Top 10 Tools to Use in Your Classroom (Part 1)

There has been a change in our classrooms—a substantial change. This change has altered everything about the 21st-century classroom, yet the education system wasn’t designed for this change. This change is students.  In his article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” Marc Prensky (2001), claims that “today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.”  Our students think differently because of technology. They are “all ‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (Prensky, 2001).

Technology has forever changed the way that our students learn. It is up to us as educators to “speak the language” of our students. Here are my top technology tools for the classroom.

Tools I have used before

Google Classroom—I am a huge Google Apps fan.  I love the Google Chrome browser. For students and teachers who are already familiar with the Google platform, Classroom is easy to use with little to no learning curve. Classroom is Google’s Learning Management system. Because it integrates Google’s other products, it essentially provides a paper free classroom. Tracking student progress is simple, and teachers can sync their grade book with Classroom. It does require a free Google Apps for Education account, but it is fairly easy to set up.  Watch this video to learn more.

Easy Bib EDU—It is research paper time. Your students can barely keep track of their everyday classroom supplies, let alone their research notecards. Easy Bib helps eliminate that problem. Not only will Easy Bib create accurate MLA reference pages, but the new EDU site allows students to make virtual note cards with text or audio. Easy Bib will also sync with your Google Drive account allowing students to access their resources and type their papers from anywhere.

Screencast-O-Matic—You have a class of 30 students, and it is presentation time. If you want each student to give a 10-minute presentation, you are losing a minimum of 6 days of instructional time, and other students will not be engaged. Screencast-O-Matic is an easy tool for students to record their presentations and add audio. This is also a great tool for you as the teacher to record your lessons whether for a student who was absent or a flipped classroom environment. One of the best things about Screencast-O-Matic is that you aren’t limited to just recording a presentation; you can record anything on your screen. The free account limits your recordings to 15 minutes, but the Pro account is only $15/year and is well worth it. Watch this video for a quick overview.

audioBoom—This is a great resource for audio recording that is available on web, iOS, and Android platforms. Students and teachers can create their own channels where all of their recordings are stored. Students can create podcasts on specific topics and share via many social networks. Audio files can also be downloaded straight to your computer.

Poll Everywhere—Poll Everywhere is a great tool for informal assessment. Teachers post a question or survey and students can respond via text, twitter, web, or smartphone app. Data is shown in real-time in the form of graphs or word clouds. The Educator account allows for up to 40 responses per poll. The biggest limitation, in my opinion, is that every student must have access to a device in class. If you know ahead of time that not all students will have access, you might want to consider Plickers. 

To keep this post a reasonable length, I have separated it into 2 parts. Look for the next part soon.

References:
Prensky, Marc. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5), [PDF]. http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf