In this report, technology is one major factor in helping end the achievement gap. Students who use technology and the Internet see greater learning gains and outcomes. Students are more exposed to a variety of resources when using technology. Through the use of technology, learning gaps will decrease due to engagement, differentiation, and motivation.
This guide provides key steps to encouraging buy-in and safety in your school while setting up social media to advance student learning in the classroom.
If you are interested in Edutopia's other classroom guides, see http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-guides-downloads
The Khan Academy is a free online resource for learners to access over 3,000 videos. Since the video tutorials are short, the content keeps even the most distracted student's attention. Working at a Community college, many students entering are required to take academic placement test in math and english. The math assessment seems to be the most fustrating among students. This site has interactive quizzes to assist in preparation and or to identify where the deficiency is for students. Students are advised to review the content prior to completing the assessments and to help as they matriculate throughout their required math courses.
Quizlet is a tool that allows teachers to create flashcards, (mock-up) tests and study games. When designing activities, teachers can add pictures and voice over. Teachers can monitor their students' progress and the time they spend on the activities.
The activities can be assigned by the teachers but students can go back to Quizlet on their own to review or prepare for an assessment.
Quia is a site that allows teachers to access template tools for quizzes and other assignments, and students can access and take these assessments online. This can be used in a variety of ways, including formal assessments and test preparation. There are also shared activities teachers can access, which are well-organized by category.
Note: The article is in English, although the page that shows the full article is written in Spanish.
This article presents the idea that using screencasts and/or video lessons can help give students access to better instruction. The main idea of the paper is that to properly support students, one needs to be able to help answer questions in a timely fashion. As students study away from school, they tend to email questions to their instructors. I have noticed in recent years that emailed questions, although extremely relevant, can be unwieldy to explain via text. The article's text has the exact same conclusion (which is why it resonated with me the way it did) and makes the distinction that those same unwieldy or impractical 'text' solutions would be trivially answered if the student was face-to-face with the instructor. This concept, that face-to-face interaction is superior to all others, is the motivation for writing this paper. While screencasts and videos are not very interactive (for the most part), they are superior to simple written explanations (especially for complex or visual problems in science and math).
This provides excellent resources to support the Common Core initiative. It stresses the case for an interdisciplinary approach to learning and suggests that
"to prepare our students for an integrated world, we need to break out of the separate-discipline mentality and develop more holistic and problem/project-based approaches. "
The road trip structure with stops to explore various Web 2.0 tools is an excellent example of a web-based activity design. Although this road trip is an online professional development example, I can see the structure being adapted for K-12 student explorations.
Week 9:
By Nicole Long A picture is worth a thousand words, and a tweet is worth... 140 characters? If one of the main incentives for Twitter in education was tapping into a student-centered resource, then the newest trend for 2015 should be Instagram for education. This blog gives teachers an inside view of using Instagram to create lessons and provide interactive learning.
A teacher could use this in his or her classroom to help students brainstorm ideas in the writing process. I have used googledocs to insert a pre-writing template for students to complete prior to some writing assignments which fulfills a similar purpose. The resource could also be useful in helping you keep your agenda or priorities organized especially when working in a group.
A teacher could use this in their classroom for students to brainstorm in a group, identify key parts of a website, practice reading strategies on actual websites by marking them up, or discuss ideas and take notes. This site is quite interesting and I feel worthwhile. It does somewhat remind me of googledocs and other similar apps, but is unique in many ways.
It could be used in a multitude of ways, and definitely lends itself to discussions and critiques of things as vast as articles and websites to paintings and art.
"Twiddla is a free, no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Voice and Text chat too!"
This might be a great way to have students evaluate websites or documents collaboratively.
"AutoCAD for Education Design and shape the world around you with the powerful, connected design tools in AutoCAD software."
This software is free for students and has a three year licence. This would be a great tool for theatre students to download and use to create set and prop designs.