There are not many free LMS (Learning Management Systems) out there and using these programs have helped me turn my classroom into a virtual paperless classroom.  This session will cover 3 digital tools that will engage all students in collaborative lesson participation in K-12 classrooms.  Participants will learn about three digital tools, Edmodo, Google Classroom, and Padlet. Most importantly there is no need for e-mail to run this program.

 

To start a class a teacher can utilize Edmodo to have the students (and parents) see the agenda and start a do now or warm up.  Then they can use the site as a back-channel to get questions answered and get more information about the current subject from other students while the teacher is pushing out information. This will also be the main communication tool between students and teachers instead of using e-mail.

 

Google Classroom is a tool from GAFE (Google Apps for Education) your school has to already have it to utilize Google Classroom.  The real advantage of this program is that it is a great tool to pass out and collect work that is assigned in the classroom.  More importantly you can share your presentations almost instantly and push out a template of an assignment to all students in one place.

 

Padlet provides virtual space for teachers to collect and present students’ ideas.   Using Padlet, teachers can quickly create and manage a collaborative digital forum where all students demonstrate their engagement through real time, written response.