Deb Norton Tech

Happy Friday Everyone! Are you interested in having a smart home? Here are some purchases I’ve made to convert our home into a smart home. I know, I'm a bit of a techy person. Alexa Echo Dot  - This device connects to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service called Alexa from Amazon. Here is a video showing some of the ways that it works. Insignia Smart Plug - When you plug something into this plug, you can control it via the app on a smartphone or other device. And then you can connect the smart plug to your Alexa for a voice controlled outlet. Think how fun it was for us to say, "Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree" and the tree lit up. Philips Dusk to Dawn LED light bulb .  We put these bulbs on the front of our garage so that we never come home to a dark house. They are super bright and work like a charm! This year our goal is to save up for a video security camera . If you have any recommendations on a go...

Lately I've been using various sites and activities with students in our high school classrooms. Many of these are inspired by the amazing and creative teachers that I work with. They come to me with an idea of what they want their students to accomplish, and I help them find the right tech tools to use.   Kudos to Kerry, Alexis, Dave and Jennifer who inspire me every day to use various technology tools in the classroom. Here are some of the sites we've been using lately: Storyboard That - comic strip creator  The free account allows for 2 boards per week with the ability to create either 3 or 6 cell comics. Learn more about the free and paid versions here . There are some fantastic teacher resources and guides. Check them out by clicking here .  I love these examples of possible student activities for the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Thinglink - create interactive images and videos to tell a story or deliver a lesson I love...

With growing interest in Virtual Reality, Google Cardboard, Google Expeditions and Thinglink VR, I've been spending a bit of time exploring 360 degree pictures. I've been able to find images online that have been posted by other people. Even our local newspaper has a link called Virtual Reality where they post  360 degree video stories  from USA Today.  I've been really enjoying these amazing stories and views. Theta 360 degree camera For the past few weeks I've been trying to figure out a simple way to take 360 degree pictures of my own. I've seen the Theta  360 degree camera  demoed and it works really slick, but I don't want to  spend $350  for one. I asked my 16 year old son if he has ever taken a 360 degree picture and he said no, but once he looked at the examples I was exploring he went to work to find an app.  The Google Street View App  for IOS or Andriod is the one he found. And it works great!!  Leave it to a...

Oh how I love a little competitive fun. Have you ever heard of an App Slam?  It's a friendly sharing of favorite apps followed by a vote to see which app gets the most votes. Having an App Slam is a great way to have students guide and personalize their own learning and it also incorporates a lot of creative thinking and technology. Here is how it works: Students (or teachers) choose an app that they think is a winner. They then create a demonstration (video, live demo, example or other) The demo slam  is short (1-3 minutes) in length, highlights the features of the app, demonstrates how to use the app, and ends with the word SLAM. Here is a Thinglink with some awesome examples of App Slams:   and here is a popular App Slam from two young ladies who are showing how amazing Google Translate is: So as you can see, the idea is not just to share an app, but to do it creatively and convincingly. In a classroom or school, teac...

1.  Letha is using Screenleap . This site allows the teacher to share their computer screen with others by sharing a link. It works very simply and easily.  I've written about Screenleap before here .  This would also be a great way for students to share their screen on a large screen in front of the class. 2.  Samantha is using newsela to find current event articles for her students. This site allows the teacher to adjust the reading level according to the needs of the students. Some articles have quizzes for students.   3.  Brynn is using Thinglink with her students. I introduced this tool to our staff last week.  Thinglink is used to create an interactive image with hotspots.  You can read more about Thinglink here . 4.  Kerry and Valerie are having their students use Google Docs to publish their poems.  My latest Chat with Deb video was inspired by these two caring teachers. What great share outs from my col...

Stipple is a new tool that is used to put pinmarks on any image. Stipple is similar to Thinglink .  Stipple allows the user to upload an image and then add pinmarks in the form of links, audio, video, text or social media.   So here is a   Stipple image with pinmarks to four blogs that I plan to follow in the new year.   And here are some great sites for Google Glass Stipple also has a free app for creating interactive images on the go. I would be cautious when using Stipple with elementary students because some of the content created by others may not be appropriate.

Thinglink is something I've written about before here, here and here .   I'm really liking Thinglink lately for finding sites and resources for our classroom.    Here are some great Thinglinks I found after doing a search for "Election" and also a Thinglink I made for my students. This is a really nice Thinglink with great links: Here is another great Thinglink with videos and fun links: This Thinglink has information about the battleground states: Check out this Thinglink about the Presidential Candidates social networks: And here a Thinglink I made for my students which I embedded  on our wiki .  It is on the great activities available at PBS in their Democracy Project: Have you made a Thinglink yet?  I highly recommend giving it a try!

After studying maps and globes in social studies, our students wrote new blog posts telling about places they have visited in Wisconsin and the U.S.  We also used the site Thinglink to create an interactive map to showcase those places.  I just wrote about Thinglink earlier this week .  Also, I added our project to this Google Presentation.  Check out all of the ways to use Thinglink. If you have a minute please comment on a student blog post .  It means so much to our students to get comments. If you would like to have your students write comments that would be really special. Thanks for supporting our student blogs!  Here is the URL:   www.kidblog.org/nortonmpes

Thinglink is a neat tool for making any image interactive and informative. Here is a Thinglink I created to showcase some of the ways we are using technology. Just hover over the little people icons and check out our links.  If you click on the people icon, it will take you to the webpage.   I highly recommend giving Thinglink a try! 

I've been thinking about integrating some new technologies into our classroom this year.  The possibilities seem endless!  I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, so I'm going to focus on a few at a time.  To get started, I have bookmarked a few possibilities on Symbaloo .  Click here to see my "Tools to Integrate" Symbaloo.    Today I'm going to showcase a few of my bookmarks. #1 Nearpod - this is an app for the iPad that allows the teacher to create multimedia interactive lessons and then share those lessons with students.   This video really explains well all that Nearpod can do.  What I'm most excited about is the ability to create interactive quizzes within the lesson. #2 Ptch - this is also an iPad app that allows a person to create slideshows and add music and captions using their photos and/or videos on their iPad.  I've already created several slideshows and I found this app very easy to use.  I like th...

I've been hearing a lot about a tool called Thinglink .  This tool can make any image that you put on your website or blog interactive, so that a person who is looking at your image can hover over small dots  and get information about things on your image.  Here is a video that shows Thinglink in action: Click here to get Richard Byrne's take on Thinglink as well as some examples of how people are using Thinglink.   Here is a how-to video by Richard Byrne: Here is a Mentor Mob (like a mini tool for learning online) to learn about Thinglink: Create your own Playlist on MentorMob! I want to use Thinglink with students.  There are some great ideas of how others are using Thinglink below: