Searching Google Docs For AISD Content

The more we use Google Docs in AISD, the more we will find some of the advanced features more important. For example, I create the world's greatest Literature Group lesson in Google docs and have shared it with AISD.  Later, I meet Mr. Smyth at a meeting downtown and he said he would be interested in seeing my lesson. How will he be able to find it quickly?

Make It Visible
To the right, you see how I made my Doc visible. I chose to not make it viewable to the entire world, but just to all 7,000+ AISD employees and 80,000+ students.

By marking the top AISD button, any teacher/student will be able to search Google Docs and find my document. 

*WARNING: This is a good and bad thing. Don't share any confidential material like this as someone could search and find it by accident.

Now that my document is saved with some unique name and I marked the document as visible by all AISD searches, my colleagues can find this document and open it WITHOUT  me having to share it with them specifically.

Use The Advanced Search

The more documents you have in Google Docs, the more you'll use the search box. Typing and searching for keywords will quickly go through your own docs and show suggestions for your search.



Basic Search



However, I can also search the vast amount of docs that live inside the AISD Google Docs domain. By using the advanced search drop-down, I can use the 'Search AISD' link at the very bottom. My search results now will come from my Docs as well as all other user-created docs in AISD.

Using this with students can be quite useful.  For today's problem statement, I want my students to open up my document, add their thoughts and submit at the end of the week for a grade.

1. Create a Google Docs and name it something unique, like "MartinP5PhysicsandPolitics". Share that document with AISD, as above.
2. Students will login to the Cloud and do the advanced search for that file name, and open the file.
3. Because I want this file to be a template, I didn't give anyone edit rights.  So my students' first action will be to go to the Google Docs File menu and 'Make a Copy' of this document. They now have their own copy and can edit it to their heart's content.
4. By the end of the week, they can share their document with me. (They won't change any privacy settings because they don't need anyone to find their work.) The share with me, giving me edit writes so that I can leave comments on their work.

There are a number of different ways to share with others, but I'll put that in a later post.  Leave a comment if you have done this with your students. Did you find it useful? What did you do differently that worked for you?

iPad Support and Tips

Every time I turn around, seems that I see another website out there with lists of iPad apps that you just can't live without. As an educator, those are sometimes nice because you just don't have the extra time it could take to window shop in the iTunes store looking for useful apps.  We are putting out hat into the ring in order to address that request from teachers.

The AISD iPad User's Group has been started as a place for educators to find resources online, share lists of apps, and join into a discussion about using iApps in the classroom.  This resources has been divided into two segments, 1) a website that you can view and add your ideas to a growing list, and 2) an email group that users can use to ask questions, seek support, or share successes from like-minded educators.

iPad User's Group Lists/Resources: https://sites.google.com/a/austinisd.org/ipad_users_group/  This website has a small group of links in the left margin for viewing and adding to lists.  The lists are all Google Forms that allow any user to add their useful ideas to the collection.   Each page has a link to the form and then a link to the list.

iPad User's Group Email Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ipads-in-education  At the bottom of the iPad User's Group website, there is an embedded view of the email group found at this link. Either way, anyone can view the comments being shared by the group.  You are encouraged to join the group by visiting the Google Groups page and registering. Membership allows you to reply to a post, start a new post for discussion, and get the discussions email to you automatically.  (Your email addresses will not be shared, sold, or made into holiday crafts. This list is just for creating a dialogue among teachers about iPad use in the classroom.)

Subscribe to iPads in Education

Email:

Visit this group

So join the iPad User's Group (IUG) here in Austin and help us all benefit from the collective experiences of many teachers.   We can learn from each other.  For example, in the IUG is a tip on how to make iOS 5's keyboard split into two pieces.  By holding down the keyboard icon in the lower right, you can select 'Split Keyboard' and have two small keyboards on each side of the screen, right where your thumbs are is you are holding it with two hands!  Nice!!  

Using Audacity in AISD

Making audio recordings in the classroom can be a great tool for assessment, a nice student product for class, or a necessary step for many high school students as they have a need to send language examples to colleges. The district supports Audacity as the standard audio recording tool.

The software is not already installed on the computers, but any teacher or student can install the software with their normal network login. (Schools using Deepfreeze will need to thaw the computer before installing software.)  You can find a video, Installing Audactiy Part 1, that will show users how to install the software.

Recording software is pretty easy. The buttons are the same buttons you find on a CD or cassette player. Audacity will create an audio track each time you press the record button. There are numerous resources online that will show you how to improve your audio recordings and even make multi-track recordings. A second video, Recording with Audacity Part 2, gives a very basic look at how to record audio using Audacity.

Lastly, the recording artist can save the file as an Audacity Project File, which keeps all of the sound edits made after recording.  You can also export the sound as a .wav or .mp3 audio file. Currently, all users will have to locate the .mp3 LAME encoder file before successfully exporting the mp3.  The thrid video in our series, Saving and Exporting with Audacity Part 3, shows how one can successfully export an mp3 when using a computer inside the school district.  That video has been embedded below for your viewing pleasure.



For more resources on using Audacity, check out  AtomicLearning.com and the rest of the internet.

Webcams Set Learning On Fire!

There are so many productive things that we can do with a good digital camera in the classroom. Unfortunately, we all don't have class sets of digital cameras to use. I would argue that the lack of digital cameras opens up opportunities that only webcams can provide, and we have we have at least one webcam in every classroom, the teacher laptop webcam.  If we bring in a campus netbook cart, iMac, Manda or Innovation Station, then the possibilities continue to grow.

District webcam-enabled computers all already have some image capture software installed.  Macs: Photobooth, iPad2: Photobooth, netbooks: CyberLink YouCam, Manda pc: AMCap,  Windows laptop: Dell Webcam Central.   Also available on all district computers are your installed apps like ComicLife, iMovie, MovieMaker, and Photoshop which also let you capture images directly into those applications to be edited or used as needed.  (Stay tuned for future post on greenscreening in the classroom!)

Fire effect from htmlchat.net/99/snapshot

Sometimes, we want a little extra creativity in our photo applications or we can't find the installed applications.  Web2.0 sites come to the rescue again with online webcam image capture sites. There are many out there, but nice ones include:
* http://htmlchat.net/99/snapshot  - has special effects
* http://cameroid.com/snap.php   - allows you to create your own gallery online and has special effects

Perhaps you are at home and need an installable option right away.  Available for both Mac and Windows, http://www.manycam.com can be downloaded and installed for free.

Webcams can play a nice roll in the classroom. Capture student work, pose students for illustrated stories, videotape oral reports, the list goes on!  Engage students with camera technology and odds are, they will come up with other authentic uses as well.

How do you use cameras in your classroom instruction?

Paperslide Videos! Easy Way To Use Tech AND Show Learning!

This was one of my favorite Discovery Educator Network (DEN) sessions that I've attended over my many years teaching. The DEN likes to put teachers in the students' shoes sometimes and making Paperslide videos was a fun activity, engaging activity, only took 20 minutes before we were sharing, and was totally centered around a specific teaching objective.


Paper Slide Video: Solids, Liquids and Gasses from Heather Hurley on Vimeo.

Basically, Paperslide Videos are nothing more than sheets of papers that slide under the view of a recording camera. It's all done in one take, with no editing. It could be a nice way to introduce Powerpoint in that you aren't having students just jam 150 words on to a page, but they must rely on visual literacy to depict the lines from the song or their spoken lecture.  There are no faces or names in the video, so the product could go immediately onto the class blog/wiki to be shared with other students and parents. But best of all, the students are rehearsing and creating the pictures, which means in order to teach the objective, they must learn it first.

Dr. Lodge McCammon, (with the Friday Institute out of NC State University),  brings this to teachers quite frequently and he works extensively with the fine people of Discovery Education. He actually uses Paperslide Videos to explain the concept (the top video) and how to make one.

What can you do with Paperslide Videos? Some teachers use them just to capture a teacher or student-directed lecture video.  That is a great first step through the door, but another very engaging product is to make a Paperslide Video to illustrate a song.  Dr. Lodge has a lot of songs already on Discovery Education (search 'lodge' and media type 'song' to find 45 tunes organized by standard/subject/etc) or visit his other blog.

Check out what Mr. C's class did with "On The Numberline" in one class period with his Austin ISD students.

Lastly, excellent teacher in the DEN, Heather Hurley, shared a Paperslide they did on States of Matter that uses one of Lodge's songs! She used a video-sharing site, Vimeo, to share this with her colleagues and parents.  I embedded this video at the top of this post to catch your attention!

Now, the same songs can also be used in a very kinesthetic environment by having students act out the lyrics instead of drawing them.  While not a Paperslide video, the same concepts apply and the time for the product is still maintained within part of a class period.  Check out how students showed the Order of Operations in this music video.

Create your own Paperslide Videos!!   Leave a comment below with a link to one your class made. We'd love to see it.