Find fellow Skype classrooms and experts

Skype has been around for a long time and is great tool to connect for free with people all over the world. Which is a great thing if you know who you want to talk to and have a way to set up a meeting. What you got out of it was all about who you knew. But what about for all of those teachers out there who want to connect with other teachers, experts, or guest speakers? Here's the perfect tool for you.

First, visit Skype's Education page. You can use your existing Skype account to sign up for a profile. Once you are in, you have access to all types of resources. To start simply, you can view the teacher projects that are already created. These projects outline the demographic of the class, the topic they are interested in, and who they would like to connect with. There is a convenient search built in so you can quickly search for an expert who would be willing to connect with you. You can view their profile and if you want, add their contact information to your Skype contact list.

If you are looking for a "partner" to connect with, you can access them through the partner tab. Examples of current partners already in the Skype community are Microsoft, the New York Philharmonic, NASA Digital Learning Network, and the National Museum of the Royal Navy. I think teachers would love to find an expert connection in one of these organizations to support the learning in the classroom.

Another feature that has powerful potential is the Skype Lesson. Teachers can write lessons to describe the type of learning that is taking place in the classroom. There are already some great examples posted for you to get an idea of what you would like to use in your own lesson. Although it sounds a bit like online dating (we are middle school English class looking to share our knowledge with other middle schools), it's a great way to connect with specific groups about your content. If you find a lesson you are interested in, you can register with that teacher. From there, you can set up a Skype call to start the collaboration.

What a great idea. If you are a teacher who wants to open your classroom walls and connect to similar classes or collaborate with experts, then you must get started with Skype's education tool.

Use Twitter as your webpage

Twitter has a negative reputation among teachers and it's not fair. Yes, there is a lot of bad stuff on it, but you can find that content on any social media. If you understand how Twitter works and start slowly, Twitter can be a powerful way to communicate to student and parents. Here's one way to set up Twitter to be your classroom webpage.

Create your account at Twitter.com. When you set it up, you'll want to consider the purpose for your account and name it appropriately. For example, I could go with @Mr.Vfourthgrade or something else that represents my room. This step is important because it sets the tone for how you'll be utilizing the resource and it's the first thing your viewers will see. You can add a picture, additional website, and bio information for your class. 

That's it. Start tweeting. 

Here's the thing to remember. Choose to not follow anyone or have any followers, and you'll have a simple website address that displays all your tweets. You can link this page to your primary website or school website so everyone can see what's happening in your room. 

If you want to allow followers, they'll be able to get updates each time you tweet. And what's more, you won't see any other tweets on your page but your own. Be careful though. If you follow others, then their tweets and possibly their followers' tweets could appear in your timeline. And you don't want that. So if you are starting out, I wouldn't recommend following anyone right away.

Here are a few examples of classrooms in Columbia Public Schools who have started tweeting this year. Remember that they are just starting out. Follow them and join the journey.

Benton Elementary School

Ms. Woods' 2nd Grade at Benton

Douglass High School's Media Center

Social Media #MAEOP

Jayme and I just had a great time presenting to the Missouri Association of Educational Office Professionals at Stoney Creek Inn. Our task was to create a presentation that would be a good overview for office personnel who are new to social media. We boiled the broad world of social media to Google tools, Twitter, and Facebook.  You can view the presentation here: 

#GetConnected

I can say that I've not had a more fun audience. They had great questions and were able to think through how social media could make their information dissemination more efficient. Hopefully, Twitter has a few more users after this morning. 

Outlook Resources

Now that you've had some time with the new email system, you probably have already formulated some opinions about the efficiency of Outlook. Trust me, I've heard them all. So for all you Outlook-philes and Outlook-phobes out there, I wanted to pass along some resources that Erica and Jessica have put together to help guide you through the world of Outlook. 

Here's a rundown of all the great features you will find:

• creating a signature
• recalling an email (whoops)
• out of office replies
• sharing calendars
• making contact groups
• cool shortcuts

Link to infinite Outlook knowledge

There's a lot of resources and features in Outlook that weren't available with Groupwise. Look around and see what best fits your needs. And if you have any questions, give us call. 

Smart Notebook's Ink Layer

If you are used to working with Smart Notebook, you either love or hate the ink layer. For some, it was a great way to write on top anything on your computer. For others, it was the annoying thing that popped up at the worst possible time. But as you might gather from my verb tense, the ink layer is no more!

This issue has been one of the biggest questions we've fielded so far this year. As you can imagine, we only hear from those who really like it. So per popular request, our man Ken put together an awesome resource to guide you through several ways you can write on all your documents, get all your teaching done, and not miss the ink layer ever again. Check it out:

Four options for writing on documents using the Smart Board

Installing popular software

There's an easy way to install your favorite software on your CPS computers. It's called the Microsoft System Center 2012 and it's located in your "Start Menu". Go to the "Start Menu" and scroll for the folder called "Microsoft System Center 2012". Click on "Configuration Manager" and then "Software Center". A new window will open up and show you what software is available to download

Currently, there is Inkscape, Scratch, Google Earth, Sketchup, and Smart Response available for download. New programs are on the list to be added. And the best news is that you can request for software to be added to the software center. Just email your friendly instructional technology specialist or talk to your media specialist about your request. It's a great way to add large software to a lab of computers. 

Easy web-browsing for students: Symbaloo

I was informed about this great web 2.0 tool from a kindergarten teacher (let's call her Ms. R) this week and I have share it with you. It's called Symbaloo and it's something you have to check out. 

The premise is simple but awesome: users create "web mixes" of sites they want students to access. But wait! My Diigo account does the same thing. Why change? Because Symbaloo lets you assemble boards of sites that include icons and allow you to color-code them. Check out my example: 

Ms. R uses it so effectively. She codes all her sites by category and color. So when her kindergarten students get to the board, they know exactly what sites to visit because they can either find the icon or go to the color that Ms. R instructed them to visit. Simple. And you can make your boards public and link them to your teacher site so students and parents can access  it from anywhere.

What a great alternative to the traditional "helpful links" page! Have fun creating your boards! 

Get your CPS email on your mobile device

It's finally here!! All last year, everyone wanted to get their school email on their mobile device. And why not? We need to be connected. With the switch to Outlook this summer, all CPS teachers and staff are now able to install email through the mail client on any mobile device. Here are links to some great directions written up by our Applications Specialists:

Device instructions:
iPhone
iPad
Android

Let me Google that for you...

This is a great example of Google's sense of humor. I stumbled upon this through a post by Tony Vincent. A word of caution. You might want to make sure you have a nice relationship with the recipient before you send them this message. But here's how it works. Ever get a question from someone that easily could have been answered with a quick Google search? I haven't, but I'm sure some of you have. Well, here's a way to send a message, so to speak. 

Go to letmegooglethatforyou.com. Once you are there, type in the search that the questioner could have done. Then press "Google Search". You will be given a URL to copy and send. Here's what it could look like for you:

Sample LMGTFY

That's about it. Have fun!

Keeping up with Google

Google is a fabulous place for educators to access free, useful tools for teaching. From Docs to Earth, Blogger to Picassa, there are a ton of applications that I encourage teachers to use. I think that Google has been one of our most popular training topics from this past school year. However, one thing about Google can be a bit frustrating: they make great improvements, but don't always announce them. So here are some ways that you can keep up with Google.

Follow these blogs:
Google Apps Update Alerts
Google LatLong
Google Today

The best way to get good timely content is to follow blogs. Use an app like Google Reader to subscribe to your favorite blogs. That way, they'll send you information when it's released instead of causing you to go out and look.

Follow these Twitter feeds:
@googlenews - breaking news from Google
@google - news and updates
@googlechrome - all about Chrome
@googleatwork - info on how people are using Google

Wait, you haven't created a Twitter account yet? Then you need to. Twitter is one of the best ways to get current, relevant information about your teaching profession. It's not just for the Kardashians anymore!

Ken's QR Codes

I've found the upside to being officeless this summer. I have the opportunity to see trainings from my colleagues. So while I was blogging about our iPad Whitelisting this morning, I listened in to Ken's training on how to use QR Codes in the classroom. I have just started to use QR codes to easily send teachers to links during presentations. The more I use them, the more I wish I could use them in my classroom.

Ken does a great job of giving teachers concrete ideas to use in their classrooms. I love the idea of using QR codes to "hide" tips for answering questions, for links to informational videos, or posting messages around the school building. And because it's free and SO easy to use, there's just no excuse for not getting started with QR codes.

If you are new to QR, check out Ken's presentation here:
QR Codes in the Classroom

They're Here! #CoMoiPad

Have you ever wondered what a delivery of 430 iPad would look like? If so, then feast your eyes on this shot.

Our district is pushing out these iPads as part of a pilot program for teachers in grades 9-12. All high school teachers will be receiving their iPads starting a few hours ago. The goal is to determine the possibilites of the device in teaching and learning.

Our department is gearing up for pushing out all these devices to teachers. We've scheduled 1,674 training sessions starting tomorrow. Actually, it's more like a few dozen, but both numbers seem equally daunting. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the excited faces of the teachers as they begin to learn about the possibilities that iPad has to offer. For the next few weeks though, I'll probably talking iPad in my sleep!

We hope you follow us on this journey. We've helped deploy a lot of iPads this past school year, but nothing like this. To help keep you up to date, I've created a new hashtag: #CoMoiPad. Look for it on Twitter to find out what's going on in CPS iPads.

Summer 2012 Learning Opportunities!

Happy Last Day of School CPSers!

Once you have  a few days of relaxation under your belt you might want to learn something this summer.  See the list below for a few ideas .. ..

Technology Summer Learning Opportunities 2012

Summer Technology Learning Opportunities:

This is our working list of technology PD for the summer:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o5o84ua6Z3AuOvsmIL_cLh_Ijrpr0Dk4J8p9piBZRiI/edit  or http://instructionaltech.cpsdigital.org/pd-schedule You can register for these sessions on PDExpress. 

Atomic Learning:

Lots of new tutorials, workshops, and unit suggestions are added daily.  iPad is now a platform choice . . . .

www.atomiclearning.com  Username:  cpsmedia / Password:  atomic

CPS Teachers as Readers:

Register on PDExpress.. ..

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones for Tuesday, June 12 at 6:30 pm at Coley's downtown

Body and Soul by Frank Conroy for Tuesday, July 10th at 6:30 pm at Coley's downtown

DBRL OneRead:  The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

EconFest 2012:

http://www.stlouisfed.org/newsroom/events/?trk=0&id=341

A few resources I found at MASL you might want to explore:

AASL Lesson Plan Database:

http://www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/lessonplandatabase/lessonplandb

Checking out Kindles and Nooks to Students (Lindbergh School District School Librarians)

http://masl2012ereaders.pbworks.com/w/page/51107314/FrontPage

Tools to Build a School Librarian’s PLN (Linda Dougherty:  MASL 2012)

https://sites.google.com/site/lindajdougherty/home/masl-2012

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:  http://www.stlouisfed.org/education_resources/

FRASER Economic Library and Archives:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/

Page One Economics (data behind today’s economic headlines):

http://research.stlouisfed.org/pageone-economics/

National Library of Medicine

http://www.nlm.nih.gov

Medline Plus:  Trusted Health Information

www.medlineplus.gov (Mobile version:  http://m.medlineplus.gov )

Help!! We're being invaded!

I came across this great project through Twitter. If you read my posts, you might recognize Miss Tripp's class. If you're looking for an example of how students can create authentic work, then look no further.

First off, it's really hard not to click a link that's entitled, "Help! We're under attack by invasive species!" Great example of a catchy lead! Then once you get to the blog post, you see a wonderful digital book showing the hard work of the students.

Enough from me. Check out this post!! Miss Tripp's Class Projects

Communicating with Twitter

I've spent some time this week working on a training session to help teachers implement Twitter in the classroom. Just like a lot of things, I've found Twitter to be one more thing that I wish I had utilized as a classroom teacher last year. So now my goal (since I have no classroom) is to get my teachers to see its benefits as a communication and collaboration tool.

I decided to troll online for awhile (my son calls it the World Wide Web, and since it sounds so cute, I don't offer other names) and I came across some great examples of how teachers are using Twitter to communicate to parents. Perhaps more importantly, I found some excellent examples of how students use Twitter to share and question. So if you have a Twitter account, try following these feeds. And if you don't have an account, what are you waiting for??

@MsMagiera - Awesome example of a stellar teacher using technology to enhance learning. This is her personal Twitter handle

@NTAStudents1 - This handle is by Ms. Magiera's students. I especially like how she manages their tweets. You should see the types of questions and insights her students offer. A must see!

@HighfillCrew - 5th graders blending iPhones in their learning. I really love their use of Instagram to show what they are doing in class. What a cool way to show your learning by sharing digital images of your year.

@APUSHTweets - An AP History class account. Mrs. Cunningham uses her account to share valuable information for students and parents.

@MissTrippsClass - A class of 4/5 math and science students. Miss Tripp looks to share the learning and discovery of her students beyond the walls of the classroom.

Evernote Emailing

Wow!  Such a great use of Evernote:  http://blog.evernote.com/2012/04/20/quick-tip-friday-emailing-into-your-evernote-account/  My Evernote love grows more deeply every day. . ...

Kerry

SMART Notebook 11

The long wait is over! Actually, I'm not sure if there was a long wait or not, but I thought it would sound good. At any rate, SMART has released its new Notebook version 11. If you are a SMART enthusiast, and I know there are a lot of us out there, then you should be pretty excited. Here are some of the new features:

Embedded web browser - I think this might be the coolest new feature. You don't have to use the funky transparent screen anymore. A browser will open inside you notebook to search for information. You will also be able to annotate on top of the browser. Then you can capture information from there. I think secondary teachers (many of whom have yet to reap the benefits of SN) will love this!

Audio recording - now you can record sound directly into your notebook file

Contextual toolbar - changes with each tool you select. It also has two rows of tools, so now you'll be able to add all the tools you want to use.

Free hand fill - you can now use the paint bucket to fill in any free-hand drawing. Simple, but nice.

Reset page - reverts the page to the last saved version.

So that's a sampling of what to expect. Most likely, you will see the version 11 on the district's image for next year. Look for trainings over the summer to learn how to use this newer SMART Notebook!

Angel Login Issues

Here's a very common mistake that teachers all over the district are making. When you log in to Angel from your web browser, you have to enter the full URL in the address bar: angel.columbia.k12.mo.us. The problem that is occurring is that teachers have been entering just "angel". This process, when done inside the district, will get you to a login page. However, once you log in, you aren't going to get the access you need to get to all your files and groups. It looks like the real thing, but it's not.

Several years ago, the Angel folks told us that you could access Angel this way. After several trainings with teachers, the problem was found and corrected in future sessions. However, many teachers still log in this way. I wish my memory was that good.

So if you are having issues and getting "access denied" messages, make sure you log in with the full URL next time!

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!