Google Forms

     Today we learned about Google Forms. This is a tool that allows you to create online quizzes, surveys, or any type of questionnaire. I made a survey about Thanksgiving. We also learned how to format our surveys and about the different kinds of questions: multiple choice, text, scale, grid, checkboxes, and choose and option. Then the class took eachother's surveys. It was really cool to see all the information for my survey compliled into a chart in google docs as they filled it out. Here is a link to my survey's results. This could come in handy during my student teaching to create homework assignments and quizzes. I can view the form by signing into Gmail and clicking Documents, and anyone else can view it by clicking the link in my blog post. I can view the results by clicking my Documents in Gmail, and clicking on "Thanksgiving Survey" My subject in my survey is kind of silly, but I think it is interesting to see what other people do for Thanksgiving.

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles,
 working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.

I think Google forms could help me to meet this standard because I could use it to personalize assessments and assignments. It would also make putting quizzes and surveys together much easier

Prezi

      Tday we learned abou three new tools, Issuu, Prezi, and Photostory. Issuu is a tool kind of like SlideShare. On it you can view for PDFs in magazine style, or use it for presentations. Prezi is a free web based tool that allows you to do zooming presentations. You put all your content on one slide, and then decide the order the pictures will be zoomed in on. This option is less linear and more interesting than PowerPoint.

Sample on Prezi

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

a.	design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools

and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

     I think these tools can help me meet Standard 2a. because they are definitely digital tools that promote student learning. PowerPoint is a great tool, but I think Prezi is more interesting and has more potential for student creativity.

Intel Tools

This is a link to Intel Tools.

WebQuest

Today we began learning about an online learning tool called WebQuest. We started by reading on a website called "A WebQuest about WebQuests" developed by Bernie Dodge. WebQuest provides a format for learning websites: there is a page for the introduction, a page describing the task, a page for the process, and a conclusion page. The activity was to rate the five examples of WebQuests on the site: Saving the Gorillas, World of Shakespeare, Anti-Earthquake Designer Foreign Country, and Waves and Sound. I evaluated the WebQuests keeping the four group roles in mind: The Efficiency Expert, the Affiliator, the Altitudinist, and the Technophile.

Here are the WebQuests ranked from most effective to least effective according to my opinion and from the information on the "A WebQuest about WebQuests" site.

1.      World of Shakespeare

2.      Foreign Country Presentation

3.      Saving the Gorillas

4.      Anti-Earthquake Designer

5.      Waves and Sound

I ranked World of Shakespeare first because it is the most professional looking and best organized. It also has a clearly defined task and process in which the group roles are defined. The students who complete the activity don’t just answer questions and gather facts; they create a skit, sonnet, scrapbook, or PowerPoint. They would get practice with technology and higher level thinking skills in a fun activity.

I ranked Foreign Country Presentation second because it is a little less impressive looking, but it includes clear task, process, and conclusion pages, although group roles are not designated in the process page. The activity would please the Technophile, because it is a research activity and the Altitudinist also because the activity encourages the students to not just gather facts about a country, but to find out which country would be the best to visit, which makes it personal. They are gathering information they might directly use some day. The Affiliator would also be pleased because since the groups are competing against each other, students are encouraged to collaborate and the competition motivates them.

I ranked Saving the Gorillas third because it is a good activity with an interesting topic. However, it isn’t a group activity, and it could be a little boring answering dozens of questions about gorillas. I think a more fun activity could be included also.

I ranked Anti-Earthquake Designer fourth because I thought the topic was a little narrow. It might be good for an architecture class though. I also thought the work between the group members was distributed very unevenly. For example, the “scientist” is given the task of explaining the phenomena of earthquakes and creating a fact sheet for the class. The “Design artist”, however, must use the research gathered and employ the linear design process to select the best idea and draw dimensioned sketches, and create a power point presentation to present the design to the class. If I were in that group, I would much rather be the scientist!

I ranked Waves and Sound last because the directions are very unclear and poorly written in parts. For example, the task is to” go through the program and identify key concepts of waves and sound using logic and high level thinking.” The WebQuest is supposed to provide them a way to use logic and higher level thinking, not just tell them that is what they need to do. The pictures included in the process are good, but there are way too many questions and there is no activity that promotes the higher level thinking that they are supposed to be using.

ISTE NETS for Teachers

      I think this activity will help me meet standard 2a. because this will help me make my own WebQuest, and using WebQuest in an assignment would be incorporating a digital tool or resource to promote student learning and creativity. It would also likely make the activity more fun and interesting, which would help the students retain more of what they learn. It would aslo use less paper than worksheets!

Jeopardy Games

       Today we learned how to use a free online tool called Jeopardy Labs to make Jeopardy games. This is MUCH easier to use than PowerPoint Jeopardy templates, and you can even edit it. It is a very useful tool in the classroom to use for review games because most kids like Jeopardy. We also learned how to use dirpy to download sound from videos to PowerPoint Jeopardy games. We found out that PowerPoint doesn't like flv file types, so we couldn't download videos today, but there are ways to convert the file. The online version is easier to use than PowerPoint templates, but obviously, you need Internet to use it, and you can do add more cool stuff to PowerPoint templates, like video, graphics, and sound.
      We also started editing our websites to make them online portfolios. We started by creating a page for each WV Teacher Standard. We will continue to add to it until we have a portfolio with a variety of links, artifacts, and information that demonstrate specifically how we have met the standards and will be useful to us later in college and in our careers as teachers.

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

This activity can help me meet Standard 1 c. because now I can use online Jeopardy templates or PowerPoint to create learning games and review games that will motivate students to learn. Games like Jeopardy can also let me (and the students) know how well they are comprehending the material.