Archives | Ed Tech Framework

Chrome Music Lab

by Michelle Baragar | Mar 29, 2019 | Music

Chrome music lab makes learning about music more accessible through its myriad of sound resources through which children can experiment and learn.

Your students can experiment with song making, rhythm exploration, sound waves, melody and more! Music involves both hemispheres of the brain, and is an excellent mechanism through which to support learning and creativity. This site is excellent for special education students as well.

If your students create and post a song, please email it to Michelle to post here!

Recreating your “Desktop” in Chrome

by Michelle Baragar | Mar 28, 2019 | GSuite

It’s a bit different, but just as effective.

In addition to being able to use colours on folders to assist with organizing, there is another handy trick. You may have already discovered this, but if you haven’t tested this out yet, it’s how I replaced my desktop when I became a Google Educator. You can right click on anything in your Google Drive (folder or individual document) and you will see that one of the options in the fly-out menu is “Add to Starred”.

Anything that you add a star to will appear on the left side of your drive when you click the link that says “starred”. As a teacher, I always starred the unit I was currently teaching so it would be quickly available, then I would unstar it at the end of the unit and apply the star to the next topic. If you look at the following image, this is what my “Starred” drive presently looks like:

When I was teaching I always kept other frequently used documents in there (the Google doc with the ongoing staff meeting minutes, the list of classroom phone numbers, the detention room supervision schedule). Essentially it was the functional equivalent of my windows desktop.

And one last thing – don’t forget it you swipe upward from the lower portion of your touch screen chromebook you have shortcuts to a myriad of your Google resources – there are shortcuts to things like Drive, Kami, Read and Write and many other extensions, including extensions you’ve added yourself.

Text on a Screen and Meaning

by Michelle Baragar | Mar 26, 2019 | Digital Citizenship

The image shown on this post provides a valuable classroom lesson regarding the loss of meaning when communication occurs primarily, predominately, or only in a digital environment. If I had texted you those seven words, what would I be communicating to you? It’s actually pretty vague and open to the interpretation on the part of the reader if we pause to consider it. Which word are you supposed to put the emphasis on? You have no way of knowing! But depending on which word you put the emphasis on, this seven word phrase can have seven different meanings! Try it out!

Is it any wonder kids with cellphones are often embroiled in miscommunication? Is it any wonder adults find themselves in awkward situations with texting? It can happen so easily when we are communicating in a digital environment!

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

I never said she stole my money.

What are Extensions & Add-ons?

by Michelle Baragar | Mar 26, 2019 | GSuite

I think we’ve all heard the phrase “There’s an app for that!!” – the GSuite/Chrome environment is part of that vein of thinking. If there is something you have in mind to do with your document or presentation or even spreadsheet, it’s likely that with an extension (those are for Chrome) or an add-on (those are for the individual pieces of software such as Docs, Gmail Slides…), you just might be able to do what you have in mind – perhaps more!

Generally speaking, extensions are installed into the Chrome Browser and give you an advantage or extra features in more than one application (for example, if you install the Bitmoji extension you will have the Bitmoji icon to the right of your Chrome address bar where your other extensions are (like Read & Write), and you will also have it in the Compose menu of your cesd73 Gmail account. Add-ons are specific to a particular application. An example of an add-on is Pear Deck – it is only valuable in Google Slides. It would be useless to have in Gmail, Sheets or elsewhere.

To find extensions for your Chromebook, go to the Chrome Store (easily found by searching “chrome store in the future) and search around.

To find Add-ons for the software you are using, open that software (so, open Slides for example) and look at the menu titles. One of the menus in all Google Software is “Add-ons” – in that menu you can get new add-ons (now would be a great time to add Pear Deck onto your slides account), or you can manage the add-ons you already have installed.

This is where you really harness the power of GSuite for Education. The stuff you don’t need for your particular class are not slowing your Chromebook down, and the stuff you do need can generally be found – – and more!

Gamification Field Trip

by Michelle Baragar | Mar 25, 2019 | Gamification

The Battle for Scientia Terra

On March 11, a small group of educators from CESD took a professional field trip to Fort Saskatchewan to visit the classroom of Scott Hebert (@MrHebertPE ) to witness an imagination-filled gamified classroom – a game that Mr. Hebert (Master Heebs in game) has invented to suit his own classroom. The majority of items in Mr. Hebert’s classroom have been created by hand, from his own imagination and at minimal cost. In terms of classroom engagement – Wow!! The story of Scientia Terra has his students working (call it playing – it sounds so much more pleasant!) and learning. Scott is very active on social media, he facilitates excellent conversations on Twitter, his YouTube channel is very active, and he’s even done a TED talk about it!!

If you’re interested, please check out his online resources (including the books he has written) as you will see much more. We’ve posted only photos that do not include students for privacy protection. Scott has permission to show much more than we can!