Edublogs Teacher Challenges

This is the 6th post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.

Objectives:

In this activity you will:

1. Learn about DoInk.
2. Learn how to use DoInk.
3. Learn about uses of DoInk in the classroom.
4. Create a DoInk animation or image of your own.

Overview:

So what is DoInk? First of all, it is pronounced Do Ink, not doink. Don’t worry; I made that mistake myself at first! According to the DoInk site, it is a “simple & friendly vector editor; (you) can create flash-style animations; use community art & your own; post to YouTube & Facebook; download your art.” But perhaps more than just an explanation of what DoInk is, you’d like to see an example.

Tectonic Plate Boundries by LoganAnimations, made at DoInk.com

This amazing animation was created by one of my students as part of a performance assessment on our plate tectonics unit.

Challenge Task:

1.   Visit the DoInk site. At the search box in the top right corner, you can search for material related to the content that you teach and see if there is anything already created that you can use in your classroom.

2.   Create a DoInk account. First, click on the sign up button in the header region.

That will bring you to the registration page. Create a username and password, add your email address, put in your year of birth, agree to the terms of service, and then hit “register now”.

Please note that DoInk is only for students 13 or older. However, that shouldn’t stop you from creating your own pictures and animations to embed on class sites and to share in class to help explain concepts!

3.  Write a post about what you find on DoInk. Reflect on ways you could use DoInk in your classroom. When you are done, be sure to comment on this post with a link to your post.

Help and Tips:

As you look around at DoInk, be sure to have fun and play around. If you try to create your own images and animations, I suggest sticking with static images first, and then working your way up to animations. You can also create separate static images that you can incorporate into your animations. Also, there is a community on DoInk that provides background images, and foreground elements that you can incorporate into the animations that you create. When I worked on DoInk with my students, they were able to do so much more than I ever imagined or tried to do myself, so also know that our students are going to be better experts at this than most of us are.

DoInk is flash based, so you will need to use a computer equipped with flash in order to play and create drawings and animations. However, there is a DoInk iPad app. However, the iPad app does cost $4.99 (US).

Finally, there are a couple of people you can follow on Twitter to find out more regarding DoInk. Karen Miller is one of the founders of DoInk, and DoInk Tweets is the official account. Karen Miller is especially supportive of DoInk’s use in education.

Extend and Discuss:

For the extension activity, create a DoInk animation or image. Create a post about your creation, and share it on your blog. Then, post a link to it in the comment section.

What ways can you think of to use DoInk in education? Do you have any ideas that jump out at you right away? Is there something I am missing? Please feel free to share your comments below or to create a blog post about them and link to it here.

About the Author:

Janelle Wilson is a sixth grade Earth science teacher at Lanier Middle School in Buford, GA, USA. She is a total science nerd and an incredible space geek. She loves sharing with her students the possibilities that science can help us create in the future. She had the privilege to attend the launch of Atlantis STS-132 in May of last year at the press site and is looking forward to attending Honeywell’s Educators @ Space Academy program this summer. You can find her on Twitter: @janellewilson, her professional blog: Stretching Forward, and her class blog: Mrs. Wilson Science.

This is the 5th post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.

In this activity you will learn:

• more about what Edmodo is
• how to create your free account
• how to create a group for students

Overview

Edmodo is a Web 2.0 tool that allows teachers to safely share ideas, files, assignments, videos, projects, etc.with students and with other teachers in real time. It is a safe and secure social learning site for classrooms. Edmodo does not require student email addresses and only the people who have the group code can see the students.

The teacher must first register (for free). Then they can create a group or groups for their class. Students will then register and use the teacher’s code to join that class. On the front page of Edmodo, there is a video: What is Edmodo? Spend a few minutes reviewing this video before signing up.

Or, watch an Edmodo overview video from YouTube here:

Below are some samples of ways to use Edmodo in the classroom.

• Pen Pals (go to the Community site to connect with other teachers)
• Make up work for when students are absent
• Video commentary – can post a video on line and have students write comments about the video
• Peer editing
• Book clubs
• Daily feedback
• Students can turn in assignments via Edmodo (documents, glogs, etc.)
• Enter comments on assignments, give positive feedback to students, give grades to students
• Writing vocabulary sentences and having conversations about them

Challenge and Task

To see an example of  Edmodo, register for a free teacher account. Once you are in Edmodo, on the left hand side are the words “Groups Join or Create”. Click on Join and use the following code: zzywbh. This will allow you to join the NCTies EDU Glogster group. You can then view the different URLs that are posted of sample Glogs. The latest posts will be at the top of the page.

Now that you know a little more about Edmodo, how can you use it in your classroom? What do you think your students will say when you tell them you are going to do social networking in your classroom? Please share your comments and post any links (group codes) that you would like other people to look at.

Tips and Resources

The Edmodo blog posts up-to-date information. The blog includes quick tips, managing your account, how to embed glogs, videos, etc.  They also have different webinars every month. If you run into problems, check out the Edmodo Help Center. The support you receive from Edmodo is simply amazing! Edmodo Communities allows teachers to connect with other teachers and see how they are using Edmodo in the classroom.

About

My name is Dorene Bates and I am a District Instructional Technologist with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. My personal blog is Learning Technology 2.0 and my wiki is Learning Tech 2.0 (from pbworks).

This is the 4th post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.

This guest post is written by teacher Zoe French.

In this activity you will:

• Learn about Classtools.net
• Choose a resource to use with your students
• Discuss with the community about how these could be used

Overview

Classtools.net is a free flash tool website that allows you to create quizzes, diagrams, and educational games. You can then host them on your own site free of charge.

You can sign up for the premium version of the website if you want access to more tools or ad-free templates.

Here’s a quick video overview from youtube:

I have listed my favourite tools below:

• Venn Diagrams- Instant interactive Venn diagrams for your smart board.
• Post It – Upload an image or piece of text and add notes.
• Random Name/Word Picker- Do you find yourself picking the same students to answer questions? Simply input a class in order to randomly select people to answer questions or input a list of keywords and get students to quiz each other!
• Countdown timer – This is a great behaviour management tool. Use the timer to add pace and structure to your activities or lessons. You can even upload songs for the timer to countdown to, or choose a song from the list.
• Arcade Game Generator – Create your own flash games/quizzes!

Challenge Task

Beginner: Head over to Classtools.net and explore the site. Then pick your favourite template and blog about it. In your blog you should:

• Provide an overview of the site
• Describe your favourite template and provide links, you should also include illustrations.
• Discuss applications to teaching
• If you are feeling adventurous why not try and create your own flash game or diagram?

Advanced: Go to Classtools.net and pick a template and create something. You should then embed your tool on either your website or blog. (Here’s Teacher Challenge tips on embedding.)

Follow the step by step process below to create your own tool. Helps and tips below!

Step 1: In the top right hand corner there is a sample box. Select your subject area. Browse through the examples and see what other people have done.

Step 2: Choose a template for the list in column on the right hand side of the page. If you are still not sure where to start I would suggest you pick the Arcade Game Generator and create a quiz for one of your classes.

Step 3: Once you have finished creating your tool create a link to it or embed it in your blog. See hints and tips below if you are not sure how to do this.

*Note – the option to embed is in the bottom right hand corner of the frame

Help & Tips

Not sure what to do? Make sure you watch the video tutorials on the homepage at the bottom. I have also provided some tips below:

Tips

Don’t know where to start? Check out the sample files in the top right hand corner. Simply click on your subject area to see samples of activities created for your subject using Classtools.net

How to save your tool.
There are few ways you can save your web tool.

Click on the floppy disk image to save as a webpage. You can then save it on your USB or folder and click to open.

Click on the cog/gear image if you want to embed your tool on a webpage. A yellow box will then appear and you can either copy the url or the embed code. From there you either create a link on your site or embed your tool. If you don’t know how to embed a tool I have found this website to be helpful.

*Note – not all tools will let you embed as they are designed to run in the browser:

Discussion Questions

Leave a comment on this post and discuss:

Question 1: Classtools.net is all about providing tools to help enhance your teaching. What makes this site great is that it is not focused towards specific subject areas but instead is useful for all teachers. Do you know of any similar sites? Do you have a favourite tool that you like to use in the classroom? Why don’t you share below!?

Question 2: If you have created something using Classtools.net why don’t you share it below?

About the Author

I have been teaching for four years and I have recently moved from Australia to America. If you are interested in discovering other free web based tools please visit my website: www.digitalenglishteachers.com

I also have a blog: http://digitaleducationforenglishteachers.blogspot.com/.

This is the 3rd post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.

In this activity you will:

Overview:

In my day, reading comics in school was in the same category of forbidden activities as chewing gum and making paper planes. Confiscation was guaranteed. Luckily for kids today, perspectives have shifted, with more and more teachers starting to embrace comics as a tool to engage students and stimulate their interest in reading.

An idea that’s getting less attention so far is the potential comics have to improve students’ writing. This isn’t too surprising, since relatively few kids have the combination of patience and artistic skill needed to hand-draw comic strips. That’s where Bitstrips for Schools comes in. It’s a web-based resource that enables any student to write their own great-looking, original comic strips without having to draw. Over 5,000 schools are using Bitstrips for Schools so far, making over 20,000 new comics every day!

The site makes the process of writing visual, personal and fun. It features an avatar maker that lets students design unique, fully poseable cartoon avatars, and a comic builder that lets them create and star in their own curriculum-connected comics. There are hundreds of backgrounds, props and effects to work with, and an image-uploading tool for incorporating photos. By removing drawing from the equation, students have time to focus their attention on composition, sequencing, and most importantly, writing.

Task:

The first step in this challenge is to create your Bitstrips for Schools teacher account at www.bitstripsforschools.com. Just click the Sign Up Today link on the homepage and fill in the fields. You’ll notice that it’s a 30-day trial, but that’s plenty of time to complete this challenge.

Next, you’ll create your virtual classroom and add student names to your class – again, just fill in the fields as you’re prompted. This step will take 3-4 minutes, depending on how many students you have to enter (you can enter up to 40 in one classroom).

Once you’re done, you can design your avatar, which will greet your students when they log in for the first time.

Challenge:

Now for your challenge! Find an activity in the Bitstrips for Schools library that gives your students an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of a concept or topic that you’ve taught them. You could have them write a book report about a novel they’ve read, or make a comic about energy conservation, preventing bullying or practicing science lab safety. For inspiration, check out these examples of student work.

You can search for activities in the Activities tab in your new account – sort them by grade and subject using the drop-down menus on the left. If you don’t find something that fits, try making your own activity by clicking the New Activity button. Here you’ll be able to write student instructions for your own activity. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even create a template comic for your activity using the comic builder, which students can use as the starting point for their comic.

Once you’ve picked an activity, make sure you hit the Assign Activity button to assign the activity to your class. Then it’s time to invite your students to log in! Tell them to go to www.bitstripsforschools.com, click the Log In button on the top right of the homepage, and then enter the unique class code you created when you set up your classroom. Your students will then be able to find their names under the dropdown menu, create their passwords and log in.

Now they can create their avatars and start the activity you’ve assigned them. If they run out of time during class, they can log in from home and continue their activity there. Finally, when they’re finished their comic, they can submit it to you to review and provide feedback. They can also share their comics with the class and blog them, with your permission.

And that’s it! I hope you and your students have a lot of fun with this challenge. Let me know if you need help or have any questions in the Comments, and be sure to post your best student comics there as well!

Help & Support:

Start here at Bitstrips for Schools Support with any questions you may have.

And check out this video to get an idea of what teachers and students have to say.

- Shahan Panth, Bitstrips for Schools

This is the 2nd post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.

In this activity you will:

• be able to create a self grading, multiple choice quiz using Google Docs

Overview:

During my 6 week computer cycle I require that students leave with a basic knowledge of common computer terms.  Throughout the cycle I use a PowerPoint presentation to display the word, definition and an illustration.  At the end of the cycle students take this vocabulary quiz.  Since this is a Computer Class I thought students should take the quiz using technology.  Previous versions of the quiz were done in Word using a drop down menu and a word bank.  While students were impressed with how I created the test I still needed to print out paper to grade them.

Using Google Docs, I am able to continue to introduce and use new technology.  Now I am able to track student progress, and I am able to save paper by collecting work electronically.  Students tell me that they appreciate how they are constantly introduced to this new technology and this continues to push me to improve.

Task & Challenge:

Google Docs is a very powerful tool and can seem a bit overwhelming at first.  However, once you begin to fully understand the power of this powerful yet free service you will lean towards using it more and more. For me the struggle is how to apply and introduce new technology while still controlling where students go online.  In my district there are multiple reasons why I don’t allow my students to work with Google Docs.  One of the main reasons is bandwidth.  We just don’t have the bandwidth available to use some of the other features.  Creating an online test is a great way to introduce you, the educator, and your students to this powerful tool.

Your Challenge is to create an online Google Docs quiz.  Use my questions and answers below to assist you.  Once you learn how to use Google Docs create your own multiple choice quiz and post a link to it.

Help & Support:

I have included the vocabulary words and definitions below.  You will see the Definition in question format along with suggested answers.

I have also included a link to a YouTube video that will show step by step instructions to create your online quiz.

Here is another tip, Take the quiz twice.  The first time enter your name as “Key” the second time you may take the test as “Teacher 2″  This allows you to enter the formula for right or wrong and calculate the average.  Save those changes.  Once Students have taken the quiz then “pull” the formula down to calculate right, wrong, & average.

To take the quiz before you create it, go to this URL

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE1lak9BTDZIbTU3MnQ1RHA2QzVpQXc6MQ

Use These Questions To Create Your Quiz

What is the internal operating unit or brain of the computer?

Disk Drive

Software

CPU*

Hardware

What is the short blinking vertical line that marks your place in text?

Cursor*

Software

CPU

Hardware

This most often to means Stop. Used today to interrupt a command or move from one part of a program to another.

Ruler

Icon

Toolbar

Escape*

This reads & writes data to a small circular piece of metal-coated plastic similar to audio cassette tape.

Hardware

Disk drive *

Selecting

Tab

A _____ is a complete character set of a single size of a particular typeface.

Icon

Font*

URL

Ruler

The physical equipment that makes up a computer system is the…

Hardware*

Software

Toolbar

Margin

A list of choices in a computer program.

Tab

Ruler

CPU

Menu*

This refers to a page that when printed is wider than it is long?

Landscape orientation*

Ruler

Close

Selecting

What is a picture on your screen that represents a program or object in your hard drive?

Icon*

CPU

Close

Escape

What is a web pages address on the internet?

ADDY

URL*

CPU

JPG

What is the short blinking vertical line that marks your place in text?

Cursor*

Software

CPU

Hardware

This most often to means Stop. Used today to interrupt a command or move from one part of a program to another.

Ruler

Icon

Toolbar

Escape*

This reads & writes data to a small circular piece of metal-coated plastic similar to audio cassette tape.

Hardware

Disk drive *

Selecting

Tab

A _____ is a complete character set of a single size of a particular typeface.

Icon

Font*

URL

Ruler

The physical equipment that makes up a computer system is the…

Hardware*

Software

Toolbar

Margin

A list of choices in a computer program.

Tab

Ruler

CPU

Menu*

This refers to a page that when printed is wider than it is long?

Landscape orientation*

Ruler

Close

Selecting

What is a picture on your screen that represents a program or object in your hard drive?

Icon*

CPU

Close

Escape

What is a web pages address on the internet?

ADDY

URL*

CPU

JPG

Extend & Discuss:

Please leave a comment on how you will use Google Docs to create a quiz, or if you use a different service, such as zoomerang , Questionpro, or SurveyMonkey.

About:

I am a Middle School Computer Science Teacher, and I write a blog about lesson plans, discussion topics, problem solving, and other topics that affect my classroom.  You can visit my blog mrrileysblog.blogspot.com/ or my website www.mrrileyswebsite.com to contact me or for more information.

This is the 1st post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.

Let’s face it, we all love free stuff!

Over the next four weeks, we will present as many of the best free web tools for educators and students as we possibly can. We’ve got tools and websites of all types that you are going to love.

Your challenge: Follow this blog closely for the next month and read about any new tool you haven’t yet tried out – there is sure to be many!

Do you your best to carve out a few minutes each week to really try out one or more free tool each week with your students. Then, come back to the blog and share your experience!

The following challenge post was written by teacher Noeleen Leahy.

In this activity you will:

1. Learn how to create an online noticeboard and check out ideas for using Wallwisher with your students
2. Learn how students can add to your notice board
3. Learn how to embed your notice board in your blog or learning platform
4. Complete one or more of the challenge activities

Overview:

Wallwisher is a Web 2.0 free online tool where anyone can build a “wall”.  Discussing a new idea? Taking notes? Giving feedback? Voicing opinion? Wishing a happy birthday?

Your students can then go onto the internet and stick post-it notes electronically onto your wall.  The notes can include linked pictures, You Tube videos, PowerPoints, PDF documents, Excel Spreadsheets, or web page links.

From EduTeacher:

You might create one yourself, or get your students to contribute to one on their own time or in school. Either way, you can embed your wall on your blog and make it accessible to your school community and parents.

Here is one my students contributed to on the theme of Poverty http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/emnetpoverty

Task:

Step 1: Learn how to create an online noticeboard and check out ideas for using Wallwisher with your students.

Sign up and create a Wallwisher account – it’s free!

If you want to create a wall without creating an account, it’s very simple – just click, write, post.

To build a wall:

• Select Build a wall from the top right menu and create a wall.
• Select an image and give your wall a title and a sub title.

• Choose your wall url (6 – 20 characters)
• Decide who can view your wall and who can post to your wall.

• Select to approve every post before it shows on the wall. This way you can moderate all comments whether they are posted anonymously or by a named student.
• Choose a theme / colour for the wall and select Done.

Double click anywhere on the wall to add a sticky note

Check out these ideas for using wall wisher with students. Thanks to Tom Barrett for permission to use and to all the teachers who have conributed to this ‘Interesting Ways to using Wallwisher’ presentation.

https://docs.google.com/a/edublogs.org/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_436f8kscmdc

Step 2: Have students add to your wall/notice board.

Once you have decided on a theme for your wall you can share the wall with your students.

To share your wall with students:

• Select the share tab, top right, or share the web address.
• If you select Email the wall address will be sent to the recipients in the email.
• You can also share your wall via a large number of applications such as Google Reader, Twitter, WordPress.

I usually share the web address with my students first and only when the wall is complete do I use the embed code to post the wall to my blog.

Step 3: Learn how to embed your notice board in your blog as a post or as a widget

When your wall is finished, or even if you wish to post a blank wall to your blog, you will need the embed code.

• Go to the Do More tab, top right.
• Select embed and the embed dialogue box will present the code.
• Copy this code and paste using the html tab in your blog application.

Challenge:

Complete one or more of the following:
1.      Come up with three topics for a wall of your own. Leave a comment with your suggestions for a wall to this blog post for others use.

2.      Go to the edte.ch website (http://edte.ch/blog/) and email your suggestions for using Wallwisher to the owner. thomasgeorgebarrett@gmail.com

3.      Post a wall to your blog.

4.      Write a blog post about the challenges of using Wallwisher with your students.

Help & Support:

For more help with Wallwisher, use the Help tab, top tight on Wallwisher.com.

Check out the Wallwisher blog for updates and tips http://blog.wallwisher.com/

About:

I am a second level teacher from Ireland. I teach Geography, Religion and IT to 11 – 18 year olds. I have only been blogging for two years. This is my year group blog, an account of everything they do during their 4^th Year or Transition Year: http://www.stwolstansty.blogspot.com/