Ed on Tech

FETC 2017

2016-12-12T15:55:00.003-05:00

I'll be presenting a poster session at the FETC Conference on Wednesday, January 25, 2017. The session title is Borderless PLCs with Edmodo. If you're attending and haven't registered yet, visit this page to save $30 on your registration fee.

Adobe Education Exchange: Professional Learning for All

2016-03-29T09:41:00.000-04:00

Did you know the Adobe Education Exchange provides all kinds of free options for professional learning? Several options for learning are available as you can attend live events, participate in collaborative courses, or take a self-paced course. Personally I've just passed the halfway point of the Adobe Train the Trainer collaborative course. I've also completed a couple of self-paced course and one other collaborative course.

You'll also get the added benefit of expanding your Personal Learning Network. As I've worked my way through the Train the Trainer course, I've made several great contacts and connections that I'll put to good use in the future.

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

North Carolina's Digital Learning Plan

2015-09-23T16:00:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen this article in eSchoolNews, North Carolina has published a digital learning plan for their state.

This excerpt from the article should entice you to read the full article as well as review North Carolina's digital learning plan.

Like every state, educators in North Carolina are struggling with complex demands around digital learning.

In the era of personalized learning-meets-BYOD, and with a big push on 21st century skills, districts and education leaders can still feel pretty isolated as they work out where to go next. And conveying their needs to state legislators, who often have the power to regulate funding and set the pace for any statewide digital initiatives, can be yet another challenge.

This plan has the potential to be a road map for other states to educate legislators, educators, parents, and other integral stakeholders key to creating a digital learning plan.

EdmodoCon 2015

2015-07-02T14:03:00.001-04:00

Every August Edmodo hosts EdmodoCon, a free conference on best practices for Edmodo. By attending EdmodoCon, one can learn:

new or better ways to use Edmodo
new features in Edmodo
collaboration with other Edmodo users

EdmodoCon takes place on August 4. This year I'm excited to hear Rachelle Wooten, a fellow Edmodo Certified Trainer and Microsoft Innovative Educator. Register at https://edmodocon.com/ and follow on Twitter at #edmodocon.

Digital Enhancement Training Day 1

2014-06-30T21:18:00.000-04:00

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?

2014-04-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

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

2014-02-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

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

2014-02-27T14:27:00.001-05:00

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

2014-02-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

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

2014-02-03T15:34:00.003-05:00

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

2014-01-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

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

2014-01-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

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

2014-01-10T15:58:00.003-05:00

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

Office 365

2013-12-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

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

2013-12-16T12:30:00.001-05:00

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

2013-10-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

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

2013-10-07T14:10:00.000-04:00

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

2013-10-07T14:08:00.000-04:00

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

2013-08-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

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

2013-08-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

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

2013-06-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

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

2013-06-04T16:00:00.000-04:00

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.

2013-05-30T13:59:00.000-04:00

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

2013-05-24T15:47:00.000-04:00

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

2013-05-17T14:51:00.001-04:00

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!