All Roads Lead to Chrome...Cast for Education

Teach and Learn From Anywhere in the Classroom

Do you ever have students hold up whiteboards to show their answer? Maybe put student work under the doc cam? Do you ask students to share a document with you so you can share it with the class? Now you can do all of these things with a Chromebook and a projector. The ability to cast with a Chromebook is now here for Jeffco. Similar to using an iPad with Air Server, Cast for Education lets you share your computer screen from one Chrome browser to another.

Teachers invite individuals or groups of students to cast by selecting individual email addresses or   by inviting classes that are set up in Google Classroom. Students have the choice of casting one tab or their entire browser. Teachers will be prompted to accept or deny the requests. Sharing ideas and thinking digitally is easier. Now teaching and learning can happen anywhere in the classroom. 

Things to Know:

It is free.

Only one screen can be casting to the teacher's device at a time. 

It DOES work with Chromebooks, desktops, and laptops.

It DOES work in a BYOD environment

It does NOT work with iPads.

Here are some directions to get you going or contact your Ed Tech Specialist for help:

Cast for Education on the Ed Tech Website

'Keep' your To-Do Lists Organized with Google Keep

Are your work and personal spaces cluttered with sticky notes reminding you what you need to get done? Do you ever wish you could easily collaborate on your to-do lists or keep them all in one handy place? If so, Google Keep might just be the tool you didn't know you needed.

Check out these benefits of Google Keep:

• Add audio, drawings, photos, lists and checklists to your "stickies."
• Keep is available on your computer and other mobile devices (smart phone and iPad).
• Set time and location reminders so you don't miss a thing! 
• Collaborate on a individual "stickies" by adding another person's email address. When another person is added, you can see their changes in real time! 
• Change the color of your "stickies" to highlight important lists. 
• Filter your notes by different attributes to find things quickly.
• Archive old "stickies" so you can refer to them again, without having them take up space on your screen. 
• Copy your note to a Google Doc for even more options! 

Watch this quick tutorial to learn how to get started with Keep! Finally, don't "Keep" this great tool to yourself, show it to your students so they can collaborate and stay organized, too! 

Use Schoology for Individual Reflective Online Journaling

Reflection is a crucial element of modern pedagogical systems. Today’s educational practices place a high importance on the ability for students to self-assess and build meta-cognition through reflection. Using Schoology for this task makes this work easy for both the students and teacher. Using digital journals, students can journal on their own device, on a classroom device or from home.

Building individual discussion threads only one time for each student using Schoology discussions is an easy way to support this practice. The following presentation identifies 4 easy steps to set this up.

Some Benefits:

• This method provides privacy between you and the student.
• Able to start conversation and follow-ups with students.
• Doesn’t have to be graded/assessed.
• Posts are ongoing, chronological and archived.

Are you ready to start your students in digital journaling? Ask your school Digital Teacher Librarian or Educational Technology Specialist for support in getting started.

Using Google Slides for collaborative (and online) Classroom Newsletters

Isn’t it time you started creating e-newsletters? Watch this video and, you will learn how to use Google Slides to create striking and informative newsletters that can be displayed on your classroom website (using Google Sites) or shared via a link using email. Be prepared to learn techniques that will:

• Quickly communicate what is happening in your classroom.
• Inform parents of upcoming events.
• Share moments captured electronically.
• Allow you to design a flexible newsletter format.
• Allow you to maintain an online newsletter archive.
• Allow you to work collaboratively with your teammates.

Link to video: How to Create Classroom Newsletters using Google Slides

New: Google Slides Q and A

Do you use Google Slides with your learners? Do you want to be able to honor your participants questions, without stopping the flow of the presentation? Do you want your participants to be able to communicate with each other and with the presenter to discuss the learning and to answer each others questions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the new Google Slides Q and A feature might be just what you are looking for!

Google Slides Q and A is available on all slide decks when the user is ready to begin presenting their slides to an audience. When this feature is enabled, a separate browser window will open, in which participants can pose questions or leave comments to both the presenter and other participants. They may do this using their name or in anonymous mode. Additionally, participants may escalate or deescalate a comment or question, raising it to the top of the list, so that it's not missed by the presenter.

View the presentation below to learn how to set up Google Slides Q and A in your next Google Slides presentation and give your learners a new avenue to communicate!

Annotating Documents using Google Classroom

While you were away enjoying your summer, Google Classroom came out with brand new feature that allows both teachers and students to annotate PDF's and JPG's using the Google Classroom mobile app. Previously, students and teachers would need to have another app, such as Notability, to annotate documents.

Annotation tools within Google Classroom include the eraser, pen, marker, highlighter, and text tool. Using these options, Students can use the annotation feature to draw, sketch, notate, and write out their thinking. Check out the presentation below to learn how to use the annotation features within classroom!


Think beyond the limits of worksheets! Imagine how students could capture their thinking by taking a photograph of a text they are working with and could mark up the document using their annotation features to show their thinking. No more sticky notes in text books that make it difficult for a teacher to view!

Not only can students annotate their thinking, teachers can, too! Teachers can select a different pen color and provide feedback to their students on the same document previously annotated by students. Teachers have the same annotation tools as students. Just remember to return student assignments in Classroom in order for students to see the feedback on that assignment.

To use the new annotation feature, you will need to make sure your students and teacher iPads have the most updated version of Google Classroom. To update your Google Classroom app, delete the app off of your iPads and reinstall it through the Jeffco App Catalog. Don't worry, you will not lose your classes and data, as that information is saved in the cloud.

Here's the official announcement from Google, published August 17th.

Engaging Students in Constructive Communication: The Backchannel

What is "The Backchannel":

The backchannel is a digital conversation that runs concurrently in a face-to-face interaction. For example, adults might turn to Twitter to join a digital conversation while watching a presidential debate or an awards ceremony. Where as, we might ask our students to engage in a literature discussion while listening to a read aloud or analyze information during a geography lecture.  A range of tools can be used to facilitate this exchange.  When working with students, Schoology, Padlet, and Today's Meet are all quick and easy tools which can be used to hold backchannel discussions in order to engage all your students in digital conversations that increase engagement, provide spaces for DOK questioning, and build a digital footprint of thinking and learning.

Why would I use the backchannel with students?

Click on a grade level to read how real life teachers engage their students in the backchannel in order to: increase processing time, give a voice to all students, engage in collaborative writing environments, practice increased listening skills, allow students thoughts to develop over time, and to make thinking visible. 

Grade Level:	Tool:	Example:
Primary Grades	Padlet	Backchanneling while reading a NF text with 1st grade
Intermediate Grades	Today’s Meet	Backchanneling during a read aloud in 4th grade
Middle School	Today’s Meet & Google Docs	8th grade Geography class: Collaborate and Curate
High School	Today’s Meet	Socratic Seminar and the Backchannel for “The Alchemist”

Teacher Considerations

Will utilizing a backchannel conversation bring down comprehension?

Listening and writing about related topics is different than multi-tasking.

"...[C]ognitive psychologists make a distinction between task switching and parallel processing. Task switching involves the rapid alternation between two or more tasks. In contrast, parallel processing involves the simultaneous performance of two or more [related] tasks." (Carriera et al., 2009)

Will students be inappropriate online?

Providing our students with authentic writing opportunities allow them to practice digital citizenship skills. Just like any classroom routine, setting up clear expectations and rules is an important step. Consider this rubric created for backchannel contributions. 

Teachers should always be a presence in student discussions, whether as a contributor, or posting the backchannel chat on the board for all to see. 

Photo credit: Silvia Tolisano Rosenthal 

Device Limitations

Not all students need to be on a device; consider designating roles.  In a Socratic Seminar model, some students are engaged in a face-to-face discussion while others are on devices for the backchannel. 

Photo Credit: Silvia Tolisano Rosenthal

Looking for more? 

Visit our Jeffco Educational Tech webpage for additional resources or support from an Ed Tech Specialist in getting started. 

Navigating the "New Google Forms"

If you have recently created a Google form, you may have noticed a new purple bar in the header. As Google continues to update their products and meet the ever changing needs of their users, a new version of Forms is in the works. To check out this new format, click on the purple bar to enter the new Google Forms. This update features a cleaner, more user friendly and streamlined look. Simplified floating tool bars have been added to follow you through the creation process and text heavy menu bars have been removed. While most of the features remain the same, there are a few additions that were not available in the past and a few missing features that still need to be integrated.

Fun new features

Consistent with the old version, users still have the option to use design templates to make their forms more interesting. The new version contains updated options, fun animations and artistic elements, as well as the ability to use a logo or school image for instant customization.





Real time response

The new Google Forms provides an additional way to view your responses. The option for populating responses in a spreadsheet is still available, additionally, you can now view responses on demand without leaving your form. Consider using this option to perform a quick formative assessment in your classroom anonymously. As you can see in the image below, formative data can be easily collected and displayed to assess student learning.

Limitations

As of today, there are still a few common features of Google Forms that are not available. The data validation feature is currently limited and add-on’s are not enabled. These features are in the development process and will hopefully be integrated soon. If data validation and add on’s are critical to the functionality of your Google Form, don’t fret. You can easily toggle back to the old version of Google Forms by activating the running man icon in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.

Moving Forward

As with most things Google, there is no clear date set for when the new Google Forms will be fully functional and the old version obsolete. Take some time to explore the new version now while the old version is still available to fall back on. Have fun with the new Google Forms and as always let us know if you need assistance.

Need Ed Tech Support? Follow this link to contact us!

Students interacting with video: EDpuzzle

EDPuzzle is one of our favorite tools to ensure students are learning from video content and not simply skipping through the material without doing any thinking. To get students to interact with the content, you can add voice or text comments; create multiple choice questions to make them predict possible outcomes, or short answer questions for students to summarize their learning on the topic.

Questions are inserted along the video timeline and, with a check box, you can ensure students answer the questions before they proceed.

Searching for educational content within EDPuzzle is simple and intuitive; or you can upload your own videos. Students join your online class using an access code, and then you can track their progress through your video lessons.

The EDpuzzle iPad app is easy to use. Sharing EDpuzzle videos in Google Classroom is a click of a button in My Classes (as long as the due date hasn't passed).  There is also a handy Edpuzzle Chrome extension which enables you to save YouTube videos directly to your EDpuzzle account.

Richard Byrne at freetech4teachers.com demonstrates creating a lesson:

By creating a Students Project, you can have students annotating video to point out salient points of their learning using voice or text comments and adding questions.

Another benefit of Ed Puzzle: it allows you to bypass the district filter, so that students can watch videos on their own device, on their own time, at their own pace!

Need Ed Tech Support? Follow this link to contact us!

Screencasting for Communication and Supporting a Flipped Classroom

In our modern world, there are many resources available to teachers for instructional videos; YouTube, Khan Academy, and Vimeo all provide teachers with seemingly endless options. However, sometimes it can be very difficult to find a video that specifically meets all of your needs. Screencasting is a simple creation and communication tool that teachers can use to provide individualized instruction. Many teachers find screencasts beneficial because they capture your voice and activity on a computer screen rather than just a lecture on a video. This allows teachers to easily explain procedures and processes or show a slide deck that accompanies a class lecture. The opportunities for screencasting are endless for classroom use.

Screencasting can be a valuable tool to help teachers flip their classrooms. This paradigm shift is based on a learning model where direct instruction happens outside of the classroom during individual learning time and space. Students consume content at home and then come to class prepared to engage. The classroom then becomes an interactive learning environment where the educator provides individualized guidance through deeper learning of concepts. Screencasts allow teachers to provide students with direct instruction on demand, freeing up class time for deeper learning.

The following short screencasts will show you how easy it is to create a screencast using a free tool, Screencast-o-matic and upload to YouTube. The free version of Screencast-o-matic allows you to create a screencast up to 15 minutes in length with basic editing capabilities. The paid version ($14.99) of this tool allows you to record videos up to 2 hours in length, gives you more editing capabilities, and eliminates the Screencast-o-matic logo on the bottom of your screen. Camtasia is another great option for screencasting software with greater editing capabilities. This software costs $299, however, the company offers a 30 day free trial.

Creating a screencast:

Uploading your video to YouTube:

Need Ed Tech Support? Follow this link to contact us!