EDUC W200 Week 10

Teacher Tasks and Productivity Tools

EDUC W200 Week 10

The five types of tasks…

2

EDUC W200 Week 10

The five types of tasks…

3

Student-led use of technology

?

EDUC W200 Week 10

LET’S SHIFT OUR ATTENTION TO HOW TEACHERS CAN BENEFIT FROM USING TOOLS.

• Generally with any technology tool, one can increase their productivity when they are on task.

• Today, we will focus on tools that increase “teacher” productivity.

• We will call these tools (teacher) productivity tools.

EDUC W200 Week 10

SO, WHAT DO TEACHERS DO? – COMMON TEACHER TASKS THAT TECHNOLOGY CAN ASSIST WITH

• Pre-class teacher tasks: Plan lessonso Teachers need to provide resources for learning.o Teachers need to create worksheets.

• In-class teacher tasks: Manage class + facilitate learningo Teachers need to “multi-task”.o Teachers need to facilitate learning with multimedia resources; students as well need to “note-take” with multimedia resources.

• Post-class teacher tasks: Grade (assess), record (administrative)o Teachers need to provide feedback or assess students.o Teachers need to keep various student records.

EDUC W200 Week 10

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS 1.WHEN PLANNING A LESSON…

• Teaching resources include lesson plan examples, templates, worksheets, multimedia resources, etc. o Teacher Community

• Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything• Teachers.net

o Publicly Sponsored (museums, broadcasts, gov, edu)• Discovery Education; PBS American Experience (History)• ReadWriteThink• Smithsonian American Art Museum – Education Resources;

National Museum of National History – Lesson Plans & Classroom Resources• Library of Congress - Teachers

o Corporate Sponsored (ed tech companies, textbook publishers)• BrainPop, BrainPopJr (K-3)• Scholastic Teachers• Microsoft Office Templates

EDUC W200 Week 10

Tryout: Readability tests

• Sometimes, you find a great web resource, but your students simply don’t get it because the words are too difficult for them.o Think about what resources you used in your Webquests for

TIP 6 and 7

• How can teachers make sure the web texts are at the appropriate reading level for your students?

EDUC W200 Week 10

Tryout: Readability tests

• You can run a “readability test” via this web tool: http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php

• The tool scans the text data from the webpage and analyzes it with mathematical algorithms. The results are reported in three types of reading level indices. (E.g., Gunning-Fog Index, Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade)

• What do teachers do if the original resource is too complex (or not complex enough) for the target students? They make “ADAPT”

EDUC W200 Week 10

Tryout: Readability tests

• Pair up with someone close to you.• Open up your ICW#6 Webquest > Process page.• Paste its URL to the readability tool and run the test.• Discuss the result of the test

o Gunning-Fog Indexo Flesch Reading Easeo Flesch-Kincaid Grade (easiest to interpret !)

• Make necessary changes to the webquest.

EDUC W200 Week 10

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS 2.IN CLASS…MULTI-TASK, BE EVERYWHERE

• Smart and mobile technologies free up teachers from the teacher station to be available for students in need.o Attendance Apps: KidGrid, Attendance for Android, Google Formso Smart Sync (demo)o Clickers: Turning, SMARTBoard RS, Socrative, Co:lor, and more!o MOBI(Mobile Interactive Whiteboard)o Splashtop Desktop or Other Remote Desktop Apps

• A tool for both teacher and students? Tools that allow note-taking of multimedia resourceso Evernote (Evernote Story on Youtube)o MS OneNoteo Google Docs

EDUC W200 Week 10

Productivity Tools 3. After Class

• Reminder Tools for Organizationo Google Calendar (set reminders and include an entire class)o Remind101.com – Send text messages to students OR

parents

EDUC W200 Week 10

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS 4.AFTER CLASS…GRADE AND RECORD

• LMS (Learning Management System) • An integrated system/platform that manages “learning”• The system functions as a resource sharing space, space for

discussion and communication, awarding grades and feedback, keeping student work, etc.

• Examples:o Blackboard [proprietary] vs. [open source] Moodle; Sakai

• Read this blogpost on Blackboard buying Moodle!o E.g., Oncourse (Sakai), CanVaso ClassDojo – targeted for younger students (K-3?)o My Big Campus; LearningConnection (Introduction video)

EDUC W200 Week 10

Hands-on Activity: COMPARE LMS’S

• You will be comparing two LMSs in pairs.• First, review the LearningConnection using your

existing account. Then, go to My Big Campus, sign up as a teacher (email confirmation required), review major features.

• Discuss:o Major features that are common in both tools o Major differenceso Which one you would prefer using and why

EDUC W200 Week 10