Quizlet Live

Many teachers and students at CVU use Quizlet to create online flash cards.  Quizlet has now introduced Quizlet Live, which uses card sets to create games where teams of students compete against one another.  I haven't tried it myself yet, but it sounds similar to the functionality of Kahoot.

So, if you already use Quizlet, why not give Quizlet Live a try?

Revisiting VoiceThread

I've been thinking about VoiceThread again lately.   Have you tried it?  I've posted about VoiceThread before, but if you're unfamiliar with it, it's essentially a site where you can post a series of images to start a conversation.  People then add comments, as text or in audio or video form, using a microphone or webcam.  The comments show up to the left and right of the images.

Spanish teachers at CVU have used VoiceThread to allow their students to discuss famous paintings in Spanish, for example (recording their voices).  There's a math teacher in Burlington who snaps photos on his phone when he sees interesting geometric shapes, then posts them to a VoiceThread for students to comment.  There are science teachers who use VoiceThread for lab reports (students capture images and/or video of each step, then annotate with comments).

Here's a VoiceThread  I just started with some images from different areas that might just get students thinking.  You can see that I've used text, audio, and webcam commenting.  Best to expand to full screen to see this.

Feel free to add a comment (you do need to create an account to do so).

I'd be happy to help you get a VoiceThread going in your class.  Stop by 118 any time!

Two Google tips

Here are two simple but useful tips for Google Apps

Creating Reminders in Google Calendar.  

This is a new feature.  You can now add a "reminder" to your calendar (as opposed to an "event").  This is a great way to remind yourself to get something done at a particular date/time.  And they'll continue to appear on your agenda until you've marked them as done.  I've posted before about the usefulness of Google Tasks.  Tasks are still available, but they can be converted to Reminders as desired (down the road, I wouldn't be surprised if Google were to merge these).

Customizing the Google Apps Launcher

This is one of those really simple things that can make your life a lot easier.  If you didn't realize it, you can click and drag to move the icons in your Google Apps Launcher.  This is especially important if you want certain apps to appear "above the line" (i.e. not under "More").  Here a quick screencast on how it works.