Trends in Ed Tech

I began my teaching career at the height of the pandemic. I felt frustrated, confused, lost, and stagnant with my career. I felt I was learning useless skills and tricks that I would never use again once regular school returned. It wasn’t until the shock of what was happening in the world wore off when I began to see the potential growth opportunities within online learning the pandemic has given the profession. My second year teaching involved in-person learning with unexpected and frequent classroom quarantines. Due to our district and teacher union parameters, this would require teachers to teach vaccinated students in-person and unvaccinated students online at the same time. This further required my teaching tech skills to be the best it could be. Although my hybrid teaching days are over in my third year teaching, I have learned to appreciate how technology can be integrated into the regular classroom environment. This week I explored deeper into trends in online learning.

Teachers

    Technology tools like Seesaw provide teachers will an opportunity to expand your online learning design. Seesaw allows teachers to view, edit, and send back their students work in real time. This closes the gap between home and school when online learning is required. Furthermore, Seesaw allows teachers around the world to share, copy, and collaborate on lessons by having a community of lessons for teachers to view.

(Seesaw) 

Finally, Seesaw is great for providing differentiated instruction to your students. Whether that is remedial lessons for some, or above grade level work for others, Seesaw can provide this with minimal preparation.

Students

    Seesaw allows students to record their voice, record their page, take pictures, and take videos. I have used these features in the classroom to practice book talks and for every day learning during online learning. Students can also look back at their previous work at any time. They can review before a test or re-do previously submitted work. Please refer to my Loom recording to see this tech tool in action. Let me know if you have any questions!

                                                (Authors image)

Additional Seesaw Resources

Common Sense Education

Seesaw Help Center

Seesaw's Youtube

The Classroom Key

Dear DISes

Additional Platforms for Online Learning

Classkick: Classkick is a free app that students work on and get help instantly from their teacher and peers. Students work on assignments with their Chromebooks, laptops, or iPads, while getting help from teachers and peers instantly. Teachers create assignments, see all their students’ work in real-time, and give student feedback. Also, students can help each other anonymously.

Schoolology: Schoology is a web-based learning management system. Teachers can create and assign a slew of creative tasks, which students can access through the website as well as through iOS, Android, and Chrome apps. While individual teachers can use the free, basic account, schools or districts can pay for the enterprise version.

Nearpod: Nearpod is a tool for creating and delivering interactive presentations, formative or summative assessments, and content related to SEL, digital citizenship, vocabulary, social justice, and more. Teachers use the site to create original multimedia presentations or draw from a library of free and cost-based standards-aligned offerings. Teachers can upload videos, images, audio clips, and files as well as embed multiple-choice quizzes and polls. Drawing tools, collaboration boards, and open-ended questions provide plenty of variety to liven up presentations.