I feel like this is slowly becoming LOOK AT THIS TECHNOLOGY, LOOK AT IT. But that's not a bad thing. Something both teachers and students struggle with is how to be a citizen in an increasingly digital world? Where can technology help me, and where is it a hindrance? How much money should I invest in good apps? These are questions that come up every day. A big part of my preparation for school is looking at available technology and considering all of those things before I really invest both time and money (hopefully not too much) in said app. And sometimes, that investment pays off.
Planboard
I found this app through a link on Pinterest (can't remember where, sorry, it's November.) and I thought "Oh great, another crappy planning app that says it will make me more productive. And it will have a terrible interface and not do anything better than my DIY notebook calendar." Boy I love eating my words. IT IS SO MUCH BETTER. Right now, we're in the process of changing standards from the California Science Standards to Next Generation Science Standards (or NGSS) and a big challenge is how does our current curriculum already align to those standards. Besides a very easy to use interface, Planboard has a database of standards that is easy to navigate and sort by keywords to much unit objectives. THIS IS AMAZING. Also, it connects with other programs, and while it doesn't connect with Google Classroom yet, I live in hope. It does connect to your drive so you can sort materials out by unit. But the biggest thing is matching units to standards. Now, I can justify what I do to the actual standards. That is a dream come true.
EdPuzzle
I love showing videos in class, but frankly it's hard to know what students got out of them. EdPuzzle is an in video assessment system that now connects to Google Classroom. I haven't used it what I consider "right" yet, I just used it mostly as a video sharing system, but we'll get there. It's, again, a time investment to learn a program, and see where it fits, but this one might be worth it once I figure it out.
Of course there are some of my old favorites like Gradecam and Plickers, and Google Classroom has rolled out some updates, but those are the newbies that I enjoy. Is there some tech you swear by? Let me know some suggestions in the comments!
