Welcome to the Technology Design Team Weekly Lessons Learned! This will be a recurring feature on Friday afternoons where the Technology Design Team will share top of mind resources and learning. Each week, we will post a few key things we hope you may find useful. We look forward to sharing our learning with you.
Some of the content may be specific to the realities of Austin ISD though, we hope, much will be useful to viewers worldwide.
3-5 Blueprint Update
- Some upcoming independent reading assignments within Weeks 9 and 10 for 3rd-5th grade ESL Blueprints have links to books within the Mackinvia/Ebsco system. We have found that some users had difficulty accessing these links.
Here is a student-facing screencast with steps on how to authenticate within Mackinvia/Ebsco in order to access the book links: https://www.loom.com/share/60bcfb74018f4172ad45f9941ebcdaa9
How do I create custom sections in BLEND so that I can differentiate and assign things only to specific sections?
- Teachers can create custom sections in BLEND to help with personalizing work, due dates, quizzes, announcements, and more. Watch this screencast demonstrating how to create custom sections.
- Note: If a student in a custom section is scheduled out of a class, they will need to be manually removed from the BLEND course.
How can I use GoGuardian to support student engagement?
- GoGuardian is available to 3-12 teachers to help monitor student activity on district issued chromebooks. It can also support a positive Classroom Culture that reduces distraction while supporting collaboration and reflection.
- GoGuardian provides a quick tutorial on allowing and blocking sites in GoGuardian including how to restrict access to Google Hangouts.
- This document gives an overview of tips and best practices with GoGuardian. A GoGuardian course is available if you would like to learn more. You can enroll in the course with this link.
How do I create an announcement for my individual BLEND course?
- You can create announcements within your individual BLEND course(s) by following the steps in this Canvas guide for making announcements.
How do I find past/archived Global Announcements that I closed from my BLEND Dashboard?
Why is my PlayPosit video giving me the error “Video Streams Fail to Load”?
- Failed Streams in PlayPosit are usually bulbs that are using YouTube videos that are not approved or have been set to Private.
- Your Technology Design Coach can approve YouTube videos for student viewing.
How do you save videos you’ve created using PlayPosit’s built-in recorder?
- PlayPosit is reporting that there may be some issue with saving the screen recording after recording completes. If you experience saving issues, you should download the recording immediately upon completion and then upload that recording back into PlayPosit. To download, click the triple dot menu on the lower right side of the recording screen. Please see the screenshot below on how to download these recordings.
How does ownership of PlayPosit bulbs work?
- Enroll in the PlayPosit course (http://bit.ly/aisdplayposit) and access this page to learn more about bulb ownership.
How do I change how my grades post in BLEND?
- This screencast will go over the basics of posting and hiding grades in BLEND.
- In addition, you may find these two Canvas articles helpful: How do I use posting policies in a course? and How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook?
How do I put a BLEND page on students’ To Do lists?
- Assignments, discussions, and quizzes with grades and due dates populate to your students’ To Do lists and calendars. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put a content page with no submission on the to do list as well? Well, you are in luck! This screencast demonstrates how to add a BLEND page to your students’ To Do list and BLEND Calendar.
Will Technology Design Team Virtual Office Hours still happen?
Virtual Office Hours with the Technology Design Team will happen on Mondays-Thursdays from 9:00-11:00 AM and 3:00-5:00 PM and on Fridays from 3:00-5:00 PM. Please check the Global Announcement in BLEND for the Zoom link.
How do I reduce the amount of past activities my students see in Seesaw?
*Note: This is especially useful when a new student sees all old activities as incomplete.
- Teachers can archive assignments to remove them from the to-do list for all students who have not completed them. This will not impact the work that has been turned in by the student. Teachers can do this every few weeks to help students manage the amount of activities they see.
Here are some Seesaw guides on archiving:
- How to Archive
- Archiving by Student
- If you would like to UPVOTE a suggested feature in Seesaw to make this process a bit quicker, the link for Archiving Multiple Activities at a Time.
Why can’t my students see the HMH leveled readers when they access HMH through the Portal from their iPads?
The issue is being caused by “Block Pop-ups” being enabled on the iPad within the Browser. Disabling this setting for the Browser will allow the student to view the Leveled Library from within HMH.
Safari:
- Navigate to the Settings on the iPad
- Click Safari
- Navigate to the General Section and toggle “Block Pop-ups” off.
This video demonstrates the process for Safari.
Chrome:
- Navigate to Chrome
- Click the 3-dots in the upper right-hand corner
- Click on Settings
- Click on Content Settings.
Click on Block Pop-ups, toggle setting off
How do I download a student’s Seesaw journal?
- Teachers can download students’ Seesaw journals by reading through this Seesaw guide for teachers.
- Families can download their child’s Seesaw journals by following this Seesaw guide for families.
What are some guidelines or best practices with Seesaw?
- The Early Childhood department has shared this best practice guide.
Connect. Design. Learn 