kathy@kathyschrock.net

Wednesday, November 01, 2017

Web-ulous tools, part 2

This article originally appeared in the Discovery Education blog "Kathy Schrock's Katch of the Month" in November 2017 and is re-posted here with permission.
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Back in March of 2014, my blog post highlighted some of my favorite online tools– Google Docs Story Builder, Magisto, Pixiclip, Thinglink, and Narrable. Story Builder and Narrable are gone. Thinglink has expanded into the VR arena. Magisto is now a paid service. Pixiclip has stayed the same. Apps and online tools come and go each day, so it is important to have an array of choices for the type of tool you want students to use.
There are online tool sites that include access to multiple tools. However, I suggest finding online tools that do one thing very well. And investigate multiple tools of the same type. Following is a list of my current favorite online tools. Every tool is free, although some limit the components for the no-cost version. Many of these tools have mobile apps, too, so be sure to check the tool’s site!
ONLINE VIDEO CREATORS/EDITORS
Videos are a great assessment choice for students. This research study provides some useful insight into the use of video as a formative assessment. And EdTechTeacher provides a good overview of the planning and process of having students create videos.
These tools both allow students to upload images and and add narration/audio or edit already created video.
ONLINE AUDIO CREATORS
Oftentimes, students need to record their voice to upload into another tool or use it for reflection on their work. Marissa King penned a great article for Edutopia which explains how powerful the use of audio recording can be to support learning.
These sites allow that plus the creation of background music or unique songs.
ONLINE IMAGE EDITORS
Having students create images or edit existing images can lead to some innovative projects. The Teaching Ideas site from the UK provides curriculum-related ideas for having students create images.
These online tools are full-featured and allow easy creation of new images or editing of existing ones.
ONLINE COLLAGE MAKERS
Although this article is about using the mobile app PicCollage (available for iOS, Android, Windows Mobile,and Amazon Fire), it includes many great ideas for the use of collages to support teaching and learning.
These online tools are easy-to-use collage makers.
ONLINE DRAWING TOOLS
Having students create original illustrations for book reports, lab reports, title slides for videos or presentations, or even for sketchnoting a lecture. can support learning. Misty Adoniou provides some research in this area here.
Each of these tools can be used for drawing illustrations and saving or screenshotting them to move into another document.
ONLINE ANIMATION MAKERS
Students love stop-motion animations! These three online tools allow students to create their own animations to tell a story, demonstrate a process, summarize a lesson, and more!
ONLINE COMIC CREATORS
Creating a comic can be one method to tell a story, summarize a lesson, or simply showcase a point of view.
Each of these online comic tools includes assets for student to use in creating their comic.
ONLINE WEB PAGE CREATORS
Online Web page creators can be a great tool to use for student portfolios. Matt Renwick writes about the “power of digital portfolios” in this post.
Each of these tools can be used to create an online Web site or help students house their work as a digital portfolio.
ONLINE GRAPHIC DESIGN TOOLS
Creating a thank you card, poster, Facebook header and more can now be done with these very accessible and powerful graphical design tools.
ONLINE PODCAST CREATORS
Having students create podcasts can be beneficial for teaching and learning. These online podcasting tools host the podcasts and also supply the student with the “feed” so they can have others subscribe to their podcasts through an aggregator such as Apple Podcasts.
ONLINE MEDIA CONVERTERS
There are times when a student needs to convert a file to another format for use in an editing tool or for importing into another app or tool.
These three online tools allow uploading of one file format and downloading in the preferred converted file format.
ONLINE WORD CLOUD CREATORS
Michael Gorman provides teachers with over 108 ways to use word clouds in the classroom. He includes general uses and content-specific ideas, too.
The following word cloud tools are some of my favorites.
ONLINE CLIPPING/CURATION TOOLS
I wrote about curation tools in Kathy’s Katch in 2014 . Monica Fuglei also provides the rationale for teaching students to thoughtfully curate online information in this great article.
There are tons of online curation tools available, but these are ones I often recommend.
ONLINE SURVEY/FEEDBACK TOOLS
Students sometimes need to collect information from their classmates, students in the school, the community, or a global audience. There are very powerful online tools for soliciting feedback from others.
Here are a few of my favorite online survey tools.
ONLINE MIND MAPPING TOOLS
One of my pages on Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything covers the aspects of mind and concept mapping. There are so many ways these tools can be used for student organization, brainstorming, or as a formative or summative assessment.
Following are some of my favorite online mind mapping tools. Some host the maps while others allow downloading of the completed map as an image.
ONLINE TIMELINE MAKERS
Timelines are customarily used in social studies to illustrate a timeline of an event or a famous person’s life. However, with the new online timeline makers, students can also create timelines to tell a story or illustrate a process across the content areas.
Each of these tools creates timelines in a different way, but all are fun to use!
ONLINE CITATION TOOLS
There is no excuse for students to forget to cite their  sources. As they gather their information, they can simply use a online citation tool to create the citation and cut-and-paste it into their curation tool so they have it.
Here are my top three online citation tools.
ONLINE IMAGE/QUOTE CREATORS
Placing text on a meaningful image can result in a very powerful product. There are many online tools that allow students to do this.
Here are my favorite tools for this purpose.
ONLINE INFOGRAPHIC CREATION TOOLS
I am passionate about students creating infographics in the classroom as an assessment. The information literacy skills used in researching, the data literacy skills used in manipulating the numeric portions, and the visual literacy skills used to make the infographic meaningful for the audience are all targeted when creating an infographic. In addition, the creation of an infographic to advocate for a cause can be important for students, too!
Here are some of the online infographic creation tools I recommend.
ONLINE COLLABORATION TOOLS
Having access to a real-time online collaboration tool can make any lesson engaging and provide you with the ability to see what the students know, think they know, and want to learn!
Here are my top three in this category!
ONLINE URL SHORTENERS
I believe all Web users need to have access to a URL shortener. In addition to making the URLs shorter and sometimes being able to personalize them, most tools provide information on how many times the shortened URL was clicked on. Tracking their links is often very interesting to students!
Here are some online URL shorteners.
Do you use other online tools in these categories and want to recommend them? Please add your link(s) to Twitter! #kathyschrock
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Monday, October 16, 2017

Gamifying financial literacy education with Star Banks Adventure

In the past, I have had the occasion to write blog posts about various aspects of financial literacy. There are many well-done Web sites created by experts in the field of personal finance that can be helpful to ensure students master the financial literacy skillset.


STAR BANKS ADVENTURE GAME

There is now a no-cost, engaging and informational online game from T. Rowe Price titled Star Banks Adventure available for teachers and students to instruct and learn about financial concepts within a gamified environment. Star Banks Adventure is also available as an iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire app. Just go to the Star Banks Adventure game site for links to them all.



The Star Banks Adventure game targets students in grades 5-8 and it includes puzzles and quick quizzes dealing with financial and personal finance concepts and is set in a sci-fi environment. I am not an experienced gamer, but the Star Banks Adventure game provides live demos right within the game, so I was able to catch on quickly how to maneuver and move through the levels. Each level builds upon the concepts in the previous level, so students get a deep-dive into each concept.

 TEACHER SUPPORT

 The Star Banks Adventure game was intended to help teachers introduce real world money concepts to students in middle school. There is a great curriculum matrix included within the teacher section of the Classroom Edition. The concepts taught in the game are mapped to national standards in personal finance, national standards in economics, and the Common Core State Standards. Below is a section of the curriculum matrix for levels one and two of the Star Banks Adventure game.

T. Rowe Price offers many additional financial resources for educators on their Money Confident Kids site. This site provides background information on financial concepts and includes downloadable magazines for students, print resources, videos, activators, and more. I suggest starting at the Teaching Tools and Activities page of the site, which includes PDF guides for both middle school and high school teachers. The Money Confident Kids site also includes a parent section to help parents reinforce some of these personal finance concepts at home.

CLASSROOM EDITION

 The Classroom Edition of the Star Banks Adventure game includes an administrative dashboard for the teacher. Teachers create their own account on this page. In addition to including how-to tutorials for the Dashboard itself, the Dashboard allows the teacher to create online classroom groups, manage these  groups, monitor their students' progress, and compare their students' data with other classrooms in the United States. In the Teacher Dashboard area there are also tutorials introducing each of the six financial concepts included in the game -- setting a financial goal, prioritizing spending, rate of return, asset allocation, inflation and time horizon, and diversification.

 Teachers can create as many classrooms as they need in the Dashboard and also view each student's progress and well as the aggregated classroom progress. Students have both a Classroom ID and User ID, neither of which include the real name of the student. Fun pseudonyms for the student names are generated as the teacher creates the User IDs.

 Starting at the beginning of the game and moving through the levels helps reinforce the skills as they are learned. However teachers can have students work on a specific subject if they wish and jump to a specific topic.

 HARDWARE

 I tried out the online version of the game on both Mac and Windows laptops and and on iOS, Android, and Google Fire devices. It worked flawlessly on all of these. It does not seem to run on the Chromebook nor with the Google Play Store install on my Asus Flip Chromebook. 

 The Star Banks Adventure game provides a fun, engaging, educational, and informative way for students to learn about personal finance and becoming financially literate. Give it a try with your students!

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This is a sponsored post on behalf of We Are Teachers and T. Rowe Price.
I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.
STAR BANKS ADVENTURE and MONEY CONFIDENT KIDS are registered trademarks of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.
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Sunday, October 01, 2017

Sharing your ideas with video and audio


Sharing your successful practices with others is an important part of the role of a educator. Traditionally you have probably shared your ideas, tips, tricks, and findings in-person with your grade level team, your district team, and with face-to-face audiences at regional and national conferences. However, with the current crop of digital apps and tools, it is easier than ever to share those same practices with educators everywhere!
These tools and apps fall into various categories– curation tools, text-based tools, audio recording tools, video recording tools, and visual tools. This month I will be discussing tools that take advantage of video and audio recording to allow you to easily share your findings with others.

VIDEO RECORDING TOOLS

Flipgrid 

Flipgrid is an online tool and mobile app that allows a teacher to post a topic for students, who then respond with up to a 15 or 90 second video. The videos are embeddable and sharable via a URL. The no-cost version includes:
  • One Grid with unlimited topics
  • Recordings of 15 or 90 seconds
  • Security, privacy and moderation settings
  • Simple individual student feedback
However, you can use Flipgrid as a platform for sharing your ideas, too! Create a teacher account, post a topic question, and enter the Grid as a student each time you want to share a new finding or suggestion and have others log-in as students, too. You can even create a separate Grid for each category or topic. It is so simple to do and you will soon have a collection of short videos you can share with other educators!
I have my graduate students in the Wilkes/Discovery Instructional Media Masters program at Wilkes University sharing their favorite tools. Take a look at some of the postings and feel free to add one of your own! (Grid code: 2y1eaif and PW: edtech)

  

Adobe Spark Video

Adobe Spark Video is a part of Adobe’s Spark suite of tools which includes Video, Post, and Page. Previously called Adobe Voice, Adobe Spark Video is available as both a browser-based tool and iOS app. The power of Adobe Spark Video is the toolset and assets that are included. Its ease of use is enhanced by easily combining photos, video clips, and icons into the video. the tool and app also include an image library, free soundtracks, and the ability to narrate each part of the project. There are themes to pick from as well as the option to start from scratch.Once you create your professional development video of your ideas, you can host it on the Adobe site and Tweet out the URL, or embed it on your own blog or Web page to share your ideas with others. Don’t forget to join the Adobe Education Exchange to find (and share) tips, tutorials, and sample Adobe Spark Video projects.
  

PowerPoint and Keynote

Remember that your local multimedia programs, like Microsoft’s PowerPoint and Apples Keynote, can be used to easily create a video from a slide presentation. You can add your thoughts and ideas to new slides as often as you wish, and save the presentation as a PowerPoint or Keynote file until you are ready to share all the ideas as a video.
In Keynote, simply create the slides, add audio to each slide if you wish, and then pick FILE – EXPORT TO – QUICKTIME. You are then presented with various options for playback.
In PowerPoint, simply pick FILE – EXPORT – choose MOVIE from the dropdown menu, and you will be presented with the various video options .
Once the slide deck has been saved/exported as a video file, it can then be uploaded to Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, or any other video hosting site, embedded in an online blog or shared, via the URL, on Twitter.

AUDIO RECORDING TOOLS

Sometimes creating a video to share your thoughts can be daunting. If you would rather not face the camera, creating an audio file or podcast to share your thoughts can be just as effective! Here are some easy-to-use tools to help with that process.

Vocaroo

Vocaroo is the easiest tool for creating a simple audio file and then sending out the link to the file which is stored for a few months on the Vocaroo server, embedding the audio file in a Web page or blog, sharing it with one your social media accounts, or downloading it to your local computer to upload somewhere else. With no sign-in, no limit on the length of the recording, and a very simple interface, Vocaroo can help you quickly and easily share your ideas

Clyp

Clyp is a tool that can be used to host your audio files all in one place. It can be used with downloaded files from something like Vocaroo, or with Audacity or Garage Band and audio files you create using your technology gadgets. You sinply sign up, upload your files, and share the URL of the entire list of audio files or the unique URL for a single Clyp. Finding a reputable place to host your audio files is hard to do, and Clyp fits the bill!

iPadio and Podomatic

iPadio and Podomatic are two tools that are used to easily create podcasts. The difference between a simple audio file uploaded to the Web and a podcast, is the podcast can be aggregated in a podcast collector like iTunes.
When a podcast is created with iPadio or Podomatic, the “feed address” is also created. This feed address is added by the podcast creator to a directory of podcasts, like iTunes.
Then, when users use their iTunes account to “subscribe” to the podcast, each time a new podcast is recorded by the creator, the user automatically receives the downloaded new podcast in their iTunes account.
There are some special recording features in both iPadio and Podomatic.
iPadio allows the podcast creator to use their phone to call in and record the podcast. The podcast and iTunes/RSS feed, can be shared to many social media tools, and embedded into a Web page or blog.
Podomatic allows creators to upload the audio files from their computer, phone, or tablet and add it to their podcast page. Users can visit the podcast page and subscribe, using the iTunes or RSS link, to the podcast series and receive any new ones right in their podcast aggregation program.

Feedback

What video and audio recording tools do you use for sharing your ideas with others? I have included only a few of my favorites and encourage you to add your special apps and tools to Twitter! #kathyschrock
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Friday, September 15, 2017

The importance of financial literacy


Financial and economic literacy is about understanding the importance of making appropriate economic choices on a personal level, as well as understanding the connection that personal, business, and governmental decisions have on individuals, society, and the economy.  

 I have blogged about programs that help students develop their financial literacy skills. However, it is important teachers are also knowledgeable about the various aspects of financial literacy, as well as the best way to help students attain the knowledge they need to succeed.
OVERVIEW

 There is a comprehensive program that can help educators learn about the aspects of personal finance and allows them to earn micro-credentials upon completion of modules and, in some states, credits or points to use for recertification.

Digital Promise, in partnership with the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at George Washington University, has developed twenty financial literacy micro-credentials, appropriate for teachers grades 7-12, that provide open access to professional development resources for use across the content areas. These micro-credentials support educators development of their students’ personal finance skills. (If you want to learn more about the process of micro-credentialing, Digital Promise has published a great overview!)
These twenty, competency-based, micro-credentials cover the following.
  • Discussing risk and return
  • Credit cards
  • Buying or leasing
  • Saving for retirement
  • Learning investing
  • Understanding credit scores
  • Financial decision making
  • Building credit
  • Saving strategies
  • Student loan borrowing
  • Tax basics for teens
  • Protecting identity online
  • Comparing banking options
  • Exploring career options
  • Financial management 
  • Comparison shopping
  • Compound interest 
  • Automobile insurance
The modules in the Digital Promise Financial Literacy program include many different modes of learning to help middle and high school students attain the knowledge they need. These include digital game-based learning, online discussions, graphic organizers, learning-by-doing, simulation based learning, problem based learning, applied learning, and performance based learning.

The modules also target the higher order thinking skills as students reactivate their prior knowledge, compare and contrast, analyze, make decisions, and reflect.

THE MODULES



The content of the personal finance program is separated into manageable chunks as modules. I explored all the modules, and wanted to share one that targets content I am passionate about - identity protection. I signed up for my free account at Digital Promise which brought me to their micro-credentialing platform, BloomBoard.

The introduction to the module included an overview of the method of instruction and links to supporting research for the instructional method for this module which is game-based learning. The introduction also included a suggested implementation of the lesson as well as links to a choice of digital games to use for the lesson.

This was followed by a list of the submission requirements for evaluation and earning of the micro-credential. These are shown below and also included a downloadable document which included the scoring guide rubric.


Once I had read the background material and investigated the included online financial games, I felt confident to teach the lesson about identify theft to the students. I would allow them to complete one of the games and then to collaborate in pairs, and with the class, about their experiences and gained knowledge.

To attain the micro-credential, I needed to go back to the questions above and complete the sections discussing how I introduced the topic, upload two artifacts, and (the most important part) reflect on game-based learning and its impact on student acquisition of content. There was also an optional survey to provide the resource creators with additional information.

I was very impressed with both the content and the platform of the module. The choices included allowed me, as an educator, to determine what was best for my students. The included research information and additional resources made me feel comfortable I had attained enough knowledge to teach the topic in an way to help students learn. The assessments to earn my micro-credential were meaningful and prompted me to think and reflect on both the method of delivery and student learning.

The Digital Promise/GFLEC financial literacy program can be used across the curriculum, and, in addition to helping students attain the financial literacy skills, it provides educators with the time to reflect on methods of instructional delivery, which can help frame practice in any content area!
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This is a sponsored post on behalf of We Are Teachers and Digital Promise. 
I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.
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Friday, September 01, 2017

Put the "make" in your makerspace


When my son was in high school, our high school had really old technology. There were no CD/DVD players, just videotape machines. So, when his friends were done creating their great multimedia projects on DVD using their home computers, they would come to our house to move the project from DVD to videotape. We had everything they needed to succeed.
I consider my house  to be a giant makerspace– I have a craft room for jewelry making, basket weaving, and paper crafts; I have a sewing center with all my material and notions. I have a full wood shop at my disposal. I have two desktop computer set-ups, one with a 3-D printer and one with a mic and Adobe’s Creative Cloud for creating. I have a small dye-sublimation printer, two large inkjet/scanners, and two small laser printers. I have all types of gadgets including 360° cameras, a 3D printing pen, digital SLRs, iPads, Android tablets, a Chromebook, a Mac laptop,  and a Windows laptop. I have a slide/photo/negative scanner, a USB turntable, DVD burners, good headphones, and green screens. (The only thing  am still waffling about purchasing is a consumer-grade die cut machine.)
My vision of a makerspace is a room which includes anything a student might need to create. It should give all students access to the low tech materials and the high tech devices. Not every computer has to be a powerful machine, but there needs to be at least one “blinged out” machine with a midi keyboard, scanner, good microphone, and a whole lot of high-end audio and video production software installed on it. Every student does not need that type of computer all of the time, but there is no substitute for it when a students does need it to create and render a 3-model or high-definition video.
Does the equipment in the makerspace area have to directly support the curriculum? I truly believe it does. Does a makerspace have to have Bee Bots, Makey Makeys, fidget spinners, and Raspberry Pi’s? I personally don’t believe so.  I think a makerspace should be more about creating than learning. There are plenty of learning spaces in schools — they are called classrooms. A makerspace should give students access to the materials, hardware, and software  they need to plan, build, create, and produce their project. There should be cardboard, duct tape, glue, and fabric, as well as computers, printers, cameras, and scanners. Makerspaces of this type are sometimes called makerlabs.
How does one decide what this type of makerspace/makerlab should contain? How should it be designed? How do you know what is the best fit for the students in your school? I believe some pedagogical changes may also need to occur before students start using a makerspace. Teachers must be given the time to experiment andsee how items found in the makerspace work.
Once teachers are familiar with the items in the space, this should be followed by developing creative assessments that allow students to create in the way they feel comfortable creating. At EdCamp Cape Cod in August, a high school teacher told the story of a class who came to the makerspace with a rubric, and had to create their own version of the Globe Theater. Several students used SketchUp, some used drawing tablets, others used Legos, one used Minecraft, and one student even baked a Globe Theater cake (at home).  The visualizations of the theater were all different and each student had the opportunity to explain their design process to the rest of the class. But all, except the cake-baker, had access in the makerspace to the materials and technology they needed to create.
What about the “space” in makerspace? Brainstorming, iteration, and development sometimes take collaboration or at least a discussion with a peer. A makerspace should have a place for students to move away from the larger group and have a quiet discussion. Chairs and small tables should be moveable to create specialized group work areas as needed. The walls should be covered in traditional white boards for writing and drawing. In addition, students need to understand how to work effectively in small groups, which is a practiced and learned skill. Discovery Education has a series of activities, called Spotlight on Strategies, which can help students learn to work together cooperatively and collaboratively.
Creating is sometimes dirty. There should be areas that have counters and tables with laminate tops and a sink to be able to wash up the paint and glue that will invariably be left behind. Small hand vacuums are great for glitter cleanup and paper shards that are left behind.  The high tech equipment should be kept as far away from the “messy” maker materials as possible.
There should also be a closet with a door (and window) that one or two students can use when recording audio. Too many educational projects are spoiled by loud classroom noise in the background, and students really want their final products to sound professional. Having access to a good microphone, like a Blue Yeti, is also a great addition.
(Updated 11/12/18) If you have limited funds, I suggest you start with items that are low-cost and then, once there is a plan for using that technology or device in a more comprehensive way, the school can move up to the “real” thing. For example, the purchase of a few 3D printing pens, like the 3Doodler  pens, allows teachers and students to easily experience what it is like to create a 3D object. The process is the same as that of a 3D printer– the pen heats up, the filament is fed into the hot pen, and it is extruded out the tip. 3Doodler also offers educational support. When it comes to 3D printers, I believe purchasing a high-quality printer that both is easy-to-use, includes advanced features like a camera to monitor the print jobs when you are not in the room,  and is a workhorse for the many student projects that will be printed, is the best idea. Having multiple lower-cost printers might seem like it would meet the classroom needs better, but access to a shared, full-featured printer would be my choice. I recommend the MakerBot Replicator+ for your 3D printing needs. In addition to it meeting all the requirements I state above, MakerBot offers tons of support to educators with their handbooks and certification programs, as well as Webinars and in-person trainings.
Students and teachers love die-cutting objects. Traditionally, schools had rather expensive manual die-cutting tools. Each wood block had one letter or decorative object and there was a press that held the block and cut out the letters. The updated version of these die cutters include the Cricut and Silhouette die-cutting machines that are found at craft and hobby stores. They make a wonderful addition to any makerspace. If the use of cut-out shapes and characters become a necessary part of the curriculum for storytelling, letter recognition, or decoration, the next step up would be the Variquest Cutout Maker. This computer-controlled cutter can cut different sizes of the same item (1 to a page or 20 to a page) and is fast and easy to use. The cut-outs from these new die cutters can make any project look professional.

Have you developed a makerspace similar to this model? What other materials or technology do you have for students to use to create? Share your thoughts on Twitter! #kathyschrock

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