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Sharing Tips and Tricks of Using Technology in the Classroom Part 2

In your courses you have been asked to share your tips and tricks of using technology in the classroom.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kyle Whymer on October 18, 2011 at 6:20pm

A cool technology that I have recently learned about from one of my students is called Natural Reader. Its a free, text to speech program that claims to have "natural sounding voices". This could be an awesome tool to have for students that struggle to read or students with visual impairments. Once you download the program you simply can highlight the text to be read and press F9.

Permalink Reply by Christina Snyder on October 20, 2011 at 8:24pm

Thanks so much for sharing this! I have a dyslexic student who could really benefit from something like this. It is amazing what you can find online for free!

Permalink Reply by Jon Lind on November 13, 2011 at 9:45am

Natural Reader is a great tool. I work with many students who have difficulty reading and writing. I've found NR to be helpful for reading assignments (when digital forms of the readings are available) as well as for proofreading writing assignments. For some of my students, trying to read through their writing while also looking for grammar and style issues is just too much going on in their brains. We also get a kick out of some of the weird pronunciations the computer voices come up with.

Permalink Reply by Christina Snyder on October 20, 2011 at 8:26pm

I just recently assigned a project in which students used Weebly to create their own websites about the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The students were really into it! Had I assigned them to complete the separate components of this assignment in writing alone, I would have been met with griping and whining. But simply changing the format and allowing them to create online spiked their interest and motivation. I saw them editing and conversing a great deal during the creation of their websites, it was awesome!

Permalink Reply by Mary Worrell on October 23, 2011 at 2:02am

It's been a while since I used it, but picnik.com has added a ton of functionality and features. I just recently used it with my 6th grade technology students to help them create digital inspirational posters. It was a breeze! Well, for most of them anyway. Only a few needed help. Picnik isn't Photoshop by any means, but it is a great web app for manipulating images and you don't even need to log in or register.

Picnik is a "freemium" service - meaning it's free, but you can pay for added functionality. However, I've been more than pleased with the basics. If you need a little more oomph in your online image editing, you can also try pixlr.com.

Permalink Reply by Jessica Smith on October 23, 2011 at 9:17am

Hello everyone. One Web 2.0 tool I utilize in my computer class is www.readwritethink.org. I have utilized several of their interactive activities. Students love using the interactive activities, and I love that they provide lesson plans and ideas for ways to integrate them into your curriculum. Students have loved using the comic creator to create their own comic strips. Students have also crated Bio Cubes about themselves as a get to know you activity at the start of the school year. I have also had students complete the character trading card on one character from their free reading book. These are just 3 examples of the wonderful resources available on ReadWriteThink.org.

CEP 811 FS 2011

Permalink Reply by Nancy Ayers on October 23, 2011 at 9:46am

These are great ideas for using this resource with kids. Thanks for the ideas. Nancy

Permalink Reply by Aubrey McClain on October 23, 2011 at 6:05pm

Jessica,

I also love this site. My kids really enjoy creating newspapers. It's a wonderful tool to use in the classroom.

Permalink Reply by Faith on October 23, 2011 at 12:04pm

My school just used animoto to highlight PBS(Positive Behavior Support) expectations. www.animoto.com is a picture/video presentation cloud tool. A pro account is free to K-12 educators. We took pictures of students displaying the behavior that we expect to see, in the cafeteria for example, and then all the classes watched the short presentation. It was positive, and showed exactly what we want students to do.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Ayers on October 23, 2011 at 12:29pm

Wow! what a great idea. I may try that for my school. Thanks for the idea.

Permalink Reply by Amy Nichols on October 23, 2011 at 1:26pm

Using iPads in the Classroom – Converting PDFs to eReader Formats

One of the great features of tablets is the ability to replace physical books with the eReader tools such as iBook (iPad) and Kindle (all tablets). E-Readers have some neat features – you can highlight a word, and the eReader program will give you an option to display a definition, or playback the pronunciation of the word. Bookmarking and highlighting replaces traditional annotations that can be done in regular books. And, a 3 pound iPad can hold hundreds of books – all of which would weigh much more than those 3 pounds!

If you are a teacher, many of your existing PDFs can be used natively in the tablets. You just email a copy of them to the student, and they can pick them up from their email and store them in the eReader app on their tablet. Alternatively, they can go to a web link to pick them up.

Some PDFs aren’t formatted well for eReaders, however, and should be converted. This link gives some instructions on how to do that.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Ayers on October 23, 2011 at 7:50pm

These are great ideas for eReaders. I wish our school had some to use with our students. We don't have any types of tablets. Keep hoping for a little updating in our school.