AI-pril 2024 - Instructional Technology Newsletter

Diving Into Google Gemini

Teachers in the MSD of Boone Township now have access to Google's AI engine, Gemini. Don't worry, I asked Julia to make sure it was off for students. But the advantages that Artificial Intelligence can offer teachers are as diverse as the teachers and the content they teach. There are a number of ways that most teachers could use Gemini to make their jobs easier. And some teachers may be more comfortable using Gemini than other teachers. But what teachers can use it for is really a question of what they can imagine. Consider the following prompts that I input into Gemini, all of which produced usable and school-appropriate results.

"Write a song in the style of the Beatles about World War 2."

"How might The Great Gatsby be different if it was written today?"

"Summarize the key components of 20th century art."

"What are the most cutting edge developments in biology?"

"What are practical applications of factoring polynomials?"

Here are some less specific, but more universal ways teachers can utilize Gemini:
Lesson Planning & Differentiation: Struggling to brainstorm lesson ideas? Use
Gemini to generate activities, discussion prompts, or even rubrics based on learning objectives. Going a step further, you can use Gemini to modify these resources for different learning styles or student needs.

Creative Inspiration: Need a spark for a writing assignment? Gemini can whip up creative writing prompts, story starters, or even character profiles to get students' imaginations flowing.

Content Summarization & Comprehension: Found a great article but worried it's too long for students? Use Gemini to summarize the key points. This can be helpful for creating differentiated reading materials or supporting struggling readers.

Language Learning Aid: For language classes, Gemini can help students with pronunciation by analyzing recordings and offering corrections.

Integration with Google Tools: Since we have access to Google tools, take advantage of Gemini's seamless integration with Docs and Sheets. This allows teachers to easily incorporate generated content into their existing lesson plans.

Start Small & Focus on Benefits: Gemini can save you time and address specific challenges you face in your classroom.

Ongoing Support: If you're looking for more help, you can even ask Gemini how it can help you. And if you're struggling to come up with prompts that get you what you're looking for, try some of the resources below.

By using Gemini creatively and strategically, you can empower yourself in your own classroom!

A Complete Guide to Google Gemini

I have a complete guide for how to use Google Gemini available on the Hebron Instructional Technology YouTube channel. There are a total of 17 videos split over 3 playlists (or one big playlist, if that's your thing).

AI For Teachers Course

If you are interested in improving your AI game, you can complete the Generative AI Course for Educators to earn a certificate.

AI For Teachers Resources

In addition to the Google Gemini course, here are some other valuable resources for leveling up your Gemini game:

• Prompting Guide 101
• Gemini Responsibility Checklist
• How to Write a Prompt
• Prompt Library (for Educators)

March 2024 - Instructional Technology Newsletter

South Shore Summer of Learning

It's getting to be that time of year again. On June 6 and 7, 2024, the Indiana Department of Education Digital Learning Team, in partnership with Duneland School Corporation will be hosting the South Shore Summer of Learning event at Chesterton High School.

South Shore Summer of Learning

The event will highlight keynote speakers Thomas C. Murray and Kim Strobel, as well as several other high profile speakers.

There are two ways that you can experience the South Shore Summer of Learning event; you can sign up as an attendee (and earn PGPs for license renewal). Or, if you are feeling daring, you can sign up to present on a topic that interests you (and earn PGPs for license renewal).

Summer of Learning events are a great place to hear from experienced educators and engage with new ideas about the art of educating students.

Google Updates of Note

Google Slides recently added the Speaker Spotlight to the Insert menu. The Speaker Spotlight allows you to insert a live camera image of yourself as you present your slide deck. There were a couple of features for Speaker Spotlight that I found rather interesting. First, when you insert the spotlight, you can choose which shape you want your image to appear in; square, circle, square with rounded corners, etc. Second, when you insert the speaker spotlight, it is only inserted on the current slide. This is so that you are not forced to have it on every slide just by inserting it once. It is inserted on the current slide and that's it. Third, one of the options is to have it inserted on every slide. That way, if you do want it to appear throughout your presentation you can still do that. You can see this feature in action here.

Google is continually updating their tools and apps, so new features can pop up at any time. Here are a few new features that became available since the beginning of February:

• Create shareable video presentations in Google Slides
• Latest improvement for page setup in Google Docs
• Easily drag and drop an image to replace the background in Google Slides
• Playback improvements to videos uploaded on Google Drive

Grants

The MSD of Boone Township has recently partnered with Monthly Education Grants Alert (MEGA) Magazine to give us access to a monthly publication of education related grant opportunities. The publication is filled with grant opportunities; some with specific deadlines and others with rolling deadlines. The publication is searchable using the keyboard shortcut ctrl+f (find), so you can search through the document looking for specific keywords instead of reading through every description. When you find a grant that makes sense, there will be a link to the grant's website where you can find more information about applying.

Low Key PD

I recently finished the set of tutorials for Google Slides. That complete collection of tutorials, as well as all of my other tutorials, can be found on YouTube.

Winter 2023 - 2024 Instructional Technology Newsletter All-In-One

What's Noo From Google?

While we were all away from school over the winter break, Google was busy at work releasing a bunch of new features for their suite of products. One new feature in Google Docs specifically is the ability to create pageless documents. A pageless document is a document which is not confined to the normal restrictions one might expect for a document which is intended to be read in print. That is because pageless documents are designed to be used for documents you do not intend to print. Don't worry, though, a pageless document can easily be changed back into a paged document. But oftentimes we create documents which we expect to be consumed on a screen. If that is the case, there is not much need for things like page breaks and margins. You can see an example of a pageless document here.

Another new feature that has been available for a little while already is Smart Chips. Smart Chips can be inserted into a Google Doc and add a tremendous amount of interactivity to the document. Again, think about documents you believe would be consumed on a screen. You can add chips for dates, contacts, files, map locations, and more. You can see an example of smart chips here.

And you may also have noticed "Building Block" elements in Google Docs recently as well. Building block elements build on the idea of having templates available for when you make a large number of documents all with the same (or similar) structure. The old workflow would require you to create a template and save it to the template library for reuse later. Or, less conveniently, repeatedly make a new copy of the template when you need one. Building blocks do essentially the same thing but the workflow involved is much faster. You can see an example of Building Blocks here. And if you are feeling adventurous, you can make your own custom building blocks and save them to your personal building block library.

Low Key PD

New Low Key PD tutorials continue to be added to the already extensive YouTube collection. So far the collection includes tutorials for Slides, Drawings, Jamboard, Forms, and Docs. Tutorials are typically short (1 - 2 minutes) and cover one basic feature at a time. They are also grouped into playlists by the specific app to make it easier to learn a lot about one Google App in a short time.

Vouchers

Since vouchers for taking the Google Certified Educator Level 1 and Level 2 exams must be ordered in bulk, this presents a challenge when only a few teachers are ready to certify. Because of this, there is a new process for paying for the Level 1 and / or Level 2 certification exams. From now on, teachers should pay for the test out of pocket and then follow the following steps in order to get reimbursed for the cost:

1. To file for a reimbursement, complete the claim voucher and attach the invoice.  The office should have the claim form.
2. They would then send that to Karen for processing.  The board meets the 2nd Tuesday of the month.  Once the claim is approved the check will be sent to the teacher.

L1 and L2

Congratulations to our newest Level 2 Google Certified Educator, Abby Kaeb!

Speaking of the Levels 1/2 Google Certified Educators, the Google Classrooms for these courses are available to anyone who would like to pursue them. If you would like to level up your Google skills by obtaining a GCE badge (and the $250.00 stipend that goes with it) please let me know so I can add you to the appropriate course.