with colleagues who are marching the competition.” -Linda Darling-Hammond Recently I had extended conversations with two talented, dedicated, and innovative teachers who are attempting to transform teaching at their respective institutions. One is a high school teacher on the West Coast and the second a middle school teacher on the East Coast. Both of them go beyond expectations to try to meet their students’ needs. They carefully consider how their pedagogical practices impact student learning,…
We are excited to launch a new series of videos featuring conversations with our Summer Institute instructors. These conversations are not only a preview of the workshops, but also offer a chance to learn more about the topics. In this video, Ben Sondgeroth sits down with Rosey McQuillan to talk about differentiation in the classroom. Rosey and Ben discuss: the concepts of differentiation, what differentiation looks like in the classroom, and what educators can expect when they attend her two-day workshop in San Francisco or Boston this summer. Learn more and register at ettsummer.org!
The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com. Over the last six years schools and districts have spent millions of dollars equipping their students and faculty with iPads and Chromebooks, often in an attempt to create one-to-one classrooms. Many schools have held hope that these devices might lead to a surge of innovation in classroom practice. Now years removed from the iPad/Chromebook wave, many schools and districts have found that instruction has barely changed and some schools have cut back on their technology programs. Many teachers and administrators point to perceived deficiencies in the…
This post is from EdTechTeacher Instructor Mason Mason follow him on Twitter @EdTechMason When I was a high school English teacher, we were using a proprietary learning management system (LMS) that was not user-friendly. My team and I were searching for something to replace our clunky LMS, and even though Google Classroom is not a full-fledged LMS (yet), its ease of use, and ability to distribute, collect, and organize content quickly became our go-to resource. At the time, Google Classroom was just coming out of beta (just in time for the new school year), and it quickly began to change the way students and…
-Follow our Instructor, Ben Sondgeroth on Twitter @Mr_Sondgeroth One of the most powerful features of Chrome OS is the integration of third-party Chrome extensions. By definition, Chrome extensions extend the power of Chrome and perform functions not built directly into the browser. When extensions are paired with excellent teaching practices, they have great power in the classroom to make student thinking visible. Chrome users can find extensions in the Chrome Web Store, however, the amount of Chrome Extensions in the marketplace can be overwhelming. To make that process easier for you, I describe my three favorite Chrome extensions for you…
EdTechTeacher has been working with the Medfield Public Schools in Medfield, Massachusetts for the past five years through our year-long Teaching for the 21st Century (T21) Program. Through the development of their 1:1, BYOD and Chromebook cart model, Medfield has increased their adoption of G Suite in a variety of both practical and creative ways. With the 11th and 12th grade in a 1:1 Chromebook model and Chromebook carts being available in grades 6-10, approaches ranging from digital portfolios to collaborative data collection and virtual travel adventures are being executed with various G Suite tools. Below are a few highlights of the…
Leveraging the power of the iPad for teaching and learning means not only tapping into the potential of Apple’s hardware but harnessing the power of Apple’s software as well. Pages, Keynote, and Numbers comprise Apple’s productivity suite of apps that teachers and students can use to not only increase productivity but also foster creativity in the classroom and beyond. Learn how to create documents, edit content, share final products, and more in this introductory video series. Get started with the word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet suite of apps and see how far they can take you and your students. Learn…
Creating virtual reality spaces couldn’t be easier with such a student friendly platform, CoSpaces. With a well-built library of backgrounds and objects, along with the embedded coding capacity, creating dynamic virtual worlds is possible for all creators. However, the potential to create with CoSpaces is quickly amplified with a few simple additions. One can capture 360 photos with a phone or download Creative Commons 360 images from the web to act as background environments. Additionally, users looking for an object that doesn’t exist in the CoSpaces library can simply download an OBJ from Google’s Poly Project or create one with…
Book Creator has long been one of my favorite iPad apps to use with students. The versatility of the iPad app was second to none – allowing students to curate and showcase the many capabilities of the iPad. Now the clean, easy-to-use interface of the iPad app has been brought to the web and is available for students and teachers to use within the Chrome Web Browser. Book Creator’s versatility makes it an amazing tool for use in any Chromebook or laptop classroom. With the ability to add audio, video, images, drawings, as well as the ability to publish…
We are excited to be apart of Digital Learning Day, an annual event organized by the Alliance for Excellent Education. We will be teaming up with Book Creator for a LIVE after-school professional development event. This free webinar is focused on how Book Creator can support learning on the iPad and Chromebooks. Mark your calendar and bookmark the YouTube Live URL, for Thursday 22 February, 5 pm EST as Greg Kulowiec, Ben Sondgeroth and Avra Robinson join Beth Holland to talk all things Book Creator! http://bit.ly/bookcreatorandETT
From Instructor Rosey McQuillian. Follow Rosey on Twitter @romcquill Apple’s release of iOS11 has been much acclaimed. However, for new users it can be a bit overwhelming. Here are some practical tips for teachers to meet the needs of all student learners. #1. The New Control Center: The Control Center has undergone a major redesign in IOS 11 and now allows the user to access functions all in one place. To add controls, go to settings>control center>customize controls. Tap the green + to add a control or tap the red – to remove one. To rearrange controls, drag and drop them by using the three lines located on the…
Post by Instructor: Mason Mason. Follow him on Twitter @EdTechMason Every student has a voice and deserves to be heard; however, sometimes it’s difficult for educators to amplify the voices of all of their students when they have class sizes of 30 or more students and can see upwards of 150 students in a single school day. Whether in a BYOD, one-to-one, or one-to-few device environment, educators can leverage technology to allow every student to share what they know, think, feel and understand in a meaningful way. The following tools encourage discussion, reflection, and synchronous or asynchronous student response. Using…
Want to keep up with where Ben is? Follow him on Twitter: @Mr_Sondgeroth As the Chromebook perforates classrooms across the country, students have the ability to express themselves in ways that may not have been possible in a traditional classroom setting. Chromebooks offer so many ways to engage students creatively and go well beyond word processing. Perhaps one of the most powerful ways that we can allow students to demonstrate their learning and understanding of topics is through voice. When students express themselves verbally they are given a way to connect ideas and concepts they may not otherwise have been able…
Want to know more about what Avra is doing in classrooms? Follow her on Twitter: @avrarachel One of our goals at EdTechTeacher is to explore new concepts and ideas with teachers in an effort to discover authentic ways of integrating technology into the classroom. One question we always ask is: “Does the technology create a functional improvement in the task?” In other words, we steer clear of using technology for the sake of using technology and instead focus on applications that provide clear educational value. Moreover, we focus on just a handful of versatile “evergreen apps” that can be used…
Want to learn more from Ben? Follow him on Twitter @Mr_Sondgeroth What is Apple Classroom? In 2016 Apple released iOS 9.3, an update that holds major implications for schools using iPads in the classroom. One of the marquee features for teachers in iOS 9.3 was the introduction of the Apple Classroom app. Apple Classroom provides teachers a seamless way to manage their iPad classrooms from their teacher iPad. After its initial release I was excited to see the app’s impact in the classroom; however, it became apparent that schools were reluctant to roll Apple Classroom out to their teachers due to…
This post first appeared on Edutopia. Learn more from Avra on Twitter: @avrarachel Throwing items away has never been a skill of mine. That feeling of “I might use this someday” only worsened when I became a teacher and then a mother. My “keep or toss” decisions became clouded by sentimentality, and I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the precious gems my daughter created in school. But the large artifacts she brought home eventually created a storage issue, so I began taking pictures of them and getting rid of some. I didn’t realize it at the time, but by…
Technology integration can be difficult. Often times when schools go one-to-one with iPads, teachers continue to do what they’ve always done. Digital worksheets, PDFs with annotations, and consumption can quickly become the norm. I remember when I went one-to-one with devices in my secondary English classrooms. I immediately wanted to figure out how my classes could go paperless and how I could get my students to do everything on their devices. However, I was only at the “enhancement” level of Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR technology integration framework as I was only using technology to substitute or augment student classroom activities. For example,…
Want to learn more from Ben? Follow him on Twitter @Mr_Sondgeroth Google My Maps offers teachers and students across disciplines an ability to bring map-making into the classroom. For an in-depth look at how to create a Google My Map, please check out my previous post: Bring Map Making to Any Classroom using Google My Maps. If you are ready to discover how maps can assist in expanding learning for your students, then read on! 1) Teachers can expand a map activity outside their classroom walls. My Maps allows users to import data into a map from a Google Sheet, KML…
Want to learn more from Avra? Follow her on Twitter @avrarachel In the G Suite for EDU environment, Google Drive is a wonderful, unlimited storage place for files of all types. As educators, we know the importance of working with students to help them understand that organization is a key strategy to success in school. We also know that students need to be taught HOW to organize their files. Just as primary teachers painstakingly remind students several times each day to put their physical papers in folders to organize them, we must do the same thing with students in the…
Want to learn more from Rosey? Follow her on Twitter @romcquill Available as a web-based tool or an iPad application, Padlet allows teachers and students to create virtual bulletin boards where collaboration, reflection, publishing and sharing of information can occur. As a synchronous learning environment, Padlet supports interaction, sharing, and collaboration in real-time or as an asynchronous learning environment allowing students to learn at their own pace and time. When using Padlet, users can display information in a wide variety of file types, including: links to Google Docs, display images of student work, text, audio reflections, and videos from the camera…
For the last few years, I have used the Extraordinaires game in my workshops. Beyond just the fun of playing, the design of the character cards may be what really makes this game unique. Each one presents the character in multiple ways: their daily life, a surprising detail, an unexpected fact, etc. The cards encourage students to engage in deep inquiry to seek out and solve a design challenge for their Extraordinaire. In my past few workshops, we also brainstormed ways to use the game – or the concept of the game – in other settings. One group had a lively discussion…
Want to learn more from Ben? Follow him on Twitter: @Mr_Sondgeroth As a former history teacher, maps were an essential part of my curriculum. From showing locations of battlefields, to explaining territorial expansion, maps help put historical content into perspective. Many of my classroom activities involved using paper maps as visual references, allowing students to see spatially how historical movements affected the events analyzed in class. In my experience as both a teacher and EdTechTeacher Instructor, I find that maps are being used across grade levels and disciplines to help students understand perspective, locations, and many other learning objectives. For…
Learn more from Greg by following him on Twitter: @gregkulowiec Moving Beyond Google Expeditions: For classroom teachers interested in integrating virtual reality into their classroom, one outstanding platform for pre-created content is Google Expeditions. With an extensive library of expeditions, Google Expeditions offers classroom teachers a reliable pre-packaged virtual reality experience designed for the classroom. Each expedition includes multiple scenes with pre-created areas of interest within each scene and pre-created discussion prompts. To learn more about Google Expeditions, watch this short EdTechTeacher video introduction. While Google Expeditions provides a solid entry point for virtual reality in the classroom, it is…
Guest post from Michael Cohen, aka @TheTechRabbi In March, I was fortunate not just to attend, but present at SXSWEdu. I shared the story of my journey from designer to educator, and how my experiences as a designer have influenced my educational practice. One area of education that my past experiences have had the most influence, is creativity. Not just as a vocabulary word, but what creativity is, what it isn’t, and what we as educators can do to help our students and colleagues become more creative people. So in the spirit of creativity, here is a bite-size top 5…
Though most students knows about Google, few realize the power of Google Scholar. Unlike a regular Google search, Google Scholar limits its results to sources considered to be scholarly: books, journals, abstracts, theses, and even court cases. Also unlike Google, instead of ranking results by popularity, keyword, and past searches, Google Scholar examines the text in the documents, the credibility of the publication, and how often the work has been cited by other scholars. Particularly for high school students, Google Scholar can be a great research tool; and like all things Google, it also has a few hidden features that…
G Suite for Education provides opportunities for students of all ages to learn and grow. When combined with a Chromebook or laptop, the core G Suite programs create a powerful platform for learning. By designing interactive learning experiences for students in the K-3 classroom with G Suite, we also provide opportunities for students to start building the skills that they will need to be successful in the intermediate grade levels and in our digital world. Google Drawings for Interactive Activities By engaging students in Google Drawings learning experiences, teachers are creating opportunities for students to engage in sequencing, classification,…
One of my favorite iPad apps for use in the classroom is Book Creator. I love the way it allows teachers and students to easily pull from the camera roll and incorporate a wide variety of file types, including images, video, and audio. Recently, however, I’ve been using Book Creator for a different purpose: I have discovered that it can be a page or image creator on my iPad. I can utilize Book Creator’s drawing tools and its ability to insert a variety of elements onto a page, such as images, shapes, stickers, text, speech bubbles, and freehand drawing.…
In my work as an instructor for EdTechTeacher, I have the pleasure of working with teachers from all over the country in both face-to-face workshops and online learning modules. As the teachers and I work together to explore new ideas, strategies, and tools, we learn and grow together. Recently, a Webster Public Schools cohort of teachers were exploring Google Drawings in an online learning module I created. As we discussed ways to utilize Google Drawings in an educational setting, we explored student and teacher uses of the program. Through our discussions, I began to consider how the combination of Google…
By Douglas Kiang Minecraft (http://education.minecraft.net) is a tremendously popular 3D open sandbox game. It is also a wonderful tool for building in Creative mode, which I use with my students throughout the school year. Here are some examples of building projects, and what students can learn from them. Building to Recreate Something One introductory project I like to assign to students is to build a replica of something that already exists like a famous monument, a school building, or their real house. The goal is to build something as close to the real thing as possible, in the process learning…
In social studies classrooms around the world, teachers use documents and images as a daily part of their curriculum. History is built on the analysis of first hand accounts. The interpretation of the meaning behind the words and images is archived for modern day historians to retell stories. While teaching high school history, I wanted to continually engage my students in this type of thinking and self-directed learning, allowing the student to become the historians in my classroom. In order to accomplish this task, I made it a goal to use as many different sources and documents in my classroom…
Though impressive, the first Virtual Reality offerings in education primarily consisted of pre-created experiences where students could explore famous landmarks, geographic regions and unique locations. For instance, thoughtfully developed tools such as Google Expeditions and Nearpod VR allow teachers to guide their students through powerful pre-created immersive virtual reality environments. While their approach allows students to consume and experience virtual reality, there are a host of tools now emerging that let users create virtual reality content. What’s more, creating virtual reality environments is no longer limited to those with an advanced skill set or access to advanced creation platforms. Now anyone with…
The Highlight Tool is a simple but powerful Google Docs Add-On that teachers can use to provide feedback on student written work. The key benefit of the Highlight Tool is the ability to create a customized series of highlighters on different topics that can also be organized in a library and shared. Those familiar with the highlight feature available in Google Docs know that you can select a word(s), a sentence, a paragraph or more, and highlight it a particular color. With the Highlight Tool Add-On, you can not only highlight, you can also create, label, and organize sets of…
Assessment Over Evaluation in Helping New Initiatives Thrive was originally posted on his EdTechResearcher blog on EdWeek. Separating assessment from evaluation is one way that schools and educators can start having healthier conversations about change and improvement. In a recent conversation with my colleague Peter Senge about the differences between assessment and evaluation, he had this to say: “I really think the word ‘evaluation’ is wrong. Not wrong in the sense that it doesn’t have any meaning, but I think there tends to be a real confusion. I find this confusion particularly in the education sector (less so in business)…
This is a post from Guest Instructor Shaelynn Farnsworth. HyperDocs or “HyperLearning” as I prefer to call it, involves a well-crafted digital lesson for student use which engages them in inquiry-based learning and can differentiate learning in the classroom. It typically involves the hyperlinking of material, resources, tasks, and information students can access from a single document or access point. HyperLearning is most commonly associated with Google Suite for Education because of the cloud-based and collaborative options provided by Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Forms, etc. but anything with a link can be used in HyperLearning. In classrooms around the world…
This post was orginally written on Sabba Quidwai’s blog, AskMsQ Creating a digital portfolio is one of the most important choices you can make for your career. Here are five pieces you should include to create a digital portfolio that will get you noticed. Do you have a blog or website? Do you have a piece of media or written work that you’ve published about a piece of work that you are proud of? Do you have a professional learning network? Can you share an example of how you communicate and collaborate with other people in a professional setting? Can…
In her article Digital Portfolios: The Art of Reflection, Beth Holland points out that when students reflect on their learning experiences, “they become more aware of the processes and strategies that make them successful, allowing them to learn from their successes as well as their challenges or failures.” Thus, a reflection journal that also includes video screencasts not only provides students with the opportunity to look back and reflect on their work, but also facilitates a media-rich experience for doing so. Fortunately, Google Slides offers two great features — the ability to easily create links to outside content and the ability…
When employing Design Thinking in the classroom, documenting each step in the process presents a challenge to teachers as well as students. However, with the multimedia capabilities of Book Creator – which will soon be available on ALL devices including Chromebooks – one app offers up a robust solution to this problem. First, with Book Creator, students can use a variety of media to document their work. Next, teachers can create multimedia templates to guide and scaffold their students through the Design Thinking process. Finally, completed design books can be published in a number of ways, allowing students to showcase not only their…
SAS Writing Reviser is a terrific free Google Doc tool for helping students identify writing issues and improve their written work. Available as a Google Docs Add-On, SAS Writing Reviser analyzes a document for potential grammatical and syntax issues, highlights or lists the issues it finds, and provides information for resolving them. Once installed, SAS Writing Reviser is available for use in any Google Doc. Simply open the Add-On in Google Docs and it appears to the side of a Doc. SAS Writing Reviser contains 5 major sections: Sentence Economy, Sentence Variety, Sentence Power, Sentence Clarity, and Support Tools. Sentence Economy…
