Resource Collaboration

https://www.tinkercad.com/ ;
With this software, students are able to edit or build their own digital 3D models. Students are able to work individually or collaboratively. To able to work with this device, students need to have some sort of electronic device that is functional with it, whether it be a computer or tablet. 

A certain software that comes to mind that could help the learning experience in a classroom is Virtual Reality, specifically the use of the Oculus. The system requirements for an Oculus are an Intel i3-6100,  an RX 470 graphics card, Windows 10, and 8 GB of memory.  Coming from a small school that didn’t have the money for these things, I do know how difficult it can be for some schools to afford these items but the schools that could would absolutely benefit from the use of an Oculus. For the schools that cannot afford these, there’re more money friendly options for virtual reality. While I personally don’t have an Oculus, I have use one in the past and can say this is a tool that could be incredibly useful for students and learning in the classroom. 

https://circuitstream.com/blog/vr-hardware/

A software I want to look into is VR software. I'm specifically looking at the Oculus Rift S. The system requirements for a Rift S are at minimum an i3 processor and a 1050ti graphics card, and 8gigs of ram. This is harder to come by with any school issued device. Luckily I have a PC that meets these specs, but if you don't have one then there are cheaper VR alternatives for students that would get the job done!


https://support.oculus.com/articles/getting-started/getting-started-with-rift/rift-s-minimum-requirements/

I love anything that I can "gameify" in my classroom. Currently, I already utilize Quizizz, Quizlet and GimKit, so Blooket looks right up my alley!
With this application, you choose a question set - premade or individually created - select a game made and start! It also gives you detailed score reports for data analysis after the game ends. Any student with their own device and with internet access can access Blooket. The free account gives teachers access to create and hosts sets, play unique game modes, search a premade question bank, and have an unlimited amount of game sets. Currently, each round can hold up to 60 students. I am interested to see how this compares to quizizz as I can post those to my Canvas page as homework, as well as GimKit as that also offers multiple game modes.

I chose to explore Tynker because it is available as an app through our school district's "App Store" on my students' iPads. On an iPad, the app needs the iPad software to be IOS 11.4 or later. The age rating is 4+ but geared more towards ages 9-11. There are various subscription plans but price depends on if a school district is buying a license or if a parent is buying it. There is also a free version but that only has access to so much. Through a free teacher account, there is no limit on how many students can be in a class, but there are only 3 free courses that can be assigned to students. There is a way to add student accounts so if a class is 1:1, then students will have their own Tynker account. 

https://www.tynker.com/

Go Button is an audio playback app that is used in professional theatre and other live entertainment settings. Audio clips can be uploaded and edited within the app, such as adjusting volume, pitch, tempo, and pan. Multiple cues can be played at the same time if so desired. Users also have the option of adding fade ins, fade outs, loops, auto-stops, and ducking. Go Button has a free version, which allows the user to create/save one show playlist, and a (one-time purchase, no monthly subscription) Pro License version, which allows the user to create/save multiple show playlists.  

System Requirements
- iOS 10.3 or later
- Hardware requirements: iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air (all models), iPad (4th generator or newer), iPad mini 2 (or newer), iPhone 5 (or newer), iPod touch (6th generation or newer)
- 25.5 MB of space required

Students could engage with Go Button individually (requiring 1:1 technology) or collaborate on a sound design project as a group (requiring fewer iPads for the classroom). 

https://gobutton.app

Operating Systems that are known to work well with Tinkercad:

- Microsoft Windows 10
- Apple OS X 10.10 or later
- Google Chrome OS on Chromebooks

Browsers that work best with Tinkercad:

- Google Chrome version 50 (or newer)- Safari 10 (or newer)-Microsoft Edge (Chromium)- Mozilla FireFox 4 (or newer)

Laptops for Design and Technology should have at least 4Gb of RAM (preferably 8Gb), 500Gb (preferably 1Tb) Hard Drive (but SSD is better), screen resolution of no less than 1600 × 900 pixels and Dedicated Graphics Card in addition to the usual network connections.

The digital resource I learned more about is called Gimkit. This program is an online based program. The way you use this program is a review type game. There is a free version and also a paid version that is $60 for a full year. This allows you to use other kits that have been made. Kits are what they call the group of questions for each topic that is created by the teacher. You can also search a database for other materials if you do not want to make your own. A new feature is a school feature where you can see other teachers in your building that made kits. Once a kit is made kids got to a website, enter a code, enter their name, and wait for teacher to start the game. There are several different types of games using the material being reviewed. A few games are among us, the floor is lava, and zombies vs humans. This can be used with any device that connects to the internet which is nice. I have used this a few times and my kids absolutely love it! We will be using it more often. 

Blooket is a review game similar to Kahoot, but supposedly better. My students have asked to use this in my room and I already use Kahoot, Quizlet and Gimkit so I haven't yet tried it.  It is free but doesn't come with a lot of extras. The overall cost is pretty low though at only five dollars a month.  The students can collect Bot Blooks, level up and keep track of their stats if they create their own free account. I am curious to see if they can use winnings from other teachers in order to increase their levels.  Quizzes can be set up as homework and can easily be linked to Google Classroom or other systems, which is great for virtual learning. Teachers have a supply of already created Blookets or they can create their own. The amount of questions you can add are unlimited and with the free version you can host up to 60 students in one game. The students need their own devise to play but otherwise it is not necessary to download anything to their device.  The students love the competition and it makes review a much better experience.