Simple Video Presentations with Google Slides and Screencastify

Update:  I made a new version of this post, including a new tutorial to match the latest version of Screencastify. Click here to read it.

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This is an updated process I first highlighted on this post from 2015. I used to use SnagIt to record the video, they stopped supporting it a few months ago. I've started using Screencastify. Below I have two updated tutorials that show how to record presentations using it.

The idea of these projects is that students make a slideshow presentation, then they record the screen and their voice as they present it.

Here are two examples of how the final video might look.The first is best to show students, but keep in mind it actually was made with SnagIt instead of Screencastify. SnagIt is no longer available. The second one was designed for teachers and refers specifically to their activity.

  

Screencastify is a great Chrome extension for this process. It makes it very easy to record the presentation on a Chromebook or laptop. It also links directly to Google Drive, so students don't have extra steps of uploading video files to Drive.

This tutorial shows the setup process, which has to be done the first time you use the extension. It's very intuitive to click through, but you might want to watch this before you try it with a class, just so you'll know what to expect.

Then this tutorial shows how to actually record the presentation (which is limited to 10 minutes if you're using the free version of Screencastify). As it says in the video, there are three things students should do before recording:

• Do the process shown in the video above to set up the extension.
• Make the slideshow. I suggest doing this in Google Slides, but you can use any slideshow app.
• Practice! It's very important to rehearse the presentation because these have to be done in one take.

As you can see from the tutorial, the resulting video ends up in Google Drive. From there it's easy to share or turn it in through Google Classroom.

There is a paid upgrade of Screencastify which removes the time limit and watermark. It also allows for some basic editing. I haven't paid to upgrade yet, but the option to edit is very promising. 

If you have any questions about this process, please let me know. I'd like to improve these resources so they benefit many students!

A Few Free Templates for Notes and Reflection Using Google Apps

I love reflection activities that get students thinking about the learning in a deeper way. These usually amount to just asking good questions and they do not have to involve technology at all. As our district is using a lot more Chromebooks, though, I have been creating more templates that use Google Apps to make it easy for teachers and students to manage the work digitally.

When you click the links for the templates below, you'll get a copy in your Google Drive. From there, you can edit them any way you need to for your lessons. I also hope they give you ideas for other templates specific to your teaching style.

Learning Target and Reflection Journal

As our district is focusing on learning targets this year. Andrea Thelen, one of our English teachers, came up with some reflection questions to direct students to the targets. Her students complete the form below at the end of class a few times each week and they do a summary activity at the end of the week.

I put the original in this Google Document and we shared it with other teachers who have adapted it to fit their needs.

Note-Taking Template

This one is based on the Cornell Note-Taking System and what I read in Marzano's book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works.

I created the Note-Taking Template as a Google Slides presentation because that allowed me to add a background image that wouldn't be edited accidentally when students typed in the text boxes. 

A Slides presentation also makes it easy to keep multiple pages of notes in one place. To make more pages, students can just right click on a slide on the left of the screen and choose to duplicate it. Of course if they plan on using multiple pages, it's best to always duplicate the first slide before typing on it, so they always have a blank one to duplicate later.

Students will need to use the zoom tool to zoom in once or twice to easily read the template and their notes. The "presentation" that it refers to could be anything--your lesson, student presentations or a movie, for example. 

If you want to edit the background image, on the Slides template, I created it as a Google Drawing. Just edit this Drawing so it looks how you want, then download it as a PNG file. Use that PNG as the background on your Slides template.

Lab Poster Template

I created this Lab Poster Template for a science teacher who wanted a simple way for students to report about their experiment. It's a Google Drawing and it serves as an example of how easy this tool is for making digital posters for any learning experience. (See this post on my other blog for another fun example.)

Students can add tables, clip art or even photos they take. To get those photos into the Drawing, I suggest uploading them to their Google Drive using the Google Drive app on their phone or tablet. Once in Drive, it's easy to import them into the Drawing.

See my video below if you or the students are unfamiliar with Google Drawings. It's a very informal tutorial I created so the teacher could help his students get started. It explains basic editing and how to insert images.

Finally! Collect Files in Google Forms

This past week I was presenting a session about Google Forms when I noticed they activated the File Upload question type. This is an option I have wanted for a long time, so I was glad to see it!

Note that it's only available on my G Suite for Education account. I don't know if they plan to release it for regular Google accounts or not.

While teachers can easily get file submissions from their students through Google Classroom, this upload option makes it possible to get files from anyone. I can see it being very useful for gathering pictures from families for a yearbook or for collecting documents that might be posted on the school website.

Here's how it all works.

First, start a new Form like you always would. Type the text you want for the "question". In this case it will probably be directions for which types of files you want the user to upload. In my example, I used the text, "Please upload the photo." (Note that you can add other questions to your Form like always. In this example I'm only focusing on the File upload question.)

A)  Select File upload as the question type. It will first give you a warning that any file submitted through the Form will go to your Drive.

B)  After you continue past that warning, you'll see two other options appear under your question. If you click the first dropdown, you'll see different file size limits you can restrict the file to. The second dropdown lets you accept any file type or limit it to certain media like audio, images, presentations, etc.

When you share or post your Form so others can respond to it, the next picture shows how these questions will look. It has the text you type and an "ADD FILE" link. When the user clicks that link, he or she will have an option to upload the file from a computer or from Google Drive.

Note that when a user chooses a file to upload, it immediately goes into his or her Google Drive. 

Once the user submits the Form, a copy of that file (not a shared file) is uploaded to your Google Drive. You will be the owner of that copy. It goes into a folder that is automatically created and that will be given the same name as your Form. It also adds the user's name to the end of the file name, as you can see in the next picture below.

You can easily access the uploaded files in the Responses tab of your Form. You'll see in the picture below they are listed under the text you entered for the File upload question. You can also click the VIEW FOLDER link to open the Google Drive folder that contains all uploaded files. 

Creating Self-Grading Quizzes with Google Forms and Administering Them Through Google Classroom

Here are two videos I created to show the teachers I work with the self-grading features of Google Forms. This makes a great option for a quick formative assessment.

This first video shows the basics of making a quiz with Google Forms. I focus more on the quiz aspect than the question creation steps. You'll notice I say that Gmail is not an option for students, but that's just because in our district we have it turned off.

This second video shows how you can assign that quiz to your class using Google Classroom. It also shows the steps for accessing the results and returning it.

Announcing My Game Design Project Packs

This week I went live with my game design project pack website. You can check it out at ClassroomGameDesign.blogspot.com.

The project packs are collections of resources that help students make fun, simple games based on your lessons. Some key features are:

• Through group discussion and individual reflection, students will explore the class content in order to apply its themes to a simple, novel game.
• Creative teachers and students can use the project in many subjects, but they work best as creative projects for social studies and language arts.
• The games are non-digital, so you won't lose class time while students learn to program a computer.
• All resources are created in Google Apps, so it's easy to assign and students can collaborate on the games.
• The project is very flexible. Teachers can focus on the game design process as much or as little as they want.

Right now I have two project packs, both of which appeared on this blog in two series of posts. I plan to add at least two other packs by the end of the month.

Another part of the site I'm excited about is this page designed for students. It offers several resources for those who want to dig deeper into game design.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Reflection on Re-Designing Love Letter

This final stage of the project can be the most important, as it requires students to reflect upon what they learned about the lesson topic for your course as well as game design. In it each student Students will complete the document at the link below. 

Do not give students the document until they worked through Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the activity. That means they should have created a game based on the Love Letter game, tested it and played at least one game created by another group before they try to answer the questions. 

If you modified the activity in Parts 1 - 3 of the project, you might have to change the questions in the document to fit what your students experienced. Also, change the references to "the course topic" so they ask about the specific topic students studied in your class.

Through reflection, students should gain deeper insights from the activity. Their responses also provide you with a look at what they've learned about the lesson topic. That can be used to guide followup instruction or class discussion.

The reflection questions in the document come in three parts:

• The activity itself
• The game design process
• The lesson topic and how they connected elements of it to their game theme

You can find the Game Design Exploration Reflection Sheet here.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Printing and Testing the Games

This is the third part in a game design exploration based on the game Love Letter*. The activity would work well in any language arts or social studies class.

Be sure to see the previous posts in the series:

• Learning to play Love Letter
• Adding a new theme to Love Letter

In this stage, students will test the games. They might play their own game or just play each other's games. You could even incorporate revisions and further playtesting. It all depends on how much time you want them to spend on this. Details follow below.

Note that this post draws heavily from what I wrote in the playtesting stage of my first game design exploration from last year.

Is everyone ready to proceed?

If a class is working through this design activity, at this point each group of students should have redesigned the Love Letter game to fit the lesson content. At the very least they should have done the following. (All of this is explained in the second post in this series.)

• Chosen a theme for their game based on the topic studied in class

• Created a title for their game

• Written a short introduction about the game

• Redesigned the cards and changed them on the template found in Part 2 of this series.

Optionally, the groups might have designed additional rules and components for their game.

Making the Cards

In the previous stage of this activity, students revised a template to create new cards based on the Love Letter game. Before they can test the games, they'll need to produce some cards they can actually play with. One way to do that is to print on card stock, but I've found it's easy to see through most card stock I've used over the years.

Whether it's a first draft or a late stage prototype, here's the method I've been using lately. 

• Buy some card protector sleeves like these, found on Amazon.
• Put an old playing card or some other game card in them that you won't need. This keeps them stiff enough to shuffle.
• Print your cards on paper and cut the cards out. (Or for first drafts, you might just write them by hand on slips of paper.)
• Slide those paper "cards" into the sleeves.

Here's a short video that I created for students that shows how I use this process with early and late stage prototypes.

If the groups added rules for additional cards or components, all of those pieces need to be printed and cut out or gathered as well.

Depending on how much time you want the class to devote to this playtesting experience, groups could make two or more copies of their game so multiple groups could play them at once.

The importance of playtesting and revision - the iterative process in game design

This testing and revision stage of the game design process is essential. It can be fun and rewarding or sometimes very frustrating! It's often the heart of the creation process and it will probably take more time than all other parts combined.

Being so important, students need to see it. With limited class time, though, it is likely you will use it in this activity only provide some exposure to the concepts and a chance to have fun with the designs. Tell students it is important when making any type of game, but remind them to really test and improve their game they'd need to work on it a lot outside of class.

Keeping that in mind, tweak the following outline and resources to fit your needs.

Groups test their own games

Game designers often play their own games first, just to see if the creations even work at all. At this stage, each group should play their game at least once.

After playing, students should discuss these questions:

• Did the game work as we intended?
• Did we find anything (good or bad) that we didn't expect?
• How much do we think other groups will enjoy our game?
• What changes could we make to improve the game?

Depending on how much time you have for this design exploration, students could rework their cards. Simple changes might be handwritten right on the cards. Significant changes might require students to actually alter the cards in the original Google Drawings they made in Part 2 of this activity.Of course, that would require them to print and cut out more components.

If time doesn't allow a students to make all the changes they want to, remind them that they can improve the game as much as they want on their own.

Groups test a game designed by another group

For this part of the activity, each group will play at least one other group's game. Ideally this will be "blind playtesting", meaning the groups will play the games without additional assistance from the game designers.

The game components should already be created by now. Game introductions and possibly new rules need to be printed (or shared through Google Drive) so groups have everything they need to learn and play the games.

Along with these materials, give each group a copy of this Game Playtesting Sheet. It provides questions for before and after playing the game. 

Additional considerations

• Give the groups time in class to read and discuss the Game Playtesting Sheets that test groups filled out for their game.
• Groups could test games from more than one group if possible.
• Students could take their games home and have other people play them to get more opinions.
• Have a class discussion (possibly virtually) at the end of this stage so you and the students can look for patterns on what worked best in the games.
• It would be ideal to get test groups from a class that did not go through the design process themselves. In other words, they would likely be unfamiliar with Love Letter, so the whole experience would be new to them. This requires the designers to put a lot more work into their written rules.

In the next post (and final stage of the activity) students will reflect on their game designs and the design process.

*Love Letter was designed by Seiji Kanai and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. I have permission from the publisher to use their game as I have in this exploration. Please consider supporting them by buying a copy of the game that your students can play as they learn the basic rules.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Adding a New Theme to Love Letter

This is the second part of my game design exploration based on the game Love Letter*. Be sure you and your students are familiar with Part 1 before you work through the activity below.

In this second step, students will add a new theme to the simple, fun game Love Letter. The theme will be based on a topic you are studying in class. This will work best in a language arts or social studies class, but you could definitely use it in other classes too.

In applying the theme, students will discuss people, events and other elements of your course content.

What Is Theme in a Game?

Theme is what the game is about. Not all games have a strong theme, but many popular ones do. The theme of Risk is world conquest. The theme of Monopoly is making money in real estate.

If you're familiar with the original Love Letter, that theme was to deliver a love letter to the Princess.

See Part 2 of my first game design exploration for more examples of theme in games.

Examples of variations on the Love Letter game

Love Letter has been such a popular game across the world that it already has some new themes and other variations based on it. Here are a few you could show students in class. You can click on some of the images on the pages below to see the similarities and differences between versions:

• Love Letter: Batman
• Love Letter: The Hobbit
• Lost Legacy - There are actually many Lost Legacy games, all of which use and extend the simple rules of Love Letter.

Adding a New Theme to Love Letter

After discussing themes in games and looking at the different versions of Love Letter, it's time for students to add a new theme to the game. The theme will be based on the lesson topic they've studied in class. 

The special Game Design Planning Sheet linked below will guide them through the process. Here are some things to keep in mind before assigning the planning sheet:

• The students will choose a theme that's related to your topic. The lesson might be about a book they just read, like The Odyssey, or maybe it will be about a historical event like The War of 1812. While they could use those entire topics as the theme, they also could choose a specific part of those topics. For example, they might focus on a climatic scene of the book or a particularly interesting battle of the war.
• The planning sheet will require them to name each card as something from their theme and to rename the tokens. Though not necessarily required, the sheet also suggests they make other changes to the effects and rules.
• The document has a link to the components for a very basic template of Love Letter cards. If students click it, they will get a copy of it as a Google Slides file. They can type their changes onto the cards (and they will print them in a later stage of the game).
• There are optional ideas listed on the second page of the planning sheet for students who want to explore game design further. Use them as appropriate for the age of your students and the needs of this project.

Click here to get a copy the Game Design Planning Sheet in your Google Drive.

In the next stage, we will look at how to make a playable copy of the new version of Love Letter. We'll also present some options for testing the games in class.

*Love Letter was designed by Seiji Kanai and published by Alderac Entertainment Group. I have permission from the publisher to use their game as I have in this exploration. Please consider supporting them by buying a copy of the game that your students can play as they learn the basic rules.

Game Design Exploration 2 - Love Letter

Several months ago I created a game design exploration that required students to redesign a simple game so it fit a topic they were studying. I'm now working on several Game Design Project Packs that include games of different types.

While most of these Project Packs will use simple games I created myself, this second installment uses a very popular new game called Love Letter. I do have permission from the publisher (Alderac Entertainment Group) to use the game this way.

For this first part of the game design exploration, students would learn how to play Love Letter and they'd play a few rounds.

The General Idea of the Project

You will want to know the overall flow of the activity. You can see my previous exploration as an example, or this short outline should suffice.

• Students study some topic in class. It could be anything really, but these activities lend themselves to people and events. Language arts and social studies classes are a good fit. Some of this part can happen concurrently with the following stages.
• Students learn and play a simple game.
• Using a planning sheet, they will apply a theme and possibly some new rules to that game so it fits the topic they're studying.
• Depending on how much time you want them to spend on this project, you can follow up with some playtesting and further development.
• A reflection sheet allows students to think deeply about the course topic and game design in general.
• Further resources are available for students who want to dig deeper and possibly print a quality copy of their game.

Getting a Copy of the Game

Like all the games in these projects, Love Letter uses few components and it can be played in about 15 - 30 minutes. In fact, the entire game has only 16 cards in it! (It's in a genre of modern games known as micro-games.)

I strongly encourage teachers to buy a copy of the game for students to play. The original Love Letter has spawned several different variations including a Batman and a Hobbit version. All are essentially the same and any would work for this project.  Here's one link to the original version for less than $10. (Just don't mistakenly get one of the more expensive, harder to find early editions of the game.)

I do have a template (linked below) to the basic cards. Students will use that template in Part 2 of this exploration, but it would be possible to play the game by printing that template on card stock.

How to Play

Here is a video I created (with some help from my wife for narration) that shows how to play the game. You could show this in class or just watch it yourself and explain the game to the students. All the rules take less than two minutes to explain.

If you want to read the full rules, here is a PDF from the publisher.

Playing the Game

I recommend for this activity that the students only play the game enough to get the general idea. They don't have to play a full game, as described in the video. A few rounds should be sufficient.

As I mentioned above, I did make this template so students can modify the game in the second part of this activity. If you want to use this to make a very plain (and boring!) version of the game to use in class, you could print it on card stock and cut out the cards. (More information will be given later for ways students can make prototypes of their game without using card stock.)

Next...

See the second part of the activity here. In it, students explore underlying concepts and elements of your lesson topic by adding a new theme to Love Letter.

The Updated 10 Ways to Show Off the Learning Beyond the Classroom

I first made this list in the summer of 2015. With each year of experience behind me and changes with the tools I'll keep updating this. Most updates were made in 2016, but a few have been added in July, 2017.

New items and information are clearly noted below.

When teachers and students show off the best things they learned, perceptions change and the culture changes. I want to make sure my district is known as a place where important learning happens every day.

But a lot of teachers in my district like hands-on, physical projects. Just how many art exhibits and science fairs can you do a year?

So I compiled this list so even those paintings done with real paint and the science experiment made of food can be shown off to the world.

I made this for the teachers I work with daily, so please keep in mind:

• It is a tool for awareness, not a how-to guide. Teachers in my district would contact me for one on one help. Since most of you won't have that option, I added links below to many of my Tech Project Packs. They were designed to help teachers quickly incorporate tech into their projects. I wrote about them all on this blog here.
• Most classrooms in my district use laptops or Chromebooks. I didn't include options for tablets with most of the ideas.

1) Live broadcasts of student presentations - Use The Cube. 

• You can broadcast to the internet easily with an iPhone or iPad. 
• Someone from your school will have to sign up and create an admin account at the site.
• Share the link to your broadcast with parents or to the community beforehand so anyone can watch live. 
• The recording can be left online, so people can watch it later if you want.
• When using live video, be sure you have parent permission to post online and remember not to identify students by first and last name.
• New information:
• I actually haven't used The Cube for a couple years now, since I wasn't involved with any live broadcasts in my district. It appears that service still works as described here, but now the two social media options below might be better.
• I have used Periscope for some personal projects and I love its simplicity.
• And of course Facebook Live is a very popular way to go now.
• Update 2017: If I do live announcements now, I'll use YouTube Live.

2) Websites and Blogs - A simple site or blog (created by you or the students themselves) is the starting point for sharing all the other types of project presentations listed below.

• Any final product, even if it’s has no tech involved, can be posted online by way of pictures and text. 
• For websites, Google Sites is a good, simple option. I made this tutorial for my district for making a website with Google Sites.
• For blogs, use Blogger. Here’s a tutorial I made for creating a new one.
• New information:
• Google Sites is going to be updated in a big way soon, but at this time the above resource is still relevant.
• I also recommend checking out Adobe Spark Pages as a great option for making a single web page. My tutorial for that excellent, simple tool is here.
• And here's my Tech Project Pack for blogs.
• Update 2017: The new Google Sites is a a great, simple way to create a website. See this post for some tips.

3) A PDF ebook - Within seconds anything students make in Google Docs or Slides can be turned into a PDF. From there it can be posted on any blog or website so anyone can open or download it like an ebook.

• With the file open, go to the File menu and select the option to Download as PDF.
• Once the PDF is downloaded, upload it to Drive again and share it as needed.
• New information: This tutorial is specifically about making a comic, but it does show the process of downloading a PDF from Google Slides.

4) InfoPics - If he didn’t invent this simple concept, Tony Vincent is the one who named it and he sings its praises. This really is just a process of adding notes or other text to pictures that are related to a topic. 

• Here's Tony’s blog post about it (with examples).
• It would be very easy for students to make these and share the images on a website or blog.The pictures could also be shared by a teacher or a parent on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or any other social network.
• The device you like to use will dictate the tools, but I’d suggest Google Drawings for computers or Chromebooks. Pixlr.com is a good tool on many devices if you want to add more effects to your pictures.
• New information:
• Update 2017: I used to recommend Adobe Spark as the first tool to check out for this. They call the pictures with text "Posts". Here's a tutorial about using it. It's still a great tool, but students under the age of 13 cannot sign up for an account without lying about their age.
• My Tech Project Pack for Infopics has tutorials for all the tools listed here.

5) Infographics - Students can create infographic images to show facts in a concise, visually appealing way.

• Finished graphics can be posted on social media or websites and blogs.
• Piktochart is a great tool for this.
• Users can log in on Piktochart with their Google accounts.
• Here’s a good article from Matt Smith with ideas for Piktochart in many subjects.
• New information:
• They have added a presentation option to Piktochart. Now with the click of a button the infographic can be used as a more traditional slideshow for live presentations.
• Here's my Tech Project Pack for infographics.

6) Audio Recordings (podcasts) - Students can create audio recordings and share them online in a variety of ways. These can be completed much faster than a video project. Here are a few details.

• Here’s a simple example of an interview between two students.
• On a PC with a microphone (or a laptop) Audacity is the program to use for recording.
• On a Chromebook you can try SoundCloud for recording (if editing isn’t necessary) or SoundTrap. Both work with Google accounts.
• Finished mp3 or wav files can be uploaded to SoundCloud so people can listen to them and even add comments.
• New information: Here's my Tech Project Pack for audio recordings.

7) Virtual books on Flipsnack - This site is a great tool that turns any PDF into a fun virtual book. 

• Important Note: I found out if students sign in using a Google Apps for Education account it uses the first and last name in the URLs. This is not a good practice. See the link to my new tutorial below about changing the username so it doesn't include student names.
• I usually create the PDF in Google Slides or Google Docs first, then upload to Flipsnack.
• Here’s an example I use for a comic assignment.
• Users can sign into Flipsnack with their Google accounts.
• Free Flipsnack accounts are limited to three virtual books at a time.
• New information: Here's an updated video tutorial on turning a Google Slides presentation into a Flipsnack. Be sure to watch the part that shows how to change the username in Flipsnack.

8) Screen Recordings - Think of these as somewhat informal recordings of something the students show on the screen. 

• These are great for tutorials or presentations.
• Here’s an example from a teacher who has his students use this method a lot.
• They’re informal because editing is usually not part of the process. Students need to practice before recording!
• On a computer with a mic, use Screencast-o-Matic.
• Final results can be uploaded to Google Drive or YouTube for sharing as necessary.
• New information: Update 2017: I used to highly recommend the SnagIt for this, but it is no longer available. I use Screencastify. Here is a recent post about how I create these.

9) Digital slideshows - These are a series of pictures combined into a video by using an editing program.

• These are a step up from screen recordings because you can (and should) edit them.
• Students can add audio. It might be just background music or they can narrate the slideshow.
• With narration, these become presentations that present themselves.
• They make a good introduction to video production, but don’t require as much time.
• New information:
• Forget everything you read from my blog about previous methods for this! I now recommend Adobe Spark Videos as the best tool. See this video tutorial for an example and how-to tips.
• Update 2017: I still like Adobe Spark for video, but we had problems using it on Chromebooks. Also, students under the age of 13 cannot sign up for an account without lying about their age.

10) Videos - Producing a good video is the pinnacle of technology integration in most classes.

• Good videos require several technology skills and a deep understanding of class content. 
• There is a huge range of possibilities for complexity. Don’t just tell students they can “make a video”! Know the options and set guidelines that are appropriate for your students.
• Here are my tips for teachers and students for any video project.
• New information:
• I'm in the process up updating some resources for these projects. Honestly, I've found they take a long time and I have been encouraging the digital slideshows over full videos. I will say I now prefer the paid version of WeVideo for the editor. Note that the free version is not COPPA and FERPA compliant.
• I did post about two video projects we did this year. One was a team building challenge and the other was designed to introduce students to iMovie on an iPad.

Two Great Tools for Creative Presentation Options - Think beyond PowerPoint

Update 11-25-2016:  I still love Adobe Spark, but I've learned a couple things since I used it more in the classroom this year. First, users have to enter a date of birth to sign up. Students under 13 will not get access. Also, we have run into problems with the video feature on Chromebooks. That option seems to work best on regular computers.

Teachers often ask me for presentation options that get them beyond PowerPoint. Adobe Spark fills this need perfectly!

I just finished new videos for easy, creative presentations and projects using Adobe Spark. I showed these (and Posts, the third option) to teachers a couple weeks ago and they took to it immediately. It came out in mid-May, too late for me to push it big in my district, but I suspect it will be a very popular tool this new school year.

Keep in mind both of these tools should be useful for teachers and students. They work great on Chromebooks or any computer. iPad apps are available too.

I strongly recommend that every teacher learn these tools before school starts up. Believe me, they won't take long to get the basics.

This first video is an overview and some tips for creating what they call Pages. These are very attractive webpages that can be used to tell a story, report on a classroom activity or just about anything else you'd make that uses pictures and text.

The video is below, but here's the sample page I created and that you'll see in the first part of the video.

This next tutorial features the Adobe Spark Videos. The tool is by far the simplest one I've found for making an attractive digital slideshow. Even adding narration is a breeze.

You might be interested in these related posts:

• Adobe Spark Posts - The third tool in the Adobe Spark suite is called a Post. It's a picture with text. 
• Using Adobe Spark for Making Narrated Slideshows - This video shows how to go from Google Slides to a narrated digital slideshow using Adobe Spark Video.

Question and Answer Sessions with Game Designers

I worked with students in our game design virtual club to generate a list of questions to send to game designers. Here are two replies that I received. In each video the designer answers several questions.

The first response is from John du Bois. He is the designer of Avignon: A Clash of Popes, a game that was successful on Kickstarter earlier this year.

He answered these questions from my group, as well as some from a game design class taught by Kevin Crowther:

• How do you know if a game you are working on is good?
• Do the rules of games have to follow certain guidelines or can they be however the designer wants them to be?

The second video is from David Whitcher. Several of David's games have been published, with the most recent one, Star Trek: Five Year Mission, making a big splash at GenCon last year.

He answered these questions and a few from the other class:

• What kinds of games do you think publishers want? And what are some types you think they don't want?
• What software and books do I need to get started?

David told me later that the free online class he referred to is from this site. He said it is for both digital and non-digital games and it should be good for beginners. He did point out that he disagreed with the way they used the term "playtesting". Both David and I (in all materials I've written for this blog) use it to refer to the process of testing the game.

Using Adobe Spark to Add Text to Images

A quick "tech project" that can sum up the learning or share good ideas is what some people call "infopics". Students simply add some text to a picture.

I've written about several tools that will let you do this easily. Now Adobe has released Spark, a creative tool that makes this (as well as some other digital creations) simple with very attractive results.

I created this video tutorial that shows the process.

There are Adobe Spark apps for iOS and Andorid as well. Each app creates one of the three project types the web app can create. This particular project is called the Post.

If you're interested in more resources about this image with text project, see my Project Pack about it here. The post with all my Project Packs can be found at this link.

Game Design Virtual Club - Part 4 - Making a prototype and testing it

Here's my fourth installment in my series of videos for the virtual club I'm running in Google Classroom. This time I talk about my favorite part of game design - making prototypes and testing them.

Most of the video is about making a quick, playable copy of the game. I only touch on the iterative process of testing, tweaking and playing some more.

Our school year is coming to a close, but if we get time my next video will be about creating a print-and-play version of a game.

Creating Narrated Slideshows and Digital Stories on a Chromebook Using Adobe Spark

One of the more popular tips and tutorials I've created has been how to create a narrated slideshow on a Chromebook. I used to use WeVideo for this, but last week Adobe released a tool called Spark. I was hoping it would be a simpler tool than WeVideo.

I tried out its features for importing images, adding narration and exporting the finished video and I'm happy to say it has worked very easily so far. I made a quick screen recording of the process so I could share it with teachers and students in my district.

This is new for all of us, but in case this helps others to get started with Spark, here's the video:

If you are interested in this post, you might also like my Tech Project Packs. Each one is a collection of resources for tech projects you can use in any class or subject.

Game Design Virtual Club - Part 3 - Developing your ideas

I've been running a virtual club about game design for some middle school students. The first post in the series is here.

Below I have the video I created for the third step in the game design process. In it I show students how to use my Game Idea Template to develop their ideas.

(If you're interested in seeing the template, it's here. I wrote this post about it a couple years ago.)

Click here to see the next post in this series - How to make a prototype and test it

Quick Start Tech Projects for Any Class

After two years of helping a lot of teachers get started with different tech projects, I finally got smart and combined the many existing tech project resources I've created.

My goal was to save time for teachers. Having everything in one document (or at least linked from one document) can cut out a lot of emails or our initial planning meetings, since now they can find these documents on one single webpage.

Instead of taking me out of the picture, it allows them to ask me the questions that are most relevant to their class a lot more quickly. 

Each of these "Tech Project Packs" focuses on one type of final product, like a blog or an audio recording. It answers important questions such as:

• What is this type of project best for?
• What tools are needed?
• What are some common challenges?
• What tutorials do you have for it?
• What should I include in the directions?
• How can we share it beyond the classroom?

We are a Google Apps for Education district and most students are using Chromebooks.

Here are four packs to start with. More will be added in the upcoming week. 

• Images with Text - A very quick project that can be adapted to any subject
• Infographics - Create informational "digital posters" with Piktochart
• Blogs - Good for getting started using Blogger
• Audio Recordings - A simple process for creating audio recordings on a Chromebook or laptop

If you have any suggestions or requests or if you see problems with the documents or links, please let me know.

Game Design Virtual Club - Part 2

I wrote last week about the virtual club I'm running through Google Classroom. It's for a small group of middle school students. Our goal is to design games and to publish them in a print-and-play format.

Here's the second video in the series of short lessons I'm taking them through. This time I talk about ideas and the importance of writing them down.

The next step will be to develop some of the more promising ideas. You can see that post here.

We are also in the process of creating a list of questions to send to successful game designers. When we agree on the questions, I will send those to some of my friends who have enjoyed success with game design. I'll post their videos here as I get them.

5 Myths About Ed-Tech That Keep You (And Your Students) From Being Amazing

It might not look like it, but the infographic below is my story from the past few years as I worked with several teachers. In that time I regularly heard the same misconceptions from them as I encouraged more tech integration and creative projects in all classes.

I call these misconceptions and myths, but in reality they started to sound more like excuses. That's understandable. We all know change isn't pleasant.

But whether someone actually believes these myths and is looking for a way to innovate or if they've just used them as a reason to do business as usual, I'm countering each of myth with a few ideas that I know to be true.

I and the many teachers I work with are not perfect examples of innovative educators, but together we've seen that change is possible. We've seen that a technology project in a core subject can let students shine in exciting ways. We've realized that when it all doesn't go perfectly, it's not a bad thing to struggle and learn in front of the students.

So I put some of the things I learned into the infographic below. You can view the full image here.

I have each frame of it below along with thoughts, resources and links than I could include in the graphic.

__________________________

Myth #1:  Students are already good with tech.

Reality:  Students learn tech tools quickly, but they don't use them in meaningful ways.

I've been impressed with how quickly students can learn to use new tools. Not intimidated by tech, they jump in and figure out how to make it do what they want almost immediately.

When it comes to doing something meaningful, though, they have a lot to learn. If we look for evidence of skills for success in today's world, such as writing a blog post someone would read or making a persuasive, watchable video, we can see there's a lot of room for learning.

I included a few stats in the infographic to support this. They're from these studies:

• Media Use by Tweens and Teens - From Common Sense Media
• 21st Century Learning - A study from Learning.com

To illustrate how quickly students can learn new tools, this post and this one give examples of how I introduced students to iMovie. Many times it's just a matter of showing them what's possible first.

Myth #2:  We haven't had enough good professional development.

Reality:  You can take charge of your own PD.

I'm glad when I see some teachers discover they really don't need me. They realize a quick Google search or a video on YouTube can help them learn what they needed.

The main idea for this section of the infographic came out of an informal survey I sent out to my PLN (and some of them shared with their own). I wrote about it in detail in this post. The big take-aways are in this slide.

• Over 70% of the respondents said they learn new tech tools on their own or from colleagues.
• Only around 2% of them claimed that traditional styles of district provided PD helped them learn to use the tech tools they rely on in the classroom.

Now, it is my job to help teachers and I'm not trying to get out of that responsibility. My point is that we can't just stay where we're at, always waiting for that perfect PD session to give us what we need. Limited budgets and different needs makes it an unlikely scenario. Besides that, the vast majority of the people making a difference do not attribute their success to such an experience.

Myth #3:  There's not enough time to learn all those tools.

Reality:  You can make time to take your next step.

Innovation can sound intimidating, but often it boils down to identifying your next small step and taking it. We all have a next step, and for all of us that next step is a challenge. When it comes to modeling lifelong learning, though, do we really have a good excuse to not regularly take that step?

This slide is based on quote from Cool Cat Teacher, Vicki Davis. I love her blog and podcasts. She is a model of an innovative, lifelong learner.

Myth #4:  Tech takes too much time from my class.

Reality:  It doesn't have to.

All I can say in response to this myth is that I've seen teachers integrate technology in ways that didn't take up a lot of class time. Yes, sometimes it can take more than it should, but this slide lists some practical tips I've learned from working with many classes.

I also want to link to a couple blog posts about very simple tech projects. If you need a first step, these might be good starting points:

• Infopics - Simple tools for adding text to pictures
• Audio recordings using TwistedWave - This simple online audio recorder integrates with Google Drive and can result in a very quick project at the end of a lesson.

Myth #5:  Tech is important, but ________ is more important.

Reality:  Effective tech use will help accomplish more of what's most important.

Some will say this point is too idealistic. It's a simple fact, though, that a person who can effectively use the best tool for a job has an advantage over anyone who can't use that tool. I want that advantage for the students that I work with.

This final slide is based on my AMP Up What's Working activity. It's a great resource to get teachers thinking about the proper use of technology in their work.

When we get beyond the idea that tech just makes things easier and saves time, we can clearly see the advantages that it offers. We can more easily identify the best tool for accomplishing what matters most.

What other myths, misconceptions or excuses have you heard when it comes to incorporating more ed-tech? Are there some reality statements above that you still disagree with? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments or by email.