Looking back at the blog posts from this year's Cool Tools for School, I'm amazed at how much I explored, learned, sifted, and implemented. Here are some examples and reflections:
In conclusion, as always, I learned a lot. This blog is my curation tool that I come back to often during the year to refresh my memory about a specific tool and to find a corresponding set of directions (that I hot-linked into the blog post) to help me use it.
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My students love to play around with Google Maps, but I've never used them in instruction. As a librarian, I got excited when I read the idea of creating Google Lit Trips or mapping significant locations tied to research. I followed the directions of Eric Curtz to create a Lit Trip using Google Tour Builder about the Civil Rights Movement. The image below shows the dashboard for creating the tour with Google Tour Builder, but Eric Curtz provides directions for importing it into Google Earth. Matt Miller's blog post, 20 ways Google MyMaps can enhance lessons in any class, has given me lots of inspiration for other uses of Google maps, too! At our orientation session at the beginning of the school year, the librarians in the Rochester City School District had the opportunity to experience BreakoutEDU and Google Expeditions. Tackling these two new technologies felt a little overwhelming to me, but I jumped in the water and tried out Google Expeditions with a set of 10 VR glasses at our school for 2 weeks in January 2018. (We supplemented it with tablets for the students not using the glasses, then switched after a certain period of time.) It was a great experience! We can borrow a Breatkout EDU kit through our School Library System, but I haven't had time to fully explore or prep for using it. So here goes . . . . One free game that I found that I want to try out revolves around the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. I do a lot with fairy tales and fractured fairy tales, and this BreakoutEDU game is free and does not look too complicated for starters. Taking things to the next level, it would be great to have the students design their own fairytale-related BreakoutEDU game. The BreakoutEDU "lesson plans" are so well organized that it makes me feel like I can try this out without too much prep time. The game includes a story summary, lock combinations, set up instructions, game resources (which you can save to Google Drive), a facilitation tool, and reflection questions. The fact that I had a chance to experience BreakoutEDU helps make sense of all of this.
Breakout EDU Digital Sandbox As an alternative to physical lockboxes and clues, some educators have created virtual games where all the clues and locks are embedded in a Google site. These are community-created and free. They work well with ChromeBooks. Amy Carpenter suggests projecting the game for the whole class to see, assigning the locks to different groups, and working together as a class. Lock combinations are filled in on the main computer used to project the game. Creating a Game Here's the link for resources to create a Breakout EDU game. If you succeed in making a game that makes it into the official BreakoutEDU directory, you can win fun things like a swag bag, full access to the platform, and even a free kit!
This topic caught my eye because I have not done anything with this application before. I read Jessica's blog post for starters, which got me excited about the possibilities.
Using Google Drawing for Infographics This fall I tried out using Piktochart with four classes of 4th graders to show their learning by creating a digital poster about the great horned owl. The students already had experience using Google slides, so I wanted to branch out and let them experience another platform. I liked Piktochart because it allowed the students to use their G Suite for Education account to sign up, and (unlike Canva) all the images were free. However, Piktochart was not fully integrated with Google which meant that I could not watch the students' progress, leave formative feedback, have them work collaboratively, or print their posters. So, I'm looking for a new platform for next year. I started with Tony Vincent's Get Creative with Google Drawings blog post, and was immediately gratified to learn that Google Drawings integrates seamlessly with Google Keep. (I want to try teaching my students to curate research resources in Google Keep, but I'm waiting for my district to enable the Chrome extensions for Google Keep.) So it looks like translating the research curated in Google Keep into a infographic could be quite efficient. Also wonderful to note is that fact that the Explore Tool is accessible in Google Drawings. Jeff Herb provides 8 free infographic templates that he created with Google Drawings. Before experimenting with Google Drawings, I watched Intro to Google Drawings in the Classroom by Jocelyn Buckentin where I learned a handy new tip--that png's have transparent backgrounds. Next I studied Alice Keeler's Getting Started with Google Draw where I read that a Google Drawing can be embedded in a website, and it will be automatically updated as changes are made to it in Google Drive. This is great feature if students want to embed their work in a blog post. Also, Google Drawings can be shared, so they are perfect for collaborative projects. I remixed my Piktochart poster using Google Draw, and it was a snap!
Using Google Drawing for Graphic Organizers
I was ecstatic to see Tony's use of Google Drawings to create graphic organizers that could be easily shared with students so that they can fill in the digital copy of the graphic organizers. What is more, I can project and fill in a digital copy of the graphic organizer as I model the process for the students. Tony generously shared multiple graphic organizers. Here is one that I modified for a unit that I'm doing with the 5th Grade on the Rainforest.
And so much more . . .
Besides infographics and graphic organizers, Tony Vincent shows how Google Drawings can be used for other types of activities--games, comics, sorting and arranging, and much more! Eric Curtz provides a list of creative commons-licensed resources created with Google Drawings. |
AuthorCarol Satta Archives
May 2019
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