12 Good Tools for Gathering Real-time Feedback from Students Chatrooms and polling services provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom. These kind of tools allow shy students to ask questions and share comments. For your more outspoken students who want to comment on everything, a feedback mechanism provides a good outlet for them too. This summer I tried out a few new tools for gathering real-time feedback from students. Those new tools are featured at the top of my updated list of backchannel and informal assessment tools. Newer tools on the block... 81 Dash is a nice backchannel platform that I learned about during the "Smackdown" at Hack Ed 2014. 81 Dash provides a place for teachers to create chat rooms to use with students to host conversations and share files. EverySlide is a free (for educators and students) service that allows you to share your slides directly to the iPads, laptops, Chromebooks, and Android devices used by members of your audience.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology | TeachBytes Professional Development About these ads Share this: Like this: Like Loading... Related 12 Free PD Courses You Should Take This SummerIn "eLearning" Common Core Technology Skills Self-AssessmentIn "Google Tools" 10 Educational Technology Podcasts You Can't MissIn "Audio Tools" One thought on “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology” Awesome! Leave a Reply Follow Get every new post delivered to your Inbox. Join 2,871 other followers Build a website with WordPress.com %d bloggers like this: Four Ways to Think About Using ThingLink - Rethinking ThingLink This is a guest post from Shawn McCusker of EdTechTeacher.org, an advertiser on this site. While there are some very creative web tools out there, ThingLink is one of my favorites. It has earned this status by passing several of my key benchmark-tests for the classroom: It is dependable and accessible.Students need not fear that their work will be lost as it automatically saves.It is relatively easy to learn and use.Rarely does a lesson become more about “ThingLink” than the topic about which students are trying to express their knowledge. For new users, ThingLink allows you to upload a picture and active links to a variety of media, essentially making an image touchable as illustrated below. Thinglink is a powerful tool, and some new uses are making it even more compelling. Use ThingLink to organize class projects with multiple online components. Image Credit: Shawn McCusker Thinglink can make sharing a class’ work with the rest of the school and community easier.
More on Being a 21st Century Educator What is all the buzz about 21st Century educating? I think it is more than just using technology in your classroom- though that is lots of fun. In 1995, I was a part of a research team that was integrating technology in the classroom to teach energy in the human body. BUT, Being a 21st century educator is more than simply using technology in the classroom. So, here are some more ideas on morphing… This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Like this: Like Loading...
The Beginner's Guide To Learning Analytics We haven’t talked about learning analytics in awhile (at least not specifically), but that doesn’t mean learning analytics have missed the mark (last year, learning analytics were tagged as a ‘top trend’ in education). We talk quite often about blended learning and personalized learning, often times neglecting to consider that learning analytics are what really drives these concepts: without it, we’re just shooting in the dark (or dusk, really, since not everything is data!). The handy infographic below takes a look at exactly how personalized education is being driven by learning analytics, and more specifically, how learning analytics can take us from ‘traditional’ to ‘personalized’ education. Learning Analytics Bring Personalized Education Traditional education brings students to the ‘finish line’ on the same path at the same pace, regardless if this is too fast for some or too slow for othersPersonalized education students work in their own way at their own pace.
10 Teacher Tools to "Techify" Your Classroom By Bethany Petty The classrooms of today have the potential to look vastly different than those of the past. Many teachers have access to a vast array of technology tools that can be used in the classroom to increase student engagement. Sometimes, however, the world of educational technology can seem daunting and extremely overwhelming—especially for newcomers. Padlet $45/year after 30-day free trial This is a collaborative tool that can be used in virtually any classroom. I love to use Padlet to encourage the backchannel while my students view content-related films. Kahoot Free Toss out your PowerPoint Jeopardy template and try Kahoot instead. The competition between students can be tense at times, but students are reviewing content and staying engaged, which is amazing to see as a teacher. Create a free account at getkahoot.com and begin making your games. Teachers can share the link to their game, which will allow their students to review material on their own. Heads Up Screencastify EDpuzzle
Do I Need a Digital Teaching Portfolio? Designing a well-organized and professional teaching portfolio can give you an edge in a competitive job market, and help you score high marks on your school's teacher evaluation form. It is, however, a time-consuming endeavor (the average portfolio takes about two to three days of work), and once built, your portfolio will require regular attention. This post will help you decide whether or not a portfolio will serve your professional goals and how to go about designing a professional-looking site that showcases your teaching skills. 1. There are several reasons to start building a portfolio: You’re looking for a new job. 2. Choose a platform. 3. Title page: your portfolio should have a clear title at the top. 4. Your portfolio is your 21st century digital business card. 5. The most challenging aspect of having a teaching portfolio is keeping it up to date. What tips have you learned from creating and maintaining your portfolio?
10 Ways to use Instagram in the classroom Instagram isn’t just a platform for selfies, business promotions, and cute animals. With a little creativity, you can bring the visual power of photos and videos to your classroom, weave them into your students’ learning process, and bring a little fun to their (and your!) days. Do you use Instagram in your classroom? 10 ways to use Instagram in the classroom Send classroom notifications Many teachers use other forms of social media – like Twitter and Facebook – to share classroom news and other notifications. Showcase students and student work Feature a student of the week or month, with a short bio and some tidbits about themselves and their work. Review content from class Remind your students of some things you’ve talked about in class, to keep the concepts fresh in their minds. Share reading recommendations Not all students get really excited about extracurricular reading. Track student progress over time Snap photos of student work throughout the year. Encourage and engage your students
The Student Side of Making Editor's Note: Lisa Yokana, an educator, artist, and curriculum designer, co-authored this post. What do a jacket, a set of paintings, a wood sculpture, and a series of photos have to do with a student's success in life? Maybe everything. That's because making these pieces requires skills for modern learners -- namely, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, and persistence. Education innovators like Tony Wagner write about them. Colleges and universities describe the need for them. How to get them? But well-made and well-designed jackets, wood sculptures, paintings, and photos don't just happen. Learning Through Making Photo Credit: Gayle Allen Robert, like many of his high school peers, participated in a six-week capstone project that he designed. Not long into his work, he grew frustrated and angry. Robert was about to find out why the process of making is so valuable. Getting Unstuck Robert also learned how to develop a healthy inner dialogue for making.
10 Collaborative Technology Projects Your Students Will Love If your classroom is far from a 1:1 environment (more like 1:32), it can be hard to find great technology projects that really work. Here are some simple tech tools students can use to create awesome projects. Students can work together in cooperative learning groups or independently depending on your access to technology in your school district. 1. 2. Cooperative learning idea: Have students share a computer and agree on an image. 3. Cooperative learning idea: Students can collaborate and create a science comic strip, such as: the life cycle of a butterfly or frog, the journey of a raindrop or the transformation of matter. 4. 5. Cooperative learning idea: Students can take turns talking. 6. Cooperative learning idea: Older students can work in teams and create a digital book for a presentation. 7. Cooperative learning idea: Students can share a computer, generate a "What if?" 8. 9. Cooperative learning idea: Have students explain something in 30 seconds through music and images. 10.
You Can Now Create Educational Games for Students on Android December, 2014 The popular iPad game developer app TinyTap is now available on Android. TinyTap is a very good app for creating educational games based on pictures. You can either upload your pictures or grab new ones to use in your games. TinyTap, which was initially geared towards preschoolers, has now released several new features that make it appeal to adult learners as well. Some of these features include a new auto-correct tracing which cleans lines for rectangles and circles giving your app a professional look. You can also now add text bubbles on your soundboard pages. To create your own game. 7 Ways Students Use Diigo To Do Research and Collaborative Project Work January 14, 2015 Diigo is an excellent social bookmarking tool that enable you to save, annotate, and share bookmarks. The power of Diigo lies in the distinctive features that it offers to teachers and educators. There is a special account for K-12 and higher-ed educators that empower registered teachers with a variety of tools and features. One of the best things you can do with the Educator account is creating a Diigo group for your class. You can do this without the need for students emails. You can also set the privacy settings of your group so that only you and your students can access and see what you share there. Here are some of the ways they can use Diigo group to conduct research in and out of class: Here are some very good video tutorials and screencasts to help you better use Diigo: 1- How to Create a Diigo group for your class by Mark Barnes 2- How to use Diigo to annotate, organize and research 3- How to autopost Diigo bookmarks to your class blog by Cool Cat Teacher