Tools and Applications

This page houses information and guides to web tools and applications determined to be necessary to the successful implementation of technology in the Language Arts classroom.  

Keeping Students Focused and On Task 
When incorporating technology into the classroom, students often get off task with the overload of information available.  The teachers in my department asked for a clock with a timer or alarm that students could set on their individual computers while working in the lab.  The lab provides earbuds to students, so having an alarm for each student is not a problem.  

Timer from Google Apps

Timer seems to be the perfect resource to use for keeping students on track.  The free application can be obtained from Google’s Chrome Web Store (link directly to the timer is above).  This timer is free and can be used when the computer is offline.  The students can use a countdown feature, an alarm clock or a stopwatch.  The timer countdown feature is displayed continuously at the bottom of the screen so students may see how much time they have remaining on any given task. 

Helping Students Take Notes and Keep Track of Research 
Students often print every article or resource they find when doing research.  The negatives of this are that students often print hundreds of pages of text they are not going to read, students usually forget what they found to be important in the text, and students end up not being able to find or access the resource at a later time.  

Diigo Web Collector 

A great tool for keeping track of resources is Diigo Web Collector (link to Diigo is above).  Diigo Web Collector, is a free app through Google's Chrome Web Store.  This app allows students the ability to highlight text and attach "sticky notes" to webpages.  Students may bookmark and share pages.  Students who are researching the same topics, may create groups and share information with each other.  This tool provides organization and collaboration.