In the Classroom: Educational Technologies for a Listening & Speaking course

Hello and welcome to In the Classroom
an educational podcast

making teaching and learning
more transparent.

My name is Benjamin Steward.
Today is August 22nd 2020

and I wanted to put together some ideas
about what I'm thinking as we get into

the fall 2020 semester,
and I want to share with you a video,

audio explanation of some
of the technologies that I am going

to be presenting to my learners,
the first day of class this Monday August 24th.

Before I get into that, I'm going to go
and share my screen

and open up Microsoft Teams,
which is the platform I'm using,

to conduct this podcast
and I want to go into a little bit first,

about this space, this Microsoft Teams
that I have created,

It's called, In the Classroom, as you know
and you probably will notice

if you go through prior posts
that I've posted a lot of short videos,

short explanations., a lot of information
has come and gone

and basically just trying to experiment
a little bit with Microsoft Teams,

to see exactly, to what degree
I can use this,

or some of the information that I share,
in my class, in my preparation,

in my own reflections.
And I'm going to be posting more

in the future, in terms of sharing
some of the thought processes

that have been going through,
in my own practice.

But, I think that, the idea here for me
to create the sapces to offer a way

to share with some of the professors
here at the university,

since this is a Microsoft Teams,
it's part of our Office,

or Microsoft 365 Service.
But, also know that, the information

that I'm sharing,
is also being posted publicly,

via my YouTube channel.
So I'm currently sharing and basically

publishing this in real time,
through my YouTube channel

and this uncut version will include
all the mistakes and errors

that I both check during this broadcast
and correct on the spot.

And others that I will miss.
So if you're watching this recording

and what to provide information
or corrections, feel free to do so.

And obviously, those professors
that are teaching here at the university,

and want to reach out to me
and share something, whether it is part

of this broadcast or if its of a more
private nature, feel free

to reach out to me.
I think the best way is just to send

me messages via Chat,
within Microsoft teams

since I'm going to be spending most of my
time both in my class,

and other responsibilities
that I'm currently taking part in.

I will be spending most of my time
within this platform.

One of the main things
that I have been thinking about

as I get into this semester,
is how I will be interacting

with the students that I have,
is trying to simplify, trying to find

the technologies that are currently
available to us and really find ways,

for students to take advantage of these
same technologies that we have

here at the university.
Primarily Office 365.

So, most of what we do here is going to be
basically, using Office 365

or Microsoft 365 and also any apps
that are easily adapted

and can be easily integrated
into the same platform.

And I will get into the details here
in a moment. But again,

if you have any feedback about today's
broadcast, feel free to respond

within this post. I will be posting
the video recording of this in Stream,

and will also be sharing it in this space .
So feel free to reach out to me

if you have any questions, or comments,
or insights about this topic.

Of course, feel free to share this space
with any of your colleagues

as this again, is intended to
really extend the dialogue

of how we can integrate English
into the classroom.

i've had the pleasure of working with
many professors here at the university,

talking about different ways
that we can integrate English

into our curriculum.
So, the idea here is to think about ways

that we can, not only adapt
our own teaching practice

but also maybe reach out to our Academy
and our colleagues within

our own departments to see to what degree
English can be brought into the curriculum

in terms of the syllabus,
in terms of the actual written curriculum.

To what degree does that need
to be made explicit,

and how can we work together as an Academy
to reach that objective.

Every department and every Major
is going to be different, in terms of,

to what degree and how important English
might be to their curriculum.

So it's going to be very much dependent
on the goals of the program,

the goals of the teachers, the students,
the student profile,

the history with English,
and really, at the end of the day,

the importance of being able to
communicate in English,

as your students get into the workforce.
So a lot of considerations,

a lot of variables, a lot of things to talk about
and to think about, and again,

this is one of the purposes of having these spaces,
to having this conversation.

Again, whether you choose to have it here,
in this space or more privately within

your own colleagues and department.
So, what I'd like to do today is,

I want to share with you, some ideas
that I had about the technologies

that I'm going to be currently using
with my students this fall semester 2020.

Now the course I'm going to be teaching,
Listening and Speaking,

this is a communicative class,
basically helping on focusing

English language learners at an A1 to A2
English proficiency level, become better

at both listening and speaking.
And so, I'm going to share with you today

some of the technologies that I am going
to plan on using and I'm going to begin

by speaking to my students. Right.
So I'm creating this Podcast

and its going to be a recorded version
of what I'm saying here.

But, I'm going to go back and actually
edit the video and remove all the mistakes

and clean it up a little bit so I can present
this same video to my students.

So, I'm going to be addressing my students
in this portion of the video

with this intention, with this idea
of being able to have this available

to them, so they not only have access
to the video at the beginning of the class,

but so they can refer back to it
as they progress throughout the semester.

So this is the context with which
I am creating today's episode,

and again, if you have any insights,
feel free to let me know.

Right, so I'm going to go ahead
and change here, the team.

So this is the team I'm going to be using
for my course. All right?

So, let's dive into it.

For those of you who are taking
Listening, Speaking,

I want to spend a few minutes talking
about some of the technologies

about some of the technologies
we're going to be using this semester,

and so, I want to present some
of the technologies we are going

to be using from day one.
We will be talking about these

in the live classes as well but I think
it's a good idea to have this video

so you can refer back to it
whenever you need to.

It's common for many students to feel
overwhelmed as we get into

this semester, as we begin the semester
thinking about some of the technologies

maybe some of these you're familiar with,
maybe some of these are new.

In this particular case, this course,
Listening and Speaking,

this is also the first course
of the semester. So there may be

a lot of new things going on
we're going to be teaching this semester,

teaching and learning, as far as we know,
100% online, so this also might

pose some additional challenges,
or some new ways of interacting.

So, the main thing is that you don't feel
overwhelmed, I don't want

you to feel overwhelmed with all
of the technologies because really

the intention is to use these tools,
to make our interactions

and our learning experience this semester,
as productive and efficient as possible.

Don't worry if all of these technologies
are not really clear on how we are

going to be using it from the beginning,
as we get into it and as we start

working with these technologies
on nearly a daily basis,

I think it will become easier,
and clearer for you as to not only,

how we are using it, but why
we are using these technologies.

So, the first technology that I want
to talk about here,

and this is really the main space
that we are going to be working at.

This is going to be our home for
pretty much for the rest of the course ,

for the 16 weeks that we are going to have
for this course, Listening and Speaking,

is Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams
is part of the Microsoft Suite and,

I'm going to go and open up here,
the main page to Microsoft 365.

Now, sometimes I will refer to this page
as Office 365 and sometimes

I will refer to it as Microsoft 365.
They are currently going through

a name change and they are going to be
changing this eventually to Microsoft 365,

up here in the title. But again,
if I go back and forth its basically

the same page.
But, as students of this university,

you are going to have access
to all of these apps as they appear here.

There are additional apps if you click
here. there may be some additional apps

that you may be interested in.
Certainly, we are not going to talk about

all of these and we are not going to be
using all of these apps in our class

this semester. But you might find that
other courses you are taking this semester

you might be using some of these apps
more than others.

So, the first thing I want to talk about
is Microsoft Teams, you can find

Microsoft Teams here, but I have found
that depending on the browser,

you may or may not be able to open
that Microsoft Teams using this link.

Most of the other apps, you can click
on these icons here to open up

the service directly without a problem.
But Microsoft Teams,

it seems, it is best to install an app.
Now, I'm on a computer here, at this time,

I'm on a computer,
and we will be switching back and forth

between showing you apps on a cellphone
versus showing you apps on the desktop

computer but today I'm going to stick to
mainly apps on the desktop computer.

So, here you see that this is Onedrive,
we will be using Onedrive a liitle bit

in our class this semester but I think
it's good to become familiar with this

so you can begin saving some of the work
that you do in the BA program.

Setting it up, in Onedrive, so you can
save some of the files you create.

It's really important to find a system
for organizing your ideas.

I particularly like to have a folder
set up for each letter,

and keep most of my course content
within one of those folders.

As you see here,
there are some exceptions,

but for the most part, most of my files,
reside in one of these folders.

But the key here is to find a system
that works for you.

Find a way to organize your content,
your assets here,

that you're going to be using throughout
your time here, in the Major.

Another important app here is Outlook,
so any of the information that I share

here with you is, you know, if I send
you an email, I'm going to be using

your Office365 email account.
So your email is going to be AL and then

your Student ID@ [inaudible].
So this is going to be your email

and this is where you can access
the incoming emails that are sent to you

from other teachers or other students
or classmates.

So, I'm not going to go into all of these
but you also see here, you have

Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
You have OneNote.

But let's get into Teams. Teams is going
to be our main space for the class

and as you notice here, I have the app
installed on my computer.

So, again, I would recommend
that you do this.

I'm currently running a Linux machine,
but its the same idea,

if you're on a Windows or Mac.
When you go into Microsoft teams

because all of you have been added
to this team, you will have here,

Let me move this, lets see if I
can move this. Whoops. Try again.

I'm not able to move this for some reason.
but, here you will will see that

i'm going to go to all my teams right.
So you'll have here a team called

Listening and Speaking, right.
So if you go into your team,

you'll notice, just beneath the title,
Listening and Speaking,

you have two channels.

Actually, you have a channel called General
and then you have a link,

it says Hidden Channels.
We will go into these different groups,

or these different channels
a bit later as we get into the class.

For now we're going to stick with this
channel, general channel

and, we will look across the top here,
you'll see Posts, Files and so on,

different options. So Post, is basically a
forum where I can make announcements

I can send you messages and you can reply.
The main thing to consider when you're using

this section, Post, is that everyone
in the team, all of you,

that have been added to this team,
can see the messages.

Okay, so don't share anything, in this space
that you're not comfortable

with anyone else in the class seeing.
So, if it's something private,

that you want to send me
or any of your classmates

a private message, the best thing to do
is to go to Chat and send the person

a one to one chat. So, this is very much
like an E-Mail service,

if you want to send me a private message
you can send it through Chat.

And I suggest that everyone do that.
I would ask that you send me messages

via chat, as I'm going to be spending
most of my day, in this space,

you're likely to get a faster reply
if you send me a message via Chat.

All right, so here in Post, you can send,
as well as in Chat, you can send

text messages, you can upload images,
video, you can embed YouTube video.

There are many different options here.
You can send attachments, emojis,

okay, you can actually upload
streamed videos as well.

So, many different options,
many different ways you can share

information here in this Post section.
Here in Files, Files, these are going

to be files and folders that we are going
to use for the purposes of this class.

We will go into that later.
But, for the most part, any files

that you share here, everyone can see.
If you post a file or if you attach a file

here, then Post it will also appear here
in Files. Right, so its important to note

that the files that appear here different
from the files and folders that you create

in your OneDrive. This is basically using
SharePoint. Sharepoint is the global space,

the global drive,
of the entire institution.

So, it resides there, it does not reside
again in your private space

within OneDrive. So Class Notebook,
Assignments and Grades,

we're not going to use.
When I created this team,

I created it as a class and by default
it included Class Notebook,

which is OneNote, Assignments and Grades.
We're going to use other services

instead of using these three. So again,
I was not able to remove these

and that's why they appear, but again
just ignore these three,

we are not going to be using these three
parts of the service.

We are going to be using FlipGrid, Wake up,
and we will talk a little about

the Video Archive. So FlipGrid is an app
that you can add and integrate into

Microsoft 365. And that's what I've done
here with Microsoft Teams,

is basically just added the FlipGrid
and whats good about FlipGrid

is because FlipGrid is owned by Microsoft
you can use your University email

as your username and use the same password
as you use for Microsoft 365.

And that is what I would recommend doing.
The topic here, let me go to the page,

so this is the Group and FlipGrid
and within Group we are going to have many

topics and the topics really basically are
going to be different assignments that we

are going to be using the service.
But agin, use your Microsofr 365 username,

your Email and your password to enter
into FlipGrid. That is going to be the

easiest way to do this. The first day
of class, we are going to be working

in this first topic and I will
go into the details here.

The main thing here is that, FlipGrid,
this service, you can access this oviously

with your browser as it appears here
and also you can access FlipGrid

directly within Microsoft Teams,
as it appears, here.

The final thin I will say, is, I think
it is going to be the best if you install

FlipGrid on your cellphone or mobile
device because probably most

of the recordings that you create,
its best to do it on your cellphone.

So, I want to limit today's discussion
primarily to the Desktop but you'll want

to install FlipGrid on your cellphone
and go ahead and enter in to FlipGrid

from your phone, using your Microsoft 365
signing in information.

Your username and password. Okay,
so this is FlipGrid. The next thing here

is ClickUp. Now ClickUp is a way to
organize information and they way that

I am going to use ClickUp, again this is
an integration with Microsoft Teams,

They way that I am going to use ClickUp
is so that everything that we do,

the activities that we do, you can follow
what we do, what we're planning

on doing in the future and what we've done
in the past, using ClickUp.

Now, you will notice her, this is going
to be a little bit confusing,

if you're not familiar with ClickUp,
but basically, what ClickUp is, is a way

to organize tasks, and, along the top
here there are many different types

of views. I think the easiest view,
getting started, with ClickUp

is going to be the Calendar view.
Because from here, you will be able to see

on a day to day basis, what we are doing.
So here we have a calendar view

where we are looking at the monthly view.
Probably, I could change this to the

weekly view to get a better idea here
of what we are doing.

But, her you will see August 24th,
You'll notice we have two different

entries. These are two different tasks
that we have scheduled for Monday.

And if you click on these, this will open
up the task and you will be able to see

in greater detail, what each task entails.
In this case I have a checklist of things

we are going to be doing.
It is called orientation and this is how

I typically begin a class and begin a
semester.

You will notice here we have a list of
all the things we are going to accomplish

that first day. And this is something
you can refer to just to have an idea

about what we are doing.
So this is how I'm going to be using

ClickUp to schedule, what we are doing
and what we are going to do in the future.

When you go into your mobile app
you will be able to see a calendar view

of this same information. Obviously
as we get into the class there are going

to be ore tasks that are going to be
populated throughout here.

The intention with ClickUp is
for you to see what we are doing

and if there are any assignments,
those are going to be listed very clearly

here. For example, our first assignment
, we will open up this, Introductions.

This is going to be our first assignment.
you will see here, that we had

the instructions, and then you will have
link to the assignment itself.

We will talk more about this the first
day of class and we will actually do this

in class so that I will be able to assist
you if you have any questions about

how to do it. But what I want to show
you here is, everything that we are going

to be doing, whether its for a grade
or not, all of the tasks that are related

to this class, can be found here in
ClickUp. You can access it here in the

browser as I have done here, you can
access it in Microsoft Teams,

as I have done here by clicking ClickUp,
here at the top.

Sometimes you have to scroll down because
it may not show up.

You can change the view as well,
as I am doing here, just to make

it a little bit easier to read, if you
want to just deal on a week to week basis

you can change the view by clicking
this drop down menu.

Finally, you can install ClickUp
on your phone.

Its a little bit easier to follow
as well, there.

Depends on what kind of phone you have
and how many apps you want to install.

For sure, I would install Microsoft Teams,
if you have space and you want to also

upload FlipGrid. I think this is going
to be very useful, so that you can record

the assignments, using your phone.
And ClickUp would be another app.

that I would install. on your phone.
Some of the other services I talked about

earlier, under Microsoft 365, Outlook,
OneDrive, even Microsoft Word,

you might also want to install some of
these apps. Especially OneDrive

if you are going to be using your phone
to upload audio and video.

Then, you are also going to want
to install on your phone OneDrive.

I will create a separate video later to
describe and show you what that looks like

on your phone, but those are some other
apps that you might find useful.

The last thing I want to talk about today,
is TeacherEase. Now today,, again today is

August 22nd, 2020, I invited everyone
to get into TeacherEase. I basically

created a class grade book
for the semester

and all of you should have received,
in your Microsoft 365 email account,

an invitation to TeacherEase.
If you did not receive this email,

let me know right away so that i can
resend the invitation.

But here iw where you will be able
to access your grandes and your attendance

for this class.. Its very important that
you are checking at least once a week,

that you are aware of your current grade
and that you're aware of your absences.

So this is the service I am going
to be using to maintain your grades

and your attendance, but do make sure that
you are checking each week.

Don't wait until the end of the semester
where its going to be too late to go back

and check grades for the entire semester.
Be checking continually throughout so that

you can send me emails and ask me
questions, if you have any doubts

or concerns or even even if I have made
some mistake with your grades

or attendance, so that we can resolve
those issues in a timely fashion.

Right. So, TeacherEase. We have FlipGrid,
we have ClickUp. Okay. Again, these are

going to be our main technologies we are
going to be using in addition to,

obviously, Microsoft Teams. Now, the last
thing I talked about here, is a view,

its called VideoArchive. Every class
that we have, in fact, this class

is scheduled to meet from 8 in the
morning, until 10,.

We are going to meet every day, Monday
to Friday. During that time we are going

to have a live class. All of the classes
are going to be recorded and all of those

recordings are going to be, in this space,
this video archive. Right so, in YouTube

you can access it directly through