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Google drive is one kit to keep documents online and every educator ought to have this

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This an interesting tool to create online quizzes that give timely results. Its fun and an effective classroom engagement. No matter where or how you teach, Socrative allows you to instantly connect with students

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Flipgrid is a tool for creating video-based discussion online.

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Videos created can be hosted on this page for easy sharing and future use

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Technology as a tool to support learning

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Technology as a tool to support learning

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This article by Lynne Schrum who I happen to have read her book about technology is a must read for any educator

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This week, in an Education World "edu-torial," Lynne Schrum presents her personal perspective on the ways in which technology can enhance learning -- and calls on educators to take a leadership role in determining the ways in which technology is used to support educational goals.

Lynne Schrum, past president of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), is an associate professor in the department of instructional technology at the University of Georgia. Her research, teachings, and writings focus on issues related to distance education, specifically online learning. Schrum also investigates the uses of technology in K-12 environments and identifies ways to support educators in the effort.

We're all familiar with the extravagant promises of technology: It will make our students smarter -- and it will do it faster and cheaper than ever before. Moreover, the promise suggests, this miracle will occur almost by osmosis. We need only place a computer in a room, stand back, and watch the magic take place. If only life were that simple and learning that easy!

Those of us who remember the 1980s, when computers were first making their way into our classrooms, probably also remember a great deal of bad software. As educators, we were unfamiliar with the technology and uncertain about its possibilities. So we stepped back and let software developers, hardware vendors, and other technicians define not only what we could buy but also how those products would be used. In many ways, the technology drove the educational process. And guess what? It didn't work very well!

Now, we've entered an era in which technology is no longer an intimidating novelty. Its use in business and industry is both accepted and expected. And pressure abounds -- from the federal government, from local school boards, and certainly from the popular press -- for educators to get on board and see to it that students become technologically skilled.

But is mere technological skill enough?

Two points should be considered.

TECHNOLOGY AS A TOOL

Technology is a tool that can change the nature of learning.

First and foremost, educators want students to learn. It is certainly not enough to tell educators that they need to use the boxes and wires that have invaded their schools simply because they are expensive or because students need to know how to use the latest widget. If it's clear that technological tools will help them achieve that goal, educators will use those tools.

The real world is not broken down into discrete academic disciplines. I've heard a number of teachers say that they would like to be able to change the way they teach -- to find ways to implement project-based, multidisciplinary lessons. Let's think about how that might happen when technology is used to support learning.

Technology lends itself to exploration. But before technology can be used effectively, exploration must be valued as important to both teaching and learning. In a technology-rich classroom, students might search the Web for information, analyze river water, chart the results, and record what they've learned on the computer.

In such an environment, acquiring content changes from a static process to one of defining goals the learners wish to pursue. Students are active, rather than passive -- producing knowledge and presenting that knowledge in a variety of formats.

In such an environment, educators can encourage a diversity of outcomes rather than insisting on one right answer. They can evaluate learning in multiple ways, instead of relying predominately on traditional paper and pencil tests. And perhaps most importantly, teachers and students can move from pursuing individual efforts to being part of learning teams, which may include students from all over the world.

Of course, active learning is rarely a clean, neat process. Students engaged in such a process can create busy, noisy, and messy classrooms. It's important to recognize that this kind of learning takes practice -- for both the teacher and the students.

Activities and learning environments must be carefully guided and structured so learners are fully engaged in their learning. Students must learn that exploration doesn't mean just running around doing what they want and ending up who knows where. Educators must recognize that if students are investigating and asking questions, writing about what they're learning, and doing those things in an authentic context, then they are learning to read and write and think.

In a technology-rich classroom, students don't "learn" technology. Technology merely provides the tools to be used for authentic learning. It is a means, not an end.

Technology provides educators with the opportunity to move from simply streamlining the way things have always been done to really imagining things they would like to do.

What a wonderful opportunity!

CHOOSING AND USING THE TOOLS

Teachers must determine how technology tools are used, and they must have a hand in designing the staff development process that trains them.

What will it take to realize the full potential of that opportunity? First, teachers must insist on being part of the planning for technology integration, rather than merely the recipients of other people's ideas.

They must work together to create exemplary units, and then they must share their experiences with one another.

Teachers must take responsibility for helping design the staff development process so that it really meets their needs -- so that it includes time to practice using the equipment, to watch teachers model lessons that infuse technology into the curriculum, and to mentor other teachers.

Of course, teachers cannot revolutionize the educational system by themselves -- and make no mistake about it, that is what we're discussing.

Have you heard the story about the administrator who came to observe a teacher? The classroom had five computers, and the students were all busy on an investigation. Some of the students were using the computers, and others were working on projects or creating information. Some students were working together. Others were working alone. The administrator walked up to the teacher, who was assisting a small group of students, and said, "I'll come back when you're teaching."

As that story demonstrates, we also have to help administrators understand what a technology-rich lesson looks like. We have to insist that administrators provide us with time to work together, to explore, and to play with technological tools. We have to make sure that support for lifelong learning for educators, as well as for students, is built into our schools.

Teachers are creative, intelligent people, and once they learn to use technology in their professional lives -- for keeping records, for creating documents, and for enhancing their own learning -- they will soon discover the many ways in which technology can enhance what they are doing with their students.

WORKING TOGETHER

In order to successfully infuse technology into their classrooms, teachers must have the support of all stakeholders in the educational community. They must resist the notion that learning to use the "gadgets" is an end in itself.

They must provide desperately needed leadership to find the best ways of using technology to enhance teaching and learning. They must expect and demand the best and most interesting software to enhance their educational goals. They must be included in planning the technology implementation -- and be encouraged to experiment with the available tools.

Finally, teachers must educate themselves on how to best use those tools to enhance teaching and learning.

It is an exciting time to be teaching, and we must seize this moment to challenge ourselves, our students, our administrators, and policymakers throughout the country to help all teachers make the best use of the technology tools available to them.

Article by Lynn Schrum
Education WorldÂ®
Copyright Â© 2005 Education World

01/24/2000
Updated 08/17/2005

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Technology as a Tool to Support Instruction | Education World

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This week, in an Education World "edu-torial," Lynne Schrum presents her personal perspective on the ways in which technology can enhance learning -- and calls on educators to take a leadership role in determining the ways in which technology is used to support educational goals.

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Web-based tool that allows you to create a snippet of audio from any mp3

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Cut Mp3 Files Online - MP3 Cutter - MP3 Splitter

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Technical advances in mobile phones have caused an explosion in their use around the world. Along with the popularity of carrying mobile phones, the use of ringtones has also increased which are applied to differentiate between callers as well as to make cell phone use more fun.

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This tools turns photos and video clips into slideshows withe ease.

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Online audio recording tool that enables one to share freely with ease in different formats for different audiences

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Download Audacity for free. A free multi-track audio editor and recorder. Audacity is no longer at SourceForge. Audacity can be downloaded via AudacityTeam website instead: http://www.audacityteam.org/download/ Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac…

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Any educator ought to have this in his tool kit. Its a modern day navigation tool

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

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This article gives a general overview of technology use in education and has got many links that would helps a teacher get accustomed to edu-tech

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Technology in Education: An Overview - Education Week

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From blended learning to computerized testing, digital and online technologies are reshaping the classroom experience for millions of students.

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Recording presentation made easy with this simple tool

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A simple online tool for polling

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Host interactive online meetings | Poll Everywhere

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This articles gives tips to teachers on the best way to go about technology use with little stress

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8 Tips For Teachers Frustrated With Technology
by Terry Heick

I'm not crazy about writing this post, mainly because "integrating technology" into teaching and learning is like adding electricity to architectural design.

Certainly a castle can be retrofitted for it, but ideally the architecture and the electricity are considered together, the electricity illuminating the architecture in flashing, reckless, blue arcs, the walls and ceilings of holding their ground in understanding. The ceiling of each room is built this way because there is electricity to provide central air. Windows are built here and here in this fashion because there are light bulbs instead of candles.

Electricity changes everything. Technology changes everything.

But there are also teachers in classrooms right now that don't have the gift of design-that is, they can't start fresh at audience and purpose: who am I teaching, and why? They are given content in the form of standards, and often given packaged standards in the form of curriculum. The assessment form is out of their hands, and even scheduling and pace with regard to scope-and-sequences and related maps.

For these teachers-maybe it's you?-the ideal is supplanted by reality. You're told to "use technology," but nothing seems built for it. And when you do, what goes well is usually drowned out by the commotion of it all to the point that you're not sure what actual learning is taking place. That's frustrating.

Luckily, there are some things that can be done to mitigate that frustration.
8 Tips For Teachers Frustrated With Technology 1. Smart small.
One app. One activity. One project. Even just giving students a choice-a layered digital document or a handwritten essay, for example. No need to go all-out right away.
See also 25 Of The Best Apps To Promote Creativity In Students 2. Start with what you know.
So when seeking to start small, look to what you already know. Maybe it's digital music. Digital photography. Video editing. Blogging. Social media. Live streaming. Reading apps. Video games. Film. Drones. Virtual reality. Google Earth.

There's got to be something you know well enough to grab a handle and twist around a bit to learn more.
3. Build on the positives.
And when you do so, look for small victories. Everyone was able to sign-in! 2/3 of the students didn't come close to producing anything close to what you thought they could, but six created anything better than you've ever seen from them, Look for small victories, and build on them.
4. Create reasonable standards for success.
If you do the above, you're basically creating standards for success that are reasonable for your students in your classroom with you at the helm. Don't hold yourself to any other standard other than adopting a mindset to try new things, and improving with them every day.
5. Let the students lead the way!
A huge help to teach students is the students themselves. Technology often decenters the teacher in the learning process, which can freak you out at first if you're not seeing the big picture: One of the hopes of any teacher should be that they, over time, need you less and less.
6. Protect the learning from the technology.
Sometimes things will go wrong. Or every day they will. (Remember, things go haywire without technology too; these failures are just often less visible.)

Do your best when planing activities, lessons, units, and projects to protect the learning from the technology. Put another way, the technology can amplify the learning but you should be able to hear the learning without it. Plan a lesson so that if the tech fails, the learning, as much as possible, remains.
7. Focus on student actions, not teacher actions.
This one is simple enough. It's not about you and what you do. What are they doing, and why? How can you help them develop their own standards for quality, so that they are their own harshest and most (lovingly) consistent critics?
8. Think 40/40/40.
Read more about the 40/40/40 rule here, but in short the idea is that if you are thinking big picture-especially if you are able to plan backwards from that big picture-the frustrations in the short-term are less distracting, less meaningful, and ultimately-well, ultimately less frustrating.
Conclusion
Though it can be a challenge at times, in the end remember that just as with all things in regards to your profession, it's not about you. Teaching is one of the most selfless things you can do, requiring constant compromise, sacrifice, recalibration, and flexibility. This means that your 'needs' will often, by design, not be met so that you may meet the needs of others.

When the technology policy in your school doesn't seem like it's headed in the right direction, or when you don't understand the function of an app or the reasoning for a large purchase by the district or how a certain app that everyone loves is any better than the textbook you've used for years, don't take it personally. It's sobering but imminently useful to remember that though you may indeed be correct on any or all of the above, you're (presumably) paid to execute the functions of a teacher as outlined by local school and district policy.

This doesn't excuse you from responding to your own pedagogical instincts as to what's working, what students need, and how you can design and revise designs to meet those needs. That's still, on the most macro level, what you're (presumably) paid to do. But on a micro-level, the things you do and are asked to do to make that happen aren't always so clear. For all of our perceived inventiveness and sense of progress, technology (as we most commonly consider the word) is extremely new, immature, and unpredictable. More crucially, it is being shoe-horned into systems of learning that aren't designed to accommodate it. That means it's not always going to do what it's supposed to do or sound like it's supposed to sound or produce what it's supposed to produce.

With regard to technology, education has to be in this for the long haul regardless of short-term loss as everything seeks to reconcile itself with everything else, much in the same way that the purpose of education is long-term-it should seek to improve the arc of students' lives and the condition of their communities.

How much work it takes to make that happen is only one part of the timeless struggle of raising human beings.

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8 Tips For Teachers Frustrated With Technology -

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8 Tips For Teachers Frustrated With Technology by Terry Heick I'm not crazy about writing this post, mainly because "integrating technology" into teaching and learning is like adding electricity to architectural design. Certainly a castle can be retrofitted for it, but ideally the architecture and the electricity are considered together, the electricity illuminating the architecture ...

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