Sunday 30 August 2009

Google Forms as a Self-Assessment Tool

We use our classroom blog for sharing our learning experiences. An important part of the learning process involves reflecting on our learning. One way I get my students to reflect is to do self-assessments. It seems to me although many teachers are using web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning, not many are taking the many opportunities to use them for assessment.

Our most recent ICT venture of recording readers theater podcasts was posted on our blog so that we could share our work and get reflective feedback. As my students read blogs and comment on them as a reading task, it seemed a good place to embed a form that would serve as a reflective assessment.


Why I like using Google Forms rather than services like Polldaddy is that it is easy to set up and embed, but more importantly it sends all the poll data to a Google Spreadsheet in Google Docs. From there you can get your data presented in various chart or pie displays with a few button clicks. Of course you do need to sign up for a free Gmail account, but then in my opinion if you are not already using Gmail you should be.
An example of using Google Forms embedded into a blog for self-assessment.
Some other online poll and testing services are Yacapaca, Zoho, and Mystudiyo.
Below is a video on Google Forms.

Saturday 22 August 2009

Adding Audio to your Blog

My class did their first readers theater this week, and after recording the audio story we wanted to add it to our blog in order to share it with the world and receive feedback to improve ourselves.
See our Classroom Blog Podcast.

However most blog servers do not allow you to upload and embed an audio directly from your computer. The file (this is the same process for video) needs to be hosted on a web server and then linked to the blog. There are many sites that cater for audio and podcasts, we however used Podomatic. You do need to check that the school does not block the audio server you choose, if they do you can usually get it unblocked by placing a request through your ICT lead teacher.

Another thing to remember is that your file needs to be a mp3 or mp4 file before uploading to an audio server. This usually involves exporting it from GarageBand / Audacity or other recording software. One thing I learnt was when recording with GarageBand, change the metronome setting to get rid of the clicky sound that we got in the background.

Once you have your audio recording saved on a site like Podomatic you are offer html code to either link to the server site or code to embed the recording into your blog, as we have done here.

For further guidance you should read Bloggers help file "How do I post audio/music to my blog?"

Other podcasting server sites are:
Kid-Cast
Gcast

Sunday 16 August 2009

Web 2.0 Teaching Tools

I believe bringing web 2.0 into the classroom and into student hands to enhance learning is an essential step to encourage 21st century learning. It is also important for teachers to use web 2.0 tool tools to teach and guide learning, we are role models in all aspects of learning.

I created this wiki page as my own shortcut to some web 2.0 teaching tools that I find useful and use regularly. I hope you find it helpful and if you know of any websites that are worth adding, please leave a comment.

Web 2.0 Teaching Tools
This is a collection of some great web 2.0 tools I have found for teaching and modeling. Although great with an interactive whiteboard for whole class, I often will just use my laptop at the conference table for small groups.

Math Tool Chest: This is a wonderful tool to help explain and teach maths. It is basically a toolbox of web materials, I find the counters and place value helpful. It is simple to use with a sound off option.

Maths Playground: A collection of math manipulatives for teaching and learning.

Virtual Dice: One, two or three virtual dice, great for math games.

Super Teacher Tools: A resource where you can generate games, set up a seating chart, create groups, and generate random names. Very easy to use especially if you set up a class list, which you only need to do once.