To create an Activity in Spaces simply sign into your teacher account, pick the class that you desire to assign an Activity to, and then click the blue “create” button under the Activity heading in your account. Then all you need to do is compose the directions for what you want your students to do. You can merely import those instructions instead of manually writing instructions in Spaces Activities if you already have directions composed in Google Docs or Word. Spaces will even let you tape a video to explain the directions to your trainees. When trainees send their Activities assignments you can evaluate them in your Spaces account similar to you can evaluate any other items that they add to their portfolios.

Curriculum Goals & & TagsCurriculum Goals & & Tags is another brand-new Spaces include for this year. Ive seen other digital portfolio services try to do something comparable, but none has made it as easy for instructors to carry out as Spaces has.

A complex Activity may be something like asking students to tape-record a short video explaining the key points of a discussion theyre making and how those points line up with the requirements youve appointed. Heres a list of some sample Spaces Activities.

Activities” Activities” is my preferred new feature in Spaces. Activities are precisely what the name suggests, activities that you can appoint to your students to finish and add to their Spaces digital portfolios. And because Spaces uses group portfolios and specific portfolios, you can appoint Activities to groups or people.

To import Curriculum Goals & & Tags into your Spaces account merely sign into your account, pick a class, then click “Curriculum Goals & & Tags “on the left hand side of the screen. Youll then see a search box pop-up where you can search for standards sets according to organization, state, or province.

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Curriculum Goals & & Tags lets you import sets of requirements with which you wish to “tag” your Activities. The sets of requirements that are offered to import is rather excellent. There are the usual state and province requirements frequently utilized by public schools along with standards often used by personal schools.

After youve chosen the set of standards that you wish to import into your Spaces class, you can then include standards tags to your tasks in Spaces. This is a great way to assist moms and dads and trainees comprehend how a task lines up with a curriculum objective.

Spaces is a free digital portfolio tool that launched earlier this year and has actually quickly become one of my leading suggestions for students and instructors who wish to bring Portfolio-based evaluation into their class. Because it pertained to my attention in the middle of the last academic year, some teachers may not have actually attempted it since they already had a digital portfolio in location. Now that the brand-new school year is here, take an appearance at
Spaces and its many features for trainees and teachers including some that were just introduced for the new school year.

Disclosure: Spaces is currently a marketer on FreeTech4Teachers.com

Head here to learn more about Curriculum Goals & & Tags or enjoy the video at the bottom of this post to see how simple it is to include Curriculum Goals & & Tags to your Spaces account

Learn more about Spaces Activities right here or enjoy my brief video at the bottom of this post to see the instructor and student perspectives of Spaces Activities.

3 Reasons to Try Making Spaces Digital Portfolios.

1. Availability.
As I wrote previously this year about.
Areas, accessibility was one of its huge selling points when I tried it for the very first time. Areas offers a way to make certain that the announcements, Activities, and feedback that you publish for students can be accessed by them in a range of ways.

But you can also tape-record audio and video messages to accompany that written message when you post in your class Space you can compose it out. Lets say that I require to publish an information about a task. I can do that by writing a message and I can utilize Spaces integrated audio and video recording tools to post the exact same message. When you post feedback for trainees you can do so in the forms of composed comments, audio remarks, and video remarks.

2. Moms and dad involvement.As I mentioned above, moms and dads like to see what their kids are working on and digital portfolios are a great method to facilitate this. Moms and dads can be invited to see their childs Spaces portfolio. Doing that offers a great opportunity for them to see their childs development throughout the year instead of simply at parent-teacher conference night. Welcoming moms and dads to view their kids portfolio likewise provides them with the opportunity to talk to their kid about what theyre discovering in school. And the new Curriculum Goals & & Tags feature in Spaces makes it easier than ever for moms and dads to understand how their childs work lines up with the goals of your curriculum.

3. Group Portfolios.
One of the important things that makes Spaces rather special in the digital portfolio area is that there is an integrated method to create group portfolios within your class account. Your trainees can have individual portfolios where they show their private work, but they can likewise be a part of groups in which they share their work.

Once theyve signed up with, from your teacher dashboard you can quickly create specific spaces for them to utilize. This video strolls you through the process of creating areas for your students and this video reveals the students viewpoint.

The much better usage of group Spaces is as a location where trainees can share their work in development and get feedback from each other as well as from their instructor.

Previously this year I explained the group choice in Spaces as “asynchronous breakout spaces.” You can assign students to particular group Spaces to show each other and with you. Group Spaces might be used for merely sharing completed group tasks. The better usage of group Spaces is as a place where students can share their work in progress and get feedback from each other as well as from their teacher.

Spaces is a totally free digital portfolio tool that introduced earlier this year and has rapidly ended up being one of my leading suggestions for teachers and trainees who desire to bring Portfolio-based evaluation into their class. Activities are precisely what the name implies, activities that you can designate to your trainees to finish and add to their Spaces digital portfolios. Spaces will even let you record a video to explain the instructions to your trainees. When students send their Activities assignments you can review them in your Spaces account just like you can evaluate any other items that they include to their portfolios.