The Flipped Classroom: Response Tools

This post is the second in a series on flipping your classroom. The first post, Tools for Student & Teacher Production, can be found by clicking this link.

A large part of "flipping your classroom" involves giving students multiple opportunities to respond and interact with content that is being delivered to them. Students no longer have to wait until the next day to turn in a piece of homework, or have a conversation with students or teachers about their work.

There are many tools that this blog has shared over the last few years that explain that purpose. This post will highlight some of those tools, as well as introduce some others.

Video Interaction - EdPuzzle & PlayPosit

These two EdTech tools offer an interactive video instruction experience to students and teachers. PlayPosit (formally known as EduCannon) and EdPuzzle allow you to upload a video, or take one from YouTube, and add multiple question types. You can even prevent skipping ahead in the video, so the students must watch it in it's entirety.

Multiple Choice, Open Response, Voice Instruction, and Voice Response, are just a few of the options available in the tools. They both have subtle changes in what they offer, so it really is a matter of personal preference.

Video Response - Recap & FlipGrid

Let's Recap and FlipGrid allow teachers to ask their students questions and receive a video or audio response back from them.

I personally like to use Recap if it is just going to be a question that I want to keep in the classroom, no outside sharing. They have a newer feature called Journeys where you set up a lesson flow for students to follow and complete. Recap also allows you to use it's platform for free, without asking you for upgrades.

FlipGrid allows teachers and students to share globally. They can send out links to their grid globally, and have control of who can see responses. Conversations that start in one classroom can quickly get traction from all over the world. FlipGrid allows you to have one Grid for free with some options. To utilize the full experience of the tool, you do need a paid FlipGrid Classroom account. UPDATE 6/18/18 - Flipgrid is now completely free for all educators.

Gamification Interactivity - Quizziz

Similar to Kahoot, Quizziz is a game styled quiz experience for students. It allows them to compete with each other for the best score. What Quizziz has to offer is that it has a homework option. The teacher can assign a Quizziz between a specific window for the students to complete. It still allows students to compete by showing a leaderboard according to correct answers and time taken to complete. Teachers also have the ability to shuffle questions and answer options.

Other Online Response Tools

Here are links to two other previous articles from this blog on Classroom Response Tools:

Student Response Tools for the Digital Classroom

Facilitate Online Discussions with Backchannel Tools

EdTech for Struggling Readers

A teacher's number one responsibility is to meet the needs of their students. Now this sounds like an obvious statement, but it isn't always as easy as it sounds. In fact, it is hardly easy at all. The reason we use technology in education is to support student learning by helping teachers meet the needs of their learners.

This post will focus on two support tools for struggling readers. Whether they are Native English Speakers, English Language Learners (ELL or ESL), or Dyslexic, our schools are filled with a large amount of students who struggle when they read. These tools will obviously not solve the problem for the students, or teach them how to read (only skilled teachers can do that). Yet, these tools might give some support to those students at a time when a teacher isn't available to them.

Speechify - Chrome OS & iOS app
I was introduced to Speechify in Episode 99 of The House of #EdTech Podcast by Chris Nesi. Speechify does what many apps and accessibility features on devices do by reading text that a student highlights on their screen. So you may be thinking, then why use it? My answer would be, ease of use and quality of voice. The drop-down menu in the chrome extension allows you to change the speed of speech and voice with a couple of clicks. There is even a child voice that can be used, which sounds surprisingly real.

If you decide to go the premium route with Speechify on your iOS device, the app goes the extra mile! You can connect the Google Chrome Extension to your iPhone and it will share text between the two devices in a clean and organized manner. Send multiple multi page documents to your phone and have them read to you. It's like taking anything on your computer screen and sending to your phone as an audiobook.

Speechify also does something rather phenomenal with your iOS device. Take a picture of a page of text and speechify will import it as a text file, and then read it to you.

 
Think of how this can support your students that struggle reading classroom content. Also, think about your students that have hectic life schedules, they can now listen to their science book on their way to work or practice.


OpenDyslexic Font Extension - Chrome OS
This extension simply changes all of the font on the webpage you are viewing to the OpenDyslexic font with one click. It's that simple!

OpenDyslexic font has been in development for at least a couple of years now. I do want to state that I'm not licensed or trained enough in dyslexia to know if it is actually proven to help students with dyslexia. I have however had a handful of students try this font extension on their chrombook screen, and some claimed that it helped them read their screen better, while others didn't like using it. So like many things EdTech, it will probably come down to a preference by the student.

Facilitate Online Discussions with Backchannel Tools

There are many Learning Management Systems out there, such as Google Classroom and Seesaw, that allow teachers to post information and questions. In return, students can make comments when prompted by the teacher. While this can be an engaging piece, it still doesn't feel very conversational. This is where using a Backchannel chat can be used facilitate discussions between your students either in the classroom or from a distance.

I know what you may be thinking... "Did he just say chat? As in a chat-room?" Yes chat rooms can have negative connotations with them, but when used correctly in an educational setting, they can be a safe discussion alternative. Two backchannel sites that I am going to suggest allow the teacher to create a virtual room that can only be accessed with a specific link shared by a teacher. This means that you have total control of who has access, keeping your students safe.

Why should I try a backchannel discussion with my students?
First and foremost I am not saying that these discussions should replace verbal discussions you have with your students. Giving students the opportunity to collect their thoughts and speak them verbally is a skill that is different then typing them out on a screen. However, occasionally using a backchannel has an advantage as well. These virtual rooms allow a teacher to save/print the conversations had with students. This gives the teacher a record of student participation within a content conversation, as well as leaves a record of the students understanding.

There are many backchannel sites out there, but two that I have used are TodaysMeet and Chatzy.

TodaysMeet
TodaysMeet is an easy to set up and use virtual chat room geared for classroom usage. After logging in, which it does allow you to login with Google, you are sent to a simple dashboard to set up as many rooms as you like.

After setting your room up, all you need to do is share the link with your students, and your class is ready to have a discussion. At the end of your discussion, you may save/print the transcript.


Chatzy
Chatzy doesn't advertise itself as an education site quite as much as TodaysMeet, however several of it's safety features make it great to use in your classroom.



You can add a password to the chat along with allowing or blocking several features for users. Chatzy also allows them to embed YouTube Videos or Internet Images if they wish. This could allow for some creative answers. These are features that could be turned on or off.


The beauty in these and other backchannel tools is the simplicity to them. These tools allow the students to focus on the conversation and not get too wrapped up in the bells and whistles that they are used to seeing in social media.

If you have a backchannel that you like to use, please add it to the comments below!

Digital Tools for Flipping Your Classroom

This post originally appeared on The FETC: Future of EdTech Insiders Blog

At FETC, I was delighted to attend a session by high school foreign language teacher Rachelle Dene Poth titled, Flipping Classrooms: Trading Spaces and Places Digital Tools and Ideas to Empower Students. During the session Rachelle gave attendees several resources for flipping learning for students.

However, before those digital tools were given, Ms. Poth set the stage for the why she wanted flipped learning for her students. She explained that she had a need to connect students to her classroom resources no matter their location. If a student is absent or forgets a textbook at school, they can still access the content/resources to stay current with the students in class.

Another aspect of Rachelle’s presentation was explaining the importance of putting the students in the driver’s seat. She gave examples of how she has students create their own presentations, quizzes, infographics, and more. Ms. Poth even discussed the benefits of using these student made digital projects as resources for other students to learn from. This made me think of the SAMR model and how transformative learning can be for our students when they have the flexibility to choose a tool that lets them display or explain their thinking. Rachelle’s suggestion for this was to take small steps: “pick a class to try something with, set parameters and have students create their own.”

Rachelle had many wonderful tools to share. As you look over the following list, it is important to remember to start small. Pick one or two that sound interesting, and try them out. It is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the tools out there, so take small steps for success. Ms. Poth’s presentation and handouts will also be linked in this article as well.

Now, on to the tools!

Tes Teach with Blendspace: A building tool that allows teachers to curate content for lesson delivery packages. Websites, powerpoints, Google Docs, YouTube Videos, and more all in one convenient location for your students. All of these resources can inserted right through the Blendspace search bar, or connecting your own accounts. Simple quizzes can also be created. No more multiple tabs from several links, just one clean lesson flow. The lessons can be shared several ways: a classroom in Blendspace, Google Classroom, or any other method of link sharing. Works on all devices.

Today’s Meet: A backchannel tool that allows for written conversations between teachers and students. The beauty of this tool is that it allows for a full transcript to be saved and printed. This helps keep a log of everything that was discussed in the session. An excellent tool for teachers to use during virtual office hours for students.

Quizizz: Similar to Kahoot, quizizz is a fun competitive way for students to take a quiz. In Quizizz, quiz questions are actually on the screen of the device, not just the screen in the front of the room. This allows for a quiz to be a homework assignment as well. As discussed above, having students create a Quizizz themselves based off of the content in your classroom can be a great way where students can be creators not just consumers with their devices.

Nearpod: A lesson delivery system that gives the teacher control of the student’s screen. Think of sharing a Powerpoint file or Google Slide with your students, but being in control of when the slides change on their screen. Nearpod also allows for interactive questioning, where student answers can be anonymously shared with classmates.

Formative: A student response system allows for multiple question types to be asked. Students can answer questions by multiple choice, drawing, short answer, and more.

Educreations & Explain Everything: Two very similar student explanation tools. Just as their titles imply, students create (by hand or typing) and record their voice to explain their thinking. These can be powerful tools for meta-cognition in and out of the classroom.

EdPuzzle: A student response video tool that allows teachers to bring in YouTube or other videos and add questions to them. These questions are added during the video so as the student watches, it will pause and ask the question.

Buncee: A presentation tool with creative interactive elements. Buncee allows you to add animated characters, videos, and voice over to each slide that you are working on. As with Educreations/Explain Everything, a child can use the voice over to explain the content that they place on each slide.

There were other resources shared by Ms. Poth at the workshop and below you will find the links for them. She is also on twitter, and is well worth the follow! @rdene915

Flipping Classrooms Google Doc with Links

Flipping Classrooms Presentation Link

Teaching Digital Citizenship with Google Classroom

As the beginning of a new school year approaches, teachers begin to think about introducing the norms & rules of their classroom to a new group of students. Included in these classroom behaviors, are the expectations for technology usage.

Digital Citizenship has become a popular term in recent years both inside and outside of the classroom. Frankly, it isn't only our students that need to work on Digital Citizenship skills, but many adults as well. Our devices and connectivity allow us to easily make comments and share posts with others. This can be a great way for us to learn and connect with others. Unfortunately, this also leads to negativity, hurtful comments, and unsolicited opinions to be spewed over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on.

How do we teach a new generation how to behave in digital spaces, when many students, parents, and other adults, don't necessarily behave themselves? Google Classroom and other Learning Management Systems (LMS) can give us that opportunity.

Google Classroom gives teachers the ability to control who can post and make comments to the "classroom stream." A great filter for teachers to be able to utilize as students begin to understand how to use the digital space.

However, only allowing the teacher to post and comment at all times can be detrimental. The less students are able to interact with the digital space, the less the students will be motivated to use it. More importantly, filtering their behavior for them will not give them the learning experience they need to build in their own filters.

Teachers must give some opportunities for students to post and make comments in the digital space. This will allow students to begin to use learning and social networks responsibly. Google Classroom allows teachers to model appropriate online behaviors for students as well as give students a safe digital space for them to try these behaviors out for themselves.

Here are some posting examples:

In both of these announcements to the class stream, the students are asked to participate in the commenting section. These are simple opportunites that the students have to have meaningful interactions within the digital space. The class is closed to only specific students to give them a safe place to interact. As the school year progresses, the teacher can allow students to create their own posts of videos, articles, or presentations to the class stream for discussion.

As stated, if a teacher never gives these opportunities, then the students will miss out on the complete experience that a LMS provides. They will also miss out on the understanding that any social network can lead to learning opportunities.

While we are all teachers of our content areas, we must prepare our students to succeed outside of the classroom. We need to give them the opportunity to interact with others through a digital space, and learn the concepts of Digital Citizenship. Google Classroom and other LMSs naturally lead to those opportunities.

Accessing free eBooks with Open eBooks

Last month EdSurge and several other news outlets released an article about Obama and the White House releasing millions of dollars worth of eBooks to kids in Title One and Special Ed programs.

I jumped in right away to see what this was all about. The program runs through First Book and an app called Open eBooks.  Right now, the app only works on tablets (iPad/Android), but the Open eBooks company informed me that they hope to have a web based version out later this year, so if you are a Chromebook district, keep your eye peeled!

I have made the following tutorial to guide anyone who wants to get signed up!

Graphic Design Tools for ALL Students

Students are constantly bombarded with graphics in their daily lives. Social media, web page adds, video game consoles, and the environmental print around them all use graphic design tools to give our students information. So the question quickly becomes, how can our students create graphic representations of the information we want them to report and present?

While there have been tools like Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop out there for years, they haven't always been "student friendly." The thought of a student quickly using those tools to make a short presentation or exit ticket was hardly an option.

For the last couple of years, I have really began to enjoy using 2 specific graphic design tools with students of all ages in the Springdale School District: Canva and Piktochart. They are both relatively easy to use, and allow students to create various types of Infographics, Presentations, Exit Tickets, and more. Both sites have several templates to get students started, and several free icons and graphics for students to use. The ability to import their own images is also easy.

If you are in a Google Apps for Ed domain, you can sign in to both sites through Google!

Check out a few examples that I was able to quickly make with these two programs, and give the sites a try for yourself. Your students will enjoy using these tools to creatively display what they have learned.

Newspaper Report - PiktoChart

Short Book Review - Canva

Time Lines - PiktoChart

Student Generated Vocabulary Cards - Canva

iPads in the Primary Classroom: A few apps to get you started

As we continue to go 1:1 in our district in Springdale, AR, one of our biggest challenges is finding great apps for our Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade classrooms to use.

Here is a short list of just a few FREE apps to get you started:

ABC - Magnetic Alphabet Lite for Kids - Learn to write!
By Dot Next

Just as the title of the app suggests, this is simply a magnetic letter board for your students to use. The letters are easy to pull from a tray and drag and manipulate. 

Talking ABC - Magnetic Alphabet for Education in English and Spanish

By Tatiana Churanova

This is basically the speaking version of a magnetic alphabet board. The voice is fairly natural, but can sound a little strange on some words. When choosing the letter, it names the letter for the student, but will not make the sound of the letter by itself. As soon as you start to blend the letters together, it will begin to "sound it out" for the students.


ABC Alphabet Phonics - Preschool Kids Game Free Lite

By Innovative Investments Limited


A great app for students learning to or struggling with identifying letters. A voice on the app says a letter name, and the child touches the letter to identify it. As they progress, more letters are added to the screen to make it more challenging for the students. A highly engaging app, with immediate feedback for the students.


Little Writer - The Tracing App for Kids

By Innovative Mobile Apps

A great app for students to learn how to write letters and sight words. The app will not let a student continue until the child traces the letter according to the path the app displays. 

To help this process transfer into their handwriting, teachers could have students write the letter or word on their iPad onto a piece of paper as well. The use of a child friendly stylist is a great option as well.
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These apps can be a great way to get your iPad classroom started. Of course, there are many great apps out there, and these are just ones that I have seen success with. Feel free to comment below on other apps that are worth trying out for our primary students!

5 iPad apps for Student Presentations and Meta-Cognition

One of the best things about going 1:1 with technology is the amount of options students have to present their learning experiences. There are numerous apps out there that will allow students to display their thinking and make presentations both within and far beyond the classroom walls. Here is a list of a few apps that can be used for student creation in the classroom (listed alphabetically):

Book Creator Free

Book Creator is simply what is says it is, it is an app that allows students to create their own books. An added bonus is the ability to allow students to record their voice on each page of the books as well as embed pictures from their camera roll. I think this book has amazing journal potential for students. They could do a weekly math problem in the book and explain how they solved the problem. Over the course of the year you could see and hear how the students thinking has evolved. Of course the free version does have its down side, you may only create one book at a time.


Draw and Tell 

Draw and Tell is a great app for literacy usage in the classroom. Students can create drawings from scratch, or they can use the camera and stamps and stickers to create. After their artwork is complete, they can then record their story. It is partially interactive as they tell the story. They can move some of the objects as their story is told. Afterwards their creation will be saved to the camera roll.

The app is created by Duck Duck Moose and costs $1.99 in the app store. It is also part of the Drawing and Storytelling bundle by Duck Duck Moose.


Educreations Interactive Whiteboard

Educreations is one of the most popular apps for the K-12 classroom, with good reason. This is a great tool for teachers to use to flip their classroom, but it can be an amazing tool for students to use to explain their thinking. There is a recording option as they work on the white board. This option records all of their actions as well as their voice. An excellent tool for not only student presentations, but to record the students meta-cognitive process as well.

It is currently free at the App Store


Explain Everything

Explain Everything is a screen-casting app with a ton of possibilities. Similar to Educreations, students can use it as a whiteboard to write and explain their thinking. So much more can be done as well. Slide presentations, websites, YouTube videos, and various other media can be embedded into the student's project. Students can build outstanding presentations and record their explanations as well.

I had the privilege of hearing Reshan Richards, the creative mind behind the app, speak at the Ed Tech Teacher iPad Summit in February. His passion about giving students a tool to explain their thought process was contagious. The app's ability for students to present not just what they are learning, but how they learned it is truly remarkable.  

Explain Everything is currently $2.99 at the App Store

Shadow Puppet Edu

Shadow Puppet Edu allows students to create slide presentations with speech. Similar to PowerPoint or Google Slides, students create an order to how they would like their material presented. Once they have created their presentation they can then add a voice over to their product.  A great tool for putting together quick presentations that can be easily shared inside and outside of the classroom.

Differentiate and Redefine Your Digital Reading Instruction with this Great Site!

The Smithsonian has incredible sites for kids K-12 and even a Spanish site as well. Teen Tribune for grades 9-12, Tween Tribune for grades 5 - 8, and TTJunior for grades K-4.

Differentiation 
What is great about these sites is that they are all connected, and carry basically the same non-fiction, current events content. They are adjusted to fit lexile levels. This is a great way to have differentiated reading groups read the same content, but at a level they can successfully read at. New articles are posted daily, but all articles are easily searchable by topic.

Teacher Accounts and Classrooms
The Smithsonian website allows you to set up a teacher account as well with multiple classrooms. Your students can read articles and make comments. Students can have conversations within your classroom on the site about these articles.

SAMR - Redefinition Possibilities
You can also have the options of making your classroom "Public." After you approve student comments, they are then sent out to other public tribune classes all over the globe. As their website explains, "When you go public, you allow your students to connect with other students around the world, while teachers remain in complete control." 

For those of you familiar with the SAMR model, this is a great way to constantly have students at the Redefinition level as they communicate with other students across the country about what they are reading.

With rich, trusted content, and many opportunities for differentiation and tech integration, the Smithsonian Tribune sites are among the best for non-fiction literacy.

iMovie Book Trailers

The iPad offers many creative avenues for students to present material to teachers, classmates, and the web. Apple's iMovie App (which is free for any iPad Air owners) is one of the best tools for students to utilize.

Inside of iMovie, there is a feature where students can create Trailers. Several teachers throughout the country love this feature for the purpose of student created Book Trailers. This is an excellent alternative to the old "book report." Students also have several different publishing options for sharing outside of the classroom.

The trailer feature is a great tool for teachers because it can be used teach students several literary elements:

Genre: The student begins the process by choosing a genre to describe their type of book. Now these may not be the exact same as the genre types that you teach in your classroom, but they are closely related and could be used to show genre comparisons.

Setting & Characters: In the layout sections of the Trailer project, students will have to identify the setting of the story as well as the characters. 

This is where students can have some creative freedom. They could simply add images that they find, or create and record scenes using their device.





Story Development/Plot: As they develop their book trailer, students will have to summarize the story development. Of course, you don't want them giving away too much of the story. As stated before though, this can become a much more creative project than the standard book report.

Benefits for ELL Students: Besides the creative avenues and literary components, iMovie Trailers can be a great scaffold for your English Language Learners. The Storyboard layout section gives the students great sentence frames to follow. These can be easily modified by the students by just changing a few words, or they can be completely re-written altogether.

There are multiple benefits to allowing students to use iMovie in the classroom, the best being the student engagement that it will create for both the presenter and the viewer.