Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: 7 of The Best Chrome Apps for EFL... February 27, 2015 Today we are sharing with you some useful Chrome apps to help your students with their language learning. These apps are particularly helpful for EFL and ESL learners. They (the apps) provide a wide variety of activities, games, flashcards and exercises on language practice. 1- Duolingo Google chose Duolingo as the best language app for 2014. 2- Flashcard Stash Flashcard Stash enables students to learn through the use of interactive flashcards. 3- iVocab iVocab is an ideal app for those preparing for GRE,TOEFL and SAT quizzes. 4- Vocabla Vocabla is another popular language learning app in the Chrome store. 5- Flashcards Flashcards is a good app for language practice. 6- Lingua.ly
33 Digital Tools for Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom I came across a great blog post the other day – Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think – that told the firsthand account of a teacher, Steven Anderson, who implemented formative assessment in his classroom. He used a sticky-note version of an exit ticket to elicit evidence of student learning and in his words, “what a difference that made.” Formative assessment is ‘easier than you think’ and with all the digital tools and apps now available for mobile devices it’s even easier. We’ve shared some digital tools before and with the five tools that Steven shared combined with our earlier suggestions there are now 33 digital tools that we’ve uncovered that are free or inexpensive and help teachers implement formative assessment in their classrooms. Here they are: A few of Steven’s discoveries: Lino – A virtual corkboard of sticky-notes so students can provide questions or comments on their learning. Poll Everywhere – Teachers can create a feedback poll or ask questions. Pick Me!
A Formative Assessment Option Does this look familiar? Stack after stack of papers to be graded. I have had many of these stacks. About four years ago, I found a solution to this problem. My solution was this: A composition notebook and quick formative assessments. The 3-2-1 Strategy is one example of many formative assessments that I use in my classroom. The poster is pretty self explanatory. If students have practiced the skill you have taught using cooperative learning strategies, this strategy will tell you a lot. At the end of the lesson as students finish, I look at each student’s response to the 3-2-1 strategy. You can download this poster here. To learn more about how I went from stacks and stacks of grading to less grading and less stress using a composition notebook and formative assessments, click the image below!
Browser apps vs language learning | Mias klassrum Sedan jag fick tillgång till iPads i undervisningen har jag kollat efter breda alternativ, men appar på iPad och smartphones är ofta ganska begränsade. När man i stället kopplar på appar och tillägg på sin webbläsare breddas möjligheterna. Jag testade en läs-app där man kunde markera ord, få de förklarade eller översatta och spara dem till ett eget förråd. Men där tog det stopp. Jag har testat appar för glosinlärning, men där måste man mata in orden själv. Jag önskade mig en kombination, och idag hittade jag den, via ett tips från utvidgade kollegan Sara Bruun. I webbläsaren Google Chrome finns gott om olika tillägg och appar. I den här lista finns tips för den som lär sig språk, och här hittade jag en favorit. Lingua.ly kombinerar nämligen funktionerna jag sökte.
Seven Tech Tools for Fast Formative Assessment by Curtis Chandler You and I would be hard-pressed to find a teacher who’s against formative assessment. We would have better luck finding someone who hates whales or pizza. In theory, every teacher is regularly designing and deploying a variety of outcomes-based learning activities that help the teacher determine where students are in the learning process. And then adjusting their instruction accordingly (Greenstein, 2010). But in practice, formative assessment is more like proper diet and regular exercise—just another one of those things that we all know is important, but few of us have the time and focus to achieve. In education, there is nothing—not even technology—that is a silver bullet. That’s why I’m always on the hunt for free tech-tools that help me engage students, track their individual achievement, and provide them with opportunities for improvement. 1. Geddit is a free, powerful tool that works on any web-enabled device. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Make Time for Formative Assessment
Activities DOTS activities On these pages you will find a variety of activities that will help you develop your teaching skills using new technologies. The activities are centred around the use of different tools for developing the following skills with your students: Reading and writing (wikis, forums, blogs, and surveys), Speaking (audio-conferencing, Audacity®) Listening (Audacity®, podcasting, YouTube) Self-assessment (quizzes) There is also a DOTS activity focusing on use of the Virtual Learning Environment ‘Moodle’ as a whole. If you are using these materials online, you can also do some of the interactive tasks in the DOTS activities (e.g. quiz questions); and you can contribute to the DOTS forum and wiki and share your experience with colleagues. If you are a novice user of the technology or you are unsure what the benefits of a particular tool are for learning and teaching, you may want to start with Part 1 and work through the whole of the activity chronologically.
Kul webbsajt låter dig skapa din egen musik enkelt Vill du skapa din egen musik, trots att du inte bemästrar några instrument, kommer du säkert gilla webbtjänsten Soundtrap. Den låter dig via ett enkelt gränssnitt klistra ihop dina egna låtar med hjälp av loopar som du drar och släpper. Tanken bakom Soundtrap, som utvecklas av ett Stockholmsbaserat företag, är att vem som helst ska kunna skapa musik. Jag är definitivt ingen musiker. Med datorernas hjälp har skapandet av musik blivit betydligt enklare, oavsett om du spelar egna instrument eller om du bara vill använda din dator. Att registrera ett gratis konto hos Soundtrap gör du enklast genom att logga in med ditt Facebook- eller Google-konto. Du skaffar snabbt ett gratis konto hos Soundtrap, och därefter kan du börja skapa din musik. I musikeditorn, där du skapar dina alster, lägger du enkelt på nya ljudspår och du kan fylla dessa med antingen färdiga loopar, som finns tillgängliga ute till höger på skärmen. Spela in instrument och sång Vem som helst kan skapa musik idag Follow @tkj
20 useful ways to use TodaysMeet in schools TodaysMeet is an easy-to-use, versatile digital tool. It can enhance discussions, provide a place for ideas and more. TodaysMeet is so simple yet so versatile that it has become one of my go-to digital tools. It’s designed as a backchannel — the conversation behind what’s going on. TodaysMeet is literally the easiest website to use I’ve ever come across. That’s it. You can immediately share the URL to the room (in our DitchThatTextbook example, the room we would create is TodaysMeet.com/DitchThatTextbook) and start the conversation. Each message has a 140-character limit, so be concise. I already use TodaysMeet in a number of ways in my classroom and can see so many other possibilities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Which of these ideas sounds the most useful? For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links: Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Related Tech Tuesday screencast: TodaysMeet April 2, 2013
En deckarhistoria med digitala verktyg Mina åttor har läst olika typer av deckare, bland annat Man kan bara bli hängd en gång och Ridån går upp. Den senare blev de mycket fästa vid och gav dessutom ett bra diskussionsunderlag. Vanligtvis skriver eleverna egna deckare, men tiden är knapp så här i slutet av terminen. Istället för att skriva en hel och omfattande deckare, blev alternativet att gestalta sig själv som huvudperson i valfri deckargenre. Historien skulle berättas i en Thinglink. Ett exempel med aktiva länkar finns här. Välja karaktär: Pusseldeckarens smarta detektiv, en hårdkokt snut, en psykopat eller varför inte en mix av alla? För att skapa en interaktiv deckarhistoria behöver du: En selfie och googlade bilder.Alfafunktionen i Pages. Tiden då?