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There is a lot of technology which teacher almost all teachers are familiar with. From blackboards and chalk to whiteboards and markers, mimeographs to printers, to computers and projectors in the classroom. Even if you only use pencils and paper, you are using some form of technology.
There are a few hardware and software additions I am recommending…because they actually work, and are worth the effort to develop a few new skills. For hardware, the first thing on my list is 3Pinteract’s Wiimote based interactive presentation system. Their seamless implementation of this technology (you just follow some very simple directions, and it works)allows you to have a complete replacement for an interactive ‘smartboard’ for about 7 times less money (yes, SEVEN times less money!). This is such a no-brainer solution for any classroom; I am amazed that I don’t hear more about this… I have been using their portable system for couple of weeks now, and the more I use it the more impressed I am with the quality of their product.
The next hardware I have tried in the last several months which I feel is a great adjunct to teaching social studies is the 3D Connexion Space Navigator. This tool is a USB connected Google Earth (and many other programs…) controller with six degrees of freedom. This tool allows you to, essentially, fly in Google Earth. Once you try this controller you will not ever want to use Google Earth without it. There is a one or two hour learning curve to re-learn how to navigate in Google Earth with this controller. After this break-in time things happen much more smoothly than you could ever have happen with a mere mouse. If you have any intentions of creating a recorded ‘fly through’ in Google Earth this tool is essential.
There is a lot of software which teachers can use; I see huge numbers of sites which try to sell products and services for teachers online. From my perspective, the vast majority of this ‘pay to play’ stuff is not worth the money. There are, however, plenty of completely free tools which most teachers should be familiar with. First off, my perspective is that of a social studies teacher, and as a consequence, much of my perspectives are not particularly effective or important for elementary school teachers, or teachers of other specialty areas (e.g. Math…).
As for the tools you should be aware of there are: Firefox or Google Chrome as a web browser. Both of these browsers have a plug-in architecture which allows you to customize the browser to the way that you want. There are also plenty of Google products (all free…) which you really should be aware of (and probably already use). Some of these tools are Google Docs (their free, online word processor which allows for collaboration), Google Reader (a great online RSS reader), and (for me a deal breaker) Google Earth. This download (e.g. Google Earth) is a tool such that I really can’t imagine how or why you would even attempt to teach many topics in Geography or History without this tool.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html
So, with some knowledge of these tools, I have found some others online applications which I think are worth a second look. Diigo is a social bookmarking tool much like Delicious.com, but with the added ability to add in highlighting to specific web-pages (in yellow, just like in most of the texts books you own), the ability to add in something like online post-it notes to pages too. You can create lists of bookmarks and publish them to your students (for specific topics where you want to get them started in some research…). With these added web-page effects student collaboration starts to become a more natural thing in the classroom.
Wiki-spaces, a free online Wiki site, can make the creation and maintenance of Wikis for a class quite easy. There is no real need to develop HTML skills (like some of the earlier Wiki developments over the years) to the degree that creating a class syllabus, a class calendar, or even a place to deposit student created content works about the same way as if you were to use Microsoft Word…easy.
As with class Wikis, there are many places which provide blogging platforms and free hoisting for teachers who Edu-blog. Blogging is self evidently something which I may be too biased about to say whether many other teachers should have a class blog, or allow for the creation of student blogs (I am for it!). This is a short list of three of the bigger services specifically for teachers. Obviously there are many other ways to blog (i.e. look at sites like this site…ahem…right here!) The actual costs involved in hosting your own blog are much less than most people would imagine!
http://www.google.com/educators/p_blogger.html
Finally, this finishes my reviewing teaching hardware and technology (for the mean time). Of course, this is by no means a comprehensive look at all of the tools available to teachers, keep your own eyes open!
