Creating From Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams
A couple of weeks ago a reader replied to my tip-of-the-week about digital housekeeping with a question about creation tools in Google Classroom. It was a good question and one that applies to any learning management system, not just Google Classroom.
Here is the question:
Next year I’m starting a new job teaching social studies in a high school that uses Google Classroom. I took a look at Google’s training materials and some of your videos. I’m planning to go through them again to learn how to use Classroom. My question for you is, do you have any favorite Google Classroom apps that you recommend for making videos and timelines?
Incorporate Almost Anything
I get questions like this one fairly often. In fact, Rushton and I addressed a similar one during an episode of Two EdTech Guys Take Questions. We were both quick to point out that you can link to just about anything in just about any LMS including Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Seesaw, and Moodle.
Posting a link to something in your LMS isn’t quite the same as using tools that were specifically designed to be integrated into your LMS. That’s what my reader was looking for (I know because she wrote back to me).
Creating Videos from Your LMS
WeVideo, Canva, and Adobe Express are web-based video creation tools that I’ve used and recommended for years. All three of them can be easily accessed from your LMS. And all three have Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams integrations.
Of the three, WeVideo offers the most features. It also is the only one that requires a paid subscription to access all of its features. An overview of its plans for schools is available here. One of my demos of WeVideo can be seen here.
Canva and Adobe Express are great tools for those who want to do some basic video creation and editing while also having access to tools for creating other things like timelines, infographics, slideshows, and graphic organizers. Information about using Canva in Google Classroom is available here. Head here for information about using Canva with Microsoft Teams. Details about integrating Adobe Express with Teams can be read here. And here’s a short video about using Adobe Express with Google Classroom.
This is probably a good time to point out that Adobe Express has a new beta version of its video editor. I tried it recently and I like it a lot more than the version it is replacing. In fact, I think I like it more than Canva’s video editor. Here’s my overview of it.
Interactive, Clickable Exercises
Years ago I used the heck out of Thinglink to create assignments in which my students would click on a pin-mark on an image or document to reveal a question. Thinglink is still around, but there are other tools that have since come along that I like more than Thinglink. Two of those are Formative and BookWidgets.
Formative is a tool that I’ve used to create image-based and document-based assignments for students. In both cases I’m able to add clickable markers that reveal questions to students. Doing this is a great way to ask questions about specific parts of a diagram, picture, or document. Here’s a little demo of how I do that.
Details about using Formative in Google Classroom can be read here. Details on using Formative with Microsoft Teams can be found here.
BookWidgets is a platform that I started using a couple of years ago. It provides dozens of templates that you can use to create interactive assignments in Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams (you can also use it without an LMS). I recently created this video overview of five BookWidgets templates that I like to use.
Find Even More
The items above only scratch the surface of what’s available to integrate with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. Take a look at Google’s list of Classroom add-ons to see if there’s something else you’d like to try. Microsoft has a similar list for Teams users.
Self-paced Courses You Can Start Today
I have three self-paced courses that you can start today and finish at your own pace.