Welcome to Ms.
Discepolo’s Digital
Toolbox!
Educational Technologies:
Storybird
Plickers
Educreations
Popplet
Flashcard
Machine
Objectives:
 Identify the benefits/uses of the technological resources in
the digital toolbox
 Gain a new perspective on ways to utilize these
educational apps and websites in your classroom
 Learn strategies that can help supplement your teaching
and the learning experiences of your students
 Increase your confidence in implementing educational
technology in your classroom!
Screencast Organization
 Start with a brief explanation of each technology
tool
 Continue with outlining the benefits for
students/teaching strategies
*Learning Styles, Bloom’s Taxonomy
 Finish with ways I would implement the
apps/websites in the classroom
* Lesson examples
StoryBird
Storybird.com
“Artful Storytelling”
 Students use pictures to inspire the plot, setting and characters
for their stories
 Simple and easy to navigate
*Teachers given the option to create different
classes to organize student work after creating
account
 Protect students privacy
 Can be used on iPads, tablets and computers
StoryBird in the Classroom
 StoryBird can be used to supplement any ELA, Science, Social
Studies, Phonics or Spelling lesson!
 The website can be utilized in various ways in the classroom:
Whole Group
• Teacher creates
• Shows to all on SmartBoard
Small Group
• Students work together
• iPads, Centers, Computer Lab
Pairs/Individual
• iPads, Centers, Computer Lab
StoryBird Lesson
Nouns and Adjectives….Oh My!


I’ve created my own storybook to use with a 1st grade
class
I imagine gathering the students in front of a Smart
Board and having the students work in pairs to identify
the nouns and adjectives on each page
*Extension: Students can create their own
StoryBird storybooks together utilizing
different parts of speech.
Let’s Take a look together!
“Were the stories of my
peers correct? Do I really
understand the
difference?”
Evaluation
Synthesis
Designing their own
stories
Analysis
Bloom’s
Review stories
Application
Using adjectives and nouns in their
story
Comprehension
Summarize definitions of adjectives and nouns
Knowledge
Recall adjectives and nouns
StoryBird Lesson
Taxonomy
Edu-Creations
Educreations.com
A spin on the Interactive Whiteboard
 Can be used on a computer, iPad or tablet
 Teachers can create an account for free
 Organization is simple
*The program allows you to create multiple
“classes” to organize your whiteboard videos
 While using Edu-Creations, the user can record his/her voice,
insert pictures and write using a stylus/finger or computer mouse
to supplement any lesson
 Once complete, you can convert your lesson into a video with a
link where you can send and save for future use!
Edu-Creations in the Classroom
There are multiple ways that you can utilize Edu-creations in the
classroom:
*Students can work
together to create their
own Edu-Creations video
to share with their
teacher/classmates
*Teacher can create an EduCreations video to show to
the class as a whole group
to supplement a lesson topic
Whole
Group
Lesson
* Students can work on
creating an Edu-Creations
video at any center while
using an ipad or tablet!
Centers
Pairs/Small
Groups
Formative&
Summative
Assessments
*Can be used in the
beginning, middle or end
of a lesson to check for
understanding. Students
can also save their videos
for easy access!
Edu-Creations Lesson
The Magic E Rule!
 I created an Edu-Creations video to supplement a first grade
phonics/ELA lesson
 The video serves as a review of the Magic E rule
 The teacher can show the video at the beginning, middle or end
of the ELA lesson to check for understanding
 It is interactive, but leads to a good discussion or an activity of
the teacher’s choice
*Teacher note: Stopping the video a few times to
have students discuss their thinking with a
partner or small groups helps the material to
sink into their long term memory!
Let’s take a look together!
Listen to their
pronunciation of words
and evaluate themselves
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Bloom’s
Identify the patterns
Application
Creating their Edu-Creations video
Comprehension
Understand the changes Magic e bring to a word
Knowledge
Recall Magic E Rule
Edu-Creations Lesson
Taxonomy
Plickers
www.plickers.com
QR Codes, Made Easy!
 Quick and easy to make a free account on Plickers
 Only need one device to use
 Teachers can create multiple classes to organize their students’ QR
codes
 Each student is assigned a specific QR code number that is uniquely
theirs
 Simple set up
*Teacher note: Pre-planning is a must with
Plickers! Important to print out the QR codes
prior to using with students
*Plickers gives immediate feedback on
student responses in a graph format!
Plickers in the Classroom
!
Plickers serves as a great formative assessment
tool:
Beginning of the Lesson:
Use as a way to gage students’ prior
knowledge before starting a new topic
Middle of the Lesson:
Check for understanding at multiple
intervals throughout the lesson
End of the Lesson:
Use Plickers as an “Exit Ticket” to
assess quality of student learning
Using Plickers with Students
Butterfly Life Cycle Review
 I created my own free account and created a demo class
 Creating questions is simple, you get to pick the format of the
question
*True/False or Multiple Choice
 Sample Question: Butterfly Life Cycle
 For younger students, you can utilize Plickers in the
traditional format – question & answer
 For older students, you can engage higher ordered thinking
by having them work together to come up with review
questions for a given topic!
Let’s take a look together!
Review the graph of
student responses. How
did the class do as a
whole? Do we need to
continue reviewing based
on data?
Evaluation
Predict the outcome of
assessment. Review
options and determine if
correct answer was picked
Synthesis
Analysis
Bloom’s
Identify the patterns
Application
Identifying the correct answer and QR
code
Comprehension
Understand the specifics of topic- different life
cycle stages
Knowledge
Recall the skill being reviewed- butterfly life cycle
Plickers App
Taxonomy
Popplet
www.popplet.com
“An interesting way to organize your ideas”
 Popplet is an app that can be downloaded from the iTunes
store for the iPad and can be used on computers, too
 There is a free version, called “Popplet Lite”
 For a small fee, you can have access to the Popplet app, which
allows you to store all your “Popplets” as PDFs in multiple
folders
* There is a school discount should you
want to explore creating accounts for each
of your students!
Popplet in the Classroom
Popplet is an exceptionally versatile app and can be used in
multiple ways for various subjects:
Whole Group
• Teacher
Created
• “Brain
Storms”
Small Groups
• Students
work
together
• Discuss
their
thinking
Centers
• Based on
the topics
• Differentiated
based on the
needs of the
students in the
groups
Popplet Lessons
 Popplet can be utilized to fit the needs of almost any lesson
and any subject!
 I created multiple Popplets on my account to help prove the
versatility of the app
 Some examples of the Popplets I was able to create are:
Characteristics of
a Fable
Number
Bonds
Timelines
Let’s Take a Look Together!
Lesson Pedagogy
 Depending on how you incorporate the Popplet app in your
lessons/centers, you can have your students move through the
stages of Bloom’s Taxonomy
 Teachers can also address the different learning styles of their
students:
Auditory
• Working with
partners/Peers
• Discussion
Visual
• Organization of
“Popplets”
• Placement of
topics
Kinesthetic
• Using
iPad/Computer
• Moving “Popplets”
Flashcard Machine
www.flashcardmachine.com
An innovative strategy to practice study skills!
 Flashcard Machine is a free resource
 Can be used on any computer, iPad, tablet, iPhone and
Android device
 Allows the user to create flashcards using various online
assets that traditional flashcards lack
*Pictures and Audio
 Collaboration
 Easy organization
* Built in study sessions, quizzes and
games built in for students!
Flashcard Machine in the Classroom
*
Teacher/Student
created
*Work together to
identify the terms
needed for a
given
topic/lesson
Centers
* Teacher created
*Show to the
class at different
intervals of a
lesson
*Work as a whole
class to answer
Small Group
Whole Group
There are many strategies that go beyond the traditional use of
flashcards in the classroom…
* Students can
use an iPad or
tablet to practice
facts
*Create their own
flashcards to use
with the class
The website can also be used for different topics, too!
And many more…
Flashcard Machine Lesson
 I created a set of flashcards about maps/globes
 For the lesson, I imagine this set as a teacher “exemplar”
 Students would be put in heterogeneous groups to
brainstorm vocabulary terms they think are most important to
review before a test/quiz
*One group might focus on maps, others on
globes, or map features, etc.
 The groups would work together to create the flashcards to
eventually share with the class
 Important class discussion about the terms picked and the
definitions
* “Do we agree on these terms? Is there one
that’s missing?”
Review the
terms/definitions of each
group. Were there other
terms that you think were
missing or lacking? What
would you change?
Evaluation
Determine patterns
regarding the terms
picked by groups
Synthesis
Analysis
Bloom’s
Analyze the terms picked
Application
Identifying the correct answer and
terms needed
Comprehension
Understand the specifics of the vocabulary terms
Knowledge
Recall the skills being addressed- Map Skills
Flashcard Machine Lesson
Taxonomy
Final Note
I hope you found this video and the educational technology
resources discussed helpful and informative! Please feel free
to check these resources out for yourself and try them in your
own classrooms. It might help not only inform your teaching,
but change the learning experiences of your students, as well!
Thanks for checking
out my Digital
Toolbox!