My career as a teacher certainly uses these, haha!

Very important!

My 2nd graders are already learning how to make slide show presentations on Google Slides -- why wait until high school?

Yes, I love this. I wonder if parents realize how easy it is to access these types of games!

This is a huge positive but teachers need to also be aware of how students often misuse their devices in class. All throughout middle and high school, I watched students around me (and even myself sometimes) play games on our tablets and computers during class time. A few times I even saw someone watching a sports game on mute!

Even just using Google Sheets can make such a difference. I see teachers who write and record their grades on papers -- kudos to them, but I could never keep that organized! I would be so nervous to lose the papers!

We were just talking about Kahoot in one of our tech workshops -- Kahoot is certainly a popular digital tool, but is the timed aspect of it too stressful and competitive for authentic student learning?

Internet homework assignments do, however, assume that all students have access to internet and a device in their homes. Be mindful of this!

Yes!!! Technology definitely opens up new ways to differentiate material and responses!

I don't think that the use of technology in the classroom AUTOMATICALLY engages learners -- I think that technology is certainly a great tool to USE to engage learners, but there is still a lot of other work involved too to make sure that the students are engaged! For example, choosing the right technological tool for the lesson, or making the virtual lesson still visually exciting.

I think it is interesting to note two things: 1) This article was written in 2017, before the COVID pandemic. 2) This article does not mention how technology enables more accessibility for those with hearing/visual impairments and other accommodations, which is a HUGE positive!

More than ever, "real-world situations" often do include technology. Nearly every job now uses technology in some form or another, and so it is vital that students are given opportunities to explore and practice with different technological tools and programs!

One way that technology is useful in the classroom is definitely by helping the TEACHER save time. Not all tech tools have to be for the students -- some are helpful for just the teacher, and that's important too!

I wonder if "at their own pace" would mean taking time outside of the classroom as well. If so, it is important to note that not all students have easy online access at home.

Learning different perspectives is not just important for their analytical skills but for their empathy and social awareness as well!! I also completely agree that technology has made it easier than ever to access different perspectives if you only take the initiative to look for it.

This is certainly true, but in some cases I find that checking papers manually gives me a MUCH better idea of how my students are really understanding and struggling with. Virtual feedback like this is easy, but you still have to do the work of understanding what the data means and where there may have been misconceptions.

Working together virtually is also a whole new experience for learning to work with others -- on computers, it is SO easy to delete someone else's work and replace it with your own. That is why it is so important to practice this and to gain experience using virtual tools to effectively SHARE the workload.

I have seen this used really effectively in some of my own classes! However, I know that some people prefer a printed-out version of a syllabus, and so if something is changed on the virtual syllabus it should be made clear to the class.

I can definitely see how focusing students on their own technological work rather than watching the teacher can serve to give the students more responsibility and ownership over their learning. However, the benefits of this really depend on the type of technology being used and how that usage is monitored -- after all, both distractions and the ability to cheat are boosted by technology as well.

I'm also envisioning Bitmojis being used to create a virtual space for students to breathe and practice mindfulness and/or calming exercises.

I can already see so many possibilities for this!! No more boring Google Docs with resources simply listed: no, now resources will be artfully displayed in a virtual, full-of-personality room.

This is a great idea. It's much more engaging than simply giving these reminders verbally.

I love this so much. It is so creative, fun, and engaging!!

I can see how this would be nice for asynchronous class presentations, so that the students still "feel" like the teacher is there.

They are helpful in engagement but also, as mentioned previously, in creating a sense of classroom community and comfort. It is really hard to feel like part of a community in an online space, and it seems like Bitmojis can help to bridge that gap.

This is an interesting point, but if instruction is online, then wouldn't the students have access to a device even if it is a school-owned one?

This is fascinating, because I'm sure this is not what Bitmoji's creators had in mind! But it is true nonetheless!

I LOVE doing this, and I have found it much easier to do than I originally thought. That could also be because my 2nd graders are interested in pretty much everything, though.

What is most important here, I believe, is the word "choose". Teachers shouldn't have their students learn the material in EVERY avenue possible, but rather let them CHOOSE between the options.

This is a cool tip! I'd never thought of doing that.

If I had a penny for every time I had to turn my entire computer or turn a pdf page sideways, boy I would have a lot of pennies.

There are also certain fonts that are more readable for students with dyslexia, I believe.

Yes!!!!! This is super important and can make a huge difference for students. It's easy to do, too, when you have the right tools.

This is a really great point. I know I've spent a lot of time trying to find just one idea in a long video!

AND easier for you to keep track of and organize!

This is also something that my teachers did on zoom that made a huge difference. And these classes were college classes, so they were quite big!

Interesting -- I would love to read more about how this teacher incorporated chores and household tasks into virtual schoolwork.

This is SO important. I had teachers during zoom classes that utilized physical spaces and activities and it made such a difference in student engagement.

This is true for any teacher trying something new: don't be discouraged when/if it doesn't run smoothly!

This seems to me like FlipGrid. But also I feel like there are a lot of other websites that do this as well.

I can see how this could be super useful in creating sub plans and sharing lessons/schedules with families!

This reminds me a bit of Jamboard but with a lot more features. I would definitely want to use this with older students!

I'm not gonna lie, this just gave me a vivid flashback to college classes where we were required to post on discussion boards in various classes. Most of us just threw together some ideas and made it sound fancy and thoughtful because it was either very boring or we didn't have enough time to truly give it our attention. This CAN be very useful though if it really is an engaging prompt that students have a lot to say about. Otherwise, it gets a bit stale.

This is really interesting, I haven't heard of it before. I'd be curious to see how teachers use it in their classrooms.

Requiring the students to use Quizlet doesn't really make sense to me: its only really useful if students WANT to use it to help them study.

I really like Quizlet and have used it before. I don't know that it really encourages collaboration, though, as when I used it I just did everything myself.

This is really interesting -- peer review is certainly something I have mixed feelings about, especially in higher grades. But I like how there is a rubric to guide the students in giving each other feedback constructively!

As the article mentions next: yes, this is possible with Google Docs. However, it is NOT possible with many other technological tools and doesn't include any notes or planning the students may have used. Additionally, with technological tools it is easier than ever for one student to simply highlight and delete what the other students wrote and write their own thing over it.

How do we then include students who may not have an internet connection? What if they are too embarrassed to admit this?

Or homework time -- I had many assignments in college especially where I was supposed to meet up in person with people in my group.

If this is something that most students have never heard of, does it still achieve the effect of mimicking their outside lives and therefore engaging them?

This is so true. This idea also works for other student interests like video games or a sport that they like, and these are topics that can be incorporated into math problems or even social studies (as I recently included a video game map in my lesson on maps).

This is both a good thing and a bad thing: if a student can't make it to the classroom, they can still work in a group virtually! On the other hand, we know all too well the social effects of not being able to meet up in person, and you miss other nonverbal cues that are harder to notice via video chat.

I've seen these types of things for print texts, but I've never thought about using one for online texts. It certainly would be helpful, especially for students who are accustomed to using them.

I love sticky notes. I could definitely see myself and my students using something like this, especially when they are looking for facts and then transferring those facts to a presentation.

Once again I am shocked that this would be allowed. I can definitely think of times when I exited a website that was just too "busy" for me to concentrate on -- I could have used this tool then!

Wow, this one seems like it could be useful for any digital learner! I wonder how playing around with these features might help someone realize what a difference (or not) these types of features can have on our focus.

I'm really glad about this limitation, otherwise I would be worried that my students wouldn't practice using their own skills and knowledge to identify important parts of a text.

I am so curious about how this works. How does it determine which sentences are important?

This. Sounds. Incredible! I can't wait to try this for myself and perhaps with my future students as well. I remember one of my 4th graders last year said he could only concentrate on math homework while listening to music... well, this one's for you, buddy!

Last year, some of my 4th graders truly loved using voice typing. It's a big game changer for students who struggle with reading and physical writing but have complete comprehension on a subject they are supposed to write about. It's also much more accessible for people who struggle to physically type.

I've seen a lot of ads for Grammarly, but I've never used it myself. I would hesitate to use this with elementary students, though, because it is important for them to learn and understand grammar on their own. If an app fixes it for them, they won't have practice identifying and fixing grammatical errors independently.

Also very important! I could certainly use this.

Also, sometimes I get overwhelmed if I have too many tabs open, and that tends to happen when I'm using extra tabs to search things like this.

When learning a new technological tool, I always find it most helpful for me to do just this: experiment and become familiar with it. However I do wonder if this is different for other generations: since I grew up with technology, I find most tools pretty intuitive. But for older teachers, perhaps a more instructional approach would be better.

I wonder how this could be done so that the students add the extensions themselves, that way they know how to do it on their personal computers or future computers that they own as well. Also, I wonder if some schools may require permission to add extensions onto school devices?

NO WAY. Is this allowed? Why wouldn't everyone be doing this then? I am definitely going to share this with my colleagues!

My first thought when reading this was that recording audio is not always accessible, especially in a classroom where everyone might be recording at once. But then I also thought about my music courses in college and how useful this would've been for those classes, especially once we went virtual.

This is interesting -- I wonder why google docs wouldn't just have "copy" as an option to begin with.

I also just tried this and I cannot believe that I didn't know about this. It's so simple!

I tried this, and it didn't work for some reason. Nevertheless, virtual checklists are still really valuable -- I used the checklists on the reminders app on my phone to keep track of my homework all throughout both high school and college! I LOVE checklists. And checklists can be differentiated for each student depending on their goals!

Again -- what an easy way to increase accessibility of a video.

This is INCREDIBLE. I had no idea that this was possible, and it could be a total game changer for students with hearing difficulties or any student who prefers reading over listening.

I'll admit that I love finding teacher hacks and tips from Tik Tok. The algorithm definitely knows that I'm a teacher!

These are all SUPER important to keep in mind. Technology grows and changes constantly, so even when you think you've mastered a tool, there might be something new you can learn to enhance it or make it more accessible to different learners!