Applying tech tools to meet classroom needs.
Google has included OCR (Optical Character Recognition) functionality in both Google Keep and Drive. You can simply upload an image of inaccessible (printed) text and convert it to a digital format which can now be used with a wide variety of tools to make the learning more accessible for students. We discussed this tool and…
This is the first in a series of videos I am going to do where I take about 3-4 minutes to discuss technology use in the classroom. Each video will be about 50% pedagogy and 50% technology as we need to ensure that we have strong pedagogy whenever we use technology, or anything, in the…
The other day I was in a Language Arts class working with some students around Google Search tips and techniques. Knowing that we are now living in the information age, when we have access to so much information, it is more about how you find the information as opposed to what information you know. We…
I have been using a Swivl for a couple of years now and I believe it is a great tool. I am part of the Swivl Pioneer Program and received a Swivl to try out but that is not the reason why I like the Swivl so much. I like it because I believe that…
One of my favorite outcomes of technology being so readily available and cheaper for students to use, is that our students can make use of green screens in videos that they create. There are so many apps or programs out there that have the ability to do the green screen effect well that this is…
Swivl recently released an update to their software, also a new app (https://www.swivl.com/pro-plus/), that allows you to use multiple iPads to record at once. You can have up to 5 iPads recording video, and audio, at once. This allows you to easily record up to 5 different students, or groups, in a classroom at once.…
As someone with pretty much no artistic ability whatsoever, I am continually looking for images and graphics from others to use in my resources and presentations. I always look for copyright free media or media that has a Creative Commons license for reuse/remodification. This is why I like to use https://pixabay.com/ so much but there might…
For my first time teaching a college level course (4 week online seminar class for College of Education students), I wanted to make sure I was following all of the research I have read since my last time teaching. One of the biggest things I have read was on the impact of effective feedback and…
Earlier this year we purchased Swivls for each building in our district to be used by our teachers in their work in the classroom, as well as their work with our instructional coaches. The Swivls are great when we want to record classroom situations to be shared with others, but they can also play a role…
One of the areas that I am trying to focus on lately is the focus on intrinsic motivation of teacher learners. As someone who helps to design professional learning experiences and for my work on my Gamification of Teacher Professional Learning Project (Project Falcon), it is important to understand how we can improve the motivation…
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