MVHS Pathfinder - Issue 3

March 2018

Issue 3

MVHS PATHFINDER A Newsletter for MVHS Teachers who like to wonder and stray

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES: ___________________________

SCREENCASTING AND VIDEO RECORDING ___________________________

GOOGLE ADD-ONS OF THE WEEK: PICTURE ADD-ONS ___________________________

GOOGLE CLASSROOM UPDATES __________________________

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK: HOW PEER PRESSURE UNDERMINES SUCCESS

This Week’s Issue Screencasting and Video Recording When it comes to screencasting and video recording, there are a lot of options out there for teachers and students. This week’s issue focuses on few of these.

Picture Add-ons This week’s issue focuses on add-ons to Google Documents and Presentation that make finding and placing pictures easier.

Google Classroom Updates Google classroom is always updating to make the learning experience better. This week’s issue covers some of these updates.

Article of the Week This week’s article looks at how much peer pressure may or may not persuade a student to seek academic help.

MVHS PATHFINDER

March 2018

Issue 3

Screencasting Tools Screencasting is a tremendous tool for teachers to illustrate and teach a concept.

But an often overlooked aspect of screencasting tools is that students can use the same tools.

Just as teachers may use screencasting tools to record a short lecture of content, or to provide a resource that teaches an important concept, students could use screencasting to demonstrate their understanding of a foreign language or of the process for solving an equation.

Screencasting can allow teachers to see the thought process of students as they talk and walk through class material. Giving the teacher a “window” into the student’s thoughts.

This week’s issue will provide various options for doing screencasting, including those that not only record the screen of a computer but also can record video of the presenter.

Journal Article: Screencasts- how effective are they and how do students engage with them? Active Learning in Higher Education

Article: 24 Tips for Creating High Quality Screencasts Screencastify.com

MVHS PATHFINDER

March 2018

Issue 3

Screencast-o-matic

Screencastify

Screencast-o-matic is probably one of the most popular screencasting tools. The reason for this is the tool can be installed easily on both a PC and a Mac. Recently, screencast-o-matic has started a beta of the tool for chromebooks. To use screencast-o-matic on chrome or a chromebook go to this link.

Screencastify is an extension that is used with the chrome browser. It offers a lot of the same options as screencast-o-matic and also has some of the same limitations.

The free (or lite) version offers video lengths of up to 10 minutes and no more than 50 videos can be recorded a month.

You can publish the videos to drive and YouTube. You will have to be ok with having a watermark on your recording as well.

The lite version does not offer any editing options and can’t be exported as a MP4 file.

Another nice feature of screencast-o-matic is the large amount of detailed tutorials available. You can find tutorials at this link.

Screencast-o-matic has both a free version and pro version ($1.50 per month). As a result, there are some limitations to the free version: only 15-minute recordings, no editing ability, only video recording (no screenshots), and a water mark. Despite these limitations, you can still upload the videos recorded to YouTube HD and save the files to drive and your computer.

A couple advantages screencastify has over other options is you can highlight and draw on the screen, which other services do not provide or provide for a fee. The other advantage is probably the biggest for most teachers. Screencastify allows direct sharing of the videos you make to Google Classroom.

Screencastify Tutorial MVHS PATHFINDER

March 2018

Issue 3

Nimbus Screenshot Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Recording is probably the screencasting tool with the most options. When you click on the extension icon you are greeted with a number of ways to record your videos.

Another nice feature of Nimbus, while although it initially feels like a small thing, is the ability to have a countdown timer for screencast. The counter is really nice because you do not have to be ready “right away” like other recordings. You can set the timer to give you some time to prepare for the start of the presentation.

To learn more about how to use Nimbus click on this link for a tutorial.

Soapbox Soapbox is relatively new but is a very exciting edition to the options of screen casting. The most exciting part of soapbox is it allows teachers to include an image of themselves in their screencasts, something the other services lack.

Teachers can switch back and forth easily between an image of themselves, the computer screen, or have both appear side-by-side.

Soapbox does have editing tools and the nicest thing is you can add links for what they call “Call to actions”. The video below provides an example and at the end there is a link to a tutorial.

Which can look intimidating, but once you get used to Nimbus you will be thankful you have all those options.

One feature Nimbus offers on top of screencasting is the ability to take screenshots and make notes or marks on those images to share.

Soapbox - What's Soapbox?

MVHS PATHFINDER

March 2018

Issue 3

Google Add-on of the Week While finding and putting pictures in a Google document or slides seems as simple as Googling want you want and inserting the image, finding the right image can sometimes be frustrating. Additionally, finding an image that is fair use or in the public domain, especially if you have students creating presentations that will be shared with the public, can be even more challenging.

The following list of resources is meant to help teachers and students find images easily for Google documents or slides. From adding more information or simply making your documents and slides more appealing, there are some great free add-ons out there.

Full Deck Full Deck is another option for public domain images in Google documents. It is very similar to Pixabay but offers some more image options as it draws from a different source than pixabay.

Unsplash Photos Pixabay Free Images Pixabay is a free add-on that, when installed, opens up a toolbar on the right hand side of Google documents. In the toolbar you can easily search for an image subject. A number of public domain images will pop up and you can easily click on the images to insert them. You can then drag the images to a new position or to resize them. For a quick demonstration of pixabay click on the this link for a youtube video.

Unsplash photos works with Google Slides.

Unsplash photo works just like pixabay and full deck.

Click here for a Tutorial One of the nicest things about unsplash photos is the images used are always hi-res, which allows teachers and students to use the images as backdrops without worrying about that dreaded pixelated look.

MVHS PATHFINDER

March 2018

Issue 3

Google Classroom Updates

Single View of Student Work Teachers can now look at all of the work a student has turned in or is missing. No longer do teachers have to click on multiple assignments and go through each to see what a student is missing.

To view an individual student’s work: 1. From the front page of a class click on students.

2. Then click on an individual student.

3. From there, you will see all the student’s assignments and whether they are turned in or missing. You can also see if an attachment was added to the assignment as well.

You can filter the items by clicking on turned in, returned with grade, and missing on the left hand side.

By clicking on an assignment individually you will be taken directly to the student’s work.

MVHS PATHFINDER

March 2018

Issue 3

More Updates Guardian Email Summaries Google has introduced a new features that allows teachers to email students and guardians summaries of their class work from Google Classroom.

An example of the summary can be seen to the right.

The email summaries include: - Missing work - Upcoming work - Class activity To send a student or guardian a summary of student work in classroom follow these instructions: 1. Go to a single view of a students work (do this from the front page of a class in Google Classroom- click on the student tab and then click on a student’s name) 2. Once there you will see a envelope icon in the top right.

3.

A pop-up window will appear. From the drop down menu choose who you wish to email, type your message and select the summary.

MVHS PATHFINDER

January 2018

Article of the week: Age of Distraction

Issue 1

What they found is that when sign-ups were public, 53 percent of students signed up, compared to when the sign-up was private, 80 percent of students signed up.

Article of the Week: How Peer Pressure Undermines Success In a recent Edutopia article, Youki Terada summarized academic research on peer pressure and students taking advantage of academic resources.

In a study from the National Bureaus of Economic Research researchers found that peer pressure may adversely affect student’s educational decisions in regards to seeking help.

Researchers looked at how many students sign up for SAT prep help when the signup is public (as in all students can see who signed up) vs when the sign-up is private (where the student signing up could not see other students who had signed up yet.)

“

When SAT prep sign-ups at three high schools were public—meaning that classmates could see who was participating—53 percent of students expressed an interest in the classes. But the participation rate shot up to 80 percent when the sign-ups were offered in a private setting that shielded students from the prying eyes of their peers - National Bureau of Economic Research

”

Even when students expected the SAT prep help to improve their scores (as much as 100 percent) they were willing to sacrifice the academic improvement for saving face with their peers.

Interestingly, the researchers looked at two different types of students and found for both groups public sign-ups for help reduced students taking advantage of the academic help. Students who emphasized academics (students who believe it is “cool to be smart”) and those who emphasized friendships (believed it is “smart to be cool”) both equally avoided using public sign-ups.

Overachievers did not want their friends to know they needed help, and “smart to be cool” students worried publicly saying they needed help would diminish their popularity.

These research findings were true both for two different population of schools (lower income/high minority vs. high income/lower minority student populations.

What does this mean for teachers? When considering how to help students think about how public your system of sign-up is. Do you have it on the board or available for other students to see? Do you talk to students in front of other students about how they need to see you? Consider ways in which students can more privately ask for help or you encourage them to seek help more privately.

MVHS PATHFINDER