What the Tech?!?
Mark E. Damon, Educational Technology Coordinator
News You Use
Greetings from the Office of the Educational Technology Coordinator! This newsletter is designed to keep you informed of some of the happenings in the fast-paced world of Educational Technology and how it applies to the Medford Township School District. As the newsletters are published, you will find answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and may learn new tips, apps, extensions and tools you can use in your school or classroom! If you ever have any questions or would like some "just-in-time" help integrating technology, please give me a call at ext. 8009, or e-mail mdamon@medford.k12.nj.us!
GoGuardian Statistics
Pictured above is a breakdown of how our 1,500+ devices are being used throughout the district. GoGuardian, an add-on service our district purchased, provides us information on how the devices are being used in the hopes of using that information to pinpoint needs for future Professional Development. GoGuardian also offers additional filtering options beyond what our network firewall provides, which helps us further comply with CIPA regulations. Lastly, GoGuardian provides theft deterrent services. If a Chromebook is stolen, we will be able to track its location and provide that information to authorities for them to be able to reacquire the device. Please know that GoGuardian tracks all devices that are signed into Google Chrome with Medford credentials. Below are some statistics over the last SEVEN days in regards to how long our devices have collectively used each site.
Pun of the Month
Our IT Department has a bunch of dead batteries they have collected. They will be giving them out free of charge!
From the Class Next Door
Below are some examples of amazing work involving technology that is going on in a classroom near you. If you have a project or idea that you would like to share, or need some help with, please reach out to me at mdamon@medford.k12.nj.us or ext. 8009! I am so happy with the amazing work that our staff is experimenting with and exploring. Does it always work the first time? No. But we KEEP MOVING FORWARD! And, we do it together. I am here to help you if you have any questions or need any training.
Ariana Borreggine - Taunton Forge
I had the opportunity to work with Ariana when she reached out to me to help meet the needs of some students with some challenges in reading. She wanted to somehow allow the DCCRs and word problems in Math to be read out loud to students so they could find success in math without their reading challenges getting in the way. Working with the Kami App/Extension and an extension called SpeakIt, we were able to take *.pdf files and convert them to text that would be read to students. This is just one example of many, many adaptive tools available on Chromebooks. Have some challenges your students need to overcome? Let's explore some possibilities together!
Michael Del Rossi - Haines
Michael was one of my first observations of the year. I learned a ton about hominids (a word I needed to look up in preparation for this observation). During our follow up conversation, Michael expressed interest in converting his traditional History Alive packets into something that could be integrated with Google Classroom. Together, we discovered the Kami application that allows teachers to convert worksheets into digital organizers that students can work on directly from their Chromebooks. They can collaborate on the same documents and submit them through Google Classroom. Michael was so excited at the work his students were able to do that he led a full training for Haines staff members who were interested in similar results. We have found Kami to be a great extension that has many benefits for teachers and students.
Ashley Fudurich - Haines
A picture says a thousand words... and in this case, some of those words might question whether this is, in fact, Ashley Fudurich. Nonetheless, Ashley reached out to me after one of our PDP sessions and asked about using Google Forms as a tool for assessing students and sharing the results. The next day, I had compiled a screencast showing Ashley exactly how to share out results for students so they could see the quiz, what questions they got correct and which ones were wrong. Ashley ran with the feature, which is new to Google, and has been using Google Forms to create online quizzes to get her FAST results that she can use right away to differentiate her instruction for the needs of her students.
Toby Martin - Cranberry Pines
Toby and I had the chance to meet one day after school as he was in search of a digital replacement for his Science Journals. Traditionally, students used a marble notebook where they cut out and pasted visual representations of their lab projects and wrote their findings on the opposite page. Toby wanted something in place so that not only could the students in class work on their research using technology, but students who were absent wouldn't miss any of the work. Together, we generated some ideas for how this could be achieved. Two weeks later, I had the chance to observe Toby and he had put in place a system using Google Slides for students to keep a running journal of all their lab work. Now, students can access this information in school and at home. And, Toby can assess their work without having to carry a single journal around with him!
Bill Morrow - Cranberry Pines
Not too far down the hallway from Toby, Bill Morrow wanted to set up some type of system where he would be able to walk around the classroom and still project his chromebook up onto his Promethean Board. We worked together to get Google Cast for Education installed and working in his class. Not only can Bill project his Chromebook up to his screen anywhere in the room, but the STUDENTS can, too! At any point, if Bill wants a student to show their work, the student can cast their screen up to the Promethean Board for all to see.
Linda Palmer - Allen
Like Ariana, Linda had a student she was working with over at Allen who has a communication challenge. To try and help this child participate in conversation and classroom activities on par with his fellow classmates, Linda reached out to me to see if there was any way we could set up a system where the student could type in his answers and the Chromebook would read his responses out loud. Together, we explored three different apps to achieve this goal. We went with SpeakIt, similar to Ariana's accommodation, which will read out loud student inputs. To get buy in from the student, SpeakIt even allows him to pick different voices to represent his vocalization. One day, he may feel like a British Male. Tomorrow... who knows... an Italian?
Nate Witner - Memorial
Some great things are happening in the Health classes at Memorial! Nate has his students in a Google Classroom which he uses to send out announcements and assignments. One assignment is part of a unit on addiction. To infuse 21st century learning, Nate had students give up something they felt they were addicted to. In once case, a student gave up texting. Then, the students had to create a video, similar to a public service announcement, informing the viewer as to the withdrawal symptoms they were experiencing and how difficult it was to give up something that is so engrained into their lives. The activity showed students how hard it is to give up something once you are addicted to it. Nate, however, encountered some difficulty accessing the videos through Google Classroom, so we worked on a solution so that he could assess the videos directly from the Classroom portal. Great work, Nate, on coming up with something that doesn't just substitute in technology, but modifies and redefines learning so that students are creating and communicating to their peers in ways that was previously not available.
Andy Reuter - Kirby's Mill
Andy Reuter and Nancy Kasputis, both 5th grade teachers at Kirby's Mill, have jumped on board the GoFormative train and have been using the site to digitally convert their Math Topic Assessments traditionally done on paper. This has saved them countless hours of grading and has provided them immediate feedback on student performance so they can spend less time on paperwork and more time meeting the needs of their students. They have even started to use GoFormative for their QuickChecks. What's best is that they share the responsibility of creating these assessments so that they can share them with each other, essentially cutting their work in half! Technology is at work to help teachers and help students!
Level 2 Certification
He did it! Congratulations to Michael Del Rossi for achieving his Google Level 2 Certified Educator status! This is not an easy assessment. It is a 3-hour exam (on the heels of a 3-hour Level 1 exam) that assesses your ability to integrate all the Google tools for the betterment of education. A hybrid test of multiple choice and performance based, this Google exam is definitely a challenge, which makes it all the more rewarding when you receive your certificate. Way to go, Michael! If you are interested in attaining your Level 1 certification, I will be planning a Level 1 Boot Camp this year that you may be interested in. More information will be forthcoming.
Plenty More
There is plenty more from the office of the Educational Technology Coordinator, but stay tuned to the next newsletter for additional information, helpful hints, tips and videos. If you have any ideas, questions or thoughts of how you want to integrate technology, please reach out to me! Or, if you have something great going on that you would like featured in a future Newsletter, please let me know! We are in this together!
Contact Information
Email: mdamon@medford.k12.nj.us
Website: www.medford.k12.nj.us
Location: 137 Hartford Road, Medford, NJ, United States
Phone: 609-654-6416