This quick-reference list of assessment strategies will help you identify a variety of ways to check students’ thinking and learning.
Click on the screenshot below to download this resource from Edutopia.
Tag: Technology Integration
Nutshell: Prezi’s New App for Visual Storytelling
Prezi introduces a new way to share life’s little moments, in a nutshell.
Combining the simplicity of photographs, the compelling nature of video, and the fun of animated graphics, Nutshell uses Prezi’s new storymapping technology to create short, shareable cinematic narratives that can be shared easily and instantly.
Besides creating fun social media updates, Nutshell opens the door for all sorts of unique messaging opportunities when videos feel like too much of a production and plain photos just are not adequate for capturing life’s moments.
3 Easy Steps
- Snap three pictures.
- Add captions.
- Choose graphics and let Nutshell turn it all into a shareable cinematic story.
Features
- Library of free animated graphics that you can use to create short cinematic stories
- Instant sharing to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
- Send nutshells directly to friends via email, text messages, and WhatsApp
- Full camera support for iOS 8.0 and above
- Much more
Educational Connections
- Provides students with a creative alternative for submitting reflections, journals, etc.
- Share engaging news and announcements with students and parents.
- Integrate with standards focused on communication: personal expression, propaganda techniques, etc.
- Enables creative ways for students to share their interpretations of poems, stories, books, plays, and other works of art.
- Empower students to collect evidence of their thinking during a lab or group activity.
- The finished product can serve as an artifact of learning, potentially making thinking visible in your classroom.
There are many other educational connections. Please share yours in the comments to this post.
Making Thinking Visible with Technology #pzmewinter15
I’m looking forward to speaking at today’s Project Zero Memphis Winter Workshop. Here are some of the resources that I’ll be sharing.
Visible Thinking includes methods for making students’ thinking visible through learning routines that are thinking rich. These routines encourage the development of a culture of thinking and can be used across all grade levels and content areas. With freely available technologies students can engage in Thinking Routines to provide evidence of their thinking and demonstrate their understanding of course content in multiple ways (images, audio, video, presentations, artwork, and more). The Making Thinking Visible with Technology (MTVT) project seeks to provide professional development, a database of lesson plans, and resources to help teachers to develop opportunities for students to make their thinking visible with technology.
Additional Resources
If you would like to investigate this further you can visit the full set of additional resources on my professional development wiki.
Tour of 3D Printing Lab
Yesterday I had the opportunity to take one of my graduate classes on a tour of new 3D Printing Lab in the University of Memphis Library. We received training in computer-aided design (CAD) and use of the 3D printer, and had the opportunity to see it in action. Our conversation about integrating 3D printers with learning was packed with ideas and I left feeling energized. Additional educational uses have been popping into my mind since.
The following video and photos showcase some of the various projects that were printed. The Memphis skyline is my favorite and look even more impressive in-person.
The following album offers snapshots and captions of our tour.
Discussion
- What experiences have you had with 3D printing?
- Can you see potential ways to connect 3D printing with learning?
Developing Young Authors #MECA14
Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories, presentations, reports, or tutorials you and your students make to share, read, and print. Storybird is a fun, collaborative website that can be integrated in all content areas and at all grade levels. It can be an effective resource for teaching parts of a story, the writing process, promoting creativity, and more. STEM and social studies teachers can use Storybird for engaging alternatives to traditional lessons, reports and presentations. Storybird also seamlessly keeps a portfolio of each student’s work.
Participants will be guided in setting up accounts and helped as they begin using Storybird.com’s tools and services. Participants will learn how to use the teacher-specific tools.
Below are my slides from the workshop that I’ve taught a couple of times this week at the Mississippi Educational Communications Conference (MECA) in Jackson, MS. All the workshop materials and resources (including a video tutorial, additional examples, notes, etc.) are available on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.
Related Articles
- More from the annals of micropublishing: Picture books from Storybird (pandodaily.com)
- Storybird (5j2014misshooban.wordpress.com)
- Storybirds: A Must Have tool in the classroom! (5j2014msconneally.wordpress.com)
- 2nd Graders Remember Dr. King (clifmims.com)
- 5 Important Tips to Consider When planning to use ICT’s to Improve Your Teaching (teachingtipsandideas.wordpress.com)
Making Mathematics Visible
As a math teacher I would sometimes hear students ask, “When are we going to use this in real life.” I worked hard to provide students with practical experiences and tangible answers to this question as I think doing so helps with transference and engagement. I relied on feedback from my father (an architect, contractor, and farmer) and my friends that work in the areas of engineering, accounting/finance/sales, and healthcare for ideas and real-world examples that I could use in my classroom. I think the students and I would have also enjoyed having examples similar to the ones included in the following video. Amazing!
BEAUTY OF MATHEMATICS from PARACHUTES.TV on Vimeo.
Image Source: alibris.com
Related articles
- Traditions, tensions, and transitions (joannalake.wordpress.com)
- Common Sense for Concreting Abstract Mathematics (umipuji.wordpress.com)
hgsepzfol #hgsepzfol
Expanding Learning with Technology
This inspiration video was produced by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
“This is about us. And and our students. And how we’re learning together. And also, it’s about the power of technology…Our job [as educators] is to expand horizons, to open doors, to blow minds. We achieve this by working together, by reaching out, by computing and counting and crafting, by being creative, by meeting our challenges head on and never shirking from a fight. It’s what we do everyday. We help students light the spark that expands that portion of the universe for which they are responsible — their own minds. We build on what’s already there. We collaborate. We listen. We learn. We teach our students to listen for themselves, so that they can become the teachers and we the students. And we use technology as one tool in our toolbox to help us communicate, to help us work together. This technology isn’t an add-on…[It] is often the fastest, most immediate, and most effective way that we can speak to our students in a way they’ll hear us, in a way that sparks their imaginations, in a way that helps flip the learning process…” (Source).
Image Source: Parenting How
Managing Online Identities Session at #MSMECA13
Keeping up with the state of technology is not easy. New social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Diigo, YouTube , Tumblr, Instagram, and AudioBoo continue to emerge and users sign-up and setup profiles without considering the full ramifications of sharing personal information. Practical tips for helping you and your students thoughtfully setup and maintain your online identities will be shared.
Below are my slides for this session. All the workshop materials and resources are available on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.
View more presentations from Clif Mims
Resources from Storybird Hands-On Workshop at #MSMECA13
Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories, presentations, reports, or tutorials you and your students make to share, read, and print. Storybird is a fun, collaborative website that can be integrated in all content areas and at all grade levels. It can be an effective resource for teaching parts of a story, the writing process, promoting creativity, and more. STEM and social studies teachers can use Storybird for engaging alternatives to traditional lessons, reports and presentations. Storybird also seamlessly keeps a portfolio of each student’s work.
Participants will be guided in setting up accounts and helped as they begin using Storybird.com’s tools and services. Participants will learn how to use the teacher-specific tools.
Below are my slides from the workshop that I’ve taught a couple of times this week at the Mississippi Educational Communications Conference (MECA) in Jackson, MS. All the workshop materials and resources (including a video tutorial, additional examples, notes, etc.) are available on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.
Related Articles
- More from the annals of micropublishing: Picture books from Storybird (pandodaily.com)
- Storybird (stickyknowledge.com)
- Part 2… Creativity In The Digital Classroom… Web 2.0 Tools… Are They In Your School? (21centuryedtech.wordpress.com)
Happy 6th Blogiversary
Today marks the 6th blogiversary of Clif’s Notes on Education and Technology. I am grateful to each of you with whom I’ve connected as a result of this online adventure. You’ve been a blessing to me personally and professionally.
Image Source: Kelley’s Cupcake Cupboard