Edustructional Technology

Introduction If you have not been using Twitter in your classroom, you are really missing out on a great way to engage students and open up academic discussion.  If you perform an internet search on "Twitter in the classroom," you will find a multitude of good blog posts on using the technology for learning.  One of my favorites is at the great blog, Edudemic . Since so much has been written about Twitter in education, this post will concentrate on how to efficiently conduct a Twitter chat with your students using a Tweet aggregator. Quick How To 1. Create a teacher Twitter account. 2. Have students create a Twitter account if they do not already have one. (Note: They do not need to follow your account. But, you will need a list of their Twitter handles to match to their real names.) 3.  Create a class/chat hashtag that students can use to collect the responses via search. 4.  Join and have students join either Tweetdeck or Hootsuite . 5.  Set a date and time ...

In case you were not aware, in October, Google launched add-ons for Forms.  Previously, add-ons had been incorporated in Docs and Sheets but not Forms.  If you have not used add-ons in your Google Drive, I encourage you to explore them.  Add-ons are scripts and services that allow you to perform actions within your Google Drive files that are not available with the stock Google editors. For instance, autoCrat allows you to take information from a Google Sheet and use it to populate a Google Doc template.  Flubaroo allows you to automate grading of data in a Google Sheet.  There are many add-ons available for Docs and Sheets, but since Forms has just launched add-ons, I will review a few here. More Information on Add-ons from CNet Essential Add-ons for Google Forms 1.  Form Notifications Have you ever created a Google Form for someone else and needed him/her to receive notification when a response was submitted?  Previously, Google Forms only had the ab...

Ideas for Using Technology in the Classroom Make sure to read the previous post: Beyond Just Devices: Why We Should Be Teaching Skills and Not Tech Student choice of technology is one of the most critical parts of using technology in the classroom.  Instead of choosing and learning a technology for them, let them choose and learn a technology.  They can even teach it to you! 1.  Creativity and Innovation film a concept and edit it using a choice of tools create stop motion video design an invention and create a digital mockup create models of processes (e.g. evaporation, addition, etc.) color using online tools create a puzzle of any type have students blog or tweet 2.  Communication and Collaboration work collaboratively writing a document virtual conference with another classroom (even in your own school) record screencast teaching other students tell a digital story have students blog create a comic develop a class wiki write emails to be delivered to your future...

As I've written in this blog before, the key to integrating technology into education is not the devices and technologies themselves.  Our job as educators is to teach children skills that will enable them to process and generate information.  If we simply teach them a single device or technology, they will only be able to operate that device or technology.  If we teach them a skill, they will be able to accomplish that skill with a wide variety of devices and technologies. However, the approach of most school districts has been to focus on the technology itself.  This approach leads to failure.  If you give every student a Chromebook and all they do with it is word-processing, are they learning a skill that is any different than writing by hand on paper?  Of course not!  Does technology allow us to accomplish tasks and learn skills beyond what we could before the technology?  Yes!  So, what are those skills? Skills that Technology Helps Stud...

One of the best features of autoCrat for Google Sheets is that it works on the spreadsheets generated by a Google Form. Many teachers use Google Forms to create quizzes and tests.  It is a fantastic way to give an online quiz or test.  But, one problem with Forms is the way that long free responses are handled.  Since all Form responses go into a spreadsheet, a free response answer is crammed into a tiny spreadsheet cell, even if it is a page worth of text!  This makes it almost impossible to grade free response questions from a Form. Luckily, autoCrat comes to the rescue.  You can use autoCrat to pull the free responses into separate Google Docs labeled by student name and then print or grade them electronically. Here's how: 1.  Create and administer your Google Form to students. 2.  Create a Doc template with the tags <<student_name>> and <<free_response_1>> (you can add a free_response_2, 3, 4, etc. based on the number of fre...