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- Rod Paige, former U.S. Secretary of Education -

“Education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology.”

Educational Technology Resources

This page provides a curated list of technology resources for educational contexts. 

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Extended quotation:

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"For instance, in considering the rate of adoption and integration of newer technologies into educational settings, Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige (2002) observed that "…education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology. Schools remain unchanged for the most part despite numerous reforms and increased investments in computers and networks. The way we organize schools and provide instruction is essentially the same as it was when our Founding Fathers went to school. Put another way, we still educate our students based on an agricultural timetable, in an industrial setting, but tell students they live in a digital age." (cover letter)" (Swenson, 2006, para. 4).

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Reference:

Swenson, J. (2006). Guest editorial: On technology and English education. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 6(1). Retrieved from https://citejournal.org/volume-6/issue-2-06/english-language-arts/guest-editorial-on-technology-and-english-education

Online Resources Lists

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There are so many amazing resources for schools and students online, but they also change so quickly, so a comprehensive list is very difficult to maintain. While I have some specific links to tools at the bottom of this page, I felt it was more useful and important to link cites that curate and maintain specific educational tool lists. Just click on the image.

 

Kathy Schrock, Education Technologist, is an amazing resource, with several websites and a blog, with links in the menu bar on the pages below. I have linked two of her very useful pages below, her Online Tools page (which she maintains and updates), and her Bloomin' Apps page (which organises tools by Blooms Revised Taxonomy).

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Cybrary Man, Jerry Blumengarten, is an incredible currator of online resources. While his site may not look impressive at first glance, his organised lists are! I linked his home page for Educators below.

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Cool Tools for Schools is a large and comprehensive site that is organised and easy to navigate. The tools are also briefly summarised to assist with your tool selection.

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Phenomenal Websites is created by Nathan Smith, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. It has a wide variety of categories, but under Education and Learning is the "Tech in Subjects" tab - a treasure trove of tools with brief descriptions.

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These all provide excellent and comprehensive lists of Ed Tech resources, but in the miscellaneous section below I have linked, listed or embedded various other resources. Happy browsing!

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Resource Lists
Kathy Schrock.jpg
Kathy Schrock - Online Tools.jpg
Kathy Schrock - Bloomin' Apps.jpg
Cybrary Man.jpg
Cool Tools for Schools.jpg
Tech in Subjects - Phenomenal Websites.j

Miscellaneous Resources

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Both Schrock and Blumengarten provide excellent and comprehensive lists of ed tech resources, but below these I have linked, listed or embedded various other resources that I have found interesting and useful. Happy browsing!

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Miscellaneous
JESS3_BrianSolis_ConvoPrism_Digital-Fina

The Conversation Prism, first created in 2008 by Brian Solis and JESS3 and most recently updated in 2013, has been widely shared in its various versions. It is a "visual map of the social media landscape. It’s an ongoing study in digital ethnography that tracks dominant and promising social networks and organizes them by how they’re used in everyday life. Social media has democratized information and shifted the structures of influence." (Solis, 2013)

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Solis, B. (2013). Social media has changed everything. Introducing the conversation prism version 5.0! Retrieved from https://conversationprism.com/

School Library Journal is an excellent general resource, and it often has helpful tech articles with great teaching tool ideas, such as this one listing 18 excellent tech tools:

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Snelling, J. (2020, February 11). 18 tech tools for content creation, coding, VR, audio, and video. Retrieved from

https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=18-Tech-Tools-technology-coding-VR-virtual-reality-audio-video-libraries-librarians-ed-tech

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Click on each image to go to that site.

SLJ - Tech.jpg
SLJ - 18 Tech Tools.jpg

Hackastory Tools is aimed at journalists, and while high school students and teachers are not the intended audience, their lists of preferred tools are excellent resources. For example:

 

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Hackastory. (n.d.). Tools used by newsmedia. 

Retrieved from https://tools.hackastory.com/tools/tools-used-newsmedia/

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Hackastory.jpg

Tools Used by Newsmedia:

"Curious how news organisations apply tools in their work?

We made a list with examples."

 

Scroll down for more examples.  Click on the url links to try them out!

Non-Stop Media is "dedicated to the freedoms
of expression and media" and is not specifically for education, but it's list of New Media Tools provides brief explanations and help and/or training links to get started. 

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Non-Stop Media. (n.d.). New media tools. Retrieved from http://non-stopmedia.org/new-media-tools/

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Non-stop Media.jpg

Where to look for tools, apps, ideas... 

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App Lists/Reviews:​

Where to look for tools, apps, ideas... 

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News, Articles, Guides, Blogs:

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... and of course search YouTube and Pinterest!

Just a few amazing websites: 

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Tool Title

Comments

URL link

Screencast-o-matic

Easy video maker of you (via webcam), your screen, or both.

https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Book Creator

Versions for Chrome, iPad, etc. Intuitive, flexible, able to add so many media options, and adaptable to any subject/project/grade.

http://bookcreator.com/

Pixton

"I used Pixton to make the comic. I've made comics using Pixton in the past, but this definitely seemed like a new version! The characters look a lot better, there are tons of expressions and poses, you can put things in characters hands, you can change where the camera is focused (I didn't use the close-up focus, but it is an option too!), you can move the characters anywhere in the frame, etc. I really liked it as an easy way to make comics. One thing I felt a little restricted by was the word bubbles. They are highly limited where they can be placed. They cannot overlap at all and they have to be directly above the character. You can adujst how high they are above the character, but that's about it. That made it a little difficult when I had both characters talking in the same scene, but I wanted the one on the right to be talking before the one on the left."

- Danielle Blackstock - 28 May 2020 (Shared with permission)

https://www.pixton.com/

Just a few favourite FREE tools: 

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Just a few learning/activity websites (for parents and/or teachers): 

Thanks to Jean Parnell (2020, March 13) for her Facebook post, "

"School closures will no doubt come, for any parents worrying this list was put together by the home ed community ðŸ’— feel free to share." for the original list.

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The Learning

Teacher-Librarian

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