PISD Edtech Talk

Welcome to Edtech Talk, PISD's quarterly edtech newsletter!

This newsletter delivers a curated selection of edtech highlights, news, practical tips, and valuable resources tailored to PISD educators.

Twelve joyful, low-prep Adobe Express activities to celebrate learning and wrap up the year with creativity and cheer.

Whether you unwrap one activity each day or all 12 at once, getting started is easy:

• Pick an activity
• Log in with your school email address to assign and share! (Access in Portal)
• Complete it yourself or with your class!
• Share your creations on X and tag @edtechphillips or upload it to this form.

Each activity earns particpants an entry in a prize drawing! Drawing will be on Friday, Dec. 19th.

Day 1 - Design your own Ugly Sweater

Day 2 - Design Your Very Own Stuffie

Congratulations to our newest Google Certified Educators!

Furr - Allie Deese (Level 1)

Jackson - Sarah Bedell (Level 2) and Robyn Bitner (Level 1 and 2)

Richland - Maricarmen Corvison (Level 1)

Rushing - Lisa Feldman & Toni Primack (Levels 1 and 2)

Stuber - Victoria Fiddler (Levels 1 and 2)

Central Admin - Jaimea Vanderpoel (Level 1)

Technology - Jack Daniels & Eric Feldman (Levels 1 and 2)

Do you want to become a Google Educator? Google just updated their Certified Educator Exams. Check the educational technology website for updated certification information! 😀

PISD's Instructional Technology Coaches serve as collaborative partners to help you integrate digital tools and strategies into your curriculum. They provide personalized, job-embedded support, from co-planning and modeling lessons to finding the perfect resource, all with the goal of enhancing student engagement and saving you valuable time.

Did you miss our live virtual sessions on Canva? No problem! You can watch the recordings then fill out the feedback form for exchange and/or sbec credit hours!

This virtual event is free! You can get certificates for the sessions you attend and upload them as an external credit request in Powerschool for exchange (and sbec) hours. Register now!

Google Arts & Culture has created a fun way for anyone to become better at prompting chatbots called Say What You See.

The site will show you an image. You then have to provide a description of what you see. Your description will prompt an image inspired by the one you’re observing, but you only pass if you meet the visual threshold set for each level, putting your image-reading skills to the test. As you go, you'll receive tips on how to improve your prompt. Pay attention because you have three attempts for each image to pass, and each level gets a little harder.

The game helps build observation skills, vocabulary, and descriptive language as students learn to write clear instructions for AI. Only high school students have access to Google Arts and Culture so if you want to do this activity with students, it would need to be whole group. Elementary and middle school students could work in small teams or pairs and brainstorm their prompt on paper. The teacher can then enter in different suggestions for the group. Make sure to discuss that the more detail used, the better the image matched and what new words they may have learned.

Free Gemini users can generate roughly two Nano Banana Pro images per day (this varies based on Google’s server traffic) and up to about one hundred standard Nano Banana images. Note that student Google Workspace accounts cannot generate images at all. Read Google's blog post for more information.

In Prosper ISD, we have a group of tech-savvy teachers called the Agents of Edtech. They help support educational technology on your campus by sharing district initiatives and modeling best practices for technology integration. Find out more here.

If you are interested in becoming an Agent, reach out to your campus admin!