Apologia Science: Teach with Tech

Update: Today’s video-chat with Meet was better.  The only issue was my ten year old grandson making signs behind me to Zach.  Aaaarrrrggghhhh.


Are you teaching remotely, too?  I am a reluctant convert to remote instruction.  I like a live class!  (I had had bad video-conferences fifteen years ago and was scarred by my experiences.)  Over the past 2 1/2 months, I have been quarantined and wanted to finish Chemistry well.  Up until now, I have limped along with a combination of Google Classroom, Blogger, and YouTube.  Usually, when a kid has a problem, he FaceTimes a classmate.  I was backed into a corner and needed to help a kid struggling with Organic—the videos just weren’t cutting it.  Happily, Google just released Meet to Gmail users free.  Yeah!  I downloaded Jamboard, Google’s whiteboard, to my iPad.  I had never used Jamboard; I had used Meet exactly once.  So, I had some anxiety with flashbacks to tele-conferences with a giant screen.

What do you need to use Jamboard: a stylus and a tablet?   I bought an Adonis stylus for about $9.  I use an iPad as a tablet because it runs apps reliably.  Jamboard, from Google, opens a new page with a + sign—just like a new assignment in Classroom or a new post in Blogger.  If you haven’t used a digital whiteboard, such as Smartboard, or Mimio, play with the icons on the left of the page to locate the eraser and to change the width of the digital pen’s script.

Meet is easy to start.  You schedule through Google Calendar.  The screen icons are clear and easy to navigate.  I used a set of headphones for the video call.  It improves both sound quality and audio.  I was able to connect with Zach remotely easily via a laptop.  We only met for five minutes.  Why?  Zach was connecting to Meet in the car.  Really. Surprisingly, the video quality was fine; Zach’s end kept stuttering making it difficult to answer questions.  We are going to try again tomorrow when I should have recovered from my panic attack.