Although women make up more than 50% of humanity, only since the 20th century have they achieved full legal rights and privileges in the U.S.—and in some countries, they are still second-class citizens. Consequently, women’s role in history and contributions to culture have been woefully overlooked.

Designated as Women’s History Month, March is a great time to dive deeply into women’s struggle for equal rights and triumphs in every arena. The lessons, activities and resources here are an excellent way to investigate and understand women as changemakers, activists, and heroines—worthy of becoming an integral part of the curriculum all year long.

Best Women's History Month Lessons and Activities

Bill of Rights Institute Women’s History Playlist: 1844-1860
Eight outstanding standards-aligned multimedia lessons explore the lives of notable mid-19th century women, both famous (Sojourner Truth, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman) and little-known ( Louise Smith Clappe). Each downloadable lesson includes a detailed narrative, primary sources, review questions, and suggestions for pairing with other lessons. Bonus: Download a single interactive PDF with all eight lessons included. Free account required to download.

American Experience: She Resisted
A highly creative, interactive audio/visual experience that delves into the wide range of strategies employed by suffragists in their quest for the right to vote. The opening sequence, featuring thrilling music and compelling film, will draw students into investigating the nine featured strategies. A riveting production that brings history and historical characters to life.

National Women’s Hall of Fame
A showcase for women’s achievement in every arena. Discover the Women of the Hall, then check out the online solitaire game, which combines the fun of solitaire with cards featuring fascinating women of achievement.

National Women’s History Alliance: This Month in Women’s History
Learn all about important dates of women's history throughout the year with this easy-to-use calendar, featuring birthdays of female trailblazers and important historical events from civil rights, politics, and culture.

Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote
Seven online exhibitions from the National Archives investigate topics such as “Who decides who votes?” and “What voting rights struggles persist?” Digitized original documents and photos featured.

Singing for Women’s Suffrage: A New Digital Collection from the Library of Congress
Add a musical note to your history lessons through the women’s suffrage songbook. Included are prompts and ideas for classroom and elearning lessons.

Women athletes who changed sports history
With female athletes starring in tennis, track and field, basketball, soccer, golf and other sports, students today may not realize how women of the past struggled to compete in the athletic realm. This round-up of notable female athletes includes many famous ones, like Serena Williams—and some little-known, like Toni Stone, the "female Jackie Robinson."

iCivics Women’s History Month Resources
A wealth of resources for teaching women’s history, including downloadable planners, videos spotlighting pioneering women, and standards-aligned lessons.

PBS Teaching Women's Suffrage
Women’s right to vote, and the struggle to achieve it, form the foundation for all successive rights. This extensive collection of multimedia lessons and activities is grouped according to topics such as the 19th Amendment, advocates and organizers, primary sources, and modern-day legacies. Each standards-based lesson includes downloadable support materials for teachers.

Unsung Women Who Changed America
26 short films and a one-hour documentary examine the lives of trailblazing women from the turn of the 20th century. Although most of these women are not widely known, their accomplishments call for recognition. Available in Spanish.

HMH: 10 National Women's History Month Activities for Students
A diverse collection of activities using research, writing, critical thinking, and art to analyze women’s history and the changing social mores about women’s role in society.

65 Famous Women in History Everyone Should Know
From astronauts to politicians to athletes to writers, these 65 women—some famous, others less so— have made their mark on the world. Read the brief biographies, then explore the links provided to learn more about Sally Ride, Shirley Chisholm, Soraya Jiménez, Empress Dowager Cixi, and many more.

Clio Visualizing History: Click! in the Classroom Lesson Plans
Organized by grade level, these lesson plans examine women's history through the lens of feminism, politics, careers, sports, and civil rights.

Scholastic Action: From Out of This World. . . To Under the Sea
What do the depths of Earth’s oceans have in common with outer space? Both are otherworldly realms, inhospitable to human life while captivating our imaginations. Meet a woman who has traveled to each place and find out why. A video and quiz round out the article. Integrated with Google drive.

Women's History Month: Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote
An online version of the Library of Congress exhibition "Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote" looks at the history of the struggle for suffrage via handwritten letters, speeches, photographs, and scrapbooks created by American suffragists.

National Women's History Museum Digital Classroom Resources
A wealth of digital resources for women's history featuring lesson plans, quizzes, primary source documents, videos, and more. Searchable by type, topic, and grade.

Alice Ball and 7 Female Scientists Whose Discoveries Were Credited to Men
Learn about women who broke barriers in science but who were, until recently, not credited properly for their achievements. Compare this to the list of women recognized with the Nobel Prize.

DocsTeach: Primary sources and Teaching Activities for Women's Rights
Explore a wealth of primary sources covering topics ranging across women's suffrage, political cartoons, the Equal Rights Amendment, and many others. Teaching activities include online interactives investigating all aspects of the fight for women's suffrage and the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Learning for Justice: Women's Suffrage Lesson
This Common Core-aligned lesson guides students in learning how women achieved voting rights and in evaluating the role of the federal government in the fight for suffrage.

National Museum of Women in the Arts Curriculum & Resources
On the website of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, find free resources to support teaching about women artists, including a complete curriculum, "Art, Books, and Creativity," and pre-K12 educator guides. Be sure to explore the extensive online exhibitions.

National Women's History Alliance: Women's History Quizzes
Seven quizzes on women's history cover topics including women in STEM, peace activists, Black women's history, and more.

Nobel Prizes Awarded to Women
Note how the rate of female Nobel laureates has changed dramatically in the 21st century.

Smithsonian Learning Lab Women's History
Sixty-three collections of digitized objects related to women's history add a rich context to the written word. The Learning Lab is a free, interactive platform allowing educators and other users to find digital resources and create content with online tools.

In 1870, Henrietta Wood Sued for Reparations—and Won
Ever heard of Henrietta Wood? Formerly enslaved, Wood successfully sued her enslaver for reparations in 1870. This Smithsonian magazine article details her amazing story, forgotten until very recently.

The principles of mathematics underlie all physical properties of our world. Math is the language of the universe, and as such, everything in both nature and modern life depends on it.

But math is a tough subject for many students, who may find it remote, unintuitive, and unrelated to their daily life. Yet it doesn't have to be that way. The GeoGebra platform allows student to learn math concepts through visual and interactive tools that encourage exploration—and even play.

What is GeoGebra?

GeoGebra is an award-winning suite of math apps and interactives that integrates and visualizes the teaching of algebra and geometry. Founded in 2001 by Markus Hohenwarter, a talented master’s student, the platform is free for teachers and students, and is available for desktop computers and mobile devices.

In partnership with Illustrative Math, GeoGebra also provides a digital math curriculum easily integrated with Google Classroom.

How is GeoGebra Pronounced?

The word GeoGebra, a portmanteau of algebra and geometry, is pronounced with two soft gs, as follows: Jee-OH-je-bra.

How does GeoGebra Work?

Although an account is not required for teachers or students, it’s best for both to create a free account. For teachers, it's essential in order to make the most of the platform. By doing so, they will be able to easily access their favorite tools, lessons, and applets.

Users can create an account with email or sign in with their existing Google, Office 365, Microsoft, Facebook, or Clever accounts. Teachers who find it simpler not to have to deal with login issues during precious class time may choose not to require student accounts.

GeoGebra’s free apps support all devices and operating systems (Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS), allowing students to use GeoGebra on phones or other mobile devices.

GeoGebra’s interface is clean and uncluttered, fairly intuitive, and a pleasure to browse. Nonetheless, due to the extensive offerings, teachers should be prepared to spend some time exploring the site, trying out the interactives and lessons, and bookmarking resources, before teaching with it.

Finding Resources
Teachers can search for math resources using the search bar or the Math Topic Map, which includes eight topics ranging from Arithmetic to Statistics.

What are the Best GeoGebra Features?

Resource Library
GeoGebra hosts an extensive resource library of more than one million math learning resources, including lessons, exercises, digital books, and interactives, available in several languages. Resources are contributed by GeoGebra’s global community, many of whom are expert users and educators. The GeoGebra Content Team, an international group of professionals, is the "official" platform content author, working under strict guidelines and standards. Yet many other authors also provide top-quality resources, and users can follow authors in order to easily track their latest contributions.

Real-Time Monitoring of Student Work
Once an activity has been assigned to students, teachers can view their work in real time. A thumbnail image updates automatically as students work.

Powerful Calculator Suite
GeoGebra's calculator suite offers six calculators for math and science:

• Graphing
• 3D Calculator
• Geometry
• CAS (computer algebra system)
• Probability
• Scientific

Calculators provides extensive tools for drawing lines, angles, polygons, and circles, as well as the ability to insert images, text, tables, and spreadsheets.

Users can quickly graph an equation by entering it freehand or using the scientific keyboard.

Help Links/Learn GeoGebra
Although many of the tools and operations within the GeoGebra platform can be understood intuitively or through trial and error, some may not be obvious. For example, I confess that I thought that the parallel line tool wasn't functional, because every time I tried to use it, it failed. Finally, I clicked the little "Help" link and quickly realized my error and was able to create the parallel line. Throughout the platform, there are many such Help links associated with tools.

For those who would prefer to review the FAQS and tool overviews first, the Learn GeoGebra page is a great place to start.

How Can Teachers Use GeoGebra in the Classroom?

Demonstration
Teachers can use GeoGebra to demonstrate math and science concepts dynamically, dragging lines, points, sliders, and shapes in order to visualize the effects of changing parameters.

Exploration
By assigning ready-made or customized activities in class, teachers can give students time to explore and practice in a low-pressure environment.

Formative Assessment
GeoGebra's practice modules provide hints and instant feedback, allowing students to learn from their mistakes, while teachers can view student progress in real-time thumbnails.

Is GeoGebra Safe for Kids?

GeoGebra complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and does not share personal information with third parties. No personal information beyond an email address is required to create an account, although users may choose to include additional information after the account is created.

How Much Does GeoGebra Cost?

The GeoGebra License states that users are free to copy, distribute and transmit GeoGebra for non-commercial purposes. That means it’s 100% free for students and teachers who use GeoGebra for the purposes of academic study and teaching.

Commercial users pay a fee, which helps to support the non-commercial academic use and allows the platform to update and improve.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
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Polypad is an award-winning digital math playground. Its virtual interactive whiteboard incorporates shapes, colors, graphs, music, and other tools to teach geometry, algebra, probability, and statistics to middle and high school students.

The highly structured yet simultaneously free-form design of Polypad encourages students to explore on their own, while allowing educators a broad ability to customize lessons.

Originally created by the founders of Mathigon, Polypad was acquired by Amplify in 2021.

What is Polypad?

Polypad is a powerful virtual manipulative website for mathematics, designed for middle and high school students. Requiring no login or installation, Polypad runs on all devices and browsers.

With its clever drag-n-drop interface, multimedia tools, and colorful manipulatives, it’s sure to engage even the most reluctant math learners.

How does Polypad Work?

Students and teachers can immediately start using Polypad without creating an account. However, creating a free account allows saving and sharing with others, and is therefore ideal.

Teachers can create their free account easily via email, Google, Amplify, or Desmos Classroom account. Student account creation is similar to teachers, with the exception of kids younger than 13. Teachers can welcome these younger students to the platform by creating a free account in Desmos Classroom as described in student account creation.

The Polypad welcome screen highlights several interesting features, such as winners of the 2024 Polypad Art and Music Contest and testimonials from teachers and students. But if you’re ready to start exploring, simply click the Launch Polypad button. Or, to learn more about each of the tools, click Tutorials, through which teachers can discover how to customize, assign, and share Polypad activities with students.

Polypad boasts a remarkably clean, user-friendly interface and easy navigation, with an integrated help menu that makes it super simple to learn about every tool.

When you first open Polypad, you’re greeted by a blank virtual whiteboard with a bottom toolbar, side toolbar, and top left main menu. Click on any left menu element to expand its contents, view tooltips, or the help menu entry for that tool. To use any element, simply drag it to the whiteboard, where the intuitive toolbars allow you to easily change colors, draw, add equations, text and images or export as a png, jpeg, or svg image.

The core functions of Polypad are housed in the Tiles menu, where users will find a wide variety of interactive math tools, in the categories of: geometry; numbers; fractions; algebra; probability and data; and games and applications.

Using Activity Builder with Polypad

Polypad can be used as a stand-alone tool or as a collection of assignable activities and lessons. Amplify's Desmos Classroom Activity Builder allows educators to create multimedia assignable activities using a wide variety of tools for text, image creation, assessment, free response, and of course, Polypad.

To build custom teaching activities, visit https://teacher.desmos.com, create your free Desmos Classroom teacher account, or log in to your existing account. Then navigate to Desmos Activity Builder. In the left menu, click Custom Activities>>Create a New Activity. Name your new activity, select the viewing option (link or private), and briefly describe the activity. These attributes can be easily edited later, so feel free to use placeholder text until you’re ready to share or assign the activity.

Now select Polypad (and/or other elements) from the left menu to build your activity. When you drag the Polypad icon into the activity window, you’ve actually imported the entire Polypad functionality, allowing you to incorporate any of its tools into your lesson.

What are the Best Polypad Features?

Polypad Tutorials

Mathigon's YouTube channel hosts Polypad tutorials that offer step-by-step guidance from the Polypad team on using its tools. Exploring on your own, you might miss the hidden gem Hand Tiles or the fact that Hand Tiles interact with other tools, such as the Algebra Balance Scale. These video tutorials demonstrate the wide-open possibilities for teaching math with Polypad.

Puzzles, Activities, and Lesson Plans

Polypad's interactive tools are in one sense very simple -- users can start experimenting right away without an extensive how-to. Yet, for teachers who have never used Polypad, it may be a bit overwhelming to contemplate how best to implement them into the curriculum. Fortunately, Polypad's extensive set of pre-designed puzzles, activities, and lesson plans offer expert guidance and ideas for use with students.

Assigning Activities

Once you've created your custom Polypad activity, you're able to assign it to members of your class.

First, create your class by choosing Classes in left menu, then Add New Class. An invite code for students will be automatically generated. If you already have classes in Google Classroom, you can simply import from there.

When you open your activity, click the desired option in the Assign menu.

How Much Does Polypad Cost?

Polypad is fully free. It's also free for teachers and students to create a Desmos Classroom account and use Activity Builder to create, assign or complete activities.

Polypad Best Tips and Tricks

Polypad Games and Applications

Polypad's games and apps include chess, logic and computing, currencies, clocks, dominoes, and—best of all—music. Simply drag the keyboard into the workspace and start playing and recording. Not sure what to do? Open the Music and Sonification Help Menu for guidance on using the tools.

Make Your Shapes Sing

Polypad polygons not only have brilliant colors, but also incorporate musical tones that represent their properties, including vertices, perimeter, area, angles, and fractions.

Ask for Help

The built-in Help menu is fully integrated into the Polypad workspace. Just click the question mark on any tile to instantly view the tile summary, examples and lesson ideas.

Accessibility

For students using adaptive technologies such as screen readers, keyboard shortcuts enable them to fully participate in the lesson.

What's Next for Polypad?

Polypad used to be part of Mathigon.org. Both Mathigon and Desmos Classroom were acquired by Amplify, which is in the process of merging and integrating all three products. Tech & Learning is following the developments and will update readers on the integration of these valuable teaching tools.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
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Valentine’s Day provides an excellent opportunity to incorporate fun and engaging popular culture into your classroom instruction. Graphic arts, design, literacy, social-emotional learning, history, and even STEM topics lend themselves nicely to Valentine's Day themes.

All of the following digital resources and lessons are free or low cost.

K-8 Valentine’s Day Lessons & Activities

Valentine's Day Escape
Roses are red, violets are blue, this escape room puzzle is not so easy to do! Just challenging enough to be fun, this Valentine’s Day escape room asks users to enter the correct keys for word, number, directional, color, and date locks. Good luck!

Safe Kid Valentine’s Day Games
No account is needed to play these simple, free Valentine’s-themed games, which include memory/matching, maze, and Cupid’s target practice. Games are shareable to Google classroom. For full site access with no ads, the classroom plan allows up to 30 devices, for $4.99/month. Free seven-day trial.

ABCYa Valentine’s Day Puzzles
Young learners practice click-and-drag mouse manipulation, as well as shape and pattern recognition, in this Valentine’s chocolate box puzzle game. Be sure to check out the Valentine-themed crossword puzzle, which provides helpful hints if needed.

Reading Rockets Valentines Day Lessons
No doubt you’ve heard of haiku, but do you know about other short poetic forms, such as sijo and cinquain? Charming and educational, these varied activities help kids explore Valentine's Day through wordplay, writing, and poetry. Free, no account required.

A Kid’s Heart: Valentine’s Day Math Games
These Valentine’s-themed digital games help kids practice problems involving addition, exponents, and prime numbers. The free site is easy to navigate and requires no account.

Festisite Valentine Heart
A simple, fun way for kids to get visual with Valentine’s Day poetry. Text is transformed into a heart-shaped, downloadable image or document. Have your students write their own, or analyze a published verse.

Starfall
Starfall’s create-your-own digital Valentine’s Day greeting helps the youngest students with spoken language, words, and spelling while they enjoy a variety of kid-friendly characters. Starfall’s Math Journey Valentine edition teaches basic number concepts as users traverse a heart-filled landscape.

St. Valentine's Day by Stephanie
Six cloze stories about St. Valentine and St. Valentine's Day provide grammar/word choice practice for young learners as they explore the history and culture of the holiday.

Tynker: Valentine’s Day Card, Candy Heart Search and On Cloud Nine In these three great STEAM projects for young learners, kids learn coding and graphic arts while creating interactive Valentine’s Day cards and games.

Valentine STEM Challenges
It’s not all hearts and flowers! Use this top-rated, standards-aligned 46-page PDF lesson to incorporate STEM topics such as physics and engineering into your Valentine’s Day instruction. Convertible to interactive digital format, this comprehensive package is currently priced for the season at a modest $8.00.

9-12 Valentine’s Day Lessons & Activities

Who was Saint Valentine? A history of the figure's origins
Who were the martyrs Valentinus? Wait - there was more than one St. Valentine? Yes, as explained in this fascinating investigation of the history of Valentine’s Day. Touching on famous poets, authors and historians, as well as the men themselves, it’s a great read for older kids. Assignment idea: Have your students research and write about Valentine’s Day as seen through the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare or Donne.

The New York Times Valentine’s Day Across the Curriculum
Mine this rich vein of educational Valentine’s Day prompts and activities from The New York Times. Diverse topics include writing/literature, history, psychology, and even economics. Perfect for students grades 9-12. Free, no account required.

Pocket Heart (iOs)
This interactive 3D cardiology app is the real deal, used by medical students, doctors, and nurses. With its high-quality visuals, detailed descriptive content, and quizzes, it’s ideal for advanced biology or other life science studies. After the seven-day free trial, pay $0.99 monthly or $9.49 annually.

Watch and Learn Heart Interactives
Valentine's Day is filled with heart imagery and love poetry. But it’s the perpetual beating of the physical heart that keeps us alive and feeling emotions. Advanced students can use this free expert interactive from the American Heart Association to learn about multiple key topics in cardiology, from angina to stents.

All ages Valentine’s Day Lessons & Activities

Plays.org Valentine’s Day Games
Want more than amusing gameplay? Explore this fine collection of free Valentine’s Day games, which include games featuring spatial logic, real-world physics and brain-teasing puzzles. Fun and educational. No account required, but create one to save your favorite games.

Love Magnetic Poetry Kit
Ever written poetry on your fridge? This simple digital “magnetic” poetry game offers batches of 40 to 50 words to create lines with whimsy, wisdom, and emotion. When done, click “More words'' to get a new set and start again. Challenge your students with a theme or genre, and let the random fun begin.

• Best Women's History Month Lessons and Activities
• Best Mother's Day Activities and Lessons
• Best Free Earth Day Lessons & Activities

The WizeFloor projector range was shown at BETT 2023 as a smart way to turn any floor into an interactive education space. 

Using ceiling-mounted projectors, or mobile units, WizeFloor is able to create a video on the floor that can be interactive. Step on it and the smart cameras will pick up what is being selected and the video can react. Consequently, the possibilities are huge! Think touchscreen, only on the floor and able to support multiple students at once.

As such, WizeFloor can be used for education and sport. Football (soccer) is one option, with up to eight players able to kick a virtual ball around a pitch at the same time. Or turn the floor into a giant keyboard and have two students play either end of the virtual piano at once, using their feet (like in Big). Do a class quiz with movement to answer. The possibilities go on and on.

The award-winning interactive learning floor, developed in Denmark, not only offers a wide selection of app-based content but also lets you, as an educator or institution, create your own. This can be a great way to get the class working collaboratively while also engaging movement and exercise at the same time.

A range of projectors that can be scaled to suit the room size are available, making this a viable option for many rooms. Or go for the mobile unit, on wheels, and it can be used in any classroom that needs it.

WizeFloor is available to buy now in its varying forms. Since everything is included in the one unit -- PC, projectors, cameras, speakers, vinyl flooring, and software -- this is a very easy to setup and use system.

Check out the best of BETT 2023 here.

Web 2.0 sites are built for interactivity and collaboration—two features essential to education. Web 2.0 sites are also ideal for teaching almost any subject, as a wide array of tools are available to create and manage learning materials. Students can actively and enthusiastically approach any subject, from creative writing to STEM explorations, on these sites. Moreover, Web 2.0 sites support robust teaching and learning—even when students and teachers are at home instead of the classroom. 

In alphabetical order, the following list includes established, tried-and-true sites, as well as the latest cutting-edge Web 2.0 sites for education.

50 Web 2.0 Sites for Schools

1. ACMI Generator - From Australia’s national museum of film, TV, video games, digital culture and art, this terrific free site lets students explore digital storytelling, video game building, the art of filmmaking, animation, and much more.
2. Anchor - An all-in-one platform that allows users to create and distribute their own podcasts easily. Great possibilities here for creative classroom assignments.   
3. Animaker - A versatile site that allows teachers and students to create presentations, posters, animations, and infographics. Offers free account for up to two teachers and 25 students as well as affordable premium accounts. 
4. Animoto - Create impressive-looking slideshows that include video, images, music, and more. Free accounts allow users to create unlimited videos.
5. Baamboozle - An easy-to-use site that allows teachers to create learning games with text, images animation, and more—or browse the thousands of existing games to find one that fits. Can be shared and played remotely. 
6. Boom Writer - An engaging creative writing website on which students can write original stories, individually or within a group. Integrates with all curriculum and offers real-time chat between teacher and student. 
7. Chart It - Free, simple yet elegant site lets users create and save charts and graphs online, and explore graphs made by others. 
8. Citizen DJ (beta) -  A free beta site from the Library of Congress that provides opportunities for users to create music from wide-ranging audio and video resources. Explore and remix sounds right in the browser. 
9. Cloud Stop Motion - This stylish stop-motion animation site offers free school account with unlimited student users. Make movies with soundtracks on any desktop, smartphone, tablet, or Chromebook. 
10. Creatability - Features a series of experiments exploring how to make creative tech tools more accessible. Free to browse and try. Encourage your students to build their own! 
11. Diigo- This social bookmarking site offers free teacher and student accounts. Users can save, tag, annotate, organize, and share online resources. 
12. Diagrams.net - Completely free online software to create mind-maps, flow charts, network diagrams, and more. Drag and drop pre-existing shapes, arrows, tables, and symbols, or draw each one yourself on the canvas. With no cost, no account needed, and sharing capability, it’s a great tool to use in any classroom.   
13. Edmodo - A free communication/collaboration platform with LMS capabilities, Edmodo can be used in person, online, or with hybrid learning. Teachers can create classes and then share assignments and quizzes. 
14. Edublog - Designed to make it easy for teachers and students to create and maintain their own websites, Edublog is also a great platform for collaboration. Free and modestly priced pro accounts are available.   
15. Educandy - A free and easy-to-use site in which teachers make learning fun by creating “flavours” of activities: words, pairs, and quizzes. No student account required. 
16. Educaplay - An excellent free way to gamify learning with interactive multimedia educational activities. Premium accounts also available, offering additional features and removing advertisements. 
17. Flipgrid - A fully free and simple-to-use video discussion site. Educators choose a topic and students respond to the challenge creatively by recording and uploading video. Includes a library of more than 25,000 topics to browse.
18. Floop - A web app dedicated to helping teachers provide faster and more meaningful feedback to students. Students submit assignments online, where instructors can quickly and efficiently add commentary that guides students to improve their work. 
19. Glogster - Kids combine images, colors, text, audio, and more to create collaborative, interactive posters in this safe environment. Multiple affordable pricing options available. 
20. Goosechase - A K-12 focused version of a hybrid scavenger hunt. Teachers create their own games, or use one posted by others. Math, vocabulary, and geology are just a few of the many possible subjects of these engaging hunts. 
21. G Suite for Education - A comprehensive set of free education tools, including for communication, collaboration, organization, classroom management, and data security. Free and enterprise accounts available. 
22. Gnowledge - A free platform to create collaborative online quizzes, share resources, view others’ quizzes, and more. Excellent tech support and tutorial videos as well.
23. Infogram - A site that allows users to create charts, maps, and infographics. Free basic account includes a nice variety of professional templates, up to 10 projects, object animations and more.  
24. Little Bird Tales - A wonderful site for digital storytelling that allows kids to upload artwork, then record and narrate a story. Affordable rates for teachers and schools.
25. Live Binders - An virtual binder site that allows teachers to create their own classroom textbooks, digital portfolios, and more. Students can use Live Binders to showcase their academic work, while administrators can create online guides for teachers and staff, and make easy updates.
26. Musicshake - Legal, copyright, free music for every student in your school - created by students, right from a browser. Students mix and match genres, instruments, and tempo and the software does the rest. No musical talent required!
27. Parlay - An innovative tool for class discussion, Parlay offers a library of discussion prompts, blended learning, and live online discussions. Teachers start with a discussion prompt, then students review learning resources and respond with their own ideas.
28. Pixton - This engaging comic creator will motivate students to dream up their own digital stories. For K-12 and secondary education. 
29. Playmeo - Hundreds of fun interactive games for groups, with a library of core activities for math, science, health, and language arts. Searchable by theme, exertion level, duration, or group size.   
30. Playposit - Interactive video instruction site that engages kids in self-paced learning, and allows teachers to track their progress.  
31. PresentationTube - Create, upload, and share video tutorials using PowerPoint and the website’s free software. An affordable premium version is available. Browse uploaded videos to get ideas for your own.    
32. Prezi - Prezi allows users to create slideshows and presentations, and works with multiple popular apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and YouTube. Free basic plans, plus very affordable paid options for educators.
33. SchoolTube -  Free K-12 video hosting site is COPPA and ADA compliant. Features include unlimited videos, personalized channels, playlists video apps, analytics, single sign on, and more. 
34. SpellingCity - A user-friendly and engaging site for teaching and learning spelling and vocabulary. Extensive teaching resources include word lists, lessons, standards- and grade-based vocabulary lists for literature titles, and STEM vocabulary lists. 
35. Stop Motion Studio - Students can use images, artwork, or virtually any prop to create stop-motion movies to illustrate what they’ve learned—or what they want to teach others. Enables direct export to YouTube.
36. Storillo - Helps students learn how to collaborate on projects and practice critical  executive functioning skills. Teachers can easily monitor progress of group members—and see who does what. 
37. Storybird - A site that inspires students to read and write through the use of digital visual storytelling, from poetry to longform writing to flash fiction and comics. Education plans available. 
38. StoryJumper - A free site for digital storytelling in which students can incorporate their own art, publish online, share with others, or order a print copy of their own work. Integrates with Google Classroom and offers many examples to browse. 
39. SymbalooEDU - Lets teachers and students save, organize, and share links to websites, videos, web documents, and other learning resources. Free and pro accounts available. 
40. Thinglink - Imaginative site for combining images, video, 360° images, and 360° videos to create interactive visual presentations, learning materials, or student projects.  Available as a mobile app also. 
41. Toonclip -  Lets users create animations with simple English language text and drag-and-drop images. Free account allows 20 animations per month. 
42. Triptico - A great free tool for teachers to create, share, and edit interactive lessons. Engaging features include word magnets, drag-and-drop templates, and gamified activities.
43. VoiceThread - Ed.VoiceThread is a safe and secure platform to help students develop critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity skills via multimedia presentations. Ongoing training workshops include advanced skills and integration with Moodle, Blackboard, and other learning management systems. 
44. Weebly - Offers a drag-and-drop website editor to create a free class website with multimedia capability and expanded blogging features. Bonus-free accounts do not include advertising!
45. Whiteboard.fi - Awesome free online whiteboard tool offers instant access without registration. Create and name a class online, share the URL with students, and start annotating your whiteboard. 
46. WordCloud Generator by MonkeyLearn - A clever site that is very simple to use--just paste or upload your text and the AI generates a word cloud showing the most frequently used words. Great free tool for exploring and analyzing literature, advertising, and more. 
47. Wolfram Alpha - An educational portal for Wolfram's computational search engine. Students and teachers can explore topics from step-by-step solutions for calculus problems to comparing the Flintstones versus the Simpsons. 
48. Yacapaca - This all-in-one solution for creating quizzes, surveys, and assessments offers free introductory access to browse subjects, syllabuses, quizzes, and more. Resources are rated for popularity and quality, and may be individually reviewed as well. 
49. Yo Teach! - A free-to-use backchannel/chatroom with drawing and annotating functionality. Considered by many a replacement for the well-liked and defunct TodaysMeet, Yo Teach includes functions such as Raising Hands, Simple Polling, Mute Students, Participation Stats, and Transcript Download. 
50. Zoho Wiki - Educators can create virtual classrooms for interactive content or online instruction, manage assignments, monitor student progress, and more.

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

Diana Restifo is a techlearning.com editor.

Shelby County Schools (SCS) in Tennessee have chosen Boxlight Corporation’s (Nasdaq: BOXL) (“Boxlight”) ProColor flat panel displays for use in its classrooms. The district has also selected Central Technologies as its approved provider of Boxlight’s interactive flat panel displays. This contract is expected to generate $1MM in revenue for Boxlight. 

Shelby County Schools is Tennessee’s largest public school district and is among the 25 largest public school districts in the United States. Formerly comprised of two smaller districts, Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools, the district now serves over 100,000 students in more than 200 schools.

The ProColor interactive flat panel displays combine touch technology and collaboration in high-definition and ultra high-definition LED flat panel Android displays. The ProColor displays allow up to 20 simultaneous single-point touch users, and offer a higher-contrast display that makes it possible to see the panel clearly from anywhere in the classroom. 

When it comes to interactive displays, Dell has been thinking big – really big. The C8621QT 86 4K Interactive Touch Monitor goes beyond most big classroom displays with a spacious 85.6-inch diagonal screen that shows 4K resolution and can respond to up to 20 inputs. It uses passive pens and has a slot for an integrated PC but the display’s bonus for education is its Screen Drop feature that slides its image down. This way, the C8621QT 86 can accommodate short students or those in wheelchairs by rolling the screen down to their level. The display is expected in early April for around $10,000.

Happy holidays! To thank you for your sharing, friendship and support over the years I will be sharing free tips, learning resources, web tools and apps for 25 days in my Digital December STEM Advent Calendar. Just click on the calendar below and a post will appear with a free activity suggestion, a list of free resources and tools for that activity, and a free template to copy, edit and use as you wish. NOTE! The post will not appear until that day. If you enjoy these resources, then take one of my fully accredited continuing education and graduate online courses or check out my latest book, Hacking Digital Learning Strategies with EdTech Missions!

Inspire Learning with an Interactive Calendar!

Idea: Create an interactive digital calendar to inspire your students to explore a topic, learn during the breaks, or to provide students and parents with important information. Each day add a new writing prompt, brainteaser, video, challenge, mini-experiment, field trip idea, random act of kindness, calming activity, exercise idea, or trivia.  Students can submit their work via a linked Google Form or post on your LMS (Google Classroom, Seesaw, Edmodo, or Schoology).

Template:  To create your own interactive digital calendar:

• Go to my Google Calendar Template, click Use Template, and edit as you like.  You can add a header image or use the December one provided.
• To change the date double-click on the cell and click the day you want on the calendar that pops up.
• Take a screenshot of the calendar so it is a jpg or png image.
• Upload this image to Genially, which is the free web tool I used. With Genially you can add clickable markers (click the stars to see this feature) or make a small part of your image clickable with an invisible area tag (click the ShellyTerrell.com to see this feature). Add text in a window (hover your mouse over day 1 to see this feature).
• Then share the link with students, send them a pdf, or embed the calendar on a website as I have done below.

Resources: Genially, ThingLink, Google Slides, Google Drawing

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Nearpod

Interactive slideshow tool engages students, promotes collaboration

Pros: Students actively participate in their education while teachers get valuable feedback on student learning.

Cons: Creating and modifying presentations can be time consuming and can get expensive; some features may not work on all devices.

Bottom Line: This effective tool leverages the capabilities of 1-to-1 environments and offers both teacher- and student-paced learning.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Del Valle Independent School District (DVISD) in Del Valle, Texas, had its eye on the future when it opened the Newton Collins Elementary School. In addition to displays for the new building, the district was exploring displays for a new high school career and tech ed (CTE) building, as well as alternatives to the projectors that were reaching end of life in classrooms throughout the district. 

The district installed a 70-inch RP704K in a fourth-grade math classroom for a six-month trial. The panel provided Germ-Resistant Screens, Low Blue Light, Flicker-Free, and Anti-Glare technologies. 

“We took time exploring our options, but we were sold on BenQ,” said Todd Gratehouse, CTO at Del Valle ISD. “It provided the infrastructure to support our current devices such as our Chromebooks as well as those we might use going forward. We weren’t limited by what sources we could connect. Teachers simply plug their laptop in via USB, and with InstaQShare, we also have wireless capabilities. On top of that, we could trust that our students and staff’s eyes were being safeguarded from the effects of screen use as the IFP becomes a common tool in our classrooms. BenQ raised the bar on the whole experience.” 

Other features include:

•  BenQ IFP pens allow teachers to work directly at the screen
• The RP704K’s handwriting recognition feature converts any handwritten text, numbers, forms, and drawings into legible material for students to read.
• 20 simultaneous points of touch
• Floating toolbar grants quick access to the most-used tools
• Screen annotations can be saved as PDF or PNG files onto a USB drive or internal memory, printed, and shared via QR code,

Since Newton Collins Elementary School opened, Del Valle has installed additional IFPs within some renovated classrooms at the high school and the high school’s new career technology innovation wing as well as three offices within the district’s administrative building. With a range of connectivity options, many devices can be connected to the IFPs including a Lumens’ Ladibug document camera in addition to each classroom’s Chromebook. The BenQ IFPs within the new elementary school were installed on IFP carts with an electronic lift to allow every student access to the display and encourage collaboration. 

Ji Shen, CEO of Hovercam, takes Tech & Learning's Kevin Hogan through an educational technology product that transforms the classroom into a more immersive environment with the Pilot X interactive flat panel allowing wireless collaboration between teachers and students. Find out more details on this and the Ultra 10 product.

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Best of Infocomm contest! 

Clevertouch Plus Series

Plus Series from Clevertouch is a large format interactive display developed specifically for schools. The central hub within the classroom, it integrates and connects with existing devices and networked functions across the school. Clevershare allows teachers to cast, share, and annotate onto the screen from their own laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Clevershare enables up to four students at any one time to cast their work onto the screen from their device, sharing their workings with the rest of the class. Teachers can share the screen with multiple student devices, enabling pupils to work independently at their desks. No need to connect a laptop to use the screen as all existing lessons can be accessed via their cloud accounts.  But if teachers choose, there is a built-in PC. Clever Message allows schools to send content and alerts to all or selected Plus screens at any time across an entire school.  

Crestron Electronics Inc.AirMedia Presentation System 200

The AirMedia Wireless Presentation System 200 (AM-200) provides users with a simpler user interface, quick connection via all operating systems, no programming required, and native integration with the Crestron AirBoard whiteboard capture system and Crestron Flex UC solutions. Crestron AirBoard enables both local and remote participants to see whiteboard content on the main room display and on their personal display device, and then share it with the touch of a button. With a secure wired and wireless presentation solution in lounges, lobbies, and open spaces, Crestron AM-200 provides everyone with an easy to use wireless presentation solution. 

Crestron Electronics Inc. Crestron Room Scheduling

With touch screens, scheduling software, and illuminated room availability indicators, Crestron Room Scheduling makes it easy to connect and collaborate across all classrooms. Crestron has partnered with Ad Astra, CollegeNET, New Wave Apps, and SpaceIQ to natively run their scheduling solutions on Crestron room scheduling touch screens. Crestron touch screens connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server, Office 365, G Suite, Ad Astra and CollegeNET with no additional software or hardware needed. Native Crestron room scheduling software provides a variety of branding and customization options including HTML5 support. When integration a Crestron scheduling platform, schools can choose from a wide range of secure, enterprise grade, PoE touch screens available in 5", 7", and 10" with versatile mounting options. Unlike consumer tablets, which rely on unreliable Wi-Fi connectivity, Crestron touch screens employ a simple Ethernet connection that contains data and power.  

crowdbeamer, a brand of RORYCO: crowdbeamer ES+ presentation system and crowdbeamer Enterprise+

The powerful presentation system for education and training facilities

Crowdbeamer, the first presentation system that streams any HDMI or VGA video signal in real time to all wirelessly connected portable devices, broadens its product portfolio with a new Enterprise+ model. Just like the GO, Enterprise & ProAV models, crowdbeamer Enterprise+ can be used to share content with a live audience anywhere and anytime. Whereas the crowdbeamer GO and Enterprise models come with a built-in battery and antenna to provide a 100% mobile solution, the new Enterprise+ model is optimized for maximum WiFi coverage. Thanks to its four dual-band 2.4/5GHz external antennas, Crowdbeamer Enterprise+ triples the WiFi range of the GO & Enterprise models, making it ideal for education and professional development. Using the free crowdbeamer app (available for Windows, Android, macOS & iOS), any student or trainee gets a perfect view of the content that is shared and can even zoom in for more detail (if needed). In addition, they can capture screenshots, add personal notes, and export all content to other applications.

HoverCam Pilot 5

HoverCam’s Pilot 5 changes the landscape of classroom instruction and training. The fully integrated, portable wireless digital teaching station offers similar connectivity options to the award-winning Pilot 3, separating itself with an all-day rechargeable battery operation, Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM memory, and 512GB SSD to handle the most demanding programs and services. Its Windows 10 OS, 13MP document camera, and up to 4K wireless HDMI image mirroring function allows for the touchscreen to appear on displays around the room, eliminating the outdated AV cart and puts the essential components educators and presenters need in one solution. The built-in wireless HDMI transmitter beams content to any IFP, projector, or TV with no dangling cords or cables, keeping rooms neat and safe from tripping hazards. The document camera also features a built-in microphone for capturing audio and enables interactive whiteboarding, annotation, and desktop marking for lesson recording. All notes, annotations, video, and audio can be captured in real-time for users to access anywhere, anytime and from any device or browser — making it the perfect solution for higher education and commercial training installations that demand remote learning and breakout meetings. 

Kramer Electronics USA VIA Connect PLUS

VIA Connect PLUS provides simultaneous wired and wireless presentation and collaboration for a variety of spaces with no need for any additional hardware. This cost−effective solution includes all the benefits of VIA Connect PRO together with an HDMI input. With any laptop or mobile device, meeting participants can display or stream full uninterrupted HD video (up to 1080p60), images and documents, or share any size file. Latest additions to the software include the integration of Zoom and Bluejeans video conferencing software, as well as a new Digital Signage feature. 

MaxellMA-XL1 Lecture Capture Solution

MA-XL1 Lecture Capture Solution has been engineered purposefully to meet the needs of the classroom of the future. The MA-XL1 Lecture Capture Solution connects all your E-learning tools into a single control point, which enables you to switch instantly between a wide variety of resources. With the MA-XL1 users can record and upload interactive content, while collaborating with classrooms across multiple remote locations, maintaining full interactivity with all students. Full control is easily managed from a simple menu displayed on the lecture screen (or a smart device) while technical staff can seamlessly connect to a wide range of hardware and software, including the leading Lecture Management Solutions. Features include: On-screen icons that allow you to switch content during the lesson; 10 input terminals for PC or Tablets, Cameras, Document Cameras, Whiteboard as well as three HDMI, SDI, TCP/IP etc.; make notes and drawings on the main screen for any input channel and save the drawing independently for each channel; record and capture screen shots, stream and upload content; and share the same interactive screen with a remote classroom and share notes and drawings on the shared screen from both rooms.  

ViewSonic Corp.ViewBoard IFP8650 Gen 2 Display

The ViewSonic ViewBoard IFP8650 Gen 2 is an 86-inch interactive display. An upgraded version of the ViewBoard IFP50 series, the IFP8650 Gen 2 features an ultra-slim bezel design and enhanced touch screen with ultra-fine technology, as well as built-in 2.1 stereo speakers with subwoofer. A SmartPort, along with some physical form factor changes, the ViewBoard IFP8650 Gen 2 continues to provide outstanding collaborative experiences. It features native 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) resolution and multiple connectivity options to connect to a wide variety of computing and multimedia devices. New ports now include SmartPort, a series of front-facing USB ports that follow current input channels; and a dedicated camera port so users can connect a camera to use between a slot-in PC or Android system, with no need to plug/unplug when switching operating systems. The IFP8650 Gen 2 now includes an enhanced 20-point touch-enabled panel, which can not only differentiate stylus tip sizes, but also offer two-color writing simultaneously, allowing multiple users to write or draw on the display’s surface.  

Today at the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA) Summer Conference, K-12 publisher Mentoring Minds, introduced ThinkUp! for Texas educators, aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).

Available for math, science, writing, English/language arts and reading (ELAR) in both print and digital formats, ThinkUp! aims to provide educators tools needed to deepen student engagement and establish a culture of critical thinking in the classroom.

The new interactive digital platform features web-based curriculum, focused interactive questions, and individual and small-group activities. The print and digital bundle for ThinkUp! offer educators the opportunity to plan curriculum anytime, anywhere.

Core to Mentoring Minds and the ThinkUp! product line are the 9 Traits of Critical Thinking. By incorporating these research-based nine traits – adapt, examine, create, communicate, collaborate, reflect, strive, link and inquire – into the classroom, educators can guide students towards more successful thinking and learning outcomes.

ThinkUp! ELAR, available for grades 1 to 8, and 1 to 5 for Spanish speakers, integrates activities designed to help teachers accommodate a wide range of learners. The teacher edition offers essential vocabulary and instructional strategies, while the student edition features full-length and grade-appropriate single and paired texts that meet TEKS genre requirements, including reading, inquiry, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and thinking.

ThinkUp! Writing, available for grades 4 and 7 (English only), has been designed to enhance writing proficiency, with an emphasis on focused practice and mastery of revision, editing and composition standards.

ThinkUp! Math, available for grades 1 to 8, and 1 to 5 for Spanish speakers uses manipulatives and images designed to link math to students’ everyday lives and vocabulary activities help develop math literacy while strengthening communication skills. The standards-aligned content embeds problem-solving skills into lessons, placing an emphasis on not just the final answers but on the mathematical processes as well.

ThinkUp! Science, available for grades 3 to 8, and 3 to 5 for Spanish speakers, allows students to connect scientific concepts to the real world through hands-on activities and investigation. Each unit is organized by focus standard and includes engaging activities and interventions to support instruction, intervention and extension, with particular emphasis on scientific processes and concepts.

To see ThinkUp! during TEPSA, visit Mentoring Minds at Booth #200. For more information about ThinkUp! for Texas educators, visitMentoring Minds.

BenQ will feature its display solutions for education at the 2019 Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Convention and Exposition, Feb. 4-8 at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio. In booth 1562, BenQ will show educators interactive flat panels, laser projectors and collaboration solutions that aim to help transform the learning experience for every student.

RP Series IFPs 

The 4K UHD IFP lineup includes the 65" RP6501K, 75" RP7501K and 86" RP8601K to fit any big or small classroom. The IFPs include an anti-glare, bacteria-resistant screen that kills most germs accumulating on screen surfaces; a CO2 air quality sensor that monitors the CO2 concentration level in classrooms; and BenQ's Smart Eye-Care technology, which is certified to remove the blue light and flicker that can cause eye strain and CVS-related eye problems.  The cloud-enabled IFPs can be voice- and remote-controlled.

Blue Core laser projectors
The interactive ultra-short-throw WXGA (1280 x 800) LW890UST, full HD LH890UST (1920 x 1080) and the short-throw WXGA (1280 x 800) LW820ST are the first interactive K-12 laser projectors from the new Blue Core family that can be configured for either pen or touch interactivity. The short-throw WUXGA LU951ST, WUXGA LU950, full HD LH720, WXGA LW720 and XGA LX720 deliver up to 5,000 ANSI lumens of brightness and high contrast without lamps, filters or color decay. All projectors have been designed with BenQ's DustGuard technology, including sealed laser modules to protect the laser bank.  BenQ's LK953ST and LK952 laser projectors are the latest addition to the Blue Core family. They are the first 4K UHD HDR projectors designed to deliver razor-sharp images and support the 4K HDR output of premium notebooks that are becoming the standard for users in huddle rooms and other collaborative business spaces.

BenQ's new InstaShow WDC20 wireless presentation system is a software-free solution that allows multiple presenters to lead from any device. The plug-and-play operation is compatible with any OS or hardware platform. BenQ features Open Pluggable Specification (OPS), which helps schools standardize the design and development of their devices and pluggable media players.

More information on the full line of BenQ products is available at www.BenQ.com.

Joseph Kuzo, Director of Technology, has been with the Quakertown Community School District (QCSD) for eighteen years. As Director of Technology, Kuzo and his team oversee the entire technology department including classroom infrastructure, data systems, student information and planning, and budgeting for the district’s technology refresh cycle. Up until the 2018 school year, each school in the district was individually responsible for classroom AV equipment, but now that responsibility lies with Kuzo and his team and so they began standardizing all classrooms with Hitachi’s CP-TW3005interactive projectors.

QCSD serves over 5,400 students across eight different facilities: one high school, one middle school, one building dedicated to sixth grade called the “6th Grade Center,” and five elementary schools. The high school recently completed a five-year renovation project, which included retrofitting classrooms with Hitachi’s CP-TW3005 interactive projectors.

“We started retrofitting the AV equipment across the elementary schools this year based on the success we had with the Hitachi interactive projectors in the high school renovation project,” says Kuzo. “It’s now integrated across seven of our eight buildings and all of our teachers and students have had great success with them.”

Kuzo and his team will continue to upgrade next school year to ensure that every building in the district is integrated with the Hitachi interactive projectors.

QCSD recently became members of Hitachi’s new OneVision Kids Program that offers K-12 school districts specialized Hitachi promotions and pricing, direct access to Hitachi sales and service specialists, an extended lamp warranty and an extended 5-year projector warranty. While the projectors used in the upgrade aren’t part of OneVision Kids, Kuzo looks to the program as a way to help budget and plan for the future.

“Knowing that our future investments can be covered for five years, which is a long life for one of our projectors, helps us stay on track with the budget. We usually refresh after four years, but having that extra year on the warranty will give us peace-of-mind that should anything unexpected come up in the budget, we have the flexibility to push a refresh and still guarantee our teachers and students the best technology available.”

Even projection display hardware needs to be evaluated through the lens of its impact on student learning. Educators know that interactive collaboration impacts the classroom environment by shifting the mode of teaching and increasing student engagement.

What are the key factors that districts should be aware of when choosing new classroom display options?

In this white paper you will learn:

• Why display size matters – the 4/6/8 Rule
• The impact of interactivity on student engagement
• Creating a cost-effective digital ecosystem that supports learning

Click here to read the full white paper.

Imagine taking students for a walk around the solar system during their lesson. Creating more immersive visual experiences with new types of instruction models, such as lesson capture, are possible when digital devices such as document cameras, student devices, and audio equipment are networked with interactive projector displays.

This eBook details how today’s projection software can be used cost-effectively, including:

• Take notes and then send work back to the projector—no PC required.
• Connect up to 50 devices, with built-in moderator features.
• Project web pages to enhance high-quality images on the big screen.
• Share, manage, and annotate displayed content easily and intuitively.

Click here to read the full white paper.

Imagine taking students for a walk around the solar system during their lesson. Creating more immersive visual experiences are possible within the classroom when digital devices, such as document cameras, student devices, and audio equipment, are networked with interactive projector displays.

Download this eBook for ideas on how today’s projection software can be used to do more, including:

• Browse the web and project web pages while enjoying high-quality images on the big screen.
• Share, manage, and annotate displayed content from an easy, intuitive menu.
• Take notes and then send work back to the projector—no PC required.
• Connect up to 50 devices, with built-in moderator features.

Click here to download the full whitepaper.

BenQ America Corp. will display the RM7501K interactive flat panel (IFP) at Camcor's Booth 2238 and the RP704K IFP in the BalanceBox Booth 1518 at ISTE 2018. As distribution and enterprise partner for Google Jamboard, BenQ also invites ISTE attendees to stop by Google's Booth 1602 and BenQ partner Onix' Booth 1897 to test drive Jamboard and the rest of Google's education solutions.

Through its integration with Google's G Suite, Jamboard puts popular Google apps and a host of interactive capabilities at users' fingertips during a "Jam" session. Students can draw, annotate, import and scribble on images and Google Docs, search the web and communicate with classmates via Hangouts, and it's all saved in the cloud. In addition, students can sketch out plans in real time with collaborators from across the globe via other Jamboards, smartphones or tablets. Jamboard can be used with other hardware devices from Google, including Google Chromebook.

BenQ passed TÜV Rheinland's stringent, display-specific Low Blue Light and flicker-free testing standard for its Eye-Care solution, which is featured in the 75-inch RM7501K 4K UHD IFP being showcased at reseller partner Camcor's booth, 2238. Eye-Care's Low Blue Light technology is certified to minimize blue light exposure, while its flicker-free technology is designed to remove LED backlight flickering for a zero-flicker viewing experience.

The 70-inch BenQ RP704K 4K UHD IFP, on display at vendor partner BalanceBox's Booth 1518, features BenQ's smart Eye-Care solution, which automatically activates Low Blue Light and flicker-free technologies through an embedded motion sensor. Providing the highest standard in health for technology-driven classrooms, the RP704K's germ-resistant screen is coated with the non-toxic nano ionic silver agent that kills most germs accumulating on screen surfaces. The ionic silver's antimicrobial feature remains effective after thorough cleaning or long periods of use.

More information on the full line of BenQ products is available at www.BenQ.com.

Collaboration is a lesson in itself, learning how to adjust to and work with a variety of personalities and methods of accomplishing tasks is a lifelong skill integral to success in school and beyond. But trying to manage group teaching in a busy classroom can leave teachers wishing they had an extra hand (or three). Tech has arrived to help. Creative educators can ditch the staid drone of attendance announcing for a colorful display where students can fly a rocket “them” from Earth into space or swim a fishy “them” from a reef to the open ocean. Clever uses of interactive projectors and displays like these have changed the game and brought everyone to the table, sometimes literally.

Using an interactive projector, rather than relying on a static touchscreens or board-style displays, gives educators the ability to change any surface to a whiteboard. The snack table in the back of the room can turn into an educational game venue for reward breaks or inclement weather recess, for group trivia or bingo. Using a projected tabletop map, groups can work together charting the migration path of the monarch butterfly or tracing Lewis and Clark’s journey across the untamed west. Short throw and ultra short throw projectors can create a scene for kids to work with, without fear of shadows from little heads or hands distorting the images.

Another plus of interactive projector and displays is a feature which allows wireless mirroring or of other devices to the central display. Use of this tech not only engages students (and keeps them on their toes when asked to share their work), but it can help kids with challenges. Beth Heile, Speech-Language Pathologist and Assistive Technology Specialist for North Shore School District 112 of IL, uses interactive displays to keep the classroom truly inclusive. A fourth grade student who is physically unable to use her voice (making Google Slides a challenge) beams the screen of her communication device to share her history presentation with her class. A student unable to hold a pencil can complete a team worksheet with his peers as they digitally annotate a scanned version together. A student with impaired mobility connects his laptop to the projection to participate in a group activity without needing to physically stand at the board with his classmates.

One of the most impressive and useful features for group work is the projections’ ability to recognize multiple points of input, with some allowing as many as 21 individual fingers or light pens to simultaneously be recognized. Teachers can stream a video of the Serengeti, with students picking out different animals to observe, or create a rainforest “Where’s Waldo” highlighting the myriad creatures big and small that make up the ecosystem. Interactive PowerPoint presentations can include multiple entry slots for teams to converse and answer questions, letting the whole class work together as a unit. Virtual murals or posters can be painted with an entire art class, before being sent to a printer for production or to a partner school across the world.

Think of how many of our students love doing the worksheets that we assign them. Here is a cool tool that will turn your paper-based worksheets into an interactive: It’s wizer.me.

Wizer.me is a tool that will help you to create online, engaging and visually appealing worksheets. After signing up, you can start creating your worksheet from scratch or you can use the worksheets that other teachers have created by making your changes on them. On a worksheet, you can change the backgrounds, fonts and colors. You can add video and audio files, text, link, discussion forum, table and text to your worksheets. You can add multiple choice, open ended, matching and drawing questions. When you are done, you can share your worksheet with a link and collect the answers of your students or you can create a class account and collect the answers.

Including many interactive features such as audio, videos, websites and colorful pictures to our assignments will certainly keep them more interested and engaged! The possibilities seem limitless. Give it a try if you like it.

cross-posted at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org

Özge Karaoglu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.

Web site: http://school.follett.com/lightbox■ Retail Price: $40-$80 per title

With almost 500 available titles that incorporate text, video, audio, quizzes, and other interactive elements, Lightbox offers a unique learning experience that engages learners with various learning styles. Each Lightbox title is available for multiple users with perpetual access, and comes with a print edition of the text as well. Follett has recently introduced a selection of elementary Spanish titles, as well as a selection of middle and high school titles.

Quality and Effectiveness: Lightbox offers almost 500 interactive multimedia titles that can be easily and effectively incorporated into the classroom. The majority of the available titles focus on the elementary and intermediate level, although there are a few available for middle and high school, with more to come. Fifty-one of the elementary titles now have a Spanish version available, to support ELL and dual-language programs. Each title offers a variety of interactive features that may include text, audio, video, Google Maps, Web links, quizzes, AR quizzes, curricular alignments, and keywords. Most of the associated multimedia aspects of the titles are appropriate and add depth to the topic under investigation. The audio narration is machine-read text-to-speech, the embedded videos are high-definition, and the Web links lead to appropriate, high-quality content. The accompanying activities ask students to answer higher-level critical-thinking questions and can be downloaded for teachers to assess.

Ease of Use: Each Lightbox title comes with a print edition, as well as an electronic MARC record that can be loaded to the school’s library catalog. Students and teachers are able to access Lightbox titles in a number of ways, including IP authentication, unique codes on the print texts, and through digital content management systems such as Follett’s Destiny Library Manager or Destiny Discovery. The help guides are easy to follow, and no setup is required on the teacher’s part—no usernames, no passwords, and no accounts to manage.

Creative Use of Technology: The Lightbox platform is Web-based and works in any browser; it also works on any tablet device with a viewing area of 7 inches or more. The overlay of interactive features on the Lightbox titles is a unique feature not always available with ebooks. In addition to the videos, slideshows, and Web links, definitions for keywords are available as pop-ups in the text to help students situate the meaning in context. The interactive and multimedia materials encourage students to explore beyond the written word and reinforce what is being presented in the text. Students are able to safely explore the Internet and other resources that are carefully selected and will enhance their knowledge and understanding.

Suitability for Use in a School Environment: Lightbox makes it easy to differentiate learning as the titles offer a variety of media to meet the needs of more students. The titles available support existing curriculum in science and social studies and allow students to explore topics in a variety of ways. Lightbox focuses on interactivity and engagement by offering learning materials that appeal to more styles of learning than a typical print book. By providing students with a focused multimedia exploration of a topic, the platform helps strengthen not only reading, but also listening, skills.

OVERALL RATING:

Lightbox is a great solution for schools and teachers looking to engage readers in multimedia experiences. Starting around $40 per title for print and multi-user perpetual access digital content, Lightbox offers a fantastic value compared with other ebook and digital-content products.

TOP FEATURES

• Interactive content engages learners on all levels, hitting a variety of learning styles.

• Supplemental activities encourage students to think critically about the information presented.

• Each title is aligned to national level standards.