Quality Digital Resources for the Classroom

When I am looking for resources for my classroom, there are several things that I keep in mind. First and foremost is how it is helping to reach the students and/ or enhance the standard(s) being taught. The next thing I ask myself is if/ how it is helping my productivity or organization. Cost is another major factor for me. My husband and I are both teachers, so purchasing pricey apps can add up. I work for a small charter school and we don't have a lot in our budget for technology. I may look into grant writing soon to help in that area.

I nearly always use things that can be used on multiple platforms (iPads, Androids, laptops, etc) because our campus is not 1:1 at the moment and students BYOD on days when they know that we will use it. I have 6 chromebooks for classroom use, but my largest class that uses them the most (debate) has 18 students in it. So we either get into groups of 3, treat the chromebooks as centers, or borrow from other teachers.

The article How EdTech can Expand What Teachers Can Do (Farah & Arnet, 2019) hit the nail on the head. Quality EdTech will help teachers  by enhancing what they do now, and by expanding what they’re able to do. Creating videos for my classes has helped me in both areas. I can use information from other sources (found from various publications) to create a presentation that students can access during class and can refer back to after class is over. This is also a great help to those who are absent because they can access the information from home. 

Farah, K., & Arnett, T. (2019). How Edtech Can Expand What Teachers Do. Edutopia.