January 2012 – The EdTech.Zone

Google Apps for Education has brought some amazing tools to Garfield School District, to the SEDC region, and to all that use this service around the US. I’m constantly finding new ways that these tools can and should be used in the classroom to make both teachers and students life easier. If I were to share them all with you, it would take much more than the time that we have allotted today, so I’ll try to highlight 10 of my favorite uses or applications that you have access to simply by logging into your school email account.

Before I begin, however, I’d like to direct you to an amazing resource that will help guide our time today, and will be a valuable resource after – the Google Apps Education Training Center. Whatever you’d like to learn how to do in Google Apps: Gmail, Calendar, Docs Sites, or some of their other tools, this site has easy to follow instructions and training modules that will help you learn how in just a few minutes.

Now, let’s go to the Top Ten List!

Gmail: Creating contact groups for parents, classes, teachers, & organizations
Gmail: Built in Chat using text, voice – even video!
Calendar: Creating different calendars for classes, projects and school activities
Calendar: Sharing your calendars as a web page
Docs: Manage documents with multiple editors, up to 50 simultaneous editors/collaborators, adding and replying to comments
Docs: Improving the writing process with feedback and revision, tracking progress, and publishing work
Presentations: Collaborative presentations that student groups create from your template
Spreadsheets: Collaborative editing of spreadsheets – up to 50 at once
Forms: Collecting student/parent contact information, and then creating contact groups in Gmail
Forms: Check and submit assignments, or delivering quizzes and assessment – even automatic grading and score notification!

If you’ve never seen or experienced a collaboration session in a Google Doc, feel free to join me here or type in http://goo.gl/s5aXd to take a look! Also, if you have any questions about what I’ve presented today, or anything else about Google Docs, let me know here.

Thanks for your time, patience and energy today for our UTIPS Core training! It’s a new system that is and will be a great tool for formative assessment for you – in both the current core and for the new Common Core.

Have an iPad? Get the UTIPS Core Manual eBook here!

First, a little background philosophy about the new UTIPS Core system. This system has been rewritten from the ground up to be a great assessment system for ALL stakeholders in Utah. As such, ALL users have a login into the system and a unique way to identify that user. This makes the data and information created by the tests that are taken can be used (eventually) in other data system, such as SIS. Not long from now, you’ll probably be able to give a UTIPS Core test and have those results show up in your gradebook!

Since everyone has an account, everyone has a ‘Role’ or what rights and privileges they have been granted. The way that you can easily assign new users (administrators, teachers, and students) is to assign an Enrollment Code to put that user in the right level of the organization, whether they can just take a test, administer it, or share it. Enrollment codes will be how we let the system know that you are a teacher at your school, and to let it know that your students belong in your class to take your tests.

UTIPS Core has been written using the latest web technologies. Because of this, it works very well on mobile devices like the iPad. It also requires a modern web browser, like Google Chrome or Firefox 4.0 or later. Follow those links to download and install an updated browser if needed.

I’ve attached the most current User Manual for your reference – you can find it at the bottom of this article. As we go through the training, I’ll direct you to the page of the manual that goes along with the task at hand. Please know that over time, this resource will be improved upon and I’ll make sure that I have the most current version available to you here on my site – Just click on the ‘UTIPS Core’ tag on the left to find the newest stuff!

Here’s what we’ll be covering today:

Creating a Teacher Account (Page 4 of Manual)
- Head your district login page:
  - Millard: http://millard.utips.org
  - Beaver: http://beaver.utips.org
  - Iron: http://iron.utips.org
  - Garfield: http://garfield.utips.org
  - Kane: http://kane.utips.org
  - Washington: http://wash.utips.org
- Under the login area, click on the ‘Create a new account’ link
- Enter the Enrollment Code that will identify you as a teacher of your school/department:
  - For Kanab High School:
    - Use game18 to create a KHS School Teacher account
  - For Kanab Middle School:
    - Use blood28 to create a KMS School Teacher account
- Click ‘Continue’
- Enter in your first and last name, and your school email address, and click ‘Continue’
- Enter in the username you’d like to use (the same as your email address is fine), and your password twice, and click ‘Continue’ again.
- You are now an official UTIPS Core user!
Add an Enrollment Code to your account (Page 6 of Manual)
- I’ve set up grade levels in your school, and created an enrollment code for each of these grade levels. You’ll need to add this code to your account to place you as a teacher in that grade level. Here’s how:
- Click on the ‘Settings’ option on the left
- On the bottom of the ‘Settings’ pane, you’ll see a button to ‘Add an enrollment code’ – click it!
- Find the appropriate enrollment code for your grade level below, enter it, and click the ‘Apply enrollment code’ button
- Department Enrollment Codes for KHS:
  - Use much28 to create a KHS Language Arts account
  - Use wise58 to create a KHS Math account
  - Use wrong96 to create a KHS Science account
  - Use wrote96 to create a KHS Social Studies account
- Department Enrollment Codes for KMS
  - Use make22 to create a KMS Language Arts account
  - Use angry43 to create a KMS Math account
  - Use past55 to create a KMS Science account
  - Use took53 to create a KMS Social Studies account
NOTE: Students will use this same process to add enrollment codes to become students in your classes.

Create Your Class(es) (Page 4 of Manual)

In order for your students to be enrolled in your classes, you need to create a class first!
Once you are logged in, click on ‘Organizations’ on the left.
You should see your school listed in the ‘Edit Organizations’ pane (with possibly more teachers and classes listed beneath it). Click on your school name above.
Click the ‘+New’ button that will light up above, and select ‘Teacher’s Class’.
Add a name for your class in the pane that appears to the right. You can leave the other fields blank for now.
Click the ‘Save’ button above to the left.
If you have multiple classes (middle or high school), repeat the process for your classes.

What Enrollment Codes are, and how to create them (Page 5-6 of Manual)

About Student Accounts (Page 19 of Manual)

Since UTIPS Core is a state-wide system, your students will need to have a username that is unique in the state. The way that this will be accomplished is by using your school ID number and your students school ID or lunch number.
- For example, Dixie Middle is school number 404 and if a student has an ID/Lunch number of 123456, then their username will be 404123456

Adding student accounts yourself (Page 20 of Manual)

Once you are logged in, click on ‘Organizations’ on the left.
You should see your school listed in the ‘Edit Organizations’ pane (with possibly more teachers and classes listed beneath it). Click on the class name that you have created earlier.
In the pane that appears on the right, click on the ‘User Accounts’ option.
Click the ‘+New’ button above.
In the new pane, ‘Settings for New User’, fill out the information for the student account, using the unique school/student number described above for the username. For passwords, it does not matter what you use, as long as you are consistent and use something that you can remember.
The username, the two password fields, first and last name fields are the only required fields. You do not need to add an email address (students can add their own later).
Once those fields are filled in, you MUST click the ‘+Choose a role’ button – click ‘+Student’ in the pane that appears on the right.
Be sure to click the ‘Save’ button beneath the student information.
To add additional students, click back on the blue bar with your class name on the far left and repeat the steps outlined above.

How students add their own accounts (Page 23 of Manual)

Be sure to follow the username creation convention described above with using the school ID number followed by the students ID/Lunch number.

Build assessments from the USOE Item Pool (Page 8 of Manual)

How to Assign Students to a Test (Page 11 of Manual)

How to Share Assessments with Other Educators (Page 18 of Manual)

How student participants take a test (Page 27 of Manual)

How to Build Assessments with Your Own Items (Page 12 of Manual, optional for today)

Aligning Your Own Items to a Core Area (Page 15 of Manual, optional for today)

Adding new Items to an Existing Test (Page 17 of Manual)

Click on ‘My Tests’ on the left, then click on the test that you’d like to update
Click on the ‘Items’ tab, and your test should appear on the right
To add a specific item on a topic:
- Click on the ‘Items’ button on the top of the test on the right. A new items search pane will appear on the right
- Search for a specific topic or word that deals with the question you’d like to add
- You will see all of the question stems that pertain to your search. Click on the question to see the answers that go with the question beneath.
- To add a question that you find, just click on the question and drag it into your test on the left.
- To change the order of the questions, just hover your mouse over the question number. You’ll see
  a little trash can (to delete the question) oran up/down arrow icon. Click that icon and drag the question up/down the test until you reach the place you’d like that question to be, and let go of the mouse button.
- To close the ‘Items’ search pane, just click on the ‘Items’ button on the top right again.
To add a question from a specific core standard, objective, or indicator:
- Click on the ‘Standards’ button on the top of the test to the right. A new pane will appear on the right.
- Choose the subject, grade level and core document that you’d like to add questions for. The standards within that core will appear beneath.
- Using the arrows on the left of the displayed options, open up the standard and objective that y9u are looking for. If you are not sure, they are listed beneath.
- After each objective or indicator, there will be a link with the number of items each contains. Click on that link to view all of the questions within.
- UTIPS Core will then do a search for the items you have selected.
- To add a question that you find, just click on the question and drag it into your test on the left.
- To change the order of the questions, just hover your mouse over the question number. You’ll see a little trash can (to delete the question) or an up/down arrow icon. Click that icon and drag the question up/down the test until you reach the place you’d like that question to be, and let go of the mouse button.
- To close the ‘Items’ search pane, just click on the ‘Items’ button on the top right.

If the handout or the notes here are missing any important steps or instructions that you need, please leave a comment below, along with your name and your school. I’ll get those instructions written up for you, send them to you and add them to this posting.

UTIPS_Core_Manual.pdf

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