While going through these websites I noticed that many of them were beneficial for teachers. Two of the ten websites were unavailable when I was trying to access them so I was unable to see what their sites looked like and how they worked.
The first site, Rubistar, is a free website for creating rubrics. This site is useful for teachers who use rubrics. While looking at this site I noticed that this is not a site that I would have any use for. Being a preschool teacher, we do not create rubrics or assess our students in this manor. The website is specifically for rubrics only and does not offer any other program or services.
Next was surveymonkey, with this site you can create your own surveys. It is free for basic use (membership) which offers you a limited use of their products. If you decide that you need to use more surveys in a given year then you would have to upgrade. With an upgrade you will look at spending 19.95 a month or an annual rate of 200.00 for unlimited use. If you want unlimited use of all their services then you have to do a yearly subscription. I can not see a teacher sending out that many surveys within a year to where they need to upgrade from the free basic plan. Teachers could use this site to create surveys for parent info or to find out more information about the family or what they expect their children to be learning in that given year. This site was very easy to navigate, templates are made for you or you can create them on your own. It seems to be very convenient. It also offers a range of security too. They have firewall, intrusion detection systems and a few other offers too.
Hotpotatoes is a free website. It offers only six applications which include quizes, jumble sentences, crosswords and a few other things. The only catch is that you have to download the free apps and you can not preview the apps or what they offer until you download them. Me personally I prefer to see what I am going to download before I download it. The website is not an extensive and there are no examples. It is very simple.
quizstar4teachers is free and has availability for teachers and for students. I thought it was interesting that a teacher can create and share quizes with other teachers as well has have their students take the quizes online. You do have to register and login in order to view the available quizes that are posted. From what I can tell this is a very easy to navigate site. Teachers can create their quizes, invite their students to their page, the students take the quiz and then the teacher can view the results of the individual students or the class as a whole.
snappoll was a very simple website. It did not catch my attention at all. Once you click on the site you start creating your poll. I did not see any information on their site about security or how and what you can do with their site. It is free but not an appealing website.
quizbox seemed to me like the online quizzes and assessments you would take and then post on facebook. This site had personality tests and IQ tests. It seemed more for a personal entertainment factor then it did for educational purposes. You can create your own quizzes as well. Like some of the other sites it is free for basic use and if you want more offers and products to use you will have to pay 14.95 a month.
teach-nology is a free website offering worksheets. Personally I hate worksheets and do not see them as beneficial for students as hands on work. They have a large variety of printables for teachers but it comes with a price. You will pay 29.99-49.99 depending on the membership you select.
easytestmaker helps teachers to format their tests for students. your choice ranges from a free membership to 24.95. There really was not much to the website and no way to preview what they offer. I find it hard to sign up for a website when you can not take a tour and see what they have to offer you.
Yourfreepoll and my gradebook were the two sites that I was unable to access.
I had many of the same feelings about the sites as you did. For example, Snap Poll didn't catch my attention at all and I didn't really like the anonymity of it, either. The Hotpotatoes site was one I didn't care for, either, since I don't like to download things to my computer that I don't know anything about! I liked Rubistar and Quizstar the best. We use something similar to My Gradebook in my district and I love it because it is so interactive for all of the parties involved. Too bad it was down, if you get a chance, check it out!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! I refuse to download anything to my computer with out knowing what exactly it is that I am downloading. Some of those sites seemed so unsecure that I really did not feel comfortable fishing around on them. I will have to look at gradebook again and hopefully it will be up and running. We do not do grades with preschoolers but I am still interested in seeing how that site works for teachers.
ReplyDeleteI have some same ideas with you that I would like to use free web sites, and without required downloads. Many useful web sites for teachers, butI do not know how to use them. I went to Writing Center and Computer Lab to get help; however, the tutors who helped me did not know how to act on them. I would like to learn how to create rubrics, quizzes, and surveys. I will ask someone to help me because these tools are very helpful for my future duty. If you have time, please help me!
ReplyDeleteThank you very and God bless you.