#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

Now that I'm back from TCEA 2017 and have had a little time to process what I've learned, it's time to share my favorite finds. {If you attended the conference, I'd love to know about your "favorite finds!"}

Here are my favorite finds from #TCEA17:

1. Create Cartoons/Avatars in Google Drawings or Microsoft PowerPoint -- Kristy Edgar is a middle school teacher who creates cartoon videos to spice up her American History lessons (here's an example called "American Revolution, ep. 2: Allies are Friends"). She creates characters using basic, 2D geometric shapes and then uploads her final products to her YouTube channel. Not only could this be a fun addition to your instruction, but it could also be nice for students to make their own characters to review geometric shapes and show their learning in a creative, "techy" way. Click here for her full presentation.

2. Symbaloo Lesson Plans -- This hidden feature of Symbaloo allows teachers to find structured, media-rich lesson plans in the marketplace or create their own. The resulting plan looks similar to a board game with text instructions, web pages, search bars, web articles, videos, math formulas, and/or embedded content sprinkled inside. Teachers can even customize the board so it forces learners to go on a specific path based on their answers. (Click here to see an example lesson plan about the solar system.)

Teachers need a free Symbaloo account (or upgrade to the Edu version for free) in order to create or assign lessons, but students don't have to log in at all, which makes this tool perfect for everyone -- including young learners without an e-mail address. When students start a Symbaloo assignment, it prompts them to enter their name and the assignment number. Then the teacher can easily track data -- including results, when assignments were started, how long they took to complete and/or how far each student was able to progress in the assignment, questions answers correctly vs. incorrectly, and more.

Click here for the Symbaloo Lesson Plan Manual, or click here for a quick YouTube video overview.

3. Photos for Class -- Part of practicing good digital citizenship is making sure we use only images we have permission to use online and in presentations. Teachers and students can always conduct advanced Google Image searches to filter pictures based on rights...or we can use websites that make the process a little easier. For instance, Tony Vincent tweeted about PhotosForClass.com, which allows users to search for copyright-friendly photos that are already watermarked with a citation when downloaded:

🔍 Need photos for a project? Trying searching https://t.co/1yZP46IQQ6!#ArcadiaSUSD #tcea17 pic.twitter.com/JL9Jh1GPFp

— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) February 8, 2017

To access over 500 TCEA session handouts, click here. You can also follow along on Twitter by searching for #TCEA17 to read everyone's tweets. 

Let's Recap

Have you heard about Recap? It's a relatively new tool that has some great features! In a nutshell, Recap is a completely free assessment resource {available on the web or through an iPad app} that lets students respond to the teachers' questions or prompts via video.

Website | iPad App

With recap, teachers can...

• create questions that are typed or voice-recorded 
• choose how students will sign in: 7-digit alphabetical PIN or e-mail address/password
• add up to 10 questions in a single assignment {and, as of the newest update on April 12, teachers can now give more than one assignment to students at a time}
• give an assignment to the whole class or only certain students
• set a max response time to make grading faster and students' answers more precise
• set a due date for assignments
• add a poll at the end of an assignment that asks students how well they think they understood the material
• view individual student information or the entire class's responses as a whole
• grab the link to an individual video to share with others (e.g. parents, admin, your co-teacher, and/or social media)
• leave written feedback/commentary on student videos 

The view is super-simple from the students' side. Learners indicate that they are a student on the login screen:

Students can sign in with a class PIN or an e-mail address {whichever option the teacher enabled when he/she set up the class}:

If signing in with a PIN, the child must then select his/her name from the class list before seeing any assignments:

The student dashboard allows learners to see previously submitted assignments as well as those that have not yet been completed. The dashboard is also where students can view feedback from their teacher on submitted assignments. {Note that students cannot see other students' assignments or answers.} Here's an example of what the dashboard might look like for your students:

Don't you love that confused look on my face in the screenshot? haha! 

This video -- filmed by EdTechTeacher's Greg Kuloweic -- shows you Recap in action from both the teacher and the student side {but keep in mind that a couple of features have been added since this video was released}:

 

I already use Seesaw...should I still consider Recap?

While there are similarities between Seesaw and Recap, it's important to recognize that these are two completely different resources. Recap is strictly for assessing students via video (and follow-up poll if the teacher enables it), while Seesaw is more of an ePortfolio tool that happens to have a video feature, too. If you are a Seesaw user, you may still consider incorporating Recap for the opportunity to differentiate questions and/or allow students to turn in video responses confidentially. 

To integrate Recap with Seesaw on iPads, first make sure the Recap app is on all student devices. Then push a note in Seesaw to the entire class with the login information (e.g. 7-digit PIN if students are without e-mail addresses), as shown below.

Seesaw user tip: create a folder just for login information

While students cannot copy the PIN from the Seesaw note directly into the Recap app, this at least provides a consistent place for students to find login information independently. 

Resources:

• Recap Helpdesk
• Recap Teacher Resources

Chrome Extension: Turn Off the Lights

If you show clips from places like YouTube or Vimeo in class, the Turn Off the Lights Chrome extension helps you go from this display:

I love Kid President! Here's the link to the video shown above, titled "20 Things We Should Say More Often."

to this display:

notice the entire screen is blacked out instead of just the background behind the video... and I have a lovely mint green glow around the vid

Basically, this extension helps you hide ads and other video suggestions by fading the background so students can really focus on the video. {Oh, yeah: it's free, too!}

Install the Turn Off the Lights Extension

1. Make sure you have a Google account. {If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, you have a Google account. It's possible to connect an existing e-mail -- like your school e-mail -- to a Google account; ask me about that if you're interested in learning more! I definitely recommend separating personal from professional, so if you only have a personal Google account, I'd make another one specifically for school.}

2. Launch Google Chrome {download it here if you don't already have it}.

3. Sign in to your Google account on Chrome. {Click the small silhouette of a person in the top, right corner to sign in for the first time.}

4. Click here to view the Turn Off the Lights extension. To install it, click the blue "add to Chrome" button in the top, right corner of the pop-up box. 

Quick Start Guide

When you're about to play a video, the light bulb icon will appear in your omnibox {the place where you type the URL to a website}:

Just click the light bulb to activate the Turn Off the Lights extension. When you're finished playing the video, click the light bulb icon again to turn off the TOTL features. 

Here is the welcome guide. Click "let's discover its amazing features" to walk through the welcome guide and view all the abilities and customization options. 

Note: if the light bulb icon does not appear in your omnibox, you are probably not viewing a video that is compatible with TOTL.

Customization Ideas

There are lots of ways you can customize Turn Off the Lights {the welcome guide shows you the basic options in more detail}. I utilize a few basic options that just make my viewing experience a little better. Below is how I customize -- not a complete list! {Click here to customize the extension on your browser or right-click the light bulb in the omnibox and click "options"}:

In the "basics" tab:

1. I like to turn the opacity to 100. You can click the black square next to "color" to change what color your background is, if you want. If you prefer a picture instead of just a plain color, click either "background image" or "dynamic background." The dynamic backgrounds move; they're cool, but I find them a little distracting. The background images are nice, though -- my favorite is the red curtain that looks like you're in a movie theater. :)

Change the opacity, color, and/or image behind the video with these options

with a movie theater curtain in the background

2. Click "automatically dim the background when you click the play button and vice versa" to...well... that one is pretty self-explanatory. :) You can still turn the lights back on at any point in the video, but I like that this provides a little automaticity. I specifically don't check "brighten the background again when the video has ended" because I light being able to decide when the lights come back on. All teachers know that blacking out the screen is a quick way to get students' attention! 

3. Scroll all the way to the bottom of that screen and click "automatically set the YouTube player to the larger size," as seen below. I like this option because it not only automatically makes the video a bit bigger, but I think it centers the video on the screen, too. 

In the "visual effects" tab:

1. Change the glowing color that appears as an outline on the video {click "show you the atmosphere lighting effect of the current playing video" to activate this option...then adjust the color(s) to your liking by clicking on the colored squares below that}. You can see my mint green outline in the screenshots above. 

Tweet this tech tip

*Edit: I received this tweet from the Turn Out the Lights company and thought I'd pass the information along!

Thanks for your review! See no TOTL lamp button? Just refresh the page and the icon is back :-) https://t.co/fYlccWKbYt

— Turn Off the Lights (@TurnOfftheLight) January 5, 2016

Windows Problem Steps Recorder

CISD computers are automatically equipped with the "Problem Steps Recorder" program.

The Problem Steps Recorder is a pretty powerful tool that not only records your mouse, clicks, and keyboard strokes -- it also types your actions in a step-by-step list. All of this is placed into a step-by-step tutorial in pictures and in words. {This is slightly different than a screencast because it doesn't produce a video file.}

How to Use It

1. If you're on a CISD device, just click the start button and search for "steps."

2. Mine pops up under the "Control Panel" heading, as shown below. Click the program to open it. 

3. You should get the pop-up bar shown below. Move it wherever you want on the screen, as it will be visible during your recording (i.e. move it somewhere where it won't block essential information in your tutorial). 

4. Press "Start Record."

5. Do whatever you need to do during this time. {So if you're teaching students how to navigate to a certain website, complete those steps as you normally would.} The Problem Steps Recorder will work while you continue with the regularly scheduled programming. 

6. When finished, click "Stop Record." 

7. A pop-up box will appear and prompt you to save your recording. Choose the name and location, and save the tutorial. 

8. The file will appear as a zipped folder wherever you saved it. You can send the file like this if you want -- the recipient will have to unzip the file him- or herself before viewing the tutorial. {This is ideal when your instructions are quite long and/or you have a restriction on how large of file attachments you can send.} If you want to preview the file before you send it, you'll need to unzip the file yourself first. Refer to step 2 in this blog post if you need a refresher on how to unzip files on your computer. 

9. Once you open the file, you'll see a step-by-step tutorial via pictures, a step-by-step in text, and special links that allow you to review the recorded steps as a slide show {that shows each picture one by one and automatically advanced to the next picture, much like an automated PowerPoint presentation}. 

My screenshots look funny because I'm working on dual monitors at the moment. You can see me annotating over a screenshot in Skitch on the left side of the screen and writing this blog post on the right! Your computer screenshots obviously won't look like this unless you have dual monitors, too. :) 

Ideas for Use

• Show students or parents how to access a particular program or website.
• Show students how to use a program. 
• Show the technicians and/or your friendly campus Instructional Technology Specialist {wink, wink} exactly what you're doing when a problem occurs on your computer -- upload your recorded video and instructions to your work order.
• Show your mom how to work her computer {just kidding...love ya, mom!}.

Tweetable

PSR records mouse/clicks/keyboard strokes before typing step-by-step list w/ pics. 

Periscope: How and Why to Broadcast Live

A new app called Periscope is all the rage right now. This post will discuss what Periscope is, how to navigate the app, and why you might want to give it a shot. 

In a nutshell:

Periscope is a free app {available on both The App Store and Google Play Store} that allows users to broadcast a live video stream from their mobile device. 

More info:

Sign up for Periscope using either your Twitter account or your phone number. Choose your username wisely, as you're not allowed to change it!

follow me: @ckaras

Tapping the + icon on a person’s Periscope account (not shown in the screenshot above because I'm viewing my own profile) means you’ve followed them. Here are the benefits of following someone:

• you can join their public broadcasts
• their public broadcasts automatically appear in your watch tab
• you can chat during their broadcasts
• they can invite you to see other peoples’ broadcasts
• they can invite you to see their private broadcasts

Click the TV icon (called "the watch tab") in the bottom, left corner to see broadcasts from people you're following. As you can see in my screenshot below, I only had one recent broadcast (recent = within the last 24 hours), and none of the people I follow were live. 

Notice that live broadcasts are at the top of the screen. Public broadcasts that are no longer live but are less than 24 hours old are shown under the "recent" section. After 24 hours, old broadcasts expire and cannot be found on the app anymore. (Although it's important to note: nothing ever really disappears on the internet...)

If you think you'll want to share your personal broadcasts after 24 hours, go into the settings and click "autosave broadcasts" (shown in the screenshot below). This automatically saves your videos to your device, and then you can share them via e-mail, Dropbox, etc.

Find your settings by clicking on the farthest icon to the right -- the people silhouette -- and then the single person silhouette in the top, right. Scroll down and click on "settings." 

After the initial 24 hours are up and a broadcast disappears, a summary of the video (title, date, time, and location if the you chose to share it) is still displayed on the your profile, although you can delete it if you want. 

The map section (accessed by touching the world icon on the bottom of the screen) lets you look for live broadcasts around the world:

Note: the public can only see a user's location if the user has chosen to share it. Toggle whether or not location is shared by tapping the compass icon.

The camera icon (bottom of the screen) takes you to a screen that looks like the one below, and then you're ready to broadcast. 

I have yet to create my first broadcast, so I'm not entirely sure of this process yet. I assume the triangle icon on the left activates your location, the lock icon lets you toggle between a public and a private broadcast, and the Twitter bird lets you share your broadcast on your Twitter profile. I have no idea what that 3rd icon from the left does...if you know, please leave a comment so I can know, too! :) I'm going to try to go live at EdCampIT in Highland Park on Monday, July 20, so maybe I'll have an update about this section after that! 

If you mark your broadcast as live, anyone with the link can watch it. (Lots of people send their broadcast link out via Twitter.) People are able to watch your broadcasts from the web, but they can't comment or send hearts on your video. All broadcasts are, by default, public.

From what I've experienced through watching others' broadcasts, viewers from the app can comment on a video, and everyone -- including the owner of the video -- can see your comments. Viewers from the app can also send hearts, which is the Periscope equivalent to the Facebook "like."

If your broadcast is public, your followers get a notification that you are live, anyone can view the broadcast from the Watch Tab, and anyone can chat on your broadcast or send hearts. 

If you mark your broadcast as private, you have to select which of your followers you'd like to see the video. 

Ways to Use Periscope in the Classroom

The most obvious answer is that this can be a window into your classroom for parents -- particularly for those that have to work and/or can't make it to a class event. Here are some things you could broadcast:

1. Student presentations
2. A musical or play
3. Talent show acts
4. Parts of a sporting event
5. "Back to school/Meet the teacher" spiel (have a colleague stand in the audience and film you. If a parent has to work, he/she could catch your Periscope broadcast for 24 hours after open house, OR you could post the video to your class website for viewing at any time)
6. Special events like parties, parades, Jump Rope for Heart, etc. 

You could also broadcast yourself teaching a lesson (to help parents help their kids with homework) or part of a faculty meeting (as a "behind the scenes" type of thing). 

EDpuzzle

If you ever like to show videos in your class, you may love this resource! It's called EdPuzzle.

With EDpuzzle, you can search through a variety of video streaming websites {or upload your own} and customize the video so it fits perfectly with your class. 

You'll need to sign up for an account before you can do any creating, but it's free and easy to do so. The kids don't need an account unless you'd like to track their views and answers, but EDpuzzle allows kids to sign up with their Edmodo account, which is perfect for those elementary kiddos that don't yet have an e-mail address. 

You can always search for already-made videos, but if you're looking to customize your own, just click the "create" button at the top of your screen {once you've logged in}. 

From there, search through a variety of video channels to find the perfect one to edit {or upload your own video}. 

Now it's time to edit. If you want to crop the video, you can do that first. 

Press the next button to have the microphone light up.

This is where you get to add voice-over to the video. This feature allows you to add your voice over the entire video. The way I understand it, you'd actually be talking while the video is playing, so if the video has useful narration or dialogue, this feature might actually have the opposite intended effect. However, you could voice-over a video with no talking, I suppose.

Click next when you're finished. {You can skip any of these steps by clicking "next" without making any changes.} You'll light up the speaker button.

This feature also utilizes your voice, but this time, you can only add comments. So the video will play until it reaches a comment you've inserted. The video will pause, play your comment, and then resume playing the video. I like this much better than the voice-over feature because it doesn't take anything away from the video. 

Click "next" to get to the quiz portion. 

You can add open ended questions, multiple choice questions, and/or comments anywhere you'd like. It works the same way the voice comments work, in that the video plays until it gets to a question, pauses, shows the question, and resumes only when the question has been answered. 

You can add more than 1 question in each spot if you like. 

When you're finished, you name your video and decide if you want to assign it to a class or not. Assigning it to a class means that all students who are registered for that class {signed up for the website and joined your class with a special code} will see the video as an assignment. You'd be able to see if/when the student watched the video and what answers he/she wrote on the quiz. If you don't assign the video, you can still play it in class, but you obviously won't have individual results. 

You can edit the video at any time, copy it to make something similar, delete, or embed it onto your website. Here's what it looks like embedded:

So far, I am loving EDpuzzle and can't wait to see how it works in my class. 

SafeShare for YouTube

Our district allowed YouTube access to our employees last spring -- hooray!

But with this new freedom comes great responsibility. We know that YouTube has all kinds of advertisements floating around their site. We also know that there is a list of "related videos" on the sidebar that may or may not be appropriate for the kids to see. 

The good news is, there is a website that allows you to block all the other junk on YouTube and just show the video you want to share. It's called SafeShare.

Features

• Free. No need to sign up for an account.
• Insert the link to any YouTube video into the box above the "generate safe link" button. Click the green button to view the video with a black box around it -- which blocks all the extra {and sometimes inappropriate} stuff that YouTube normally has next to and around the video. 
• Crop the video to whichever starting and stopping points you prefer. 
• Share the cropped/safe video via e-mail or on social media. 
• The link to your safe video never expires, so you can put it on assignments and class websites without worry.

Example:

Take this video, for instance: 

When we watch it on my blog, we get rid of all the weird links that are featured on the side. Here's how the video's page looks when you watch it on YouTube:

Er... video suggestions #5 and 6 don't look like anything I'd like to share with my students. So let's put the link into the SafeShare.tv website and see what happens.

First, I put the link into the box, and then I click the big, green button. 

The bottom half of the picture above appears underneath the green button after you click it. 

Clicking on "customize video" gives you these options:

You can change the name of the video by editing the words in the top text box.

To change the "theme" of the video -- the background color of the box around your video, basically -- click on the black box. You see these options:

Not a lot of theme options, but the black works just fine for my class, so I always just leave it there. 

If you need to crop the video, click the word "full" and see a pop-up screen similar to this:

To set a starting point, play the video, and click "beginning" whenever you're at the part of the video you want to show first. 

To set an end time, just play the video and click "end" whenever you want. If you click "OK," these settings will be saved, and the video will be cropped appropriately in the SafeShare.tv link. 

Once you're satisfied, click "take me to the safe view."

I did crop this picture a little bit so you could see the smaller words on the bottom more easily, but rest assured that the rest of the screen is that dark grey/light black color -- no inappropriately suggested videos on the side anymore! 

By utilizing the links right underneath the video, you can download the video to your computer (with the appropriate crops still applied), save the video by bookmarking it on your computer, or share it in a plethora or ways:

You can even scroll down on that page to view more share options; I haven't even heard of some of those websites! 

The good news, though, is that if you choose to save the link anywhere -- in your e-mail, on your Symbaloo account, bookmarked in your browser, whatever -- you can always go back to that exact video, as long as the original poster on YouTube doesn't remove their content. 

SafeShare even has an app available in the iTunes store. On the app's description page, it shows these two pictures to give you a glimpse of how SafeShare works:

This could come in handy if you use an iPad or two for stations; you could rest assured that students are seeing only the content you want them to see. 

Anyway. That's how I can confidently show YouTube videos in my classroom. It's so much easier than downloading a video at home and transferring it through my Dropbox account to school every time I want to show something!