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When it comes to computers, I'm asked, "What should I look for when buying a computer?" My usual response is to ask, "What will you be using your computer for?" This is where things can get a little more complicated. Many times, I hear that a powerful computer isn't needed. This brings me back to the days when I built customized computers for educators. As stated, the premise was that not much was done with a computer. But then people would explain they only need a laptop for school work, including wanting to do some video editing. I would then explain when working with video, you need to keep two things in mind: first, video is the most graphic-intensive thing you could do with a computer. Secondly, video files take up much hard drive space and require enough RAM to handle video. When I would give them a quote for a computer, I would hear..." I saw a computer for x-amount; why are yours more expensive?" My next question would be what this advertised computer contains regarding motherboard, processor, video card, RAM, hard drive size, and what type of monitor. The answer usually was, "I'm not sure."
I mention all of this so you can remember the above when selecting a computer or laptop. You can view the various computers, laptops, and portable devices, knowing that if I were looking to purchase, I'd be comfortable purchasing any of these.
Desktop Computers
Laptops
Chromebooks
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When it comes to technology tools for teachers, I have to admit I'm always searching for the best. For me, it is often the ones that have that WOW factor. Here are some tools you can investigate to see if they work for you. Please remember there are many more than I've listed here. As time passes, I may add more as I investigate the latest, most excellent tools.
Classroom Management |
Create Presentations |
Grading Rubrics |
Grade Slider |
Learning Management System |
Pre-assessment & Review |
Remote Access & Screen Mirroring |
When it comes to Classroom Management tools in today's digital age, there are no magical solutions. What I find works best is tools that get students involved in their learning. When students are invested, classroom management worries seem to diminish. That isn't to say they disappear; it's more like they don't take center stage.
Besides Classroom Management tools, there are a number of tools available for teachers to use. If you're looking for options to create lessons or presentations for your students and are looking for tools to allow you to create these lessons, you might want to consider the following tools.
One of the most excellent things about having an iPad handy is when I am grading students' projects. Sometimes, I would create a museum-style project center in the library. As students displayed their projects around the library, I could walk around the library and use a rubric app to record grades and add comments on the fly.
For those who have been teaching for a while, you might remember those old cardboard slide graders. Determining a grade is a little like deciding on a tip. If I want to give 20%, it's pretty easy to determine the amount. The problem is when you have an odd number, how do I determine the grade? With these handy grading apps, it make it very easy.
One of the most powerful tools available to teachers is when they put a Learning Management System (LMS) into place. LMSs take what presentation apps can do and move beyond simply offering presentations. More interactivity is built into an LMS, though how much depends on which LMS you decide to use. I'm biased in my preference for which one to use. Over the years, I've gone with Moodle. A few years back, when I was teaching a graduate-level course on web-based course development, one of the students sang the praises of Edmodo. Edmodo was so popular that a number of conferences that I attended used Edmodo for all presentations. There was an almost cult-like following when it came to Edmodo. Then Google Classroom came along, and people jumped ship regarding Edmodo and started singing the praises of Google Classroom. I've used both of these LMSs but have stuck with Moodle due to the power of what it can do. Moodle is a little like the tortoise and the hare. These other LMSs come along, and everyone races to join in using them. But there is Moodle, which is still moving along with the ability to add additional free plugins that expand what it can do. One final thing to consider is who owns the material. In most cases, Moodle is locally hosted, and therefore, the school owns the material. With Google Classroom, since it is in the cloud, you don't own the material.
There are a number of tools out there that allow teachers to utilize their computers or mobile devices to create fun interactive activities for their classrooms. Some activities allow students to use their own devices at their desks to respond to questions, quizzes, or other interactive activities.
Plickers is one of my favorite tech/old-school tools to use in the classroom. Why do I call it tech/old school? Because it is a combination of the two. As the teacher, you use tech, and students use old-school cards that they hold up to answer questions. You can print out your cards or order laminated cards from Amazon for $19.99.I choose to order the laminated cards so I can use them repeatedly. Another great thing about Plickers was before using it, my school had one set of slammers that teachers would try to reserve and then scramble to see who was hiding them away in their classroom. You can use three versions: a free version and a paid version, which offers more options at $5.99 per month if you purchase a yearly account or $8.99 per month if you pay monthly. | |
Bookwidgets is a powerful widget builder that lets you create rich, interactive widgets that you can drop right into your Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams for Education, Moodle, Canvas, itslearning, or Schoology. BookWidgets empowers teachers to set up tailored exercises that can be automatically graded and distributed to students with a click. The activities you create with BookWidgets work equally well on Chromebook, PC, and Android tablets. All you need is a web browser. The cost for individual teachers is $9.95/month or $55/year. Teacher Group - 5 teachers is $55/year, and 10+ teachers is $39.50/year. | |
Quizlet is a study aid in app form. In essence, it's a flashcard app with smart features and it can handle images, diagrams, various languages, and even audio uploads, so it's ideal for self-paced learning and studying. You can make your own flash-card study sets, get access to study sets created by instructors, or browse for sets created by other users. It has built-in adaptive learning, meaning it pays attention to the questions you get right and wrong and makes sure you work on the most difficult material. There is a free version, or you can subscribe to Quizlet Plus for $35.99 per year. | |
Quizizz is a learning platform where teachers can create lessons, conduct formative assessments, assign homework, and interact with students. The teacher controls the pace as the class goes through each question together. You can also create student-paced lessons/quizzes in which you can see a leaderboard and live results for each question or lesson. Prebuilt quizzes are also available for use. An individual plan costs $12/month, billed annually at $144/year. |
Do you ever feel like you are chained to your computer? Your computer may be connected to a whiteboard in front of your classroom or sitting on your desk. As you're explaining a lesson to your students, you have no idea whether students understand or are following along. With remote access software, you can free yourself from being stuck in one place and unable to move about the classroom freely.
Airparrot 3 lets you wirelessly mirror your screen or stream media files to various receivers. In my case, I had upgraded my Apple TV device at home and brought my old one into class. I hooked it up to the whiteboard and projector unit in the front of my classroom. Later, I purchased Reflector 4 (see below) and used that instead to mirror my screen. With iOS Air Parrot, I could walk around the classroom and control my computer through my iPad.Air Parrot Remote (iOS version) costs $7.99. AirParrot 3 for Education costs $17.99. Not sure if it will work for you? You can download and try it for free before you buy. | |
Reflector 4 allows you to mirror your device to your computer. So, I can take what I have on my iPhone or iPad and display it on my desktop computer with a larger monitor. I can mirror multiple devices at one time. I can also use it to record anything I'm doing on my device. This is especially handy when creating demos, walkthroughs, or tutorials, which I will share with students or other educators. Since I'm constantly introducing new technology, it makes it easy to show how to do something on a device. For example, if I want to show students how to use the Moodle App for their iPhones, I can easily record it and post the how-to on my website.I can download and try the program for free, and if it works for me, I can purchase it for $19.99. | |
Splashtop Classroom allows you to share your screen with devices. Students can participate in lessons on their own devices. Once connected, students can view, control, and annotate lesson content directly on their devices. There are three options to subscribe: Classroom Basic ($29.99/year per teacher) allows three students to connect at a time, Classroom Plus ($99.99/year per teacher) allows up to 40 students to connect at a time, and On-Premise ($99.99/year per teacher) allows schools to deploy Splashtop Center to be hosted on their internal server. |
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Digital Educational Resources & APPs: Find Items for Education - All Subject Areas
Arts & Music | Classroom Management & Teacher Tools | Computers | Cross Curriculum |
History & Social Studies | Language Arts | Math | Science |
Student Tools | |||
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Books for Educators - Browse for Yourself
Technology Integration:
Google Apps:
Google Classroom:
Microsoft Office:
Tools for Creating Online Tutorials & Guides:
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Getting Started 1. Open up HyperStudio and click on New Stack |
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2. Click on File and select Save Stack. 3. Give your stack a name and save it into HyperStudio Folder. |
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Adding Background and a New Card: 4. Click on Edit Menu and choose Erase Background. 5. Select a color for your background and click OK. |
6. Click on Edit and choose New Card. 7. Select a color for your background and click OK. |
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Adding a Button: 8. Click on the Objects Menu and choose Add A Button. 9. Under Type select the top right button. 10. Next to Name type Go Back. |
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11. Click on Show Icon and select hand pointing towards the left and then click on OK. 12. Choose a color for your Name and a color for your background and then click OK 13. Click OK again. |
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14. Place your pointer in the middle of the box and while holding the mouse button down, drag the button to the bottom left hand corner. 15. Click outside of the button. 16. Under Places to Go select Previous card. 17. In the Transitions box choose Rain and then click OK and then Done. |
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18. Test your button by clicking on it. Once at card 1 click on the Objects Menu and choose Add A Button. 19. Under Type select the top right button. 20. Next to Name type Go Forward. 21. Click on Show Icon and select hand pointing towards the right and then click on OK. 22. Choose a color for your Name and a color for your background and then click OK. 23. Click OK again. 24. Place your pointer in the middle of the box and while holding the mouse button down, drag the button to the bottom right hand corner. 25. Click outside of the button. 26. Under Places to Go select Next card. 27. In the Transitions box choose Barn Open and then click OK and then Done. 28. Test your button by clicking on it. 29. Return to Card One. |
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Adding a Text Object: 30. Click on Objects Menu and select Add a Text Object and click OK. 31. Drag the box to the top middle part of the screen. 32. Move your mouse to the bottom part of the box and when your pointer has arrows up and down hold the mouse button down and drag the box up towards the top of the screen so that the box is about 1" wide. 33. Move your mouse to the left side of the box until the mouse has arrows pointing left and right and holding the mouse button down drag it towards the edge of the card. Do the same for the right side of the box. 34. Click outside of the box. |
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35. Select a color for your text and a color for the background that matches the color of Card 1. 36. Click on Draw scroll bar, scrollable, and draw frame so that an X does not appear in the box. 37. Click on Style 38. Click on Bold, Outline' and Shadow so that a X appears in the box next to the words. 39. Select 24 For the Size. 40. Click on Left (next to the word Align) and holding the mouse button down select Center. 41. Click OK and then OK again. |
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42. You should now see a blinking cursor in the top middle section of you card. Type HyperStudio Project 43. Click on the Tools Menu and while holding your mouse down, drag the Tool Box down to the left side of your screen. 44. Click on the Text Box tool (the one with a T inside of the box). 45. Double click on your headline and click in the box next the words Read Only and then click OK. |
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46. Select the Hand Tool and you will see that you can no longer type in the box. 47. Click on Objects and choose Add a Text Object. 48. Click outside of the box. 49. Go to Styles and click on Plain and select 12 for the size. Make sure Align shows Left. Click OK. 50. Select White as your Background Color and click OK 51. Type‑ See what I can do with HyperStudio, 52. Make this Text Box so no one can write in it. |
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Add Clip Art: 53. Go to File and choose Add Clip Art. 54. Scroll down to Computer 1 and click on it and then click Open |
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55. Using the square box (already selected hold the mouse button down and select the woman at the computer. Starting at the upper left hand corner of picture drag mouse down to the lower right hand corner past the woman. Marching ants should appear around the woman at the computer. 56. Click OK. 57. Click inside the picture and while holding the mouse down move it to the left and in the middle of the card. The Text Box should be covering part of the picture. 58. Click on the Edit Menu and choose Effects ‑ Scale and Rotate. In the Scale actor box type 50 and then click OK. Click outside of the picture. 59. Click on the Objects Menu and choose Add A Graphic Object 60. Select Addy and click Open. 61. Using the Lasso tool select a picture of Addy by holding the mouse button down while you draw a circle around Addy. The dog should have ants marching around it. Click OK. 62. Drag the dog to the right of your Text Box. Click outside of the dog. |
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55. Using the square box (already selected hold the mouse button down and select the woman at the computer. Starting at the upper left-hand corner of the picture drag the mouse down to the lower right-hand corner past the woman. Marching ants should appear around the woman at the computer. 56. Click OK. 57. Click inside the picture and while holding the mouse down move it to the left and in the middle of the card. The Text Box should be covering part of the picture. |
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58. Click on the Edit Menu and choose Effects ‑ Scale and Rotate. In the Scale actor box type 50 and then click OK. Click outside of the picture. 59. Click on the Objects Menu and choose Add A Graphic Object 60. Select Addy and click Open. 61. Using the Lasso tool select a picture of Addy by holding the mouse button down while you draw a circle around Addy. The dog should have ants marching around it. Click OK. 62. Drag the dog to the right of your Text Box. Click outside of the dog. |
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Add a movie clip: 63. Click on the Objects Menu and choose Add A Button. 64. Under Type select the one with the marching ants(lnvisible button). 65. Make sure the Show Name and Highlight buttons are not marked. 66. Click on Show icon and select little apple film strip and then click on OK 67. Place your pointer in the middle of the box and while holding the mouse button down, drag the button to the middle of your screen. 68. Click outside of the button. 69. Under Things to Do, select Play a movie or video. 70. Click OK. 71. Select Saturn Movie, make sure the Show Preview box has a X in it , and then select Open. |
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72. The movie should now appear on your card. Click outside of the movie. 73. Click on box next to Show first frame and then click OK and then click Done. 74. Click on the little filmstrip and test out your movie! |