EdTechWalden

Authentic assessments are a great way to see if learning is transferable beyond a multiple choice test, but how do you determine if the objectives have been met? The answer: rubrics! Rubristar is a free online tool used to create rubrics for any subject. Rubristar also allows the user to connect to a community database of saved rubrics to use or modify to meet their individual needs.

This site allows the teacher to build authentic assessments based on the goals of the activity. The rubric can be saved and posted to email, wiki site, and as a pdf. file for use by the learner.

With time toast, students can build an interactive timeline of historical information, as well as input information which will help them learn the material with ease. In addition, students are able to input pictures and other data to help them organize an event or procedure.

This is an excellent site to use in organizing information in a Social Studies and Language Arts class on an interactive timelines. In addition to the active line, students will be able to retrieve an outline of the information found on the timeline.

This website lets the learner use uploaded pictures as well as pictures from Flickr to tell a story through storybook. It is a great tool for a Language Arts or Social Studies class assignment where the students are the publishers in developing assigned topic to present to the class.

This websites provides the learner to create their own book using pictures captured from Flickr. I like the fact that the learner can create an educational book or personal book of their own topic.

Brief description ...: In this program, the learner is able to create a word cloud, as well as, click on the word to get a visual dictionary, definition, examples of the word and etc. The word sift provides an engaging learning environment. Brief explanation ...: I like this site because of the many tools available to help the learner become familiar with the lesson which will presented.

Slideboom is a web site that allows you to upload, store, and then publish presentations to the web. It works with power point animations and is free.

Slideboom http://www.slideboom.com/ This site will allow me to upload my powerpoint presentation so that the participants will always have access to it without having to have a download. This site is free and plays the slideshow in a video format. This site is a good site for developing the participant's essnetial laerning allowing them to process the infomration form a vairety of ways; visual, and auditory. I chose this site becasue it is free and it can be accessed from any internet site. This will be good for the participants to use as a reference after the presentation.

Slideboom is a website to upload Powerpoint presentations even 2010 and keeps the full presentation intact.Slideboom will also allow the user to embed their presentation into websites like wikis, blogs, Facebook, etc.Slideboom has an add-on(iSpring free) where you can upload your presentation directly from Powerpoint. For those reluctant to try new technologies, this is an easy place to start. Like other presentation technologies, Slideboom allows the user to organize and integrate the information presented.

TVnima is a 3D animation website. It is free but you must request a free account. Basically TVnima allows the user to create presentations using 3D animation.The presentations can include videos inserted like a newscast. The avatars can be premade or you can use pictures of yourself to create a personalized avatar. The speech is text to speech using a computer voice, however, some of the examples I watched used human voices. TVnima would allow the learner to organize and integrate the information learned creatively.

These resources and training materials will be very helpful for individuals beginning to use interwrite workspace. I especially like the beginning videos found at http://www.einstruction.com/support_downloads/training/workspace.html# These are the most applicable videos to my school system and the 21st century classrooms that we currently have. I chose to use the interwrite technology because this is what we use in my school system.

eInstruction - This site provides information on the eInstruction software that my school system uses. I create many activities that utalize the Schoolpad or Mobi, and CPS responders. This software allows the activities to be concducted in conjunction with 21st century equipment.

The Trackstar site provides an online container for lesson materials that could also be used for pre-training activities. The site may help students select and organize mental representations of course concepts by facilitating the organization of related content.

Trackstar - This site allows the instructor of a course to bookmark sites where participants can browse prior to the beginning of the course. These sites can require participants to complete pre-training activities to lay the foundation to what will be learned in the course.

Webspiration is the free online version of Inspiration. Webspiration is a graphic organizer that visually creates a graphic organization of the material used or learned.Webspiration also can be use collaboratively by invitation and the users can discuss the graphic organizer in the discussion section.You can insert graphics and links.Webspiration allows the user to publish to the web by providing a web address but will not allow embedding of the graphic organizer.

Glogster creates interactive posters and allows for collaboration. The basic site is free but to access more features you have to pay.Videos can be embedded into the interactive posters as well as links. Once a Glog is created the Glog can be embedded into wikis,blogs, twitter, Facebook, and presentations. Glogs can also be emailed.Glogs can be used to integrate and organize information to be presented and allows the creator to creatively present and organize their information.

This is a very easy to use web site to prepare online surveys and questionnaires. This tool help to immediately assess and understand how your students are progress.

ProProfs is another website to use for pretraining. ProProfs has a free trial but is fairly inexpensive for educators.ProProfs allows you to embedd your quizzes. Again pre-training activates prior knowledge and allows the learner to prepare himself for what is to come. Pro Profs also has a flashcard maker as well as a game maker, both of which you can embed in websites.

One type of assessment tool that can be used to archive, organize, and showcase authentic assessments is an ePortfolio. Foliospaces provides users with a space to develop a comprehensive digital portfolio. ePortfolios can be help students engage in essential and generative learning by assembling authentic products of learning and organizing them into cohesive representations of their learning. This website provides a free space for developing an ePortfolio. In addition, the website allows for the opportunity to share information with others through social networking.

This website provides a resource that describes various aspects of authentic assessment. In addition to sharing examples of authentic assessments for different content areas, the author provides flowcharts and step-by-step guidance for develop authentic assessments. Authentic assessments allow learners to demonstrate what they have learned by using concepts in applicable, relevant situations. Authentic assessments provide evidence of essential and generative learning. This website provides a combination of both general steps for developing authentic assessments as well as more detailed descriptions of the "how" and "why" behind this type of assessment strategy. The information at the website is easy to access and follow.

The 4Teachers website is the main page that provides links to a variety of different tools that educators can use (for free) to integrate various technologies into the classroom. These tools include QuizStar, RubiStar, NoteStar, and so forth. These tools can allow teachers to create pre-training activities for students in addition to creating other activities for primary essential and generative learning. This site is advantageous in regard to the fact that the tools are free. In addition, there are a various tools that can be applied in many different situations. Quizzes, rubrics, outlines, brainstorming sessions, videos, and for forth can be created and facilitated from this family of sites.

This is a free poll site that can be embedded into a PowerPoint so results show as folks vote. Really cool -- and did I say "free"?????????????

Diagnostic assessments drive the instruction process, when teachers/presenters know what the students know, need to know or wonder about. Poll Everywhere is an audience response system using standard web technology. It works through text, web, or Twitter, its simplicity and flexibility are earning rave reviews. I love it because responses show up immediately on the screen, allowing the instructor to create a chart, or just show responses. This is a free web-based program for up to 30 responders.

This website allows a user to develop online polls that learners in a workshop/presentation can participate in. With regard to pre-training activities, quick polls can help both learners and the instructor quickly gauge what the learners know before digging into the planned activities. In addition, polls can be designed to engage learners and prepare them for some of the activities they will participate in. The product available at this website provides free access for designing quick polls. It also allows the designer to choose how participants respond to the polls. In addition to text messaging, the designer can use a web address (if mobile devices are not convenient for the setting) to allow easy access. In addition to the interactive capabilities, the polls can be seamlessly integrated into a PowerPoint presentation or website.

Quibblo is a website that allows the user to create quizzes, surveys, polls, and stories. It is free and easy to set up. Quizzes can be shared by email or embedded into blogs, facebook, twitter, myspace, and wikis. Pre-training allows prior knowledge to move into the working memory of the individual. This stimulates essential learning by anticipating the concepts that are coming as well as accessing prior knowledge.

This program is for install in the computer but you can work in the web synchronously too. I find very easy to use and have features that empowers users to construct, navigate and share the concept maps.

MS VISIO is a great tool that can be utilized for graphic organizing. The tool has a lot of great shapes and images to handle any type of persentation. Although the tool is not a web based product, there are lots of shareware sites that one could download the tool. The only downfall is there is a cost assoicated with utilizing the software. Its a Microsoft product; threfore it is easly incorporated into other MS products.