Short Description: Digital Bytes is an online activity that teaches students a number of skills in regards to digital citizenship. It is geared towards students in grades 6-12 and is just one in a number of activities linked on the Common Sense Media website. Within the Digital Bytes activity, students have the ability to explore a number of ideas based on what they feel like, either creative, thinker, doer, or pioneer. From there, students have ability to explore a number of topics including "are you focused on getting likes" or "how has technology changed the way we communicate" among many others.
Examples of Uses: This program has a number of potential uses but the most obvious use would be in a computers course. This would be a perfect unit where students could explore all components found in Digital Bytes. However, individual components could be done in classes. An example would be the news literacy activity would be beneficial in a Social Studies class.

Short Description: Google forms is a great tool for creating assessments past the basic multiple choice questions. It has the ability to create multiple choice questions as well as open-ended variety. A nice thing about Google Forms is that it can automatically put the data into a spreadsheet so that the teacher can view the results. It can automatically grade the multiple choice thus providing instantaneous feedback. One final nice thing is that it has the ability to go live and close at certain times set by the instructor.
Examples of Uses: This can be used as a quick exit survey with a couple of multiple choice questions or it can be used as an in-depth chapter test with a large number of questions. Furthermore, this can be done in pairs or groups and just have students enter all their names on the quiz when starting. Essentially, there is a wide variety of options with Google Forms which makes it a great option for teachers looking for a be-all type of technology tool.

Short Description: Google scholar is a free online search engine that looks strictly for scholarly articles depending on the keywords entered in the search box. In other words, google scholar provides reliable articles related to the topic being researched. The types of sources that it provides includes peer-reviewed articles and books, dissertations, conference papers, and other scholarly literature. Therefore, this attempts to eliminate the unreliable sources that appear in a regular Google search.
Examples of Use: The most common way that this is used is for academic research. Students can research a given topic and immediately find reliable sources rather than having to sort through pages of websites found in a Google search. This is also a good place to turn to if the article one is looking for is not found on another database (i.e. JSTOR). You even have the ability to link your academic credentials (i.e. Fairfield University login information) to Google Scholar so that articles will show that are in the databases Fairfield has access to. Overall, this has the ability to create one unified search engine for any scholarly information students might need. It can take away all the guesswork out of student's research.

Short Description: Podcasts are essentially radio talk shows where either a single person or group will discuss a specific topic. They may have experts or it could just be an average radio host expressing their opinions. These are great ways for students to learn about a topic rather than having a teacher lecture or reading assigned chapters in a textbook. They can be lengthy so it is important to recognize your classes limits in regards to their attention span. Furthermore,ranging in a number of topics, it is safe to say that there is at least one podcast for whatever topic you might be on in class! An important thing to remember is what source the podcast is coming from when using them in the class.
Examples of Use: Podcasts are a great way to get students thinking about specific topics. One thing to do is have students listen to a podcast and complete an associated assignment. This can range from doodling about what they hear to writing a reflective paragraph to holding a class discussion. The best option is doodling because it requires them to listen and pick out what they believe is most important in the podcast. From there, the students could discuss their doodles and explain their reasoning. Podcasts can be also broken up into segments and assign the segments to groups in the class to create a jigsaw activity. This could help them focus on a single point and then at the end connect it to the whole. Another cool way to incorporate podcasts into the classroom is to have students create their own. Students can pick a topic associated with the class and create their own podcast to express views and work through different theories.

Examples: DecodeDC.com; backstoryradio.org; NPR

Short Description: Groupme is essentially a group messaging application that is available to all operating systems. In other words, it can run on a computer, Apple phone, Android phone, or Windows devices. Users can set up numerous groups and communicate via cell phone with large amounts of people without ever having to give out their cell phone number. It can be setup to send text messages or notifications right from the app and everything is done through a username you create. It also has the ability to share documents, photos, links, calendar events and can even be used to direct message individuals. You can even mute conversations if need be.
Example of Uses: This is great when you have to work or communicate in groups but don't want people to get your cell phone number. It is amazing when you have large groups. For example, in college I used this in my section for marching band which consisted of about 25 people. It would work good for creating a class chatroom aspect for questions and answers that everyone can access. It also works good in the small group for organizing projects and such. All students can access it as well because it is free!

RealtimeBoard.com is an interactive whiteboard that can have multiple members on one board, video conferences for remote meetings, chat rooms, comments and can be shared/uploaded to other places. It comes with templates like kwl charts and flow charts or you can use a blank board.