The Joy of Evernote

One of the most useful tools I've come across is Evernote.  It's a program that allows you to write, copy, and store nearly anything you want: text, pictures, audio, video, web pages, etc.  There are downloadable Windows and Mac programs, a web interface, and iOS and Android apps as well.  They all sync with each other, so you can have your notes available no matter what device you are using.  There is a Web Clipper that you can use to copy the contents or URL of a web page you are visiting.  You can share notebooks with other users if you like.  It is remarkably easy to use and free if you don't upload too much per month.  Premium plans start at $5 per month.  Try it out at www.evernote.com.

What I have learned about Twitter

When I got my new position as Teacher on Special Assignment back in May, I figured I needed to learn more about social and professional networks, beyond using Facebook to keep in touch with friends.  I joined a number of networks, including Twitter. It took me longer than I thought it would to get the hang of Twitter, but I feel like I'm gradually making better and better use of the system.  Some examples:

• What I thought: You can't say anything worthwhile in only 140 characters.
• What I learned: Most professionals are sharing links to articles, not making lengthy arguments.

• What I thought: I have to follow a lot of people in order to read anything.
• What I learned: Hashtags for subjects (#EdTech, #scichat, etc.) allow me to read a discussion whether or not I follow individuals.

• What I thought: I have to read everything in my feed from oldest to newest.
• What I learned: Are you kidding?  It can't be done.  Pick and choose and don't worry about missing something.

• What I thought: Twitter has a website, so I should use that to read.
• What I learned: There's a separate program called TweetDeck that allows you to have separate columns and makes reading a lot easier.

Internet tools such as Twitter have allowed me to develop a professional learning network in only a few weeks, which has introduced me to a huge number of tools and resources that I can learn from as well as share with my teachers this year.  For example, according to nearly everyone on #EdTech this afternoon, Apple is now getting into the LMS game with iTunes U (http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/). 

Resource List

Here's a collection of web resources for teachers.  Many of these I found out about at ISTE 2012; others I have discovered during the Leading Edge Coalition class that I'm currently taking.  If you've used any of these and have thoughts about them, please leave them in the comments.

LMS (Learning Management Systems)

• Schoology

Other Resource Collections

• An App for That
• CLRN (California Learning Resource Network)
• Cool Tools for Schools 
• EdTech Toolbox
• Online Study Tools

Presentation Tools

• Timetoast
• Empressr
• Museum Box
• Prezi
• Wordle
• bubbl.us
• Creately 

Organization Tools

• Diigo
• Evernote

 Classroom Management

• ClassEApps
• Remind 101

 Screen Sharing

• join.me

Reflections on ISTE 2012

Last week I attended the ISTE 2012 conference.  Listed below are the sessions I attended and some quick thoughts about each one.

Monday

• Ignite Session #1
• This was a rapid-fire collection of speakers, each with 5 minutes to go through 20 slides.  It had several interesting speakers, but nothing I found of great use for our district.  The link here includes a video of the session, if you're interested.  I especially recommend the woman from Joplin, Missouri, describing how they re-opened schools after the tornadoes that destroyed the schools in the spring of 2011. 
• There's an App for That
• This session highlighted a number of very cool and useful apps (mostly for iOS, but some for Android).  The link here lists all the apps discussed at the session and a few more.
• Generation Yes
• How do you do PD for teachers and problem-based-learning for students at the same time?  Have students provide tech support.  Generation Yes has implemented this in multiple schools with lots of benefits for students and teachers.  The link here is to the Generation Yes main website.

Tuesday

• Instructional Delivery in Digital Age Learning Environments
• This was a panel discussion focusing on blended and online classes in the state of California.  I learned about various programs like CLRN and iNACOL; but didn't take away too much else.
• Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom
• This was the best session I attended all week.  A panel discussion hosted by Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams highlighted the varieties of ways in which flipped learning could be implemented.  I particularly appreciated the comments from Brian Bennett, Stacey Roshan, and Ramsey Musallam.  The link here is to the conference session description; scroll down for a great collection of links and resources.
• Project Tomorrow
• Another great panel discussion, led by Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow, sharing the results of student and teacher surveys regarding (among other topics) the use of mobile devices in the classroom.  The link here is to the Project Tomorrow main website.
• Science and Mobile Learning
• While this session had "science" in the name, it was primarily about mobile technology, with a small bit about attaching sensors to mobile devices for recording data.  They did show some nice near-field-communication apps on mobile devices that can allow groups of students to collaborate on their own devices immediately.

Wednesday

• Classroom Flipping: How We Did It
• This was a pretty good session by two instructional technology support teachers about their own experiences helping teachers flip their classrooms.  The website linked here has a lot of very useful resources.
• Google Apps
• This session was delivered by a group of Google Certified Teachers, and the only reason it wasn't very useful to me was that I already knew most of what they were describing.  The link here is to their presentation; for people in our district, I would recommend looking at the part about Google+.  The rest of it is irrelevant since we have already adopted Google Apps for Education.
• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture
• Some more nice examples of how a flipped classroom might look.  The speaker tended to ramble, however, about her own philosophies of education.  (I'm used to presentations at science or science-education conferences:  What's the problem, what's our hypothesis, how did we test it, what are the results?  Bing bang boom.)

I'll post later about resources I collected from poster sessions and exhibits.

Resource Collection for K-12 Classes

Torrey Trust is a PhD student in Education at UC Santa Barbara and has put together a great collection of free education technology resources for K-12 teachers.  It is available at edutechdatabase.wikispaces.com.  There's definitely something there that you can use in your classroom; check it out!

(P.S.  Torrey's dad, Jerry, taught Biology and Environmental Science at San Dieguito and LCC before retiring in 2011.  Torrey graduated from LCC in 2003.)

ISTE 2012

I'm at the International Society for Technology in Education conference,  at the San Diego convention center. So far the sessions have been up and down, some really thought - provoking, others just so-so. Right now I'm waiting for the session on flipped classrooms, which seems to be the hot topic here. I just left a session on delivering instruction in blended and fully online classes, which left me with the question: should blended and online classes be part of the same continuum, or should they use separate models? Our district's answer to that will make a huge difference in how we proceed.

Using QR codes

A "QR" code is like a two-dimensional barcode.  It's a machine-readable diagram that represents some information.  In this case, the "machine" is a smartphone with a camera.  There are apps for iPhone and Android that will scan the code and take some action, which is usually to go to some website.  For example, the code here is a URL for a website that I have set up advertising a dog for adoption.  You (or your students) can use a smartphone to scan this QR code and open the encoded website.

The Android app that I use is called "QR Droid".  There are many equivalents for iPhone.  But to create the codes in the first place, I use this website: easyqrcodegenerator.com/free-qr-code-generator.
I've used this with lab instructions for students, with the idea that they could scan the QR code with their phone and then watch a video showing the lab procedure.  You could also use this to easily link to YouTube videos, Khan Academy videos, or anything else that you want the students to see.  Many textbooks at the college level now include QR codes within the text, that link the students to online content.  It's a good way to connect printed paper to online resources.