Technology Hacks, Especially for Littles: Pin a Shortcut

A few teachers have mentioned a stumbling block for blended learning has been the limitations of their students. It makes sense. If it takes 10 minutes for students to navigate to the website, then that's 10 minutes of lost instructional time. Teachers wonder, is it worth it?

But oftentimes the benefits of using the technology are great, and with a few tricks or hacks, teachers can speed up the process and reap those benefits. Here are a few, designed especially for younger learners or other students who might need more supports:

Issue: Students have trouble navigating to websites/apps on the device.

If students are using school devices, you might take a day to set up one of the hacks below. To do so, you would add a bookmark or shortcut to the "desktop" of the student device for the chosen webpage.

• Directions for iPad and Video Tutorial for iPad
• Directions to "Pin a Webpage to your Shelf" for Chromebook and a Student-Made Tutorial

Hack #1: Use a Google Site for your class, and create a new "page" for the day.

Everything students need to open for the day is a click of the date away! This allows you to embed slides, videos, etc. so that students don't even have to open a new browser tab or window to view content. 

Hack #2: Use a tool like Symbaloo or Wakelet to curate the sites/apps that students use most frequently.

These curation tools are highly visual and are best if you have a few tools used frequently. You can create different boards/lists to help students access the apps they need. If it requires login, be sure to contact technology about how to use CLEVER for single sign-on.

These hacks also allow you to embed videos, such as those from YouTube, without all the other ads or suggested videos that can be distracting.

If you want help setting this up, contact the TLI department. For more ideas, keep checking the blog for the next installment of technology hacks!