This document provides many suggestions for incorporating technology into the classroom to enhance student learning. It recommends using tools like YouTube, SmartBoards, Google Docs, blogs, podcasts and more to give students opportunities for collaboration, producing and sharing writing, and developing technology skills. Specific strategies include having students find online resources on authors, create digital stories and timelines, and use interactive tools for activities like comparing and contrasting. The goal is to leverage technology to improve communication, engage digital natives, and strengthen language arts skills.

2.  Students are digital natives and we need
to embrace their use of technology in
the classroom
 Technology offers students powerful tools
for producing, editing, and distributing
writing as well as for collaboration
 Technology has an impact on our
language, how we read, write, view and
visually represent information.

3.  Use discovery streaming videos
 Use YouTube & teacher tube
 Videojug at www.videojug.com – free factual video
content to use in classroom
 Watch and listen to content specific
professionals, experts and be able to discuss the
information given
 Listen a minute at www.listenaminute.com – online
listening skills
 Interviewing (record on iPod or smartphone)
 Use SmartBoard tools and SmartNotebook
 Have students collaborate with students in another
school, state, country by using Google
Docs, Twitter, Google Blogger

4.  Use the computer lab as a writing tool – have
students write drafts and then every student
moves from computer to computer reading
the drafts and offering revision suggestions in
another color
 Begin ongoing e-mail correspondence with
students in another school to peer edit
 Have students experience the different texts
we have today: the
internet, documents, websites, bibliographies
with url addresses, e-mail, facebook, twitter
 Being able to respond through e-mail gives the
shy student their voice to say what they
couldn’t in another situation
 Copy and paste a paper for revision in
http://vozme.com and it will read the text to
the student to help find errors in grammar, etc.

5.  For students who are uncomfortable
presenting in front of the class
PowerPoint – advanced
 narrate the presentation
 Can also use PPT or Notebook software to show
pictures, charts, graphs etc. when giving a
presentation
 Use hyperlinks
 Embed audio and video
 Can share the presentation online using
www.slideshare.com

6.  Either use iPods or can use
www.podomatic.com to create online
podcasts or minicasts (photo slideshows)
› Summarize what they heard during a
podcast or broadcast
 Create video & publish to YouTube

7.  Use Google Blogger – free
› Helps students connect with others across the world
› Ability to move beyond an immediate circle of peers
› Updated frequently offering opportunity to learn
technology tools such as creating texts, adding
graphics, pictures, determine appropriate
formats, revise extensively, and edit
› Teachers and or students could post questions and
get answers that everyone can see – this would
eliminate the need to repeat the same question and
answer multiple times – students would understand
homework better
› Teacher can post a prompt on the blog and students
would be required to respond

8.  Use of twitter in the classroom
› Twitter is a free micro blogging service (140
characters)
 Students could tweet responses to a reading
and have to summarize in 140 characters
› Valuable for sharing information and
organizing conversation
› Follow real time world events and discuss
with others

9.  Enhance communication skills through
asking questions, expressing
opinions, constructing narratives, and
writing for an audience
 Develop and strengthen computer skills
using software that combines text, still
images, audio, video, and other media
 http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter
/techplan/page5897.cfm Digital
Storytelling Tutorial

10.  A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in
which most or all of the information used by
learners is drawn from the Web
 http://www.teachnology.com/teachers/les
son_plans/computing/web_quests/languag
e/
 http://www.middleschool.net/less_tut/web
quests/lawq.htm
 http://bestwebquests.com/bwq/listarea.as
p?wqcatid=3&edid
 http://alicechristie.org/edtech/wq/matrix/
middle_la.html

11.  #1 place to go to incorporate technology into the
curriculum
 Use the video chat plugin or Google talk to create
collaborative stories then print out the discussion and
copy and paste it into a word processing program
 Google Docs for everything from a word document
to a spreadsheet – all free – all saved in the cloud
and easily accessible from anywhere
› Perfect for collaboration
› Saves every 15-30 seconds
› Teacher/peer can make revisions in color for the students
 Use Google Presentation instead of PowerPoint, or
upload a PowerPoint to Google and share with
anyone online
 Google Earth can be used to research
settings, create snapshots and import into PowerPoint
or Google presentations

12.  Vocabulary:
 Use an online thesaurus and a print
thesaurus for alternatives to words on a
vocab list and compare the findings
 Create a vocabulary list of foreign words
and phrases by accessing international
sites. At the week’s end, write a story or
essay containing these words using Google
Docs. Or Word
 Assign students to create word finds or
crossword puzzles using puzzlemaker.com

13.  Write round robin stories individually or in a group on the
computer. Have different students add paragraphs to the
existing story.
 Share round robin stories by e-mail with students in other
classrooms or schools
 Write stories interactively with a remote partner using either e-mail
or Google Docs. Ask the partner pairs to develop guidelines for
editing
 Read part of a story to the class and assign an individual or a
student group to use a word processing program to finish the
story, while other students work on an alternative assignment.
Rote the “computer writers” during subsequent writing
assignments.
 Give students two topics for a brief essay. Write one version using
paper and pencil and a second version using word processing.
Compare the ease of creating and revising the work.
 Create a classroom newsletter or newspaper to encourage
writing, peer review, editing, layout, and publishing skills. Microsoft
Publisher and Word both have newspaper templates to use.
Share the publication online through email or on your own
Google site (free)
 Create reports that require adding graphics and clip art or
create, scan, and place their own art in the report

14.  Create a list of authors and assign
student groups to search the internet for
sites relating to the author. Compile a list
of websites about the author.
 Using a current theme, assign students to
search the internet to find poetry related
to the theme

15.  http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-
plans/blog-anne-frank-taking-30721.html After reading or
viewing The Diary of Anne Frank, students will consider how
political news spread in the time of World War 2. Then, they
investigate how online digital media contributes to the
distribution of news in recent events such as the Iranian
revolution in 2009.
 http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-
plans/making-memories-year-digital-30727.html The goal of this
lesson is to strengthen students’ writing skills through image and
text correlation. Students use their prior knowledge to reflect
upon the school year. They create a story of their memories
using digital images, clip art, and PowerPoint. Images are
placed in sequential order and enhanced using descriptive text
captions. After the digital scrapbook is complete, classmates
edit one another’s work using a checklist. Students present their
digital scrapbooks to an audience to reflect on what they have
learned and to share their knowledge with the school
community

16.  http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-
resources/student-interactives/compare-
contrast-30066.html COMPARE AND
CONTRAST MAP This interactive graphic
organizer helps students develop an outline for
one of three types of comparison essays:
whole-to-whole, similarities-to-differences, or
point-to-point. A link in the introduction to the
Compare and Contrast Guide give students
the chance to get definitions and look at
examples before they begin working. The tool
offers multiple ways to navigate information
including a graphic on the right that allows
students to move around the map without
having to work in a linear fashion. The finished
map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

17.  http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-
resources/student-interactives/timeline-
30007.html INTERACTIVE TIMELINE for
organizing and summarizing
 http://www.bama.ua.edu/~rmayben/tim/e
sheetws.htm Using E-Sheets in your
classroom - An E-Sheet is a simple
technology integration strategy that directs
student research on the Internet.
› An E-Sheet consists of 2 parts: One to three
websites selected by the teacher and A set of
questions designed by the teacher to guide the
student through the information on the selected
websites
› Students are able to practice reading
comprehension and information literacy skills as
they are guided through the content of the
selected websites.

18.  http://tewt.org/ Teaching English With
Technology
 http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/sea
rch.html Online books for students to
read over 20,000 titles free
 http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/sea
rch.html The Purdue Online Writing Lab
 http://www.readwritethink.org/classroo
m-resources/student-interactives/
readwritethink – great language arts
resources

19.  http://mywebspiration.com/ webspiration is a free
online version of Inspiration
 www.delicious.com online social bookmarking site
 http://teachnology.pbworks.com/w/page/19978658/
Technology%20and%20Language%20Arts Lots of
Technology and Language Arts resources
 http://zooburst.com/index.php ZooBurst is a digital
storytelling tool that lets anyone easily create his or
her own 3D pop-up books. Using ZooBurst, storytellers
of any age can create their own rich worlds in which
their stories can come to life.
 www.wordia.com A free visual video dictionary.
 www.idiondictionary.com A free dictionary that
explains over 5,000 English language idioms
 http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/basic
/yngwrite.htm Lists online sites that accept student
writing submissions