1

The GagglerVolume VII • Issue I • August 2011

Exciting New Features for the New School Year!While teachers and students were (hopefully) enjoying some well deserved time off, Gaggle’s programmers have been hard at work creating some amazing new features, and improving some of our tried and true tools! This edition covers it all, read our overview here, then check out the rest of our news letter for product details.

You may already have noticed the new My Classes roll down menu on the left panel in your account. That’s where teachers and students can access the new Class Pages. In addition to links to shared files, Drop Boxes, and a Class Calendar, each class has its own Social Wall group for communication and collaboration. Now you and your students have a one-stop location to get to everything you need in Gaggle!

Our new Mark It Up tool is an enhancement to our already popular Homework Drop Boxes, giving you not only tools for annotating and assessing the assignments students turn in, but also an intuitive work flow that pages through each assignment. You no longer have to download or open each submission then re-attach to reply to the student. With Mark It Up, insert comments, text, highlighting, or use the free-form drawing pen to provide feedback and assessment. Put a grade at the top if you like, and easily return to each student as you go, or hold on and return them all at once when you’re done. Having a paperless classroom just got easier!

Another big addition to Gaggle is something we’ve been asked for that adds to our already well-known commitment to student safety. We now have a Cyber Safety course for students! This series of 4 short videos is from NetCetera, part of the federal government’s OnGuardOnLine.gov project. We’ve added a short quiz after each to check for understanding, and a final safety pledge at the end. It’s a great way to meet requirements for teaching cyber safety, or just as a reinforcement of your regular instruction.

The long-awaited update to Blogs is finally here! You asked for multiple blogs so you can have one for every class, and now you’ve got them! We’ve also completely revamped the look and feel, with a great selection of snazzy themes to choose from.

Coming in September, our Chat is also taking a giant leap forward! Not only are we updating the look and feel of our traditional chat rooms, we’re adding instant messaging. You’ll be able to see who is logged in to Gaggle and chat with them instantly!

So keep reading and learn more about all the amazing ways Gaggle can launch your class into high-tech learning!

Want a demo of the new features, or need training on managing or using Gaggle? 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. In August and September, we are offering our regular sessions: “Gaggle Administrative Training,” and “The Gaggle Basics,” as well as “What’s New in Gaggle,” and “New Gaggle Blogs are Here!”

Free Webinars

Ask Admin…Question: Where did the Zoho icon go? Do I still have Zoho?

Answer: Zoho is still available through your Digital Locker. You may have noticed that the Zoho icon basically opened your Digital Locker but only showed editable files. Since the Locker icon will open the complete Locker, we removed the extra icon. You can create a new Zoho doc by clicking the New File drop down in the top tool bar, or edit existing files by right clicking on their row.

2

Gaggle’s Got Class!If you’ve been using Gaggle for a while, you know we’ve come a long ways from being just student email! And with all of the collaboration and productivity tools we’ve added over the years, we realized we needed to make it easier for students and teachers to find what they need for each class. So Class Pages are here! Everything you are using for each class can be accessed from one location, from shared files and documents, to Drop Box assignment folders, to message boards and more. It is built around a Social Wall group that lets you share announcements and information with your students, and lets them talk with each other, too. Class Pages can be accessed on the new My Classes roll down on the left panel. If you don’t see anything there, it’s because you don’t own any classes yet. If your school district uses data integration, they can provide the course information along with corresponding teacher info to automatically create all of your classes. But if that isn’t happening in your school, you can easily create your own classes manually. You can do that on the User List by clicking the Classes tab at the bottom, adding a new class (give it a good descriptive name, like JonesPeriod1Algebra), and marking the box next to the names of the appropriate students. Once you’ve got them selected, drag and drop the entire bunch down to your class.

When the system asks if you’d like to be a member of the class, select yes. The system will also give you the option of creating a Drop Box at the same time. Training video #59 shows the step by step process if you’d like to see it. Once you’ve created your classes, you’ll probably need to refresh your browser to see them on the My Classes tab. Click a class to open its page, and you’ll see your new Social Wall group, and links on the left to many of our tools. You can use the Edit Class Profile to upload a photo or logo for the class, and add some other contact information. The Class Calendar lets you post important dates for the class, and upcoming events will also display in the right corner of the Class Page. If you share any files or folders from your Digital Locker to this class group, those files will show on the Class Documents link. The next upcoming assignment due dates will also display on the class page, with a link to the Drop Box called Homework Assignments.We hope you and your students find our new Class Pages to be a great way to stay on top of schoolwork and engage in social learning outside the class period.

Tech Talk Setting Class Ownership with Data Integration

Many of the new features in Gaggle revolve around the concept of classes. Because of this, it is now more important than ever for districts using Data Integration for class creation to associate owners with their classes. Having an owner assigned to a class allows for the automatic creation of Homework Drop Boxes, Social Wall groups and Class Pages in the “My Classes” menu.

Setting ownership for classes with Data Integration is a very simple process. All your district needs to do is make sure that your class data exports from your student information system contain either the Gaggle username or staff ID number for the teacher who should be the class owner. Of course, since the Data Integration setup is custom tailored for each district, please make sure to contact your Gaggle account rep regarding any changes to the data in your class files. Once the ownership information is included in your class file, all existing classes will be updated with owners, and the class-specific features in Gaggle will be activated. As always, please contact your account rep with any questions.

The Gaggler Volume VII • Issue I • August 2011

Gaggle’s always been focused on student safety, so our new Cyber Safety course is a natural addition to our offerings. The course is a series of four short videos from NetCetera, part of the federal government’s www.OnGuardOnline.gov project. Students view each video (which cannot be skipped or fast-forwarded) then answer three questions to check for understanding. The questions give immediate feedback and if the answer is incorrect, the system notifies the student, restates the concept, and counts down seconds before they can click another answer. Following all four videos, students have a safety pledge they must click to accept in order to complete the course.

The setting for the course can be found on the School Setup page under the Other menu. It can be set to Off, Force before Using Gaggle, or Show as Link. You’ll also see a link there so you can take or review the course yourself. While the videos are short, it could take 10-20 minutes to complete, so take that into consideration if you want to force the course on their first Gaggle login, because they will not be able to access email or other Gaggle tools until they complete it. We recommend you Show as Link and give students a due date for completion. If a student starts the course but logs out before it is complete, they can continue where they left off the next time they click the icon. Once they complete the course, the icon will disappear from their Applications menu. You can then check to see who has not completed the course on the User List, where Cyber Safety Non-Compliance has been added to the View menu, and a new column shows each students status on the course.

You can also order free publications to supplement the course, including a student booklet and kit for parents, from www.OnGuardOnline.gov.

Cyber Safety

3

Gaggle.Net, Inc.1-800-288-7750P.O. Box 1352, Bloomington, IL 61702Copyright © 2011

Although teachers have told us they love our Homework Drop Boxes, we also heard that it was a little clunky to have to open each assignment attachment, and that you needed an easy way to add feedback and return it to your students. Well we listened, and we think our new Mark It Up tool will fit the bill.

Mark It Up is accessible by right-clicking on an assignment folder in your Drop Box. Select the tool to open the submissions in a new Mark It Up window. The system will work on most file types, including Word, PPT, and PDF, but not Excel (though you could PDF a spreadsheet and then be able to Mark It Up). Because the original files have to be converted to our format, it may take a few seconds for the first file to display. Once it does, you’ll have a set of Annotation tools in the top bar, including different types of comments, text, highlighter, and a free-form pen. As you make annotations, they will display both on the paper itself, and in the right panel as a summary.

As you mark an assignment, your annotations are automatically saved. When you finish one, you can choose to immediately return it to the student, or check the box to Mark Ready for Return to hold it and return all of them at the same time. Once you click one of these choices, the annotation tools will disappear, so be sure you are done before choosing. You can page to the next assignment using the arrow button at the top of your screen, giving you an intuitive and easy work flow. When you are ready to return all of the assignments, close the window and right click again on the assignment folder, this time selecting Return to Students. The students will all receive an email telling them their assignment has been marked, and including a link so they can view it.

Please note that Mark It Up is an assessment tool, not a method for revisions or virtual writing conferences, which can be accomplished using shared Zoho docs. Once you return a marked assignment to the student, they cannot revise or edit it.

Mark It Up

The Gaggler Volume VII • Issue I • August 2011

New and Improved Blogs!Words can’t do justice to our new blogs; you just have to see them! The access levels and settings haven’t changed, so the safety and privacy you trust is still there. It’s just now wrapped in a much nicer, updated package. We’ve got new themes from cheetahs to football to wild pink swirls, so you and your students can really express yourself. Just click on My Blog in the left panel and check it out.

You can right click in the top section of your blog or use the Edit Blog Settings in the upper right corner of your blog to change the theme. You can also create multiple blogs, so you can have one for every class! Using the Class Only access level will let you set your blog so only one (or more) class groups can view it. You might have one blog for every period, or perhaps you teach two sections of the same class and want to have a blog that those two groups can both access. Really, it’s up to you! Select a URL and make your blogs public so parents can keep up on what’s happening The URL has to be unique in Gaggle, so you may get a message when you save your settings that the URL is unavailable. Just try something a little different to differentiate it, then share it with parents, or link to it from your class webpage.

Our blogs are easy to use. It’s a simple text box to enter a new post, and it links to your Digital Locker if you want to share files or pictures, and also to GaggleTube so you can embed a video. And when you create a post, you can have it post to just one of your blogs, or all of them at once.

One other cool improvement is in the comments for each posting. Instead of having a single list of comments, viewers can choose to reply to someone else’s comment, giving you a threaded discussion similar to a message board.

We know you’ll love our new blogs as much as we do. Happy blogging!

Catch Gaggle at...Conference 2011 Dates Location URL

FAEDS Sept. 25-28 Orlando, FL http://www.faeds.org/AETA Oct. 2-5 Orange Beach, AL http://www.aeta.cc/ALAS Oct 12-15 San Francisco, CA http://www.alasedu.net/

MAEDS Oct. 12-14 Bellaire, MI http://www.maeds.org/