Tech Tools

Sarah Tollefson

Class Dojo

Online Environment

Overview

• Digital platform for students, teachers, and parents to engage on.
• Reward system
• Teacher can customize skills for the classroom
• Students have an online profile
• Upload photos, videos, and have an online portfolio
• Parents can have communication with the teacher
• Online and offline hours
• Could be used for both online and physical
• Great for online because of the portfolios and communication features
• A 100% free platform

Advantages

• It has multiple uses
• Customizable reward system
• Sorting groups
• Online portfolio
• Communication function
• Students can customize their online profile
• Translation feature to communicate with parents
• Parents can engage with students work
• Teacher can play music in class (helps students w/learning disability)
• Display activity directions via the platform

Disadvantages

• Student would need to have a personal laptop or tablet to engage with it
• Parents may take advantage of communication office hours, but there are quiet hours that the teacher can implement
• If students are rewarding each other with skills, they could take advantage and only give skills to their friends
• Students could get competitive with the reward feature
• Not having a stable wifi connection to submit assignments

In my online class…

• Customize skills together on the first day.
• Talk about the classroom Norms and implement those into the skills
• Make sure a Classroom norm is encouraging each other and being fair (so as to not be too competitive with the skills)
• Make clear office hours and quiet hours for the parents
• Have the students explore each others’ portfolio once a week and engage with each other there
• Check with the school to see if there’s an option for tablets to be rented to utilize the Dojo platform
• If students have anxiety or difficulty working, play calming music during work time
• At the end of the virtual class, maybe have a dance party with a more upbeat song to finish the VC

Showbie

Physical Environment

Overview

• Cross platform
• An App for Ipad and iphone, and there’s a website for the computer or other non-apple products
• Paperless classroom
• Need a classroom code to enter
• Best for in-person class, especially for younger students using this
• Has a paid and free version
• The paid version, students and teachers can upload unlimited sizes in their documents and voice notes and students also have an online portfolio
• There’s school district pricing and individual teaching pricing for $16USD/month

Advantages

• Good for the environment
• Annotation tool on class documents
• Students can do comment bubbles of voice notes
• Can write and draw on pdfs
• Helpful when submitting homework
• Can great groups
• Students can upload assignments on the app
• One-on-one discussion with teacher availability
• Can create shared folders for resources
• Voice note instruction, documents, videos, pictures…
• Students can upload voice notes, pictures, videos into shared folder
• Great for students with learning disabilities who need vocal instruction

Disadvantages

• Students would need to have access to an ipad, iphone, or computer at home to submit assignments
• This would be very difficult for lower income students
• The app is a bit clunky and would be difficult for younger students to use
• There are many features on the platform, but it could be difficult to remember them all and use those features successfully
• Not having a stable wifi connection at home to submit assignments
• Younger students wouldn’t be able to practice writing skills

In my Physical class…

• I would have the classroom code written on the board
• Spend time letting the students get to know the platform
• Make a game where students need to find certain features first
• Make sure each student has a rented tablet to use and take home if need be
• Use the Voice Note tool to give additional feedback on grades
• Use Showbie for class projects and homework that require speaking practice.
• If Showbie is successful, ask the school administration to opt for the paid option

Book Creator

Physical Environment

Overview

• Students create interactive books
• Portfolios, stories, science reports, about me books
• Online free account option
• Free, can have one library with up to 40 books
• Paid option for individual teacher,
• $12USD/month unlimited libraries and up to 200 books in a library
• School & districts payment option,
• Each teacher has 1,000 books
• Great for both online and physical, but would be ideal for an online environment since it is so easy to customize and use

Advantages

• Teacher can “Create library”
• & Share code to the class via chatbox
• Sign in option for students to join the library, they can copy and paste the code from a chatbox with parents help
• Teacher can see students work in real time as they create it
• Can switch over to old libraries in your account
• Can customize books with color, pictures, texts and different types of media
• Photos, recordings, videos, embedded links, and a pen tool
• Students can view eachother’s work

Disadvantages

• There’s no submission deadlines or information on the platform
• The teacher can see you creating the book, there’s no submission page
• It may be difficult to see when students are finished
• Teacher couldn’t grade assignments that come early because it won’t be clear who is finished
• The students would need to have access to a computer and wifi to do this
• This could be harder for students who are younger to engage with the platform and uploading media
• There’s no comment feature on the books for students to utilize

In my Online class…

• Make sure younger students have a parent available to help access the correct library
• Create a “Get to know you” library for the first virtual class where students can make a book about themselves
• Students could look through one another’s and in the next VC students can say any similarities and ask questions in break out rooms
• After each book has been completed, students would review each other’s work and share thoughts and questions in the first 5-10 minutes of the virtual class
• I’d use book creator for writing stories, essays, or reports to practice English writing and storytelling skills
• The students would include voice recordings on each page of them reading their work to practice speaking skills