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. 

[David Hocker]

I used a google doc form to perform a pre-assessment for my class at the beginning of the semester.  I was teaching a 5th grade computer class for the first time, and had no info about what these students might already know.  So I created a 25-question 'quiz' that tested my students' computer knowledge.  The great thing is that Googledocs gives you a pie graph for each question, showing "on question #3, 55% got it right, while 35% thought it was option C, etc."  I know there are other tools that can do online quizzes, but this was great for someone with no experience and someone more concerned with "what percentage of my students already know how to do this" than "which students scored the highest."  The results are also automatically put into a spreadsheet, so I can sort them based on several other demographic-related questions I put on the form (i.e. homeroom, how many computers they have at home, etc).  All I had to do was supply the link to this form to my students, and I will give the same assessment at the end of the semester to see how I did teaching the material.

[David Crewes]

This is a great tool.  I use it whenever I start a new Chapter.  I didn't know that google docs would do this for the user.  I always gave mine the old fashioned way.  Good to know I can use docs.  Thanks!!

[Kyle Whymer]

Thanks for the Google Doc tip.  I have used Google Docs in class for collaboration assignments (reports and presentations) but I was unaware of this capability.  I am always looking for ways to make collecting and analyzing data more effective for me. 

[Angie Yi]

I used Google Form to create a survey, which is a free and user-friendly tool. Clicking on “Add Item” button on the top left side, I could choose any type of survey questions such as text, paragraph text, multiple choices, checkboxes, and so one. This tool also provides several formats of survey answer types such as text, multiple choices, checkboxes, choose from a list, scale, and grid. Choosing formats from the options and typing in the blanks, a question and answer type was automatically generated. I could go back and forth to edit and modify the survey questionnaires and easily customize them. I could easily change the formats of questions or answers, choosing a different option. It has functions to send the survey questionnaires to people in my contact list from my Google account, to send the link to people via email, and to post the link to a blog, a website, or wherever I want. I was satisfied with the easy use of Google Form from creating surveys and editing surveys to distributing them. I would recommend this tool for surveys.

[Gary J Brumbelow]

Hi Everybody!

 

I am sure this tool has been discussed before and many of you may be familiar with it; but I believe when you find a great tool, you can never sing its praises to often. I am speaking of Jing! This tool is incredible and extremely easy to use. Jing is a simple and free download that remains open at the top of your screen for instant access. From this easy access point, you can capture screen shots or record a short on-screen video in a few simple mouse-clicks. You can then use these screen-captures or videos in PowerPoint presentations, Blog posts, websites, or any other application you need. It is simple, free, and is versatile. This has quickly become one of my favorite progrmans...I highly recommend that if you haven't used it before, to give it a try.

[Spike Braunius]

I would like to draw everyone's attention to Dartfish (www.dartfish.com) a great software company that delivers outstanding products.

 

It was primarily known for its contributions to sports video analysis which can be used very effectively in PE classes as it gives instant feedback to students and teachers as well as great analysis options.

Now it also offers cross curriculum solutions to use digital video in state of the art classroom environments that are conducive to learning.

[David Crewes]

I used a program called Comic Life in the beginning of the year.  I taught a couple sections of a Freshman transitions class, and used it to diagram possible scenarios to hypethetical situations.  I left it fairly open ended, but gave the students something to begin with.  Some topics were:  bullying, argument resolutions, character development, etc.  Some students really went to town and I found myself laughing outloud while I was grading.  I shared quite a few of them with my other classes.  Fun and creative.

[Rachel Carman]

I have also used comic life in my classroom. I do have Macs so I brought my own computer in and it served a a writing station during center times. My 3rd graders were learning about dialogue and they were able to explore it using comics. They then scanned in pictures that they drew and added the dialogue and thought bubbles. 

I like the idea of having student act out real situations such as teasing and getting along with others. It could serve as a poster as to how to act in cerain situation and they could refer back to it on the wall.

Here are some websites ReadWriteThink and Make Belief Comics where students can make their own comics for free that I discovered this year and used with my 4th graders. They are easy to use. Students can create the number and style of the outline of the comic, characters, and scenes. It has really helped with sequencing, organizing writing, staying on topic, dialogue and style in writing.  I then did not have to bring my computer in and students were able in the computer lab to create their own comics. Then I scanned the images into my computer and we created a Voicethread document to work on fluency. 

[Susan Wright]

Wonderful ideas - can't wait to try them out with my 4th graders. It is so difficult for them to understand how to create dialog. ReadWriteThink is one of my favorite sites.

[Steve Lawatsch]

I had originally planned to talk about the importance of embedding objects in text.  I personally find it annoying when I have to constantly navigate away from what I 'm looking at to see a picture or video that could have been put right inline with the text.  Not to mention the mess of 17 browser windows or tabs that results if you want to leave them open for quick reference.  I had created a Google Docs Presentation that I had intended to embed into this post; however, Ning has some control issues and won't let me edit the HTML (keeps removing the edit I make). So what to do now?

If you noticed the Google Docs tab that appeared at the top of this page, this came as a direct result of looking for a solution to being able to post what I wanted.  I contacted Ben Rimes (his name is at the very bottom of the page) and we worked for a little while on the solution to this.  Unfortunately, it was to no avail, you still can't embed a Google docs presentation in this forum, (but you can add one to your page now if you would like).  Here's the tip though, just because there isn't an immediate solution doesn't mean it can't be done.  Invest some time and you will probably find a solution/workaround (works most of the time for me, was just unlucky with this one).

You should also learn how to embed objects in text too. :)

[Lisa F]

It can often be difficult to find new and creative ways to get second grade students to use technology in the classroom.  Last year I learned about a great website called podbean.  Podbean allows you to use an audio recording program (such as audacity) and create podcasts.  I have used this as a way for my students to showcase their writing and share it at home with their families.  It is also a great way to teach your students the importance of reading with fluency because they get to listen to themselves read.

[Chris]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell people about this amazing yet simple little program called HiJack This!  and how it can be used to perhaps save your computer from spyware, viruses, or other malware when all else has failed. Its major function is that it will inspect your computers registry to determine what operations are currently running in the foreground and background. It then can generate a log of these operations that you can post to a help forum on the internet. Hopefully some kind and caring sole will examine your set up and be able to identify the problem you are dealing with while also offering some kind of solution. It really is a great program to use when you have tried everything else and simply cannot figure out how to get rid of something. In addition, if you are really skilled and understand processes running in the background and registry editing the program itself can be used to delete certain things that may be causing the problems.