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ntegrating technology into a high school classroom isn't a one-step process. "You can't just slap a netbook [computer] on top of a textbook and say, 'Great, now we have technology,"

digital learning starts with teachers,

performance is enhanced by technology

he first annual Digital Learning Day falls on February 1 and will celebrate innovative K-12 instructors who successfully bring technology into the classroom by assigning online course content,

When a school says, 'OK, we want to use technology better,' you have to develop your goals and what learning outcomes you're trying to reach,"

As technology evolves, so must the teachers. "For the last 100 years, teachers have essentially been the sage on the stage," Wise says. "They're the only access point of knowledge."

Login Welcome, {{name}} Logout Rankings & Advice Education Health Money Travel Cars Law Firms News U.S. News Home education Facebook Twitter Education Rankings & Advice Home Colleges Grad Schools High Schools National Rankings State Rankings High School Notes Blog (function ($) { "use strict"; $(function () { var $metaCurrentState = $('meta[name=current_state_abbreviation]'), $headerSearch = $('#headerSearch-highSchools'), $headerState = $('select[name=bhs-school-state]', $headerSearch), $headerStates = $('option', $headerStates), currentStateAbbreviation = ''; if ($metaCurrentState.length > 0) { currentStateAbbreviation = $metaCurrentState.attr('content'); $headerStates.each(function () { var $state = $(this), text = $state.text(), value = $state.val(); if (text === currentStateAbbreviation) { $headerState.val(value); } }); } }); }(jQuery)); (function($) { $(document).ready(function() { function autocomplete_school_name_widget() { var state = $("#bhs-header-state option:selected").val(), url = 'http://' + window.location.hostname + '/education/best-high-schools/' + state + '/name-autocomplete?timestamp=0&limit=10', redirect_url = 'http://' + window.location.hostname + '/education/best-high-schools/search-bounce'; if ($.fn.usnAutocomplete) { $('#bhs-header-school').usnAutocomplete({ responseFormat: 'newlineList', autocompleteOptions: { serviceUrl: url, paramName: 'q', onSelect: function() { window.location.href = r

3. Become an educational designer: As technology evolves, so must the teachers. "For the last 100 years, teachers have essentially been the sage on the stage," Wise says. "They're the only access point of knowledge."But now, Wise says, teachers are more like designers, who get to choose and develop what kinds of content their students access and which technologies they use. Wise says that with new content technologies, too, teachers can quickly see assessment results of their students."They have tools so that instead of seeing 25 students sitting in front of them looking the same," Wise says, "they now know that this student needs this particular assistance, and this student needs that something else."

left class with more questions than answers

reversed

lively, engaging discussion

more productive

hey want their kids to be middle class. The problem is that the economy has changed, so doing better now means going to college. And someone has to help them figure out how to do this because the parents don’t know themselves.”

74.2 percent of the graduating seniors went on to post-secondary education

“I want a whole lot more,” Ms. Wilson said. “I want to be financially stable. I don’t want to be struggling on $30,000 a year.”

Edmodo:

Social Learning

Grockit

Learning

Useful Tools

Lesson Planning and Tool

These tools can help you to stay connected, organized, and increase the ease of building multimedia lessons and learning tools. Evernote: Capture great ideas, photos, recordings, or just about anything else on your Evernote account, access it anywhere, and keep it organized. A must-have tool for lesson planning. Twitter: There are so many ways Twitter can be used in education. Teachers can connect with other educators, take part in chats, share their ideas, or even use it in the classroom to reach out to students. Google Education: Google offers a number of great edtech resources for teachers, including email and collaborative apps, videos, lesson plan search, professional development, and even educational grants. Dropbox: Easily store, share, and access any kind of data from anywhere with the easy-to-use and free Dropbox service. Diigo: Diigo lets you treat the web like paper-based reading material, making it simple to highlight, bookmark, take notes, or even add sticky notes. Apple iPad: One of the most widely used, though expensive, tech tools being used in today’s classroom is the Apple iPad. With a host of educational apps being developed for the device, it’s become a favorite of teachers and students alike across the nation. Aviary: Aviary is a suite of tools that make it easy to edit images, effects, swatches, music, and audio or to create and modify screen captures. Jing: If you’re teaching kids about tech or just about anything else, a great screenshot program is essential. Jing is one great option that allows teachers to take screenshots as images, record up to five minutes or videos then edit and share the results. Popplet: You and your students can use Popplet to brainstorm ideas, create mindmaps, share, and collaborate. Google Earth: From geography projects to learning about geological processes, Google Earth can be an amazing and fast way to show students anywhere in the world. DonorsChoose: Need funding for a classroom project? You can get it through this site that hooks up needy teachers with willing donors. SlideShare: With SlideShare, you can upload your presentations, documents, and videos and share them with students and colleagues. Even better, you can take advantage of materials that other have uploaded as well. LiveBinders: Like a real-life three ring binder, this tech tool allows you to collect and organize resources. Much better than a binder, however, the site also comes with tools to connect and collaborate and a virtual whiteboard. AudioBoo: Through this tool, you can record and share audio for your students or anyone else.

Learning These educational tools can help you to make lessons fun, interesting, and more effective. Khan Academy: Many teachers use this excellent collection of math, science, and finance lectures and quizzes to supplement their classroom materials. MangaHigh: MangaHigh offers teachers a wealth of resources for game-based learning in mathematics. FunBrain: If you’re looking for a great collection of educational games, look no further than FunBrain. On it, teachers can take advantage of fun tools for math and reading. Educreations: Educreations is an amazing online tool for the iPad that lets teachers (or students) create videos that teach a given topic. Perfect for studying or getting students to show off their knowledge. Animoto: Animoto makes it simple to create video-based lessons or presentations for the classroom and to share them with students or anyone else. Socrative: Available for computers, mobile devices, and tablets, this student response system engages students through games and exercises on any device they have on hand. Even better, teachers can easily assess student progress and track grades. Knewton: Adaptive learning has been a hot topic in recent months, and with Knewton it’s something that any teacher can access and use. The site personalizes online learning content for each student according to his or her needs. Kerpoof: On Kerpoof, students can get creative with their learning with games, interactive activities, drawing tools, and more that are both fun and educational. StudySync: With a digital library, weekly writing practice, online writing and peer reviews, Common Core assignments, and multimedia lessons available, this site is a fully-featured tool for teaching and learning that can be a big help in the classroom. CarrotSticks: On this site, teachers can take advantage of a wide range of math learning games, giving students practice while they have fun.

new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers.

echnology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorit

Edmodo: Teachers and students can take advantage of this great tech tool, as it offers a Facebook-like environment where classes can connect online. Grockit: Get your students connected with each other in study sessions that take place on this great social site. EduBlogs: EduBlogs offers a safe and secure place to set up blogs for yourself or your classroom. Skype: Skype can be a great tool for keeping in touch with other educators or even attending meetings online. Even cooler, it can help teachers to connect with other classrooms, even those in other countries.

new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education,

Technology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorite tech tools that make doing his or her job and connecting with students a little bit easier and more fun for all involved.

new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education

ew tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education

These tools use the power of social media to help students learn and teachers connect.

Teachers Pay Teachers: Have great lessons to share? Looking for something to add to your classes? On this site you can do both, selling your own class materials and buying high-quality resources from other teachers. Planboard: Make sure your lessons are organized and that your day runs smoothly with the help of this amazing online tool designed just for teachers. Timetoast: Timetoast is a pretty cool for student projects, allowing them to build sleek, interactive timelines in minutes. Capzles: There are so many different ways that Capzles can be used in the classroom, there’s bound to be an application that fits your needs. What does it do? Capzles makes it simple to gather media like photos, videos, documents, and even blog posts into one place, making it perfect for teaching, learning, or online projects. Prezi: Want to build presentations that will wow your students? Make use of this online tool that makes it simple to do all kinds of cool things with your lessons, even allowing collaboration between teachers. Wordle: Create stunning word clouds using Wordle, a great complement to language lessons of any kind.

Yet as with anything related to technology, new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers.

Lesson Planning and Tools Use these tech tools to pull together great lessons and design amazing and memorable student projects.

Social Learning These tools use the power of social media to help students learn and teachers connect.

Learning These educational tools can help you to make lessons fun, interesting, and more effective.

Useful Tools These tools can help you to stay connected, organized, and increase the ease of building multimedia lessons and learning tools.

Teachers Pay Teachers: Have great lessons to share? Looking for something to add to your classes? On this site you can do both, selling your own class materials and buying high-quality resources from other teachers. Planboard: Make sure your lessons are organized and that your day runs smoothly with the help of this amazing online tool designed just for teachers. Timetoast: Timetoast is a pretty cool for student projects, allowing them to build sleek, interactive timelines in minutes. Capzles: There are so many different ways that Capzles can be used in the classroom, there’s bound to be an application that fits your needs. What does it do? Capzles makes it simple to gather media like photos, videos, documents, and even blog posts into one place, making it perfect for teaching, learning, or online projects. Prezi: Want to build presentations that will wow your students? Make use of this online tool that makes it simple to do all kinds of cool things with your lessons, even allowing collaboration between teachers. Wordle: Create stunning word clouds using Wordle, a great complement to language lessons of any kind. QR Codes: QR codes (or quick response codes) are showing up with greater frequency in education. If you’d like to get in on the trend, you’ll need a tool to create and manage the codes like Delivr and one to read codes, like any of those listed on this site. Quizlet: Quizlet makes it easy for teachers to create study tools for students, especially flashcards that can make memorizing important information a snap. MasteryConnect: How are your students performing with regard to state and common core standards? MasterConnect makes it simple to track and analyze both, as well as other elements of student performance. Google Docs: Through Google Docs, teachers can create and share documents, presentations, or spreadsheets with students and colleagues as well as give feedback on student-created projects. YouTube: Not all schools allow YouTube, but they are missing out as the site contains a wealth of great learning materials for the classroom. There’s even a special education-focused channel just for teachers and students. TED-Ed: TED isn’t just a great place to find inspiration anymore, the site also contains numerous videos that are organized by subject and can help you to teach everything from how pain relievers work to Shakespearean insults. Glogster:Glogster is a social site that lets users mash up music, photos, videos, and pretty much anything else you’d like. It’s a great way to create learning materials and a handy tool for creative student projects. Creaza: Want to bring your student projects into the 21st century? Creaza can make that possible, offering tools to brainstorm, create cartoons, and edit audio and video. Mentor Mob: On Mentor Mob, you or your students can create a learning playlist, which is essentially a collection of high-quality materials that can be used to study a specific concept. Useful Tools

Teachers under age 35 are more likely than teachers age 55 and older to describe themselves as “very confident” when it comes to using new digital technologies (64% vs. 44%) Conversely, the oldest teachers (age 55 and older) are more than twice as likely as their colleagues under age 35 to say their students know more than they do about using the newest digital tools (59% vs. 23%) 45% of teachers under age 35 have their students develop or share work on a website, wiki or blog, compared with 34% of teachers ages 55 and older Younger teachers are also more likely than the oldest teachers to have students participate in online discussions (45% v. 32%) and use collaborative web-based tools such as GoogleDocs to edit their work (41% v. 34%) Younger teachers are more likely to “very often” draw on colleagues for ideas about how to use new technologies in the classroom (22% of teachers under age 35 do this), when compared with teachers age 35-54 (16%) and teachers age 55 and older (13%)

94% of AP and NWP teachers own a cell phone, slightly higher than the national figure of 88% for all U.S. adults 58% of these teachers (68% of teachers under age 35) have a smartphone, compared with 45% of all adults 93% of teachers own a laptop computer vs. 61% of all adults 87% own a desktop computer vs. 58% of all adults 39% own a tablet vs. 24% of all adults 47% own an e-book reader vs. 19% of all adults 78% use social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+, compared with 69% of adult internet users and 59% of all adults 26% use Twitter vs. 16% of adult internet users and 14% of all adults

99% of AP and NWP teachers use search engines to find information online 90% name Google as the search tool they use most often Virtually all AP and NWP teachers (99%) use the internet “to do work or research for their job” Almost three-quarters (73%) of AP and NWP teachers are “very confident” in their online search abilities

80% of AP and NWP teachers report getting email alerts or updates at least weekly that allow them to follow developments in their field 84% report using the internet at least weekly to find content that will engage students 80% report using the internet at least weekly to help them create lesson plans

92% of these teachers say the internet has a “major impact” on their ability to access content, resources, and materials for their teaching 69% say the internet has a “major impact” on their ability to share ideas with other teachers 67% say the internet has a “major impact” on their ability to interact with parents and 57% say it has had such an impact on enabling their interaction with students

Tablet computers are more than electronic textbooks. With their fast processor, Internet connectivity, and large touch-screen display, tablets can function as powerful graphing calculators, video players, and photo editors.

ut the iPads have helped engage students, cut down on paper, and allowed

absent students to keep up with classwork.

t’s important to keep in mind that AT’s role is to assist your child’s learning. It doesn’t replace good teaching, but it can be used in addition to well-designed instruction.

“Publish” your students’ work.

Perfect Ed Tech Activities for Beginners

Do a PowerPoint “Game Show Review”

Have students complete a written classroom activity as if it was online.

Try a Webquest

Good Ed Tech Activities for All Skill Levels

Create a class blog or wiki.

Create a class webpage.

Use an online grading system.

Do an email exchange.

Give multimedia presentations – or have your students give them.

Supplement your lessons.

Advanced Ed Tech Activities

Use technology as a topic for a writing assignment.

Listen to – or create – a Podcast.

Publish” your students’ work.

Publish” your students’ work.

Publish” your students’ work.

“Publish” your students’ work.

“Publish” your students’ work.

A class webpage can be anything from a basic site where you post announcements (think “online bulletin board”) to a much more elaborate one that includes class photos, a class blog, downloadable materials, and your own domain name. For those of you just starting out, try Scholastic’s free Home Page Builder (http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/). Those of you with a little more experience may enjoy Webs.com (http://www.webs.com/), which offers both free and premium service packages.

Ever have your students write a diary from the perspective of a character or famous person? Why not have them create a blog instead? Take a look at various blog sites (Blogger and WordPress are two of the most popular) and create a template for your students to fill in. Want students to summarize information? Ask them to tweet the lesson – that is, have them write summaries of 140 characters or less, as if they were writing on Twitter. Or create a template for a web page and ask students to use it to design a webpage about the content they are studying. While these activities don’t actually use technology, they familiarize you – and your students – with the Web 2.0 world, which can be a great first step.

Ever have your students write a diary from the perspective of a character or famous person? Why not have them create a blog instead? Take a look at various blog sites (Blogger and WordPress are two of the most popular) and create a template for your students to fill in. Want students to summarize information? Ask them to tweet the lesson – that is, have them write summaries of 140 characters or less, as if they were writing on Twitter. Or create a template for a web page and ask students to use it to design a webpage about the content they are studying. While these activities don’t actually use technology, they familiarize you – and your students – with the Web 2.0 world, which can be a great first step.

Ever have your students write a diary from the perspective of a character or famous person? Why not have them create a blog instead? Take a look at various blog sites (Blogger and WordPress are two of the most popular) and create a template for your students to fill in. Want students to summarize information? Ask them to tweet the lesson – that is, have them write summaries of 140 characters or less, as if they were writing on Twitter. Or create a template for a web page and ask students to use it to design a webpage about the content they are studying. While these activities don’t actually use technology, they familiarize you – and your students – with the Web 2.0 world, which can be a great first step.

Ever have your students write a diary from the perspective of a character or famous person? Why not have them create a blog instead? Take a look at various blog sites (Blogger and WordPress are two of the most popular) and create a template for your students to fill in. Want students to summarize information? Ask them to tweet the lesson – that is, have them write summaries of 140 characters or less, as if they were writing on Twitter. Or create a template for a web page and ask students to use it to design a webpage about the content they are studying. While these activities don’t actually use technology, they familiarize you – and your students – with the Web 2.0 world, which can be a great first step.

Ever have your students write a diary from the perspective of a character or famous person? Why not have them create a blog instead? Take a look at various blog sites (Blogger and WordPress are two of the most popular) and create a template for your students to fill in. Want students to summarize information? Ask them to tweet the lesson – that is, have them write summaries of 140 characters or less, as if they were writing on Twitter. Or create a template for a web page and ask students to use it to design a webpage about the content they are studying. While these activities don’t actually use technology, they familiarize you – and your students – with the Web 2.0 world, which can be a great first step.

Do a PowerPoint “Game Show Review”

 Have students complete a written classroom activity as if it was online.

Try a Webquest

Use technology as a topic for a writing assignment

Create a class webpage

Use an online grading system

Do an email exchange

Give multimedia presentations – or have your students give them

Supplement your lessons

Create a class blog or wiki

Listen to – or create – a Podcast.

“Publish” your students’ work

try to find a technology “mentor” on campus – the computer teacher or just another teacher who uses technology more than you do. It helps to know there’s someone who can guide you and help you incorporate technology in the classroom if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

They must search the Internet to determine what artifacts belong in their museum and explain their choices.

 Create a class webpage

A class webpage can be anything from a basic site where you post announcements (think “online bulletin board”) to a much more elaborate one that includes class photos, a class blog, downloadable materials, and your own domain name

Use an online grading system

You can also email students and parents directly to allow them to view their updated grades. Never worry again about bringing home your gradebook – you can access it from any computer.  

Give multimedia presentations – or have your students give them

Liven up a traditional lecture by using a PowerPoint presentation that incorporates photographs, diagrams, sound effects, music, or video clips

Supplement your lessons

Many museums now offer online “virtual tours” and teachers are constantly developing new presentations and webquests, which are posted online. Add these in to keep your lessons fresh.

Create a class blog or wiki

isten to – or create – a Podcast.

Search for ones that meet your students’ needs.

For the really ambitious, have students create their own podcasts to document their progress through the year or discuss their ideas on a variety of issues pertaining to the course.

“Publish” your students’ work Tools exist today to allow your students to create really professional looking work using a desktop computer. Have students create a short film, run an ongoing class website that features student work and opinions, or – if they’re really ambitious – raise the money to have their work professionally published by a self-publishing company like iUniverse or Lulu. No matter what your skill level, integrating technology in the classroom offers the chance to increase student interest and teach valuable professional skills – and have some fun!

Do a PowerPoint “Game Show Review”

PowerPoin

Game Show Review

Check out this template or search “powerpoint game show template” online

A fun way to practice using a projector and get your students to review important material!

 Have students complete a written classroom activity as if it was online.

Ask them to tweet the lesson – that is, have them write summaries of 140 characters or less, as if they were writing on Twitter. Or create a template for a web page and ask students to use it to design a webpage about the content they are studying.

Try a Webquest

Use technology as a topic for a writing assignment

 Create a class webpage

. For those of you just starting out, try Scholastic’s free Home Page Builder (http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/). Those of you with a little more experience may enjoy Webs.com (http://www.webs.com/),

se an online grading system

(http://www.mygradebook.com)

Do an email exchange

ave your students exchange emails with students in another school, city, state, or country – especially valuable if both sets of students are studying the same material

Give multimedia presentations – or have your students give them

a PowerPoint presentation that incorporates photographs, diagrams, sound effects, music, or video clips.

Supplement your lessons

A quick Internet search may help you identify ways to supplement your lessons with interesting new material

reate a class blog or wiki

ome teachers use blogs to drive outside-of-class discussion – particularly helpful for AP/IB students who are

motivated but short on class time. A wiki is a website that uses software which allows many different people t

o edit it (think Wikipedia)

 Listen to – or create – a Podcast.

Publish” your students’ work

Do a PowerPoint “Game Show Review” Many tech-savvy teachers have used Microsoft PowerPoint to create review games based on famous game shows, including “Jeopardy!,” “The Weakest Link,” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” These templates are available online for teachers to download and revise, including their own content. Check out this template or search “powerpoint game show template” online. A fun way to practice using a projector and get your students to review important material!

Many tech-savvy teachers have used Microsoft PowerPoint

12 Easy Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom, Even for Technophobic Teachers