UNLEASH

ED

Tag: Apps

  • National Standards Plus

    Seriously. How ridiculous?

    Mum is running late for work, driving over the hill to her 9 til 5 job in the city centre. A notification comes through on her phone at 9:01am, and although she knows she shouldn’t, she checks her phone anyway. The message preview reads “Sally Burgess*: Reading – Below, Writing – Below, Mathematics – Wel…” before it gets truncated to fit on the screen. Opening it up to see the $45 million dollar app in all it’s glory, Mum forgets about the upcoming corner and drives off the road into the fence of the unfortunate homeowner. This instantly lands her in hospital. It could have been so much worse though. She probably counts herself lucky not to have plowed through multiple crowds of children at the local school 300 metres down the road.

    That’s right. The government would have parents being updated in real time every and any progress their child is making in National Standards throughout the school day.

    They’re calling this ‘National Standards Plus’, largely because of the additional time and energy that is going to be chewing into teachers already busy schedule. The additional testing, the additional data gathering, the additional reporting and notifying and uploading to the app’s system. All this PLUS actually teaching the children.

    National Standards Plus would allow parents to track their child’s progress in more detail online.

    “We will show you your child’s progress on your mobile phone, English said. “Some schools have already rolled out tools that support this approach.

    – Stuff, 28 August 2017

     

    The benefit to this will be of course that parents are kept up to date with their child’s progress as it happens.

    Of course, to get this, teachers will be required to input data as it happens. Which will have to be regularly for it to be a worthwhile app to keep on your phone. So now instead of teaching, teachers will be in a constant state of testing, assessing, marking and upload results to the app, for each and every child in their class, each and every day.

    What the government is forgetting however, is the cost of equipping each classroom in the country with one of these:

    Osbourne:  Portable Scale, Wide, Digital.

    Whether you are weighing market hogs to capture packer premiums or weighing show pigs, goats, or lambs, the Osborne ACCU-ARM Portable Scale offers the most “rock solid” portable weighing system available. The solid, animal-friendly scale uses precision levers to reduce sway and bounce and is completely cable free! With Osborne, the entire weighing operation is more efficient and less stressful for both you and your livestock!

    This scale features standard side panels, side-opening gates, a wheel kit for easy transportation, and a weighing meter with digital read out. The scale platform is 20 in. (51 cm) wide and the scale weighs animals up to 500 lbs. (227 kg).

    Find out more here.

    Using these scales to weigh the pigs is one thing, but teaching children so that there is progress to notify parents about is another.

    Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins said National was ‘”doubling down” on its National Standards system which was not improving student achievement.

    “Kids in New Zealand are over assessed. What we need is less reporting, more teaching.”

    And he questioned how teachers would find the time to update assessment records for continual online access.

    Education union the NZEI said plans to spend millions building a computer tool to track children’s progress as it happened,” based on shonky National Standards, is an obsession with data gone mad”.

    “Requiring teachers to input standardised assessment data across a range of subjects in real time for 30 or more students in a class will reduce the time teachers have with children and increase children’s anxiety about learning,” NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart says.

    “No parent wants their child’s teacher sitting entering data for hours when they need to be face to face with kids.”

    Seriously. How ridiculous?

    Oink.

     

    In relation to – Stuff – National launches official campaign with education bid

  • Chrome Apps for Students with Learning Difficulties

    There are a number of students who are displaying signs of having learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, in schools across the country. While there are some troubles in getting a diagnosis for these students, there is no reason why we should not begin to help these students out where we can. In a senior school for example, you might have 4 classes with about 28 students in each. That is 112 students. It is said that one in five students have a learning difficulty such as dyslexia. That means that there is potentially 23 students who suffer from learning difficulty. That’s nigh on an entire class. Obviously, there will be many more who have difficulties developing through the junior school as well.

    One way that can help these students immensely is through the use of technology. (Please also read “The Answer to everything is not an App“). There are a number of different resources available online for these students. Some of these apps are free and open source for students to use as they see fit. These can all been installed on each student Chromebook account. Students with learning difficulties can then need to enable them on their accounts, and make sure they are turned on for them to work. Some teaching around these tools also needs to be done, so the students know they are there to help and assist them in dealing with their learning struggles.

    There is always a tendency to download and install absolutely everything, with features doubling up and too many to choose from (which to leads to none being chosen). I have personally installed each of these tools below and can personally recommend them. Each performs a different function to the other, and each has been designed to deal with learning difficulties that students face.

    Free Apps

    Open Dyslexic

    Open-Dyslexic is an open sourced font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. This extension overrides all fonts on webpages with the OpenDyslexic font, and formats pages to be more easily readable.

    Mercury Reader

    The Mercury Reader extension for Chrome removes ads and distractions, leaving only text and images for a clean and consistent reading view on every site.

    Read and Write for Google Chrome (Free Version)

    Boost reading and writing confidence across all types of content and devices, in class, at work, and at home!

    Wonderfully intuitive and easy-to-use, Read&Write for Google Chrome™ provides personalized support to make documents, web pages and common file types in Google Drive (including: Google Docs, PDF, ePub & Kes) more accessible. It’s designed to help everyone engage with digital content in a way that suits his/her abilities and learning styles.

    BeeLine Reader

    BeeLine uses a color gradient to guide your eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next.  This seemingly simple tweak makes reading substantially easier and faster because it allows you to transition between lines quickly and effortlessly.

    MagicScroll Web Reader

    The MagicScroll Web Reader turns every page on the web into a MagicScroll book.

    Its unique scrolling system lets you scroll web pages without moving them, making it easier to read long articles without being distracted.
    Many of the suggested apps that assist learning for these students have premium versions or require subscriptions for them to be useful. In some sense, this applies for all apps in learning, but the difference being that we would be targeting those students who need it most, rather than supplying it to everyone. Obviously this depends completely on the cost of the app, or ongoing subscription as to whether it is viable to purchase for all students to use or not. If I was to recommend any app to purchase for a student with dyslexia or other learning difficulty, it would be Read&Write for Google Chrome, as outlined below.

    Read & Write for Google Chrome

    As mentioned earlier, the free/trial version is already installed for all students, and some are using this to good effect in class. However, many of the specific tools that assist students with learning difficulties are reserved for only the premium version. Luckily, teachers can sign up for an education account, and the premium features will be unlocked for you. Having done this myself, I can tell you that the premium features clearly show how they assist struggling students.

    The app is developed by a company called Texthelp, and should go some way to explaining why they developed the features in this app. On their website, they describe their involvement in schools as “…award-winning assistive technology solutions [that] help school students of all ages with reading, writing and literacy in classroom lessons and at home. Used daily by millions of young people around the world, Read&Write literacy support software makes the web and documents more accessible for reluctant readers, individuals with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, as well as students whose first language isn’t English.” Their values as a company is all about the inclusive environment that all schools should be working towards. Their company values state that “At Texthelp we believe that absolutely everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential – at school, in the workplace and in later life, too. We believe there’s a whole world of avid readers and fluent writers, waiting to emerge with the right tools and encouragement. We believe in digital inclusion – where life stage, visual impairment, dyslexia or dis/ability aren’t barriers to the online opportunities that others enjoy. Most importantly of all, we believe that everyone’s entitled to the best possible learning and language support on their own personal journey – from literacy to life.”

    It is quite obvious therefore how they came about developing the Read&Write app, and the features they decided to include in their premium version.

     

    Features of Read & Write Specifically for Students with Dyslexia

    • Text to Speech feature (Free)
      Highlights each word as it is spoken, proven to help improve comprehension and understanding.
    • Dictionary
      Quickly brings up definition of the selected word.
    • Picture Dictionary
      Displays a selection of pictures that relate to the of the selected words.
    • Prediction
      Displays a range (between 3-10) of words that could go next in a written sentence.
    • Screenshot Reader
      Students can select an area from the screen and it will analyse any text in that part of the screen and read it out loud.
    • Highlights
      Students can choose from 4 colours to highlight parts of text for research and finding key parts from information..
    • Vocabulary List
      Creates a document that students can add words for their vocabulary to.
    • Talk & Type
      Students can talk into the microphone and it will type in the words for the students. The accuracy of this takes some time to get used to.
    • Screen Masking
      Masks off top and bottom of the page, so that a light line can be moved up and down. This allows students to focus on the line that they are reading.

    While the free version allows for the main aspect of this app, where they can have what they have written read back to them, the features of the premium version are all highly valuable for students with learning difficulties.

    While it is entirely possible that these features can be found independently within individual free apps, there is something to be said for having them all in one easy-to-use app, even if it is at a cost.

    Read&Write for Google Feature

    Free Chrome App Alternative
    ✔    Text to Speech* Speakit!

    SpeakIt reads selected text using Text-to-Speech technology with language auto-detection. It can read text in more than 50 languages.
    ✔    Dictionary Google Dictionary (by Google)

    With this extension, you can:

    1) Double-click any word to view its definition in a small pop-up bubble.

    2) View the complete definition of any word or phrase using the toolbar dictionary.
    ✔    Picture Dictionary No free alternative
    ✔    Prediction No free alternative
    ✔    Screenshot Reader No alternative – see Text to Speech though…
    ✔    Highlights ClipTo

    Simplifies online research – Keep your highlights and notes on any page.
    ✔    Vocabulary List EachWord

    Add new words to the dictionary and they will be occasionally shown as cards.
    ✔    Talk and Type Click to Dictate

    Use this app to speak to dictate using speech recognition (voice-to-text, speech-to- text, instead of using your fingers typing)
    ✔    Screen Masking

    Visor

    Screen dimmer and reading aid, may help with fluency, eye-strain, concentration and comprehension whilst reading.

    * Note: This part of Read&Write is free, so does not necessarily require an alternative.

     

    There’s not really much more I can say in conclusion. In summary, get Read&Write for Google, and if you can justify it, purchase the premium version. If you can’t, don’t panic, there are several options to choose from that will provide students with assistive technology for a lower cost, though obviously, come in several packages, rather than in one easy-to-use app.

  • The Answer to everything is not an App.

    It’d seem that there is a reliance on tech and apps to meet the needs of students with learning difficulties.

    While there are apps and assistive technologies to help students with their learning, the reliance or focus on one particular app is not what the likes of RTLB or Special Needs teachers should be using to “solve” the learning needs of ‘problem’ children. It may be appealing because of a one off price that seems to satisfy the powers that be as a successful outcome for the student and signs off the intervention.

    But there is no way that any app, no matter how developed, how much money has been poured into it, that it should ever be “the answer” for students’ learning difficulties.

    Why?

    Because there is never ever one reason for students struggling in their learning. There are usually a myriad of issues, and strategies that address these are not going to be encompassed in an app.

    Don’t get me wrong, tech can be incredibly supportive in assisting students with with their learning; but in my experience it is much less about the apps you use, but the process that the technology makes and allows for in the classroom.

    Furthermore, teaching ‘an app’ is restricted to using that app and the limitations of it. Teaching a process opens up the student to other possibilities for using the technology (or not) in the future. Take for example Writing. You could teach a student how to use Microsoft Word and it could help them to write. But teaching them how to write is actually better (or more to the point – what is needed), and there are any number of apps that could assist with this, including Word, Google Docs, or Collabrify Writer.

    Somewhat ironically, I know of a case where a student diagnosed with dyslexia received the support of using the Chromebooks in the classroom to do her writing. This was the recommendation from the specialist that was providing the support for the teacher, and supposedly the student.

    However; talking with the student; she preferred to do her writing by hand because she didn’t have to ‘find’ the letters on the keyboard when she could just write them with a pencil when she wanted.

    Sometimes technology doesn’t have the answer that we’re looking for.

  • How to use Realtimeboard in the Classroom

    Yesterday I posted about Realtimeboard, an online whiteboard I have begun using in my class to collate and collect the work that we work on together.

    Today I plan to take you through the steps for getting started, making your first board and general use of the app. I’m sure that I won’t be able to cover everything that the app can do, but hope to give you enough of a start so that you can realise for yourself the power of this software and how you might start using it in your classroom.

    Step 1. Getting Started

    I am going to assume that you’ve managed to get yourself signed up, and hopefully have managed to get approved for an educator account. If not, I highly suggest that you do. Go to realtimeboard.com/education/ and fill in the form. They actually get back to you a lot sooner than they suggest.

    Once you have signed in, you’ll be greeted by your dashboard. You may get a “What’s New” as is customary these days with these kinds of apps.

    The dashboard is relatively straight forward. You have your created boards at the top, and some demo boards below.

    Clicking on the Google inspired blue “plus” circle will create your first board.

    Realtimeboard has done well to make this app resemble any of the native Google Apps, by including “Shared with me” and “Last Opened” menu filters on the left hand side.

    At the top right, there are account links and settings options.

    Click the plus to create a new board.

     

    Step 2. The Workspace

    Navigating

    The Realtimeboard workspace is essentially an infinite ‘canvas’ or board stretching out beyond the edges of the screen. There are a few, quick tips you’ll need to know for getting around.

    1. Using the mouse roller button, or doing two finger scroll on most trackpads these days will zoom in and out from your canvas. It zooms towards or away from the position of the mouse cursor on the screen.
    2. Clicking on the canvas and dragging allows you to move around the canvas at the current zoom rate.
    3. Clicking on an object selects that object and allows you to perform different operations with them.
    4. Double clicking will centre and zoom (in or out) to fit the selected object to the whole viewport.
    5. Arrow keys also allow you to move around the canvas
    6. Esc key exits from the current operation. If you are typing text, it will go back and show the selection of the text box. Pushing Esc again will deselect the textbox. Obviously, if you’ve only selected a shape, pushing Esc once will deselect it.

    Zooming in and out allows you to get right into the little details, as well as zoom out to see an overview of your board. Using these together, especially with frames mode creates great transition animations as the viewing screen zooms in and out to fit the screen.

    Top Left

    The top left, as with many Google Apps that Realtimeboard has mimicked, includes the Title & Document Name and a Home button to return you to the Dashboard.

    In addition, Realtimeboard offers an “Export” button, which allows users to save the board off in a range of different formats. This is incredibly useful for a number of reasons and uses, such as including the board in a different document, keeping an archived version of the board, or merely just backing up. It also allows you to save it straight to your Google Drive; if you have linked your account.

     

    Tools

    Realtimeboard includes all the tools you would expect to find in such an app. Each tool even has a shortcut key which is incredibly helpful for quickly changing tool. I’ve included these in square brackets.

      The pointer tool has two options. One is the standard Select tool [V], and the other is the hand, or Pan [H], which allows users to drag the viewport around the canvas. The select tool defaults to the hand tool when clicking on the canvas background instead of an object on the board.
      The Text tool [T] brings up a standard text cursor that users can use to create text boxes on the whiteboard using click and drag
    Hello Sticky Notes [N]! This is possibly one of the cooler tools that can be used to show key bits of information, or student’s ideas and suggestions. You can post one at a time, square or landscape, or create multiple notes at once. Great for writing down different student views from around the class!
    It wouldn’t be a whiteboard without the Shape [S] tool. Gone are the days of teachers having to practise drawing perfect circles on their blackboard. Now, just select the shape and then click and drag it to the desired size on your canvas.

    You can also add text to shapes!
      The Pen [P] and Eraser [E] tools are great additions for the whiteboard. You can quickly select the desired size and then free hand draw or write onto the canvas with a selection of colours. While these are initially limited, you can also add your own custom colours from the spectrum.

    The eraser tool works really well, but only for lines drawn with the pen. It does not erase shapes for example.

     
    Comments [C] are integrated into Realtimeboard much like they are in Google Apps. You can even mention other collaborators directly. Like in Google Docs where you can assign comments to words or lines or sections, you can place comments on any part of the canvas.
       Undo [Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z] is the most used tool, and it’s no surprise that the folk at Realtimeboard have built this into their app, along with the common shortcut people will be used to.
       Lower down the tool menu, Frames [F] (which I am quite impressed with as mentioned on my overview). This tool allows you to create “pages” or “views” within the whiteboard. You can then navigate between them using the arrow keys (only when in Frames). When using this tool, you can select the size and drag it to incorporate whatever you like to appear in the ‘view’.
       Fullscreen does just that. No bells. No whistles. But quite useful none the less, especially when displaying this on an actual whiteboard.
      The last tool is the Minimap [Z], or zoom tool. This essentially allows you to return to the default zoom or size of the document, as well as showing a mini-map of your board (remembering that it could be gigantic on an infinite whiteboard!).

    Inserting Media

    The other tool is at the top of the whole list. It allows you to do a range of different things:

    • Choose a template from a range of different layouts and examples of what Realtimeboard can be used for.
    • Uploading images, files from your local computer.
    • Uploading images etc from a URL.
    • Screenshot of a webpage.
    • Recently uploaded files that you’ve already uploaded.
    • Files from the Realtimeboard Chrome Browser Extension.
    • Files from your Google Drive (if you have connected your account in settings).
    • Wireframes are great! They are a quick-select library of templates or layouts which are quick and easy to add into your board. See below for the examples.
    • Tables and Charts to give a quick visual of data or statistics is built into this app nicely.
    • IconFinder allows you to add a selection of icons to make your board more visually rich.
    • Vimeo allows you to select video from Vimeo.com.
    • Adding videos from YouTube.
    • Add images from Google Image Search.

     

    Top Right

    Once again, Realtimeboard have been smart in keeping the same kind of features they offer in the same location as Google Apps. In the top right, includes a Share button to add ‘viewers’ or ‘editors’ and ‘collaborators’. You can invite people using their email addresses, and you can set the level of privacy, from ‘Can View’, to ‘Can Comment’, and ‘Can Edit’. You can also get a ‘Public’ link that allows you to easily share it out to everyone.

    Next to the share button are the ‘Comments’ that have been made, all available in one place.

    The Information button gives you quick links to feature pages of Realtimeboard. These are not related to the document.

    The Search button does just that; searches your board for a given word or phrase.

    Other Features

    The only other feature is key to real-time collaboration with others, and that is the Chat Feature in the bottom right corner. Video Chat requires a premium account, but screensharing appears to be available – although I have yet to try this. I can imagine this might be quite useful for view only collaborators.

    The other great feature of Realtimeboard is that it automatically saves, just like Google Apps.

    3. Creating Content

    Adding Text

    One of the most common tasks you’ll want to do is adding text.

    1. Select the Text tool [T]
    2. Click on the board where you want the text to start.
    3. Start typing…

    As with most text tools, there are a number of formatting tools for use. From left to right;

    • You can choose the font size
    • Set the text as Bold, Italic, or Underlined, or a combination of all three.
    • Change the font colour, or the Fill colour. The fill colour sets the background of the text box to the colour you select.
    • Set the alignment of the text within the box, from left, centre, or right.
    • Create a bulleted list.
    • Create a link.

    Modifying Objects

    With all the objects placed on the board, the orange outline shows the object that is selected. This goes away when another object is selected, or you click off that object (or press Esc).
    The white circles around the outside of the selection allow you to change the dimensions of the box by clicking and dragging them in the appropriate direction. The corner circles allow for diagonal adjustments, and with text boxes, or if you hold down shift as you drag, these will keep the proportions as you adjust them. The circles in the middle of each outline allows for adjustment in either the horizontal or vertical direction only.
    The arrow on the end of a looped three-quarter circle allows you to rotate the object through 360 degrees.

     

    If you right click on an object, there is a drop down menu that will appear with a range of options. These are different depending on the type of object. Most of them however include the following tools:

     

    Right click menu on any object

    		  Right click menu on any image  

    Right click menu when multiple objects are selected (using Shift)

    Holding down Shift as you click on different objects allows you to select multiple objects at once. Right clicking on these selected object then allows you to group and/or align objects together, as well as other functions.

    The key menu items I use from these are definitely the ‘Bring forward’ function, or the ‘Send backward’, which allows me to put things behind or in front of other things, particularly important when adding shapes and text to work in with each other.

     

    Examples

    I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Below I’ve just put up some examples of the content our class is currently experiencing through the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme run by the New Zealand Police. I spent a bit of time after our last session going through and adding a bit of flare to the content, more to show what is possible. I’ve included a few notes about how each was created.

    Example 1

    • Square shape, dragged to rectangle, filled with black.
    • Text, text colour changed to white.
    • Text, header box given a ‘pink’ fill, text colour to white.
    • Same pink colour for down arrow (Shape).

    Example 2

    • Square shape made into rectangle, thick border, purple/blue (custom colour)
    • 4x text boxes for each numbered point. Bold first line. Examples unbolded.
    • Text header, given same fill colour as border of square. White text colour changed.
    • Post-it Note added to right hand space. Font changed on note to ‘handwritten’.

    Example 3

    • Star Shape, Yellow Fill.
    • Star shape (small), orange fill, duplicated 4x.
    • 4x text box next to each small star.
    • STAR heading. Rotated 90 degrees. Bold text.
    • S.T.A.R, bold first letter. Bring to front over top of Star shape.

    Each of these examples look like a Powerpoint slide, but these are just the tip of the iceberg of how you can create content, and then add to it to make it visually impactual for your class. Adding in frames allows you to present it like a slideshow, or simply use the Pan tool [H] to move around the content. Each of these three examples exist on the one Realtimeboard, and are visually linked by arrows that viewers can follow the lesson progression as we worked through it.

    Right. That should be enough to get your feet wet. I’m sure that you’ll get the hang of it in no time, and begin creating a variety of creative and amazing content that will engage and inspire your students.

  • Realtimeboard: The Online Whiteboard for Teachers

    So you need some whiteboard software?

    Basically, there is software that is out there that mimics a whiteboard.

    Then there’s Realtimeboard.

    Online, creative, systematic, intuitive, custom, automatic, flexible. All the things you want in many software apps. But without adding so many options that it wipes out any function.

    I’ve been using Realtimeboard for a while now, but was always limited by their “3 board for free” policy, where free account users could only create three ‘boards’. Being that I would probably prefer to have one board for each subject, or one board for each topic, or even one board per lesson, the 3 board for free policy wasn’t really going to work.

    Recently, there has been a big push (even by Apple) for schools to ‘prove’ that they are a school, in order to offer educational packages to certified education institutions. Realtimeboard recently created a ‘education’ account that educators could sign up for. Their education package includes essentially their premium features, for the free package price. You can’t complain about that!

    Features

    Six-hats

    Below are some of the features that make Realtimeboard my new app of choice:

    Online

    If you want your app to be successful, it needs to be online. No question about it. People need to be able to access it on any computer, or even, any device; phones, tablets, netbook, notebook, laptop, or desktop computer.

    Realtimeboard is exactly that. It runs from the website, realtimeboard.com, much like Google Docs does, or WordPress. And like those, it has a dashboard that you’re taken to when you log in, with a grid or list view of your ‘boards’. As mentioned, the free account allows you to create only three boards, however, with the Education or Premium plan you can create as many as you like.

    Sharing

    To spread the use of your app, there is one thing above all else that will do that. The ability to share. Google does this seamlessly with their host of apps, all tying into Gmail and user contacts.

    Likewise, Realtimeboard allows you to send your board to any email address to share it. You can set the privacy to be view only or edit – though I suspect that such users may be required to sign up to the Realtimeboard service as well – which is how they spread their product.

    Sharing, in turn, also leads to collaboration, and is a key buzzword with anyone talking about technology and teaching together.

    Google Drive

    Integrating with a larger company’s product is a must. Realtimeboard not only allows you to sign up to its services using a Google Account, but then allows you to link with your Google Drive, and use your existing Google contacts list. This makes sharing boards a lot easier, especially with those on the same domain or those who also use Google Apps (which is most teachers these days). Add to that the fact that this will also work for students on Chromebooks, and it makes Realtimeboard an incredibly powerful tool.

    Web App on Chrome

    So more and more people are using Chrome, and people are discovering that they can add Web Apps to the home screen. Realtimeboard also does this, as well as having a Google Extension that users can add to quickly copy content from webpages into a board of their choice in Realtimeboard.

    The web app itself is little more than a link to Realtimeboard.com, but it sits nicely next to your Google Apps to remind you that it’s there, waiting to be of service!

    Templates

    With Realtimeboard, you can create a blank board, or use one of numerous templates which come pre-built with different layouts, different features, and different looks and feels. With that said, I mostly use a blank template to begin with, but in time, I can see the benefit of the templates if you have a specific learning module that requires one of the layouts seen in a template.

    Presentation

    Using the ‘Frames’ mode, users can use a frame to show a progression, turning Realtimeboard into a powerful presentation tool, much like Prezi or Impress.js. Each day in a series of lessons, or each lesson in a unit over the course of a term could be ‘framed’ up and put into a selective order. This makes it very flexible and usable for more than just keeping notes, or jotting down brainstorms.

    More

    As I say, I have only just started paddling in the pool of possibilities with this app. There is no doubt a range of uses and applications for it, both in the classroom as teachers, but also for students.

    So go ahead and get signed up. Get using it. Explore a new realm of possibilities in real time.

     

    Keep an eye out for an upcoming Check out my post on this site for how to use Realtimeboard, with real screenshots of the different tools and functions that the app offers.

  • Using Google Apps in the Classroom

    Please read my full article here: The Use of Chromebooks and Google Apps in Education

    There are multiple reasons why we decided to head down the Chromebook and Google App path. While I do not wish to delve into all of these, some of them include:

    • Google Docs automatically Saves – having to remind students to save their work was horrendous, let alone the fallout when documents weren’t saved when the device crashed..
    • Searchable Drive – Needless to say, even if the student saved their work, there was no telling if they saved it in the right place, or that they could find it later where they saved it. Being able to search the Docs makes this easier, as well as the fact that each student has their own drive, and does not need to save into a Class Folder on a Windows Server somewhere.
    • Comments & Editing – By sharing their work with the teacher, teachers can provide almost instant feedback, that the students are able to view and address the next time they come to work on their work, or adjust while they are working.

    From the outset, I encouraged students to share their work with me through my work email address. This enabled me to check on their progress of their publishing at the end of the day. It also established an expectation and some excitement as the students rose to this new responsibility of being able to email their teacher.

    During my experimentation with Google Docs, I eventually realised that you can see others editing in real time. I already knew that I could comment on a document, but this new realisation enabled me to work with James on his Maths problems. I created a very short screencast of this process as it happened. Once again, this is timely feedback, with additional support and encouragement for a learner who otherwise struggled to remain on task, let alone be motivated to work at home.

    Throughout the video I have made notes as to when I used any of these acts of teaching, and by the end of the three minute clip, I realised that each and every of the seven Deliberate Acts of Teaching had been used. It made me aware that not only had I just been helping a student out with some homework, but that the process had enabled me to offer some additional teaching with sound pedagogical base. Not only that, but by the end of this online session, James had completed the worksheet, and had shown how he accurately uses different strategies to solve subtraction problems. These are what we have currently been learning in class, but now they were being practised and solidified at home.

    For a long time I saw the motivation of technology to be more of a surface feature that was more bells and whistles than anything worthwhile. By seeing the value of real-time feedback, the ability to provide next steps along with examples, all completed seamlessly while checking emails at home, it is impossible to ignore this as a viable learning possibility. The potential within Google Apps is difficult to comprehend, as more and more ideas are developed and utilized within the classroom. Teachers will need to find themselves not only having to be technologically savvy, but also technologically creative in the way they are able to use technology in their classroom; not just as a gimmick or a reward for early finishers, but as the foundation for further learning in any and every curriculum area. As we continue to move into a world where technology is becoming ever more integrated into everyday life, it is only fitting that schools become a place where this is not only enhanced, but innovated, and become places where tomorrow’s citizens begin their technological journey.