Wednesday, April 12, 2017

CUE Tips




The annual CUE Conference (Computer Using Educators) was filled with interesting Tips, Tricks, Strategies and Inspiration.  

As always, it is a little overwhelming to attend as the number of class choices is a mile long!  

Aaron Stephens and I would each like to share with you a favorite Tip we learned while there.

Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Multimodal Approach to Literature and Technology

Are you looking for a way to spark your students to be more creative, while practicing their communication skills and writing? Try having them create an online comic strip that communicates what they have learned or are thinking.


This year at the Computer Using Educators Conference (CUE) the workshop I enjoyed the most turned out to be quite different than I was expecting. When I sauntered into the Graphic Novels in the Classroom: A Multimodal Approach to Literature and Technology, what I was expecting was a survey of the various comic book styled educational texts that are coming out. Instead what I experienced was an exciting and dynamic way to fan the flames of student creativity by having the students demonstrate their thinking through creating their own comic strips.

Melissa Baldwin, the workshop presenter, shared with us a list of the most useful online tools for creating creating graphic novels/comic strips (see link below). While the application of creating comic strips is a little more straightforward for subjects such as literature and history, wherein students can depict events and interactions, they can certainly be applied to even math and science. While teaching Earth Science and Biology, I would often use an approach called Model Based Reasoning, in which students were to grapple with their understanding of a phenomenon. In this approach students often needed to depict their thinking in a visual way. Here is where the students could engage in creating a comic strip that shows their thinking.

I can attest through personal experience, that creating comic strips is really fun. The best part for someone like myself, who lacks artistic ability, is the fact that these online tools provide the artwork for you. So even the least artistic student can create wonderful comic strips.


I highly recommend setting aside some time to give this creative process a shot in your classroom. The students will have fun, and I think you will be amazed at the creative output from your students.
Online Comic Book Creator Sites   https://goo.gl/N95ygh

Enjoy,

Aaron Kelly Stephens
VUSD Digital Education Coordinator


Graspable Math

This one if for all the Math Teachers who may feel a little left out of the technology train we are on.

Graspable Math has given students and teachers a truly interactive and manipulative approach to math using a math canvas.  Please start by viewing the video tutorials here.  

As the website explains  "In a world where technology has advanced at astonishing rates, the technology of math notation hasn't really changed in 400 years.  The easiest way to write and solve an equation is still by hand, on paper."

I loved their analogy of learning to play chess by marking and notating your moves on paper rather than physically manipulating the chess pieces.  Very difficult to truly grasp the skills and strategies needed to succeed without being able to physically manipulate the pieces.

With Graspable Math Canvas, Teachers can demonstrate and manipulate the algebraic steps and graphing.  You can undo, redo, and experiment with different problem solving strategies safely.

Teachers can post a Math Canvas link through Google Classroom to distribute to students.  Students then manipulate the equation through a variety of tools, save their work and submit their completed link to the teacher. Students are able to save their work for later completion or revision as well.

Check it out for yourselves here   Click on the "Applications" tab - then "Canvas".  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Dawn Marsh



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