UNIT 13: Promote Digital Citizenship and Positive Online Behavior

In this unit, you’ll learn:

• How to protect yourself with good, strong passwords
• How to recognize hoaxes
• What makes up your digital footprint
• How to manage your online identity
• The importance of privacy settings
• How to build resilience to be able to handle challenges

I'd argue that this should be the first unit, but sometimes you don't know what you don't know.  This may be the final unit in the first stage of becoming a Level 1 Google Certified Educator, but it is by no means, the least important.

Kids think they know everything about being online because "online" has always been there for some of them. They never worried about Y2K crashing the tech world, and have always had a time when what happened in school was talked about in social media before they got off the bus.  But that doesn't mean someone really taught them about being a good Digital Citizen.

You will need to show them that for each one of them that thinks they know everything, someone, somewhere else, actually does know more.  There are no perfect passwords, but there are stronger passwords.  Teach them how to create personal, memorable, but strong passwords. 

Some people make a living off of lying and hoaxes.  Teach them how to recognize these, by showing them what WILL be asked for, and what will NEVER be asked for.

Show them how to not only Google themselves, but to use multiple searches, and free programs to Creep for themselves, and their friends.  They may think it's funny - until they find it's creepy.  Better they realize in a safe place what is already out there.  Or at least show them how to search about you, and report from home about what they find on themselves.  Then show them how to clean it up - and how to bury what can't be removed.

Then show them how to be private - now that they know WHY they should keep things private.  And why privacy settings don't mean you should share things you wouldn't want to be public.  If you wouldn't say it face to face, and wouldn't want to do it in public - don't think a setting will always protect you.

The internet is an awesome place, and can really make it seem like a small world, able to show us all the wonders of the world in a 40 minute class, in a small town, in a small school.  But in a single second, a poor decision can live on forever - teach them how to protect themselves, and how to protect each other.

UNIT 12: Facilitate Group Work

In this unit, you’ll learn:

• How to create meaningful and effective collaboration in the classroom
• How to support collaborative learning with Google Docs and Drive
• How to assign and collect assignments using Classroom
• The ins-and-outs of using Google Docs to review group contributions
• How Google Docs can support the writing and revision process
• Best practices for driving discussion inside and outside of the classroom
• How to choose the best tool to support synchronous and asynchronous discussion
• To facilitate group work with a range of Google Tools

So this unit ties many of the previous units together, and I've commented on how some apps already flow into other apps.  But now lets talk about how you plan it that way, instead of tweaking it that way.

Create a lesson plan or agenda in a Google Doc that you can share (view only) with students.  You could attach it in a Calendar event or Google Group for those that can't physically be in class. Provide instructions and examples in a Google Presentation, embed links and videos.  Have students work in groups in shared Google Docs to create presentations for the class.  Have them create quizzes for the other groups in Forms, and collect the data in Sheets.  Create charts and graphs, which can also be inserted into a class Presentation to summarize a unit.  Create a site to share your class's brilliance and collaboration with others.  Use GoogleDocs to track changes, use the revision history to see who has been doing the work and who hasn't.  Throw out the books and paper and pencils, grab your Chromebooks, chargers, and stylus...We're Getting Connected!

Yes, this is short - you really do know it by now, you just have to trust yourself.  And trust your students.  Learning is messy.  Get in there!

UNIT 11: Captivate Your Class with Video

In this unit, you’ll learn to:

• Search and find content creators and videos using YouTube
• Identify best practices for using YouTube in the classroom
• Harness the YouTube subscription feature to develop a stream of top quality educational content
• Curate educational videos based on topic, genre, or standard in playlists
• Share videos through playlists, forms, and slides
• Create the optimal viewing experience for students by adjusting YouTube controls

YouTube at one point brought to mind only videos kids made in their basement that they didn't want their parents to see.  Much like Wikipedia, its reputation has changed, and teachers that choose to use neither are now behind the times.  YouTube can be integrated with so many audio-visual programs and used to store the uploaded files, the only hard part of using it is getting the access if it is banned, blocked or heavily filtered in your schools' Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

There are many ways to convince your school board/tech department/content area specialist/person in charge that you do in fact need YouTube access.

YouTube will let you filter through playlists, channels, create subscriptions to content, search keywords...there are many ways to find things.  There are many things that you don't want your kids finding - and just like filters and SafeSearching in Google Search, you can teach and protect your students in YouTube.

There are obvious things you can do with YouTube (upload and share a video) that I'm not going to get into.  What I really like, and what I think is the most important when discussing GAFE is that these videos can be not only linked to documents, but the can be embedded in a Presentation or a Form, as well as a Site.  Links are fine, but change where you are watching.  Embedding means you can create a Form as a quiz or test, provide a video, and have students respond without leaving the Form, or having multiple distracting tabs open.

Once you have found Channels and created playlists you like, you can share those playlists with your students, so if it is important to watch something in a certain order, you can do that.  Or if you want to shake it up, let them shuffle and discuss the experience of a different process (if applicable to your lesson.content area).  Sometimes changing the procedure nets beautiful learning opportunities.  Using YouTube can be a free, and easy way to kick it up a notch, and let your students know you are as engaged as they are.

UNIT 10: Build Interactive Lessons

In this unit, you’ll learn:

• How to make your presentations look better and more effectively communicate your point
• How graphic design can help with your messaging
• How to add dynamic and engaging content into your presentations
• Where to find resources for class that other teachers have tried and recommend
• How Google Play for Education can augment your class
• How apps can help engage your students

If you're still following me at this point, first, thank you for slogging through this with me!  Second, it's starting to look a lot like Connected Educator stuff now!  Who doesn't want to build interactive lessons? anyone raising their hands - you're in the wrong blogosphere...

So there are some free parts to this area (YAY!) and some affordable but not free parts (Yay if someone is paying for you).  I'm all about free for education.  I'm also all about paying someone for their hard work, but we're not in this for our fat paychecks, so I'm going to really focus on the free part here, and provide you some basics on the pay parts.  Check it out if you're interested!

First up, Google Presentation which is the slide format app.  Slide presentations are easy to slap together in a short amount of time, but if you have more time, you should use the formatting and insert options and really make it engaging.  For example, in this provided sample from Google, compare slides 1 & 2.  Slide 1 is a slap down of information you need to share.  Slide 2 is what people want to see.  It has visual appeal, but beyond that, plastering words into a slide is not teaching visually, it's being lazy.  Adding images, and labels, and providing relevant text is teaching visually.  Lecturing via presentation slides and handouts is not differentiated instruction.  Providing intractable links and graphic organizers with instructional figures and links to the presentation that attendees can follow along with in their own devices is differentiated - and engaging!

Imagine your class is 1:1, all students have a Chromebook, or similar, with access to GAFE.  You create a presentation with links to interactive lessons, create forms for mini-quizzes, provide the links with study questions on slides, separate the students into groups, and share both the presentation, and a class google doc for students to work in their groups, summarizing their results.  Now take it one step further.  The students create their own presentation on their group's lesson, and provide links to the shared Doc, and now the class is flowing from group to group, presentation to presentation, fully engaged, without a pile of photocopied handouts being recycled later.  Sign me up!

The last part has to do with Google Play for Education store.  There are a lot of apps targeted for education, without ads, for reasonable price ($3).  These have reviews from teachers, for teachers.  Not everything worth doing in class is free - that's why we have budgets.  You may find an alternative to that paperback you were planning on buying 50 copies of.  Or that $300 per copy Science text for 300 students, because the old copies have theories that need to be updated.  Get digital copies, and use the savings to buy apps that let students Play with those theories! When you buy the app, you can choose the number of license you need for your students, and then send the link to download at the same time to their school email.  Only downside is this is often a one-shot deal, so while you're only spending $3 for a student, you would do it every year (or semester).  Text books can live much longer (or well past their usefulness).  You will have to weigh the pros and cons for yourself, but in specific situations, you may land upon that engaging tool you've been missing to really make the connection to your students you have been trying to find.

UNIT 9: Teach Students Online Skills

In this unit, you’ll learn:

• The essential digital literacy skill of searching online
• Simple steps to evaluate sources
• Easy processes for filtering search results and an understanding of why this is important
• How to avoid plagiarism in the context of Web research
• How to customize your online experience using Google Chrome
• The potential for creativity and curiosity to be fostered using Chrome Apps and Extensions

Ah, the smell of early #DigCit! Why wait so long in the series to get to it? Because it was really only the last 2 units that had you thinking, "hey, I could do this! I could bring my classroom online!" Before you give your students your first online lesson, or collect your first online assignment - teach them the necessary online skills! You might assume they already know it, but we all know the maxim about assuming.  So don't do your kids a disservice, or yourself.  Make sure You teach Them good #DigCit!

Using Google Search has become so commonplace that we also simply say "Google it" so maybe you think you know everything and have strong GoogleFu.  You can easily and quickly find everything you want, and find stunning photos and sites and videos you plan to share with your class, and you're going to share everything you know with them so they can make stunning sites, and videos. 

STOP.  Have you given credit where credit is due? Did you make sure what you want to share is available to share (beyond the "assumed" entitlement we think we have as educators to "borrow" for the good of the kids)? If you needed to filter a search to only the images and videos available to reuse, would you know where to look? If you are nodding your head, GREAT! If you're shaking your head, fear not! Magdule GoogleFu is here for you!

Under Images, you will find a search filter labeled Usage Rights.  While it will drastically reduce the results, you know that you will be using what you rightfully have access to.  And if your students create something amazing, and want to share it, and put it in an online portfolio or site, they should know to give credit to the source, so that when their dream college sees it, they don't lose the dream scholarship due to plagiarism because they didn't know about usage rights because you ASSUMED they already knew and never took 30 seconds to show the easy and IMPORTANT drop down menu. 

Everyone wants the credit for their hardwork.  We're creating kids who will be adults, and possibly our bosses.  If we want them to acknowledge our hardwork, they have to know how to.  Ok.  That's enough soapboxing.

After they know how to filter for usage, they will also want to know how to protect their information from being stored without their permission (choose incognito mode to browse in private, or create your own user to keep your info separate from others using the same computer or device).  Show them how a site will ask to store information, and remind them they might not remember to clear it out later.  We're not trying to scare them into refusing to use technology, but we would like to convince them they are not digitally invincible, and their footprint already exists most likely.

Now you can let them search.  Teach them how to string together stronger search terms.  Unlike some scholarly databases, Google Search will turn up responses to questions and phrases.  Don't be afraid to "ask" it questions.  Unlike Siri, I actually get usable results without having to groom it to like me too.  Google Search has yet to direct me to an underpass for the highway I'm trying to find in the middle of a warehouse district with no working streetlights.  Siri...does not have that track record with me.

Let students know the difference between sponsored results as "ads" and the regular results that appear below.  There is a poster you can share with your students  to help provide some stepping stones into solid and dependable search results.  Once students start focusing on what they want, and how to get it, being able to verify the appropriateness of the content is key.  How to cite, and find the author, or voice of a site - is this satire or serious? Should you use this name or that name in the citation?  The more students are encouraged to prove the quality of the sources, the more they will have confidence in the quality of their products.

Finally, while there are many browser options, using Chrome while using GAFE will bring the utility full circle.  The search bar is an "omnibox" and can do multiple tasks for you without you having to bookmark a variety of sites.  It can provide definitions, a timer, or calculations, as if a pocket version of Google Search were stored within the search bar itself.  And what you may have started on one computer while signed in, you can continue on a different one, bringing true mobility to your creativity.

UNIT 8: Measure, Understand, and Share Student Growth

In this unit, you’ll learn to:

• Determine the correct type of data to collect as an educator
• Develop effective methods of collecting the data required
• Organize and configure information to accurately represent the results
• Determine what lessons are needed to help students keep their information secure
• Pick the right tool for the learning objective you are trying to reach
• Determine what process to use to discover various methods of data analysis

Ahh, the Data Team and SLO Goal Unit of GAFE.  Who doesn't love data collection, amirght, or amiroght? Yeah.  No one really loves it, but we need to do it, so how can we do it without completely losing our minds, and precious time? FORMS AND SHEETS!

I am actually excited enough to warrant CAPS LOCK for that.  Google Forms and Sheets are easy to use, and can actually be fun.  You can use them for basic activities such as keeping data in a Sheet, and creating a Form for students to check in, with a Sheet being generated by the Form.  Or you can make quizzes and tests.  You can also make your Forms do the work for you.  Anything you can think of to ask a student, that you want to keep a record of, can probably be done through a Form.  Unique logins can be activated, school emails can be used, and once the Sheet is created, extra Sheets (tabs) can be created so you can manipulate the data you collect.  If you teach 5 classes, you can have all five take the same Form, and copy the data into unique tabs within the same Sheet file, and monitor specific classes, or you can create a similar Form with a specific Sheet to collect the data.  Data can be manipulated with formulas, or with colors, or text.  Need to make differentiated Forms for different students? Provide the link to those that need it.  And you can access your information anywhere you can get your Drive.  PD with a personal device? Check! Commuting time? Check! Home during a grading cram session? Check! PLC to collaborate on growth toward objectives? Check!

Need to create a visual from your data? Charts and Graphs can be created within Sheets.  anything created can also be published to the web with dynamic updates.  Instead of printing copies of all of your internet stored data, or sharing the Forms/Sheets, create your final representation you need to discuss in that PD or PLC, and share the Published link.  Once published, the link will redirect to changes made to the final product.  Or you realize you need to unpublish? That is ok.  You can do that too, change up what you want to share, and start over. 

I love to use Forms and Sheets for check-ins and exit tickets with my classes.  I can keep all of the responses and conference with students to redirect when grades start slipping. "Hey, I noticed your stopped responding in detail, and you haven't turned in the last assignment.  Do you need some help with this project still? Did it get turned in or do you need help on something new?" Or I can ask other teachers if they are having similar issues and have data to support RTI and Tier 2 responses.

UNIT 7: Bring Student Work Online

In this unit, you’ll learn:

• Why creating rosters will help you organize your assignment workflow
• How to use different Google tools for creating rosters
• How to assign work to your students
• What strategies are available for managing assignments
• The importance of providing feedback to students
• Different strategies for giving student feedback

This might be may favorite unit thus far.  My MA work is primarily in Educational Technology, so bringing the classroom alive, and making it portable are two key things I am trying to do in my first year of teaching.  To do so, it is recommended by this unit to make use of Groups, Sheets, Drive, and Classroom.

Groups are part of Gmail, and something many of us have probably made use of - add Contacts to a Group to make contacting that much quicker instead of searching through to find everyone each time.  as a teacher, I can make a group using the school accounts of the students in my classes and label the groups Period 1, etc., to make sending a reminder easier, and to make sure I don't leave anyone out when trying to send a note out in a hurry.  As a bonus, the Groups show up in other contact lists throughout Google Apps.  So if you are using Classroom, you can invite a Group to a Classroom, and you've just saved yourself more time!  Students can also use a code, so if you want to add someone to the Classroom but not to the normal Group, you can do that too.  There is a limit to the number of teachers (20) and members (1000) to a classroom.  I would not exceed that limit in my normal use, but it does allow for some epic online-cross-classroom discussion.

Classroom will let you create an assignment, share it to the appropriate students (which will send a notification to students that haven't turned them off), collect it, grade it, and return it.  For those of us trying to get away from paper, and trying to make the most of the technology we have access to, this is a great way to reinforce that students should continue to check your Classroom, and interact with their teachers, and other students through it.  I also love Drive, and reinforcing to students to create projects through it so they don't lose them.  If students are working in a group, I can check who has participated in the completion (unless there was an agreement to do research and someone else did all the typing).  also, when a student submits an assignment to be graded, it becomes locked for editing until the teacher grades it. 

Editing, and providing feedback through comments is easy and it is not as intrusive as it sounds.  A created suggested edit will appear like a highlighted section with a comment to the side.  Comments can be replied to in case clarification or discussion is needed.  Once a comment is taken care of, it can be resolved and it is removed from the view.  It is not removed from the document because it becomes part of the history.  This is a huge bonus for a teacher in case students are being inappropriate or suggesting they provided feedback but it was deleted.  The average student should not pose a problem, but the history does allow for behavior management if needed or necessary, and can be a learning experience for students thinking they are just "having fun" at someone else's expense.

Even not using Classroom, Drive and Docs can keep an English classroom busy without losing papers.  I've accidentally renamed a file instead of making a copy, and written over the same paper three times, only to learn I later needed to resubmit all papers in one document.  I was able to use the revision history to find ALL the papers I had typed in the same document, make copies at the appropriate history and save all of my work for a semester.  Using it for my own needs has made me more confident in helping my students as well.