faulker061

How educators and teachers can get the most out of online forms software Online forms might not be the first thing that comes to mind as a helpful classroom tool. 10 years ago the idea would have seemed absurd. But today? Online form tools can save hours, paper, and your budget. That’s because the way students and teachers interact with technology has completely changed. I work for JotForm , a popular online form building platform, and below are a few of the popular ways that we’ve noticed educators are utilizing online forms. Survey students and get instant results Depending on your classroom cell phone policy, you could have all of your students submit survey responses at the same time straight from their phones and have the results show on a screen in front of the room. Interactive learning has come a long way, and online form builders have mobile-ready forms at the click of a button. Scheduling parent conferences Imagine a world where the only thing you needed to do to schedule imp...

Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks have become truly awesome resources for schools and Google just keeps improving them. Here are some of the recent announcements: Android apps are coming to Chromebooks! - some Android apps have already been available for use on a Chromebook. I've been using the Evernote app for a while and love it. But in order to get them to work, developers had to do some work themselves. With this new announcement, the Google Play Store and most of it's app will work with Chromebooks. Three models are getting access in June with more getting access later. See this link for full details on which Chromebooks will get this and when. This is huge for schools as they will be able to benefit from the low cost and ease of use and management of Chromebooks, and use all of the great Android apps that are out there. With this announcement, touchscreen Chromebooks are even more functional for schools. For specs, 4GB RAM is always my suggestion and 16GB driv...

As schools go more and more digital with systems, curriculum, assignments and more, they face the need to provide equity in digital access for their students. Student devices are part of it, but so is internet access at home. This year has seen a huge increase in attention to "Digital Equity" or the "Digital Divide". Here are some great free resources from CoSN ( Consortium for School Networking ) that can help you understand the issue, and address it. Digital Equity Action Toolkit Students without home access to high quality broadband connectivity are at a disadvantage, unable to realize the full power of digital learning. Only 3 percent of teachers in high-poverty schools said that their students had the digital tools necessary to complete homework assignments, compared to 52 percent of teachers in more affluent schools, a discrepancy sometimes labeled the "homework gap." To address this key challenge, CoSN launched the  Digital Equity Action Agenda...

In the past, I've written about the technology I use on a daily basis (see bottom of page for links). Here's my updated version for Spring, 2016. I am a K-12 Education Strategist for CDW-G . In this role, I work with schools on selecting and implementing technology solutions to improve teaching and learning. I do a lot of research on best practices in education and technology and do a decent amount of traveling. I'm a huge user of  Google Apps  and  Evernote . They are my main work, and personal tools, and all of my devices work with them. Without these, I'm stuck. I also back them both up. My day typically consists of email conversations and support with our account managers and customers, Google Hangouts with customers providing support, advice, strategy planning, training and professional development, and doing online research, as well as creating tools and resources, like presentations and reference materials. If I am traveling, I only bring my smartphone and my Ace...

Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Fab School Labs Contest is officially open for submissions! The contest is designed to drive student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – otherwise known as STEM - by giving public middle schools the opportunity to create the STEM lab of their dreams, made possible by a grant of up to $100,000 for each. Over 200 schools participated in last year’s inaugural contest, and the five winning schools are in the design and construction phase of creating the science lab of their dreams. Please see the press release below, and check out the  Fab School Labs page , for more information on the contest.  MORE STEM RESOURCES for SCHOOLS                                 NEWS RELEASE                   ...