October is Cybersecurity month. How can you facilitate student learning about this topic? BrainPOP has videos and accompanying lessons for grades 3-12. Teachers of younger learners can check out BrainPOP Jr for more appropriate videos and lessons. P-CCS has a K-12 subscription to BrainPOP products and they are accessible via Clever. Check out this lesson on information privacy.
The TextHelp PDF Reader has officially been reborn as OrbitNote!
Earlier this summer, the Texthelp PDF Reader was updated and became OrbitNote. This update included a new look & easier onboarding. P-CCS students & staff have access to all the PREMIUM features of OrbitNote detailed below.
If you’re not familiar with it yet, OrbitNote allows staff & students to transform and interact with PDFs and digital documents in a completely different way. It helps to create an accessible, dynamic and collaborative space that works for everyone.
You & your students can use OrbitNote to:
There is NO ACTION required for students or staff who were already using the PDF Reader; the new OrbitNote extension auto-updated. Students and staff may have to update permissions with the first use of the new tool.
Staff who have not used the Texthelp PDF Reader in the past will need to install the extension here.
For more information about using OrbitNote, including Canvas LMS integration, go to the RW4G@PCCS website: https://bit.ly/PCCS-OrbitNote
The new OrbitNote Quick Reference Guide is available here.
Videos: https://text.help/orbitvids
Technical Support: https://support.texthelp.com
You might also want to check out this video of OrbitNotes used in Canvas and/or a comprehensive overview of many of TextHelp’s features:
OrbitDoc (now OrbitNotes) used in Canvas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEWuu-YxoY
October is a month to take special note of cybersecurity. This week we would like to highlight some basics of cybersecurity.
If you would like to have a paper copy of a Canvas quiz for certain students, you can easily do that in New Quizzes. Just click the 3 dots (or TimBits) in the upper, right corner to reveal more options.
After selecting the print option, you will be able to choose the preferred text size.
One other enhancement with New Quizzes is that you can bypass the assignment details screen and get right into building question when you are designing a unit in modules. See below.
If you like these enhancements but mostly have Classic Quizzes in your course, you can begin the process of migrating them to New Quizzes with these directions.
If you would like your Canvas grades to automatically sync with your MiStar gradebook each night, that is now possible with just a few clicks.
2. Once enabled and saved, you can navigate to the Grade Sync from the Course Navigation menu and toggle the option on.
If you need more information about the necessary set up for your Canvas Grades to sync with MiStar, take a look at the resources on the P-CCS Tech website.
This Monday, September 27, we will be holding another TIS Coffee Chat on the topic of Supporting Absent Students. We will talk about how to add an Absent button and set up your information page for Absent students. Sessions are only about 20 minutes long and take place over Zoom.
Start Times (feel free to attend at a time that works best for you):
Feel free to browse the Session Resources which includes a helpful, technical document for broadcasting your class via Zoom: https://wke.lt/w/s/jd6oHX
Check out the recordings of previous sessions.
Thanks to all who were able to join us during Canvas Camp 2021! We are happy to continue to support you with our Monday Morning Coffee Chats. Below you will find links to recordings from our August sessions.
Studio Q & A-This session covered a lot of the basics of Studio and looked at some more advanced features. The trainer also provided great ideas for how to use Studio as the teacher and how students can use it.
Canvas Q & A– In this session we talked a lot about copying course content. Toward the end, Cory gave a really great introduction to Groups.
Canvas Course Design Considerations– Here’s the session agenda. This training is great for all grade levels and also had a few good nuggets for elementary teachers.
TIS Face Off: Canvas Tips- Matt and Kaelyn face off about their favorite Canvas tips. Recording coming soon.
Last week we had our first Tech Coffee Chat centered around the Canvas Best Practice, Simplifying the Course Navigation Menu. Check out the recording and join us Monday, September 20 for tips on creating an informative, welcoming home page.
Canvas has made several adjustments and improvements to the student assignment experience. Take a look below.
If you choose “Text Entry” for the student turn-in option, student work will auto-save and they can submit directly on the page.
Scroll through the gallery below to see other assignment options.
If you feel these enhancements will not serve your students, you can toggle them off under Settings/Feature Previews.
In late August, the P-CCS Canvas Best Practices were published. https://tech.pccsk12.com/canvas-best-practices/
To help you carry out these practices, the Technology Integration Specialists plan to offer brief (20-25 minutes) sessions before school on Monday mornings. We will provide a rationale for the practice, a quick tutorial, and examples when appropriate. Be sure to bring your favorite morning beverage!
Start Times (feel free to attend at a time that works best for you):
Topics:
Please note that each teacher must manually publish the course(s) they want to be visible to students.
Publishing your course only takes one click! From the Course Card on your Dashboard, click “Publish” (see screenshot below).
Alternatively, you can open the course home page and click the “Publish” button on the right side of the screen (see screenshot below).
As a reminder, your courses in MISTAR have been auto-populated in Canvas and auto-rostered with students. These are the course(s) you should publish and actively use with students. Any manually created courses should either be copied or cross-listed with your auto-populated courses. You can also cross-list multiple sections of the same course following the instructions provided in one of our previous posts.