Post 3: Oh no - not more new tech! (See your friendly media specialist for help!)

      


                     In today's classroom, integrating new technology feels like just another task on teachers' to-do lists. Where do teachers go for help without embarrassment or feeling awkward? Their school media specialist is a great, although often underutilized, resource who can guide them through the often-stormy waters of technology integration (Johnson, 2012).  Modern students live in a technology rich world loaded with devices, apps, and social media.  Class technology changes constantly and staying current takes time from planning, grading, conferencing, data analysis, and oh yeah, teaching! The school media specialist has a unique role, that when coupled with technology skills, enables her (sorry guys - I know you're out there!) to share resources, teach mini-lessons to both teachers and students, and help ease the stress of identifying, learning, and incorporating the technology that is taking center stage in 21st century schools filled with digital learners waiting for new instructional modes and more personalized learning (Boyer, 2016).
 

                   
     So let me save you some time and trouble and introduce you to Canva, a graphic design platform that is easy to use, quick to integrate, and most importantly (not really, but let's be real, teaching isn't cheap!) FREE.  Canva operates similar to PicCollage (remember when every school had iPads instead of Chromebooks?). Students get set up free limited accounts if they are over 13. Students under 13 simply require an adult who agrees to supervise their use.  Teachers get CanvaPro for free too (yes, really, free - free for you and your students!). As part of the Ditch That Textbook team, Karly Moura, shares twenty Canva templates and how to use them in the classroom.  You can access her post here or by using the information posted in the references below. Students can create brochures, flyers, posters, and the usual.  But they can also create book covers, magazine covers, bookmarks, and even CD covers (YAY for fine arts integration). Middle school science and history teachers will also love the infographic and timeline templates. The Canva team provides easy how-to's, tech support, and frequently asked questions that are easy to find by clicking on the question mark in the upper right corner. There also links below to a few instructional videos to help you kick off your Canva journey. 







 





References:

Boyer, B. (2016). Meet your learners where they are: virtualizing the school library. Internet@Schools, 23(1), 4+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A440057567/AONE?u=nysl_ca_dmvacces&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=73a967ca

Johnston, Melissa P., 2012. "School Librarians as Technology Integration Leaders: Enablers and Barriers to Leadership Enactment,‖ American Association of School Librarians.  

Moura, K. (2021, October 27). 20 Canva Templates to Use in Class Tomorrow [web log]. Retrieved September 12, 2022, from https://ditchthattextbook.com/canva-templates/.





Comments

  1. Tiffany BarrSeptember 15, 2022 at 6:20 PM

    You had me at "FREE"! I really love Canva. This is such a great resource and it is accessible for everyone to navigate pretty fairly. Students will be sure to love this resource too and I'm surprised at how well some of them really do. The videos were very useful as well for someone who has not heard of this resource before. I've created so many videos for school using Canva during COVID days so I know students will love this to add to their resource toolkit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carson McCallumSeptember 17, 2022 at 9:45 AM

    Canva is a really great resource - I've been using it since college and it's also wonderful how much it has changed. There are many more templates and creation possibilities with Canva now even than there was seven years ago. I also used Canva during the pandemic with students and it is truly a great creative tool for projects and lesson presentations. During the pandemic, I used it to make a monthly newsletter for my students and their parents called The Pencil and Post-It and it was a fun resource to build with and received really great feedback from parents about. I also designed the Beta Club t-shirts on Canva last year and there were options to purchase the t-shirts (or even posters and banners) through the website. I agree that it is a good resource to recommend for teachers and students!

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