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Less Physics Mo Problems

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Why am I writing this personal entry? Well, it is not an attempt to gain any sympathy. It attempts to show what is possible if a clear intention and goal serve the learner's needs.  In May of 2022 just near the end of another fantastic school year, I do not remember what happened. But, I was unable to finish the school year and was unable to teach the following year.  Why? On May 21st, 2022, I fell down a flight of 16 stairs (luckily carpeted) from the 2nd to 1st story of our home.  I was found at the bottom of the stairs. I was found foaming at the mouth. This would lead to a 2-month hospital stay which included an induced coma because my seizures would not stop, several rounds of lumbar punctures, and relearning basic physical movements like something as simple as being able to roll in the hospital bed. Simply put, when I was admitted to the hospital, I was diagnosed as being “critically ill.” Please take a moment and read those words: critically ill. They are not terms...
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Captioning in Zoom

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Last year when we went 100% virtual virtual learning, my district was using Google Meet. This year, students have the option to attend face to face or virtually. To support those students who have chosen the virtual option, teachers are using the Pro version of Zoom instead of Google Meets. While there are many upsides to this, one major downside is the lack of free live closed captioning in Zoom. Zoom does have the ability to have an individual type in live captions, but we don't have the resources for that. There are also paid services that can be added to create live closed captions. But, I was looking for a free support option. To support those learners who would benefit from these captions, there are two workarounds for this.

The first is using the tools generated by Google. I use Google Slides and Pear Deck for all of my presentations. When presenting in Google Slides, you can turn on auto closed captioning in the presentation menu. The audio picked up from the microphone is then transcribed and displayed in the presentation view. So in a Zoom session be sure to share the screen with the slides presentation for students to see the captioning. Even if it is just a blank slide students will be able to see the captions. But don't present a blank slide! If you aren't going to prepare a set of notes on slides, just have images related to whatever you are discussing to provide some visual interest. And if you do record your session, your captions will be recorded, too. NOTE: only the audio picked up by the mic will be captioned. So, if students are speaking virtually or far from the mic, that will not be captioned.

Here is a video walk through of the process.


If you are presenting using Pear Deck in Google Slides, here's a short video of how to turn on Closed Captions. Note: I have had some issues having captions go away in Pear Deck when I draw on my SmartBoard this year. I'm going to need to investigate that.

Another option for Zoom Pro is the use of Audio Transcripts for Cloud Recordings. In Zoom Pro, users can enable cloud recording. Once this is done, they have the option to also turn on Audio Transcripts. This will transcribe the audio from a recorded session. 

NOTE: this does not create live captions. It adds captions to the recording after the session has been closed. This transcription process does take a while. It could take hours or days. But once it is done, it can easily be shared out via URL. This only works for parts of the Zoom Meeting that are recorded to the cloud.

Here's a short video showing how to enable cloud recording and audio transcripts in Zoom.


Here's how you would access and share your recordings with Audio Transcripts and edit if needed.

As this is just my first week using Zoom as a teacher, I know I have lots to learn. I would love to hear any of your suggestions for increasing accessibility for all learners in Zoom calls.



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