Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Hi everyone, I'm really excited to be with you today to present on student engagement. So I'm going to be sharing my screen to share my PowerPoint. Give me just one second to set up. So my name is Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo, and I work for a couple of districts. My primary home is Haciena la Puente Unified, and I have taught in basically almost everything. So I've done CTE, ABE, HSE, and ESL.

Today what I'm presenting is really best practices for student engagement in online learning. So what I really wanted to bring to you was more research based. And some of the best practices that we know work for our students. So I wanted to start with a quote.

Today's quote is, "it's the engagement of learning that makes us alive." So as all of us know, as instructors, we really bring something different to the classroom and we're teaching something and our students are able to be engaged. So student engagement is really the time and energy students devote to education, educationally sound activities.

So it is what they're doing and how they're absorbing that information. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what are the behavioral components of student engagement. And what I'll also do-- I'm going to go through some research. And then we're going to go through some of the best practices, as well as some of the different applications that we can use to engage our students.

So we know-- as we consider the entire learning experience, both inside and outside the classroom, there are four factors illustrating how students devote time and energy in the classroom. So we know skills and engagement-- so that's going to be keeping up with the readings, putting forth effort to apply themselves in the classroom, emotional engagement, so making the course interesting, applying it to their own lives, participation and interaction, having fun, participating actively in small group discussions or forums. And we also know performance engagement, which is doing well on the tests or getting a good grade or doing something that gives them some type of performance achievement.

So as we talk about student engagement, we know engagement involves students using time and energy to learn materials and skills demonstrating that learning, interacting in a meaningful way with others in the class. Enough to where they know-- as we teach online, we know that we're behind a computer, so sometimes that can seem a little bit abstract.

So as the interactive meaningful ways with others in the classroom, it starts to become real to them. Those individuals behind the other computers start to become real to them, and they become emotionally attached with their learning. For example, maybe getting excited about an idea or enjoying the learning or interacting even with their classroom teachers.

The level of academic challenge is whether students are putting forth enough academic effort. As it is spent studying reading or preparing for the class. All five capacities, such as memorization, analysis, synthesis, and making judgment and application are prevalent in the online environment. So as we know, research shows that students are most engaged in analytical work.

So let's go through some of them. Ideas for increasing engagement and some of the best practices. So the first one is to communicate in multiple formats. So online provides instructors with a lot of multiple avenues for communicating with students. Course email, discussions, forums, tend to be the standard communications tools, but don't overlook the embedded audio, the video, the chat rooms, or instant messaging, even broadcasting a text message, and then homepage announcements are also ways to communicate with our students.

One of the things that we can do is maybe screencast explaining an assignment tends to really be received well by students. So students really like it when they're able to see our face and make that connection. And a lot of the screencasts are really easy and inexpensive ways to get our students engaged.

So here are some of the applications that we use for communication. One of my favorites is actually Google Groups. So you can create a Google Group, and it allows you to put all of your students emails as part of a Google Group. And that way you can send an assignment or a reminder just like you would an email. So Google Groups really works as an email application, so rather than entering each recipient email address you would just have a group, and then everybody in the group would receive that same message.

And you also have other applications like Remind, Classdojo, Simple Circle. I've seen some of our literacy teachers using Whatsapp or Twitter. So these are just applications for communication that would allow you to communicate with your students and kind of send messages back and forth in an easy, efficient way.

So we also want to provide opportunities for active learning. A common misconception about online learning is that students only sit in front of their computers. That might be true if the course is designed that way. But one way to engage online learners is to get them out of their chairs or out of their beds and get them involved in active learning.

So one definition of active learning is hands-on learning, which is something that we can create in our online environment by assigning students to maybe-- our ESL students to interview people working in the field, or to maybe interview a family member. Otherwise, maybe learning throughout the community, going out to the grocery store, going out to the pharmacy. Another way we can do this is by presenting case studies or group projects or gathering and analyzing local data.

So those are just a few examples. Some of the things that we can do to provide active learning opportunities. And also kind of create a group learning is by using some of the applications that are available. So maybe a screencasting. So when we say a screencasting, that's basically a video of yourself. Like kind of like a selfie video that you're creating where you are recording yourself or you're recording the screen that you're working on.

And that can be done through Google applications which you can get for free, like for example Screencastify or Loom. Google Docs is a way to create active learning. You can set up a question and multiple students can log in to that same Google Doc if you send the link to them, and multiple students can work together in one document, or maybe a group of students, maybe one-- or three students can work together in one document and create one document together.

Another way is to create a webinar for them where you're presenting to them by sharing pictures, even through some of our messaging apps are also helpful, and surveys. And there's application called Poll Everywhere that works well with surveys for your students. So just sending any type of activity through them, any of these apps are able to be used for some of those activities.

We want to also encourage active and collaborative learning, which refers to the efforts of students to contribute to class discussions in the same way that they do in our face to face discussions. So work with other students and engage in other activities. The online classroom has commonly been referred as a learning community. So as we transition online, our learning community really becomes our online platform and the students that we're servicing through the online.

So implying the expectation is that the environment fosters that collaborative efforts that promote learning. So just like in your class, there's always those students that are willing to talk to others-- I'm sorry, to help other students, right, when somebody is stuck with technology. You're going to have the same in your classroom.

And it's utilizing them to help us throughout the class and to create that collaborative learning environment. So we can do this through peer tutoring, through the sharing of ideas. In our higher classes that works really well. Another way that we can also engage them is for our low level learners, we want to create games where they can work against maybe one another or you know as a group.

So we have like pictures card games, word games, which can be done through Quizlet, Kahoot, or Brainscape. And all of these are just games where you create a classroom, share the link, and then students can practice their vocabulary and kind of see other students in the classroom and compare their learning to other students in the class.

And it's anonymous, so they can have like a screen name where they don't feel like we're disclosing their information. But it's kind of a way to see how they're doing. And they get excited when they see you know that they're top of the list, or third on the list, or maybe if they're 20th on the list, then they get a little bit more excited to see their name moving up.

Even providing online dictation from one student to another with vocabulary words. We can-- if we use the Zoom app, we can split our students up into small groups and have them do dictation to each other, where maybe they provide a word and the other students need to spell it. And simple sharing of information, so asking those same simple questions that we would ask in class, we can ask those informations through our apps or through the message sharing applications as well.

Anthony: Yescenia? Yescenia, sorry, this is Anthony.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yes, hi.

Anthony: Hi. So we had a question in the chat. And just a reminder, participants today, if you wouldn't mind, if you do have questions, go ahead and post them in the Q&A, which you'll find there's a Q&A button on your zoom toolbar, and you can go ahead and post your questions there.

Let me just-- it was just one question, Yescenia, so the question was about, do you happen to know if-- I have to find the question again. Do you happen to know if the Google Groups-- you were talking about Google Groups in number one, do you happen enough if the Google Group-- does Google group interface with Outlook for group addresses?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: It does not. I I'm not sure if outlook has its own function that's similar where you can kind of queue all of the email addresses together. I haven't done that in Outlook. I've only used the Google group function. And I-- for example, when the students reply, the whole group gets it. So it's more of a group of emails set up together as part of that group to make announcements or to share lessons and stuff like that.

Anthony: Yeah, I think we've had-- I'll just interject. You could-- and maybe Melinda can chime in as well. So maybe another possibility might be if you can grab your-- I think the question is basically importing these emails into a Google Group. So maybe if you downloaded your email list from ASAP or whatever student information system you're using, and then you could basically kind of cut and paste them into the setup for the Google group. And then that way you'd be able to get your student emails over into-- to get started with your Google Group.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, especially-- I love it because of you have like a really big class, like you can have up tp-- I mean it's unlimited as far as how many emails you can have in there. So even if you have 100 students in the class, it's just them easier way to keep everybody in the group. And as the instructor if you're the manager of the group you can go in and delete and add students at any time.

Anthony: Yeah, OK, that was the one question. Thank you.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, sorry, no. I'm not sure with Microsoft. If anybody knows please share if Microsoft has an option for us to group all the emails together. So I think there was a number three. Yes.

So we want another way to create that engagement with your learners is to make learning social. So don't be afraid to use social media, if you're able to create that class account through Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. A lot of our students are already in a social network. So we want to take advantage of that.

So many instructors are looking at social media as ways to spice up their courses and engage students in learning. Consider adding a Twitter badge to your course or your home page and then using a hashtag to push posts with course relevant content to your students. Social platforms, if used effectively, can help build a sense of classroom community among the students and between students and instructors.

So even if, right now, a lot of your students maybe use Facebook, if that's the social media platform that everybody's using, just seeing a post from your teacher with a little video-- with a link to maybe a program, a free application that the students can use, those are really helpful to them.

So they do-- our students do use social media. So we can take advantage of what they use already. Gamify with badges and certificates-- so we can-- there's many ways for you to add gamification elements to online courses without going to the route of building a full game based learning course from start to finish.

As more-- as we more consider the badges, for example, if they're doing Quizlet, and they got top number one spot on-- they were the fastest to do the matching, we can create digital badges for them. And I'll show you a couple applications that this can be done through.

So the best badges are usually rewarding on an achievement for particular competencies. So even for my students, if I'm teaching them typing, for example, I have a group of students in CTE that are doing typing. So I sent out a superstar to our three top typist. So that encouraged them to kind of-- you know, I've had students tell me, you know, I was practicing for hours because I wanted to be part of that email.

So every once a week, I send out an email to our top typist. But I've also done it with vocabulary words for students, because these programs are kind of tracking, for example, Quizlets tracks how fast they're matching specific activities, or how well they did on the quiz. So that's definitely a way to motivate our students, and it kind of promotes that public accomplishment to them, so it really encourages them to work harder.

So these are some of the batch apps that are available out there. So Credly basically allows teachers to create badges. You're able to upload your own design and give credit through that platform. So that's one application that can be used. One of my favorites is Mozilla Open Badges.

So you can create and issue badges that do not have to be tied to any platform. And like I said before, even just the picture that you're sending out in a text saying, you know, one student completed all of the activities this week, or the whole unit, helps out. And you can create those through Mozillla Open Badges.

All Badges is another application. And this one works in conjunction with rubrics. So if you have like a higher level ESL class or a higher level class and you're looking at competencies and there's a rubric for it, For All Badges will kind of allow you to attach the badge with your rubric to it. And then also take advantage of badges that are offered through your learning platform.

For example, and Edmodo or Moodle or Blackboard. Those learning platforms already have badges that are attached to it. So for example, we use-- Hacienda la Puente uses Moodle through adultcourses.org, with the help of OTAN, and we have Putting English to Work. So what we did is for the unit that the students completed, we're able to give them a badge.

So they completed our Level 1 ESL students, if they completed all of the activities for Unit 1, then they would get the badge for Unit 1. And it could be anything from like housing or health. So we are able to create a sticker or a badge. And then they get that badge once they complete that unit. So when they go into their profile, they see their badges of everything they've completed.

So badges are always fun. Students like them. I like them myself, personally, as a teacher. So when I did take a course that gives a badge, it just kind of makes me feel proud when I get one. And I see some questions. So let me--

Anthony: Yescenia, yeah, I can-- let me-- we do have a couple of questions. So let's start with-- let's go back to the Facebook for a second. So there was a question about, can you give an example of how you would use Facebook in the online classroom, or how do those two things interact maybe?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: So through Facebook you're able to also create groups. So you can create a group where it's called-- in Facebook it's actually called groups. And you create the class identification. So you would say Miss Delgado's ELS Beginning 1. And then you will tell your students the name of the group and they would find it on Facebook and add it to their friends list.

So when you post a message to that specific group, only those students will see it. Even though you have your own Facebook account, once you create that group and you post directly into that group message, only that group of students will see it. So your students that are in that Facebook group don't have to personally be your friends. They can just be a follower of that group.

And for example, if you have a video on vocabulary that you created, a YouTube video or any type of video that-- it's like a little learning lesson, you can upload it in there, and then students are able to comment on the video just like they do in the regular Facebook.

Or if you want to send out a worksheet to your students, it works the sane way. You would be able to attach a worksheet-- say, for example, you have a picture, and it's a higher level class, and you want them to write 50 words on that picture, then you would post the picture, provide your directions, and then the students would be able to comment and see each other's comments.

And that also works the other way, where students are able to share with the group in Facebook. So you can actually do groups for most of the social media platforms, where you're just specifically targeting a group of students that is following that specific group.

Anthony: And Yescenia, the other question for now is, you talked about your CTE students and typing practice, what's a good way to teach typing through distance learning?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: So the one that I use-- and there's a couple of programs out there for typing-- but I just use Typing.com, and it's a free program. And it has lessons already embedded in it. So for example, it starts with like J and F. As our two primary keys. And students have to go in there and do the whole lesson. So it's kind of like a typing app, and then students just go through the lessons.

I think it goes from like beginning, like very, very low, like you can't type, until the higher level where they're taking a five minute typing test. And then they can continue to challenge it to get a higher typing score.

Anthony: And Yescenia, sorry, back on the Facebook group question, you mentioned that you would be able to upload files into the group, are the students then able to download them and print them if they would like?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, they can download and print. So you would download it the same way that you download any PDF document or anything else. If you put a link in there-- like say for example you did a Google form with a little activity for them that's matching or multiple choice, you would just put a link and then you would get all the scores. But if it's an actual worksheet, they're able to pull it up download it, and print it, or email it to themselves from the Facebook app.

Anthony: Perfect, thank you.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: OK, so we were talking about badges. So these are a couple of the places where you can get the badges, and we discussed those. Another best practice is to provide timely and useful feedback. So I know as we get busy, it becomes harder to grade, especially when you're getting assignments throughout the whole day.

But we need to set up a time of when we're going to give the feedback so students are aware of that, if we have a 24 hour turnaround or if we have a four hour turnaround. It's really up to you-- a 48 hour turnaround. But feedback to students about their performance is extremely important in the effort to keep students engaged in the learning journey.

Quick responses to discussion posts and email questions can keep students on track for the next assignment or activity. Turnaround time on grading, of assessments, can also have an impact on future student efforts. Students should never have to engage in the next assessment without receiving feedback from the first assessment or the previous assessment they did.

Feedback that is detailed and positive in nature tends to be more effective than a faint praise or an [audio out]. So one of the things that I found is when I gave personalized feedback to my students, especially my online students that are primarily online, they love the personalized feedback. They engaged or they worked harder. Sometimes they would ask, can they redo the assignment again.

So I think even if they didn't do really well, just providing that positive feedback of you've got two out of 10 correct, but let's review the lesson again. I know you can do better. That just kind of gives them that encouragement to do it, and especially because when we're working online, they don't see us as often as they used to when we were in the classroom. That little comment on their assignment is going to make a big difference for them.

We also want to use different types of feedback. So I know we're used to written feedback, because if we're typically in the classroom, we're giving written feedback back to our students. And we're also giving face to face feedback when we do see them. But a lot of our tools that we have available now-- we can send an audio message. Or you can send a video message for them.

So some platforms some learning management systems already have them embedded for you. But even if, say for example you're using WhatsApp. So that's like a texting app that you can use with students. Just doing a little audio message kind of makes it more exciting for them, and they have to utilize their listening skills to listen to that audio message. Or video as well, that maybe you uploaded into their messaging system.

So one of the things that we do know from research is that research shows that prompt feedback is particularly vital for online students. So that student-teacher interaction is going to be so important, because students are already feeling a little bit isolated or detached when they're not in a face-to-face format. So keeping a reminder of our student interaction and how we can utilize feedback as that interaction process is going to be vital for our students.

Another best practice is to add self-assessments and opportunities-- self-assessment opportunities, allowing students to take more responsibility for their own learning. Creating their own discussion posts can be something that they can do, or providing input for their own participation can be motivating and sometimes a humbling experience for them. A course-based e-portfolio or a learning plan can be also be used to encourage students to build their own personal learning plans while identifying their preference for multiple assessment methods.

So there's different ways that we can do this. So we want our students to build what are their goals and why is this class so important to them, and kind of individualize that learning. So some of the things that I've used is portfolio apps. And these are other programs that you can also use individually to teach. So there's a few of them-- Seesaw is more of a learning journal which provides students with opportunities for students, teachers to think outside the box, so students can show their work and their thought process.

I think Seesaw works really well with like intermediate level students and advanced students as well as career technical. And any of the more academic courses, because it really allows them to show their work their thought process. It provides real time submitting video of themselves working through a process. Also maybe a picture.

It encourages them to submit a series of assignments and connect them to them. So it allows for peer to peer feedback as well as instructor feedback. You also have another app called VoiceThread. And this app is starting to become really popular. It's more of a digital portfolio, which allows both teachers and students to add work samples.

It also allows us to add images and videos right from the app. It accepts multiple types of files, so it's really accessible. It allows like scanning of documents, you're able to scan the document and upload it at the same time. And it's a really good communication application as well. And the last one that I put up there was Three Ring. So this app-- it's easy to use.

It allows also for both teachers and students to upload work and comment. And it also allows them to review their work and give peer to peer feedback. So these are more like portfolio apps, where students can keep-- as your uploading learning materials for them, like they've created their own account. And they can keep it and kind of see what they've learned along the way.

Anthony: Yescenia-- So could I ask a couple questions here?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah yeah, of course.

Anthony: So I think maybe for these apps, specifically, but maybe in general, also, are these apps for free or is there a fee?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: No, so I've chosen only free apps. So all of these are free apps that you can use. Of course, when we look at free apps they all have like small limitations. But most of them are pretty open where you can have a large amount of students and upload as much curriculum as you want.

Anthony: OK. And then-- so there's a question, what is a good-- well let's see if you have any thoughts about this. What is a good platform that would allow the teacher to be able to see the work completed? So for example, if you posted a YouTube video for the students to watch, you as a teacher, you'd be able to actually see if the student watched it or not. And maybe this would go for any kind of work that you post for the students. If you have some thoughts about that.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, so I'm trying to think. Most of the applications don't really tell you if the student watched the video completely or if they clicked on the link. It just tells you if the student marked it as completed. I think what we would use for that is if you do upload like a small YouTube video, I would use a little assessment with it.

So a small assessment, maybe depends how long you want to make it, maybe three to five questions. Asking specific questions about the video. What did they see? Or specifically something that you said in the video so they can answer those questions. That way when they take the assessment, if they didn't watch the video then they're going to go back, watch the video, and retake the assessment again, which would be the hopes. But I can't think of any apps. And if anybody has one, please share it in the comments for everyone. If there is an application that tells you if the video was actually watched.

Anthony: But that is a good idea, though, I mean it's-- I mean you have to watch the video in order to do the work. So--

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, so I usually always pair it up with some type of assessment. And then I know like Moodle tracks it, but it's the student completing it I believe. Melinda?

Melinda: I'm sorry I was just going to piggyback on both of your answers. There is no app that will be able to track if a person has watched the video all the way through. It doesn't exist. However, if you put that video into an app, most apps will allow embeds. I'm going to use Google forms as an example.

You can put a Google-- or a YouTube video in a Google form and have a question right there, so they have to watch it and then they answer the question. Then you post the same video in the next question, and they watch it and then they answer the question. So there are a lot of apps that do the same similar things so you get your assessment, you know they watched it because you're asking maybe even a weird question, like what color is the cup on the coffee table?

They have to watch that video to see that. It's a very specific thing regarding the video. Not just the information. And I'm sorry I interrupted, but

[interposing voices]

Anthony: Yescenia are you familiar with Ed Puzzle? Do you know that program?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: I haven't used it. I've seen a couple of videos on it. But I haven't used it. I think it's almost the same as Edmodo right?

[interposing voices]

Anthony: Just to say that Ed Puzzle is a tech tool you could use, that it's very similar to what Melinda just described. I mean basically you could add, for example, a YouTube video. And then you-- what you do is you basically break it at however many points you would like and then you can ask those kinds of comprehension questions, like Melinda was suggesting.

So at least you have a sense of the length of the video, right, because you've you know how long the video is. And then you could sort of ballpark how much time students are spending on questions to-- as they're watching the video and completing the activity. So. And I would just like to add too, for all of these apps that we're all learning about, a component that we all should be looking for as we're thinking about, well can I-- should I use this app with my students or not or if this program is, is the data.

Are you-- does the program generate some sort of a report that as a teacher we could look at to get some ideas about what kind of work are our students doing? You mentioned like Kahoot and Quizlet earlier, for example, I mean we know Kahoot will generate a very simple report to see, you know, who answered the questions correctly and who didn't and that kind of stuff.

But in general, that's something that we should all be looking for to decide, like OK, should I use this for students or not? Because if I use it, then I'm able to get some data back that will give me some information about what my students are actually doing in this program.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: And even with Google Forms, like maybe it doesn't give you like an automatic data sheet. But you can look at the questions that the students answered and determine how well the students are doing. The other-- I think there was another question about keyboarding exams. So one of the things that I do to give my students a live keyboarding exam is through Zoom.

So it's this application. I only have about 22 students, typically all on screen and I tell them I want a five minute typing test right now. So they all log in. They do the typing test, and I know everybody is on the screen doing the typing test. But they don't get a certificate for that. So usually if there's any certificate attached to it, then we do it a face-to-face exam.

Our next best practice is going to be the microcast. so microcasts are going to basically just be short podcast or short videos that are no more than five minutes. So microcasts can be parts of longer lectures, basically broken down and made into scenarios for students to listen into short bursts, or they can be designed to be independent, concise discussion about specific parts of your content.

So many students today do their homework while commuting, or they're multitasking, or they have a very short attention span. So microcast fits into commuting very well, or multitasking. Even the most tech savvy students like to hear their instructors voices. And they watch short videos. So if we make videos that are too long, it's more than likely that they will not watch them, or they won't watch the whole video.

So one of those reasons is that we want to break up as much as we can into small little short pieces of information for them so they're able to learn something, take a small assessment, learn something else, and take another small assessment. And they're able to do that in broken parts. Especially for our learners right now where they-- they're staying at home with their families, they have kids, they're making dinner, there they have all of their life responsibilities.

So if we just make it a really short activity, five minute video with a two minute Q&A, that makes it easier for them to get through the curriculum. And research does show that microcasting has the same effect as face to face short lessons. And it can energize online students to keep the level of engagement high. So instead of giving them one long lesson, giving them multiple little small lessons can be more effective for students.

And to do microcasting, on some of the applications that I love using is really my own phone. You can do your video with your own iPhone or any mobile that you have, and just download your video into an MP4 file and upload it into any program that you're using. So really your own phone, if you're used to it and you're comfortable with it, that could be one of your best friends to make your videos.

One of the things that I love and I use very much, especially for vocabulary learning, is I use PowerPoint with voice over. So PowerPoint has a function where you can add your voice to each individual slide. So this makes it really easy for low level learners to maybe teach vocabulary. So you have a picture of a chair, and you let them know that it's a chair.

You sound it out for them. You can spell it for them. But each picture would kind of be like a flash card. And you can add your voice to each picture on the PowerPoint.

The other ones that I use are Loom and Screen Castify, which are a little bit different, but they do the same thing. So basically they're recording your screen. So just like we are right now, you're looking at my screen and hearing my voice in the background. And I know they both have the capacity to show your picture or your video on the side along with your screen. So these are just some of the applications that you can use to create those small microcast videos, or to create any small video that you want to teach for your classroom.

So for example, when we first had to transition from face-to-face to online, I just made a daily video of what are we going to do today. This is the lesson you're going to be learning. Posted that, and then I posted a separate little video with the specific lesson. Another thing that I use the microcast for is a weekly.

So maybe just posting your weekly announcements with a video of yourself kind of helps students get to know what are they expected to do this week. So these are just some of the applications that I use. And as we know, really when we're teaching online, one of the main benefits that our students are getting from us teaching online right now is online learning-- is the expertise that they're gaining in developing their computer skills.

So we're kind of being forced to learn computer skills, especially for older students that weren't used to doing anything online. If they want to learn at this point, the only way to do it is through video or through online distance because of social distancing. But technology can foster a rich learning environment that's meaningful, and it can create and contribute to all of our students' personal growth and development.

So really I encourage you to just take one platform. And I know there's so many, so many platforms out there. And there's so many tools that we can use. But I really encourage you to use one that you're comfortable with, that you're already using, and think outside the box on how you can utilize it to teach a mini lesson.

If you're already on Facebook, let's see, how can I upload a video? Can I create a group for my students? You know if you're comfortable with Gmail and you can create your Google Groups, then that might be the best way to communicate with your students. But I really encourage you just to pick one application.

Don't pick all of them together, because it's going to take a long learning process. But pick one application that you like, that you're comfortable with, and utilize it to teach your students or to share any learning material that you have for your students. And then I'll take any questions at this point.

Anthony: Yescenia, we have a couple of questions. So actually in the chat we had a suggestion. It would be great to see an example of a short video telling students about the assignment. Do you happen to have anything you could share?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Let me see if I can log into my account. I'm going to stop sharing for just a second. Let me log into my account.

Anthony: And then we did have a couple of questions in the Q&A, but let's see if we can look at this first. Maybe Yescenia, while you're looking for that-- in general, how long are these videos that you're sending out to the students? Did you want to talk about that as well?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, so the timing-- I try and do short videos, not long. The reason is, the short videos are easier for them to manage. So most videos, the recommendation is that they're less than five minutes. So-- and it's easier as a teacher to record a short video than to do a long one.

But as long as your video's less than five minutes, you can keep your students pretty engaged. If I'm doing an announcement, I usually just may get like two minutes maybe at the most, just kind of introducing the week, saying this is what we're going to learn and that's it. And thank them for watching it. But other than that, it's a really short video. So I'm logging into my stuff right now. So give me one minute and I'll be able to pull up some stuff.

Anthony: And Yescenia, while you're still looking, just for folks who-- if you're watching the chat, there are a lot-- there have been some good suggestions, especially on typing programs. Yescenia, you talked about typing practice for your students. And so I think we've had maybe four different suggestions now.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, there's a lot of them out there.

Anthony: Yeah, typing.com, typingweb.com, typingclub.com, and we just got another one in the chat-- speedytypingonline.com. So there's a lot of programs out there.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: OK so I have one video up, the fastest one I can find. Because I delete a lot of my videos, but this is one where it's just the PowerPoint with voice overs. So let me share that.

Melinda: Remember to hit the Share audio button. When you go to share.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yes, I got it. So here's one video. So for example, I use this one for CTE. And it's more of a vocabulary video. So I'm just going to go through it really quickly.

[video playback]

- Top 10 drugs, week one. Lipitor, atorvastatin. Used for cholesterol. Nexium, esomeprazole, used for GERD or stomach. Plavix, Clopidogrel, used as a blood thinner, stroke, or heart.

[end playback]

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: So that's a quick example of what one of my videos looks like. And if you look at this video, I'm giving them 10 vocabulary words. So for example, this is for a career technical class where they have to memorize the drug and they have to memorize what it's used for. So I'm giving them 10 drugs. And it's basically a simple PowerPoint.

And this video is only a minute and 44 seconds. So what my students use it for is to memorize those vocabulary words. And what I've been told is my students listen to it in the car, they listen to it you know as much as they can because for them it's more helpful to listen to the pronunciation.

And they're really short. So then after they've mastered the flashcards that I gave them through the video, I usually have a really quick assessment that's more like a matching assessment. Or they match the words and the uses. I'm trying to see if-- I can't find a video of myself. So I can share that with you. But that would be what a PowerPoint looks like.

Anthony: Yescenia, I'm not sure I'm not sure what tech you're using to create the PowerPoint, I mean your hardware, but a couple of questions. Do you know how to add voiceover on slides using an iPhone or a Mac?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: If you are using the PowerPoint app, it should be in the same place. So for example, let me share my screen. And so for example, this is PowerPoint. If you're using the app, I've done it on my iPad before. So you go to insert at the home ribbon. You go to the Insert ribbon, and then on the right there is an audio or video clip. So you can upload video if you want.

I usually like doing the audio for flash cards, only audio. So when you click on audio, it asks you if you want to use the audio from your computer, or whatever you're using, the device that you're using, or if you're uploading like the audio file. Or if you want to record it.

So the program itself will ask you whether you're recording from the device, or whether you're uploading like an MP3 file that you did on your-- I mean MP4 file that you did on your phone, or-- is that correct Anthony, what is it called if it's just an audio MP?

Anthony: Audio I believe is only MP3, but MP4 would be the video.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, so I mean sometimes you can do the audio separate and then upload it, or you can do the audio with the program itself, which is PowerPoint. And like I said, I've done it on my iPad and it works just as well as the computer. So if you're just using your iPad them it should work for your iPhone.

Anthony: So Yescenia, a different question, speaking of devices. Do you have some-- so the question was in the Q&A, do have some information that could be shared as to what devices students must have in order to use the different apps that you've talked about? So for example, some students only have phones. So I think it's rather than must have, it's just-- what devices they have. So can you talk a little bit about the variety of devices that students have and how you maybe addressed some of those technical issues that might come up?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Most of the applications that I shared today are accessible through any mobile device. As long as it's like a moblie, a current mobile phone. Not like the small flip phones that we used to have before, but most applications are very user friendly on their phones. So they should be able to access them even if-- you know the website apps, to build a portfolio if you're going to be doing-- uploading lessons that way, they're accessible through the phone. So I don't think any of our students should have any issues as far as accessing any of the applications that we talked about today through the phone.

Anthony: I know that sometimes people ask, if students are watching a lot of videos, for example, does that somehow you know impact their data usage or if they're on a plan that is tracking minutes or something like that? So that might be an issue for some students though.

We had a-- sorry Yescenia, we had a suggestion in one of our office hours I think last week, for example, that sometimes maybe a first step-- and I think you talked about this a little bit in the beginning as well, is maybe the first step is just making sure as the teacher you survey your students to find out, what technology do they have at their disposal before you know unleash whatever it is you want to do with them.

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: Yeah, definitely. I think just taking their input, or even asking your students, what apps are you already using to engage with others, and just kind of seeing, if you have a lot of students using a specific app, then that would be a great app to kind of consider or modifying it to use to teach students. Or send out messages to them.

Anthony: So Yescenia, back on that PowerPoint, we have a couple questions now in the Q&A. A question-- which PowerPoint app do you recommend to upload on our phone?

Yescenia Delgado Lorenzo: It's the Microsoft-- what I have on my iPad is just the Microsoft app. So if you go to Microsoft-- your store, you should be able to access Microsoft PowerPoint. And it's the app specifically for PowerPoint, and if you already have an account that you're logged in with, or that you use for your school district, then you're able to log in with that account.