Innovation 4 Everyone

There are multiple ways in which teachers can digitally gather feedback from students. There are Polls and Assessments in PowerLearning, Forms and Comments in Google, Socrative, etc.  However, what if your students don't have a Google account or don't have a device? Let's take a look at two easy-to-use feedback tools that are designed for schools and are hassle-free. Students from any grade level can participate! Kahoot .  This is a very popular and fun feedback tool that kids love. Once you create a learning game, all the students need is a code to get started. Responding to Kahoot works on any device. To create a quiz, go to https://getkahoot.com/ To answer a quiz and enter a code, go to https://kahoot.it/#/  Plickers . (paper clickers) It's a real-time assessment tool that let's you poll your class without the need for student devices. Only the teacher needs to have a mobile device to scan the card that each student holds up. The scanning feature can

How would students' learning change if they could work with each other? Online? ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) has identified the standards for students that promote the development of skills necessary to for a successful future. Throughout the years, the standards have varied, however the skills of communication and collaboration have been constantly present. As we're planning to provide opportunities for our students to engage in authentic forms of collaboration you might have come across a variety of digital tools. When selecting them, ask yourselves: Does it promote communication? Does it allow sharing a document or file? Is it easy to learn and use? There are a number of tools designed for online collaboration. In my opinion, one of the best and most complete is Google Apps. However, students need to have a Google account in order to create and fully make use of it's features. But don't let that discourage you because included here

One of the first Ted Talks I remember watching was “Meet the SixthSense interaction”  around February, 2009. In this talk  Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demonstrated a prototype of a project they were working on at the MIT Media Lab . This device would allow you to interact with information that was right in front of you and integrate it to your reality, "making the world your computer". They called it  SixthSense . Whoa! I thought it was far beyond amazing!  Back in 2009, I was the Tech teacher for grade 5 students. We used to spend part of the class discussing new inventions, the history of computer technology, what’s next, etc. I got so excited by this invention, that the following day I showed the video to my students. Smartphones were already around and many kids had personal devices of all sorts, nonetheless, I could not have anticipated their reaction. They absolutely loved the concept and wanted to have it - NOW! A boy even told me if only I had told him abou

Project: Kids Teaching Kids - Tips About Technology This semester I was faced with a difficulty. I joined an online course from TIGed called "Education for Social Innovation". As a final assignment, we would have to work together with our students on a project. I was not alone, other teachers from my school were participating and so was my buddy Doug, the other Tech Integration Specialist. The problem was that I don't have students of my own. Doug and I decided to pair up and work together on our project. We both agreed that one of the common problems we face involves the misuse of technology, and more specifically of social media, so we would like center our project around that. We needed students, so we turned to a grade 5 teacher for help. Mr. Trujillo was happy to let us work with his kids. We scheduled 15 mins with them on several mornings. Without giving them much direction, we decided to see where the student discussions would lead us. Day 1: We starte

Google for Education will soon make available to the public a new educational tool. It's called Expeditions Pioneer Program. For now it's in beta, but for the last months Google for Education has been piloting this program with select schools around the world. When the call for participants launched a few months ago, my school immediately signed up. We are always looking for innovative ways to enhance education, and this seemed like a great opportunity we couldn't miss. Well we were lucky enough to be selected as one of schools to test the program in Mexico. What is the Expeditions Pioneer Program? It is a virtual reality platform designed for schools. It's an Android app that works together with Google Cardboard . The Expeditions app is preloaded with approximately 150 different places to visit. No internet required. These places are locations on Earth such as landmarks and museums; in outer space such as the Moon and Mars, and it even includes journeys inside

It's February 19-20, 2016.  A year has passed since we ran our first school wide conference . The second edition of Live Curious, Go Beyond was a special one. This time around we invited teachers from schools around the region to present and to attend. The outcome was overwhelmingly positive.  Once again, our group of digital teachers stepped up to the challenge and were heavily involved with the organization of the conference, not to mention their interest in running a session or two. Educators had multiple opportunities to learn about innovations in education as well as to build relationships to develop their professional learning networks. Imagine being able to learn about drones in education; the use of Google Cardboard; what is Design Thinking; the experience of a Breakout Edu session, how to use Twitter like a pro, and so much more! For the full details, visit the  Live Curious, Go Beyond 2 016 website . You can also look up the h ashtags #asfmtech, #livecurious2016