GoogleDoc Forms

In today's class period, we learned all about forms for GoogleDocs and how to create quizzes and surveys that use this technique. For mine I used the same topic as my Dewey Decimal Webquest so that the form could be used as an assessment to see whether students picked up on basic Dewey facts throughout the unit. I embedded my form below, though it can also be found through GoogleDocs.


In practicing this skill we practice NETS standard 2, substandard a, which says that teachers should: "design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity."

WebQuest

For our last real project of the semester we finished our webquest. For my webquest I emphasized the Dewey Decimal System and sent the students through Dewey’s life. We used GoogleSitess to put it together. This wasn't my first webquest, but I enjoyed the template they provided.

This could ultimately fall under NETS standard 2, substandard c, which states that teachers should "customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources."

Prezi Practice

During today's class period we discovered the joys of Issuu (a web based pdf viewer- predominately for magazines) and Prezi, which is a pretty cool little gizmo that lets you create presentations that can feature a variety of different aspects of multimedia. We did a practice run with a few elements, as seen below. Nothing too fancy, but I can definitely see using this for future presentations!

This Prezi presentation could meet any number of NETS standards, but particularly hits standard 3, substandard a, which states that teachers should "demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations." The use of Prezi to present something to students would definitely be more interesting to them than something as old school as the Powerpoint.

Practice on Prezi

WebQuest about WebQuests

For this class period, we did a “WebQuest about WebQuests” and ranked them in accordance to which one is the most thorough and which is not as complete of a WebQuest.

I ranked mine in accordance from worst to best.

1. Waves & Sound

2. Saving the Gorillas

3. Foreign Country Presentation

4. World of Shakespeare

5. Anti-Earthquake Designer

The Anti-Earthquake Designer is the most thorough because it has complete instructions and job descriptions, as well as pictures of what will happen, while the Waves and Sounds WebQuest is very vague.

I believe this would fall under NETS standard 5, substandard c, which states that teachers should "evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning." This is true in the case of this activity, because we had to evaluate creations by other professionals in order to establish the caliber of WebQuest that we want to complete.


We followed the activity up by using a visual ranking tool provided by Intel, in order to compare the results of different groups. We broke down into 6 groups and compared and contrasted our answers.

What is Jeopardy for 500, Alex?

In today's class we learned a shortcut to creating Jeopardy games to use in our classrooms. While using powerpoint is well & good, it's also very time consuming. We used JeopardyLabs to practice the creation of Jeopardy games. You don't need to have a paying membership to make a game-- there's a free online version (you'll access yours by password, but the quiz is then public domain). You can go back to edit the version, as long as you remember your password.

Dr. Pierce also sent us a link to a Jeopardy Powerpoint template, created by JMU. This template has the basic set up to start creating powerpoint Jeopardy games. We did have to create our own animations for our answers, but this would definitely save time but still allow for the flexibility of Powerpoint vs. Jeopardy Labs. We practiced using Dirpy to download YouTube videos and mp3s to stick in our Powerpoints.

Today's lesson supported NETS Standard 3, Substandard a, which states that teachers need to "demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations." With that being said, using Powerpoint for Jeopardy would definitely be more convenient (and more durable) than the old school method of creating Jeopardy games with velcro, notecards & a laminating machine. The Powerpoint could also be sent to parents or posted on Edline so that the students could continue to go over the material with which they were having problems.