Let's Talk EdTech

Video is a powerful teaching tool - it can be used to introduce ideas, remediate, or extend what you're doing with students. And don't limit it to yourself - have your students create their own videos to show what they know. In this episode, Billie Jo and Beth go through their top tips for teaching with video.

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:50 Beth wishes Billie Jo had introduced this episode
1:00 Why videos?

• Screen record on the Mac

2:58 Making videos with your phone or iPad

4:00 Using video in rotation stations
4:58 Loop videos in using Keynote slides
5:18 Beth says "GIF" wrong

6:05 Getting used to your voice
6:25 Let your students make their own!
7:02 Using video as a choice board task
7:50 Apps to try out

10:04 Using Seesaw to make videos
11:34 Use Seesaw Frames to template your projects

• Billie Jo's video showing Frames

12:00 Canvas Studio

• Intro to Canvas Studio

13:45 Join us at the DOT Conference August 7-8, 2023

• Schedule and registration

We're taking a slight detour and using a whole episode to talk about stuff that's making us happy both at work and at home. Beth and Billie Jo share some of their delights that are sure to put a smile on your face.

Join us this August at Elkhart's summer learning series. More details and registration information are on our website.


Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:02 Beth's new superpower
2:05 Billie Jo discovers a Super Mario Bros. secret
3:13 Beth loves using AI tools at work

7:00 Billie Jo and powerful new Seesaw updates

10:07 Creative time after state testing
11:45 IXL quizzes are just the best
12:55 Bonus: Billie Jo's husband cleaned the entire house
13:25 Bonus: Beth still loves audiobooks

We're big fans of Canva in every way and this spring, they delivered 10 gifts for users. Beth and Billie Jo run through each of these new tools and why you'd want to try using them in your classroom.

Check out the full announcement from Canva here

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:25 Magic Design - drag any picture in to automatically design a post using AI
2:25 Draw your ideas - draw on top of any template, design, photo, or video
3:10 Translate - translate any text in your design with one click
3:45 Magic Eraser - easily remove something from any photo
5:35 Magic Edit - clean up photos by describing what you want instead
6:10 Beat Sync - sync what you're doing with your video
6:27 Presentation Generator - type in your presentation title to pre-fill slides with information
7:42 Magic Write - create engaging text for designs with chat-like prompts
8:12 Text to Image - describe what you want and an AI will create your post for you
9:20 Custom Animations - draw a path you want part of your design to move along
11:05 Sign up for your educator account on https://canva.com/education

iOS includes dozens of ways to make using the iPad more accessible. In this episode, Beth and Holly go over their favorite settings to use and why you should use them yourself and with students.

Check out our video demonstrating most of these tools

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
1:00 Enable dictation
2:05 Speak Screen and Speak Selection
3:14 Use Alex as the Siri voice for a more natural sound
4:45 Reader View in Safari to clean up and annotate web pages

• Watch Beth annotate an article with Reader View

6:20 Use Guided Access to help students focus during work times
8:59 Let students make their own choices
9:34 What's making you happy?

Do you have iOS tips or suggestions? Send us an email at [email protected].

QR codes have been around for almost 30 years and really became popular during the COVID restrictions. In this episode, Beth and Billie Jo share 21 ways you can use QR codes in your classroom to make life easier for you and your students.

Links
Denny Hammond shares a great trick for using QR codes on Chromebooks
Our one-click QR code video
Other ideas for using QR codes

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:45 What is a QR code?
1:45 Nerd alert: how many possible QR codes are there?
2:40 Why use QR codes?
3:37 How do you make a QR code?

4:15 Static vs dynamic QR codes
5:15 20 ways to use QR codes (+1 bonus unscripted way)
10:24 Wrap up

All four coaches gather in this episode to discuss things that really bother us. 

Join us for our conference!
Do One Thing (DOT) Conference
August 7-8, 2023
Elkhart, Indiana

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:35 Explaining the idea of the episode
1:10 Why Holly doesn't like sandwiches
2:10 Brian doesn't know what Chik-fil-A sauce is
2:30 Are hot dogs or burgers sandwiches?
3:35 Adults cannot be picky eaters
4:30 Beth's frustrations with Bitmoji Classrooms

• Lack of accessibility, high stimulation, time spent vs impact on students

5:48 Putting work into your career is good, but not at the expense of meaningful tasks
6:45 Freemium tools

• Companies create tools just to get bought

8:00 Conferences selling your information to vendors

Chrome Extensions are little plugins you can add to your browser. There are millions to pick from, so in this episode, Beth, Billie Jo, and Holly talk through their favorites and why you should consider adding them to your browser.

Join us for our conference!
Do One Thing (DOT) Conference
August 7-8, 2023
Elkhart, Indiana

Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:35 OneTab

2:40 Colorzilla

4:00 Text Blaze

6:50 The Elkhart Megaphone

If you've ever attended a conference for professional development, how you prepare to go can make a big difference. In this episode, Beth, BIllie Jo, and Holly talk through how our team prepares and spends conference time to make sure every minute is as worthwhile as possible.

Join us for our conference!
Do One Thing (DOT) Conference
August 7-8, 2023
Elkhart, Indiana

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:54 Plan ahead!

2:15 Contact presenters before you go to ask questions
2:45 Walk out if the session isn't right for you
3:25 Always have an alternate option
4:05 Meet people!

4:50 Try to have business cards (or similar) to hand out to people

6:00 Use a shared Google Doc to take team notes

• You are one person - work with your team to get to a variety of sessions

7:40 Be intentional about talking about what you've learned as a group

• Bounce ideas and think about how you can apply what you're picking up.

Hands up, gloves off: Beth, Billie Jo, and Holly try to create their perfect Google team in a draft format. For each category, the coach picks their top tool or feature, hoping to beat the others out. Producer Brian is the benevolent judge of all picks and ultimately decide who has the best team.

Don't miss these links
Slidesmania
Google Docs are still Cool
Use captions on your Google Slides presentations (video)
Creating Google Slides themes (video)

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:57 The draft explained
1:25 Wheel of names
2:02 Round 1 - Google Calendar

3:40 Round 2 - Google Docs

5:10 Round 3 - Google Slides

7:20 Round 4 - Gmail

9:48 Draft results and Brian picks a winner

Epic is a free reading platform for kids. Teachers are able to set up classrooms and allow students to pick from books in the teacher's library. In today's episode, Holly talks about things she didn't use while teaching that she wished she had.

Read: Holly's blog post with her tips

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:45 What is Epic?
1:45 Tip 1: "Read to me" books

2:50 Create a collection of challenging Read to Me books for students
3:50 Tip 2: Use the audiobooks!

6:00 Tip 3: Browse books by language

7:18 Use Duolingo along with Epic for language learning
8:12 Accessing Epic as a teacher
9:00 What's making you happy?