Charlotte's Web ThingLink

Friday, January 30, 2015

Projecting from Chromebooks

As students create content on Chromebooks, we often want to give them the chance to present it to the entire class. It is easy for students to present from their Chromebooks. Students will need to use an HDMI connector. Teachers with TV screens in their classrooms should have an HDMI cable. Just plug in the Chromebook and select input. The projector will automatically find the Chromebook. You'll just need to mirror the screens. Press "ctrl" and 5th key from the left on the top row of keys.



Most teachers will still need to project Chromebooks through classroom projectors. You will need a VGA to HDMI connector. You'll need to unplug the dongle that connects your projector to your laptop and plug in the HDMI dongle, connecting the projector to the Chromebook. Then, the student will have to mirror the screens, pressing "ctrl" and the key

that looks like the image on the right.
We have some of the connectors in the District Office and would be happy to send one out to any class that requests one. One caution is that those dongles will only project images and cannot be used for audio. For that, you'll need to get a dongle that includes a male-to-male audio cable that is plugged into the dongle and the audio in port of your projector.

A few teachers have Chromecasts. Students will need to install the Google Cast extension from the Chrome Web Store, and then also need to be on the USD-Cast wifi. Students will then need to open the Google Cast extension.



EduWin from Nicole Moore

Nicole's Kindergarten students are learning all about penguins. Some of them have never seen a penguin, so to make the experience more real, Nicole and her students look in on the African Blackfooted Penguins at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the penguins at San Diego's Sea World. Needless to say, Nicole reports this is an activity the students look forward to everyday.


Another way to bring resources into your classroom is to participate in a virtual field trip. There are lots of museums and zoos that offer virtual field trips, but it sometime requires a bit of digging to find them. Here is an upcoming field trip offered by The Nature Conservancy, in cooperation with PBS and YouTube. It is scheduled for Thursday, February 5th, and is geared towards grades 3-8.  Click here for more information.

If you or one of your colleagues are doing something in your class that uses edtech tools, please let me know. I'd love to share it with other teachers.