The Research Center for Educational Technology (RCET) was very pleased to host students from Maple Heights High School in the AT&T Classroom March 9-10. The students visited the Kent State campus this week as part of their participation in a two-day institute offered by the Office of Diversity, Outreach & Development in the College of Education, Health, & Human Services. During their time in the AT&T Classroom, the students created public service announcements (PSAs) on the topic of Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS). PBIS is a proactive, school-wide initiative, promoting acceptable and positive behaviors. To create their PSAs, the students first explored several websites on PBIS to gather information to include in their PSA. The students used Popplet and Evernote to organize their research findings. Popplet is a free tool that can be used to create concept maps, visual diagrams, and outlines that include text, photos, and video clips. Evernote is a web-based tool that is used for collecting and organizing notes, websites, images and other media. Both tools can be used on an iOS device or a laptop/computer. The students were also introduced to several digital tools that could be used to create the PSAs including Adobe Voice, Animoto, Educreations, Haiku Deck, and TouchCast. The students collaborated in small groups using one of the tools to create a PBIS public service announcement that could be shared with their classmates and teachers. The students were very creative in approaching their projects and the finished PSAs were outstanding.
