The GWAEA Digital Learning Team Blog

How to Use a Document Camera or iPad in Zoom & Meet

1/14/2021

A laptop on a desk next to a green coffee cup. A multi-person Zoom call is on the screen of the laptop

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

In a world that is still not done with virtual learning or quarantined classrooms, the ability to teach online is still and important skill for teachers to hone. Zoom and Google Meet are becoming an integral part to facilitating that learning, so in this post I am going to take a look at how you can use these tools to share a document camera, a USB webcam, your smartphone, or even an iPad on your next virtual meeting.

How to Use a USB Webcam or Document Camera in Zoom

Document cameras are perfect for showing documents, but they can also be used to share learning materials, manipulatives, a dry erase whiteboard or just about anything else you can fit under that camera. If a document camera is not flexible enough for what you want to show, or you don't have access to one in your classroom, you can always plug in a USB webcam and use that instead. They six-foot USB cable will give you some additional options for displaying content that may not fit under a document camera, and many can be mounted on a camera tripod for additional support. Take a look at the video below to see how to use a document camera in Zoom.

How to Use a Webcam or Document Camera in Meet

If you are not using Zoom, fear not, because there are options for Google Meet too. Unfortunately, Google does not have built-in support for document cameras, but the ability to change your video input or share you screen to show the camera software is still an option. The video below shows you how that is done.

How to Use an iPad as a Document Camera in Zoom

Great teachers make the most of what they already have access to. Document cameras are in short supply right now, and so are webcams, so if you have iPads in your classroom, then you can absolutely use those instead. If you have an iPhone, you can use that too. All you need to do is follow the directions in the video below.

How to Use an iPad as a Document Camera in Google Meet

In Google Meet, you can use an iPhone, iPad or even an Android phone as your document camera. All you need to do is join your call twice, once on your laptop and once on your mobile device. When you want to use your device as a document camera, simply share your screen and open the camera app. Details on how to do that are in the video below!

Questions?

If you are having problems with any of the methods described in the videos above, feel free to let me know and I will do what I can to help fix your issues.

Jonathan Wylie
Digital Learning Consultant
jwylie@gwaea.org

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Update: Continuous Learning Field Guide

1/13/2021

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In the spring of 2020, the Digital Learning team worked diligently to provide resources to support the unprecedented changes to the world of education through the Continuous Learning Field Guide. At the time of creation, students and teachers everywhere were in a 100% remote learning environment.

As this situation has continued to evolve, the Continuous Learning Field Guide (CLFG) has also received some minor tweaks we would like to point out.

First and foremost, we have added our team's definition of hybrid and tips to help teachers in a hybrid learning environment. An example of these additional tips can be seen below.

In addition to these hybrid tips, our team has revisited each domain of the CLFG and provided clarifying language to address different learning environments our schools are experiencing. To be clear, we feel that the CLFG will continue to be a living evolution of instructional practices that will be beneficial to students and teachers in all learning environments of the future. The instructional strategies and digital tools that have been shared are not unique to the current learning environments we find ourselves in, but have been highlighted as advantageous for the ongoing situation.

We invite you to revisit the Continuous Learning Field Guide to learn more about these additional tips for hybrid learning.

~The DLGWAEA Team

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Think, Make, Innovate: Creating Questions

1/4/2021

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Good questions are at the heart of good instruction. They are also at the heart of creativity. This month we would like to encourage you to create questions that will get your students thinking and creating! Go a step further and write questions that you might use while students are creating so you are prepared to ask thought-provoking questions!

Question Stems

GWAEA has an amazing Critical Thinking Flipbook that provides a huge bank of questioning stems. We particularly love the Creative page! You can find this printable flipbook here.

Student Questions

Benton Community students wrote their own questions to ask one another while making! We love the responsibility and community this can help build! Learn more about their Maker Mentor Program here.

We'd love to see what you make!

We'd love to see the questions and prompts you share with your students! Please share them with us @DLGWAEA on social media or email us at makerspace@gwaea.org

And as always...

#HaveFunMaking
~Mindy and Amber

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Pear Deck in the Classroom

12/17/2020

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This blog series has examined the how-tos of Pear Deck, digging into the process and the application in a variety of situations. To bring the series to a close we offer to you a variety of examples of Pear Deck in ‘real’ life. These examples have been gleaned from Twitter with the #peardeck hashtag and we offer them to you as a starting point.

Drawing Questions

There are many, many different ways to use the drawing question with students. Check out these examples with an open mind. How could you use a drawing question in your own classroom situation?

Math teacher, Hannah Hale uses Pear Deck to ask her students to review and show their learning. The drawing response gives students that option.

Not every student has access to math manipulatives at home. The Irvine Math Project from the University of California, Irvine opens the door wide open with this group of 4th grade students - allowing them to solve with illustrations of their own.

These two examples demonstrate different ways of solving the same problem. Giving students an opportunity to explain their thinking is key - and these illustrations show that progression perfectly! The one of the left is from 8th grade Math teacher David A. Trez, nd the right is from a Kindergarten classroom in Texas.

Drawing options are not just for math. This is an interesting take on a music lesson from Ms. Munson, a MS music teacher. Students add their own note drawings to demonstrate a percussion rhythm.

Drawing also adds to class discussions in Language Arts. Above are two examples of illustrations depicting student understanding of images from text. Ms. Burns teaches in Canada and the Cyclops drawings come from Strongsville, Ohio.

More than just Drawing

Another example comes from a 9th grade teacher, Ms Jones. Ms. Jones' class uses color to annotate in Language Arts. Be sure to click on the actual link here to see a video, scrolling through all the student responses.

Ms. Zehr, a high school librarian uses Pear Deck for scavenger hunts.

Especially in Covid times, there is a heightened need for Social Emotional Learning options in our classrooms. Fifth grade teacher, Stevie Frank includes popular "either or" choices into a Pear Deck to help students get to know one another as well as checking in with them.

And Finally...

Pear Deck brings out both the generosity and the creativity in teachers! This seasonal 'Find the Hidden Objects' activity was created by a 7th grade teacher named Karie. She used this image with her class as an attendance bell-ringer. And then shared then shared it as a google slide for anyone to use.

Dalton Tedder, a 7th grade math teacher, has taken this a step farther and created a series of slide deck templates. Some are timely, like this Grinch example, and others are more timeless. Each includes question placeholders and is very open for teachers to add their own content. Use this link to connect to the Google Drive folder

Our hope is that this blog series has provided you with food for thought and examples to move your use of Pear Deck forward. Do not be afraid to share your examples with the #peardeck hashtag on twitter. Or send them our way, we love to show off what is happening in classrooms across Grant Wood Area Education Agency!

Additional Resources
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck One-Pager
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck Handbook
Edtech Take Out: Episode 81: Perfect Pear Deck Presentations

Connect With Us
We'd love to hear how you are using Pear Deck. Please share with us in the comments!

~Amber, Beth, & Mindy

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Empowering Students: Utilizing Flipgrid for Student Feedback Teams

12/15/2020

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Over the last month, we have discussed how students can become more engaged, self-directed, and responsible for their learning. We’ve shared ideas of how to get started with these ideas.

As a quick refresher of the past episodes...

First, we introduced students self-assessing using a single-point rubric. This helps students become more self-directed and reflective in their learning, which, in turn, helps promote motivation. Then, using the single-point rubric as a guide, students record evidence of their learning in a digital portfolio. Using portfolios places the responsibility on the student to reflect and communicate their understanding. In addition, using a single-point rubric keeps the focus on specific parts of the learning and makes the process less overwhelming. Next, we shared resources to build student feedback teams. This step has a strong emphasis on the building and less on the feedback. Even as adults we know that one must have solid working relationships with those that are providing feedback for it to be effective. These long-term teams need to be developed over time before they can be utilized.
Finally, we are partnering student feedback teams with a digital tool, Flipgrid, to make feedback attainable anywhere and at any time. After students have documented their learning within their student portfolio, the conversation is just beginning. Students can share their learning with peers by creating a screen recording explaining their artifact. Student feedback teams are created by the teacher in the Flipgrid dashboard. Students share and provide feedback within these pre-created groups. Teachers are able to moderate and monitor student responses. Below you will find more in-depth details about how to use Flipgrid with your students in student feedback teams.

Recording Your Screen

A great opportunity you have by using Flipgrid as your tool is the opportunity to record your screen. This functionality allows you take the portfolio that you created in Google Slides, that we mentioned earlier on in the series, or any other creation tool and share it and also explaining your perspective of that digital artifact.

Once you click on Record a Response on your Flipgrid, click on the triple dots Options next to your Record button. Here you'll find Record Your Screen. From here you can choose to record your entire screen, a Chrome tab, or an application window. After you create your screen recording, you'll get the opportunity to do some simple video editing to shine up your video response.
Watch the video below for all the steps towards getting your digital artifact shared.

Creating Groups

Groups in Flipgrid keep student feedback teams private and easily accessible. Creating groups allows the teacher to provide a small group space for students to share their learning and gain feedback from their team in a safe space. Teachers are also able to moderate videos, as needed.

Create a Topic: The teacher will want to create an overarching topic for student feedback teams. For example, let’s call the topic: Feedback teams.
Turn on Video Moderation: Especially if you are just getting started with feedback teams on Flipgrid, you may want to turn on video moderation. This will allow you to view videos before approving them to be seen by the teams. As you become more comfortable and get to know the team dynamics better, you can turn this off for a more immediate feedback experience.

Create a Group: These groups will each need to be named and will be private to the members of the group, but will fall under the one overarching topic.
Invite Members by email address or password
Add Topics: Since you created a topic before organizing your small groups, you can choose the ‘Feedback Teams’ topic from the drop-down menu.

Stickies and Backgrounds

STICKIES
One of the hidden gems in Flipgrid is sticky notes! One of the issues when creating a video is where to put your notes. Sticky notes to the rescue.

Step 1: Student jots down notes as they interact with another student’s work
Step 2: Student opens the Flipgrid topic and clicks “Record a Response”
Step 3: In the top right corner there are two icons - the top (book) will open the original topic video the other opens a sticky note.
Step 4: Student would type or paste the feedback notes into the sticky. This can be moved around the screen AND like magic it does not appear on the final student response!

Why would this be helpful?
Not everyone feels comfortable just talking on the screen, sticky notes eliminates some of the jitters around filming. It would also help with remembering key points and details - adding specificity to the feedback.

BACKGROUNDS
Although our teens live in the digital world, many would prefer not to have their faces recorded for class work. Flipgrid has them covered as well! With one click they can convert their image into a a lego block or a pixelated lock

Step 1: Student opens the Flipgrid topic and clicks “Record a Response”
Step 2: Click on Effects and Filters
Step 3: Choose the Lego block or the pixelated options to blur your face
Step 4: Explore the other options to be able to add stickers, or frames or even a board where you could type out the points to be made in your feedback

Why would this be helpful?
Feedback depends on trust and comfort between peers. Being able to customize your video and add your own personal flair helps that connection. On the flip side, if students are self-conscious about their home environment or themselves, being able to blur details may help them be more honest in their on screen feedback.

An Additional Gem!

Wakelet is a bookmarking tool that allows you to save anything with a link. It can be used in a variety of ways! Wakelet takes bookmarking one step further by integrating Flipgrid 'Shorts'. Because of these additional tools, Wakelet could also be used as a student portfolio. This could be a powerful way for students to add voice and feedback!

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Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

12/14/2020

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And a Pear Deck in a Classroom. A December Blog Series Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

The goal of a blended classroom is to work to personalize instruction for students. This is a lofty goal and there are many levels of personalization. We focus on providing more student control of pace, place and path as an entry point so that teachers’ time is freed up to connect with small groups or individual students. It is sometimes hard to visualize how a classroom can be transformed from a traditional model to a blended model. The student-paced mode in Pear Deck is the perfect tool to begin that transformation.

Student paced mode is basically a playlist. Think of a playlist as a GPS that guides the student through the learning. The path the GPS follows will be the same for all students, but the pace will vary depending on the student. The nice thing about Pear Deck is that the voice of the GPS is yours!
How does that work? As the teacher you will create the Pear Deck that leads the class through the learning. These steps lead you through the process.

Create the slide deck in Google Slides of the content - I would start with the same slide deck you have used previously, or at least the same progression you have used for creating slides. Make sure you add links to outside sources, video clips and bulleted slides of information.
After the basic slide deck is created:

Step back and think about the questions you would want students to answer or reflect on to show they are interacting and learning the content. Use the Pear Deck ‘Ask Students A Question’ options to add specific question types.
Add check in points. Where in the content do you need students to check in with you or with a peer to make sure they are on the right path? Add a slide to remind students to sign up to check in with you. Or, add a SEL template slide to see responses from the entire class.
Need to explain something in more detail? Add Audio to slides where your words would help clarify the process or assignment or ask the probing question in your words

3.  Give clear deadlines and expectations to students. Before students begin to work at their one pace, make sure that you have clearly defined what you expect of them, and when this entire module is due. You should also remind students that you will be interrupting them during their work time to connect with small groups or individuals.

Now the magic can happen. After all the work of creating the Pear Deck and getting the students going you can see everything in real time.

By opening the Teacher Dashboard you can see what students are doing. You are able to see which slide each of the students is working on and the responses to the questions. That is very helpful from a management standpoint. Seeing the slides in real time provides a little more classroom control. But, Pear Deck doesn’t stop there. In addition to seeing what is happening, the teacher is also able to provide feedback to the students in real time.

In a blended classroom we talk often about the need for feedback in two ways - it should be in a timely manner and it needs to be able to drive instruction forward. That seems impossible in a traditional setting and somewhat overwhelming in most classrooms. But, Pear Deck allows both of these to happen in one!

As a student moves at his/her own pace, the teacher can see their work and add encouragement, ask additional questions, or interject a new thought. Both the student and the teacher can see where the learning is progressing at the same moment. That is a powerful opportunity!!

What does this actually look like?

Open the Teacher Dashboard
Move to a slide which has students’ responses to a question.
Click on the grid view

You see each of the students’ slides side by side.
Click on the speech bubble below a specific student’s slide and leave a comment.
Or click on the star to show that you support their work.

Student response view

When you leave a comment the student gets a grayed speech bubble on whichever slide they are working on to indicate that there is a message from the teacher. When they click on the bubble the message appears, including the slide that the feedback was connected with.

One additional note: This feedback lives only in the student-paced mode, not in the Takeaways. Students will see their responses to all questions in the Takeaways, but not teacher comments. Both student and teacher will be able to access comments as long as the student-paced Pear Deck is still open. If the student has closed down the presentation - they have only to log back in with the same code and the comments will be available.

Personalization continues to be a bit of a ‘holy grail’ for classrooms. The need to both interact with students and provide them with their own path has been a barrier for teachers, and blending technology and various instructional models seems more attainable. But, the options embedded in a basic student-paced Pear Deck change all that. Being able to add interactivity with ease and comment to students work in real time transforms the process! It is safe to say, the possibility of personalized learning through playlists comes a step closer through the use of Pear Deck.

Additional Resources
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck One-Pager
DLGWAEA's Pear Deck Handbook
Edtech Take Out: Episode 81: Perfect Pear Deck Presentations

Connect With Us
We'd love to hear how you are using Pear Deck. Please share with us in the comments!

~Amber, Beth, & Mindy

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<<Previous

How to Use a Document Camera or iPad in Zoom & Meet

How to Use a USB Webcam or Document Camera in Zoom

How to Use a Webcam or Document Camera in Meet

How to Use an iPad as a Document Camera in Zoom

How to Use an iPad as a Document Camera in Google Meet

Questions?

Update: Continuous Learning Field Guide

Think, Make, Innovate: Creating Questions

Question Stems

Student Questions

We'd love to see what you make!

Pear Deck in the Classroom

Drawing Questions

More than just Drawing

And Finally...

Empowering Students: Utilizing Flipgrid for Student Feedback Teams

Recording Your Screen

Creating Groups

Stickies and Backgrounds

An Additional Gem!

Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

Connect

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How to Use a Document Camera or iPad in Zoom & Meet

How to Use a USB Webcam or Document Camera in Zoom

​How to Use a Webcam or Document Camera in Meet

How to Use an iPad as a Document Camera in Zoom

How to Use an iPad as a Document Camera in Google Meet

Questions?

Update: Continuous Learning Field Guide

Think, Make, Innovate: Creating Questions

Question Stems

Student Questions

We'd love to see what you make!

Pear Deck in the Classroom

Drawing Questions

More than just Drawing

And Finally...

Empowering Students: Utilizing Flipgrid for Student Feedback Teams

Recording Your Screen

Creating Groups

Stickies and Backgrounds

An Additional Gem!

Pear Deck in a Blended Classroom

Connect

Blog Feed

Like Us on Facebook

Our YouTube Show

Our Podcast

Our Tweets!

Authors

Archives

Categories

How to Use a Webcam or Document Camera in Meet