TUIT: James Wampler, SCHS

And our first ever  #ShelbyTUITshoutout goes to James Wampler, an eighth grade science teacher at Shelby County High School, for suggesting the web tool Educanon.

First, a quick history.  I met James in mid-July in Shelby's New Teacher Induction. We quickly began chatting about edtech, and he asked, "Have you ever heard of Educanon?"  And I had to admit, nope.  Mr. Wampler told me he used it often in class and he was enthusiastic in its abilities and usefulness.

Short tangent: It was a great lesson about humility, as I had been on the job all of a few weeks and the first tool someone asked about was news to me.  But that's what I've said from the beginning: there are experts EVERYWHERE in our district. Now back to our originally scheduled programming.

Educanon is an interesting hybrid tool.  First, you choose existing video content from YouTube or other sources like Vimeo. Next, you add content in the form of multiple choice questions and other interactive choices at certain timed moments of the video; your finished product is called a "Bulb."  During the video, the Bulb stops at the points when an interactive moment was embedded. and students must read the text, answer questions, etc. before they okay it to proceed.  In an environment that is somewhat LMS-like (Learning Management System; Edmodo is a basic one), you can put these Bulbs in various classes for students to find and interact with online.  The results of their "quizzes" are saved for later data analysis.

You can imagine the power of Educanon in a flipped or blended experience; it builds in accountability to make sure each student not only watches the video outside of class or independently, but also comprehends the video and does critical thinking.  (You can see why I was eager to include it as a good starter tool for a flipped/blended classroom Prezi.)  However, a teacher could even use it a different way to present media.  At each stopping point, the teacher can answer questions by having students raise hands to vote for each choice, so you get a quick pulse of the room.  Or the teacher can have the students reflect and process on the portion of video they just watched.

You can have pretty good functionality with the free version of Educanon.  For $80 a year, you can get more interactive options, such as free response and automatic grading of short answer questions.  A bit pricey, but if you end up using it often, it may be worth it.

So, thank you to Mr. Wampler for putting another tool in my toolbox!  If you try or currently use Educanon, be sure to comment below with your thoughts. And if you have questions, find Mr. Wampler in the hallways of SCHS or give him an email.