As teachers, we often assume that doodling in class is “bad,” indicating that students aren’t listening to the material being taught. However, for visual learners, doodling can be that extra nudge that helps them in memorizing the material. Doodling as a memory strategy is not only effective, it helps some students focus, calm themselves, and turn verbal-linguistic information into non-linguistic information. In order to make that transfer from text to visual, students must understand the content. Given that one can’t doodle about what’s learned unless one understands it, doodling as a memory strategy can also be an effective formative assessment.

Even if they make up their answer on the spot, it STILL is effective in supporting recall of the information that was taught.

By taking what can be seen as a negative and turning it around into a positive, by encouraging doodling as a memory strategy, you gain the trust of your students, especially those that learn differently. By working with the student’s strengths, you enhance learning and memory on multiple levels. Create a win-win situation!

This video tutorial for Sketchnotes explains the concept well.

Related resources:

• What are Sketchnotes?
• What to Do to Help Students Improve Focus
• A Dozen Commonsense Strategies to Maintain Focus, Attention, And Enhance Learning in the Classroom!

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Believe me, when it comes to reaching students and enhancing their understanding of the material, video is essential and worth that hassle to obtain.

Using video as a Teaching Strategy

Video can bring a subject to students in a completely new way and help them comprehend the material they’re reading or working with.

Here’s an example from my own experience working with teachers on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. Most of their students had never left the area, had never seen or experienced the ocean. Some did not have television or even electricity at home, so they had little to no exposure to places outside this part of Arizona. They may never have seen movies or TV programs set near coastal waters. Imagine trying to explain the ocean, or what it’s like to live next to the ocean, to someone who has never seen it.

Those teachers couldn’t take their students to the ocean, but they could at least show them video to enable those students to experience it virtually. Doing this better equipped the students to understand the intricacies of the storylines in books that take place around the ocean. Video gave them a connection to that environment and allowed them to more accurately visualize the story as it unfolded.

Okay, so video is a great enabler of learning. But it’s still a hassle to find, right? Actually, it’s not as difficult these days.

Rather than search for video to use in your classroom from Teachertube, Schooltube, Youtube, etc. Go to one source: Google Videos.

Google Videos searches all three of those sites as well as university sites, Prezi.com, vimeo.com, showme.com, and countless other sources.

You can use video in a number of ways. You can show a full movie or TV show, or just a clip from a movie. You could even just show a movie trailer. You can have students find video clips related to the topic being taught.

Movie clips can teach characterization, grammar, drawing inferences, figurative language, vocabulary, persuasion or point of view.

Ideas for Using Video in the Classroom
1. After watching a movie clip, have students work in pairs or small groups to create five questions about the movie for response from their peers. They must ensure that their questions reflect a sample of various levels of Blooms Taxonomy or Question Answer Response.
2. Students choose three to four videos on a piece of literature created by professional actors, other students, or educational sources and note the differences between the different video renditions. Which rendition did they prefer and why? Did students notice differences in perspective, bias or cultural attitudes?
3. After watching a video clip, have students brainstorm new vocabulary used in the clip and note the context and the meaning of the words based on the clip.
4. Students write a press release for a movie being released soon. It does not need to be an “official” movie.
5. For homework, have students find video clips related to the topic taught during the day’s lesson.

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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For some students, an effective way to reinforce something they have just learned is to have
them place that element into a story. This gives them the opportunity to look at a concept from
a different angle. It’s also empowering, as it shows students how to use a learning tool to
increase their knowledge and impart to others what they’ve learned.

With today’s technology, students have several ways to apply the “tell me a story” concept. Previously, students who had challenges with writing had few alternative options to show what they understood about something they had learned. Now they can tell a story visually, using photos and video.

Best of all, many image- and video-based apps are available that make it possible to create a story very quickly. Two effective teaching strategies to empower students to tell a story about what they’ve learned is to create an electronic postcard, or to make a movie about it.

5 Ways to Use Postcards to Reinforce Learning:
1. Students imagine that they are a character in a story they have read. As that character, they will write home to tell their family about an experience they had, based on the storyline. Students select events from the story that they will detail in their postcard to another
character.
2. Students create a postcard as a marketing piece for a travel agency. The setting featured
on the postcard depicts a location referenced in their reading.
3. Students create a postcard by illustrating a place they would like to visit, and then using 10
adjectives, describe the picture in their postcard in a short message.
4. Students create a postcard that includes a catchy slogan illustrating a figure of speech, a
specific math concept, or another learning concept.
5. Students write a postcard to the author sharing what they liked about the book.

When writing a post card, students should of course observe punctuation rules, spelling, and
proper sentence structure.

PhotoCard by Bill Atkinson is the best no-cost app to create and send virtual postcards and is
available only for iOS devices like iPhones and iPads.

7 Ideas for Using Movie Makers to Reinforce Learning
1. Students create their own myth/ fairy tale or a modern interpretation of an existing myth/
fairy tale, or a completely original story using digital movie maker software.
2. Students create their own news report about the concept they’ve learned.
3. Students create a book trailer to entice the viewer to read the book.
4. Create a personalized commentary on a piece of literature.
5. Create a public service announcement video on issues addressed in the story and
important to a character.
6. Using different genres in literature, students explore and discuss the characters from the
current lesson’s reading material. With an understanding of those characters, students create
a video depicting the characters in a modern day dilemma.
7. Have students explain, in 60 seconds or less, how they might use a concept they’ve
learned.

Toontastic for iOS or Android is a storytelling and creative learning tool that enables kids to
draw, animate, and share their own cartoons. It’s like putting together your own puppet show.
The recommended ages for this app are 4-7 and 8-10; however, don’t let that stop you from
using it as an appropriate app for secondary education. It’s not the look of the app that makes
it worthwhile, it’s how the app is used!

Puppet Pals HD is a simple-looking iOS app with a tremendous amount of potential for
secondary application in all subject areas.

Sadly, Eyejot Video Mail is no more. This video mail solution for mobile devices shut down in
2016. A similar app worth checking out is MailVU, an iOS-only video mail app.

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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It seems the answer to that question lies in a teacher’s ability to discern exactly what type of curation meets the educational objectives of the lesson. We have to look at the process of implementing technology in education as a value added activity that goes beyond collecting and classifying information under certain themes or topics.

To add true educational value, teachers need to consider how the collecting and curating process adds to the understanding of the lesson objective. How are the ideas connected? Will the curated content add to a depth of understanding for students studying a particular concept?

Will there be guidelines to decide what types of content will be collected? How will the information be organized? Will there be a unifying theme? What is the “why” behind what is collected? Is there a clear goal? How might curation be used to help students construct knowledge, as opposed to simply collecting reading material, videos, music, or other downloadable files? How do we support students in the curation effort and be comfortable knowing that we are using technology in a manner that is supported by evidence?

Nancy White addressed this issue in her article “Understanding Content Curation” (White, Nancy. “Understanding Content Curation.” Innovations in Education. N.p., 07 Jul 2012. Web. 15 Sep. 2013. http://d20innovation.d20blogs.org/page/2/). She developed this excellent visual to support the use of curation beyond collecting.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual curation tool that people use to collect photos, project ideas, favorite products, articles (with a photo), as well as video. You can create and share collections (called “boards”) of visual bookmarks (called “Pins”) on any topic of interest. There are also “shared” boards that allow groups to pin items. It’s possible for a teacher to have a “shared board” with students based on a topic being studied in class.

Flipboard
Flipboard is a social networking site that uses beautifully designed, magazine style, pages to curate information.

It’s possible to read all your social networking sites through Flipboard as well as favorite news sources like the New York Times or Huffington Post.

What I didn’t expect is the capability to view video from YouTube or other sites through Flipboard. No longer is a “magazine” solely a repository for text.

*NOTE: Currently, there are no parental controls on Flipboard because there is not an account system set up to allow for these types of monitors.

Scoop.it a.k.a. Read.it
Scoop.it is one of the original curation sites. You can have up to five topics free of charge. The site provides suggestions for curating based your topics. It’s easy to curate articles from suggestions offered. There’s also a plug in for most browsers so that while surfing the web you can simply “scoop.it” by clicking on the browser plug-in icon to add the article to your Scoop.it category.

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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Dropbox does not organize information or duplicate a file cabinet, unless the user somehow pulled that organization together. Google Drive is similar to Dropbox in that it holds files, however, its main advantage is that it allows multiple people to collaborate on projects, in real-time, from anywhere in the world.

When we look at Evernote from a “technology in education” standpoint, there are many ways this tool can be useful. One can browse the web and find an interesting website that relates to research being done for an article or paper then click on the plug-in icon in the browser that will send that webpage directly to the file folder of choice in Evernote.

Because Evernote is cross-platform, anything stored in Evernote is visible from all your devices. It’s like Microsoft Onenote on steroids. The only negative that I find in using Evernote as opposed to Microsoft Onenote is that if I want to add drawings or colors or visuals, I must do those in Skitch, which is a separate app unavailable on the PC. Skitch then syncs the newly created files with Evernote.

Ideas for Using Evernote Technology in the Education Classroom

1. Use Evernote to complete research for a project and share that research with the teacher.
2. Add articles by adding the “clipper” tool to your web browser.
3. As students read articles, they can add their own thoughts and ideas in Evernote, either in writing or via audio files.
4. When students take notes in class, they can use Evernote and share those notes with other students.
5. Students can add photographs taken with their devices to represent vocabulary, a setting in a play or novel, people they think might “look like” a character in a novel, etc.
6. Students use Evernote to create portfolios in the classroom. Handwritten notes can be scanned or captured with Evernote’s camera function and added to their portfolio.
7. Teachers can use Evernote for researching and organizing their notes with the bonus of being able to search all notes in one place.
8. Teachers can create a notebook for each student and invite students to the notebook. Then teachers can comment on student notes.
9. Teachers can create one shared notebook for student assignments. Invite each student to that one notebook and list the days’ work as well as the homework.
10. Teachers add digital versions of literature covered in class. Save the links in the notes and share them with students.
11. Post a public link to the notebook on the school website so that parents can join the notebook from the public link and support students with assignments.
12. Evernote’s reminder function can support students to complete assignments on schedule.

For example: You surf the web and find a current event or editorial article related to the current lesson objective. You clip the article, include a video you found online related to the topic, include a picture gallery related to the report and add a corresponding worksheet that you will use in class. Add references to vocabulary in the article to the same folder. You then share an alert about this folder and assignment via Twitter or e-mail.

You can also install the “Clearly” extension for Evernote which eliminates ads, distracters, and web items to which you do not want students exposed.

Excerpted from 100+ Tech Ideas for Teaching English and Language Arts: Maximize iPad, Mobile, and Online Apps in Every Classroom – Currently ON SALE at Amazon.com

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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Although a few students might be stressed by the use of a timer, the majority of students seem to enjoy the challenge, especially when a stopwatch timer is being used. If we think about it, it is really not that odd that today’s generation would enjoy the race. Most of our students have grown up playing video games, many of which incorporate a “beat the clock” function. So this game is a game they have been playing all their lives.

Timers for Every Platform

Timer+ Touch HD
This is my favorite iPad timer app. It’s so easy to use. Touch the app and move your fingers in a clockwise direction to set the time. The timer is shown in different colors for:

• Minutes in RED
• Hours in BLUE
• Seconds in GREEN

PC Chrono
PC Chrono is a very good, basic, free program for Windows users with a timer, alarm, stopwatch, and countdown timer. It’s timer is capable of resuming your PC from sleep mode and, according to the website, voice synthesis is used to remind you about timer/stopwatch progress or hourly chime. Mp3, ogg or wav sounds can be played to notify you that the time is up.

Online-Stopwatch.com
A Simple, fast, flash-based online stopwatch and countdown timer with more than 15 different timer functions and a variety of different timer options. You will need to be online to use this browser app and your computer must be flash-enabled in order for you to use it.

Hybrid Stopwatch and Timer
The Google Play store says that Hybrid Stopwatch and Timer is “a simple, easy and accurate app for Android that will help you to measure the time of any situation, like sports, cooking, games, education, etc.”
 
The use, and value, of timers is something that I talk about in every program I present. They are that important, useful, and powerful. Try these great tools, find the one that works best for you, and see for yourself how using timers in your classrooms can motivate your students!

Excerpted from 100+ Tech Ideas for Teaching English and Language Arts

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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Susan’s note: Some teachers struggle to effectively use technology in the classroom. During a program I did in Columbus, OH, I met Amanda. She told me about how she uses Google Images to support vocabulary. Amanda was kind enough to outline her strategies so that I could share them here.

Every one of these ideas could be used in any subject area and there are a number of ways you might apply these strategies in your classroom. Please comment below and add your ideas to this list!

1. Continuum of meaning – Have student search a word with degrees of meaning, such as “anger.” Then have them pick five images and order them (from least to most angry), then compare their images with their peers.

2. Continuum of meaning, antonyms – Just like #1, but use antonyms like “hot” and “cold.”

3. Continuum of personal application, close to their lives / far from their lives. For example, use the word “regal.” Students might find an image to represent their cat and and image of Princess Diana to illustrate both ends of the spectrum.

4. Have students make a personal image “glossary” of content vocabulary using google images instead of verbal linguistic definitions.

5. Play “Memory” of words for visual representation. Keep words, definitions, and visual representations of words visible so NO ONE guesses!

6. Play a match game of words and definitions to visual pictures that the teacher finds. This can be used as formative assessment.

7. Post a current events type Google Image. Challenge students to make a link from a vocabulary word to the image, and defend it. Class votes on funniest, best, most meaningful, etc. for prizes or points.

8. Post a word and its meaning. Kids find example and non-example images, and explain why each image fits, or not.

9. Post an image and ask students to find and explain the “most interesting” (or any other qualifier) word to describe that image.

Kids love to use technology and they have fun with these activities!

Amanda McNinch
Struthers City Schools

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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Education has changed dramatically over the years. Gone are the days of carrying a bookbag filled with loose leaf paper, pencils, and textbooks. Today, students are much more likely to walk into a classroom with a tablet under their arms and schedule Skype meetings with their professors instead of stopping by office hours.

And while changes in education and technology affect students, they also affect people preparing to enter the educational workforce. Those seeking a career in education can set themselves apart from other job candidates by learning the latest education and technology teaching techniques and demonstrating their understanding of technology’s new place in the classroom.

If you’re preparing to become a teacher, here are a few things you can do to show a potential employer your mastery of education and technology.

Find the right tools for your students to use

It can be tempting to use technology for technology’s sake, but that should be avoided. Instead, look for the best technology tool that will enhance and support their learning. A college class may benefit from having group discussion forums, whereas a middle school class could enjoy having virtual pen pals across the country that they Skype with occasionally.

Introduce only one technology tool at a time

Don’t overwhelm your classroom with technology. Start with a well-developed lesson and choose one appropriate and effective technology tool to use with it. Using one tool at a time will be more effective in enhancing and deepening your students’ learning. Remember, technology should be the third component of lesson planning, after deciding what you want your students to remember over the long-term and what curriculum standards need to be measured; then, you can consider which technology to include in your lesson.

Learn how to evaluate technology and its usefulness in your classroom

You’ll inevitably test out technology that may not end up being perfectly suited for your classroom’s purposes and your lessons, so you’ll need to know how to efficiently assess your technology tools in order to apply them correctly to your lessons.

Use technology to engage your students

There are a wide variety of creative ways that your students can interact with technology. Your students can use Skype to interview professionals across the country, creating a collaborative environment that’s not bound by distance. College students, meanwhile, may appreciate programs such as OpenStax College, which creates digital textbooks for the nation’s most popular classes, or other programs that allow students to get their books without paying hundreds of dollars.

If you’re interested in using technology in your classroom, here are a few ways you can start:

• Share classroom material online so that students can access homework, schedules, and notes no matter where they are.
• Use social media to engage students, whether it’s by sharing articles on a class Pinterest board or using Twitter to interact with a “guest speaker.”
• Flip your classroom so that your students view lectures and take notes at home, using class time for discussion, group activities, creative projects, and assignments.

Teaching with technology isn’t a bonus skill in potential teaching hires anymore- it’s an essential requirement. Impress your future employers and give your students a leg up by utilizing engaging technology in the classroom.

Please share how you are using technology in your classroom or work in the comments section, below.

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Apps, Websites, and Other Cutting-Edge Tools to Strengthen Instruction with Technology Get this Book Now! Valuable tips for finding, downloading and using the latest and best apps to compliment your curriculum! Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Using iPads® and Other Cutting-Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction

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A technology solution for auditory learners who need material read aloud

As a special education teacher, I always struggled with having to read tests aloud to multiple students at the same time. I would have some students who would be ahead of me, some behind, and sometimes we wouldn’t even get the test done in a single class period.

A few years ago, one of the general educaton teachers I collaborate with and I were talking and they suggested that I try recording the tests for class. I went through a quick training on using Camtasia and my life has never been better on test days!!

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Students can listen, and pause, at their own pace.

The nice thing is if I am not at school my sub does not have to worry about running the program. I can monitor the program from wherever I am to be sure it is working properly and to track student progress.

The feedback I have received from my students has been well worth the time it takes to record and upload the tests. They like the fact that they can test at their own speed and they can pause, rewind, fast forward and that I am (usually) available in the room if they have questions.

Right now I am one of the few who use this program. I have gotten a few English teachers to try it and the health teacher used it last year. For my US History classes it has been great!

Use this strategy to support auditory learners at any level

Susan’s notes: Thanks so much to Jessica for sharing this great idea with us! While she is using it only in her U.S. History class, at present, this is a great idea for any subject area. The best part about this strategy is that it can be adapted to support auditory learners in any grade, whether they need this kind of intervention, or not. Even better is the fact that this tool is FREE to individual teachers and quite affordable for most districts!

Bring Susan to your campus!

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Using iPads® and Other Cutting-Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction

Apps, Websites, and Other Cutting-Edge Tools to Strengthen Instruction with Technology Get this Book Now! Valuable tips for finding, downloading and using the latest and best apps to compliment your curriculum! Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Using iPads® and Other Cutting-Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction

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Here are some ideas for using technology in the classroom that range from short, simple techniques to more sophisticated ideas that are interactive and may even be student led.

Timers as Motivational Tools

Perhaps the simplest way to introduce technology into the classroom is through the use of timers. Timers can be used to help keep classroom activities on track or they can be used to motivate students by having them race the clock.

Timers should never be used as tools to emphasize speed over accuracy or understanding, but they can be a fun way to help students run drills or play games that reinforce information previously studied to help with retention and mastery. Timers that run on a tablet or PC can be a fun way to help keep things interesting for students.

Use of Videos to Enhance Understanding, Connection and Learning

Videos can be used effectively to bring material alive and help students connect on more than one level. Short, targeted clips can be more effective than long films in that they can help break-up longer lessons or difficult material. Free educational clips are available from sources like Learn Out Loud, Google Videos, or the Khan Academy – one of the most comprehensive sources for free educational material on the internet. iTunes University has lectures and clips available and products like Damnvid make downloading and converting videos easy for teachers.

Free Online Tech Resources

Some technology can actually help save money while providing students with an impressive array of resources. Project Gutenberg is a free online resource that offers the full text of books in the public domain. Most classics fall under this category. Students can read classics online or teachers can use pieces of different texts for compare and contrast activities.

LibriVox is a similar source, but the books are in audiobook form. Students who are not strong readers can benefit from this material by reading along with the audio book.in a different way. This is not meant to replace reading practice but can help get struggling or reluctant readers interested in books and help them keep up with the rest of their class.

The Lesser Known Gem: Public Libraries

For more recent books, many libraries offer an extensive range of new releases in e-book formats, which can be read on e-readers, smartphones, tablets, or PCs at no charge. Many school libraries simply can’t compete with the titles available through these online sources, and students can borrow titles any time day or night, without the need to physically go to a library. For students without libraries at school or in their neighborhood, online borrowing can be an excellent option.

Technology and Student Skill Development

Technology can also help students gain the valuable skills they need to succeed such as effective note-taking skills and being able to productively organize, prioritize, and sort information. Online note-taking programs, mind-mapping, and brainstorming apps can help students organize notes and other information in ways that make the most sense for them. Brainstorming and mind-mapping apps can be especially helpful to visual learners.

Voice-to-Text as a Solution for Struggling Writers

For students who have difficulty writing, voice-to-text apps provide an excellent way to take notes and process information in a way that works for them. Dictation and the use of voice-to-text programs is a common practice used by business professionals and others, so it is a valuable skill for any student to learn.

In language learning classrooms, Voice-to-text programs are a wonderful way to help students practice enunciating words clearly so that the application can understand what they are trying to say. Students can practice free speaking into the program, or they can practice certain sounds, words, or phrases that may be giving them trouble.

Technology that Supports Teachers in Getting the Job Done Well

Teachers can stay organized and reduce the amount of physical paper they handle on a daily basis, while empowering students, by modeling good use of technology. Putting class calendars online is one way to help students and parents be accountable for having work completed on time and to prepare for tests and other events.

Many school districts have online webpages or Moodle pages for teachers with simple to follow templates. Information can be password protected and teachers can opt to make these pages as static or as interactive as they like. Posting course calendars, copies of handouts, links to videos or other online content, and even having a location for assignment submission are wonderful ways for teachers to organize their courses. At the same time, these practices teach students to be more self-sufficient while keeping parents in the loop.

These simple, inexpensive or free to implement ideas can have great results in terms of student engagement, content acquisition, and retention. Once you’re comfortable with these ideas, teachers can expand their use of technology in a myriad of other effective ways.

Students respond positively to online learning and technology. Offering instruction in ways that are comfortable for your students is an effective way to engage even the most reluctant learner.

Fitzell, Susan. (2012). Technology tools for teachers. Retrieved from: https://susanfitzell.com/articles-by-susan-fitzell/technology-tools-for-teachers/

Fitzell, Susan. (2013). Best, new strategies for using iPads®, mobile devices and other cutting edge technology to strengthen English/Language Arts instruction. Manchester, NH: Cogent Catalyst Publications.

Noeth, Richard J., Volkov, Boris B., (2004). Evaluating the effectiveness of technology in our schools, ACT Policy Report. Retrieved from: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/school_tech.pdf

United States Census Bureau. (2013). Computer and internet use in the United States: Population characteristics
(THOM File, May 2013, P 20-569). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from: http://www.infrastructureusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/p20-569.pdf

For more information about using technology to strengthen instruction, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Using iPads and Other Cutting Edge Technology to Strengthen Your Instruction.

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