Thursday, September 29, 2016

#Alg2Chat How I Use Technology

I try to use technology both to make my classroom job easier and to engage students.



I use technology in my daily presentations via Doceri.  It is one of the few paid resources that I use.  I wrote about it here.  The main way that I use Doceri is as an interactive whiteboard and as a document camera in conjunction with Reflector.  I also use Doceri to create instructional (flipped style) videos for my independent station.

Another resource that I like is puzzle makers.  I like to create these activities in Tarsia.  Tarsia is a free resource that I wrote about before.

The main ways that my students use technology is through my LMS of choice, Schoology and for self paced instruction via EDpuzzle.  Schoology is just the resource that I use to post assignments and resources.  EDpuzzle allows you to assign video lessons to students and receive feedback through embedded questions.



I also like to use DESMOS and Gizmos.  DESMOS is amazing.  It's not just a calculator, but it is a free platform to build interactive lessons.  I am still pretty new at creating my own card sorts and activity builders, but I'm continuing to turn some of my old worksheets into DESMOS activities.  Gizmos is a paid resource that I am lucky enough to have access to this year.  It is great for geometry.  I am still exploring what it has to offer for algebra 2.  Here is a Gizmo on general rational functions.  Most Gizmos seem to be pre-made interactive activities where students can play with sliders and drag/drop capabilities to notice patterns.  You can play with each Gizmo for 5 minutes per day for free, so it might be just enough for a class demo.  Most Gizmos include an activity/discovery style assignment.



Another new technology tool that I'm working to incorporate is Ozobot.  I lucked into winning one free bot this summer.  They have a great lesson collection including lessons on the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio, Pascal's triangle, projectile motion, and exponential decay.

What do you use in your classroom?  Which tools make your work easier?  Which tools promote participation and engagement of students?

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