Ditch That Textbook Workshop (St. John Vianney HS)

Find this page at: DitchThatTextbook.com/Vianney

Getting started

1. The world is innovating with technology quickly. How quickly? Let’s find out in this Kahoot! Grab a partner and head to kahoot.it.

The Voice of the Active Learner: Education from a Digital Native’s Perspective (YouTube link)

Click here to see Matt’s slides from this workshop.

PART 1: GOOGLE GENIUS!

Shared presentations. Create a presentation with one slide per student and give students permission to edit it. Then assign an activity — some quick Internet research, a writing prompt, an image search to find an example, etc. When they’re done, show the presentation on a projector. It’s student work instantly on display.

• Our shared presentation: Click here!

Virtual tours with Google Earth: Google Maps street view is a visually stunning experience, giving users a first-person view of life from the streets of cities around the globe. Google Maps is great for giving virtual tours, but there’s a simpler and faster version of it. Take screenshots of scenes from Google Earth and paste them in a Google Slides presentation. Add a title and/or some text description. With lots of slides, a virtual tour can happen quickly and meaningfully. You can also use screencast videos. I like Snagit for the Google Chrome … install the extension to record what happens in the browser.

Graphic organizers. Drawings gives users a blank canvas where they can add text, shapes, lines, etc. When done, they can save their work as image files or PDF files and can add those images to documents, slides and spreadsheets. It’s a perfect medium for creating graphic organizers. I’ve created 15 of them that can be copied, saved, changed, tweaked or completely redone to fit your needs and your students’ needs.

• Our graphic organizer: Click here!

Interactive whiteboard. Create a Google Drawing and share it with students, giving them permission to edit. Display the drawing on a projector screen. Students can add text and shapes, draw arrows to important ideas and connect concepts with lines. Everyone can make changes, and anyone can watch — in class or away.

• Our interactive whiteboard: Click here!

For more fun, creative uses of Google Apps, go to: DitchThatTextbook.com/GoogleGenius!

20 Google Apps activities for innovative classrooms

12 ways to use Google Classroom’s newest features

See ALL of Matt’s Google resources here: https://ditchthattextbook.com/ncp/

PART 2: TAKE YOUR CLASS GLOBAL

Take your classroom beyond the four walls of the classroom!

• Use Google Hangouts or Skype or Facetime
• Mystery Location Calls:
  • Official Mystery Skype site: https://education.skype.com/mysteryskype
  • Skype Etiquette and Mystery Skype: http://mrsmorgansstars.edublogs.org/skype-etiquette/
  • So You Want to Do Mystery Skype? http://pernillesripp.com/2011/10/25/so-you-want-to-do-mystery-skype/
• Finding video chat partners:
  • Skype Education (create a lesson saying what you’d like to do OR find a lesson you’d like to participate in): http://education.skype.com.
  • Twitter: Send a tweet to or @SkypeEducation asking if anyone would like to connect classrooms via Skype.
  • Google Plus community: Mystery Location Calls
  • Google Plus community: Google Hangouts in Education
  • Google Plus community: Mystery Hangout
  • Google Plus community: Educators on Google Plus
  • Colleagues, family and friends: Spread the word about what you’d like to do.
  • Matt: He’s glad to tap into his network of contacts to find someone!
• Google Connected Classrooms: Virtual field trips and more! https://connectedclassrooms.withgoogle.com/
• 10 Ways to Start Using Skype in the Classroom: http://www.edudemic.com/10-ways-to-start-using-skype-in-the-classroom/
• Mystery Location Call Roles (jobs that students can do while the call is going on): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UkFXBUyseKZN6yfVpW9Mye6hbSc8JNHl_yu3ExLanMA/edit?hl=en&forcehl=1
• Matt’s global classroom resources page: http://DitchThatTextbook.com/flatclass

PART 3: GAME-CHANGING MINDSETS

Mindsets from Matt’s book, Ditch That Textbook (Amazon link):

• Choose to cheat
• Moonshot thinking
• Connected educator
• You are your own best PD

Let’s blog about mindsets! Go to: KidBlog.org/class/Ditch-That-Textbook and log in.

• Click the “Log in” button in the top right.
• Username: Choose “Ditch Student” from the drop-down menu.
• Password: ditch123

Click here to see slides for this presentation.

PART 4: THE LIGHTNING ROUND!

Hold on, because they’re going to come fast and furious! 60 useful digital tools in 60 minutes. Go to: http://DitchThatTextbook.com/lightning for the entire list!

PART 5: PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

Let’s take some time to process what we’ve learned and thought about today.