Google Forms

Today we learned about Google Forms. You enter questions on it and when you have others fill them out, all of their answer go into the same sheet.
We created a form and mine can be found here. There are two different views for forms. This is the form the user uses to enter their data. The spreadsheet format of this form can be found here. This is the form that I use to see the data.

My Webquest

I completed my webquest on the epic hero. It can be found here.

Multimedia Tools

Today we learned about a couple of free multimedia tools available on the internet. The first tool was ISSUU. The tool ISSUU is a PDF viewer online that can be used as a presentation tool as well.
The next tool we used was Prezi , which allows you to do zooming presentations. Unlike power point, Prezi is created on one "slide". As you move through the presentation, Prezi zooms in on a specific aspect of your presentation, from one to the next to the next. It's much easier to understand by seeing.We created a sample Prezi. You can see mine here.

Sample on Prezi

If you would like to include slides from a power point in your Prezi, you can go into the power point you want, click save as and save it as a jpeg file. You can then upload them as pictures.

Prezi fits the following NETS Standard:

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
Prezi allows students to use digital tools to be creative in making presentations.

Intel & Webquest

Today we are going to talk about online tools from the Intel corporation. The first tool can be found under "Thinking Tools". We used the ranking tool. We ranked the webquests we viewed on a Webquest About Webquests from best to worst.

Next, we filled out a survey about the webquest we are going to create.
My webquest is centered on the qualities of the epic hero. Each student is assigned a hero. Before they read, they are to create a list of qualities they think the epic hero might have. Then, they are to read the stories associated with those heroes and make a list of qualities they have that might be the qualities of the epic hero. Compare the two lists. Then, they will get with the other members of their group and compare the lists. Comprise one list for the whole group. Then, all together, they are to write a short story with the main character possessing the qualities of an epic hero.

This falls under the NETS Standards:

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
Students will complete a Webquest, a collaborative project that will help them understand the concept of the epic hero.
a. promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
Part of the webquest requires students to write their own story about the epic hero.


2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
This will be a relevant learning experience, as we are going to be talking about the epic hero in class, and the students will use digital tools to gather this information and compose their own story.

Jeopardy Games

The first Jeopardy version we worked with was a free one online and can be found here. The downside to this one is that you can only use text so no video, pictures, or audio. Also, the questions you have already selected do not go away, so that could be confusing when playing a review game.

The next Jeopardy version we worked with was a PowerPoint that was already set up.The first slide is the Jeopardy board and each number has a hyperlink linking it to a corresponding question. To make the answer show up, I made a separate text box and edited the the custom entrance animation. This version is better because you can edit it to suit your personal tastes, you can include pictures, video and audio and you can tell which questions have already been selected.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
a. demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.
We already knew what Jeopardy was and many teachers use Jeopardy as a means of review. Now that we have learned these new technological tools, we can use Jeopardy as a review tool in a more effective way.
b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
As teachers, before a test, we could send this review game home to parents for them to help their children study for the test. We could play this game in class. 

PowerPoint Pointers

Today we learned how to do different things with Power Point and custom animation. Last week's lesson focused on presenting information. This week we are focusing on reviewing information. Pierce showed us how to use animation to show parts of slide at a time, fade out wrong answers on a quiz, and draw custom animation motion paths.

The next day we learned something very nifty. We learned how to make "buttons" of sorts for our powerpoint. We selected the slide on which we drew arrows to label things and we hit ctrl D, which makes a duplicate of that slide. We clicked on the duplicate slide and removed the animation by clicking on the animation tab and clicking remove.

Our goal was to make the answers come up when we click the button we made (insert shapes, right click edit text) and hide the answers by clicking the other button we made, labeled Hide Answers. To do this, we had to first group the words together so they could share the same animation. To do this, we hit shift & clicked each of the answers. Next, we went to the Home tab, clicked Arange, and selected Group. Next, we clicked custom animation. We picked the effect we wanted for our entrance and then double clicked the name of the effect. From there we selected the tab Timing, and where it says Triggers we selected the name of the button we had made. We repeated this step for the exit of the answers, using the button Hide Answers.

This lesson was super cool. I had no idea you could do this. It would be great for a review game.





This follows the NETS Standards:
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
PowerPoint is definitely a digital tool and with our knew found knowledge of cool ways to teach with it, we can use it to teach.
d. provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
This assignment fits this standard perfectly, since we have just learned how to use PowerPoint as a means of quizzes students and finding out how much they know.

Presentation

Summaries of the Articles Read: 

Briefings on Afghanistan are mostly done using Power Point. Critics of this say that “the program stifles discussion, critical thinking, and thoughtful decision-making”. Generals in the US military say that most of their time is spent making powerpoints. Others say that sitting through the briefings is almost painful. While the briefings are long, it seems, they do not contain a lot of information and are too vague for specific matters of war time. 

The second article gives tips on making and presenting powerpoints. Some of the most important points: know what you want to say before you make the powerpoint, retain organization, keep your sentences short, don’t put too much on one slide, proof read, keep “like” topics together, use graphics when possible instead of words, size 28 to 34, bold, is a good font size, don’t put too many numbers, use contrasting colors (black on white, white on black), avoid the default white background,  limit animation. For the presentation, look presentable, speak clearly and loudly with enthusiasm, don’t read your slides, and be engaged with your audience. 

With this information in mind, we were to create a Power Point presentation. My presentation is on the parts of a story, which special emphasize as example, the Harry Potter series. (When presented, I would set it to where I had to click to show the pictures and Harry Potter references, so I could ask the students what they thought the answers were.) We uploaded our Power Point using Slide Share.

This fulfills the NETS Standards:

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
PowerPoint is a digital tool and I would be using it to convey information to the students in a creative way.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.
I would be using a digital media to convey information to my students.

Parts of a story

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