Topics #3 & #4

TOPIC #3
Poll Everywhere

I have not used Poll Everywhere in class but was exposed to it in a technology workshop. It obviously will be come more and more useful as more students have cell phones with unlimited texting. Since you only get one vote per cell phone/computer students could not share cell phones with each other to vote. Since it does allow for other methods it would allow for students who don't have cell phones to vote. I made a quick survey about one of my colleagues. Of course the real key as to whether this gets used in class is how the teacher is using the poll - does the teacher want to survey the students over the course of a day or two or does the teacher want to survey the students in class and provide immediate feedback/have a discussion about the question/s. It will all depend on ease of use.

This jogged my mind into something else I've been wanting to look into which is often mentioned on Twitter - QR Codes. Steven Anderson (who has some great technology things) has let up a Livebinder on QR Codes in Education http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=51894. I really need to investigate QR codes

Hot Potatoes
I downloaded Hot Potatoes and checked out the formats for doing quizzes. It looks like a really nice program. I couldn't figure out how to get the quiz to be posted on the internet - it was late at night and I will need to go back and check it out. I am wondering if it records student scores somewhere like making a quiz on Google Forms does?

TOPIC #4
Story Jumper
This is certainly a fun program and easy to use. The characters are somewhat "youngish" for junior high level students doing a history project. I tried it out and made a one page book about Bigfoot. I really like how it actually looks like it is turning the pages. As always - sometimes the amount of time students spend with these fun and creative web 2.0 programs takes away from the time that they are using analyzing history so I always caution students - "This isn't a technology class and if you find yourself spending too much time with all of the fun gadgets, you may want to find a program that will not distract you."