I am blessed to be at a school that is 1-to-1 (meaning every teacher and student has a laptop). We also allow students to take their laptops home, which is huge for our community (we have about 60% on free/reduced lunch). Along with our laptops our school has been blessed to be the pilot school for a program called URcast, and I was lucky enough to be the lead teacher in implementing this program.
It's a very new program based in Wilmington, NC and basically it is a means of delivering information to students- with or without internet access. We have internet at our school (and that is required for the program) and students simply open the icon on their desktop and it automatically downloads any files the teachers have sent to their classes. After that download, the pdf, docx, mp4, off-line website, etc. is in URcast- and available on the student's laptop- until the teacher-set expiration date, even at home with no internet! Amazing, right?!
I primarily use it to send lesson videos. I run my class in rotations, and students watch the lesson video and copy the notes in the rotation BEFORE they see me. When they get to me we practice the skill they just took notes on. In the video I walk them through the steps for a type of problem (such as comparing with absolute values) and give them a few examples. Then when they get to me I answer any questions they had and we practice the skill.
Another resource I have been playing with a little recently is a website called eduCanon. This allows you to upload YouTube videos and embed them with questions. So I upload my lesson videos to YouTube, then open them in eduCanon and insert questions I want my students to answer along the way. You can create classes on eduCanon and set due dates for each video.
My next goal is to find a way to merge these two awesome programs; I'll keep you updated on that. But even if they can't work together they are both amazing tools I suggest any teacher in a 1-to-1 school check out.
P.S.- I create my videos on my personal iPad, using the Explain Everything app (totally worth the $3.99).
P.P.S.- If you have any questions about URcast PLEASE let me know. I absolutely love the program and love helping it spread to new school districts.
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