During this pandemic, many teachers have turned to video recording to aid in their online instruction. From recording directions for activities to friendly messages to send to students, I think teachers enjoy having this as a tool. I personally used video recording a ton when I was IN the classroom. Especially when we were doing projects, it was nice to record myself going over the directions and rubric, that way students could re-watch as needed. It also was easier to get absent students up to speed. In March, one of our teachers shared that Screencastify was offering their premium version free for teachers through at least April 30th. I love Screencastify because of it's Google Drive integration. However, when it expires, you'll be stuck at a 5-minute per video limit. I am sure there are a lot of teachers who will continue to use screencasting in their instruction. Lucky for us, Loom, very similar to Screencastify, is offering its premium version, Loom Pro, free for teachers and students FOR-EV-ER. That's right! Free for life! Click here to learn more about it. I have used Loom, and while it doesn't have the Google Drive integration, it's easy to use and it has great editing tools!
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Anyone else's eyes reaaaalllly tired of staring at a computer? Mine sure are. As tired as they are, I am SO thankful to be able to continue working during this uncertain time. I am also thankful to be able to connect with friends, family, and coworkers through video chats, which brings me to today's topic: Google Meet. I sent out an email to my school staff about Google Classroom and it's new Google Meet integration (PS - Google recently changed the name from Google Hangouts Meet to just Google Meet). If you missed it, here is the video with the details:
In our district, teachers and students using Meet for video conferencing may have noticed some extra features this past week. Our technology coordinator pushed out two extensions to enhance the Google Meet experience: Nod and Google Meet Grid View.
Nod is a cool way for students to interact during a meeting using emojis, and it also gives teachers the much-needed "raise hand" feature. I've created a quick slide show with details on Nod below (click the little box icon to go full screen): The Google Meet Grid View extension gives Meet more of a "Zoom feel" in that it allows you to see more participants on the same screen, a la Brady Bunch style (Am I dating myself? Do kids even know who that is?!). While the extension is helpful, Google VP Javier Soltero told Reuters in this article that Meet will be rolling out a 16 participant view later this month. So stay tuned! It's great to see tech companies being so responsive to user needs during this time. In particular, I think they are really trying to help educators meet the needs of students in the best way possible, and for that I am thankful!! Stay well, be safe! ​Christin My last blog post was in February. A LOT has happened since then. We are facing a global pandemic. We are grappling with the heavy weight of social distancing, infection rates and death tolls, and everything else that COVID-19 brings along with it. As educators forced to change the way we reach students, I want to thank you for your adaptability. We pivoted, and while it may not have felt graceful, and there were and are still kinks, and we know that we are not reaching all of our students and that weighs heavy on our hearts, we pivoted in a direction we never thought we would have to. We did it, we are doing it, and you are amazing. All that being said, with this change in how we instruct there has been SO. MUCH. TECH. STUFF. A necessary part of all this, but overwhelming nonetheless. I have struggled with how to proceed with my blog. Do I focus on things that I normally would? Or do I focus on distance learning only? I decided I will just focus on things that I think will benefit you guys, no matter what that topic may be. So today, I have something pretty simple, not COVID-19 related, but very helpful nonetheless. Google Drive is rolling out shortcuts. This is helpful to those of you using Shared Drives and running into the annoying feature where you can only have stuff in a Shared Drive and not in your Drive. Here's an example of how a shortcut works: my principal creates a document and shares it with our School Improvement Leadership Team. I can now create a shortcut to the document in the school improvement shared drive, allowing everyone on the team to easily get to the file.
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April 2020
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