Evaluating Student Collaboration Projects
Tech Tip: Collaborate Online With Stixy
Photo Credit
44 Benefits of Cooperative Learning
Ted Panitz lists forty-four benefits of cooperative learning, including: develops communication skills, addresses learning style differences, models problem-solving skills, and establishes an atmosphere of cooperation.
Fifteen Common Mistakes in Using Cooperative Learning
The Instructional Innovation Network staff has created an excellent list of cooperative learning (CL) pitfalls and suggestions for planning successful CL experiences.
Potential Challenges With Cooperative Learning
The Starting Point staff at Carleton College provides tips on how to deal with “hitchhikers” and dominant personalities.
Rubrics to Evaluate Student Collaboration and Teamwork
UW-Stout online instructor Karen Franker has developed three ready-to-use rubrics for students and their instructors to effectively assess individual participation in group projects.
Primary Grade Self-Evaluation Teamwork Rubric (pdf)
Elementary Teamwork Rubric
Secondary Collaboration Rubric
Tech Tip – Collaborate Online With Stixy
Stixy is a free new Web-based tool that facilitates communication between learning teams, colleagues, friends and family. Stixy helps users share and organize tasks any way they want on Web-based bulletin boards called Stixyboards.
Users can create and upload: appointments; Microsoft Word, PDF and image files; photos, notes, and bookmarks and share them on a common space which is only viewable by group members. The visual interface with drag-and-drop Widget tools is user-friendly and invites exploration.
What Our Students Are Saying…
About the Digital Classroom: Teaching Information Literacy With Primary Sources class that begins on October 8:
“I learned so much from the assignments as well as my classmates in our online discussions. This has been one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable, class I've ever taken."
~Elementary Media Specialist, Wisconsin
“I learned that primary sources are more than photographs, scrapbooks, and diaries. I have also learned that primary sources are a wonderful classroom tool that can teach students many things.”
~World History, Consumer Economics, American Government, Current American Issues Teacher; Thorpe, Wisconsin
“It's amazing that once you KNOW about primary sources, it's the first thing that enters your mind! This class is JUST what I needed to get several groups back into the library asking questions, using books AND the internet in a productive way!"
~ Media Specialist; Weatherford, Texas
Register online at: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.shtml
Labels: Collaboration, Tech Tips
posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 9/30/2007 09:42:00 PM
Debating the Educational Value of Podcasts
Photo Credit
Tech Tip: Three Must-Know Podcasting Microphone Tips
Podcasting: A Teaching With Technology White Paper (PDF file)
Ashley Deal explores the question: does podcasting have any inherent educational value, or is it just a passing trend?
7 Things You Should Know About Podcasting (PDF file)
The EduCause staff summarizes the pro’s and con’s of podcasting, and the implications for teaching and learning.
Karen’s Mashups: Elementary Student Productions
Karen Fasimpaur provides a compilation of links to elementary student podcasts which demonstrate the finest uses of podcasting.
Rubric for Podcasts
UW-Stout online instructor Ann Bell has created an excellent rubric for evaluating student podcasts.
(Adapted from Andy Williams Affleck, author of Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac)
Many podcasts suffer from poor quality in the audio. The proper use of a microphone can greatly enhance your podcasts. Here are three top tips for maximizing the effectiveness of any microphone:
1. Don’t put the mike too close to your mouth: Position it a few inches away so you do not breathe directly into it. This helps prevent "plosives," or popping sounds, generated by the letter P, and helps reduce S sounds.
2. Angle the mike: If possible, point the microphone down toward your mouth from above to reduce plosives, nasal tones, and lip-smacking sounds.
3. Use a windscreen: If you can get a mike with a windscreen--a foam shield that covers the mike--it helps a great deal in preventing wind noise when outside. Some people swear by a variation made by stretching a piece of nylon pantyhose over a hoop placed in front of the mike.
What Our Students Are Saying…
"This course was exactly what I wanted and needed. Because of this course, I feel that I am equipped to include multimedia projects in my journalism courses. I am happy with this class and very happy that it met my expectations.”
~ Instructor, Madison Area Technical College, Madison, Wisconsin
"What I liked best was that it answered questions that I would never have known to ask...in other words, it enlightened me to what I actually needed to know about video in order to not only use it more effectively, but teach it!"
~ Art, Computer Art, Video Production Teacher - Wurzburg, Germany
"I have realized that using digital media in the class is a magnificent motivational tool. It allows students to perform and perfect essential life skills such as problem solving, responsibility, cooperation, planning ahead, following a timeline, and perseverance just to name a few."
~ Elementary Teacher - Taichung, Taiwan
Classes begin on October 1.
Register online at: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.shtml
Labels: Podcasting, Tech Tips
posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 9/23/2007 07:43:00 PM
Teaching the Effective Use of PowerPoint
Tech Tip: Copy a PowerPoint Template Design
PowerPoint Extreme Makeover
Dean Shareski’s excellent “must see” video demonstrates common PowerPoint design mistakes, as well as tips on how to teach and model the effective use of PowerPoint in the classroom.
Scoring PowerPoints
Jamie McKenzie describes how to avoid “PowerPointlessness”, and shows how teachers can structure the effective use of PowerPoint to promote high-level thinking skills.
PowerPoint Magic
Pamela Lewis provides a quick list of important guidelines for teachers to follow in order to develop the full learning potential of PowerPoint.
9 Tips for Student Presentations
Wendy Russell lists nine critical tips for students to keep in mind when designing their presentations including: limiting the number of slides, choosing fonts carefully, and limiting the use of special effects.
A+ PowerPoint Rubric
Joan Vandervelde of UW-Stout has created a useful rubric which provides clear-cut guidelines for the evaluation of student PowerPoint presentations.
Tech Tip: Copy a PowerPoint Template Design
To copy the color scheme and formatting of an existing PowerPoint into a new presentation:
1. Open a presentation containing the design that you wish to use in your new presentation.
2. Create a new PowerPoint presentation file.
3. You will need to see both presentations at the same time. In order to do this, choose Window - Arrange All. This will show open presentations side by side on the screen.
4. To copy the color scheme, click on the title bar of the original presentation to make it active, then click on the slide whose formatting you wish to copy in the Outlines/Slides pane.
5. To apply the color scheme to your new presentation, click on the Format Painter button on the toolbar, then click on the title bar of the new presentation.
6. Next, click on the mini-version of a slide in the Outline/ Slides pane. This applies the formatting to a new slide.
7. To apply the color scheme to several slides at once, double-click on the Format Painter button, and follow the rest of steps 5 and 6 above.
*View Wendy Russell’s animated video of these steps.
What Our Students Are Saying…
About the Building Better Instruction With Technology class:
“The biggest "aha" was how much I learned about things I already thought I was doing well – setting objectives, questioning, non-linguistic representations, group work, homework, etc. There wasn't a single module where I didn’t have to think more deeply about how and why I do things and also come up with new ideas to do things differently. ~ Sue Francis, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
“You gave me so many opportunities to better my teaching. I never thought I wanted a Smart Board, but now I will be writing a grant for the department. This has really gotten me out of my trench and into the battle.”
~ Margorae Freimuth, Naples, Italy
Sign up soon for: EDUC 744 956
Building Better Instruction with Technology
Begins October 1
Instructor: Becky Mather
Sign up now for the fall classes in the Elearning and Online Teaching Certificate program.
For more information, contact Dennis O’Connor, program advisor at oconnord@uwstout.edu Phone: (530) 318-1145
Register online at: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.shtml
Labels: Powerpoint, Tech Tips
posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 9/13/2007 08:02:00 PM