Etherpad

Etherpad

Let me introduce you to the program Etherpad. Here are the who, what, when, where, how, and why you should use Etherpad in your classroom.

Who

• Educators
• Students
• Small Groups
• Partners
• Classrooms
• Grade Levels
• Schools

What

Etherpad can be used as an education collaboration tool for group assignments that require student or education professionals to create projects, presentations, and documents together. The program shows the document in real time allowing all members of the group to contribute to the finished product.Users can see one another work on the document at the same time; there is also an option in which users can chat with one another.

When

Etherpad lends itself to any academic subject. It is appropriate to use it before, during, and after an open ended responses, fill in the blank, or multiple choice formative assessment. It can be used the same way in profession development.

Where

Users have access to Etherpad documents on any digital device no matter their location on Earth.
Documents can be accessed anytime day or night.

How

Etherpad displays a box much like blogger, google docs, and Microsoft Word. Inside the box users control the font, text size, images, hyperlinks, list, spell check, and other editing tools that are necessary for a publication. Download or share document when it is complete. 

Why

• Etherpad gives all users a voice in one document. 
• efficient use of time
• It allows an educational institution to go paperless.
• allows students to apply 21st century skills needed for college and career
• extends class time to meet assignment due dates

Plickers

Plickers is a educational tool used within the classroom to collect student responses revealing their understanding of academic content that has been taught. The data collected from student responses

The Plicker app is compatible with all digital devices. It is perfect for all a BYOD classroom setting. If students do not have access to digital devices the students can use the plicker card to registser responses. There are many uses of Plickers in the classroom. It can be used to record student attendance. Plickers can be used as a formative assessment. The data collected determines the instruction that follows and student grouping for response to intervention.

As a Kindergarten teacher, I would use Plickers to record attendance in my classroom. I would use it to formatively assess students during the lesson. At the conclusion of the lesson, I would use Plickers as an exit slip. The Plicker tool can also be used as a pre-assessement tool before covering new information.

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Augmented Reality in Education

AR Zoo: Augmented Reality Zoo Animals 3D Photos

This app could be utilized by all grade levels of school age children.
I am a Kindergarten teacher which requires me to teach all academic subjects.
These subjects consists of English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies,
Visual Arts,  and Health.  I would use this app in the following ways across
all academic subjects.

English Language Arts

Alabama College and Career Readiness Standard :
W.K.2 requires students to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative or explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
Activity:
Create an informative or explanatory text regarding the characters in the picture.

Math

Alabama College and Career Readiness Standard :
K.OA.1 requires students to represent addition and subtraction
sentences with drawings or pictures.
Activity:
Write an addition sentence that matches the picture. Examle: 1 baby + 1 jaguar = 2 

Science

Alabama College and Career Readiness Standard :
ACOS.K.3 requires students to distinguish between living
and nonliving things and the basic needs that must be
met for them to survive.
Activity:
Compare/Contrast living and nonliving things in the photograph.
Compare/Contrast basic needs of baby and jaguar

Social Studies

Alabama College and Career Readiness Standard :
ACOS. K.10 requires students to use vocabulary related to giving and following
and following directions.
Activity:
Where is it?/ Quess Who? - Students use position words to find an object in the photograph.

Visual Arts

Alabama College and Career Readiness Standard :
V. K.11 requires students to distinguish between images and real objects.

Activity:

Compare Contrast images vs real objects - Students use Venn diagram to
determine what  characteristics the image and real object have that are
the same and different. 

Health

Alabama College and Career Readiness Standard :
H. K.8 requires students to list behaviors that promote personal safety.

Activity:

What Would You do?- students will list unsafe behavior of the baby in the photograph. They will then list what should be done to return the setting of the photograph back to a safe living environment for the baby.

Closing

I would encourage students to interact more with the photograph by writing text to assist in meeting the completion of the academic standard.  Some standards require lists, equations, collaboration in small group, or the publication of a document.

SeeSaw in the Classroom

What is SeeSaw?

Seesaw is a digital portfolio that allows students to reflect on their learning and track their academic progress. Parents have access to student work samples and online journal. They are also able to comment on their student's work. Seesaw is an appropriate program for the diverse groups of learners within the classroom.Student work can be documented through PDF, Word documents, photographs, PowerPoint Presentations, blogs, drawing pictures, creating videos, and much more. 

SeeSaw 21st Century Learning and Assessment

There are many ways that Seesaw lends itself to the 21st Century learning within the classroom. Seesaw allows students to go paperless. Students are able to store their assignments, photographs, videos, and presentation within their student profile. Seesaw would be an excellent program to use with Student Led Conferences. Student Led Conferences are lead by students. Parents come to conference with their students as they  present a collection of their course work. 

Seesaw requires students to use the following twenty-first century skills :

• student drives their own learning
• inquiry based
• collaborative assignments
• critical thinking &problem-solving
• communication skills
• apply academic concepts to real life

Seesaw from the teacher perspective is beneficial to the assessment process because it allows all student work to be collected in one location.  The student work that is uploaded to Seesaw can be used for both purposes of formative and summative assessment.  The teacher is able to view pretest  and post test to assess student learning. The teacher uses the feedback received to plan classroom instruction and student assignments. 

99 Problems Animated Video

Animation in the Classroom

Toontastic Animated Story App

    

Toontastic is an app that allows users to create animated short stories,
classic stories, and science reports. I would use Toontastic within my
classroom in all academic subjects. Literary Elements are a state
mandated standard for Kindergarten. The students would use Toontastic
to apply what they know regarding the role of the author, illustrator, and
plot of a story. Toontastic app reminds the student what each part of the
story consists of right before they create the before, during , and after of
the story. There is also a feature that allows the student to draw their own
character and narrate their own story. The last portion of the story making
process is to Title and Name the author of the story. They are then able to
publish and share with the teacher and classmates. The teacher would you
a rubric to grade students on the story they created with Toontastics as it
corresponds with the College Career and Readiness standards.

Classroom Friendly Animation Apps

Animation in the Classroom

The web link above will direct you to a website with five animation apps

that are safe for students to use within the classroom and at home. One of the

featured apps is Toontastic which is what I used to create the animated short

story above. The 4 remaining apps are Tellagami, Animoto Video Maker, FlipaClip, and Puppet Pals. All apps are free and compatible with either

Android or Apple devices. All five can be used during the English Language Arts block in the classroom. Currently the subjects of Science and Social Studies are integrated into the ELA block that all five apps are beneficial to all subjects.

The following are benefits identified by the website

• students take responsibility for their own learning
• appeals to a diverse population of learners
• take sstudents through the story writing process

Augmented Reality Exploration

AR Dragon

• This app was utilized on a Samsung Galaxy 8 Note Android Device
• The user is given an egg. The eggvhatches by the user tapping on the egg. The egg hatches and you are granted a dragon. User scans the room and summons the dragon into reality. The objective of the game is to care for 
• I have summoned my dragon Oggy. He has already broken the first rule of not getting on the furniture.

Kings of Pool 

• This app was utilized on a Samsung Galaxy 8 Note Android Device
•  Kings of  Pool a virtual reality game that allows players to play a game of pool. You are able to send messages back-and-forth between the 2 players. The objective of the game is to get all of your balls into the pool pockets before your opponent.
• I started the game in the lead knocking in two pool balls on my first try. My opponent is an equal match he struck two balls into the pool table pockets as well. The circular icons on the screen allow me to change pool sticks, instant message, and change position of pool stick on the table.