ed tech tools to try Search Results

What Is the ISTE Conference, and Why Should You Go?

…interactive whiteboards, or Find real solutions to our 1:1 implementation problems. With clear goals in mind, you can get yourself re-focused anytime you start to get a little overwhelmed. 3. Try something new. Although focusing on your goals will keep you from being overwhelmed, take advantage of this opportunity to try something completely different. Attend a session on a topic that’s not directly related to your subject area or sample a new tool you wouldn’t normally be interested in. Even though you may not see a direct correlation to your current work, you may be surprised at the…

Teaching Digital Natives, Chapters 6-10

…brand names appear on the list (there are separate entries for Kindle, Twitter, Skype, and so on), much of it is organized by type of technology, which allows the reader to understand the categories of tools. Reading through this chapter is a real education, and it helps give some order to the tech wilderness. Second, for each noun listed, there is a list of verbs that align well with it. For example, the section on Facebook lists collaborating, planning, and behaving ethically among the verbs students can practice while using it. The section on Survey Creation Tools (like SurveyMonkey) lists…

Episode 119: “We’re a Family” and Other School Norms that Can Cause Burnout

…own products, The Teacher’s Guide to Tech. This is an interactive PDF that I put out every year to help you make quick, thoughtful, well-informed decisions about using technology in the classroom. Inside, over 250 tech tools are organized into categories: assessment tools, flipped learning tools, note taking, virtual reality, even podcasting tools like the ones I use to make this podcast, so you can quickly locate the tools you need for specific purposes. Each tool page has a screenshot of the tool in action, a discussion of how it works, and a link to a video that shows you…

Episode 70: How HyperDocs Can Transform the Way You Teach

…Doc to the resources they would need. By setting everything up ahead of time, this allowed students to work independently and freed the teacher up to engage one-on-one with students. Little did I know that right around that same time, another group of teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area was giving this same concept a different name. Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis called these digital lesson plans HyperDocs, and they believed so much in them that they wrote a book, The HyperDoc Handbook, where they explore all the possibilities offered by this format, show readers how to…

9 Simple Solutions for Common Teaching Problems

…we’re going to look at one idea from each book: Nine simple ideas that can have a big impact on student learning at your school. Although each hack has a blueprint for full implementation in the book it comes from, we’ll look at how you can get started right away. By the time you’re done reading, you should have found one you can try at your school. Let’s go. 1. Student Tech Gurus From Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes for Every School The Problem: Not enough tech support in your school. You have the tech, but when teachers or students need…

Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?

Maria Sansalone I am a new special ed Science/English teacher. Trying to incorporate engineering design process projects into the classes I teach weekly. Sounds like that student teacher was using material that someone else had reviewed or approved or given to them and had used before? And sometimes we are crunched for time. It takes many years to grow a reflective teacher. But I always try to use material that’s vetted by reputable websites, like tryengineering.org. Denise Yassine Such an important post. I made a similar point when I shared my biggest takeaways after attending an assessment conference. http://bit.ly/1lFvvIN Allison…

Episode 65: Five Ways College Teachers Can Improve Their Instruction

…you by the Teacher’s Guide to Tech. I created this guide a few years ago after learning that one of teachers’ biggest struggles was keeping up with technology. What you told me is that you want to try new tech tools, you know it could probably make learning more powerful and your teaching more effective, but you don’t have the time to figure out which tools to use. The Teacher’s Guide to Tech is like an encyclopedia of over 150 tech tools, organized by function, so there’s a section on video creation tools, a section on assessment tools, and so…

Goal-Setting for Teachers: 8 Paths to Self-Improvement

…Educator. This is a certification that basically marks you as having a solid foundation in Google’s online tools. Becoming a Google Educator is the first step toward becoming a Google Certified Teacher, Coach, or Innovator, all of which are more advanced levels. Learn more at Google for Education Exams and Certifications. And if you’d like help in the process, check out Kasey Bell’s Google Certified Educator Academies, which give you all the tools you need to be successful in achieving your certification. Complete my JumpStart Course. JumpStart is a self-paced, 10-module course designed to move moderately comfortable tech users to…

Are You a Curator or a Dumper?

…we did. Sample Scenarios Here are a few education-related scenarios where good curation could make a difference: Student-Directed Learning: As more classrooms move toward differentiated, flipped, blended, and student-directed learning models, we will need to do more gathering and sharing collections of resources for students to choose from, rather than picking one resource to deliver to everyone at one time. If our delivery is sloppy or our collections are thrown together kitchen-sink style, these models will be less successful. One of the most popular HyperDoc models includes an “explore” section, where a set of resources is provided and students choose…