Tag Archives: tools

Piktochart

Posted in Resources, Technology by

I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to display things in my classroom. I was inspired by the following image (from @adambellow). This lead me to think about infographics and the online tool, Piktochart.

Piktochart allows creators to visualize data through the use of colour, symbols and graphs.

Classroom Rules

Infographics allow the viewer to “experience” the information on a variety of levels. In our 21st century world, we are accustomed to receiving information in small bytes. Infographics allow us to absorb information in this manner.

There are a lot of applications for our students to use this type of tools. I’m hoping to have students use something similar for a Challenge and Change analysis of demographics. It would make a great option to display results for a stats class or geography.

Once students have researched statistical information on a particular subject, they can then determine an attractive way to display it. This will touch on their ability to understand numbers and data as well as to choose essential information over additional.

The Learning Blog from the New York Times has some cool ideas.

Here are more ideas from Classroom 21.

Secondary Solutions offers some more ideas using Piktochart:

Find the one below here. It only took me about 10 minutes to create.

Class RulesKathy-Schrock-education

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Collaborative Tools online

Posted in Resources, Student Needs, Technology by

Padlet

This is my new favourite collaborative software.

Richard Byrne did a great little video about how to start using Padlet and why you might use it in class. He talks about using this as an assessment for and assessment as learning.

The program allows people to log on anonymously or through an account. The Wall-owner can include images on the wall – perhaps an opportunity to annotate? You can also print out the contents of the wall for sharing in hard copy.

You can also add images from your computer or using a laptop camera.

Ways you could use this in your classroom

1) Collect information during student inquiry

2) use “layout modification” to force entries to be ranked in order of posting, and use as a debate

3) use as a Graffiti wall or as part of a jigsaw activity

4) Share links and ideas on a topic

5) Ask students to contribute personal connections to a historical theme – example: How is your life at home different in 2013 than when you were 5 years old?

Here are some other ideas by Cynthia Treichler. She even includes a tutorial on her website.

padlet integration

Let’s Play!

hey, PED3183, Let’s share some cool resources we’ve found and play with this resource.

http://padlet.com/wall/historytips – Groups 1 – 4

http://padlet.com/wall/historytips2 – Groups  5 – 8

Today’s Meet

A colleague introduced me to a neat tool called Today’s Meet. It allows students to ask questions, make comments and get clarification from a presentation. The beauty of the site? It doesn’t require someone to log into the site and  the shared  link is memorable. The wall owner can set the duration of time the link is “live” to prevent access to the wall after an activity.

Students can debate with each other using this venue and thus becomes an alternative to Twitter.

The transcript option allows the presenter to save the Room after a discussion. It saves in chronological order and there’s an easy copy & paste function.

The Today’s Meet Blog has some interesting ideas as well.

The website sells itself as a backchannel opportunity.

todays meet

“Ziploc” Theme Bags and Four Corners Photographs

Posted in How To..., Resources by

ZIPLOC BAG OF PROPS

photo

How many ways could you use the stuff in the bag? 

  • Assign a role to each of the objects to identify minority groups/social classes in Canada.
  • Fill the bag with objects and then ask them how to solve the problem with the objects in the bag (innovation)
  • Fill bag with historical objects (iron, wood, etc.) –>  group the objects to represent different groups of people/employment during a particular age
  • One object –> students give their perspective
  • Antique objects –> guess their use, or  tell a story where they object has been, perhaps students write a riddle about an object?
  • Props to represent objects in particular lesson –> Russian WW2 — No Ammo
  • 1st day ice breaker –> what represents them from the bag?
  • Build a diorama/sculpture with the objects

FOUR CORNERS

Block off ¾ of the photo, have the students describe what they see (This allows students to make predictions about the photo )

How else could you use this activity?

  • Show a piece have them draw the rest
  • What is NOT in the photo –> make predictions, inferring
  • use like a Puzzle (maps, propaganda posters etc)
  • Propaganda, etc. –> Tops and Tails (students get half a photo, have to find its match)
  • Video clip – show only the top or bottom of the clip (block of the tv with construction paper)
  • Timelines –> chunking it up
  • Chunking up a speech/conversation/interview
  • Poems ->  chunking it up
  • Use their textbook, block out all the text around the photos (forces students to make predictions, use of  non-textual cues)
  • Use this as a means to test students – what is going on in the photo? Why is it relevant to what we’ve learned in class?