FTT - Kami for Google Chrome

 

Kami for Google Chrome

Annotations and Workflow 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the days of languishing on Zoom or Meet are soon to be over. But even when things get back to "normal" there will always been ways to leverage our 1:1 Chromebook program and our students' rising familiarity with technology. So let's check out Kami, a digital tool that allows for user interaction with Google Drive products like Slides and Docs as well as staples like PDFs and Powerpoints.

Kami allows users to do more than just view the digital work given to them. Instead of just being able to read a PDF of a chapter reading, with Kami, students can freely annotate the PDF via highlighters, text boxes, drawings, and even. Video/Audio recordings. Now while I'm not saying digital notes should ever really fully replace hand-written notes, this can be a pretty vital and helpful tool for students who prefer to live on QWERTY.

Getting Started

First, click here to access and install Kami as an extension on Chrome. After signing up through your District 113 Google account, access your documents through their options menu:

If you live on Google Drive like me, you'll probably be accessing their Drive option most of the time. Once you open a Doc or Slides, you can use the different interactive tools to begin modifying your work. 

PDF Split and Merge

Built into the Kami UI, you can even do simple splits and merges with PDFs (other files like docs and slides can also be converted).

Sharing Your Work

True to Google fashion, you can easily share your notes and work with others and collaborate in real time:

Free to Play

While the upgraded, paid version unlocks some useful features like adding media or a Schoology LTI integration, the free version has plenty of utility as an extension for you and your students! Have you been using Kami already? Feel free to tell us how you're using it successfully below!

FTT - Unbiased News Does Not Exist

Unbiased News Does Not Exist

 Allsides: Balanced News And Civil Discourse 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

When I was in school, I can remember certain classes had a standing current events assignment. We were instructed to find a news article and summarize it.  At times, those current events would be shared with the class. At the time, there was nothing controversial or problematic with this assignment.  The news came from the newspaper. Of course, we did not have social media or the ability to comment on everything that is put out into the world in a very public way. Today, the way we get our news is very different and we often seem to exist in a bit of an echo chamber with the way news feeds are filtered to give us more of what we already agree with. 

As educators, we all understand the importance of relevance and practical application in learning. The Universal Design For Learning framework explains that there are three main learning networks in the brain. The affective network deals with the "why" of learning. This is when I always think about that student who likes to say- when will I ever need to know this? The recognition network speaks to the "what" of learning, or how students take in and make meaning out of new information. Finally, the strategic network is around the "how" of learning. The strategic is all about how students show us what they know and understand. The Universal Design for Learning guidelines explain the importance in offering options for each of these networks. The recognition and strategic networks are often pretty easy to figure out in terms of providing choices for students. If a student is struggling with decoding, perhaps they can listen to an audio version of text. A student who has difficulty giving a live presentation could be prompted to record. The affective network is sometimes trickier and arguably the most important. It is that motivation and spark of interest that often propels students from just taking in information to actually shaping their understanding and making connections that will expand their learning in the future.

In my quest for searching for ways to help us all make real world connections, I was thrilled to find Allsides.com and Allsides For Schools. 

Allsides aims to provide diverse perspectives and a balanced take on news. They do not publish any news stories of their own. Allsides takes a look at what is out there from about 600 media outlets and creates a media bias rating on the news stories. News items are rated as being left, lean left, center, lean right, or right of the political spectrum. You have the ability to do a search by topic or do what they refer to as a balanced search, which will give you results that are rated. Take a look at their Media Bias Chart below. 

The site exposes people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so we can better understand the world.  It also includes a "Red Blue Dictionary" because sometimes when we disagree it's like we're not speaking the same language. this dictionary reveals how people across the political spectrum define, think and feel differently about the same term or issue. 

Watch the 90 second video below to learn more about how Allsides works.  

The Allsides For Schools sight provides tools, resources, information, and lesson plans with the goal of teaching students how to critically evaluate news, media content, as well as other information and to participate in thoughtful conversation. This is targeted for middle school, high school, and college classrooms. Allsides for schools is a joint nonprofit initiative of Allsides, Living Room Conversations, and the Mediators Foundation. This education site was created in 2019 when it became clear that teachers were using both Allsides and Living Room Conversation guides. 

Also on the site you will find Mismatch, which is an online conversation platform built to cultivate skills and offer practice in civil dialogue between middle school, high school, and college students in different parts of the United States. This is amazing because you sign up as a class, not as individuals, and you get to decide what conversation you are going to have. The whole point is to help get students out of their bubble and have meaningful conversations.  This site has so many fantastic features designed to get teachers and students out of their filter bubbles and looking at the news through critical thinking, not social media. There are multiple tools available or you can just use the Allsides website. 

Here is a short video demonstration explaining how Mismatch works.

There are many practical uses for this in the classroom, whether or not you are teaching current events. Think about how many times we want our students to research what is currently happening in our world.

I hope you will give Allsides a look. Let's keep conversations open and help teach our students how to do it in a positive way. 

FTT - Student Engagement during Hybrid Learning

 

Student Engagement During Hybrid Learning

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Unsurprisingly, it seems like staff and students have been able to adjust to the added hurdle of essentially teaching and learning in two unique and separate environments at the same time. But while we're keeping our boat afloat, it is clear that we still need some instruction and guidance on where the ship is headed. Even though we can put together the technical pieces of getting Zoom and your webcam and your projector all powered up and interconnected, it's going to be a heck of a challenge to use those synergies to create authentic learning for kids. 

After the novelty of Zoom/Meet wore off long ago, I'm sure you've felt the uneasy feeling that something wasn't quite right about collaborating via video conference. It became exhausting teaching to a bunch of squared, blank faces on your computer screen, and if you've ever been on the participant side of a video conference meeting, I'm sure you know how hard it can be to stay engaged and how easy it can be to mute yourself and turn off video. So with hybrid learning, I'm finding that I'm increasingly worried about splitting my attention between my physical students, who generally seem revitalized and eager to communicate live, and your students on the other side of the screen. So how do we keep our remote students engaged, while simultaneously taking advantage of students being in the classroom?

Tools for formative checks: Physical vs Remote

Continue utilizing instructional tech tools to structure conversation and collaboration with your remote students in small groups. This strategy isn't new, but now you've got some decisions to make about your physical students. Do you ask your physical students to take out their Chromebooks and interact with your remote students the same way they would've done if they were at home? Maybe, maybe not. I constantly think about their incentives for being in the building. If we ask them to do the same thing they would've done at home, but now with masks, are we effectively leveraging the benefits of their physical presence? Perhaps create a Jamboard session and have students groups create their own graphical representations of a problem or solution. Have your physical students interact on the actual whiteboard (social distancing of course), take a picture of their work and upload it as a separate frame for your remote students to see. While that may not seem like much of a structural difference, I've already noticed a stark contrast in engagement with my physical students.

Instructional Tools for Formative checks (among many...don't have to do them all. Pick a few that work for your students)

• Jamboard: Digital Whiteboard
• Sample activity, Sample Activity
• Padlet
• Sample Activity
• GimKit
• Peardeck
• Prezi
• Flipgrid

Staying connected with Communication

Speaking of splitting your attention, it can be easy for you to miss a Zoom/Meet chat question that a remote student asked if your focus is elsewhere. While you can continue to utilize Zoom/Meet chat, there are other options:

• Google Chat: Create a room and threaded conversations that are easily archived and accessed

Also, have you also noticed that weirdly enough coming back to school has made it harder to have private conversations? Back when everyone was remote, you could utilize breakout rooms for 1:1 talks. While there is no easy fix, at the very least you can plug in headphones, make sure your audio is switched from your BCC950 Webcam to your headset/earphones, and utilize a breakout room. Even though your physical students might be able to hear your side of the conversation, they won't hear the student (or even know who they are)

Another quick note, if you are worried about your private Zoom chats being projected to the board, you can also toggle its position by "popping" it off of your main Zoom window and to a separate screen:

While also being able to merge it back:

You can also simultaneously join your Zoom/Meet twice on your cellphone or iPad. If your laptop is chained to the front of the classroom due to the Monitor/Webcam/HDMI setup, you can move to different parts of your classroom (if possible with social distancing) with your second device to stay connected with your remote students. Your phone would essentially be a second camera/mic (just remember to mute your laptop).

Still learning and growing

Every day we are collectively learning more about the nuances of hybrid learning. Like remote, it's impossibly far from ideal but still within the realm of our adaptive practices. Again take some pressure off of yourself and your students! You're probably doing much better than you think. If you have any other tips or strategies for Hybrid, feel free to write below!

FTT - What's on the Roadmap? Updated features in Schoology

 What's On The Roadmap? 

(updated features in Schoology)

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Lots of technology companies and startups use something called a roadmap. It's a little bit like a visual  curriculum map that explains the company's technology strategy plans. I am someone who likes to know where I'm going. I don't mind if there are detours or if I don't take the most direct route to get there, but knowing my destination is important to me, especially if I am going to invest time and energy into a new tool. Also, I like to know how I will know when I have arrived. Often people ask me about certain features and whether or not they are or will be included in the technology tools that we use. It is exciting to me when I have access to a roadmap and can see that a feature will be added or no, they are going in a completely different direction. 

In this post I want to share some of the recently released features in Schoology and maybe shed some light on where things are headed with our LMS.  Schoology's roadmap can be found here. When you look at it, you can see what features are in research, in development, and completed. It is just a snapshot and not written in stone but it gives you an idea of what is being worked on. 

1. Item Level Teacher Feedback

Teachers now have the ability to give feedback on specific items within assessments. This has been a pain point for a while so it's great that this feature was added. Giving feedback to students is a huge necessity in learning and the more specific we can be with our students, the better. Once you enter feedback, students will be able to see it. All you need to do is click Add Feedback next to each item to enter your comments. You can add text or images. You also have the ability to leave audio feedback! This way, your students will hear your voice explaining your comments. If you want to take it to another level, you can even add video comments. Yes, for those of you who have trouble choosing, you can even use all three in your response. Once your feedback is saved you have the ability to edit or delete it at any time. For students to see it, you will need to enable "Allow students to view results after an attempt is submitted". You can wait to enable this until you are ready for all of your students to have access. 

2. Recurring Calendar Events

Our students are really leveraging their Schoology calendars. When we add due dates to assignments, assessments, or events, they show up on the student's calendar and on the upcoming section of their home page. When I show this to students who are having a hard time keeping it all straight it's like a lightbulb goes on over their heads. I have had students ask me how to get some of their other assignments on their Schoology calendars and giving students the ability to do that has been so empowering for them. One frustration we had in the fall was the inability to make events recurring. For example, if you wanted to add your zoom link to an event in Schoology for every time your class or club meets, you would be unable to do so unless you entered each one individually. Now, you can create recurring events so that you can add those events in batches. 

When you go to your Schoology calendar, you will now see that there is a field that says repeat. There is a dropdown menu for you to choose from and then you can select a date for the recurrence to end. 

3. Google Assignments App

We currently use the Google Drive app created by Schoology. Google recently made an app for use within learning management systems and it has some benefits and of course some drawbacks to the app we are currently using. 

With this app you can assign Google docs, sheets, slides and drawings directly in Schoology just like the Google drive app. The new app will also enable students to generate their own copy of the assignment and submit. You can provide feedback and grade assignments within the app. Here is where there are differences. The Google drive assignments app has a built-in originality checker. You can toggle this feature on and it will use the magic of Google to check for plagiarism.  

Also, when you are selecting your files, it opens just like your Google drive so it's a little easier to find what you are looking for. You can also assign from a shared/team Google drive. In addition, you can copy these assignments to other courses and the Google doc connection will stay. You also have the capabilities to  add multiple files from your Google drive to one assignment. While Google assignments can be copied to other courses, they cannot be saved to resources. It does look a little bit different both on your end and on the student side. 

Before using this app, I highly suggest reading about it here. Feel free to reach out with any questions.