Toolkit: Technology is Fun

My toolkit is entitled: "Technology is Fun", and I decided to deviate from my MMP project. Instead, I compiled a list of sites that I felt would help my (former) colleagues that are not Digital Natives and do not speak Digital as a First Language. The goal was to find resources that were easy to use, and accessible to educators that were new to the technology world. I chose new resources, and ones that I would use after clicking around for a little bit, and one resource I have used before for Professor Pope's Intro to Digital Tools Course.

Source 1: "10 Smart Ideas for Using a Smartboard" This resource outlines 10 tips on how to engage students using a Smartboard while maintaining classroom management. Most of the classrooms in the school I used to work have Smartboards installed, and coming from someone who had no experience with that type of technology, I think this resource could provide some general pointers for teachers.

Source 2: "Acrostic Poem Creator" I used to do a series of acrostic poems with my 7th graders, and one of the colleagues I am sending this toolkit to still uses acrostic poems. This resource may be useful for students with disabilities, especially those with spatial issues. The only limitation is the length of the "topic word".

Source 3: "Literacy - Teacher to Teacher" I found the links on this site really accessible, and easy to navigate. The only part I struggled with was the amount of information. It's very easy to get lost clicking around the site, but the amount of resources is immense. However, for an educator that is not familiar with researching on the web and looking for new internet-based sites, this site provides a collection of resources in one central locaiton by topic.

Source 4: "Maggie's Earth Adventures" The main point of the toolkit is to expose the 'fun' and accessible side of technology to educators, and I decided to add a resource that I thought was appealing, and easy to use. It could serve as a webquest, or extended learning for students that finish work early (as long as there is access to the internet). I also found that it was appealing that there was an English and a Spanish option.

Source 5: "Rubistar" While this is not necessarily a resource to share with students, it is an easy-to-use rubric creators, enabling a performance-based, or multimodal assignment. I used it last semester in my Intro to Digital Tools class, and found the site to be user friendly, even for someone who is not as familiar with the internet.

Overall, the point of my toolkit was the to introduce my Digital as a Second Language, Digital Immigrant colleagues to other resources available to them, for free, on the internet, and at their fingertips. Sometimes it is scary to navigate the web when you are not as comfortable with the computer and I think this toolkit, while limited, still provides opportunities for educators to experience useful resources.

A Side Note: I shared my toolkit with three other teachers and the VP at my former school, am still waiting to hear back from them, but Cited wouldn't let me send it directly through their site. It kept telling me there was an error, so I just emailed the link to them! I await feedback!