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Generate Instant Pear Decks

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  I’ll keep this short as the video explains most of you. Any new educational technology can be complicated to dig into from scratch as you attempt to align it to learning outcomes.  Well, a new feature that Pear Deck has introduced has taken a giant leap forward to help educators do just that.  Before we jump into the new features, if you are unfamiliar with Pear Deck and why my students and I consider it the #1 EdTech tool that helps their learning, check out the video in the previous blog post.   But if you are more concerned with why you should even dive into Pear Deck or learn about this new AI generation of Pear Deck sessions to a learning target, check out the video below. Like I said, I’m keeping it short so you have time to watch the video. If you have questions, please contact me at mohammam@elmbrookschools.org or the Pear Deck Learning team at support@deck.peardeck.com . Also, check out the amazing Stacey Roshan's video on this update. 
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My First Dip into WeVideo

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I took my first dip into WeVideo today.  WeVideo is a video editing solution for those working with Chromebooks.  I have been using iMovie for video editing since I first started editing on a computer (before that it was to VCRs).  But iMovie on iOS devices is frustratingly limited and YouTube Video Editing is not quite user friendly yet.  WeVideo could be a great solution for those who have videoclips and photos in Google Drive and want to be able to create video using ChromeOS.

 Like I said, this is a first dip.  Down the road I hope to have a more in depth post about it.  but wanted to highlight a few basics with some GIFs.

 From the WeVideo top menu you can choose Media and upload files directly from Google Drive to your WeVideo Media Library.

When creating a new project, it is easy to simply drop in videos and photos from your media, rearrange and trim.


Once you've got a video or photo inserted, you can do a deep edit of the clip or image including adding titles, cropping, adding motion, among other tweeks.

You can adjust the appearance of specific images or add a theme to the entire video.

One can also add voice-over, free music, and sound effects.



There are two different editing views for those who want more control and those who are just getting started.



I still have lots to learn about WeVideo, but they have great library tutorials on their site.

Oh yeah, the reason it's called WeVideo is because multiple users can collaborate on editing in real time! Yes, not just one student in the group doing all the editing while others twiddle their thumbs.

 Below is my first video I've made using WeVideo.  It's pretty basic, but it highlights a great trip to Swanson today where the 5th graders took what they learned about Makey Makeys from my physics students last week and took it to another level!  It was another great collaboration with my dear friends Kate Sommerville and Angela Patterson and TEAM Togetherness.




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