Abstract:

The Digital Age is revolutionizing education. Educators need to be well-trained on the variety of technology tools available. Technology tools captivate the interest of students causing high-levels of engagement. Often, the daily live of students are rich in technology, while teachers lack the knowledge or skills to integrate technology into the curriculum. Two university teacher education professors will share innovative technology tools to enhance instruction. The tools were modeled in education courses for preservice teachers and transferred into K-12 classrooms. Technology tools included: Skype, PhotoPeach, Prezi, Blabberize, Xtranormal, Poll Everywhere (voting with cellphones), Tagxedo, GPS, and GIS. For example, Skype was used to connect to a local weather broadcaster, a foreign student, and classroom to classroom conversations. Poll Everywhere was utilized as a formative assessment to determine students' understandings of concepts discussed in class. Xtranormal introduced concepts in an innovative ways with dialogue between Avatars. Hand-held GPS units were used for geocaching. Examples of student work and benefits of technology tools will be discussed.