Video Use in the Classroom: EdPuzzle & Playposit

Video in the classroom is nothing new. Videos are engaging and spark interest and learning in our students and have a distinct advantage of not being our voice (😝)! The way in which video is delivered however has changed. Gone are the days in which the only was was to wheel in the big TV strapped to the media cart to a place where most can see. Popping in the VCR (remember those?? Whoever has one still....you're amazing!) that documentary you recorded 7 summers ago. Not anymore. Technology has progressed where we can deliver self-paced, engaging video-based curriculum that allows us to assess our students' understanding in real time.

Two resources I love to talk about to achieve these ends are EdPuzzle and Playposit. Both are constructed similarly, have benefits over the other, and are excellent tools to utilize in the 21st century classroom. If you use video in the classroom (whether for classwork or homework) it's not enough to say "watch this video and take notes" - students need direction in order to get the most out of your curated resource.

Check out more after the jump!

Google Drawing: Students Create Memes

Memes...MeeMees...whatevs you call em, students are using them. Ms. Keri Kemble at NU incorporates some great lessons using micro-writing and having students create memes is a great critical thinking activity for students to whittle down a story or concept into a singular image with limited text.

Google Drawing is a G Suite App than can help with this and the great Alice Keeler a heavy weight in the EdTech world, has a great template and step by step process on how to let students create memes to demonstrate their understanding. You set the topic/subject and push out the template and get them to create.

A great wrap up to this activity is to create a Padlet and have students post their work and comment on other's work. You can host the Padlet (through embedding) on your Schoology course or website.

Great for visual learners and those that are having trouble understanding difficult concepts covered in the class.

Check out Alice Keeler's other templates when you get an opportunity, check out her other great resources, and give her a follow on Twitter for great ideas in real time!

If you need help incorporating this into your curriculum, do not hesitate to get in touch with me!

Infographics: Great Product for Students to Create

I love infographics!! There's info!! And graphics!! What's not to love? They can be an instructional tool for you and a creative outlet for your students. Literacy standards dictate we need to teach reading, writing, researching, and critical analysis skills across the curriculum. There is also a greater emphasis on technical writing as well.

Having students create infographics allows them to not only develop, practice, and hone these skills, but they are creative ventures for them to produce their ideas in a different form and you'll also get more participation in revision and peer editing activities. These types of products certainly should not replace formal essay writing. However, they can be used to help practice skills related to formal essay writing.

And did I mention revision? It is a critical practice in any profession and should be promoted in the classroom. Because of the visual and graphic design component of the activity, students will take great care to ensure their infographic is ready for their peers to get a gander at it. You can even scaffold the peer editing and revision process by having peers focus on a certain aspect of the assignment - supporting data, argumentation, clear and concise statements, visually appealing - to be returned for constant and continuous revision.

Oh yeah...and because they are a graphic, they can easily be published on the web. Students love to publish all sorts of media on a daily basis. This component will give you an opportunity to focus on Digital Citizenship in your classroom. These graphics are great for student portfolios, social media posts, student created websites...drive them to publish to a global audience and they will put their best foot forward. A large number of students already know what this means....they never post their first selfie.

Below are a couple of templates done in Google Drawing of different infographics that you can push out to your students in order for them to make a copy of and own. Once they have their copy, they can adjust everything on the template they see fit to.

Template I created in Google Drawing
Template in Google Drawing from Ryan O'Donnell out of Rocklin Unified

Google Drawing Templates Here, Here, & Here

Infographic Toolbox - Change and use elements for Infographics

Step-by-step instructions on how to create one in Google Slides

AND, you can empower your students to create beautiful infographics using these services:
Canva
Picktochart
Venngage
Easel.ly


***All linked infographics in the blog post come from the amazing Alex Corbitt, English teacher from New York working in the Bronx. Give him a follow on Twitter

Great PBL Site: StoryMap

As a History teacher, I was always looking to incorporate more maps into my curriculum. Google Maps & Earth have come a long way throughout the years, but I always wanted students to create visual products that were relevant to them and the concepts we were covering in class, were engaging throughout the creation phase, were easy to use, and looked sharp when complete. I've looked for and utilized products that did a fraction of these requirements. Never really satisfied....until now! Enter StoryMap!

StoryMap, built out of the Northwestern Knightlab, is an easy to use Project Based Learning tool that can be utilized in a slew of different disciplines to develop geography skills in students and allow them to create something they could be proud of and have fun doing it!! It's easy to use, you use your Google Account to sign up for it, it's free, and did I mention it's easy to use??

Everything starts with a map of the world and a search bar. The search feature uses Google Maps and typing the name of a city, country, physical boundary will pin that spot. From there, it acts like Slides or PowerPoint in that you add slides for the order of "flow" and the student can add text, include links, and media to each slide. The media supported are web url & uploaded pictures, gifs, Youtube videos, content from Vine, Twitter, Instagram, and a few others.

Click the pic below to see what one looks like. The following example comes right from the StoryMap website.

Click the pic to see one of the greatest BAs on that show!!!

This opens up opportunities for students to compare and contrast life in the same location at various time periods, built around a concept you are teaching in class, using media native to them. For instance:

• The Visual Arts teacher may want students to research influential Middle Age artists and document their their journey through their life and career - documenting their physical movement, influential works, and a modern day connection (Tweets! Grams! Vids! Vines!) to the area and artist 
• The Physical Education Teacher may want to track the developments of various weight training and exercise programs (CrossFit, Yoga, The Scandinavian Squat...I made that last one up, but it sounds cool) and show media of individuals using it throughout the journey
• The History Teacher may....well....I'm sure if you're a History Teacher you've already left this post and are checking it out on your own
• The ELA Teacher can plot the various aspects of a character's journey through a novel tracking the arch as well as media that is related to their physical and fictional journey

And as with any great story created, it needs to be told!! Presentation skills are essential to be taught and practiced across the curriculum and this product is made for student presentations in mind! It looks slick on a big screen and you can have students create an informal or formal presentation based on their creative product!

Some drawbacks:

• Network issues and access! Building one at home is much easier than at school and they will have access to the media more readily at home
• Work Around: Have them plot each "slide" at school after the research phase, add the titles and text at school, and have them build the media aspects of the project at home
• When presenting, the students will need to present off of your laptop or Chromebook - they'll get stuck as the network here will iBoss them to death having Tweets, Instagram and Vine media on their projects

The possibilities and uses for this product are immense! Give it a shot and if you're interested in working with it but need some help, I'd be happy to sit down with you to show you the nuts and bolts or even conduct a mini-lesson and teach your students how to use it.

Below is an example I created last night with some minor edits today. I've included the link to view it in your browser and also how it looks and functions when embedded on a website.

Link to view it in your browser (Looks better there anyway and you can swipe on your screen if your Chromebook has that ability): Where I've Lived