#1 Google Products
Alice Keeler's website is an amazing resource for using Google products in the classroom. http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/
#2 Everything under the sun
Kathy Schrock has an amazing set of educational technology webpages. http://www.schrockguide.net/ Everything is geared towards educational technology. Need a rubric for a tech project, she has it. Need an ipad app, she's got you covered.
#3The Differentiator
http://byrdseed.com/differentiator/
The Differentiator is a Bloom's Taxonomy-like tool set to help differentiate a lesson. Lots of cool action verbs!
The Differentiator is a Bloom's Taxonomy-like tool set to help differentiate a lesson. Lots of cool action verbs!
#4 Rebus - picture words
http://www.festisite.com/text-layout/rebus/
This website lets you create picture words. Great for starting a lesson or whenever you want to have some fun with words. This is also a great way to get students to think about something - maybe a warm-up or an anticipation guide-type of activity.
This website lets you create picture words. Great for starting a lesson or whenever you want to have some fun with words. This is also a great way to get students to think about something - maybe a warm-up or an anticipation guide-type of activity.
#5 SmartBoard Templates and Tech PD
http://www.teq.com/erc-categories
If you have a SmartBoard, but you struggle with creating your own templates, or don't know where to begin, go to this website and check out the templates. The templates are grouped by subject. Download the template and then open it with the Smart Notebook program. The beauty of these templates is that they are easily changed so you can put your own material in there. Want a Jeopardy template? Download it and then change the questions and answers yourself. Designing the template is the hardest part and they have done that for you!
Teq also has quite a few professional development webinars that they offer, and many more free how-to guides. This is a great resource!
If you have a SmartBoard, but you struggle with creating your own templates, or don't know where to begin, go to this website and check out the templates. The templates are grouped by subject. Download the template and then open it with the Smart Notebook program. The beauty of these templates is that they are easily changed so you can put your own material in there. Want a Jeopardy template? Download it and then change the questions and answers yourself. Designing the template is the hardest part and they have done that for you!
Teq also has quite a few professional development webinars that they offer, and many more free how-to guides. This is a great resource!
#6 Pete's PowerPoints
http://www.pppst.com/
While PowerPoints may have sort of gone out of style, it is still a pretty powerful tool - if you have a nice template. Pete's PowerPoints might have those templates. These templates are easily adapted to whatever material you want to put in them, and they look great. This is a great resource for those times when you need a PowerPoint, but just can't think creatively, or don't have the time/skills to create your own templates.
While PowerPoints may have sort of gone out of style, it is still a pretty powerful tool - if you have a nice template. Pete's PowerPoints might have those templates. These templates are easily adapted to whatever material you want to put in them, and they look great. This is a great resource for those times when you need a PowerPoint, but just can't think creatively, or don't have the time/skills to create your own templates.
#7 Lynda.com
http://www.lynda.com/
While YouTube is a wonderful resource for how-to videos, finding videos that are actually well produced can be very tricky. Lynda.com is not free, but they have professionals producing high-quality videos for many programs like iMovie, Garageband, iBooks Author, PowerPoint, Word, and so on. If you want to become an expert at one of these tools, Lynda.com is your best best.
While YouTube is a wonderful resource for how-to videos, finding videos that are actually well produced can be very tricky. Lynda.com is not free, but they have professionals producing high-quality videos for many programs like iMovie, Garageband, iBooks Author, PowerPoint, Word, and so on. If you want to become an expert at one of these tools, Lynda.com is your best best.
#8 Teacher Tech Guides
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/p/teacher-guides.html
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has some really good teacher guides on how to use apps and programs in class. These guides are great for seeing how other people view a certain technology and how they might use it in class. Great starting point or a great way to see what others are doing! |
#9 Technology Rubrics
http://edtechteacher.org/assessment/
Not good at designing your own rubrics? Not good at starting a rubric, but you can adapt an existing rubric? Well, I have a site for you! The Ed Tech Teacher has a lot of rubrics involving technology. There are lots of rubrics to choose from, as well as many different styles. There are also links to megasites that have even more rubrics.
Not good at designing your own rubrics? Not good at starting a rubric, but you can adapt an existing rubric? Well, I have a site for you! The Ed Tech Teacher has a lot of rubrics involving technology. There are lots of rubrics to choose from, as well as many different styles. There are also links to megasites that have even more rubrics.
#10 Literature Map
Literature Map is a fantastic way to discover similar authors. Simply type an author's name into the box, hit enter, and watch all of the similar authors pop-up. The authors are grouped together by similarity on the page. What a great way to find authors who are very similar to the ones you enjoy reading! My example used Gary Paulsen and you'll see his name in the middle of the screen.
#11 Free Software from Autodesk
http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/all Autodesk, maker of AutoCAD and other software, actually has a free set of software for teachers and students. If you need a CAD, drawing program, or any one of a bunch of cool art design programs, this could literally save you thousands of dollars. Scroll down the list to see what is available. I just wish I was a better artist as there are some real gems in here. This is only a screenshot. Trust me, there are a lot more than this that they are offering. There are even some really cool physics programs in their list.
#12 Holistic Approach to Technology Enhanced Learning
This is a really neat interactive map that shows you where a theory probably started out, who wrote about it/created it, the name of it, and a brief description all in one place. I could totally see using this for a quick guide to learning theory, or as a model for creating my own maps about differentiation, scaffolding, and cooperative learning. I like how resources can be attached to the any of the boxes. Below is screenshot, but don't worry as you can scroll around to see the whole map on the website. http://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1LGVGJY66-CCD5CZ-12G3/Learning%20Theory.cmap
Maybe this could be done with ecosystems as well, or historical events and the people involved. I love resources that open the doors of creativity!
Maybe this could be done with ecosystems as well, or historical events and the people involved. I love resources that open the doors of creativity!
13. Programming vs Coding
I was recently watching a tech podcast and came across an interview from a neat guy who teaches math and programming. The coolest part of his idea is the part where students use math and equations as the basis of creating a game. I could really see students getting involved in this and could just as easily see their math abilities grow along with it. Please check it out as it's a free program and is aligned with the Common Core Standards. http://www.bootstrapworld.org/materials/Spring2014/Standards.shtml
Maybe the students could use this in a club environment as there are many students who want to program/code. However, this approach really teaches programming and less about coding that could be very useful for them down the road.
Maybe the students could use this in a club environment as there are many students who want to program/code. However, this approach really teaches programming and less about coding that could be very useful for them down the road.
14. Capturing YouTube Videos
One of the areas we struggle with at our school is bandwidth. We struggle with bandwidth at school and many of our students struggle with bandwidth at home. YouTube is a great resource, and it's only getting better over time. It used to just be a place to see silly cat videos, but now there is so much educational content on there, as well as content teachers place on there for their own students.
However, it's not really fair to expect students to be responsible for viewing YouTube content when they do not have internet access, or the enough bandwidth to actually complete the task. It's also kind of hard to watch a video in class (it's even worse when there are a class full of students trying to watch videos) when bandwidth is limited. One of the best things we can do sometimes is to give students the option of putting the video on a flash drive so they can actually do what you are asking them to do. Enter a YouTube downloader that actually works.
http://www.clipconverter.cc/ Clipcoverter is a web-based program that lets you download YouTube videos to different formats and sizes - which is very useful. It also lets you convert and download a video to an audio file - great for books and podcasts!
However, it's not really fair to expect students to be responsible for viewing YouTube content when they do not have internet access, or the enough bandwidth to actually complete the task. It's also kind of hard to watch a video in class (it's even worse when there are a class full of students trying to watch videos) when bandwidth is limited. One of the best things we can do sometimes is to give students the option of putting the video on a flash drive so they can actually do what you are asking them to do. Enter a YouTube downloader that actually works.
http://www.clipconverter.cc/ Clipcoverter is a web-based program that lets you download YouTube videos to different formats and sizes - which is very useful. It also lets you convert and download a video to an audio file - great for books and podcasts!
15. Printing Only What You Want to Print
While we would all agree that people who create websites, especially for a living, need to actually make a little money off of their work. However, we have all also found really neat webpages with advertising that is totally inappropriate for the classroom, or it takes-up so much room that it is a distraction. We could do the old fashioned print, cut, paste, and recopy, but that is a lot of work and may not turn out that good.
Print What You Want http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/ is a website that lets you paste in the URL and edit-out the stuff you don't want in there. This edited info could be advertising, but it could also be answers or something you don't want to have the students worry about right now. They also have a bookmarklet that makes it easier to get to the editing portion of your job.
This is great for cutting down on printing, or actually being able to use a site because you have gotten rid of advertising. It's a really neat resource to have as we move more and more online. Team this up with a pdf printer like Cute PDF, or print to a pdf using the Mac's built-in printer software, to go edited paperless!
Print What You Want http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/ is a website that lets you paste in the URL and edit-out the stuff you don't want in there. This edited info could be advertising, but it could also be answers or something you don't want to have the students worry about right now. They also have a bookmarklet that makes it easier to get to the editing portion of your job.
This is great for cutting down on printing, or actually being able to use a site because you have gotten rid of advertising. It's a really neat resource to have as we move more and more online. Team this up with a pdf printer like Cute PDF, or print to a pdf using the Mac's built-in printer software, to go edited paperless!