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Digital Tools for Teaching: 30 E-Tools for Collaborating, Creating, and Publishing Across the Curriculum: 30 E-Tools for Collaborating, Creating, and Publishing Across the Curriculum
In this Web 2.0 world, your students are communicating, customizing, and creating like never before. It's no surprise, therefore, that standards for the twenty-first century classroom recognize the value of teaching with digital tools. Knowing how to effectively teach with them is another matter altogether.
In Digital Tools for Teaching, educator and self-proclaimed techno-geek Steve Johnson shows you how to transform 30 cutting-edge e-tools into powerful vehicles for teaching—and learning. You will find:
-An array of low-to-no-cost digital tools ranging in complexity and all focused on educational merit;
-Step-by-step instructions that take the mystery out of using each e-tool;
-Lesson connections and lists of classroom-proven ideas for applying each e-tool across the curriculum;
-Backdoor links to the special services and discounts available to teachers for many of the digital tools profiled in this book;
-Standards-based assessment rubrics and strategies (including how to implement digital portfolios) to help you meet twenty-first century classroom instructional goals; and
-Links to Steve Johnson’s website and blog for news and updates on incorporating technology-based activities into your lessons.
Complete and ready-to-use, Digital Tools for Teaching shows you how to connect your teaching to the e-tools that are relevant to your students’ lives. Whether you’re already an advanced e-tool user or a newbie, Digital Tools for Teaching will increase your confidence using digital tools, broaden your perspective, and give you new teaching strategies that you can use tomorrow. For grades 5-12.
In Digital Tools for Teaching, educator and self-proclaimed techno-geek Steve Johnson shows you how to transform 30 cutting-edge e-tools into powerful vehicles for teaching—and learning. You will find:
-An array of low-to-no-cost digital tools ranging in complexity and all focused on educational merit;
-Step-by-step instructions that take the mystery out of using each e-tool;
-Lesson connections and lists of classroom-proven ideas for applying each e-tool across the curriculum;
-Backdoor links to the special services and discounts available to teachers for many of the digital tools profiled in this book;
-Standards-based assessment rubrics and strategies (including how to implement digital portfolios) to help you meet twenty-first century classroom instructional goals; and
-Links to Steve Johnson’s website and blog for news and updates on incorporating technology-based activities into your lessons.
Complete and ready-to-use, Digital Tools for Teaching shows you how to connect your teaching to the e-tools that are relevant to your students’ lives. Whether you’re already an advanced e-tool user or a newbie, Digital Tools for Teaching will increase your confidence using digital tools, broaden your perspective, and give you new teaching strategies that you can use tomorrow. For grades 5-12.
- GenresEducation
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
5 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Steve Johnson
1 bookSteve Johnson started his career as a kindergarten and second-grade teacher in the rural town of Vass, North Carolina. Technology was always a big part of his classroom environment, and after six years, he shifted over to a technology facilitator position. He has been a TF for five years, working with students and teachers in grades K-8 on utilizing technology as a tool to enhance learning. Steve currently resides in Concord, North Carolina, with his wife, Bridget, and two little girls, Emily and Kenna.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 20, 2011
I’ve often compared writing and publishing a book to pregnancy, labor, and birth. Within the context of that simile, if I help a friend or student write or publish a book I either feel like a midwife or grandmother.
When I received my copy of Steven Johnson’s book, Digital Tools for Teaching, I definitely felt like a proud grandma. I hadn't contributed one iota to the content. Instead, I introduced him to Julia Graddy, my publisher at Maupin House.
I met Steve three years ago when he participated in the “Is There a Children’s Book Inside of You?” NCCAT seminar which Joyce Hostetter and I co-led. At first he successfully hid his expertise as a technology facilitator and focused on writing a funny picture book. But when he leafed through Teaching the Story and we began brainstorming the digital tools which could enhance the process of writing short stories, the second edition of my book was born.
After Steve wrote twelve technology mini-lessons for my book, he began work on his own project with Maupin House. He wanted to create a book that would make technology accessible to every teacher--even those who were techno-phobic. His dream was to provide an overview of e-tools which can be used in the classroom, show how they could be used in a variety of subject areas, and meet the needs of a variety of techno-savvy elementary and middle school students.
No small task. But with the able help of my editor, Emily Raaj, Steve accomplished exactly that.
The first thing that will reassure teachers overwhelmed with digital technology is Steve’s division of thirty e-tools into three groups: those for newbies, developing users, and advanced users. From there he encourages teachers to rethink their role as educators:
Going forward, our jobs must be about giving our students personalized, relevant instruction that develops their ability to make meaningful sense of the information-rich world they live in. Sure, they can find anything and everything under the sun on the Internet-but do they know what to do with it? Can they evaluate the accuracy of what they read? Can they analyze and organize the glut of information? How does it improve their lives? They might have the world at their fingertips, but we have the power to guide them towards molding it into something worth creating. p. 4.
Steve next presents the eight characteristics of the “Net Generation.” Reading this will help you understand the different ways in which your students approach the Internet. And, it will help you feel OK about asking your students for help troubleshooting when something goes wrong. In fact, figuring out what went wrong is part of the learning process for everyone.
The meat of this encyclopedia of digital classroom technology, is the 30 alphabetized tools. Each double-page spread explains what you need to do prior to utilizing the tool in your classroom, tells you how to get started, lists other issues to consider, and provides examples of how to use it in language arts, science, math, and social studies. It would be easy to feel overwhelmed except that the book is very readable and Steve walks you through the process of classroom implementation. If that wasn't enough, Steve offers his website as an on-line "living, breathing resource for all teachers."
Steve's enthusiasum for the power of using digital tools in your classroom is contagious.
And I'm not saying that just because I'm the proud grandma.
It's the honest truth.
When I received my copy of Steven Johnson’s book, Digital Tools for Teaching, I definitely felt like a proud grandma. I hadn't contributed one iota to the content. Instead, I introduced him to Julia Graddy, my publisher at Maupin House.
I met Steve three years ago when he participated in the “Is There a Children’s Book Inside of You?” NCCAT seminar which Joyce Hostetter and I co-led. At first he successfully hid his expertise as a technology facilitator and focused on writing a funny picture book. But when he leafed through Teaching the Story and we began brainstorming the digital tools which could enhance the process of writing short stories, the second edition of my book was born.
After Steve wrote twelve technology mini-lessons for my book, he began work on his own project with Maupin House. He wanted to create a book that would make technology accessible to every teacher--even those who were techno-phobic. His dream was to provide an overview of e-tools which can be used in the classroom, show how they could be used in a variety of subject areas, and meet the needs of a variety of techno-savvy elementary and middle school students.
No small task. But with the able help of my editor, Emily Raaj, Steve accomplished exactly that.
The first thing that will reassure teachers overwhelmed with digital technology is Steve’s division of thirty e-tools into three groups: those for newbies, developing users, and advanced users. From there he encourages teachers to rethink their role as educators:
Going forward, our jobs must be about giving our students personalized, relevant instruction that develops their ability to make meaningful sense of the information-rich world they live in. Sure, they can find anything and everything under the sun on the Internet-but do they know what to do with it? Can they evaluate the accuracy of what they read? Can they analyze and organize the glut of information? How does it improve their lives? They might have the world at their fingertips, but we have the power to guide them towards molding it into something worth creating. p. 4.
Steve next presents the eight characteristics of the “Net Generation.” Reading this will help you understand the different ways in which your students approach the Internet. And, it will help you feel OK about asking your students for help troubleshooting when something goes wrong. In fact, figuring out what went wrong is part of the learning process for everyone.
The meat of this encyclopedia of digital classroom technology, is the 30 alphabetized tools. Each double-page spread explains what you need to do prior to utilizing the tool in your classroom, tells you how to get started, lists other issues to consider, and provides examples of how to use it in language arts, science, math, and social studies. It would be easy to feel overwhelmed except that the book is very readable and Steve walks you through the process of classroom implementation. If that wasn't enough, Steve offers his website as an on-line "living, breathing resource for all teachers."
Steve's enthusiasum for the power of using digital tools in your classroom is contagious.
And I'm not saying that just because I'm the proud grandma.
It's the honest truth.
November 28, 2016
In his book Digital Tools for Teaching, Steve Johnson challenges his readers by writing “... as you teach by moving away from the ‘how/why’ of technology and move towards the ‘what.’ As in, what can these technology tools do for my students?”(p. X). This book provides an educator with a list of e-tools to integrate into their curriculum, giving their students an opportunity to collaborate, create and publish online. Johnson explains in detail 30 tools that teachers can use, such as blogs and wikis, to get students to collaborate on a writing project.
For each tool, he has a goal, overview of the tool, and how to use it in the classroom, including issues that might arise from the use of the technology. He also shares with teachers in different content areas how they could use the tool in their classrooms too. For example, using a blog in math where teachers can post a problem of the day and students comment their possible solutions.
His challenge to the reader leads him to explain the characteristics of the “Net Generation” student that is in the classroom today. The “Net Generation” is a body of students that has been raised to get their information from the Internet. “Net Generation” students share eight characteristics and “identifying and accommodating these generational needs can have powerful, positive effects in your classroom” (p. 4). Teachers should be made more aware of these characteristics because they might be challenged, as I was by a science student on a lesson on the states of matter. He knew there were five states because of the information he found on the Internet.
Another tool that he provides in his evaluation is Google Docs for collaboration. Google Docs is a free online word processing tool that teachers and students can use to write essays. Students don’t need to have a Google Docs account; teachers can provide a link to one they have created and a group of students can write and edit using the link. This link allows students the opportunity to collaborate or evaluate a writing sample. With it being online, students can access the writing from anywhere that has an Internet connection.
Digital storytelling is a tool that students can use to write a story using pictures or drawings, video, or music. Students use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to create their stories by adding pictures, text, music, and transitions. The software changes it to a movie format for students to watch digitally. Digital storytelling can be used in all content areas and is only limited by the teacher’s imagination. These are just a few of the tools that teachers can use to engage the “Net Gen-ers.”
One problem that occurred to me is that some of the tools required students to create an account with the company. I teach students that are under 13 and we have to be aware of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA, or leaving a digital footprint. This is a problem because my students can’t access the tool to use it in the classroom.
Otherwise, this was a great book. Johnson’s style of writing is easy to read and follow. He writes with authority and doesn’t belittle the reader, but explains his point of view very well. He wrote the book for teachers that are wanting to try e-tools in the classroom, either for the first time or to find new tools to use to challenge their students. This is a valuable resource that will help teachers find a connection between education and technology in the classroom.
For each tool, he has a goal, overview of the tool, and how to use it in the classroom, including issues that might arise from the use of the technology. He also shares with teachers in different content areas how they could use the tool in their classrooms too. For example, using a blog in math where teachers can post a problem of the day and students comment their possible solutions.
His challenge to the reader leads him to explain the characteristics of the “Net Generation” student that is in the classroom today. The “Net Generation” is a body of students that has been raised to get their information from the Internet. “Net Generation” students share eight characteristics and “identifying and accommodating these generational needs can have powerful, positive effects in your classroom” (p. 4). Teachers should be made more aware of these characteristics because they might be challenged, as I was by a science student on a lesson on the states of matter. He knew there were five states because of the information he found on the Internet.
Another tool that he provides in his evaluation is Google Docs for collaboration. Google Docs is a free online word processing tool that teachers and students can use to write essays. Students don’t need to have a Google Docs account; teachers can provide a link to one they have created and a group of students can write and edit using the link. This link allows students the opportunity to collaborate or evaluate a writing sample. With it being online, students can access the writing from anywhere that has an Internet connection.
Digital storytelling is a tool that students can use to write a story using pictures or drawings, video, or music. Students use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to create their stories by adding pictures, text, music, and transitions. The software changes it to a movie format for students to watch digitally. Digital storytelling can be used in all content areas and is only limited by the teacher’s imagination. These are just a few of the tools that teachers can use to engage the “Net Gen-ers.”
One problem that occurred to me is that some of the tools required students to create an account with the company. I teach students that are under 13 and we have to be aware of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA, or leaving a digital footprint. This is a problem because my students can’t access the tool to use it in the classroom.
Otherwise, this was a great book. Johnson’s style of writing is easy to read and follow. He writes with authority and doesn’t belittle the reader, but explains his point of view very well. He wrote the book for teachers that are wanting to try e-tools in the classroom, either for the first time or to find new tools to use to challenge their students. This is a valuable resource that will help teachers find a connection between education and technology in the classroom.
January 24, 2016
This is another really good book for helping teacher to integrate technology in the classroom. Each tool is presented clearly and concisely and the best part is there are clear suggestions for how to use the tools in a variety of subject areas (e.g., math, science, English, social science). This is a resource who will use often if you are serious about moving to the next level of technology use in your classroom.
September 8, 2015
Wow, what a great book for technology coaches or instructional technology directors. This book highlights 30 digital tools that can be used by teachers, complete with suggestions of how to use the tool in each content area. Each tool is covered in 2 pages, and includes technical limitations, and pedagogical things to consider. Excellent resource!
June 17, 2016
Excellent resources
Interesting text that provides excellent resources as well as things to consider before implementation. This book was required for a course, but it is one I will cherish!
Interesting text that provides excellent resources as well as things to consider before implementation. This book was required for a course, but it is one I will cherish!
March 30, 2017
Johnson provides an overview of digital tools for K-12 classrooms. He gives a clear, easy to understand explanation of how to use the tool and its possible application across the curriculum. Even though it was written only a few years ago, it is already dated.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews