Tell us about a cool tool! Add your entry as a comment below. Please include the following information in your response.
- name of the tool
- platform(s) on which it works (web-based, iOS, Android, etc.)
- what it does
- one way it could be used in your situation (classroom, PD, etc.): Be specific with your ideas!
- optional: screen shots of the tool in action
- optional: "testimonials" from users (i.e. students or staff)
Chris Ross
ReplyDeletehttp://www.Socrative.com
web-based for laptops, and iOS
Socrative is a free site that allows students to respond to questions much like a classroom set of clickers. Students can take quizzes and be surveyed about their opinions.
One way it could be used is a quick check for understanding in the classroom. For example, the teacher could ask a question. Then he or she could tell the students, "On your computer choose answer A,B,C." Students could respond anonymously and the teacher quickly finds out if the class as a whole is understanding the concept being taught.
Here is a great youtube video created by James Sanders describing the site.
http://youtu.be/EGr53IA91MU
Thank you for sharing this Chris. I had never heard of this site. I checked it out and plan to use it. However I was out with a migraine Thursday and then we were closed due to flooding Friday, so I haven't had a chance to use it with my students yet. I'm trying to use a new tool per week to get some experience with them. This is definitely the new tool I'm trying this week.
DeleteSome of the teachers use it at our school. They love it and I also plan to look at it to spread the word.
DeleteThe new cool tool I've been using the last few weeks is TapQuiz Maps. It is a game/quiz site for iPad, iPhone, or iPods. It lets students choose regions around the world to practice countries locations. It times the students and gives them a percentage of correct responses. As the student plays it will highlight countries the student doesn't know. My students report liking this better than studying maps and taking quizzes. You can use the percentage score as a quiz grade also.
ReplyDeleteThis looks great. I will try it tomorrow in my class!
DeleteOne of the tools we use in our district edmodo. It is not a mandated program, but we do offer training if teachers are interested in learning more about the functionality and applications in the classroom. It is a web-based program that is a cross between a learning management tool and social media rolled into one. Our former superintendent was a proponent of the website and asked us to promote it among our teachers. We discovered that several teachers were already using the product before we claimed a domain with the company. By doing so, we are able to track analytics, such as the number of users, number of assignments turned in, and how often the site is used at each of our schools.
ReplyDeleteThe site is touted as one that can be utilized as a LMS, because it can house files in a personal library, teachers can post assignments, polls, quizzes and other assignments, as well as embed videos and other multi-media material within the 'wall' of the student. Parents can access the material (By using a special access code that is generated by the teacher that only allows them to see their student's information) to see what their students are doing, and can communicate with teachers. Teachers have access to limit what communication and authoring access students have, as well as the ability to group students for individual assignments if so desired. Students are given access codes to join teacher's classes and then the teacher can lock the code to prevent students who are not in their class from joining the online course. The program offers badges to users, both pre-existing and allows for custom creation as well.
One way that I would like to see the use of this program be expanded in our district is for our teachers to use it to collaborate with each other. There are great resource groups and other ways for the teachers of the same subject areas to connect with each other and brainstorm ideas as well as collaborate on curriculum. Community groups or other groups can be created to meet the needs of the teachers and others within the district to best meet the needs of the students we are serving.
Similar tools our teachers like are www.schoology.com and www.mybigcampus.com
DeleteI am always looking for ways to introduce my students to new tools to present their projects. I asked our media specialist if she had any suggestions and she recommended Animoto.
ReplyDeleteAnimoto allows you to create slideshows and videos that look as if they were professionally made. It is very simple to use and allows for unlimited creativity. You begin by choosing a "style" of presentation from the various themes available. You then add pictures or videos from the Animoto libraries or you can download them from Facebook, Instagram, iCloud or various other sources. As you add the images you will see the order in which they will appear in the final video. You also have the ability to add music. Animoto has a library of tunes that you can choose from and you also have the option of downloading your own music. Finally you can add text which is superimposed on the images on the video. As you add components you are able to keep track of the length of the video. Once finished you can preview the video and decide to edit or publish it.
There are many things to love about Animoto. First of all it's accessible through web-based, iOS and Android platforms. Secondly, you can apply for an educator's account which will allow you to create lengthier videos, provide you with the ability to create and monitor 50 student accounts and give you the features of their Animoto Plus plan. Lastly, you acan easily post your video to You Tube and Vimeo.
At first I was thinking about using Animoto as a tool for students to present projects, but next year I will use it as means by which students will introduce themselves to the class. I will have them choose images, music ,and words that best represent who they are and what's important to them. This will give me more insight as to what motivates them. And yes, I too will be making a video that gives them an insight as to who I am and what's important to me.
I haven't had a chance to look at this site yet, however I just heard about this at a special education meeting. Resource students are using this site to help conduct self guided IEP meetings. I saw a few examples and was really impressed with what the students had produced.
DeleteThis sounds like an interesting site. I can't believe how many different sites I have signed up to look at just this weekend. I think this would be a wonderful site to teach my 8th graders to make slide shows for careers. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
DeleteThis website was featured at one our the workshops that I went to. I like for the students to use their cell phone cameras to make the videos and then I convert them so that they can use movie maker on their computers. The new movie maker within Windows 7 is a powerful tool. No need to make an account and everyone at my school has a cell phone. We have permission to use them.
DeleteOne of my favorite tools is the pHet website.
ReplyDeletehttp://phet.colorado.edu/. It is web based. It is a mixture of science simulations. The user has the opportunity to manipulate different variables in an experiment. This is a great way to start gathering data in a controlled setting. Then the data can be manipulated to make connections between variables.
I use this in a study of pendulums. This is a great way to have students gather data and find out how to change the period of a pendulum.
pHet is awesome! They have so many great simulations, especially for concepts that can be difficult to model in class; that's often a problem in chemistry because we can't actually see atoms and molecules. One of my favorite simulations is Gas Properties. I love it that you can run the simulations directly from the pHet site, download them to your computer and run them there, or embed them in a learning management system or class web page.
DeleteJennifer Fields
I love, love symbaloo.com! This is a great tool to organize your "favorites" and share with anyone. We use this for our school to organize websites for the students to use. We have a mix for several grade levels. We then set the appropriate mix as a homepage on the laptops in the corresponding computer labs. The students just walk in and open Explorer and see all of the tiles. This allows me to share websites with parents so much easier. I just have to share the one web address and they can see all of the tiles. This is such a great way for me to keep track of and organize my online resources as well. The tiles can be color coded per subject or grade level, any way you wish. They also have mixes already made that you can use! Most people probably already knew about this, but it was a new tool for me this year that I absolutely love!!
ReplyDeleteI really like this site too. This course is overwhelming to me because there is simply so much out there. I aprpeciated how this weeks lesson was on using the technology to enhance rather than to be "cool". It helps me keep things in perspective. Maybe over the summer I will work on my symbaloo website and see how I can enhance my student learning next year.
DeleteThis is a great idea. This is what I do, and I make a list for the students to go to. I post them within my Moodle page. I search all year and things that I like I add them to my Favorites list and I add them to the tool bar on the computer. I also make the students use the computer to make a folder with the links or HTML code.
DeleteThis looks like a great site. I think even our tech people won't be too afraid of it. I think we all need to share our sites more. This would work great.
DeleteYou will all think I am crazy, but the one thing that I have done this week is set up a twitter account for me and followed a number of educational websties that they recommended. I think this will help me to become more knowledgeable on techology and websites available to use. I have bookmarked various websites and plan to check them out one at a time. It is great to see some sites that can help to enhance students learning. We are behind at my rural school, but moving forward. Sorry I have no specific website to share with you. I will simply encourage you to try twitter if you have not. I never understood the significance of twitter and facebook, but I can see the business and education benefits to teachers and older students alike.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're crazy at all, Terri! I think it's fantastic. I, too, was anti-Twitter until I finally jumped on the bandwagon and tried it. I don't know how I would find so many resources if I didn't use it. I learn a lot from there!
DeleteI found one in the video section on this module that I think would be fun to use. It is Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere is a web-based tool that can be used for a lot of different things. The way I see myself using it would be for election times. I love teaching about elections and we always hold mock elections in my classroom for both primary dates and general. I hold elections for local, state, and federal offices. This tool could be used for real-time results that every student could see. Each student could go on-line and after I set it up, cast their ballots and results could be posted for the entire school to see.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a really cool tool, also. So many of my students have cell phones, I should probably take advantage of that! I could see myself using it for quick, in-class quizzes (like ESR) to see if they are getting a concept while I'm teaching it and/or immediately after I've taught it.
DeleteJennifer Fields
I realize we were supposed to post our blog entry as a comment here, but I used a bunch of screen shots that won't show up...
ReplyDeleteSo, I posted my entry on my blog and I've provided the link:
http://franktonchemistry.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-i-love-edmodo.html
As a high school teacher, I am constantly battling students who are distracted from their school work when they are inside and outside of my classroom. One student says he'll work on a problem that he's been struggling with at home. The next day he realizes that he left his homework in his athletic locker. Another student comes into class and asks what we are doing that day. I respond saying that we are working on the project we worked on during Friday's class. All I get in return is a blank stare. Examples like this are the reason Remind 101 helps teachers and coaches communicate with students in a safe way that is convenient for the teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteRemind 101 is a service that has the ability to send texts and e-mails to students and their parents about things going on in the class, assignments, tests, schedule changes, and encouragement. Here's how it works. The teacher sets up a Remind 101 account which can be found at www.remind101.com. The teacher sets up his/her first class (this can be changed later) and the teacher is assigned a phone number and code for anyone to text, in order to receive messages from the teacher. There is also a generated e-mail address that is for students or parents (mostly parents would use this feature) that will send them the reminders via e-mail instead of text message. I would post a screen shot, but I don't want a bunch of people adding my class.
Using Remind 101 is very easy and available. It can be used on the web and also has apps in the iOS and Android app stores.
The teacher picks which class that he/she wants to send the message to and then fills in the message that must contain 140 characters or less. Also teachers can have them scheduled for different times in the week. I made this message for right after school on Thursday so they can grab their vocab terms and study at home.
At no point in time does the teacher ever get the phone number of the students, and the students do not get the phone number of the teacher. This is great for teachers trying to protect themselves from lawsuits, but still being able to send messages to students. This is great for coaches who are sending notices about game or practice cancellation.
This is a great tool to use to increase the communication between students, parents, and teachers. This is program helps teachers do in a matter of minutes what it used to take hours of phone calls. Hopefully this added program can help students succeed in the classroom.
You can find this same thing with pictures at http://mrconklin.blogspot.com/
The name of the tool I have used in PD and have encouraged teachers to use in class is TodaysMeet.com. This tool is web-based and can be used from any device with internet access. The teacher creates a room and gives all students the web address. The students then sign in and can post thoughts/comments using only 140 characters. I use this as a way to gain feedback during training or at the end of training about things that were unclear or things that the teachers really liked. I have seen teachers using it in a classroom as an exit slip. I have an ELA teacher that gives students sentence starters and then asks them to finish the sentence on TodaysMeet in order to check their understanding of certain language concepts. The nice thing about this is the teacher can determine how long this "room" stays open. It can be open for two hours or for one year. There is also an option for the teacher to get an electronic transcript of everything that has been said.
ReplyDeletehttp://theforeverlearner.blogspot.com
The students within my classes are trained to produce their own technology rich tutorials to use to teach themselves and their peers by means of websites that they prepare themselves illustrating what is going on in the class. This way when they go home they can teach not only themselves, but we will now have an environment where they can help their parents learn and see what is going on in the classroom. This will improve the involvement of the parents with their learners at home utilizing idle time reinforcing what went on within the classroom. Therefore, for students that are homebound, for students who have missed classes, for students who are far behind, the classroom is extended to a 24 hour learning environment.
ReplyDeleteThese web-based activities can be accessed through Android phones, iPADs, laptops, tablets and many other digital platforms. Using a Livescribe Pen webspace that we can produce interactive websites that the students can watch at home.
This device records what is said by the teacher and the PEN strokes that the teachers use as a teacher teaches their lessons. At www.Livescribe.com, you can post the lecture showing how to do a particular math problem or just taking notes. The recording device will play the voice and text as it occurred within the classroom wherever the students touches the text on the page. This can be recorded using Screencast or Ping.(www.ScreenCast.com and www.Camtasia.com free tools). This software can also be exported to Evernote.com, Facebook, Google docs, email, Microsoft one, and even embedded into Acrobat pdf files for the student to put on a flash drive.
My students and the teachers love to use it for professional development, with students who miss classes, and as additional resources for the students to get extra work to excel at their own rate. The pen is just like a flash drive and can store up to 4 GB to 8 GB of data. The recording are stored for viewing on your desktop application for Livescribe. I have included a picture of the desktop. Desktop Screen Shot.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J36ONI7uwTs/UXPomE3KN5I/AAAAAAAAAAM/_1StAKlYLps/s640/livescribedesktop.png
These are the connectors that you can us with this program and also add video with the embedded code.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lXZ95FL1M6g/UXPo1S6lvKI/AAAAAAAAAAU/vugL4l-bSP4/s1600/livescribeexports.png
This is the link to one of the activities done by one of the students using the released questions for the 7th grade ISTEP+ exam in Indiana. We use the students within the 10th grade to make a website to prepare the students for the ISTEP+ with in the Middle Schools. This is how we helped the re-takers to prepare for the upcoming ECA within Math.
http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/MLSOverviewPage?sid=sQR58nXzbTDM
I have several teachers using this process within their classrooms linking the files into their accounts within Livescribe. Some of them have asked me to make special pages for them, where I have converted the file into Acrobat pdf filles and linked them on a page where they can be downloaded by the students at home. This is the link to the page of the teacher.
http://www.timeforscience.org/jacobs.html
Now more teachers are on board using these application to extend their classroom into 24 hours of learning opportunities.