Crossword puzzles - challenging task for students produced easily

It feels like an eternity passed since my last post on this blog.

But now there is some time and a new discovery I made browsing the WWW.

I remember crossword puzzles as a challenging way to test my own knowledge. They offer the possibility to check on students knowledge as well.

But how to create them in a bearable period of time? There is a free online tool which is available in German and of course in English as well.

For the impatient - this is the link, just go ahead and try it out yourself. I could get my first printed puzzle within 15 minutes.

http://www.xwords-generator.de/en

For the readers that need some further pieces of information.

The webpage offers a comfortable generator tool for crossword puzzles which can be printed and stored locally on your computer in the PNG format.

Of course the same puzzles can be shared online as well and there is an option to embed them as well.

Furthermore they can be stored on your computer as well for later editing using the same platform again.

Can things get better? Have I mentioned all the functions are available for free? A big thank you to Lars Ebert the developer of this amazing tool.

Unification will save you a lot of time - worksheets and interactive presentations done in one shot

Let me be quite frank here. I am suffering from a bug that is called perfection. So when I am making my own worksheets, I want them to have a cool layout, challenging tasks for my students and of course at the end of their work I want to make sure that they have achieved the "right" solution. Preferably I want to check that with the whole class to have a final discussion and comparison of results.

So now let us face the music together:

• I have to design my own worksheet - usually I did this in Word.
• I have to setup a presentation to share the "right" results with my students.

Unnecessary double work in my eyes - but I will come to this in a bit.

Right now I am teaching single lessons of 45 minutes and it's not rocket science - the lesson is over before we can finish our result check in class. Especially if I am asking students to present their results at the front of the classroom.

So how to reduce work and enable students to check their solutions even after lesson time is over.

Powerpoint is the key!

What I am doing is that my usual worksheets are right now are produced with Powerpoint in landscape orientation. 

Basically they will also be my end of lesson presentation.

So my students are working on e.g. clozes. The gaps are covered with simple shapes (rectangular) and so if the PPT is printed, the solutions are covered and students will grind their teeth while filling them with correct solutions.

For the use with the projector I have modified the shapes with an animation - they will disappear when clicked on. A faeature that is available in Powerpoint - albeit just in its windows version (i.e. my reason to work with Parallels on my MacBook Pro).

Anyhow - the printed worksheet has gaps for the students to fill in. The Powerpoint projection has the same gaps and they can be filled in at an interactive whiteboard.

And if time is getting too short, the emailed version of the Powerpoint will provide a beautiful opportunity to the students to look up themselves if their results do match the expected outcome. This can be done as homework once I have shared the presentation after the lesson via Moodle, email, ... .

Take a look at this sample - in German language, but I reckon you will get the hang of it. 

Any questions or suggestions? Comment, please!

Turn your iPad into a low budget document camera a.k.a. visualizer

Well - low budget is quite a euphemism, if we factor in the cost of an iPad. Anyhow a lot of teachers seem to have one and use it recording their marks, taking notes and other stuff.

So why not using it as a document camera as well. Problem is the proper mount. Here is an easy solution to the problem.

It is all DIY and should be a real cheap solution.

http://www.technologytailgate.com/2013/03/turn-your-ipad-into-document-camera.html

Well done colleagues! :)

And here is my contribution to make the setup more "mobile! The publishers of this blog use a traditional wired connection to bring the camera on the projector screen.

I am referring to myself and an article of this blog. Why not using the wireless solution?

http://thetechnicalteacher.blogspot.sg/2014/01/document-camera-aka-visualizer-vs-some.html

1. the Apple TV solution: Should you be blessed with an Apple TV connected to your beamer/ projector then just use airplay and display mirror on your iPhone.  WIRELESS!

2. the Reflector solution: Should you have a Macbook or PC laptop connected to the beamer anyhow, then just get the software called reflector. It is available and will give you the possibility to mirror your iPhones display on your laptop. WIRELESS!

Simulations - Great support to enhance students' understanding

This is the first post in my blog for quite some time. A possible reason is that the oncoming move back to Germany is already casting its shadow on my spare time.

But one of my students granted me the address of a webpage that is a resource for simulations not to be missed. The subjects covered are of the STEM group. For all students and teachers this is an equal treasure to implement in learning and lessons.

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new

A big thank you to Colorado from my side.

Learning Cards - a very good old wine in a new skin - QUIZLET

Learning cards have proven for decades to be an effectful learning tool. I used cards myself to get french vocab into my head as well my beloved chemical formula. The use for some students is evident and I always kind of envied my language teaching colleagues for having such a great tool to recommend to their students.

And so I was asking myself how to make use of cards for my biology and chemistry classes. My idea was to have those cards available for all my students all the time and have all the crucial vocabulary (e.g. formula and technical terminology) ready for them to study on their own, prepare themselves in advance and of course for myself to set up vocabulary tests for myself.

I found my partner in crime with

www.quizlet.com

I signed up for the free version and just 24 hours later bought the commercial login with will cost you a yearly fee.

So what is in there? How do I use it?

I set up specific classes, e.g. grade 9 chemistry. For each unit I will then create a cardset with the important vocab ( I am able to spice it up with pictures as well. Could there be anything greater than link a new name of a lab glassware to a picture of it or put the lewis formula of a chemical compound on the backside of its name).

Each cardset will then be linked with my moodle course.

And this is how it works in the context of the flipped classroom concept:

Homework:

• Students will access the cardset that I created and prepare the vocabulary. Well, this has cut down the number of missing homework by almost 100%. Because who is not able to learn 10 new cards of vocab. :)

Start of the lesson:

• I will check on the students being able to recall the new vocab they have learnt at home. Possible options are using quizlet itself during this phase, test it with a paper test or check the items by means of a moodle test.

Work phase - extension:

• My students will do experiments, solve past exam questions and work on other task which demand the knowledge of the new vocab and sometimes the definition of the technical term on the backside of the quizlet card as well.

After the lesson:

• Every single crucial piece of technical terminology is available for the students to revise and linked to the respective topic it was introduced with.
• Ideal for exam preparation.
• Ideal to catch up for students that join a class/ course at a later point of time than others.
• The reading function of the cards itself will give the students a pretty good idea of how to pronounce a word.

The stunner: 

There are quizlet apps available on almost any mobile platform from iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Kindle Fire and third party apps as well for e.g. Nook.

Actually students seem to enjoy learning with their high tech gadgets.

You are also able to embed the quizlets into your homepages, moodle courses and of course blogs.

The effect is maximum compared to the costs.

Furthermore there are thousands of ready to use cardsets for almost every subject.

Here is an example - albeit in German and chemistry.

Document camera (a.k.a. visualizer) vs. some DIY and iPhone

During my years at German European School Singapore I learnt to appreciate the document cameras I equipped the biology and chemistry rooms with. How to reach that standard or keep it up, if your school does not provide you with the budget to buy them - coughing up 850 Euros for an AVervision V300AF+ out of your own wallet is surely not an option - I reckon.


I took the V300AF+ as a reference because of my very good experience over the last 4 years with that brand and the model itself.

It looks well engineered, seems to be robust and gives me a 3.2MP camera to use for projecting objects and worksheets and other documents on a whiteboard for result checks, common correction or marking of students work during my lessons. Do not get my wrong - I love those document cameras.

But hey, my iPhone 5 has an 8MP camera and autofocus as well, even a LED flash is available.
So why not using my iPhone as a document camera? I am sure other smartphones will even give you a better pixel count.

With this thought in my mind I went for some shopping and found this great gooseneck universal smartphone mount - it has a length of a good 60 cm and a clip at its end. The brand is "CHINA" so you probably have to source for something similar.

Here are the pictures of the unwrapping.

So this gooseneck will provide a sure mount for my iPhone atop of any desk. See below:

Almost there now - last challenge to be solved is the connection of my makeshift document camera.
There are three possibilities.

1. the hardware solution: Use a lightning to VGA/ Digital AV Adapter - available from Apple store.

2. the Apple TV solution: Should you be blessed with an Apple TV connected to your beamer/ projector then just use airplay and display mirror on your iPhone.  WIRELESS!

3. the Reflector solution: Should you have a Macbook or PC laptop connected to the beamer anyhow, then just get the software called reflector. It is available and will give you the possibility to mirror your iPhones display on your laptop. WIRELESS!

There you go - cost breakdown for the most expensive case 2. Even buying an Apple TV plus the 20 Euro for the gooseneck mount I am roughly at a fifth of the costs of a document camera.

Here is the final result of 10 minutes of work, writing this post is included. I used combination 3 for now.

A wireless document camera for small bucks. Have fun trying it out yourself and feel free to post your experience as comments and add more ideas. By the way, there are similar iPad mounts available as well.

The Apps and Software I used most during 2013 - a completely subjective wrap-up

Happy new year of the horse - 2013 is over but the 365 days of it left an experience that I want to share. Especially when it comes to software and apps that I used in the past year and of course the experience - my completely subjective opinion. So feel free to read, play around with the same toys and have completely different results. I will order the pieces of software in order of how often I have used them plus the operating system - this sometimes creates a big difference.

Teachertool - I used it every single day of school on my iPad

Objectives:

Keep track and record my students' attendance every lesson, record the content of the lessons, monitor homework, check lists for payments (etc.), seating charts with pictures of my students, recording achieved marks and calculate end results, exchange data with homeroom teachers - as long as they use teachertool as well, secure my recordings and observations.

Cons:

No sync possibility with your windows pc or your mac.

Pros:

All my data are safe because of the integrated backup functionality, plus of course the iCloud backup.

Udo Hilwerling is the developer and he will answer emails and is thankful for feedback and suggestions. 

Recommendation:

Buy it and start to work with it for one whole school year - I bet you will find it very handy. The 24,99€ are more than worth it.

Download it here from the German iTunes store

Alternative for German teachers that is worth a try:
Notenbox für iPad - because it supports all platforms and sync via internet.
http://www.awin.de

Powerpoint - I use it every singe lesson on my windows PC

Objectives:

Creating presentations for my in lesson lectures. Since the classes I teach are mainly laptop classes and the introduction of iPads is a future plan, I also use it to create my worksheets nowadays. 

Creating presentations for students' laptops that offer additional support mechanisms when it comes to language of instruction, individualised learning speed and support.

Cons:

The versions that are available for windows and mac will give you different functionality especially when it comes to the biggest PRO. See below.

Powerpoints will lose the animations when watched with an iPad - unless the Office 365 is available.

Pros:

Based on my experience you want to use the windows version of Powerpoint. Why? Because it offers the possibility to use shapes and other objects as trigger for further animations. i.e. I am able to prepare additional support items (word lists, media, word-fields, etc.) that can be individually called up by students according to their competence level.

Recommendation:

Use Powerpoint to create your own presentation, develop your worksheets using powerpoint as well. Right now, I introduce lesson goals and task at the start of the lesson. The students will get access to the powerpoint as well - or the printed work sheets based on the Powerpoint.

After some time we will come together to fill in the results. Every student is able to activate further support mechanisms within the powerpoint.

Give it a try - I measured it! Creating the presentation and the linked worksheets for one 45 minute lesson took me no longer than 18 minutes.

Alternative:

Keynote on mac and iPad - surely is an alternative. When it comes to looks and intuitive setup keynote pulls it off surely. Additional features like mentioned above are a big zilch though.

Conclusion: Powerpoint for lesson creation by teacher - keynote is ideal for students work.

Evernote - at the end of every lesson - at least (on iPhone, iPad, windows and mac)

Objectives:

Keeping track of written excuses by parents, record parent-teacher-meetings, record the lesson results by taking a snapshot of the white- or blackboard, record audio notes, store web clippings, archive documents, ...

How could I live without it?

Pros:

All your notes are available on all of your devices. Hand written notes can be scanned or just added by taking a snapshot with the smartphone or the tablet. All notes can be searched and organised in notebooks and with tags.

Megapro:

Notes or notebooks (folders) can be shared with public or with selected individuals (no need for them to even install Evernote).

Cons:

The NSA might probably scour through all your notes. Are you surprised? Me, I don't care.

You will probably upgrade to paid version. :)

Monthly fees.

Alternative:

I can't even think of looking for one.

Conclusion:

A great tool to keep track of the outcome of me lessons, regardless if it is posters, worksheets, whiteboard drawings, etc. - could it be done easier than clicking a pic?

At the same time you are able to share the whole records with your students - no need to hand them copies, just share with them to bring them up to speed.

Dropbox - all day long - to secure my lesson preparation and to access it from everywhere (all operating systems).

Objectives:

Keeping my lesson preparations and work materials accessible from every machine and possible workplace for me.

Never worry about a hard-drive crash or using an new computer.

Pros:

Wherever I am - I am able to access all my work. Moving to a new computer has never been easier. Sharing worksheets and exam papers with other teachers across the whole planet has saved me so much work. Available on every single platform I am able to think of and work on.

Cons:

Monthly fees depending on the size of online storage.

Alternatives:

Skydrive, Googledrive, ....

Conclusion:

Once hooked you will stick to it. Although I am fancying my own Synology diskstation at home.

Knowmia teach - I use it at least twice a week

Objectives:

This little app really had a huge impact on my lesson planning. With it I am able to create lectures that my students are able to watch at home or during my lessons at their own speed and time.

I am using this app to effectively flip my lessons - "flipped classroom concept".

Cons:

I have not managed to include videos within the lectures that I create.

Pros:

Easy creation of online lectures based on already existing Powerpoint presentations (PDF import) on my iPad. The platform and the app are free. There are no commercials and ads like on youtube. There is no inappropriate content available on www.knowmia.com but thousands of really good lectures.

Students are able to follow my lectures at home, at their own speed and are able to replay them as well.

Ideal for exam preparation and students joining in at a later point of the class.

Recommendation:

You just need to give it a shot. Students seem to absorb the content better than through real life lectures - funny that is, but it works.

Alternative:

There are other apps out there. Some are free as well (www.showme.com).

I reckon that Explain Everything is a serious competitor offering more functionality - try it out, the 2,99€ seem to be worth the investment and you are free to host your videos on different platforms.

i-Nigma - a free QR code scanner for iPad and iPhone - once a week.

Objectives:

Link additional content to my printed worksheets.

Why not putting QR codes on print worksheets so my students are able to access videos, supporting information, audio files, etc. with it. 

Cons:

Students need tables or smartphones with headphones to access whatever is hidden within a QR code.

Pros:

Linking a video of a dangerous experiment to a worksheet, connect a behavioural study to an according youtube video, hide a result check within a QR code, present additional help on demand, ... .

The possibilities are amazing

Recommendation:

Just pep up one of your worksheets with QR codes and see what will happen if your students will have to use their smartphones to work during a lesson instead of being able to use them for distraction. :)

Teacher Training at Colegio Humboldt, San José, Costa Rica - Introduction of 500 iPads for the next academic school year - December 17 to 19 2013

When the Colegio Humboldt approached me to conduct a teacher training for their staff, little did I know about the extend of the project they are about to take on coming academic year - means January 2014.

They will turn grades 5 to 12 into iPad classes effective from January 2014 onwards.
I was happy to accept the challenge to empower their teachers to face the following challenges:

• What are the ways for teachers to apply an iPad during lesson time and at home to create a modern and efficient teaching style.
• What are the ways for students to apply an iPad during lessons and homework to experience a modern and effective learning environment.
• Facing around 40 staff members of different experience level and different language background (German, Spanish and English).
• Setting up an implementation plan for the iPad with the school management and IT team.

Paramount for the planning was the requirement to create time with the individual trainee.

Solution:

1. Setting up a bilingual moodle interactive training course in Englisch and German.
2. A goal oriented training approach was picked to make the teachers achieve the knowledge about how to use the respective apps during creating the expected outcome. This enables them to pass expectations as well as expertise on to their students.
3. Setting up a draft for a iPad curriculum with the management team. 

Contents

• Using QR codes to enhance worksheets - use of the student iPad as individual media server and as a source for differentiation and individualisation in learning.
• Creating worksheets for the iPad with a combination of keynote/ pages and type on pdf - creating paperless worksheets.
• Use of interactive flash elements from the internet on the iPad - Puffin as alternative browser
• Using knowmia teach app to create online lectures for flipped classroom concept
• Application of Evernote for documentation of lesson results.
• Application of Aurasma to create augmented reality content (students and teachers).
• Creating keynote presentations for lessons on the iPad.
• Creating crossword puzzles for knowledge testing.

The combination of the existing moodle platform, the teachers' ipads and the picked tasks and applications, made it possible for me to attend to every participant during the 12 hours of training.

I have learnt from the feedback that the teachers' of the Colegio Humboldt have learnt how to make use of the iPad themselves as well as received ideas of how to make students work with the iPad on their own by putting out an effective combination of task and app.

I am also happy to support the Colegio Humboldt during the oncoming challenges of their iPad program.

In the wake of this training I will create not just manuals of how to use applications but also how to embed them into concrete task and lesson plans. So stay put for online manuals and lesson concepts to come.

Wow - An amazing software! EyeScream - Free visual field test

I remember those times when we had to use huge discs we had to press against our foreheads to be able to determine the visual field of our eyes during biology lessons. Usually the small number of those devices causes rather a disruption than an collaborative learning atmosphere.

What about this little free software that I just found 5 minutes ago.

Take a look, there is also a German version available for download.

http://www.eyesage.org/

Flash - the kind of stuff that adds extra value for my students to my lessons

What extra values do learning and teaching resources have to offer to make a remarkable difference to my students' progress? I want to create a win-win situation during in my lessons for me and my students.

Therefore the following points are vital to me:

• Will the resource cut down my workload, because the students are able to make use of it independently?
• Will the resource be able to feedback to my students and create a space for learning by try and error for them?
• Does the resource reduce safety risks? e.g. student experiments.
• Will it give my student the possibility to explore and repeat till he is able to understand?
• Does it combine different learning channels like sound, movies, animations, etc.

Well, flash animations (SWF) can do that for me and my students. 

Don't panic - I will not tell you to create them yourself. I am merely pointing out that there is a universe of free teaching flash animations out there, that just wait for you to find them and give your lessons a boost and fascinating possibilities.

I discovered recently that just googling the desired keyword e.g. photosynthesis plus the abbreviation swf will grant me with a lot of links to interesting flash animations that have been created by helpful people out there in the teachiverse.

So "photosynthesis swf" delivered those two links:

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/forestbiology/photosynthesis.swf

or

http://www.wiley.com/college/boyer/0470003790/animations/photosynthesis/photosynthesis.swf


For geography googling "continents swf":

http://www.missmaggie.org/geospy_files/geospy.swf

or

http://www.softschools.com/social_studies/continents/map2.swf

That should already make your fingers twiddle on the keyboard. Just spend 5 minutes to do the same for the keywords of your next topic and the swf abbreviation. There is a ton of english flashes waiting to do some magic for your students.

To make it more "hands on" you are able to combine the touchscreen of students' ipads with the interactive flash content. I am referring to one of my older posts that deals with enabling flash on the ipad by using the browser puffin.



Download the puffin browser right here from itunes - be assured it is worth the few bucks investment. 

Getting feedback for my lessons right at the end

How did my lesson actually go today? What is my students' perception of it?
Feedback is the key to improvement - so why not getting it now at the end of my lesson by just passing around my iPad for an easy - klick the smiley and rate me - feedback session?

Here is how: This application is all you need for it.

Snaprating - getting feedback about your work in a minute after you finished it. I am using it for lessons, parents teacher talks right now.

SNAPRATING - GET FEEDBACK. :) JUST ONE iPAD PER CLASS IS ENOUGH!

Just find out at the end of the lesson how my students experienced their lesson.

Collaborative Learning - Be a MindMeister

Collaborative learning is a key priority for me as a teacher.
If I want to engage my students in learning processes I have to make the do things and possibly be a teacher and a source of inspiration to each other as well.

I think that all students can capitalise on thoughts and organisational skills of other students within their learning group.

Hey - brainstorming and organisation at once? This sounds like a think that has been around for ages.

The MINDMAP!

How about adding a new flavour to this home cooked dish?
What about replacing the sheet of paper and the pen by a laptop, table or even a smartphone?
What about replacing individual mind-maps by collaborative ones?
What about putting mind-maps together as a homework instead of during the lesson time?

MindMeister is the answer. This short clip will show you how it works in a nutshell.

And of course it is a German company! :)

How to use it during your lessons is for you to find out. :) I am using it in this example to get students to collaborate for a scientific project.


Best thing is MindMeister is available on literally every platform. If you are a risk taker, just click on the logo to start with the cost free basic account. Or what the short little introduction video on how to set up an account, make some annotations and share with students or colleagues.

Brainstorming has never been faster, project progress has never been easier updated.

An introduction to mindmeister

How to turn your student's results into a quiz for the start of your next lesson

Okay,

I will not get into details too much here. Because the way of how will will be able to do this depends on the software that you are using. Here is what I did.

I asked my students to prepare a presentation about a topic with the following requirements within 20 minutes:

• a maximum of 2 minutes of speech
• a whiteboard with a supporting chart and pictures (fixed with magnets and bluetack)

The results were then filmed with a camera - I used my swivl to make it even more exciting for the students.

Result: 1 min 50 seconds of a audio-video recorded presentation. Great result to rate the students on - but how to make even more use of it?

Well then I took the video and extracted some screenshots ( I used the snapshot option of the VLC player), I put those pictures in a powerpoint and used some text boxes to cover certain areas. 

With these pictures I was able to repeat the topic at the start of the next lesson by interviewing my students.

A nice way to appreciate the work of my students and turn them into a useful media to start out my next lesson.

Here we go:

1. Student doing his presentation:

2. Two snapshots from the presentation video plus cover-ups done with the text-field function of PowerPoint. 

Individualised lesson materials for students

I am feeling like I am a fence sitter sometimes. On the one hand there is the expectation of my supervisors and parents to educate students fulfilling the following requirements:

• keep teacher focussed lecturing and phases of instruction short
• provide working materials for my students which challenge and also support them on an individualised base
• create or use teaching materials which satisfy today's possibilities (digital publishing)
• work sheets and instructions are providing an individually fine-tuned amount of support, possibilities of further studies, etc.

On the other hand there is my life and the fact that there is a 24h day and I want to spend a decent amount of time with my family and my own little son.

Well, let me say that some things fell into place for me combining those expectations with tools that I have been using for years now. Overall time from thinking about all the point in having created a PowerPoint that can be used as a presentation during lessons, a base for an online lecture, to create 3 differentiated worksheets and for a debrief at the end of the lesson....

20 minutes - and let me add that I chose to do it in English as well - and you will be able to see and hear that it is not my first language. At the end of it all there is still the possibility to create a flash from this as well.

From picking a topic till saving the endproduct 20 minutes, i.e. the time it took my son to drink 8 ounces of formula milk.

You can do this as well - let me teach you how to - by hiring me for a workshop at your school.
:)

It is too easy for you to miss out ...

Title of Lesson: Acidimetric titration – German language lesson materials

Student lab: Acidimetric titration - Flipped classroom

Flipping of labs is extremely time saving by outsourcing the instruction in homework by an instructional video recorded by the teacher which explains setting up the experiment and introducing the vocabulary

Title of Lesson:  Acidimetric titration – German language lesson materials

Lesson Objects:

• How to set up a titration (vocabulary and use of lab ware)
• Perform an acidimetric titration in groups of 3 students
• Measuring pH during titration
• Plot a neutralisation graph using excel
• Explain the shape of a neutralisation graph and its characteristics

Appropriate Greade Levels: Grade 10/11/12 of the German High School system

Subject: Chemistry

Student video link: preparational homework http://youtu.be/33gg06moMSw  - has to be done by students at home as preparation of the lab

Activities:

• Setting up the lab ware for titration to start out (groups of three)
• Group discussion on names and function of lab ware
• checking of the setup by the teacher
• Titration in groups of three (one student for titration, data collection (pH/ Volume) and data recording (excel)
  Link to the instructional worksheet including a QR code to video
• Plotting the graph
• Discussion and comparison with sample graph (using powerpoint) - Powerpoint

Unfortunately the powerpoint presentation looses some of its functionality in slideshare (in actual PPT the rectangles disappear by clicking on them revealing the solution).

A sophisticated way to use PowerPoint during lessons

I think of PowerPoint as a universal media tool. Everything can be set up in advance. Short texts, pictures, diagrammes and even movies.

Those possibilities make it easy to create great lectures, albeit the slides will have to happen in a given order. I will turn to this problem in a later post.

Another challenge I was facing is: How to make PowerPoints interactive in a sense that my students are able to contribute in securing the results during a lecture and bring in knowledge they already know.
At the same time I want to make sure, that they will get a perfect "script" with all necessary information once we are done.

How to achieve that? This video will show you how to create a PowerPoint that provides "cloze" functionality, leaves space for student contributions and provides the right answers on demand.

Sounds great? Here comes the fly in the ointment - the special feature I am using is just available in PowerPoint for Windows - it see it missing so far in PowerPoint for Mac OS. It might be my eyes, so if you find it comment on this post - I would be happy to wave another little goodbye to the Windows part of my split user personality.

Producing online lectures with iOS, Mac or PC - What do I need to start within half an hour?

Why I produce online lectures?

Creating online lectures is rated to be very effective by my students. They say they are able to learn content at their own speed. Replaying parts of the lecture the are struggling with and of course access all the content when they are preparing for written exams. What is in for me as a teacher?

I am able to shift lectures into homework time. So students come to my lessons with the knowledge I taught them at home, get tested at the start of the lesson and so I am creating time for exercises, working on problems and of course in science - lab time.

So it's worth producing online lectures - question is of course: How to do it in a time efficient way? What hardware and software to use for it?

This post will give you the possibilities for 4 different platforms you can use to create your online lectures.

The most time-efficient ways I found for it.

Using an iPad and the knowmia teach app:

A great way to create online lectures for me is to reuse powerpoint presentations I have already created for use during my usual lessons.

I tend to convert them into PDF format and then add spoken explanations and sometimes with a little video of myself.

Take a look at this sample - it is in German though.

How to produce an online lecture with knowmia in under 10 minutes?

Here is how to start out with knowmia - just click for free setup and use of a knowmia account

You want additional support? Welcome to the knowmia support blog

This pen will give you additional sensitivity and resolution on your iPad - almost turning it into a drawing tablet.

Using a Windows PC (Powerpoint and the free software Camstudio is needed)

A very powerful combination indeed. Also falling back on powerpoint presentations that I have already created, this is a very efficient way of producing online lessons. It is also possible to bring in a little video window of yourself talking and making all those wild hand gestures we teachers love to do. This is possible just by choosing: tools - video annotation when you are recording a lesson using camstudio.
In my case the webcam of my windows laptop does not work - so I was not able to add it here.

How to create a online lecture using camstudio - take a look:

Using a Mac OS machine (Powerpoint/ Keynote and Ink2Go)

Albeit costing 17,99 € Ink2Go will add some real value to your work.
Ink2Go is actually a kind of whiteboard software that gives you the functions of creating screencasts, adding a video of yourself talking as little window, making annotations, ... .
I never regretted the money I spent for this little piece of software.

The next step - Self grading quizzes in google docs (google drive)

Once I played around with google forms a little bit, I found the collaboration with the students working,  I was asking myself how I could benefit even more - well... how about tests that do the marking for you by themselves.

One thing I know is that I am far too impatient to set up things like that myself. Thing two is that teachers are always short in time - how can that be? :)


So I used the possibilities of google to find this potential use of google forms cum google drive:

Self Grading Quiz within Google Forms from j3pr0x

Problem is that google docs does not exist anymore. But its ressources are still available somewhere in the depths of the www. Don't ask me where, but I found this side, that will give you all possible templates you could have dreamt of till today. https://drive.google.com/templates?q=self+grading&category=7&sort=hottest&view=public# So have as much fun as I had checking out what is possible for my lessons with this. I would love to get some feedback from you out there on this.

The power of gmail - tests made of questions set up by your students - easy marks for you

You want your students to work collaboratively? You want useful results? You want to create even more possibilities with them?


How about students setting up a test for you about for example a movie you asked them to watch? You will be able to rate them on the quality of their questions - plus you are able to reuse them as a test in another learning group having watched the same movie.

This is how it goes - I stumbled over the extended new google drive functionalities.

Clicking on the forms button - see below:

Will open up a google form - you can use it to create questions - but also there is the possibilities to add collaborators like this:

Now you just invite your students via their email addresses and then they are able to add questions they find important to ask and being answered.

What a great way to create a quiz / test. Once they are finished you can send out the form to another group of learners and use their answers to rate their learning progress.

Should be quite easy to mark, if you get a spreadsheet filled with their answers, right?

Especially if you ask your students to create multiple choice questions.

Tried, worked and I will surely reuse it. Possibly those questions can be somehow imported into moodle quizzes - but not there yet.

Hooray - I am inspirational

This is how it started, my godchild Finja in Germany asking me to explain the ecosystem of a "hedge" to her.

How to do this being in Singapore, with her being in Germany?
Knowmia was my solution.

And here is how starting new stuff will reap you surprising results.

I made it to Knowmia's inspirational corner.

http://www.knowmia.com/content/InspirationCorner.

Thank you Finja for inspiring me to start this! :D