Video Toolkit: Supercharge Your Video Lessons with Edpuzzle!

A new chapter of video: Edpuzzle logo

We all know that video is a powerful ways to engage students. Many of you have used video in your classroom, perhaps with tools like Canvas Studio. As our district is discontinuing Canvas Studio, you might be looking for a new, more powerful tool to take its place. How can you ensure students are actually watching, check for understanding in the moment, and stop them from just hitting “play” and tuning out?

If that sounds familiar, I’m excited to re-introduce you to Edpuzzle! It’s a tool designed from the ground up to turn passive video viewing into an active, engaging, and accountable learning experience.

What is Edpuzzle?

It’s a platform that lets you take almost any video (from YouTube, Khan Academy, one you’ve made, or even a screencast you record right in Edpuzzle) and embed your own questions, notes, and voice-overs directly into it.

But it’s not just for videos anymore! You can now build lessons with interactive Slides (by uploading your Google Slides or PowerPoints) or create stand-alone, gamified Quizzes to check understanding, all on the same platform.

Did you know? Edpuzzle has an official partnership with YouTube to provide ad-free videos when using their platform.

Why Try Edpuzzle?

This is where Edpuzzle really shines as a Canvas Studio alternative. It’s not just about showing a video; it’s about what your students do with it.

  • 1. Turns Passive Viewing into Active Learning: Embedded questions make students stop and think, which boosts retention.
    • Student Outcome: Deeper engagement and accountability. Students must participate, not just watch.
  • 2. Get Instant, Actionable Data: Simple analytics show who completed the lesson, their scores, and which questions were toughest.
    • Student Outcome: This formative data shows exactly what to re-teach or which students need support.
  • 3. Perfect Your Flipped Classroom: Deliver instruction via homework with built-in checks for understanding, so you know who is ready for the next step.
    • Student Outcome: Frees up class time for hands-on activities, projects, and small-group support.
  • 4. Access a Massive Content Library: Save time by adapting lessons or using the high-quality, standards-aligned Edpuzzle Originals library.
    • Student Outcome: Students get vetted, engaging, pre-built content.

How to Get Started

Check out our Edpuzzle guide for how access your premium account. You can also select the asynchronous course in Kickup for November’s PD.

Smart Tech in the Classroom: How to Innovate While Protecting Students (and Your District)

how to protect student data privacy

As educators, we frequently discover new digital tools—a dynamic math game, an AI writing assistant, or an engaging video creator—that seem perfect for our students. In the rush to implement these resources, it can be easy to overlook a critical question: “Is this tool safe?”

The concerns extend beyond traditional cybersecurity threats; they are fundamentally about protecting student data. This post will examine three significant data risks and present simple, effective ways to avoid them.

Understanding the Risks: Three Common Data Privacy Concerns

These risks range from accidental data sharing to new, less-visible threats.

1. “Shadow AI” (The Data We Give Away)

This risk arises from using unapproved, personal AI accounts (like a free ChatGPT or Gemini personal account) for school tasks. It occurs when educators, with the best intentions, take actions such as:

  • Pasting a student’s essay in for quick feedback.
  • Uploading a class roster to generate worksheets.
  • Using an AI to help draft sensitive IEP or 504 goals.

The Risk: This practice actively feeds private student data into a public model. This can be a serious data breach and a potential FERPA violation.

  • Analogy: This is analogous to posting a student’s graded paper on a public bulletin board in the town square.

Reminder: Never put personally identifiable information (PII) in an AI tool.

2. Unvetted Applications (The Data Students Sign Away)

This concerns the use of unvetted applications. An educator finds a promising website and, to use it, instructs students to create accounts.

  • It is often impractical to review the lengthy privacy policy for every new tool.
  • Consequently, we may not know what data students are providing (e.g., their name, email, or birthday).
  • What is that “free” company really doing with the data? Are they tracking students or selling their information? It is often said that if the product is free, YOU are the product.

The Risk: This can lead to unintentional violations of federal student privacy laws (like COPPA and FERPA). We are responsible for the digital tools we place in front of our students.

  • Analogy: This is similar to allowing a stranger to collect detailed personal forms from students to enter a theme park, without first reading the fine print.

3. “Prompt Injection” (The Data That Gets Stolen)

This is a new, subtle threat. It targets emerging AI tools that can take actions on your behalf, such as AI-powered web browsers that can “summarize this page” or connect to your other applications.

Consider this scenario:

  1. You find a seemingly normal webpage and want a quick summary.
  2. You click your browser’s AI button to summarize it.
  3. Hidden on that page, in code or invisible text, is a malicious command (an “invisible ink” of sorts).
  4. The AI, which cannot differentiate the content from the instructions, executes the hidden command—which could be, “Go to the user’s Gmail and find all their passwords.”

The Risk: The tool you trust is tricked into stealing your personal or professional data.

  • Analogy: This is akin to asking a personal assistant to read you a letter, but the letter contains a hidden message that compels the assistant to give away your passwords.

Bottom line: AI browsers are like puppies, never leave them with unsupervised access to your information.

 

Why This Matters: Upholding Privacy and Security

The goal is not to discourage technology use, but to empower you to use it safely. The positive takeaway is that avoiding all three of these risks can be accomplished with a few simple habits.

  • Use your district Google account when using Gemini or NotebookLM. SchoolAI is another paid, district AI platform. Your personal accounts do not have the same legal protections.
  • Start with paid, district programs. If you aren’t sure, reach out to a curriculum coordinator or technology integration specialist.
  • If you find something new, do some research before you use it with students. Take a look at the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Check for these items:
    • What data is collected?
      • Look for specifics. Be wary if it collects Personally Identifiable Information (PII) like full names or birthdates.
      • Red Flag: Vague language or collecting data that isn’t necessary for the tool to function.
    • How is the data used and shared?
      • It should only be used for the educational purpose of the tool.
      • Red Flag: Any mention of “commercial purposes,” “marketing,” “selling data,” or sharing with unnamed “affiliates” or “partners.”
    • Is there advertising?
      • The policy must explicitly state that student data is not used for targeted advertising.
      • Red Flag: Creating advertising profiles of students or allowing third-party advertisers to track them.
    • How is data secured and deleted?
      • Look for “encryption” and a clear process for you to request data deletion.
      • Red Flag: No mention of security measures or a deletion policy.
    • Who owns the data?
      • The student or school district should always retain ownership of their data and creations.
      • Red Flag: Any language where the company claims ownership of student-generated content.
    • Do they comply with federal law (FERPA & COPPA)?
      • The policy should acknowledge FERPA (treating data as a “school official”) and COPPA (handling data for kids under 13).
      • Red Flag: Pushing the legal burden of parental consent (COPPA) onto the teacher.

If you aren’t sure, submit a tech ticket requesting support.

Quick Tech Update: Meet “Follett Work Orders” (It’s What You Already Know!)

Follett logo

Have you recently seen an email from “Follett Work Orders” and wondered, “What is this? Did I sign up for something?”

Don’t worry, you’re not getting spam! This is just a quick, friendly update about a small change to a system you already know and use.  Follett Work Orders is the new name for our district’s help and request system, which you have known as Master Library. That’s it! The company that runs the software was purchased by Follett, so they are updating the name, logo, and website colors.

 

 

Update to Your Google Calendar Settings

I mage of paper calendar and the text, "Spam! No thanks!"

Ever open your Google Calendar and see a strange, spammy event invitation from someone you don’t know?  It’s cluttered, annoying, and, honestly, a little concerning. To help clean up our calendars and boost our district’s security, we’re enabling a new Google Calendar setting.

Don’t worry! This is a simple, positive change. This post will quickly explain what’s new and the one simple step you might need to take.

What is this Google Calendar Change?

Think of your calendar like your physical mailbox at school. Until now, anyone could slip a flyer (a calendar invite) into your box, and it would just appear there.

With this new setting, your calendar gets a “hall monitor.”

From now on, only event invites from people your calendar “knows” will be automatically added. This includes:

  • Anyone else in our school district
  • People already in your Google Contacts
  • People you’ve emailed with before

So, what happens if someone new (like a parent, a guest speaker, or a webinar you signed up for) sends you an invite?

You will still get an email invitation just like always. The event just won’t automatically appear on your calendar grid until you click “Yes” in the email.

Next Steps

There is one simple action you should take to make sure you don’t miss important meetings from people you trust.

Add Your Trusted Connections to Google Contacts.

The next time you get an email from a parent, a regular guest speaker, or a community partner, take 5 seconds to add them to your contacts.

Here’s the easiest way (in Gmail):

  1. Open an email from that person.
  2. Hover your mouse over their name at the top of the email.
  3. A small card will pop up. Click the “Add to Contacts” icon (it looks like a little person with a plus sign).

That’s it! Once you do that, all future calendar invites from that person will be automatically added to your calendar, just like you’re used to.

URGENT: Security Risk and Policy Reminder – AI Browsers (ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity Comet)

Construction cones and cautions signs related to AI browser security risks

We need to make you aware of a new category of software that poses a significant security and data privacy risk to our students and our district: AI-powered web browsers.

You may see news about browsers like ChatGPT Atlas (from OpenAI) and Perplexity Comet. These are not standard browsers like Chrome. They are built with powerful AI “agents” that can take actions on a user’s behalf, such as summarizing pages, booking appointments, or even completing tasks for them.

While the features may sound helpful, they introduce severe dangers that violate our student data privacy obligations and acceptable use policies. Teachers and students should not be using these browsers for school-related business.

The Core Dangers: Why These Browsers Are Not Permitted

  1. Extreme Data Privacy & FERPA Risks:
    • Unlike Chrome, these browsers are designed to read, understand, and “remember” the entire content of every webpage a student visits.
    • OpenAI’s “Browser Memories” feature in Atlas, for example, creates a persistent profile of the user’s activity.
    • Using these tools with any student information (grades, IEPs, or even just student names) could be a direct violation of FERPA, as unvetted third-party companies would be collecting and storing protected educational data.
  2. Critical Security Vulnerabilities (Prompt Injection):
    • Security researchers have demonstrated a new attack called “indirect prompt injection.”
    • This is where a malicious website hides invisible instructions (in code, comments, or even white text on a white background) on its page.
    • When a student simply asks the AI to “summarize this page,” the AI can be tricked into executing those hidden, malicious commands without the student’s knowledge.
    • In documented tests, attackers used this method to steal a user’s email, access their private Gmail account, and extract passwords.
  3. “Agent Mode” Can Be Hijacked:
    • The “agent mode” in these browsers is designed to take autonomous actions for the user.
    • OpenAI itself warns that these agents are “susceptible to hidden malicious instructions” and that their “safeguards will not stop every attack.”
    • This could lead to an AI agent being tricked into downloading malware, making unauthorized purchases, or sending sensitive data from a student’s account to an attacker.

Our Policy: Google Chrome is Required

Our district’s acceptable use policy, which requires that all students (including BYOD) log in to and use Google Chrome, is in place specifically to prevent these kinds of risks.

  • Google Chrome is Vetted: We manage the Chrome environment. We control the extensions, enforce safe browsing, and have a data privacy agreement (DPA) with Google that ensures FERPA compliance.
  • AI Browsers Are Unvetted: We have no DPA with these new companies. They are not enterprise-ready for schools and, as one security firm noted, can be up to 85% more vulnerable to phishing attacks than Chrome.

What to Do:

  • Do Not Install: Please ensure these browsers (ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity Comet, etc.) are not installed on any school device. If you as a teacher bring your own device to work, do not use these browsers for school-related business.
  • Talk to Your Students: Remind students that using unapproved software on their BYOD devices while connected to the school network is a policy violation. Explain that while the new features seem “smart,” they can easily be tricked into stealing their personal information.
  • Reinforce Chrome Use: Please ensure students on BYOD devices are logged into their school-provided Google Chrome profile. This is our first and best line of defense.

If you have any questions, please submit a tech ticket.

Thank you for your help in keeping our students and their data safe.

Goodbye, Canvas Studio! Here’s Your New Toolkit for Creating, Hosting, and Assigning Videos

Introduction: A New Chapter for Video in Our Classrooms

Please note this was first announced in Spring 2025.

This is an important update for all Canvas users: effective for the 25-26 school year, Canvas Studio will be discontinued. The critical deadline to remember is November 30, 2025. You must download any videos you have created and wish to keep from Canvas Studio by this date. On December 1, 2025, our access will be removed, and all stored videos will be permanently lost.

While this news marks the end of one tool, it also opens the door to a more powerful and integrated video toolkit already available within our district’s Google ecosystem. This change represents a positive evolution, providing you with more versatile tools that offer enhanced functionality for creating and sharing video content in your classroom.

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1. First Things First: Where Do I Save My Videos?

The new central hub for all your personal video files will be Google Drive.

To preserve your work, you will need to download any videos that you personally created from Canvas Studio and upload them to your Google Drive account. Please note that videos you may have imported from other sources, like YouTube, cannot be downloaded.

This move to Google Drive is a significant benefit. It provides ample storage for your video files and, most importantly, integrates seamlessly with the other Google tools you already use daily, creating a more streamlined workflow.

You might also choose to upload existing videos to Edpuzzle if you envision yourself using the features listed (more details below).

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2. The Teacher’s Toolkit: How Do I Create New Instructional Videos?

Videos are a powerful tool to activate background knowledge, spark engagement, and take students beyond classroom walls.

Meet Google Vids

Google Vids is the district’s video creation app, included as part of Google Workspace for Education (located in the Google Waffle or at vids.google.com). Its core function is to allow educators to create professional-quality videos up to 10 minutes long, without needing any prior video editing experience. Vids saves you time by providing a rich set of creative tools, including a library of stock images, videos, and music. This allows you to create dynamic content without needing to find your own media or record your own narration.

You can create dynamic content in Google Vids in several ways:

  • Start from a library of pre-built, professional templates.
  • Record your screen, webcam, or document camera directly within the app.
  • Turn an existing Google Slides presentation into an engaging video.

Google Vids is the perfect tool for creating engaging lesson hooks, dynamic presentations for parents, or compelling introductions for student projects.

For Quick Screencasts & Interactive Lessons: Edpuzzle & Google Slides

For more direct screencasting and lesson recording, you have two excellent options that are already at your fingertips.

First, the Edpuzzle Screen Recording Chrome Extension is a versatile tool for quick recordings. Its key features allow you to: record a single browser tab, your entire desktop, or just your webcam; easily trim the beginning, end, or even the middle of your video to remove irrelevant sections; and use a voiceover feature to replace sections of audio if you misspeak.

Second, you can now record screencasts directly in Google Slides. By clicking the record icon on the right-side menu you can easily create a screencast of your presentation, position your facecam in any corner, and save the final video directly to your Google Drive.

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3. The Power-Up: How Do I Make Videos Interactive and Track Student Viewing?

Edpuzzle is our premier tool for transforming passive video watching into an active learning experience. Login information can be found here. It empowers you to take almost any video—whether from YouTube, your own screen recording, or the Edpuzzle Originals library—and embed interactive elements to check for understanding and provide deeper context.

With Edpuzzle, you can add a variety of interactive elements to your video lessons:

  • Embed multiple-choice and open-ended questions to check for understanding as students watch.
  • Allow students to submit audio responses to open-ended questions.
  • Add your own voiceovers to explain concepts or provide instructions in your own words.
  • Cut or trim videos to show only the most relevant sections for your lesson.
  • Add notes containing text, external links, or images to provide additional information.

One of the most powerful features is Edpuzzle’s integration with Canvas. You can create Edpuzzle assignments directly in Canvas, and student grades are automatically synced to the Canvas gradebook.

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Putting It All Together

Imagine this: You create a polished lesson hook in Google Vids, which automatically saves to your Google Drive. You then import that video into Edpuzzle to embed comprehension questions. Finally, you assign the interactive lesson directly in Canvas, with grades syncing automatically to your gradebook. This seamless workflow is the true power of your new video toolkit.

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Conclusion: More Than a Replacement—An Upgrade

While we are saying goodbye to Canvas Studio, the new toolkit at your disposal represents a significant upgrade. The combination of Google Drive for hosting, Google Vids for polished creation, and Edpuzzle for interactive instruction provides a more powerful, flexible, and integrated video ecosystem for you and your students.

With these new creative tools at your fingertips, what’s the first new video project you’re excited to try with your students?

We will follow up with more details and guides on these video tools in coming blog posts. In the meantime, if you need help logging in or accessing, please submit a tech ticket.

Meet “Gemini in Chrome”

teacher sitting at desk imagining all the things they can get done using Gemini in Chrome

You may have noticed the Gemini symbol (a little, black diamond) appear near your Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons in the upper right corner of Chrome. This is an AI browsing assistant built directly into the Chrome browser. Its key capability is its ability to use the context of the current web page you are on, plus up to 10 other open browser tabs, to answer questions, synthesize information, and conduct in-depth analysis. This makes it an incredibly powerful tool for complex tasks like content research and summarizing multiple sources. Please note that it is only available for teachers using their P-CCS account.

Key Features of Gemini in Chrome:
Intelligent Summarization: Gemini can quickly summarize the content of lengthy articles and web pages, providing you with the key takeaways in a concise format. This allows for rapid comprehension of complex topics and saves valuable time.

Cross-Tab Information Synthesis: One of the most powerful aspects of this integration is Gemini’s ability to understand the context across multiple open tabs. You can ask questions that require information from different sources, and Gemini will synthesize the relevant details to provide a comprehensive answer.

Seamless Integration with Google Workspace: For users of Google’s productivity suite, Gemini in Chrome offers a significant workflow advantage. It can interact with Google Docs, Sheets, and other Workspace applications, allowing you to perform tasks like creating documents, summarizing notes, or drafting emails directly from the browser’s AI interface.

Here are concrete, time-saving ways Gemini in Chrome can help a teacher during a busy school day.

Please note: While AI tools like Gemini in Chrome can feel incredibly helpful, remember they are powerful tools, not magic wands. They assist and generate based on data, but human judgment, creativity, and critical thinking remain essential for effective teaching.

  • Differentiate on the Fly: Have an article that’s too difficult for some students? With the page open, tell Gemini: Rewrite this text for a 4th-grade reading level.
  • Generate Materials Instantly: Need a quick activity? Ask Gemini: Create a 5-question exit ticket about the water cycle. or Make a simple grading rubric for a student presentation on a historical figure.
  • Brainstorm Quick Ideas: Stuck in a planning rut? Ask: Give me 3 creative ways to start a lesson on fractions.
  • Summarize Long Resources: Found a long district document or a dense article? Have Gemini Summarize the key takeaways from this page so you can decide if it’s worth a full read.
  • Create Simple Explanations: Struggling to explain a concept? Ask: Explain photosynthesis using an analogy a 6th grader would understand.

 

Navigating Canvas Quiz Accommodations

Navigating Canvas Quiz Accommodations blog post

Ensuring fair and accessible assessments often requires providing accommodations for individual student needs. Within Canvas’s New Quizzes, teachers have access to two distinct, yet complementary, tools for managing these adjustments in the Moderate tab: Course Accommodations and Current Quiz Accommodation. This post serves as a guide and reminder of how to effectively use these features. We will cover the specific function of each—from setting course-wide adjustments to handling single-quiz exceptions—and explain how they can work together.

Teachers can manage individual student needs for assessments by going to New Quizzes > Build > Moderate tab to access Course Accommodations (1) and Current Quiz Accommodation (2).

Edit pencil icon to set quiz moderation

Course Accommodations: Course-Wide Adjustments

Course Accommodations are used to apply specific time modifications to a student for all quizzes in the course. This is a set-it-and-forget-it feature, ideal for students with documented extended-time needs.

  • Applies to: All New Quizzes in the course.
  • Settings include: Adding/removing a specific amount of time, or applying a time limit multiplier (e.g., time), or reducing answer choices.
  • Rule: Only one course-level accommodation can be set per student.
  • How to access/View:  Click the Student’s Name in the Moderate tab within the New Quiz Build screen and your settings will be visible under the Accommodations column.

How do I add accommodations for a student in New Quizzes for all my course assessments?

    • course accommodations click name
student accommodations settings for time adjustments and reduced answer choices

Current Quiz Accommodation: Single-Quiz Control

Current Quiz Accommodation is used to make adjustments for an individual student on one specific quiz. This is your tool for handling one-off issues or exceptions.

  • Applies to: Only the quiz you are currently moderating.
  • Settings include:
    • Reopening a student’s most recent attempt (their previous responses are saved, and the timer resumes from where it left off).
    • Managing timer settings (adding a specific amount of time to all attempts, or removing the time limit entirely).
    • Granting extra attempts.
    • Reducing answer choices
  • Rule: Moderation timer settings apply to all attempts for the quiz in which they are set.
  • How to access/View: Click the Edit pencil icon in the Moderate tab within the New Quiz Build screen and your settings will be visible under the Accommodations column.

How do I moderate a student’s quiz attempt in New Quizzes for a single quiz?

quiz accommodations click pencil icon

current quiz accommodation menu

How Course and Current Quiz Accommodations Work Together

When a student has both a course accommodation and a current quiz accommodation applied, the settings stack:

  1. Course Accommodations are applied first.
  2. Current Quiz Accommodation settings are applied on top of the accommodation.
  3. Important: Moderation timer settings can never reduce the time granted by a course accommodation.

Critical Timing Note

Keep in mind that Quiz availability dates are the final authority. Even if you grant a student extended time, the quiz will auto-submit and close if the “Until” date passes while they are still working. Always ensure the “Until” date is wide enough to cover the maximum time any student (including those with accommodations) might need.

Currently, New Quizzes does not support bulk moderation, and student names will not be visible if anonymous grading is enabled.

Related Blog Post: 

There are a lot of moderation options in Canvas. Below you will find a resources on how students can resume a Quiz, moderating New and Classic Quizzes, and how to reopen an attempt for students.

Please submit a ticket if you have additional questions about this.


You may also view this collection of resources here: https://wke.lt/w/s/5aK43b

Google Drive Link Tips

Google quick links shortcut blog post

Sharing Google Drive files is easy, but the standard link doesn’t always work the way we want. With a simple trick, you can change a link to do exactly what you need, saving you and your audience time.

Four Handy Link Modifications

By slightly altering the end of a Google link, you can change its function:

  • Preview Link: Gives a clean, clutter-free view of a Doc or Slide.
  • Make a Copy Link: Forces the user to make their own copy of the file.
  • Template Link: Shows a professional preview with a “Use Template” button.
  • PDF Link: Instantly opens your file as a PDF in the browser.

The Best Tool for Student Assignments

A quick reminder: For student assignments, our #1 recommendation is to use the Google Assignments integration in Canvas. When you attach Google Docs or Slides to an assignment this way, Canvas automatically gives each student their own copy to work on and attaches it to the assignment so the student doesn’t accidentally duplicate their work in multiple places.

These link-altering tricks are fantastic for other situations, especially when sharing resources with colleagues and families.

The Easy Way: Linking in Hand

Instead of memorizing these tricks, use the free Linking in Hand tool. Just paste your regular Google share link, and it will instantly generate these special links for you.

Bookmark it for the next time you need to share a template with your PLC or send a read-only PDF to families!

Register for MiStar-Q Academy

MiStar training
Registration is now open for
MISTAR-Q ACADEMY: TEACHER EDITION
Sep 22 – Dec 15, 2025  
 
Teachers are invited to participate in MISTAR-Q Academy Teacher Edition online training.
Working online at your own pace, you will complete activities designed to increase your skill and knowledge of teacher apps including Class Attendance, Grade Book, Seating Chart, reports, and more. This course is especially beneficial for teachers new to MISTAR-Q.
You may earn between 1.0 and 17.5 SCECHs depending on which topics you complete by the end of this 12-week course. At least two topics must be completed to qualify for SCECHs.
QAcad-SCECHs.jpg
Should I register for MISTAR-Q Academy if I previously participated in Monarch?
If you completed Monarch, you completed all content in MISTAR-Q Academy. If you participated in Monarch but did not complete the course, you are welcome to register, but your progress will not transfer from the old Monarch course.
Register here – after registering, watch for emails on Sep 22 with details on how to get started. Registration fee: $0.
This course will be offered again on Jan 19-Apr 13, 2026.