I'm torn at showing Prezi to my teachers due to the complications of this platform. After reading a few blogs and FAQs I come to learn the the education side of this came about this past February and there are still some bugs to work out before I feel like I can truly promote it. First, in order for all students to have the upgraded free education account they must have a valid educational email account. Most schools don't have this option or if they do, it is for internal email only. We are in the same situation. None of our students have school email accounts and the ones that do have email accounts we are using ePals. Second, there is no way to monitor your students when using prezi. As a former classroom teacher that is not an option. We would all love to believe all of our students are appropriately using the Internet all the time, but let's face it, they don't. We tend to have those few students who don't follow the rules and policies and like to push their limit. Then there is the fact that there is an age requirement. I totally understand why we need age requirements but this now forces me to change my training to teacher use and not student use.
With this being said, I'm worried about promoting this product. I am keeping an open mind. Being that this was originally created for the business world and not education, I'm holding out for changes. There are tons of educational Prezi followers and they have voiced their concerns as well as suggestions for making this product better.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think Prezi has a lot of potential in the classroom. I feel that it can promote higher-level thinking in our students and forces them to actually think, map out and discuss their presentation prior to creating it. But if Prezi developers don't consider educational use for this tool, I'm not sure I will stick with it. I wish they would design their interface like that of GlogsterEDU. It is such a simple and easy way to manage your students while keeping them safe. Hopefully Prezi developers will hear our cries and listen like those at GlogsterEDU.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Prezi in the Classroom
Tomorrow at my monthly 30 minute technology training session I will be presenting Prezi. This is definitely a tool I would love to see more of my teachers using in their classrooms as I feel it is a unique way to presenting information.
I believe the learning curve for Prezi is somewhat moderate as the tool itself is easy to grasp but the organizing of materials is a bit more complex. In my opinion this tool forces students higher-level thinking skills that PowerPoint just doesn't do. Because Prezi is not linear by nature and PowerPoint is, that in and of itself promotes higher-level thinking. Here the student must first organize their thoughts in a manner that will present the information they have gathered in a logical sequence, but then by adding in the fact that I can add information to any part of my canvas then force the path in any order I choose helps with the thinking process done by the student. Many of our thoughts are inter-related and this tool allows me to show and share those relationships with one another without having them side by side. To me, it is like a giant spider web where topics have some common thread but yet at the same time, one thought might lead to another thought that may or may not be related. Just like the Internet.
So I put together a Prezi to demonstrate how easy it is to create as well as uses for Prezi in the classroom. Since you can easily embed a Prezi in a blog, I decided to share mine with you.
Check it out and I hope more of you take advantage of this free tool in your classroom.
I believe the learning curve for Prezi is somewhat moderate as the tool itself is easy to grasp but the organizing of materials is a bit more complex. In my opinion this tool forces students higher-level thinking skills that PowerPoint just doesn't do. Because Prezi is not linear by nature and PowerPoint is, that in and of itself promotes higher-level thinking. Here the student must first organize their thoughts in a manner that will present the information they have gathered in a logical sequence, but then by adding in the fact that I can add information to any part of my canvas then force the path in any order I choose helps with the thinking process done by the student. Many of our thoughts are inter-related and this tool allows me to show and share those relationships with one another without having them side by side. To me, it is like a giant spider web where topics have some common thread but yet at the same time, one thought might lead to another thought that may or may not be related. Just like the Internet.
So I put together a Prezi to demonstrate how easy it is to create as well as uses for Prezi in the classroom. Since you can easily embed a Prezi in a blog, I decided to share mine with you.
Check it out and I hope more of you take advantage of this free tool in your classroom.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Socrative - Student Response
Want to incorporate a student response system into your classroom but don’t have clickers. Well here is a website that will allow you to use your smartphone, computer, laptop, etc to do just that. It is called Socrative. This site allows you to ask M/C questions (see student responses on the projection screen as a bar chart) , T/F questions, Short Answer Questions (ask open-ended questions), Quick Quiz (runs a self-paced quiz that is automatically graded and recorded), Exit Ticket (get an end-of-class pulse-check) or Space Race (run a quiz as a game and have student teams compete). You also have the ability to import questions from Excel which will cut down on prep time.
Currently this website is in alpha mode which means the software is free while they are testing. In order to gain access, you will need to click the Try It button in the upper left-hand corner to sign up. The site says they will contact you with additional information. I received my email and instructions on how to use this in about 60 seconds. So the response was very quick. In a matter of minutes I was set up and using the program with ease.
Students can access this site via the computer or their smartphone (download app). The teacher will need to share the room number that was given to them during the registration process. From here, the teacher can create questions and students can respond. At the end of the session, an excel spreadsheet will be emailed to you with the student data that was collected.
I foresee this site being very useful by having your students take those quick formative assessments as a way for you to track their progress. It is a simple way to incorporate technology into the classroom but keep the focus on the curriculum. The more we can assess the better we are able to tell what our students know and don't know. From there, we must analyze our data and reteach where necessary.
http://www.socrative.com/
Currently this website is in alpha mode which means the software is free while they are testing. In order to gain access, you will need to click the Try It button in the upper left-hand corner to sign up. The site says they will contact you with additional information. I received my email and instructions on how to use this in about 60 seconds. So the response was very quick. In a matter of minutes I was set up and using the program with ease.
Students can access this site via the computer or their smartphone (download app). The teacher will need to share the room number that was given to them during the registration process. From here, the teacher can create questions and students can respond. At the end of the session, an excel spreadsheet will be emailed to you with the student data that was collected.
I foresee this site being very useful by having your students take those quick formative assessments as a way for you to track their progress. It is a simple way to incorporate technology into the classroom but keep the focus on the curriculum. The more we can assess the better we are able to tell what our students know and don't know. From there, we must analyze our data and reteach where necessary.
http://www.socrative.com/
Mystery Skype
Today I had one of my 4th grade teachers do a mystery skype with a class from Michigan. It was the first time any of my classrooms had skyped before so it was a very exciting experience for all of us. I connected with @powell4thgrade on twitter who was asking for any of her followers if they wanted to do a "mystery skype" so of course I volunteered one of my teachers to particpate. Next I had to find a 4th grade teacher who was willing to give this a shot and the first teacher I approached jumped at this opportunity. The next step was getting this organized within a week. So, @powell4thgrade and myself communicated to work out all the details. Questions were shared ahead of time so each classroom could prepare for the "big" day. A glog was even created to share photos ahead of time between the two classrooms.
Before we knew it, it was Friday and of we had a few technical difficulties but thanks to our tech support it was worked out in a matter of a few minutes.
By 9:40 we were meeting @powell4thgrade classroom. Kids were hovered around the laptop, trying to get a good view of who they were meeting for the first time. We introduced ourselves and then started the "mystery" skype activity. Each classroom took a turn in revealing hints about their state. All students from each classroom were very attentive and responsive to each other. Once all hints were given out, each classroom got to "guess" the state that the students were from. Each classroom was able to answer correctly on the first try.
So I then asked, "Which clue was the one that gave our state away?". One student said, the student's sweatshirt... We all busted up laughing because neither myself nor the classroom teacher realized she was wearing a sweatshirt with our state's name. Thank goodness she was the last student to reveal our hint. Then another student said our hint about the bodies of water that surround or go through our state and one other person said when we told them which states border our state. Being that our state has eight bordering states and there is only one other state like ours, it probably did help them narrow it down. For our students it was the bodies of water along with the state capital that helped us determine where they were from.
From there we chatted a bit longer about blogging with one another and from there said our goodbyes.
After it was all said and done, I processed this activity with these students because I feel they need to understand not only what skype is but how it can be used in the classroom as a tool not a toy. Many times, students walk away from an activity thinking the only lesson in it was that we had "fun" doing it. Not that learning was taking place.
I want to thank @powell4thgrade for inviting us to joing them in this "Mystery Skype" adventure. We had fun and it was a valuable learning experience. We look forward to skyping not only with @powell4thgrade but with others too. Our next big adventure will be to connect with @powell4thgrade through student blogs. I will let you know how this goes in a few weeks.
Before we knew it, it was Friday and of we had a few technical difficulties but thanks to our tech support it was worked out in a matter of a few minutes.
By 9:40 we were meeting @powell4thgrade classroom. Kids were hovered around the laptop, trying to get a good view of who they were meeting for the first time. We introduced ourselves and then started the "mystery" skype activity. Each classroom took a turn in revealing hints about their state. All students from each classroom were very attentive and responsive to each other. Once all hints were given out, each classroom got to "guess" the state that the students were from. Each classroom was able to answer correctly on the first try.
So I then asked, "Which clue was the one that gave our state away?". One student said, the student's sweatshirt... We all busted up laughing because neither myself nor the classroom teacher realized she was wearing a sweatshirt with our state's name. Thank goodness she was the last student to reveal our hint. Then another student said our hint about the bodies of water that surround or go through our state and one other person said when we told them which states border our state. Being that our state has eight bordering states and there is only one other state like ours, it probably did help them narrow it down. For our students it was the bodies of water along with the state capital that helped us determine where they were from.
From there we chatted a bit longer about blogging with one another and from there said our goodbyes.
After it was all said and done, I processed this activity with these students because I feel they need to understand not only what skype is but how it can be used in the classroom as a tool not a toy. Many times, students walk away from an activity thinking the only lesson in it was that we had "fun" doing it. Not that learning was taking place.
I want to thank @powell4thgrade for inviting us to joing them in this "Mystery Skype" adventure. We had fun and it was a valuable learning experience. We look forward to skyping not only with @powell4thgrade but with others too. Our next big adventure will be to connect with @powell4thgrade through student blogs. I will let you know how this goes in a few weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
