[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Elaine,

You have listed a number of benefits around the use of Google Slides in the classroom. The Chrome extension called ‘123Apps’ is a great one to download. This allows you to record audio, download as an MP3 file and attach it to different slides. It could be particularly useful for recording reading or phrases ‘as Gaeilge’, or if they were describing the content of the slide. Indeed, an assignment on Google classroom could simply be to record an audio file – given that 123Apps downloads directly as an MP3 file, it could be uploaded to the classwork section of the assignment.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Margaret,

Collaboration is such an important 21st century skill. However, I fell the way the term is often used in schools is anything but 21st century. Often, activities such as ‘comhrá beirte’ and ‘think-pair-share’ are put down as collaborative activities. This is surface level collaboration at best.

The way you have described using Teams is exactly the way in which we should be promoting the 21st century skills. It gives the students real ownership of their learning tasks, and forces a deeper level of skilled communication and collaboration. The children simply have to do this to get their project finished and it is far more self-directed and organic (all of which prepares them for life outside school).

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Elaine,

Forms is an excellent assessment tool and really is one of my ‘go to’ tools. I really like the way you can add images, video and audio into the questions and create a multimodal assessment if required. Unfortunately the quiz you have uploaded is not open for public viewing. This can be altered by changing the settings within the Form and unticking the ‘only share with others in your organisation’ box.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Catherine,

Thank you for your post and for your interaction throughout the course. You have made a good point around how the response to both Covid lockdowns has increased the use of various LMS that now allow for a ‘blended’ approach. It has also heightened awareness of the different ways in which children can respond to activities – allowing children to respond orally to tasks is a real bonus for children with literacy difficulties.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Mary,

I can totally relate to your situation in terms of trying to break down the reluctance of others in this field. A few years ago, we worked on coming up with one topic per term that could be covered using our chosen digital technologies. We demonstrated how the relevant apps/sites were to be used and allowed teachers to experiment for the other weeks. Each June, the class teachers add one more topic for each term. This has created a bank of topics (a digital curriculum of sorts) that are covered each year. It has made the integration and use of technology much more manageable and has passed some responsibility and ownership over to teachers when they know they will be contributing something extra to this library each year. While it’s not perfect, it has helped to bring those less willing along.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Jane,

One Note really is a fantastic tool. In terms of comparing Google Workspace and Office 365, there is little difference in the functionality of most apps (e.g. Docs v Word, Slides v PowerPoint). However, OneNote is something that Google have yet to find a competitor for and gives Microsoft a huge advantage. You have mentioned a number of ways in which it could be incorporated into staff planning. In addition to this, uploading class content, exemplars and videos can be hugely beneficial for students to refresh their learning, and also for teachers when they cover a similar topic in subsequent years.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for your contribution. We found ourselves in a very similar position in my school a few years ago. As a staff, we were engaging somewhat with the email and cloud storage functions of our platform, but it was having very little impact in terms of teaching and learning in the school. We moved to try to incorporate it into classroom practice and have children become ‘creators’ as opposed to ‘consumers’. There were plenty of bumps on the road, but we are moving towards a point where these practices are becoming more embedded. With using Office 365 in your school, start small and spread the success stories to others – it won’t be long before people want to come on board if it’s going to make their workload lighter.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Elaine,

You have shown great insight and inventiveness to integrate the ‘Sites’ app into this activity. This will allow for the development of multiple 21st century skills. Whilst collaboration may be your central focus, I can see ‘skilled communication’ also being crucial as children make decisions on what content makes the cut for the final site.

I think ‘Sites’ would be a brilliant platform for exploring the Olympic host city activity – a site could be created for each candidate with different tabs outlining the reasons why it should win the vote, explaining the amenities, transport links, etc.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for sharing this resource. I have had a look and I am very impressed. In our school, we have a ‘Scratch Jr’ manual that teachers can use to walk the children through each of the characters, backgrounds, moves, etc. that can be completed. However, this can often be the height of the interaction with Scratch. The fact that this resource gives a ‘project’ type activity allows the children the opportunity to showcase a final product, and could be a great follow-on to what we currently use. This would tie in neatly with Google’s ‘CS First’ programme which can be used for coding in the upper primary/secondary classrooms.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Elaine,

Your post has listed a myriad of reasons why the Google Workspace tools are ideal for use in a classroom context. Forms is a wonderful tool for formative assessment, and once a quiz/assessment has been created once it can be used over and over. Building a bank of assessments within the school and collaborating in this way can make life so much easier for teachers when they move class levels. I also like to use Forms as an ‘exit ticket’ to some lessons. Here, the students will respond to a one-question survey about how they found the lesson. The feedback gather allows me to plan whether I can continue as planned, or if I need to revisit something in particular. Perhaps this is something you could try out next year to see how it works?

The ability to attach specific pre0recorded instructions, links to relevant sites, video tutorials, PDFs is a great resource to have. You have also clearly outlined this within your post.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Kathleen,

You may notice that the formatting of your post is a little off. This is likely because you have written your response on Microsoft Word and copied it across to the forum.

To avoid this, once you’ve copied the text from Word right click in the post window and choose ‘Paste as Plain Text’. Alternatively, you can first paste the content into Notepad (Or similar) and then copy it from here to the topic window. Either method should remove the excess formatting…

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Laura,

Thanks for sharing your science lesson based around the digestive system. From reading the post, I am struck by the sheer breadth of 21st century skills present, as well as the rich learning experiences afforded to your students. You have incorporated digital technologies into all stages of the lesson. I love your use of Nearpod to assess prior knowledge – other platforms such as Menti and Padlet could be used in a similar fashion. There is deep collaboration evident at each stage of the lesson – skilled communication is another 21st century skill that is very prominent here. Using tablets to explore an animation really helps to bring the content to life and this is something we all aspire to do.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Laura,

Like many other teachers you have significantly increased your repertoire of digital tools over the past 2 years. This can only benefit both you and your students going forward. The tools you have mentioned allow students to learn (and showcase their learning) in ways they couldn’t previously. The use of audio recordings on apps like Seesaw, Vocaroo, 123Apps, etc. allows children to voiceover written pieces and record their reading. Being able to listen back multiple times allows you to pick up on small things and give them specific advise that can improve them going forward. I find using these apps to record and listen to reading ‘as Gaeilge’ very beneficial. Very quickly, you can pick up on specific sounds that require attention with the whole class/specific individuals.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Deirdre,

I love how you have referenced the importance of ‘trial and error’ as part of the SSE process. The whole notion of improving oneself at anything requires trial and error – we must attempt some form of improvement, evaluate the progress we’ve made and make any tweaks we feel are required. The beauty of the SSE process is that it allows for this – the document should be viewed by schools as a ‘working document’. There should be regular opportunities for review and self-reflection to assess where we are and the steps we need to take to get to the next phase of our improvement journey. Incorporating these into Croke Park hours and staff meetings would be a prudent move by school management – as well as maintaining games, it keeps SSE high on the agenda of staff and ensures a level of accountability.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Kathleen,

You raise a very pertinent point regarding the importance of keeping the child at the centre of all decisions around assistive technology – what works for one child may not work for the one in your class.

Immersive Reader generally provides excellent support to pupils with the dyslexia. Changing the background colour of the page to yellow, increasing the size and the font and creating larger spaces between lines of text are some things that often work well.

[Author]

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