Everything you ever wanted to know about technology (and probably more) at All Saints Academy consolidated into a monthly post. Feel free to post any questions you have.
On a chromebook, access Accessibility settings by clicking the time, then Accessibility.
I recently fielded a couple of requests for information on Chromebook accessibility tools that students can access. I've included several resources in the Tips and Tutorials section. There are numerous settings natively available on a chromebook to assist students with any kind of a disability. Another question I was asked was whether or not students are just playing around when they turn on the accessibility settings. That's really a question that only a frank conversation with the child will answer. Best practice from a Google administrator standpoint is to set all accessibility settings to allow each user to decide which settings to turn on. This is so there are no barriers for students if they need accommodations. Of course some students will play with these settings and they may be a distraction - especially the ChromeVox setting which reads everything on the screen out loud. This behavior should be considered in the same way any other classroom disruption issue would be handled - in other words, it's a behavior concern not a technology issue. Take a look at the accessibility info below, both for insight in helping your students, as well to familiarize yourself with the settings to turn them off if things go awry. Perhaps taking some time in class to teach students about the settings and allowing them some time to test them out will help alleviate the disruptions from students who are curious and accidentally turn settings on at inconvenient times. That being said, teachers definitely know better than I do how to effectively manage your classrooms.
Please take a moment to read this article and immediately delete any toll scam texts you receive. Even better, mark the message as spam and block it, and then delete it. I've been receiving these texts for the past month or so. As always - NEVER click links in any text message you receive from a business or government entity - go to their official website and check the legitimacy of the message there.
Fake purchase notifications are being used to trick people into downloading malware. As always, when confronted with an alarming email, call or text, never click on links, but rather open the company's website and check things from there.
Did you know you can remove your personal information from Google Search? If someone searches for you, it will limit the info they find. Now it's even easier.
In Google Drive, we are now able to limit access to both files and folders in Shared Drives and My Drive. When access is limited, the user will see the file or folder, but will not be able to open it, or their access will be limited, depending on how you've set their access. For example, if you have a file or folder that has been shared with others or a group and you've given them editing or commenting permissions, but you'd like to change the access for some of those users, you'll be able to do so using one of the two following methods.
1.Update item only: Go to your My Drive > choose a file or folder you want to limit access to for a specific user > Change the role of the specific user (e.g. from Commenter to Viewer) > click on "Update item only".
2. Limit folder access: Go to your My Drive > choose the folder you want to limit access > click the overflow menu > share > select share settings in the top right corner > click limit access to “Folder Name”.
Just a reminder, if you haven't already started getting used to the New Look in Infinite Campus, please do yourself a favor and start to do so. The current classic look will no longer be available in July - that's only 3.5 months away. There is a bit of a learning curve to it. If you put it off until the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, you will have a hard time finding everything you need when you need to start setting up your gradebook, viewing your student rosters, and checking your course standards. Learn how to turn on the new look and get used to it here. (Expand the heading to see all the text.) You must be signed in to your ASA Google account to view the page.
Pro Tips:
When trying to locate a tool you need, use the search field. Click on the magnifying glass. In the type field select Tool, then enter the name of the tool you're looking for, such as gradebook or rosters.
When using a tool you use often, click the star next to the name at the top. This will add it to your favorites menu. The favorites menu is located next to the main menu - indicated with a star at the top. This will give you a list of just the tools you use most often. You can rearrange that list by clicking Edit at the top of the list.
If you'd like to get an advanced overview of what updates we'll be seeing this Spring, there's a handy chart in this post. We will get all features indicated with a single $ or no dollar sign, as we have the Teaching & Learning upgrade. I keep lobbying for EDU Plus, but all the participating schools in the Diocese must agree on the same plan. Regarding the AI workspace plans, right now they are too cost prohibitive for us, so I don't see us adding that license anytime soon.
This video walks teachers through finding accessibility features on a student chromebook, but also what they do. He focuses on the most useful features, but also touches on the rest.
If you want to give Google Classroom a test drive, John explains how you can get up and running quickly. There are other, more robust features available in Classroom, but this will get you started. At the end of the post, there are links to instructions for more advanced features.
Hopefully you enjoyed your winter break. In spite of the very cold weather, I hope you found time to relax and enjoy the time off. Pretty cool things can happen in very cold winter weather, like blue ice, or ice eggs on the beaches of the great lakes. I recently ran across these photos from up north several years ago. Of course, these cool things are usually best enjoyed on days with no wind, or even better, from inside a warm space. Stay warm, my friends.
How can you scam yourself? By not paying attention and installing updates from an email instead of a system message on your computer, or by downloading something on a CAPTCHA page, among other ways.
If you are looking for a new math game or time filler for your K-3 students, ICT Math Games might be a good addition. It contains over 120 free educational math games for students between 5 and 8 years old. Math skills covered include numbers and place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions measurement, geometry and more. If you decide you'd like this to be an easy option for your students, please let me know and I can add it to your class's chromebook home page.
This game is recommended by Eric Curts, of Control Alt Achieve. Spokabulary is a free site that allows teachers to create custom spelling and vocabulary games from your own word lists. There is no sign in for teachers or students, so there's no need to login or provide personal info. You create the game and publish it, then provide students with a link that allows them to play six different games to practice the words, meanings, and spellings. Here is a sample link to try out some games based on Eric's Landforms Vocabulary list.
Looking for new resources and activities to teach your students about cryptology (keepting data private), AI, and online safety? Girls 4 Tech has lots of activities and resources for you to use with your class.
You probably haven't thought much about your computing style, but everyone has their own way of using a computer. Here are 8 suggestions for customizing Chrome to make it more pleasing and efficient for you.
Is it getting harder to find a file or an app you need? Are you getting nag notes from Apple or Google that you are running out of storage space? Are you unable to take more photos or add any apps you need because your phone is full? It's time to start clearing the clutter!
I ran across this tutorial demonstrating using Google AI Studio to learn how to create a pivot table with your specific data. While you may, or may not, have the need to analyze data in a pivot table (or even know what one is) this is a great example of using AI to help you complete any specific task. As you can see in the video, while AI Studio doesn't always get the steps right, you can easily correct it by asking follow up questions. I also tried this prompt in Google Gemini. It gave me step by step instructions but didn't walk me through the process they way AI Studio did. So the next time you're trying to figure out how to do something new, give AI Studio a try.
Brisk has added Boost activities for students. Learn how to use it here. Brisk is committed to student privacy and safety, so this is a safe AI tool to use with your students.
I don't know about you but my social feeds have been full of ads and pages I don't subscribe to, rather than posts by friends and pages I do subscribe to. If you are sharing this frustration, follow these steps to reset your feed algorithm.
There are some very important updates or news for you to make note of this month. First is Data Privacy Week, January 27-31. There are many helpful resources linked below to help you understand why this is so important, and how you can protect yourself. Second is the recent update to Google Forms. I learned the hard way, after sending a couple field trip permission forms and immediately receiving numerous requests for access. Turns out the responder permissions have moved to a new place in forms, (I clearly missed that update notice) and the settings do not save from one copy of a form to another. You can read about this update below as well. The third very important piece of news is that if you wish to use your Windows laptop at ASA next school year, it must be running Windows 11. Windows 10 will no longer be safe to use by October 2025, so you'll need to either upgrade it, or if it can't be upgraded you'll need to replace it. Please keep this in mind when the employee tech purchase window opens in June. See what's happening with Windows 10 below.
I know it's starting to feel like these happen every other month or so, but we really can't become complacent about the warnings. That's how our bank accounts become empty. Take a look at the article to find out how to:
Spot personalized scams aimed at getting the rest of your info
Protect others you know (think teens and the elderly)
As critical as it is to know how to prevent a hack or malicious activity on your accounts, it's just as important to know what to do if you do fall victim to a compromised site or extension. Honestly, this gave me flashbacks to last spring when I discovered my personal info had been included in three separate leaks in the span of 2 weeks. It's a lot of work to protect yourself, but it's a good feeling when it's done.
Data Privacy Week is January 27-31, 2025, because a single Data Privacy Day isn't enough when it comes to our data privacy, or digital footprints! Everything you do online contributes to the data generated about you, and is available to others. You may just throw your hands up and think it doesn't matter, but it does matter for both your online, financial, and physical safety. You can learn how to control the flow and availability of that data with this information from the National Cybersecurity Alliance.
Sarah Wood, from Kent ISD and My EdTech World blog has curated a spreadsheet full of privacy and safety checks for popular AI apps. You can view it here. Select the tool from the list (or the tabs along the bottom of the sheet) to find out if an AI tool is safe to use with your students, or safe for you to use.
Google has been on a template tear. They added new templates to Slides last month, and this month they have added 40 new templates to Docs. These pre-made pageless templates consist of several new features that make your documents visual and effective. Document tabs keep your documents organized, placeholder chips make it easy for you and your collaborators to add data, and building blocks, pre-set layouts and styles give your document a premium look and feel.To select a template, just select the Templates button at the top of a newly created Doc, or by selecting File > New from the template gallery in an open document. Full details are available here. You should be seeing this update now. Learn how to use templates in Docs here.
When sharing a Doc, we've had the option to block commenters and viewers from downloading, printing and copying the file. Now we'll be able to activate those same restrictions for everyone with whom we've shared a file. If you give someone edit permissions to a file, but add the restrictions, they will be able to copy and paste document content, but only within the document. These restrictions will allow us to prevent sensitive information from leaking. We should see this option by the end of January. To use this feature, when you are sharing a file, click Settings at the top, and uncheck the Viewers Can See The Option to Download Print and Copy box. Here are instructions for sharing files in Google Drive.
I just learned the hard way that one of these updates has moved the setting for how you make your form available to recipients. So before you send your next form and find out others can't access it, take a minute to watch this quick video.
Safer Internet Day (February 11th) is focused on empowering students to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. ConnectSafely has a host of free classroom lessons, activities and resources to encourage students to help create a better and safer internet.
You already have to use Google Sheets for field trip permissions, conference schedules, and tech inventories. Wouldn't it be helpful to feel comfortable when using it? In addition, it can help you with things like tracking student progress, tracking your classroom book library or classroom inventory, tracking student behavior, creating interactive games and activities, making pixel art with your students, and so much more.
Google Keep is my go-to note taking, list making, app. My husband and I even maintain our shared grocery list in Keep. It can be a very useful tool for you and your students.
I'm going to take a wild guess, and assume those of you who don't work during Christmas break are looking forward to not thinking about school for two weeks. You might even be counting the days or mintutes. However, if you get bored or you're looking for some PD opportunities there are several AI options listed in the News section. In addition, keep in mind Matt Miller's Ditch That Textbook Summit starting December 16th. You'll have access to over 90 on-demand webinars on various ed tech topics. There is also the Elements of AI online course that will answer all your questions about the basics of AI and how it might affect your life. Why am I pushing AI? Because it's not going away and we all need to learn how to use it, how watch for its influence on student work, not to mention it is the future we are preparing our students for. As if those aren't enough reasons, there are many AI tools designed to help teachers work smarter and save huge amounts of time! All of these PD opportunities are free, and several offer SCECHs. Even if you aren't a teacher, it's important to understand both the strengths and shortcomings of AI to help you know when (or when not) to trust it and use it. Wishing all of you a blessed and enchanting Christmas and New Year.
Most if us do at least some of our shopping online during the holidays, and many do all their shopping online. This post from the National Cybersecurity Alliance is full of good reminders for staying safe while shopping online, and not falling for any of the numerous scams. Another good resource is the Season of Light, Season of Scams: Avoiding Gift Card Fraud webinar, which features the Homeland Security Investigations group. Take care to make sure your holidays are jolly and not heartbreaking.
How can you tell if the gift cards you're giving to others haven't been drained? In most stores, gift cards are displayed so they are easily accessible. This also makes them accessible to thieves and scammers who can use the numbers and pins on the back and drain them before they're even sold.
While everyone was complaining about all the political calls and texts they were getting, I was thankful I never received any. Same goes for those phishing texts and scam calls. I get very few. Why? Because I never give out my phone number to anyone - even for those store reward programs. Your phone number is part of your personal info. Learn how to protect it and see if it's been leaked.
Nothing is more nerve wracking than see a bright red flashing alert on your phone or computer that you've contracted a virus. But is it real? Is that security update alert real? How can you tell? This article will help you tell what is real and what is a scam.
Don't be put off by unfamiliar terminology, these settings are easy to turn on in Windows Settings. Each of the unfamiliar terms is clearly described as to what it does, and how it protects your computer and data.
Building blocks are those tools that you use by entering the @ symbol, such as linking a person, date, calendar event, other smart chips, templates, checklists, etc. These are designed to help you create your Doc more quickly by automating many of those links or formatting you need to create. The latest building blocks to be added to Google Docs include task trackers, contact lists and decision logs.
Task Trackers: Quickly add and track tasks at a glance with titles, assignees, due dates, and status, in a cleanly organized format. Additionally, users can add their own columns for more personalization, and new tasks with an assignee and title can be synced with Google Tasks individually or by syncing the whole table at once.
Contact Lists: Use a contact list to organize contact information for applicants, sales contacts, team members, project assignments and more. Contact lists offer a structured table format that breaks out critical contact information into glanceable columns that are clear and easier to read.
Decision Logs: Centralize open questions, aid in decision-making, and organize final decisions in an easily-digestible table. With decision logs, teams can quickly align around a single source of truth with clear owners.
Building blocks are easily inserted into a Doc by either using the buttons at the top of a blank Doc, or by opening the Insert menu and selecting Building Blocks. Learn how to use building blocks here. These new building blocks should be available sometime between now and mid-December.
Currently, we are limited to making Forms available to those in our domain (within DOGR) or to anyone with a link (AKA the public). This update will allow us to limit the form to certain users or groups, much the same way we do with Docs or any other files in Drive. With this change, Forms creators will need to publish a form and select who can respond to it. You can add individual email addresses or a Google Group. Learn how to share and publish a Google Form here. You should see this update anytime between now and when we return from Christmas break.
Matt Miller was a guest on the Dr. Phil show where he, and several other industry leaders, discussed the pros and cons of AI in Education. You can either read about it, or listen to it as a podcast.
Kent Intermediate School district has numerous opportunities for professional development listed in their latest I Am Ed Tech newsletter
Ed Tech Cheer 2024: The theme for EdTech Cheer 2024 is The 5 Big Ideas in AI. Check out the learning here and if you decide you would like to receive SCECH credit, it isn't too late to sign up! Register with the Kent ISD PD Hub, go through the Introduction and the 5 Big Ideas, and leave a reflection on each page to earn credit!
AI for Educators: Whether we like it or not, AI is here, and is the future our students will be facing. Our older students are probably already using AI. This is a two-day immersive workshop where you'll gain expert insights, practical strategies, and hands-on experience to confidently integrate AI into your educational practice. There are still spaces available for Cohort 2 - register soon before they are gone!
Many of your students can significantly benefit from using the built in accessibility tools on their chromebooks. These include spoken feedback, select to speak, dictation (speak to type), color correction, magnified mouse, screen magnifier, live captions, font choice for readability, and so many more. These are easy to find and turn on for your students. This 45-minute webinar explains how to access and use all those accessibility settings. The slide deck for the webinar can be found here: https://goo.gle/PTS-10-29-24. While watching different features, we will have access to those features that are available in the Teaching & Learning upgrade.
If you're looking for additioal digital citizenship lessons, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has free lessons for elementary, middle school and high school. In the elementary lessons, students will learn the difference between online and offline activities, how to identify trusted online resources, and how to use digital storytelling tools to express their creativity. In the middle school lessons, students will establish strategies for digital well-being, discuss how online information can influence opinions through information bubbles and will practice how to be good cyberfriends and supportive bystanders.
Did you know that you are able to send mail merge emails directly from Gmail? It works best when the data is pulled from a Google Sheet, but that's not absolutely necessary. A mail merge is the perfect solution when you need to send information to many people, but need to customize each message slightly. For example, sending overdue book reminders or individualized project information. This 24-minute video will show you how it works.
Ask questions about the data you've saved, create study guides, create a personal coach, do health research based on your symptoms and find suggestions for relief or use it for career planning.
This is a true time-saving hack! You can quickly find out what you're agreeing to with a simple Ctrl-F or Cmd-F. Find out what key terms you should search for, as well as a few other tools to use.
Have your friend list, views, or personal info changed since you started your Facebook account? It might be past time for a cleanup to more accurately reflect your digital footprint.
Google My Maps is a free tool that allows you to create your own custom maps, where you can add pins for different locations, and then add content to each pin to explain what it represents. The time saver is to use an AI chatbot, such as Google Gemini to automate and speed up the process.
Well, I think we're finally up to date with all the various updates that have rolled in through the late summer/early fall. The beginning of the school year is behind us, as are conferences, Eaglefest, and the election. I can't believe we're already knocking on the door of the holidays! We must be having fun, because time is surely flying. Below, there are some notable Google updates along with video overviews by John Sowash, AI tools to help teachers, as well as some cybersecurity points to look at. We all need to be ever vigilant with our online activities, especially going into the holidays. AI has made bad actors even more stealthy with their attempts to steal online identities and access our personal information and accounts.
I wish all those high security websites would get the message that it's more important to have a longer and more complex password than it is to change your password regularly! More complex passwords or pass phrases are so simple to create and use when you use a password manager. Bitwarden is the one I use...and love! Personal accounts are free.That being said, any reputable password manager will work, so find one that works for you.
Google, or any other tech company, is never going to call you to report suspicious activity. They also cannot magically detect problems with your computer, phone or any other device.
This is another great tool, in addition to the Have I Been Pwned site, to safely check if your email address has been leaked in a data breach. Unfortunately companies aren't always very dutiful about letting their customers know. Incidentally, SurfShark is the VPN Mark and I use on all our devices. This service not only protects us on a public WiFi network, it also protects at home from dangerous websites.
John Sowash explains new features from the beginning of summer. (We're still catching up on the last few months of updates!) For your reference, ASA has Teaching & Learning Google licenses for teachers. Included topics are:
Read Along - Built-in Google tool to help teach students to read
New handwriting fonts for elementary students/teachers Google Drive Updates Chromebook Updates Gemini for Education Updates
Some of the updates mentioned last month and some in this month's list of updates are explained and demonstrated by John Sowash. For your reference, ASA has Teaching & Learning Google licenses for teachers. Just so you don't have to watch the entire video to get the bits you actually want to watch...
John Sowash presents Google's October updates. Not all topics apply - ASA does not have Google Gemini for Workspace licenses. That means that while we have access to use Gemini with Workspace for Education privacy built in, we do not have the Gemini features that are integrated into Google Workspace. I've included time stamps for the topics that apply 3:58 Star Rating Question for Google Forms
11:56 Parents sue school over school discipline over AI usage (AKA the importance of establishing an AI policy and outlining what is considered cheating)
Have you ever noticed the icon to the left of your text in Google Docs? That's where your tabs (or table of contents links) appear. You can create tabs, and then nestle sub-tabs beneath them, up to three levels. You can also rearrange your tabs. Every doc already has a Tab 1 started. Just open the left pane, click the Add tab + and give it a name. You can even use Emoji to make the tab names stand out. Learn how to use tabs in Docs here.
Playing videos you've stored in Google Drive has a new look and improved controls. You'll be able to fast forward and rewind, as well as adjust playback speed and manage captions. I'm not sure if this is just a cosmetic change or if it will also improve the issue with multiple users playing a video at the same time, but let's hope so. This might be an option to try for those times when some of your students cannot access those YouTube videos that have been approved and embedded into Google Slides. You can try downloading them to drive and sharing them with students. Of course, not all YouTube videos allow downloading, so that may be a limitation to this work around. Learn how to store and play videos in Google Drive here.
There is now a new question type in Google Forms that will allow users to indicate how they rate something. You can customize the Rating question by changing the icons to stars, thumbs up, or hearts. You'll then be able to analyze those ratings in the response sheet. Full details can be found here.
What does that mean? While I don't yet see Notebook LM in the Google app switcher grid (AKA "the waffle"), I assume it will appear there soon, like Google Earth or Google Translate. In the meantime you can access it at notebooklm.google.com. Here's how it works: You add all the resources you can find on a particular topic. You can add website links, PDFs, videos, Docs and Slides from Drive, and any copied text as your sources. Once you've included the links, files, videos, etc., you can create FAQs, study guides, a table of contents, a timeline, a briefing doc, or just ask it any questions about the content. You can even create a deep dive conversation between two very real sounding hosts, like a podcast, where they discuss all the information in your sources. Learn how to use NotebookLM here. Read the full description of the announcement here.
Google Read Along is now included in Google Workspace for Education. This app is built-in to Google Classroom, so you'll need to assign Read Along activities and assignments to your students there. Read Along in Google Classroom is a new feature that helps students build their independent reading skills by enabling teachers to assign differentiated reading activities, based on Lexile® measure, grade level, or phonics skills. With this feature, a digital reading buddy, Diya, gives students real-time assistance and pronunciation support, with the help of AI. Read the full details in the announcement. Learn to use Read Aong in Google Classroom here.
Google Slides is getting new templates with more modern designes. For education customers, some of these templates include templates for lesson plans, book reports and project reports. Once we receive this update, the templates will be easy to find either by using the Templates button on the toolbar, or by selecting the Insert menu and tapping Templates. You should see this update in the next week or so, if you aren't already seeing it. Find out how to use templates, change a theme, backgrouned or layout here.
These grants are not focused on technology, but it was too good a list not to share! There are grants for classroom innovation, classroom projects, early childhood/child care, STEM, literacy, arts, and even housing.
Seriously! Save yourself some money and troubleshooting headaches. I predominantly use a chromebook at home and very rarely reach for my old laptop. I have used an HP x360 2-in-1 laptop/tablet for many years. When I recently replaced it, I did boost the RAM to 8GB to better handle video calls and my favorite Android games.
Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook is holding his 9th annual Ditch That Textbook Summit. By registering (it's free!) you'll have access to 90+ on-demand video presentations that you can watch from the comfort of your couch. The videos will be available December 16, 2024 through January 10, 2025. You can also receive free certificates for professional development certificates. Learn more and register here.
During the October PD day, Catholic Central teachers explored Eduaide.AI, a free AI resource for teachers, and found it "helpful and promising". This tool was created by teachers, for teachers, and promises to help you work smarter not harder. It will help you with lesson planning, as well as creating or planning a HUGE variety of assignments and activities. The list of options is so big, it's even difficult to summarize here. The link above takes you to a list of over 100 different teaching resources, planning materials, assignments and more that Eduaide can help you create in minutes. The free subscription allows teachers to create 15 generations per month, access to a limited feedback bot, and you'll be able to enhance and transform features. The Eduaide.AI Pro subscription is $50/year, and allows unlimited access to all resources and tools. There is also discounted pricing available for schools and districts. Not sure you have the time to figure out an additional tool right now? No worries, Eduaide Academy will walk you through creating an account, navigating Eduaide.AI, using the content generator, the teaching assistant, feedback bot, Eduaide chat, generation history, and putting it all together.
Taken from Common Sense Media email from Erikk Henderson-Hood
Bing Bong, the lovable imaginary character from the first Inside Out movie, is riding with Joy (another character) on the "train of thought." As they go over a bump, two crates fall, and their contents mix together. One crate is labeled "facts," and the other is labeled "opinions."
Joy quickly tries to sort everything back into their original crates, but laments, "Oh no, these facts and opinions look so similar!" Bing Bong, like a toddler trying to help you clean up toys, quickly shoves them indiscriminately into the nearest crates and says, "Ah, don't worry about it! It happens all the time."
Bing Bong's right: Getting our facts and opinions mixed up does happen quite a bit. It's especially tricky since news and entertainment are often seen in the same place: social media. And it's not just teens using these platforms for news! According to a Pew Research survey, today, 39% of adults under 30 say they regularly get news there, compared with much smaller shares of adults age 30 to 49 (19%), 50 to 64 (9%) and 65 and older (3%). While there are experts and reputable news organizations posting content, there are plenty of opinions stated as facts, alongside mis- and disinformation. Algorithm-created filter bubbles and AI-generated content just complicate these issues further.
With an election on the horizon, helping students evaluate facts and opinions—and deliberate deception—within the complex world of online news has never been more critical. Your role as teachers in shaping the next generation of informed (digital) citizens starts with discussing media and giving them the tools to think critically.
So how do we equip students to navigate the news on social media?
We highly recommend teaching lessons from our Essential News & Media Literacy Skills for Students collection, which offers lessons on news and misinformation as well as social media and AI's impacts. Here are some of the key elements we can address, along with paired resources to do just that:
🔎 Differentiating between facts, opinions, and misleading information.
👀 Recognizing bias and sensationalism (aka clickbait) in news coverage.
Check out our lesson "You Won't Believe This!," which introduces students to the concept of clickbait and managing our natural desire to figure out missing information.
☑️ Making informed decisions as future voters who can sift through the many hoaxes and fakes.
Our lesson "Hoaxes and Fakes" introduces students to key media literacy skills, like corroboration, lateral reading, and how misinformation is spread!
The News Literacy Project knows that info can spread quickly online, so they created a dashboard to track misinformation, especially during this election season.
In an era of information overload and "fake news," the ability to critically evaluate news and media isn't just an academic skill: It's essential for participating in a democracy. Setting aside some time to integrate news and media literacy into a lesson or family discussion can make a difference. And as Bing Bong would say, "To Infinity and Beyond!" Wait, somebody fact-check that!
Much to our disappointment, Geoguessr recently stopped being a free game. For years students have played this fun Google Maps game to figure out where they were in the world. One free alternative suggested by Eric Curts from Sparcc Lines is Guess Where You Are. Much like Geoguessr, you are placed in a random location around the world. By exploring your surroundings in Street View in Google Maps you can make a guess where you are. You get points based on how close you are to the actual location.
You can add sound effects to your classroom to designate transitions, add applause after a student presentation, games and competitions, while you're reading a story to bring it to life, and whatever you can imagine. This post includes a video tutorial for setting up your own soundboard, as well as a sample Google Slide to use and customize.
Having trouble communicating with a parent who struggles with the English language? While the Talking Points app is great for written communication, it doesn't really help if you are speaking in person. This is where Google Translate's Conversation Mode comes in. Google Translate is available in both the iOS App Store and in the Android Play Store. Add the app to your phone. When you need to have a conversation with someone who speaks another language, select your language and tap the Conversation button. Approve the use of the microphone so the app can listen to your conversation and translate it.
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