Technological Applications That Enhance Student Learning

           This Friday I attended my last BRINC professional development session on blended learning. As part of the third cohort of teachers in Delaware receiving the training, I have been exposed to a lot of great ideas, technological tools, and ways of utilizing Schoology to establish elements of blended learning within my classroom. A big part of our discussion throughout this morning's session was whether or not New Castle County Vocational School District would transition to integrating 1:1 use of laptops at Delcastle, Hodgson, and St. Georges Technical High Schools next year. I remain hopeful that this transition will occur so I can integrate laptops daily rather than every few days as I share them with other teachers. My biggest takeaways of the session were the variety of tools presented and demonstrated to enhance student learning within the classroom. The majority revolved around the latest apps that enable teachers to modify, integrate, and enhance videos during the instructional process. The following were my favorites during the session and the ones I am most looking forward to using within my classroom as soon as possible!

• Playposit 
• This earned my MVP award for best new tool from my professional development session. Playposit allows teachers and students to create a free account (linked to Gmail) to upload and edit any video from Youtube to Vimeo. They call the edited videos "bulbs," and the site keeps track of all user created bulbs. A bulb enables teachers to splice the video and choose only the sections they need and are relevant to the content or skill being taught in class. Teachers can choose to stop the video at any moment and integrate a variety of questions that students can answer and receive feedback from. My favorite part about Playposit is that it can be embedded and integrated within Schoology. Teachers can receive real time data and completion results from students as they watch the video and complete the questions. I really look forward to using this tool!

• Edpuzzle
• My runner up for best tool went to Edpuzzle, which functions in the very same way as Playposit but cannot be integrated within Schoology. Like Playposit, teachers can upload and edit videos from a host of sources by trimming, adding questions, and even recording ones voice. In order for students to participate, teachers can create an online classroom environment to store each of their Edpuzzle created videos. Students can join these online classrooms with their Google Drive accounts. By joining, teachers can keep track of student progress through their generated interactive video lessons. 

• Adobe Voice
• Adobe Voice was introduced to the cohort during the opening monologue by our District's Director of Instruction, Terri Villa. She created a short video using this free application that provided an overview of our District and its transition to blended learning. The best part was that she made the entire video using her smart phone and it looked very professional! What is super cool about Adobe Voice is that it takes your recording and uses like an autotune to make it sound amazing. You can pick and choose from a vast assortment of graphics/images and Adobe throws together an animated package to go a long with your recording. To be honest, the best part of this is how attractive and high end your videos will look compared to a typical lecture screencast. 

• Pear Deck
• One of the most interesting applications discussed at our meeting was Pear Deck. Pear Deck enables teachers to create interactive presentations from scratch or from already created PowerPoints. It allows teachers to embed a variety of interactive questions and videos into the actual presentation. Students follow along with the Pear Deck presentation from their devices and can interact with visuals, maps, and graphs to choose the best answers that the teacher incorporates in the presentation. The teacher is provided immediate feedback and can use their device to determine which students have answered incorrectly. This functions like a combination of Kahoot and your typical classroom presentation wrapped into one great package. 

References:

(2014). Pear deck. Pear Deck Inc. Retrieved from https://www.peardeck.com/.

(2014). EDpuzzle. EDpuzzle Inc. Retrieved from https://edpuzzle.com/.
(2015). Adobe voice. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Retrieved from https://standout.adobe.com/voice/.
(2014). EduCanon. Retrieved from https://www.educanon.com/