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The tech solutions available to teachers now go far beyond the overhead projector. Below, a look at some tools in this burgeoning category. BetterLesson The Boston-based startup BetterLesson, founded in 2008, is a social media platform that educators can use to organize and share their curricula. Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded BetterLesson $3.5 million. “Considering the startup allows teachers to browse a serious repository of documents, presentations, lessons and even complete units and courses, all through a simple search interface, and upload their own lessons onto a dashboard, you can see why teachers will love this kind of resource,” TechCrunch wrote in 2011. “Add the ability to share curricula directly with international educators and receive feedback, and you’ve got yourself a goddamn deal, as Dave Chappelle would say.” . ClassDojo Launched in August 2011, ClassDojo helps teachers with what many call their hardest task: classroom management. The platform, which teachers can use on a smartphone, laptop or tablet, allows them to give students points (or take them away) “in real-time, with just one click,” as the website has it. Students are notified (“Well done Josh! +1 for teamwork!”), and teachers can use the platform to generate analytics and reports to share with parents and administrators. . PowerSchool PowerSchool allows teachers to track attendance, grades, and a lot more for students and parents to view at home. According to Pearson, which sells the system, PowerSchool supports 10 million students in over 65 countries. . SMART Board An “interactive whiteboard,” SMART Board allows teachers to write class notes digitally, so they can be saved for students to access later. (Feel like building your own whiteboard? At TED in 2008, Johnny Lee showed how you can hack a Wii Remote to build a simple interactive whiteboard.) . Remind101 Started by a team of two brothers, Remind101 enables students and parents to sign up to receive teachers’ text-message reminders about assignments. It’s private—these are mass texts, and teachers can’t see students’ phone numbers. It’s also one-way, meaning that teachers can send out texts, but students can’t respond to them. . Educreations Using Educreations, teachers can produce video lessons using a “recordable interactive whiteboard” via an iPad app or the website. There’s a public directory of lessons, available for browsing by students or other teachers (or you).

Effective use of the Smart Board technology can without question quickly produce increased student interaction and engagement with specific instructional material and can have lasting benefits on the classroom dynamic and cognitive development of the middle school age student population

In the 21st century not only do most K-12 students have or are in the process of acquiring technological literacy, but concurrently the use of technology has become the central focus of their lives

While the classroom should not become simply a conduit for students to further immerse themselves in technology, the classroom should not pretend technology does not exist as well

Here is our collection of interactive whiteboard games for educators on PBS KIDS. Students will enjoy participating in these collaborative, fun and engaging experiences, while exploring curriculum from trusted programs such as Curious George, Super Why and Arthur. Like our programs, all of our games are age-appropriate and vetted by educators.

Access to information

Help in protecting the environment

Increase the popularity of distance learning

The Top 8 Reasons why SMART Boards are an essential component in the modern day classroom:

2. Enhanced teaching/learning experience

3. Interact and share:

Blackboard SMU uses the course management system Blackboard.  For help creating Blackboard courses and learning the basics, consult Academic Technology's Blackboard help page, as well as this Blackboard online tutorial. Access your Blackboard courses here. Presentation Software Sometimes it's helpful to provide visual aids to complement teaching, stimulate discussion, or allow out-of-class teaching. Tools designed for this purpose, such as PowerPoint, can be used well or used badly. Click here for resources that provide advice for thoughtful use of PowerPoint, as well as a few additional presentation tools. Classroom Response Systems ("clickers") One way to encourage student engagement is by using electronic devices that allow students to record their answers to multiple choice questions and allow you to instantly display the results. The anonymity encourages participation, and their answers help the teacher know when further discussion is needed.  Use of clickers can also serve as a catalyst for discussion.  Click here to learn more about using response systems effectively.

Converting a Face-to-Face Course to an Online Course Teaching online, whether in a hybrid course or a wholly-online course, requires different techniques and different tools.  Without the F2F contact, professors will need to be even clearer about setting and articulating expectations for digital work and participation.  Encouraging interaction between professor and student and among students is an additional challenge, as is monitoring student learning as the course progresses.  The online environment requires the use of basic technologies to digitize course materials as well as mastery of the university's learning management system.  And various tools like Skype allow synchronous communications, while blogs and Twitter can encourage asynchronous interaction.  Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Best for Young Readersscholastic.com/stacks

2. Best for Lesson Plansthinkfinity.org

3. Best for Finding Booksbookwizard.scholastic.com

I have an iMac and a 40" Samsung tv and teach elementary music. No textbooks, so I use Keynote and Quicktime to present songs and lessons I develop. I use a Gig-Easy mount and old mic stand to hold my personal iPad so students can safely use it. This is more limiting than an interactive whiteboard...I'm hoping to get a SmartBoard and a document camera eventually..but it does allow students to personally access technology. I mirror to the TV so all can see what is being done. I have been using the espresso education website for about three years. I am using Sokikom for behavior management and to support math (aligned to the CC) .. student's using the games outside of music. Garageband- to record and edit. I teach many classes and have to take a new role every 45 minutes, so I use Teacherkit (on iPad) for attendance and seating charts. We put in grades on WebPams. I use DropBox to share with other teachers and to move things from my home MacBookPro to my iMac.