Lillygol_Sedaghat

Teaching Human Geography and Sustainability Through Storytelling

by with No Comment Webinar - Social Studies

Teaching Human Geography and Sustainability Through Storytelling

Join National Geographic Explorer Lillygol Sedaghat as she describes her expeditions around the world to study how approaches to sustainability have changed how people live. Lillygol will describe her experience in Taiwan, a country with an advanced approach to recycling. She will also explain how the use of plastic bags has changed the way people live in Bangkok, Thailand. And join Lilly to learn about the National Geographic “Sea to Source” expedition in the Ganges which aimed to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic that reaches the ocean, including how the Marine Debris Tracker creates litter profiles.

Lillygol Sedaghat

National Geographic Explorer

Join National Geographic Explorer Lillygol Sedaghat as she describes her expeditions around the world to study how approaches to sustainability have changed how people live. Lillygol will describe her experience in Taiwan, a country with an advanced approach to recycling. She will also explain how the use of plastic bags has changed the way people live in Bangkok, Thailand. And join Lilly to learn about the National Geographic “Sea to Source” expedition in the Ganges which aimed to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic that reaches the ocean, including how the Marine Debris Tracker creates litter profiles.

In this webinar replay, you will learn:

  • Teach the concept of human geography through storytelling
  • Collect data in the field using different human geography approaches including semi-structured interviews, immersive experiences, and app-driven technologies
  • Share the concept of sustainability with your students through stories of plastic waste and the circular economy and receive exercises on how to encourage your students to think more about their waste footprint
Perrotta_Heindorf

Ideas and Best Practices for Teaching Reading Through Distance Learning

by with No Comment Webinar - Reading Language Arts

Ideas and Best Practices for Teaching Reading Through Distance Learning

In today’s education environment teachers are being asked to engage students in synchronous learning. Ensuring that students are making grade-level gains through distance learning can be a daunting task. Having reading activities connected to science and social studies allows teachers to save screen time by covering multiple standards in one lesson. Join Vanessa Perrotta, Director of Marketing, Literacy; and Sara Heindorf, Manager, Customer Success at National Geographic Learning for practical ideas and realistic lessons and activities that will help students make gains via distance learning, in-school, and hybrid situations.

Vanessa Perrotta

Director of Marketing and Literacy, National Geographic Learning | Cengage

Sara Heindorf

Customer Success Manager, National Geographic Learning | Cengage

In today’s education environment teachers are being asked to engage students in synchronous learning. Ensuring that students are making grade-level gains through distance learning can be a daunting task. Having reading activities connected to science and social studies allows teachers to save screen time by covering multiple standards in one lesson. Join Vanessa Perrotta, Director of Marketing, Literacy; and Sara Heindorf, Manager, Customer Success at National Geographic Learning for practical ideas and realistic lessons and activities that will help students make gains via distance learning, in-school, and hybrid situations.

In this webinar replay, you will learn:

  • Learn immediate take-home activities to use with students today
  • Discover text sets that will allow you to teach reading, science, and social studies in one lesson
  • Uncover strategies to differentiate instruction virtually while engaging the whole class
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What can I do on a Chromebook? (for Microsoft Office® courses)

by with No Comment Career & Tech Ed

What can I do on a Chromebook? (for Microsoft Office® courses)

Abigail Hess

Product Marketing Manager • Career and Technical Education • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

Teaching Microsoft Office® on a Chromebook is not ideal, but thousands of teachers are forced to teach this software course on machines that can’t download the software due to e-learning models this year. Luckily, Cengage offers tools that make learning Microsoft Office® and preparing for Microsoft Office Specialist and Expert exams possible this year including Office ONLINE projects, Microsoft Office® simulations, and Digital Literacy skills.

The problem – no hard drive means no downloaded Office 365, 2019 or 2016 access.

Traditionally, Microsoft Office® courses are taught in a business computer lab, usually using PCs or Mac desktop computers. As more and more school districts adopt one-one Chromebooks, administrators may not foresee how this impacts technology and business applications education. By definition, Chromebooks do not have a hard drive and cannot download the full versions of real-world software students would likely use in college or their future careers. For Microsoft Office® teachers, this means their students can only access about 10% of functionality they usually could on a desktop or PC. Chromebooks can provide access to Office Online, the browser-based version of the software, but not the full versions of Office 365, 2019, or 2016.

But, 10% functionality doesn’t mean students can only complete 10% of the course.

Luckily, Cengage’s two digital platforms for Microsoft Office® mastery offer a realistic simulation of the software with auto-graded tasks aligned to Microsoft Office Software Certifications through the specialist and expert levels. Even on a Chromebook, students can access Cengage powered:

• Interactive eBooks for Shelly Cashman, Illustrated, or the New Perspectives series with annotation & study tools.

  • • SAM-powered Training & Exam Simulations: These offer a realistic, fully explorable simulation of Microsoft Office® Excel, Word, PowerPoint & Access with embedded direction and videos, for students to practice new skills aligned to MOS exams, as well as “Apply” modes where they prove their skills without the help, grading for any available method to complete the task (keyboard shortcut, toolbar, etc.)
  • • MOS Certification Exam Simulations: These simulations offer a realistic MOS exam test-taking experience for the Associate levels of PowerPoint & Access and Associate & Expert levels of Word and Excel within the fully explorable simulations of the software. Students prove skills in a timed environment with mini case problems similar to what they will see on the MOS exam, aligned to MOS tasks.
  • • NEW! 8 Office ONLINE auto-graded SAM Projects have been added to Office 2019 Cengage courses that offer auto-graded projects that work with the free, ONLINE version of MS Office Word, PowerPoint and Excel. These projects were designed to address the needs of students who only have access to Chromebooks, or don’t have the ability to access full MS Office software while at home.

*These projects will NOT be automatically added to the MindTap Learning Path.  Instructors will need to use +Add / Create and search for “Office Online”. Teachers can watch this video to for steps to add the Online Projects to your MindTap course as well as other updates from the July 25th release.

Business Applications should be supplemented with Digital Literacy Skills that will improve the online learning experience.

Cengage courses include access to additional digital literacy content crucial for today’s learner and business professional that are fully compatible with Chromebooks.  Technology for Success offers an entire course of digital literacy content INCLUDED in Cengage Office 2019 online courses or as a standalone course. Supplement and enhance business applications courses video-based trainings & exams as well a Critical Thinking Challenges that offer auto-graded branching scenarios, including one on using video conference solutions and another on digital privacy and security.

Digital Literacy content is available for the following modules for Office 2019 courses:

  • • Module 1: Impact of Digital Technology
    • Module 2: The Web
    • Module 3: Computer Hardware
    • Module 4: Operating Systems and File Management
    • Module 5: Software and Apps
    • Module 6: Security and Safety
    • Module 7: Digital Media
    • Module 8: Program and App Use and Development
    • Module 9: Web Development
    • Module 10: Networking
    • Module 11: Digital Communication
    • Module 12: Digital Transformation: Cloud, E-commerce, and Artificial Intelligence
    • Module 13: Databases
    • Module 14: Digital Ethics and Lifestyle

Real-world, branching scenarios are auto-graded and perfect for video discussions.

*Ask your Sales Consultant about options for Microsoft Office® and digital literacy online solutions for a review copy, online trial, or a quote.

Related posts: Why teach Office 365? And Corinne Hoisington’s webinar, “Why Teach Office 365 (and not Google Only) in your Business Class?

Imagine Tomorrow

Tomorrow will not look like today. The way you teach, connect and engage students will continue to evolve. Whether you are continuing distance learning or heading back to classrooms, or a hybrid, we are here to help support you: curriculum, digital support, technical support, and professional training. National Geographic Learning is ready to help your classroom prepare for tomorrow.
Learn More
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Keeping Students Connected, Focused, and Engaged During Remote Learning

by with No Comment Digital ExperienceInterdisciplinary

Keeping Students Connected, Focused, and Engaged During Remote Learning

Jeremy Walts

Senior Director of Product Marketing • Math, Science and Digital Learning • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

A friend of mine is an educational administrator for STEM in my district. While an avid tech user himself, he has often questioned technology use in education. He emphasizes teacher development and using research-based high-impact strategies with an eye toward equity. Hard to argue with that. But now, given the move to remote learning, his views about technology are beginning to change.

But let’s step back for a moment. COVID has brought such difficult challenges that we all feel every day but we can also look at the opportunities that arise from crisis. For example, we are seeing districts across the country supplying devices and internet to many households that could otherwise not afford it. While this is a small step toward equity, it is a step. Second, teachers all over the country are learning new tools. I suspect that when COVID subsides, and the long-awaited day comes when students and teachers can safely come together again, these tools will still have a role. 

Back to my friend. Since the move to remote learning, the district quickly adopted an online learning program over the summer. Now my friend talks about the engagement students have with technology, the consistency of the content, and the advantage for a teacher seeing real-time data on student progress. Certainly, he knows the limitations of tech, but he sees the power, too.

A digital platform, powered by a dedicated teacher, can open pathways of learning for students. One of our online learning platforms here at National Geographic Learning, MindTap, is a good example as I look at online educational technologies through the lens of distance learning. 

Using MindTap as a teacher, you know your students have one place to go for their content and can independently study when you cannot be there. You can track their usage to see which students have engaged with the program and for how long.  Students take on manageable segments of learning and then take formative assessments. In real-time, you can see where they are progressing, and where they are struggling.  The platform contains powerful visual images with associated lessons so you can teach live and have an exploratory discussion about the images. You can make the course personalized by inserting your own web link activities right in the students’ learning path. 

Some of these features are not unique to MindTap, but they provide a good example of how online learning can be made more effective with the right tools. And while screen time is a concern, many recent studies show that any concern should be more about the quality of the screen time and not the quantity. 

We may not know for a while if these tools become more prevalent after schools return to normalcy. I suspect they will be, though time will tell.

To learn more about MindTap, I have provided several videos below.

Introduction to MindTap

Quick MindTap Introduction

MindTap for Distance Learning

In-Depth Overview and Highlighted Features

Full MindTap Overview

Differentiating Assignments

Customizing MindTap

Google Classroom Integration

The Study Hub for Students

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

TEST DRIVE MINDTAP TODAY!

With you in control, MindTap builds student confidence through a rich online learning experience.
Try it today
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Jimmy Chin and the Tyranny of Passion: A Letter To Your Students

by with No Comment Digital ExperienceInterdisciplinarySocial Studies

Jimmy Chin and the Tyranny of Passion: A Letter To Your Students

Marcie Goodale

Product Director • Social Studies and Advanced Placement • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

Some of you may have seen the person pictured on this page, National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin, win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in February 2019.

Jimmy is a man of many talents. He won the Oscar for producing a documentary on Alex Hannold, an American professional rock climber who had completed a “free solo” climb—meaning no ropes, harnesses, or protective equipment—of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Jimmy himself is a professional climber, skier, photographer, and now filmmaker.

As writers and editors for a World History textbook for National Geographic Learning, we have access to hundreds of National Geographic Explorers and photographers. All of them are completely brilliant and inspired and doing work that contributes to the common good either by capturing ideas and images that reveal our world to us in new ways or by using their considerable knowledge and creative skills to innovate new processes and new approaches in their fields.

When several of us were in the audience at a National Geographic Explorers Symposium in 2018, we watched Jimmy Chin talk with another NatGeo photographer about the work that they both do. He used the phrase “the tyranny of passion” and explained that the words aptly describe the way he lives his life.

Jimmy has found in his work something so fundamental to who he is, something he loves so much, that he simply can’t not do it. His work is so much a part of his thoughts, feelings, and actions that he can’t imagine a different life. Jimmy found what he wants to do with his life. He admits that he found a direction that caught him—and his family—by surprise. He’s never looked back.

The tyranny of passion. Those words have meaning for all of us.

Our message to you, then, is to know that there is something wonderful that you can do with your life, something that draws on your heart and your mind and that you will love to do. You have only to seek it.

Your ideas and your actions are important.
Share them with others.
Be heard.
And along the way, listen to others’ voices too.

From the National Geographic Learning Social Studies team

Interested in our NEW AP® Human Geography Program?

Start school (through distance learning or in a classroom)with a program that meets 100% of the College Board Course and Exam Description and engages students with rigorous but accessible content and stunning resources from the National Geographic Society.
Learn More
Nonie Lesaux

Units of Study for Student Success: Rigorous Instruction During In-Person and Distance Learning

by with No Comment Webinar - Reading Language Arts

Units of Study for Student Success: Rigorous Instruction During In-Person and Distance Learning

Getting to knowledge-building instruction means turning to units of study that revolve around big ideas and build students’ academic content and vocabulary knowledge. While it’s crucial to teach students through units of study in any given year, with today’s circumstances and likely periods of online learning, units of study take on an even more important role in the curriculum landscape.

Nonie Lesaux

Nonie K. Lesaux, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Getting to knowledge-building instruction means turning to units of study that revolve around big ideas and build students’ academic content and vocabulary knowledge. While it’s crucial to teach students through units of study in any given year, with today’s circumstances and likely periods of online learning, units of study take on an even more important role in the curriculum landscape.

In this webinar replay, you will learn:

  • What is meant by 'units of study'?
  • What is the role of units of study in promoting more meaningful and engaging learning environments?
  • Where and how digital texts and plans fit into a strategy for success
Gerver_Sgroi

Advanced Algebra with Financial Applications: A 3rd/4th Year Alternative for Struggling Students

by with No Comment Webinar - Math

Advanced Algebra with Financial Applications: A 3rd/4th Year Alternative for Struggling Students

The need for quantitative financial literacy and numeracy education in our schools is undeniable. The goal of this session is to offer teachers a rationale and framework for creating and teaching a quantitative financial literacy mathematics course that is applications-oriented and technology-dependent. Modeling finance using advanced algebra assists students in seeing the relevance of the mathematics they are learning.

Richard Sgroi, Ph.D.

Author

Robert Gerver, Ph.D.

Author

The need for quantitative financial literacy and numeracy education in our schools is undeniable. The goal of this session is to offer teachers a rationale and framework for creating and teaching a quantitative financial literacy mathematics course that is applications-oriented and technology-dependent. Modeling finance using advanced algebra assists students in seeing the relevance of the mathematics they are learning.

In this webinar replay, you will learn:

  • Methods to introduce the finance, build strength in the mathematics, and assist in making that mathematics transferrable to other contexts.
  • How math can be explored in the contexts of discretionary expenses, banking, credit, auto ownership, employment, taxes, housing, investing, entrepreneurship, retirement, and budgeting.
  • What to tell students when they ask: “When are we ever going to use this?” – “Every day of your lives!”
Joan_Shin_2020-06

Make Remote Learning Come Alive to Engage and Captivate Your Students!

by with No Comment Webinar - Reading Language Arts

Make Remote Learning Come Alive to Engage and Captivate Your Students!

How can you keep your students engaged as they sit in front of a computer or tablet screen or even a small mobile device? How can you encourage them to learn and thrive their knowledge through this virtual space? Think about what your students can see, hear, and feel through the screen. It might be a flat surface, but you can make your screen come alive with the ways you talk and move, the ways you encourage students to participate, and the materials and objects you use–even simple objects from your own home!

Dr. Joan Kang Shin

Associate Professor of Education

How can you keep your students engaged as they sit in front of a computer or tablet screen or even a small mobile device? How can you encourage them to learn and thrive their knowledge through this virtual space? Think about what your students can see, hear, and feel through the screen. It might be a flat surface, but you can make your screen come alive with the ways you talk and move, the ways you encourage students to participate, and the materials and objects you use–even simple objects from your own home!

You will leave this session with lots of practical ideas for making your screen come alive for your learners in their virtual classrooms. We’ll also cover what we’ve learned about remote teaching this Spring.

In this webinar replay, you will learn:

  • How to engage your learners through video and live video conferencing
  • How to use materials you already have to encourage language learning
  • New online activities to use in your classroom tomorrow!
white-concrete-house-near-body-of-water-under-white-and-blue-1285625

Why Teach Office 365?

by with No Comment Career & Tech Ed

Why Teach Office 365?

Abigail Hess

Associate Product Marketing Manager • Career and Technical Education • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

Many of our business and computing teachers have been asked to consider changing what they teach for business applications with many schools adopting Chromebooks and other digital devices. How can Microsoft 365 can be used in the classroom and for e-learning? What technology skills are the most crucial to prepare students for college and careers? There is no one better to talk about these things with us than our author, Corinne Hoisington. Corinne is a full-time professor of Information Systems Technology at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, Virginia, with more than 25 years of teaching experience.

WATCH author and Computer Science Professor/Teacher Corinne Hoisington walk through some amazing new features of Microsoft 365, the data behind why students need Microsoft Office skills, options for districts to purchase, how to engage business applications students, and much more in her virtual webinar: Why Teach Microsoft 365 (and not Google Only) in your Business Class? with Corinne Hoisington.

Below are key points and links from her presentation.

1. Cengage CAREs White Paper on student readiness for college digital literacy skills

On a basic technology skills test including skills like renaming folders or adding an attachment to emails, the average score for rising college freshman as a 44%, while 87% of students said they never learned any Microsoft Office skills outside of class.

computing skills

“Millennials struggle to use digital tools and networks to solve relatively simple problems…We need to challenge the assumption that students are digital natives, so colleges can better serve them.” –Corinne Hoisington, Central Virignia Commuity College

2. Microsoft Certification for Teachers and Students:

  • • Become a Microsoft Certified Educator — Available for Office 2019 and Office 365, when students pass 3 Associate Exams, they are awarded the Microsoft Office Specialist: Associate certification. When they earn that tile and pass three additional Expert Exams, they are
  • • Get your Students Certified with Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) — Available for Office 2019 and Office 365, when students pass 3 Associate Exams, they are awarded the Microsoft Office Specialist: Associate certification. When they earn that tile and pass three additional Expert Exams, they are awarded the Microsoft Office Specialist: Expert certification.

3. Best Jobs in America

GlassDoor List: Best Jobs in America shows the current top jobs for salary, job satisfaction, and current openings and guess what? Skills learned in business and Microsoft Office classes are required for almost all of them.

4. What are the differences between versions of Office?

  • • Microsoft Apps Online—free version of Office that can be used on any browser. Can be accessed on Chromebooks, but only offer 10% functionality of the full, downloaded software.
  • • Microsoft Office 2019—sold as a one-time purchase for a single computer download for PC’s and Macs and includes Office Desktop apps like Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
  • • Microsoft 365—subscription service that gives full access to productivity tools and Office applications like Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook, but also others like OneNote, Sway, Teams, Publisher and much more. With Microsoft 365, you always have access to the most updated version of all applications including new AI features that Corinne highlights in her webinar. Learn more about Microsoft 365 for Education here.

5. Which version(s) of the software should I use to teach Business Applications?

National Geographic Learning/Cengage curriculum and online solutions for teaching Business Applications are aligned to all three versions, but assume students have access to Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office 2019 on a Mac or PC that allows for the full, downloaded version of the software. Students using Microsoft Apps Online will not be able to practice most features or skills needed for the workplace or MOS certification. However, students with only internet access can complete simulated trainings & exams for each task as well as MOS Exam simulations, which offer realistic practice for the certification exam.

6. What are some affordable devices schools can purchase that can work with Microsoft 365?

Microsoft Education offers devices starting at $219* (*while supplies last) that run applications students will need to know how to use for college and careers.

Access on-demand and live, weekly trainings by Corinne Hoisington with tips for engaging students with technology education. REGISTER HERE

*Access the recording of Corinne Hoisington’s webinar here.

Corinne Hoisington is a full-time professor of Information Systems Technology at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, Virginia, with more than 25 years of teaching experience. Corinne travels over 200,000 miles a year delivering keynote addresses to college and university professors and K-12 educators in over 70 cities worldwide for customers such as the Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Canada Camp 21 International Events, Cengage Learning, ByteSpeed, Capital One International Bank, Executive LIVE in London and the international South by Southwest (SXSW) event in Austin, Texas. Professor Hoisington is the recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in Computer Programming. Corinne has authored over 30 textbooks with Cengage Learning/National Geographic Learning on topics such as Outlook 2019, Office 2019, Microsoft Windows, Android Boot Camp Java, Technology Now, and Visual Basic 2017.

Watch other webinars by Corinne Hoisington:

Imagine Tomorrow

Tomorrow will not look like today. The way you teach, connect and engage students will continue to evolve. Whether you are continuing distance learning or heading back to classrooms, or a hybrid, we are here to help support you: curriculum, digital support, technical support, and professional training. National Geographic Learning is ready to help your classroom prepare for tomorrow.
Learn More
Corinne_Hoisington_June

Why Teach Office 365 (and not Google only) in your Business Class?

by with No Comment Webinar - Career & Tech Ed

Why Teach Office 365 (and not Google only) in your Business Class?

Tap into the latest information to assist in guiding your students into careers that are meaningful, high paying, and have massive opportunity. What college majors and technical programs have the highest opportunities and the highest unemployment in the next decade? We must provide solid guidance to our students right now. Robots, with intelligence, are advancing into beneficial, life-saving, machines for assisting us in our everyday lives. The challenge is determining how we, as educators, can best train the next generation of students for a future that is still evolving?

Corinne Hoisington

Professor of Information Systems Technology
Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg, Virginia

Join Corinne Hoisington, one of the Shelly Cashman authors, for a stroll down the path to employability that starts with your Office class (click here for a sneak peek). School administrators sometimes take it for granted that because your students grew-up using technology—with 20% beginning use between ages 5 and 8—that they are ready for college and employment, but not so fast! Learn about crucial college and career success skills that students will not learn if they are not taught in school (online or in-person).

In this webinar replay, you will learn:

  • Why it is important to teach the full Microsoft Office 365 product
  • Why Google classroom will not help students in the business world
  • Latest features of Office 365 like the PowerPoint Presenter Coach, PowerPoint Live, Excel Money (brand new feature), and the new Editor tool