Archive of ‘Technology’ category

Socrative Student Response Systems

What can be better than the ability to turn any device connected to the internet into a student response system? Maybe the fact that it’s free, easy to use, and it grades for you?? Socrative does that.

Teacher and Student apps

Teacher and Student apps

Yes, Socrative has been around awhile but I didn’t take the time to delve into it until EdTechTeacher’s “The iPad Classroom” workshop in Atlanta. Our instructor, Shawn McCusker, used this quite a bit with us to demonstrate its benefits in the classroom setting.

So, on returning home I decided to test it out on family members. (Where else do I find students on a Friday night during the summer??) I chose the Space Race and it worked like a charm – despite the fact that my husband and 27 year old son were a bit competitive and we had to get past the complaining that “he started before me and that’s why I lost” (from my husband). But they did agree that this would be a fun way to practice what they had learned.

For those of you who haven’t used Socrative before, the interface is extremely intuitive and it doesn’t take long at all to set up a quiz. If fact, it will take longer to figure out what you want to test! Below is an excellent video from the Socrative website that explains how the system works.

You are able to create the quizzes on a computer or on a tablet (through a browser at the Socrative website or with the iPhone/iPad app or the Google Play Android app).

1 teacher

To participate, students can log in via the app (iTunes store or Google Play) or can visit the student site using their browser. Then they just enter the room number and follow the directions from there.

5 student view

I had my family play the Space Race. This could be projected so that students can see their progress compared to the other groups.

6 teacher view
For more resources, visit:

I’m looking forward to using this with students in the fall!

 

Creative Computing with Scratch

Scratch 2.0 is now out and it looks to be a very good upgrade. One of my goals this summer was to become more familiar with Scratch so that I could more effectively share it with my 4th graders. So, I was thrilled to discover the Creative Computing Online Workshop; a six-week course for those who want to learn more about using Scratch in the classroom.

The course started on Monday, June 3. Unfortunately, I was on vacation with my laptop and NO internet access! All I could do was read the multitude of posts coming through on my phone. It was very frustrating! Of course, the purpose of the vacation was to relax! So, upon arriving home today, I started working on this week’s projects.

Karen Brennan, along with several others, designed this course and if this week is any indication, it is going to be extremely useful in helping me learn how to better use Scratch with students.

One of our activities was an “About Me” project. Yes, mine is very simple but I was able to successfully use the broadcast block which has given me trouble before.

scratch about me

I’m looking forward to the upcoming weeks. It will be a challenge but I can tell much learning will be taking place!

Animal Camouflage: an ePub book by Second Graders

One of our second grade teachers, Mrs. Shapard, wanted her students to research an animal to develop an understanding of what camouflage, prey, protection, and habitat means. She wanted the students to be able to share the information in a way other than the usual oral report. Mrs. Shapard chose to use the Book Creator for iPad app since it’s an easy way to make an ePub book. The app allows students to type text, insert images, and record narration. A new feature of the app allows users to make a book then email it. All books can then be combined to make one class book.

Because we only have only one class set of iPads that can be checked out, the students just wrote a few basic facts for their individual books. We were able to get the set for two different class sessions.

During the first session, the students were to use the Drawing Box app to draw two pictures: one of their animal and one of the animal in camouflage. Most had enough time to finish their illustrations.

The next week, I started out with everyone following along as I discussed the tools in the Book Creator app. It’s such an intuitive app that there were few questions and as students discovered tools they shared information with their peers. After the students wrote the animal facts, formatted their text, and inserted their illustrations, they were ready to record. Again, the app makes this super easy! While students dispersed to various corners of the room, I took pictures for their author pages.

Next step – email the book. All were sent to me and then combined into one class book. The only negative to combining books in the Book Creator app is that there is always an empty page between books (or at least I haven’t figured out how to avoid that). But, that’s a perfect spot for an “About the Author” page.

Taking this picture was probably more difficult than any other part of the process! Every time we thought we were ready to snap the photo, someone’s screen would change to something other than their animal picture. That would be fixed, then it would happen to someone else. It was rather humorous! After dissolving into fits of laughter several times, we were finally able to get all screens showing an animal at the same time!

We hope you enjoy this book from Mrs. Shapard’s class of animal lovers!

Link to the class book: To read the ePub book, you must click on the book link below while on an iOS device with the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch). The book will not open on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book link. We hope you enjoy the students’ work!

Animals and their Camouflage by Mrs. Shapard’s Class

Directions to download to your iOS device:

    • You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
    • Click on the book link above.
    • Tap on the download button.
    • Choose Open in . . . and then choose Open in iBooks
    • The book is now in iBooks.

Lessons Learned:

  • Always pre-write! The first day the students had the iPads, we had planned to only spend time drawing the two illustrations. However, some students finished early so we let them go ahead and start writing directly in the Book Creator. The result was that we had all kinds of writing! Not everyone knew what they wanted to say and even though we had discussed where to write the information, there was no specific order. After class, Mrs. Shapard and I debriefed and decided that it would be best to have those who had started their book begin again. The students would write a rough draft in class and when they had the iPads again, would type the information into the app. When we met again, there was a bit of groaning from the few who had started their book the week before but they quickly realized that their expertise was needed to help those who hadn’t had the chance to explore the app!
  • Make sure students know how to save the illustration to the photo roll! All drawing apps are just different enough that exporting can be confusing. In Drawing Box, saving the image doesn’t automatically send it to the photo roll. There were a few moments of panic when students couldn’t find their picture but that was easily remedied!
  • Use students as “teachers”! Students learn quickly and are invaluable in helping others who have questions; especially when a teacher can’t get there quickly to help!

How Does that Mouse Work?

Not so many years ago we spent time teaching young children how to work a computer mouse. But then computer-savvy children arrived knowing exactly how a it worked.

Enter the era of tablets! Touch screens are the norm now and we’re back to providing mouse practice: when to click, when to click and drag, and so on.

Fortunately there are lots of fun games to help students with those skills. We practiced several with our kindergartners yesterday in the lab. I have several links on my TVS TechnoWizards website. They really enjoyed the activities as they had lots of practice with mouse skills.

The funniest thing happened though. One child had her name card on the monitor (the signal that the student needs help) so I went over to check on her. In a very frustrated voice, she announced, “I can’t get it to go down. What I want to do is down there and it won’t move.” As she spoke, her little fingers were doing their very best to touch that monitor and scroll that page down so that she could find what she was looking for! Gently, I moved her fingers down to the mouse and demonstrated how to use it to scroll down the page. “Oh, I get it now,” was her sweet reply.

Times have changed . . .

En Mi Mochila

I absolutely love what our K-2 Spanish teacher did with her second graders!

Sra. Ross had her students write about what they might find in their backpacks.What a fun way to practice Spanish vocabulary for school items!

But Sra. Ross didn’t stop there – she photographed each student’s illustration and uploaded it to the Fotobabble app on her iPad. Next the students recorded themselves reading their text in Spanish. Sra. Ross then decided to share the work by adding QR codes that linked to the students’ Fotobabbles to the paper backpacks and posting them on a bulletin board. Parents and visitors can now visit the board, scan the QR codes and listen to the children speak Spanish!

Here is just one of the Fotobabbles (flash version):

Here is a non-flash version:

The project took awhile since it’s a bit hard to get everyone recorded with one iPad but it was well worth it – a wonderful way to share what students are learning with parents!

Gifts of the Heart: Creating an eBook with Second Graders

I so enjoy sharing what our teachers do with technology and, although I’m a bit late in posting this, it’s too good NOT to share!

Before the winter holidays, Mrs. Cooper, one of our second grade teachers, wanted to build on her lesson of “Holiday Traditions Around the World.” Each year she reads the book, The Legend of the Poinsettia, by Tomie dePaola. The class discusses traditions of Las Posados in Mexico but this year she took it a step further. During the rereading of the book, Mrs. Cooper asked her students to draw a scene or a picture that came to mind as they were inspired by the simple gift that Lucida was able to give to the Baby Jesus in lieu of the beautiful blanket she intended to give.

Mrs. Cooper chose to have the students do this on the iPads.  Each student picked one of the drawing apps (Drawing Box, Art Set, or Color Box HD) and worked on their drawing as they listened to the story. When the drawings were complete, the students emailed the illustration to me (new experience and they did extremely well!).

The next step was to write a statement about the meaning of a “gift from the heart” – this was done in their journals.

I pulled everything together in the Book Creator app and then had the students record their voice as they read their statement. Book Creator is a wonderfully easy, yet powerful way to make an ebook to share with parents. This was a class book made on a single iPad but it’s easy enough for students to do on their own!

Here is a short video showing how Mrs. Cooper and her students went through the bookmaking process.

The Making of an eBook from Trinity Valley School on Vimeo.

This was a fun and meaningful way to share student work with parents. It took a bit longer than planned – but only because the days before a long holiday are extremely busy! We weren’t able to finish the book till January but that’s alright! The students enjoyed the project and are thrilled that they have a book that they can read on their iOS devices.

Link to Mrs. Cooper’s class book: The Book Creator app only allows you to open the ePub book on an iOS device that has the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch); not on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book link. We hope you enjoy their book!

Mrs. Cooper’s Class Book: Gifts of the Heart

Directions to download to your iOS device:

  • You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
  • Click on the book link above.
  • Tap on the download button.
  • Choose Open in iBooks
  • The book is now in iBooks.

If you do not have an iOS device, click below for the PDF version. This is the print copy of the ebook. You will not be able to hear the recordings or view the video from this but you will be able to read the story.
Gifts of the Heart pdf

 

Screencasting on the iPads

Last week our technology director discussed planning a workshop for our teachers to cover how to “keep the learning going” in the case of school closure due to winter weather or illnesses of students as well as teachers. There are several topics we’ll discuss – Skype, blogs, wikis, etc. My focus will be using screencasting apps to share lessons.

We are focusing on three apps: ScreenChomp, ShowMe, and Explain Everything (the first 2 are already on our iPads; EE will be added this week). All of the apps we’ll be discussing allow the user to:

  • record audio and annotations
  • change pen color
  • erase parts of the screen or delete everything
  • import a background image from camera roll or take a photo to use for background
  • upload in some fashion for online viewing

Let’s start with ScreenChomp, developed by TechSmith Labs. ScreenChomp is free and is extremely easy to learn. Background photos can be added from the camera roll or you can take a photo. There are 3 different pens, each with a choice of colors and pen size. The app allows the user to record, pause, and continue recording. The finished video can be shared by sharing the link with others.

 

 ShowMe, like ScreenChomp, is a free app and very easy to use with just a few basic tools available for creating a screencast. Again, the user is able to record, pause, and continue. There is only one pen size with 7 color choices. ShowMe requires the user to create an account (free). When the account is created, you are able to choose topics to follow. One of the best things about ShowMe is that the access to numerous educational screencasts shared by teachers. Search for a topic and you are likely to find that someone has already created a teaching video.

Among the free apps is another that is certainly worth consideration – EduCreations is very similar to the above-mentioned apps in that the interface is simple; not many pen color choices, one width for pens; text can be typed as well. However, besides being able to insert pictures from the camera roll (pictures can also be locked in place which is a nice feature), there are background choices for lined or graph paper and a coordinate grid – excellent for math! Like ShowMe, an account is needed to post and share lessons. Plus, you are able to search their collections of educational videos.

Explain Everything is a $2.99 app with a slightly steeper learning curve than the previously mentioned free apps. However, I used this with 2 fourth graders and they picked it up in literally seconds! (see post)

There are several advantages to Explain Everything:

  • ability to add slides and rearrange them in the slide sorter
  • import a variety of file types
  • many options for color and pen thickness
  • ability to add shapes, text
  • has a laser pointer
  • record, pause, re-record without having to start over completely
  • many export options – YouTube, DropBox, etc

Really, what you choose is personal preference! But don’t think that screencasting is just for you as the teacher. Yes, it’s an excellent method to use to create mini-lessons for your students. It’s also a way to assess student understanding and to peer teach. Let your students explain a topic to share with peers!

To learn more:

QR Codes in Music

I wish you could have seen the excitement of our music teacher, Judy Holloway, when she discoverd the power of QR Codes! As a preface, some members of our co-curricular team dressed as the “Quick Response Team” for Halloween. We had QR codes on our backs that directed people to either our website or animoto videos of students. Mrs. Holloway had so much fun letting her students use her phone to “read” the codes (of course lower school students thought it was amazing!).

Mrs. Holloway’s 1st Animoto

The next day, Mrs. Holloway asked if I could meet with her to show her how to create her own QR codes. We started with Kaywa QR Code Generator, a great site to quickly create a code. Judy learned how to save the code as a picture and insert into a word document to print. But then we took it a step further. I showed Judy the Unitag website. This fun QR code generator allows you to personalize your code with colors, shapes, and more. We did a couple together. I went off to a conference and the next thing I know, Mrs. Holloway has created several animoto videos and QR codes. She placed the codes on her bulletin board so that parents can scan them as they wait for their children!

What a fun idea!

I am so excited to see how Mrs. Holloway is using this resource to share with our parents. But to me, the best part is watching Judy step out of her technology comfort zone. She has taken off with this! Way to go, Mrs. Holloway!

4th Graders Create a Blog Commenting Video!

A couple of weeks ago, a few of Mr. d’Auteuil’s students finished their computer lab assignments and wanted to know what they could do. I suggested that they form small groups and come up with a video to teach our younger students what makes an effective comment or a strong post on a blog.

A few students absolutely took off with the idea, giving up recess for a week to write and practice their ideas. One group of boys finished today! Jitesh, Bryson, Jake, Luke, and Kishan came up with a few ideas that they thought were important to share with others. It’s under a minute long but that’s okay! This is their first production of what I hope will be many more.

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