Web 2.0 Tools for Assessment
Developed for Orchard Park School District

Web 2.0 Digital Tools for Assessment

This presentation will highlight how various free or low-cost Web 2.0 tools can be used at the elementary level (K-6) with diverse learners as a form of assessment of student learning. Participants will also see how certain Web 2.0 tools enable teachers to easily follow Universal Design for Learning for instruction and assessment. Examples will be given of how they are being used in elementary classrooms and resources will be shared so that participants will be able to use these resources in their own classrooms on Monday!

CAUTION: DON'T PUT THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE!!

Identify the standard you want to meet and THEN

Identify the technology that will help you and your students demonstrate mastery of that standard.

For suggestions on how you can help your students create more robust digital projects, read this brief article from ISTE:

Where's the Beef? Adding Rigor to Student Digital Products

Universal Design for Learning

List your ideas or questions on the backchannel for today's session:

 Common Core Learning Standards

Examples of the shift on digital tools and new literacies in the Common Core.

Production and Distribution of Writing

 Writing Standards K-5

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Speaking and Listening Standards

QR Codes

What are they?

QR codes are 2 dimensional computer-generated codes that can be scanned and read by mobile devices (with cameras) or webcams.

There are many ways that QR Codes can be used in a classroom. In regards to assessment, here are just a few ideas:

• Use them for self-checking answers. When students have completed a quiz, test, assignment, or student guide, they can check their work by scanning a QR code which will take them to the answers.
• Use them to link to assessments at the end of books: Teachers can create any type of assessment at the end of a story or book and then create a QR code for it. The student simply has to scan the QR code which can take the learner to a website where they need to input the answer (Google Forms in one easy way to do this).

Creating a QR Code

Step 1:  

You can generate QR codes by using an application or a website. If you want to use a mobile device (such as an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad2, there are free apps to let you create them). If you want to create them from your computer, here are some sites you should try:

• http://goqr.me/
• http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
• http://www.snapmaze.com/ 

These two sites will even let you make QR codes in different colors!!

• http://keremerkan.net/qr-code-and-2d-code-generator/
• http://www.qrstuff.com/index.html

All you have to do is input the web address of what you want the QR code to bring up and it will appear when scanned with a QR reader.

Step 2: Save the QR code as a picture/graphic on your device/computer. You can then insert the image in a word document to distribute.

It is so simple: Even a primary level student can use it. Watch!

Why is this beneficial to ALL learners?

QR Codes can be used easily by a number of students. Instead of having to type in long web addresses, students can simply scan a QR code. Many students benefit from immediate feedback on their performance; QR codes as answer keys can help in that regard. Teachers can also use QR codes to share additional information to make a worksheet come alive. Many students will benefit from hearing a video about a certain topic and the inclusion of a QR code could really help more students have access to the info.

More QR Resources:

Look how two WNY schools are using QR Codes in their schools:

Using QR Codes on iPhone or iPod touch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VliB7EcGWI&feature=related

Using Google Forms for Assessment

To get started, you need to go to your gmail account (www.gmail.com) OR sign up for a FREE account at www.gmail.com

What are Google Forms?

• Cloud-based online assessments with free data storage
• Viewable from any computer with internet access
• Enables you to share the results with others and even create assessments collaboratively
• Saves on printing
• Data is stored - no more losing student papers

How to Create the Form:

Here's a video explaining step by step how to set up your own online assessment using Google Forms:

How can Google Forms be Used for Assessment?

• Forms used for self grading quizzes
• Embed practice quizzes on a blog or website to give students additional practice before a big test. You find out right away their understanding of the material.
• Form to keep track of classroom behavior.

• Graph the results of a survey using the embedded graphing tools

• Students could create their own google form assessment after a unit of study. this could strenthen their understanding about effective questions and they can complete others' quizzes to boost their understanding. You can even take some of the questions they created and use them for your own teacher made assessment! (Idea taken from http://edte.ch/blog/2008/08/23/10-google-forms-for-the-classroom/)

• Get feedback from parents. Ask them for their insights or opinions on certain topics.
• Collect book reports
• Use as exit tickets (See example on the right).
• Keep track of discipline referrals
• Here's a sample form that could be used to collect peer feedback on class presentations: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=ck1KaF9MSFRyT3B4aEd2QkJOM3VuTmc6MA..
• Kern Kelly's Google Forms templates - includes self-grading quizzes, response to Literature form, Science Fair judging forms, and more!!! Excellent Resource https://sites.google.com/site/kernkelley/forms

Here's a view of what the spreadsheet looks like when there is data to be examine:

Voicethread

What is it?

(voicethread.com)

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too. With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install. Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

Here is a Voicethread showing how a third grade class used this tool to comment on their weather poems.

Voicethread Continued

Students in first grade give narration to the photos from their field trip to the beach to demonstrate their knowledge about marine life:

Want to get started? Here is a voicethread on how to do it:

Why is this beneficial to ALL learners?

Voicethread allows its users to comment in a variety of ways. For example, to respond to a prompt, users can write a text response, record a video or an audio response, and they can comment while using a drawing tool. All learners can demonstrate their knowledge instead of being limited to simply writing their answers. In addition, some learners may learn better from having multiple representations of the content. Because it can be shared easily, it also provides an authentic audience for student work.

GlogsterEDU

What is it?

GlogsterEDU allows you to create "interactive posters" to communicate ideas. Students can embed media links, sound, video, and then share their posters with friends.Glogster EDU is a secure learning polaftorm for teachers and students (Glogster is for people not in education and it is not secure. It may even be blocked in some schools).

Why is this beneficial to ALL learners

It is a unique tol that allows students to communicate their learning as well as their creativity. Students can find videos and images to demonstrate their knowledge and they can record their own voice explaining the content. It allows for much student choice and can easily be shared.

How to Create a Glog:

Here's how a fourth grade teacher used glogster in her classroom for social studies. GREAT ideas!:

Here is a link to a website where a teacher posted all of her students' glogs:

Here's a glog of the best science glogs:

Educreations

http://www.educreations.com

What is it?

Educreations is an application available on the internet and it is also a mobile app available on mobile devices such as iPads, iPods, iPhones. It can be used by teachers and students to explain anything (homework assignments, content, lessons that were taught, etc.) and students can access it whenever they need it via a teacher's website or channel on Educreations. Students can also use this tool to show their reasoning or their processes in solving a problem.

Here's a link to the FREE app for your apple mobile device: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?mt=8

(Sorry, the app is not available for Android devices right now.)

Here is an example of a teacher creating a screencast of video to explain the math concept of fractions.

Here is an example of how a teacher helped students understand their homework regarding identifying details in a paragraph:

Teachers have also used it to have students read their own stories:

Here is an link to a teacher's lessons/homeowrk explanations: http://www.educreations.com/profile/582592/

Why is this beneficial for ALL learners:

Students can use them to help them understand content but they can also create them for their classmates to help them with their understanding. Teachers could require students explain their reasoning and show their work and talk through it. Some students may be better able to explain themselves by verbally explaining their thoughts or processes and this allows them to do that and capture if for the teacher or any others.

More information:

Frequently Asked Questions about Educreations: http://www.educreations.com/faq/#student-accounts

Here's a video tutorial on how to use it in the iPad:

If you want more bells and whistles and are willing to pay a bit more, check out the Explain Everything App: http://www.explaineverything.com/index.html

you also might want to try out Dabbleboard (www.dabbleboard.com)

Making Rubrics with Rubric Maker and Rubistar

Using online rubric generators allow teachers to reate free and simple rubrics for various classroom projects.Providing a rubric to students BEFORE they complete a project or assessment is important. It allows students to be aware of the materials they are required to know and the standards they must meet. It also provides parents a hard copy of teacher expectations and allow for communication about performance. These generators provide an emphasis on project-bsed work which is how many students learn and best demonstrate their knowledge.

Rubric Maker

To visit the website, click here

Use the Rubric Maker to make customized assessments for student work. You can create rubrics for primary, elementary, middle, and high school. The default text has been written to be appropriate for each level. After choosing a title and grade level for the rubric, you will be able to choose and edit a variety of existing performances, as well as create performances specific to the content your class is studying.

You could also use the rubric builder tool available from RCampus: Watch the video below to learn how to do it:

Rubistar

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Rubistar is another free tool to help teachers create quality rubrics. You can choose a customizeable rubric form a variety of topics and you can change it to your liking.

Why is this beneficial for ALL learners?

Although this resource would most likely be used by the teacher themselves, the students benefit GREATLY from this tool. When rubrics are shared before they are used as an assessment tool, the expectations are known to students and they are more likely to meet the standards held by the teachers. Rubrics create a common language and expectation and clear up the guess work. Most importantly, after they have been created they make grading for teachers a MUCH EASIER JOB!!!!

Additional Resources for Web 2.0 Tools

What do we mean by Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a term coined in 1999 to describe web sites that use technology beyond the static pages of earlier web sites. The term is closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference which was held in late 2004.^[1][2] Although web 2.0 suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specification, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web.

A Web 2.0 site may allow users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.^[3]

(Taken from

)

Other Cool Tools to Check Out:

Wallwisher (http://wallwisher.com) - they give you a nearly blank page (a wall). you put anything you want on it, anywhere. simple yet powerful.

Prezi (http://prezi.com) - is a cloud based prewentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas

Socrative (http://www.socrative.com/) = it is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

 Cool Tools for School

A Parting Thought:

Additional Questions?

Contact me:

Marya Grande grandem@canisius.edu