Teaching Resources

Formative Assessment and Online Games

Teachers have created some at http://www.equizshow.com and found that other teachers in other places who also love online resources are posting quizzes that anyone can use. Here is one at http://www.equizshow.com/play/12895

Google Apps

Many people are catching on to Flubaroo http://www.flubaroo.com/. With Google forms you can make a quick multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank quiz. Once the students take the quiz (for practice or a grade), the teacher adds the correct answers as the key then runs the self-scoring tool. You can email the grades to students. The teacher can look at results per questions as well as student success. The teacher can quickly find out what needs to be retaught. 

Presentation Tools with Audio

Brainshark http://www.brainshark.com/ 
Emaze http://www.emaze.com/
Knovio  http://www.knovio.com (Upload a Power Point, then talk about it. Your face appears next to the PPT in the movie that is created.)
Powtoons for Education http://www.powtoon.com/edu-home/

Prezi for Education http://prezi.com/prezi-for-education/ (Sometimes described as Power Point on steroids. Going from one slide to the next is a journey up, around, in or out. The wonder of Prezi is that you can add audio to each slide.)
Educreations works on ipads as a whiteboard to capture voice and handwriting (like the SmartBoard Notebook 11 videorecording tool). Create your own videos.

Free Languages Games 

Languages Online
Engaging interactive tasks and printable worksheets that introduce, reinforce and recycle vocabulary. Activites are self-paced and self-correcting and include recordings by native speakers.

Download these free programs and create your own interactive games and activities. Follow the simple steps to add your own text, pictures or voice recordings. Suitable for all languages!

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/default.htm

Content Generator

Their programs allow anyone to generate their own e-Learning quizzes, games and applications through our custom software - no coding required.

http://www.contentgenerator.net/

Hot Potatoes

The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. It is not open-source. The Java version provides all the features found in the windows version, except: you can't upload to hotpotatoes.net and you can't export a SCORM object from Java Hot Potatoes.

http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

News

1. EuroNews – Fantastic site, they provide videos in one of several available languages and then there are transcripts directly below each video. The main homepage is here where you can select from various languages using the menu at the very top left of the page, the default is English.

Educational Videos (lectures and documentaries)

1. TEDVideos TED, as many of you know, records and publishes free educational lectures and talks online.  The talks are in many different languages, their search function allows you to search by language, and most of their videos have subtitles.

Random Video Collections

Here is where there’s more sheer quantity than anything else.  Two of the sites I’ve found so far do something very similar: they just take random videos from wherever (usually YouTube) and then the users do subtitles for them for free.  Fantastic sites, they’re adding new videos all the time, and, of course, the biggest benefit is that they’re completely free.  The other two sites are run by educational institutes.  You will, with all of them however, have to sift through them and pick out what you want to watch.

1. Amara aka  UniversalSubtitles.org – You can search and sort by language of the speakers and subtitle language using the search bar on the videos homepage, just pull the menu down and select your languages).  Again, these are just videos that people have found on YouTube and decided to do the subtitles for.  Note that you can sign up for an account and help subtitle videos of any language you speak.

2. Edustation.me’s Video Section – You’ll need to sign up for a free account to use this one, I believe.  Once you’ve done that, look at the menu at the top right and select the language that you’re learning where it says “Idioma para aprender”, then go to the homepage and click “videos”.  They have a ton of videos there with subtitles.

Video-based review activities

Blubbr is a neat quiz creation service that you can use to create video-based quizzes. Using Blubbr you can create interactive quizzes that are based on YouTube clips. Your quizzes can be about anything of your choosing. The structure of the quizzes has a viewer watch a short clip then answer a multiple choice question about the clip. Viewers know right away if they chose the correct answer or not. To create a quiz on Blubbr start by entering a topic for your quiz. After entering your topic enter a search for a video about that topic. Blubbr will generate a list of videos that you can select from to use in your quiz. When you find a video that works for you, trim the clip to a length that you like then write out your question and answer choices. Repeat the process for as many video clips as you like. Click here to try a short Blubbr quiz about the human heart.

Comics in the Classroom

Disclosure: Storyboard That is an advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers. 

Some of my favorite uses of comics include using them as story prompts, having students create them to tell personal stories, and to illustrate key ideas in a book as an alternative to writing a traditional book report.

Creating a storyboard can be a good way to organize a story and plan a video project.  

Apps to Help Students

Speak It is a Google Chrome extension that enables you to have the text on most webpages read to you. With Speak It installed just highlight the text on a the page you're viewing then right-click to activate Speak It. Then click the play button to have the text read to you. The voice is very digitized, but it is clear. Installing Speak It takes just a few seconds. To install it go to Speak It's page in the Chrome Web Store and click the install button. Restarting your browser is not required in order to activate Speak It. If you decide that you don't want to use Speak It any longer you can uninstall it by right-clicking on the Speak It icon in your browser and selecting uninstall.

New Features Come to Google Documents in the Form of Add-ons

Google Drive has supported 3rd party apps for quite a while now and many of those apps are quite helpful to students. Beginning today Google Documents and Google Sheets now contain a new way for students to add even more functionality through 3rd party services. Add-ons for  Google Docs and Sheets allow any Google Drive user to add new functions to their documents and spreadsheets. To access Add-ons just open a new Google Document and open the new "Add-ons" drop-down menu to browse for add-ons.

Good Alternatives to Google Image Search

The Morgue File photo collection contains thousands of images that anyone can use for free in academic or commercial presentations. The image collection can be searched by subject category, image size, color, or rating. You will find a mix of images that don't require attribution along with some that do require attribution so pay attention to the labels that come with each picture. Morgue File is more than just a source for free images. The Morgue File also features a "classroom" where visitors can learn photography techniques and get tips about image editing.

Every Stock Photo is a search engine for public domain and Creative Commons licensed pictures. When you search on Every Stock Photo it pulls images from dozens of sources across the web. If you click on an image in your search results you will be taken to a larger version of the image, a link to the source, and the attribution requirements for using that picture.

Pixabay is currently my go-to place to find and download quality public domain images. You can search on Pixabay by using keywords or you can simply browse through the library of images. When you find an image you can download it in the size that suits your needs. Registered users do not have to enter a captcha code to download images. Users who do not register can download images, but they do have to enter a captcha code before downloading each picture.

Each time that I visit it the Flickr Commons collection seems to have grown. The Commons contains images that have been contributed by more than five dozen libraries and museums around the world. The images are mostly historical in nature.

The Wikimedia Commons houses thousands of images that you and your students can re-use. Searching in the Wikimedia Commons isn't the most intuitive process which is why I don't recommend it for younger students. Search the Wikimedia Commons by keyword or browse it by category and topic. 

 Earlier this year the Wellcome Library made more than 100,000 drawings, photographs, paintings, and advertisements available to the world under Creative Commons licensing. The images available through the Wellcome Images library are primarily of a historic nature. You can browse the galleries or search for images by keyword.

Unsplash is a Tumblr-hosted site that adds ten new, free, high-resolution images every ten days. I scrolled through the site for quite a while today and found a lot of nice images. The downside to Unsplash is that the site does not have a search function.

You can find more than 85,000 free images through the Getty Museum's Open Content Program. You can download and re-use the images as long as you give proper attribution for the source of the image. Use the Getty Search Gateway to find images in the Getty Museum's Open Content Program. The Getty Search Gateway allows you to filter your search according to material type, topic, name, source, and location. Once you find an image, click the image's title to be taken to its landing page where you can learn more about it, get the required attribution information, and learn more about the history of your chosen image.

Creating Infographics

InfoGraphic making websites like Piktochart and easel.y offer templates and graphics for making InfoGraphics, students need to register with these sites to create. 

Instructional Strategies

Identify Appropriate Instructional Strategies

After selecting the learning objectives and assessments for the course, we need to think about the various instructional activities we will use to engage students with the material and enable them to meet the objectives. Of course, the key is to align instructional strategies with the other two components. Many instructional strategies are flexible, and can be used in service of several learning objectives, but some of them are better suited for a particular set of objectives. In most cases, we will need to use a combination of instructional strategies. This table focuses on two of three components of course design.

Instructional Strategy	Suitable Objectives
Lectures	Transmit information which supplements or enhances reading; promote understanding via explanations; respond to student misconceptions or difficulties; create or engage interest in a new area; motivate reading or other assignments
Discussions	Practice thinking and communicating in the subject/discipline; evaluate positions, arguments, or designs; defend own position; identify problems, conflicts and inconsistencies; get feedback from/about students; draw on students’ expertise and prior knowledge
Case studies	Actively involve students in learning; apply disciplinary methods of analysis; practice problem solving; practice high-level cognitive skills (i.e., application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation); think critically; blend cognitive and affective dimensions (if the case has ethical or controversial dimensions); develop collaborative skills; relate knowledge to real world; formulate arguments and counterarguments
Writing	Develop systematic relationships among ideas; application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation; reflect on own thinking; record the evolution of own thinking; practice disciplinary conventions (e.g., APA style); practice responding to feedback and revising
Labs/Studios	Develop disciplinary and process skills; obtain immediate feedback and respond to it; develop metacognitive skills (e.g., awareness of own strategies); evaluate results or product of own work; approximate real life situations
Group Projects	Compare and contrast perspectives; practice high-level cognitive skills (i.e., application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation); develop meta-skills such as leadership, communication, conflict resolution; strategize and plan how to tackle complex problems and distribute work
Recitations	Practice problem solving; review material; check student understanding; identify and correct misconceptions; individualize instruction; answer questions
Public Reviews	Evaluation; practice giving constructive feedback; self-reflection; defend vision for own work
Service-Learning	Sometimes called community-based instruction, service-learning places equal emphasis on the service component of the experience and the learning outcomes for the student
Independent Student Projects	Explore areas of interest in depth; conceive of, plan, and execute a research or creative project from beginning to end; work independently; seek mentorship from an expert in the field.

Be motivated

Check the following video...

Different Types of Learners

See the following video...

See the difference now???

PART I: TEACHING AND LEARNING STYLES

ü  Utilize a variety of teaching modalities, such as small group process, lecture, and experiential activities

ü  Be flexible and meet each learner’s needs

ü  Provide information that will overlap with information learners already have

ü  Reiterate and reinforce information throughout the session

T YPES OF LEARNERS

To understand how to move from passive to active learning, it is important to understand the different types of learners. There are four primary learning styles: visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic. People learn using a variety of these methods, but one method is usually predominant. Familiarity with the characteristics of each learning style and associated strategies allows you to address the needs of each type of learner.

Visual Learners

Visual learners are characterized by the following:

ü  They tend to be fast talkers.

ü  They exhibit impatience and have a tendency to interrupt.

ü  They use words and phrases that evoke visual images.

ü  They learn by seeing and visualizing.

Your teaching strategy for visual learners should include the use of demonstrations and visually pleasing materials, and you should make an effort to paint mental pictures for learners.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners are characterized by the following:

ü  They speak slowly and tend to be natural listeners.

ü  They think in a linear manner.

ü  They prefer to have things explained to them verbally rather than to read written information.

ü  They learn by listening and verbalizing.

Your teaching strategy for auditory learners should sound good and should be planned and delivered in the form of an organized conversation.

Read-Write Learners

Read-write learners are characterized by the following:

ü  They prefer for information to be displayed in writing, such as lists of ideas.

ü  They emphasize text-based input and output.

ü  They enjoy reading and writing in all forms.

Your teaching strategy for read-write learners should include writing out key words in list form. The learners will learn by silently reading or rewriting their notes repeatedly; writing out in their own words the ideas and principles that were taught or discussed; organizing any diagrams, graphs, other visual depictions into statements (e.g., “The trend is . . . ”); and putting reactions, actions, diagrams, charts, and flowcharts into words. They like multiple-choice tests.

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners are characterized by the following:

ü  They tend to be the slowest talkers of all.

ü  They tend to be slow to make decisions.

ü  They use all their senses to engage in learning.

ü  They learn by doing and solving real-life problems.

ü  They like hands-on approaches to things and learn through trial and error.

ü  Your teaching strategy for kinesthetic learners should include hands- on demonstrations and case examples to be discussed and solved.

Can You Identify Your Predominant Learning Style?

There are a variety of types of learners in a single classroom. Therefore, it is important to incorporate multiple teaching methods. It is also important to know what your own predominant learning style is, because when you teach, you may unintentionally favor your learning style and shortchange other types of learners in the classroom.

An active learning process involves listening, demonstrating, inter- acting, and understanding in order to engage all learners. Adult learners tend to have a need to interact and share with others. Well-designed train- ing and educational programs use both active and passive methods. There needs to be some information transfer, but information that is only shared in a passive learning format is likely to become boring or seem irrelevant to learners. The key to teaching adults is to provide new information that is relevant and usable within a relatively short period of time.

A good framework to keep in mind is the active training credo:

What I hear, I forget.

What I hear and see, I remember a little.

What I hear, see, and ask questions about or discuss with someone else, I begin to understand.

What I hear, see, discuss, and do, I acquire knowledge and skill. What I teach to another, I master. (Silberman, 1996, p. 1)

As a teacher, your goal is not only to present information that learn- ers need but also to facilitate experiences that will help them gain and master the knowledge and skills that they need to know and practice. By using a variety of teaching techniques and by actively involving learners in the experience, we increase the chances that they will retain and use the information.

I always try to take into consideration what I call the Sesame Street factor. Most Generation Xers and Millennials grew up on Sesame Street, which uses short vignettes that are usually no longer than one or two minutes. Children who watched Sesame Street are now adults who want their information in short and quick forms. The average adult attention span is between six and twenty minutes, but this varies greatly depending on fac- tors such as the initial interest in the topic, the heat of the room, the time of day, and the energy level of the learner (Johnstone & Percival, 1976; Middendorf & Kalish, 1996). A change of pace at least every seven to ten minutes can give participants the chance to refocus and renew their interest in the topic (Jones, Peters, & Shields, 2007). Thus it is important that the pace of the teaching correspond to the attention span of the learners.

For teachers who are more comfortable with the lecture-only teaching style and learners who are more comfortable with passive learning, group involvement and active participation may seem problematic. Instructors may feel that they lose control of the class when they allow exercises to dominate classroom time. Learners may feel they would be learning more if they could get the information through lecture or readings. As teachers, we must remember that learners are capable of cognitively understanding a great deal of information, but they can only retain segments and will only experience a value change based on some of that learning experi- ence. We can increase retention and behavior/value change by utilizing multiple training styles such as lecture, experiential activities, and small and large group activities, and by repeating the information throughout the session.

PART II: FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNING

Learning is not an automatic process. There are a number of factors that can inhibit the process. These may include one or more of the following:

ü  Learner feels he or she is at least as competent in the subject matter as the instructor.

ü  Learner resents authority figures such as the instructor.

ü  Learner is fearful of being seen as inferior or of being embarrassed.

ü  Learner is anxious.

ü  Learner has had a bad learning experience in the past.

ü  Learner comes to the session with other problems on his or her mind and is unable to focus.

ü  Learner is in class against his or her will and resents this.

ü  Learner is interested in the material but is constrained by time and focused on other priorities.

ü  Learner has personal barriers or biases to learning about the topic. For example, a learner may be resistant to learning about a topic (e.g., evolution) that contradicts his or her religious beliefs.

ü  Learner has culturally based inhibitions to discussing or learning about the topic.

ü  Learner focuses on an annoying mannerism of the instructor.

ü  Learner is uncomfortable with the learning technique being used; this is common when learners are being introduced to technology for the first time.

Although it is difficult to address everyone’s needs, it is important to meet as many needs as possible. To accomplish this, the instructor should assess learners’ needs and issues. One way to do this is to simply ask the learners what their expectations are for the class session. There are more sophisticated assessment tools as well. Any of the ten methods described in part II can be used as a formative evaluation measure to make sure that a topic was understood before the class moves forward to the next topic. I prefer to use continuous evaluation mechanisms throughout the learning session to provide opportunities for learners to reflect on the content that was covered and answer questions while they are fresh in the learners’ minds. Sometimes learners have questions about issues that are beyond the scope of the instructor’s responsibilities. The value of the question should be acknowledged, but you should politely tell the learner that the question is beyond the purview of the course. However, you may still be able to establish the value and relevance of the questions to the entire course.

Click here to download different types of learners file