Capture Your Class Digitally

   Your class is brimming with sights and sounds. Don't you wish you could share some the excitement of your classroom with students, parents, and colleagues? Well, if you have a cell phone or tablet, you can!


Before You Get Started: You will need Google Drive, Google Photos, and an Audio Recording app to add images and audio to your Google account. Check you phone's/ tablet's App Store to download these apps if you don't already have them.


Pictures and Videos 

Step One: Sync your district account to Google Photos. Just open the app and it will prompt you to log in. Make sure to use your District Google Account.  IMPORTANT: When you first set up Google Photos it will ask if you want high quality or original quality. Choose high quality. This will give you unlimited storage for your photos.


Step Two: Check your settings in Google Photos. In the app go to settings and make sure that sync is turned on. If you don't have a lot of memory on your phone you might want Google Photos to delete the images from your phone once they have been synced. You should also check the Cellular Data options. Unless you have Unlimited data, make sure this is turned off.


Step Three: Start taking pictures and videos.


Step Four: Upload your images. Depending on your sync settings you might need to connect to a wireless network and open the app to make sure your photos and videos are being backed up. There will be a small notification icon that tells you it is backing up or if it's already up to date.

Step Five: Use your images/Videos. Now that your images are in Google Photos, you can access them from any computer that is connected to the internet by going to photos.google.com and logging in.

Audio

Step One: Open the audio recorder on your phone/tablet and record your audio. Remember the microphone on your phone is meant to be used close up. If you are recording students, try not to have the phone more than a few feet away. If you want better quality recordings, you can purchase a microphone for your phone/ tablet. Just make sure to get one that is compatible for your phone.

Step Two: Save the audio recording to your phone. (If your app let's you upload to Google Drive skip this step and Save to Google Drive).

Step Three: Open Google Drive and upload the audio recording from your phone.

Step Four: Use your recordings. Log into drive.google.com and access your recordings.


Now that you have pictures, videos, and audio recordings of your class you can easily share them with parents via email or students with Google Classroom. You can also use the audio/video files to assess and document student progress.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you have permission to publish 
students' images before sharing them with others.

In the comments below tell about what classroom 

activities you would love to share online.