One of the tasks in this week’s assignment is to
research online web 2.0 sites to use in the classroom.
Social Online Tool: Edmodo
The first site I am investigating is Edmodo. This is considered to be a “social”
technology site. I first used Edmodo in
2013 with a number of my science classes.
I thought it would be good to re-research this tool and discover what is
new with the site since I last used it with my classes.
Edmodo is a closed social networking tool that a
teacher can use with their students. As
a teacher, you have the ability to give assignments, assign poll questions, and
complete quizzes within the site. One of
the big pluses to using this at the time was the ability of the site to connect
with my Google drive. This site allows
you to upload files to the Edmodo library however one of the limitations that
still exists is that you are not able to organize items in your library into subfolders.
At the time I was using Edmodo, there really wasn’t a good calendar feature in the site. I was happy to see that this has been approved. Any assignments or tasks can be recorded on a calendar that can be shared with students. I also discovered that when I sent a calendar notification, it will email the student (as in setting a test day.)
The other main reason I wanted to look at Edmodo
again was because of the large number of free apps that you can assign for
student use. I teach science, so the
free apps through Edmodo include C K-12 Science practice and Biology,
Chemistry, or Physics questions and answers.
There is access to “Pixton” comic maker and “Photos for Class” that
allows students to choose images to use in projects that are “Creative Commons”
photos. This area has definitely
improved from when I last used the site.
As I was browsing through the site as both a teacher
and a student, I noted that there was now a parent app that could be downloaded
for parents to see what was going on in their child’s classroom.
Overall, I think I may need to reconsider using Edmodo for my classes next year.
References
Edmodo. Retrieved from: https://www.edmodo.com/home
Presentation Online Tool: UTellStory
The second site I am investigating is
UtellStory. I discovered this
presentation tool in “Kathy Schrocks” Online web 2.0 tools blog.
This particular site allows a person to create a
large number of image slides, text slides, video slides, or form slides (which
allows a person to create multiple choice questions to the presentation.) Once images (jpeg or png images) are
uploaded, you can add captions to the pictures.
Audio can also be added to each particular slide. You can also select “creative commons” images
from Flickr or using image URL’s from a particular website.
As I logged into this site, I found that it was very
easy to use the program. I signed up for
the free month trial for “educator’s access.”
This allows a teacher to create classes and sign up 50 students for a
one month trial. The one downside to
this program was that you had to put all of the student’s information into the
program first before they could login.
Once their information is put into the program, a link will let the
student login.
I really liked that this then becomes a closed site for the student’s projects. The information on the home screen of UtellStory was that the student account could be transferred to a regular account after leaving a class. The cost of the “educator” version of this tool was $4.99 a month or $50 a year.
I really liked that this then becomes a closed site for the student’s projects. The information on the home screen of UtellStory was that the student account could be transferred to a regular account after leaving a class. The cost of the “educator” version of this tool was $4.99 a month or $50 a year.
This is definitely a tool I will try using with my
students while I have the free month trial.
References
Schrock, K. Online
tools and web2.0 applications. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/online-tools.html
UTellStory. Retrieved from: http://www.utellstory.com/show/home
Curation Online Tool: Symbaloo
The final site I am investigating is Symbaloo. This is a curation site where you save links
in the form of a tile on a page. This
gives a person a visual reference to weblinks.
I have used other curation tools such as Diigo before and therefore have
found Symbaloo similar to using Diigo.
To add a tile, you need to click on an open space,
paste the url of the website, choose an image background, and add a title. I found that Symbaloo has a Chrome extension,
which allows it to have a “clipping” tool right on your menu bar at the top of
your screen. This allows the information
to be saved quickly to your webmix.
The other thing that I liked about Symbaloo is that
you could search webmixes that other people have created on a topic of
interest. You can see what links other
people have found on a particular topic.
Overall, I can see that using Symbaloo would be a
great idea if you like the visual reference system of tiles to organize your
web links.
References
Symbaloo. Retrieved from: https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcLj6h4
Dembo, S., & Bellow, A. (2013). Untangling the web: 20 tools to
power up your teaching. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.
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