Turn websites into engaging lessons with DocentEDU

I recently read a review on a new application and after taking a deeper look, I instantly fell in love with it.  The new application is called DocentEDU.  This simple to use application allows you to turn almost any website into an engaging lesson by adding questions, discussions, insight and more into the text of the website. Below are a some great features of the application and an introductory video highlighting some of them:

• Create discussions around the text of a website (these discussion are live and always updating)
• Add youtube videos to the webpage to enhance the content being presented by the web-page.
• Embed HTML widgets to add interactive content like flashcards, 3D models, animations, etc.
• Tracks student responses to assessments that have been embedded (filter responses by class, student, question or docent (term for the webpage lesson) when reviewing responses
• Export grading reports as .csv files (helpful for easy import into gradebook systems)
• Multiple choice responses allows for students to get multiple guesses, but they loose a fraction of the total points each time in order to keep them from blindly guessing (all of this is tracked in the reporting function)
• Turn old word doc and PDFs into online interactive docents.  As long as you can copy and paste your old doc/pdf into a google document, then you can publish the google doc on the web and create a docent from it.

Unfortunately, DocentEDU is not free.  It costs $40 per year for teachers which includes unlimited student access and an unlimited number of Docents.  Although I have not looked into it yet, they also offer school licenses.  There is a free trial which allows you to create up to 5 Docents.  Please test this application out and let me know if it is of interest.  Depending on the requests, we can look at a site license for next school year or individual licenses on an as request basis.  

Create rubrics for any subject area quickly and easily with Quick Rubric

Quick Rubric is free tool that allows you to create, edit, and print rubrics online.   This tool was created by the same company that created Storyboard That and Photos for Class.  Using Quick Rubric, you can create a rubric that is tailored to your points/scoring system, the quantity of descriptors that you need, and utilizes the exact language that you specify.  The user interface is very simple and easy to use.  Once an account is created, you have the ability to save as many rubrics as you'd like.  You can also copy and modify your existing rubrics so you don't have to start from scratch. This is a great tool that allows a simple and fast way of creating rubrics.  

Website:  https://www.quickrubric.com/

Over App for iPad: Blend photos, text and artwork into one image

Over is an iPhone and iPad app that allows you to create graphic designs from existing photos.  This app lets you add text, shapes and clipart to an existing photo with ease.  An added bonus to the text feature is drop shadows which helps the text stand out when it is placed over a photo.  Use the app to create enhance images in a presentation or have students create a stand alone graphic image for a project demonstrating mastery of a topic. Use the app to create flyers for your classroom, clubs or sports or use it to create an image as a discussion starter  for your classes.  The possibilities are endless, just use your creativity.

TO LEARN MORE CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

iTunes link to app
Over app website