Monday, September 8, 2014

What's Your Tech Tool of Choice?


If put to the challenge of narrowing down your list of favorite tech tools to have at your disposal, could you pick just one? And, to add to the difficulty of the questions, let's keep everything "Google" in the mix. 

So what will it be? What is your "go to" tool? It may be Voxer, Remind, or an App that makes your teaching and your students learning that much more powerful. We live in an age where tools via technology are being created faster then we can learn how to use them. Personally, I still trying to get my arms around a few of them.


With that, here is a compilation of most used tech tools by educators in the world in which I work. And, most likely, in the world you work, too. These are in no particular order:

1. Google Apps - A must have for organizing your thoughts, sharing out ideas and compiling information in one spot. An added bonus, with understanding Google Hangout (GHO) you can add collaboration and communication and take that to an entire new level. Most of us, all of us, myself included, would be lost without it.

2. Twitter - A close second to the Google world. For educators that have not found the benefits of this resource, that is a pretty big rock you are under. Go ahead and peak out from beneath it. There are endless resources, amazing people and countless tools within the tool. Connecting through Twitter is one of the greatest forms of professional development possible.

3. Socrative - Like their website states, "signing up thousands of new users each day, we believe big changes in education are possible through small improvements. We are making teachers lives simpler." This app embraces the personalized side of instruction and assessments, gives authentic feedback for immediate instruction and can grow the community. It is worth the look.

4. Blogger and WordPress - More classrooms and their teachers are blogging more than ever before. Students are sharing independent of the request from their teachers and teachers are finding the process invaluable to the growth of their writers. Find a classroom that is blogging, and you will find students that are growing leaps and bounds beyond their peers.

5. Voxer - New to the list, Voxer is taking the world by storm. For educators, yet another way to connect. Sending and receiving messages, sharing of content and adding photos allows teachers to take the globe in which we live and shrink it. You better do your homework, if you don't get up to speed on this one, you will be left behind.

Listed above are some amazing resources for all sorts of professionals, not just educators. Moat likely you are using most of them. Growing the list out further, here are some other "must have's" for educators:

- You Tube
- Edmodo
- Remind
- Evernote
- Class Dojo
- Dropbox


So again I pose a simple question. In the end, which of these tools is your "go to"? Which ones do you not have as part of your daily arsenal of tools already?

The good news, we don't have to chose. We get to use all of these, and more. Continue to expand your knowledge of the tech tools that are out. There are more coming right around the corner.

2 comments:

  1. With all of the choices available, it's easy to be overwhelmed and decide NOT to choose to learn a new tool, simply for fear of choosing incorrectly. I think the big question is, what do you want to accomplish, then let technology work for you. These are all great options. Voxer is the newest for me, and slowly becoming one of my go-to tools. Thanks for a great list and ideas!
    Jennifer
    #compelledtribe

    ReplyDelete
  2. Craig-Choices, Choices, choices. There are so many things out there and so few people to use them! I agree with Jennifer's comments above that you have to choose what works for you. Also I have found that there are other people in my building that are way smarter than me that know technology-So Iet them do the work!

    Thanks!
    Jarred #compelledtribe

    ReplyDelete