When someone clicks on your author link, they will see all of your posts in reverse chronological order. This turns all your work this term into a digital portfolio. Here’s your chance to add one last post that will introduce your work to your viewer.
You can “illustrate” this post with a few of your favorite posts using a WordPress embed. To embed one of your previous posts, just add a “WordPress Block” to your post and paste in the URL of the post you want to add.
Get WordPress BlockPaste URL of yourpost you want to embed
Your embed will have your featured image plus the beginning of your post. It will also be an active hyperlink to the post.
Every student will design a lesson that demonstrates effective integration of technology with instructional goals. This will appear at the top of your portfolio. So make a great first impression showing what you can do with instructional technology!
Your post and your lesson are due by Monday April 18th.
Students should incorporate one or more digital tools that demonstrate how to effectively integrate technology into a learning experience.
You can use a tool we have worked with or another edtech tool you like.
Students should create new content (not reuse an old post).
Your goal is good alignment between the technology and the learning experience.
The audience for your lesson could be your typical students or it could be designed as an “adult PD” as if delivered to peers.
Students should prepare a WordPress post (due on your due Sunday April 17th) that explains your instructional goals and how they are supported / enhanced by the technology. Be sure your post includes:
Title and featured image
Target student group for lesson – grade level or subject
Instructions for students or guide for other teachers to use
instructional goal (what do you want students to know or be able to do)
an explanation of how the technology you used supports instructional goal
Our course has been hosted on our WordPress site. But here’s another option to design learning via Google Sites. This is a free tool that is especially useful when you want to showcase more content than what “fits” into a WordPress post.
Google sites are free and become part of your content stored in Google Drive. Sites can easily feature text / images and showcase content you have created using Google docs, slides, forms, Google Drawing, MyMaps or YouTube videos.
Students will also be introduced to our final project.
Working with a partner (s), design a learning activity that is supported by a multipage Google site. Note: Partners should include their names prominently on start page of Google Site and on the WordPress Post. They can upload one post and notify Peter to make them co-authors.
1. Google site –Start Page (Home Page) Be sure to include:
Unique header image
Title of the lesson
Authors of the lesson (this will turn into a co-authored post)
Target student group. Grade, course
Lesson context? – for example – introduction, pre-assessment, part of bigger unit, etc
Goal for lesson and how the site helps you meet the goal.
2. Google site – At least 3 additional pages that provide resources and activities for the students Be sure to include:
Unique header image for each of the pages
A scored pre-assessment OR exit ticket using a Google form
At least 6 content elements: Images, Slides, Forms, Docs, MyMaps, Google Drawings, YouTube Videos (made by someone else?)
3. A WordPress post that showcases the site. (this will be a co-post, so notify instructor who are your partners) Be sure to include:
Fun title and featured image
Authors of the lesson (it’s a co-authored post)
An image of the site that serves as hyperlink
Repeat the material from your start page (#1) above
In this class we will explore Book Creator – a simple tool for creating awesome digital books. Create your own teaching resources or have your students take the reins. Combine text, shapes, images, audio and video to make a book that can be viewed online or printed out. There is a paid iPad app, but you can also use the free online version in Safari or Chrome browser.
With a free account, you can get 1 library and create up to 40 books to use in your classroom. There’s no cost per student, and there’s no limit on the number of students that can join a teacher’s library. Also you can delete unused books and keep going.
For this lesson, you should log into Book Creator Online and sign up for a free Teacher Account.
It’s a very easy app to use. Start a new book. I recommend a Landscape 4:3 Comic book. Looks good on computer screen and you to get comic elements even if you don’t use a comic book grid.
Here’s a quick intro to adding media, comic, shapes and backgrounds for your paper.
Add media
Choose to make a comic and get these extra options.
Add shapes
Click on page and get lots of backgrounds, borders and patterns
Use Book Creator to make a book and embed in your post. Your book could either be a resource for students to use or a model for books students would make. Or you might want to make something to share with parents.
Have fun with it. Tell a story or create a lesson or resource for students. You could convert your Google site or re-purpose some of you previous posts into a book.
Embed your finished book into a WordPress post that includes a written description of the audience and purpose of your book.
As always, be sure to include a featured image and clever title for your post.
The book should be a minimum of 8-10 pages. Try a variety of content:
Text, shapes, sticker, backgrounds.
Photos: your own or from the built in public domain search
Google map, video and a recording
Embedded content from another source (for example a pre or post quiz on a Google form)
RESOURCES
How to get started with Book Creator
Left: Screen shot of presentation settings
How to get an embed code to use with WordPress “Custom HTML” block
Below left: sample embedded book with lots of ideas. You’ll see how it displays online with page flips. Below right: Guide to embedding content from other sources.
“Places are locations having distinctive features that give them meaning and character that differs from other locations. Therefore, places are human creations, and people’s lives are grounded in particular places. We come from a place, we live in a place, and we preserve and exhibit fierce pride over places.” ~ National Geography Standard 4: Place
Today’s class will explore interactive images with Google MyMaps and Google Earth. Both apps provide tools for teachers and students to create and share interactive maps that tell a story of place.
Google MyMaps is a great tool for visualizing place with a variety of content and locational tools. You can easily add photos, video, text, routes and shapes. You can collaborate and share your maps via email. It can be easily embedded in WordPress. MyMaps gets saved in your Google Drive account for easy cataloging.
Google Earth is now a web-based tool that can easily create engaging stories maps that tell a story. With creation tools, you can draw on the map, add your photos and videos, customize your view, and share and collaborate with others. You cannot embed in WordPress. Use a screenshot of you map as a hyperlink from your WordPress post to your map project.
Students will create a MyMap or Google Earth Project to support a learning activity. Be sure to have multiple locations and some text or visual content at each location. Try these prompts:
A community tour around school.
A real or fictional journey.
Explore the setting of a story.
Plot locations of habitats / geographic features.
Share an interactive map of a field trip with parents.
Make a map of authors you’ve read
Any other good idea
Your post should include:
Title and featured image
Target student group for lesson – grade level or subject
Instructions for students
Goal for lesson and how the map helps you meet the goal.
MyMaps can be embedded in WordPress. Get an embed code and use with Custom HTML block Also include a direct link to your MyMap in your post.
Google Earth cannot be embedded. But you can take a screenshot and add a hyperlink to your map project.
Resources
How to set sharing and get embed code from MyMaps
1. Click on Share icon
2. Enable link sharing and public view
3. Click 3 dots and choose “Embed in my site.”
4. Copy the embed code into WordPress “Custom HTML” block.
How to set Sharing in Google Earth – use a Screenshot of a portion of your map with a hyperlink in WordPress
In today’s class we will look at some “alternative” tools for creating videos to share with students – screen casting / paper casting , Apple Clips, Adobe Creative Cloud Video Maker, and EdPuzzle.
Student will work in small groups – exploring one of the following five apps. They should prepare the following to share with class:
A tip for using the app
One thing they liked
One thing they did not like
A sample video to share with the class
1. Screencasts and PaperCasts
HERE’S A FEW TIPS FOR VIDEO CREATION:
Keep it simple. Think of audience and purpose.
Keep it short. Why make students sit through a long how-to?
If you can, use a plug in mic (just a standard smartphone earbud mic works well). Do a quick test to check the volume level and mic position first to get sound level right.
Practice a few times to find efficient ways to demonstrate and describe what you’re doing.
If you will be entering much text as part of the task, I create a text document first so I can copy/paste text into what you’re demonstrating ( I hate watching videos of people typing).
1. Mac users can make screencast use QuickTime Player – it’s built into Macs. You can easily capture your screen with narration. How to Use on Mac Here. You can upload your video to your YouTube account. You can then get the URL to embed in a WordPress “YouTube” block.
How to Use Loom Here Loom hosts your video. You can get an embed code from Loom and use it with a WordPress “Custom HTML” block to embed into your WordPress post.
3. Paper Casting = Sketch out a lessonand videotape it. Shoot a video using your smartphone. You can use little slips of paper or you could draw. If you’re not an artist, you could also shoot a video of you reading a picture book. You can upload your video to your YouTube account. You can then get the URL to embed in a WordPress “YouTube” block.
by Madi Ohashi and Lauryn Nakashima
2. Apple Clips
Clips – an Apple project that makes cool videos designed for sharing on social media. Think Instagram on steroids. Shoot you own images or videos or use animated versions of yourself. Auto transcribe your words into titles. Add filters, stickers or shoot green screen. It is iOS only and runs on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Built in social network sharing.
Clip videos can be uploaded to YouTube directly from the Clips App. Then embed YouTube video using a YouTube embed block.
by Emily Bechen
Get started with Apple Clips
3. Adobe Creative Cloud Video Maker
Video Maker– Part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. Built in storyboards allow you to integrate images, video, sound. Choose public domain images and soundtrack. Runs on iPhone, iPad. But also can be used with desktop browser. Built in social network sharing. T
To get an embed code, “Publish
by Audrey Muller
How to use Creative Cloud Video Maker
4. EdPuzzle
EdPuzzle. It’s a free web-based tool that you can use to pick a video, add your magical touch and track your students’ understanding. It allows you to add questions, audio and notes to existing videos from Y ouTube, Khan Academy, Crash Course and more. If you’d rather record and upload your own video, go for it!
Create a free teacher account at EdPuzzle. Follow these steps to create an account, a test class, and make content
Here’s how to get an embed code from EdPuzzle to use with “Custom HTML” block in WordPress
Today’s class will be a deep dive into using Google Forms to individualize learning. We will explore techniques to create lessons that allow student responses to direct students to new content. With modification they can be used to create quizzes that give students immediate feedback and remediation. Similar techniques can be used to give students a chance to choose their own path through content.
We will focus on three use cases:
Survey – gather user input
Self Graded Quiz – provide feedback on correct / incorrect answers
After an introduction to Google Forms, students will work in small groups to create their own self graded quiz.
Branching Forms – USer’s responses create a new path
Google forms can be set up so that a response will send the user to a specific section of the form. This can be used in testing – getting a wrong answer takes the student to remediation content. Or in a “Choose your own Adventure” – where student responses can lead to selected content. See examples below:
Tests
Parrot quiz (after answering go to section with explanation and next question) Link
In today’s class we will explore at the alignment of instructional goals and tech resources / tools. Student will work in small teams to design a lesson supported by technology. Student teams should design a joint post that showcases their work. (Instructor will explain how to add joint authors to posts).
Student are free to choose any tech resources or tools – they are DO NOT have to be ones we have used in this course. Could also include tablets, mobile apps or other devices.
You can direct your post to “your students” or explain your lesson to your “fellow teachers.”
When student team has completed draft of post – contact instructor to assign joint authors.
Today’s class will look at two different digital storytelling tools – Microsoft Sway and Adobe Creative Cloud Express. Each app is web-based and can be used to create visually striking single page website.
Students will receive some basic instruction in both apps. Then they will break into groups to explore both apps and make sample webpages with each. Finally each group will design and present a comparative analysis of output and ease of use of both apps.
Microsoft Sway
Microsoft Sway is free. As long as you have a Microsoft account, you can use Sway. (Student will use their UP Microsoft account.)
Adobe Web Page is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud Express suite. Students should sign for a free account. Then click + and navigate down to “Web Page.”
Here’s a Adobe Web Page made by Braelyn Higdon ~ 2020
Note: I have used the WordPress “Verse” block and set the font small.
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments–
snapped before I budded —
leaf-fall from the family tree.
Use the poem as inspiration for your digital story of “Where I’m From” using either Sway or Adobe.
First “write” your story, then use your preferred app to illustrate it. (It does not have to be as long or artistic as the one above – but have fun with it and make it personal.)
It should have a title that starts “I’m from (something artsy).” Be sure to put your name in the subtitle.
Your WordPress post should include:
Featured image (could be image used your story)
A post title that is the same as your digital story
The “text-only” version of your story
Your embedded digital story
What you liked about the app – why you choose it.
How to get an embed code
1. First get the embed code from your Sway or Adobe. 2. Then copy embed code and paste into WordPress “Custom HTML block”
How to get Sway Embed code – click share then get embed code
Student will learn Drawings basics and explore examples of how it can be used in the classroom. These are showcased in the Google Drawing below. Direct link to drawing.
Class activities:
During class we will approach Google Drawings from three perspectives:
Explore the app
Comparing it to Google Jamboard and Google Slides
Scavenger hunt looking for teaching ideas with Google Drawings
Students will work in teams to develop comparisons of Google Drawings with Google Slides and Google Jamboard.
Step 1: Develop a graphic comparison of the features of 3 apps (what they can / can’t do). Use one of the 3 apps and be prepared to share.
Step 2: Go back to two Jamboard lessons from last week and show how they could have been done using Google Slides and another Google Drawings. Try to find examples that demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of apps.
3. Google Drawing Scavenger hunt
Working in small teams find at least 5 good examples of how teachers effectively use Google Drawing to achieve one of the goals below. Your goals should match your breakout group number. Curate your examples on a Pinterest of your own design and then share the URL with the instructor for posting below.
Present information – Elizabeth, Isabella, Lannie
Create moveable activities – Hailey, Kate Kate
Foster artistic creativity – Georgina, Jenna
Check for understanding / pre- or post-test – Jack, Mykaela
Teach in a content area: example, math – Chloe, Marlee
Design a Google Drawings based lesson as the basis of your next post. Your post should include:
Title and featured image
Context of the activity – see our list #3 above (ex. Brainstorm, etc)
Target student group for lesson – grade level or subject
Instructions for students
Goal for lesson and how the Drawings help you meet the goal.
Be sure to include a direct link to your Drawing and embed the drawing in the post
How to publish Google Drawing and get the embed code
1. First students will need to click the Sharing Button in the upper right of the Drawing. That opens up a box where you can set sharing to “Anyone on the internet with this link can view.”
2. Then students will use the process below to “publish your Google Drawing to the web” and get an embed code to use with WordPress’s “Custom HTML” block.
1. Click File – Publish to web
2. Choose small size then Publish
3. Click Embed then copy Embed code
4. In WordPress post open Custom HTML block
5. Paste the embed code from Drawing into HTML box
We will lead off today’s class with a Google tools self assessment. This will help guide our study moving forward.
Class Overview
Activity 1: We will introduce Jamboard with a “Hello My Name Is” activity.
Activity 2: Working with your group – answer the following on our collaborative Jamboard.
What does Jamboard do best?
How do you manage use with students?
What technical requirements need to be met?
Activity 3: How would you set up and run Jamboard to do the following?
Answer question above – working in groups of two on this Jamboard on the slide that matches your group number. What does teacher do? What do students do?
Brainstorm
Graphic organizer
Showcase student work
Timeline / diagram
Concept (mind) map
Entrance / exit ticket
Activity 4: Jamboard Scavenger Hunt
Working in small teams find at least 5 good examples of how teachers effectively use Jamboard to achieve one of the goals above: Your goals should match your breakout group number. Curate your examples on a Pinterest of your own design and then share the URL with the instructor for posting below.
In today’s class we will explore the role of technology in our lives – how do we use it, how does it impact us, what works (what doesn’t) and implications for teaching and learning in the digital age.
Students will work in teams to interview one another and distill some answers to our questions. We will work through a consensus building process to develop shared class point of view (POV) on the role of tech in our lives.
We will conclude by discussing how technology impacts teaching and learning.
Students will develop a web post that builds on or responds to our class discussion of our tech lives. You might be inspired by ONE of the following prompts.
Don’t forget your clever title and featured image. Feel free to use images and embeds to illustrate your writing. And it’s a chance to be creative – instead of an essay – why not write a poem or record (and embed) a TikTok? Or a Pinterest
What is your personal relationship with the technology in your life? Here’s a chance to reflect on a personal level. Are you addicted to social media? Does tech improve your life?
Interview people from other age groups (younger siblings, parents, grandparents?) What role does technology play in their lives? How is it similar / different from other age groups?
How does technology impact teaching and learning?
Another prompt / approach to explore the role of tech in our lives or schools
TIP: If you want to add poetry or formatted text use the “Verse Block”
There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-O.
B-I-N-G-O!
B-I-N-G-O!
B-I-N-G-O!
And Bingo was his name-O!
