9 EdTech Tools For Gamified Vocabulary Assessment, Reading Skills, SEL Digital Life & Art History

Blooket, ArtBabble, PTable, Bookshare, SEL In Digital Life

Blooket is an engaging and gamified review tool for students to use in class. Would be a great tool for vocabulary or end-of-unit review. Can link to quizlet sets as well. https://www.blooket.com/

Ptable.com is a highly interactive periodic table with capability to examine properties, electron structure, isotopes, and compounds.

https://ptable.com

Bookshare Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading. https://www.bookshare.org/cms/

ArtBabble Tips For Using ArtBabble in the classroom: Tips for using Art Babble in the classroom Art resources for students and educators organized by theme, medium,period, style,location and people.

http://www.artbabble.org/

SEL In Digital Life Support your students' social and emotional learning as they navigate the digital world.

https://www.commonsense.org/education/SEL

Take A Screenshot On A Chromebook: To launch the Screen Capture toolbar, you need to press a three-key shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+Show Windows. The Show Windows key is up on the keyboard's top row with an icon that looks like a window with two windows stacked behind it.

https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chromebook/howto/take-full-screenshots/

Which One Doesn't Belong? "Looking for warm-up activities that encourage class discussion? Try images based on the ""Which One Doesn't Belong"" game! Create a Google Classroom Question that encourages students to post a response that justifies which image doesn't belong with the other 3 (see example) " http://wodb.ca/index.html

National Data Privacy Day: Check Your Google Web & App History Settings

Digital Learning Choiceboard Tools To Support: SEL, Special Education, Student Feedback, World Language

December Choice Board Tools & Resources 2021

This video is an overview of a digital learning choice board with a wide range of tools that are apps, resources, and extensions. In the ELA category is Flipgrid as you can empower students with their voice, and also encourage understanding comprehension of student writing and you can have students record what they read with other students. You can have students express their voice, read other writing, share, give feedback, it's overall a great tool. You're able to have a group of students record videos that get all curated together where they can then watch other videos and give feedback.

The next tool is Historyview.org. This is a very cool tool that has curated images and VR experiences based on geographic location for free. This is an easy way to bring historical sites and museums to the classroom. VR headsets are not required to experience the resource and it works on all devices. In the video, I visit a location in Africa and view the images of a museum.

Desmos is a free suite of math software tools. The cool thing about Desmos is that you can use Desmos to also track student progress and in the video, I share an example on Parabolas. Desmos has a built-in graphing calculator and also a scientific calculator as well. Many math teachers are already aware of this tool but I know they're continually expanding the problem sets that they're adding, and also the different types of calculators.

In the area of Assistive Technology is Google Read & Write. This is an extension that you add to Google Chrome for students using a Chromebook or on a teacher device that can read the text to the student when selected, they can also color code the text when it's read. This tool provides text to speech in the classroom as a teaching tool and can support the student with the teacher or the student can use this on their own. This is an add-on and it needs to be enabled within the organization if you are a Google Education School. There are free accounts for teachers that are available if you contact a representative from a reseller Google Read & Write.

A world language resource is Easy Accents. This is a tool in which where you insert accents for different languages directly from the sidebar of Google Docs. This is another add-on and basically, when someone is working on a Google Doc and typing in a different language, this allows them to have different types of accents, whether it's French accents or Spanish accents. These aren't always readily available on the local keyboard unless you change a keyboard language setting.

DBQ Online is a Social Studies tool that allows students to be able to do research, take notes, annotate documents and then formulate their notes so that they can then write research papers and also right in the online cloud environment.

Google Arts and Culture is a very cool website. This site has games and it also allows students to engage with artwork from around the world with virtual museums and artists. There are amazing resources to learn about art mediums movements, historical events, and political figures. You can also favorite art, artists, and location like a lot of other tools, learn about art museum exhibitions near you.

For Social Emotional Learning there is the EverFi scenario-based digital SEL curriculum EverFi is a free digital resource that is available for K-12 schools. They have a scenario-based K through 12 social and emotional learning curriculum that you can embed in with your teaching, for elementary, middle, and high school. A wide range of tools and options are available. Its a great option if you're looking for some resources related to social-emotional learning that you want to bring into the classroom and they also have an amazing digital citizenship curriculum and financial literacy curriculum.

That's just a quick roundup of some amazing tools on the digital choice board for December. I'll put the link in the description of this video for the board.

Free Tools & Strategies to Protect Your Kids When Gaming or Browsing Online

Social Media, Password Policies, and Meaningful Discussions At Home

In an age where digital entertainment and online resources are an ever-present part of our student’s lives, it is also important to be prepared with a simple toolbox of tools and guidance to help you not only manage the screen time of students but also their vulnerability to online threats and inappropriate content. I have identified a few simple suggestions and resources which I use in my own home that I think will be helpful to you as well.

Charge & Use Gaming Computers, Laptops, and Chromebooks In Central Locations

Children who are using devices should never be allowed to isolate themselves in their own rooms or have too much control over their own access to the devices. Keeping devices in central locations like living room tables, kitchen counters reduces the likelihood of responding to an inappropriate online chat request or visiting inappropriate sites. It is also an opportunity to start a conversation with them around how and what they use the device for and develop positive and regulated work habits with digital technology. Consider dedicated on and off times for devices and charge devices in an open area or parents’ bedroom.  Always ask your children who they chat with online and create a dialogue at an early age.

Review Policies of Apps & Resources

Talk with your child about the age-appropriateness and content found on specific apps like Instagram, Tik-Tok, and Snap Chat. All of these social media apps have an age requirement of 13 and above. These restrictions are part of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) enacted in 1998 ( https://icac.scag.gov/age-child-use-social-media/). Be sure to monitor devices you have provided your child for social media accounts that may have been created without your knowledge.

Discuss Creating Safe Passwords

Discuss with your children the value of their personal identity when creating a username and good password. Safe passwords reduce the chances of hacked accounts and online security concerns. Be sure passwords have as many numbers and symbol characters as possible and do not include common words or keyboard sequences of characters. Try to have passwords be as unique as possible between different sites.

To review your own or your child’s password which uses a Google Account visit the tool http://passwords.google.com and do a review of the strength and security of all of your passwords using a specific Gmail address.

Create Schedules For Devices In Your Home

Both Verizon and Xfinity have parental control apps that support controls for managing app usage, device connectivity schedules, and restricting access to specific sites. I personally create child profiles and monitor the dedicated time on a specific app or restrict usage past a specific time. Use the links included to begin investigating the tools and try to use them to manage your child’s connection to your home network. I would add that the benefit of these tools beyond managing your child’s devices is that they assist in helping you to perform your own network analysis of the devices, usage, and network security and connection speeds. The links below are the links for Xfinity and Verizon parent controls.

Xfinity Parental Controls

Verizon Parental Controls

Review the Appropriateness of Movies and Digital Resources Together

Use the request of a movie or digital resource from your children as an opportunity to use www.commonsensemedia.org to review the age and content appropriateness together. This website which also has an app is an amazing way to quickly review the age-appropriateness and content present in movies and digital resources. This site will assist with starting a dialogue on what types of content is appropriate for your children’s age and allow you to make decisions together and develop a method for reviewing content they request in a way that you can both understand.

All of these resources, tools, and strategies require creating a sustained dialogue with children on their choices and habits with using technology independently. It also requires a commitment to discussing appropriate resources regularly and monitoring your child’s behavior online consistently. No one tool or resource will fully protect your child and you need to be proactive to understand how they use technology for social connection and entertainment. Develop a plan for managing the devices in your home and have regular conversations with children about the sites they visit, the resources they use, and who they connect with online.

A Year Of Shifts: Reflections On Pandemic Digital Education

Which of these items do you think will stay at the forefront of the discussion?

When we look back a year, two years, or even a decade hopefully we will be able to identify some of the shifts that happened in 2020 that caused us to look differently at the world of digital education and student learning. I wanted to take a moment and share a few of the broader topics that I have encountered as part of a COVID time capsule of the shifts in digital education. Which of these items do you think will stay at the forefront of discussion?

Technology Reliance In Education

During the peak of the pandemic, the increased frequency of the use of technology and its reliance as an instructional tool created learning environments that were the bridge for incredible enhanced collaboration between teachers and students and opened the doors for global communication and sharing of resources, instructional approaches, and tools. 

Based on the frequency of collaboration online still happening as the return to the classroom begins the ever-present opportunity to meet virtually or share resources in a digital format should remain. I think many have learned that it has become the most efficient and offers many features in-person meetings don’t offer such as each collecting feedback through video conferencing add ons like polls and digital whiteboards.

Deeper Dives Into Effective Instructional Models

The deep dives educators and leadership have taken at reviewing the variety of instructional models has pushed a new level of active creativity with educator style, delivery, and resources. Whether the approach was remote or hybrid the ideas and concepts shared to how these models support the wide range of student needs was solution-based and provided a rich opportunity to review best practices.

Internet Connectivity & Bandwidth

Creating solutions for the increasing divide of internet connectivity for students and families with limited access was brought to the forefront during remote learning. Districts needed to plan to support these needs and grants became available from the federal government to provide wireless hotspots but in the long run, it serves as only a band-aid to a larger problem.

Ideally, the federal government will use the data collected regarding the need to support more households with devices and internet access and create more federally sponsored opportunities for schools and families to utilize the benefits of high-speed connectivity. This is an issue that existed prior to the pandemic and hopefully has developed some steam and much-needed attention.

Increased Comfort Level With Digital Tools 

Moving forward, opportunities for educators to build upon their experience and continue to enhance the learning and application of new tools need to be supported with new and unique professional development options. These options should be considered in all formats from virtual conferences, hybrid approaches, and offerings that support the deep dive many educators have taken to deepen their learning to meet the expanded student skills set that has come with long-term remote learning.

Enhanced Collaboration & Sharing: Student & Educator Technology Skills & Enhanced Resources

Many of the learning groups (Facebook Groups, List Serves) that I have followed related to teaching resources continue to thrive and share resources broadly. There has been a window in the past several months in which the strategies for new ideas and shifts in approaches of in-person learning have been discussed. We are yet to see the depth of how technology will be implemented upon school return and the desire of educators to maintain their implementation of tools and resources in digital portals and learning management systems. The remote learning period has marked a tremendous level of improved technical skills and a greater level of comfort with the adaption to more technology in the classroom

Hopefully, these shifts cause us to look differently at the world of digital education and student learning in a time in which technology supports so many solutions. Many educators are anxious to return to their classrooms and begin to work with students in person. There are however several important experiences that we have all gained from the struggle of adapting to new learning and teaching modalities that have framed the past year of educations and there is much to gain from a review of those experiences.