Week 1- Communication

Communication can be defined in many ways, but P21 defines communication skills as follows:

Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts
Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes, and intentions
Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate, and persuade)
Use multiple media and technologies, and know how to assess impact and their effectiveness a priori
Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multilingual and multicultural)

NWEA's Preparing 21st Century Students for a Global Society: An Educator’s Guide to the “Four Cs”

Resources

What is it: Screencasting is when you record your screen, voice, and/or webcam
Example: Math Area Tutorial Student Screencastify (with Google Slides on their screen)
How: Screencastify is a free extension that records any combination of screen, voice or webcam for up to 10 minutes. It is a Google sign-in and saves to Drive automatically
Why: Screencasting gives students the opportunity to work on oral communication, allows them to review it afterwards, and the teacher can watch it later
Need Help: Check out their help section or watch a video tutorial
Bonus: Just want a quick, 30 second video of the student talking not the screen? Check out Alice Keeler's Webcam Record extension

What is it: Oh boy, I sure hope you have a clue if you attended Tech Share Day! If not, Pear Deck makes any Google Slide presentation interactive allowing for student feedback throughout.
Example: Check out how this teacher used student pace mode to provide student voice and differentiation
How: Click here for directions on student pace mode
Why: Pear Deck gives plenty of opportunities for student voice and by using student pace mode you can have students participate throughout the day or as they are ready
Bonus: Check out this article from Pear Deck about celebrating National 'Be Heard' Day

What is it: Kaizena went back to their model where you can do all feedback options right in a Google Doc Add-on and it is a beautiful thing!
Example: Watch this short video showing you what it looks like
How: Install the Kaizena Add-on and then either follow the on screen prompts or check out this help section
Why: Many students respond better to hearing feedback verbally instead of written on a paper. Many of us still cringe when we see red ink on our work. Let Kaizena make the feedback process be more of a discussion instead of just marks on a page.
Bonus: How to use Kaizena with Google Classroom

What is it: EdPuzzle makes any video into a lesson by adding questions and/or your voice then cut out the stuff you don't want plus track the students usage
Example: Click here to see an example of how it looks to a student
How: Click here for help with EdPuzzle
Why: Listening effectively is vital for communication but many of our students struggle with listening skills. Help them work on this by providing them by embedding questions to help them check for understanding
Bonus: You can embed an Ed Puzzle right into a Pear Deck slide- click here to see other sites that are easy to embed too!

Pear Deck with students communicating with the teacher
Padlet for a book discussion or Padlet for classroom discussion
Using Screencastify to record directions for students or to provide students with feedback
Flipgrid to do video discussions with students
Use Google Classroom's Ask a Question feature to have students do a simple online discussion
Use EdPuzzle to have students reflect during a video