teaching and learning

I have been exploring the ALA Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, and have found a few interactive tools for teachers and students. Unfortunately, though all of these websites are identified by ALA as free and web-based, I noticed that some required a download to a computer, and others had free limited versions that were not nearly as useful as their purchased upgrade options. I also found a few of these websites to still be in development and to contain (yikes!) grammatical errors that, in my mind, really undermined the professionalism and classroom uses. Overall, I was quite underwhelmed by these "best" websites, but I found a few that seem actually usable:

1. I really like the premise behind PearDeck, and think that it offers a unique solution to interactive, formative assessments. The tool allows teachers to create presentations with slides (like PowerPoint) that have both a "presenter" and a "student" view. Teachers and students both login to the same presentation: students might on the projector screen see a picture, but on their computers a multiple choice or drag & drop question to answer. The greatest downfall with this application is that for the teacher to be able to review student responses, he or she needs to upgrade to the premium version of PearDeck (for educators, $8-12 per month, depending on if its a monthly or yearly subscription).
2. Booktrack Classroom has some neat uses in an English classroom. Especially at the secondary level, the ability to add a soundtrack to stories can be useful in assessing student reading comprehension and attention to themes, symbols, and mood. I played around with this one a bit by copying a public domain poem as my "story" and searching through some pretty neat sound effects to add to certain lines and phrases.
3. Do your students love playing Jeopardy review games in class, but you just get bogged down with all the linking within PowerPoint, or constantly rewriting the entire grid on the white board? The free version of FlipQuiz is basically just an online, editable Jeopardy game that is super easy to create. The test review use for this tool is pretty much self-explanatory, but I actually prefer the idea of having students create Jeopardy games for quick class review of group presentations. If students have just presented material to the class, it's just as important for them to "check for understanding" as it is for teachers, and because FlipQuiz is so easy to use, students can easily use it!

Lastly, all of the exploring I have done over the course of the summer has opened my eyes to what it means to teach with technology. I've always tried to push the instructional technology uses in my classroom, but this usually just means I've come up with ways to make something traditionally done on paper, paperless. I've had a classroom website, had my students use Google to layer collaboration with documents and presentations, and initiated student blogging. However, the tools I've explored here are much more about giving students "hands on" experiences with creating and designing products that can assess their understandings of skills and concepts from class. So, along the lines of continuing to expand my own understanding of what it means to educate with technology, I plan to start following Will Richardson's blog, Will Richardson: Read Write Connect Learn, because most of his posts promote discussing, questioning, and reconsidering the role of teachers today.