Resources for increasing my repertoire of digtal tools and effectively integrating them into my classroom.

EDTC6433

ISTE #5

Trigger Question: How can I continue to increase my repertoire of digital tools and resources and effectively integrate them into my classroom to support student learning?

I choose to focus on how I can increase my repertoire of digital tools and resources and effectivelyy introduce them into my classroom to support student learning  because I feel that I do a good job overall of meeting this standard in my teaching practices.  As a representative on our district’s Tech Summit committee, I pilot new technology in my classroom, I train others at conferences as well as by individually meeting with them, I troubleshoot technology issues with our technology department.  Over the summer I have presented during our district’s 10Tech Conference we have in June and the Powerful Learning Conference sponsored by our district and surrounding districts where I feel that I contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of teaching and teaching using technology.

Exploration

As I was reading through articles to answer my question I found the following stated in article How Teachers are Learning:  “Students will learn best in those environments where teachers themselves are model learners”(p. 4) which I believe is very true, but with time at a premium it is hard to get in the professional development we need in order to grow as educators and in this case find digital tools to use in our classrooms..  And of course, the other issue is cost.  So as I looked through articles and videos I was looking for ways to increase my repertoire of tools and learn from others how to integrated those tools into my classroom within my time and that were free.

Some of the free staff development resources I found from this article included:

The Teaching Channel (https://www.teachingchannel.org/) - this has videos, blogs, and articles that are teacher created and cover a variety of topics in the education profession.

Adobe Education Exchange (https://edex.adobe.com/) -- This is a platform for teachers to share and exchange.

Then I found the article, Four Tips for Effective Digital Leadership that gave me even more resources:

Twitter (https://twitter.com )  -- we have talked about this one in class.  You don’t need a twitter account to look through topics, only to participate in the discussions.  Here’s an archived discussion that I looked at:

And as discussed in our Hangout time this week, if you find someone that is in the same discussions as you often, you can start following them as well and learn even more.

TED ideas worth spreading (https://www.ted.com/) -- These are experts in a variety of professions and they cover a huge variety of topics.  Although, it is not interactive, it is a great free resource.

ISTI (https://www.iste.org/)  -- If you go to the ISTI website not only can you see the technology standards, but you can also get ideas of how to implement those standards into your classroom.

Education Leadership (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership.aspx) -- This has a variety of articles to read and provides free webinars as well.

Then as I was reading through others resources I found the following:

Edutopia (https://www.edutopia.org/) which is a collection of education blogs that you can look at and respond to. (Erin Cook shared this one)

Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) which provides free courses.  Below is an introduction to one that I think would be great to help me find digital tools and resources to be used in my classroom.

Conclusion:

Overall, by looking through the resources found by Dr. Wicks, myself and others, I have realized that there are many free resources available that I can use as time permits and on my own time schedule to increase my repertoire of digital tools and learn from others how to effectively integrate them into my classroom.

References

Dabbs, L. (2012, August 07). 5 tips for new teachers to become connected educators. Retrieved December 03, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teachers-becoming-connected-educators-lisa-dabbs


E. (2016, July 11). How teachers are learning: professional development remix,  EdSurge Guides. Retrieved December 03, 2017, from https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix


Gonzales, L. (2016). Four tips for effective digital leadership, Tech & Learning, 37(4), 32-33.