Tech Tips
February 2017: Volume 4- Number 34
Happy Valentine's Day!
You'll find a wide variety of apps, articles, and websites in this issue.
VideoNot.es
The easiest way to take notes synchronized with videos!
Automatically synchronized
All the notes you type are automatically synchronized with the video. Later, just click on a line for the video to jump to the relevant part.
Integrated with Google Drive
Create and manage your VideoNotes directly via your Google Drive and access them from everywhere
Easy to share
Manage your permissions and share your VideoNotes with your friends, fellow students, or make them private anytime
Black Menu for Google
Black Menu for Google gives you quick access to your favorite Google services with a convenient drop-down menu that lets you use Search, Google+, Translate, and many others without leaving the page you’re on. Hover on menu items to get a small windowed preview or click the shortcuts to open them in a new tab. Customize the menu by pointing at ‘More’ and dragging the apps you want from a comprehensive list of services.
Basecamp
Project management tool!
Inside every HQ, team, and project you’ll find six core tools. To-dos for tracking work, a Message Board for posting announcements and updates, a Campfire chat room for quick casual chats with the team, a Schedule for posting deadlines and milestones, Docs & Files for organizing all the assets and notes everyone needs to do their work, and Automatic Check-ins to get insights from the team on a regular basis.
Depending on how you work today, Basecamp may replace a bunch of separate products you use — allowing you to consolidate, eliminate cost and complexity, and rally around the only tool you really need: Basecamp.
Use Snapchat to Create and Share Book Pics!! Check out #booksnaps on Twitter
Boiling Down Argument: Five Approaches to Teaching Argument
(Excerpt)
Last time, we examined the challenges of boiling down critical thinking into something manageable for teachers and students, ending with the conclusion that, if we teach argument well, we’re going to begin teaching the heart of critical thinking well. In short, we’re wise to “go big on argument” all across the content areas making disciplinary distinctions as appropriate. [1]
Argument, however, is itself a term that we need to boil down. Though argument is now pervasive in the minds of secondary educators, thanks largely to its presence in so many standards (e.g., Common Core Mathematical Practice #3, Common Core Writing anchor standard #1, Next Generation Science Standards Science and Engineering Practice #7), I would argue that any 10 secondary educators, if selected at random from around the USA and placed in a room together, would struggle to formulate an actionably clear definition of what argument is or how it ought to be taught. This poses a teaching challenge, of course, because when the teacher doesn’t clearly understand something, you can bet that many of the students won’t.
A Web Whiteboard!
Touch. Draw. Share.
A Web Whiteboard is touch-friendly online whiteboard app that lets you use your computer, tablet or smartphone to easily draw sketches, collaborate with others and share them with the world.
SCS Instructional Technology Information
Contact me if you have any questions or would like help using these tools.
Email: vturner@scsmustangs.org
Website: http://www.strongnet.org/InstructionalTechnology
Phone: 440-572-7067
Twitter: @vturner8