A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share the most popular post from the past month on my writer’s blog, WordDreams:

No one disagrees with the importance of the visual in communicating. The problem usually is creating it. Most teachers aren’t adept at matching colors, picking fonts and font sizes, and then laying everything out artistically. It’s much easier to use text with a few pictures tossed in and leave the artistry for the art teacher. When Microsoft Publisher came out a lifetime ago, it was the first major desktop publishing effort to blend layout, colors, and multimedia that was accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, it was (and continues to be) an expensive piece of software not traditionally included in Microsoft’s Office Suite (though that changed with Office 365). That meant MS Publisher skills learned at school were rarely transferrable to a home environment.

Canva changes that. It’s web-based (including apps available for iPads and Chromebooks) with a drag-and-drop functionality that makes the design process simple and intuitive. You can create professional presentations, posters, multi-page documents, marketing materials, social media graphics, and more using Canva’s more than 1 million photos, icons, and layouts, each with colors and fonts coordinated into attractive schema easily accessed by both beginners and reluctant designers. There’s no cost for basic (a yearly cost for premium) to use the thousands of free illustrations and images in the Canva library or uploading your own. For a small fee (usually $1.00), more than one million professional stock images and graphics can be used on a pay-per-use basis (most free with premium). (more…)

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Bullying is no longer relegated to the playground or the neighborhood. It now regularly happens in the cyberworld. Kids don’t expect that and often don’t know how to handle it.

In October 2006, thirteen-year-old Megan Meier hung herself in her bedroom closet after suffering months of cyberbullying. She believed her tormentors’ horrid insults, never thought she could find a way to stop them, and killed herself. She’s not the only one. In fact, according to StopBullying.gov, 52 percent of young people report being cyberbullied and over half of them don’t report it to their parents.

Everyone knows what bullying is — someone being taunted physically or mentally by others — and there are endless resources devoted to educating both students and teachers on how to combat bullying. But what about cyberbullying? Wikipedia defines “cyberbullying” as:

the use of information technology to repeatedly harm or harass other people in a deliberate manner

Cyberbullying occurs on not just social media like Twitter, Facebook, and topical forums, but multiplayer games and school discussion boards. Examples include mean texts or emails, insulting snapchats, rumors posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing photos or videos.

How serious is it? (more…)

Teach Speaking and Listening Skills with Student Presentations

This video is from a series I taught for school districts. It is now available for free to Ask a Tech Teacher subscribers:

Summary

This video discusses using student presentations to enhance speaking and listening skills, aligning with Common Core standards. (more…)

In these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: Google Street View

Category: Problem-solving

Q: I can’t find enough detail about a geographic area we’re studying. Any suggestions?

A: That’s much easier than it used to be, thanks to Google Earth’s Street View. Students can walk down the street they just read about or see their home on the internet.

Here’s how to use it:

• First, you must have Google Earth. It’s a free download and I’ve never had problems with the install. Take a minute to do that. I’ll wait. You can also use the online app–no need for a download.
• Done? Good. Now type the address into search; push enter.
• Zoom into an area until a pegman icon appears below the navigation controls on the right. Click and drag the icon to the area of interest, and then drop it onto the blue highlighted paths. That takes you to all the streets.
• Travel by double clicking on the street.
• To get out of it, click the button on the upper right.

Google Street View even covers hiking trails.

Google Earth works with PCs, Macs, iPads, and Chromebooks (with the app).

Sign up for a new tip each week or buy the entire 169 Real-world Ways to Put Tech into Your Classroom.

What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.

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Understanding how to use the internet has become a cornerstone issue for students. No longer do they complete their research on projects solely in the library. Now, there is a vast landscape of resources available on the internet.

But with wealth of options comes responsibility for their use. As soon as children begin to visit the online world, they need the knowledge to do that safely, securely, responsibly. There are several great programs available to guide students through this process (Common Sense’s Digital Passport, Carnegie CyberAcademy, Netsmart Kids). I’ve collected them as resources and developed a path to follow that includes the best of everything.

Here’s Kindergarten–feel free to print this lesson. Use the lines in front of the steps to check off completed work:

Overview/Big Ideas

Students learn how to live in the digital world of internet websites, copy-righted images, and virtual friends who may be something different.

Essential Questions

• What is a ‘digital citizen’?
• How is being a citizen of the internet the same/different than my home town?
• What are the implications of digital citizenship in today’s world?

Objectives and Steps

The objectives of this lesson are:

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Education has changed. No longer is it contained within four classroom walls or the physical site of a school building. Students aren’t confined by the eight hours between school bells or the struggling budget of an underfunded program. Now, education can be found anywhere — teaming up with students in Kenya, Skyping with an author in Sweden, or chatting with an astrophysicist on the International Space Station. Students can use Google Earth to take a virtual tour of a zoo or a blog to collaborate on class research. Learning has no temporal or geographic borders and is available wherever students and teachers find an Internet connection. This vast landscape of resources is offered digitally, often free, but to take that cerebral trek through the online world, children must know how to do it safely, securely, and responsibly. This used to mean limiting access to the Internet, blocking websites, and layering rules upon rules hoping (vainly) to discourage students from using an infinite and fascinating resource. It didn’t work. Best practices now suggest that instead of cocooning students, we teach them to be good digital citizens, confident and competent. Here are eleven projects to teach kids authentically, blended with your regular lessons, the often complicated topic of becoming good digital citizens, knowledgeable about their responsibilities in an Internet world. (more…)

Ask a Tech Teacher has a passel of online resources to help you introduce, teach, and reinforce digital citizenship to your students. Here’s our long list–and click here for updates if you arrive at this page late: (more…)

Digital Citizenship Week — October 14–18, 2024

You can get a lot of great ideas from Common Sense Education on their Digital Citizenship Week page:

• Digital Citizenship Week calendars, with fun activities and suggested lessons for each day
• AI literacy resources, like AI foundations course for educators, and AI literacy lesson collection for students
• Webinars and events to help build your teaching practice and implement digital citizenship in your classroom
• Family engagement resources to share in your community

Here at Ask a Tech Teacher, we invite you to watch a great video (40 minutes) we use in training, available for free today to Ask a Tech Teacher readers–

Digital Citizenship: What to Teach When

Summary

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Here are popular online resources to teach about using games in education (click here for updates to the list):

1. Battleship on Google Sheets
2. Breakouts by BreakoutEdu.com — a bit like Webquests but more comprehensive
3. Breakout Room Template
4. Game Show Templates–Frazzle, Jeopardy, Family Feud, Price is Right, more
5. Gamified Syllabus–a template to create games
6. A Google A Day

Economics and Finance

1. BizKids–games to teach business and finance

History

1. Beat the Bard–using Shakespearean characters
2. Classtools History Timeline Game–read here for directions
3. Oregon Trail–a browser-based edition
4. Digital Breakouts–review or assessment in a gamelike format; includes mostly history, but other topics; high school

Math

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