EDT113 5 Edu News Items including Updates from Canva, Edpuzzle, and Gemini in Google Classroom

This episode features 5 education updates including new features from Canva, Edpuzzle, and Google Classroom, a really cool new edtech tool, and my very favorite article ever written.

#EduDuctTape Episode 113

• Edu News I’ve Got My Peepers On:
  • Canva and Affinity - canva.com/newsroom/news/affinity
  • Edpuzzle adds Teacher Assist - support.edpuzzle.com/hc/en-us/sections/14355696963981-Teacher-Assist
  • Grouper - grouper.school
  • Gemini in Google Classroom - workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2024/09/gemini-education-tab-in-google-classroom.html?ck_subscriber_id=1727952374
  • Developing "Assessment Capable" Learners - ascd.org/el/articles/developing-assessment-capable-learners

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today on the educational duct tapepodcast, I'm tying a gift wrapped
bow on 2024 by sharing five educationupdates, including new features from
Canva ed puzzle and Google classroom.
A really cool new ed tech tool and myvery favorite article ever written.
Honestly, it's my favorite.

(00:20):
And you're gonna want tohear about it after this.
What's up duct tapers.
I hope you're doing well.
And I hope the 2024 portion of thisschool year is wrapping up nicely for you.
If you're like me, you're ready for a fewweeks off to rejuvenate and reenergize

(00:43):
so that you are ready to do awesomestuff for your learners in the new year.
So today's episode is goingto be a bit different.
A week ago, I recorded an amazinginterview with Adam Sparks, a
former teacher and the currentco-founder and CEO of short answer.
So Adam recently became internetfamous, we'll say, uh, for some
awesome writing, it started off onTwitter or X and then became a blog

(01:06):
post and so on and so forth, but anyawesome, awesome writing that he did.
About the flaws of AI detection tools.
But when Adam and I connected andstarted chatting about this, I found
that well, that stuff's fascinating.
What I was really interested in is whathe recommended that we do instead of
using AI detectors, especially when wetalk about writing either in the writing

(01:28):
classroom or in other content areas.
Um, and his wisdom around thequality pedagogy relating to
writing is truly impressive.
And how leveraging these insights,circumvents much of the AI issues
is also super pertinent right now.
I learned a ton from Adam and he reallyhad me thinking in the interview.

(01:48):
It was a great, great, great chat.
I was so excited afterwards.
Uh, learned a lot.
I cannot wait for you to hear it.
But I'm going to have to wait.
You see, I need a few more hours of workon this episode before I could release it.
And if I give it those few hours,then I would end up dropping
it on like December 21st.
And that is not a good day for launchingan education podcast because it's

(02:14):
beginning to look a lot like winter break.
Uh, everywhere.
Go, do you guys think Ihave a career in singing?
No.
Okay.
Um, but anyhow, if I releaseit on December 21st, that
probably wouldn't work for you.
Most of you will have turned off yourEDU brains by then and would have turned
your focus towards the holiday moviesand sugar cookies and gift wrapping

(02:38):
and baking and planning for holidaygatherings or whatever it might be
that you're doing during those days.
So.
Rather than trying to release iton December 21st and hoping for
listeners, I'm just going to wait.
Hang on to that amazing episode.
Cause I don't want anybodyto miss that chat with Adam.
I'm going to hang onto it and I'm goingto drop it the first full week of 2025.
So January 8th or something likethat, like that week, um, you do

(03:02):
not want to miss this, make sureyou're subscribed so that you don't.
It trust me.
As really good.
And you're going to find that puttinghis insights into your practices,
whether you teach writing or not.
Um, is going to be one of your newyear's resolutions when you hear it.
It's so good.
So make sure you're subscribed.
Make sure you don't miss that.
When that comes out.

(03:23):
So we'll be saving that for thefirst full week of 2025, but now I
wanted to be here now and I wantedto be here once more in 20, 24.
I wanted to wish you happy holidays.
I wanted to tell you to have agreat break and I figured what
else should I do while I'm here?
I'm telling them this episode, that'samazing is not coming to them yet.
All I'll by the way, also happyholidays and have a great break.
But w w what, what,what value can I bring?

(03:47):
And so I figured I there's awhole bunch of different news.
In the EDU and ed tech space, that'scome out over the last couple of months
that I've wanted to tell you about.
And I'm trying to kind of bringit out a little bit at a time
and every episode of the show.
And so I figured why not justhave an episode where I just
share a few of those things.
So I'm going to share five piecesof education news that I'm excited

(04:07):
about, or as I call them in myemail newsletter five pieces of
EDU news that I have my peepers on.
Does that make sense?
My peepers.
Is that a good word for eyes?
I say it for eyes.
I hope that.
When I say EDU news, that I hadmy peepers on people understand
what I'm talking about.
Maybe I should change that.
Maybe being worried about it as aclue that it's probably not the best.

(04:27):
Anyhow, here are those first five.
So first up Canva welcomeda new tool called affinity.
So I have to be honest, Ihad never heard of affinity.
Until I saw this news article come out.
But earlier this year,Canva acquired this tool.
It's a professional design software suite.
That apparently is used and lovedby millions of designers worldwide.

(04:49):
So not educators necessarily, butdesigners and what I've discovered in
learning about affinity is that it offersreally powerful tools for video editing.
Vector graphics, page layouts,things like that, that have made it
a go-to for creative professionals.
So now that it's part of the Canvafamily, that means that schools can
access these advanced tools for free.

(05:10):
I'm eager to see how this levels up,what we could do just inside of Canva.
You're like what they integrate into theregular canvas platform, but I'm also
interested in seeing, and I'm wonderinghow will those vector graphics that
affinity already makes now that they'repart of the canvas family, and now
that schools can access them for free.
Um, how will those.
Vector graphics tools work and beused and digital fabrication spaces.

(05:33):
So could we potentially be makingthings in here that we're using
with laser cutters and vinylcutters and things like that?
I am eager to find out.
I don't know the answer if youknow, uh, reach out and let me know.
Uh, second piece of news.
Uh, one of my favoritesttools, favoritest.
That's a word, one of myfavorite tools, ed puzzle.

(05:54):
Added a feature called teacher assist.
So this new option called teacher assist.
Auto grades, short answerresponses that truly assists the
teacher and doing their work.
It auto grades, short answer responses.
And not only that, not only doesit help you save time with grading,
it can also save time with planningbecause it's got a question

(06:14):
generator too, obviously, using AI.
We could plug in the videos andto ed puzzle and it'll generate
questions for us as well.
And if they're short answer, youcould potentially turn on the
teacher assist auto grade, toolto grade, your questions for you.
So very handy.
Very cool, very great for, uh, someformative assessment with videos.

(06:34):
That's really cool.
Next number three is a brand new toolthat I learned about on blue sky.
Recently.
I think I saw Alice Keeler share this one.
Uh, it is called grouper.
And if you feel like you need one ofthose conspiracy theory, bulletin boards
with the pins and the strings to be ableto group your students like you've got,
well, Johnny can't be paired with Susieand Susie works really well with Sally and

(06:57):
Billy has to be in the front of the roomand he does work really well with Johnny.
And you've got these.
Are there that many Johnny's and Susie'sand Billy's in classrooms nowadays.
Anyhow.
And you've got this board, that'sconnecting all those different things.
Um, that's what it feels like forme sometimes when you're making
groups in class, um, that's, that'sa, that's a pain that's difficult.
So you might want grouper.

(07:18):
So it's an ed tech toolthat forms teams in a click.
You just give it your list of students andyou tell it, do I want randomized teams?
Do I want to randomize them and thenmove some students around, you know,
once I see some of the things maybethat are in there that don't work
out well for me, do I want to have acertain rule that you randomized by?
Do I want to give my students.
Uh, attributes and then have yougrouped them by maybe proficiency

(07:42):
or interests or something like that?
So you're doing an activity andif they're interested in football,
they're going to be grouped together.
Do this version.
If they're interested in Taylorswift, they're going to be
interested in this version.
And if they're interested inTravis, Kelsey and Taylor swift,
they're gonna do this version.
I don't know.
Um, or it can be by proficiency.
So may mixed groups or, um, groupsbased on what level of content they're

(08:03):
ready for within a learning standard.
You could do that all atautomates it and grouper, but
then also lets you customize it.
Um, I've watched the video aboutit, but I haven't tried it out yet.
So if you do, I would love to hearwhat you think of grouper and the
link will be in the show notes.
And also the other things too,the links will be to the articles,
maybe where they're now to me,things are in the show notes too.

(08:25):
Next number four, I would liketo share some news from Google.
They recently rolled out Geminieducation tools for classroom users.
So Gemini is their AI tool.
Uh, originally it was called Bard andthen it became Gemini and they have
shifted it into Google classroom.
And it gives educators AI powered helpwith lesson planning, with quiz creation

(08:49):
and more right inside of classroom.
So
if that sounds good to you, youmay want to go check this out.
You probably definitely want to go checkit out, but you may not have access to it.
I should say this is a specialadd on in Google classroom.
I don't know anything about the pricing.
It's something for you to evaluate.
And maybe if you're not the personwho does that kind of purchasing,
you send that on to them.

(09:10):
There'll be a link to theannouncement in the show notes.
And if you're interested, you cango check out the details there,
and if you need to send it to a.
Uh, technology director or somethinglike that, then you just send them that
link that you got in the show notes.
Um, the fifth and final thing that I'mgoing to share for today is not news.
It's just something that Irevisited recently and went
like, man, this is so good.

(09:31):
I need to tell everybody about it.
So it's an article that I first read.
, years ago.
I read it just A week or so ago, as I waspreparing for a session, I was leading
about assessment and feedback and thearticle is called, um, assessment capable
learners, and it was an a S C D article.
Uh, by Nancy Frey and DouglasFisher and John Hattie, it's called

(09:52):
developing assessment capable learners.
And there's just one quote in there.
And it says, are we fighting witha hand tied behind our back by
not involving students more in theassessment and feedback process?
I think if you check out thearticle, you'll see what they mean.
And they make a really compelling case.
Uh, for changing the way that at leastI used assessment and feedback in my

(10:14):
classrooms, I was not developing whatthey call assessment capable learners.
This is my favorite article.
Like it, it, it confirms everythingthat I believe to be true.
And education, maybe noteverything, but a lot of what I
believe to be true in education.
Um, Nick is really powerful,really impactful, really well done.
Um, at has a lot of things that I thinkare really important to think about.

(10:36):
It's all about helping students becomewhat they call assessment, capable
learners, learners that track theirprogress learners, that set goals.
Learners that use feedback togrow learners that have a growth
mindset and seek out that feedbacklearners that know where they're
going and how they're getting there.
Um, and it proves throughsome of Hattie's effect sizes.
Uh, that these strategies are truly agame changer for fostering independence,

(11:00):
motivation, and actually studentlearning and student achievement.
Um, If you haven't read the articleand you check it out, I'd love
to know what you think of it.
If you've already read it and youdo these things, or I've tried these
things, I'd love to know how it went.
So feel free as always to reach out.
So that's all the news for today.
We will be back in early Januarywith that episode with Adam Sparks.

(11:23):
about, how to teach NSSwriting and the age of AI.
It's actually going tobe a double episode.
There is so much amazingness inthe episode that I'm splitting
the interview across two episodes.
So make sure that you aresubscribed so you don't miss either.
After that I will have anotheramazing episode with Adam
Waters and Catherine Juliet.

(11:44):
Um, Uh, husband and wife, edtech duo from out in California.
Uh, authors of a book calledThe Complete EdTech Coach.
So, we've done the interviewalready and they were awesome.
We talked about ways to improveaccessibility and universal design
for learning in our classrooms.
We talked about some ed tech tools,but we also talked about some AI tools.

(12:06):
I talked about a lot of ideas for how wecan make our classes more accessible and
empower students, get what they need.
And that will be followed by, I believean episode with Eric guys and Nick
Johnson of the ed tech Throwdown podcast.
We've talked about doing this.
They've said they want to do this, this.
They said, when do you wanna do it?
And I said, I'll get back to you.
So we just have to schedule that.

(12:27):
So hopefully we'll have that scheduledand recorded and time to hit the airwaves.
Just after that episode with.
Uh, Adam and cat.
Um, and I forget what Nick andEric and I are talking about,
but it's going to be awesome.
I've got a whole bunch of otherreally awesome guests up my sleeve for
2025 . So I hope you are subscribed inyour favorite podcast app or wherever

(12:49):
or on YouTube too, so that you couldhear all of these amazing things.
I hope you're up subscribedto my newsletter too, so
that you hear announcementsabout them as they're coming.
We got some great stuff coming yourway in January and throughout 2025,
but first I hope you all have amazing.
Breaks.
I hope you get some rest and rejuvenation.
I hope you do things that makeyou smile, make you laugh.

(13:10):
Make your heart warm.
And not warm, warm.
Make your heart warm.
And we enunciate better.
I hope you get to spend some timewith family and friends, people,
you care about people you love.
I hope you have a blast, and I hopeyou come back to your classrooms in
January rejuvenated and ready to rock it.
So thank you guys for everything you do.
Happy holidays.

(13:30):
Happy break time.
Happy new year.
I will see you soon.