BLC14-Pre-Conference: There's a Digital Tool For That

I feel very fortunate to have attended the Building Learning Communities Conference this past July. On the November Learning website it states that the conference is about "bringing together colleagues who care deeply about bringing the best innovative and practical learning resources to our students." After spending four transformational days in various workshops, I can truly attest to the vision. It is now my goal to document this process in hopes of reflecting on this experience and also to share what I have learned. To write just one blog post would not be sufficient, so I will breakdown each day of the conference into separate blog posts.

My first day I attended Shannon McClintock Miller's pre-conference workshop called There's a Digital Tool For That. All her slides are available through the link. In addition, I have also included a link to her blog called The Library Voice. I highly suggest having a gander, as there as so many great resources. I will highlight a few hum dingers! The goal of the workshop was really to spend some quality time highlighting some of the most valuable tech resources out there and how to incorporate them into meaningful learning. Here are some of my biggest take-aways.

SMORE

• create online flyers or newspapers
• an excellent tool to curate multiple projects or assignments
• use it as a pathfinder to guide students through a process
• use it as a social network-share, share, share
• desktop, PC or mobile versions

PADLET

• according to Padlet it is the easiest way to collaborate and share in the world!
• it's real time
• can be used for personal note taking, to do lists, feedback, collection and anything that might need input from a lot of people
• also has an extension in the Chrome browser
• check out the one we made in our session...very cool and so easy BLC14 Digital Tools

SYMBALOO

• if you are not already using Symbaloo, then you should really start
• this application is simply a must when organizing your bookmarks and favorites
• completely 'shareable' meaning you can create personalized webmixes (collections of bookmarks) for specific subjects that you can then share with colleagues or students...perfect for guided research
• sign up and then check out this webmix with Coding resources 

FLIPGRID

• as the screenshot says, "Flipgrid is simple!"
• teacher creates "grids" of questions for students---->students then respond through short video---->everyone views and shares
• I suppose the downside, if there is one, is that this handy tool comes with a yearly fee ($65/yr)
• I suggest giving the demo a try and then approaching your administration if you think this is something that would benefit your teaching and translate into a valuable tool for you and your students

Although I have only briefly touched on four resources, I can assure you there were many other fantastic tools that Shannon shared that are most certainly worth checking out. Don't forget to go to her resources page and check out her presentation. Here's the link again. A big thank you to Shannon for a great workshop with so many useful resources and ideas.