Archive for the 'History' Category

Google Docs for Collaboration (Part 4)

Published on 28 August, 2009 in Cloud Computing, Google Docs, History and Students. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Well its been 6 weeks since my last posting. I have been incredibly busy but have continued to use Google Docs for Collaborative work with my students. Here is another way that I have used Google Docs in the last few weeks.

Year 9 (13-14 Year Old) Research and Presentation – Ancient Rome

I decided recently that I have had enough of doing all of the work in preparing and teaching for me a new topic. I decided to get the students to do a 8-12 minute presentation to the class on a topic within Ancient Rome. They were to work in groups of 2 or 3 (their choice).

Choosing Groups and Topics – Google Form
First I listed a range of topics for the students to choose from or they could suggest their own. I gave them a link to a Google Form where they could put in their preferences for group members and topic preferences (3). This made it easy for me to collate & appoint topics to each. Here is a link to the Google Form the students filled out.

Planning & Research – Google (Document and Spreadsheet)
The students then worked in groups on developing Three Focus Questions for their topic. This was done in Moodle Forums to allow students to feedback to other groups. They then worked collaboratively on a Google Research Document which would become their presentation notes. I did the activity myself on the topic “Hadrian’s Wall” as I wanted to model to the students what was required. As I write some of the students have already presented while others are yet to. I used a Google Spreadsheet (collaborated to all students) to allow the students to choose time-slots for their presentations. This was another time-saver and worked really well as students raced to choose the best times.

Presentations – Google Presentation
The students, having done most of their research and planning, were now at the stage to develop their presentation slides to support their presentation notes. This of course was done in Google Presentation. Again, I modeled this for the students (link here) as I wanted them to see that the slides were visual (with no or limited writing) and used to support what was being presented (voice). This simple presentation technique is still overlooked by many presenters. Presentations with a combination of both a voice script and reading off slides have long been proven to be the least effective.

So far two groups have presented and the standard has been reasonably good and will no doubt get better as students evaluate those that went before them. I have three more in about 30 minutes time so got to go.

I hope that this use of Google Docs for Collaboration has been of some use.

Google Docs for Collaboration (Part 3)

Published on 12 July, 2009 in Google Docs and History. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

Well here we are again looking at ways that Google Docs can be used to help improve teaching and learning. My History class students recently wrote an essay in Google Docs which they shared to me as a Collaborator.

I was able to write directly into their essays with feedback (in teacher red of course). I gave them the obvious grammar and spelling corrections along with tips on how to improve their essay structure and writing. I was also able to link them to a model writing plan and essay for this particular answer. This exercise allowed for direct feedback to the students on their written work which, according to a major international study this year, is the key ingredient to effective teaching.

But the collaboration allowed for in Google Docs did not end there. Earlier in the year I had the students create a personal assessment record document from this published template. They collaborated this back to me which I keep in an assessment folder in Google Docs. The students were tasked with reading the feedback I had given them in their online essays and to summarise this in their personal assessment records. Next time they write an essay they will first read what they need to do to improve on their last effort.

Here are some examples of what the students wrote in their summary for their first essay. Students are Year 11 (age 15-16) and the essay was about the reactions to the Treaty of Versailles in the Origins of World War Two Topic:

Student 1: [Merit "B" Grade] – Good structure. Introduction is very good. Sometimes irrelevant, so need to work on cutting down information until only the key points remain. Don’t write the essay like a story, focus on the why as much as the who, what and how. The conclusion was too brief and rushed the end of the essay. It needs to sum up every aspect of the essay, rather than a general overview. The key to getting Excellence is to refine the essay.

Student 2: [Achieved "C" Grade] – Writing style is fine but need to work on content and focus on all the parties involved. I need to stick to my plan and not lose my focus on the question. I also must not give my opinion directly.

Student 3: [Achieved "C" Grade] – In my detail and content i was (waffeling) and much of my content wasnt relavant to what my essay was about. I did this quite alot in my essay and i will have to make sure i dont do it in future. I also should not have used ‘I’ and ‘me’ in my essay because it isnt about my opinion. My spelling also needs some work i shouldnt be in such a rush while writing.

How many times do we hand back marked work where students look at the grade and no further? At least the students have a permanent record of their essay, teacher feedback, a link to model essay, their own summary of where to improve and their grade.

Well, I hope this very practical use of Google Docs is of some use to you.

Google Docs for Collaboration (Part 1)

Published on 26 April, 2009 in Cloud Computing, Cool Tools, Google Docs and History. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is the first of a sequence of posts that I am going to make about how I am using Google Docs with my classes. We often hear about how wonderful web-based tools are for collaboration and learning in theory, but not so often in practice.

I am fairly new to Google Apps having been convinced by other 2008 eLearning Fellows to give it a try. I just looked at my oldest document and Gmail and they date back to Beginning September 2008 so 8 months experience is what I am giving.

First, I must say that I have become a huge fan of Google Apps, and Google Docs in particular. Here are a few examples of their use with my Year 11 History class:

The students all have their own Google Accounts (our school has a planned shift to Education Edition in the future). With the students quite new to Docs I started them off with a simple task of notes building, to help them become familiar with the environment.

TASK ONE: As the students worked through their online course I provided them with a brief set of notes published online (yes you can publish a document as a web page) which they could copy and paste into their own set of notes. These publish notes were formatted with Headers 1 and 2 – this is important as the students could create an easy table of contents using this formatting.

The requirements that they were given were simple: Go online and find relevant images to embed into their notes. They were studying “The Origins of World War II” topic. With the collaboration facility in Docs I got the students to share their notes document to me as a collaborator. This meant that I could monitor their progress and give them assistance, if needed, and feedback.

One of the students has published his final product. Follow this link to view.

The next History topic (just started) has led to an increase in collaboration between students and the difficulty level of the task.

TASK TWO: Students have now been placed in groups of three (in my view this is an ideal number for online tasks such as this – they can be help more to account by others in the group for their contribution, or lack of). The students were tasked with writing a new set of notes on the new topic which is “New Zealand’s post WW2 Search for Security”. They are given suggested headings and a theme for them to write their content – example here. Students have only just started on this topic/task – it will be interesting to see how they progress.

I will post more on my experiences with Google Docs over the coming month. I can only recommend that you give it a go…..Good Luck!

Timelines using Dipity

Published on 20 December, 2008 in Cool Tools and History. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Hey I just discovered this cool timeline tool which I intend to use next year with my History classes. It is called Dipity and allows the user to create timelines over any period and to post events with multimedia embedded. There is even a function which allows for the presenting of timelines in a “flipbook” format.

This was clearly made as a free social software tool for people to share their travels with each other. I could just imagine getting students either individually or in groups to present a historical topic to the class or via their blog etc. Of course it can be embedded. Here is a sample one that I found on the History of Technology:

Fling the Teacher

Published on 6 October, 2008 in Cool Tools, History and Quiz. 1 Comment Tags: , .

“Fling the Teacher” has proven to be one of the most popular Quiz tools for my students. In the last 15 minutes of a period the class are invited to go online and are given a reward if they manage to “Fling the Teacher”

Fling the Teacher quiz software is free from Content Generator and is one of a number of types of quizzes which they market – some are free and some can be purchased in bundles.

Fling the Teacher is modelled on the popular game show “Who wants to be a Millionaire” with 15 questions and 3 lifelines. The students answers 15 questions from a question bank – I recommend about 45 questions. The beauty is that you can enter in the questions from easiest to hardest which means that as a student plays the questions get harder.

Try Fling the Teacher below with a quiz on the History topic “Origins of World War II” for the period 1936-41: