ClassBadges is a free online tool where teachers can award badges to students for accomplishments or academic mastery. Through your teacher account, you can award badges customized for your classroom or school. Badges can easily be aligned to academic goals or associated with existing school awards.
“Newsela is an innovative way for students to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that’s always relevant: daily news. It’s easy and amazing. Register now or learn more about the impact Newsela can have on your classroom.”
“Infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics can be used to explain complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. They are also used extensively as tools by computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians to ease the process of communicating conceptual ideas.”
This a self-paced, scaffolded technology integration course for educators. This course was the collaborative effort of school districts all over the nation- and the content for this course was created by technology integrators, classroom teachers, Google Apps Certified Trainers and Teachers, and ISTE award winners. All of the suggestions we give are grounded in practice- they are techniques we actually use and we know work! We’ve flipped this course so that you can learn when you have time, and we’ve created templates, videos, and resources so that you can start using those tools right away.
Keyboarding – Next Gen Assessments
Regardless of the subject area, most next generation assessments require students to type many of their responses. Students need to be proficient with keyboarding skills so they will not be slowed down considerably by their own typing speed. Otherwise the assessment may not be a true measure of their content knowledge, but instead be negatively impacted by their typing proficiency.
“The purpose of this website is to collect and share free online resources that can be used to help students develop familiarity and proficiency with the technology skills they will need for next generation assessments. These resources include sample assessment items and interactive online activities that simulate the types of technology tasks students will need to complete.”
Write In Private: Free Online Diary And Personal Journal | Penzu
Penzu is an online diary and personal journal that is focused on privacy. With a unique and compelling user experience, it makes writing online as easy and intuitive as writing on a pad of paper.
Create Free Interactive Timelines – Stories Displayed on Maps | myHistro
“Watch and read thousands of fascinating timelines, or create your own. Complete with text, video and pictures to create a dynamic timeline mashup. Using myHistro, you can combine maps and timelines seamlessly into one great presentation, convert any public timeline into a personal pdf file, or export it into Google Earth format for offline storage. All completed timelines can be embedded into your blog and websites for maximum exposure.”
What’s your digital footprint?| Smore
On the Internet a digital footprint is the word used to describe the trail, traces or “footprints” that people leave online. This is information transmitted online, such as forum registration, e-mails and attachments, uploading videos or digital images and any other form of transmission of information — all of which leaves traces of personal information about yourself available to others online.
Digital Passport by Common Sense Media | Digital Passport
“Digital Passport is fun and effective.
Web-based games and videos engage 3rd – 5th graders in independent learning
Modules zero in on critical skills related to digital safety, respect, and community
Collaborative classroom activities reinforce online lessons
Students earn badges toward a Digital Passport
Teachers get robust reports to demonstrate student success
Currently available on the web and coming soon for mobile devices
Supports responsible use policies and E-rate
FREE to your school thanks to generous support from our sponsors”
graphite | Ingredients for effective teaching
Graphite™ is a free service from nonprofit Common Sense Media designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers.
InCtrl :: Digital Citizenship Lessons for the Classroom
“Digital citizenship education empowers students to make thoughtful decisions and develop a sound digital foundation for the rest of their lives.
Cable in the Classroom brings you a series of free, standards-based lessons that teach key digital citizenship concepts. These lessons, for students in grades 4-8, are designed to engage students through inquiry-based activities, and collaborative and creative opportunities.
Digital Citizenship is a holistic and positive approach to helping students learn how to be safe and secure, as well as smart and effective participants in a digital world. That means helping them understand their rights and responsibilities, recognize the benefits and risks, and realize the personal and ethical implications of their actions. Helping a student become a good digital citizen cuts across all curricular disciplines.”
How To Use Google Forms To Create Your Own Self-Grading Quiz
“Google Forms are amazing tools, allowing you to do some really advanced tricks with forms as the front-end and spreadsheets at the heart. Once you get started you’ll be amazed at just how much you can achieve with this basic premise. Today we’ll look at how to create a self-grading quiz using Google Forms. From there, you’ll no doubt find a lot more ways to use forms and spreadsheets.”
5 Flipped Classroom Issues (And Solutions) For Teachers | Edudemic
“By giving students the opportunity to view and playback lessons via video, you free up class time for more cognitively difficult tasks. At EdTechTeacher, we have worked with many educators on flipping their classes and have noticed some common issues that often thwart their initial forays.”
Free Technology for Teachers: 43+ Alternatives to YouTube
“Excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, not every teacher can access YouTube in his or her classroom. That’s why a few years ago I compiled a big list of alternatives to YouTube. Over the years some of those sites have shut-down, started charging a fee, or have switched into another market. So this evening I went through and eliminated some sites from the list and added a few new ones. My favorite five alternatives to YouTube are listed below.”
As a Technology Staff Development Specialist, I spend quite a bit of time finding the best resources for the teachers in my district to use as they are starting to effectively integrate technology in education. This blog serves as a place for me to share these resources and every once and awhile my insights into technology in education.
Please let me know if you have any sites you would like me to highlight.
Enjoy!
