Tag: Digital Resources

Keep Students Engaged With Remote Learning Resources

Event Description

In this webinar, educators will learn about and gain access to EVERFI’s FREE remote learning resources covering topics such as social-emotional learning, early literacy, career readiness, digital literacy, financial education, and more. EVERFI’s online resources are self-graded, student-driven and standards-aligned. Teachers will also be provided with access to offline resources and an instructional plan for how to integrate the resources during remote learning.

Whether your district is returning to school under a hybrid model, full remote learning, or traditional in-person instruction, these resources will conserve your time while keeping students engaged with critical life skills instruction. Attendees will receive login credentials, ongoing support, offline lesson plans and access to scholarship opportunities for students. To learn more visit everfi.com/k-12

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Supporting Teachers with Remote Learning Tools

Event Description

With remote learning, educators, administrators, and learners are attempting to navigate a new, shifting educational landscape. EVERFI provides digital resources to schools covering topics like social-emotional learning, financial literacy, career exploration and more. The resources are student-driven, standards-aligned and something that will create time for teachers and provide them with a plan for remote learning. The resources, training and ongoing support are FREE due to state and national sponsors.

During this webinar, you will learn about EVERFI’s resources, see the qualitative and quantitative impact the programs had on the 100k+ students in Illinois that used EVERFI’s resources in 19-20, and learn how administrators and educators can use the resources to prepare for next school year. To learn more visit everfi.com/k-12

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Connecting With Students: Using Zoom for Remote Learning

Event Description

As teachers begin preparing for the upcoming school year, one thing is certain. The need to connect with students virtually is crucial. Zoom is a videoconferencing tool that can be utilized to help connect teachers and their students in a remote learning environment. During this webinar, we’ll discuss tips and tricks for using Zoom with students in a safe, secure, and manageable environment. We’ll also highlight some best practices for teaching in a remote learning setting.

 

Presenter Bio

Brian Bates is the Director of Professional Learning for the Learning Technology Center of Illinois (LTC). Brian leads and develops events, programs, and resources in support of digital learning, digital citizenship, emerging technologies, instructional issues and trends, technology integration, and teacher practices for educators across the state.

Prior to joining the LTC, Brian spent nine years at the middle school level as a math and science teacher, integrating technology into his classroom through the use of Chromebooks, flipped/blended learning practices, authentic assessment, and self-paced instruction. He also served one year as a middle school assistant principal. After leaving the classroom, he coordinated and facilitated professional learning activities at the regional level.

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Brian Bates (@_brianbates) is the Digital Learning Coordinator at the Learning Technology Center. He can be reached at bbates@ltcillinois.org.

The LTC EdTech Webinar Series Returns for the 2019-2020 School Year

By Brian Bates
September 12, 2019

The Learning Technology Center’s EdTech Webinar Series is back for another exciting year of anytime, anywhere learning. Hear from state and national experts on innovative classroom practices, educational apps/tools, networking and infrastructure, data security, accessibility, and more. The 45-minute sessions are free and open to all educators to attend. Each session will be made available on-demand, too. 

Last year, the EdTech Webinar Series had over 500 viewers from all across the State of Illinois. Based on the feedback from last year’s series, we have a few changes this year: 

  • Webinars have been labeled based on target audiences.
  • Sessions for Classroom Teachers, Instructional Tech Coaches, Library/Media Specialists, and Administrators will be held Tuesdays at 3:30 pm.
  • Sessions for Technology Leaders, IT Staff, and Administrators will be held on Thursdays at 1:00 pm.
  • Webinars have been increased from thirty minutes to forty-five.

Currently, sixteen sessions have been scheduled on a variety of topics such as:

  • Digital Wellness, Online Safety, and Digital Citizenship
  • E-Sports
  • NIST Cybersecurity Framework
  • E-Rate
  • Design Thinking
  • STEAM Resources

Find more information about all of the sessions and register today by visiting ltcillinois.org/webinars. We are currently scheduling sessions for the Spring semester. If you would like to present on a topic, please contact Brian Bates (bbates@ltcillinois.org).

Brian Bates (@_brianbates) is the Digital Learning Coordinator at the Learning Technology Center. He can be reached at bbates@ltcillinois.org.

LTC Monthly Tech Tips! – April 2019

By Ben Sondgeroth
April 22, 2019

PBL Idea Cards

The Buck Institute for Education’s new PBLWorks website features 63 downloadable projects for K-12 in English language arts, math, science, social studies, world languages, fine arts, health and physical education and other STEM topics.

https:/www.pblworks.org/

Add a Google Drive File to Multiple Drive Folders

Open Google Drive through your web browser and select a file or folder. Now press Shift + Z. You’ll see an “Add to Folder” pop-up. Next, select the folder where you wish to add the selected files and click OK. Your file will be in both places, without making a separate copy of the file!

Add Screencastify Videos in Google Slides

You can add Screencastify videos directly to your Google Slides with the Screencastify for Google Slides Add-On. Open a slide deck and click on Add-Ons, then Get Add-Ons. Search for the add-on and then click the “+ Free” button. Now, when you record a screencast using Screencastify, you can just go to your add-ons and add the video directly to the slide!

Organize your Google Keep

Using the Category Tabs for Google Keep Chrome extension allows you to use colors in Keep to organize your notes. Learn more about this process in this helpful article from Carlos Jeurissen.

Add Emojis to Google Drive Folders

Do you love a good emoji? Add some to your Google Drive folder/file names to spice them up! In order to do this, add an emoji keyboard to your Chromebook’s keyboard options, or simply search for an emoji keyboard in a Google search. When you find the emoji that fits your folder or file name, copy and paste it into the name area. Now you have an exciting way to organize your Google Drive! 🤗 🤩

Manage Your To-Do List with Google Tasks!

Have you taken advantage of Google’s new and improved Tasks feature? Tasks is now located in the sidebar of Gmail, Calendar, and all other Google apps! This great feature allows you to create checklists that are manageable throughout the Google Suite of tools!

Follow Twitter Hashtag without a Twitter Account

Have you seen a Twitter Hashtag advertised but you feel left out because you don’t have Twitter? Well, it is possible to follow conversations on Twitter without a Twitter account! For example, if you would like to revisit the conversation that took place during the recent ICE Conference, cut and paste the following URL into your browser: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ice19?f=tweets&vertical=default . As Twitter users post about the things they are learning and sharing at the conference using the hashtag #ice19, the posts will show up on this webpage. So even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can see what people are sharing from the conference.

Force Copy (and Preview!)

Do you know how to force someone to make a copy of a Google Doc? Did you also know that you can preview these documents before making an actual copy? Check out this 1-pager that shows you how to do both! Force Copy in Google Docs 

Ben Sondgeroth (@Mr_Sondgeroth) is a Regional Educational Technology Coordinator at the Learning Technology Center and works in Northern Illinois. He can be reached at bsondgeroth@ltcillinois.org.

3 Tech Tips to Kick Off 2019!

By Ben Sondgeroth
January 23, 2019

Every month our staff will be publishing a post sharing some of their favorite tech tips! For January we focus on leveraging bookmarking in Google Chrome, creating online lessons, and protecting your privacy while searching.

#1 Save Space on Your Chromebook Bookmarks Bar!

Are you frustrated at the lack of space available on the Bookmarks Bar? To solve this simply delete the name of the bookmark when you are adding it to your Bookmarks Bar. In doing this, you will only see the “Favicon,” or logo, of the website.

#2 Turn Any Website into an Interactive Online Lesson

The InsertLearning Chrome Extension is a great way to teach current events or anything on the web. This extension provides you with a toolbar enabling you to make notations,  insert questions or even add discussions right within a web-based resource. There are even templates to help you get started.

#3 Try Using DuckDuckGo as a Search Engine to Protect Online Privacy

Use the search engine DuckDuckGo to take back your privacy. DuckDuckGo has a business model where they don’t need to track your searches, store or share your personal information to make money. Everything you search for using DuckDuckGo is private.

For more great resources, be sure to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Ben Sondgeroth (@Mr_Sondgeroth) is a Regional Educational Technology Coordinator at the Learning Technology Center and works in Northern Illinois. He can be reached at bsondgeroth@ltcillinois.org.