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EPISODE 200! Tech Tools for Teachers Celebrates a Milestone! 🎉
Episode 200 • 6th January 2025 • Tech Tools for Teachers • Shanna Martin
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What an incredible journey it's been! We are so excited to celebrate our 200th episode of Tech Tools for Teachers by taking a nostalgic trip back to where it all started. Six years ago, our very first episode (at the kitchen counter) featured two amazing educational tools - Padlet and Google Keep. Let's revisit these awesome tools and see why they're still classroom favorites!

To our amazing community of educators and ed-tech enthusiasts - THANK YOU! Your support, feedback, and enthusiasm have made these 200 episodes possible. We couldn't have reached this milestone without our incredible listeners who share our passion for bringing innovative technology into education.

  • https://padlet.com
  • https://keep.google.com

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Tech Tools for Teachers is part of the Education Podcast Network. https://www.edupodcastnetwork.com/



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Transcripts

Shanna Martin:

Thanks for listening, this is the Tech Tools for Teachers

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podcast, where each week we'll talk

about a free piece or two of technology

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that you can use in your classroom.

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I'm your host, Shanna Martin.

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I'm a middle school teacher,

technology coach, and personalized

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learning coordinator for my district.

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And I'm joined by my

producer slash husband.

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Fuzz Martin: Hi, everybody.

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Shanna Martin: Fuzz Martin.

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Today, we're going to talk to

you about Padlet and Google Key.

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Fuzz Martin: Oh, wait,

that was the old one.

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Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening

to the Tech Tools for Teachers

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podcast, where each week we talk about

a free piece or two of technology

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that you can use in your classroom.

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I'm your host, Shanna Martin.

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I'm a middle school teacher, technology,

and instructional coach for my district.

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Fuzz Martin: And I'm her producer

and husband, Fuzz Martin,

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and I love doing this 200%.

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Uh,

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welcome to

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Shanna Martin: episode

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Fuzz Martin: 200.

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Yay.

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It's started.

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Six years ago, and one day ago.

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Shanna Martin: Yeah.

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Fuzz Martin: Today.

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Shanna Martin: Crazy.

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Fuzz Martin: Yes.

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Shanna Martin: At our kitchen counter.

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Fuzz Martin: At our kitchen counter.

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With a

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Shanna Martin: different

dog we had in our house.

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Snoring on the couch.

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Fuzz Martin: Snoring on the couch,

and snoring dog media, and we used,

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uh, much lower quality equipment.

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Shanna Martin: Well, yeah, and

we were at the kitchen counter,

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so the acoustics were amazing.

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They were

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Fuzz Martin: amazing, yes.

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Shanna Martin: Um, how far we've

come, how fun this has been for us.

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And if you are so inspired after

that intro, you can go back and

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listen to that first episode.

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Fuzz Martin: I had trouble

finding it on Apple Podcasts.

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Shanna Martin: Yeah, like you

can find it out in smartinwi.

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com, but it's not

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Fuzz Martin: I don't know if maybe they're

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Shanna Martin: like, that's

so not good that you need to

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not ever be able to find it.

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Or maybe the

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Fuzz Martin: algorithm is just like, Oh,

you're not looking for something from, uh,

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Shanna Martin: 2019.

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Right.

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So what we thought would be fun

for episode 200 was to actually

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just kind of redo episode one.

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Yeah.

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Shanna Martin: And we listened to it

recently and we're like, Oh my, this was,

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we've just, Come so far with our little

podcasting chats about free tech tools.

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And even though we have talked about

hundreds of tools over these last

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200 episodes, we thought it'd be fun

to review Padlet and Google Keep.

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They are favorites for many.

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And after six years,

They've changed a bit.

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So I thought that would be kind

of fun to highlight those changes

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that have happened as well.

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Fuzz Martin: Certainly.

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Shanna Martin: And share

all that information.

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Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

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We could have just

remastered the first one.

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But, uh, I think, you know, I mean,

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Shanna Martin: between all of my like,

uh, I don't know what I'm talking about to

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Bums and breathing and weird sounds in the

background because we were in our house.

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Yeah.

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I'm kind of glad to redo this.

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Fuzz Martin: Indeed.

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Shanna Martin: So let's

talk about some tech tools.

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Yay.

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So we're here January, 2025.

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And we've been through a lot since

the beginning and some of the tools

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we have though are basics, everyday

tools that we use all of the time and

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Padlet and Google Keep are two of these

tools that are right in regular use.

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Just to highlight our like, kind of top

five things about Padlet, and then our top

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five things about Google Keep, I decided

to kind of separate them out a little bit.

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Padlet is awesome.

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It is a tool that can be used everywhere.

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You're able to connect it to so many

different things, whether you have

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Microsoft or Google or whatever your

school is working with, which is great.

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I will say Padlet has changed over the

years and now you can get free trials

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of Padlet and use them for like a month.

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And once you create things, they're

there, but also once that trial

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is up, then they do have charges.

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I will say too, that Padlet has

changed a few things too, where there

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are specific things for educators,

which we're going to highlight too.

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But for my top five things, why I

really love Padlet, it still is a

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great organizational tool and helps you

collaborate with others and share ideas.

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They now have the sandbox workspace.

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That's available as well.

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It reminds me a little bit of

being able to take over some of

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the pieces that Jamboard can do.

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It has that availability.

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It's different, but you could

use it in that capacity if you're

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interested, which that didn't even

st when we talked about it in:

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It's really, again, still

easy to share with others.

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Actually, while I was

at the, or presenting.

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At my PETA conference, it was a virtual

share and I was able to run a Padlet and

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connect with my Canadian friends while I

was presenting and people from all over.

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So that was really cool and an easy

way to share information with others

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and collaborate with other people.

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It has specific classroom tools

now, which it didn't before.

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And it's not just text.

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You can use video, you can use images, you

can add all kinds of things to it, along

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with like the creativity piece that you've

always been able to have with Padlet.

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So there's super awesome things

with Padlet going forward.

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And we'll kind of get into that in a

little bit as I walk you through it.

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But I also want to highlight my top

five things for Google keep as well.

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Yeah.

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While I'm on my.

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Top five lists.

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Google Keep is the other thing

we're going to talk about today.

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Also has been around for a while,

but Google Keep has also changed

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in the last six years and upgraded.

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It's still very helpful for

organization, which is awesome.

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It's really easy for kids

to share and collaborate.

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If you are a Google school, you're

able to have students share.

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They're information with one another.

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And I use it in my classroom all

the time when I'm doing actually

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group projects, they have them

keep notes in the same place.

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So that was like, I lost it.

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I'm like, no, you didn't.

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And they have, I have me, like I'm also

shared on their Google keep, which is

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helpful, great for life organization, even

if you're not having your students use it.

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You personally can use Google keep

to organize your life and there's

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different formats with it now.

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I actually, when I made some pictures

for the smartinwi, so you guys

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can check it out on the website.

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I put our puppy in there and like our

dog's life, keep all kinds of things

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organized and Google keep, which is great.

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It's still very easily shared

between Google docs and slides.

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So you actually can drop.

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Your Google Keep right into there, and

it can create a, uh, outline for you.

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If you're writing a paper or something

like that, you have access to all that

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information, which is an easy share tool.

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And it also now has a few tools that are

similar to Jamboard where you can open up

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parts of Google Keep, save information,

and there's just different pieces to it

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now that help you create more in Keep than

I originally had, which also can help with

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some of those Jamboard things that were.

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Searching for, if you're not using FigJam.

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So there are just some cool things that we

can talk about with Padlet and Google Keep

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that are very relevant and useful still.

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Which is fun.

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Fuzz Martin: Always.

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Shanna Martin: So did you get the

Padlet that I shared with you?

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Fuzz Martin: Yes, I did receive

the Padlet that you shared with me.

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Shanna Martin: Perfect.

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So you're joining my fierce Padlet.

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Because per usual, Padlet is

still very positive and uplifting,

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which I love about Padlet.

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You can still change your wallpapers.

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You can still change your color schemes,

your fonts and all that cool stuff.

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But what I do want to talk

about is the options of Sandbox.

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So when you go to create a Padlet, it

will tell you, or it will set you up.

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So everyone knows like it is paid.

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You can get a free trial depending

on how you're setting it up.

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So if you're having more of a business.

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You want to set it up.

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You can set it up group collaborators,

teams, and things like that, and set up

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your teams and put all that in there,

which is really awesome and helpful.

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If you're an educator, you can

get Padlet for a month and have

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like the setup for teachers.

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What's cool about the teacher setup is.

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If you're setting up things,

you can set it up and keep them.

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It doesn't go away, but if you go into

the educator option, there's discussion

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boards, there's class activity creators.

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Now there's lesson plan creators.

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There's ideas for activities.

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There's timelines of events.

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Reading lists, assessment polls,

there's just so many options for

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educators now that didn't exist before.

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So I definitely think

it's worth the trial.

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Even if you want to see what you can

create and have it, there's just so

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many even like bulletin boards and

common space and There's just a lot of

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options now for teachers that didn't

exist before, which is really helpful

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for planning and for organizing and

just to have all those tools at your

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fingertips, which is really awesome.

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And I think like being able to

share that or have that option, like

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discussion boards with your students,

you've always been able to set up

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Padlet that way, but you now can also.

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They have AI tools built in, so they have

like generating discussion ideas with AI.

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You can choose your grade level.

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So if I'm going to generate a discussion

board, I'm going to pick my topic.

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Um, let's do pine trees,

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Fuzz Martin: pine trees,

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Shanna Martin: because there's

one outside the window.

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Oh yeah.

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Um, we're going to have a fourth

grade discussion on pine trees,

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the AI discussion board generator.

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And again, you don't have

to use this, but it will.

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Students can explore the various

ways pine trees serve both

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human and animal communities.

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Boom.

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And this is set up for fourth grade.

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Students can investigate

special adaptations and help

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pine trees thrive year round.

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Which is great, because actually

our child is talking about

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adaptations in her class right now.

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Students debate the balance

between conservation and

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resource use of pine trees.

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Students can discuss the cultural versus

ecological importance of pine trees.

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Cool.

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So you can pick your question, drop it

in, decide if it's question and response,

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or if it's debate, it'll set it up.

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I can write my own first post as a

teacher, drop it in there, or it gives you

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teacher options so I can click on it and

say, Hey, here's my response as a teacher.

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And you can literally set kids up for

discussion right there in Padlet and

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it walks you through the whole thing.

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It then will give you a QR code or a copy

link, or you can share it right into your

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Google Classroom, send it to your email,

or embed it in your blog or website.

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Boom, you've got a discussion started with

your students, and it's available to them.

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So, there's just so many more

tools that Padlet has available

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that it didn't have before.

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That are classroom specific

and worth looking into and kind

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of digging around in for sure.

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So along with like the cool AI tools

that are built in now, they also have

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all kinds of other things to build in to

that blank sandbox, the sandbox piece.

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Now you can draw, create.

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And play in.

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So they have examples of geometry and

measuring angles, flowcharts, comic

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strips, family trees, and this is where

I was talking about kind of can work

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like Jamboard because if you click into

it, it'll give you those options that

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you had that flexibility with Jamboard.

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And that's, again, something else you

can play around with in your month

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long free trial and have access to it.

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So there's just a lot of fun things

you can play around with in Padlet now

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that you didn't have access to before.

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So what have you added to our Fierce

Padlet that we were sharing together?

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Fuzz Martin: Oh man, I

haven't added anything yet.

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Shanna Martin: New ideas.

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Fuzz Martin: New ideas.

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Shanna Martin: Share all your new ideas.

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What do you got?

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Also, while, you are sharing new

ideas, the options too are when you

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go into Creative Padlet, just like

before you can have a document, you

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can add links, you can add camera

images, you can add image searches,

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but now there are 13 more options.

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To add to your palette.

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So before you'd always do, again,

six years ago, links and images and

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videos, but now you also can add polls.

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You can add things directly

from your Google drive.

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I can't draw.

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I can't draw is an option,

which I think is hilarious.

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Talk for me, because these

are some of our, you know, AI

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things we can add into there.

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Camera, video recorder, audio recorder,

which I do like that students then can

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audio record, or just say, explain,

they can drop their explanations

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right in when they're in a Padlet.

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Screen recorder is in there

as well, along with YouTube.

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You can still drop GIFs in

that you could do before.

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Spotify, web search.

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So all those things are options

that you can add into your Padlet

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that weren't always options.

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Thanks.

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And now, in our fierce Padlet,

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we have your face staring back at

me, even though you're looking at me.

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So now I have you and a picture of you.

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I'm going to like it, because

it's still an option to like.

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And comment.

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I also

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Fuzz Martin: just submitted a photo,

from an I Can't Draw photo of an oil

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painting of a person dunking, uh, a

basketball, and it looks like a nebula,

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Shanna Martin: nice.

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Um, but it says, it

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Fuzz Martin: says

awaiting approval, though.

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Shanna Martin: Nice, so I must approve it.

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Yeah.

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Since I am in control of this Padlet.

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You are.

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That's amazing.

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So, just like before, again, easily

collaborative, an easily collaborative

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space, if that makes sense.

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But any content area and students

are able to use it, which is awesome.

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The other piece I like about Padlet,

too, is that you can put it up on

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your smart board because even if you

don't want your students all to have

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accounts, it's an easy way for them to

share information, or you can just share

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information with your students and keep

it all organized and beautiful, along

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with polling and asking them questions.

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So there you go.

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Padlet.

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Fuzz Martin: Padlet.

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Shanna Martin: It's changed a lot,

but it's still a very cool tool.

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So I suggest you try out the free trial,

try out the educator tools, see if it's

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for you or for that, not for you, but it

is still a very fun way to collaborate

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and you can share with people all over,

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Fuzz Martin: which

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Shanna Martin: is awesome.

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That

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Fuzz Martin: is awesome.

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Good work.

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Shanna Martin: So there you go.

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So the other thing we're

talking about is Google Keep.

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Now Google Keep also in the past six years

has changed a bit and it, it Is still

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easily found if you have a Gmail account.

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If you don't, you can

also go to Google Keep.

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You can Google Google

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Fuzz Martin: Keep, and

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Shanna Martin: it's still that little

yellow piece of paper with a white

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light bulb and you have access to it.

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It connects to your Gmail account.

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With that, it's taking notes.

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It does have the option now.

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So used to be able to, it kind

of looks like a Pinterest board

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or like a board that you can drag

and drop and move things around.

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You can actually click on them

and reorder them randomly, which

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you couldn't do, used to be able a

long time ago, not be able to do.

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So you can click and move your

keeps, your little keep notes

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around on your board, kind of like

you drag and drop a post it note.

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It also has a list view.

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So if you click on the little equal

sign, it will give you a list view versus

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the cards, the cards moving around.

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You can take your notes like

forever, take your notes, share

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them, collaborate with them.

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You can pin them.

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You have the option to

add collaborators to them.

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I have my students use these.

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In our book clubs, I have them take

notes for each other because they all

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read in small groups, they read the

same book, and then I split them out and

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then they have to talk about their book

with somebody who read a different book.

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And so I have them take notes and

then they can pull up their Google

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Keep so they have their group's

notes and they can have discussion

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and have that available to them.

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I have students use these for all

different content areas, soul stays,

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for reading when they're reading novels

and they're able to take notes that way.

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I also have them be able to share

with math teachers, which was funny.

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I talked about way back in episode one,

I talked about math teachers using these.

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It's a great way to keep notes and visuals

instead of necessarily a paper notebook,

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which is available, which is cool.

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You can also use it for any sort of

science notes, but because they so

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easily drop into Google Docs and Google

Slides, it's a great way to organize for

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research projects and things like that.

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Definitely, I'd say like fourth grade

on up just because of the collaboration

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piece, but as a teacher and staff,

it's a great way to run book clubs and

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share information with other teachers.

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And also with, I know here in Wisconsin,

there's a lot of reading curriculum

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stuff that's coming out that's changing.

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And so it's a great way to keep actually

curriculum, pieces organized or ideas

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organized with other staff members.

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And you can share staff on

them, which is really helpful.

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For keeping all of your

ideas in one place.

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That's sometimes easier to see

than just like a giant list

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of information at Google Doc.

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So that's something to

think about as well.

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You can still color code and you,

they also now have cool images

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you can drop in the background.

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You can add images.

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And before I talked about how,

Google Keep can kind of be used,

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why is it like creepy pictures in?

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What are you adding to my Google Keep?

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Fuzz Martin: Well, uh, I sent you

a, just one that I was playing with.

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Oh,

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Shanna Martin: this is like an image came

up and then you sent me a list of things.

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Okay.

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Fuzz Martin: It was a album cover

that I just happened to have.

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Shanna Martin: What are you sharing?

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It was

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Fuzz Martin: a Taking

Back Sunday album cover.

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Shanna Martin: Okay.

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Um, when you're taking notes,

you also have the option to add a

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drawing, which you could do before.

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And this is where I kind of mentioned it

can be used a little bit like Jamboard.

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If you click drawing.

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And then there's like usual drawing

tools, like pens and highlighters.

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But if you click on the grid, it

also has different types of paper.

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So you have lined paper, then dotted

paper and squared, like graph paper.

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So if you needed to like draw out

something or do writing, you could do

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it in Keep and then from there you'd

have it saved, which is one of those

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things that a lot of teachers don't do.

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Kind of miss about Jamboard where

you could do some writing on your

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board or on your smart board and

then have it saved for later.

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So that is a way you

could kind of use Keep.

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The lines don't show up when the

little squares show up for the little

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post it notes kind of for Keep.

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When you click into it and

you open it back up again,

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it will like full screen it.

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It will give you that graph

paper or that aligned paper.

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So that might be a way that would be

helpful for you to be able to use Keep.

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And if you're doing stuff in front

of the class and you're writing on

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it, Keep could be helpful for that.

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And then it would save it for you

later on, which would be helpful to

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come back to the next day when you're

teaching lessons and things like that.

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So that's a, that's another way to

use Google Keep if you're going to

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project it onto a board as well.

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Um, it still has reminders.

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You can edit all your labels and have

little labels and organize things.

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And then they also

archive and trash things.

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So.

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What's cool about Keep, it still has all

these tools, still keeps you organized,

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but it has some fun upgrades that they

didn't have a while ago, and there's tons

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of ways to use it and share with others.

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Which is fabulous.

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We use it every week.

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This is where I drop my blog in for

the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.

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And then that's how I share it with Fuzz.

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And from there, then we get

everything done for smartandwi.

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com.

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So we are fond, fond members of Keap.

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We enjoy using it and use it often.

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Fuzz Martin: I like that you can drop

an image in to here and then click grab

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image text and it will turn it into, it'll

paste the text into the note because.

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A lot of times you have to take like

a list from an image or something like

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that and yeah, you can just drop it.

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It's super quick and easy.

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Shanna Martin: Yep.

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And it keeps everything in one place.

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And unless you leave, unless

you like hit the trash button,

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you're not going to lose it.

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Like it's just there and it just

keeps on collecting all your stuff.

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And it's a quick, easy

way to find things too.

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I also color code everything.

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So it's beautiful.

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Fuzz Martin: Nice.

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Shanna Martin: So there you go.

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Yay!

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Yay!

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There you go.

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Hadlet and Google Keep.

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Fuzz Martin: Episode 200.

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Episode

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Shanna Martin: 200.

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So happy to be chatting with everybody.

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And now we have sound effects.

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We didn't have sound

effects in the beginning.

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No,

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Fuzz Martin: just the dog snoring.

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That was the only one.

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Shanna Martin: This is true.

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And that was not a sound effect.

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That was just happening.

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Fuzz Martin: Yep.

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Shanna Martin: Oh my.

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Well, anyway, thanks for

tuning in to episode 200.

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So happy to be here.

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This has been the tech

tools for teachers podcast.

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If you ever have any questions, you

can find me on blue sky threads,

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:

Facebook, Instagram at smartinwi.

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:

And if you want to get more information

on the links to the technology

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discussed in this episode, Or

listen to the first 199 episodes.

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You'll find them at smartandwi.

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:

com.

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If you'd like to support the show, please

consider buying me a coffee or two.

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:

Visit buymeacoffee.

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com slash smartinwi or visit smartandwi.

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:

com and click on that cute

little purple coffee cup.

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Your donations help keep this show going.

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:

New episodes each week.

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:

Happy 2025.

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Thanks for listening.

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:

Go educate and innovate.

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Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions

expressed in this podcast and the

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smartinwi website are those of the author,

Shanna Martin, and not of her employer.

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Prior to using any of the technologies

discussed on this podcast, please

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consult with your employer regulations.

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This podcast offers no guarantee

that these tools will work for you

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:

as described, but we hope they do.

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:

And we'll talk to you next

time, right here on the Tech

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:

Tools for Teachers podcast.

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