October 10, 2014 – Thanks for Giving

Happy Thanksgiving Friday everyone!!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who encourage me to continue writing the Tech Tidbits.  Although I sometimes find myself struggling to come up with new and useful tech to be used in the classroom, speaking with the many teachers and administrators who are reading, and using them J, makes the whole process worthwhile.  So, this week I’m giving thanks to you…

On that note, thanks to Karen Hayhurst for sharing with me how she is using Google Classroom in her grade 6 class.  By creating multiple Google Classrooms for her students, she can differentiate her assignments for all of her students.  Just as you would have a variety of guided reading groups based upon their reading and fluency levels, so too can you create levelled classrooms for your students and delegate assignments to them, which are at their academic level.  This way modified students will participate in all of the same classroom activities while receiving assignments, which are at their skill and grade level.  What a great way to differentiate for your students without centering anyone out!

Also, a big thank you to my little buddy Kristian, for sharing this tip with me.  When students are working with online websites they can still utilize Google Read & Write by clicking on the green Read&Write icon in the web address bar.  This will open the Read & Write tool bar and you can continue to highlight text and have it read aloud to you.  

Additionally, if you have a student who is distracted by unimportant ads and images on the screen you can click on the ‘Simplify Page icon’ (see arrow above) and it will re-open the website in another tab in a more streamlined version.  From here you can choose to click on the + or – sign at the top of the page to further reduce or enhance the information on the page.  A super easy way to restructure the webpage to make information students need much more easy to find.

Finally a BIG thank you to everyone for continuing to follow my blog and weekly tips. If you have an idea for a future blog topic or would like some assistance with a particular piece of equipment, please feel free to pass it along to me.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Cheers,

Stace

October 3rd, 2014 – Taking Your Classroom Virtual

Happy Friday Everyone!

You may have noticed that our UGCloud homepage has a new icon – Google Classroom.  This is a quick and very user-friendly way to take your class into the cloud.  Here you can assign projects and share documents, and your students can receive, complete and hand-in assignments, paper free and without fear of losing any of their materials.  Instructors who teach more than one class can easily organize assignments by class and maintain a portfolio of individual student’s work.  I encourage teachers to give it a try with their students.

From the UGCLoud homepage (www.ugcloud.ca) sign on to your account and click the icon for Google Classroom.  From here you can click on the + sign in the upper right hand corner, next to your UGCloud email address and then drop down to ‘Create Class’.  A new window will pop-up asking for details regarding your new class.  Enter an identifier for the class such as ‘Mrs. Smith’s Class’ or ENG 402.  There is an option to include the section of the class however this is not required to be filled in, then click ‘Create”. 

Next, you will be taken to your new class’s home page.  From here you can begin to invite students to your class via email or with the class code.   To individually invite students click on ‘students’ in the center bar and then ‘Invite’, and type the student’s name in the search bar and enter.  When the correct student’s name is listed, click on it and they will receive an invitation to join your classroom. 

Alternatively, you can view a ‘class code’ on the left hand side, which students can use to access the classroom and join themselves.  When students log into the cloud they can click on the Classroom icon and then the + in the upper right hand corner then select ‘join classroom’.  They will be asked to enter the class code and will then be directed to the correct classroom.

From your classroom homepage you can send out announcements regarding the course, or distribute assignments to students. 

Announcements – simply type your message into the ‘Share with your class box’ and click ‘post’ and it will appear in your class news stream.

Assignments – click on the ‘assignment’ box and begin filling in information about the upcoming assignment.  Don’t forget to update the due date.  If you wish to include a document for students to full out or complete you can select if from your Google Drive as part of the assignment.  When a document has been selected to be a part of your assignment, you will se another drop down menu to the right of the document, which allows you to let ‘students view the file’, ‘edit the file’ or ‘make a copy for each student’.  By making a copy for each student there is no risk of one student changing the words or look of the assignment and altering it for the whole class.  Students receive the documents and can complete, edit, revise and turn it in, all online.

When assignments are turned in, you will receive the completed documents in your Google Drive in a folder titled Classroom and a sub-folder with that class’s name (Mrs. Smith’s Grade 4s).  Additionally, the student’s name and assignment name are the title of the document, so there is no struggling to see who has handed in the project and who still needs to complete it.

Google classroom is an easy way to make your class paperless while tracking student’s work and progress.  The format is very user friendly and all of the documents are quickly organized for you in your Google Drive.

Please don’t be afraid to give the Classroom a try and if there are any questions please feel free to ask!

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Stace

September 26, 2014 - Doing a Bang-Up Job With PowToon

Hello Everyone and Happy Friday!

Over the summer, I was introduced to a new free, online website which allows you to create personalized, professional looking, animated videos.  They are fairly simple to prepare and the results are a far more entertaining and engaging  - a great alternative to power point.

  

After signing up for a free account, PowToon (http://www.powtoon.com/)

allows you to create your own animated videos or simply choose to edit one of their pre-made presentations to suit your own needs.  They have many topics and designs to offer, covering topics such as book reports, television ads, promotional videos info-graphics and many more.  Alternately, you can begin from scratch and create your own individualized presentation by choosing your own style of background, characters, animations and text, complete with moving effects and transitions.  Creating the presentations is similar to making a power point presentation with the added effects of iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.  While PowToon may take a little time and effort to create initially, once the basic functions are understood, the presentations are created much more quickly and easily. 

I believe that this tool would be a wonderful link to media studies curriculum in the junior and intermediate grades – creating media texts, in addition to identifying conventions and techniques in media forms.  With little instruction, students would be able to explore and investigate the tools and animations available on the PowToon website and utilize them to construct their own striking videos and cartoons.

I hope that you enjoy this new tool, and if anyone has any feedback regarding its use with students or would like to share some student made assignments, I would love to see them.  Additionally, past Tech Tidbits posts can be found on my blog at http://techtidbitz.blogspot.ca.

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Stace

September 19, 2014 – Read&Write

Welcome back to a new school year!  I hope that everyone has had the opportunity to get settled with their new students, roles and possibly schools.

This week I’d like to share with you some of the new and exciting functions offered by Read & Write on UGCloud. 

First, ensure that your students have access to the Read & Write function.  When they open a new Google document, the Read& Write symbol (see image at the right) should appear at the top of the window just under the web address bar.  If this is not present then ensure that the student has signed into Chrome on a desktop or laptop in the school.  Signing into chrome from a mobile devise such as an iPad or Chromebook will not ensure the availability of the Read&Write function. Here’s how to sign into Chrome…

• Click on the chrome symbol to open Google chrome web browser on your computer
• Click on the ‘Hot dogs’ in the upper right hand corner of the web address bar  (there is a more technical term for this icon but the kids understand the ‘hotdogs’ best) and it will open a drop down menu
• Scan down until you see ‘sign into chrome’ and click on it
• Sign in with you UGCloud email (first initial last name @ugcloud.ca) and password
• Go to www.ugcloud.ca and sign in as staff or student with user name and password
• A pop up window should open asking if you would like to ‘link your data’, click to link
• This should open more tabs on your computer (all of the applications and extensions) 
• They may need to be ‘accepted’ for them to work on your computer, however this will likely only need to be done the first time

Once you have allowed Read&Write on your account, this tool bar will appear at the top of the page when you open or create a Google doc.

This is called the ‘Study Skills’ toolbar and is where you will find the icons for the app.  If you are having trouble seeing the toolbar for the document you can click on the double arrow on the icon (pull down) it will hide it for you.  Similarly, if you would like to use the study skills toolbar just click on the double down arrows and it will re-emerge for you.

You may notice that there are a couple new icons on the tool bar –

is the crystal ball and allows the student to access the new word prediction tool, and 



 
is the audio headset which opens the voice to text feature.

Word Predictor - By clicking on this icon while working in a Google doc, a small window will appear near the cursor and begin to offer potential word options as you begin to type.  When the word you wish to use appears, simply click on the word in the box to insert the words, or hover their mouse over the words to get them read aloud.  Although similar to Word Q, this tool does not require students to open multiple programs, which will need to work together; it’s all right in the Google doc.

Voice-to-Text – When working in a Google doc, simply clicking on this tool and speaking into the device’s built-in microphone, or an externally added microphone/headset combination, the program will recognize your speech and convert it to text, writing it directly into the doc for you.  There may need to be some additional editing for punctuation or slightly misheard words (i.e. ball written for fall) however this will offer far more opportunities for students whose typing skills are holding them back from sharing their knowledge.  One thing to note is that while the internal device’s microphone may be sufficient for use in quieter settings, utilizing a microphone/headphone combination headset will offer the best results when working in a busy classroom.

Following the motto of ‘what is good for some, is good for all’, these new tools are now accessible on ALL UGCloud accounts, not only on SEA Equipment devices, so any of our students can have the opportunity to share their knowledge, thoughts and creativity without restrictions.

If you require additional information regarding Read&Write on the UGCloud, please feel free to contact me.  Additionally, past Tech Tidbits posts can be found on my blog at http://techtidbitz.blogspot.ca.

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Stace