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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
TESTMOZ.COM
One of the latest online tools that I have discovered is Testmoz at testmoz.com. It is an online test generator which I really like and have used in my classes lately. It's free and you don't even have to sign up for an account.
All you have to do first is click on Make a Test. Then you have another screen to pop up.
Type in a name for your test and create a password. Be sure to keep the password because you can't retrieve it if you happen to forgt it. Then click on Continue.
This is the control panel where you can adjust settings, add questions, publish the test, and view reports. On this page you will also be given your URL. Don't lose it. You must use that URL to come back to this page after you leave the site. There is no other way to get back here! This page allows you to do the following:
Change the quiz name, description and what happens after the quiz is graded.
Add questions. It's not much of a test if it doesn't have questions.
You have to publish your test before data for the reports is collected.
Click on the Questions tab at the top.
Now you begin to type in your questions. You can choose either multiple choice, true/false, multiple rersponse (where more than one answer can be chosen) and fill in the blanks. I don't use the last one because a mispelled word will be marked as incorrect. Write as many questions as you like. Be sure to assign them whatever point value you desire. I always check Shuffle Answers unless it is a "all of the above" or "none of the above" type question. Why? Because if two students are taken the tests on two computers side by side, the answers are shuffled. This cuts down on cheating. Also when different computers are used such as in a computer lab, the questions themselves are shuffled. I really like this. When finished click on the Publish tab.
Once your students click on the test's URL that you give them, this is what they first see. Have them type in their name and the four digit number you were given earlier. This will allow them to take the test.
Here is a sample of an actual test that I made for my Arts and Technology class. They carefully answer all of the questions. They can make changes at any time. When finished they click on the Submit button at the bottom of the test. Once this is done they can not go back and change any answers; however, they will be able to immediately see their grade as well as see which answers they got correct and which ones them missed.
After the students have completed the test I can also click on the test link but I click on the Admin Login. Here I type in my password. Then I can see the results of the test. I just click on Reports and this is what I see.
Here I can see each student's grade, how long he/she spent on it and whether he/she took it more than once. It happens!!!! But scroll farther down and you'll see more.
This is my favorite feature, the Question Grid. Here I can see just how many students missed each question. If a question was missed by too many students I know that I shoud review or retest this information.
Well, that's it. If you haven't checked out Testmoz yet, I hope you will. I'm sure you really enjoy it.
Larry
All you have to do first is click on Make a Test. Then you have another screen to pop up.
Type in a name for your test and create a password. Be sure to keep the password because you can't retrieve it if you happen to forgt it. Then click on Continue.
This is the control panel where you can adjust settings, add questions, publish the test, and view reports. On this page you will also be given your URL. Don't lose it. You must use that URL to come back to this page after you leave the site. There is no other way to get back here! This page allows you to do the following:
Change the quiz name, description and what happens after the quiz is graded.
Add questions. It's not much of a test if it doesn't have questions.
You have to publish your test before data for the reports is collected.
Click on the Questions tab at the top.
Now you begin to type in your questions. You can choose either multiple choice, true/false, multiple rersponse (where more than one answer can be chosen) and fill in the blanks. I don't use the last one because a mispelled word will be marked as incorrect. Write as many questions as you like. Be sure to assign them whatever point value you desire. I always check Shuffle Answers unless it is a "all of the above" or "none of the above" type question. Why? Because if two students are taken the tests on two computers side by side, the answers are shuffled. This cuts down on cheating. Also when different computers are used such as in a computer lab, the questions themselves are shuffled. I really like this. When finished click on the Publish tab.
Once your students click on the test's URL that you give them, this is what they first see. Have them type in their name and the four digit number you were given earlier. This will allow them to take the test.
Here is a sample of an actual test that I made for my Arts and Technology class. They carefully answer all of the questions. They can make changes at any time. When finished they click on the Submit button at the bottom of the test. Once this is done they can not go back and change any answers; however, they will be able to immediately see their grade as well as see which answers they got correct and which ones them missed.
After the students have completed the test I can also click on the test link but I click on the Admin Login. Here I type in my password. Then I can see the results of the test. I just click on Reports and this is what I see.
Here I can see each student's grade, how long he/she spent on it and whether he/she took it more than once. It happens!!!! But scroll farther down and you'll see more.
This is my favorite feature, the Question Grid. Here I can see just how many students missed each question. If a question was missed by too many students I know that I shoud review or retest this information.
Well, that's it. If you haven't checked out Testmoz yet, I hope you will. I'm sure you really enjoy it.
Larry
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
NO TEACHER LEFT BEHIND
This past November 28th I turned 58 years old. Technology was never a big part of my life until I started teaching. Why? Because there wasn't much technology to speak of. I remember the first used TV that was given to my parents. I remember when we got our first telephone which happened to be on a party line with two of our neighbors. Technology in school consisted of records and a record player, scratched filmstrips and even more scratched movies on the large metal reels. In college we had VHS movies and cameras. When I started working as a graphic artist in a small local printing business I used my first computer. It was a Mac and was its screen ever small and it was very limited in what it could do. I worked in graphic art for almost twelve years with various updated computers and equipment but then I started teaching on the Lateral Entry program.
I was hired as an elementary art teachers for five different schools with the understanding that I would obtain my certification within five years - which I did. I remember the first technology workshop that I took. What a fiasco! We were using the old Apple 2Es with the two large floppy disks. Believe it or not we were supposed to write a program. I thought to myself, "There's got to be a better way!"
Then one day in a special ed class I saw something that started my love for technology. I saw a teacher working on, of all things, a PowerPoint presentation. I was blown away and totally amazed by it. By this time I had my own PC at home. So I actually taught myself how to use this totally awesome program. I can't help but laugh at myself when I saw mention of slides in PowerPoint. In my ignorance I thought that somehow this program was capable of creating 35mm slides - a technology that I was familiar with! LOL! Anyway I became so proficient with this program that I ended up teaching it to other teachers in my county school system. The technology bug had bitten me and I would never be the same!
From then on I have been a strong advocate for technology and especially in education. Unlike many of my older peers who used their classroom PC as a paperweight I embraced technology as one of the most important resources that education had ever seen. What were those other teachers thinking? Technology is not a fad and it's not going away. I saw that my students were growing up in the digital age and I didn't want to be left behind. Speaking of No Child Left Behind, when it comes to technology in education, I think that there should be No Teachers Left Behind.
Since my introduction with technology I have taught many workshops, done presentations in state conferences, taught the first online technology workshop in my county and continue to incorporate technology into my classroom and art curriculum. One thing that is so exciting to me about technology right now is all of the free online Web 2.0 tools that are available to teachers. In future posts I hope to expound on some of these tools as well as tell how I am using technology in my class and school.
So when it comes to technology and older teachers, if you happen to think that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, I'm living proof that you can. In fact, one of my main goals of this blog is to demonstrate how others can also be taught new technological tricks. I hope that I can, in some way, be the spark to ignite other teachers' love of technology the way that the teacher using PowerPoint ignited mine.
Larry Hewett
I was hired as an elementary art teachers for five different schools with the understanding that I would obtain my certification within five years - which I did. I remember the first technology workshop that I took. What a fiasco! We were using the old Apple 2Es with the two large floppy disks. Believe it or not we were supposed to write a program. I thought to myself, "There's got to be a better way!"
Then one day in a special ed class I saw something that started my love for technology. I saw a teacher working on, of all things, a PowerPoint presentation. I was blown away and totally amazed by it. By this time I had my own PC at home. So I actually taught myself how to use this totally awesome program. I can't help but laugh at myself when I saw mention of slides in PowerPoint. In my ignorance I thought that somehow this program was capable of creating 35mm slides - a technology that I was familiar with! LOL! Anyway I became so proficient with this program that I ended up teaching it to other teachers in my county school system. The technology bug had bitten me and I would never be the same!
From then on I have been a strong advocate for technology and especially in education. Unlike many of my older peers who used their classroom PC as a paperweight I embraced technology as one of the most important resources that education had ever seen. What were those other teachers thinking? Technology is not a fad and it's not going away. I saw that my students were growing up in the digital age and I didn't want to be left behind. Speaking of No Child Left Behind, when it comes to technology in education, I think that there should be No Teachers Left Behind.
Since my introduction with technology I have taught many workshops, done presentations in state conferences, taught the first online technology workshop in my county and continue to incorporate technology into my classroom and art curriculum. One thing that is so exciting to me about technology right now is all of the free online Web 2.0 tools that are available to teachers. In future posts I hope to expound on some of these tools as well as tell how I am using technology in my class and school.
So when it comes to technology and older teachers, if you happen to think that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, I'm living proof that you can. In fact, one of my main goals of this blog is to demonstrate how others can also be taught new technological tricks. I hope that I can, in some way, be the spark to ignite other teachers' love of technology the way that the teacher using PowerPoint ignited mine.
Larry Hewett
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