Module 1 - EPIC! Activity
Overview
The first teaching-related assignment for this course is designed to help orient you to the overall content of the course in a somewhat informal, fun and useful way. Recall from the course overview that the general structure of projects for this course address how technology might be used to help educators improve their professional practice by supporting efforts in the following four areas:
For this project, you are asked to sign up for a free service called EPIC! that provides electronic books and videos for students. The service also enables you to manage and track student academic growth in specific areas, as well as help get parents more involved in their child's reading experiences. One you create an account with this service and investigate all its features, you will create a simple page in your Weebly website to communicate the specific ways you might use EPIC! in your own classroom to support your instructional efforts, community-building with parents, specific literacy education management issues, and how the experience might promote your own professional development.
Before beginning the project, take a moment to view the slides below. These were prepared by the EPIC! team to be used as a support for teachers who want to present about it to colleagues:
- Instruction
- Community-Building
- Management
- Professional Development
For this project, you are asked to sign up for a free service called EPIC! that provides electronic books and videos for students. The service also enables you to manage and track student academic growth in specific areas, as well as help get parents more involved in their child's reading experiences. One you create an account with this service and investigate all its features, you will create a simple page in your Weebly website to communicate the specific ways you might use EPIC! in your own classroom to support your instructional efforts, community-building with parents, specific literacy education management issues, and how the experience might promote your own professional development.
Before beginning the project, take a moment to view the slides below. These were prepared by the EPIC! team to be used as a support for teachers who want to present about it to colleagues:
To Do
Step 1:
Register for EPIC! as an educator. Navigate to the following site to register for free. You must use your RADFORD email address to get approval ([email protected]), unless you are currently teaching and have a school email address.
Register for EPIC! as an educator. Navigate to the following site to register for free. You must use your RADFORD email address to get approval ([email protected]), unless you are currently teaching and have a school email address.
If you need help with the registration process, view Erin Meyer's excellent video on registering for EPIC!:
Step 2:
Set up at least one student account. Assign some reading activities for the student. Examine the quizzing and other features of the site, such as reading logs and lesson plans. If you need more support in learning about EPIC!'s various features, examine the resources on this page.
Step 3:
Imagine that you want to communicate with your students' parents about your use of EPIC! in the classroom. You might also want to encourage some parents to consider purchasing a parent account for use on home devices. You decide to create a Weebly webpage that communicates specific information about EPIC! to your students' parents. Include information on this page that answers the following questions:
Step 4:
Answer the 6 questions above on a separate web page on your Weebly site. This page should be under your Parent Resources Tab.
Set up at least one student account. Assign some reading activities for the student. Examine the quizzing and other features of the site, such as reading logs and lesson plans. If you need more support in learning about EPIC!'s various features, examine the resources on this page.
Step 3:
Imagine that you want to communicate with your students' parents about your use of EPIC! in the classroom. You might also want to encourage some parents to consider purchasing a parent account for use on home devices. You decide to create a Weebly webpage that communicates specific information about EPIC! to your students' parents. Include information on this page that answers the following questions:
- How will I, as the teacher, be using EPIC! to support my literacy instruction efforts?
- How can EPIC! help you (the parent) support practice at home?
- How can EPIC! help you (the parent) help me (the teacher) better understand your child?
- How can EPIC! help you (the parent) better understand your child's academic learning and progress?
- How can EPIC! help me (the teacher) manage differentiation and individual student learning?
- How might I grow as a professional educator as a result of using a tool like EPIC! in my classroom?
Step 4:
Answer the 6 questions above on a separate web page on your Weebly site. This page should be under your Parent Resources Tab.