BP15_2009113_Web2.0_Yacapaca

YacaPaca! seems like a cool Web 2.0 tool to use in my classroom. It lets teachers create quizzes, surveys, tests, and more. I can set up something for my whole class and get it marked automatically. It also lets me analyze the information that I get. Plus, it is free.

The resource section is divided by country, and the UK seems to be the most prolific. However, there are some assignments for the US. Even without creating an account, it lets you preview the assignments. I think they would be very helpful for my tutoring in third grade. I am not sure how helpful they would be in Kindergarten because for the most part, they do not read yet. I can also see how the vocabulary section could be very helpful for not only the SAT, but also for the vocabulary sections of other standardized tests.

According to the FAQ, the authors intend to keep it free. They make their money by selling training and support. Any educator can sign up for a free account, but students have to be set up by a teacher. The teacher will give the students a code to set up their own account. The FAQ also includes several 5 minute screencasts to guide you through several different processes, including the question creatr and the whiteboard. It also lets you see how to set up your own quizzes for your students and how to use the quiz statistics page. Students can choose their own avatar to represent their account as well as see a list of their teachers.

(2009). Yacapaca wiki. Accessed November 15, 2009 from http://wiki.yacapaca.com/index.php/Main_Page

BP6_2009112_Flickr

When I searched the web for lesson plans using Flickr, I got a bit frustrated. I did find some lessons that looked promising, but I also found a lot of pages that just had Flickr embedded somewhere on the page. I am going to have to find a way to search smarter.

During my search, though, I found a few blogs discussing the use of Flickr in the classroom. One of the concerns was the fact that anyone can use Flickr. There are no safeguards in place that protect the children who are trying to use it. I believe this is why my school district has blocked the Flickr website. At the same time, most of the discussion centered around students who were old enough to type in the search function by themselves. I did find some interesting links to Flat Stanley type lessons, but the links would not work. I think a Flat Stanley type lesson or geography based lesson would be wonderful if you could control the kinds of images that the students were able to see.

I decided to post about an idea that I would like to develop for a lesson to use in my classroom instead of one that had already been posted to the Internet. One of the lessons that we do in math concerns symmetry. My idea is to take pictures in Flickr that have been tagged with the word symmetry and decide if they are truly symmetrical. We could discuss how we know something is symmetrical, etc. In order for this to truly work, I would have to find a way of getting the pictures to my class. Since Flickr is blocked by the district, I would have to work around that problem either by bringing in hard copies of the pictures or digital copies.