Technology
Today's K-12 students are natives of the digital universe. Technology influences how students listen, read, think, and engage with their world.
Fortunately for the educator of the 21st Century, technology is on our side. Technology is a powerful tool for capturing student's attention and harnessing their imagination. It can also be a great tool for helping students with learning differences to leverage their personal strengths against areas of weakness.
On this page you can see some of my favorite technologies for the classroom.
Fortunately for the educator of the 21st Century, technology is on our side. Technology is a powerful tool for capturing student's attention and harnessing their imagination. It can also be a great tool for helping students with learning differences to leverage their personal strengths against areas of weakness.
On this page you can see some of my favorite technologies for the classroom.
SMART Boards
These digital whiteboards are the gold standard of engaging classroom technology. They allow you to incorporate interactive, virtual manipulatives into your lesson plans and are built tough enough that you can feel comfortable letting your students come to the board to use the touchscreen technology for themselves.
SMART Boards give you access to everything you need on your computer, plus Notebook software which allows you to organize your presentation into pages, and you don't have to give up access to your whiteboard. You can write on top of anything on your screen, and save your notes. You can even convert sloppy handwriting into digital text.
The SMART Exchange is another benefit of having this technology in the classroom. Teachers all over the world share their lessons and interactive digital manipulatives, so you always have a good place to find inspiration for your next lesson.
SMART Boards give you access to everything you need on your computer, plus Notebook software which allows you to organize your presentation into pages, and you don't have to give up access to your whiteboard. You can write on top of anything on your screen, and save your notes. You can even convert sloppy handwriting into digital text.
The SMART Exchange is another benefit of having this technology in the classroom. Teachers all over the world share their lessons and interactive digital manipulatives, so you always have a good place to find inspiration for your next lesson.
Edmodo.com
Edmodo.com helps teachers create a safe online environment where teachers can monitor activity, and control who can see and access the forum. This is a great tool for giving your whole class access to a common set of files, or an activity, and having them all submit their work through edmodo.com back to you (no thumbdrives, email, or cd's needed). It is also a great way to have students collaborate. They can view and comment on comments in the forum, which helps generate new responses and ideas.
This tool is free, extremely versatile and accessible to any classroom with internet access.
This tool is free, extremely versatile and accessible to any classroom with internet access.
Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint is easy to use, readily available on many classroom computers and provides a great way for students to express their learning through a combination of text and images. PowerPoint presentations make good activities for students who are quickly exhausted by the graphomotor demands of writing, or typing essays. It also emphasizes the importance of identifying the most important information, and the art of summarizing. My students like using PowerPoint because they know that it is not a program that is just for kids, and they are able to make professional looking presentations that demonstrate the full extent of their learning.