Top 10 Tips for Using Blogs in the Classroom

1. Parents can access a teacher's blog in order to find out more about their student's homework assignments, class projects, participation and more. 
2. Student can use a teacher's blog to collaborate and share ideas in forum discussions.  
3. Teachers can monitor forum discussions to measure their students' comprehension, misconceptions, and participation. Teachers can also give feedback to students using forums. 
4. Blogs can be accessed from anywhere.  If a student is sick, out of town, or absent for any other reason, they can check the blog for class notes or information about upcoming assignments. 
5. A blog works as a kind of portfolio for students and teachers who want to keep track of their lesson plans, or academic work. 
6. Both students and teachers improve their technological skills by using blogs.  This will everyone as the world become increasingly technical. 
7. Students may be more open to blogging than they would be keeping a traditional "response journal." Along these lines, teachers wouldn't have to collect response journals to check students' work.  It would be as simple as clicking on a URL.  
8. Building a classroom blog where students showcase their work might help build community and increase the likelihood that students will do their best work. 
9. Students can use a class blog to access links to all kinds of learning websites and facilitate global connections.
10. Blogs facilitate creative, student centered learning opportunities.  For example, students can use blogs to post podcasts, screencasts, YouTube videos, surveys, and polls.  Opportunities for learning are endless when teachers use blogs.   

10 Tips for Using Educational Apps in the Classroom

1. Applications facilitate real student interaction with learning.  For example, a geography teacher could use google earth on a smart board to illustrate various maps, landscapes, topography, population density, weather patterns, etc. Using iPads, students can follow along and engage in their own inquiry.
2. Certain applications make excellent classroom management tools.  Students will understand, in real time, how they are doing in the class in terms of behavior and participation. 
3. Students can take and submit quizzes using different applications.  These are often time stamped to ensure students complete their work on time. 
4. Students can connect their tablets to the class smart board and write information on the board without coming to the front of the classroom.  Likewise, the teacher can continue writing on the board while moving around the classroom to monitor behavior and make sure students are on task.
5. Certain applications make it simple for parents to track their student's progress over the school year using nothing but an iPhone. 
6. Applications like Evernote allow students to take and access notes from anywhere.  If little Jimmy heads to the Bahamas on family vacation for two weeks, he can easily access the notes from class. 
7. Applications like Skype are useful for connecting students from different parts of the country and world.  For example, students in France studying English could connect in real time with students studying French in the United States.  
8. Students can use applications like dropbox to submit and share projects and assignments. 
9. Students can use mind mapping applications to work collaboratively on homework assignments. 
10. Students can use applications like Explain Everything (like iMovie only more simple) to make short videos of themselves explaining recently learned concepts so they don't forget.  

Here is a review of a useful application called Grammar Up I wrote for my Technology & Education class:

Grammar up application from Bensama

Top 10 Tips for Using Video Editing in the Classroom

1. Few things are more appealing to students than watching images move across a screen.  Why not harness that natural fascination by turning it into an instructional strategy? 
2. English teachers can use video and video editing to teach narrative structure.  Consider inviting  local filmmakers (like Spy Hop in Salt Lake City) to come to class and discuss how movies are created.  
3. Students could create a movie trailer advertising a novel or play from the current unit. 
4. Students could interview people in the community who have expertise a particular unit you are studying. 
5. Students can add video editing to their list of technological skills and abilities.  This will increase their confidence and benefit them in college or their careers.  
6. Video editing projects are challenging and require students to think creatively, be detail oriented, and make hundreds of small decisions.  
7. Video projects provide students with an excellent opportunity to develop their collaboration skills.  
8. Students can share their videos on Vimeo and Youtube.  The public nature of the project will likely inspire students to do their best work. 
9. Integrating a variety of technology into your teaching is just good practice. 
10. You can use video/video editing to document the school year in your class.  This will help to build a sense of pride and community in your students. 

Here are three videos I worked on over the last couple of months:

In this video, my wife and I are playing with our nephews and their parents in the snow.  

The video below was an assignment for my Technology & Education class.  We were given a bunch of raw video and told to turn it into some kind of story.  The camera work is quite shaky, but I didn't film it... so...

This last video was a collaborative project also for Technology & Teaching.  My fellow students (Bruce, David, Brett) and I visited West High School and interviewed teachers about their use of technology in the classroom.  

10 Tips for Creating Awesome Webquests

1. Use your state's Common Core Standards as a basis for setting student objectives within your Webquest. 
2. Create some kind of narrative or adventure that students must follow as they work through your Webquest.  This makes it more fun for everyone. 
3. Don't use too many links to the same source.  It will get monotonous for students if they spend too much time on the same site. 
4. Make sure your tasks are varied.  For example, if your first task requires them to read a lot, then the second task should involve watching a video clip.  Try to include as many different kinds of tasks and activities as possible. 
5.  Use Blooms Taxonomy as a reference when creating your Webquest.  The beginning of the Quest should be simple and straightforward.  As students progress, the tasks should involve more thinking, synthesizing, and creating.  
6. Make sure you let students know how much time they will need to complete the Webquest.  
7. Include lots of images, charts, graphs, etc. on your Webquest.  It will make it more fun and interesting for students. 
8. Use clear navigational directions for students.  Even though you've been to the sites in your Webquest many times, your students have not.  
9. If you plan to use the Webquest you created again, go through it and check the links to make sure they all work and that websites haven't changed. 
10. Include the answers to your questions at the end of your Webquest along with a credits and references page.  Webquests are great for substitute teachers when you can't be in class.  It helps them out a lot if they have the answers.  Also, it's just good practice to give credit to your sources.  

Five Thoughts on Why You Should Use Webquests:

1. Increasingly tech savvy students find them interesting because they can be done entirely on the computer.
2.  Teachers can use them to appeal to students with multiple intelligences. Students working on a webquests will encounter images, video, music, written and spoken language, and more. I'm sure teachers could also incorporate kinesthetic activities using interactive games and other applications.
3.  Webquests are perfect if you've become ill and need a substitute to take over for the day. 
4.  Webquests are perfect if students want an opportunity to earn extra credit. 
5.  Webquests are simply a lot of fun.

Below is an example of a Webquest I created for my Technology & Teaching class this semester: 

Literary devices webquest pdf from Bensama

10 Tips for Using Powerpoint in the Classroom

1.  Make your Power-points interesting!  Don't rely on the limited stock templates Microsoft Office provides.  Get creative and find other images on the web for more visually appealing backgrounds.

2.  Don't write long drawn out paragraphs on the slides.  If you do,  half of your students will fall asleep, and the other half will read through it quickly without listening to what you're saying... and then fall asleep.

3.  Write small phrases on your slides and then discuss them in detail during your presentation.

4.  You can number the order in which your bullet points appear.  This is great, whether your presenting  or  creating a Power-point Show.  Your slides will feel less cluttered and viewers won't be able to read ahead while you're talking.

5.  Use at least one interesting image on each slide.  Think outside the box.  Use graphs, charts, pictures, or even embedded video.

6.  Create hyperlinks that allow you to jump around in your presentation.

7.  Use animation sparingly.  Animation is a great way to make your Power-point more engaging, but if you overdo it and you'll end up distracting your viewers.

8.  If you're doing a Power-point show, make sure there are no background noises while you're recording.  Also, don't speak too close to the microphone or your voice will sound distorted.

9.  Speak clearly and enthusiastically while recording your Power-point show.  If you don't sound interested in your material, then why should anyone else?

10.  Don't make it too long.  Students are only capable of focusing on a Power-point show/presentation for 10-15 minutes.  Any longer than that and you've lost them.

Below is a PPT that I created for my Technology & Education class.  HOWEVER, the subject of said PPT involves the creation and of alcoholic beverages.  Probably not appropriate for a classroom.  The point of the assignment (in my mind) was to practice using Power point.  

Utah Center for Assistive Technology

The Utah Center for Assistive Technology's (UCAT) mission statement is:  "Helping people with disabilities identify and obtain assistive technology that will enhance the quality of their lives."

Check out the awesome work they've done, like creating a glove-like device to help a miner go back to work after an accident in which he lost nearly half his hand.  

UCAT also spends a lot of time helping make the lives of young people with disabilities more fun!  

Check out this "suck and blow train set" they created with help from a group of engineers in Logan, Utah at Autonomous Solutions.

Another UCAT staff member adapted a bike trailer using an old wheelchair so this young man could go on bike rides with his brother.

Prezi for Teachers: 10 Most Useful Aspects

1.  Unlike Powerpoint, Prezi gives teachers the ability to zoom and focus in on important concepts during presentations.

2.  Teachers can also zoom out, offering students a basic, overall impression of the presentation and its key points.

3.  If used well, the zoom and navigate functions can make the presentation feel fluid and visually interesting.  (As long as teachers don't overdo it and make students sick).

4.  Often times, powerpoint presentations can feel cluttered.  Prezi presentations, on the other hand, can hold A LOT of information without the cluttered feeling.  The ability to zoom far into and out of the presentation makes this possible.

5.  Powerpoint presentations can be easily converted to Prezi and then improved upon in the methods described above.

6.  Prezi is new and hip.  You can impress students with your technical savvy and and awareness of new and interesting ways of presenting information.  Students may go to sleep when they see a teacher queuing up a powerpoint, but not so with a prezi.

7.  Prezi encourages learners to forge a 'less linear' path to discovery.  Power point moves from one slide to the next until the presentation is over.  Prezi makes it easier to make connections between points by stepping back, looking at the big picture, zooming in and then moving around more freely between concepts.

8.  It's simple and easy to embed videos and images into your prezi presentations.

9.  There are more opportunities for the teacher to be creative and have fun while creating and organizing prezis.  Students will recognize the playful aspects of prezi and remain engaged.

10.  Finally, because prezi is a "cloud based" program, students and teachers can use it collaboratively--building and learning together.  With prezi, students can become active participants in their own learning, rather than passive receivers of information.


Over the summer I created a powerpoint to prepare my Korean students for our annual Summer Camp Auction.  I created my first Prezi by converting that powerpoint, adding pictures, and using it to create a big picture AND short summary of our class auction.

The second Prezi I created outlines how I would like to arrange the desks in my future classroom.  It also includes the posters I would like to put on the walls, and examples of community building activities for the first three days of school.  

Technology & Teaching Question

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using digital books/ipads in schools? Do you think that all schools in the United States will use ipads in the future?