Technology Trends

This video takes you into a school utilizing "tech buddies". Older students are paired with younger students to teach them technology skills. Having these students paired up not only helps advance their knowledge on technology, but serves as a natural way to showcase social skills and leadership traits.

This article is all about peer teaching and how it works with technology. One student takes on the role of the teacher and is given a specific topic to teach their peer. Students in this particular group were given six topics to choose from: Super Searcher, Trust Test, E-Library, Picture Power, Learn with Videos, and Making Map. They chose their topic and taught it to their designated group of students.

This video showcases a teacher doing a project based learning activity to have the students teach one another key concepts of chemistry. Student engagement when technology is involved increases majorly. The teacher explains the importance of peer teaching and technology. We also get the point of view of the students on the activity .

This article gave the pros and cons of a flipped classroom model. A flipped classroom is a controversial tech topic. The students learn through lectures at home (through video, computer activities, learning taks, etc.) without the teacher there to support, and they apply their knowledge at school where the teacher is there to support them. The article is very factual and unbiased, which I appreciated. The author examined the flipped classroom model as a "third party" so to speak. It gives a very fair outlook on why it would or would not work.

Not too long ago, many teachers would have been horrified at the thought of their students watching them on YouTube. But in the world of “flipped” classrooms, students watching online videos of their teachers is a key part of their instruction. Tyler Johnstone, an algebra teacher in Folsom, CA, is one of the growing number of educators who have integrated the flipped model into their classrooms. Johnstone posts about four video lectures a week to YouTube. Students take notes while they watch the lectures and are usually assigned a few problems at home to reinforce the concept, but most of the actual work is done in the classroom, where Johnstone can help the students comprehend the material further.

Read about how you can utilize technology tools in an elementary classroom and in return provide more in class time for personalized instruction that caters to the learners needs. The perspective of this article comes from a teacher who actually tried a flipped classroom and shares her experience and her findings.

Educators from around the country shared their favorite teaching apps in this article! Teachers can examine apps for all ages of learners and see how apps can be used through cross-curricular education.

This article gives suggestions for the best educational apps for using iPads in the classroom. Teachers can discover creative ways to incorporate technology in the classroom with iPad apps for education. This article shows how certain apps benefit the teachers as well as the parents and students. Apps ranged from classroom apps, communication apps, and data tracking apps.

This video gives step by step instructions on how to use an app known as Plickers. Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. This app can be used for virtually any subject area and could be used in nearly every grade level. I have personally used this app with my kindergarten students and they loved it.

Elementary teacher, Emily Tombes helps us with using technology for formative assessments. She goes into depth on how she uses technology to work with her coworkers and collaborate with them on assessments. She explained the importance of formative assessments and outlines the simplicity of using technology to implement these assessments.