Collaboration Tools in the Classroom
This month we discussed how we can use online collaboration to better our teaching. Here are the ideas that were covered. Twitter Backchannel: Twitter is a tool that allows use to quickly sent out information about our classrooms. What great experiences are your students having with you? Tweet them and share with the global community! Add even more engagement by using a Twitter backchannel. Simply put, a backchannel is a hashtag that you have created for the class or lesson. Students will add the hashtag to their tweets creating a comment, question, and reaction board live on the presentation board. Student will need a Twitter account, but don't worry if you have students under 13. Today's Meet works without a log-in and students can still engage with the lesson online without being 13. Just create a private room and have the class join the room to post. Check out these sites for more information:
Slides Carnival: Tired of seeing the same backgrounds in when your students are collaborating on a Google Slides presentation? This site give new templates for those presentations. Each template can be customized based on the needs of the user. For Science, Art, Health, Math, and more try out these looks for some new life in class presentations. Check out these sites for more information: Weebly for Students: Using Weebly for Students, teachers can create individual blog pages for students to post online. By posting online, students become global citizens as well as peer evaluators in the classroom. Using the RSS feed associated with the blogs, teachers can collect all the blogs into one area with an aggregator such as Feedly. The aggregator will collect the sites into one page for you to read, grade, show the class, etc. Check out these sites for more information: ePals: ePals allows classrooms to collaborate together for cross-cultural exchanges, common projects, and learning languages. Teachers create a profile page and then connect with other educators around the world. You may connect based on spoke language, subject, the type of collaboration, and more. Not feeling the idea of creating your own connection? Not a problem! Join one of the already created experiences such as Folktale Exchange, Design Your Own Flag, Fighting Poverty, or Invent It For Health. There are many more option to choose from to fit your lessons. Check out these sites for more information: StoryBird: Create visual stories with your classes. Check out these sites for more information: | |