#001 Tech Tools I'm Excited About in 2023

Hey everyone and welcome to my very first podcast episode. I am so excited to be starting this adventure with you. I can’t wait to share with you tech tools, how to tutorials, and different ways to go beyond the consumption of technology to use these tools to promote the 4 C’s, creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. 

Before we get started I just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself. I am currently in my 9th year of teaching. I have taught grades 1st through 5th grade. I am currently working on finishing up my masters degree as a digital learning specialist. I am so excited to be graduating this May. I have always had a passion for teaching and figuring out ways to incorporate technology into my lessons. 

Outside of school, I love to travel and I love photography. One of my goals is to travel to all the national parks. At this point in time when I’m recording this episode I have been to 12 of our parks. Not only do I want to visit the big national parks, I love visiting the national monuments, national forests, and much more. I think what sparked my interest is growing up in New Hampshire and living right outside of the White Mountain National Forest. My mom is the one who first put a camera in my hands and I have been hooked ever since. I love sharing my adventures with my students and sharing places that I have been with them. 

My love for adventures and traveling is what has inspired the name of this podcast. It’s always an adventure when working with technology in the classroom. Things work great and inevitably things go wrong. However, that’s all part of the adventure. That love for travel, photography, and adventure is what has inspired my last part of the episode.

At the end of each episode I want to share with you an adventure that you could do by yourself, with friends or family. I find getting outside and exploring so relaxing and beneficial to my own mental health. I hope to inspire you to get outside and explore as well. 

Each week I also want to provide you with a quick tip related to a tech tool. This week my tech tip is about setting an expiration date on google files. This feature allows you to share a google doc, slide, sheet, drawings, but give them only a certain amount of time to have access to that document. To do this, click on that blue share button. You recently may have noticed a pop up on how to do this. It is quite simple, all you have to do, once you click that share button, is type the email address of the person you want to share with. To the right you will choose whether you want this person to be a viewer, commenter, or editor. Now at the bottom of that menu there is the option to add expiration. The default amount of time is for 1 month. If you click on the pencil icon, you can edit the expiration date. If you click on the notify people, all this information will be shared with that person. This could be a great tool for collaboration projects when you need something completed by a certain time or share a document with a colleague and need to take it over at a certain point. I wouldn’t replace this option with all the features of google classroom. I would advise this to be used among adults. If anyone has used this with their students and have found it useful, I’d love to hear about it. You can find a short video on how to set an expiration date over on my youtube channel, Adventure with EdTech. 

Alright, let's get started. Today I wanted to share with you some tech tools that I love that I am going to continue using and learning more about in 2023. I have also included some tech tools that I personally am interested in and using this upcoming year.