Terry's Tech Tips

Spice it up!  Create a Course Expectation Infographic Think about most students' first day of school.  They start out in Advisory, reviewing a multitude of compliance documents and completing a form agreeing to all the contents.  Not that exciting.  This year, they'll receive their laptop in Advisory as well - very exciting!  The rest of the day will be spent in each class, getting to know their new teacher (inspiring) and reviewing course expectations (not as exciting). If you are thinking of spicing up your first day, you may want to consider presenting your Course Expectations using an Infographic!  The example above is based on a course that I will teach in the spring. Reasons why Infographics work: Infographics are everywhere on the web - with good reason.  Infographics play to our brain's strengths: 60,000 times faster Humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text. https://images.app.goo.gl/82HPWapeQh5raZe...

Last week's post featured some research I had done on student cell phone use and the impact on student learning .  I created the following infographic: Click here for a larger Infographic view Why use Infographics with my students? Infographics represent a new type of digital literacy.  They tell a story relying heavily on visuals with some supporting text.  Whether you choose to create infographics for your students or have students create them as an assignment, research shows that: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/visual-content-marketing-delivers-results-infographic/116496/#close Research found the following impacts on learning due to the way the brain processes information: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/visual-content-marketing-delivers-results-infographic/116496/#close Because of these factors,  Infographics are 30 times more likely to be read on the web over text based pages: https://www.searchenginejournal...

Factile allows you to quickly build a Jeopardy game board using your content on their website.  With the end of the Quarter rapidly approaching, it is time to help your students review material and prepare for any end-of-quarter exams.  Factile's Jeopardy game helps you easily create a content review activity in a fun and competitive classroom environment!  (Kahoot!, Quizlet, and Quizziz are also good tool choices for the end of the Quarter. ) A student of Rhonda Penaud's actually introduced us to Factile.   He made a Fractile game for his French class to play for a class assignment!  The class (and Rhonda) loved it! To see how it works, play their Demo game . To get started, create an account on the Factile site and navigate to the Games tab .  You can either create your own game: Or search in the academic categories for one that is already built. You can use the previously built game as is, or copy it and make the adjustmen...

Are you teaching a new course during semester 2,  or maybe looking for something new to use in your classroom in the new year?  You may want to consider using a visually engaging and fun tool found on the website Flippity.net .  I was introduced to  Flippity.net  at a workshop I attended in August.  Flippity.net's tools let you build engaging experiences for students based on simple Google Sheets.   The programs are written by a teacher in Western Massachusetts, so they are simple but effective without a lot of extras you don't need.  Here are a couple of options that I found intriguing: Flippity Random Name Picker The Random Name Picker on the Flippity website was the first to catch my attention.  Master teacher Peter Atlas has always used a random name picker in his classroom.  He feels it provides students a safe space to learn.  Students are randomly picked to answer a question, so it feels fair....

#FlipGrid Fever is a 'real' Twitter hashtag!  Many teachers love to use FlipGrid, which allows students to respond to questions via video.  Students can watch and comment on each other's videos (if you choose) to increase learning and understanding.  FlipGrid has recently become a completely free product to all teachers, thanks to Microsoft's purchase this summer! FlipGrid ensures: you hear from every student in the class. student learning is visible. Our colleagues in World Language have been using FlipGrid for some time now.  They ask students questions and have them respond in the language they are learning.  As a result,  Cynthia Laflamme will be leading the FlipGrid session during our Mini EdTech Camp on Tuesday, November 13th.  Join her to learn more about using FlipGrid in the Classroom! Examples - FlipGrid can be used by all Disciplines! Below are some examples of teacher posted FlipGrid Questions in different discipline...