Porter Creek Secondary School pays for each student at the school to have access to an account for the site (under the school account).
If a student forgets their password and is not in a position to immediately get help, there is a free Noodle Tools Express tool, but it has very limited functionality.
Click here to see the whole, original video on YouTube.
The tutorial video below was created by editing a YouTube video in a tool called edPuzzle which allows teachers to add questions or notes to videos.
This video has sections intended for teachers, sections intended for students and sections that will be valuable to both teachers and students.
Although I did cut out about 18 mins, it is still almost an hour long.
Does it cost a PCSS Student anything to use NoodleTools?
No!
The PCSS Administration pays for each PCSS student to have access to a NoodleTools account. 😊
Students will have access to their NoodleTools account across subject areas and from grade-to-grade. Although they may be learning how to use it as part of an English Language Arts course, NoodleTools is a great way to plan, track and organize research and inquiry tasks for any course/subject at any grade level.
How is using a digital tool for research, project planning, and tracking helpful or different than doing so on paper?
As is the case with any tool or strategy, NoodleTools has benefits and limitations. However, with a blended model of learning, NoodleTools is useful webtool that allows students to work though every step of working on a research project, an essay or a report.
The work is saved where students can access it (and can't be lost in a binder, at the bottom of a knapsack or forgotten at home) and can serve as a document that records not just what a student has already accomplished but also what they are working on, what help they need etc. Students can show their parents what they are working on, and when they worked on it, and can directly communicate with their teachers to get help.
Since many students use at least some digital sources for research - including the district membership to databases like Ebsco, Gale etc. - having an online research tool means that they can easily navigate back and forth with digital materials and sources. They can also include not only images but also websites, videos and sound clips on their 'notecards' - which is far more difficult on paper!
Finally, students have access to their PCSS Noodle Tools acct for as long as they are a student here, so they can find sources they remember using previously, can refer to earlier projects as templates, and can use the tools to plan and track research even for projects that are not put on NoodleTools by teachers, across grade levels and subject areas.
Is NoodleTools a safe web-tool for students?
Each PCSS student's NoodleTools account is attached to a personal ID they set up under the 'umbrella' account of the school. It is NOT a personal account, and they are encouraged to limit personal information posted or used on the account.
It is key to understand that NoodleTools is an American company and so information on their servers is subject to American laws. That being said, NoodleTools is compliant with US student and child data protection laws which are analogous to the Canadian laws that serve the same purpose.
Further, when a student is working on a teacher-generated and supervised project, teachers have the capacity to monitor and delete comments or content that are classroom-inappropriate.