Saturday, March 5, 2016

21st Century Tools

Nearpod is an app that can be used on many platforms.  It will work with Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Nook HD, Chrome, Apps for Windows.  With a device in their hands, students are able to move through teacher-directed or self-directed interactive presentations. Immediate feedback on assessments and polls increases buy-in.  Interactive features make it possible to deepen the learning during direct instruction; assigning presentations as self-paced assignments empowers students.  The site provides real-time results and reports to monitor student progress and modify instruction. Nearpod support is extensive for all users. The company wants teacher feedback and offers regular webinars and updates on new features.  The presentations provide opportunities for skill development across the curriculum and multiple ways to improve student learning. Students can see immediate results when they draw on a map, respond to a poll question, or take a multiple-choice quiz. In addition, students can review key concepts when they watch videos or read over notes. Whether students draw key locations on a map of China, respond to a poll question on tropical forests, watch a video on how to solve a quadratic equation, review notes on the different parts of speech, or submit an open-ended response analyzing a primary document, they're interacting with the content in a meaningful way. For situations where direct instruction is a necessity, Nearpod offers a fantastic way to increase student involvement. It would be nice to see some collaborative features like a backchannel or group annotation capabilities. Also, it would be great if students could make presentations as well (the tool is only set up for teacher creation).

Write About This is an app that can be used only on IPads, this might be a downfall in some schools.  You can use this app for a substitution to their daily journals. It provides the students with a wide variety of topics to write about and they love the pictures that go along with each prompt. The app provides many different categories such as food, family, animals, places, hobbies, seasonal, careers, culture, etc. all which include numerous prompts with full-color pictures. There is also a choice to select a random prompt each day, create a prompt, and a helpful search bar to see if a prompt is already created. They create a prompt feature is easy to use and allows you to add your own picture, text, and voice recording. Students can listen to recordings if the prompt is difficult for them to read. The prompts you create are easily accessible and saved in a custom folder in the categories tab. Once the student is done responding to their prompt they can record audio, share it by email (you must select this choice in settings), or publish it. The app also has a web page to provide further support using app features, videos, and blogs with lesson ideas.



Write About This

Fun pictures and prompts are great for getting kids to start writing



Nearpod

Interactive, multimedia slideshows engage students and provide feedback

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