Education Technology

Summer is coming to an end and a new school year starts! Here are new features that you will enjoy from Google for Education. Posted by Dina Kachintseva, Classroom Software Engineer and Felix Wang, User Experience Designer As any teacher would tell you, the classroom isn’t the only place where learning happens — it’s just the tip of the iceberg. From parents who help students with homework, to extracurriculars, field trips and more, there are so many ways students can learn beyond the walls of the classroom. This is why today we’re announcing new features to help teachers inspire learning for students, regardless of place or time.  Parents and guardians stay informed with Google Classroom email summaries Parent participation has a major impact on student learning. Today, we’re launching a new feature in  Google Classroom  that will automatically share  summaries of student work with parents . Once invited by a teacher, parents and guardians can receive automated dai...

It's never too late to turn your old lessons into new engaging ones.  Us teachers know that summer time is for relaxing but, honestly...in the back of our minds we are always thinking about the new school year and how to improve or bring new things to our students. Are you dreading the use of your old PowerPoints once again with your new students? why not give them a twist and make them real time interactive and engaging with PearDeck ? You may not see yourself as a very tech savvy teacher but I can assure you that using PearDeck is super easy! PearDeck is: Want to get started with PearDeck?  We have it available for you here at Guilderland.  To use it, simple log in with your school account and use these resources to get you started!  As always you can "book" time with me to help you! click on the "book now" icon on the top right of this page.  Interactive Walkthrough Videos and Tutorials Live FREE Webinar Training

*From Google:  Accelerate the feedback loop: Quizzes in Google Forms  Getting feedback early helps students learn and teachers teach. Starting now,  Quizzes in Google Forms  will allow teachers to auto-grade multiple choice and checkbox questions — so teachers can spend less time grading and more time teaching.  Teachers can also add review materials in the form of explanations, supplemental websites or review videos — so students can get quick, actionable feedback. Plus, teachers can get instant feedback on student progress, so they know which lessons need more explanation and what to teach next. We’ve also added a common request from educators to disallow students from sending themselves a copy of their responses.  If you haven't used Google Forms with your class,  it's time you re consider.  Especially now that there is a built in Quiz function for auto grading.  Check it out in my video below and read all about it from Google's Education ...

Exciting news!  I just heard from Alice Keeler that Fluency Tutor will be free for a limited time.  If you don't know what Fluency tutor is, check this video  here .   From Alice's Blogpost :   Free for the Summer For those that aren’t familiar,  Fluency Tutor® for Google™  is a Google Chrome app that helps make reading aloud less stressful and more fun for students who need some extra support. It’s a big time saver for teachers, and great for struggling readers and English Language Learners. Designed for schools using Google Apps for Education (GAFE), the app allows students to record themselves reading and share it with their teacher – away from the pressures of reading aloud in the classroom. To use, teachers simply share content they would like students to practice reading (or allow students to choose content independently), then provide feedback at a time that’s convenient for them. Texthelp, makers of Fluency Tutor for Google, are giving away Pre...

Google has released a   new featur e in  Google Slides : Slides Q&A. This update—rolling out globally today—helps speakers connect with their audience and collect real-time feedback. With a simple link displayed on a Slides presentation, audience members can submit questions from their phones, laptops, and tablets—and vote on those they want answered the most.  Read their original post here

Google has just released its newest feature for Google Classroom; and it is big news! You can now schedule announcements, assignments and questions to post at a later date or a specific time.  I can't wait  for he fall when the new parent/guardian feature will be released!   Here's an excerpt of the original post from Google: Schedule ahead, post later  Starting today, teachers can plan ahead by scheduling announcements, assignments and questions to post at a later date or a specific time (great for the early birds who want to get a head start on school planning during the summer ;). Just look for the scheduling option when posting new  assignments , questions and announcements. You can find scheduled and draft posts in the “Saved posts” section of your class stream, and you’ll get email and mobile notifications when your scheduled posts go live. We’re also adding new updates to  Classroom  over the next week—all designed to help teachers save time and...

Recently, we moved away from a managed media source for our district.  For some, this move left us with no places to look for quality educational videos.  Luckily, YouTube has become a great resource for educational videos.  I am sharing some sites that have excellent YouTube channels suggestions.  I encourage you to click on the resources below to learn more about the channels and subscribe to them.  Once subscribed, you can handpick the videos you would like to keep for classroom use and add them to your own playlist.  In this post, you will also see a quick tutorial on how to subscribe to channels, create your own playlists and share them with others. Some of you may already have some channels you use and would like to recommend to fellow teachers.  If so, feel free to add to the following live list of teacher recommended YouTube EDU channels by clicking here . 30+ YouTube Channels for teachers 197 Educational YouTube channels you should know about ...