Kindle Fire Deployment

The new Kindle Fires have been on a lot of schools' radars recently. We have several schools who have purchased large numbers of Fires for use with subscribed web applications. MyOn Reader is one such site that schools have purchased in order to use their substantial reading material. And with the need to have more large scale web access, schools decided to try the Kindle Fire. So I've learned a lot about the device over the last week. Here's what I've learned...

1. These devices are VERY personal. Even more than the iPad. There is a link to the Amazon store from nearly every page. Great access for the personal user, but maybe not great for students.
2. You have to use an Amazon account to get into the device. There isn't a way to bypass it. We created a generic account that isn't tied to a credit card to get pass this step.
3. There are a ton of bookmarks and history items preinstalled. So if you want students to have quick access to Facebook, Twitter, and iMDb, then you are all set. If you don't, then you'll need to spend a lot of time deleting these quick links. Yes, it has to be manual.
4. Here's the Catch-22. The Fires use "one-click" to purchase anything. No big deal, right. The problem is that in order to set up "one-click", you have to set up a credit card on your account. Not great for student use.
5. When you deregister the Fire, it goes back to "out of the box". All the favorites and bookmarks you deleted will return. And if you purchased anything, you have to use the account password to access it. Even free apps.

With that in mind, we've decided because it's late in the year, it would be best to set up the Fires to use just as a web browser. Hopefully Amazon will have some sort of deployment system for the large scale.

Check out this document for instructions I created to show our teachers how to set up the Kindle Fires just for web browsing. Hope you find it helpful!

Setting up your Kindle Fire for student web browsing

The Snipping Tool!

Whenever I mention the Snipping Tool in any training, it's the one thing that teachers love the most! I'd like to think I'm always presenting really cool things, but it's the Snipping Tool that sticks. For the uninitiated, Snipping Tool allows you to take a picture of any part of the screen. It's so much easier than the old "print screen" because of all the added functionality, mainly being able to choose what you want from the beginning.

If you are running Windows 7 or Vista, you already have this great tool available to you and you may not even know it. It's found through the Start Menu and "Accessories". I train my teachers to drag the Snipping Tool icon to their toolbar because once it's found, you are going to want fast access. Once you get it on your toolbar, it should look like this (snipping tool in the middle with the scissors):

Now it's time to get snipping! Simply select the Snipping tool and you'll see a light panel cover your entire screen. There will also be a pop-up menu for you to use:

Use your crosshairs to crop the portion of the screen you want to use. Once you drag, let go of the cursor and you'll see another pop-up appear with the portion you snipped. There you will find all the great options: save as a JPEG, copy and paste, email, or annotate. Teachers will most likely use the save and copy functions the most, but I always like to mention the email function. Now you can easily snip a computer error and email it to someone for help. 

And that's as easy as it gets! When teachers get this information, it will be hard for them to keep their excitement levels down. Snipping Tool makes it so easy to create. Bet you can't guess how I retrieved my images for this post!

PD with Google Reader

I hope everyone had a restful week off of school! I know the weather was great in Columbia, so I don't regret staying at home one bit. Besides, we did a lot of great projects around the house that my four-year-old really enjoyed.

I wanted to share Google Reader with you. If you haven't found it yet, then you need to check it out. Google Reader enables you to subscribe to blogs to get up-to-date information about the world of educational technology. Actually, the world of anything.

You'll need a Google account to get started. If you have a Gmail account, then you are ready to go. Just sign in. If not, go to google.com and look at the upper right corner for "sign in". Create your account there.

Here is what my Google Reader space looks like:

You can search for content areas or specific blogs. Once you find one you like, simply subscribe to it. Then you'll automatically get updates when content is posted. It's the best way to get free PD on your own time.

And yes, it's OK to mix business with pleasure. Subscribe to any blog that you think will be useful. It's a great way to learn what these tools are really capable of doing.

So find information about iPads and casserole dishes, all in the same place!

Boolify!

Elementary teachers have to check this out!! Are you tired of taking students to the lab to research and have them type "animals" in the search bar?? I know I was. Boolify is the answer for you!

Boolify is a visual search engine that helps students learn to narrow their searches using Boolean search parameters. I know it sounds complicated, but it's really not. Students drag the puzzle pieces to the search board and add text. They can choose "and", "not", or "or" to modify the search. As parameters are added, the search results appear on the bottom of the page. What a great tool to help teach students to refine their searches.

Good luck. Let me know how it works for you!

Elementary Apps

The links below are to several resources that educators have compiled to help you choose classroom apps. Mary Beth Hertz - Apps in the Elementary Classroom 60 Apps in 60 Minutes and iPads in Schools Livebinder.

Blog List

Alright, this is a bit of a cheap post. But I wanted to point you to a great list of resources that are free and updated all the time with new information related to educational technology. To the right of this post, you'll see a list of blogs. Check these out regularly or subscribe to get access to lots of awesome ideas.

Welcome to Digital CPS

I'm very excited to write this first post in our new tool for sharing educational technology information with Columbia Public Schools' teachers, students, and staff. Our goal is to share relevant technology and teaching information, tips, and tricks in a timely manner. This blog will cover a wide variety of technology topics with a focus on tools that are free and available to CPS teachers.

We hope you find this resource useful for getting and sharing information. Come back often, or better yet, subscribe to our blog to get updates sent to the device or your choice!