#001 Tech Tools I'm Excited About in 2023

Hey everyone and welcome to my very first podcast episode. I am so excited to be starting this adventure with you. I can’t wait to share with you tech tools, how to tutorials, and different ways to go beyond the consumption of technology to use these tools to promote the 4 C’s, creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. 

Before we get started I just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself. I am currently in my 9th year of teaching. I have taught grades 1st through 5th grade. I am currently working on finishing up my masters degree as a digital learning specialist. I am so excited to be graduating this May. I have always had a passion for teaching and figuring out ways to incorporate technology into my lessons. 

Outside of school, I love to travel and I love photography. One of my goals is to travel to all the national parks. At this point in time when I’m recording this episode I have been to 12 of our parks. Not only do I want to visit the big national parks, I love visiting the national monuments, national forests, and much more. I think what sparked my interest is growing up in New Hampshire and living right outside of the White Mountain National Forest. My mom is the one who first put a camera in my hands and I have been hooked ever since. I love sharing my adventures with my students and sharing places that I have been with them. 

My love for adventures and traveling is what has inspired the name of this podcast. It’s always an adventure when working with technology in the classroom. Things work great and inevitably things go wrong. However, that’s all part of the adventure. That love for travel, photography, and adventure is what has inspired my last part of the episode.

At the end of each episode I want to share with you an adventure that you could do by yourself, with friends or family. I find getting outside and exploring so relaxing and beneficial to my own mental health. I hope to inspire you to get outside and explore as well. 

Each week I also want to provide you with a quick tip related to a tech tool. This week my tech tip is about setting an expiration date on google files. This feature allows you to share a google doc, slide, sheet, drawings, but give them only a certain amount of time to have access to that document. To do this, click on that blue share button. You recently may have noticed a pop up on how to do this. It is quite simple, all you have to do, once you click that share button, is type the email address of the person you want to share with. To the right you will choose whether you want this person to be a viewer, commenter, or editor. Now at the bottom of that menu there is the option to add expiration. The default amount of time is for 1 month. If you click on the pencil icon, you can edit the expiration date. If you click on the notify people, all this information will be shared with that person. This could be a great tool for collaboration projects when you need something completed by a certain time or share a document with a colleague and need to take it over at a certain point. I wouldn’t replace this option with all the features of google classroom. I would advise this to be used among adults. If anyone has used this with their students and have found it useful, I’d love to hear about it. You can find a short video on how to set an expiration date over on my youtube channel, Adventure with EdTech. 

Alright, let's get started. Today I wanted to share with you some tech tools that I love that I am going to continue using and learning more about in 2023. I have also included some tech tools that I personally am interested in and using this upcoming year. 

The first tool that I am so incredibly thankful for is Canva for Education. 

1. Canva is a design tool that allows you and your students to create visually appealing designs. This tool has really helped me personally with my grad courses. One thing that makes this tool so great  is that it is so versatile. There are going to be many podcasts in the future about this one specific tool, Canva. Canva can be used for many different things in the classroom and it keeps adding more tools frequently. You can create videos, presentations, graphics, websites, infographics, and so much more. 
   https://www.canva.com/education/ 
2. Google for Education- There were a lot of updates to google for education in 2022. Google is something that I use everyday in my classroom. I just passed my Level 2 Certified Educator exam this past fall. This will be the topic of many future podcast episodes. From different google classroom tips, google slides, gmail hacks, to some awesome new features in google docs. Keep an eye out for future episodes diving into google for education.
   https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/ 
   
3. PearDeck allows you to take your boring slideshows and make them interactive. Peardeck promotes active learning, provides you with live formative assessments, feedback, and opportunities for deeper learning. Another great tool that peardeck offers is the flashcard factory. Flashcard factory makes learning vocabulary interactive and social. Students collaborate and work as a team to create sentences and drawings that go along with vocabulary words. 
   https://www.peardeck.com/ 
   
4. Wakelet is a tool that I started using this past fall in one of my grad courses. Once I learned about this tool, it inspired me to use it in my classroom as well. Wakelet is a tool where you can curate and share online resources. Wakelet allows teachers and students to organize resources in a way to create easy access. Wakelet is a way to pool resources on a certain topic that can be shared with link access, or by anyone. This was a great tool to use when I was teaching my class on reliable sources and starting to teach them to conduct research. 
5. Mote is a tool that I have heard a lot of people rave about. I started playing around with this tool some this past fall. Mote is an audio tool that can be used in the classroom to provide feedback, creating a more inclusive classroom, and to help students become more confident in their spoken word. This tool can be integrated into most google platforms. This is a tool that I want to personally explore more in 2023, and provide you with more in depth information about this tool.
   https://www.mote.com/ 
   
6. Flip, previously known as flip grid, is a tool for anyone. This can be used with students who are just starting school all the way up to adults. Flip is a video based tool that allows for discussion and collaboration across digital devices. Students and teachers can interact using video. Flip is minimal but that makes it more intuitive. This is another tool that I want to figure out how to best incorporate it into my classroom. 
   https://info.flip.com/ 
   
7. Book Creator is a tool to make multimedia digital books. You have the ability to combine text, audio, video, drawings, photos, and appsmash some of your favorite apps. You have the ability to share your books online or save them as a pdf. 
   https://bookcreator.com/ 
   
8. 360 Schools is a brand new tool that I haven’t used before but it is one that I am excited to incorporate into my classroom. This website is an immersive 360 degree or VR site which provides you with over 350,000 high quality 360 degree panoramic views. You also have the ability to create guided tour which will allow you to bring students on an immersive journey. This website can be used on computers, smartphones, or VR headsets. 
   https://schools.360cities.net/ 
   
9. Blooket has put a twist on trivia and review games. The teacher hosts a game with questions they made or found and chooses a unique game mode. This has been a staple in my classroom for the past year or so. I love how games can be more independent or they can be competitive among the class. Using this website can help you create memorable experiences focused on student learning and specific content, without the students necessarily realizing. 
   https://www.blooket.com/ 
   
10. Pixton is a platform that I learned about this summer while attending the virtual ISTE conference. Pixton is a comin and storyboard builder. Pixton is incredibly easy to use along with really fun! This is a paid website, and it looks like the best option is for $99 for a year. Pixton provides you with lessons and helps you teach students about creating comics. It allows you to see different viewpoints of a scene, change the characters facial expressions and body language. I have made graphic novels with students in the past but this website looks far more advanced than what I have used in the past and a lot friendlier interface. 
    https://www.pixton.com/ 
    

 

Those are my 10 tech tools that I am looking forward to using and learning more about in 2023. What tools are you excited to use this year? Send me an email and share your thoughts at [email protected]

 

This is where I share an adventure that I have been on that I would highly recommend. This year I got married and like I said I really enjoy national parks. While I was on my honeymoon, we visited Biscayne National Park. Biscayne National Park is located in Homestead, Florida, just south of Miami. This is not your typical park, as most of it is under water. This park provides visitors with the opportunity to see it in a a variety of ways, boating, fishing, kayaking, or diving. While we were there we booked an eco-tour through Biscayne National Park Institute. We went on a sail, paddle, and snorkeling adventure. We left from the visitor center in Homestead and sailed out to Boca Chita Key. While sailing we got to help the captain prep the boat for sailing and talk with the captain about the park. Once we arrived to our snorkeling spot, we were able to spend a good amount of time exploring and snorkeling among the mangroves. The diversity of fish and the amount of fish was breathtaking. From there we boarded a kayak and paddle into the mangroves where we learned about upside down jellyfish. Biscayne is going to be my first recommendation of the year because of its diversity and for my love of the ocean. I would highly recommend doing a tour with the Biscayne National Park Institute so you can truly see what the park is all about. 

https://www.biscaynenationalparkinstitute.org/ 

My goal is to release a biweekly episode. My next episode is going to be all about Canva. Tune in next time to learn about all the amazing things Canva has to offer, you won’t want to miss it. 

Thank you for listening to the first episode of Adventure with EdTech.

Karen Bellidoro
Instagram: adventure.with.edtech
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventurewithedtech 
Website: https://www.adventurewithedtech.com/