Tag Archives: Sway

OneNote; Endless Possibilities⤴

from @ Team MIEE Scotland

In the Wakelet collection below, I share the benefits of embedding media directly into OneNote to simplify workflow and bring content to life.

Click on the image below to access the collection 👇

 

Buncee image with the image of a notebook with logos for OneNote, Flipgrid, Wakelet. Office, Buncee and Giphy

 

About Me

I am an Additional Support Needs teacher at Lanark Grammar School. I am also an MIE Fellow for Scotland, MIE Expert, Master Trainer and MCE (Microsoft Certified Educator). I am also a Flipgrid Student Voice Ambassador and Grid Guide and a Wakelet Ambassador and Community Leader.

I was awarded MIE Expert of the Year for Scotland 2019-20 and I also won a global competition ran by Flipgrid to attend E2 Education Exchange in Sydney, Australia.

You can find me on Twitter: @cgerrard02

Photo of Chris Gerrard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Learning in Maths⤴

from @ Team MIEE Scotland

Hugh Wallace

Teacher of Maths

Kyle Academy, South Ayrshire

Twitter @MrW4ths


  Waking a Digital School

As with all schools in Scotland, Kyle Academy closed our doors on Friday 20th March with very little warning, and quite literally, no time to prepare.  The final week was spent ensuring that those who were still able to attend school, had a note of their Glow login details and knew how to access Microsoft Teams.

For some staff, they had already been using Teams with a handful of classes, but for most, they hadn’t logged into Glow for a very long time!  This was going to be a challenge!

As the ‘Digital Champion’ in school, and the only MIE Expert, I knew it was time to step up and offer support to the school community.  This has been a huge task, but I feel very proud of where we are now!

One of my first tasks was to establish a Staff Team for Digital Support rather than sending out yet another email.  This has proved invaluable as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for colleagues.  A place to find out more information, ask for help, highlight problems and share examples of good practice.

 

 

 

Thinking of the wider school community, one of the main tasks early on was to provide additional support to students and parents who were new to Microsoft Teams.  To help with this, I put together a couple of guides which were shared by parental email and twitter.

Feedback for these guides for computer and mobile users has been positive and has since been tailored by other schools.  You can view the original sway here.

 

  Digital Learning in Maths

Regular use of Microsoft Teams was already embedded in my own classroom practice and colleagues in the department were supportive.  It’s often difficult to deviate from traditional teaching methods in Maths, but it is possible as long as the tasks are both relevant and accessible.  Despite working in a department where you are the only one below the age of 50, who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks?  Huge respect for Donna, Sue, Joyce, Karen and Sharon and very proud of what they have achieved this term.  Well done!

  Setting up Teams

Teams were setup for all our students, but classes working on the same level were added to one Team.  This reduced the need for duplicating tasks and lessons.  All our Teams were setup with a consistent use of channels.  We wanted to make it as easy as possible to navigate, particularly in the junior school where pupils may be a member of 15 subject Teams.

Here is an example of our S2 Maths Team comprising 4 classes of 33 students each.

 

General – Where weekly tasks are set alongside important announcements and all assignments.  Only staff could post in this channel which prevented instructions getting lost.

Online Classroom – Where the live lessons are delivered for all students in the Team, each Monday.

Ask (Mr Wallace) – For students to collaborate with their own teacher and peers.  Teachers would ask students to post a photo of their work if they needed help then provide feedback.  We held smaller live tutorial classes in our own channel.

Technical Difficulties – To ask a technical question or report a fault with ICT.

Weekend Challenge – A bit of fun for our S2 students!

 

We had a similar picture for Higher Maths, with 3 classes added to the Team.

General – Worksheets and core tasks are posted on a Monday and a Tuesday, immediately after each live lesson.  We also post assignments on a Wednesday, due for the Friday.  All solutions are also provided in a sway in this channel.

Online Classroom – Where the live lessons are delivered for all students in the Team.

Ask (Mr Wallace) – For students to collaborate with their own teacher and peers.  Teachers would ask students to post a photo of their work if they needed help then provide feedback.  We held smaller live tutorial classes in our own channel.

Extension Tasks – To distinguish between the core tasks and extra material for students who would like to deepen their understanding with more exam level questions.

We received very positive feedback from students early on, advising us that Maths was one of the easiest Teams to navigate.  I then continued to liaise with departments to review their own Teams and adapt a similar format for consistency across the school.  Where staff adopted this, the results were very positive and students appreciated it.

  Setting Weekly Tasks

For most classes, we found that Sway offered an excellent tool to provide easy access to short video clips, worksheets and extracts from textbook resources.  Sway does most of the work for you in terms of presentation, you just need to concentrate on collating the content!  The Sway was setup with tasks for the week, presented in small manageable chunks.  Given the nature of the content, we agreed that we would then share a link to the Team using the option for ‘anyone with a link’ to view.  This also allowed us to email the link directly to parents of students who were not engaging in the Team.

Examples:

Solutions were included for students to self-mark, and there was no requirement to send through evidence of all their working.  We felt it would be very time consuming to provide feedback on all tasks but students were always encouraged to get in touch or post a photo should they need help.

  Live Lessons

From the second week in lockdown, I started to experiment with a variety of video conferencing tools but wholeheartedly supported the use of Teams Meeting despite the lack of incoming video from a student account.  For those reading outside Scotland, Glow have currently disabled incoming video from students.

In the department, we all felt that the nature of Maths lends itself much better to live delivery than pre-recorded PowerPoints.  This format still provides the opportunity to adapt our lesson, just like what we would do in the classroom.  We were able to put students on mute and deliver our lesson by sharing our screen and making use of OneNote and the Microsoft Whiteboard apps.  Students always have the opportunity to raise a hand in agreement, or unmute if they wanted to ask a question.  In the end, most students preferred to ask their questions in the chat area which we would monitor during the course of the lesson.  We all found it was beneficial to have two screens when delivering a lesson.  The main screen would allow for digital inking and the second to keep an eye on the hands and chat.

  Class Notebook

To deliver successful lessons to my Higher class, I found the Class Notebook open in OneNote for Windows 10 just fantastic, especially when paired with my own Microsoft Surface Pro.  Luckily my colleagues managed to get their hands on the smaller Surface Go which had coincidentally been bought for the PE department in school, complete with keyboard and pen!  The Class Notebook was setup from a template of notes which I’d collated a number of years ago when I first started to teach the course.  Each lesson was easy to navigate in the Content Library by topic section, then lesson.  Each lesson was numbered in successive order and carefully matched to suit my worksheets which were set as tasks in the Team.  Whilst each lesson had already been typed up, digital ink allowed me to add annotation, highlights, sketches and refer to a marking scheme.  It really was magical!  Whilst I always used the OneNote for Windows 10 app, there was never a problem with sync back to the Class Notebook in Teams.

Here are a couple of screenshots of my lessons in the Class Notebook:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the Content Library, latterly we started to use each pupils personal area in the Notebook.  Ideally we would have liked students to post photos of there work directly into their own Homework section, but without adequate training, I asked them to submit photos of their work as an assignment in Teams.

  Weekly Assignments

To help manage our workload and assess student progress, each week we would set one formal assignment which would be reviewed by the teacher.  Usually this was a short auto-marking Quiz using Microsoft Forms in the format of multiple choice or short response.  Students would receive instant feedback since we had pre-populated a summary message per question which would display after submission.  This then meant we only needed to input a more general comment when reviewing responses.

 

 

Latterly, we tasked students with completing a few Maths problems and asked them to submit as a File Upload.  This was ok, but I wanted to add annotation so I copied their photo submissions into their private section in the Class Notebook and used digital ink to leave feedback.  This would have been perfect if students were able to submit their photos directly into their OneNote, but I know this will need further training once we are back in school.

 

Engagement

Overall, we have been delighted with the levels of engagement in Maths during lockdown, particularly in senior certificated classes.  This is testament to the hard work and support from a committed group of staff, not just in our department, but across the school.  By setting clear instructions, short tasks and regular live lessons, we led from the front to establish a new routine with our students.  Pupils appreciated this.  Ok, we can’t get them all to engage, but that will always be part of the challenge.

Remote Learning in Computing Science⤴

from @ Team MIEE Scotland

Bitmoji image of Miss Mutter and twitter name @FHSComputing
Hello, I am a Computing Science teacher at Falkirk High school, this post is about my experience of moving to remote learning and my journey through it until the summer break. I have been an MIEExpert for 3 years and gained MIE Trainer status during this period of remote learning.

Before moving to remote learning Microsoft Teams was used by a small number of teachers across our school. I lead the schools eLearning staff working group and had been providing training to these colleagues on using the main features of Glow (Teams, OneNote Notebook, Forms, Sway, O365 and Immersive Reader) that we thought would be most useful in our setting. We had planned to roll this training out across the entire school this year with eLearning staff and our pupil Digital Leaders supporting and leading the way. This did happen, just not how we had planned.

In the two weeks prior to starting remote learning I provided training sessions to staff on the basics of using Glow and Teams so that all staff had a grounding on it and could use this whilst working from home. I also synced all Glow pupil groups within our school to enable staff to quickly create the teaching groups and teams they needed. All Staff rose to the challenge and engaged with digital learning tools in a way that I have never seen before in my 20 year teaching career. I remember one of the last things I said to my Head Teacher was that “My silver lining out of all of this will be the staff engagement with Digital Tools and Technology for learning.” My view has slightly changed on that front – I’ll explain later.

Graphic showing Glow and Digital Tools used during remote learning
Overview of my original use of Teams and Digital Tools

I have been using OneNote Notebook for a number of years and then Teams when it launched in Glow with most of my classes. I had used O365, Immersive Reader, Forms and Sway before but not extensively. Additionally, some of the tools I’m using now I had never heard of before remote learning.

When setting up my Teams I wanted to make things as easy as possible for pupils to locate work and navigate their virtual learning space. With this in mind, the first assignment I set all of my pupils was a ThingLink on Navigating our Team. This gave them pictures of their Team with links to explain each part so that they could gain an understanding of how our virtual classroom was laid out and would operate. ThingLink is a digital tool that I had not heard of prior to remote learning but is one I will definitely continue to use. I had great feedback both from pupils and staff on it and great engagement from both when using it.

Screen clipping of the Navigation ThingLInk
ThingLink screen clipping from pupil Teams Navigation Assignment

 

screen clipping of Team ChannelsAll of my Teams have been set up the same way. I have added different channels to hopefully indicate what each one is being used for rather than all communications being in the one General channel. It can otherwise quickly become clogged up making it difficult to locate work, etc. I also set my General channel for staff only commenting as this is where I post Assignments and Announcements to. This should mean that it is easy for pupils to see the weekly work and important announcements.

screen clipping showing a weekly work announcement in my team

I am using Assignments to issue weekly work to all pupils. This means that each child gets their own editable document (Word, notebook page, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, etc.) that they can work on, complete and submit for marking and individual feedback. Pupils can clearly see what assignments they have outstanding and completed. Using the Grades tab they can also see their progress and scores for all submitted tasks. All of my Teams have a OneNote Notebook which gives each child a space to work.

screen clipping of notebook setup
OneNote Notebook Lesson Outline

My organisation and layout of my notebooks has developed through remote learning. I now have clear Success Criteria, Tasks and Exit Passes to help the children see exactly what they need to do for each lesson and for me to gain feedback about how they felt about that lesson.

I have been teaching programming to my new S4 class. We started this when we “Moved On Learning”. At our school we code in Python and normally use our desktop PCs or Laptops in the lab, however, not all of my pupils have these devices at home. Some are using a tablet or their phone to complete work. Some have opted to download Python onto a device while others are using PythonAnywhere which is all done online. The actual Python coding is identical in both environments but the platforms themselves are quite different, therefore, I have been recording myself doing the tutorial tasks in both platforms and embedding these into a Sway each week. The pupils then watch the tutorial for the platform they are using.

screen clipping of python code in assignments
Python Code attached in Assignments

I was delighted when pupils were attaching their programs to their assignments when it showed me the code in the assignment window. I did not expect to see the code within the Teams assignment. This meant that I could view their code, mentally run through it to check that it would work but it also made discussing their code easier. Because I could see the code line numbers it made our discussions easier because I could state the line number in which they needed to revise. There were occasions where it was necessary to “show” pupils what I meant as communicating via keyboard was not always easy and I have started using Trinket for this type of thing. I can create Python code in Trinket and share it via a link with pupils to edit and experiment with which has helped them to see the differences between their code and mine. Trinket is another digital tool that I was unaware of prior to remote learning but will definitely continue to use.

I have also been using Forms to create surveys and quizzes. Sometimes I have set these as the weekly work tasks on their own but also embedded these into Sways and OneNote Notebook pages depending on the task. This has allowed me to combine a variety of resources (theory, pictures, video and quiz) enabling all of the elements of that task to be in the same document making it easier for pupils to complete the work set for them.

praise given to Miss Mutter by a pupil

I have had positive feedback from pupils when issuing praise stickers for completing work, being kind or helpful to others in the team and have received praise from pupils myself. Which I must admit nearly made me cry. It was really nice to get this from pupils as it let me know that everything I had been doing was working, helping and appreciated.

Other Digital Tools that I have been using to support teaching and learning during this time are  Wakelet, Flipgrid and Canva. I had been using Wakelet this year with my Higher Computing class. We had been adding online resources to it as we came across them building up a bank of revision materials as the course progressed. During remote learning I have been using it as a central point for storing staff training “How To” videos that I have produced. I have added the Wakelet as a tab in our whole staff team so that everyone can access it easily. As part of the staff CPD Training that I offered I created a Wakelet on making a virtual emoji classroom and shared it with staff to help them to create their own virtual classrooms. I have used Flipgrid to record ‘shorts’ (videos of less than 10 minutes) and shared these with pupils in my Teams. These short videos have normally been instructions on how to do something or a welcome to our team message from me. I have not used this app with pupils recording their own videos but this is something that I would like to be able to use in the future. I stumbled upon Canva during an online CPD session that I was taking part in during remote working. Canva is a design app that allows you to quickly design and create great looking publications either working from templates or from your imagination. I have used it to create certificates of appreciation for my pupil Digital Leaders, pupils submitting work, infographics, a twitter header image and various Teams announcement banners. All of your creations  can be animated, downloaded as pdf, image or video and shared with a link directly into my Teams, etc.

Announcement Banners
Announcement banners

My other roll during remote working has been training and supporting staff within my school with Glow, Teams, using Assignments, O365, ThingLink, Forms, Sway, Voice Overs in PowerPoint and OneNote Notebook. This has been great fun and very rewarding with staff sharing their successes and creations with me. Again reinforcing my original ‘silver lining’ from lockdown. However, I did say earlier that my view of that has slightly changed and it has – I’ve been so impressed by our pupils; taking part, sharing, asking questions and trying things out, however, in equal measure also by their parents and folks at home, supporting them (and me). I have received some lovely messages from them which has been greatly appreciated.

I have also achieved MIE Trainer status during remote learning. I had completed my own training for this way back in 2018 but had never tracked the training and support I had been providing to staff until now. Something else from remote learning that I will continue to do.

My silver lining now – the way in which pupils, parents and teachers have collectively engaged with Digital Tools and Technology for learning.

MIEE and Trainer Badges

 

You can find me on Twitter @FHSComputing

Growth Mindset for Experienced Teachers⤴

from @ Team MIEE Scotland

 


Hi I am Mandy Davidson Acting Principal Teacher Curriculum Support (Wider Achievement) RME/RMPS/Care  at Lenzie Academy.

I came to be a Microsoft Expert because it was the easiest way to find out how the limited technology I had could be put to the best use.  Nobody around seemed to know the answers to my questions or to even know a person who might. Discovering the Microsoft Educator Centre and meeting individuals like Malcolm Wilson (@claganach) and Sarah Clark (sfm36)  and Ian Stuart (IanStuart66) helped me see what could be done if I kept trying. My first sway for the MIEE application focussed more on what I hoped to do than what I had already achieved. I was amazed when I was given the place on the roll of honour!  The more I’ve talked about my role as an MIEE, the more I have realised that there is a barrier between many of my peers engaging with this massive CPD opportunity and ironically it is not ” time” that none of us have had prior to lockdown. The barrier is recognised by many departments in my school and no doubt schools around the country, who display posters detailing the different approach between having a fixed mindset and having a growth mindset. Yet the very teachers who encourage their pupils to” prepare to fail ” as a learning opportunity, to accept they are always learning and quote the line “it is not I can’t but I can’t yet”, will shake their heads when I suggest that they too can become a Microsoft Expert. I always say I use a computer like a drive a car; I can do the basics and familiarity makes it easier, but I’m no mechanic!

The more experienced we become as a teacher, the more comfortable we become with our areas of expertise and the more concerned we are about what we don’t know. In some subjects where the content changes little over the years, the comfort and the fear may be even more of a contrast . The perception that the students around us need to know that we are the experts, in order to accept our delivery of lessons, fuels the fear that we cannot experiment with new platforms in case it all goes wrong. Looking at the fixed mindset image above ask your self honestly how many of the fixed mindset phrases have you used when discussing using technology to teach?

Growth mindset vs fixed mindset
how the different mindsets work.

Lockdown has forced many teachers to turn to technology in order to continue to provide education remotely. The opportunities created by using Teams, Forms, Sway and PowerPoint with narration have been publicised and many teachers are now engaging with them. Countless organisations are offering advice, how to videos and it can all be overwhelming for someone with a fixed mindset who has hitherto been very comfortable with their individual face to face approach to teaching.

So my advice as a Microsoft Innovator Education Expert is quite simple. Use the MEC tile that already exists in Glow. If you cannot find it on your launchpad then add it from your apps library. Then explore and develop your own growth mindset! Start from an area with which you are familiar, it could be Teams or other Office 365 tools and watch the videos and complete the quizzes.

Microsoft Education Community
The bridge to all new ICT learning

They really are not scary and although you have to gain 80% to pass, there are resit opportunities so what do you have to lose!

Once you pass some quizzes you will gain badges in your personal profile.

Each badge is worth a number of points and all can be used as part of  your CPD evidence for GTCs

Microsoft badges

Some badges also come with certificates whilst others are part of learning paths and the certificate is awarded at the end of a significant amount of work. Each certificate details the time spent on acquiring them.

Engaging pupils                                                                                                                                                                                                   Collecting badges can become addictive once you realise that, just spending a little bit of time working through the video tutorials, can save you hours of time in creating and distributing quality learning opportunities.  Before you know it you will have acquired 1000 points and you become recognised as a Microsoft Innovative Educator and you join a fast paced growth mindset community from where your learning will really take off!

Microsoft Innovator Educator

Certified MIE bade The MIE Community In Scotland exists in the virtual world so even if there is nobody at your school that has any expertise in using Microsoft tools, you can gain support at the click of a mouse, from teachers just like you, who have learned the short cuts and possibilities available through Glow and are willing to share.  Twitter is the platform outside of glow where you can gain insight into how you can stretch your understanding, as most of us have twitter accounts and there are regular tweetmeets for #MicrosoftEduChat  #TeamMIEEScotland and #MSFtCelt ( team Scotland together with the Welsh team). What makes us experts is not that we know the answers but we are not afraid to ask the questions – how do you do that? Is that on glow too? Can I have a copy?

https://twitter.com/MrsTEHS/status/1261024735325851649?s=20

So as an experienced RME teacher what are my favourite tools for teaching and learning? Microsoft Teams is key as you can literally teach an entire course through a class team. I facilitate a Religion Beliefs and Values remote learning Team, as with the minimal support required for the Level 5 award the pupils who have opted into this team just work their way through their investigation and reflection. The fact pupils can literally complete all work on their phone helps to engage many of them more than a jotter and a text book. Forms to gain pupil voice or quizzes for formative learning are quick and effective and last of all my love of Sway with the ability to include so much information in an accessible format where readers can focus on what they need to learn. With these tools I have increased my engagement with pupils that I only used to  physically see once a week and for whom the instant and personalised feedback encouraged greater participation and deeper reflection. Now I am shielding physically away from my  closed classroom,  this interaction has continued and the record of all interactions are now documented in the new Insights tab.

As the PT of Wider Achievement I can facilitate a number of Youth Achievement Awards via Teams and together with our school Youth worker Caroline Shirreffs we are currently supporting senior pupils creating their Personal Development plans for their Platinum Award. Being able to have online meetings has actually given us more time than we would have managed to gain in school as these pupils have such busy lives! My YPi teams who collaborate via Teams chat and create group presentations show the scope is as limited as the learner’s imagination.

You may have thought you did not have time to learn about all these tools but the time it saves makes up for the investment. You just need to be a bit braver and click on the MEC tile. A whole new world of opportunities await!

Find me on Twitter  @AllM14891126

 

 

 

A Day in Lockdown with Mrs Pickard and P1b⤴

from @ Team MIEE Scotland

I’m a primary school teacher, passionate about digital learning but by no means an expert.

This is where I am in our class learning journey with Microsoft Teams after 8/9 weeks of lockdown.

I am now using Thinglink as an interactive classroom, below is an image of my example to show my interactive classroom, the blog does not support embedding so you will need to click on the image or link to be able to click on the hotspots in the Thinglink.

I even have my pets helping me now:

Travis’ Classroom building sentences

Hobbes’ Counting Classroom

and Wilson too

 I used this app to help

Travis, Hobbes & Wilson

talk.

I didn’t start here, it has been a journey.

So I thought I’d tell you a little bit about the journey, where I started, what I did and why and where I am now.

Yes, I have been teaching Digital Literacy skills to every class I’ve ever taught from the first week, including this years primary 1b (brilliant).  The trickiest thing I found for the wee ones is keyboard skills, learning phonics is tricky but ‘find the ‘a’ on the keyboard’ was just another way of identifying and learning the sound, playing with keyboards, typewriters, another choice.

Before lockdown all of the p1b boys and girls could login to a desktop, click on a shortcut and login to a website with little or no help using their own unique login.

The week of lockdown I showed them Glow and Teams, they logged in and logged out.

Microsoft Teams is where I communicate with my class

In the beginning

A typical day started with a post from me saying good morning and

  • asking the class to reply to the message answering a question, e.g. best part of your weekend.
  • Suggesting activities/tasks, e.g. Sumdog, Reading Eggs.


After 8 / 9 weeks in we had progressed to:

A typical day starts with an Announcement with a pretty image to catch the eye and mark a new day.  The morning message can include lots of different things and reflects the morning meeting message we did in class at school:

  • Tasks
  • Challenges
  • Activity ideas
  • Pictures
  • What’s in store for the day
  • An MS Forms poll about something, e.g. vote on a story, when to meet
  • Links to songs, videos, Go Noodle
  • Fun Facts

The responses in the beginning:

  • Short phrase or sentence
  • an emoji

After 8 / 9 weeks p1b answer and share with:

     

  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Emojis
  • GIFs
  • Reactions to the post

Announcements is what I use to post in Teams.

In the beginning

  • I didn’t use them at all
  • I just put up a general conversation post

After 8 / 9 weeks I use them for:

  • The morning message
  • Challenges
  • Extra fun surprise tasks/activities
  • Extra information

What is so good about announcements?

  • My class love them,
  • I can personalise the image to make them eye catching and fit the post/announcement
  • I actively encourage emojis, GIFs, reactions as responses
  • I would argue that they encourage engagement

Assignments – this is where I set up and schedule teaching and learning

In the beginning

Initially I didn’t use assignments at all, I just put up a general post

Then I started to set one or two very simple assignments each day which included:

 

  • A Title
  • One or 2 instructions

After 8 / 9 weeks I use assignments all the time to set for:

  • A title
  • Short instructions
  • Resources attached
  • Scheduled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What kind of resources do I use to create and build lessons?

In the beginning

  • Sway – gathering resources, adding audio, video, pictures, links, e.g. Word Building – oa
  • Forms – for quizzes and assessments, check ins, polls e.g. Daily Check In

  • Education City – create work for pupils focussing on specific skills  

Sumdog  – set maths challenges focussing on specific skills.

After 8 / 9 weeks I use:

  • Sway
  • Forms
  • Education City
  • Sumdog
  • Reading Eggs

PLUS

Flipgrid – to create a topic, to host videos, pupils respond to with their own videos

 

Wakelet – pulls together different resources from different places.

 

 

Kahoot – great for a quick assessment or for fun

 

 

 

ThingLink – super visual, interactive, easy to use

 

 

 

What kind of assignments?

Why do I use assignments?

  • I can create a lesson and schedule it for a date in the future 🗓
  • The assignment appears as a post in the general chat and provides a link for the pupils to click on – easy peasy
  • I can assign to the whole class, a group or an individual – great for differentiation
  • The pupils can attach work – photos, etc to their assignment and hand it in
  • The pupils work is saved in Sharepoint – in individual folders by assignment – all done for me – no extra work, no clogging up the files section in Teams – super organise, easy peasy, woohoo! 🙌
  • Feedback is private between me and individual pupil 👍
  • The Grades tab tracks assignments completed so I can see what’s happening 😊

 

Happy to help, share and collaborate

Amanda Pickard

@AJOBPickard

Microsoft Tools on Glow⤴

from

UPDATE: The OneNote Notebook I used during my #TayMaths2019 workshop and the Scottish Maths Conference (Both the Stirling and Northern Conference) is available at http://bit.ly/2IShY5H. This contains the PowerPoint I used during these workshops.

As a Scottish (Maths) Teacher, I have access to Glow Scotland. Within Glow, teachers have access to Microsoft tools such as Teams, OneNote, Forms and Sway. In this blog post, I will introduce you to each of these, link to examples of each and get you started on using these tools in your own practice.

I have presented a workshop on this at the Scottish Mathematical Council’s Conference (9th March 2019), and will be talking about it at the first Tay Collab Maths Conference on 23rd March 2019 and now at the Northern Conference on 04/05/19.

Using these tools is soon going to become an even more massive part of my work, as next month I am taking up post as PT Mathematics at Bertha Park High School in Perth, the UK’s only Microsoft Flagship School. Here’s a flavour of what the Microsoft tools on Glow have to offer…

OneNote

Let’s get started with OneNote.

OneNote is excellent.

If you’re not using it yet, you really should be.

OneNote allows you to store and share absolutely any type of digital content.

Notebook – This is the full OneNote – it contains all of the sections and pages.

Section – A section is the first level down within a Notebook. This particular Notebook you are looking at has two sections. The one you are in just now is called “Microsoft Tools on Glow”. The other one is called “Other Section”, and contains only one page, which has not yet been used.

Page – The level you are at right now, where I am typing this text and where you are reading this text is called a Page. Pages can be extended in all directions, indefinitely.

Every Notebook can have as many Sections as you like and every section can have as many Pages as you like. There’s no limit other than, I guess, the amount of storage you have in OneDrive, which is where the Notebook is saved.

Creating a new OneNote Notebook

Sign into Glow, open OneDrive and Click on New – this lets you create a new OneNote Notebook in the folder you are currently in on your OneDrive.

1 New OneNote

This will create a brand new OneNote Notebook, ready to be populated with whatever you want to populate it with.

Sharing your OneNote Notebook

To share this Notebook with you, I clicked on the three dots next to the Notebook’s name and clicked Share:

2 Share

This box appeared:

3 Link

And I clicked on the wee arrow next to “Only the people you specify who have this link can edit”

4 Anyone With

And clicked on “Anyone with this link”

5 Anyone With

Then, when you hit apply you can copy the link to the OneNote

The link looks like this: https://glowscotland-my.sharepoint.com/personal/gw13allanmichael_glow_sch_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?e=teEuB9&share=Ehg-FsOTQm9CuKmUJx9vpK4BIObzLZ_rk1xqLdGlmLIS5w&cid=b3c0792d-5bc6-485a-bc5d-34ecf54da6de

That’s not easy to jot down, or remember, so I used bit.ly to create a shortened link.

The shortened link is http://bit.ly/2IShY5H

If you want to create a OneNote Notebook and share it with a whole class, it’s probably going to be easier to use Teams…

Teams

Microsoft Teams will change the way you work.

If you’re familiar with Edmodo, Schoology, Show My Homework etc, you’ll find Teams easy to use. Even if you’re not, you’ll find Teams easy to use, because it’s really easy to use!

Watch this short video for an intro to Teams: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/video-welcome-to-microsoft-teams-b98d533f-118e-4bae-bf44-3df2470c2b12

To create a Team (and this can be staff only or Teacher and pupils) your best option is to Download Teams (it’s free). https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

If you work in a Scottish School, chances are Teams is already on your work computer.

Once you open up Teams, sign in using your Glow username and password.

This is what it looks like when I sign in:1 Landing

You can see I am a member of 3 Teams (GHS Maths, Team MIEExpert Scotland and Bertha Park High – PT Team)

To create a new Team, you click on the button near the bottom left that says “Join or Create a Team” You’ll then see this:

2 Join or Create

If you want to create a Team, then it’s obvious which button to click. If you have been invited to Join a Team (and have been given a code) then that’s obvious too.

When you choose “Create Team” you’ll see this:

3 Team Options

Choose whichever option you need. I’m going to create a Class. Give your class a Name and description (if you like).

4 name Team

You can then add students and other teachers to your Team:

5 Add People

Once the Team has been made, you can do a few things with it. Best to play around with these options and see what happens when you press the different buttons. Most of it is pretty obvious.

6 Manage Settings

Clicking on “Manage Team” and then hitting “Settings” shows this page:

7 Settings

You can then create a Team Code by clicking “Generate Code”

8 Join Code

Feel free to join my class (you know how to do that if you read the bit above)

At the top of the Team, when you are in “General” you can set up the Class Notebook. This is the OneNote Notebook for your Team.

9 Set up Onenote

When you click on “Set up a OneNote Class Notebook” you will be walked through the process. You can customise the Notebook so that it has all the sections you want it to have.

There’s a video here that will show you (pretty slowly) how this works: Teachers – Get Started with OneNote Class Notebook Creator

My OneNote Class Notebook has been created, ready for using with the class.

91 Open In OneNote

I have one pupil in the class (Isaac Newton) but if I had more, they would be listed below. I find it a lot easier to work with the OneNote Notebook in the full desktop version of OneNote, so I click on “Open in OneNote” at the top of the screen.

The types of content you might put into the OneNote is entirely up to you. I have an Example OneNote Notebook that you can take a look at here: bit.ly/MathsOneNoteTeachers

Using OneNote as a Planner

I have blogged about using OneNote as a planner. I no longer use a physical planner, instead choosing to use OneNote. You can find out how to set up your own Planner OneNote here: https://mrallanmaths.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/using-onenote-as-a-planner-a-few-years-on/

Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader (also known as Microsoft Learning Tools) allows pupils with additional support needs to access text in a fully supported way. The support is customisable, and the best way to learn about it is to give it a go.

You click on “View” in the toolbar then select “Immersive Reader”

This is available in OneNote, Word, PowerPoint and so on.

Sway

Sway lets you create interactive newsletters, and much more.

Here’s how to get started.

Log into Glow and open up OneDrive. You then want to click on the 9 dots at the top left of the screen:

1 Waffle

And select Sway:

2 Sway

You can then choose to start a New Blank Sway:

3 New Blank

To begin with, the Sway looks pretty boring, but you need to put some content in and choose a design:

4 Title

I’ve given it a title and written a little bit of text and added a picture:

5 Some text

Now I’m going to choose a Design.

Click on Design in the top left corner then Styles in the top right corner:

6 Design

Pick a design you like:

7 New Design

Then click “Play” in the top right:

8 Play

You can view the Sway here: Sway

Here are some more examples of Sways that you can take a look at:

Glenrothes High School Pupil Equity Fund Update: https://sway.office.com/t4Xy1SIHNRV94wmn?ref=Link

Bertha Park High School Winter Update: https://sway.office.com/dOuvWTYJz8KIOsED?ref=Link&loc=play

N5/Higher Maths Revision: bit.ly/MathsRevisionN5H  (This one is worth sharing with pupils)

Forms

Ever used Survey Monkey? Well there’s a better version of that available from Microsoft and it’s called Forms.

You can use Forms to get feedback from pupils/parents/staff for any number of things.

You can also use it to build Quizzes that can serve as assessments.

To access Forms, you click on the 9 dots at the top left in OneDrive:

2 New Form or Quiz.png

“New Form” lets you make a survey. “New Quiz” works in pretty much the same way, but you also can assign points to each question and select correct answers.

The best thing to do if you want to learn more about using Forms it to use this link here: https://education.microsoft.com/courses-and-resources/courses/forms

Sharing with people outside Glow or Pupils/Staff who don’t know Usernames/Passwords

Ideally, the solution to this is to get staff and pupils to just remember their passwords. However, I have found it useful to be able to share links that work without signing in.

I use bit.ly to create shortened web links. If you sign up for a free account your can customise the links. Paying for a subscription allows you to edit and delete links once you’ve made them – I haven’t bothered to do this.

Learning More / Getting Help

You will find lots of free courses available here: https://education.microsoft.com/

Log in using your Glow username and password and you can build up a profile and collect points and badges once you have completed the courses. It’s the best way to learn about the Microsoft tools available on Glow apart from this Blog post!

OneNote intro: https://education.microsoft.com/Getting-Started-with-OneNote

I hope you found this useful.

If you have any questions that you think I might be able to answer, do get in touch on Twitter or in the comments below.

Sway for engaging online presentations⤴

from

Sway_logoMicrosoft Sway is a presentation tool which is free and works on any device. It can start with a simple word-processed document (or from other sources such as Powerpoint or PDF) where you’ve put your ideas and, with just a few clicks, you can upload the document, highlight text you wish to emphasise, which parts to make into new sections, where to add images, embedded video links and images, and add emphasis in an engaging way.

Click on this link for a quick guide and introductory tutorial showing how you can make an engaging presentation using Sway

The following video takes the brief introduction above and develops that so that you can create a presentation in Sway using the new layout set up specifically for presentations. This video shows how to use groups, grids, captions, and focus points to ensure your chosen message comes across in they way you wish with the emphasis on the content you deem to be most important.

Want to make a tutorial presentation using Sway? The video below shows how you can structure a Sway presentation to use embedded videos, images and text to explain the steps in any process for explaining to others.

How to use Sway for a school project. The following video shows how Sway can be used to create a project on any topic in an educational context.

Click here for links to video guides to using Sway from Microsoft.

Click here for a guide to using Sway specifically in Glow Office 365 – this also links to a variety of examples of the use of Sway in a school context

 

To share your Sway

To share your Sway presentation with others you simply copy the weblink URL which Sway provides for you, and share that, whether via social media or email (there are specific buttons at the share part of Sway which provides you with the appropriate link for each method of sharing. This can also be used to embed in a Glow WordPress blog – just add the short link in the body of a blogpost and it will automatically embed. Note that if you are using your Glow user account to share your Sway link the Sway presentation must have ben made public for others to see it, it cannot be embedded elsewhere online (such as a blog) unless the Sway presentation is public and can be seen by anyone on the Sway settings.

Below is an example Sway “Sway for Education: Sway in the Classroom” which provides examples of how Sway can be used, and also shows in itself what a Sway presentation can look like.

Examples of Sway in Education

Sway – The star of your 2015 Classroom – a post on the Microsoft Australian Teachers Blog. This provides a host of ideas for how Sway can be used in a classroom context, as well as examples of created Sways.

Sway in Glow⤴

from @ John's World Wide Wall Display

Sway has arrived for Glow users.

Sway allows you to

Create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more.

I blogged a bit back in May.

Basically the app helps you present media online in a slick way. I’ve mostly looked at the iOS version. The different versions, Windows, web and iOS so far have different feature sets and a personal Microsoft account allows you do do slightly different things from a business/education account.

The app feels as if it is in pretty active development. Features that were coming soon in May are here.

What is particularly interesting, from my point of view, is that sways can be made public on the web and can be shared ready for remix.

This evening I used the iOS app on an iPad to build another sway (The featured image on this post is a screenshot of the borwser version of the sway, not the iPad view):

It didn’t take very long to add text and images. One difference I noticed was if I was signed into the app with a personal account I could upload video in iOS, I could not do this with my Glow account. Hopefully coming soon.

The browser app has a lot more options, including built in searches over flickr, youtube and other media sources.
Screen Shot 2015-10-26 at 21.29.19

It also looks like if you create or even edit a sway in the browser you cannot edit it afterwards on iOS (I might be wrong about this). I do not think either of these things are a great problem, we now know an iPad is a great content creation device and I would hope pupils would be using there camera and their own images for the most part on mobile.

Swaying in Public!

I’ve got the same feeling about the slickness of the creations as I had back in May, mostly about the ‘automatic creativity’ but the most exciting two things about Sway are public sharing and remixing.
Screen Shot 2015-10-26 at 21.19.24

Users have control over who the Sway is shared with and if they will allow their Sway to be duplicated by others.

Learning Opportunities

This is the first of the O365 services to allow public sharing which is very encouraging for those who see value on pupils sharing widely.  I also think that the ability to remix, change and improve someone else’s creation is a important skill.

There is obviously the opportunity to discuss aspects of publishing in public, Internet safety and copyright. The copyright issue is also nicely lead into by the browser version:

sway-copyright

We want pupils (and teachers) to understand aspects of copyright and creative commons. Unfortunately the editor does not auto-add attribution but it can be copied and pasted in the browser.

Glow Blogs?

I can embed a sway in this blog using the embed code. Unfortunately this is via a iFrame. iFrames are not supported in Glow Blogs. I do hope we can develop oEmbed like functionality in the Blogs soon in the same way as we have for ClickView video.

It looks like Sway itself supports oEmbed of other content so I’d hope that oEmbed of sways is at least under consideration.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Sway, and look forward to se how it is used in Glow.

Being Swayed⤴

from @ John's World Wide Wall Display

After testing Slate a while back I though I’d try out Microsoft Sway. I downloaded the app to my phone on the bus and made this while traveling home on bus and train.

Sway feels much like Adobe Slate, I used the same words and pictures to test Slate on my iPad a few posts ago: Chalking my First Slate.

Both Apps produce stylish, responsive webpages with nice fonts, full width images and slick galleries created from blocks of content.

Both host everything for you at no cost. Neither lets you download the work locally.

I am ‘reviewing’ them for a position of using them once. Given Sway is beta and I only used the iPhone app I take everything here with a pinch of salt.

While Slate was iPad only ,the iOS version of Sway is for the iPhone. Sway in the browser seems to be more of a web producer fitting in with your MS office account apps.

I’ve also installed Sway on an iPad and it just scales the interface to fit the screen, it seems to work just as well there as on the phone.

I was surprised to find how pleasant Sway was to use on a phone. The interface made it easy to add the content blocks.

The browser version of Sway allows video and access to photos from Flickr, OneDrive, Youtube and more. Slate give access to Lightroom, Creative Cloud and DropBox. The Sway iPhone app only gives access to your camera roll at the moment.

Sway is in preview and the iPhone app indicates that there are more content block (called cards) in the works. Currently you can add Headers (image and text), photos text and More. The more turns out to be ‘cards’ currently groups and stacks of images, more are coming:

sway-comingsoon

Sway on Glow?

When I posted my sway on twitter, I got a reply from someone from Microsoft. I had the chance to ask if Sway would be usable with a edu O365 account:

Sway would make a nice presentation tool for use in Glow.

I’ve got a few negative feelings about all of these services.

Firstly the lack of control of the data you publish to them. I’ve watched a few web services disappear. I generally like to at least have an export option. I’d love one of these tools to give you the opportunity to publish to your own space or download copies. That said it seems unlikely any of these companies are going out of business soon.

I also wonder if all of these highly polished presentation tools take away some creativity. Making anything with technology gives a range of choices about how near the metal you get with your tools. If we were trying to teach learners about presentation there are limitations.

Effortless design

Sway’s built-in design engine takes the hassle out of formatting your various pieces of content by integrating them into a cohesive layout. From there, you can easily adjust the design to create a look and feel that reflects your unique style.

from: Office Sway – Create and share amazing stories, presentations, and more

Some might think that the hassle is part of the fun or learning?

I am quite likely wrong about this. I’ve be saying it for a while. I though the same about iMovie trailers, too easy to learn with. But I’ve seen some nice examples of learning using iMovie trailers.

There is also this problem

Is the Medium the Message?

Both Sway and Slate remind me of medium, I’ve put the same text and images on medium as a comparison.

I also created a home knitted version The Devils Pulpit. This is somewhat less polished, but fun to do.

All three applications are easy to pick up an use. They do not allow much customisation of the layout. Sway having more choices medium the least.

Sway and Slate both offer embed codes, Slate’s is limited to a clickable splash screen that takes you to adobe’s site. Sway’s embed is, in my opinion, much nicer.

For the words and images I was using I prefer Slate’s presentation a little. I like the ‘letterbox’ background images that scroll a lot. I did manage to get these working to some extent (no mobile) on my hand knitted attempt.

Medium is more focused on writing than Sway or Slate.

Medium is the only one that offers something in the way of guidance and suggestions as to what to read. I’ve enjoyed quite a lot of writing on medium through my daily email.

Both Sway and Slate are particularly nice ways to publish when you want your images to be as important as your words. Given Sway has an iPhone app it would be a good choice for using on the move (and on the bus). Sway would be a great tool for producing good looking reports from school trips. For myself I’ll probably stick to blog posts and hand knitted solutions where the fun is in the making.

Delve and other Office 365 for Education Developments⤴

from

It’s no secret that I am a pretty big fan of Office 365 as a managed learning platform for education. After preferring Google Apps for a long time ( here’s my take on this), the change came about primarily because I’ve watched how responsive they’ve been over the past few years to concerns users have raised […]