Tech Apps PD Course Participants

great ideas for instructional strategies

Great index of web tools!

Great blog that all teachers should follow!

"Code School teaches web technologies in the comfort of your browser with video lessons, coding challenges, and screencasts."

"Build software better, together. Powerful collaboration, review, and code management for open source and private development projects."

Use Edge Code to live update website. It's open source and it's free!!

Great list of compiled resources for BYOD

create a simulated chat between historical or fictional characters

Great guide to going 1:1

bare bones way to access you tube using assistive technologies

Free! METRYX is a formative assessment tool that allows teachers to "track, analyze, and differentiate" students across any number of customizable skill sets. Teachers can import class rosters and any number of skill sets via a CSV file, and then individually track students across each skill set as they perform various classroom activities. The granularity of these activities is completely at the discretion of the teacher, though Metryx appears especially useful for project-based learning, skills demonstration, and other activities where multiple-choice assessment data can't fully convey student progress. 

Free! THINKING WORLDS is a drag-and-drop 3D scene builder and visual programming editor that allows non-coders to build immersive gaming experiences and simulations. It appears more suited for creating virtual training exercises in large organizations, but with a free developer license it should provide a sufficient challenge for the ultra-techie educator. Beware. This is more of a summer project than weekend quick pick -- just imagine the learning curve if there were Scratch controls for every movement in Sim City. But if you're up to the task, there's still time to join this recently started MOOC on gameification. After all, a tool is only as good as the outcomes it makes possible.

Freemium MEOGRAPH, the interactive storytelling tool which proved best in show at EdSurge's Inaugural Teacher Tank, has released a new set of premium features aimed specifically at educators. Meograph's core functionality -- story creation through maps, timelines, web links, and multimedia -- is still 100% free, but the new licensed features remove some of the practical barriers to classroom-wide implementation. They include a classroom management tool that lets teachers view student content in a single place (addressing direct feedback from one of our teacher sharks!), privacy options for sharing with groups or individuals, and privacy-compliant registration for users under the age of 13. Plans start at $19.99/year for up to 40 students. 

Cool way to use Google Docs with students