Friday Matinee: Effective Breakout Rooms and Group Work: 3 Tools to Take Collaboration Further

Example of using Jamboard in the classroom

As remote teaching and learning continues, creating breakout rooms and other activities where small groups can work is an important part of today's "classrooms."  This not only allows students to see their classmates in a small group setting, but it allows them to work through problems and projects together as they would have in a regular classroom.  To better understand what each group is doing in their breakout room, Holly Clark discusses 3 technology tools that give groups a chance to see and hear what other groups did and what ideas came out of their collaborations.

Effective Breakout Rooms and Group Work: 3 tools to take collaboration further

The tools that Holly discusses are Socrative, Jamboard, and Flipgrid.  Take a look at each one in the blog, then try just one.

Did You Know? You Can Add Multiple Page Orientations to Google Docs

Have you ever needed to turn a page in a document so that it is landscape versus portrait?  Now you can in Google Docs!   Google recently announced that you can now easily work with multiple page orientations in Docs.  You can change the orientation on a per section basis.  This allows you to add content that requires a wider format.

Image source: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2020/12/mixed-page-orientations-in-google-docs.html

Friday Matinee: 8 Ideas Designed to Engage Students in Active Learning Online

Are you teaching either online or hybrid and looking for ideas to engage your students?  Well we found this great list by Dr. Catlin Tucker that is sure to have at least one idea that will work for your classes - and probably more!  She includes digital concept mapping, an online fishbowl, and 6 other strategies that will have your students working collaboratively in active learning online.

8 Ideas Designed to Engage Students In Active Learning Online

Did You Know? Publish Your Slide Presentation to the Web Before Sharing in Zoom

According to Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning, you should share your Google Slides lessons in Google Meet or Zoom by publishing them to the web first.  This gives you a unique link that anyone can view.  It is a full window player, so you only see the slides one at a time.  Use this unique link when sharing your screen in Zoom or Meet instead of clicking on “present.”  The present button goes full screen on your monitor.  This allows you to see more than one window at once, which allows you to see other tabs during your presentation.

Friday Matinee: Creating Digital Notebooks in Google Slides

Yes, you can create and share digital notebooks in Google Slides!  By sharing a digital notebook with your students, you are giving them a place to go to take notes, add images, write a journal, reflect on learning, and add comments and tag you so you'll know they have a question.  

Here's some information on creating digital notebooks with Google Slides.  

• Creating Digital Notebooks with Google Slides
• How to Create Interactive Notebooks in Google Slides
• Free Digital Notebooks with Sections for Slides or PowerPoint
• Free Digital Notebooks for Slides or PowerPoint
• Google Slides Interactive Notebooks + 20 Activities to Fill Them

Did You Know? There's a NEW Citation Tool in Google Docs

There's a new citation tool that is built into Google Docs and it looks like it is pretty awesome!  Go to the TOOLS menu and choose CITATIONS to check it out.  You can add sources, parenthetical citations, and create a bibliography.

Watch this video from Kasey Bell to learn how to use this new tool.

Don't forget to go back and look at our Remote Learning Resources site.  We are always adding new things!

Friday Matinee: Enhance Student Engagement with Virtual Social Learning Spaces

Everyone's asking how they can engage their students during remote learning.  Teaching online makes this more difficult than when your students are in front of you in the classroom.  Dr. Catlin Tucker shares ways to engage groups of learners online using technology.  She also includes some ideas and strategies for creating spaces for student-centered learning experiences.

Enhance Student Engagement with Virtual Social Learning Spaces

Many of her ideas include tools that you are already familiar with, including Zoom, Google apps, Padlet. Jamboard, and more.