Category: Uncategorised

Today in tech class, we’re listening to the next round of my classmates present their projects on the topic of “technology in the classroom”.

First up is a presentation on “Mental Health and Technology”

The presentation starts with some statistics pointing out that mental health concerns are more prevalent in Indigenous youth, in girls, and in LGBTQ+ students, and that the prevalence of mental health issues has been increasing in recent years. When students struggle with their mental health it makes it hard to participate in school and have positive social experiences. Here’s the technologies I learned about:

Calm App– includes sleep stories, breathing exercises, health tracking, medication reminders, and child-friendly stories and themes. However, some drawbacks are that there is no “add friends” option, and sleep stories can be quite long. This app can help students relax and reset in the classroom with teacher direction. There aren’t many features included in the free version, but some school districts actually provide the app free for teachers.

Finch App- A mental health wellness app that uses a virtual pet to foster self-care skills and daily practices. In the class, it lets users track their emotions, mood, and mental health using daily check ins. Lots of exercises for stress reduction are included, and there is a journalling feature and friends option. This app is great for social emotional learning.

Headspace App- A popular meditation and mindfulness app that uses guided meditation, breathing exercises, and more to help the user with stress reduction and wellbeing. Teachers in canada can access this app for free. It does however rely on wifi and can be expensive for users who aren’t teachers. It also does store some data in the U.S., which is a potential privacy concern. This could be used for class mindfulness breaks to get students regulated when, for example, they come in from recess feeling amped up. This app is also excellent for teacher self-care.

GoNoodle App/website- Geared for k-6, GoNoodle involves meditation exercises and physically active brain breaks to help students stay engaged. These exercises helps students get in tune with their bodies and energy levels and stay regulated. GoNoodle is free and includes a wide variety of features, and the “pro” features do not pop up on the free version which is nice. GoNoodle has already been greenlit by my local school district. The data from the app is stored in the U.S., but luckily it only requires a teacher to make an account so it’s not much of a privacy concern.

Moxie the Social Robot- Moxie is a social emotional learning robot that has the goal of helping students. Moxie can do feeling check ins, movement breaks, social emotional exercises, breathing exercises, and more. There is a standard Moxie that can have 4 personalized profiles for users, but the version with extra profiles is quite pricy (upwards of $1000 CAD). The robot does store data, but student names are encoded as numbers as a privacy measure. This robot can be helpful for neurodivergent students who may struggle with social interactions but need someone to talk to. Unfortunately, Moxie only speaks English right now.

Here are the links for my technology class group project on “inclusive technology in the classroom”. We created a presentation on Google Slides, and four mini podcast episodes on Screencastify. In our project we talk about four categories of inclusive technology: tech to support visual impairments (episode 1), tech to support nonverbal communication (episode 2), tech to support d/Deaf students (episode 3), and tech to support bilingual students (episode 4). Each one of my group members researched one of these categories; I looked into tech for supporting d/Deaf students in the classroom.

Linked below is our Google Slides presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RomBksfSkCHPTzmWut4DIMlJGSk5KVf4nt423txO75o/edit?usp=sharing

And our podcast episodes:

Episode #1: Assistive Technologies for Visual Impairments

Episode #2: Communication Devices

Episode #3: Technology for d/Deaf Students

Episode #4: Technology for Bilingual Students

Thanks for listening!

This week my classmates presented their group projects on the topic of educational technology in the classroom. For each presentation, I linked one of the classmate’s blogs so you can access the neat projects they have been working on for the past weeks. I also included my key take-aways from each presentation. Enjoy!

Ms. ThinkTank’s Classroom Blog:

https://dannikaseduction.wixsite.com/think-tank-tickle

This lovely class blog includes lessons so that when a student misses them, they can go rewatch it. The project demonstrated how you can have a whole year plan on a Wix website and unlock it module by module to your class. A bigger upfront investment for time, but this approach is helpful in the long run for teachers. Like a “bank” of videos and teaching resources. This approach keeps guardians in the loop about their kid’s learning and helps guardians access the resources kids may need to become confident with subjects and projects. Having a teaching website can improve teacher-parent relationships by providing an understanding of what is taught in the classroom and why it is important.

Seesaw:

Seesaw is a tool for students to document their projects and progress throughout the year. Seesaw allows parents to follow along with students learning experience. Seesaw is very easy to navigate and allows a variety of formats of media to be uploaded. Teachers can even use Seesaw to send announcements to students and caregivers, and to share assessment reports. It includes an assignment tracker and is a method for storing children’s work to avoid piles of papers or lost assignments. All data is stored in Canada when a school district purchases seesaw. Seesaw is focused on sharing student’s learning with families, even grandparents in other countries. Having a seesaw portfolio gives families an easier way to celebrate student’s efforts. It can track student progress throughout their entire school experience.

Class Dojo:

Class Dojo is similar to Seesaw, it can be used to group message parents and students. It can be used to record attendance, give awards to students, and recognize participation. Class Dojo has a tool that helps teachers create lesson plans on the fly in roughly five minutes. This website encourages teamwork between students and facilitates easy communication between caregivers and students. Class Dojo even includes music and home activities for students and a point system caregivers can use to reward their child for completing tasks. Students can also private message with teachers if they have questions or concerns about tasks that they do not want to address with the entire class. The app can be used to let parents sign up for chaperone roles in field trips well in advance. This app is best suited for younger students, probably in primary grades.