🗑 10 ways to make learning interactive

📺 Free webinar — and free Starbucks ☕️

If you teach at a Google school, you’ve GOT to attend this fun free webinar I’m doing with Trafera on Wednesday!

Title: Viral Learning: Video-Based Google Activities for the TikTok Generation
Hosts: Matt Miller and Trafera’s Josh Ratliff
Date: Wednesday, October 30 (this Wednesday!)
Time: 3pm U.S. Eastern / 2pm Central / 1pm Mountain / noon Pacific
Location: Online (I mean, it IS a webinar …)
Replay: Yes (but you have to register)

Bonus: Get a $5 Starbucks gift card (when you register with a valid school/work email AND complete the exit survey at the end of the live session)

📺 Register for the webinar (and free Starbucks) here ☕️

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🚀 Make learning resources interactive with Brisk Boost

In the image above, I have a Britannica article about mitosis.

Tell students to go read an article? 😒😒😒

Not super exciting. They won’t be thrilled.

But it has information they need to learn and understand.

Let’s make it better with Brisk Boost (again, for zero dollars).

This student activity in the image above has …

1. the Britannica article (in red)

2. a chatbot to ask students questions and teach them about it (in yellow)

3. the learning objectives (in green) that monitor student learning progress

When you set up the activity, you choose the role you want Brisk Boost to play for your students — a tutor, a debater, a brainstormer, a curiosity satisfier (my term not theirs 😂), a character in history or literature, etc.

The student opens the activity, talks to the chatbot, looks at the article (or whatever resource), and watches their progress on the green learning objectives bar.

Pretty cool. 😎

Let’s look at the learning objectives a little more …

The more that students answer questions and show understanding, the fuller that green bar gets.

You can choose the learning objectives (or let Brisk Boost suggest them for you).

Of course, you, the teacher, can monitor all of this on the teacher side of Brisk.

In today’s new post about Brisk Boost, I’ll show you …

• How to make a Brisk Boost activity for students step-by-step

• How to teach mitosis using of allllllll of the Brisk Boost learning modes

• 10 ways to use Brisk Boost in the classroom

• a tutorial video to walk you through everything step by step

I’m really impressed with how Brisk Boost engages students in resources they need to learn from anyway.

Instead of just handing students these resources, you can “Brisk It” — turning it into an interactive student activity in just a minute or two.

🔎 Read: Transform any online resource into interactive learning with Brisk Boost

💻 TECH TIP 💻

📺 Teaching students to watch instructional videos

Sometimes, students need to watch instructional videos to learn new concepts. How can we help them get the most out of it?

Here are some tips for students from the revised edition of Flip Your Classroom by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams. The flipped classroom model emphasizes using instructional videos to help students learn.

1. Watch, listen, and process. Absorb as much as you can.

2. Pause and write. Don’t just transcribe what you hear. Process what you’ve just seen.

3. Demonstrate accountability. Answer some questions to show that you understand.

Here are some strategies to help students interact with instructional videos:

• Graphic organizers. These could be guided notes, templates, or other documents to help them process. (FYI: We have tons of Google Slides and PowerPoint templates you can copy and use.)

• 3-2-1 strategy. Record three things you’ve learned, two questions you have about the content, and one lingering question about the concept.

• Assessment tools. Use anything from Google Forms assessments to review game tools like Quizizz, Kahoot!, and Blooket.

• In-video assessment tools. This could include Edpuzzle, VidGrid, Panopto, or even the video questions feature in premium Google Classroom.

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!