Wild and Free by Dan Herlihy and Mo Buti

being used, as well as being able to easily be manage. As many schools have settled into just a few environments including only Chromebooks and the Chrome OS, only Macbooks and iPads, Windows using Edge or the Chrome Browser, etc. the need is also to demonstrate apps and programs that can play well within them, and are quick and easy to learn and use. An example of a Chrome extension that is easy to use, relevant, and does not require very much in the way of “how do I use this” is Bibcitation Bibliography & Citation Generator. From any webpage click on the extension, choose the citation style, and it auto generates the citation. If items are missing that it hadn’t initially found, such as the date the article was posted or the author(s), you can search the page for that information, click the add button next to the item missing, add it and click update. It regenerates it with the updated information in correct format. Great for teaching students to cite where their information came from when doing research for reports. This is also great to use to teach students how they can check their own work. Searching for and curating the many apps and programs takes time. It would be easy to read a short description and think, “Oh, this sounds great,” and just add it to the list. We have gone through lists and lists of programs, and tested them ourselves to make sure they work - sounds obvious, but you would not believe how many do not work well enough to be counted on working when needed. Why did this app work on my computer but not yours?! What version of the browser are you using? … this would never work on the spot in a classroom. Too many steps for a student to use successfully. All during the year, from a myriad of places, we come across apps that go onto the list. There are many sites and organizations that assist with keeping up with what is new and emerging. Organizations such as CONNSENSE out of the University of Connecticut, which publishes the https://connsensereport.com/ Tech & Learning https://www.techlearning.com/ Top Tech Tidbits https://www.toptechtidbits.com/ AI Weekly https://aiweekly.co/ AI-Weekly https://ai-weekly.ai/ Edutopia https://www.edutopia. org, Richard Byrne’s https://freetech4teach.teachermade.com/ (see the archive posts at the bottom of the page) and ……are just a few that provide weekly or monthly tips on what is coming out. However, another way is to simply spend time searching for a specific topic or category, such as “text to speech Chrome extensions” or “AI tools for leveling text” or “making image pdf files readable to screen readers.” Other sites of interest include: https://edtechteacher.org/ https://www.edtechdigest.com/ https://www.educatorstechnology.com/ A few examples of wild and free apps and programs include QRcode Chimp (https://www.qrcodechimp.com) This is one of those apps that seem, on the surface, straight forward. It creates QR Codes from any URL you enter. However, it also allows you to create “dynamic” codes, meaning, you can save the QR Code, distribute it, (for example printing it) then later change the URL, and now when that original code you printed is scanned, it

automatically goes to the new URL. You could send your student home with the QR Code you created that opens a specific book on the Tar Heel Reader website. They scan it and it opens that book. Tomorrow you open QRcode Chimp and change the URL for that QR Code to the URL for a different book. The student goes home, scans the original code, and today it opens a new book. You could program it each day to open a …new book, audio story, homework assignment, note for parents on how the student’s day was, or …No need to be generating and printing a new QR Code for each day! Have parents tape it to the fridge! No more excused for “I forgot what my homework is.” Many AI programs now will take a reading passage, story, etc. and change the reading level to anything you ask. Programs such as Magicschool.ai, Briskteaching.com as well as the basic AI program ChatGPT all do this. If we were to always level passages for a particular student at the exact same level, it might discourage the student from reading, versus providing them with texts within a range. Think of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development by providing “a range of book levels that are not too challenging and not too easy--depending upon a student's reading level” (Zone of Proximal Development, 2024). However, there are also many reasons for leveling the text where the “focus is on students’ comprehension of the material rather than the development of reading skills” (Center on Inclusive Software for Learning at CAST., 2023, p. 2). Seeing AI is a free app from Microsoft for iPad, iPhone and Android devices. Using this app (it uses your camera) you are able to point to currency and it will read aloud the denominations of both coins and bills, point to printed text and it will automatically start reading the text aloud (can choose from over a dozen languages but does not do translation) - including text on your computer screen. It does more including reading bar codes, reads aloud handwritten text, and it can describe a scene as well as describe colors. It can scan a person that you can then save under their name and they will recognize by name the next time they are in view of what you scan (prior to saving they will describe a little bit about the person- sex, hair color, and an estimated age. This is my favorite part as it thinks I am 28!) The ease of use is its ability to simply begin reading basically any displayed text, without the need of scanning, uploading, processing and saving beforehand makes it a great on the fly solution. Looking to find some good podcasts for kids and adults? Listen Notes https://www.listennotes.com allows you to search for podcasts by topic, age group, name, and more. There are many podcasts for younger students, for example Sleep Tight Stories - Bedtime Stories for Kids, and Story Train: Magical Bedtime Stories for Kids, just to mention a few. Find some good podcasts for classroom/group listening, and work on listening skills with your students! Would you like to get a written summary of a video? Summarize Tech, summarize.tech allows you to type/paste in

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