Don’t Flop over Flip, Try VoiceThread!

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VoiceThread – Group Interaction For All Students

Flip is no longer available as a standalone platform. Microsoft, the owner of Flip, has decided to integrate its functionality into Microsoft Teams for Education, leading to the discontinuation of the Flip website and app. As a result, all Flip content is now in read-only mode, and users have until September 30, 2024, to download any content, including student responses, from Flip.

Voicethread is the closest alternative to Flip that HCSD recommends and supports. It is a multimedia presentation and group interaction tool that accommodates various media types, including images, videos, audio (via microphone or phone), and text annotation. Similar to Flip, Voicethread centers interaction around a central piece of content, and then allows users to “thread” their responses. Importantly, Voicethread integrates seamlessly with Canvas  and allows for connections to the gradebook.

So what exactly is VoiceThread, and how can you get started using it?  Take a look at these videos and the resources below:

 

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Increase the Quality of Discussion Posts

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Discussion posts can engage a wider variety of students than in-person, time-driven discussions. The deep thinker, the shy student, the serial responder can all use a discussion post to further engage with your course content – if you correctly set one up. Consider the following tips and use the resources referenced to add a new depth to your Canvas courses.

Discussion Post Guidelines

Discussion Posts benefit from specific guidelines to assure successful participation by students. Provide a link to your Discussion Post Guidelines for every class Discussion Post. The bottom of the RCE is ideal for this or a similar notice:

Of course, that means you need to create a page to link to which contains your Discussion Guidelines – and that you have Discussion Guidelines. Both are easy to accomplish. Discussion Guidelines help students meet instructor expectations and allow the instructor to thoughtfully craft a discussion. Consider the two versions in Commons: Search Discussion Guidelines in Hall County Commons.

Sample Discussions

Consider importing the Sample Discussion Post from the Hall County Canvas Commons to customize. Link your Discussion Guidelines and then duplicate for multiple modules:

To Grade or Not to Grade?

Graded discussions do not count toward user storage quotas. Also remember that grading can be as simple as complete/incomplete. However, if you want to be more precise – and take advantage of the awesome Speedgrader – consider adding a rubric to your discussion.

Consult the Canvas Guides on Discussions for more specific information.

 

 

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Creating on Chromebooks

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We were fortunate to host Brian Buffington, Director of Instructional Technology at Pioneer RESA.
Brian joined us October 16th & 18th at the Hall County Instructional Support Center to work with us on Creating with Chromebooks.

Brian shared a Google Doc with the group which contained our agenda:

 

 

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Canvas Training Updates

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Canvas Training has been updated!

Hall County School District offers many ways to learn about Canvas by Instructure, our learning management system (LMS).

Learn Canvas Face-to-Face

Five iterations of face-to-face training:

  • June 3, 4, 5
  • August 14, 15, 16
  • October 2, 3, 4
  • January 28, 29, 30
  • March 3, 4, 5

Each iteration offers Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced training. Each training contains activities directed by an expert from Canvas and the training contains activities that show participant competence.

Training Descriptions:

Beginning – Course Basics, Canvas Commons, Course Settings, Modules, Creating Content/Accessibility, Communication Tools, Assignments

Intermediate – Assessment Tools, Outcomes and Rubrics, Group Work & Collaboration, Gradebook and Speedgrader.
PREREQUISITE: Beginner Canvas Training or Growing with Canvas in Hall County online course (found in Catalog)

Advanced – Agenda to Include: managing assessments, group work and collaboration – Google and Office, mastery paths, getting starter with Badgr.
PREREQUISITE: Intermediate Canvas Training

Learn Canvas Online, on your Own

Online, Asynchronous Beginners Canvas course. Each month this course offers a way to work through the content on your own. See your BLaST leader for a reminder of how to sign-up in Catalog for a course as needed.

September 2019 Online Course

 

Learn On Demand with Canvas Experts

Canvas Training Support Services

You can watch videos or sign up for future, live webinars. These webinars have one expert who shows you what to do in Canvas and one Canvas expert who runs the chat window answering your questions.

You need to Authorize this, much like you did the first time you used Google within Canvas.

Make sure once you are logged in to look through the Learning Library and Training Calendar (below).  Your My Learning section is a listing of the sessions you have signed up for, with an option to reschedule.

Register for Live Webinars

Ther remain many ways for educators in our district to learn about Canvas.

Follow this blog for more information and to keep up on the latest face-to-face training on our calendar.

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Canvas Training offered through the 2018-19 School Year

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The subscription service of live webinars on Canvas topics offered this summer – Canvas Training –  has been extended through this school year!

The training is live webinars with question and answer is staffed by Canvas experts who can help gain a deeper understanding of Canvas. This subscription now runs now to June 30th. This will continue as a link under the Help menu in Canvas.

If you want to sign up now, please follow the directions below:

  • Visit the Training Account Creation. page and sign up for an account using your district email
  • After creating your account, log into the Training Portal.using your newly created credentials
    • For faster access, click ?/Help on the far left ribbon and select Canvas Training.
  • You should now see a calendar of available training sessions which you can sign up for at any time
  • Our Getting Started in Subscription Training Guide. (below) explains our different training series, as well as the recommended training curriculum for a variety of roles (admin, K12 instructor, support etc.)
  • To explore the full listing of our training offerings and download training agendas, please see our Offerings Space

Learn about Canvas Training:

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