The Techie School Teacher

Adventures in Hyperdocs This week I set out to rediscover the world of hyperdocs and gain new ideas to make my technology integration more engaging and student centered.  I first began using hyperdocs in 2012 with a "web quest" for some of my 4th grade Social Studies teks about Texas which did not have very engaging resources.  While my students enjoyed the novelty of it, they had to take turns sharing the four desktop computers, dealing with slow internet speeds, and reading articles which, unfortunately, the only difference between their paper counterparts and they, was that they were online versions with opportunities for students to type their responses instead of writing them. Ten years later, the possibilities of hyperdocs have come a long way!  More students have access to their own device without having to share with 23 other students.  Embedding colorful images is faster and adding a fun meme, giph, or emoji to spark the student's enthusiasm only takes ...

Using Youtube and Twitter  with Ed Tech   This week I continued my exploration of Twitter and YouTube as resources for ideas and collaboration forums with other educators.  I got some new ideas and found some interesting channels to add to my EdTech toolkit! 💻🎯✔🔖 First I explored Youtube.  I typed various search criteria in the search engine including "teaching with technology," "edtech,"  "learning with technology," "technology tools" and various "how to use....Canvas, Jamboard, Google Slides, etc."   I found some cool channels which I followed including and my favorite  https://www.youtube.com/c/NewEdTechClassroom .  In this channel, Matt Miller gives insightful videos introducing new technology tools and giving ideas on how to use familiar ones.   Top Tech Tools for Teachers in 2021 One of his videos covered  https://www.whiteboard.chat/   a collaborative tool which allows teachers and students to coll...

  Twitter Adventure This week I explored Twitter as an educational resource tool and was pleased and surprised to find what I had been missing out on all this time!             I first begin by simply using my #etec527 from the Educational Technology course I am currently taking to see what my fellow classmates had tweeted.  One of my classmates found a very useful article about Canva, a design program I have been wanting to explore more with and I found the tips in it very useful.  Another student shared an article which provided useful hashtags for educators, and another classmate shared some useful tips for using Peardeck, which I had used before, but found the lesson plan template that came with it very useful. I also was able to view a few linked tweets from my professor, including "Ten Best Apps to Enhance Your Cognitive Ability and Keep Your Brain Sharp." From this link I discovered the app Lumioscity which I feel will be wor...

  Web 2.0 and My Digital Footprint This weekend I conducted a "Vanity Search" to reflect on my digital footprint and use of Web 2.0 technologies.  Although it is probably a tad paranoid of me, I have always been reluctant to use my last name in any Social Media accounts (including Google) which I have set up in the past.  I am more relaxed about it now but when I was younger, I wanted a clear separation between my job and my personal life (partly because the scrutiny educators are always under) and replaced my surname with a name of my own choosing for my Social Media "handle." Looking back on my footprint I have been subjectively scarce online.  I have an Instagram account (which did not show up), a deleted Twitter and a deleted Facebook.  Ironically the websites that showed up the most were comments I had made on others Youtube channels, especially because a friend of mine tried making a Youtube channel a few years ago and I was trying to support her by commen...