My Journey Through Cool Tools and Beyond

Audio tools are one of my favorite tools for my elementary students. They bridge our students who struggle with reading and writing and give them tools that allow them to be heard. For so many years these students have not been heard because they were unable to communicate in the tradition manner in an educational atmosphere. Since making flipgrid and voice typing regular tools in my classroom, all of my students have a voice. I see students who rarely had an answer or rarely spoke in class speaking and having very interesting opinions when allowed to express what they know with out being held back by what they don't know- perhaps spelling, handwriting, a faster learning process that writing requires.  I tried all of the links provided. Flipgrid and Google voice typing will probably remain my favorite tools for my classroom. I enjoyed many of the other tools for myself personally and professionally. I would like to use Spreaker in the future to allow my students to recor

I really enjoyed the graphic above because it brought home for me how much time I still spend step by step curating and finding information. It is a process that is so routine in my every day life that I never even considered that there are tools that do that and they are of great value !!! I started this unit a month ago. I had been an avid Pintrest user for years. I have now realized that although I was using Pintrest regularly- I was not using it mindfully. I was not considering if the information I was taking in was up to date or accurate. I was simply getting my information fix. As I began this unit I was open to these tools being useful to me professionally but I was not sure how often I would use them. I explored Diigo, LibGuides, Edshelf, and paper.li. I enjoyed different features about each site and can see that with time I will find each one helpful. The one that became an immediate addition to my daily routine was paper.li. I even was able to read articles about