¶ INTRO
What's the best screen casting tool for your classroom or your staff pd? In this episode, Alfonso Mendoza joins me to talk about Screencastify, Loom, ScreenPal, Kapwing, and more. Plus, I've got updates on Google Lens in Chrome, Padlets new analytics, a great read on student led learning, a major upgrade to NotebookLM, multiple actually major upgrades to NotebookLM, and a beloved ed tech tool that's changing its name. Let's get to it. Welcome. Happy Summer everyone.
How is it already mid-June though? Seriously? It is going so fast. I've got two more episodes coming out and actually the second one will be in July after this. So today we're coming out mid-June, another one, hopefully about a week from now, and the next one will probably land on like July 1st. How is this happening so fast? Summer. Please slow down Summer. What are you doing to me after that? Once, uh, 4th of July hits? I'll probably take a few weeks off.
We got a vacation in there, but I'll be back with you at the end of July, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Why am I talking about a break? I'm gonna take in July and an episode. I'm gonna come back to you with the end of July. Let's live in the present, folks. We've got an amazing episode today. My good friend Fonz Mendoza from my EdTech life is here to talk. I've got some really awesome or exciting, at least updates about some EdTech tools. Even one changing a name.
I know that makes us all feel squeamish, but I've got a little bit of a hint about that later in the episode. So lots of great stuff today. Let's not worry about two or three weeks off from the show in July. It's still early June, early to mid-June. We got a great one today. We got a couple great ones coming in the next few weeks. I hope you're subscribed so you don't miss them, but let's not even worry about the future. Let's live in the moment, folks.
¶ Today's Guest: Fonz Mendoza
Let's get to today's interview with Fonz Mendoza. All right, today's guest is Alfonso Fonz Mendoza, Jr. He is an educator, AI researcher and host of one of my favorite shows My EdTech Life. He champions responsible innovation and education, blending technology, ethics and heart. You could find his work at MyEdTech.Life or on all the social medias at @MyEdTechLife.
And as always, those will be in the show notes for you to click on and go right over to Fonz' work, uh, and check out all the things that he's sharing there, but not in the show notes. Actually, here in the show is Fonz. What's up buddy? How you doing today?
Hey, I'm doing great, Jake. Thank you so much. I appreciate seeing you again. I know that you are a guest also on Maya Tech Live, and it's an honor to be on your show here, speaking with you about. Of course, the thing that we love the most is Ed Tech and in education, so thank you so much for the invite.
Yeah, it's been a long time since that time. I was on my ed tech life I think it was back in 2020 or 2021. It was a different world back then. But I was so excited to be on your show and it's overdue for me to have you here on Educational Duct Tape. I'm glad to have you. I, one of my favorite things, those of you listening to the podcast can't see is Fonz' background. You, you've got the perfect lighting back there with that like purple and blue Hue.
Everybody's gonna have to go check out his website to check it out. Like the setup you've got in there. Um, how much time did you spend creating the, your office setting? Oh, and we've got a plant that fell over. How much time did you spend setting up this perfect background for your recordings? 'cause you've, you've had this set up for years, right? I dunno if it's changed over the years, but.
probably like three years or so. 'cause the, when I first started the podcast on March 20th, uh, of 2020, it
No way. That's when you started was March 20, 2020.
yeah, so the podcast just turned five, you know, so That's fantastic. Five years old. And, um, so I used to have just one shelf. No lighting. And it was really in my, um, dining room area, because it was during COVID and that was my workspace, you know, I had to be on a mic, I had to create videos. I was helping teachers, training teachers, and so on. And then finally I converted this extra bedroom into an office, and I said, okay let's, let's play this up. And,
I'll do it right.
yeah, with the help of my, my beautiful wife, she helped me like kind of get things organized and everything, and then just with the lighting and stuff like that. And, uh, so yeah, I finally landed on a nice look, and that seems very professional and yeah, it just seems to be the trademark people always say they come on and they're like, oh my gosh, like, I love your background. And
Yep.
will even ask is that a, like, is that an actual thing or is it virtual? And then I'm like, I'll pick up a plant and be like,
yup, it's real.. Yeah. I've always been envious, but I've never put the time into mimicking yours. I have my messy shelves with bobbleheads and books on it, and as we started recording I was like, oh, I should move this stack of papers, this back here. Although I guess, I guess it looks real when you just like have a stack of papers from a PD you did two months ago sitting behind you on the floor, right?
Oh, no worries. It's like that, that's what people see for the show. But man, talk about like, when, when we do like podcasts
Yeah.
our office space and everything, oh my gosh, it could definitely look like a tornado came through and everything, but you know, sometimes it's just like, hey, and it's like I told people, you know, sometimes you'll see, you know, personalities like you and myself and many others that they, they say like, oh my gosh, they look so perfect and professional. They must get it right all the time. I was
Yeah.
you don't know the work that goes
Right? Yes.
one podcast episode out, or even one clip out and So it takes time
yeah,
that. So I just wanna let everybody know that although you see us here or you hear us, it's like there's a lot of work that goes into this. And if you're ever saying like, no, I can't do that. Yes you can.
yeah.
can. You know, go ahead and do it. Click record. Start your podcast, put yourself out there and you know, see the great things that happen.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's a, it's a labor of love, but it's, it's very rewarding to do it. I don't, I don't, everybody hears you say how time consuming it is and they're like, I don't know, maybe I can't do it. They're like, okay, I have the, okay, so you're right. I do have the ability to do it, but do I have the time to do it? That is a valid question with podcasting. It is a time consuming hobby.
nowadays, it's funny watching all the podcasts on, well, not watching, I, I don't watch them, but just the fact that podcasts are like videos and they all have like, their, like, they're really bougie setups where they're sitting in like armchairs with microphones. Like, I feel like you're ready for that? I'm not ready for that. you're al you're almost there. Like, but it looks like they're like all in like cigar rooms or something like that where they're recording from, right? All right.
Well speaking of finding time, I'd like to find some time Fonz for a quick game. Are you up for a game?
I'm up for a game. Let's do it.
¶ Which of the Following Is Less Torturous?
Nice. Okay. We're gonna start with a game of which of the following is less torturous. Now, Fonz, this is known in other circles by another name, this game, but I'm not due to copyright issues, allowed to call it by that name, I have to call it on the Educational Duct Tape Podcast. Which of the following is less torturous?
And my question for you is, which of the following is less torturous or would be less torturous communicating only through AOL instant messenger with dial up internet 1997 style or only via beepers and payphones also 1997 style. Okay, so you've gotta choose one way to communicate all of your communication. Is it gonna be through AOL instant messenger using dial up internet or with beepers and payphones?
I would probably say it would be beepers and payphones.
You're going that way. Okay. What's, what's your logic?
I'm going that way. And the only reason being is, and, and I guess at that time, you know, AOL is so brand new and we're like, oh my gosh. But then I think after a while, having to communicate back and forth with so many people and then just hearing that, you know, sounds, you know, it is gonna take a toll when you have to go check something and and so on. But with a beeper, I remember I got my first beeper when I was in junior high. I was in eighth grade.
Okay.
I felt like I was a cool kid. 'cause at the time everybody was like, oh my gosh,
Yeah, you were.
and so on. And I remember it was a, a clear blue plastic,
Oh yeah, those were the ones right there,
like, yeah. He's like, I have one. But little did I know that having a beeper, I mean it was great, but then I never realized like how much access your parents have to you
right?
every single time. But what I loved about it, even though you mentioned payphones, it would just be like, Hey, I, you know, even if I didn't have a quarter, didn't have anything, I could always just, I forget the code that you would just dial.
Yeah.
was just the operator just say, Hey, I like to make a collect call to
Yeah.
And then so you had access to your parents, and your parents didn't mind paying the extra, I think it was like 35 cents for the call or
Hope they didn't, they paged you.
Yeah. So it's like, eh, you know, but they got me. But I think it'd be a lot faster too. So I would definitely take, I'll take the beeper route for sure.
Okay. Isn't it funny thinking about collect calls, like kids nowadays have no, like, would've no idea. What's a collect call? Like I used to, I used to make so many collect phone calls, like I'd be away at like a, like a basketball camp or like, I don't even know where else I'd be collect calling from school or something like that.
Mm-hmm.
calling home. And you like, and you'd put in that spot where you have to say your name. Mom. It's me.
Yes. Yeah. Or
Uh,
that commercial where they're like, collect call from so and so. It's like, had a baby, it's a boy. And
yes. Classic.
classic, classic. I was like, and of course everybody, this generation won't understand
Nope.
mean, back then for us it was like, oh man, I got one by em, I don't have to pay.
Yeah. Oh yeah. I think I, I don't know if I'd go beepers and payphone then I say about beepers and payphones is, you could do that anywhere, right? AOL Instant Messenger you're tethered to your phone, to your device. But I did have some pretty cool away messages on AOL and instant messenger. So that was the thing of pride. We need a really cool away message.
Yeah.
It was like the,
gonna bring up another fact that
yeah.
know is just, and the reason that I probably wouldn't do AOL I'll be honest with you. And a lot of people might be shocked to understand that they're like, this person, you know, is, you know, all about the ed tech life
Yeah.
I did not get my first personal computer until I graduated university in 2003.
Wow. After college.
time after college is the first time that I owned my first, and it was a laptop and it was a, I forget what MacBook edition it was, but it was the white one. Um, you know, and that was my very, very first personal computer I never had. And of course, coming from my background, it, it was not easy to afford
Yeah. Uhhuh.
that given time. But then of course, with my financial aid money, I, I used that for other stuff other than buying a computer,
right.
I was like, Hey, they have a computer lab here and it's free. And so I would go to university at, let's say if I had a paper due,
Yeah.
Sunday, like tomorrow,
Right,
night, I would go to the university. I'd get there probably like at four in the afternoon and stay there till like six in the morning, just finishing up like a 20 page paper,
Oh man.
And then just go home, take a shower, and then get ready to go to
Go right back out to glass.
Yeah. So for me, I was like, Hey, I don't need to buy anything. But,
Right.
why I went with the beeper route 'cause it's more familiar to
Yeah. Right. You essentially weren't doing AOL Instant Messenger. 'cause those were those college years. That's where I picture myself doing in instant Messenger is in my dorm room. Like having, like being in the dorm messaging with, with people I went to high school with and stuff like that, and putting up the away message.
And I didn't get to do that until I would go to a friend's house and I was
Yeah.
this? And
What's this?
AOL. I was like, oh, that's great. But then, I mean, I couldn't get a computer, so it was just when I was there that I'd be like, oh, let's chat with some friends and stuff like that.
If 2002 Fonz could see you right now with the computer you're probably using right now, I'd be like, wow, that's amazing. Right. That's for sure.
yeah. They'd be like, whoa, what's going on here?
¶ Today's #EduDuctTape Question: What Tool Would You Use for Recording Screencasts?
Yep. All right. Well, we're gonna dive into an Educational Duct Tape question here. Fonz this is where, for new listeners just tuning in for the first time where I ask a question a teacher might have. So it's a, goal a teacher has, or a issue a teacher is trying to solve, or a task a teacher's trying to complete. And the answer to an Educational Duct Tape question is educational technology.
Uh, now I like to point out that the answer to our problems and our needs and our tasks that we're doing in our classrooms isn't always educational technology. There's lots of great analogs solutions to things too , but on this show, we focus on the ed tech ones.
So the question I have for you, which I think you'll be, really, Qualified to answer this question based on the work that you do, not only in your day job, but in the podcast and things like that, uh, is what tool or strategy would you use for recording screencasts? Speaking of the olden days of EdTech, 'cause we were just talking about a little bit ago. back in the day, this question only had one or two answers. It was like, well, are you using a Chromebook or a Mac?
Because I could tell you exactly what to use on them. Nowadays we have lots of options. So Fonz, what would you recommend?
Yeah, I mean, there's three options and it, it all just depends on what it is that you're trying to do. But if, if it's a teacher that's trying to create and have resources that are
¶ Screencastify
available for students at any given time, but not only at any given time, but to be able to track who clicks on those videos to see that they were being viewed or at least that they were being accessed.
That's huge right there.
And not only that, but it does provide captioning in the student's language should
Hmm.
either Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean.
Mm-hmm.
only that, but it also, will provide a transcript that can be translated into that student's language of learning. Or if the teacher needs to send something home, it can easily be translated into that. I would recommend Screencastify
hmm.
that. And of course, just because of how robust it has now become, it is great for a teacher not only to record their content, be able to share it and create quizzes from those videos too as well. But the teacher can assign a, either a screencast or in other words, just a webcam where the student can reply to an open-ended question and the teacher can listen to the student. They can work on their speaking, listening skills,
Mm-hmm.
so forth. They can also, she can also give the ability to say, not only do I want you on camera, but I'm also gonna allow you to share your screen, through Screencastify submit. So that is one of my favorite tools where teachers can really. Expand their learning and delivery, but also the students can expand on their delivery, working on those speaking skills, the communication, the writing skills, because it takes a lot to write a, you know, a script, a thought.
Mm-hmm.
once they're writing that out, they polish it up, they give you a beautiful, finished product that is a digital artifact that teachers can have in storage,
Yeah.
in case there is ever a need for, some students that may need to get additional services. You have the yearly meetings, whether it's an IEP, 504, ARD, and so many other acronyms that are out there. Teacher can show up and although they may look like they're showing up empty handed,
Hmm.
course you've got a digital artifact, oftentimes the question will be, well. Can we see the student progress?
Yeah.
Has there been student growth? Now you're not only submitting papers
Yeah.
saying, well at the beginning of the year they started off getting fifties on quizzes
Mm-hmm.
and now they're at seventies or eighties. And, and yes, it's numerical, but can we see now the student actual growth
Yeah.
from their speaking skills from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? Yes, you can. And that's why I love the power of screencasts, not only for the teacher
Yeah.
to facilitate the learning at their own pace, like we mentioned,
Mm-hmm.
but you also get the student understanding and you're able to listen to that and you're even able to visibly track that growth
Mm-hmm.
and have data there, anecdotal data and the way that they're presenting the, the knowledge content to you. So it's fantastic.
Yeah. I have like a billion questions 'cause that was so good and you packed so much, good content in there. So the first thing I I wanna point out to the listeners are kind of those like non-negotiables you had at the beginning. You said, if I wanna screencast tool, I wanted to, I'm gonna try to state 'em all, fill in the blanks for me. If I miss them, I want it to, Record my screen. Obviously I want it to have captioning. I want those captions to be translatable.
I want, it to have transcripts, right? And I want those transcripts to be translatable. Um, and what else did I miss in there? What was the other thing? I feel like there was another one.
Uh oh. And then, uh, easy to a access also for parents at home
Yes, for sure. Yeah.
so then that way parents can also see what the teacher is sending and they can hear it or read it in their own language as well.
Yeah.
And then of course, on the student side,
Yeah.
being able to reply in different modalities too, as well.
Yeah, that, those are huge. and I think one thing that I wanna point out to teachers, as you're thinking about, as you're, maybe you're evaluating a screen casting tool and you're thinking about those kind of non-negotiables there with the captions. Some tools have automated captions. Some tools have automated captions that you can edit. if you can edit them, that's definitely the way to go. Uh, one where you could fix the things in there.
I don't want the teachers to have to type out all of the captions for their videos, but I also don't want the students or families watching videos that have. In incorrect captions here and there. if we can avoid that, I know sometimes there, there's just not an option that does that, but definitely if you have an option of something where you could have the captions autogenerated, and then be able to change them.
So folks listening to this in Apple Podcasts or in YouTube, there are captions available there for this podcast episode. and I fix them because it, it will mess things up, in the automated captions. Not a lot of things, but it messes some things up. So, so the captions you're seeing in, in those apps, if that's where you're digesting this podcast from, um, those captions are ones that I've fixed because I want it to be as accessible as possible. And then also you mentioned the translation part.
If the translation is based off of an incorrect capturing of the audio, that that's gonna be a problem there too. Yeah. So that's the, that's the first, oh, go ahead.
Oh yeah. I was gonna say, and I don't think I for, I forgot to mention this also that Screencast, 'cause I just used it recently
Hmm.
to create a video for our district. But Screencastify, not only will it do the captions in the home language or learning language for the student, but it will also dub the voice now in that language. So you don't need the captions anymore. However, I do always still put the captions there. Just so oftentimes, you know, as we know, 90% of people or maybe even higher, will watch a video with the volume down and they'll still have the captions.
the options? Yeah,
so they're still able to access the information, not only with the captions, but now they can actually listen to it in their home language or in their learning language.
that's in Screencastify now.
Yeah.
Whoa, I didn't know that. Okay. So it, it,
it's not it is in the paid for version
yeah. Yeah, for sure. But yeah.
honestly, I would rec highly recommend. I don't work for them or anything, but I'm just saying I honestly, but because I have done work with the platform since I was in the classroom, you know, back in, you know, it's been eight, maybe about. 12 years ago, using it first as a teacher and now using it in this current role and being a household name for our district, it definitely has grown and been very robust where it gives us these, these abilities that we didn't have before.
And it makes teachers more comfortable that what they record, what they share, will be in that learning language for the student that they need, but also in the home language for the parents too as
Yeah.
well and so that's been
huge.
uh, something very big, especially for now our students that are getting ready to graduate, that they have to follow certain paths and
Mm-hmm.
and here's how you can find what colleges they've,
Yeah.
applied to and so on. So now we created the video in Spanish, but we also have the ability to do it in any other language that we may have in our district, which now we have Korean, Japanese. so now with Screencastify and making that, that small investment, it's definitely paying off in dividends and being able to do that.
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. I, I did not know about that. And I think sometimes when a tool's good, you gotta pay for it. And I like, I, I used to be mad when tools went from free to paid, but like, they gotta pay, they gotta pay the people to do the work that makes this tool do the things It does. It wouldn't have improved so much and the 12 years since it came out, or however long it's been, if they didn't have people in there doing the work. Right.
And for a company like Screencastify for example, or Loom or any of these other ones that, that do video recording, the, your videos have to be stored somewhere.
Mm-hmm.
Right. There has to be a server. and so something's gotta pay the bills for that. Right. And so, yeah, so the paid versions are understandable.
I would, I would encourage you all, like if you're a district leader or
Yeah.
maybe an influencer or talk to that person who makes some of those decisions, get on a call with them, they are very kind, very polite, and they're always willing. To work with your district and I, I have nothing but great experiences with them where they've been able to help us out.
Yeah, for sure. so thinking about those other things you mentioned, so one of the thing you mentioned was that you wanted to have analytics to see, did the student watch the video? So Screencastify back in the day, you recorded the video, it went, into your drive, and then you shared it out from your drive, which was wonderful. It was a great feature, but it didn't really give you those analytics and statistics.
You could still do that piece, you could still share from your drive, you could still download that file, you could still take it into some other video editing software and edit it up. You could still post on your website, you could still put in Google Classroom, whatever, all those things.
But now they have those viewing pages where, um, there's essentially is a webpage where the Screencastify video is housed and you as the person recording the video, can see those viewing statistics of how many people went into it. Um. You can make it so that not everybody can access it. you can change those sharing settings, to just in our domain or certain people or things like that.
I think if the viewers have accounts, so if the kids were to have accounts, they, you could see which kids watched it, can't you? Is that that right? Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
issue of some, a lot of schools Screencastify, they might use Screencastify for the teachers, but the kids don't have accounts. So you might not be able to see if the kids watched it, but at least you can go in there and say, I've got 25 kids and I could see that only 13 watch the video. Right. That, that's a, that's a form of formative assessment that tells me I need to provide more time and more, whatever I need to work on making sure that all these, these kids are watching this video.
So yeah, analytics pages like that is, is immensely important. I agree with that. And
only for students, Jake, I was
yeah. Oh, yeah.
even, uh, people like for myself that
Mm-hmm.
work in our service center, and that's what we call it, central office, but we call it
Yeah.
our service center, is when we do have something that we need to share with teachers as far as, you know, some kind of learning module We send that and, and you know, and I know a lot of, sometimes you feel, oh, it's like an I gotcha. But it's really, it's like we just want to know that people are viewing it. We wanna make sure that, there is some understanding
Right.
we just wanna make sure that things are covered. But I mean, we're always gonna be there to help and support, but it, so, but again, at the same time, it models that for them to say, oh, hey, we can do this with the students too, and just have some sort of accountability
Yeah.
the students can log in, have those counts. I love it. And I think, uh, you know, our district is really seeing the value on it, especially with home communication.
Yeah.
teachers can communicate effectively and send a video home. The parent can watch it in their language of preference,
Mm-hmm.
they're in the know
Yeah.
going on.
That's huge. And those stats are huge too, to know that it's beginning view. Like we, even when we're just supporting the educators or supporting the parents, we need to, we need data that shows us that this stuff is being utilized, right? If we see that we're recording these videos and we're putting them out there, and a small percentage of the population we're sending it to is watching the videos, then we realize something needs change. Something needs to change.
Either we're not, whatever it might be, there's some reason that they're not watching it. So we need that information there. or if we see that lots of people are watching something, we know that that was a topic of interest or something like that. So there's lots, lots to learn from there. and then the other thing you,
¶ Screencastify Quizzes
you pointed out about Screencastify was the quiz feature that they've added recently that now we can embed questions. So in my classroom, I've been outta the room for, uh, the classroom for a couple years, but I used EDpuzzle a lot in my classroom. And back in the day I used Zaption. Do you remember Zaption?
Yes.
I loved Zaption. Zaption was the best. Um, I'm still a little bit sad about Zaption going away, so I used Zaption, and then when Zaption went away, I transitioned to EDpuzzle. still love EDpuzzle. It's a great tool. Um, but Screencastify has added a feature to where now you could have quizzes embedded in your videos. what kind do, do you know off the top of your head what kind of questions you can ask in There is, it's obviously multiple choice, but
you've got short answer questions. You've got the multiple choice questions too as well. So the, that, that's where they're starting at now. and which is great. I mean,
Yeah,
even the short answer, just to be able to do that as, as many states may be familiar there, there's the, the short responses that students need to practice with, well, what better way to practice? Also here, you know, you're watching a little video.
yeah,
you know, maybe five minutes at most and depending on the attention span of the students
yeah.
and the grade level and so on. But then for them to be able to practice and reflect and put in their reflection
Right.
to what Ed puzzle, ed puzzle has that too as well. that's something that's fantastic just to personalize the learning there a little bit more. so you can add those interactive questions and
Yeah.
personalize the teaching. You get their grade, you get your report. And again, as a teacher, just being able to get that data, be able to see,
Right,
who are my students that are. Excelling. Okay. And where my middle students, and then of course my students that just need that little additional push, maybe fix
right.
some misconceptions things of that sort. And then you can be very, targeted as far as which students you really need
Yep.
to help and support
Yeah,
they're able to not only show you their learning through a quiz,
Yeah,
but when you give them the ability to record, which I know we'll probably get into you right now, but
yeah,
to speak their thought process and
for sure.
and grow. So that's a different way too of, of assessing the learning.
Yeah. yeah, I think that formative assessment is so important in those videos because, not just for the teacher to assess and check on understanding, but I think there's a couple other prongs. One is the kid self-assessing sometimes. Sometimes kids aren't the best at taking in content and thinking about, do I understand that content while I'm going through it? So if we embed a question, then it forces them to think about it,
Mm-hmm.
And then realize if they're confused or not. Whereas if there's no question, they might just keep going on without really thinking through that. So I think that's important. And then the last piece is just the, the engagement piece. Like if we ask a kid to watch a 15 minute long video, that's not something that's super duper exciting to them. expecting them to still be tuned in and really focused at minute 13, is a tough ask and is unlikely I wouldn't be putting money on that. Right.
Yeah.
but breaking it up with questions in there. Keeps them a little more actively engaged and keeps them a little more minds on and gets them kind of switching what their brain's doing from just taking in the content to confirming if they understand the content and to that self-assessment point, it pushes them. I don't know the answer to this question. I better go back and re-watch that part, you know, which is something we need kids to be doing for sure.
Mm-hmm.
¶ Using Kami with Screencastify
But what I love is on the actual assignment, when you create it, there's a little assignment box. So you have your title. So say like, maybe it's gonna be, I dunno, solving two step Equations, and then you as a teacher can link that handout that's gonna open for the child on their computer, whether it's through Kami and so on.
Mm-hmm.
they do is just click on the Screencastify extension, and there you have it. Now it, they can go ahead and show their page.
Yeah.
use the annotation
Yeah.
tools within Kami, to record themselves explaining the content,
Yeah.
working it out while they're explaining, talking the process through. So I think that that's something that's fantastic that although
Mm-hmm.
the whiteboard option might not be there, there's still options where you can visibly see the student,
Yeah.
either writing, circling, annotating, manipulating a, you know, a Google slide for you or things of that sort, and they can present it to you and then just simply click submit and it goes straight into your grade book. And now you can go ahead and, you know, check it, make
Yeah.
it's, you know, everything's done correctly and you're good to go.
Yeah.
and that works with your Google classroom. I mean, that's fantastic.
Right in there. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think so. In a recent episode we talked about formative assessment tools, and we talked about some things like Quizizz and things like that where, The students are answering with either select or, or even on the Screencastify videos a couple minutes ago where you were asking them questions while they're watching the video and they're either typing or they're clicking a multiple choice answer.
There's lots of tools out there that do that for you and can auto grade and give you really quick data. And I think those things are super important to have those in your repertoire.
¶ Just Press Record, But Do You Have to Assess It?
But I also think there's a lot to be said for hearing the student explain their thinking. and doing something like Screencastify submit allows you to hear the student explain their thinking. That's gonna give you the richest formative assessment you can get. Right? Holly Clark used to say, in one of her books back in the day, just press record.
You know, like if you want to hear student thinking, if you wanna peek inside their brain, if you wanna really see what they're thinking, just press record. Like have them press record. The issue is, teachers might not have time to watch all of these videos. Right. And that's okay. So maybe we don't use it at, sometimes it doesn't have to be the way we always assess. I also wanna point out that sometimes we can have kids record those videos. We don't actually watch them or assess them, right?
We don't have to assess everything kids do. The act of the kid thinking and recording is beneficial in and of itself. Adding in us formative assessing it obviously increases the benefit, but even if we just have the kids record and we don't go back and watch them all, it's totally okay. I, I think there's still benefit. Or we go and watch the videos of the kids who we think might have some misconceptions and the kids who we confident are confident get it.
Maybe we don't watch those videos, right? Maybe we skip over those ones. Or maybe you made a point here. Maybe they're recording their screencast. If I submit of them doing something in Kami, maybe in Kami, we, we look really quickly to see who got the right answer and who got the wrong answer. And then for the kids who got the wrong answer, we go watch the video to see maybe where's the misconception?
So maybe we're not watching, maybe we're as assuring that everybody got it right and only watch the videos for those who don't. So I think there's lots of flexible ways to use that.
¶ Setting a Time Limit
I think for teachers too, I mean, going back to like what you were saying, man, this could be a lot to grade,
Yeah,
like 30 kids in one class. Maybe you're self-contained and you're lucky you only have those 30. But when you're in high school, you've got like maybe eight class rotations and
right.
know, class has 30 and you're like, oh my gosh. But you're absolutely right. Or maybe even just setting parameters. I know even with my fifth graders, I was very specific that when we did create a recording, I said, it has to be no longer than 90 seconds, so that's all you're giving me. 90 seconds. And, and of course I wasn't giving 'em like a long assignment or watch this 10 minute video. It was specifically targeted on that specific, uh. Standard that we're covering,
Yeah.
that specific exercise. So you have 90 seconds and you'd be surprised even if, if, if a fifth grader can do it, I
Yeah,
mean, I'm pretty sure us, we even as adults and it could
yeah,
harder, but I mean 90 seconds, you're really trimming the fat
yeah, yeah.
getting into the learning. And
Yep.
it makes the a little bit easier to just go sit through that while you're doing some other work.
Yep.
but also at the same time you say, okay, I know which students are gonna get it
Mm-hmm.
that they submitted to me. I love that idea, by the way. It's just like, Hey, they already submitted it to me. I saw that in Kami or.
Yeah.
In this, they, they did understand it, but then those that didn't get it, oh, there was a misconception, let me see the thought process
Yeah. Let's go see what it was.
and then
Mm-hmm.
you can make those adjustments. So yeah, different ways of doing that. But
Yeah.
encourage, you know, just set a parameter. Maybe at first you
Yeah.
90 minute, 90 seconds. Then this
Mm-hmm.
gonna be one minute.
¶ Screencasting for Language Acquisition
Yeah.
And trust me, the kids, they get better at their writing 'cause they have to write that script.
Mm-hmm.
get better at their speaking and communication, so the byproduct
Being clear and concise, right?
of doing screencast
Mm-hmm.
is the building of communication skills
Mm-hmm.
And
sure.
not only that but language acquisition,
Mm.
which is one thing that I experienced in my classroom. If I may add this story from
Yeah,
my last year in the classroom
for sure.
we were two separate groups of fifth grade teachers. And I was in one pod. The other teacher was in a different pod that, and I taught science and social
Mm-hmm.
taught the same thing. We had a pair of twins. One twin was in one pod, and the other twin was in my pod.
Okay.
I was the teacher. We had barely started getting Chromebooks in our schools, and at that time, our Sup said, well, each elementary will get two Chromebook carts for the whole school. At that given time, we still had computer labs and all that, but I was that one teacher that checked out the Chromebook cart the whole year.
Right,
I would just go in and I, because nobody else was using it,
right.
Nobody else was taking a risk. They were just like, what do we do? So I started implementing that through the use of Screencastify at
Mm.
that had just come out and being released, and I was very familiar with it coming from TCEA and I would tell students, okay, this is what we're gonna do. Here's our history lesson. Here is your rubric.
Yeah.
You in a group have to create a presentation. Or if it's individual, you're gonna have to narrate your presentation or you can just read something, whatever it is. So one of the twins, they were coming in, you know, the English was their second language, so they were emergent bilingual. she was very shy. She never wanted to go up to present, and I don't blame her.
And, and that's why I was just work with her in so many ways to just allow her to present her learning in a way that she felt comfortable. So obviously standing in front of the class was not her forte, but
Right.
I put a computer in front of her, the Chromebook, she spoke loudly through her presentations and, and what I mean is speaking loudly is like I can tell that she knew the learning and the way that she would put these beautiful presentations together in fifth grade and slowly as the year progressed. I remember one time we were like, we were all presenting and I already knew like, okay, she's not gonna present, but it's okay because her work.
Showed that she mastered the content and she would still do the little screen records individually. Just very quiet. And so it,
Hmm.
the learning was great. Her language was wonderful. And then that last presentation, she raises her hand and she goes, can I go up there? Everybody, all the kids got quiet. They're like, She went up there and she presented in this.
Aw,
Beautiful English. I
yeah.
and, and the reason I say beautiful English is just because it's that mix of
Mm-hmm.
own language and, and the English that she
Yeah. Yeah.
But she went up there and she gave this beautiful presentation that, uh, you know, and all the kids were quiet and then were just like happy and clapping and it was fantastic.
That's amazing.
had that. And what I go back to teachers having those digital artifacts is being able to save her progress
Mm-hmm.
from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Well, she was able to exit the bilingual program.
Wow.
Unfortunately, her sister did not. And the reason being is because on the other pod it was all worksheets.
Right?
worksheet, worksheet. It was just
Yeah.
sit and get, sit and get. So there wasn't enough opportunity to develop language.
Yeah.
any discourse in the class, any discussion
Mm-hmm.
so on. So that is why I find tools like Screencastify
Yeah, for sure..
Allowing to amplify your student voice. You don't know how much that really builds a student,
Mm-hmm.
communication, language acquisition, and even confidence up significantly.
Yeah, for sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's huge. What a great story. Thanks for sharing that. so Screencastify I think is the tool that I would go to for, for Screencasting myself as well. I, I personally, if I'm recording Screencast, I'm probably using Camtasia.
¶ Camtasia
Uh, it's a more, professional level. I don't know. It's a $200 screencasting tool. That's what I'm gonna be using if I'm putting something out on YouTube. Um, but if I'm in the classroom and if I'm recommending something to a teacher,
¶ Limitations to Screencastify
and when I was in the classroom a couple years ago, I wasn't using Camtasia for all my videos, I was using Screencastify. It's quick, it's easy, high quality, uh, does a great job. And so that's what I'd recommend. However. There are lots of other tools out there. I think the biggest limiter with Screencastify for most teachers is going to be, we just talked about Screencastify submit that is unlimited on free accounts now.
So they said if you're on a free account, you could do Screencastify submit as many times as you want, which is amazing. So on free accounts, as you can, at least for now, for the time being, uh, I don't know if there's an end date to that. but in the free accounts you're limited to 10 videos. and then 10 of those quizzes we mentioned earlier. and that's not per month, that's just period.
Right. And so, and I, again, I understand why they have to put pricing behind their things and most situations, most schools, I think we can get these things paid for, right through either through school funding or through grants. But there are certainly situations out there where they can't.
¶ Kapwing
So what if we're in a school district or a school or a setting where we can't get paid Screencastify, we wanna record a bunch of teacher presentations or teacher content. And so we need. to overcome that barrier and the pricing is gonna be an issue. So what, what other tools would you suggest?
So I'm gonna put you on to something that I shared at TCEA about two years ago, and I myself have been using it, you know,
Okay.
sparingly but I use it because the time before Screencastify was able to get the language and the subtitles and all of that, you know, I was like, well, I need something that's gonna help me do this and does it already. And this is a tool that has been around for a very long time, but it's never really made its way through all the noise as far as the, the, the usuals in the education space. But you
I,
can get a free educator account and you can definitely do essentially what you can do in Screencastify. The only thing is, I want you to think of this. It's, it's not gonna give you the analytics, it's not gonna give you the quiz options. But if this is just something for you as a teacher to record. Still be able to have subtitles and be able to translate your subtitles. Now, it's not gonna dub the videos for you because that would be in the paid version.
Okay.
I think they only give you like 10 minutes to dub, like, like, and that's it.
Okay.
I mean, like I said, there's always a tool for, depending on what you need, there is a platform called Kapwing.
Oh, yes, I know Kapwing. Yep. and I, I love that you know the, the correct pronunciation too. 'cause I had to look this up and figure out how to pronounce it. 'cause I, it looks like it's cap-wing,
Yeah.
It's Kapwing tell. So tell us about Kapwing.
So Kapwing is usually more for social media and content
Mm-hmm.
and this and that and whatnot. Well, how about you think of yourself as a teacher? Not only are you a teacher, but as you know, we do multiple roles, but you can also see yourself as you classroom, social media influencer. And what you're able to
I.
is, number one, I recommend you go to Kapwing and go and look for the Free Educator account. And what I'll do is I'll share that link with,
Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure.
Jake, and then we'll put it in notes for you. Once you get accepted. As an educator, you really have unlimited usage for it. However, there are certain things that you won't be able to use just because that's the paid for version. As
Mm-hmm.
Jake and I talk about, there's some things that you gotta pay for, but here's what I like about Kapwing too as well, is you can do your recording, you can record yourself, or you can even bring in video in here, and sometimes I tell teachers, don't try to reinvent the wheel and record the same video for every year. What you can do, like Jake and I do, if you see our clips, it's like we repurpose.
Oh yeah.
this, this is my favorite repurposing tool just because I know that there are many out there. But if you want something that is free, you bring in your video from COVID, all those 200 videos that you've done, maybe videos in the last three years, you can bring those in and you can automatically just have Kapwing, generate clips for you. Like you see, uh, Jake and myself put out on social media.
Yeah.
of the content that you created, and then you can find those specific bits and you can put 'em in an iPhone format, you know, in that 19 by 16 or
Yep.
whatever formatting it is, your students can view it. You can add the subtitles, you can add B roll, you can add all of those things and make it engaging where the students are like, whoa, miss, whoa, sir, like this looks like TikTok. And, and you can even click there where it's like a TikTok format
Uh.
and can do all of that. And so this is completely free. And what it does, like I said, you're very limited. It's not gonna give you the dubbing because that's gonna be a lot more expensive. but it will give you subtitles. In English or any language, it'll translate it for you. So
Oh wow.
even though the, the students will still hear your voice in, in English or whatever your, the learning language is in the classroom, but
Mm-hmm.
you can put the subtitles in any language that they need and then they're already burned into the video.
Yeah.
you can go ahead and send that, download it, send it in a different format, whatever format you like and share it. So that is one of my favorite tools to use. And it's called Kapwing. An
Yeah.
interesting story about the name Kapwing is, uh, I forget, she's on LinkedIn and I follow her on LinkedIn. The founder, it is based on Calvin and Hobbes, if many of you're familiar with that cartoon, Calvin and Hobbs. There is an episode there where I believe there was a, something about a, a gunshot,
Yeah.
the onomatopoeia, where they drew in. It'll say Kapwing, like it just bounced off of
Yes, I remember that.
something and that's where got the name from.
Oh, crazy,
that is fantastic, and I absolutely love them. So I wanna put you onto them. Kapwing educator account, and you can put in as much as many videos in their content, easy for you to cut certain things that you want
Mm-hmm.
If you wanna just focus on a certain piece of content, work that out, send it out, download it. You're in, you're out. It's quick and easy editing,
Mm-hmm.
and you're good to go.
Yeah, for sure.
even you can even record your videos on Screencastify and make 'em look very professional there and bring them in. And again, Screencastify at this time does not have a very robust editing tool
I'd agree. Yeah.
but with a combination of that.
Yeah.
you know, doing a great video there and even dubbing it, if you have that
Mm-hmm.
have the paid for version, then you can even bring it in here and then you can make those cuts or
Yeah.
those little TikTok videos one second, you know, knowledge nuggets, things of that sort.
Yeah,
mean, it, it opens up the world for you.
yeah, I agree. So it doesn't have a, or a screen recorder in it, is that right? You'd have to bring in, you'd have to screen record somewhere else, which is fine, I think.
Yeah. And like I said, and the, the reason that I wanna put that on there is just because of the editing tool
yeah, for sure.
and even now with screen recording tools, E even just the recording tool that is native to your device is gonna be fine, that you can use. But
Mm-hmm.
sometimes the editing is the hard part.
I agree.
this one I would definitely share with you as that editing tool that is easy to
Yep.
use and can take your content and you could repurpose it in so many different ways.
Yeah, I agree. It's a great tool. Um, I haven't messed with it a lot, but it's something that, that, uh, when I first heard about it a couple years ago, I was really excited about because like you said, it's very much like you could see a TikToker using it to edit their videos to put up on those, social media sites and, and you can access it for free and try it out. That's a great one.
Yeah,
¶ ScreenPal
I would throw in for free plans if you need the free, ScreenPal. Uh, do you, you know, a ScreenPal, which used to be screen Yeah, yeah. Which used to be Screencast-o-matic, then they, then it was ScreenCast-o-matic and they also had a tool called ScreenPal that was different and it was very confusing. and then they combined and now they're just ScreenPal.
ScreenPal is pretty similar to Screencastify, like if you've used Screencastify, like you could, you could squint hard enough to imagine what ScreenPal is like. Uh, the major difference with it is, in the free version, and I'm 99% sure you have unlimited videos and a 15 minute limit, per video. So that means that on the free version you could use ScreenPal.
you don't have all of the, the features that you'll have in Screencastify, but you've got a lot of really good features that you could use in there, um, in the free version. And so I think that's one, one that we could throw in there too, as a free option.
Oh yeah, for sure.
¶ Free or Paid Tools?
And, and even like. you said, if you can talk to those, influencers within your district
Yeah.
you get creative because, for example, since Screencastify works on, you know, the goal is okay, you know, you're helping your emergent bilingual students develop language and so on and so forth.
Yeah.
on how you put that proposal together, instead of saying, okay, tech, you gotta buy this, or curriculum, you gotta
Yeah.
sometimes you can get creative and say, Hey, you know what? Federal programs.
Mm.
can actually pay for this. Because
Yeah.
federal programs also gets a lot of funding, especially for emergent bilingual students or things of that sort. And being creative in that sense of saying, Hey, this is gonna help those emergent bilingual students that are coming in, you know, specific, um, demographics. So now it's not like it, all of the burden is gonna be on the tech department or on curriculum or whomever. It's like you can actually split the wealth.
And sometimes, like I said, it's not that you're really getting creative in the sense, it's just that now you're like, Hey, if it's gonna serve this community might as well. They, they just say, okay, if it's gonna serve this community, I want it to serve all my community that I have in the whole district. So then they'll say, okay, we can dish that out and we can go ahead and pay for that.
Sometimes it might be two, two of our departments will get together and say, okay, like, uh, I'll put in half and you put in half because it's serving our communities that we need. But then at the end, all the teachers benefit from it too as well. So it's just a matter of thinking about that a little bit creatively there. And,
Yeah,
opposed to just putting the burden on just one department and then saying, Hey, we already gave you this. We already gave you this. We
yeah,
this. Like, we're tapped out. It's like, oh, well, who haven't we spoken to yet? And let me see how, who they service and sell it to them,
yeah, for sure.
we gotta sell it, you know, and, and at the end, it's gonna be for the benefit of the teacher and the student as well.
Yeah, for sure. I, I always advocate for starting with a free version or starting with a trial version, to. Um, number one, it helps you determine do I really wanna continue with screencasting, for example? and then number two, it helps you show.
So if, if we go back to your classroom years ago with that emerging bilingual student, and you could go to somebody at the end of the year and go look at her growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, because I had access to this tool. If I had the paid version, I'd be able to do X, Y, and Z. Right? So you're then proving, your ability to do those things. yeah, I, I definitely agree. A lot of the times there's money coming from other sources that we could use there.
But I'm with you though Jake,. that's the way that you learn. Like you said, obviously sometimes you may think, and also it helps you honestly. I mean, we, so many conferences, everybody comes back hyped. It's like, oh, try
Yes.
this new tool, we gotta have it, we
I gotta go buy this. Yeah,
minute. It's like, well, you know what? It may work for you, but it doesn't really work for me.
right.
and, but I'm gonna try it out. And then just say, well, you know, yeah, I can see the website, but no, it's not really what
You are right,
I need. Or my cup of tea
right, exactly.
And that's the great part about the, the freemium, at least the 90 days, 30 days that they give
Yeah.
you, you get to try it out and assess and then go back and now you have that data to say, Hey. Here's what I saw in 30 days. This is the, these are the possibilities. And maybe even at the campus level, they may say, Hey, you know what, maybe we'll get you a license. And then it is with the intent of saying, well, at the end of this, would you be willing to be the TOT, the trainer of trainers?
Yes. Yeah.
so if this works for you, would you be able to train, even if it's just here on our campus, isolated, would you be able to help them? And then we can get a campus license, you know just
Yeah.
to try it out and, and not just make you know, central office or your service center, pay for everything
Yeah, for sure.
But also, I would say leverage the power of your service center. 'cause maybe sometimes through your service center,
Right.
you may get subscriptions that you didn't even know that you had and that are completely
Mm-hmm.
free that you can access because they build partnerships too as well.
Right.
tap into your service centers as well.
find out that, that Oh yeah, we actually already have that. And you just didn't know about it for some reason.
¶ Loom
for
Yeah. the other tool I wanna mention, and I don't even know the answer here, so I'm gonna, unless you know the answer to this question, I'm gonna, we're gonna lean, lean on the listeners to fill us in. Um, years ago, especially during pandemic teaching years, a lot of people were shifting over to using Loom. one of the reasons they were shifting to Loom was it had those like view pages where you go to a page to view the video and you comment and things like that.
Screencastify didn't have that at that point. Now they do. so a lot of people were moving over to Loom. Loom made their whole platform free for educators. Um, and so educators were excited about having that free access. about a year and a half ago or something, loom was purchased, I know, by a company called Atlassian. and at Atlassian I'm familiar with them, primarily because I use Trello a little bit. And, uh, Trello is an Atlassian program.
but now Atlassian owns Loom and I think the free access to the education plan has changed. I think it's now discounted, not free, but I don't know. All I've been able to find on their website is a spot where you could, submit, fill out a form to get verified to get discounted access to their plan. So I think that's no longer free, but I don't know. Do you know?
No, you know what? I'm not sure. I'm
Right.
kinda looking around here and I know I used it recently and I mean, everything worked fine and I didn't get any cues
Yeah. Fingers crossed then.
like yeah, you've gotta pay, or anything yet. But I don't know, maybe they might have grandfathered people in and
Yeah,
not the new users. But I know that, that doesn't seem surprising, like now that, unfortunately like a lot of companies
happens. Yeah,
it's like, like you said, it's the storage. It's uh, where
yeah,
to pay for this?
yeah,
and you know, it's, yeah, that's the way it goes,
yeah,
it's still a, it was a great tool as
yeah. Mm-hmm.
well. You know a fantastic, I love that you can leave the little thumbs up on certain areas, certain highlights and then
Yep. I love that.
everybody loved that. Now, instead of just being a square video,
Right,
oh, I'm in a little like circle
right. The circle, like everybody wanna loom just for the circle
Just
now. Everybody else, every tool has a circle. Yeah. Well peeking around on their website, I could see that the free version gives you 25 videos. Transcriptions, and this still has those comments and emoji reactions, so certainly that's a, that's a free version, that's useful. it says there's a education discount, I just don't know the details of it. So it's certainly a tool worth mentioning. We'll see what that discount turns out to be. If anybody listening knows the answer to that, let us know.
Reach out. Uh, I know I'm excited to learn and I'm sure Fonz is too,
yeah for sure.
Uh, to learn what Loom is offering now. It's hard to keep up with all of these things. Um, all of the changing platforms, changing names like Screencast-o-Matic is now ScreenPal and Loom is now owned by this person over there and Screencastify now has quizzes and all of these things. and one place I would recommend. Learning about this is all of Fonz' content. Check out, um, my.EdTech.life. You could find him on all of the social medias, as he mentioned earlier.
Lots of great vertical videos repurposed from the podcast and things like that. Check out his podcast, check out his YouTube channel. Check out all of his content. Everybody's gonna be going to the YouTube channel anyhow, to see the background on your, on your, in your workspace. But definitely a great space to learn about these updates.
And as you could tell, listening to, your passion for education and supporting teachers, uh, I think a lot of people are gonna be flocking over to that website to learn from you. Uh, so Fonz love the work you do, appreciate you being on the show today. Thanks so much, buddy.
No, thank you. I, I really appreciate you. And you know, uh, I'll be honest with you, it just, uh. Having you on my show too, was something that was fantastic because
Nice.
growing up, not co, not like, I guess formally not coming into this space as an educator,
Mm-hmm.
like I mentioned coming in from sales and marketing
Yeah.
diving in and then now it's like, okay, where do I find resources? Of course your teacher friends, but then social media, I'm like,
Yeah.
then seeing you on my feed all the time with all your great shares, you know, at the time, you know, you and Holly and
Yep.
so many other educators putting stuff out and just following you all. I mean, I learned a lot from you. And then,
Thanks.
on my podcast a couple years back, I was like, oh my gosh. Like he's on my podcast and
Uh,
so great and now I get to be, uh, on your podcast, which again, it's something that to me means a lot
yeah.
and the fact that you would reach out to me and and again, going back to what we were talking about many times, that imposter syndrome or you think, no, I can't do this, and.
Yep.
now I can tell my parents, I was like, guess whose podcast I was on? This is fantastic.
Oh, come on.
No. So I thank you for the work that you do because you've
Yeah.
definitely been very influential in my career and in what I do and, uh, in my continual pursuit of learning with all the great content that you put out. So thank you for what you do,
Oh, thank you.
Jake. I just want to let
Yeah,
you know that in person.
thanks Fonz. I appreciate it. The feeling is mutual and you're doing great work and keep it up buddy. Thanks for being on the show with us today.
Thank you.
How great is Fonz such a good person with such great insights about EdTech and teaching? Speaking of EdTech and teaching and insights about both, here are some things I'd like to update you on, and the first one comes with a quick confession before we get into a set of exciting updates about NotebookLM. So. I've said in the past that you couldn't share your podcast creations with others or share a notebook with others, and that was wrong.
Turns out there was a little share button in the top right corner. How did I miss that? So you could click that share button and then share them with other people by adding their email addresses, just like you would with the Google Doc or Google Slides. It was in the same exact spot as in those other Google platforms. I don't know how, I didn't see it there. Uh, my bad on that one. But now there's even more to talk about because NotebookLM recently
¶ NotebookLM: Public Sharing
dropped a handful of updates. The first one relates to that share button that I was just talking about. There are now public links in NotebookLM, so you can now share a NotebookLM Notebook with anyone via a simple link.
Before you had to type their email addresses in, that means that now we could just have a link and share it with anybody so teachers can finally send out a curated set of sources, summary docs, or even interactive podcasts without requiring everyone to have edit access or get added individually.
Study guides, project overviews, or scaffolds for independent research. The viewers can't mess with the original sources. That's nice. They're not collaborators. They're just viewing the notebook, listening to the podcast, but they can interact. They can ask follow-up questions, they can listen to the generated audio. They could explore the summaries. They just can't make changes to it, which is kind of wonderful actually. It's like giving your students or colleagues a smart, searchable binder.
Really, really cool. Speaking of audio, a second NotebookLM update NotebookLM's amazing audio
¶ NotebookLM: Audio Overview in 50+ Languages
overviews that turns your sources into podcast style explainers. That's. Everybody's favorite part of NotebookLM, I think, are these podcasts that generates, they are now multilingual. They're available in over 50 languages. That is huge. Whether you're working with multilingual learners, building cross-cultural content, or just want to hear a doc broken down in your native language NotebookLM now makes that possible.
You could even set your preferred output language, switch it up anytime, and generate audio and chat responses that match. That means that you could generate and share notebooks in different languages to meet the needs of your learners, or even empower them to generate resources in their own language. That's the kind of accessibility that I get really excited about and it doesn't stop there.
¶ NotebookLM: Mobile App
NotebookLM now has a mobile app. Finally, it's on both iOS and Android, and it brings the experience into your pocket. I've talked about how I used to download the audio overview I generated and upload them in drive to listen to them on the go, but now you could do that in this app. You can ask questions on the go and share content straight from your browser or YouTube app directly into NotebookLM. I think that's what I'm most excited about. When I am on the go and discover new content.
I could pop it right into a notebook, ready to be broken down or annotated later. You can even listen to them offline. Subway tunnel teachers rejoice, right? This all, all of this adds up to a tool that's becoming more practical, more inclusive, and more usable. Especially for folks juggling a lot of information across languages, across devices, and across teaching contexts. So have you tried these new NotebookLM features? What's your take?
Send me your thoughts on Bluesky or at speakpipe.com/eduDuctTape.
¶ Padlet Analytics
Let's be honest. Creating resources for your students takes time and energy, and while it's rewarding to build something you're proud of, it's even better when you know it's actually being used. That's why I am excited about this new update from Padlet. They've added built-in analytics for your boards. It's simple, but genuinely useful.
When you open any Padlet, whether it's a resource board, a discussion space, a project hub, whatever it is, you can now click the three dots in the corner and select details. And at the bottom you'll now see real time stats, total views, unique visitors, and engagement time. And yes, I said real time. The numbers update roughly every minute. So you can actually see how often your content's getting used and how much time people are spending on it too.
If you've ever wondered whether your students just clicked the link and bounced, or if they actually spent time digging into what you shared, this gives you a pretty decent snapshot. Now, to be clear. It is privacy friendly and because it's privacy friendly, there's no individual tracking, so it's not tracking your students when they come to the board. It's just aggregating stats. So it just knows somebody loaded up this page, not who loaded up the Padlet and stayed on there for 20 seconds.
So if you see 20 visitors and you have a class of 25, you know that five kids didn't visit it. But you don't know which five, uh, but I think it's still a helpful pulse check to know there are still some of you who haven't access to Padlet, or maybe it's being used a lot. Whatever that information might tell you if you're using Padlet to house learning resources, choice boards, or even asynchronous discussions, this could be a really nice layer of insight.
Oh. And if you want even more detail, like you wanna know how many posts there are or how many reactions to the posts, you can always export the whole board as a spreadsheet and then get that data from there. But for day-to-day use, I like that they kept the analytics panel clean and focused. You just get those three things. Total views, unique visitors, and engagement time. Analytics are already live on both the web and mobile app. So if you're a Padlet user, give it a look.
You've got access already. What do you think? Is it a helpful edition or just digital clutter?
¶ Google Lens in Chrome
So here's something that hid right beneath my nose for quite a while. The Google Lens feature in the Chrome browser on my desktop. So Lens is now built right into Chrome on desktop and it lets you search visually-- basically search what you see-- directly from your browser tab. You might have used Google Lens in the past on your phone to identify what a plant was or translate a sign or something like that, but now it works inside Chrome on your computer.
Just click the little camera icon in the address bar. You might actually have to click in the search bar first to see the Google lens button appear. But then you can click drag or draw a box around whatever you want to investigate, say an object in a photo, a diagram on a webpage. A still from a video, even text on a slide in a live stream. You can also right click on an image and choose search with Google lens.
Once you've highlighted what you're curious about, a side panel opens up with search results. You could dig deeper from there, refine your query, or ask follow-up questions too. And the beauty is you don't leave your tab. The search pops up on the side so you could stay where you are. For classroom use, this could be super handy, I think. Imagine you're showing a slide and a student asks about something in your slide or the video you're showing that you don't know the answer to.
You could use lens right then and there without copying links or opening a new tab. I think this is great because. First of all, it models you being a lifelong learner. It models you using your technology effectively, you being intellectually curious and inquiring and using your lateral reading skills.
Speaking of lateral reading, if it's a new term to you, it's a skill we really need nowadays where we fact check or evaluate information by leaving the website where we saw it and investigating that info by reading what other sources say with Google Lens, we could hypothetically do this without even leaving the browser tab. We could do it right there from within that browser tab, making it more efficient to become digitally responsible, and again, a great thing to model to our learners.
Now, to be real, I've read that the image selection with Google Lens isn't always perfect, but when it works, it is a quick, lightweight way to bring curiosity right there into your browser. You can even highlight text and use Lens to translate it or copy it, which could be a nice boost for multilingual learners or for research tasks. So, have you tried Lens and Chrome yet? If you have, I'd love to hear how you're using it, or if you can imagine fitting into your classroom workflow.
¶ Quizizz is Changing Names!
My computer finally learned how to spell Quizizz. It doesn't auto correct it to something else anymore, but now it's gone a step further and it corrects the word quiz to Quizizz. How irritating is that? If I say Quizizz, it says Quizizz, that's good, but if I say quiz, it also says Quizizz. That's bad. No computer. I know how to fix it.
But seriously, it took my computer 10 years to finally learn how to spell Quizizz, but it's finally learned it, and it's even going a little bit overboard with it. Wouldn't it figure now that it's learned what Quizizz is, they are changing their name. So now I'm going to say, let's administer a formative assessment quiz, and my computer is going to say, let's administer a formative assessment Quizizz, and I'm going to say computer. There's no such thing as Quizizz. It's now called (pauses).
Well, actually, I don't know what the name is yet. They're unveiling the new name soon, very, very soon, and as soon as I know what it is, I will share it with all of you. Honestly, all joking aside about my computer autocorrecting quiz to Quizizz, I am super excited for the company about this new chapter and
their evolution and this new name . I can say that back when it came out more than a decade ago, it was maybe my very favorite tool for administering a quiz, and so the name Quizizz was really appropriate for it, but in the years since then, they have grown to do so much more. So many amazing things, and so I think moving on to a new name I think is a great idea, and I think it is a hint that great things are coming in their future as well. So congratulations everybody at Quizizz.
I'm excited to hear about the new name, and I'm excited to share it with all of the Educational Duct Tape listeners as well.
¶ The Shift to Student Led
I recently read the Shift to Student led by Doctors Catlin Tucker and Katie Novak, and I think it's one of those books that feels incredibly timely, especially for classroom teachers. What I appreciate most is how it speaks directly to the challenges so many teachers are feeling right now, exhaustion, pressure, and a sense that the way we've always done things might not be sustainable anymore.
Each chapter takes a common teacher-led workflow, things like grading or feedback or classroom management, and reimagines it through the lenses of Universal Design for learning and blended learning, two of my favoritest things right there. The goal to put students at the center and free teachers from having to be the sole engine driving every moment of the classroom. Giving students agency, building self-regulation, developing learner-centered classrooms, that is my jam right there.
And this book aims to help teachers do just that and make teaching more sustainable. One of the things I kept thinking while I was reading this book was this would make a great year long PD structure. You could easily take one chapter at a time, dig into it as a team, try things out. They give you plenty of options to try out, reflect, and then build from there. There's a strong balance of reflection, research, and ready to use strategies.
If you're looking for a book that supports deeper shifts towards student ownership with some concrete tools to help you get there, I think this one's worth checking out. Have you read it yet, or have you tried redesigning any of your classroom workflows lately? I'd love to hear about both.
any responses to any of the stuff we talked about today? Bluesky with #EduDuctTape or speakpipe.com/EduDuctTape. Well, that does it for today. Please don't forget to connect with the show either on social media or on SpeakPipe to share your reactions to anything we talked about. Please share this episode with your friends so they can learn any EdTech news stuff that we talked about today. I hope you have a wonderful day.
I hope you have a great summer, and most importantly, I hope that you're subscribed so that you are here with us next week when we come back with a new episode. See you everybody. Thank you for everything you do.