Friday Matinee: Are College Students Comfortable Using Edtech?

 

What do you think?  Are they or aren't they?  A new study shows that about 20% of college students struggle with technology.

Are College Students Comfortable Using Edtech? Maybe Not

What can you do to help ensure that your students are confident in the tech tools you are asking them to use?  Try creating meaningful learning experiences for your students where they are using the tech to show what they know and share their voice.  The ISTE standards for students are a great guide, no matter what age your students are.  

There are also ISTE standards for educators and education leaders.  Check them out.

KATE is also here to help.  Just let us know what you need!

Friday Matinee: Using EDpuzzle to Improve Video Engagement

Want to know who watched a video you posted as an assignment?  EDpuzzle is an online program that allows you to create interactive video lessons by embedding questions and comments into videos from YouTube, Khan Academy, National Geographic, TED Talks, and more.  When these videos are assigned through EDpuzzle, you can see how much time a student spent on the video and how well they did on the questions.  It even gives you superpowers that prevent your students from skipping right to the questions!

The basic, free plan allows you to create 20 videos and share them with your class as an assignment.  To learn more about how to use EDpuzzle, I'm including a playlist of 8 videos, but you can skip #7 on integrating EDpuzzle with Google Classroom.  Want to know how much the students learned about a topic?  Let THEM create an EDpuzzle as a student project.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU6wYnG1CMASfLsEtFqGaYYskEB7rvH25

Want more information on using it with Canvas?  Go here and click on Using EDpuzzle With Canvas.

This app is being used by K-12 schools and universities for online learning.  You can even add screencasts you create.

Friday Matinee: Ways to Make Online Learning More Engaging

The semester is over and you've taken a big sigh of relief!  Teaching online is over for now.  

It's a great time to start thinking about summer and fall classes and possibly teaching again online.  You've got the basics down and are delivering the content, but now is the time to start thinking about making your classes more engaging for your students.  

Check out ISTE's (International Society for Technology in Education) blog post showing 3 ways to make remote learning more engaging.

Friday Matinee: Some Advice for Newly Remote Instructors

Happy Friday!

I recently came across an article that is part of a guide entitled, "Sustaining Higher Education in the Coronavirus Crisis," and wanted to share it with all of you as you begin to get ready to teach online this summer or think about classes for this fall.  The article not only has advice for new remote instructors, but includes a link to a Google Sheet created by Daniel Stanford, the director of the faculty development and technology innovation at DePaul University.  This sheet includes a great number of resources curated from universities.

Coronavirus Has Led to a Rush of Online Teaching. Here's Some Advice for Newly Remote Instructors

Friday Matinee: Choice Boards & Learning Menus

Choice Boards are a great way to give your students some choice in how they will complete an assignment.  Some of our students may excel at creating a Google Site, where another student would rather create a video or write a paper.  Some may want to watch a video on the topic and others would prefer to read a chapter in a book.  Choice Boards let us differentiate our assignments and engage our students at where they are.  During these times when we are all teaching online, we as teachers need to create the best learning experiences possible that will keep our students attention, maintain a positive attitude, and keep them committed to doing their best job possible.

Here's a 3 part mini "course" that is entitled "The Ultimate Guide to Choice Boards and Learning Menus" by AJ Juliani.  He talks about why Choice Boards are important, especially now, describes a step-by-step process for creating them, and gives examples of choice boards in action.  This was written for K-12, but can easily be modified for your teaching here at MSU.  It's easy to use Google Docs or Slides (or Word or PowerPoint) to create these menus for your students.
Choice boards are perfect for online learning, student choice, and differentiation.  Here's what Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning says about choice boards/learning menus:

What is a Choice Board?
IT’S ALL ABOUT CHOICE!

• Choice boards are a form of differentiated learning that gives students a menu or choice of learning activities.

• Learning menus and choice boards can be created in a variety of styles and mediums.

• They’ve been around for a long time and originated in a static, paper format.

• With digital tools, we can bring the menus to life with interactivity and creation.

From Dr. Catlin Tucker, a post on Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning? will help you understand how choice boards allow students to make key decisions about their learning and helps you personalize learning for each student.
I've added several examples of choice boards below.  Have a favorite?  Share it with us!

Google Chrome PD Choice Board

TicTacToe - Choice Boards

Interactive Tic-Tac-Toe Menu Choice Board Template

Novel Study Tic-Tac-Toe Choice Board

Choice Board - Google Slides

Halloween Choice Board Example

Friday Matinee: Resources for Teaching Online

This was shared by a professor that we follow on Twitter.  It is a podcast with a lot of resources for teaching online.  Some things may not apply, but there's a lot of great information that is provided.  Torrey Trust, who is interviewed on the podcast (there are several links and a great slide deck shared as well) is a professor and past president if the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Teacher Educator Network and an Associate Professor of Learning Technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

https://www.sfecich.com/torrey

Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning, did an interview with a teacher who has been teaching online since leaving China where she taught at an international school and she shares tips, tools, and best practices for this special situation.  She mentions that closing for the Corona virus is different than closing for a few snow days especially with the added stress and emotions that everyone is experiencing.

https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/coronavirus-closures-online-learning-tips-for-teachers-and-schools-interview-with-an-american-teacher-in-china/

Keep in mind that a lot of companies are opening up their wonderful resources for free to schools, but we don't need to be throwing a lot of new tools at students during this time. Use one or two that they are familiar with and leave it at that.

Friday Matinee: Using Shared Drive With Your Colleagues

Using Shared Drive with your team or committee is an important way to share and access documents.  Everything in the shared drive belongs to the team, so if a member of the team leaves, the documents remain.  Need to know more about how it works?  I've attached a video and several other links that I hope will help.  As always, I am here to help if you need anything.

Video:  Google Shared Drives

What are Shared Drives? has some great information for those of you who are new to shared drives and how they are different from your Google Drive.  There are links on this page that will help answer any questions you may have.

Best Practices for Shared Drives has great overview of when to use shared drives and how to use them.  Click on the links in the table of contents to learn more best practices for shared drives.

For most Shared Drives that have been set up for COEHS, there are one or two people who are managers of the drive.  They are the ones who can manage every aspect of the drive.  Others will have different levels of access depending on the way the drive has been set up.

Do you have questions on other aspects of Google Drive?  I have set up a Wakelet with all of the videos that are on our KATE YouTube Channel, as well as other curated resources.  To access this, please go to https://wke.lt/
w/s/t3hmQT.

Friday Matinee: Should You be Using Technology?

Do you wonder if you should be using technology with your students when you teach?  Recently, Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook (remember him from The Summit last summer?) put out a blog post with 10 things to consider before adding technology to a lesson or assignment.  As you read the post, keep in mind that it's not about the tech itself, but if the tech will improve your lesson and the learning outcomes.

Classroom Tech: Should I Use It?  10 Considerations