Help
Support Options Video Tutorials TIGed Manual Support Forums Online Training Contact Us	There are a number of ways to get help with TIGed: First, check out our video tutorials, which will guide you through processes like setting up your classroom and adding assignments. Our online manual will give you a more thorough overview of TIGed's various features. Suggest a new feature or share your experience with other TIGed users on the Educator Support Forums Visit events page to find out about our online office hours and topical webinars If you still have unanswered questions, contact us.

• Setting up a class
• Adjusting your class settings
• Managing your class list
• Setting up assignments for your students
• Posting content in your classroom and on TakingITGlobal
• Using the class maps feature
• Sharing your lesson plans in our Activities Database
• Setting up a collaboration between classrooms

Table of Contents

• Create a classroom for the first time
• Managing your classroom
• Posting content to a classroom
• Using the Activities Database
• Collaborating with other TIG educators
• Managing your school account
• Managing your individual account on TakingITGlobal

The TIGed Manual is a growing resource. To suggest a new topic, e-mail us!

Create a classroom for the first time

You can create a new classroom at any time by clicking on the green "create classroom" link found on the upper right side of your school page or by scrolling down to the "My Classes" section on the TIGed.org home page.

Fill in the information about the class you are creating. All of this information can be changed later EXCEPT the class web address:

• The name of the class
• Class web address - this will build on the URL for your school, giving a unique web address just for your class.
• Select a subject from the dropdown list
• Identify which age or grade level will be using the class
• Select the language you would like your classroom environment to display in

Privacy & Student Signup Settings

• Class Privacy: This refers to how public the content and its participants will be. By selecting the public option, the classroom and its contents will be viewable by anyone. Student profile information will be hidden, and only registered members of the class will be able to add content. With the private option, the classroom will only be accessible to registered teachers, students, and guests of the classroom.

• Student Signup: By selecting Teacher Managed you will add students directly through your class page. Students are not required to have e-mail addresses. Under the Student Managed option you will create a student registration code and students will signup and create profiles on their own. Students are required to have e-mail addresses. See also: 'Adding students to your classroom'

Features

Check the tools you wish to make available to your students: Student Blogs: weblogs, or online journals, which include the ability to photo-blog and audio-blog (podcast). Class Discussions: Threaded, asynchronous discussion forums. Class Maps: A mapping tool allowing students to create collaborative local or global maps. Assignments: Allow you, the teacher, to create assignments, and your students to submit content for a specific assignment or task. This tool also enables you to give private feedback and grades to students. Class Gallery: A classroom version of TIG's Global Gallery, where students can post digital images and leave comments for one another. This tool also has the option for students to submit their artwork to the Global Gallery and build a public online art portfolio. Student Writing: A classroom version of TIG's Panorama online magazine, where students can post longer pieces of writing and leave comments for one another. This tool also has the option for students to submit their writing to Panorama, to be reviewed by our editors and potentially be published online!

There are also two tools available as part of a premium membership to TIGed: Class Chat: A live chat room, with audio and video capabilities, for students to communicate with guests or each other in real-time. Can be enabled and disabled by the teacher at any time. Class Files: Class files gives students the opportunity to upload files, up to 2 GB per classroom.

Learning Groups

The Learning Groups feature lets you add an entire group of students (for example, a homeroom group) to your class. These groups must first be created from the school page. If you are using the Learning Group feature, you can select a group to import here. Otherwise, you will have the ability to add students once the classroom is created.

Import Class Content

If you have previously created a classroom, and wish to import the assignments and bookmarks from that class, select it from the dropdown menu here.

Thematic Classroom

If you wish to import the assignments, bookmarks, and documents from one of the curriculum units hosted on TIGed, select it from the dropdown menu here. See also: Thematic Classrooms.

Click "create" at the bottom of the page and you will be automatically taken to your new classroom!

Create a new classroom for a course or unit you have taught on TIGed before

You can create a new class and import the assignments, bookmarks, etc. from a previous one. Follow the link to create a classroom from the TIGed.org homepage (when you're logged in, scroll down to My Classes) and you will see on the create a classroom page that one of the options is to import content from a previous class.

Thematic Classrooms

To learn more about the thematic classrooms available, visit Educator Central

Classroom Settings

From the "homepage" of any classroom, you can manage your settings by clicking on the "Classroom Settings" link at the bottom of the menu on the left side of the class.

We have a new feature that allows you to display the location of each student in the Class List. To enable this, go to Classroom Settings, scroll down to the Features section, and check the box next to "Student Locations" - then scroll ALL the way to the bottom of the page and click "save all".

Managing Class Members

Adding students to a classroom

When creating your classroom, under Privacy & Student Signup Settings, you can choose whether you want Student Signup to be Student Managed or Teacher Managed.

• For Student Managed registration, you will create a student registration code to provide to the students in your class. Students will sign up for TakingITGlobal and register for TIGed on their own. Students must have email addresses for this option.
• For Teacher Managed registration, you will create student usernames and passwords, and distribute them to your students. When they login to TIGed with their username and password, they will automatically be registered in your class.

Once you have created your classroom, add students to your class by clicking on "Class List" in the menu on the left. On the Class List page, click on "add students" and select from the available options.

• For student managed registration, follow the instructions to enter each student's e-mail address and a message to your students. This will automatically send the students an e-mail with information and the unique registration link and code to join your class.

If you are inviting students who are already registered with your school on TIGed, select "I would like to import students to my class from the school list." This will take you to a list of all the names and usernames of students registered with your school. Select the students you wish to add to your class. To add more than one student at a time, hold down the CTRL key (on PC) while you highlight the name or the apple key (on Mac).

• For teacher managed registration, you can either import students who are already registered with your school on TIGed, or add them to the system by creating their usernames and passwords.

If you are adding students who are already registered with your school on TIGed, select "I would like to import students to my class from the school list." This will take you to a list of all the names and usernames of students registered with your school. Select the students you wish to add to your class. To add more than one student at a time, hold down the CTRL key (on PC) while you highlight the name or the apple key (on Mac).

Removing students from a classroom

Go to Class List, and next to each student's name, click on the "more" link - and then from the links that appear, select "delete student" to remove the student from the class.

Adding other teachers to your classroom

Go to the class page and click on "Classroom Settings" in the menu on the left. On the Classroom Settings page, scroll to the Teachers section. You will see a dropdown menu of all the teachers registered with your school's TIGed account. Select the teachers you wish to add to your classroom and click "add teacher". You can repeat this step to add other teachers.

Removing other teachers from your classroom

Go to the class page and click on "Classroom Settings" in the menu on the left. On the Classroom Settings page, scroll to the Teachers section. You will see a list of all teachers currently part of this class, and a red [x] next to their name. Click on the "x" to remove them from the class.

Closing a classroom

Go to the class page and click on "Classroom Settings" in the menu on the left. On the Classroom Settings page, scroll all the way to the bottom to "Close or Archive Classroom" and click on "Click here to change this setting." Select Close Classroom and then click the "save" button.

Creating podcasts

For step by step, visual instructions on how to create podcasts, visit: http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=45

NOTE: The podcast tutorials at the link above were created in October 2006, and since then the TakingITGlobal site has undergone some changes and usability improvements. As a result, the locations of links shown in the tutorials might differ from the current version of the TakingITGlobal website.

Posting podcasts

To post an audio blog or podcast, click on the MyTIG tab at the top of any page on TIGed or TakingITGlobal. Then select from the drop-down "I want to..." menu, "add a blog post". This will take you to the Post an Entry page of your TIGblog (did you know that you have a free blog on TIG?) Under Entry type, click Audio Post (podcast). Now you can enter a description of your podcast, categorize and tag it, and finally upload the file from your computer, which you would have created with the help of the video tutorials at http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=45 (see NOTE in Creating podcasts)

Difference between a blog and a discussion

A blog is effectively a student's personal online journal entry, upon which other students and teachers can comment. A discussion is more collaborative and public, and meant for a wider audience than a blog. Your classroom's discussion board is an online meeting area, where students and teachers can post questions, comments, and responses revolving around the classroom's content and subject matter.

How do students submit assignments?

Once you have created assignments or tasks for your students, any member of the class (including teachers) can submit content either within the classroom or elsewhere on TakingITGlobal.org and identify it as being for a particular assignment.

To submit content for an assignment within the classroom: 1. From the menu on the left click on the media you would like to submit. Of the available class tools, currently only student blogs, class files, and student writing can be tagged as "For an Assignment." If the assignment involves posting to a discussion or a map, the instructor can still review them, but they will not appear under assignment submissions.

2. Click on the "post" button on the upper right side of the page (for example, "post entry" on the blogs page or "post artwork" on the class gallery page). Complete the fields to post content.

3. At the bottom of the entry page, under Visibility, select

• "teacher only" if you only want the class teacher to view your content
• "class only" if you only want members of this class to view your content
• "Class & TIG" if you want both members of this class to view your content and to publish to the TakingITGlobal community.

NOTE: Selecting "Class & TIG" for Class Gallery and Student Writing will submit your work to the TIG Global Gallery and Panorama sections, respectively. This is a great way to be published and receive feedback from peers around the world; however, the work is subject to the review process for those areas of the site and may take several weeks to be published.

4. Before clicking submit, review the option: "This is for an assignment" - a dropdown menu of all assignments currently due. This menu is organized by class (if you are part of multiple classes). Select the assignment you are completing. 5. Click submit to post your content and complete the assignment.

Receiving notification when students submit their assignments

When you create a new assignment, check the box for "Email me when a student completes an assignment" to enable email notifications. You can enable or disable this notification from existing assignments by clicking on the pencil "edit" icon next to any assignment title.

The Activities Database is a growing resource of lesson plans that you can implement in your classroom. Activities have been shared by teachers in the TIGed community as well as leading global education organizations, and all have been approved by TIGed staff. Activities are aligned to the MCREL compendium of curriculum benchmarks and Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework.

You can search the Activities Database by keyword, grade level, or subject area. You can also view the latest or most popular activities, right on the main page. If you have a lesson plan or unit that incorporates global issues and technology that you would like to share with other teachers, you can submit it to be published to the Activities Database! The submission page asks for all the information another teacher would need to use or adapt your lesson plan, including outcomes, process, time required, and resources needed. The more detail you provide, the more useful the resource will be for others. Once you submit your activity, you can then go back and add any relevant curriculum benchmarks and 21st Century Skills. All lessons you submit will be linked to your TIG profile.

If you find a lesson plan you would like to use, you can import it directly to a TIGed classroom. In the box on the left side of each activity, scroll down until you see a green box and drop down menu titled "Add to Classroom:" - select the TIGed Classroom that you would like to import this activity to, and click "add." You will be directed to the edit page of a new assignment in the classroom, where you can make any edits needed to share this lesson with students. Any links or documents that were associated with the lesson in the Activities Database will be automatically imported to the assignment, too!

After you use the lesson plan, you can return to the Activity to let the author and other teachers know how it went! You can give it a star rating (1 to 4 stars), leave a comment, and add any curriculum benchmarks that this activity met for your class.

The best place to start is the Collaboration Registry in Educator Central. You can either post an idea for a project you're planning to do, or describe who you are and what you teach, and the kind of collaborators you're looking for. Both allow other teachers to search and contact you if they're interested in working together.

The Discussion Boards are another excellent way to start communicating with TIGeducators from around the world. Post a topic, comment on an existing thread; initiate meaningful discussions with other educators to enrich your experience using TIGed with advice, testimonials, ideas and collaborations.

Where can other teachers register for TIGed?

If you are the account administrator for your school (usually the teacher who first set up your school on TIGed), provide other teachers from your school with the registration code and the link to your school's page on TIGed (e.g., http://highschool.tiged.org). From here, they can click on "Register for TIGed" just below your school description, where they will be prompted to enter the school registration code, and then create an account on TakingITGlobal.

Teacher school registration code

This code is used only for teachers registering to have access to your school account so that they can create new classrooms. It was created when your school registration was first set up, and can be changed by editing your account settings (from the school page). When teachers are signing up for TIGed, if they do not have the code, will have the option to send an email request to the account administrator.

Upgrade or Renew Membership

To renew or upgrade your TIGed license, go to: http://www.takingitglobal.org/tiged/school/payment.html. You can renew your license for an additional year, set up payment on a monthly basis, or upgrade your account in one of the following ways:

-Upgrade from an individual account to a small school membership (up to 15 teachers)

-Upgrade from an individual or small school membership to a large school membership (up to 100 teachers)

-Upgrade any of the above account sizes to premium membership. In addition to all of the great benefits of a basic membership to TIGed, the premium membership give you access to two additional tools: Class Files (a small filesharing space within each classroom) and Class Chat (a video and text chat tool that enables real-time communication and collaboration).

Changing the privacy settings for my school

School account administrators set the level of privacy for all users affiliated with their school account on TIGed. This is initially set when the account is created, and can be changed by the administrator at any time from the school page. If you are not the administrator for your school account, please contact that person to change the privacy settings.

The Partial Privacy Option includes:

• All photos or personally identifiable content posted to their profile is automatically hidden to users viewing their profile. Only other members of their TIGed classes can view any details the student has posted.
• Students are able to communicate with other TIG members using the TIG messenger tool.

Full privacy options for students under 18

• ALL content posted to their profile is automatically hidden to other users viewing their profile. Only other members of their TIGed classes can view any details the student has posted.
• Students are only able to communicate using the TIG messenger tool with other TIG members whom they have added as a friend.

• Under the Full Privacy Option, the school account administrator can fully disable the TIG messenger tool.

• For students and teachers age 18 and over, changes to privacy settings can be made on an individual basis by going to "Edit Profile"

To change these privacy settings, go to your school page on TIGed, and click on the "edit" link on the right side of the page, above the list of educators. On the "edit school settings" page, scroll down to Student Privacy and select the option that best fits the privacy needs of your school.

Switching between classes

If you are part of more than one TIGed classroom, there are several ways to easily move from one to another. 1. On any classroom page, you will see a dropdown menu on the upper left side (above the TIGed logo and class menu). From the dropdown menu, select the class you would like to view. 2. On TIGed.org, scroll down to the "My Classes" section and click on the title of the class you would like to view.

My TIGed tab

Edit Profile

To edit your profile, click "My Account" on the top right of any page. You can edit the following information, in the menu items under My Account in the menu on the left of that page:

• Basics: Change basic information, such as your display name and location
• Contact: Enter any contact information you'd like to make available to other members, such as Skype or AIM
• Personal: Share your bio and picture, as well as details about what you teach and where
• About Me: Post your citizenship, languages spoken, books read, countries visited, etc.
• Feeds: Import your content and profiles from across the web, such as Flickr, del.icio.us, Facebook, and Second Life.
• Privacy Settings: Hide personal information and change your password.
• Email Settings: Decide what kind of email you'd like to receive from TIG. We won't spam you. Promise.
• Website Options : Set preferences for how you view the TIG site, such as font size and language.
• Mobile Options : Set alerts from TIG about new messages or reminders to your email or mobile device.
• TIGed: Select which section of TIGed (such as a specific classroom) the My TIGed tab will link to.