Digital Learning Integrationists
News from the DLI Team - December 2022
PD Corner
Check out these slide decks and other resources from the three Formative PD sessions on November 8th. Attendees who requested resources and specific instructions will find those in the above attachment along with much more! Even if you did not attend the session, you will find many helpful resources to support your use of Formative in your classroom. As always, reach out to a DLI if you would like support implementing Formative.
Productivity Tip - Google Templates Galore!
With very little effort you can eliminate boring old worksheets and get your students interacting with instructional content using these professional grade google templates from Ditch that Textbook. These templates make it simple to produce visually appealing resources for social media, games, interactive activities, graphic organizers, exit tickets, and more! Many of these activities are well-suited to the Touchview boards. Simply choose a template, make your own copy and begin customizing it to your needs. The DLIs would love to help you convert a traditional instructional resource to one of these more visually appealing and engaging formats. What are you waiting for!? Request support from a DLI today!
airbnb
- the setting of an historical event
- the setting of a story
- a global destination related to a unit of study
- the residence of an historical figure
- the home of the main character in your book
- a topic or unit related theme (#mitosis, #judicialbranch, #healthyhabits)
- the setting of a story
- a day in the life of a character being studied
- a global destination related to a unit of study
Yelp Review
students use a yelp review format to demonstrate their knowledge of
- a locale you're studying (planet, ecosystems, geographical region during a particular time period)
- an historical point of interest
- an online museum
Quick Tip - Crop Images to Special Shapes
Quick Tip - Customizing Font Size in Chrome
Unlike zooming in or out on the entire page, changing the font size maintains the size of the elements on the page while adjusting only the font size of the text within the element.
Digital Learning Spotlight - Monitoring Students' Online Activity
It’s no secret that students can become easily distracted on their Chromebooks. This creates an ongoing challenge for teachers to monitor whether or not students are on task during online activities. Nicole Prus, a teacher in the GOALS program, has developed a plan to help her monitor student activity online when she is concerned about distractibility. Nicole creates a google meet and invites the student to join. The student then presents their entire screen in the meet. Both meet participants mute audio and video. The student can minimize the meet tab and continue with the online activity while the teacher sets their layout to spotlight for a close up view of the student's display.
If multiple students are being monitored, the teacher can resize their window for each meet to simulate a monitoring "dashboard" to keep tabs on students’ online activity. While this approach would not likely work for monitoring an entire class, it can be useful in specific situations where distractibility is of particular concern. What a fabulous strategy, Nicole! Thank you for sharing.
The DLIs are continuing to investigate options for more robust monitoring of students' online activity. In the meantime, this strategy can be used to provide some basic monitoring capabilities.
Google Workspace - Shared Drives vs. My Drive
This article will highlight the main differences between My Drive and Shared Drives (previously known as Team Drive) and walk-through how to create and share files from your My Drive.
My Drive vs. Shared Drive: What’s the Difference?
Shared Drive is the shared space that lets teams store, search, and access files anywhere and anytime from any device. Unlike My Drive, a Shared Drive belongs to an entire team instead of one individual.
Who owns the files and folders?
Shared Drive: Every team member
My Drive: You the individual
How Does Google Drive Sharing Work?
You can share your My Drive files and folders with anyone. Sharing files in My Drive is possible through two methods:
- Share with people and groups – You have to grant access to specific individuals you want to collaborate with on the file.
- Get shareable links – You grant access to anyone who has the link to view, comment or edit the file.
Commentator: People with this access can make comments and suggestions, but they can’t change or share the file with others.
Editor: People with this access can make changes, accept and reject suggestions, and share the file with email addresses.
While it’s recommended that external collaborators, users not in the FPS domain, either create or use a Google account to view your files since it’s the most secure way to collaborate, there are two methods to share files with those who are unwilling or unable to create a google account.
- Visitor Sharing – You can invite people as a collaborator to the file with PIN-based sharing. This allows you to share items with non-Google accounts, allowing them to view, comment on, or edit after giving them a secure PIN code.
- Link Sharing – You can set a link sharing to “Anyone with the link“ and share the link with them. Any person with the link can view, comment on, or edit the file.
*By default, this link is set to Restricted, so only people you’ve shared the file with can access the link. It would be better to use Visitor Sharing as this way, you remain the file owner, which, in turn, let's you view detailed activity on your files. You can also revoke access from the Drive sharing dialogue whenever required.
How do I control permissions access?
You can allow an individual or a team to view, comment, and edit a file.
Shared Drives are designed for multiple users to give different levels of permissions access to the files and folders added to these drives. As such, multiple users having access to it can make changes to the files.
My Drive, on the other hand, is the personal storage an individual user automatically gets access to when signing up for a Google account. Any kind of file can be stored on Google Drive, and the user decides the level of access, if any, a specific person can have to their personal files.
Can I restore the files?
Shared Drive: Only administrator, contributor, and content manager roles.
My Drive: Yes
Can I move files and folders?
Shared Drive: File owners and manager, content manager, and contributor roles can move files. However, moving folders from My Drive to Shared Drive isn’t possible.
My Drive: Yes.
What are the sharing permissions?
Shared Drive: While members can share files, sharing folders isn’t allowed. Every team member can see all the files, but they can also share with people outside of the team.
My Drive: Based on the access given to a person, different people see different files in a folder. Sharing folders is also possible inside My Drive.
How long do deleted files stay in the trash?
Shared Drive: Each Shared Drive has its own trash. Trashed files and folders are deleted forever after 30 days, but members can delete specific files sooner.
My Drive: Trashed files and folders are deleted forever after 30 days, but the individual owner can delete files sooner.
*Cautionary Note
There is a default permission in sharing settings that allows editors to change permissions and share. If you are concerned about losing access to documents or folders, it is suggested that you turn this off.
Alison Finley
Hellen Keller Elementary: Monday, Friday
Jefferson Elementary: Wednesday, Thursday
ECDC: Tuesday
Book an appointment:
Email: finleya@franklinps.net
Kate Merten
Kennedy Elementary (room 29): Monday/Friday Oak Street Elementary (music practice room): Monday/Wednesday Parmenter Elementary (book room): Tuesday/Thursday
Book an appointment:
Email: mertenk@franklinps.net
John Leighton
Chris Penza
Horace Mann Middle School - Tues, Thurs (Band Room)
Book an appointment:
Email: penzac@franklinps.net
Marianne Zogby
Remington Middle School - Tues, Thurs (Orchestra Room)
Book an appointment:
Email: zogbym@franklinps.net