Digital Enhancement Training Day 1

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) chose to offer Digital Enhancement Training this summer at 3 locations statewide.  Being someone who is always looking for new opportunities to learn, I readily jumped on board and signed up for the 2 day session in Bowling Green, KY.  While I have racked up several technology certifications over the past few years, I haven't found anything to help me bring all of these technologies together in a cohesive well-constructed system to present to teachers.  I've basically had all the puzzle pieces, but needed help putting it all together.

After day 1 of this training, I'm well on my way to putting the digital instruction puzzle together.  Day 1 offered the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues on improving my presentation skills, learn even more new tools, and how to more effectively use the tools I thought I already knew how to use.

There are far too many new tools and tips to discuss in one post, so I'll be writing more on them as the weeks go by and I've had an opportunity to explore them.  The first one I'll really be looking into is Plickers, an assessment system that only requires a printed and laminated sheet for each student and a smartphone for the teacher.

I'm looking forward to day 2, and the next 12-15 months of this project.  I'm excited to bring this learning back to the teachers in my district.

Are You Prepared for Your Digital Afterlife?

A colleague of mine sent this infographic to me in an email.  While perusing it, some of the content got a chuckle from me, but if you really consider the content of the infographic, are you prepared for your digital afterlife?  Over the past few years I have spent a considerable amount of time building my online presence and have a considerable number of accounts.  But what happens to the information in those accounts and the accounts themselves when I'm gone?  It's not something I've ever considered, and hope to have a lot of time left to consider it.  This really makes you think and gives you ideas on how you can plan for your digital afterlife.

KySTE 2014 Spring Conference

From March 5-7, 2014 the KySTE Spring Conference will take place at the Galt House in Louisville, KY.  For my money, the KySTE Spring Conference is the must-go conference of the year (at least in KY).  This year I'll be leading 3 presentations at the conference, so if you're attending the conference, please come see me!

It all begins Wednesday afternoon at the Pre-Conference TRT/TIS thread where I'll be talking to Technology Resource Teachers and Technology Integration Specialists about Edmodo and their role as a TRT/TIS.  This will be my first statewide opportunity to share what I learned in the Edmodo Certified Trainer training.

Bright and early Thursday morning (8 am), I begin the day leading an Edmodo Birds of a Feather session.  After an opportunity to attend a session, I'll be right back at it leading a session on Simple K12's Teacher Learning Community (TLC).  The TLC offers a chance for teachers to receive PD in their PJs.  In fact, that's their slogan!  Since the addition of their free option, I don't mind advocating the site now.

If you're attending KySTE and any of these sessions interest you, please come by and learn more!

FlipQuiz: Free Gameshow Style Boards for Teachers

Have you been using Jeopardy templates in your classroom for years?  Many of the existing templates are cumbersome and difficult to use.  However, FlipQuiz changes all of that. 

FlipQuiz is a FREE Gameshow style board for teachers.  The template is easy to navigate and easy to edit.  The gameplay is smooth and user-friendly.  FlipQuiz also allows you to save all of your Games to edit later.  Did I mention it's free?

Create your free account today and start playing games with your students.

CometDocs: Online Document Management System

CometDocs is an online document management system that allows the user to convert documents into other formats such as PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or vice-versa.  You also get the capability of storing and sharing documents on their site.

Just like most freemium sites, CometDocs offers a free account with several subscription options.  This chart illustrates the current subscription prices, and if I were to move off of my free account into a subscription, I would likely choose the lifetime payment of $129.95.  If you're going to use CometDocs more than 13 months, it's definitely worth the lifetime payment.

If you're wondering about the features you get with free versus subscription, this next chart will show you exactly what you get.  

The conversion actually looks pretty decent, especially if you need to convert a PDF into a Word document.
This service would be useful for teachers who want to edit a PDF document to fit the needs of their class.

Vimeo: Movie Storage Site

I've seen people post videos in Vimeo before, but never really thought about creating an account there.  After our district switched from GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar to Microsoft Lync (as part of the Office 365 package), I needed a place to store all of my self-produced professional development webinars (for the teachers in my district) from last school year.  I tried YouTube, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube, but it felt like something was missing, or I was concerned about privacy of the videos.  Then I remembered Vimeo.

I nosed around Vimeo and created myself a free account.  With the free account you get to upload 10 videos a week up to a maximum of 500 mb of storage space.  Each week, your account will refresh and you'll be able to upload another 10 videos.  For about $60 per year, I could upgrade and get unlimited uploads and remove banner ads for myself, or for about $200 I can upgrade to premium and remove banner ads for everyone.  I'm not sure I need to go that far.  It will take me 4 weeks to move all of my webinars over to Vimeo, but I think in the end I'll be happy with what I end up with.

I encourage you to give Vimeo a try.  If you like, you can even follow me, or like the videos that I don't password protect.

Edmodo Certified Trainer

This past fall I was selected to be part of the 1st cohort of Edmodo Certified Trainers (ECT). It is truly an honor to be selected for this group as only 50 educators were chosen to become ECTs. Edmodo is a secure social networking platform that has spread like wildfire in the education community. The founders and developers have done an amazing job of adapting to the needs of teachers while keeping the integrity and security of the platform intact.

Throughout the ECT training process, I connected with fellow ECTs from all over the globe. I look forward to working with my new ECT colleagues in the years to come.

If you'd like to become part of the Edmodo family, simply follow the Getting Started directions below.

Getting Started with Edmodo:

• Create your account (click on Edmodo above. If you're in Kenton County, KY, click here.)
• Complete your profile
• Add a Picture or Avatar
• Your Groups
• Create a group
• Share the Group's URL
• Add Folders
• Share resources
• Start Posting
• Lead collaborative discussions 
• Give Assignments, Quizzes, & Polls
• Install Apps
• Engage students, Inspire Creativity, & Assess Learning
• Follow and Participate in Communities
• Connect with educators from around the world
• Connect with me
• Discover great resources

If you need any help or need a person to bounce ideas off of I am hear to help, I'm only a message away.

2014 KySTE Spring Conference

This year at the KySTE Spring Conference (March 5-7 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, KY) I will be presenting on 2 different topics.  During the TRT/TIS strand on Wednesday I will be presenting on Edmodo, the social networking platform for schools.   Teachers, students, and parents like Edmodo for what it brings to the classroom, and this session will focus on how district and school leaders can leverage the free tools to manage Edmodo at the school and district level.

On Thursday I will be presenting on Simple K12's Teacher Learning Community.  From previous posts you know that I'm a huge fan of the Teacher Learning Community, so much so that I'm featured in their testimonial video.  When SimpleK12 came out with a free version for teachers, I became an even bigger fan.  This session will cover how teachers can get "PD in their PJs."

I'm looking forward to both of these sessions, and hopefully you'll be able to make it to the KySTE Conference.  It's always a great 2-3 days of learning, collaboration, and networking.

Class Dojo

ClassDojo is a classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators.
It's being used by teachers all over the world, who are loving it and having tremendous success with it.

Better learning behaviors, smoother lessons and hassle-free data - and its free!
Even better it comes with a web version and a mobile version.

Follow this link to get your free account.
http://bit.ly/KaRnP5​