North Idaho EdTech

Last week, I was asked to be a guest on the premiere show of IdahoEdTech. It is a Google hangout show that is put on by Sarah Windisch (from Post Falls School District) and Simon Miller (from Kellogg School District). The topic was digital citizenship and we discussed issues surrounding this topic for students and staff of all ages and why it is important to cover digital citizenship in schools today. Here is the video on YouTube. Check back for more shows in the future!

As the school year begins this year, there is much buzz about the new classroom management suite from Google called Classroom. I know I'm as excited about it as anyone could be! Being able to manage student work and your own teacher workflow without knowledge of scripts and Add-ons makes my life as an instructional technology specialist much easier. One of the really great features in Google docs, and how Google Classroom integrates that as part of the assignment work/submission process, is the "Suggesting" mode in docs. While a student is completing an assignment, the teacher has the ability to open student documents and make suggestions. This is very handy during editing and revising periods, before a paper would be turned in. When a teacher makes a suggestion, the student will see the suggestion and the parts that have been changed will show up with a strike-through (see screenshot above). Students can then compare their text with the suggestion and make a d