Adobe Spark Is a free web-based tool where learners are able to create visual content such as posts for social media, web stories, webpages, and animated videos. All learners K-6 are able to access Adobe Spark for Education by simply clicking on the Adobe Creative Cloud icon on the student gateway pages and logging in using their ELANCO email address and password.
How to Sign into Adobe Creative Cloud
Telling a Story with Adobe Spark
Adobe Posts
Allows learners to create an online graphic from text and photos.
Adobe Spark Pages
Learners can design and create single page websites using themes, text, copyright-friendly images, and embed videos from YouTube.
Adobe Spark Video
Learners can insert pictures, and record audio narration, as well as choose from a variety of background music.
Seesaw has updated the Skills section of their program! Skills help you gain a real-time understanding of how learners are moving toward their goals.
What is new:
Use a star rating scale of up to 6 stars
Tag skills to activities before sharing
Assign star ratings when you approve learner work.
Never used Skills before? Click on the Getting Started with Skills link to learn how to use this powerful tool.
Goal Setting:
The Seesaw library is full of activities for learners to capture, create and reflect on their goals. Make sure to check out other learner ideas in the Activity Collection
Sample Student
Finally, facilitators can now demo and respond to activities as if they were a learner in their classroom. Just make sure you enable Sample Student in Class Settings.
The district has recently purchased three sets of 30 Google Expedition virtual reality kits – one for each Elementary building. Now every elementary building has the ability to use virtual and augmented reality to immerse their students into the learning.
Google Expeditions allows teachers to lead students on over 700 virtual field trips with 360-degree views as well as the ability to use augmented reality that not only immerses students in a virtual setting but allows the setting to come to life right in front of their eyes.
Introduction to Google Expeditions
Watch this short introduction video to Google Expeditions to help you get started!
How To Get Started with VR
Perhaps the best way to get started would be to:
Watch the video above. This video will give you a brief overview of Expeditions and help you understand how it works.
Visit the website Tim and I created blog.elanco.org/vr – here you will find VR/AR Resources, classroom examples, as well as the Sign Out Sheets for each building. To sign out the VR kits simply click on the Sign Out Tab, select the building you work at, and select the dates that work best in your schedule and are still available.
Using VR does require some initial training before implementing it into your classroom. I will be periodically providing training on using the VR kits during my monthly Tech Tips throughout the year. If you are looking to implement them before the next Tech Tips, please reach out to me through email and I will be more than happy to train you how to use the VR kit.
All kits will be stored in your building tech’s office and will be delivered to your classroom on the day(s) of use. You are responsible during the week that you have the kits for keeping the charged. The kit will be delivered to your charged initially.
However, before leading your students through a Google Expedition Tour, teachers will need to participate in a training session or meet with Tim Leister or Adam Geiman to learn the skills of leading a lesson, as well as the proper maintenance of the devices.
Just announced: “the launch of Make-a-Movie, the newest addition to our suite of creation tools. Make-a-Movie empowers teachers and students to make their own BrainPOP-style movies, building scenes with images from our library or their own drawings. Moviemakers can then record narration, manipulate backgrounds, add cool transitions, and begin with a letter the way BrainPOP movies do.” – from BrainPop.com
Hello, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your summer days! There have been some exciting updates and releases this summer in the Google Apps ecosystem that I’d like to share with you, along with some other resources to help you jumpstart your technology integration efforts this year!
“…we launched Quizzes in Google Forms on Monday to help teachers quickly create, deliver and grade assignments or assessments. With Quizzes, teachers can select correct answers for multiple choice and checkbox questions to reduce repetitive grading. They can also enter explanations and review materials to help students learn. And to make sure students understand the lesson material, teachers can prevent students from sending themselves a copy of their responses. ” via the Google for Education blog
Exciting stuff! Check out a video tutorial here:
If you previously used the add-on Flubaroo to grade student Form responses, this post by Eric Curts gives a great comparison of the two features and when to use each.
Note: Stuck with anything in Google Apps? The Google Help Center is THE place to go to find the answers you need!!
Image via http://hyperdocs.co/about_hyperdocs
HyperDocs
As someone who built webquests for students in the early 2000s to promote interactivity with the web, HyperDocs appear to be a similar way to help students interact with online content in order to collaborate and create content of their own to build understanding. A HyperDoc is very simply a Google doc or Google Slides set that is built to include hyperlinks to resource sites, videos, images, and more to engage students in learning more about a topic. In order to make them most engaging, HyperDocs should include tasks for students and provide a variety of student-driven choice options when possible. If not thoughtfully designed, a HyperDoc can simply turn into a digitized worksheet. Try to avoid this at all costs by including maximum opportunities for student engagement, creation, voice, and choice!
Google Expeditions was a new program running at select schools last year, utilizing the latest in virtual reality (VR) applications to take students on global explorations. This summer it was announced that Google Expeditions is now available for use by all students! If you’re interested, talk to your building principal and consider applying for a Spartan Foundation grant to acquire devices and Google Cardboard viewers. The app is free for Android devices and is coming soon to iOS devices as well. Read more to learn about how students are using Google Expeditions!
There are many applications for Google Maps in the classroom. From math to social studies to geography and science connections, students can create custom My Maps, calculate distances, and explore landforms. Check out these resources on ways to use Google Maps in the classroom:
I know you love beautiful typography for your classroom creations… kiss Comic Sans goodbye with Google Fonts. Did you know that while you’re working in a Google doc, you can click on your fonts menu and browse all the way down to More Fonts…. to be taken to another collection of fonts you can add to your apps?
You can also visit the Google Fonts website to browse the collection of fonts to find exactly what you’re looking for. From this site you can select fonts by clicking the red + sign next to the font (you can even type in the textboxes to see how they will look with words you type often!) and downloading the font file to your device and installing for use in other applications outside of Google.
Wishing you a wonderful school year, filled with opportunities for you and your students to connect, collaborate, and create together! Don’t hesitate to reach out to me or Tim with any questions or needs!
Created by Georgina Tanaka via https://twitter.com/GtanakaTanaka/status/761965169517834240
#gafe4littles
Follow the hashtag #gafe4littles to learn more about ways to incorporate the use of Google Apps for Education with even the youngest learners! Educators Christine Pinto and Alice Keeler recently held the first #gafe4littles workshop in California and are sharing their resources via the hashtag and elsewhere. Keep an eye out for some wonderful things being shared, and don’t forget to share what’s happening in YOUR classrooms via the hashtag and your blogs as well!
As the end of the school year approaches, please take a few minutes to complete the survey and explore some new technology resources:
Digital Learning Tools at ELANCO Elementary – At the end of each school year, teacher input concerning the paid educational programs at ELANCO is very important. Please take a few minutes to complete theElem Digital Learning Tools Surveyto share your opinions on current programs, as well as to offer suggestions for future programs and professional development needs. One of our August in-service days will have sessions based on your suggestions.
New Q&A Feature in Google Slides – A newly released feature in Google Apps for Education provides the option for presenters to allow their audience to submit questions and vote on them during Google Slide presentations.
End of the School Year Backups– It’s approaching the end of the school year and teachers will soon be packing up their classrooms for the summer break. However, teachers should also consider packing up (or backing up) their digital classroom as well. Consider some steps that you could take to cleanup and secure your computer files, browser settings, and Email. Yes, email….Take the ‘Inbox Zero’ Challenge and get to zero emails in your Inbox before leaving for the summer and claim your ELANCO Credly Badge here. Remember that you can claim other Elanco Digital Badges for your many tech skills.
May Edition of Storify at #ElancoSD – A collection of educational resources and social media posts from Elanco teachers and organizations. Check out posts and pictures of the Blue Ball Big Read, our HS spring sport athletes, GSHS Prom 2016, GS chorus concerts, and more. Include the hashtag #ElancoSD in your tweets to see your posts in future editions.
The Elanco Leading Edge Flipboard Magazine – Read what’s new in the world of Teaching and Educational Technology. View on the web, or subscribe via the Flipboard iOS or Android App to read on your mobile device.
It’s the perfect time to have your students compose and share their creative writing! Storybird is one way to support students’ literary creations. With Storybird, students can build poetry, longform, or chapter book creations. Sets of stunning illustrations will inspire students to include creative details in their writing. I can help you set up your classroom accounts and show you how to manage student projects. Learn more about how Storybird is celebrating Poetry Month! There’s even a #dailylark challenge so your students can participate in the literary fun!
Digital citizenship lessons in grades 1-6 have begun this spring during computer lab special. It is always exciting for me to spend time with students and learn about the ways they’re using digital technologies to create, communicate, and collaborate in their personal lives. Through these lessons emerge important conversations that focus on safe and appropriate use of technology, respecting the rights of others, and crafting a digital reputation of which we can be proud! Our lesson materials are from Common Sense Media. You can see the full scope of the lessons they offer here. Remember, while it’s nice to offer these lessons in isolation to give students more direct instruction in these topics, it’s up to us as the adults in their lives to model and talk about respectful, empowering online behavior whenever we use technology with our students to support their learning!
Googly Goodness
Many of you were interested in learning more about Google Classroom to use as a platform for sharing digital resources with students during rotational learning classes next year. Click here to access resources where you can learn more about the features of Google Classroom and how it can support your work with students. Please email me to arrange a time when I can meet with you and/or your team to show you what this tool can to!
Looking for a quick start guide for Google Forms? Look no further!
Next Friday, March 13, is Digital Learning Day, a day each year where we celebrate the ways technology can enhance teaching and learning and provide students with agency and voice in the classroom.
We’d love if you could share your digital learning activities on the official DLD website by completing this form! I’d also love to highlight the work you and your students are doing on this blog, so email me with the details/summary of activities and I’ll spread the word!
Perhaps your students will be blogging next week, or using Plickers or Socrative or Kahoot! for formative assessment in the classroom, or are creating digital stories using Storybird or sharing their learning via Google Slides or PowerPoint. Maybe they’re engaged in literature circle discussions via Wikispaces or connecting with one another in Edmodo or Google Classroom! Maybe they’re trying some activities from the ConnectED Are your students reading their favorite stories online via Raz Kids or BookFlix. No matter what the activity, there is surely something worth sharing with your school community on Digital Learning Day!
