Technology Tools

Website Creation

The new Google Sites makes it even easier to create a professional-looking website with no coding experience necessary. It's super easy to use, and you can add Google products easily, such as custom Google Maps, Google Drive files, and YouTube videos. This website was created with Google Sites!

Make an attractive, modern website. As you scroll down, there are some nice effects thrown in to make it less like a website & more like a digital story. Thus, this platform is especially great for digital storytelling.

Video Creation

If you've got Macs, iMovie is a fine, free option for video editing. Students can learn it quickly, and there are a decent amount of editing options. The next step up is Final Cut Pro, but it's quite expensive ($300).

Blogging

Best for younger students, Kidblog provides a great blogging platform with more teacher-control capabilities built in. For example, you can prevent comments from going live until you approve them (and you'd be surprised at the random, crazy, and inappropriate comments students get, often from total strangers). It does cost a little money, but right now it's $54/year for a teacher (with up to 200 students). That seems pretty reasonable.

For older students, I'd recommend Blogger. It's free, easy to use, and customizable. Of note, students will need to monitor comments on their blogs. The teacher cannot just do that for students like on Kidblog, though that gets unmanageable pretty quickly unless you have <40 students. Plus, older students really need to start learning how to handle random trolls anyways.

Typing

Typing.com makes it easy to get students practicing their keyboarding skills. They don't even need an account to get on and start a lesson or play a typing game! The website is highly colorful and student-friendly.

Students love this competitive typing game. After they sign up, they can become friends with classmates and challenge them to typing races. As they complete more races, they get bonuses and trophies.

Another solid typing platform, this one is more simple and clean. Some students may be distracted by the coloring and features of a site like Typing.com, and Typing Club is simple (but in a good way). The best feature by far is the ability to create your own lessons. You can have students practice typing an article that's relevant to class, or a text they're reading in their English class!