Cool Stuff from OETC 2019 Part 3

Cool Stuff from OETC

Students Create Interactive Stories with Story Speaker

Created by Scott Aten, February 22, 2019

One of the big themes for this year's OETC was artificial intelligence. This cool idea fits in that category. "Story Speaker" is an add-on for Google Docs that lets you and your students make interactive, talking stories, with NO CODING required. If you are unfamiliar with add-ons, they are little programs that run from within Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc. They increase the capabilities of the app - in this case they allow you to create an interactive story.

Here is a [short video] describing "Story Speaker".

Here are [directions] on how to install the "Story Speaker" add-on

As you can see from the video, students are able to type in story segments that include various "forks" that create different paths where decisions have to be made by the person listening to the story. This opportunity will provide a lot of creative thinking, as well as critical thinking, when students have to plan out the various details and decision points of their story.

The finished story is read aloud through a Google Home Base OR Google Home Mini. The Google Home Mini is MUCH cheaper than the Home Base. I got mine during Black Friday for only $25. The main difference between the two is the Google Home Base has a better "base" sound than the Mini, so for our purposes here at school, that is no big deal.

By the way if you do happen to bring a Google Home into your classroom, there are a lot of other cool things you can do with it and your class.

• Set timers and alarms
• Play trivia games
• Play music
• Answer questions
• Read the news/weather

If you would like to schedule a time for me to come and help you setup one of these or assist your class in getting started, please use my scheduler to pick a time.

[Schedule me to come and help]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Cool Stuff from OETC 2019 Part 2

Cool Stuff from OETC

Color By Numbers Sheets Activity

Created by Scott Aten, February 21, 2019

Google Sheets is always the app that students (and really teachers too) have the least amount of experience using.This activity can be used in one of two ways:
1) Teacher creates the activity for students to do as a review of material
2) Students create the activity for their classmates to do as a way to review material.

This Google Sheets activity uses the "Conditional Formatting" feature of Google Sheets to build a pixel image within the Google Sheet. Once you have the general idea of how to make a basic formula in Sheets the activity comes together fairly quickly.

[Try my demo] - when prompted "make a copy" Answers: 5 - amount - carnivore - 13 - nitrogen - 3 (I tried to demo questions in many content areas)

What your students will learn if they make their own?

• Your content - simple review questions of your unit of study
• How conditional formatting works in Google Sheets
• How to setup a formula in Google Sheets
• Creative thinking in designing a pixel image
• Not to be afraid of Google Sheets

For younger elementary students, they will begin to be exposed to Google Sheets and have fun seeing the image begin to appear as they answer your questions. The activity can serve to provide immediate feedback to their responses.

If you would like to schedule a time for me to come and help you setup one of these or assist your class in making one as a review for a unit, please use my scheduler to pick a time.

[Schedule me to come and help]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Cool Stuff from OETC 2019 Part 1

Cool Stuff from OETC

Quick Feedback Using Google Keep with Docs and Slides

Created by Scott Aten, February 20, 2019

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC). I wanted share some of the really cool things I saw at the conference, so I am going to post a few of the highlights in the next few blog posts.

Google Keep is one of the seldom used Google tools, so when I saw this suggestion, I knew I wanted to share it with you. The idea here is that you can setup your feedback that you want to give students in Google Keep and then have quick access to them in Google Docs or Google Slides.

If you would like an easy and quick way to add feedback to student's work, setting them up in Google Keep could be a real time saver.  [Watch an Example]

Using Google Keep in this way will work in Docs as well as Slides.

NOTE - I have created several videos on how to create things with Google Keep.  These are a couple years old, but are great places to start in understanding how to use Keep.

• Google Keep Basics 
• Using Google Google Keep to Make Vocabulary Cards
• Create a reminder Note in Google Keep
• Using Google Keep to Create a List

It should also be noted that when grading papers in Google Classroom, there is a built in feature to
add comments from a created bank of comments.

Google Classroom has a built in "Comment Bank" that works a lot like what I have shown you with Google Keep, so if you are 100% using Google Classroom this might be an even better option. [See Demonstration]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Google Classroom Winter 2019 Update

Google Classroom Update

Yes - Another Update to Google Classroom

Created by Scott Aten, January 18, 2019

Late last week Google released an update to Google Classroom. Maybe you have noticed things look a little different, but maybe you didn't. Here is what has been updated:

• NEW LOOK - Your Google Classroom should look a little different. The background color is more than likely white with just a colored title area. This is all a part of the "fresh new design" Google has introduced. If you go into the theme area you will see they have added several new themes as options.
• DRAG-AND-DROP CLASSWORK - A lot of teachers hated the summer update that took away the ease of moving things around in the Classwork area. Well Google listened and has made it possible for you to drag-and-drop assignments and topics to any place in the Classwork page. No more "move up and move down".
• CLASS CODE - the class code is easy to find now located in the upper left corner of the Stream.

Google is always listening to teachers, so if you feel like an update or feature should be added to one of their products, you can always make a suggestion in the app itself. Google puts priority on the requests that they get the most - squeaky wheel definitely gets the grease at Google.

Here is a video walk through of the updates as well as a sneak peek at a new Grades feature that is in the works.

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Append Assignments with Google Classroom Mobile

Google Classroom Mobile

Students can write on their assignments with the new feature on Classroom Mobile

Created by Scott Aten, December 14, 2018

One of the great features of Google Classroom is giving assignments to students to do their work on and then turn back in to the teacher. For the past few years we have been using tools like Kami to allow students to write on top of worksheet type assignments (often PDFs). There is now another option for teachers who like to assign work in this manner. If the students download the Free Google Classroom app on their phones, they can now make edits on top of the assignments. Students will be able to underline words, highlight text, draw shapes and type text. This feature works on Docs, Sheets, Slides, Office Documents, JPGs and Gifs, and PDF documents. Right now this feature is only available on the Mobile App (not on the Chromebooks or desktop computers.

Watch a demo of the tool in action - my demo is on an iPhone, but will work on all phones.

Here is what the teacher would get when I turned in my assignment. This was the actual thing I made in the video.
Practical Uses

• Assign any PDF worksheet and the students can complete it on their phones
• Since the phone is touch screen, makes doing math problems a possibility
• Students can do an illustration with drawing tools
• Draw lines and label something
• Type short responses on a worksheet
• Highlight main ideas on a piece of writing

Write and save notes

1. On your phone tap Classroom  pick the class.
2. Open the assignment for the file you want to write on.
3. To open a file, choose an option:
   • To open a file that is already attached to the assignment, tap it.
   • To open a new file, tap Add attachment, upload the file, then tap it.
4. To open the note tool, in the top-right corner, tap Edit .
5. Make any notes or drawings.
6. To save your notes, choose one:
   • On an Android device, click More  Save.
   • On an iOS device, tap Save.
7. (Optional) To discard your changes, choose one:
   • On an Android device, tap Back  Discard.
   • On an iOS device, tap Back  Discard.

The notes will be saved differently depending on the type of the original document.  A Google Doc

will be saved as a PDF.

The tool comes with several options:

Tool	Use it to
Select	Select a note to resize or move it.
Erase	Erase a note.
Write	Write or draw lines with a pen.
Mark	Write or draw lines with a marker.
Highlight	Highlight text or images.
Add text	Add a text note.

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team