EdTech Shorts

Are you an educator using Microsoft’s Teams to manage your course content and assignments? Did you know that you can now build grading rubrics directly in the Teams interface? To build a rubric, simply create a new assignment. Click the + Add Rubric button. Fill-in all the criteria and point values for your rubric. Then press the Attach button to add it to your assignment. Assign the assignment to your students and they will now see the rubric as part of the grading criteria and know what you will be grading for. You can use the rubric to score their assignments quickly and easily with it’s “Click to Select” interface all while not leaving the Microsoft Teams interface.

Are you a math teacher looking for a way to create online assessments with the tools provided to you by Microsoft as a part of Office 365? You can now build a math assessment in Microsoft Forms.

It is really easy to build your quiz. First navigate to https://forms.office.com and login using your Office 365 Education credentials. Next click New Quiz to get started. Click on the Add Question button to create your first question and pick either Choice or Text for the question type. To display the equation editor, click on the ellipses (…) and then click Math. Click in the Enter an equation text box and a virtual math keyboard will appear for you to input your equation. If you picked Choice for your question type, some equations will trigger a correct answer suggestion automatically. Simply click on it to add it to the list of possible answers.

Are you a math teacher looking for a way to create online assessments with the tools provided to you by Microsoft as a part of Office 365? You can now build a math assessment in Microsoft Forms. It is really easy to build your quiz. First navigate to https://forms.office.com and login using your Office 365 Education credentials. Next click New Quiz to get started. Click on the Add Question button to create your first question and pick either Choice or Text for the question type. To display the equation editor, click on the ellipses (…) and then click Math. Click in the Enter an equation text box and a virtual math keyboard will appear for you to input your equation. If you picked Choice for your question type, some equations will trigger a correct answer suggestion automatically. Simply click on it to add it to the list of possible answers.

Students and teachers often times struggle to remember the various formats for citations of sources they may be using for work in their classes. Today on EdTech Shorts, we’ll look at a few options for creating citations of your sources using Chrome Extensions. Apogee (Link) Apogee is a citation maker that will cite your source in both APA and MLA formats. You simply open up the webpage and create a citation with a single click of the extension from the toolbar. You can then paste the citation into the works cited page of your project. Apogee is 100% free and available in the Chrome Web Store. Cite This For Me (Link) With Cite This For Me, you simply click the extension from the toolbar and create a citation in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard citation styles. You simply copy and paste the citation into the works cited page of your project similarly to Apogee. You can also go to their website (http://citethisforme.com) and create additional citations for books, journals, and more. Cite This For Me is also available in the Chrome Web Store. EasyBib Toolbar (Link) My favorite of these citation tools is the EasyBib Toolbar. With a single click, your citations will be created in EasyBib on a pre-formatted work cited page that can easily be copied and pasted into your project. What makes EasyBib standout is that it will measure the credibility of the websites you are preparing citations for and let you know that prior to creating the citation

Insert Learning (Chrome Extension) saves teachers and students time while keeping students engaged. Teachers can insert questions, discussions, and insight directly into any website. When students go to that website, they can respond to those questions and discussions, see that insight, and take their own notes. Here are some tips on how to use Insert Learning: Click on the extension button to make the toolbar appear. This button has the Insert Learning logo and is located at the top right of your window. To insert a question, click on the question icon on the toolbar and then click on a paragraph. Inserting a question within an article is a good way to assess what your students are learning as they read. To insert a video, the first step is to insert a sticky note. To do so, click on the sticky note icon on the toolbar and then click on a paragraph. After inserting a sticky note, either paste in a YouTube link or an embed code from another video provider. Inserting a video is a good way to address different learning styles in your classroom. As the previous tip suggests, you can also insert other interactive items with sticky notes by pasting in an embed code. Again, interactive items are a good way to address different learning styles. To insert a discussion, click on the discussion icon on the toolbar (looks like two speech bubbles) and then click on a paragraph. Inserting a discussion is a good way to have students learn from each other. To highlight text, click on the highlight icon on the toolbar (some people think it looks like a pencil) and then select the text you want to highlight. You can add a comment to a highlight by clicking on the plus that appears when you first make a highlight or whenever you click on the highlight. Similarly, you can change the color of a highlight by clicking on the paint brush that appears when you first make a highlight or whenever you click on the highlight. Students can also highlight text and insert sticky notes. Having them annotate like this can be a good way to assess what they are learning. If there are student annotations available to view, a button will appear at the top left of your screen with an icon that looks like a group of people. Click on this button and then select a student to view their annotations. When you have a student selected, you’ll even see what they annotate in real time. To assign your lesson to a class, click on the Insert Learning logo on the toolbar and then click on the class you want your lesson assigned to. Once your lesson is assigned to a class, every student enrolled in that class will be able to see the things your inserted into the article. During the assigning process, you can choose to share your lesson to Google Classroom. Below the list of your classes, is a button that says “Share to Google Classroom.” Click on that button, select the classes from Google Classroom you wish to share to, and then click the button that says “Share to these classes.” After doing this, a link to your lesson will appear in Google Classroom. Also, if you haven’t already imported your class, this process will import your roster from Google Classroom into Insert Learning. Use Insert Learning (Chrome Extension) to turn any website into an interactive learning experience!

If you are looking for a way to connect and collaborate with other educators, find trainings and lessons for your classroom, and earn badges and certificates to better your skills with technology in the classroom; then you need to check out the Microsoft Educator Community. Some of the awesome things on the Microsoft Educator Community: Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) MIE MIE Expert MIE Trainer Skype Master Teacher Earn badges Certificates for CE Credit from Course Completion Courses on Various Topics that are FREE Office 365 OneNote Sway Apps Surface Devices Windows STEM Minecraft Skype in the Classroom Pedagogy Skype in the Classroom Community Virtual Field Trips Guest Speakers Lessons Online Collaboration Mystery Skype Lesson Plans and Video Tutorials Connect and Share with Other Educators School Leader Toolkit Higher Education Signing up is easy with a Microsoft Account or an Office 365 Account.

Why use Minecraft: Education Edition? Minecraft: Education Edition is a collaborative and versatile platform that educators can use across subjects to encourage 21st-century skills. This makes for an awesome tool to use in the classroom that students are already using in their leisure time. M:EE provides an open canvas for creativity and experimentation for students and teachers. With the additional tools as part of Code Connection and the Classroom Mode for Teachers, classroom usage takes on a different experience that playing Minecraft at home. How do I get started? System Requirements: This question is asked often as educators are becoming more aware of M:EE. To use M:EE your computers or devices need to meet the following requirements: Windows 10/10s or MacOS (OS X 10.9 Mavericks or higher) – If your system meets the minimum requirement outlined by Microsoft and Apple to run the current version of their operating systems, then it will run M:EE. M:EE is available for iPad (iOS 9 or higher) devices and can be found in the iOS App Store. M:EE is NOT available for iPhone. M:EE is NOT compatible with Chromebooks or Android devices at this time. Microsoft has provided no evidence that it will be made available on any other platforms. Other Resources: Below are links to other pages and resources to help in finding ways to use M:EE in your classroom or school: Getting Started: Getting Started with Minecraft: Education Edition Getting Started with Classroom Mode Minecraft: Education Edition on iPad Learning to Play Minecraft: Education Edition My Minecraft Journey Video Tutorials on Microsoft Stream from WVDE (WVDE Office 365 login Required) Minecraft: Education Edition Channel on YouTube Find a Lesson Find a World Minecraft Chat Commands Coding: Code Builder Minecraft: Hour of Code Science: Chemistry in Minecraft Community: My Minecraft Classroom and M:EE Community (Login/Signup Required) Minecraft Group on Yammer (WVDE Office 365 Login Required) Support: FAQ Knowledge Base Official Downloads Page Official Deployment Guide

Previously on EdTech Shorts we shared Tozzl as a replacement for the recently shut down Today’s Meet. On today’s episode we’ll be hearing about another free alternative call Yo! Teach. To share this tool with us is Chris Nesi (Twitter, Website)from the House of #EdTech podcast. He recently featured this tool as his #EdTech Recommendation on Episode 117 of his show. On this same episode he had a great conversation with his son Miles, looking at education from a “first-grade perspective.”

In addition to announcing that Flipgrid was now 100% free in June, Flipgrid has listened to feedback from it’s users and made some awesome updates.

Grid Launchpad

With Grid Launchpad now released, passwords are no longer needed to setup your grid for your community. There are various ways to do so.

School E-Mail Domain

Use your existing school Google or Microsoft e-mail domain to control access to your Grids. Simply add everything after the @ sign in your addresses to make the restriction take affect. You can even use multiple domains in case your school/district/etc. use separate domains for teachers and students.

Student ID List

You can create a list of students and give them a unique identifier for the purpose of logging in. This is great for situations where students may not easily remember their e-mail addresses or passwords. Their unique identifier can be anything! It can be their ID number, their lunch pin, etc. Each student will also get a QR code that they can scan and quick access the Grid or Topic with no extra effort needed on their part.

PLC/Public Grids

Having the ability to amplify a community outside of your school can be done using this type of Grid. Anyone with the Flip Code can access the videos in your Grids or Topics. Remember that student information still needs to be protected and students under a certain age (13 in the United States) must have their parental consent to be able to use the service.

In addition to announcing that Flipgrid was now 100% free in June, Flipgrid has listened to feedback from it’s users and made some awesome updates. Grid Launchpad With Grid Launchpad now released, passwords are no longer needed to setup your grid for your community. There are various ways to do so. School E-Mail Domain Use your existing school Google or Microsoft e-mail domain to control access to your Grids. Simply add everything after the @ sign in your addresses to make the restriction take affect. You can even use multiple domains in case your school/district/etc. use separate domains for teachers and students. Student ID List You can create a list of students and give them a unique identifier for the purpose of logging in. This is great for situations where students may not easily remember their e-mail addresses or passwords. Their unique identifier can be anything! It can be their ID number, their lunch pin, etc. Each student will also get a QR code that they can scan and quick access the Grid or Topic with no extra effort needed on their part. PLC/Public Grids Having the ability to amplify a community outside of your school can be done using this type of Grid. Anyone with the Flip Code can access the videos in your Grids or Topics. Remember that student information still needs to be protected and students under a certain age (13 in the United States) must have their parental consent to be able to use the service.