This school year I want to try having students turn in some work electronically. I would like all the work to show up on one page, like a blog or wiki because I think this will make it easier for me to read it and manage it. I want to be able to know who submitted it. Lastly, I want the ability to erase/delete all the work when the assignment is finished so the site doesn't get crowded when students use it every three or four weeks. What platform and provider might be the best for this? I would prefer something that only the students could get into if possible.
The big picture idea is that we have a reading requirement. ChemMatters is a chemistry periodical for which we have 25 years of back issues on CD. Students need to read it on line because it looks better in color and license rules for use prohibit photocopying (nor do I want to spend the time or money). Students would be writing reaction statements, which I evaluate mostly by completion. I figure since the students are already on a computer reading it, it would be easy to collect reactions electronically. Then if they are all on one page, I can read them faster, and since their grade is for completion, I don't have to keep track of paper to hand back. Originally, I thought I would collect as an e-mail but I can see where a blog or wiki would be much better and not risk clogging my school e-mail account. I am looking for the best spot for the repository because it will probably work better if not connected to our school system.
Thanks for your ideas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey Tom, I think a main issue you'd have to consider when determining which tool to use would be whether you would want their assignments private, or if you don't mind that students see each other's assignments. If you want to use a blog, you could create a post with the assignment title and any additional instructions. Then have them reply with their assignment as a comment under the post. That way, you could have the assignments delivered as news feeds all together. But this way they would see each other's comments.
ReplyDeleteA wiki is good because it has static pages, so you could create a page for each assignment and have them add their assignment below the previous person's in that same static page (I think you may be able to fiddle with permissions so they can't edit each other's comments- but not sure)
If you want them kept private, maybe check out a way to do it through Google Docs, where you can create folders they can drop their files into. Or if you want to go one step further, sign up for a free online classroom (check out www.nicenet.org) where you have a drop box they can submit things to (among other tools offered).
Hope that helps...
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI use nicenet.org for such things, and even with my current work on making a wiki, I think I would still use nicenet for assignments. Discussions can happen and be visible, and assignments can be handed in where only you see them. Nicenet also sends email reminders out however many days ahead of the due date you request it to. E-mail me if interested and I can send you a password for one of my old classes to investigate.
Thanks to both of you. Nicenet seems like a good tool for this.
ReplyDeleteTeacherweb has announced it will be offering Digital Student Lockers beginning this fall. Here is a link to their newsletter announcing it:
ReplyDeletehttp://teacherweb.com/tweb/newsletters/2009-5.html
I'm looking forward to test driving it this fall.
If you end up using email, you can usually have emails automatically sent to a folder that you create. So that way it will at least all be in one place rather than scattered about your email box. But it looks like there are better ways to do this as mentioned in the comments above.
ReplyDeleteYou can still use a blog page but use the setting for previewing the work. On the dashboard it tells you how many comments there are to monitor. All students would post but you would read and grade them first then publish the posts.
ReplyDelete