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The words "student voice" have become vogue around educational circles, conferences and tweets - and for good reason.

Teachers who have been around a while - know that jargon is something that comes and goes and as a result, we are often very weary of fashionable terms . For me, there is something very special about this term because it asks us to disrupt the students role in the classroom, something I value in my own educational philosophy. This is because I have seen first hand that a disruptive change in the way we deliver content is pivotal for promoting a love of learning, inspiring students to find their passion and real academic gains.

While promoting student voice has taken a front and center role for me - I have begun to narrow the overall idea down to these three main ingredients. Let's look at the first and often most important place to start.
One of the most powerful ways we can promote student voice in the classroom comes from the purposeful use of technology.
When we use devices to hear from all students, we allow them to make their learning open and transparent - and its this concept that sits at the crux of where people need to focus their attention when trying to make transformative changes in the classroom. This change, promotes metacognition, an understanding of the power of collaboration and builds social learning fluencies.

Apps like Flipgrid, Socrative, SeeSaw, Padlet, and Adobe Spark allow us to give students a chance to make their ideas and learning visible - and audible - so that we can hear from all of them - not just the few that raise their hands. It allows us to hear from those who have not yet mastered the art of the written word - or need improved oral skills to do so. It respects those kids who need more time to construct their thoughts and ideas. When students explain their learning to us - we can know when they know something and when they don't and make adjustments in our instruction, in real-time, to meet their needs. This one tweak is so powerful and such a transformative use of technology!

When I was a student my teacher was always repeating these words: "Be quiet" and "Shhh." She did not understand the power of social and collaborative learning or the power behind the articulation of ideas - but educators in 2017 do and/or should and our students will be better off because this change in our instructional practices! We can now allow students to tell us what they learned, what they are thinking and share their ideas with other students allowing for strong metacognitive experiences. This happens when they share their work with each other, they think about their thinking as they begin comparing their ideas with those of the other students.

Furthermore, this "Articulation of Learning" allows for students to experience a cognitive struggle as they have to work harder to be able to articulate their learning in a concise and articulate manner. When this happens they have a better chance of producing the needed experiences for cognitive growth and acquisition.

In the end, typing a paper or taking notes using technology is great and easier - but using technology to hear from every student is one of the most powerful ways we can use the tool to amplify the learning process in our classrooms - and begin the journey of open and transparent learning: learning that transforms and transcends the classroom.

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Disrupting the Students Role in the Classroom

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The words "student voice" have become vogue around educational circles, conferences and tweets - and for good reason. Teachers who have been around a while - know that jargon is something that comes and goes and as a result, we are often very weary of fashionable terms .

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Creativity - Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students will:

Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.

Create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.

Identify trends and forecast possibilities.

" You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. "― Maya Angelou

I decided to bring this to my classroom and I had my students create their own avatars at the start of the school year and in one of our
I started exploring different avatar creators about a year ago after I realized that my twin boys were using and modifying images of me they found online as their Chromebook backgrounds. This led to a conversation with my own children about being aware of what they post on the internet. Once you share something online, it will most likely be there forever. We decided that using avatars on some sites could be a fun way to creatively share who we are with the world. (Bonus: I also hope it reduces the number of awkward photos of me on the web.)
Reboot the Noggin Activities to Start 2018.

Here are a few avatar creators we explored. Remember that a good avatar is connected to you and who you want to be. It can be an actual picture taken with your phone or webcam or it can be created using an online avatar maker.

Wonderous Portrait Creator - Create a Be Kind Avatar based on the Wonder author Raquel Jaramillo

Google Drawings - Turn a selfie into a Google Drawing. Jeffery Heil has a great tutorial here or you can click here to watch a video.

Scratch - Explore avatar projects on the Scratch coding site or code your own avatar creator.

Peanuts - Create a Peanuts Character Avatar. You can also become Snoopy!

Androidify - Creator your own Android avatar based on the famous green Android Mascot

BitMoji - Create an expressive cartoon avatar, choose from a growing library of moods and stickers.

South Park - Create your own South Park alter-ego or make one of your family and friends!

Avatar Maker - Create and customize a digital avatar.

picassohead - Create a Picasso work of art.

doppleme - Create your own mini-me.

Build Your Wild Self - Create a nature-themed avatar.

Mii Avatar Maker - Create your Wii style avatar.

(A few of the avatar creators above may not be the best for all ages, so please explore any that you are considering using with students before sharing them.)
Can you guess my current favorite? If you have a favorite avatar I would love for you to share it with me?@WickedEdTech
Did I miss something? Please share your favorite avatar creation resources in the comments below.

What will your digital alter ego look like?

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Fun Avatar Creation Tools - Who Will You Be?

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Creativity - Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students will: Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression. Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.

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How to embed Digital Portfolios into Learning Programmes

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How to embed Digital Portfolios into Learning Programmes

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Teachers and schools are dipping their toes into the world of Digital Portfolios. They are using platforms such as edublogs, Blogger, SeeSaw, Bloomz or Google Sites, to document and archive student work. BUT....the simple act of having digital portfolios for your students doesn't necessarily mean they are working. The learners need to own them and see benefits for #documenting4learning, use them to learn and think about their own thinking. Digital Portfolios can't be used in isolation, an add on, or as homework assignments.
Disclaimer: For the sake of this blog post, I might be using the terms "Digital Portfolios", "blogging", and "Blogfolios" ( Digital Portfolios on a blogging platform) interchangeably.
I often get asked how to make blogs, blogging, blogfolios or digital portfolio work a regular part of the classroom. Previously, I answered the following way:

I believe the most important piece is a mindshift in believing that blogging is not an add-on activity nor a project (with a beginning date and end) in your classroom. Blogging is seen as a process that documents learning over time, creates a global communication hub, and supports the learner's meta-cognition and reflective practices. No matter if you have a classroom blog or individual student blogs, use the blog to document learning, reflect on learning, share learning and amplify learning. Make blogging a tool how you accomplish these goals. When you see blogging FOR and AS learning, you will have made it a regular part of how things (learning) are (is) done in your classroom.

It can be hard to get used to the logistics of the platform and getting into a routine when first starting out with digital portfolios in the classroom. The temptation is great to:

simply substitute to a digital format what was done for years and with what one is comfortable with from the days of paper/analog portfolios

leave the portfolio work as an afterthought to be done when a project is over, when an assignment has been completed, when a unit or lesson is finished or when a parent/teacher conference is approaching.

have students add artifacts and reflections to their portfolios as homework assignment, when time runs out during the school day

lock the portfolio behind a password, only visible to the student, teacher and potentially their parents.

Resist the temptation of simply having portfolios for your students without giving them ownership and taking advantage of their pedagogical (strategies, techniques and methods for teaching) and heutagogical (self-directed and self-motivated learning) potential.

Here are 10 Tips of Embedding Digital Portfolios as Part of your Classroom Habits

1. Routines are essential for developing habits. Use Visible Thinking Routines from Project Zero, or create your own that will help learners settle into the habit of digital portfolio work.

2. All habits, all routines need and take time to develop and take hold. Don't expect the habit to develop overnight and on its own. Don't give up after a few weeks or when you notice that your students are not enthusiastic and screaming for more "blogfolio work". As with other habits you are trying to instill in your students, they might resist when they notice that blogfolios are about metacognition, new skills, and new forms of learning, which is often harder than filling out worksheets. You need to be consistent. Don't let negative comments or protests by your students "re-affirm" some of your own insecurities on these new digital platforms. Create habits by modeling the behavior over time you want to see in your students.

3. Portfolios are not projects, their full potential is revealed over time. Rhonda Mitchell eloquently said "The power of the portfolio is in the revisiting." Get used to NOT seeing portfolios entries as individual and separate. Don't let them stand alone. Allow the learner to create connections between content, process, and across time and make them demonstrate evidence of these connections through narrative, hyperlinks and categories, tags or labels. Create habits by using the Four Dimensions of Reflective Learning by Karen Barnstable . Also look at 40 Reflection question to help you look back, forward, inward and outward. The more you practice seeing and making these connections the more a habit forms

4. Adopt a Documenting OF/FOR/AS Learning mindset. Create habits that make the learners DO SOMETHING with their documentation artifacts that are placed on the digital portfolio. Don't let these artifacts become display, but dig deeper. Find ways to upgrade traditional assignments, assessments, and routines that are embedded in the digital portfolio process of documenting learning: look for learning, capture learning, reflect on learning, share learning, and amplify learning.

5. See portfolio work as a way to introduce, support and amplify the "now" literacies. Create habits that support them as digital readers, writers and digital citizens who are aware of ethical use and creation of digital content. Embed (don't teach in isolation) mini-lessons on hyperlinked writing, amplified writing, copyright issues, curation, critical feedback, global awareness, self-assessment, visible thinking, reflection, and .

6. Give your students ownership of their digital portfolios. Don't let the content be only required assignments. Create habits, that encourage the learner's self-motivated contributions around topics of their own choosing, interest and passion. Ask them to become experts on a topic, curators of information about information that interests them. Reward entries by being invited to be showcased on a classroom blog as a special feature.

7. Build in regular times into your lesson plan to document, reflect, share and give each other feedback. No one wants to create and share into a vacuum. Develop the habit of mentioning student work that can be found on portfolios with your colleagues, referencing posts or artifacts during lessons, at faculty meetings, at PD opportunities, school wide assemblies, home-school communication, etc. Also share the learner's digital portfolio beyond your local community to reach the world. Invite authentic feedback in and fuel interest in continuing to create and publish. Help students see that their work, their learning and thinking can be taken seriously by a global audience. Support them in promoting, referencing, and disseminating their work through a learning network.

8. Be and stay consistent. Consistency is the key most bloggers list as the reason for successful blog. Consistency applies to reading, writing, commenting and connecting AND enthusiasm! If you don't show enthusiasm for your students' portfolios and their potential, they won't have enthusiasm for their work either. Create a publishing calendar for the rest of the school year with your students to make sure there is always fresh content on the sites. Brainstorm ways to facilitate consistency and continued enthusiasm: guest posts, participating in blogging challenges (such as My Life as a Reader, 100 Word Challenge, Quad-blogging), document current events, their significance and connections to a bigger picture.

9. Don't forget that it's not about creating beautiful digital portfolio entries, but about supporting learning! Create a process that look at all contributions to the portfolio ad their connections (or potential connections) to learning!

10. Understand the potential of digital portfolios for your own professional learning. Create a habit of regularly think about your thinking, reflect on your teaching and learning, capture your own learning, make it visible and share with a wider audience. Become aware of your own development of regularly creating and sharing a professional portfolio.

Additional Resources:

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10 Tips for Embedding Digital Portfolios as Part of your Classroom Habits | Silvia Tolisano- Langwitches Blog

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Teachers and schools are dipping their toes into the world of Digital Portfolios. They are using platforms such as edublogs, Blogger, SeeSaw, Bloomz or Google Sites, to document and archive student work. BUT....the simple act of having digital portfolios for your students doesn't necessarily mean they are working.

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Here's a list of just some of the tasks you can do with @Flipgrid in an English class, albeit with a kiwi twist. A contribution to the #Flipgridfever competition sharing Flipgrid tips, ideas or impact. #sketchnotes #NZBFC630 @ClaudioZavalaJr @KarlyMoura

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Here's a list of just some of the tasks you can do with @Flipgrid in an English class, albeit with a kiwi twist. A contribution to the #Flipgridfever competition sharing Flipgrid tips, ideas or impact. #sketchnotes #NZBFC630 @ClaudioZavalaJr @KarlyMoura https://t.co/FCfLYctrVa

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Here's a list of just some of the tasks you can do with @Flipgrid in an English class, albeit with a kiwi twist. A contribution to the #Flipgridfever competition sharing Flipgrid tips, ideas or impact. #sketchnotes #NZBFC630 @ClaudioZavalaJr @KarlyMoura pic.twitter.com/FCfLYctrVa
— kwilson (@KaiakoWilson) January 11, 2018

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Here's a list of just some of the tasks you can do with @Flipgrid in an English class, albeit with a kiwi twist. A contribution to the #Flipgridfever competition sharing Flipgrid tips, ideas or impact. #sketchnotes #NZBFC630 @ClaudioZavalaJr @KarlyMoura https://t.co/FCfLYctrVa

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Here's a list of just some of the tasks you can do with @Flipgrid in an English class, albeit with a kiwi twist. A contribution to the #Flipgridfever competition sharing Flipgrid tips, ideas or impact. #sketchnotes #NZBFC630 @ClaudioZavalaJr @KarlyMoura https://t.co/FCfLYctrVa

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Here's a list of just some of the tasks you can do with @Flipgrid in an English class, albeit with a kiwi twist. A contribution to the #Flipgridfever competition sharing Flipgrid tips, ideas or impact. #sketchnotes #NZBFC630 @ClaudioZavalaJr @KarlyMoura

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For years g(Math) was one of my most frequently recommended Add-ons for Google Forms, Docs, and Sheets. Last week it was shut down by its own, TextHelp. As a replacement for g(Math) TextHelp recommends their newer product called EquatIO. Unfortunately, while all of EquatIO's features are free for teachers, students need to have a subscription in order to access all of the features within EquatIO. Here are a couple of other Add-ons that you might consider using for inserting graphs and equations into your Google Documents and Google Forms.

Yob Graph Editor allows you to plot data and insert graphs into a Google Doc. It provides plotting and regression functionality inside of your documents. A convenient feature for teachers is that Yob Graph will store your work in Google Drive and let you insert the same graph into multiple documents without having to manually recreate it for each document. This could be helpful when you are trying to make multiple variations of an assignment for students.

Wizkids CAS is another Google Docs Add-on that offers a graphing calculator feature. Wizkids CAS offers tools for solve=ing equations and plotting graphs, finding numerical and exact solutions, and simplifying and factoring expressions with variables. The video embedded below provides an overview of the features in Wizkids CAS.

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g(Math) Has Been Deleted - Try These Three Alternatives

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For years g(Math) was one of my most frequently recommended Add-ons for Google Forms, Docs, and Sheets. Last week it was shut down by its own, TextHelp. As a replacement for g(Math) TextHelp recommends their newer product called EquatIO.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
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Around October of every year, while teachers are waist-deep in curriculum, kids are thinking about what they're going to be for Halloween, and retail stores are already gathering steam for Christmas, I'm thinking about one thing: technology.

That's because every January I put out a fresh version of The Teacher's Guide to Tech, my uber-fabulous directory of tech tools. All year long, I take notes on new tools I hear about from teachers I talk to, in conversations on Twitter, and by paying really close attention at conferences. Then, from October through early January, I start figuring out which ones are going to make it into the guide. This year I added 60 new tools, and I'm so excited to share them with you.

As I have done every year since 2015, I'm going to shine a spotlight on six of the tools I added to this year's guide: They're not all brand-new, but I think each one could make a real difference in the way your students learn or the things they produce. One of them is super trendy right now, but it deserves the attention. One of them takes you into the past in a way that can be breathtaking. Three can be used in a dozen different ways and in all subject areas. And one-I would bet money on this-you're going to want to try right away.

And so, without further ado, let's begin.
flipgrid.com
OK, so this one I have to get out of the way first. Even though I don't think Flipgrid actually needs any more attention than it's gotten lately, there's just no way I'm writing a post about up-and-coming tech tools without including it. For me, this has been hands-down the most talked about tech tool of the past year, and for good reason.

So what is Flipgrid? It's an app where someone, usually a teacher, poses a question or prompt, and students respond to it with short videos. Once they've finished their video, they can leave responses to other students' videos.

This tool would be a great way to get students talking about any topic, reflect on a book or film, or ask questions about something you're exploring in class.

At a time when we are all getting less and less comfortable with face-to-face communication, preferring instead to talk through text, Flipgrid gives us a way to bring our real voices, our actual faces, our true, less-edited selves back into play.
insertlearning.com
With this tool, you can basically take any page on the Internet and turn it into a lesson. Suppose you find a great article from The Guardian that you'd like students to read, but you'd also like to ask them a few questions about it, add a bit of commentary of your own, and insert a related video. With InsertLearning, you can do all of that right on the article.

InsertLearning, formerly called DocentEDU, is an extension you add to your Chrome browser. Once it's there, turning any web page into a lesson can be done in minutes. You start with a web page of any kind, then highlight text, add notes, and embed your own questions-either multiple-choice or open-ended-that students answer right on the page. You can also embed other content like YouTube videos, ThingLink images, flashcards from Quizlet, mind maps from Coggle, even videos you record straight from your webcam.

Once an InsertLearning lesson is created, you assign it to classes of students with a special code or through Google Classroom, and student responses are sent to a teacher dashboard, where you can grade them right inside the app. You can also share lessons with other teachers, so they can copy and edit them for their own use.

I think we're getting beyond the point where we count on one platform to do everything for us. Instead, teachers are probably better off using different tools depending on what best fits the learning goals at any given time. A tool like InsertLearning would be a fantastic addition to your collection of resources for creating engaging, dynamic lessons.
bookcreator.com
Book Creator is a beautiful, flexible tool that allows students of any age or skill level to create, publish, and share online books.

Creating books using this tool can be as simple or complex as you make it. Students who prefer more structure can choose a comic book layout and insert Google images straight from the app into locked panels. Those who want more flexibility can choose a completely blank page and upload their own artwork. Students can customize the font, add shapes and stickers, hyperlink the text to other online resources, and import audio and video files.

When the book is ready to be published, the pages turn like a real book, and the audio and video play right inside the app.

This tool would also be wonderful for teacher use. You can create books and place them into either a private library-just for you-or create a public library that your students can join by using a code. Within the shared library, anyone can create books to be shared among the other members.

Book Creator really could work for any age level and in any content area: Students can create books to show how a key science concept impacts their daily lives, explore a social justice issue throughout history, study examples of math principles at work in the real world, or craft an original, illustrated story. A book could chronicle a student's journey through a genius hour project, showcase a student's artwork or photography in a portfolio, or record class memories after going on a field trip.

If you've gotten stuck in a never-ending cycle of worksheets and multiple-choice tests, introducing a tool like Book Creator could open up some incredible possibilities for students to demonstrate and share their learning.
newseumed.org
Social studies and history teachers, you're going to love this one.

Produced by Newseum, a news museum located in Washington, D.C., NewseumED houses an incredible online collection of primary sources, news artifacts, and lessons that help teachers teach media literacy, civics, and all aspects of the First Amendment, giving you and your students an up-close look at history.

So if you're looking for how a German newspaper covered Jesse Owens' win at the 1936 Olympics, you can find that. The front cover of Life magazine capturing the very beginning of a 1965 march for civil rights in Selma, Alabama? They have that. An image of Abe Lincoln without a beard? Check.

The site gives you several ways to search for content-by state, century, theme, topics, type of resource, and so on. Once you find something you'd like your students to use-a map, a newspaper, a quiz-you can share it with them using a URL that lasts for two weeks but can be renewed an unlimited number of times.

If you find a lesson you'd like to teach, handouts are there for you to download, print, or copy, and everything has been aligned to NCSS, NCHS, NCTE, and Common Core Standards.

When I first saw this site, I thought about way back when the Internet first became a thing that regular people used. We used to talk about how theoretically, you could go online and find just about any document you could think of; like, the whole Library of Congress would be on there. Except back around 1994 when I tried to find stuff, it ended up not being that easy. When I look at a site like NewseumED, that vision is starting to look more like a reality now.

At a time when the concept of "truth" has become pretty shaky, having access to primary sources has never been more important. NewseumED deserves a place on every history teacher's list of go-to resources.
autodraw.com
OK, I have to admit: This one I included just because it's so frickin' cool. Someone showed it to me on Twitter one day and I freaked out. I do think it has some educational value, and I'll get to that in a minute, but first let me just tell you about it.

AutoDraw is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to guess what you're trying to draw. You start with a blank screen, begin sketching something, and AutoDraw gives you a strip of professionally illustrated images to choose from, based on what the tool thinks you're trying to draw.

Every time you add more detail to your own sketch, AutoDraw's guesses change. When you see an image that matches what you're going for, you can choose it, then add color, resize it, or basically manipulate it however you want. If you choose to, you can turn OFF the automatic feature and just sketch without any assistance, but seriously, that feature is a thing to behold.

When your masterpiece is complete, you can automatically download it as a PNG file, share it on Twitter or Facebook, or grab a unique URL and share it that way.

So here's where I see some educational value beyond this tool just being neat-o: Images help us remember things. I've talked on this site about the value of dual coding, visualization, and nonlinguistic representation. A tool like AutoDraw fits in there: If you want students to add doodles to their notes, and they get frustrated with their own drawing skills, this tool can help. If you like to add icons or illustrations to your classroom materials, but you don't have the time to create your own or look all over the Internet for pre-made ones, this tool can help.

Beyond that, if you have early finishers in class or need something fresh for preferred activity time, giving students ten minutes to play around on AutoDraw would be great. And if students need illustrations for projects, videos, or books, AutoDraw can help them create those.

Also? Really cool.
sway.com
First we had PowerPoint. Then Prezi came along and shook things up quite a bit. Then a little over two years ago, Microsoft quietly introduced Sway, a unique platform that gives you dynamic, almost cinematic presentations that have the feel of a modern website.

You start by selecting a template, a topic, or a document you already have on your computer-or start from scratch. You work within a storyline, getting all your information typed in, images and videos inserted, forms added, and content embedded. The program is set up so that you can add content from the app without having to toggle between tabs. This includes Creative Commons images, so you don't have to worry about copyright laws.

Once your storyline is complete, you can design your Sway: Choose from a number of styles or use the Remix button until the preview of your work looks exactly how you want it. You can choose for your Sway to scroll up and down, left to right, or be presented in slides just like PowerPoint.

Sway would be another nice option for presenting your own content or offering students a different way to share their learning or produce creative projects of their own.

All the tools, all in one place.

If you're not yet familiar with the Teacher's Guide to Tech, let me introduce you: It's my encyclopedia of educational technology, a 329-page PDF you can keep on your home computer, work computer, or any device that will read a PDF.

The whole purpose of the guide is to make it fast and easy for you to navigate the world of ed tech. Once you start using it, you won't believe how much you'll learn, or how FAST you'll learn it!

Where to Get It

Single-User Licenses:
If you just want a copy for yourself, you can get a copy atTeachers Pay Teachers or on Teachable.

Multi-User Licenses:
To get the guide for your team, school, or even district, you can save a lot by getting multi-user licenses. Although these are available onTeachers Pay Teachers, I am offering deeper discounts for multiple licenses on Teachable.
Purchase on Teachable Purchase on TpT

Learn something new every week.
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One of them is super trendy. One takes you into the past. Three can be used in a dozen different ways. And one you're going to want to try right away. Come see.

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When you're moving to digital platforms and students having devices, what do you do first?

Not Materials Online

Your first move is NOT to just post all your documents online. Nor is it to make a bunch of videos of you teaching.

Paradigm Shift

Using digital materials should be more than going paperless. It is a mind shift of attitude and approach. "What does this allow me to do that I could not do before?" "Why is this BETTER?" Just because something is digital, does not make it better. The same task will yield the same results. Asking students to read a book on a tablet does not improve the learning.

So, do NOT just try to digitize everything you have.

Moving to digital is a great excuse to rethink how we approach teaching and learning in a modern context. We teach the future, we want to be forward thinking.

Substitution

The SAMR model helps us to look at how we are using our materials. SAMR is NOT a ladder, you do not start with substitution and move your way up to redefining the task. SAMR is also NOT a measure of difficulty. Some substitution level tasks are harder than a modification or redefinition task.

If you are "getting there" or "easing into" transitioning to digital, don't give up what you're already doing. Keep your textbook and paper. Learn something new that makes learning better, that is better for kids in conjunction with what you're already doing. Don't waste your new learning on learning how to do old things in a new way. Learn something new. Every day we ask kids to learn something new, it is energizing to learn something new alongside them.

6 Steps to Transition to Digital

1. Communicate

How can we use digital tools to better communicate what we are doing? Get in the habit of posting the tasks students will be doing during the day. This opens up transparency with parents and students. Parents can have specific things to refer to when talking to their child after school. "Tell me about the book you read in class today" as opposed to "What did you do today?" Students who are absent can more easily get caught up, or even to not miss a beat before coming back to class.

A website, Google Classroom, a digital newsletter, a digital Padlet board, a class Twitter account, class Facebook page, directions on a Google Doc or Google Slides, text messages using Remind are some suggestions for communicating digitally, directions on a Google Doc or Google Slides.

Not repeating myself makes me less grumpy. If tasks along with directions are posted digitally, students can access directions and get to work without waiting. Directions can be referenced multiple times to ensure they are being followed.

2. Ask

Before you jump into teaching with digital materials, ask some questions.

"Does this make learning better?" If not, why are we trying to do it digitally? Perhaps the old fashioned way of doing it is better for teacher and student.

"Will students be engaged in the task?" No matter the medium, we must design for student engagement. Digital tools do not create engagement, we can not rely on the glow of a computer screen to excite kids. Completing worksheets online is not engaging. How does the technology change the assignment to better engage students in their learning?

3. Interact

Teaching is too hard to do in isolation. Especially as we transition to digital tools, you can not know how to use all of the possible technology options. Before trying to come up with your own ideas, look for what others are doing. "Steal" someone else's activity. I highly recommend you create a PLN of teachers you regularly interact with who will share their lesson activities. Try one of them. As you are transitioning to digital materials, do not feel the pressure to jump in the deep end. Try one new activity, see how it goes. Make some adjustments, try the activity again. Talk to other educators on how it went, get feedback.

4. Iterate

Give yourself permission to try something new and realize it possibly will not come out like you expected. Creativity is something you practice not something you're born with. Try coming up with one idea for a digital activity or resource you can try that you haven't done before.

5. Collaborate

When designing digital activities consider "how will my students collaborate?" Before you make all of your lessons and activities digital, start by doing an activity that is collaborative. Look at different tools that allow for collaboration and hearing from students. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are designed for collaboration. Padlet, 81Dash, Kahoot, bubbl.us, TodaysMeet, PearDeck are other options.

6. Feedback

If you are looking to improve learning, one thing that research says improves learning is high-quality feedback. The more immediate the better. Telling students specifically what they did right and specifically what they can improve on. Insert comments onto a student's Google Doc while they are working on it. Leave specific feedback comments in Google Classroom. Share a Google Keep note with a student about their work. Screen record feedback of a student's work. Use tools that auto-grade. Websites such as Quia, Goformative, Zaption and others will give students immediate feedback after each question.

Go Further

These are some suggestions to get you started. Check out Matt Miller and Catlin Tucker and Kasey Bell and other educators who are sharing how they use technology in the classroom. Move towards having your activities and lessons online, but do not feel you need to be paperless tomorrow. First, develop a mindset around what digital can do for you. Actively find ideas you can try, one at a time.

This EdSurge article highlights that only using digital tools for remediation and drill practice has a negative impact on student achievement and engagement. The article lists some specific tips for using technology in a more effective way.

Ditch that Homework

If you would like to join the VIP club for Ditch that Homework visit: ditchthathomework.com

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016

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6 Steps to Transition to Digital - Teacher Tech

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Transitioning to Digital When you're moving to digital platforms and students having devices, what do you do first? Not Materials Online Your first move is NOT to just post all your documents online. Nor is it to make a bunch of videos of you teaching.

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Syncs with Google Drive

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Student Voice is no longer relegated to the traditional methods and pedagogy. Powerpoints, class discussion, writing, and drawing still have an important place in our classrooms, but they cannot be the only way Future Ready Teachers and Students engage in content. EdTech today provides students and educators with incredible resources to engage Student Voice.

Today, Student Voice needs to be connected to a range of skills and connected resources including images, text, audio, interactive components, and video. The web and Google Apps for Education can provide students and teachers with a wealth of resources to flip the traditional a presentation model on its head.

The resources connected on this page are commonly used in education and are typically free. This is by no means a complete list. We've selected and categorized some of our PLN's favorite resources to support Creative Student Voice.
Most of the resources in this document have interactive help tutorials built into the resource. Additionally, a quick YouTube search will provide some nice tutorials for teachers and students.

Please feel free to share your favorite resources in the Padlet linked in the Document or in the comments section below.

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Resources to Support Creative Student Voices #StudentVoice

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Student Voice is no longer relegated to the traditional methods and pedagogy. Powerpoints, class discussion, writing, and drawing still have an important place in our classrooms, but they cannot be the only way Future Ready Teachers and Students engage in content. EdTech today provides students and educators with incredible resources to engage Student Voice.

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Chrome Resources - Productivity & Workflow

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Google Classroom Tips, Tricks, and Training Resources

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The skills connected to collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity are essential for all students. The best activities provide students with opportunities to practice these skills in learner-centered environments.
Many of the categorized resources below can support a variety of student skills and activities connected to the 4 Cs. It is recommended that users sign-up for the resources using Google accounts whenever possible. M any of the resources have tutorials and interactive help available. You can also learn more about each resource with a quick YouTube search. Additionally, If you prefer a Google Doc that you can add to your drive, click here.

Teachers no longer need to be the experts in the classroom. A good teacher realizes that they don't need to know how to use everything before letting the students explore. Give students the opportunity to explore and experiment with something new.

Google Drive ( Docs, Padlet (Chrome App) A digital canvas to create beautiful projects that are easy to share and collaborate on. It works like a piece of paper. Drawings, Google Keep (App and Extension)
Capture, edit, share, and collaborate on your notes on any device, anywhere.
Slides, Forms, and Sheets) Google Apps for Education resources.

WeVideo (Chrome / Drive App)
WeVideo makes video editing easy for everyone and accessible from anywhere.
Google Drawings / Canva / Piktochart / Thinglink / Slides (Web and Infographic Resources)
Resources to support visual learning and creation of visual products.
Screencastify (Chrome Extension)
Screencastify is a simple video screen capture software for Chrome and Chromebooks.

Create impactful social graphics, web stories & animated videos with Spark's free graphic design app.

Google Classroom / Share to Classroom (Chrome App, Chrome Extension & Web Resource)
A suite of free productivity tools for classroom collaboration and communication.
Google+ / Google Sites / Blogger (Web Resources)
Google Apps for Education resources for online sharing of resources and links.
Remind (Web Resource)
A communication tool that helps teachers reach students and parents where they are.

Newsela (Chrome App and Web Resource)
Newsela publishes daily news articles from leading publications like The Washington Post, Scientific American, and The Guardian at 5 reading levels from grades 2 - 12 to drive gains in literacy.
TED-Ed (Web Resource)
Use videos create customized lessons. You can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from YouTube videos.
Coggle (Chrome / Drive App)
Free collaborative mind mapping: Real-time brainstorming, add images, Drive support, save mind maps as PDF, Image, .mm, text.

Kahoot / Quizziz / Quizlet.live
Create a fun learning game in minutes, made from a series of multiple choice questions. Add videos, images and diagrams.
EdPuzzle
Make video come alive with engaging and interactive customizable video lessons.
Google Forms ( Flubaroo or Superquiz)
Create custom forms for surveys and questionnaires. Flubaroo and Superquiz are add-ons to facilitate grading and distribution of scores.

Subject Specific Chrome & Chromebook Resources

Google Drive Folder of EdTech Enhancements
Additional resources connected to Chrome Apps, Drive Add-ons, and Chrome Extensions.

Productivity and Workflow Document
Additional resources to support students and teachers connected to Chromebooks and Google Chrome.

HyperDoc Resource Document
HyperDocs are powerful learning frameworks that support and organize learning connected to the 4 Cs.

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The 4Cs - EdTech & GSuiteEDU Resources for Learner-Centered Classrooms

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The skills connected to collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity are essential for all students. The best activities provide students with opportunities to practice these skills in learner-centered environments. Many of the categorized resources below can support a variety of student skills and activities connected to the 4 Cs.

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How to Use Padlet: A Fantastic Tool for Teaching

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Padlet is a fantastic tool to use in the classroom. This classroom how-to guide for Padlet will get you started creating pages and using it with students.

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Book Creator - Love Learning - Book Creator app

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Teachers love it. Students love it. Book Creator is the simplest, most inclusive way to create content in the classroom.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Have you caught # FlipGridFever yet? If not, its time you did! This is arguably one of the best apps of 2017. What makes it great is that it is so simple. It has so many layers of thinking it can uncover. At first view - it is a video response platform - but it is so much more, so layered, and so effective in helping teachers capture rich information about student learning and growth. Let's take a look...
What is a FlipGrid?
In simple terms and from the website, "A grid is where your students go to view your topics, record their responses and reply to their classmates. These grids can be open or locked.

Why I love FlipGrid:

1. Everything presented in an organized grid - which makes it highly visual, easy to navigate, and assess.

photo source: flipgrid.com

2. The grid environment promotes metacognition - it provides and easy way for students to watch other student videos; self reflect, learn from each other, and compare their learning with that of their peers. This allows them to "think about thinking" and naturally throws them into a state of metacognition. Boom! Now that is good pedagogy!

3. Set up is really easy. You just name a grid, ask a question and let the video reflections begin. Each grid can have limitless topics - For example, name a grid "The Outsiders", and have many topics or discussions within that one grid.

4. Provides a rich platform for pedagogical learning strategies like assessing prior knowledge, checks for understanding and reflection.

5. Works for EVERY subject - see below for 10 great ways you can use it in the classroom.

6. FlipGrid helps students to use video as an educational tool. It also teaches the digital citizenship lessons of commenting and communicating effectively with others via video and media (note: teachers need to spend a bit of time talking about proper commenting and meaningful replies first - students don't naturally know how to do this in a constructive way).

7. Every student benefits from other students perspectives. Students spend their lives taking videos, selfies and interacting on social media with a global audience - now teachers can harness the power and fun of social media in their classrooms.

8. Video responses often prompt further discussions among students and the class.

9. Allows you to hear from every student - even the ones who are shy or slow to respond - the students who don't typically raise their hands. It works great for some students just need a bit more time to process and then post. I have seen shy students who don't love posting their own face use SnapChat and filters to gain comfort posting. They might use the animal face filters to gain a sense of comfort around posting. It also allows students to build articulate verbal reasoning skills as they post and respond.

10. It meets students where they are - in our classrooms are kids who are hyper-connected and have the world as their social circle - and FlipGrid is a platform built for this type of Generation Z learner.

Use the promocode: HOLLYCLARK to get 6 0 days of FlipGrid Free trial.

If you like this....you will love...
Read 15 Ways to Incorporate #FlipGridFever into the Classroom Read 15 Ways to Use in the Social Studies Classroom
Go ahead - try one out its easy. Just sign up at Flipgrid.com.

For more fun ideas like these check out our new book The Google Infused Classroom.

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Have you caught #FlipGridFever yet? If not, its time you did! This is arguably one of the best apps of 2017. What makes it great is that it is so simple. It has so many layers of thinking it can...

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Each student can have a blog

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Blogging with Year 7 and 8 | Just another Edublogs site

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Voices with Antarctica: Laura's Adventure

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Welcome to the fourth step in our free professional learning series on class and student blogging!

The aim of this step is to:

1. Explain how comments are used on class blogs.

2. Provide tips for teaching students quality commenting skills.

Kathleen Morris has shared some thoughts on why comments count in a blog post:

Comments turn your blog from a static space into an interactive space.

They allow for back and forth conversation which can lead to a huge amount of learning.

The fact that comments aren't instantaneous (like online chat) can fuel deeper reflections, responses, and research.

Comments allow for feedback, constructive criticism, and the adding of ideas and opinions to the original post. The content can grow and evolve.

It can be encouraging for students to know they have an authentic audience who can connect with them.

Commenting can be an ideal way for parents to get involved in the classroom (virtual parent helpers!)

A single comment can be the start of a fantastic working relationship or friendship. You never know where that can take you and/or your students.

The Blogging Cycle

Important parts of the blogging process include encouraging students to:

1. Read other students' posts.
2. Comment on other students' posts.
3. Write posts in response to other students' posts.

It's amazing how even just a few comments can make students realize they are writing for a global audience - for many it's incredibly motivating.

Must Watch Video

We recommend you watch The Possibility of Student Blogging by Andrea Hernandez and Slivia Tolisano.

This video provides an excellent explanation of the blogging, the commenting process, the impact of quality blogging on student literacy, and the importance of writing as part of a global audience.

Remember, discussions in comments are important for reflective learning. Comments that challenge or suggest alternative options encourage you to reflect, revise, evaluate, and review your thoughts.

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By default, comments are enabled on all newly created blogs, and a comment form will appear at the bottom of posts and pages where readers can respond to what you've written.

Note: Comments are disabled on pages by default and can be enabled.

Approved comments are displayed under the individual post or page. You just click on the post title or the comment link to read the comments.

Threaded comments allow readers to reply to other comments inline/nested which encourages better discussion and responses.
Here is an example of a threaded comment on a post:

The great thing about comments is you have control over moderation and approval. Refer to the following support documents for more information on dealing with comments.

These examples of comments on class blogs to demonstrate just a few of the ways comments can be used by educators and students.

1. Two Truths and One Lie: A Culture Exchange (Miss Jordan's grade 3/4 students in Australia had a commenting conversation with some of their blogging buddies in the USA)

2. Learning in 21 - You Are Invited (Grade 3 students wrote a comment to their teacher)

3. St Charles Borromeo students run a Mystery Word competition that students can comment on.

4. Roslyn Green's high school history class (Night of Notables) and English class (G is for Gratitude) wrote some insightful reflections in their comments.

To leave a comment on a post, simply:

1. Click on the heading of the post you wish to comment on or the 'comment' link at the top or bottom of the post.

2. Scroll down the page to the comment form or click on Reply (to reply to a specific comment).

3. Enter your name and email address -- your email address is hidden and only the blogger sees it ( If you are logged into your Edublogs account you won't need to add these details).

4. Write your comment in the box.

5. Enter the anti-spam word.

6. Select ' Notify me of followup comments via e-mail ' if you want to get an email when other people comment (so you know if people reply to you etc.).

7. Click Post Comment
Below is a video from Kathleen Morris explaining how to add a comment for students.
Note: Email address isn't required in her example as the email requirement has been disabled in Settings > Discussion.

Want to make your own 'How to comment' video? Try a free tool like Screencastify or Loom.

If commenting skills are not taught and constantly reinforced, there can be a tendency for students to limit their comments to things like,

While enthusiasm is high with these sorts of comments, students are not developing their literacy skills or having meaningful interactions with other members of the blogging community.

Conversations in the comment section of a blog are such rich and meaningful learning experiences for students. Conversations begin with high quality comments.

Blogging is an authentic avenue for developing student literacy skills. When you invest the time in teaching, modeling, revising, and promoting high quality writing of comments, students can make great gains in their overall literacy development.

Set your standards high from the start and reap the rewards!

Developing strong commenting skills also provides a good foundation for when you move students on to writing posts on the class blog or their own student blogs.

The following diagram summarizes a scaffolded approach to blogging in the classroom. It begins with the teacher being responsible for the posts while the students learn quality commenting skills.

We explained this progressive model more in step three.

In her post on commenting, Kathleen Morris shares eight ideas to encourage a culture of quality commenting.

1. Blogging guidelines: Set high standards to ensure students are using correct writing conventions and practicing things like asking questions, staying on topic, making connections, complimenting in a specific way etc. See below for examples.

2. Be consistent: Consider spending a couple of minutes each day or a few times a week focusing on commenting as a whole class. You might read comments together, write replies together, and have students come up with constructive feedback. Embed blogging into your routine.

3. Use mini lessons. You can embed on-the-spot commenting tutorials into whole class blogging time. You might choose a comment to reply to as a class. The teacher can model how to write a quality comment with input from students. Check out some mini lesson ideas Kathleen put together with annotated examples a number of years ago.

4. Use explicit lessons. Come up with a few more detailed lessons on commenting. For example, Kathleen used to give her grade two students some example comments to sort. Older students could find examples themselves and analyze them on a much deeper level.

5. Integrate. When you use literacy lessons to teach various conventions (like letter writing, editing, grammar, spelling, punctuation etc.) have students practice these concepts through commenting. If you have literacy rotations, blogging is always an excellent activity station!

6. Involve parents. Family members have the potential to be regular commenters on your class blog. We need to bring this potential to life. Just one idea is sending parents an email asking them to comment on a specific post with their child. Well know blogger, Linda Yollis, gives parents suggestions, such as typing for their child but leaving errors for them to correct. Step six of this series offers lots of ideas on helping parents and students connect with the class blog.

7. Connect with others. There are so many ways you can connect with other classes around the world to create authentic opportunities for both writing and receiving comments. The Student Blogging Challenge which begins in March and October each year is a good place to start. #Comments4Kids is a Twitter hashtag you can use and follow too.

8. End with a question. A question at the end of a blog post is an invitation to comment. You can teach students about using open ended questions, and help them understand the etiquette of replying to comments too.

Here are some suggestions for activities you can use to develop your students' commenting skills.

Videos can be a great way to introduce students to the art of commenting.

Watch this video by Linda Yollis' students about leaving quality comments.

Linda's students have also created this excellent video with tips for quality writing on blogs.

Watch Ten Tips For Great Blog Comments by Bloggin' Frogs students.

Silvia Tolisano's students put together this impressive report into quality commenting.

Check out Nicolas Weiss' Leaving High Quality Blog comments video for quality commenting explained for high school students.

Facilitate a collaborative discussion with your students to create your own commenting guidelines.

Here are some examples of commenting guidelines to look at from different age groups:

T ell them something you like about their work

A sk them a question

G ive a suggestion

Remember, use others' guidelines for ideas but don't copy others' work without permission and acknowledgment.

A page is a good place to document guidelines. Refer to Step 2: Set Up Pages for more information on pages.

As an alternative to displaying guidelines through text, you could get your students to create their own videos on writing quality comments.

Watch this Comments video shared by Andrea Hernandez made by a 5th Grade student.

A poster is a great way to make a visual representation of your commenting guidelines.

A poster could be made by the teacher or the students.

Display your poster in the classroom, on a blog page, and send it home to share with parents and caregivers.

You could make a digital poster in Canva, PowerPoint, or any number of online tools

Short on time? Kathleen Morris has shared her commenting guidelines poster on her blog which you're welcome to download and use.

Point system

Linda Yollis' class uses a point system for evaluating comments. A one point comment is a general comment that doesn't add much to the conversation. A two point comment is a good comment that adds something to the conversation.

Check out Linda Yollis' evaluation guide and how she teaches commenting to see if you want to set up a quality comment evaluation guide for your class.

Another idea for setting standards for commenting, writing, or blogging in general is using a rubric.

Teachers could make this to meet the needs of their class, or students could create their own.

Here are three examples:

Publish a blog post about commenting and what you define as a quality comment and then have your students practice leaving a "quality" comment on the post.

Check out Jan Smith's " I'm New Here" post. It's an excellent example of introducing students to reading student blog posts and learning how to write comments.

6. Try paper blogging

Paper blogging is a hands-on, concrete way of introducing students to writing posts and comments using paper and post-it notes.

You'll find a detailed explanation of how to paper blog with your students here. You'll find an example of using paper blogging activity with students here.

7. Other advice and tips

The following is Fiona Stafford's reflection on commenting and strategies she uses with her Grade 6 students:

After some time, I noticed a stand-still in commenting. It appeared that students were posting a lot but not commenting, which limited the amount of student learning from their peers via feedback. So, over time, I incorporated a number of strategies to encourage the students to comment on other people's blog posts. The different tactics I employed to enhance feedback via commenting were: allowing some time in class to do it; setting expectations to comment as a part of their weekly home learning; making it compulsory for parents to comment somewhere on their child's blog site as confirmation that their home learning had been completed; making the majority of their home learning via their blogs; getting them to set a blogging goal in order to move forward with the process; and introducing a 'what's trending?' page to our class blog. The rationale behind this page was to encourage students to suggest other students' blog posts that were worthy of their attention and encourage people to give feedback. So far, this has been working. But, this is still an ongoing journey. This journey into the Blogosphere has and continues to provide just as much learning for me as it does my students.

There are some commonly asked questions that we receive at Edublogs Support. Let's break them down.
1. How do you enable comments on pages?
Most Edublogs themes support comments on pages and by default comments are disabled on pages.

You can enable comments on pages using Quick Edit as follows:

1. Go to to Pages > All Pages

2. Locate the post or page you want to enable comments on.

3. Hover over its title to bring up its action menu.

4. Click on Quick Edit, deselect 'Allow Comments' and then click on Update.

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2. Why won't comments display on pages?
Most Edublogs themes support comments on pages, however, there are a few themes that don't.

If the theme you are using doesn't support comments on pages, and you would like this feature, then you will need to use an alternative theme.

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3. How do I make comments display on my homepage?
Traditionally comments are designed to be displayed under a post and you view the comments by clicking on the post title or the comments link. It is done this way because posts can have hundreds of comments and displaying them directly under a post on the post page can make it hard to read the content.

Most teachers display the comments on their homepage by adding the Recent Comments widget to the sidebar. You'll learn more about widgets in step five of this series.

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4. How do I remove the option to add email address to comments?
By default, anyone leaving a comment must leave a valid name and email address.

If the 'Comment author must fill out name and e-mail' is unchecked in Settings > Discussion, any visitor can leave a comment and isn't required to enter an email address. Please note, readers will still see the name and email address option on the comment form but the email address is no longer required to submit a comment.

This option is often used when teachers don't want students to use their email address.

Learn more about Discussion settings here.

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5. How do you stop the "Posting comments too quickly" message?
Comments allow your readers to add feedback to your posts and pages.

Unfortunately, if all your students are submitting comments at the same time to a class blog on your school computers they may see the 'You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down' message and they might lose their comments.

This happens because the computers on your school network use the same IP address and Edublogs, which is powered by WordPress, has comment throttling to protect blogs against spam bots.

Find out how to prevent the posting too quickly message here.
6. How do I moderate all comments?
The default comment setting on all newly created blogs is 'Comment author must have a previously approved comment before a comment appears'.

This means any visitors that have had a comment approved on the blog in the past will have their comment immediately posted and only comments from new visitors are placed in the moderation queue.

To moderate all comments you need to change it to "Comment must be manually approved" in Settings > Discussion.

Blogging is about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each other. So here's your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!

Complete the following tasks:

1. Choose one of the Activities for developing commenting skills, complete the activity, and then leave a comment to share what you created or to let us know how you went. If you created something for your blog like some commenting guidelines, feel free to put the link to your blog in the comment so we can take a look!

2. Read through the most recent comments in reply to this step and leave a response to another person's comment.

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Welcome to the fourth step in our free professional learning series on class and student blogging! The aim of this step is to: Explain how comments are used on class blogs. Provide tips for teaching students quality commenting skills.

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On Tuesday morning I published a video about how to use Adobe's new creative suite called Adobe Spark. That video was focused on how to use the three parts of Adobe Spark; post, page, and video. If you haven't seen the video, it is embedded below.

Now that we know how the tools work, let's take a look at some ways that teachers and students can use Adobe Spark.

Post:
Post is the part of the Adobe Spark that lets you create graphics like posters, announcements, and Internet memes.

Students and teachers can create simple posters to print and post in their schools to announce club meetings, campaigns for class elections, or to post encouraging messages to students.

To help students understand and show that they understand what propaganda messages look like, I have had them create simple early 20th Century-style propaganda posters of their own. Adobe Spark has built-in Creative Commons search that can help students find pictures to use for those posters. Students can also upload pictures they've found in the public domain.

Create a meme-style graphic to share on your classroom, library, or school website. The graphic could be intended to encourage students and parents to remind each other of an upcoming school event. You could also create a meme to encourage students to continue reading over the summer.
Video:
As the name implies, this is the Adobe Spark tool for creating videos. Videos are created by adding text and images to slides. You can record yourself talking over each slide. A library of free music is available to layer under your narration or you can use that music in lieu of narration.

Create a short flipped-lesson with Adobe Spark. The recording tool makes it easy to precisely record your narration over the slides in your lesson.

Have your students create video lessons. The slide aspect of Adobe Spark's video tool lends itself to students creating short Ken Burns-style documentary videos. Have them use Spark's search tool to find images to use in their videos or have them use a place Flickr's The Commons to find historical images. I've had students make this style of video to tell the stories of people moving west across the United States in the 19th Century.

This is the time of year for end-of-school assemblies and celebrations. Use Adobe Spark's video creation tool to make a video of highlights of the school year. Rather than narrating the video you can use music from Adobe Spark's library.

Page is the tool for creating simple web pages to showcase pictures, posters, videos, text, and links.

Create an event invitation page. Create a page that outlines the highlights of an upcoming school event like a fundraiser or open house night. Include images of past events, images of prizes, or include a video about the event. Should you need people to register for your event, include a link to a Google Form. (Learn how to use Google Forms).

Create a digital portfolio. Spark pages provide a great format for digital portfolios. Students can organize their pages into sections to showcase videos they've made, documents they've written, and their reflections on what they've learned.

Make a multimedia timeline. While it wasn't designed specifically for making timelines, Spark Page's formatting does lend itself to timelines. Ask your students to research a series of events, find media representative of those events, caption the events and media with dates, and then place them into the proper order.

Write an image-based story. Students can write a story about themselves by using pictures they've taken placed into a Spark Page. Another way to think about image-based stories is to have students search for images and use them as writing prompts. Ask them to choose five pictures and write a story that connects the images.

Adobe Spark works in your web browser including on Chromebooks. Adobe Spark is also available as a series of iPad apps for Page, Video, and Post.

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On Tuesday morning I published a video about how to use Adobe's new creative suite called Adobe Spark. That video was focused on how to use the three parts of Adobe Spark; post, page, and video. If you haven't seen the video, it is embedded below.

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Welcome to our latest free professional learning series on class and student blogging!

This series guides you step by step through the process of class and student blogging. It provides class blog examples so you can check out how they are used by educators. Many of the examples are from primary grades but the same principles apply regardless of student age (including adult learners).

Refer our personal blogging series if you want to set up a personal or professional educator's blog.

The activities can be completed at your own pace and in any order!

Wherever you're at - we'll step you through the tasks designed to increase your skills while providing help to support your learning. Don't stress, have fun, and remember to ask for help by leaving a comment any time you need assistance!
The aim of this first activity is to:

Help you learn more about what is a blog and why educators use blogs.

Help you set up your class blog, customize your settings and change your theme.

What is a blog?

One of the biggest challenges educators new to blogging face is understanding the basics of how a blog works.

So we made this quick intro video to explain.

We recommend you start by watching this video.

We've included explanations of key blogging vocabulary which will help as you work through this series including Footers, Headers, Menus, Pages, Posts, Comments, Sidebars, Theme and Widgets.

You can check it out on MediaCore here if you don't have access to YouTube.

Feel free to share this video on your own blogs, with students or teachers, or with whomever you think may enjoy! Later in this series we show you how easy it is to add videos to your blog.

Here is a Blogging vocabulary activity you can use with your students!

Why educators use blogs

The main reasons why educators use blogs include:

Share information and class news with parents, family and caregivers.

Provide students with a way to access assignments, homework, resources and information about their class online.

For global collaboration and authentic audience.

To inspire and motivate students.

The benefits of class blogging include:

Blogging opens up the possibilities of audience in new ways. When students are writing or publishing for an audience other the teacher, it impacts how they view what they are doing and the intrinsic motivation they have.

Students love seeing their work on the Internet and adore getting comments from people. It motivates them to write as it gives them an audience that is real. The blog opens up a whole new world of people who can offer encouragement and feedback.

The blogging experience forces the students to do more reflection on their learning and allows them to showcase products they have produced with online tools.

Blogging provides an authentic educational experience, where what they write is not only seen and commented on by their teacher, but by their peers and the "public." For most students, it's a bit of extra motivation knowing their peers will see their work.

There is an authentic audience - a global audience - one that is willing to connect, share, challenge, discuss and communicate with classes. This audience can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions and so on which pushes blogging further.

Blogging develops a learning network. Exercise books etc need not be pushed and crumpled in school lockers only to be placed in the rubbish bins at the end of the school year, but student work is out there for their school lives.

Benefits from class blogging summarized from The State of Educational blogging in 2014.

Examples of Class blogs

Your class blog is what extends your class beyond the four walls of your classroom. As you get going, you'll soon decide the kinds of content, information and connections you want to make.

Here are examples of class blogs to check out for ideas:

1. 1A/B @ Willunga Primary - Kindergarten

2. Krebs' Class Blogs - Kindergarten

3. Ms Cassidy's Classroom blog - Grade 1 (links to student blogs in sidebar)

4. Mrs Yollis' Classroom blog - Grade 3

5. Mrs. Hamman's Class Blog - Grade 3

6. Mrs Moore's Class blog - Grade 3

7. Mr Baldock's Class blog - Grade 3/4

8. Mrs Muller's Class blog - Grade 3 & 4

9. Miss Jordan's Class @ Barwon Heads Primary School - Grade 4

10. Mrs Pjura's Class Blog - Grade 4

11. Wonder, Inquire, Create, Inspire - Grade 4

12. Going Global - Grade 5/6

13. Mr. Miller's Classroom Blog - Grade 6

14. Blogs-by-the-sea - Grade 6

15. Super Six Sevens - Grade 6/7

16. Jurupa Hills High School Photography and Yearbook

17. English 10 - High school

18. Mrs McNally Mumblings - High School English/Language Arts

19. Mr Ross's Science Class - High School

20. Mr Cartlidge's Science Blog - High School

21. The Heart of School - library

22. Library Matters @Tenambit

23. SGPS Art Flash - News From the Art Room

24. The Edublogger class blog list - includes Maths, Science, English, History, LOTE, EFL /ESL, Library, School news blogs and more!

We also regularly add new blogs to our Pinterest Examples of Class Blog board.

Sign up for your class blog

Your first step if you don't currently have your own blog, or you would like to use a new blog for this challenge, is to sign up for a blog.

You can use any blogging platform you would like including Edublogs, WordPress and Blogger, however when we write detailed instructions they will refer to Edublogs and CampusPress blogs. You will be able to adapt this information to the blogging platform you are using.

Here are some important things to consider before creating your blog:

Your username is what you use to sign into your blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments you write.

While you can't change your username, most blog platforms do allow you to change how your name is displayed on posts and comments.

Most teachers don't allow students to use first and last name online and it is common for them to model this by using display names like Miss W or Mrs. Waters.

Blog URL (Domain)

During the creation of your blog you have to select a URL for it. When you want others to visit your blog you give them the URL link of your blog. For example, the URL for the Teacher Challenge blog is http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/

Think carefully about your blog URL.

Once your blog has an established audience you're less likely to want to change your blog URL. Ideally you want to keep your blog URL short, easy to remember and we recommend you use a URL that you can reuse for several years.

For example, blog URLs that include your class room number or the year mean that you're less likely to use the same blog URL again next year. Most educators re-use their class blog each year because:

It saves time and is easier.

Provides a record of previous years' work to share with students and/or a resource the teacher can refer to.

A simple option is to use your name in the blog URL as these educators did:

1. Mr. Baldock's Class blog (http://mrbaldock.edublogs.org)

2. Mr. Salsich's Class blog (http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/)

Alternatively, use something unique that has meaning like:

1. Huzzah (http://huzzah.edublogs.org)

2. Bulldog Readers Blog ( http://bellbulldogreaders.edublogs.org/ )

Your blog title is one of the first things a reader sees when visiting your blog. Choose a name that reflects the purpose of your class blog and your students can relate to.

But don't stress too much! You can always change your blog title any time via Settings > General in your dashboard.

Some teachers organize a class activity so students can help choose the blog title.

Check out the following blog lists for ideas of blog titles other educators have used:

Blog Privacy

Blog privacy controls who can and can't view your blog.

There is a wide range of opinions on whether blogs should be public or private. 55 % of student blogs on Edublogs are public and can be viewed by anyone and 45 % of student blogs are private restricted to specific readers.
The Pros of posting on public blogs

students are writing for a real audience - not just the teacher

with no passwords to keep up with, parents and relatives can simply access the work

when students know anyone can see their work, they will try harder

students can easily share with their peers using social media and other means

visitors from down the hall or around the world can comment and collaborate

You lose out on connections, extended dialogues, and the motivating factor of working for an authentic purpose when blogs are made private.
Concerns of posting on public blogs
School administrators, who are rightfully risk-adverse, often immediately say that no public posting is allowed. Teachers, afraid of potential headaches due to students saying something inappropriate, bullying, or not having total control also get nervous about allowing students to publish freely online.

Some parents can feel uncomfortable with their child publishing content on a public blog and there are some family situations where a student needs to use a private blog. Providing a detailed parent handout with a blogging consent form helps parents understand why you are using a blog and lets parents provide feedback for their child. We cover handouts and consent forms in Step 6.
Changing blog privacy
Blog privacy on the class blog is set in Settings > Reading.

Below are the three most common privacy options used on Class blogs:

Allow search engines to index this site
Allows any one to read the content of your blog and for your blog to be indexed by search engines such as Google.

Discourage search engines from indexing this site

Allows any one who knows your blog URL to read your blog content while blocking web crawlers so that your blog is not indexed by search engines such as Google.

You use this option if you want to keep your blog public so your content can easily be read but want to limit it to only people who know your blog URL.

Anyone that visits must first provide this password
Used if you want to restrict who can read your blog content to only people who know the password. This is the best privacy option to use on a private blog if you want parents, students and other teachers to easily be able to view your blog without having to log into an account.

Create your blog

Now you've done all the research it's time to create your blog! All you need to do is follow these instructions if you would like to set up your blog on Edublogs.

Alternately, check out The State of Educational Blogging 2014 to read more about the different blog platforms used by educators.

Your Profile page is where you can control the global settings for your username including where you set up your display name, change your password and email address.

It's worth spending time quickly learning how to update your profile so you'll be able to explain the steps to your students.

Your Profile is most commonly used to update display name, password and email address so we'll focus on this. You'll notice there are lots of personal settings options in Your Profile and you can read more about each personal setting here.
Here's how to update your Profile:
1. Log into your blog dashboard.

2. Go to Users > Your Profile inyour blog dashboard.

3. Scroll to near the bottom of the page to Nickname in the Name area.

4. Change the Nickname to the name you want displayed on posts and comments.

5. Click on the drop down arrow and select your preferred publicly displayed name.

6. Now scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see the new password field.

Change your password by typing your new password into both boxes. There is no need to update your password (unless you want to). We just wanted to show you how it is done.

8. Now just click on Update Profile to apply the changes.
Remember to always click on Update Profile whenever you make any changes on Your Profile page!
Upload your user avatar

Your avatar is an online representation of you.

The user avatar is also known as your comment avatar. You upload the user avatar via Users > Your Avatar and it displays in places where you leave comments and next to posts you publish on some themes.

The default avatar set in Settings > Discussions is automatically display next to comments you leave unless you upload your own Avatar.

Below is an example of a user avatar next to a comment.

There are a few tricks to setting up your user avatar so it's worth setting it up now so you can demonstrate to your students later and will know what to do if they have any issues.
Uploading your avatar is as simple as:
1. Select a photo or create your avatar using an online tool.

Many schools don't allow students to use photos of themselves on blogs so teacher often get their students to create avatars that is representative of them. You'll find a list of online tools and ideas for creating avatars here.

2. Resize your image to 200 pixels wide by 200 pixels high.

3. Go to Users > Your Avatar.

4. Click on Browse and locate the avatar you want to upload.

5. Click on Upload.

6. Move the crop area to one corner, then expand the crop area to include your full image and click Crop image.

7. Now when you view a post where you've left a comment you will see your new comment avatar.
Important tips:

1. If you change your avatar and still see the old avatar it may be your web browser remembering your old image.

2. Hold the Ctrl key and press F5 to clear your browser cache or right mouse click and select Refresh or Reload.

Check your settings

The General Settings is where you configure the broad settings of your blog including your blog title, tagline, blog admin email address, timezone.

The most important setting to update in General Settings is your timezone. Educators often assume that blogs are automatically created set to their timezone and weeks later wonder why the post and comments date and times are weird.

The other important thing to consider is the blog admin email address. This email address is where all comment moderation emails are sent; and is used for payment receipts (if you are an Edublogs Pro subscriber). If you would like to receive comment moderation emails then we recommend you add your email address.

You'll find more information on the configurations options in General Settings here.
Here's how to change your timezone:
1. Go to Settings > Genera l.

2. Select your timezone from the drop down menu option.

3. Click Save Changes.

Customize your blog theme

Your theme is what controls the look and appearance of your blog; this is what people see when they visit your blog.

This is how you give your class blog its personal touch.

Like most things in life, first impressions count.

Great blog themes make good impressions on readers so that visitors are more likely to check out your blog. Overwhelming themes detract from your blog content, and make visitors less likely to read your content.

Every newly created blog normally has the same default theme. The last thing you want is to look like all the other blogs.

Customizing your blog theme is normally one of the first thing most people want to do when they first log into their blog.

So lets finish off getting your class blog started by showing you how to customize your theme!

Using the theme customizer

Ready to change your theme?

Great! It's really easy. Using the customizer you can customize your theme and see the results in real time before activating the theme.
Customizer video Here's how to change your theme using the theme customizer:
1. Go to Appearance > Themes

2. Click on ' Live Preview ' below the theme you want to use.

Or if you want to customize your current theme, click on ' Customize ' under the current theme.

3. This loads the customizer. Now all you do is work through the control panels on the left to customize the theme to preview the theme changes in real time before activating it on your blog.

4. Once you're happy with the changes you just click ' Save & Publish'.

Below's a quick summary of each customizer control panel:
We recommend you leave the static front page set to 'Latest Posts'.
Most class blogs use a blog post page for their homepage and we'll explain why you might use a static page in Step 2: Setting up pages.

You'll find more detailed information on using the customizer here.

Almost all Edublogs themes include an option to upload your own custom image header.

A custom image header is a great way of adding your "own personal touch" to your class blog.
Uploading your own custom header image is as simple as:
1. Click on Add new image in the header image section of the customizer.

2. Choose an image from your media library or upload a new image from your computer.

Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used for image headers.

For best results we recommend you re-size the image to the exact dimensions recommended for the theme before uploading by using an image editing program.

3. Click on Select and Crop.

4. Click on Crop image.

5. Your new header image should appear in your blog preview window.

6. Click Save & Publish on the Customizer to activate the new header on your blog.

On many themes, much like custom header images, you can add images to your blog's background. A background image is another great way of adding that personal touch to your class blog.

Uploading your own custom background image is as simple as:

Click on Background Image in the Customizer.

If you don't see the Background Header section in the Customizer it means the theme doesn't support this option.

3. Click on Add new image.

4. Choose an image from your media library or upload a new image from your computer.

Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used.

5. Click on Choose Image.

Once you have selected an image the background image options will appear:

Background repeat: controls if the background image is repeated. Choice are:

No Repeat -background image is only displayed once on the page.

Tile - background image is tiled horizontally and vertically.

Tile horizontally - the background image only repeats horizontally.

Tiled vertically - the background image only repeats vertically.

Background position: allows you to control the position of the background image. Options are left, center and right.

Background attachment: determines if you want the image to scroll with the content or to remain 'fixed' in place when a reader scrolls down the page.

For best results we recommend you use Tile, left and Scroll.

6. Your new background image should appear in your blog preview window.

7. Click Save & Publish on the Customizer to activate the new background on your blog.

Common Asked Theme Questions

Here's answers to commonly asked theme questions we receive into Edublogs Support:
1. Can I upload my own theme?
Because of the way blog platforms like Edublogs, WordPress.com and Blogger work you can only use the themes provided and can't upload your own custom themes. Most themes are designed to work on single installs and many don't work or can have compatibility issues on blog platforms.

Remember that custom image headers and backgrounds are a very effective way of customizing your theme to meet your needs.
2. How do I change the font color, font size and text color?
Some themes have extensive theme customization options which aren't supported by the theme customizer.

They often include options to change font color, font size and text color.

These types of themes add a theme option menu item under Appearance once the theme is activated.

To do more extensive customization you just need to go to Appearance > Theme Options.

You can also change font type, size and color in posts or on pages using the Supreme Google Webfonts plugin.

Blogging is about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each-other. So here's your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!

Complete the following tasks:

1. Visit some of the blogs on the examples of class blog list then leave a comment on this post to tell us which were your favorite class blog(s) on the list and why they were your favorite blog(s).

2. Read through the most recent comments in reply to this step and leave a response to another person's comment.

Remember to leave a link to your blog in your comment so we can have a look at your new blog!

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Welcome to our latest free professional learning series on class and student blogging! This series guides you step by step through the process of class and student blogging. It provides class blog examples so you can check out how they are used by educators.

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Jonathan is a certified teacher who has taught in the UK and in the US. He now works as a Digital Learning Consultant.

Screencasting: Solved!

For a long time, it was the Holy Grail of Chromebook functionality. It was the one thing that scores of people wanted to do but couldn't, because Chromebooks don't support the Java plugin that is required by popular screencasting tools like Jing or Screencast-o-matic. However, times have changed, and there are now several options for those who need a screen recorder for their Chromebook. Here are three that are well worth considering.

Screencastify for Chrome

Screencastify is the go-to Chrome extension for a lot of people who want to record their Chromebook screen. There is a free or a paid version and you can capture your webcam while you record. Here's how it works.

1. Download Screencastify

2. Click the film strip icon in the corner of your screen to get started.

3. Choose whether you want to screencast the contents of the tab, or your entire desktop. What's the difference? If you choose Tab, you get access to some live annotation tools. However, you will not see the omnibar or bookmarks toolbar at the top of the page, nor will you see the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. If you need these to be visible, choose Desktop mode.

4. If needed, you can set the frame rate and resolution, as well as decide whether or not you want to record audio.

5. Check the Embed webcam box if you want to record a video of yourself as you give the screencast. The icon to the right of your selected camera lets you choose which of the four corners you want the webcam to appear in.

6. Click Start Recording when you are ready.

When your screencast is done, click the Screencastify icon, and then click Stop Recording. The finished screencast will appear in a new tab. From here you can choose to rename it, delete it, download it to your Chromebook, or upload it to Google Drive or YouTube.

Screencastify is free for videos up to ten minutes in length, and may include a small watermark on your video. To remove these restrictions, you can upgrade to the paid version and also gain access to a video cropping tool.

Record Your Chromebook Screen With Screencastify

Nimbus Screenshot and Screencast

Nimbus is a more recent addition to the Chrome Web Store, but it is winning friends fast because it is a flexible tool that works well. With Nimbus you can capture screenshots or record your screen, but for the purpose of this post we will be concentrating on the screencasting abilities. Here's how it works.

1. Download Nimbus Screenshot and Screencast from the Chrome Web Store

2. Click the Nimbus extension and choose Record Video

3. Choose whether you want to record the tab or desktop area.

4. Choose the number of seconds you would like to include in a countdown timer. This is a great option to give you some time to get everything set and ready before you record.

5. Click Record to start recording and click the Nimbus icon again to stop recording

The finished video will open in a new tab where you can preview your recording. You can download your screencast to your device as WebM video, or upload it to Nimbus servers. These are perhaps not the best sharing options because you can't send the video directly to either YouTube or Google Drive. However, you can upload your video to these services if you download it first. If you decide to send your video to Nimbus, note that there is a 100mb limit. The Pro account unlocks more space if you need it.

Record Chromebook Screen With ViewedIt

Viewedit is perhaps the easiest way to create and share video. It is a free service that has some nice features to help it stand out from some others extensions, such as the ability to record your screen for up to one hour. It can also track the number of views your video gets and it integrates well with Gmail to let you pick the video you want to email right from the compose window in Chrome. Here's how it works.

1. Download the Viewedit extension from the Chrome Web Store

2. Click the Viewedit icon in your toolbar and sign in with your Google account.

3. Once signed in, click the Viewed it button again and choose whether you want to record the tab, your entire screen, or just use the webcam. You can also choose whether you want to record with audio or not.

4. When you have everything set up the way you want it, click Record to begin, and click the Viewedit icon to stop recording when you are finished.

5. Your video will open in a new tab where you can copy the link, share it on social media, or attach to a Gmail message.

The simplicity of Viewedit is hard to beat. If you just need to record a quick tutorial for someone, then this is a great tool to have on your toolbar. You can't download videos or send them to YouTube, but the one hour recording limit and integrated viewing statistics make this a compelling option.

Create, Send & Track Video with Viewedit

Editing Chromebook Screen Recordings

As good as these tools are, none of them really provide you any native options for editing your finsihed screencast. So, if you need to cut or trim your final video, add titles or overlay some annotations, then you need to take your video to another app. Chromebooks are not known for their video editing prowess, but there are at least two solid options for editing video.

1. The YouTube Editor - This option works well with Screencastify because it lets you send your video straight to YouTube. In the YouTube editor you can trim, cut and add music to your screencasts. Titles, transitions, filters, and more can be also be added and because you are on YouTube is is easy to share your video with the world. If you haven't tried it before, you should. It's more powerful than it looks. Learn more about the YouTube Editor here.

2. WeVideo - If you want a bit more flexibility with your editing, try the online WeVideo editor. It connects easily to your Google Drive so again it works great with Screencastify. WeVideo includes additional features like multi-track editing, voice overs, custom transitions, graphics, and text overlays. WeVideo has a paid subscription service, but for quick edits the free version may be good enough. Try it and see.

Screencast Performance Issues

So, now that you know how to create a Chromebook screencast, you are probably thinking that it will be a seamless, trouble-free experience. I hope it is. However, you should be aware that if you are using one of the early Chromebooks with an ARM based processor, like the Samsung 303 or the first HP Chromebook 11, you may have some performance issues. The audio and video will not always sync or work the way you might expect because these particular Chromebooks lack some of the processing power that is needed to record a screencast. The Intel-based Chromebooks work much better.

Intel-based Chromebooks Perform Better When Screencasting

Summary

Any of these Chrome extensions provide a very decent screen recorder for Chrombook users, but they work within the current confines of the Chrome OS. Google is improving the Chromebook software all the time, and Chrome OS will doubtless evolve and add more functionality that will make the likes of Screencastify or Nimbus even better at what they do. I for one look forward to seeing what that might bring, but I am also enjoying the options that are available right now. Are you?

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The Best Free Screen Recorder for Chromebook Screencasting

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Jonathan is a certified teacher who has taught in the UK and in the US. He now works as a Digital Learning Consultant. For a long time, it was the Holy Grail of Chromebook functionality.

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I recently learned about this platform, FlipGrid, and am very enthusiastic when I think of the potential it can bring for teachers and learners.
The idea is quite simple.

1. An administrator (teacher) creates so called grids of overarching theme or course/classroom section.

2. Add individual topic to encourage responses and contributions. Specify length of allowed video response

3. Share a specific flipgrid or theme via a link, a text code or a QR code

4. Your students or other potential contributors use an app or the web version to record a video response

5. Once the video is published, a transcript is automatically generated, and feedback via a reply video and reactions in form of emoticons can be left.

Again, I see tremendous potential for crowdsourcing ideas, perspectives, content, and answers. I can see how the process of reflection and metacognition can be streamlined, embedded and easily shared.

I am in particular excited with the possibilities within the Documenting Learning framework, which Janet Hale and I explore in depth in our upcoming book A Guide to Documenting Learning- Making Thinking and Learning Visible, Meaningful, Shareable and Amplified (to be published in January 2018)

Want to give FlipGrid a try? There is nothing better than to experience before your wheels start spinning how you could apply this in your own situation.

Follow the link to the topic: How do you make your learning and thinking visible? or

Use this code when you open the FlipGrid app (iOS or Android) : f11cb5

Scan the following QR code

or directly use the embedded topic on this blog

When using the app, you can check out all the other contributions and then "Add Response" by clicking on the green bar, then pushing the red circle to start recording your own response. I set a limit of 30 seconds for response videos. Give it a try... push beyond your comfort zone and record yourself to add your own perspective to other educators from around the world and be part of making-learning-visible strategies and ideas.

Another possibility opening up with FlipGrid, are their Global Grid Connections. Once logged into the admin area, you have access to tons of other educators who are sharing their grids and videos to solicit responses across countries, classrooms, and learners.

In their words:

The potential is there, it now depends on you and your imagination of HOW you could use such a platform to deepen and amplify your and your students' learning. My wheels are turning how to use FlipGrid FOR your own learning or FOR the learning of others. Are yours?

Documenting Learning: Learners reflect during specific moments during learning process to capture thinking and evidence of their understanding at current moment in time. Replies to previous videos serve as reflection of learning growth over time.

Heard about a Time Capsule Activity from Lisa Holtz . Have students record a video at the beginning of the school year, then have them watch and respond to it at the end of the year.

Reading: Convince someone in 30 seconds to read a book, who does not like to read.

Book Reviews: Create a Book Review Grid, with individual book titles as topics. Kids share their short book reviews via video for a specific book. Print the QR code out and attach to the physical book.

Visible Thinking Routines: Use any of Project Zero's Visible Thinking Routines to help learners make, well, their thinking visible.

Have students create videos to document their thinking and learning during each step of the KWHLAQ (What do I know? What do I want to know? How will I find out? What have I learning? What Action will I take? What further questions do I have?) routine.

Create a weekly/daily topic question for a Wonderopolis- style question grid.

Parent Engagement: Encourage parents to leave replies for their children's learning contributions. Ask them to contribute their knowledge, perspectives, stories and questions.

Professional Development: Go beyond learning from colleagues you share an office, a building or students with. Connect with teachers from around the world, about a specific topic you are interested in learning more about or are willing to share your expertise and knowledge.

Connect your Classroom with other classrooms from around the world. This is especially useful when synchronous video conferencing is not possible due to time zone differences.

Metacognition is supported by using questions that support the learners awareness and thinking about their thinking, such as "What do you think about what was said?", "How might you convince us that your way is the best way?", etc.

Cross-Pollination: Allow two or more sections of your class to watch, listen, and respond to each others contributions.

Follow #FlipGridFever hashtag on Twitter to connect with other educators and to harvest more ideas.

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FlipGrid: A Platform to Crowdsource Reflection, Metacognition and Perspective

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I recently learned about this platform, FlipGrid, and am very enthusiastic when I think of the potential it can bring for teachers and learners. The idea is quite simple. An administrator (teacher) creates so called grids of overarching theme or course/classroom section. Add individual topic to encourage responses and contributions.

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Edublogs is more than just WordPress

Edublogs enhances WordPress with education-specific features, themes, and plugins. We offer tailored tools for classroom management, student privacy, and collaborative learning.

Our platform is designed to meet the unique needs of educators and students, with dedicated support and an active educational community.

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Edublogs is more than just WordPress Edublogs enhances WordPress with education-specific features, themes, and plugins. We offer tailored tools for classroom management, student privacy, and collaborative learning. Our platform is designed to meet the unique needs of educators and students, with dedicated support and an active educational community.

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One of the best ways to show your students or colleagues how to use a new web tool is to give them a short video to watch. The benefit of creating and sharing a screencast is that your students or colleagues can watch your tutorial as many times as they need to. If you're a Chromebook user, there are three good options available to you. I've used all three of the following screencast tools on my Chromebooks over the years.

Nimbus Screenshot:
Nimbus Screenshot is my favorite tool on this list because of its ease of installation and it is the only tool on this list that provided a customizable countdown timer. I like the countdown timer because it gives me a few seconds to prepare to start talking over my screencast. The other tools just started recording the second that I hit the record button. Nimbus Screenshot was also the easiest to install and configure on my Chromebook.

Screencasts recorded with Nimbus Screenshot can be saved to your local drive or to an online Nimbus account. I chose to save to my local drive then upload to my YouTube channel. You could also save to your local drive then share to Google Drive or another online storage service.

Take a look at the video I created with Nimbus Screenshot.

CaptureCast:
CaptureCast is the tool that I featured in a post last week. I put it on the same level as Snagit. CaptureCast was rather easy to install. Your recording length is unlimited. You can record your webcam while recording your screen which you cannot do with the Nimbus tool or Snagit. Set-up of CaptureCast is easy too. For folks who don't want to use YouTube to share recordings, CaptureCast lets you share directly to a Vimeo account. See my CaptureCast sample in this post.

Screencastify:
Screencastify might have the most name recognition in this list, but I like it the least of the four tools in this list. In fact, it's definitely the last one that I'd recommend to new Chromebook users. The set-up process asks a lot questions that could confuse new users. The free version limits recordings to ten minutes and puts a watermark on the recording. I was also not impressed with quality of the video recording. See my Screencastify sample to see the watermark and recording quality.

At the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp we'll look at lots of tips and tricks for teaching with Chromebooks. Early registration discounts are available now.

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Create Screencast Videos on Chromebooks - Three Good Options

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One of the best ways to show your students or colleagues how to use a new web tool is to give them a short video to watch. The benefit of creating and sharing a screencast is that your students or colleagues can watch your tutorial as many times as they need to.

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For the majority of readers of this blog the end of the school year is already here or will be here within a month. This is the time of year that I get a lot of requests for suggestions on digital portfolio tools. If you find yourself looking for a digital portfolio tool and or have colleagues asking for suggestions, take a look at the ten options featured in my PDF handout embedded below or grab the Google Docs copy.

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10 Good Options for Creating Digital Portfolios - A PDF Handout

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For the majority of readers of this blog the end of the school year is already here or will be here within a month. This is the time of year that I get a lot of requests for suggestions on digital portfolio tools.

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2017 - 2018

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Practical Ed Tech Handbook 2017-18 School Year

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I discovered Flipgrid recently when I was looking for tools to support oral language development. I cannot remember where I found it, maybe just in a regular search, but this tool has been a hit for a number of teachers. Here is the promo video that can be found on the website.
Flipgrid is a tool that allows you to ask a question on line. You sign up for a free account and formulate your question. Your question generates a code which your students can use to give up to 90 second answers on video, and all answers remain on that one grid.
You can allow your students to see others responses or just their own - lots of privacy features.

Image from Flipgrid website.

The video platform breaks down the barriers that shy students have when talking to others and their teachers, and allows us to observe and assess oral language that we would otherwise not be able to.
In addition, more than one person can orally answer one question which is just not possible in a class of 30 or indeed any number more than 1. Of course, you can also break down classroom walls by inviting answers from outside your class. So this tool is really future focused.
The application can be used between learners, classes, between teachers, and opens up many possibilities of asking wider community opinion, including feedback from parents. You can use the web interface or the app on your ipad, iphone or android phone making it ideal to use for older students as well.
You can make one grid at a time on the free version so you have to delete your old grid when you are done but for $65 (US dollars equivalent to around $NZ92) per year you can make unlimited grids and do a lot more besides. See this comparison for the upgraded classroom version. The free version also gives a transcription of the video response (not 100% accurate but pretty good). You can share and embed your Flipgrids but remember that once you have deleted the flipgrid to make another that the sharing links will not work any more.
When I trialled it, 90 seconds seemed like ample time for an oral answer. The paid version also allows you to reply to a video in a new discussion. I think I would be very tempted to buy the full version if I were a classroom teacher.

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Flipgrid - a very useful tool for learning.

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I discovered Flipgrid recently when I was looking for tools to support oral language development. I cannot remember where I found it, maybe just in a regular search, but this tool has been a hit for a number of teachers. Here is the promo video that can be found on the website.

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One of last year's most popular posts featured my chart comparing seven popular blogging tools for teachers and students. Given the recent update to Edublogs I thought it was time to update my chart and rankings of blogging tools for teachers and students. You can view the chart here as a Google Doc or as embedded below through Box.com. Below the embed you will find my ranking of the seven tools.

1. Blogger - It's free and easy to set-up. It can be integrated into your Google Apps for Education account which means that you and your students can use the same usernames and passwords that they use in all other Google tools. You can make your blog private (up to 100 members invited by email). The drawback to it is that a lot of school filters flag it as "social media" and block it on those grounds.

1a. Edublogs - Probably the best option for elementary school and middle school use. Blogs and individual blog posts can be made private, password-protected, or public. You can create and manage your students' accounts. The latest version of Edublogs allows all users to include videos in blog posts. Outstanding customer support.

2. Weebly for Education - It's free to have up to 40 students in your account. You can manage your students' accounts. You can have students contribute to a group blog and or let them manage their own individual blogs.

3. SeeSaw.me - SeeSaw was originally launched as a digital portfolio tool. The addition of a blogging component was made in January 2016. The blogging component of SeeSaw allows you to import and display your students' digital artifacts publicly or privately. There is not much you can do with SeeSaw in terms of customization of layout and color scheme.

4. WordPress.org - If you have the technical accumen or the time to learn it (it's not that hard), self-hosting a blog that runs on WordPress software will give you the ultimate in control and flexibility. You will be able to create and manage student accounts, have a nearly infinite variety of customizations, and you'll be able to move your blog from server to server whenever you want to. That said, you will have to pay for hosting (or convince your school to give you server space) and you will be responsible for maintaining security updates and backing-up your blog regularly.

5. Kidblog - Allows you to manage your students' accounts. Requires you to pay for a subscription in order to get the features that you really want. Those features include embedding videos and other media from third party sites. Powered by WordPress software.

6. WordPress.com - It's easy to use and is free, but with some serious limitations at the free level. The free version displays advertising on your blog which you cannot control. The free version also doesn't allow embedding content from many third-party sites.

To learn how make blogging a successful classroom activity, take a look at Winning Blog Strategies.

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7 Blogging Tools for Teachers Compared and Ranked - Updated for 2017

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One of last year's most popular posts featured my chart comparing seven popular blogging tools for teachers and students. Given the recent update to Edublogs I thought it was time to update my chart and rankings of blogging tools for teachers and students.

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It seems like every month there is a new tool for creating videos on Chromebooks. In the two months since I published my last post about making videos on Chromebooks, two more good options have presented themselves.

Of course, creating a good video requires more than just picking the right tool for the job. You will also want to have a plan for producing the video. That's where a planning template like this one is helpful.

Come to the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp to learn how to best use these tools in your classroom.

Know Lounge is a complementary service to the Know Recorder app s for Android tablets and iPads. Know Lounge lets you create an online room in which you can host tutoring sessions and record videos. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use Know Lounge as teacher.

If you have a Chromebook that supports the use of Android apps, your students can create animated videos with Toontastic 3D. Students can pick from a variety of story setting templates or they can create their own within Toontastic 3D. Once they have established a background setting students then select cartoon characters to use in their stories. Students can choose from a wide array of customizable cartoon characters or they can create their own from scratch. Once characters are placed into the story scenes students can begin recording themselves talking while moving the characters around in each scene. Students can swap characters between scenes, change the appearance of characters between scenes, and move characters from one scene to the next. Watch my tutorial below to learn how to use Toontastic 3D.

Pixiclip is a free tool for creating simple instructional videos. Pixiclip provides you with a blank whiteboard on which you can draw, type, or insert images. You can record your voice as you draw or type on the screen. A variety of drawing tools is provided in Pixiclip. You can use Pixiclip without creating an account on the service. If you do create an account you can keep your videos private. Learn more about Pixiclip in my video embedded below.

My Simpleshow is a free tool for creating Common Craft style explanatory videos. The best aspect of My Simpleshow is the emphasis that the developers have placed on storyline planing and development. As is demonstrated in my tutorial below, students have to write a script on My Simpleshow before they can begin to use the video editing tools. (Disclosure: My Simpleshow is an advertiser on this blog).

Adobe Spark is a suite of free tools for creating images, videos, and simple web pages. Key features of Adobe Spark's web app include an integrated Creative Commons image search tool, the option to download images as JPEGs, and the option to download your videos as MP4 files. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to create images, web pages, and videos with Adobe Spark in your web browser.

Sharalike is a good option to consider when you want to create an audio slideshow. To create an audio slideshow on Sharalike simply import some images from your computer, your Android device or from your iPad, drag them into the sequence in which you want them to appear, and then add some music. Sharalike offers a small collection of stock music that you can use or you can upload your own music.

PowToon is a popular tool for creating animated videos online. PowToon provides a drag-and-drop editor for creating animated videos. The videos that you create feature digital paper cut-outs on a colorful background. Think of PowToon as an online tool for creating videos in the style made popular by Common Craft. PowToon provides drawings of people and objects that you can arrange on blank canvas. After adding your narration to the arrangement you can publish your video.

Magisto is a video creation tool that allows you to quickly drag videos and images from your desktop and or Google Drive account to your Magisto account. After you've uploaded the media that you want mixed, select a theme and music for your video.From the video clips and images that you upload, Magisto will select the best portions to remix and blend together. Magisto creates your video after you've completed the steps of uploading media, selecting a theme, and choosing music. The final video is emailed to you. In addition to the web-based service Magisto offers a Chrome app, an Android app, and an iPad app.

WeVideo offers the most features of any of the tools in this list. It is an online video creation tool that I have written about many times over the last few years. WeVideo offers templates that new users can follow to create their first videos. Advanced WeVideo users can skip the templates, use the full editor, and apply themes to their videos by choosing them from the themes menu in the editor. In the video editor you can upload your own media clips or use stock media clips to produce your video. WeVideo's Google Drive app allows you to save all of your video projects in your Google Drive account. WeVideo also offers an Android app and an iPhone app that students can use to capture images and video footage to add to their projects.

Nimbus Screenshot is my favorite tool for creating screencast videos on Chromebooks. It is easy to install, includes customizable countdown timer, and offers multiple ways to save and share your videos. Screencasts recorded with Nimbus Screenshot can be saved to your local drive or to an online Nimbus account. I chose to save to my local drive then upload to my YouTube channel. You could also save to your local drive then share to Google Drive or another online storage service.

Recording a video with the webcam on your Chromebook can be accomplished through the use of a free Chrome app called CaptureCast. CaptureCast, produced by Cattura Video, allows you to record the screen on your Chromebook as well as input from your webcam. To record a video with the webcam on your Chromebook open CaptureCast in your browser then allow it to access your webcam and microphone. You can specify how high of a resolution you would like to use to capture your video. You can also choose your audio quality. If you have an external microphone connected to your Chromebook, make sure that you have it enabled before you start recording. When you have finished recording in CaptureCast you can save your video on your Chromebook or upload it to YouTube, to Vimeo, or to Google Drive.

Finally, YouTube offers some good video creation and editing tools that most people overlook. One of those tools allows you to combine video clips to make one longer video. You can combine your own videos and or use video clips from YouTube's gallery of Creative Commons licensed videos. So while your students aren't limited to just their videos, they also just can't grab any old video from YouTube, like this chart-topper, to include in their projects.

Come to the Practical Ed Tech Chromebook Camp to learn how to best use these tools in your classroom.

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It seems like every month there is a new tool for creating videos on Chromebooks. In the two months since I published my last post about making videos on Chromebooks, two more good options have presented themselves. Of course, creating a good video requires more than just picking the right tool for the job.

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As I look at dreary weather outside my window it doesn't feel like the end of the school year is near, but it is getting near for many people. The end of the school year is when many of us start to think about summative activities for our students to do to show what they have learned over the course of the year. Having students create a showcase of their best work is a good way to have them reflect on the school year while also showing you and their parents what they've learned. Creating a digital showcase makes it easy for parents to see what their children think are their best works. Here are five ways that your students can create a digital showcase of their best work.

Adobe Spark's webpage creator offers a fantastic way to create simple webpages in which your students can include images, text, and videos. Consider having your students arrange their pages chronologically so that the top of the page shows their work at the beginning of the year and then as viewers scroll down they see your students' latest work. Click here for a video tutorial on how to use Adobe Spark. Adobe Spark works in your web browser and is also available as an iOS app.

Tackk is a free service on which your students can create a page to announce an important event, to advertise an event, or to show off their best digital works. To create a Tackk page you do not need to register for an account, but unregistered Tackk pages expire after seven days. If you register for the service your Tackk pages stay up indefinitely. Tackk offers an edu version which lets students integrate their G Suite accounts, Edmodo accounts, or Office 365 accounts. Creating a Tackk is a simple matter of uploading an image then adding text in the customizable fields above and below an image. In addition to images Tackk pages can accommodate videos, audio files, and maps. Learn more about Tackk in my video here. Tackk can be used in your web browser. It is also available as an Android app and as an iOS app.

SeeSaw offers a fantastic way for students to organize a digital portfolio that they can share publicly or privately. The most outstanding feature of SeeSaw is the option for students to record videos in which they talk about the artifacts in their digital portfolios. And as was explained in a post earlier today, SeeSaw now makes it easy for students to import items from the G Suite for Education accounts.

Google Sites might be the obvious choice for teachers who work in schools that use G Suite for Education. Google Sites will let you create a site on which you give each student his or her own page to manage. By doing that you're only tracking updates on one classroom site as opposed to trying to keep track of each student's individual sites created in a service like Adobe Spark or Tackk. Another good feature of Google Sites is that it is designed for importing files from Google Drive which makes it easy for students to showcase their best docs, slides, videos, and drawings. The downside to using Google Sites is that it rejects a lot of third party embed codes.

ClassDojo's Student Stories offers a convenient way for your students to create a portfolio that their parents can see while they're also checking all of the other information that you share with them through the ClassDojo platform. Student Stories puts students in charge of assembling their portfolios. Their portfolios can include digital work as well as physical work that they take pictures of with a camera on a mobile device or on a laptop. You moderate your students' submissions before anyone can see them. To submit work students simply scan a class QR code then add their submissions. Watch the video embedded below to see how it works. Click here for a PDF of directions on how to use Student Stories.

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5 Good Ways for Students to Create Digital Showcases of Their Work

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As I look at dreary weather outside my window it doesn't feel like the end of the school year is near, but it is getting near for many people. The end of the school year is when many of us start to think about summative activities for our students to do to show what they have learned over the course of the year.

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Earlier this summer Book Creator, a massively popular iPad app, was made available in a beta version for teachers to try on Chromebooks. As of this week the Chrome version of Book Creator is available to all teachers and students. You can access the new Chrome version of Book Creator at app.bookcreator.com.

Book Creator's Chrome version supports creating multimedia books containing videos, images, drawings, and text. To create a book on Book Creator's web app just sign and choose a layout for your book. There are comic book layouts as well as traditional book layouts. After you have selected a layout for your book's pages you can add pictures and videos by either uploading them, by using your webcam, or by using a new integrated image search tool. You can add text and drawings by using the drawing and typing tools built into Book Creator. Your completed book can be saved as a ePub or published online with a private Book Creator link.

More features are promised to be added by the Book Creator team. Among those features are a Google Classroom integration and improved printing options.

Applications for Education
Students can use Book Creator to create multimedia fiction stories, to publish non-fiction stories, or to create digital portfolios of their best work.

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Book Creator is Now Live for All Chromebook Users

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Earlier this summer Book Creator, a massively popular iPad app, was made available in a beta version for teachers to try on Chromebooks. As of this week the Chrome version of Book Creator is available to all teachers and students. You can access the new Chrome version of Book Creator at app.bookcreator.com.

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Another tool that I learned about when investigating tools for oral language development was Adobe Spark for use on laptops, when you sign in - Chromebooks or ipads. You are given three options Post, Page or Video , as shown here: -

E ach has its own great features but I am just going to focus on the Video function in this post.

This free tool allows you to add images, icons, text and also your own short videos to your slides. The images and icons can be those which you search for, from within the app, or you can use your own. You can then talk for up to 10 seconds about each of the slides, (default is 2 secs but it will change as you talk) thereby making a video, recording your voice as you narrate through each of the slides. You can also add music to your video from within the app or upload your own background music, and change the duration that each slide is shown.
When you are ready, you can download your video as an mp4 and share that to whomever you wish to, or share your video to the world through a web-link.
For learners who find it hard to start, there are some excellent templates and examples to be used. I think this application would be awesome for young learners, who are growing their oral language skills. Talking about their artwork is a great place to start.
I can see a lot of other applications for older learners as well, including making a "call to action" if you want your learners to become involved in a special project, or sharing findings from a field trip or science project. Or to prepare your learners for speeches. Let them practice away through their visual prompts.
If you use the media search to find images or music, the credits will automatically be included, which gives learners a great opportunity to talk about digital citizenship as well.
Providing guidelines for your learners may be really useful, for example, providing structure to the task through limiting the number of slides, or the total time for the video and asking for a certain number of key points, or certain vocabulary to be used. Limited to your imagination!
Here is a short video that I made demonstrating the use.

Try the online or the ipad app soon to help develop oral language.

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Another tool that I learned about when investigating tools for oral language development was Adobe Spark for use on laptops, when you sign in - Chromebooks or ipads. You are given three options Post, Page or Video , as shown here: - E ach has its own great features but I am just going to focus on the Video function in this post.

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We express ourselves in different ways. On Flip, you can use our simple and fun built-in camera to record your thoughts, add effects and share within your Flip group as video, audio only or text in your web browser or mobile app.

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Flip is a video discussion and sharing app, free from Microsoft.

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Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is a video discussion and video sharing app, free from Microsoft, built for classrooms and beyond. Learn more.

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This afternoon at the ISTE 2016 conference I had a nice meeting with Melanie Broder from Padlet. She told me about some of the things that Padlet is working on developing during the rest of the year. One of things is a community for educators. That community should help teachers find creative uses of Padlet as well as sharing lesson activities in general. Until that community gets going, take a look at Padlet's Best of Education wall.

Padlet's Best of Education wall features twenty-seven Padlet walls created by teachers. One of my favorites in that collection is 100 Picture Books to Read and Share. All of the books in that Padlet wall are linked to Goodreads pages. Another good wall in Padlet's Best of Education is a collection of student blogging prompts.

Watch my video embedded below to learn how to use the latest version of Padlet's website.

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The Best Ways to Use Padlet - Examples from Teachers

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This afternoon at the ISTE 2016 conference I had a nice meeting with Melanie Broder from Padlet. She told me about some of the things that Padlet is working on developing during the rest of the year. One of things is a community for educators.