Should you use Team Drive?

You've likely noticed Team Drive as an option within Google Drive.  What is it...and should you use it?

Team Drives are meant for small teams who want to share files.  The biggest difference in Team Drive is that files belong to the "team" rather than any one individual.  This means that if the original "owner" of a file leaves the team, the file is not lost (nor can any individual delete the file).

Files in Team Drive can still be shared with others, as in "regular" Drive; however, folders cannot.  Also, subfolders in Team Drive cannot have different privileges than the main folder.  So, for example, you could not have a Science Department folder in team drive for all science teachers, and within that, a Biology folder for biology teachers only.  You also can't choose to nest a Team Drive folder within folders in My Drive; they're always separate entities.

Because of this, my recommendation is to stick to "regular" Drive.  

Please let me know if you have questions about this.

Here's more info from Google.

Viewing/printing photos of students

How can you get a gallery of your students' photos to get to know their names?

In Moodle:

1. Go to Participants
2. Switch "User list" from Brief to User Details
3. Filter for a particular block, if appropriate (under Visible Groups)
4. Click "Show all" on the bottom left. 
5. To print, first select only the data in the table, then right-click and print.

I've made two videos on how to do this:

1. A short version for those who already know how to get to the participant list and filter for a particular block.
2. A full version that explains the entire process.

Please note that the videos are only visible to CVU faculty/staff, so you will need to be logged in to view them.

Note that to view a single student's picture, you can also search for the student in JumpRope.

Layout improvements in Google Classroom

Good news!  Google Classroom now gives you the ability to arrange assignments by topics and to decide the order in which students see them.  This is what many of us are used to from Moodle and other LMS's.  Click Create to make a new topic or a new assignment.

Here's an example from my class:

They've also separated the "Stream" (i.e., discussion forum) onto its own page, so it's clear what's a discussion and what are the assignments for class.  In the next update, there will also be the ability to post resources within topics (for now, you can create resources as "assignments" with no due date).

$$ available for educational initiatives

BTV Ignite is sponsoring something called a Reverse Pitch for education. There are  "Idea grants" of $2000 for educators to present an idea for a problem they'd like to have solved through software. Developers will then bid to come up with solutions.  Read about it here.

Here are details from their site:

Develop new solutions to deliver education

BTV Ignite is participating in this year's US Ignite series of "Reverse Pitch" Competitions.   Digital solution developers are invited to compete for $30,000 in cash grants to demonstrate innovative ways high-bandwidth ideas can help deliver education - in Burlington, across our state, and by linking our students with national communities and resources.

*** UPDATE - SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL IDEAS FOR GRANT CONSIDERATION - BY JUNE 29!

The call for "Idea Proposals" is now open.   We are seeking your Idea/Concept proposal(s) for new digital solutions supporting education delivery.   The best ideas will be considered for an "Idea Grant" of $2,000 to help you take your idea to a proof of concept solution (for consideration at the Finals event in October).  

The deadline for proposal submission is 5:00PM EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018.  

To submit a proposal, you must complete and upload the Proposal using this "Idea Pitch Template" document.  

The template should be uploaded using this online form. 

Common Sense Education

I was just reviewing some software that a teacher is investigating for game design and it reminded me of what a valuable resource Common Sense Education is. Common Sense Education is a part of commonsense.org, "... the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century." These are the same people who bring us Common Sense Media and have excellent resources on digital citizenship that I've written about before.

If you don't have Common Sense bookmarked, I recommend you do so.  It's an invaluable resource. 

Also, a reminder that you don't need to do all the research yourself.  If you're looking for an app, extension, or other software for your classes, please let me help.  And if you've found something already that you'd like to use, a reminder to check for it on the Tech Request Approvals (and submit it if it's not already there).