Ed Tech in Our Classrooms

 Emma Parks wrote: For my 10th-grade social studies class, my teacher use Twitter for a current event project. Our class was divided into five groups, so about 5 students per group, and were given a current event to focus on. For part of the assignment, each group was to create a Twitter page dedicated to updating our followers about the current event.  We were required to post a  minimum  of one update per day. For example, if a group was assigned COVID (fortunately it wasn't a thing back then!), an update might be about vaccine mandates or the number of current cases. We also were required to follow other Twitter pages that focused on COVID, which helped us find more information. We were encouraged to like and retweet posts that we found interesting.  My classmates and I really liked this assignment because Twitter was something most of us either had or knew a lot about, and it felt like a very hands-on way of learning! I am planning on being an elementary sch...

On Gamififying our Teaching: Using games as an assessment tool takes away the heightened anxiety that most students get when it comes to having to take assessments. Games like Kahoot, or Jeopardy can still allow the teacher the opportunity to assess their students without giving them a paper-pencil test. I think this is a great tool, and I actually would love to use this when I have a classroom of my own. Image courtesy of KQED

On a smartphone, do a search for "tiger" and you may see a simple image, on your phone, of a Bengal Tiger. If it says, "View n 3D" please give it a click. If you get the option to "View in your space" please take advantage and do so. Now. If you can make it happen, it is a wonderful opportunity to introduce your students to Augmented Reality (what the cool kids call AR). Try doing a similar search for other animals. Drop the images in your classroom, with your students, with your family pets, and have fun with AR. Now think about how you can use this tool in your teaching.

 Using a very simple-to-use tool (https://3dp.rocks/lithophane/) I created a 3D Lithophane on my 3D printer. It looks like a block of plastic but when held up to the light reveals the photographic image.

 What a fine-looking group of students I have this year. Here are the first 22 who responded to my challenge to add their background-free faces to an image of my class. The next 22 will have a bit of time fitting themselves in but I'm sure they will.