Games!
In our college, we like to encourage ungraded self-assessments because they help foster student success. Probably the three most common methods are through D2L itself, Softchalk, or Hot Potatoes. Well say hello to ClassTools! We Tammy, Megan, and I attended a game design challenge session where we got to play around with some of the games you can create using ClassTools, and they are even more fun than some of the ones we use already because they are games, and even have leaderboards! They are also very easy to use and take very little time commitment to create games.
Here is my Verifiable Verbs PacMan game that I created during the session:
More than the games, ClassTools also has other cool apps that you can create, like fake Facebook pages for historical figures or characters (might be cool for History or Literature), a Star Wars-style text scroller, and more! Check out ClassTools here.
Best of the Web 2016
Richard Byrne gave us a huge list of some of the best web 2.0 tools of the year:
Creating and Remixing
If you do it anonymously and get blocked, your whole area (based on ip address) gets blocked. But if you do it with a username, only you get blocked. If your area is blocked, you can make a username and be able to edit again (until you get blocked again).
Did you know all that about Wikipedia?
Overall, we had a great time (as always) at GaETC 2016!
Creating and Remixing
- Adobe Spark - social graphics, web stories, and animated videos
- TouchDevelop - app development
- Twinery - choose your own adventure!
- Stoodle - online collaborative whiteboard
- Stupeflix - make and download videos with no login
- Canva - infographic creator
- Sharalike - dump photos into a slideshow
- StoryCorps - interview app (plan, record, and show questions while recording interviews)
- Photos for Class - image search engine that auto-cites downloaded images
Workflow and Classroom Management
- MultCloud - combine multiple cloud drives into one
- dropittome - securely receive files from anyone into Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive
- MicNote - voice recorder and notepad
Exploring and Learning New Stuff
- Choosito! - search engine that distinguishes results based on reading level and more - has evaluation tool for evaluating sources
- RefMe - free citation generator
- Open eBooks - free eBooks open and available to students
- Gojimo - exam study app
- Flippity - make cool stuff like Mad Libs and Jeopardy from Google Spreadsheets
Checking for Understanding
- Quick Rubric - easy way to make a rubric
- Triventy - gamified quizzing tool (like Kahoot, but students can submit questions)
- Vizia - video quizzing, answers go into a Google Spreadsheet
- Dotstorming - group brainstorming like voting on Pinterest
More Tools, More Tools!
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| Here's my picture I drew (traced) of my dog and cat during the drawing session! |
Here are some other tools we got from some other sessions:
- Venngage - free infographic maker
- Piktochart - free infographic maker
- easel.ly - free infographic maker
- Thinglink - interactive images, video, 360 degree photos for teaching and learning
- Flipgrid - students capture short videos to share ideas, experiences, perspectives
- Adobe Illustrator Draw - draw your own illustrations, clipart, and avatars (from Tony Vincent)
- Timeline JS - create a timeline entirely from a Google Sheet (from the Knight Lab at Northwestern University)
- Storymap JS - create a map that tells a story (also from the Knight Lab at Northwestern University)
- Juxtapose JS - slider between two images (also from the Knight Lab)
- SoundCite JS - add sound to a web page (also from the Knight Lab)
- LMGTFY - "Let me Google that for you" - not really a tool, but it's a funny way to respond to someone who asks you stupid, google-able questions (probably shouldn't do it to your supervisor, but might be funny for a friendly colleague who needs a smile)
- Momentum Chrome Extension - this one I actually downloaded and am using now. It replaces your "new tab" page in Chrome with a beautiful picture and prompts you to type your "focus" for the day so that you can stay focused. Try it out!
My Wikipedia is Better Than Your Textbook
Okay, no I do not think you should replace your textbook with Wikipedia like the guy in this session. However, he did point out some really cool things about Wikipedia that I never knew, and I think they could make a reasonable case for actually allowing your students to use Wikipedia in your classes, and even teaching them to use it properly.
How Wikipedia works in 3 clicks (from any given Wikipedia page - I used the Harry Potter page during the session):
- Click 1: Talk (tabs at the top of the page) - first thing you get is a "how-to" guide with info about accuracy of the page, policies, etc.
- Click 2: find the page rating, click "show" next to it - shows you the rating information for your page.
- Click 3: find your grade, click "quality scale" - shows you the rubric that the Wikipedia powers-that-be use to rate pages.
The way Jeff Utecht (the presenter) uses Wikipedia in his classes is this: at the beginning of the semester, his students can use any Wikipedia page that is rated a C-class or higher. Then midway he changes it to a B-class or higher. Then at the end, a GA-class or higher (GA or higher passes an official review process). He also sometimes assigns his students to go and "fix" Start or Stub pages.
"You want to teach kids about the importance of citation? Get them to work on Wikipedia articles."When you have a Wikipedia account and you use it to make edits, all of your edits and rankings show up on your profile, showing how you have contributed to the world's largest body of knowledge.
If you do it anonymously and get blocked, your whole area (based on ip address) gets blocked. But if you do it with a username, only you get blocked. If your area is blocked, you can make a username and be able to edit again (until you get blocked again).
Did you know all that about Wikipedia?
Overall, we had a great time (as always) at GaETC 2016!
