ISTE Virtual Field-trip
Melissa Bailey
My "Top Five" Favs
Below I have listed five examples of tech tools that I learned from my virtual field-trip to the conference website.
Smore (This flyer was made with Smore)
Design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly.
The days of posting a flyer around the school hallways are over. Smore helps you create amazing pages that you’d be proud to share.
Instant mobile pages
Smore pages work flawlessly on your smartphone and tablet.
Styles and themes
Choose from a list of themes and preview them in seconds with your content. No installations ever.
Rich content embedding
Not just text and images, but videos, tweets, products and reviews too.
Drag and drop editing
Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create grids of short discussion-style questions that students respond to through recorded videos.
Uses
· Teachers can to use Flipgrid for any instance they would use a traditional text-based discussion.
· I see using Flipgrid in any lesson that might require the evolution of a sequence... group students in "grids," students each take a turn expressing their part of a sequence.
· Students can learn to distill ideas into 90-second bites, and while listening to their peers' responses, consider alternate viewpoints.
· Teachers can use Flipgrid to further classroom conversations by assigning questions as homework assignments or, if many students do not have the technology at home, creating group projects.
Some things to consider:
· The program is not free; it costs $65/year for teachers after initial free 21-day trial.
· It may be awkward and uncomfortable for shy kids to be on camera; hopefully, classes who use Flipgrid are mature and have a certain amount of trust and respect for their classmates. It's probably recommended for high school kids for this reason; it's challenging enough to answer a question when called on in class, but for some, formulating a video answer may be more agonizing than it's worth.
Plickers
Plickers is one of those simple ways to engage and inspire kids to participate. All you would need is ONE smartphone (Android or iOS) and PAPER! (I have not tried this with an iPad). This simple app for Android or iPhone is built for a teacher that does not have access to devices but wants to make a digital difference. The app is free! A teacher simple needs to download the free iOS or Android app. From the Plickers Website, the teacher prints a "paper clicker". Teachers ask a question in class and the students answer the question by showing the "Paper Clicker or Clicker" paper assigned to them. The teacher uses the camera on their phone or device to read the room's responses. The teacher will get a real-time bar graph and the data stored individually by student. A set of student "Plickers" provides enough access for 40 students and could be reused for different classes.
Uses:
· Create a daily Exit Slip question set for students.
· Offer a fun get started assessment.
· Use a Plickers Quiz to add interest to the current events of the week.
· Use Plickers to gather data on a learning target and how well students feel they understand the target.
· Do quick math review of facts, mental math ideas, etc.
· Review basic vocabulary.
Puppet Pals
Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time!
Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later.
This app is as fun as your own creativity. Act out a story of Pirates on the high seas, fight as scary monsters, or play the part of a Wild West bandit on the loose. You can even combine any characters however you want!
Your creations are only limited by your imagination (and voice acting skills in my case).
Uses:
- develop fluency through repeated exposure to text.
- increase comprehension.
- integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening in an authentic context.
- engage students.
- increase reading motivation.
- create confidence and improve the self-image of students.
- provide a real purpose for reading.
- provide opportunities for cooperative learning.
Something to consider:
This app is free, however, it costs $4.99 for the full version,
Flipsnacks
Flipsnack
You can use FlipSnack to create a free, online flipbook from PDF documents. Create a flipbook when you want to embed a book, magazine, catalog, newspaper, portfolio, or other kind of document into a website, wiki, or blog and have viewers flip through the pages interactively.
Uses:
- Make a flipbook of a presentation as an engaging alternative to a web page or PowerPoint.
- Share classroom information such as rules and expectations in an easy to read format.
- Use for a great way to bring digital storytelling up front in your classroom.
- Make photosynthesis a story instead of bits of equations and information.
- Portray a time period in history or create books of different political or societal opinions.
- Create a flipbook with the viewpoints and personalities of characters in a story.
- Practice a different language by creating a themed flipbook.
- Lower grades can combine writing into a class flipbook to be shared online or read aloud.
- Any written assignment can easily be re-visioned as a flipbook!
- Make your literary magazine a flipbook or build new poetry collections during poetry month.
- Share all your flipbooks on individual laptops, or the interactive whiteboard or projector.
- Create simple flipbooks of Dolch words for beginning readers.
This app is free (10 student accounts only), however, access to the Premium class license is $32/month or $144/year. They do offer a school license.