Online testing! Blog #5

Technological advances should be used to help us as educators.  And there are many tools out there that help us in many ways.  Time is always an issue because there seems to never be enough time either to teach, grade, or manage.  If you have never been introduced to online testing, today is the day.  Online testing is the way to save time, make virtual appealing tests, and manage data easily.

Online testing will help you by:

• Saving time when creating tests (most of test generators will create a quiz in minutes)
• Identifying strengths and weaknesses of students (will let you adjust teaching as necessary)
• Offering visual appealing tests (students are interested in taking tests that are visually appealing)
• Grading test and keeping record of it
• Generating instant reports of results
• Provide immediate feedback to students
• Save time when wanting to shuffle questions to avoid cheating (most generators will do this with just a click)
• Developing many different type of quizzes (multiple-choice, fill in the blanks, etc..).

Here is an example of a sample question:

Image provided by http://online-quiz-maker.net

There are many online test generators and most of them are free of charge or some will charge a minimal fee which is certainly worth paying for all the benefits they can offer.  Please check the following websites and try out their tutorials to discover how good they are:

• http://online.quiz-maker.net/
• http://www.thatquiz.org/
• http://www.classmarker.com/
• http://quizstar.4teachers.org/

Here is a video of some features Classmarker has to offer..

I have provided several online testing generators, take advantage of technology and apply them in your classroom.  The generator I prefer is www.thatquiz.org because of its simplicity and I have been able to enjoy without paying a fee.  Visit all of these and choose the one that fits your style, let it do all the time consuming work for you so you can focus time on other more demanding issues such as teaching.  Please post any comments of any other online test generator you might use, which you will like to recommend.  

See you later, virtually!

- Becky

Reference

YouTube (2011). Classmarker.com - At a glance. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojSngu0Qp8E.

Clicking imagination! Blog #4

As as I was browsing the web, I found a technology that has been rising in popularity during the last few years --Clickers! Clickers are also known as a personal response system, classroom communication system, interactive system, and other terms are used interchangeable to describe what clickers are.  Clickers are handheld devices used to collect students answers and clicker software will create instant feedback by generating reports or graphs. Unfortunately, I don't count with one in my classroom, but they seem like a great interactive, engaging option.
They are not a magic tool, but used effectively will help in the learning process.


The following video gives you an introduction to what a clickers are
:

Once we know what clickers are, now how can you use clickers in the classroom?  This following video is great giving you ideas to how to implement them:

Many good reasons to why use clickers:

• Great to teach collaboration skills
• Can do more than multiple choice questions
• Keep students involved and make them accountable
• Students are engage and their learning is enhance
• Paper reduction - Go Green!
• Easier to point out weaknesses and strengths.

Have you use clickers?  Let me know your experience....

See you later, virtually!

- Becky

References:

YouTube (2007). What are Clickers? Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4A62QyAUHM

YouTube (2010).  Using Clickers in the Classroom.  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnP0uCqD4k

Copyright issues

Mr. Copyright in action!

"I read your paper and I search for the name of person whom you are writing about and I found an essay almost exactly the same as yours, what can you say about that?"  Does this phrase sound familiar?

It is extremely important to have our student know about copyright laws.  When I first asked for a presentation, many students went go off the board copying and pasting pictures and when I asked for a report they also copied and pasted, they will do this even if I specify in the instructions that they cannot copy and paste.  There has to be another way of having them recognize the importance of following copyright laws. I had omitted the most important lesson, they might not have known the term copyright, the consequences of copyright infringements, and impact of these.

First and most important, they need to understand what a copyright is.  As defined by The Copyright Society of the USA, a copyright is a right given to the author or creator to copy, publicly, and modify their work in a certain way.  With this definition, now we can conclude that if they are not the authors or creators then they cannot copy it, modify it, or publicly it.    There is, however, a copyright limitation referred to as fair use.  Fair use permits the copy of copyrighted works if being used for educational or research purposes.  Court will look at several factors when applying fair use, yet some of these factors considered will include: amount of work copied, purpose, and if there is any value gained in the use of the copyrighted work.

Lets make our students aware that they cannot:

• Copy all pictures found online even if not blocked
• Download "free" music
• Copy essays or reports as it were their work

Instead we can give them ideas to where they can find resources without breaking the law.  Here are some websites that can be used to download, in which they will charge a minimal amount to choose from a variety of resources or some depending on the use it might permit the usage of resources at no cost.

• www.dreamstime.com
• http://www1.free-clipart.net/net
• http://freedigitalphotos.net
  
• www.cartoonstock.com

This video can also be used to explain what copyright is:

And students can go to http://www.copyrightkids.org to learn about copyrights, how to ask for permission,  and even take a quiz.

See you later - virtually!

-Becky

References:

Youtube(2010). Copyright basics. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/Uiq42O6rhW4.

The Copyright Society of the USA(2007). Welcome to Copyright kids. Retrieved from http://www.copyrightkids.org/