Online Assessment

Assessment can be the bane of every teachers' existence. To some, teaching would be a breeze if there weren't countless hours of designing quizzes, marking tests, and inputing scores. The biggest thing that it comes down to is time. So why, in the 21st century do we not utilize technology more?

There are plenty of great online resources that can be used to create exams and quizzes, a list of which can be found here. I'm going to focus on two today, both of which I've mentioned before but now I'm going to go more in-depth. The first one is for summative assessment, the second for formative. The first is Google Docs. I have been using Google Docs for years and I was completely unaware that it had a quiz making feature. The feature, found under the free app SmartSheets, is very efficient. It is easy to use in that the quiz layout is simple: you can choose multiple choice, matching, short answer, etc. and quickly create a test that you can send out to your students. The best feature of this program is how it organizes the results. Rather than spending hours inputting scores in by hand, the program enters all of the information itself (after automatically marking the questions which you chose to have it mark). It not only tells you what the test scores are, but informs you which questions the most students got the wrong, which ones they right, and which students struggled where. For anyone who has ever designed a test, this knowledge is invaluable. It will calculate for you which questions are working and allow you to easily edit the exam so that they are improved for next time. It is a very effective summative tool.


For a formative tool I return to a website I've lauded before: Edmodo. I love the formative assessment of Edmodo because it's so easy. Students can respond to every assignment, quiz, or link posted by the teacher right as they encounter it. The teacher, of course, has the option to make these comments public or keep them private for their own records. The site also has a handy 'Reactions' feature where the students can respond by simply choosing an emoticon. Emoticon reactions range from 'I like it!' to 'This wasn't taught in class' to 'I'm bored'. The teacher receives these reactions in a nicely compiled list showing how many students and which students said what. This incredibly quick tool serves as a handy way to check where your students are at without a whole lot of effort.

Flipped Classrooms

I have discovered a new passion in teaching styles and that passion is called flipped classrooms. You can check out everything you need to know about it, including how to implement it, just by clicking on the link below.

http://prezi.com/5nmz-a_qhnsq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Digital Citizenship

With all this talk about technology I feel it is important to touch on digital citizenship--about how to be a safe and respectful users of the Internet. Because the Internet wasn't around when my generation was born, we have grown up as it has grown. But there are students being born who have never known a world without Internet, and aren't immediately aware of how to conduct themselves appropriately. Using the Internet incorrectly can result in everything from cyber bullying and online stalking to much worse. The very relevant situation of Amanda Todd is a large reminder of how important it is that kids know how to use the internet not just effectively, but safely as well.

Teaching kids moral and ethical implications in the real world will help overflow this mentality onto the Web. You can use books like "What's in Your Bucket?" to teach young kids that there are consequences for what you say or do, and this includes the Internet as well. As the kids use the Internet more you can teach them about the permanence of the Internet, and how pictures and comments, even if they have been deleted, can still be used against you.

As a teacher using a computer in your classroom, there are some things you can do to make it a better experience for your kids. You can install an Adblock on to your computer to prevent racy images from accidentally popping up. You can also be aware of using copyright images or encouraging students to use websites that are illegitimate or possible dangerous. As a teacher, teaching digital citizenship is just as important, if not more important, in this day and age as any other subject.

For some extra info and helpful tips on digital citizenship you can check out here, here, or here.

Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 Tools are about taking the online classroom to the next level. Instead of one-way communication, Web 2.0 Tools allow for interaction between the creators and the users of the web tool. An excellent example of this is VoiceThread, which can be found at www.voicethread.com.

VoiceThread is the most interactive video service I have ever seen. It takes all the features that normally come with a whole classroom and places it within the program. Teachers can use it to make videos for their students and students can respond in many different ways. The videos can be a stream, a screenshot, or even a document. Students can comment through words, telephone, microphone, doodles, pictures, or even create their own reply videos. They can respond to videos in real time and have their comments attach to the video itself. They can make their own videos which they can easily create voice-overs for, and which other students can then interact with and respond to. This whole system is INCREDIBLY interactive and, for someone who wants to incorporate flipped classrooms into my own teaching style, I can see it as an invaluable tool. It promotes great differentiation through effective technology use.

A website designed by my peers to help explain VoiceThread can be found at http://ed4702voicethread.weebly.com. You can also check out the video below for a little more info:

Classroom Communication, Online!

The need for constant communication inside and outside the classroom is imperative in the modern day classroom. The more connection that students have with teachers, the more they are going to turn to the teacher as a resource (within reason, of course!). One of the best tools for online communication I have found is at www.edmodo.com.

Edmodo is a fantastic tool that is basically Facebook for the classroom. It takes all the fun social aspects of Facebook and puts them within a site that is loaded with easy-to-use educational tools for the teacher. You can use Edmodo to have secure classroom discussions, allow students and teachers access to assignments, file sharing and uploads, and grade book tracking. As a teacher you can easily make quizzes, polls, and assignments right on the website which can even be set to be automatically graded. It also works as a great formative assessment tool as students can respond to assignments and teacher comments easily and quickly.

The main drawback, as with any technology use in the classroom, is that it implies that students have internet access at home. While this is becoming less and less of an issue, it is so imperative that the teacher is aware of whether this is the case for each student. If even one student is stuck without Internet there is a large chance they will be singled out and be disadvantaged in the classroom.

For more information on Edmodo you can check out the website www.howtoedmodo.weebly.com or even watch this short video:

MOOCS!

Besides sounding like a fool when you pronounce them, MOOCS are pretty much the coolest things out there. MOOCS stands for Massive Online Open Courses aka democratic education. I absolutely love the concept of MOOCS because it brings education to anyone who has access to the Internet (which is not enough, but is definitely the right step towards free public-access education). These online courses come in many shapes in sizes, dealing with subjects across the globe. Students get to choose what they want to partake in instead of taking classes to fulfill degree requirements. This concept is almost threatening as a future teacher as it gives students access to skilled professionals who have perfected their courses over many many years. Of course, nothing quite beats the one-on-one interaction that teachers can offer, but technology is quickly changing that as programs like Skype and FaceTime grant that face-to-face interaction.

I love that MOOCS can be seen as a professional development tool as well. Here is a link for some great teacher-related MOOCS that could be used to improve yourself as an educator. As the end of my university career draws to a close I am already dreading not having the constant input of knowledge that classes can supply, but MOOCS help ease this. If you have the dedication and the time, there is no end of subjects that you can learn from bright and talented individuals.

While slightly different than your typical MOOC, I can't help but use this opportunity to plug one of my favourite learning tools, TED talks. TED, found here, is a free website that hosts hundreds of great speeches done by inspirational speakers all over the world. The subjects range from science to humanities, from art to innovation, from humour to inspiration. There is something for every type of learner on TED and the speakers are always interesting. It is a personal goal of mine to be asked to give a TED talk as some of my own personal heroes have had the honour to do so. I strongly encourage you to check the site out and use it as a tool for your own professional development. You can start with one of my favourite talks, found below.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is another response to the massive online world of interaction. It gives you the opportunity to organize and search for all of your interests. Obviously, like Twitter, this can be used as a PD tool, allowing you to follow fellow teachers and add your own input to the global pinboard.

I say pinboard because Pinterest is the most commonly known version of social bookmarking that I have heard of. Unfortunately Pinterest is very... female-centered so there are other websites like www.delicious.com or www.diigo.com that might be more your style. (Fun fact: there is a male retort to Pinterest called Manterest, but I wouldn't recommend using for any type of professional manner.) Though it's not often viewed as such, Reddit is also a great example of social bookmarking and one that I use on a daily basis. I can definitely see Reddit being used as a research tool for myself and my students in the future.

The most important thing with sites like these is knowing what works for you and cutting out the rest. It can be far too overwhelming to try and dip your toe in every single bookmarking site. Sites like these also have a tendency of being very addicting; there is no end to the amount of articles you can peruse or pictures you can 'like'. Knowing when to draw the line is probably the most helpful skill in dealing with social bookmarking sites.

Edit: I had to come back to this lacklustre post and note that my interest in Pinterest has substantially increased. After being shown how effective it can be as a way to collect all my teacher resources, I can't wait to start making my own boards. I have hundreds (literally) of bookmarks saved to my computer for different reasons, all of which are terribly unorganized. The ability to organize my bookmarks by category and include a little screenshot to accompany it is really appealing. The concept of having all of my teacher resources in one place is just too appealing (and heck, I'll thrown in a DIY board on there as well, just because it seems to be the cool thing to do.)