destiny herbert
Educational Technology Tools that can be used in and out of the classroom when working with students of the 21st Century.
Kahoot's job is to "make learning awesome," and this is one of the easiest ways to do so when it comes to students of all ages in the classroom. With its format being game-based it is a great way to engage students with different trivia and create quizzes on all topics to ask your students. Teachers can collaborate with each other with using quizzes and trivia that has already been established or even make their own to fit the personal needs of their class. With the simple use of using an electronic device to access this website or app gets the fun going in no time. Now, the fate of students and their scores hang in the balances of one to four colors red, blue, yellow, or green. All to see who will come off on top with everyone partaking in the unique access code for each quiz given. Hurry, time is ticking!
With the choice of using the website or getting the app, Class Dojo is kicking the ideal of "normal" inside of the classroom like a real sensei. With the goal of making "happier classrooms" this new technology platform has made its way into roughly 90% of K-8 schools in the US, and with it being free for teachers that's just a plus amongst all of the things it can achieve. There is a will and drive to build community in the classroom, and now Class Dojo can help bridge the gap between the classroom, students, and parents. Teachers can encourage students in the class to keep up the good work or to adjust themselves to get back on track with their classroom and personal goals. Students are given a different type of voice with being able to connect efficiently with their peers, and even sharing information to their parents (teachers can as well). With a laundry list of tools that comes already embedded into this technology based program, the classroom will meet the needs of all students and create an incentive to want to flourish in the classroom. Making students into a Dojo one avatar at a time.
TWEET, TWEET, TWEET... Do you hear that? Twitter is calling all teachers to take a chance with using this type of social media platform in the classroom. The real definition of “emerging technology" inside and outside of the classroom, teachers can objectively use Twitter. With having so many daily users, teachers will find that many of their students have already have made Twitter apart from their routines. Now, teachers can use Twitter for many different things for the classroom to be innovative and evolve like birds themselves. Posting due dates, keeping a class newsfeed, connect and create a community, asking questions, and even writing assignments is just a few things you can do with Twitter. Keeping up with the times is the best way to keep students engaged in the class, just make sure they hit the star button to get alerts of what's going "TWEET TWEET TWEET"! It's a great way to "see what's happening in the world and classroom right now."
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TimeStation (online or the app) was initially built for employers to be able to keep track of their employees that are working for them. With the ability to pick up their location, and match it with their employee cards or assigned PIN, and location it was a perfect concept. With classrooms looking for ways to advance the classroom and cut corners to provide more time for work in the classroom this was an ideal way. Taking attendance is very time consuming for each class period with students, but with TimeStation it is practical and easy to maintain for your students each day. Students can Punch In & Out in class and provide a paper trail for each student and allow the teacher to analyze them at a later time. Each day in the classroom can be looked at as a real workday and should be taken as one as well. When students put in that extra work, they will be paid in their grades and even having intensives it another way to keep the students in the classroom and on time as well.
Let each student have an opportunity to cash out, and be on the payroll of their teachers.
iMovie is a multimedia presentation building program that can be used on any Apple product and exported to many other platforms that are capable of being seen on any device. While allowing users to create movies that can incorporate music, videos, pictures, and audio clips all throughout their masterpiece. These movies can be made in minutes, and with minimal help and critical steps, it is made for anyone with a little guidance to lead to a creation of something new and innovative. When done it can be shared across most all platforms to reach all types of audiences, and connect with all kinds of people, evoking collaboration. It will also allow for a higher level of editing, without the cost of all of the other techniques used to make and produce videos. The things you can do with iMovie is endless...
Depending on your creativity...
-Book/Movie Trailers
-Warm-Ups
-Reports Summaries
-Digital Storytelling
-Portfolios
-How to Videos
-Class channel
All with the help of iMovie
Google Docs can be used in the form of an app or even used online on any device, and can be found with other Google programs. There is an endless list of things that Google Docs can be used for and to be created to accomplish assignment goals and objectives. Docs can be used to write reports, keep track of different items, note-taking, and so much more. The most significant thing that Docs bring to the table is its strong ability for collaboration from all different platforms; many different people can access documents with a certain amount of clearance to become additives. There are not any worries of documents being erased, for as you are typing it is saving everything that is being added or subtracted from the text, and there is no need to keep pressing the save button. With being synced to your personal Google account, you don't have to send docs to yourself to be printed you can even access them from any device just by logging in with your information. There is no problem with converting either as well, for it can be turned into any document and exported to whoever you would like to get to document. Google line of resources is easy to use and share as well, forget the other search engines this is the one hit wonder.
YouTube has been around for awhile now and has made its way into the classroom, and not just for playing music or looking at the latest videos of the Jimmy Fallon show. There is so much that YouTube has to offer and an extensive collection of videos that can be showed for learning purposes for students. Math learning videos, how to videos, product reviews videos, or even different reaction videos can be used at the teacher's disposal. With many teachers being willing to introduce the flip classroom, a lot of the time students will have to go home first and self-teach themselves, then come to class with some knowledge and even able to help assist the teacher or other peers. YouTube is also equipped with many different channels that teachers can subscribe to if they like the account and it holds valuable tools that could be used in the classroom. There are only a few things that one might not be able to find on YouTube, but the community and collaboration opportunities are what makes YouTube amazing and a digital manner. Creating playlist to hold essential videos, and even ones to come back to can happen in the blink of an eye; for organizational purposes. The You is the general population, and the Tube is everything one may be looking for and more.
Storybird is a perfect fit for all your language arts teachers out there, the ideal technology to bring flavor and spice to the classroom. With the use of Storybird, it is a perfect mix of illustrations and words perfectly mashed together to create a story to be shared with people of all ages. The personalization that Storybird offers to students and people of all ages is great to target objects and even display a learned or mastered topic. It helps students in K-12 and for the younger ones K-5 there is a picture book format so that no one is left in the sauce. Chapters in potential books can be created, poetry and even scenes pulled together to create something unique with whatever comes to mind. A great way to engage students, and receive short word count to have them sick to the paper and have a meaning. Storybird is another way to hear the birds chirping while they align with the common core and sync with Google as well. With 5 million students and 400,000 educators using Storybird, why wouldn't it be a fit for you?
BioDigital 3D Human is the best way to be able to explore the insides and out of the body that every one of us lives our lives in daily. It is laced with a long list of different topics that can be discussed in anatomy, and with it being such a challenging subject to master having anything that is hands-on and visual is one of the best ways to go. There are definitions and function descriptions for each of the parts that you are looking at based on what is the part of the body. There are the male and female bodies to be fully discovered within the app and or the device that you choose to use to get to the website. There is the option to dissect, capture a picture, and even use an X-Ray to get a better view. If the app or website doesn't give a full and detailed description of what the user would like to know, there are links to click on taking you to another source to look at and find the answers. Quizzes are available at the tip of your fingers, and if you are curious to know what all it takes to have a functioning finger you could use BioDigital. Making the science fun again, and evolve the classroom just a little bit more. Use the 3D Human to make everything come alive for the students that are learning.
Instead of going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, what if students would be able to go on a journey with the use of cardboard. Google has revolutionized the classroom by allowing teachers to skip out on the hunt of finding chaperones and signing permission slips. With the use of VR, students can go on a field trip and many different journeys while being in the space of the classroom. Life is no longer the same and when peering inside of the handmade cardboard googles and being taken on an outer body experience. With the help of the app, you get to unfold a new interaction between students and their learning; keeping the engagement. There is so much that teachers can use this latest creation for and help bring something new and different to the classroom, evoking them to come to class to see when the next time they can swim with the sea "monsters," climb the top of mountains and even explore DNA samples. Who knew that a piece of cardboard would be a change to the world of VR or Virtual Reality for teachers, students, and anyone else.
