Tuesday Tech Tip: Colorado Digital Storytelling Project (with WeVideo)

September 1, 2015, marks the official launch date of the Colorado Digital Storytelling Project.  Designed to give Colorado students an opportunity to create video products that build content, literacy, and digital skills, participants across the state will be using the premium version of  WeVideo as a platform to create, collaborate, and publish their creative projects.

Here in our district, 4th grade students will be joining the project, along with other grade levels who have opted in.  But, in addition to CCSD, classrooms and students from other locations around the state will also be involved, like students from Poudre RE-1, Roaring Fork SD, Denver Public Schools, Littleton Public Schools, Jefferson County Public Schools, Mesa Valley, Douglas County School District, Peetz Plateau School District, and Elizabeth School District.  And others are welcome to join, even past the start date.

Sample Project Ideas for #ColoDSP

The project is focused on letting kids tell digital stories in ways that are meaningful for them and what they are learning, and the parameters are very flexible.  Student videos can be anything that combines the art of telling stories with multimedia, like documentaries, memoirs, narratives, research projects, dramatic presentations, etc.  Expectations for teachers joining the project are:

1. Create at least 1 shared class project (hopefully many more!) during the 2015-2016 school year that is tied to a lesson or unit being studied in class (this can collaborative or independent work).  Student videos will be created and collected as part of the teacher "project."  Project ideas that anyone can use (like seen on the right) can be found here.
2. Share class videos within the class or school group to let students see each others' work in a non-public venue (like within the private WeVideo Gallery, in an LMS, or in Google Drive).
3. Submit a brief reflection at the end of the school year, sharing what you learned and (more importantly) what your students learned as a result of using digital storytelling in the classroom.

Finally, we will be inviting teachers to submit an exemplary video (or videos) to be part of the Colorado Digital Storytelling Film Festival at the end of the school year.  Some of these may even be shared at ISTE 2016 here in Denver or highlighted by WeVideo as outstanding examples of student creations.  (Submission of exemplary videos is optional.)

Any teacher, school, or even district can join the Colorado Digital Storytelling Project by filling out the Google Form. Current cost for particpants (per user) is $1.75 for the year.  This cost covers the license for the Premium version of WeVideo (fully COPPA-compliant), which includes user management, live collaboration, green screen effects, increased storage, shared media libraries, private Gallery space, and the opportunity to take part in the film festival.  

WeVideo has some exciting enhancements planned for management and its overall look this month, and we're looking forward to sharing more about that.  So, be looking for more information in the coming weeks, and follow the hashtag #ColoDSP on social media.  In the meantime, be thinking how your students could use digital stories in your classroom.   Even if you aren't part of the official project, we'd encourage you to check out WeVideo and explore the possibilities on your own.

Embedding PDFs from Google Drive into Schoology

We've posted before about the magic of embed code, the HTML code that lets you insert something into a website or blog.  We use embed code a lot when working with Schoology because Schoology allows you to insert embed code into almost any item where you can add content (discussion boards, assessment questions and answers, pages, and assignments).

Thanks to a blog post from Steegle.com about embedding PDFs into Google Sites, we can use the same idea to embed a PDF into Schoology.

A quick word about copyright.  If you are working with a PDF that you've created, copyright doesn't come into play.  However, if you've gotten the PDF from elsewhere, the content may be copyrighted.  Check the Fair Use guidelines to be sure that you're modeling a responsible and respectful approach to someone else's intellectual property for your students.

First, you need to have the PDF saved into Google Drive.  (If it's saved on your computer, you can use the upload option in Drive to upload the PDF.)   See the embedded *PDF below (see what we did there?) for the steps on embedding a PDF into Schoology.




After inserting the PDF, it should be visible in your Schoology item (complete with a scroll bar if the length exceeds the default size).

*originally created in Google Slides (view original)

Cherry Creek Bright Spot: MinecraftEdu in the Classroom

Should students be allowed to play video games at school? Absolutely- if they are playing Minecraft in Joel Solomon's technology classes at Village East Elementary or with the Minecraft Club at Thunder Ridge Middle School with Cary Joice and Justin Cantrell.  

These educators have leveraged student interest in gaming and use MinecraftEdu as a way to use to reinforce the teaching of standards. They focus not only on 21st Century Skills like collaboration, communication, and digital citizenship, but also on standards for core subject areas such as math, science, social studies and language arts. Check out the video below to learn more about Minecraft and using MinecraftEdu in the classroom.

For more information about using MinecraftEdu with your students, contact Joel Solomon at jsolomon2@cherrycreekschools.org or visit minecraftedu.com. 

The Twelve Tools of December: Notable PDF Extension

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 Notable PDF.

What is it?

Notable PDF is both a Chrome web app and an extension for Chrome that allows you to view, mark up, and save PDFs.  With Notable, you can add text, highlights, comments, etc.  If you have PDFs stored in GoogleDrive, you can open them in Notable to annotate them.  If you have PDFs stored on your local computer, you can drag the file into the Notable window to begin marking it up (and you can then export it to GoogleDrive, if you wish).  You can also collaborate with others by uploading your file to Notable (it will give you a link and embed code).   The web app takes you to the web service for uploading and viewing files, and the extension detects PDFs you view in your browser and lets you annotate without having to download the PDF.

Why would I use it?  What does it do?

If you have files in PDF that you'd like to annotate digitally yourself or have an article you'd like your students to annotate, this is a great solution.  Having students (or peers) interact with text helps support a deeper dive into material, and there is some recent research that indicates that students can be good online readers if they are taught good digital annotation skills that encourage analysis and reflection.  

Are there similar tools? 

Many students and teachers in our district are using Scrible to annotate web-based text, but Scrible won't work with PDFs (at least not yet).  Apps exist for iOS and Android, but if you're looking for a browser-based solution, Notable PDF is probably your best bet.  Other Chrome apps or extensions like PDFZen or Diigo exist, but they don't perform nearly as well or as reliably as Notable PDF (or require a separate account).  

Where can I learn more?

Notable has a help area with tutorials and helpful articles on using the tool. While fairly intuitive to use, the articles are helpful when using some of the more advanced features like collaboration and exporting.