Branching Scenarios with Branch Track

I recently came across a new eLearning tool from Cathy Moore's blog. Branch Track is currently a free tool web-based branching scenario authoring tool and it demonstrates some promise for delivering simulations. It's a very basic tool but can offer an eLearning developers with a quick simulation builder with built-in stock photography. Try to use this tool to build self-assessments or practice with different concepts in your classroom.

With Branch Track's intuitive user-interface, I was able to Create, Design, and Deliver content in a matter of 30 minutes. My scenario is more playful and used more as an advertisement for my school district's summer eLearning conference, but it demonstrates how this tool could be used to offer learners with Choice, Challenge, and Consequences depending on their chosen response. Cathy Moore did a better job of creating 50 decision points/endings.

Overall, it's pretty interesting that a free web-based tool can develop and deliver content similar to what I developed with Adobe Captivate a while back for a Human Performance Technology project I constructed sometime last year. I hope Branch Track evolves to become a more customizable authoring tool.

Create

The following images display how the Create tab is used to construct the branching structure.

Design

The next two images demonstrate the limited background and character choices found within the Design tab. 

Deliver

When satisfied with your design, the Deliver tab allows for several different formats to download or deliver from their servers. 

Global Read Aloud Overview - Zombie Edition #GRA2013

Last year, I created a video overview on the Global Read Aloud for the teachers in my school and this year is no different.  Except this year, I added some Zombies from Nugget Head Studioz.  I suggest that you go to their site and download your own Zombie images if wanted.  Use them for your own presentations with students.  The Zombies were my hook to the content and there really isn't any connection between them and the GRA.  I just used them with this simple FAQ presentation.  But, feel free to create your own connections.

By Nugget Head Studioz

I used this presentation last week to introduce the GRA to the teachers within my district, and now I am writing my post to share this resource with everyone that couldn't make it to Indiana for my inspiring presentation.  Like Jem, it was truly outrageous!

Here is the YouTube video and the SlideShare like for those that would like to advance through the slides at their own speed.

Gra overview from Dan Gibson

Engaging an Audience during a Presentation

I am big in attempting to engage an audience during a presentation.  I don't like to be the focus of a lecture.  I'm not egocentric.  Instead, the audience or learners should be able to do what they were meant to do, which is engage with the content being discussed/taught.

I wanted to talk about QikPad, which is a collaborative-online-word-processing tool.  Of course, there is Google Drive and you can share a Google Doc with everyone in the audience, but maybe you have been there and done that.  You want something similar, but slightly different.  Well then, try QikPad next time!

QikPad is an easy way to engage an audience, classroom, or small group in a collaborative document with its own unique URL.  I like how QikPad can be embedded into a blog post like the one below.  Additionally, I like how the document can be exported directly to Wordle to create a word cloud.  Again, a lot of this can be done in Google Drive, but still a cool tool to use when collecting responses or collaborating quickly.

photo credit: Xosé Castro via photopin cc

AnswerGarden - Classroom Response Collection

This is just a cool tool to use when collecting student responses.  Pose a question and allow students to respond.  Then, responses are displayed below the question.  If multiple students respond with the same answer, the response will display the number of people with the same response.  Just hover your mouse over the words to find out how my people came up with the same answer.

Overall, this is just a quick and informal way to check for understanding.  Answer my question about favorite web-based tool or app.  You can do so by typing your answer below or by clicking the link in the previous sentence.

What is your favorite web-based tool or app for the classroom?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Technology to the Rescue: PBL Book Club

Project-Based Learning

If you are looking for a great book to get start implementing Project-Based Learning, the book above entitled---PBL in the Elementary Grades: Step-by-Step Guidance, Tools and Tips for Standards-Focused K-5 Projects!  The Buck Institute for Education setup and wrote this book in an easy-to-read, no-nonsense approach to Project-Based Learning.

One of the elementary schools I work at started an impromptu book club with this book.  Each teacher, involved in the book club, was assigned a chapter.  However, I had a time and place conflict.  I was holding a workshop after school at another building and couldn't be at both commitments.  So, this is where technology came to my rescue.

I was trying to think of the best way to provide teachers with an overview of this chapter, but I wanted to do something new.  Because I like to play with tech that has instructional potential, I started my search.  Normally, Twitter will provide a few pearls of wisdom, but that day the inspiration came from Google+.  It was the first post staring back at me in my Google+ account.

It was Tony Vincent's infographic entitled iPad as the Teacher's Pet, which is awesome to say the least.  With this guide Tony shared a variety of information on the iPads as a learning tool (aka Teacher's Pets).  I asked him what program he used and astonishing to me he said Pages.  I don't know why, but it was one of those Aha! Moments.  It never dawned on me that Pages could be used to design and develop an infographic.

If you scroll through the document below, you will notice that there are no page breaks, which is common among infographics.  Instead, it is just one continuous page for 44 inches rather than the standard 11 inches per page.  So, here is my first Pages designed infographic on managing a PBL project.  I created it one night after work for the fun of it, and I was fairly proud of it even if it is a mediocre design.

PBL-Managing Your Project

How-to Start an Infographic in Pages

Here is how I changed the page length of a Pages document to create the above document:

Check out How to Create an Infographic in Pages by Hoosier Teacher on Snapguide.

URL Shortener

Setting: Teacher in the Computer Lab

Student A: Mr. Gibson this website isn't working!

Mr. Gibson: Did you type it in correctly? 

Student A: Yes, I tried everything!

Mr. Gibson: You typed in .con not .com. Try it again.  

Student B: Mr. Gibson this website isn't working!

Mr. Gibson: Argh!

URL Shortener in the Classroom

Are you tired of watching students mistype long web addresses?  Shorten them with a URL shortener.  I feel like I'm writing the intro to an infomercial.  Here is an example of a URL Shortener's benefits.  Take a look at this long Google Docs URL: 

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nkUSlw9nQrTH97DpT5bsxDQNYF94P8iPAAXY79gsTdM/edit  

Even your most tech-savvy student would struggle with this Google Docs web address.  Now try the next two shortened web addresses (*an additional resource can be found by clicking either one of the following links):

• TinyURL's shortener - http://tinyurl.com/TCSC1
• Google's URL shortener - http://goo.gl/z8DMO 

Short List of Shorteners

• goo.gl
• TinyURL 
• Owl.ly
• More Located Here

Additional Benefit and One Warning

There are some URL shorteners that allow for tracking.  For instance, if you gave parents a shortened URL at parent teacher conferences and wanted to check how many parents actually accessed the link, it could be done with Owl.ly.  

I will warn that some shorteners may be blocked by your web-filter; however, I know TinyURL, goo.gl, and Owl.ly work.  Many other URL shorteners were blocked by my school districts web-filter, but don't let that discredit the idea behind using shorteners.  Try it the next time your students have to go to a long and overly complicated web address.

For another alternative similar to using a shortener, check out my post on QR codes.