Teacher’s First offers a collection of web resources, lessons and units searchable by grade and subject area. No sign up required.
UW-Stout has put together a collection of rubrics for assessing Web 2.0 projects, online discussions, multimedia projects and other digital work. The rubrics provided are a great starting point for ideas on how to outline assessment for projects that utilize technology. Rubrics can be found here online.
Instead of making photocopies of handouts for students, you can scan files via a copy machine and distribute the electronic version to students (via Moodle, Edmodo, Q:Drive). This is a great way to distribute articles, slideshows, or any other handout that students will read and take notes on. Here are some tips that will help you with the process.
You can easily record and insert an audio file of your voice on a PDF. This can be used to provide instructions for an activity or provide students with feedback on assignments. The next time you open a PDF, any PDF, try the following. . .
Go to Tools > Comment & Markup > Record Audio Comment and a little recording icon will appear > Click somewhere on the page to place the file > Click the red dot to record > Start talking, right at your laptop (there is a mic by the web cam) > Click OK when finished recording > OK Collaborize Classroom is an excellent free tool for online threaded discussion. Online threaded discussion, or forums, allow students to respond to the original post/question AND respond directly to another student's post. For example, this would differ from the Stevens Point Journal's commenting feature, where readers can only respond to the original post and not directly to another reader's post, which creates a long list of comments. Collaborize Classroom is free and can also be used as a way to deliver digital resources to students. If you are already a Moodle user, I would recommend using their forum feature instead. For Edmodo users, I have contacted the company and they said they are currently working on developing a forum tool, but they did not give a timeframe for completion.
Online Discussion Topics Whether or not you use Collaborize Classroom, the site provides great resources for using online discussion in the classroom and formulating questions, to include: Edmodo is an excellent social learning platform for your classroom. It is a great way to connect, exchange ideas and share content. If you regularly use this software or are thinking about starting, three key features to know are as follows:
1. Library - Use this to organize and share electronic materials. Instead of uploading multiple files to one post (which can make the home view very long), create a folder in your online library and click one button to share it with students. The Library also helps to organize your materials for future instruction. 2. Small Groups - You can create smaller groups within your classes. This is an excellent feature for group work and small group discussion. 3. Quiz - Create quizzes for students with multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank and short answer questions. Great immediate feedback for both you and students. Video Storage on Vimeo - If you create screencasts or brief videos (under 10 minutes) that you wish to share with students, you can upload them to Vimeo. Vimeo is a video hosting service that, unlike YouTube, is not blocked at school. This service has more storage space than the video service within Moodle.
Set Audacity to export directly to MP3:
If your students use Audacity to create audio files, there is a way to set it up so they can export directly to MP3 as opposed to using Format Factory to convert. View instructions here. Prezi - Presentation software is now collaborative (multiple users can access the same file) - great for group work.
LiveBinder - Organize resources (photos, videos, files, weblinks, etc) in an online "binder" and share with one handy link.
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