Sharing Tips and Tricks of Using Technology in the Classroom Part 2

[Carrie Albin]

In your courses you have been asked to share your tips and tricks of using technology in the classroom. 

[Dawn]

Thanks for sharing this.  I would love to try this using this with my iPad. 

[Rachel Vartanian]

I use Bag The Web to compile resources for students.  Although it requires some initial setup, I think in the end, it's easier than updating a website constantly.  I can set up different bags for different classes or subjects and then use the "Bag the Web" shortcut on my toolbar to immediately add a website to my "bag."  Once the bag is embedded on a webpage, it will automatically update on the webpage as well.  

[Fredy Padovan]

The Google Tools are probably my favorite free technology to use in the classroom. I have my foreign language teachers using Translate to allow students to instantly test their skills by pronouncing words and phrases and seeing if they are speaking it with the easy of a native to have the app recognize the language. Google Docs because a very engaging way to dissect poetry as a class. Presentation makes giving on the fly visual reports easy. Spreadsheets gives math many more possibilities.

[Elizabeth Kupiecki]

I coordinate a credit-recovery program at a high school where students work in a lab on online courses for five or six hours of the school day. Our school does not block Facebook, YouTube or many other websites that tend to whittle away at students' time on task. Thanks to my principal and our computer science teacher I have software called NetSupport School in my lab and it is amazing. It allows me to monitor each student's computer, deliver content to all students or individual students, to block websites and/or programs in a variety of ways, remotely access computers, and a number of other wonderful things. 

We are constantly working on teaching students self-monitoring techniques to help them stay on task and work productively while combating the myriad and ever-present distractions on the internet. This is ever more important as more courses at all levels go online. However as a colleague of mine said "Sitting a teenager in front of a computer all day long and asking them not to go on facebook is kind of like putting a drunk in a bar for the entire day and asking them not to drink." It is part of our duty to help provide structure and support for students to learn appropriate internet use. One of the ways I do this is by combining reflections with my students on managing their time and using Net Support. 

[Suzi Brass]

I used Google Forms to create my first survey.  After putting the survey together and sharing it with some colleagues, I realized the importance of 1) knowing your audience and 2) understanding the purpose of the survey.  Most of the questions that I asked of my colleagues were ones that either did not apply to them or ones where my colleagues knowledge was well established.  I did not get much value from the survey based on the audience used.  When I implement the survey in my classroom, I plan to include the purpose in the description and also include information on how the audience will get value from the survey.  I think surveys will be an effective tool for understanding the technology level of my students and obtain feedback on the technology that is used in the classroom to complete assignments.

[Jennifer Peraino]

After using Google Forms for the first time, I am blow away by how easy it is to compile data in a short amount of time and not have to deal with inputting it all myself.  I liked that Google Forms allows the user to create a survey that consists of many different kinds of questions, has options for appearance of the survey, and that it provides a link that can be emailed to people. The feature I liked the most is the option to “Show summery of responses” under the “Forms” tab. This feature does all the charting/graphing for you. The user doesn’t even have to mess with the data to create a chart or graph! However, Google Forms does have that option, too.

I already know how I am going to use this where I work. I work for a tutoring company in Michigan. When we have students and their families quit our services, we are suppose to mail them a survey about our services. I am going to copy the survey into Google Forms and email it to those families that I have emails for. I think I would get a better response rate from my parents this way.

I can also see the benefit of using Google Forms in a classroom. Tests could be taken online; surveys could be given to see how well students are understanding content; and parents/home life could be surveyed to see background for reading, technology use, and much more.

[Jon Lind]

Our small group in CEP 812 used Google Plus Hangouts to video conference over the past week.  Although it's been a little buggy to get into, I really like it when it's working.  It is basically a way to video conference with up to 10 people.  There is a large video display which shows whoever's talking at the time, but you can also see everyone at the bottom of the screen.  I have also tried it with a couple of students to keep in touch over spring break, and they, of course, got it right away.  It has a bunch of apps, or add-ons, that I haven't even tried yet, so there's more to explore.

[Bob Carl]

Camtasia!  I have utilized Camtasia several times in the past week for projects that I never intended to use Camtasia for.  For my CEP812 class at MSU, our group met in Google Hangout for a video conference.  I wanted to record the conference, so I used Camtasia to do so.  In the past, when I tried to record video conferences, my voice would record well, but not the other people in the conference.  Camtasia was able to record all voices well along with the video.  Camtasia also made it really simple to create the MP4 afterwards to share my recording with the other group members.  The more I use Camtasia, the more I LOVE it!

[Iman Zaatari]

Hi everyone,

 I used survey monkey as my survey tool to create the "Technology Use"  survey. it is my first time to create an online survey. I usually have to type it myself and distribute it either to the class or to the parents themselves. I was so excited through the whole process. First, I created it and with one click it was sent to everyone I want. It was neat that I did not have to send it manually to everyone I know. Upon collecting the results, it showed me who submitted their survey. I was amazed that it will analyze the results so I already have it in percentage. I can definitely say that it is a time saver to use technology when having to create a survey. It will give you the final results in every step of the way.  

I think when creating a survey, people would be more comfortable to write their responses when it is anonymous rather than writing their names. I have noticed that with the many different surveys I had to complete with my students, colleagues and friends.

If you have not tried it yet, Go ahead and try it.  It 's free.

Enjoy!

[Seth Hendrickson]

In this tips and tricks, I would like to talk about 2 new Google tools that I have explored in both my CEP 811 and 812 courses. Google docs are as a set of programs fantastic web 2.0 apps that allow for sharing and collaboration easily. The 2 app's I would like to discuss are Google Forms and Google Sites. Google Forms is a survey software that our course used to create a technology use survey in CEP 812. I found the program to be easy to use and highly effective. It is a very straight-forward program with options on what type of question to ask (text, multiple choice, scale, grid). Any type of question you could want to ask on either or survey or a test was available to be implemented. This program is definitely not the most in-depth survey making tool but it gets the job done and allows for nice wallpaper options to make the finished survey look nice and professional. The results are gathered in a spreadsheet that can be opened with Google Spreadsheets. The result outputs are easy to read, making for simple analysis of data and even some cool graphing options. Forms is another, albeit simple, winner for Google. Google Sites is the second Google app I would like to talk about. Sites is a wisywig (what you see is what you get) web editor that allows for the very simple and professional completion of web pages. The amount of options available are by no means exceptional, but scroll over menus and other CSS type formatting can be implemented easily. Code never even has to be seen, so anyone with the ability to use MS Word or simple photo editing software should have no problems with Sites. Again, another winner and recommended program for the novice web designer.

[Lauren Wasiloff]

I have discovered a great survey tool, Survey Monkey. Compared to Google Form found in Google Docs, Survey Monkey is very user friendly. The survey creator provides a variety of question formats. You can create questions that are multiple choice, essay/comment, use an image, create a scale (with weighted options), matrix of choices, and deomgraphics options. The survey layout can be personalized with a color and different page options. You can even randomize questions! It is also really beneificial to be able to analyze survey results in the format they have set up. It shows percentages of each answer selected, as well as any written text submitted by survey participants. I found Survey Monkey a lot easier to use than Google Form because of the variety of question types, and the way they are displayed in the survey. Specifically, I had trouble creating a scale question in Google Form, and when I switched over to Survey Monkey, I found it really easy to create the scale and input each question component. Even though I love Google, I will always use Survey Monkey! Surveys can be implemented into teaching to evaluate student knowledge, and receive feedback from parents and students on various classroom topics. Check out the features of Survey Monkey here!

[Dawn]

I also have used Survey Monkey.  It is very user friendly.