Group items tagged

Group Members: (Group 4) Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy Category: Evaluation of student writing samples Grade level: Middle school, high school Topic/discipline: Language arts, social studies, science Tutorial information: A "project overview" link is provided on the homepage that outlines the three main phases of the evaluation process along with important details. Possible uses: Online objective-based evaluation of student writing samples provided by other educators. Basics: Teachers submit student writing samples. Other teachers, students, and professionals read and evaluate the work. EdSteps then will publish continuums ("emerging" to "accomplished" work samples) in different skill areas.The continuums are available online for teachers, students and families to view. Positives: Provides objective-based evaluation and feedback of students' writing. Evaluations provided by a variety of individuals of various ages, specializations, and affiliations. Results are made available online to students and families. Negatives: Time - the evaluation process takes time to provide feedback.

Authors: Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: play, writing Grade level use: All levels Topic/discipline: Language arts, technology Tutorial Information: There is a demo/tutorial on the site that explains the process of creating a comic. Possible uses: Create comic strips to support learning a language, writing from different perspectives, or writing a variety of genres. Basic explanation: Users add their own text to chosen characters, objects, and frames to create a comic strip. Positives: Writing can be done in several languages. The site includes teacher resources as well as homeschool and family fun ideas. There are other comic frames and writing prompts to print. No advertisements on site. Negatives: Interactions are limited to emailing comics that are created. Choices in creating comics are limited.

Authors: Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Patricia McKane, Tera Hafermann (Group 2) Category: test preparation Discipline: English, Writing, grades 10-12 Tutorial information: Help option in upper right corner offers explanations on how to complete any functions and activities of the program. Each section has a view option, to watch the action done for you. Possible Uses: Students can use this to see exactly how their ACT essay was graded. They can then work on improving for a re-take. Teachers and administrators can search score ranges and use the information to see where most students are achieving and also where the overall weaknesses are. Then, they can adapt their curriculum to strengthen that weaker area. Basics: This site is a collection of all the ACT writing exams. To log on, you must have your school's ACT code. Once inside, you can search for any combination of results to see how the students did on the ACT writing exam. The site shows the exact written exam the student wrote. They are scanned into the webpage. It also shows the comments of the graders to the essay and the English score and the overall ACT composite score. There is some personal information available too, like students names, addresses, and social security numbers. This is why you have to have the school code to access it. Positives: You see the exact essay the student wrote. It is online pretty quickly after the students take the exam. It provides good feedback for students wanting to re-take the ACT. You also have access to the writing prompts, and can then use them for practice prompts in the classroom. Negatives: The comments are fairly vague and similar. More specific feedback would be more helpful to students and teachers alike. Must have access code to enter.

Group Members: (Group 4) Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy Category: free online private diary and personal journal Grade level: All levels Topic/discipline: Language arts, social studies, writing Tutorial information: Users clink on the help link to receive assistance. Possible uses: Journaling, reflections, summaries Basics: Students are able to compose their own personal writing entries. Entries can be kept private or students can allow others to view their entries online. Positives: Easy use, privacy, can insert images into writing entries, autosave Negatives: Information at help link is limited, many other means of journaling available

Authors: Kaufman, Belcher, Knowles, Duffy (Group 4) Tool Name: Online Books Page Tool URL: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu Category: Online Library Tags: Online Books Page, Online Library, All Levels, English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Grade level use: All Levels Topic/discipline: English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Tutorial Information: No actual help link or tutorial, but there is an FAQ link at the bottom that has a little bit of useful information Possible uses: Research Basic explanation: Online library of books available online in various formats from various sources. Positives: Free content available for researching, large catalog Negatives: Not that easy to use all the time, broken links in some of the results, not as polished as some of the other tools available today

Authors: Kaufman, Belcher, Knowles, Duffy (Group 4) Tool Name: Blogger Tool URL: http://www.blogger.com Category: Blogging Tags: Blogging, Blogger, All Levels, English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Grade level use: All Levels Topic/discipline: English, Science, Math, Social Science, Technology, Journalism, Writing, Music, All topics Tutorial Information: Help Links located at bottom of page for all users Possible uses: Blogging Basic explanation: Users can create and customize a blog to detail information they wish to add to it, can also read and comment on others blogs. Positives: Easy use, customizable, large community, can connect it to other sites (login using google user name instead) Negatives: May be blocked by some districts, have to set up blog how you want it (can be time consuming)

Group 2: Wenzel, Getchius, McKane, & Hafermann Tool Name: Discovery Education URL: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ Category: classroom resources, assessments, lesson plans Tags: English, science, math, reading, writing, social studies Grade Level Use: K-12 Topic/discipline: English, math, science, reading, writing, social studies, and technology Tutorial Information: There is a help section in the upper right hand corner of the page as well as a contact us link at the bottom of the page Possible Uses: Teachers can use to create or edit lessons. Teachers can learn how to use media in the classroom as well as use some of the site's media information in creating lessons. Basics: Discovery Education allows teachers to utilize lessons and ideas to create new and improved lessons in the classroom. The site also has games available for classroom use. Positives: The site is easy to navigate and has a lot of useful information. The site also has a parent corner for parents to stay informed. Negatives: The school or teacher using the website must have an access log-in

Group Members' Names (Group Number 4: Belcher, Kaufman, Knowles, Duffy) Category- Online Story Telling, Games, Grade level- PreK-1 Topic/discipline - Reading, Writing, Literacy Tutorial information - Instructions and information on how to operate the activities can be found on the main webpage. When children click to play an activity directions are given orally. Possible uses- Young children can use the tools on this website during reading workshop to build their reading skills. Teachers can use the tools in a small group to reinforce difficult concepts. Basics - There are several activities available in this site related to reading. There are word study games, e-books, poetry, printable worksheets, ESL activities and pre-reading activities. All the activities are broken down by discipline and level. Positives - The wealth of activities and tools available is wonderful. There are activities that can meet the needs of almost all the young readers. Negatives - The site is free but you have to create and account to use it. Therefore, if you want young children to use it independently you will have to log on ahead of time or teach them how to log on. Another downfall is that the site cannot track the progress of each student. So the teacher cannot see how well they have done on their activities nor can it keep track of where they left off.

Group 2: Tera Hafermann, Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Trish McKane Category: online poster maker Grade Level Use: all levels Topic/Discipline: reading, language arts, social studies, science, math Tutorial Information: On the homepage of the website you can choose to create a glog for free. This allows the user to play with the different features of making a glog without committing to signing up for an account. Possible Uses: Students can use this to create posters for any subject as the culminating project for a unit. Basic Explanation: Glogster is a site that allows teachers and students to create posters and lessons online. Posters contain photos, videos, links to other sites, and audio explanations. It is an interactive way to get students more involved and engaged in learning. Positives: Glogster is engaging. It is beneficial to students who struggle with reading and writing because it allows them to show what they have learned through a multimedia presentation with less writing required. Negatives: Does require an account, however a basic educator account is free.

Group 3: Sarah Vaughn & Sara Reich Category: interactive poster Grade level use: junior high, secondary Topic/discipline: any Tutorial Information: Very intuitive- a little bit of playing around and students can figure out most everything you can do with a glog Possible uses: posters for presentations, summative assignments Basic Explanation: Glogster takes the idea of the old posterboard assignment and allows students the opportunity to "paste" in pictures, add information, add video and music, include podcasts Positives: Easy to use, students enjoy presenting this "posters" Negatives: Some difficulty saving and finding glogs, students may need to convert files to add to glog

Authors: Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Patricia McKane, Tera Hafermann (Group 2) Category: practice, games, lessons Discipline: English, Language Arts, Writing, grades 9-12 Tutorial information: There is no tutorial or help. The website has highlighted links and gives directions as you work through the site. Possible Uses: grammar and mechanics practice, learning grammar and mechanics rules Basics: Grammar and mechanics tutorials and practice games are set up for students or classes to work through. There are pictures, noises, and sometimes fake prizes. Positives: Engaging to students, good information on English grammar and mechanics, game format is appealing, lots and lots of content Negatives: Some of the prizes or consequences for a wrong answer are iffy on appropriateness. It is loud.

Authors: Group 2 (Hafermann, Getchius, Wenzel, McKane) Category: Electronic books/Writing tools Grade level use: Grades 9+ Topic/discipline: social sciences, reading/language arts, science, technology Tutorial Information: Tutorial video on home page Possible uses: group reading, summation of books, book discussion tool - teachers can post questions about the book and students can respond, upload personal written material and have other review it, Basic explanation: This tool allows you to read books online and chat with others who are reading the same book. Positives: comments about book can be left by paragraph or page, allows for teacher to student interaction as well as student to student interaction about books, provides book discussion prompts to get started, if the book you want is not offered you can request it or you could find an electronic copy online and upload it, some books are free! Negatives: not geared towards younger age groups, you have to pay for some books, limited number of books - may not have classroom books listed in database, must create account to log in.

Group Name: Group 2-Tera Hafermann, Ruth Getchius, April Wenzel, Trish McKane Tool Name: Capzles Category: online timeline creator Grade Level Use: 2nd grade+ (with guidance for the younger children) Topic/Discipline: social studies, reading, science, math, language arts, just about anything where timelines or how tos can benefit someone. Tutorial Information: The site allows you to view public capzles, or photo/video timelines. In order to create a capzle, you must join the site-this is free. Once in the site, choose to create a capzle and the site walks you through the process step by step. Possible Uses: create timelines of historical events in social studies, create personal timelines of events in language arts, create a timeline of a story or novel, create a how-to timeline in science or math. Basic Explanation: This tool allows the user to upload photos, music, and videos to the site to include in a timeline. It also allows you to upload voice recordings about the photos and to blog on the photo. The user can embed a capzle on their Facebook wall. It also has an app for your iPhone. Positives: Easy to use and explain to children. Engaging. This allows students who are fearful of writing long essays to show what they know in a format that encourages creativity. Negatives: Does require you to sign up for an account, but it is free. Younger students will need a lot of help with this at first.

Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: Organization Tool Grade level use: 10-12 Topic/discipline: Could be used in all disciplines. Tutorial Information: Tour, About Section, YouTube Videos Possible uses: Take notes in class, calendar, to do list, homework organizer, manage courses, write and save notes, Organize links and contacts, keep a notebook. Basic explanation: Notely gives a student, one place to keep track of all of his or her classes and take notes for each class. It also allows students to interact and post with other students. Positives: Free membership. Helps students get organized efficiently. Negatives: Geared more towards upper level high school and college level students. This program is beneficial for students who are given lap tops, but that is not all schools.

Authors: Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: Brainstorming/Collaboration Grade level use: All levels Topic/discipline: Social sciences, language arts, science, technology Tutorial Information: There is a link to an example mind map which shows the features of bubbl.us. A blog link is on the website but was not active. There is a help section once you begin brainstorming. Possible uses: brainstorming for writing, concept maps in science/social studies, group collaboration Basic explanation: Online brainstorming tool that lets you create colorful webs or mind maps. You can share, print, email or save your work. Positives: Easy to use, can create colorful webs that would be good to display to a class Negatives: Younger students would not be able to use it on their own but could contribute as a group.

Authors: Group 1 (Bulfer, Sennett, Gourley, Carl) Category: Brainstorming Grade level use: All levels Topic/discipline: Any subject Tutorial information: Tutorial video, FAQ section, question forum Possible uses: option for any type of brainstorming, writing, problem solving Basic explanation: Create brainstorming maps alone or invite other people to collaborate with. Positives: Can insert extra notes or images into the map, easy to use Negatives: Free account gives access to three maps, more available for a fee; teacher would have to lead in lower grades

Authors: Sarah Vaughn, Sara Reich, David Hallatt, Jeffrey Huebner (Group 3) Category: Movie Maker Tags: Movie Maker, avatar, presentation Grade level use: any Topic/discipline: Any Tutorial Information: The website has different options after you sign up for free. Possible uses: Reports, speeches Basic explanation: A student writes a speech or dialogue. The student picks an avatar and an environment where the movie will take place. The student types in the text for the avatar to say. The website then makes a movie of the student's work. Positives: It gives a student a different way of presentation. Negatives: It has some gestures that a student could use that are inappropriate.

Costello, Regilio, Saal, Stroh; Group 5 Tool name: ReadWriteThink Note takers http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/readwritethink-notetaker-30055.html Category: organizing, summarizing Tags: Outline, Notes, Summary, Graphic Organizer, Research Grade level use: 3-12 Topic/discipline: Literacy, writing Tutorial information: One the main page students click "Get Started" to begin a new outline. Before beginning the outline there is an option for a tutorial on how to use the outline. Possible uses for students, teachers, and/or administrators: Students can use to take organized notes while reading. It can also be used to help students develop ideas as a prewriting activity. Teacher could use to quickly create notes for students. There is also an option to have an HTML assigned to your outline for Internet access so teacher can make it available to students anywhere. Basics: You begin by entering your name and the topic of you outline. The first time using it watch the tutorial. There are only a few buttons to use while creating your outline so it is very simple. Positives: It would be helpful to a student who gets bogged down by handwriting and outline format when trying to take notes. It is easier to use than formatting bullets on Word. Can be accessed on any computer with Internet connection. Negatives: The help section within the actual outline is not very helpful. It only explained what the tutorial demonstrated.

Group 3: Sarah Vaughn & Sara Reich Category: comic strips Grade level use: junior high, secondary Topic/discipline: any Tutorial Information: How to videos included Possible uses: use for mock-up before doing a video, pictures for learning vocabulary, Basic Explanation: Allows students to create comic strips Positives: Great for visual learners and students who like to tell stories creatively Negatives: Education accounts available but schools still have to pay