Education technology and game-based learning resources, tool tips, innovative pedagogical musings, and general "thinkalouds" of a Digital Learning Consultant. Follow my educational journey on Instagram, X , Threads and Bluesky @watsonedtech, my Facebook Page (facebook.com/edtechelixirs), and the blog hashtag #edtechelixirs. Note that opinions are mine alone, and reviews/mentions of edtech products do not qualify as an endorsement. Subscribe to the blog at bit.ly/signupedtechelixirs.
Explain Everything is a tried-and-true digital whiteboarding tool that has been around for many years, although in full disclosure mode, I have been more familiar with a similarly functioning iOS app ShowMe (one I've mentioned several times on this blog). Both of these have mainly been known as tablet apps. However, I discovered that Explain Everything now has a browser-based version, and even if the phrase "game changer" is way overused, I think it applies here -- especially if you're looking for a useful presentation tool while facilitating a concurrent or virtual classroom.
How does it work?
Firstly, you will want to make an account. Free is an option (but see "Downsides" below for more on the paid options); you can use Google or create an account through any email. This will enable you to save and revisit "Projects" as well as collaborate with others. When you first use the site, you need to allow it to access your microphone.
Explain Everything can be used presentationally or collaboratively. Its robust features that differentiate it from other types of whiteboard tools start becoming apparent from the minute you launch it -- you can choose a blank canvas, but several useful project templates are also available like storyboard, timeline and Venn diagram.
This is an example of the Explain Everything template "Meeting."
Your annotation and presentation tools are along the left side. They include the usual suspects such as a Hand (selector), Draw, Highlighter, Eraser, Shapes, Text, Add Media, and a laser pointer. You can zoom in and out of your Project in the bottom left.
Another innovation for Explain Everything is how collaboration can occur. In the upper right, once you are signed in, you will see an Invite Code for your Project. This can be shared so that others can instantly join you, from either entering the code at the main Explain Everything site or as an option when someone first launches the browser app.
If you click on this invite button, you can see other options. You can share a URL to your Project, change your access permissions (for example, anyone with the link can only view), or change the Scenario from the default of "open collaboration" (everyone works together freely) to "presentation" or "interactive broadcast" if you plan to screenshare your Project. Using your microphone can allow your collaborators / viewers to hear you as you whiteboard.
Lastly, there is a screen capture tool that allows you to record, or screencast, whatever is within an adjustable frame, which can also include you narrating from your microphone. Creating a screencast will also open up some video editing features, but there are limits in exporting video with a free account. (Note that when "Adding Media," one of the options includes using your webcam to take a picture; you can also insert existing audio.)
For a short overview of how the internal screencasting and clip editing can work, watch the following video (2:04):
How could you use it?
Explain Everything creates an immersive interactive space to collaborate and ideate with colleagues. Students may do the same, especially with working through a compare/contrast of two concepts, making a storyboard plan before recording a film, or capturing prototype ideas during design thinking.
You could also use the tool presentationally to an audience. This audience could be experiencing your Project live via screensharing during a teleconference meeting, or asynchronously by watching a screencast recording.
Lastly, and obviously, Explain Everything is perfect for a concise explanation of a concept or process, in a way more engaging than simply narrating as you click through static slides. Explaining math processes in particular would be a natural for such a tool.
You might consider getting around the limitations of video exporting by screencast recording with another tool (like Screencastify or Screencast-o-matic), but the trade off would be the inability to use Explain Everything's internal editing, or potentially sharing videos on its own cloud service.
Downsides?
The free version of Explain Everything only allows up to 3 projects, 1 slide per project, and 1 minute of exported video. Because of these limitations, you will likely want to consider getting a paid version of the tool. Current pricing is reasonable, however; for $24.99 a year, you can have unlimited projects, slides, and recordings, as well as 1 GB of cloud space. Also, if you use Chrome, make sure hardware acceleration is on or else you will have to use another browser.
Explain Everything was already (and remains) a highly useful tablet app, but this new browser-based version means theoretically that any laptop or Chromebook can now use it too. Consider it as an alternative to Google Jamboard or Padlet the next time you want to collaborate in a small group, or as a new way of presenting your ideas to an audience.
Do you use Explain Everything? Do you have a different favorite digital whiteboard tool? Share in Comments below!
Earlier today, Google held their global online livestream "Learning with Google." Over the course of ninety minutes, they rolled out a roadmap of upcoming changes and upgrades to the Google platform happening between now and the end of the year. It was a bit of an information blitz and I felt exhausted afterward trying to take notes and keep up. If there was ever such a deluge of new Google announcements released in one afternoon, I can't remember it.
As a way of digesting some of the highlights of their announcements, I thought I'd blog! Let me say a disclaimer from the top: as much as I am trying to be accurate, I could have made an inaccurate note or the timetable might change. So make sure you check directly with Google (like using the link to the Google Education blog entry above) to verify pricing and other details.
A Change of Name and Four Options
First, a question to make you feel your age: did you know that Google Suite apps are over a decade old? Hard to believe Docs and Drive started back in 2008. As these tools grew from Google Apps for Education to G Suite for Education, many wondered if our free ride would end. And it hasn't yet...at least, not quite.
The good news: Google says they are committed to a free option for education. However, besides a name change to Google Workspace for Education (to better align with their actual Workspace business offering), it will now offer THREE premium paid tiers: Google Workspace for Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Google Workspace for Education Plus.
What are the differences?
Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals is basically the current free version of G Suite for Education.
Google Workspace for Education Standard will be available for $3 per student per year (and you have to purchase for all students in your domain all at once). It offers a bit extra over Fundamentals, but mainly on the admin side of the fence: enhanced security features, some log exporting, and easier data migration.
Teaching and Learning Upgrade will be available for $4 per license, per adult, per month. (Assuming you want the upgrade all year, that means $48.00 per staff member.) This granular distinction is important, in case you possibly only want certain staff to have this upgrade and only for a certain number of months. Teaching and Learning includes originality reports for student work, a soon to launch Classroom Add Ons feature (see the below section for more details), and many of the previously announced Google Meet features like breakout rooms, recordings that do not expire after 30 days, and room polling. As you decide which staff may need the upgrade, consider the people who will most likely be leading will need it. For example, a staff member with the T & L upgrade who creates a Google Meet can have breakout rooms AND a non-upgraded staff or student attending such a Meet would still be able to interact in those breakout rooms; however, if a non-upgraded staff member creates a Meet, breakout rooms are not an option. (One assumes features like Classroom Add Ons work in a similar way; it is a question of whether the creator of the Classroom has the upgrade or not.)
Google Workspace for Education Plus -- formerly Google Enterprise for Education -- is the Cadillac version, available in April for $5 per student per year (and you have to purchase for all students in your domain all at once). It includes all the features of Education Standard AND Teaching and Learning Upgrade. You also get some bonus features such as an interior Google search (allowing you to look up public Docs across your domain), livestream capability to 100K users, and a synching of Google Classroom rosters to your SIS (Student Information System, such as Infinite Campus). As you budget and consider your options, definitely compare your total cost of upgrading all staff to Teaching and Learning versus the cost of upgrading your domain to Plus -- you may find that with just a little more expense, Plus provides maximum benefit.
From this point forward, when you hear a new Google feature launch, verify which tier it will apply to. It may not be yours! For more details on your options:
Google Classroom, Forms, Docs, and Jamboard Upgrades
Fun fact: since February of 2020, Google Classroom has gone from 40 million users to 150 million worldwide!
Here are some other highlights rolling out by the end of the year:
Google will launch a Classroom Add Ons "store." This creates an opportunity to put certain outside tools inside of your Classroom Assignments -- students can access and complete them without leaving the tab, and then their scores/grades will go straight to the Classroom's gradebook. Announced partners available at launch will include Nearpod and Kahoot. Available with Teaching and Learning Upgrade or with Plus.
There will be a "Student Engagement Tracking" to analyze student usage. When did they last log in? What was the last thing they submitted?
For admin, deeper and more detailed analytics of Classroom usage across the domain. Available with Standards or with Plus.
The mobile app version of Classroom will be able to work offline and will be more effective with intermittent Internet/cellular connection. Additionally, a student using the Classroom app will have an easier time, and more options, for submitting pictures (such as taking a pic of a "paper and pencil" assignment).
Rich Text Formatting is coming. You can finally bold, italic, underline text! Add bulleted lists!
Forms: The angels must be singing, because Forms will begin saving your work in the background as you type and select. No more lost information from accidentally leaving the page, closing the tab, or losing your Internet connection. And if any of those things happen, you will be able to return to the Form and pick up where you left off. (Data is remembered for 30 days or until the Form is submitted, whichever happens first.) That includes Form Quizzes!
Docs: The Citations feature is improving with some smart suggestions. For those with Education Plus, Google is adding an "Approval" feature under File; you would be able to submit your Doc to selected members of your team to "sign off" on your work.
Jamboard: you will finally be able to track changes and see edits made by your students!
A preview of "Student Engagement Tracking" in Google Classroom coming later this year.
Google Meet
What would so many of us do without Meet during pandemic teaching? Therefore, and not surprisingly, Google spent some significant time talking about the future of Meet.
Google first tipped their hand to the start of premium tiers with Meet features that were exclusive for those that paid for Enterprise, such as beloved breakout rooms. In fairness to Google, however, not all of its upgrades cost money, and some of the future ones will be for (free) Fundamentals unless otherwise noted.
At the end of the meeting, teachers will have the option to end the Meet for all participants, including those in breakout rooms. That means no more students possibly staying on to chat without you.
In the next few weeks, you will be able to mute all participants, and choose whether students can unmute themselves.
Starting in August, there will be several improvements for Meets that are integrated into a Google Classroom:
students will not be able to join the Meet until a teacher starts it
only students and teachers of that Classroom can join that Meet
all teachers of that Classroom will have moderator controls
In Google Calendar, breakout room participants can be determined in advance while creating a calendar event. Available with Teaching and Learning Upgrade and with Plus.
Besides hand raising, students will also be able to react with emojis -- and in a wonderful nod to diversity, can change the skin tone of the emojis to better reflect themselves.
Meet will also be better optimized to work with lower strength WiFi.
Admittedly, I was a bit surprised to hear newsworthy updates for Chromebooks and its Chrome OS, but they included:
Starting with Chrome 89 (launching March 9), the OS for Chromebooks will include a built in screen recording tool! This may replace your current screen recording apps like Screencastify that need to be separately installed and may have limited recording times.
Google Meet will be optimized for Chromebooks and Chrome, which will especially be welcome when multitasking or for Chromebooks near their end of life. This may become important as more anecdotes and news stories come out about Chromebooks struggling with other teleconferencing platforms that could also be shortening their life cycle.
More Chromebooks will be offered with dual cameras, allowing students to better take pictures or record videos beyond selfies.
Accessibility and the Future of Assistive Technology
While "Accessibility" has always been part of Chrome settings that follow you across devices, Google announced some upcoming features such as multiple options for changing your cursor color. (For more on Google and accessibility, check out this link.) The livestream ended with an interesting discussion on the future of Google as assistive technology. Consider "assistive" as any way to augment or make your life easier; for example, Chrome remembering your password or autofilling your shipping address. Artificial Intelligence, however, is making the possibilities even more intriguing. AI may become your next classroom Instructional Assistant! (And yes, I'm trademarking the acronym AIIA.). Google shared how districts are utilizing Google Cloud Success Services to create a chat virtual assistant, and in one example, it was able to solve 92% of user inquiries on its own. Other examples include typing an equation into the Google search button and getting a step by step explanation of the solution (something you can do now with the mobile Google Lens app), or typing "[kind of problem] practice problems" to get virtual self-tutoring.
An example of searching "linear equations practice problems." Note that you not only get those practice problems, but an overview, examples and more!
Between the product announcements, the livestream shared some inspirational pandemic teaching stories from across the world. Diana Parra, Professor of Information and Technology in Medellin, Columbia, said: "My challenge at the moment as a teacher, is to take the technical things we know, and amidst a crisis, to make them human." May we all do our best to take the digital tools at our disposal to make our teaching not about the Internet or Google Apps or the device but the human student at the other side of our screen. Our teaching may not be in person, but we can still try to make it personal.
If you're interested in watching the archived livestream, here is the video (1 hour 37 minutes):
What is an upcoming Google feature that makes you excited? Share in the Comments below!
Edit 2/19/21: The archived video of the livestream is now published, and I added it to the blog entry. Also, I made a small edit about the Forms update - an incomplete Form is only saved for 30 days or until it is submitted, whichever comes first.
Edt 2/23/21: After watching a presentation today by AmplifiedIT, a few more clarifications and corrections: The new Doc Approval feature is only available for Education Plus, Chrome 89 is launching March 9, and I explained what could potentially happen when T & L upgraded staff interact with non-upgraded staff.
Edit 4/28/21: I was made aware that the Teaching and Learning upgrade license is based on a MONTHLY fee, not annually like Standard and Plus. I updated the information above to reflect this, as well as included a useful Google resource that compares the editions side by side.
Back in May of last year, I shared in Edtech Elixirs that Shelby County launched a vodcast series on YouTube titled "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward." The videos consisted of interviews with our district educators which focused on answering two main questions: what new things are you trying during this non-traditional instruction (NTI)/emergency distance learning, and how might that transform your teaching or classroom in your future?
In November 2020, I discussed our support for teachers attempting a concurrent/hybrid model of teaching (i.e. teaching students at home and in person at the same time). One of the important pieces of this support was creating a Concurrent Classroom Dashboard Doc, which contains resources, tips and strategies; as part of those resources, we were blessed with Shelby educators who created self-made videos to share what they were doing that was helping them be more effective. Via screencasts, recorded teleconferences, or cellphone filming, our staff discussed everything from hardware configurations to online discussion strategies to virtual classroom management to basic blended learning best practices. In several cases, educators that shared their reflections in "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward" returned to discuss how their experience last spring led to continued growth and success this fall.
We soon realized that was a lot of valuable footage which could be helpful beyond our own district needs. What could we do with those videos? And how could we further celebrate their work beyond the Dashboard Doc?
The answer to those questions -- and the bringing together of both threads above -- lead us to our newest vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: The Concurrency of Our Classrooms." The videos are on our Shelby County Public Schools YouTube channel, and the Playlist for the series is here. When all editing is finished, we plan on publishing a total of thirteen episodes.
As an excellent example to showcase the series, here's episode 3 with Kelly Hudson. Ms. Hudson, an eighth grade ELA teacher at East Middle, emphasizes the importance of consistency and norms in a concurrent classroom. She also shares her digital organizational structures to ensure that learning is the constant, regardless of where the students are located, or whether it is a synchronous or asynchronous environment:
We definitely are grateful to Kelly and our other Shelby educators who took the time to make the original videos. Special thanks to our district PR Coordinator Cyndi Skellie for editing the footage and publishing our newest series!
We hope you find these educator insights helpful in these challenging times.
We are in a season that in pre-pandemic times usually meant unfettered and uncompromised traveling and geographic relocation. In the midst of COVID, doing such movement and visiting of others safely is challenging, which leaves me a bit gloomy. It is likely that such a melancholic mindset has inspired me to think of Walt Whitman (a balm to the overcast soul if there ever was one!), as well as digital tools that allow at least a virtual facsimile of travel.
Google has a long history of such geographic, useful digital tools. Of course, Google Maps has long been a mainstay of their Suite, with upgrades along the way like Street View. Google Earth started as an impressive downloadable program, but originally took a sizable hard drive footprint and considerable computer processing power. Yet both of these began as consumer, and not creator, tools. That changed with Tour Builder, which allows you to utilize the Google Map data and create narrative presentational "stories" you could share with others. Unfortunately, Google recently announced that Tour Builder will be shuttered in July 2021. The good news? Google Earth for Web -- a browser-based version of Google Earth that works without a download, which means you can use it on a Chromebook! -- now has similar creator tools.
How does it work?
Google Earth for Web (hereafter "GEfW" for short) allows you to make a guided map journey that you can present to, or share with, others. In some ways, it is like an interactive geographic timeline, in that you can take any place on Google Earth as one of your "stops" and add contextual text, videos and pictures. A key advantage that GEfW has over Tour Builder is that it is now seamlessly integrated into your personal Google Drive. Your projects save inside a "Google Earth" folder (created the first time you save a GEfW project), which makes finding and sharing them very easy. Note that your Chrome browser must have hardware acceleration on for Google Earth to work; this is under "Advanced" in your Chrome's settings. (Hardware acceleration is sometimes disabled by your district's Google admin.)
In this tutorial video (2:06), you learn how to start a Google Earth project and a quick overview of its tools:
This video (2:59) goes more into depth about the creation tools of GEfW:
When you decide to present a finished project, the navigation feels very similar to Google Slides. In fact, inserting a slide is a media option for GEfW, allowing you to have an introduction and conclusion, as well as possible transition slides throughout.
Speaking of a similar feel to other Google products, you will find the sharing tool of Google Earth for Web just like any other Google Doc. You can simply create and share a link for "view only" rights, but you can also invite contributors to collaborate with you on editing the project.
How could you use it?
A Google Earth for Web presentation would certainly be more dynamic than a typical direct instruction "click through the slides" experience. But the ability to empower students to tell their stories in new ways is really where GEfW can elevate learning. This video (2:12) gives some great examples of how your students could integrate GEfW into their next passion project or PBL:
Downsides?
When opening up a previous project, or even just opening up Google Earth for Web, be prepared for a little lagginess as the media loads in your browser. Your mileage may vary depending on your Internet connection and the performance ability of your device. Considering how graphic-intensive the application is, this is not a surprise. When presenting or editing a GEfW project, I highly recommend shutting down unused programs and minimizing your open browser tabs.
Enjoy creating unique stories utilizing the vast Google Earth data! And if the current holiday season and the pandemic is making you as melancholic as it is me, remember Whitman's wise words:
The earth never tires,
The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first,
Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop’d,
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.
Like nearly all districts in the world right now, our instructional classroom model has to remain, to put it mildly, flexible. We began the school year with non-traditional instruction (NTI) with students at home. We then gave students the option of "@Home" or "@School." In some schools, the numbers of these two categories allowed a teacher to teach only virtual students while another teacher taught only the students in person. However, the reality is that the proportionality of student numbers often made such binary choices impossible, combined with the fact that a temporary quarantining of an entire classroom or athletic team made such numbers at best a moving target. More often than not, our staff have had to adapt to a new concurrent model of blended learning, teaching a roster of both @Home and @School students synchronously and asynchronously. And as of this posting, our state governor has mandated NTI to begin for all secondary Kentucky schools next week and will last until at least the end of the year (and elementary schools until at least December 7).
As educators, we are all leaning on each other to thrive and progress forward in such challenging times.
School leaders have been generous to share their thoughts, advice and expertise about teaching during a pandemic in nearly real time. The humble purpose of this entry is to throw my own hat into that ring, and to share some of our district resources as well.
Firstly, here are my top 5 tips to consider when planning for edtech in concurrent and NTI classrooms:
1. Reflect on your "learning hub" (Google Classroom, Bitmoji Classroom, learning management system [Edmodo, Schoology, Empower, etc.], website page) through the lens of your student and your parents. Get feedback from a non-educator spouse, relative, friend. Is it:
easy to find?
consistently used?
simple to navigate?
2. When using a digital tool, evaluate it through an appropriate lens. For example:
Consider your mission, vision, core values. How does the digital tool integrate with what you believe is important for student learning? For example, we have recently drafted SCPS CBE Core Design Principles, and our district page with highlighted/recommended edtech now makes concrete linkage to how these tools connect to such principles.
Think of the tool via functions of engagement, a phrase I learned from the very useful and recently published The Digital Learning Playbook (Fisher, Frey, and Hattie, pages 104-111). For example, does the tool involve finding, using, creating or sharing information? Will it enable opportunities for self-directed inquiry or for robust peer-to-peer discussions?
3. Avoid digital tool fatigue not only for yourself, but especially your students and parents.
Always remember your academic objective. If a student must spend more time learning how to navigate and use the tool rather than learning and applying content, reconsider your choice.
Start simple and slow. Better to use three tools deeply all year long than three dozen superficially in a month.
Vet every tool beforehand as much as possible from a student's perspective before implementing it in a lesson plan. A third grader may use it differently (or have different challenges) than a sophomore in high school. From the hardware perspective, will it work on the student's device? Is the site unblocked on the district's network?
4. Always make a backup plan. At some point, things will inevitably not work for some, if not all, of your students. How will they ask for help? What should they do instead if there is an issue or delay?
5. Concurrent doesn't always have to be digital work. Analog work is not only okay, but recommended occasionally for a change of pace. If you can plan a weekly system for students and parents to pick up physical math manipulatives, photocopied work kits, etc. at your school location, do so and communicate accordingly.
Secondly, with the generous help of our Staff Developer Tracy Huelsman, our Instructional Coaches, our technicians, and our teacher leaders, we have created a Shelby County Public Schools "Concurrent Classroom and @Home Dashboard Doc." This is not only a curation of various outside resources but a collection of internal ones as well, including videos/screencasts made by our staff that highlight their innovation and solutions to make concurrent classrooms effective. (Note that while most of the hyperlinked resources are open and helpful to all, some doc access may be limited to our SCPS domain or specifically apply to SCPS needs.)
Here is a video I made to briefly highlight the Dashboard Doc (7:05):
Last but not least, here are some other resources I've created.
This is a screencast video about the opportunity for students to take Virtual Field Trips that I made during last spring's NTI (38:16):
Here are some blog entries from the past year that may help:
"Nearpod, SAMR, and Transitional Pedagogy" (9/3/19; may be helpful to put NTI and Concurrent Classrooms in the context of transformational teaching and deeper learning edtech integration)
In today's challenging blended learning environment (which may consist of students learning from home, students learning in person, or a concurrent hybrid of the two), you want to maintain the basic building blocks of an effective classroom. Such a learning space should have opportunities for varied feedback, structured discussions, and scaffolded classroom management. Mote and ClassroomQ can help with one or more of these aspects!
How do they work?
Mote is primarily a feedback tool that allows users to make a voice recording up to 30 seconds long inside of a Google Docs Comment. (Mote also works inside the Comments of Slides, Sheets, and even Google Classroom.) It requires installation of a Chrome Extension to make a Mote, and accounts can be created via a Google sign-in, although neither the extension nor an account is required to listen to a Mote. In the free version, you can both create and listen to an unlimited amount of Motes. For more on Mote, please see the following Google Slide presentation I have created, along with an example Mote on Slide 3.
ClassroomQ is essentially a "hand raising" digital web-based tool; students who request help are queued up in the order they hit the button. Teachers create a free account via Google or email. When a teacher logs in, a session is begun, and a "class code" is given. (Tip: this class code is unique to the teacher account and stays the same code for every session you begin, in case you want to permanently post it.)
Students who want to join a session do not need to create an account. By choosing "student" when they visit the site, they will be prompted to type their name and enter the session's class code. Once they have joined the session, they can hit their button when necessary along with the option of adding a comment in a text box; a student will be told their place in line, and can also cancel their request. (From their session perspective, students cannot see which other students have requested help or what comments they may have made.)
Teachers will see up to 5 student names queued up in the order they hit their buttons, along with any comments. (Note the teacher interface allows you to toggle off student comments so they are not visible, if you only want names to appear.) When a teacher has resolved a student's question, the student can be removed from the queue.
One of the advantages of ClassroomQ is its extremely easy interface -- there is no way to get lost, and in fact, a teacher could easily manage a session from a small screen device like a phone.
A screen capture to demonstrate what ClassroomQ looks like from the perspective of a teacher on a phone. Note that the class code is marked out in the image, and if you turned the phone horizontally, the student name and commentary would perhaps format better.
How could you use them? Mote provides an alternative feedback method for students that appreciate a kind of commentary beyond just text (and hearing their own teacher's voice feels more personal!). Students that struggle to understand "tone" linguistically will have auditory support. If your students are challenged by reading (pre-literate, EL, and/or ECE) they will also appreciate a voice recording that you can play and pause and repeat as needed. Students that have their own Mote accounts could make voice commentary that would enhance peer-to-peer feedback as well as potentially create a "voice discourse" without the possible distractions and anxiety associated with a video commenting tool like Flipgrid. (Although in fairness to the wonderful video-centric Flipgrid, they recently have added the ability to make text comment responses to videos.)
As the video below discusses, ClassroomQ can be more than a way to digitally raise hands for help (whether your students are in person or at home, or a mixture of both); for example, the video mentions using it as a game buzzer to answer review questions. You could also gather instant feedback for how your lesson facilitation is going, determine the order of when volunteers will present, or initiate classroom discussion managed by the teacher if students utilize its comment feature. (This last idea may especially come in handy if you have blocked chat and muted student mics in a virtual meeting.)
You can also imagine some interesting possibilities for app smashing. Perhaps a student lets you know via ClassroomQ when they are ready for you to read over the opening paragraph on a Google Doc, so you then can make a Mote voice comment for next steps. With ClassroomQ, you may also selectively choose to share your screen in a teleconference meeting and let all students see student comments, as another way of facilitating discussion.
Downsides? While both tools have a free initial tier, you have to pay for upgraded features:
Mote pricing for premium features start at $19/year for an "Essential" individual plan which extends your Mote time from 30 to 90 seconds; the $39/year "Unlimited" individual plan allows for voice-to-text transcriptions of your voice comments, in-app translation of those transcripts to one of multiple language options (a potentially powerful ELL feature!), and more.
ClassroomQ pricing for premium features start at $19.99/year for individuals (school or district licensing also available) to lift the limit from 5 students in queue to an unlimited number, the ability to see who joined your session, and exportable session data.
However, the free versions of both tools offer significant usefulness and may be more than enough for your classroom needs. If nothing else, the free versions give you an opportunity for a robust try-out of the tools before you shell out dinero. Most importantly, cost is only at the teacher level -- ClassroomQ doesn't require a student to ever make an account, much less pay, and Mote voice notes can be played by students without them ever creating an account (although they need to make at least a free account to create a Mote).
Are you using Mote or ClassroomQ? How do you integrate them into your classroom? Leave Comments below!
As our district has returned to school under non-traditional instruction (NTI), I have been visiting the teachers who are in our buildings -- planning, assessing, synchronously teaching, meeting online with students in small groups and one-on-one -- as the students are unfortunately at home. As always, I am impressed with not only the teachers' innovation but their positive attitude in less than ideal circumstances. The current growth and transformation in their teaching will have long reaching effects. As our new superintendent Dr. Sugg often quotes, we are creating a foundation for "better than normal" learning when students are once again in our buildings.
Often in my classroom visits, I end up sharing an aspect of Google. I realize that I have amassed, in various one-sheets and blog entries, several helpful tips and tricks....enough to put together this blog entry as a "greatest hits" collection. Some of these are not well known, others could be considered hacks, but the common theme is that all of them are pragmatic and could be easily applied tomorrow in a digital classroom.
Calling OUT by phone in Google Meet. Helpful when your student needs to participate or be contacted but does not have Internet. (Note: this may end for the "free" educational version of Google Meet on September 30.)
Translate captions and chat in Meet. A potential game changer for EL students. All of the Google Translate languages can potentially be used!
Google Classroom and Guardian Emails. Parents can receive a weekly email "report" on what is going on in your Classroom, although it takes a few steps of setting up.
"Google Jamboard." A relatively new Google app that will soon be integrated into Google Meet. Think of it as a collaborative "digital corkboard" for brainstorming, an entrance/exit slip to assess student thinking, or a place to capture opinions.
"Google Keep." An underutilized and underappreciated part of the Google Suite, especially if you couple it with its mobile app! Make short notes, create artifacts, track and document your conferring.
Inserting audio in Google Slides. While the insertion of audio is simple, this Doc details ideas for how to create the audio in the first place, pedagogical examples why audio in Slides could help, and options for formatting the audio's appearance/playability.
Take a picture inside your Doc (or Slides, Sheets, Drawing). Did you know that you can Insert>Image and directly utilize your webcam? This Doc shows how, but also gives pedagogical examples of when this could be helpful.
And here are some of my favorite Chrome Extensions:
Mote (audio comments on Google Docs and in Classroom)
