Mindomo

Mindomo

A quick how-to on making an account and making a web with the website/ app Mindomo.

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On Making A Google Site of Your Own

    The overhaul of the wiki is complete, for the most part! On this project, I learned a lot about what goes into making a Google Site. Below I've described what some of the major pitfalls and conundrums of customization were for me, and explain a bit on the how-to's of Google Sites.

(As an alternative to reading this post, I've made a short video tutorial that covers much of the same material that I talk about:)

PART I: THE HEADER

    This is what the header looks like now. When I started, the site was all white for the background, which I think can be somewhat harsh on the eyes, particularly when reading small black font. To remedy it, I grayed out a lot of things, but not enough that it would start to melt in with the darker reds that I was promoting in the color scheme. I messed around with fonts and colors a lot. The horizontal navigation (as Google calls it) that you see used to just be a small row of links that were usually just skipped over by the eyes in favor of the sidebar. Well, I hate sidebars. So I spruced up the top a bit, and trashed the sidebar. To change the way the horizontal navigation is viewed, go to the gear icon > Edit Site Layout, and then select the horizontal navigation area (make sure that it's enabled first). The options for viewing it are Tabs, Boxes, and Links. I went with tabs because it felt like a more intuitive way to view the site.

    I have also discovered the Holy Grail of website navigation: hover-activated dropdown menus. This is particularly useful for The Team, because we can use the dropdown to access our pages easily. Before, I had to scroll down to either my own name or to the bottom, where the subpages are all listed, in order to reach my page and assignments. Instead, I can now just click the link at the top. To make a dropdown in horizontal navigation, go to the same place as for making Tabs, Boxes, or Links, and add a page to the display, use the little arrow icons to move it to right under the parent tab, and hit the right arrow icon to indent it. This will put it under the dropdown.

    A bit of a last minute change here, after receiving input from other wiki users: We have a few tabs that are just obsolete- like the To-Do and Files tabs. Nobody seems to even think about going near them, and we have other ways of checking on that anyways. If it's unnecessary and takes up space, lose it. Drop it like it's hot. Those tabs have now been erased from existence. We will mourn their loss. (On the inside, anyways.)

PART II: THE BODY

    In particular, I focused on the subpage titled The Team, because that's what a lot of us usually are on the wiki for. The Team Page is how we access our assignments (via Mrs. Dee's page) and post them (via our own pages). One thing that I added is a lifesaver for those on mobile and can't access the dropdown: the Navigation for Team Members.  Rather than insert everyone's name and link their page one by one, I used a gadget that is built in to Google Sites, called a Subpage Listing. Because we all have our pages as subpages of The Team, it works out perfectly. To insert one of your own, go to edit the page and hit Insert > Subpage Listing, under Common. I limited the settings on this one to only list subpages 1 level below, but if you want more, you can set that and allow a whole cascading tree of subpage links.
    One thing you want to make sure of when you take on a project like this, is to test it on multiple screen sizes and devices. Before, the only thing that separated each person on the page was a bunch of line breaks in between. On larger screens, this wasn't enough, and some of the pictures and member bios started to overlap. To fix it, I put in horizontal lines between each member, which prevents anything like this from happening. To insert the lines, edit the page and go to Insert > Horizontal Line, under Common.

PART III: BEHIND THE SCENES

    So to do all of this stuff that I've been talking about, you need to reach the menu I've shown above. Everything I've done can be accessed through two of the options: "Edit site layout" and "Manage site". The "Edit site layout" takes you to an interface which I think is fairly intuitive and self-explanatory, so I won't bother to explain it. However, "Manage site" is a little more interesting.

    This is where all the fun stuff happens. Under "Manage site", go to Themes, Colors, and Fonts. There must be dozens of initial themes to choose from, and then once you have that, you can customize things with dozens more of the submenus. It's very self-explanatory for the most part, and it shows you a preview of your changes down below. A few things of note:

1. I haven't looked at the sidebar gadgets, because I hate sidebars. There might be some cool stuff in there, so who knows, check it out.
2. Under Entire page > Text, there are options to change link color. You cannot, however, change the link background color, it comes with the theme.
3. Under Horizontal navigation, "Selected text" does not refer to text that has been selected with the cursor, rather, it refers to the tab that the user is currently on. In the preview above, it means the Home tab.

PART IV: THE KINKS

    There's basically always kinks, things that could be done better. I have a few complaints here:

1. The horizontal lines don't mesh well with the customizations I've done. Alas, I cannot change this, because it comes with the theme and is unchangeable.
2. The background of links drives me up the wall. What do those stripes even do? Can't change this either, because of number 1.
3. WHAT IS THAT LINE AT THE TOP OF THE HEADER. Also comes with the theme. I have no idea how to get rid of it. Sorry.
4. I've gotten a few notices that random things have stopped functioning with this overhaul. Links have disappeared, uploading images won't work... If this happens, I have no idea what to tell you. These things are (read: should be) completely unrelated, so I have no idea where the problem lies and how to fix it.

That's all I've got. Thanks for reading! -Anson

Musical Notes with Notability

Notability is a very useful app for countless educational activities. Specifically, Notability is great for musicians, with countless tools and functions which will help them to grow and improve in their music studies.  Below in the video, some of the app's most helpful functions are shown through a tutorial, so that students and musicians can jump into Notability smoothly and quickly.

 

Swivl

Swivl is a robotic platform which can be used for recording presentations or class lectures. Users can connect a smartphone or tablet, or a DSLR camera, and use the free Swivl app to record video of the presentation. The Swivl robotic base can follow the "marker," either held or worn on a lanyard, allowing the instructor or presenter to move around freely and have the camera follow them. The marker conveniently doubles as a wireless microphone and as a remote control for the slides in the Swivl Capture app. Powerpoint slides can be imported to the Swivl app on the smartphone or tablet, which can be used to present while recording video, and facilitate the creation of a video with time-synchronized slides and presenter video. The Swivl Capture app can be used with Swivl Cloud without the Swivl robot, or with the Swivl robot. Swivl Cloud provides secure online video hosting, editing, and sharing services. This allows users to upload videos and store them securely online without having them take up space on their device or computer. Users can also edit videos and easily share them with classes or with a larger audience through Swivl Cloud. If anyone at the high school is interested in using the swivl it is free to use, just come to room 346

Check out the links below:

Top reasons to use a Swivl

 A video example

Reminding Edline 101

Remind is a great new tool being used in high schools. Remind can be used on a website or through an application on any device. Remind lets teachers connect with their students through their phones. Teachers can text their students to remind them of homework, due dates, materials to bring to class, and really anything else imaginable. Remind will give the student a code to text to which then adds them to their teachers class. Now the students phone number is kept hidden and so is the teachers. The app will not let you text your teacher or vice versa unless you use another special feature though remind called chat. In chat you are allowed to do a two way chat with one student. Now remind is great when your students sign up. Not all teachers require you to sign up for remind. To really keep kids and parents up to date with remind you can have remind on an edline page. Teachers can now embed their remind texts on their site so all people connected on edline can see whats being sent on remind. 

This picture above shows how a regular remind text is sent to students if they are signed up on their cellphones.

This picture above shows how the remind can be embedded into your edline page. To do this you need to go to your remind account to get the HTML come to embed into your page.

When you log into remind there is a button that you can press called my account. The icon is a silhouette of a person. When you press this icon a drop down bar comes down with different options. You are going to want to click the button widgets.

Once you clicked widgets you will be brought to a whole other page where the HTML is located. You are going to want to copy the HTML code so you have it to be pasted onto your edline page.

On this page you have the option to embed all classes but I would suggest just one class per edline page.

-Now on edline go into contents on your edline page.

-Make a new document

-Make a new file called “remind announcements” or whatever you would like.

-Go to enter text by hand and that would be where you should past in the HTML code. You need to HTML icon in the document

-Then a new window will pop up and that is where you will be able to copy in the Remind HTML code.

-Once you copy in the code hit update. You will see nothing but that's ok.

-Make sure to save the changes

               -The remind will show up in the corner as a clickable link.

-To make it really appear in the corner go to edit this page and click the “add box button”

-When you add a box you click on the box and the you select remind announcement -Then click “ok” and the remind announcement will show up at the top of the page

-Then grab the box and drag the box to your desired place on the edline page

     -The remind box will look blank

-Go into the setting then design properties wheel of the box and go to the “other" tab. Go to the first line and change from summary to auto height and then click the apply button and then the remind button will finally show up in your box.

-Remember to X out of the property box.

-Save your design

Your finished product should look like the image below

DocScan HD

DocScan HD is an app that focuses on the scanning of all documents with any smart device, even if the document is not perfect. The app instantly allows you to scan multi-page documents and share them, even when there is no scanner nearby. You can shoot not only documents, but whiteboards, receipts, business cards, posters, coupons, books etc. All of this information and more can be found in the presentation as well.

Tech Integration Profile: Ms. Jones

Rockets Help Desk loves to identify when teachers use technology in their classes to benefit their students. This week we are focussing on Ms. Jones, a math teacher at Reading Memorial High School. She is also the Co-Advisor of the class of 2019 and the advisor of the Leo Club. 

Edline is the online tool that RMHS uses to give teachers their own website page for each of their classes. Ms. Jones utilizes Edline to upload class notes, homework assignments, study guides, and various assignments. Below is the transcript of our interview with her. 

RHD: Why did you decide to use Edline?

Ms. Jones: I decided to use Edline because it is a resource that the school district does pay for. Personally, I would prefer using Google Drive but I want to use a resource consistent with my peers and I recognize that this is may be more convenient for the students.

What do you upload to Edline?

I upload grades on a weekly basis, daily notes, weekly homework assignments, study guides, various projects, etc.

How much impact does it have on your teaching?

Edline has a significant impact on how I communicate with my students and their parents outside of the classroom. It allows me to provide resources for struggling students, to easily communicate with parents, and it allows students to have access to classroom material even if they are not in class.

Does using Edline make it easier for you, the teacher?

Edline makes many aspects of my role as a teacher easier. For example, I can assure that students who are absent have access to notes. Also, I can easily communicate with parents using the messaging feature and weekly grade reports. Parents are a vital role in what I do, and it allows more two-way communication between us. And, it works out well when my students lose assignments or forget to write down their homework because it is always available online. This does require more work on my end for certain things, but the results are well worth it!

How have students responded to your use of Edline?

Students LOVE that their grades are available online on a weekly basis and that notes are always available online. Some students did not like when I posted homework on Edline and not in the classroom. They would often forget to check their homework, even though that is their responsibility and it was posted a week in advance. I now post homework on Edline and in the classroom.

Do they like it better?

This would be a great question for one of my students! I am not sure what they have to compare it to. Personally I think Google Drive is more user friendly and more reliable, but it is important to be consistent across the district.

Do they use it?

I would like to think all of my students do, but I know that this is not the case. I think it is safe to say that almost all of my students do.

What happens if Edline doesn't work, if the site crashes? How does it impact you, your students, and your class?

This puts a big damper on my work. But, I generally try to plan ahead and make sure that everything that would need to be online for a week's worth of classes is done a week before. It may delay me from taking attendance or inputting grades, it has caused students to not get their work done, and it has made me assure myself that I always have a backup plan!

When I had Ms. Jones last year for Geometry, I found it super helpful that she uploaded class notes and homework to Edline. It helped me if I was out, and it always gave me easy access to what the homework was.

Here are some screen shots of Ms. Jones' Edline page: