Project based Learning - Moving from Theory to Practice

Screencasting - Recording your computer screen

Meaning  of  Screen casting

 It means recording  your computer screen without the use of  external recording device.

It can also include audio narration.

Sound and presentation are recorded simultaneously

  Benefits to teachers

• Recording what is happening on your screen can be a pretty useful tool for teachers who want to create video tutorials or presentations for their classrooms
• Show staff or students how to use an application or a piece of software

Benefits to Students

·        For the student, screen casting allows them to learn by example, seeing for instance a step-by-step sequence in great detail or viewing a screen cast video directly related to lesson content.

·        In addition, students can watch a screen cast video anytime, anywhere and have complete control of the lesson, which means they review any part of the presentation as needed

·        Students can review content to improve quality of notes, make up for missed lectures and revise for exams

·        Can help those with special needs

 

Popular screen casting tools:

 Screencast-O-Matic

Camtasia

CamStudio

Sceenr

 

Watch video of how to do screen casting using Screen-O -MaticClick here

 

Also watch screen casting tool used by me in making a tutorial of "How to make Word Mosaic"Click here

Making of Newsletters

Do you think making of Newsletters is difficult ......................

Do you think that it is a job of an expert .......................

Actually, creating an effective, visually inviting newsletter might be much easier than you think. 

But if you’re not a professional designer then Microsoft Word is a great way of making newsletter easily.

Why make newsletters?

Newsletter is made to communicate information with many people. It is circulated to inform readers and keep them involved in the activities and events occurring within their organizations.

Newsletter is made in such a way that recipients enjoy reading it and it makes an impact on readers.

Benefits of making newsletters:

• Newsletter is an excellent educational tool for continuous learning.
• Students can be actively involved in making Newsletters where they can share their latest work, achievements, opinions etc.
• It benefits both maker and the reader. Readers find newsletters very interesting.
• Newsletter can be made month wise or subject wise.

Watch this video to learn the making of newsletter

Check  newsletters prepared by my students:

Check more on CSR Project Blog:
http://csrprojectblog.blogspot.in/

http://www.pil-network.com/Discussion/868836ff-e86f-4df6-8c56-e1e9178f69d8

Online storage option

Often teachers feel need of some online storage systems where we can store our word documents, presentations ,images etc.
There are lot of options available .
I am using  Microsoft Sky Drive. This is free service given by Microsoft which not only gives us 7 GB of storage space but it is an excellent  medium to share our files with others.

Benefits:

1. You can use to store thousands and thousands of files
2. You can access these files whenever you are online
3. There is no need to carry pen drives or CD's filled with your files
4. You can Share your entire folder (view only or edit) with another teacher(s) and/or students

Steps for setting 

1. To start , type http://skydrive.live.com into the address bar of your browser.
2. You need to have Microsoft Account or Windows Live ID to sign in but if you are new user click on the Signup button for a free Windows Live ID
3. At the Live ID Sign in page, sign in with your Live account.
4. In the main navigation, click the “SkyDrive > Get Started

Example of my Sky drive

 I wanted to share one pdf file with others . So I uploaded my file in sky drive and shared it with others by giving a link

Check link:

http://sdrv.ms/Kr6aOa

Explore it more at Microsoft PIL Network

Blogging as Teaching tool

The education blog can be a powerful and effective technology tool for teachers .They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. 

Meaning of Blog

A blog is like an online diary. The user of a blog can write about whatever takes their fancy and then publish it for the internet community to read.

It is online space where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you.

Benefits of making Blog

Popular Place to make your free blogs

Blogger

WordPress

Steps for making blog in Blogger

Check few blogs created by me and my friends

1. COMMERCE HELPLINE
2. Economics made easy
3. Business Studies Class 12

I hope you will find this information helpful and you will start using this powerful tool.

Do share your blog name with me.

How to use animated flash quiz games for teaching ?

Animation always attracts students and this post explains making of  quizzes using animation.

Education quizzes are very effective tool for teaching and learning process. Student have often relied on this trusted tool to enhance their knowledge as well as to increase their performance against the set parameters. However, with the changing times the technique of making quiz has been also changed. Instead of spending time in making quizzes manually, teachers can make their own quizzes using technology tools available .

• Lot of online quiz making software's are available online.
• You can download the free Fling the Teacher game generator from ContentGenerator.net
• It is Flash game which can be created to revise the topic done by you in form of multiple choice questions.
• This is an interesting way to revise the topic and these games can be customized to suit your and your student’s requirements
• This programs allow anyone to generate their own e-Learning quizzes, games and applications through our custom software - no coding required
  

I have used this tool for making flash based quiz for my students.

Flash game “Fling the Teacher on the topic "Theory base of Accounting" 

Play this full game,Click here

Also watch this video to see how it works?

Lot of other options are also available  to generate our own e-Learning quizzes, games and applications.

Try them and do tell me your experience.

Making of Word Mosaic(Word Cloud)

 


Word Mosaics (Word Cloud)can be easily made by using online softwares
They can be used in variety of ways :

For more ideas of how to use them in classroom

• Send a greeting 
•  Post to Facebook or your blog
•  Use it for class or notice boards
• Use a word cloud to create a discussion either in class or posted on the web for a discussion forum. Try to create it so that a question of inquiry can be used.

They can be used for all  subjects:

To see how it can be used in different subjects

  

• Language Arts
• Social Studies
• Math
• Art and Music
• Foreign Language
• Business studies etc.

The online softwares available are:

• Image chef
• Wordle
• Worditout
• Tagul
• Tagxedo

Watch this  video to learn the making of Word Mosaic

Do share your ideas and views relating to this technology tool .