Ever since I noticed digital badges appearing in various online learning communities, I have wanted to find a way to incorporate these in my library and technology instruction. Two threads I follow brought this back to my attention this week. First, Brad Flickinger at Schooltechnology.org posted his year long pilot of EdTech Badges and it offers all the encouragement and advice I need to start this next year. I love the little 1" buttons he uses and am right on board with the benefits of developing self-learning in students based on their individual interests.
Second, the Smithsonian Quests program is a digital badging service to "develop skills and enhance their learning through discovery, while earning digital badges as credentials along the way." Unfortunately, the Smithsonian site requires all users to register with an email. Once again, this makes it an unfriendly service for elementary students who rarely have email accounts. Still, we may use this as a whole group exercise with my log-in.
I attended EdCampMadison today and learned about this great curation tool: Edcanvas. It lets you create a tiled collection of images, video, documents, and presentations in one place. You can play them in order as a slideshow, or click on the links from the main page. The sidebar with embedded tools for searching YouTube, Google, and Picassa make loading content a breeze. It also includes quick buttons for accessing your files on your computer, Dropbox, GoogleDrive, and even your bookmarks. What a great tool for teachers to use for lesson planning and delivery. It's also a fantastic tool for students to use for research projects, class presentations, and curating their own work.
Here's a sample Edcanvas that I put together in less than 5 minutes.
iPads are great instructional tools because they are so easy and engaging to use. That ease of use, however, can result in some distractions. Who hasn't had students who strayed to a different app or accidentally opened ads or the in-app purchase section of the app? While these can be opportunities to teach students responsible digital behavior, sometimes you just want to be able to focus on one app without the added distractions. The new iOS 6.0 makes this simple by using Guided Access.
First, you have to turn on Guided Access:
(you only have to do this one time)
- Go to Settings
- Tap General
- Tap Accessibility
- Tap Guided Access
- Slide the switch to the ON position
- Tap Set a passcode (so your students cannot disable the feature)
Then, open the app you want your students to use. Make sure you have the sound set at the desired level because you will not be able to change this once in Guided Access.
With the app open, triple click the home button. This opens the Guided Access options. You can circle areas on the screen you want to disable. For example, disabling the more apps, advertisements, or settings buttons may be useful areas to disable. Warning: the area of the screen that you disable will be disabled throughout the app. Check for buttons that move in different screens of the app, so that you don't unintentionally block access to something you need students to be able to use.
Finally, click Start to return to the full screen version of the app.
To exit Guided Access, simply triple click the home button and enter the passcode.
VCASMO (still in beta) is a great tool for anyone interested in flipped instruction or giving student's a new way to present their understanding of material. Presentation tools abound from the tried and true PowerPoint to the more jazzy Prezi and Powtoons. What sets this one apart is a split screen that allows you to show video on one side and your photos or PowerPoint style slides on the other. You can see an example of VCASMO and demo on how to use it below:
I found this site last summer in my constant quest for a way to maximize instruction sprints I conduct with K-5 students in 30 minute library sessions each week that need to include a lesson, a chance to apply it, and checking in and out books.
The answer for me (though I'm not fully there yet) is creating a virtual me to deliver on demand lessons to individual students throughout the 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the real me can check out books and help individual students work through lesson stumbling blocks. That's my version of a flipped classroom.
To honor area teachers, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center is offering free admission to teachers and one guest on Saturday, January 19. They will be holding workshops and exhibits throughout the day.
The Alabama Virtual Library has a collection of 325 FREE E-Books from Encyclopedia Britannica that you can use with your computer, tablet, or e-reader. Residents of Alabama do not need a username and password because AVL is now using geo-authentication access for anyone with an ISP in the state of Alabama.
To download books:
(Note: You will need to download the iPublishCentral Reader software or app to your computer or device.)
- Go to http://www.avl.lib.al.us
- Click on Student Resources – then choose Elementary School from dropdown list
- Click on Britannica E-Books
- Choose the collection, or single e-book, you want to download
- If you chose a collection, click on the single e-book you want to download
- Click the download symbol at the bottom of the record. You'll also see the link to iPublishCentral Reader if you haven't already downloaded it.
- Click on the green arrow at the bottom to download the book.
- Click Open in “Reader”
- The book appears with any others you have downloaded on a bookshelf in the iPublishCentral Reader app.
It's a great way to use high quality books in your classroom for whole group or small group instruction. Students can also use them on their own for research projects. That's what I plan to do with 3rd and 4th graders in the coming weeks!
Students create great projects on the iPad, but some of us work with limitations on printing and email access for our students. So, we sometimes struggle with how to easily get to all the work they are creating on their individual iPads. While we continue to wait for airprint permissions, there are some work arounds for easily transferring data from student iPads to one place. I'll save Edmodo and other course management systems for later because, well, they aren't easy for everyone.
My favorite solution is to use dropitto.me linked to my Dropbox account. You can create a free dropitto.me account that will automatically sync to your Dropbox account. Here's how it works:
- Go to http://www.dropitto.me and complete a quick registration.
- Pick a dropitto.me account name that students (or others) will need to send files to you. Think about this one carefully as I have seen no way to change it later.
- Create a password to give to students, so they can upload files. They will not be able to see any of your other files, or anything at all in your Dropbox account.
- The next time you open your Dropbox, you will see a new folder called ""DROPitTOme" where everything will be sent.
Then, you just have to train your students to go to your dropitto.me site, log in with the password and upload their files. It's an easy time-saver for you and teaches students a new skill, responsibility, and organization. Plus, you don't have to waste paper printing things that are just as easy to assess digitally.
You can also refer back to my earlier posts on Wifi Photo Transfer and Bump, which work great for pictures, video, and anything that can fit in a single screen view of your iPad. Even if it's not a picture, you can take a screenshot of your iPad by holding the home button and the power button at the same time. Then, teach students to bump their work to the teacher iPad or desktop computer (it works with the space bar).
