#ISTE13 My Take On Day 3 (Monday, June 24)

I'm so tired...  A ton of information along with an extensive, yet strategic stroll through the ISTE Expo. However, the biggest take-away from today deals with the vital notion that education is not about the tool...it's about the child using the tool and developing a relationship with him/her and showing them how to exploit that tool to do anything he/she wishes.

My other take aways are listed below:

Session 1: 

Going Google - Oshkosh Area School District

Why Google:

*Treat internal and external devices as BYOD

Ideas For Out Transition

Start training with a few teachers and send them out to train the massess

Community survey regarding our website and Google transition

Start a blog to provide updates for staff

Button approach to links on the website

Session 2: 

Did You Know? Amazing Features of Google Apps

delivr.com/2e6zb

Great ideas to using Google applications like:

• Use Google draw for seating charts
• You can make your documents view only
• Using pre-made Google templates (Awesome!)
• Adding comments in directly in Google Docs for Language Arts or any essay or paper
• Research directly within the Google Docs
• Cite directly from site that was pulled for research within the doc
• Can modify picture tools that are ok for copyright purposes for usage rights
• Also search videos within document and embed in presentations
• Now can insert images in Google Forms
• Can also insert date and time for parent teacher conferences in forms

Check out 

• The Chrome Web Lab
• GeoGuesser ( A must)
• Voice recognition flash cards
• Peanut Gallery films
• 100,000 stars
• Cube Slam
• Webcam Swiper (uses webcam to turn the page for you of a book)
• Everynote Clearly 
• Adblock for YouTube
• Gmail Labs are great for our new email addresses for going Google!
• Google Cultural Institute (formally called Art Project) Take a White House Tour (There is a YouTube video of the camera crew going through to create the site)

Everything including all links can be accessed from the presentation embedded in the QR code above.

Session 3:

10 Killer iPad App Projects Kids Will Love

@hollydornak and @mrsjdyer

Cool Apps

• Skitch (creating fractions with pictures taken with app and annotated over)
• TurboCollage Lite (saves to photo log and then use Postino to create postcards)
• Postino (can physically mail out with real addresses or emailed)
• STickyboard (sticky notes) and Grafio Lite (Graphic Organizers): for story boarding
• Poplit (for thinking maps)
• Sock Puppet (pretty cool)
• Puppet Pals (can draw your own backgrounds and use images that are cut out as the characters: pretty cool)
• iMovie (of course)
• iMotion HD (Stop Motion)
• OSnap (Stop Motion with all the bells and whistles)
• Cute Cut (video editor)
• Educreation (video lesson creator)
• Doodle Cast (INteractive White boards) (Using this to teach lessons and have exported out for students who are absent or a way of parents learning a lesson that was taught in class. 
• pow (comic strip designer)
• scribble press (creating books)
• Little Story Maker (can have voice narration) 
• Book Creator (Create books with QR codes on pages to highlight student work. Also create books with audio for your beginner readers. Students can also create books for their research papers. Exports to everywhere including Drive, Evernote and Dropbox. COOL can even open in iBooks. Build a library of books created by students that you can even consider selling for a fundraiser. ) 
• Pocket BMX (sports reporting for games that can be done in Evernote)
• Croak.It! (recording capabilities for 30sec that builds an url that can be turned into a qr code)
• Drop Vox (syncs with dropbox account and turned into an url and qr code eventually)
• qrstuff.com (qr code generators)
• recordmp3.org (qr code generator for audio)
• FaceTime and Skype For Education (Did a virtual tour of the fire station with a fireman with an IOS device)
• Digital Wish (sends out your wish list)
• SignUp Genius (helps bring things into the classroom

Session 4:

Verizon Foundation Innovative Learning Schools

Thinkfinity.org (Professional Learning Community)

• Looking for schools who 
• transform K-12 STEM teaching and learning
• increase student engagement
• 3:1 or better 
• 40% Free/Reduce lunch

Some fun things from the day:

Rockin' Out with Pocket Guitar with @kevinhoneycutt

Watching NAO get down to Thriller 

#ISTE13 My Take On Day 2 (Sunday, June 23)

Well Day 2 consisted of meeting new people and networking to build my PLN. The greatest impact of the #ISTE13 conference is creating those relationship with educational leaders who share in the same passion to turn education up side down using technology as the mechanism. Some of the ideas I gained are listed below.

Augmented Reality with @techbradwaid using Aurasma and Daqri really cool stuff.

Google Glass demo with STEMbite's Andrew Vanden Heuval (@avheuv ) Ok, I must have a pair if not just as another toy.

The rest of the day was used discovering the SIGs (Special Interest Groups...OMG there are a ton, but all set up as advocates for special technology in education. I joined several.

The Ignite Sessions finished of the evening. Some very interesting ideas and educational trends were introduced and elaborated on including the following:

Michelle Cordy - Hacking The Classroom

Michael Mills - the digital divide: narrowing the gap. Everyone deserves access to empowerment. (Trust but verify)

@wfryer - opening digital doors using scratch to redefine geek: geek is cool. Story chasing: amplifying school stories. Journalism club to amplify happenings around school.


Jeff Piontek - STEM education. STEM to STEAM (A for arts) STREAM.

 Carrie Ross @msrossenglish technology as a gateway to what each student knows.

 Dean : silly to creativity.

 Allison White curating information overload.

Great Day 2

#ISTE13 My Take On Day 1 (Saturday, June 22)

The educational technology world converges in San Antonio, TX for June 22-26 to discuss my favorite topic, How to meet students where they are. Ok, well, maybe that’s not the exact topic, but essentially, everything discussed here will be used to enahnce or revamp the way we teach using technology while the students become the focal point of that learning.

The game-plan is to provide a synopsis of my daily adventure by highlighted useful tools that I pumped about and for sure will test out in some way in the classrooms that I have an impact on. With today being the unofficial opening of the conference, I only took advantage of one session, but it was pretty worthwhile. It was more of a meet and greet gathering for mobile device enthusiast who wanted to share ideas about effective uses of mobile applications. I took aways some nuggets that seem perfect for the mobile environment we are creating in Dallas. Here are a few:

Today's Meet (live blogging/conversation tool) (like CoverIt Live!) This tool provides an online chatroom for students to collaborate and discuss live during local events, collaborative sessions, simultaneous video viewing, etc.

Puffin (allows flash on iPad) Great for 1:1 ipad school wishing to use videos that are built with flash.

QR Rafter qr and barcode reader that also allows you to generate you own qr codes from your phone or ipad. I use QR codes often, but here are a few suggestions from the discussion: Visit website tutorials, student portfolios, website links for small kids.

iSchool Initiative (mobile deployment for students) (This is the program with the bus) I actually had a chance to sit down with this group and discuss 1:1 deployment issues and solutions that enhance success opportunities for any program. Some of the suggestions that I plan to look further into are
Air Watch; a mobile device management system (MDM). According to their site the 

AirWatch Agent provides complete mobility management for your entire fleet of iOS devices deployed across your enterprise. AirWatch provides your IT department with the ability to quickly enroll devices in your enterprise environment, configure and update device settings over-the-air, enforce security policies and compliance, secure mobile access to corporate resources, and remotely lock and wipe managed devices. 

The other is Ruckus Wireless in order to address our wifi solutions. Now, iSchool Initiative was founded by a 17 year old kid, Travis Allen (Now 20 I believe), who realized that schools needed to change their approach to teaching because he was denied the opportunity to use the tools that he knew best in a classroom setting. He believes as I do that we need to meet our students where they are and bring their technology in a learning platform. Here is the video that got him started.



Here is the current video:

I enjoyed day number 1 and I'm very excited about the days to come.

Meet Them Where They Are

Starting to use Paper.li a little more to pull stories, articles and other pertinent information to support the initiative to meet students where they are.
Meet Them Where They Are

Kids Feel the Power of Poetry in Performance | Edutopia

During National Poetry Month I always try to encourage teachers to utilize various tools of technolog to promote the art of poetry writing and craft of performing. Unfortunately, since I've been in Texas, testing has always been the focus of every classroom teacher during this month. However, I walked into an ELA class today and observed a teacher going over interpreting poems for the STAAR test and I asked if I could interject and display something to her class. The class was a pretty gifted one, so she didn't mind. I showed the students the following article and video which I discovered several years ago and we both simply watched the engagement of the students elevate.

Kids Feel the Power of Poetry in Performance | Edutopia

After going through the article and viewing the video we broke down the poem written by Jessica Blandon. The students were blown away with how they were able to interpret the poem along with the power of words. Then I grabbed a couple of laptops and a some Blue USB microphones and sat them in front of the students and simply said, "Write!" The challenge was to take the practice poem for the test and  write their interpretation as a poem. They had to record themselves, critique the poem with a peer and then apply music that exposed the underlying tones of their interpretation.

The end result... they truly understood the poem.

The Stone Lab Glog

Yesterday, I posted the newest product addition for Glogster Edu just as I was introducing Glogs to one of the schools that I work with along with re-introducing Glogster to myself. I hadn't used it in a while, but the timing, nor the group was ever fitting. This current group of student salivate at the opportunity to create using technology and everything tool that has been implemented into everyday instruction in the classroom has elevated the engagement factor tremendously. So, students chatting on Google+ and collaborated using Google Docs to come up with a front page design for The Stone Lab. I thought is was well done, so I thought I would share.

A Sneak Peak: The HORIZONTAL GLOG! | The Glogster EDU Blog

Now this one, I have used over the years and have seen the growth and enormous potential since the conception. However, I hadn't had the group to use it effectively. This year I have, of course just when it becomes a paid application. However, it doesn't change the value Glogster Edu has in today's digital classroom. Adding the Horizontal Glog feature "widens" the possibilities of "stretching" student's creativity to the max. In a later post, I will show you the Glog designed by students that were trying to create an opening page to the creative site that showcases student projects done at their school. I have had a heavy influence on this group because I'm the first adult that chose to design and educational atmosphere that meets them where they are. In the mean time, check out the latest Glogster news.

A Sneak Peak: The HORIZONTAL GLOG! | The Glogster EDU Blog.

Gym-classroom hybrid helping kids with learning problems | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth

I'm always harking on the fact that the only way education can change for the better is by meeting our students where they are. Find a way to motivate, engage and create environments conducive for success that is familiar to the way students of today think and operate with a focus on technology. Well, I was quite impressed with a local school district that decided to do just that by adding a technology tool that I had not yet thought have. You have to read the article to find out what going the extra mile to reach our students looks like. (Make sure to notice the MacBooks being used...)

Gym-classroom hybrid helping kids with learning problems | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth.

The iGeneration...Better Get Used To It!

Found this great infographic on Kids and Mobile Technology that agrees with the notions of this digital generation. My 2-year old operates an iPad mini better than many of the adults that I train on an everyday basis. If we can't beat them... might as well Meet Them Where They Are!

Kids & Mobile Technology infographic by michelleink88.

Does Social Media Belong In The Classroom???

A parent called the lab this week and left a message explaining her displeasure with her student using Google+ in class to converse with her pen pal in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She felt that school was no place for students to be spending time on the internet video chatting with people and their time is better spend reading from a text book to gain knowledge. Ok, when I recovered from the laugh attacked that ensued, I invited her to the school to show her along with a few other parents how social media can be used in the classroom. The meeting is being held in a few weeks, but the list of interested parents has grown to 132. Guess how she got the word out to other parents to get them involved...FaceBook. Wow! So, as I was putting together my presentation, I began by asking myself if Social Media actually belongs in the classroom. People who know me understand that I'm always willing to try something new for learning especially if it fits my ed tech philosophy of meeting students where they are, but when considering implementation, one truly has to consider the why not and all the fears that are associated with students collaborating online. So, is it worth the risk?

Source: learndash.com via Holly on Pinterest

The Learning Life of StudyBlue

Understanding the mind of the digital child is challenging and I say this as parent and educator. However, the most difficult aspect to fathom is the study habits of this generation. As a part of my business research, I am finding that study habits are not introduced at an early age, students tend to have a difficult time with time management and priortizing their study schedule. Personally, my daughter seems to have the most success when she creates flash cards to help her retain. However, along with my students, paper flash cards got boring, using power point and Keynote was successful, but she didn't always have access to her laptop. However she always had her iPhone. StudyBlue has put together a cool way to study as they have truly taken some time to look into how today's digital student operates.
Via: STUDYBLUE.com So far, my student's who are using the tool have improved their test grades dramatically. It's worth a shot.

50 Years Later...

50 Years today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most replicated speeches "I Have A Dream". It's hard to imagine the progress of this country without the boldness of Dr. King. Students today take for granted the freedom to socialize on their precious networks,naively believing the this is the way it has always been. To keep the nation in a state of gratitude, we need to keep reminding our young people from whence we came. Problem, students speak in a different language today. So how do we continue to teach them the past and keep them interested? As we continue to meet students where they are audio and video mashups are a great way to impart historical wisdom and impress upon today's students. Using simple tools like audacity or Garageband on a Mac, students can take exerts from Dr. King's speeches and put them to music. This is so easy to do, but can have a great impact. Students learn a great deal about the power of words from a great man, while infusing relevant media that keeps them engaged. Students can also take video clips of recorded speeches and still images to create a video mashup put to music. iMovie and MovieMaker can be used to accomplish this task. It's vital that we keep history alive, especially when it comes to teaching our students about the impact of Great people such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We just have to meet them where they are to do so.

How Technology Is Empowering The Learners - Edudemic

Since I started working with Montessori schools, I have seen the most amazing faces of discomfort when I walk in the classroom to talk technology. Though each classroom is far from being traditional, the argument about adding technology leans toward the student's need for tactile learning. I'm told consistently that the student needs to feel the beads, touch the manipulative, learn certain grips to be able to be successful in the classroom. This article, though not completely disagreeing with the responses I receive, serves as a aid to my own argument of technology is their to enhance the learning. This is a great read.

How Technology Is Empowering The Learners - Edudemic.

Another iPad In The Classroom Push

Dealing with a large school district can be difficult when it comes to spending money on meaning technology. Everyone wants a bulk discount or instead of finding the best tool to meet the needs of the students where they are, the least expensive is what is chosen. Well, as my mom always said, "You get what you pay for!" Hopefully, this article from +EducationDive will help the big districts rethink their implementation strategies.

18 iPad uses: How classrooms are benefiting from Apple's tablets | Education Dive.

Just 30 Minutes

It's been many moons since I have been able to blog, but I'm back for Twenty Thirteen. My new position that took on this fall along with starting my own business has kept me away from sharing my educational technology passion. However, as the job has finally settled, I find it imperative that I get back to keeping up with the Ed Tech world.

In my Technology Lab our new challenge for this year is to take at least 30 minutes a week to learn something new. I myself have chosen to spend at least 30 minutes a day bettering myself by learning a new skill or adding on to the skills I already have. The thing is with students though, the computer is their number one resource for learning and when they get on the computer, they were immediately lost when it came to referencing learning opportunities.

So, I found a site for them that I highly recommend called Great Websites for Kids. This site is sponsored by the Association For Library Service To Children a division of the American Library Association. Great Websites for Kids actually is a safe site aggregate that suggest amazing and stunningly beautiful websites that are astetically pleasing to kids while providing relevant information to both the trending and standard topics that students are interested in from endangered species, to trivial facts about everything all while filled with vivid images interesting creatures like the coconut crab which I had never seen before or heard of in my life.

Great Websites for Kids divides the suggested sites into academic categories: Animals, The Arts, History & Biography, Literature & Languages, Mathematics & Computers, Reference Desk, Sciences, and Social Sciences. This could be a one-stop-shop for students doing research on various topics and keeps them steered clear from unwanted sites that are suggested when searching via Google. They also highlight a website for the week that appears when you first enter the site, bringing notariaty to some very information friendly sites that contain wealth of knowledge but delivered in a way that engages the students. Great Websites for Kids also has a link for Parents, Caregivers, Teachers & Others taking the search challenge away for us adults also when looking for useful information for our kids. I guess this my Website of the Week and I hope that students would at least spend 30 minutes a week accessing it to learn something new.