#AlwaysInBeta: Booksnaps, Google Slides and Bitmoji

 

If you happened to be at CUE last week, you would have been able to see the queen and inventor of Booksnaps, Tara Martin, demonstrate how to do Booksnaps in Google Slides. Booksnaps, originally was done exclusively with Snapchat. But many innovative educators, who are #AlwaysInBeta,  "hacked" Booksnaps by devising ways to booksnap with Google Drawings & Slides, Seesaw and more. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Booksnaps, they are not just some flashy gimmick. Booksnaps allow students to mark the text with Snapchat or Snapchat "features". There is brain research behind it. Booksnaps help students with retention, comprehension and engagement while marking the text. In a nutshell, Booksnaps combines something students often dislike, reading, with something they love, Snapchat. On a personal note, I now take much longer to read because I find so many points I want to booksnap.

One of the coolest features of Snapchat is the integration of Bitmoji. Bitmoji is a fun little app that allows you to "cartoonify" yourself. Within Snapchat, you can insert your Bitmoji "cartoonified" self into your images. The question remains, how does this work with Booksnaps?

If you have students using Snapchat to do Booksnaps, they are already experts. They simply take pictures of text, mark it Snapchat's annotation tool and add stickers and Bitmojis. But what if cellphones are banned at your site and or students do not have Snapchat. Never fear, Google Slides (Drawings too) is here!

Many Snapchat features can be emulated with Google Slides (Drawings too). For images of text, you can use the webcam to take the picture or you can insert a screenshot of digital text. Once you have the image of text, use Slides' line tool and scribble function to "annotate" and circle the part of the text that resounded with you. From there, draw a text box across the width of the image to write your claim or opinion. The final step is to find png stickers and emojis from the internet to paste onto the slide to support the text you circled and statement or opinion. 

 

Now where does Bitmoji fit in with the Google Slides version of Booksnaps? It lies in the Bitmoji Chrome extension. It is free on the Chrome Web Store. You may need to talk to your Google Domain Super Admin to push the extension to student accounts. Once pushed to their accounts and browsers, students click on the extension, a drop down menu of Bitmoji appears and they simply copy and paste the appropriate Bitmoji to their slides. 

One hiccup you may encounter is your network's filter. The easiest way for students to login to Bitmoji is via Snapchat. If Snapchat is blocked, ask IT to briefly allow so kids can get signed in to use Bitmoji. Where I work, IT allows teachers to use a special login and password to temporarily bypass the network filter for situations like this.

Here is what it looks like when kids use Google Slides and Bitmoji (Chrome Extension ) to do Booksnaps.

Above you see this student choosing a Bitmoji from the dropdown on the Chrome extension. From there, this student copied and pasted to her Booksnaps on Google Slides.

I am sure there will be new ways to improve the Booksnaps process. Keep your eyes and ears open to the next innovation. Doing this helps us to stay #AlwaysInBeta.

 

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Trimming the Fat

When I walked into Google Headquarters in Sydney for the Google Certified Innovator Academy, I entered with a project that was practically up and running. So I thought. The digital part of my project had been up for about six months and continues to evolve. The physical part was established, but has evolved dramatically since. 

As I reflect back on the experience, the Design Thinking process as well as the feedback from my cohort mates have been the best thing for my project. Multiple people told me they loved my project, but they felt it was too much. Their concerns were about management. One person likened it to juggling a dozen flaming chainsaws. At first, my ego was bruised. My project has many layers. I often refer to it as an onion on steroids. Their feedback wasn't meant to bruise my ego, but it made me realize the sheer vastness of the project would not be feasible. 

The competitor in me believed I could pull it off. I mean, it should be no problem supporting two schools, curating galleries of Memes, Sketchnotes & Booksnaps as well as facilitating a student tech/social media squad. There should be plenty of hours in the day, right? Let's not mention the fact I have three young daughters at home. 

The Design Thinking process taught me to break my project down into small bits. This was hugely eye opening. I made me realize the feedback was on point. It was time to check my ego at the door and begin to trim the fat. 

After the rush of the Cohort wore off, reality set in. As I got back to work, it became abundantly clear I needed to trim the fat quickly. I reflected deeply and determined parts of the project such as the Fundraising page, the dangerous movable stage, the various genre pages in the YouTuber Crew & Blogger Cafe were all surplus to requirements. They were all cool ideas, but more style than substance. 

As the semester wore on, I dismantled half of the Teacher Portal. An entire page dedicated simply to advertising my services was deleted. The Teacher Portal now is one page with a schedule, lesson design templates and a booking system.

The Booksnaps Gallery was definitely the most problematic. This required an ungodly amount of management. If I was creating it just for the students in my classroom, it would be no problem, but since I support two school sites, it was a nightmare. Originally, I used a Google Form for students to submit their Booksnaps, but as time wore on, I realized I was getting hundreds of submissions a day. My initial idea was to train the student tech squad to handle it, but that was another headache. Upon reflection, the teachers with whom I trained to implement the use of Booksnaps would curate for me and send me 5-7 exemplars to be displayed in the gallery. I applied the same wisdom to the Sketchnotes gallery and will do the same when the Memes gallery gets underway. 

Long story short, checking my ego and the door was the best diet plan for the Cardinal Innovation Center. The digital version is streamlined and more user friendly. Some innovative, industrial shelving created a safer physical environment. Students and teachers alike are taking more advantage of the Center and services provided. Business is picking up and it is my hope to have this Innovation Project officially up and running by June. Until then, follow the progress at cardinalinnovationcenter.org.

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Forrest Gump, Math Blogs and a Green Screen

Last week, the Cardinal Innovation Center continued to buzz with activity. For the 'ol Tech Coach, this is a dream come true. To my surprise, I was able to make some inroads with a teacher who has been known to be tech resistant. But as Katherine Goyette and I say in our coaching session on tech resistant teachers, you have to find an "in." For this teacher, the "in" was Math Blogs.

This teacher was looking for a new way to get her students motivated to study for their Advanced Math final. With our district putting an huge emphasis on writing across all disciplines, Math Blogs are able to kill two birds with one stone. 

A Math Blog is simple. Students start a blog with Blogger. From there, they work out groups of math problems one at a time. They use the webcam to take a picture of their work and insert it into the blogpost. Below the picture, they must write a rationale and or explain how they solved the problem in as much detail and in as many ways as possible. The teacher creates a hyperdoc with each student's name linked to their blog URL. This makes it easy for the teacher to evaluate student work and see student thinking.

With my world history classes, students, as part of their World War I unit, were given the option to write a Forrest Gump blog. What is a Forrest Gump blog? It is simply creating a fictional character and inserting them into historical events a la Forrest Gump. 

It is a chance for students to be creative and engage in writing some historical fiction. Wonder Woman's actions during World War I and Captain America in World War II other examples. Students were given a list of 8 events during World War I and tasked with writing blogposts for each event showing how their character was involved. 

Students who didn't choose the Forrest Gump blog option could have chosen to do the Green Screen Live News Report. They were given a list of 6 events from World War I and used the green screen to conduct "live" news reports on scene. Some pretended to interview "eye witnesses" while others used costumes and props to enhance their reporting skills. 

The Cardinal Innovation Center Buzzing with Activity

As the Cardinal Innovation Center continues to evolve, the biggest hurdle to date is consistently getting students involved virtually and physically. Being able to teach a few history classes is keeping the project afloat, but merely being afloat is not the end game. I envision this project being a resource to empower learning and teaching school-wide.

Yesterday was the busiest day to date. From the time I opened the doors at 7:30 am until closing them at 5:00 pm, the action was non-stop. At night, teachers were sending me student booksnaps to be curated in the Cardinal Booksnaps gallery on cardinalinnovationcenter.org.

Yadira is hashtagging her notes in my
World History Class

These gentlemen are screencasting their presentation
for their Tech Rodeo app

I have been dreaming of a day like this since the beginning. After teaching two periods of World History, the remainder of the day, the room was filled with freshman Digital Literacy students who were working on the Google Certified Student program I designed. Our 11-12th grade Computer Science students came in and out throughout the day to screencast a presentation for the apps they're building for Tech Rodeo.

Melissa is screencasting her performance tasks
in the Google Certified Student Program

At lunch, more freshman came in to continue with the Google Certified Student program. The Cardinal Innovation Center Tech Squad met during lunch to continue building the website for the Assistance Service Dog Educational Center in Woodlake, CA. After school, a parent showed up to inquire about how her son could get involved with the Dog Educational Center and Tech Squad.

Long story short, yesterday was a banner day. The Cardinal Innovation Center was full of life, innovation and energy. Too often, though, hours go by with nothing going on. If yesterday is an omen for things to come, my vision for the Cardinal Innovation Center will become a reality sooner rather than later. Get ready Crystal Miller, I am going to need a lot of support and guidance!

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Cowboys, Service Dogs, Tech Squad and Social Media Posse

My Google Certified Innovator Project, the Cardinal Innovation Center, has been called an "onion on steroids" due to its many layers. Two of those layers is the Cardinal Tech Squad and Social Media Posse. Like many schools across the world, student tech teams are being formed to provide IT and tech integration services. In forming the Cardinal Tech Squad, I envisioned a team that had reached beyond the school site into the community and beyond

At this point, the Cardinal Tech Squad has done the bulk of its work with parents getting them signed up with Gmail and access to the Illuminate Parent Portal to check their kids' grades. An amazing opportunity to work with the Assistance Service Dog Education Center (ASDEC) from nearby Woodlake, CA fell into our lap. My mother, volunteers for ASDEC weekly to help train golden retrievers to be service dogs for a plethora of needs ranging from picking up objects to PTSD to low blood sugar detection for diabetics. 

One day, after volunteering, my mom brought it to my attention that ASDEC is struggling financially and needs to build a larger digital footprint in order to attract more business, volunteers and donors. Immediately, the Cardinal Tech Squad and Social Media Posse jumped to mind. I saw this as an opportunity to empower students to help ASDEC stay afloat, grow and continue to change the lives of people with special needs. If successful, my students, with their burgeoning tech skills, would be making a huge difference in the lives of many. 

It was brought to our attention that many celebrities have been known to donate to such causes. Our challenge is to get their attention via social media, blogging and a new website. The old ASDEC website had not been maintained in years. The Cardinal Tech Squad, all two of them, began building a new website to showcase the Center's mission, vision and services provided. The Social Media Posse created a Twitter account for ASDEC.

Today, to accelerate our efforts, ASDEC founder Gerald Whittaker brought his protege and a handful of volunteers to do a live demonstration for some Orosi High School students. Members of the Tech Squad attended and took notes to continue developing the website. 

The Social Media Posse posted images and video clips on Instagram and Snapchat. Take a look below to see some of the sights and sounds from this great learning experience. In addition, the entire demo was live streamed on YouTube. Click here to view.

            

If interested in volunteering, donating or learning more about ASDEC, please contact Gerald Whittaker at (559) 564-7297.

The Google Certified Innovator Experience Part 3: The Sydney Cohort and Tattoos

Now that I could breathe after nearly losing my phone and wallet in a foreign land, the Google Innovator Academy experience took me by storm. The vibe of the cohort was infectious. The energy was amazing. It was so cool to finally put faces to the names I had seen popping up in the cohort Google Hangout for a month. 

One of our first activities was to build a chair. The first person, other than Stuart Kelly, I really met was Gareth Haddon. We met in the first round of the design a chair with aluminum foil activity. After our conversation, his chair won. It was clearly better than mine, but in round two we had to go with the other team. In the end, it was Geoff Derry's "Volcano Chair" that won the day. 

The build a chair with aluminum foil activity is something I have taken to heart. My district has placed huge emphasis on Academic Conversations. With that in mind, I took this activity and morphed it into an Academic Conversation activity incorporating hashtags for kids to make content to real life connections. 

Being part of an international cohort, from my perspective at least, was such an eye-opening experience. Seeing the ideas, needs, struggles and questions from educators across Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia gave me a whole new perspective on the learning needs of teachers and students beyond the US. 

The Design Thinking process was a powerful new learning experience. I had heard so much about it from my Innovator friends, but seeing it live from Les McBeth was a different story. I loved the slogan "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution." Learning to tear my project apart into small bits was enlightening. It allowed me to find flaws in parts of my project that I didn't realize existed. 

Design Thinking is something I have been trying to implement in the classroom since Sydney. One of the Design Thinking strategies I have employed is Crazy 8s. We did Crazy 8s as a method of ideation. I found my students absolutely love this activity. I use it as a method of introducing new concepts to students. 

My team, Judoknow, started slowly, but eventually demonstrated a lot of spirit. If you're wondering what that name means, it is a play on words from Mexican-American culture. The amazing Kiwi Justine Driver was our coach. Since the Academy, she has maintained contact and continued to keep our vibe alive because "ju" don't know what we gonna say, "ju" don't know what we gonna do, "ju" just don't know!

Each morning, I had the privilege of hanging out at the amazing Banquerie located in Sydney's Pyrmont. The meat pies were too die for. The coffee wasn't bad either. What made the Banquerie memorable was the ambiance and the company. This establishment was an old bank. The vault was where the oven was located. Did I say the pies where amazing? They were. Each morning cohort mates Adam Brooks, Monica Limmer, Becky Shorey and Judy Blakeney would meet me there for breakfast. The food at Google was great, but the Banquerie became our thing.

Dinner on the second night was a blast. After a long day of learning, collaboration and feedback, we were treated to some amazing Dim Sum, massages, a magic show and karaoke. I have to toot my horn a bit. I did get the karaoke party started. Wendy Gorton and I did duet for "Baby Got Back". Afterwards, I grabbed the mic and dominated LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out." From there, karaoke was in full swing including a large group of us belting out "Bohemian Rhapsody."

 

As the Academy wound down, we we're given resources to begin with the Google mentor choosing process. Luckily for me, I was blessed to have been paired with good friend Crystal Lane Miller. Crystal and I have been regularly communicated via Gmail, Hangouts and Twitter. Her advice has been tremendous and she's been advocating for me. 

Graduation day was a blast. My tour guide Suan gave a wonderful tour of Google HQ. I was totally digging the couch in the wall. The graduation ceremony was live streamed on YouTube. A professional sketchnoter was brought in to sketchnote the ceremony as well. They saved our team for last. They did get our walk up music mixed up, but it did give us one last chance to do our infamous "Judoknow" chant. When it was all over, the champagne was flowing and I made sure I took a selfie with everyone from the cohort. Each selfie is posted on a MyMap currently on my website homepage. 

After saying goodbye to the coaches and cohort mates, my soulmate Katherine, from #TOR16, and I had an adventure exiting the building. When we finally found a door to the outside world and exited, an alarm went off. We just ran! When we caught our collective breath, we Ubered across town to Venomous INK Tattoo. Now that I had joined Katherine among the ranks of Google Certified Innovators, we decided to get the ultimate souvenir. We got matching Google Innovator lightbulb logos tattooed on our right forearms. For Katherine, it was her first, but my fifth tattoo. The artist took pictures of her work, but we reminded her, these tattoos don't go for just anyone. We jokingly told her if someone wants this tattoo, they have to show their Innovator credentials first. 

We posted some pictures in the #SYD17 Hangout and many couldn't believe it. Mark Wagner said he had to see it himself. When we finished we met up with Mark and the coaches to show off our tattoos. The looks of shock were priceless. 

The opportunity to work with, learn from and connect with so many innovative educators has given me a new perspective on my profession. Design Thinking and the feedback received on my project was eye opening. My project, the onion on steroids it is, is definitely a moonshot. Going forward, after Sydney, I learned to focus on one small part at a time. If I am going succeed, I can't try and do it all at once.  Looking back, the Google Innovator Academy experience in Sydney is something I will never forget and I will continue to grow as a result.

The Google Certified Innovator Experience Part 2: Getting to Sydney Google HQ

After ISTE 2017 in San Antonio, the Sydney Google Innovator cohort was the last thing on my mind. I didn't want to get my hopes up. Despite trying really hard not to think about it, small, subliminal messages about Australia would pop up at the most random times. Each time, I told myself my mind was playing tricks on me. I didn't really begin to think about Sydney until announcement day. I pensively checked my email every few minutes just hoping get the rejection message so I could get on with life. A few days passed, but there still was no announcement. I tweeted a few times to see if anyone had gotten word. A few applicants had done the same, but still no announcement.

One Saturday in early July, I was about to head out for the evening when I got to my car and realized I left my phone inside. I ran inside to get it. Upon finding my phone, I instinctively checked my email and there it was. I had been accepted. I joined the Hangout and began replying to instant messages, emails and filled out acceptance forms. I was on cloud nine. 

After the shock of acceptance wore off, reality set in. How would I pay for the trip? Would my district allow me to miss the first week of school for this? I contacted my union president and principal who both gave me their blessing. After some deliberations over my contractual duties, the district approved it. I started a GoFundMe campaign and raised enough money to upgrade my suitcase, renew passport, purchase a VISA and get some Australian outlet adapters.

A week before the 15 hour flight to Sydney, I had the opportunity to present for EdTechTeam in Mountain View. At the Summit, I was fortunate to connect with Sydney coach, and Aussie, Kimberley Hall. She gave me some great advice for how to deal with the 15 hour flight. She said treat it as the longest night of your life. 

Kimberley was spot on. I slept 4-5 hours tops. I can't sleep on planes and I was too excited. Upon arrival, I saw a familiar face. It was Ronald McDonald. As a rule, when traveling, I don't eat things that I can get at home. Australian McDonald's had many things I'd never seen before so I indulged. I'm totally digging the chicken Big Mac. 

After a day of exploring the Pyrmont with some cohort mates, the Innovator experience kicked off. Our first activity was the Amazing Race. My soulmate, #TOR16 Innovator Katherine Goyette, who made the trip with me, joined in. We were paired with the New Zealand's most entertaining Kiwi Stuart Kelly. 

The three of us pounded the pavement across Darling Harbor with vigor. We were sure we would emerge victorious. With less than hour before having to report to Google Headquarters, we grabbed a quick lunch at McDonald's. Starving and tired, I scarfed down a chicken Big Mac and we hustled back across Darling Harbor. Upon arrival at Google HQ, the day took a turn for the worse. I reached in my pocket to check my phone and it wasn't there. 

My phone doubles as my wallet. My ID, credit cards, bank cards and other vital things were in the wallet phone case. Using the Google find my phone feature, it was determined it was still at McDonald's. Thankfully, Katherine was lovely enough to run back to McDonald's to retrieve it. As the cohort commenced, I sat nervously wondering about my wallet/phone. An hour in, cohort member Becky Shorey shows me a Hangouts IM saying Katherine had found it. Phew! Talk about a stressful way to begin a Google Certified Innovator Academy.

Stay tuned for Part 3.

The Google Certified Innovator Experience Part 1: The Road to Sydney

What a year I had. Actually, in less than a year, I became Google Certified Educator Level 2, Google Certified Trainer, Google Certified Innovator, presented for first time outside my district, presented at CUE & ISTE and more than quadrupled PLN on Twitter. By no means am I bragging, but damn I was busy. Oh, I forgot to mention, in that same time I also co-founded a regional edtech/pedagogy hashtag and Twitter chat that has grown beyond my region across the nation and world. 

Of all the things I have accomplished in the last year, earning the honor of Google Certified Innovator is what stands out the most. There are less than 1,500 Innovators in the world and I am so blessed to be part of such an exclusive, amazing group of educators. Traveling across the world to Sydney, Australia was unforgettable and highlight in my life.  The feedback I received on my project, learning about design thinking and absorbing the Google vibe were, by far, the best professional learning experience of my career to date. 

My journey to Sydney began on a whim some time during the Spring of 2016. One morning while I was checking emails, an idea popped into my head. As a tech coach, what if I could pull students, who need a challenge, out of class for enrichment to aid teachers in reteaching standards to students who've yet to master them? I asked permission from the principal and got the green light. My first pull out lesson was with middle school science. A group of four students came to the first iteration of what became the Cardinal Innovation Center. They screencasted, blogged and created websites for biomes. When they finished, the teacher was impressed with their work and display of their learning.

The next step was to develop a way for students to display their work to a larger audience. It was then I began developing a website to display student blogs, booksnaps, memes, sketchnotes, videos and more. As the Cardinal Innovation Center evolved, being a Google Innovator was not on my radar. At the time, I was a Google Certified Educator Level 1 and I was fine with that. 

As the 2016 school year would down, I dealt with some serious difficulties in my personal life.  To get my mind of those difficulties, I "took the plunge" and began applying to present at as many conferences and summits as I could find. Slowly but surely, I started to get accepted. It was at these conferences where I connected with Google Certified Educators, Trainers and Innovators. These people, one in particular, encouraged me to continue presenting and further develop my Cardinal Innovation Center idea. 

As 2016 wore on and 2017 kicked off, my personal life had turned around and my Cardinal Innovation Center idea was becoming a real thing. It received a tremendous shot in the arm when, for the idea, I was recognized as a CUE Leroy Finkel Fellowship finalist. It was after this when I took the initiative to become a Google Certified Trainer and apply to become a Certified Innovator. 

My first attempt at Google Certified Innovator, London, did not pan out. I have to admit, I was a little bummed, but I knew more opportunities were on the horizon. I tweaked a few things in my application and submitted for Sydney. I planned to submit for Washington, DC, but mistakenly missed the deadline. 

At ISTE 2017, I connected with countless more incredible educators who had applied for Google Certified Innovator and had yet to be accepted. At first, I felt better about my initial rejection, but then the whole process seemed more daunting than I previously thought. At ISTE, I crossed paths with PLN member, a future Sydney cohort member, Judy Blakeney. We talked about applying to Sydney and joked about sharing a flight if we were "lucky" enough to get accepted. Little did we realize that our little joke was about to come true.

Stay tuned for Part 2. 

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Academic Conversations, Hashtags and Ant Man

Jeff Zwiers, author of Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings, recently conducted a professional learning seminar in my district. Before the seminar, many colleagues and I were under the impression the district expected our academic conversations to look similar the academic discourse between student and professor you'd see in an upper division college course.

Many of the examples Zwiers shared with us were nothing like we previously thought. The one I took to heart most was the "Your Turn" activity. As Zwiers demonstrated the strategy, with cue cards and all, I immediately harkened back to some of the design thinking strategies I learned in Sydney at the Google Innovator Academy.

Learning about design thinking, we were tasked with building a chair out of aluminum foil. From there we had to pair up and explain our chair and decide who's was better. This fostered a conversation of our thinking, design and more. The next step was to "defend" our chair to another pair and repeat the process. This continued until the group was divided in half, each "defending" a chair design. In the end, Geoff Derry's "Volcano Chair" won.

As Zwiers went on about the "Your Turn" activity, I couldn't help but see countless similarities with the aluminum chair design thinking activity. The conversations I had with my cohort mates were the exact type of conversations I want my students to have. Upon further reflection, I had an idea to incorporate the "aluminum chair", "Your Turn" and hashtags.

I have spent a great deal of time this year using hashtags to help students create content to real-life connections. Slowly but surely, they are starting to get it and beginning to see themes and patterns between World History and their personal lives. This idea smash begins like so. Students review notes and the hashtags they wrote on a specific concept. They write their hashtag on a note card and add a few bullets to help them explain it. They then pair up and "battle" a classmate 1 on 1 sharing their hashtag and explanation. After each shares, as a pair, they decide together which hashtag and explanation best encapsulates the main idea and theme of the concept. 

From there, the pairs find another pair and repeat the process. At the end of this step, they become groups of four and repeat the process. This repeats until there is one final showdown between two halves of the class battling it out.

Today was my first attempt at this activity. Student engagement was high and I heard many students who don't like to talk actually taking part in academic conversations. It was refreshing to hear the "quiet kids" talking about their favorite movies and music and explaining the similarities to the history content. 

Overall, I was very pleased with our first iteration of the Hashtag Battle. Today's concept was urbanization during the Industrial Revolution and its many problems. In the final battle, the hashtag #AntMan took the honors. The winning team's explanation dealt with the dangers of child labor in factories and mines. They said children were hired not just because they could be paid less, but their small size, like Ant Man, made them perfect for tight spaces in mines and for fixing factory machines where grown men couldn't fit their hands.

A place of growth I need to address is as the groups get larger, more students feel as if they can hide in the shadows and not participate. It can easily be dominated by a few students. Moving forward, I am planning students to generate sketchnotes of their learning, but at the same time, I am open to suggestions of other ways to build upon this attempt at academic conversations.

Cardinal Innovation Center Today: Memes, Napoleon Blogs, Screencasting and Hyperdocs

A day after learning the basics of Napoleonic France, I wanted my history students to create something with their notes and what they learned. We've done the whole traditional essay thing and slides presentations, but I wanted to give them some options.  Enter the hyperdoc.

I created a hyperdoc with 5 options for which students could choose to demonstrate their learning. Each option was filled with links to how to videos and resources to add information to their project. The first option, which only allows them to earn a passing grade, "C", was to create a Google Slides presentation explaining the pros and cons of Napoleon's rule in France.

To get an "A" or a "B", students could take those slides and screencast their understanding of pros and cons of Napoleonic France. Students could also create a Memes Slideshow by creating a meme (with explanation) for each of the seven slides from which they took notes earlier in the week. Another option for an "A" or a "B" grade would be to create a website for Napoleon's government that includes his reforms, timeline and bio of Napoleon. A fourth "A" or a "B" option is to start a blog on Blogger chronicling the life, rise and fall of Napoleon from his point of view. It would be a "diary blog."

Students were given 5-7 minutes to review the hyperdoc and choose their "learning demonstration" project. They were given the entire class period to get started and iterate. The project is due in 10 days, but I made it clear they need to be in constant contact with me to receive feedback.

Cesar works on his first blog post

As expected, the "C" option was chosen by 1/3 of the class and another 1/3 chose screencasting. Those who chose the Memes Slideshow got off to a good start. Only one student choose to blog, but his first blog post was encouraging.


Stay tuned!