15 Tech Tool Favorites From ISTE 2016 The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference brings together a huge cross section of educators who share a common belief that technology in the classroom can make learning more relevant, engaging and fun for kids. Among the 20,000 or so conference-goers are ed-tech evangelists, teachers new to technology, passionate makers and many others. Educators at the conference are looking for new ideas and tools to bring back to their districts and classrooms. Monica Martinez creates professional development for the EdTechTeam, a partner of Google For Education. She has tried and vetted many of the apps available to teachers on many different platforms and has compiled an in-depth list of resources that can help educators find what they need.
Differentiating Homework Using Edmodo Tagged with: elementary schoolGoogle DocsSmall Groups This is a guest post from Jimmy Sapia, a 4th grade teacher at Springdale Elementary School in Stamford, Connecticut. The full version of his post can be found on his blog at mrsapia.wordpress.com. If you are interested in contributing to the Edmodo Blog, please complete this form. Edmodo is a tool that transformed how my classroom operates.
Zoho Writer vs. Google Docs & Microsoft Word Online: Is It Time to Switch? When it comes to fantastic online word tools you are spoilt for choice. But only three can claim to be complete, full-fledged word processors: Microsoft Word Online, Google Docs, and Zoho Writer. The last of these has recently been overhauled, and the new Zoho Writer 4.0 seems like a real challenge to the big two. The focus of the new app is about reducing clutter in the interface, and making tools easy to find for a writer. Far too often, you might be stuck trying to add a particular type of table, or can’t figure out how to make an index/table of contents for your document. Zoho Writer 4 wants to reduce that effort from you, so you can concentrate on writing alone.
Gamification with Edmodo created by Bobby Brian Lewis What is Gamification? Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems. How I use Gamification with Edmodo I create small groups under my main group on Edmodo each small groups My Go-to Google Tools for Social Studies Classrooms Over the years I've used a lot of Google tools in my social studies classes. Some of those tools, like Wonder Wheel and Notebook, no longer exist, but many still do. Here are my five go-to Google tools for social studies classrooms. Gamification in Education: Top 10 Gamification Case Studies that will Change our Future New to Gamification? Check out my post What is Gamification & my Gamification Framework: Octalysis Education Gamification in Action.
100+ Great Google Classroom Resources for Educators Google Classroom allows teachers to easily manage student work and teaching with Google Docs, Google Forms, Google Spreadsheets and anything Google. This handy tool has opened up the doors of blended learning and collaborative classrooms like never before. Teachers wanting to implement Google Classroom can use these resources to get started, level up their learning, or become a pro at all things Google. But there are so many sites! I’ve spent several weeks combing through resources and have picked some of my favorites.
Students Need PD, Too Many times teachers, parents, and administrators refer to students as "digital natives" and simply assume they know how to do everything when it comes to technology. While they may be tech savvy and fearless about adopting and exploring new technologies, I find that they too can benefit from strategic professional development. When I started my first year as an educational technologist for Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, I had the pleasure of working with a phenomenal Latin teacher, Natalie Cannon, on a long-term class project. Though this was a project that she had done for years, we met to see how the iPad and specific apps could elevate student content and delivery. My role in what I came to call student professional development ultimately fell into two categories from there.
5 Powerful Speech to Text Apps for Chrome Users Speech to text technologies allow you to transcribe your speech into text in a couple of clicks. Most of the established platforms integrate this kind of technology. For instance Google has it integrated with some of its services like Google search. You can click on the mic icon in the search bar and start speaking, Google will automatically type in your speech and run your query. The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have There’s been a lot of talk recently about what it means to be a learner in the 21st Century. Earlier this year, we put together a guide with skills important for students today. So, why not a list for educators, too? The list goes beyond technology and social media. Check out what skill we think makes a modern teacher, and let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments below. Image via flickr and Chicago 2016
Google Search now has a RGB/Hex color converter Google has been working to bring more and more functionality directly into search results, without the user having to visit a seperate site. You can now find your IP address, run a speed test, convert units, and more all from Search. Following that trend, now Google has added an RGB to Hex converter. If you're unfamiliar, RGB and Hex are both color spaces used to identify colors.
What Makes a Teacher Special to a Student? Great teachers are constantly evaluating what works to help their students learn. But teachers don’t often hear what impact they have made on students. In a rare treat, we hear from one former student reading from a journal he kept during middle school.