ItsTheMitchell

 Catching Up with The Squatter (Part 2) Next in the catch-up series is Squatter 34: Return of the Squat . This one takes a movie-themed approach to Chromebook use in the classroom. It’s a lighthearted but practical look at how to keep Chromebooks from being the villain in your lesson — instead turning them into the supporting character that helps everything run smoothly. Think of it as your director’s cut for classroom tech management. 📄 Download Squatter 34 (PDF) If Chromebook use in your class was a movie genre, what would it be — comedy, action, or horror?

 Catching Up with The Squatter (Part 1) I’ll admit it — I’ve fallen a little behind posting Squatters here. They’ve still been popping up on campus, but not always making their way online. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be dropping one Squatter per week until we’re caught up. First up is Squatter 33: Prompt Engineering . This edition digs into the idea that AI is only as good as the questions we ask it. Better prompts = better outputs. Inside are teacher-friendly examples of how to craft prompts that save you time while still giving you usable results. 📄 Download Squatter 33 (PDF) What’s one classroom task you’d like to try writing a “perfect prompt” for?

 Keeping up on the rapid fire posting of squatters. Don't expect it to continue. I was WAY behind on posting. That being said, this Squatter asks the question what exactly is "cheating" when it comes to A.I.? It's not as black and white as you would think. Teachers need to consider this question on a continuum, rather than a yes or no. Check out Squatter 32 to see what I mean. Drop a comment and share your thoughts. Do you have experience with students trying to pass of AI generated work as their own? What do you do in your classes to encourage responsible use of AI... or do you just ban it and pretend it doesn't exist? As usual, click the image below for a full-sized PDF of Squatter 32.

 The idea for Squatter 30 was given to me during a session I was presenting about graphic design. We were discussing where ideas and inspiration can come from, and someone suggested making a football rival themed Squatter. I thought it was a great idea, and this is the result. I give you Squatter 30 - Rivals! As usual, click the image below for a full resolution PDF of Squatter 30!

 Welcome back, I’ve missed you. It’s been a minute. We’re getting back in the routine. It’s definitely time for a new Squatter. Common adoption of AI is hitting more and more areas of our daily lives. For teachers, these AI tools are becoming more powerful by the day. Want a tool that takes a grade level, lesson theme, and a passage of text, and uses that to generate learning targets and questions for export to your favorite platforms? You got it. Anyway, you’re not here for this… you’re here for Squatter 28. Here you go! As always, click for a full-sized, printable pdf.

  I wanted to take a minute to remind everyone that AI is not a future concept. It is here today. Over the holiday season, make some time to play on the website openai.com. It can write, chat, and create images based on prompts from users. It’s   really   good. Your students know may know about this. They may already be passing off AI writing as their own.   Want to know how good it is? Here’s a couple examples. I told openAI to write a script for a sitcom featuring the grinch and a large talking cockroach. This is its response. Up next, I asked openAI If George Washington ran for President of the USA today, would he win the election. ELA Teachers, you can use this to your advantage. I asked for five writing prompts for seventh grade students about holiday adventures. This is what I got. Math teachers, I didn’t leave you out either. I asked for five word problems that require multi-step equations to solve. Moving on to images, I asked for a cell-shaded image of an as...

 Recently, I dropped Squatter 25. If you missed it, find it HERE . The two EduProtocols I covered on Squatter 25 are the Frayer Model, and Thin Slides. I know many of the educators I work with are already familiar with the Frayer Model, but I didn't think anyone had used Thin Slides before... so I made a relatively quick 6 minute video that not only explains the idea behind the Thin Slides EduProtocol, but also sets up a Google Slides template that you can can copy for yourself. Click HERE to make a copy of the template for yourself, and watch the video below to see what it's all about. Happy Thin Sliding!

 Yep. It's been a minute. Nothing major to share. Been Busy. Squatter 22 - You Oughta Know Some info that you may find helpful on campus here at the beginning of the year. I promise future offerings will be better. Check it out. As usual, click for a full sized PDF if you'd like to print your own.

 On the first day of Christmas, Tall Tech Guy gave to me... SQUATTER 18 - Twelve Days of Tech Tips! Christmas themed and posted to your favorite places to R&R (Read and Relax) as well as shared here on the internet for everyone. Yes, you can even sing this one. Don't be shy. Belt it out the best you can, where ever you're reading the Squatter. Click the link below for a full sized version.

If you're in Education, and have paid any attention whatsoever to the EdTech space, you've probably heard of Jake Miller. His website ( jakemiller.net ) and podcast ( Educational Duct Tape ) are staples in the EdTech community. Seriously, if you haven't checked out any of his stuff yet, you're in for a treat. I could, and probably should, write a full review about the website and podcast, but today it about the book. What follows is my loose, hastily written, randomly ordered thoughts about the book. I'd do a better job of organizing this, but I've got two young ones waiting on me to come play Candy Land. If you're an educator, this book should be on your reading list. Yes, it's full of tech tips, but tech changes rapidly. Yes, it's full of recommended tech tools to fit certain needs, but again, that tech will change in the future. The real value here is in the recounting of Jake's experience as a developing educator. His repeated mantra of ...

Full disclosure, I had never heard of Vivi before my current position. Vivi is three things. It is a little blue box that attaches to any video device with an HDMI input you have in your classroom. Projector? Sure. Touch Panel? Even better because Vivi will pass the touch inputs back to your computer. It is an app that you install on your computer, as well as push out to student devices that allows screen sharing, annotation, assessment, feedback... lots of stuff. It is a web-portal that allows access to the data you've collected from your students. Vivi is a capable platform. The more you use it, the more you think of other things you can do with it. With that in mind, Squatter 17 is all about things you can do with Vivi. I know it might not apply to you, but if you're in the ed-tech space, and you don't know about Vivi, consider this a primer. As usual, click the image below for a larger version, and be Excellent to each other.

EdTech 180 #4 - Google Chrome Bookmarks Bar The Bookmarks Bar in Chrome is much more useful than I realized. I was working with a student on saving some bookmarks, when I noticed options I have never seen before. Keep reading below, or watch the video (or both) to see what I mean. You can show or hide the bookmarks bar by clicking the three vertical dots (I like to call it the snowman) in the top right corner of the Google Chrome Browser, then click bookmarks, then “show bookmarks bar”... or by using the keyboard shortcut to toggle it on and off. That’s Ctrl+Shift+B for windows or ChromeOS users, or Command+Shift+B for the MacOS users out there. I noticed that while the controls for showing or hiding the bookmarks bar still work in a new tab, they did not take effect until you loaded some content in the tab. Note that the bookmarks bar always shows on the new tab page, even if you’ve hidden it in other tabs. Once you load content into the tab, the bookmarks tab will go away. To add a s...

 Today's tech tool is more useful in more ways that many initially think. At first glance, most think of device monitoring software as just that... a way to keep an eye on what your students are doing on their devices during your class. If you take some time and think about it less as a disciplinary tool, and more of a feedback tool. When talking with some of my colleagues about rolling out Classwize, I was often told to get ready for an influx of discipline referrals pertaining to Chromebook use. I didn't understand why it would lead to an increase in referrals. I think if you're using this correctly, it will lead to a decrease in device related referrals. No matter which monitoring software you use, don't use it as a "gotcha" tool. Students want to go to explore the internet. They want to discover. They want to find what's out there. That's a good thing... in moderation. Use this as a tool to guide them, and to spark a conversation about why they...

 Been in a Google Meet lately? Ha... yeah... I know... that's like asking if you've taken a breath or seen the sky lately. Ever wanted a transcript of that meet for reasons? Maybe you want to make a study guide from a lesson you recorded in Meet. Maybe you wanted to provide a read-along text for a vide you created. Maybe you wanted to offer your students the ability to read through something you taught via Google Meet for clarity and deeper understanding. Now, with the power of Otter.ai (a Freemium tool) you can have it. Take a look!

Let me tell you what... I'm excited about this vol.11 of The Squatter. I'm so excited that I'm rolling out this post a week early. The day I started looking for what to do in Squatter 11 was an odd day. You know. One of those days where things that aren't usually funny are really funny. I like those days. Anyway, I said to myself "Self, I want you to make a Squatter that is entirely Memes." I need everybody to understand that the intent here is amusement, while at the same time making a few points and offering suggestions. I'm not trying to call anyone out, or throw shade at anyone in particular. If you feel offended by any particular meme in Squatter 11, please contact me about it. We'll try to figure out why a meme that calls out people for always using "Reply All" would offend you. Be prepared for me to do my best Dr. Phil... Ahem... "So you've used reply all to try to let me know that a meme throwing shade at people who use reply...

Good news everybody! Jamboard is now a part of Google Meet. Take a look at the incredibly brief and low quality demonstration of how to create a Jam from within a Meet, and how to take a look at the Jam after the Meet has finished.

 Oh man, I'm excited. Some of the changes to Meet that Google have been promising us are finally rolling out. Take a look at the video below for more details. Sorry for the quick and rough production value here. I wanted to get this out to teachers as soon as I could. You have no idea how often I get asked about some of these features. This is AAAAAAAAAAAAAWEWWEeEEEEEEEEEEsSOSSOMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, world. I know you've been waiting patiently. It's finally time for Squatter NINE! If Squatter 9 looks like a re-hash of Squatter 1... well... it... ummm... sort-of... IS. That's on purpose. This is posted in private places for R&R (Reading and Relief) around my campus. This is a reminder of all the great things you can do quickly with the push of a few buttons. Note that this time around, I included shortcuts for Windows, ChromeOS, and MacOS. That being said... c'mon Apple. We'll need keyboard shortcuts for snap! You're just about to roll out Big Sur... Can you add just one more feature before it drops? It can't be that hard. Well, that's enough babble for now. Enjoy your R&R time.  

This is a work in progress, so check back frequently. This is a list of resources for eLearning. There will be tons of stuff here, so click something that looks interesting and see if it will apply to you. Don't feel like you have to go through it all at once. As I add things to the Wakelet, they will automatically add to this page.

The Internet is the wild west. It can be a bit… uncivilized. How do we teach our students, as well as our own children… and ourselves for that matter, to bring a touch of civilization to the internet? How do teach and learn how to protect ourselves from those internet ruffians? Google to the rescue! Go check out beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com. (That’s “be internet awesome (dot) with google (dot) com” without the spaces.) Be Internet Awesome covers topics like being kind, but not oversharing, securing your accounts, and finding truth on the internet. It’s even got games to teach the concepts. Yes, it seems like it’s aimed at students younger than High School, but if they haven’t learned it by now, they could use the exposure. Consider this for your own children as well.