Presentation, Publishing, and Multimedia Applications

The list of multimedia and presentation applications seems to go on and on. However, I found two today that I find I can use on a fairly regular basis as an elementary computer teacher. The first application is called Smore. Smore is an application that allows you to create digital flyers. I like this application and have already signed up for it when I stumbled upon a great, visually appealing flyer on technology tools. As an elementary computer teacher who likes to share information with students through my blog, I think this app is a great way to spruce up blog posts. Here is one a great example of how to use this app as a teacher...Digital Storytelling using Smore

Another app I found very useful for me as a computer teacher was WeVideo.  WeVideo is
a free video editing program. One of the major
benefits of WeVideo is that it can be used by
practically any device. Being that my school has
some iPads, many laptops, and limited students
with personal devices, WeVideo makes video
creation and sharing possible for everyone.
As a teacher, I will use this program to create and edit my own screencasts to be posted on my
website. I will also allow students to experiment
with WeVideo for alternative ways of presenting, creating, and sharing ideas across the curriculum.

Collaboration and Creative Thinking

One collaboration tool I feel teachers should utilize for themselves and with their students is Drop Box. Drop Box makes sharing, collecting, and organizing documents and files easy. One of the great benefits of Drop Box is its accessibility. I love the fact that all my files can be accessed from any place with Internet connection. You can pull up your stored files from Drop Box simply by going to the website. Their is a Drop Box app as well making this application even more convenient. I would use Drop Box in my class as a computer teacher by having my students save their projects. This is useful since it would allow my students to continue working at home as oppose to saving on our school drive. I will also utilize Drop Box to save my lesson plans, share with colleagues, and compile my lesson material for each year.

Another application I found useful was Wordle. Worlde is an application used to create artistic word clouds. It can be used with any subject, topic, or theme. This application is very appealing to students of all ages. You simply type in a word list, hit create, and the program rearranges the words in a word cloud display. I like that you have the option to personalize your cloud with different colors and fonts. I would use Wordle in my class to reinforce typing skills. I can give them a word list and see how fast they can type them accurately. Then, as a reward they can see the displayed word cloud. I can also use this to teach vocabulary. We can create a word list from computer vocabulary such as monitor, desktop, mouse, etc. Then, type them up in Wordle. I like both of these applications because they are user friendly, which is a big concern when working with technology in education. Each of these applications can be easily navigated and applied in classrooms of all ages.

Connecting and Collecting Applications

There are many connecting applications that I have worked with in the past. Some of my favorites include Evernote and Remind 101. However, duirng this class I had the opportunity to use Wikispaces, an appplication I had touched upon in the past but never took the time to explore really in depth. I enjoyed using this application because it opens the opportunity for student collaboration on projects and distant learning. During our class wiki assignment, we were able to communicate through the commenting feature, make and see who made edits, and build upon one piece as a group. I also appreciated that it was user friendly, which is always a concern for me as a teacher. After using it for a couple of weeks, navigation became easy. I would use this application to replace some of the traditional group projects in the past, such as those done with PowerPoint/Prezi. Wikispaces opens up more options and room for creativity with options to post and share links, videos, text, pictures, and more.


After reviewing this list of collecting applications, I found it difficult to choose just one to discuss in this post being that there were countless ones I found applicable to my everyday teaching. However the one I know I will be walking away from this class and applying next school year is Padlet. Padlet is a virtual wall where one can create a space full of as much or as little information as you like. You can create your own account and save any virtual walls you create. Educators can use this to create virtual walls on review information from a chapter, clips that cover a current event, or even have students post a "virtual" answer to a Do Now. I like this because as a technology teacher sometimes I am looking for a quick way to get a lot of student feedback without a big hassle. Padlet is a great way to do just that!