Ed Tech in Our Classrooms

Last week I was in Washington DC at the National Technology Leadership Summit (http://ntls.info). They brought together a group of a group of presidents of various educational technology groups as well as senior editors of a number of education journals. I was there as a member of a technology committee and it was quite interesting. We were discussing technoethics in my subgroup.  Oh, and the Whitehouse was just visible outside one of the windows.

Game-based assessments are a great way to take away the stress and anxiety of typical pencil and paper assessments. Games are interactive and allow students to explore the concepts while remaining engaged, so why not use games as a form of assessment? Often teachers use lessons that are activity-based to check for understanding throughout a unit of study.  What if the activity-based lessons can be used to assess a student? Below is a list of my top three game-based apps that I think would be great for assessing students’ understanding of concepts. Kahoot- Allows a teacher to create a short quiz to assess students. It is game-like because you are competing with other students in your class for the top score. The teacher can create their own questions to make sure the assessment aligns with the learning objectives. Scores are recorded for the teacher to review and can easily be transferred to a grade book. Word Clouds- allows students to create a word cloud. A word cloud is an outlin...

T echnology and social media are very valuable resources in this day and age. Social media allows people of all ages to communicate, share information, and discover new knowledge that they may have never thought about before. All sorts of social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit… etc., provide opportunities for collaboration among teachers and students. I believe that including social media within the classroom environment is super beneficial because of the new doors that open to the world of possibilities. I have had teachers who have used Twitter to share information that they thought was valuable for the students to learn. Teachers can share images, text, or even links to posts that they thought were interesting. Not only that, but teachers can share ideas with other teachers and reach a larger audience outside of their school system.  Teachers can use social media to acknowledge other students, promote events/learning opportunities, and alert students of h...

 I came across this great list of ways to use Google Forms that fit almost every classroom. shakeuplearning.com/blog/30-ways-to-use-google-forms-in-the-classroom-suls0125/

Here is the CEO of ISTE, Richard Culatta, explaining a large photomosaic at the Arlington offices. The image was made up of 3,120 photos taken at the ISTE Conference in 2018.

This week I taught a class of virtual students created by a company called Mursion . Imagine a puppeteer behind the scenes providing the dialogue. My job as the teacher was a lead a discussion and the students reacted with pre-determined responses.  The Intensity Level was set to "low" so there were no disruptive students or smartphones. I could ask them to raise their hands if they wanted to respond. It was only a slightly terrifying experience but they ended up being a sweet group of fictitious high schoolers.

 The mask mandate for students and faculty is the most minor of inconveniences. We are all just so happy to be back in the classroom. Shared with permission.