Integrating technology in the classroom
One of our classes needed some ideas for teaching place value. I gathered up some ideas, activities, games and app suggestions for them. Since sharing is caring, I thought I’d share them with you all as well! If you have great suggestions for teaching and practicing place value, leave us a comment!
What it is: I have discovered my new favorite creation site. Holy wow this is a cool tool. Basically, it makes you (and your students) look like rockstars when they present. You know all of those super cool animated videos that tell a story through drawings on a whiteboard? Now you can make those all on your own with a super simple drag-drop tool. Meet PowToon. It is awesome. I’m a little addicted to playing with video creation…no joke.
PowToon has a great mission: “to address all the frustrations that people have with power point and keynote and add animation and killer design.” You don’t have to be super tech savvy or design skills to create spectacular animated presentations. The goal here is to help people communicate in a way that conveys ideas. Best of all…it is FREE! Woot! Also, PowToon loves education, they want to help teachers and students create great content that is visually engaging, captivating and fun to make.
Right now PowToon has 5 design styles (with more coming). Added with your student’s creativity, these animations are going to be fabulous. Finished videos can be shared all over: YouTube, Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Twitter, exported or embedded.
PowToon is currently in Beta version. Sign up for an early look at this super cool creation tool. I got my invitation within a few hours. #bam
How to integrate PowToon into your curriculum: PowToon is a fantastic way to share ideas and story. Communication is a vital skill. The ability to express ideas and story in a succinct, clear manner is crucial. Today, students have another facet of communication to learn…visual communication.
PowToon would be a great addition to the design thinking routine. Students can use PowToon to share their ideas or to “prototype” an idea. Students can create videos to show math processes, explanations of complex concepts, review new learning, teach others, explain processes, tell stories, or present research. The possibilities are really endless and students will come up with hundreds of other creative uses.
Teachers can use PowToon to create animations for students. This is a great way to present new information or ideas for discussion.
Tips: The PowToon Interactive Tour and How to Create series are very helpful to watch prior to creating your first animations.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using PowToon in your classroom!
Above is the information sheet I created for using Evernote as an ePortfolio.
At Anastasis, we use a combination of Evernote, Edu 2.0, and Edublogs to keep and share our work. Evernote has been a fantastic app for our students. Students can record text, images, and audio directly in Evernote. Each note can be emailed to teachers and parents. Evernote notes can also be posted on blogs through the email-to-blog feature. Better yet? There are SO many apps that have the ability to share with Evernote. Very handy. Students do quite a bit of writing directly in Evernote. This is a good place for all of student writing (even those pieces they don’t want to, or aren’t ready to, share). Evernote makes it easy to organize all of their notes into notebooks (the learning curve here is teaching students to use some organization). This year we are keeping learning logs (we call them Tracks) as a table of contents for what is in Evernote. Everything is tracked by a number as part of the Evernote title so it is easy to find and search.
The ability to record audio and take pictures of their work in Evernote is great. This means that students can capture learning that isn’t natively digital-digitally. All of those awesome inquiry projects that they construct and build can be captured and reflected on in Evernote. Another HUGE benefit to the Evernote/iPad combo: it goes with them everywhere. Recording learning on a field trip? Check. Recording learning at home? Check. Recording learning on the fly? Check. Teachers often send students a PDF instructions for an assignment or a picture to the student’s Evernote account. Parents can login to their child’s Evernote account from any computer or iDevice to see what they are working on.
Edu 2.0 is our education portal. In Edu 2.0 we can share things as a school community. Edu 2.0 has a built in e-portfolio (we don’t often use this), a blog, a post feed, calendar, and message system. Edu 2.0 makes it easy for us to stay connected as a school community. Because we teach young students, this “walled” community is a safe place for students to share any, and all, of their work and thoughts with others. Students often write blog posts in Edu 2.0 about their learning. Other students, parents and teachers can comment on the Edu 2.0 blog posts. Teachers use Edu 2.0 to send students assignments, make class announcements and communicate quickly with parents in their classroom. Students can link any content from their Evernote account to their blog in Edu 2.0 to share it with other students, parents or teachers. The school calendar is updated with all birthdays, learning excursions and school events so that students, parents and teachers are always up-to-date. The live post feed makes it easy for teachers and administration to make school-wide announcements. This feed shows up on the home page of every student, parent and teacher.
Each of our teachers has a class Edublog. This is where the teachers write blog posts about the happenings in their classrooms. Students can also contribute to the class blogs to get input and comments from a global audience. Some of our students also have Edublog accounts where they can share their work from Evernote more publicly. The Edublog is the place for interaction and collaboration with the world.
We have a school YouTube account where students can upload videos and stop motion animations. The school account has become a nice central place for students to share their work with the world. I act as administrator on the YouTube channel so that I can moderate comments and videos. Students can easily link to, or embed, videos they have created in Evernote, on their Edu 2.0 blog or on Edublogs.
This combination of tools has worked well as an ePortfolio for student work. I love that at the end of the school year students have ALL of their work with them. Because they own their iPads, the Evernote content goes with them. Even without the iPad, students can access their Evernote account from anywhere and continue using it. Parents can also easily access and view student ePortfolios using Evernote.
What it is: Scholastic is constantly sneaking new great resources for the classroom onto their site. The other day I learned about one that I haven’t seen before from @rmbyrne on his great blog Free Tech for Teachers. Listen and Read has fantastic online reading activities for early learners. There are 54 nonfiction read-along books that include words, images and sound. You can sort books by subject including: Community, American History, Animals, Civics and Government, Environmental Studies, Plants and Flowers, Science and Social Studies. You can also sort books by level (A or B).
How to integrate Listen and Read into your curriculum: Non-fiction can be hard to read in the early years. It often includes unfamiliar words and vocabulary and concepts that students don’t have a lot of prior knowledge of. Scholastic’s Listen and Read is fantastic because it helps students navigate their way through non-fiction with the support of a read-aloud, sounds and images. These interactive books help students better comprehend content because they aren’t focused on the words they are stumbling through. At the end of the book students can click on the unfamiliar new vocabulary to hear the word said again. This follow-up exposure reinforces word recognition, vocabulary and ideas.
Scholastic Listen and Read can be set up on classroom computers as a reading center. Students can read and listen independently with headphones. After reading through the story, students can discuss with a partner (or as a whole class) what they remember about each of the “sound it out” words from the story.
If you don’t have the ability for students to read these non-fiction books independently, use a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard to read as a whole class.
Tips: Some of the titles are offered in both A and B level. This is great for a little differentiation within the classroom (while gaining the same concepts).
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Scholastic’s Listen and Read in your classroom!
What it is: Summer is a great time to be inspired, laugh and gather ideas. TED has been my go-to place for video inspiration, but recently I found a new source: Do Lectures. Do Lectures are like TED Talk videos, they are inspiring talks from people who are changing the world. The talks are broken down into talks about Big Ideas, Challenging talks, Funny talks, Informative talks, Inspiring talks, and Soulful talks. You can also search by topic (business, creativity, environment, food, sport, technology, or well being) or by speaker.
Do Lectures started out of West Wales and is moving to the good old USA in 2012. They call themselves a mash-up, a village of ideas. They take great talks, yummy local food, great un-signed bands, workshops and bring them together in one place. They switch the Internet off so that people talk (in real life) because ideas need conversation. The idea is to create an eco-system for ideas to be born, shared and acted on. The next event is happening in California September 20-13.
How to integrate Do Lectures into the classroom: Do Lectures don’t focus on education specifically. I kind of love that they don’t. I find that my BEST ideas for the classroom and education come from outside of education. Often, we become an echo chamber within education. Hearing ideas from any field sparks ideas and creative approaches to teaching/learning for me. Do Lectures are a great place to find inspiration and new ideas for your classroom.
Do Lectures can also be the perfect supplement or launching point for units of study in your classroom. You may find a video that supports the learning happening in your classroom.
Tips: Be sure to share those great videos you stumble on with the rest of us!
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Do Lectures in your classroom!
What it is: I first wrote about Qwiki in 2010 when they launched their search service. I just got word that you (and your students) can now create your very own Qwiki. When students search using Qwiki, instead of coming up with a list of links to websites, images, and videos, a slide show of images and videos begins complete with computer voice narration. It is truly an incredible experience.
With Qwiki Creator, it is easy to create your own Qwiki to share. Creating a Qwiki is really easy and intuitive. First, you find the content and media you want to add to your Qwiki. This could be web content, video, images, maps, content from your computer, text or even a tweet. Next you add narration and set your timing. Finally you can preview your Qwiki and publish it. I created the Qwiki above in about 5 min.
If you are looking for the original Qwiki, you can get to it at http://qwiki.com/reference.
How to integrate Qwiki Creator into the classroom: Qwiki Creator is a fantastic way for students to create impressive presentations about their learning. Students can quickly create mashups of web content and record or type narration to demonstrate understanding of material. Qwiki Creator is also a great tool for teachers, create customized content for your students. This is textbook 2.0 for sure! It can be tailored to the exact needs of your curriculum and can become an additional way for your to “flip” your classroom.
I love the idea of students creating their own digital textbooks as they learn about a subject. Throughout their learning and research, students can keep a table of contents of items they want to be sure to include in their Qwiki. Students can create a Qwiki about the information they have learned, add text/voice/video narration to help describe the learning and publish it for classmates to learn from. The Qwiki can be shared easily or embeded on a student blog or website.
Create your own series of Qwiki’s for your classroom blog or website where students can further their learning. They can access any of the websites or resources you include in your Qwiki for a majorly upgraded version of a webquest.
Qwiki Creator could be used for digital storytelling. Students can find images, videos and maps that help them tell their story and narrate the creative story for others to enjoy.
In a foreign language class, students can give a web tour where they narrate in the language they are learning. This would also be neat to do in a geography or history class.
If you teach students who are younger than 13, consider creating Qwiki’s as a class using an interactive whiteboard and teacher account. Students can help put the Qwiki together and the finalized Qwiki can be put on a class blog or website for students to learn from any time.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Qwiki Creator in your classroom!
What it is: The Literacy Shed is a fantastic blog/site I learned about on Twitter from @missmac100, thanks Carol! The Literacy Shed is maintained by primary teacher Rob Smith and is packed full of teaching ideas all related to literacy. The site is separated into “sheds,” each with a different genre. There are short films images and book suggestions that are each accompanied by a teaching idea that includes discussion questions and writing prompts. The Literacy Shed has plenty of ideas to keep you going all year long! This truly is a treasure trove that will keep you coming back again and again. You will find the following “sheds” on the Literacy Shed:
How to integrate The Literacy Shed into the classroom: The Literacy Shed is a great one-stop-shop for inspiration and ideas to improve literacy and critical thinking in your classroom. The ideas can be used with a variety of age groups, different ages will pick up on different themes and discussions using the same videos/images/books. Students will become familiar with a variety of genres and become comfortable with the characteristics of each.
There is something here for every classroom and unit. As I said, it is a treasure trove of resources! Use the ideas in the Literacy Shed to spark meaningful discussions and writing direction for your students. I always like to start with discussion and end with a written reflection because it gives students the opportunity to listen to other ideas, and then solidify their own ideas and reflections in writing.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Literacy Shed in your classroom!
Widbook – Write, read and share! from Widbook on Vimeo.
What it is: Widbook is a new publishing platform for ebooks. What makes this publishing platform so neat is the social aspect, it allows authors to collaborate and make suggestions. Each user also gets their own bookshelf where they can subscribe to other author’s work.
When students start a new ebook, they can choose who can see the book when it is published, choose whether they will accept collaboration for the book, and choose if they want to accept comments for the book. Actually writing the book is fabulously simple. All of the onscreen tools are easy to use and intuitive as to their function. The book can have a table of contents, multiple chapters, and pictures and video embedded right into the book. When students are finished, they simply save the book and publish it. The finished book gets a unique url that can be shared.
How to integrate Widbook into the classroom: Widbook is a fantastic, simple tool for secondary students to use to create ebooks. Students can create individual published works that can be commented on by other students and the teacher. Students can receive relevant-real time feedback not only from their teacher, but also from other students. Students not only get practice writing their own works, they also get practice evaluating writing of their peers.
Students can use Widbook to write final drafts of any piece of writing be it an essay or creative writing assignment. The ability to add video and images easily is wonderful.
Widbook would also be a great place for students to collaboratively create books about their learning. Each student can add a chapter, or groups of students can create chapters together. Instead of assigning students a textbook to read for the semester, include them in the creation of a collaborative textbook. Provide students with a table of contents and put them to work creating a chapter for each topic/unit throughout the year. At the end of the year, each student will have a book of their learning that they helped to create. Much more useful than a textbook that one of the Big Six wrote that gets opened only before tests!
Are you having trouble finding a book that matches your classroom learning needs? Create an ebook that perfectly meets your students right where they are. Include videos and images relevant to learning.
***For younger students be sure to check out BoomWriter!
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Widbook in your classroom!
What it is: YouTube is a truly wonderful learning resource. What isn’t so great: all of the garbage that can come along with it (i.e. advertising, comments, related videos…in short-distractions). Luckily, schools have some great options for using YouTube differently. Some of these tools I have written about before and some are new additions…hence the new post! 🙂
How to integrate less distracting YouTube videos into the classroom: This one is really a no brainer: want to use YouTube? Clean it up! I find great content I find on YouTube (as do my students). All of the “extras” around the videos can be SO distracting as a searcher and viewer. These options are outstanding for making videos less distracting so that your students can focus on the learning happening.
I find that students head to YouTube (even before Google) when they want to learn something new. They are generally pretty successful at finding a video that will teach them how to do what they want to do. Very handy for self guided learning!
Tips: Always try these tools out at school BEFORE using with students. Some of them won’t work depending on your school’s filters and policies.
Leave a comment and share how less distracting YouTube videos are rocking your classroom.
What it is: I just learned about this fantastic site from fellow edublogger @dkapuler, thanks David! Boom Writer is a fun site that gives you a new way to engage your students in creative writing, and will have them assessing themselves in a new way. Using Boom Writer, you (the teacher) choose or produce your own story starter. Each student follows this prompt letting their imagination take over. One chapter at a time, student write, read and vote on the submissions they like the most. The winning chapter gets added to the story and the process continues. You can determine how many chapters will be completed. When the collaborative story is finished, the book can be read online or published and turned into a published print copy.
How to integrate BoomWriter into the classroom: BoomWriter is a great tool for creating collaborative stories as a class. I like that BoomWriter has students not only creating, but critically evaluating each other’s work. Students work on their own creative writing while building each other up as writers. Begin by creating a prompt. Give it to your students to think about. They can write their “what happens next” chapter of the book and submit it for approval. This is your chance to edit or return to a student to continue development of the story or idea. After student writing has been approved, students can read each other’s addition to the story and vote on their favorite (they won’t see who the author was and they won’t be able to vote on their own). The chapter with the highest votes gets added to the story and the process repeats. You can choose as many chapters as you would like the finished story to have.
This would be a fun whole-class project, but if you have a large class, you might split your class into smaller groups so that each student has the opportunity to get “published” in the book. Groups could start with the same prompt or each have a different prompt. Rather than the group voting on their own story, they could vote on another groups story.
BoomWriter isn’t only for creative story writing, students could share what they know about a specific topic or unit of study. Each student can add a chapter about what has been learned. Students can essentially create their own collaborative textbook.
BoomWriter is a great tool to help students understand writing with purpose and audience in mind. It is also a helpful way to get students to think critically about their own writing and evaluating other’s writing.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using BoomWriter in your classroom!