DISD Ed Tech News
January 9,2017
DISD Tech Share - Using Seesaw in the Classroom
Rachel Chandler's 2nd grade classroom - Cactus Elementary
DISD Tech Share will be a new item in the newsletter where teachers can share their favorite Ed Tech Tools or Tips & Tricks with others in our district. We have a vast resource at our fingertips when we begin to share with other teachers and learn from our peers. It is our hope that more teachers will volunteer to showcase what they and their students are doing with technology in the classroom.
What exactly is Seesaw? Seesaw is a multimedia journal that empowers students to showcase what they're learning at school. It is available as an iOS or Android app or as a Chrome app for Chromebooks. Throughout the school year, Seesaw builds an organized, digital portfolio of each student's learning, accessible by teacher, students and parents. It also keeps parents in the loop by giving them a real-time, personalized glimpse into their child's school day, via automatic iOS or Android app notifications, text message or email.
But is this product only for 1:1 classrooms where every student has a device? Absolutely not! The teacher begins by creating their class in the online Seesaw portal and every student gets their own journal stored in the cloud. Both students and teachers can add artifacts of their learning, like photos, videos or drawings and students can even add their own voice, text or drawing annotations to an item. The teacher must approve new journal items but once they are approved they are shared with parents via the app, text message or email notifications. Students can log into their own Seesaw journals from any device that they have access to so there is no worry about them getting the same device every time. Students are excited to share their learning and Seesaw gives them a safe space to do that. Parents only get updates for their child and can only view their child's journal. Parents can be more connected to the classroom and receive personalized communication about their child, all without adding more work for the teacher.
One of the best features of the Seesaw app is that students do not need their own accounts or passwords. Students just scan a Class QR code to log into the class on the iOS app and then tag themselves from the class list to add an item to their journal. Students can easily take photos or videos of their projects and upload anything from the camera roll, including projects made in other apps. Mrs. Chandler had already shared her classroom's use of Seesaw with other teachers at Cactus and she has shared her presentation from that training here.
The day that I visited the classroom students were moving between various stations within the classroom and working individually or in pairs. Since students were studying shapes they had several opportunities to use the Seesaw app with this unit. One group of students were building 3D shapes with magnetic tiles and they then each grabbed an iPad, opened the Seesaw app and took a picture of their shape. After they got the picture they wanted they added their voice recording describing their shape, how many sides it had, how many vertices, etc.
Another group had constructed 3D shapes from paper and one student held their shape and described it while another student filmed them with the app. Students also had the opportunity to do a writing assignment or drawing and snap a picture of their product and then read their written sample or describe their drawing. Since quite a few of these students are still working on learning English this also provides an opportunity to practice their written and spoken English in producing a product to demonstrate what they are learning. Students can redo their recordings until they have them exactly as they want them. The applications for other grade levels are almost unlimited and it was a very interesting demonstration of the use of technology to enhance the student's learning experience. We thank Mrs. Chandler for sharing this Tech Tool that she is using in her classroom! And remember to check out her presentation here.
Teachers, If you would be willing to share a Tech Tool that you have found or you would like to "nominate" a teacher on your campus who could share something neat with others please email me so that I can follow up.
Google Announces That The Citation Tool in Google Docs is Back!
Quickly and easily cite your sources with Explore in Google Docs
What’s new: In September 2016, we launched Explore in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to give you the insights, design tools, and research recommendations you need to do your best work. With this launch, we’re improving upon the feature by allowing you to easily cite those findings. Students writing research reports, analysts crafting whitepapers, and others looking to credit their sources can now insert citations as footnotes with the click of a button in Explore in Docs on the web. You can even change the format of your citation, switching between the MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.
For more information on how to use citations in Docs Explore, check out the Help Center.
Chromebook Tips for Teachers and Students
Take & Edit Screenshots on a Chromebook
Instructional Technology Mini eCourses for DISD Employees
All of these mini eCourses were done using a tool called EDpuzzle that allows a teacher to embed quiz questions into a video and one of the mini courses will teach you how to use this tool yourself. Time spent watching the video and answering questions is logged in EDpuzzle as well as a time-stamp showing time of completion.
The trainings currently available in Eduphoria are:
1. EDpuzzle in Your Classroom
2. 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom
3. 50 Ways to Use the Board Builder in Discovery Education
4. Google Calendar Tutorial
5. Improving Writing & Research with G Suite
6. Google Slides for Interactive Stories, Quizzes and Games
Take a look if you are interested in learning some new Tech Tips & Tricks from some great educators in the Ed Tech field!
DISD Instructional Technology
Email: rhonda.artho@dumasisd.org
Website: http://www.dumasisd.org/about-education-instructional-technology
Location: Teacher Training Center, DHS
Phone: 806-935-6461 1029