Tuesday Tech Tips
November 25, 2014
In this Issue: Magisto Movie Creator, Skyward Assessments Part II, Weebly for Education, Geography Map Games, and Tech Table Talks
Magisto Movie Maker
This is one of the neatest apps out there for video creation. With a free account, users are able to make videos on their computer, iPad, iPhone, tablet, etc. Once the desired pictures and videos are chosen, there are a variety of themes and soundtracks to choose from. Once your files, theme, and audio are selected, Magisto will put your video together and email you in a few minutes when it is complete.
The one thing that users cannot control using this tool is the order of the pictures/videos and which part of the video plays. If there is audio in the video, there may be a chance that you cannot hear it. Magisto generates and mashes together a video for you, so there is no need to edit and clip your video. Check out the video below that I made in under three minutes. Notice that it clipped parts of my video, but it captured my favorite scenes.
Tech Table Talks (T3s)
- SCECHs and snacks will be provided
- Future dates are: February 5, March 3, April 9, and May 5 from 4 - 5 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan 6, 2015, 04:00 PM
Huron Intermediate School District, 1299 S. Thomas Road, Suite 1, Bad Axe, MI, United States
Online Skyward Grading Part II
In this part two video tutorial, there is a small component that you will WANT to include if you plan on using this tool as an assessment option. By watching this video, you will learn how to create a "Template" assignment. This will allow you to use this assessment for any class as well as future years to come. It also has the ability to share assessments with other teachers to use as well. The previous video tutorial showed users how to create an online assessment, but going that route will create a one-time deal assessment that can never be used again.
Why recreate your online assessments every year? Watch the video tutorial below to see how to create savable templates to make your life easier.
Other Videos You May Enjoy:
Creating Online Assessments in Skyward - Autoscore and Autopost to your Skyward account.
Convert To Weebly for Education
If you currently have a Weebly website, you can switch from a free Weebly account to a free education account at any time and still keep your website (see pictures below). The benefits of using Weebly for Education are as follows:
- As a teacher, you are able to manage 40 free student webpages. These could be used for student e-portfolios to display their work throughout their education. These sites can be password protected so only select people can view them.
- The education site gives teachers the option to include a submission form on their webpage. This would allow students to submit assignments through the website. These assignments would then be automatically emailed to the teacher as an attachment. This is a great tool for preparing students for future virtual classes in high school and college.
First
Second
Lastly
- Easily create a classroom website and blog
- Manage your students' accounts
- Accept homework assignments online
- Keep your parents up to date
Geography Awareness Week
- Smarty Pins - Smarty Pins is a Google Maps game developed by Google. Smarty Pins presents players with a trivia question that they have to answer by placing a pin on a map. Players earn "miles" for correctly placing a pin on the map. Players can lose miles for answering incorrectly and/or taking too long to answer. Games are available in five categories: arts and culture, science and geography, sports and games, entertainment, and history and current events.
- Where is - This game uses a popular format for geography games. The name of a city is presented to the players and they have to click the map to guess where the city is located. Players are given immediate feedback on their accuracy in the form of a measurement, in kilometers, of the distance between their guesses and the correct answers.
- GeoGuessr - GeoGuessr shows you a Google Street View image and a clue to try to guess where in the world the imagery was captured. Playing GeoGuessr is a fun way to get students to look at all of the visual and text clues they have in order to form a good guess as to where in the world they think the imagery came from.
- Capital Toss - Here is a game targeting your elementary students. This game, from ABCya, has a state capitals/country capitals mode. The name of a state or country appears at the bottom of the screen and students have to toss a virtual ball at scrolling capital names. After ten correct answers, players can choose a new ball. Three consecutive incorrect answers ends the game.
- GeoSettr - Here is one of the neatest games that I came across. It exactly the same as GeoGuessr, but this one you can easily customize and choose five locations around the world. Try this five question game, and see if you recognize these places in Michigan. It is easy to make your own game. When at GeoSettr, you'll see two screens. A map with a Pegman on your left and the Street View imagery for the Pegman's current location on your right. Move the Pegman around, zoom-in if you like, until you find the location that you want people to guess. When you've found the right location click "set round" to save the location. When you've set five rounds (locations) your game is assigned a URL that you can distribute.