Technology Tools for ELA

I am not really sure if we are choosing one tool that addresses all five standards or one tool for each standard.  So I am going to do both.  If I had to choose one technology tool to address all five standards I would have to go with the iPad.  The reason I chose this tool is its diversity as well as its popularity with “digital natives”.   The five technologies I would have the students use are laid out below. 

Reading: The iPad’s ability to functions as an e-reader and its access to virtually millions of titles, in many languages, makes this a logical choice.  The ability to access “new literacies” via the hundreds of apps available is another reason I would choose this tool. 

Writing:   Moodle moodle.org/ is a virtual learning environment.  Teachers could use this as a discussion forum and it is completely accessible via an iPad.  The iPad also serves as a research tool vital to a student’s ability to collect data for specific writing tasks.

Speaking and Listening: Vokies www.voki.com/ are free avatars that students can customize and use to create oral presentations.  It also provides text-to-speech technology.  Prezi prezi.com/ is an on-line cloud-based presentation and story-telling software.  Both of these are accessible via an iPad.

Language: The applications of the iPad as it relates to this standard include Wordflick www.wordflick.com/ and Textropolis http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/textropolis, both vocabulary building sites.  Also available are a free dictionary and thesaurus app and access to a visual thesaurus http://www.visualthesaurus.com/.