Posted on in resources

4 new workflow software favorites

My classroom is a busy and sometimes hectic place to be (good hectic, think focused chaos). I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient with my time, and I’ve been playing with a few different pieces of software that may be working their way into my everyday life. Here are 4 companies that are making my life more productive, and why:

evernoteEvernote (free | iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, Windows, OSX) – My blog posts used to live in WordPress’ “drafts” posts, meaning I only ever wrote while sitting at a computer (WordPress app is a little clunky, especially for photos & video). I’ve spent 2 weeks writing in Evernote, where I can keep my thoughts organized with or without an Internet connection. When writing a short story on Seattle’s Mini Maker Faire, I took notes, photographs and recorded interviews all from within the iOS Evernote app. Definitely going to continue with this option for a while and see if it improves my overall workflow.

snapseedSnapseed ($20 for computers | iOS, Windows, OSX) – The iTunes store “App of the week” is Snapseed, an intuitive photo manipulation application that elegantly takes advantage of iOS swipe controls. My students are loving the power that this software affords. Like Photoshop-very-lite but without the learning curve. There is also a full desktop version that I haven’t tried yet.

snagitSnagit ($50* ((Full disclosure: I received a free Snagit license through my registration to the Flipped Conference this June in Chicago. Thanks to Jon, Aaron & Dave (Techsmith) for this awesome hook-up.)) | Windows & OSX) – Snagit is TechSmith’s screen-capture tool for Windows and OSX. I thought I was content with Windows PrtScn pastes into Powerpoint (right click to save as image) & OSX keyboard shortcuts into Preview until I tried Snagit. My favorite feature is one I’ve looked for in the past – the ability to take a picture of an entire website even if it longer than your screen is tall. (Example at the bottom of this post with perspective and edges added from within Snagit.)

cloudonCloudOn (free | iOS & Android) – CloudOn is an iPad app that connects the user to a server running Windows, where one can access full versions of Microsoft Office. While I prefer to do serious work on a laptop or desktop, there are times when edits need to be made on the go. A recent update of CloudOn allows users to save directly into Google Drive, as well as the app’s original Dropbox sync abilities.

snagit full-page screenshot

Posted on in resources

Making something special happen in Seattle

make magazine - maker faire in seattleSeattle Center will be a-whir this Saturday & Sunday (June 2nd/3rd from 10-5) with the first ever Seattle Mini Maker Faire. 150 volunteers are collaborating to put on a technology & art event expected to draw over 1,000 attendees.

The event is inspired by the DIY/hacker/art/technology culture that values craft, innovation and creativity in all walks of life. From circuit boards and robots to paper craft and games, there is something for everyone – Seattle’s makers range from the young LaSERClub kids to the self-described “old nerds” of 728.

“A Maker Faire is the perfect compliment to Science Week at Seattle Center. The Expo includes interactive company demonstrations and we are featuring the work of clubs, community organizations, and individual artists,” says event producer Christin Boyd.

solder station at seattle mini-maker faire
Meet up with home-grown organizations such as Sustainable West Seattle’s tool-sharing library or learn to silk-screen with SimpleKraft.

Get hands-on with the interactive art of Krane with a K or learn how Joshua Madara controls robots with his mind. A selection of workshops are listed online and a full roster of the weekend’s presentations can be found at the Seattle Mini Maker Faire website.

Children 12 and under are free (no ticket required), everyone else can grab a ticket online or at the door. The Seattle Mini Maker Faire will be held in the Northwest corner of Seattle Center.

Posted on in resources

The 5 best iPad apps for PE teachers

Chuck Milsap, Washington State’s 2011 Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year, shares his top 5 apps for PE teachers:

There are thousands of Physical Education-related apps to load on your iPad. My general belief is that the best apps are ones that can be customized to work for your specific student population. The following are 5 apps that I have found helpful in a variety of ways:

ChoiceBoard Creator (free): This app allows you to customize your own collection of picture choices for kids. Customize up to 6 pictures per screen and add sound effects. This app works great for choice time, teaching skill progression with pictures, communication with students with special needs and for customizing your own student assessments.

Show Me (free): This free app features an interactive white board that allows you to record your voice while you create images. You can even draw over any backdrop (a picture of your playground, gym, etc…). Simply save your creations and replay for your students when needed. This works perfectly for modeling games and more.

Labelbox (free): Use this app to quickly project an image with text. This works especially well as a warm up board when your kids enter the gym or to quickly highlight a specific skill, behavior, etc using pictures and text.

TempoPerfect (free): At first I thought this app wouldn’t be very exciting. I was wrong! This app allows you to set a tempo according to beats per minute (metronome). This works great for teaching kids about the heart, including what your heart rate sounds like at 60 BPM versus 200 BPM. Also, students can try to step to the pace of the tempo. This will allow your students to maximize steps per minute as you steadily increase the tempo.

SecondsPro ($2.99): This is the best timer app that I have seen so far. Create your own interval workouts, complete with customizable color backgrounds and song selection. Students will appreciate the large timer display and an occasional rest interval between exercise sets.

Posted on in resources, tech in the news

Middle School Media Arts Festival 2012

Seattle Country Day School hosted the 2nd annual Middle School Media Festival on May 18th.

Organized by Ethan Delavan, this digital arts celebration included the works of students ages 10-14 from around the Northwest – representing Westside School, Woodinville Montessori, Open Window School, Catlin-Gabel, Jewish Day School, Puget Sound Community School, Whitman Middle School, Annie Wright School, McClure Middle School, French-American International School and Seattle Country Day.

Young makers submitted digital film, posters, original music, websites and interactive game media. Two of my favorite pieces are embedded below:

RUNNER is a spoken-word video collage from the Catlin-Gabel school. Created by Daniel Linnell and Max Fogelstrom, with words by Mo Alan.

Cats & Cats Return is a blend of editing and production techniques set to a catchy tune. Created by Spencer Shaw of Puget Sound Community School.

Posted on in philosophy, resources

iPad open house – lessons learned

This is the slidedeck I recently presented to Northwest area educators and IT directors at Seattle’s first iPad Open House, hosted by the Westside School.

The topic was “10 months into a 1-to-1 iPad deployment: lessons learned.” Main take-aways:

3 things we did right

  1. Scaffold for teachers – devices into teacher hands early in the summer. Professional development early in the summer. Regular check-ins to discuss discoveries and obstacles.
  2. Scaffold for students – started the year with no iPads. Conversations around the purpose and benefits of technology. Worked up to single-class use of iPads, then multiple periods, then all-day, and finally students took ownership of the iPads and they move freely between school and home.
  3. Scheduled reflections – students create e-portfolios that demonstrate learning at the end of each term. They use iPads to organize and present their reflections to peers, teachers and the parent community. Students also participate in periodic technology surveys that focus on using devices as a learning tool.

5 things we learned the hard way

  1. Evolving curriculum – middle school is 1-to-1, lower school uses a cart-based system. Teachers will be required to re-envision curriculum every year as upcoming students have a greater fluency with devices in a learning environment. (This is a good problem.)
  2. Device dependence – All students are under 13 so we have not asked them to create any cloud-based accounts. Content is typically locked in the iPad without using Dropbox, YouTube, etc to move files. Apple doesn’t have a great solution for this yet and email is less than ideal for the amount of video, music, photo content that students are generating.
  3. Version control – Google Docs isn’t ready for prime-time on the iPads. This leaves students emailing content back and forth to teachers, and thus ending up with multiple versions of the same document to manage. iPads don’t really have a “file structure” so past lessons on folder organization don’t apply.
  4. Technical support – Apple tech support are super nice people who don’t have solutions for most of the issues facing school deployments. Apple tech typically suggests iCloud or OSX Server, both of which perpetuate the brand lock-in and don’t solve issues. Many school IT consultants are running Windows-based systems and aren’t staffed with Apple experts, let alone iPad experts.
  5. Cleaning schedule – regular time set aside for physically cleaning each device is necessary. Same goes for the files in the devices too – iMovie projects take up tons of space even if you’ve already exported the final version.
10 months with a 1-to-1 iPad deployment

Posted on in resources

The complete 1-to-1 laptop or iPad pre-deployment survey

Last Thursday was a great day of professional development as 30 educators from around the Northwest visited Westside’s iPad Open House. This was an opportunity for IT directors, teachers and administrators to see students in action and learn about the process of deploying a 1-to-1 iPad program.

As part of the event, we put together a list of resources, from multi-iPad management tools to educational apps to digital learning communities (embedded after the jump for website viewers).

I also attempted to take the past year’s experiences & tutorials and synthesize it into a single pre-deployment survey that covers pedagogy, infrastructure and budgetary considerations. This document can be used for either an iPad deployment or a laptop deployment and is free to download.
iPad one-to-one deployment resource from edTechPartnership.com

(more…)

Posted on in tutorials

Gmail: Multiple Inboxes keep you informed

With a constant flow of email from teachers, parents and students, there is more than one time this year when I’ve been caught off-guard and/or let important communication fall through the cracks.

I’ve found it easier to stay informed since implementing Gmail’s multiple inboxes lab [editor note: George Polzer notes that this only works when Priority Inbox is switched off!!!], which uses filters to keep pertinent information “above the fold” when I’m online:

Multiple inboxes can be switched on from Gmail’s settings> Labs > Multiple Inboxes. Once enabled, you can set up inboxes using any search parameter you choose (or a combination using Boolean operators):

Operator Definition Example(s)
from: Used to specify the sender Example: from:amyMeaning: Messages from Amy
to: Used to specify a recipient Example: to:davidMeaning: All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)
subject: Search for words in the subject line Example: subject:dinnerMeaning: Messages that have the word “dinner” in the subject
OR Search for messages matching term A or term B*
*OR must be in all caps		 Example: from:amy OR from:davidMeaning: Messages from Amy or from David
– (hyphen) Used to exclude messages from your search Example: dinner -movieMeaning: Messages that contain the word “dinner” but do not contain the word “movie”
label: Search for messages by label**There isn’t a search operator for unlabeled messages Example: from:amy label:friendsMeaning: Messages from Amy that have the label “friends”

Example: from:david label:my-family
Meaning: Messages from David that have the label “My Family”
has:attachment Search for messages with an attachment Example: from:david has:attachment Meaning: Messages from David that have an attachment
list: Search for messages on mailing lists Example: list:info@example.com
Meaning: Messages with the words info@example.com in the headers, sent to or from this list
filename: Search for an attachment by name or type Example: filename:physicshomework.txt
Meaning: Messages with an attachment named “physicshomework.txt”Example: label:work filename:pdf
Meaning: Messages labeled “work” that also have a PDF file as an attachment
” ”
(quotes)		 Used to search for an exact phrase**Capitalization isn’t taken into consideration Example: “i’m feeling lucky”
Meaning: Messages containing the phrase “i’m feeling lucky” or “I’m feeling lucky”Example: subject:”dinner and a movie”
Meaning: Messages containing the phrase “dinner and a movie” in the subject
( ) Used to group wordsUsed to specify terms that shouldn’t be excluded Example: from:amy (dinner OR movie)
Meaning: Messages from Amy that contain either the word “dinner” or the word “movie”Example: subject:(dinner movie)
Meaning: Messages in which the subject contains both the word “dinner” and the word “movie”
in:anywhere Search for messages anywhere in Gmail**Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default Example: in:anywhere movie Meaning: Messages in All Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the word “movie”
in:inboxin:trash

in:spam

 Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam Example: in:trash from:amyMeaning: Messages from Amy that are in Trash
is:importantlabel:important Search within messages that Priority Inbox considers important. Example: is:important from:janetMeaning: Messages from Janet that were marked as important by Priority Inbox
is:starredis:unread

is:read

 Search for messages that are starred, unread or read Example: is:read is:starred from:DavidMeaning: Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star
has:yellow-starhas:red-star

has:orange-star

has:green-star

has:blue-star

has:purple-star

has:red-bang

has:orange-guillemet

has:yellow-bang

has:green-check

has:blue-info

has:purple-question

 Search for messages with a particular star Example: has:purple-star from:DavidMeaning: Messages from David that are marked with a purple star
cc:bcc: Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc:fields**Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied Example: cc:david Meaning: Messages that were cc-ed to David
after:before: Search for messages sent during a certain period of time**Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format. Example: after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 Meaning: Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.*

*More precisely: Messages sent after 12:00 AM (or 00:00) April 16, 2004 and before April 18, 2004.
is:chat Search for chat messages Example: is:chat monkeyMeaning: Any chat message including the word “monkey”.
deliveredto: Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header Example: deliveredto:username@gmail.comMeaning: Any message with username@gmail.com in the Delivered-To: field of the message header (which can help you find messages forwarded from another account or ones sent to an alias).
Chuck Milsap - technology with intention in the PE classroom
Posted on in educator profiles

Chuck Milsap | Daniel Bagley Elementary

Name: Chuck Milsap (gobeehive.com)
Organization:  Daniel Bagley Elementary, Seattle School District
Current title:  Health & Fitness Instructor
Selected accolade: Washington State Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year,  Voted best smile in 7th grade

What skill(s) do you feel are most important for today’s students to explore in academic settings (tech or non-tech related)?

By 5th grade, kids should have the skills to independently develop and follow a personalized exercise plan. This plan doesn’t have to be incredibly extensive, but students should consider personal fitness goals, various components of fitness, a variety of activities and other factors when creating a plan to enhance health. Creating such a plan is particularly important considering our current obesity epidemic combined with the fact that students generally see a decrease in PE minutes during the middle and high school years.

“K-12 Physical Education has evolved more than any other subject over the past decade and continues to make tremendous advances in the way technology is integrated to enhance instructional outcomes.”

How are you using technology in PE? As an organization tool for yourself and also with students?

I use some form of technology on a daily basis in PE. Heart rate monitors and GPS navigational devices are often used in class to enhance curriculum and maximize movement sequences. (more…)

surfer surrogate: jobs from the future
Posted on in philosophy, tech in the news

Jobs from the future: Surfer Surrogate

Editor note: discussing “jobs from the future” may be a creative compliment to high school classes studying economics, sociology, media literacy, entrepreneurism,  etc.

We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist . . . in
order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

In pondering the Fisch & McLeod’s quote from Shift Happens 2.0, I can’t help but imagine what these jobs will be. While social science fiction focuses on the more glamorous possibilities, the reality is many employment opportunities will be rather pedestrian – back in 1990, a full-time job as a bulletin board moderator seemed futuristic.
surfer surrogate: jobs from the future

Assuming capitalism & consumerism march onward, we still have electricity, and everything that can be outsourced will be, what are opportunities for recent grad employment?

Young people may turn to stints as Surfer Surrogates. A surfer surrogate effectively rents their online identity: travelling with high-profile clients (sports stars, movie stars, politicians, executives) and allowing them to use/tarnish the surrogate digital footprint and geo-location data.

The boss can use a surrogate’s interactive devices to do what he or she wants to online…without the search terms, frequented sites and online interactions being traced back to their own name. A candidate for governor could sit on a tourbus watching honey badger videos all day on a surrogate computer while other staff members use the candidate’s devices & accounts to post video/micro-blog/photo updates and visit pertinent “grown-up” sites (legal, federal, news-based, political, etc).

Physical surrogates will be preferable to tech-based cloaking systems because there will be someone to take the blame for illegal data downloads or questionably moral activity. Surrogate contracts will include non-disclosure agreements and enormous legal penalties for violation.

Have your own ideas of “jobs from the future”? Please comment or post and link back! 

Example surfer surrogate posting:

Help wanted: Love to travel? Looking to get paid just for showing up?

National political candidate is hiring a dependable and discreet team member. Great entry-level position for recent graduates.

This job package includes:

  • $43,000 salary
  • paid cell phone contract, unlimited data plan, stipend for digital device purchases
  • full medical/dental/vision benefits
  • up to 6% retirement match
  • mobile housing – private room on a support staff bus
Please note: you will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to interview.

 

Posted on in philosophy

The Flip – a complete picture

This position piece was a response to a Learning & Leading prompt, submitted April 9, 2012:

While many teachers have been introduced to “the flip” via the video lessons of pioneers, video is just one example of an evolving flipped teaching sensibility. Flipping is the act of identifying rote or procedural elements of a lesson, shifting this repetitive content to a medium not bound by teacher availability, and empowering students to take an active role in their education.

Flipping is a natural compliment to a 21st century learning environment. The teacher moves through the roles of manager, coach, facilitator & mentor. Class time is spent exploring, discovering, succeeding and sometimes failing. Students work on project-based work and collaborate as appropriate to share information and successes. When a common vocabulary or foundational concept is required, the teacher (or students) can choose how to provide that information in a way that is archived for future reference.

Flipped instruction today is defined by a teacher’s willingness to help students learn how/when they see fit, release control of the classroom experience, and engage in a process of finding the best way to reach and respond to students individually. The appropriate medium to convey information beyond class (videos, podcasts, worksheets, books, articles, etc) is selected based on content, community needs & teaching style.

Critics of flipped instruction suggest that the concept is about shifting bad lecture to an unresponsive, technology-dependent format. This argument focuses on a narrow definition of flipping taken out of context of the learning community it was designed for. Successful educators use the flipped model as one of an array of tools to support students – often employing a number of communication media (email, IM, bulletin boards, blogs learning management systems) to create a culture of information sharing within a cohort.

Flipped content allows viewers to control the content they interact with, the time it is engaged, and the speed at which it is consumed. It is essential to note that this content typically focuses on the lower-order thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy: leaving class time for application, analysis & evaluation. Students can access content during study hall, library-time, electives, homeroom, class free-time or from home.

Khan Academy is not, and has never, served as a model of flipping – KA video tutorials are a library of academic concepts & quizzes that might be used to support a flipped classroom. The term “flipped teaching” merely highlights a method of untangling student learning opportunity from teacher availability. The flipped opportunity is the prospect that an educator can move beyond the mechanics of content-delivery to the art of teaching.

Flipping is not a dummy-proof solution to education. Anyone seeking such a goal discounts the devotion and expertise that teachers bring to a classroom day after day, year after year. Whether to flip or not is no longer a relevant question. With 21st century learning, a more apropos question is, “What can our community accomplish in the classroom if everyone has, or has the ability to obtain, a foundation of understanding from which to succeed?”