AACPS OIT Byte

When I think of my list of favorite Brightspace features, I’m immediately drawn to the possibilities for enhancing student feedback. Providing digital feedback isn't just tech-savvy; it's a game-changer for accessibility, ensuring students can easily access and benefit from personalized guidance. Brightspace rubrics shifted my feedback routine to incorporate images, audio, and videos, which increased student accessibility and engagement. Instead of just suggesting a student refer back to a particular content video or resource as feedback, I love the ability to link it directly in the rubric. This is all made possible through “Insert Stuff” and “Other Insert Options” within the criterion level descriptions and initial feedback. With these buttons, users can insert images (including Bitmojis!), insert existing audio/video content from the Media Library, or even link back to Assignments, Content, and more.                         ...

  Brightspace Spotlight Portfolio: Your New Filing Cabinet by Darren Towers, Office of Instructional Technology LMS Specialist If you have been around a while like me, you probably had a box or filing cabinet drawer to collect those key student samples throughout the year to create a portfolio. You know, the writing samples, art projects, or math and reading assignments from the beginning, middle, and end of the year. These samples were shared with parents, drove your instruction, and even influenced how you grade your students. This process was also used to show student growth - an essential part of the teaching and learning process.  As we grow as instructors we often adopt new ways of doing things...sometimes by choice, sometimes by necessity. I am not here to discourage the collection of those hard copies, but to suggest a way to enhance how they are stored, shared, and used in your process. The filing cabinet still has its place, but just as we backup our music and photos...

By Kerri Lambert, teacher specialist, Office of Instructional Technology The forecast is out. SNOW is on the horizon! Everyone is on the edge of their seats with the age old questions: How much snow will we get? Do I have enough toilet paper, bread, and milk or do I risk going to the store? Will the street get plowed? Will the kids have a snow day? And now, add a new question to the mix: will it be an asynchronous virtual day? Wait, what? That’s right, no longer is it a simple question of school or no school. Now the options include a traditional snow day, regular school, a synchronous virtual instruction day or an asynchronous snow day (and don’t forget the possibility of a delay!) There’s a lot to consider in each of those scenarios, but the one teachers are the most unfamiliar with is the idea of an asynchronous lesson when students will be working independently through assignments. So what should you consider when planning for these days? Let’s take a look at a few key points that...

  Prep for Conferences with Brightspace Portfolio by Darren Towers, Office of Instructional Technology LMS Administrator There are so many reasons us teachers collect student work samples. One of the main reasons, an essential part of the teaching and learning process, is to show growth and share that growth with all stakeholders. For most of my career these samples were collected at the beginning, middle and end of the year and stored in file folders. Then, at conference times, the student work was shared with parents to show where the student began and where the student is now. Brightspace can help streamline the collection and sharing of the samples we share with parents while enhancing the way we analyze and share the growth our learners have made . Artifact Collection: Brightspace Portfolio allows for the collection of key artifacts, including videos, audio recordings, and multimedia presentations. Hard copies of student work can also be scanned, uploaded and stored. This tool...

By: Koralina McKenna, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist  Have you ever used a Studio Board in Discovery Education? I hope so, because if not, you are missing out on one of the only customizable digital worksheet creators out there! Today, I am going to discuss two options for using this amazing tool right inside Brightspace. We all deserve to work smarter, not harder so let's get more from Brightspace with Discovery Education.  Embedding a Discovery Education Studio Boards Directly in Brightspace. Studio Boards designed as a way for students to gather information from multiple sources are easily embedded into Brightspace and allow students to manipulate the board directly from Brightspace. Students do not have to leave Brightspace in order to access the board.  Studio Boards make great choice boards or can be used to house a content collection on a specific research topic. The example to the right was used in a 6th grade science classroom. Students used this Stu...

By Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Brightspace can be overwhelming. There are so many ways to do things that it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and stick with what you know. But there are several hidden gems that are easy to use that will help you and your students get more out of our virtual classroom space. Here, in no particular order, are some of OIT’s favorites: The Glossary- Create a virtual word wall that students have access to 24/7. Brightspace has a glossary feature that has a lot of classroom potential regardless of the grade or content that you teach. Teach younger students? Use it to create a glossary of frequently used and misspelled words. Teach older students? Create a running vocabulary list. The glossary allows you to insert images, videos, and text directly into the definition. Even better though, it allows you to link to a content topic within Brightspace, so you can connect the vocabulary word in the Glossary to where you taught the concept ...

by Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist In OIT, we are often asked how we learn “all this stuff” and how do we keep up with all the changes across our platforms. There are several ways, but one of our favorite ways is to peruse Twitter when we have a moment. This allows us to get information from one place and in the small snippets of time- and it doesn’t fill up our inboxes! If you are on Twitter and looking for people to follow, here are a few that we recommend. It’s no secret that OIT supports a variety of instructional applications and yes, sometimes it can feel overwhelming! But, many of the programs we subscribe to are active on Twitter. Not only do they tweet out updates or upcoming features, but also showcase ways educators across the country are using their products with students. This is also a great way to find out about learning opportunities such as webinars or conferences. Following the companies gives you the best of both worlds- updates and inspir...

By Tracey Brown, AACPS Instructional Teacher Specialist Those of us who work in instructional technology tend to throw around the term LMS as though it were a commonly used, widely understood term in education like IEP or STEM, but while it is becoming more common with the prevalence of technology in our schools, maybe it is time for us to take a huge step backwards and describe what an LMS is and how it can transform K-12 education. LMS stands for Learning Management System, and it refers to the digital classroom platform that a school or district may provide teachers to use to facilitate online learning. But it is so much more than a way for teachers to give students assignments. That is a big part of it and probably how teachers and students will interact with it on a daily basis. But it also consolidates and manages many technology initiatives in one convenient package. What can an LMS do for each stakeholder in education? Teachers An LMS allows teachers to post class materials lik...

  By Darren Towers, Teacher Specialist, Office of Instructional Technology Content HTML Templates: The What, How, and Why A new and welcome hidden gem in the Brightspace environment are the pre-loaded HTML Templates. HTML templates can be used in your course Content tool and are easy to access and use. In this article I will briefly review what HTML templates are, how they can be used in Brightspace, and why you should give them a shot. What are HTML Templates? An HTML or website template provides an online page or site structure and a consistent appearance. This is similar to using a certain theme in a Powerpoint or Slide presentation. Various templates can be used throughout a Brightspace course to give the students a consistent and organized look and feel as they navigate through their learning. Some experimentation with the different templates will be necessary when you first start out. There are basic appearance templates as well as templates for specific use cases like meetin...

By Darren Towers, Teacher Specialist, Office of Instructional Technology As an educator and a parent I have experienced parent involvement from both perspectives. As an elementary classroom teacher in the early 2000s, I worked to keep parents involved through newsletters, direct communication, and sharing student work samples. It was sometimes difficult to consistently maintain this effort and know if my efforts were appreciated or making an impact. In 2016, when I became the parent of a school-age child, I received the same types of communication I sent as an educator from some of my child’s teachers. I appreciated all I could get in order to stay involved and informed. When we are all forced into our homes and virtual schooling by a global pandemic, parent involvement took on a whole new meaning. Many parents were all of a sudden in our “classroom'' every day. They knew exactly what was taught and how the students were responding to our instruction. When we returned to our ph...

by Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Do you frequently post an agenda in your Brightspace course(s) to allow students to look ahead at what they will do today, tomorrow, or all week? Do you feel like you spend too much time posting a new agenda each day, or posting it across all of your classes, or reposting it if you make revisions? Then the Running Agenda is the solution for you! The biggest issue that I hear from teachers regarding sharing an agenda involves how far in advance they are completely planned. In a perfect world I would know exactly what I am going to do everyday of this week. But the reality is, we usually know exactly what we will do today, have a pretty firm idea for tomorrow, then the next day is a little fuzzy since it depends on getting everything accomplished for today and tomorrow. This planning on-the-fly impacts our ability to share an agenda far in advance. The result is often that teachers list today’s agenda on the front of their Brig...

by Brigette Connolly, D2L Success Coach Students generally collaborate in a physical classroom by discussing their work with their peers or working in groups. You can accomplish the same goals in Brightspace whether you are in person, or online! The three best tools to use for collaboration in Brightspace are Discussions, Groups, and Activity Feed, and even if you are already using these tools, you may not have thought of the effective practice of using these tools to encourage collaboration. In addition to what you are already doing with these tools, there are many other effective practices for using these tools that encourage/foster collaboration in your classroom. Discussions The Discussions tool allows you to create different forums and topics for class conversation. Think of the Discussions tool like the filing cabinet, and the forum is a file folder that holds the topics and threads within the discussion. One way to set up discussion forums is based on units, or the big ideas yo...

b y Tracey Brown, Office of Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Are you ready for the possibility for your school to offer virtual learning for a few days or a few weeks? Community spread of COVID is leading to staffing shortages and large numbers of students in quarantine. Neighboring districts have already made the decision to close individual schools for a period of time, and while nothing has been determined surrounding virtual learning in AACPS, we need to be prepared for a seamless transition to the virtual environment. The good news is, if you were teaching last year, you already know how to do this! You just need to dust off that knowledge, throw in a dash of “how to do this in Brightspace” and a pinch of “what is new in my favorite applications” and you have the recipe for success. So let’s break down some top tips to get ready for virtual learning: 1. Create your nicknamed Google Meet link(s). Nicknamed Google Meet links provide important added security like preventi...

 by Darren Towers, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist LMS Every time I have interviewed for a job and was asked the question about what my strengths are, my first answer is always, “I am very organized.” Throughout my career as an educator I have used this strength to keep myself, my classroom, and my students on the right track. My organizational tools have changed and evolved throughout my career. In the beginning it was color-coded folders or bins and specific spots throughout the classroom students could ALWAYS find the materials they needed for learning. In recent years, as we have shifted to more online or even asynchronous learning, my go-to organizational tools have evolved into an elaborate system of Google Drive folders and sub folders, or even websites to point my students and other teachers toward necessary learning materials. When the Brightspace LMS came along, I was not sure what to expect when it came to organizing learning materials for students and other ...