Thing 12 - Assesment, Evaluation & Survey Tools

1. I love google forms! I thought this was so easy to use. Although, I did have to search online to figure out how to modify my form once I was in this spreadsheet view. I had to go to Form....Edit Form. That was obvious once I figured it out. Also, the forms don't number the questions so I manually did that. As I was viewing my results, they are not in numerical order as you can see. Not sure why that happened, but I will investigate that online as well so I can get that figured out.

Anyway, I was able to change the theme and copy and paste the URL into a Moodle page that I made for the students and they were all able to take the quiz the same day. I loved it. I feel this is very educational as students will be working in an online environment in college. The are very comfortable working in this environment, but I think the more that teachers use these tools, the more everyone benefits.

It is really funny that I am on this Thing because I have been wanting to make a rubric for Weebly. I want my middle school students to make a small webpage and I have procrastinating. Now I can make one to meet this requirement and for my students. I have used a rubric with every assignment I have used in my classes for the past 15 years. That seems like an exaggeration, but it is true. I do not understand how to grade an assignment without one. My rubrics always list the criteria, points possible and points earned. I usually make a table in Word then outline the requirements I want them to meet for each assignment. These are all posted on Moodle for my classes. I love when use the word "rubric." I feel like they really understand that I am giving them the chance to get a perfect score on every assignment because I am outlining the criteria with the point value assigned to it. How simple, yet effective. I only give students one copy of a rubric for an assignment. If they lose it, they need to login to Moodle to reprint another one. It has been a great system for me as a teacher and it makes my students accountable.

2. This rubric is for the students making a wepage using Weebly. I cannot believe how easy it was to use Rubistar! What a wonderful resource. I spend countless hours working on rubrics and I am constantly modifying them once we are done with a project. This will make it much quicker for me to initially design a rubric. Rubistar will definitely become a regular part of my teaching tools!

3. Our district is now using Data Director as a student warehousing tool. We have had two in services on how to use it and we teachers still have no idea what to do with it! We use PowerSchool as our grading program and are a bit frustrated that we have to import data now into Data Director to take it out again to put it back into PowerSchool. The "experts" tell us that it is a lot of work in the beginning, but then once that data is entered, it will be a valuable resource for teachers and parents. We our trying to show that what we are teaching is actually being absorbed. We are tying to have pre-tests and post-tests and show student achievement. This is logical, but is seems like putting all this data into a Data Warehousing system is a bit overkill. I feel most parents are just happy know know their children are learning something by the end of the school year! The administrators need the data, but I'm not truly convinced this is what the parents want. But, I digress. I definitely agree that FERPA/HIIPA is important when dealing with students.The student's data should be protected and other students should not have access to files that don't belong to them.

Thing 11 - Presentation Tools

http://prezi.com/rwewsvbjwtki/edit/#0_4299178

 

 

 

 

 

1) Compare and contrast Prezi to PowerPoint
Well. I am a little sea-sick from the screen zooming in and out all over the place. I started fresh and was totally lost. I then watch the intro videos so I understood how it worked and how to use the tools. Obviously that made it much easier. I think this is trickier to learn than PowerPoint. I think PowerPoint is a very user-friendly program. Most young elementary students are adept with using PowerPoint.   I do not think elementary students would be comfortable using this program. It was easy to insert images and modify the text, but I struggled with inserted the textbox. My text would sometimes stick inside, then other times the text would move independently of the textbox. I think they are similar in the fact you can insert images, text, and charts and modify them. I think there is a higher learning curve with using Prezi. The screen zooming was unique and that is something I was not familiar with in PowerPoint. Also, you cannot easily upload and watch YouTube videos in PowerPoint. I cannot figure out how to add sound into Prezi. In contrast, that is relatively easy to do in PowerPoint.

2) How I can use it with students in my classroom, what projects they might be able to do with it
I think I could try this with my high school students. They need to create a PowerPoint of technological advancements. They could experiment with using Prezi instead. They would need to incorporate images and text. Prezi makes it very easy to incorporate YouTube videos. They could compare and contrast the "olden days" with the advancements of today.


3) How this presentation tool can help my students process some content which they have difficulty learning.
I think many students that struggle with learning can appreciate the visual and hands-on approach to learning. I think Prezi can allow these students to create a work flow in how they wish to present their information. Verbal learning may not be conducive to the learning style of all students presenting the information in a visual, colorful, sequential matter may reach those that have difficulty learning.

Zooming in and applying emphasis on something will be important to reach diverse learners because it is will them alert by observing what it to be learned. Using the pencil tool and being able to change the color will allow the teacher to be "interactive" and allow all students to watch and learn.

Thing 10 - Digital Images

Here is the image of Mt. Rushmore that I uploaded from the free image website Pics4Learning.

I will use the FotoFlexer program to edit the image.

http://fotoflexer.com/app/index.php?integration=upload






In the edited image, I added several "Effects." Since today is Valentine's Day, I decided to add a Heart Bokeh to the image. I felt a little strange about defacing this monument, but it's all for learning. I changed the image to Retro and I played with some 'advanced' features to use his face as a focal point to blur the edges. Under the "Decorate" option, I decided to add some stickers. A sheep is walking up the side of the mountain and a butterfly is flying. I also added a border to the image.

This program would be amazing to use in my classes. I teach some middle school and high school multimedia classes. Some students have access to Photoshop, but that program is not very user friendly. I am amazed at the options available on this program.

Students would be able to upload and manipulate images before inserting them into PowerPoints, flyers, brochures, etc. I think students would find this very simple to use and would learn about the effects while playing.


I uploaded a Valentine's Day picture to FotoFlexer. The link is http://fotoflexer.com/app/index.php?integration=upload

Thing 9 - Creative Commons

I gave a copyright quiz to my students in my Microsoft Office class because we do a unit on netiquette. I don't usually cover copyright laws too much because I don't know what they are! I have a chart that lists the medium and the law that pertains to it. I try to refer to it and have them understand they are not allowed to take another person's work. The students are freshmen through seniors. They did a poor job on the quiz because they are under the impression that as long as they find information from a reliable source, they are allowed to credit it and that is as far as they need to go. They did alright on the few questions I asked about Fair Use. We watched the YouTube Fair(y) Tale Use video. I thought it was quite annoying, but the students enjoyed it and we were able to have a conversation about some information presented in the video. They were asked about Fair Use as it relates to a teacher taping a news broadcast at home off of the tv and allowing students to watch it every year. They thought this was okay. This violates Fair Use because she should either buy the news broadcast from the company or get permission to use it year after year. They also did poorly on the questions pertaining to buying software. The school district needs to purchase license for how many computers they wish to use the program. That would be copyright infringement to install it on all the computers without the purchasing the licensing. Students also thought it would be Fair Use to create a senior video and include popular songs downloaded. This would violate Fair Use because they did not get permission nor are they using the video for educational purposes.

Thing 8 - Visual Learner

I used the bubbl.us site to create a visual map of internet dangers students should be aware of. This is a basic list and there are many more items that could be added. I would allow the students to brainstorm more topics to add. I could break them into groups to become experts on one of the topics. They could gather statistics online and report back to the class by creating an informational brochure about their topic.

This was really a cool and user-friendly program. This would be a great tool to use at the beginning of a lesson. Most of the items listed are pretty obvious, but some students are not familiar with spyware programs and those are things they should be aware of and knowledgeable about. This would be very easy to begin every new lesson with as a springboard for the students to have exposure to new vocabulary words. The students could be given a few words each and they need to present the word and the definition to the class.

Thing 7 Part 2- The Online Student

I would direct students to the site http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html and have them paraphrase 10 suggestions for proper netiquette use. Do not copy and paste the underlined topics. Read each section and tell me in your own words what you learned from reading the material. Number your responses 1-10.

Secondly, I would use http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to have the students create a comic strip that demonstrates the dangers of poor Internet etiquette (netiquette). Use elements of body language (through their characters’ gestures or facial expressions), spoken word (speech bubbles) and/or online shorthand, including emoticons, in your cartoon. The important thing is to express your point of view as clearly as possible.

Thing 7 Part 1- Digital Citizenship Bogus Site #2

Buy an Ancestor Online!
http://www.fulkerson.org/ancestors/buyanancestor.html

I am laughing already. This should be an interesting evaluation!

C: Credibility/Authority - It is a bit concerning that the name of the company is the Losing Proposition Company. I can't find any information online about the credentials for such a company. Nobody's name or phoen n

A: Accuracy -  I cannot even believe what I am reading.  You can buy an ancestor for free or for a "slightly higher fee" you can get a made-to-order ancestor! Who would ever believe this to be true and actually give their credit card information.











R: Reliability -I'm not sure how reliable a person would think this information would be. From their "latest press release" they will be featuring stem cell cloning techniques to download authentic ancestors. They then say certain restrictions may apply in Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin? How do you download an ancestor? There are too many things wrong with every sentence that this information is so "bogus" that even a novice should be able to detect that! 

R: Relevance - I don't think there is any relevance in paying money to buy a person!

D: Date -No date.

S: Sources Behind the Text - There is nothing reliable or credible on this page or any other page linking to it.

S: Scope and Purpose -There is certainly nothing scholarly on this page. The audience would be a very disturbing portion of the population. I'm not sure if anybody has bought an ancestor, but apparently JW Booth was popular because he is now sold out! Hilarious.

Thing 7 Part 1- Digital Citizenship Bogus Site #1

The Burmese Mountain Dog
http://descy.50megs.com/akcj3/bmd.html

Using Joyce Valenza's criteria to determine if this website was bogus or not, was pretty simple.
C: Credibility/Authority - By: Dr. Charlie White, Ph.D., DVM., AECT. This person claims to be a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D), a doctor of veterinary medicine, and lastly a member of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).
A: Accuracy -  The information seems accurate. The site describes the physical traits of this type of dog that matches that of other websites about Burmese Mountain dogs.
R: Reliability - There doesn't seem to be much of a bias to a particular organization or company. The author is trying to explain the advantages and disadvantages of owning this type of dog. There are advertisements on this website, but the author isn't trying to persuade the viewer to buy anything.

R: Relevance - The author's information is relevant.

D: Date - 1994-20xx which I'm not sure what that means. It says it is updated on January 3 and June 7 each year and as required. I'm again, not sure who is requiring the updating of the page.

S: Sources Behind the Text - The link to the Pet Publishing, Co. is broken. The link to the Burma fact book is broken. Amazon is very general. The link doesn't go to a direct source for information about the Burmese Mountain Dog.  Also, the Oxford link brings you to the homepage. A person would need to search within that site to find the particular information they are searching for. The links are not useful or helpful at all.

S: Scope and Purpose - The material is very easy to read, the purpose is to inform a person about this type of dog. The site looks very generic. There are a bunch of these icons for awards for this page. They don't link to anything. They are just images that are copied and pasted onto the page. This doesn't make the page look anymore credible to me.

Thing 6 - Differentiated Instruction

1. Differentiated Learning Assignment: To differentiate instruction is to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively.
I think this is one of the biggest challenges educators face whether you're a new teacher or a veteran teacher, it is always a challenge to keep students engaged, on task, and learning based on their individual learning preferences.

I use Moodle in my classroom. Before every class, I have the students take a short learning preference quiz online (http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire) then they need to do a short reflection on what they learned about their unique learning style and explain to me what will make them successful in my classroom. Here are the questions they need to answer for me:

1. After completing the questions on the Learning Preferences Questionnaire, tell me what are your learning preferences?
2. Then tell me in a few sentences what that means.
3. What can I do in this class to help you feel comfortable and succeed?

This has been an excellent tool in my classroom to get immediate feedback from the students. Students will tell me they need handouts, other will tell me to make sure I spend extra time with them in reading directions, some say they need a detailed rubric. This has been very successful in my classrooms and the students feel comfortable in knowing that I will try to my best to teach to their learning style.

I have always provided multiple media and formats. I will show YouTube videos, I will allow them to watch "Common Craft" videos before I introduce a new unit. I will give detailed rubrics and also demonstrate using a digital projector. In varying the method in which I introduce material, each student will find some format they become comfortable with and be able to identify which aids in their learning.

I provide opportunities to practice with support. I will circulate around the classroom as the students are practicing and give them applicable tips to support and enhance what they are working on.

Offering adjustable levels of challenges is something I do in my middle school and high school classes. For example, my Careers class is at the middle school level. They need to do a career presentation. They are allowed to use PowerPoint, Movie Maker or Weebly. I allow them to choose which program they are comfortable with, but I also challenge them to use a new program so I can help them learn the program, plus demonstrate their understanding of their chosen career as well. This has proven to be a successful approach in keeping the students excited about learning at a level in which they are most comfortable.

2. Diverse Learning Assignment. Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners - Visual.  A visual approach to learning helps the struggling learner visualize and imagine what they are trying to learn. Make graphic organizers to organize data in a sequential pattern will be very beneficial for a struggling learner. Also, making use of videos and incorporating phones, notebooks, Smart Boards, and other technology can help bridge the gap for some students who may struggling with reading text. If they can see it, it may help them store it in their long-term memory and retrieve it by visualizing what they saw. Students, even those that struggle, seem to be more comfortable with "gadgets" than most teachers. If they were able to utilize such methods of learning, it may greatly benefit those students that struggle.


3. Universal Design for Learning Assignment - NetTrekker. NetTrekker is an amazing and powerful teaching tool. I attended the NetTrekker workshop at the ISD on February 1st and was very impressed at how intuitive and powerful this search tool was. I was easily able to find three different readability levels for career information. The levels are for middle school levels and lower. This will be helpful because this is a middle school class, yet some students read at a much lower level. Some of the icons on these results indicate to me that there is audio, video, and interactive media integrated into these search results. This would be ideal for the struggling learner because there is a variety of learning styles presented.

4. Text-to-Audio Conversion Assignment. 

This was awesome! I have never used anything like this before. This was very easy and would be so helpful for a struggling learner. The teacher would need to record the voice before class, save as and MP3 and allow the student to listen as they learned. They would be able to use headphones so they could be listening discreetly and they can rewind and fastforward as they need. This would be very helpful when explaining things step-by-step because some students need a longer processing time to understand each step before moving on to the next one. This would allow the struggling learner the flexibility to learn at their own pace. Excellent learning and teaching tool!

Thing 5-Thinkfinity

The place that I will be doing with my students in class are in the learning lab section on Thinkfinity.
http://learninglab.org/

http://learninglab.org/life_skills/cyberbullying/
I do a unit on Internet Safety and there is an interactive Garfield, "Watch, Try, Apply" video that would be excellent for the students to get exposure to new vocabulary and the concept of cyberbullying.

I will use the Teacher's Guide which helps introduce the new vocabulary, has focus questions, a short quiz to assess how well the students understood what they learned.

http://learninglab.org/life_skills/online_safety/
This is the second section of Thinkfinity that I would use in my classroom. This is set up the same way as the cyberbullying unit. I would have the students, "Watch, Try, Apply" then discuss some of the new vocab, do the questions, then take the quiz.

These are interactive so the students will be engaged and yet educational so they are learning while they play.