Creating and Engaging CPS Performance Questions

A performance question is an open-ended or subjective question that requires a specific response, usually in the form of short answer or essay. A rubric is a tool associated with a performance question that allows the instructor to divide the total number of points available for that question into distinct categories. For example, the points for a 10-point essay question could be divided into four categories worth 2.5 points each: grammar, punctuation, content, and persuasiveness. A rubric can not be used to give additional weight to a specific question. The student has a maximum of 140 characters for their answer.

The first step to setting up a performance question is to decide how many categories there should be and what those categories should be titled. Once you know that, it's time to create the rubric to show those categories. To create a new rubric, follow these directions:
• Click the settings menu.
• Select performance question rubric wizard. The CPS performance question wizard appears.
• Check the create new rubric box, in the new rubric section. (Note: This option does not appear if this is the first rubric created in the database.)
• Click next to continue.
• On the next screen, fill in the rubric name box.
• Choose the number of categories from the total number of categories pull-down menu.
• Click next to continue.
• Type in the names of your categories, or leave the default names.
• Click next to continue.
• Verify that the information you previously entered is correct. Click back to edit the information or next to save the information.
• On the final screen, click done to save your rubric and return to the prepare - lessons and assessments tab.

Once you have created your rubric, you are ready to create the performance question to go with it:
• From the question author window, select performance question from the top drop-down box in the format section.
• Select the rubric you want to associate with this question.
• Save the question by clicking either the save button or the save and next button.

Performance questions and their associated rubrics can also be added from within the fastgrade window.
• In the performance section of the fastgrade window, click the rubric button to create a new rubric to associate to your question or select an existing rubric from the drop-down list.
• With the rubric selected, click the add button to add the question with its associated rubric.

If you need to edit a rubric after you have created it, you can do so from the performance question rubric wizard:
• Click the settings menu.
• Select performance question rubric wizard.
• Select the rubric you want to edit from the list of existing rubrics in the existing rubrics section.
• Click the radio button next to the edit option.
• Click next to continue.
• Edit the rubric name and/or total number of categories (from 1 to 25).
• Click next to continue.
• Edit any of the category names.
• Click next to continue.
• Verify that your rubric information is correct: click back to change the information or next to continue.
• Click done to save your rubric.

Once you have created your rubric, it's time to use it. To do so, simply make sure that at least one person gives a response for the rubric question as the session is being administered. As with all CPS questions, the performance question must be started, and at least one response must be registered for the question. If no responses are recorded, the question is automatically excluded from the session report and the grading calculations.

The assigning of points for performance questions happens after the session has ended:
• From the reports section of the report tab, select the session containing the performance question you want to grade and click the edit button.
• From the assessment options window, click the re-grade students button.
• In the re-grade window, you will see that instead of the standard checkbox, the performance question will have multiple columns, and those columns will have numeric values. When you have entered values for each of the students, click ok to return to the assessment options window and then click ok again to return to the reports tab.

"Photo Editing on the Web" Workshop

I did a “Photo Editing on the Web” workshop this past Friday. It was part of a two day series of new workshops we did for the teachers of the Winston Salem Forsyth County School District. It also gave me the opportunity to revisit a passion of my past that I don’t utilize as much any more. Photography is a part of our everyday lives and also is used when teachers create content for their teacher web pages. During the training I took the teachers to 3 free web-based photo editing sites. All 3 sites offer users the ability to edit their images in a variety of ways. Picnik http://www.picnik.com/ present users editing features but list several of their capabilities as premium, in which the user must pay to use. FotoFlexer http://fotoflexer.com/ offers users several nice features. However, my favorite of the 3 is Pixlr http://pixlr.com/editor/ This site looks and works like a version of Photoshop somewhere between Photoshop Elements and the full version of the program.

During the workshop the teachers edited their images in a variety of ways including cropping, resizing, dodging (lightening a specific area of the image), blurring (removing wrinkles in the faces of people to make them happy), adjusting brightness & contrast using levels and selecting pixels in one image to add it in the image of another picture. I showed them how to feather selections to make them more pleasing to the eye. I even offered to show them how to add hair on the head of a less fortunate individual but we didn’t have a picture of the back of my head, so we skipped over that.

Then I took them to Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/ to show some of the many possible projects they can create using their photographs. We started with creating a motivational poster and had very little time for other possibilities. I enjoyed showing teachers these wonderful resources and hope to do the workshop again sometime.

Storing the Mobi for the Summer

I just wanted to send this information out to people who have an eInstruction Mobi. Teachers should remove the rechargeable battery from the pen when it is not going to be used for an extended period of time such as the summer. To do this, locate the little square button on the back of the pen just above the 2 silver rings. Use a key or something to press the button in a bit. Slide the pen apart and you will expose the battery. Take the battery out and store it in a place that you will remember, at room temperature. To place the two pen halves back together, align the inside ridges in the top half of the pen with the slot in the bottom front half of the pen and slide them together until you hear the pen click.

When school starts again in the fall, open the pen and insert the battery with the positive icon facing towards the tip of the pen. Charge the Mobi and the pen for a full 12 hours before using it.

It’s also a good idea to remove the Mobi rechargeable battery as well when not using it for an extended period of time. To do this, turn the Mobi over and use a small Phillips head screwdriver to remove the screw. The rest is easy.

NCVPS Blackboard Upgrade Compatibility Issues

North Carolina Virtual Public School has updated the Blackboard system they use to 9.1. However, they have learned of a few incompatibility issues. These issues occur when students use Internet Explorer versions 7, 8 and 9. Students will experience issues with content not being viewable, not being able to participate in assessments, or uploading assignment files into the system. Internet Explorer can be modified to be more compatible by using IE in the compatibility mode. However, the best suited browser for Blackboard 9.1 is Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or higher. Make sure your versions of Flash and Java are up to date. Also make sure your browser history and internet cache is cleared prior to the logging into Blackboard. Depending on your version of Internet Explorer, follow the list of instructions I have out lined below.

Setting IE to work in the compatibility mode.

• Open Internet Explore and log into Blackboard.
• Click the tools menu option at the top of the page.
• Select the "compatibility view" option from the "tools" drop-down menu.
• Allow the page to reload.

Clearing the internet browser history and cache.

• Go to the "tools" drop-down menu.
• Select "delete browsing history."
• Click “delete all”.
• Check “also delete files and settings stored by add-ons” and click yes.

Replacing The KWIK Mobi Battery & the Mobi Pen Battery

Some of you have had your Mobi now for a couple of years so at some point, if you haven’t already done so, the batteries will have to be replaced. There are two batteries that will eventually need to be replaced. The Mobi pen battery is $4.00 from eInstruction and the part number is IW-A-629-039-000. It's a GP (Gold Peak) 1.2 volt battery. To get to the battery, locate the square little button on the back of the pen just above the 2 silver rings. Use a key or something to press the button in a little. Slide the pen apart and you will see the battery. I have also found that if your pen is not working and you have definitely charged it, you might just need to take this battery out and use a pencil eraser to clean the contacts. When you are charging the Mobi and the pen, be sure you see the little pen charging icon. This is a little square with a line at an angle through the top. If you do not see the little square constantly filling and emptying, then the pen is not being charged. It is very possible to charge the Mobi and not charge the pen. You may just have to push the pen down all the way into the pen slot of the Mobi. You also may just have to turn the pen around a bit in the slot. In any case, be sure you see that the pen charging icon is displayed.

The KWIK Mobi also has a battery of course and eInstruction charges $35.00 for it. The part number is CB-A-629-038-000. eInstuction also charges $5.00 for shipping and handling. The KWIK Mobi battery is accessed from the back. Use a small Phillips head screwdriver to remove the screw and then you can remove the battery cover. It is a rectangular shaped lithium-ion 3.7 volt battery. Just be sure that the gold color contacts are facing towards the upper left corner when placing it back in the battery compartment. Again, be sure you see the Mobi battery icon constantly filling and emptying when you are charging it.

Big Huge Labs Offers Over 40 Ways to Manipulate Your Images

http://bighugelabs.com/ is a great site for turning your photos into creative works of art in a wide variety of ways. Perhaps you would like to create a motivational poster out of your image. Perhaps you see yourself on a magazine cover. You can do that here. Maybe you want to turn your picture into a puzzle or a photo collage using a style the artist, David Hockney uses. You can add comic book style captions to your pictures, create a mosaic from any number of pictures, create a movie poster from your favorite image, create a strip of photobooth pictures, create and print a pocket sized photo album, add a museum style mat to your pictures, make your own ID badge or Press Pass, create monthly calendars from your digital images, create stamps or choose from more than 20 different frames to spice up your image and a multitude of other effects. Are you musically inclined? Perhaps you would like to create your own CD cover. Maybe you have something big to say and you need to put it on a billboard. This would be the place. Do you feel the need to make a slide show? Big Huge Labs has an app for that. There are over 40 ways to manipulate your images on this site. The site is offers it’s services for free. Educators can sign up for an account and receive ad free services. Educators can also pre-register students so that they can sign in without requiring an email address. There are other perks for educators as well. So enjoy the site and let your creative side run wild.

Can Podcasting Be Used More In The Classroom?

Podcasting is one of those things I feel is underutilized in the classroom. It is a fun and effective way for students and teachers to produce creative projects or broadcast information. There are so many reasons teachers can use it with their students or as part of their instruction. I created a “Podcasting Using Audacity” course in Moodle that teachers take. Teachers from many different grade levels and subjects have taken the class and continue to do so. I enjoy reading their posts in the forums. Here are some of their comments about using Audacity in their class. I hope to see it used even more in the classroom.

Audacity is free and an awesome digital audio editing tool.

“There are so many great ways podcasts could be used. I worry about the availability of headsets, but I'm sure there is a way around that. Student projects could be greatly improved. Students could narrate their power point presentations. It would be particularly good for students who are shy in front of the class. I once had a student dissolve into tears as she attempted a recitation from Macbeth. I wish I had had access to this when she was here.”

“I also think students could use this to liven up presentations of their own writing or recitations from literature. It could lead to a really interesting discussion of tone. Using their musical selection to help set up the discussion.”

“Thanks for opening this door!”

“I could post a podcast on my website to explain assignments or give a broad overview of a unit or even the course.”

“I think it could be useful for students to use for projects. Particularly when we do plays, students could create their own podcasts of scenes from plays.”

“It would also be useful when I am absent. I could create a podcast for the substitute to play which would give me more control when I am out of the classroom.”

“I could put podcasts explaining typical homework issues or short lessons. Students could then access my voice, using the teaching methods and vocabulary that they are used to, at home if they have questions about concepts.”

“I could also have students create podcasts that explain concepts. We could use this as a review before the EOC--divide them into groups and have them become experts on one particular standard/goal. That way, each review would be posted on the webpage and students could access information on each when working practice problems and studying for exams.”

“Because creating a podcast requires practice and several takes I think it's also a way to expose students to public speaking without the fear of a live audience. As they become comfortable with podcasts they can build the confidence needed to speak in front a group.”

“I think podcasting is an excellent way for students to demonstrate knowledge of a topic.”

“I can see using Audacity several ways. From an instructional standpoint I could create podcasts or with instructions for self-paced lessons or post podcasts on my website for students to use when working on assignments or projects at home.”

“From a learning standpoint, I could have my students use audacity to create their own podcasts to use for peer teaching or as an addition to class blogs. Currently I'm having my students create short videos and they could use Audacity to create a track for voice-overs as part of their projects.”

“In high school math, I can use audacity to have explanations on my website. I can also have students work in pairs to do mini-radio broadcasts explaining how to solve different kinds of problems. The idea of leaving directions for a substitute is a great one, too.”

“In parent communication, I like using audacity to create messages for parents and to have engaging audio (in comparison to the Alert Now messages) on various topics.”

“This training has taught me a lot and has given me different ways to communicate with my students.”

“I can't wait to use Audacity with my class.”

“I think that students will be more engaged and will work harder to produce quality work knowing that anyone can listen to their voice.”

“I think it would be great to have explanations of how to solve different problems. I also think that students could create explanations in a student tutorial space.”

“I also saw the Donors Choose idea of getting headsets for my class. Great Ideas!!!”

“I would use audacity to help me explain lessons that I teach repeatedly. It would save my voice. Students would also be more receptive to hearing my directions with music. This would be a great tool to create instructions that I could leave for substitute teachers. The directions would be easy to follow.”

Workspace Memory Errors

I’m writing this blog because a few teachers have come across this error message when using Interwrite Workspace. It’s a memory error and it looks like this: “disk full while accessing user\Interwrite Workspace\IW Autosave.GWB”. The reason the teacher is receiving this message is because their H drive is full. By default Workspace auto saves the workbook every 5 minutes. If the teacher’s H drive is full, the program has no place to save the file. There are a couple of things you can do. First of all, I would ask the teacher to clean out their H drive. That should probably be done anyway. The second thing is to open the Workspace program, click on the small triangle in the top of the main toolbox to bring down the menu and choose preferences. In the options tab, you will see the auto save section near the bottom of the preferences window. The default is to auto save every 5 minutes. However, you can disable it and solve your memory error. Of course you would need to save the workbook to a location of your choice. The 3^rd option is to create a folder on your C drive and set that folder as the “GWB Folder”. Workspace will auto save there and you won’t have the memory errors anymore. Create the folder on your C drive first. Open preferences and the “options tab”. Be sure the “default GWB folder” is selected. Click browse, navigate to the folder you created on the C drive to save the Workspace files and select it. Then click ok to close the preferences window.

Displaying the Smart Board Floating Tools

The other day a co-worker asked me how to bring back the Smart Board floating tools. These are the tools that are displayed vertically on the left or right side of your desktop. Normally you would click the Smart Board icon in the system tray located in the lower right corner of your desktop and choose “show floating tools”. The problem was that there was no Smart Board icon in the system tray. Let me also say that looking for the information in Google was of little help. Perhaps I did not type in the right key words in the search panel, I don’t know. Anyway, here is what you need to do to bring back the Smart Board icon in the system tray. Open “my computer”, c drive, program files, Smart Technologies and the Smart Board Drivers folder. Locate the Smart Board Tools exe and double click it. This will place the Smart Board icon in the system tray and you will be able to click it and choose “show floating tools”. I hope this helps someone.

Creating A CPS Challenge Board

A CPS Challenge Board is very similar looking to the Jeopardy game. In order to create a Challenge Board, you must use questions that you have already created in lessons or questions that you have imported from ExamView. After you have chosen which questions and categories you want to use, the next step is to create the Challenge Board. Click the prepare tab and the team activities sub tab. Now click new. Type a title for your activity and a title for each category. Once you click ok, a Challenge Board window opens that includes your database in the upper left portion of the window, your categories and the point values in the upper right and the questions in the lessons (once selected) in the bottom. Click the plus sign next to the name of your database to see the lessons (we call them tests). Click on a lesson to see the questions displayed in the bottom half of the Challenge Board window. Just drag and drop the questions to the point value buttons in each category. You can have more than one question in one point value. So for example, you can add 5 questions to the 50 point value button for the North Carolina category. The number of questions you drop into a point value is completely up to you of course. Each button under the category contains 2 numbers. The first number is the point value. The second number represents the number of questions you dropped into that point value.

To engage the Challenge Board activity, click on the engage tab and the team activities sub tab. Click on the name of your Challenge Board and click the engage button. Choose your class from the dropdown in the window that appears and click start. Click on a point value in a category of your choice and the question will appear on your screen. Click start and let the competition begin. Once the students or teams have entered their answers click the close button on the question window to return to the Challenge Board. Continue clicking the point values in the categories until the students or teams have finished all the questions in the Challenge Board. Choose “show score” from the settings menu to see the score. It is displayed in the middle of the Challenge Board. If you want to break your class up into teams you will have to create a separate team class and create students called for example, team 1, team 2, etc.

Don’t forget that you can also set the timer to auto start once a question is started. You can do this in the Challenge Board by clicking the options menu and checking “auto start the timer”. For that matter, you can also auto start the question in the same manner.