NOW!

Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology

By Meg Ormiston, Scott D. Parker, Gretchen Fitzharris, Tom Lubbers, Ellen K.

Lawrence, Katie N. Aquino

Seven Standards for Students to be, according to International Society for

Technology in Education (ISTE)

1. Empowered learners
2. Digital citizens
3. Knowledge constructors
4. Innovative designers
5. Computational thinkers
6. Creative communicators
7. Global collaborators

The Four Cs and Super Skills of the 21st Century

Four Cs Super Skills

Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas,
Communication
and solutions
Working together to reach a goal-
Collaboration putting talent, expertise, and smarts
to work
Looking at problems in a new way,
Critical Thinking linking learning across subjects and
disciples
Trying new approaches to get things
Creativity done, which equals innovation and
invention
a. “Embracing Creativity” has you teach students to create multimedia
products, rather than just consume them. Using the lessons in this chapter,
you can help students develop their ability to creatively use images, video,
and audio in their work to create products that show the full range of their
learning

b. “Communicating and Collaborating” includes lessons to develop students’

ability to engage in the four Cs of communication, collaboration, critical
thinking, and creativity. Students will learn to work better together and
provide each other with constructive feedback as they create group projects
and share them with authentic audiences that exist beyond classroom
walls.

c. “Conducting Research and Curating Information” helps you develop

students’ ability to find information by creating research plans and using
advanced search techniques as they investigate and offer solutions to real-
world problems. Students will then strengthen their evaluation skills as they
determine when they find reliable sources that have limited bias.

d. “Thinking Critically to Solve Problems” covers how to teach students

learning strategies for using digital tools to stay organized when researching
challenging problems, to improve work flow and manage time, and to collect
and analyze data they can later publish and present authentic audiences.

e. “Being Responsible Digital Citizens” helps you teach your students what it
means to be digital citizens and make positive contributions to online
culture by establishing and cultivating a healthy digital footprint for
themselves and others. High school students especially need to know what
they put on the internet stays on the internet and can affect their ability to
enter college and find jobs. We can also offer lessons to reinforce to students
 the importance of respecting ownership by properly citing copyrighted
sources and avoiding plagiarism.
f. “Expanding Technology and Coding Concepts” explains how to grow
students’ online presence by having them create digital portfolios of their
work, make better use of their personal technology, and develop their
computational and design skills through coding.

Common LMS (Learning Management Systems)

 Schoology (www.schoology.com)
 Showbie (www.showbie.com)
 Seesaw (www.web.seeesaw.me)
 Canvas (www.canvaslms.com/k-12)
 Edmodo (www.edmodo.com)
 Otus (www.Otus.com)
 PowerSchool Learning (www.powerschool.com/solutions/lms)
 Blackboard (www.blackboard.com)
 Moodle (www.moodle.org)
 D2l (www.d2l.com)

G Suite for Education Access

 Google Docs to do word processing
 Google Sheets to create spreadsheets
 Google Slides to create presentations
 Google Forms to create quizzes and surveys
 Google Drawings to create illustrations
 Google Drive to store and share files
Five steps to decide on a platform for their digital portfolio
1. Have students reflect on the content they want to put in their digital
portfolio and then review potential website-hosting platforms to find a
platform that suits their needs. Note that students have a lot of free options
for building a website, but if students want to pay a fee so they can create
their own web domain, they should make that decision in consultation with
their parents.
2. Once students choose a host for their content, have them register their site
with the host, choosing a name for their site. Because this site is meant to
host their portfolio, students need to choose a name that suits the
portfolio’s content. If site content should demonstrate creativity, a more
creative, but inoffensive name is permissible.

3. All site hosts provide specific tools for uploading content. These tools make
up a part of content management systems (CMS), which students can think
of as the operating system for the website. Have students use the site’s CMS
to select their site’s visual theme or template. As with the site name, the
theme should reflect the nature of the content students intend to put in
their portfolio.

4. Have students spend time outside of class familiarizing themselves with the
site’s tools and then start building out pieces of the site to host their content
during one or two class periods. As they do this, they can start populating
their site with text, image, files, and anything else that they want to include
in their portfolio.

5. Have students share a link to their site with you and their classroom peers
through the classroom LMS. Conduct a classroom discussion in which both
you and your students discuss what they like about the sites they created
and any ideas you or they might have to improve on them.

Technology Gadgets/Sites for Education

 Animoto (www.animoto.com): a video creation website and app with limited
fee features and options for educator accounts.

 Annotable (www.moke.com/annotable): a full-featured image-annotation

tool.

 Appy pie (www.appypie.com) – a free do-it-yourself software tool for building

apps in three easy steps.

 Audacity (wwww.audacityteam.org) – a free macOS and Windows software

tool for editing complex audio clips.

 Autorap (www.smule.com/listen/autorap/79) – an iOS and Android app for

mixing audio tracks to create a rap; the free version allows users to choose
from two beats to make a song and the paid version allows users to choose
 from a large selection of beats, including new and popular songs.

 AWW (www.awwapp.com) – a touch-friendly online whiteboard app for

sketching sharing and collaborating with others on a computer, table, or
smartphone.

 Bing (www.bing.com) – a Microsoft-developed search engine.

 Blabberize (www.blabberize.com) – A website that mixes together an

uploaded picture and recorded speech to make it seem like the picture is
talking.

 Blackboard (www.blackboard.com) – a learning management system that is

fee based and often used at the higher education level.

 Blogger (www.blogger.com) – Google’s free, easy-to-use online blogging

platform, packed with features, including the ability to leave comments for a
blog’s author.

 Build a Photo Booth App (www.hourofcode.com/caphoto) – An online

programming platform to help users learn to work with JavaScript, HTML,
and CSS Languages.

 Camtasia (www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html) – a fee-based

moviemaking software app that is available for both Apple and Windows
computers, but not Chromebooks.

 Canva (www.canva.com) – a web-based design program for making posters,

brochures, presentations, and other publications; it is free to use but
includes premium options.

 Canvas (www.canvaslsms.com) – an LMS software tool for organizing

students’ digital work and managing, tracking, and reporting educational
data and courses.

 Chirbit (www.chirbit.com) – a website and app that allow users to record

voice memos and export voice memos as QR codes or as social media posts.

 Citation Machine (www.citationmachine.net) – a free online recourse for

citing sources step by step in MLA, APA, and Chicago-style formats.
 Code.org (www.code.org) – a website for learning coding and programming
on iPads, Chromebooks, and Android devices.

 Codecademy (www.codecademy.com) – a free website that helps anyone

learn how to code. Starting with the basics, students can learn a variety of
programming languages.

 Comic Life (www.plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin) – a plasq-developed

macOS, iOS and Windows desktop app for using digital photos to create
comic pages.

 Common Sense (www.commonsense.org) – a collection of articles, videos,

and resources to use for teaching digital citizenship; connects with offshoots
Common Sense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org) and Common Sense
Education (www.commonsense.org/education).

 Coursera (www.coursera.org) – A site that offers over six-hundred courses

on computer coding; some courses are free and for other online classed,
students can pay a fee to obtain credentials from colleges and universities.

 Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) – an organization that

offers various types of flexible copyrights that allow people to more easily
share, use, and re-mix photo, video, and other creative content; each
content item lists its usage rights, including whether it can be freely shared
or modified and if attribution needs to be given when used.

 D2L (www.d2l.com) – A learning management system from Brightspace,

short for Desire2Learn.

 Destiny Quest – a visually engaging, subscription-based library search

interface designed to appeal to the 21st century learner.

 EasyBib (www.easybib.com): A website and app for easily creating citations,

with free options as well as premium features Edge (www.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/microsoft-edge): A Microsoft-developed web browser that has
replaced Internet Explorer

 Edmodo (www.edmodo.com): One of the many learning management

systems available

 Edutopia (www.edutopia.org/topic/coding- classroom): A coding and

programming website with discussions, articles, and other resources
 EdX (www.edx.org): A learning platform that offers courses in a wide variety
of topics including computer coding

 ERIC (https://eric.ed.gov): An online library of education research and

information, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the
U.S. Department of Education.

 Evernote (https://evernote.com): A web- and app-based note-taking and

organizational tool with which users can sync notes between devices and
share and edit notes with others

 Explain Everything (https://explaineverything.com): A paid collaborative

and interactive whiteboard website and app for Android and Apple devices,
as well as a Google Chrome extension

 Exploratorium (www.exploratorium.edu): A website with educational tools

that the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, California,
maintains

 Facebook (www.facebook.com): A social media network, for those age

thirteen or older, to connect with others using text and pictures, either for
professional or personal use

 Facebook Live (https://live.fb.com): A Facebook service for streaming live

video in a fun, engaging way that lets users connect with followers and grow
their audience

 FaceTime(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facetime/id414307850?
mt=12): A video telephone and video chat service for conducting one-on-one
video calls among Apple devices

 Flickr (www.flickr.com): A free website for searching for images that

includes Explore functions and a Creative Commons category with images
in the public domain

 Freerange Stock (https://freerangestock.com): A website that offers free

high-resolution stock images and textures

 G Suite for Education (www.google.com/intl/en_us/edu): An overarching

term for all the Google products that a school system has available for staff
and student use
 GarageBand (www.apple.com/mac/garageband): Apple-only software and
an iPad and iPhone app for making music, recording narrations, and
creating new audio projects

 Global Classroom Project (https://theglobalclassroomproject.org): A

project that offers a place for both teachers and students to partake in
global collaboration, it shares student work, resources and information in a
wiki and on a blog

 Global Education Conference (www.globaleducationconference.com): An

online community that is focused on globally connected teaching and
learning

 Global SchoolNet (www.globalschoolnet.org): An organization that

encourages worldwide collaborative educational projects

 Gmail (https://mail.google.com): Google's email platform

 Goodreads (www.goodreads.com): A social media website where users log,

review, and discuss the books they read

 Google (www.google.com): A search engine developed by Google

 Google+ (https://plus.google.com): A social networking site where users can

connect over a variety of interests; many educators post ideas, questions,
and requests on it to connect with other classrooms through Skype, Google
Hangouts, and blogging.

 Google+ Collections (https://plus.google.com/collections): A feature of

Google that allows users to group posts pertaining to a particular topic,
which gives them an easy way to organize and share information

 Google+ Communities (http://plus.google.com/communities): A social

networking community where educators can connect by posting ideas,
questions, and requests to connect with other classrooms through Skype,
Google Hangouts, and blogs

 Google Advanced Search (www.google.com/advanced_search): A search

tool within Google that allows users to focus their search terms to gain
better results
 Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome): A Google- developed web
browser that you can use on any device and that has additional features,
such as extensions and the ability to sync bookmarks across all devices

 Google Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/c

ategory/apps): A place to discover apps, games, extensions, and themes for
Google Chrome

 Google Chromecast: fast, high-resolution device for delivering streaming

video

 Google Classroom (https://classroom.google.com): A file management

system with some features of an LMS that allows classrooms to share
announcements and documents and conduct discussions

 Google CS First (www.cs-first.com/en/home): A free coding site where

teachers sign up for a course and receive all the necessary materials to run
a club or class that guides students through tutorials to learn Scratch
coding

 Google Docs (https://docs.google.com): A G Suite for Education word

processing tool for creating and editing documents independently or in
collaborative groups available to all teachers and students who are members
of the Google domain through their school

 Google Drawings (https://drawings.google.com): A drawing app within G

Suite for Education

 Google Drive (www.google.com/drive): A cloud-based storage platform that

can store and sync files across multiple devices using a single login

 Google Forms (www.google.com/intl/en_us/forms/about): A survey- and

form-making app within G Suite for Education

 Google Hangouts (https://hangouts.google.com): A communication

platform that allows members to start and take part in one- on-one or group
text, voice, and video chats; it is built into Google+ and Gmail and available
as an app for Apple and Android devices.

 Google Images (https://images.google.com): A comprehensive image search

tool
 Google Keep (https://keep.google.com): A cloud-based tool for gathering
and organizing notes, lists, and ideas and sharing them for online
collaboration

 Google Sheets (www.google.com/intl/en_us/sheets/ab out): A G Suite for

Education spreadsheet program that supports common spreadsheet
functions, such as data entry, sorting, number calculation, and chart
creation

 Google Sites (https://sites.google.com): A free Google-created website

builder

 Google Slides (www.google.com/slides/about): A web-based presentation

creator in G suite for Education that allows users to insert images, text,
charts, and videos, as well as modify transitions, layouts, and backgrounds.

 Grammarly (www.grammarly.com): A free grammar checker that instantly

eliminates common grammatical errors and enhances your writing.

 Green Screen (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green

-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8): An iOS app from Do Ink that makes
it easy to use green-screen effects to create movies

 Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com): A paid site that helps users view and

manage social media accounts

 Keynote (www.apple.com/keynote): The Apple presentation tool for iOS and

macOS devices

 Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org): A screencast tutorial website for

students to watch videos and check their understanding of concepts

 Kodable (www.kodable.com): A free and paid website with a programming

curriculum

 learning management system (LMS): Software used to manage, track, and

report educational data and courses

 Life of Pix (www.lifeofpix.com): A free high- resolution, public-domain

photography resource for using and sharing photos
 LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): A professional online networking platform
that helps users build and engage with their professional network

 LiveCode Hour of Code tutorial (http://livecode.com/hour-of-code): A

digital soundboard with a catalog of soundbites and audio clips created
using computer code

 Magisto (www.magisto.com): A website and an app available for Apple and

Android that turn video and images into movies

 Make Art (https://art.kano.me/challenges): A coding website with tutorials

to teach users how to code and create artwork

 MasterFILE Premier (www.masterfile.biz): A paid site for document

management

 Microsoft Excel (https://products.office.com/en-us/excel): A spreadsheet

program that works on both Apple and Windows devices and that makes up
part of the Microsoft Office suite

 Microsoft Office (https://products.office.com/en-US): A productivity-

oriented software suite that contains Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other
Microsoft programs

 Microsoft OneDrive (https://onedrive.live.com/about): A cloud-based file

storage service for storing and sharing data, including photos, videos,
documents, and more

 Microsoft PowerPoint (https://products.office.com/en- us/powerpoint): A

presentation-creation tool in Microsoft Office for creating slideshows that
incorporate text, images, audio, and video

 Microsoft Word (https://products.office.com/en-us/word): A word

processing app that is part of the Microsoft Office suite

 Mind Map Maker (http://app.mindmapmaker.org): A free and paid site that

focuses on organizing ideas and removing distractions

 MindMeister (www.mindmeister.com): A leading online mind-mapping

software tool for collaboratively brainstorming and working on mind maps
 Moodle (https://moodle.org): A free, open- source learning management
system

 Movenote (www.movenote.com): A Chrome app and extension that make

recording presentations free and easy to share through Google accounts

 Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/new): A web browser

created by a global nonprofit company

 Mystery Hangout (https://plus.google.com/communities/

110369120141935358658): A Google+ community that provides an
engaging way for classrooms to introduce themselves to each other

 Mystery Skype (https://education.microsoft.com/skype -in-the-

classroom/mystery-skype): A service offered on the Skype website to help
teachers connect and collaborate with another unknown classroom

 NetSmartz (www.netsmartz.org): A website with resources teachers can use

to support digital citizenship education in the classroom

 Noodle Tools (www.noodletools.com): An online research-management

platform that stimulates critical thinking and authentic research; helps
students stay organized as they evaluate information and get ready to write;
and allows librarians and teachers to observe individual contributions to
group work, give feedback, and view statistics on Source use

 NSTeens (www.nsteens.org): An Internet- safety resource that includes

educational comics, games, and quizzes

 The NOW Classrooms Project (http://nowclassrooms.com): A website

about the entire NOW Classrooms Project, including the NOW Classrooms
blog and details about the book series

 Numbers (www.apple.com/numbers): Apple's iOS and macOS spreadsheet

tool that supports charts, tables, and images and provides a number of
calculation and data-analysis tools

 Otus (https://otus.com): A classroom LMS that integrates data from third-

party tools to get a comprehensive snapshot of student growth

 Padlet (https://padlet.com): A digital bulletin board for student

collaborative projects that students join through a code the teacher provides
 Pear Deck (www.peardeck.com): An interactive presentation platform where
teachers can share various types of questions and get real-time feedback
from students; users can make Pear Deck presentations from scratch on the
website or upload presentations from PowerPoint or a PDF.

 Pearson SuccessNet (www.pearsonsuccessnet.com): The online portal for

many of Pearson's digital content solutions

 Periscope (www.pscp.tv): A free app for live-streaming events on Twitter

 Pexels (www.pexels.com): A free website students can use to access free

stock photos that they can use everywhere

 PicMonkey (www.picmonkey.com): A free online image editor

 Piktochart (https://piktochart.com): A template-driven website with free

and premium features for easily creating stunning infographics

 Pixabay (https://pixabay.com): A website for sharing and searching for

high- quality public-domain photos, illustrations, vector graphics, and film
footage

 Pixel Press (www.projectpixelpress.com): A tool used to learn coding and

programming

 Planet Nutshell (http://planetnutshell.com): A company that primarily

focuses on creating videos for businesses but also offers free videos for
teachers on cyberbullying and Internet safety

 Podbean (www.podbean.com): A podcasting platform with both free and

paid features

 Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com): A survey platform where users

can conduct various types of polls in real time, making the tool ideal for
lessons, presentations, and real-time feedback, participants respond using
any mobile phone that has texting capabilities. \

 PowerSchool Learning (formerly Haiku Learning)

(www.powerschoolcom/solutions/Ims): A learning management system with
limited free access as well as premium features
 Prezi (https://prezi.com): A presentation platform with multiple colorful
templates and designs that allows users to make engaging presentations
that use motion to zoom from one slide to the next
 ProWritingAid (https://prowritingaid.com): A comprehensive editing tool
for writers

 Quetext (www.quetext.com): An advanced, full-featured plagiarism checker

 Quick Time (https://support.apple.com/quicktime): A multimedia video

player for mobile devices and personal computers that also allows for movie,
screen, and audio recording

 QuickVoice (www.nfnityinc.com/quickvoiceip.html): A voice recorder for

iOS devices

 ReadWriteThink (www.readwritethink.org): A website that has many

helpful tools for writing

 Recap (https://letsrecap.com): An app that works on all devices that allows

users to create videos with narration

 Reflector (www.airsquirrels.com/reflector): A wireless receiver for mirroring

and streaming content to and from Internet- connected devices

 Safari (www.apple.com/safari): An Apple- developed web browser that can

only be used on iOS and macOS devices

 Schoology (www.schoology.com): A learning management system

containing a discussion board where students can write posts in response
to an ongoing discussion

 Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu): A free coding language and online

community developed by MIT that act as the basis for Google CS First
courses and tutorials

 Screencast-O-Matic (http://screencast-o- matic.com): A free website with

an inexpensive pro upgrade used by teachers and students to create
screencasts

 Scrible (www.scrible.com): A web-based tool for annotating PDFs, websites,

and documents, including highlighting, adding electronic sticky notes, and
underlining
 Seesaw (https://web.seesaw.me): A site and app for creating student-driven
digital portfolios, with free basic features, premium advanced features, and
school versions

 Showbie (www.showbie.com): A learning management system used to give

and receive assignments while allowing for feedback

 SimpleK12 (www.simplek12.com): A source for teacher professional

development

 Skype (www.skype.com/en): An Internet- based communication app that

facilitates audio and video communication among multiple parties

 Skype in the Classroom (https://education.microsoft.com/skype -in-the-

classroom/overview): An online community where teachers can find
resources for using Skype in their classroom, including information on
guest speakers, Mystery Skype, virtual field trips, and lesson plans

 Slack (https://slack.com): A paid app that brings team communication and

collaboration into one place

 Snapchat (www.snapchat.com): An app that lets users talk to friends,

explore news, and watch Live Stories from around the world

 SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/mobile): A streaming site that

provides access to music and allows users to upload their own

 Spreaker (www.spreaker.com): Software and an app for creating podcasts

 SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com): A website with free and premium

features for creating and circulating surveys

 Swift Playgrounds (https://developer.apple.com/swift/play. grounds): An

iPad-only app for learning Swift code in a fun, interactive way to help
students understand app creation

 Tackk (https://tackk.com): A free basic and easy-to-use electronic

publishing site that lets users insert images, text, and videos into an
interactive presentation and share their final product
 Taiga (https://taiga.io): A project- management platform for designers
 TeacherTube (www.teachertube.com): A website teachers and students can
use to share instructional videos and other educational content

 TED-Ed (https://ed.ted.com): A series of short animated videos

accompanied by review questions, additional resources, and discussion
questions created by animators at TED-Ed, an affiliate of TED

 Tellagami (https://tellagami.com): An iOS app where students create an

avatar, record a sound clip, and have a character play back the recording
with added gestures

 TermsFeed Terms of Service Generator (https://termsfeed.com/terms-

service/generator): A tool for creating professional terms of service
agreements

 ThingLink (www.thinglink.com): A website with free and premium features

for annotating images to demonstrate learning

 TodaysMeet (https://todaysmeet.com): A tool that provides a backchannel

for participants to comment and provide input without disrupting a
presentation

 Turnitin (www.turnitin.com): A paid site that improves student writing and

empowers original thinking

 TweetDeck (https://tweetdeck.twitter.com): An online tool for organizing

Twitter lists and conversations

 Twitter (https://twitter.com): A popular social media site for

communicating short messages through text and multimedia; we encourage
the use of a teacher or classroom account.

 Tynker (www.tynker.com): A tool used to learn coding, which includes free

and premium features

 Udemy (www.udemy.com): An online learning platform with many free and

paid courses

 Unsplash (https://unsplash.com): A website for accessing Creative

Commons-licensed photos
 Vimeo (https://vimeo.com): A website where users over age thirteen can
watch, upload, and share videos; Vimeo requires permission from a parent
for anyone under age thirteen to use the site.

 Voice Memos (https://voice-memos.appspot.com): An iOS app that allows

users to record audio, edit the recorded audio, and export the audio file

 Voki (www.voki.com): A free site that students can use to organize

homework, classwork, or projects

 WatchKnowLearn (www.watchknowlearn.org): A website that contains free

educational videos

 WeVideo (www.wevideo.com): A video- creation and video-sharing tool that

uses cloud-based video-editing software and includes free and premium
features

 Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org): A collaborative and open-source online

encyclopedia that allows people from all over the globe to write or update
encyclopedia entries

 WordPress (https://wordpress.com): A platform for creating professional-

looking blogs, websites, and portfolios that creators can maintain
throughout their lives; WordPress software is free to use, and WordPress
offers free site hosting.

 YouTube (www.youtube.com): A video platform for publishing and viewing

video content

 Zoho Projects (www.zoho.com/projects): A free online project planning and

collaboration website

 Zoho Survey (www.zoho.com/survey): A free tool for easily creating online

surveys and questionnaires