Wiki Wednesday #7 - Differentiated Instruction and Technology

Differentiated Instruction.  Every Teachers favorite two words.  Throw in technology, and you have probably added the next favorite word.  Putting them together might just cause a riot.  Well, luckily there is some help.  The Tech 4 Differentiated Instruction Wiki has a rather substantial list of resources, articles, and lessons for using technology with Differentiated Instruction.

The purpose of the Wiki is to gather and share resources linking Computer and Information Technology with Differentiated Instruction.  The wiki is the work of William Dolton who is a consultant and offer professional development opportunities related to Differentiated Instruction.

This Wiki is very well organized with a Table of Contents on each page.  Makes for easy surfing.  He also wants to know here visitors are from so when visiting, make sure that you mark your spot.  You can also find some useful presentations and videos used at conferences he has attended.  You can find plenty of useful resources related to content and technology.  Be a great addition if you are uding Differentiated Instruction and Technology, but have been wondering how to link them together.

Flavors.Me - A Personalized Webpage

Flavors.me is a place for you to create a homepage for all your social networks.  If you are a member of any of the sites in the image below, or have a favorite RSS feed, you can add them all here.  It allows you to choose a background as well.  Not much else to it.  But it is a neat place to organize what you look at most.

Urtak - Online Poll With a Twist

A new way of doing an online polling has arrived.  With Urtak you can create a simple poll, unlimited polls in fact and embed your poll anywhere.  The twist, not only can participants answer your questions...but they can also ASK questions.  Therefore your poll becomes more interactive and they might think of a question you did not, or an answer you did not think of.

Starting is easy.  All you need is an Email and a Password.  You can also log in with your Facebook or Twitter account.  Once you create an account it creates a URL for your poll.  You type in the questions for people to answer (They can only choose between Yes, No, Don't Care).  When they visit they will see your questions as well as a place to ask a question.  You can provide a name for the poll and provide a description.  Data is instantly fed back through the poll.

I could easily see this being a useful tool with students when trying to get an idea about the success of a project using simple yes or no questions, thus giving your students a chance to ask you questions as well.  I think it will be more useful when it adds more options for answers.  Still an interesting way to get information and ideas at the same time.

PaperRater - Free Grammar Checker

What a great idea!  PaperRater is a place for students to submit work and find out about their paper.  With no download necessary.  Not only does it check grammar, but it will also check for spelling, Plagiarism, and offer writing suggestions.  It will also help with readability, word choice, and style.  The site is completely free with plans in the works for a premium version.

To use the software, all you have to do is type in the title and then copy and paste your paper into the "textbox."  It also provides a place to copy and paste your references.  I copy and pasted a paper from college as a trial.  It was over 15 pages and included references and charts.  It took a short time for it to process the long document.

The screen then allows you to sort through your paper based on Originality/Plagiarism, Spelling, Grammar, Word Choice, Style, and Vocabulary Words.  It even explains why it is saying you have done something wrong.  Spelling Corrections are in red, Grammar in Green, Word Choice in Blue.  It does a great job of breaking down your use of different conjunctions, pronouns, verbs, etc.

The only part that was confusing was the Vocabulary Words - It gives you a percentage of vocabulary word usage.  My guess is that based on the title and references the software is looking for a certain percentage of words.  As a plus, it does have a vocabulary builder to help improve your vocabulary.

I am really impressed with this software.  Something tells me AP students would really benefit.  It would also really help with Portfolios, because it recognized what Word Grammar and Spell Checker missed.

Twitter Tuesday #8 - Changing of the Times

I remember when I was in high school, waking up, getting ready for school and having my morning bowl of cereal (Fruity Pebbles by the way).  I remember getting the paper and looking at the sports section, the features, and the comics.  It was a good way to pass time while eating breakfast and my way of having something to talk about when I got to school.

Today, as I sat eating my morning bowl of cereal (Frosted Flakes, now wishing it was Fruity Pebbles) I did all those same things as I did when I was in high school, accept, it was not just the newspaper.  I pulled out my iPhone, and while eating breakfast I played Word With Friends.  I also checked my email.  I checked sports through the ESPN ScoreCenter app.  I even looked at Facebook real quick.  I also have a Mobile RSS Reader so that I can read the blogs I follow while on the go.


That of course was not all I did.  I also used the TwitBird app to check the Tweets from my PLN that seamlessly continued while I was asleep.  I saved some of my favorites to read later because after all, it was just a couple bowls of cereal!  Now granted I don't have a subscription to the local newspaper, but this morning I realized...why?  Sure for the sake of support, but if I can get information other ways, and for cheaper, why?  I can get the same comics, the same sports scores, the same news stories, and quite a bit more.  Heck, I didn't even watch USA vs. Canada Hockey, but I knew a lot of what happened because of Twitter.

I have found that I check Twitter on my iPhone more than using the website or TweetDeck on my Laptop.  It is just as fully functional and provides the same options.  It also allows me to not feel overwhelmed with Tweets.  Twitter and TweetDeck don't let you know how many Tweets happened the last time you checked.  The iPhone allows me to know whether I have time to look at Twitter, and many times I don't.

With eReaders, Smartphones, and the eventual iPad, Newspapers and Magazines probably will become obsolete.  There is a reason many newspapers and magazines are creating Digital "E"ditions, because their readers are on computers more often now.  They offer digital or paper subscriptions as well.  (just look at your bills....how many are paperless...think those companies thought that would happen 10 years ago?) This will be more evident as my generation, my student's generation, and my son's generation gets older.

How do you get your news?  How do you get your information?  I know how I get mine and I know I am prepared for the change over to digital; are you?