A study released last year by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that nearly half of the nation’s teacher training programs failed to insure that their candidates were STEM-capable. That means new teachers must learn how to teach science, technology, engineering and math on-the-job. Knowing that, there are six Best Practices teachers in the trenches suggest for integrating technology into classroom instruction:

Digital Citizenship

Many schools now provide digital devices for students, often a Chromebook or an iPad. Both are great devices, but represent a sea change from the Macs and PCs that have traditionally been the device-of-choice in education. While I could spend this entire article on that topic, one seminal difference stands out: Where PCs and Macs could be used as a closed system via software, materials saved to the local drive, and native tools, Chromebooks and iPads access the internet for everything (with a few exceptions) be it learning, publishing, sharing, collaborating, or grading. There’s no longer an option to hide students from the online world, what is considered by many parents a dangerous place their children should avoid. In  cyberspace, students are confronted often–if not daily–with questions regarding cyberbullying, digital privacy, digital footprints, plagiarism, and more.

The question is: Who’s teaching students how to thrive in this brave new world? Before you move on to the next paragraph, think about that in your circumstance. Can you point to the person responsible for turning your students into good digital citizens? When third grade students use the internet to research a topic, do they know how to do that safely and legally?

When asked, most educators shrug and point at someone else. But it turns out too often, no one is tasked with providing that knowledge.

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Any child knows that a picture communicates differently than text. It’s not just quicker, it shares more detail more effectively. In seconds, our brain grasps a wide selection of data from the picture’s color, layout, design and draws conclusions. To do that with text requires lots of words, re-reading, extreme concentration, and scratching the head.

It’s no surprise research indicates the majority of students learn better if they see information. This includes graphic organizers, diagrams, mind maps, outlines–even pictures and art work.

Here are five image apps. One (or more) of these will be perfect for your classroom:

Canva

Free

1.8 million users have created over 15 million designs using Canva’s one million+ design templates (including font schemes, stock photographs, backgrounds, and illustrations–some free/some fee) to create cards, fliers, posters, newsletters, infographics, and more. Drag and drop project parts to personalize the design (see my Canva-created poster below). Edit photos using preset filters or advanced photo editing tools like brightness, contrast, saturation, tint, and blur. Save as a high-quality image or a printable PDF. Canva provides lots of graphic design video tutorials for even the most basic skill level. These are great for mature elementary age, Middle School, and High School students, as well as teachers.

Canva for education features 17+ lesson plans from some of the leaders in tech-in-ed. You can even sign in through Google Apps for Education. Canva not only works on iPads, but desktops and laptops.

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Here’s a long list of websites to address Digital Citizenship topics you teach in your classroom:

Avatars

to promote digital privacy

1. Avatar 1–a monster
2. Avatar 2–Lego you
3. Avatar 3–animal
4. Tellagami–a video avatar
5. Vokis
6. With comics, via Pixton — fee-based

Copyrights and Digital Law

1. Copyrights–BrainPop video
2. Copyright and Fair Use–Common Sense Media video
3. Copyright Law Explained (fun video, informative, thorough)
4. Copyright law curriculum
5. Creative Commons
6. Take the mystery out of copyrights–by the Library of Congress
7. Videos on licensing, copyrights, more (from Creative Commons)

Curriculum

1. Common Sense media
2. Ask a Tech Teacher

Cyberbullying

1. Bullying—Watch this (videos)
2. Cyberbullying video
3. Cyber-bullying–5th grade
4. Cyber-bullying—BrainPop
5. Cyberbullying—what is it
6. Think Time: How Does Cyberbullying Affect You

DigCit (General)

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Every month, subscribers to Ask a Tech Teacher get a free/discounted resource to help their tech teaching.

This month:

25% Discount off Tech Curriculum Upgrade

If you want to upgrade from an earlier digital version of the SL Technology Curriculum, you are eligible for 25% off that upgrade. Email Zeke.Rowe at structuredlearning.net with the name you purchased under. He’ll verify it and send you a coupon code worth 25% off your upgrade purchase.

Digital only, for all of these devices:

I’ve taught Preschool-8th grade for thirty years. Throughout, one factor stood out as the most reliable barometer of student achievement: Parent involvement. It didn’t mean parents as tutors, homework helpers, or classroom volunteers–although it could be those. It meant parents showing they cared about their child’s success.

Today’s education model is catching up with the fundamental part parents play in student achievement. In Massachusetts, for example, family and community engagement is one of four standards within its teacher-evaluation rubric.

If you’re looking for a way to involve parents more granularly in your classroom, try these three ideas:

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Here’s along list of websites that focus on math automaticity for the K-5 classroom. I’ve broken it down by grade level, but you can decide if your second graders are precocious enough to try the websites for grades 3-5:

K

• K Math Skills
• Math Videos (not practice, but fun to watch)
• Money flashcards
• Numbers

1^st

• First Grade math skills
• Money flashcards
• Numbers

2^nd

• Math Flashcards
• Math Practice Test
• Mental Math
• More Quick Math
• Multiplication Tables
• Quick Math
• Quick Math II
• Quick Math—by level (more…)

With the growing interest in coding comes a call for after school tech camps that supersize student enthusiasm for learning technology. If you’ve been tasked (or volunteered) to run this activity, here are five activities that will tech-infuse participants:

Write an Ebook

It’s been said that inside 70% of us is a book crying to get out. Kids are no different. Many dream of becoming an author, a journalist, or another profession that focuses on writing.

In this class, take students through the six steps required to move from dream to publication:

1. brainstorm
   
2. plan required research
   
3. write the book
   
4. review with a critique group
5. edit
6. publish

The goal during the after school tech club is that each student will publish their first ebook–or at least give it a good start.

Basics

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Well-used, television has traditionally been important in the classroom. It informs students in emergencies, updates them on historic events, and now–with extensions like Apple TV–connects them on a granular level to what they learn in their textbooks.

I haven’t written about this learning tool in a long time so I was excited when AATT contributor, Sara Stringer, came up with this great article:

Even though some people feel that there is too much on TV that does nothing to educate people, or children, for that matter, there is actually plenty on television to help with education. Educational shows can be a great asset to a classroom, no matter what age the children are.

Educational Shows For Elementary

Television in the classroom is a great help for younger students. It can help them find more interest and fun in learning. One reason schools should have televisions in each room, and a great satellite or cable package, is that it can be a great tool for teaching. Those teaching elementary age children can find a lot of shows that teach everything from math to vocabulary, and even health topics. These shows make learning fun and entertain children. While kids two and under aren’t recommended to watch TV, once your child is in preschool, TV can be an excellent learning tool. Nick Jr and Disney Junior are two great outlets for educational kids shows that can work well within the classroom. Base some curriculum around what happens in the shows. Have discussions about the shows topics. Children are more likely to remember what they learn when learning is fun.

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As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!

Q: Some websites/blogs are confusing. I click through way too many options to get anything done. What’s with that?

A: I hadn’t put a lot of thought to this until I read a discussion on one of my teacher forums about the oft-debunked-and-oft-followed 3-click rule made popular by Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman in his book, “Taking Your Talent to the Web.”. This claims ‘that no product or piece of content should ever be more than three clicks away from your Web site’s main page’.

This is true with not just programming a website, but teaching tech to students. During my fifteen years of teaching tech, I’ve discovered if I keep the geeky stuff to a max of 2-3 steps, students remember it, embrace it, and use it. More than three steps, I hear the sound of eyes glazing over.

Whether you agree with the ‘rule’ or not, it remains a good idea to make information easy and quick to find. Readers have a short attention span. Same is true of students.

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I repost this article every September because I get so many requests for mouse resources for those youngest keyboarders. For an up-to-date list, click here. Enjoy!

One of the most important pre-keyboarding skills is how to use the mouse. The mouse hold is not intuitive and if learned wrong, becomes a habit that’s difficult to break. Here are some images to assist you in setting up your newest computer aficionados:

Here are 16 websites student will enjoy, including 4 for adults new to computers:

1. Drawing Melody–draw in many colors with the mouse and create music
2. Left-click practice while playing the piano
3. MiniMouse
4. Mouse and tech basics–video
5. Mouse practice—drag, click
6. Mouse skills
7. Mouse Song
8. OwlieBoo–mouse practice
9. Wack-a-gopher (no gophers hurt in this)

Puzzles

1. Digipuzzles–great puzzles for geography, nature, and holidays
2. Jigsaw Planet–create your own picture jigsaw
3. Jigsaw puzzles
4. Jigzone–puzzles
5. Jigsaw Puzzles–JS

Adults

1. Mousing Around
2. Skillful Senior

Trackpad

Many of these are simply repurposing mouse skill sites to the trackpad. 

1. Basics
2. Practice
3. Touchpad vs Mouse

If you’re looking for more, Internet4Classrooms has a long list you might like, and these fun sites from minimouse.us.

More on mouse skills:

Dear Otto: Should Lefties Use Right Hands for Mousing Around

Tech Tip #61: How to Get Youngers to Use the Right Mouse Button

Dear Otto: Should I fix ‘Thumb clicking’?

http://eepurl.com/chNlYb

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.