February 2025 - Instructional Technology Newsletter

Long Time, No See.

As many of you know, I've been using and providing training for the various tools in the Google Education space for many years. There has been a significant shift lately in how Google is approaching their current tools and new tools that they are either acquiring or developing; AI is everywhere. Many of the recent updates to Google tools have been along the lines of "use Gemini in [insert Google app name] to do [a useful task that AI can do now]." In fact, last spring one of my blog posts was dedicated to the subject. You may recall the AI-pril 2024 - Instructional Technology Newsletter. In this newsletter I would like to bring your attention to the many new ways that Google is implementing AI into its workspace tools.

Google Gemini

Google has made some recent improvements to the generic Gemini app. The main improvement is the addition of Gemini "Gems." Gemini Gems are custom versions of Gemini that you can create to help you with specific tasks or provide expertise in certain areas. You can think of them as specialized assistants that you can tailor to your needs. For example, you could create a Gem that helps you translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, or answer questions about a particular topic. You can even upload files to give your Gem more context and make it even more helpful. Here is the link to my Gemini Tutorial playlist on YouTube.

Google Classroom AI

Google Classroom offers a suite of AI-powered tools designed to streamline tasks and enhance the learning experience. Teachers can leverage AI to generate lesson plans, craft engaging hooks to capture student interest, and create quizzes aligned with their instruction. Additionally, AI can assist in re-leveling text for varying reading abilities and generating vocabulary lists for specific topics. By automating these tasks, teachers can free up valuable time to focus on individual student needs and foster a more dynamic and interactive classroom environment.

Google Vids

Google Vids is a new AI-powered video creation app within Google Workspace that

allows users to easily create engaging videos for various purposes. It offers features like AI-assisted script writing, voiceover generation, and access to a library of stock images and videos. Teachers might find Google Vids useful for creating dynamic lesson introductions, recording video instructions for assignments, or producing engaging educational content to supplement their teaching. The app's collaborative features also make it easy for teachers to work with colleagues or even students on video projects. Here is a link to my Google Vids playlist on YouTube. This is what I am currently working on, so this playlist will have new tutorials added to it frequently over the next month or so.

Notebook LM

NotebookLM is an AI-powered tool that helps users analyze and synthesize information from various sources, including Google Docs, PDFs, and even YouTube videos. It allows users to ask questions about their uploaded documents and  receive AI-generated summaries, insights, and even suggested related topics. Teachers can leverage NotebookLM to quickly grasp the key concepts from lengthy research articles, efficiently create reading lists for students on specific topics, or even help students analyze complex texts by generating summaries and answering their questions about the material. This can save teachers valuable time in preparing lessons and provide students with personalized support in understanding challenging content. I do not have any Notebook LM tutorials yet, but my plan is to begin making them as soon as I am finished with Google Vids. To stay up-to-date, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss these tutorials when they begin being published.

Get a Gemini for Education License

After my introductory training session to Gemini last fall, the Superintendent agreed to provide a Gemini Education license to any teacher that wanted one. They offer many more features in the Workspace environment than the typical version available to everyone. If you're interested in obtaining such a license, please reach out to Superintendent Brooks.

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.

October 2023 - Instructional Technology Newsletter

A Basket Full of EdTech Tricks

When it comes to EdTech, there's a lot out there. Here are a few tricks you can use to make your lessons spooky good.

Interactive Learning Platform: Utilize interactive learning platforms and Learning Management Systems (LMS). At MSD of Boone Township, we have access to Google Classroom, which allows for a multitude of ways to help make learning interactive. Classroom allows you to post assignments, quizzes, and resources, making it easier for students to access and submit work. Classroom also enables communication and collaboration among students and provides a centralized hub for class materials.

Flipped Classroom Techniques: Flip your classroom by creating video lessons or multimedia content that students can review before class. This allows for more interactive and engaging in-class activities, discussions, and problem-solving. Tools like Edpuzzle, Screencast-O-Matic, or even YouTube can help you create and share educational videos.

Gamification: Incorporate elements of gamification to make learning more fun and engaging. Platforms like Kahoot, Quizlet, and Classcraft allow you to create quizzes, flashcards, and game-based activities. Gamification can motivate students, foster competition, and enhance their understanding of the material.

Adaptive Learning Software: Integrate adaptive learning software like Khan Academy, Duolingo, or DreamBox into your teaching. These platforms personalize the learning experience for each student by adjusting content based on their progress and areas of need. This helps students work at their own pace and receive targeted support.

Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR): Explore AR and VR tools to create immersive learning experiences. Platforms like Google Expeditions, Nearpod, or Oculus VR can transport students to virtual environments, historical settings, or scientific simulations. These technologies can make complex subjects more accessible and memorable.

Remember that the key to successful EdTech integration is proper training and support for both teachers and students. Start with one or two tools that align with your teaching objectives, and gradually incorporate more as you become more comfortable with them. Also, be mindful of students' access to technology to ensure equity in education.

A Basket Full of EdTech Treats

Teachers can benefit from a wide range of EdTech tools to enhance their teaching and engage students more effectively. Here are five EdTech treats to try in your classroom:

Google Workspace for Education: There's a lot more to Google than Classroom. Google Workspace offers a suite of free productivity tools like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.

Kahoot!: Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that allows teachers to create and share interactive quizzes and surveys. It's an engaging way to review and reinforce classroom content, and it offers a fun and competitive element that students often enjoy.

Edpuzzle: Edpuzzle allows teachers to make any video their lesson. They can crop, add voiceovers, and embed questions within videos to track student understanding. It's a great tool for flipping the classroom or creating interactive video lessons.

Nearpod: Nearpod is an interactive presentation platform that enables teachers to create engaging lessons with embedded quizzes, polls, and other interactive elements. Teachers can use it to monitor and enhance student participation and understanding during presentations.

Seesaw: Seesaw is an excellent tool for younger students and for remote learning. It's a digital portfolio platform where students can showcase their work, and teachers can provide feedback and assessment. It's a powerful way to involve parents in their children's learning as well.

Remember, the effectiveness of these tools depends on the specific needs and preferences of both you the teachers and your students. It's essential to choose EdTech solutions that align with the curriculum and your students' short and long term needs.

September 2023 - Instructional Technology Newsletter

Recent Updates to Google Classroom

Over the last few months there have been several updates to Google Classroom; some obvious, some not. 

Practice Sets allow teachers to create sets of questions using artificial intelligence (AI). Teachers can either search for questions by topic, type their own questions, or import their own questions.  But the real power behind Practice Sets is AI. The AI can identify appropriate remedial resources that the students can access if they do not answer the questions correctly. Thus connecting students to the right resources at the right time. In addition, it uses the questions that you ask to determine suggestions for the appropriate skills sets to associate with that question. Presently, teachers can ask short answer, paragraph, single select, and multi select questions; with the ability to auto score short answer, single select, and multi select questions. For more on practice sets, check the official Google blog.

There is also a new feature that allows you to attach YouTube videos to your Google Classroom assignments and add questions at various points throughout the video. The new YouTube feature is in its infancy and currently works a lot like a basic version of Edpuzzle, for those of you who are familiar with that tool. I have been using this new feature a bit lately and one thing about it that I really liked was that the videos I used were saved as a separate activity that I could then add to other assignments later. 

Google has also added Grading Periods and Visiting Google Classrooms features that you can read more about by clicking on the respective links.

Massive Archive of Google Resources

Here is an online spreadsheet of all sorts of Google resources. If you'd like to make a copy of this spreadsheet, click here.

Congratulations Are In Order

This spring we had 4 teachers pass the Google For Education - Level 2 exam and earn their Level 2 certification. Congratulations to Brandy Parks, Veronica Siwy, Kristy Stephens, and Melissa Summerville. All four of these MSD of Boone Township teachers have upped their ed tech game. As a bonus, they each received a $250.00 stipend and 15 Professional Growth Points to use toward renewing their teaching license. In order to earn the Google for Education Level 2 certificate, each of these teachers also had to take and pass the Google for Education Level 1 exam before completing the Level 2 test. Speaking of Google certifications, the Google for Education - Level 1 and Google for Education - Level 2 self-paced classes are available again this fall. Email me and I will send you the invite link to join. The test can be taken at no cost with the use of a voucher and there is a $250.00 stipend awarded to teachers who successfully earn the Level 2 certification.

Other Professional Growth Opportunities for MSD Of Boone Township Teachers

I would also like to invite those of you who are interested in exploring The Modern Classrooms Project (MCP) to complete the online training this fall. In the spring, if there are enough teachers who are interested in using some of the strategies in MCP, I would like to put together a pilot program where we can use the strategies and discuss ways to implement them successfully.

May 2023 - Instructional Technology Newsletter

Artificial Intelligence Is Here (and I don't think it's going away)

But rather than bore you with opinions and lessons and such; I asked Chat GPT for 10 summer vacation ideas for teachers in Northwest Indiana. Here you go.

1. Beach Getaway: Enjoy the sandy beaches and refreshing waters of Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes State Park or Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan.
2. Camping: Take a camping trip at Indiana Dunes National Park, Potato Creek State Park, or Tippecanoe River State Park.
3. Visit a State Park: Explore the natural beauty of Indiana at one of the many state parks, such as Turkey Run State Park, Shades State Park, or Chain O' Lakes State Park.
4. Hiking and Biking Trails: Take a scenic hike or bike ride along the miles of trails available at Indiana Dunes State Park, Oak Savannah Trail, or Prairie Duneland Trail.
5. Outdoor Recreation: Go fishing, boating, or kayaking at Bass Lake, Lake Maxinkuckee, or Pine Lake.
6. Local Attractions: Visit local attractions such as the Albanese Candy Factory and Taltree Arboretum and Gardens.
7. Explore a New City: Take a day trip to nearby cities such as South Bend or Indianapolis.
8. Local Festivals: Attend local festivals such as the Porter County Fair, Valparaiso Popcorn Festival, or the Chesterton Art Fair.
9. Farmers Markets: Visit the many farmers markets in the area, such as the Chesterton European Market, Valparaiso Farmers Market, or Michigan City Farmers Market.
10. Historical Sites: Learn about the history of the area by visiting historical sites such as the Barker Mansion, Chellberg Farm, or the La Porte County Historical Society Museum.

Not to be outdone, here are the results from a similar query performed on Google Bard. There are some similarities with the Chat GPT results, but also a few new ones.

1. Visit the Indiana Dunes National Park (link provided above). This park is home to stunning sand dunes, forests, and wetlands. There are plenty of activities to enjoy, such as hiking, biking, swimming, and fishing.
2. Go to the beach. There are many great beaches in northwest Indiana, such as Lake Michigan Beach, Porter Beach, and Beverly Shores. You can relax on the sand, swim in the lake, or build sandcastles.
3. Visit a museum. There are many great museums in northwest Indiana, such as the Hammond Museum of Industry and Technology (is this a real place?) and the Indiana Dunes Museum. You can learn about history, art, science, and more.
4. Go to a sporting event. There are many professional and college sporting events held in northwest Indiana, such as the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, and the Indiana Pacers (not in season). You can cheer on your favorite team and enjoy a day of fun.
5. Go to a concert. There are many concerts held in Indiana, featuring a variety of musical genres. You can see your favorite band or artist live in concert.
6. Go to a festival. There are many festivals held in northwest Indiana throughout the summer, such as the South Shore Summer Music Festival, the Porter County Fair (link provided above), and the LaPorte County Fair. You can enjoy food, music, dancing, and more.
7. Go to a movie. There are many movie theaters in northwest Indiana, showing the latest blockbusters and independent films. You can catch a new movie or see a classic film.
8. Go to a play. There are many theaters in northwest Indiana, producing a variety of plays and musicals. You can see a live performance of your favorite play or musical.
9. Go to a comedy show. There are many comedy clubs near northwest Indiana, featuring a variety of comedians. You can laugh your head off at a live comedy show.
10. Go to a restaurant. There are many great restaurants in northwest Indiana, serving a variety of cuisines. You can enjoy a delicious meal with friends or family.