On Thursday, January 19 from 7 to 8 p.m., CSTA Iowa and ITEC are partnering to share content you can use in your classroom tomorrow!
For elementary teachers: Marisa Dahl (ITEC) and Corey Rogers (CSTA Iowa) will share the Seesaw Lessons for Computer Science and how you can use them in your classroom.
For secondary teachers: Tyler Youngers (ITEC), Wren Hoffman & Sabrina Edsen (CSTA Iowa) will share how to use Flip (formerly known as Flipgrid) and share ideas for using it with your CS content.
It's back! We're excited to announce the return of ITEC's IT Conference, which will take place on February 17, 2023, at Nevada High School.
IT Conference is designed for information technology administrators and professionals in K-12 schools. Sessions cover more technical aspects of working with educational technology in a school setting.
Thecall for sessionsis now open! Please consider sharing your insights and ideas!
Mote is a tool that allows you to easily provide audio feedback to students in a Google Doc or other Google tools. Audio feedback allows us to give better feedback since audio can give more information than text alone and many students will understand the verbal feedback better than just written feedback. Quickly record your feedback in the document and students can play it back when they need it. You can even record the feedback you are giving to students in person and they will have the feedback there later when they need to go back to it. Mote allows you to respond to your own comments, or student comments, with audio as opposed to just text.
Simply install the Chrome extension, and have your students do the same, then you can provide quick and effective feedback. Students can even respond to your feedback if they have questions or need clarification. Students can still see the feedback if they do not have the Chrome Extension installed but they will have to click the link to get to the audio feedback instead of just being able to play it in their document. Mote is a paid tool but you get 20 voice notes (30 second limit each) for free per month to try it out.
Favorite Tech Moment:Checking out devices from our AEA for the first time for Computer Science. Then telling my 4th and 5th grade students that I did not know how to use them. They were so excited to figure it out and show me what they learned. Then they would show others what they learned.
Tip for other educators:Don't be afraid to click a button or try something, you won't break the technology. Try something out of your comfort zone, you might find what you are meant to be doing.
Colleague Comments: "East Union Elementary was one of twelve Iowa schools to receive the Iowa Governor's STEM Council's "Computer Science is Elementary" award in the spring of 2019. Since that time, Robin has played a major role in creating a model Computer Science school, which was the original goal of the award. Thanks to her hard work and love of Computer Science and the associated technology, East Union's fourth and fifth grade students have received daily CS instruction for the past three years with state-of-the-art resources. In addition, these students serve as mentors for East Union's transitional kindergarten through third grade students when those students attend weekly CS classes. Robin prepares monthly Computer Science professional development for all elementary teachers, so that Computer Science lessons can be integrated with existing Core instruction. Robin has worked with CS Team colleagues to pursue STEM Scale Up awards that support sustainability of the CS is Elementary project, and she is currently serving as a Mentor CS Teacher as a member of the Iowa Governor's STEM Council's CSE Mentorship Team. Not only is Robin doing amazing work with students and staff members in East Union; she is willing to share her expertise with colleagues across the state so that more teachers and students can become adept at CS teaching and learning. She will complete her Computer Science endorsement in the spring of 2023!"
Know a colleague who deserves some recognition for the incredible work they are doing to support students and staff with technology in a digital learning environment? Consider giving that colleague a "Shout Out!"and help ITEC recognize rockstar Iowa educators!
Tip / Strategy To Try Out
Do you find yourself making step-by-step guides for teachers, students, parents, etc? Do you wish there was an automated way to create these guides? Then Scribe is the Chrome Extension that will blow your mind and save you time.
After installing the Scribe Chrome Extension, simply launch the extension, complete the steps you want the end-user to complete, and then click the extension to stop the recording. Scribe automatically creates your step-by-step guide that can be shared with others.
Want to continue to make Pear Deck even more engaging and empowering? Using the βAdd Audioβ feature within Pear Deck is an amazing option!
Teacher can leverage audio added to Pear Deck to scaffold and support students by:
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Adding helpful hints, suggestions or reminders to help students make connections and activate thinking
Providing visual descriptions of images or graphics on the slides to provide access to those who might need it (for example, a student with additional visual needs) and providing meaning making context for all students
Providing additional contextual information above and beyond the information on the slides in mode different than text
This monthβs tip about adding audio is one elementary and special education teachers love. Take a look!
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