March 18th Tech Newsletter OH

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Securly Classroom

Formative

AI

Weekly InstructionalTech Series

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March 4th's Newsletter

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Combing Two Features

Return Scores Instantly & Answer Choice Explantions

Research suggests that providing students with meaningful feedback can greatly enhance their learning and achievement. "When someone experiences an obstacle in learning - such as choosing an incorrect answer - and they are presented with real-time feedback about why their choice was wrong, they are motivated to set higher goals for themselves, and bridge the gap between their input and the goal, to improve performance. This satisfies a feeling of autonomy. "(Markovic)

Return Scores Instantly

Immediate feedback notes teachers can add to answer choices that help their students understand any misconceptions they may have as soon as their score is returned.

With this feature students will receive feedback on their answer choice instantly (while they are taking the assessment).

Answer Choice Explanations

Use one of these settings in combination with Answer Choice Explantions to provide feedback to students!

You can use the magic pencil to generate an AI answer choice explanation. OR the plus sign to add media.

What students will see.

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Smart Chips and Building Blocks for Google Docs

Teachers can use Smart Chips to make their documents more interactive. For example, a smart chip containing a co-worker’s name opens a card with their contact info. Smart chips include dates, links to related files or meetings and interactivve dropdowns. A related feature in Google Docs is called building blocks. Meant to be used in conjunction with smart chips, these are mini-templates that you can insert in your documents for tracking projects, drafting emails, and more. Like smart chips, building blocks are designed for collaborative work.

More detailed overview of efficiany features 3:23

Quick Overview: 30 seconds

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Monitoring Students' Screens: Student States

Appears when a student is in the class, but their device has not yet connected to Securly Classroom. Can also appear when a student is viewing an empty tab.

Appears when the student's device is not online or not communicating with Securly Classroom.

Appears when a student was deselected before the class was started, or because their device connected to Securly Classroom but was detected on an outside (non-school) IP address, which typically means they are absent from school and connecting from home or elsewhere.

If a student device is inactive for more than 5 minutes, they will display as inactive. This is shown in tab and detail view.

Troubleshooting: If a student is present but you are seeing "Student is not online" try restarting the session. Securly updates every 10 seconds, but for students that just restarted it could take up to 2 minutes. Additionally, if the student is looking at a different window like a calculator, they will appear offline until they return to the Chrome window.

Tech Hub

Hover over this text to view a weekly tech tip from one of the Tech Interns!

Instructional Technology: Jaclyn King jking@sd308.org Building IT Specialist: Robert Shaw rshaw@sd308.org

Prompting AI Chatbots

Hover over the the text boxes below to see an examples!

Hover over the image below to see an example of the FULL prompt!

Check out the PREPARE method developed by Dan Fitzpatrick for writing effective prompts!

Ask the bot to rate the quality of its response with evidence This will help you understand its thought process

Setting the scene and creating a foundation for the rest of the instructions Clear and concise command

Appeal to the bot's emotional side (strange, right?). Emphasise the importance of getting this right.

Clear and specific about the information you're looking for The pedagogical approach or subject knowledge

Control of the response Examples -tone -language -world length -format -readiing age -Etc.

Ask the bot to ask YOU questions that will help it provide you a more thorough and quality response

Telling it what hat to wear for the task at hand Context for the AI so that it can achieve what you want it to accomplish

Innovator Showcase

PBL and Progress Monitoring with Canva!

Amy howerton

Click here to check out her Canva collaborative whiteboard

In a series of studies conducted by Lucas Education Research in 2021, researchers found that project-based learning (PBL) had a significant effect on improving learning equity. Essential Elements of Project-Based Learning According to the Buck Institute:

• Centers around a big and open-ended question, challenge, or problem
• Follows an inquiry-based process that stimulates curiosity and generates questions
• Incorporates concepts or skills that students should already know
• Requires using 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity
• Builds student choice into the process
• Provides opportunities for feedback and revision
• Check out how Amy Howerton monitors her students' progress while also promoting autonomy and reflection
• Requires students to present their problems, research processes, methods, and results

Source

Because my student journalists work collaboratively as a team between two class periods, I needed a way to visually communicate students' progress in that process. In coordination with Jaclyn King, we developed a Canva whiteboard space to visually represent the publication process. Then, using Canva-edited photographs of each journalist, students can move their faces to the most appropriate spot on the whiteboard space. This helps all of the students journalists know where everyone is in the publication process so we can meet our collective deadline. It has worked out very well as a non-graded formative assessment!

Learn how to create this whiteboard here.