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. 

[Mariah Trentacosti]

I am currently taking CEP 812, and we are learning about multimedia presentations.  We have learned about Jing, Camtasia, and few others.  Most recently, I discovered myBrainshark.  With myBrainshark you can add voice to presentations either by recording directly onto the site, uploading a mp3, or calling in. You can also add background music and surveys.  I most recently used this tool to create a quick tutorial for my colleagues. It was very easy to use and share.  The best part, you can actually track viewings and survey responses.  All for free!  I hope you take a few minutes to check it out!

[Lacey Ringman]

To any art teachers in the MACUL Space, if you are looking for an inexpensive way to teach digital photography, check out GIMP. It is a free alternative to Photoshop. You can download the program here, http://www.gimp.org/. Be sure to check with your school, students may not have access to downloading programs onto school computers. The program includes photo enhancement and digital retouching features. I have not used it in my classroom yet, but my high school Art Club students began working with it. 

[Amanda Kain]

In my online class I just learned how to use Glogster.  This is a tool that helps you create an interactive, online poster.  I found it very easy and fun to use.  You are able to insert text, images, photos, audio, videos, special effects and other elements.  I think a fun activity for students would be to create an "all about me" poster at the beginning of the year.      

[Rachel Rumsey]

As great as technology is in the classroom, sometimes it is hard to get the students to stop and focus on the lecture or demo going on in front of the room. I find that using Insight Classroom Management software allows me to control what the students are doing on the computers and helps me get the eyes to the front of the room. I can also take polls, monitor work progress, communicate by instant message,  limit use of programs, and remotely control the computer to help a student.

 

Insight - Classroom Management Software:

http://www.faronics.com/enterprise/insight/

 

(a.k.a - My teaching assistant!)

[Marni Freedman]

see below-  :)

[Marni Freedman]

TweetDeck is a technology tool that I came across when I started using Twitter.  It is a personal real-time browser that connects you with your contacts.  TweetDeck helps to organize and track all of the different hashtag groups that you belong to.  As people post comments, they appear on the top, right part of your screen.  It is easy to access and see while you are working, so you can decide if those particular tweets are ones that you want to reply to or have important that you find valuable.  Definitely check this out...  www.tweetdeck.com

 

VoiceThread sounds like an amazing tool. I usually teach the lower elementary grade levels, and a lot of ideas come to mind for this age group. I like to create class books with my students. It is a great way for them to learn about each other and express themselves. I think it would be a great idea to create a class book with VoiceThread. The students could create pictures on KidPix and then upload them to VoiceThread where they could record themselves explaining what they drew in their picture. We could then share this project with their families, so they could make comments. This also would be great to have on the classroom TV when visitors come for school functions. It is a great way for them to see some of the things the students are learning about. Another positive that comes out of using VoiceThread is teaching the students about fluency, and what it sounds like to be a fluent reader. It was great to read all the different replies to this post...it gave me lots of ideas!

 

[Amy Nichols]

Hello All -- I have recently been experimenting with interactive whiteboard tools on an iPad -- they are much less expensive than a SMART or Promethean Board, or the like (and, you don't need to get them installed the way you do a physical Interactive Whiteboard).  I've been working with Splashtop, which is 9.99 in the App Store (half that if you buy more than 10 at once from the Volume Purchase Store). 

 

You install a copy of the Free Splashtop Streamer on your computer, and then, using your iPad you can annotate and markup content that is on your computer.  So, say that you have a PDF file that is on your computer.  You can give the iPad to your kids, and they can underline key phrases in the PDF as a response to a class discussion.

 

It's a great way to get kids engaged -- they love working with the iPad, and you can control the content they are accessing.  If you have a LCD projector, you can also shine this material up on the screen -- making for a whole class discussion topic.

[Michael P Tuell]

Well I think Melissa asked in one of the Adobe Connects what our thoughts where on what works best with Angel. In truth I have found the FireFox 3.6 works the best, there was a recent issue with FireFox 7 and sending mail, but I just heard today that they (Angel) fixed that.

As far as I know Angel only supports Internet Explorer and Firefox. Crome and Safari seem to do "ok", but run into problems uploading files to dropboxes, at least on LCC's system.

Another browser related issue I have run into often is Java. When end-users have problems with viewing discussion boards or all their features it more often then not is an issue with the outdated java. A quick trip to www.java.com can scan and fix that.

Include clearing temporary internet files, cookies, etc.. and helping adjust the "in browser" font size, these tips generally solve most user-side angel issues.

 

[Melissa White]

What I have the most success with is a browser called Camino on my Mac. I have been using it for 6 years and I have the least problems with it. I have been having problems editing in Angel with IE and Firefox on my Windows machine. I don't think all of of you will have the problems because you are not trying to edit or create in Angel.

I did update java on both machines last week when I started encountering the problems as it did give a java error, but it did not help things on my Windows machine.

So my solution is to use my Mac!

[Jessica Collins]

If you are in the process of creating a survey through Google Forms (which is under Google Docs) and you delete one or more of your questions, be aware these questions will still show up in the spreadsheet version of the survey. However, the unwanted questions will not show up to those who are taking the survey and should not effect your data. However, if you go into the spreadsheet and delete those questions by deleting their column you may disrupt some of the operations associated with the form (which would be bad).

[Danielle Bigi]

One of my favorite new tools to use in the classroom is called Glogster.  This is a Web 2.0 program that allows users to create online posters.  The great benefit to this is that it enables students to embed video, audio, images, graphics, change the font and background, and make the poster very interactive.  Instead of using a paper poster board, students can use Glogster.  This will really help those student who learn better from multimedia presentations.  Having the ability to incorporate the multimedia is a fantastic benefit.  The basic version of Glogster is free and very easy to use.  Glogster could be used to help students create projects in any subject area.     

Glogster has a few different educational versions.  Through these versions, teachers can create and monitor student accounts.  Students can easily share their created glogs with one another.  Another great benefit to the educational version is that it eliminates the ads on the website.  However, the three different educational levels all have a specific cost associated with them.  If there is one downfall to this website, I would say the fact that these features are not free is somewhat disappointing.  Most websites have free features for teachers, not for an additional fee.  If you are willing to pay for these features, they are great.  If not, the free version of glogster works very well. 

[Dilys Gibbs-Harrison]

Thank you for sharing your tool. I had heard about this but got busy. You have shared alot of great ideas to use this in the classroom.