How do I manage technology?
ISTE nets-c objective 3.b challenges teachers to "maintain and manage a variety of digital tools and resources for teacher and student use in technology-rich learning environments." I meet this objective by using several digital tools to organize the resources I use in my classroom. I use a combination of tried and true organization tools like browser bookmarks and file management and more modern apps like Google Keep and screen capture software.
Organization Tools
Resources
Organization Tools
- I use Google Keep to manage my personal to-do lists, and store ideas for projects and lessons, notes about new resources to check out, etc. It's a like a virtual notepad that goes with me on my phone and my computer.
- I maintain a Chrome bookmarks folder of teaching resources, which I curate every month to get rid of dead links or sources I don't plan on using again.
- I also use my Documents and Pictures folders to separate my teaching materials from my other files.
Resources
- I create websites to provide resources to my students and other teachers. One example is Teaching Visual Literacy, a website I made to promote ways to integrate visual literacy projects into the classroom. To make websites, I like to use weebly.com because it is free and it is easy to use to create clean and well-designed sites. In fact, it is what I used for this portfolio.
- I use Slideshare.net to make my powerpoint presentations accessible outside of the classroom.
- I use Jing to capture short videos for lessons. I thought this would be a good technology to become familiar with because of the rising popularity of flipped classrooms and blended learning, as described in the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 K-12 Edition, p. 12-13. With Jing, I can create short tutorials that students can view on their own, outside of school hours. Read my full review of Jing here.
- I use TimelineJS to create interactive timelines that can be viewed online. An example timeline can be viewed here, and my full review of TimelineJS is here.