Welcome to Davies Teacher Tech Tips! Each week, a new tech tip or tool will be posted to this blog. If you have any suggestions for tools or tips to include, feel free to comment and add a suggestion.
Showing posts with label google classroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google classroom. Show all posts
Finding a good online audio recording tool can be a challenge. Most have numerous limitations or only allow you to record and then you have to download your recording and put in into a different tool or software for editing. Twisted Wave is a nice, easy audio recording tool that allows you or your students to create and edit audio recordings from scratch, or import existing audio recordings for editing. Completed recordings can be exported into Google Drive, which makes for easy saving and sharing, or uploading to Google Classroom.
The editing tools include features like fade-in, fade-out, looping, normalization, changing pitch, as well as cutting and pasting to rearrange or delete parts of the recording. While the free version does have some limitations such as only allowing up to 5 minutes of recording and up to 1 hour total storage, because you can save your files to your Google Drive when you are done with them, it is easier to delete and reuse that storage.
If you are looking for an easy tool that allows both audio recording and editing all in one, Twisted Wave is one to check out. See the video below from Free Tech for Teachers for a short demo on how to use Twisted Wave.
Last week I had a colleague tell me about a web tool called Wizer that has a lot of potential for providing ways for students to practice skills and complete assignments outside of class, and also providing great data for formative assessment. While there are a number of formative assessment tools out there, this one goes beyond just classroom formative assessment and can be used to assign homework, reviews, and practice to students outside of class, while providing immediate feedback to students and data for teachers. The tool is incredibly easy to sign up for and use, and there are a number of options for creating worksheets with more on the way.
While the tool has many standard question types such as open ended questions, multiple choice, and fill in the blanks, it also has some interesting options like filling in answers on an image and matching, as well as options for including text, images, tables, video, links, and embedding from outside sources. This makes it much easier to create a multiple part question like providing students with a video and then asking questions about it, or giving information in a table and then asking questions about the table. Additional features that are in the works include collaboration, drawing, and sorting/ordering.
Creating an assessment or worksheet and adding questions is incredible easy, and there are a number of options for changing the theme and look of the worksheet. Assigning to students is even easier, because the tool has Google Classroom integration, so with just a few clicks you can add it to your Google Classroom page as an announcement or assignment. Students then just click the link, log into their own Google accounts, and complete the worksheet. You can choose to have the automated questions automatically provide feedback and then grade the other questions later. Student responses can be immediately viewed when they complete the worksheet and feedback provided. If you don't use Google Classroom, you can share the assignment with students by sending them a link or using a PIN code that they would enter into the website.
Overall, this tool is incredibly easy to use and can take formative assessment beyond the classroom walls and a class activity. It can be used in a variety of ways and instead of sending students home with paper worksheets and assignments to complete, they can complete questions online for easier feedback and tracking of student data. Check out the video below for an overview on how to use the tool and get started!
Well, I missed my post last week because of a busy Friday, but it actually worked out in my favor, because I had learned from my colleague at North about a useful little grading tool called JoeZoo. However, after looking at it and reading about it, it looked like they were releasing some new features this past weekend, so in the end I decided to wait until this week to talk about it.
I have found this tool to be incredibly effective for making grading using Google Docs much easier. I have posted in the past about some other tools that can work for using rubrics and grading in Google Docs, but JoeZoo has some great features and a new integration with Google Classroom that really makes it efficient.
There are three primary functions of this tool: writing feedback, building and using rubrics, and grading assignments. The writing feedback option allows teachers to provide quick feedback on writing assignments by using existing comments and corrections based on the most frequent writing errors that teachers have to correct. So instead of writing or typing "run-on sentence" fifty times or even copying and pasting it, with just a couple of clicks you can easily provide that feedback. The feedback is also categorized into different areas like formatting, grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and structure, which allows students to see where they received the most comments and what areas they need to focus on. It can save a lot of time when grading writing assignments. In addition to the writing feedback, there is a feature still in beta format called Monkey Checker, which will actually auto check the assignment for errors and provide that common error feedback for you.
Another are this tool excels in is rubric use. There is no need for tables or charts to make a rubric or worrying about structure. The feature allows for creating a rubric (or copying and pasting existing rubric items) into an easy to use format and then will insert the rubric directly into the document, making feedback quick and easy. In addition, the grading tool allows for easy grading using the rubric and providing feedback, along with converting that rubric score into an actual grade.
One issue I originally had with the tool was that to grade an assignment you had to add students to your list and choose the student name, etc. It was kind of a pain and the thought of adding an entire class of students was not pleasant. However, that is where the Google Classroom integration comes in. With that new feature, you can connect JoeZoo to your Google Classroom and it will automatically list all of the students in your course, making choosing and grading much easier.
Overall, this is a great tool with a lot of potential. The developers love feedback and suggestions and frequently implement them, so there is a lot of potential for growth and improvement as well. If you are a teacher who has students complete assignments using Google Docs, I would recommend checking out JoeZoo to make grading and providing feedback faster and easier.
Check out this link for a variety of videos from the developers on using the tool.
As my last post for this calendar year (Christmas break is coming up so I'm going to skip the next two weeks),this is going to be a short post, focusing on some new features in EDpuzzle that allow it to work seamlessly with Google Classroom. For more information on EDpuzzle itself and how to use that tool, see my previous blog post here. EDpuzzle has created some additions that now allow teachers to post videos directly to Google Classroom, as well as easily create students and add classes.
First, in EDpuzzle, you can now use the Share to Classroom button to add a new EDpuzzle video directly to your Google class for students to access. They no longer have to go out to EDpuzzle itself to access the videos and you can still see all of the results and analytics that come with the video.
In addition, you can take existing classes of students from Google and import them into EDpuzzle. This means that if you are a current Google Classroom user and want to try EDpuzzle, you do not have to have your student sign up for two separate classes in two different tools. They can sign up for just your Google Classroom and that's it! This will also make beginning of the year set-up much easier. When new students are added during the school year, one click in EDpuzzle lets you update those classes by pulling information from Google.
These new features have really taken EDpuzzle to a whole new level. It is a great tool for a flipped classroom on its own, but with the new integration to Google Classroom, it makes assigning and managing video assignments much easier and more efficient for the teacher. If you are an EDpuzzle user or are interested in trying it out, these features will make your life much easier! Check out the video below for more information on how to use these features.
Have a Merry Christmas and I'll see you all in the New Year!
From http://www.edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/google-classroom.png
Welcome back! It was a short summer and it has been a fast school year so far. Even though we've been in school for almost a month already, this is my first chance to get back to my weekly blogging. This has been a whirlwind school year so far but things are finally settling down!
This blog post is actually a topic with some new tips that many of you who already use Google Classroom may be aware of. However, there are even more new features that I just recently learned about from a colleague of mine, the tech coach at another school, and I think these new features are great and make Google Classroom even easier to use with other tools and sites!
So first, as many of you probably realized as you came back this school year, Google has added a number of new features to Classroom, making it easier to create and share assignments with students, but also to reuse assignments from year to year, which is a question I got A LOT last year from teachers. In Classroom now, when you go to add content to a class and click the plus button at the bottom of the screen, there are some new options for asking questions and reusing posts. Ask a question is a new option to start a discussion in class or do a quick formative assessment, You can pose a question to the class, decide whether students just answer your question or can reply to each other, and then easily grade and give feedback in one place. It also keeps the discussion stream in one place, instead of cluttering up the main classroom stream.
Along with the question feature, teachers can now reuse assignments. This means that if you create a new class for each new year or semester, you can easily reuse assignments from last year, including creating new documents for your new students. Also, if you forget to assign a new assignment to multiple classes, you can easily fix that by reusing the assignment, instead of having to create it from scratch again.
Another new feature that has just been added here in September is the Calendar feature. Each class now has a calendar and assignments are automatically there. Additionally, teachers and students with multiple classes can view their Classroom Calendar to see all assignments and due dates for all classes at once. This is an easy way to stay organized for both teachers and students.
And best of all, my favorite new feature to Classroom and one I think will continue to improve, is the ability to now easily add info from other online tools straight to your classroom. Some online tools, such as Quizlet, PBS, Discovery Education, etc., have a button that allows you to share content from their sites directly to Chrome. So for instance, if I have a Quizlet review I have made, with one button I can share that to my Classroom for students to access. Check out the video below from my tech coach colleague at North for a walk through on how to do that.
But it gets even better! Now, Google has also created an extension for Chrome that lets you share any site and content from a site directly to your Google classroom. So if I find a great resource to use or if I want all my students to access the same website at the same time, I no longer have to write it on the board and wait for them all to type it in, e-mail it to them all, or try and find another easy way for them to access it. I can just post it to classroom with the extension button and they can all easily access it at once. It makes things so much easier and faster. Teachers have the option to Push the link to students and if they also have the extension it will actually open the website immediately, or use it in an announcement or assignment. There is so much potential for this extension!
Overall, the new features in Classroom means it just keeps getting better and easier! It seems like every time I have a teacher tell me "it would be really nice if I could do this (insert thing they wish they could do) in classroom"... it eventually shows up. So keep watching for more changes and updates, but for now, using Classroom continues to be an easy and effective way to manage content in the classroom.
I did an earlier post in October about Google Classroom and some of the new features it added last fall. Of course, the requests keep coming for new and better options, and just this week Google added a couple of new, frequently requested features.
First, one of the biggest things teachers have asked for is the ability to collaborate with other teachers by adding them to your classroom site. Until now, if a teacher wanted to "share" their classroom site with other teachers, those teachers could only be students. This works well to just access assignments and posts, but does nothing to allow for true collaboration on assignments, shared grading, or both having access to all student assignments. Now, you can add other teachers to your Google Classroom by going to your course's "About" page and choosing the option to "Invite Teacher." This lets other teachers access your classroom site, post comments, announcements, assignments, see student assignments, and grade those assignments.
Another frequently requested feature is the ability to add announcements and assignments and not post them immediately to the site. This allows teachers to add multiple assignments or announcements at one time, maybe for a whole week or an entire project, and then publish them later on for students to view. This feature because teachers no longer have to go in and add something new right when you want students to view it, but can better prepare by adding things ahead of time, and then just going in and publishing them right when you need them.
Google Classroom continues to get better and provide more options and choices for teachers as a Learning Management System, and I'm sure they will continue to add more and more useful features based on the feedback provided. If you use Google Classroom, hopefully you will find these new features helpful. If you haven't tried it yet, check it out and check out the links below for more info and help about Google Classroom!
Well, we've been using Google classroom here for almost two months, so it was only a matter of time before some of the feedback we've been giving and some of the things that we wish it did came through. Google has released some new features to classroom on our domain. These include:
·
Groups integration:
Ability to pre-populate classes with your class list by using the people picker
after clicking Invite under Students.
·
Mark assignments as “done”:
Students can mark assignments as complete even if there's nothing to turn in
(e.g. watch a video, read a chapter, bring something to class)
·
Export all grades:
Teachers will now have the ability to download grades for all assignments at
once, making it easier to export assignments to any gradebook
·
Sorting: Teachers can now
choose to sort students by first or last name, depending on their needs
·
Greater teacher controls:
Teachers can now set permissions for whether or not their class can post or
comment in the stream, they can mute individual students from posting or
commenting and can even view previously deleted items in the stream
There is a Tech Tip Video on our district Youtube channel with an overview of the features. Click this link to access the video directly.
