Embedded Files
published by Mike Neumire on 10/9/2025
What to know for October 2025
1
Google Vids!
We now have access to a video recording/editing program by Google called Google Vids. Naturally, after I put a bunch of work into creating training materials for Clipchamp, we get a new option! And honestly, it might be a better one depending on your needs. Google Vids is built to look similar to Google Slides, so it should feel pretty familiar. It is perfect for quick simple video projects, which probably accounts for 90% of our needs. You can learn a little more about Google Vids and how to access it here: https://sites.google.com/cccsd.org/levelup/blog/google-vids
2
eDoctrina: you can make it look different!
Do you remember hearing promises that eDoctrina was working on a new user interface because people hate looking at eDoctrina so much? And then all that chatter disappeared and we assumed they gave up on that project. Well, turns out that wasn't true, and in fact you can switch over to the new user interface right now if you want to. They made it available for a year without telling anyone, while they continued to refine it and update help documents. If you're interested in checking out the new look, you can dig into your account settings and make the switch. Simply go into "My Account" and scroll down to find "UI" (user interface), and then switch the UI version to 2023. If you do make the switch, I'ld love to hear what you think.
3
I have a library of Breakout EDU equipment.
Are you interested in finding an escape room activity that aligns with your instruction, or want to run one based on a holiday or time of year? Let me know! If you tell me what topic, standards, or vocabulary you want to highlight in a game, I can explore what already exists and/or make something new for you. Or if you already have a game planned and just need the equipment, I have it for you to borrow! Just reach out and let me know. I also have several digital who-dunnit games where students have to explore evidence and clues to make an informed accusation. These are awesome for sharpening the skill of evidence-informed argument. Some of these AI who-dunnits are AI-based where students "interview" suspects and witnesses! I can come to your class and facilitate these games or package them so that you can run them yourself with ease and all the support resources you need.
4
Nearpod has some helpful updates.
Nearpod has added a new AI feature as well as a new autograding feature that enhance the effectiveness of this tool! The first update is an AI-powered Nearpod lesson generator. This is really cool because unlike Magic School or other AI platforms that just generate text for you to copy, paste, and format, Nearpod's new AI tool actually builds a full Nearpod lesson for you, complete with content slides AND Nearpod activities. This really feels like something that could save you time if you're already a Nearpod user, or inspire you to become a first time Nearpod user.
Nearpod has also added autograding functionality for its drag and drop activities! It used to be that you could create a canvas and elements that needed to be dragged onto that canvas, but now you can create designated "drop zones" that determine if that element is in the correct category or not. Yay!
*Bonus for anyone who teaches math: Nearpod added a handful of math manipulatives to their menu of interactives:
5
The DIR list has moved away from Staff Zone.
We've upgraded the DIR list, which is a list of all the digital instructional resources that we have approved or denied for use at Churchville. It no longer lives on Staff Zone, which means you should double check your bookmarks to make sure you're not looking at something old and out of date. You can access it by clicking here: http://www.cccsd.org/dir-apps and it should also live in your CCCSD Bookmarks folder. The DIR list now lives on a Microsoft List, which makes it easier to manage, and include more visible information. If you're curious about a particular resource, you can visit the DIR list to see if it has been through the DIR committee, approved or denied, grade levels, whether we pay for it or access a free version, and more. That also means that you now use a Microsoft Form to make new DIR requests, so double check that you're not filling out the old Staff Zone form!
If you're not familiar with the DIR process, you can make a request for a new DIR and the DIR committee will meet every two weeks (as needed- we won't meet if there aren't new requests) to discuss the academic value of the resource. If the committee deems the resource to be academically valid for Churchville based on our rubric, we pass it onto Joe Harmon to determine if it is budgetarily possible and if a privacy agreement can be established with the company. This process only applies to digital instructional resources that require student PII data and/or has an associated cost. You do not need to make a request for resources that are free and don't require any PII data.
Page updated
Report abuse