There is never a shortage of new apps out there. Every time I turn around, I hear of the latest and greatest app out there for education. But is it a good app? If you are constantly looking for new educational apps or wondering which app can work best for the skills you are teaching, look no more!! Common Sense Education welcomes you to Graphite, a platform created to make it easier for educators to find the best apps, games, and websites for the classroom. Educational experts have examined each product deeply to determine which standards are supported. Just use our intuitive filters to select products by standard. Check it out! It's the Pinterest for Technology lovers! @ WWW.GRAPHITE.ORG
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Blendspace is an easy-to-use platform for creating multimedia lessons that kids can access online. Using a drag-and-drop interface, you can organize videos, text, links, images, and quizzes into cubes, then organize them to create lessons, or "canvases, " for your students to complete independently. Content can be pulled from YouTube, Google, Flickr, and other online sources, as well as your own computer, Dropbox, or Google Drive. There's also a bookmarking tool that lets you add websites to your Blendspace collection. Students can then move through the content in a linear fashion, responding to prompts in a sidebar comment area or taking quizzes along the way. They can also create their own lessons that can be private or shared, or remix a lesson. With a free teacher account, you can create unlimited classes of up to 35 students. Free school accounts allow for unlimited classes with an unlimited number of students. To join a class, students use a join code that you provide. Videos are often a good match for learners who are interacting with content for the first time or want to revisit a tricky concept. The commenting feature also allows for some limited interaction between students as well as a way to interact with the content. Still, a student who doesn't understand a concept from a Blendspace lesson doesn't have any tools to help him or her attempt to learn the content in a new way. You can make use of the gallery of canvases available to teachers who may want ideas. You can also quiz students as they move through material using Blendspace's multiple-choice quiz builder. Using the embed code and share links provided by Blendspace for each canvas, you're also able to add a canvas to your classroom website or to a Learning Management System like Edmodo. Blendspace can be a great addition to the classroom, but it doesn't replace instruction. Introducing PLICKERS (Paper Clickers) If you taught for a while, you have probably at least seen a classroom set of clickers somewhere on your travels. These student response systems were all the rage for a while. They looked like TV remote controls and were designed as a way that students could respond to a quiz or oral question by pressing a button to indicate the answer that they chose. Each clicker was unique to that student so that the teacher could see who answered what and when.
Fast forward a few years and today you can experience the future of classroom clickers – a free tool called Plickers. So, how does it work? Each student is given a card with a unique visual code. The code has 4 sides, each lettered A, B, C, and D. The student holds the card so that the letter they choose to answer the question with is at the top of their card. The teacher uses the iOS or Android app on their smartphone to slowly scan the room. The app recognizes the cards, records who the teacher assigned them to, and captures the answer that the student chose. The app will only record each student’s answer once, so you need not worry about a second scan skewing your data. It’s a genius idea. You don’t need to be 1:1, you don’t need an expensive set of classroom clickers, and you don’t need to share devices among your students. All you need is some paper, and an app. The results appear live and in real time on the teacher’s device, or they can be projected on a large screen for the whole class to see via the Plicker’s website if required. Does it work 100% every time? Not always. If you laminate the cards, you may have some issues recognizing the code due to the glare from indoor lighting, but for the price (free) it's certainly worth giving it a try.
I am very excited to start my technology blog. My mission is to share all of the ideas flowing in my head with all of you, but I have a lot of catching up to do. I plan to blog my tech thoughts and ideas weekly so make sure you come back often. Digital citizenship Every day, your students are tested with each post, search, chat, text message, file download, and profile update. Do they connect with like minds or spill too much information? Do they behave creatively or borrow ideas recklessly? Do they respect relationships or inadvertently damage reputations? While students and teachers alike are anxious to integrate new learning tools into the classroom, we must err on the side of caution. It is our responsibility to empower our students by giving them the fundamental lessons in digital citizenship. Students must enter the world of social media and digital media with a good defense. They must understand the repercussions of irresponsibly using social and digital media and what affects it may have on their future. Give students time to use the device, but make sure they understand that the device is an outlet to many new avenues. The best offense always begins with a solid defense and is directly applicable to responsible use of classroom technology and social media. While we want our students to get out there and use new and emerging technologies, we need to give them the fundamentals to play the best defense. Educate, before you integrate. Have students watch the Internet Safety video at BrainPop, Jr. More resources to teach digital citizenship
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AuthorGreetings Everyone! Thank you for visiting my blog! Allow me to introduce myself. My Name is Melanie Kestory. I am currently a Blended Learning Specialist in Volusia County I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education. I also earned my Masters in Instructional Technology from Nova University in 2010. On a personal note, I was born in Montréal, Canada, however, I was raised here in Florida. I have been married for 16 years. My husband is also a teacher at University High School. I have two beautiful daughters: Kaci and Kori ages 16 and 12. My mission is to share my love and enthusiasm of educational technology with anyone willing to listen. Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions or comments, my door is always open and my computer is always on. Archives
September 2015
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