Active e Learningg: • Requires all stude ents to partiicipate ntimes involvves some so ort of discusssion process • Often • Can m move into a ccooperative or collaboraative learnin ng project
Directtions for C Cadres: • Workk with Content Teams • Selecct one link fro om content links and onne link from either Discu ussion Resou urces or Alte ernative Learning Tools ((two links to otal) to explo ore • Explo ore the links,, think aboutt how you w will use in you ur classroom m and post your plan in the C Cadre Meeting Form Discussion Resources: ‐
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So ocrative: Smaart Response system that can use any ddevice to enggage studentss with educational exerciises and game es via smartpphones, laptops, iPads, etcc (show video) FREE A APP‐ watch th he video on hhow it works. Sccribblar: Real‐time multi‐u user whiteboard, allows teeachers and sstudents to co ollaborate on nline in a p private room dents in a privvate online‐ Collaborize Claassroom: fostters engaged participation from all stud disscussion forum m, provides sstructure and variety to disscussion. Em mbed mu ulti‐media, picctures, pdfs tto discussionss in the safe sspace of the Collaborize Classsroom, whichh is open 24//7/365. Results can be published on th he Collaborizee page with grraphics.
Tools: Alternativve Learning T ‐
Pixton: Comic Creator, ‘The e World’s Besst Way to Ma ke Comics’. KKickstart your creativity w with presets, tem mplates and c haracters. Co ollaborate with others‐ creeate with friendss, even at the same time, w with Team Co omics. Login ffor demonstration: Screen N Name: CMS__Cougar Password: cougar
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Wallwisher: W W Wallwisher is aan online nottice board, ideeal for making announcem ments, keepin ng notes and things you caan do with Po ost‐its and mo ore. No user registration is needed‐ making it greeat to use with students! SSome on, online discussions, ideas: collecting ideas ffor exploratio examples, posting projeects, evaluating a theme / topic‐ check out deas in: 32 In teresting Waays to Use WaallWisher in th he all of the id Classroom Blogging: You can always b blog with the NNPS Comm unity pages (ssee the Couggar Reading W Wall as an n example). However, if yyou want a m more user‐frie ndly bloggingg exxperience, yo ou can try a to ool like KidBlo og.org‐ designned for teach hers who want to p provide each student with h an individuaal blog, safe aand simple, th hat allow students to publish poosts and participate in discussio ons within a seecure classro oom commun nity. Teacherss maintain co omplete co ontrol over sttudent blogs. et is a webtoo ol that aims too allow studeents to easily create study lists, HeadMagnet: Head Magne rapidly m memorize new w material an nd automaticaally track whaat they havve learned. Liists can be sh hared, saved aand edited byy others. TThis is a very cool way to u use digital flashcards.
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Curriculum m Bits: Free In nteractive Teaaching Resou rces. Correctt technique iss demonstrateed, studen nts can work w with each oth her to see if th hey are usingg correctt technique (tthis is for PE, for Art theree is Making a Sprig Mould,, Making a Claay Coil Pot orr Copying a Piicture, for Vo oyager there is Learning Voocabulary Tecchniques eate diagramss online, real time collaborration! Cacoo o is a user frieendly online Cacoo: Cre drawin ng tool that aallows you to create a varieety of diagram ms such aas site maps, w wire frames aand network charts. Cacoo can be use ed free of chaarge. Multiplee users can sh hare and editt one diagraam simultaneoously. Changges are shown n on the sharers screen n in real time..
English: ‐
SttoryBird: Collaborative wrriting site, allo ows studentss to select artw work, create story, work co ollaborativelyy with other sstudents on w writing then ppublish story o online. Example story: A Tiicked Off TInkk. Videos guide teachers tthrough the pprocess ‐ Google Lit Trrips: Takes Google Earth aand what the students are reading and connects theem in ways that we w ere formerly nnot possible. For example, in ‘The Watsons Go to Birming G gham’, stude nts can actuaally travel from m Flint, Michigan on the journe o ey with the W Watsons to Birrmingham, Allabama and see the locations t that were soo important in n the story. D Download thee .kmz file and it will f l open in Gooogle Earth. In ncludes ‘Quesstion Stops’ th hat provide discussion points fo or the story (ccan move bacck and forth b between street view and ssky viiew) ‐ Folding Storyy: Write. Fold d. Pass. FoldingStory is a group storyteelling game. When you siggn up you enter the fold. You can check ou ut suggestions, join an opeen story or reaad finished st ories. Add a line, fold and d pass it on. C Check out the finished stories.
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WeDebateIt: C W Create an onlline debate fo or students‐ i nteractive, sttudents don’tt have to sign in. Great visu ual to show sttudents who are pro and w who are again nst once the ttopic is posted.. Students caan post topicss for debate, tthen respond d with commeents as pro or against. Fllocabulary‐ Th he Week in R Rap: Summarizes importannt current eveents in the fo ormat of a rap p song (30 0‐day free triaal). Each Fridaay ‘The Weekk in Rap’ bringgs you: a currrent eve ents music vid deo, news sum mmaries, linkks to full news stories, actiivities and d quizzes to test compreheension. Historical Tweets: What w would history’s major even ts look like if they had beeen tweeted? Ch hose the category on the rright (includin ng the time peeriod)‐ have students create e their OWN vversion of thee ‘tweet of hiistory’‐ 140 haracters or le ess per line! ch wHistory: Tw wHistory is about helping sstudents expeerience a slicee of time thro ough the eyess of Tw ano other person. The aggregaate of these p personal experiences can then give e a unique perspective of aan event in hiistory. It’s du ull to memorize the events of the e 13 days of tthe Cuban Missile Crisis for a pop quiz, but it ps the F‐bomb b on Twitter getss your attentiion when Mc Namara drop because the worrld is about too end in a big nuclear fireb ball. The proccess for students to live history: PPick an event. Pick a perso on. Do the re esearch and p prepare the TTweets. Then watch historry unfold via TTwitter.
Science: ‐
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Sh hout: Shout iinvites educators and stud dents to take an active rolee in global en nvironmental issues. Connecct online to innteract with eexperts in thee field, share ideas an nd collaborate with peoplee around the world who, like you, are co ommitted to ssolving enviroonmental chaallenges. Sho out gives paarticipants a fframework foor success witth resources and tools for exxercising social responsibi lity while building the 21stt century skillss of co ollaboration, innovation and critical thinking. Whenn students aree connected tthrough te echnology and empowered d to build acttivities in thei r own way th he learning exxperience extends faar beyond the e four walls off the classroo om. Check outt the list of arrchived and u upcoming acctivites. Material World M ds Simulation ns: Play and e experiment w with the growing collection n of maaterialworlds simulations aand get a feeel for the forcees at the heart of the physical wo orld. Materia lworlds creattes real‐time live simulatio on activities like brridges, laws oof motion, craash, kinetic gaas theory and d mo ore. mulation labs from the ‘Buuilding Big’ TV V show, gives students the Building Big Laab: Virtual sim change to exp c perience virtuually the forcees, loads, matterials and sh hapes while building w g bridges, dom mes, skyscrap pers dams and tunnels.
Math: ‐
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Visual.ly: The world’s large est communityy for sharing infographics and visualizaations. Exploree‐ See the best i S bmit nfographics oon the web all in one placee. Share‐ sub your designs t y to get exposuure and feedb back. Create‐‐ we’re building the tools of th t he future (vieew the labs) Sllader: Slader is a social community built around shaaring answerss and explanaations of Math h te extbook quesstions. With aa uniquely so cial quality to o the site, useers are asked to su ubmit answe rs to their ho omework texttbook questio ons and explanations to them tthrough the eengine on thee site, or even n as a picture of the homework n otebook or teextbook. Payyment is even n offfered for stu udents who sh hare explanattions and ansswers. There is even a social communitty asspect comple ete with profilles that let students conneect on the sitee. Su umDog: Sum mDog is a greaat site with math Games thhat are free to o play, eitherr at home or aat With over 100 numeracy to opics, split into o 10 levels, m most school. W of the gam mes are multi‐‐player, allow wing studentss to play again nst thousandss of peers wo rldwide. Thee games are d designed to bee engaging aand fun, help ing students enjoy develo oping their numeracy skills. Speciaal contests fo or Virginia‐ win prizes and compete aagainst other students.
Planning for Plagiarism-Proof Assignments Tip Sheet for Teachers The following is adapted, with permissions from the author, Doug Johnson, from the article “PlagiarismProofing Assignments” published in Phi Delta Kappan, March 2004
Much effort is expended in education trying to “catch” plagiarism in student work. Teachers and library media specialists are using various Web services and techniques using search engines to determine if or how much of student writing is lifted from online sources. Our time as educators is perhaps better spent creating research assignments that minimize the likelihood of plagiarism in the first place. Rather than making assignments that can be easily plagiarized and then contriving methods for detecting or reducing copying, why not do a little work upfront to design projects that require original, thoughtful research? Qualities of LPP (Low Probability of Plagiarism) projects: 1.
LPP projects have clarity of purpose and expectations. This information is clearly communicated to students and available to parents.
2.
LPP research projects give students choices. Dig down and look at the core concepts your research assignments are trying to teach, and let the students pick a specific subject that interests them.
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LPP projects are relevant to the student’s life. So many times we ask our students to research important topics – environmental issues, historical issues, health issues – but fail to help them make the vital connection of why the findings are important to themselves or the people in town in which they live. The I-Search approach suggests that “the topic should choose you.” See http://www.literacymatters.org/content/isearch/intro.htm
4.
LPP projects ask students to write in a narrative rather than an expository style. The ISearch techniques also suggest that students write about not just what they discovered, but the story of how they went about gathering their findings.
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LPP projects stress higher level thinking skills and creativity. Think how different the results of a science project are than a paper that simply asks an “about” question. “Write a research paper about ice.” Boring! Instead brainstorm an original theory, design a means of testing it, and find ways to effectively communicate your findings. Suddenly we’ve moved up on Bloom’s taxonomy from the knowledge and inference levels right to application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. More fun and impossible to copy.
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LPP projects answer real questions. Unfortunately, teachers rarely ask questions to which they do not believe they know the answer. Diminishing to the student; boring for the teacher.
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LPP projects involve a variety of information finding activities. As library media specialists, teachers and parents, we are comfortable with our familiar primary sources of reference books, magazine indexes and trade books. Yet the answers to many personal, local and timely questions cannot be found in them. They can provide excellent background information, but often we need to talk to experts, conduct surveys, design experiments or look at other kinds of primary sources to get precise information that is meaningful to individuals.
The Research Project Calculator is based on the MINITEX project developed in part by University of Minnesota Libraries. http://www2.infohio.org/rpc/docs/step1/PlagiarismProof.doc
8.
LPP projects tend to be hands-on, allowing students to learn by doing, not just listening. Corollary skills are also practiced in this type of “research” project: writing skills, interviewing skills, photography skills, layout/design skills and speaking skills.
9.
LPP projects use technology to spur creativity. Whether for planning, for research or for communication, many students find the use of technology motivating.
10. LPP projects use formats that use multiple senses. Our ability to digitize and present information is no longer restricted to the written word but now can include drawings, photos, sounds, music, animations and movies. All are formats that carry important and often unique information. 11. LPP projects can be complex, but are broken into manageable steps. This helps students to master corollary planning and time management skills in the process. Large projects can be overwhelming even for adults, but planning smaller steps, building timelines, creating frequent deadlines and scheduling multiple conferences turn complexity into manageability. 12. LPP projects are often collaborative and produce results that are better than individual work. Joint problem solving, assigning and accepting responsibility and discovering and honoring individual talents help create a synergy that can result in better, more satisfying results than students working alone might produce. Not every project needs to be a joint effort, however real-world work environments increasingly stress teamwork. 13. LPP projects have results that are shared with people who care and respond. Kids get hooked because adults take the time to really look at the work they have done and comment on it. Assessments and reviews by peers, experts and neighbors (any audience beyond the teacher) are common in scouting, athletics, dramatics, 4-H and music organizations. Knowing others will be looking and may detect plagiarism helps reduce its likelihood. 14. LPP projects are authentically assessed. Quality indicators like rubrics and checklists that are given to students when an assignment is made can help guide learning and keep guesswork to a minimum. As students become more sophisticated in the research process, they can choose or design their own “rules of quality,” one of the indicators of a genuinely intrinsically motivated person. 15. LPP projects allow the learner to reflect, revisit, revise and improve their final projects. Good projects, like gardens, musical repertoires and relationships, are probably always works in progress. If students misuse information gathered from another source, they should be given the chance to correct the mistake. 16. LPP projects are encouraged by adults who believe that given enough time, resources and motivation, all students are capable of original work. It’s not just the talented and gifted student who can make choices, solve problems creatively, and complete complex tasks. These parents, teachers and library media specialists know that most students rise to the level of performance expected of them, and that great ideas can come from anyone in the class. For more information about Doug Johnson’s work, go to: http://www.doug-johnson.com/welcome/
The Research Project Calculator is based on the MINITEX project developed in part by University of Minnesota Libraries. http://www2.infohio.org/rpc/docs/step1/PlagiarismProof.doc