Links You’ll Love
Google Assignments is a new feature that allows you to assign via Google Docs, creating a unique document per student. It’s separate from Google Classroom and in beta testing right now. One of its coolest features is the ability to analyze authenticity (in other words, plagiarism). Sign up to beta test here.
Did you know you can investigate artworks, collections and stories from around the world via the Google Cultural Institute? Would you like to “get to know” Sigmund Freud or Frederick Douglas? Learn about the invention of the espresso machine? Visit the Google Cultural Institute here.
Links You’ll Love
Mathschase is a fun site to review multiplication. No sign up required and looks like it’s completely ad-free.
If you’re a fan of Boomerang, you’ll be happy to know that now you can schedule your Google emails right in Gmail. You’ll notice that there’s a little drop down menu next to “Send” – just click on that and schedule when your email will be sent.
Hyperdocs
|
The Technology: Hyperdocs
If you’ve made a commitment to use more technology in your classroom this year, Hyperdocs is a good way to begin. While encouraging and supporting technology use, it still puts educational goals front and center. What is a Hyperdoc? A Hyperdoc is a Google Doc that allows teachers to use the structure provided by a Google Doc to create lessons with engaging media, visual appeal, inquiry learning and opportunities for collaboration. Basically, it’s like an old-time worksheet, but with superior, 21st century tools. With one simple link, students can access a Hyperdoc that contains instructions, links, tasks, multi-media and many more innovative features that can help get kids engaged and thinking. How can I learn more about Hyperdocs? The Hyperdocs website has great information and resources, including sample Hyperdocs, templates, a how-to tutorial, and links to Pinterest board collections of Hyperdocs. You can also check out the Hyperdocs YouTube playlist for some great explanatory videos. How do I make my own Hyperdoc? The easiest way to make your first Hyperdoc is to use one of the sample lesson plans on their website, and customize it for your own content. This basic lesson-plan template, for instance, details each part of a lesson (exploration, application, and sharing, for example), and gives suggestions for each step. This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here. |
Links You’ll Love
If you’re a Google Classroom user, check out this post to learn about some of the updates to this awesome Google app.
When I hear “place mats,” I think of dinner, don’t you? This blog post, though, at discusses place mats as an instructional model used to combine independent thinking with collaboration. The post gives step-by-step instructions to use GAFE to create a collaborative template. Very nice!
I’ve mentioned GoNoodle before, but I wanted to remind you about this great source for movement videos. They’ve added an indoor recess section with videos that last up to 19 minutes. There are Zumba activities, secret handshake partner exercises, and brain boosters for great short movement breaks as well.
Versal is a new platform to create online learning experiences. You can embed video, create quizzes, and add timelines. This is an amazing and robust website. I’m thinking about creating a workshop to explore this over the summer – let me know if you’re interested.
Links You’ll Love
Power Google Tip: Need to look something up or search for an image while working in Google docs on a computer (not iOS)? This is terrific – go to Tools > Research to open a Research pane. There you can search the dictionary, for an image, among quotes and more. You can even specify that you want to find images that are copyright free. Slick!
Movenote is a slick website where you can easily create movies. You can upload existing content like PDF files or jpgs, or you can record using the computer’s camera. You can link it with your Google account to access your Google drive docs, too. Movies can be shared, downloaded or embedded. There’s a free iOS app, too!
I still have nightmares about the time I was in charge of timing students during a Lag BaOmer relay race. I just couldn’t keep those kids straight! Clearly, I needed the Meeting Monopolizer app, which Daniel shared with me this week. You can read more about this 99 cent wonder here. It was originally designed to track which meeting-goer monopolizes your meetings, but apparently people have found more and more uses for it, including timing relays and tracking class participation.
Links You’ll Love
How BIG is Google? Check out this great documentary:
Shake Up Learning is a website that features tips and techniques for educational technology, including Google, mobile learning and social media.
Well, now, this is interesting…here’s a nicely crafted revision of the traditional rubric. Instead of working on all those columns and rows, why not try the single-point rubric? Very cool! Read more here (and I love the name of the website, too!).
Google tip: If you’ve been using Google Classroom, be sure to check out this blog post to get an idea of some of the new features that were introduced this week.
How to use Google Forms to create a merged product
Like lots of schools, we have a tracking sheet where we, well, track some kids in academic areas, like missing homework, test grades, etc. For some time we have used a PDF document that the teachers filled out electronically. With our move to GAFE. I wanted to create a Google Form that would then merge into a separate document for each child.
With autoCrat I’m able to do just that.
I started with creating what I wanted the finished product to look like. Alternatively, you can start with the form itself. Let’s say we’re tracking a student’s missing homework assignments. The finished document might look like this:
Once you know what you want to communicate, you can create the form requesting the information.
Now, take a look at the headers at the top of the response sheet:
So now you want to add those column headers to the merge file in the appropriate places. The modified merge file looks like this:
So now we’ve entered some data into the Google Sheet via the Google Form, and here’s what the Sheet looks like:
To create the merge, you need to use autoCrat. You can find it here. Once it’s installed, go to Add ons and Launch it.
Choosing a New Merge Job allows you to set parameters like the template to use, the naming convention, and output (PDF or Google Doc). You also need to make sure that the merge tags match your spreadsheet headers. Click on Run merge to create your files.
The only thing I don’t like is that it pulls the date including a timestamp even if I don’t want it, but I’ve remedied that by using timestamp and making sure to format it to date only. But other than that, it works great and now we have PDF files to send to the parents!
Week One: 5th and 6th graders word processing with iPads
We are piloting using shared iPads for word processing in two of our language arts classes this year, and my sincere hope is that it’s going to get better. Admittedly, one week is not exactly an indicator of anything (which is why pilot programs last more that, well, a week), but the rollout has already had its issues.
This rollout was done in conjunction with our adoption of Google Apps for Education. Part of the reason for instituting GAFE is that we had eight year old laptops that are coming close to well past their useful life, an I was hoping to avoid buying more laptops. We’re pretty much a Mac shop (for lots of reasons), and even the least expensive Mac Air is more money than I’d like to pop right now. And we’ve had tremendous success in many of our classes with iPads, so I was interested in seeing if iPads would meet the needs of our LA teachers.
If we were going 1:1 with take home in these classes, I wouldn’t have worried about what’s going to happen to the students’ documents, but we’re not (and I’m not sure I see that next year, either). So, in order for iPads to be used by multiple students, their documents have to have somewhere to go. Enter GAFE.
Well, that sounds fine, except that I had had little experience with relying on the Docs as a word processor. I’ve used Google Docs on a laptop, and wasn’t unhappy with it, but there’s quite a bit of difference between the Docs app and the web-based version. And I’m pretty sure Google doesn’t really care about making it more user-friendly, since they’re really interested in our purchasing Chromebooks…
But this is what I’ve got. I’ve got two LA classes with beautiful iPads (and standalone keyboards) and no spellcheck. That’s the text you want to get in the middle of a meeting…
Well….um….no. Not exactly. There’s autocorrect, but that’s not the same thing. And if you’ve ever taught 5th and 6th grade, you know that “be sure to use spell check” comes out of your mouth a lot.
A lot.
Gulp.
So for my play time today, I’ve been playing with Docs, Pages and Textilus on my iPad and Google docs on my laptop to come up with a suitable workaround that will be palatable to my LA colleagues and doable by my 5th and 6th graders.
Here are my findings:
The only place students should have to log into Google is in the Docs app…not Drive or Safari. This is important because these are shared devices, so where you log in you must log out.
Tip #1 – accessing a spellchecker while using Google Docs app:
If you do this, you get autocorrect, but you also get little red dots beneath words that don’t appear in the dictionary:
- Create a new document and tap on the three little dots on the right (under the battery indicator)
- Tap on Share and export, and select “Save as Word (.docx)
- Docs will save your document as a new Word document with the .docx file extension. The original one is still there (with no file extension), so your kids will have to know which one to open.
- If you click on the little red dots now, you should see a checkmark next to Spellcheck.
Tip #2 — creating content using the Pages app and then saving to Google Docs
Pages on the iPad is lovely. The problem is that Pages documents are saved on the device itself, and aren’t available to the student outside of school. And, since multiple students could be using any one iPad at one time, the documents aren’t secure. A workaround is:
Make sure the student has logged into Docs
- Create a document in Pages, and then tap on the rectangle with the up arrow on it. This icon generally indicates a way to share or move an item.
- Choose “Open in Another App.”
- Tap on Word, and then Pages will convert the document.
- When the conversion completes, tap on “Choose App” at the bottom of the next box.
- Choose “Open in Docs,” and you should get a box asking if it’s okay to Upload Item to My Drive?
- Tap on Upload. The document will be available in the student’s Google Drive
Google – please add a real spell check to the Docs app, or next year it’s Macbook Airs for us.
About
Debbie Harris is the director of educational technology at the Sager Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook, IL. Involved in Jewish education for over thirty years, she has an education degree from Northwestern University with a concentration in instructional media and a master’s degree in professional Jewish studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is skilled in using and teaching desktop publishing, video editing, presentation and animation software; and consults and presents regularly on integrating technology into Judaic studies. Her students podcast, blog, edit video and create claymations. She co-chaired the technology track for CAJE 33 in Vermont, is a SMART Certified Trainer for SMART Notebook, and a 2011 recipient of the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
When not learning, teaching or writing about technology, Debbie likes to sketchnote and craft. She likes to knit, do calligraphy, sew, watercolor, paint fabric and just generally play with fun toys like scrapbooking supplies and anything with texture. Debbie travels to California every summer to paint tallitot with high school aged campers. Finally, she is incredibly proud of her two daughters; Lori, who teaches English at a community college; and Allie, who is the director of the URJ’s Camp Newman in California.
Look for her at:
Debbie Does Desktop
Flickr
Twitter
Diigo
YouTube
Ravelry
Email Debbie here
MuseForJews 