Create: Aggregating Lesson Material Quest

Post date: May 22, 2016 8:28:43 PM

I have found three tools that can be used to aggregate and present learning material:

• • Google Drive/Sites

    • Cost: free

    • Description: Google Drive and sites can be used to aggregate and present material. I used to use this set up before I fully flipped my class. I had a course and unit landing page like the first screenshot below and then embedded my Google Drive folders where the material was collected (second picture below). I also used to just embed the YouTube videos into the site page, but this proved unhelpful since my district blocked YouTube. So I just uploaded the videos to Google drive and went from there. This resource is nice because it is free, but it is kind of adapting a resource to do what you want since Google Sites and Drive were not designed for education.

• Haiku

  • • Cost: free and then a tiered plan ($4.95-$50/month) depending on the amount of storage, classes, and user accounts you need

    • Description: Haiku is a fully functioning LMS, but it can be used as a way to aggregate material. It is designed for education, so it looks a little nicer, but if you want to embed videos and the like, you will need to pay for a subscription service. To get around this, I put everything in Google Drive and link to the resources. Now that I have Haiku for my classes, they rarely visit my Google site.

• Evernote

  • • Cost: free unless you want to upload more than 60 mb/month. Then you can pick from Plus ($24.99/year) and Premium ($49.99/year). You get additional features with the paid version, like saving emails and annotating PDFs.

    • Description: Evernote is organized into notebooks. You can take notes in Evernote, add files, and link to websites, videos, etc. It's a great way to organize the web. You can install the web clipper in your browser to make adding sites to Evernote easier. You can also post or send links to Evernote notebooks so others can see what you have in your notebooks. I have a notebook for each unit and link to these in my unit landing page, but students rarely visit the links. It seems like Evernote is better at aggregating material on my end, rather than presenting it to students. I like the visual aspect of Evernote because it gives you a little picture of the website or file you uploaded.