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The GagglerVolume VI • Issue III • November 2010

Now Playing! GaggleTube

Curriculum Corner

Do you want to use YouTube™ videos in your classroom? Does your district block access? The vast majority of school districts do use internet filters to prevent students and teachers from accessing YouTube, and with good reason. There is a lot of inappropriate content available on the site, and that content changes rapidly. In fact, every minute more than 24 hours of video is uploaded to the YouTube site.

But there is also a wealth of good information on YouTube, and many videos could be very beneficial in instruction at all grade levels and across all content areas. That’s where Gaggle comes in! Based on requests from educators, we developed GaggleTube, allowing searches of appropriate videos with an added layer of Gaggle safety, while still allowing the district to block direct access to the YouTube website.

Teachers can search and preview videos, tag or save them, and show them directly from Gaggle, full screen. Videos can also be embedded in blogs to promote discussions outside of the classroom. Students can be given their own version of GaggleTube, allowing

them to view only videos approved by educators. And we’re developing an extension of the feature that will allow uploading to YouTube by teachers, or by students after teacher approval, so your kids can share their original creations with their peers and the world.

You’ll find the GaggleTube icon on your left panel, and student settings are on the lower section of the Advanced tab on the School Setup page. If you’d like to add the ability to upload videos, you’ll need a school YouTube account set up, which our customer service department will be happy to help you with. Keep in mind that no filtering system can catch everything all the time, so be sure you watch and listen to any video you might want to use before you show it to your class. And although you have the option to allow students to search filtered video on their own, you might want to reserve that for older students or special temporary projects.

With GaggleTube and a few minutes of previewing, the world of YouTube video can bring an exciting new dimension to your classroom!

Need a quick Gaggle training? Register for one of our many free webinars. Visit our Webinars blog at www.gaggle.net/webinars, or use the convenient Portal Link on the panel in your account to see all of our upcoming offerings. The webinars run about 45 minutes and are offered at multiple times so you are sure to find one that fits your schedule. If your school gives credit for attending these trainings, please email us after participating and we can provide documentation of your attendance. Our regular topics of “Welcome to Gaggle” for teachers, and “Welcome to Gaggle – Administrative Training” are available. And this month we are featuring two special webinars: “Educating and Connecting with Students through Gaggle, “and “Digital Locker, Zoho Document, and the Homework Drop Box.”

Our new training videos are here! We have over 65 new videos covering everything in Gaggle from Adding users to Zoho Documents! You’ll find those on the left panel in Gaggle Apps, and even students have their own collection of videos to view. Our new videos are all under 5 minutes each, so you can get a fast tutorial on a specific topic whenever you need it. We’ll update and add any new videos every few months.

Free Webinars

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the value of a video? To many students who are visual learners, it’s priceless. With the vast selection on YouTube, you can probably find a clip for everything you teach. While you are doing your weekly lesson planning, do a quick search each week for videos that will fit your curriculum. You can embed something about a current event in your blog as an outside discussion assignment, use a clip to share a dangerous science experiment you can’t do in class, or show a classic School House Rock video to teach nouns. GaggleTube can bring some extra excitement to your class and make your job a little easier!

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School SpotlightHowe Public School District 67

Howe Public Schools is a small district in Oklahoma, with only 500 students. But this small town district is big on technology. They pride themselves on being the tech leader in their state, and have given every student in 3rd through 12th grades a Mac Book for use at school and at home. A 1:1 laptop initiative gives students the best opportunity to learn to use 21st century tools, so having a wide variety of tools available to the students for productivity, communication, and collaboration is crucial. And teachers need those tools as well, to really maximize the benefit of their technology – rich environment. Tammy Parks, the School Technology Coordinator, chose Gaggle a year ago to use with their laptops, calling it “a perfect fit.” Although the school has Moodle and was using it previously for students to turn in their homework, they have found Gaggle’s Homework Drop Boxes to be a better solution. Tammy likes that everything is in one spot. She likes that it is easy to access all of the tools they need since

the kids only need to go to their Gaggle account. She also loves GaggleTube because it is filtered.

Some specific tools the teachers are using include the Social Wall. Mary Woodward keeps the Junior Class up on current news and important projects like planning the prom. Email for the students is also a key to using other 21st Century services on the web that require an email address in order to create an account. Having Gaggle for all of the students makes it easy to keep track of everything they are using. The email also gives the students increased access to their teachers. Tammy said “with Gaggle there is an open communication between the students and teachers” which she felt was important to have. With all of the technology Howe is taking advantage of, we’re sure they’ll be getting even more use from their Gaggle accounts on their Mac Books in the future!

Tech TalkData Integration Improvements Ask Admin…

Question: My students are unable to view a video I’d like them to watch. They search with the same criteria as me, but come up with no results. Why doesn’t it show for them?

Answer: Students are generally set to the GaggleTube access level of “view approved.” This means that students are only able to search and view videos that have been approved by teachers using Gaggle. It sounds like this video may not be approved for student viewing yet. To do this, you’ll need to go to the video in question in GaggleTube. Next, select Tag. Make sure the “approved for students” box is checked. Then click Save. Your students can now search for this video!

Gaggle’s Data Integration (DI) service can be used by districts to automatically create and update student and teacher accounts. Recently, Gaggle has also added the ability to create and manage class lists through the DI process. Because the lists are created automatically, teachers can use them immediately. This will allow teachers to create class-specific homework drop boxes and message boards, email the entire class at once, or share Digital Locker files with a class list.

The setup for class list creation is similar to that for account creation. Your district sends Gaggle an export from your student information system containing a School ID number, Student ID number, unique Class ID and Class Name. Gaggle will then process the file and create the appropriate classes, or move students into and out of classes as appropriate. As always, you can contact Gaggle Customer Service for more information

New in Gaggle• We’re moving our Login Button! To make it easier to find quickly, it’s being relocated to the far right corner where Let’s

Connect is now. The switch will happen over Thanksgiving, so watch for it when you log in after the holiday.

• Usage Reports have been improved, with an easier to use list of options for reports. School Masters and District masters can access these on the More Settings of your School Setup Page, or the District Setup Page->Usage reports Tab. You can also select a District automatic monthly report with customized parameters.

• You can now open a Gaggle tab in a new browser! Simply right click one of your Gaggle tabs and you’ll see the option to Close the tab, or Open it in a new browser window.

• There’s added right click options for your Digital Locker files. You’ll see new options to Download, Submit to a Homework Drop Box, or for images you can open in a Web Browser.

The Gaggler Volume VI • Issue III • November 2010

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Today’s economic woes could cause future issues for many public schools, and unfortunately, technology sometimes falls victim to budget cuts. But there is a federal funding program that can help you provide Gaggle subscription accounts to your students, even when budgets are tight.

The Schools and Libraries Program and the Universal Service Fund, more commonly known as “Erate,” provides discounts and monetary assistance to schools and districts for telecommunication services, internet access, and internal connections. The purpose of the Erate program is to enable all schools to have access to these services for their students. Funding for Erate can be requested under four categories of service: Telecommunications Services, Internet Access, Internal Connections, and Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections. The Gaggle service must be requested under the “Internet Access” portion of your school’s application in order for it to be eligible. Discounts and monetary assistance from Erate is dependent on your student population’s socio-economic status and the urban/rural status of the population of your community. Discounts can range from 20% to 90% of the cost of eligible services. This means your school could pay as little as 10% for your Gaggle accounts. Schools can apply for Erate individually or as part of a larger district.

StepsintheErateProcess:• File Form 470 – Applicants file this form to indicate which services they

would like to receive funding for. Again, Gaggle is eligible for funding under “Internet Access.” The SLD is currently accepting Form 470 applications for the 11/12 school year.

• File Form 471 – This form identifies which vendors were selected to fulfill each request from the Form 470. The last day to file a Form 471 is this year will likely be in mid-March. Schools must wait a minimum of 28 days after filing a Form 470 before they can file a Form 471, to allow competitive bids for services.

• Receive Funding Commitment Decision Letter (FCDL) – Once a Form 471 is filed, the SLD will review the requests and decide on funding

• File Form 486 – Once funding is approved, file a Form 486 to indicate to the SLD that services have started with the chosen vendors.

The Erate program is a wonderful solution for many school districts and allows them to afford the tools necessary to provide their students a 21st century education. If you are looking for a way to fund your school or district’s Gaggle accounts, we encourage you to apply for Erate funding. You can visit the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) website for more information on applying (http://www.universalservice.org/sl/)

Erate Can Help Pay for Your Gaggle Subscription!

If you asked many of our subscription districts in the eastern half of the United States about Gaggle, they’d probably mention Heather Hammond. Heather has been with Gaggle for over three years, covering states like North Carolina and Florida as an account representative and trainer. She’s currently our Senior Account Manager, and star trainer. Her customers love her bright smile and high energy, and teachers in her training sessions enjoy her fun and informative style.

Heather earned her B.A. in Communications and a Master’s in Communications with a focus in Training and Development from Western Illinois University, is a member of the American Society for Training and Development. She is a fiercely loyal Cardinals baseball fan, so there are often friendly debates with the Cubs fans in our Bloomington, Illinois office. And Heather is the current holder of Gaggle’s coveted Frequent Flier award, spending more days on the road lately than at home. Her black lab, Rookie, (get the baseball reference?) isn’t too excited by that particular honor!

With Gaggle’s on-site training becoming more and more popular, you might see Heather at your school sometime. She also attends some of the local ed-tech conferences and ISTE every year, so stop by and say hi!

A Gaggle Introduction

Gaggle.Net, Inc.1-800-288-7750P.O. Box 1352, Bloomington, IL 61702Copyright © 2010

The Gaggler Volume VI • Issue III • November 2010