#EduGIF Guy. Speaker. Tech Integration Specialist. Google Apps for Edu Trainer. Nerd. #EduDuctTape Podcast Host.
In the 11th mini-episode, I’m sharing a discussion that I had with Special Education Consultant David Allan at the KySTE Conference in March. David shares some of the accessibility features available on Chromebooks. Also, I share a special announcement before the interview.
In the 19th regular episode of Season 2, I am sharing an episode with Catlin Tucker, author of Balance With Blended Learning, where we talk about how teachers can streamline feedback during class time so that they have less to do outside of class time. Catlin shares strategies from John Hattie and Mark Barnes as well as a handful of great tech tips to make feedback more efficient!
Check out some of Catlin’s mic-drop quotes from the episode below…
Today’s mini-episode was actually recorded back in early January before most people were aware of the coronavirus and well before the possibility of extended school closures came to those of us in the states. Ironically, I think that the strategies that Dan shared back in January could be incredibly useful in #RemoteLearning. If you are giving any feedback to students during remote learning, especially if it pertains to writing, please listen to this one!
In the 10th mini-episode, I’m sharing a conversation with Technology Integration Coach Dan Stitzel about the success that he had as a middle school language arts teacher with using Screencastify to give students feedback during the writing process.
As a father, I know how losing that face-to-face connection with teachers and classmates is effecting kiddos. I also know how much my own children have enjoyed Google Meets, Zooms, Facebook Lives, and Flipgrids with their teachers and classmates. So, when I heard about some of the fun things that Laura Lavery has been doing for her students, I knew that I wanted to share them! Here’s a guest post from Laura . . .
1. Creating a special theme for Zoom sessions
This is a way to spark student interest and make remote learning fun for all. For example, I hosted a virtual vocabulary egg hunt on Zoom. I created a Google Drawing and imported eggs with Spanish vocabulary on them. While we were on Zoom, I projected the Google Drawing and students had to translate the eggs.
Another successful Zoom session was our “Paw Party.” Students were encouraged to bring their furry friend and/or stuffed animal to Zoom. Everyone had a great time as it continued to build our online classroom community and have fun. The dogs and cats were literally all over the screens. I noticed a lot of smiles during this session in particular.
I want to get all stakeholders involved during Remote Learning and having a special theme definitely sparks inquiry from your students! Continue reading Guest Post: 10 Ways to Make Remote Learning Fun for Students
In the 18th full episode of Season 2, I share tips, ideas, and recommendations from multiple educators about supporting students with special needs during remote learning. We discuss different accessibility features and assistive technologies within Chromebooks, iPads, Google Chrome, Microsoft and more, as well as some best practices, accommodations, and modifications.
Thanks to my friends who shared: David Allan, Catherine Day, Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles, Angela Greene, Lauren Hawkins, Pam Hubler, Matt Meyer, Jennifer Pearson
Check out these quotable moments from this episode . . .
Continue reading #EduDuctTape Episode 40: Supporting Students with Special Needs in Remote Learning!
Wow. March 2020 has been quite a month. And buckle up, folks, because it looks like April is going to be more of the same.
For many educators, that means screencasts of lessons, assignments in learning management systems, and lots of time on Zoom or Google Meet.
But what about Formative Assessment? If we’re going to teach new content during these extended school closures caused by the coronavirus and COVID-19 (I’m not sure if we should, but that’s another post) then we need to know if students are comprehending that new content!
So, I put that question out to the Duct Tapers (listeners to my podcast, the Educational Duct Tape Podcast). I got a handful of answers, which I featured in Episode 39b of the podcast.
A week later, I reached out for even more ideas! On Wednesday 3.25.2020, I hosted a #EduDuctTape Twitter chat focused on this and 2 other #RemoteLearning concepts. So, based on the thoughts shared in the episode and the ideas shared in the Twitter chat, I’ve got a BUNCH to share with you! So let’s dig into it! Continue reading 16+ Formative Assessment Tools for #RemoteLearning!
If awesome features of Quizizz was a topic on Family Feud, I’m pretty confident that the memes would make it up onto the board.
But I’m definitely confident that your students would love it if they were working on a Quizizz set as part of their #RemoteLearning (or whatever you prefer to call it) and were surprised with the sight of their teacher in the memes. Their teacher! The same teacher that they’ve been missing for the last few weeks since they were last at school. The very same teacher that they’re bummed to not get to see any time in April (and possibly longer). Whether they admit it or not, it’s a little extra touch that your students would really get a kick out of.
So, when Allison Curry suggested it in Episode 39B of the Educational Duct Tape Podcast, I fell in love with the idea. But the best part of this idea is how easy it is to pull this off! Check it out in the #EduGIF below (and the step-by-step instructions under the GIF).
In the 3rd and final part of Episode 17 of Season 2, Jake continues his coverage of edtech ideas and suggestions for Remote or Home Learning during the covid-19 pandemic closures. In this episode, Jake shares the perspectives of 3 educators (plus his own) for tracking students’ progress during remote learning.
Teachers have been scrambling over the last week or so to figure out how to connect with and instruct their students during extended school closures. One of the first questions that many seeked to answer was “How can I do a synchronous video chat or lesson with my students?”
People rushed to test out Google Meet (formerly Google Hangouts), but red flags appeared quickly:
Well, Google for Education has reacted swiftly and effectively. Last night, they released an update to Google Meet for gSuiteEdu users. This update remedies the 3 issues listed above.
In my tests so far today, #1 and #2 above are already fixed. Issue #3, however, still persisted in my test and it looks like it’s because that part of the rollout won’t be quite as swift (the post lists that it may take as long as 2 weeks to roll out to everyone).
I have already seen some “too little, too late” comments on Twitter about this. I do NOT agree with that.
First off, if you switched to Zoom because of this issue with Google Meet, there’s no reason to switch back to Meet. You’ve got a solution that is working for you. Just stick with it. Don’t ask your students to learn a new platform.
Now, if you want to say “You were too late on this, Google!” slow. your. roll. Like every other tech tool that we’re using, Google Meet was not built for synchronous remote video lessons. They could’ve easily said “too bad, That’s not the intended use of Google Meet,” but instead they said “We’ll fix that for you.”
And not only that, but they went from becoming aware of the problem to fixing the problem within 1 week. 1 week! That’s tremendous.
Not only is that the kind of proactive, growth mindset, seeing a problem and fixing it mentality that we want our tech companies to have, it’s the kind of mentality that we want our teachers and students to have!
Think about that: they tried something out (essentially, a beta, as they call it in the tech world or a pre-assessment as we may call it in education), observed a flaw, listened to feedback and put improvements in place. In the classroom, we call that formative assessment. In the landscape of remote learning? We call that awesome.
In the 2nd part of episode 17 of Season 2, I continue my focus on the use of technology for #RemoteLearning, #HomeLearning or #DistanceLearning in the age of school closures for the coronavirus (covid-19). Multiple guests share their advice for formatively assessing students in these scenarios. Tools discussed include Quizizz, Zoom, Google Forms, Google Classroom, Screencastify, Edulastic, EdPuzzle, PearDeck, and Formative. Also, my son Cohen joins to show off his comedy chops.