Technology is a huge part of our lives. If our students are emerged in technology on a daily basis they will be better prepared for our high tech world. Technology can enhance the learning process and deepen understanding. It can help with reluctant learners because it is another learning style for students. Using technology is fun and when students are having fun they are engaged on a task.
Students should be held accountable during stations so you can tell if they can apply what you taught. They are also staying academically engaged if they have accountability. You want stations to be thought provoking and fun.
Two websites that I have used recently are Mangahigh and Compass. Both offer quizzes and opportunities for the students to move to the next level. The students look forward to using these sites. In one of the fifth grade classrooms that I visit, Mangahigh is part of the station rotation. They are held accountable by the levels and medals they receive and they also love tracking themselves with the other classes.
A couple of apps that I have used recently are I can read lite, and Shake and Spell. The students have been engaged in their work each time. One way they were accountable after using I can read lite is to spell some of the words on the dry erase board and share them with their partner. I also have them come up with rhyming words.
I attended a math workshop at the beginning of the year and they used QR codes as a scavenger hunt while solving problems. It was so much fun and very easy to set-up. I really would like to use this with the students in January with the new devices.