Using videos to create complete lessons

If you are interested in flipping your classroom (where students watch the lecture at home and do the work in the classroom), you may be assigning videos as homework. There are a number of tools that let you modify your own videos (or videos from YouTube, Khan Academy and lots of other places) to get better information about how students are interacting with and learning from what they're watching. Two easy-to-use tools are EdPuzzle and Zaption. Both let you crop a video, add your voice and embed quizzes at specific parts of the video for student response. You can also view analytics (student quiz results, time spent on the videos, etc.) for each.

With EdPuzzle, you can log in with your GAFE account, and select a video from wherever you want. Then you crop it to use only the part you like. You can add a vocal overlay, or you can add audio notes (like text notes). You can also add as many embedded quizzes as you like, with open-ended questions, multiple choice, or "comments". EdPuzzle also allows you to set up classes (like Google Classroom) where you can see data on who viewed the video and how they did. Students do need to have an account to join a class (but they can also log in with their GAFE accounts). You can see an example here, although you'll need to join my class to participate.

Zaption is another tool with much the same functionality. It looks a lot like Google Drive in its interface, so it feels familiar and is pretty easy to use, but is intended for a broader market (EdPuzzle seems primarily for education). Zaption does have the option to add videos to a single lesson, so you can have multiple clips from different sources in the same lesson, which is very useful if you really want to flip your classrooms It also does not require that students join a class -- they can simply follow a link and enter their names. Here's a Zaption sample.

Both have "pro" features, which are paid accounts that can enhance functionality, but you can do most everything you might want with a free option.  Check them both out and see which works for you! This video below does a great side-by-side comparison of the two tools as well.

Web-based ways to design beautiful posters and infographics

Made with Canva in 15 seconds

One of the benefits (or limitations) of using Chromebooks and mobile devices in the classroom is our reliance on the design tools of MS Office, like brochures in Word or slide shows in PowerPoint. There are well-known web-based options for presentations, like Google Slides and Prezi for presentations, but there are also some great tools for posters, infographics and more.

Piktochart (www.piktochart.com) and Easel.ly (www.easel.ly) lets you create an infographic, report, banner or presentation graphic from a variety of templates. It provides a huge number of shapes, icons, backgrounds and fonts to beautifully customize a poster or document. You can import and display data in various ways and can even connect an infographic to dynamic data (like a Google Form that continues to populate). It's a good alternative to the design features of the Microsoft suite and an addition to the limited design options available in Google Apps for Education.

Canva (http://www.canva.com) is a beautiful and very easy-to-use option for posters, brochures, and other display formats. It also offers design tutorials, with lessons on using color, fonts, images and backgrounds, and even an introduction to branding.

There are Pro options for Piktochart, Easel.ly and Canva, but most of the features in the free versions are plenty for creative presentation of information.

Google Classroom update

For those of you using Google Classroom to manage and respond to students' assignments, there is a new Classroom app for both iOS and Android, which allows students to view class resources and interact with Classroom from their mobile devices. It's also now on the campus Chromebooks.

Check it out on the App Store for Apple devices or on Google Play for Android. You can also learn more from Google here.

If you want to know more about Google Classroom or other tech tools, please contact the library or sign up for a training here. 

"My Documents" no longer syncing to network

As you've heard, we are now utilizing the greater storage and flexibility of Google Drive over our network server. A few things to be aware of:

After you’ve restarted, you may experience a longer than usual “Welcome” screen while logging in: This means the computer is applying the new policy. Please be patient and be prepared to have a login time that may take from 5 to 20 minutes the first time you log in after you’ve restarted. This delay should only happen once, but if you experience it more than once, please put in a help ticket and we will look into it.

When you open your “My Documents” folder, there will be note at the top of the window stating that some library features are no longer available: This message is stating that the synchronization feature is no longer happening with our server and these files only exist locally on your computer.

The circular green synchronization app in your system tray may give messages that changes you make to any files in “My Documents” have not uploaded: These messages are related to the synchronization feature being disabled on the server’s end, but if you’ve already moved to Google Drive and work from it exclusively, you may not be seeing this message at all.

If you need assistance with installing the Google Drive Sync App or if you still feel you need more Google Drive training, please contact us.

Office 2013 rollout

As you know, we’re rolling out Office 2013 next week. (See the schedule below for when your area will be upgraded.) Here's a very short preview of the small differences between Office 2007 and your new Office suite: 

If you’d like extra training once you’ve gotten a chance to play with it, please sign up here:

http://bit.ly/1AHPxeB

or view some MS Office support videos here for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (especially Calendar basics).

Office Upgrade Rollout Schedule

3/2/15

A Building Downstairs: 6.30 (Office Staff, SpEd Office)

A Building Upstairs: 9.30

3/3/15

B Building Downstairs: 8.30

B Building Upstairs: 10.00

3/4/15

C Building Downstairs: 8.30

C Building Upstairs: 10.00

3/5/15

S Building Downstairs: 8.30

L Building Upstairs: 10.00

3/6/15

All Other Buildings: 8.30

If you are unable to teach without your computer during your floor’s designated timeslot, please let us know and we can schedule another time for you to give us your computer at a later date. If you are a person we’ve notified about getting a new computer, you will receive the Office update when you receive your new computer. We will not be upgrading student lab computers until a later time.

Educational Technology professional development opportunity

Silicon Valley CUE (Computer Using Educators) is holding its annual Teach Through Technology conference at the Harker School in San Jose on Saturday, March 7th from 8-3.

There are some great sessions on Chromebooks in the classroom, digital storytelling, design thinking, Google Apps for Education, technology in science and math classrooms, lots of web-based tools for teaching and learning, and lots more. 

Check out the listing of sessions and speakers at http://www.svcue.net/teach-through-technology.html. If 4 people register together, the 5th one is free. At least one Homestead teacher will be in attendance. Thanks to Andrea Westgate for the reminders!

Technology integration trainings for the spring semester

If you'd like to discover or improve some tech skills to integrate into your curriculum or workflow, check out the tech trainings below. We'll cover easy ways to grade with Google Apps, online video editors for classroom movie-making and other creative tools for students, improving workflow and reducing paper, and blogging with students. Please use the form below to sign up for one or more.

And don't forget to Subscribe to Tech for Teachers by Email