7: Civility and Cyberbullying

What struck me the most reading about cyber bullying was the categorization of different types of bullying.  This is such a change from when I grew up and a bully was identified as simply that- a bully.  A kid with problems.  A kid to avoid. 


     The acknowledgement of the nuances of bullying and bullying types identified by Faucher as: overt and covert, physical, verbal, and psychological, and cyber-bullying (2015) demonstrates to me a thorough commitment to reducing bullying.  The identification of bullying categories seems to be a start towards helping bullies change their behaviors.

Bullying will never be completely eradicated.  As we interact over more and more virtual platforms, bullies will find more ways to bully.  I plan to teach cyber-bullying to my older students by presenting scenarios of cyber-bullying on cards for small groups of students to read out loud and discuss what type of bullying is being presented on the scenario card and how to deal with it.  I also invite my students to present their questions about what is cyber-bulling.  They come up with great on-the-spot questions such as, "If someone takes a picture of me with their school device and without my permission, is that cyber-bullying?"  

For my younger students, I plan to teach cyber-bullying through a Kahoot to first identify what is bullying.  I find that my younger students are quick to assume they are the target of bullying when really the behavior is teasing.  Correctly identifying bullying behavior in real life interactions will set up a solid base for identifying cyber-bullying later in virtual interactions.

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the Sandbox to the Inbox: Comparing the Acts, Impacts, and Solutions of Bullying in K-12, Higher Education, and the Workplace. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 3(6). doi:10.11114/jets.v3i6.1033

6: Kahoot

Using Kahoot! for Pre-Assessment and Formative Assessment

Kahoot! is a device agnostic web tool that allows users to create question/response and survey activities for their learners.  For example, a user can type questions and corresponding multiple choice answers into Kahoot! and then share the Kahoot via a code to their learners.  The user then hosts a real-time learning activity as Kahoot presents each question to the learners on a large communal screen, such as a smart board, and the learners use their personal devices to select the correct answer for each question.  The user then advances through each question one at a time.  Question and response availability can be set up with a time limit or not.  Music can be played throughout the Kahoot or not.  Also, after each question is completed, the learner who answered correctly and the quickest is posted on the communal screen.  When the Kahoot is over, the top three learners' names are posted on the communal screen as well.  Kahoots can be set up as learner vs learner on an individual basis or small group vs small group.  

Kahoot accounts can be set up and Kahoots can be created by visiting kahoot.com.  Learners, however, must access a particular game pin for each Kahoot via kahoot.it.

Kahoots can be integrated into instructional activities as pre-assessments and formative assessments.  I can see how Kahoots can be especially helpful as a formative assessment tool administered just before a summative assessment.  Another feature of Kahoots is that after learners have responded to a question, the communal screen shows a percentage breakdown of how many students chose the right answer and how many students chose the wrong answer.  This feedback is useful for learners- as in, better get to studying if your answers are all wrong in the Kahoot- and this feedback is useful for instructors, as they can see where content needs to be reviewed or retaught.

Here is a quick tutorial for Kahoot!

5: Snap&Read Universal

Searching for online, digital, adaptive tools for teachers and school librarians led me to several TTS (tex-to-speech) options.  

Snap&Read Universal is a Chrome extension that begins reading digital text out loud starting from wherever the user clicks or taps on the screen.  Lots of TTS tools do exactly that, but Snap&Read is one of the TTS tools also offers OCR: Optical Character Recognition.  OCR also reads pictures and images.

This is a perfect tool that can be located in Google Chrome Extensions.  Snap&Read Universal is not free, however, it is reasonably priced at $3.99/month and users can try the extension out for free for a limited time frame.

Teachers and school librarians in CCSD conduct a serious percentage of their assignments and activities through the Google Suite.  We use Google Docs and Google Classroom extensively in our school.  Snap&Read would be a useful extension for adaptive access to any content that teachers and librarians post through the Google Suite.  Students with assistive needs can also use Snap&Read to "read" their Gmail messages.

You can find more information about the TTS tool, Snap&Read through this link:

https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/assistive-technology/finding-an-assistive-technology/7-chrome-tools-for-kids-with-reading-issues

And you can try out (or purchase) the extension through this link:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/snap%20and%20read