Tech Talk Shelley Martin-Young Teaching Digitally (or anywhere): Part 2 As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise and as the push for getting our students back in school happens, many teachers continue to teach remotely. As you struggle through another year of uncertainty, I am sharing ways for you to easily integrate technology into your classroom whether you are teaching remote, in-person, or hybrid. In part two of Teaching Digitally, I share tools that include ways to effortlessly collaborate with students or other teachers, ways that you can share lessons digitally with your students, and a few assessment tools. Most of these tools can be integrated with your Google Classroom. Interactive Whiteboard Tools Whether you are teaching face-to-face or online this year, you probably have access to a board of some kind – white board, chalk board, Smart board. Whiteboards are a great way for students to share and collaborate in a face-to-face situation. However, you can also simulate this online. There are several tools to use on whiteboards in the digital realm that will enhance your students’ learning. These tools can be used when you are face-to-face or virtual. Google Jamboard is a free collaborative whiteboard that is part of the Google platform. It is cloud based and allows visual collaboration between users in real-time. It functions as a whiteboard on each student’s screen. Students can collaborate on projects. Teachers or students can model skills in math, art, or other content areas. Concept maps work great on a Jamboard. It is excellent for brainstorming or notetaking or anything that you typically use a board for in a face-to-face classroom. Jamboard allows users to add images from Google, save work in the cloud, draw with a stylus or erase with your finger. There is also a handwriting and shape recognition tool. This tool makes learning visible and accessible to all collaborators in what Google calls a “jam session.” Jamboard integrates seamlessly with Google Classroom. Check out the following Jamboard resources: Jamboard for beginners tutorial, Using Jamboard in Google Classroom, Using Jamboard in Google Meet, and Annotating Google Slides with Jamboard. Here you will find many ways to use Jamboard in the classroom, and here are 20 free interactive Jamboard activities. Figure 1: Example of Google Jamboard
SeeSaw is a classroom platform used for meaningful student engagement. SeeSaw is geared more toward elementary-aged students. It allows students to show their work, teachers to gain insights about their students, and parents to be able to easily connect with their students and
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