Sharing Rubrics in Schoology -- It can be done!

During a PD session on October 3rd, Ben Summerton (@bsummerton), Jay Londgren, and Cassie Summerton did a fantastic Schoology help session. And during that session we discovered a work-around for sharing rubrics from courses that is pretty clever. If you want to share a rubric with a colleague the first step is to add them to your course and make them an admin. Once they are admin of the course, they can go into grade book set up and copy the rubric to their courses. It is a little clunky and tiresome, but a great way to share a rubric. If you are worried about them being an admin of your course, once the rubric(s) are shared, simply remove your colleague from your course.

Request Read Receipt in Gmail

Sometimes you simply want to know if someone has read the email you sent or not. Gmail has this feature and it is called Request Read Receipt. It was formerly in the labs section, but now has become part of the standard Gmail. You can find it in your compose window in the more options drop down menu.

Interview from the Digital Showcase Asia

Sharing Settings on a Google Form

Today one of our English teachers, Jim Burwell, stopped by the EdTech office with a great question. His problem was that everyone had permission to edit his Google Form. After some hunting around on Jim's part, he discovered the the share settings for Forms work a little differently now. Now that the spreadsheet and form are completely separate from each other, the Form settings assume that you would want people to fill it out, so you can embed or email it to people without making it public, because the public refers to who can edit the form. Let me write that again, because it is very important -- public means people can edit the form. If you don't want people to edit your form, make it private or share it to only the people you want to collaborate with. This is a large change from the way forms perviously worked, so please be careful. Now go forth and collect data!

Getting an iTunes U Course into the Catalog

If you use iTunes U, then you have probably ran across the "publishing the course dilemma." To publish a course is a two step process that starts with the author of the course. The author must make a request to add his/her course to the iTunes U Catalog, then the Site Manager can add the course to the institutions iTunes U Catalog in the iTunes Store. It is one of those cumbersome little tasks that only needs to be done once in a while and is easily forgotten until the next time it comes up. The screen shot should help, at least until the next time the UI is changed.

Grade 6 Science and iPads

Students filming the reactions of static electricity with an iPad.

Our Grade 6 (G6) Science team wanted to improve the quality and excitement around their current unit on Static Electricity. We came up with a great way to use the iPads to capture the static electricity in action and add video to the standard lab reports students create. It was simple and effective and produced some great reflection on learning. We have a cart of iPads in the secondary, so we used six to give each table team an iPad to film with. I walked the class through a quick download, install, and tutorial on Instashare (took ten minutes) and then turned them loose with the iPads to film the learning about static electricity in action. As students completed the different tasks, they were sharing their videos via Instashare between the iPads and their computers. After gathering all of their video clips, they used a science lab template that we created in Keynote to include the written lab work and the videos. Awesome!

Can static electricity move an aluminum can?

Can static electricity hold a balloon to the wall?

Deleting a Blogger Blog

I know you have been wondering about it; I know you have been staying up awake at night worrying about it; I know you have been pulling out your hair trying to find it, so here is the solution to your problem -- how to delete a Blogger blog in two easy steps. Somebody at Blogger thought that it would be great to hide the delete button in an obscure place that is difficult to find. It is under Settings in the Other tab and at the top of the screen. The screen shots to the left will help you find it and go through the process. After you hit the delete button there is one more chance to change your mind, which is always nice; plus, on the same screen you are given the option to download the blog.

Schoology User Guide 3: Tests and Quizzes

Schoology User Guide: Test/Quiz by Tim

Schoology User's Guide -- The Basics

Schoology Guide -- Basics

Back in the Classroom Again

Last year I started feeling a little disconnected from regular classroom teachers because I was ending my second year as a full-time EdTech specialist at Korea International School, which meant that I had been completely out of the classroom for two years. The classroom is my laboratory, where I experiment and test different hypotheses. Without that environment, I felt that I was loosing touch with what really works in a classroom setting. How can I recommend something that I haven't done in a real class? I approached my IT Coordinator, Ben Summerton (@bensummerton) and explained my frustration and concern. He was very supportive and pointed out the many contributions that I make to the EdTech team and, as a former classroom teacher, he understood exactly why I was feeling the way I was feeling. He asked me how I felt about being in a classroom situation as well as continuing in EdTech. We came up with the proposal that I could teach one 75-minute block class on the rotating high school schedule and budget in 45 minutes for prep time as well. This translated into me being in the classroom two to three times a week with one or two shorter prep periods.

We then pitched it to the high school principal, Don Drake, who was ecstatic to have me in the classroom again in his building. The English department needed some redistribution of class loads and my Creative Writing course would help with that problem. Although it has meant some extra work for me, it has been totally worth it thus far. I'm very happy to be back with students on a regular schedule in an actual teaching role. I am also advising two clubs and still continuing my EdTech duties -- offering PD in the Fish Bowl, supporting teachers with iTunes U course development, supporting the G4 team with an iPad implementation, co-planning and co-teaching lessons, and helping teachers with Schoology. The plate is full, but I'm loving it. It feels great to be respected enough by my administrators to be given an opportunity to explore, change, and grow. Plus, it is great being with students in an elective Creative Writing course that allows us the freedom to explore and learn together.

SoundCloud on your Blogger

Step 1: Go to your SoundCloud Profile, select Share and copy the
Widget Code.

If you are a musician, or simply a person who loves music, and you want to share this passion via your Blogger, but you don't know how to tackle the problem... Continue reading friend, because I will walk you through the process of making a SoundCloud feed on your blog. The more I use Blogger, the more impressed I become with its functionality. The Gadgets are truly amazing and allow for almost any HTML code to be embedded in the top, bottom, or side bar of your blog. The screen shots in this

blog post walk you through the process step-by-step.

Step 2: In Blogger, go to Layout and select the Add a Gadget button.

Step 3: Select the HTML/JavaScript Gadget.

Step 4: Give your Gadget a title and paste the code.

QR Codes in Art Education

Art installations enhanced with QR codes.

When a person thinks of QR codes, they rarely picture art work or artists, but at Korea International School things are a little different. Our Art department has a spring art show each year where our students showcase their artistic endeavors. The art teachers adopted online portfolios for high school students two years ago, and this year they added the middle school students to that initiative.  So the art teachers started wondering, "what else can we do with technology?" QR codes in the art installations! Now a student creates an art installation for the spring art show with QR codes included that direct the audience to the student's online portfolio. Instead of posting a reflection or additional information about the art piece next to the art work, they can save space by simply placing a QR code next to the art work. Audience members can use the QR code to listen to a reflection about the piece, or look at other art pieces by the student.

Example of an audio art reflection linked to a QR code.

It is a simple idea that adds great value to the art show and allows a student to share more art work with the audience members. Genius!

KIS Secondary Art Department: Sara Arno, Sondra Mullenax, Sallie Inman, and Angel Catholic

Using Google Spreadsheets for Meeting Agendas

Do you really want your team to collaborate? Do you want to be able to digitally track your meetings, decisions made, actions assigned, and who and when items will be followed up on? The EdTech Team at Korea International School wanted to have these options. During a meeting Steve (@stevekatz) was introduced to this amazing tool by Rolly (@rollymaiquez) from Chadwick International School. It has revolutionized our team and dramatically increased our productivity. I have created a Template that can be used by any group or team; in addition, the instructions on this post will have you ready to be more productive and more collaborative for your next meeting. After following the link, make sure to create a copy of the template from the File Menu. This will give you your own copy in your Google Drive. PLEASE DON'T EDIT THE ORIGINAL! 

The Template looks like this and you can customize all the features.

You can input your team members with this trick. You can also adjust the Priority/Status list this way. 

What is on in Math with EdTech at KIS?

Action Research: Gamification in the Teaching of the Scientific Method

Gamification in the Teaching of the Scientific Method.pdf Download this file

I'm very excited to share this Action Research project with the educational world. Working with one of the KIS Biology teachers, Jeff Boyce, we looked into the use of games in the teaching of the scientific method. This PDF version of the results is free for all to download, use, and build upon. I have uploaded it to the iBook Store, but while we wait for it to appear in the store, and for those who don't use an iPad, I have supplied it. 

Enjoy!

Chrome App: PDF to Word File Converter

So you have a PDF file and you want to edit it. What do you do? Nothing, because PDF files convert poorly into Word or Pages files, right? In the past, yes, but now you can! The Chrome App PDF to Word Converter will convert the PDF file to a Word file and keep the formatting. Your old problems are gone -- now you can convert any PDF into a usable document file that can be edited. The user interface (UI) is simple and easy to use (image below). 

iPad App Review: Action Movie

I plan to add more content on my blog about iPad and Chrome Apps that have useful features for educators, but this time I have something that is simply fun. Although, for your students that like to create movies, this app will certainly inspire them; especially the boys, stereotypes are sometimes true. Action Movie FX is a free app that operates on the in-app store model. For those not in the know, apps like this are free to download and provide free features, but you can expand the apps abilities by purchasing within the app. In this case, you can purchase more effects in sets of two for 99 cents. Not a bad price considering what you get, because this app is tons of fun.

The UI (user interface) looks a little busy at first, but it is simple to use. Clicking on the effect will provide a preview of what it does.  When in preview mode, click the preview screen and you are ready to shoot your film clip. In the filming UI, you will have a target to guide you. Place the target on the object you want to destroy and tap the record button in the lower right side of the screen. A red edge will appear around the perimeter of the screen and when you have captured enough video, it will change to green and you can stop recording. Your video clip will process and you will be able to watch the destruction you created. You can share this clip to your iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone camera roll or Facebook. Through the camera roll saving you can use it in iMovie on your device or load it to iPhoto on your computer for use in your laptop/desktop iMovie. I have added a couple of examples to this post, but these are low quality versions, you can export the clips in HD. Let the good times roll!