Technology Review

Smart Technology is now seen in almost every school or classroom that has the accessible resources. The impact this new technology has had on our education system from my perspective is immeasurable. There are many different types of smart technologies and resources, but for this purpose I would like to focus on Smart Boards. Smart Boards are interactive tools that can be placed at the front of your classroom in place of a white board or an LCD projector. They are interactive tools that allow students to fully engage, touch the screen, move things around, write on it and even do amazing activities such as dissect a frog! Through the SMART community online they offer a program called SMART

http://www.communication-co.com

Exchange; “SMART Exchange™ online community is a repository for a variety of high-quality, peer-reviewed digital content you can use with your classroom technology. You’ll find thousands of resources including standards-correlated lessons for SMART Notebook collaborative learning software, question sets for SMART Response interactive response systems, links and other multimedia content.” Smart Boards are a way of the future and allows all students no matter what learning style they prefer, to strive and achieve success through this interactive and collaborative program. 

http://www.socrative.com

Socrative is another smart technology; it is a student response system that allows teachers to engage their classrooms with a series of educational exercises and games online. They are run through apps or an online website (tablets, smartphones, and laptops), both which are are super simple and take seconds to login. Teachers login to their device through the teachers portion and students do the same through the student portion. “Student responses are visually represented for multiple choice, true/false and Short Answer questions. For pre-planned activities a teacher can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet or as an emailed Excel file.” It is recourses like this that allow students to use the handheld devices in a positive and productive manor. It’s almost impossible to have a classroom these days without students on their IPhones, IPads or some sort of smart technology … we mine as well give our students a way to use them productively. Watch this quick HOW TO video !

Timetoast is an online website where you can make the past come to life! There are so many school projects that ask students to create a timeline of some sorts, but how creative can they be? Pen, paper, ruler and some number? Timetoast allows students to use their creativity when constructing their timelines. Students can add pictures, text and arrange their timeline in any fashion they choose. I believe it’s interactive resources such as this that change student’s outlook on learning. It’s something fun and exciting for them to create and share with others and at the same time it’s an online keepsake.

https://wiki.carleton.edu