Welcome to the Technology Design Team Weekly Lessons Learned! This is 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. 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. The Weekly Lessons Learned Archive contains a list of topics from and links to previous updates.

How can I make announcements show up on my BLEND home page?
- This canvas guide shows how to change your course settings so that your most recent announcements will show as a banner on the home page when students click into your course.
Where can I find support for textbook integration in BLEND? (Austin ISD staff only)
- The Textbook Access Information course in BLEND can be accessed from the BLEND Help Menu
- You may go directly to the Textbook Access Information course by clicking this line.
Is there any training for educators about Google?
- Google Educator Level 1 Certification cohort will kickoff 10/05 4pm or 10/11 10:am. Join other educators as you work through the Google Workspace Level 1 Certification for educators.
- Educators completing the course will be given a voucher to take the certification exam for free.
- https://fried.tech/texasimpact for more information.
How can I learn more about using PlayPosit with my face-to-face students?
- The PlayPosit team is providing a webinar on 10/06, 2:00p-3:00p called “The Flipped Classroom Model Using PlayPosit.”
- Register for this webinar and get the recording if you can’t attend, https://go.playposit.com/classic-webinar-series .
Where can I provide feedback about the BLEND Blueprints? (Austin ISD staff only)
- As the Curriculum and Instructional Designers prepare Instructional Planning Guides (IPGs) for teachers to use this year, the team would love to hear your feedback. You can provide feedback using this Google Form.
Can I update a new quiz then have it regrade and update the BLEND gradebook?
- When regrade works
- Currently, quiz regrade is available for Multiple Choice, True/False, and Multiple Answers question types.
- Quiz regrade only applies to students who have already taken the quiz.
- When regrade does not work
- Adding or removing a question does not trigger the quiz regrade feature.
- Changing the point value for a quiz question does not trigger a quiz regrade.
- The student’s submitted quiz will show the updated point value, but the current grade won’t change in the Gradebook.
- What to do when regrade will not work
- Moderate the quiz and let the student(s) retake the quiz.
- Manually update the grades in the gradebook to match the regraded quiz score.
- Canvas guide: What options can I use to regrade a quiz in a course?
Can I get some student-facing Chromebook resources?
- Organize your tabs
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Screenshots on your Chromebook
- Record a video or take a picture
- How to create a split screen on your Chromebook to view two windows at once
- How to access student email on a Chromebook (6th-12th only)
- “Powerwash” your Chromebook (to fix many problems)
NEW TIMES – Technology Design Team Virtual Office Hours – NEW TIMES
To better serve teachers, we have shifted office hours.
The Technology Design Team is hosting virtual office hours to help provide real time instructional technology support in the first weeks of school. Virtual Office Hours with the Technology Design Team will happen on Monday-Friday from 10:30 am to 1:30pm.
Please check the Global Announcement in BLEND for the Zoom link.
If you have a technical support issue (device repair or setup, access to systems, etc), please create a ServiceNow ticket to have a technician address your concern.
