#iCONNECT Tech Tips
August 15, 2014 #EHSRedDevils
Flocabulary
Elkmont High School now has a school wide, free 30 day trial for Flocabulary. Click on the link below and enter your SCHOOL email address to get started.
http://www.flocabulary.com/accounts/activation-process/elkmont-high-sch/
Flocabulary is an online library of educational hip-hop songs and videos for grades K-12. Over 20,000 schools use Flocabulary to engage and inspire students. Our team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child. Flocabulary is also aligned to Common Core State Standards.
International Dot Day
The incredible Shannon M Miller and Matthew Winner have created a Google Doc for educators interested in connecting their classrooms with other libraries and classrooms all across the world (view, share, etc at http://tinyurl.com/dotday14). Coordinate collaborations, meet up over Skype or Google Hangout, and make connections that are meaningful and memorable for your students. No password required. No limit to the awesomeness. Add your profile and schedule and share your contact info with others, and see where those connections take you this year!
If you would like to participate in Dot Day but aren't sure how to get started or what it entails, email Mrs. Robertson to get you connected!
Read more about Dot Day here: http://www.busylibrarian.com/2014/08/international-dot-day-2014.html
Using Cell Phones in the Classroom When You Don't Have 1:1
A good rule of thumb for any classroom use of cellphones: the lesson/activity must be engaging as well as productive. You don’t want technology for the sake of technology (and students aren’t going to be intrinsically fascinated with a device they use routinely when they’re outside of school). If the students don’t enjoy what they’re doing, they will be more tempted to use their phones inappropriately.
Here are some ideas:
IN-CLASS POLLING/QUIZZING. Educators like using the program called Poll Everywhere. It’s free for audiences up to 40, and allows you to create quiz questions for which students text in their answers. No expensive clicker systems to buy, set up, and maintain. If students register their cellphone numbers (a requirement in my class) you can even track their answers for impromptu quizzes or review.
IN-CLASS BACK-CHANNELING: Backchanneling refers to the use of networks & social media to maintain an online, real-time conversation alongside spoken remarks. For example, if you attend a keynote presentation at a conference, you’ll often find that some listeners in the audience are using their mobile devices to comment to other audience members about things the speaker is saying, while the speaker is saying them.
Backchanneling can be a great way to give quiet students a voice, to introduce additional facts and insights during a lesson, or simply to encourage “conversation” during lecture or group readings when you don’t want to actually interrupt the presentation.
While Twitter is probably the most popular medium for backchanneling news and entertainment events (using #hashtags to create an instant network), teachers may want a more controllableplatform than Twitter provides. Teachers can set up a variety of a private backchannel using free webtools, like Today’s Meet, which allows individuals to create temporary rooms to host backchannel discussions.
Poll Everywhere can also be used for this purpose. Plus, it allows you to moderate comments and prohibits any anonymous contributions.
IN-CLASS READINGS AND HANDOUTS. Smartphones can also be used productively in the classroom as eReaders for books and handouts. You can place all student handouts into DropBox folders (see “Dropbox A Multi-Tool for Educators”). Students can access Dropbox space and open reference material without printing it up or asking for a new copy during class assignments.
Of course, for traditional reading materials (textbooks and paperbacks), you can use mobile apps like Kindle eReader, Nook App, iBooks, or Google’s Play Books (just to name a few). Many of them host free content and some allow you to load content of your own. This is a great way to save money on book purchases and photocopies. Using these apps, students can even highlight and annotate.
ORGANIZING RESEARCH. “Camera scanners,”which capture information using the phone’s built-in camera, allows students to take pictures of documents (even books with those bendy pages), crop them, and then enhance them for ready viewing. You can create notebooks of documents (if you are copying sections of a book or article) and then store them on the device or export them (as a photo image or PDF) to Google Docs, DropBox, Evernote, and more. It’s a great tool for you or your students to organize research materials. One of the best apps for this purpose isGenius Scan+ – available for iOS, Android, and Windows based phones.
Evernote is another great application that students can use to organize their notes and images, take voice notes, write notes by hand, gather web clippings, sort emails, and more. You can put them into pre-categorized folders (class, project, theme, etc) as well as give them “tags” which makes them easy to search and sort later.
Most people can grasp the power of having Google in their pocket, but few recognize that the mobile version of Google is much more than a web browser. One of the cool features is its ability to perform searches using images. This feature, called Google Goggles, is a creative way to search the Internet for image-based content (watch the video). See how it was used in a creative field trip experiment at the local museum.
These mobile Google capabilities offer a great way for students to explore material on the fly, using a variety of media. Any content, images, etc. that they find can be sent to a Google Drive account.
Find more creative ways teachers are using cell phones in the classroom HERE.
Celebrating Successes!
This week 3rd and 4th grade students began using MacBooks to explore how to be good Digital Citizens and how to stay safe online. Students are completing five learning modules through Common Sense Media's Digital Passport program. Mrs. Laura Dougherty's 3rd grade students were the first to get their hands on the MacBooks and did an AWESOME job!
I learned quite a bit from that first lesson and adjusted the lesson accordingly. Next, Mrs. Atina English, Mrs. Tina McMunn and Mrs. Anita Bates classes got started on their learning modules.
During our first visit students learned how to make safe passwords, how hard it is to multitask while using a cell phone to talk or text, and the importance of staying safe while online as well as online privacy.
Mrs. Atina English also used her Promethean board to help students understand place value by playing a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire style game! If you would like to play this game with your students, click HERE.
Did you use technology in your classroom this week? If so, please let me know so we can CELEBRATE your success here and SHARE what we are doing so others can learn too!