The three cloud computing sties I am following on Diigo are
Desmos, Ascend Math, and QuizMEOnline.
I was very impressed with the Desmos graphing calculator site. It cannot only graph a linear function, but
quadratics, and an absolute value. It
also has the capability of graphing trigonometric functions, exponential,
logarithmic, and finding maximum and minimum values. This is an awesome tool for students who
cannot afford their own graphing calculator or if they forget it at school.
https://www.desmos.com/calculator
In Ascend Math a teacher can easily differentiate instruction with students ranging from special education to the gifted and talented. It has proven to move students forward two or more grade level in six months. It is entirely delivered on the web and targets skill gaps and motivates students to be successful. The algebra readiness appeared to be very challenging and would be useful in my classroom.
QuizMEOnline is a free social networking service for students. You can create and share quizzes, flash cards, study guides and notes. It also allows students to create study groups with one another. The study groups can include images, links, and YouTube videos. Students also have the opportunity to create a class or enroll in a class to study a topic at their own pace.
https://www.desmos.com/calculator
In Ascend Math a teacher can easily differentiate instruction with students ranging from special education to the gifted and talented. It has proven to move students forward two or more grade level in six months. It is entirely delivered on the web and targets skill gaps and motivates students to be successful. The algebra readiness appeared to be very challenging and would be useful in my classroom.
QuizMEOnline is a free social networking service for students. You can create and share quizzes, flash cards, study guides and notes. It also allows students to create study groups with one another. The study groups can include images, links, and YouTube videos. Students also have the opportunity to create a class or enroll in a class to study a topic at their own pace.
The group that I decided to follow on Diigo is the edmathsites. It is a group that was created to share websites for mathematics educators. It caught my attention because the very first website that they were discussing was the Desmos Graphing Calculator site that is mentioned above. I like how they not only discuss mathematical problems, but ways to motivate students in the math classroom. The have open ended math problems, math challenges for families, real world math examples, and tips and tricks for specific upper level math courses like calculus!
The use of tags, tag clouds, and social bookmarking can benefit teaching and learning in variety of ways. The advantage is students can quickly find information regarding a specific topic that highlights their interests or assignment (Friedman, 2007). I have used a
word cloud on the cover page of each chapter of our math journals. I use all of the vocabulary words from the
chapter to create the word cloud and then we play an eye spy game with the word cloud in identifying vocabulary words.
I like the idea of using a web link portfolio. They are a great way to collect student’s
thoughts and ideas throughout the year.
Students can tag a link relevant to the class and complete an online
discussion board. At the end of a year
the teacher can have a record of what students have commented on throughout the
class. Classroom polls are also a really great idea to use instead of a traditional bar graph or pictograph that we may use in a math class. The more a word is typed, the bigger the word is, therefore showing information in a different way. Finally, the idea about teaching bullying was also very creative and can be used at a variety of levels. Developing a wordle based on a friend versus a bully and having students decide where they belong is an awesome activity to discuss this serious and relevant topic.
My principal has talked to me about using a "cloud" to store photos on of our graduating seniors and I had no idea what he was talking about!! It just makes sense that all of this information can be stored in one place that can make collaboration among educators so much easier! Two examples of how cloud computing can be used in the classroom were highlighted in the 2011 Horizon Report (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011). Kerpoof looked like a really fun place to make animated movies and had downloadable lesson plans for teachers. Even though it was geared towards elementary to middle school aged children, I can definitely see how my high school students could used this in our graphic design class. Learnboost was also a site that educators can find very useful. It can track students grades and progress and then share this information with students. I especially liked that when creating lesson plans, you can tag common core standards. I thought it was a bit overwhelming when I first looked at it, but after I clicked around a bit, it was really a simple process that would make my life easier when developing plans weekly.
Social bookmarking can benefit teaching and learning by allowing users to share bookmarks of websites and ultimately create groups that can share information with similar interests. The specific website, Diigo, is a free research tool that is a great place for collaboration. Because of social bookmarking, users can join a group of their interest or even create a group based on a specific research project. I had never heard of Diigo before and found a lot of resources that I could use in my classroom. What an awesome place to find resources for all levels and subject areas!
Friedman, V. (2007). Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples And Good Practices.
Johnson, L., Adams, S., & Haywood, K. (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
My principal has talked to me about using a "cloud" to store photos on of our graduating seniors and I had no idea what he was talking about!! It just makes sense that all of this information can be stored in one place that can make collaboration among educators so much easier! Two examples of how cloud computing can be used in the classroom were highlighted in the 2011 Horizon Report (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011). Kerpoof looked like a really fun place to make animated movies and had downloadable lesson plans for teachers. Even though it was geared towards elementary to middle school aged children, I can definitely see how my high school students could used this in our graphic design class. Learnboost was also a site that educators can find very useful. It can track students grades and progress and then share this information with students. I especially liked that when creating lesson plans, you can tag common core standards. I thought it was a bit overwhelming when I first looked at it, but after I clicked around a bit, it was really a simple process that would make my life easier when developing plans weekly.
Social bookmarking can benefit teaching and learning by allowing users to share bookmarks of websites and ultimately create groups that can share information with similar interests. The specific website, Diigo, is a free research tool that is a great place for collaboration. Because of social bookmarking, users can join a group of their interest or even create a group based on a specific research project. I had never heard of Diigo before and found a lot of resources that I could use in my classroom. What an awesome place to find resources for all levels and subject areas!
Friedman, V. (2007). Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples And Good Practices.
Retrieved from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/07/tag-clouds-
gallery- examples-and-good-practices/
Johnson, L., Adams, S., & Haywood, K. (2011). The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12
Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
I LOVE Desmos. We don't have graphing calculators for our students, and I cannot expect parents to buy them. Desmos solves this problem for me. I'm absolutely going to investigate QuizMeOnline. It reminds me of Quizlet, and it sounds like something my students would use. Also, GREAT idea to tag CCSS. I hadn't thought about that use of tags. I'm definitely going to do that. I have stumbled across LearnBoost but need to investigate this site further, as we all have to track data.
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