I am not necessarily a fan of free tech tools. Too often they are limited in ability, poorly supported, or trials to entice you to buy a pricier item. I take my job seriously and if I need good tools, I want them to work properly. If I have to pay for them, then it is because I value them and their developers.
That said, I checked out the website for the proposed speaker for SIDLIT 2016. Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers is a blog that hits the trifecta of being well-written, well-designed and up-to-date. The content targets a WIDE range of subjects and ages as well. As who is to say that an item targeted at high schools won't work for an incoming college freshman?
I also appreciate his style - a trendy, breezy one, but one that works well for online readers, using lots of short lists and chunked paragraphs. For a busy professional who wants to scan headings before digging deeper - good reading.
Put it on a feed of your choice (RSS, Pinterest, Google+ etc) or do the old-fashioned thing and bookmark the site. Regardless, this is a site that instructors from all disciplines can dip into to find that tool to make your life and those of your students a bit smoother.
1 comment:
This website was disappointing. I was initially excited, after seeing lessons on poetry available for download. But I found the technology to be cumbersome, and the lessons concentrated on vocabulary -- the rules of poetry. Everything we know about writing informs us that writing is the best way about learning writing, and that concentrating on the rules scares people away.
Going back to the technology, the files needed to be unzipped. For one of the two poetry lessons, this worked decently EXCEPT I HAD TO DO THIS BIT OF COMPUTER GYMNASTICS. For the other file, I was caught in an unzip-zip-unzip-zip loop that made me want to leave before I even started my review.
Given the plethora of materials available on the net, I can't imagine I'll back to this spot.
Post a Comment