Technology Based Rubrics, Clicker Assessment Tools, and Inspiration/Kidspiration Software

       I honestly do not believe I'll ever have to make up my own rubric! Wow. Looking through http://www.rubrician.com and http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html there is a vast number of choices of different types and examples available on the internet. There were a bunch of broken links on the first link, but these aren't these only two websites for this type of thing. These will be very useful for grading projects and papers fairly using a point system as they seem to be easily modified for any situation.

       Clicker assessment tools could be extremely useful for keeping the attention of a student and their interest in a subject heightened during a lecture. I was looking through the Quizdom website and it has all sorts of different things the remotes can be used for including educational games. I'm imagining a situation where I'm doing a lecture then move on to a science game about the planets where each side of the classroom is a team, answering questions for points. The person who clicks in the answer the fastest gets the point! Now that would get them to really soak in the knowledge. In my journal critique, it was interactive software that really helped motivate students to learn more. In the end, they scored much better on knowledge tests. I see a lot of potential with a tool like this. 


       As I mentioned with the previous clicker assessment tools, using these type of interactive technologies with learning have been proven to work as per my journal critique. They keep the attention of a student and keep them motivated to continue to learn. If my school would be able to allow such a budget for Inspiration.com's programs, I would absolutely use them as continued learning for students to do at home or, if there is time and the right amount of computers, maybe use it while they are in class as a once a week type of lesson.

Sources:

http://www.rubrician.com

http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html 

http://www.qwizdom.com/

Inspiration.com 

Visualizing With Technology

       Digital story telling as explained by Kate Kemker is a process that allows students to understand how a well told story unfolds and is created. It allows the students to work together as a team to create a storyboard through research and planning, actual videotaping, and postproduction editing via a digital video editor such as iMovie or Adobe Premiere. I think it would work well in one of my future science classrooms. I believe that students would have to do some really good research to set up an appropriate storyboard all the while building a memory of the knowledge they are gathering to present on video. Going over and over the information as they plan our their presentation would allow better retention which would be great benefit for them.

       Using computer graphics can help a student to visualize mathematical concepts and be very useful to demonstrate real life math as it applies to real world applications. Certain pieces of software are available that can help a student visually see geometry and other mathematical subjects. Graphing calculators also are another way to visualize math. Making it easier for a student to jump back and forth between the actual numbers and a graph has proven effective as a tool to help ease the learning process of math.

       According to our textbook, television can be "...a powerful learning tool when students are critical users and producers rather than consumers." So my answer would be no, students can not learn how to do something merely from watching TV instruction. They must somehow be engaged in the program. By just "consuming" what is on the TV, they are not reaching their full learning potential. To take advantage of such a thing, they need to somehow be involved it the information being set forth through an activity, such as producing their own video.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning With Technology(3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: Pearson/Prentice Hall.