Free Tech Tools Tuesday Year-End Round Up (part 1)

@LisaBerghoff/@Joe_EdTech

This is a funny time of year. By funny I mean strange or odd, definitely not laugh out loud funny. We are frantically trying to "wrap up" this school year while simultaneously planning for next year. This is a time when I find myself reflecting on where I've been and try to set myself on a path so I have some clue where I'm headed. In my reflections I often think about how far my students have come this year and I try to cut myself some slack for the things that I intended to do or try that just didn't pan out.

This week I'm taking a look at the free tech tools that Joe and I have shared with you this year. It's quite a list and there are definitely some common themes among them. I know that many of you have tried some of these with much enthusiasm and success. I also know that many of you have put these in the "maybe next year" category. This post will highlight and refresh your memory so that you can begin next year off and running.

This is part one of a two part series. This week I will round up and highlight the free tech tools that we rolled out during first semester and next week we'll round up the second semester tools. As a reminder, all of the Free Tech Tools posts on Giant Ed Tech are archived so you can always look back and find them. As you are reflecting on your year, I hope you will remember a time that you tried something new. Even if it was an epic fail, it was worth it because you learned something and modeled that for your students. I also hope that in your planning you will consider giving a few of these a whirl.
Enjoy!

August:

How To Manage Multiple Accounts In Chrome: Please, please, stop clicking on your picture to switch accounts! Read this post to see the correct way to change back and forth between your school and home accounts.

September:

Kami for annotating PDFs

My Homework App for chrome: digital assignment notebook

Teach kids how to limit distractions with Stay Focusd chrome app

BookTrack Classroom: Make your own soundtrack to set the tone for a piece of text

Actively Learn: Turn any text into interactive text to help struggling readers

October:

MyHistro: Interactive Timelines

Symbaloo: Manage your resources in the cloud

Vibby: Share specific YouTube content with your students

November:

Dualless: For those of us who don't have multiple monitors

Thinglink: Using interactive images

Wizer.Me: Make boring worksheets interactive

Coggle: Concept mapping

December:

BeeLineReader: Makes screen reading easier on the eyes. Good for dyslexic students. 

Grammerly: Better writing made easy

Quizizz: Fun, interactive, multiplayer classroom quiz games that can be played anywhere. 

January:

Text2Mind Map: Create mind maps from outlines

Google Calendar Appointment Slots: Have students sign up for appointments with you. 

Google Classroom: Updates as of January 2016, 

Next week's list will have all of the free tech tools from second semester. Do you have a favorite that we didn't highlight this year? Share it in the comments section or send me an email. I'd love to hear about fantastic tools you are using!

Photo Available on Pixabay CCO

When One Door Closes - Find a New Door

Two Great Alternatives to Snagit

@joe_edtech/@LisaBerghoff

Earlier this month, TechSmith announced that it was ending support for most of its free educational programs, including SnagIt, which had been the easiest screencasting tool available for the Chromebook. It happens. TechSmith will make most of their programs available for the cost of a license (per student no doubt). So, let me be the first to declare it in no uncertain terms - SnagIt is DEAD TO ME. With resources tight and other options out there, I don't see any reason to pay TechSmith for this service - and I think this will hurt their overall educational market.

So, we move on. There are two other great options for screencasting on Chromebooks, and both of them have a few more features than that old program we used to use. CaptureCast and Screencastify are both free and available on the Chrome Web Store for your students to use. 

Screencastify is a free Chrome extension available on the Chrome Web Store. Once you've installed the extension, and given it access to your Google Drive Account, the Screencastify icon appears in your Chrome tool bar. Click it and you can record an active Chrome Tab, the entire internal display - great for recording a full screen presentation, or recording from your Chromebook's camera. If you are flipping your lessons, you might consider selecting the option to embed the webcam in the bottom-right corner of the screen. That way your students connect with you and not just your content.

One of the features I really like about Screencastify is that you can pause your screen recording and continue with the same recording later on, handy for transitions or breaks in the recording.

When you finish recording, you have the option of making the video a little more polished by trimming the beginning or ending. Also, assuming you checked this option when setting it up, your video will never be stored locally on your computer. It will automatically be saved to a Screencastify folder in "My Drive."

Here are two sets of directions on getting started with Screencastify. First, traditional written directions using Google Slides:

Secondly, video instructions posted on YouTube (I originally created this for a classroom of students, so you can share this with your classes if you want):

The one problem that I've encountered with ScreenCastify is that it doesn't work on older Chromebooks (like the original Samsungs) and it won't work if the students have saved a large number of files to their local storage on the Chromebook.

CaptureCast is new to me, but it works very much the same way. One of the differences between CaptureCast and Screencastify is that CaptureCast will allow you to link to either YouTube or Vimeo, if you prefer Vimeo. Here is the official getting started video for CaptureCast:

Both of these tools allow you to record your screen and use your webcam to record your face while you are presenting. That is a nice way to add a social presence to a flipped, blended, or personalized lesson.

Video Projects Stressing You Out? Check out WeVideo and "Easily Create Outstanding Videos".

@LisaBerghoff/@Joe_EdTech

I have met with so many teachers in the last few weeks who are excited about their students' final projects, except for one small detail. It seems that the students do a fantastic job of collaborating, problem solving, researching, and compiling information to share. The issue comes to surface when the students actually present to their classmates. They take weeks of excitement and hard work and put it all into a dry, boring slides presentation. Sure the students choose a catchy theme and add some images to their slides. But when they actually present they end up reading off of their presentation and all of that passion and excitement goes right out the window. I have experienced this in my own class this year. My students take an engaging, thrilling topic and somehow manage to deliver a rather dull presentation.

One solution to this problem is to have students create a video. They will have an opportunity to be creative and original. Also, you really can't  fake a video. Video creation and editing takes focus and careful attention. You have a much better chance of getting a higher quality final product if your students create a video. Especially for those students who really struggle with  speaking in front of the class.

There are several video creation and video editing tools out there but my current favorite is WeVideo. 

Here is an overview of WeVideo in less than one minute:

Here are the the top 10 reasons why I like WeVideo so much:

1. Sign up and sign on with your school Google account.

2. It is web-based so it works very well with Chromebooks.

3. You can upload your content from multiple locations, such as GoogleDrive, OneDrive,Facebook, Instagram, DropBox, and more. 

4. The drag and drop timeline is very straightforward and easy to use.

5. Even though it's easy, there are also some more advanced features so you can make a high quality video. Use the storyboard mode if you are new, try out the timeline mode to layer tracks, images, and text. 

6. You can add a voice over to your video. This is helpful when your students have a story to tell but probably won't get it right in one take.

7. Your students can use their ChromeBook's webcam to record their own content. 

8. There are free themes, graphics, music tracks and sound effects, most of which are way better than what we can create on our own.

9. When you publish your finished video, you have multiple options, send it to your GoogleDrive, Youtube, DropBox, etc.

10.  The WeVideo Academy has video tutorials that are less than 2 minutes long and so simple to follow your students will not rely on you to teach them how to use it!

Instead of sitting through 25 slides presentations, why not pop some popcorn and have a film festival for your final project sharing day? You can have your students upload their videos to their GoogleDrive and then put it in your shared folder for easy access. 

Have you assigned video projects?  Tell more in the comments section below. 

Getting Interactive With New Features in Google Slides

@joe_edtech / @LisaBerghoff

Let's face it. I'm sold on Google. I'm Google Certified. Google Apps is my GoTo product in nearly every situation. I even suggested once that my work title be changed to "The Great Googley Moogly!" Copyright laws and a sense of responsibility prevented that from happening. 

However, I know that there are a lot of people out there who resisted adopting Google Slides initially because it was clunky and a little cartoonish. In the last few months, Google has added three features to Google slides that just might have its doubters taking a second look.

1. Presentation Templates

You never need to start a presentation from scratch. If you go to slides.google.com, or "File - New - From template," you can choose from a selection of professionally designed slide templates. All of the templates come with a variety of slide types and suggestions for presenting data.

Each of the templates has a variety of different slides that can be customized with pictures, colors, themes, etc.

Google Slide Template "Your big idea"

2. Embedded Q & A Feature

Every once in a while, Google has to retire a tool that has reached its end of life - usually because it simply isn't being used by very many people. One such tool, and one that I really liked, was called Moderator. Using Moderator, teachers or presenters could provide a space for students or audience members to ask questions during a presentation. All of the members of the class could see the questions and vote on their favorites. The more votes a question got, the more it moved to the top of the list of questions to be addressed by the "moderator" at the end of the presentation. The idea was that we usually have a limited amount of time to ask questions at the end of presentation. A tool like "Moderator" ensures that the most important questions- the ones most people in the audience want answered - are asked first.

While "Moderator" is gone, its best features are now a part of Google Slides! When you go to present, you can turn on the new Q&A Feature:

The Q&A Feature isn't complicated, but it is probably easier if you see what it looks like before you use it. So, I made a very short demo video below:

3. Virtual Laser Pointer

It's always good to be able to focus your audience on a single bullet point or statistic in your presentation. If you have a laser pointer, that's fantastic - but the FAA may want a word with you. If you don't have a laser pointer, you can use the new built-in pointer in Google Slides. When you are presenting, you can choose to turn your "laser pointer" on and it will create a highlighted trail as you move your mouse across the screen. 

For those of you hockey enthusiasts out there, the NHL tried something similar with the puck on TV broadcasts a few years ago. This seems a little more useful.

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Noticed something new in Google that might be useful to share? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

Make More Positive A Snap 

With Psnap.it 

@LisaBerghoff/@Joe_Edtech

This is a pretty big week!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of my wonderful colleagues and friends who are working tirelessly to provide our students with the absolute best learning experiences possible.  AND an early Happy Mother's Day (on Sunday- take the hint) to all of the moms who do the world's hardest job each and every day.

Since we're in the spirit of appreciation and gratitude (especially now that PARCC testing is over), this seems like the perfect time of year to introduce you to my latest discovery and absolute favorite free tech tool: Psnap!  

Psnap is my favorite because it is all about storing and sharing moments of positivity.  On the surface, Psnap may seem like a fluffy, cutesy system for giving people props. Actually, it was carefully created by the fantastic people at PF Loop, Inc. They have been looking at scientific research that shows the impact that remembering moments that matter and exchanging positive expressions has on one's health, wealth, and wellbeing. A partial list of the researchers and academic published writings that helped guide the development of Psnap can be found here.  The idea is that often when something wonderful happens whether it be a really big deal or just a small random act of kindness, over time we will most likely forget that positive moment. Psnap allows us to capture that moment and store it, share it, or take it out later and remember it.  Remembering and celebrating positive things in our lives can make a big difference. 

Here is how it works...

Go to psnap.it to create an account. You can send a Psnap to anyone with an email address. Once they accept their Psnap,  an account is automatically created for them.  To create a Psnap, just click on the "create" button at the top of the screen.  You will add the receiver's email address and then choose the type of Psnap you want to send. The images that are there will change daily. You can also add your own image or leave it blank.  Next, you will type in the subject and then a message. You will choose a category and add a tag value for this Psnap. As you send and receive Psnaps, you will be able to sort and filter by category and tag value. Click the orange "Psnap.It" button and you've sent a Psnap!

When you open a Psnap, it looks like this..

Make sure that you have all of your email addresses listed in your profile so you can send and receive to and from family, friends, colleagues, etc. Your Psnap dashboard shows all of your psnaps and is a wonderful scrapbook of positive moments that you can look back on and smile. 

Psnap is a "work in progress" and the developers are always looking for feedback and suggestions. 

Let's put some positive into the world this week with Psnap. Thank a colleague, appreciate a friend, let your mom know she's amazing, etc. Receiving an email that you have a Psnap waiting will definitely make you smile. 

How many Psnaps can we send in May?  Let's find out. Let us know what you love about Psnap. Feel free to add to the comments below.