Technology Evolves Quickly!


Teachers have wonderful tech tools to choose from these days. I am positively jealous that many of the tools below did not exist even three years ago when I left the classroom. As the E Learning Coordinator of my division, I get to review and train others on the latest tech tools, which I have to admit, is pretty fun! All of the tech tools featured in this post are remarkable, user friendly, and (likely) will be available on your school’s network. These tools are best for students in different grades.

So, here are my top 25 picks for digital tools for the upcoming school year!

For creating lessons to digitally share with students:
1.  Computips Technology– include already preformated Tablets computers, filled with all the relevant subjects needed by students. And we have a great tool for teachers to always stay in control of the class.
2.  OfficeMix– make your powerpoints interactive with polls, questions, videos, and more!
3.  Prezi– creates awesome presentations.  This is for you if you are sick of “plain old PowerPoint.”
Instant polling: perfect for quickly checking for student understanding, collecting quick data, and engaging students.
4. Socrative- ask true/false, multiple choice, and short answer questions to your audience! There’s a fun “Space Race” game that splits your group into two and puts them “head to head.” Whoever answers the most correct questions fastest, wins.
5. KaHoot– totally feels like a a game…but it’s a quick and fun way to assess students’ knowledge.
6. PollEverywhere– also asks a variety of question types to poll your audience and get immediate feedback.
Current Events: why not promote reading and a global perspective in any class you teach? Making connections to what’s going on outside the walls of your school is always a good idea to engage your students.
7. Newsela– provides current event articles on the students’ reading level and interests.
8. CNN Student News– quick 10 minute news video with discussion questions.
Connecting Home and School
9. Remind– have parents/students sign up for text alerts without having phone numbers. You can even schedule reminders in advance.  It’s just one more way to connect and bridge school and home.
10. Edmodo– create an online community and practice digital citizenship at the same time. Students/teachers have access to subject content, polling, quizzes, discussion boards, badges, “snapshot” which assesses students competencies (VA Standards of Learning; Common Core), and more!

Videos and Resources for Video Watching:
11. Youtube (of course)- my favorite channels include Crash Course, Khan Academy
12, 13.  Zaption or Educanon– both use Youtube and Vimeo to embed questions within videos for students to answer as they watch.
14. Hippocampus– a wide variety of  videos and interactives, best for upper level subjects/students.
15. Seesaw– the Digital Learning Portfolio. See my quick review here for more information about why it is awesome.
16-20 Core APPS:
21-23 Productivity tools:
  • Zipgrade– instantly grade assessment and get data quick!
  • Evernote– organize everything, share notes/notebooks, create checklists, and more!
  • Pinterest– create boards (like my TechnoED board) to organize awesome Internet finds!
24. Powtoon– create fun and easy animated videos.
Here is an example of a Powtoons video I made for our online summer school students to view.
25. PicMonkey– I love using it for simple graphics like the ones I use for my blog.
As you can see, there are plenty of free options to choose from when integrating technology into your classroom. The key is to use technology to enhance your instruction. Make sure the tool fits your final goal and serves a real purpose- don’t just use technology for the sake of using technology. All of the featured technology tools found in my blog fit into my criteria for recommending technology.  See the list below!
Source: http://www.edutechchick.com/teachers-tech-tool-kit-top-picks-for-2015/
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Education Technology (also known as “EdTech”) refers to an area of technology devoted to the development and application of tools (including software, hardware, and processes) intended to promote education.
Put another way, “EdTech is a study and ethical practice for facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.”

Although this developing field may sound like a specialized niche, its potential implications are far-reaching and affect many segments of the population. Read on to find out if you’re among those most likely to benefit from the advancement of EdTech, and how you can contribute to its growth.
For Educators and Educational Institutions…
“Geeks can’t teach, and teachers can’t geek.” – Caleb Clark #EdTech
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Caleb Clark, educator and EdTech expert, summarizes the importance of EdTech this way: “Geeks can’t teach, and teachers can’t geek.” What exactly does he mean by that?
The great tech minds tasked with creating the data-driven processes and applications that facilitate learning may understand solution-implementation–but they can’t stand in for educators when it comes to disseminating knowledge.
Conversely, strong educators aren’t necessarily equipped or inclined to deal with all the technology available to them and develop ways to apply it to their discipline. They will be the first to tell you that there are enough challenges in their day-to-day work without our asking them to become IT experts, as well.
“If developed and applied correctly, #edtech has the potential to become industry-changing”
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Services like Alma and Engrade provide one-stop solutions for teachers and schools, while illustrating just how far EdTech can take us. If developed and applied correctly, educational technology has the potential to become truly industry-changing for educators–streamlining time-consuming processes (like lesson planning, reporting, and record-keeping) and simplifying communication–with even farther-reaching implications for educational institutions themselves.
EdTech Magazine cites the capacity of this technology for providing institutions with “a very clear understanding of any number of points of reference — student progress, budget performance, alumni snapshots; the list of possibilities and insights truly is limitless.”
For this reason, the future of education relies on an ongoing dialogue between educators and educational institutions, and professionals in the tech world.
The future of education relies on educators, institutions & tech professionals
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For Technologists and Designers…
For tech professionals, this means a growing and ongoing need for development in the area that is able to scale as evolving devices and technology multiply avenues for information delivery. And that’s a tall order in a landscape where these elements are developing almost more quickly than they can be understood and applied to the field of education.
Not surprisingly, the current rate of EdTech development is leaving gaps. The recent Software & Information Industry Association’s 2014 K-20 vision survey revealed a “high desire for more technology integration–and need for more support–at all educational levels.”
The annual survey, which polls nearly 1,000 educators across every tier of K-20 education, was released in June during the International Society for Technology in Education’s 2014 expo and indicated that “the ideal level of technology integration is significantly higher than current levels.” EdTech Magazine highlighted several findings from the report, including the following pain points:
  • The majority of K-12 respondents do not feel “highly prepared” for online, summative assessments: 42 percent say they have adequate bandwidth, and 36 percent say they have enough devices and other hardware for students.
  • Three-quarters of K-12 respondents say technology integration is highly important, but their current levels and ideal levels of integration do not align: Only 22 percent say their schools are already highly integrated.
These findings signal a need for technological and professional development on every level of EdTech, and the presence of unique career opportunities.
For Career Seekers…
While a number of job-seekers wish to find work that is simultaneously fulfilling and profitable, the two don’t always seem to go hand in hand (just ask a teacher).
However, the dramatic increase of venture capital investment in Education Technology promises just that.
Forbes remarks, “Whereas teachers generally top out at around $80,000 (and only if they get masters/doctoral degrees), education entrepreneurs have shown that making money and doing good are not always misaligned.”
Whether you’re embarking on a new career or considering a switch, the promise of the growing educational technology field delivers enticing opportunities to apply your skills in an environment with true global impact.

For Everyone Else…
At the risk of over-evangelizing the importance of Education Technology, it can be said that the successful development of these tools will impact every aspect of our future. Accessible, effective solutions for superior education empower students and teachers to focus on the task of learning. They can do more with the resources they have, improving the quality of education available to young people around the globe, and better-equipping them for the future.
These are our imminent engineers, architects, and doctors–the leaders of social and political movements to come. Making sure they have the best means available in order to prepare them for these roles ensures a brighter future for all living creatures, and for the planet itself. The next generation faces no shortage of challenges–it’s our job to see that they face no shortage of support in order to overcome them.
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