Blog Post Two

I really enjoyed learning about some new assessment tools and resources in this module.  I explored several of them, but I would still like to dig deeper into many others since I had not heard of many of them.  I love how Web 2.0 tools augment my teaching and I feel you can get a lot out of many of the free versions.  I am also glad my district purchased licenses for Edpuzzle.  That certainly helped me with this assignment.  Over the course of this assignment, I discovered the term “in-class flipped classroom”, (Doubet, n.d.) which was new to me.  I even used it in my video!  I had a little familiarity with both tools, but I had not used Edpuzzle much at all.  I enjoy using Nearpod, but I really like how Edpuzzle supports video because I use a lot of videos to support my teaching in class.  It is time-consuming, but it is definitely worth the effort in the long run.  Students retain information much better with my standards with an in-class flipped classroom approach.  But as I mentioned in my video, editing only can help so much.  Time and experience teaching content open other ways of understanding your content and how your students interact with it.  Therefore, the ability to edit and keep it dynamic is crucial.  Edpuzzle is a great fit for that.  Quizizz makes assessing student’s knowledge more fun.  By incorporating memes and gamification, students respond better to it than a more traditional approach to quizzes/exams.  Both resources make administration much easier and provide very important data as well.  All educators value data, especially data that supports their content and how their students retain their content.

 
 I have been using Screencast-O-Matic now since the COVID lockdown and I am enjoying it.  I feel it is easy to use and does a good job.  I mentioned earlier that I use screencasts for an in-class flipped classroom approach, and I am incorporating it more and more each semester.  I have a library of videos that I use to support tasks large and small, and my students are used to it at this point.  Cobb has an LMS, called CTLS, and I upload much of the content there.  I also add much of the content I produce to my website, which also augments much of my instruction.  With CTLS and so many virtual learners (Cobb is hybrid now), the videos really help.  Another way I would like to incorporate it is for my students to produce content in different ways for class.  I have been thinking about that for a while, but I still haven’t tried it yet.  I would love to produce a videocast (vlog).  I am certain they would like that, but the logistics right now aren’t ideal to try it.  However, I am currently planning out some ideas for the future.  I also believe having students collaborate on video projects holds a lot of promise.  Many of my virtual learners rely on video and publicly accessible content to keep them up to date in school.  These tools are one way to provide that accessibility without having to create your own solution, which can be expensive and intimidating.


References:
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Doubet, A. (n.d.). Flipping the Elementary Classroom | Creative Educator. Creative Educator.
     https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/2015/articles/In-Class-Flip

Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times: Digital Leadership:
​     Changing Paradigms for Changing Times (Second ed.). Corwin.