Storybird

Storybird is a fantastic creative writing tool for students of any age.  Storybird is web based and allows teachers to create a classroom account and then generate student accounts.  Once students have an account Storybird gives them access to thousands of illustrations and page layouts to help guide their writing.  Students select a collection of pictures and choose the images they want to include in their book.  Then students can begin writing!  They type the text for their story directly on the page with the illustrations they selected.  Storybird also allows students to work collaboratively on stories!  Once a story is complete students can publish their story and it will appear in the public Storybird bookshelf, or they can keep their story private so only their teacher may view it.  Storybird is a great way to get the creative juices flowing and a fun way to complete a writing project!

These tutorials walk you through setting up your account and student accounts, as well as giving ideas of how to use Storybird in your classroom.

To Chat or Not to Chat? That is the Google Drive Question.

Google Drive and Google Apps provide a plethora of collaborative tools for teachers to use with students, but one common questions comes up as soon as students become proficient with these tools: can we turn off the chat feature?

The answer is "Yes", but before we do that, let's think about a few things.

First of all, students have been passing notes in class since the beginning of time, but now we have enabled an online tool that allows them to virtually pass notes all the time, to students on the other side of the classroom, perhaps on the other side of the school.  In fact, the Google Docs chat feature allows people on the other side of the world to "pass notes" online.

The issue really isn't whether or not this tool is appropriate for an educational environment, but whether or not we are actively teaching our students how to use it appropriately.  If we turn off the chat feature, we are turning off this opportunity.  We are turning off the opportunity for our students to learn proper digital citizenship and etiquette - behaviors they MUST know to enter today's workforce.
(Image from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PassingNotesInClass)

My suggestion is rather than "shut it down", let's turn it around!

Here is one simple lesson idea for teaching our students how to use the Google Docs chat feature appropriately to support writing, project based learning, and online collaboration.

Google Chat Writing Warmup
1.  Put students into a small group of 3-5 and allow them to chose one student as a leader.
2.  Have the "leader" create a Google document and share it with the rest of the members.
3.  Provide each group with a specific question to research and discuss.
     Example: "High sugar content sodas are bad for your health and should be outlawed in schools."
4.  Show students how to share their ideas using the chat window in the shared document.
5.  Share guidelines with students for staying on task, using appropriate language, and respecting teammates' ideas and opinions.

After this activity is complete have the group members grade each other on the guidelines. Share examples of students using chat appropriately with the class and invite them to use the chat feature in the future when doing collaborative projects or research.

You can also set a "No Chat" expectation for students when you would prefer that they work independently.  Perhaps a "No Chat" sign in the classroom would be appropriate to display when necessary (Image from www.colourbox.com).

It's also a good idea to remind students that their chats are archived in Google Drive and that any inappropriate use of the tool will result in loss of privileges.

For some great ideas on assigning specific projects that use the Chat feature, check out this article at EdTechTeacher.org.  You can also find some more ideas for using Google Drive (CSD Docs) in the classroom from the presentation 32 Ways to Use Google Apps in Classrooms and Schools  by Julia Stiglitz of the Google Apps for Educators Team.

For more information on using the Google Chat feature in Google Drive, check out the Google Drive Help Website.

Infographics in Education

Infographics are visual representations of data or information on any topic!  Janae Hunt and I presented on the use of infographics in the classrooms at UCET (Utah Coalition for Education Technology) at the beginning of the month.  I like using Piktochart and easel.ly to create visual handouts, samples of which are included in the Blendspace presentation below.

Using Piktochart to Create Infographics

Piktochart is a fabulous tool for creating infographics, fliers, and advertisements.  Piktochart offers free and paid subscription options with plenty of templates to help you create professional looking work.  Piktochart is fairly easy to use with its drag and drop style tools and familiar editing tools.  Piktochart offers hundreds of free icons and graphics for your use as you design your masterpiece!

Piktochart offers lots of free how to videos to help you get started in your quest for infographic perfection.
http://piktochart.com/resources/video/


This guide will walk you through the process of how to create an infographic  in just 5 minutes!
http://piktochart.com/how-to-create-infographic-in-5-minutes/


Need some ideas for teacher and student use?  Check out these ideas:

Student Use	Teacher Use
Get to know you activity Compare/contrast Research Report Book Report Resume Portfolios and so much more!	Disclosures Classroom Rules Presentation (i.e. historical event) Resume Instructions/Assignments Handouts and Posters Reporting Student Data and so much more!

The Road to Infographic - Piktochart Infographics

If you're not sure how or why you should use infographics in your classroom, watch this TED talk by Andreas Schleicher called Use Data to Build Better Schools.

Twisted Wave for Recording Audio on Chromebooks

Here's a great discovery that you can use with your students to record audio tracks on Chromebooks!  Check out www.twistedwave.com.

If you have ever used “Audacity”, the free open source software for recording and editing sounds, you will find this program very similar and just as easy to use.  Not only can you easily record an audio track of up to 30 seconds, but with TwistedWave you can also save the audio track directly to a Google Docs Account.  This is a fantastic student tool for fluency practice.

Getting started is easy, there is nothing to download or install.  Go to www.twistedwave.com and click the “Online” icon on the right side of the page.  Twisted Wave works great on Chrombooks, but it can also be used in Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.

When you are ready to begin a recording, click the "New Document" icon under the introductory paragraph.

Clicking "New Document" will bring up a new window asking permission to access the microphone on your computer.  Click the "Allow" and the "Remember" check boxes to avoid seeing this request in the future.  You may also see a second "Allow" button at the top of the screen in a grey menu bar if you are using the Chrome Browser.  Internet Explorer will sometimes request permission with an option at the bottom of the browser window.

The audio recording screen will now appear active on your screen.  The rewind, pause, forward, and record buttons are now available for you to begin recording.

You will find with a little practice that students can also quickly delete and re-record their audio tracks using the "Control+A" keyboard shortcuts and Delete keys much faster than closing and reopening this audio window.

When you have an audio track that you are ready to save, simply click "File" and make a selection as to how you'd like to save your file.  Note that you can even send the audio file straight to Google Drive!

Without an account students can only save an audio track up to 30 seconds long.  If you need to create longer clips then you will first need to set up a free TwistedWave account with your email.  Students can set up free accounts with their @csdddocs.org student email (The student Gmail feature is only available for students in grades 6 and up in the Canyons School District).

For more tips and tricks on using TwistedWave or installing the TwistedWave bookmarklet in your Chrome bookmarks bar, check out https://twistedwave.com/online/

LucidChart and LucidPress

LucidChart and LucidPress are two products made by a Draper-based company.  LucidChart (iPad and web) creates collaborative flow charts and diagrams, and LucidPress (web only) creates interactive and collaborative documents such as newsletters, presentations, etc. Both programs have easy drag and drop features to add text, shapes, images, and even video.  

Click the image above.

LucidPress was used to create the Ed Tech Times Newsletters for January and February 2014 and was used to showcase a Video of the Week feature on Fotobabble.

Watch the videos below to learn how these great products work!  Teachers and students can sign up for these free programs using their CSDDocs account!

  

CSDDocs on an iPad

A couple months ago, Dustin posted a bit about the district's new Google Apps for Education instance called CSDDocs. It is still in a sort of soft rollout phase, but is available for all Staff and Students (3rd grade and above). Everyone in the district from 3rd graders and beyond have CSDDocs accounts. Teachers talk to your EdTech to find our more and how staff and students access their CSDDocs accounts.

What CSDDocs allows us to do is have a platform for teachers and students to collaborate on and share documents, presentations, spreadsheets and files easily with one another. For example, a teacher could assign groups of students to create a report together. Instead of each member of the group working on their own copy, the entire group could work on one document in Google Docs, AT THE SAME TIME. CSDDocs can be accessed on the web, from a Chromebook and even from an iPad. I want to share with you how to access your Google Drive (this is where all of your files now live if you use Google Docs, etc.) from an iPad.