I learned a few cool tricks in this class, and I was wondering what the rest of you found useful. My poll is very basic and allows anyone who wants to weigh in on what was the most useful of the tools we learned about. I suppose I should email to people so I actually get a response. :) Share your thoughts and they will pop up as a word cloud. Fun!
Monday, April 21, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Google Forms
That was sort of fun, although maybe it just seemed fun because it is pouring out and I am on spring break. Perspective is everything.
This should be the spreadsheet published to the web. The survey itself can be enjoyed here or in the embedded version above.
As for all the ways to share, I did not take advantage of the "collaborate" feature because my co-workers are on spring break and would be alarmed to find me looking for their help on something, however, it is another cool and useful way to "share" your survey or test. This would be great for a grade level that is looking to develop common assessments or send out a common survey. Instead, I simply emailed the link to the survey to some friends and myself to take, which would probably be the best way to disseminate to parents. For students, it might be better to provide the link, although I am having a hard time imagining how to do this with first graders.... Either way, you do need to uncheck some of the preferred SU settings at the top to create a truly public document.
As for all the ways to share, I did not take advantage of the "collaborate" feature because my co-workers are on spring break and would be alarmed to find me looking for their help on something, however, it is another cool and useful way to "share" your survey or test. This would be great for a grade level that is looking to develop common assessments or send out a common survey. Instead, I simply emailed the link to the survey to some friends and myself to take, which would probably be the best way to disseminate to parents. For students, it might be better to provide the link, although I am having a hard time imagining how to do this with first graders.... Either way, you do need to uncheck some of the preferred SU settings at the top to create a truly public document.
My survey is something I can actually use, so forgive me for not asking questions that result in numbers. It is aimed at my students' parents. DreamBox is a new online math (game-based) tool that we are piloting at my school, and knowing more about how students are using it at home will be beneficial. I am also curious about the parents' feelings and how involved they are in their child's use. I am sure that if we use the tool next year, I will have additional questions, or even very different ones.
I have to say, this was a very easy tool to use. Using each type of question was a little trickier because you really need to have a certain kind of question to use a certain type of format, but I managed to twist the things I wanted to know into shapes that fit each question type. Maybe that was the fun part. The other part that was theoretically fun, but actually harder to accomplish, was to make certain answers take you to different questions (or different pages of the survey.) I thought it might happen automatically, but alas no. I finally managed it when I made each of those questions the end of the "page" which forced the user to submit the answer.
I think Google Forms lends itself to standards 2 and 3. It enables teachers to design digital age assessments that gather data that can easily be evaluated in a spreadsheet. I love that the data is automatically entered into this format by the respondents. It makes it so much more likely that the data will end up in a format that is usable. Google Forms also allows teachers to easily collaborate on the development of these types of tests or questionnaires. I can use my survey to find out from parents how effective a classroom tool is when released for use at home.
I think Google Forms lends itself to standards 2 and 3. It enables teachers to design digital age assessments that gather data that can easily be evaluated in a spreadsheet. I love that the data is automatically entered into this format by the respondents. It makes it so much more likely that the data will end up in a format that is usable. Google Forms also allows teachers to easily collaborate on the development of these types of tests or questionnaires. I can use my survey to find out from parents how effective a classroom tool is when released for use at home.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Jeopardy
My Jeopardy Template
I found this to be a very easy tool to use. When I first made it, I was not sure what it would look like once "published" so I made a quick version and then checked it out. It was quite simple to go back and add punctuation etc. using the password. The only concern I have is the Jeopardy style; I am not at all sure that first graders are developmentally ready to think of the question when given the answer. I did use that built in format, but of course in the classroom I would take the answer in any format.
I found this to be a very easy tool to use. When I first made it, I was not sure what it would look like once "published" so I made a quick version and then checked it out. It was quite simple to go back and add punctuation etc. using the password. The only concern I have is the Jeopardy style; I am not at all sure that first graders are developmentally ready to think of the question when given the answer. I did use that built in format, but of course in the classroom I would take the answer in any format.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Prezi
WOW. That was quite an undertaking. I admit had I had some fun, but making this took several more hours than I really had time for. PowerPoint is also time-consuming if you care about your end-product, but it is also more straightforward. Of course, I have used PowerPoint before so that may be coloring how I see its ease of use compare to this. Frankly, once I got used to it, Prezi's interface was decent and included some very cool tools. Zooming around is also new and different, but for my lesson I am not sure it added value. It certainly made planning tricker! I will share what I made with my first grade team and see if they think it is useful. Here is my Prezi on Plants (SOL 1.4). See below for embedded copy.
Standards addressed: standard 1 - this was creative and is certainly a different and unique of presenting this material. If students were old enough to use this took they would have a lot of fun with it I imagine. Standard 2 could also be relevant here, depending on your subject matter, Prezi could be a very valuable way of presenting information. For my purposes it was not needed, but as the tutorials showed, for some topics the zooming could actually enhance understanding. And, as always, standard 3 requires that teachers push themselves to stay abreast of new technological tools. This was not easy for me, but that is not a reason to not give something new a try.
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Standards addressed: standard 1 - this was creative and is certainly a different and unique of presenting this material. If students were old enough to use this took they would have a lot of fun with it I imagine. Standard 2 could also be relevant here, depending on your subject matter, Prezi could be a very valuable way of presenting information. For my purposes it was not needed, but as the tutorials showed, for some topics the zooming could actually enhance understanding. And, as always, standard 3 requires that teachers push themselves to stay abreast of new technological tools. This was not easy for me, but that is not a reason to not give something new a try.
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