LBS 850 

week 4 Blog Post

Discovering new tools...

Google has seemed to corner the market as far at online tools. Google has a teacher training site page with tutorials on how to navigate all the available uses. With Google Educators can provide instant feedback and track a student’s progress, manage curriculum assignments, and grading all in one place, work online or offline, anytime, and on any device, store and organize assignments, documents collaborate, share feedback, and work together with your students in real time on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, create forms, quizzes, and surveys and much more! However, they have some serious competition and below are some that I explored this week.

1. Animoto

One of the best ways to make sure students understand a topic is to let them explain the concept on their own.  Using a video tool such as Animoto is great for allowing some independence and creativity by having students explain something they have learned.  Maybe it is a math concept or a scientific explanation, or to test their reading comprehension by explaining a chapter or short summary of a book or even by making a book trailer.  

2 Flickr

I think of Flickr as a photo album much like my photo app on my Mac.  I use my Mac photo app to add captions, put groups of people or events in folders.  One thought for flickr is to have students in art class create a portfolio of their work.  In my middle school students have the same art teacher for the entire 3 years.  This would be a great way to show their progression from 6^th grade to 8^th grade with a visual display that they can share and “take” with them to high school.

3. SurveyMonkey

Have students create their own polling questions. Learning how to construct surveys is a valuable lesson for students.  They learn to understand how to word questions, consider their audience, etc.  They could perhaps poll their fellow classmates on what they think of school lunches or during an election it to see how students feel about candidates or issues (climate change, guns in schools, etc).

5. Glogster

This may seem obvious, but I can see Glogster being used as an alternative to traditional poster by combining linked or embedded text, video, images, and music. I am currently having students make posters showing fiction books on one side and non fiction on the other.  This is involving a lot of cutting out book covers from catalogs, glue, poster board, markers, etc.. I will try this on Glogster next time to avoid all the mess and need for supplies.  I also love the timeline template which as unlimited uses for almost any subject.  Another idea is to have students research a country and create a virtual poster.  They could design it as a travel brochure or just have facts such as country flag, statistics and facts.

7. Screencast-o-matic

I would love to use this first for myself.  I would produce tutorials for myself because after the summer break I sometimes need to remind myself how to use different tools.  I usually take tons of notes but having a shot of the screen as I remind myself how I used the app would be great.  It can also be used to explain a lesson for those who are absent.  I would post it on the Google Classroom so they could view it at any time.

8. BubblUs

Mind maps visually connect large and small ideas. This can be used in the classroom for things such as Brainstorming, studying and memorization, problem solving, and planning out ideas.  I think in the library or in an ELA/reading class you could start with a title of a book the students have read and map out where, when, why, how to communicate comprehension. 

10. Doodle

Teachers can use Doodle to schedule one-to-one meetings with their students, plan parent teacher conferences or for teachers to book time in the library. Doodle in the Classroom The Benefits of Online Scheduling is a great article to start with.

11. Timeline

Create a timeline of a specific period in history, create a biographical timeline about a selected person or even their own life.