ISTE+Videos-+March

1. [|Formative Assessment: Technology-Enhanced Approaches to Increase Student Achievement] //Vivian Johnson, Carl Anderson, Cara Hagen and Scott Schwister//

The presentation focused on the importance of formative assessments, what to assess, and the digital tools that are available to make formative assessment easier. From there the presenters talked about creating rubrics for the assignments and for the assessments. These rubrics will help ensure that the teacher is assessing what he/she should be assessing.

The technology tools allow the teachers and students to quickly determine what changes need to be made in the learning process. Teachers can easily determine what areas they need to reteach in. Students can see where they need to put more effort into learning the material. The presenters' Wiki site offers links to the technology tools that are available for using with formative assessments.

With the continued push on data driven formative assessments, the presentation offered the tools to help the teacher be successful. I found this information useful as I continue to modify the classes I teach.

2. [|Go Digital: Connecting Your Classroom to the World!] //Tammy Worcester, ESSDACK// Tammy shared how easy it would be to set up a web presence for the classroom. In the first 10 minutes she set up a blog (blogspot.com), then spent the next 40 minutes explaining and demonstrating how to add to the blog. From voice to pictures, maps to calendars, all can be added to the blog and shared with students, parents, and the community. All of this was very easy to set-up and start. My problem has always been sticking with something, but if it only takes a few minutes each day, maybe that would not be too bad. Tammy's [|website] has a lot of fun and useful technology tools to use in the classroom. I found Qwiki, which creates short presentations about the topics you are interested in.