As we are winding down in 2018, I wanted to take an opportunity to give you a few tools that are on the scene and are built to engage scholars. Some of you may already be aware of these tools and possibly be using them.
Flipgrid is a platform that allows teachers to post questions or discussion starters and scholars may respond with a video message. A great way to encourage participation by all scholars in an engaging tool that is similar to what they may already be using in their own social media accounts (i.e. snapchat).
Available on all platforms, a teacher may create a "grid" which is a community of learners (classroom). The grid is essentially a message board that is secure as it is only accessible by people who have access to the URL. As a teacher, add a topic of discussion and turn your scholars loose. What a great way to engage all of your scholars in a platform that will feel familiar to them.
Flipgrid is a free resource and you can learn all about it here.
Sway is a tool that you have access to through your Microsoft O365 account. It is a tool that allows you or scholars to create presentations that will have a cinematic flair. You can create from a template or from scratch and work from a storyline to add pictures, titles, videos, whatever piece of information you want to include from a central location. We all know PowerPoint and some have used Prezi. Sway takes it up a notch and allows for a more creative approach to presentations.
You can take a look at some tutorials here and get started using Sway.
Insert Learning is a tool that will help you to take any webpage and turn it into instructional content. This tool will fit in nicely with your interactive whiteboards.
Insert Learning is a chrome browser extension. Once you add the extension to your chrome browser you will have the ability to create an interactive learning experience for your scholars.
Click on the link above to get to the home page for Insert Learning and then click this button to add to your chrome browser.
All three of these tools provide an engaging and interactive way to help you get our scholars to a point where they are able to share what they know with others and also it will allow you as a teacher to differentiate instruction and give all scholars a voice. Hopefully you will be able to take away at least one of these tools and utilize within your classroom.