Ok - I admit I had a terrible time picking! I just wasn't sure what to do or accomplish here. Finally I decided that I would offer my students the joy of learning to use something old in a new way! So, I offered a 'class' to my kids that have already graduated and are in college on the new features of our favorite NoodleTools! I also used this lesson with my Juniors and Seniors but it seems that the alumni were much more interested because they are actually seeing the reality of what I said in high school is really true about college - you must cite CORRECTLY or it's not good!
For those of you who don't know, NoodleTools is a subscription citation tool but it's so much more than that. It has three levels of citations available - beginning, junior, and advanced - to allow students at all levels to become expert citers! It offers students choices of APA, MLA, Chicago, etc., and there are help boxes with each field to tell students where to look to find the information they need and how it should look when they type it in. It allows for annotations and even helps students know how to create their in-text citations. After you enter your citation information, NoodleTools will print your bibliography and provide all the formatting including alphabetizing, spacing, italics, etc.
New features of NoodleTools allow students to create their own timeline/checklists of items that need to be completed, create notecards, use the tags in the notecards to drop and drag into an outline, start a citation directly from a website with iCyte, and share and collaborate with faculty or other students. NoodleTools also allows students to link to GoogleDocs to write and share their paper. Teachers and students can leave notes/suggestions for students and they have added a highlighting and archive feature so that if a page is taken down you can still access it and, like Diigo, highlight for notes. I think the iCyte and outlining features were the most popular with the college students but the notecards are really great for the high school crowd as well.
In the span of a 40 minute class I was able to show the students all the new features and have them explore and on their own. NoodleTools is truly a collaborative, full-service citing service and WELL worth the little bit we pay for it. Their rates are really low! A much better resource for teachers and students than citation machine or so of the other freebies out there in my opinion.
The opportunity to pick allowed to see with new eyes an old tool and allowed my students, both current and former, an opportunity to expand their resources when it comes to citing responsibly. Thanks for the opportunity and freedom with the module.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Thing 8: Collaborating, Connecting, Sharing
For Thing 8 I selected Prezi (www.prezi.com) and TodaysMeet as well as a response app called Socrative (www.socrative.com). I chose Prezi because one of the Social Studies teachers was looking for a collaborative way to have groups summarize and share information from a unit. Prezi now offers the ability for students to collaborate and create Prezis in real time. The students find it a welcome change from the boring world of PowerPoint and since they could work on different parts of the project at the same time it was really awesome! In fact, one of our students that was out sick actually logged in during class so he could work at home with his classmates. The Prezis were great and really allowed students to showcase the big ideas for their peers in a format that kids found very easy to use and fun to interact with.
I also used TodaysMeet with a class to respond to a lesson. I first used this at a conference in February and thought that it could be very useful for students to respond to instruction both during the actual class and after they go home to think about what they learned. Is it very easy to use and allows learning to extend beyond the classroom. I know we've all attended a meeting, class, or workshop and then on the drive home had a great idea that we wish we could share with the group. TodaysMeet allows chat-like postings to easily be inserted and others can respond or not. For a more in-depth response for the classroom we've also tried Collaborize the Classroom which provides the students an opportunity to respond and discuss postings. TodaysMeet and Collaborize both provide a way for students to work/interact from home or school but TodaysMeet is more tweet-like, where Collaborize has a bit more substance.
Socratic was a great way to have my Freshmen actually use their phone in my class for something other than texting their friends!! It's unbelievably easy to setup and use and allows instant feedback in the classroom. There is multiple choice, true/false, short answer, quizzes, exit tickets, races, etc. The multiple choice and true/false are autograded, you can combine question types, and reports are downloadable in Excel format. Compatible with any device that can access the web and FREE it's really a great alternative to the Promethean and clickers that sometimes work and sometimes don't! My freshmen LOVED it and we will continue to use it. Works great with vocab and other grammar type exercises.
Thanks for the great opportunity to explore these fantastic tools!
I also used TodaysMeet with a class to respond to a lesson. I first used this at a conference in February and thought that it could be very useful for students to respond to instruction both during the actual class and after they go home to think about what they learned. Is it very easy to use and allows learning to extend beyond the classroom. I know we've all attended a meeting, class, or workshop and then on the drive home had a great idea that we wish we could share with the group. TodaysMeet allows chat-like postings to easily be inserted and others can respond or not. For a more in-depth response for the classroom we've also tried Collaborize the Classroom which provides the students an opportunity to respond and discuss postings. TodaysMeet and Collaborize both provide a way for students to work/interact from home or school but TodaysMeet is more tweet-like, where Collaborize has a bit more substance.
Socratic was a great way to have my Freshmen actually use their phone in my class for something other than texting their friends!! It's unbelievably easy to setup and use and allows instant feedback in the classroom. There is multiple choice, true/false, short answer, quizzes, exit tickets, races, etc. The multiple choice and true/false are autograded, you can combine question types, and reports are downloadable in Excel format. Compatible with any device that can access the web and FREE it's really a great alternative to the Promethean and clickers that sometimes work and sometimes don't! My freshmen LOVED it and we will continue to use it. Works great with vocab and other grammar type exercises.
Thanks for the great opportunity to explore these fantastic tools!
Thing 18: Digital Tattoo & Digital Citizenship
I think that we try to be very proactive at our school about talking to the kids about their electronic life. At the beginning of the school year I address all grade levels to discuss the school's Acceptable Use Policy as well as our Plagiarism Policy. During that discussion I also talk to the kids about how things they send on their electronic devices outside of school can affect them at school (like mean and inappropriate Facebook postings, texts, or tweets).
We also incorporate a lot of our discussions about safe use of the internet within the English curriculum. Since I push into to every English class during the year the staff and I discuss that being good consumers of the web involves more than just discerning between good and bad sources - it means using our electronic information appropriately. We discuss simple things like email names being appropriate (no one wants to email a prospective employee at an email address like 'drinktothis@abc.com'!), making sure the kids understand there is NEVER a delete button on electronic items (they float out there forever), and making sure they don't give too much information about themselves out there in cyberspace.
At one point the kids had a training for parents and other adults on what Twitter, Facebook, and other social media does and how to use it properly. I also have an internet safety document posted for parents on my library website.
After reading some of the articles in this module, I think I am going to change it up next year and have my Freshmen complete a "Digital Passport" portfolio which I would create for them and have them go through it as part of their English grade. I think I can design something online that would work but if anyone knows of anything like this at the high school level I'd love to hear about it. I like the "Digital Recap App" article and I think I will use that in part with my Freshmen as part of their writing prompts on Wednesday. I do agree that students need to experience online 'living' in order to create their own personal understanding of digital citizenship, however, I think those experiences need to allow students to explore within certain parameters and with the guidance of someone who really 'gets' the cyberworld. Parents, and many teachers, lack the web skills to guide their students safely through the maze of the online world so we really need to focus our efforts on training faculty as well as students in the perils and pitfalls of their electronic life.
Having said that, I think I will offer a training to staff on our next half-day on using the internet wisely and ask to include the support staff as well. I bet 30 minutes of discussion will at least generate some ah-ha moments for many of our staff!
Thanks for the brain food from this lesson. It was a great way to reconnect with my current practices in this area and to expand on them.
We also incorporate a lot of our discussions about safe use of the internet within the English curriculum. Since I push into to every English class during the year the staff and I discuss that being good consumers of the web involves more than just discerning between good and bad sources - it means using our electronic information appropriately. We discuss simple things like email names being appropriate (no one wants to email a prospective employee at an email address like 'drinktothis@abc.com'!), making sure the kids understand there is NEVER a delete button on electronic items (they float out there forever), and making sure they don't give too much information about themselves out there in cyberspace.
At one point the kids had a training for parents and other adults on what Twitter, Facebook, and other social media does and how to use it properly. I also have an internet safety document posted for parents on my library website.
After reading some of the articles in this module, I think I am going to change it up next year and have my Freshmen complete a "Digital Passport" portfolio which I would create for them and have them go through it as part of their English grade. I think I can design something online that would work but if anyone knows of anything like this at the high school level I'd love to hear about it. I like the "Digital Recap App" article and I think I will use that in part with my Freshmen as part of their writing prompts on Wednesday. I do agree that students need to experience online 'living' in order to create their own personal understanding of digital citizenship, however, I think those experiences need to allow students to explore within certain parameters and with the guidance of someone who really 'gets' the cyberworld. Parents, and many teachers, lack the web skills to guide their students safely through the maze of the online world so we really need to focus our efforts on training faculty as well as students in the perils and pitfalls of their electronic life.
Having said that, I think I will offer a training to staff on our next half-day on using the internet wisely and ask to include the support staff as well. I bet 30 minutes of discussion will at least generate some ah-ha moments for many of our staff!
Thanks for the brain food from this lesson. It was a great way to reconnect with my current practices in this area and to expand on them.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Thing 15: App-palooza!
This is one lesson that I could have spent weeks on but time and students prevented me from doing so! Our school is definitely not an Apple community so we don't have iPads available for kids but kids have iPhones and iPads at home so I let them test out some apps. Some we found that we really loved were:
DragonBox Algebra - the kids really liked the game feel and even my math-savvy kids said it was fun and helpful. This will be a great app for my 9th graders struggling with algebra and to prep for the ever-looming Regents exam.
Poems By Heart - OK I picked this because I love poetry. Kids weren't as thrilled with it as I was but it's an app I think I will try with my AIS English students to see if they can 'present' a poem to the class.
Paper - my artistic kids LOVED this app and created all kinds of cool creations. It's definitely not so much my thing, I'm more of a list it and write it out type of girl with zero artistic talent, but kids that are visual learners will especially like it. Organizes your info into a very album cover like view and the kids liked that too!
Cell and Cell Structure - just because my Freshmen are learning about this and I think the visual and interactive nature really helps them grasp the concepts and ideas. Again, particularly useful for studying for the Regents.
Simple Physics - an amazingly simple and frustrating app to work on your physics skills. Frustrating to those of us who don't 'get' physics, simple and cool for those learning the principles of physics. My physics kids thought this was pretty nifty and used it to help them get ideas and information for creating their roller coaster projects in their physics class.
So much for the apps. Now for the QR codes. I've been thinking for a long time about doing something with QR codes in the library. I've created two simple things - I used cheap white boards and one has share an app - post a QR code to your favorite game on it. Then I taught kids how to get the QR code with goo.gl and they are posting them up there to share. They love that board! The other board I put on one of the tables in the library and set the white board on an easel. At the suggestion of Kathleen O'Dean I modified the words to "Call Me Maybe" and posted a kid friendly message that invites the kids to "Read me maybe" with QR codes of books in the library posted all around the message. That's new this week and I'm curious to see how the kids respond. Now that I have a quick and easy way to create and save QR codes I'm on a mission to QR the lib!!
This was a great learning project. Thanks for the push to explore.
DragonBox Algebra - the kids really liked the game feel and even my math-savvy kids said it was fun and helpful. This will be a great app for my 9th graders struggling with algebra and to prep for the ever-looming Regents exam.
Poems By Heart - OK I picked this because I love poetry. Kids weren't as thrilled with it as I was but it's an app I think I will try with my AIS English students to see if they can 'present' a poem to the class.
Paper - my artistic kids LOVED this app and created all kinds of cool creations. It's definitely not so much my thing, I'm more of a list it and write it out type of girl with zero artistic talent, but kids that are visual learners will especially like it. Organizes your info into a very album cover like view and the kids liked that too!
Cell and Cell Structure - just because my Freshmen are learning about this and I think the visual and interactive nature really helps them grasp the concepts and ideas. Again, particularly useful for studying for the Regents.
Simple Physics - an amazingly simple and frustrating app to work on your physics skills. Frustrating to those of us who don't 'get' physics, simple and cool for those learning the principles of physics. My physics kids thought this was pretty nifty and used it to help them get ideas and information for creating their roller coaster projects in their physics class.
So much for the apps. Now for the QR codes. I've been thinking for a long time about doing something with QR codes in the library. I've created two simple things - I used cheap white boards and one has share an app - post a QR code to your favorite game on it. Then I taught kids how to get the QR code with goo.gl and they are posting them up there to share. They love that board! The other board I put on one of the tables in the library and set the white board on an easel. At the suggestion of Kathleen O'Dean I modified the words to "Call Me Maybe" and posted a kid friendly message that invites the kids to "Read me maybe" with QR codes of books in the library posted all around the message. That's new this week and I'm curious to see how the kids respond. Now that I have a quick and easy way to create and save QR codes I'm on a mission to QR the lib!!
This was a great learning project. Thanks for the push to explore.
Thing 17: Coding
It's so interesting that you posted this lesson. My Freshmen and I were just discussing why they don't want to choose the first three results that come up in Google for research without evaluating those sites for quality (affectionately known as the CRAAP test in our school). I explained to them that the results aren't based on the quality of the site, but the algorithms and binary code produced by their search terms and the 'match' within the website for the words only so the 'match' is simply based on math, not research!
Many of my kids are techies at heart and really love the gaming/programming stuff (they are ALL playing Flappy Birds!) so I decided to try a lesson or two off the Coding.org site with my AIS English 9 students. These guys struggle with communicating for sure and many of them have troubles with reading and comprehension I thought looking at how computers communicate and ultimately how that's allow people to communicate (and game) would really be something they enjoy.
I tried the 'no tech' lessons with them so that getting computers would not become an issue for our class. In fact, we started our cup stacking lesson yesterday. The kids loved it and we will be continuing on with the lesson as well as the Binary Baubles lesson next week. Then I will take them in the computer lab and let them create their own game. They are really excited about this and don't see it as English class at all! I think it's such a plus to give them chances to experiment with this aspect of communication and allow them to learn to think about thinking!
Thank you so much for these wonderful resources and sources of inspiration for my students!
Many of my kids are techies at heart and really love the gaming/programming stuff (they are ALL playing Flappy Birds!) so I decided to try a lesson or two off the Coding.org site with my AIS English 9 students. These guys struggle with communicating for sure and many of them have troubles with reading and comprehension I thought looking at how computers communicate and ultimately how that's allow people to communicate (and game) would really be something they enjoy.
I tried the 'no tech' lessons with them so that getting computers would not become an issue for our class. In fact, we started our cup stacking lesson yesterday. The kids loved it and we will be continuing on with the lesson as well as the Binary Baubles lesson next week. Then I will take them in the computer lab and let them create their own game. They are really excited about this and don't see it as English class at all! I think it's such a plus to give them chances to experiment with this aspect of communication and allow them to learn to think about thinking!
Thank you so much for these wonderful resources and sources of inspiration for my students!
Thing 7: Podcasting and Screencasting
OK - This is like finding money in your pocket good!!! Because I have no aid I find it so hard to find a balance between closing the library and going into classrooms to teach. In addition, I have my own classes every day when I am simply not available to go in with a teacher. I have been looking and looking for an EASY way to record me and my screen so that I can send videos to teachers so that they can show their students tips on the various things I teach at their convenience and so that they aren't relying on me to be there in person. The screencasting tools are certainly the answer I've been looking for.
I have consulted with our tech folks at BOCES about doing something like this through the Promethean but that's difficult at best because that means I have to go to the lab and that requires me to have time to do that, no kids in the lab, and lots of trial and error. I tried all three screencasting tools and I think that Screencast-O-Matic will work best for me. Jing requires a download which is not allowed at our school and Screenr didn't allow you to record both the screen and you with the WebCam (or at least I didn't find that feature).
I am SO excited to try this with my teachers and kids. My first recording is about which fields students need to pay attention to and how to print from NoodleTools which is our WONDERFUL and so very inexpensive citation database (if you want info about all the awesome things NoodleTools can do just email me). I also intend to use this to show students about Prezi and other Web 2.0 tools. The amount of time it will free up for me is simply astounding!! And it will eliminate those calls from my teachers saying "Did you forget you were supposed to be in my class this period?"
I am so, so excited about this lesson. My how-to videos will post to my website so check it out at www.heightsschools.com/taelibrary!
I have consulted with our tech folks at BOCES about doing something like this through the Promethean but that's difficult at best because that means I have to go to the lab and that requires me to have time to do that, no kids in the lab, and lots of trial and error. I tried all three screencasting tools and I think that Screencast-O-Matic will work best for me. Jing requires a download which is not allowed at our school and Screenr didn't allow you to record both the screen and you with the WebCam (or at least I didn't find that feature).
I am SO excited to try this with my teachers and kids. My first recording is about which fields students need to pay attention to and how to print from NoodleTools which is our WONDERFUL and so very inexpensive citation database (if you want info about all the awesome things NoodleTools can do just email me). I also intend to use this to show students about Prezi and other Web 2.0 tools. The amount of time it will free up for me is simply astounding!! And it will eliminate those calls from my teachers saying "Did you forget you were supposed to be in my class this period?"
I am so, so excited about this lesson. My how-to videos will post to my website so check it out at www.heightsschools.com/taelibrary!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thing 14: Social Reading and Book Stuff
I am a big GoodReads fan! Before my website wouldn't allow it I had a very cool bookshelf on my webpage showing the covers of lots of books I had in the lib. It was neat because it looked just like a book shelf and you could click on the titles to go to the GoodReads page for more information. Alas, it is to be no more since technology intervened!
I actually have my students do a folder project in 10th grade where they take a manila folder and do a modified version of a book report (this idea stolen from Kathleen O'Dean). The outside of the folder is their original artwork depicting the book through their eyes - it's usually a collage of pics and words but is very cool. The inside includes a summary of the book in their own words and a collection of 5-6 quotes pasted on. The back of the folder is the book review - both their own and reviews from a reputable site like School Library Journal, Mackin, or Horn Book. It's amazing how creative students have been with their folders and then I put them with the books after the project has been graded as great 'advertising' to entice readers to chose those books. I think it's really important that students are exposed to vetted reviews from sources instead of relying solely on reviews from Barnes and Noble or Amazon. It's not that these aren't good it's just that they should know there is more out there to explore from professionals in the field.
I have had some serious issues with ebooks so I just am not thrilled about using them. Sometimes kids can't access them, sometimes if you check the book out you have to sit at the same exact computer to get it again, sometimes they don't port to their devices, and sometimes they don't come up because of compatibility issues with the network. We don't do Apple products at my school so we live in PC world only and that requires certain compatibility with the ebooks that I think is often better addressed with iPads, however, I guess you don't miss what you don't have :)
I have expanded the library offerings to include several Nooks. Since you can still share books over six devices on the Nook (not the Kindle - sorry Amazon!) I selected these. They are older but kids seem to like them - not love them. It's difficult because they want to download their choice of content and they don't quite grasp that there isn't money to do that. Funding with the Nooks has been an issue too. Our BOCES will not approve any co-ser monies that are used to purchase ebooks so, again, I haven't been all gung-ho to go out and get these because I can't use my co-ser monies to do so. I did get the Nook titles in the OPAC and that is helpful but still I think there are ways I could be marketing Nook titles more effectively. My kids still are definitely see it, touch it, want to read it type of book borrowers - they haven't really made the leap into the digital book age quite yet.
Some have and read on their phone or device but many of my kids really like to have the actual book in hand (me too actually) even to pick it. I did add a feature to my OPAC that gives summaries, sections of the first chapter, the cover of book, and reviews and my kids really seem to like that and use it to help them find books they love. It's Syndetics and it's relatively cheap - well worth it for me at least.
We have tried a couple of ways to share what we are reading by tweeting, with a Wiki, and with a blog but the kids really haven't loved any of these. Actually we post info on a white board and they seem to really like that! Sometimes digital isn't always the answer. We are working on more ways to share our reading ... all ideas are appreciated!
I actually have my students do a folder project in 10th grade where they take a manila folder and do a modified version of a book report (this idea stolen from Kathleen O'Dean). The outside of the folder is their original artwork depicting the book through their eyes - it's usually a collage of pics and words but is very cool. The inside includes a summary of the book in their own words and a collection of 5-6 quotes pasted on. The back of the folder is the book review - both their own and reviews from a reputable site like School Library Journal, Mackin, or Horn Book. It's amazing how creative students have been with their folders and then I put them with the books after the project has been graded as great 'advertising' to entice readers to chose those books. I think it's really important that students are exposed to vetted reviews from sources instead of relying solely on reviews from Barnes and Noble or Amazon. It's not that these aren't good it's just that they should know there is more out there to explore from professionals in the field.
I have had some serious issues with ebooks so I just am not thrilled about using them. Sometimes kids can't access them, sometimes if you check the book out you have to sit at the same exact computer to get it again, sometimes they don't port to their devices, and sometimes they don't come up because of compatibility issues with the network. We don't do Apple products at my school so we live in PC world only and that requires certain compatibility with the ebooks that I think is often better addressed with iPads, however, I guess you don't miss what you don't have :)
I have expanded the library offerings to include several Nooks. Since you can still share books over six devices on the Nook (not the Kindle - sorry Amazon!) I selected these. They are older but kids seem to like them - not love them. It's difficult because they want to download their choice of content and they don't quite grasp that there isn't money to do that. Funding with the Nooks has been an issue too. Our BOCES will not approve any co-ser monies that are used to purchase ebooks so, again, I haven't been all gung-ho to go out and get these because I can't use my co-ser monies to do so. I did get the Nook titles in the OPAC and that is helpful but still I think there are ways I could be marketing Nook titles more effectively. My kids still are definitely see it, touch it, want to read it type of book borrowers - they haven't really made the leap into the digital book age quite yet.
Some have and read on their phone or device but many of my kids really like to have the actual book in hand (me too actually) even to pick it. I did add a feature to my OPAC that gives summaries, sections of the first chapter, the cover of book, and reviews and my kids really seem to like that and use it to help them find books they love. It's Syndetics and it's relatively cheap - well worth it for me at least.
We have tried a couple of ways to share what we are reading by tweeting, with a Wiki, and with a blog but the kids really haven't loved any of these. Actually we post info on a white board and they seem to really like that! Sometimes digital isn't always the answer. We are working on more ways to share our reading ... all ideas are appreciated!
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