Integrate These Tools with Your Lessons, I

Are you just ready to dip your toes in the technology pool? There are plenty of digital tools to help you increase the amount of technology you use as well as simplify your workload.

My favorite Google extension is Pear Deck. You can click here and add it as a Google Chrome extension on your computer.

This is a tool you add to a Google Slides presentation where learners use a code to join your presentation. From there, you can control the presentation on their devices as well as post questions that the learners can answer from their devices. You get to see their responses in real time and can even share those responses with the learners for further discussion. Pear Deck will even make a Google Sheet for you to refer to in the future for future use. This is a great way to get everyone discussing topics, sharing ideas, and feedback.

Explain Everything is a digital interactive whiteboard where you can create presentations then record your narration and create a video. It also records writing and anything else you do on the whiteboard. The great thing about Explain Everything is that you can re-record small portions of your video instead of having to redo the whole video every time.

Prezi is another digital presentation tool. Instead of using Microsoft Powerpoint or Google Slides, Prezi allows you to zoom in and out and all over the presentation you create for a more interesting presentation. If you are giving presentations in person regularly gives presentations, this is a great alternative for you. I use them in my classroom, and my students love to see what’s next or what picture I’ve created out of the points of the presentation.

All of these resources can easily transform your classroom into an interactive learning space. There are additional resources provided in the next section to assist you further.