Friday, October 26, 2018

Showing Safe YouTube Videos to Students

Image result for safeshare.tv image

Our district has filtered access for middle and high school students to view approved YouTube videos while at school, but K-5 students are blocked from viewing them on their own. While there are many concerns and reasons why elementary kids should have a very limited access to all the material widely available on YouTube, there are also many educational topics that can be found on YouTube. 

On the tech side, there are many ways in which YouTube videos can be embedded (in Schoology, on a Google Site, etc.) but those are still pulling the original video from YouTube, and therefore blocked with our filtering system. Teachers have been showing content rich YouTube videos to students as a whole class using a teacher account to access the material, but when offering specific videos to students to watch at their own convenience hasn't been possible.

Until now.

Safeshare.tv is a site that allows a teacher to find a specific YouTube video, enter the URL into the Safeshare.tv window, and safeshare tv will create an entirely new video solely using the video content from YouTube. This removes any ads, additional video bars, and teachers can even crop the video to focus on a specific part of the video that they wish their kids to view.

The video that is created no longer pulls from YouTube, and therefore is not blocked by our filters. Only teachers who have access to YouTube can pull videos to put into safeshare.tv, and then those links can be shared with students for them to view when appropriate.

Check out this tutorial video on how to use Safeshare.tv, by watching a YouTube video that has been imported into Safeshare.tv! 


As always, contact your Ed Tech Coach if you have any questions or want to talk about how to implement new ideas in your classroom with your students!


#WestervilleWay

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Using Technology to Bridge the Gap for Teacher Absences

From time to time even the strongest immune system can be foiled by a few germs. But you can still make the most of those days by using technology to bridge the gap. As the “season of sickness” looms ahead of us, here is a valuable article from Common Sense Education on the ways you can use tech tools to make the most of sick days or when you have a guest teacher. Stay well! But just in case...


We hope this helps! If you have any questions or need some help, don't hesitate to reach out to your building's Ed Tech Coach!

Monday, October 8, 2018

The Embed Code: Getting all your content in one place

One of the downsides of using technology for lessons is that the content that we teach is rarely in one place. We get greater control over the content, but this often means grabbing video, audio, and text from a variety of sources. At the same time we know our students- the more clicking to get to content, the more issues will arise. It can be frustrating to have the perfect content available, but no easy way to get it to students without an unholy amalgamation of links, text and pictures.   Enter the Embed Code. A handy way to get content on one page.

Most web content creators and hosts like YouTube provide embed codes that allow users to insert direct, interactive links to content into their site. For example:
The embed code allows you to bring multiple sources of content into one place. You can even embed a website into another website! They can look intimidating, but the process is much simpler than you might think. Follow the steps below to insert content into Schoology or other sites. 

How to Embed Content into another site
1. Find the content you want to insert
2. Many sites have either an embed button or a share button where you can find the code. If there is not one,this site has a way to do it through a process called the iframe. 
3. the code you embed will look something like this <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i9SSOWORzw4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Wait! Don't be intimidated!
Image result for don't be intimidated gif
The great part is that you don't have to understand how HTML code works or even what is inside the code to embed it.

4. copy the code
5. Go to your Schoology page and access your assignment, page, or other place you want the content to appear and follow the steps in the picture below
Image result for embed in schoology

Now your content should appear! Schoology and other sites also play nicely with Google products like Drive and YouTube. The insert content button on many pages allows you to import embed code directly without having to follow the steps above. 

Image result for schoology insert content google
6. If you are using a different site, the process is similar, you just need to find a way to switch to HTML view for a moment. Sites like Weebly, Blogger, and Word Press all have these options. 

A few tips:- You can play with the width/height numbers in the code to adjust the size of the content you embed. 
-The Publish button (under file) in Google Slides, Docs, and Sheets can provide an embed code so you can directly link content into a page too (again, Schoology has easier ways of doing this through the Google Drive App, but for other sites it can be a useful tool.).
save image-Many content creation sites like blogs, web design programs, and learning management systems have a button or menu choice to switch between HTML view and WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) view. HTML view is where you can paste in code.

As always, feel free to contact your ed-tech coach with any questions or to learn more!

Happy Embedding!