#educampAKL 2017

On Saturday 29th July #educampAKL for 2017 was held at Papakura High School in South Auckland.

This is the link to the Google Smackdown: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mZONDq79n4LlcXrpTp8GAws2WaaGvYVtsvpQE6EW0HE/edit#slide=id.g22e30cf367_0_74

I went to learn about Drive Slides.  Drive Slides is an extension on Google Chrome.  We were asked to make a Drive Slide.  Below are the steps.

1. First of all we had to add Drive Slides as an extension to Google Chrome.
2. Then we added Save to Google Drive as an extension to Google Chrome.
3. Then we went to Google images and choose three pictures.  To save the pictures we right clicked on the pictures and hovered over Save to Google Drive and then clicked on Save image to Google Drive.
4. Once we had three pictures in our Google Drive, we went to Recent and then held down the Shift button and clicked on our three images and saved them in a new folder.  
5. After this we clicked on the Drive Slides extension up in the extension line.

Here is my practice of doing Drive Slides:

I also learnt about Extensity, which enables you to turn extensions in Google Chrome on and off so you can improve the speed of your computer.

I then went to a workshop about using Voice Dictation on devices led by Jason, who showed us how he can write a text by voice, including punctuation.  I knew that Google Search and Docs and the like respond to voice.... but I learnt how to write a text message on my Samsung Galaxy 6 which will be helpful.

This then morphed into Jason showing us his Swivl robot, which he uses to record his teaching.  A Swivl can be bought from Si-Tech (who has the NZ licence) for approximately $750.  You put your phone/tablet on the Swivl and wear a bluetooth device on a lanyard.  This allows you to voice activate the device to record your teaching and the Swivl will follow you around the class as you move.  A Swivl account is free and will upload the video automatically to the cloud.  You can then share a link or embed it into your blog or website for students to access. 


Jason uses his swivel to 'flip' his classroom so his students can refer back to lessons if they need to remember something and absent students can use the videos to catch up.  Jason said that it is also a useful way to record yourself for appraisal or to help you reflect on your teaching.