AACPS OIT Byte

by Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Digital activities often involve multiple modes of information delivery, or mixed media, including text, images, and videos. In order to cover each in this post, we will provide one suggestion for making each more accessible for students; we’ll call it the MOST IMPORTANT consideration for each when we think about ensuring every student has equal access to our digital materials. Text The most important way to ensure that students have equal access to text is to ensure they know how to use speech-to-text tools. Many learners comprehend better by listening, or combining listening with reading. In AACPS, the web-based tool we have to read text aloud to students is the Read&Write extension . But because accessibility is such a big deal, many applications have their own dedicated speech-to-text tools, like Wixie, for example. Microsoft applications, like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Minecraft Education also include Immersive Re...

 by Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Issuing laptops to every teacher had additional awesome results. You now have a docking station that simplifies connecting to multiple other devices including, not only your SMART board and Document Camera, but also an extra monitor. That means many teachers now have a total of 3 screens available in their classroom. Are you making the most of your screens? Extend or Duplicate your screen The first choice you have is whether you want to extend or duplicate your screen. This means you can see the same application on both screens, or different windows on each. For example, you could be projecting your lesson onto your SMART board from your laptop screen and have PowerSchool open on the second monitor to mark attendance or keep grades up-to-date. To choose between Extend and Duplicate you will use the shortcut Windows + P. Getting Different Apps on Different Screens If you choose to Extend your monitors, you need the next s...

  By Samantha Wilkinson, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist While spring break may have just ended, the season has really just begun! It's time for new growth, gentle rain, flowers, baby animals, and that warm weather we have all been dreaming of.  Along with the new season comes some new ideas on our OIT Digital Take-Out  site. The site accessible from Classlink, in the orange Instructional Tech Resources folder. Under the Seasonal Activities tab, you will find dozens of curated digital activities for all seasons. Here I will highlight a few of my favorites: Spring Cinquain Poem: This Wixie project template has students write a 5 line poem about spring using adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Don't forget the image library, and video elements of Wixie to have student decorate their creations and record themselves reciting the poem. National Scrabble Day: April 13th is National Scrabble Day. Have some fun with students by using this digital Scrabble board in Google D...