Technology in Action - Live on Location!

What's the best way to know if an app might work for you?  USE IT! It can be time consuming to try and figure out all the bugs in an app and consider how it might be best used in a classroom, but the longer I sit and deliberate about an app - the less likely I am to use it.  This month I jumped right in with both feet to use several apps I hadn't used before and it was worth it!  Seemless? No. Smooth? No. But I learned a lot and I think the teachers and students I jumped with did too.  Here's what I learned...

Observation and Participation #1 with App - Shadow Puppet

I used this app with Mrs. J in her ELL classroom.  She had already worked with students so they had completed an animal report.  The report was divided into topics such as description, habitat, foods, and other interesting facts.  We then used the Shadow Puppet app to help each student find a picture of two to go with each of their topics.  They arranged them into the App so they were like a mini slideshow.  The app then allows student to record their voice and plan for pictures to change to match the recording. Here's an example...

I learned how to use this app right along with Nicolas.  At first we couldn't find the flickr photos to use, but found we needed to scroll down and choose the option.  Then, it took a while to figure out we had to hold our finger on an image in our slideshow in order to "move" it to another location or delete it.  I think recording a child's voice reading or describing a project is the best part of this app, but it too had it's  quirks.  First, children must swipe the pages one their own.  You can pause the recording every so often and then swipe, but he just kept on reading so I swiped for him when the topic changed.  Also, if you fail to have the recording option on until the very end of the slideshow - the slides without a recording will not appear.  The recording is all or nothing - if a child (or adult!) messes up?  You have to delete the recording and start again from the beginning.  This is one part I wish could be changed.  It would be nice if there was a separate recording track for each slide.  This would enable a child to record and listen to their voice before moving on to the next slide. Overall, though, this app is great.  There are so many possibilities!  Mrs. J uploaded them in each child's journal on SeeSaw so it is part of their running record of literacy.

Observation and Participation #2 with Web-based App - Kahootz

I observed Mrs. McD's 5th grade class review earth science facts for the upcoming NeSA test.  The kids loved it.  When she said they would be "playing" Kahoot they nearly cheered.  The questions and multiple choice answers were part of a review she borrowed from another teacher in the building, but teacher can create their own  or search the 100s on the Kahoot data base.  I think the kids are motivated by the music and ticking clock, but I can also see where it might cause some anxiety and random guessing.  The teacher's interface lets her know how the class is doing on each question so she knew when to stop and explain or when to go on. It also ranks students according to speed and accuracy.  That feature has its uses, but it can be turned off. This "quizzing" app led to trying another...

Observation and Participation #3 with Apps Socarative and EduCreation

Carli and I went to Mrs. L's 4th grade math class to help students use these two apps to review for the NeSA testing.  The Socrative app allows teachers to make quizzes with T/F, multiple choice, or short answer questions.  Mrs. L had pairs of students write one of each type of question for a chapter in their math book.  While she had them come 2 at a time to laptops to enter questions into a class quiz, Carli and I had pulled other pairs aside and had them use EduCreations to record themselves explaining how to work a problem while they wrote on the ipad screen whiteboard.   Explaining how to do a math problem verbally proved to be be more difficult than students (or teachers!) expected.  There were only two ipads available so students took turns, but I can imagine in a classroom with one-to-one ipads that students might be asked to do this frequently so a teacher could see and hear a student's thinking.  Here's the EduCreation video from my groups:  Watch Here


Class Use #4  with Socrative and Quicktime Screencast

I also created a Socrative item to use with undergraduates.  I had prepared a powerpoint on RTI and used Socrative to ask a few questions to see what they already knew - saved so much time!  They could see one anothers answers so learned as much from one another as they did me.  It also kept everyone involved - I am going to think of other ways to use it.  The part I didn't like was that when I clicked"show answers" for the class, if there were any late answers coming then all the answers were hidden again.  Once I figured out what was happening I just waited for all answers first, but it wasn't a quiz so I kind of wanted the answers to post on the screen as they were typed.  I think if I use the "quick questions" option rather than writing a quiz in advance it would help. I would like to prepare all quizzes for summer session in Socrative - I like the immediate feedback of results as an instructor.  The questions can also be randomly ordered as students take it.

After learning about "flipped classrooms" HERE and HERE I tried to think of some aspect of the course I am going to teach this summer that might be "cut" from lecture and turned into a screencast.  I decided that the 15 - 20 minutes is takes to show undergrads a couple of websites they might use to support them as reading/language arts teachers could be flipped.  Many times, the students are shown these websites before they have a real need to use them - so they are quickly forgotten.  If the screencast is available, then they can access the info when the need it! I already posted my AR Bookfinder tutorial and you see I did not end up using the resources suggested in the second link above.  Quicktime was easy.  I watched a YouTube video on how to do it.  I kept trying EduCanon because it seemed more professional and fun, but it kept crashing?  I am going to give it another try, but it was not cooperating the day I did it.  I'd like to use it to add pauses to teaching videos of exemplary lessons so pre-service teachers note strategy use, prompts and cognitive moves my master teachers in a lesson.