Office 365

Over the course of the last 2 months, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has slowly been switching teachers and students from Live@EDU to Office365.  Office365 contains several tools that teachers and students will find beneficial.

Lync 2013 - All teachers and students will have access to Microsoft's webcast software, Lync 2013.  This addition will break down the walls of the traditional classroom and allow the classrooms of Kentucky to connect with people all over the world.

SkyDrive Pro - All users will have access to the all new SkyDrive Pro, complete with 25 Gigabytes of storage space.  Since SkyDrive Pro is an org-owned product (unlike the consumer SkyDrive in Live@EDU), it is subject to the inspection of schools, districts, and the state.  Users are able to share and work collaboratively on documents.  Included with SkyDrive Pro is Newsfeed, which allows users to follow other users, documents, or folders.

There is much more to Office365 that I haven't even learned yet, and can't wait to learn what other features we'll have access to.  As I learn more, I'll be sure to share the great features contained within Office365.

Snow Day #3 - Time to Catch My Breath

It's Monday, December 16th and we're already on our 3rd Snow Day, and we haven't even made it to Winter Break yet!  This is my 18th year in education, and I can't remember the last time we had 3 snow days before break.

As the district lead for CIITS (Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System) I'm responsible for all of the CIITS training in the district.  For some background, CIITS (also adopted by North Carolina and New York) is our Education Commissioner's (Dr. Terry Holliday) vision for a "one-stop-shop for teachers."  I'll go into more detail on CIITS in another post.

For the past 2 months, I've been doing almost nothing but training teachers how to upload lesson plans in CIITS and create formative assessments in CIITS.  Needless to say, I've been so busy I've neglected this blog.  This snow day gives me a chance to catch my breath, get the blog caught up, and even write some posts ahead of schedule.

With Winter Break starting Monday, December 23 and running through Friday, January 3, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season.  My New Year's Resolution is to update this blog on a weekly basis.  Anyone taking odds on how long it will take me to miss a week?

Adobe Education Exchange

If you've never visited the Adobe Education Exchange, or haven't visited lately, you're missing out a great educational tool.  The Exchange contains 4 major components: Resources, Community, Discussions, and Professional Development.  The best part?  It's entirely free for educators.

Community and Discussions are pretty self-explanatory.  In Resources, you'll find all kinds of relevant and useful activities and lesson plans for your classroom.  In Professional Development, you have the opportunity to take self-paced lessons, attend live events, or participate in Collaborative Courses.  I signed up for the Train the Trainer Course in the summer, but with the hustle and bustle of school starting followed by 5 weeks of writing a federal Race To The Top District grant, I was never able to complete the course.

Check out the Adobe Education Exchange today and see what you can learn!

Google Hangouts/Hangouts on Air

While attending TeachMeet KY a couple of weeks ago, I attended a session by Donnie Piercey on Google Hangouts, which included Hangouts On Air.  I've always been intrigued with Google Hangouts, but have never really attempted to participate in one.  Little did I know all of the tools that are available in Hangouts.

Probably the most interesting thing I saw was Hangouts On Air, where your Hangout is broadcast live for everyone to see.  At the conclusion of the Hangout, the video is automatically uploaded to the user's YouTube account.  You can just hear the gears turning in my head thinking of all the possibilities this has for short PD sessions, mini-meetings, and breaking down classroom walls.

I'm looking forward to "playing" with Hangouts and discover even more possibilities to make classroom instruction even better.  If anyone want to "Hangout" with me, feel free to contact me.

Decide Already

Last week I attended Teachmeet KY in Bowling Green.  In one of the sessions, Decide Already was presented as a way to make decisions among a group of people.  The premise is simple.  You ask a question, propose answers, submit it to your team, and then collect responses.  As is the case with other online tools, Decide Already is freemium.  It comes with a basic free option with the opportunity to upgrade to a paid version.   The free version gets you 50 invitations per month (question X participants), so I'm guessing this means I can ask 1 question to 50 people, or 2 questions to 25 people, etc.

The idea looks great, and I'm still trying to convince some colleagues to try it out to determine the impact for teachers, students, and classrooms.  Stay tuned for the answer!

Resources Every Teacher Needs to Know About

Do you want to ...

* Learn about the latest technologies helping other teachers excel?

* Join discussions with other educators about implementing new standards? 
* Stay in tune with what matters most in today's schools?
* Feel up-to-speed on the "latest and greatest" strategies and tools?

If you answered YES to any of the above, join me inside the hottest education resource: SimpleK12’s Teacher Learning Community.

==> Create a FREE Basic Membership Today.
http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/courses/view.asp?lid=1003116

SimpleK12, the leading provider of 21st century teacher professional development, brings the fun, energy, and excitement back into learning.

200,000+ educators from around the world have access to SimpleK12's PD resources, information, and training ... and you can too!

Take learning into your own hands and explore the fastest-growing social network and Professional Development community for educators...

==> Create a FREE Basic Membership.
http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/courses/view.asp?lid=1003116

I look forward to seeing you inside the Community!

Symbaloo Revisited

Last year when Google decided to end iGoogle, I wrote a post about Symbaloo.  Thanks to a colleague of mine, I've decided to follow up on my original Symbaloo post.  I continue to use Symbaloo as my organizer of web pages.  I've continued to add frequently used sites to my Symbaloo webmix, and have added so many, that I know need 2 webmixes to contain them all.

Creating, deleting, and editing tiles and webmixes couldn't be any easier.  I've set my own children up with a webmix of approved web pages they can visit.

Then today, when going through my Feedly (because Google ended Google Reader - see a trend here??) articles, one of my colleagues and good friends at Kentucky Education Television (KET) had not only created a Symbaloo webmix for Arts Integration, but she also published it, and it is now accessible to anyone who wants to add her webmix to theirs.  With my expanded role this year leading our elementary library media specialists, this tool will be invaluable to me.

In fact, I feel inspired to create and publish a webmix of my favorite web tools for teachers and technology integration.  With a new school year starting this week, this will be on my back burner for now, but watch for my shared webmix soon!

Digital Literacy MOOC

At ISTE 2013, the Digital Literacy MOOC received quite a bit of attention.  For anyone wanting to learn more about Digital Literacy, I highly recommend registering for this MOOC.  No, I'm not running this MOOC, but as a lifelong learner, the topics in the MOOC are of great interest to me.

 Digital Literacies 1 begins July 8 and runs through August 18. 

Topics for Digital Literacies 1 include:

• Web-based and other electronic tools
• The grammar of the Internet
• Ways for using digital information ethically, efficiently, and effectively
• Advanced online search literacy tactics
• How to use electronic devices more efficiently
• Frameworks for digital education literacy
• Various digital literacy curricula for use with students and other stakeholders

 Digital Literacies 2 will begin in mid to late September and will cover the following topics:

• Digital Citizenship & Internet Safety
• Copyright & the 'Fair Use' Clause
• The use of Creative Commons license
• The use of Web 2.0 tools
• Ways to apply Google Applications for EDU
• Using mobile technologies for teaching and learning
• Techniques for developing non-linear presentations
• Methods for using Quick Response (QR) codes in teaching and learning
• The use of digital cameras
• Developing blogs and websites
• Producing podcasts

 College credit can also be earned for both courses for a nominal fee.  Follow the link below for more information and to register for the MOOC.  I hope to see you in class!


http://www.techsets.org/Article.aspx?p=dl_mooc

Summer Break

Today, Tuesday, June 4 is my last day to work for the 2012-13 school year.  I will be in and out of the office sporadically through the summer, and may add some posts as I see fit.  However, this blog will likely be silent until school resumes in mid-August.

21st Century Education for ALL Students: The Time is Now.

On Tuesday Scott McLeod tweeted this link to a post on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant.  The post, "If We Were Really Serious About Educational Technology", provides a starter list of things educators can to truly integrate technology and reach our 21st Century students.  Then yesterday, one of my Google+ followers, Stephanie Sweeney, wrote this blog post about professional vs. personal social media.

For background, Scott McLeod's post was from 2010.  Stephanie's was written yesterday.  What I find intriguing about the 2 articles, written nearly 3 years apart, is that we're still dealing with the same issues of teachers not being able to meet the needs of 21st Century students.  Even more disturbing are teachers' continual resistance to using the tools students are using everyday.

If we're going to seriously meet the needs of our students, and truly engage them, teachers need to change their mindsets and enter their students' technological world.  The true power of these 21st Century tools is that they're just not for students.  Tools like Edmodo, Twitter, and Instagram are just as powerful for a teacher's Professional Learning Network as they are for a student's learning.  I was one of those people 3 years ago who resisted Twitter.  My supervisor convinced me to try it, and I haven't looked back.  Twitter has become my most powerful ally, alerting me to other new tools, providing me new professional connections, and an outlet to get my own message own out.

It's time we get serious about about educational technology.  Our students deserve it.

New EdOnTech Web Page on Wix

The new EdOnTech web page has now been published.  Thanks to my colleaugue and fellow 20 to Watch Honoree, Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd), for introducing me to Wix.  I had started a Google Site, but once I saw what Wix could do I switched gears and moved my site to Wix.

Wix is a free (paid version available) online web page designer that provides several stunning templates to get you started.  The basics of my page are there and more is to come.  You'll notice a few pages are still under construction.  I'm looking forward to learning more about Wix and turning it into a platform for education professionals transforming education through technology.

Any feedback you have is greatly appreciated!

FlipSnack: Make a Flipping Book for Free

In my quest to go paperless in professional development sessions, I've found an alternative to the boring handouts we've always given.  FlipSnack make it possible to take your PDF documents and make them flipping books online (using Flash).  Have no fear, it is compatible with Apple products.

FlipSnack books can be customized any way you like.  When completed, you can download your flipping book, send an email link to your flipping book, or even embed your flipping book on your blog or web page.   FlipSnack is free and comes with limited tools and storage space for your books.  Like many services now, there is a paid version which will give you access to more of the service.

After trying the product out, it's very user-friendly and easy to use.  My document was uploaded quickly and I had several options to choose from for my background and cover.  What FlipSnack is sorely missing is an iOS/Android app that allows you to view your flipping book easily on a tablet (something Prezi added fairly quick).

Overall, I like FlipSnack and will be spending part of my summer work days converting my documents into flipping books.

Try making your own flipping book!

A Simple Guide on The Use of Hashtag for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

A Simple Guide on The Use of Hashtag for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

As if the timing couldn't have been any better, this comes on the heels of my post last week about teachers and Twitter.  This post by Educational Technology and Mobile Learning contains a good list of how teachers can use hashtags in Twitter.

The Power of a Twitter Hashtag

While discussing the pros and cons of using Twitter in the classroom with a group of teachers, one teacher, who's not a Twitter user...yet, asked me what a hashtag is and what its purpose is.  Of course, I explained all of this to the group, but upon reflecting on the conversation, I realized I have been missing an opportunity with Ed On Tech.  From this point forward I'll be adding the #edontech to all of my Tweets.

My recommendation to the teachers regarding hashtags was to develop a class hashtag and/or unit hashtags, and have students use that tag in all of their class tweets.  It not only makes the discussion easier to follow but also makes the conversation searchable.  Using the hashtags for class discussions removes the barrier of the school walls.  Students who are out sick or on vacation can still take part in the discussion.  Students who are shy and reluctant to raise their hand in class (I was one of those kids ) will participate in the the discussion.

Try it out in your classroom now so you can make adjustments over summer break.  See what the power of a Twitter hashtag can do to your classroom.

EdCamp NKY: An Imminent Reality?

With regularity over the past year, I've watched Tweets about various EdCamps pop up on my devices.  I've always wanted to attend a virtual EdCamp, but my job responsibilities have prevented me from attending.  As I've researched EdCamps, I realized how relatively easy it would be to create one for the Northern Kentucky area I work and live in.  

My goal is to have the first ever EdCampNKY up and running sometime in the 2013-2014 school year.  I know I can pull it off with the help of my friends at the SimpleK12 Teacher Learning Community, contacts at the Kentucky Department of Education, as well as my fellow 20 to Watch colleagues.

I look forward to starting EdCampNKY and look forward to any input anybody reading this post may have.  I firmly believe educators can do great things and drive education forward when we put our collective minds together.

Teachers With Apps

Today's post focuses on another of my fellow "20 to Watch" colleagues.  Jayne Clare is a special education teacher in New York.  Jayne co-founded Teachers With Apps (TWA) with colleague and early childhood educator Anne Rachel.  Their goal is to help educators everywhere select the best and most robust apps for their students.

What makes the Teachers With Apps reviews unique is that they are field-tested with a cross-section of students and teachers in their school.  This means you can be confident the reviews TWA provides are data-based and student reviewed.  I have already recommended this site to all of our iPad teachers and administrators.  They are all grateful to have such outstanding information to base app purchases on.

Check out Teachers With Apps today and see what you think.

Digital Learning Standards

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a Digital Learning Summit in Frankfort, KY.  The mission of the Digital Summit is to "Provide evidence that digital and blended learning in Kentucky schools and districts is having an impact on the preparation of all students to graduate college and career ready."

Part of the discussion centered around the proposed KY Standards for Digital Learning.  The intent of the standards is to fulfill the mission statement listed above.  However, the standards really they've developed don't really differ from what good teaching is anyway.  If you really think about it, good teaching is good teaching whether it's online or in a traditional classroom.

Having some time today, I did a quick search for Digital Learning Standards and found several education technology groups such as ISTE and iNACOL already have Digital Learning Standards available, which means we have folks in the state trying to re-create the wheel.  If somebody has already created the wheel, let's make their wheel better instead of trying to design our own wheel.

Oddly enough I also had the opportunity to participate in a Blended Learning webinar today provided by K12 focusing on a school in Colorado Springs, CO.  There were some great points made in that webinar that will be the subject of a future post, but it basically laid out how the district reimagined learning and the space it occurs in.  I'm looking forward to getting the recorded webinar and accompanying presentation to go through it with a fine tooth comb.

I'm a huge supporter of blended learning, and would like to see more of it not only in my district, but also throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  If you've got ideas or plans your school or district has used, please share by responding to this post.

Spring Break 2013: Hiatus

As this post gets published, Spring Break will be starting in the Kenton County School District.  As I usually do, this blog will be on hiatus from April 6 through April 14.  Assuming we don't have major technology issues to recover from after a week off, I'll be posting again on April 15.

Project Explorer: Go Global

Technology and Social Media allows teachers to expand education beyond the four walls of a classroom.  Tools like Twitter, Facebook, and the Internet all allow teachers to bring the world to their students.  Now you can add Project Explorer to the list of tools teachers have available.

Project Explorer, founded by Jenny Buccos in 2003, has a mission "To bring the world into the classroom with free multimedia content and lesson plans that improve students’ global awareness and cross cultural understanding."  Through a combination of corporate, government, and individual sponsors, Project Explorer is able to provide these outstanding learning resources FREE to teachers all over the globe.

Project Explorer offers teachers lesson plans, videos, and educational blogs that cover all subjects and foster cross cultural understanding.  Students can follow the footsteps of Indiana Jones and fly above the desert in a hot air balloon in Jordan, climb ancient temples and swim with sharks in Belize and Costa Rica, and celebrate Carnival (not the cruise line) on a quick trip to Haiti.

The list of awards Project Explorer has earned is numerous.

• ProjectExplorer.org Founder Jenny M. Buccos named 2012 White House Champion of Change.
• 2011 GOLD Parents’ Choice Award for the highest production standards and universal human values.
• 2011 Non-profit Standard of Excellence Award from the Web Marketing Association.
• ProjectExplorer.org Founder Jenny M. Buccos named 2010 Woman of the Year by She Takes On The World.
• 2010 Winner of Best Use of Educational Video from EduBlogs.
• 2010 National Award for Citizen Diplomacy for ProjectExplorer.org’s Jenny M. Buccos. The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy recognized Buccos for her exemplary work as a citizen diplomat.
• 2010 recipient of the EduNet ChoiceAward (Canada).
• 2009 Top Pick Website by Education Week Magazine for innovative approach to tech in classroom instruction.
• 2009 GOLD Parents’ Choice Award for the highest production standards and universal human values.

And to top off this list of impressive awards, Project Explorer founder Jenny Buccos, like me, was name as an Education Technology 20 to Watch by the National School Board Association. She is one of the few non-profit organizations to receive this prestigious award. As an educator, it was an honor and a privilege to meet Jenny, and I look forward to working with her in the future.

As for Project Explorer, I plan on introducing this series to all 18 of our schools, and can't wait to see where Project Explorer takes us next!

Feedly & Prismatic: Alternatives to Google Reader

By now we all know Google Reader is shutting down.  This news prompted me to search for a replacement for all my news feeds.  I didn't have to wait long for suggestions with Twitter exploding with suggestions from people everywhere.  The general consensus seemed to be Feedly was the best alternative.

With this in mind, I checked into Feedly.  Overall, it was very easy to transfer my Google Reader feeds into Feedly.  Designwise, Feedly is looks much like Google Reader, but it also adds a snapshot of the feed (see below).

Like most Feed Readers, Feedly also has an iOS app (I don't have an Android so I'm not sure if there's an Android app).  The Feedly app puts Google Reader to shame.  For each feed, it will show you all of your unread feeds.  By doing a large left swipe across the screen you can easily mark them all as read.  If you swipe down, you can access the next page of articles (if there were more than what fits on the screen).  Feedly also offers a Save for Later option so I can go back and read the post later.  It's nice to have this all in one app.  We'll see if I choose to drop Pocket and start using Feedly.

Upon Tweeting that I was going to use Feedly, I received a reply from the Prismatic team asking me to give Prismatic a try.  Logging in and transferring my Google Reader feeds was simple enough, but Prismatic also assumed I wanted other items of interest such as assessment, textbooks, and other educational topics that might have something to do with what I'm following.  All it did was cause me more work to uncheck feeds I wasn't really interested in.  My other issue with Prismatic is that it doesn't show me my feeds on the main login screen.  I'm immediately shown the top news for some of the suggestions Prismatic made.  There is a Prismatic iOS app, but I didn't even bother downloading it because of the frustration I experienced with the web page.  For me, Prismatic has too many bells and whistles.  Sometimes simplicity is good enough.

I'm sure you've figured out by now that given these two choices, I'm going to go with Feedly.  For me, it's clearly the better option, particularly with the iPad app.  Try them both and and judge for yourself.  And remember, like Rushton Hurley said at the ISTE Leadership Forum, "It's okay to not like a tool."

Teacher Tech Knowledge: A Need for More PD or Are We Making Excuses?

I recently had this Twitter conversation while attending the annual KySTE Conference in Louisville.

JA: Some teachers do not understand technology terms, need to help them like we guide our students,make it relevant,#kyste2013 teach the teacher

Me: lack of teacher tech knowledge is failure of admins. Teacher standard 6 has been in place for years.

JA: I disagree. Yes, is standard, but tech is only one piece. Admins have little PD time to spread out on important topics 

ME: tech has been on teacher growth plans for 15+ years. Tech integration HAS to be a priority 4 21st C learners

JA: agree, but quality#edtech use is a fast-moving target for (many not all) teachers who learned typing on a typewriter.

For background, Kentucky Teacher Standard 6 states the following: 

STANDARD 6:  THE TEACHER DEMONSTRATES THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY

The teacher uses technology to support instruction; access and manipulate data; enhance professional growth and productivity; communicate and collaborate with colleagues, parents, and the community; and conduct research.

This standard has been around in one form or another since I started teaching 17 years ago, and I'm quite certain every other state now requires to have some level of technology proficiency.  Technology was prevalent while I was still a student at Thomas More College.

In my view, teachers should know technology terms by now.  Computers have been around and in schools for over 30 years.  I know for a fact that technology has been on teachers' professional growth plans since I started teaching 17 years ago.  If teachers haven't learned technology terms by now, I still insist this is failure on the part of the administration not only in schools, but also in school districts, to properly monitor and assess teacher growth plans.  How would parents react if we told them we didn't have time to teach their students social studies, science, or music because reading and math were more important?  

Students being born today are likely to live to see the 22nd Century, and we're still having conversations about 21st Century skills and how we're going to teach them.  We're now 13 years into the 21st Century and we're still talking about integrating 21st Century skills?  We're dealing with 21st Century, connected, mobile kids.  If we aren't providing them with a quality 21st Century education, then we are failing them.

With the Common Core Standards in place in 45 states, and with technology being integrated into the Common Core, it is no longer acceptable to push technology professional development off for teachers, nor is it okay for teachers to continually put it on their growth plan and make no progress.  Teachers and schools should be at a point where technology should be an almost invisible tool in the classroom.  For the sake of our students and future leaders, it MUST happen now!

Complicating this are the Teacher Preparation Programs which are simply not doing enough to produce technology proficient teachers.  Our new teachers should be able to step into a classroom knowing how to use products like Office, tablet devices, and Web 2.0 tools like Prezi, Popplet, and Live Binders.  It's time for the Colleges and Universities to step it up and produce a technology proficient teacher.

Let's quit making excuses and make it happen.  And if you're a state or federal Congressman, or a Governor or even President of the United States, it's time to quit bickering, quit posturing, and give educators and kids the technology tools they need to make true 21st Century learning happen.  Let's all DO WHAT'S RIGHT FOR KIDS!

CoSN 2013 & NSBA 20 to Watch Reflections

I am truly honored to have been selected as one of the National School Board Association's 20 to Watch this year.  It is truly humbling to have my work recognized by my peers and past 20 to Watch recipients.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank NSBA for recognizing not only me, but the other 19 outstanding recipients, most of whom I met while at the CoSN Conference in San Diego.  I would also like to thank CoSN for providing us with an opportunity to participate in their conference.  Most importantly, I would like to thank TechSmith for providing us with not only a wonderful meal while in San Diego, but a very generous software scholarship that I can't wait to start using with some of my teachers.

Since returning from San Diego, I've had plenty of time to reflect on how far I've come and where the conversation needs to go.  I will be discussing these reflections in future blog posts, not only to share what I learned, but to also spur a conversation about the future of education and technology's role in education.  I've told some folks around here I've come back with a new attitude and a clearer sense of purpose and directions, and with that will come more push-back on programs and software that need to be improved.

I've also come back with plenty of ideas to improve my Ed On Tech "brand".  I'm now working on setting up and hosting my first #edontech Twitter chat (you can follow me at @KCSDtisEB), working on a Google+ page as well as an EdOnTech Google Hangout, and several other ideas.  I'll be picking the brains of my fellow 20 to Watch educators, whose skills and knowledge are a great complement to mine.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas for improving education through technology.

Popplet: A Place For Your Ideas

If you've not heard of or experienced Popplet, Popplet is a free mind-mapping web tool.  It's also one of the simplest mind-mapping tools to use.  You simply start with name your topic, select your color, and then create Popples around it that you can connect any way you want to.  It couldn't be any easier than that!  Popplets can also be shared to create collaborative mind maps, sent to Twitter, and shared on Facebook.  Have an IOS device?  There's even a Popplet app.

Popplet has many uses in the classroom with students, but at the district level, I use Popplet to help me plan out the Professional Development webinars and face-to-face sessions I provide.  It's also been used to help design this blog, my web page, my forthcoming wiki and Glossi.

See what Popplet is all about and claim your free account at popplet.com.  Feel free to share one of your popplets with me!  I'm always happy to connect with colleagues.

Live Binders

Back when I was in the classroom, I had binder after binder of training materials on bookshelves.  Usually, they were nothing more than dust collectors.  We would receive the binders during a training and then they would live on a shelf rarely to be touched again.

Now that my job is to train teachers, and knowing what happens to training binders, I went in search of a way to put my materials in a more accessible space.  A few years ago I learned about Live Binders.

Simply put, Live Binders  in an online 3 ring binder.  It's a free way to store your documents, and as the owner, you can choose to make them public or private.  You can also import documents or links from other people's binders into your binder.

I've since created several binders, but I particularly like the shelves they introduced last year.  So far I'm up to 5 shelves, and I use those shelves to "borrow" binders from other folks who have generously shared their binders.

Live Binders can also be used as an ePortfolio, a place to store documents for your substitute teacher, and storing parent newsletters, forms, and other documents.  Adminstrators can use the tool to create an interactive, real-time staff handbook.

Live Binders has apps available for Android and iOS, a bookmarklet tool that easily allows you to capture a web page to your binders, and, for you Chrome users, there's even a Chrome app.

Live Binders is free, but like most web tools now has a paid option.  The free version will give you 100 MB of storage space.  So far I haven't come close to filling that up.  Below are the price comparisons for the Educational users.

Learnist

If you're a fan of Pinterest and you're an educator, then you'll love Learnist. Just as Edmodo is called "Facebook for School", Learnist is referred to as Pinterest for educators.  Personally, my interest in Pinterest is through my wife who finds new recipes or new "honey-do" projects for me.  I usually hear complaints that Pinterest keeps crashing on our iPad1.

However, when my supervisor shared Learnist with me, I actually gravitated towards it.  I've not been using it for long, but I have found it to be immediately useful.  The iPad app is more stable than Pinterest and I find it easier (for me) to navigate than Pinterest.

From Learnist's help page, this description tells you all you need to know about Learnist:

What is Learnist?

Today, almost anything you want to learn is available on the web via search tools and wiki references, like Wikipedia. The problem isn’t getting to information anymore, it’s collecting and assembling all of the great web resources and making sense of it all. This is what Learnist is all about. People, helping other people learn. Learn something, teach something. At Learnist.

To learn more check out a 60 second video giving an overview of how Learnist works.

What do I use Learnist for?

Learnist is the best place to learn about anything. Real people with expert knowledge share what they know by creating web “learning boards” from the best blogs, videos, audio, twitter feeds, slides shows and other web resources. You can watch videos, read blogs and books, view documents and images to learn something new.

If you want, you can click on the title to go to the original web page, leave comments, ask questions and share the the things you like. When you’ve completed one of the learnings you can check it off and keep track of the things you’ve learned. And, when you’ve learned something that other people would like to know, you can create your own board or recommend a learning to an existing board.

I'll be creating my first "board" soon, so I'll be looking for you to follow it.

What will you learn today on Learnist?

Paper.li

For awhile now, I've seen friends and colleagues pushing out "daily newspapers".  I kept wondering what they were using, and yesterday, I decided to investigate.  I discovered they were using a free product (with a pay option) called Paper.li.

Paper.li was developed in Switzerland, and is designed to curate articles from you Twitter and/or Facebook posts.  Since Facebook is blocked in my district, I have chosen to create my Daily Paper using posts from my Twitter account.  As a Paper.li editor, you select the content you want in your paper.  In my case, I chose some of the most influential people I follow on Twitter, such as Richard Byrne, Steven Anderson, Jayme Linton, and Lyn Hilt to name a few.  I'm also following products and companies such as SMART, SimpleK12, and Microsoft Lync.

If you have any suggestions for improving the Ed On Tech Daily, I'd love to hear them.  You'll find the link to Ed On Tech Daily on the home page of this blog.

Virtual Book Club

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a virtual book club for Professional Learning in the Digital Age by Kristen Swanson. Because I'm responsible for training my district's teachers on integrating technology into their lessons, I was not only intrigued by the title of the book, but also in the concept of a virtual book club. Over the course of three weeks, the author posted various topics on Twitter as well as other options for responding to group discussion questions. While my job prevented me from participating live, I'm still able to go back and add to the discussion.

The Virtual Book Club is a great idea, particularly as it relates to Swanson's book. Now we can expand beyond the traditional whole faculty book club into a worldwide discussion of educational books. Teachers will be able to participate in book studies that actually interest them and meet their career goals and personal professional development. I wish this had been around 8 years ago when I was forced into reading books that didn't pertain to my job functions.

I'm so intrigued by the virtual book club that I'm considering adding one to my Ed On Tech repertoire. Anyone interested?

Delayed Posts

I apologize for the delay in posts. I am smack in the middle of training our pilot teachers on CIITS. For those of you outside of Kentucky, CIITS (Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System) is the comprehensive data system our state is developing to improve instruction. I'll post more about this later.

With the President's Day weekend coming up, I'm hoping to get some posts written ahead of time and scheduled to prevent delays in the future.

Scoop.it: Share ideas that matter and shine on the Web.

Scoop.it lets you share ideas that matter and shine on the Web through beautiful topic pages. Collect relevant content and add your insight to attract an avid audience. Whether you’re a professional or educator representing a business or nonprofit, Scoop.it will help you efficiently and effectively build your online presence. Scoop.it is a one-stop-shop for social media and content curation publishing. When you post on your topic page, you can easily share to your social networks including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Advance analytics available on Scoop.it Pro and customizable pages, post scheduling and Wordpress integration available on Scoop.it Business.

If you're a user of Hootsuite, Scoop.it is also integrated into Hootsuite. I have my own Scoop.it curation, and can't wait for you to build yours!

Simple K12 Teacher Learning Community

At FETC 2011 I attended a session on Professional Development conducted by Lisa Greathouse from Simple K12.  At that session, we learned about the Simple K12 Teacher Learning Community (TLC).  In the past 2 years, the TLC has come a long way.  Initially it was a paid subscription, but attendees of Lisa's session received a special code to give us a free year.  I remember letting the code sit for a month thinking this is just something else that costs money and I'll never be able to afford on my own.  Being naturally curious, I could no longer resist the temptation to enter the code and the rest is history.

Quickly I fell in love with TLC.   From the varied webinars they offered to the rich teacher-created resources to the ability to connect with other educators, there was quite a bit of information to absorb.  TLC made my job easier and made me look like a genius in my district.

I've used the TLC so much in the past 2 years that I was selected as a Power User (my testimonial should be available on TLC soon), I'm now a Simple K12 TLC Ambassador, and, at the KySTE Conference in March, I'll be a Simple K12 TLC Event Ambassador.

In the past few months, the Teacher Learning Community has gone from a paid only subscription to a free subscription with a paid upgrade.  Webinars, whether live or on-demand, resources, and colleague connections are still available.

The most powerful part of the Teacher Learning Community is that the webinars and resources are teacher generated.  They are shared resources, and by sharing your resources in the TLC, you can earn your way to a paid membership upgrade.

This is not a sales pitch.  I don't work for Simple K12 (yet), nor do I receive any type of compensation from them.  This is just an honest pitch from a hard-working Technology Integration Specialist that has found a gem of a resource that is now free to everyone.

If you'd like to join the community, follow the link below.

Simple K12 TLC

Symbaloo as a Classroom Resource

Symbaloo is a free, web-based tool that I wish I had when I was still teaching in an elementary computer lab. There were many times I'd want the students to access specific web pages, but it seemed to take forever to get students to type in the web address. I tried putting the web address link on my teacher web page, but that was always messy as well.

Symbaloo solves both of those issues. Symbaloo is a free service that allows the user to create web links, called webmixes, that have pictures associated with them. Having a tool like this a few years ago would have made my job easier in the classroom, but in my role now as a staff technology trainer for the district I can use the webmixes to quickly get teachers to the correct web pages. This maximizes my efficiency when facilitating professional development sessions.

As soon as I get my webmixes where I want them, I'll be sure to share them with everyone.

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons | The Edublogger

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons | The Edublogger:

This guide came across Twitter today courtesy of Steven Anderson.  There has always been confusion when it comes to Copyright and Fair Use when it comes to education.  This guide from Edublogger provides a very good explanation of copyright and fair use, and how to apply it to education.  They also provide resources on copyright and fair use, as well as where you can find public domain content.  I've dabbled in Creative Commons licensing over the past couple of years, but just in the last couple of months have started attaching Creative Commons licensing to my documents.

'via Blog this'

Free Technology for Teachers: Create Digital Magazines With Glossi

Free Technology for Teachers: Create Digital Magazines With Glossi:

I learned about Glossi prior to Winter Break.  Glossi allows you to create your own Digital Magazine for free (at least for now).  In order to practice what I preach, I'm going to be designing my own Glossi, entitled EdOnTech, and will be recruiting teachers in my district to write articles for the magazine.  The goal is to publish the magazine once a month, highlighting exceptional technology use in our district, state, or globally.  If you aren't in the Kenton County School District, but would like to contribute, I'd be happy to hear from you!

'via Blog this'

Welcome!

Welcome to the first official post, and the launching of EdOnTech, a blog about using technology in 21st Century Classrooms.  My goal for this blog is to create a conversation about how teachers are integrating technology in their classrooms and how we can improve the implementation.  I will also be highlighting some of my favorite free web tools.  Join the conversation today!