Week 14-ePortfolio Assessment

I feel that the use of an ePortfolio can be a very effective assessment tool. The series of entries allows students to look back and see how their attitudes and opinions have changed toward concepts that have been introduced. ePortfolios are especially effective in courses that require writing, as rereading allows a student to pinpoint weaknesses that are constant in their writings. From a business ed viewpoint, an ePortfolio can help a student recognize large concepts that they have learned throughout the year. I plan to have my students complete a reflection as part of their final and I wish that I had used ePortfolios at the beginning of the year so that they would be able to look back and view their progress and see how they and their skills have grown.

The ePortfolio is both formative and summative in nature. Formative for the instructor (if the students complete it in a timely manner), they can easily see whether or not students are grasping a concept or if additional instruction is needed. Since it includes work from the beginning of a project to the end, it fulfills the summative requirements for the instructor and the student, enabling both to "look back" and see what has been accomplished.

Week 13-Differentiated Instruction

While I do not have a particular student with special needs that I considered, I tried to think of apps that would help those students in the "gray area." Those that are not low enough for an IEP but that need extra help to be successful.

I have several students that are very auditory in nature and respond best when they are able to participate in discussion of concepts and relation of those concepts to real life. For those students, I chose Evernote. This is an app which allows auditory recording of lectures for students to play back at their convenience. Some of my auditory students will never pick up the text to read the chapter information that we have discussed, so having the ability to listen to the lecture again would be invaluable. It may be the only way that those students study.

The second app I selected was Read2Go. This is an app that allows students to listen to textbooks and educational literature. This app again benefits the "gray area" students that may struggle with reading the literature but are perfectly capable of understanding concepts if they are presented orally. Since students constantly have iPhones, iPads or iPods with them, no one will know if the student needing help is listening to music or their American History text. Plus for those students who can multi-task hearing the information again while they study may be beneficial.

Week 12 Part 3-Reviewing Another Online Presentation

I checked out several presentations, looking for some to use in class either this year or next year.  I found this one Prezi on Accounting.  It is a promo for Utah State University, but it gives a lot of good information about the accounting profession.  It is attractive and fast paced to keep the students interested and engaged.  Not too much text on the slides and plenty of interesting relevant graphics, the fluidity of the presentation makes it especially attractive. This is definitely unique to my industry but is a good example of a well-thought out presentation.

Week 12-Part 2 Building a Web-Based Presentation

I created the short Google presentation below to use in my Personal Finance class this week.  I have already introduced the topic however, I have to be out of class on Thursday for a TIPs presentation.  This short Google presentation will be posted to Edline so that students can double check themselves and whether they have met the requirements of the project before their submissions on Thursday.  I found it fairly easy to use, but difficult to insert files into, suitable for most basic presentation needs however I do not yet prefer it to PowerPoint, my first love. :)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Yb31oladeBECwiUsiD6k4q2hgQ0T2C8yKWExcgpXgWE/edit

Week 12-Collaborative Presentations Part I

I recently assigned collaborative presentations in my BCA class. The students have now been introduced to a variety of presentation programs, so I allowed them to pick their favorite program and create a presentation for the class. I left the topic open-ended, the students simply had to have my approval on their topic before starting, but could select almost anything that was "school-appropriate" of course. I limited the amount of text that they could have on their slides and set a minimum presentation time of 3 minutes, which seems to work well with this age group. Most students can get to that mark and are not usually too far over the mark. Other than those restrictions I left the kids free to create and by and large they did a good job. I was surprised that many of the students picked Prezi as their format of choice. However, the presentations were as good on Prezi as from those that picked PowerPoint. The students will adapt to whatever media we have available given time to work with it and explore.

Classroom Rubric-Week Ten Part 2

A good deal of my content is taught in PBL form and group form is necessary, however I wanted to be sure that students that did the work receive the grade, in the same turn, I do not want a student to "coast" on their group members' work. This is a link to the rubric that I have created to allow group members to rate one another to ensure that helps ensure that everyone participates equally.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDNxM2JzX1RQS0pPYkI2eWxKVC03ZHc6MQ

App Review Preview-Week Ten Part 1

Learning Style (Personal Evaluation)

Based on your input, you are a(n): Visual learner.


If your are a VISUAL learner, then by all means be sure that you look
at all study materials. Use charts, maps, filmstrips, notes and flashcards.
Practice visualizing or picturing words/concepts in your head.
Write out everything for frequent and quick visual review.


Click on the OK button to close this window.

Assessment: Find Your Strengths! (Personal Evaluation)

Your top three intelligences:

Intelligence	Score (5.0 is highest)	Description
	4.57	Logic/math:You enjoy exploring how things are related, and you like to understand how things work. You like mathematical concepts, puzzles and manipulative games. You are good at critical thinking. Here are ways to work with this intelligence in your lessons: Arrange cartoons and other pictures in a logical sequence. Sort, categorize, and characterize word lists. While reading a story, stop before you've finished and predict what will happen next. Explore the origins of words. Play games that require critical thinking. For example, pick the one word that doesn't fit: chair, table, paper clip, sofa. Explain why it doesn't fit. Work with scrambled sentences. Talk about what happens when the order is changed. After finishing a story, mind map some of the main ideas and details. Write the directions for completing a simple job like starting a car or tying a shoe. Make outlines of what you are going to write or of the material you've already read. Look for patterns in words. What's the relationship between heal, health, and healthier? Look at advertisements critically. What are they using to get you to buy their product?
	3.57	Self: You have a very good sense of self. You like to spend time by yourself and think things over. You will often take in information from another person, mull it over by yourself, and come back to that person later to discuss it. You like working on projects on your own. You often prefer to learn by trial and error. Effective techniques to enhance your learning include keeping a journal and giving yourself time to reflect on new ideas and information. More ideas: Go on "guided imagery" tours. Set aside time to reflect on new ideas and information. Encourage journal writing. Work on the computer. Practice breathing for relaxation. Use brainstorming methods before reading. Listen to and read "how to" tapes and books. Read cookbooks.
	3.14	Language: You enjoy enjoy saying, hearing, and seeing words. You like telling stories. You are motivated by books, records, dramas, opportunities for writing. Effective techniques of enhancing your learning using your language intelligence include reading aloud, especially plays and poetry. Another idea is to write down reflections on what you've read. You may also enjoy exploring and developing your love of words, i.e., meanings of words, origin of words and idioms, names. Use different kinds of dictionaries. Other ideas: Keep a journal Use a tape recorder to tape stories and write them down Read together, i.e., choral reading Read a section, then explain what you've read Read a piece with different emotional tones or viewpoints — one angry, one happy, etc. Trade tall tales, attend story-telling events and workshops Research your name

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The scores for your other five intelligences:

3	2.57	2.57	1.57	1.43

Just because these five are not in your top three doesn’t mean you’re not strong in them. If your average score for any intelligence is above three, you’re probably using that intelligence quite often to help you learn. Take a look at the Practice section to see how to engage all your intelligences.

Digital Storytelling-Week Eight

For the digital storytelling assignment, I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to complete the assignment and address a classroom management issue that I have been having. I have a computer based class that has had "issues" staying on task.  Mainly, completing their assignments and staying off of Internet gaming websites.  I recently suspended everyone's privileges for using the Internet for any activity that was not directly related to my class, anyone violating the suspension was written up and directed to their grade level principal.

I do not enjoy taking such a hard line with the students, however sometimes examples have to be made in order to drive home a point.  I have already "made examples" of a couple of students and believe that my point has been made.  I now need a reason to reinstate privileges for the students, without forfeiting the progress that has been made. This assignment allowed me to do so.

I advised the students that we would put our current assignment on hold and they would be given the opportunity to earn back their Internet privileges.  The task I gave them was to break into teams and make a video that demonstrates that they can identify and use appropriate classroom behavior. They were allowed to use the iPads, iMovie and Garage Band applications.  The videos had to be three minutes in length. The students were required to use storyboards to plan their videos before they could begin filming. The experience was very positive for everyone involved and encouraged several students to participate in class as they had not before.  The end results were pretty good for their first attempts.

I would love to share the video with your, however as it predominately features the students, I am refraining from posting the link for their privacy.  I will be happy however to share the videos with you on an individual basis.  :)

The Flipped Classroom and Social Media-Week Seven

My opinions regarding the flipped classroom concept are mixed. I love the idea in theory. However, I feel that we are not yet there as far as implementation goes. At this point, too many of our students are without access to technology at home either because of financial concerns or lack of access because of their geological location to make the flipped classroom a reality. We do not have the resources to address this issue and until we do, I do not believe that a flipped classroom could be fully implemented.


I do believe that the flipped classroom ideas could begin to be implemented, in particular to benefit the absent student or those who need additional reinforcement. The possibility of videoed lecture and notes has much merit, I have two students in mind that miss a good deal of class however, I believe that they would be able to keep pace with the classroom work if they had access to lectures and the information presented in the classroom setting.


Regarding social media, I approach the use of social media with a great deal of trepidation.  


I love the idea of using social media to communicate with students and encourage learning. However, our society has become so litigious in nature now, and the responsibility of a teacher to influence student behavior long beyond 3:00 pm bell so great, that I do not feel comfortable using social media in the classroom.  


Students are so free in what they share via social media that I simply do not want the responsibility of policing potential comments associated with any posts or communication that I may initiate. I do feel that there is a potential lost opportunity there to add educational value, I just feel that the liability is too great.


The "fake" social media sites are a great idea, but I when I have broached the subject with my students, I did not feel that they would actively participate in a fake site the way that they do on the actual Facebook and Twitter sites.

Wordle-Management-Week Nine

The above is a Wordle that I created.  My schedule currently includes 5 different subjects.  This presents a unique challenge to me with the ability to comply with my school's preference for Word Wall usage in the classroom.  I believe that I may begin to allow the students to create Wordles to post on our Word Wall. This would allow students to familiarize themselves with the new terminology  and would allow a variety of subjects to be attractively displayed on my Word Wall.  Sounds like it could be a Win-Win.