ILP #2 - Design (Class Dojo)

I have been wanting to play with Class Dojo since we did the first ILP! So, of course, I created a Class Dojo for my ILP #2. It was very simple to set up and there are so many cool things you can do with this website. It is very similar to Edmodo, but it does a lot more and I think it is more geared for younger students (ex - elementary school).

On the main screen, it lists the entire class. At home, students can design their "creatures," which is a small feature, but it makes this website a little more fun for the younger students. There are many things you can do on this main screen, like take attendance (which is definitely useful!), use a stopwatch/timer, or select students randomly. These are many tools that teachers use daily, but now they are all found in one place and can be displayed on a Smart Board or by using a projector.

On this screen, you can also send feedback to individual students by clicking on their name, a group/table, or the entire class. These are customizable so they can work for any class. It came with some preset, but I came up with a few like "persistence" (an important virtue!) and "working hard." There is also another page for negative feedback, which can also be sent to the parent's account. In a class I observe at FSUS, the teacher added one for being able to do 100 multiplication facts in under 5 minutes. Students really put in their best effort in order to get the points. Another idea I have seen is creating a point redemption chart to hang in the classroom. This way, the points are not viewed as useless and students will want to be successful.


This is the part of Class Dojo that reminds me of Edmodo. It is basically a discussion board, and the teacher can send out assignments, files, and photos to the class. It could be used every day in order to update absent students/parents at home, or it could be used just to upload assignments. There are many options on how to use this page.

There is also a "messages" tab, which I love the idea of. Once parents and students create their accounts, this acts as a communication tool to the entire class, a group, parents, or any combination of those. This is a little more informal than email, and it is easy for parents and students to communicate with the teacher. It is also a great way for teachers to send out reminders to students and their parents.

Another feature of Class Dojo is that it shows you the breakdown of how students are doing in class. You can view an entire week, month, year, or just a day. This data can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet, or it can just be printed to keep for your records. There is also an attendance tab on this page, so if the teacher decides to record attendance on Class Dojo, it can still be converted to an Excel spreadsheet or it can be printed via Class Dojo to keep for records.

I had a great time playing with Class Dojo and there are so many useful tools packed into this website. In classes I have observed at FSUS, teachers use it and every student gets so excited to be able to earn points. Class Dojo is a teacher's best friend and it is something that could be a class's home page or something that is constantly on the board. Class Dojo is something I will definitely be using in the future. 

#10 - Data Collection, Blogs, and Future Skills

I plan to use data collection tools very frequently in the future as a teacher. For example, I could use Excel to chart students' grades on tests, homework, projects, other assignments, and overall grades/averages. This will be very helpful to be able to see the class as a whole, and also each individual student's achievements. Also, I could use data collection tools for tracking students' achievement for each standard I teach. I think after teaching a lesson, I could track how each student thinks he/she did, then seeing how they actually did on the test or corresponding assignment. This would give me a (mental) green light when they understand everything, a yellow light when I may need to have a review, and a red light when I need to completely reteach the lesson. Tools to collect data, such as Excel, will definitely help both me and my students in the future.

When reading my classmates' blogs, I absolutely loved being able to see their ideas and opinions. Every time I read a blog post, I learned something new that I never would have thought of on my own. I am so glad we had these blogs in EME 2040 and were able to read everyone else's thoughts, too!

Earlier, I was thinking that in the future, I would really love to learn how to use Microsoft OneNote and the cool things you can do with it. I take my notes in lecture classes with paper and pen, but I think it would be so much more productive for me to take them on an app like this! But because we learned so much about the three main tools in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) this semester, I will probably be able to translate what we learned there and use it in OneNote.

Chick-fil-A Survey!

https://fsu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_ez0Ga2LIPy4kRU1

#9 - Flipped Classroom, Open Sources, PowerPoint Assignment

    In chapter 10 of the textbook, I read about the concept of a "flipped classroom." I think it is a very interesting idea. It is so weird to think about how different the future (especially in the education world) will be! A flipped classroom is basically a blend of a physical classroom and an online classroom. Students will read the chapter or watch an instructional video before they come to class, and in class, they will be able to ask questions or just have the time to work on their homework. As the textbook says, the idea of blended learning is particularly beneficial to the students who are a little more shy and self-conscious. A great website for educational videos is Khan Academy. I used this website throughout high school for additional help in subjects that are harder for me. While I used Khan as a tutor and homework helper, many use Khan's instructional videos as their full-time schooling. Interestingly enough, Bill Gates loves the idea so much that he has his own children learn by using it. (https://www.khanacademy.org/)

   Open sources and content are software/programs that can be modified and distributed for any purpose. According to a website I found (http://www.opencontent.org/definition/), an open source "is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities." Those are 1) retain, 2) reuse, 3) revise, 4) remix. and 5) redistribute.

    I learned a lot through the PowerPoint for Information Dissemination assignment. In particular, I learned how to use master slide. Master slide is extremely helpful when you want to make each slide look the same or if you want to modify the slide template. I also really enjoyed being able to search for my own template online and change it. I found it difficult at first to find an appealing template, but after a lot of searching, I found one that worked for my theme and I modified it to look a more modern and aesthetically pleasing. I think my least favorite thing about this assignment was having to record my voice (yikes!) Overall, this assignment taught me a lot about the more complex features in PowerPoint and I know they will be useful in the future.

17 Ways to Design a Presentation People Want to View

This SlideShare claims that "our brains are better equipped to comprehend and store visual information" (slide 7). Presentations simply need to look good in order to be effective, which is good to note as a presenter.

17 Ways to Design a Presentation People Want to View from Jim MacLeod

#8 - Sports Psych Lab, Bloom's Taxonomy, Teachers' Role in Technology Innovation

When we visited the Sports Psych Lab last week, I loved the wired wraps that could be put in several places on a person's body (fingers, waist, head, etc.) which would track a person's movement, heart rate, breath rate, and motions. It would be really cool to use in a health lesson or a science lesson in a classroom. However, I personally could not see uses for many technologies in the Sports Psych Lab in a classroom. Everything in there was really cool and fun to play with, but I did not see many practical uses for it in an everyday classroom setting.

Bloom's Taxonomy emphasizes higher forms of thinking while learning, instead of simply writing things down/not interacting with them. I found this extremely useful graphic of Bloom's Taxonomy from the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University. PowerPoint can be applied at every level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Create: Students could create their own PowerPoints to present a project they created, maybe in a group. They would gain presentation, public speaking, and collaboration skills through a project like this.

Evaluate: At the end of a lecture/new lesson, a teacher could have each student rank their comprehension of the new content (maybe on a scale of 1-4). Or, a teacher could ask for volunteers at the end of the PowerPoint to explain a recently learned concept to the class. If a student can explain a concept to his peers, he has mastered the content. (And if this is something that is done after every new lesson, the students probably wouldn't be very shy and they would likely be able to speak in front of their class.)

Analyze: Having a set of true/false statements, categorizing new vocabulary into groups of similar ideas.

Apply: Adding discussion questions on a few slides for the entire class to talk about what they are learning, and maybe relate to it a little more.

Understand: A teacher could explain a new concept by telling a story or using personal experience.

Remember: Short pop quiz on the basic ideas (directly on the PowerPoint) after learning a new concept to see how well the students remember the information - maybe using iClickers?

The textbook says that educators must become "agents of change" as advocates for students. Technology has become deeply integrated into the classroom and we need to advocate for its inclusion in schools. It is essential that technology is fully available to students. A website I could use to stay informed of new technology trends is Wired. Wired is a website that has articles about new technology as soon as it is released. I have personally read articles on this website in the past, and it is a great way to stay on top of technology trends, for personal use and in the classroom. (https://www.wired.com/)

#7 - Assistive Technologies, Webpage Design, Diigo

   In the podcast, I learned about the Americans with Disabilities Act, and how the ADA states that accommodations must be made for people with disabilities, and these people cannot be discriminated against. In the textbook, examples of assistive technologies for people with disabilities include Braille printers, spelling checkers, voice recognition software, and a joystick instead of a mouse. I think the biggest challenge of using these adaptive technologies is that they are flawed and there is no "perfect technology" that can act as a full replacement. For example, there are readers for either people who cannot read for themselves or people who can't see the text. But these readers may not know the correct pronunciation of every word, which can cause confusion. As the podcast says, there are so many technologies available. It is all about matching the right technology to the right person.


    I learned a lot through the web page design assignment. I think the most useful thing I learned is how to embed things. I embedded a Google calendar, a Sign Up Genius button (for a parent-teacher conference), and my newsletter design assignment. I spent a lot of time making the webpage, and I had a lot of fun exploring the different tools that you can use. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, but if I could redo it, I think I would change the home page to make it look a little better. (http://eme2040allison.weebly.com/)

    I love using Diigo and I think it is such a great tool! For personal use, I think it is extremely helpful to be able to read an article online and have the ability to make annotations and highlight directly on the online article! The best thing about Diigo is that it is Internet-based, and so these annotations will be there, no matter the computer or web browser I am using. For professional collaboration, I think it would be very useful to keep a shared folder of helpful teaching websites, blogs, and resources, similarly to what we have in our class.