Tutorials: Tellagami

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick (30 seconds) animated "Gami" video. If you use this for your weekly reflection blog, I suggest you use one or two for the learning piece, and then one or two more for the reflection. The app must be downloaded into your iPad or android device to use.

1. Click on Create.

2. Change the character, emotion and background to something you like. Then, click on record.

3. Click on the record button, and begin speaking. 

4. Once you finish, it will say "Analyzing your voice". Wait until it is done.

5. Click preview to see if you like it. If not, repeat from step 3.

6. When you are satisfied, click on the share button.

7. Wait while it creates the video.

8. At this point, you may send it to yourself, and/or just copy every character into a web browser in order to access the actual video.

9. Proceed with the tutorial for embedding the video into blogger.

Tutorial: Embedding videos in blogger

For the purposes of this tutorial, I will be using tellagami. However the process is basically the same for all videos. The key is finding that pesky embed code.

First, navigate to the URL of the product you created

Click on the share button

Highlight the embed code by left clicking on it. Then click Ctrl C.

Go to your blog, and create a post as you usually would. Make sure you include a title.

Now for the tricky part. Position yourself at the last line of your post, and click on HTML.

The HTML is now visible. Don't fret if you see a bunch of things "you did not add", you did, so do not change anything. At the very end of anything on the screen, click paste (or Ctrl V).

Make sure your addition starts with <iframe     and ends with </iframe>. Now click on Compose, and you should see the video ready to be played.

Educreations embed code:

Schooltube embed code:

Glogster embed code:

GoAnimate embed code:

Tad different since it starts with <aref   . Just make sure you copy and paste the whole thing.

Tutorials: Google Drive - Publishing your documents

I prefer that students publish their documents as soon as they create them. However, most of them are wary of publishing before the document is done. I like to compare this to giving out party invitations. When they are handed out, you are giving the location and date of the party, however your guests will not arrive until the day of the party. Same here, by giving your audience (teacher) the published link, you are just making sure that he/she has the URL on the due date, but we will not show up to grade until then. In any case, to publish your document:

1. With your document open, click on File, and then publish to the web.

2. Make sure both options are selected ("Require viewers to sign in with their Oak Grove School District account" AND "Automatically republish when changes are made"), and then click on start publishing. A pop up will appear that asks if you are sure - click Yes.

3. Left click to highlight the published document link. Then press Ctrl C to copy it.

4. Depending on how you are asked to submit the work, you can loopmail it to your teacher by logging on to schoolloop and pasting the link inside a loopmail. However, most often my AdVENTURE students will need to submit it through Edmodo to a posted assignment. The key thing you must make sure of is that the submitted URL starts with https://  and ends in /pub.

For example:

https://docs.google.com/a/oakgrovesd.net/document/d/1lJGLDhgiIqp023rc4Cs7MiaZug7P6OHDvvh2r8bDtCM/pub

Tutorials: Google Drive - Creating and sharing a document

If you have an oakgrovesd.net account you have a Google Drive account. To log in, simply navigate to Google Drive, and enter your oakgrovesd.net username and password. There are two possible screens:

1. Oakgrove School District: Enter your username without the @oakgrovesd.net. Enter your password.

2. Regular Google Drive: Enter your full oakgrovesd.net email address and password.

3. The type of assignment you wish to complete will dictate the type of document you will create. Most often you will need to create documents so I am giving instructions for it; however, the same functions apply to all. Click on the red Create button and select document from the drop down menu:

4. Give your document a name and begin drafting your assignment.

5. Drive allows you to work with other students on the same document at the same time. In order to do so, click on the blue share button.

On the sharing screen, add the complete oakgrovesd.net e-mail addresses of the people you are sharing with (separate multiple editors with commas or enter), and then click on share and save. The document should appear immediately in the shared folder of the people you added. If not, go back to share and make sure you spelled everything correctly.

6. You are now working together; YAY!

Tutorials: Blogger Posts

To post to Blogger, simply sign in with your oakgrovesd.net account.

Once you've signed in to Blogger, you'll see your dashboard with your list of blogs.



Here's what you need to do:

1. Click the orange pencil icon of the blog you want to post to.


2. Next, you'll see the Post Editor page. Start by giving your post a title (NOT optional), then enter the post itself:

3. As you continue to work,  save often. You do not want to lose anything.

4. When you're done, click the Preview button at the top to make sure it's ready to go.

5. If there is anything that does not look right, FIX IT. Most often the issues are with formatting (i.e. you added a color that matches your background, or you brought in text from another site). The easiest way to fix this (although it will require work), is to remove the formatting from the section(s). To do this, Highlight the section(s) in your post, and then click the Tx button.

6. Reformat and click preview again until you are satisfied.

7. Click the Publish button to publish your post. Your audience will not be able to see your post until you have done this. If you are revising a post, this button will say Update. You must still click it for us to see the revised post.

Example reflection in LA using worksheet

The topic we discussed was transitions. I learned that transitions help the reader follow ideas. An example of a transition phrase is "In conclusion". This transition would give the reader the idea that the topic is being wrapped up.get where to use transitions in the rest of the essay. I cannot just start every paragraph with "In conclusion" because then my essay would not make sense. In order to figure out what to do, I need to know what other transition words cane I use in the middle of an essay to make it flow better. When I know some other transition phrases, I expect my essays to be more cohesive and easier to understand.

Example reflection for science (using the worksheet)

Reflection:

The topic we discussed in class this week was viscosity. I learned that viscosity is the resistance of a substance to flow, and that it can be affected by temperature and composition of the substance. I have seen how temperature affects viscosity when I butter is left out of the refrigeration. As the temperature of the butter increases, it becomes softer (AKA less viscous), making it easier to spread (flow). During our experiments, I also saw that viscosity is affected by composition. The magmas we tried were made with different ingredients, so they had different viscosities. We actually saw them flow at different rates, which proves that composition affects viscosity.
I still don't get how just modifying the amount of silica in a magma could change the viscosity. Sure it worked when our examples were made from different things, but if they have the same thing the viscosity should remain the same. In order to answer this question, I need to ask or find out how just changing the amount of a material like silica could change the viscosity of a substance. I could also research what is the shape of silica in rocks since that could also give me an idea of why silica affects viscosity.