The Technology Integration Project
Professional Development on Using the Technology Integration Planning Cycle
Project resources 1-15
Resource 1(week of Sept. 29):
Using Thinglink and Doodle Buddy
See a sample Lesson Plan using Thinglink and Doodle Buddy
In this sample lesson, students use Doodle Buddy to create images that show their
understanding of story characters, settings, and events. Students then further explain their understanding by making the image interactive using the Thinglink app to embed relevant videos, text, and photos. This sample lesson is conducted with iPads. However, it could also be adapted for computers and could easily be adapted for multiple grade levels by increasingly the complexity of the information students must provide in response to the story.
Other Drawing apps that may be of interest
Resource 2 (week of Oct. 6):
Using Popplet Lite (available as free and paid iPad app or website)
See a sample Lesson Plan using Popplet Lite
In this sample lesson, students will reflect on the economic terms producers and consumers using Popplet Lite app to organize and present information. This sample lesson was developed for a third-grade classroom, but it could easily be adapted for lower or higher grades through variations in teacher support, complexity of topic, and requirements for text and images represented.
Resource 3 (week of Oct. 13):
Using Weebly (available as a website and ipad app)
Weebly can be used to create websites and blogs for your classroom. The links easily interface with many other sites and apps. Weebly also makes using images, audio, and video in student writing very easy!
Resource 4 (week of Oct. 20):
Using Diigo (available as a website and an iPad browser tool)
See a sample Lesson Plan using Diigo
Diigo is a popular free app and website that facilitates shared annotation and navigation of websites. It allows the user to annotate and organize text, archive links to webpages, and share links and notes with other users for feedback and discussion.
Resource 5 (week of Oct. 27):
Using Puppet Pals 2 (iPad app)
Puppet Pals 2 is an iPad app that allows students to create puppet shows as movies to be shared and viewed in the future. Students can upload pictures from the internet that are saved to the camera roll or take pictures of themselves or their environment to use in the show. The design can be selected from several choices for younger students or built from scratch for older students.
Resource 6 (week of Nov. 3):
Activity Types: Math, Science, Social Studies, Literacy/Language Arts, 5-12 Language Arts
These Activity Types are a compilation of tables generated from published research, which include math, social studies, science, and literacy/language arts. Each set of tables include an instructional goal or approach, different ideas for accomplishing the goal, and specific technology types that can be used for each activity. We hope these will be a resource to you as you choose an instructional goal that might best be met with technology. Please click on the subject area below to view the activity table.
Resource 7 (week of Nov. 10):
Using Evernote (available as free iPad app, Chromebook or website)and My Story Book Maker(available as cost iPad app)
See a sample Lesson Plan using My Story Book Maker
Evernote is a cloud based notebook that allows useers to add text, images, audio, and video in addition to organize information. Evernote is accessible on many devices through apps or as a website and students can have individual accounts or use a common class account. It can be used to support students in individual or collaborative learning projects and can improve skills in communication, organization, and classification.
My Story-Book Maker is an iPad app which allows users to draw, add pictures or screenshots, and audio to create their own book. Its easy-to-use features allow K-12 students the opportunity to create and present their own narratives.
Resource 8 (week of Nov. 17):
Overview of project types and sample digital tools for Elementary and Secondary instruction
These tables summarize information from recently published articles that examined projects in which digital technology was used to meet instructional goals in both elementary and secondary classes. This resource will provide you ideas for the types of projects possible for multiple grade levels and insights into the digital tools that were used in each project.
Resource 9 (week of Dec. 1):
Using Diigo and a Digital Timeline (RWT Timeline or Time Toast) to synthesize biographical information.
See a sample lesson plan for Diigo and a Digital Timeline.
This lesson plan is written for 5th grade, but can be easily modified to meet more or less complex instructional goals. While students are investigating a person of interest in a biography unit of study, they will collect, analyze, and critique resources using the Groups feature in Diigo. They will then work in small groups to synthesize and negotiate conflicting information to select events for a digital timeline, which will include images, citations, and rationale for each event. This lesson builds on the previous one shared where students familiarized themselves with annotating in Diigo and asks them to share their work with group members digitally in Diigo. There are also two options for choosing a digital timeline and all resources can be easily used on Chromebooks, laptops, or iPads.
Resource 10 (week of Dec. 8):
BookTrack, an online digital tool for listening to and creating audio for text
BookTrack is a website that allows students to read digital books with accompanying soundtracks, upload their own work and create a soundtrack, and upload their own sounds or narration to be used with an existing text or one the student has written. There are also Common Core aligned lesson plans available from BookTrack that address instructional goals ranging from fluency and comprehension to argumentation and figurative language. Parent accounts are also available, so students can share their BookTracks and read books at home or on the go through the mobile apps.
Resource 11 (week of Jan. 12):
Mind Node and TitanPad, mindmapping and collaborative writing tool.
See a sample lesson plan.
This is an exciting lesson that combines mindmapping and collaborative digital writing. This dynamic lesson asks students to use a mindmapping approach to collaborate and plan a fictional short story on a specific theme. Then, students collaborate using TitanPad to write a play. This lesson is written for 6th grade, but can easily be scaled up or down. This is a lesson that could also be implemented in sections, depending on where your students’ digital skills are.
Resource 12 (week of Jan. 19):
Subtext, an interactive digital text tool
This iPad app (currently installed on all project iPads!) allows students to engage in digital texts in a variety of ways including: citing text evidence, engaging with teacher-created embedded questions and prompts, or responding to polls to formatively assess understanding. Because Subtext features are highly adaptable to input from the teacher and teacher text selection, it can be used in multiple grades. More information can be found by clicking on the link to the app sheet above or visiting the Subtext website.
Resource 13 (week of Jan. 26):
Snapguide, a digital "how-to" manual with text, video, and images
See a sample lesson plan
Snapguide, a website and iOs app, allows students to create polished “how-to” manuals with videos, images, and text. The lesson plan draws on first grade writing instructional goals for explanatory texts, but can easily be scaled to different grade levels. After students have organized their responses on a digital organizer, such as Popplet, they create a manual that demonstrates they understand a logical story structure through the creation of a step-by-step digital instruction book. There are many possible uses for Snapguide for both teachers and students! More information can be found by clicking on the link to the app sheet above or visiting the Snapguide website.
Resource 14 (week of Feb. 2):
VoiceThread, a digital presentation and collaboration tool
VoiceThread is a dynamic presentation tool allows users to upload documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, images, videos, and other media to a presentation. Then, each slide in the presentation can include video, audio, or text explanation and can be annotated in multiple colors. Additionally, other students or teachers can respond to a VoiceThread with video, audio, text, or annotations on the slide. More information can be found by clicking on the link to the app sheet above or visiting the VoiceThread website.
Resource 15 (week of Feb. 9):
Storify, a digital "how-to" manual with text, video, and images
See a sample lesson plan
Storify, a social media curation tool, can be used to collect many different perspectives of a current event. Storify enables students to create multimedia narrative and social stories by using YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and more. They can then be shared anywhere on the web with an embed code or link. The lesson plan for this week is written for fifth grade, but it can be scaled up or down in complexity or by what tools and accounts are most appropriate. This lesson plan demonstrates how to use Storify to meet multiple literacy standards and can be tailored to specific social studies, science, mathematics, or other content topic. This tool is especially useful for facilitating students’ understanding of multiple perspectives of the same issue. Nervous about using social media in the classroom? The potential constraints section addresses how to consider planning to use class accounts and other information to consider before beginning instruction! More information can be found by clicking on the link to the app sheet above or visting the Storify website.