Monday, May 20, 2013

Preparing Your Computer For Aeries.Net

As we transition to Aeries.NET from Aeries.abi we are trying to anticipate some of the issues that will arise. One of the issues we’ve discovered is compatibility with internet browsers. Aeries has provided a list of operating systems that are compatible with the new Aeries.Net, seen at the bottom of this post. You can test out whether or not your computer will be able to access Aeries.Net without problems by trying out the demo site. Go to this blog post to find out how to do access this: http://blogs.lvusd.org/edtech/2013/04/24/aeries-net-demo/

Browsers also make a difference. Our department has discovered the best browsers by system as follows:

Mac users - Chrome or Safari
PC users - Firefox
With any system you will need to download Silverlight to use the Gradebook. [LOOK FOR THE ASTERIK NEXT TO THE OPERATING SYSTEM IN THE LIST BELOW]. There have been several problems with getting Silverlight to work. Here are the troubleshooting steps if once you’ve downloaded it and still can’t access the Gradebook.

  1. Shut down and restart your browser

  2. Shut down and restart your computer

  3. Put in a Helpdesk ticket here: http://whd.lvusd.org/


Friday, May 3, 2013

It’s Project Season – Find some Inspiration to Update Your Projects

In this blog post access my interdisciplinary end of the year project (U.S. History and English) lesson plan here and the tech tools I would use to update the project if I were in the classroom today. 

Nearing the end of the year students are ready to make the connections between concepts they’ve been learning all year, and across subjects. I teamed up with my grade level teachers to create interdisciplinary projects. Most of the students were ready to choose their own projects and partners, and I provided project selection oversight based on their needs. We created the project with student input and offered several choices in their mediums. I’m attaching the project directions my colleague and I created, which include objectives, options, rubrics, and daily progress monitoring checks. 

If I were in the classroom today I would allow my students to create an online project (which I would add to my instructional resources for the following year) using the following content creation tools:

For the Presentation Portion (Powerpoint is so old school):



Online:
Xtranormal – Turns your words into 3D animated movies.
Prezi – Non-slide platform that transforms presentations into stories or conversations.
 
Apps:
Video Scribe HD  A unique way to create engaging animated videos quickly. To see one that I created select the following link: http://youtu.be/fifWcNfFwyc
StoryKit - Create an electronic storybook.
Haiku Deck - a free presentation app for iPad, makes presentations simple, beautiful, and fun.
 

For the Visual/Poster:



Online:
Glogster - Interactive posters loaded with text, graphics, music, videos, and more.
Thinglink – Interactive photographs
Apps:
Phoster: Make your own poster.

For Review Games:



Study Stack - Create online flashcards and find flashcards for subjects already made.
Jeopardy Game – Online creation of this game
Who Wants to be a Millionaire  - Online creation of this game
 

For the Quiz Portion:


5 Online Quiz Generators