Digital Flashcards and Study Guides with StudyBlue

I've been using the StudyBlue flashcard app/website for a couple of terms now, mainly as one of the tools I encourage students to use to study vocabulary.  I've found that most of my students are not really sure how to study vocabulary for their classes - not surprising, really, considering that many of them lack college-level study skills. I've always included vocabulary study in my reading classes because I think it's an essential skill and because many of my students have limited vocabularies. I tried to help students develop a range of tools for working with vocabulary - I teach context clues and dictionary use and show them various methods they can use to study vocabulary (flashcards, partner quizzing, puzzles, etc.).

Now that I'm teaching only math, I'm still teaching vocabulary, but my approach has changed somewhat. I really focus on using the appropriate terminology for math concepts (saying "numerator" instead of "top number," for example) so that students can be prepared for more advanced college math classes. The study of math and science terminology is unique in some ways, though - it can require the study of both words and symbols, it's a little harder to use context clues, and much of the terminology is completely foreign to students. For these reasons, I've been spending a lot of time this term not only teaching vocabulary, but teaching students how to learn the vocabulary.

StudyBlue is a digital flashcard program that can be accessed through a website or an app. It's a pretty simple, straightforward program, though they are slowly adding more features. The program allows you to create decks of digital flashcards that you can then quiz yourself with by "flipping" the cards back and forth. Cards can be as simple as a term on one side and a definition on the other, or you can make them richer and more interactive by adding pictures, sound, or equations. When creating cards through the website, entering a term on a card brings up a list of cards that other users have created for that same term - you then have the option of continuing to supply your own information or inserting someone else's card into your deck. (This feature is not available on the app.)

Decks of cards get saved to your virtual "backpack," and can be used to study via simple flipping or to create study lists or true/false or multiple choice quizzes. When studying by flipping cards, you record whether you answered correctly or not; when you study that same deck again, you then have the option to see only or more often those cards you missed.

When teachers create a StudyBlue account, they have the option to create "classes" that they can invite their students to; when students sign up, they are prompted to join a class. Members of a class can then share study cards and chat with each other.

I like StudyBlue for two reasons - first, it's a clean, simple app that students can quickly learn to use. Additionally, it's convenient - students can install the app on their phone and use it to study whenever they have a few free minutes. They might not carry actual study cards around with them, but they've always got their phones, so they can study while they're waiting for the bus, etc. I've found that international students, in particular, really like and use the app.

I've been sharing StudyBlue with students and other instructors - stay tuned for a post in which I describe more about these experiences.

Sharing Resources and Knowledge: Google Docs

I'm fortunate to work with a group of colleagues who are all very interested in integrating technology into their classes, though each of them is at a slightly different place in terms of tech skill and comfort. Of our group of six, two of us have been working on the Dig Co-Lab project; the others know this (and one has now signed up - welcome Aliscia!) and are always curious about what we're learning and creating and how they can apply technology in their own classes. In order to help everyone along, I suggested that we add a half hour to our weekly staff meeting for technology sharing. I started things off with a session on Google Drive.

I chose to start with Google Drive because a couple of us had started extensively using the Google apps, and I thought that there were some classroom needs and staff communication needs that the Drive tools could address. I chose to focus on two things: the features of Google Drive documents, and using the Google Drive app on the iPad.

The feature of Drive documents that I think is most useful for communication with students and staff is the ability to share and edit documents - even in real time. It took only a few minutes to demonstrate, and people immediately began thinking of uses for this type of collaborative document. For students, Drive is great because the document is dynamic. Rather than uploading a static document to Moodle for students to access, for example, you can link the document to Moodle. That way, if you edit the document (say, from one term to the next) students will link to the most recent version of the document without the need to update any files in Moodle.  Also, students can be given sharing rights so that they can add to or edit the document, which opens many possibilities for group projects, collaborative writing, etc. Among staff, we've been creating meeting minutes in Drive - one person takes meeting minutes, then saves the document into a shared folder. During or after the meeting, others in the group can add to or edit the minutes. This takes pressure off the notetaker and requires no emailing or saving of notes.

What really makes Drive useful for the classroom or meeting is the ability to access documents from nearly any device, including the iPad via the Drive app. The app has it's limitations (you can open Presentations but not edit them; there are fewer formatting tools for documents and spreadsheets in the app, etc.), but for those of us who use iPads in the classroom, it's a great tool. I demonstrated how I create documents and presentations to use during my class - thanks to my iPad and Drive, I know longer use an overhead projector and rarely use my doc cam or classroom PC. I've heard a lot of complaints from other teachers about how finicky doc cams are, so everyone appreciated having an alternative method for projecting worksheets, diagrams, etc.

What I did not have time to demo in this first tech workshop was how I import my Drive presentation slides into an app that allows me to annotate the slides - that will have to wait for another day!

Creating OER Text with CK-12

 

One of the resources that I've been using for my math class this term is CK-12. CK-12 is a nonprofit foundation supporting OER for STEM subjects, with content from elementary to high school level. On the student side of their website, students can complete assessments and lessons, access text and videos, and work on interactive activities. Teachers can not only access these materials, but edit files or create new materials from scratch.

I've been using the CK-12 textbook resources for both of my math classes. CK-12 calls their texts "Flexbooks," because there are a number of options for selecting, editing, and downloading texts, and I've tried a few different things. On one end of the spectrum, you can access and print or download full textbooks that have been created by other educators. There are dozens of Flexbooks on the site - almost 20 just for Algebra alone. For each subject, there are generally a variety of basic, standard, and advanced  level texts, as well as texts in Spanish. Some are better than others, but they are all generally high quality. Some have answer keys; many do not. Flexbooks can be copied, printed, and downloaded as pdf's or ereader files - you just have to include the attribution page for each file if you plan to distribute it. On the other end of the spectrum, the site has tools so that you can upload and create your own text, completely from scratch. (Texts must be approved by CK-12 before being shared publicly on the site.)

I have two Flexbooks that I've selected for use with my algebra and geometry classes, though I sometimes I will use a section from a different text if I like that particular section better than the one in my Flexbook. (You can search the site by topic to find stand-alone copies of text, quizzes, activities and other study materials.) Flexbooks are divided up into lessons which can be downloaded individually; I usually select a section for a lesson I'm going to teach, edit it to remove references to content we haven't yet covered or that I don't want to cover and make any desired adjustments to the problem sets. I then save my edit and download the lesson file as a pdf. I've been posting the pdf's to Moodle so that students can access the files as a reference; sometimes they are required to read the section for class.

I have also used some of the online activities on CK-12 (interactive quizzes, etc.), but I've found that I have to preview them before directing students to them, as some are glitchy or simply don't load correctly. Another resource that my students have found really useful is a series of study guides, which are two-page summaries of important concepts, suitable for printing out and keeping in a binder.

Overall, I've found CK-12 to be a great resource for basic OER math texts - the site is easy to navigate, stocked with a good variety of resources, and pretty reliable. If you're looking for a math or science text, give it a try.