Happy Monday from the Tech-Savvy Teachers! On our radar this week… I am becoming increasingly interested in the design of objects and resources that teachers create to help engage and teach their students.  My most recent research in the area resulted in my presentation from NCCE called "Better Digital Materials with Learning Science."  You can see my slides from that presentation here:   Developing Online Materials that Acknowledge the Science of Learning from Jason Neiffer After that session, I was asked by a participation in the hallway where a teacher or learning designer might start in their pursuit of building better, more engaging materials. At the start of this week, I’d like to refer you to one of the best resources available on designing clean, logical interfaces for students to learning meaningfully in a largely digital environment. The Rapid E-Learning Blog, hosted by the development tool Articulate, is one of the best resources available for challenging yourself to build really logical and clean interfaces for students.   Although the blog is clearly an effort to build community around the specific Articulate learning tool, it is not required that you use it to access the blog and most of the information applies to any teacher, subject matter expert or course developer looking to build great digital resources. I have been reading this blog for years and have picked up great advice on using simple design tools, like PowerPoint, to build great graphics for e-learning.  It has also upped my game significantly when designing things like PowerPoint slides to support presentations. Some great example articles: How to Create E-Learning Courses That Don’t Waste Your Learner’s Time What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design 3 Simple Techniques to Guide Your Learner’s Attention Are You Looking for an Easy Way to Make Your Courses Look Interesting? Here’s How to Get Past a Screen Full of Bullet Points How to Find Stock Images for Your E-Learning Course without Breaking the Bank The blog is updated about once a week and there Tom and his team regularly share great (and free!) fonts, PowerPoint templates and direction to several other resources that you can use to built up your design library. This week, give this blog a look-see.  It is worth your time to put this on your radar! The Rapid E-Learning Blog

Whether you are just returning from Spring Break or getting ready for it, we hope that everyone is excited for warmer days ahead. What better way to finish the school year strong than read on myON? We are thrilled to see that thousands of books have already been read on myON since the NCCE Conference! Through our partnership with myON, you, your students, and your families have free access to myON through June 30th! Keep up the great work and encourage your students to read on myON. NCCE and myON are partnering to provide a free trial of myON book for students and families throughout the states served by NCCE.  This trial will run through June 30th and is available to all students in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington State who are not already reading on myON with their won accounts!  Through a simple login process, students and families can access over 4,000 engaging digital books on computers, tablets, and other devices. Students can read online or download books to read offline using free mobile apps. Here is how to access myON books for this initiative: 1. Go online to www.myON.com or download the myON app:     2. The School name is NCCE; Username and Password is read 3.Click Submit, select your book and start reading!

We received a lot of great feedback from my post last week on creating student dropboxes in Google Drive to help organize your student’s work.  On Twitter, Natalie O’Neil gave Mike a shout out pointing us towards gClassFolders. @mikegusto wouldn’t #gClassFolders be a time saver? I use it and can’t imagine living without it! — Natalie O’Neil (@TeachNV) April 4, 2014 Thanks, Natalie, for the suggestion.  After some research, I ran into my original notes on gClassFolders (thank you Evernote!), and, you are correct…. it is an amazingly powerful tool!  You can find more information at their website, www.gclassfolders.com. gClassFolders is a script that automates the process I talked about last week: creating a series of folders that provide a digital dropbox for students to share their work.  Unlike my manual solution, this creates a very functional set of folders for each class including a class edit folder (documents editable by everyone in the class), a read-only folder (documents that students can view only) and individual assignment folders that are shared with students to drop in their work. Setup is easy and the script does all of the heavy lifting.  See here for my walkthrough with the tool: I must say that there are some caveats.  First, I wasn’t able to get the latest beta version to work (which utilizes the new version of Sheets), however, they still post an old version that worked for me without issue. In fairness, it is listed as a beta version for testing! Second, the tool itself wasn’t as intuitive as I would expect for new Google Apps users.  It took some time for me figure out how to install and use this, despite detailed instructions.  I originally explored this tool with a group of students in my educational technology methods class at the University of Montana.  Then, my students found it difficult to use, and my original notes stated that it was more or less a "varsity level" integration tool. That all said, this is an amazing tool and worth your experimentation.  I am particularly encouraged by the notice on their page that "Currently working on the approval process to be listed in the add-on store."  Putting this script in the new Sheets Add-On system would make installation and use effortless.  I look forward to returning back to this tool upon approval!

Our Maker Garage at NCCE 2014 was a tremendous hit.  Attendees stopped by the garage in droves to see the 3D printers in action.  Every teacher that views a 3D printer instantly recognizes the possibilities in the classroom, but one barrier to entry so far has been the price tag of these amazing devices.  M3D is trying to tackle the price issue with the Micro 3D printer.  Just launched on Kickstarter, the project has raised almost $2,ooo,ooo out of the original $50,000 goal.  M3D is currently offering the Micro 3D printer for $299 on Kickstarter.  At this price M3D is truly making a product that schools can adopt on a large scale.  Take a look at the promotional video: The Production Timeline for the Micro 3D printer: What do you think?  Are you going to make a pitch for funds?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

edCamp Seattle is Saturday May 17, from 9am - 3pm at University Prep.  An edCamp is a free day of professional development in the unconference model.  What is an unconference?  The following video gives a great overview of the process: From edCamp Seattle’s site: What is an unconference? Come enjoy a day with colleagues from around the Northwest. Arrive with an idea for a session that you would like to lead or with the anticipation of a full day of learning. A session might explore a technology tool, a discussion about best practices, or a collaborative presentation with multiple facilitators. You will begin with time to meet other teachers over coffee. There will be an empty session board where you and all attendees can post session titles. Over the course of the day, you will have the opportunity to attend up to three sessions. The rule of the unconference is to "vote with your feet". If a session doesn’t meet your needs, simply get up and move on to another room. You will learn something new, maybe make a new friend, and receive information that you can immediately apply in your classroom and professional life! My first unconference was at ISTE 2012 and it was amazing.  I really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and the passion that everyone brought to the day.  If you have not had an opportunity to experience the unconference model, I highly suggest to put this event on your calendar.  If you have, I imagine you have already saved the date! Registration Information Location Information

I have been quite inspired by your stories in the past few months of connecting with a wider group of teachers to build a personal and professional learning network.  Teachers in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are regularly meeting to talk about their inspirations and innovations and connections throughout are region are palpable. This makes a question I received last night via a Twitter private message even more important… "OK. I am following two dozen people on Twitter now… and I have made some connections… am I doing this right?" Great question! Once you are comfortable with a small presence in any social media, I strongly believe it is time to expand your network to bring in additional voices and perspectives.  The value of a learning network is that is challenges and inspires you to think differently or consider new perspectives. One of the best resources I have seen on this is actually based on an excellent Google Hangout hosted by Tom Murray and friends on "Growing Your PLN."  This video, under an hour long, is some of the best personal development you can treat yourself to this week: Thoughts?  Comments?  Hit us up below!

Enjoy! Dream X (iOS App Store)

I know, I know, the cool kids think PowerPoint sucks.  I have actually seen well-meaning trainers trash on PowerPoint  and then preach alternatives, only to commit the same sins on Prezi, or KeyNote, or OpenOffice. The problem here isn’t the tools, it is the person using the tools.  If you commit the sins of PowerPoint, PowerPoint didn’t compel you to do it, you set up those problems yourself. That said, I think there is a number of excellent ways you can use PowerPoint that make it a more elegant tool. I do a lot of presentations and trainings that involve extensive demonstration or display of web-based objects.  That makes a PowerPoint make less sense because it is a little ham-handed to go to the full screen PowerPoint, where I might have images, important text (like a URL or contact information) or other important bits that just don’t work as well on a document, webpage, email, or programmed webpage. I discovered a feature that has made PowerPoint even more useful: browsing the presentation in a window.  I am doing this in Office 2011 for Mac, but it exists in the last 4 or so versions on both Mac and PC: 1.  Slide show -> Set up show 2.  Choose "browsed by an individual" in a window 3.  This makes your PowerPoint present in a window that you can resize, move around, and easily switch back and forth during your presentation. Here is a screen shot of what that looks like: Much better, no?

There is no doubt that there is an incredible amount of excitement around the Chromebook, Google’s answer for an inexpensive, managed platform for putting computers in the hands of the masses.  I’ll admit,  I was initially very curious, and have before today purchased two different ChromeOS devices, including the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook (now a very slow platform despite the great form factor) and the developer edition of the Samsung Series 5 Chromebox that I purchased off of eBay from an attendee of Google I/O. These purchases, however, were really not intended to be fulltime machines.  I used them to test websites on the platform and as an occasional amusement.  They were great for light email reading, engaging with web apps like Google Reader, Google Drive and third party web apps like Freshbooks. As my original Chromebook slowed down update after update, I stopped using it, even as an alternative machine, as it wasn’t fast enough to meet my needs. Enter stage right… opportunity Two weeks ago, disaster struck!  My trusted MacBook Air, a computer that has literally followed me around the world like a faithful pet, met its untimely death at the hands of a cup of joe:   It is official, in the battle between coffee and my MacBook Air, coffee wins. — Jason Neiffer (@techsavvyteach) April 15, 2014   While it was earlier than I intended, I knew that I needed to have a replacement machine ASAP.  As a leader in my state’s virtual school, my laptop was very much my workplace… I need it to function. I strongly considered ordering up a new MacBook Air, but, a visit to the MacRumours "Buyer’s Guide" told me to wait The MacBook Air is due for an update, likely this summer.  I am happy to wait until then to get the latest and greatest, but, I still need something day-to-day. Options I strongly considered a Surface Pro 2 tablet, wanting to become more familiar with Windows 8 and liking the form factor.  However, the price for the model I want (Surface Pro 2 with 256gb of RAM) was just out of reach for me. I decided ultimately on a ChromeBook.  For me, the platform made sense: A good percentage of my work is in the Cloud, as I use Google Docs, Moodle and a cloud-based SIS for my day job. For the few times I need the full-blown Microsoft Office Suite, there is a sweet plugin that places Word Online directly in Chrome. With the rise of Chromebooks in schools, I really wanted to see my programs tools in a modern Chrome environment. After a lot of research, I decided on the Dell Chromebook 11, which is directly aimed at the education market.  My priority was an Intel chip, a minimum of 4gb of RAM and a decent battery life.  The Dell seems to meet these tests, and has the added benefit of being referred to as a candidate for "the best Chromebook ever." So, my mission: try to use the Chromebook at my primary laptop.  Let me be 100% clear that this will NOT be my primary technology access.  I have Mac desktops at both home and work, along with a variety of other random devices in both locations.  However, I do use my laptop as a regular access point, so, I presume this will be a good test for me. I will blog about it here.  Are you curious how it handles under certain conditions?  Hit us up below in the comment section and ask.  I’d love to share!

George Couros is a familiar name to the NCCE family.  As the keynote speaker of NCCE 2013 many of you know his passion for education.  As the Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning in Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada, George continues to be a passionate  voice in the education community.  We recently had a chance to sit down with George to discuss his thoughts on being a tech-savvy educator. Follow @gcouros Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Current job(s): Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning, Parkland School Division Current computer: MacBook Air Current mobile device(s): iPhone 5 One word that best describes how you teach or work: Passion What apps/software/tools can you not live without? For me, my number one software that I use would be Google Apps.  I honestly don’t know what I did before, and struggle thinking what others are missing.  It is the easiest to connect.As for social media, my blog and Twitter have had the biggest impact as I have the opportunity to learn and connect with so many other people, while also having a space for deep reflection.  I have learned more using those two spaces than I ever had in any other formal "schooling" that I have ever had. For a personal app, Tripit is one of the best for traveling.  It makes my job a lot easier and is like having a travel assistant.  I love it! What browser do you use regularly? Google Chrome…fast, easy and personalized.  It is the best. What is your best time-saving trick? Get up early in the morning and exercise.  I am much better throughout the day when this happens and I get WAY more done when I take care of myself and my health.  Probably not the answer you are looking for but it is my truth. What is your favorite avenue to connect with social media? Twitter is the best way for me to connect.  I can share my learning while connecting and getting help from others.  The amazing thing about it is that if I am thoughtful about how I use hashtags, I do not have to worry if I follow someone or they follow me.  The best answers can come from anywhere.  It is something that I glance at every day but also feel comfortable ignoring some times.  In the end, Twitter saves me time and helps me to do my work better.  A lot of people think the opposite. When you are not living the glamorous work life, what do you like to do in your spare time for fun? Who has time for things outside of work?   Honestly, I have focused more on balance this year and enjoy sitting at home, going for a run, spending time with my dogs, and my family.  I have always said that the best teachers have outside interests and I am trying to model that by example as I lost touch with that in my own life. As a tech-savvy teacher, what everyday thing do you feel you excel with/at versus other teachers/administrators/mentors? I wouldn’t say that I "excel" at something others don’t, but I do have other talents.  We all bring different strengths to the table.  I think that the ability to leverage a network is something that has really helped my career as I have the opportunity to connect with people all over the world.  This is something that not everyone can do, but it is something that everyone should learn to some extent, no matter their career path.  It is invaluable to whatever you are trying to accomplish. What is the best teaching advice you have received? Focus on relationships.  I really believe that if you only teach the curriculum to students, you have failed them as a teacher, but if you work with students, build a strong rapport, and help them to be good people, their opportunities will be endless.  I used to focus on teaching the subject but now I always focus on teaching the child, and understanding not only where they need to develop, but more importantly, where they excel.  If you have no rapport and build no relationship with a student, you will never learn this. What are you currently reading? I just read Danah Boyd’s "Lives of Networked Teens" and I would highly recommend it.  I am currently reading "Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change" and it is phenomenal.  I think both books are musts for educators. Who are your influences in the education community? I am lucky that my biggest influence is my brother Alec.  He is brilliant but he also pushes me and is willing to have conversations with me to help push my thinking.  Since he is my brother, he doesn’t hold back.  Sometimes that can be tough to take, but I know he wants me to be better.Dean Shareski is also a huge influence.  It is not what he says, as much as how he acts.  He builds rapport with people and his focus on inspiring people to help them make change is something that has impacted me greatly.  After you listen to Dean, you want to make a difference, you don’t feel like you have been dropping the ball.Don’t tell either of them this though What fantastic tech-savvy educator would you like to refer to us? Jeremy MacDonald is doing fantastic things and I think he is just at the point where he is going to really make a huge impact on a school division.  Jennie Magiera is brilliant.  Holly Clark is as well.  I could listen to any of those three speak for hours and get ideas while being inspired.  They are great teachers first that just know technology. Any parting thoughts you would like to share with our readers? My best advice people trying to create change with technology is to be able to articulate how their work improves relationship and learning first.  If you can get people to understand that, they are more likely to move forward.  If they see technology as just technology, they aren’t going anywhere. George at TEDxBurnsvilleED [Meet-a-Tech-Savvy Educator is a regular feature on the NCCE Blog.  Know someone we should feature here (maybe you)?  Contact us!]