Category: Free Inquiry

https://create.kahoot.it/share/virology-crash-course/6ab5c2f7-bf3a-45b7-b82c-0212fca4a4a5

After reading through the tutorial instructions provided for Kahoot, I started playing around with it again for the first time in a few years. I was happy to stumble upon a past project I made during my undergraduate degree, around the start of the pandemic, which is a short quiz about a virology crash course that I actually designed for middle schoolers. Even before I finished my microbiology degree and decided to go on to pursue my teaching certification, I knew I wanted to help kids improve their scientific literacy and that Kahoot is a useful tool that makes formative assessment more fun.

It gets students engaged by engaged through gamification and a bit of friendly competition amongst their peers. I distinctly remember being very motivated by participating in Kahoots when I was in high school.

From a teaching perspective, I like how it gives students instant feedback on their understanding of a concept and shows them exactly which areas they need more support in. This will help me as a way to gauge the level of understanding in the class, and modify future lessons accordingly. I also enjoy how players can be anonymous which increases the probability of their participation.

The poster above is a totally generic example of me using some of the features on Canva, including adding a QR code and customizing it with extra decorations.

Canva is a stunning and versatile graphic design tool that I found super fun to use, and I can definitely see myself using it in my teaching practice. I’ve seen it be used by my peers for really beautiful and detailed slide decks, but this tutorial helped me imagine how I can teach students how to use it themselves for academic posters. The best part is, even the free version has a lot of features.

Students can use this to enhance the quality of their posters for science fairs while also developing their online design skills such as layout and color theory. Students deserve a tool to fully express their creativity that is as simple to use as dragging-and-dropping the different elements and picking between different preset templates. The digital format also makes it easy for students to share and collaborate on group work unlike a physical poster board.

Here are the results of me learning how to use the Screencastify Video-Editor in the format of a short YouTube video:

Please forgive how casual the recording is because it was my authentic real-time reaction trying out Screencastify for the first time. In making this, I obviously encountered a lot of fun surprises as is evident from my confusion figuring out its different features. Ultimately, I was able to create this recording relatively quickly and easily which speaks to its usefulness as a technological teaching tool. I appreciate how this tool allows teachers to make specialized lessons which are tailored to any curricular content, and makes it more accessible to students

Using this tool gives you as the teacher the ability to easily alternate between different learning resources in a 1st person perspective, allowing students to get super clear directions for problem solving and navigating software. I also see the potential creative applications of being able to incorporate visual and verbal explanations on top of pre-prepared content in order to reach all students. I especially like the annotation tools, like the pen and emojis, which allow me to edit quickly while simultaneously being engaging.

In addition, Screencastify enables self-paced learning for students to rewatch a lesson as much as they need to or slow it down. This applies to all students whether they are able to be physically present in class or not. On top of this, students can optimize actual instructional time for more interactive activities instead of using up time reteaching past material.

Unlike presenting with traditional direct instruction in a classroom setting, this type of recording makes it easier for teachers to reuse their content across courses, schools, and years. It also teaches students yet another tool they have access to for future presentations in their own academic careers.