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September 15 - Brisk Whiteboard Boost activity
September 15 - Brisk Whiteboard Boost activity
One of Brisk's newest student-facing AI tools is the Whiteboard Boost activity. It allows students to think visually in a platform that also gives them help and feedback as needed. This tool isn't for a finished and final answer. It's for the time where the learning is taking shape.
Here are the technical details on how to assign a whiteboard activity:
Go to app.briskteaching.com , click on Quick Start, then Boost Student Activity and choose Whiteboard.
Set up the whiteboard by telling it the topic you're working on, any standards that apply and the grade level.
Brisk will generate questions that will make them give visual responses, so they won't be able to just answer yes or no or something short.
You can always modify these questions once they are generated! Click on Edit template to change the questions or add any images or support you want.
Grab the activity link and post it into Canvas or push it out as a link through Securly Classroom.
While students work, they have a couple of options for help/feedback:
Check work: This gives them feedback that highlights what they have right and points out where changes need to be made.
Get help: This will give them help on clarifying ideas, reflecting and next steps - WITHOUT GIVING THEM THE ANSWER.
What teachers get from it:
Teachers will be able to see all whiteboards, along with where students are at on each question.
It will show patterns of understanding and where there are struggles.
Brisk will even recommend next steps to the teacher based on those results.
If you're wondering how you might use it in your classes, Brisk actually had a really nice list of ideas for all sorts of content areas in their blog post:
Math: Model strategies, show steps, compare solutions.
Science: Draw and label systems, show processes, explain cause and effect.
ELA: Map stories, plan writing, track character thinking.
Social Studies: Create timelines, compare perspectives, show relationships.
STEM & Engineering: Sketch designs, label parts, explain how solutions work.
Music: Map song structure, label instruments, show rhythm patterns.
Physical Education: Diagram movement, reflect on teamwork, visualize goals.
Art: Sketch ideas, plan designs, explain creative choices.
Health: Visualize routines, reflect on habits, show cause and effect.
World Languages: Visualize vocabulary, map sentence structures, show meaning.
Career & Technical Education (CTE): Diagram processes, plan workflows, explain decisions.
Computer Science: Map algorithms, trace logic, explain how code works.
Or, go to app.briskteaching.com and work with the AI there to come up with ideas with the chatbot on how to use it in one of your upcoming lessons!
*All photos from Brisk's blog post on the Whiteboard feature.
September 8 - More back to school info
September 8 - More back to school info
Here are a few more "back to school" quick tips!
Google log-ins:
We have a couple of new log-ins under the 9 dots in Google, making it even quicker to login to many common platforms. Here's an incomplete list of what you can get to in just two clicks by clicking on the 9 dots (on a Google search page, Gmail, drive, etc.) and then the app:
Canvas
Skyward Student
Skyward Financial
Gemini
Notebook
Youtube
Sora (to check out eBooks and audiobooks)
Mastery Prep (more on that coming soon!)
Brisk:
Brisk has added some new output features in the Create section! You can access these options by either going to the Brisk website and click on "Quick Start" then "Create" in the upper right corner, or by clicking on the Brisk extension when you're already in a doc that you'd like to create a quiz for and choosing Create there. Scroll down a bit and you will see the options on the right - practice tests for SAT and ACT, and a Canvas quiz file! QTI is the file type that Canvas uses to create new quizzes, and it's not easily accessed in a general doc. But, with Brisk you can have it create that type of file and then upload it into Canvas instead of typing everything over again!
If you are in a doc, it will have you tell it what you want it to create. When I was doing this in a grammar notes document, it then asked me which part of my notes I wanted it to focus on AND what common mistakes I knew students tend to make so it could work with those.
Once it generated the quiz, I could either copy the text or download the file for Canvas.
When I downloaded the file, I got a .zip folder with the .QTI file inside.
In Canvas, I went to "Import Existing Content" and chose QTI .zip file as the content type. (You may need to scroll down a bit to get to that option.) It will let you browse for that folder you just downloaded. UPLOAD THE ZIP FOLDER, do not pull the file out of that.
Before adding this to the import queue, you can tell it to add the questions to an existing item bank or to create a new one.
Also be sure to click on the Convert content to New Quizzes (the supported version of quizzes in Canvas) so you don't end up with the old version that is no longer supported by the tech team.
Add to your import queue and wait for the magic!
Once I had my quiz imported, here are the things I needed to check and/or change:
Assignment Group - it defaults to Imported Assignments, so you'll want to move that.
Due date/time - none of this is filled in and needs to be done as you would with any quiz or assignment.
Questions and answers - You can view the questions and answers it has created ahead of creating the actual QTI file, but be sure to go in and check the questions and answers and make any changes you deem necessary. The human eyes on this are invaluable!
Quiz settings - You can set all your normal defaults here (access codes, time limits, hide/show results to students, etc.)
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: This will not take a pre-written quiz and just turn it into a QTI file. When I did this over a test I had already written, it focused on the same topics but made its own questions and responses. But, this could be a great way to create multiple versions of the same test!
September 1 - Helpful back to school info
September 1 - Helpful back to school info
Welcome back to all the students today! I hope your first day of class is off to a great start.
For today's tech tip, I've got a round up of info and links for you.
Need tech help?
If you'd like to avoid the back and forth of emails to schedule some time to get together, please use these links to find an open time in my calendar:
Securly Classroom:
Securly Classroom Cheat Sheet. This sheet will be a nice reminder of what the different icons mean, etc.
If you weren't able to make yesterday's sessions on Securly Classroom and have questions, use the scheduling links to set up some time to go over the program.
Also feel free to book some time if you'd like me to be in the room when you first try to use the program in a class!
AI Tools:
As you continue to play with Gemini and Gems, I just wanted to remind you of our other platform, Brisk. To bring them back to the forefront, here are the tips I did at the end of last year.
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