Using Google Classroom to create class folders

I've posted about this before, but I wanted to share some work I did with two teachers yesterday that integrates Moodle and Google Classroom.  These are both teachers who use Moodle regularly to post announcements and resources but were looking for an easier way to manage the organization of student work.  Their question was essentially, "what's the easiest way to set up folders for each of my classes so that I don't have to keep checking email to find student work?"

The answer that worked for them (and that I would recommend to others) is Google Classroom.  Using Classroom does not necessarily mean that you're abandoning Moodle or any other system you use for posting resources and facilitating online discussion (although it does both of those things, as well).  You can use Classroom simply as a means for creating folders for students to submit work to.

The advantage of using Classroom (rather than setting up folders on your own) is that it does all the work for you.  Files that students "submit" are automatically shared correctly.  They are organized both by assignment ("show me all of the Hamlet essays") and by student ("show me all of Ella's work").

There's much more you can do with Classroom, but this may be all you're looking for right now.

I'm happy to get you started with this for second semester.

Below is a short doc I made yesterday that covers the very basics listed above.
And here is more comprehensive help from Google.

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Using Classroom for creating a set up class folders

Making the course(s):

• Go to http://classroom.google.com
• Click the + sign, then Create
• Name your class (other info is optional)
• Repeat for multiple sections

Inviting students:

• To share the class code, click on the settings gear, then on the pull-down arrow next to the code.  
• Students go to Google Classroom, then + sign, then Join, then type in code.

To "make a folder":

• Click Classwork
• Click Create
• Name the assignment, set due date and topic (if desired)
• Click Assign to create it right away (students will get an email) or Schedule to post it later
• Classroom will create a folder with the appropriate sharing rights

The student side:

• Students will see the "assignment" in Classroom and will also get an email
• They can click Add to upload a file or Google doc, or Create to create one from scratch.

To see the work:

• Click Classwork
• Click on View Assignment
• Click on the folder

Note that if students click "Turn in" they lose editing rights, but they can "Unsubmit"

VoiceThread and Padlet accounts

There are lots of ways to facilitate group discussions and/or "crowd source" input.  Two popular and useful tools that many teachers use are VoiceThread and Padlet.  VoiceThread allows you to post media and have a conversation about it.  Padlet is like a virtual bulletin board.

I wanted to be sure that you're all aware that we have school accounts to VoiceThread that allow you to create VoiceThreads for your classes. If you're interested in getting started, just let me know and I'll take care of setting it up.  I'd also love to visit your class(es) and help students get started.

If you're not familiar with how VoiceThread works, take a look at this example. Use the arrow on the bottom right to advance to the high-school slide (slide 4).

We do not have paid accounts to Padlet currently.  Due to a recent change in their policy, you can only make three Padlets with a free account.  After that, you can recycle any of those three.  The district is interested in finding out if there are enough teachers interested in paid accounts to support a district subscription.  Please fill out this form if you are interested.

The Hour of Code is coming!

Each year, Code.org sponsors the Hour of Code.  The idea is that all students spend an hour learning to code.  This year, the event takes place the week of Dec 3-7.*

In the past, this small exposure has made a big impact on many kids.  For everyone who does it, the Hour of Code is a chance to get an idea of what programming is all about. For some, it opens a door to a new passion.  For others, it's a realization that maybe coding isn't their thing-- which is fine, too (but at least they've had the opportunity to find out).

I would love to help anyone interested in integrating a little coding in your classes.  There are lots of ways this could work:

• Students can do one of the self-guided activities from code.org (designing an app looks like a good one)
• I can tailor a self-guided activity that connects to your curriculum 
• I can come in and do a group activity

Let's get together and plan it!

*And if the week of Dec 3rd doesn't work for you, we can find another time, too.

Second Semester Tech Recharge

A new semester is a great time to think about integrating technology into your courses.  I'd love to help with this.  We can meet one-on-one to brainstorm. Or you can send me your curriculum plan and I can review it for opportunities. Or I can come visit your class.  Or...

We can use technology to water each leaf!

 

Chromebook Workshop

I'll be posting screencast recaps from last week's Chromebook workshops.  This first topic is using Googlecast to project your Chromebook's screen through your classroom projector.

Creating a shared Google map for your class

I've posted before about teachers using Google Maps for students to place annotated markers, routes, and regions on.  This can work well as a group activity, where each student creates a marker for a particular place on the map, for example.

Some ideas?  Create a map that marks important locations in a novel, or different regions in an area, or the routes taken on an historical journey.

I just wrote up teacher instructions on how to create a shared map in the first place.  If you'd like to give it a try, I hope these help.  I'm also happy to get you started.

The map below is editable.  Feel free to give it a try.

National Education Technology Plan

The new National Education Technology Plan for 2016 was released today.  In their words:

"The National Education Technology Plan is the flagship educational technology policy document for the United States. The 2016 Plan, Future Ready Learning: Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education, articulates a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership to make everywhere, all-the-time learning possible. While acknowledging the continuing need to provide greater equity of access to technology itself, the plan goes further to call upon all involved in American education to ensure equity of access to transformational learning experiences enabled by technology. The principles and examples provided in this document align to the Innovative Technology Expands Children’s Horizons (ITECH) program as authorized by Congress in December 2015 through the Every Child Achieves Act."

For the TLDR version, the plan is summarized in the conclusion.

Vignettes using WeVideo

Jeanne McCormack's class recently wrote vignettes.  To bring them to life, students used images and music to accompany their narration of the vignettes.  The tool they used is WeVideo.  I've mentioned WeVideo before-- it's a great web-based video editor that connects to Google Drive for easy access from anywhere.  WeVideo has lots of capabilities for editing video, but in this case, students used WeVideo to create simple, elegant slide shows to which they added narration and music.

Here is a set of instructions I created for the class (with editing help from Jennifer Lucey!).  And here is what two students created:

Rainy by Sage

We Climb Together by Devon

This kind of project can be done with other tools, as well.  In the past, PhotoStory was a popular choice.  One big disadvantage to using PhotoStory, however, was that students had to use the exact same computer to access files they created.  With WeVideo, they can work from any computer (or even use the app on their phones or tablets).

Two recent inspiring class activities

I had the privilege of working with two classes using technology in recent weeks.  In both cases, students were using technology in creative and transformative ways.  It's always good to share these-- if you're inspired and want to take on something similar, please let me know!

Geology Volcano Project

Kerry Walker's classes are studying volcanoes.  Each student used LucidPress to create an online "brochure" about his/her volcano.  Then, the class used a shared Google Map, attached a pin to the location of each volcano, and provided a link to the brochure.  Check out the final result here:

Current Issues Political Ad Project

Lezlee Sprenger asked her students to create political ads for different candidates. The description and targets are here.
Here's what one student produced:

Socrative student response system

I've written before about PollEverywhere, which allows students to use their phones (or any internet-
connected device) to answer questions (and allows the teacher to see the results immediately--and display them, if desired).  This type of student response system is excellent for doing a quick check-in for understanding, taking a poll, or posting students' text responses to the screen.

There's another app out there that is geared more towards the educational setting.  It's called Socrative.  You can use it for "on the fly" type of questioning, quizzes including different types of questions, or exit tickets. We saw it in action on a recent visit to Burlington HS.  The teacher was looking at the results in real-time on his iPad as students worked their way through a formative assessment he had created. This is definitely worth trying.  It is free (for now, at least).

I'd be happy to help you get started!

Here's a quick look:

SOLEs (Student Organized Learning Experiences) at School in the Cloud

Here's a lesson plan design called SOLE.  It's about asking a "big question" then staying out of the way as students tackle it.  The review session at the end pulls it all together.  Check it out at School in the Cloud.


What makes a good Big Question? from School in the Cloud on Vimeo.

Using a blog to prompt student discussion

For his wellness classes, Troy created a blog with links to articles about recent events that he wants his students to discuss.  Students post comments anonymously.  Take a look:

http://troysnewsofnote.blogspot.com/

I was in the room as students were reading and reacting to some of these articles and the engagement was high. 

Having students create and update their own blogs is also a powerful way to make writing meaningful for them.  Teachers whose students blog report improvement in both their writing and their engagement.

There are many tools available for blogging.  Probably the easiest to get started with is Blogger (or Blogspot), which is part of Google Apps for Education (this is what Troy used).  You can find Blogger by clicking "More" while in gMail. 

Here are a few articles if you'd like to read some more:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blogging-in-21st-century-classroom-michelle-lampinen

http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3721

Teachers using Technology

Here are two ways that CVU teachers have used technology for instruction in their classes recently:

When Peter Booth was absent from his math class, he used EduCreations on his iPad to prepare his lesson for his students.  EduCreations allows you to narrate while you write, draw and manipulate images on your iPad.  Peter's substitute than played back the recorded lesson the classroom computer.  Students said afterwards that they found it enjoyable and helpful to have the lesson taught by Peter, even when he was out.  Here's the lesson:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/geometry-sub-plans-arc-length/5542446/?ref=link

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During her science class, Sarah Strack needed to check for understanding from students.  She used PollEverywhere, which allows students to use cell phones, laptops, tablets--basically, any device-- to provide answers to a question or poll.  She used AirServer (wirelessly sends your iPad or Mac screen to the projector) to project the poll from her iPad.  Compare this to asking students, "Does everyone get it?"  Here are the students' responses to one question.:

Moodle "choice" activity

(Originally posted 1/6/11)

Looking for an easy way to let your students vote? Try using the "Choice" module (under "Add an Activity") in Moodle. It only takes a minute to set up. Of course, you can also use Google forms and other online tools to take a vote, but one nice feature of the Moodle choice is that you know who has and hasn't yet participated.

The results look like this (whether students see the results and whether there is a limit for each choice are optional settings):



Here's a video on how to set it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Ynqdv6MHc
I would love to help anyone get started with this- just let me know.

Cell phone surveys

(Originally posted 3/1/11)

At the last faculty meeting, we used a web site that allowed people to text their responses to a prompt and projected the results. You may have thought that such a thing is difficult to pull off. In fact, it's quite easy- and it's free (for up to 30 responses per question). The site is http://www.polleverywhere.com/ .

There are some things to consider when using this site, however:
1) Equity. Many kids have cell phones with unlimited text plans, but not all. One nice thing about polleverywhere is that they provide a URL for submission over the web. Students without cell phones (or with smartphones) can use this, instead.

2) Anonymity. You don't know who is submitting which response, so a conversation about appropriateness is probably a good idea beforehand.

You can create multiple-choice or text questions. You can also download the results afterward for future reference.

Wallwisher

(originally posted 4/7/11)

Has anyone tried Wallwisher? It's a ridiculously easy-to-use web tool for creating a "wall" that students can post notes to. It's a great way to hear from students about what they're learning, where they want to go on a field trip, etc. Walls are by default publicly viewable, so students should not use their full names.

I've create a sample wall here. Try posting a note to it! On the wall, I've posted a link to some sample uses, as well.

If you have used this in class, or do use it, let us know how it worked out.

How to create random student groups

Here are three tech tools you can use to place students in randomly assigned groups:

1. Team Maker http://chir.ag/projects/team-maker/ - paste in your class list*, choose the number of teams desired.
   
   
   
2. Round Robin Tournament Generator http://www.teamopolis.com/tools/round-robin-generator.aspx - designed for sports events, but works great if you want each student in your class to be paired with every other student (each "round" in the tournament represents the next time you do pairing in class). You can paste in your class list, or just use numbers.
   
   
   
3. Moodle- go to Groups in the Administration block and click Auto-create Groups. You can set either the group size or the number of groups. No need to paste in names, because Moodle already has them!
   
   

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*Here's how to get your class lists