Topics and Trends in Tech Integration (November newsletter article)

Topics and Trends in Tech Integration

By Katie Morrow, ESU 8

The following are current technology integration projects and practices that ESU 8 schools have been busy with recently. Remember that the invitation is always open if you see something from this list that you would like to try in your classroom. Contact us at ESU 8 and we would love to help get something planned in your school!

• Digital book creation: A digital book is so much more than a book. Rather it is a container/organizer for all kinds of learning! Use a digital book as an investigation journal, a portfolio, a class collection of pages on a larger topic, or even a way to document a school event. Publish and share with the world without wasting any printer ink!
• Creative media production: Whether a quick project like the greenscreen “Wormhole Challenge” or a class project like content area student-produced videos, students can practice interview skills, speaking skills, editing and creativity. Videos are a universal way to share what is being learned in the classroom with the rest of the world!
• VR and AR: Virtual and augmented reality can bring content to life. Students can experience apps to take them places they couldn’t normally go: for example the inside of body systems or underneath the ocean floor. Also possible is students creating their own VR and AR creations with tools such as Google's Tour Creator, AR Makr app, or Blippar.
• Digital resources for research: Utilize World Book online, Learn 360, or Virtual Field Trips to connect your class with first rate global resources- all with virtually no cost. Avoid simply going on a Google search and use higher quality resources for whatever your next educational project may be.
• Blended Learning and PBL: Here’s a framework or a learning methodology to make your next project more student directed. Student agency empowers learners to be responsible for choices impacting their productivity and understanding of content. Make your next unit more personalized by blending in some project based learning or station rotation experiences.  
• Gamify with assessment tools: Use technology for your next classroom review session and make learning fun! There are so many readily available formative assessment tools that you can choose a new one each unit so students don’t grow tired of any of them. Even some traditional tools have new features, so ask about ways to gamify that next class review session. 
• Learning Management System tools like Canvas or Google Classroom: The easiest way to take technology integration to the next level in your classroom is to employ a system of content delivery and student interaction. Even Apple Classroom has updates to make their newest technology more manageable for all. Work with us to uncover ways your LMS can allow for more productive learning environments. 
• Coding: Expose students to computational thinking by integrating some analog "intro to coding” activities. Or give them time to explore Swift Playgrounds on iPad or the code.org website. Or bring the Sphero programmable robots to your school for a coding kick-off activity. Once you get kids hooked, the sky is the limit for their future!

For additional ideas and examples from ESU 8 schools recently, be sure to check out my Instructional Tech at ESU 8 blog at: https://esu8tech.blogspot.com  

2019 DigCit Week - Student creations

Students from ESU 8 who attended this year's Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium created positive campaigns to take back to their school and community for DigCitWeek 2019.

O'Neill High School

8th grade students from O'Neill High School created the following video PSAs to share with students at both the Elementary and High School buildings.

In addition, this O'Neill High School Digital Citizenship team appeared on Eagle Eye Broadcasting- Daily Announcements during DigCit Week and shared their message. 

West Holt High School

7th grade students from West Holt created a social media campaign with graphics shared on their school twitter channel all week long. 

Ewing Public School

6th and 7th grade students from Ewing Public School organized a TikTok challenge for Digital Citizenship Week. 

Thank you, ESU 8 students, for showing all of us how we can each "Be the One" to make a difference online. 

Digital Citizenship Week 2019... for teachers

This week, October 14-18, is Digital Citizenship Week. Digital Citizenship Week is a good time remember to incorporate DigCit lessons into our classrooms and school culture. However, like with other similar campaigns, we shouldn't limit our students' exposure to this important topic solely during this week. The following are some current resources to jump start DigCit activities this week and throughout the school year.  Use the latest films from ILovePublicSchools to spur discussion with students and faculty. The Mind Inside: Episode Two was released just last Friday and it tackles a highly sensitive topic (suicide) and the implications of social media on today's kids. If time or nature doesn't allow viewing of the full length film, then perhaps watching the 3 minute trailer would be enough to launch healthy discussion with our students about their digital device usage in today's world.  There are two sides to every issue. DigCitCommit is a new coalition working to promote the positive side of digital citizenship. Included on the site is a DigCitCommit Challenge where prizes can be earned for classroom projects.  Also, the following links take you to additional Digital Citizenship resources for teachers: Free Lessons from Nearpod and Flocabulary Common Sense Education's Digital Citizenship Week Update Google's Be Internet Awesome curriculum — including 26 ready-to-teach #digcit lessons powered by Pear Deck, 6 Flashcard Factory vocabulary lists, family resources, and more. Free (online) DigCitSummit this week from the Digital Citizenship Institute. Register for a time slot ASAP.

Animal Adaptations Infographics

For this year's ESU 8 Elementary Science Olympiad, activities were centered around a phenomenon. Students were scientists as they explored and experienced topics with connections to that phenomenon.

During my rotation we learned about animal adaptations and how they help animals survive. Each pair of students created an infographic in Keynote on iPad to visually share their scientific knowledge with others.

To replicate in your classroom, I recommend starting with the Everyone Can Create: Drawing guide book from Apple Books. Chapter 9 is all about infographics and contains solid examples as well as planning considerations.

Everyone Can Create Drawing

We also examined this Snowy Owl infographic example to look for critical features of an infographic as referenced in the Everyone Can Create chapter.

Next student pairs each chose an animal that interested them and researched it on World Book Online Student Edition. ESU 8 provides access to this valuable resource to all our schools and it tremendously helped with efficient and responsible research for this age group of students. Older learners could use Advanced and younger grades the Kids Edition of World Book Online. We discussed how to cite and credit the article for their researched and then navigated to the media tab to choose the image to be the center piece of their infographic. Students copied their animal's image and then opened the Keynote app to begin to create.

Prior to students arriving, I used Apple Classroom to distribute a Keynote file where I had created a custom theme with different biome backgrounds set to 50% opacity and locked in the background of the slide design options. This was mostly to maximize time for students to create.

(To make your own version simply create a new Keynote, View > Edit Master Slides, delete the existing masters other than the blank one, duplicate that and add a different background image to each, name each slide master and choose 'Done'.)

Now, all students needed to do was add a new slide (blue + on bottom left) and choose the biome that most closely matched their chosen animal. They pasted their image on the slide, resized and some used instant alpha to clean up the background. (Note: If students had access to Apple Pencil, I would encourage them to trace, color, and delete the original image in order to have a truly personalized look for the visual focus of their infographic.)

Using my example of a deer and its adaptations that I created below, we continued to go back and forth (or use Split Screen view on the iPad) between World Book Web and Keynote in order to add the following components:

• Title
• Name of biome
• Map of where it lives
• at least 3 adaptations that help it survive

Keynote skills the students learned included:

• Adding and editing text
• Inserting drawings
• Using shapes, callouts, and connectors
• Recording audio (for a few early finishers)

Also during this fast-paced 45 minute lesson we discussed critical design elements including, font, color, layout (proximity & space), and contrast. 

After all the student groups had rotated through, it was easy to collect the Keynote files through Apple Classroom and send the completed infographics back to their teachers. You can view the students' creativity and scientific knowledge in this online gallery.

https://flickr.com/photos/kmorrow/albums/72157711189350588  

Tech Integration IGNITE!

Visit the live agenda at bit.ly/2019techignite

We recently held our annual "IGNITE" day for ESU 8 teachers to spark new ideas for technology integration in their classrooms. The following is a summary of the learning we experienced to help us "launch" a great school year!

Wormhole Challenge

Our kick-off activity was using the new green screen feature in iMovie on iPad to create examples of the "Wormhole Challenge". You can read more about how to replicate this activity on this blog post. 

Apple 'Pop Up Classroom' Workbook

To demonstrate the possibilities of #EveryoneCanCreate with the built-in Apple apps on iPad, we worked through station activities shared at ISTE in Apple's "Pop-up Classroom" experience. Centered around a space theme, teachers were able to use a Pages workbook to try out drawing, photos, music, and augmented reality.  (Video and coding activities are also included in the workbook).  The entire resource was generously shared on the Apple Teacher Learning Center and you can download it too! Just look for the "Apple at ISTE 2019" tile.

• Drawing: Create a hand drawn note of a concept or idea involving the moon (in the Keynote or Pages app) and bring it life by adding line draw animation.
• Photos: Use the iPad camera's burst mode to capture a photo of a jump and then select a frame in midair. Use the markup feature to annotate and add a fact about weightlessness in outer space. 
• Music: Create a Garageband recording for voice and interview your "friend from outer space" about life on the moon. Use the voice filters to make your audio recording sound authentic!
• Augmented Reality (AR): Use the AR Makr app to create a 3D AR model of the earth, moon, and sun... and put it into motion!

 

ESU 8 Digital Resources

There are so many resources provided for educators through our ESU 8 Digital Resources that it is always worth a reminder! Molly presented a refresher and new features sharing about World Book online, Learn 360, SNAP to check out physical items through the Media Center, Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) and Zoom. 

Mission Control

During this portion of the workshop, we compared and contrasting two teaching tools to help you feel "in control" of your students' learning. We experienced a "getting to know you" lesson in the free versions of both ClassKick and Nearpod and then discussed differences, as well as times when both would be valuable. 

Teacher View of ClassKick lesson in progress.

Teacher View of Nearpod lesson overview.

Demo Slam

Finally, Molly and I went head-to-head with a Demo Slam, designed to showcase a few more tech tools in a fast-paced way. 

Goal-Setting

We concluded our IGNITE day by taking a look at our ESU 8 Tech Integration mission and then peruse some exemplars (including ISTE Standards, BlendED, BellevuePS ) to attempt to set individual professional goals for the upcoming school year. Don't forget that Katie and Molly would LOVE to come out to your classroom any time and assist with trying to reach those growth goals. 

One final activity...

...was one we used with West Holt teachers in their back-to-school Tech Ignite Day. It was to introduce EdPuzzle, by way of using EdPuzzle. You can check it out below. 

The Wormhole Challenge

Inspired by creative educators sharing their #WormholeChallenge creations on Twitter, ESU 8 educators got out a little green play doh and tried their own hand at magically revealing something via iMovie green screen capabilities.

While the green/blue screen feature is fairly new to iMovie on iPad, it has been a part of iMovie on Mac for some time. However, it is the approach to this simple green screen project that seems new.  Often we film in front of a stationary green background for effect. But in the Wormhole Challenge, you manipulate the green screen to reveal a pieces of a background a little at a time.

There are so many adaptations for this simple idea, but we used it as a simple ice breaker activity while working with groups of teachers in back-to-school PD. Here are the steps we used to accomplish the goal:

1) Use the built-in camera to record a video of your partner manipulating the green or blue play doh. Change sizes, placement, and even position further and closer to the iPad camera.

2) Open a new blank iMovie video project.

3) FIRST, add your background image (or video). In other words, what you plan to reveal.

4) SECOND, add your video of the hands manipulating the green blob.

• if using iPad: 

With your playhead at the beginning of your project, use the + to add the Video from your 'Recently Added' album. Once selected, use the ellipsis to select "Green/Blue Screen" from the options. Finally, don't forget to tap on the part of the video in the viewer that you want iMovie to "key" out (green, blue, or some other color you want to become invisible!).

• if using Mac:

Drag your green screen video clip just ABOVE your background clip in your timeline. Then, click the Video Overlay settings button and change the dropdown menu from 'Cutaway' to 'Green/Blue Screen'. That's it! iMovie will automatically find the green or blue color here. (You can, however, do some adjusting and editing if need be.)

Amazingly, that is all there is to it! No need for additional software, apps, or extensive editing experience. Now, what will you magically reveal in your next Wormhole Challenge project?

For even more #WormholeChallenge ideas, check out these curated tweets!

Develop your CrEaTiViTy skills this summer!

My Wisconsin teacher friend Felecity Treptow recently shared these summer creativity calendars she created for students in her district.

Based on the Everyone Can Create guides from Apple, these self-paced activities could truly be completed by learners of ANY age... even the teacher!

https://www.apple.com/education/everyone-can-create/ 

Better yet, Felecity was kind enough to share the Keynote source file. In this way, she encourages educators to remix her calendars and customize the activities to your own learning community. How creative!

Download customizable calendar and edit in Keynote

#EveryoneCanCreate