DISD Ed Tech News

ZapSplat is an online sound library with almost 23,000 free sound effects and songs. With more teachers and students producing digital projects, it is nice to find resources that are truly free to use and ZapSplat is one of those. The site was developed by a team of professional sound designers who are just passionate about recording sound effects and wanted to develop a source of quality audio for projects without the hassle of complicated legalities. In return for using these free resources they just ask that "you credit their website in your project so others can find us and benefit from our free sound effects and music."

All sound effects and songs are available to download instantly in mp3 or original WAV file format and they are adding hundreds of new files each week. Users can search through 27 different categories of sound effects and 25 categories of music, or simply search by keyword.

Another resource that all DISD teachers and students have but may not be aware of is the Audio Library in YouTube. All teachers and students have a YouTube account as part of their GSuite products. You must be logged into YouTube (look for your icon or picture in the upper right corner). If you don't see your icon or picture click on the icon that is there and select Sign In. Clicking on your icon again will bring up a drop-down menu where you will see a button for Creator Studio and a button for Settings. You want to click the button for Creator Studio and you will be taken to another window similar to the one below. Find the red video camera icon in the left hand menu titled Create and click there to see the link for Audio Library. You will now see a window appear with a listing of Free Music and a second tab titled Sound effects. Users can search the music by genre, mood, instrument, duration or attribution. You can also use the search box to search for a specific type of music or music by a particular artist, etc. Click the Play arrow to the left of the title to hear a preview of the music and there is a download button on the right of the title if you want to download that particular piece for use in a project. In addition, you can click the Star icon to add a piece of music to your Favorites Tab (seen beside the word Tracks above the Play arrows). The Sound Effects tab offers the same functionality. Search for a particular sound, preview it, download the file or click the star to add it to your Favorites.

DISD teachers and students also have access to Discovery Education. While we still commonly think of Discovery Education in terms of videos, it is SO much more! In the screenshot below you can see a teacher's view in Discovery Education once you click on the Magnifying Glass icon beside the search box. Teachers can search for resources by grade level, lexile level, source, etc. But looking at the types of resources listed across the top of this view you will see that you can search resources by "all types", videos, content boards, images (yes, there is a huge library of still images), audio, text, interactives and lesson materials. In this example we will look at the audio resources but I hope you will take the time to take a look at some of the other categories when you have some time.

When you click on the Audio tab at the top of the page you will see that your available filters down the left hand side of the screen have changed. You can search by type of file, such as audio books, songs and sound effects. You can search for materials that have a teacher's guide or that are Primary sources. You can also search by length of audio file and by language. As with all types of files in Discovery, you can also search for specific items by typing in your search in the search box. (I have to admit that I did pause long enough at this point to listen to The Brachiosaurus Rap that showed up first in the list when I took this screenshot. It was really fun!)

There are a number of resources available for teachers and students online that offer high quality, free audio files as well as video clips and graphics. Take a look at a few of them and as always, contact Rhonda Artho or Jenetta Baxter if you would like help finding specific resources for your classroom use.

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If you haven't already discovered it, Google has shut down its Goo.gl web shortener service as of April 13, 2018. Long a favorite of many of our teachers, Goo.gl offered several functions besides just shortening a URL into a form more easily shared with others. It also offered statistics on how many times a particular shortened URL was "clicked" and QR Code generation. Current Goo.gl short links will continue to work through March 19, 2019 but you can no longer create new ones. There are some alternatives though.

Bit.ly has been one of my favorites for some time, mainly because in addition to shortening the URL it allows you to create a "custom" shortened URL with words or initials of your choosing, as long as that shortened URL doesn't already exist in their database. It is available as a Chrome browser extension and is free.

TinyURL is another free URL shortener that allows you to create custom tiny urls. You can access it free on the TinyURL website.

YellKey is a URL shortener that was recently featured in this newsletter and it has one feature that makes it different from others. Not only can you customize a short link but you can set the time that it is accessible. This allows you to set time limits on how long the shared URL will be active, such as online quizzes, surveys, etc.

If you want a URL shortener that allows you to password protect your URL then Thinfi might be the answer. This one allows you to only allow certain people to access the shortened URL link so it could be used for videos or documents you wanted kept private.

For those wanting to create a QR Code there are several free ones available, including the free GoQR.me and QR.net websites. There are many others and some, like the QRCodeMonkey website let you customize the color, shape and logo of your QR Codes. So although we are sad to see Goo.gl going away, there are options available!

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Technology is bringing more and more opportunities to our students to experience the world in real and meaningful ways. Teachers may be familiar with taking their students on a "virtual" field trip through the use of on-site video conference machines or the use of computer software programs like Skype, Zoom, etc. but the opportunities available for students to experience the world outside the classroom are growing exponentially.

Dumas ISD teachers now have the opportunity to participate in video conferences via "Live Stream" which means you don't have to leave your classroom to bring the outside world inside the classroom. You can take your students to the far corners of the planet to learn from scientists and experts, let them voyage back in time to experience history in the first person, or take them on a cosmic journey to the birth of a star. You can even take a live ocean dive with scientists exploring the seafloor and communicate live (yes live) with them as they explore. You can bring in authors and experts to discuss their work with your students. The possibilities are almost endless, whether you teach PreK or high school seniors. The Instructional Technology Department sends out video conference invitations that it receives via email to the teachers in content areas and grade levels that the that the video conferences will be targeted to and teachers can request these video conferences via the Video Conference request form in Eduphoria. In addition, teachers can email Instructional Technology help them find video conferences or virtual field trips for particular units or topics at any time.

Teachers also have access to a continually growing collection of immersive virtual field trips that they can use in the classroom through sites like Google Expeditions, Google Arts & Culture, Discovery Education, YouTube and many others.

Google Expeditions is most commonly thought of as immersive experiences for use with VR goggles but these virtual field trips can also be projected full screen from an iPad or Android device for viewing in the classroom or for students to explore on iPads or Android devices on their own. As the Google Expeditions site states, "Bring Your Lessons to Life. Imagine exploring coral reefs or the surface of Mars in an afternoon. With Expeditions, teachers can take students on immersive, virtual journeys." One of the strong points of Google expeditions is the included teacher guides which let a teacher guide the students through the field trip and give background information and lesson plans to use with the field trip. Alternately, students can go to Google Expeditions and simply explore on their own.

Google Arts and culture is another incredible resource for exploring the world virtually. The amount of good educational content here is staggering but teachers should be warned that some of the content featuring world famous artists and their works may contain images not suitable for a school setting. I would suggest that teachers share the Virtual Explorer experiences, after previewing, with students via a direct link. There are amazing experiences to be had though! Literature students can take 9 different virtual tours of Shakespearean locales, science students studying ocean habitats can dive around coral reefs, swim with manta rays and sea turtles and learn about sea organisms, habitats and scientists working to save these creatures. Students can tour the great museums of the world, explore world wonders, visit zoos, historical sites and even experience 360 degree video that puts you in the middle of the Philadelphia Orchestra as they play at Carnegie Hall or on stage with the Opera National de Paris.

Discovery Education (yes, the one you all have accounts for) has some very good Virtual Tours as well. Just log in at discoveryeducation.com and type in panoramic virtual tours in the search box. Students can experience 360 degree virtual tours of historic sites, museums, zoos, and even tour the solar system or the human body. Students can take a virtual tour of the National Mall in Washington DC to explore the monuments and memorials. All of the virtual tours on Discovery Education include targets that can be clicked to show facts, photos, videos and games. There is a speaker icon to play voice narration for facts. Students and teachers can zoom in and out on items of interest to get really up close to study details as well. While writing this newsletter I explored the Fort Sumter national monument to learn about its role in the Civil war and was zooming in on objects to see just how good the detail was when exploring. I actually found a small bug sitting on one of the canons in the park and could see him in detail! While these field trips aren't quite the same as actually being there, the capabilities of today's technology make it pretty close.

And let's not forget about YouTube! Just type 360 Video in the search box to see what is available. While these videos are great for viewing in VR goggles for a truly immersive experience, they can also be viewed in single view with any device. Simply scroll around the video image while it is playing to turn and experience the full surroundings. National Geographic has some beautiful 360 degree video experiences on YouTube, including underwater, aerial and subterranean experiences. To get an idea about how it works on a computer, Chromebook or iPad, try out the Surrounded by Wild Elephants video. Be sure to turn up the volume and keep watching the elephant that is curious enough to approach you and your camera! Also click and drag around as the video plays to see the entire 360 degree panorama around you.

The number of Virtual Field Trips that are not necessarily filmed in 360 degrees on YouTube is staggering too! Just type in Virtual Field Trip in the search box in YouTube and you will get 462,000 results. My initial search returned results for trips to the Amazon Rain Forest, Washington D.C., the Statue of Liberty, Paris, Hawaiian volcanos, Mount Rushmore, the San Diego Zoo and even a field trip back in time to the Plimoth Plantation with the Pilgrim settlers and Native Americans as they celebrated their first Thanksgiving feast. As with all things YouTube related, teachers should preview the material all the way through before deciding to share with students and if sharing these experiences through Google Classroom with students make sure you have clicked the "Approve for Dumas ISD" button before sharing. Since it is now so easy to upload your own material to YouTube it takes a little time to filter out which "Virtual Field Trips" are actually from professional organizations and which are projects by students and individuals but the gems are there. Be sure to log into YouTube when finding field trips so you can add them to your favorites list and playlists for easy access later.

Aerpano continues to be one of my favorites for virtual excursions to the most beautiful places on Earth. They have been taking 360 degree Aerial Panoramas with drones around the word for quite a few years and their collection just continues to grow. You can tour historic sites, cityscapes and some of the most beautiful natural places on the planet. You can allow the videos to just play automatically with serene music while the views unfold below and around you or you can click and drag with your computer mouse to move yourself around in the panoramas, clicking on helicopters in the distant sky to move your location and view to another spot.

Many organizations, such as Texas Wildlife Association, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, National Geographic, and Learn Around the World offer virtual field trips directly from their websites. Most of these are first offered as live field trips where teachers can register their class and simply join the field trip from their computer in the classroom or they may also post the recordings of the field trips for viewing later at a more convenient time in the classroom.

There are also some resources that you may have never heard of but who offer very good educational content free online. Examples include agencies like Partners in Research, a Canadian charity formed to help Canadians and others understand the significance of research in many STEM fields. They offer PIR Live Events streaming live from their website that teachers can sign up for and they also have a YouTube Channel where classrooms can view past program recordings on demand. HEC TV is another great source of programs for the classroom, whether science, social studies, art, etc. They offer live streaming events online and an archive of past events for classrooms.

The list of resources to bring the world into your classroom continues to grow exponentially and no matter what devices you have available for your students, there is a way to bring these experiences to them. Computers and projectors, tablets and Chromebooks can all serve as windows into a wider world of learning experiences for our students! Contact Rhonda Artho if you want more information on any of the resources mentioned here or you want help finding specific types of experiences for your classroom.

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After much customer input, Google has added the option to insert a checkbox into a Google Sheet. This can be a useful tool for anyone who likes checklists but could be useful in classroom situations for students to check off the requirements on a grading rubric, etc.

The checkbox feature can be found in the Insert menu, down toward the bottom (see screenshot below).

Rhonda Artho - Instr. Technology Coordinator

Jenetta Baxter - Instr. Software Specialist

Email: rhonda.artho@dumasisd.org
Website: http://www.dumasisd.org/about-education-instructional-technology
Location: Teacher Training Center - DHS
Phone: 806-935-6461 1029