Ed Tech Review

 I stumbled across this image of a mathematical equation clock I would love to add to my classroom.  If any of my readers know where to get one please post a comment to let me know.

Rubrics have become an essential part of teaching, because they provide a clear picture of student expectations.  It is possible to create a rubric from scratch, but there are a variety of free and low cost tools that will help you create rubrics with ease.  I looked at several products out there for this task and have narrowed it down to the five most notable solutions.  They include free and paid web based solutions, as well as software based solution to meet ever rubric creation need.

http://rubistar.4teachers.orgRubistar is my pick as the best rubric site on the internet. There are a wide variety of rubrics to get you started, and they are very customizable. With a free account you can save all your custom rubrics and can access them wherever you have internet access.

http://landmark-project.com/rubric_builder/index.php

The Landmark Project Rubric Builder is a great easy tool to get you started in creating rubrics. In addition to a wide variety of public rubrics to get you started, it contains powerful creation and editing capabilities. It does require registration but it is free.

http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/

Teach-Nology has a wide variety of ready made rubrics. You can enter the title, school name, and teacher name, but that is the extent of customization available. The strength of the site is the sheer number of ready to go rubrics available. With a paid membership starting at $29.95 you gain access to a more powerful rubric engine with many more rubrics to choose from. Rubrics can also be exported to Word or PDF to further customize and save them.

http://www.rubrics.com

Rubricator 5 is a software based solution.  It is a great solution for those that don’t have constant access to the internet or simply want to have a solution that is always there when they need it.  The software is easy to use and comes with many objectives built in, offering you draog and drop simplicity and efficiency.  It is available for both PC and MAC and is $25.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates 

For those of you that know exactly what they want. and want total control over the format and wording, Microsoft Office is a great tool.  they do provide a template to get you going, but your options are truly endless.  The downside is you have to do it start to finish.  I would love to tell you that Iwork has a template for rubrics for my Mac using readers, but alas the selection of templates available for Iwork is pretty limited.

Lexia software has been around for a while, but it is still one of the best reading programs available for schools and learning centers. I began testing the Lexia Early Reading program earlier this summer and have been very happy with the results.  My 5 year old who is just entering Kindergarten next week will start his experience as a reader.  The program self adjusts getting more difficult and easier based on a child’s performance.  This is a huge advantage over programs like Reader Rabbit and Jump Start that basically force the child on whether they are successful or not.  Other advantages include a very good student management system and reporting system.  I believe this program is as good or better than some of the other big boys such as Waterford Reading, and Academy for Reading. but the pricing is much more affordable.

http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/worldquiz.html

Do you know where in the world things are? This fun little Geo quiz tests your knowledge of the world, and teaches you along the way. This is a great activity for middle school kids on up. There are also many other fun activities available on there website

Back to School Night Power Point Template(download)

Back to School nights are a great opportunity for us to provide helpful information to parents. It also gives us an opportunity to share our expectations, get volunteers to help in the classroom, and set up good parent teacher relationships. I have provided this powerpoint template to give your back to school night presentation a little punch.

Enjoy!

We’ll so much for regular posting during the summer.  For some reason after working 60 hours a week doing manual labor I wasn’t up to writing blog posts.  Maybe if we show the growth that we did last year and get a few more people clicking on ads, then I can cut back to 50 hours a week next summer.

For now and through the next 9 months we are back at school and back to blogging about technology for the classroom.  EdTechReview, will become far more that just an Education Technology blog.  We will bring you news on great sites, software, and hardware.  We will aslo start writing about the activities that you can user in your classroom complete with worksheets, and activities.  We are also working on collecting PowerPoint presentations about many subjects available for download and use from our site.  Look for many great things to come from EdTechReview, your Education Technology website.

It has been a very busy summer, and thus I have had few posts, but I have stumbled across a product that I think deserves mentioning. The program is made for writing scripts with competitors such as Final Draft, Sophocles, and Movie Magic Screenwriter.

The biggest difference in Celtx and the other screenwriting software is that Celtx is Open Source. In addition to Celtx being free, it is also much more than just screenplay formatting software. Celtx has the Screenwriting component, a storyboard, scheduling, with online collaboration capabilities. The software was easy to download and get started. I have used both Movie Magic Screenwriter and Final Draft, and I found that the ease of use, and the powerful capabilities of Celtx are as good if not better than the competition that costs much more.

So why am I discussing this in a education blog? I believe that creating films in the classroom is a powerful educational tool. You can just put the kids on a word processor to write their script, but I feel that it is important to teach the kids the correct formatting for the script. I have considered using Final Draft but I did not feel that the cost even with academic pricing was justified. Celtx is a perfect solution because it’s free and can take students through the preproduction process. It begins with listing characters and coming up with a story line, and then scripting it. Students can also crate a story board to help out line there film. I believe that this is a great writing activity even if you do not progress to creating the actual films.

Website: http://www.earnmydegree.com

When I was looking at programs for my Masters Degree, I first considered an on campus program at our local university.  Due to the time required, the inflexibility of schedules, and my already chaotic life this I determined that I needed to find an online program that would provide the quality education I needed with the flexibility to make it possible.  Five years ago when I started looking for a program, there were few choices, and it was difficult to find information about the programs.  I eventually found a program that worked well for me but it took a lot of effort to get to that point. 

EarnMyDegree.com has made it much easier for those who are considering online degrees to find programs and information about degree and certification programs.  In my search of the site I quickly found a listing of schools providing doctorate degrees in education.  Although they have listings for thousands of programs, the design of the site makes it easy to target in on exactly what you are looking for.  The site is filled with clear information about degrees offered and programs to help you further your career.  My interest was in masters, and doctoral degrees, but the site also contains extensive information about bachelors and associate degrees as well as certification programs.  If online classes are not for you they also have listings of on campus programs available by state.  This is a very complete site that will help any person searching for an a school to enhance their education fin the perfect match.

(This article is a paid review)

You will notice if you comment on this blog that your comments will not immediately display.  This is to reduce the spam.  I am forced to moderate because for every 1 legitimate comment  I receive 10 spam messages, most containing links to prescription drug sites, pornography sites, and credit related sites.  These sites are not off value to anyone let alone the education comunity.  I also delete any messages that contain vulgar language.  I will usually post a comment that notes the deletion and state the general ideas of the person who posted if I have time.

Please be patient during the summer months, I am sometimes away from internet access for a week at a time.  Legitimate comments will be posted, and add a great deal to the blog.  I appreciate those of you who take the time to share your thoughts.

In my previous article I talked about one of my new favorite hobbies, Geocaching.  If you are not sure what geocaching is or how it works please visit geocaching.com for more details.  I pondered on how this cool technology could be used with students.  I have noticed that my own children’s knowledge of directionality, judging distance, and map skills have significantly increased since we began Geocaching.  The challenge with integrating Geocaching into the classroom, is that we are relatively limited in where we can go.  I’m quite sure that a bus couldn’t't make it to the places I have been, and the liabilities of taking a fourth grade class climbing up a 30 foot cliff  are just a little to great.  I think you will find that with a little searching you are likely to find a safe Geocache withing walking distance of of the school.  If not you can always create one or two.  I have thought about using the concept to create small learning stations scattered throughout our school grounds and then we could do an activity where in small groups students can find the learning stations using a GPS then complete the activities.  I also think it would be fun to set up a geocache of our own as a class.  to make it interesting for visitors we could include a book of student works such as poems or short stories .  As people visit they will leave feedback and comments about your Geocache site that students can check periodically.  These are just a few ways I have thought of to integrate GPS and geocaching in my classroom activities next year.  Please ad your suggested activities in the comments.