DD Shift

I’m hearing the song, Paper Planes, by MIA.  They use a nice sample from another song that I can hear but can’t quite place in this song.

OK… I know that it has been a while since I have posted.  But, to my defense there was a bout of time when I could not log in.  They were performing some sort of maintenance that kept forcing me to change my password and never actually get to the edit screen.  This is the first time that I have tried since August, I think.  But, here it goes.

I have been toiling about looking for 2.0 tools for teaching, and here is what I have recently come up with:

• Quizlet – this is a cool site for drill and practice learning.  You can make digital flashcards that quiz you, test you, and even make little mini games for you.  This is not for higher-level learning, but it is good for rote memorization.
• I have developed a few course pages using Google Sites.  They provide free webspace to create basic websites (all with a very easy interface for development).  You can see an example of a more complex site here:  DIS ToK.
• There are two different application development (free) environments out there (excellent for creating simple games and getting students to use higher order thinking skills):  Scratch and another hosted by Microsoft that I can’t seem to find right now…
• I have found an interesting tool for coding learning called Hackety Hack, but I haven’t tried it out yet…
• If you want to create very cool characters for handouts in your classroom, check out SP Studio by Janina Koeppel.  I would recommend it for teachers to use to create images for the classroom, but not to recommend to students (due to a section of the app where you can have your character choose weapons – ugh).

I am hearing the song “Circle of Friends” by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.

I have just reviewed a very cool tool called Ta-Da List.  Ok… This is the coolest little online tool I have seen in a while.  It does one thing– but it does it well.

Ta-da List allows you to create a checklist of things.  It could be things that you have to pick up at the grocery store.  It could also be things that students should be doing in the classroom… You can share the lists.  You can view the lists online– including mobile devices!

Think about it:  you are the yearbook teacher.  You have a student editor who “manages” the yearbook team members.  While the yearbook is hard work, there is a great deal of individual work on the part of the students; students working on different parts of the yearbook at the same time.  How do you keep track?

1. Have an overall high level plan- perhaps create the “mega”-ta-da list.
2. Then, have the student editor who breaks out that list into to miniature ta-da lists for each of the students on the team.
3. As students finish their tasks, they check-off that they are done.
4. As major components of the yearbook are completed, the editor checks those off the mega-ta-da list.
5. As time goes on, you, your student and anyone else that you invite (parents, school administrators) can see exactly how much has been contributed over the course of the semester by each student.

In the past I have had students keep track of their progess in a forum in our Moodle site.  But, this is simpler both to access and to read through.  Excellent!

For other cool online tools for the classroom and some quick reviews, see “Web 2.0 Tool Reviews“.