Everything EdTech
Tips, tricks, and news for the EdTech Community
May 5, 2016
EdTech News
Google Gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week
Whether by coincidence or design, Google provided teachers with several great announcements and updates just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week. These came in the form of a product acquisition and a wonderful update to Google Slides.
On May 2nd, Google announced that they had acquired the popular interactive tutorial design startup Synergyse. Synergyse allows businesses to create interactive step-by-step tutorials on how to use the various Google Apps. The service allowed users to create and share tutorials on how to complete specific tasks. The applications for this service in education are endless. Schools that are adopting Google Apps for Education now have the ability to quickly and easily produce custom tutorials to speed adoption by teachers and students. And the best news is that in an email announcement to current Synergyse subscribers about the acquisition, Synergyse shared that the former subscription service would now be available for free.
Learn more at https://www.synergyse.com/.
Google also announced an update to Google Slides that allows Live Q & A and polling inside a presentation. Similar to add ons like Poll Everywhere, the feature allows presenters to more fully engage with participants by allowing them to submit questions from any device to a link that displays in the Slide Presentation. Other users can see all of the questions and can even vote them up or down. The presenter can then address the questions during the presentation. Google calls this talking with your audience rather than to them. It is, of course, nothing new, but having it built in to the Slides application certainly makes its inclusion much easier for presenters.
Check out the video below to see an example implementation of this feature.
More on SAMR
Recently, however, this idea has been, well, redefined. Technology integration leaders have now adopted the analogy of a swimming pool with redefinition represented as the deeper end of the pool. There may be no better guide to this analogy that Jaclyn Stevens wonderful Thinglink interactive graphic that is included below.
Edmodo Groups for AMSTI Teachers
Use the join codes below to get started:
AMSTI Science 9-12 Teachers- 23digf
AMSTI Science 6-8 Teachers- d4ppyn
AMSTI Science 3-5 Teachers- ntsieu
AMSTI Science K-2 Teachers- kcpa2i
AMSTI Math 9-12 Teachers- ye4dpe
AMSTI Math 6-8 Teachers- qygg4h
AMSTI Math 3-5 Teachers- ir49pv
AMSTI Math K-2 Teachers- 9b53jm
Seesaw- The Learning Journal
The app is free for teachers to use for up to 10 classes. Students and parents get access to the past year for free and parents can pay a small fee to get unlimited access to student work. Schools can also subscribe for a fee and take advantage of a suite of management tools.
Special Mother's Day activity from Tynker
Tynker was included as a recommended app in the last issue of Everything EdTech but they just announced a special Digital Storytelling activity for Mother's Day. Check it out at http://www.tynker.com/blog/articles/ideas-and-tips/celebrate-your-mother-using-digital-storytelling/.
We are still looking for recommendations of the favorite apps and resources of AMSTI Specialists and Teachers!
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