Do it Yourself - Using technology in your teaching

Do It Yourself!
Ways to use technology and the web for your own class and activities

Quizzes - Surveys - E-mail Groups - Web sites

If you've been using Web resources and technology-based lessons from others, you know what powerful tools these can be. Are you ready to use the Web and related technologies to enhance your own class projects and lessons? Here are some resources that can help.

These resources are all free and publicly available on the web. Most also offer optional fee-based services. We've included suggestions on how to use these services in your teaching, but the options are limited only by your own creativity. Enjoy!

Looking for Quizzes? - If so, take a look at Quia. This site lets teachers create Java-enabled quizzes on any subject they choose. It offers a variety of question and answer formats. There's also a burgeoning list of thousands of quizzes that have been created by other teachers. The subject, grade level, and quality, of course, all vary widely. Quia regularly features its most popular entries, giving you a look at what others find useful.

Possible uses:

individualized practice for students who need reinforcement
"extra credit" questions for advanced learners
shared questions and quizzes for use in several locations simultaneously

Surveys and Polls - Need to find out what people think? Are your students studying statistics? Want to create a great lesson in graphing? Why not create a survey, or better yet, let your students create one. Zoomerang is a an on-line survey creation site that lets you create and distribute your own poll or survey. The finished survey can be posted as a web page or distributed via e-mail to a closed group. Either way, there are lots of instructional possibilities - not to mention the utility as an information gathering resource.

Possible uses:

As a source for survey data for mathematics or statistics classes.
Grist for a lesson on graphing
To gather student or other opinions for a social studies or history course.
To build consensus for an interdisciplinary project involving a group of teachers.

Mail Groups - Group e-mail lists are a great way to keep a group of people informed, no matter where they are. E-Groups offers a service that lets you create several different types of e-mail groups. You can set up a list to which only one person can post, or one in which any member can contribute a comment. There's also a web interface so that users can access information from any computer. Great for projects, especially if you're fortunate enough to have students with e-mail.

Possible uses:

Collaborative activities involving several faculty
E-mailed newsletters for parents. If you have several classes, set up a different list for each.
Student projects. This works even if there are only 4 or 5 students working on a project.
Club and sports meetings. Here's a great way to keep everyone "on the same page."

Build your own Web Site - A class web site can be a great communication tool, and building your own web site keeps getting easier. The current crop of on-line web site services offers nice looking sites that require little more than typing skills while still providing reasonably robust features. This can be a real help for teachers faced with district networks that aren't really designed for teacher-created pages. Intranets.com offers a free service that is easy to use and requires virtually no technical ability.

Possible uses:

Post weekly assignments, test reminders, trip schedules, etc.
Provide regular updates on classroom activity for parents.
Give students a site to use for lesson review or test preparation.
Many, many more....

Learning the Web

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