Apps for School Administrators

At Mercy, we are putting together an iBook on how we use technology. Here is a piece I created to describe digital solutions for keeping organized on the fly:

The Biggest QR Code in the World and other Important Matters

From Facebook

World's Largest QR Code
The code . . . got the Kraays into the Guinness Book of World Records for "World's Largest QR Code," which was really what drove this whole project. At approximately 29,000 meters (1.1 square miles), that's quite a bit of carefully crafted [cornfield design]. . . . 
http://tinyurl.com/9ztkz8v

Google Drive Versus Evernote
Now iPhone and iPad users can edit Google Docs natively on their devices for the first time. With 5GB of free storage, integration with other Google services, and powerful text and image recognition when searching for files, Google Drive is now a formidable challenger to Evernote on iOS. How do they stack up?
http://tinyurl.com/9ztkz8v



Eight Great Gmail Tips
Over the years, Google has reinforced its unique approach and built bigger and better features into Gmail. The result, however, can be daunting. Which of this email program’s many option do you actually need? Here are eight tips for using the best.
http://tinyurl.com/bw3oz6r

Apple is Already Fighting Amazon in Ebook Price Wars
We’re already seeing that even if Apple would prefer agency pricing, price bands and MFNs for books, it’s willing to compete on price in the absence of those things. And it has a lot more money to do so than other ebook retailers like Barnes & Noble and Kobo.
http://tinyurl.com/8rkhqad

Will the Internet Replace Traditional Education
The future of education, both online and offline, will be won by those who understand that why, how and where people learn are not one­-size-­fits-­all questions.

What I've Been Reading about Apple TVs, Evernote, Dropbox, and More

Apple TV in the Classroom-- the New Smartboard

The use of the Apple TV in combination with an iPad in the instructor’s hand provides a mobile platform from which classroom activities can be initiated. Through the use of several apps, teachers can provide notes, display steps and processes to problems, initiate the display of media (pausing and resuming as needed from any location in the classroom), and allow students to participate from their own seats in a variety of interactive activities.   http://tinyurl.com/8xzcmd3

What We Learned: A 1:1 iPad Reflection

When you unfold such a large-scale initiative as giving every student an iPad, you tend to overthink everything. We tried to avoid this, but it was inevitable.   http://tinyurl.com/9ttqzqx

Discovery Invests in Digital Textbooks in Hopes of Growth 

Mr. Goodwyn’s 200-employee division introduced the line of digital textbooks last year. Their cloud-based technology works with whatever hardware a district has — iPads, laptops, desktops. Discovery tailors them to the particular curriculum needs of various states (or districts within states).  http://tinyurl.com/8rua7cr

Evernote: A 0-to-60 MPH Guide

Evernote is many things to many people because it’s so powerful. But for the same reason, Evernote’s purpose is vague enough that it can be hard to get started with it. First, you have to figure out what it can do for you. Here’s a guide to how to think about Evernote, so you can get better at using it.  http://tinyurl.com/8ew4h4a

Dropbox Storage Upgrades Take A Swing At iCloud And Google Drive 

The upgrades look like Dropbox is starting to fire off a competitive salvo at Google Drive and iCloud. For comparison, iCloud offers 55GB of storage space for $100 per year, whereas a Dropbox customer can get 102GB for around $120 per year. However, it still looks like Google Drive customers are getting the best deal as they can secure 100GB of storage space (+25GB GMail storage) for $4.99 per month or around $60 per year.

http://tinyurl.com/9uy8yua

The story behind how Apple’s iCloud data center got built — Cleantech News and Analysis

Apple’s new $1 billion data center — one of the highest-profile new data centers in the world — has put the town of Maiden, North Carolina (population: just over 3,000) on the tech map. But it almost didn’t get built.  http://tinyurl.com/bt64g2t

by SodaHead.Browse more data visualization.

My iPad Workflow

For the first week of school I managed most of my work through my iPad.  Here were my go-to apps

Administration

ToDo* - I have become completely dependent on this app for organizing my life.  I am a compulsive list maker and this app allows me to synch with all my devices.

Evernote* - I have taken on some major projects.  I have tried a couple of project management applications, but I have decided that with Evernote's phenomenal search capacity I will will put all my digital materials into Evernote (and the paper documents get digitized).  I have already benefited at meetings by producing contracts and spreadsheets in moments while others are fumbling around with their stacks of paper.

Camera*  I love taking pictures as I go about the building.  Sometimes this is for fun, but I also have posted shots to my blog or the school web site such as the ones I took a couple of weeks ago of our new courtyard and the 9th graders who visited my office during their orientation.

DocuSign Ink
Wow!  With my operational duties I frequently sign quotes or contracts that are emailed to me as pdfs.  With this app I can import the files, "sign" them, and instantly email them back.  Nice time saver.

Teaching

Kindle 

Both of my textbooks for AP Government are Kindle books so this one is self-explanatory.

Keynote  I became adept at making slide presentations in Keynote in 2009.  Now I use slides instead of "lecture" notes and share all of them with my students.  However, in the past I have always had to convert them to PowerPoint.  Now I can import them as I created them into my iPad and share them wirelessly through my Apple TV.

PowerTeacher  Pearson has made an excellent app for our student gradebook/attendance/database.


Administration and Teaching

Dropbox  All of my work files are either in Google Drive or Dropbox so that I can access them anywhere. Unfortunately many of the Google apps don't "play well" with the iPad.

Mail  I actually prefer reading email on the iPad.  Almost all of my personal and work mail  comes into this app.

Calendar Ditto with the calendar app.  It is an elegant app and it includes all of my work and personal calendars.

Pdf Expert  If I give any kind of presentation I convert my file into a pdf and place it into this app.  I like the interface and I can make last second notes if I notice a change needed.

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*In my next post, I will detail the usefulness of these two apps.

Ten Things for Three Labs

As I recently wrote in Experimenting with a Google Apps Lab, Mercy's approach to professional development has recently shifted from presentations and workshops to one-to-one help in "labs". Our first lab ooh place during our Final Exam period and focused on Google Calendars and Google Sites. We had 8 volunteer trainers and about 35 attendees, which I considered a terrific success.

Last week, week we held our first lab during summer vacation. Again this was very well attended and we had seven volunteer trainers. This lab and the ensuing July and August labs will focus on specific skills that we wish all teachers to possess by the beginning of the next school year. In fact fellow Associate Principal, Colleen Rozman, and I wrote some instructional modules for our staff. Colleen was the chief architect and modeled the approach after the Learning 2.0 Program (conceived by Helene Bowers). Here is a condensed version of the skills that our program includes

• Setting up and Organizing a Moodle Page
• Creating and posting a Google Calendar
• Using the iPad to take a photo, edit it and post it
• Shooting, editing and sharing a movie
• Using Evernote
• Creating a document with CloudOn and sharing it through Dropbox
• Creating a video explanation with ShowMe or Explain Everything
• Communicating through Google Groups

These tasks created some fun activity at our very well attended lab. Staff plunged into the skills and received significant individual attention. As a trainer, I can attest that I learned a number of "tips", too. I continue to be impressed by how determined most of my colleagues are to prepare for our shift to Mercy 2.0. I am already looking forward to our next lab in July. . . . But now I have to get back to my own "Ten Things"!

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Screen Shot from Mercy "10 Things"

Experimenting with a Google Apps Lab

As we shift into a summer mode at Mercy, we are also going to shift our professional development format. In May we presented some "Super Tuesdays" (and Thursdays) -- These were after-school workshops dedicated to the introduction of specific iPad apps like Dropbox, Noteshelf, Evernote, and Explain Everything. These sessions were very well attended even though they came at an exceedingly busy time for our teachers. Volunteers presented the workshops and it was unreasonable to expect them to give make-up sessions or post lots of resources.

So for summer, we will try to slow down and individualize. In June, we will host two "labs". This was the suggestion of our incredibly tech savvy, Alison Kline-Kator (someone you will be hearing more about in an upcoming post). She suggested a "drop-in" environment where folks could come for the 1:1 or small group training they desired. About eight staff members answered my call to serve as "trainers" for these two hour periods.

The first lab will be held on June 4, and it will focus on anything Google. Going to Google Apps was a key facet of our transition to Mercy 2.0. During a Keynote in April, Lucy Gray gave us a taste of all the interesting instructional possibilities for Google Apps. In addition, since across the school we are transitioning to Google Calendar, fluency in that environment will become essential for all staff. About 25 staff members have indicated that they will probably or certainly attend.

Two weeks later we will present a lab for all things iPad. I will be very curious to see how many people drop by, and that will pretty much determine whether we will offer another couple of labs during the summer.

In my next post I will describe a scheme for our newbie teachers that is a little more intense!

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CC illustration found at http://bit.ly/LTaWcl

New Adventures in Staff Collaboration

As we implement Mercy 2.0 we are moving forward with innovative professional development plans which I wish to document through this blog.  

In April we "unboxed" our iPads and participated in two days of PD with Lucy Gray.   After listening to our colleagues' conversations with Lucy, we decided to offer some workshops after school on specific productivity apps.  The first one on Tuesday was attended by about forty staff members.  This was truly inspirational.  Here is our program, called Super Tuesdays:

May 1 - Dropbox 

May 8 - iAnnotate 

May 10 - Noteshelf  

May 15 - Evernote for Beginners 

May 22 -  Explain Everything

May 24 - Intermediate Evernote 


In addition we are assigning a bit of homework to each staff member.  iPad app and Google app exploration will be organized by our academic departments. By August 23, we will all report our findings to each other on Google Groups.  Besides the obvious benefits of sharing important information, I hope
that this exercise will implicitly encourage all of us to use this
Google group format to ask questions and share Mercy 2.0 discoveries.


It is exciting to be involved in a collaborative venture that holds such promise for serving our students. But what is more, I think we are piloting some really interesting approaches to professional development.

Explain Everything

A School Strives for Transparency with a "See Through Cycle"

At MHS, we don't have school weeks, we have "cycles" -- six days per cycle. I meet with Professional Cluster Groups (PCGs) once per cycle. As I mentioned in Collaborating in the Cloud, every staff member is scheduled into one of these groups. Consequently, when I launch an endeavor as I did this past cycle, I can truly say that it has the potential to go school-wide.

This cycle's theme was "Creating Transparency." We discussed the benefits of cracking open our lesson plans and work spaces for others to see. The object? Sharing, learning, collaborating.

* In order to promote culture change of this type, I laid out the following scheme:

* Our fourth school cycle (Sept. 27 - October 4) would be designated the See-through Cycle.

* Anyone interested in maintaining an open door policy for that period signs up on our staff wiki.

* In the spirit of the cycle, no conditional sign ups-- Just hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign for moments that do not lend themselves to guests.

* Those who did not sign-up could still visit others.

* Visits might be of any duration. They would not be prearranged.

* We will evaluate and discuss the experience the fifth cycle

Several individuals signed up immediately including the principal. I am anxious to see what happens. Whether it is popular or totally bombs, the resulting discussion will be interesting. IN either event, I will share the experience with my faithful readers. Here are the slides from this cycle's cluster groups:

"Creating Transparency" Slide Show PCG #2

P.S. You will note that much of the presentation was devoted to Evernote as well as Google Docs' interface with Moodle.

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Flickr Creative Commons Photo on "Creating Transparency" slide by litopomuschiatio

Suggestions for Group Research [Video]

Group research can be a tricky bit of business. What kinds of steps may be taken to encourage accountability, communication, and quality? I recently produced a short video for the specific purpose of helping out teachers who are venturing into Challenge Based Learning. However, the suggestions apply to other types of group projects as well.

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This movie was made with the following tools: Dragon Dictation (iPhone), Voila, Evernote, Flicker Creative Commons, Photo to Movie, and GarageBand.

Loving Evernote

This post is dedicated to Ann-- my friend & "gang of four" comrade.

Way back in January 2009 (was it that recently), I presented one of my first after school workshops for staff. It was called QUICK HITTERS: GOOGLE DOCS + GOOGLE NOTEBOOKS + MP3S . Some of my colleagues quickly took to Google Notebooks, an online application that allowed users to save and organize clips of information while conducting research online. I loved it because it worked across platforms. But soon after I touted it, Google orphaned the app. That left folks who had climbed on board (like Ann and me) gnashing our teeth.

Well, now we have an option that totally blows Notebooks away. As WSJ tech guru Walter Mossberg has noted,

What if you could collect, in one well-organized, searchable, private digital repository, all the notes you create, clips from Web pages and emails you want to recall, dictated audio memos, photos, key documents, and more? And what if that repository was constantly synchronized, so it was accessible through a Web browser and through apps on your various computers and smart phones?

Well, such a service exists. And it’s free. It’s called Evernote.

Evernote works splendidly across platforms and has great mobile apps. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe in the cloud. It has many other features, but I am already addicted to the basic functions.

The free version offers 40MB per month is plenty for my personal needs. A premium service is available if you start storing big files for your work.

Please try it soon, Ann, before the fleeting shelf life of new technology breaks your heart!

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All resources for this blog were stored on Evernote, of course.