Thing #10 SmartNotebook

This is it!  Your last Thing!

Thank you for attending our SmartNotebook with superstar Val Calvanezi!

Topics included:

• screen captures
• SMART Exchange
• inserting videos

Missed the workhop?
Here's her handout!!

Please have your blog on your learning posted by June 1 at midnight qualify for the iPads!

Thing #9: QR Codes

QR codes are quick and painless--just what we need this time of year!

These are bar codes that can link to a URL or file when scanned with a SmartPhone or tablet.

QR creators

I usually use http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
Switch to "static" setting (as opposed to "dynamic") and you don't need an account.  Paste in the URL, copy and paste or save the image to your files.
I have also used http://www.visualead.com/, which embeds your code into a pretty picture.

QR readers:

Have your students go to their app store and search for free QR readers.

Uses:

Here's a start but you will come up with more (which you will kindly share)!!
Attach to your website or blog on handouts to parents on Open House night.
Attach a Google Drive or Dropbox file.
Paste onto a handout for any website you want students to access--homework or classwork.
Post it on your SmartBoard (make it big) for students to access in class.
Have students form groups so that each one has someone with a QR reader.
Create a scavenger hunt in the class for groups to use.
Tack up a tutorial for when students get stuck.
Find a fun picture on Google Images. Go to view image and put that URL into a QR code.
Post QRs around your room for sites/files you want students to access frequently.
Make QR codes for apps you recommend.

This article has a great ideas!  Or Google QR code education for a gazillion more articles.

iPads are so close you can taste them!

Thing #10 will be the SmartBoard workshop next Thursday, May 22. Come with a lesson idea you want to create--or not.
Blog about your experience with QR codes and Thing #10 by May 30! 
Winners will be announced at the June faculty meeting!

Thing #8: Google Drive Forms

You have all taken a Google Doc Form, and some of you have even created one, which makes this Thing really easy.  If not, you can do this in as few as 10 minutes!







Google Form is similar to Survey Monkey.
Watch this screencast I made.  By the way, you'll  see I'm working hard at NOT being a perfectionist in the video.

  It includes:

• Creating a new Form
• Tips on getting your survey out (via standard link or TinyURL)
• Viewing student responses (including hiding columns)
• Sharing spreadsheet to colleagues or students without requiring them to log into Google
• Setting notifications (you can get an email if responses are submitted--or not)
• Viewing Summary of Responses (pie charts and bar graphs)

 

Do you have a world of ideas to use Google Forms in and out of school?  Me, too.  Have fun with it, and let us know in your blog what you create!

If you are new to Google Drive, you'll find that the others are near self-explanatory.  

Document is like MS Office Word, Presentation = Power Point, Spreadsheet = Excel  Just don't forget to change your privacy settings to share so someone else can edit.

Due date: Please be done with all Things 1-8 by the end of April if you are shooting for the iPadAir prize!

We need to squeeze in the last two before June 1.  Suggestions are welcome!

Thing #7: Student Response Systems

Feedback!  

This Thing will give you an excuse to try out ways of gathering information to:

• monitor learning so you can adjust
• gather anonymous info for sensitive topics
• lighten the mood with a silly question
• force reflection
• re-activate and re-engage during a lecture
• collect data
• grade 

Please choose a tool that is new to you and experiment.  As usual, share your experience on your blog!  I started a little research to help you get started.  If you add the tool you are trying out on the participant spreadsheet, it might help others plan.
Keep plugging away! Teachers who complete all 10 could win the AirPad Air, and those who complete any 8 could still win the iPad mini!

	Student access	Types of questions	Student tracking/feedback	Misc.
http://www.polleverywhere.com/	Old phones that text Smartphone iPod with texting app tablet Web browser	Multiple choice Open ended Clickable image (upload	Only tracked if students provide name in open-ended response; Real-time feedback	tips page Poll everywhere has made some sweet upgrades, including a clickable image poll.  Set to multiple responses per phone for sharing.
https://www.mentimeter.com/	Smartphone with internet access	Multiple choice or open ended	Real-time feedback No tracking for free accounts.	Students go to website on phone, add ID# and respond.  Embed into PowerPoint option.
http://www.socrative.com/	Smartphones with app iPod touch with app Web browser Tablet with app	Multiple choice Open-ended	You can create accounts for students in classes, track, and store responses over time; realtime feedback to students/teachers	For best results, check with Darron V. Responses emailed in spreadsheet to teacher
http://www.infuselearning.com/ looks great for iPad students	Any device	Draw response! T/F, multiple choice, scale, numerical, open ended	Real-time feedback; view student responses on your computer!	Nice if we had an iPad cart or if you have groups with enough iDevi ces
http://www.classmarker.com/	Web browser Tablets Smartphones	Embed Images, files, videos	You can create accounts for students in classes, track, and store responses over time OR let students respond on the fly to a link	Free accounts are limit # of quizzes. Students & teachers can see results immediately See Kerith M. for tips and examples
http://www.gosoapbox.com/ Soap box also has:  a “Confusion Barometer”; Social Q&A enables students to submit and vote on questions.  anonymous (or not) discussions. Embed images, videos, urls	Multiple choice	Multiple choice/short answer;	Real-time feedback to quizzes Download spreadsheet with answers.	Social Q&A enables students to submit and vote on questions.
Google Drive Forms  Similar to Survey Monkey, this will be Thing #8, so you might want to try something else!	Phone with internet access, tablet, computer	Multiple choice, check boxes, scale, grid, multiple choice Embed videos	Feedback is in a spreadsheet and in graph form. Optional for class to see all results.	You can now embed videos.  See Darron’s blog on screencasting. Use with Flubaroo to automatically have responses graded.

Poll Everywhere 

now has images, in addition to open-ended and multi-choice

 

 

Mentimeter

 Socrative

(so-CRA-tive) intro video: http://vimeo.com/27564554

Infuse Learning

Check out How to Get Started With InfuseLearning by Infuse Learning on Snapguide.  

Class Marker

Soap Box

Getting Started with GoSoapBox - September 2013 from gosoapbox

Thing #6: Screencasting

In Thing #5 you discovered a plenitude of resources to share with students.
As you know, there are many great videos to share but sometimes nothing is quite right.

Sometimes you want to reinvent the wheel!

 http://www.oocities.org/templenh2000/Zog.jpg

This month you will create your own screencasted video to share with students, parents, or colleagues.  This a great tool to start flipping your classroom.  You can add it to your website, blog, Gaggle, or just show it in a class or at Open House night.  You might also have students demonstrate navigation of a site as well.

There are two good options. 
Screencastomatic http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ is wicked easy--except that you can't edit in the free version (feature breakdown on right). I recommend writing a script to limit your "takes".  When done, upload it directly to YouTube or save it as a file.  The first video below shows you how. 

Camtasia is an expensive paid program that is on my computer in the library.  You can arrange to use it, or download a free trial at home.  It allows you to edit, which can be a mixed blessing.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to edit out my less-than-perfect dialog.

Choose a website that you want students to become familiar with--maybe your website, blog, subject specific site, or an introduction to yourself and what services you provide.  The screencast needn't be long, and will hold your students attention better.


Here are a few of mine:

Screencast-o-matic tutorial (using Camtasia): 
When done, "produce video as..."
Custom production > NEXT
WMV or AVI > NEXT
I left everything at the default setting (and kept hitting NEXT since I don't know any better.  On the last screen, pay attention to where you save it (My Videos?) so you can find your file later.

You can then use the file as is, upload it to your website, or  to YouTube for other access.

Photostory Tutorial (using Screencastomatic) and uploaded directly to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRVUhlBSl3k&safe=active

We have others on the Library YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV-1GShBTh9D5UkLh3Isk6g

Thing #5: Resources for Teaching and Learning

Welcome to Thing #5!

The point of this Thing is to help you locate new resources to help you teach and to help your students learn.

Many of you are interested in Flipped Classroom, or probably better, Blended Learning.

Rather than creating your own resources, which takes immeasurable time you don't have, how about harvesting the work of others to share with students in class, or through home viewing?

I have begun to collect resources and have added them to a Symbaloo.  Please share others you'd like me to add if I forgot anything vital!

Your Task:

1.  Browse the resources in the Symbaloo.  If you click on the screenshot above, you will arrive at my Symbaloo "Resources for Teaching and Learning" page. Symbaloo is funky when embedding, so pardon any pitiful attempt below.  By clicking on any tile, you will open the page.  It essentially is a pretty bookmarking site.  Start with EduTecher (the very first tile).

2.  Collect any sites that seem useful to your subject area.   You're sure to find something!  I would of course recommend that you bookmark these with whatever tool(s) you chose for Thing 4 to keep organized. 

3.  Use and share your edu-booty as any good tech pirate would.
a.  Share on your blog (required by Tuesday, February 18 for credit towards iPad drawing)
b.  Share on Twitter (nice)
c.  Share with colleagues, department or building administrators (swell)
d.  Share by spreading the word for Digital Learning Day, February 5 (peachy)

Thing #4: New Year's Organization and Efficiency Tools

Now that you have more tools, you need a tool bag--or new pockets--or just the impetus to clean up.
This Thing is meant to help you organize your professional life. 
My plan was to add curation (selecting, annotating, and sharing) as a tool for you and your students but I'm sensing that you are overwhelmed.  I added some curation resources on the bottom for a varsity option. 

Browse the tools suggested below (or find others).  Select one (or more) to try out.  I think Diigo or Evernote are your best bets.  When you find something to fit your needs, dive in.  The idea is to find something that helps you permanently--not just try, check off a list, and move on. 

 

As with any successful diet,

you need a New Year's organization tool

that you can stick with for true work-style change.

 

Assignment:

1. Blog about the tool(s) you choose.  Feel free to mention others that you investigate, as your findings could help others. 
2. Mention the tool in a tweet.

Varsity option: Share a tool (or more) with students.  You might simply promote one, or you could include it in an assignment.  Our students need organization help even more than we do, and that is a scary thought!
Another idea is to take the next step and curate for others--students and teachers.  Select the best resources you find and share them out.  Check out the Curation Addendum on the bottom of the page.

Diigo

I only use about 10% of Diigo's capabilities but it is my main organizational tool.  I use the bookmarking features to organize the gazillions of links that come through my inboxes. I set it up to automatically bookmark any post I favorite in Twitter.  It works from my iPhone, iPad, work and home computers.  I already helped Amy set it up--then she really started to see the value of Twitter.  You can also highlight notes, annotate web articles, and share to your PLN.  My library is public: , so feel free to check it out: https://www.diigo.com/user/kaluzynskis Note: And yes, my new year's resolution is to clean that up, along with my inboxes!  Right now, anything tagged "twitter" was favorite from Twitter.  If it is tagged "tweet", the link is actually about Twitter.

Pocket App

 is Darron's find.  Formerly called Read It Later, it saves your favorites to Twitter from your device

Livebinders

This is a virtual binder.  You can add notes, files, embed links and videos.  I created a livebinder to organize my library renovation plan.  http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=753231 

I know some teachers and librarians who have had students create Livebinders for a project or a whole class.  I think I heard that you can sync it with Twitter also.

Another virtual binder is Three Ring.  I haven't tested it yet.  Good for organizing your goods, or with students, I hear.

Evernote

I sense I'm using about 5% of Evernote--for note-taking in workshops and meetings.  I think it is the most popular tool out there among educators.  Below is an intro video.  If you choose Evernote, check out their video library.

With browser and app add-ons, you can clip web content directly into Evernote, save the full text of
articles and web pages complete with sections highlighted, email notes and content from multiple devices, store documents, take video notes, record audio and more. And that's just the free version.

Best of all, Evernote synchronizes with all your computers and portable devices, giving you access to your notes everywhere. Content can be organized into notebooks that are private or shared with
others as need be. Notes can be tagged with your own keywords to help you find content later.
 

 Symbaloo

 

Symbaloo is a shortcut page.  It creates a pretty version of bookmarks.  I prefer creating and editing symbaloo with the iPad over the computer--a little more user-friendly.  Fun to slide the buttons around, too.  Feel tree to try it out or make your own to put on a class webpage.



Curation addendum

The next few are more of curation tools but I'm adding them in for Varsity players.  If no one gets to them, I'll make this a separate thing.  I'm pretty convinced that curation for students will be a Thing-at-large, as it puts into play Common Core skills. "Argument Curation: An Effective Approach To Develop Critical Thinking Among Students"  http://digitalis.nwp.org/resource/5227

 

Scoop it

is really easy to use, and makes you look awesome with very little effort.  It reminds me of Pinterest.  When you see something useful posted by someone else, you click and it is added to your Scoop with an annotation--or not.  Here's my first attempt: http://www.scoop.it/t/common-core-for-hs-librarian 

 

Smore

This is really a digital flyer but I saw someone use it as a curator at a conference.  Here's my Common Core S'more, which I think will make my SEED goal look swanky.

Educlipper

Check out this nifty Thinglink overview of Educlipper.  Just hover over the image and discover Tags.

MentorMob  @MentorMob

Looks pretty promising.  I created an account but haven't played much.  It is self-described as:

1. Learn What You Want:
Find a Learning Playlist to narrow down that bucket list, or discover a brand new obsession. 'Save' your favorites to stay organized!

2. Teach What You Love:
Create your own Learning Playlist or edit those that need your help! Organize great Youtube videos, the best blog posts, or even your own content!

And for your entertainment...
a visual from an article called "15 Time Management Tips Every Connected Educator Should Know" but really should be renamed "15 pitfalls and 1 tip" to use onlineclock.net. Or just type "timer 5 minutes" in Google search bar.