ew Year. New Ideas. New Tech Tools!

So let’s clean off the desk, close all the tabs you have open on Chrome, throw away the curled up old post-it notes that are stuck to your monitor and try something new, what do you say?

I decided to put the new tech tool recommendations into 4 categories:

1. Audio feedback 
2. Digital Whiteboards
3. Interactive lessons
4. Online class activities

Teachers are incredibly scrappy. If you give them an idea and about 10 minutes of prep time, they will figure out how to use it with 25 kids in their classroom. So, essentially, that’s what I’m going to do here. I want to give you the idea for what the tool does and I want you to take it and run with it!

As I have said before, I don’t think that audio recordings get enough credit. I think that both teachers and students could use them for all types of assignments, oral practice, assessments and probably a lot of other things too.

Both of the audio recording tools I recommend below are extensions to Chrome.

Let me back-up a sec….

Do you all know what an extension to Chrome is? If so, skip ahead. If not, check out chrome.google.com. There you will see lots and lots of different options of extensions you can add to your Chrome browser. Most of them are free and easy to use. Once you download them, you will see their little logos to the right of the address bar. If you don’t see the little logo or symbol, click on the one that looks like a puzzle piece, and “pin” that logo to your address bar.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

Take a look at these tools:

This is an extension to Chrome that allows you to record audio messages on any type of Google Suite app (Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Classroom etc). You can record up to 120 seconds and you can even transcribe the audio into written form (on the paid version, that is).

Once you have Mote added to Chrome, your address bar will have the “M” logo there. (See the photo below)

When you want to record a message, you can do two things:

Audio recordings are a very personal way to give feedback. Students feel like you are speaking to them, rather than just correcting something. And since it is quicker and easier to do than written feedback, teachers are more likely to do it more often. And we all know that frequent and consistent feedback is a game changer for students!

This is also an extension to Chrome that allows you to do much the same thing. Except this one allows you to use the recording in more places than just the Google apps.

Anywhere you can paste a link, you can use Talk&Comment. So, think of email, Twitter, Slack, Facebook etc. And of course you can use it on all the Google apps like Docs, Classroom, Slides etc.

Once installed “Talk&Comment” installs a little microphone on the side of your screen. When you want to record an audio, just click it and start speaking! When you’re done, you will get an pop up window that looks like this:

So you can now paste that link anywhere you want to. 

Now that you know how incredibly easy they are to install and record, here are some ideas as to how to use audio recordings in your class:

While teaching online over a screen, do you ever find yourself holding up a piece of paper to show the students something? Well, no need to do that anymore. Try these:

This website is a combination of a teacher-only whiteboard or a whiteboard that the whole class can contribute to. You choose!

The teacher can open a whiteboard and share her screen with the class. You can then type, draw or upload a photo to annotate. Do all of this while you are explaining the concepts to the students.

Or, the teacher can provide a code and all the students can enter with their own whiteboard. While they are working independently, the teacher can watch them working in real time. It looks like this:

The students can also type, draw, move objects, add audio etc. It even includes the ability to take a poll amongst the students!

I must admit that whiteboard.chat is a bit “glitchy”. While testing it, I noticed that sometimes you have to refresh the page to get the elements to take effect and changing text colors was more difficult and confusing than it needed to be.  But I decided to recommend it anyway because it is one of the only tools where you can have students all working at the same time on their own board. There is a free version and a paid one that is also very affordable.

Jamboard is also a digital whiteboard that you can use with your students, except this is a collaborative whiteboard that everyone shares.

It is very versatile, allowing you to draw, type, upload images to annotate, change the background, and even use colorful sticky notes. The Jamboard can be multiple pages, so you can create a multistep assignment easily.

Just like Google Docs, the Jamboard can be shared with all your students with different permissions. You could have them “view only” or “edit” depending on how much you want them to be able to do.

Here is an example of a Jamboard with text, sticky notes and a nice background:

This a question and answer game that acts a bit like a video game. Students earn “money” for correct answers. The “funds” can be used for “power ups”, theme changes, additional answer opportunities etc. Incorrect questions take money away from their total.

Once the teacher creates the multiple choice or T/F questions, the students can play live as a class or individually as homework.

The “KitCollab” feature allows students to all contribute questions towards one communal game. This would be a great way to get them responsible for their own learning! After each game, it sends you thorough reports on how everyone did.

This game was designed by a high school student just a few years ago and is billed as “what he and his friends wanted to play”. I love encouraging students to pursue their passions!

This tool allows you to create a class activity that looks a bit like a powerpoint presentation. Except each slide has a question, prompt, image or activity that you will have the students complete independently. The best part is that you can monitor all of their work in real time!

Before class starts, you create the activity on as many slides as you want. Each slide can have different types of activities, questions or prompts. 

Once the students join the activity from their own device, they start to work on their own. The teacher can watch their progress of all the students in a chart view that looks like this:

This teacher view is totally adjustable.  You can view the whole class and all the activities, or filter by student or by slide. So for example, you can just see Amy’s work, or just see page 3 from all the students.

One of the best features is that students can “raise their hands” and teachers can enter that page and help out. Or they can ask help from another student in the class. That’s great for collaborative and student-centered learning too!

You can create assignments that include writing, drawing, audio recording, moving manipulatives, multiple choice questions, fill in the blank, stickers etc.

Ok, I’ll admit that Classkick is the type of tool that involves some prep work, but it is a great way to get them involved in the class and learning actively. They can work at their own pace and ask questions without getting embarrassed.

I hope this has given you some ideas for some new tools to use in the new year. As always, please drop me a line and let me know what you think!