THE EDTECH COLLECTIVE
A Collective of Educational Technology Resources for Educators
DIGITAL SPACES
What is a Digital Space?
Need a digital space online where students can be monitored while working together and learning from each other? Digital spaces are online places where individuals can gather, create, share and interact. Educators and students can both take advantage of the learning opportunities digital spaces can provide! Digital spaces are accessible and can be displayed on devices such as laptops, tablets, computers and smartphones. EdTech Collective has compiled online spaces where with one click you can be taken to the digital space of your choosing! Here students can expand their learning by collaborating, communicating and interacting with their peers and school community.
MICROSOFT TEAMS
Microsoft Teams is a proprietary communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. Microsoft Teams allows teachers and students to collaborate on one platform, while utilizing the many capabilities of Microsoft Office 365. This platform is great for four reasons: 1) it promotes a space where discussion can be held, 2) it allows all students to collaborate equally, 3) the asynchronous nature of the discussions allows students to reflect on the readings, read through their peers' posts and provide thoughtful answers and 4) it connects with other Microsoft Office capabilities which allow students to complete all course-related evaluations on one platform. Usually, Microsoft Office 365 applications are costly for businesses, however, free access is granted to students and teachers using their institutional email. This is an important feature as it provides all students with the same tools for the success and completion of all course evaluations.
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GOOGLE CLASSROOM
Think of this tool as a digital meeting place for your students. Google Classroom can support in-person learning communities using this platform and it’s auxiliary services - Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Forms - students can interact via hand in assignments, participate in discussion boards, and reference teacher instructions. Educators can post assignments and references that are saved in this digital forum which can be accessed at any time by students.
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For more information on GSuite and other digital tools, check our Digital Tools page for following this link.
BRIGHTSPACE
Brightspace is a learning management system (LMS) developed by Desire2Learn (D2L), a cloud company with a mission to transform the way we learn. This user-friendly platform offers various tools and features for content creation and curation, collaborative learning, and integrations and functionalities. It integrates with your organization’s current tech stack.
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A course designer can add content by linking to shared or external drives, import course content from colleagues, collect content in one area for sharing and reusing, record and embed videos, and offer awards and certificates. With integrated web conferencing, there is an option to write on whiteboards, share slides, and record meetings. Upcoming assignments can be placed in Announcements and submitted in Assignments; discussions can be held in Activity Feed; outside websites can be linked to widgets on the Homepage and to icons on the Navigation Bar. Brightspace provides training sessions for all users: teachers, students, and parents.
CANVAS
Canvas LMS is an open-sourced application designed for both teachers and students by making an engaging learning environment available to learn. It helps teachers to engage their students with different blended learning models and collaboration tools, specially designed for K-12 and higher education. Canvas LMS can also be used to develop eLearning modules for professional learning development. Canvas LMS is available on both desktop and mobile devices, and it offers easy-to-use and customizable teaching and learning experience. Some of astounding features of Canvas LMS include: Auto-grading system, Customizes plugins tools from external sites, Community support from Canvas official, Mobile integration, Content customization, Assessment customization.
DISCORD
Discord is a place where individuals can communicate, collaborate and share through private channels set up by the educator. Students can then use the messaging chat platforms and free voice channels to work and learn together. Voice channels allow students to have a place to talk, create video chats and screen share. Discord screen sharing and drawing sessions allow students to feel as if they are working together even when apart! It is important that digital spaces make it easy to communicate and Discord is a wonderful space in which communities can be organized. Educators act as the moderators who can customize notifications, host presentations and allow students to join the community. Discord is an organized digital space where educators can keep meetings, resources and chats all in one place for students to revisit.