Happy Scripting Summer

I'm teaching myself how to code.

Specifically, Javascript in the Google Apps Script environment. 

I don't suppose this helps reduce my nerdiness quotient much. But it helped pass the time during the last few weeks of the school year, and now, in the first few days of summer, I'm finishing up my first script.

It'd be a huge stretch to call it "original," as it's largely based on Andrew Stillman's Doctopus script, which is an awesome tool. In a nutshell, it creates assignments on Google Docs and shares it with students, whether individually or in groups.

It solves the problem of students forgetting to share assignments with you, or leaving their document named "Untitled Document." It also allows you to "embargo" the documents, preventing students from editing the documents while you grade, and it allows you to send their grade via personalized email.

And combined with the Goobric (a more nuanced rubric) extension and gClass Folders, it creates a robust Google Drive classroom solution.

However, I found myself wanting an online rubric without having to create documents for the students. For example, if they posted a video or comic strip on Google+ as an assignment (more on those in a future post), I needed a rubric independent of the Doctopus solution.

So I created Online Rubric (cool name, I know). While I'm going to put it through some beta testing before publishing it to the gallery, it allows you to create an independent holistic or itemized rubric and send it to students. As I mentioned, it's largely a derivation of Doctopus, but I figured it was a good way to get my feet wet.

I'll be posting documentation for Online Rubric here as soon as it's public.

In the meanwhile, I'm thinking of future script projects, so if anyone who chances to read this has a problem of practice on Google Drive for me, let me know.

#rubric #GoogleDrive #GoogleAppsScript #javascript #education #goobric #doctopus #gclassfolders

Location-based Narratives

Assignment: Research your neighborhood and pair that research with a short, personal narrative, imitating Alex Kotlowitz's style in There Are No Children Here.

The research and narrative will then be posted to a custom map using Google Maps Engine Lite.

Recap: Because of the unpredictability of our end-of-year schedule, I was forced to shorten this assignment. The original assignment involved a little more research, and I would have likely extended the word count and quality of their narratives.

However, the assignment proved to be a success in terms of educating students about their neighborhoods (I was surprised to see the number of kids who didn't know anything about where they lived), and in seeing how many of Kotlowitz's chapters were set up. Thematically, the students were able to add their own voices to the Chicago narrative dominating the media.

They told stories of violence, blight, and destruction, but they also told tales of friendship, love, and trust.

Creating a custom map is a straightforward process. You work in layers (you can see my 6th period "layer" in the picture), and are limited to 100 (I think?) locations in the non-commercial version.

However, Maps Engine (essentially a refresh of the custom maps Google has offered for years) does not allow rich text formatting, HTML, and embedding in the balloons that pop up when clicking on a placemark.

I would love to be able to embed videos or Google documents directly in the map... or at the very least, format text. I resorted to having students post a public Google Doc share link.

I'm hoping to explore more uses of this tool next year, including overlaying images and studying their neighborhood in a little more depth.

Let me know what you think, or if you have other ideas...

#Google #GoogleMaps #GoogleMapsEngine #education #Kotlowitz #Chicago #ThereAreNoChildrenHere #GoogleDrive #narratives #story