Screencastomatic for Your Digital Backpack

Whether or not you like to flip your classroom or just create how to videos, a great free way to do it is using Screencastomatic.com.  You do not need to have an account.  Above is how to create a screen cast video and how to save it into your Youtube account.  You will find this very helpful for explaining how to do something to your students that you know you will need to explain lots of time all year (such as how to use Blackboard) and this way you do not need to restate it for your students.  You can also use the videos for other staff members

Take My Integrating Technology Into the Classroom Course

Starting tomorrow (August 28th at 4 pm), if you work in Fairfax County, VA you can sign up to take my course called "Enhancing the Use of Technology In The Classroom."  It will be 10 weeks and give you 2 credits and will be offered on Thursdays from 4:30-7:30 pm.  It is course AC2310 and you will need to sign up in MyPLT.  

The course will cover things such as using Google Docs, Study Blue, Diigo (which is an online list of your favorites), Twitter, WeVideo (collaborative video), Fakebook, FakeTweet, integrating your e-book, creating webquests, mobile apps and more.  The class is also very practical as you will be using things we learn to make lesson plans to use during our class session (so we can work out the wrinkles).    

FCPS IN-Service, 8/29/12 (Flipping the Classroom)

Today George Coe and Frank Franz are presenting with two others on the flipped classroom.  You can see the presentation by clicking here.

Using the US History e-book

Janet Babic is a great young teacher who has her room right next to mine.  Today she is doing an in-service for teachers new and those who need refreshing in our (Fairfax) county to introduce them to their US history e-book.  If you are struggling with how to use an electronic book, this has a great way to start off (with a scavenger hunt), how to split your screen so your students can read the book and answer questions and two lesson plans.  If you use American Vision this is just for you, otherwise it might show you some helpful suggestions.  

Quick Tech Tips from the Blogs

This in-service that I am doing today encompasses a bunch of quick tech tips that can make a big difference in the classroom.  There are how to sheets or videos for each and each can be learned in a minute. It includes items such as converting a pdf to a word document, texting (one way) homework reminders to kids, splitting a screen, translating a document (for ESOL parents), a way to easily read your newspapers, blogs, etc. very easily and more.  

Integrating Google Docs into the Classroom

Today George Coe and I are co-presenting at our annual social studies in-service on how to integrate Google Docs into the social studies classroom.  As part of the discussion we will start with the slideshow above.  Can you answer the questions and imagine if so much has happened so recently, how quickly your classroom will be changing in the next few years.  Then we will essentially (live, not on youtube as I have done above) show explain how our departments use Google Docs/Apps and finally we will use this document to have have everyone learn by doing doing for Google Docs/Apps.  

Mobile Apps for the Classroom

Luke Rosa and I were on a crack team of teachers and technology specialists this summer in whose capacity we came up with a list of mobile apps that can help your classroom expand and do it for free.  Above is an Educreations' presentation that gives an overview of our presentation and here is the e-sheet with 25 apps for smartphones and tablets (including the ones above) that we found incredibly helpful.  For each app, you will see there is an explanation, how to use it in the classroom and some how to videos.  If by chance you want to see our longer list of 75, it is here. 

Big Shifts in Education

A history teacher in Portland, Oregon, Mike Gwaltney, posted this awesome TEDX video by Pat Bassett on his blog, "Democratizing Knowledge." Bsssett, a long time teacher, coach, and administrator summarizes the big shifts in education caused by technology in a very convincing and engaging way and explains what he thinks these shifts mean for us, as teachers.

Split Screen For Your Digital Educational Backpack

Well, if you are going to use all of my ideas for your digital backpack this year, you will also need to know how to split your screen.  This is essential when you want to read your e-textbook and work on an assignment (or have your students do the work with their e-book).  It will stop you from printing out e-mails that you have to read while doing work and generally get you 100% onto the cloud. Above is a short video telling you how to do it. You could also download Air Display if you wanted to have two of your devices connected together virtually (ie, no cords).  

Apollo 11

With the death of Neil Armstrong, the NYTimes has a tremendous area for the Apollo 11 flight including video and the original articles as well as pictures. The video above comes from the WashPost.

Wow: History's most iconic photos in color

This blog, which I discovered on Twitter through a posting by teacher Ron Peck, has copies of many iconic photos in color, side-by-side like the VJ day photo above. It's pretty cool.

Google Drive (Docs) in Your Educational Packpack

Call me crazy, but I now have everything digital item (and I no longer own paper) in my Google Drive site.  Not only is it as dynamic as I need, but I can get it on my smartphone, tablet or computer.  I can also share items (including entire coursework) in seconds with anyone and can collaborate with other teachers or students.  For the same reason I like my students to have it with the added benefit that, as long as they have a connection to the Internet at home, they cannot lose their work and, with a little help from me, are extremely organized.  Here is an overview of each item in the Google Drive (formerly Docs) suite.  Here and here are how to videos and here are written how to sheets.  

VoiceThread (a Different kind of Flip)

VoiceThread is one of the coolest tech tools and very popular now. You can upload images, documents, slides, and record questions or even analysis. With the link, students can comment or make an argument. Students can even make a presentation on the material. It seems like a good alternative to a straight screen cast lecture for the flipped classroom. Here's a quick VoiceThread I created on Alexander the Greatwithout going to the Penn State site. And here is another VoiceThread explaining the different uses.

The Furher on TCAP

Once again Larry Ferlazzo has posted some great stuff. This is a hilarious clip with Hitler losing his temper about school test scores. It's one of Ferlazzo's best videos of the year in his "laugh til you cry" category.

Aggregator for your Essential Digital Backpack

With iGoogle going the way of the Dodo bird in November 2013, after researching it, I have decided to go with Netvibes.  If you are like me and want to have all of your blogs, newspapers, e-mails, rss feed, Twitter, Facebook, etc. in one place, Netvibes can do it for you.  Above is a short how to video I made.