An Interactive e-Library of Student Work Using Google Apps

This post describes a Google powered system to showcase digital student work. It allows a school to collect and display published student pieces for the whole community or for each class. The process is centralized, so students only have to submit once to publish in both places.

Awesome Table

This is an Awesome Table build. For step by step information on using Awesome Tables, you can reference one of my recent posts or use the official support site. In this workflow, submissions from the form directly feed the Awesome Table. The table is formatted by an HTML template stored on the “Template” page. The questions not used in the template (Teacher, Genre, and Topic) filter and sort the table. The HTML template requires three variables: a link to the published document, the document title, and a link to an image representing the document. The published document can be anything with a web address. I used Flipshack to publish our Google Docs and copied the shared URL from there. The image representing the document is less intuitive.

Batch Process PDF to JPGs

When my older students self-publish, they’ll screen capture the covers to make an image file.  I prepared eBooks for two grade levels (2nd and 3rd) and using a screen capture for each one would have been a laborious option. Instead, I used a tool named PDF to JPG to easily batch processed the book covers into JPG images. Once the images were ready I uploaded them to a Google Site so that they had a static web address.

Creating Multiple Tables for Different Classes

The main form response sheet is used for our library website, creating a sortable Awesome Table for all submitted work. When work is submitted, the student’s teacher question is used by the spreadsheet to organize student work into class pages via a query. The query is easily customized by anyone using the sheet, simply add your teacher’s names to the formRanger variables sheet. Then, click cell B1 of each class page to select the appropriate teacher for that page. Simply copy the class page to add classes. Don't forget to add these names to the teacher question in the form, I recommend using the formRanger addon it keep it updated ;).

Future Plans

As it's currently designed, this system is meant for teacher submissions. I can foresee using some kind of moderation, like the FormMule powered process used in the Book Review Site, to make student submission possible. I’m also impressed by the expanding cards on this Awesome Table demo. I would love students to use this feature to introduce their work. Like everything, this is an ongoing project and I’m excited to see what the next iteration looks like. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

Turning Google Docs into eBooks with Flipsnack

Sue Luft, one of our ELA helping teachers, challenged me to find a way to improve the “ebookiness” of our Google Doc nonfiction books. I admit, Google docs are unsatisfying to read as an ebook. After some Saturday surfing, I stumbled upon Flipsnack.

Flipsnack’s edu version follows a freemium model and is easy to use.  I love the gratifying page flip and it presents a beautiful full screen view. Pages are represented as thumbnails at the bottom of the screen for easy navigation. The backgrounds are also configurable - I like the nice wood grain. All of our nonfiction books were saved into PDFs and processed with Flipsnack.

The edu version allows you to set up a classroom with student accounts. This isn’t a feature I’ve taken advantage of yet but I can see it being really useful with my older grades. I started with 2nd grade work so I publish the books for our digital library myself. However, I could see our 4th grade students doing this in the future.

When student self publish they will also be able to submit their books to our school’s digital work library themselves. This be more sustainable for me and will allow students to take advantage of Flipsnack’s hyperlink and button features - bringing hypertext into the ebook genre. This is something that I think is appropriate to introduce in 4th grade.

Next weekend I will blog about our ebook shelves and discuss how to make them. I’m excited by the publishing potential of the Docs, Flipsnack, and the digital book shelves combination. Students will be content producers to a real audience from start to finish. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!

2nd Grade Nonfiction Books Using Google Docs

The 3rd grade nonfiction template that I blogged about earlier in the year went really well. Student books like about Pythons and Michael Jordan are evidence that the template provided valuable scaffolding and did not overwhelm student agency. The success of the third grade books inspired us to adapt a version for the second grade. Our second grade students are new to docs and their first research project (ever) is a bird unit.  The newness of both Docs and online research meant that the template had to be simpler and more guided. Teachers had a choice between two template formats: a comparison between two birds and a focused book on one bird.

Like the 3rd grade templates, the second grade file relies on Google Drawings for text features. Instead of having students choose the features that support the text, the second grade book has diagrams in place for simplicity. Other elements like the dedication and copyright page are also removed to streamline the book.

The books came out terrific. Students created hand drawn illustrations which were scanned in for use in the diagrams. Students had a field day using drawings to creatively design their books, I personally love the life cycle drawings. Although the second grade templates are more structured than the third grade, students were still able to make them their own. I guess that’s my litmus test for a template - whether or not students have room for ownership. Take a look at our galleries below. Leave a comment or question for our authors if the mood strikes you!

Mrs. Iasiello’s Bird Comparison Books

Mrs. Cheung’s Bird Research Books

A 3-5 Non-Fiction Google Template with Text Features

This week I am rebuilding a 3rd grade non-fiction book Doc that I created last year. I've learned some important lessons and I think I've made it much easier for students to create killer books. The biggest lesson revolves around how Google Drawings are used.

Last year my template was simple and included a cover page, a copyright page, a dedication, and a Table of Contents. Non-fiction text features were supported with a Google Sites page that linked to Google Drawing templates. It worked fairly well. The students created beautiful books and were deservedly proud of their work. Using Google Drawings for Nonfiction text features was easy, except when it came to inserting them into Docs. Unfortunately, Docs doesn’t allow a student to insert a Google Drawing file created from Drive. Students needed to save the drawing as an image file and then insert the image into the Doc. Not only does this create an awkward step, it also makes revising the text feature a chore. I’m sure Google will smooth this out sooner or later, but for right now, I don’t want to relive the process.

My Non-Fiction file for 2015-16 is completely built in a Doc. The text feature templates are added at the end of the doc; no more sending students to the web page. When students need a text feature, they scroll to the bottom and copy/paste one of the templates (or create their own using the “insert -> drawing” menu.) As far as I can tell, the only difference between a Doc Drawing and a Drive Drawing are tables: Drive Drawings have them and Docs Drawings don’t (please let me know if there are other differences.) Other changes to the original template include a “Glossary” page and an “About the Author” page.

Students are instructed to start writing on the first chapter page (page 4, not including the cover) and create new chapters as necessary. The “Hand” graphic organizer at the top of the first chapter is also a Google Drawing and will help students with planning. This can be copy/pasted into each new chapter.

We have some time until this unit happens and I’m sure the file will be revised before it’s used. I’m looking forward to collaborting with my third grade team and our ELA Helping Teachers. Let me know if you use the Doc and please share it back out if you make it better!

Additional Resources for Google Drawings in the Classroom:

• Ditch that Text Book Resources
• John Sowash’s work
• Alice Keeler’s Infographic Tutorial
• The Google Drawing Infographic Toolbox

A Google Slides Student Museum

Back in March I had the good fortune of sitting in on +Caren Macconnell’s Google Summit workshop on Choose Your Own Adventure Using Google. Caren did a great job and really got my wheels turning - you can do a lot with this kind of interactivity and it shines in the classroom.

In the past I've used a wiki to create interactive stories like this. It worked pretty well but graphics were more complicated than they needed to be and students couldn’t work on the same page at the same time. Google Slides is a much more flexible and user-friendly tool.

Creating non-linear links or buttons in a Slides presentation is a snap. Just select the text or shape that you want to link to another slide, click the link button, then select the destination slide. This process is even easier if you title the slides beforehand.

This came in handy recently after a local artist visited one of our second grade classrooms. Caren shared a museum template during her Summit workshop that becomes a great showcase for student work and reflections. This was the inspiration for the Museum at QR Slide deck embedded in this post.

Like Google Drawing, slides is an under appreciated tool. I think Slides is sometimes mistaken as limited because it’s easy to use. Don’t fall for this trap, nothing is further from the truth.

Finally, Google Docs Speech Recognition

I’ve been looking for a free speech recognition tool to use with Google Docs since the unveiling of Chrome extensions. The time has finally come with the Docs Add-on “Speech Recognition.” I’ve used the tool with several 8 and 9 year old students and have found it easy to operate and remarkably accurate.

Speech Recognition appears in the Add-on menu after being installed from the Gallery.  Once started, a speech recognition sidebar opens that allows the user to specify the language being spoken. In addition to handling English well, I’ve heard from my World Language colleagues that the Spanish recognition is quite good. The Add-on begins to work with the click of a start button and stops by using the same button. Punctuation is included when the user verbally declares where it should be (edit: some folks have reported that punctuation is a weakness, see the comments...)

Accuracy has often been a challenge for speech recognition tools that aren’t trained to understand the speaker, such as the capable Dragon Naturally Speaking. Accuracy is also a challenge when the speaker has a young voice or doesn’t project well. I found neither to be the case with this add-on.  One soft-spoken young lady was having trouble typing the non-fiction book that she was working on. She was able to clear through three chapters after using “Speech Recognition.”

Students often do not verbalize the punctuation, so it is necessary for them to reread and make edits where necessary. Mumbling can also be misunderstood. I actually consider both of these deficits a feature and enjoyed watching our young writers reread their work and revise.

At the risk of being hyper-critical, I would love to see this add-on utilize keyboard shortcuts. I do not know what kind of technical challenge that presents, but it would be highly beneficial for users who have trouble manipulating a mouse. So far, this is my only criticism of this capable and user-friendly tool.

This has been cross-posted at the Chrome Toolbox.