Last summer I published The Practical Ed Tech Handbook. Since its initial release more than 10,000 educators have downloaded it for free. If you haven't downloaded it, you can do so here. In the free document I outline seven categories of ed tech tools and share my favorite tools in each category. A preview of each section is outlined below.
1. Communication with students and parents.
Remind, formerly known as Remind 101, is a great tool for sending important reminders to students and their parents. Through Remind students and their parents can sign-up to receive text messages on their mobile devices. You send the messages from your computer or mobile device without students or parents seeing your personal cell phone number. Like regular text messages that you might send to friends, you can attach files to messages that you send through Remind. Messages can be sent to individuals or to groups that you create in your Remind account.
In addition to text messages Remind offers the option to send audio messages up to fifteen seconds in length. Just like text messages, voice messages can be sent to individuals or to groups.
Stamps is one of the two options that Remind offers for students and parents to use to interact with the messages that you send to them. Students and parents can reply to your Remind messages by selecting one of four stamps to indicate that they have received your message and indicate if they need further clarification about your message.
Chat is the other option that Remind offers to students and parents to communicate with you. Remind Chat allows students and parents to reply with text to a teacher's messages. When I first heard about Remind Chat I was leery of it because I was concerned that students and parents would be messaging teachers at all hours of the day and expecting rapid responses. Remind alleviated that concern when I saw the "office hours" setting in the Remind chat service. "Office hours" allows teachers to specify when they will allow chat messages to be sent and received. Teachers can also pause or stop chat exchanges at any time.
2. Web search strategies.
Remind students that not every question needs to be Googled. One of the bad habits that I see many students fall into when it comes to research is simply entering into Google the first thing that comes to mind. While this strategy can work, it often leads to a lot of time wasted on searches for information that students already have. Before embarking on a research project ask students to make a list of the things they already know about the topic they plan to research. Have them look in their notes to see if they already have information on the topic.
3. Digital citizenship.
PBS Kids offers the Webonauts Academy in which elementary school students can learn about safe online behaviors. When students have completed all of the Webonauts missions they will graduate from the Webonauts Academy. The educators tips page offers some practical suggestions for using Webonauts in the classroom or in a school library.
Own Your Space is a free ebook designed to educate tweens and teens about protecting themselves and their stuff online. This ebook isn't a fluffy, general overview book. Each chapter goes into great detail explaining the technical threats that students' computers face online as well as the personal threats to data that students can face online. For example, in the first chapter students learn about different types of malware and the importance of installing security patches to prevent malware infections. The fourteenth chapter explains the differences between secured and unsecured wireless networks, the potential dangers of an unsecured network, and how to lock-down a network.
4. Video creation.
Tellagami is an iPad app that is a lot of fun to use to create narrated animations. Tellagami allows you to create customized animated scenes in a matter of minutes. To create a narrated, animated scene simply open Tellagami and tap “create.” After opening the create menu you will see a default character and background scene. The characters can be altered by selecting from a big menu of customization options. The background scenes can be changed by selecting from a menu or by inserting a picture from your iPad's camera roll. To add your voice to your animations simply tap “record” and start talking. Completed animations are stored on the camera roll of your iPad. Tellagami does not require students to create accounts or have an email address.
5. Audio recording and publishing.
TwistedWave is an audio recording tool through which you can create and edit spoken audio recordings from scratch. Your completed tracks can be exported to Google Drive and SoundCloud. If you have existing audio tracks in your SoundCloud or Google Drive account you can also import it into TwistedWave to edit those audio tracks. TwistedWave's audio editing tools include options for fade-in, fade-out, looping, sound normalization, and pitch adjustments. The editor also includes the typical track clipping tools that you would expect to see in an audio editing tool. Watch a demonstration of TwistedWave at http://bitly.com/twistedwave
6. Backchannels & informal assessment.
Formative provides you with a place to create online classrooms. Your students join your classroom by entering the assigned class code after registering on the Formative website. Once your classroom is established you can begin distributing assignments to students. Assignments can be as simple as one question exit tickets like "what did you learn today?" to complex quizzes that use a combination of multiple choice, short answer, and true/false questions. You can assign point values to questions or leave them as ungraded questions. You can also enable or disable instant feedback for students. When you give an assignment to students through Formative you can watch their responses in realtime. The best feature of Formative is the option to create "show your work" questions. "Show your work" questions enables students to draw responses and or upload pictures as responses to your questions. When you use this question type students will see a blank canvas directly below the question. On that canvas they can draw and or type responses.
7. Digital portfolios.
Google Sites is a good platform on which students and teachers that have Google Apps for Education accounts can build digital portfolios. Page-level permissions in Google Sites allows the creator of a site to share and give editing access to specific pages within a site rather than giving access to edit the entire site. To use page-level permissions open your Google Site editor then click "enable page-level permissions." With page-level permissions activated you can share and allow editing for each page individually. A video tutorial on using page-level permissions can be found here. A 47 page guide to Google Sites can be seen here.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Spring & Summer Online PD Opportunities With Me
As spring arrives in North America many of us are thinking about summer professional development opportunities. If you're looking for a great hands-on professional development opportunity, join me in beautiful Portland, Maine this summer. I am hosting two Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps in July in Portland, Maine just a few blocks from the ocean, lighthouses, and all the lobster you could ever want. The BYOD camp on July 11th and 12th and the Chromebook camp on July 18th and 19th have registrations starting to roll-in. Discounted early registration is available through the end of April. You can learn more about both Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps here.
If you cannot make it to Maine this summer, I am offering a slate of online courses that could meet your professional development needs.
Spring section I: April 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, and May 3rd at 7pm Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Spring section II: May 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st, and June 7th at 7pm Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Summer section: July 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, and August 2nd at 7pm Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Click here to learn more about the course including how to earn 3 graduate credits.
Spring section dates: April 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, and May 5th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Summer section dates: July 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, and August 4th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Click here to learn more about the course including how to earn 3 graduate credits.
Spring section dates: May 2nd, 9th, and 16th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Summer section dates: July 11th, 18th, and 25th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
If you have more than two people from the same school district attending either of the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps, send me an email richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com for details on group registration discounts.
Schedule a private webinar for your school. If you have ten or more teachers from the same district interested in a webinar, I can schedule a course tailored to your needs.
If you cannot make it to Maine this summer, I am offering a slate of online courses that could meet your professional development needs.
Getting Going With GAFE
Getting Going With GAFE is a webinar series designed for teachers and administrators who are new to using Google Apps for Education. Getting Going With GAFE is a five week course covering everything you need to know to integrate Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Calendar, and Google Sites into your practice. Click here to learn more about the course including how to earn 3 graduate credits.Spring section I: April 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, and May 3rd at 7pm Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Spring section II: May 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st, and June 7th at 7pm Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Summer section: July 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, and August 2nd at 7pm Eastern Time. Click here to register.
Click here to learn more about the course including how to earn 3 graduate credits.
Blogs & Social Media for Teachers & School Leaders
Blogs and Social Media for Teachers and School Leaders is a five week webinar series during which teachers and school administrators will learn the how to choose the best blogging platform for their situations, how to set-up a blog for classroom and school-wide use, and learn about strategies on how to manage blogs in classroom and school-wide settings. Participants will also learn how to avoid the mistakes that often lead to blogging endeavors being abandoned. After establishing blogs we’ll jump into using social networks like Twitter, Google+, and Instagram to reach out to parents, students, and other members of school communities. Click here to learn more about the course including how to earn 3 graduate credits.Spring section dates: April 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, and May 5th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Summer section dates: July 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th, and August 4th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Click here to learn more about the course including how to earn 3 graduate credits.
Teaching History With Technology
In Teaching History With Technology you will learn how to develop engaging and challenging learning activities through the use tools like Google Earth and Maps, video production tools, primary source databases, and how to help your students become better researchers. This course features three interactive online meetings along with a discussion forum in which you can further interact with me and your classmates. See the course highlights here.Spring section dates: May 2nd, 9th, and 16th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Summer section dates: July 11th, 18th, and 25th at 7pm EST. Click here to register.
Discounts!
Subscribers to the Practical Ed Tech Newsletter can receive a discount on the registration for any or all of these courses by using the code "subscriber" during online registration.If you have more than two people from the same school district attending either of the Practical Ed Tech Summer Camps, send me an email richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com for details on group registration discounts.
Schedule a private webinar for your school. If you have ten or more teachers from the same district interested in a webinar, I can schedule a course tailored to your needs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
I spend a good deal of time talking to myself. I often do this while riding my bike. Sometimes I do it to motivate myself to get over a hill...
-
Over the last decade I'm made more than eighty Google Slides video tutorials. Some of them are a bit outdated now, the rest are still re...
-
Update September 2022: Vanilla Forums still exists, but it appears they no longer offer a free version. Vanilla Forums is free, open sourc...
-
Next Monday is Memorial Day. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos ...