Tyler's Tech Tips
Issue # 5 - February 2016
Plickers Update - Scoresheets!!
Previously, one complaint about this tool was its inability to ask multiple questions in a quiz like format and track results. Well, as of recently, a new update allows teachers to create a "Scoresheet" and generate an individualized report for each student. This allows teachers to see student totals over multiple questions, view color coded results, and of course, have the ability to be downloaded into an excel file.
To learn more on how to do this, check out this blog tutorial.
Winning Words Apps
These would be great apps to play when learning about these topics or just for review.
MACUL 2016
MACUL will be held at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids on March 9-11. March 9th will be hands-on workshops which cost extra, and then the actual conference will be on the 10th and 11th (Thursday and Friday).
The full cost of the conference is $195 if you buy your ticket before February 23rd, and then the price jumps up to $245. If you only can attend one of those days, it will cost $145 before February 23rd, and $195 after the 23rd.
For more information on this event, check out the MACUL site.
New Commenting Features
This is a huge change because before, teachers could comment on a student's Doc, and students would never know because they would never get a notification. Now, students can stay in the loop as teachers try to give them feedback on items they are working on.
To add a comment, just highlight a portion of the text, and an option to "Add a Comment" will appear. To read more about this, check out the Google updates page.
Newsela App
When the app is opened, teachers may choose from thousands of articles. Once an article is chosen, swiping up or down with two fingers on your device will change the lexile level of that article. These articles also have the ability to be exported to email, notes, bookmarked, etc.
Click here for the web version.
Random Name Picker
Classtools.net has been a site that I have shared before, but i recently found out about a new addition through Richard Byrne's Free Technology For Teachers blog.
The new Random Name Picker is probably similar to other random name generators, but it has one feature that stands out in my opinion. Once your student names are entered, you will have the option to embed your spinner into your classroom web page or blog. This allows you to always have it available on your website for easy access. Also, when you click on the embed button, there is an option for you to get the QR code for the spinner. Having a QR code allows you the ability to scan the code and pull up the name picker on any one of your devices.
Check out the Random Name Picker at the Classtools.net site.
QR Code and Short URL Generator
So how does this work? Here are a list of steps to help you out.
- Start by going to the Short URL/QR/Citation site by clicking here.
- Take the pink button on the page and drag it up to your bookmark bar. If you are using Chrome and can't find the bookmark bar, watch this 10 second video clip.
- Now when you want to make a short URL, QR Code, Citation, or PDF of all of these, just click on the bookmark you just made on any webpage that you want to convert. Just like magic, it all appears for you. Have fun and easy generating!