EDpuzzle: a Go-To Platform for the Flipped Class Novice

Flipping a lesson, let alone an entire classroom, is a time-consuming, laborious, chore.  Yes, the payoff is spectacular (differentiated learning, individualized pacing, higher-order thinking, etc.), but many teachers take one look at the legwork it takes to produce, edit and host video content and throw in the towel.

My job as an Instructional Technology Specialist, is to show them the light at the end of the tunnel.  Today, I hosted a training on blended classrooms and flipped learning (presentation below).  In my research on ideal platforms for the novice teacher, I found EDpuzzle.

My initial reaction was an increasing head-nod of approval as I saw that it could:

- Sign in via Google (+1).
- Search and import video from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube, LearnZillion, and Khan Academy.
- Allow teachers to record their own audio track over the existing video.
- Allow teachers to add voice comments inserted within the video.
- Insert quizzes within the video.
- Manage who in your class has watched the video, when and what scores they achieved on the embedded quizzes.
- Host the video in a minimalistic browser window...
- ...or embed the video elsewhere!

In my training, I exposed teachers to ~10 websites they could leverage to create/host video for their sample flipped lessons.  75% of them went with EDpuzzle as their solution.  Comments that I overheard were:

- "I love how it walks you through the process of customizing the video."
- "So all I have to do is just log in with my Google account and I can begin creating?!"
- "Wait...I can keep track of who has watched the videos?  Awesome."
- "Cool...I can rerecord the entire thing or just put in a voice comment."

In well under 30 minutes, one teacher (with no previous screencasting experience nor PD on how to use EDpuzzle) managed to create this video:

Some feature requests that teachers had were:

- the ability to export the video to .mp4 or re-upload the new video (minus quizzes) to their YouTube channel
- the ability to add in Video comments
- the ability to add in text comments that can link out to another web resource

All in all, EDpuzzle is a fantastic platform for novice and experienced Flipped educators alike.  Take a moment and check 'em out!

+Bob Petitto's Flipped Class *reFRESH Training:

Free Professional Development when Going Google

I recently came across this fantastic website containing 5 FREE courses for educators on Google Apps for Education.  Each self-paced course consists of 5 units (complete with video tutorials and activity) and post-course assessment that results in a congratulatory Certificate of Achievement.  Check them out below!



Free courses provided by https://educourses.withgoogle.com/

Chrome & Chromebooks: Chrome and Chromebooks for Education Course

Apps for Education: Google Apps for Education Overview Course

Drive: Google Drive for Educators Course

Gmail: Gmail for Educators Course

Google Apps for Education: Our Academic Playground

About 2 months ago, I was commissioned to come up with a graphic that would explain the benefits of transitioning to a Google Apps in cooperation with our District's Strategic Plan.  It had to be informative but simple, engaging but not over the top.  The Prezi below is the result.  Enjoy!



If the Prezi fails to load, click here.

Google Moderator for Collaborative Decision-Making

I'm an avid user of Google Forms.  They're easy to create, distribute and seamlessly compile into a spreadsheet that can be shared with any stakeholder.  The one drawback--they're not collaborative.

There's a time and a place when I want data that I can put into a Pivot Table and analyze =COUNTIF(...) formulas.  Most of the time, I'm just looking for general consensus.

Such is the case for my most recent project: piggy-backing off the success of our VVSDtech OnDemand page for staff by creating a VVSDtech Student OnDemand page.  I wanted to make a collaborative decision as to what resources should belong on the page, and at the same time, eliminate redundancy, duplicate entries, and navigation between multiple web pages.  I had considered creating a Google Form that, upon submission, would prompt the user to visit the results of other users' submissions, but the more I thought about it, I realized:

1. Users might be deflated upon realizing that the idea that took them 2-3 minutes to submit was already submitted by someone else.
2. I don't want 50+ rows in my spreadsheet taken up by a single resource that everyone happens to agree on.

So, I decided against using a Google Form and instead opted to leverage Google Moderator.  For those that don't know, Google Moderator allows users to submit ideas and vote for each other’s ideas all on a single page in real time!  

The gDoc below outlines how to use Google Moderator for this purpose.  Feel free to use it for your own purposes.  Happy voting!

Google@VVSD - Now with gScholar!

What I love about Google is that it just works.  Nearly every one of their apps works seamlessly with the others to create an environment that is comprehensive in function yet simplistic in design.  I designed the above image map to depict how Valley View School District envisions its Google Apps environment.  I'm sure you will recognize the majority of the apps represented above, but the ones you might not be familiar with are:

Okta provides for us true single-sign abilities in our current Active Directory-managed environment.

gScholar provides a Teacher Dashboard and Admin Console that is used to manage the Google Apps environment in the classroom:

The best part about gScholar, is that it's only $800/domain/yr!  It also comes with a slew of device management and geolocation features that other educational Google Apps management consoles fail to provide.  For more information on gScholar, click here: https://sites.google.com/a/promevo.com/gscholar/

VVSD+GAFE=BYOT

http://www.dodigital.co.uk/education/google-apps-for-education/

Last week was a looooooooong week. Granted, I only had myself to blame; I had been burning the candle at both ends. By day I was K-5 Instructional Technology Specialist. By night, I was channeling my inner Bob Villa as I was finalizing my family room built-ins project.

But that's neither here nor there.  The point I'm trying to make is that by Friday, I was dog tired.  That is, until I received the news that I had been longing to hear since the onset of my career at Valley View: we were going to begin piloting Google Apps for Education beginning second semester!

Now to some of you, you might be thinking, "Big whoop...we've been using Google Apps for Education for [insert duration of time here]."  Well, you see, for us, considering to pilot Google Apps is equivalent to my family room built-ins project--it's gutting the outdated system, designing the new infrastructure, and then planning and executing the installation process (how's that for coming full circle?).

As far as I know, Valley View has always been a Microsoft Windows/Exchange environment...which has been a bit frustrating when attempting to propel our district forward in its endeavors to incorporate emerging educational technology integration models.  Since TechCon October 2012, we recognized the role Google Apps could play in our efforts to move towards BYOT, but it wasn't until the Leyden HS Dist. #212 1-to-1 Summer Symposium (and countless subliminal messaging opportunities in between) did we (and by "we" I mean "they") embrace the idea of "Going Google".

Frankly, I don't care how we got here, I'm just glad we're here.  Our journey has begun.  It won't be too long until we're sprinting to the finish line.  I'll be here to keep you updated along the way!

School Librarians as a Literacy Specialist...Not a Babysitter

In our district, the Library Media Centers (LMCs) are a dumping ground.  

As per the contract, K-5 teachers send their students to the LMC for 30 minutes a week as a Special, like Art, Music or PE.  During the 30 minutes, students receive a mini-lesson on a variety of topics including digital literacy, library expectations and procedures, keyboarding practice, digital citizenship and more.  They are also allowed, clearly, to check out books.  The checkout process can take around 10-15 minutes which doesn't leave very much time for the LMC director to execute their curriculum.

The LMC Directors want change!  In a recent article put out by The Guardian, "...[revolutionizing the school LMC] means a great deal...the library has the capacity to enjoy its own renaissance. Because of the digital revolution it is no longer just about the printed book. As a space, it is about inspiring young people." 

Our LMCs have that potential.  I've seen it happen.  Just yesterday, I popped in on one of our LMC Directors, Ms. Erin Preder, in the middle of a collaboration session with a fellow 5th-grade teacher and his students.  She and the class used Story by Disney, a FREE iPhone/iPad app, to create a Digital Story of the LMC Expectations.  The entire process took only 27 minutes from start (brainstorming rules) to finish (watching what they created).  Unlike the regulary scheduled 30-minute LMC blocks, the teacher stayed with the class and handled the management of the class while Ms. Preder led the class in collaborating, creating and technology instruction.

Ms. Preder displaying the final product to the participating class before publishing

As witness to this project, I can attest that it was collaboration at its best.  Both the teacher and Erin were working together to manage the class and maintain an authentic learning environment.  Erin and the students were working interdependently to create the final product.  Students were engaged from start to finish because they saw the relevancy and reward of the lesson design, the process, the procedures and the final product.  The students had buy-in because they were to be featured in the LMC Expectations slideshow that is to be viewed by the other classes; they were kept accountable, which also focused their efforts and minimized behavior issues despite the fact that only a single iPad was used for the lesson.  See the final product below:

For me, the entire experience was a glimpse as to how the LMC director should be utilized given the freedom to collaborate and cocreate with fellow staff members.  It's my personal opinion that if all LMC Directors were on a flex schedule, more opportunities like these would be possible, which would ultimately improve school climate, relationships among colleagues, and student engagement.

See below to learn more about Ms. Erin Preder and all the wonderful things happening in her LMC.

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