Student Technology Projects that Demonstrate Learning!

This was a full week of interaction with amazing

teachers who shared projects their students created that inspired innovation and met standards. ISTE standard 1: "Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology." ISTE standard 2: "Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively..." using technology.
Between Tech EDGE 16, TEC21, 
EdCampOmaha, and my 880J UNL graduate course, I was privileged to collaborate with teacher leaders who are integrating technology in their classrooms in meaningful ways. Let me share just a few of them with you in hopes that they may stimulate ideas for you as you encourage your students to communicate their learning using multimedia.

One teacher has his students planning the perfect vacation! Students were allowed $4,500.00 to plan their dream vacation. The teacher created a template with links to guide students' research for best dates, flight, hotel, cab, restaurants, and activities. Students calculated the cost of each item for each day of the vacation. Then they used Google Tour Builder to create the vacation and view these locations at street level. This inquiry project required critical thinking on the part of students using technology to take them virtually to the locations of their dreams, going far beyond a hand-written paper.

Two kindergarten teachers from different schools connect their classes weekly via FaceTime to study vocabulary. They use the Mystery Skype format with one class asking yes/no questions to guess the vocabulary word. That class continues asking questions as long as they get "yes" answers to their questions. When they get a "no", it's the other class's turn to try to figure out what the "mystery word" is. This collaborative exercise helps young children see the possibilities of learning in 21st century schools that extend beyond the walls.

In TEC21 one week we experiment with virtual fieldtrips, YouTube 360 videos, and green screens, the next week teachers share examples of how they used these tools with their students! One teacher ordered a Google Cardboard and signed her class up for a virtual fieldtrip to Tokyo, a city they were studying in their social studies unit on rural and urban. The fieldtrip sent them a free Google Cardboard app so students could explore Tokyo before they joined the virtual fieldtrip via video conference with other classrooms from around the world. Another teacher had her students create green screen videos using TouchCast in a talk show format discussing the Revolution from historical character points of view.

At EdCampOmaha I attended an innovative session on student presentations hosted by Eileen Heller and Tony Vincent. Teachers shared student project ideas including: collaborative presentations at Sway.com, Thinglink.com for students to create and post an avatar to which they connect the video or other project they made to demonstrate learning, and Masquerade (MSQRD app) that allows students to put masks on their video image to record themselves describing what they learned. Tony live recorded all teachers sharing their projects using Periscope which lasts for 24 hours, another great idea for the classroom!

Seeing teachers excited attending their first EdCamp, watching them realize that they have great technology ideas to share with other teachers, and listening to the way they are empowering students to be 21st century learners excites me! Let me know about student technology projects you are working on with your class!

3 Screencasting Tools Every Teacher Should Know How to Use

This week the teachers in my graduate class experimented with screencasting and video tools. It was exciting to see the creative ways these teachers used tools for a variety of purposes. One teacher experimented with Screencast-O-Matic, a web-based tool that allows you to capture your screen, use webcam to capture you teaching, or do both by capturing you teaching in the lower right corner of the screen and your screen on the remainder of the video. This teacher quickly created a screencast to demonstrate to his students how to create a Google Earth Tour. He will post this screencast at his Google Classroom site so students can view to remember how to create their tours during the Favorite Vacation project in which they are involved. You may save these screencasts on your computer, at Screencast-O-Matic, or in YouTube. I made a Screencast-O-Matic sample for you to see how easy it is to use this tool on any computer. I like the feature of the yellow circle that highlights your cursor as you teach your lesson, making it very easy for learners to follow as you explain.

The second screencasting tool we used was the TouchCast Studio app. This app provides very professional backgrounds where you can annotate a webpage, video, pictures, map, or file from Dropbox or Google Drive. You can select a background that puts you in a news studio, talk show, at the Lincoln Memorial, or any place you can imagine as you use the green screen feature to insert a picture or video behind you. Students can use this app to create a sportscast, how-to video, or review
of information covered. Think of the exciting book reports or story retellings you could do using this app! TouchCast also allows you to record screen, webcam, or both. Select from over 30 visual Apps to easily bring up websites, Twitter feeds, maps, photos, movies, files, and more! And use the screen as a whiteboard so you can add content as you present. Check out this short TouchCast I made on the current presidential debate.

And now for my all time favorite screencasting tool, Educreations. This tool was originally created as an early childhood tool to allow even young children to make their thinking visible as they write or draw on the whiteboard and simulateously record their voice as they explain what their process. As schools purchase a variety of devices for teachers and students, Educreations is available to everyone in both app and web-based formats. I know teachers who use Educreations to flip their classroom, creating a short 4 minute video to teach a lesson students view the night before, then come to class to apply their learning in creative ways. So this versatile and easy to use tool allows teachers and students to screencast. Click here for a sample Educreations video I made: Flipped Classroom video about creating screencasts.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to try out these screencasting tools, and share your videos! Remember to keep it short for maximum viewer attention, and keep in mind your purpose is to teach, not win an Academy Award! Have fun.