WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE
Tech Tools Countdown 4/27/17
Welcome back. . . .the newest addition to this blog is my Top 10 Tech Tools Countdown. As I come to the end of the class I am taking on educational technologies (shoutout to Dr. Anna Smith and Inquiry Group 5!), I started wondering what tech tools my fellow educators are using in their classrooms. I can look up lists all day long, and experts can tell me what the hottest tech tools in education are. However. . . .I really wanted to hear it from the mouths (or emails) of real people who are utilizing these tools. As part of the class, we were challenged to grow our professional learning networks (PLN’s). I decided that it would be a good idea to reach out to my PLN to seek the answer to my question. I sent out messages on Twitter, Facebook, and the Illinois School Librarians’ listserv I belong to. The response was not what I would call ideal, but I’m new to using social media professionally, and I’m told that it takes time for it to take root and grow as part of my PLN. Needing more data than a handful of results from social media, I put feelers out a little closer to home and sent out a district-wide email to the teachers in my district. The response was much better, and it really shows that we are a close district-- willing to help each other out and support each other. The link below connects to the video I made of the actual countdown Below that are brief descriptions of each app along with a link in case you’d like to check any of them out. There are some phenomenal tools out there! What I essentially found out is that there are more innovative tech tools out there than a person could ever hope to explore and use. The important thing to remember is to let the learning outcome drive the tool-- not the other way around. I hope that you enjoy the video, and I sincerely hope that you find a new tool that you can use in your classroom to either help it run more efficiently or help children learn. LINK TO VIDEO: https://animoto.com/play/0viyxuJWKIYUiRUZgMbMqg Top 10 Tech Tools Countdown-- #10: THE SMARTBOARD: https://home.smarttech.com/ This is the only physical tool on the list. The Smart board is an interactive whiteboard. It allows for engaging, interactive, and collaborative lessons in the classroom. There is also a site from which Smart Notebook lessons can be downloaded (http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0). #9: CANVA: https://www.canva.com/ Canva is a tool for creating infographics, signs, and posters. Some of the backgrounds, images, and fonts are free. Others require a small fee per item. #8: SOCRATIVE: www.socrative.com Socrative is a tool that quickly allows you to assess student learning through activities, quizzes, and single questions from any device. #7: SYMBALOO: www.symbaloo.com Symbaloo is a cloud based way to organize your favorite Internet tools and sites. #6: EDPUZZLE: https://edpuzzle.com/ Edpuzzle is a tool that allows for engaging students and videos. Questions can be added to the videos that keep students focused while assessing what they have learned from the videos. #5: TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ Teachers Pay Teachers is a large community of educators. At the site, more than two million resources (such as units of study, posters, lesson plans, etc.) can be bought and sold. Some are even free! #4: TIE. . . .CLASS DOJO & REMIND: https://www.classdojo.com/ (Dojo) https://www.remind.com/ (Remind) Both of these tools are great ways to communicate with parents and students. Reminders about important events can be sent through both tools. . . as well as posting homework. . . and sharing photos of things going on in the classroom. Group messages as well as individual messages can be sent out. Class Dojo also has a feature that allows for student behavior management. #3: PADLET: https://padlet.com/ Padlet is like a giant virtual bulletin board that is super easy to contribute to. According to a bit I read about it on the Internet, it is “the easiest way in the world to collaborate” and get your life together. #2: KAHOOT!: https://getkahoot.com/ Kahoot is an interactive tool that makes it fun to not only learn but to show what you have learned in a game-based format. #1: GOOGLE CLASSROOM: https://classroom.google.com Google Classroom is a paperless way for teachers to organize and keep track of assignments and projects. It is also a way for students to stay organized with their assignments and projects, turn them in from virtually anywhere from any device, and collaborate with fellow students. Honorable mentions: Smore: https://www.smore.com/ (newsletter generator; creativity tool) Plickers: https://plickers.com/ (formative assessment tool that uses cards rather than each student having their own devices) Go Noodle!: https://www.gonoodle.com/ (videos that get kids up and moving) Google Apps: (many, many tools for creativity, productivity, and collaboration; see the app store on www.google.com) PowToon: https://www.powtoon.com/ (creativity tool; animated videos) Animoto: https://animoto.com/ (creativity tool; video slideshows) Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/ (creativity tool; make tools to help you study any subject such as flashcards and games) Screencast-o-Matic: https://screencast-o-matic.com/screen_recorder (free screen recorder that also allows for the addition of webcam video and voice narration) I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed learning about all of these wonderful tools that were sent to me after I reached out to my PLN on social media and in my district. Thanks to all who contributed to the list-- you rock!!! I also hope that along the way, you discovered a new tool or two to check out and add to your arsenal of tools to help kids learn. Remember (again), it is all about the kids and the learning. Let the learning outcome guide the tool choice and not the other way around. Thanks for reading to the end. . . and feel free to geek out on the tools-- I do it all the time!
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