Did You Know? Focus Mode in Chromebooks

Chromebook focus mode

Distractions are a major challenge for students. Chromebook’s built-in Focus mode can help. This simple tool minimizes interruptions, creating a dedicated work environment.

What Focus Mode Does:

  • Sets a timer for focused work.
  • Silences notifications.
  • Integrates with Google Tasks (optional).
  • Offers calming sounds (optional).

How Students Can Use It:

  • Study Sessions: Block out distractions during homework or test prep.
  • Writing Time: Concentrate on essays or creative writing.
  • Project Work: Deep dive into research or project development.
  • Reading: Focus on comprehension without interruptions.

Tips for Teachers:

  • Demonstrate: Show students how to access and use Focus mode.
  • Encourage Regular Use: Suggest incorporating Focus mode into daily routines.
  • Discuss Benefits: Talk about the positive impact of focused work on learning.

Focus mode is a simple yet powerful tool to help students develop concentration skills and improve their academic performance. Encourage your students to give it a try! Here’s a guide from Google on how to activate it. https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/15642977?hl=en 

Unleash Student Creativity with Adobe Express

adobe express blog

Are you looking for a dynamic tool to empower your students’ creative expression? Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is available within our district, offering a powerful platform for visual storytelling and project-based learning.

While you might be familiar with similar design tools like Canva, Adobe Express stands out with its simple and intuitive video creation capabilities. Students can easily craft engaging video projects, incorporating multimedia elements and fostering digital literacy skills using the robust stock library. Beyond video, the integrated AI image generator opens up exciting new avenues for visual exploration. Students can use text prompts to generate unique images, sparking imagination and adding a distinctive touch to their work. The AI image generator is safe to use with students in all grades.

Adobe Express offers more than just design templates. It’s a platform that allows students to amplify their voices and showcase their unique perspectives. From presentations and infographics to digital storytelling and social media campaigns, this tool empowers students to communicate effectively and creatively. Integrate Adobe Express into your curriculum to:

  • Boost student engagement: Transform learning into interactive and visually compelling experiences.
  • Develop essential skills: Foster digital literacy, communication, and critical thinking.
  • Encourage creative expression: Provide a platform for students to share their ideas and perspectives.

Explore the possibilities of Adobe Express and witness the incredible work your students can create.

Students can access Adobe Express through Clever or it can be found and accessed through the waffle.

Reach out to a Technology Integration Specialist (submit a tech ticket) if you’d like assistance using this platform with students.

Is That Copy/Paste…or Voice Typing?

As we continue to explore ways to support student learning and address concerns about AI use in assignments, I wanted to bring a key point to your attention regarding Google Doc version history and tools used to track it that specifically call out large copy/pastes (Revision History, Brisk Teaching).

If you’re using version history to examine student contributions and potentially identify instances of AI-generated text (copy/pasting), please be aware that students who use voice typing will often appear to have made numerous copy-paste actions. This is because voice typing software often inserts text in chunks, which can be misinterpreted by the version history tool. It will generally show up as 100+ large copy/pastes (depending on the length of the writing).

It’s crucial to remember that there are many legitimate reasons why a student might use voice typing:

  • Accessibility needs: Students with physical limitations may rely on voice typing to complete written assignments.
  • Learning differences: Students with dyslexia or other learning differences may find voice typing a more effective way to express their ideas.
  • Personal preference: Some students simply find voice typing to be a faster and more comfortable way to write.

Therefore, banning voice typing is not a practical or equitable solution. Instead, we should focus on assessing student understanding and authorship in meaningful ways. Let’s work together to find solutions that support all learners while maintaining academic integrity. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or ideas. Keep your eye out for a new blog series coming soon: Teaching in the Age of AI.

Khanmigo Teacher Tools Introduces Blooket Question Generator

Two great educational tools have teamed up to save you time. Khanmigo Teacher Tools (branch of Khan Academy) recently added a tool of a Blooket Generator.

What’s Blooket?

Blooket is a gamified learning platform designed to make learning fun through games.

blooket screen

Here’s a breakdown:

  • How it works:

    • Teachers create or use pre-made quizzes (called “sets”) with questions related to a specific topic. Now made easier with Khamigo’s new tool.
    • Students join a game hosted by the teacher using their own devices (phones, tablets, computers).
    • Students answer questions in a variety of game modes (e.g., Tower Defense, Gold Quest, Battle Royale).
    • Correct answers earn points, which students use to “buy” and “sell” virtual items called “Blooks” (cute avatars).

In essence, Blooket aims to transform traditional quizzes into interactive and enjoyable learning experiences, making it a popular tool in many classrooms.

What’s Khanmigo Teacher Tools?

Khanmigo for Teachers is an AI-powered teaching assistant (like MagicSchool and many others) developed by Khan Academy. It’s designed to help educators with various tasks, making their work more efficient and effective.

Here’s a summary:

  • Key Features:

    • Lesson Planning: Generate lesson plans, create clear directions, create lesson hooks or make the topic more relevant to students
    • Content Creation: Create exit tickets, multiple choice quizzes, and generate informational texts
    • Communication: Generate newsletter content

preview of khanmgio's teacher tools

In essence, Khanmigo for Teachers aims to empower educators by providing them with an intelligent assistant that supports their teaching practice in a variety of ways.

Interested in accessing Khanmigo Teacher Tools directly in Canvas? Add it by following the steps here.

Want to learn more about this new tool integrating Blooket and Khanmigo? Check out this video.

Save Time with Chrome Toolbar Customization

Chrome toolbar customization

Chrome 132, the first major update of 2025, brings a long-awaited feature: customizable toolbars for desktop users.

How to Customize:

  • Access Customization: On the New Tab Page, click “Customize Chrome” in the bottom right corner.
  • Choose Your Tools: Select the buttons you want to appear to the left or right of the address bar from the following categories:
    • Navigation: Home, Forward
    • Your Chrome: Password Manager, Bookmarks, Reading List, History, Delete Browsing Data
    • Tools & Actions: Print, Search with Google Lens, Translate, Create QR Code, Reading Mode, Copy Link, Send to your devices
  • Rearrange and Enjoy: Drag and drop icons to organize your toolbar. Most will open in the convenient side panel.

menu to customize Chrome toolbar

Teacher Tips:

  • “Send to your devices” is helpful to send links from your phone to your laptop (if both logged into Chrome)
  • “Search with Google Lens” provides quick access to visual information, perfect for exploring images and concepts.
  • Create QR Code: No need for a fancy extension, Chrome can generate a QR code for you.
  • Enhance Workflow: Pin frequently used tools like “Bookmarks” or “History” for easy access.
  • Translate: Support multilingual learners with quick access to translate materials.

Note: Toolbar customizations sync across all your desktop Chrome browsers.

To Update Chrome:

  1. Click the three-dot menu in the top right corner.
  2. Go to “Settings.”
  3. In the left sidebar, select “About Chrome.”

By customizing the Chrome toolbar, teachers can create a more efficient and personalized browsing experience.

Important Note: This is available on desktops and laptops but is not currently available for Chromebooks. Hopefully, it will be incorporated soon so students can take advantage of these features.

Google Forms Now Require Publishing

Prior to the update: You could potentially share a form link even before “publishing” it, which might lead to unintended access. Additionally, you would turn on, “Accepting Responses” to allow people to respond. Now, you Publish the form to accept responses.

location of publish button in Google Forms
Location of new Publish button in Google Forms. In order to get responses, you must publish it.
screen options when publishing
When you click Publish, you will see this screen. The form will default to anyone in Plymouth-Canton can respond. Click “Manage” to adjust this.

After the update: You must explicitly “Publish” the form before it becomes accessible to others, even if you have shared the link. You can share editing access to the form from the traditional, share icon. visual of share icon

Preview of sharing and collaborating options for forms.
When you click the share button, you will be able to update collaborators on the form and responder permissions.

Enhanced Security: This update adds a layer of security by requiring a deliberate action (publishing) to make the form accessible. This helps prevent accidental sharing or premature access.

Better Control: It gives form creators more control over when their form goes live and who can access it.

 

For additional support, see Google’s guide.

Laptop Upkeep Best Practices

suggested laptop maintenance

The tech department would like to suggest the following maintenance steps to ensure the best performance from your new laptop.

Making sure you perform periodic restarts and logging into your laptop while on the district network does several important things to improve performance including clearing the laptop’s Random Access Memory (RAM) which can otherwise over time bog down its system resources and allowing important and useful district updates to to run at start up.

We appreciate your help to ensure the best possible performance of your laptop. Please submit a tech ticket if you have any questions.

Tech Housekeeping for Winter Break

Tech break checklist

We hope you enjoy your winter break! Before you leave on the 20th…

WOULD YOU PLEASE SECURE ALL VALUABLES in the classrooms and office spaces you inhabit. This includes laptops, document cameras, Apple TVs, remotes, and interactive pens.

Further, if it is equipment you handle, would you please make sure all iPads and Chromebooks are in their carts and those CARTS ARE LOCKED and plugged in before leaving.

Finally, would you please also POWER OFF any of the following equipment, if it is equipment you handle:

  • projectors
  • sound amps
  • SmartBoards
  • desktop computers
  • monitors
  • printers

THANK YOU for your cooperation.

DitchThat Textbook Digital Summit

Graphic about the ditch summit, details provided in the post

I’m signed up for a GREAT free online conference for teachers in December and wanted to tell you about it. 

It’s called the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit. It includes video presentations from awesome presenters on topics related to tech and solid teaching and learning. Including previous years’ sessions, you’ll have access to more than 90 video presentations! 

This year, it’s scheduled for December 16, 2024, to January 10, 2025. Get registered for free at: DitchSummit.com.

HOW IT WORKS: New presentations are released every day. They remain available until the end of the summit so you can re-watch or catch up on any you’ve missed. They’re pre-recorded, so you can watch them whenever you want until the summit closes. After that, the summit ends and the videos are unavailable to watch anymore.

THIS YEAR’S SPEAKERS: Here’s the lineup for this year …

  • Trevor MacKenzie (English Teacher, Author: Inquiry Mindset)
    • Topic: Student curiosity and questioning routines
  • Manny Curiel (Edpuzzle Head of Community, Former Elementary Teacher)
    • Topic: Perseverance and overcoming setbacks
  • Ed Campos Jr. (Educator, Speaker, Consultant)
    • Topic: AI and teacher wellness
  • Ken Shelton and Dee Lanier (Authors: The Promises and Perils of AI in Education)
    • Topic: Cautious steps toward AI implementation
  • Stevie Frank (Learning Integration Specialist, Zionsville Community Schools)
    • Topic: Student voice through podcasting and more
  • Jorge Valenzuela (Speaker, Author, Educator)
    • Topic: Project-based and lifelong learning
  • Holly Clark (Author: The AI-Infused Classroom)
    • Topic: AI literacies for students
  • Students for Innovation (Innovative, Passionate Student Leaders)
    • Topic: AI in learning and life, student perspective

Introducing: Google Vids

Title image

Google Vids: A New Tool for Teacher-Created Videos

Google Vids is an AI-powered video creation app for work that is now available for Google Workspace for Education. While it is not yet available for student use, teachers can use Vids to easily create, edit, and share videos for a variety of teaching and learning purposes.

**It will be available for students in the near future, so take time to try it out for yourself now!

Key Features of Google Vids

  • User-friendly Interface: Vids is designed with an intuitive interface for creating, editing, and sharing videos. Users can add content including images, video clips from Drive, videos, GIFs, images, stickers, music, and sound effects from the Vids stock content library.
  • Templates: To help you get started, Vids offers templates that can provide a framework for your videos.
  • Recording Studio: A built-in recording studio lets users record audio, record themselves, their screen, or a combination.
  • Collaboration: Users can collaborate with each other on videos in real-time.
  • Flexible Sharing: Videos can be shared as Google Vids files, MP4s in Google Drive, or downloaded as MP4s for sharing.

Vids in the Classroom: Ideas and Considerations

Since AI capabilities will not be available in the education version, features like “help me create” and read-along teleprompter will not be accessible. However, teachers can still take advantage of the platform’s many other features to create engaging and informative videos.

Here are some ideas for how teachers might use Google Vids in their classrooms:

  • Create instructional videos: Explain complex concepts, demonstrate procedures, or provide step-by-step instructions for assignments. If you are saying the same thing, the same way to everyone then a video may be your best bet.
  • Develop flipped classroom content: Prepare video lectures or lessons for students to watch at home, freeing up class time for more interactive activities.
  • Produce video announcements: Share important information with students and families about upcoming events, deadlines, or classroom updates.
  • Make explainer videos for parents: Clarify classroom procedures, grading policies, or other aspects of your teaching approach.
  • Record student projects: Capture student presentations, performances, or other creative work in a polished video format.

Important Notes:

  • Videos created in Vids have a maximum length of 10 minutes.
  • While Vids works with many browsers, some features may not be available in all browsers. For example, editing and commenting are not currently supported in Safari.
  • A variety of audio, image, and video files are compatible with Vids and can be uploaded from your computer or Google Drive.

As Google Vids becomes more widely available in educational settings, it is poised to become a valuable tool for teachers to enhance their teaching and engage their students in new and creative ways.

See Google’s Blog Update and Help Guide for more information to get started.