Category: Free Inquiry

I’ve never felt more like Sal Khan until I started screencasting. With the Screencastify Chrome extension suggested by UVic’s library, starting a screencast is as easy, or even easier, than sharing one’s Zoom. The extension was free, and when I selected the educator option, I was not prompted to provide documentation.

Just before I started screencasting, I was reminded of Jesse Miller’s comment on the importance of having a district-dedicated laptop when teaching. As Screencastify does not have an option to ‘mask’ one’s desktop, I had to take some time to clear up some miscellaneous files I’d strewn about. However, there is the option to select only a web tab, which is useful if I am exclusively screencasting web content.

For those interested, the screencast is linked below.

https://app.screencastify.com/v3/watch/5C2YZ59PHCy8O54deb09

It was very simple to record my audio and the screen. I’ve had difficulty with device permissions using other programs, but with Screencastify the entire setup process took me two minutes. I also had the option to record my webcam. While I didn’t select this option today, I can see its value in showing students the teacher’s facial expressions and lip movements as they talk. It may be helpful for students who rely more heavily on visual cues to understand speech.

To make my Screencast more accessible, I enabled AI transcription and summary. In about three minutes, Screencastify wrote a summary of my screencast, much like a Youtube description. The AI also made a running transcript complete with timestamps. This way, students can ‘jump’ to exact sections instead of clicking through the video.

Below is the AI summary.

In this video, I share my first experience with screencasting for a reading activity in my grade 9 or 10 English class. I demonstrate how to effectively annotate and highlight text for students using screen recording, along with utilizing ChatGPT to generate writing samples for varying proficiency levels. I also showcase providing feedback on student work and collaborative document editing. By incorporating screencasting, I aim to save class time and equip students with resources for self-directed learning. Join me as I explore the benefits of this innovative teaching method and its impact on student engagement and independent study skills.

What surprised me was how natural the description sounds. The tone is succinct but upbeat, and the AI accurately summarizes what I said. If I wrote this from scratch, it’d take me at least fifteen minutes and likely wouldn’t be this polished. As a cherry on top, it even wrote me a title, “Enhancing English Learning: Screencasting for Independent Study.”

Oddly, I never mentioned that this screencast was for independent study. I wasn’t expecting the AI to be that perceptive, making me reassess future AI uses on my voice recordings. I might stick to automatic captioning for the time being.

The captioning was accurate, and it even picked up verbal slips of “like.” Regarding Universal Design for Learning and increasing accessibility to students, automatic captioning saves me the tedious task of doing it by hand.

I automatically associate screen casting with Sal Khan, and by extension, the STEM classroom. Yet this technology has strong potential in the humanities classroom.

As mentioned in my recording linked above, a screen cast is a fantastic resource to show students the process of annotating or editing a text. While I would just do it in person during class time, likely under a document camera, a screen cast is a useful resource to post on a Google Classroom for students to access on their own time. This way, students can revisit the process as demonstrated by their teacher as many times as they need.

In a particular example, I could record a reading of a class text. At the start of the recording, I could tell students what they should be reading for, and as I read through, annotate select passages. This way, students can see the process of selecting significant passages live. Such a process could be particularly useful in an upper-level Socials class, where students may need to parse denser primary sources or academic articles.

In teaching research skills, a screencast could save time in providing instructions on accessing specific websites or ways to Google information. Instead of making a handout listing each step (like when you Google how to set up something in Word), I could just record my process of doing so. This way, students could see where they need to click on the screen.

I can almost see all the emails of “I can’t find this” that I’ll never have to read.

Perhaps not the most applicable in class, a screencast effectively conveys information remotely to students. It’s easy to use, easy to share, and shows the viewer exactly what the instructor is seeing.

Classroom Jeopardy belongs to the Millennials.

For Gen Z students and younger, Kahoot is the educational game standard.

During Link2Practice, I have seen students very engaged with a classroom Kahoot. The ones I’ve seen are implemented like class rewards, usually as a fun quiz alternative at the end of a unit.

Kahoot was easy to sign up for. Even though I selected the basic educator’s package, I have not been asked for credentials or identification. When teaching on call, I’ll likely have multiple district emails. With Kahoot, I could make a unique Kahoot account for each district I am assigned to, streamlining short-notice Kahoots.

Kahoot also helps educators short on time. You can access other users’ Kahoots by searching for keywords. For example, I could search up Of Mice and Men if my students were reading that work. While it might not turn up exactly what I was looking for, it’s good in a pinch.

Making my own Kahoot was fairly simple. The format is created for you, and all I had to do was fill in the questions where I wanted them. I made a small Kahoot on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which took me all of 15 minutes from signing up for Kahoot.

I enjoyed how Kahoot suggests Creative Commons licensed images. The premium option opens Getty, but Unsplash is available for free. The suggested images were applicable, too. As I built a brief Kahoot on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Kahoot even suggested a screengrab of Harrison Ford as Bladerunner’s Deckard Shaw.

Although Kahoot allows you to upload image files from your computer, students will likely focus on the prompts. Having automatically suggested images saves the time of finding, uploading, and somehow crediting an image that likely won’t receive much attention.

While Kahoot isn’t a tool I see myself using frequently, it could be useful to shake up a rainy November afternoon class, or as a periodic reward for students. Even in a pinch, Kahoot lets me utilize another educator’s work, or, given five or ten minutes, put one together.  

As for replacing Jeopardy, I’ll take Kahoot for 500.

This next generation of teachers may be the first never to see the inside of a photocopy room.

            And we will have Google Forms to thank for that.

While that’s overly optimistic, Google Forms is a fast, easy-to-set-up and seamless way to connect with students. While I’ve used Forms in the past, it’s always been from the receiver’s perspective. Creating a Form, however, was easier than writing one out in Word.

With Word, my first instinct would be to find a template. I’d go through the hassle of clicking past links that raise my malware detector, only to find a template that nearly, but not quite, does what I want it to. I’d download it, fiddle around with the embedded logos and tables, and after an undue amount of time, print off malformed forms. It was like making a salad that needed red onions, but only having white onions on hand.

What I really appreciate about Google Forms is its simplicity. There is a default background, and any option you want is dropped down from a little ‘plus’ sign button. Each option (multiple choice, sliding scales, long answer) then pops onto the form.

What I found saved the most time was Forms’ auto-formatting. Instead of having to space out multiple-choice responses yourself, every inserted option fits in naturally with its peers. It’s the bureaucratic equivalent of Legos.

During my Link2Practice experience, one of the practicum supervisors recommended using Google Forms as a quick way to implement quizzes. As most schools have Chromebook access, students can quickly access the Form through Google Classrooms, instead of having to hand out printed copies at the start of class. Even more efficiently, Google Forms can also auto mark responses.

To try this out, I made a short reading comprehension quiz on Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt. I aimed it at grade 9s, but if you’d like to try the quiz, it can be accessed at the link below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehOH4z9Yn_ek1a1dgEKJ5dQ7ctu2u4-MY9vag1wRgrrUGnBw/viewform?usp=sf_link

The whole quiz took about 40 minutes to make. Formatting a Form for the first time took about 10 minutes, and the rest was myself trying to create quiz questions.

Forms made the legwork of formatting easy. Now all I had to do was write the quiz.

Setting up auto grading was simple too. You can select which multiple choice answer is correct, and even for written answers you can indicate what words are likely to be correct in the answer.

This feature of Forms can streamline marking. Although applicable in English, in Social Studies I may assign unit quizzes to check student comprehension. Instead of quizzing on paper, and having students wait for feedback, they can receive their grade immediately after completing their quiz.

I’ve not only used Forms for quiz creation, but also to receive student feedback. Here, Forms is useful for having options for sliding scales, allowing students to respond on a 1-5 scale. While I’ve only made one feedback form for my first lesson taught, I may continue to utilize this feature of Forms throughout my career. One way I can see it being useful is during student groupwork. Students could use a Google Form (as they can enter their name in it) as a reflection following groupwork.

Here is an example of the form I created for student feedback.

Although Google Forms is a fairly specific tool, I can see its application into the classroom and my future teaching practice.