The Friday Tech Tip

Happy Friday!  Since we are now 1:1 in grades 6-12 Sherri, Q, Matt, Hector, Bruce and and I have gone through some recent Professional Development for Chromebook Management. Most of this is behind the scenes stuff that hopefully will mean a better experience for you and your students when using the Google Platform.  A few things that have been pushed out. Offline Access -  We have pushed out a Google Extension so that all students at ECMS and ECCHS can access files offline easier.  Students will still need to go to Google Drive click on settings and check to sync files. This only needs to be done once. Once clicked students can access all Google Suite files offline. When the connect back to the internet it will automatically sync with their Google Drive. Chrome Webstore -  We have created a custom webstore for our students. This means that they can only download chrome apps and extensions that have been approved by the District. Last week I sent out THIS ...

Happy Friday! I was going to write today about this new feature in Google Forms called Locked Mode for Google Forms. It locks students out of all other tabs except for the Form when they take a test. It works in Google Classroom . Here is a video about it. It's great students can't cheat stay focused etc. . . Great tool and glad it is available but how does this impact student learning?       I was going to go into detail about it UNTIL Pam Harris invited me to the  ECMS Media Center today to witness a Breakout EDU lesson with Ms. Tilley's class that she, Ms Faust, and Ms. Tilley collaborated on to make.   As I am writing this I see a class of about 25 students in the back of the Media Center actively engaged in  their learning for a full 45 minutes. It is very evident that Ms. Tilley, Ms. Faust, and Ms. Harris have created a top notch inquiry based game for these students. These students are inquiring, students are working collaboratively, st...

Happy Friday! One of the things that I love most about technology in the classroom is the opportunity to give and receive real time feedback. When we think about the SAMR scale (which make us think HOW we are using the technology in our classroom are we using it for Substiutiton, Augmentation, Modification,  or Redefinition) we should be thinking about how we can use our Technology to create new tasks due to the technology.  Giving and receiving Feedback could be excellent way to move us past substitution. Here are a 4 examples of some of my favorite ways to give instant feedback 1.  Google Classroom - There are many ways to leave Feedback with Google Clasroom.  If you have comments turned on students can leave feedback on posted assignments. There are also new ways to quickly give students feed back. Here is a short 90 second video from Google EDU that talks about how to use the new features in Classroom to quickly leave feedback. 2.  Google quiz fe...