Sunday, November 15, 2015

Seesaw: Learning Journals for Students

Seesaw is a free app for iPads and iPhones and can be viewed on the web.  Teachers can create an account online and students can take pictures of their work, talk about their work and draw on their work if desired. These journals can be used during parent/teacher conferences and parents can also be notified when students contribute something new to their journals.    To find out more about this really helpful app, click on the video below.

Here is what the website says about this app:

Teachers can setup a class and start using Seesaw in less than 60 seconds to:

EMPOWER STUDENTS:
Students (as young as 5!) can independently create, capture, and store artifacts of learning in their private learning journal.

ENGAGE PARENTS:
Parents (after teacher approval) get notified of new items, giving them a glimpse of their child’s day and an opportunity to support learning at home.

SIMPLIFY WORKFLOW:
Whether you are 1:1 or just have a single device in your class, Seesaw seamlessly organizes digital and physical work in one place.

MORE DETAILS:
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Designed for K and up to Use Independently
∙ Gives students ownership of their own space to create & record what they learn
∙ Simple QR code login, student-friendly camera, teacher approval of new items, private journals make Seesaw safe for students to use independently.

Encourage Reflection
- Students can add text and voice recordings to journal items to reflect, explain, and develop their academic voice.

Add All Types of Student Work 
∙ Use our suite of creative tools to create photos, videos, or drawings
∙ Kid-friendly camera only takes a photo when subject is in focus and camera is steady! 
∙ Add directly from many popular content creation apps (Shadow Puppet Edu, PicCollage, Storybook Creator, Explain Everything, iMovie, Skitch, and more)

Engage Parents with Student-Driven Updates 
∙ Simple and secure invitation: Send home a personalized handout that only gives access to their child’s journal
∙ Reach *all* your parents: Short, visual updates actually get seen, and cross language and technology barriers 
∙ Seesaw supports SMS, Email, iPhone and Android parent notifications
∙ Give parents information between conferences and reduce the need for lengthy newsletters
∙ Teachers are always in control: Nothing is automatically shared without your approval

Collect and Organize Digital and Physical Work in One Place
∙ View entire class feed or sort by individual student 
∙ Great for parent-teacher conferences, assessments, or student self-reflection 
∙ Access student content anywhere, anytime from iOS app or on the web

Private and Secure Cloud Storage 
∙ Student content/information is private, secure, and never shared with 3rd parties.
∙ Seesaw has taken the Student Privacy Pledge 

Teacher Resource Center 
∙ Getting started tips, professional development resources, FAQ
∙ More than 30 Common Core aligned activity ideas
∙ Personalized customer support if you need help

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Speech to Text: Type with your voice in Google Drive

Google has added a new feature to their Google Docs.  When you and your students are in Google Documents, click tools in the menu area. You will see a microphone with a next to type with your voice.  Click the microphone and start talking to type!

Type with your voice

For an easy way to put words on a page, you can type with your voice in a document. At the moment, this feature is only available in Chrome browsers.
  1. Before you get started, make sure that you have a working microphone either built in to your device or connected externally.
  2. In a Chrome browser, open a document.
  3. Click the Tools menu > Voice typing.
  4. A pop-up microphone box will appear. When you are ready to speak your text, click the microphone or press Ctrl + Shift + S (Cmd + Shift + S on a Mac) on your keyboard.
  5. Speak your text clearly, at a normal volume and pace. See below for more information on using punctuation.
  6. When you're finished, click the microphone again.
Note: While voice typing in Google Docs is only available on computers, many Android and iOS phones and tablets have built-in microphones that you can use with a document. Look for the microphone icon on your mobile keyboard.

Correct mistakes while voice typing

If you make a mistake while you're typing with your voice, you can move you cursor to the mistake and fix it without turning the microphone off. After correcting the mistake, make sure to move the cursor back to where you want to continue voice typing. You can also right-click words underlined in grey to see a list of suggestions.

Use punctuation with voice typing

When you are speaking text in a document, there are several phrases you can use to add punctuation to your text:
  • "Period"
  • "Comma"
  • "Exclamation point"
  • "Question mark"
  • "New line"
  • "New paragraph"
Note: At the moment, this punctuation is only supported in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Russian.

Troubleshoot voice typing issues

If you are experiencing any of the following issues with voice typing, try following the steps to fix the problem.

The microphone is blocked

If you are using voice typing for the first time, make sure to allow your document to access your camera and microphone.

The microphone isn't working

If you can't get the microphone to work on your computer, try the following:
  • Make sure that you have a working microphone. Some laptops and desktops have built-in microphones, while others require external ones.
  • Check that your microphone is plugged in and is not being used by another application.
  • Move to a quiet room with limited background noise.
  • Exit and reopen the tool.
  • Restart your computer.

"We're having trouble hearing you"

If you see an error message that says "We're having trouble hearing you," the voice typing tool may not be able to correctly hear the text you're speaking. Try the following:
  • Move to a quiet room with limited background noise.
  • If available, plug in an external microphone for better results.
  • Adjust the input volume on your microphone higher or lower depending on the issue.

Voice typing doesn't understand my language

If your language or accent (for example, Irish English) isn't supported by voice typing, the tool will either be unavailable or won't correctly hear the text you're speaking. You can always change your language in a document by clicking the Filemenu > Language.
Expand the section below to see if your language is supported.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Creativity For All by Michael Nobleza Become a fan Executive Director, Children's Creativity Museum

This excellent article describes the importance of creativity and design in education: Creativity For All





"Creativity should cease to be treated as a secondary or optional aspect of children's learning. The ability of youth to survive and thrive in a digital world requires that we nurture in them the ability to think creatively and to act in innovative ways to address the issues they are confronting. It is time we make the call, "Creativity for all!", a significant plank in the platform for educational equity in the United States."

Saturday, February 14, 2015

New training center for Google Apps for Education

I really like the new training sites for all things Google in Education.  It looks much easier to navigate and is better organized with added features the old site didn't have.  Check it out!

Google in Education