Google Photos - Digital Tips and Tricks

Google Photos is the newest and slightly hidden gem of the Google Suite which allows you to, backup manage and share photos easily. It is perfect for when you are on a field trip and want to share some photos with your class or with parents and want to avoid the confusion of shared folders. I have used the app on the bus back to school and have shared everything before I needed to rush back to class.

How do I get started?

You need to first install the app on your smartphone and the visit the website https://photos.google.com/ to see your albums and backed up photos.

What does it do?

The app and online version continues to update now allowing you the ability to

• create and share albums with anyone
• create a collaborative album for others to contribute images
• create animated gifs with a series of photos
• make and download a collage with selected photos
• within the phone app make a movie with selected pics

Have an explore with the quick guide below either using your work account for school photos of personal account. You have the option to automatically sync your photos in the background to your online account or alternatively you can manually select which photos you wish to backup. When you delete a photo from your camera roll a copy can be left online.

Guide to explore

Blended Screencasts - Record & Flip

Record & Flip

Record it, then flip it, simple!

Screen recording, or Screencasts are one of most most effective teaching tools in the arsenal of a teacher who is fortunate to be work in a 'technology enhanced learning environment' but, if the devices you have to hand are laptops, not tablets, than expecting your students to create a screencast can be more of a hassle than it's worth. 

That is unless you know how to record and flip. 

I've used demonstrated this technique before in a context of asking students to model a skill with apparatus, such as how they can measure an angle with a protractor, but with a little imagination it's not difficult to see how this could be used in other ways:

• Mapping skills in Humanities
• Rationale for a design proposal in Design & Technology
• Description of the significance of imagery in the Visual Arts
• Mind Mapping relationships and connections
• Reflection on ideas and opportunities for development in a flash draft in English
• Reflection/critique of a passage/excerpt in a printed book/magazine
• Annotation of musical notation to indicate understanding of the structure
• Annotation of diagrams, graphs, and charts
• Explaining a strategy or process in solving a Mathematics problem
• and many more...

All the students need is a whiteboard or a sheet of paper, and to position it as shown above. They can tap the spacebar to start and stop the recording. 

Once the recording is finished the student can flip the video horizontally and vertically, then review and trim* the video is necessary before sharing it with the teacher. 

An Example from Mathematics

Here's one I did earlier...**

*If the student has done a great deal of  'umming and ahhing' they can delete the segments of the video that are unimportant, but most of the time this is probably unnecessary as you're not looking for a highly polished artefact here, and hesitation (when and why) may well be useful information in and of itself.

Student Example

** Disclaimer, the hesitation you see in this video was intentional in order to create a sense of authenticity, honest, it's true! 

Quizlet Diagrams - revise knowledge with clever visuals

Quizlet remains as one of those Swiss Army knife style apps that you end up repurposing and going back to time and time again. Last year it got a significant revamp with the Quizlet Live game feature and now there is a clever addition called Quizlet Diagrams.

In essence using Quizlet is a perfect approach to get students to revise new terms or develop and broaden their vocabulary. In Economics I want student to use the appropriate terms and words to explain the nuances of complicated concepts and models. For instance we want our students to confidently use the term 'appreciation' rather than trying to just say that a currency has gone 'up' In my experience Quizlet is a pretty good tool to help develop this basic knowledge.

The new diagrams tool goes further adding a really clever visual layer. You can pin a term to a specific part of the diagram and then the students use the match or learn tools to revise which term matches which part.

How do I use?

• You need to sign up for a free Teacher account with your GApps account
• Search the diagrams examples for your subject
• Duplicate an existing set of flashcards or create to start a fresh
• Drag a screenshot or image into Quizlet
• Use the pin icon to add terms.

Are there examples I can look at?

There are lots of really clever examples already created and available online. You can share any of these with your students by posting the link into our Online Learning Platform (Teamie)

Have a go and test yourself first !

1. Biology Cell Structure Diagram
2. Soil Layers Diagram - Science and Geography
3. Match the European Country
4. Spanish Vocab - el desayuno (what's for breakfast I think :)

How do students access?

You can copy the link directly from Quizlet and send this to your students with the Online Learning Platform (Teamie) The two best modes from students to practice diagrams are Learn Mode or Match Mode.

Learn mode is very clever and randomly gives students either match or multiple choice questions based on the set of flashcards you have created and it helps students track which ones they find easy and those which are harder. Match mode is probably the best supported to diagram and give the students a random challenge based on the flash cards you have added to a diagram. See below

via GIPHY

Passwords - @re y0urs awes0me or awfu1?

The longer the password, the harder it is to 'guess.' But the easier it is to type incorrectly...

Many systems require passwords to be at least 8 characters and include at least one capital letter and at least one number.

Of course nobody would write their password down on paper, or in their organiser... Would they? DON'T write it down, but it is a good idea to type all of your account passwords et cetera somewhere safe, and easy to access, maybe a draft email? A private Google Doc? A note on your PIN protected phone?

Use a Master Password

A master password is short simple word that contains a capital letter and at least one number, you use this in ALL your passwords, just adding on an extra word (or even 2?) that relate to the different accounts you use.

For example let's say my master password is Koala, turn the o and the l into numbers - K0a1a. Now when you create a new account, let's say to use here at UWC, my new password would be K0a1aUWC. Easy. 

Now apply that to other accounts you use, eg:

K0a1ahotmailhome

K0a1ayahoo
K0a1agmailwork

K0a1afacebook

K0a1atumblr

This way you avoid using the same password for everything, but in a way, it also is one password for everything. Nice.

Obviously keep your master password top secret—a note on your (PIN protected) phone? And just in case someone does get a peek at your list of passwords over your shoulder, don't type out all the characters, just create an an obvious clue to you, but not to anyone else, example:

Skype username: thingummywhatsit

Password: Master/Dad's dead dog: K****P****3!

As you use your Mac password to unlock your Mac probably 20 times a day, (or, you should be) it might make sense to use the master password on its own, to make things easier. You will be using it a lot, so you will be able to touch type it in no time.


View the Prezi below for the ultimate guide, and use this with a class to guide students through the process of creating their own secure passwords, note that is plural!

Passwords; are yours awe50me or awfu1? on Prezi


When you use the change password feature in Google (at school or at home) this also updates the school password.

Here's the link: https://webapps.uwcsea.edu.sg/chgpwd/Login.aspx

Top Tips

Use a master password, and combine that with other words for different accounts.

If you speak a language other than English (LOTE) that is perfect for words to make a password that will be harder to hack, if the language doesn't use the roman alphabet, you can use phonetics to adapt it, eg namaste, kimchee, shalom, you get the idea.  

Brainstorm a 'collection' of passwords you can cycle, use, reuse.

• Maybe places you love, 
• OLD phone numbers? 
• The first line of an address of a member of your family, eg Grandad? 87Sn0dberrylane
• A deceased pet? 
• A member of your family’s middle name? Grandparents first name? 
• An obscure town village you know well, eg How about ba11yki55ange1?

Then combine two of these to make a much tougher password, ideally words that are NOT in the dictionary, but definitely words that are not related, eg mine+craft!

Create an online (eg, in Google Drive/Dropbox/Draft eMail) private document to record these, type these with asterisks and one character clue, eg *****3t***3* to indicate character count, and a clue as a prompt, eg, My Dad's dead dog and cat.

That way if anyone does read your document, it's still no use to them, but still very useful to you.

Substitute numbers for letters that look similar. The letter ‘o’ becomes the number ’0′, l = 1, 5 = S, eg p455w0rd!

Substitute random character like: ! = i, $ = S, @ = a, and of course ? at the end.

Use something that will not change, because it is in the past, eg NOT your 'best friend'.

Posting tips for better formative assessment

The Online Learning Platform in Middle and High School is our key tool to both share resources and communicate with students.

The post option has lots of hidden tricks allowing you to collect student responses, develop polls for students to vote on or share Google Docs. Have an explore through the slides below for examples to explore and try with your class.

Report Writer

Everyone knows that writing reports is one of the highlights of every teacher's academic year, and while this may be hard to believe, adding technology to the mix can make this delightful experience even more rhapsodical, efficient, pithy, oratory, and timely (see what I did there?).

Here's a couple of report writing tools that may be of interest...

https://schoolreportwriter.com/ is not going to win any prizes for web design any day soon, but it's free and it does what is says on the tin:

http://www.reportcommentbank.co.uk/

A small group of teachers and put this system together a few years ago to make report writing less hassle for themselves and their colleagues.

You can access it straight from a Chrome App (free on the Chrome App store) as well

The free version allows you to:

• Create reports 
• Create your own comments
• Edit comments
• Access shared comments

Of course there are lots of other great features available of don't mind paying £10 a year ($20 SGD) for them.

They have really impressive range of comments.

Google Sheet Report Writer

This Google Sheet is very handy, make a copy and tweak to your purposes. The reports it generates require very little tweaking to get right, and many teachers have used it and attest to its effectiveness. It's not as polished as the other tools here, it doesn't come with built in comment banks, but... it is free, easy to use, and easy to use as a team, as everyone can collaborate on building the comment bank and then make copies to use with their own classes! 

Tips

Some common errors - even with British spelling, spell program when referring to a computer program  (not programme) we all use the American spelling, because they invented it!

ICT (Information Communication Technology), ICTs or 'digital technologies' is preferred over IT, IT is the engineering, the workings of the machine, the engineering, and coding, whereas we are really only concerned with the use of the machine, for communicating understanding , the C , in ICT.

Avoid using the term 'technology' to refer to ICT, although it is commonly used as a shortening of the full 'Information Communication Technology' it makes the mistake of assuming that all technology is digital, which it is not, ask any engineer, or maybe even Google:

technology

• the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.
• machinery and devices developed from scientific knowledge.
• the branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied sciences.

Digital Approaches to Activating Prior Knowledge

In our staff meeting we explored ways that technology can really enhance our ability to activate and assess prior knowledge and to introduce concepts. We all have approaches to pre-assess students understanding some of which involve technology.

There are specific digital tools when used a part of our repertoire can amplify the process of activating knowledge. In clever ways they help assessment, monitor, track and provide the data to help us differentiate learning in the face-to-face classroom. Overtime we should be comfortable with the following and use them to help assess and support differentiation.

• Teamie Discussions - tutorial and examples
• EdPuzzle and YouTube - tutorial
• Padlet - tutorial and example
• Google Forms and self-marking - tutorial

If you teach Maths there is an amazing range of specific adaptive tools at your fingertips. (MangaHigh, Khan Academy, My iMaths) 

First steps:

We all provide students with materials to look over before class, such as unit pages in Teamie, chapters of a textbook or to watch a YouTube video. We also use formative assessment tricks at beginning of lessons such as questioning, mini-whiteboards to connect back to prior knowledge.

Isnt this enough?

Well, yes but with a few tweaks if can be significantly amplified. If we want students to be watch a video or to read an article we should be setting them some questions to focus their thinking.

Technology can really help with this process by letting you

• Track and monitor if students have actually watched or read the material
• Automate collecting responses from the students
• Help you see a collated view of responses and flip between questions or students.

Challenges and thoughts:

Timing:

A few table groups spoke about the timeliness of pre-assessments. If you really wish to differentiate you need adequate time to analyse how students have performed.  For instance if you are beginning to explore a new concept, students can engage with a homework task in the days prior but does this give you time to modify what you were planning to do?

Participation:

Suppose instead of having a mini-lesson during class time explaining a concept, that you record yourself with a document camera and have students engage with this ahead of class. What if only half of the students look at the resource? Do you repeat yourself or split the class into groups. Overtime I would suggest that students understand why you are exploring this approach and help them see it as part of the routine and to be prepared. We also need to do something in the first part of the class that explicitly refers back to the homework and references the prior knowledge so they understand how it connects to the learning. If they come to class prepared and yet that work is not referenced by the teacher they will be less willing to do the pre-assessment next time.

Time: 

To be organised in advance and to preset some homework preparation requires some effort. If you also want to create your own material to support the course it can be extremely time consuming.

• Start with using a Teamie post to ask a simple question about a resource. This can be a virtual plenary to your lesson. Lock the comment if you don’t want students to see each others comments and then unlock when class begins and get them to read or reply to each others responses.
• Take an existing good resource or video and repurpose using EdPuzzle.
• If the approach works explore making your own resource. Try a screencast on your mac using Quicktime, or borrow a document camera to record a mini-lesson.

Presentations - click to end to see department ideas