Integrating Tech Into the Classroom

This site offers lessons as well as interactive websites that play to the SMART Board’s strengths.
http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/

From Kenton County Schools in Kentucky, ‘Maximizing SMART Board’:
http://www.kenton.kyschools.us/max/smartboardindex.htm

 Click on this video file >>downloading_audacity_flash for a mini-tutorial on downloading Audacity. This is a good tool for you podcasting teachers out there.

“So why is this tool useful for my classroom?” asked a colleague. “Or is it just for giggles?”

Good question. Jottit is considered an instant wiki, where a number of teachers or classrooms can be simultaneously studying a topic and posting their findings on this common site. Google Docs works in a similar manner, except all Google Docs collaborators have to have their own GMail account, whereas Jottit lets any invited collaborators team up on the fly.

OTHER POSSIBLE USES:

1. Sending quiz or discussion questions back and forth between classrooms. Student transcribers can then share answers and key points. This is, of course, chatlike, except this information stays put, to be reviewed/revised during later sessions.

2. Exchange pieces of student writing on a common topic. (They can be ready to be pasted in from a Word document.)

3. Play the roles of two literary characters exchanging letters. Letters can illustrate a deeper understanding of plot, character, theme, etc. and reinforce the participants’ understanding of the story.

Here’s the document:
http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/kn-05-01.pdf

And here’s the website:
http://www.wested.org/cs/tdl/print/docs/tdl/home.htm

I’ll be adding more SMART-related links, lessons, and resources at this site, so feel free to revisit when convenient.

By all means, email me at tim.haag@albany.k12.or.us if you have any questions or leave a comment on this blog.

Click on the link below for an electronic copy of the handout from my Feb. 9 session at ORA.

ora_handout.doc

http://www.twc.org/

http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/technology