Five Tech Tools I Couldn’t Live Without

None of these are groundbreaking, mind boggling sources of extreme teaching innovation. They are just tools that I find myself using on a daily basis.  Things that make my life as a teacher easier so I can spend more time focusing on student learning.

Participating In a Twitter Chat: www.tweetchat.com  If you’re new to Twitter, especially to chats, TweetChat will automatically sort Twitter, showing only those tweets with the hashtag you put in.  For that hour in a chat, it makes it easy to join in, adding your own tweets without giving adding the hashtag a second thought. If you are on Twitter and you haven’t experience a Twitter chat, what are you waiting for?  @Cybraryman1 has them all organized here.

Creating PDFs.  Using the simple “CutePDF” you can print any file to a PDF.  Just install the program, then select “CutePDF” instead of your local printer.  I do this for any document I send out, because you never know what version of what program your recipient will have.  Also, if you are posting newsletters or documents for students, they can easily open on any mobile device or home computer.

Google Drive.  If you have a gmail log in, you have a Google Drive.  Across the top of the screen, when logged in, you’ll see a link to click “Drive”  right next to “Gmail.”   You can create a new document or upload an existing document, develop forms to survey and collect real-time data, and even collaborate on documents with people all around the world.  The most important feature in Google Drive is “Share.”  When you have a document open, click the “Share” button in the top right, then you can email it, assign editing rights, and start collaborating.

Apps Gone Free: If you love to try out new apps, especially browsing random ones that you might not have known about otherwise, Apps Gone Free releases new free apps every single day.  Find new games, utilities, and even the app you can’t live with out and didn’t even know it.  Check it out in the itunes store.  It’s free.

SaveTube: You know when you find that GREAT video to share with your students, and oh yeah, YouTube is blocked by school filters?  With SaveTube, you can save it and share it with your students afterall.  Very simple to download and backup any YouTube video just by pasting the URL in.  Visit SaveTube and check it out.

So, those are my five current favorites.  What is YOUR favorite-can’t-live-or-teach-without-tech-tool?