Archives for May 2019

How to search for Google Drive share emails in Gmail

When someone shares a Google Drive file, they usually also choose the option to notify the recipient via email. Although the shared file is accessible from ‘Shared with me’ in Google Drive, I have had many people tell me that they prefer to refer back to the Google Drive share email to access the file. This leads to a problem…they have difficulty finding the original email because the email is not actually from the person who shared the file, but from a generic Google address. If you’re nodding your head right now and thinking ‘Yep, that’s my problem!’, then read on to find an easy way to quickly find these emails!

Step 1: Learn the email address used to send Google Drive share notifications

All email notifications about Google Drive file or folder shares come from the address drive-shares-noreply@google.com. You can see this address at the top of any email notifying you about a shared file.

Here’s the trick to find #Google #Drive sharing notification emails in #Gmail Click To Tweet

Step 2: Use Gmail’s advanced search features to find the emails

Now that you know the email address to search for, you can combine it with Gmail’s advanced search tools. There are two options for this:

Type the following in the search box: From:drive-shares-noreply@google.com.
Click the drop down arrow on the far right of the search box to access Gmail’s advanced search tool. Enter the email address drive-shares-noreply@google.com in the ‘From’ box.

Either way, the result is the same, as shown below.

This search will display all email notifications about shared Google Drive files.

Step 3: Refine your search even further by adding the sender’s name

If you only want to see email notifications about shared Google Drive files from a specific person, you can add their name to the search criteria using either of these two options:
Add their name to the end of the search box, e.g. From:drive-shares-noreply@google.com Donna.
Add their name in the ‘Includes the words’ box in the advanced search drop down.

You can either use just the person’s first name, or their first and last names if you have more than one person with the same first name sharing files with you.

Do you have trouble finding #Google #Drive sharing notification emails in #Gmail? Here’s how to do it Click To Tweet

Step 4: Choose a strategy for saving the Drive file shares email address

If you think you might forget the drive-shares-noreply@google.com email address, there are two things you can do to save the address and make it easy to use.

Save the search using the instructions in this blog post, or
Add it as a contact in your Google Contacts. Then when you want to use it, you can just start typing the name of the contact (e.g. Drive File share) Here’s what it looks like in the contact list, and when I am searching.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by emails and want to learn how to better manage your Gmail Inbox? Check out our Get efficient with Gmail the SMART way online course!

How to save a Gmail search

Posted by: Samantha Vardanega

In a previous post we explained how to effectively search in Gmail using the advanced search box and search operators. If you’ve mastered those skills, you’ve probably found that you are frequently performing the same or similar searches. For example, looking for emails sent by your boss or email that have a specific star. Because we love to help you be more efficient, in this post I’ll show you how you can save Gmail searches to speed up the process even more!

Step 1: Perform the search

The first step in saving a search is to actually do the search! If you need a reminder about how to use the advanced search tools in Gmail, check out this post. In the example below, I have performed a search for all emails that are starred with the ‘green-check’.

Ever wondered if you can save searches in #Gmail? Here’s how to do it! Click To Tweet

Step 2: Bookmark the search

Gmail doesn’t actually have an in-built saved search feature. However, there is a quick and easy workaround – just bookmark the search page using your browser’s bookmarks or favourites tool. If you’re using Google Chrome, you can do this by clicking the little star icon on the right hand side of the Omnibox. Notice in the image below how the address in the Omnibox reflects the ‘green-check’ search that I performed in step 1.

To make the saved search easy to find and run, I suggest giving the bookmark a meaningful name and putting it on the bookmarks bar. You can change the name and choose the destination from the box that appears when you click the bookmark (star) icon.

Here’s the end result.

If you plan to save several searches, you might even like to create a folder on the bookmarks bar to store all the searches in. To create a folder, right-click the bookmarks bar and choose the Add folder option. Here’s an example of a ‘Searches’ folder on the bookmark bar.

Use #Chrome bookmarks to save your #Gmail searches! Click To Tweet

Step 3: Run the search

Now for the easy bit! When you need to do a search, simply click on the bookmark and the search will run.
Note: You may notice that if it is the first time you have run the search since opening Gmail, it will reload the tab and be a little slower. Subsequent searches will be much quicker.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by emails and want to learn how to better manage your Gmail Inbox? Check out our Get efficient with Gmail the SMART way online course!

What does collaboration mean at your workplace?

Posted by: Donna Golightly

There has been much talk over the last few years about the importance of developing 21st Century skills in today’s students. These skills are sometimes referred to as the 4C’s or sometimes the 6C’s – depending on which version you are focusing on – and include :

Collaboration
Communication
Creativity
Critical thinking and
Citizenship
Character education

These ‘soft skills’ are now seen as equally, if not more, important than technical skills and are often quoted as necessary for students to be fully equipped for the world they are entering after they leave school.

But how often do we stop and reflect on the importance of these skills for our colleagues? If we ourselves are not modelling these skills and developing our own competencies in these areas then how can we be effective at modelling and teaching them to others?

We talk about #collaboration with Ss but do your #colleagues collaborate? Click To Tweet

This blog is going to focus on the beginning – collaboration. (No one skill is any more important than another but the teacher in me has ordered them alphabetically – hence collaboration is at the top.)

Take a moment to reflect on what is happening in your own workplace? Are you and your workmates truly collaborative?

In order to answer this question, we need to have a shared understanding of what collaboration actually means. You can Google the word, or check the dictionary, and you’ll find many definitions but all with similar wording and intent. When I put the keywords together it reads something like:

‘the action of working with someone to produce something that focuses on a common goal’

The first step you would need to take with your colleagues is unpacking your own understanding of what collaboration means – ensuring that it encompasses three parts:

two or more people (team)
working together (processes)
towards shared goals (purpose)

At this stage it’s really important to understand that collaboration is a human activity – it’s not a tool. For example, using a Google Doc to collect resources in one place is not collaborating – that’s cooperating. A tool alone does not solve poor collaboration.

Using a #digitaltool does not necessarily mean collaboration is happening! Click To Tweet

Successful collaboration involves everyone having a cooperative spirit and mutual respect for each other. You must all be willing to balance your own personal achievements with the goals of the group. These goals need to be understood by all of the team and the vision surrounding them needs to be clearly shared by all. This will allow you all to function effectively as a team and develop efficient collaborative skills that you can then model for others.

There are of course a lot of combined skills involved in developing effective collaboration. However I really like this list as it shows the complexity of what’s needed and helps unpack what the difference between collaboration and cooperation is.
Examples of Collaboration Skills
Actively listening to the concerns of team members
Agreeing on roles that capitalize on individual strengths
Analyzing problems without assigning blame
Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of partners
Brainstorming solutions to problems
Building consensus about goals and processes for group projects
Compromising when necessary to move the group forward
Defining mutually acceptable roles
Delegating tasks with open discussion
Displaying a willingness to find solutions to problems
Drawing consensus around goals and processes
Eliciting the views of reluctant group members
Facilitating group discussion
Following through with commitments in a reliable manner
Forgiving others when they come up short
Giving credit to others for contributions
Identifying obstacles to success
Investing the required time and energy to complete tasks
Taking a leadership role
Listening to the concerns of team members
Maintaining a sense of humour whenever possible
Making sure the perspective of quieter collaborators is heard
Meeting deadlines for individual contributions
Recognizing the contributions of other collaborators
Recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of collaborators
Selecting compatible partners to carry out projects
Sharing feelings of frustration or dissatisfaction as they occur
Speaking respectfully with team members
Taking responsibility for mistakes
Updating collaborators on developments with the project
Working hard to fulfil obligations to the team

So now that you’ve thought about what collaboration actually is, what are some of the practical ways that you can encourage your colleagues to actively develop the skills needed?

Here are three things you could consider that would help to build collaborative skills with your colleagues:

Number one:

In March 2012 Micheal Rosenblum wrote in The Guardian “We are, today, a society that is defined by video. Video is the way that we, increasingly, communicate stories, news, information and even ideas to one another. It’s powerful because it often transcends barriers of language and of culture. It is universal and powerful. It drives everything from politics to religion, and much in between.”

That was seven years ago! There are many ways that we now use video to provide a flipped learning model or to supply another avenue for finding relevant information. But do you use video with your staff?

You may have a team of colleagues who are working together in a subject team (maybe they all teach maths) or they may be working together on raising student achievement through their similar inquiries. Have these teams of colleagues set a shared goal that they are working purposefully together to achieve?

Maybe they could collaborate together on a YouTube playlist. Many of us have our own playlists but these same playlists can also become collaborative. Colleagues could then add useful videos as they come across them, benefit from videos that their peers add to the playlist and plan together to view and reflect on shared ideas.

Did you know you can make a #youtube playlist collaborative? Click To Tweet

To collaborate on a playlist one person would need to create it in within their own YouTube account initially. Follow the steps below to then make it collaborative:

Step one

Go to the playlist you created and click on the ‘Edit’ button.

Step two

You’ll notice on the right-hand side a button that says ‘Playlist setting’. Click on that.

Step three

Now you’ll see three options across the top – one saying ‘Collaborate’. Click on this link and toggle the option on to allow others to add to this playlist also.
Share the link with others and you’re all set to collaborate.

Remember – the tool does not make the collaboration. The discussion you have as a team about the content, which videos meet the intended purpose of the shared list and which don’t, listening to and respecting each other’s opinions as you go is what makes the collaboration.

Number two:

Google Classroom is an awesome tool for organising and sharing tasks with your students – but do you use it with your staff as well?

#Google Classroom is not just for Ss - use it with your #colleagues too! Click To Tweet

If you are wanting to collaborate as a team of colleagues what an awesome platform to do it within. You can add everyone as teachers – allowing equal opportunity to add materials, share documents, discuss the value of the readings you may be posting and interact with each other from various locations.

Use the ‘Materials’ and ‘Assignment’ options to share relevant materials, ideas, readings and resources that could be useful for your journey towards your shared goal. You can organise them in (an agreed upon) logical way by using the topic’s option.

Note:
If you are a Microsoft school you could use OneNote or Teams in the same way.
Set up a staff notebook and invite the colleagues you are collaborating with to be co-owners. You can then add resources, readings, ideas and reflections in a way that everyone has access to them and everyone is working together to achieve the same set goals.

Number three:

Depending on what you are collaborating about as a group, it often involves collecting resources or ideas to reflect upon.

Wakelet is a tool that allows you to curate resources all in one place. It’s a little bit like Pinterest but with more options. It allows you to create various collections within the one place, tag them and either keep them private, unlisted or public.

Have you tried #wakelet yet to create #collaborative resources?! Click To Tweet

One member in your group could create a wakelet and then you’ll notice an option at the bottom to ‘Manage Contributors’.

When you click on this link you can choose to invite others by email or send them a link.

Choose your options and voila – you now have a way to collectively curate useful resources. Wakelet works particularly well with Twitter and has a Chrome web extension that makes it super quick and easy to add links, videos or images to your collections.

A very recent update now allows your wakelet to be embedded directly within OneNote, so if your group is using this awesome Microsoft tool you have even more options for curating your resources. You can add notes and thoughts on the same pages and combine them with other media also – all in the one place!

As a group, you can have those robust discussions about which resources would be the better ones to help you meet your goal. You can employ a number of the skills listed above when you have these discussions. You may need to compromise, actively listen to the opinions of others, make sure all perspectives are being considered – or any of the other many meaningful skills that are necessary for effective collaboration.

There are of course many other tools you could use to facilitate effective collaboration, but these three will go a long way to getting you started.

So just how are your colleagues collaborating? How are they modelling the skills they are expecting their students to develop and master? How are your staff working together to promote effective 21st Century skills in your workplace?

Maybe it’s time to reflect and make some changes in your workplace.

If you’d like to learn more about ways you could effect change within your workplace check out our Certified Leader course here where you’ll find tips and principles behind facilitating effective transformation or join our online professional learning community.

Student ICT skills mapping

Posted by: Tim Thatcher

Students skills and fluency with ICT are just as important as teachers. As students progress through their schooling they are building a certain skill set with using ICT for learning and for life. Schools need to consider what this progression looks like and where it is headed. I encourage schools to collaboratively map out students acquisition and mastery of key ICT skills.

A cohesive approach to student ICT skills mapping will have several key benefits:

Students skills are scaffolded ensuring they do not get cognitive overload.
Schools can have clarity about what skills students are developing and how these relate to their vision.
Teachers can confidently plan learning, knowing students have certain skills.
Teachers with low ICT self-efficacy can be empowered to use ICT in the classroom if they know they do not have to show students how to use certain things.

This mapping can look quite different from school to school and there are many pre-existing curriculum maps or skills checklists around such as this one. However I would encourage each school to go about the process of creating their own, backmapping from the kinds of learning they would like their students to be doing and recognising teacher skill sets. The skill set for a Project Based Learning school might be quite different to a traditional school so it is important to develop a resource that is right for your school.

The skills that students will acquire should be directly related to the kinds of e-learning scenarios they will find themselves in and schools should be careful not to overload students with surplus skills. The focus should not be on mastery of software for the sake of it, but rather mastery of the skills and systems that support a specific vision for learning. I won’t suggest what skills are generally irrelevant as this depends on your context and I don’t want to cause an argument.

Clarify what ICT skills students will need to compliment the kinds of learning you want students to engage in #utbpd Click To Tweet

Initial considerations

There needs to be careful consideration given to aligning the skills with the dexterity and key competencies of younger students and this is another reason why skills checklists should be developed alongside teachers rather than someone up high who is out of touch with the abilities of younger students.

Develop student ICT Skills planning collaboratively with all teachers. #utbpd Click To Tweet
When developing a skills checklist or curriculum map for students ICT skills it is useful to first consider whether this map is to be done ‘to’ students or done ‘with’ students i.e is the map to be used by teachers for planning but not to be shown to the students? or will the students be using the map to monitor their own progress?

While I am all for student agency and can see the rationale for getting students to track their progress with ICT skills I can also see that this might be a distraction from other, more pressing focuses such as 21st Century skills, Literacy, Numeracy and Key Competencies. If students are naturally developing a strong skill set with ICT the measure will be that their learning is not impaired by a skill deficit. A series of tick boxes can add an unnecessary layer of complexity to the classroom. It might be ideal if the skills can be seamlessly embedded into the learning so that the acquisition process is natural and unobtrusive.

What can it Look like?

There are several options for mapping students ICT skills across the curriculum:

The Checklist
This is a simple checklist where skills are assigned to different year levels and then ticked off as they are covered in the learning. The skill could be specific to Google, Microsoft or Apple products or might include other necessary supplementary products such as Lucidpress. We have skills checklists for Google, Apple and Microsoft on our website which you could customise for your students.
The Passport
Some schools have created a ‘digital passport’ which shows the key skills students will garner at different curriculum levels. This allows students to see what skills they are working towards and they can tick off when they have mastered these skills. These passports tend to be quite simple and can encompass other skills such as coding and digital citizenship. The passports could be based around non-hierarchical honeycombs so that the skills are developed as needed rather than in order. Pam Hook’s Hexagon Generator is a great way to create such resources.

The Fixed Curriculum Map

A classic curriculum map is useful for intensive skills checklist where the school might like to identify levels of mastery and add more depth to a checklist. In the curriculum, map teachers identify when students might be introduced to a skill and when they have mastered it.

Example courtesy of UWCSEA: http://doverdlc.blogspot.com/2013/04/to-skill-or-not-to-skill.html

The Dynamic Curriculum Map

As a teacher I was never very good at following lists and plans developed by someone else as the students and I never knew where we were headed and what learning opportunities we might come across. If I had to stick to a list I would have most likely gotten the students to an advanced phase of some skills, beyond where they ‘should’ be, or not covered the skill at all because it did not fit with the learning that ended up happening. Therefore a flexible map where skills can be moved around depending on the learning might also be relevant. There will need to be regular skills reflections so teachers who are also working with your students have a clear idea of what you have covered.

Choose the right kind of ICT skills mapping for your school. #utbpd Click To Tweet

The main intention with all these formats is that students continue to make progress with ICT skills so that they become fluent users of ICT for meaningful learning. Consider which format might suit your context.

Getting Started

Once you have discussed a suitable format and made a decision about what it would look like and how it will be used, you can start the mapping process with all of your teachers. To do this you can identify a graduate skills profile and then back map all the skills to different year levels. If you are a secondary or intermediate school you should also identify what skills students already come with. Once you have the start and end points clarified you can fill in the gaps, mapping specific skills to different year levels. There may be some skills which are covered in a student orientation and others which are covered during specific learning opportunities.

I have included a resource below which has some key skills (it is not extensive) that can be dragged and dropped to different year levels (New Zealand curriculum Year levels). It is interesting to facilitate teachers of different year levels doing this mapping then comparing the different results. On this resource, I have also included some generic knowledge of tools such as Interland and Scratch but these can be removed if not applicable to your school.

Before teachers have mapped the skills to year levels.

After teachers have mapped skills to year levels. Note that Year 5-6 have an extensive amount of skills and that is because this particular school introduce BYOD in Year 5.

Co-constructing a Student ICT skills map with your staff can be empowering and fun! #utbpd Click To Tweet

Your staff might also find these guiding questions useful for ensuring that skills development is driven by learning:

Guiding questions for student ICT skills mapping

What ICT skills do students need to be able to complete the learning in my class?
What skills would we like them to be fluent in when they leave our school?
What skills are vital for success in a digital world?
What skills can decrease barriers to learning?
What skills can make learning more engaging?
What skills are not essential for learning?
What skills are reliant on certain levels of dexterity?

Don’t forget to check out our skill checklists for Google, Microsoft and Apple on our website as a simplified version of these can be relevant to students. If you would like to develop your own skill set before undergoing this process be sure to check out our great online courses and consider becoming a Google Certified trainer so that you are well placed to support students and teachers develop the skills identified in your planning.

UTB have great ICT skills checklist for Microsoft, Google and Apple #utbpd Click To Tweet

Pre-filled links in Google Forms – make sorting and filtering a breeze!

Posted by: Lara Kirk

Google Forms are a brilliant tool for gathering information from people – the ability to then sort and filter this data in Google Sheets makes it an even more powerful tool.

However, sometimes our users don’t quite read our minds well enough and can give us information in a way that messes with the results we get. A couple of really popular uses for Google Forms is for teachers to get access to students files and also for gathering feedback. You can limit how much typing your user needs to input by using ‘Pre-filled links’. This reduces the opportunity for data to be entered in multiple ways and makes it much easier for you to sort and filter later on.

Use prefilled links in Google Forms to make sorting and filtering easier later! Click To Tweet

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Create a form and think about how you can limit the amount of typing your user needs to do.

E.g, Instead of asking them to enter their homerooms, use a multi-choice list instead.
9TR could be written in numerous ways if your students were to type it in – 9tr, 9Tr, 9tR, 9 t r …..

2. Click on the three dots between SEND and your profile picture. Choose ‘Get pre-filled link’.

3. Fill in the parts that will be the same for each of the users you are sending this to.

4. Once you’ve clicked on ‘Get Link’, the black box at the bottom of your screen will change and you can click to copy the link. Share that link with the users of this Form.

When you go back to the form you’ll see that your pre-filled responses are no longer there. They do not save to the form.

Using pre-filled responses will make it so much easier for you to sort and filter data later.

Sorting and Filtering – brief tips and examples from this form.

Sorting by Assignment

1.Click on the column you want to sort by. In this example I’ve chosen the ‘Assignment Title’ column.
2.Click on the drop down arrow that you see at the top of the column once you’ve selected it.
3.Go to ‘Sort sheet A-Z’ and your assignments will be grouped alphabetically.

Filtering by Homeroom

1. Go to the filter menu and select ‘Create new filter view’.
2.Clear all selected values then choose just one – click OK.
3.You will now only see the information relating to that class. Name the filter view in the space above column A.
4.You can close this filter view and open it again at any time by going back to the filter menu.

If you want to know more about sorting and filtering check out Adrian’s awesome blog post here – he’s made a great video that helps you to understand the difference between the two.

Want to know even more? Check out our online courses here.

Automatic Feedback in Google Forms – Encourage revision, extension and lifelong learning.

Posted by: Lara Kirk

As a teacher, one of my favourite features in Google Forms was the ability to automate feedback for my students based on how they answered a question. By doing this I was able to direct them towards support or revision if they answered incorrectly, or extend them by providing them with materials for them to take their learning further.

Google Forms not only saves teachers time but also helps to support students to manage their own learning - click here to see how! Click To Tweet

It’s really simple to get this set up.

STEP 1

First make sure you have your form set up as a quiz, with your correct answers identified . If you’re not sure how to do that, check out Sam’s awesome blog post here.

STEP 2

You may have noticed that when you click on ‘Answer Key’ there is an option to ‘Add Answer Feedback’. Click on this.

STEP 3

You can now add a message for incorrect and correct answers. As well as messages you can give a link to a URL or YouTube video as well. These options are great for directing your students back to notes that may be stored in your Google Drive or in your Google Classroom, or for directing them to a website to revise or even a video to get them thinking about the next step.

NB: Make sure you are not only giving feedback for incorrect answers, or that your feedback for correct answers isn’t just ‘Good job!’. By giving next steps we can encourage the mindset in our students that learning isn’t about getting to an end point, but ongoing.

Giving effective feedback for correct answers is so important if we are trying to develop lifelong learners! Click here to see how you can automate this process! Click To Tweet

STEP 4

When your students receive the feedback depends on when you decide to release the scores. If you chose ‘Immediately after each submission’ then they will be able to access these straight after they submit the form. If you choose ‘Later, after manual review’ they will need to wait until you release their scores to them.

What your students see will look something like these…

Check out how you can empower your students to revise or extend their learning using Google Forms! Click To Tweet

Want to learn more about what you can do with Google Forms? Check out this webinar here that will show you a few things or register for our Google Online Boot Camps which not only look at a few things you can do in Forms but also other G Suite apps.

Or check out these other great blog posts about Google Forms

Encourage Students to use spare time purposefully

Posted by: Donna Golightly

There is always at least one in every classroom.

What is it you’re wondering?

If we gave this statement to our students and asked them what it could be, I’m sure they would come up with interesting ideas. Wouldn’t it be a great critical thinking starter!

What I’m thinking of though is this – the student who always finishes their work before everyone else. In some classes, it’s not just one student but a group of students – and what do we often hear said to those students?

“Well done on getting your work finished – you have a bit of free time now.”

And then they often don’t really know what they want to do with that time, or they spend it doing something that isn’t really challenging them or encouraging them to use any of those 21st Century skills that we really want them to focus on.

What if you created a choice board with activities and websites that you knew would be engaging, but educational at the same time. It doesn’t matter which platform you use in your class – you could use Google Slides, Padlet, PowerPoint, Keynote or a number of other equally as awesome tools to create your resource. Share it with your students – and then let them choose from there if they finish early. Sometimes just making a choice from a set of activities is a skill in itself for some students.

Direct your Ss to more purposeful activities if they finish early. Click To Tweet

Here are four ideas for purposeful, fun activities that you could include:

Number one:

Where on earth is Carmen Sandiego?

This site uses Google Earth to create a hide and seek type game. When you first click the link the scene is set, then you’re off on an adventure to find some stolen jewels.

Along the way, you need to interview witnesses and then use the clues to fly to the next destination. You’re given a few locations to choose between – depending on the answers the witnesses give you as to which one you decide to go to. This is great for encouraging your students to use their critical thinking skills and also brings in some geography and maybe research skills.

They can also grab the peg man, drop him at the various landmarks they visit – and suddenly your students are in the street view. (When you grab the peg man you’ll notice blue lines appear in Google Earth – these are places you can drop him). What an awesome way to encourage discussions around what they can see – what is the same as where they are currently? What is different? Encourage them to look around, take a screenshot of something they find interesting, add it to a shared slide with a quick comment about what they saw.

Grab the #pegman and drop him in #GoogleEarth to see the streetview Click To Tweet

Students could collaborate with someone else who has finished and explain their thinking, justifying the decisions they make.

Number two:

A Google a day

This site is fantastic for developing your student’s research skills. I don’t know how often my students used to say to me that they couldn’t find any information on what they were looking for. It wasn’t that the information wasn’t there – they just weren’t searching effectively.

Develop Ss research skills with #GoogleADay Click To Tweet

Each day there is a new challenge and they even give you a few ideas on how you can get started with your search. The quicker you are at finding the correct answer the more points you earn.

You could even extend this idea and get your students to create their own questions for others to answer.

If search skills are something you are focusing on with your students you might like to also check out Google’s Search Education lesson ideas.

Number three:

The five clue challenge

This is a collection of videos by Michael Soskill. He gives five clues about a location, person or animal and you need to work out what he is talking about. He’s filmed the videos as he’s travelled the world or has had other people he’s met film them. There’s a great collection of ideas to spark curiosity and expand your student’s general knowledge.

Develop #criticalthinking with the #5ClueChallenge Click To Tweet

Your students watch the video and can pause them after each clue to do a bit of research if they need to. The idea is they get 5 points if they can answer it correctly with just one clue, 4 points if they use two clues, 3 points if the used three clues – I’m sure you get the idea. This is a great way to develop honesty and respect in your students in terms of how many clues they used.

This is another activity that they could also make their own version of. They could even create different versions for different classes in your school, or create a maths collection where they have to guess the maths shape they’re thinking of.

Number four:

Google’s Quick Draw

If you want a fun site that encourages your students to use their creative drawing skills then this is the site for you.

You’re given an object to draw and then as you’re sketching it on the screen Google is using artificial intelligence to guess what you’re drawing. When you quit the game you’re shown the doodles you drew and how many of them the computer guessed correctly.

There is also a link to see what other people have drawn. This is what is helping to develop the site. In the image below I clicked on the book – it showed me 111,205 images of a book drawn by other people.

Did you know you can see other people’s doodle in #Googles #QuickDraw? Click To Tweet

I’m sure your students could just have fun looking at how other people draw certain items. There’s some great data here for a maths statistical activity I’m sure!

This is just the tip of the iceberg – there are lots of other equally as engaging websites and activities that you could direct your students to. The idea is to encourage them to continue to develop their creativity, their critical thinking skills, their curiosity and their collaborative skills with whatever it is that you direct them towards. And of course – to have some fun!

We’d love you to share websites or activities that you have used in your classroom too – feel free to get in touch with us.

If Google is your choice of platform you might also like to check out how to Extend your Google Sites skills to curate engaging activities for your students or How to encourage student agency with hyperdocs.

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