As technology educators we are always confronted with the issue of trying to get faculty to try a new idea. Well, I found a few products that were enthusiastically received by Language Arts teachers and I would love to share them with you.The first is Visual Thesaurus. Sometimes when students are assigned to write an essay, it is so hard for them to find the right word. The Visual Thesaurus is a fun alternative to "look it up". The kids love it. What you do is type in a word and then this really cool animated array opens up and allows you to continue clicking until you find the work you like. On one side of the window it displays for you which of the words is a noun, adverb, adjective, etc. You can share your word lists, and they even have a 14 day free trial.
When I sent it to the faculty to try it out they were so enthusiastic they wanted to buy it NOW. What a great tool. Check it out!
Criterion is a Web-based instructional tool that allows students to submit essays for immediate
evaluation, including a holistic score and annotated diagnostic feedback on their grammar, usage,
mechanics, style, and organization and development. About a half million elementary, middle, high school and college students across the United States and around the world have used the Criterion service, according to Technology & Learning which awarded the software in 2005.
Our teachers started using this recently and I have to tell you the response from the students is inspiring. As I watched this program be deployed in a sixth grade classroom I saw something that I don't think would have happened any other way. The students approached this program as if it were a computer game. They were trying to score higher on their essays by making quick adjustments to see if they could raise their scores. They were very focused and disappointed when what would appear to be a simple solution did not result in a higher score and sometimes resulted in a lower one.
I sort of hated to be the one to explain that this wasn't a contest and getting a higher score was independent of how quickly you achieved that result. Soon I saw my Need for Speed enthusiasts settle back in their seats and really focus on raising their score by using imagination and creative writing.
These are two great examples of good infusion of technology in education.
