Tech, Apps, and Tools: Oh My!

Tech, Apps, and Tools: Oh My!

And so we trek on with the ed tech tools and app journey!

This week, I chose to explore Canva to help me deliver content for future lessons. I have used it once before in another grad class I took a couple of semesters ago, but barely touched upon it. At the time, we were prompted to use it as an ice-breaker-type activity to create a quick visual, but barely got into any of its features or capabilities. For this semester, it has been brought up a couple of times in class, so I decided to try it out again and dig just a little deeper. 

Long story short: I tried it to create a little lesson on the water cycle. I wan't "wowed" by it, but wasn't really disappointed with it. I might keep it in mind for future lessons, but it was not my favorite. 

It seems Canva is geared more towards graphics and detailed visual aids. It would be really good for making promotions for businesses or events. I can see using this to create posters, flyers, or promotional/event/business pages. I had to dig through the endless tutorials to find one that was geared towards the presentation aspect of it, comparable to Power Point or Google Slides. Compared to the last two tools I chose to create within, EdPuzzle and Play Posit (where they were both SO easy to create within, and I could create a lesson within one sitting), I found that it took a handful of sittings to create an equally meaningful lesson within Canva. 

Creating within it, I found that there seem to be a gazillion template options, but again, most seemed to be geared toward business or marketing promotion. There are a lot of template options and customization, almost too many to the point that it was almost overwhelming. It is extremely visual-centered. Almost too much. Adding slides was pretty standard. Since I have enjoyed creating within Google Slides, and I enjoyed the animation feature within Google Slides, I searched within Canva for an animation feature. I could not find an animation feature. I did, however, find a "stickers" option where I could add fun little graphics that had a little animation to them. Upon digging a little deeper I did see that there is an animation feature with the paid version. In fact, there seems to be a TON more options in the paid version. Even some very simple images and even many fonts are only available in the paid version. 

Compared to Google Slides, I have found that there are way more free options for Google Slides compared to Canva. I was surprised at how many basic-ish fonts were even only available with the paid version of Canva. Also, within Canva, I found that there were many aspects of it that I had to Google on how to use them where as in Google Slides, it was much more self-explainable. Another odd thing: I could not find an underline option for the text! I even tried different fonts to see if they brought up the underline tool, but it did not. 

As far as videos, these past couple of weeks I had been used to creating within EdPuzzle and Play Posit, where they had plenty of already created videos to choose from. However, Canva does not. They do have background videos of scenery and whatnot, but not already created videos from other users. Of course, you can still add a YouTube video and alike, but I even found the "add video" feature hard to find. It seemed as if the tab to add a video was almost hidden. You had to scroll all the way down on the left menu side, and even so it was not nearly as straight forward as Google Slides. The embed and video option is hidden at the bottom, under a "more" button. Not sure why this option is so hidden... (take note that he "videos" option seen in the below screenshot is only for those background videos I mentioned).

Speaking of background videos, I did find that in the end I did enjoy adding a background video of rain (ya know, for the water cycle) and being able to overlay some text over the video...

Also, comparing to the most recent tech tools I've used (EdPuzzle and Play Posit), I searched for an audio notes tool within Canva, but did not find one. 

As far as adding images, I do recall another classmate mentioning how she had some issues trying to add images within Canva. In my limited experience with Canva recently, I found that I was able to add images I found from the web just fine (just a simple "copy and paste" worked fine for me). 

All in all, for my personal experience and needs, I would rate Canva a 7/10. It was not a very quick initial experience for me. I certainly prefer Google Slides over Canva. However, for any poster or flyer needs, I would consider using Canva.

Click HERE for my Canva presentaion. (Sorry, would normally embed, but could not find an "embed" option in Canva, and while trying to embed I accidentally erased my whole blog post. Thank goodness for Ctrl-Z!!!).

Apps Day

Apps Day

Onward our journey goes of digging deeper and deeper into the world of educational technology tools and apps! Let's jump right into it!

As an educator in the early elementary grades, my focus as far as ed tech tools has and continues to be on simplicity. For me, sophisticated and intricate tools are not necessary at this point. I strive to seek out the most user-friendly and quick tools. Last week I created within EdPuzzle. I loved it, it was easy, and effective. During our weekly classes for EDU 585, there have been mentions, discussions, demos, you name it, on all sorts of ed tech tools and apps. To be honest, while hearing and learning about some of them, my initial thought in the back of my mind are that while they may be awesome for older grades, they may not quite be as awesome for say K-3, which is my target. PlayPosit has come up in class a couple of times, and I recall someone mentioning how it is a good tool for younger grades. I also recall it being mentioned that it is quite similar to EdPuzzle. "Perfect!", I thought, and so I started looking into it. I jumped right into some of my fellow classmates' blogs, and immediately read how another student claimed this is a good tool to use as formative assessment, and is good for younger grades. I then read a few Common Sense reviews and appreciated how most people said this is a super user-friendly tool, and perfect as an interactive video tool. Next, after viewing two PlayPosit tutorials, I started building within it.

Now, this has been an overly busy week for me between work, traveling, endless errands, you name it. I did not leave myself much time to create a video. But ya know what? That's okay because I chose a tool that I can make an effective video in a snap! Creating within PlayPosit was very simple. It certainly resembles EdPuzzle. You can use your own videos, upload them, or even search within PlayPosit for already created videos. I chose to find a video on YouTube. One of the things with finding videos on YouTube, though, is that many times at the end of the video there are credits of sorts, links to other videos, etc. I do not need those things in my videos for the students, so one of my look-fors in these types of tools is a cropping option so I can trim the edges of the videos down to just the good stuff that I need. Thankfully, PlayPosit does have a cropping feature!

I chose to use a fun GoNoodle video of a song on the water cycle. Most of my previous videos/tools have consisted mainly of diagrams and labels of sorts. This video is basically just a rap about the water cycle with no diagrams, etc. I thought this catchy song would be a great add-on to reinforce the students' understanding of the water cycle. 

Just like in EdPuzzle, in PlayPosit you can add in interactions consisting of comments, quiz questions, audio notes, etc. While it is limited in the free version (I think it's $99 a year), it still has quite enough featured within it for exactly what I need, so free version it is! Also, you can tailor the video playback options, like if the students will be allowed to rewind the video after getting to an interaction, and can also set it so they can not skip the interactions.

All in all, for my main needs (user-friendly, quick, and effective), I rate PlayPosit a 10/10!

Lights, Camera, Action: Take Two!

Lights, Camera, Action: Take Two!

Last week I created a video within Adobe Spark. I felt I grasped the hang of it right away, so wanted to explore a new tool this week. I was initially thinking about looking into iMovie next, since it is a tool that is already on my iPad. However, after hearing in last week's class about how timely it can be to edit within iMovie, I opted out of pursuing it at this time. Taking about an hour to create about one minute's worth of video is not for me! Educators are busy people, and the easier and quicker the tool is, the better!

After reading through some of my classmate's blogs and which tools worked well for them, I decided to look into EdPuzzle. Another classmate rated this a 10/10, and described it as a very user-friendly tool. I have used this tool as a student before, so I am familiar with that end of it. After viewing a couple of tutorials, I decided to jump in and create a video within EdPuzzle.

Within EdPuzzle, you can upload your own videos, or can choose from the many that are already created within the tool. I decided to browse videos for a water cycle lesson, and immediately found one I liked. 

Features that I liked within this tool, and were super easy to use:

*Cropping video

*Adding voice-over

*Including audio notes

*Creating quizzes and comments

Out of the above four features, I utilized all but the voice-over feature. 

Cropping: You can easily crop from the beginning and end of videos. However, I do wish that there was an option to crop parts from the middle of videos. That is my only complaint.

Audio notes: These are a great touch to add your own input, especially to a video that may not be of you. The video automatically stops when it comes to an audio note so that it can be heard clearly.

Creating quizzes and comments: You can opt to have questions "peppered" within the video, or even create a quiz to complete at the end. I chose to have a little quiz at the very end of the video. You can also insert typed comments. These help to add to the audio and visual of the video. Within the comments and questions, you can also add images and links!

Another useful feature within EdPuzzle is that you can make it so the students do not have the ability to skip ahead in the video. They will be forced to watch all of it, and will not be able to just skip ahead to the quiz. 

For my particular needs at this time, I would rate EdPuzzle a 10/10. It is just plain simple, and that is what I am looking for. To be quite honest, I have been shying away from the more robust and sophisticated tools such as iMovie, WeVideo, and the alike. It is not that I am being lazy or taking the easy way out. As someone who is new to ed tech, I want to first get a good grasp on the basics before I move to more sophisticated tools. Even so, at this point I do not feel the immediate need for using something quite yet that is so robust. As long as the tools I am using are not only quick and easy, just as long as they are able to deliver my content in a meaningful way, and successfully assess student's learning, then that is what's for me at this point!

Just in case, can click HERE for the direct link to my video!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Lights, Camera, Action- Creating Within a Video Tool

When you first hear "make a video", some may immediately think of a camera and needing to physically shoot some footage and/or have your face in front of a camera. Thankfully, the phrase "make a video" now a days does not require an actual video camera always. There are SO many easy video making resources out there that make it super easy to create meaningful videos with or without needing the use of a camera function.

To create my video for this week's assignment, I first did a little research. Honestly, not very much research at all though, I only looked into two tools before starting my video. I first did a little digging into the tool Screencast-O-Matic. It seemed pretty easy. However, I recalled back to our last class where our instructor demoed Adobe Spark for us. It seemed pretty easy and was pleasing to the eye. I recall him mentioning how it was very similar to a slides program like Power Point or Google Slides. There's something very familiar with slides programs like these, so I decided to give Adobe Spark a try. The reviews were all very helpful and painted this program as super easy to create within and super effective. The promo video, however, for Adobe Spark was not very helpful to me. It didn't give very much information on the program and was a bit "meh".

I jumped in to Adobe Spark, and was pleased at how easy it was. It was, in fact, very similar to creating within a Slides tool. Not only can you create videos within Spark, but you can also create web pages or graphics. I filtered my options by just videos, and jumped right into the first one at the top of the list, described as "popular" and labeled as "slideshow". I watched the quick video attached to it, and it seemed simple.

Creating within this tool was effortless. There was already background music attached to it. You can change the background music, but I was actually pretty happy with the music that was already on it. Adding images and text was no sweat. However, as far as text options went, there weren't a ton of customizable options as far as style, color, etc. Not a deal breaker though. Also, while you can change the positioning of the text on the screen, it doesn't always allow you to drag it exactly where you may want it, as it seems there may be some borders as to where the text is allowed to be dragged to. I also noticed that there are no drawing tools. Not a huge deal, but I would say out of all of the little "pitfalls" (text customization limitations, text positioning borders, and now no drawing tools), that the lack of drawing tools would be the biggest disappointment (although not a huge one). I appreciate how you can adjust the timing of each individual slide and how long they are presented. I could easily set slides with more text and content to be presented longer, and for those slides which may just have a simple image, I adjusted those to be presented much shorter. Slides could be rearranged and added between other slides with ease. I found myself rearranging/adding in often. While I did not end up recording any of my own audio for the final cut of my video, I did play around with it some, and and it was simple.

With it's ease of use and comforting familiarity of a slides program, I would probably rate the Adobe Spark tool a 9.5 out of 10! This is a great tool to use as a lesson, or in conjunction with a lesson. While I did not end up recording my own voice, I could see how this could be beneficial for when a teacher is not in. A substitute could play the video, and if the teacher's voice or video is attached, it could help the students in hearing that familiar voice when it is not present. My boyfriend, who is a photographer, has actually used Adobe Spark to create little promotional videos before!

So far in this class, I have stuck to a theme of my assignments and created lessons based around the water cycle. However, the instructor made it clear that we can literally make a video on anything we wanted to, just to get the hang of it. I decided to create a video about fun airplane facts and my love for airplanes. I hope you enjoy!

2nd Formative Assessment Tool

2nd Formative Assessment Tool- Google Forms

Last week for my formative assessment tool, I created within Quizizz. Since it was pretty straight forward and I ended on it feeling satisfied, I decided to try out another tool for this week's formative assessment: Google Forms. I have participated in Google forms before as a means for surveys and exit tickets, but never in the quiz arena. It was super straight forward. I almost felt guilty as to how easy and straight forward it was! I stuck with my theme of the water cycle, and even used the same questions I used for my Quizizz. I would use this as a pre and post assessment. I would have students complete it at the beginning of class to guide me to determine what direction to take my instruction in, based on the responses. I would have them take the same exact quiz again at the end of the lesson to assess their understanding and effectiveness of the lesson.

I again stuck with 10 questions. Initially while I was creating the questions, I was assigning point values and different points based on how easy/hard a question was. However, I decided that for the purpose of this being a pre/post assessment, that it was not necessary to have a point system, since this will be more for me to gauge their understanding and not give them a grade on it. For this same reason, I chose to not have a grade shown, nor have wrong/correct answers shown after a student submits the quiz. I do not want students to be fixated on a grade since this is a formative assessment for me and my instruction. 

Adding images was quite easy. However, there was one question where I wanted to add two photos, but it would only allow me to add one. I peaked in the theme options and slightly changed the theme colors. I did not want to go too crazy with colors or fonts since this is to be used as a very simple formative assessment. It certainly is not as "frilly" as my quiz in quizizz, and that is quite alright. There is a time and place for "frilly" quizzes, and this is not one! I would use this more basic format of Google forms as a pre/post quiz within the same lesson, then I would perhaps use the more exciting version of this same quiz from quizizz the following day at the start of the lesson for a little fun boost at the start of the lesson! 

The summary of responses tells me exactly what I need for this purpose. I can see a quick snapshot right at the top of frequently missed questions, and I can use this information to guide my lesson!

Click here for my Google forms quiz!

Formative Assessment Tool

Formative Assessment Tool: Quizizz

So far, I absolutely love this tool. I chose to use Quizizz to create my formative assessment because out of all of the tools that were featured in class last week, this one was the most fun. While it was being presented, I recall feeling excited and actually sitting at the edge of my seat while I was going through the quiz questions. The way that the questions are formatted is very pleasing to the eye and intriguing. The fun memes in between each question are a perfect touch. After answering each question, you could see how you ranked in real-time with other participants. All of the graphics, sounds, and even fonts are all really pleasing. 

Quizizz is a super effective tool for how I would like to deliver formative assessments. Not only can the content be delivered via a quiz, but the tool can also seamlessly take the quiz questions that were created and turn them into flash cards. To create a quiz, you can either construct your own questions/answers, or you can search for other quizzes and "teleport" any question(s) you want from quizzes that were created by others. Both methods are extremely easy. Creating within this tool is just as easy from an iPad as it is from a laptop. When I began this assignment, I started building my Quizizz assessment at home from my laptop. I did not finish it before I went to visit family for the weekend. I brought along my iPad with me so I could work on it while I was away. I was initially a little worried that it would not be as easy to create within the tool from my iPad as it was from my laptop, as sometimes things just aren't as easy from an iPad/tablet. I have run into that before, where I have started working within a tool from a laptop or computer, then went on travel and had to try to work on it from a tablet or iPad, and it wasn't as easy. With Quizizz, I found it was just as easy. I deem this as an extremely important quality, since teachers are such busy people, and always seem to be working and creating from home or on the fly. Tools need to be just as easily accessible from various types of technology!

I would absolutely rate this tool a 10/10! Creating a meaningful formative assessment was extremely easy. This actually surprised me some, as when we got to try it out in class, it seemed of such high quality and I initially thought it must have taken so much time, thought, and planning to create. It truly was so easy! You can create your own questions, or pick from so many other current and relevant quizzes to use questions from. The memes in between each question are such a fun touch, very attention-keeping! Students can use the flash card function to assess their own understanding. Students of most ages can easily use this independently, which is another plus!

Click here for the link for my Quizizz assessment!!!

Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment

My Own Recollection

Whenever I am asked to think back or compare something to when I was back in school, I always kind of sigh and think to myself "ugh, do I have to???". I'm not sure if it is just me, but I often feel like it has been centuries since I have been in school as a child. I graduated in 2001, which truly isn't that long ago, but I always feel like it was ages ago when I am asked to think back to when I was in school as a child. I mean, I can recall things such as the friends I made, when Joshua jumped off the swing in 2nd grade and broke his arm, sneaking into the middle school girls' locker room after hours and TPing it, and my Earth Science teacher who always seemed to have those gross lip crusties in the corners of his mouth. But, I always feel like I struggle with being asked to reflect back to when I was in school on things such as my personal learning strategies, teachers approaches to teaching, testing aspects that I may have found hard or easy, etc. 

I was trying to rack my brain and recall any types of formative assessment practices any of my teachers may have used, but found I was mainly coming up with nothing (maybe my retrieval skills should have been more of a focus when I was younger!). The only thing that I could find in the back of my memory that may qualify as past formative assessment for myself when I was a youngster were times where a teacher would individually conference with students. It was typically done when there wasn't much going on in the classroom, usually some assigned silent reading from the text book. The teacher would call us to her desk one at a time to ask us different questions based on the unit we were currently working on. Our answers were never graded, and I honestly do not recall any explicit follow up to these sessions. I do recall always feeling nervous and uncomfortable during these little sessions. I felt as if I was being interviewed as the teacher would write as I spoke. Never cared for these sessions. Other than that, I was still trying to dig deeper in my memory for any other hints of formative assessment. Then it dawned on me that perhaps any other forms of formative assessment I probably was involved in as a young student were built into the teaching my teachers were conducting, as to not make it feel too "official" or test-like. Formative assessment is not like summative assessment, where it is crystal clear that an assessment is occurring. Formative assessment is to be interwoven throughout entire lessons. Just like when my teachers would "interview" me and at the time I felt that was it, they probably somehow in their magical teacher ways, used my responses to tailor other instruction for me, and I didn't even realize it! So either my past teachers were reeeally good at incorporating and flowing formative assessment into my learning, or they didn't do it at all, ha!

Reflecting on this Week's Material on Formative Assessment

In the Teach Now Tuesdays article, one phrase that stuck out to me was "mastery learning". As a graduate student of elementary education, I have had other assignments, readings, tasks, etc. on formative assessment. However, this is the first time that I can recall of hearing this term, and having it really be a main point of formative assessment. What I gathered, is that the idea of mastery learning is to have a student be taught something until they have mastered, until they are actually ready to move on. This makes complete sense. I mean, we all know that formative assessment is an ongoing process during learning to make sure students are "getting it", and we know that we use formative assessment to determine if we need to reteach, tailor our teaching, spend more time on a topic, etc., but to what extent? That extent is mastery. Only once a student has mastered an area, THEN can we move them on to the next. Makes sense, as why would we move on to the next area if the previous one wasn't fully understood? It sounds ideal. However, to what extent do we want students to achieve mastery? AND, is it easy? Is it possible? Does it make sense as a whole class? I wonder if it is truly attainable. Ideally, I hope so, but what happens when a student or a few are taking way too long to master something, and all of the students are at various levels of mastery? Does it ever get to the point where many students are at various differentiated levels? How would the teacher teach that way? Maybe the students who are not reaching mastery are on/need to be on IEPs?

Another thing mentioned in this article was in relation to not giving out official gades during formative assessment. Once a "formal" grade is given on something, I feel like that's it. That's the end of that, no matter what the grade is, and it is time to move on. This article rather uses terms such as 'meeting', 'exceeding', or 'continuing toward meeting target'. I love that last term. Instead of using 'not meeting' or 'needs work', it is turned into a positive phrasing of those two.

In the Formative Assessment is Transformational article, they use the terms just-in-time learning, just-in-time data, and just-in-time feedback. I appreciate these terms, as they truly encompass what formative assessment is all about: catching problem areas just in time in order to address them to that mastery level!

In the Retrieval Practice podcast, before really reading into the transcripts of it, my mind automatically went to memorization. I do recall being in middle school, learning certain science terms. I would memorize the definitions so I was able to just mindlessly spit out the correct word. However, this podcast points out that retrieval is not automated memorization. Retrieval is to be used to recall or remember something as a learning strategy, not a a sort of measurement assessment. It is not meant to be time consuming. It can be used anytime in forms such as simple think-pair-shares, low stakes quizzes, brain dumps, or meaningful flash card usage. 

What I've Seen in Classrooms as far as Formative Assessment

This is my fifth year as an instructional assistant in elementary school. I have worked in every grade level, K-6, and have seen various types of formative assessment. One that I commonly see is exit tickets. One third grade teacher I worked with would consistently use exit ticket at the end of every lesson. Science, social studies, math, etc. These were just simple half-sheets of paper asking a few quick questions based on what was taught that day. She would go through each and every one of the responses. She would either decide if she needed to reteach something as a whole group, move on as a whole group, or have to work one-on-one or in small groups with some. It was certainly very effective. A fourth grade teacher who I worked with was always working in check lists. She had checklists for the class as a whole, as well as checklists for individual students. She was constantly using them through out her focus lessons, one-on-one work with students, while observing students as they worked independently, etc. I was always impressed at how she was able to quickly put various check marks on various students' lists while she was actively conducting lessons. These were usually very simple checklists, evaluating if students were getting main ideas or not. If they were and just needed more background information. She would even note whether a student seemed to be focused or not during the lesson without actually questioning them at the time, but would be sure to revisit with them later just to check in that they were paying attention. 

Technology and Formative Assessment

Technology is a great tool in the educational world, needless to say. In the area of formative assessment and technology, we want to ensure that students aren't just being quizzed, asked questions, being tested, etc. Students need to be formatively assessed all of the time, so that they are used to it, and/or do not even know they are being formatively assessed. Technology can make this fun, yet effective. With tech tools such as Kahoot, Pear Deck, Plickers, even Google surveys; teachers are able to seemlesly check in on students' understanding and get some really useful information on how to proceed next, individually and as a class whole.