A couple of weeks ago, a reader responded to my Digital Cleaning Tip of the Week with a question about authoring tools in Google Classroom. That was a good question, and it applies to any learning management system, not just Google Classroom.
Here is the question:
Next year I will start a new job teaching social studies at a high school that uses Google Classroom. I took a look at Google’s training materials and some of their videos. I plan to review them again to learn how to use Classroom. My question to you is, do you have any favorite Google Classroom apps that you recommend for making videos and timelines?
Incorporate almost anything
I get questions like this quite often. In fact, Rushton and I discussed a similar one during an episode of Two EdTech guys answer questions. We’re both quick to point out that you can link to almost anything in almost any LMS, including Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Seesaw, and Moodle.
Posting a link to something in your LMS is not the same as using tools that were specifically designed to be integrated into your LMS. That’s what my reader was looking for (I know because he responded to me).
Create videos from your LMS
WeVideo, Canva, and Adobe Express are web-based video creation tools that I have used and recommended for years. All three are easily accessible from your LMS. And all three have Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams integrations.
Of the three, WeVideo offers the most features. It is also the only one that requires a paid subscription to access all of its features. An overview of their plans for schools is available. here. You can see one of my WeVideo demos here.
Canva and Adobe Express are great tools for those who want to create and edit basic videos while still having access to tools to create other things like timelines, infographics, slideshows, and graphic organizers. Usage Information Canva in Google Classroom is available here. Head here for information on using Canva with Microsoft Teams. Details about Adobe Express integration with Teams can be found read here. AND here is a short video about using Adobe Express with Google Classroom.
This is probably a good time to point out that Adobe Express has a new beta version of its video editor. I recently tried it out and like it a lot better than the version it’s replacing. In fact, I think I like it better than Canva’s video editor. here is my summary of that
Interactive clickable exercises
Years ago I used a lot thing link to create tasks where my students would click a pin mark on an image or document to reveal a question. Thinglink still exists, but since then other tools have appeared that I like better than Thinglink. Two of those are Formative and book widgets.
Formative is a tool that I have used to create image-based assignments and documents for students. In both cases, I can add clickable markers that reveal questions to students. Doing this is a great way to ask questions about specific parts of a diagram, image, or document. Here’s a little demo how do i do that
Details about using Formative in Google Classroom can be found read here. Details on using Formative with Microsoft Teams can be found found here.
BookWidgets is a platform that I started using a couple of years ago. It provides dozens of templates you can use to create interactive assignments in Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams (you can also use them without an LMS). I recently created this summary video Here are five BookWidgets templates I like to use.
find even more
The above items only scratch the surface of what is available to integrate with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. Take a look at List of Google Classroom Plugins to see if there’s anything else you’d like to try. Microsoft has a similar list for computer users.
Self-paced courses you can start today
I have three self-paced courses that you can start today and finish at your own pace.
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