DAY 13: Name the top edtech tools you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness.
Writing about technology tools in the classroom is not my favorite topic for a blog post. After all, without strong pedagogy, the tools are simply frosting without the cake. And I really don't like frosting on its own; it's way too sweet. But since I have benefitted from reading so many other writers' posts about edtech tools in the past, it's time I give back and contribute to the conversation.
Here is a list of every tech tool my students or I used in the first four weeks of the school year, as well as how often it was used:
The other high-use tool on this list is Planbook.com. If you don't already have an online lesson-planning tool you love, you definitely need to consider this one. For the very reasonable price of $12 per year, you get a nicely-organized planbook with lots of bells and whistles. Here are some of the features about it I love:
- I used to have Post-It notes all over my paper planbook because of all the adjusting to lessons I did every week. With an online planbook, changes are easier to record and less messy.
- It has an iPad app that has all the same features as the desktop version.
- You can link photos and websites into your plans. So if I have a lab set-up I want to make sure to remember for next year, I just snap a photo of it and upload it to that specific day and lesson in Planbook.
- If you are a teacher who shares a week's worth of lessons with students so they can plan ahead, it has an option to create a link for students to view your planbook. But I can still write notes to myself in the planbook that the students can't see.
I expect Weebly use to become more common in my classes as the year progresses. The students just started their Weebly accounts on Friday, but they will be using them on a weekly basis from now on. Weebly will be the platform for their e-portfolios. Because I'm diving into standards-based grading this year, I really wanted to have a way for students to evaluate their own work and only submit their best work to me to be graded. The Weebly accounts are personal websites that will be used by students to share their work. I was able to create my classes after initiating my own account, and then set up each of my students in a class with a username and password. Weebly has been very thoughtful in their planning for teacher oversight of the student websites. I don't have to allow the websites to be public right away, but I still have access to view all of them.
All of the other tools are used sporadically throughout the week. If you have any questions about how I use these other tools on my list, please let me know!
Photo by Maddie Keating, "One Hundred Eighty Four," from Flickr, licensed via Creative Commons.
Writing about technology tools in the classroom is not my favorite topic for a blog post. After all, without strong pedagogy, the tools are simply frosting without the cake. And I really don't like frosting on its own; it's way too sweet. But since I have benefitted from reading so many other writers' posts about edtech tools in the past, it's time I give back and contribute to the conversation.
Here is a list of every tech tool my students or I used in the first four weeks of the school year, as well as how often it was used:
- Schoology (nearly every day)
- Google Forms (4 days)
- TED video (1 day)
- Remind (12 days)
- YouTube (5 days)
- Google Docs app, Pages app, and/or Notability app (4 days)
- Camera app for video (3 days)
- Padlet (3 days)
- Weebly (1 day)
- Nearpod (1 day)
- Zaption (2 days)
- Answer Garden (1 day)
- Planbook.com (every day)
The other high-use tool on this list is Planbook.com. If you don't already have an online lesson-planning tool you love, you definitely need to consider this one. For the very reasonable price of $12 per year, you get a nicely-organized planbook with lots of bells and whistles. Here are some of the features about it I love:
- I used to have Post-It notes all over my paper planbook because of all the adjusting to lessons I did every week. With an online planbook, changes are easier to record and less messy.
- It has an iPad app that has all the same features as the desktop version.
- You can link photos and websites into your plans. So if I have a lab set-up I want to make sure to remember for next year, I just snap a photo of it and upload it to that specific day and lesson in Planbook.
- If you are a teacher who shares a week's worth of lessons with students so they can plan ahead, it has an option to create a link for students to view your planbook. But I can still write notes to myself in the planbook that the students can't see.
I expect Weebly use to become more common in my classes as the year progresses. The students just started their Weebly accounts on Friday, but they will be using them on a weekly basis from now on. Weebly will be the platform for their e-portfolios. Because I'm diving into standards-based grading this year, I really wanted to have a way for students to evaluate their own work and only submit their best work to me to be graded. The Weebly accounts are personal websites that will be used by students to share their work. I was able to create my classes after initiating my own account, and then set up each of my students in a class with a username and password. Weebly has been very thoughtful in their planning for teacher oversight of the student websites. I don't have to allow the websites to be public right away, but I still have access to view all of them.
All of the other tools are used sporadically throughout the week. If you have any questions about how I use these other tools on my list, please let me know!
Photo by Maddie Keating, "One Hundred Eighty Four," from Flickr, licensed via Creative Commons.
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