Integrating Technology into the Classroom - Professional Development Day!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Paoline on June 15, 2013 at 6:30am

Hi Matt

This was great! I am doing my Coursesites on Google Docs and did a screen cast on Google forms. My school district is using Google Chrome books for our 4,5, and 6 graders. As the technology teacher I have to do a PD day with the teachers explaining how to use Google docs and forms. I really like your post and your explanation on Notebook about how to create a form. I really like using Google's tools and it helps a lot in the classroom. Nice work Matt!

David

Permalink Reply by Kristin Nicole Martin on June 15, 2013 at 11:44am

Hi Matt,

This is a great presentation! I learned a bit more through this. Google Docs is such a useful tool and offers so much that some people still don't understand it. I know when I first dug into it, I was confused on how to navigate it. Your presentation maps out Google Docs great and highlights all the key points. Do you use the Google features often? I can see myself using it a lot once I get into my own classroom, especially using it to keep track of data! Thanks for all the information!

Permalink Reply by Karesa Blagrove on June 16, 2013 at 6:30pm

Matthew, I was very thankful to see your lesson plan. I am currently working on a project right now where I am exploring the use of Google forms. I find Google forms useful but I do not like the limitations of the designing of the form. For example, when adding fields to the form, they can only be placed in sequence, there is no capability to place two fields next to each other. On the positive note, I like the fact that I can capture the form data, place it in a spreadsheet and use it for analysis purposes. Thanks for sharing.

Permalink Reply by Barbara Elder on June 13, 2013 at 1:22pm

For my PD presentation, I picked Voki.com.  Voki.com is a site where students can create an avatar to present material.  Think of it as an alternative to powerpoint.  Students can design the character, background, voice and publish and share it with others.  I've attached a very short powerpoint and a brief plan as a handout.

Attachments:

• Voki presentation.pptx, 2 MB
• Voki presentation.docx, 74 KB

Permalink Reply by Kristin Nicole Martin on June 15, 2013 at 11:37am

Hi Barbara,

I am so glad you introduced me to this site the other day! It is so much fun! Even though it has been around for quite some time, I had no idea that it existed. I can see young students having so much fun with this site and being really engaged in it. Have you had your students do any presentations with Voki yet? I'm interested to see how each student would express themself through their avatar. I like your presentation, it is very fun. Great job!

Permalink Reply by Barbara Elder on June 17, 2013 at 3:41pm

Hi Kristin,

I have not actually used this site with my kids, but I can totally see how they would love it with the popularity of video games and everything.  A colleague introduced me to this site (who also went through the Applied Tech Ed program) and we had such fun making Vokis of ourselves.  I think it's something different than Prezi or powerpoint and pretty kid friendly.

Permalink Reply by Barbara Elder on June 17, 2013 at 3:42pm

Nope, a friend showed this to me and I always thought about how much fun my kids would have doing a presentation using this.   With teaching band, I don't have kids do presentations, but if I ever went back to the general music classroom, this would be something I"d like to try.

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Wilson on June 18, 2013 at 1:44pm

Barbara, I found this Web 2.0 tool fascinating and quite entertaining.  Excellent presentation.  I really like how students can use it to create and post presentations with their own character.  It certainly adds interest and creativity to the oral presentation platform!  I have added the link to my Delicious site!  

Permalink Reply by Courtney Kendall on June 18, 2013 at 7:43pm

Barbara,

I had never heard of Voki.com before so thank you for introducing it to me. It looks like such fun. I think kids, and adults, would get a kick out of creating an avatar figure. It seems like it is something that is more on their level, particularly elementary school students, than just using Powerpoint or even Google presentation.

Permalink Reply by Juliana Sheehan on June 13, 2013 at 5:05pm

For my Professional Development lesson, I created a 45 minute session introducing Twitter and how to use it in an educational setting.  I uploaded my lesson with the appropriate links.  I also attached two documents that can be helpful to educators and first time users.

Attachments:

• Twitter_PD.docx, 84 KB
• Twitter-Cheat-Sheet-Tool-4-Learning-Unlimited-by-Kimberly-Tyson.pdf, 806 KB
• TwitterCheatSheet-ElliottDesign.pdf, 241 KB

Permalink Reply by David Paoline on June 16, 2013 at 12:20pm

Your lesson plan is well thought out and meticulously detailed. Very well done! I never knew how to incorporate Twitter with my students and never really considered it as a teaching tool. Looking at your PD lesson on Twitter  and seeing how you communicate with your students is great way to keep in touch. It seems like your Twitter account is very successful not only with your students but with all of the school events. Great job and thank you for opening up my mind up to Twitter. 

David

Permalink Reply by Karesa Blagrove on June 16, 2013 at 6:42pm

Thanks for sharing. Twitter is a great tool to keep students engaged about a specific project. I think about hosting tweet chats around a specific topic where the students could involve tweeters from outside the classroom. It is also great in bringing awareness to a topic the students maybe working on.

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