{"id":656360,"date":"2013-05-06T16:20:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T20:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ted.com\/?p=75569"},"modified":"2013-05-06T16:27:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T20:27:19","slug":"7-tech-tools-now-available-in-the-classroom-for-better-or-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/656360","title":{"rendered":"7 tech tools now available in the classroom, for better or worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iPad-use\"The analog-to-digital shift that has seen e-readers booting out books, smartphones trumping landlines and tablets making desktops look fuddy-duddy is also bringing new tech tools to the classroom. Last month, I read this New York Times<\/i> article about CourseSmart<\/a>, an app that allows teachers to track whether students have done their reading in digital textbooks, with interest. In the article, the dean of Texas A&M\u2019s business school, which is testing out the technology, admitted it was \u201cBig Brother, sort of, but with a good intent.\u201d And while it did seem to undermine one of the main points of college — that reading and studying are self-motivated — it also seemed like a good way for students to be able to demonstrate to professors that, yes, they are paying attention, and for professors to get real data as to what material just isn\u2019t clicking for their students.<\/p>\n

The tech solutions available to teachers now go far beyond the overhead projector. Below, a look at some tools in this burgeoning category.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. BetterLesson<\/b>
    \nThe Boston-based startup     BetterLesson<\/a>, founded in 2008, is a social media platform that educators can use to organize and share their curricula. Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded BetterLesson $3.5 million<\/a>. \u201cConsidering the startup allows teachers to browse a serious repository of documents, presentations, lessons and even complete units and courses, all through a simple search interface, and upload their own lessons onto a dashboard, you can see why teachers will love this kind of resource,\u201d TechCrunch wrote in 2011<\/a>. \u201cAdd the ability to share curricula directly with international educators and receive feedback, and you\u2019ve got yourself a goddamn deal, as Dave Chappelle would say.\u201d
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. ClassDojo<\/b>
    \nLaunched in August 2011,     ClassDojo<\/a> helps teachers with what many call their hardest task: classroom management. The platform, which teachers can use on a smartphone, laptop or tablet, allows them to give students points (or take them away) \u201cin real-time, with just one click,\u201d as the website has it. Students are notified (\u201cWell done Josh! +1 for teamwork!\u201d), and teachers can use the platform to generate analytics and reports to share with parents and administrators.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. PowerSchool
    \n<\/b>    PowerSchool<\/a> allows teachers to track attendance, grades, and a lot more for students and parents to view at home. According to Pearson, which sells the system, PowerSchool supports 10 million students in over 65 countries.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. SMART Board<\/b>
    \nAn \u201cinteractive whiteboard,\u201d     SMART Board<\/a> allows teachers to write class notes digitally, so they can be saved for students to access later. (Feel like building your own whiteboard? At TED in 2008, Johnny Lee showed how you can hack a Wii Remote to build a simple interactive whiteboard<\/a>.)
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Remind101<\/b>
    \nStarted by a team of two brothers,     Remind101<\/a> enables students and parents to sign up to receive teachers\u2019 text-message reminders about assignments. It\u2019s private\u2014these are mass texts, and teachers can\u2019t see students\u2019 phone numbers. It\u2019s also one-way, meaning that teachers can send out texts, but students can\u2019t respond to them.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Educreations<\/b>
    \nUsing     Educreations<\/a>, teachers can produce video lessons using a \u201crecordable interactive whiteboard\u201d via an iPad app or the website. There\u2019s a public directory of lessons<\/a>, available for browsing by students or other teachers (or you).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Share your own favorite teacher tech in the comments, and for a comprehensive list, check out the NewSchools Venture Fund\u2019s interactive map<\/a>. We\u2019re curious\u2014what tools here sound like a good idea and which could be problematic?<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The analog-to-digital shift that has seen e-readers booting out books, smartphones trumping landlines and tablets making desktops look fuddy-duddy is also bringing new tech tools to the classroom. Last month, I read this New York Times article about CourseSmart, an app that allows teachers to track whether students have done their reading in digital textbooks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7342,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}