Tech Integration at the next level

At Bowling Green State University you will receive a hands on mastery of current digital tools and the best practices of integrating technology. You can create a good meaningful learning environment, have an effect on your fellow colleagues, and become a leader at the local and national level. You will be taught by an expert faculty, with an accreditation in the International Society for Technology in Education Standards for Teacher Coaches (NETS-C).     

Chromebooks in The Classroom

Google Chromebooks range from around $149 - $429, if a school district is on a tighter budget they could go with the lower priced ones and have one class set. The class set could have a home in the library and teachers can check them out different days of the week. Laptops in the classroom are important to have because they:
1. Are easily transportable
2. Allow students to collaborate on documents
3. Reduce the use of textbooks
4. Allow information to be at the students fingertips

Negatives to laptops in the classroom could be:
1. Students getting easily distracted
2. The cost might be an issue for some schools
3. Students could easily break them and they would need to be replaced
4. Students are so used to text lingo that they may use it in the classroom

The Chromebook above is around $300

Remind - The FREE School Communication Resource

Remind is a FREE communication tool for schools.  Instructors can use this service to connect parents, students, volunteers, and peers to important information.  Anyone can create a thread and invite participants to join.  It allows the educator to send information to an entire class via text message, without sending a physical text.  I think this would be valuable tool for coaches and room moms, as well.

Throughout this semester, Jeff has used Remind to send us important reminders about EDT-211.  I've found it to be a valuable tool, as I check my texts far more often that I do my emails.  I definitely think this is a far more effective way of communicating, especially with parents, opposed to paper notes home.

Beck and Bo App

As both a parent of a toddler, and an early childhood educator, I've found that it's difficult to find truly education apps for 2-3 year olds.  In my experience, most apps are geared more towards children ages 5 and older.

Beck and Bo is an interesting iPad app that appears to be both educational and fun for toddlers.  It's $2.99, but after watching the demo video, I'm sold.  I'll probably go home tonight and purchase it for my son's iPad.  It takes children on a colorful adventure, full of beautiful animations and interesting story-lines.  It claims to aid in building children's logic and vocabulary with interactive games and puzzles.

I plan to buy Beck and Bo and use my son as the guinea pig to test its effectiveness.  If it truly is as beneficial as it claims to be, I'll recommend it to parents of the preschoolers that I teach.  Parents are always looking for supplemental resources to use at home, in addition to the classroom curriculum.  The more resource we're familiar with, the better equipped we are for teaching!

3d Printers in the Classroom

3D Printers

What is the cutting edge in education? Grey's Anatomy first brought the idea of a 3d printer to my attention when it created a valve for a heart. Now I know that it is a fictional TV drama, but nonetheless, Grey Sloane Memorial is a teaching hospital! What better for the kiddies in our classrooms but to have first hand experience with designing and printing objects that could help steer their drive and passion towards the emerging horizon of this tech. The limits are only the barriers that our students face when confronted with the dilemma of thinking outside the (3d) box (they could design and create). The article that I found on the subject, was full of interesting aspects to the learning environment, resources to incorporate this tech into the classroom, and the ever important topic - student engagement. How would you incorporate the 3D printer into your class? What if I teach ELA? Math? I know what I would be doing for each discipline and more - do you?

iPad Art Room

Throughout this semester, I've been researching ways to incorporate technology into art education for my Google 20% project.  While searching for different resources, I came upon iPad Art Room.  iPad Art Room is an online resource for educator that combines "pixels and paint" that has ideas for teaching art in the modern-day classroom.  The site offers activities, articles, and even iPad app suggestions for educators to use, free of charge.  The great thing about this site is that it's not just for art teachers, any teacher who is looking to add some creativity to their lessons could benefit from the iPad Art Room's content.

An example of one of the suggested art apps, Terrific Tracing

Joe Schwartz
EDT - 211



MangoLanguages

I had the pleasure of graduating with my associate degree from WCCCD. One of the most amazing connections that I made was with the language department and access to Mango Languages. There are many language acquisition software and programs, to a myriad of YouTube videos to teach foreign languages, but this program has by far been very accessible. The lessons are easy to understand and follow along, the pronunciation guide is accessible, and the only thing that would be better is a connection to another speaker to video conference for an additional layer to support comprehension. I have my children practicing the languages of Spanish and German, but those are just the tip of the iceberg as there are 72 languages that you can choose from (even Pirate!). The program can be pricey ($20 a month/ $175 per year); however, one could access the site for free through participating public libraries in the US or Canada. I hope that you would try to experience this site and expand your cultural horizons travelling after you hit the lottery!!!!

Enhancing Story Time with BookTrack

    Remember the days, back in preschool or kindergarten, where the teacher would make us sit in on that infamous rug, forming a small circle around her? No talking was allowed as she pulled out a book and read to us, creating characters and animations with her voice. I remember, for me anyway, it was hard to concentrate or stay focused on the story being told. I'd get distracted by various things in the room and by the time I finally focused back on the story, it was over.

   But, those days are long gone. Now, with this awesome website titled "BookTrack," story time can be something to look forward to! BookTrack is the creator of the e-reader technology that incorporates multimedia such as music, sound effects, and ambient sound. Now how cool is that!? No longer do students have to dread story time! Now they can get engaged in the story and essentially become apart of it too! Not only is this book available for schools but an avid reader can experience this too! Plug those headphones in and become a part of story as if you were actually there! Reading has never been cooler!

To learn more, click the link here: BookTrack

On This Day In History

The app, On This Day In History, is an app that lists important historical events that happened on today's date. It a calendar that you can use to pick what day it is, and from there it lists things that happened on that day. It lists events from most recent to oldest, and even includes birthdays for famous people, as well as when famous people died. Today in history, 12/5, includes the formation of the AFL-CIO labor union in 1955, the ratification of the 21st amendment in 1933, and the day Charles IX became king of France in 1560, among others. Famous birthdays include Morgan Freeman, Margaret Cho, and JJ Cale. Famous deaths include Nelson Mandela, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Claude Monet. Each event or figure can be clicked, which brings you to its or their Wikipedia page. I check this app everyday to find something interesting to read about. I really enjoy this app and think you will too!

Plickers - easy way to assess.

Plickers (found here) is an app that is used to help keep track of student responses. With Plicker each student in a class is assigned cards that they use to answer questions that are projected in the class. When the students are ready to answer the multiple choice question they raise the corresponding card and the teacher simply scans their phone across the classroom to find out student responses. The responses are automatically recorded, which allows the teacher to keep track of data easily. Having this app makes it much easier to keep track of each student to see if they are making progress. This app also would make it easier to conduct in class surveys.

A quick video can be found on youtube by clicking here

Kidspiration

Kidspiration is the visual way to explore and understand words, numbers, and concepts.  It provides a cross curricular visual workshop for grades K-5.  With this software students can combine pictures, text, numbers, and spoken words to develop vocabulary, word recognition, reading for comprehension, writing and critical thinking skills.  

This will help your students;

-Develop strong thinking skills.

-Strengthens reading and writing skills.

-Build a conceptual understanding in math.  

You can try it free for thirty days, then become a member. It's so easy and convenient to use you just download it from the website.   I highly recommend that you check out the website to learn more about Kidspiration.  I found out about this site from when I was doing a lesson review and critique.  

Check out Kidspiration <--- Click here. 

Babbel

Babbel is an online learning tool that can be used to learn a different language and can also be used for English language learners. There are a variety of languages available to learn such as German, English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Indonesian, Dutch, Polish, and Russian. Once you choose the language, you have the option to pick either beginner or advanced. This website is free to use for the beginner's account and after registering you can begin your lessons. For full access the all of the courses you can choose from 1 month for $12.95, 3 months for $.8.95 per month, 6 months for $7.45 per month, or a year subscription for $.6.95 per month. This is a great website to use in schools for English language learners that struggle with keeping up because they cannot understand the directions for their homework. This interactive website also allows users to add and invite friends to share their learning experience together! I think this website is a good way to learn different languages and it is cheaper than its rivals such as Rosetta Stone, however it may just be better to stick with the free trial if the paid does not offer as much as its competition does.

Draw and Tell

Draw and Tell is a free app available through apple. With Draw and Tell students can easily create an animated screencast complete with voice, drawings, images, and objects. Students can draw, color, and insert stickers or stencils onto a scene. They can create on a blank scene or a formatted coloring scene. Students can even record themselves while they move objects on the screen which results in an animated screencast. Once done, they can save their screencast as a video file to I-pads. Using the app their is a variety of sticker options to choose from such a cartoon animals, vehicles, clothing, foods, household items, and cutouts, as well as numbers and letters. At the top of the scene is a microphone that allows students to record themselves. They can record their voice as they move an object on the scene and describe what is going on.  For example, students might draw their favorite animal and then record their explanation of what they are and why they drew it. They might describe a pattern they see or color patterns they create.  Each of these activities can help teachers better understand what students know, think, feel, and understand about a particular topic.