This afternoon in the AT&T Classroom the Lakeview fifth graders were introduced to two new web-based tools. Educreations, a multi-platform tool that allows the computer or tablet to function as a digital dry erase board. The tool’s features allow the device to record the student’s voice and his/her writing and drawing which can be saved for playback. Once a student finishes their assignment or project in Educreations, they can save their work and then access it from any device with a web browser. This afternoon the fifth graders explored using the various features within Educreations to create digital stories that included writing and images as well as to solve math problems that included mathematical writing to represent the calculations and recorded audio to capture their verbal explanation of the solution.
Later this afternoon the students had a coding lesson using Kodable using the Kodable.com website. Kodable uses a game-like format to introduce students to the basics of computer programming. As students progress through the various levels, the game prompts them to “think like a programmer” to solve problems, utilize programming elements such as functions, conditional statements and loops. 