My Tech Little World

Last night I was sitting on the couch, doing nothing special but watch TV series and sip red wine when I went on FB and saw a photo one of my contacts had shared. The photo was nothing to ring home about, but the sentence on it was, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this on a Sunday before ten in the morning. The sentence reads: “Teachers need other teachers. This is not a job that can be done alone. Collaboration and friendship are vital in keeping teachers sane and happy”. I don’t know what kind of friendship teachers should be after according to whoever came up with this sentence. Maybe it’s camaraderie more than being BFFs, or comrades and BBFs all at once. Who cares! What I really find to be the most important (the most vital) point here is the fact that sharing is key to this job of teaching. Of course staying friends with your colleagues is important: who doesn’t like to get on well with those you’re going to spend 8+ hours every single day of the working week? My point here is that sharing is surviving when it comes to teaching, so my next post is about sharing some of the good stuff I’ve been using in teaching for quite a few years now, so that I can contribute to make the world of teaching grow bigger and hopefully better.

Kahoot (kahoot.it/)

I’m dead sure almost everyone knows about this app. Most teachers I know (from a variety of subjects) are using or have tried Kahoot every now and then. If you like to see your students working with and against each other while some vocabulary is being revised or some structures are being drilled, Kahoot serves the means for building on a nonviolent competition atmosphere where students have some great fun and learn (new) or brush up on (old) contents you wish to go through with them.

There are plenty of ready-to-use Kahoots. Check them out and start planning (and sharing!).

A downer? You need a strong internet connection in class and that more than half (if not all) of your students have a smartphone.

Padlet (www.padlet.com)

This application is great for many different reasons: you can share so many things and keep them all in clean and organized way, from pieces of writing to videos (or voice recordings), photos, etc. It is like having a bulletin board multiplied by hundreds with tons of ideas to share with the group (and also with your colleagues).

I first used it in a homework writing activity about dreams interpretation with intermediate students and they loved it because: a) they could all join in, b) they were all practicing and c) because they could (and that was the funniest part of all) add their comments below their classmates’ posts. So much fun!

A downer? Although it’s free, using it in the classroom can be a bit of a drag if students are using their phones as the screen is too small and they may have problems trying to get a better (fuller) view of all the posts. Having students drag the page in and out and around will definitely put them off of it.

Jing (www.techsmith.com/jing-tool.html)

I can’t remember the day I discovered this tool. All I remember is gaping at my friend Nick explaining me how it worked. I know, right? There are better things out these days, but that was years ago and for us this was a state-or-the-art kind of tool we could (and would!) start implementing in our classrooms.

Jing can be installed into your PC very easily (straight on from the link above) and it’s cost-free, which is a good thing. Ideally, it is used as a program to screen capture images or videos from your PC and save/share them with your students (or anyone else). I use it mostly for explanations or tutorials (about grammar or how something works, like Moodle or any other apps I want my students to use).

A downer? It only permits 5-minute video captures, which is fine (for attention spans sake!) but for longer video capture, pricing conditions vary.

Genial.ly (www.genial.ly/)

Last but not least, Genial.ly is, for me, the crown jewel. Ever since I found out about it (and started to use it), I’ve been falling, and falling, AND falling for it. And I’m not the only one. Genial.ly is a fresh and intuitively dynamic alternative to PowerPoint, with sundry creative layouts and resources that make your presentations (and those from students) much more colorful and stimulating. Creating a new presentation will take you as long as it usually takes using PowerPoint, with the advantage of your presentation looking more professional, catchier and more significant to the 21^st century classroom audience.

I’m telling you… once you give it a go, there’s no stopping you!

A downer? Some templates and resources are free except for the newest, greatest-looking ones, which are only available to subscribers.

There are thousands of apps, tools and other digital resources out there and many more to come considering how fast life goes. However, I don’t think knowing about and making use of all of them is convenient, especially if you want to have a life other than teaching 24/7. My advice is: learn about the ones that you believe are worth it and most importantly that you’re comfortable with. If you’re at ease, students will notice, and you will all enjoy it to the fullest!

Thanks for reading! Now it’s time you start sharing your ideas here with me 😊