Tuesday Tech Tip: Mixing it Up with Office Mix

We've done a series of blog posts in recent weeks, all focusing on "tools of engagement."  Zaption, Socrative, PearDeck, and Classflow all provide levels of student interaction and analytics that can help teachers monitor progress.  In addition, we've posted previously about ways to narrate a presentation (MoveNote) and create a screencast (Screencastify & Snagit),

This week, we're highlighting Office Mix, a tool that does ALL of those things inside of an application that most people are already familiar with: PowerPoint.  OfficeMix would be a great option for blended or flipped instruction or anytime you want students to interact more with information being presented.

Office Mix is a relatively new add-on for PowerPoint 2013 (you can install the add-on from their site).  While you do need PowerPoint to create a mix, a mix can be viewed on any device with a web connection, including mobile devices;  however, certain interactive elements are not yet available on iOS or Android.

With Office Mix, you can:

• create interactive questions inside your presentation, 
• record yourself going over your slides, 
• annotate your slides, include a screencast or screen caps, and 
• insert live web pages, videos or interactive content.  

You decide if you want it publicly available or restricted to your district or school domain. Office Mix analytics will tell you how long viewers spent on each slide, show their quiz answers, and results can be exported to Excel.


Use your district email address when prompted to sign in (choose Office for Work or School).

Your mix can be added into Schoology as an assignment, embedded into Schoology or another website with code, or accessed via link.  See the Mix below for the directions on adding into Schoology (and also to experience some of the interactive elements you can insert into "the mix").



Check with your school technology support folks if you need to upgrade the version of MS Office on your district PC laptop.  And have fun mixing it up!

The Twelve Tools of December: Realtime Board

During the weekdays of December, we're sharing one tool per day as part of our Twelve Tools of December series.  Some of these tools are designed to be used instructionally, some can help you be more productive, and some are just fun.

Today, we're sharing about Realtime Board.  

What is it?

Realtime Board is an interactive, collaborative, online whiteboard. Similar to a regular whiteboard, it allows you to write, erase, and add more writing. The benefit of having it online means that anyone can not only write on the infinite space whiteboard, they can also add links, images, comments, documents or notes and save it all for later. You'll never run out of space, and you won't have to erase (hey, that rhymes!) and lose everything! 

Using Realtime Board
Realtime Board (free or paid versions) would be great for use with students to help collaborate on notes, brainstorm ideas, work on thinking maps, and share resources. Realtime allows you to add content from your computer, your Google Drive, or search the built in library of icons and images in real time (ha ha, get it?) for collaborators to see immediately and review, or to view later. Realtime Boards can also be embedded into Schoology, or anywhere else that accepts embed codes, for students to refer back to later if need be or view from home if they missed your really awesome discussion in class. 

Similar Tools for mobile devices
Although the promise of "coming soon" mobile device apps from Realtime Board is exciting, for those teachers using tablets in the classroom who need-this-in-their-classroom-right-now-OMG, there are some alternatives. Syncspace is available for download (paid and free versions) on iTunes and in the Google Play Store. It is also a collaborative work space, but doesn't have the same features and functions as Realtime Board. Other alternatives to explore: WhiteboardMe, Educreations, Whiteboard. Also, check out the list Graphite.org put together, "Top Interactive Whiteboard Apps".

Where can I learn more?
Realtime Board has several examples and tutorials about creating and collaborating on a board. Check it out here!




If you know of other similar tools, leave a comment about it below!

Tuesday Tech Tip: Using Nearpod in the Classroom

Many teachers use a digital presentation in their classroom to help them keep students engaged, to keep themselves on track, and to incorporate technology into their instruction. While presentations can be a great way to share information with students they are mostly a one way tool; students don’t really interact with the presentation, and often times it is merely projected at the front of the room. Nearpod is a presentation tool that allows teachers to create a presentation and bring it to life by pushing it out to students and guiding their activity in real time. It involves the student in the presentation by having them interact with and submit responses on any device. The teacher can monitor and measure student results, which is something that can be difficult to keep track of when students are only participating verbally or sporadically in class.

The process is simple. Log in to Nearpod, go to your library, select the presentation you wish to share with students and launch a live session. A pin/access code will pop up and you’ll share it with your students. Once students join the session, you will advance the slides and take them through the presentation with you and give them the opportunity to interact with the embedded activities. Hooray!

To start with Nearpod, create your free account. (While Nearpod has other paid options, this post will only focus on the features included in the free version.) You can use the web app from any device, or download the app for iOS, Android, Windows, Nook, or Chrome. Once you’ve signed up, you have several options.

 My Library will take you to any presentations you have created and saved, once you have them of course.

• Explore allows you to see other presentations that have been created and save them to your library, use them, or modify them.
• Join directs you to enter a code to join a live presentation.
• Create brings you to the presentation creation menu.
• Reports give you access to session reports. They show aggregated data and student details. This can also be downloaded as a PDF to review offline.

Teachers have numerous options when it comes to creating a Nearpod presentation. When you start a presentation in create mode, it automatically provides you with a welcome slide and a thank you slide (both of which can be deleted). Adding content to your new presentation is fairly simple. You can create a slide from scratch, add a video, or import a slideshow, images or other content you've already created by pulling it from your drive, Dropbox, or access it on your computer.

The activities that teachers can add to their Nearpod presentation are shown left.

• Open ended questions require students to type a response, which can also be shared with the whole class by the teacher.
• A poll allows you to ask a question and give students several options to choose from. Teachers get immediate data as students select their answer.
• Quizzes also give you immediate information about their performance. Images can be embedded in the question as can math functions. The only question type available at this time is multiple choice.
• Draw it gives students the chance to draw a concept or an idea, or write a response. Drawings can also be shared with the rest of the class by the teacher.

Nearpod is an easy to use, free tool to help keep students engaged, track data/responses, and share information with students. Give it a try in your class, or in your next PLC/PLT meeting and let us know what you think!

Technology in K-1

What can K-1 students do with technology? That's a question we get often. The answer is, A LOT! 

Students at Independence Elementary showed us that they love learning using Chromebooks and Dell laptops- or whatever devices they can get their hands on! 

Do they just play games? No way! These students created Google presentations using information they found on Encyclopedia Britannica. Check out the video below to see how the projects went and what the students learned! 

If you would like help implementing technology projects with your students next year, please contact your Technology and Learning Coaches by filling out this form.  We love co-planning and co-teaching and want to help you be successful with your students using technology!