DS TECH NEWS

...tech tips, best practices and resources

What's New This Week?

CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF 2020! See faculty video below.

Click to view: CLASS OF 2020 VIDEO from senior Jillian Davis.

DS Class of 2020 Tribute

PEEKING INTO A REMOTE CLASSROOM

Check out GRETCHEN DONOHUE using Screencastify, Google Docs and Google Slides to teach Act 5, Romeo & Juliet online!

HEAR STUDENT VOICES ANYTIME!

Online Class Discussions Using Google Classroom

Flipgrid was a great resource for holding student discussions on a topic in your discipline, but currently, we are not able to use that app for student privacy reasons. As another option, Google Classroom also has the ability to hold online discussions right within your course!


USE THIS SLIDE as a template for your own Google Classroom Discussion. Simply copy and edit the directives to suit your needs. Then, post this slide in your DISCUSSION BOARD TOPIC area along with a DISCUSSION QUESTION to give students your expectations for a digital discussion.

WONDERING HOW TO SET THIS UP?


1. In CLASSWORK, click on +CREATE & TOPIC to add new topic.

2. Name this topic, DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

3. Then, go back to +CREATE and click on QUESTIONS.

4. Add slide and questions to prompt student responses.


Be sure to select the Discussion Questions topic on the right side of the window when you are done, so that these questions always fall under this topic. In that way, students can find them easily.

Important App Updates!

SCREENCASTIFY Extends full access until June 30.

On July 1, your account will switch over to the Free plan, which will still allow you to record as many videos as you like. However, each recording will be limited to 5 minutes. You will still have full access to all longer videos that you've made in the past.


ZOOM

ZOOM 5.0 UPDATE. This latest mandatory update will occur on May 30th to enhance security features. If you don't update on your own, you will be asked to do so on that date. Click on the link to perform this task.


GOOGLE MEET

GAFE recently rolled out some new Meet features:

  1. Tiled layout
  2. High quality video
  3. Noise cancellation
  4. Low light mode

Click here to view updates: Google Meet: 4 new rollout features

#WEareDS Online for Educators

Click here to view our remote teaching/learning educator's site!


How to Find these Newsletters? To keep track of weekly newsletters, I will be adding them to the DS website with the date and a description of topics covered for easy access. Newsletters can be found behind the BULLETIN BOARD tab on the home page menu.

Do you have a "best practice" or something "techy" that you would like to share?

Send me an email with your "best practices" content so that I can add it to the "Peeking into a Remote Classroom" area of this newsletter. Or, maybe you have a tech idea, timely article or interesting website that you would like to share. Contributions are always welcome!

May 28, 2020