YO GOOGLE! Voice now please?

So, a couple days ago I see a tweet from The Man Chad Kafka and he's extolling the virtues of some video or other.  I usually watch them and think, wow, that's sweet.  Then I watched this one and nearly jumped out of my chair with excitement!

The possibilities of voice comments for GAFE (Google Apps for Education) cannot be overstated.  Every single teacher I've talked to over the last few days sees such HUGE instant applicability with this feature.  I've used it now a couple times, and although it seems like it's in beta mode (which I couldn't find anywhere where it says it is) I want more and I want it NOW.

Why is this such a powerful thing?  For starters, typing every comment I want to make to a student simply eats up too much time.  Also, when I'm looking at 100's of assignments, typing everything I want to say still ends up edited and pared down due to the overwhelming amount of feedback I want to give my students.

So, I am writing this blog post directly to you Google.  Here is my letter in it's entirety.

Dear Great Gods of Googledom!
Please include a native voice comment capability to Drive starting yesterday.  I'm sure that in your infinite wisdom you have been working diligently on this for some time, so if you could simply hit the "on" button that would be sweet!  I promise to leave you a lengthy and positive voice comment as soon as you do.

Sincerely,
The soon to be happiest teacher in the world.

How would voice comments make your life better as a teacher or for anyone using Drive!

If you'd like to see how this thing works, check out the video below!
http://youtu.be/Llv1Nh4Om0c

PowToon is awesome!

After doing a search a few weeks back on ways to present, PowToon showed up.  I checked it out and it's fantastic.  I've already had a few students use it to present, and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop further.  I know an update will be coming shortly that new features will be added.  I also have seen a lot more people using it to start out presentations and make things a little more in engaging.  I hope it continues to improve and hope they keep it free!

Here is a video I made for doing a presentation on Google Drive.

If you've used PowToon, leave us some thoughts in the comments!  

Shared Notes

As I continue learning to present well and get more opportunities to do so, I have found one way I really like to show the power of Google Docs; use shared notes during my presentations.  I haven't had as much luck with my students for a variety of reasons, but with adults and educators it seems to work pretty well.  Not only does it allow everyone in attendance to share in the learning process and from each other, it really gets rid of the need for backchannels and such.  I was never a big fan of those, so this is like a "front" channel where everyone is invited.  This is especially good for newbies, they don't have to learn something else to fully participate.

I typically have the folks at my presentations submit their info into a quick form, then run Doctupus (see earlier post) to get out the notes.  It would be easier to just have them click a link and make the doc editable, but I like showing the power of Doctupus and it creates a good conversation starter for the beginning of the presentation.

Here are the NOTES that I used in Green Bay if anyone is interested. Another really nice feature about doing things this way is it allows for participants to ask questions not just during the presentation, but long afterwords so if they have follow up questions and such they can just post them there.  Overall it's pretty easy and makes for a much more effective and ongoing learning experience for everyone involved.

What's your best presentation advice these days?  Share in the comments!

Doctupus+Goobric=LOVE MY WORKFLOW NOW!

This is Goobric in action!

So, finally I get around to explaining why I love Doctupus.  If you haven't used it, you have no idea what you're missing.  Not only did the script change my flow for working with my students, it fundamentally shifted the way I "do" Google Drive.

Also, as if Doctupus wasn't great enough, it's now been integrated with gClassFolders (another organizing script I'll write about at a later date) AND it now has the almighty Goobric integrated which had me singing and high-fiving random people in the street.  I don't do this normally and it may seem like way too much excitement over Drive awesomeness, but if you're a teacher this combination is a dream come true.

Essentially, this is what Doctupus/Goobric does.  Doctupus takes a "master" copy of whatever you have in Drive and makes a digital photo copy for all of your students.  Not only that, but it can make one copy for the entire class, one for each individual student, one for each student but differentiated for specific students, and keeps the teacher as the owner of the document.  Goobric then comes sweeping in and attaches a rubric of your choosing to the docs, making it accesible at any time you wish while working in the document.  Oh yeah, it also logs the scores into a single spreadsheet which can be averaged over time, etc.  One last thing, it also copies the rubric into the document with the scores you've put in and will send an e-mail to the student letting them know it's been graded.

Why is this so awesome?  Because it will make your life a simpler place and make grading online work a breeze.  Using this system of awesome, I now can access all the work my students have made for the entire year, while also grading, sending, and managing all their scores in one spreadsheet.

I use standards based grading, which makes this even more powerful for doing constant check-ins and working with students on building their skills.  However, even for individual projects or assignments this system will work wonders on your flow.  Good luck, and if you want advice or have some to give, please let me know in the comments below!

AP Psych Review

I just found out about a sweet way of doing a review for your students utilizing Twitter.  Some other AP teachers are using the hashtag of appsychreview for their students, and are encouraging all other AP Psych teachers to jump on board and help out.  It's such a great way to use technology in an environment that is quick and open to all our students.  What a fantastic idea!  Thanks to whomever started it!

Why I LOVE my LMS (in particular Haiku!)

I've been using Haiku LMS for a few years now, and with the implementation of our 1:1 initiative with Chromebooks, it has been in high gear usage now not just for me, but across our district.  Students are becoming increasingly aware of how to use the LMS and teachers are continuing to find innovative and useful ways to integrate the LMS into their workflow.

The first thing I'd like to point out is that all LMS' seem to offer a lot and I don't have much experience using other systems.  My post is not to compare systems, but to offer up what I've experienced using this system and the strengths and weaknesses that I have found in my long usage.  I point this out because I've seen a lot of compare/contrast LMS posts all over the net for the last few years, and this is not one of those.  I'll let others debate the pluses and minuses while I simply drive this one!

I started using Haiku LMS because another teacher in my district had built a very basic website for her class, and being hyper-competitive, I couldn't let her have a system in place which I did not have.  Also, the idea that my students would have access to materials for class 24/7 was simply way too great to pass up.  What I found out in the process of creating my first class was that things were going to be a lot cooler than I initially thought.  

Here's what I've learned generally about using a LMS.

• A blended environment is awesome for any class.  As my students first accessed the class, I started to realize that by using a LMS I could communicate with my students in a way that I had never thought possible before.  Although my students did not have constant computer access at first like today, it started to fundamentally change the way I thought about delivering content and organizing my class.
• Not having a LMS is a detriment to students.  Any student should have access to their class materials at all times in the year of 2013.  I realize that for many districts there might be a feeling that "we're just not ready" to get that far.  My reply is that if your teachers have internet access and a computer, every class should have an online component in 2013.
• A LMS helps you teach better and be more organized.  Seeing a unit/chapter/concept laid out visually with supporting materials for each piece helps you see your class from a student perspective.  It is easy to identify what sections/concepts you have a lot of support/materials for, and others that you've simply glossed over or haven't given due diligence to or perhaps don't find that important to spend a lot of time on.
• A LMS makes year to year changes expected and easier to do.  After that first year of diligently adding materials and resources, the next year everything is in its place and ready to go.  You also realize that perhaps that unit could use some better resources or be reminded that the unit didn't go as expected and change gears completely.  
• (Haiku makes changing resources and pages extremely easy, so it's fun and quick to do)

There are many more reasons a LMS is necessary and great, but this post is already getting pretty long, so I'm moving on to: 

Here's what I've learned about using Haiku specifically.

• Making/grading assessments is fantastic.
• Multiple choice/fill in the blank/etc. tests are simple to make, upload, and grade in Haiku.  Although as my idea of what teaching has been changing a lot over the last few years, the immediate reports of student work and check ins that I can do with Haiku have revolutionized the way I do tests.  I teach AP Psychology and having the students complete the multiple choice tests for this class in Haiku has allowed me to analyze what my kids know in ways that simply were not possible previously.
• For teachers who worry that the kids "will cheat", Haiku offers multiple options for restricting access and control over the test taking environment, like restricted browser settings and password protected exams.  Also, time limits can be imposed on tests so that they only get a certain amount of time and the tests are only open from 8am on Monday until 3 pm that same day, etc.
• Another feature I love is that even if a student has tech difficulty, it's no problem to close a test, do a quick reboot, and start right where they left off when things got wonky.
• Ease of creation and editing.
• Haiku is truly WYSIWYG.  Over the years Haiku has consistently updated the way I can make my class look, feel, and function.  
• Page layout is as simple as two clicks of a mouse.  Color management for links, background and style are now built into the system.  Adding/deleting pages is a snap, as well as movement of pages within the framework of the course are all very intuitive.  
• Welcome to EdTech!  Otherwise known as Embed the Web
• Haiku was the door that opened my eyes to all the different services and web based tools I currently use for teaching.  When I first started using Haiku, I had no idea most if any of the educational tools that were available back then even existed.  While the ecosystem has grown exponentially, Haiku has kept up and offers newbies the chance to really get their feet wet with EdTech!
• Here's an example: When you add content to your site, there is this little button that reads "Embed the Web".  The first time I clicked on that the scales fell from my eyes and my teaching began to be revolutionized.  Through this portal I was introduced to chat rooms, online document creation and sharing (THANK YOU SO MUCH HAIKU) in the form of a very limited but mind blowing thing called Google Docs.  Not only did I find so many resources, Haiku actually has tutorials that will walk you through the process of getting started and using these services on your website.  It's super easy and so empowering.  I highly recommend that any new adventurer try this feature as early as possible.
• Share and collaborate.
• Haiku relatively recently created a shared resource library where now anyone can share their class, resources, etc. with other teachers in course alikes, departments, district wide, and anyone that is using Haiku.  No longer do you have to dig through someones file cabinet like I used to do to find that cool article someone used last year.
• Haiku people.
• The folks that run Haiku are beyond awesome.  I've got to know at least one member of Haiku personally and feel like the rest of the gang are personal friends.  The level of service and encouragement I've got from Haiku has been exceptional and I know from others that use Haiku it's the same way for them.

I'm leaving out a ton of stuff, but since I can barely get through this blog post myself, I guess I'll just have to do more posts in the future about other specific items I've grown to love about MY LMS.  (Yes, I feel like Haiku sort of belongs to me:-)

I'd love to hear about other users of Haiku or other LMS services and what they think about how they have affected them and their teaching in the comments section.  Thanks for stopping by!

Collecting Digital Work w/Drive

Many of us here in Fond du Lac have been using Forms to collect work all year.  Here is a link that Liz Severson and I use to collect work for our AP Psychology classes combined.  We simply use the filtering to narrow down the inputs for each student or each class that we have.  This gets a bit bulky as well, but much cleaner and organized than individual folders.  The only issue here is how do you want the students to share the doc?  We've chosen anyone with the link can edit.  But there is still a lot of confusion or lack of ability with our students in doing this correctly.  There is also the confusion over multiple domains, as our students are fondystudents.org and the teachers are fonddulac.k12.wi.us.  So when the students share, they put their sharing in as anyone in the District, which is actually wrong because technically the teachers are not in "their" district.  However, it's getting much better with time, and with repetition it has become seamless.

I haven't tried out the GClassFolders script yet, although I'm not sure I will like having individual folders for each student.  It seems like there would be too many clicks to go through for each assignment.  Using the form method, each assignment is in one spreadsheet, making it very manageable to grade.  We also could have students add their e-mail addresses, and then run the Doctupus script to automatically hand back grades and comments.  I think an entire blog post about Doctupus is in order to explain why I LOVE that script.

How is everyone else collecting work with Drive?