1. Hands-On Tech
If you don’t follow TCEA on Twitter, you should! I get lots of ideas following them and have many more resources bookmarked. This tweet below is another fantastic example of what they share on their feed. Show students that tech is more than just what happens on a computer with these 12 Hands-On Technology Activities.
2. Flip for Teleprompter Love
As a former journalism student, I was introduced to the power of a teleprompter early on, so when I became a teacher, I couldn’t understand why a teleprompter wasn’t more commonly used in video projects. It takes away a lot of students’ frustration and nervousness when trying to remember lines and speak on camera. I would use whatever I could to create one and used my own devices in some cases so that students would have something to read off of. Using the teleprompter also acted as an incentive, as it became the rule that you or your group must have a completed script before recording, thus helping students to stay organized, work on writing skills, and ensure they had checked in with the teacher who could see if all elements were included before moving to the next step.
All of this is a long-winded way to say how excited I am that Flip now includes a teleprompter feature! This allows for the tool to go beyond just a quick assessment and can help individuals or groups as they create longer and larger products or as the tweet below shows, just give students more confidence on camera!
You can find the teleprompter feature on the right side of the screen by clicking the 3 dots. Then students can type or paste their text, make the text bigger or smaller for viewing, and change the scroll speed. The best part of this feature is that it highlights each word as it moves along to help focus on where you should be looking.
3. New Canvas Feature: Submit on Behalf of a Student
Canvas just released a new feature that should excite teachers everywhere! Ever had a student that for some reason couldn’t submit their work in Canvas? Well, now there’s no excuse! If students can get you the assignment, you can upload it to Canvas on behalf of the student. In Speedgrader, click the space where you input grades and click the arrow. You may now see an option labeled Submit for Student. Then upload the submission and grade as normal. Under the details of the submission on both the teacher and student side, it will show who submitted the assignment and when.
However, this is an option that has to be turned on by your Canvas administrator. If you don’t see this option yet, contact them and let them you want it! See the process below in this video:
4. AI-Enhanced Photos
I haven’t talked a lot of ChatGPT…yet. I’ve been doing research and have a halfway written blog post about it, but have been waiting to get confirmation from my school district about our stance before saying something more publically. BUT, there are some really cool things out there and this reel from The Merrills is one of them! What ways do you see using this in your classes?
5. Making the Most of the 90-Minute Block
Effectively using the 90-minute block has been a hot topic in my school lately and while writing a paper for grad school, I stumbled upon this prior blog post from Cult of Pedagogy on the same topic. It breaks down 5 ways you could restructure longer instructional blocks and get away from lectures and wasted time. It’s a good review if you need it!
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Ms Priester EDU 