WhatsDue is a free service (available for Android and iOS) that enables teachers to create and send due date reminders to their students. Students receive the reminders as push notifications on their iOS and or Android devices. When I've demonstrated WhatsDue over the last year I've noticed that teachers appreciate that WhatsDue is a simple platform that does its job well. The one feature that people have requested more than any other is an option to see if and when your students have looked at their assignments. That feature is now available.
The stats section of the WhatsDue app is where you will find the option to see if your students have looked at their assignments. Open the stats and select a student from your roster. Next to the student's name there is now a box that says "seen."
Applications for Education
If you have been leery of using other reminder systems because of privacy concerns with phone numbers or two-way communication, WhatsDue might be for you. It doesn't require phone numbers and it doesn't have two-way communication. It also allows students to be reminded of assignments on a schedule that works for them. For example, they can set the app to remind them of assignments a day before or a couple of hours before an assignment is due.
myHomework is a free app that students can use on the web on iPads, on iPhones, on Android devices, and on Windows 8 devices to keep track of their school schedules and assignment due dates. myHomework syncs students' schedules and assignments across all of the devices that they use.
On myHomework students can enter their course schedules in day and time format (example: History meets at 10am Monday) or in a block schedule format (example: History meets during block 1 every other day). Assignments that students enter into myHomework can be assigned a level of priority in addition to the due date and the assignment description.
I tried myHomework on my iPad and one of my older Android tablets that is running Honeycomb (Android 3.0) and it worked fine. That said there are some comments in the Google Play store suggesting that myHomework may not be fully updated for Jellybean (Android 4.0+).
Applications for Education
If you're looking for one schedule and homework reminder service that you can recommend to all of your students regardless of which mobile operating system they use, myHomework is worth trying out.
This month Free Technology for Teachers welcomes SendHub as a new advertiser. SendHub is a service that allows you to send text messages to groups of up to fifty people at once for free. SendHub is an opt-in service. You give parents and students a code to text to opt-in to be a part of one of your groups. You can manage up to three groups in a free account. When you're ready to send a text message you can send it to one or all of groups at once from your cellphone, from your tablet, or from your computer. Learn more in the video below.
Applications for Education
Students and sometimes their parents can't help but look at their phones when they hear the alert that they have a new text message. Capitalize on this compulsive behavior by using SendHub to send reminders to students about homework and other important information for your class. You can also use it to send out encouragement and praise for a job well done.
Google Docs is my favorite tool for keeping my email inbox free of large file attachments from my students. In fact, after September 30 I don't accept written assignments from my students in any other format. But, I realize that there are some files that aren't perfectly suited to being viewed in Google Docs. For example, it a student has a Keynote file it won't be viewed the same way in Google Docs as it is in Keynote. I also realize that not all of my readers are Google Docs fanatics like me. For those reasons I've compiled this list of good ways to share large files without the need for sending email attachments.
Uploader Box is a free service for sharing large files with your friends and colleagues. To use the service just upload a file from your computer, enter your email address, and enter the email addresses of your intended recipients. Once your file is uploaded, Uploader Box will provide you with two urls. One of the urls is for sharing your file and the other is for deleting your file if you decide you no longer want to share it.
Go Pileus is a simple free service for quickly sharing files. To use Go Pileus just drag a file from your desktop to the Go Pileus page in your browser. Alternatively, you can select upload on Go Pileus to browse for files on your computer. Once your chosen file is uploaded Go Pileus will create a short url for your file. Share that url with the people you want to be able to view and save your file. You can use Go Pileus without creating an account, but your files expire after thirty minutes. Creating an account on Go Pileus will allow your files to be accessible longer.
Minus (Min.us) provides a simple way to share files with anyone. To use Minus just drag a file onto the blank Minus canvas. Once your file is on the canvas Minus will provide you with links to share your file with others. Minus will also generate a HTML code that you can use to embed your file into a blog or website. Those people with whom you share the url for your file can also download your file.
Let's Crate is very easy to use. To use Let's Crate just drag a file from your desktop to the Let's Crate page. Let's Crate then creates a unique url that you can send to others so that they can access your file. The unique url expires after 30 minutes unless you create a free Let's Crate account in which case you can keep files on Let's Crate as long as you need them.
File Dropper is a free and very easy way to share files up to 5GB. To use File Dropper simply upload your file and File Dropper assigns it a unique URL that you can then share with anyone. File Dropper is not nearly as feature-rich as some of the other file hosting and sharing services, but it is free and upload times are fast.
DROPitTOme is a free service that works with Drop Box to allow people to upload files to your Drop Box account without giving them access to the contents of your Drop Box account. For those not familiar with Drop Box it is a service that provides 2GB of free online file storage (by the way, that's way more than the 100mb Drop.io offered). You can access your Drop Box from any computer and most mobile devices. You can also sync it across multiple computers. Learn more about Drop Box in the video below.
DROPitTOme works by synchronizing with your Drop Box account. After connecting the two services DROPitTOme provides a url that you can give to others to upload files to your Drop Box account. You must specify a password that has to be entered before an upload can take place. Give the url and password to those people you want to be able to upload files to your Drop Box account.
File Stork allows you to collect files in two ways. You can make an individual file request by sending an email to someone. The other way, and the more practical way for teachers, is to create a "stand alone" request which will allow you to post an upload link on your blog or website. Visitors can then use that link to upload a file to your Dropbox where you can view it and download it if you like. File Stork allows you to specify an upload password and allows you to specify which types of files you will allow to be uploaded to your Dropbox. People uploading files to your Dropbox through File Stork do not have access to any of the files in your account.
Send to Dropbox is a free service that allows you and others to send email attachments directly to your Dropbox account. To use Send to Dropbox you have to connect it to your Dropbox account. Once connected Send to Dropbox will provide a unique email address that you can send files to to be added to your Dropbox folders. If you give the email address to others they can add files to your Dropbox folder too.
Applications for Education Send to Dropbox is similar to File Stork and Drop It To Me which I have previously reviewed. Like those services Send to Dropbox could be a great way to have students turn in their assignments electronically without flooding your email account with attachments.
Last week I posted some information about Wolfram Alpha's Homework Day. Homework Day is here. If you've been curious about how to use Wolfram Alpha in your classroom, check out some of today's interactive sessions to discover how you might use it in the future. If you can't make for today's interactive sessions, but you're curious as to how Wolfram Alpha works, check out these two videos that I posted last week.
The first days of each school year are filled with administrative tasks like collecting emergency forms, distributing schedules, and practicing fire drills. These first days are also when teachers discuss expectations for student behavior. In this week's episode of the Wicked Decent Learning podcast Jeff and Dan discuss their expectations for student behavior and general classroom management practices. Jeff and Dan are both high school teachers so their ideas come from that perspective. It would be very interesting to hear a comparison of elementary school teachers' behavior management styles compared to the behavior management styles of high school teachers.
Later in the podcast Jeff reviews some free web tools designed to help students and parents manage homework assignments. A few of those services are Notely, Grade Fix, and For Later. Listen to the podcast or visit the Wicked Decent Learning blog to find the rest of services Jeff reviewed.
