Smart speakers were "The Gift" of the 2018 holiday season. By the end of 2019 they are expected to be in about half of all American households. Alexa has a 66% share of the market. Google has 29%. HomePod has just 5%. Currently the top use for the device is playing music. This is followed by answering a general question, providing the weather forecast and telling a joke. So, where does getting smart come in? Smart speakers provide a great way to listen to a diverse selection of news outlets, podcasts, and books. Here is how to access each on the most commonly used speakers from Amazon and Google.
News
The news is a simple feature to find and set up in your app's settings.
Alexa
On Alexa news is found in "Flash Briefing." With Alexa you can have this as a part of your, "Start my day" routine.
Here is what it looks like:
Google Home
On Google Home it's called "News." With Google the news can be a part of your "Good Morning" routine. This is where you can set up all your favorite news shows.
Here is what it looks like:
Podcasts
Did you know that podcasts weren't even a thing before the internet? Since then their popularity has exploded, but how do you know what to ask your smart speaker to play? Here is how to get started.
Alexa
The best way to listen to podcasts on Alexa is by enabling the "Skill" called "Anypod." Once you've enabled it, you can ask Alexa to subscribe to your favorite podcasts. You can also visit Anypod to search for and add podcasts. Not sure where to start? Check out the "Podcast Playlist for Innovative Educators" or head over to NPR and see their selection of podcasts. Anypod will allow you to fast forward, rewind, play first, latest, or a specified podcast number.
Here is what it looks like.
Google Home
Visit Google Podcasts and you'll see numerous options from which to create your podcast playlist. From there, you simply ask Google to play your podcasts.
Here is what it looks like:
Books
Smart speakers provide a great way to listen to books. Here's how to get started.
Alexa
Alexa is connected to your Audible account. Once you have audio books there Alexa can play them.
Here is what that looks like:
Google Home
Google is connected to your Google Play Audio Books account. Once you have books there, you can ask your smart speaker to play them. Here is what that looks like:
Your Turn
What do you think? Can smart speakers provide a useful way for you and your family to get smarter about topics, news, and events that are important to you? If you have tried it, what's the experience been like? If you haven't it may be time to give it a go.
If you are a member, moderator, or admin of any Facebook group, you may have heard a buzz that they are kicking out members unless they prove they are active.
Is this true?
Let's look at the buzz. Some admins are complaining that they're losing thousands of members. Some are saying they weren't informed in advance and there is no way to appeal. To prevent this, some admins are encouraging members to show some activity to stay in the group. Here's an example:
However, this isn't what is actually happening.
So what's happening?
What is happening is that Facebook wants authentic membership rather than falsely inflated groups. This happens when admins and moderators invite hundreds or thousands of people who never asked to be invited. These people are in the group, even if they never accept the invitation. What happens when unscrupulous admins do this is that groups look popular, when they're really not. What Facebook has done is moved those people who were not active to the "invited" list. It looks like this:
If an admin thinks that person may actually want to be in your group, they can send a reminder to accept the invitation. You can read more details on group invites at Facebook's help center. There is also something called "unavailable." These are people who have deactivated their account or are no longer members of the group. It looks like this:
You can read more details about unavailable group members at the Facebook help center. Here is the notification Facebook provided for group admins:
The Verdict
This is a move by Facebook to create more authentic groups. This means groups that represent those who are active and care about the topic of the group. The result for members is that they are aware of the people who choose to be in and interact in the group. The result for admins is that they can see who really wants to be in the group as well as those who've deactivated their accounts or removed themselves from the group.
What recommendations should we be giving parents and youth when it comes to screen time? In past limiting some types of screen time made sense. A time when the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) made long-standing screen time limits recommendations. However, those were based on research around passive television viewing and violent video games.
Since then the AAP has backtracked.
The AAP acknowledges outdated views
In 2015 Dimitri Christakis, AAP
Council on Communication and Media member, revealed new information about the
recommendations. He confessed to the research that lead to the recommendations
was conducted before anyone knew the iPad, or similar interactive screen
devices, existed. He says that since screens are now more than just devices to
passively intake information, he has a different view. He explains
that today, screens “can be used to read books to children, and high-quality
apps are similar to toys. Therefore, the AAP needs to consider how these
devices are used instead of discouraging their use across the board. We don't
want to risk appearing so out of touch that we're irrelevant and people won't
take our advice seriously." A year later, the AAP updated their views saying that families are better off doing away with hard-and-fast restrictions on screen time. Instead, their should be joint media engagement and/or awareness, guidance, and conversations about healthy, productive, and/or educational screen use.
In his book "The New Childhood," Jordan Shapiro agrees. He lays out clear recommendations on healthy and productive ways adults can spend more screen time with young people to successfully prepare them for the digital world in which they live.
The other important point to remember is the usefulness of screens beyond just learning.
Yes. Screens are our books. They let
us publish books. The allow us to code and create for authentic audiences. They enable our math to become visual
so we can better understand how to solve equations. Screens enable us to
communicate and collaborate across geographic boundaries. We can interact and engage in powerful ways never before possible.
But, that’s just the start.
Assisting those with disabilities
The percentage of the population
with disabilities at any given time stands around 15 - 20%. For many of us
able-bodied, this is only a temporary state. A large percentage of the
population will experience disability at some point in their lives. It may be a
broken bone that puts us in crutches or a cast on our hand. We may experience
vision or hearing loss because of a medical condition. We may have cognitive
impairment as we age or because of an aneurysm. We may have an undiagnosed
learning condition like dysgraphia or Aspergers. Whether it is ourselves, a
friend, a child, parent, or other family member, we all have or no someone who
may have abilities that are impaired.
Fortunately, today technology can
help powerfully with all of these conditions.
That means we must think
differently about screen time.
Unfortunately, there is no
acknowledgement with the AAP about the value of screens to support those with
disabilities. The organization sees the world as things you do on screens and
things you do without screens. It fails to recognize the ways screens are being
integrated into the lives of so many.
Let’s take a look at a few
examples.
The power of screens to access abilities
Screens give a voice and unleashe the thoughts of Dillan and Meera
Screens become the eyes of Patrick.
Screens give sound to Shane.
Screens provide mobility for Todd.
Invisibly Abled
Screens are also helping those with
invisible disabilities. Like Immersive Reader and speech to text for
those with dyslexia or other literacy issues. There are accessibility features
for those who are color blind, or those prone to seizures. Translation
technology now can take words in an image turn them to text, translate them and read aloud.
Even those without a named
disability, often find that screen technology unleashes their ability to learn
or create in new ways.
Screens are a lifeline and learning
line in ways we may never have realized possible in the past.
The Verdict
When the conversations of screen time come up, the answer must
always be,there is not one answer. It depends on the individual. What they’re
doing matters. The abilities they wish to access and how they wish to do so
matters too.
More and more district and school staff are catching on to the advice of Superintendents like, Joe Sanfelippo who encourage staff to take every opportunity to say good things about their school.
Sanfelippo's not alone. Supt Daniel Frazier has put together a list of more than 1500 Tweeting supts. When the person in charge takes seriously the power of telling our own stories staff start to follow suit. However, they also need guidance. When educators share and celebrate successes, they serve as role models. It's important to provide some direction on what to keep in mind when posting to social media.
Praise and celebrate publicly, advise or criticize privately
Help others be better
Ask yourself this: After people read our posts, are they better than when they started to read? If so, post freely. If not reconsider. More on this at this post from Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis
Be consistent
Remember to convey your brand / image
Tag
Tag people (with permission)
Places
Hashtag
Know the right hashtags
Limit hashtags to one or two for more engagement
Tweets with more than two hashtags have less engagement
Use Images
Posts with images draw more attention
They are twice as likely to have engagement
Use original images
Include Links
Tweets with links receive a higher retweet rate
Let's people know where they can learn more
Post Accessibly
Use alt text for images
Use plain language
Use camel case for hashtags First letter of each word in caps i.e. #EdTech
Your Turn
What do you think? Can you keep this guidance in mind when posting? Is there anything you'd do differently? Anything missing?
Twitter is an important platform for sharing stories, ideas,
and connecting with others. However, many Tweeters are unintentionally leaving
out 15% of the world’s
population who have disabilities by not composing accessible Tweets.Fortunately, making accessible Tweets only
requires awareness in a few areas.
Alt Text
Use alt text (short for alternative text) to tell those viewing your Tweet what is in the image. On Twitter you can set this up by going to “Settings and privacy,” then selecting “Accessibility” and checking “Compose image descriptions.”
The next time you compose a Tweet with an image, Twitter will ask you to "Add description" to your images. It will look like the screen shot below.
To see if someone has added alt text to their Tweet, you can inspect the image by right clicking. Once there you can check accessibility to see if there is a description. The screenshot below shows what this looks like.
Camel Case Hashtags
When you use hashtags, make them camel case.This means the first letter of each word is
capital. This then becomes discernible to a screen reader allow the words to be
read individually rather than a nonsensical word.
The example below shows an example of using camel case for
the #GovTechLive conference.
In the early days of Twitter, we shortened URLs because of
the character limitation. Today URLs are no longer judged by characters, so it
is not necessary. When you use a URL shortener, the screen reader says every
letter. If you use the original URL most screen readers can read the words in
the URL.
Plain English
Write using plain English. Some ways to do this include avoiding
acronyms and writing below a 9th grade reading level. Most word
processing programs have readability checkers built in. Online documents such
as Google have extensions you can add.
Your Turn
What do you think? Are you already including some of these
checklist items into your Tweets? If not are these checklist items something
you would consider incorporating into future Tweets?
Want to get some new ideas for new tools or resources you can use in the New Year to make teaching and learning more effective? Then join us for our monthly Twitter chat at 7:00 pm EST where #NYCSchoolsTech educators will share the favorite #EdTech tools they've been using this year.
#NYCSchoolTech teacher Eileen Lennon moderates with me throwing in my two cents. We will also be joined by some leading ed tech companies who will share what you can look forward to in 2019.
You can prepare for the conversation by thinking about answers to these questions:
Q1 Share your favorite #edtech tool for this school year w/a link & why you love it. #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Q5 Give a shout out by RT, like, or reply to someone who has inspired you in today's #NYCSchoolsTechChat
Chat details are below:
Date: Thursday, January 3
Time: 7:00 pm
Topic: New #EdTech tools for the new year.
Your Host: @eileen_lennon (@NYCSchools)
Co-Host: @InnovativeEdu (@NYCSchools)
Remember to respond using the hashtag #NYCSchoolsTechChat and include the number of the question you are answering in your response i.e. A1 and your answer.
We hope you can view the chat live, but if you are unable, please visit our archive athttps://www.participate.com/chats/nycschoolstechchat.
