Assessment Screencast

Schoology for Assessments...

I have been using Schoology (my CMS)  for about four years now.  I have been impressed with the different improvements that they have made over the years.  Everything from rubrics, discussions, and the ease with which students can submit assignments. 

 I really like the testing part of Schoology.  I believe that this part of Schoology will enhance my student's learning because my assessment is for review and relearning.  I have created questions that are from our daily grammar lessons.  I have created a sentence that it similar and covers the same concepts in the grammar lessons.  What I really like about the testing part of Schoology is that I can require students to earn a certain score.  That way if they do not get a certain score they can retake the test until they do so.  I can pull from my questions in the question bank thus student's will not be taking the same test.  There is also a feedback part for each question...meaning, I can explain WHY the answer is incorrect.  That way students will have a better understanding of why they missed the questions they did. 

After a student takes the series of tests, I can then go back to the tests to find problem areas.  With this knowledge I can then reteach difficult concepts either to the entire class or to specific students.  Another reasons I think Schoology and the testing section of Schoology can enhance student learning is that I can create differentiated tests for special education students or ESL students...and no one knows that they are taking a different test.  So...students can take the different tests until they reach a certain score, no two tests are the same, and the ability to differentiate are all reasons this is a good way to review and relearn certain grammatical concepts.

This link might work better than the video below: https://youtu.be/U4DksW2y2kI

CMS comparison

The three CMS's that I looked at were: Hiku, Edmodo, and Schoology. Here is my comparison link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kx-yQPvxbhzIP1j8wwIv3BpUwaLaXoip_Tl4TMO1-48/edit?usp=sharing  

The CMS that I chose to use is Schoology.  I liked Schoology the best because of how easy it is to use.  It has a "Facebook" like structure so it is very familiar to work with.  I think students would find this easy to use as well. I use Schoology for my CMS in my current classes, BUT I tried to be very open minded with the other two CMS's when doing this assignment.  I am not opposed to jumping ship if something is easier to use.  In the end I still liked Schoology better than the other two.  I liked how easy it was to add an assignment, create a rubric (that can show the curriculum standards), and grade.  It is also very easy to add video and audio as forms of assessment.  If I have a podcast assignment students can just upload it to Schoology and I can have the rubric right there to grade it. The same goes for videos as well. I can also put students into "grading groups" to differentiate assignment and tests.  This is important to me because students don't like to be singled out when they have different assessment standards.  This way other students in the class have no idea that someone else is getting a modified assignment.  One of the better features that Schoology offers is a "must complete first" option.  So in order for a student to go to the next step they have to complete the first one.  This comes in handy when you want students to complete an series of assignments but in a particular order.

I like the way I can put students into discussion groups or have just one discussion.  One of the features of the discussion part is that students need to post first in order to read other's posts.  That way students have no idea what others have written until they post. There is also a grading option with the discussion so I can apply points and students will then see their grade. With the discussion groups I can put students from other classes into the different groups.  This is a nice feature so students have a wider audience for their discussions. I can add a URL link or I can upload a video for students to watch and then comment on...these are all great option for discussion groups.

 I also like the quiz feature in Schoology better than the others.  I can import quizzes that I have used before.  I can create a quiz question bank that I can pull questions from for a final exam.  I also like the fact that there is a scramble option so questions are randomly picked so not everyone gets the same questions in the same order.  It is also very easy to add video, audio, and pictures to quizzes.  Again I can differentiate student quizzes as well...and no one in the class knows that someone else is getting a modified quiz. On the quiz part I can see how much time a student has spent on a particular test.  I can see how many students got a particular correct or incorrect. I also like the fact if I want students to take practice quizzes I can put that the student needs a certain score to go to the next quiz.

Schoology works well with Google docs (unfortunately not Google calendar) so for writing assignments I can click on a student's Google Doc link and grade from there.  I also like that students can resubmit assignments and the original assignment doesn't go away.  I do this a lot with rewrites. With all assignments I can always write comments to the students.  This is especially nice with the rubric option.  I can write a student a note on the rubric to tell them why they missed the points they did.

Minecraft Video

The last few weeks we were given the opportunity to look at Minecraft and how we could use this type of game as an assessment in our classrooms.  I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but after exploring the actual "world" and creating my own world so to speak I do see the value that this game could have in the classroom.  I am not a gamer...so this assignment was a huge stretch for me.  I would get frustrated, lost, and I would give up a lot.  I did plow through it though, and the more I did it I could see how people could become addicted to it.  I have to admit it, if I had more time I would like to see how I could develop my Macbeth world and see how my students would react to it as well.

Link to my Minecraft Podcast: Minecraft

Minecraft screencast

This week in CEP 813 we explored Minecraft and how this could be used in our classrooms.  Before we actually create something for our classes we needed to become familiar with Minecraft and how it really works.  I was able to download the Minecraft and played with the tutorial.  It wasn't too difficult to maneuver Minecraft, but I did find it a bit confusing in places as I got lost a lot!  Here is my Minecraft screencast!

Ok for some reason you cannot hear the sound on this video so here is a Youtube link with the same screencast: https://youtu.be/slZrQGKgIpI