Student self assessment is a meta-cognitive teaching strategy proven to have a huge impact on student achievement. It allows students to see the progress they are making toward learning targets and that the purpose of class is to learn, not just earn a grade. The SAMR model can help us understand how using Google spreadsheets can transform a self assessment.
SAMR was introduced to the staff at our October institute days. It stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. If you would like more information on SAMR checkout Taking a Hammer to SAMR by Joe Robinson our Instructional Technology Coordinator.
The first rung of the SAMR model is Substitution. At this level, technology does not really enhance learning, it just replaces the paper and pencil with a screen and keyboard. For example, simply copy and pasting the self assessment into a Google spreadsheet and not using any of its functionalities would qualify as Substitution.
The second rung of SAMR is Augmentation. At this level, technology performs the same task but with some improved functionality. Students sharing the spreadsheet with their teacher to periodically check in during a unit would be an example of Augmentation.
The third rung of SAMR, Modification, is when technology begins to transform the old task. At this level, several times a week students can reflect and track their progress toward learning targets by updating the same spreadsheet. Teachers can see student growth by using the revision history function to see previous versions of a document. Students can also demonstrate their comprehension of the learning targets by posting links to artifacts of their learning. Now the spreadsheet is not just a self reflection but a digital portfolio.
The last rung of SAMR is Redefinition. In this rung, technology allows for new tasks that were previously inconceivable. Students can neatly organize all the important unit information into several sheets of the spreadsheet. For example, one sheet can include essential questions and resources. Another sheet can contain key terms, definitions, and images that represent each term. The spreadsheet is now a well organized digital portfolio that include all the important unit information which students can continue to revisit and update during a unit of study. Checkout a sample spreadsheet for a unit of study in Economics.
December 8-14th is Computer Science Education Week. Last year, 15 million student gave coding a try and this year it’s estimated that 100 million student will join worldwide.
What is this Hour of Code? It’s the first step to showing students what computer science is about. We are lucky to have a great Computer Science program here at BHS, and this is the opportunity for more students to trying coding. Hour of Code is a self directed activity that can be completed by students.
Why Hour of Code? Once students see what they can create, it inspires them to keep learning. No previous experience is required and students get to learn at their own pace. The basics of computer science help develop creativity and problem-solving skills of 21st century learners.
Try It!
Give it a try and find out how engaging coding can be for students. Start by visiting https://holidays.madewithcode.com/project/lights to create a pattern that will light up one of the christmas trees in Washington DC. Then try one of the coding tutorials and activities at http://code.org/learn. A good one to start with is Angry Birds!
If you would like to participate in the Hour of Code event during December 8 - 14th, visit http://hourofcode.com/us for more information.
Google Forms are an assessment tool that have become popular with a lot of our staff. I’ve seen staff use Forms to survey students, create self grading quizzes, bell ringers and exit tickets. Forms allow you to include a variety of question types, embed video and images. Responses immediately populate into a spreadsheet. Checkout the Edtech Website for a tutorial on Google Forms.
Creating and administering a Google Form is the easy part. The real challenge is determining what to do with all the data after collecting it. On our October Institute days, we defined a formative assessment as any assessment during the learning process that is used to modify teaching and learning activities for the same group of students. Below are two strategies you can use to manage the data in a Google Spreadsheet and quickly make adjustments to teaching and learning activities.
First, use the summary of results feature to get an aggregate view of student responses. This feature shows you a bar graph or pie chart for each question. In addition, you see the percent of students that choose each response. Use this view to immediately clear up any common misconception or sticking points. Simply click “Form” and “Show summary of responses.”
Another tip is to set up conditional formatting within the spreadsheet. Conditional formatting will color code the spreadsheet, so that you can instantly pinpoint individual students that are grasping the concepts and which ones need further intervention. Checkout the tutorial below to learn how to set up conditional formatting in a Google Spreadsheet.
Stop by TPACK Tuesday this week to discuss Google Spreadsheets and conditional formatting.
Padlet is a great tool that has become popular with a lot of our staff over the last year. I’ve heard staff mention they like padlet for the following reasons:
Its free, flexible, and user friendly.
Students do not need an account to add to padlet walls.
You can add text, images, and video to padlet walls.
Padlet walls can be embedded in a learning management system, wiki, or blog.
At TPACK Tuesday this week, we will discuss two ways to use padlet that you might not have thought of.
Keep all of your web resources organized with the padlet extension. This can be a big time saver when planning out your lessons!
Create an interactive graphic organizer. Checkout the sample venn diagram below.
This week at TPACK Tuesday we will go over EduCanon. Our district recently got an upgrade to the premium version! Checkout our earlier post on EduCanon to learn more. This week everyone in attendance will get a TPACK t-shirt produced by Brian Mathien's Graphic Arts class. We hope to see you there!
How have you dealt with workflow since we went one to one? Are you frustrated with the mass amounts of emails you can get when students share google documents? We have a solution! Starting November 18th, you can take a free online Google Basics for Teaching course. In this course, you will learn how to use Google Apps for Education tools to enhance the efficiency and innovation of your teaching in a one to one classroom.
This is an online course that can be completed at your own pace when you have time! It consists of text lessons, videos, practice activities, and a final project. It is divided into the following units:
Research and Communicate: search for online resources and distribute information to school communities.
Create and Share: make online documents and foster collaboration using word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and survey tools.
Enhance Classroom Experiences: use online tools to build community, save administrative time, and add visual resources to lessons.
During our October institute days, we discussed the impact formative assessments have on student learning. This week at TPACK Tuesday, we will discuss a formative assessment strategy that can provide students immediate feedback on concepts and key terms covered in any content area. We call it Tic Tac Tell.
First open up a Google Document and create a tic tac toe board with three columns and three rows. Enter key terms and concepts from a unit of study into each of the boxes. Tell students they need to create one to three sentences demonstrating their understanding of the key terms and concepts in the grid. The only requirement is that the terms/concepts selected must make a tic tac toe. This is a great way to have students make connections between key terms and concepts covered in any unit of study.
Now lets integrate a little technology to give students immediate feedback on their responses. Have students anonymously enter their sentences into the quick question open response option in Socrative. As a class you can provide feedback to students by discussing each of the responses. Since students entered their responses anonymously no one will feel singled out. To spice things up a little more, you can use the voting option in Socrative to determine the best response in class. If you need help with Socrative, check out the Socrative tutorial on the Ed Tech Website.
We hope to see you in the collaboration room this Tuesday!
During the October institute days, the BHS staff were introduced to the SAMR model and ideas to engage students using technology. As a follow-up, here are the SAMR resources that were used in the presentation.
+Kathy Hempel and +Marijana Jensen recently taught me how to extend the Mac screen, which allows you to show a video on the smartboard and work on another screen. Kathy is the librarian teacher at Station middle school and Marijana is a Technology Support Assistant in the district. They put together the directions below. Thanks for sharing Kathy and Marijana!
Rob Ridenour recently showed me Learnerator, a formative assessment tool for Advanced Placement courses. Learnerator has thousands of practice questions with solutions for all the following AP courses: AP Biology, AP Calculus AB/BC, AP Chemistry, AP Comparative Government, AP Computer Science, AP English Language, AP English Lit, AP Environmental Science, AP European History, AP French Language, AP Human Geography, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Physics 1 & 2, AP Physics C - E&M, AP Physics C - Mech., AP Psychology, AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish Lit, AP Statistics, AP US Government and Politics, AP US History, and AP World History.
As students answer questions, they get immediate feedback. Questions are also aligned to learning objectives, which allows you to track student progress over time. The free version gives students access to easy and medium difficulty questions. Simply go to www.learnerator.com and create an account to get started. Give your AP students the practice they need!
This week at TPACK Tuesday we will discuss Movenote. Movenote is a free tool that allows you to easily create video of a presentation. A teacher or student can take a presentation, document, or series of images, upload them to Movenote, and record themselves explaining what is being viewed in the presentation.
Movenote can be a powerful tool for student reflection. After going over a set of problems/questions in any content area, ask students to take one problem/question they missed and explain why they missed it using Movenote. Below are some other ideas for Movenote.
A well used video can help students make connections to ideas and concepts. The problem is many students miss key parts of the video simply because it is hard to keep their attention. EduCanon to the rescue! EduCanon is a great tool that I recently learned about from +Tony Venetico. It allows you take videos from Youtube, Vimeo, TeacherTube, etc. and insert reflective pauses, multiple choice questions, and audio clips. You can even track student responses to ensure they watched the video and were engaged. Whether you use video to hook your students into a topic or flip a lesson, EduCanon can turn students from passive learners to active learners.
What's all this buzz about Google Classroom? In anticipation of the upcoming TPack Tuesday, check out this short preview of what Classroom can do for you. Want to learn more? There's a new Google Classroom Learning Module on the BHS EdTech website with some great resources and ideas. Check it out and stop by the Innovation room (formerly Library Lab 1) on Tuesday, September 30th to set up your Google Classroom or learn and share ideas on how to use your existing Classroom.
The day has finally come! TPACK Tuesdays will start tomorrow 9/23/14! We will meet in the collaboration room of the library. You can view dates and times for all TPACK Tuesday on the Ed Tech Website. TPACK stands for Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge. It is a framework that explains how to coordinate content knowledge, pedagogy, and technology to enhance student learning or make you more efficient. This week, we will discuss using Google Apps to promote collaboration. Below is an example of how integrating Google Docs into the traditional Think Pair Share instructional practice can improve student collaboration. Think Pair Share involves students individually formulating ideas and then sharing these ideas with a peer and finally the class. Instead of having students individually write their thoughts on paper, have the entire class enter their thoughts into a Google Doc that can be edited by everyone. Right from the beginning of the activity, students will be able to see the thinking of their peers and build upon each others' ideas. Here is a sample, I did during an ERO class this summer. Here are the steps I took: Step 1 - Created a Google Doc that is editable by everyone. Step 2 - Shorten the Google Doc URL with tinyurl.com and enter it at the top of the Google Doc. Step 3 - Type a subjective question under the shortened URL. Step 4 - Create a one column table with enough boxes for each student in class. Step 5 - During class, students will type in the shortened URL and answer the question in one of the boxes. Step 6 - Give students time to review student responses with a partner. Step 7 - Discuss student responses as a class. If you would like to learn how technology can support other instructional practices, stop by one of our TPACK Tuesdays this year! We hope to see you there!
Welcome back for another year! We are excited to support everyone as we embark on a one to world adventure together. This year we will host TPACK Tuesdays. TPACK is a framework that helps to explain how to coordinate content knowledge, instructional practices, and technology to positively impact academic achievement. You can learn more about the TPACK framework by watching this 2 minute video:
TPACK Tuesdays will include sessions before school, during lunch periods, and after school throughout the year. Our goal is to provide a variety of ideas on how technology can support your content and pedagogy. Please take the survey below to give us some ideas on how TPACK Tuesday will best work for you.
If you log into Google Drive and notice a different look, congratulations, you are upgraded to the new Google Drive! Google is gradually rolling out a new interface this summer. If it's been rolled out to you, a message should appear when you login to Drive, or you can click on the gear icon in the upper left corner and choose "Experience the new Drive". If the new Drive doesn't appear yet, keep checking. More information can be found here and by watching the short video below.
Thanks to all staff members who attended the "How Do I Do That?" sessions throughout the year. These sessions provided a great drop-in opportunity to discover a tool or idea to take back to the classroom. As promised, each time a staff member attended a HDIDT session, their name was entered into a drawing for the end of the year. We are happy to announce that Kelley Sohler is the winner of the iPad! Kelley already has plans to incorporate the iPad into her teaching next school year. Be sure to watch for more HDIDT opportunities in the new school year. Congratulations Kelley!
As we close in on the end of the school year, it is always good to look back and reflect. The Digital Age Learning team has been hard at work this year modifying their curriculum for a one to world learning environment. We have seen an increase in efficiency and students demonstrating learning in creative and amazing ways. We have also experienced some technical issues, charging troubles, and frustration with a lack of time to adjust the curriculum. Even with all the ups and downs of the pilot program, the DAL team has produced some great resources to help everyone transition to a learning environment where all students will have a computer next year. If you have a DAL team member in your department be sure to thank them for being true risk takers and amazing teachers!
Classroom management can definitely be a big concern when all students have laptops. Be sure to read through these classroom management tips and trick for a one to world learning environment before next year.
Summer is the time of year when you can enjoy a well deserved break from the highly stressful routine of the school year. It is also a time when you actually have time to think about new ideas for the next school year. Checkout the learning modules on our Ed Tech Website for inspiration.
Twitter is another great place to look for new ideas and grow your professional learning network. Millions of educators share resources everyday on twitter...even in the summer. Checkout this module for help getting started with twitter.
I will leave you with a few words of advice directly from our DAL team members after teaching in a one to world learning environment this year. Have a great summer!
Don't try to do it all!! Take on one thing and master that before you tackle a new tool.
Start small. Don't get in over your head. Collaborate with other teachers. We are all a wealth of information.
You can still control when students are allowed to use computers and when they are not. There are times when the computers are helpful, and it is OK at times to not be using them.
Learn how to share and grade assignments electronically to save a tremendous amount of paper and be able to edit and share on the fly.
Help each other!
Use the laptops when it makes sense--to enrich your curriculum. The laptops do not have to be used every day, nor should laptops be used to replace good teaching. Think of them as a tool.
Set clear expectations from the beginning. I would definitely create a signal to let students know at the beginning of the period if they should have their laptop out or not. Be prepared for things to go wrong and ALWAYS have a plan B.
Have a back up plan and be flexible. Students tended to have their own way of doing an activity... if they get the same outcome let the student take ownership on how they get there.
Focus on just a few tools to implement in the classroom first. You can always add more but don't overwhelm yourself with too many ideas.
You, as the teacher, are still the most important element in the classroom. Technology is not automatically engaging just because it's technology, and it is most certainly not a replacement for a good lesson plan or a captivating teacher. It is a tool, and should be treated as such.
Google Drive for file storage on the Macbook
Staff that have made the move to the Macbook may realize that accessing your P folder is not an easy process. That is why we suggest using Google Drive for your file storage. Most people associate Google Drive with using the web based Google docs and sharing documents. Google Drive also offers a great storage solution for files on your Macbook. By installing the Google Drive App on your Macbook, Google Drive appears as a folder in Finder and is a place to store all your files. This includes images, Office documents, SmartBoard files and more. The files saved in Google Drive on your Macbook will sync to Google Drive in the cloud. So, all files saved locally (on your Macbook) will automatically be backed up to Google Drive in the cloud.
Watch this short video to learn the advantages of installing Google Drive on your Macbook:
Google Drive has many educational benefits such as tons of storage space and its collaborative nature however one of its greatest strengths is the ability to track edits of a document. This really allows you to not just see the finished product of a document but also the process. It truly is transformational in the classroom. I created the video below as part of my Google Certified Trainer application. It covers two ways to track edits in Google Drive.
TabCloud is a must have Google Chrome extension for any teacher that is on the go. This chrome extension will save your open tabs so that if you close your web browser it will open all of your saved tabs. Simply download the extension and follow the directions below.
It is that simple! This extension is great for teachers that switch between classes during the day. Watch the video below to learn more about TabCloud.
The other weekend several of us attended Edcamp Chicago. Edcamp, also known as an unconference, is free professional development where attendees set the schedule and lead the sessions, which are conversations not presentations. It is a great opportunity to meet other educators in the area and share ideas. Learn more about the Edcamp structure by watching the video below.
Of all the resources I learned about at edcamp, Quadblogging was especially intriguing. Quadblogging is a free service that gives your students’ blogs an authentic audience. Simply register your class for Quadblogging and you will be matched with three other classrooms. Each class will be spotlighted for a week allowing the other three classes to visit and comment on the blogs. In a four week period each class as an opportunity to be the spotlighted class. Learn more about Quadblogging from the video below.
If your Mac goes missing, Find My Mac can help you figure out where you left it. Watch the tutorial below to learn how to activate Find My Mac on your computer. Note: You will need an Apple account setup before you activate.
The Magical Mac Trackpad
The trackpad on the Mac is one of it's most productive features, but can also pose a challenge for those who are used to a PC environment. Mastering the trackpad is a key skill in making the transition to the Mac. Check out this short Youtube video to see the trackpad in action.
Storage space on the Macbook The Macbook Airs are designed to be light, portable and durable. The hard drive, which is the storage on the Macs, is flash based, which means there are no moving parts like the old hard drives on the PCs. This is the latest and greatest technology, but it also means we don't have an over abundance of storage capacity. Most of our Macbook Airs have 128gb hard drives and the students may have less. So it's a good idea to periodically check your storage capacity and clean out some commonly used folders such as "Downloads" and "Trash". Checking the storage on your Macbook is easy by following the steps below:
I have found private web browsing to be a useful tool in class for three reasons:
Students are sharing computers and need to sign into their Google Drive, while another student is logged in.
A student wants to sign into Google Drive on your computer to access a presentation or document for a presentation in class.
I want to show students how to sign into a site that requires my username and password.
In the three above scenarios by opening a private browsing window, I do not have to sign out of another account. The private browsing window thinks that I am a new user and will not remember my previous username and passwords. Follow the steps below to open a private browsing window.
In Google Chrome:
Click the three horizontal line icon in the upper right hand corner.
One of my biggest challenges in the past has been dealing with the many different reading abilities of students in one class. When I would give struggling readers a difficult reading and they saw a word they did not understand, immediately I would lose their attention. Earlier, I wrote about using Google to search by reading level to find different leveled texts, which is one solution to this challenge. Rewordify is also a web 2.0 tool that can help.
Basically, Rewordify takes any digital text and replaces difficult words and phrases with content that is easier to understand. It look like a great tool to help students break down difficult readings.
The site is extremely user friendly. Simply copy and paste text from a word document, pdf, website, or any other digital text into the site and hit “Rewordify text.” You can also copy and paste the url of a website into rewordify. Rewordify analyzes the text and creates a simplified version with difficult phrases and words highlighted and defined.
Before analyzing the document, you have the ability to select the difficulty level of the modified text. (The site uses the Brigham Young University 450-million-word Corpus of Contemporary American English to determine the difficulty of the modified reading.) Below are the six reading difficulties you can choose from:
Easiest: Reword as many words as possible to the simplest possible replacements.
Level 1: Reword almost all hard words.
Level 2: Reword the top 80% of hard words.
Level 3: Reword the top 60% of hard words.
Level 4: Reword the top 40% of hard words.
Hardest: Reword only the hardest words.
Potentially, you can have students all reading the same text but with 6 different levels of complexity.
Watch the video below to learn more.
Rewordify also have many different public domain books and news websites already analyzed and ready to use in the classroom.
In addition to changing the text complexity, Rewordify will create definition lists, matching sheets, flashcards, vocabulary quizzes, word bank activities, and cloze activities.
Give Rewordify a try in class and leave a comment in the section below on what you think.
Personalize your Macbook Does the upper right corner of your Macbook screen still say "Teacher"? If so, it's time to personalize your Macbook. The video below will show you how to set your name, password and Apple ID on your Macbook. This is important if you use the App store, and necessary for software updates.
Changing your password
You're a BHS staff member and you are starting to feel confident about using the Macbook. One morning you open your Groupwise email app and see "YOUR PASSWORD IS ABOUT TO EXPIRE". You try to cntrl+alt+delete on your Mac but there is no "cntrl+alt" on the keyboard. Panic starts to set in. Should you put in a tech ticket? What if it's too late?
No worries! Changing your password is as easy as accessing web-based Groupwise. Open the browser, login, a few clicks and you're done! (NOTE: If you are still using your laptop/PC, it's still best to make your password change from the PC to keep everything in sync).
I can't tell you how many times in the past, I have used a youtube clip one year and then have been unable to find it the next. Over the last few years I started to create youtube playlists to overcome this problem. Youtube playlists are a great way to organize and keep track of your favorite classroom youtube videos. I tend to organize videos by units of study, however you can organize them in any manner you choose. Every year, I go back to that unit’s playlist and all the videos are organized and ready for classroom use. It also comes in handy when I see a video that could potentially be useful in a unit we are not currently on, I can easily add it to the appropriate unit playlist for later. Checkout my playlist on World War II propaganda cartoons to see a sample. Here are some more sample playlists.
You can create playlist in two simple steps.
1) Click “Add to”
2) Choose from the playlists you already have created or create a new playlist.
This can save you a lot of time searching for that video you saw a month ago but now can’t find.
Playlists also allow you to designate a start and stop time to a video if you don't want to show students the entire video. To change the start and stop time, first go to www.youtube.com and sign into your @bsd220.org account. Then click the sprocket and video manager.
Next click "playlists" and "edit."
Click "More" and "Edit start / end times"
From there you can adjust the start and or end time for the video.
A favorite feature on the Mac is to setup multiple desktops. This sounds more intimidating than it is and once you discover this feature, it will change your workflow and simplify navigating between open applications. Watch the quick video below for this week's Tech Tip.
The session on differentiation in a 1:1 classroom was lead by Kristen Olsen and Megan Ryder, instructional coaches from Downers Grove District 58.
We discussed the concept of “Sandbox Time” to introduce students to new technology tools in the classroom. Instead of taking time to demo a new tool give students 5 minutes to play around with the tool and teach each other. This also gives students the time to "get the giggles out" when playing with a new tool. You might get some resistance at first from students but overtime they have found this to be a productive way to introduce new tools in class.
They have found a lot of success in giving students autonomy as a way to differentiate in class. The first example they provided was an iPad Menu or bingo card, where students choose three activities to make bingo. Here is a similar example but for a high school spanish class.
They are currently working on using Google Forms to create choose your own adventures. By using the Google Form Page Breaks, students are taken to different questions based on their answers to the previous questions.
TeenTribune was another great site shared during this session. This site allows teachers to differentiate by selecting grade level specific news stories as well as stories in spanish. Students can post comments, with all comments moderated by their teachers before they are published. There are also critical thinking questions and quizzes at the end of many of the articles.
Learn Zillion and Ten Marks are both free sites that help differentiate math curriculum.
Finally, they described how they set up a differentiated lesson. At the end of a class, they will have students fill out a google form as an exit ticket. They use that data to place students into groups for the next day. The next day’s instruction is based on whole class, group work, and individual practice. Here is an example for a differentiated math class.
1:1 Technology Learn Today Use Tomorrow was another great session I attended. It was led by Jim Rowley, Michael Lezon, Christa Morgan, and Ginger Shelato from Rochester Illinois. In this session I was introduced to the following tools, which all looked intriguing.
Online Newspapers is a great site that has newspapers from every country in the world. This site looks great for a social studies, english, or world language course.
Actively Learn is a site that can help students comprehend difficult readings. Teachers are able to embed questions directly into any book in the public domain, any web article, or PDF. The free version of the site also offers 150 commonly taught books with questions already embedded that teachers are able to modify. Teachers can then track student progress as they work their way through the text. Actively Learn looks like a great way to efficiently administer formative assessments as students work their way through difficult readings.
Illustrative Mathematics is a useful site for math teachers. This site creates word problems for algebra, functions, geometry, statistics and probability, and number and quantity courses.
One of the last sessions I went to was Teaching Tough Math Topics with Technology by Greg Tang and Tammy Worcester.
The main theme of Greg and Tammy’s presentation was to get students thinking in patterns to help them learn math. They developed a six step process to help students attack any word problem they come across.
They also developed Kakooma to help students think in mathematical patterns. Think of Kakooma as mathematical pushups for students. They recommended that students play kakooma for a little each week. To spice up KaKooma, they have their students compete against each other and enter their scores into a Google Form. The high score at the end of a period wins! Here is one teacher's perspective on using Greg Tang's math games in class.
Greg and Tammy also use self grading quizzes to efficiently give students formative assessments throughout a unit.
Did you know our students have district supplied gmail accounts? Starting in middle school, students can access their @bsd220.org gmail account. This is a great way for students to communicate with teachers and other students. Staff members also have an @bsd220.org gmail account that gets forwarded to Groupwise. So, if a students emails you, staff do not have to worry about checking email in two different places. Please encourage your students to use their @bsd220.org account for school communications. This account can also be used sign up for web 2.0 tools. The guidance department will also be utilizing the student Gmails for student communication and Naviance sign up. This video demonstrate how students access their school gmail accounts.
I had the pleasure of going to many neat workshops, but the one that I found most helpful was regarding ePortfolios. As an instructor, one of the most difficult parts of teaching 150 students is being able to reach every student. This is a way of giving students choice, and a way of showcasing their work. The virtual portfolio of work is done on GoogleSites, and it is open to parents. Students showcase their best graded work throughout the school year. This student led/generated website portfolio also shows student growth / understanding over time.
Videonot.es is a new versatile Google Drive app that allows you to watch videos and take notes at the same time. It looks like a great way to get student’s thoughts or questions on a video. The notes you take are synced to your Google Drive. In addition, when you go back to your notes, you simply click on a part of your notes and it will take you back to the relevant place in the video. Currently, Videonot.es supports Youtube, Khan Academy, Vimeo, Udasity, EdX, and Coursera videos.
VideoNot.es does appear to be pretty user friendly. After linking VideoNote.es to Google Drive, students can copy and paste a video link into the box on the left side of their screen and click load. Once the video loads, students watch the video on the left side of the screen and take notes on the right side. Since all files sync with Google Drive, students can easily go back and access their notes at a later time. Google Drive also allows students to efficiently share notes with you or other students. Checkout the ThingLink below to learn more about how VideoNot.es works.
So give Videonot.es a try if you are looking for a way to use video in your class. Using Videonot.es your students can take notes while watching the video, share those notes with others, and review their notes at any time. Check it out at www.videonot.es and let us know what you think or if you need any additional support.
Recently on twitter, someone tweeted out this link to free Goolge courses on improving your search skills. I took the advanced search course last year and learned quite a bit. Basically there are an assortment of videos that you watch and then complete some type of evidence of understanding. If you have time this summer check it out. I do believe it helped me become a more efficient searcher and saved me time in the long run. In the meantime, try out my top five search tips that I learned from the course. These are definite time savers!
1. Use quotes to search for an exact set of words or a phrase.
"Abraham Lincoln"
Using quotes can narrow down your search results. For example if I were to search for Abraham Lincoln I get 40,000,000 results, however by adding quotes I cut down my search results to 7,480,000. Still a lot but more manageable.
Note: only use quotes if you are looking for an exact phrase, otherwise you could be excluding results.
We all have our favorite sites to find lesson plans and teaching ideas. You can use the site: operator to efficiently find things on that site. For example, one of my most trusted history sites has always been www.teachinghistory.org. If I want to find all of the teaching materials on www.teachinghistory.org that involve Abraham Lincoln, I would type in “Abraham Lincoln” site:www.teachinghistory.org. Notice I also included quotes around Abraham Lincoln to narrow my search down even more.
You can also search within a specific domain like .org or .edu. For example I might try “Abraham Lincoln” site:edu
3. Search for a specific file type
filetype:pptx
Search for a specific file type such as .pptx, .pdf, .xls, or .docx. I use this all the time to find power-points that I can modify to fit my needs. For example, if I were looking for power-points on Abraham Lincoln I would type “Abraham Lincoln” filetype:pptx. I have also found a lot of success looking for readings that are classroom ready by searching for a pdf. I might type in "Gettysburg Address" filetype:pdf to find a classroom ready reading on the Gettysburg Address.
4. Search within a specific date range
Google allows you to search for web content by a date range. You can only access this feature after conducting your initial search and clicking on “Search tools” and then “Any time.” From there you can choose the date range you would like to search. This feature helped me identify why Microsoft office products were crashing after we updated the Mac operating system to Maverick. I searched for Mavericks “Powerpoint” and chose “Past year” because I know Maverick was recently released. This helped me narrow down my results and quickly identify a solution.
You can also use this search trick in class with your students. If you are doing a current events assignment, teach them this trick and require them to find a current event articles published within the last year. It is also great to search for primary sources. Google has digital newspapers dating back to the 19th century! You can search through the newspaper archives for classroom material or even better have students search the database for primary sources. Below is a screencast I created last year for my US History class.
5. Search for content based on reading difficulty: beginner, intermediate, and advanced
Google allows you to filter your search by reading levels. First type in your search query. Then click “Search tools,” “All results,” and “Reading level.” Finally, click the reading level and Google will filter your results. This is great to find differentiated readings on the same topic.
Do you have any go to search filters? Add them to the comment section below.
.jpg)
.jpg)
