Featured 7-9-2014: Global Writes

 

Global Writes works with schools and school districts to develop and implement programs integrating performing arts techniques with literacy programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools develop technology applications to share student-created work for publication and feedback. This includes the use of digital media, videoconferencing, podcasting, and blogging.

 

Schools and districts can get assistance in finding local arts partners as a classroom collaboration resource as well as in seeking local funding to sustain arts integration programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools around the world work together to foster communication and collaboration among students around literacy-based projects integrating the arts using technology as a resource.

 

 

Professional development opportunities focus on arts integration with existing literacy curriculum, providing teachers with opportunitites to develop an appreciation of the arts across the curriculum and confidence in using performing arts techniques in their classrooms.

 

 Watch a Global Writes overview

 

Global Writes provides both formative and summative evaluations to monitor student progress in their programs and supplies data to support increases in student achievement and teacher knowledge.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 5-21-2014: ChalkUp

 

ChalkUp is a student engagement platform designed to foster real-time school-work collaboration, learning, and studying, ChalkUp enables students to ask questions, discuss and share interesting educational content, and work with each other.

 

Dashboard is a real-time feed where you can comment on discussions, submit assignments, and even view files. Chalkup keeps all assignments, quizzes, and tests in one place.

 

Assignments can be delivered to students quickly and in real-time. Drag-and-drop a document from your computer or use one that you have stored on Google Drive or Google Apps for Education. Create folders, rename files to be organized.

 

Students can turn in assignments as easily as dragging-and-dropping, uploading as many files as necessary. Annotate and grade uploaded file submissions right inside ChalkUp. Personalize feedback with a quick note.

 

 

Messaging lets the people in your class chat in real-time and share files with each other. Teachers can send messages to students to clarify, remind, and keep them engaged. Chalkup uses 256-bit AES encryption to make sure your messages are safe.

 

The free version of ChalkUp provides 1 GB of storage per class with a file size limit of 25 MB, and all the core features including integrated flashcards.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 5-14-2014: ReMarkable

 

ReMarkable is a free iPad app that offers students an easy way to submit digital documents in many formats to teachers and professors for marking. 

 

The concept of ReMarkble is functional and practical for both students and teachers. Upon signing up, teachers get a unique email address that will be used by students to submit all work directly to the app. All assignments go directly into ReMarkable where educators mark all the work within the app.

 

ReMarkable accepts many document types including .docx, .pptx, .xls, .jpg, .gif, .pdf, and more.

 

The annotation tools are very intuitive and were designed with the needs of teachers marking student documents in mind.  The features of ReMarkable were reviewed by a panel of educators.

A customizable folder system gives teachers the ability to control and organize submitted files. Move, copy, and upload all files to various folders or to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.

 

 Watch ReMarkable’s Kickstarter video

 

ReMarkable gives teachers the convenience of accepting and marking papers anytime from anywhere.  Teachers will no longer have to carry home loads of papers to mark, all that's needed is an iPad running iOS 6.0+.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 5-1-2014: Pear Deck

Pear Deck makes it easy to plan and build interactive lessons that promote active learning in the classroom. Real-time data provides teachers the feedback needed to make on-the-fly adaptations.

 

Create a new Pear Deck from Google Drive then use the editor to quickly create any of four kinds of slides: static, multiple choice, Draggable™, or free response. You can also import slides from most presentation software, such as Powerpoint or Keynote, as a PDF.

 

 

Once your Pear Deck is built, launch a unique presentation session directly from the editor to your students using your Google Apps for Education domain. Pear Deck’s Google Chrome extension lets you launch the presentation on their devices with no cooperation required.

 

 

Students follow along on their devices and respond to the unique question types when prompted. As the teacher, your device can isolate individual or groups of answers to put on the interactive whiteboard for further discussion or review.

 

 See how to present a Pear Deck

 

Pear Deck is currently in limited beta. They are looking for schools that:

• Use Google Apps for Education
• Use or are evaluating Chromebooks
• Are driven to fostering an environment of active learning
• Are driven to increase and improve formative assessments and data-driven instruction

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 4-7-2014: Geddit

Geddit is a free iOS app that enables students to give instant private feedback about their understanding in real-time in the 1:1 classroom. It also works on any web-enabled device.

 

Designed to be used with any lesson, you don't have to change anything to use Geddit.  Start collecting real-time, personal student feedback as they participate in your lesson.

 

You can get insights into your students’ confidence and understanding in context. Geddit includes several built-in question-and-answer features. Multiple choice and short answer responses let you immediately check for evidence of understanding. 

 

 

Students can develop metacognitive skills using Geddit. They are able to develop a realistic understanding of their own learning, at the same time you can identify individual student needs on the fly with Instant, real-time feedback facilitating better differentiation.

 

Geddit supports differentiation by helping you: 

• Respond to needs and effectively direct your attention
• Form collaborative groups based on ability
• Facilitate peer-to-peer coaching

 Watch What is Geddit?

 

Geddit for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch is available free from the iTunes Store and requires iOS 5 or later.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 3-11-2014: CourseLab

Create quality interactive e-Learning content using CourseLab, a powerful, easy-to-use, WYSIWYG authoring tool.

 

CourseLab's programming-free environment turns out content that can be published on the Internet, to Learning Management Systems (LMS), on CD-ROMs, and other platforms.

 

 

CourseLab is available as a commercial product (version 2.7) and as freeware (version 2.4).

 

Key Features of CourseLab 2.7:

• Unicode support - use any font and encoding supported by the Windows® operating system, including double-byte character sets
• Object-oriented paradigm allows easy construction of even complex e-Learning content
• Objects are highly customizable
• Dynamic HTML-based output can be played in a web browser without any special software

Free CourseLab 2.4 is an older version of CourseLab. It offers the same WYSIWYG environment for creating interactive e-Learning content as the current commercial version, but lacks a number of new features, templates, and interactive objects.

 

 

As well as interactive e-Learning content, CourseLab can be used to create a wide range of applications including tests, quizzes, surveys, guides for policies and procedures, and more.

 

E-Learning courses developed and published with CourseLab may be conformant with the following e-Learning standards: AICC, SCORM 1.2, and SCORM 1.3.

 

 Watch Courselab - Creating a Course

 

CourseLab is a product of WebSoft, a leading Russian independent software vendor that develops a comprehensive suite of software products for e-Learning and humal capital management.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 3-3-2014: Lightning Grader

Lightning Grader is a web application that allows educators to quickly and easily create and grade assessments and generate robust reports about student, class, and school performance.

 

Lightning Grader furnishes three different styles of assessments, including flexible assessment, giving educators the ability to personalize questions. Essay questions offer four different-size text boxes for students to enter their responses, all student work can be viewed online.

 

Assessments can be printed on paper then automatically graded by simply scanning them through a regular copy machine and uploading the files to the system. After that, Lightning Grader does all the work.

 

 

With the Rich Text Editor feature, educators can quickly and easily choose from an extensive list of functions and math equations making it easy to create math and science questions.

 

Questions can be aligned to state and Common Core Standards with just a click of the mouse.

 

 Watch Lightning Grader | iPad Grading

 

Launched in 2012, Elijah Stambaugh, a former junior high school math teacher, invented Lightning Grader as an efficient way to improve his students’ performance without the tedium of grading stacks of papers.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 2-4-2014 Vocabulary Notebook

Vocabulary Notebook provides a a set of tools for schools and teachers to help students learn vocabulary faster using technology, making it more contemporary and engaging.

 

With the full Vocabulary Notebook for schools, students will have Cloud Accounts and teachers will have a dashboard to manage and get feedback about their students.

 

Key Teacher Dashboard features:

• Check your students' most important and unknown words.
• See interactive charts with stats about your students.
• See your student's tests scores and number of words.
• Suggest words to your students.

Vocabulary Notebook is easy for students to use. Just install the app and start to type those words you always forget. Change the importance of a word and mark it as "known" or "not known" whenever you want.

 

Students are able to filter words by importance or categories, for example, showing only words related to “work”. Sort words alphabetically or display only those words, phrasal verbs, or idioms that you don't know.

 

The test tool will randomly select words according to your filters and it will ask you to select whether you know them or not. Those words you don't know will automatically be marked as "not known", making it easier to take another look at them later.

 

Cloud Accounts and the web app synchronize with students’ mobile apps for iOS and Android. 

 Watch a video overview of Vocabulary Notebook

 

Teachers can discover which words students don't know as well as the categories they use most. With Vocabulary Notebook, teachers are able to send lists of vocabulary to their students.

 

With the Teacher Dashboard, you will see key information about your students. See stats like the number of words each student has, their average score in self-assessment tests, how often they use the app, and more. 

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 1-14-2014 Nutmeg Education

Nutmeg Education is designed to give teachers an easy way to assess, track and improve student performance and build better Common Core assessments.

Create assessments with questions from Nutmeg Education's repository, or create your own questions. Pick from or create multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank or true/false questions. In the works are auto-generated questions and “interactive” questions, such as responding by clicking on a point in the coordinate plan.

The Live Resource Bank is a collection of Common Core aligned videos, games, and worksheets that can be attached to an assessment. The related Common Core standard appears to students below each question in their quiz results. All of the items in the bank come from free online websites and Open Education Resources  All are rated by teachers and sorted with the best, most-used resources at the top.

  

Students will be sent login details and “New Assessment” notifications via email. Students can take assessments with any web-connected device, or even with paper/pencil.

Students with access to an iOS device can use this free Nutmeg Education app to take your assessments. Students get immediate feedback and access to free tutorials and resources to improve.

 

 

Nutmeg Education supports learning by providing you with data and insights on students' Common Core understanding. 

 

Watch Nutmeg Education: Fostering a National Teacher Community

 

Early adopters will get Nutmeg Education completely free for one year. In a few months, new users will start to be charged for full access to the site.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 12-11-2013 ExamTime

The aim of ExamTime is to change the way you learn, with more engagement, more understanding, and an enriched learning experience.

ExamTime provides free study tools that empower students to build best practices into their study habits:

• Goal setting
• Personal learning styles
• Comprehension techniques
• Brainstorming
• Practice & testing
• Collaborative learning

Intuitive and easy-to-use tools allow users to create, discover, and share engaging study resources such as mindmaps, flashcards, notes, and quizzes using ExamTime.

With ExamTime teachers can easily form learning groups to share resources and conduct discussions. The structure of groups simulates the organization of a real classroom online. Ask a question or share an article or study resource and let your students react, respond, and engage. 

Timetable tools let you drag-and-drop your subjects onto your calendar, setting up flexible and responsive schedules that allow you to make changes as needed. The goal setting feature allows you to mark important dates such as exams and assign tasks that need to be completed by due dates.

Any Mindmap or Note you create can be instantly turned into a presentation. Use the Mindmap tool for giving introductory presentations. Notes allow you to embed more media: videos, images, audio, links, even slideshows.

 See a video overview of ExamTime

ExamTime is a Web-app and can be accessed via the internet browser on any Android or iOS device.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 11-25-2013 Kahoot!

Kahoot! delivers educational content through asking meaningful questions in real-time, resulting in a social, fun, and game-like environment.

Build quizzes, called Kahoots!, on any device using a simple drag-and-drop tool. Include embedded images and video.

Project the quiz onto a screen or interactive whiteboard to engage and focus students who quickly join through their personal device, seeing their name appear (without needing an account).

Students play against each other, answering questions in real-time through an easy-to-use interface, while you facilitate and discuss the content.

Kahoot! allows learners to both respond and create with any device that has a web browser and works over wifi or 3G/4G. Students can share their knowledge by playing their Kahoot back to classmates. You can assess the quality of student questions, while the other students answer the questions.

 Watch a video demonstrating the basics of the Kahoot! website for the K-12 classroom.

Formatively assess individual knowledge and adapt learning. Kahoot! data provides you with a ‘snapshot’ of each learner's current understanding and tracks longer term progress.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 11-12-2013 Yacapaca

Yacapaca is a free formative assessment tool for educators at all levels using many different kinds of questions to deliver instant grading, baselining, and test prep.

Create, share, deliver, grade, and analyze a range of assessments such as quizzes, tests, surveys, e-portfolios and more with Yacapaca.

Yacapaca contains a huge database of formative assessments that includes over 15,000 quizzes drawn from a database of approximately 130,000 questions covering nearly 400 syllabi.

You can also create your own quizzes. Even mix and match your own questions with ones from the existing database. Modify existing questions, as well. 

Yacapaca supports 5 basic question types, each with many permutations:

• Multiple choice
• Checkbox
• Cloze (gap fill, with both strict and fuzzy match)
• Pair match
• Locate on an image

 Watch a video introduction to Yacapaca

Teachers use Yacapaca across a full age range including adult learning. They use it for starters, lessons, flipped classrooms, homework, and study.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 10-24-2013 UClass

UClass is a global lesson exchange created by teachers for teachers.

UClass taps into an abundance of experience and knowledge by gathering, sharing, and crowd-sourcing planning globally. A huge collection of authentic classroom assignments is readily accessible.

When teachers connect on UClass, their classrooms can participate in dynamic global exchanges. Teachers may choose to open access to a global audience, allowing students to receive feedback from students around the world, thus fostering a powerful sense of global citizenship.

UClass lessons each consist of:

• a lesson outcome
• directions
• Common Core standard tagging
• a full lesson plan
• a worksheet
• an assessment
• and a multimedia link

Lessons are searchable by grade, subject, category, strand and standard.

 Watch a video introducing UClass

A teacher who has joined UClass can access lesson previews, but must purchase lesson credits to download the entire lesson. If a teacher creates a lesson, that teacher gets paid for each time it gets downloaded.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0