Category: Classrooms

Kahoot Challenge
Classrooms, Distance Ed, instructional technology, iPad, Mobile, Pedagogy

Kahoot! Now Has A New Out-of-Class Feature!

Mendi Benigni

Kahoot mobile screenshotKahoot! is a game-based learning platform that, up until now, could really only be used face-to-face.  But great news, it now has an out-of-class feature as well that can be used for homework or for online courses.  I know many of you teaching online has wanted to use Kahoot! but haven’t been able to.  Well now you can!

The new feature is called Challenge and does require the Kahoot! App to play.  When you (or your students) want to start a Challenge just click on an existing Kahoot! (or you can make a new one) and at the top, click Challenge.  You then set a due date by when the challenge must be completed.  Lastly, you are given a Challenge link and PIN that you then share with your students, either via OAKS, Email, or Google Classroom.  The student really just needs to type in the PIN into the Kahoot! app and they go on with the game as they would in class.  At the end, the instructor can see how everyone in the class did.

The only thing I’m not in love with is that Challenges can’t be done on a computer and most young children (for EHHP) don’t have cell phones or iPads.  For a college classroom this shouldn’t be an issue.

Here’s how it works:

Kahoot! can be used to:

  • Review, revise and reinforce
  • Re-energize and reward
  • Get classroom insights
  • Gather opinions
  • Motivate teamwork
  • Challenge past results
  • Join global classrooms
  • Introduce new topics
  • Great for competitions
(taken from Inspiring Ways to Kahoot! )

Also, as you learned above, there is a new mobile app to make it even easier to join and play!  Check it out on their Mobile app page.

Zoom conferencing
Classrooms, Collaboration, Conferencing, Presentation

#OneNewThing – Zoom Conferencing

Mendi Benigni

One New Thing from TLT
Zoom is an online conferencing tool, similar to WebEx or Go To Meeting, and allows you to host online, collaborative sessions.  The free version is full featured for up to 45 minutes of conferencing.

Video conferencing from your computer or mobile device

With the FREE version of Zoom users can:

  • hold unlimited 1 on 1 sessions
  • hold an unlimited number of sessions
  • have up to 50 participants per session
  • hold sessions only up to 40 minutes long (pro allows more)
  • host web or video conferences (desktop and mobile)
  • create breakout rooms for small group collaboration
  • share your, or participants, computer screens
  • annotate on shared screens
  • collaborate on a shared online whiteboard
  • record the session to share later
  • use user management with muting and hand raising
  • use either the computer microphone or telephone for audio

Need more?

  • 100 participants for $60/mo, 200 participants for $105/mo
  • Unlimited meeting time for $15/mo

Uses for Faculty & Students

There are many uses for such a tool in education, both online and face-to-face.

  • Hold online office hours: can use the screen sharing or the collaborative whiteboard to work together during the meeting.
  • Conduct interviews:  instead of Skype consider using Zoom.  This eliminates the sharing of Skype usernames and allows for screen sharing for easier discussion of materials.
  • Online paper or project review sessions: using the collaborative tools and screensharing you can work with students to review papers or projects together.
  • Online training and tutorials: use the screenshare to teach your students synchronously.
  • Study groups: students can use Zoom to conduct online study sessions when they can’t get together to study.
  • Group work: students can use Zoom to collaborate on group work.  They can bring up their Google doc or presentation and use the video chat to discuss the project while collaborating on the documents.

 

Get your Free Account now at zoom.us

Keep Calm the semester is about to end
Best Practices, Classrooms, TLT

Important End-of-Semester Information for Faculty

Mendi Benigni

It’s hard to believe the semester is almost over. As you get ready to leave campus and enjoy your summer, there are a few things you need to remember:

1) Final Grades: Remember, Final Grades MUST be keyed into My Charleston/Banner before they are officially recorded. Keeping your grades in OAKS is great for the student but is not counted as the official grade until it is added to Banner during open grading. Be on the lookout for an email from Laetitia Sobiesuo in the Registrar’s Office for more information.  For more information on the OAKS Grade Book visit: Grading/Grade Book

2) Sign up for a Professional Learning Club for next year: A PLC is a group of faculty that meet to collaboratively reflect on and improve their teaching practices. It involves examining the relationship between teaching practices and student outcomes and then evaluating those practices using the students’ work. APPLY BY JUNE 1st, 2016 at https://tlt.cofc.edu/faculty-services/plc/

3) Classroom Software Requirements: If you need special software installed on ANY CLASSROOM OR LAB COMPUTERS remember you must request the installation by the deadlines. You only need to request software that isn’t part of the classroom standard. A list of standard software is available at: http://goo.gl/FrgzVK

When:
Summer Sessions – May 23, 2016
Fall – July 1, 2016
Spring – December 1, 2016

How: complete the online form BEFORE the due dates above — http://goo.gl/yodfJd

Remember – TLT is here all summer to help you in any way we can.  Don’t hesitate to contact us!

work-struggle-with-technology-Veer
Assessment, Classrooms, Innovative Instruction, instructional technology, Pedagogy, TLT

A Plan of Attack for Implementing Technology into Your Instruction

Amy Ostrom
work-struggle-with-technology-Veer
Image Credit: Veer

Here at Teaching, Learning, and Technology part of our mission is to support, develop, and educate faculty in the integration of educational technology into pedagogy and assessment.  Our goal for doing this is that it will enhance student learning and promote effective or innovative practices.  Lately, I have met with several members of the College of Charleston faculty who are interested in getting started with incorporating more technology into the classroom or starting to look at it for the first time.  It can be daunting when faced with the choices of technology tools that are on the market.  Which one is the best?  Can my students use it?  Do I really HAVE to use technology to get my point across?

Here are our top 5 tips to consider when you are looking at implementing educational technology into your courses:

  • Above all, technology should be chosen to ENHANCE instruction.  Too often faculty members find a new tool and try to come up with a way to use it in class, which is not necessarily a bad thing and can lead to some innovative instruction.  However, trying to force a tool to fit into your course simply because it’s new and shiny may not be the best way to introduce technology into your courses.  Remember, the instruction should be used to structure tool choice rather than using the tool to structure your instruction.

 

  • Define what you want the tool to accomplish and the relevant features. There are tons of tools out there to achieve your goal for any action.  Just do a quick Google search for apps for managing a to-do list (http://bit.ly/1oquZP2)! The first step to a purposeful integration is to reflect on your current teaching practices to see where your lessons could be enriched with a technological tool.  Next, define what you want the tool to be able to do and what are your “deal breaker” features, or features that the tool absolutely must or must not do.  This will help to narrow your search.  Of course, when it comes to this, you can always have a conversation with your neighborhood, friendly Instructional Technologist to help with the narrowing and research process!

 

  • Plan ahead and test it out.  Whenever you are trying a new instructional technology tool, it may take a while for you to feel comfortable with using the tool or to get it set up the way that you want.  Like anything, this comes with practice and exposure to the product.  Make sure that if you want to use a new tool in your courses that you give yourself at least 2 weeks to really get to know the app or tool before implementing it with your students.  Also, try the tool in multiple locations and using multiple platforms.  For example, try using a web based tool both on and off campus, in the classroom where you want to work with it, and on Chrome/Firefox/Internet Explorer/Safari to make sure everything displays and functions the same way.  Nothing is more frustrating than getting in front of your students to facilitate a wonderful lesson planned with technology and have it not work the way that you intended.  Which leads me to our next point…

 

  • Have a backup plan just in case.  In a perfect world, we would all be able to walk into any classroom and have every lesson go smoothly…the students are actively learning, all of the technology functions perfectly, and you leave class with the high of knowing that you have helped to mold young minds into the way of the future.  Snap back to reality!  There are too many variables to have that utopian classroom be a constant, so as effective instructors we need to be prepared with various instructional strategies to help our students meet the end objectives for the lesson.

 

  • Don’t be afraid to try something new!  Yes, things can go wrong and it’s scary to change from the way that you may have done things for years.  It can also be amazing and you can see growth, access, and engagement with material that you never thought possible.  Be honest with your students about your new endeavors and ask them for their feedback.  When the students know that you are learning and that you value their opinions about what is going on in the classroom, it creates a sense of ownership within the cohort of learners in your course.

One faculty member on campus told me that he tests his material for his online courses in his face to face course and has his students rate them.  It helps to shape the instruction and trouble shoot for the next running of the course.  Another faculty member in the Department of Communication told his students that they were going to try a new tool in the class and that it was the first time he had ever tried to use this tool, so they were going to experience it together.  The students responded to his openness and they ended up learning from each other and allowing this particular faculty member to branch out and try more technology tools to engage his students.

 

When you start to look at integrating new tools into your lessons it may seem like there are so many options and only one of you, but keep in mind that there is always safety in numbers.  Talk to your colleagues to see what they are doing and what they have found to be successful and what has not.  You can learn just as much from a failed attempt as you can from a successful one.  Attend workshops and training sessions to help with your comfort level.  In addition, you can always contact your Instructional Technologist to help with an individualized plan of attack!