Desmos Graphing Calculator

 Desmos is an advanced graphing calculator implemented website. It allows students to graph many functions at once. It's very useful when students don’t own a graphing calculator or just use the schools ones. When it comes to the complicated graphing functions, this website is very useful. Desmos allows people to explore math. People can use the calculators and tools to graph functions, plot tables of data, evaluate equations, explore transformations, construct and represent geometric relationships, and much more.

Desmos does many things to help students. It encourages students to practice math skills as well as play with math to express their creativity. Students can enter an unlimited number of mathematical expressions and instantly see results graphed on the page. A variety of colors and features make it possible to turn graphs into complex and realistic drawings (shown below). Teachers can use this website as a guide to help students when they are at home ad better explain how the graphs look differently then before. Teachers can use the features also to help explain how to do some functions. Now in this day in age of doing online schooling, teachers can use it by sharing there screen and showing how the graph should look and the different places of where the y and x-intercept, horizontal and vertical asymptote, and the maximum and minimum point.

To get to the desmos graphing calculator, go to https://www.desmos.com/calculator. When at the website it will show people a graph with the x and y asymptote. Where it shows the numbers one, two, and etc., that is where people put the function you want to graph (up to six functions at a time) and it has different colors for each function, so its easier to know which is which. In the upper right hand corner, there is three icons, one is to share graphs with others, another is if people need help they will help, and the last one changes the language if needed, which is very helpful if people don't understand English as well as other languages. Lastly, in the upper left hand corner, there is a button that says untitled graphs, which allows people to pick from a range of graphs that act like a template, so they can see what the graph looked like before it got the transformations.

Desmos is very useful for math classes and can help a lot when it comes to doing homework at home or doing online classes. If you need to use a graphing calculator, I highly suggest using desmos, it help you so much then a regular graphing calculator.

News-2-You

 

    The piece of educational technology that I will be reviewing is called News-2-You. News-2-You is a website dedicated to providing current events to students with special needs. News-2-You modifies articles with easy to read texts and corresponding pictures using “PEC” cards. PEC cards (Picture Exchange Communication) are symbols commonly used in classrooms with students who have special needs. When a young special needs child starts school, they are most likely exposed to these symbols. News-2-You incorporates PEC’s which makes it easier for students to read with their class.

    A lot of special needs students have devices that help speak for them. Tools such as Proloquo2Go, GoTalk, dynavox, and iPads give students a voice. Students can share with you what they learned in their issue of News2You by finding PEC’s in their devices that match the issue they’re working with. They can also discover new words in addition to learning about current events. News-2-You has a text to speech option which can make a student who is nonverbal feel like they are reading. For example, if a non-verbal student came up to a Smart Board and clicked the text, it would vocalize the text allowing the student to have the technology speak for them. 

    News to you is great because it gives students with special needs the opportunity to discuss current events, and read local and global news. It also lets the teacher decide what level is appropriate for their class. For example if you have severely cognitively and physically impaired students, you can choose the simplest version of the issue. If you have students who are verbal and higher functioning, you could set it at a more difficult level. 

    Each news issue comes with activities that you can do together as a class on a Smart Board, or you can opt for the printouts that come with the lesson. The issues released every week can vary in material from the last. One week you might be talking about the NFL, and the following you can be talking about the wildfires out West. The biggest downside to News2You is once an issue is released, it expires in a week. This can be a set back if you are lesson planning around an issue, because it unfortunately disappears. There is other content on the website, which are smaller articles with short quizzes at the end. These are nice if you don’t have a lot of time, but want to include some sort of ELA and Social Studies in your day. 

 

Voyant Tools: Bringing Humanities into the Digital Age

    

    Different educational disciplines have embraced digital tools and the internet to varying degrees, math and science at least in my school experience were much more open to digital tools, whereas history and other humanities seem to be stuck in the old way, especially at the college level where professors have been in the discipline for decades, long before the advent of the internet. However despite this stubbornness, many historians, anthropologists and philosophers have begun to see the massive advantages digital tools can give them both in the classroom and while researching. Tools such as voyant!

Voyant is a web based text analysis tool that is incredibly intuitive and easy to access. By just going to https://voyant-tools.org/  and entering a web site a pdf link, voyant tools will quickly analysis the text present on the page and provide multiple different reports or the corpus as they call it. These reports come in the form of a word cloud, an easy visual that quickly shows the most repeated words, a graph showing word frequency by segment of text, vocabulary density, and a plain text based reader for the text. All of these combined allow for the user to much more thoroughly analyze an article or long form text. This analysis can then be presented to a class or used as part of a lesson to show students the value of breaking down texts to their component parts to more thoroughly grasp the reading. All free of charge and accessible over the web. Voyant tools will certainly help breath new digital life into the dustier humanities subjects.

Anki

 

Anki is a highly customizable flashcard program that uses spaced repetition to help you memorize things more efficiently than normal flashcards. The theory of spaced repetition is based on the idea that the best time to review information is right before you are about to forget it. When you repeatedly get a card correct, the card gradually appears less often. Cards you struggle with appear more often. For example a card you struggle with might show up once every couple of days, while a card you know well may only show up once every three months.

This method of spaced repetition makes the app extremely popular among people who need to remember a ton of information over a long period of time, such as medical students and language learners. Using physical flashcards with this much information would be unwieldy or even impossible, as many language learners may have as many as ten thousand cards by the time they reach fluency.

Anki is free and open source, meaning it is extremely customizable. For the majority of us that don't plan on digging into the source code though, there are thousands of community made add-ons. These include both simple cosmetic changes and much more involved additions such as the popular Japanese support add-on that automatically generates furigana and pitch-accent information. This app is easy to use but it is extremely powerful if you want to really dig into customizing it to be optimal for you.

Personally, I have been using Anki to help me learn Spanish. I have my decks for Spanish split into two categories, one for Spanish class and one for studying on my own time. My Spanish class flash cards are simple cards with a vocabulary word on one side and its English translation on the other. For independent study, I use the "sentence mining" strategy. When I'm consuming Spanish-language media and encounter a sentence with one word I don't know, I put that entire sentence on the front of the card and the English meaning of the one word I don't know on the back. This lets me learn words in context rather than in isolation, which I find makes it easier to learn the language.

Overall, I would highly recommend Anki to everyone who needs to memorize lots of information. It is free on Widnows, Mac, Linux, and Android, but the IOS app costs $25. That is a pretty steep price for a moble app, but you can also access the web version for free if you want to try it out. Anki makes studying so easy and efficient that it has made regular flashcards obsolete to me.

Fishbowl

    Fishbowl is a professional communication app that is available for Android and Apple devices.  This app allows people from all different professions to share thoughts, advice, stories and much more with one another.  Some of the many professions included are healthcare, accounting, law, and teaching.  In all of these careers, it is important to keep in touch with one's peers, and share ideas and thoughts with one another.

    Fishbowl is a great app for teachers because it is an excellent way to spread creativity and new ideas.  It can be hard to always think of new lesson plans and activities on your own, and talking with other teachers is a great way to branch out and brainstorm.  The app also gives the option to stay anonymous if a user isn’t comfortable with disclosing any personal information. 

    I can picture Fishbowl being used by teachers in many different scenarios.  One of the scenarios that popped into my head would be advice on how to handle different classroom situations.  This could include getting advice on how to handle a student who is having academic struggles, better ways to make a classroom inclusive for a special needs student, and tips on keeping students engaged in class.  The list could go on forever.  Fishbowl provides so many helpful resources for different professions, and will be something I would want to use as a teacher in the future.

BrainPOP

    BrainPOP is a versatile educational platform for teachers to use in their daily in-person or remote classroom. BrainPOP contains thousands of animated videos covering all topics from math, science, english, social studies, engineering, arts, and more. When expanded, all of those subjects open up to dozens of sub-categories, making it easily accessible for students and teachers to find helpful videos for any concept they are learning/teaching at the time. The videos all contain two main characters (a boy and a robot) who provide an entertaining and informative experience that kids can easily pay attention to; especially because the videos are quick and packed with information. 

        Aside from the popular animated videos that BrainPOP is known for, this platform also provides parents and teachers with a ton of tools to help benefit their students in several ways. For example, BrainPOP provides a "For Grown-Ups" section that includes hundreds of lesson plans for teachers, antiracism educational resources, emotional support tips, and more. This website includes educational activities and games that teachers can assign their students to teach content while also incorporating technology to increase students' interest and understanding at the same time. 

    When joining BrainPOP, the website provides a free 30-day family or teacher trial. The free trial includes access to all of the videos and lesson plans, quizzes, games, activities, and tools to create and and design work/art. Overall, this educational platform provides tools for teachers to assign content in a fun and technology-infused way while also providing families at home with easy access to homework help, games, and activities to help get the content across. 

 

Socrative

 

        Socrative is an app that must be downloaded and used on a smart device such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Socrative is free to use however they offer different plans if teachers want the ability to give more activities at once and allow them more rooms for students as well, meaning different classes per teacher. Socrative has many different options for teachers to give to students such as exercises, games, and quizzes Socrative is a great learning tool for students and really helps save teachers time, especially when it comes to grading assignments. As soon as students submit their answers, they are given instant feedback.

    The technology being used will enhance the learning experience for the students by giving them a chance to engage with the teacher and other students. Engagement is really important for student learning because it gives them confidence with their answers and makes them want to learn more with technology as well as the subject being taught. By using the technology for the activities, students will gain confidence and experience with using the technology to enhance their learning. 

        Above is a picture of the practice class I setup. The picture shows all the activities the teacher can assign to the class. The quiz allows them to create questions for every student to answer and the questions can either be multiple choice, true/false, and even short answers. Space Race is a fun activity that allows the class to be divided up into teams to compete against each other. The last optional activity is the Exit Ticket. Exit ticket is a five-minute activity that takes place near the end of class.

Here is a link for a tutorial on how teacher can use

Socrative to give a great learning experience for students.

StoryMaps

Hi, guys so I’m sharing another website presentation maker I really enjoy Story Maps. So we have access to this website through the University of Michigan and you can set up a free account for non-commercial use meaning its easy to use for classroom settings. Story maps are a  multimedia form of presentation that typically takes the form of a website presentation you click through or scroll through. There’s a variety of ways these presentations can take shape with some of them merely presenting information and others implementing maps in a creative way to give scale to their topics.

For example, this Storymap (Link 4) is from Seven Wonders: The Ancient List which depicts 7 ancient world wonders with an image on the right, the location in the Upper left corner, and a short Biography of said wonder in the bottom left. The map in the Upper left is interactive and can be used to see where the wonders were located and move to that one in the presentation

Along with showing a sense of scale and location, it can be used in a more typical presentation as shown in the Behind the Barbed Wire Maps (Link 3), which is all about the Newspaper and Japanese Interment in the mid 20th century and features various places for you to jump in the presentation with a taskbar on the top with each subsection focusing on a different aspect of interment. These are a pretty decent way to have an online-only assignment instead of having a student submit a PowerPoint and paper having them plot their presentation and write a short reflection or even Flipgram style video and embed it in the presentation or have them React to one they found online or from a list you as a teacher curated. 

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/

https://collections.storymaps.esri.com/humanities/ (Collection of Story maps)

https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=69183af8d45d4f46a9dc4eba99440891&bookmark=Newspapers 

https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2018/wonders-ancient/ 

Common Sense Education

 

Whenever I am researching educational technology, Common Sense Education never fails to pop up. I first found the website through their educational technology reviews. This alone could be an invaluable tool for teachers to utilize when deciding what technology to implement in the classroom. First, teachers can view the overall community rating for the product. The community being other teachers. This is helpful because you get to know how the tech actually worked in other classrooms. Teachers rate the set-up time, whether their students learned from it, whether their students liked it, what it is good for, and who it works well with (ex: ELL, advanced learners, special needs, etc.).

It then has a learning rating. This is done by a common-sense reviewer who is experienced in the field. For example, the Kahoot review page is done by a media specialist/librarian. Common Sense also abides by certain rating criteria. The learning rating encompasses an engagement review, a pedagogy review, and a support review.

Additionally, it explains the subjects and skills it covers as well as what it is great for. For example, Kahoot builds “communication, collaboration, and critical thinking” and it is great for “game-based learning and assessment”. Along with that, it also explains to you what it is, how it works, if and why it is good for learning, and gives you recommendations for how to teach with the tool. Lastly, the site provides a recommended grade range and gives a privacy rating and review.

You can also use their educational reviews to find other great educational technology as opposed to only researching and verifying the quality of the tech you’ve already found. You can search through their reviews by grade level and subject matter. For example, I searched 9^th and 10^th grade English Language Arts and a list of 483 educational technology tools came up. So, overall, I think that Common Sense Education is a great tool for teachers. 

Khan Academy

   

Khan Academy is a website/app that provides practice exercises, instructional videos, and a learning dashboard that is personalized for your learning. It motivates learners to study inside and outside of the classroom. They teach all types of subjects ranging from math, science, history, art history, economics and more. They also provide test preparation for the SAT's and LSAT. Khan Academy is also beneficial for parents and teachers as well. It encourages them to understand what their child/student is learning and how they can help them. They are able to see if their child/student is falling behind in work or is excelling in what they're learning. For teachers, Khan Academy provides a dashboard full of summaries on how their class is doing as a whole or they can view individual student profiles that are highly detailed in how the student is doing. Khan Academy is available for many students all over the world. It is also available in 36+ languages so that every student is able to learn language barrier free. You can use Khan Academy on almost any electronic device such as a cellphone, tablet, or computer. What makes Khan Academy so unique is that students are able to gain points for their work. Students who reach a certain amount of points will than go up a level. When a student goes onto to the next level, that is them moving into another section of learning. This point system is a great form of motivation for a learner and will encourage them to keep going. 

Google Docs

 

    Google Docs is a tool popular among those in education. It has several different features to help its users. First, it has a variety of templates. These templates are for lesson plans, reports, resumés, project proposals, and for papers in APA and MLA format; among many others. For special reports and papers that require a lot of formatting, these templates can save time and energy for those who may be new to the formats or short on time. Next: Google Docs is compatible with many devices. It can be used on computers, phones, tablets--you name it. An added bonus is that it saves your writing as you go! No more lost progress when your device dies or randomly decides to restart itself for updates! You can also add in pictures, tables, and graphs, which are perfect for lab reports or everyday assignments. 

    Now, the feature that makes it stand out: you can share documents with others and collaborate on the same document. With some schools pursuing virtual learning due to the pandemic, Google Docs makes it easier for students to work on group projects and assignments together. Personally, I love the "suggesting" feature. When the "suggesting" feature is enabled, edits become suggestions that a collaborator can accept or delete. I've found it helpful when having friends proofread my essays. If you don't want to collaborate with someone else on the document, but still want them to see it, you can choose the share settings before you send the invite to view the document. Options include: anyone with a link can view; anyone with a link can comment; and anyone with a link can edit. 

Zoom

 

Zoom is an online communication tool commonly used by schools and large businesses, especially during COVID-19.  Zoom allows you to host meetings with multiple people in order to share ideas and discuss plans.  Zoom has functions such as share screen and chat that allows members to share their screen in order to show a presentation while others can comment in the chat as to not interrupt someone when they are talking.  The chat function also allows for others to answer questions that one person might not know.  Breakout rooms are another function on zoom that allow for larger groups to break off into smaller groups and make things more intimate.

In terms of the classroom, zoom has been a very crucial form of teaching technology used in the recent months.  Since the beginning of COVID-19, teachers and administrators have been looking for a way to continue conversation with their students so they don't fall behind.  With the help of zoom, teachers can schedule meetings with their students, whether it be the entire class or individual students, making sure they stay on top of things.  Through zoom teachers are also able to still incorporate group work by administering breakout rooms.  By dividing the class into breakout rooms students are given the chance to communicate with their classmates on a more personal level.  Many students struggle with public speaking anxieties and that can be heightened when having to do it online, so with the help of these smaller groups, those with higher anxieties are able to feel more comfortable. 

Overall, I believe zoom is a great asset to teachers right now because it gives them a classroom setting through a screen. 

ClassDojo

 

According to ClassDojo's website, their goal is "(t)o bring communities together, and give their kids learning experiences they love". In the U.S., ClassDojo is used in 95% of all K-8 schools. The messages can also be translated into 35 different languages making it easy for teachers who need to make their technology available for all their students, despite a language barrier. It is available on both iOS and Android as well as Kindle Fire and on a computer itself, so it is very widely available. Best of all, it is free!

So what is it exactly? ClassDojo is an educational tool that is used as a digital classroom. Teachers are able to share photos, videos, and announcements with both students and parents. They can also automatically split their class into groups, display directions, play background music, etc. Another feature of ClassDojo is that students can have their own digital portfolios where they can share photos/videos that they are also able to edit.

https://www.classdojo.com/

Google Hangouts

     I will be reviewing Google Hangouts as a helpful communicator in educational technology. This app/website can be used for educational purposes, or for personal use. Google Hangouts was created in 2013, as a cross-platform messaging app. Meaning it can be used on either a computer, tablet, or cellphone. This can be very handy, since many people are on the go now with their cellphones. Having a mobile app is considered very popular.

     On google hangouts, you can initiate a video chat, text together in group chats, or use direct messages. This is similar to text messaging. I have personally used Google Hangouts frequently in the past, for personal use. Although I have not used this feature for educational purposes, I know of many people who do. Some family members, and even friends use Google Hangouts for business meetings, or for groups meetings in relation to their classes.

    You can use google Hangouts with your Google account, since they both coincide. The convenience of signing in with your Google account saves you time on creating a new account. You can also multi-task, since Google Hangouts can also be minimized alongside your email. You can send emails and respond to messages at the same time if you are working on a computer. Although I personally enjoy Google Hangouts, it can be understood that there are some cons to this app. For example, it may seem a bit redundant with the upgraded technology here in 2020, to have Google Hangouts. Since text messaging has evolved since 2013, as well as the AppStore, you could download many other apps to have the same messaging experience. 

 

Digital Libraries: Not Just for Quarantine Days

As our world becomes increasingly digital, even books are being replaced by their screen-based counterparts. At least 75% of textbooks that I have rented or purchased for college over the last three years have been ebooks. Nevertheless, brick-and-mortar libraries have prevailed...Until the current pandemic struck, anyway.

With the mandatory (albeit temporary) closing of libraries, the popularity of online libraries skyrocketed. This left me thinking about how digital collections of books may become the new norm, at least regarding education, even once this pandemic passes. And it could be wildly beneficial! When English teachers find a new story for their students to read, they will no longer have to purchase enough copies for the whole class. When history teachers want their students to research a certain era using books as resources, students will not have to rush to the library after school and hope there are enough books left on that topic. If the rise of digital libraries continues, educators could easily increase the reading materials they include in their lesson plans by simply providing their students with the title of a work and a link to an online library. 

Today, I would like to explore the Internet Archive Open Library, which I am most familiar with as I have used it several times for school. This website offers virtually any title you could find at your local library, all available to read by simply making a free account. Once you select a book, you can choose to "borrow" (gain access to) it for one hour, and borrow unlimited other books for the same duration, or borrow it for 14 days. If you decide to borrow it for 14 days, there is a 10-book cap on how many you can have for that long, which, I am sure most would agree, is very reasonable. 

The books, themselves, are not traditional ebooks, but rather scanned copies of actual books, which I feel gives them more character. If there are multiple editions or versions available of a book, you can easily preview and decide which one you would like to borrow. Additionally, most titles offer a "read to me" option that will have an autogenerated voice read the text, with a choice of reading speeds. 

Overall, I predict that online books will only become more popular. As they do I am hoping that digital libraries will be utilized more often in classrooms. I feel that they provide more convenience for educators and students alike, and could allow teachers to freely work more literature into their curriculum. 

SMART Boards are a type of technology used in the classroom. They are extremely helpful, especially because they can help keep students engaged. The great thing about SMART boards is that you can add on separate apps to help, but you can also connect your computer to it. It is widely used in elementary school classrooms, especially because kids love to draw on the whiteboard, and these you don’t have to clean. It’s also great because you can use it for a variety of things, such as diagrams, directions, or pictures/videos. A con of this is that during power outages you will not be able to use this, another problem is that it can have some visual challenges, such as if the lights are on you can’t see it or if you don’t write super neatly. Another problem is that there is a learning curve, just like with all technology. It also isn’t that popular in middle and high schools. This is a great alternative to older technology such as an Elmo or overhead projector. Another negative is that a lot of times this takes up a lot of space, so you may lose your whiteboard space. Another thing is that these tools are becoming a little outdated, with new projectors taking its place. With these new projectors, you have all the same pros, and you can still use your whiteboard and they take up less space! Overall I think SMART boards are a great tool for elementary classrooms, however, there might be newer technology with less of the hassle.  

 

Kahoot! In the Classroom

 

Kahoot! is a browser and app based entertainment/learning tool that can be used to create visually engaging and easy to use quizzes that can be accessed on almost any device with an internet connection from within a classroom or remotely at home. Kahoot!'s simple multiple choice games allow a teacher to more quickly gauge how well a class engaged and understood the lesson, be it with short questions during the course of a lecture or lesson or with an end of class quiz. The teacher can quickly download the results page after the game ends as well as display current scores in the middle of a quiz to  let students see how they match up or have incentive to show they are doing well. Kahoot! uses a colorful user interface that can quickly catch the eye of a student and looks more game-like to younger students who need a bit more incentive to engage with a learning tool.

Source: https://kahoot.com/blog/2017/10/11/showing-magic-kahoot -disney-accelerators-demo-day/

For teachers of all subjects and technological skill, Kahoot! makes creating its quizzes and running them during class as easy as possible. By going to https://create.kahoot.it/  a teacher can quickly access a template from which they can add questions and potential answers, as well as media to go along with each question. After the teacher completes their question set, they will be given a unique code that students can enter on the device based app or a web based app and enter the question set for the class. This allows for a teacher to dictate when the students will have access, making it easier to use the app for quizzes or even tests. Kahoot! has its limitations but it certainly addresses a need for engaging and well designed teaching tools that can be used both inside classrooms and remotely when the need arises.

Source: https://giuliapucci.weebly.com/kahoot.html

Khan Academy

    Khan Academy is a personalized learning tool accessible for students and teachers to use as a way to enhance and better understand the content that students are learning in their education. Their mission is to provide free world-wide education for any student seeking an education. The website is K-14 based with specialized courses in math, science, language arts, and many more. 

    Students can use these courses to find videos, interactive activities, and practice tests that are personalized for them and where they are in their learning abilities. Throughout the course, students gain points until they fulfill the mastery level where they then move onto the next section of learning. 

    Khan Academy has a college readiness partnership with the College Board to help students prepare for the SATs where they can take official SAT practice tests, receive instant feedback and interactive tools to help them prepare for the SAT.

QuickTime Player

 

     QuickTime Player is a software developed by Apple that allows users to play and edit videos, record screen, and do audio recordings. A nice feature with Quicktime player is users have the ability to change one video or audio format to another. For example .amv to .mp4. It can be used for many things such as a video player, image viewer, audio player, and even a virtual reality tool. 

QuickTime players is used by many. It also is very beneficial to teachers and students. Users are able to record screen and even record audio. Teachers can benefit from the software because when they're explaining a subject or topic that requires the use of the internet. It's a lot easier to explain by showing an actual screen footage of it. Students can benefit from the software by using the audio recording feature or even changing the format of the audio or the video. When student have to create a video for an assignment they have the ability to change the format. Not all websites require the same formats for videos. QuickTime player allows the user to change the format they need. I use this software a lot and find it very useful, especially today with how advanced technology is. I would recommend this software for everyone. It works best with Apple computers but versions are available for Windows.



Here is a link for a short tutorial of QuickTime Player:
https://youtu.be/KV7VzJbnOe8

Edpuzzle

https://edpuzzle.com/    

 

Edpuzzle is a great learning resource on both the student and teacher side. Teachers are able to choose videos (whether it is their own, a YouTube video, etc.). They are then able to add questions to the videos to make sure their students are paying attention and are picking up the important information from the videos. It is free and the website says that Edpuzzle is used by more than 50% of US schools. They have a YouTube extension, an app, and a blog, so there is something for everyone.

I have used Edpuzzle a lot in the past, mostly for my high school Spanish class. My teacher would choose a YouTube video with Spanish speakers talking about something relating to the subject she was teaching at the time. She would add questions asking about all sorts of things ranging from just general content to deeper meaning. This platform really helped her to see which students were struggling, which ones needed more time, etc. It also made it easy for her to give us participation points, because Edpuzzle automatically grades the multiple choice questions. When she added short answer questions, all she had to do was go back into Edpuzzle when we were done and give us a grade herself.

From the student perspective, when we were given Edpuzzle assignments, I knew it would be a good day. Edpuzzle was a lot more interesting than the standard reading and writing assignments. I would pay a lot more attention, and I found myself learning more when I was listening to the app and answering questions right away. On top of this, Edpuzzle is extremely user friendly. All I had to do was open the app, choose my class and assignment, and the video popped right up on the screen. Overall, I personally really like Edpuzzle, because it was something different than the normal day to day activities we would usually do in class.

                                                        

DISCORD: Better Connections as a Student

 Hi, guys so I’m sharing a Platform I use regularly, Discord. Discord is a  Group-Chatting platform that’s most popular among gaming circles but it can be useful as a student. Discord can be useful for setting up study groups and the Site offers a template shown below.

The premade template comes with a variety of rooms with the # Symbol dictating text-only channels and the 🕪 symbol indicating voice channels. I find Discord a bit better for planning events than snap chat as you can separate information into clusters as opposed to everything being in one long group chat conversation on something like Snapchat or WhatsApp. Using something like the “homework-help” channel and having everyone use that channel for homework exclusively and another for scheduling group calls cuts down on clutter significantly and would allow for information to be accessed more readily regardless of what form of technology a person is using as Discord is on PC and Mobile devices. I also find it's messaging less clunky than Canvas because it was made for instant messaging as opposed to Canvas which mimics emails. Along with just being a good form of chatting Discord also has some public servers revolving around Languages like Chinese, English, Latin, Japanese, etc. and even communities dedicated to coding languages. Along with a Plethora of bots like Rythm, which can play qued music, and MEE6 which tracks and rewards participation in a Server. Here’s an article which looks at Discord as a Platform: https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-discord Here’s an explanation on how to make a server and some other FAQ things from Discord directly: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/204849977-How-do-I-create-a-server-

Discord Logo Image Source: https://discord.com/branding 

Quizlet

 Chances are, you’ve heard of Quizlet. But--did you know that it’s more than just flash cards?

Not only does it let you make your own flash cards; it gives you different options to learn with those flash cards. 

For studying, here are the options that Quizlet offers:

• Learn: Quizlet shows you the term or definition (your choice) and you have to type the answer from the other side.

• Write: Similar to the Learn feature, but it gives you a summary on the left side of the screen that tells you how many you got correct, incorrect, and how many in the set that you still need to study.

• Spell: This is perfect for ELA students with spelling tests! It gives you an audio autoplay of the term, and you have to spell what you hear.

• Test: It takes your set of flash cards and formats them into a test. You can choose a variety of question types, including: written, multiple choice, and true/false.

If taking a more active approach is more your style, you might prefer to try one of these features:

• Match: Quizlet times you as you match term and definition.

• Gravity: You’re given an options menu before starting, where you can choose what to study (starred vs. the whole set), whether to answer with term or definition, and difficulty. One side of the card is displayed on an asteroid and you have to type the other in the response box before it hits the ground. It gives you a score and level on the left side of the screen to track your progress.

Teachers can also “create a class” within Quizlet, which allows students to access those sets created by the teacher. Quizlet gives more ideas for Quizlet classes at the link below:
https://quizlet.com/blog/how-to-use-quizlet-classes-like-a-pro

Kahoot!

 

Kahoot is a game-based learning where it tests your knowledge on the different topics your teachers give you. Teachers usually use it for review games before having  a test or quiz. Its a series of multiply choice questions you answer in a selected amount of time. Kahoot is good tool to test how much you have learned about that topic and if you are ready for the test or quiz. Students play against one another and push themselves that they now this information as the person who is leading (on top). To be leading, you keep building up points, which is ranged from thousand (plus more) to zero, by getting the questions right more often then getting them wrong. Once every question has been answered you will get to see who the leading three players were. 

To play Kahoot, you can either download the Kahoot app or go to kahoot.com/what-is-kahoot/. Once on the website, click the play button on the upper right hand corner. When there it will ask you for a game pin, put the number that your teacher gives to the class (usually six numbers), and your name. After you press enter, you have joined the Kahoot game.

Kahoot is a fun way to review for an upcoming quiz or test. It helps students think quickly like they are actually taking the test, so they can finish in the time slot they are given. Good thing about it is that you get to compete with your friends, like a friendly competition. Kahoot help keep students engaged in learning and students participate. The one thing that most students love is the Kahoot music that plays the whole time. Kahoot is an amazing tool that helps out so many students do well on there tests if they pay attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnnUD9-hD8A (Music when you first enter in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CszcxXclhDk (Music when you are answering the questions)

Google Classroom

     Although Google Classroom has been used in the education world since 2014, it has been very popular this school year in the time of the pandemic and a ton of virtual learning and teaching. Google classroom is very versatile and easy to navigate for all who are brand new to it. Both teachers and students can manage multiple classes on their Google Classroom account by gaining access to each class through a special class code. This platform comes with many useful features for online-teaching such as video chatting called “Google Meet”. Group-vIdeo chatting is very popular in education right now due to the need for face-to-face time in the online school day. 

Google Classroom has great communication tools such as messaging during video calls to enhance discussion as well as group and individual chatting. Teachers are able to create assignments, quizzes, topics, and questions. The best part is that all of these features come with a lot of modification and editing abilities that make them perfect and customizable to every classroom and student. The entire layout of Google Classroom is very organized and simple.

Using Google Classroom, teachers are easily able to provide feedback on students assignments and quizzes using multiple editing tools. Teachers can also complete all grading using this platform. Teachers are able to link parent/guardian contacts to all students on their digital list and send out group or personalized messages directly to the parents/guardians. And just when you thought it couldn't get any more convenient for both teachers and families, you find out there is, of course, a Google Classroom mobile app. 

Google Drive

    The piece of technology I wanted to review this week is Google Drive. Up until this Wednesday, I had no idea that it even existed. After coming home from work, I had wanted to get started on our Investigation Journals. I watched the video that gave details on how to get set up, and proceeded to do so. My first step was to make a copy of the template provided to us, and it would be saved to your "drive." I cannot tell you how many times I clicked around on my computer trying to find out where this mysterious template went. I checked downloads, Microsoft Office, you name it- I checked. Growing frustrated, I knew I had to reach out to Professor Bouwman. 

 

    Thankfully it was Wednesday, and I was able to access his virtual office hours via zoom. I was getting a walk through of the assignment when the word "drive" came up again. I told him I checked my computer and I couldn't find it. It was then I learned that my University of Michigan-Dearborn email, (being associated with Google) had a drive already attached to it. I had no idea that if you are logged into a Google based email that you can save documents to drive.google.com/. Learning about Google Drive this week was a life saver, as I’ve used it at work for the very first time too.

 

    I've been a substitute for a few years, but this year school year has been obviously different. I learned that I would be taking on a long-term assignment, and that I would be receiving a new email address associated with my school district. This is something I had never received before despite being a district/premier sub. This new email would also be Google based. Mind you, I still use my AOL email as my primary. When you have the same email for 20 years, you don't want to fix what isn't broken, but I know I have to get with the times! After logging onto my work email this past Thursday, I now knew that it came with Google Drive. This discovery turned out to simplify lesson plans better than ever.

 

    Through my email, I discovered that a lot of teachers in our school were sharing lesson plans that I was able to add to my Google Drive. This took so much stress out of lesson planning. The biggest bonus to using Google Drive is when a teacher sends you a lesson plan that you can edit. Having an outline for a presentation that you only have to modify slightly can make hours of work turn into minutes. As you edit your work, it is constantly saving. This was kind of an ah-ha moment for me- as a sub, when I told students that the bell was going to ring soon, and to “save their work on Google Classroom” they looked at me a little weird. Google already saves your work for you, there’s no need to save it again. 

 

    I’m closing out this blog with a positive review on Google Drive- I know I’m late to this discovery, but better late than never! Google Drive is going to make the school year a little less stressful for me, and I can’t wait to sharpen my skills with it.