Continuous formation

So the shape of things to come, I suppose. We just finished up with March Break and we send a Report Card (marks & comments) home with the students as they go on holiday.  As they were coming back for the last term, I thought I would do a temperature check with them when they got back (if I get to write an evaluation of them, it only seems fair!) This time, rather than using Microsoft Forms ( like here ), I used a chat bot (an automated conversation) where the student would talk with the chat bot and then sentiment analysis would be performed on the data.  Not only would the student's written content be considered but also how they wrote it and what word or phrasings they used. I had all three sections interact with the chat bot (the link was posted in their OneNote) and I stepped out of the room to give them a chance for some privacy. I did mention to them that this was experimental, that they didn't have to do it and that it was anonymous (modulo the usual "nothi...

Sigh. It's tough to disagree with Fawn Nguyen. (http://fawnnguyen.com/maybe-less-tech-in-math-and-school/) She wrote, in particular: I want them talking and interacting more than anything! Learning mathematics is a social endeavor. Here’s my perennial classroom routine, “Turn and talk with your neighbor.” I want to bring back the arts of speaking and listening, reading and writing, debating and presenting. Now, if you've ever dropped by my class (and, thanks to #ObserveMe you're always welcome to! I just realized, I never wrote about #ObserveMe ... something to correct over this March Break) you'lll notice a lot of devices. My classroom has 1:1 pen-based Win10 TabletPCs -- everyhone thinks of "Surfaces" but they're actually made by Fujitsu. My classroom has OneNote, which captures as much as everything that gets written and a part of what gets said/displayed/acted out using audio/video capture. This means we have access to digital ink - so e...

So… say you wanted to have a party… but what’s the right time to have it? Office365 Outlook (free for all teachers & students!) will let you poll people to decide when’s the right time to meet. You need to use Outlook-on-the-web though.  Now Outlook-on-the-web is actually a pretty good Outlook and has the same information that your Desktop Outlook has -- same mail, same calendar, just in a more web-active environment. Some of my faculty use Outlook-on-the-web as their main client because it's so powerful and has some nice options (like this polling feature!) Visit https://portal.office.com and click on the Calendar icon at the bottom of that page, or click on the CALENDAR button when visiting https://portal.office.com … or click on the Waffle & choose Calendar. So many different routes to get there -- it's always a great surprise to me when someone shows me a different way! When you click NEW you can then click POLL FOR A TIME TO MEET and create a poll for ...

So there comes a time when you're presenting (or you know, you're old) and you want to zoom in on an area of the screen.   Press the Windows + Plus (+) on the keyboard to turn the built-in Magnifier on. Then, you can press Windows + Esc to turn it off. Now we use a Fujitsu pen-based TabletPC when means we can write on the screen with a pen or tap the screen in the place of a mouse.  Here's a video run-down of how that works on a touch screen -- this definitely the preferred & quickest way to get around! When you're on a touch/pen device, to zoom in and out you can tap on the plus (+) and minus (-) symbols on the corners of the screen. To move around the screen, drag along the borders of the screen in full screen view. To instantly zoom out and see where you are on the screen, tap with one finger on opposite borders of the screen simultaneously. Now, if you're not using a pen/touch enabled device (and you should be!) you can still...

You know that when you’re typing in any application (Word, Outlook, OneNote for example) you can press WINDOWS & PERIOD to pull up your Emoji keyboard. 👍 Click on the Magnifying Glass and you can type a word to quickly find the right emoji. Or you can click through all the other options available on the bottom menu bar. If you choose the PEOPLE tab, in the upper right corner you can find the Skin Hue option, so that you're not just showing Simpsons characters. Wait, you say... WINDOWS PERIOD doesn't give you an Emoji keyboard? You should update your Windows10! If you can't, you can go Old-School (which works in older versions of Win10): 1. Right click your taskbar and select Show touch keyboard button (if it isn’t already ticked). This will place a new keyboard icon (shown above) within your taskbar’s notification area. 2. Click this keyboard icon and a keyboard will appear on your screen. You’ll then see a smiley face button for the emojis. You can also ...

So sitting at lunch the other day, one of my colleagues was muttering about all the reading she had to do for a course and wished she could buy audiobooks for all of her readings. Well, I stuck my nose in her business. Microsoft Edge will let you read an ePUB book in a cleaned-up and paper-like window, letting you change the text size, spacing, font & colour.  For small children and, umm, older folks, this is a great option!   There is a quick Chapter button letting you quickly move around the book, and a Bookmark feature that lets you keep track of interesting pieces of your reading.   In more recent versions of Windows you also get option of highlighting texts, inserting notes inside the text and, of course, asking Cortana anything, which pulls up definitions, other references, etc. (If you've been working with Microsoft tools, you know that AI is being built into everything ). But for her purpose, I shared that Edge will also Read Aloud to y...