Sunday, February 21, 2016
Socrative
Socrative is an app that allows you to check for student understanding in real time with immediate feedback. This application has a teacher and student log in. The teacher is able to create quizzes, polling questions, or class exit tickets in just a few short steps. The format for questioning includes true/false, short answer, and multiple choice. As an educator, you are able to share with other educators around the world. As students complete the quiz/questions, you are able to see their progress immediately as the results are sent to your account in real time. Through this app, the teacher has the ability to turn the quiz into a game as well to make the quiz more engaging and fun for the students. Socrative is made by Mastery Connect, which is an on-line assessment website. I have used this website in my classroom to help me create curriculum tests. Socrative is a free app and well worth the download. In my classroom, I have used Socrative in small groups. After completing a math intervention group, I will send them a question to review what we did in small group. Their answer to the question is their ticket back to their seat. I have also used Socrative in whole group instruction by putting the students into teams and letting them race each other to the finish line as a review before I start the next days lesson. Socrative is a great way to assess your students for understanding.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Gamification in Education
I chose to learn more about gamification in education. After reading the article on the following website: http://blog.tophat.com/4-ways-to-gamify-learning-in-your-classroom/ I have learned many things about the process of using gaming in your classroom. Gamification is the use of game mechanics and design to enhance non-game context. Basically, gamification in education would be taking curriculum content and presenting it to your students in a gaming fashion. With gamification, students complete assignments designed by the teacher and earn badges and character statuses as they complete and turn in various assignments. Gamification is a great tool being used to engage students in the lessons and become more involved in their own learning. Gamification allows students to take control of their own learning. Gamification also allows students to engage in a little friendly competition as they compete with each other to reach new levels and complete assignments. There are many "gaming" platforms available for educators to use, and choosing the correct one can be tricky. You need a platform that is easy for students to use, so that they will not be frustrated as they work toward their learning goals. Gamification has helped tremendously in the high school setting and can be successful in all areas of education.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Plickers
Plickers is an assessment tool that can be used in the classroom with the use of only one device. Each student is given a card with a scannable object on it. The card represents four different answer choices based on the way it is tilted. The teacher can give a question, students answer the question by tilting the card in the correct direction based on their answer choice, and then the teacher uses his/her device to scan the room. The teacher device will assess the answer choices and give the teacher immediate feedback of who answered the question correctly or incorrectly. This is a great formative assessment tool that gives the teacher immediate feedback during the lesson, but doesn't require each student to have their own device. Plickers is also an easy way to make sure that all students are engaged in the lesson.
I have used Plickers in my classroom mostly at the end of units in just about every subject. In math, you can create a multiple choice assessment to review the skill you taught. Students will work the problems out and then turn their Plicker card the correct way to answer the problem. This gives me immediate feedback and lets me know which students are ready to move on and which ones may need additional intervention. I have also used this in language arts in third grade to review the four sentence types. Students listened to the sentence I read and then turned their Plicker card to represent the sentence type they heard. I was once again able to scan the cards and see which students understood the sentence types and which ones did not.
I first heard of the Plicker cards at the AETC conference in Birmingham this past summer. I love the Plicker cards and they are easy to use since my school is not a BYOD school and I only have a few devices in my classroom. The students also love them, and they are always engaged in the lesson.
I have used Plickers in my classroom mostly at the end of units in just about every subject. In math, you can create a multiple choice assessment to review the skill you taught. Students will work the problems out and then turn their Plicker card the correct way to answer the problem. This gives me immediate feedback and lets me know which students are ready to move on and which ones may need additional intervention. I have also used this in language arts in third grade to review the four sentence types. Students listened to the sentence I read and then turned their Plicker card to represent the sentence type they heard. I was once again able to scan the cards and see which students understood the sentence types and which ones did not.
I first heard of the Plicker cards at the AETC conference in Birmingham this past summer. I love the Plicker cards and they are easy to use since my school is not a BYOD school and I only have a few devices in my classroom. The students also love them, and they are always engaged in the lesson.
Nearpod
Nearpod is an app that you can use in your classroom to present lessons and assess student learning. The app allows you to create and design lessons based on your curriculum directly from you iPad or iPhone. Nearpod also contains premade lessons that you can purchase or download for free. The Nearpod app has recently updated its database of lessons to include Common Core lessons that are already made and ready to be used. After the lesson is selected, the teacher can send the lesson to the students devices. Students can complete the lesson independently or they can actually follow along with the teacher as she is teaching the lesson in a whole group setting. The application will also allow you send assessments directly to their devices and when they are complete, the teacher can get immediate feedback of their performance and understanding.
I have not used this application in my classroom, mostly because we are not a BYOD school, but the possibilities are endless. If I did incorporate this into my classroom, I would use it in math. In a math lesson, I could teach the lesson to the students with them seeing it on their devices and then I would give them a problem from the lesson to work on their own. They would have to submit the problem to me on my device and I could see if they had mastered the skill I taught. I would then choose student responses to share with the class. This is a great way to show how students solve problems in different ways. Another way I would plan to use this in a classroom would be a in small group setting. I would push a close reading activity to each device and allow students to closely read and code the text on their devices. I would then share student responses with other students to show examples of "thinking" through the text and coding the text. Nearpod is a great app that is user friendly and a great way to engage students into an interactive lesson.
Resources:
http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.com/2014/02/nearpod.html
http://www.nearpod.com/
I have not used this application in my classroom, mostly because we are not a BYOD school, but the possibilities are endless. If I did incorporate this into my classroom, I would use it in math. In a math lesson, I could teach the lesson to the students with them seeing it on their devices and then I would give them a problem from the lesson to work on their own. They would have to submit the problem to me on my device and I could see if they had mastered the skill I taught. I would then choose student responses to share with the class. This is a great way to show how students solve problems in different ways. Another way I would plan to use this in a classroom would be a in small group setting. I would push a close reading activity to each device and allow students to closely read and code the text on their devices. I would then share student responses with other students to show examples of "thinking" through the text and coding the text. Nearpod is a great app that is user friendly and a great way to engage students into an interactive lesson.
Resources:
http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.com/2014/02/nearpod.html
http://www.nearpod.com/
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Intel Compute Stick
http://www.popsci.com/intels-150-compute-stick-turns-any-hdtv-windows-pc?src=SOC&dom=fb
The new Intel Compute stick is a small USB device that will turn any old TV screen into a fully functional computer. By connecting this device to an old TV screen or monitor, you will have the capabilities to do everything you can do with a low-end computer you may buy at Wal-Mart. It will give you 2GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, an atom processor, and even a Micro SD slot to add more things to your "homemade" computer if you would like. This stick sells for roughly $150. This stick would be a very economical purchase for the classroom. Desktops and laptops are very expensive compared to $150. The Intel Compute Stick could help make technology in the classroom a more attainable goal for administrators. The Intel Compute Stick could be used in the classroom with the white board, and make the white board interactive. The teacher could have educational websites directly on her board without having to use her computer. I believe the Intel Compute Stick is a good choice for quality and cost effectiveness in the educational classroom. What a great way to get technology in our student's hands at an affordable price.
Video: Compute Stick
The new Intel Compute stick is a small USB device that will turn any old TV screen into a fully functional computer. By connecting this device to an old TV screen or monitor, you will have the capabilities to do everything you can do with a low-end computer you may buy at Wal-Mart. It will give you 2GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, an atom processor, and even a Micro SD slot to add more things to your "homemade" computer if you would like. This stick sells for roughly $150. This stick would be a very economical purchase for the classroom. Desktops and laptops are very expensive compared to $150. The Intel Compute Stick could help make technology in the classroom a more attainable goal for administrators. The Intel Compute Stick could be used in the classroom with the white board, and make the white board interactive. The teacher could have educational websites directly on her board without having to use her computer. I believe the Intel Compute Stick is a good choice for quality and cost effectiveness in the educational classroom. What a great way to get technology in our student's hands at an affordable price.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Games Can Make the World Better
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
After watching the TED Talk with Jane McGonigal, I am truly in awe about the suggestions she made in regard to gaming. McGonigal suggested that games can be used to solve real world problems. I believe she is correct. People spend hours upon hours immersed in online gaming worlds. The gaming worlds are popular because of how they make gamers feel. They feel needed because they are trusted with an important task, they are collaborating with others in a social network, and they are a part of an inspiring story. The self-gratification from a video game, is not always as easy in real life. The gamers are completing hard and meaningful work and that serves as part of their motivation to win the game. Most gamers strive to succeed at the EPIC WIN, which they may not always experience in real life.
I believe the concept of gaming and how it affects a person can be related to education and learning. If as educators, we make learning into a game, our students can experience these "gaming concepts" as they engage in meaningful learning experiences. Integrating gaming into the learning environment, can change how students view their capabilities. It will make learning new skills more interesting, and therefore students will take responsibility for their own achievements.
McGonigal discussed that people will spend roughly 10,000 hours playing video games by the time they are 21 years old. She also stated that students spend roughly 10,080 hours at school between 5th and 12th grade. Malcolm Gladwell suggests that if you spend 10,000 hours working at something, you will become as high of an achiever as the best people in the world. I think there is a direct parallel between this statement for both gaming and education. We already know that gaming is self-satisfying and we know why, maybe we should dig deeper in the education system and see what we can do to make education just as self-satisfying, so that our students can not only be good gamers, but be good problem solvers in real-life too!
After watching the TED Talk with Jane McGonigal, I am truly in awe about the suggestions she made in regard to gaming. McGonigal suggested that games can be used to solve real world problems. I believe she is correct. People spend hours upon hours immersed in online gaming worlds. The gaming worlds are popular because of how they make gamers feel. They feel needed because they are trusted with an important task, they are collaborating with others in a social network, and they are a part of an inspiring story. The self-gratification from a video game, is not always as easy in real life. The gamers are completing hard and meaningful work and that serves as part of their motivation to win the game. Most gamers strive to succeed at the EPIC WIN, which they may not always experience in real life.
I believe the concept of gaming and how it affects a person can be related to education and learning. If as educators, we make learning into a game, our students can experience these "gaming concepts" as they engage in meaningful learning experiences. Integrating gaming into the learning environment, can change how students view their capabilities. It will make learning new skills more interesting, and therefore students will take responsibility for their own achievements.
McGonigal discussed that people will spend roughly 10,000 hours playing video games by the time they are 21 years old. She also stated that students spend roughly 10,080 hours at school between 5th and 12th grade. Malcolm Gladwell suggests that if you spend 10,000 hours working at something, you will become as high of an achiever as the best people in the world. I think there is a direct parallel between this statement for both gaming and education. We already know that gaming is self-satisfying and we know why, maybe we should dig deeper in the education system and see what we can do to make education just as self-satisfying, so that our students can not only be good gamers, but be good problem solvers in real-life too!
3D Printing
3D printing and Rapid Prototyping both build models by building layer by layer from STL data to create a 3D object. However, they are different in some aspects. 3D printing uses smallers parts, they operate on an 8 inch scale, while Rapid Prototyping operates on a 10 inch scale. 3D printing is also cheaper, Rapid Prototyping can cost 2X as much as 3D printing. 3D printers are also easier to maintain and they require less materials. 3D printers are also less complex to use, while Rapid Prototyping can be very complex.
The 3D printer can be used in the classroom in many ways. For example, the engineering student can print out models to study and work with. The biology classroom may printout cross sections of the heart for students to study. The history classroom may printout artifacts to study closer, with more detail. Finally, the geography classroom can printout topography maps to study in depth. In the elementary classroom, where I teach, I can think of many exciting ways to use the 3D printer. In math I teach area and perimeter. I could have my students design their buildings on graph paper, and then print them in 3D. When I teach my unit on 3D shapes, they could design something using the shapes and print them out in a 3D image. In writing, my students could design a character as they write a narrative story. They could then print out their designed character to bring the character to life. Finally, if I had a 3D printer and software, I would be most excited about using the printer to solve real life problems. I would present my students with a problem and then let them design something that could be a solution to the problem. For example, I may tell the students that they need to design something that they can use to cover their test papers in the classroom to prevent cheating. The students would then use the software to design an item and then print it using the 3D printer.
There are numerous things that can be done with a 3D printer in regards to education. A 3D printer brings a child's work to life, it makes their learning experience real and meaningful. In the 21st century classroom, a 3D printer would be a great addition to the learning experience.
The 3D printer can be used in the classroom in many ways. For example, the engineering student can print out models to study and work with. The biology classroom may printout cross sections of the heart for students to study. The history classroom may printout artifacts to study closer, with more detail. Finally, the geography classroom can printout topography maps to study in depth. In the elementary classroom, where I teach, I can think of many exciting ways to use the 3D printer. In math I teach area and perimeter. I could have my students design their buildings on graph paper, and then print them in 3D. When I teach my unit on 3D shapes, they could design something using the shapes and print them out in a 3D image. In writing, my students could design a character as they write a narrative story. They could then print out their designed character to bring the character to life. Finally, if I had a 3D printer and software, I would be most excited about using the printer to solve real life problems. I would present my students with a problem and then let them design something that could be a solution to the problem. For example, I may tell the students that they need to design something that they can use to cover their test papers in the classroom to prevent cheating. The students would then use the software to design an item and then print it using the 3D printer.
There are numerous things that can be done with a 3D printer in regards to education. A 3D printer brings a child's work to life, it makes their learning experience real and meaningful. In the 21st century classroom, a 3D printer would be a great addition to the learning experience.
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