November Issue of Project PLN: Admin Issue
The November issue of Project PLN is finally here! For this issue we asked administrators to weigh in, the result is fantastic!
projectpln10
Project PLN Issue 3
Create Your OpenZine
Category: For Teachers
projectpln10
Project PLN Issue 3
Create Your OpenZine
Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip
What it is: Scholastic has a wonderful site and interactive for students to investigate the first Thanksgiving. Tomorrow, November 16th (2010), your class can participate in a Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip. In this 30 minute online field trip your students will get to meet a Pilgrim and a Wampanoag—straight from Plimoth Plantation. This Virtual Field Trip brings the Plimoth Plantation Museum to your students. This is sure to be a fun trip where your students can experience the first Thanksgiving in a new way. In addition to the field trip, your students will receive “letters” (emails) from the Pilgrims and Wampanoags making the experience even more memorable. The site has the original interactive activities for your students to explore before or after the field trip. Download the free classroom guide and sign up today!
How to integrate Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Filed Trip to your curriculum: This virtual field trip is a fun way for your students to “experience” the first Thanksgiving. Students will begin to understand what life was like for the Pilgrims and Wampanoags that first Thanksgiving and hear first hand what struggles they faced. The virtual field trip brings the actors from the Plimoth Museum into your classroom. Watch the field trip from your classroom using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer or bring several classes together in a larger space like the library. After the field trip, set up classroom computers with the rest of the Scholastic Thanksgiving activities. Here students can explore the Mayflower, learn about daily life of the pilgrims and the Wampanoags, and check out the first Thanksgiving feast. Scholastic provides a wonderful teaching guide that will help you use this site to its fullest.
Tips: Here are some of my other tried and true favorite sites for Thanksgiving:
Black Dog’s Thanksgiving fun and games
Scholastic’s First Thanksgiving
Investigating the First Thanksgiving
Free Rice and see how we used it as a Thanksgiving activity here
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip in your classroom!
Qwiki- transforming the search into a story
What it is: Have you seen Wall-E? Remember the scene when the captain finally starts taking charge and goes to his wall of computers to learn about Earth? He tells his computer to “define Earth” and a wall of images of Earth pop up complete with computer narration. In the definition of Earth he hears about the sea and interrupts the explanation so that he can have the sea defined. This concept of information presentation is a reality…or nearly a reality. There is a new way of information searching called Qwiki. Search using Qwiki and instead of coming up with a list of links to websites, images, and videos, a slide show of images and videos begins complete with computer voice narration. It is truly an incredible experience. Why are we still using textbooks again?
Qwiki is currently in Alpha which means that you have to request an invitation to get the full version of Qwiki, flaws and all. It is worth requesting an invitation; it is jaw dropping! Even without an invitation, you can head over to Qwiki and get an idea of what it does. There are a few preloaded Qwiki searches that you can check out. Qwiki believes that “just because data is stored by machines doesn’t mean it should be presented as a machine-readable list.” Qwiki has transformed the search into a story.
How to integrate Qwiki into your curriculum: Qwiki is limited in its search capabilities right now (in that it won’t necessarily come up with a result for EVERYTHING you want to search), but the current Alpha version of Qwiki gives you more than enough great material to start using it in your classrooms. I have searched everything from mitosis to the solar system to rational numbers to Romeo and Juliet to Shiba Inu to Google and World War 2. Each had fantastic content, images and information. Qwiki is going to revolutionize the way that we search and receive information. The way that it pares a search down into a story is brilliant.
Use Qwiki on classroom computers as part of a center activity, students can dig deeper into science, math, history, geography, or literature using Qwiki to search. Your students can learn more about any topic by searching related topics. Use Qwiki to introduce new concepts to your students using a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard for whole class learning and discussion. Do you have reluctant or struggling readers? Allow them to read along with Qwiki on their favorite topic or subject. Teach older students? Involve them on conversation about the implications of making our searches “more human” while relying on a computer. What could this type of searching mean for Google? Does this type of searching change their views on learning? Does this type of search feel too much like entertainment without offering enough information? What would they change or add to Qwiki?
Tips: Qwiki is currently in Alpha, that means if you would like to access the full version, you will have to request an invite. I got my invite within 5 minutes of requesting. As you run across features that you wish Qwiki had (the ability to slow down the narration, the ability to change voices) be sure to let them know. If you run across glitches, report those. When a product is in Alpha, it gets better and better when people use it and comment on their experience.
What do you think? Are you as bowled over as I am? What implications do you see a tool like Qwiki having for education? How will you use it in your classroom? Leave a comment!
Photovisi- Make a free online photo collage
What it is: Photovisi is an online photo collage creation tool. Students can use saved photos or a webcam to add pictures to their collage. The finished result can be downloaded and printed out. Photovisi is exceptionally easy to use and requires absolutely NO sign in or registration! This makes it the ideal online tool in my book. Students can get right in and quickly create a photo collage, add text, and download it. There are several collage templates to choose from, and each template is highly customizable.
How to integrate Photovisi into your curriculum: Photvisi is a great online creation tool. It doesn’t require any sign up or registration making it ideal for using in any classroom. Students can make collages to document learning, a science experiment, field trip, or special project. Students can upload pictures from their computer to add to the Photovisi. Students can add text labels and titles to document learning. Collages can be used for getting to know you activities. Students can create a collage of pictures that represent themselves and their interests. Use text to create an auto bio poem over the collage of pictures. Students could also create collages as a place to visually document their learning. Students could create “time capsule” collages that represent a period in history. Students can add pictures, key dates, people, and places to their time capsule collage. Collages are a great way to visually group items, younger students could create their own class alphabet display. Each student could create a collage of a different letter, all finished collages could be printed to create a class created bulletin board. The same could be done for phonics or word study. In math class, collages could be used to create a visual representation of shapes found in buildings or nature, angles, or scale. In art, students could create a collage of artists, a style of art, or of their own art.
Photovisi would be ideal in a computer lab setting where each student has their own computer. Photovisi could also be set up as a creative center on classroom computers. Students can rotate through the center for a specific project, or visit any time as a creative center.
You can see an example of a Photovisi collage above, I created this World War 2 collage in honor of Veteran’s Day.
Tips: Photovisi does have Google Adwords on the site. These are not obtrusive at all and are all related to photos and collage creation. You may want to teach younger students how to spot these advertisements so that they don’t inadvertently click on them.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Photovisi in your classroom!
Gettysburg Address Animated
Gettysburg Address from Adam Gault on Vimeo.
What it is: Today I learned about the Gettysburg Address animated video from my husband, @jtenkely. This animation beautifully illustrates the famous words of Abraham Lincoln that kids around the United States learn and memorize every year.
How to integrate Gettysburg Address Animated into your curriculum: This animated video illustrating the Gettysburg Address, brings the famous speech to life in a memorable and meaningful way. Discuss the artists choices with students, what imagery is used to convey the tone and meaning behind the speech? What would they have done differently? I remember reading the words of the Gettysburg Address in a government class and thinking that the words were dry…this because I was asked to memorize it out of a textbook. I would have relished the opportunity to be introduced to the speech this way. Beyond just viewing and discussing this video, use it as a source of inspiration for your classroom. Ask students to take a famous speech (MLK’s I have a Dream or the Preamble to name a few) and create a video that conveys the meaning behind the words. Students can create using stop motion techniques and Jay Cut, Animoto, VoiceThread, Go Animate, or Xtranormal. Hold an inspirational viewing day where students have the opportunity to watch and discuss each other’s creations.
Tips: Vimeo blocked at your school? Download the video for offline viewing using Zamzar, Vixy.net, or KeepVid.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Gettysburg Address Animated in your classroom!
Collaborize Classroom-free for the 2010/2011 school year if you sign up before November 15!
What it is: Collaborize Classroom is an online learning platform developed for classroom discussion and engagement. Collaborize lets students and teacher collaborate in online discussions. It can be used for meaningful conversations related to classroom curriculum, to ask and answer questions, to collaborate on projects, to vote on ideas/issues, and more. Teachers can continue valuable discussions, facilitate online learning groups, encourage the sharing of resources, and provide students with space to engage in collaborative learning. Collaborize is easy to set up and navigate for both teachers and students. Questions can be posted easily including multiple choices, yes/no, vote or suggest, and forum. After the questions have been answered, the results of the discussion can be published on a results page. Collaborize has great teacher features. Add attachments to any question including photos, videos, and documents. Send a message to students using the built-in messaging system. Participation reports track each student’s activity on the site including number of logins, votes, comments, and replies. Activity reports can be sent to your email daily for review. Set up a watch list to follow a discussion more closely. Collaborize has fantastic supporting materials including lesson plans, helpful tutorials, and research articles. If you sign up for Collaborize before November 15, 2010, the product is being offered at no-cost (read FREE) for the 2010-2011 school year! In partnership with Democrasoft, The Kids in Need Foundation made this free year possible…take advantage of it before the 15th!
How to integrate Collaborize into your curriculum: Collaboraize is an awesome tool to facilitate discussions in (and out of) the classroom. The format of Collaborize makes it flexible enough to use in any classroom and in a way that works for you. Use Collaborize to facilitate discussions and literature circles, plan a science lab or experiment to be conducted in class, practice second languages with online dialog, post current events for students to reflect on, work with classrooms around the world to discuss and debate any topic, pose a math word problem and ask students to discuss the different ways the problem could be approached. Collaborize is a wonderful tool for student discussion and collaboration, but the teacher tools are what make it such a perfect fit for the classroom setting. It is easy to sign up, get your free year today!
Tips: Collaborize has really helpful resources for teachers. Learn about the do’s and don’ts of student forums, the art of asking questions, lesson and activity ideas, rethinking your role in the classroom and much more. Even if you don’t sign up for Collaborize, I recommend spending some time checking out these free documents, they have great tips that can be applied to a variety of web collaboration tools.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Collaborize in your classroom!
Friday Recap
Happy Friday! I have been busy this week and want to share what I have been up to when I am not blogging here.
- Solar Walk 3D- 3D Solar System model on my blog iPad Curriculum is a great app for discovering the Solar System.
- Math BINGO on my blog iPad Curriculum is a fun app for practicing math facts.
- eduPad on my blog iPad Curriculum a platform where teachers can create iPad/iPhone/iPod apps for free without knowing how to code. eduPad takes care of all the hard stuff and you get 20% of all app sales.
- IceBerg kids on my blog iPad Curriculum an eReader for beginner and emergent readers.
- Incomplete Thoughts my reflection on Sir Ken Robinson’s RSA animate video on my blog Dreams of Education
- Twitter Academy– I’m starting a school…check out the details and help out if you can!
- Guest Post on Inspired Classroom: 34 Free Productivity Tools That Will Help You Eliminate Expensive Software
- Article on The Apple: 12 Tools for Blended Learning
Whew! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
#Twitacad Twitter Academy: Starting a School
There are some things, that when presented to you in life, you want to run away from. In my experience, those things I want to run away from, are often a window into my future. My immediate reaction is to resist, but in the end, as I get more comfortable with the idea, I end up embracing it with passion. Over the past 3 years, I have been approached by different people, in different walks of life, to start a school. The first time conversation headed in this direction I was intrigued and, if I’m honest, totally terrified. What do I know about starting a school? I continued the conversation because I love talking education and learning and thought I might learn something in the process. Last year, my mindset about starting a school began to change. I can’t pinpoint exactly what caused that change, maybe it was being in a private school and realizing that even there, education isn’t what it should be. Sure there are more resources, money, involved parents, more freedom, but education is still being done the same way it has been for nearly a century. We have tools and resources at our disposal that would make customizing education a much easier task than it was even 20 years ago and yet the direction we are heading in is to standardize more and individualize less.
Somewhere in the span of a year, I decided to really take this on. Even if the end result wasn’t a school, I wanted to really intentionally re-imagine education. I wanted to re-imagine what a school is. I brought together a few teachers who share my passion for education and learning and a passion to improve education. Two of us decided to pursue what it would take to make our ideas a reality and start a school. We brought an entrepreneur into the mix who has no background in education but knows how to build a business. That may seem like a strange thing to do, but we both felt that an outside perspective is needed. Sometimes we are too close to education to get a clear view of the possibilities that exist because we can build up walls that are unnecessary. The three of us are coming to a place where we are ready to invite more voices into the mix. I would relish your input in the formation of this school. This is your opportunity to help shape education! I think the best way to ask for that input is through Google forms. I will be throwing out Google Forms with questions about education, learning, school design etc. over the next few months, I hope you will help out when you can.
First I should give you a 10,000 foot view of what we are looking to accomplish. I don’t want to give away too many details just yet because as I am asking for input, I want it to be separate from our ideas and biases. We are looking to create a replicable school model that could eventually take the place of public education. Right now it is our feeling that public education is beyond tweaking. Education needs a major overhaul and re-imagining. To try to do this within the current system is going to be slow at best. We want the school to be free for everyone (tuition-free) but private (not government-funded). I will post more later about our ideas for how to accomplish that. The focus of the school will be building up a community of learners. I will be adding more details and fleshing this out for those who are interested in later posts.
With this in mind, I would love your help with the first round of questions. If you can take a minute to help out it would be greatly appreciated. This first Google form focuses on the learning environment. Don’t feel like you have to answer each and every question, answer those that you have an opinion about or are passionate about.
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You may be wondering what the title of this post is all about… about a month ago @cybraryman1 and I came up with the idea of Twitter Academy, the ideal school created and shaped by educators on Twitter. As I progress with this project, I will be using the hash tag #twitacad on Twitter to follow conversations and progress. Please feel free to add to that conversation by adding #twitacad to any of your tweets. @cybraryman1 has started a page on his awesome site for Twitter Academy.
12 Tools for Blended Learning- The Apple
A year ago I wrote this article for The Apple, it just got published yesterday 🙂 I have a few tools I would add to this list. The first is Wiggio, you can read more about it here. The second is Vyew, you can read more about it here. Since the article was written a year ago, some of the tools are no longer available or have changed a little bit. Drop.io just got bought out by Facebook and the service has been discontinued so that is no longer an option.
Read the original 12 Tools for Blended Learning article here. If you are unfamiliar with The Apple, they are a social network platform for teachers that is connected to Monster.com. The apple shares educational news stories, education articles on every topic, forums, collaborative areas, educational job postings, lesson plans, resources, and more. Definitely worth checking out!
Kelly Tenkely | TheApple.com
With H1N1 lurking in our schools and the possibility of pandemic illness, there has never been a better occasion for blended learning. Blended learning occurs when schools and classrooms mix traditional face-to-face teaching, with online instruction and interaction. Aside from the flu, there are other great reasons to create an e-learning environment for your classroom.
Natural disasters, weather, school closings, long term student illness, struggling learners, English language learners, and students who are entering your classroom mid-way through the school year would all benefit from a blended learning environment. This type of e-learning brings a continuity to learning that is not otherwise possible.
Additionally, a blended learning classroom prepares students for a future that is largely virtual. Students are able to go back and review lessons and learning at their own pace. Students who may lack support at home from parents or family members will have access to on demand learning. Parents will gain a better understanding of what is happening in the classroom and, as a result, will be more equipped to assist their child’s learning. Blending your classroom can save you time and energy by making your classroom more effective and efficient.
Making the transition to a blended learning classroom doesn’t have to happen overnight. Post teaching and learning materials online a little at a time, systematically increasing your offerings. This makes the progression for students, teachers, and parents seamless. Begin by providing instructional materials that were used throughout the school day online. Gradually add extra options such as online collaboration, assignments, grading, and lesson materials. Should your school need to go completely virtual due to school closure, the groundwork will have been laid to make it possible.
There are several free programs that help make e-Learning possible, choose the one that best meets your classroom and school needs.
1. Edu 2.0 http://edu20.org
Benefits: Edu 2.0 is a complete e-Learning solution. It is completely free to use with no hidden costs or advertising. Classes can be taught public (open to the world) or private (specific to the students in your classroom). A comprehensive gradebook is provided complete with weighting, statistics, and graphs. Online quizzes can be created that include a variety of question types. Messaging is built in and has the option of email integration. Within Edu 2.0 students and teachers can create public or private blogs and wikis.
Students have the ability to network with other students and teachers in your school. Each user has a personalized homepage with a to-do list where students and teachers can easily track to-do items. Since Edu 2.0 is web hosted, it can be accessed from any browser, there is no download or install required. It is easy to create and share lesson plans. Assignments are equally easy to give, track, and grade online. Online debates are hosted to spark discussion and encourage critical thinking. Threaded discussion forums have email and RSS integration. Edu 2.0 has a great privacy policy, it was clearly designed with schools in mind. An integrated calendar displays upcoming events, lessons, and assignments that are due. The site is intuitive and a relatively quick learn. The resource section of the site contains 15,000+ community contributed resources and lesson plans to use. Built in rubric builders make it easy to quickly and consistently score projects online.
Attendance gets tracked and teachers can optionally award points for consistent online attendance. The built in chat feature allows for real time group discussions. Create custom news feeds for classes with the built inRSS reader. Each student can create and keep an online portfolio of their best work. The site is multi lingual and available in 10+ languages. If you have a student user who has their language set differently from yours, all messages are automatically translated through Google Translate. Transcripts of all student grades are available and pull directly from the built-in gradebook. Conduct surveys from within Edu 2.0 and collect results. Multimedia can be added to any lesson including audio, video, photos, and slide shows. The format for building lessons is very simple to use, if you use a word processor you can use Edu 2.0.
Drawbacks: Edu 2.0 may be difficult for students younger than third or fourth grade to navigate independently. Younger students would require some adult assistance.
2. Hot Chalk http://hotchalk.com
Benefits: Hot Chalk’s free learning management system generates daily teacher and student activities while providing a safe and secure online environment where teachers, students, and parents can interact. Hot chalk offers a grade book, online lesson creation, automatically graded quizzes, and an extensive library of digital content. Search Hot Chalks large database of pre-made lessons or create your own. Students can complete and turn in assignments online in one easy stop. Teachers can comment directly on student assignments. The digital content in Hot Chalk’s library is aligned with standardized curriculums and comes from sources such as Globetrekker, National Geographic, PBS, VEA, and more. Hot Chalk is easy to learn and use for both students and teachers.
Drawbacks: Hot Chalk doesn’t contain as many built in options as some of the other e-learning solutions. This is not an all-in-one solution if you are looking for collaborative projects, blogs, wikis or more complex quizzes and tests. Hot Chalk does not advertise to students during the school hours, however the site is advertisement driven to keep it free.
3. Moodle http://moodle.org
Benefits: Moodle is an open source course management system that provides a virtual learning environment. Moodle is made up of action modules that include forms, wikis, databases, etc. that allow a teacher to build richly collaborative communities of learning around a subject matter. It can be used to deliver content to students and assess learning through assignments and quizzes. Moodle is a robust system and has nearly endless options for customization and implementation. It is comprehensive in its offering of gradebooks, collaborative tools, lesson building abilities, and assessment. Teachers have the option to fully conduct online courses, or simply augment face-to-face class time. Moodle works on all computing platforms including Mac, PC, and Linux. Moodle has extensive documentation and knowledge communities to learn from.
Drawbacks: Moodle is an open source software that has to be downloaded and installed on a web server. It is not as intuitive as Edu 2.0 or Hot Chalk. Moodle would be difficult for younger students to navigate and understand.
4. Think Quest http://think.com
Benefits: Oracle’s Think Quest is an online environment where students can learn, work together, and manage an online presence in a safe environment. Teachers can assign learning projects for students to work on collaboratively. Other teachers can easily be invited to participate in the online learning projects. Each teacher and student has their own pages where they can create an online presence using text, pictures, multimedia, votes, debates, messaging, and brainstorming. These pages are simple enough for even very young students to create and contribute to, and offer a great introduction to blogging. Think Quest has a library of 7,000+ ready made projects created by teachers from around the world. Think Quest was created for students in k-12 and has no advertising. It is password protected and teacher monitored. Teachers can set up their class to be private so that students can only view other pages of students in their class or public to see what other students from around the world are doing. Think Quest promotes critical thinking, teamwork, communication, creativity, the use of technology, and self-direction. This is a nice option for elementary schools or primary students. It is browser based making it accessible to anyone with an Internet connected computer.
Drawbacks: ThinkQuest is limited in its offerings as a virtual school. There are limits set on file sizes of multimedia that can be used on student pages. There is no built in gradebook and no central location for students to submit work.
The above e-Learning solutions can be supplemented with additional opportunities for one-on-one interaction between teachers and students. Record the live class activities, lessons, and tutorials for on demand learning.
5. Skype- www.skype.com
Benefits: Skype is an excellent way for teachers to connect with students over the Internet. Skype provides a free platform for chatting, audio or video messaging, and screen sharing. Skype sessions can be recorded and saved for future reference. A Skype session would be an excellent way to connect with students to deliver teaching, read a story together, or discuss learning.
Drawbacks: Skype does require a download and students must register with a username and password to use Skype. Skype is not a closed network, this means that students could use Skype to communicate with people outside the classroom.
6. Pal Bee- www.palbee.com
Benefits: Pal Bee is a free online service where you can set up meetings in real time to collaborate online. Pal Bee offers video and audio abilities and provides a virtual whiteboard where students can share ideas. Sessions can be recorded and stored online with Pal Bee.
Drawbacks: Pal Bee limits meetings to 9 people at a time so you may have to split your class into sections.
7. UStream- www.ustream.com
Benefits: Ustream allows you to stream video live. Create a UStream channel for your classroom and stream your lessons live. Students can tune in to view teaching and ask questions or add input via text chat within the UStream channel. You can record your live boradcast for future viewing.
Drawbacks: If you don’t direct your students directly to your UStream channel, they will see feature highlight videos created by other users. These are not necessarily education friendly.
8. Wall Wisher- www.wallwisher.com
Benefits: Wall Wisher is a fantastic little web application that provides a virtual bulletin board of sorts. Teachers can pose questions or ideas for students to answer or think about. Students are sent the unique wall URL and can leave virtual sticky notes answering the question. Students do not have to login to use Wall Wisher, a simple double click allows them to add any thoughts they need to the wall. The platform is very simple to use but provides the opportunity for discussion and collaboration between students.
Drawbacks: Each sticky note is limited to 160 characters making in depth answers difficult on this site.
9. Screen Toaster- www.screentoaster.com
Benefits: Screen Toaster is a browser based screen recording tool that allows teachers to create detailed screencast instructions in minutes. This free to use application can take a video of anything that is on your computer screen. Audio can be included (or not) for any screencast. The screencast video is given a uniqueURL that can be embedded on a webpage or blog or sent to students via email. This is a great way for teaching students how to use e-Learning tools or any online assignments.
Drawbacks: This site requires a robust Internet connection for video creation.
File sharing websites make it easy for your students to access large files, word documents, or pdfs. They are also an effortless way for students to turn in assignments.
10. Drop.io http://drop.io
Benefits: Drop.io makes it easy to put anything (pictures, audio, or documents) in an online environment where it can be accessed by others to collaborate and share. The documents can be accessed from the web, email, fax, or as an embedded widget. In just two clicks users are able to create personal sharing points, upload content via web, email, MMS, phone and fax. Each ‘drop’ is non-searchable and non-networked, does not require an account and can be password protected and set to expire after a period of time. This makes it very convenient for teachers and students to exchange files and documents online.
Drawbacks: Although Drop.io offers a free account, some of the functionality of a premium paid account would be useful in the classroom.
11. Google Docs- http://google.com/docs
Benefits: Google Docs is an online document, spreadsheet, presentation, and form creation tool. Google Docs are all stored online and can be easily shared with other Google Doc users for collaboration or to turn in an assignment. The layout of Google Docs is very intuitive and closely resembles office suites that students would be familiar with. Google Docs is a free online office suite.
Drawbacks: None
12. Zoho- http://zoho.com
Benefits: Zoho offers a complete range of free online productivity and collaboration applications. These include email, word processor, spreadsheets, slide shows, document management folders, wiki, note taker, online organizer, group chats, web conferencing, database, project collaboration, and a repository to share documents with other users. All Zoho applications work together seamlessly. This is an excellent alternative to software based office suites. Students and teachers can create and share documents online easily.
Drawbacks: None
Even if you never have a need to take your classroom or school into a completely virtual environment, blended learning will allow your students self guided learning opportunities where they can build communication and collaboration skills. These free tools will organize your classroom in new ways and provide learning that extends beyond the confines of the classroom.
34 Free Productivity Tools That Will Help You Eliminate Expensive Software
Today I am sharing a guest post that I wrote for Inspired Classroom: 34 Free Productivity Tools That Will Help You Eliminate Expensive Software. These are my favorite free productivity tools to use in the classroom. Here is the first paragraph, hopefully it will convince you to go take a look at the full article 🙂
Software can be an expensive burden for schools to carry year after year. This expense can result in a decreased use of technology because schools can’t purchase the tools that make the technology worthwhile. Lack of budget doesn’t have to stop you in your tracks. There are thousands of free technology resources and online tools that will keep your students learning even without a large software budget. Below are a few of my favorite free online productivity tools that offer excellent alternatives to their expensive software counterparts.
To view the rest of the article click here.