Using Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is a free web-based tool that allows you to create social media graphics, web stories and animated video slide shows.

Use the Inspiration Gallery to get ideas, and create your own using templates or building from scratch.  Use images you already have on your computer, photo sharing side or get creative commons images direct from Adobe.  Modify as you go, in real time, add music and narration to your animated video slides to create the perfect digital story!

Your finished product is an MP4 which means it can be viewed on a lot of different devices.  There is no download required, it is stored on Adobe's server, but can also store a copy on your computer.  Use the "Post" "Page" or "Video" type to create your Spark!



INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Compare/Contrast, Collaboration, Demonstration, Brainstorming  

Bloom's Level: 1-5 (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing and Evaluating)


- Clarify thinking
- Organization
- Collaboration
- Project management
- Classify ideas
- Explain meaning
- Graphic organizer
- Digital storytelling
- Reflective judgment (Affective Learning)
- Highlight similarities and differences (which shows student has a deeper understanding that goes beyond surface level)
- Form generalizations based on categorized items - BYOD ideas - Visualization

Google Forms - NEW and Improved!

Google Forms is the latest Google App to be updated!  Google makes changes to its line of applications on a regular basis, some without a lot of fanfare - you just open the app and find it looks different than it did the last time you were there.






Google Forms is the latest Google App capable of a number of different things!  You can do a survey, create an invitation, gather data, and build a quiz.

This tutorial focuses on the new look to the Google Forms app by providing a walk through of building a survey, while identifying the various tool bar accessories of the platform.

To learn more about Google Forms and functionality, see the other tutorials in this guide.

Trello: A great free web-based tool for organizing, project management, and collaboration activities!

Trello is a free web-based application which allows one person or a team of collaborators to organize information, keep track of a workflow using project management skills, and share some or all of the work with other collaborators.

Use Trello to individually or in a team, develop the workflow for a project.  Create the activities, due dates, areas of responsibility, people responsible, resources required, etc. - needed in the workflow for project management.  Share with others outside, or just with members of your team.  She your entire project in a single glance.  Get a summary or a detailed look of all activities, due dates, and status toward completion.

Sync across devices (there is an app for iOS and Android devices)!



INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Compare/Contrast, Collaboration, Demonstration, Brainstorming

Bloom's Level: 1-5  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing and Evaluating)

- Clarify thinking
- Organization
- Collaboration
- Project management
- Classify ideas
- Explain meaning
- Graphic organizer
- Digital storytelling- Reflective judgment (Affective Learning)
- Highlight similarities and differences (which shows student has a deeper understanding that goes beyond surface level)

- Form generalizations based on categorized items

- BYOD ideas

- Visualization

Twiddla - collaborative interactive whiteboard

Twiddla is an interactive whiteboard with the ability to do collaborative activities in the classroom.

You can mark up and collaborate on webpages, Microsoft Office documents or images.  Or, you can start with a blank canvas and collaborate together to create or communicate something. This is a real-time based collaboration interactive whiteboard.  Use this in class, face-to-face or in a synchronous component of a distance learning situation, to allow students the ability to collaborate in real-time.




INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Compare/Contrast, Collaboration, Demonstration, Brainstorming

Bloom's Level: 1-4  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, and Analyzing)

- Clarify thinking
- Classify ideas
- Explain meaning
- Graphic organizer
- Digital storytelling- Reflective judgment (Affective Learning)
- Highlight similarities and differences (which shows student has a deeper understanding that goes beyond surface level)

- Form generalizations based on categorized items

- BYOD ideas

VoiceThread - web based voice over tool for images and videos.

Improve your presentations beyond just text.  Improve a PowerPoint presentation by adding voice and video, along with text components to it.  Add to an image or video with additional content to set it apart from strictly static graphics.  Access to third party sources (i.e. Khan Academy, Flickr, etc.) to use in your own presentations is as easy as a click away!



INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Didactic Questioning, Critical Thinking, Lecture, Reflection, Presenting, Digital Storytelling, Demonstration of process workflow

Bloom's Level: 1-4  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, and Analyzing)

- Flipped Classroom
- Blended Learning
- Learner centered
- Reflection
- Live discussion
- BYOD uses
- Presentation enhancement

Formative: free app used for live audience response and formative assessment

Formative, is a free, live (real-time) formative assessment tool which can be great for formative assessment activities.

The instructor creates a digital classroom, and placed one or more assignment that can contain content, activities, interactions and formative assessments.  The students view the instructor's screen on their devices, and move through the assignment at their own pace.  

Access this application at GoFormative.com to create your account and get started!

The instructor can create multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and "show me" (demonstration) type questions; can add content and add documents which require the students to interact right on the document.  All this information is captured, auto graded or manual graded, depending on the instructor needs.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Didactic Questioning, Critical Thinking, Lecture, Presenting, Evaluation, Interaction

Bloom's Level: 2-5  (Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating)

Formative is a free, real-time audience interactive response system.  It is a web-based tool which means students can access from a smartphone, tablet, or computer.  A great way to keep students engaged, check for understanding, have students interact with images, graphs, charts, etc. - as well as provide a anxiety-free forum for live interaction in the class as content is being explained.

-Flipped classroom

-Blended Learning

-BYOD ideas

-Formative assessment

-Live discussion

Other similar apps:

Socrative
Go Soap Box

FlipQuiz

New Google Hangouts!

Google Hangouts and Hangouts on Air!  See what is new!

Periodically Google updates certain apps.  There often is not a lot of fanfare or communication from them, you just notice some changes.  There are a number of people beginning to use Google Hangouts, and with a change to starting one - I wanted to create another tutorial to show the changes!





Instructional Strategy: Explicit Teaching, Collaboration, Group Learning, Demonstration

Bloom's Level = 3, 4 (Application, Analysis)

Used when introducing new topic/concept in a highly structured environment Focused on producing specific learning outcomes

Consists of 4 parts:
-Set the stage for learning
-Provide a clear explanation of what to do
-Model the process/skill
-Allow students multiple opportunities to practice new skill
Information is delivered in a procedural-like manner; a checklist of actions broken into fragments (this will assist with the understanding of the topic/concept by enabling learners to visualize and practice the new topic/concept)
Student builds an understanding of topics from the ground up through practice, collaboration, repetition and hands-on activities
Be transparent, explain in detail “how” and “why”
Give students the foundation necessary to understand, visualize and demonstrate skills

Other Technology that Facilitates Explicit Teaching Writing/Presenting Tools
Blackboard Discussion Board
Padlet
Prezi
Educreations
Collaborating
Google Drive (ability to accumulate information and share, collaborate)
Google Hangout (ability to communicate, collaborate)
Screencasting/PresentingCreating
Screencast-o-matic
Doceri
Google Sites
Weebly
Wix
iMovie
PowToon
Animoto

Nearpod: Interactive Lesson Creator

Nearpod is a free web-based interactive presentation tool.  Students can participate on any device: PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone!  There is no download required for students, just an individual access code the instructor shares.   

The instructor creates a presentation that can contain content, activities, interactions and formative assessments.  The students view the instructor's screen on their devices, and in some cases can move through the presentation at their own pace.  Other presentations can be imported into Nearpod to build a powerful learning experience.  Images, videos, polls, quizzes and drawing tools are some of the activities possible with this app.






INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Didactic Questioning, Critical Thinking, Lecture, Reflection, Presenting

Bloom's Level: 1-5  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating)

Nearpod is a free, web-based platform for creating presentations with interaction and formative assessment pieces that can be presented live.  You can use a presentation your build yourself or one you import - starting with PowerPoint or Keynote slides.   

Students can access your completed Nearpod on smartphones, laptops or tablets and you can determine whether students can see the responses of everyone live, or let everyone respond and you can then share the results.

- Flipped Classroom
- Blended Learning
- Formative Assessment
- Learner centered
- Reflection
- Live discussion
- BYOD uses

Using Pear Deck to engage your audience

Pear Deck allows you to build or use existing slide presentations to engage your students with the content.  You can embed interactions for formative assessment purposes, and reuse these presentations for that same course again, without starting over.





INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Didactic Questioning, Critical Thinking, Lecture, Reflection, Problem-Solving

Bloom's Level: 1-5  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating)

Pear Deck is a free, web-based platform for creating presentations with formative assessment pieces that can be presented live.  You can use a presentation your build yourself or one you import - starting with PowerPoint or Google Slides, you can add various audience response slides for feedback, reflection and formative assessment purposes.

Students can access your completed Pear Deck on Smartphones, laptops or tablets and you can determine whether students can see the responses of everyone live, or let everyone respond and you can then share the results.

- Flipped Classroom
- Blended Learning
- Formative Assessment
- Reflection
- Live discussion
- BYOD uses

Go Soap Box: Audience Response System; great for formative assessment

Go Soap Box is a web-based platform for an audience response system (i.e. "clickers") with some nice built in features for not only formative assessment quizzes, but polling, discussion board, and a platform for social media (back channeling).

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Didactic Questioning, Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, Lecture, Reflection

Bloom's Level: 1-5  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating)

Go Soap Box is a free, real-time audience interactive response system.  It is a web-based tool which means students can access from a smartphone, tablet, or computer.  A great way to keep students engaged, check for understanding, as well as provide a anxiety-free forum for live interaction in the class as content is being explained.

- Flipped Classrom

- Blended Learning

- Formative Assessment

- Live discussion

- Back channeling

- BYOD uses

FlipQuiz: a quick and easy way to create gameshow-style quizzes for review or formative assessment

FlipQuiz is a free web 2.0 tool designed to help create your own quizzes online, that can be shared in a number of different places.  In a game-based learning environment, build quizzes that can be used for reviewing content before a quiz/exam or using it as a formative assessment tool where you would count the score.  




INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Didactic Questioning, Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, Lecture

Bloom's Level: 1-6  (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating)
{depending on whether you are using it as an instructor to gauge understanding or are having students build their own}

Learn how to use FlipQuiz to create your own "game-based" quiz game (think: Jeopardy for your topic, that you build).  This can be used for review before a big quiz/exam or as a great formative assessment tool.  Instructors as well as students can use this tool to provide a way to "assess" their audience after a content presentation to gauge understanding.  To access, go to www.flipquiz.me

- Flipped Classrom
- Blended Learning
- Formative Assessment
- Maker Movement
- BYOD uses
- Game-based learning

Understanding Bloom's Digital Taxonomy 
& the SAMR model

Integrating technology in a learning environment can be a challenge.  Many want to start with the specific technology instead of the goal of the lesson.  This can make implementation difficult and you may not attain the goal of the lesson.  Dr. Reuben Puentedura developed the SAMR model that shows how to integrate technology into the educational lesson.

SAMR Model (click here to launch the video)

The SAMR model is a process for infusing technology into teaching and learning. 

Substitution 
Augmentation 
Modification 
Redefinition

Learn when, how, and what type of technology integration is possible for your learning goal, your level of technology understanding and that of your students.

Understanding Bloom's Taxonomy and Digital Bloom's

Benjamin Bloom and his team developed a framework to perform higher order thinking in education.  It has been modified to include the use of technology in the learning environment.



Bloom’s is and has been used throughout Baker College for years. Bloom’s is referenced in the Tier professional development modules. As you know, Bloom’s Taxonomy is a key tool used in education to determine appropriate levels of knowledge. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy encompasses the knowledge levels, expanded with verbs describing how one uses technology. BYOD is about using tools to achieve your desired level of Bloom’s. The most important factor is to determine, “What is your goal?” Once you have a clear goal or outcome, you can determine a strategy to fully support that goal. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy is not about the tools or technologies, it’s about using these tools to facilitate learning. Technology is a tool used to support and enhance learning. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy provides a method to deliberately and intentionally integrate technology to support learning. Technology is aligned to the levels of knowledge. It provides detail for types of technologies at each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Ed Puzzle: customize your video clips

Ed Puzzle is an easy way to find a video and customize it - it is a video mashup builder. You can crop just the portion you want, include audio notes, and build quizzes right inside the video!  This can be done on videos you create or ones you find.




INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES: Concept formation, Compare/Contrast, Reflection, Digital Storytelling, Creating, Lecture

Bloom's Level 3-6 (Application, Analyze, Evaluate, Create)

-Flipped Classroom
-Blended Learning
-Formative Assessment
-Maker Movement
-Creativity
-Innovation
-BYOD uses

Learn how to use Ed Puzzle to search for great videos by subject, from some well respected sources like Khan Academy and TED. Both instructors and students can use this tool to create video mashups.  You can crop a video to be just the length you need it.  You can eliminate all audio and do the narration yourself.  Audio notes can be added which causes the video to pause while you explain your information to the viewer, and the same can be said for quizzes added throughout the mashup.

Padlet: digital bulletin board

Padlet is a free web-based and mobile device app for creating, sharing and collaborating on a digital bulletin board.




INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY: Reflection, Compare/Contrast, Concept Formation, Brainstorming Bloom's Level = 3+ (application, analysis)

- Digital Storytelling
- Reflective judgment (Affective Learning)
- Topic summary
- Note taking
- Bookmark favorite links
- Entrance/Exit tickets
- Collaboration
- Brainstorming
- Back channel for discussions
- Compare/contrast
- Collect feedback

Edshelf: digital repository for ed tech apps

Edshelf is a website that functions as a learning community as well as a repository for educational technology apps (web-based and mobile-device based) used by teachers.  





Edshelf has collections of apps by subject matter and teaching strategies. 
These "shelves" contain reviews and recommendations for teachers to use. They can also build their own custom "shelf" of apps they find that they would like to come back to, time and time again. You can search by device usage, category, level of rigor, find free tools, and specific task (screensharing, assessment, presentations, etc.).

Microsoft Office Mix - PowerPoint add-in Part II (adding a quiz or poll)

Microsoft Office Mix
This is an add-in to PowerPoint 2013 for Windows PCs (currently no release for Mac).

This tutorial is Part II (please watch Part I which is an Office Mix overview, if you haven't done so), which shows how to engage your audience by placing live quizzes or polls inside slides.

Other tutorials will be part of the Office Mix lesson, so if you are looking for ways to use other tools, please review those.






You are probably very comfortable using PowerPoint as an instructor so this add-in-tool increases functionality of what you do with publisher created presentations or ones you create yourself.

-Great for flipped classroom activities
-Use for formative assessment experiences
-Create dynamic multimedia presentations
-Build interactive lessons and learning experiences
-Can help facilitate blended learning courses

Microsoft Office Mix - help guide

Editing and Enhancing your videos stored in YouTube for class

YouTube has a wide variety of videos available for your use.  It also has a great basic video editor that you can use on videos you find and stitch together or videos you have creating yourself.  Also, once the videos are in your YouTube account you have various enhancements available to consider.

This is Part III of a three part series on these tools.  Instructors and students can use this tool.






Bloom's Level 3-6 (Application, Analyze, Evaluate, Create)

-Flipped Classroom
-Blended Learning
-Maker movement
-Creativity
-Innovation
-BYOD uses
-Formative assessment

Learn how to use YouTube to search for great Creative Commons videos by subject, for your programs and courses, and then use the YouTube Editor to modify videos for your specific needs.  Also, you can use YouTube for some additional enhancements, annotations and other things when you want to be creative with your videos.

Editing your videos with YouTube Editor

YouTube has a wide variety of videos available for your use.  It also has a great basic video editor that you can use on videos you find and stitch together or videos you have creating yourself.

This is Part II of a three part series on these tools.  Instructors and students can use this tool.







Bloom's Level 3-6 (Application, Analyze, Evaluate, Create)

-Flipped Classroom
-Blended Learning
-Maker movement
-Creativity
-Innovation
-BYOD uses

Learn how to use You Tube to search for great Creative Commons videos by subject, for your concepts, courses and programs, and then use the YouTube Editor to modify videos for your specific needs.  You can start the search in You Tube and access the editor or go right to the You Tube Editor (youtube.com/editor).

This is a Part II of using the YouTube editor to easily modify videos you find or create. The Part III of this tutorial will show you some annotations and enhancements of your videos to specialize them for your purposes.

Finding Videos for your classes using YouTube

YouTube has a large library of videos!

This is Part I of a three part series on these tools.  Tool can be used by instructor or student.



Bloom's Level 3-6 (Application, Analyze, Evaluate, Create)

-Flipped Classroom
-Blended Learning
-Maker movement
-Creativity
-Innovation
-BYOD uses

Learn how to use You Tube (and the You Tube Editor) to search for great Creative Commons videos by subject, for your concepts, courses and programs.

This is a Part I of using the YouTube editor to easily access videos by searching.  The Part II of this tutorial will show you how to edit videos you locate this way, as well as those you create yourself and upload to your YouTube account (youtube.com/editor).  The Part III will show you some annotations and enhancements of your videos (youtube.com/editor).