Edmonds Digital Learning

With the move to Chromebooks, teachers have lost access to many of their trusted multimedia tools, like Movie Maker, Photostory, and Audacity.  When attempting to create engaging, real-world projects for students, such as podcasting, this can be barrier. Thankfully, there are many developers bringing multimedia tools to the web. Bandlab For those familiar with GarageBand, Bandlab with feel very intuitive, giving users the ability to build multi-track audio projects from captured audio (recorded via the computer's microphone) and built-in synthesized instruments. Students making podcasts can edit and manipulate multiple audio sources, perfect for assembling interviews or multi-person stories.  For added professionalism, students can also compose their own music. It's incredibly easy to use, and integrates directly with students' Google accounts, so it all works seamlessly in the cloud.  For aspiring podcasters, it even offers a platform on which to publish ...

For months now, we've been shouting about EasyBib as a great way for students to create bibliographies.  A challenger has appeared, however: RefMe Like EasyBib, RefMe allows students to create a bibliography in MLA format by either searching for their sources (books, websites, YouTube videos, and 36 other source types) or filling out details in a form. It has a Chrome extension to allow for one-click citations, and also a mobile app that allows students to scan the barcode of a book  in order to create a citation. This is a great way to harness the power that is already in the pockets of many of our students, and to shift the paradigm of cell phones in class. Have you used reference tools with your students?  Do you have other tips for using cell phones in class?  Let us know in the comments.

If you want to see a playback of your Google Doc writing and revisions in an easy to view format, give the extension Draftback a test drive. Draftback allows you to play back everything you’ve written in a Google Doc and view it as a movie. With a Google Doc, the revision history tracks every keystroke and the history is available to anyone you give “Edit” permissions to. As a teacher, you can easily play back and analyze the process a student used on a piece of writing. Draftback can be found in the Chrome Web Store in Extensions. Unlike other extensions, this one appears in the document on the upper right-hand corner. After selecting the Draftback button you can see a playback of your writing that looks similar to this: Document data and a stats summary are also available and can be found in the document graphs and statistics link. Once Draftback is installed, it will work in any Google Doc no matter when it was created. Draftback is great way to peer over the sh...