Sharing Resources: Study Blue

One of my colleagues is now teaching the Core Reading class that I've been teaching for the last few terms, and we were discussing vocabulary study a few weeks ago. She's had the same struggles with her students that I had with mine around vocabulary - despite trying a variety of vocabulary practice exercises and context work with her students, they were not performing well when it came to quiz time. We were comparing notes on the activities, exercises, and study tools that we had used with our students, and one tool that I had used that she had not was Study Blue.

We did a quick tutorial together - she quickly set up an account, and we created a couple of sample flashcards. We also went over joining classes, sharing cards, and the other review materials that Study Blue provides. I explained how I used Study Blue in class to set up cards and teach students to use the system, then gradually gave students responsibility for creating their own cards.

This past week, my colleague told me that her students had done much better on their last vocabulary quizzes. I'm sure that using a resource like Study Blue is only one small contributor to this - most likely, students are benefiting from practice with the study of vocabulary and with the various study tools they're developing for vocabulary. But, I do think that for some students, digital tools like Study Blue are effective, and all students need exposure to a number of study tools and techniques so that they can find and develop study skills that work for them.

Video Series: Exponent Rules. Still Learning...

We recently spent some time working on exponent rules in my Math 4 class, so I decided to make some explanatory videos covering the rules we practiced in class. My students already had several resources to help them learn exponent rules - links to Khan Academy videos, textbook sections from CK12, and a CK12 study guide on exponent rules. I decided to supplement these other resources with my own videos because a couple students seemed to really struggle with the various rules, and some of those same students have said that they've had a hard time with the Khan Academy videos. I'm hoping that they'll have an easier with videos in which I explain concepts the same way that I explain them in class.

I made this series of videos with Screencast-o-matic and Smoothdraw 4, a free program that does a pretty good job with freehand drawing and handwriting (it's the same program that Sal Khan started with). I think I've got my video-making workflow down pretty well, but I still occasionally have some issues with pen skips or stray marks on the screen. Also, I notice that when I upload my videos to YouTube, some of the videos look a little fuzzy when played fullscreen. I'm not sure what to do about this, as I am recording at the "Full HD" setting. Ideas?

The exponent rule videos are available on my YouTube channel - enjoy!

My Open Math

Another great OER I've been using for my math classes is My Open Math. My Open Math just about does it all - course management, prebuilt math courses at several levels, the ability to customize courses or build courses from scratch, extensive problem banks - and it's all free.

Signing up for a teacher account is quick and easy, but does require verification by MOM. Once you've set up your account, you can create as many course sections as you'd like. You can base your course on template courses ranging from a 010-level arithmetic course up to 150 Calculus, with a number of course options in between. Or, you can start from scratch with a blank course. Template courses generally are set up as chapters or modules, and offer a variety of resources - textbook sections, video tutorials, problem sets, quizzes and tests. 

Assessments in MOM can be customized in numerous ways. Problem types are chosen from libraries and generated for each assessment. You can choose to have multiple copies of a problem generated, give students one or multiple attempts, control scoring and feedback, and set open/close dates for assessments. One of the things that I like best about MOM assessments is that students can complete them online or you can generate print copies (with up to three versions) and answer keys.

When I first started using MOM, I had students create accounts and join the classes I created. I used template classes, occasionally adding my own material to the course shells. Mainly, I used the online assessments to give students practice working math on the computer in preparation for the math placement test and the 2014 GED test. I referred students to the other materials as supplementary study materials. I also created a number of print version problem sets to use in class and for homework assignments.

This term, I'm essentially doing the same thing, but I've connected my MOM classes to Moodle, so students never have to log in to MOM. (There are basic instructions on this process in the help section of MOM, and videos on YouTube covering this - it's a bit of a tricky process, but once I figured it out, it didn't take long.) Once a week, we have computer lab time, and students log into Moodle, where they can access an assessment I've created to review concepts from previous weeks and practice concepts we're currently working on. I leave the assessments open and available to students for the remainder of the course so that they can go back and complete problems for review throughout the term. 

In the future, I may try to import and use an entire course template in Moodle. This would be an easy way to create some variety for students who repeat the course. In any case, I've found My Open Math to be an invaluable resource for my math classes.

Digital Flashcards and Study Guides with StudyBlue

I've been using the StudyBlue flashcard app/website for a couple of terms now, mainly as one of the tools I encourage students to use to study vocabulary.  I've found that most of my students are not really sure how to study vocabulary for their classes - not surprising, really, considering that many of them lack college-level study skills. I've always included vocabulary study in my reading classes because I think it's an essential skill and because many of my students have limited vocabularies. I tried to help students develop a range of tools for working with vocabulary - I teach context clues and dictionary use and show them various methods they can use to study vocabulary (flashcards, partner quizzing, puzzles, etc.).

Now that I'm teaching only math, I'm still teaching vocabulary, but my approach has changed somewhat. I really focus on using the appropriate terminology for math concepts (saying "numerator" instead of "top number," for example) so that students can be prepared for more advanced college math classes. The study of math and science terminology is unique in some ways, though - it can require the study of both words and symbols, it's a little harder to use context clues, and much of the terminology is completely foreign to students. For these reasons, I've been spending a lot of time this term not only teaching vocabulary, but teaching students how to learn the vocabulary.

StudyBlue is a digital flashcard program that can be accessed through a website or an app. It's a pretty simple, straightforward program, though they are slowly adding more features. The program allows you to create decks of digital flashcards that you can then quiz yourself with by "flipping" the cards back and forth. Cards can be as simple as a term on one side and a definition on the other, or you can make them richer and more interactive by adding pictures, sound, or equations. When creating cards through the website, entering a term on a card brings up a list of cards that other users have created for that same term - you then have the option of continuing to supply your own information or inserting someone else's card into your deck. (This feature is not available on the app.)

Decks of cards get saved to your virtual "backpack," and can be used to study via simple flipping or to create study lists or true/false or multiple choice quizzes. When studying by flipping cards, you record whether you answered correctly or not; when you study that same deck again, you then have the option to see only or more often those cards you missed.

When teachers create a StudyBlue account, they have the option to create "classes" that they can invite their students to; when students sign up, they are prompted to join a class. Members of a class can then share study cards and chat with each other.

I like StudyBlue for two reasons - first, it's a clean, simple app that students can quickly learn to use. Additionally, it's convenient - students can install the app on their phone and use it to study whenever they have a few free minutes. They might not carry actual study cards around with them, but they've always got their phones, so they can study while they're waiting for the bus, etc. I've found that international students, in particular, really like and use the app.

I've been sharing StudyBlue with students and other instructors - stay tuned for a post in which I describe more about these experiences.

Sharing Resources and Knowledge: Google Docs

I'm fortunate to work with a group of colleagues who are all very interested in integrating technology into their classes, though each of them is at a slightly different place in terms of tech skill and comfort. Of our group of six, two of us have been working on the Dig Co-Lab project; the others know this (and one has now signed up - welcome Aliscia!) and are always curious about what we're learning and creating and how they can apply technology in their own classes. In order to help everyone along, I suggested that we add a half hour to our weekly staff meeting for technology sharing. I started things off with a session on Google Drive.

I chose to start with Google Drive because a couple of us had started extensively using the Google apps, and I thought that there were some classroom needs and staff communication needs that the Drive tools could address. I chose to focus on two things: the features of Google Drive documents, and using the Google Drive app on the iPad.

The feature of Drive documents that I think is most useful for communication with students and staff is the ability to share and edit documents - even in real time. It took only a few minutes to demonstrate, and people immediately began thinking of uses for this type of collaborative document. For students, Drive is great because the document is dynamic. Rather than uploading a static document to Moodle for students to access, for example, you can link the document to Moodle. That way, if you edit the document (say, from one term to the next) students will link to the most recent version of the document without the need to update any files in Moodle.  Also, students can be given sharing rights so that they can add to or edit the document, which opens many possibilities for group projects, collaborative writing, etc. Among staff, we've been creating meeting minutes in Drive - one person takes meeting minutes, then saves the document into a shared folder. During or after the meeting, others in the group can add to or edit the minutes. This takes pressure off the notetaker and requires no emailing or saving of notes.

What really makes Drive useful for the classroom or meeting is the ability to access documents from nearly any device, including the iPad via the Drive app. The app has it's limitations (you can open Presentations but not edit them; there are fewer formatting tools for documents and spreadsheets in the app, etc.), but for those of us who use iPads in the classroom, it's a great tool. I demonstrated how I create documents and presentations to use during my class - thanks to my iPad and Drive, I know longer use an overhead projector and rarely use my doc cam or classroom PC. I've heard a lot of complaints from other teachers about how finicky doc cams are, so everyone appreciated having an alternative method for projecting worksheets, diagrams, etc.

What I did not have time to demo in this first tech workshop was how I import my Drive presentation slides into an app that allows me to annotate the slides - that will have to wait for another day!