#TCEA16 Favorite Finds

Guest Post by Jen Gwilliam (McCue), Eubanks Intermediate School 5th Grade Science Teacher

Now that we are all back from TCEA and settled back in, I wanted to share a few finds and share the loads of information I learned with all of you! Here is the Gwilliam TOP 4 FREE of TCEA: 

Nearpod

This is an amazing way to teach or present information and puts the device in students' hands! It makes learning fun and helps students stay engaged the entire time! Nearpod is a great tool -- check it out! 

Canva

Do you want your PowerPoints to look like you are a graphic artist? The students love working with this one! It has great graphics, modern fonts, and images...and it's so easy to use! 

Google

I learned so many cool, fun tricks that make it clear why Google is such a must-have in the classroom. Try the "research" button and see what happens! Share, copy, use voice-to-text writing, and use Photomath to check math problems!

VideoScribe

Have you always taken an interest in those cute videos that show folks drawing with neat fonts? VideoScribe is for you then! You can make a quick video that keeps people's interest as you explain something, and it does the drawings -- wow! 

Get Feedback Quickly with AnswerGarden

If you need a tool to quickly collect feedback from students of any age, try using AnswerGarden. 

Synopsis
Create an "answer garden" by posing a question and distributing the link to students. (Users can access AnswerGarden on any device with a browser or via the free iOS app.) Participants can enter short answers that will appear in a word cloud. The more times an answer is submitted, the bigger the word or phrase appears in the cloud. 

In this example, the words "education" and "technology" were each entered 3 times, while "engaging" -- which is smaller -- was submitted only twice

Uses

1. Brainstorming
2. Voting
3. Discussions
4. Finding Common Ground/Getting-to-Know-You during BOY

How-To Create an AnswerGarden
1. Go to the home page. Either click the + sign in the top, right corner, or scroll down and click "create AnswerGarden." . 

2. Enter a question or prompt into the topic area.

If you don't want to do anything else, just scroll and click the "create" button at the very bottom of the page:

If you'd like a bit more control, through, here are some other options:

• Mode: decide how many times a student can answer, if you need moderate answers before they appear in the "garden," or if the "garden" is accepting new answers
• Answer length: choose between 20 and 40 characters in length
• Password: if you want to edit your "garden" or delete unwanted answers, choose a password to be e-mailed to you. (You'll do this each time you create an AnswerGarden, as there is no option to create an account.)

3. Share the link.  The actual URL is fairly short (for instance, the AnswerGarden I just created has this URL: http://answergarden.ch/view/189565), so students can just type it into their browser. (You can also use Google Tone to send the URL to student computers.) AnswerGarden provides slightly faster ways for students to visit the link, though:

Scroll down on the actual AnswerGarden to see sharing options.

AnswerGarden lets you share your garden on various social media channels, embed a copy onto your class webpage or blog, or share via a QR code. I always just turned off the lights, displayed the QR code on the Promethean board, and let students scan the code to join our poll. 

Teacher Tricks

• New answers do not automatically appear in the AnswerGarden; refresh the page periodically to see new answers. 
• Get an inappropriate answer? Walk the room. When someone posts something, the answer is underlined on their device. Find the person with the device that has the underlined inappropriate-ness, and you've found the culprit. (Mentioning this up front is a great deterrent!)

Ideas for Use

1. BOY getting-to-know-you project: everyone posts 5 adjectives that describe themselves or their summer. 
2. BOY getting-to-know-you game: the teacher poses a question (ex. "Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction?"), and the students have to type in their answer. The answer that grows the biggest on the screen is the most popular. 
3. BOY learning styles group quiz: the teacher poses questions (ex. "Would you rather show your learning with a song or a play?" ... "Do you like numbers or words more?"), and the students type their answer. If you keep it pretty simple, you'll get an idea about what the class as a whole likes the most and design your curriculum accordingly. 
4. Quick, anonymous poll: quickly assess if the majority of the class understands the concept before moving on to the next part of your lesson. AnswerGarden is anonymous, but you can walk the room and look at student devices to see how everyone answered. 
5. Short discussion: ask or post discussion questions to a novel or topic you're studying and let students weigh in. 
6. Exit ticket (save the URL so you can review student answers later): "What other questions do you have about this topic?" or "What's one thing you're confused about in this lesson?"
7. Real life examples: ask for examples to illustrate student knowledge on a topic (Learning about the elements of literature? Ask students to submit examples similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, etc. Learning about polygons or supply and demand? Ask students to submit real-life examples. Reviewing the scientific method? Ask students for examples of when they could use this concept in their life).
8. Collect data for a graph: get answers quickly to create a class graph. (ex. students can post how many siblings they have. Once the page is refreshed, hover over the answers to see how many times each was entered. Then create a class graph with the data.)
9. Vote: decide on a class reward, fundraising idea, class pet name, etc. 

How would you use AnswerGarden (or would you use it at all)? What other BYOD tools do you use?

Free Agent Learners, EdTech 50 Best Blogs, Google Education Online and Dallas Makerspace

Posted by Dr. Faustina DuVall 

Free Agent Learners - Students creating opportunities to learn for themselves
Project Tomorrow, SpeakUP 2015

Does this sound like the students in your class or your children at home?

“I have many apps on my phone that help me at school a lot. I have a homework app that organizes all of my homework and reminds me when something is due. Also, I have another app where it is like an online note card and it’s easier for me to test myself on a subject outside of school instead of bringing my papers where I go. On my tablet, there are applications that have almost every subject and teach you lessons for instance, a lesson in algebra 2 or how to balance an equation for chemistry. I find all of these apps very helpful because of technology.” Female student, Kennedy HS, Guam (SpeakUp2015). 

Understanding technology and the effect it has on teaching and learning in the lives of today's students is on the minds of every teacher, principal and parent.

Julie Evans, is the CEO at Project Tomorrow, a national educational organization, which has surveyed 4 million parents, students and teachers since 2003 about STEM education and digital learning.  (jevans@tomorrow.org).

Evans points to the key trends and data from the 2014 Speak Up data:

• Increased urgency around digital learning
• Interest in new models - mobile, blended and flipped learning
• Usage of digital content in classroom on the rise
• Recognition that teachers are pivotal to adoption
• New approaches to measuring impact
• Focus on using technology to personalize learning

The Project Tomorrow survey data shows that students are using a wide range of technology tools outside of the classroom and school to:

• Reinforce learning concepts at their own pace best suited to individual learning styles
• Explore related academic topics and ideas to a deeper level and challenge the learner with new ideas and different perspectives
• Develop college and career 21st century skills (critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration). 

As educators implement blended, virtual, STEM and mobile learning environments for digital natives, Evans and the Project Tomorrow SpeakUp challenges us to address two big questions:

1. Are we ready to support a new kind of educational ecosystem that acknowledges learning as 24/7 enterprise?

2. What do we need to do today to enable and empower these kinds of student-centric digital learning experiences for all students?

Educator Learning Opportunities and Resources: 

1. Blogs: One way educators can get ready for the 24-7 learning enterprise and and provide student-centric digital learning experiences is to follow EdTech's 50 Must Read Blogs for 2015. This year's list highlights blogs from innovative teachers, technology directors and educational technology experts.

These expert blogs cover STEM classroom resources, student engagement and digital leadership, new channels of communication, student led education resources, Google education solutions, video and learning platforms and empowering teachers to transform traditional teaching with technology and thousands of other educational technology topics.

2. Google Education on Air - a free, interactive online conference that will take place Friday, May 8 from 10am-3pm EDT and throughout the day Saturday May 9.
Topics include inspirinig learners with the power of storytelling, the skills of the future, tools for creative problem solving and 100 other topics and sessions.
To register go to: https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/live/2015-may

3.The Dallas Makerspace is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, shared community workshop and laboratory. An organized group of local artists, engineers, makers and thinkers work together to provide tools and learning resources to the public. These resources promote science, technology and art and encourage learning within the community.


Resources:

http://www.tomorrow.org/about/about_PT.html

http://www.slideshare.net/ProjectTomorrow/ten-things-mobile-learning-speak-up-j-evans-april-2015?related=1

http://www.portical.org/blog/say-hello-to-the-free-agent-learner-that-is-a-typical-middle-school-student/2164.htm

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2015/04/50-must-read-it-blogs-2015

https://educationonair.withgoogle.com/live/2015-may

http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU14StudentReport.pdf

http://dallasmakerspace.org