Tech Tidbits: Quizalize

It's becoming increasingly important that using formative assessments in the classroom helps teachers determine which students need help in understanding what is being taught and in what areas.  The accessibility of technology tools to help with these assessments are more varied than ever.  Quizalize is a free webtool that allows teacher to create interactive quizzes that can be used for informal formative assessments as well as great review activities.  

Quizalize allows the teacher to create multiple choice questions and designate which answer is correct and which answers are incorrect.  You are able to provide information that explains why an answer is the correct answer or why the incorrect answers are wrong.  You can include a picture for each question, and you can select whether each quiz can be done in class or as homework. The teacher can also determine whether the students are allowed only 1 try or can try additional times.  You can also determine how long the quiz is available, anywhere from 1 hour to 1 year.  

Once a quiz is published, a code is generated that allows students to join the activity.  Students can enter the code at a specified URL and play the game.  The quiz keeps track of the participants as well as the scores.  This helps the teacher go back and see how well the students did in the quiz and how many attempts they made. 

Best of all, Quizalize is free.  You can also import question sets from Quizlet to create a Quizalize activity, instead of making it from scratch.  You can also browse Quizalize activities made by other users.  Unfortunately, Quizalize is not available as an app for downloading, but that could change in time.  

Tech Tidbits: Google Keep

Teachers have so much to keep up with, what with school responsibilities, as well as clubs and kids and personal commitments...it's so hard to keep everything straight!  Not to mention all of the passwords and codes to remember when logging into 50 different accounts.  The last thing you want to do is keep a bunch of sticky notes all over your laptop that anyone can read. Google Keep allows you a place to keep all your information, whether it's your laptop, your phone, or your tablet.  

Google Keep is available through the Google Apps suite, including all WCPSS teachers.  It allows you to create notes when attending meetings or conferences, add URL links, upload pictures, and share with other people in the Google network, just like in Google Drive.  You can also change the colors of the notes for sorting purposes.  You can also make a copy of a note in Google Keep into your Google Drive account. 

You can also use Google Keep to create reminders to alert you of tasks to complete.  Choose whether you want the reminder in the morning, afternoon, or evening, and you can change the default times for each reminder as well. You can also create a customized time for your reminder if you'd like.

Google Keep is a great alternative to other online note storage sites, such as Evernote, whose free plan allows you access only on 2 devices.  Since Google Keep is part of the Google Apps suite, you can use it to access files with in your Google account.  If you have a need to keep all of your notes, lists, and reminders organized online, give Google Keep a try!

Tech Tidbit: theLearnia.com

As classrooms become more student-oriented rather than teacher-oriented, it's becoming more necessary for teacher to provide instructions for student activities that aren't reliant on lecture and repetitive explanation.  Teachers that create content that explains concepts or instructions that enable students to work on their own are more able to facilitate learning.  The site theLearnia.com provides teachers with a platform of creating their own video lesson either by uploading a PowerPoint presentation and narrating the presentation or by creating one on their own from scratch.

When you create your own presentation in theLearnia, you can add text boxes, background images, lines, shapes, and other media to your presentation. Record your narration to go along with your presentation, and then publish to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and more.  You can also e-mail the link to your presentation or embed it on your class website. These instructional videos that you create are ideal for linking to a Google Classroom course or another Learning Management System course. 

Tech Tidbits: Export Media Files from Google Drive app onto your iPad

In this Tech Tidbits tutorial video, I demonstrate how to export media files from your Google Drive app onto your iPad.  As students use iPads to create presentations and projects, they might have the need to access photos, video files, or audio files on their iPad that are not already available.  

This tutorial video demonstrates how to export picture and video files from Google Drive on their iPad's Camera Roll.  It also demonstrates how to export audio files, such as mp3 files, from Google Drive into iMovie to be used as a soundtrack in a video.  

Tech Tidbits: PollEverywhere

One area of instruction that teachers throughout Wake County public schools are trying to increase in their lessons is the use of technology to engage students and provide authentic feedback.  The increased availabilty of laptops, tablets, and students' phones (in the case of BYOD schools) has made this more possible.  

One webtool that has enabled an audience to participate in surveys or polls using these devices for years is PollEverywhere.  The site has continued to improve its features, and it is the focus of this tutorial. PollEverywhere enables you to create questions using 5 different formats: Multiple Choice, Open Answer; Question & Answer; Ranking; and Clickable Image.  

Once the poll is created, you can have participants join the poll in 2 ways: by going to a unique URL generated by the site (Ex: pollev.com/YourNameHere);
or by sending a text to the poll creator using a unique number and code. 
Participants can then submit answers to the poll as the poll creator pushes out each question.  The poll creator will see the results of the poll questions in real time as they are submitted. 

For more information about PollEverywhere, please watch the tutorial video below!

Tech Tidbits: Reflector2

Hello!  I am back from an extended summer hiatus, and I am happy to say that I am working at a new school, Sanderson High School in Raleigh, NC!  I have received a warm welcome at SHS, and I look forward to working with the staff and students here!

Today's Tech Tidbit focuses on a new application that Wake County Public Schools have made available to staff, the "Reflector 2" app.  Downloading and installing the app on your laptop allows you to use your iPad's AirPlay feature to synchronize with the Reflector 2 signature and mirror your iPad screen to your laptop screen.  Connect your laptop to a projector and you are free to walk around the room with the iPad and share information with your students without being limited to being near your laptop and projector.

There are numerous ways that you can utilize Reflector 2 to impact your lessons.  For example, instead of having a student come up to the front of the class to demonstrate how to solve a math problem, the teacher could hand the student the iPad that is mirrored to the laptop and projector.  The student could use the iPad Camera app to show how they solve the problem while the rest of the class watches.  You could also record the demonstration for playback later. This is in addition to displaying apps, etc. while monitoring students around the room.  Hopefully many teachers in the county will take advantage of using this handy app!

Tech Tidbits: ZooBurst

ZooBurst is a cute site that enables students to write stories and insert characters and objects into a 3D storybook setting that "pops up" when the page is turned.  When inserting objects into the story, you can resize them, change the rotation angle as well as the angle that it "pops up" when the page is turned.  You can enter text for the story, as well as text for the word balloons that you can read when you click on them in the story.  

In upgraded accounts, you can record voiceovers for the characters' speech bubbles or upload your own sound effects.  When your story is completed, you can share it via a unique URL address, send it to others via e-mail, or embed it. It's a fun way for younger students to practice writing stories while experiencing their story in a 3D pop-up book style.