The document discusses how technology integration can engage students by making lessons relevant to their lives and the skills they will need for future jobs. It provides tips for getting started with technology integration, including starting with a few tools and building your repertoire over time. Specific tools discussed include wikis, blogs, videos, websites and surveys. Resources are shared for creating wikis, blogs and surveys, as well as getting more technology integration ideas.

3. Students today are preparing for jobs that do not yet exist

5. Are you sick of seeing glazed looks and big yawns during your class? Technology integration lets you transition from bore and snore to exciting and engaged.

7. Ideas to excite kids Film/video creation Website design Blogging Vodcast/podcast

8. Wiki – what is it? A wiki is a website. You can create as many free wikis as you like. Students can create them as part of projects or presentations. You may want to create them as a way to share information. You can have a wiki up in minutes. Benefits of the wiki: For myself, I can organize lessons and add ideas in a spot that is easily accessible from any internet environment. When I am ready for the wiki to “go public”, I post the link on my teacher website. For students, I can have kids work in groups on a project, and I am able to monitor their progress as both individuals and a group. Wikis have date/time stamps, so I know if a student meets a deadline, and I know how much the student is contributing to the work of the group. Lastly, I can have students post comments to other student group wikis (peer feedback) The best wiki website I have found is www.pbworks.com Other website creation places include: Yola, Weebly, Webs, and Blue Voda

9. Why is Blogging a big deal? Blogs allow student work to be seen by many rather than have it be something that only the student and teacher read. Studies show that when students know their work will be read by many, they put more effort into the work. Blogs allow for immediate feedback Some blog web sites allow you to connect with other schools around the world so that you can turn an assignment or project into something global and meaningful. Some blog web sites allow you to tap into teacher resources to get more ideas on how to use technology in the classroom http://edublogs.org/http://classblogmeister.com/https://www.blogger.com/starthttp://www.livejournal.com/http://www.movabletype.com/http://wordpress.com/http://kidblog.org/home.php

10. Free Surveys Use surveys to get feedback Use surveys as a pretest or to establish starting points for a research project Have students use a survey as part of a project http://www.freeonlinesurvey.com/ www.Zoomerang.com www.kwiksurveys.com www.surveymonkey.com

11. Resources to get you started http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ *This website a plethora of resources and ideas. It has a download to walk you through 11 techy things to do in the classroom, and it has other downloads that walk you through technology integration. http://www.diigo.com/ Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows you to save valuable links you or students have searched, leave notes as to why you think the link is valuable, and offers you a sorting option (tagging). I like Diigo because you can sign up for daily technology updates. I have found many web 2.0 tools that are perfect for my classroom through these updates http://quizlet.com/ This is a flashcard making site that has become very popular with our students. Students report the ability to make 100 flashcards in 5 minutes. The site also allows you to test yourself 7 different ways using the flashcard info. There are also flashcards posted from all over the world with many different subjects that users can view and use.

12. More Resources http://www.eschoolnews.com/ You can sign up to receive email updates from this site. There is much information on technology and schools including: eClassroom news which “connects you to the latest new, info, and resources on how teachers are using technology in the classroom to advance learning”and eschoolnews.tv which gives you the latest videos on technology related information http://www.google.com/apps/ You can create a whole classroom within your classroom here – allows you to share calendars, give students email accounts, and share documents. You may have to pay for a domain name. http://www.slideshare.net/ and http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive If you want to ditch the thumb drive, you can post presentations here (power-point, videos, research papers, and other documents). You can also view other posts (slideshare). One of the easiest ways to combat the “I forgot” excuse. Books: Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss ($23.07/Amazon) The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning by Nikos Theodosakis ($39.20/Amazon)