Here are our advisors’ picks for the best of 2014.
STEVE YOUNG
CTO, JUDSON (TX) ISD
• Atlassian Confluence: This fantastic wiki software powers all technology documentation at Judson ISD, allowing it to be kept private, while also serving as the host of our intranet. It’s fast, easy to use, and an amazing way to speed up documentation and information sharing.
• Evernote: This is a file cabinet, reminder service, and document synchronization service on steroids that works across any Internet-connected device.
• Google Drive: If Evernote is my file cabinet, Google Drive is my warehouse. While being organized and searchable, it allows me to store the vast volumes of information I receive and produce. It also allows me to access information from anywhere and any device in the world.
• Google Inbox: If Gmail was revolutionary to Web mail, Google Inbox is the next generation of email client. It works on both smartphones and the Web. While everything is easily accessible in one pretty pane of glass, the emails from my T&L overlords are easily found in the chatter, which is hidden by Google’s convenient and automatic categorization.
• Netvibes: Neither new nor well known, this Web site has served as a wonderful RSS newsreader, home page, and information filter for me for years.
DOUG JOHNSON
TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR, BURNSVILLE-EAGAN-SAVAGE (MN) PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• Chromeboxes: When they are set in kiosk mode, they can serve as great, inexpensive library terminals in our school media centers.
• Google Drive: This application allows for all things to be safely stored online. Goodbye K drive and gigantic, expensive local SANs!
• MacBook Air laptop
• Response and backchannel tools: GoSoapBox, Padlet, PollEverywhere, TodaysMeet (in workshops and in-services).
• Smartphone: My smartphone replaces my camera, GPS, calculator, IWB, alarm clock, scanner, address book, loyalty cards, boarding passes, ebook reader, video conferencing software, document camera, exercise tracker, and bank statements.
• Telephone: Imagine the nuanced communication possibilities!
MARIANTHE WILLIAMS
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, RIVER DELL (NJ) REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Bamboo Wacom: This program turns laptops into wireless tablets with its digital stylus.
• Camtasia Studios: This TechSmith product allows teachers to create flipped lessons with minimal to no editing.
• QUIA: This program is a great resource to create online assessments, games, and surveys. It also encourages teachers to copy an existing assessment and edit to reflect class needs.
• PhET: This program is an excellent, free, K-12 resource for physics, biology, chemistry, Earth science, and math.
• PeerCeptiv: Social studies and English classes use this software to improve writing skills through blind, peerto- peer student assessment.
• SASCurriculumPathways: This program is another free, excellent resource for all levels and subjects that includes tutorials, inquiry-based units, and lessons.
DARREN DRAPER
DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY, CANYONS SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Dell 11-inch Chromebook with GAFE: Combine this inexpensive but durable laptop with Google Apps for Education and you’ve got an extremely powerful solution for facilitating feedback, grouping strategies, and scaffolding. Even in its eighth year of availability, Google Apps for Education remains one of my most valuable tools.
• Keynote: The improvements Apple has made to Keynote on both iOS and Macintosh can’t be overlooked. Start creating a presentation on one device, and pick up where you left off on another.
• Nearpod: Very powerful cross-platform system and app that combines explicit instruction with formative assessment. With Nearpod, gone are the days of students being unable to see the board from the back of the room.
• Otus: An easy-to-use mobile learning environment accessible through the Google Apps for Education interface. Think: online research + note-taking + assessment + collaborative reflection, all in one iOS app. Plus, it finally gives students the split-screen view they’ve always wanted on the iPad.
• Plickers: Inexpensive solution for easy-to-implement formative assessment. Requires only an iOS device, a free app, and paper clickers (or “plickers.)
MICHAEL GORMAN
OVERSEES ONE-TO-ONE LAPTOP PROGRAMS AND DIGITAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR SOUTHWEST ALLEN COUNTY SCHOOLS, FORT WAYNE (IN)
• Answer Garden: Ask questions and grow answers, a wonderful way to promote inquiry and send those answers to Worldle.
• Google Advanced Search: Go beyond the basics and allow students and teachers to think about inquiry.
• Infuse Learning: Excellent tool for online formative assessment providing some unique and powerful capabilities.
• Kahoot: As the slogan goes.... “Great Learning starts with great questions” ... a wonderful game-based way to intertwine into any in-service and in the classroom.
• Wolfram Alpha: An amazing computation search engine and so much more.
KAREN D. FULLER
CTO, KLEIN (TX) ISD
• BlackBoard
• DyKnow
• Google for Education
• One Note
• Reflex Math
MATHEW SWERDLOFF
DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY, HENDRICK HUDSON (NY) SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Chromebook
• CourseSites
• Google Drive
• TED
• Today’s Meet
CARL HOOKER
DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION & DIGITAL LEARNING, EANES (TX) ISD
• 30/30 app
• Bulb App
• Google Drive
• iTunesU
• Trello
COBY CULBERTSON
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, DUBUQUE (IA) CSDEPSON BRIGHTLINK 595WI INTERACTIVE PROJECTOR
• Microsoft Office 365 for Education
• PaperCut
• TechSmith’s Camtasia and SnagIt
• SoftChalk Cloud
JEN LAMASTER
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, BREBEUF JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL, INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
• Barco Click Share
• Camtasia
• Google Apps for Education
• Lumens LadiBug document camera
• Nearpod
DAVID KAPULER
TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATOR, 21ST-CENTURY EDUCATORBOOMWRITER
• Buncee
• ClassDojo
• FluencyFinder
• Storyboard That
JASON EPSTEIN
CIO, WORCESTER ACADEMY, WORCESTER (MA)
• Apple TV
• Evernote (combined with Skitch, Scanner Pro, Penultimate)
•Google+
•iPad
• Live Scribe 3 pen
ROBERT CRAVEN
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, TUSTIN (CA) USD
• ActionTec Screen beam
• Airwatch MDM
• Epson Projectors 585w
• Google Apps for Education
• Twitter and Instagram (which only get more necessary)
JON CASTELHANO
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, APACHE JUNCTION (AZ) USD
• Chromebooks
• Edublogs
• Google Apps for Education
• Hootsuite
• Touchscreen laptop
STEVEN M. BAULE
SUPERINTENDENT, NORTH BOONE (IL) CUSD 2000
• duoLingo
• Goodreads
• Google Apps for Education
• Google Forms
• SurveyMonkey
DAVID ANDRADE
TEACHER, BRIDGEPORT (CT) PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• Chromebooks
• Edmodo
• Evernote
• Google Apps for Education
• Google Nexus Tablets
CHRIS AVILES
TEACHER, BARNEGAT HIGH SCHOOL, BARNEGAT (NJ)
• Backchannel Chat
• Explain Everything
• Kaizena
• Pear Deck
• Schoology
RICK CAVE
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, WEST WINDSOR-PLAINSBORO (NJ) REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Symbaloo
• NearPod
• vmware Horizon
• glinks
• Chromebook
JENNIFER HARRITON-WILSON
DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL SERVICES AND CIO, HALDANE (NY) CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (we use it for iPads)
• Cel.ly
• Document cameras (especially the newer ones that allow you to Skype)
• MakerSpace for students (although not a technology on its own, it offers a variety of technologies for use, including a plain old table to just sit and create at.
• My School Bucks (streamlines payments for everything from lunch to field trips)
DEBBIE KARCHER
CIO, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY (FL) PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• My Big Campus
• Office 365
• One Note
• Phablets
• Procera
