Day Eleven: Edmodo

Edmodo is a web based communication tool designed for use in the K- 12 classroom. The website has the appeal of a social networking site, while providing a secure and safe environment for teachers and students to collaborate. 


Video: 20 Ideas for using edmodo with your students.

Edmodo promotes social learning in classrooms with idea sharing, discussion board posts and teacher-student communication. The site allows teachers to create groups of students and disseminate information to those students instantly. Teachers can create an assignment calendar so that students can keep track of homework online. 


Video: A teacher currently using edmodo in her classroom

Additionally, teachers can post assignments, documents, videos and polls for students to access. Edmodo also has an App, which can be downloaded from the App Store and allows students to access their virtual classroom from their mobile devices and tablets.


Create your profile on edmodo today!
www.edmodo.com


FreeTech4Teachers:  15 Ways to use edmodo in your classroom: 

Day Ten: LibGuides

Lib Guides is an integrated online research tool that directs students to an organized, easily accessible menu of resources. 

Here is how it works: 

Teachers submit the “ingredients” for a proposed research guide. The guide could include a description or lesson plan for a particular assignment, rubric, associated research sites and web tools that students may need in completing a project. The media specialist then enriches the teacher’s ideas by including other streams of information such as databases and search engine widgets, books available in the library, tips for research, citation rules etc. to create all-encompassing pathfinders for students. These guides encourage students to easily navigate a variety of resources at school or from home in a safe, structured environment.

Middletown North HS has been creating guides since September and the idea has really taken off! Bayshore MS has just started with their guides but anticipates the usefulness of this tool for the future. 

Watch the features guide video, check out our own guides along with some of our favorites and explore the Lib Guides Best of Community Site where you can access 226,103 guides by 41,078 librarians at 2,888 libraries worldwide!

Check out these LibGuides!

Middletown High School North

Bayshore Middle School

Springfield High School

Creekview High School

Brisbane Grammar


Best of LibGuides Community

Day Nine: Online Whiteboards

You have all had this situation:  student sends you an email with a question about a HW problem/example from class and you just can't communicate your answer properly through an email.  Sometimes you can get your ideas across and then the student sends an email reply right back and now you have this long back and forth that seems to take forever through email.  Enter the web whiteboard!

One of my favorites is A Web Whiteboard.  The reason this one stands out above the others that I use is its simplicity. As you can see on the right, you get a selection of colors and pen thicknesses, and that's pretty much it.  While the ones below have a lot more bells and whistles, all of those extra features tends to slow your connection and make using an online whiteboard tedious.  The one downside to AWW is that it works best with a tablet device or Tablet PC with a stylus.  I have worked with students on this and if you are not comfortable using your mouse to draw, AWW can be frustrating.

For as simple AWW is, Dabbleboard is equally complicated.  You can add pictures, diagrams, curves, arrows, shapes, typed text, as well as hand-written notes.  This is a great alternative when you don't have a stylus for drawing or a tablet device because you can type the text and then draw arrows and lines to connect ideas. Dabbleboard also allows you to sign up for an account to save your work to either return to later or email to others.  However, because of all of the options, Dabbleboard is tough to you on anything other than a computer.

Now if you are a math teacher using an online whiteboard, Scriblink is the way to go.  It has options for mathematical symbols and complete formulas, and a button to turn the whiteboard into graph paper for creating graphs out of the equations.  Like Dabbleboard, it has a lot of options in colors, pen thicknesses, and the ability to upload pictures.  However, it has one major downside and that is it is based on Java.  Java is fantastic on computers, but can't be run on iPhones and iPads.

The reason I turned to online whiteboards is the ability to collaborate with students in real time.  All three of the tools here give you a unique web address that you can share with your students to allow them to see what you are writing and have them add to the drawing.  Dabbleboard and Scriblink both give you a chat window on the side (similar to Instant Messenger) which allows students to pose questions to you while are adding to the drawing.  Because they have the ability to have an unlimited number of users, students could even answer questions posed by other students all within the chat window.

You are probably wondering why I still prefer A Web Whiteboard when the others offer so much more.  The night before my Honors Chemistry class had their midterm exam I ran an online review session using a Google+ Hangout and AWW.  With computers coming with microphones and webcams standard, there is no reason to have a chat window.  Even if they don't have a webcam, they can still ask questions through their microphone, hear my response and see the answer appear on the whiteboard.  As I was running the review, I would write reactions and formulas on the screen, and my students could make changes as I was writing if they wanted to ask questions to develop a deeper understanding.

So I have given you an easy way to use online whiteboards outside the classroom, but how about during class?  Let me pose a few scenarios to you:

1. A classroom set of iPads is brought in and every student takes one to his/her desk.  You have a DO NOW problem posted for the students to complete.  You post the web address for the whiteboard on the screen and the students direct their browser to the location.  Randomly you call on Johnny to share his answer with the class.  Unfortunately, Johnny is a little shy so instead of getting up in front of class he just writes his response onto the screen of the iPad and not only does it appear on the screen in front, but it also appears on every iPad in the room.
2. One of your students, Victoria, brings in her personal laptop from home.  You have shared the address for the online whiteboard with the class and Victoria is watching you complete the DO NOW on her screen as the rest of the class sees it appear at the front of the room.  She uses JING or another screencast software and records the entire problem with your voice in the background explaining the problem while she is also taking notes in her notebook. She emails it to herself or puts it in Dropbox to watch at home.  You have also been recording it and post it to the class' YouTube Channel for students who were absent.
3. You are having the students practice their vocabulary with simple games.  Two students are playing Hangman on their iPads.  As Alex is writing out the clues on his screen, they are appearing on Evan's screen.  Evan writes a letter on his screen, and Alex puts it into the appropriate location in the words. Sounds too simple for an online whiteboard, right?  Forgot to mention that while Alex is sitting in your class in NJ, Evan is halfway across the country in a classroom in Iowa.

So, how can you see yourself using an online whiteboard in your teaching?  How do you see your students using this to collaborate with....their classmates?  ....students in other schools?  ....Scientists/experts in a specific field?

[Editor's Note: Podcasts/Screencasts will be detailed in a later post and tools such as JING will be demonstrated.]

Weekend Update 2

The Technology Integration Teams are so impressed with the comments that are being left with each of the posts.  We wanted to share some statistics from the past week:
Number of followers of the blog:  48
Number of page views in the last 7 days: 1208
Number of page views in February: 2734
Total number of comments left:  201

It is also with great pleasure to announce that the grand prize has been purchased and is currently in transit to the district.  Dr. George has purchased a....well, let's just say it is made by a company with a fruit for the logo.  The winner will be picked on March 1st and announced both on the blog and at the reception on March 2nd.

Now, it is with great pleasure that our Weekend Update takes a turn to focus on a particular teacher.  Rose Smith, Art teacher at Thompson School contacted us about becoming a contributor to the blog.  Even though the blog is maintained by the Tech Committees of South and Bayshore, we didn't want to deny that enthusiasm.  Therefore, we decided to showcase the website of Mrs. Smith and her students.

Wall of Student Artwork

Main Artsonia Page

We took a look through the amazing artwork the students were producing and wanted to share our favorites

It is makes us so proud to bring attention the work of teachers like Mrs. Smith.  Her students are doing remarkable work and Mrs. Smith is sharing that with the world through this website.  We applaud you, Mrs. Smith.  Keep up the great work!!

Day Eight: Animoto

Animoto is another great presentation tool that incorporates images, text, audio and video.  Teachers can apply for a free educational account and will be provided with a code that students can enter to create their presentations.  Animoto is very easy to use and my favorite part is it times your images, text, video clips, etc. to the piece of music you select. Your students can then download their finished presentations to your class or school Youtube channel to share with the school, parents and the community at large!

Here is a very simple written tutorial for those of you who want something quick and easy.
Here is a series of video webinars to learn how to use the new features in animoto.
Here is a history teacher who used animoto to help current events come alive for his students.
There is an iphone and ipad app for animoto users (good for students with those devices)

Watch a how-to video here:

Here are some ways animoto can be used (think of ways you can incorporate this tool in the learning experience in your classroom):

• Make any lesson come to life with stunning audio and visual.
• Use at the beginning of the day as a ‘teaser’ for what your students can look forward to learning each day.
• Use to teach complex concepts in History, Maths, Science. Students will respond to new media in the classroom.
• Allow your students to display knowledge of a concept using Animoto.
• Students can each create an Animoto showcasing who they are through pictures and music.
• Vocabulary activities are limitless. For example, pictures students take with a digital camera could  illustrate a word, a concept, or a learning activity.
• Ideal for digital storytelling in the classroom setting. Animoto is completely web-based, students can create videos from school and continue working on them at home.
• Celebrations of student achievements create a learning environment that is conducive to learning. Spotlight the learning!
• Find pictures of different geography features by using the internet or your own pictures. Label the pictures according to their feature.
• Book trailers are a great way to engage students’ interest before reading a book. Students can also create trailers to share with other classmates.
• Create slideshows which demonstrate student reflection on their learning.
  via techmeetsed.com

Watch a 7^th grade Middletown student sample.

Animoto is an effective tool for making information come to life in a very modern-looking platform.  The presentations can be created to look like music videos which appeals to students.  Some of my colleagues and I have had great success using Animoto in our classrooms.  Have you tried it?

Day Seven: Youtube

Today we will look at an old favorite, youtube, in a new light.  Over the years youtube has grown to be more than just a place for teachers to go and get video clips to show in class; there are many more options available for educators to use and integrate this resource into their curriculum. So let's look at some of the advantages of the new youtube, that we will call youtube 2.0.

Besides getting video clips, you can set up a youtube channel for your class. This can be a place to house all of the videos you show and showcase the videos your students create.  You can create playlists (groups of specific videos) for your different units, just for student videos, or class favorites. It can serve as a multimedia portal for the teacher, students and parents alike, as you can embed your channel onto your website or blog.   Here is one Middletown teacher's youtube channel. Maybe Middletown will have its own district channel on youtube soon with professional development videos for teachers, or maybe your school will have a channel highlighting events for parents and the community to share.


Over the years youtube has evolved and grown into a place where every facet of society is represented with a channel. There are major universities (go on and find your alma mater, I found mine) , established news outlets, traditional educational organizations, even youtube itself has it own channel where you can rent full length movies and one that highlights news (be sure to check out their blog that keeps readers up to date with youtube). Think of your go to website, education or content area resource, they most likely have a channel on youtube with video content for the public's use that you can subscribe to and receive notifications as they update their channel with new content. I recently found a substantial list of "intelligent youtube channels" (you be the judge), as well as, the 100 must see youtube channels for teachers.

One of the newest resources is the youtube teacher's channel, it has k-12 content area categories with preselected videos for educational use. Disclaimer: I am not sure who is curating the content and if they align with state or national standards. I will say I have noticed they have chosen a few videos that I have for my students. Being able to go to this page will save time and energy in your future video collecting.


If you venture over to youtube's EDU page you will find a smorgasbord of education related content. There are full university lectures and courses as well as content for the lifelong learner. The level of material found here is ideal for high school teachers.

                                                                       
For some inspiration, try RSA's animate page, which has Sir Ken Robinson's wildly popular animation video talk.

Youtube is still the number one go to site to learn how to do practically anything! I use it to learn how to do everything from an e-portfolio to how to use the latest technology.  You can create a playlist with "how to" videos for a specific unit or to reinforce skills used all school year, like this one on English grammar rules. You can search for playlists that other users have created by using the search box and filtering for playlist.

Are you looking at youtube differently yet? Well here are some tools to help with your youtube experience:


There are two sites that allows you to collaboratively watch youtube videos. Groups of students can watch videos together and have an online discussion.
There is a technique to create an "Adventure Story" where the viewer decides what will happen during different parts in the video.
Don't want to show the entire video? Now you can show a portion of it using Tubechop.
With Dragontape you can create a "mix tape"video using a series of video sections you string together.
We have all experienced the internet slow down from time to time, with Saveyoutube you can download a video for offline use.
Overstream allows you to add subtitles to videos and youtube now allows auto captioning for all videos.
If you want to browse youtube without all of the visual clutter, try Clea.nr, it is an extension for chrome, firefox and safari that cleans up your visual space on youtube.
Finally, if you want to edit your own video, you can do it right on your own channel. Youtube has its own video editor, that has a low learning curve and is extremely convenient.

We hope we gave you some ideas to use youtube in your 21st century classroom!
There are so many other ways to use youtube, please share yours with us.......

Day Six: Today's Meet

TodaysMeet (www.todaysmeet.com) is a Web 2.0 tool that allows students to “backchannel” ideas, questions, and comments during classroom lectures and / or class activities. The advantage to TodaysMeet is a real-time, organized, and visually public conversation that can take place on any Internet-connected platform.

Some of the applications for this program can be a virtual Socratic Circle lesson, a “silent” debate, or a “Twitter-like” class activity. This is also a good tool for the students who do like to talk during class...they can be heard using TodaysMeet! Teachers can also use this site as an anticipatory lesson or a formative assessment. Professionally, administrators and teacher leaders could set up a TodaysMeet forum and get instant feedback at meetings, professional development days, and professional learning communities.

Setting up a “meeting place” is quick and easy. Once you enter the website (www.todaysmeet.com) you will be asked to create a room. This unique URL can be active for anywhere between two hours to one year! When the meeting place is created, simply give the URL address to your students and watch the comments post. Students can write back in any teacher-directed criteria, including “text language. ” With only 140 characters to write, students must be concise in their responses.

Backchannel: http://www.todaysmeet.com/help/backchannel

How to use TodaysMeet (Video):

Need a tutorial to get started? Today's Meet Tutorial


Here's an article talking about the pros and cons of Today's Meet and back channeling:

Today's Meet--A Back Channel

How can a back channel be used in your classroom?

What benefits would there be to students having a conversation about the learning going on in the background while instruction is taking place?

Could this be a method for flushing out misconceptions or confusion before major assessments?