January 10, 2017

Recap: a free student video response app

“Recap provides teachers with new, creative ways to gather evidence of student thinking using video. It helps create new learning connections between students, parents and teachers, and foster more transformative dialogue by everyone. Great for any age!”

Recap is designed to have students provide their feedback in a fun and easy manner by recording their own responses and/or capture their thinking on video.

It can be used to provide: 

• Formative Assessment
• Reflection
• Class Management 
• Parent Communication

Recap is multi-device which means it can be used on an iPad, Laptop, Chromebook and more.

To learn more, click here: https://letsrecap.com/ 

January 10, 2017

Benefits of using Fake Twitter.

Eric Curtis has a great blog post titled Write Less to Write Betterwith Google Docs.

There are times when it is beneficial to encourage students to write Less than they normally do. It’s important for students to be able to “distill their ideas down to just the most important, relevant, clear, and concise words. By putting limits on the number of words or characters our students can use, this forces students to:

• Summarize key points
• Select what is most important
• Choose words that best convey meaning • Restate concepts
• Avoid unnecessary filler and fluff” (Curtis)

In the blog post, Eric provides tips on using Google Docs to help limit the number of words using the doc tool Word Count. His instructions are very clear and practical. However, I like his “Compose a Tweet” template better as it ties into how students are communicating online.

In the same vein, Alice Keeler has a blog post titled Mock Twitter Chat with Your Students. Alice recommends using Google Docs as well and provides excellent instructions on how to conduct your own Mock Twitter Chat.