Topics and Trends in Tech Integration (ESU 8 Newsletter article)

Topics and Trends in Tech Integration

By Katie Morrow, ESU 8

The following are current technology integration projects and practices that ESU 8 schools have been busy with recently. Remember that the invitation is always open if you see something from this list that you would like to try in your classroom. Contact us at ESU 8 and we would love to help get something planned in your school!

• Digital book creation: A digital book is so much more than a book. Rather it is a container/organizer for all kinds of learning! Use a digital book as an investigation journal, a portfolio, a class collection of pages on a larger topic, or even a way to document a school event. Publish and share with the world without wasting any printer ink!
• Creative media production: Whether a quick project like the greenscreen “Wormhole Challenge” or a class project like content area student-produced videos, students can practice interview skills, speaking skills, editing and creativity. Videos are a universal way to share what is being learned in the classroom with the rest of the world!
• VR and AR: Virtual and augmented reality can bring content to life. Students can experience apps to take them places they couldn’t normally go: for example the inside of body systems or underneath the ocean floor. Also possible is students creating their own VR and AR creations with tools such as Google's Tour Creator, AR Makr app, or Blippar.
• Digital resources for research: Utilize World Book online, Learn 360, or Virtual Field Trips to connect your class with first rate global resources- all with virtually no cost. Avoid simply going on a Google search and use higher quality resources for whatever your next educational project may be.
• Blended Learning and PBL: Here’s a framework or a learning methodology to make your next project more student directed. Student agency empowers learners to be responsible for choices impacting their productivity and understanding of content. Make your next unit more personalized by blending in some project based learning or station rotation experiences.  
• Gamify with assessment tools: Use technology for your next classroom review session and make learning fun! There are so many readily available formative assessment tools that you can choose a new one each unit so students don’t grow tired of any of them. Even some traditional tools have new features, so ask about ways to gamify that next class review session. 
• Learning Management System tools like Canvas or Google Classroom: The easiest way to take technology integration to the next level in your classroom is to employ a system of content delivery and student interaction. Even Apple Classroom has updates to make their newest technology more manageable for all. Work with us to uncover ways your LMS can allow for more productive learning environments. 
• Coding: Expose students to computational thinking by integrating some analog "intro to coding” activities. Or give them time to explore Swift Playgrounds on iPad or the code.org website. Or bring the Sphero programmable robots to your school for a coding kick-off activity. Once you get kids hooked, the sky is the limit for their future!

For additional ideas and examples from ESU 8 schools recently, be sure to check out my Instructional Tech at ESU 8 blog at: https://esu8tech.blogspot.com  

Monster Character Maker

Mrs. Jenny Alder's 4th grade students at Stuart Elementary were kind enough to help me create some monster characters!

Using the brilliant activity from Laura Wright's WrightStuff Interactive, airdropped via Apple Classroom, students got right to work creating unique monster characters in Keynote. 

http://wrightstuffinteractive.com/2019/08/16/monster-character-maker/

What resulted was a diverse conglomeration of mostly-friendly monsters, complete with name and the artist's autograph. 

Now the 4th graders will employ their creative writing skills to bring their monster characters to life in writing!

Animal Adaptations Infographics

For this year's ESU 8 Elementary Science Olympiad, activities were centered around a phenomenon. Students were scientists as they explored and experienced topics with connections to that phenomenon.

During my rotation we learned about animal adaptations and how they help animals survive. Each pair of students created an infographic in Keynote on iPad to visually share their scientific knowledge with others.

To replicate in your classroom, I recommend starting with the Everyone Can Create: Drawing guide book from Apple Books. Chapter 9 is all about infographics and contains solid examples as well as planning considerations.

Everyone Can Create Drawing

We also examined this Snowy Owl infographic example to look for critical features of an infographic as referenced in the Everyone Can Create chapter.

Next student pairs each chose an animal that interested them and researched it on World Book Online Student Edition. ESU 8 provides access to this valuable resource to all our schools and it tremendously helped with efficient and responsible research for this age group of students. Older learners could use Advanced and younger grades the Kids Edition of World Book Online. We discussed how to cite and credit the article for their researched and then navigated to the media tab to choose the image to be the center piece of their infographic. Students copied their animal's image and then opened the Keynote app to begin to create.

Prior to students arriving, I used Apple Classroom to distribute a Keynote file where I had created a custom theme with different biome backgrounds set to 50% opacity and locked in the background of the slide design options. This was mostly to maximize time for students to create.

(To make your own version simply create a new Keynote, View > Edit Master Slides, delete the existing masters other than the blank one, duplicate that and add a different background image to each, name each slide master and choose 'Done'.)

Now, all students needed to do was add a new slide (blue + on bottom left) and choose the biome that most closely matched their chosen animal. They pasted their image on the slide, resized and some used instant alpha to clean up the background. (Note: If students had access to Apple Pencil, I would encourage them to trace, color, and delete the original image in order to have a truly personalized look for the visual focus of their infographic.)

Using my example of a deer and its adaptations that I created below, we continued to go back and forth (or use Split Screen view on the iPad) between World Book Web and Keynote in order to add the following components:

• Title
• Name of biome
• Map of where it lives
• at least 3 adaptations that help it survive

Keynote skills the students learned included:

• Adding and editing text
• Inserting drawings
• Using shapes, callouts, and connectors
• Recording audio (for a few early finishers)

Also during this fast-paced 45 minute lesson we discussed critical design elements including, font, color, layout (proximity & space), and contrast. 

After all the student groups had rotated through, it was easy to collect the Keynote files through Apple Classroom and send the completed infographics back to their teachers. You can view the students' creativity and scientific knowledge in this online gallery.

https://flickr.com/photos/kmorrow/albums/72157711189350588  

Pioneer ABCs: Book creation by 1st graders

To bring to life first grade Social Studies learning, this class created an alphabet book based on the "Little House on the Prairie" series and Westward expansion topics. 

First, Mrs. Willis and her students brainstormed topic options for each of the letters of the alphabet, then assigned to her class. 

Next students researched and wrote their "stories," drawing an accompanying picture on paper.

I shared an ABC book template page via Apple Classroom and worked with the students to publish their work in Pages. Many examples of combining pencil and paper artwork with digital artwork were experimented with. 

Students rotated through some "finishing stations" where they recorded audio with Mrs. Willis or were photographed in a pioneer costume.

 

Finally the pages were submitted to me via Apple Classroom so that I could assemble them in a class alphabet book. 

Now published on the Apple Books Store, you can enjoy it here:

‎Pioneer ABCs on Apple Books 

For members of our audience without access to Apple Books, we shared the following additional versions:

Pioneer ABCs 

Drawing on iPad + Line Draw Animation = Digital Citizenship PSAs

Students from O'Neill High School's Digital Citizenship team created public service announcements to share key take aways learned from the 2018 Digital Citizenship Symposium.

To create, students used this workflow:
1) Choose a topic and write a script (and timed it aloud, ensuring it was 30-60 seconds in length).
2) Decide on visuals and draw on blank Keynote slide with Apple Pencil.
3) Animate the drawing with Keynote's 'Line Draw' animation and export as a movie file.
4) Drop the movie file in a new, blank iMovie project.
5) Voice-over the script and adjust the timing of your line draw animation movie to match.
6) Add background music from GarageBand media library and export the final product!


After creating the PSAs, students shared them during Digital Citizenship Week online (via Twitter), on local radio (KBRX - O'Neill), through Mr. Fisher's "Monday Memo" (all-school weekly update) and on O'Neill High School's Eagle Eye Broadcasting- Daily Announcements show where the students also talked about their important messages.

Students Authoring Books with Pages

How has the book feature in Pages helped your students improve literacy skills? @katiemorrow #PagesBookChallenge #InternationalLiteracyDay #AppleEDUchat pic.twitter.com/HGIStk04qq

— Apple Education (@AppleEDU) September 2, 2018

Every year on September 8, International Literacy Day is celebrated. In conjunction with this year's celebration, AppleEDU has launched a #PagesBookChallenge. The challenge is simple. Create a digital book with your students in Apple's Pages app (free creation app for Mac or iPad). Then, simply tweet a short synopsis of the book along with its cover and tag #PagesBookChallenge.

Turn your students into authors using the new book feature in Pages! Tweet a description of the plot, include a visual of the cover, and tag #PagesBookChallenge. #NationalReadABookDay #InternationalLiteracyDay pic.twitter.com/wkJBTfJ3rz

— Apple Education (@AppleEDU) September 3, 2018

To encourage all educators to participate here a series of short tips and recommendations for creating digital books with Pages.

1. Begin a new Pages project using the Books templates.

Tip: Use Portrait templates for primarily text-based books (so that the reader can resize the text and the pages will adjust accordingly) and Landscape for fixed layout books (where you control the exact design and layout of the pages and the reader cannot adjust).

2. Author and Edit as you normally would in the Pages app. 

The beauty of the iWork suite, in my opinion, is its simplicity and consistency across apps. Unleash your creativity!

3. Add narration with authentic audio

On Mac: Create a Quicktime Audio Recording and drag icon next to filename onto your Pages document.
On iPad: Tap the +, choose the Media tab, and Record Audio, then add to page.

4. Export as ePub for Publishing and Sharing.

Title your book and name the author. Set your options for book cover: (None, from first page, or upload your own).

There you have it! Anyone can create a book with Pages. 

 Student books authored in Pages by Mrs. Troester's English 8 class, Spring 2018. (Science "Explainer" books for younger learners)

As educators the possibilities are endless when authoring books with Pages. To help learners experience authentic authoring, encourage them to work through all stages of the writing process. Here is a 60 second reminder of how to do so within the Apple ecosystem.

Finally, teachers can use Pages templates to help students focus more on the content of their books, and less on the the design of the pages. Whether for professional learning experiences, class books where every student authors a piece, or even shorter individual writing projects, simply create a Pages book as a starting template. Share the Pages document as a starting point and allow the learners to customize the content. Be sure to take advantage of the following features:

Media placeholders

Add image gallery placeholders from the Media button. This is a preset placeholder for the author to add an entire gallery of images.

Add text boxes and utilize Paragraph Styles

Text boxes are automatically ready as placeholders. Simply change the paragraph style and/or formatting.

Build your own photo/video placeholder

Add an image (or screenshot). Select the image and choose:
On Mac: Format > Advanced > Define as Media Placeholder

Add pages as desired and distribute to all your budding authors.  

I cannot WAIT to see what creative ideas you and your students have when creating books in Pages!

4 Types of Sentences... Zoom Clues in Clips!

Shirley Rossman, 4th grade teacher at West Holt Elementary, just finished teaching her students about the four types of sentences. In order to reinforce these key concepts, she had the idea to adapt the concept of "Zoom Clues" videos made in Apple's Clips app and challenge her students to demonstrate mastery.

Here is the project workflow:

1. Students choose a "mystery object" and author FOUR sentences (one of each of the four sentence types: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory) giving clues about the object's identity. 
2. Students take a photo of their chosen mystery object with the iPad camera. The image should be fairly close up, but show the entire object, as this will be the view shared as the "answer" to the Zoom Clues video. 
3. Students start a new project in Clips and add a poster image to introduce their video.
4. From the Library, bring the photo of the mystery object into the "stage." Pinch to zoom in as far  as possible, and position the image in a way that guessing the object could be challenging. Add a label with the first clue and press the big red record button to add to the Clips project. 
5. Zoom out just a little and/or change the viewpoint, add the second sentence clue with a new label, and record the clip. 
6. Repeat for the last two sentence clues. 
7. Add a conclusion slide that shows and reveals the answer.
8. Add music and export the final video to share it!

Here is a sample "4 Types of Sentences Zoom Clues" that the West Holt 4th graders and I quickly made together, but hopefully soon they will share some more clever examples of student creativity! Check back soon!

Getting to Know Your Students: Back to School Activity Ideas with Keynote Shapes

Many teachers may remember the brilliant "All About Me" project shared on the Apple Teacher Learning Center.

In it, students use the Shapes Library in Keynote in creative ways to share all about themselves.

This is a wonderfully simple and adaptable activity for those first days back to school.

Below I have shared some additional prompts for a similar "Getting to Know You" activity.

You can download the Keynote file (for Mac or iPad) and adapt it even further here:
Getting to Know Students- Shape Collages_blank template for Keynote

Or see some finished examples for additional inspiration.

How do you plan to use and customize the incredible Shapes Library in Keynote to get to know your students this school year?

Six Shot Stories

Every once in awhile you find that tech integration idea that withstands the test of time. Even as the tech tools evolve and change, the learning still holds its value. "Six Shot Stories" is one of those practices for me. As an English teacher, the value of writing Six Word Memoirs created numerous educational benefits with my students. Theme, concise word choice, summarization are all skills emphasized with this simple activity. Pairing the concept with media was brilliant, and Don Goble's One Best Thing book: "Six-Word Story, Six Unique Shots" remains an invaluable resource for delivering the lesson to students.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/six-word-story-six-unique-shots-enhancing-writing-through/id846218165?mt=11  

Recently I worked with the 4th grade classes at West Holt Elementary to share their school's stories through this technique. And Apple's Clips app on iPad was the perfect medium to create some powerful digital stories in a short timeframe.

I began the lesson by viewing Apple's latest commercial for iPad "Homework" and asking students to count the number of cuts, in order to establish the importance of storytelling through a wide variety of camera angles and shots.

Then students paired up to author a Six-Word Story about their school, their classroom, or their daily activities as 4th graders at West Holt Elementary. It is amazing to see such powerful stories created in just six words by students!

I used Don Goble's book on iBooks to demonstrate different shots that were possible, and reminded students of some simple best practices when capturing with iPad. Instructions were emphasized that each shot should be between 3 and 5 seconds and no technique should be repeated (each shot is unique). Students used a storyboard to plan their six shots and then used the camera app to capture each on their iPad.

Finally, with only literally a few minutes of instruction on the Clips app, students assembled and edited their story. Some added all six words of text at the very end, some used one word per shot, and others split up the text in varying ways. Many were able to experiment with the other creative features of Clips as well, even within the one-class time period we had together. Each team of students exported their product to camera roll, then Airdropped to their teacher's Mac in order to upload on a YouTube channel and organize in a playlist.

What I appreciate most about this project as an ELA teacher, is the tremendous focus on concise, clear communication it entails. As a technology teacher I value the creativity and composition techniques that allow student media production to instantly be raised to the next level.

Enjoy some of West Holt Elementary's Six Shot Stories!

Do More With... iWork

Let's take a closer look at what sets Apple's iWork apps apart from other app suites by exploring a few skills and accompanying projects possible in Keynote.

• Use Shapes Library & Drawing Tools --- to create --- Infographics
• Use Magic Move --- to create --- Animated Learning
• Use Links and invisible buttons --- to create --- Quiz Shows

Don't hesitate to begin with the free Starter Guides from Apple Teacher:

• Keynote for Mac Starter Guide
• Keynote for iPad Starter Guide

Next explore the big ideas outlined above:

Use Shapes Library & Drawing Tools --- to create --- Infographics

Use Magic Move --- to create --- Animated Learning

Ben Mountz's 'Magical' Presentation about Keynote's 'Magic Move'

Use Links and invisible buttons --- to create --- Quiz Shows

This iTunes U course demonstrates how to use the slide linking feature of Keynote to create "Choose Your Own Adventure" type stories.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/write-your-own-adventure-interactive-fiction/id1032400189

And don't forgot about this Wednesday Webinar from last spring as an additional idea generator:

St. Patrick's Day Writing from First Grade iPad Authors

Are you as excited for St. Patrick’s Day as the creative First Grade Authors in Mrs. Willis’s class are?

Students personalized the leprechaun character in their stories with Toontastic 3D

Follow one leprechaun’s adventures in O’Neill as he searches for the pot of gold on St. Patrick’s Day.  

Skills addressed:

• Creative writing
• Oral reading fluency
• Story elements  (setting, characters, beginning, middle, and end)
• Local community history and traditions (O’Neill St. Patrick’s Day Celebration)
• iPad skills 

iPad apps utilized:

• Toontastic 3D (free)
• Book Creator (Lite version is free)

Our process included brainstorming ideas and writing the stories on paper with Mrs. Willis. When Mrs. Morrow worked with us on the iPads we created the setting and characters for our stories and recorded the animations with the Toontastic 3D app. Then each student created their own Book Creator project and designed their pages by adding the typed text of their story, their Toontastic animation, additional illustrations, and of course, their signature. Each student’s individual Book Creator pages were Airdropped to Mrs. Morrow’s iPad to be combined into one class book. Students brainstormed the facts for the ‘Did You Know?’ pages in between each of the leprechaun’s adventures. Finally, we filmed the conclusion for the book all together and added it to the last page of our Book Creator project. 

So, how can you experience this creative story? 

Luckily, you have three options. 

1. If you have an iPad or a Mac, download the free iBooks app. 

Use your Apple ID to download a free copy of the book and then read in iBooks. 

*This is the most fully functional version of the product. You can swipe to turn the pages and click on the videos to play within the story. 

View in iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1216353000 

2.  If you do not have an iPad, but have another type of digital device, you can “read” the whole story as a video on YouTube. 

The video of the whole book is over 18 minutes long, but you can easily skip around to find your favorite parts.  

*TIP: Be sure to watch the ending of the story, no matter what! It starts around 17:44

3.  A final option would be to stop in the 1st Grade classroom and read the book there. We will have a printed version on paper (minus the student voices and videos) as well as being able to view on the school iPads. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from some amazingly creative iPad authors!