Jul 072021
 

Find this page at bit.ly/clintatursa


Canvas + Video = Online Superstar! Or, Recording & Embedding Quality Instructional Content

  • Access the session slides as well as the Canvas course with all of the steps and how-to videos.
  • Maybe you are not looking to become an online superstar, but you DO want to record video in Canvas for your students where they can actually SEE and HEAR the fantastic lesson you are delivering. Join me to review several different workflows and options to capture your teaching and instructions in Canvas, with the best balance of quality and ease possible.

Google Jamboard – A Free and Collaborative Interactive Whiteboard for Any Device – Advance with the “>” symbol on the top of the Jam

  • Google Jamboard is a new tool in G Suite for Education that you may not be familiar with, but if you’ve ever wished you could have more than a couple of students working at your Interactive Whiteboard (a.k.a SMARTBoard) at the same time, Jamboard is for you! Draw and sketch ideas, add text with movable “sticky” notes, add any photos and images, even Drive documents – and your students can interact and add their ideas in real time, from just about any device you (or your students) have in your classroom. If you run out of space, you can add as many more frames as needed. And just like any other Google Doc, all edits are saved and can be shared with a few clicks.

Keep It Together With Google Keep

  • You may not have heard of Google Keep, but you NEED to know about it. Keep is an incredible and easy to use tool for organizing all of the bits of information busy educators tend to collect whenever, wherever, that always seems to get lost. Keep allows you to bring together notes, links, photos, really anything you can grab with your computer, tablet and phone! Beyond gathering and organizing your digital ‘stuff,’ you can share your notes, collaborate with others, set reminders… even drag-n-drop text and photos into your Google Docs! Join me today and make Google Keep an integral part of your daily workflow.

Looking for my presentations from past URSA Conferences? Find them here or click on the URSA tag on the right.

Sep 042017
 

Permalink: https://goo.gl/cJ3sMb

Apps, sites and services we’ll cover today (I’ll add notes and any of your suggested apps as we go!):

  • Explain Everything (I’ll be showing the $9.99 “Classic” version, but the free for 30 days subscription version will work for today). Learn more about their education subscription pricing, find an existing project to build from, or learn more about how to use the app.
  • Educreations – This is a decent free alternative app to Explain Everything, and has great classroom support. If you have a classroom set of iPads, your students can create accounts linked to yours to create/share/submit projects with you. Recording and input features are not nearly as robust as Explain Everything, but it’s free!
  • ShowMe is another good free alternative.
  • Doceri and Doceri Desktop – Control and record your desktop/laptop with your iPad. iPad app is free, but desktop connection software is a one-time $30 purchase.
  • EdPuzzle – Tremendously flexible platform for enhancing existing video for classroom use. Pull in video from a wide array of sources and add your own voice and questions to check for understanding embedded within the video.
  • TEDEd – A more limited platform similar to EdPuzzle for adding your own questions and additional resources to video, but their video lesson library is AWESOME and is growing all the time.
  • eMedia – Netflix for Utah Teachers. Part of Utah’s Online Library. eMedia is a growing library of videos vetted by Utah teachers, aligned to the Utah Core, and free to download and keep any video as long as you are a teacher in Utah.
  • Flipgrid – Use video like your students use video. Flipgrid is a video response platform that allows educators to host video based discussions with students. Educators create topic grids and students respond with recorded videos to discuss, reflect, and share via webcam, tablet or mobile device.
  • Learn more about Getting Started with Flipped and Blended Instruction from my blog at sedcclint.com
Jul 072015
 
Thank you so much for joining me for one (or more) of my sessions at the 2015 URSA Conference. All of the presentation information, links and resources for my sessions are linked from this page (and from the URSA tab above). If you have any questions or comments during or after the conference, you can connect with me @sedcclint on Twitter or on my Facebook Page. Use the #ursa15 hashtag on Twitter to join the Conference conversation.

Wednesday, July 8
Thursday, July 9
Friday, July 10
Oct 022014
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/szs1uu and Google Presentation Link

backflipWhen one hears “Flipped Instruction” one typically thinks about students watching videos. And you’d be right! Videos are typically a large component of the flipped classroom pedagogy. When instructional video is used in the classroom, students retain more information, visually understand concepts more readily and are more passionate about what they are learning.

Instructional video in the classroom:

  • Reinforces reading and lecture material
  • Aids in the development of a common base of knowledge among students
  • Enhances student comprehension and discussion
  • Provides greater accommodation of diverse learning styles
  • Increases student motivation and enthusiasm
  • Promotes teacher effectiveness (CPB, 2004)

Video reaches students from a variety of learning styles, provides common experiences for discussions, and illustrates complex concepts that engage students. Read more about “Using Education Video in the Classroom” from Safari Montage (a leading provider of video for the classroom) for theory, research and helpful tips.

When choosing videos for classroom use,

the most important thing to remember is to keep them short!

 Here’s a quote from Jonathon Bergman, one of the originators of Flipped Learning. This is from “9 Video Tips for a Better Flipped Classroom” by David Raths.

“Make videos short and interactive. Bergmann says he and Sams initially took their standard lectures and made videos that contained multiple objectives and pieces of content that were way too long. Gradually they learned to make them much shorter, with one video per discrete objective. “My rule of thumb is one to 1½ minutes per grade level,” he says. “That means for a fourth-grader, your videos should be no longer than four to six minutes; and for a 10th-grader, that means 10- to 15-minute videos.”

Students need more than just exposure to video, more than just consumption of video in the learning process. They also need to be taught how to evaluate and use information. They need to learn strategies for analyzing media and understand point of view. While information literacy and media literacy are not the primary focus when thinking about flipped classroom pedagogy, it is important to discuss these elements every time a video is used in the classroom. You can learn more at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website.

Let’s take a look at what the Flipped Classroom is, and what it is not…

Articles about the Flipped Classroom Model

Many technology tools exist to make flipped classroom learning easier for both the teacher and the student.  My favorite tools are those tools which make the video watching process more engaging. Let’s take a look at a few tools that will help you get started flipping your lessons:

For desktops and laptops:

Screencasting tools for the iPad:

You can also flip LIVE! You may not use the social tool Google+ for much (if anything) other than possible chatting with colleagues. But did you know the service has a hidden Super Power?? Once you have initially set up your G+ profile and a YouTube Channel, head to https://plus.google.com/hangouts/onair and sign in. You can then start a Google Hangout On Air.

A Google Hangout On Air will:

  • Allow you to record your Webcam & microphone
  • Share and record your computer screen
  • Allow others to join in your live recording via YouTube
  • Record it all and automatically post to YouTube!
  • Learn more about Hangouts On Air

Most of these tools rely on saving or sharing your videos on YouTube. If you can’t use YouTube, you can now upload and host your videos in eMedia+ (accessed by logging into your MyUEN account).

Here’s a great example of a TEDEd flipped lesson on How to use a semicolon.

 Thanks so much to Rachel Murphy & Jared Ward for providing the information and links in this post!

Aug 102014
 

Permalink: http://goo.gl/3HwSlC

This is an exciting time in Beaver County. It will be amazing to see just what you, your teachers and students can accomplish with 24/7 access to Chromebooks, Google Drive, the Internet, and the World. We have a LOT to cover today – here’s our ambitious agenda. All of the information and resources we will cover today are accessible from the presentation below:

Sep 102013
 

A good friend of mine suggested that I take a look at the learning platform that TED-Ed (http://ed.ted.com/) has developed for teachers. It is a powerful platform that helps teachers (or administrators, or students – anyone, really) to take ANY video from TED or YouTube and easily turn it into a flipped lesson that learners can view and do anywhere, anytime they have access to a browser.

Take a look at the TED-Ed Overview video.

First, TED-Ed offers pre-made lessons on just about any subject for you to use with your classrooms. You can also browse by Series to see other thought-provoking lessons. You can use each lesson as-is, or you can flip them to customize the instructions, questions and resources to fit your lesson.

If you can’t find something there that you need, you can ‘Find & Flipany video on TED or from YouTube. Search for the video you need, preview it, and then Flip it!

You will now start to build a lesson based on this video:

  • Give it a title of your choice
  • Let’s Begin… – State the learning objective or intended outcomes, introduce the topic and video
  • Watch – Students watch the video
  • Think – Create up to 15 different multiple choice &/or open answer questions about the content. You can even set video time code hints to help your students out.
  • Dig Deeper – Point your students to other web content, provide notes, or link them back to your class Web site or any other online resource.
  • Discuss – allows for interactive discussion on the video

Once you are done, Finish the Flip and you’ll get a custom URL to your lesson. This will allow you and your students to track their progress and how they have done on each lesson.

This learning platform is incredibly easy to use and has some amazing potential. It would even be a great tool for students to build their own projects to peer-tutor other students on any topic.

And… If the video does not exist on TED or YouTube, you can always record your own to upload and use for a lesson!