Coggle

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Coggle is an online tool for creating and sharing mind maps and flowcharts. It works online in your browser so there’s nothing you need to install or download! Whether you’re taking notes, brainstorming, planning, or doing something creative. It’s simple to visualise your ideas and build a plan with Coggle. Share with friends, classmates or no one as you like. Changes are saved instantly so no worry about having to make sure you save it before closing.

You can create a mind map or flowchart for loads of different things, probably things you’ve never even thought of! From learning how to manage your stress in a way that’s unique to you, to creating diagrams to help you revise for your assessments. Check out these example boards below:

You can add floating text and images to your diagrams meaning you can annotate your map for clarity, you can create loops and join branches from multiple starting points for your different ideas and paths.

With the free version of Coggle you get access to all the features we mentioned above, as well as unlimited image uploads, access to over 1600 icons, a full change history and PDF & Image download. The free version allows you to create 3 private diagram boards, once you’ve used the 3 private ones then all others you create will be public so anyone may be able to look at it if they know how to find it.

Lexico

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Lexico.com is a new collaboration between Dictionary.com and Oxford University Press (OUP) to help users worldwide with everyday language challenges. Lexico is powered by Oxford’s free English and Spanish dictionaries and features multi-language dictionary, thesaurus, and translation content.

As it’s powered by Oxford, the world language data experts, you can be sure you’re getting the most accurate and consise information.

You can find the correct spelling, useage and history of words and phrases. For example, rhinoceros come’s from Middle English, via Latin from the Greek meaning ‘nose horn’. You can also find out about the word of the year and a new word of the day each day.

The complete list of features at the time of writing is below:

  • English Dictionary
  • US Dictionary
  • Spanish Dictionary
  • English – Spanish Translator

  • Synonyms
  • Spelling Tips
  • Punctuation Tips
  • Writing Tips

  • Usage
  • Word Origins
  • Language Questions
  • Word Lists

The extensive blog and articles are filled with tips and informative posts about the varities of words we use and how to use them right.

Did you know?

Trelson for Staff

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Teachers can set their own exams using the Trelson (previously ChromEx) platform for their students to access on a Chromebook.

There are some great benefits to using Trelson:

  • You can set it up yourself to be run in your lesson, no need to ask MIS to set anything up
  • Chromebooks are ‘locked’ so students can’t access the internet
  • Students can log in with their normal details so no need to remember an extra login
  • At the end of the exam, the work is instantly saved into the Google Drive of the teacher who set up the exam

Setting up an exam

Teachers can just head to this link and log in with their college Google account to get started – https://assessment.trelson.com/#/exams

Full instructions on Trelson can also be found in this presentation.

Note – The video below hasn’t been updated since Trelson was rebranded from ChromEx but the method remains the same. Just the colours and branding may differ.

How does a student take the exam?

A student just needs to select ChromEx in the bottom left of the Chromebook BEFORE logging in.

Then when they are asked to log in to the ChromEx platform, the just need to use their normal college Google credentials.

ChromEx – Exams on a Chromebook

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Link to below presentation

Students can use this presentation to see how they will complete an exam using ChromEx.

Staff can head to this link to learn how to create an exam.

Distance Learning Apps Update

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Firstly, thank you to everyone who has provided feedback about the apps that are making a difference. It’s been great to hear so many successful and innovative uses of technology to facilitate distance learning. In this post, I wanted to share some of the apps that have proved to be the most popular. 

Screencastify – Record your screen

Screencastify was one of the apps we looked at in the training before we closed. Screencastify has proved to be a popular app for creating recorded lesson content and providing feedback to learners. We recently upgraded to the premium version enabling recordings longer than 5 minutes and access to advanced features. I’ve made this video ? providing an overview of how to get started with Screencastify if you’d like a refresher.

If you’d like to develop your screencasting skills further, Screencastify have online courses available that contain pedagogically sound ideas for using screen recordings in lessons. Start with the Master Screencaster course which shares how you can use this to support learning. Next, progres to Screencastify Certified Genius to learn how to use Screencastify with Google Classroom. I’ve completed both courses which are well worth doing and they each take about 45 minutes to complete. ?Get started

Google Meet

Google Meet is being constantly updated by developers at Google in order to add the features most needed for distance learning. Here is a brief summary of the latest updates:

  • Teachers can create a meeting link in Google Classroom ? and students can join a meeting from Classroom;
  • Only meeting creators can mute or remove other participants in a meeting;
  • Meeting participants will not be able to re-join meetings once the final participant has left;
  • Schedule a Google Meet ? video call through Google Calendar;
  • Present a tab ? – You can now share an individual tab in Google Meet. This has an unexpected and useful feature. You can share audio from a Chrome tab in Google Meet, perfect for streaming a YouTube video or any other audio/video to your class during an online lesson.
  • Tiled view – See up to 16 people at the same time in the tile layout option in Google Meet. Alternatively, if you’d like to see more than 16 at the same time, check out the Grid View Chrome extension.

? Get started

Mote – Voice commenting in Google Docs

Mote is a new Chrome extension that gives you the ability to leave verbal feedback in Google Docs, Slides, and Classroom. This promises to be a big time saver for marking and is a nice way of giving more personalised feedback to learners. To learn how to get started with Mote, watch this video.

Google Jamboard – Collaborative whiteboard

Jamboard is Google’s collaborative interactive whiteboard. It’s useful if you’d like to write and draw using your Chromebooks touchscreen. Jamboard is a core G Suite app, which means Jam files get saved in Google Drive and can be set as assignments in Google Classroom. Watch this video ? to learn how to use Jamboard to set a collaborative assignment for your students. ?Get started

Flipgrid – Video discussions

Flipgrid is a tool developed for education and owned by Microsoft. You can use Flipgrid to set a question for your learners, asking students to reply in video format rather than text. As a teacher, you have full control enabling you to moderate videos and disable selfies. I think this could be a powerful tool for asynchronous distance learning. To see Flipgrid in action, take a look at the distance learning grid I shared last month, and feel free to post your own reply about how distance learning is going for you and your students- https://flipgrid.com/bpdigitallearning ?Get started