Group items tagged

"Figuring out which students participate in a class discussion-and how often-can be a huge challenge. Equity Maps is an iPad app for keeping track of that. "You start by creating a seating chart that shows where students are sitting for a discussion. When the discussion starts, you just tap each student's icon as that student contributes to the conversation. Equity Maps keeps track of how long each student talks so that when you're done, you can get a summary of how often each class member participated, how many were active participants, and whether there was equal gender distribution among those who actively engaged." Sounds like a good teacher tool. T/h to Jennifer Gonzalez

"Wikis are an exceptionally useful tool for getting students more involved in curriculum. They're often appealing and fun for students to use, while at the same time ideal for encouraging participation, collaboration, and interaction. Read on to see how you can put wikis to work in your classroom." Suggestions include Resource Creation, e.g., for presentations, math problems, glossary, study guides; Student Participation, e.g., for exam review, portfolios, peer editing; Group Projects, e.g., organizing ideas, tracking progjects, showing participation; Student Interaction, e.g., for collecting data, discussion of a book, creating and authoring a group story; for the Classroom, e.g., creating a FAQ, a calendar, sharing class news; Community, e.g., writing a local history or nature guide, a place for parents to see their children's work; and generally as a hub or Website, or to track progress.

Talk moves are hand signals, ways of expressing agreement, showing your can change your mind, etc. This set is well explained and can really increase class participation among ESL students. An excellent teacher practice.

"The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help primary and secondary educators from around the globe get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other primary and secondary educators in their local region." To get into the Academy, you must submit a one-minute video--more instructions on the page.

"The CALL Interest Section of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) offers language teachers world-wide the opportunity to participate in the Electronic Village Online (EVO), a professional development project and virtual extension of the TESOL 2011 Convention in New Orleans, LA, USA. The intended audience for this project includes both TESOL convention-goers and those who can participate only virtually. Interest Sections, Affiliates, E-groups, and other member groups of TESOL in particular are invited to sponsor sessions related to the convention. "

Create a meeting room where comments by participants can be seen as a feed, put up into your own presentation, etc., so that distance participants can be interactive. Save feeds to see them later, and use them with students to make instant comments on an assigned subjectas the basis for discussion. Linked to Twitter.

"See the Arts Impact program in action as teachers participate in the summer institute and teach the arts in their classrooms. Hear comments from participating teachers and artist mentors." This is a very nice teacher training video if you are using drama and/or art in the classroom. Great ideas.

"The participants were given an intelligence test in 1947 at the age of 11 and were retested in their early 70s, between 2008 and 2010. Of the participants, 262 said they were able to communicate in at least one language other than English. Of those, 195 learned the second language before the age of 18, while 65 learned the language after this age. Researchers found that those who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive abilities in later life, compared to what would be predicted from their performance in the tests at age 11. " However, it might be that people who learn a second language also perform many other brain-activating functions throughout their lives.

"To make the paradigm shift with campus wireless possible-or even advance its evolution-wireless must be ubiquitous and seamless. Wireless devices need to work, not just on campus, but globally, and they must be able to go from campus to home to plane to Sri Lanka seamlessly. And we can't teach a course that makes effective use of wireless technology without an appropriate wireless device. With these infrastructure requirements, we could have classes that really use the mobility of mobile devices. One small step in that direction would be to have distributed classes where some students would physically be in a classroom while others would be distributed to various action sites. Learning about pollution? Have some students locate different polluted sites and participate in the class on site like the evening news. "This is Sue reporting Podunk the toxic chemicals are pouring into the Crimea River."

Using Screenchop on tablet (or similar) and show teacher answers so everyone participates, but does so privately. Including ways to refuse sexting or an invitation to post pictures, etc. Includes discussion of ways to adapt to a non-tech classroom.

A good review of both LMS tools. Winning for me is Schoology's iPad connections and, especially, it's good was to create and thread discussions (with embedded media). Teachers can also see which students participate by using a filter, and share discussions across classes/courses.

Although this article is about the Common Core State Standards in the U.S. (similar to the European Union's common standards), it discusses how to apply the standards in ways that promote the integration of technology as well as active and meaningful class participation -- good advice for all teachers.

"Students use PeerWise to create and to explain their understanding of course related assessment questions, and to answer and discuss questions created by their peers." Register yourself as teacher and then sign in your students. Instructors easily view student participation. The site has screencasts to show what students do and what instructors think about their work.

"...There is scope to engage the pupils in a structured debate to challenge misconceptions, structure arguments and encourage independent study. Additionally, participating in debates can develop confidence and public speaking skills." A good practice for critical thinking and listening speaking skills. This article does not give classroom tips for setting up debates, but you might want to have a judging panel, and also help students prepare while focusing on the factual as well as the rhetorical side of debating.

"Mouse Mischief integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, letting you insert questions, polls, and drawing activity slides into your lessons. "Students can actively participate in these lessons by using their own mice to click, circle, cross out, or draw answers on the screen. " This sound like a great tool to make your presentations interactive, get students attention and help them learn as you teach.

Here is just one example of some suggestions for using Twitter in your class/presentation: ""Tweet Your Questions! If you are training to a new process or procedure, allow participants the opportunity to tweet any questions they may have, either on the job or during training. What makes this strategy more unique is that instead compiling answers and sending them back via one large email, ensure that there is someone monitoring the twitter account so as to provide near real-time response (even if the response is, "I will look into it")."

The "Wingman" strategy is used to engage students who are silent or don't want to participate in discussion. The wingman records what others are saying/doing on a note sheet and reports back.

A certificate, whether for fun or to reward for good participation might be welcome. Treat your students with these comic templates.

"Every educator, from kindergarten to graduate school, should contribute to the important and significant work of teaching students to use online sources and social networks for educational and professional goals. To ignore the technology, or assume that our students already know it because they use it every day, is to participate in educational malpractice." A very sensible article about what main tools are used to move kids from social media to academic purposes -- and how to get them there. Speaks to PLNs, PLEs, Pinterest, curation with Diigo, Symbaloo, Netvibes, Twitter. Very good explanation of how the work, the advantages, and the possible problems. Hybrid Pedagogy is a Digital Journal with a team of editors and writers.

Twitter has a nice API for collecting tweets around a particular hashtag. This is especially useful if you have created an event and want to use a Twitter thread for continuing conversations. The API uses Google Spreadsheets and it allows conversations among participants to be "replayed" with an infographic. Very nice archived visualization.