Tech Tips
April 2016: Volume 3- Number 24
Spring Sunshine Is Here!
You'll find a wide variety of apps, articles, and websites in this issue.
Speed Typing Online
"How fast can you type? Looking for an easy and free way to test typing speed online?
Well, you've come to the right place."
Trello
"Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone.
Drop the lengthy email threads, out-of-date spreadsheets, no-longer-so-sticky notes, and clunky software for managing your projects. Trello lets you see everything about your project in a single glance."
Playposit
"PlayPosit (fka eduCanon) is an online learning environment to create and share interactive video lessons. Teachers begin with any online video (screencasts, Khan Academy, TED, etc.) and transform what is traditionally passive content into an active experience for students, with time-embedded activities.
Awarded the 'best open educational resource,' PlayPosit is designed for flipped and blended environments."
How to Make Resources More Accessible for Struggling Readers
"If we want to embrace all that technology can offer our students, we have to make sure our resources are accessible to all of them.
Here are some ways teachers can do that (from the discussion in the blog post linked above):
1. Avoid “locked PDFs” — If students only have access to a text via PDF files that won’t allow for zooming and other features, that resource might not be worth anything to them.
2. Adjustable font size — Students with visual impairments might struggle to read small text. Any resource with adjustable font size is more accessible.
3. Dictionary integration — When students have access to definitions for difficult words, they’re less likely to dismiss the reading all together. Many digital tools (including the Kindle reading app) offer this.
4. Text to speech — Some tools natively offer this feature for students, but not all. Text-to-speech tools (like the 10 listed in this blog post) can help students connect with a text despite reading difficulties.
5. Image descriptions — If you’re using an image, giving a description of what’s in it can help some readers.
6. Video captions — As flipped learning has taken off, so has the use of instructional videos for students to watch on their own. Videos are more accessible to some students if they have captions. YouTube will automatically provide a transcript of videos (see image at right), although the exact translation of verbal to visual can be hit and miss.
7. Color contrast — When background colors and text colors are too much alike, they can be hard for some students to read. Being aware of colors you choose in any instructional material can help.
Fixing our digital resources to help students may not be the perfect solution (although it is a definite step in the right direction). Helping them become independent learners and advocates for accessible resources may be the best end game."
Use Google Drawings for Brain-Friendly Visual Notetaking
"Our brains like words. But they really love images.
The brain works in images. When we talk, our brains change the information we’re receiving into images to encode it and make it available for recall later.
A powerful way to take advantage of that is visual notetaking — recording ideas using both images and text. Some call it doodling, and many have gotten “in trouble” for doodling in class even though there were cognitive benefits of it over standard notetaking.
Brain benefits of visual notetaking
- It keeps the brain active. In a study, participants were able to recall more information if they were simply “doodling” (coloring in shapes in this exercise).
- It provides multiple entry points to the brain. Dual coding theory, according to this Education.com article, states that including visuals helps encode ideas in the brain through two routes: “a verbal code specialized for dealing with language in all its forms and a nonverbal code specialized for dealing with nonlinguistic objects and events in the form of mental images”
- It’s fun! Using this pleasurable way of taking notes can “generate a much-needed dopamine surge for pleasure, oxytocin surge due to love and trust that undergirds success, and a decrease in cortisol associated with stress.”
A Few Strategies for Helping Slow Workers
Excerpt:
"A parent recently asked me for advice about her son. Although his academic skills are strong, he feels the need to complete every task to absolute perfection; this means he finishes his work long, long after the rest of his peers. Not only are his teachers frustrated by the time it takes him to complete assignments, he doesn’t especially enjoy spending hours every night making all of his work just right.
It’s easy enough to say we want all our students to work at their own pace, and in most classrooms, some flexibility is built in to allow for this. Still, when a student completes work at a significantly slower pace than his peers, sometimes taking three or four times longer than everyone else, it can create problems for the student and his teachers: Group work gets more complicated, whole-class instruction is limited, and the student is too often put in an uncomfortable position as the one everyone else is waiting for. Furthermore, working at this slow pace means the student is simply putting too many hours in on school work, time that could be spent playing, reading, socializing, relaxing, or exploring other interests."
Quizizz
"Find amazing quizzes made by other teachers, or create your own quizzes and share them with the world!
Start a "Live" game in class, or assign Quizizz as a fun "Homework" task. You control the competition by toggling the leaderboard, timer and other settings.
Students play together, but each at their own pace. Gamfication elements like avatars, leaderboard and funny memes add to the fun! Review your work in the end.
Use our detailed class and student-level reports to understand where your students need help.
Student-Made E-Books: A Beautiful Way to Demonstrate Learning
"You’ve reached the end of a unit or year, and you want students to demonstrate their learning in a way that requires them to synthesize information, apply it in new ways, and reflect on how they have grown. To achieve any of these goals, an end-of-unit exam doesn’t quite cut it. You could have students do presentations…that’s always an option. But here’s one more: Have students create their own PDF e-books, packaging up some aspect of their learning into a finished digital product they can enjoy and share for years....
Because this kind of e-book is ridiculously easy to create, having students make them is an excellent option for all kinds of final projects. And because lots of businesses now use e-books like these in their own work, assigning them to students gives them an extra skill they can take into their adult lives."
Google Computer Science EDU
"Solving tomorrow's challenges requires a technically skilled, innovative and diverse workforce.
Computer science (CS) education is a pathway to innovation, to creativity and to exciting career opportunities. We believe that all students deserve these opportunities. That is why Google is committed to developing programs, resources, tools and community partnerships which make CS engaging and accessible for all students."
Paper Worksheets Are Frustrating
SCS Instructional Technology Information
Contact me if you have any questions or would like help using these tools.
Email: vturner@scsmustangs.org
Website: http://www.strongnet.org/InstructionalTechnology
Phone: 440-572-7067
Twitter: @vturner8