Get Started for FREE
Sign up with Facebook Sign up with X
I don't have a Facebook or a X account
 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
Here at Edtech at About.com, we've put together a list of potential technology-related questions that you may want to ask yourself when planning for instruction and designing curriculum. Many of these ideas are inspired by existing frameworks and philosophies focused on tech integration.
Beth Dichter's insight:
How can teachers best integrate technology into their lesson plans? This post looks at 10 questions we should consider asking ourselves, and provides suggestions of tools to consider using that will help us seamlessly integrate technology. Below are the first four questions. 1. How am I activating into my students' prior knowledge? 2. How am I presenting information to students in an engaging way? 3. How am I collecting, disseminating, and annotating student work? 4. What opportunities and resources am I giving my students for practice? Integrating technology should become a component of our lesson design. As you review the additional questions you will find that not all apply to every lesson you teach. Think about your objectives and then select the question(s) most applicable. As you look at the suggested tools in the post make sure that you try using the ones you choose. There is nothing more frustrating than to use a tool as a teacher, and you know it works...but when the student logs in the tool is blocked due to permissions. My lesson learned...I must test each and every tool, so that I know how to use it and to make sure students also have access. 
Scoop.it!
Teachers find the most success integrating technology into the classroom when they have clear instructional goals.
Beth Dichter's insight:
How many times have you watched a PowerPoint slide show that had lots of flash, but little content? All too often teachers may try to design a lesson around a specific tool, rather than focusing on the skills we want our students to gain, and then finding a tool that will provide the opportunity for the skills to come forth. This post shares information: * Look past the flash * Present an objective, not a recipe * Let them figure it out * Encourage collaboration Within the post you will also find suggestions from some teachers as well as some additional links.
Scoop.it!
The Gates Foundation released a report today surveying teachers and students on the kinds of digital tools they'd like to see available in classrooms.
Beth Dichter's insight:
This report focused on four questions: ● What do teachers want and need from digital instructional tools? ● How can product developers use this information to more effectively serve students, teachers, and schools? ● What do we know about how teachers and districts select and purchase digital instructional tools? ● What do we know about the overall market for digital instructional tools? The report identified six instructional purposes for technology, moving from teacher-driven to student-driven and identify both a primary and a secondary benefit. The areas are: ● Deliver Instruction ● Diagnose Student Learning ● Vary Delivery Method ● Tailer Learning Experience ● Support Student Collaboration and Interactivity ● Foster Independent Practice One piece that pops out quickly is that 54% of teachers surveyed did not find the digital tools they use effective.
KCenter SKEMA's curator insight,
April 25, 2014 4:53 AM
"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just released a report detailing the results of 3,100 teacher surveys and 1,250 student surveys on the kinds of digital instruction tools that are useful and effective. The foundation has asked teachers and students what they need when it comes to digital instruction, aiming to close the communication gap between commercial developers and schools. One of the biggest takeaways is that most teachers — 54 percent — don’t find many of the digital tools they use effective. That’s partly because teachers often aren’t making purchasing decisions. When they do have a say in tool selection they often report on its effectiveness more favorably. When asked about free products, teachers reported that free products are just as likely to be effective as the products the district purchased for them."
Scoop.it!
Beth Dichter's insight:
Richard Byrne (of FreeTech4Teachers) has created a new slideshow of his top picks of web tools for 2014. He states "I shared only tools that are new-to-me since last year's NCTIES conference and or have released significant enhancements in the last year." As always it is worth looking through this lengthy slideshow, which is embedded in the post and also available through Google docs so you may choose to save a copy. He notes that he will continue to add speaker notes to include "more links." Some of these tools have been mentioned in this Scoop.it but there are quite a few that are new to me that I will be checking out.
Scoop.it!
What happens when you or your students forget your online password? You should start using some of these web tools for teaching without student logins.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out this list of 14 websites that students may use without needing a password. The list is split into three areas: * Collaboration, Assessment and Drawing Tools * Literacy Tools * Maths and Map Tools Each tool is discussed and links are provided. If you have additional tools to share please write a comment and include the link to the tool.
Jamie Culpan's curator insight,
November 20, 2013 6:49 AM
Often a problem when learners forget log-on details! Great to have alternatives at the ready! 
Catherine Ricoul's curator insight,
November 20, 2013 2:21 PM
… voire pour contourner des plateformes verrouillées à double tour…
Scoop.it!
How do you actually ensure students learn while creating and exploring? Here are four different tips from Shawn McCusker that should keep learning rolling along.
Beth Dichter's insight:
As we move to the Common Core and we look at the Depth of Knowledge that will be required for our students it is clear that the need for our students to create is critical. This post starts with the following sentence: "When was the last time your students said “Wow, that worksheet changed my life”? Can you even remember a similar cookie cutter classroom activity or assignment from your days as a student? Yet they were a popular tool because they were structured and efficient in getting the class to a set finish point." After presenting "the exploding volcano project" the post turns to four strategies. The short hand version is below. Click through to the post for additional information. 1. Start with your specific learning objective. 2. The idea to be expressed comes before the tool used to express it. 3. Make asking "How will this show mastery of the learning objective?" your classroom mantra. 4. Engage in evaluating the PROCESS of creation and not just grading the finished project. There is also an example a learning objective and a project that one student submitted.
Scoop.it!
Beth Dichter's insight:
This interactive ThingLink provides links to ten websites that are great tools to use in your classroom. Many of the links provide ideas for ways to use the tool with your students. Tools include: * Wikispaces Classroom * Padlet * MentorMob * SAMR
Sue Alexander's comment,
August 11, 2013 10:54 PM
Another great Scoop, Beth! I've learned so much from your topics this summer. Thanks!
Sue Alexander's curator insight,
August 11, 2013 10:58 PM
Fun interactive format, and the tools are good ones to explore.
Scoop.it!
"Literacy is changing. It really is. Even in my grade one classroom as the students begin to learn their letters and sounds, as they start to put those letters and sounds together into words, and as they take their first hesitant steps to read and write —literacy is changing. The change in our classroom was subtle at first. When my students began writing the word we with two i’s, I smiled and talked about the more traditional spelling of the word. When students came to school with a clear understanding of what it meant to get to the next level or to have several lives, I took notice of the new vocabulary they had."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Putting young students together with technology creates a win-win situation in this classroom. Learn how one teacher has her students writing in blogs to share their work, using twitter, learning vocabulary (such as pingback) and much more. This post is complete with a video where students provide definitions of words and share how they use technology in their classroom.
Scoop.it!
"There are no limits to what a great educator can achieve when they have the right tools. Graphite, a free service from Common Sense Media, helps teachers find, understand, and share the best digital learning products available."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Graphite has just been launched by Common Sense Media. If you have not used resources from Common Sense Media it is worth your time to check the site out. They are an ad free site with a focus on education. This new website will help you find digital learning products that have been rated by "professional educators – early childhood development experts, doctorates in education, and teachers with hands-on classroom chops." What will you find at this site? Information about websites, games and apps, with ratings "based on our detailed rubric that scores each product on 15 dimensions. Plus, we tag each product for subjects, skills, and grade band and map them to Common Core and other state standards." You can become a member for free and have access not only to Graphite, but also to many other great resources!
Elena Keating's curator insight,
August 15, 2013 4:41 PM
Here is a site for those few sleepless night I may experience. I can trawl through and see what I could adopt
Scoop.it!
Fantastic mapping tools, each with brilliant interactive ways for students to get involved and literally put themselves on the map in new and exciting ways!
Beth Dichter's insight:
The five mapping tools discussed are: * QuikMap - allows you to doodle on Google maps * Atlas - add photos and comments to maps * Mapskip - share stories, pictures, videos and sound recordings about all the places in our lives * VidMap - add video and audio to maps * If It Were My Home - allows you to compare living conditions in your country to other countries All are free and all provide great options for students to explore maps in new dimensions.
Gabrielle's curator insight,
May 14, 2017 10:05 PM
Great resources on Digital mapping. All interactive
Scoop.it!
While there are hundreds of tools and devices available, we have found 10 creative ways to use Google tools and services to help improve learning.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out 10 tools from Google including: * Voice Comments * Research Tools * WriteSpace * VideoNot.es * Read & Write Plus five more! Many of these tools require that you use Chrome as your browser. Each is described in detail in the post and links are provided.
Scoop.it!
"Writing will always be important, but weaving text, images, sound, and presentation together can give students more and different ways to express themselves. Easy-to-use online tools allow students the opportunity to create multimedia projects that demonstrate knowledge and develop useful skills. Check out these new three tools on the scene."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post discusses three tools: * Meograph, an online tool that allows you to create multimedia presentations that use video, maps, images, text, timelines, audio and links. You can check out a Meograph created by a student (on the water cycle) in the post. * Zeega allows you "to create an interactive web-based story, pulling content from online sources, including photos, music, animated GIFs, and videos." Zeega is free for individuals. Please note that Zeega is for users over the age of 13. * Wevideo is a primarily used to create videos, but it allows you to "several people collaborate at the same time." There is a comparision chart of these three tools (as well as Windows Live Movie Maker and iMovie11 included in the post.
Scoop.it!
"Interactive video is a powerful new tool that allows teachers and learners to enhance video they make themselves–as well as the videos they discover on the Web–with text, images, maps, links, and other media...It appears that a new subgenre of interactive video creation tools is emerging...if you want to be part of the conversation, if you believe that video can do more than talk at you, you’ll be a lover of these powerful interactive annotation tools for video."
Beth Dichter's insight:
If you are looking for "powerful interactive annotation tools for video" look no further than this post from Joyce Valenz. She discusses seven tools that you may want to explore: * Mozilla Popcorn Maker * The Mad Video * TED-Ed's Flip this Lesson * wireWax * YouTube Video Annotation Tools * Embed Plus (available as a Chrome extension and coming soon for Firefox * Blubbr Each of the tools is discussed and in most cases samples of work are also provided.
|
Scoop.it!
Beth Dichter's insight:
This interactive infographic provides 18 concepts and lists the "best" tool to use with the iPad or with a Chromebook or Laptop (and includes many web based tools). In the center you have the concept, to the left is the iPad app and to the right is one for the Chromebook/Notebook or a web tools. Below are some of the 18 concepts. * Video Collage * Interactive Posters * Show Me What You Know * Talking Images Each of the icons take you to the app/website. You will also find links at the bottom of the infographic. One provides a Google Document that lists all the resources and provide some additional information on the features. The second provides a Google Presentation of the resources.
CTD Institute's curator insight,
December 4, 2014 9:21 AM
Absolutely indispensable for all using AT in the classroom! 
Ness Crouch's curator insight,
September 21, 2015 1:54 AM
A very useful infographic for those teachers wanting to learn more about tools for the classroom. The comparison from Apple to Chrome will allow you to find the tools you need.
Scoop.it!
"Are you looking for ways to integration technology in your lesson plans and courses that provide for an engaging experience for you and your students? Fans of instructional technology know that it can be fun and inviting, and engaged students are far more likely to be learning."
Beth Dichter's insight:
What are the engaging techniques? Below are five. More are in the post and many have links to specific tools (many of which are free) that will help you. * Interactive Collaboration * Active Learning * Student Created Presentations * Embedding Questions in Videos * Digital Maker Spaces Learn much more by clicking though to the post.
Scoop.it!
There are a boatload of awesome Google tools that we use every day. And they’re free, too, which tends to be a big winner for teachers and students. Free is probably the number one reason for giving Google’s tools a try – you haven’t lost anything but a bit of time if you decide you …
Beth Dichter's insight:
Google provides so many tools it is hard to keep track of all of them. This post provides information on 7 tools that may find a place in your classroom. Do you have a student that needs a clean and clear space to write, with no distractions? If Chrome is available as a browser consider installing the app Write Space, a "minimalist text editor." If students are working in Google Drive and are researching a paper they may have found the Research Tool that allows you to quickly search the web for specific information, make suggestions and more. Google Forms continues to add features, including the ability to create surveys. Have your students design a survey and graph their data, or use it the survey tool to do a quick formative assessment as an exit ticket. Learn more about Moderator, Image Directory, and Google Templates (that's right, Google has templates designed for students and teachers) in the post. Chances are you will find at least one or two tools to use for yourself or with your students (or both)!
LibrarianLand's curator insight,
March 26, 2014 7:20 PM
More from Google. Maybe useful, but all-knowing.
Ness Crouch's curator insight,
March 28, 2014 8:12 PM
I love my Google tools! What do you use them for?
Scoop.it!
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out this slideshow on ways to use ThingLink in your classroom AND create your account or upgrade your existing account to the new Premium account for educators! ThingLink allows you to take an image or create an image and tag it with links to videos, music, text, images and more. Take the time to create an account or upgrade your existing account before the end of this year. For additional resources on ThingLink from Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners you might want to check out this post: http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2013/12/grab-your-free-thinglink-edu-upgrade.html
Scoop.it!
These web-based applications will have you creating animations in no time.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Are you looking for some web-based tools for students to use to create animations? This post will provide you with nine ideas (and I will add a tenth). Have fun exploring! * EWC Presenter * Make Web Video * Vcasmo * GoAnimate * Powtoon * Mixeek * Prezi * Empressr * Creaza * And one more that is not listed is Moovly. Here is the link: http://www.moovly.com/
Scoop.it!
Free educational online games for children. Our games reinforce the skills that are vital to elementary students. We offer many math and reading games.
Beth Dichter's insight:
If you are looking for some games that are free and that reinforce skills then consider checking out RoomRecess. There are about 30 games available for students in K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Find games "with the goal of reinforcing fundamental learning concepts in math, reading, spelling, language arts, and basic problem solving." All games are free and no sign-up is required.
April Ledesma's curator insight,
October 6, 2014 11:18 PM
Educational games are great ways for learners to have technological interaction in the classroom, plus the students love it!
Scoop.it!
Here are three ways for teachers to prepare to design learning experiences that encourage higher order thinking through the use of technology as a tool for learning.
Beth Dichter's insight:
We know students love to use technology, so how about using technology as a tool to encourage higher order thinking? This post explores three ways you might choose to do this. * Develop a digital tool kit. Go out and find some great tools that will help students use higher order thinking skills. Given them a test drive first, and then create a digital playlist and some digital guides to help students learn how to use them. * Design flexible learning experiences. "Grab your toolkit, embrace Essential Questions, then build lessons around them." And for information on Essential Questions you may want to check out Chapter 1 of the book "Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding from ASCD at http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109004/chapters/What-Makes-a-Question-Essential¢.aspx. * Get out of the way and let students create.
Scoop.it!
Know about iTalc? Bubbl.us? Ribbon Hero? You should! Discover the latest in free software that's making a splash in classrooms.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Here are ten free tech tools you may want to check out for your classroom. They range from iTalc,which is a free lab management system, allowing you to see what students are viewing and limit access to sites to Storytelling Aice, a program that allows students to learn to program to Ribbon Hero 2, put out by Microsoft this is a game that helps you learn to navigate the ribbon. An additional seven tools are also shared.
Jennifer Kleiner's curator insight,
March 3, 2015 12:53 PM
Bubbl.us made this list and I think it can be a great educational tool! Mind mapping helps learners to organize information more clearly, and clearly organized content is essential to retaining information. There are other interesting tools here as well.
Scoop.it!
Beth Dichter's insight:
If you are looking for ways to use ThingLink with your students you should check out this slideshow available on Google Drive. It provides 66 (and growing) ways to use ThingLink in the classroom. Some of the suggestions are geared to teachers, and others are student oriented. ThingLink is free to educators. If students do not have an email they share a way you may add students to your account. They have recently put out an app (free) for the iPhone and iPad.
Scoop.it!
"The 21st century is a time of rapid change, and while the brain may not be changing (much), the tools we use to feed it are. This puts the 21st century teacher in a critical spot–of mastering constantly evolving technology and digital learning tools–the same tools their students use every day. So below, we’ve started with 9 such tools, but this is obviously just scratching the surface. This list is not meant to be exhaustive (obviously), or even authoritative (but rather, subjective)."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Each tool listed is described and there is an explanation that discusses why a 21st century teacher should be able to use the tool. Tools include Evernote, RSS or Social Readers, Google+ Community, YouTube, iTunesU, Cloud-Based Word Processors, DropBox, Evernote, Pocket and Zotero. Are there tools you think are necessary for teachers to master?
tatiana lopez's curator insight,
July 16, 2013 8:25 PM
Every teacher by the 21st Century should be able to use the nine digital learning tools to help educate our students!
RSS OR SOCIAL READERS, DROPBOX, EVERNOTE, GOOGLE+, POCKET, YOUTUBE, ZOTERO, ITUNES U, CLOUD BASED WORD PROCESSORS.....
JoAnn Delaney's curator insight,
August 6, 2013 11:50 AM
Do you have these gems in your pirate trasure chest? Arrrr! #tlap #21stedchat
Scoop.it!
"Infographics are interesting–a mash of (hopefully) easily-consumed visuals (so, symbols, shapes, and images) and added relevant character-based data (so, numbers, words, and brief sentences). The learning application for them is clear, with many academic standards–including the Common Core standards–requiring teachers to use a variety of media forms, charts, and other data for both information reading as well as general fluency."
Beth Dichter's insight:
The use of infographics seems to be increasing and this post presents 46 tools that you may use to create an infographic, or better yet, have your students create an infographic. The tools are arranged alphabetically with a link to each as well as a short description. Some have costs involved but others are open source and freely available.
Donna Browne's curator insight,
May 8, 2013 2:23 PM
A list and links to the ever increasing number of tools that we can use to create infographics.
Scoop.it!
"The Common Core’s Anchor Standard 6 for writing in grades K–12 requires students to “use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others”. Here are some ideas for meeting this standard (besides the obvious use of technology—word processing).
Beth Dichter's insight:
What tools are there to help students PRODUCE writing online? Lauren Davis identifies five areas that for producing writing: * Collaborative tools * Grammar and language resources * Fun prompts to get their juices flowing * Brainstorming and drafting graphic organizers. * Research tools What tools are there to help students PUBLISH writing online? * Online contests * Class e-newsletter or newspaper * Book review website * Class blog or website There are links to many resources thoughout this post and in many cases specific suggestions are provided for grade levels. If you are not using online tools with your students this post provides great resources to help you begin the process.
|
This is an excellent article and very helpful for teachers looking for a way in to using or enhancing what they do with technology. The list of ideas for each section are high quality. Great recommendations and ideas here.