Digital Resources: Poll Everywhere + Socrative

When I attended PETE & C (Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference) in February, I began a list of apps and resources that presenters mentioned or used. One tool that I noticed presenters using was called Poll Everywhere. This tool allowed them to include questions in their presentation that their audience could answer via SMS (text message), Twitter or their web browser. It was engaging as well as (somewhat) formative, and the audience got really invested in answering the questions correctly (one session even included prizes for correct answers!)

Socrative does most of the same things that Poll Everywhere does - but it does them for free. Poll Everywhere does have a free option, but it is somewhat limited; many of the things it omits from its free package are available through Socrative. Socrative is, however, much more K-12 centered, whereas Poll Everywhere has packages for businesses & non-profits and higher ed institutions. Poll Everywhere also seems to integrate with presentation software (i.e. PowerPoint) so that the question is a part of the presentation while Socrative has presenters leave the presentation in order to administer the quiz. These differences mean that the user's decision is mainly personal preference, since they share many of the same features and ultimately serve the same purpose: to elicit an audience response.

This is a screenshot of sample polls from www.polleverywhere.com/how-it-works. 

Socrative also allows for many types of polls; this Quick Question (a screenshot from http://garden.socrative.com/?p=1852) is an example of a formative assessment that could act as an entrance or exit ticket.

Where:

Poll Everywhere - www.polleverywhere.com 

Socrative - www.socrative.com 

Cost:

Poll Everywhere - limited free use; paid upgrade with varying price points

Socrative - free

What: audience polling app that uses text messages or web based responses (Poll Everywhere also allows for Twitter input)

Students! Try these one of these programs if you want to...

increase audience engagement during a presentation

create a digital poll/survey for primary research

understand your audience in advance of a project or presentation

Teachers! Try these one of these programs if you want to...

increase classroom engagement

create digital formative assessment

get instant feedback about student understanding of a topic

collect data to drive differentiated instruction

Makeshop Monday: Interview with Sam

Interview with Sam King

Sam is another student in Mr. White's tech ed class. He designs a lot of different things (as do the other students in the class), but his latest project was not functional but was decorative instead.Since Sam sent his image in the form of a screen shot from Autodesk, you can see some of the elements of the program in the space around the image he generated. He also used a different design process from our last interviewee (Garrett). Sam did an image search for his intended design, then imported it into Autodesk. From there he was able to make a 3D design.

What's your most recent project?

My brother really likes Lord of the Rings, so I made a prop from Lord of the Rings called an Evenstar for him. I made it using an image I found through a Google search.

This image is a front view of the Evenstar Sam designed. It's a screenshot taken from the program he used to design it, so you can see some of the features of the program at the top of the screen.

How do you DO that?

This image is another view of the Evenstar Sam designed.

How do you DO that?

I create 3D images through Autodesk. I find a picture of what I want to make then trace over it in Autodesk in order to turn it into a 3-dimensional object. It took me a few weeks to learn how to use Autodesk well enough to to do this.

Want to try something similar?

You can find a picture of whatever you'd like to create, then use Autodesk to trace it and turn it into a 3D object.

Weekend Reads

I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda

As a seventh grade student, Caitlin was at a crossroads. She was a quiet student, and a trip to Germany her family had taken the previous summer opened her eyes to the idea that not everyone valued the same things that she did, nor were their lives always the same as her own. So when the opportunity to become a pen pal with a student from another country arose, Caitlin went against the grain and chose to write to a student from Zimbabwe when her classmates chose students from England, Germany or other places that were familiar due to experience or family ties. 

In the next chapter we meet Martin Ganda. Martin was a student in Zimbabwe and the recipient of Caitlin's letter. Martin begins his chapter describing his school experience. His classroom was crowded, and competition to be number one is fierce. His mother had very high expectations of him. He lived in a single room with his family, and couldn't always rely on having enough to eat, let alone the money he needed for his education. He was thrilled to get a letter from America, and was chosen to read the letter from Caitlin aloud. 

From there, Caitlin and Martin trade letters and chapters back and forth. Each tells about their lives at the time and what they learned about each other through their letters. Its amazing how different their lives were, yet how close they became while exchanging letters.

Find it in Nonfiction under 305.23 ALI

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

This is the first book in The Missing series and was engrossing from the very beginning. The book begins with a flashback where we meet Angela Du Pre on her first and only day of work at Sky Trails Air. From that scene, we flash forward 13 years and meet Jonah (a boy who was adopted as a baby) and his new friend Chip (who discovers that he, too, was adopted although it was kept a secret from him until now). A series of mysterious notes arrive to both boys, and as they try to understand who they are and where the notes are coming from, answers only seem to lead them to new questions. The series is anticipated to include eight books total, with the final book being published in September 2015. 

Find it in Fiction under F HAD

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

The worst part about this book is that the second one is not yet published and I am not so good at waiting to find out what happens next. This dystopian novel is set (as they often are) in a future we would not recognize. People are sorted into two categories based on the color of their blood. There are the Reds, who are the servants, the workers and the oppressed, and there are the Silvers, god-like creatures with power, wealth, and special abilities. Mare Barrow, the protagonist, is everything you want a protagonist to be - she pushes the boundaries, she loves her family, she's crafty and she cares about those she feels responsible for (even if she can be a little gruff). If you have the patience to read now and wait for the next one, stop by and get Red Queen today!

Find it in Fiction under F AVE

Digital Resources: OverDrive

Allegheny County residents are lucky to have a well-developed library system. Even though many communities have their own libraries, libraries throughout the county are connected to the Allegheny County Library Association. This consortium approach to lending has many benefits, including online card catalogs and entitling card holders to  reciprocal benefits at libraries across the county. This means that the library card you got from the helpful librarians who staff the Bookmobile allows you to check out materials from Sewickley Library, Bayne Memorial Library in Bellevue, or Carnegie Library's Oakland branch (just to name a few). While this is a great resource, it's not a digital resource. But it can be if you get an app called Overdrive.

Overdrive, which can be downloaded onto iOS or Android devices or accessed through the web, is the conduit through which libraries lend digital materials. The Carnegie Library/Allegheny County Library Association offers digital materials in Kindle format (which can be read on Kindle devices or through the Kindle app on iOS or Android devices), EPUB format (which can be read through the Overdrive app or on Nooks, Kobos, or Sony Readers among others) or OverDrive .mp3 or .wma files. These audiobook files can also be played directly through the OverDrive app. 

In short, Overdrive offers library members access to the entire combined digital collection of the Carnegie Libraries as well as all of the other member libraries of the Allegheny County Library Association (which is most if not all of the libraries in Allegheny County, including our local Sewickley, Bayne Memorial, Avalon, and Northland libraries). If you already have a library card, use it to start downloading library books today! The materials you get through OverDrive can be available on all of your different devices, PLUS you never have to worry about overdues since the files are automatically returned!

This screenshot is of the landing page for the Carnegie Library/Allegheny County Library Association OverDrive checkout system. You can browse the materials freely; you will need an active library card in order to check materials out or place holds on unavailable materials. One cool thing about placing holds is that you can opt to have the materials automatically checked out when they become available; you will still need to sign in to OverDrive in order to download the materials.

Where:

 http://acla.lib.overdrive.com/43ACE23B-21D7-48DF-A17D-659BDC9233E5/10/50/en/Default.htm 

Cost: Free (active library card required to check out materials, no sign in required to browse the collection)

What: Digital material checkout service

Students! Try OverDrive if...

The library doesn't have the title you are looking for

You want easily-portable library materials

You love checking out materials but are bad at remembering to return them

You would like an audiobook to listen along to while you read for class

Teachers! Try OverDrive if...

You want to preview material before ordering it for your classroom
You want easily-portable library materials

You want a newly published title (note: the library does have limited quantities, so you may need to wait for popular titles!)

Makeshop Monday: An Interview with Garrett

Garrett is currently a student in Mr. White's tech ed class. He has used the 3D printer to make a few projects. Today we are featuring a recent project he made for his own use - a phone case for his iPhone. Garrett designed the case himself by measuring an existing product. In this case, it's important to look at the parts of the phone that a user will need to access (such as the power button, the volume buttons and the switch to silence the device) and incorporate those features into the case. If you print a case without these features, it could either keep you from using the functions of the phone or (at worst) damage your device in some way.

What's your most recent project?

Garrett: The iPhone case. I like to make things that will entertain me - I usually like the designing more than the product. But I did just get to make an iPhone case, and I liked using something I made.

The image above is the iPhone case Garrett made. He drew the case digitally using Autodesk, then printed it on the MakerBot 3D printer.

How do you DO that?

Garrett: For the iPhone case, I figured out the dimensions of my phone and used Autodesk to draw it and make it 3-dimensional. You can also use Google to find a picture of what you want to make. Then you use autodesk inventor trace over it, and extrude it in the program. If you do it this way, you need to check dimensions before you print to make sure it will work.

If you want to try something similar...

Garrett: Take the dimensions of what you want to make, then use a program like Autodesk to create a 3-dimensional model

Weekend Reads

The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
SPOILER ALERT: Those are NOT striped pajamas. The completely unreliable narrator in this book (Bruno is only 8, so he doesn't always understand what is going on around him) is endearing and sometimes frustrating, but he makes the reader realize periodically what is really going on (even if he can't seem to figure it out himself).  This heartbreaking tale starts out slowly but deliberately, and towards the end the action really picks up and doesn't lose momentum until Bruno's life changes irrevocably. 
Find it in Fiction under F BOY

Latitude Zero by Diana Renn

The world of competitive bike racing is a tough one, and Ecuadorian Juan Carlos is a superstar who gets international attention wherever he goes. When he dies during a charity bike ride, the media deems the tragedy to be an accident. Tessa Taylor, teen host of KidVision, is sure that it is no accident. Latitude Zero follows Tessa on an international man hunt as she tries to find Juan Carlos's murders before the trail goes cold.

Find it in Fiction under F REN

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

This book, co-authored by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, may seem familiar since the plot focuses on a young boy, Callum Hunt, and a magic school, the Magisterium. Although there are some similiarities, Black and Clare's book stands on its own. Unlike another young-wizard-and-his-school series, Callum doesn't want to go to the Magisterium. He tries his best to avoid going, but in the end he even "fails at failing". Follow Callum and his friends as they navigate their path through the Magisterium. 

Find it in Fiction under F BLA.

Digital Resources: Prezi

I am a fairly linear thinker. I like lists, I like processes and procedures, I like to know what I'm going to do next. So it was surprising to me how much I've come to enjoy using Prezi to organize and deliver my presentations. It was a bit of an adjustment. Many presentation tools I've used in the past are extremely linear - slide 1 is your title slide, slide 2 begins the body of your presentation, slide 3 follows slide 2, etc. That made sense to me, but it could also feel very limiting and sometimes dated. Information and ideas don't always exist in a 1-2-3 form, so presenting them this way didn't always give them their best showcase.

In Prezi, you begin with a blank sheet, and you can put your information anywhere you'd like to. You can add frames to indicate that information is grouped together, you can zoom in or out on a set point so that your audience only sees the portion of the information you want them to, and you can create your own pathways around that information (and the pathways can be part of the zooming in and out as well). This is a web-based program, so it's especially helpful if (like me) you work on mixed machines (PC at work, Mac at home!) and you can also collaborate with other presenters in real time. I also like to use this for informal presentations that my audience will look through at their own pace - they can click through my presentation on their own or they can interact with it outside of the pathway I've created. It is also possible to add audio files to the presentation, so I can add my audio presentation to the visual presentation if I want to. I like the design elements Prezi has included as well - they're modern, clean and they don't interfere with the message I'm trying to deliver.

In the presentation I've included above, my path would move from the "You are currently..." to a classroom practice, then to "You could use Google to..." to match that practice with a Google tool. You can find this presentation at http://prezi.com/jdutprte3cvg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share 

Where: www.prezi.com 

Cost: Free (with paid upgrade; free educator packages available)

What: Web-based presentation package

Students! Try Prezi if you want to...

Create a presentation

Collaborate on a presentation with a group that can't meet face to face or simultaneously

Present information in a less linear manner

Create study guides or notes that emphasize the relationship between ideas in some way

Teachers! Try Prezi if you want to...

Create a presentation

Collaborate with a colleague without common planning time

Include YouTube videos in your presentations

Have students collaborate in or outside of class

Provide information to students who are less linear in their thinking

Demonstrate relationships between sets of information

Makeshop Monday: Letters

I like letters. I think fonts are important and I think it's cool when artists include letters in their designs, or design a whole piece around letters. This thing will give you a whole set of letters to play with!

What is really cool about it is that when you look at the shapes straight on, you can see the letters. When you look at any other angle they are abstract because they are dimensional. You can find the file here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:367262.  Pick a few - your initials or graduation year perhaps? - and print them out since this file saves each letter individually. Happy making!

(Mrs. Hickman can help you print your Octopus Phone Stand if this is your first "thing" and you're not sure where to start!)

Weekend Reads

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Fairytales meet dystopian societies - Marissa Meyer manages to integrate both elements into her Lunar Chronicles series and makes both elements work to their best advantage. I first read Cinder (the first book in the series) on a student recommendation (thanks Caitie B!) and I was engrossed. I loved the characters, the setting and the action of the plot. Each book in the series integrates a new fairy tale character into the overarching story: Cinder featuers a character based on Cinderella, Scarlet has a version of Little Red Riding Hood and Cress tells the story of a Rapunzel-based character. Although each book alludes to the fairy tale from which these characters are drawn, it is very much its own story, but with some elements of the original tale from which it comes. The final book in the series, Winter, is going to be released in November 2015. There is also a companion book to the series, Fairest, that acts as a bridge between the 3rd and 4th books, as well as several related short stories on Meyer's webpage (http://www.marissameyer.com/books/short-stories/)

Find it in Fiction under F MEY

Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

A lunar murder mystery! Dashiell Gibson and his family are among the first inhabitants of the moon. This book starts out with a death. Everyone seems to think that it was an accident - except for Dashiell. He is convinced that the victim, Dr. Holtz, was actually murdered. Dashiell has to navigate some difficult situations, all while dealing with living in Moon Base Alpha, which seems like a dream come true but really has all of its own challenges. Follow Dashiell, his friend Kira and the mysterious Zan as they piece together the clues that lead them to their final and surprising conclusion.

Find it in Fiction under F GIB

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford

This story is told from the perspective of the three Sullivan sisters - Norrie, Jane and Sassy. The girls were brought up in Baltimore society, and their family is entirely supported by their grandmother, who is called the Almighty. Each girl gets her own section, and each section is a confession of the girl's misdeed that could have offended their grandmother (who is threatening to cut off the family's inheritance due to the girls' insubordination). I liked how the story was built upon by each of the three girls - although each girl's confession occurred within a similar time frame, the fractured nature of the family and the isolating nature of keeping secrets gives the reader a new perspective with each confession. 

Find it in Fiction under F STA

Digital Resources: Evernote

I am an inveterate note-taker. If I don't write it down, I probably won't remember it. Or I will remember it but not until after I actually need it. Evernote is a great place to collect all of your ideas into one place, and it crosses platforms so you can access it on the web, through an app or through a desktop program. The web-based app is beautiful, and desktop app continuously sychronizes in the background as you work, and the iOS app is easy to use on-the-go. You can also share your notes with other users. Everything you create is taggable for easy future searching, and you can organize individual notes into notebooks so all of your like information is housed together and easy to find. 

Pair your Evernote account with Evernote Web Clipper, and you have a great tool for research of all natures (from informal information gathering to formal paper-writing purposes). You can clip whatever you find on the internet straight from the webpage as an article, a bookmark, or a screenshot. Your clipped information crosses platforms, so the article you clipped while browsing on your phone will show up on your laptop the next time you log in through the web or desktop app (which probably makes printing a lot easier!)

It's free, but has a premium upgrade. Evernote has lots of other products (such as Web Clipper, Skitch, and Scannable) that can be used with to enhance its productivity. 

Where: www.evernote.com 

Cost: Free (with paid upgrade)

What: Web-based note taking (with apps available for most popular mobile operating systems)

Students! Try Evernote if you need to...

take notes for class

create to-do lists

keep a log of information (like for a volunteer job)

find and save information from the internet (for formal or informal research projects)

save and revise drafts of pre-published documents

Teachers! Try Evernote if you need to...

create to-do lists

share notes with students

create collections of web sources (for example, I organized my notebooks by unit and collected a bunch of related non-fiction sources in my notebooks as I wrote my curriculum.)

create a list that is always with you (like a recommended reading list or a classroom needs list)