Capzles/Dipity Presentation

Capzles and Dipity are both web-based timeline creators that can help encourage deeper thinking and engagement for students. They are be a great tool to teach history with since they make it so easy to make a visually appealing timeline that also allows you to add huge amounts of information to each "event." The addition of a comments function allows teachers a tool to engage students and facilitate discussion on timeline events.

These could also be used to make a presentation for students. Events could be used instead of slides, and after the presentation students could look at the Dipity for further resources about the information in each event.

 Linked below is the Dipity I made for module 8.


History of Sweet Iced Tea

Editing Digital Images and Paint.NET

There are many different ways to edit digital images. The sources provided to us in EDT620 were Google Plus Photo, Photoshop.com, and Paint.NET. Google Plus Photo and Photoshop.com seem to be more simplified than Paint.NET. I am not too familiar with Paint.NET, as I am a "beginner editor." 

Pros of Paint.NET include:

• More editing tools than most photo editing programs
• Great for experienced photographers 
• Free

Cons of Paint.NET include:

• Have to download application
• Steep learning curve
• Most features won't be necessary for people just looking for basic simple photo editing.

The photos of my son were edited in Google Plus Photo. This program was very easy to use and pretty self-explanitory. The first photo is the original photo that came from my android phone. The second one was cropped and the coloring was enhanced in Google Plus Photo. 

Infographic Information

As explained in Module 3, "An infographic takes a large amount of information in text or numerical form and then condenses it into a combination of images and text, allowing viewers to quickly grasp the essential insights the data contains." 


There are many uses for infographics in the classroom.  They can be used to help aid a lesson. Because they give a lot of information in a small space, it would be easy for the student to be able to follow along and have all the information in one infographic. They can also be used as a class newsletter or ways to present a lot of information to parents or students. 


For my assignment, I decided to make and infographic for parents of students entering into kindergarten. It is a "Transition to Kindergarten." I used the Piktochart website as my tool to create the infographic. I found a website full of information on how to help a parent of a kindergarten student transition as easily as possible. I condensed this information into one page that is easy to read and follow. 


Click here to view the infographic I created in Piktochart.

Explaining Concept Maps

Mind Maps (Concept Maps) are very wonderful to use in the classroom. For this assignment, I used the MindMeister website as my tool for creating a mind map. On this site, you can create a Mind Map, collaborate, and present your map.

As described in Module 6, a concept map has many uses in the classroom:

1.           Concept maps allow instructors to "elicit the student's prior knowledge" and then "identify how students' knowledge has been constructed after the completion of instruction."

2.           Concept mapping also encourages students to "organize knowledge into meaningful related chunks," and, by allowing "free response" by the student, provides authentic insights into "the students' knowledge structure."

 A concept map can be used to evaluate and develop student learning.

For the concept map assignment, I created a mind map explaining forces. Click "here" to view the full interactive Mind Map I created for the Module 6 assignment.