ESU 13 Tech Connection

November, 2026

Ever spent 10 minutes searching through hundreds of emails looking for that one email with that really important information that you know you didn't delete? Maybe it's time for a better filing system.

You may have heard of using the Label feature in Gmail to sort your emails into folders. They help me organize my many hats so I can find what I am looking for more easily. My very favorite thing to do happens only once a year. In August, at the beginning of a new school year, I go through some of these labels and mass delete all the emails in there. Now, I can't do that for EVERY label, for example my grant email group never gets deleted - but I have a couple of groups that I really only need to keep for a year or so. Which means, I can open that label, click on the "Select all" box (making sure to select all conversations in the label) at the top and delete all the emails in there. Watching my email count go down does something for my soul. 😊

Did you know that Common Sense Media has an AI Risk Assessment tool? Popular AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini are evaluated on critical factors, including data privacy, mental health impacts, and child development standards.

Pro tip: read each report carefully! Common Sense highlights both where an application does well and what risks to watch out for, giving you the insights you need to make informed decisions for your home or classroom. A risky label may mean there are data privacy concerns, or it may mean guardrails for student accountability are lacking. Always read the full report to determine if the risks are acceptable for your use case. Whenever choosing any tool to use in your classroom, always identify how the tool integrates with your district policies and the learning goals you have identified for your students before use.

Our students experience those exact same shifts.

Providing varied options for students to interact with content is a cornerstone of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). As research from CAST highlights, offering multiple ways to perceive information removes barriers to learning, helping every student find an entry point that works for them.

If video is part of your instructional toolkit, Edpuzzle is a powerful tool to make passive viewing a little more engaging.

This tool allows you to select ready-made videos, or you can upload your own videos, and then build in engagement activities within the video itself. You can embed questions for students to answer or notes of your own to help add clarity to the concepts presented.

If you haven't looked into edpuzzle yet, check it out today!

According to the American's for Disabilities Act, web content and mobile applications must be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities. The Department of Justice issued a final rule requiring state and local government entities (including public schools) ensure that all web content comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1AA standards. Districts serving a population of less than 50,000 must comply by April 26, 2028. Starting now is an excellent way to start developing the skills required by then! (Note: the deadlines have been extended by 1 year since the video above has been recorded).

I will be highlighting one requirement each month to help us all adopt the best practices in posting digital content for accessibility.

This month's focus is audio/video files.

• Audio files must have a transcript attached. Generative AI chatbots, like Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude, do an excellent job of generating these transcripts for you. Just don't forget to proofread. As good as these are, they aren't perfect, especially with proper names and punctation.

• Videos posted online must include audio descriptions of important visual components, a transcript and captions that include relevant sound effects. The easiest way to comply with this requirement is to ensure that while you are creating the video you are describing any necessary visual components as you go. This way, not only do those with visual impairments benefit from the audio descriptions, when a transcript and captions are created those components will be built in for you.

• One process for creating closed captioning transcription for videos is to utilize the AI generated transcript feature in YouTube.

1. Upload Video to YouTube

2. Once uploaded click on the description for your video and select "Show Transcript".

3. It usually comes with no punctuation and other errors, so copy/paste this transcript into your GenAI chatbot of choice and instruct it to clean up the transcript and fix punctuation errors.

4. Fix any additional errors. Usually acronyms and proper nouns like names.

5. Tell your chatbot to create a downloadable SRT file. (This is the required file type to upload captions to YouTube).

6. Back in YouTube, edit your video, click on the Subtitles edit icon. Click on the three dot menu next to "Edit Timings" and select upload file. Choose the srt file you just downloaded from your chatbot.

7. Save your video.

• (Zoom also has a transcript feature that you could use to create captions for your video using your video editing software.)

You now have accurate captions for your video! This may sound a bit overwhelming to navigate at first, but you will very quickly get in the practice of taking these steps and ensuring that your content is accessible to everyone!

The Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) in collaboration with the ESU Coordinating Council (ESUCC) is excited to partner with Dr. Kristen Mattson, co-founder of the Edvolve Framework for Digital Citizenship, to bring you this free quarterly webinar series for the 2026-2027 school year. Each 45-minute session is designed to provide practical strategies and resources that educators can immediately implement in their classrooms.

The webinars will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. (CST) on the following dates:

• Digital Safety: September 1, 2026

• Info & Media Literacy: October 27, 2026

• Social Responsibility: February 16, 2027

• Digital Well-being: April 27, 2027