Ed Tech Blog
Short-form video and social media content is arguably the dominant source of communication for many young people today. With the rise of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram reels, students today consume exorbitant amounts of content. A 2022 Pew Research Center survey revealed “Almost half of US teenagers aged 13-17 say they are online ‘almost constantly’”. This raises concerns among educators about media literacy and whether students possess the skills to understand how social media is constructed. Because of this, secondary educators may consider integrating social media content creation as part of student assessment. One tool to help empower student creators is Canva.
Canva is growing in popularity among individuals, teams, and a wide range of industries as a tool for constructing professional communications. The site offers design capabilities so anyone can create products from logos to presentations to social media with ease.
Canva for Education is loaded with resources and tutorials to help teachers and students alike. The site has continually evolved over the past few years to meet the needs of remote teaching and learning. One stellar communications platform that they offer is their talking presentations. The design and template library offers teachers eye-catching aesthetics that are bound to keep students engaged.
Here are some other ideas for what teachers can get out of Canva:
- A platform for creating classroom posters. Choose your side, opt for a template, and create away. Classroom rules, word walls, reminders…the possibilities are endless. The site allows you to download PDF versions to print to your school’s color printer with ease. Save them in classroom management folders and print them fresh the following year!
- Use the platform to design effective parent communication. Templates allow for thoughtfully-designed newsletters that can easily be linked within mass emails to keep families in the loop. Your communications are...
Read more: Using Canva to Empower the Next Generation of Content Creators
Standardized testing is meant to give an unbiased report of every student’s learning progress which in turn makes the scores comparable. Although currently, standardized tests have become anything but standardized. In this post we will go through reasons why standardized testing has become the bane of students, we will also talk about some alternatives to standardized testing that you as a teacher can apply in the classroom, and finally, we will talk about how technology can help students perform better at standardized testing.
What’s Wrong with the Way We Do Things Currently?
If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Many people go with that adage for most things in life but there are many cons when it comes to standardized testing that you really need to pay attention to.
Teachers are meant to teach students and anything straying from the most efficient teaching in the classroom is a step in the wrong direction. When standardized testing is introduced in the classroom, more time is spent preparing the tests rather than preparing for lessons.
When everything a student does hinges on the test results being good, it can cause students to be stressed. This was even more pronounced during the pandemic...
Classrooms around the country are gravitating towards Book Creator as a tool to give voice, design authority, and ease of sharing to students and educators alike. With over 100 million books created on the platform, it’s clear that Book Creator’s intuitive platform and educator-friendly features provide an asset to K-12 classrooms.
Essentially, Book Creator is a content creation tool specializing in eBooks. Like many design platforms, Book Creator offers a free and paid version, depending on your needs and budget. Teachers can create eBooks for students to access and read during a lesson, or students can create their own books for assessments and demonstration of learning. The platform offers a plethora of templates ranging in comic book style to a more sophisticated magazine aesthetic for developing young writers looking to add something dynamic to their portfolio.
While there are downloading and printing capabilities to create permanent artifacts for teachers and students, most Book Creator users take advantage of the audio, visual, and hyperlink opportunities for interactive digital products. The site and app’s bank of shapes, graphics, and fonts takes off some of the design pressure, but users can also enjoy importing their own photographs, audio, and video to customize their...
Read more: Book Creator Empowers Educators and Students to Share with Pride
Social-Emotional Learning is gaining momentum in schools worldwide. This educational method is meant to be integrated into the curricula to provide teachers and parents with tools to support the mental health and well-being of students. Research on SEL shows telling evidence of improved academic performance and behaviors among students.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a leading organization dedicated to making Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) part of education, defines SEL as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”
The organization identifies five core competencies that comprise SEL, which are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. All five are critical for the success of students in and outside the classroom. While there are multiple ways to integrate SEL into the curricula in traditional ways, many apps, games, and web resources can make SEL more engaging and effective for students.
Here is a list of excellent tools and resources that will help you address the five core competencies...
Read more: Helpful Online Tools to Teach Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
Introduction
Many students that require additional education support are familiar with the services of tutors; however, just as technology has evolved over the years, so has access to educational support systems. While traditional tutors offer in-person or virtual sessions and use their area of expertise to support students, technological advances have supported a rise in options for students seeking advice and assistance. The problem is that many students needing educational support may receive appropriate support through the services of an educational coach. However, more awareness is needed in higher education to connect students to the resources and support systems that fit their academic needs. This article presents the benefits of expert coaches as an alternative to traditional tutoring. Just as education has evolved with technology, new advances in educational support systems have evolved to support the various learning needs of students.
Background
Over the years, students in higher education have had access to tutoring services. At some institutions, tutoring services are included in the tuition and are freely available to all students. However, many universities only offer a writing lab as a free option, leaving many students to pay for tutoring services. Despite having access to educational support, many...
Read more: Expert Coaching and the Benefits of Quantified Learning
Blogging has been a part of the internet since the beginning. It has so much potential that has never been fully utilized in the classroom. This post will give you ideas on how to use blogs effectively in the classroom, and it will also give you practical tips on how to set it all up on the technical side.
"Blog" is short for weblog. It is seen by most as a social media of some sort and ultimately, non-academic. But blogs can ultimately be a force for good in the educational space with the correct approach.
Why would I want my Students Posting or Reading Blogs?
Blogs can be used in many ways. In the classroom, a blog can be written by teachers, or by individual students. We definitely recommend you let your students maintain their own blogs.
When students start writing blogs, they begin putting their writing skills, and creative thinking to the test. It is easy to read posts but writing completely new posts is a different beast to tame. This will help your students recognize good writing online, and they will be made aware of constructive interactions online. A blog will also serve as a creative outlet...