Practice Dolch Sight Words

I don't normally recommend flash card type apps, but I thought this one might be handy for students in K-3 to practice their sight words. Sight Words by dropthetyrrany.com provides students with a student friendly interface. Students can click on a word to hear the word said properly. The sight word flash cards are divided into PP, P, 1,2, 3, and Nouns. I could not see a tracking feature, but for some practice of 315 sight words it is fine. It is free and, thankfully, advertisement free.

Add the app to your browser by going to the chrome menu > more tools > extensions. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select More Extensions then type Sight Words in the search box.

3 Tools Activity - Minds On Technology

Think about these three learning technologies. Choose the one that you either liked to use the most or that you think you learnt the most with. Then think deeply about the "why" you made that choice. How would you characterize the "why"?

A Third Way - Mixed Methods Approaches to the Assessment of Learning

Lately there have been a lot of posts and tweets about how the abolition of grades (marks) could improve student learning. These arguments normally focus on the difficulty of using quantitative measures to assess student learning. The upshot being that qualitative measures are the only valid approach to the assessment of student learning. This argument is very reminiscent of the arguments in social science around the validity of quantitative versus qualitative research methods. As in the case of those heated debates we need to tone down the rhetoric and recognise the value in different approaches to assessment. 

Part of the reason for the vociferous attacks being made on measuring student achievement using grades is the focus, to the exclusion of all other methods, of the accountability movement on quantitative measures of student achievement. To over emphasis on grades as the sole measure of student achievement have led some to conclude that grades (numbers) are not a valid measure of student learning. This is unfortunate. There are many circumstances - measuring a specific knowledge attainment or skill development - in which a number grade, percentage mark etc could be a valid indication a specific learning. Of course, if this is all you relied upon as an indication of student learning you would be doing your students a injustice. The mark will not provide a whole picture of the student's learning. 

However, what needs to be remembered is that qualitative methods cannot tell the whole story either. Each method is suited to different learning and teaching situations. And therein lies the rub, the arguments of the no grades and the accountability movements are actually about different approaches to teaching and learning. With both sides claiming their approach is the panacea that will save our students and public education. 

The problem is that neither approach has proven to be the panacea it claims to be. Perhaps there is a third way that honours both approaches. In research, the blending of quantitative and qualitative research methods is known as mixed methods. When done by experience practitioners, mix method research carefully balances the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches to accurately tell more of the story than using a single approach can. Educators can use the same mixed method approaches in their assessment practice. 

An example of how this approach can be used effectively is the Ontario Elementary report card. When properly completed this report card provides both quantitative and qualitative information on the student's achievement. The connection between grades and comments in the report card needs to be explicit. The grades and comments need to be based on a philosophy of providing a foundation for further learning NOT a final judgement. The report card should seek to describe both process and product. of course this should mean that teachers are observing, providing feedback on, and reporting on process throughout the school year, not just on reports. While the Ontario Elementary report card may not be perfect, it at least attempts to strike a balance between quantitative and qualitative assessment. 

Work certainly needs to continue on educating parents, students, and teachers about how it is "not all about grades", but abandoning quantitative  measures in favour of qualitative measures is a mistake. It is time for educators to come together and think deeply about how we can use mixed methods approaches to assessment to improve student learning. 

Reflective Questions

As I wrote this article some questions, as always, sprung to mind.

If one accepts that there is parental and student attachment to grades is there some intrinsic human need for external recognition by the "community" through some means or is this something imposed and made intrinsic by the system?

Is there a correlation between one's teaching practice/philosophy and their support for either quantitative or qualitative approaches?

Mindomo Now Has Live Outline View

Mindomo, a mind mapping app that works in GAFE, now has a live outline view. This is a really exciting development. Now you can view mind maps in either in outline view or in mind map view. How does it work?

Create a mind map as you normally would. If you want to see an outline view, just click the menu item and select the "View as outline" option. This will change your view to outline view. You can add new items to your outline and these are automatically added to your mind map.  If you want to switch back to mind map view, just click the menu item and select "View as mind map."

As always in GAFE you can share and collaborate if you wish. You can do this in both mind map and outline view. When collaborating in outline view the look is much like it is in Google Docs. 

For more information Outline View click here. 

New to Mindomo? You can find out more about Mindomo here.

Augmented Reality with Aurasma

Augmented reality (AR) is the next step beyond QR Codes. With AR you create "targets" or "triggers" in the real world. When someone scans the real world with their device and hits a trigger, the live view is augmented by stored digital content called an overlay. This content could be a video, image, or sound file. AR is being used in museums, tourist attractions, and, of course, advertising. In the case of a museum, a patron can scan a statue and a video will open on the phone describing the history and importance of the statue. While the video is playing the patron can still see the statue. 

The application of AR for teaching an learning is in its early days. As it progresses more and more ideas of how to use AR will come out. Beyond simple identification and information pieces, AR could be used throughout the assessment, learning, and discovery processes. As always, I would like to see students using AR to create their own triggers and auras. How about having the students research a field trip site prior to going their and making the establishment of triggers and linking of auras to the actual location one of the goals of the field trip? 

One of the apps that can be used to create AR is Aurasma. Aurasma has two "parts", if you will. There is an app that is free and has iOS and Android versions. The app is for use on a smart phone and allows you to "scan" for triggers using the devices camera. In the non-commercial version of the app you are limited to creating triggers and overlays that you can view. However, on your chromebook, PC, or MAC you can use the free online Aurasma Studio to create and share your triggers with others. One important note is that in the non-commercial version other people's triggers will only work if you are following them. You can follow people through the Aurasma Studio interface. You do need to sign up for an account to make all this work, but accounts are free for non-commercial users. 

Aurasma Studio

The possibilities provided by AR are mind-boggling. Aurasma has some great examples on their site. This really is a technology you need to play with and discover ways to reach those learning objectives. What I really like about it is the way it links technology directly to the environment.

Using QR Codes in the Classroom

In my last post I wrote about how to create and read QR Codes. In this post I will suggest a few ways to use QR Codes in your class. As always with technology we focus on the learning first not the tool. 

Example 1: Scavenger Hunt en Francais.

A french teacher is using QR codes in her class. The learning objective is around students reading for understanding. The teacher creates a series of QR codes and links them to instructions written in french. The QR codes and instructions create a series of "paths" the students follow to complete the scavenger hunt. There are different "paths" depending which QR code is scanned first so no all students are following the same path. Once the students have tried a few of the scavenger hunts, they are asked to create their own scavenger hunts in groups using QR codes. These are then shared with other students.

Example 2: Science Bridge Building Fair. 

Students in a science class use QR codes as part of their Bridge Building Fair. Students are learning about forces acting on structures. Before the Bridge Building Fair, students work in groups to build and test bridges to learn about the forces acting on them. As they go through the process of building the bridges; videos, audio recordings, and notes are posted to a blog that captures each groups' learning. Students then create QR codes linked to their blogs. During Bridge Building Fair week, students put their bridges in the library with their QR codes attached. Other students, teachers, and parents visiting the fair can simply scan the QR code to get an in depth look at how the product was created and what was learned in during the process. 

Example 3: A New Technology is Delivered to the Classroom

The learning objective, in this case, is how to connect or used the device with existing devices in the classroom. A QR code is attached to the device. When it is scanned, a link to a web page is provided that gives step-by-step instructions, videos, documentation, and links to the help desk. 

Just three examples and I am sure you can think of many more. 

QR Code Creation with Chrome Extensions

QR Codes are those little boxes with tiny shapes inside them that you seen in many places today. QR Codes are used to provide links from the code to a page, image, text, or other information on the web. The QR Code next to this text was created using a chrome extension and links to this blog. 

QR Codes are made using a QR Code generator. Once a QR Code is created, you need a QR Code Reader to get the information it is linked to. QR Code generators come in various flavours. In this post, I want to focus on a Chrome Extension that will quickly create a QR Code for a web page you are viewing or present text that you have entered.

QR Code Icon

PixelOwner's QR Code Creator is an extension that you add to your chrome browser in the normal way.   Once you have added the QR Code Creator extension you simply navigate to the page you would like to share and click on the QR Code Creator icon. This will open a small dialogue box that shows the QR Code generated for the page you are viewing or you can type text in the text filed to add text. This is a very simply QR Code generator. You can snip or screenshot the QR Code and copy and paste it to a page or print it out. Then anyone with a QR Code reader can access that page or text. The QR Code on this page is a link to this blog. 
Download one of the many free QR Code Readers to your phone and try it out. Then try one of the many QR Code Creator extensions in Chrome

There are many inventive and engaging ways to use QR Codes in the classroom and that will be the topic of my next post.