YouTube & Related Content

Many educators love YouTube, but hate all of the extras that come with it. The comments, the suggested videos, the buttons and stats all are distractions to our students. Not to mention you never know what is going to show on the screen while your video plays.

So here are a few ways teachers can show videos and get rid of the distractions.

1. SafeShare.TV https://safeshare.tv/

Sign up for a free account with SafeShareTV or login in with your Google or Facebook account. Look up your video on YouTube. Copy the URL. Go to http://safeshare.tv/  and paste the link in the field.
Then, click the arrow button. A preview page will open where the teacher can set the beginning and ending time of the video as well as make the video private and hide the extra buttons that the SafeShare can generate. SafeShare will create your link that you can now give to students or post on your website, blogs, or favorite social media.



2. View Pure http://viewpure.com/

View Pure works like SafeShare, but you don't have to login. View Pure also allows the user to enter a search term in the box to search for videos. Either enter the URL or the search term and click the Purify button. Your video will appear in a window. Copy the URL and paste in an email, Google Classroom, Webpage or where ever you want someone to access the video.

3. WatchKin https://watchkin.com/ 

Just like View Pure, WatchKin allows users to enter the YouTube URL or search for a video. WatchKin will also generate a shareable link and has buttons to share to your favorite social media. WatchKin also allows the user to mark the video as appropriate or not appropriate.

4. Enter the Video in a Google Slide or Site

Both Slides and Sites has the ability to show YouTube videos.

In Slides, open the Insert menu and select Video. Then search for a video to insert or paste the URL into the by URL field.

In Sites (the new Sites), select the Insert tab and find the Google Embeds section. Select the YouTube option. Search for the video you want to insert.

With many different options, teachers will never have to worry again about inappropriate distractions appearing with their YouTube videos again. 

Google Education On Air: It Takes a Teacher

https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/live/2016-dec?tab=americas

Recently, Google produced their Education on Air event. Linked above are all of the On Demand sessions you can view for free. Get great tips, tricks, and ideas from around the globe. The link takes you to the Americas sessions, but make sure to check out the Austraila and the United Kingdom tabs as well. 

Lubbock ISD Summer Leadership Institute

Had a great time presenting at our district's Summer Leadership Institute. Here are links to my presentations.

Sharing is Caring... For Leaders - 
I shared out resources for our campus and district leaders to help improve their online communication with their stakeholders (students, parents, community). I shared Blogger, Google Sites, Adobe Spark, Microsoft Sway, Twitter, Canva, the Microsoft Selfie App, Vocoroo, Tricider, and Watchkin. Check out the slide deck for links and training resources.

10 Imperatives for Technology in the Classroom -  - Outline
This was a little bit different session that just sharing resource after resource. It was more of theory behind using technology and changing your mindset of what has traditionally been done in the classroom.
I did share some resources on Augmented Reality and dropped a lot of big names in #EdTech.

TCEA 16 - Google Sites

If you district is a GAfE district and doesn't have a classroom website system in place, give Google Sites a try. It is very easy to get started with a hub for your classroom communication.

At TCEA I was fortunate to sit in on Christy Fennewald's session on Advanced Google Sites. You can find Christy a Fennovation.org, on her blog at http://digitalliteracy20.blogspot.com/, and on Twitter @christyfenne. If you are into Google she is one to follow. Her information is great and straight forward for all to understand.

From her session, she shared two of her presentation about sites.

• Set your Sites on Sites - Beginner
  
• Set your Sites on Sites - Advanced 
  

Here is her recent blog post about her TCEA presentation.

During her advanced session, she offered many great tips to make your site better. Here are a few that I was able to jot down.

1. No more than 5 links across the top.
   
2. Don't do drop down menus because that is harder to access on a mobile device.
   
3. Make an image map using Google Drawings.
   
4. It is usually better to make your site from scratch, but admins could make a template for their teachers to use.
   
5. 1200 px is a pretty good width.
   
6. If there is a blue button, click it.
   
7. SiteMaestro is an essential, advanced add-on for Google Sheets that allows you to bulk-copy, share, and manage Google Sites with rosters of students. If you are looking to do student portfolios through Google Sites, this is the add-on you need. 

And if you are wondering how she made the cute, little, animated avatar, check out Androidify.