Engaging Learners with Digital Tools

e-newsletters

A newsletter sent via email.

RSS feeds

Abbreviation of Really Simple Syndication; continually updated material sent to digital devices by news organization, blogs, and other media.

Blended Learning

Academic experiences achieved through a combination of face-to-face and online classes or experiences. Ex: Flipped Classroom, Rotation Stations, etc.

Distance Learning or online learning

Academic experiences delivered to students by technology.

Digital Content

Academic resources and materials accessed from the internet.

Archival and primary source websites

Educational Websites providing original historical materials for students to access and analyze.

Bookmarking/Social Book Marking/tags

Identifying and saving frequently visited web addresses on a computer. Ex: saving to the favorites bar or menu.

WebQuests

Instructional approach where students visit teacher-selected websites to gather academic information and engage in inquiry-based learning activities.

MOOC's

Massive open online courses, open to hundreds of participants. To date, about three of every four enrolled in MOOCs are adults who have a four year college degree. The average age is 26 and most participants are male.

Information alert

Notice received by email when new information about a topic becomes available online.

Video Calling

One-to-one communication using video conferencing tools. Ex: Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts etc.

Standards connector

Online collection of teaching materials linked to required curriculum frameworks or educational standards.

Virtual Field Trips

Online learning activities in which students visit museums, historic sites, scientific locations and other places using technology. Ex:

Skills/practice websites

Online materials and activities providing skill-based learning activities for students. Ex: No Red Ink, iExcel, Khan Academy, etc.

Lesson plan websites

Online materials featuring lesson plans and related instructional material. Ex: teacher pay teachers, Thinkfinity, ReadWriteThink, NCTM Illuminations, etc.

Student-to-expert communication websites

Online materials that support exchanges of information between students and adult experts in outside-of-school organizations.

OER

Open educational resources, materials freely available for use by teachers and students.

Virtual Schools

Organizations that deliver curriculum and instruction to students primarily over the Internet. Ex: K-12 Inc., Connections learning. etc.

Interactive video-conferencing

Real-time face-to-face online meeting

Hybrid Learning

Similar to Blended learning...learning takes place online and face-to-face.

Cloud Computing or Storage

Storing or managing of information using web-based servers. Ex: Google Drive, iCloud, etc.

Folksonomy

Teacher- or student-created system for categorizing social bookmarking tags; derived from the words folk and taxonomy.

Information Management

When applied to teaching, mean effectively utilizing different kinds of digital resources to create technology-infused learning experiences.