Technology, used thoughtfully, can be a powerful enabler of learning. The San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) provides information on programs and resources related to the enlightened, effective use of technology to support learning and student achievement. Services include technology-related consultation, professional learning design and facilitation, technology planning support, technology standards, and District Technology Collaborators (DTC - countywide IT and EdTech leadership group) group facilitation.
STEAM Lending Library
The STEAM Center runs a lending library where educators can check out STEAM-related books and hands-on kits for classroom and training use. Note that due to high demand, kits can only be checked out to a classroom for one week. View the STEAM book library and request to check out books and kits.
Technology Integration Tools
| Learning Management Systems | How to Do It | What We Like |
|---|---|---|
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Seesaw |
Professional Development with Seesaw
Getting Started with Seesaw in K-2 (2-hour recorded webinar) |
Good for Pre-K-3rd Student driven digital portfolios and simple parent communication. (FERPA, COPPA) Privacy Evaluation |
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Canvas |
Canvas K-12 tips 5 Things to Easily Get Your Canvas Class Going Conferences, Group Work, Assignments and Feedback |
Good for grades 9th-Adult Store resources in an accessible way for your students and parents. In addition to being a resource repository, Canvas allows you to assess your students, provide collaborative experiences, and provides data and feedback. Embedded accessibility tools: Text can be read aloud to students. Picture glossary available to support English Learners. Line reader helps students track text. Privacy Evaluation |
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GC Help Support |
Good for K-12 Educators can create classes, distribute assignments, send feedback, and see everything in one place. Classroom also seamlessly integrates with other Google tools like Google Docs and Drive. (FERPA, COPPA) Privacy Evaluation |
| Recording Tools | How to Do It | What We Like |
|---|---|---|
|
Loom |
Guide to Using Loom for Education |
Video length longer than five minutes. Download, embed, or share link. Desktop version allows for better sound and video quality. Educational institutions can use Loom Pro for free, forever. |
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Screencastify |
Initial Setup |
Saves videos, up to five minutes, to your Google drive. Easy to share on Google Classroom. You can draw and annotate on the screen. |
| Student Engagement Tools | How to Do It | What We Like |
|---|---|---|
|
Flipgrid |
Getting started with Flipgrid (slides with videos) | Allows students to discuss on their own time. Supports equity of voice and student weight time, especially beneficial for English Learners. Students don’t need to create accounts. Privacy Evaluation: Need Parental Consent |
|
Padlet |
Getting Started with Padlet 10 Classroom Uses for Padlet Padlet Backpack for Schools (Paid) |
Allows you to easily create and collaborate on group projects, exchange notes, provide feedback, book reviews, backchannel chat, and save your unique ideas to a sharable site. Privacy Evaluation: Need Parental Consent |
| Content | How to Do It | What We Like |
|---|---|---|
|
Nearpod |
Nearpod 101 | Allows K-12 teachers to present interactive lessons, quizzes, and virtual reality-based activities to their students. Privacy Evaluation |
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Pear Deck |
Pear Deck webinars & training videos | Presentation platform that allows teachers to collect and save student responses in a live session in order to gauge student comprehension. Pear Deck requires both student and teacher accounts to use social login via Google. Privacy Evaluation |
| Virtual Meetings | How to Do It | What We Like |
|---|---|---|
|
Google Meet |
Google Meet Training videos and guides Set Up Meet for Distance Learning |
Video conferencing platform that is tied to districts’ Google Suite accounts. Can be set up to only allow district-based accounts to participate. |
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Zoom - For the classroom & staff |
Cheat sheet for teaching on Zoom Beginner’s Tutorial (11:14 video) How to Avoid ZoomBombing - Please be careful where you post links to your class Zoom meetings, as there are people scanning social media for meetings to join and “bomb” with racist and antisemitic language along with explicit images. |
Simple to use, currently offering free “paid” accounts to teachers for Spring. There are many concerns about Zoom’s security (encryption, sharing information to Facebook, and data use). (Privacy Policy for K-12) |
| Accessibility Tools to Support Distance Learning | How to Do It | What We Like |
|---|---|---|
|
Accessible Educational Materials |
National Center on Accessible Educational Materials: Resources for Access and Distance Education
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Leaders in Universal Design for Learning, CAST truly considers what is necessary for all students to access learning. |
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Chromebook Accessibility |
Chromebook Accessibility Tools for Distance Learning
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Chromebooks, like Windows & Mac computers, provide accessibility tools to support students and teachers. |
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G Suite Accessibility |
G Suite User Guide to Accessibility
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As most districts utilize Google Suite tools, it is important that teachers consider the ways to allow all students in their class to access the materials |
| Communication Apps | Getting Started | What it is and What We Like |
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Class Dojo Set-Up and Tutorial Class Dojo | Setup and Beginners | For Parents |
Elementary School Communication Tool: Teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day, and messaging that can be translated into more than 35 languages. Create a positive culture, give students voice, and share moments with families. |
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K-12 District and School Communication Tool: School administrators and teachers can post polls and use two-way messaging via the web, email, and text messages. Schools can enable other add-ons, including fund drives, archives, a registration app, volunteer hours, and an alumni database. Simply check a box to automatically include translated content in 100 languages. |
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Getting Started for Parents (English) Getting Started for Parents (Spanish) |
Teachers, administrators, and other educators use the app to send notices about assignments, push out last-minute updates about trips or sports games, and provide timely information about school closures and other emergency events. Offers two-way messaging and message translation in 90 languages. |
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Talking Points Getting Started Guide |
School-wide and classroom-wide messages, so all the staff in the school can communicate with families in their primary languages, two-way messaging, translates messages from English to 100+ languages; Free for teachers and Title I Schools Privacy Evaluation: Need parental consent |
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Portions of this work have been made possible through the generous funding by Oracle Giving.