10 Ways to Become More Tech Savvy This Summer

Have fun checking out each of these tools and think about how you could integrate these tools into your lessons.

1. Create a Video Vault
   a. Use Miro 2.0 (free open source HD video player and video podcast player) to select videos to use with classroom lessons. Save videos to a flash drive and you’re ready to content specific videos to your students.
   b. http://www.getmiro.com/index2.php


2. Using Photos
   a. Use Big Huge Labs to do fun things to photos, such as make posters or magazine covers.
   b. http://bighugelabs.com/


3. Creating Comics
   a. Turn pictures into a comic book by using Comic Life software or create storybooks or picture albums.
   b. http://plasq.com/downloads


4. Create a Wiki
   a. Wikis are a great place to organize, collaborate and share information with your students and staff. Try using PBWorks.
   b. http://pbworks.com/


5. Form a Questionnaire
   a. To help students understand content more deeply teachers need to question students. Try using SurveyMonkey to create professional online surveys for your students or staff.
   b. http://www.surveymonkey.com/


6. Share Snapshots
   a. Teachers can start a project within the school, district, or across the US by sharing images and information through Picasa, a free photo editing software from Google. Teachers can create photo web albums to share and students can enjoy adding pictures to the web albums.
   b. http://picasa.google.com/


7. Survey a Situation
   a. By using Google Maps check our various locations your students will study this fall thru novels, social studies or historical events.
   b. http://maps.google.com/


8. Cache In
   a. Geocaching can be a great way for your students to find places they are studying. Geocaching uses a global-position-receiver that makes latitude and longitude come to life for your students.
   b. http://www.geocaching.com/


9. Know the News
   a. How great would it be for your students to read front page news items from around the world? To help students better understand the global economy think about using Newseum, an interactive online museum.
   b. http://www.newseum.org/


10. Listen Up
    a. Have you ever wanted to set up a series of stories or poems for your students? By using Lit2Go teachers can select from free audio collections of public domain books to download for your students. Collections can be browsed by author, title, or database and can be downloaded as a PDF so students can read along while listening to the stories.
    b. http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/
    

Take some time to browse through these great resources and think of all the ways these resources will motivate your students to be active, engaged learners.

Article from Edutopia The George Lucas Foundation – July 10, 2009:
http://www.edutopia.org/tech-savvy-summer
Image from Microsoft clip art