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Matt’s Media Tips 10-1 Getting Quizzy Wit’ it. In past editions I’ve shown you how to embed different things into the Writing Prompt Builder (see embedding infographic in Matt’s Media Tips 9/10/2012 and eReader in Matt’s Media Tips 9/13/2011 editions). This week I’d like to highlight the features and functionality of the Discovery Education Quiz Builder. We start our journey the same way we began the others by logging into www.discoveryeducation.com and clicking on the Builder Tools drop down box. At this point you can choose one of two paths. If you’re a get-me-to-the-thing-I-want-rightaway kind of person then click on the words “Quiz Builder” in the drop down menu. If you’re a hey-I-just-want-to-see-what’s-outthere-and-finish-my-cup-of-coffee-first kind of person then click on the words “Builder Tools” to bring you to the Discovery Education Builders landing page. Either way is cool and both paths will converge on the Quiz Builder starting page (shown on the next page). If you’ve chosen the latter path then simple click on either the blue “My Quizzes” to access quizzes you’ve already created (more on that later) or the blue “Create New Quiz” to get crackin’ on a new interactive quiz.
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Creating a New Quiz Ok our paths have converged and we should both be on the same page now. Let’s start some quizardry (oh yeah my friends I’ve got more where that’s come from). The next few steps are really designed for you to build in some background information about your quiz. Namely what’s the quiz going to be about (title), grade level, subject areas, instructions, etc. Other than serving as a great reminder for you, this information is really helpful when you start sharing your create content with others in your school and district. So go ahead and create your title and select your grade levels and subject areas, I’ll hang out and wait for you in the next paragraph. See I told you I’d wait. You’re doing great. Now it’s time to add some quiz instructions, objectives and/or notes about your quiz. The instructions are the steps you’ll want your students to follow before taking the quiz. If you haven’t entered in your state’s standards, learning objectives, etc in the title you can enter them in the objectives box. This box is an optional box. If you don’t fill out anything than it will not appear on screen when your students take this quiz. The notes section is optional as well. Your students will never see your notes. This section is meant to be a place holder for you to enter in something to remember like “Don’t ever let Matt sit next to Joe,” or things like that. Remember that you’ll need to click on the Edit box to open up the section and click on the Finish Editing box to close out the section.
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Note: When creating your title you could also enter your your state’s standard, learning objective, etc., as well. This way when you share your quiz with your school or district other educators can quickly see if it matches the content that they’re covering. I learned about that best practice from my friends in Collier County, FL!
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Feeling adventurous? Remember that the Quiz Builder works exactly like the Writing Prompt Builder. That means that you can embed most any web 2.0 tool into it (see page one for links to ideas and how-to instructions). Here are a few more ideas. 1. Create a concept map or digital bulletin board with sites like www.wallwisher.com or www.pinterest.com and embed them into your quiz.
Then instruct your students to sort, categorize, assemble, etc. items, words, images, before taking the quiz. Everything that you embed will be within the quiz framework and not on a different site. 2. Create a talking image using www.blabberize.com or www.voki.com to add audio and movement to your instruction.
Now go play, I’ll catch up with you on the next page.
Whew, you’re still with me. I’m glad I didn’t scare you off. By the way, embedding things is really not that hard. All you have to do is find something that has an embed symbol “<>” or the word “embed” and click on it. Then just copy all of that wonky code. After copying the code, click on the HTML symbol inside the Discovery Education Quiz Builder and paste in the code. When you click on the Finish Editing box you’ve locked it in. Sit back and pat yourself on the back and bask in your glory. You are well on your way to building this quiz. The next thing you can do (optional) is attach Discovery Education resources to the quiz. Remember anything that you attach at this point will appear before your student(s) take the quiz. You can attach as many things as you would like. You can search for this media either in the Discovery Education library by clicking on the blue Search button or by clicking on the or the stuff you’ve already bookmarked which is the My Content button. The screenshots to the right walk you through the steps of searching for something within the Discovery Education library. After clicking on the Search button a smaller search window will appear. You can enter in keywords and/or select grade, subject and media type filters. After completing these steps a new light-box will appear on your screen. It will give you a number of different things to choose from. To add any one/all of these things simply click on the orange +Add button. These steps are optional and so are the Settings. We’ll talk about setting the settings on the next page.
Use the HTML button to paste the embed code
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These boxes are where you’ll enter your instructions and add anything that you want to embed into your Quiz. Remember everything you enter in these boxes will appear before your students take the quiz.
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Settings: Right off the bat you have a few options that you can take advantage of if you would like. They are as follows: •
Receive an Email notification when a student completes this Quiz - If you have more than 10 kids I probably wouldn’t choose this option
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Present the Quiz “question by question” instead of “all at once.”
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Allow student to view graded quiz (with correct answers revealed).
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Allow student to take this quiz more than once - you get to see how many times the student takes the quiz and what scores they received on each quiz.
Adding Questions
8b(optional)
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Once you have completed these steps and chosen your options, it’s time to click on the purple “Save and Continue” button and move on to building your quiz questions. Note that you’ll be saving this quiz in your My Content area. You can save it into one of the folders that you’ve already created or create a new folder right there on the spot and save your new quiz within this folder. We’re in the homestretch now. It’s time to add the secret ingredients that what all good quizzes need - questions! You have two ways of entering questions. You can create your own or you can search for questions that we have already created for you.
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To create your own question click on the + Create A Question box. To search for a question that has already been created by the Discovery Education team, type in a keyword(s) and click on the Search button. Note that is easier to search for already created questions by keeping your search terms broader and not super specific. For example a search for “biomes” will yield a better return than a search for “habitat of the poisonous dart frog in South America.” Remember that you can always edit any pre-made Discovery Education question(s) that you select.
Creating a Question From Scratch After you’ve clicked on the + Create A Question box there are four different types of questions that you can create. They are as follows: • Single Answer • Multiple Answer • Short Answer • True/False The Quiz Builder will grade everything except the Short Answer response. Be sure to check out the optional “Display quiz questions in random order” feature. Also be sure to mark which of your answer choices is correct. Finally, when creating a question, you have the option to provide an explanation if the student gets the question wrong. Remember optional steps 8a and 8b? Those steps allowed you to add media before the students took your quiz? Well optional steps 14a and 14b allow your students to either see a piece of media appear when the question is presented to the student (14a) or when a student answers the question incorrectly (14b). Both of these resources are optional but you can only choose one or the other and not both at the same time. And just like before you can search the entire Discovery Education library or just the stuff that you’ve bookmarked in your My Content area. If adding pre-made questions is more your bag than all you have to do is search for a keyword (as mentioned above) and then click on the orange + Add button to add that question(s) to your quiz.
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Finishing up.
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Ok weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve created all of our questions for our quiz and now it is time to assign it. Click on the purple Save and Continue button. Then either assign the quiz to student(s) within a class that you have already created, or use the Assign by Code or URL button to cut and paste a link to the quiz that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve created. You can also set the start and due date for your quiz by adjusting your start and due dates. Note that this feature only works if you have created a class and assigned the quiz to a student(s) within that class. In other words, if you choose to assign this quiz with the code or URL you can not set the start and due dates. The other thing you can do by creating classes is differentiate who will be receiving your quiz. To select the students who will be receiving your quiz simply select your class and then check the students who you want to access the quiz when they log into Discovery Education.
16-17 Note to see your results, click on the Classroom Manager tab at the top of your screen and choose to see results by class, student or by Code/URL. And that, my friends, is that. You are now a Quizard of Quiz Builders!
Discovery Education Webinar Schedule Since this edition was dedicated to creating a quiz with the Discovery Education Quiz Builder I thought it would be appropriate to find an innovative mobile app that quizzes kids in an unique and fun way. Now, normally I try to highlight mobile apps that are free. But at $0.99 this app seems well worth the price.
Stack the States by Dan RussellPinson
Here is a little bit of the app’s description from their iTunes page: “As you learn state capitals, shapes, geographic locations, flags and more, you can actually touch, move and drop the animated states anywhere on the screen. Carefully build a stack of states that reaches the checkered line to win each level. You earn a random state for every successfully completed level. All of your states appear on your own personalized map of the United States. Try to collect all 50! As you earn more states, you begin to unlock the four free bonus games: Map It, Pile Up, Puzzler and Capital Drop. Four games in one!”
Help Me Make Matt’s Tips and Tricks Even Better I am always looking for ways to improve Matt’s Tips and Tricks and your feed back is invaluable to me. With that in mind I’ve created a short 15 question survey. I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts. If you can take a moment to fill out this super fast survey it will go a long way to making each edition better than the next!
Dates
Time (EST)
10/1
7pm 8pm
Discovery Education streaming 101 The webinar begins with the basics (logins and passwords) and moves quickly through searches, the Teacher Center and Builders, incorporating digital content with web 2.0 tools, and classroom building through our online organizational tools.
10/8
7pm 8pm
Discovery Education Science Elementary 101 From the overall structure of the elementary science curriculum to how to access and use reading passages and their accompanying eBooks, our interactive glossary, fundamentals, video segments, and 5-minute preps, this webinar maps the effective use of this powerful tool. The webinar also shows you how to use assignment builders and assessments to guide and measure your students’ understanding and mastery.
10/9
7pm 8pm
What’s the 4-1-1: Innovative Learning Environments. Do you notice certain students possess gobs of creative juices while others just want to be told what to do? This session will share some simple yet out-of-the box strategies to help students understand creativity and innovation and how to deal with stress. Imagine a learning environment in which ALL students can thrive.
10/9
8pm 9pm
Connecting and Collaborating In and Out of the Classroom. Join us as we model tools and techniques for connecting and collaborating in and outside the classroom. We?ll even provide opportunities for your students to work with peers from around the world.
10/10
5pm 6pm
Techbook Admin Webinar: Learn to use the tools and features of My Admin to support successful integration of Discovery Education Techbook. This training will cover: Navigation of the My Admin Site Managing User Accounts (students and teachers) Managing Student Access Running Usage Reports
Here is a link to their iTunes download
What is a DEN Star Member? The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and inperson. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more. Find out how you can be part of this dynamic and supportive community. Become a DEN Star today!
Link
Miss a week? Catch back up here! 2012-2013 School Year Archives 8/27/2012 Back to School Review. Check out some of the major enhancements made to Discovery Education over the summer. We'll give you a chance to weigh in, showcase a new back to school webinar series and highlight Nearpod, a very cool classroom mobile app. 9/4/2012
Opening up Closed Captions. Check out all of the new and enhanced ways to stream captioned content. We’ll also continue to explore the back-to-school webinars and play with EasyBib, an Android and iPad app that makes citing reference material a breeze.
9/10/2012 In-the-know about Infographics. This edition highlights the new 2012 election material within DE. It also dives into different ways that you and your students can evaluate and explain data by examining three different sites that create infographics. Sock Puppets, an iPad app that is animated by your voice, is also explored. 9/17/2012 Downloading Closed Captions Explore how to download closed captioned files and manipulate their text on both a PC and Mac. We'll also examine the TechChef4U app that links to many education apps! Finally, in this edition, I provide links to the Best of Matt's Tips and Tricks webinar resources. 9/24/2012 Five free tools from DE plus dne that’s too cool for school. We’ll also explore links to even more free resources and then play with a free mobile app, Sketch Nation Studio, that provides a simple game design/creation platform.
Miss a week? Catch back up here! 2011-2012 Archives 7/19/2012
Sneak peek at the back to school enhancements. Roadshow app.
6/11/2012
Fun things to do over the summer with technology and media. Mustacheme app is featured.
5/21/2012
The ins and outs of Digital Storytelling. Digital Storytelling Web 2.0 presentation and apps
5/14/2012
Who Knew We Had News? Find an additional set of free Discovery News videos, the Video Yearbook, video almanac, and great webinar information. Roadshow App for playing back videos on-demand is reviewed.
5/7/2012
4/30/2012
4/23/2012
My Five Favorite Summer Resources. We explore five free interactive sites that parents, students, and teachers can use over the summer. We’ll also explore a free translation app for mobile devices. Getting Your Game On. Finding great games, simulations and more within Discovery Education. Back-toSchool Sneak Peek Webinars announced. Futaba Classroom Games for Kids iPad app explored. Getting the Point with PowerPoint and Keynote. Learn how to trim audio & video in PPT and save both PPT & Keynote presentations as images to embed in Web 2.0 sites. 2 Screens and Joinme mobile presentation apps explored.
4/16/2012
It’s all about the Theme. We’ll explore several different ways to find unique thematic content. Three most voted upon stories revealed. Studyblue mobile flashcard app highlighted
4/9/2012
Scratch and Pop. Six-Word Story finalists revealed. Links between Discovery Education and
4/2/2012
3/26/2012
3/19/2012
3/12/2012
2/27/2012
Scratch.mit.edu, Popplet.com and EduTechr mobile app explored.
1/18/2012
Mi Content es Su Content. Bookmarking and sharing your Discovery Education content across your school and district, two great contests, and two text-to-sign mobile apps
In a Class of Their Own Setting up Discovery Education Classrooms, Discovery Education Live Webinars, Quizlet App.
1/9/2012
Building out the New Year Five of my favorite things you can do with the Discovery Education Builders, Rover App for DE Students
12/19/2011
Special Holiday Edition 13 Tips from Educators around the US and Canada, Videolicious App
12/12/2011
50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Tips and tricks galore iSwifter - Flash for iPads
11/28/2011
What I am Thankful for Building out your PLN Wordspree and Math Acorn Apps
11/14/2011
Things I Stole From the Community DEN Tips, Four really cool tips you can do with Google. TED and Animoto apps
11/7/2011
First Six Weeks Aggregated
11/4/2011
Creating an “iCenter" How to create an ePub using DE videos. Spirit of Innovation Challenge
10/24/2011
Spooky Edition Digital Storytelling, Web 2.0 Piqua City Community Night, Crazy Pumpkin and Halloween Card Creator Apps
10/17/2011
Stick it to IT Collaborative Note Taking Site Educator Spotlight - Jennifer Everett, ToonTastic and PuppetPals Apps
10/3/2011
Opening Up Closed-Captions Closed-Captions for Macs and PCs, 10 FAQs Customer Service Receives
9/26/2011
Common Core, Web 2.0 and DE Three cool sites that integrate nicely with Discovery Education. Administrator Spotlight - Molly Hay!
9/13/2011
Can you Hear what I’m Writing? Embedding an eReader into your Writing Prompts, Getting to know Discovery Education SCIENCE
Can You Picture it? Learn how to create a six-word story using iPiccy.com and Discovery Education. Digital Story Challenge! MeeGenius Audiobook app for mobile devices. Audio Book ‘em Dano. Eight simple steps for creating an audiobook using iTunes and any computer (Mac/PC). Molecules mobile apps. It’s All About The Sharing. Uploading, sharing and accessing your own content within Discovery Discovery Education. Cel.Ly app polling device via any device. Teacher Center Treasure Trove of Resources. Interactive Calendar Atlas, STEM Connect explored. Socrative App (student response).
2/13/2012
Special Valentines Issue - Things I love about Discovery Education. Five Minute Preps, Images,Coaches Eye App
2/6/2012
What did you say? Closed Captioning on an iPad? Getting Closed Captions to play on your iPad, GreenScreens on iPhone/iPad with GreenScreen FX app
1/30/2012
1/23/2012
Let’s Give Them Something To Sing About Differentiated Instruction Using Songs, First Student Media Contest of the Year, ShowMe and Educreations whiteboard apps Meet the Faces of Discovery Education Get up close and personal with the Discovery Education on-air talent, special student webinar series, Story Kit app