Last year I wrote THIS post about the top 10 techie tips I learned from 2017 which were a mixture of blog posts I had written, tips from others I had shared on social media and things I had learned throughout the year. Here is my list for 2018 in no particular order:
I think one thing I will always remember about this year is seeing the incredible color-coded technology organization educators are using to ensure that devices are returned to the correct location in their charging station.
On Instagram A Primary Kind of Life shared the image below back in August and all color lovers of the world like me lost their minds and raided her inbox asking thousands of questions.
She ended up making an Instastory about the Chromebook cart she organized and saved it as a Highlight story that you can view on her account by clicking the image below and then tapping Color Coding. She answers all sorts of questions and talks about how she strategically placed washi tap in certain locations to avoid the tape peeling off. All I can say is #2019goals.
I think one thing I will always remember about this year is seeing the incredible color-coded technology organization educators are using to ensure that devices are returned to the correct location in their charging station.
On Instagram A Primary Kind of Life shared the image below back in August and all color lovers of the world like me lost their minds and raided her inbox asking thousands of questions.
She ended up making an Instastory about the Chromebook cart she organized and saved it as a Highlight story that you can view on her account by clicking the image below and then tapping Color Coding. She answers all sorts of questions and talks about how she strategically placed washi tap in certain locations to avoid the tape peeling off. All I can say is #2019goals.
Organize and Educate did something similar for her iPad organization:
THEN I saw that Jessica from The Polka-Dotted Teacher wrote THIS blog post about how she used her Silhouette Cameo 3 to cut a special kind of vinyl that won't lift or peel to label SIX Chromebook carts. I know what I want for my birthday this yearš.
Based on many of my 2018 blog posts it seems as though it was the year of the animated gif š.I shared all sorts of ways we could include gifs in the classroom. One of my favorite gif tips was from my blog post: Turn Yourself into an Animated Emoji. Using the Emoji Me app, you can create a custom emoji avatar (think BITMOJI) and add them to your presentations or any platform that supports gifs.
In my 10 Ways to Spark Excitement When Introducing Read Alouds post I mention how you can use the website andtheniwaslike to create animated gifs of yourself to pop into your presentations.
If you are looking for an easy to use tool to help you or students create memes and other types of animated gifs, check out Filmora.
I also wrote a post entitled Student Friendly Animated Gifs for the Classroom that has a great resource created by Erin West and Todd DeSando for students to safely find kid friendly gifs.
This year I finally was able to make it to my first ISTE Conference that was held in Chicago. I learned a ton and I can't choose just "one tip" from my adventure. So my #3 is packed with all sorts of ed tech goodness. Hop over to my post to read all about my experience: My 2018 ISTE Conference Adventures.
Two years ago I completed Tabitha Carro's Smartphone Marketing School and this year joined her Mobile Stories Studio group that she co-moderates with Anita Goodwin. I have learned SO many iPhone tips and tricks from the two of them. One app that they use frequently is the Phonto app. After completing the Phonto modules and learning how to get creative with it, I decided that I would make a lock screen image for my phone that contains my email address. Y'all, I leave my phone everywhere I go. This has been my saving grace! Now when my phone is located, people know who it belongs to and can notify me.
How could I not include the iOS trick that swept the nation in November? If you didn't see this on the news or on social media then here ya go. It is a good one yet so simple! The easiest way to move your cursor when typing on an iOS device is to press down and hold on the space bar (or ANY key) and the keyboard turns into a trackpad in which you can quickly relocate your cursor to the exact spot you would like it to appear.
Similar to Lauren Conti's Red Ball Challenge she did with Chromebooks (check out her video HERE), I saw this collaboration completed by Polkadotsandpaint's 4th graders.
It really got me thinking about how we could tie something like this into content areas. I thought about having students work together to illustrate the lifecycle of a plant when it sprouts from a seed. Then I thought about a timeline of some sort. I still haven't had a chance to try something like this with a class but I know I will one day! FUN!
I'm not entirely sure who I should give credit to for this original idea but this year was the first time I had seen students create green screen videos in which they made their dioramas their BACKGROUND image of the video. Here is an example:
I LOVE being able to mix students' physical work with tech! Interested in learning more about green screen and how you can use the DoInk app to carry about a similar project? Click HERE to read a post and watch a Facebook Live I did with Anita Goodwin and Danielle Knight.MT @bhopteacher: Dioramas with a new twist! Using @DoInkTweets green screen app, Ss became part of their dioramas! Ss wrote their scripts using Google Docs + decided on their own props. #K2CanToo #edtech #researchmadefun @TechCoachSusan @smalchow pic.twitter.com/yJauK1biup #doink— DoInk Tweets (@DoInkTweets) August 23, 2018
Perhaps one of the most exciting times this year in the edtech world happened back in June when Flipgrid announced they were joining forces with Microsoft and would be making all features of the video sharing platform completely FREE. If you haven't had a chance to try Flipgrid, check out Joe Merrill's post HERE and give it a try in 2019! It is a great way to get all student voices heard.
Amanda Sandoval created the holy grail of Google Apps for EDU tips. She allowed me to share it on my Facebook page and it went VIRAL. If you haven't seen this then stop what you are doing and click HERE. For all of the tech coaches out there who get slammed with emails about Google, BOOKMARK THIS! Click through until you find the slide with the answer and send the direct link as your response. Boomš£
The most visited Techie Teacher blog post of the year was:
Click HERE to read all of the ideas. You don't even need to be 1:1! Many of the ideas will even work on any device. Check it out!
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