FLIPGRID

  Flipgrid is not only about recording videos. It's about learning. Learning that is social, personal, can happen anywhere and anytime, about making connections and promotes that everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.

HOW TO CREATE A FLIPGRID

Stage 1- Create your account: go to flipgrid.com and select sign up. You have two options: you can either create your account with Google/Microsoft or with your email.

Stage 2- Create a grid: Select + New Grid to get started.
Give your grid a name.
The grid link is automatically created but you can change it,too.

Stage 3- Add topics to your grid: You need to add a title and description/question to your topic. These are required. The decription or question is the propmpt students will read to know what to respond to.
Response time is set to 1:30 but tou can change it, from 15 seconds to 5 minutes.

Stage 4- Responding to topics: You have two options when adding a response to a topic. Record a response using your device's camera or upload a previously saved video from a file.

Stage 5- Ideas: It's a hub for the students to share about what they are thinking, reading, watching, doing, or creating with their learning community. It gives students the freedom to share their voice anytime.

FLIPGRID COMMUNITY

Flipgrid Explorer Series: It's a way for students to connect and engage with people doing interesting things around the world. These events give students the opportunity to learn from experts all over the globe and allow them to experience what is like to be in a career they may otherwise have never even thought of.

Topic Discovery Library: It's an educator's one step shop to share and find topic templates. And it's for free. You can find the topic dşscovery library by selecting the discovery tab at the top of your educator dashboard.

CoPilots: With a CoPilots feature a flipgrid classroom educator can invite others to co-manage a grid.

Going Global: Using Flipgrif allows you to connect yur classroom with students from all over the globe. To do this check out the Connections tab at the top of your educator dashboard.

To find out more about Flipgrid ⇉ https://static.flipgrid.com/docs/Flipgrid_eBook_2nd_edition.pdf
To check out my Flipgrid ⇉ https://flipgrid.com/web03
Or you can join with the code: web03

POWTOON

PowToon is a drag-and-drop video creation solution that’s easy and even fun to use, thanks to some eye-catching and entertaining designs:

Not creatively inclined? No problem! PowToon has created a number of ready-made PowToons that you can make your own with simple customizations. From marketing videos to internal meeting videos and even resumes, you’ll find almost everything you need:

How To Create a Video on PowToon

Step 1: Select Your Video’s Design Template

Step 2: The Video Creation Screen

Step 3: Upload Your Images

Step 4: Add Text

Step 5: Add Other Elements

Step 6: Determine the Length of Each Scene

Step 7: Set Up the Timeline for Each Scene

Step 8: Complete All the Scenes

Step 9: Add Sound

Step 10: Test the Video

Step 11: Publish the Video

Step 12: Share and Download the Video

(credit : https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/10/what-is-powtoon-for-business.html )

Reviews: PowToon has the potential to be a powerful animated presentation tool. Whether teacher- or student-created presentations are the plan, the slide-based format allows presenters some control over how they present their information. Turn writing instruction on its head by teaching students to create expository or persuasive videos. PowToon and its many features, and it will help if teachers know something about the tool in order to guide students. Students can share presentations with their peers and collaborate on ideas in class, but real-time collaborative editing capability would be a nice addition. More education-related examples and blogs for inspiration would make this tool an even more valuable classroom resource.

I also made a presentation using Powtoon. You can check it by clicking the link. 

➤ https://www.powtoon.com/c/g6RIcIXl75p/1/m 

Augmented Reality (AR)

   Augmented reality is the technology that expands our physical world, adding layers of digital information onto it. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), AR does not create the whole artificial environments to replace real with a virtual one. AR appears in direct view of an existing environment and adds sounds, videos, graphics to it. A view of the physical real-world environment with superimposed computer-generated images, thus changing the perception of reality, is the AR.

   AR can be displayed on various devices: screens, glasses, handheld devices, mobile phones, head-mounted displays. It involves technologies like S.L.A.M. (simultaneous localization and mapping), depth tracking (briefly, a sensor data calculating the distance to the objects), and the following components:

• Cameras and sensors. Collecting data about user’s interactions and sending it for processing. Cameras on devices are scanning the surroundings and with this info, a device locates physical objects and generates 3D models. It may be special duty cameras, like in Microsoft Hololens, or common smartphone cameras to take pictures/videos.
• Processing. AR devices eventually should act like little computers, something modern smartphones already do. In the same manner, they require a CPU, a GPU, flash memory, RAM, Bluetooth/WiFi, a GPS, etc. to be able to measure speed, angle, direction, orientation in space, and so on.
• Projection. This refers to a miniature projector on AR headsets, which takes data from sensors and projects digital content (result of processing) onto a surface to view. In fact, the use of projections in AR has not been fully invented yet to use it in commercial products or services.
• Reflection. Some AR devices have mirrors to assist human eyes to view virtual images. Some have an “array of small curved mirrors” and some have a double-sided mirror to reflect light to a camera and to a user’s eye. The goal of such reflection paths is to perform a proper image alignment.

 Credit: (https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/what-is-augmented-reality/)

In our instructional technologies and material design class, we also created an AR. At the beginning of the class, we downloaded the app HP Reveal, which helped us to see our created ARs. Then, our instructor gave as a paper consisting of animal pictures and wanted us to create an AR in the app. 

We started with taking a photo of an animal in the paper, then we searched the thing that we wanted to appear when we scan that picture. After these stages, we shared it in our private or public auras. Whenever we zoom in the picture, we can see it moving. 

In order to understand it better, you can watch my videos below. 

Seesaw: The Learning Journal

Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that empowers students of any age to independently document what they are learning at school and share it with their teachers, parents, classmates, and even the world.

For students, Seesaw helps them see their own growth and provides an audience for their work – whether that be peers, parents, or the world at large.

For parents, Seesaw gives an immediate, personalized window into their child’s day so they can support learning at home.

For teachers, Seesaw saves time on organization and communication, makes formative assessment easy, and provides a safe place to teach digital citizenship skills.

FEATURES:

Easily Capture Student Learning in Any Form

• Students can use photos, videos, drawings, text notes, links or PDFs to show what they know and store evidence in their digital portfolio. You can also import from 100s of other apps.
• When students add to Seesaw, content is uploaded, organized by student, and accessible from any device.
• Teachers can browse work from the entire class or for a single student. Optionally, use folders to organize work by subject area project, or assessment standard.
• Teachers can flag items in the digital portfolio for follow up or to review at parent-teacher conferences.

Sign In Options that Work for All Ages

• Younger learners or classrooms with shared devices can sign in with a QR code.
• Older students can sign in with their email address or Google account.

Encourage Reflection and Provide an Authentic Audience

• Seesaw helps capture the learning process not just the end result. Students can use Seesaw’s built-in audio recording and drawing tools to reflect on what they’ve learned or explain how they got their answer.
• Seesaw gives students an authentic audience of their peers and parents, encouraging better work and real feedback. Teachers can control who can see what, and what feedback options are available, such as likes and comments.

Strengthen Connections Between School and Home

• Include families in the learning process by inviting them to view updates to their child’s Seesaw journal. Seesaw’s immediate, visual updates actually get seen by parents, provide encouragement for students, and cross language barriers.
• Teachers approve all new additions and comments before anything is shared with parents.

Seesaw Blogs — the easiest way to create a blog for your class!

• Create a public webpage for your class and give students a global audience for their work.
• Teachers and students can post a selection of Seesaw items to the class blog in just one tap. No other apps, websites or embed codes needed! All posts are teacher-moderated.
• Connect to other class blogs directly within the Seesaw app so students can easily comment and collaborate with students from other classrooms.

Teacher Resource Center at help.seesaw.me

• Getting started tips, professional development resources, FAQ.
• More than 100 Common Core aligned activity ideas for K-12.

(Credit: https://edshelf.com/tool/seesaw-the-learning-journal/)

My Opinions: I created a class on seesaw. Firstly, it was not difficult to understand how it works. This would make it a big advantage not only for the teachers and the students but also for the parents. If it were complicated, parents wouldn't be able to control their child's progress.
Second, you can create activities for the students to boost their knowledge. In my journal, first, I uploaded the videos and the activity, then, I posted the video about the topic. By doing this, I made students take part in their own learning process.
Third, they can also work together. Connection between a) the student and the teacher, b) the student and the student, c) the student and the parent, d)the parent and the teacher can be achieved. Collaborative and cooperative learning are supplied.
Fourth, you can post videos, pictures and give instructions to the students orally; you can record your voice. Instead of writing thousand of words, you can simply record yourself and post it to the class.
As a last but not least statement, you can see the students progress in the skills section. You can rate their skills with stars.

My Seesaw Class

Padlet: An Amazing Tool for Education

Padlet is a free, online "virtual wall" tool where users can express thoughts on topics of their choice. It's like a piece of paper, but on the Web. 

YOU CAN :

• Add posts with one click, copy-paste, or drag and drop. 
• Autosave the changes.
• Simply share links which allows for quick collaboration.
• Work in 29 languages, with more being added.
• Collaborate on padlets from around the globe.
• Invite others to contribute - signup not required.
• Work with unlimited contributors.
• Allow others to remake your work to use as a template.
• Upload files from your computer, take a picture or video from your phone, or link from the web.
• Post images, documents, videos, music, and files from Photoshop, Illustrator, Autocad, and more.
• Embed content from anywhere on the web, including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Vimeo, The New York Times, and 400 other apps.
• Attach links and files which will appear with a gorgeous contextual preview to give viewers a hint of what you’re showing them.
• Find it on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), Android, and Kindle devices.
• Choose from colorful wallpaper choices that range from cute animations to professional wood, cork, or chalkboard.
• Pick a theme that fits your writing sensibility, from comic-book to typewriter.
• Publish your work to the world when you are ready.
• Export as PDF, CSV, Image, or Excel File.
• Search for padlets on specific topics.

  I also created a padlet. It was easy to make so I didn't have any trouble while making it. One another advantage is that it is also free for 3 padlets. If you want to use the app more, you can purchase it with paying a considerable amount of money. The fact that you can attach photos, links are also a plus because it will be beneficial for the learner who learn by seeing and whose visual memory is more dominant. 

  This app is reliable and effective tool for both the teachers and the students. Teachers can create a padlet and present it to their student in the classroom. The students can also create to reinforce their knowledge about a topic or use it while making a presentation. The fact that others also can collaborate, can contribute to your padlet is what it makes more charming. Students can work in pairs or in groups, which also can assist in providing social connections. 

You can click the link and review my padlet → My Padlet

The Use of Music in Second Language Acquisition

In my podcast, I talked about the effects of music in the First Language Acquisition process and in this video I am talking about the effects of music in the Second Language Acquisition process.

Firstly, music lowers affective barriers and assists in making students more relaxed, thereby more receptive to language learning.

Secondly, the use of song and linguistic play in the language classroom to increase individual language-learner motivation.

Also, when music is situated as an aid to learning strategies in the language classroom, both cognitive and metacognitive strategies are enhanced, affective exploration is increased and the student is more receptive to language inputs.

As a last but not least statement, use of music is good for memorization and learning the pronunciation points.

It is clear that use of music is necessary for acquiring a second language.

Credit: Engh, D. (2013). Why Use Music in English Language Learning? A Survey of the Literature. English Language Teaching, 6(2), 113-127