Voice Editing with Audacity for Reading Assessments.

By Stockton University student Mia Chapman

Audacity is a user-friendly editing and recording free software application. It allows you to create multiple recordings, edit, import, export, convert tapes to digital recordings or cds, cut, copy, trim, or create mixed recordings. The website provides tutorials, contact information, awards, update status, number of downloads per week, features, screenshots, and external links. This application is easy to navigate from back and forth from other pages.

In my classroom, I would use audacity to record my students reading. This way if they hear themselves, they can recognize their own errors. For instance, my son is not focused when reading so we made a recording and when he listened to how he sounded, he criticized his recording. Now it’s a must that he records regularly to notice his improvement. It could be used as a reading assessment by teachers as some students are not comfortable reading directly to their teachers.

It’s also a fun way for students to collaborate on assignments and express their creativity among one another. It’s an easy peer review and assessment tool as well.

Below is a link I came across that gives ideas on ways to incorporate audacity in the classroom.

http://kerileebeasley.com/2009/04/08/10-great-ways-to-use-audacity-with-your-students/

Keeping it all in your Pocket!

By Stockton University student Alexis Corbett

“Pocket” is a web 2.0 tool that allows you to save articles, web pages, images, videos, and everything in between to one convenient location. Essentially, it is like Google Drive; except instead of saving your own work, you are saving things you like from anywhere on the web. It can be used in the classroom by saving articles and videos you want to use for a lesson right to Pocket. In doing so, you wouldn’t have to surf the web during class and would have everything in one quick and easy location.

In my screencast I show how to download pocket and how to use it and all of its features. There is a button on your toolbar that allows you to save your articles with the simple click of a button and can be used with several different browsers. Below is a link to the download webpage:

https://getpocket.com/add/?ep=1

All in all, Pocket is a great tool for teachers, students, and just about anyone and everyone. Its simplicity and ease of use is even perfect for those who are not exactly tech savvy, and can serve multiple purposes.

Creating Stories in the Social Studies Classroom

By Stockton University student Diana Roberts

Storyjumper is designed to let children to create and publish their own illustrated stories. The program is designed to accommodate experienced writers, as well as beginners. Once children have created a story, they can either publish it, share it, keep it private or have it bound into an actual book (for a fee). The Classroom Edition for teachers includes a separate dashboard and a handful of helpful features and ideas for lessons. Storyjumper has an easy to use interface that incorporates a drag and drop system. Children have the option to select many of the kid-friendly illustrations and graphics, or upload their own artwork or images to incorporate into their book. Images and text can be manipulated in size, and customized in various different ways, in order to create a truly unique storybook. I would use Storyjumper to create a secure virtual classroom and have my students create storybooks that they can share with their families. Some of the specific projects I might focus on as a social studies teacher would be to have students create an illustrated biography of a historical figure, talk about a historical event from a fictional character's point of view, or tell a story about what we might learn from a past event. Below are some links on how other teachers use Storyjumper: http://fearlesstech4teachers.blogspot.com/2012/04/jump-start-writing-process-with.html https://igorgoren.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/igor-tries-out-storyjumper/ http://www.julianagoldwater.com/story-jumper.html

BrainPop ESL

by Stockton University student Adrianne Ciuba

Brainpop ESL is a program designed for students who are trying to learn English. The program provides students and teachers with a tour, which is a basic tutorial of how the program works. There are different lessons and levels for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. After clicking on a lesson, there are tabs that provide various options such as; writing, reading, listening and games in English. It is well-maintained and very easy to navigate through. I would use Brainpop ESL to enhance my lesson and provide students with a fun way of learning English in my classroom.

11 Design Tips for Beautiful Presentations

Worth mentioning twice...This is one of the best sites I have found to show students best practices for slide design...

Posted by TechChef4u on Thursday, April 23, 2015

50 Video Games for Learning

50 Of The Best Video Games For Learning

View more lists from Terry Heick

Facebook Freebooting - Smarter Every Day 128

If you are a content provider on facebook, even as a classroom posting your videos, take the extra step and watermark your videos to avoid freebooting.  Freebooting is a form of copyright infringement where someone downloads your youtube video and uploads it as if they themselves owned that video. This allows them to make money off of your content.

This Facebook Freebooting video discusses copyright infringement in a very accessible fashion that middleschoolers can understand.

Antimatter Explained- Minute Physics

Get your students excited about Physics using Minute Physics, little bite-sized chunks of digestible Physics concepts! Relativity, the Big Bang and Why Stars are Star Shaped make subscribing to this video channel worthwhile.