Edgaged

Streamlined... The Metropolitan School District of Steuben County is a full 1:1 Chromebook program. It has been quite a transition this year as kindergarten through second-grade students had iPads the previous year. The main difficulty of the process has been the streamlined user experience with the iPad. As far as availability of content for young learners is concerned, the iPad still reigns supreme. So one of my tasks has been thinking of ways that I can streamline the experience on a Chromebook as much as possible for my k-2 folks via the Google Admin Console.  One idea I have tried is utilizing Symbaloo as a starting page for each grade level. I do this by adding a startup page in the Device Management settings. I also turned on the "home button" so that students can get back to the page at any time by tapping on it. (Believe it or not, the home button is off by default.) I add items to the Symbaloo pages items per teacher request, but I am noticing that this al...

https;//www.flickr.com/photos/flyshoe/6099670107 I'm not typically a fan of posting about skill n' drill gaming apps/websites. However, I get quite a few requests for these types of tools. So when I go on a rampage attempting to find a bunch of tools to fill a void for teachers, I'll go ahead and post about it for a couple reasons. First, it makes it easier if I can just send a few blog post links to teachers when they need them. Second, I'm very forgetful. Just like students, I have to create to lock something in my memory permanently (that's secretly why I make so many videos).  So here we go with some fun learning games available on Chromebook in the Chrome Webstore... (Click the titles to go to the link of the chrome app.) Sumon Sumon is a free math puzzle game where the user attempts to add two or more digits to equal a target number. The user has a limited amount of time to select a correct combination of numbers to equal the target numbe...

Image from Chrome Web Store At MSD of Steuben County schools, the elementary teachers are going through quite a transition as third through fifth grade teachers are moving from iPads to Chromebooks, and my Kindergarten through second grade teachers are getting devices (iPads 1:1) for the first time. Due to this change, I often get questions about tools that worked on the iPad and compatibility on the Chromebook. Today was one of those days as a teacher was asking for a substitute for Dragon Dictation  so that students could speak their writing instead of type. VoiceNote II is the tool that I came across in the Chrome Web Store. This Chrome app is easy to use as it accurately dictates your speech. When recording, I found it to be helpful to press on the microphone for pausing between sentences to collect my thoughts and/or decrease mistakes. Also, the user can correct mistakes one sentence at a time as they dictate instead of going through the entire set of text later. If y...

School for MSD of Steuben County started last week and since then I've been getting students quickly oriented with their Chromebooks for the first time. It has been great meeting many teachers and students throughout the district. The students are excited for the opportunity to dig into their new device and try things out.  Chromebook kickoff with third grade at Carlin Park today! #msdsc #msdsafari pic.twitter.com/xtVWWfa2fV — Lance Yoder (@Mr_Yoder) August 24, 2015 To get students to understand the purpose of the orientation, I make the comparison to learning to pound a nail into a board with a hammer. Most students identify with the fact that pounding a nail with a hammer is actually a difficult thing if you've had little experience using one. You bend a lot of nails, have nails fly right off the board, or even miss the nail altogether and smash your thumb! The point is, we need practice. In order to efficiently and effectively use a Chromebook, the students...

Taken from: http://explaineverything.com/news/explain-everything-chromebooks/ Explain Everything has been a popular iPad app for several years now. Students and teachers love it because of the flexibility of the tool. You can import pictures, videos, and websites all while recording your voice and drawing/typing over these items. Users can also pause, create another slide, and then continue their recording. Explain Everything gives students a lot of opportunity to express their learning in a fun and creative manner. Recently Explain Everything was added to the Chrome Webstore . Students in school districts with Chromebook initiatives can now take advantage of the recording power within this tool. Right now it is free. How long that will last I do not know as the iPad app does cost money. The video below features how to create a video using Explain Everything. I do not cover every tool that is available for the sake of time. However, it should give you and your studen...