I participated in a Quia workshop today, and here are some helpful and important tips regarding this online tool:
As a 4th grade teacher, it was easier for me to incorporate Quia than Moodle. Since I don’t teach an online course or publish my students’ grades online, Quia suits my needs and I found it more simple to use.
I didn’t have to create a “class” for my group of 20 students, but doing so assigns each student their own username and password. With a username and password, a student can track his or her own progress. I can see how this feature would be useful for teachers who work with several different groups of students or teach different sections of one subject area.
When I was ready to release activities to my students, I copied the URL for the activity, survey, or quiz and sent it to my students via email–without usernames and passwords. Sometimes we would complete activities as a whole group on the SMARTboard.
Teachers can assigned their activities a “secret word” that only their constituents know. This allows teachers to control who is taking a quiz or survey, for example.
Teachers can create class calendars through Quia, posting upcoming assessments or assignments through each class homepage.
I ran into some trouble at times when my entire class attempted to complete an activity wirelessly on the laptops. In one situation, each child took a survey, submitted his or her results, and then received an error message; I had to then re-administer the survey to each child using the hard-wired Desktop computer. It was time-consuming and frustrating for the children, but I’m wondering if it wasn’t just a wireless issue…
When a teacher has finished administering a survey, results can be exported into Excel spreadsheets.
When students have submitted their answers to a quiz, the results are tabulated and recorded for the teacher; teachers receive recommendations regarding those students who need to review the given concept based on their quiz scores. Quia also provides quiz score mean and median information.
The “Shared Activities” feature in Quia is wonderful! There are so many useful resources out there that teachers can copy into their individual Quia accounts and make their own. Teachers can even limit their search by looking for specific types of activities (jeopardy-type games, quizzes, word finds, etc.)
Here is a cheat sheet for understanding the types of activities you can create through Quia and an explanation of what I call the “control column”:
**Disclaimer: I am just a teacher sharing my LIMITED knowledge of using iWeb with students!**
One of my favorite ongoing projects this year involved using iWeb with my fourth graders. Thanks to Ty Richardson, I learned how to use the software last summer at The Coalition of Lighthouse School’s iSummit. As a newbie, I loved the similarity between iWeb and Keynote–especially the Inspector!
This year was the first time I have tried webpage design with students, and I couldn’t have asked for better software! I loved the ease of use and pre-made templates, and my students did as well. The children used their websites to post facts about themselves, list and even review books that they’d completed, journal about their book club experiences, share writing pieces, showcase projects, pose math problems, embed science and technology slideshows, and even add teacher-controlled widgets. The further we got into the school year, the more I heard, “Can I add this to my website?” I loved iWeb’s possibilities made my students feel like what they were creating in class was worthwhile and for an audience!
Here are some things I learned about using iWeb with students:
MOBILE ME: I used my own $99/year Mobile Me account in order to publish student pages. The students created unique webpages using iWeb on their individual laptops, but eventually I compiled all of the domain files, dragged them into the iWeb folder on my computer, and then published them all individually. It may sound like a lot of work to keep up with 20 domain files, but since the students’ pages didn’t contain any large media files, etc., it typically took less than 2 minutes to publish and re-publish student pages. Only once did I have 20 pages to publish at the same time (during the initial phase); from that point forward, students updated as needed–when they made changes to their pages. My $99 account provided more than enough storage for all 20 of my students to publish webpages and for me to publish my class webpage. I definitely plan to renew my Mobile Me membership!
DOMAIN FILES I taught my students that when building sites using iWeb, the computer creates a domain file. (I was taught that the homepage was called “index”; it’s different in iWeb). I explain the domain file as a very important file that HAS to remain inside its iWeb folder. I tell my students that their computers don’t know which file contains their webpage information if they remove the domain file. While we had some mistakes throughout the year, overall, the transfer of domain files went fairly smoothly. We followed this path to retrieve our domain files: Macintosh HD–User–Student–Library–Application Support–iWeb. The students were taught to attach their domain file in an email to the teacher when they were ready to re-publish their webpages, but they were reminded never to remove the domain file from its folder; we simply copied and pasted. If a student did accidentally remove the file from the iWeb folder, s/he had to not only put it back into the folder, but also had to double-click to re-launch the domain file in iWeb on his/her laptop. I explained this process as our means of reminding the computer where to look for the domain file.
NAMING DOMAIN FILES: I found that I had to be explicit (when are teachers NOT?!) when showing my students how to name their iWeb pages. They needed to rename their pages at the “site” level, or iWeb became confused by numerous files named “site”; when renaming, we used the students’ names and the word “site,” so files ended up looking like this: JerrySite, Jerry Site, or Jerry’s Site. Neither apostrophes nor spaces caused publishing problems. I noticed that when a student bypassed the basic domain file that iWeb created for them and renamed it with his/her name, the file extension changed to “sites2.” This is also the case with my own domain file, and it posed no problems for us. See image:
BACKING UP FILES: My students backed their domain files up to our school’s server, so they can continue adding to and changing their webpages as they grow and gain technology skills. I hope to see them grow as 5th grade iWeb users! They also dragged the domain files to their flashdrives as a backup to the backup.
PUBLISHING: When it came time for me to publish or re-publish student webpages, first I dragged student domains into the iWeb folder on my computer. From there I had to double-click individual students’ domain files and click “publish” in the lower left-hand corner of iWeb once they had launched.
When the publishing process was complete, I would see a pop-up window that read something like:
I would choose “Visit Site Now” to copy the URL for each student’s webpage, and then I would re-launch my own domain file in order to paste the student’s URL into the “All About Me” page of my website under the appropriate student’s name. I chose to handle it this way because I only had one Mobile Me account. My students’ webpages were simply linked to one of my pages:
Their URL paths looked like this depending upon how the students renamed their domains at the site level. This student’s domain was renamed “Davis Site.” Notice how the space was replaced by an underscore when published.
Of course with the use of iWeb this year came many, many conversations about copyright, what is and isn’t safe to publish on the Internet, appropriate content, characteristics of effective websites, color schemes, font choices, spelling and grammar check, etc. We even took a field trip to the Apple Store at a local mall to showcase our creations and get feedback:
While my students and I have A LOT to learn, we really enjoyed using iWeb this year!
I feel very fortunate to be part of a 1:1 laptop program in its second year within the lower school division of a K-12 school. As I walked from my classroom to my car on Friday afternoon I started thinking about what makes it such a great part of our fourth-grade life (and new this year, the lives of our 5th graders). Personally, I sum it up this way:
We have students who are excited and who model responsibility.
Yesterday afternoon while my 20 fourth-graders were storing their laptops for the weekend, one student commented, “Today was the best day!” When I asked him to elaborate, he said, “because we had so much time to get our work done, and we got to use the laptops to do it!” Our school’s new seven-day rotation schedule has opened up longer blocks of classroom teaching time, so we all appreciate having the opportunity to begin and complete an activity (can you believe it?) in one sitting. Yesterday, I was able to teach my students how to log onto the lower school server, how to navigate through SMART’s Notebook software on their laptops, and how to complete the geography activity I had prepared for them, all in one class period. The students were motivated and excited, and I was able to circulate the classroom to assess the overall understanding of the longitude and latitude concept as they worked…a dream!
Despite all the excitement surrounding the laptop program, we have students who understand the importance of proper care and handling and the significance of setting an example for younger technology users and even teachers in our school. Our students know that laptops are used only on flat, stable surfaces, they know to remain in their seats while the laptops are in use, and they know how to move around the classroom and building with the laptops. I believe that 9- and 10-year-old minds are well-matched to participate in a 1:1 program: the children enjoy working on the laptops, the expectations put in place provide an appropriate amount of structure for them, and they understand the consequences of laptop misuse. The students help each other remember how the laptops are to be used and cared for.
Parent support and learning
Before we initiated the program last year, steps were taken to give the parents of our students information regarding our goals for the 1:1 program and our overall vision for laptop learning. Our headmaster and technology department communicated plans via a letter, we asked parents to participate in two different informational meetings, and we asked families to take part in a “laptop showcase” where our students shared projects they had been working on and general laptop knowledge. On the front end, we shared our plan for ethical use, safe Internet use, and proper email etiquette. The result was a group of parents who were just as excited about having laptops in their life as their children. We feel fortunate to work with a group of parents–many of whom are digital visitors–who share our vision and encourage their children to teach them as the year progresses.
Teacher Collaboration
The 1:1 program has been a demanding part of our lives as teachers. It’s new. It’s different. It’s time-consuming. We search for the best websites to use with our students, we create engaging content for our students to use on the laptops, we attend conferences and workshops, we read blogs to keep up with tools and strategies, and most importantly, we simply try to build a base of laptop knowledge for ourselves!
In doing these things, we have grown as a team. We have expanded our online presence. We now all use delicious accounts to manage the websites we use the most and send links to each other, we use Google Docs and Spreadsheets to track supplemental resources and texts for our social studies curriculum, we use Pagekeeper to manage the math links that correlate with our math curriculum, we dedicate time at each grade level meeting to discuss individual ways we are using the laptops in our teaching, and we share our challenges and successes with teachers outside of our grade level and division. Our 1:1 program has ignited our minds and our teaching!
I was so excited to learn that a friend of mine got a job with the Google office in Atlanta. She confirmed the rumors about the ever-engaging working environment and offered me a tip about Blackle, an energy-saving custom search engine powered by Google. The browser turns your screen black which saves Watt hours. So far Blackle claims to have saved 825,311.665 Watt hours. Thanks Kelly…I’m holding out for an Atlanta Google t-shirt!
My fourth grade class launched a geography study today, beginning with an investigation into our Junior Geographer atlases. A study of longitude and latitude will accompany discussions about continents, hemispheres, landforms, etc., and a colleague wondered if we could incorporate Google Earth into our plans. What a great thought; once inside the program, every movement of the mouse produces a different geographic address. I think I’ll encourage my students to find the geographic coordinate for their homes, our school (and see how much of a discrepancy there is between student findings), and one free choice location. My pie-in-the-sky goal is to eventually teach my students how to add photos from their summer vacations to Google Maps, offering their photography skills as resources for others searching Google Earth.
While planning my latitude/longitude study, I came across the Google Earth Gallery a resource filled with content that teachers can use with Google Earth. A couple of my favorite gallery entries were: Median Ages in California (relates to our current math unit about information and data), Magellan’s Circumnavigation, and although I couldn’t get it to work properly, a file displaying 86 football stadiums from around the world. How fun for our elementary athletes!
Wow, it has been a while. How do teachers have time to keep up with their blogging lives?
Steve Hargadon said that swapping business cards and attending conferences are ways to network socially. I think some of my students would argue that talking to each other during quiet class time is social networking! My facebook-based idea about social networking was turned upside down when I found Classroom 2.0 and Ning in Education. I have never seen so much information packed into one place–and there’s no end to it!
I spent a good deal of time the last two days experimenting with these two nings. First I watched the Elluminate Live! recording called “‘Tour of Web 2.0′ webcast video” that Steve Hargadon posted on the main page of the Classroom 2.0 ning. I highly recommend it for any ning newbies because Steve takes the time to go through each section of the Classroom 2.0 ning, from an individual user’s page to how one might tag a forum post. The most useful thing I learned from the webcast is that the Forum section/tab of the ning is organized chronologically by the latest post to any forum. In other words, if I find and leave a comment in a forum about using Google Docs in the classroom, that forum would show up at the top of the list back on the ning main page. I think this is a useful way to see what many people are currently thinking about. This type of organization ignites and reignites ideas in everyone’s minds. I find that when I visit and revisit the Classroom 2.0 main page, I go directly to the forum section.
As I experimented with the Ning in Education site I realized that it is really just an extension or arm of the Classroom 2.0 ning. The Ning in Education site was created for the purpose of linking people in the general educational platform, but I think that so much of that is Web related! It was funny, the fruits of my search on the Ning in Education site was membership in a Smartboard discussion group!
My experience signing up with the Classroom 2.0 ning was just as friendly as when I first signed up with Twitter. Just as it was with veteran twitter-ers, I received a few greetings from seasoned ning users right away. Thanks Anne, Hans, David, and Paul! Web 2.0 people are so encouraging! I recommend both sites…can’t wait to network some more!
I enjoyed my “play” time with Google Docs & Spreadsheets as part of my task for Thing 20. I actually delved into the spreadsheets function and put together the first draft of a document that will hopefully complement the curricular calendar that my 4th grade team has already created for our social studies teaching. My goal is that we use the online spreadsheet to collect and link to primary sources, videos, podcasts, articles, etc. that correspond to the content we focus on through Joy Hakim’s A History of Us, Books 1 and 2. As the year progresses, I hope that we modify and pare down the spreadsheet so that it eventually contains just the sources that are most applicable to the content and more interesting to the students. That’s where team collaboration comes in!
I found the Google Spreadsheets to be easy to use, very similar to Microsoft Excel. I had to seek help on how to create links within cells, but other than that didn’t have trouble putting my thoughts together on the page. When I was ready to invite the members of my team to view the document, I loved how Google allowed me to type up a message to be delivered with the document. That way, my colleagues didn’t receive an invitation to collaborate on a document and think, “What is this?” Also, it was nice to discover that non-gmail users are able to create a Google (not a gmail) account and colloborate in Google Docs; see video:
Other than what I used it for, I can see that the Google Docs & Spreadsheets tool has a myriad of uses. Here are a few I could think of:
Planning a party: Create a Google Doc to hash out who will plan, bring, bake, do what…
Build a class birthday calendar: Allow the students to enter their birthday in and see how the document changes
Monthly Book Club: Invite members to select the month they would like to host, enter the book they’ve chosen, and post directions to their home in a spreadsheet
Committee Meeting Updates: Choose a person to post a summary of the committee’s discussion following each meeting; keep all committees under different tabs on the spreadsheet so everyone can see how other committees are progressing
Survey Students: Ask students what they know about an upcoming topic of study to assess prior knowledge and/or interest level
Don’t forget to check out all the Google docs templates available! (or see previous post)
I’ve never really spent much time experimenting with YouTube simply because I found it to be busy and potentially inappropriate. I felt uncomfortable with the way the homepage displayed “featured videos” that oftentimes included offensive material or material unsuitable for young students. Now that I have created a YouTube account, I have been able to customize my own homepage that allowed me to remove the YouTube featured content. Unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to remove the one, final “promoted video” from my homepage because it seems like content that has been paid for. Any thoughts on how I might remove that one too?
The “advanced” search button on YouTube allowed me to filter my search so that unsuitable content was not delivered to me, and I was able to locate a video (see below) that taught me how to preserve the last remaining hydrangeas that are blooming in my yard right now. Useful video is not difficult to find through YouTube, and several times I found the list of “related videos” to be useful for expanding my search. As I watched various videos in search of the best ones for classroom and personal use, it became clear that if my students or I were to create and upload our own videos to YouTube we would need to use a microphone that produced high quality sound. It’s frustrating when you just can’t hear what is being said!
I also really liked learning more about TeacherTube, and once again I created a personalized account for this resource. My favorite feature of TeacherTube was the “Channels” tab. Under the channels tab, I was able to grab an rss feed for six different content areas, from math to history. I then added the feeds to a new Pageflakes page and then made the page public. Now I can check my Pageflakes account for video content applicable to my classroom teaching.
With my Google Reader and Pageflakes accounts, the ideas have truly been rolling in. I’ve been especially impressed with news related to Wordle and I’ve tried to keep up with ways people might use this online tool in their classrooms. A post to the langwitches blog caught my attention in Pageflakes. The post, titled, “Digital Storytelling Part IX- Wordle” offered an excellent idea: use a word cloud to “showcase characteristics of a protagonist in a book.” I loved this idea! At my school we begin the year in reader’s workshop with a study of character; we dig into characters’ personalities, decision-making patterns, relationship histories, etc., and I think a Wordle project would be a fun, engaging way to share our thoughts about character and help students connect to the books that others read.
I just finished reading Bob Smith’s memoir, Hamlet’s Dresser, so quickly I created a sample word cloud using all the words I could think of that connect to my experience with the book:
I wonder if Library Thing would allow me (or my students) to upload a Wordle creation as part of a book review. That would be a great way to get a conversation around a book going on Library Thing…
For this K12 Learning task, I used evoca for the first time to create an audio recording of three ideas I have for integrating podcasting into classroom teaching and learning. Have a listen!
1. Ms. Edmison’s Weekly Podcast gave me the idea of using podcasting as a way to communicate news and upcoming events with parents at the end of each week. Ms. Edmison’s class uses its podcast as its weekly newsletter, and I love how that idea puts responsibility and creativity into the students’ hands. I wonder how much preparation Ms. Edmison has to do to get her podcast up and running each year.
2. We study early American exploration and colonization as part of our social studies curriculum, and I was thinking that it might be fun for my students to create podcasts from the the perspectives of different Spanish conquistadors and other European explorers. By taking on the role of various historical personalities, the students would be enhancing their knowledge of the content, sharing their ideas with others, and allowing me as the teacher to assess their understandings and dig deeper into their interpretations.
3. In a previous post, I commented on an idea I had for incorporating flickr into classroom teaching. My idea involved having students collect images of any misspellings they come across out in the world. Enhanced podcasts sharing several if not all the images they find through the year with commentary on the significance of the collections could make an interesting podcast…maybe a final podcast project?
I found evoca to be quick and easy to use. I had no trouble getting the html code needed to embed the recording into my blog, and I like the way the embedded file looks on the page. I really like how evoca provides the rss feed for the podcasts I create under my username. One thing I thought was really neat about evoca would be a handy tool for skype users. Skype users can record calls and have the recordings sent directly to evoca accounts! I can definitely see how this would be a useful tool for teachers like Ms. Edmison who create weekly podcasts with their students.
In my last post, I sort of complained about the trouble I’ve had in the past with locating interesting and relevant podcasts for both my fourth-graders and myself. Well, I decided to dig a little further into the subscribing to podcasts thing, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I found with very little effort. Success! I now have a public page in Pageflakes with Steve Dembo, Vicki Davis, David Warlick, Chris Frederick, The Tech Teachers, ColeyCast, and History.org podcast subscriptions–all content I will be able to use one way or another with my students–and they play right in Pageflakes!
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