Google has been offering schools a really interesting deal where they can get Chromebooks for relatively cheap and google will keep them updated with all of their available educational tools and all their security protocols for a little bit now. These did always interest me, but they are just coming out with something that seems to be blowing my mind right now, which is simply called “Classroom.” And best of all, it’s free! Classroom “weaves” together Google Docs (their online collaboration “Office” editors), Google Drive (online storage options), and Gmail (webmail services) to help teachers create and organize their assignments, quizzes, notes, and tests efficiently. Students can receive their work on the interface and hand in all assignments through there, which means less random pieces of paper floating around (English teachers, I’m looking at you!). Teachers can also comment, mark up and grade their assignments all within the interface. Check it out!
1) Audiobooks - There is a teacher within my school division who has the books that her class is reading as an audiobook as well for individuals who are unable to read.
2) Livescribe - I had a professor in university who would record his lessons on a livescribe pen, which would record his markings on the paper as well as the audio for students to follow along with the lessons afterwards if they required.
3) Songs - Students in math class were asked to create some sort of "art" for a unit of study. Within this unit, some students took it upon themselves to create a parody of a song which is devoted to their topic. This was not my math class, unfortunately, but it still seemed like a fun activity! The students recorded the audio and presented it to the class.
4) Book Review - Instead of having students write a book report, some teachers in my school have converted to allowing their students to hand in an audio-version of their review.
5) YakiToMe (or other Text-To-Speech tool) - This can be used with non-verbal students to still communicate with others within the class or elsewhere. This can be used for presentations in front of the class for, say, History. The student can create the audio at home, and then perform the actions in front of the class to tell a full story.
You can find a lot more different ideas (and tips) in the following document: Click Here
The first blog which I happened
to stumble across was entitled “21st Century Educational Technology
and Learning”, by Michael Gorman- a teacher from the United States who has many
awards and accolades to his name. He has worked as a consultant for many
different companies including, Discovery Education, and has travelled across
North America advocating for 21st century learning and education.
Recently he states in his biography that he was named one of Microsoft’s 365
Global Education Heroes. His resume demonstrates his vast commitments to
improving education and pursuit of 21st century learning goals in
each classroom.
His blog is very impressive and
hosts a large number of resources that could be implemented into any classroom.
His most recent post explores 40 different educational websites that teachers
can utilize in their classroom, or to keep in their “toolkit” as he refers to
it. He offers a direct link to each of these resources and provides a brief
synopsis of the resource and its purpose. Such resources can certainly help
teachers develop more engaging lessons, as it can often be hard to find quality
resources in a limited time span. These resources vary from tools which the
students could use in class, to forums and professional learning spaces.
Not only do his posts provide
resources, but he also offers teachers suggestions on how to utilize said technology
in the classroom. I particularly enjoyed his post where he offers suggestions
on how to utilize word clouds (such as the images created from “Wordle”) in
various classroom settings and subjects. In this post, entitled “170 Ways To
Use Word Clouds In Every Classroom” from May 11, 2014, Mr. Gorman provides a
list of unique ways each subject teacher could incorporate word clouds into
their daily practice. By providing a specific list of methods for each subject,
teachers are able to learn practical strategies for applying these technologies
in their subject/classroom. I often find that as a math teacher, I am presented
with new technologies, such as Wordle, but sometimes struggle to integrate it
into my subject area. By offering these specific suggestions, it could help
teachers from all disciplines understand its relevance, from science to the
applied arts and beyond.
Overall, Mr. Gorman’s blog
provides great ideas and resources, as long as you can look past his
advertising at the beginning of each post.
The second
blog which I have discovered is called “Free Technology for Teachers”, created
by Richard Byrne- a former teacher in the United States. This blog has received
numerous awards, including the 2012 Edublogs Award for Best Ed Tech Blog. His
blog is read by an audience 58 000 daily subscribers, which attests to the
quality of his resources and posts. He is also a Google Certified Teacher,
which I had not heard of before this so I decide to conduct my own side
research- see the link attached to learn more about this unique Google
opportunity (http://www.google.com/edu/programs/google-teacher-academy/).
Mr. Byrne
has developed a very diverse blog whereby he posts about current and developing
technologies as well as educational applications of these technologies. At the
top of his blog, Mr. Byrne also provides direct links to different resources
and blogs (such as iPad Apps for Schools, and Google Tutorials). In one of his
posts, entitled “Made From History is a Must-bookmark for History Teachers and
Students”, Mr. Byrne provides a brief synopsis of this history website, while
also providing key screenshots to demonstrate some of the features of the
website. This allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the
technology before utilizing it themselves, should they choose to investigate it
further. Mr. Byrne also provides an additional commentary and review on the educational
applications of the website; however I wish he also included specific
suggestions as to how this resource could be implemented in the classroom. I do
appreciate Mr. Byrne’s honest reviews of the technology that he posts, as it
helps me as a teacher make a professional decision about using this resource in
the classroom.
I really
enjoyed how this blog ventured into different resources and educational tools-
from educational interactive websites, to neat videos, to info-graphics that
Mr.Byrne has found that could help to enhance the learning in any classroom. To
improve his blog, I wish Mr. Byrne would have specific links or folders for
“Math” resources, or “Science” resources, rather than having to search at the
top of the blog, or to look through his vast array of posts for different ideas
to enhance my classroom.
The final
blog which I found is entitled “Educational Technology Guy”, by David Andrade.
Mr. Andrade is a Chief Information Officer for an urban public school in the
United States and former teacher. The blog explores educational technology,
educational theory, educational pedagogy as well as 21st century
skills and education. This blog was nominated for the 2012 Best Ed Tech Blog.
In this
blog, Mr. Andrade posts a good variety of teacher resources and tools that
could be utilized in the classroom. The blog which is updated a handful of
times throughout the month, offers educational connections between real world
contexts and technology. For instance, on April 22, 2014, which was Earth Day,
Mr. Andrade included a post entitled “Today is Earth Day- here are some resources for teachers”, which
would allow teachers to make classroom connections to current events. In this
post, Mr. Andrade included numerous direct links to resources and websites
which offer resources on Earth Day topics. While these links are helpful, Mr.
Andrade did not evaluate the quality of the resources, and only offered a
generic list of ideas that could be used to learn about Earth Day- many of
which did not specifically relate to technology or 21st century
learning/skills.
While Mr.
Andrade posts about new technologies that are being developed, I sometimes
struggle to see the connection between some of his posts and how I could use
the resource in the classroom to help improve student learning. Perhaps a
greater explanation in his posts could aid in my understanding.
Overall,
Mr. Andrade’s blog offers some neat ideas for utilizing more technology in the
classroom, however I wish he would include more explanations about the
resources, rather than just the direct links to the products.
Khan Academy has been of great help for me even in University level classes. However, in the recent years, it has been drastically updated to support Educators and their underlings. An educator can sign up for the site and have their students sign below them. This allows the educator to monitor the success of their students, and also assign them work to complete. The site includes detailed video instructions starting from Early Math (Grades 1,2 and 3) and finishes with Differentiated Calculus. However, the site doesn't stop at Math (although it is their biggest library of resources). They also have the Sciences, Economics, Arts and Humanities, Computer Programming, and even US Test Prep material, most with guided video lessons AND course work.
Besides the 5 resources mentioned last time, there are a few
other ways to have your presentations available to anyone around the
world. The one that I’ve decided to
discuss below seems to be the most beneficial to me (besides the other 5
mentioned previously) that I could use in my classroom, and hopefully you all
can as well.
Knovio:
An online
tool that can help turn your powerpoint or jpg presentations into video
lessons. It will allow the user to
create a video guided lesson with their own audio as well as your presentation. This could be used by a teacher who is either
creating a flipped classroom experience (creating the lessons for the students
to go through at their own pace) or even for a teacher who is sick or unable to
be in class and still wants to present the material. As a student, this would allow them to experience
the same learning experience from the same teacher htey may have become
accustomed to. This may help students
with anxiety issues and having issues with large changes, as well.
oPeople are able to collaborate and edit each
others’ work in real time
oCan edit your prezi from anywhere you have an
internet connection
oIt’s free
oInstead of creating the traditional “slides”
like in Powerpoint, you have a limitless “board” where you can transition between
and zoom in and out of any point
oEasy controls for all ages to use
oHas a lot of templates
Cons:
oCannot print handouts for your presentations
oUnable to edit without an internet connection
(unless you pay for a “pro” account)
oCan have a high learning curve (time consuming
to master this)
oCan cause motion sickness
oCannot create any text you want into a hyperlink
(you can add the entire URL, but no “Click Here” options)
Google Slides
Pros:
oAble to collaborate and edit one presentation at
the same time
oHas a built in chat system which allows you to
communicate with others within the presentation
oYou can see which slides others are working on
at the time
oConstantly updated to have the latest and
greatest on it
oSimilar to Powerpoint, so easy for Office users
to transition
Cons:
oCollaborating in presentations can be more
difficult than collaborating in a text document
oDoes not automatically upgrade older
presentations
oIs not “revolutionary” (boring old
presentations)
PowToon
Pros:
oCreates animated videos instead of presentations
oCan add images, music, movement, and voice over
by doing a simple drag and drop
oCan be accessed from anywhere you have an
internet connection
oDoesn’t require the user to draw/create their
own images, and instead can focus on creating their story
oSeems very easy to use and animate
Cons:
oDoes not work on all platforms
oDoes not contains as many vibrant templates
oFree account is limited to 5 minute videos and
your choice of images is more limited
oMust be online to use
Zoho Show
Pros:
oEasy to do simple editing
oAllows real time collaboration
oCan export to .pptx, as well as others
Cons:
oVery small amount of online storage
oMust be online to use
oLimited in the tools available to you
Emaze
Pros
oVery interesting and engaging templates
oStraight forward controls with most items being
familiar to powerpoint users
