Technology Tools Linky Party!

I am linking up with Miss Snowden for her Technology Linky Party. We have a couple pieces in our room that are favorites. Our document camera & AirLiner.

1) Document Camera- I was super lucky a couple years back and actually WON my document at AverMedia teacher forums. (How cool was that?! I was SUPER excited!!). We love that it gives us the big screen visual. Mine is also hooked up to my teacher computer, so I can project whatever is on my computer screen. It projects on to my whiteboard, so it's basically a SmartBoard, I just don't have to worry about re-configuring it a zillion times a day. I use it constantly every day.

• Papers can be placed under the doc cam & projected full screen. Kids love to come put their paper or piece of writing on the "big screen".
• Showing the kids how to use math manipulatives, or showing them how to DO something (like folding or cutting a piece on a craft activity.
• Zooming in on small details (excellent for parts of a plant!)
• Turns any book into a Big Book!
• One of my favorite things to use it for is teaching the kiddos how to play a game. I can project all the cards, pieces, dice, & everything.

2) AirLiner- Our AirLiner bluetooths to my teacher computer & lets us manipulate the mouse on its surface. When I project an online game or activity, we can pass around the AirLiner & kids are able to take turns playing the game or manipulating objects on the computer screen.

Adding this little baby to the document camera set up REALLY gives us the SmartBoard experience, only better since we also don't have the shadow effect to deal with.

Another of my favorite techy tools is our classroom Moodle. For those of you  who have ever used Blackboard or OnCourse, Moodle is very similar. It can be used as an online extension of the classroom: lessons & quizzes can be posted & completed electronically, & you can even set up a chat. For my primary classroom, I use it as a portal for my students. I teach them in first grade how to access the Moodle.

I post links there for them to use. I use computers as a literacy workstation, for example, & have posted language arts games, & links to Speakaboos & Tumblebooks, for example.

As you can see below, I also have a link for them to do research (Kids' Encyclopedia) & to an online version of our basal. Love the Moodle!

Head over to 1st Grade with Miss Snowden & check out all the cool techy ideas at the Linky Party!