Technology Fridge

An example of failing forward

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Allen) — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 13:43:00 +0000

There are lots of fancy cute inspirational messages out there about "failing forward" or how failure leads to success. The problem is that sometimes when you fail you don't always get to see the successes.

Original image: https://goo.gl/J2vNu5

One thing I've learned over the years is that, as much as I want instant results, that's not the way it works. When I got my first Snowball mic, it was a year or two before I started using it on a regular basis by doing webinars for staff. It took another year or so for others to realize how beneficial online meetings could be in a large district. Which is why this article about my former district launching online classes caught my eye. Maybe seven years ago...I don't recall exactly now...I helped try online classes as a pilot at the two high schools in that same district. It didn't work for a number of reasons. The LMS was clunky. The teachers we chose were ones that kids wanted to interact with face-to-face, not online. We didn't have our minds quite wrapped around how best to compensate staff without alienating others. We learned a lot, bit in the end, it got dropped due to lack of enrollment. While there has been a number of staff turn over since that project ended, it's good to see that the idea was revisited. Since I've left, I've seen a couple of projects I had worked on get resurrected. While I take no credit for any of the projects today, I do believe that planting seeds of ideas may, sometimes subconsciously, impact decisions made down the road. While I could make you whimsical, inspirational image to make as your desktop background, I'll leave you with this - don't be discouraged when an idea doesn't take off immediately. Sometimes people need to let it percolate for a bit.

My First Impression of Book Creator for Chromebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Allen) — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 02:19:00 +0000

As a 1:1 Chromebook district, we are continually looking for ways to unleash our students' creativity on a laptop-style device. As Chromebooks become more and more popular in schools, quality options are becoming more prevalent.
One of my favorite iOS apps has always been Book Creator. It's simple-to-use interface and ability to add videos in your book/ePub have made it popular with educators around the world. Recently, they have opened a beta web-based version. Even though I'm generally skeptical of beta releases, I had to give it a spin! I tried it for the first time using my two+ year old Toshiba 13 inch Chromebook.
What I found when I logged in as a teacher with my Google account to the web version of Book Creator was the same simple interface that made me fall in love with the app all those years ago.

Even in beta, all of the layout options are available, including comic book templates.

Once you choose your book shape on the web, you'll find the same options for inserting objects as you did on the app. The first picture below is from the iOS app, the second from the web version.

iOS

Web

If you are familiar with the app, you'll likely recognize the layout of a book page. The i button responds to what you have selected, just like in the app. There might be a few features missing from the app, but there are not as many as you'd expect from the web version of an app or software. I'd hate to make it an absolute and say NOTHING is missing, because inevitably I would miss something, but I haven't found anything that I use on the app that isn't on the web. Maybe a slightly different look, but still there. Feel free to put in the comments what I missed that you found missing!

One area that is paired down a bit from the app, but has the main features I would actually use, is the sharing options. Sharing online is really, in my opinion, the best route to go. Your other option on the web is to download as an ePub. If you are going to be sharing the book with parents, I'd encourage you to share online. It's by far the simplest on both ends. Clicking on the globe in the thumbnail of your book will let you copy your link once you've published. There is no need to re-publish once you make changes - it does it automatically! The iOS app has a PDF and video export options, but web and ePub let you take full advantage of Book Creator's features, especially the video embeds in your book.

I was pleasantly surprised when they released their pricing structure for the Chrome version (Click here for the pricing breakdown & FAQ from Book Creator). The iOS app was a relatively expensive, albeit still worth it, $4.99 regular price. Like many app companies, they are moving to a subscription model (read: recurring income), at least for the Chrome version. They are planning to release student accounts later this fall. I think there is a lot a teacher can do with the free account, especially an elementary teacher. The other levels aren't astronomically for those who would need it. According to their FAQ, discounts are available if you purchase 5 licenses or more.
As I told my staff when I emailed them about Book Creator, books are a great "next step" past your traditional presentation software. The format of a book is similar, but there is a lot more flexibility with a page layout and no push to use bullet points. You don't feel as tied down to a presentation color/layout scheme. Book Creator's web version is a huge boost to the creativity toolbox in our Chromebook district. I've told my staff to expect to hear a LOT more about Book Creator in the upcoming year!

First run with Facebook 360

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Allen) — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 19:16:00 +0000

Facebook recently announced their support for 360 degree videos and picture from their app, so today I tried out uploading 360/panoramic pictures to our district Facebook page!

A couple things I found out:

I tried using my favorite 360 app Dermandar, but Facebook caught on. You see, there are only certain apps that Facebook will let you upload with. Dermandar apparently isn't one of them.

Can you tell which images were taken with Dermandar? Facebook can!
Using the pano feature on your iOS camera works fine, except that it's not a full 360 degrees. It's 180 degrees. A big deal? No, but it would be nice if it was full 360. Maybe it's something I'm missing?
Because you don't get a full 360 with the iOS camera, you have to be more thoughtful about where you stand. It can't just be in the middle of the playing field.
You have to upload by clicking the Photo button in the Facebook app, not from where Facebook prompts you to check out the Photos in your Camera Roll. I'm thinking that will get updated, and it's a minor detail, but a mistake I tried.

Overall I think it is a cool way to share different parts of your school or classroom. I've got a couple more places in mind to go get pictures for and other ideas on how to improve it. I did create a page on our website that has the full Dermander 360 images embedded. My plan is, as of right now, to do both since neither take very long to create. What ways do you see 360 videos being useful for schools?

Educational iOS Apps that Support Chromecast

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Allen) — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:04:00 +0000

Our district has been using the Reflector app for mirroring our iPads to the projectors. While that has been working OK in most situations, we are beginning to explore whether or not the Chromecast would be an option as we introduce more iPads to staff. Why the Chromecast over the Apple TV? Mainly cost. While you can still purchase older versions of the Apple TV at half of what a new one costs, they are still twice as much as the new Chromecasts.
The problem, and why many schools go with the Apple TV, is that the Chromecast doesn't mirror the iPad like an Apple TV or an adapter does. It's designed to stream video and audio. Which is why I'm compiling a list of iOS apps that support Chromecast that our teachers could use in the classroom. Admittedly, there isn't a lot. That's where a conversation with a teacher comes into play. What are they planning on projecting from the iPad? If it will routinely be something that can't be shared by one of the apps below, then maybe a Chromecast isn't the right option for their classroom. But if they plan on sharing websites and their Google Slides notes, then why pay twice as much for what they need? Because we are focusing on iPads, Android apps that could be used for educational purposes are not included below. And yes, there are 1000s of apps that support Chromecast, but most are for entertainment purposes. The apps below I can at least make an argument for educational purposes!

All teachers need the Chromecast app to connect and set up their device.

Google Chrome - this web browser shows students what you are looking out, although, because it doesn't fully mirror, you can't see web URLs. Utilize Google Classroom to get URLs to students.

Google Slides - we encourage staff to put all of their presentations and notes online anyway, so Cast them with the Google Slides app.

YouTube - we encourage staff to use YouTube for sharing video content, either their own or someone else's.

Also YouTube Kids for teachers sharing brain breaks via their iPad.

Since it is cold out right now and indoor recesses occur frequently, I'll mention Connect4 Quads which brings the popular Connect 4 game online. Hasbro has a couple game apps available.

Some other resources:
Possibilities for Chromecast in the Classroom - Synergyse

Have other apps that should be included? Mention them in the comments below!

Screencastify - An Alternative to YouTube Webcam Capture

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Allen) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:08:00 +0000

YouTube announced last week it was closing down it's (I guess not very) popular webcam capture feature that allowed you to record a video directly to YouTube instead of having to record somewhere else, then upload. This was a huge blow to our speech teacher, who has kids set their Chromebooks on a table to record their speeches so they can reflect and critique themselves.
The alternative we are using is the Screencastify Chrome extension. I've mentioned Screencastify in the past as a screencasting tool, but there is also the option to just record what the camera sees, basically the same thing that the YouTube capture did. Just like screen recordings, the video is then saved to either Google Drive or YouTube, whichever the user prefers. In talking with the speech teacher this morning, he said that it actually seems to be working better than the YouTube webcam capture. They would periodically have videos that stop uploading to YouTube and students would lose them. They haven't had those issues so far. The free version limits you to ten minutes of recording, but most of the speeches that students are recording fall under that limit. The Google Drive option could also be a little more reassuring for students who many be a bit apprehensive about accidentally posting their practice speech to the public on YouTube.

Not Always My Favorite

noreply@blogger.com (Josh Allen) — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 22:14:00 +0000

I think it's very important that students create stuff. Having to transfer what you know into a new product it's extremely valuable for really understanding a concept. What tool is used to make that stuff can vary greatly and is largely irrelevant to the bigger goal of increased knowledge. Just like students, teachers have their own favorite tools for creating stuff for students. Like everyone else, I have my favorite apps for different tasks on my iPad or iPhone. As apps change, my preference changes. I used to be a HUGE Penultimate fan (see why here) until they "improved" their app. I was one of many who couldn't stand the new update. While they've made some changes (shameless plug that I was once quoted on TechCrunch), it's never been the same and, although it was once a staple of my iPad dock, it's no longer anywhere on my iPad.
On the other hand, there are some tasks that have two apps that switch back and forth between being my favorites. Screencasting on an iPad is a great example. For a long time, I was in the ShowMe "camp" because of how much I liked their online community. Then Educreations added multiple pages. I sway back and forth depending on their most recent update. I generally tell people to try out both and pick one you like.
Another one is book creation. My two favorites, in alphabetical order, are Book Creator and My Story. Unlike the screencasting apps, these two go back and forth of my "favorite" depending on the situation I'm in. If I'm creating a book for myself, it's definitely Book Creator. It's layout is hands down more "sophisticated" looking. It also allows you to add video within your book, something My Story doesn't do. However, for younger students, the My Story layout is much more friendly. Just recently they introduced the ability to share My Story books between iPads.

1st graders creating books on how to make no bake pies.

We used this to make a template for 1st graders and then Air Drop the template to their iPads. Students could then edit their own book and resend it back to me as a movie. They have the option of making it an ePub that you can read in the Safari browser, an option that is fantastic for class presentations or sharing with parents, but I noticed that when students sent the link back to me, all of the ePubs had the same short URL. I've reached out to My Story, so hopefully that'll get cleaned up. You can see the student videos below.

So which app is best for each task? Depends on the audience, the day, and the most recent update. The apps will always change, but the purpose of the learning will not.

Cow Tipping and Improving the PD Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:57:00 +0000

Have you ever been cow tipping? How did it end up? Like Tommy? You don’t have to honestly answer that.
What’s the purpose of cow tipping? Does it make a better steak? No, it doesn’t. But, generally, it wakes the cow up with quite the shock.
What is your school climate like? How excited is the staff you work with for the next inservice day? Or early out? Are they going through the motions? Are there some cows that need to be tipped?
This isn’t a post to question the weight of your staff. Nor is it permission to knock any of them over. In fact, I strongly suggest doing NEITHER of those. And I will not be held responsible for any injuries relating to that activity. Or any others. Nor do I condone actually trying to tip a live cow.

Original link

This post is, instead, a call for you who provide any sort of professional development for others to start doing things differently. Math, reading, science, whatever. If your staff moseys down the hallway (like a cattle chute) and plods into the training session, give them a little shock by stepping outside of your own box. Make them get up and move around during the session. Utilize videos. Make it interactive by modeling Kahoot or another tool to collect information. Heck - put blank pieces of paper on the wall and let them fill in what they want to learn more about (if you are not sure what that looks like, come see it live at EdCamp Omaha, March 21, 2015. Click here to register!). I'm not claiming to have all the answers - I need to do a better job of this, too! Maybe I should've started this post with "Hey, Josh!"
If you continually provide instruction for students the same way, day after day, regardless of the instructional method, most are going to eventually tune you out. Teachers are not much different than kids. You cannot provide professional development the same way over and over again. They will begin to tune you out. Every now and then, you need to model stepping out of the box and tipping them over.
For those of you who don’t spend much time around cows, you can learn more about cow tipping here.

Behind the LewisCentralCSD Social Media Curtain

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 20:02:00 +0000

This week, I helped launch my new school district into the social media world. The key, for me, was automation. If you've ever scrolled through this blog, you know that means IFTTT.
We set up a Facebook Page, Instagram account and Twitter account for Lewis Central. We created a generic email address within our domain that was used to create all of the accounts. There were many ideas for what the username for the social media accounts would be. Ideally, you want them to be the same so people can look for the same thing across all platforms. @LewisCentral was already taken on Twitter. Another thought was LCCSD (Lewis Central Community School District), which would be nice and short for Twitter, but already taken on Instagram. So my attention turned to LewisCentralCSD. While it's a little longer than the "preferred" Twitter username, other users will just have to be creative to get their mentions under 140 characters!
The header images for Facebook and Twitter, as well as the profile picture for all three accounts, were created with Canva. I grabbed a picture I had and one from a teacher librarian to make the header images. I tried to match the district website header text with the text in the Canva images.
On to the automation - after one day, I've already had to do some tweaking. Anytime a picture is posted to Instagram, it gets posted to Twitter and Facebook. But I had also set up a recipe that anytime I put a link on Twitter (like to a news article), it would post to our Facebook Page. That was causing duplication in those pictures. So I've instead added a new recipe that anytime I use the hashtag #fb on Twitter, that tweet will be posted to the Facebook page. I've already forgot that tidbit once this morning, but hopefully it will become habit.
Below are the recipes that we are currently using to automate the posting process:

I will be using Tweetdeck in Chrome to do most of the monitoring. I've also used it to schedule a tweet or two every now and then. For instance, I emailed our staff a link to a post on our district website about the new accounts. I wanted to give them a chance to read the article prior to sending it out via Twitter and Facebook, so I scheduled a tweet to go out after school gets out. That way I won't forget AND I get to begin my weekend on time!
In 36 hours, we have 87 "likes" on Facebook and 46 followers on Twitter. Instagram only has 14 followers, which I'm less concerned with because I'm thinking of it more as a tool to provide content for the other two sites. Honestly, I'm not concerned with numbers anyway. That will come with time. It's exciting to have the district in the social media/networking world and I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves in the future.

Screencasting made simple with the Screencastify Chrome Extension

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 20:17:00 +0000

Moving to a Chromebook 1:1 environment, I've been searching for ways to do screencasting that students could use.

Screenshot from EdTech Teacher's website

Thanks to EdTech Teacher's App Recommendations website, I found a free Chrome extension called Screencastify that allows you to record your screen and/or your webcam, pick up sounds from your computer or mic, then quickly publish to either Google Drive or YouTube. That video could be shared in a lot of places - email, linked in a Google Doc, etc. For me, it has been working very well! There are not any editing features, although you could use Screencastify and then download the video into a video editor of your choice.
As I was talking with an English teacher today about using Google Classroom, we were talking about her having to be gone this afternoon for a sub, but she was trying to leave directions for students. It's not necessarily feasible to leave a substitute teacher your district GAFE credentials, and Google Classroom does not currently allow for "co-teachers," meaning we couldn't create any sort of "dummy" account for the sub to use. So, especially since teachers are still introducing this to their class, how do we properly give directions without giving someone else our district log in information? Screencastify would be a PERFECT tool for this. The teacher could give students a tutorial of what to do or where to go, a reminder about accessing files or resources, etc. Once the video is uploaded to Drive or YouTube, the link could be somehow shared with the sub to play for students. Maybe even put in Google Classroom in case they have questions during the day. Creating a video in Screencastify could be a lot quicker than actually writing out the plans. Just leave five videos for the sub, one for each period or subject!

Update: Heather Callihan saw this post and shared that the tech challenge for her staff this month is on Screencastify. Click here to see her challenge.

Check out the examples below and put in the comments other extensions or ways that you have students using screencasting in the classroom!

Here is a Screencastify example only using the microphone and screen recording:

Here is a video I did for my staff that also used the picture-in-picture webcam recording:

You're just a guest

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:43:00 +0000

Last night, we had Jimmy Casas, principal of Bettendorf High School, as a guest on Dads in Ed. He was great, and I encourage you to check out the whole video recording or listen to the podcast (click here for iTunes).
One thing he said really stuck with me as I tried to get to sleep after such a great discussion. While taking about being an administrator at Bettendorf High:

"The reality is that I recognize I'm just a guest in that community. You know, our time as leaders in different organizations will come and go, but we have a responsibility while we're there to continue to make sure that we do everything we can to maintain a sense of community and to bring that passion and to bring our best everyday to an organization. That's honestly our responsibility to make sure we are doing that, especially for our kids and to model that for our community."

Click here to skip to that part of the show.

I hadn't ever thought of it like that, but it's so true. Think about the elementary school that you went to, or even the high school. Are you proud to say that you went there? Do you still associate yourself with it? How many of your teachers are still there? The building itself is still the life blood of the community, even though a number of those teachers are no longer there. I'd be willing to say that most, if not all, of my elementary teachers are no longer teaching at the school I attended. In my first five years of teaching, I had two different principals. In 12 years at my previous district, I went through three superintendents. Your school will still be there long after you move on, but will you make it better while entrusted in your care?

Using IFTTT to Get Your Picture-a-Day Dominoes to Fall in Order

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:50:00 +0000

Photo by marfis75

Since 2009, I've been doing a "picture a day" blog for our family. It's gone through many iterations - first iWeb, then Posterous. After those two went by the wayside, I moved to Blogger (where it should've been at first...but that's another blog post). The blog started out just being shared with parents and grandparents via email. Then I began sharing them on social media and wanted an easier way to back up the pictures and text. That's a lot of different places to post. Thanks to If This, Then That (IFTTT), I can now post to one spot and all of that happens automatically. Like knocking over one domino and watching the rest fall down!

Thanks to two IFTTT recpies, when I post to Blogger, the post automatically goes to both Facebook and a copy is sent to Flickr for the picture backup (see below). One post to three places. As I've began using Instagram more, I set up an IFTTT recipe to autopost to Flickr if I used the hashtag #mykids. I typically set up similar ones for special events (#snowdays, #ressesturns1, etc.).

What I began to realize is that sometimes I would have the same picture in Flickr twice: once from the #mykids recipe and once from the blog post. That doesn't always happen, but sometimes I make a #mykids post on Instagram in the morning and then decide to use that picture later in the day. It's not a huge deal because Flickr gives you a terabyte of storage for free (that's a lot), but if I ever get around to organizing my pictures it could be annoying. So the other day I set up a new recipe that if I tagged a picture in Instagram picture with #blog, it automatically creates a new post on my picture a day blog. That starts the dominoes falling!

I won't always start my blog post from Instagram, but it's now possible and I won't end up with two pictures in Flickr.
There are thousands of ways to use IFTTT. If doing a picture a day blog for your family or class, you wouldn't have to use as many recipes as I did. Or you could substitute other recipes. IFTTT would be a great way to get share with parents more of what is going on in your classroom. Setting up recipes to work together gets all of your dominoes to fall the same direction.
Click here for my IFTTT presentation at #neta14.

Learning and Sharing with Flipboard Magazines

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 15:11:00 +0000

Updated (June 2014) - Flipboard mentioned this blog post in their own article about educators and magazines! Thanks Flipboard!

This spring, I was tasked with learning more about blended learning for my district. I set up a Flipboard magazine for myself to read based off the #blendedlearning hashtag on Twitter, but I wanted a way to save and share the great articles I was reading. I had heard about creating your own magazines in Flipboard, but hadn't ever tried one. They are very simple to create and easy to add to from any device, not just the app! Check out the video below on how to do it (or click here for Flipboard's "how to" page).

Recently I accepted a new position in a district that uses Google Apps for Education (GAFE), something my previous district hadn't used. So I set up another magazine! But this time I knew I needed some help with curating good articles. When you create your magazines, you are also allowed to add "contributors" to help you curate. I had added my friend Kristina to my blended learning magazine because of some work she's doing at our state department of education. This time, I decided to add a larger number of people who were already familiar with GAFE (Stacy, Mickie, and Jim), knowing they would have different perspectives and information streams that I might not be familiar with.
During a recent Dads in Ed podcast, a show I host with Devin Schoening and Brent Catlett, I mentioned Flipboard as my "app/site of the week." One of our listeners, Patrick, shared an article he had found on embedding Flipboard into Google Sites. Even better! I had just created a new Google Site for my upcoming job, so I added the GAFE magazine to the site. It's great because it automatically updates, meaning content will always be new!
Magazines would be a great way for secondary teachers to create textbook supplements for their students, especially around current events. One idea mentioned in the video above was to save recipes into a magazine to create a cookbook. What a great idea for a family and consumer science classroom! They'd also be great for building leaders who are researching a new curricular or behavior philosophy. You literally can put ANYTHING into magazine form. I may need to share this with my soon-to-be-four-year-old as she works on plans for her birthday cake!

Below I've linked the three magazines I have created. While demonstrating Flipboard magazines for teachers in my iPad graduate course last week, I created one for iPad Ed as well. I'm open to having more people contribute, so drop me a line in the comments or on Twitter if you're interested!
Blended Learning Magazine
Google Apps for Education #GAFE Magazine
iPad in Education Magazine

Bringing Poetry Objects to Life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 May 2014 19:20:00 +0000

I started my day working with 3rd graders on publishing their poetry. Because we only had a short amount of time, I knew we needed a quick and easy app. We chose to use the app ChatterPix Kids to bring the object of their poetry to life. In planning with the teacher, we decided students would come ready that day with their poem and an idea for what to find or take a picture of, related to their poem. Then we would make the object say the poem! What I didn't know walking in was that students were writing a poem about "what's in my desk." Perfect! Because they obviously had the object, the picture hunting went nice and smooth! I did a quick, five minute demo of the app, we talked about putting their object on a contrasting (dark/light) background, and how voice levels should be while we were recording audio. Then students were turned loose!
We ran into a couple issues with the app not being on the iPad and students clicking "Don't Allow" for pictures and microphone, which we fixed in Settings-->Privacy, but those are pretty common occurrences for Day 1 with a new app. We had a couple students who, when they went to save to their Camera Roll, it took longer than normal. I did a "force close" by double-clicking the home button and swiping up on the app. We then re-opened the app, clicked on Gallery to find the project (auto save, for the win!), and the second time we exported it worked. I've had to do this process with a couple different apps when they get "stuck" in a task. It's not a big deal, but it's pretty obvious when you are used to the export being rocket fast.

Apps like ChatterPix are very simple to use. Take a picture, draw a line for a mouth, record 30 seconds of audio, then dress up your picture. ChatterPix walks students through the creation steps in a very easy-to-understand manner. Your final project becomes a QuickTime video file. The regular ChatterPix lets you publish to social media and email. Because we were using ChatterPix Kids, which doesn't have those social media sharing options, students saved/exported their final video to the Camera Roll, then opened up the Photos app and emailed their creation to the teacher. We didn't publish ours to YouTube, but as I was looking for a quick "how to" video to share, I found lots of other examples (click here to see).
Two alternatives I've played around with are Morfo & Yakit. Morfo (which also has a paid version that contains all of the "extras") is a little more advanced in terms of function and content. The eyes move in a little more life-like fashion than the others (click here for teacher example). Morfo also has a more detailed eye & mouth placement, which may be better suited for older kids. Yakit has some pretty cool animated objects, but is limited to fifteen seconds of audio recording. In working with my grad class, they also found getting Yakit to save properly without a Facebook account was not as intuitive as we'd hoped. The app crashed a couple times and did not save the work. Like ChatterPix, there is also a Yakit Kids alternative, which may fix our Facebook account issues. Yakit is an iPhone app, so if you search for it in the App Store, you may need to switch your search from iPad only to iPhone only.
ChatterPix worked perfectly for these single poem activities. They would also work very well as a simple app smash with something like Book Creator that allows you to import videos from your iPad. The Morfo teacher example linked above was supposed to be just that - students write a book about a famous person, use Morfo to record a famous quote, and then put that video in the book. Unfortunately, we used a book making app that didn't support video import. We know better now!

An Organizers Reflection of #EdCampOmaha

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:29:00 +0000

It's about time. A week later, I'm finally carving out some time on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to reflect about another amazing EdCamp Omaha.

Because I'm so late, I've had the opportunity to read some insightful reflections of the day from the people that matter the most - the attendees. Because they all captured the day so well, I'm going to direct you to all of their blog posts and reflect on some other things from an organizers perspective. Thanks to Michelle, Michelle, Darin, Guy, Ann, Brent, Alex, Jennifer, Kristina, the camera-toting teacher Laura and all the others who gave their feedback about the day. I truly appreciate the feedback and hope we can address some of the critiques that I've seen as well. We are far from perfect, but I feel we learn more each year and I really like how we do things at EdCamp Omaha.
One of the most important times for me is the before and after of EdCamps. Twitter allows educators to connect on a regular basis, but I really love the opportunity to sit down with people in a more social setting. It allows you to get to know them a little more personally. Saturday night a group of 8-10 of us went to The Blatt for supper. I shared something that had been rolling in my head for a while - attendance. To be clear, I'm not disappointed in our attendance, even though it was slightly less than the last two years. I don't concern myself with having x number of people, because when we had 60 people show up, the conversations were just as rich as when we've had 130. But if you click on any of the links above, you read about how energizing of an experience EdCamp is, how refreshing being around all of those passionate educators is, and how attendees leave wanting more professional development like this - how many times do you hear people want more professional development?
During one of the breaks, I got to talk with Joe from NE Loves PS, one of our local sponsors who does GREAT work across the state (they even let me on their blog!). We talked about the quality of educator that attends EdCamp Omaha (any EdCamp, for that matter) and we both agreed that, while there are definitely others like them out there, these educators realize this isn't an 8-4 job. They genuinely love education, kids, and being a learner.
It got me to thinking more about how do we get more people there, so they can feel the same feelings that you read about in the posts above? I don't have a great answer, but Saturday evening allowed me to do some brainstorming with those at Blatt. We'll never get 1000 teachers there. Things happen. Life happens. My wife reminds me often that our target demographic is 25-55ish (*edited after comments & more reflection :)) year olds, working people, many married, many with kids. Giving up a Saturday is tough, and as the father of three I completely understand and am not criticizing them. But I know that there are educators out there in that demographic who would have a better understanding of why I, with three kids, have made time the last four years for a dozen EdCamps if we just get them in the door. Why three people traveled 6+ hours to come last week. Why about 20 more traveled over 2 hours. They would see how empowering it is to have a voice and learn with others who were born to do what they do. Another analogy that I've been think about is that EdCamps are kind of like churches - if you are a religious person, it's a no-brainer that you make time to attend church regularly. But how often do you bring someone new with you? How easy is it for you to explain what you get out of attending in a way that someone else is compelled to devote time and energy to attending (I'm horrible at this)? It's something that I think about a lot and have been keeping more resources for next spring. I'm also hoping to infiltrate some other list serves after January 1st to get the word out a little better. Admittedly, we had significantly increased attendance the first three years so I wrongly assumed that EdCamp Omaha would promote itself. Live and learn.
EdCamp Omaha continues to be a great event and one that I'm very proud to organize with a wonderful minion like Kristina.

We have such great educators that give up their time to make the day so great, I just hope we can share the wealth some more!
Thanks to everyone who attended and reflected! You really make the time and effort easily worth it! Follow our website http://edcampomaha.wikispaces.com and @EdCampOmaha - we've hopefully got a big announcement coming in the future!

Beginning to blend

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 21:14:00 +0000

My school district is rarely the first to do anything, and I'm perfectly OK with that. We really try to do what's best for students based off of the information we have at the time, not what's new and shiny. Along those lines, we are beginning to explore blended learning in our classrooms. We've began gathering resources and look at where this might be a good fit for our curriculum. We haven't ruled anything out, but we are starting to craft a vision for what it looks like in our district.
Our students do well on standardized tests, so it's been difficult to promote a need for changing instruction. Fortunately, our curriculum department sees that we need to better engage our students with the curriculum so they can develop a deeper understanding of it. I found this picture from Sean Junkins today that really resonates that point.

Learning vs. Listening. #TCEA14 pic.twitter.com/tId8DA4w0p
— Sean Junkins (@sjunkins) February 4, 2014

We know there are different ways that blended learning can be successful in our schools, and not just with technology (could insert another Junkins post that speaks to that). We also understand that it's going to look different at different grade levels.
I've started an Evernote Notebook (here) and a Flipboard channel (here) to gather some information for our district. This link from the Christensen Institute (also located in the Evernote Notebook) has been great for me to wrap my head around what blended learning looks like. If you have other resources, we'd love to hear about them! We will definitely be relying on the experts (like the one already in PLN that I found during an EdWeek webinar I attended) for help!
Lastly, I'll share my initial sketch as I sat down to start thinking and gathering info on blended learning. I'm excited to look back in a year to see how far we've come and how right or wrong/naive some of these notes were.

Idea Dump to Evernote

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 21:08:00 +0000

Thanks to the wonderful world of Twitter, I found this blog post by Ramsey Musallam about creating an "Idea Dump" to Google Drive. The idea is to text yourself ideas as they come up. As an avid Evernote user, I switched the ending to do the exact same thing, only it will add to a note in Evernote.

I encourage you to read Ramsey's post about the "why" behind a recipe like this. Yes, you could just open either of these apps, but sending a text message is much quicker than opening an app and waiting for it to sync.

Feel free to use and share away!

My Homework

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 15:28:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to be tagged twice in the same day on the My Homework meme, thanks to Josh and Jamie.

11 Random Facts About Myself:

I drive the same car (Chevy Cavalier) that I bought the summer after I graduated college 11 1/2 years ago.
My wife and I met when I was a Resident Advisor in the dorm she was living. Yes, that was frowned upon by the higher ups around campus, but my hall director at the time OK'd it.
I was Senior of the Year at my high school.
I won our "Driver's Ed Award" about a month before I rolled my pickup. I didn't realize the gravel road curved and I ended up in a field, upside down. Glad I put my seatbelt on before I turned to take that "shortcut."
In a span of about 10 years I got my high school diploma, a bachelor's degree and two Master's degrees.
My parents were divorced when I was very young. I call both my Mom and Step-Mom "Mom." This can be confusing when telling a story, especially to my wife, or when both of them are in the same room.
My kids (oldest is 5) haven't figured out that they have more grandparents than other kids. They do like the extra Christmas'.
My office at work is also designated as a "mother's room."
Since 2009 I've been doing a "picture a day" blog so that family members that we don't get to see very often get to "watch" the kids grow up. I've gotten smarter over the years - now I have one Blogger site. This is the 3rd different service I've used and I also used to create a separate blog every year. Not very smart. The last two years I've done everything from my smartphone.
My kids all love vegetables. I hate vegetables.
"The Office" was the last weekly sitcom that I would plan my life around.

Since Josh and Jamie both tagged me on the same day, I decided to just pick the question that I liked.

What was your favorite children's book as a child or favorite to read as a parent? I loved the Pokey Little Puppy, but a close second was The Little Engine That Could. My kids have grown to love The Little Engine That Could also. My grandma who I would read The Little Engine with gave a copy to us when we had our first child. Since she's passed away, I pause whenever I open the book to re-read what she wrote on the front cover.
If you had won that insane lottery jackpot, what is the first thing you would buy? A truck. I'm ready to be done with the Cav. That way I would look good driving to donate money to the Church and other great organizations.
What's your favorite "get to know someone new" question? "Where are you from?" I think that says a lot about people. And I find that where you live now isn't necessarily where you are from.
Would you ever consider a job that required an out of country relocation? I would never say never, but it's extremely highly unlikely. I like being close to family.
When was the last time you laughed so hard it hurt, and what was it that made that happen? I have three kids that are hilarious. My middle child is three and comes up with the craziest outfits and things to say. It's wonderful. Either something by them or during one of our Dads in Ed podcasts (subscribe in iTunes!). We've had some hilarious times discussing Brent's baseball glory days (Episode 1 toward the end) and all (er, both at the time of writing this) of our guests have been awesome. Yes, I chose this question as a way to shamelessly get Dads in Ed mentioned here.
What is the one movie that shows up on TV that even though you have seen it a hundred times you still leave it on and watch? The original Blue Brothers. I really dislike watching movies but there isn't a movie that comes close in my book. I love all the music on it.
How long does it take you to get to work? Generally less than 10 minutes. That's three times as long as when we first got married. I've never lived more than 15 minutes from where I worked.
What was your proudest moment thus far? Honestly, it's probably when I see or get compliments about how my kids treat other people. With my oldest in kindergarten, we keep stressing how important it is to treat others in a positive way. Many "awards" he gets involve how he acted or how he helped others, which means more to me than test scores.
What's your favorite thing to cook? Don't tell my wife, but I do enjoy baking cookies. I rarely do it because she's an awesome cook. I don't know how to cook much. I learned (via YouTube) how to cook an egg over-medium earlier this year. I really like breakfast and my wife isn't always a fan of mornings, so maybe I should learn how to make fancy pancakes or something.
Android or iOS? iOS. I had an Android when they first came out and wouldn't go back.
If you could pack it all up today and move, where would you land? Some place quiet. I had thought when I graduated college I was going to move to Wyoming and teach there, but grad school brought me back closer to home. I would love to live in a quiet, scenic area that has a change of seasons.

Next up

I have no idea who hasn't done this, so if you are reading this and haven't done this, see the questions below!
If you've already done this and just think my questions are awesome, feel free to make a new post :)

11 Questions for You

What's the favorite car you've ever owned?
What's your favorite vacation spot?
Morning or night person?
If you had to create a fake Twitter account for an celebrity, who would it be and why?
How many coats do you own? Which one is your favorite?
When you Google yourself, what's the first link that comes up (even if it's not about you)?
Chevy or Ford?
What college did you go to?
What's your favorite story from college?
Who is your favorite band? Favorite song from that band?
If you were to have coffee with one person, who and why?

Here's how it works:

Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
Share 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
List 11 bloggers (or take the easy way out if you can't figure out 11 :))
Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don't nominate a blogger who has nominated you.

The #edubroaward Dynasty Train

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:42:00 +0000

It seems like just a year ago I was winning my first EduBro Award...cause it is! Like the dynasty that I am, I'm delivering my second award speech in a row. You can see all of the other uber-cool winners here.

Now, back to me.

This year, I was a part of three awards:

"Most likely to make you lol in the comment section" award
#dadsined award (w/my partner in crime Brent Catlett)
"The #_posse for keeping the oft-maligned underscore symbol in the forefront of our minds" along with Greg Garner (@classroom_tech) & Chris Casal (@mr_casal).

And as expected, the EdCamp Crane took home the Best EdCamp Mascot award!

I'm on Cloud 9 after winning an #edubroaward last night. No, seriously, I am on Cloud No 9. #howIroll Thanks @thenerdyteacher & @tgwynn!
— EdCamp Crane (@EdCampCrane) December 20, 2013

For the "lol award" - the irony is I would never use lol. I hate that phrase. So thanks to however nominated me. In all honesty, I just try to bring a level head and a little humor to this stressful job. I do appreciate the nod.

DadsinEd - very honored, as this is something that Brent and I are passionate about. I'm a little saddened that the third member of our crew, Devin Schoening, wasn't mentioned, but we all know we don't go anywhere without our third wheel!

The #_posse was developed during a topic secret meeting in Hot-Lanta in the spring of 2013. That's all I can say, as the first rule of the #_posse (aka #underscoreposse) is that you don't talk about the #_posse.

I would say good luck to all of the competition next year, but you're going to need more than luck to derail this dynasty train.

Don't Model Social Media Use

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 01:53:00 +0000

In May, Sean Junkins wrote a blog post that said, very eloquently, we should stop telling students to change the world. He provided multiple examples of teenagers who changed the world negatively. Instead, according to Sean, society should challenge them to harness their sense of purpose to make a positive contribution to the world.
The same could be said for social media. As educators, we need to be models for our students of how to use social media. We've long had non-educator examples of how not to use social media (the former backup OSU quarterback Cardale Jones is one I use frequently). Last night, I was provided with two examples from current Nebraska administrators along those same lines.

As the high school football season descended upon Nebraska Friday, I went to watch my cousin's son play. Via Twitter, I was also keeping up with a game of HUGE importance in my district, the cross town battle between our two high schools. I was using our district's sports Twitter account to retweet scores from people at the game when I came across these two subsequent tweets from an account that very clearly identifies the person as an athletic director at a local high school.

Just to be clear, the bottom one came first. The account had been tweeting when each team scored.

Is that administrator using social media? Absolutely. And by scrolling back through the account and looking at it again today, the account does a great job of sharing their school's scores. But is that account modeling appropriate use of social media? In my opinion, absolutely not.

I considered mentioning the account in a tweet from my personal account (we don't follow each other, so I couldn't direct message them), but instead sent out a couple generic tweets and added the #nebpreps hashtag, one used by high school athletic departments across the state.

Grateful for a #nebpreps metro-area AD for providing me another example of how NOT to model social media use to their students.
— Josh Allen (@j_allen) August 31, 2013

Cheer for your team. Model respect for your opponent. Don't rub it in that you're blowing them out. #nebpreps
— Josh Allen (@j_allen) August 31, 2013

After my tweets, a good friend replied back that it was a superintendent, not athletic director. However, after a few direct messages, we found that we were talking about two different people. Below is the other tweet.

As administrators, you are expected to cheer and support with all of your might for your school. Be biased. I frequently am on our district's sports account. But you need to be - all of us need to be - models of appropriate use of social media. Tweeting at the expense of your opponent, in my opinion, isn't appropriate use of social media. Am I perfect? No. But go back through my Twitter feed and find a time when I put down a kid who was trying their hardest. Those teenagers on the opposing teams have worked all summer for their time under the Friday night lights and you thumbed your nose at them. What would happen if that was one of your student? One of your staff? Judging from what you posted, probably nothing.
We apparently need to stop asking educators to model social media and instead be more directed as to the type of modeling we need to do. I don't feel this type of behavior is wide spread among administrators, but I also don't feel it's OK to just "let it go." I plan on contacting people I know in both districts. I don't know either person whose name is on those Twitter accounts, nor do I expect them to know me. I'm not the Twitter police, but I've put myself out there as a Twitter ambassador for our great state and I don't like when others cast a negative light on all the great things educators are doing here. In the grand scheme of things, this is much more tame than many things that kids say to each other online during a day. I get that. But we educate kids and should hold ourselves to higher expectations then we hold them to. I don't know what the administrators' response will be. I won't be upset if there never is a response. I don't need one directed at me. But it probably wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if they responded to the opposing teams. What I do know is that we, as educators, need to not just model social media, but model positive use of social media.

On a good note...this EXTREMELY positive use of social media is making the rounds for what a group of Nebraska high school kids did at a football game last night. Kudos to my good friend Jay Dostal for sharing his students' idea.

The ultimate act of sportsmanship. Helping a Pius player in need. Way to go #KHSBearcatNation pic.twitter.com/SBVtP6O8jx
— Jay Dostal, Ed.D. (@jaydostal) August 31, 2013

My #EduBroAwards #Winning Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:15:00 +0000

Winner for Best Bald Head

When you win an award like this, you don't accept it in under 140 characters.

First of all, I'd like to thank my Grandpa Pepsi, who passed away earlier this year. While he wasn't able to see me reach this gold standard in life, I know he's looking down on me with pride. Without him, I'd probably have hair.

To those who voted - ~~how much time do you have on your hands???~~ Thanks! I couldn't have done it without you!

Finally, I'd like to thank the organizers, Nick "I'm Nerdy and I Know It" Provenzano and my favorite-North-Carolinian-who-has-ever-attended-EdCamp-Omaha-to-date, Tim "'Stache" Gwynn.

In closing, viva la #edcampomaha y #nebedu!

An Open Letter to #nebedu

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:16:00 +0000

To those of you who use the #nebedu hashtag, I wanted to take a minute to say thanks. Last May, I put a blog post out begging for you to come forward and share all of the great things that you were doing in your schools. Other states had done it...Why not Nebraska? In talking with you at conferences like NETA, I knew many of you had great experiences to share and you knew others that had great experiences to share. In a little more than 6 months, #nebedu, along with #nebedchat (Wednesday nights at 8pm*, hat tip to lead instigator Chris Stogdill), are true testaments to the great educators across the state. In talking with my good friend Kristina last month, we were discussing our strengths and specialties as it relates to professional development. I couldn't really think of what mine was (being involved K-12 will do that to you). I finally settled on, "I know the right people to ask questions of!" That is all a testament to the great sharing that you all are doing.
As with any online interactions, they are greatly enhanced when you get to meet and interact face-to-face. I encourage you to mark your calendars for EdCamp Omaha on March 23, 2013. EdCamps are education un-conferences - no fancy keynotes, no corporate driven agendas, just you, sharing with other colleagues who are passionate about all areas of education. ALL attendees have the opportunity to facilitate a discussion on what THEY are passionate about - and its all free. Yes - free, choose your own, professional development. You can find out more about EdCamps on the "What is an EdCamp?" page of our wiki. Please consider joining us.
So, as we all get ready to hop in our cars or open our doors to relatives and share in a Thanksgiving feast, I give thanks to all of you for making education in Nebraska better.

*#nebedchat is taking a break this week and will return on Nov 28th talking about homework and moderated by Jodie Morgenson.

Sept NE PLC

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Once a month I join in on a PLC via Google Hangouts. Feel free to watch live here or replay it when we're done! Today's topics may include bridging the technology gap among staff and iTunes U. Although we really don't even have a set schedule. So who knows.

IFTTT for #paplv

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:21:00 +0000

I realize I'm late to the IFTTT bus, but that's not uncommon. There are a couple buses that I've been late to. But hey, I'm glad they come back around every now and then.
IFTTT allows you to combine some of the online tools you use to create, essentially, an automatic workflow, hence the name: If This Then That. You create "recipes." For example, every time I tag one of my Instagram pics with #mykids, it automatically gets sent to Flickr, which is where we store all of our pics. But you can also browse other people's recipes: Now when I favorite a tweet, it sends it to Evernote, where I've been doing a lot more collecting.
As our teachers come back to school, our superintendent, Dr. Black, has been talking about "sharing our story...the media, legislature and politicians aren't doing a good job of it." I've been touting Twitter more often and the use of a common #paplv hashtag. I've even set up a Tumblr site so that when a picture is taken in Instagram and tagged with #paplv (by anyone, I'm hoping - haven't had others try it out) it gets posted. Now, I've updated it so that it also includes tweets. Twitter is such an easy way to communicate the great things that are happening, this is just an easy way to have them all together in one spot.
Why? Our teachers do great things. Amazing things. But we don't always know about it. Hopefully as they use Instagram and Twitter (and more recipes...Ideas?), their message gets out with little-to-no work on their part. I've also been thinking of more ways to use IFTTT in other areas of the school day - after school clubs, Facebook pages, etc. So many possibilities...what recipes are you using in IFTTT to help with your productivity? I'd love to share them with our staff!

Google Hangout for iPad Class

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:48:00 +0000

We are getting the opportunity to pick the brains of Jackie Ediger, Lisa Pospishil, for their favorite iPad apps.

This was awesome. Here is the link to the chat transcript.
http://bit.ly/N070nP

The Fridge's Weekly Bookmarks (weekly)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.