WAMS Tech Tips

iPad Deployment Journal: Updated List of iPad Apps

2012-01-09T10:30:00.008-05:00

iPad Deployment Journal: Part 5...Adding Apps

I'm happy to report that our iPad cart is making it's way into the classroom and students are starting to use them. I have continued to search for apps and recruit suggestions from our staff. Right now, all the iPads on our cart have the following apps:

Foreign Language: BrainPop (spanish), Japanese Language Keyboard
Language Arts: Mirriam Webster Dictionary,
Social Studies: Google Earth, Oregon Trail: American Settlers *
Math: Sketchpad Explorer, QuickGraph
Science: Periodic Table, K12 Periodic Table, iCelcius, Moon Phase *, Moon *
Productivity: Dropbox, Evernote, Evernote Peek, iBooks, Diigo, UStream, QRafter - QR Code Reader
Music: GarageBand ($)

* added 1/10/2012

($) indicates that it is a paid app. I'm glad that ordering 20 copies of GarageBand cut the per device price in half. The regular price for Garage Band is $4.98, but the volume pricing is $2.49 for 20+ licenses.

As time goes on, I would like to provide descriptions / reviews, and hopefully ideas for how to incorporate these apps into classroom activities. If you would like to assist with this, please do. Please contact me if you have any experience with the apps we are using and always feel free to suggest new apps that are worthwhile.

Partners in Rhyme - Royalty Free Music and Free Music

2012-01-07T11:28:00.003-05:00

When my students work on projects in my classes (games, presentations, etc), the question about copyrighted music and sound effects always comes up. Students are inclined to want to record a song from YouTube or elsewhere to use in their project. Partners in Rhyme is a website devoted to royalty free music. Understand, however, that royalty free music does not mean that the music is free. Royalty free means that once you purchase it, you can use it in your project. Partners in Rhyme does have a section of free sounds that you can use. This includes music, loops, sound effects, etc. This is a resource that I use with my students so that they can incorporate music and sounds without worrying about copyright infringement.

I hope that you enjoy find the site to be a great solution for the issue of using sounds in student projects!

Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects Download the music and sound effects you need for your multimedia project today at Partners In Rhyme.

STEM Video Game Challenge

2011-12-23T11:48:00.003-05:00

William Annin students participating in the National STEM Video Game Challenge

If you were to step into the computer lab at William Annin middle school, it might look more like a Video Game Design studio than a classroom. Presently, students inMr. Isaacs' and Mrs' Sharpe's 7th grade Computer Cycle as well as Mr. Isaacs' 8th grade Video Game Design and Development elective are hard at work creating original video games to submit in the 2012 STEM video game challenge.

7th graders have been working with Gamestar Mechanic (http://www.gamestarmechanic.com/). They have learned the basics of designing games and have written a design document to guide them through the development of their game. 8th graders have been working with a program called Game Maker (http://www.yoyogames.c0m/) and have a few options for their contest submission. Students can revisit a game they created earlier in the semester and improve upon it or they may create a new game based on an original idea. Some students are branching out beyond Game Maker and using Gamestar Mechanic or Kodu Game Lab (http://fuse.microsoft.com/page/kodu) to create their game as part of an independent study option.

Students have opportunities to work on their game during class, at home, and before or after school in the computer lab. In addition, interested students who are not in one of the classes that are actively working on contest entries are encouraged to participate. More information can be found on the National STEM Video Game Challenge website (http://www.stemchallenge.org). Students are welcome to inquire with Mr. Isaacs for additional information.

Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is a multi-year competition whose goal is to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games. (from http://www.nationalstemchallenge.org)

Let the games begin!

iPad Deployment Journal Part 4: Making Progress

2011-11-03T09:28:00.004-04:00

It's still me against the iPad cart. However, I think I might be winning (no Charlie Sheen references, please). Of course, this wouldn't be without at least one bump in the road. I came to realize that the Volume Purchasing Program requires an email / password for login. However, that is not the same id / password you would use for iTunes. In my opinion, it would be great if it was. However, when 'purchasing' free apps (a bit of an oxymoron), you must work through iTunes with a separate iTunes login. Initially, I used my personal iTunes account thinking that I was only using it for free apps. Then I realized (thanks to advice from others as well) that this was not a good idea, especially when apps need to be updated and such.

So, I created a new iTunes account. I thought you needed to enter a credit card when setting up an iTunes account, but my new iPad deployment mentor Jim (you'll hear more about Jim shortly...) pointed out that you do not (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2534).

Prior to creating this account, I downloaded two apps to the PC and deployed them to the iPads on the cart through iTunes (with my personal account). After creating the school account, I decided to move forward adding additional free apps using that account. This was where I ran into a little snafu. On the computer it looked like these new apps were synching just fine. I added them one at a time to each iPad (plugged into the cart via usb so I could do it all from the one PC). This is where I learned an important lesson. Always check to see if the content that you believed was transferred to the iPad really was. I wass less than pleased to find that these apps (while showing up on the PC as being transferred to the iPad) did not make it to the iPad.

Back to the drawing board...

At this point, I decided to 'restore' each iPad and sync the apps using the new iTunes account. Fortunately this worked.

After restoring them, I had to manually set up each iPad ('next-ing' through the questions (enable location settings, choose network, accept terms and conditions, etc.). After that step was complete, I returned to the iPhone configuration tool to send the network settings to the iPad. This prompts you to 'install' this configuration. I did that and then manually (on each iPad) added two additional languages to the keyboard (the two Japanese language keyboards). You can add keyboards under the general section of the setting. There is a keyboard setting, and then add international keyboards is an option. This was done based on a request from the Japanese teachers.

So, where does that leave me now?

Let me back track ever so slightly. In anticipation of rolling out the cart, I sent an email to all staff requesting app suggestions. The first wave of suggestions included:

BrainPop

Periodic Table app (I installed two free ones - 'Periodic Table' and 'K12 Periodic Table)

Google Earth

Dictionary - I chose the free Merriam-Webster dictionary

Dragon Dictation

Sketch Explorer (the free app version of Geometer's Sketch Pad)

the two Japanese language keyboard

Right now, the 20 iPads have these free apps (and the language keyboards) and our school network settings. This should be a start and allow teachers to start using the iPads with their students.

What's next?

I still need to determine which 'must have' paid apps to purchase using the Volume Purchasing account (and then get those apps on the iPads)

Continue to work with the iPhone configuration tool to set up reasonable restrictions on the iPads.
Should we keep facetime on the iPads?
Should the camera be enabled?
Should I remove the App Store?
and on and on....

Please post any comments or questions as well as suggestions for those 'must have' iPad apps".

Thanks!

Steve

iPad Deployment Journal Part 3: Naming iPads and updating to iOS5

2011-10-19T15:40:00.008-04:00

The iPad deployment adventure continues. I was very excited when I managed to get the network settings to each iPad through the iPhone Configuration Tool (see my last post).

Next it was on to naming each iPad in the cart. It was getting a bit frustrating to see 20 iPads named ipad show up on iTunes. So, I figured I would unplug all and add them one at a time. When an iPad shows up in iTunes, the following screen appears:

Clicking Register Later prompted the following Screen:

I chose set up as new iPad and then Continue, prompting...

Here, I unchecked the Automatically sync songs and automatically sync apps checkboxes, leaving all three unchecked and I named the iPad based on our naming convention. Right now we only have 1 cart, so I will consider this cart 1, but wanted to leave room in our naming for the future when we have more carts so that there will be no questions regarding how to name those.

After clicking done, the following up:

Being that the iPads did not have iOS5, this screen prompted us to Update. It seemed as though any iPads that had already been changed in any way since we received them wanted to be backed up, while the others just updated.

The process took some time as I had to do them one at a time. Each time one was finished, I would plug in the next one so that it would show up with the name ipad and once completed join the crowd of newly updated iPads with the spiffy iOS5 and the nifty new name.

Next up ... Volume purchasing of apps and using the iPhone Configuration tool to get the apps to all of the iPads in the cart.

iPad Deployment Journal...Part 2

2011-10-18T16:08:00.004-04:00

So, I did my research on preparing a cart of 20 iPads for deployment in our school. One thing that I definitely realized is that noone seems to be doing it the exact same way. I believe my story is no exception.

I have not started to actually install apps on the iPads, but I have begun the readying process and have made some strides. The process is certainly time consuming, and I still wish there were an easier way. Perhaps my experience will help others as they embark upon this arduous process.

I was able to create a configuration file using the iPhone Configuration tool. One of my first concerns was to get our incredibly long WEP key entered on each iPad so they can access our network. Fortunately, the iPhone Configuration tool has a configuration option for wifi. It was suggested (and for now I agree) to create separate configuration profiles for different actions, one being the wifi. In theory, you can set up a number of configurations in one profile and send them all to the iPads, but in this case, I stayed with just seeing the network settings through rather than getting overly ambitious.

This process was not as bad as I feared... Simply click on Configuration Profiles in the Configuration Tool and name the profile in the Identify Section of the General tab. Then click on wifi and enter the settings for your Network. Once the configuration profile is created you need to install it on each iPad. The list of iPads shows up on the left. I was hoping I could install it on all with one click, but I couldn't figure that one out. Has anyone?

The image below shows the wifi screen for this profile:

In my next post, I will share the process of naming each iPad using iTunes. Preparation for deployment continues...

Working through the less than intuitive iPad deployment process...

2011-10-18T13:04:00.002-04:00

We just got a cart with 20 iPads (woo hoo!). The cart is great in that it charges all the ipads and allows us to connect to all of them via USB. So, I understand (and feel free to correct any gaps in my understanding) that we can deploy apps to all of the devices using the iPhone Configuration Utility on a PC or Mac connected to our cart. We can purchase apps using the Apple Volume Purchasing Program. Once purchased, we should receive a spreadsheet with all the codes. This is where I get a little vague. From my research, it seems as though we can either deploy the apps to all of the ipads from the iPhone configuration tool OR have each iPad click on a link created from the volume purchase in order to install it on each iPad. I far prefer the idea of sending it through the config tool. I have heard that it can work and essentially, you are installing the app with the same code to all devices, but since you have purchased a license for each device, you have that info on the spreadsheet for verification purposes.

A few questions...
Do I use the iPhone configuration tool independently of iTunes, or do I use iTunes as well?

Can I update all of the devices to iOS5 from the config tool or in some manner without updating each one individually?

Should I name each iPad through the iPad itself or through the configuration tool?

Is there a way to change the network settings through the configuration tool (in other words, I have a very long WEP key to enter in each one. Do I have to do it manually to first get each one on the network?

That's the bulk of my questions for the moment. I will post this and other reflections on the process in my blog (http://wamstechtips.blogspot.com/). Thanks in advance for any support.

Educators Unite: My Vision for Google+ in Education

2011-08-21T13:21:00.005-04:00

Social Networking is certainly integral in the lives of the digital natives that we teach. I believe it's safe to say that social networking is becoming integral to most of our personal lives at this point.

Who drives the trends of social networking sites? Clearly, it's the users. MySpace took social networking in one direction and Facebook has evolved to be a more mainstream social networking site, but still driven by the users and I don't think Mark Zuckerberg could have ever envisioned facebook 'looking' quite like it does today when he was sitting in his dorm room coding away. Likewise, twitter has taken social networking in a direction of it's own, catering to people with specific interests, both professionally and socially.

Whatever the case may be, the question about social media in education continues to receive a lot of attention. Many schools (and educators) are very leery of using facebook in the classroom and this is due to legitimate liability concerns based on issues we've all read about based on the way we have learned to share on facebook. So, where am I going with this?

Google has entered the arena with google+ (certainly a better attempt at social networking than buzz and wave. I loved google wave for what it was and am sad to have seen it's early demise. However, google+ is certainly their answer to facebook and twitter and it appears as though google will stay the course with this one! My first thought is that google+ is still new enough, uncluttered enough, and somewhat akin to unclaimed territory. I would like to declare that we should plant our flag and claim google+ while we can! Below is my rationale and vision for it's use.

Circles - At the heart and soul of google+ is the idea of separating your factions into circles (i.e. a circle for friends, a circle for your PLN, a circle for family, a circle for your World of Warcraft clan, a circle for colleagues, a circle for your 1st period English class, etc.). I love the idea of having a circle for each of my classes, where I can quickly post resources and reminders to them. In addition to communicating with google+ users through your circles, you can communicate with those who have not yet signed up via email. Google+ will send your post as an email to members of your circle who are not on Google+. I LOVE THIS! It provides you with the opportunity to use google+ as your group email / messaging client. In addition, like facebook, I could post to my entire network when the content is meant for everyone.
Huddle - As we are beginning to encourage BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the use of smart phones, handheld devices, etc. we can begin to use huddle, a service that allows you to essentially send an sms style text message to everyone in a circle. Again, what a great way to send that quick reminder to class, link to an assignment, resource, etc.
Google Apps - Our school is using google apps. Every student can create an account through our school district portal. Currently, this would give them access to google sites, google documents, custom google search, etc. ). At the moment, I do not believe that google+ is integrated with google apps, but it would be great if the student accounts also made google+ available. My guess is that this would keep them in a secure social networking environment (only connected to others in the school district), but I believe the ideal would be to have it start there and extend or link to their personal google+ account. I say this as I want there to be an easy way to integrate with the school use of google apps, but believe students would need there to be a connection to their true personal network in order for them to use it regularly. Part of my vision is for google+ to be included in the google apps suite for easy integration of school projects and social networking.
I have already begun to use google+ for personal and professional use. I would say that I am using it more for my PLN than I am for personal use. Facebook, on the other hand has the scale tilted the other way by far.
Meet the students where they are. We often speak of meeting the digital natives in a world that they are familiar with. Here's our chance. Again, I understand the reservation regarding facebook (sorry, Mark), but see google+ as the unchartered territory that just might be the great compromise we are looking for. We can work in an environment familiar and comfortable to our students while teaching appropriate use.

I will likely add to this post as I have so many ideas milling around in my head. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts as well. Join me as we shape google+ to become the social learning (don't tell the kids that) environment that we want it to become.

Steve

A cause close to my heart

2011-04-05T14:41:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to take a moment to share on a personal note. My daughter is 8 years old. Two years ago she was diagnosed with a blood disorder called ITP, a condition where her immune system attacks her platelets, perceiving them as an infection that must be irradicated. As a result, her platelet count gets very low and she must receive treatment (IV gammaglobulin) about every six weeks. Today she is receiving a treatment. I have made it a point to use her treatment days as an opportunity to raise awareness. If you begin to follow me in my social networking circles on Facebook or Twitter you'll note that I seem to post something related to ITP periodically, but especially on her treatment days. You can find out more about ITP by visiting http://www.pdsa.org/ where you can find articles, videos, etc. related to the condition.

She's an awesome kid who is especially determined (perhaps a 'side effect' of her ITP). She's funny, feisty, and a joy when she's not yelling at us :) Thanks for taking a moment to read this. I figure the only way for others to become aware is through sharing.

Will the classroom projector soon become obsolete?

2011-03-07T09:34:00.003-05:00

In the world of Internet Connectable HDTVs, is the idea of a mounted projector going to go the way of the old overheads that teachers used to know and love? I can't help but to think that this may be the case. I would love to see my white projector screen replaced by a nice mounted 55" HDTV.

Our last tech 3 year tech plan included providing teachers with a tablet PC and a mounted wireless projector. It was very exciting to see all of these projectors being installed and teachers standing with their wireless tablet projecting to the screen.

Remember the good old days of an overhead projector and reusing acetate until we could no longer effectively clean off all of the vis a vis marker? I'm sure this made teaching seem to enter the technology age at the time. Then there was the innovation of the overhead with a document reader. Woah!!!! This meant that you could actually plop the text book right on the overhead and display content on the screen. Talk about advancements!

Next comes the overhead that we put on a cart and loaned out through the media center when needed. Another great advancement! We could connect the projector to our computer and share information from the computer screen on a large screen. We could show videos, etc. as long as the projector was connected via a VGA cable directly to the computer. A small (but huge) advancement was to begin mounting these from the ceiling and initially still being hardwired with a vga cable and then soon wireless. I remember when we replaced all of the projectors that still required a hard wired connection with wireless so that all classrooms had the capability. Don't get me wrong. I valued this advancement greatly and took full advantage. However, we began to see the limitations of our infastructure as people started streaming YouTube videos wirelessly (without much success). So, it often became necessary to revert back to a hard wired connection in order to display your desired presentation or video.

This brings me back to my initial thought. Wouldn't it be great to have a mounted flat panel TV in every classroom. The TV could be connected directly to the network via ethernet. This would help with infastructure issues. Internet connectable TVs would allow for certain access without the need for the computer. With the remote control, a teacher could show YouTube videos, access Netflix on demand, among many other widgets. There are also 'smart TVs' out now that would certainly offer much more. The TV inputs allow for HDMI, VGA, among others, so connecting the computer to the TV and using the TV in lieu of the projector is no problem. The HDMI point becomes even more important now that certain handhelds and tablets are providing HDMI out. the HDMI cable is light, so connecting your iPad 2 or similar HDMI tablet to the TV would be a breeze and allow for such great flexibility as you stand holding the light tablet as a teaching tool.

Prices are going down to a point that this solution is as reasonable (if not more reasonable) than projectors were when we purchased and installed them. Currently, the TV option is a bit more expensive (not terribly) than the projector, but I believe it offers so much more.

I teach a Video Game Design and Development course, so the idea of hooking our class Xbox to the HDTV is especially alluring,

**I don't know much about them, but there are Internet Connectable TVs and Smart TVs. Perhaps another post will focus on the Smart TVs. I can only imagine that they would provide even more flexibility in terms of incorporating content right from the TV without a computer or tablet.

Exciting stuff, no?

A few questions that I hope you will respond to in order to deepen the value of this conversation...

Have you experienced the implementation of a flat screen HDTV as an alternative to a projector in the classroom?
Can you think of advantages / disadvantages to the idea of moving from projectors to HDTVs?

Creating a Policy for Cell Phone / Handheld Use in the Classroom

2011-02-10T13:03:00.006-05:00

Our current technology play calls for the use of handhelds in the classroom. Presently, we are working on changing our current policy to allow for their use in order to enhance instruction. Typically, and I am sure my school district is no different from most, cell phone use was limited to before and after school and cell phones must be off and out of sight during the school day. The consequences for using a cell phone during the school day is treated seriously.

As mentioned, we are looking to revamp the policy completely in order to encourage the use of the technology as we are embracing the notion of teaching 21st century skills. I am in the process of looking at different policies as we work as a technology committee to shape ours.

My initial thoughts focus on the idea that technology should be used to enhance the educational process without becoming an unwelcomed distraction. Many students have a powerful technological device in their pocket. They are connected to the internet and have a variety of applications that can facilitate learning. Furthermore, we can help students maximize the potential of these devices by teaching and reinforcing proper use. Don't get me wrong. I'm not ignorant and recognize that there are valid concerns. It is easy to hide behind the small screen and use the technology in a disruptive or inappropriate manner. Any policy created must acknowledge and address this reality.

Following are some resources / readings on the topic:

School Policies on Cell Phone Use:

Bernards Township Board of Education (Current) Policy
Arps Schools Electronic Device Policy
Interesting point in Arps policy: "These devices must be kept out of sight and turned off during the instructional program and in the classroom except when otherwise directed by the instructor. " The policy otherwise seems to expect students to not have devices, but high school students are permitted to use them during lunch.
From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning by Liz Kolb
Liz's article includes a modification to an Acceptable Use Policy that addresses the use of Mobile Phones.
Sample Classroom Cellphone AUP from the Burrell School District

So, as we move toward a policy that embraces cell phone and handheld use to enhance education, I believe a number of questions are worth exploring:

Should the policy indicate that devices should be turned off and out of sight unless otherwise noted for a specific educational activity or should students be encouraged to use devices as a regular academic tool?
Should devices be permitted during non-academic times (i.e. lunch, study hall)?
Should certain applications be generally banned (YouTube)?
What should the AUP include?
What consequences should be given for inappropriate use?

Any feedback is certainly welcome.

Which tablet (slate) device is truly best for education?

2011-01-20T13:26:00.008-05:00

Our previous 3 year technology plan provided all (or at least most) secondary teachers with a Tablet PC and a wireless projector in their classroom. This was a great effort to put technology in the hands (literally) of our staff. Elementary staff received smart boards for their classrooms and a netbook (in a similar effort to put the technology in everyone's hands). These were great initiatives and I would say have been fairly successful as our staff is much more comfortable with integrating technology at least from a content delivery standpoint.

Our next 3 year plan calls for handheld devices (presumably iPod Touches, use of cell phones in the classroom, and 'tablet' devices like the iPad or a similar device. Ultimately, students would be encouraged to use either a device that they already have or those provided by the school.

We are looking to pilot several tablet devices before the end of this school year so that we can integrate a device in the classroom next year (most likely in the form of a mobile lab or units that could be checked out based on classroom need).

What device seems to be best for use in education? The first thought that comes to mind is the iPad. It's a beautiful device that seems to have a pretty strong hold in the app market (not to mention Apple's reputation in education. There are a few downsides for sure. No Flash. Heaven forbid!!! No USB port??? Multitasking now exists. I wonder if not including multitasking has it's own possible benefit. Without multitasking, the device responds like a champ. Of course, there are times where not being able to have a note taking app open in addition to the web browser (or another app) could be downright frustrating. I guess that is no longer an issue. From a classroom perspective, the mere fact that it has great battery life and almost instant 'on' are huge benefits. We spend too much time waiting for our laptops on our carts to start up, log into the network, etc.

Maybe I've already convinced myself that the iPad is THE device, but I can't help but wonder (and our tech department wants to explore other devices) if there is an 'iPad killer' out there. Is there a device that might lend better to online text books? Is the absence of Flash enough to detract from the value of the iPad?

Some of the competitors include:

The Kno 'textbook tablet' comes in a single tablet and dual screen model. Kno is focusing on the education market and seems to tout the great value in reading and annotating text books as well as the many other inherent tablet features.
The Samsung Galaxy Tablet is an Android powered device with pretty impressive hardward specs. Full Flash support is definitely a plus as are the front and rear facing cameras as well as the video recording capability. I can see great application in the classroom between the use of web based flash content as well as skype calls with classes or 'guest speakers'. Is the 7" form factor a plus compared to the larger iPad or a minus? In some ways the 7" device seems like a nice compromise between the small iPod Touch and the larger iPad. I'm intrigued. Will the Android Market's growth work in the favor of android powered tablets?

The NOOKcolor may not have all of the features of a fully functional tablet device, but it does have a variety of apps that might make it a viable option (compared to a more traditional eReader). Not sure, but figured I'd throw it out there for discussion. I believe I heard some type of rumor about the NOOKcolor running Android. Was that a dream? The price could be a selling point.

The Archos Tablets - Archos has a line of tablets ranging in size from 2.8" for under $100 to a 16 gb 10" tablet (not out yet) for $349. Archos has been big on delivering great multimedia devices, so coupled with the functionality of the Android tablet at a low price point, this is another intriguing product.
The Kineo by Brainchild learning is clearly geared toward educational use with it's rugged design and admin controls (for filtering content, etc.). The website doesn't provide too much in terms of detail, but it is slated (no pun intended) for a February 1 release. The specs look ok, but it doesn't look like there is a camera (rear or front facing) included. Thanks to @Kimbrell for the comment.
the enTourage Edge and Pocket Edge - enTourage has released two dual screen devices. The edge is a 10" e-Reader on one side and Android slate on the other. The Pocket Edge is a 6" e-Reader and 7" slate. Both fold like a book and are full of features. Reviews that I have read lead me to believe that the devices may have their share of design flaws making both the e-Reader or Slate less than perfect. But, then again, it's hard to tell as a number of the reviews were written prior to it's official release. I'd like to think the devices may have undergone some tweaking since then. Whatever the case, each provides the user with the ability to read (and highlight, underline, annotate) an e-book on one side, while taking advantage of the other side for the full functioning Android apps, allowing for note taking, email, organization, multimedia (music, video, presentations, etc.). Each device has a camera as well (3megapixel in the larger device and 2megapixel in the pocket edge).
For more information, visit:
CNET Review
Engadget Review "Yes, the Edge is a combination e-reader and a Android tablet -- it just doesn't quite work well as either. " --Engadget, 2010
Pocket Edge Promo Video
Tiger Direct TV Pocket Edge Review
SLJ Video (and Text) entourage Edge Review

My thought after reviewing some of the reviews and videos is that I might lean toward the Pocket Edge as the full size Edge seems quite bulky. I like the idea of the large screen, but think it misses the boat in terms of the appeal of a slate when it gets so bulky. I am hopeful that with updates and such it has (or will) overcome some of the negative points made in the reviews. It's interesting to me that you can't easily find the technical specs. I can't help but wonder about processor speed. Anyone out there have one? I'd love any first hand accounts.

So, help if you can. Do you have a personal tablet? Do you use a tablet in Education? Can you share some insights (positive or negative) about the particular device and integrating it in the classroom? Any thoughts on educational oriented apps (apple, android, or other) woudl help as well. I appreciate any feedback.

ProCon: Cell Phones and Handhelds in the Classroom

2011-01-19T11:19:00.004-05:00

Should Cell Phones and Handhelds be allowed in the Classroom as a learning tool?

This seems to be the pressing question.

Mary Bjerede wrote a blog post titled, "Cell phones in the classroom:
Surprising field studies suggest cell phones could be effective learning tools". In the article, she cites research that demonstrated the potential benefits including the ability to provide students with a multimedia approach to practicing math problems, compared to the more traditional textbook practice. Additionally, she speaks to the benefit and potential issues related to 'unfettered instant access'.

My general thought is that we should encourage and embrace the use of cell phones and handhelds with internet access in the schools. However, I say so with caution and understanding of the concerns of liability. I believe that responsible use can be achieved if :

The school's AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) is very clear as it pertains to use of personal devices
Teachers are provided with clear guidelines for monitoring use of these devices
Parents are informed and included in the conversation related to expectations including the rationale for their use in addition to the responsibility placed on the child.

It's not a simple matter and I am meeting with our principal and Technology supervisor today to discuss the possibilities of allowing the otherwise 'banned' cell phones into the classroom.

I am very interested in any thoughts you may have and encourage comments, feedback, etc. If your school has a policy, please share what that might be.

Thank you in advance!

Steve

Do you ooVoo?

2011-01-17T17:06:00.006-05:00

Sometimes it's great to have children that are 'Millenials'. I tend to think that I know what's going on with technology, but I can be suprised on occasion. Yesterday, my daughter kept pestering me to download something called ooVoo that all of her friends used for video calling. My daughter described to to me as being like Skype, but you can video chat with multiple people at one time. Since I hadn't heard of it I put on my 'cautious parent' hat. I told her I would search for it, which I did. Everything seemed to check out as she explained it. I installed it on my laptop figuring it was best to let her use it from my computer with my supervision. After a quick installation and a few text messages from her friends she received her first video call. It was like Skype on steroids in a sense. Nice looking interface, easy to use, and, like she said...we were quickly able to be in a video conference with two of her friends.

It seems like a great tool and I can see wonderful application in education. Wouldn't it be great to have a global conversatoin with classes from different countries / cultures online at the same time? The possibilities are certainly there for positive educational application that takes a typical Skype call to another level. Not to knock Skype at all, I'm a huge fan. Kids could work on collaborative projects in real time with video.

Beyond the educational uses (which it clearly was not intended for), the business and personal application is great. The whole family could get online at the same time to wish Grandma a Happy Birthday and on and on.

And finally...you must admit ooVoo is a pretty catchy and cool name :)

Sign up and get your account today!

Controlling my TV with my Android Phone

2011-01-02T14:09:00.003-05:00

It might be old news, as I just located an article from last February about the launch of the FIOS remote for Android, but this morning I had no choice but to search the market and find it out of frustration (you know, the missing remote that I of course later found in buried in the couch). I will say that I was excited to download it and see it install on my phone. As I got ready to use it, however, it prompted me to first click the menu key on my actual FIOS remote. This was a little frustrating as I was hoping to bypass my need for the missing remote. Well, I found the remote and got my phone set up. It seems to work through my home wireless network. Now that I'm set up, I imagine I am in business the next time the remote goes missing.

The remote allows you to control the DVR functions, access the guide (on the TV), change channels, volume, etc. I believe it has almost all of the functionality of the larger, bulky, remote that likes to hide in the couch. In addition to the standard features, the first additional feature that I found and really appreciated, was the ability to display images from my phone on the TV. I will explore it some more as I am sure there are more features to play with, but all in all, it's a nice little app. Now, I just have to hope that my phone doesn't take a dive for the couch cushions!

The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators

2010-12-14T10:55:00.002-05:00

Wow! Recently, I decided that I wanted to develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN). I knew there were many educators out there worth following on twitter, but am continuing to be amazed at the contributions these folks make to the learning / sharing community.

I only wish I had more time to visit all of the great resources that are being shared. I guess that's what the rest of my life is for... I'm trying to add some of the resources to my Web 2.0 Best Practices diigo group. Feel free to request membership and contribute to the group.

One resource that I feel compelled to share is The Super Book of Web Tools for Educators. The free e-book can be found on the Award Winning Free Technology for Teachers blog. The site is maintained by @rmbyrne, who I have been following on twitter. He spearheaded the free e-book project with the help of many other fine educators.

I hope you enjoy exploring the many tools in the book . You can view it online with the embedded e-book reader or download the entire book to your computer. It's a keeper for sure!

Steve

STEM video game challenge Q&A today!

2010-12-08T10:16:00.003-05:00

Are you interested in the STEM video game challenge for middle school students? My game design and development students are participating. If you are looking for more information, they are hosting a live call this afternoon to address any questions.

The STEM video game challenge encourages students to use their choice of video game creation tools including Gamestar Mechanic, Game Maker, Game Salad, Scratch, Kodu Game Lab, or other tools to create original video games.

LIVE Q & A Call
Questions about the Challenge? Join us for a live Q & A call, open to parents, teachers and students.

Date: Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Time: 4:30PM-5:30 Eastern Standard Time

How: Call Toll Free 1-866-213-1863 code: 4029345

on developing my PLN

2010-12-06T11:16:00.004-05:00

Image from: http://www.onlinedegrees.org/building-your-personal-learning-network/

When I attended Graduate School online (to receive my degree in Online Teaching and Learning), I became very interested in the idea of creating sustainable online learning communities. The idea of such communities to keep people together to continue to collaborate and learn together beyond the timeframe of a class, professional development opportunity, etc. has stayed with me. In fact, I keep thinking that if I go back to school for my doctorate, my thesis would be based on this topic.

The interest came from the idea that we often get excited about a topic, but without fail, the collaboration tends to fizzle if not nurtured appropriately. My goal was to find a way to nurture this sense of community. But, how?

Perhaps my research has already been done and I can let it rest as people are developing and maintaining Personal Learning Networks. The technology may already be in place. I still think there is merit in further research and development, but for now, I believe I will embrace the work that others have done to encourage Learning Communities.

One of the challenges, as I see it, is to effectively link the various PLN puzzle pieces. Just today, I found 'The Educator's PLN' ning. I applied to the ning and look forward to exploring what it has to offer. I like the fact that part of the application asked for links to a number of my PLN sites.

To date, I am using a number of tools as part of my PLN. I will share them briefly here and in some of my upcoming blog posts. Feel free to comment on ideas you are using to create or develop your PLN.

Twitter - Twitter may be the easiest way to follow people as part of your PLN. I especially love that I receive tweets right to my phone. This makes it very easy to browse the tweets from people I am following as well as post something myself. It has taken me a while to warm up to twitter for some reason. Originally, I didn't see the point when I was using facebook, which seemed to satisfy all of my social networking needs. I now vouch for the fact that they serve very different purposes.

Blogger - I created a blog a couple of years ago. My initial goal of the blog was to provide support to the teachers in my school district. I posted responses to common tech questions and shared worthwhile tools (generally with a tutorial on how to use them). Since I began, I have been teaching a number of online Web 2.0 courses, so my blog has evolved to share Web 2.0 tools as well.

As I was searching for an image to include in the post, I found a great resource (http://www.onlinedegrees.org/building-your-personal-learning-network/)describing otner PLN tools. Enjoy :)

Shift Happens...revisited!

2010-09-28T11:06:00.003-04:00

Greetings. I facilitate a staff development course called "Shift Happens: Globalization and Preparing our Students for the 21st Century". A session of the course just ended this week. The final project asks participants to share the message of the "Did You Know" videos with a group of colleagues, friends, politicians, or others that may find the content relevant.

One of the particiants created a blog to share the discussion. I wanted to post a link to the blog here in the hopes that you will visit her blog, view the videos and engage in the discussion based on the thought provoking questions provided in the blog.

Please take a moment to visit Cassy's Blog.

Student Showcase: Images of Peace project

2010-06-07T13:25:00.002-04:00

Please enjoy this video created by a student in my Communication Technology class using Animoto. The project involved finding images and quotes that represented peace. Students created a digital photo essay by modifying their images using art software and then creating a video to display their work. Hope you like it!

Embedding a YouTube video in your blog

2010-06-01T12:29:00.005-04:00

Recently, I have been asked how to embed a video into a blog. The example I will provide will show you how to embed a YouTube video in an edublogs blog, but the general idea should work for most blogs.

Step 1: Retrieve the embed code from the YouTube video that you plan to include in your blog

As you can see in the image above, there is a button for embed (embed). This will open a dialog box with the code in the box. Click in that box (see above where it says

Step 2: Embedding the HTML code (using the HTML editor)

The above image probably looks a bit daunting. You need to first click on the HTML tab (next to the Visual tab above). This gets you into the pure HTML editor. Once there, all you need to do is paste the code in the work space. If you have other text and want the video to show below that, you can paste this code at the bottom. Essentially, the video will show up based on where you paste the code (relative to the rest of the blog entry).

Hope that helps!

Here's an example of the video embedded in the blog...

Google wave - now available for everyone!

2010-05-21T17:03:00.002-04:00

After hearing the news that Google Wave is now available for everyone, I thought it would be good to revisit google wave in my blog. Visit the google blog from the link as there are links to specific uses of wave in education, an article on how to use wave, etc.

Hopefully, you will join the wave and find some waves that are of particular interest to you. Wave is a tool that allows real-time (chat like) and asynchronous collaboration to exist among members of a wave. It is similar to a wiki, but more of an ongoing conversation with links, images, resources, and built in widgets. It really is revolutionary in terms of Web 2.0 (perhaps 3.0) and will hopefully continue to evolve.

Join the wave!

You can search and add me as a contact (stevei2071@googlewave.com)

2010-05-20T13:28:00.002-04:00

People are always asking me if you can convert a PDF file back into Word or convert it so that you could edit the document. Well, thanks to Linda in my Best Practices: Web 2.0 class, I have seen the light! PDFtoWORD converter is a VERY easy to use web based conversion tool. Visit the site and it will prompt you through three simple steps:

browse for the file you wish to convert
choose to convert it into .doc (Microsoft Word) or .rtf (rich text format)
enter your email address so the converted file can be sent to you

There is a desktop version, but that costs $99. The free web-based tool was very easy to use, and despite a short wait for the file to arrive in my in box it worked GREAT!

Thanks again, Linda!
Enjoy!

Web2.0

2010-01-20T09:20:00.000-05:00

Recently, I have been using diigo, a social bookmarking site. I have begun to create a list of valuable Web2.0 resources. I hope you find them helpful! Also, there is a group on diigo that I created for the topic. Feel free to join the group and contribute your favorite Web 2.0 sites as well!

Welcome!

2009-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the William Annin Middle School Technology Tips Blog. I decided to set this up as a forum to share ideas related to technology, particularly as they pertain to the needs of the staff and students at William Annin Middle School. Posts will come from responses to inquiries around the building as well as ideas that I believe you can use to enhance your use of technology. Feel free to comment on any of the posts or email me with questions / suggestions. I hope you find my entries helpful.

Mr. Isaacs

Google Wave

2009-12-07T13:27:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone. I have been enjoying playing with Google Wave (http://wave.google.com). Right now, google wave is in a limited preview mode, but more and more invitations are being sent, meaning more and more participants are getting involved. I recently created a public wave that I am managing on the topic of Middle / High School Game Design and Development. My intent is to collaborate with other professionals regarding teaching game design and introductory computer programming concepts.

If you are interested in participating in the wave, please let me know and I will be happy to add you. If you already have a google wave account, please provide me with your google wave email address. If you do not have a wave account yet, I might be able to help you to get involved. I have a few invitations available and am especially interested in giving them to other educators (especially if you are interested in game design and development). If you would like an invite, please provide me with your email address.

Interested in finding out more about google wave?

ToonDoo

2009-11-02T09:01:00.004-05:00

ToonDoo - The Cartoon Strip Creator!

Thanks to one of my new google wave contacts for pointing me to ToonDoo. ToonDoo is a very user friendly web based application that allows you to create cartoon strips and even cartoon books. The site is designed to encourage participants to create new strips, share their work, and discuss cartooning. What a great way to get students involved in the writing / digital story telling process. The Toon Creator is full of backgrounds, character, props, and other useful tools to aid in creating your masterpieces. I would say that the site is certainly appropriate and easy enough to use for elementary students but is entirely appropriate for older students as well. What a find :)

ToonDoo is free to use, but also offers a nice package for schools in order to create a ToonDoo Space exclusively for your school. Naturally, this helps in terms of creating a safe space for your students. Rates are reasonable. For example, to create a ToonDoo space for 12 months for 100 students would cost $206. Seems reasonable for a grade level project.

Web 2.0 Pick of the Day: 30 Boxes

2009-10-29T12:57:00.004-04:00

Thanks, once again to the facilitators of the Web 2.0 course I am taking for today's Web 2.0 Pick of the Day. Today, I feature 30 boxes, an online interactive calendar that can be shared among a number of participants.

The 30 boxes online calendar tool is simple, yet has enough features to make it worthwhile. Participants can collaborate on adding to the events on the calendar. Events can even be generated automatically from RSS feeds. You can use the drag and drop functionality to move events around the calendar. I could see great value in this tool as a simple online family calendar, a teacher's calendar of due dates, or a calendar for after school groups. I know for our school musical, there are dates for different groups to rehearse, days for the crew to meet, and of course all of the full cast rehearsals and shows.

While playing around, I found at least two added features that I really liked. One is the built in task list. You never can have enough 'Things to do' lists floating around. And finally, and maybe the best feature...When you register, you enter your zipcode. 30Boxes automatically includes and updates the 5 day forecast.

I am not sure if it includes all of the functionality of something like the Google Calendar, which my family uses. We especially like the Google Calendar as it allows you to color code and superimpose a number of calendars on the master calendar. We can see our whole family's ridiculously busy schedule all in one place :)

Try them both out. I am interested in hearing your comments.

Web 2.0 pick of the day: Gliffy

2009-10-28T13:47:00.005-04:00

Currently, I am taking a Web 2.0 Professional Development course through the Virtual High School Consortium (http://www.govhs.org/). The course has been great and over the next 20 days we will be introduced to 20 new web 2.0 applications. I figured I should pass them along to you so that you can enjoy playing with some of the MANY interactive and collaborative resources available online.

Above: Screenshot from Gliffy

The 'pick of the day' for today is Gliffy, a tool intended for creating diagrams online. There are a variety of types of diagrams that you can design using gliffy including:

Floorplans

Flow Charts

User Interfaces

One of the best features of Gliffy is that it allows for collaboration among users. I can see great value in using this for teams planning for group projects or students for pre-writing, etc. Many possibilities!

Please visit http://www.gliffy.com/ now to try it out! I'd love to hear your comments.

Google Wave

2009-10-14T13:48:00.004-04:00

WOW! I'd like to thank my wife for sharing this video with me earlier today. Check out the video demonstrating Google Wave. This may be the next HUGE step in online collaboration, email, and Social Networking. Did I say WOW?

21st Century Skills Webinar

2009-09-25T11:27:00.001-04:00

21^st Century Skills:
What Do They Look Like?

Tech&Learning Webinar

Date: Thursday October 8th
Time: 10 a.m. West Coast/ 1 p.m. East Coast
Duration: 60 minutes
Sponsors: Atomic Learning

Wondering exactly what 21^st Century Skills are all about? Trying to determine what steps to take to begin bringing 21^st Century Skills into classroom projects? Join this presentation and discussion around 21^st Century Skills concepts, examples, and real world advice on how to bring them into the classroom.

Presenter:

Brad Flickinger, Education Futurist and Educator

Although being born and raised in Canada, Brad is proud of what he calls his "Perfect American Accent." After high school Brad studied journalism at the University of Western Australia, returned home to Canada, married his high school sweetheart and started his own weekly newspaper. At the age of 24 he won the Young Entrepreneur of Canada for the work he had done in getting newspapers into the digital age. A few years later he moved his young family to a beach town in Costa Rica for a few years to work as a schoolteacher at a private elementary school before returning to the United States. By this time, the Internet was booming and Brad spent the next few years managing a technology and design company near Seattle before returning to teaching for the past seven years. Recently Brad has combined is passions for teaching and technology by working a consultant and speaker on new and emerging educational technologies.

Click here to register for this FREE webinar.

A Vision of Students Today

2009-07-16T04:50:00.001-04:00

The following video was presented in an online class I am currently taking. It speaks volumes...

The Discovery Education Network Virtual Conference

2009-04-16T11:17:00.004-04:00

The Discovery Educational Network is hosting a FREE Online Conference on Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm (ET)

Highlights Include:

Building School 2.0 - examine ideas of constructivist pedagogy and the use of 21st century tools to create schools that are engaging, caring and relevant places of learning for everyone involved.
The Benjamin Button Effect
Turning Data Into Action: Explore the Reporting Features of Discovery Education streaming
Closing the Global Achievement Gap: Beyond Test-Prep, Toward Life-Prep
Special presentations featuring projects, ideas, and tips from STAR Discovery Educators
Collaborate with educators who are passionate about integrating media in instruction to improve student achievement.

Click here to register online.

FETC Virtual Conference and Expo

2009-04-16T11:02:00.003-04:00

On April 23, 2009 FETC (The Florida Educational Technology Conference) and The Journal (Transforming Education Through Technology) will be hosting a FREE Online Conference and Expo from 11:00 am - 7:00 pm addressing issues related to 21st Century Skills. This event will feature the keynote address, "21st Century Learning: A Necessity for our Students" presented by Dr. Steve Paine. Other highlights include

dynamic speakers
virtual 'exhibit hall' time
exchange of best practices and tips
a 'virtual netwoking lounge'
product demos
free content downloads.

myEbook

2009-04-14T13:24:00.002-04:00

myEbook is the place to read existing eBooks, or publish your own. The publishing tool is web based and very easy to use, so anyone can be an eBook author! As a test, I converted my HTML tutorial that I provide as a resource for my students. The process was fairly simple. I converted it into a .pdf. If you are not sure how to do so, visit my cutePDF tutorial article in my blog. Once the file was in .pdf format, the eBook builder converted the file into the proper format to be viewed with their free online viewer. The concept is great. There are even opportunities to make money with your eBook. The site provides tools that deal with the use of advertiser support for revenue generation as well as other methods. Most of the books are free to read and can be read right in the browser window. The eBook format is aesthetically pleasing and very easy to use.

Go check out the site and peruse one of the many magazines or books available online. Below is my simple example.

WOW! The Mecca for Web 2.0 Applications

2009-04-03T12:02:00.005-04:00

Thanks to a friend at edweb.net, I was pointed to Go2Web20. This site provides an immense library of web 2.0 resources. The site allows you to filter the list provided by sub category and there are MANY sub-categories including apps for photos, video, music, e-learning, games, collaboration, blogging, communication, online community, etc. etc. etc. Prepare to waste a LOT of time, while finding some fun and useful apps.

Six Technologies soon to affect education

2009-03-26T13:31:00.002-04:00

Today's eSchool News had an interesting article regarding upcoming web 2.0 tools that will impact the educational community. The article breaks up the emerging technology in several categories, based on the type of technology and the timeframe for widespread integration.

I encourage you to read the entire article, and I plan to dedicate future entries to some of the individual tools discussed.

The first categories discussed include Collaborative Environments, like Moodle or Ning, and VoiceThread and Online Communication tools, including twitter, skype, and edmodo . It is believed that these tools will be widely used within the next year or two. I have seen a number of these tools used in education already, while others are still not being widely utilized because of concern regarding possible liability. It will be interesting to see how these tools become incorporated. In the spirit of encouraging 21st century skills, I believe these are valuable tools and with proper guidance should be utilized to enhance instruction.

The next categories, which are projected to be widely used in the next two to three years include mobile devices and cloud computing.

The article states...

"The combination of available applications and a device that [students] can carry provides an opportunity to introduce students to tools for study and time management that will help them later in life," says the report. "The implications for K-12 education are dramatic: the potential for mobile gaming and simulation, research aids, field work, and tools for learning of all kinds is there, awaiting development."

It is amazing what is available on a phone these days. Phones have become people's communication devices far beyond the simple telephone functionality. People can gather all of their email and messaging on a mobile device, manage their appointments (wouldn't it be great for all students to use a digital management system for assignments, etc). In addition, a smart phone or mobile device can be used to store and analyze data, research online, view photos and video, etc. Currently, we have many rules in place regarding the use of cell phones in school, whereby students are not allowed to have them on in at all during the school day (if even allowed to be carried). At some point, the mindset will have to change, but with proper guidelines. As a tool, including the available applications that are available, mobile phones and other wireless devices will become an incredible teaching and learning tool. What better way to teach, then by encouraging the technology that children are using in the real world.

The concept of cloud computing refers to applications that are hosted remotely including google documents and other collaborative writing tools in addition to a variety of other applications like YouTube where the content is hosted remotely.

The final categories (3 to 4 years out) include smart objects and The Personal Web. Smart objects include items that can be coded and tracked. The peronal web speaks of the notion of using tools to organize content on the web, rather than just view it. This will certainly provide the opportunity for students to learn more sophisticated means of researching, managing, and effecively utilizing information over time.

It is interesting to see how many of these ideas are already being utilized. At this point, they are being utilized sporadically and generally by educators who have dedicated the effort to learn these tools on their own. In time, utilization of these tools will be more common and integrated in the curriculum. Exciting stuff :)

Can't see video when playing a DVD with your Tablet?

2009-03-16T12:50:00.007-04:00

I have received a number of inquiries recently regarding video issues with the Lenovo Tablet PCs. Essentially, people are having issues viewing a DVD on the Tablet. Generally speaking, sound is working, but the display is not. The issue is occurring because the video card is not equipped for certain graphic capabilities. This can be fixed by setting the hardware acceleration higher on the display settings. Following are the necessary steps.

Step 1:
right click on a blank area on the desktop (not on an icon) and choose 'Properties"

Step 2:
When in the Display Properties, click on the Settings Tab.

Step 3:
Click the 'Advanced Button' at the bottom of the Settings Page.

Step 4: Click on the Troubleshoot Tab on the Advanced Page

=

Step 5:
In the 'Troubleshoot' Tab, click the and drag the slider for hardware acceleration from the present location to 'Full'. Then click Apply and OK and you are done. Your DVD should play, video and all.

Note: This also works for some other graphic issues on the tablet. If you are using GameMaker, this will be required in order to run the games once created.

Classwish.org

2009-03-10T08:30:00.005-04:00

This seemed like a timely post in light of our current budget crisis...

Classwish is a nonprofit organization that makes it easy for teachers ans schools to create Wish Lists of the supplies they need for students to excel. Parents and others in the community see exactly what is needed and contribute online.

Visit classwish.org and set up a teacher profile and wish list today!

How to Embed a YouTube Video in your PowerPoint presentation

2009-03-09T10:39:00.002-04:00

This tutorial will show you how to embed a video from YouTube right in a PowerPoint presentation. The method in the video is intended for use in PowerPoint 2003, but should work in PowerPoint 2000 as well. If you are using PowerPoint 2007, do a search on YouTube as there are many videos for 2007. The video is also assuming you are online and can access the video from the YouTube server. If you need to use the video offline, there are additional steps required, which make the process a little more complicated. My students have been using this method to include video in their PowerPoint and have had great success. Hopefully, this will work for you!

Blogs in Plain English

2009-02-26T11:06:00.001-05:00

You are reading my blog, so I guess you have some concept of what a blog is. This video breaks down the idea of blogging and will hopefully inspire you to create your own blog about a topic that speaks to you. Enjoy!

Help! I can't open that file at school...

2009-02-26T09:30:00.002-05:00

My wife, Cathy Cheo-Isaacs posted an entry in her blog that addresses the age old issue of incompatibility regarding versions of Microsoft Office. I am continually asked to open files for students because they completed them at home using a different version of Office. For example, they may have Office 2007 at home, and our computers have Office 2000 or 2003. Whatever the case may be, Cathy provides the answer with a link to the Microsoft compatibility pack.

Visit her entry here.

GameMaker - Free Game Development Program

2009-02-13T17:24:00.005-05:00

GameMaker is a wonderful drag and drop gamemaking tool. It is easy enough for elementary students to use to create games and robust enough for the hard core programmer. I have used this to teach programming concepts and constructs with students from grade 2 through 10. I am continually amazed by the creations of my students and the countless hours they put into creating their games. The toolset is openended and provides the game designer with the opportunity to create any type of game they can think of without limitation.

GameMaker is supported by an online community called yoyogames (http://www.yoyogames.com/). The site allows you to download a plethora of resources. The program is available for free and an additional set of tools can be unlocked by purchasing the Pro version at a nominal fee. The pro version is not necessary, but for the small donation it is certainly worth supporting the development team. You can also download resources including tutorials, graphics, sounds, etc. Finally, you can post your games to the yoyogames site for others to enjoy or download games created by others.

Nine Year Old Writes Popular iPhone App!

2009-02-10T08:42:00.008-05:00

Nine Year Old, Lim Thye Chean (left) created a drawing application for the iPhone. The application was originally created for his younger sisters (ages 3 and 5) so they could draw on the iPhone. The program allows users to draw on the iPhone touch screen with their fingers and erase the 'slate' by shaking the iPhone. So far, this application has been downloaded more than 4,000 time from the iTunes store.

One of my passions is teaching game design and development, so I am especially excited by the possibilities regarding the potential for distribution of games created by students. This is quite motivating for the developer and inspiring for budding developers. Way to go Lim Thye!

Please view the entire article at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7874291.stm.

edWeb.net: Where the Education Community Connects

2009-02-05T09:16:00.004-05:00

Today, I stumbled upon a new Social Networking site for Educators. It's kind of like Facebook for Educators. The site is designed to connect educators. On this site, you can:

create a profile
maintain a blog
create or join education communities
share resources (lesson plans, weblinks, etc.)
communicate with 'friends' in the education community
upload and share pictures and videos

I joined today and encourage you to do the same. If you do, please send me a 'friend' request (Steven Isaacs). Click here to find out more or join.

So far, I joined the 21st Century Skills community and am interested to see what kind of discussion ensues.

See you online!

Education well represented in stimulus package

2009-01-29T13:28:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure about everyone else, but there has been a feeling of gloom and doom lately with regards to the state of education funding. It sounds like this could result in many program cuts, which certainly compromise the education of our students. With program cuts, come job cuts. This certainly wouldn't help the current economic climate any (and would have a huge impact on my family for sure).

The following article should spark a feeling of hope as the House has ok'd a record $142 billion dollars for education as part of the stimulus package. The package still has to go before the Senate, but it sounds like the Senate will be ironing out differences of opinion regarding the package. However, the bottom line sounds like there will be a substantial amount of money put into the education system to try to help with our current economic crisis.

Please read the article, and post your comments.

I especially like this part ...

"Both measures include $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key educational services, including $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities using existing formulas, $15 billion to states as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures, and $25 billion to states for other high-priority needs, such as preventing the layoffs of public safety employees and teachers."

The article can be found on eSchool News.

Online Text to Speech Translator

2009-01-23T17:13:00.006-05:00

Special thanks to Bill Paris for today's entry. He shared this great website with me today.

The text to speech translator allows you to enter text into a text area and the translator will speak the text in your choice of languages. One of the nice features is that you can set the speed of the text and the text is spoken in a very lifelike voice (as opposed to most computer generated text to speech programs).

Currently, the languages available are: English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese, Russian and Spanish. You can copy and paste the text from a document or website. The translator accepts Asian characters as well.

This is a great tool for the classroom. What a great addition to the Language or ESL classroom. In addition, this site has great application for students with special needs and those with visual impairments.

The translator can be found at:

http://www.text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/

Enjoy!

Creating a Group in Groupwise

2009-01-22T10:31:00.008-05:00

I have been planning on posting a blog entry on how to create a group in Groupwise, but was struggling with the motivation to put it together. Today, a help request came in asking about creating groups in groupwise. Just the motivation I needed! So, here it is...

What is a group? A group (or distribution list) is a list of email recipients that you can send mail to by selecting the group (once you have definted the group).

Follow these stepst to create a group in Groupwise

Step 1: Open Groupwise and click on the Address Book icon (highlighted to the left)

Once you have opened the Address Book, you will see a list of your current address books, as shown on the left.

Step 2: When in the Address book, click on File -> New Book. This will allow you to create a new address book. I tend to do this so that my group is easy to find and that my address book remains organized.

Once created, you will see the address book in your list of address books (in the example here, the address book is called Sample Address Book). As you see, I have a number of address books that I have created.

Step 3: Once you have created your new address book (or decided to put the group in an existing address book), click on the triangle (pull down) next to New and select group.

Step 4: Enter a name for the group that makes sense to you.

Step 5: Click Add to begin adding members to your group.

Step 6: After clicking add, you will see a screen like the one to the right. If you are creating a group of staff members, you would want to look in the Novell Groupwise Address Book (as shown). Notice that I changed the filter (match) to Last Name. Type in a last name and the list of names below will start to match what you typed. Double click on the selected name and they will appear in the right (Selected) area.

When you have entered all of the desired names, click OK and your group will be created.

Step 7: In order to send an email to your group, click on New Mail in Groupwise in order to start drafting an email. Click on Address. Make sure the correct address book is selected. Click on the group you want to send the email to. You can select To: if you want it to show up in the to field, CC: if you would like it to show in the Carbon Copy field, or BC: if you prefer for the group not to show up for users to see when they receive the email.

Give it a try!!!! Let me know if you have any questions.

Firefox Add-ons Featuring "Morning Coffee"

2008-12-16T10:57:00.005-05:00

I am becoming more and more a fan of Firefox as each day passes. Firefox is a web browser that can easily be customized by incorporating a number of the add-ons available. I always knew these add-ons existed, but my awareness was increased greatly thanks to a staff college course presented by Dave Petersen and Brian Heineman.

Add-ons are small programs that you can add to firefox to increase the functionality of the browser. There are more add-ons than you can shake a stick at for sure. Periodically, I will feature one of my favorite add-ons in my blog. All of the tablets in our district have firefox installed, but if you do not have firefox, you can download it for free from http://www.getfirefox.com/. You can browse the multitude of add-ons here. There are many categories of add-ons ranging from functional to fun.

Today I would like to feature a simple add-on that I really like. It is called 'Morning Coffee'. You can customize this add-on so that it opens specific web pages in different tabs based on your preferences. For example, you can set it up so that it opens several web pages every day, or specifiy which days you want certain pages to open up when you click on the morning coffee icon. I have pages that I always want to check when I first go online each day. The idea of the name of the add-on is that these would be the web pages you would view as you enjoy your morning coffee. Kind of like the days when you sit at the kitchen table with the newspaper and your cup of joe. During the week, I like to check my email, lesson plans, and my online courses in Moodle. So, I have morning coffee set up to open these pages automatically when I click on the coffee cup. On weekends, I may like to look at other web pages, like my social networking pages, personal email, gaming sites, etc. You can set it up to display different pages based on the day of the week. I love it. Below is an image of Morning coffee.

You can download and install the morning coffee here. Hope you like it.

Animoto

2008-12-11T12:39:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine showed me a video she created online with Animoto. Animoto is a very easy to use tool to create high impact videos from still pictures. Essentially, Animoto does all the work. Once registered, you just need to upload your images through their online uploading tool and choose music. Animoto does the rest! You can choose music from their music library, or upload your own music to accompany your video. Generally, you can create as many 30 second videos as you like for free and 'full length' videos are $3.00 each. However, Animoto is FREE for educators. With an 'all access' pass, you can create as many full length videos as you like for FREE. You can then download the videos to your computer or post them online to a number of places (including a web page, blog, facebook, etc.

Check out Animoto and register for your free educator account and start creating impressive videos. You need to register through the educator link in order to receive the All Access Pass.

Some Moodle Resources

2008-12-10T17:24:00.008-05:00

Have you joined the Moodle bandwagon yet? If so, I would like to provide you with some resources that I find valuable. I hope they help you to better utilize Moodle.

Resources:

Moodle Features Course (you must create a free account on Moodle.org in order to participate). The course provides an overview of all of the resources and activities and how to use them.

Moodle 1.8 User Manual: This comprehensive manual is a wonderful resource! It provides everything you could possibly want to know about creating a course, adding resources, etc. Think of it as the Moodle bible :) This is the newest manual available. We are currently using a newer version of Moodle, but until the manual is updated, this resource remains a valuable resource.

Moodle.org Teacher Documentation: This link will take you to a page geared toward teachers using Moodle. It includes links to sub pages that will assist you in using the many features of Moodle.

I will add additional resources as time goes on. I am a big fan of Moodle and am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Editing Sound Files with Audacity

2008-12-09T13:34:00.002-05:00

Audacity is a free, open source audio editing tool. It allows you to create your own audio files or edit existing files. There are a number of built in effects that add to the usefulness of audacity.

You can download Audacity from: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. After editing the audio file, you can export it as a .wav file or an .mp3 file. The edited sound file can be used in Flash, PowerPoint, and a number of other applications.

If you would like to export the file as an .mp3 file, you need to also download an additional file (lame_enc.dll). Directions on how to install this as well as a link to the required file is available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3.

The video below will assist you with using Audacity to edit a sound file.

Google Documents

2008-12-08T10:58:00.002-05:00

There are many collaborative writing tools out there. Among them is Google Documents. Basically, Google Documents is like having a web based Office application. However, better yet, is the fact that you can use them as a collaborative tool. In other words, you can create a document and share it with others. You can invite people to contribute to the document. You have the option to invite people to view the document or edit the document. In addition, you can share the document with the world by publishing it as a web page (google will host it) or posting it to your blog.

Google Documents currently allows you to create word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, online forms, and a variety of other documents based on templates they provide (holiday shopping list, budget worksheets, calendars, etc.). There are even a number of templates specifically designed for teachers and students.

Google Documents requires that you create a FREE google account. Your google account will also allow you to use any of the many free services offered by google including gmail (google's email), google calendar (I'll cover this one in an upcoming blog), and MANY MANY more!

I can see great applications for google documents in the classroom. For example, our 8th grade Social Studies students participate in a stock market project. They share a spreadsheet on our network (or transfer it on floppy disk) and update it using Excel. With a google spreadsheet, the students could access the document from any computer with internet access. Beyond this example, any group project or peer editing situation can benefit from the use of google documents.

Create your google account and get started today!

Did You Know?

2008-12-05T11:04:00.002-05:00

Recently, I taught a staff college course entitled "Shift Happens: Joining the Conversation: Globalization and Preparing our Students for the 21st Century."

The course was based on the following video. This is the second official version of the "Did You Know" video, which provides some startling facts regarding the changes occurring in the world that we are preparing our students for. I believe you will agree that it is a great conversation starter. I hope that you can take eight minutes to watch the video. After watching the video, please post your comments or visit http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com to participate in the global discussion.

Smart Notebook: Ink on ANYTHING with your Tablet PC

2008-12-04T09:48:00.007-05:00

I don't know about you, but I am often frustrated when I cannot use my Tablet to annotate (ink) certain types of documents. Some programs allow inking (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), while others do not (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.). Well, my wife was good enough to set me on the right track. Smart Notebook (the software used with Smart Boards) works with the Tablet just as it would with a smart board. Thus, you can essentially ink ANYTHING. It essentially works as an overlay with a toolbar that is present on your screen. (see tooolbar to the right)

Some tips:

The tool bar can be moved anywhere, but will typically be displayed on the left side of your desktop and will appear on top of any application running. You can hide it by clicking the double arrow on the 'tab' or move it by clicking and dragging on the group of dots under the double arrow.
Once you choose a tool, that tool will take over for the mouse or the tablet pen. If you wish to return to the typical mouse functionality, choose the arrow tool.
Once you have completed inking the document, you can take a 'screen capture', which will send the image to the smart notebook software.
You can export the document as a .pdf file, an image file, or a variety of other formats. This will prove helpful if you would like to post the inked document on your website or Moodle site.
You can add (or remove) tools from the toolbar, by clicking on the add remove tools button. This will open a screen (see below) that will allow you to drag new tools onto the toolbar or remove tools from the toolbar.

I suggest that you play around with a number of the tools above. I am sure there are a few that you will really like and use regularly. One certainly worth trying is the screen shade. This will bring you back to the old days of putting a piece of paper over your transparency to hide part of the content. As you pull the shade down, you will reveal whatever is underneath. This works great to keep kids from being distracted by looking at the entire screen when you want them to focus on a particular item. Feel free to share any of the tools you like as a comment to this post.

You can download the smart board software from the Smart Tech website. The 30 day trial is free. If you like it and would like to use the full version, let me know. I believe the school district has a site license for the software.

Enjoy!

CutePDF: Free PDF creator

2008-12-03T13:09:00.004-05:00

CutePDF: Free PDF creator

Creating a .pdf (portable document format) is as easy as clicking file -> print with CutePDF writer. A .pdf file is the web standard for maintaining the integrity of a document of any type. You can create .pdf files out of your Word files, Excel Spreadsheets, Publisher documents, etc. Basically, any document that you can print, can be converted to a .pdf. The main benefit is that it is a universal file format that allows users to download the document exactly as the author intends for it to look regardless of whether or not the end user has the software it was created with. In addition, the end user cannot modify the document.

You can download the CutePDF writer AND converter (both are necessary) from : http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp. When you get to the website, click on the two download links (see below).

Once downloaded, you will install both parts and you are ready to go. In order to create .pdf files, all you need to do is:

Open the desired file
Click on file -> print
Choose CutePDF writer as the printer (it will be one of the printers in the pull down menu of printers)
It will process your request and then bring up a save as window. Save the file wherever you like. It will save the file as a .pdf.
Use the file as you like (email it, post it to your oncourse website, etc.)

Enjoy!

PowerPoint Show

2008-12-02T09:40:00.002-05:00

Saving PowerPoint Slide Shows for Viewing on any computer

I get many questions regarding PowerPoint files and how to save them so that they can be accessed regardless of the version of PowerPoint on a given computer. Often, students create a PowerPoint presentation at home on a newer version and then come to school and cannot retrieve the presentation because the classroom computer does not have the same version. In addition, there are times when teachers post PowerPoint slide shows on Moodle and run into problems with the way the file is opened on the end user's computer.

Both of these issues can be resolved by saving the slide show as a PowerPoint Show. In order to do so, go to file -> save as -> and under save as type choose 'PowerPoint Show (*.pps)'.

When saved as a PowerPoint Show (.pps), the slide show can be viewed as a stand alone project. This means that the computer showing it does not need to have PowerPoint installed. You can not edit this file, so this is intended for times when you want to present the slide show, but not continue to work on it. For example, in Moodle, the presentation will load for the end user as a slide show. It will maintain all of the functionality (i.e. transitions, animation, etc) but cannot be altered. Likewise, when students (or teachers) save a presentation in this format, it can be shown as a slide show only. This should resolve some of the issues people are currently having.

When the slide show loads, it will load full screen and in order to advance, it will function like PowerPoint (i.e. you can click to advance or if it is set on automatic timing, the slide show will proceed as planned.