Day 13 of my 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers from teachthought.com

Here is the link to the site with the 30-day challenge. 

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teaching-30-day-blogging-challenge-teachers/

Dat 13: Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness.

I have been lucky enough to play and teach with some pretty great edtech tools over the past few years. The best advice I can give to anyone who is just starting with technology in the classroom is DO NOT SOLELY RELY ON APPS. 

Now, let me back up a bit. I am not saying to never use apps in the classroom; but do not structure your entire curriculum around 1-2 specific apps with the hopes that they will be around forever. 

Although we are an Apple school I have found myself storing, organizing and communicating with Google Apps for Education. Some have argued that I "shouldn't solely rely on Google"  and "that is the same thing as relying on 1-2 apps." However, Google is really one of those businesses that is too big to fail, so I am throwing my stock there. 

I am going to rank the best edtech tools, but I am going to leave Google Apps off of this list for right now. As far as I am concerned, that is like asking who the best basketball player ever to live is.....We would all obviously pick Michael Jordan and everyone else if just fighting for 2nd. :-o

 My list: 

1. Moodle/Schoology 

• These are two different LMS's, but both with great functionality and places where you can house and build an interactive classroom. 

2. Notability/Adobe Reader

• Both PDF annotators. Adober Reader is free and has almost all of the functionality of Notability. However, Notability is only a few $ and worth the purchase. 

3. iBooks/iBooks author

• Find books on line or CREATE YOUR OWN using your own content. iBooks author is incredibly easy to use and allows students to participate in the creation process. Great tool for a creative writing and/or college writing course for digital portfolios. 

4. Evernote

• Allows students to take notes, record lectures and share very easily. 

Sorry for the short post! Been a crazy day. I'll do better next time. :-)