Assessment, Google Apps, Presentation, TLT

#OneNewThing: Creating Infographics Using Google Slides

February 28, 2022January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. (wikipedia) For the layman, they can make difficult to understand data or concepts more accessible by delivering only the most important data in an understandable way. When students are asked to create infographics, it requires them to understand the data and concepts deeply enough to be able to distill them into digestible chunks that a layman can understand. Because of this, I highly recommend incorporating an infographic assignment into your teaching.

While there are some free applications (Canva.com) that can be used to create infographics, my recommendation is to use Google Slides. Google Slides is completely free, easy to use, familiar, and the students already have an account! Here’s how you can do it:

Page Size:

Don’t worry about being restricted to the standard presentation size you see in Google Slides. You can change the page to be any size you want!

Adding Images:

You can search the web for royalty free images directly from Slides or you can upload images from your computer (note: Pixabay.org gives you free images to use).
You can crop your images into shapes and add shadows and reflections.
You can also add a color overlay to some images to make them work for showing a percentage of people for instance.

Add Charts:

You can add charts (pie, line, bar, and column charts) from directly within Slides.
You can also connect a chart from Google Sheets that will automatically update when you change the data in your spreadsheet! Can’t do that in Canva.

Add Diagrams:

You can add anything from an org. chart to a timeline from within Slides as well. They are professional looking and easy to update.

screenshot of diagrams

Add Shapes:

Shapes can be used to highlight or group text or data areas on an infographic. Slides offers a wide range of shapes and call outs.

Add Text:

Slides offer a variety of font styles and sizes to meet your needs and the best part is that these will look the same on every computer regardless of the fonts installed on the viewer’s computer, which is critical on an infographic.

Shareable and Collaborative:

Because it’s a Google product it’s easy to share it for group or parter collaboration in creating and easy sharing to turn it in the instructor.

[button link=”https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uK22xphnEWkXn7nMDDn67NvU6cQMz9qcbkSeBVJDZOA/edit?usp=sharing” newwindow=”yes”] Access the tutorials for you and your students[/button]

Pedagogy Pointer: a quick guide to something new

Google Apps, Pedagogy, Presentation

Pecha Kucha to Promote Focused and Concise Presentations

April 5, 2021January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

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Pecha Kucha is a presentation style that consists of only 20 slides with only 20 seconds to discuss each slide. This results in a total presentation of exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The slides are set to automatically advance requiring the speaker to prepare and practice, as there is no option to go back or skip ahead. This style also requires the presenter to concise and brief and pull out the most cogent points to present.

Pecha Kucha is also a very visual presentation style. It is based on single powerful images and very little, if any, text on the slides. The presenter must know the topic well in order to select the most powerful images to represent each point which is another benefit of this style.

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BENEFITS OF USING PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS

Presentations are under 7 minutes which allows you to do more in less time.
Students must learn how to pick out the most important points from their topic and deliver it in a way that others can understand.
Students must learn to illustrate their topic and points using high-impact images and very little text.

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LEARN HOW TO CREATE PECHA KUCHA IN DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

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Assessment, Best Practices, Presentation

Make Your VoiceThreads Play Like a Video

March 22, 2021January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

Did you know that you can configure your VoiceThreads to auto-advance so they play more like a video than a slide show?

Here’s How:

Go into VoiceThread (VT) and mouse over one of your VTs and click EDIT.
In the upper right corner, click on the OPTIONS gear icon and choose PLAYBACK SETTINGS.
Check the box next to AUTOMATICALLY ADVANCE TO THE NEXT SLIDE AFTER _____ SECONDS.
Type a 1 in the box before Seconds.
Click SAVE.

NOTE: if you want all of your future VTs to auto play, click SAVE AS DEFAULT before clicking SAVE.

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Now when your students view the VoiceThread it will automatically advance to the next slide without them clicking on the Next Slide button.

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Create beautiful graphics, web pages ad video stories in minutes

Others, Portfolio, Presentation

Tech Tip Tuesday – Adobe Spark

March 10, 2020January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

Are you ever looking for an easy way way to create visually interesting content, newsletters, or presentations? If so, you might be interested in Adobe Spark. It’s also great for personal stories, to make professional looking graphics, and even to make short videos.

There are tons of premade templates to help you get started but you can also start from a blank slate. What I also like is that it gives you access to free photos, your Dropbox, Google Drive and Google Photos.

Once you create the item, you can link to it or embed it in OAKS, a blog, a webpage, etc. It’s fast and easy with a very low learning curve.

Here are a few samples to help you understand what it can do:

Try it now at https://spark.adobe.com/

Accessibility, Presentation

Did you know that PPT has live captioning?

March 4, 2020January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

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I just learned that PowerPoint now has the capability to create live (real-time) captions for your audience members who may need them. When you’re presenting, you can turn on the captions and Microsoft automatically transcribes what you are saying. While it’s not 100% perfect, it’s pretty good and can be a real help to individuals in your audience/class that need captions.

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HERE’S HOW IT WORKS

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What you need:

A microphone
Microsoft PowerPoint version 16.22.127.0 or higher

Set up captions and subtitles

You can choose which language you want to speak while presenting, and which language the caption/subtitle text should be shown in (i.e. if you want it to be translated). You can select the specific microphone you want to be used (if there is more than one microphone connected to your device), the position where the subtitles appear on the screen (bottom or top, and overlaid or separate from slide), and other display options.

On the Slide Show ribbon tab, select Subtitle Settings.
Use Spoken Language to see the voice languages that PowerPoint can recognize, and select the one you want. This is the language that you will be speaking while presenting. (By default, this will be set to the language corresponding to your Office language.)
Use Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want. This is the language of the text that will be shown to your audience. By default, this will be the same language as your Spoken Language, but it can be a different language, meaning that translation will occur.
In the Subtitle Settings menu, set the desired position of the captions or subtitles. They can appear over the top or bottom margin of the slide (overlaid), or they can appear above the top or below the bottom of the slide (docked). The default setting is Below Slide.
More appearance settings are available by clicking Subtitle Settings > System Caption Preferences.

You can change the color, size, transparency, and font style of the subtitles. You can change the background to improve contrast and make text easier to read.

Turn the feature on or off while presenting

If you’re in the middle of giving a presentation and want to turn the feature on or off, click the Toggle Subtitles button from Slide Show View or Presenter View, on the toolbar below the main slide:

In Slide Show View:

The Toggle Subtitles button in PowerPoint Slide Show View.

In Presenter View:

Toggle Subtitles button in PowerPoint Presenter View

Tips

If you see problems in the captions or subtitles, try speaking more deliberately.
Try to avoid or eliminate background noise that may interfere with your voice.
Captions & Subtitles depends on a cloud-based speech service, so it’s important to have an internet connection that’s fast and reliable.

TAKEN FROM MICROSOFT SUPPORT – Present with real-time, automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint

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What you need:

A microphone
Microsoft PowerPoint version 16.0.11601.20178 or higher

Set up captions and subtitles

On the Slide Show ribbon tab, select Subtitle Settings. Or, you can adjust the settings without leaving your presentation through the context menu, Slide Show or Presenter View menus > Subtitle Settings > More Settings.
Use Spoken Language to see the voice languages that PowerPoint can recognize, and select the one you want. This is the language that you will be speaking while presenting. (By default, this will be set to the language corresponding to your Office editing language.)
Use Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want. This is the language of the text that will be shown to your audience. By default, this will be the same language as your Spoken Language, but it can be a different language, meaning that translation will occur.
In the Subtitle Settings menu, set the desired position of the captions or subtitles. They can appear over the top or bottom margin of the slide (overlaid), or they can appear above the top or below the bottom of the slide (docked). The default setting is Below Slide.
More appearance settings are available by clicking Subtitle Settings > More Settings (Windows).

You can change the color, size, transparency, and font style of the subtitles. You can change the background to improve contrast and make text easier to read.

Turn the feature on or off while presenting

In Slide Show View:

Toggle Subtitles button in PowerPoint Slide Show View.

In Presenter View:

The Toggle Subtitles button in Presenter View

You can also toggle subtitles from the right-click menu, or with the shortcut key J.

To have subtitles always start up when a Slide Show presentation starts, from the ribbon you can navigate to Slide Show > Always Use Subtitles to turn this feature on for all presentations. (By default, it’s off.) Then, in Slide Show and Presenter View, a live transcription of your words will appear on-screen.

Tips

If you see problems in the captions or subtitles, try speaking more deliberately.
Try to avoid or eliminate background noise that may interfere with your voice.
Captions & Subtitles depends on a cloud-based speech service, so it’s important to have an internet connection that’s fast and reliable.

TAKEN FROM MICROSOFT SUPPORT – Present with real-time, automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint

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What you need:

A microphone
Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome 34+, Mozilla Firefox 25+Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome 34+, Firefox 25+

Set up captions and subtitles

You can choose which language you want to speak while presenting, and which language the caption/subtitle text should be shown in (i.e., if you want it to be translated). You can also select whether subtitles appear at the top or bottom of the screen.

Simplified Ribbon:
Subtitle Settings in PowerPoint Online.

Classic Ribbon:
Options for Subtitles and Captions on the classic Ribbon in PowerPoint Online

(Simplifed Ribbon) On the Slide Show ribbon tab, select the drop-down arrow next to Always Use Subtitles to open the menu of options.

(Classic Ribbon) On the View ribbon tab, select Use Subtitles. Then click Subtitle Settings to open the menu of options.
Use Spoken Language to see the voice languages that PowerPoint can recognize, and select the one you want. This is the language that you will be speaking while presenting. (By default, this will be set to the language corresponding to locale of your web-browser.)
Use Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want. This is the language of the text that will be shown to your audience. (By default, this will be the same language as your Spoken Language, but it can be a different language, meaning that translation will occur.)
Set the desired position of the captions or subtitles: they can appear overlaid at the top or bottom margin of the slide. The default setting is Bottom (Overlaid).

Turn the feature on or off while presenting

To have subtitles always start up when a Slide Show is presented, select View > Always Use Subtitles.

If you’re in the middle of giving a presentation and want to turn the feature on or off, click the Use Subtitles button in Slide Show, on the toolbar below the main slide:

Toggle Subtitles button in PowerPoint Slide Show View.

On/Off keyboard shortcut: J

Tips

If you see problems in the captions or subtitles, try speaking more deliberately.
Try to avoid or eliminate background noise that may interfere with your voice.
Captions & Subtitles depends on a cloud-based speech service, so it’s important to have an internet connection that’s fast and reliable.

TAKEN FROM MICROSOFT SUPPORT – Present with real-time, automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint

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Others, Presentation, Research

Faculty Focus: Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

September 25, 2019January 31, 2023 Jessica Smith

Fear of public speaking is very common, with an estimated 1 in 4 people reporting being anxious when presenting ideas and information in front of an audience. Some folks report being more scared of public speaking than death! While fear helps to protect ourselves in risky situations, it can also get in our way. In the case of public speaking anxiety, fear can prevent us from sharing our research and ideas within academic circles as well as with the larger community. Developing effective public speaking skills will help you advance your career and share your ideas with the world.

What causes public speaking anxiety?

Before we discuss speech anxiety management, it’s important to understand what causes this apprehension. Basically, an evolutionary, physiological mechanism in your body called the fight-or-flight response takes over. When faced with a situation you perceive as threatening, your mind sends a message to your body that you are in an emergency situation and the body responds with surges of adrenaline. This adrenaline energizes you to either fight the threat or to run away from the danger. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t distinguish between physically threatening situations, where you might actually need the extra adrenaline, and psychologically threatening experiences, where the physical symptoms only add to your stress. Thus, when you perceive a public speaking situation to be scary, your body reacts and you experience anxiety. Symptoms of speech anxiety include blushing, accelerated heart rate, perspiring, dry mouth, shallow breathing, shaking, churning stomach, forgetfulness, and nervous “ticks” such as playing with jewelry, tapping fingers, clutching the podium, or twirling hair. Thankfully, scholars from a variety of disciplines have developed techniques to manage speech anxiety.

How can I manage my public speaking anxiety?

Change your self-perceptions

The goal is to change how you perceive yourself and your abilities. The saying “mind over matter” is actually quite true. Simply put, if you think you’re a terrible public speaker, you are very likely to perform terribly. These repeated negative thoughts become a self-fulfilling prophecy. As simple as it may sound, replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts is a very effective technique to reduce speech anxiety. This is called cognitive restructuring or reframing. Speakers who think negatively about themselves and the speech experience are much more likely to be overcome by speech anxiety than speakers who think positively. So whenever a negative thought creeps into your mind, immediately force yourself to think positively.

Try following this three-step plan: (1) Whenever you have a critical thought, acknowledge it without judgement. (2) Next, replace that negative thought with a positive thought. For example, instead of thinking “I’m an awful public speaker,” think “No one’s perfect, and I’m getting better with each speech I give.” (3) Finally, focus on the things you do well. Think about all the things you like about yourself that have nothing to do with public speaking—traits that, in the grand scheme of things, are far more important than public speaking skills. Concentrate on these strengths rather than obsessing over your perceived weaknesses. Speech anxiety is often the result of a lack of self-confidence. For many, this comes from fearing harsh judgment by others. Feeling this way can cause us to simplify the situation into two categories—perfection or complete disaster. But thinking this way will only make you feel worse. By using cognitive restructuring, you can begin to stop this extreme thinking and realize that perfection is next to impossible and disaster is highly unlikely.

Visualize success

Another cognitive restructuring technique is called visualization, which takes place prior to your speech and involves the speaker imagining himself/herself in a hypothetical public speaking situation. The goal of this method is to vividly imagine delivering a very effective speech. Simply put, you imagine yourself performing successfully in a situation that causes nervousness and anxiety. Repeatedly visualizing a positive performance has been shown to reduce fears of public speaking because the positive image eventually replaces the negative one.

Visualization is a very popular ritual for athletes because it helps them perform successfully. Allyson Felix, an Olympic track and field sprinter, routinely uses visualization: “Visualization involves thinking through every detail of a performance so when the time comes, you know exactly what your next move is.” In a study of basketball players, researchers divided a team into three groups: one group practiced free throws, a second group practiced visualization, and a third group practiced both visualization and free throws. Which group do you think performed the best? The third group who practiced visualization in combination with skills training scored the most free throws. So by thoroughly practicing your presentation as well as practicing visualization, you are on the road towards more confident public speaking.

Understand your physiology

As mentioned previously, there are many physical symptoms of speech anxiety – sweaty palms, rapid heart rate, shaking, and so on. But there are ways to manage these symptoms so you can feel a bit calmer once you get to the podium. Nervous speakers tend to take short, shallow breaths. This induces more anxiety because you are not fully oxygenating your body. To break this habit, practice taking slower and deeper breaths. To know if you are breathing deeply, place a hand on your chest and a hand on your stomach. If your chest rises more, you are breathing shallowly and not taking advantage of all the oxygen your body is capable of taking in. When you breathe deeply, you use your diaphragm and your stomach will expand. Deep breathing also circulates nitric oxide through your body, which has a stress-reducing effect. Think about how emergency medical technicians provide individuals with oxygen when they experience shock. The increased oxygen and nitric oxide flowing through your blood has a calming effect on your body.

In order to take deep breaths, you must have good posture. When you hunch over, your chest collapses and your lungs compress, reducing the amount of air you take in. As a result, less oxygen gets to the brain, leaving you fuzzy-headed. Throwing your shoulders back and standing up tall can also trick you into feeling more confident. Researchers at Ohio State University found that people who slouched reported feeling less qualified to handle a task than those who had good posture. So stand up tall and take those deep, relaxing breaths. You’ll not only look more confident, you’ll feel it too.

Nervous energy can cause you to shake, bounce, or jiggle due to the extra boost of adrenaline pumping through your system. Physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce tension. Before arriving to give your presentation, simply taking a relaxing walk, doing jumping jacks, or some other movement can be enough to release some of the extra tension in your body. Before you approach to the podium, try gripping the edge of your chair seat and gently squeeze the chair. Feel the muscles in your hands and arms tense, then quickly relax. Notice how the tension rushes away.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

Nothing beats preparation for relieving anxiety. If you have invested a considerable amount of time and effort into creating and practicing your speech, you will feel more confident about it. That confidence will inevitably come out in your delivery. Jim Loehr, Ed.D., author of the Power of Full Engagement, has devoted thirty years to helping professional athletes manage their stress and energy. He notes that 90% of successful athletes’ time is spent preparing and only 10% performing. The same can be said for public speaking. Most of your time should be spent preparing your speech in advance. Procrastinating will only hurt you:

“Procrastination is a way for us to be satisfied with second-rate results; we can always tell ourselves we’d have done a better job if only we’d had more time. If you’re good at rationalizing, you can keep yourself satisfied this way, but it’s a cheap happy. You’re whittling expectations of yourself down lower and lower.” —Richard O’Connor, Ph.D.

Even more tips

Before you speak:

Work especially hard on your introduction. Research has shown that a speaker’s anxiety level begins to drop significantly after the first 30 seconds of a presentation. Once you get through the introduction, the rest of your speech should progress more smoothly.
Before moving to the podium, imagine speaking to one person at a time. This can help you focus on communicating with your audience rather than performing for them.
Scientists have long known that the brain cements memories during the hours you’re asleep. Sleep deprivation temporarily reduces levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein that’s crucial for storing new information. Therefore, staying awake until 4am on the day of your speech, trying to memorize every word, will not serve you well. Practice your speech thoroughly, in advance, and then go to bed early. While you sleep, your brain will store your speech into memory.
It’s also important to eat before a speech. Having low blood sugar will make you feel sluggish and queasy. If you have butterflies, I don’t recommend eating something heavy or greasy, but you should definitely eat something with both carbohydrates and protein.
To bring about physical relaxation, tighten your toes, calves, and thighs – then relax them. Clench your fists, tighten your arms – then relax them. When you relax your muscles after tightly clenching them, you should feel blood rush into these areas. Imagine that rushing feeling is the tension being eliminated from your body.
Right before walking up to the podium, try this exercise from psychologist Lucy Jo Palladino, Ph.D. First, find an object that has four corners such as a window or a piece of paper. Focus on the upper left-hand corner; inhale for a count of four. Next, hold your breath for a count of four as you look at the upper right-hand corner. Then, gaze at the lower right-hand corner, and exhale for a count of four. Finally, look at the lower left-hand corner and smile. Repeat a few times.

When you speak:

Do not worry that the audience will notice signs of your inner turmoil. Most of the nervousness that you feel is not visible.
Communicate in a conversational style. Try to use gestures and facial expressions that you regularly make use of in normal conversation. Pretend you’re talking with a group of friends. This will make you appear approachable and natural.
Even though it may make you more nervous in the beginning, make eye contact with your audience members. Remember that they are individual people, not a blur of faces. If looking people directly in the eye is intimidating to you, try looking just above their eyes, at the middle of their foreheads (as long as you’re not close to them). From their perspective, it will appear like you are looking right at them. But do strive to make direct eye contact with at least half of your audience.
The audience does not know what you plan to do during the speech; thus, they will be slow to pick up on any mistakes. Since they do not know exactly what you planned, it is easier to make adjustments during the speech without jeopardizing your objectives. Remember – you are the expert on your speech topic.
SMILE! Even if it’s the last thing you feel like doing, smiling can trick your brain into thinking you’re actually feeling good. Research suggests that smiling releases endorphins and boosts serotonin, which can lead you to feel the emotion you’re projecting.

Regardless of which techniques you use to manage your anxiety, none are as effective as being well-prepared. Preparation is the number one way to reduce speech anxiety because the more time and effort you put into the speech, the better you will feel about it. By implementing these tips and techniques, your next speaking engagement will surely result in a mic drop moment! Best of luck!

Presentation, Small Teaching Tip, Teaching Advice

Small Teaching Tip #20: Integrate Public Speaking into Any Class

September 20, 2019January 31, 2023 Jessica Smith

The belief that people fear public speaking more than death has become so readily accepted that Jerry Seinfeld’s joke about preferring to be in the coffin than giving the eulogy is now cliché. Unfortunately, this fear prevents us from honing our oratory skills since we typically recoil from opportunities to practice. But practice we must! And as educators, we should encourage students to strengthen their oral communication skills as well, regardless of our disciplines.

Why does public speaking matter?

It is not sufficient for new college graduates to simply have knowledge of an academic subject; increasingly, it is necessary for students to gain additional skills which will enhance their future success. These include: the retrieval and processing of information, planning and problem solving, and written and oral communication skills. At a liberal arts institution, these skills are part of our mission. Unfortunately, however, communication skills are frequently reported by employers as one of the most notable deficiencies observed in new college graduates. We may be preparing whip-smart students who understand disciplinary content, but are we preparing them to communicate that information?

Including more opportunities for public speaking in your classes is essential for preparing students not only for their future careers, but also for their role as active, competent citizens. In addition, integrating more public speaking can differentiate your assessment by providing students with another way to demonstrate their knowledge other than papers or exams. There’s quite a bit of research indicating that quizzes and exams, especially those that contain simple recall questions, promote surface learning (1, 2). Students cram, then promptly forget the material (3). But preparing a presentation encourages deeper, longer-lasting understanding. Speeches and presentations put students into the role of teacher and requires them to understand their material well enough that they can explain it to others.

How do I incorporate more public speaking into my classes?

Many faculty are pressured to cover a lot of material in a single semester and public speaking takes time. But try to think about presentations in a variety of ways. There isn’t one single type of public speaking or one way to provide students with the opportunity to hone their oral communication skills.

While formal, prepared presentations are one of the best ways to improve both skill and content knowledge, giving students the chance to speak in front of the class in a more informal way is also beneficial. Think about your current in-class activities and assessments. Is there a way portions of those could require students to talk in front of the class? For example, role plays in language courses or presenting lab reports in the sciences. Impromptu speaking is also an effective, informal opportunity for students — learning to think on their feet is a valuable skill. It also helps boost confidence because students realize that if they can speak for a couple minutes without any preparation, surely they can present effectively with days or weeks of practice.

Also, keep in mind that speeches don’t need to be ten minutes long. In the business school, for example, brevity is valued and when students give pitches, they are often limited to 1 or 2 minutes. This is actually more challenging than preparing a ten-minute talk because students have to understand the information so well that they can condense it to the most important information and explain it clearly yet succinctly.

Another strategy to reduce the class time used by speeches is to make them team presentations. This gives students the opportunity to practice their oral presentation skills while learning other “soft skills” such as cooperation, time management, and conflict negotiation.

Finally, if you simply do not have class time to devote to presentations, consider having students give speeches outside of class and record them. There are a variety of tools available that allow students to upload their videos and receive feedback from instructors and classmates, such as Voicethread.

While it may be challenging to find time to integrate public speaking opportunities into our classes, I think it’s a challenge worth accepting. Let’s prepare our students to eloquently communicate their knowledge to the world!

References:

Stanger-Hall, K. F. (2012). Multiple-choice exams: An obstacle for higher-level thinking in introductory science courses. Life Sciences Education, 11, 294-306.
Simkin, M. G., & Kuechler, W. L. (2005). Multiple-choice tests and student understanding: What’s the connection? Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 3, 73-98.
Weimer, M. (2102, November 19). Deep learning vs. surface learning: Getting students to understand the difference. Faculty Focus blog: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/deep-learning-vs-surface-learning-getting-students-to-understand-the-difference/

instructional technology, Presentation, Video

Create Interactive Games, Presentations, Images and So Much More with H5P

February 28, 2019January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

H5P is a free, online content creation application. You can use it to create interactive content quickly and easily. No coding or web skill is required. Here’s what you can create:

Images:

Agamotto: layer images and create a timeline for those images to overlay onto on another. It allows users to compare and explore a sequence of images interactively.
Collage: create collages of images.

Audio:

Audio Recorder: Record your voice and play back or download a .wav file of your recording. Great for language learning or speech practicing.

Video

Assessments:

Arithmetic Quiz: auto-generates arithmetic quizzes consisting of multiple choice questions.
Drag and Drop: create questions or images where the user must drag the proper answer to the image and check for correctness.
Drag the Words: similar to drag and drop, but you can drag onto text.
Fill in the Blank: the learner free types into the blank. This can be used as a quiz question or having them complete a passage or poem.
Find the Hotspot: create an image based test where the learner is to find the correct spot on an image.
Flashcards: create a set of stylish and intuitive flashcards that have images paired with questions and answers.
Guess the Answer: create challenges where the user is to guess an answer based on a picture.

Learning Resources:

Dialog Cards: content type allowing authors to create great language learning resources that include audio, text and images.
Dictation: allows you to create dictation exercises. Let your students train their listening comprehension and spelling skills.
Documentation: allows users to create form driven guides for structured writing processes.
Timeline Creator
Branching Scenarios

Games:

Matching
Sequencing
Personality Quizzes
Image Pairing

Website/LMS components:

Accordion
Column: content type which allowing users to add multiple choice, fill in the blanks, texts and other types of interactions and group them in a column layout.

Presentation components

Course Presentation: content type which allows users to add multiple choice, fill in the blanks, texts and other types of interactions to their presentations using only a web browser.

AND SO MUCH MORE

This is really one of the simplest applications I’ve ever used and you can create so many learning objects that can be used on websites or in OAKS.

It’s an easy, fun, and free way to add interactivity to your OAKS class. Check it out and let me know what you create!

H5P Website

Assessment, instructional technology, Presentation, TLT, Video

Biteable – a fun way to create an informational video

October 2, 2017January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

These days infographics are all the rage but, while they can deliver a lot of information on one page, they can be a bit boring and sometimes I really need someone to explain the graphic. Biteable now offers a way to have the easy to read and understand statistics and information found in an infographic but with the ability to add the audio explanation.

You start with a template that best describes your presentation. A few examples are:
- Infographic Video
- Intro Video
- Startup Explainer
- and more
Add your stats, graphics, and pick your animations.
Add your music or voiceover file.
Share your final product.

Biteable is free but you have to put up with a logo in the lower right corner of your finished product. If you love it and want to purchase a subscription it’s $99/year. For class projects, however I think the free version is more than enough.

The subscription offers you:

85,000 Stock Footage Clips
No Biteable Logo/Watermark
Download To Your Computer
Upload Your Own Footage
Privacy Controls

So the next time you give a presentation, infographic, or elevator pitch to your students, consider suggesting they use Biteable to deliver their information.

Collaboration, discussion, instructional technology, iPad, Mobile, Portfolio, Presentation, Research

#OneNewThing – Padlet

December 13, 2016January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

“Padlet is a virtual wall that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. It works like an online sheet of paper where people can put any content (e.g. images, videos, documents, text) anywhere on the page, together with anyone, from any device.” (Mrs. Treichler)

Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, also has plugins for Chrome and WordPress

How It Works

Uses for Faculty & Students

Create a blank board and share it (either with specific people via their Padlet account, or via a general link.
Double-click on the board to add a new “sticky” note.
You can add:
- Text
- Audio
- Video
- Images
- Files
Drag the notes around to organize and sort them.

Works on a computer or almost any mobile device.

Discussion and collaboration
Constructing a classroom code of conduct or an assessment rubric with your students
Backchannel where students can write questions during or before class
Exit ticket
Brainstorming
Planning
Student-to-Student image sharing
Writing prompts and collaborative writing
Student introductions
KWL Charts
Curation
Flow maps
Opinion forums
Inspiration wall
Portfolios
Website bookmarking tool
More…
Even more…

Page Size:

Adding Images:

Add Charts:

Add Diagrams:

Add Shapes:

Add Text:

Shareable and Collaborative:

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BENEFITS OF USING PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS

LEARN HOW TO CREATE PECHA KUCHA IN DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

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Try it now at https://spark.adobe.com/

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HERE’S HOW IT WORKS

Set up captions and subtitles

Turn the feature on or off while presenting

Tips

Set up captions and subtitles

Turn the feature on or off while presenting

Tips

Set up captions and subtitles

Turn the feature on or off while presenting

Tips

Share this:

What causes public speaking anxiety?

How can I manage my public speaking anxiety?

Change your self-perceptions

Visualize success

Understand your physiology

Prepare, prepare, prepare

Even more tips

Before you speak:

When you speak:

Share this:

Why does public speaking matter?

How do I incorporate more public speaking into my classes?

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How It Works

Uses for Faculty & Students

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