Google's newest maps feature is the ability to helicopter over your route in 3D, similar to what you might see in Google Earth in some instances. It's most impressive when you navigate through landmarks and objects that have raised, 3D features, as in the screencast that I quickly created below. Don't adjust your audio, as there is no sound.
Today I gave Socrative, a new Student Response System (SRS), a try (free for now while it is in Beta). The beauty of Socrative is that it is not only an "app" that must be downloaded (Android available now; iOs and Blackberry to come soon). In addition, all functionality is also web-delivered to any device that can browse the Internet. This can be done at a desktop/laptop computer, tablet, smartphone, or any other device that can browse the Internet. According to the site, they are working on a PowerPoint plugin as well
Here are the types of assessments they offer:
TOOLS & GAMES
- Polls: Audience voting
- Short Answer question : Open ended form for audience to answer questions
- Exit Tickets: Check student understanding with a few quick questions before they leave class each day.
COMING SOON- Space Race: Teams of students answer questions in this fast-paced rocket race game. First team to get their rocket across the screen wins!
- Chicken & Egg: Fun quiz game where students earn points in this fun version of Jeopardy where the whole class plays at once.
- More quiz, game, and exercise tools.
For more information, check out their blog.
What follows is my experience with the service today (thanks to those on Twitter that responded to my request!).
Once invited (apply here), Teachers/admins do all the prep work and question admin online. The teacher dashboard looks like this:
Students/respondents access the questions by navigating to the URL http://m.socrative.com and logging into the room number that has been assigned to you. They will need to know what this room number is.
Once the room number is entered, the student will see a screen like this if the question has not yet been deployed by the teacher.
Once the assessment is deployed, what the student will see depends on the type of assessment. I tried the "Exit Ticket". This type of assessment (that you can also customize) asks the student the following:
First/Last Name
"How well did you understand today's material?"
"What did you learn today?"
"Please solve the problem on the board." (assuming there was one on the board to solve)
While the students are submitting responses, the teacher/admin will see something like this:
When the assessment is closed, a report is automatically generated and emailed to you as an Excel spreadsheet.
The results of my trial "Exit Ticket" assessment looked as follows:
Overall, this seems like a really nice service. Accessibility is varied. It's quite straightforward and easy to use. It makes the purchase of actual "clicker" devices unnecessary and leverages the computers (smart phones) that students are already carrying around with them.
While there is much more here that I haven't explored yet, it's worth giving it a try. And, of course, the effectiveness of its use is largely dependent upon how the teacher uses it.
So, I've had this (out-of-warranty) broken camera for a while now. It retails for just under $200.
Sending it off to Canon to get repaired was going to cost me a minimum of $100. I just couldn't see doing it when it just might break again. So, I tweeted out this question:
I have a $200 Canon SX120is that has a "lens error"/jam. $100 to repair by Canon. Other options other than throwing away?
Twitter was unusually quiet, so I came up with my own solution: Summer Science Project!!!
I called my son over and said, "Here. Find the problem and see how this thing is put together.". Well, that's like giving a kid candy. I took some photos, but my one regret was not keeping the camera rolling when he discovered, by cutting the capacitor wires (this capacitor held the charge for the flash) with scissors, that those things have an uncanny way of holding their stored charge until released.
There was a spark, a yell, and a jump... all followed by that crazy smile that can only come from this sort of messing around and living to tell the tale.
Below are a few images. The third one where he is proud of his accomplishments is BEFORE he discovered what capacitors do ;-)
Don't throw away things that you kids could learn from and find pleasure in taking apart.
The Help Desk - Technical Support Humor
On the lighter side for summer, here is a compilation of various Help Desk humor videos. The first one below was the "shot heard round the world", I think.
This one seems to be a full English reenactment of the first one:
This next one seems to be a modernized, 2.0 version of the original one. Someone who knows Norwegian needs to can English subtitles.
Next we have the Star Wars version:
A Day in the Life of Help Desk
Help Desk: Going the Extra Mile
I hope situations like this are slowly disappearing as computers get easier to use. I love the "digital native" component of support.. The GenYes model!
I just received notification that ShowMe was available for download so I went ahead and downloaded it. ShowMe is a basic screencasting app for the iPad... and it is free. It allows you to mark up a whiteboard with six basic colors and a single line thickness. It also allows you to import images from your photo collection and annotate on top of them. It gives you an eraser to erase your pen drawn annotations as well as the ability to import additional images during the recording of a single screencast. However, once recording, the only way to delete those images is to wipe the board clear/clean. It is not possible to manipulate the images once you bring them in to the app.
I recorded the following trial that lasts 3:11. It recorded without a hitch and uploaded to ShowMe site in under a minute. You do have to create a free account at ShowMe's site to be able to share/publish. The app itself gives no way to export recorded projects in a more universal format that can be imported into other applications for further development. It does provide multiple ways to share your projects as indicated in this screenshot below. When you publish, it also sends you an automated email with the direct URL of the screencast, which is nice.
I think such a tool has the most impact when put in the hands of students, not teachers. Sure, teachers can show things... but that's what teachers do all of the time while kids sit passively listening or watching. This becomes a great tool for students to show and share things that demonstrate THEIR learning/comprehension/skill/mastery... and yes, even misconceptions... and places responsibility on them to actively make their thinking known.
Tonight my son and his cousin were having a chat on Skype. His cousin was showing him what he had learned after his very first guitar lesson. Suddenly, my son runs and get his guitar and they are having a jam session. My son is showing his cousin what he can play. Then, his cousin notices that my son's guitar is out of tune and helps him tune it. Then, my son teaching him a little Viva la Vida riff that he had figured out. Next, they are screen sharing, showing each other guitars and accessories. Surely, if this is what they do at home to learn, the smell of old paper and weathered textbooks at school becomes less appealing, doesn't it? How can this kind of learning be harnessed more at school? How can we help connect students with peers all over the globe as they learn together? I know it is happening in little pockets all over, but it has yet to scale up.
For now, it's teaching each other guitar...
(This lasted a good 30 minutes and ended because of bedtime.)
Testing the iPhoto2Gmail plugin to create a Posterous slideshow. If you would like to give it a try, download and install the iPhoto2Gmail or Apterture2Gmail plugin. One you have, you are able to upload/email your photos right from within either iPhoto or Aperture when using the "Export" feature. Worked like a charm!
My son using the augmented reality star gazing app, Star Walk. It engaged him immediately. This app has become one of my favorites so far, as I have always had a curiosity about the stars and constellations. With so much local light pollution, this app is most helpful in identifying stars, planets, and constellations in the sky.
One of the most interesting features is the ability to view the sky on any date at any time... and from anywhere in the world. My older son understood the rotation of the earth and its impact on the stars right away as he advanced time and watched the bodies in the sky seem to rotate on an axis. The horizon is marked on the screen, so you can also see those objects that are not yet above the horizon or that have already set below the horizon.
There are many more features we have yet to discover together. All in all, a wonderful exploratory tool!
The Spartan
Research Alert
Make It Meaningful!
This just in from 42,000 high school students: They're mostly bored, and they often don't see the value in the work that teachers ask them to do. The recently released Charting the Path from Engagement to Achievement: A Report on the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement looks at student answers to such questions as,
Two of three respondents (66 percent) indicated that they are bored at least every day in class. But students also clarified the kinds of work that would engage them. They rated the following most highly: discussion and debate (61 percent); group projects (60 percent); and projects and lessons involving technology (55 percent). Following close behind as favorites were presentations (46 percent); role-plays (43 percent); and art and drama activities (49 percent). It's no surprise that teacher lecture got the highest "like not at all" votes (44 percent) and the fewest "like very much" votes (6 percent). Students also indicated that they enjoy discussions in which there are no clear-cut answers (65 percent) and that they would welcome the opportunity to be more creative in school (82 percent).
Photo Credit: fake_eyes
