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 The Village School of Naples **__ STEAM and Innovation Center __** The purpose of this site is to bring quality __//**technology integration**//__ tools and ideas to create the most __//**innovative classroom**//__. Below you will find a list of technology resources as well as our professional educators classroom achievements, designed to enrich the curriculum and enhance the student experience and online presence!

(__**By pressing the Ctrl + F keys on your PC (Command + F on a Mac) you can search for specific keywords on this page**__)

 __** Know Recorder **__ Ever wanted to create a step by step video and walk students through a particular math process or diagram something? Whether it's a math problem, correcting a draft for English, or a science diagram, Know Recorder gives you the FREE opportunity to create and share whiteboard style videos where teachers can write or draw right on your computer or iPad! In addition to the whiteboard feature you can also import PDF documents and write over handouts/worksheets to better illustrate for students. This is a resource that works across all devices, computers, iPads and more. Check out the video below and the link to their site. media type="youtube" key="FSqgPcX7xks" width="560" height="315"

__** Student Response and Engagement **__ media type="youtube" key="zz8t54fK6gI" width="560" height="315" Create more interactive, dynamic and engaging classes using student response programs/apps to get students involved in your class discussions. There are many ways to get your students into the conversation, especially those who may be shy or afraid they may be embarrassed. These interactive programs/apps give teachers valuable information and let students get involved in a fun way that allows them to express themselves in a less stressful manner. Here are a few to get you started... Padlet - Students can view and post to a "wall" and share opinions and thoughts. Socrative and Poll Everywhere - both offer live polling and online assessment in real time. TodaysMeet - a back channel for students to ask and answer questions during or after class. Game based Programs/Apps provide a fun and interactive way to make any curriculum more dynamic. These offer a wonderful way to spice up even the most mundane vocabulary or worksheet! Quizlet Live - Quizlet Live is game based vocabulary game that puts students in teams and creates a competitive game based on YOUR vocabulary. Kahoot - The most amazing interactive game based learning system. Be prepared for excitement...a lot of excitement!

 __** Google Classroom **__ Google Classroom is the best content delivery system in our Google arsenal of edtech tools. It not only allows teachers to deliver a wide range of content (worksheets, links, YouTube videos, all your Google Drive content) but also gives students a fast and easy way to turn in their homework, projects and more! It's free for educational institutions, available in app form on all mobile devices (no website surfing or entering bulky usernames and passwords) and all under one Google Apps roof. This creates a simple and unified student experience across all classes. Not only does it allow teachers to deliver and collect content in their classes, but now Google Classroom allows you to assign different work to individual students. Want to differentiate your assignments per student per class (or different assignments per group), well you can with Google Classroom. I put together a quick video to walk you through a few features, including differentiated assignment. media type="youtube" key="6Bbm7-WQY9g" width="560" height="315"

 ** Google Voice Typing in Docs ** Ever wanted to //**dictate your document or comments**//? Want to go hands free and let your voice do the work? Well now you can...thanks to the new Voice Typing feature in Google Docs. Using your Chrome browser, open a Google Doc, go to Tools and select Voice Typing. An icon of a microphone will appear on the screen. Click it and start dictating! Language teachers, this is also available in multiple languages, but I think it reads like an Australian trying to speak french using spanish verbs. Fun! Check out the video walk through I've included. Happy comment dictating...in English!

Here is a link for those who like step by step directions. This also has certain voice commands for punctuation that help while dictating. I write many of my comments with this. Very quick and accurate.

Link to directions here! media type="youtube" key="0zzlYvrnp7I" width="560" height="315"

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__** Gmail and Conversation Mode **__ The purpose of Conversation Mode in Gmail is to keep your Gmail Inbox compressed by taking all emails from a particular conversation, or string (those who reply or reply all to your email) and keeping them together. It's a personal choice really of how you want to manage your emails and how you want them to appear. The video below will show you how it works and how to turn it off and on for those who wish to use this feature (which is on by default). After watching, if you have any questions please let me know. media type="youtube" key="ZDvKZJicJLc" width="560" height="315"

__** Word Cloud in Google Docs **__ Interested in creating a word cloud for a class project or just something to get the class going with an icebreaker activity. Google makes it easy. You can create a word cloud right from a Google Doc using the Chrome add-on "Word Cloud Generator". What's great about this is that it's simple and all under one Google roof for tools, which make the experience so much easier for teachers and students. Simply share a Doc with your students or teachers and when done launch the word cloud Add-on. Don't know how...now you do! media type="youtube" key="d49CPXR2nKM" width="560" height="315"

 __** Google Drive Management **__ As we begin our happy adventure down Google Drive, it's important to remember that students, faculty and administrators will be sharing a lot of folders and documents within Google Drive. Staying organized is going to be paramount to helping our teachers and students stay on top of their work. Google makes this management unbelievably easy with a simple drag and drop functionality. The brief video below shows you how to create folders, move documents from with your Drive as well as moving Shared With Me files and folders into your Drive as well. media type="youtube" key="iWwcMGV-Vmk" width="560" height="315"



__ **New Year...New Opportunities!** __ The school year is upon us and we are faced with many choices of tech tools to help advance the curriculum and learning of our students. As a reminder this site contains a plethora of tech tool ideas, how-to videos and more! On the left you will see a navigation list of pages by topic. Please take a moment and look them over. They are free for you to use! The theme for this year (every year really) is to be willing to fail up if you will in regards to trying new ideas in your classroom. To inspire you to reach out and try new tools to engage your kids, check out the short video below from Pixar. media type="youtube" key="LVLoc6FrLi0" height="480" width="853"

__** Why Twitter? **__ Get connected to educators around the world (yes I said around the world!) and broaden your PLN (personal learning network). The more collaborative we are the more cohesive we can be as teachers and departments. Below you will find a brief video of how to get started with Twitter. Here are a few links to get you started with how to utilize this free tool in your classrooms! Twitter for Teachers  50 Ways to Use Twitter in Education   Boosting Student Engagement These short videos help illustrate why you should be using Twitter and what it can actually do for educators! Check out MA's Twitter hashtag for teachers resources #tmaed media type="youtube" key="ZYz9M70KVR0" height="479" width="848"

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 ** BLAB ** Blab Social Media Live Streaming Tool:

Ever wanted to do a book review (our have your students do one?), how about a study group for a test, or perhaps students debating a topic or discussing an historical event as a homework project? Blab can do that!

Blab is a social media tool that allows its users to have a live streaming video conference with up to 4 participants. In addition to that, many other viewers can participate in the conversation with a text version running on the side of the screen (think messenger on you iPhone). So the 4 main hosts of the live stream can take questions from those following on. Think Periscope and Skype had a baby and you get Blab! What makes this tool even better is that when the live stream is over, you can download the audio (think podcast) and/or the video (think YouTube or iMovie editing) and post them to other social media sites to share with even more people. It's free, its easy and it ties directly into your Twitter account! The video below is a how-to for about 10 minutes where you get a through walk through of what it looks like as well as how to conduct a live stream in Blab yourself! Oh and there is an app for it as well (Blab App). You can live stream a conversation on your phone! This makes it as mobile as it is social. media type="youtube" key="PGFhKMfIrcE" width="560" height="315"

 ** Quizlet Live ** Quizlet Live is a new collaborative review game built right into Quizlet. So you can create and/or use already existing sets of vocabulary terms to play the game. In a nut shell, Quizlet Live uses your sets of vocabulary terms in Quizlet. Student visit a website (quizlet.live) and put in a code from Quizlet and students are placed on teams. Unlike Kahoot, Quizlet Live is a team game. What's even better is that you can use your existing vocabulary sets on Quizlet! In the video below, I walk you through creating a Quizlet vocabulary set from scratch, how to easily import vocabulary from Excel or a Google Spreadsheet and how to start a Quizlet Live game. At the end of the video, i demonstrate how my class used it. It was a big hit and the students loved the team aspect of this review session. Check it out and as always, if you have any questions please just let me know! media type="youtube" key="2EEfeSSIj_Y" width="560" height="315"

 __** Google Docs and Comments **__ Sharing Google Docs and commenting are a great way to give students feedback on how they are doing. Recently, a few teachers and students have noticed that the comments they were writing were disappearing in Google Docs. There are a few things to watch for when creating and viewing Docs and the comments in the Docs. Make sure when you create a comment, you click the "Comment" button. If you don't, the comment will disappear. 2. Make sure you are in "editing" mode in the top right had corner. Below is a quick tutorial of how to make both of these suggestions work.

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__** VR and Education **__ Last night I traveled to Jerusalem, went diving with sharks, attended a U2 concert and looked inside the structure of a cell and more… all from my living room, via free apps for my iPhone for my Virtual Reality (VR) headset. Ever wanted to try Virtual Reality (VR)? Are you aware of YouTube’s "#360videos”? Want to know how this could apply to you in education? There are so many free apps for your iPhone, iPod and Android phones to try and headsets are as low as $19.99! This is a great experience for almost any curriculum! Want to check out a few #360youtube videos first. Open your YouTube app on your phone and search for "#360video". It’s an amazing technology you and your students will find very engaging!  Related Videos and Article:  Watch a dad’s reaction to being on Apollo 11 moon landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGVxud9N2gQ  Article about VR in Education (and other profitable areas): http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/23/when-virtual-reality-meets-education/  Google Pioneer Program (VR in Education): http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/23/when-virtual-reality-meets-education/  Latest roundup of VR Gear available: http://bgr.com/2016/03/03/best-vr-headsets-price-release-date/

__** Cliptomize **__

Christy completed a fantastic project in her Honors Psychology class recently. Studying the 4 personalities of psychology (funny…I thought I had more!) students had to create a book illustrating and explaining the 4 personality theories in psychology using a free web based tool called [|Cliptomize]. They discussed Freud as a class. She divided the kids into 3 groups and asked them to create a mini-textbook on each of the other theories. The link below is to their work. Great work Christy!

If you would like to know about this tool, or others, just let me know! You can find over 100 great engaging tools located on our tech website here!

[|Student Work Link to Cliptomize!]



__** The Science of Love on Valentines Day **__

Ever wonder how much science, math and health has an effect on you actually falling in love? Well this valentines day you can find out. In these Short yet comical and educational videos below you will gain a somewhat comedic idea of how love evolves, from the physical responses of our bodies (Health Class pay attention!) to the mathematical equations of the possibility of finding love (Math class...see technology can be interesting and fun!) and of course how biology plays a key factor in our development and why we do the things we do to fall in love! This Valentines Day remember, its not just about love...but the math, science and biology behind how it really happens!

The Science of Kissing (...as in the actual science and biology of kissing) media type="youtube" key="dwJ-wwF9XVs" width="560" height="315" align="center"

The Odds of Life and Love (no really...the mathematical chances of falling in love!) media type="youtube" key="TekbxvnvYb8" width="560" height="315" align="center"

 __** Google Tools **__ It has always been very easy for student to “Google” information. Often, that information is untrustworthy. But another alternative might be to guide them in a more accurate direction. In addition to our amazing library online tools available (click here!) Google offers so many free tools that can help separate the incorrect and/or bias information for more informative choices. Google Books, Google News and Google Newspapers are great free resources that give students access to not only free books (there are many textbooks for free as well!), but also headlines around the globe and newspaper archives from past and present. These are great resources that are free and readily available for all to access. Check out more information on these tools on our tech website located here!

Google Books (don't just find a book but search text within it!) media type="youtube" key="yyrHFXbeMu8" width="560" height="315" align="center"

Google Newspaper media type="youtube" key="lq9oKtErzWU" width="560" height="315" align="center"



** Spiderscribe ** Spiderscribe is an easy and free mind mapping software that allows users to create amazing brainstorming maps for projects, timelines and books/short stories they were reading. All of this saved in the cloud, downloadable and collaborative as you can share "webs" with anyone to view or edit! This program was launched a few years ago but has recently added some great features that make it easy to learn and use. The "webs" give you the ability to connect images, word documents and even map locations via Google Maps. This is an engaging way to help start the learning process regardless of what discipline you are in. Try Spiderscribe and let me know what you think! media type="youtube" key="h-iQGuKDkEU" width="560" height="315"

 EduCanon (now PlayPostIt) Watching videos in class or as homework can be useful, but often makes it difficult to see if students understand what their watching. EduCanon allows teachers to use YouTube videos and add questions as students watch. The video pauses while students answer different kinds of questions (multiple choice, free response, Check all that apply, Fill in Blank, etc.). Those questions are recorded on EdCanon’s website and teachers can see who watched the video and their responses to the questions. This is an easy and free way to take videos and make them more interactive as well as check for student understanding. media type="custom" key="27932251"

 __** Google Voice to Edit Docs **__ Ever wanted to edit a student document by dictating your comment? Well now you can (in your Chrome browser only)! Google, via your Chrome browser, allows you to in the Tools tab to by choosing Voice Typing. Its a great option for quality voice recognition software. I've used it for my students and it made the work much less cumbersome. A big thank you to Robert Franz for bring this to my attention! The video below will walk you through the short process to get you underway! As always, if you would like to know more about this program/app or any other tech tools just let me know! media type="custom" key="27894637" align="center"

 __** Plickers **__ Plickers is an interactive way to collect data from students on a variety of subjects. Each student gets a numbered personalized card (free and printable from the website) and each students card is unique. The teacher can ask a multiple choice or true or false question and the students will simply hold their card up to answer. Each card is created with 4 possible answer combinations (one side is A another B and so on). The teacher opens the app on the smart device (phone or iPad) and scans the room. Plickers app immediately sees each students response and creates a chart of all student answers (how many chose A or B and so on). This is a fun and interactive way to check for student understanding or any other data collection you may need. It also makes for great student presentations as well. As always, if you would like to know more about this program/app or any other tech tools just let me know!



Office Lens App Office Lens is a new app for iOS and Android (still in limited beta) designed for converting pictures of notes on whiteboards and paper into notes that can be edited in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. If you don't need to edit the notes that your take pictures of, you can simply export the file created by Office Lens to JPEG or PDF. Probably the neatest aspect of Office Lens is that hand-drawn images and figures captured through the app can be separated from the text to move and manipulate as individual objects in PowerPoint slides. See the video below for an overview of Office Lens.

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 Emaze Presentation Software Looking to spice up your old presentations? Presenting somewhere and want to make a good impression? Tired of PowerPoint or Keynote? Try Emaze! This new software program brings a new look and feel to your presentation. It offers all the usual bells and whistles such as embedding images, links, and videos but also offers a very cool 3D presentation style (see attachment below). You can also save these online or download them as well. They also offer a Twitter and Facebook sharing option. Check this out and let me know how it works for you! This is a relatively new program and some of the features are in beta (meaning there still being tested). They also offer a large collection of pre-made presentations that are searchable by topic and title. Enjoy!

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__** Dropbox and Sharing Student Work **__ Have you ever wanted to share your students work online, but didn’t know how? Do you hate having to ask parents and students to sign in on a site to view projects? Wish there was a simple way to display student work? Well there is…with Dropbox! For those who don’t know, Dropbox is a free cloud storage space. One of the great features of Dropbox is its ability to share links to your files and folders with anyone, anywhere, WITHOUT the need to login to a website. QR Code projects have always been a fun and easy way for teachers and students alike to share their work in a simple way without the need of emailing links or logging into Edline or Office 365 to share. Attached is a quick video tutorial of how to use Dropbox with email, Edline and [|QR Codes.] It’s simple, easy and free! media type="youtube" key="yA7fLBAFxOA" width="420" height="315" align="center"

As with this or other tech tools, I’m here to help you when needed! For more tech tutorials and links to various tools, please visit our technology website located here.

Scan this QR Code with the many free QR Readers available for your smart phones!



Kahoot! This is a great game based interactive system that allows faculty to create multiple choice questions for students to answer in a timed game. Each possible answer is given a symbol and students see those symbols on their device (Kahoot uses all laptops and mobile devices). Students must pay attention to your questions via the projector and select the correct answer via their own device. Several faculty have already used this program and the student interaction was amazing while advancing your curriculum in a new positive and fun way! If you don't feel like creating one yourself, Kahoot has over 1.3 million pre-made games already available and searchable for you! Happy hunting!! Give Kahoot a try! It's simple and free. As with this or other tools, please let me know if I can help you in anyway!



__** OneDrive for Business **__ __** for Mac Users **__

Below you will find instructions for Mac users to download and use the sync client for OneDrive for Business. What does that mean? For Mac users, now you can have access to your cloud files without having to go online. Email attachments or share files without the need to login to Office 365. This makes having access to and sharing your files quicker and easier!

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__** Piktochart **__ Piktochart is a free and easy way for students to collect and display data in an infographic way. Need to display election results by state or demographic, perhaps scientific data or math charts with some flare, color and pizzaz! Piktochart can be the solution to your needs and also creates a fun and engaging lesson for your students as well. It's free but does require a login account (Google and Facebook accounts are accepted to login...this makes it very simple). Carmen Raterman has used these before and can also help point you in the right direction. Check out the link below and let me know if you would like to schedule some time to talk about how it could be used in your classroom! This also makes for a good EdTech Challenge opportunity as we head into the new year!

== **__ Computer Coding in the Classrooms with Code.org __** Last year Code.org, an organization to promote computing coding in our classrooms, partnered with some big tech industry names, celebrities, athletes and politicians to help people learn to code. Coding is everywhere in our lives from the ATM machine to the car to the phones we all use. Yet education has yet to make this a priority in schools equal to math or science requirements. On December 8th the Hour Of Code will launch and millions of students, parents, teachers, and others will participate in the largest coding event in world history. Check out the links below to find out how you can be part of the free interactive and FUN event! media type="youtube" key="rH7AjDMz_dc" width="560" height="315" What's your state doing for computer science in education? Find out here! = = Start coding and learning here!

200 Free Resources Online via Open Culture Open Culture shares more than 200 free resources for schools. From free audiobooks, ebooks, and videos to physics comic books and a lovely foreign language collection. Ask them all to find one thing they can use. Every subject taught in your school pretty much. I surfed around the site and found some amazing resources that we could be using for free! Every subject is represented on this site. Check out this Physics video done in partnership with MIT and Khan Academy on the physics of the unicycle! media type="youtube" key="UzG9_8NgngI" width="560" height="315" align="center"

__** Alternate Assessment Ideas - Socrative **__

Tired of your old paper and pencil (…and scantron) assessments (maybe not the best question to open with?!)? Are your students (better question I think!)? Want to try something new (risk = reward…think Wolf of Wall Street minus the jail time!)? There are many ways to assess student understanding and knowledge. The myriad of tech tools out there can help you spice up your class to keep students engaged. From [|Socrative] and Poll Everywhere to Quizlet, Edline and more! In particular, [|Socrative] not only offers an alternative to paper and pencil, but you can share your assessments with others as well. [|Click here] to see the list of classes and their assessments via [|Socrative]. Literally, there are **//__more than 1100 assessments already created for you to use__// ** in [|Socrative] for almost every subject from Chemistry, Math, Biology, History, Economics, World Languages, and more!

 __** Pinterest and Place Boards **__

Classroom wall maps are an age-old classroom accessory often left to collect dust and rarely used. But imagine if students could create their own map. Or better yet collaborate with other students to create a map that has an educational outcome for whatever your studying at the moment. Maybe it’s famous battles of WWII, an invention in science, a breakthrough in math, planning a class trip to Europe of South America, or following the trail of an old English classic novel. All of these have one thing in common; they all have a trail that they leave behind. Social media maps, also called **__Place Boards on Pinterest__**, can help students recreate the discoveries that shaped what ever you are studying! **__Place Boards__** allow Pinterest users to use current maps and place pictures, either from their phone or from the web, to create a modern timeline on a map (also great to map school trips!). More than 200 million such maps have been created since Pinterest launched Place Boards (see link below)! If you are interested in learning more please let me know! **__Pinterest__**: [] **__Battles of WWII Example from my Pinterest Account:__** []

 __** Why Twitter? **__ This is 60 second video to explain why you should be using Twitter and what it can actually do for educators! media type="youtube" key="ZYz9M70KVR0" width="560" height="315" align="center"

Why Twitter: Movie //Draft Day// Twitter scene with Kevin Costnermedia type="youtube" key="4DMaaVg_fg8" width="560" height="315"

Today's Meet Update

Now the site that offered free and simple chat rooms has added some very useful changes. Namely you can create an account to save your chats as well as embedded chat transcripts into a web page, blog and/or Wiki! A useful comment moderator has been added as well (thank God!) to make sure our chats both in and out of the class stay on track! Below is a brief video by Richard Byrne's to illustrate and explain how it works. Give it a try! media type="youtube" key="x-shockwave" width="560" height="315" align="center"

__** Wikispaces Now Easier To Join! **__



Wikispaces now offers a much more simplistic way for students to join your class wiki...with a simple code! You can now have your students join a wiki by entering a Wikispaces "join code." You can create a join code by clicking on "members" in the admin view of your wiki. After clicking "members" you can select "create join code."

Give your students the join code for a wiki and they can use it to join your wiki without the need for you to approve memberships. To be clear, students will still need to have Wikispaces accounts in order to participate in your wiki.

The join codes that you create for your Wikispaces wikis are valid for one week. After one week you will have to generate a new code. You can also disable codes early if all of your students join before the week is up.

Click here for a complete set of directions, with screenshots, for creating Wikispaces join codes.

__ **New Year...New Opportunities!** __ The school year is upon us and we are faced with many choices of tech tools to help advance the curriculum and learning of our students. As a reminder this site contains a plethora of tech tool ideas, how-to videos and more! On the left you will see a navigation list of pages by topic. Please take a moment and look them over. They are free for you to use! The theme for this year (every year really) is to be willing to fail up if you will in regards to trying new ideas in your classroom. To inspire you to reach out and try new tools to engage your kids, check out the short video below from Pixar. media type="youtube" key="taNhuUJVEfI" height="480" width="853"

Review Strategies

It's that time of the year as we speed towards exams while trying to hold the attention of our students! Edutainment is in full swing for the next week or so. Sometimes reviewing old material can be more productive if we repackage it into something more fun and interactive. The following are ways to create quick review games to help students stay focused and on task.

[|Quizlet]: Import your vocab. and create quizzes and interactive games. media type="custom" key="25890642" align="center"

[|Blubbr]: create video quizzes that challenge students in a timed video quiz.

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[|PurposeGames]: this site allows you to create interactive games from images. Examples can be found at the link [|PurposeGames].

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[|Socrative]: Both this and Quizlet have been around a while but like all great web based tools, they are still easy and fun to use. This one can monitor students responses to questions and give you live feedback while in class. Very handy tool to have in your repertoire!

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Whatever tool you use, or show your students to use, these and more can be found on our tech website located here! I’m here if you need me to help!

Weebly This powerful and simple to use website maker is a great way to create and customize a website for you! Their easy drag and drop design allows students (and teachers) to create customized websites that fits your classroom or project needs. Choose from a variety of themes, drag images from your computer right into the site and design your site today! This tool is also mobile device compatible as well. __**Claudia Cuervo**__ used this tool for a class project. Check out the video and links to examples below. media type="custom" key="25866196" align="center"

__**Claudia Cuervo's Class Examples:**__ []

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Tiki-Toki Timeline Web-based Tool

Tiki-Toki is a web based **//__timeline creation tool__//** that allows you to easily incorporate images and videos ([|even in 3D if you like]). This easy to use web based tool means there is nothing to download or install. Simply go to the web site ([]) start a free account and start making your customizable timelines. It’s that easy. This web based program also lets you embed (place inside) timelines in Edline, wiki’s, and other web pages like that. media type="custom" key="25762518" align="center"

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__** EverySlide **__ Has someone ever sent you a PDF, Power Point, or Keynote you couldn't open? Maybe your a Mac user but need to show a PowerPoint! Or perhaps a PC user who wants to borrow a Keynote and show it. What if you want to share it with someone who doesn't have PowerPoint or Keynote? Can't do it? Not anymore. Thanks to EverySlide. This web based site allows you to upload these documents and share them with anybody via there website...on ANY machine (phone, tablet, laptop)! Just upload the document and share or display. It's that easy! This web based service also allows you to create polls or quizzes to check for understanding as you go and display feedback on the screen! You will need to set up an account and it will store your presentations for later use. Give EverySlide a try and let me know what you think! media type="custom" key="25726306" align="center"

Padlet in the Classroom

Padlet is an easy and fun way to get students involved in the conversation during class. Recently we watched a clip from the movie Saving Private Ryan in our class discussion about WWII and D-Day. While they watched the clip student were asked to make a few observations via Padlet (which I sent to them via an email link). No account necessary ! The result was more focused student engagement, quality observations, and a class that was involved rather than just observing and taking notes. Below is the link and screen shot of the Padlet "wall" we created. Padlet "Wall" Link

__** Social Media in the Classroom **__ Social Media, or other online collaborative tools, can be a great way to get students involved in a discussion. This was an example of a Twitter chat (#bpsedchat) we used in history class while watching a clip from the movie Pearl Harbor. But this can be done using online tools like Padlet and TodayMeet which are free and require NO account. Simple and easy to use. Follow the links to get more information about these and other great tools at your disposal!

__** Twitter in the Classroom **__ Courtney Beitler is putting Twitter to use in her classroom! While watching a documentary in her Global Civil Rights class, students used Twitter and a class hashtag (#GCR14) to provide feedback on the video live as they watched it! It was amazing to see some great insight and collaboration among our students using a simple and free tool we all have access to! Check out Courtney's Wiki here and keep an eye out for her hashtag (a way to organize your tweets) on Twitter! You can follow Courtney @MsBeitler on Twitter. Great work Courtney!

**__ Padlet __** Padlet is an online bulletin board. This technology can be used for ANY department in a variety of ways. Whether its a math problem to warm up, a discussion question with primary source documents, or a video tutorial where students can post questions for each other...the possibilities are endless...and extremely fun for students! Padlet users can pose open-ended questions and elicit multiple student responses—ideal for posing document-based questions using primary sources. Users can also create their own "post-it" notes in response to a directed question. Teachers can also use Padlet as an online posterboard—a natural fit for group projects. Padlet can also function as a "bell-ringer" or "ticket-out-the-door" activity, as well as a homework assignment.Check out Claudia Cuervo's classroom example here!

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**__Twitter__** Get connected to educators around the world (yes I said around the world!) and broaden your PLN (personal learning network). The more collaborative we are the more cohesive we can be as teachers and departments. Below you will find a brief video of how to get started with Twitter.Here are a few links to get you started with how to utilize this free tool in your classrooms!28 Creative IdeasTwitter for Teachers50 Ways to Use Twitter in Education media type="custom" key="25029328" align="center"

Below you will find a list of quality chat sessions each week to participate in as well as #hashtags to help organize your tweets.

 **__TodaysMeet__**  **__Online Discussion Tool__**  TodaysMeet is a free online discussion tool that allows students and teachers to collaborate and share ideas online in a visible way on one simple site. TodaysMeet was originally designed as a conference tool that allowed participants to make comments and ask questions during the presentation that either the presenter could address or other participants could answer as well. This tool works very well as a test prep outlet for students to ask and answer questions for an upcoming test, or comment on a video you may be watching in class to discuss later. TodaysMeet has a great amount of flexibility no matter what subject you teach...and its free and easy to use. If you need help with this, or other tools, please let me know!



**__Flipping__** __** the Classroom with YouTube and Edline **__

"Flip ping" your classroom is a great way to engage your students and offer valuable class time to dedicate towards discussions or other classroom initiatives you wanted to explore, but never seemed to have the time. YouTube, together with Edline and screen capturing video software (like Screencast-O-Matic) are wonderful companions to help you do just that! Take a look at the video below to learn how to embed a YouTube video into Edline (and class wiki pages as well!) and also create a discussion question from that video. By-the-way, I use Screencast-O-Matic to make all these videos! It is a free and simple tool to use. If you want more information please let me know!

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__** Quizlet and Excel Spreadsheet Flashcards **__ Quizlet has been around for a long time now, but did you know you can easily create Quizlet flash cards from an Excel document. Once created you can embed them (which means placing them inside a web page) inside Edline, wiki’s, blogs, etc! This make finding and using your flash cards simple and easy for you and your students. You can even use older Excel documents if you like to create Quizlet flash cards as well. All in just a few clicks! Of course, within Quizlet itself, there are a variety of features like the audio feature (Quizlet reads the card for you), spelling mode, and a test feature to name a few. Watch the short video below to learn how to make this happen in your classroom!

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__** Socrative **__ media type="custom" key="24118490" align="center"
 * "Engage the class** - Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets."

Web Based Interactive Tools __**Poll Everywhere**__ There are many very good social interactive web based sites out there that enable teachers to make their classrooms much more interactive and less static (lecturing). Poll Everywhere is a student response system that allows teachers to ask questions via the web and allow students to answer (anonymous or not) and see the groups responses via the web or your projector. This tool, and others like it, can be used in a variety of ways such as test reviews, class discussions, brainstorming ideas in class, even online quizzes as well. There are so many applications that make your classroom more interactive and engaging to students. Several of you have already expressed how much you like this tool (thanks Christy and Claudia!). Below you will see Claudia's classroom using Poll Everywhere. As always, if you are interested in flipping your class, or other tech ideas, just let me know.

__** QR Codes and GoAnimate **__

QR Codes are a fun and interactive way to engage students while still promoting the learning process. Claudia Cuervo uses QR Codes and GoAnimate to keep her Spanish student's engaged while promoting collaboration among her students. QR Codes allow students to discover the materials via a simple QR Code image (much like a bar code). Using free QR readers on their mobile devices, students are directed to several websites for information regarding their topic, set up by the teacher. GoAnimate allows the students to create animated conversations in Spanish (or any language) by simple dragging and dropping animated scenes within GoAnimate. There are many QR Code readers out there (one is linked above). Check them out and see which you like best if interested. GoAnimate is free and linked above as well. See Claudia's student work here at GoAnimate.

__** DyKnow and other Screen Capturing Software **__ I had the opportunity to visit Karene Schneider's classroom and the demo she gave for DyKnow, which is an interactive learning and student laptop monitoring software program all in one. Karene's students watched as she drew diagrams (from her laptop) and explained the scientific problem they were trying to solve not only from the projector, but also on their own machines as well. The great takeaway here is the ability to share your notes and explanations online when the class is over. DyKnow is a great way to make this happen, but certainly not the only way. Other programs such as Screencast-O-Matic, which is free, allows teachers to record what is on the screen as well as your explanation. Combine this with Edline, wiki's, or YouTube and your flipped classroom has begun (yes you can embed YouTube videos on Edline!). The great opportunity here is that you already have DyKnow installed on your machines. Screencast-O-Matic is a few clicks away as well. Great work Karene! As always, if you are interested in flipping your class, or other tech ideas, just let me know.



__** Symbaloo Web Mix **__ Symbaloo is a great tool that has been around for a while now, that allows you to place all your important links on one very visual page. The idea behind this is to escape the dreaded long list of tabs in your browser like Explorer or Chrome. Another wonderful feature included in Symbaloo is that you can make it your homepage (hence eliminating the need for tabs) and even share and link it to Edline or any other web page you might be using in class (wiki's, blogs, etc.) to share multiple links with your students all located in one Symbaloo page. Check out the video below to learn more. As always, if you are interested in this, or other tech ideas, just let me know. media type="custom" key="23842028" align="center"