Blogs
When it comes to one off events (such as Open Evening) I use Guidebook to build a mobile app to support the event. The free account gives access to most of the features and enables you to have up to 200 downloads on the App - so far I have not had an event reach this limit.
The site uses a fairly easy drag and drop method to build up the app, which can then be published to Windows, iOS and Android devices. You can include a schedule for the event and a "What to See" area to list features (in my case areas of the school which are open for parents to visit). You can also use it to link back to Social Media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The result is a professional looking guide produced in a relatively short amount of time.
Andrew Caffrey
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:17am</span>
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Gizmodo featured an article a few days ago on 15 Technologies that were supposed to change education forever. I was struck by how many of these technologies tablets are trying to address today. The nostalgic pictures alone are worth the read. As always share your thoughts below in the comments section. Enjoy!
15 Technologies That Were Supposed to Change Education Forever
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:17am</span>
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As an educational technology advocate and a "tech-savvy teacher," I am always a little cynical of adopting any system, strategy or philosophy that promises to create universal or mass appeal for students.
I am reminded by works like Why don’t kids like school? by Daniel Willingham that the teaching of students is a complex business and often shortcuts don’t bring desired results.
I feel the same way about the energy around gamification: I do think there is something here but it is something we can draw from in the way we can plan and deliver instruction. I am not sure if it is the answer to the motivation and engagement questions in a K-12 classroom, but, it couldn’t hurt to explore.
There are two great pieces that you should review on the topic.
In a post on Lifehacker this week, Thorin Klosowski doesn’t an excellent job looking at the topic, including the psychological power behind the model and the interesting admission that it doesn’t work for him. There is excellent advice here on caveats about the model and the notion that context matters.
You should also view Paul Anderson’s talk on game design in the classroom at 2012′s TedX in Bozeman, Montana. What I love about this specific talk is that while it acknowledges the power in the framework, it can’t along overcome some weaknesses our diverse student body, like the lack of deep reading skills of some students:
What do you think? Hit is up in the comments about where you think gamification could be a winner in our educational system?
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:17am</span>
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Thanks to everyone who responded to our blog post on Wednesday for your chance to win a free registration to NCCE’s 2015 Conference in Portland! The two winners are Andrea Miles from Eisenhower Middle School in Everett, WA, and Michele Stern from Ferndale High School in Ferndale, WA! Congratulations!
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:16am</span>
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What could you do for two dollars? That is a question Julien asked himself four years ago in the sixth grade. His answer: He wants to change the world. Many people, young and old, have big ideas that fade overtime, but not Julien. He is a great example of how social media can give students a global voice. As a middle school student, Julien founded the Archimedes Alliance to do his part to fight world hunger.
Where did the Archimedes Alliance come from? A 13-year-old boy saw a world filled with hunger, poverty and disease and he wanted to change it, but he didn’t have a million dollars lying around. And he knew there were other 13-year-olds like him. And 30-year-olds. And 83-year-olds. And he was inspired by Archimedes, the Greek philosopher and mathematician who said, "give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I can move the Earth." The Archimedes Alliance is that place to stand. You are the lever. Together, we will move the Earth.
Last year Julien spoke at the TEDx conference in Portland about the power of social media to create change:
Giving students an opportunity to find there voice on the global stage is so important. Do they have to start a charity? No, but even just showing students that there is more to social media then videos of cats, video game cheats, and epic fails sets students on a path to do more with social media.
Support Julien at www.archimedesalliance.com
Who knows, you might just help him change the world.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:16am</span>
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Well that got your attention, right? We are dabbling with a new feature at the NCCE blog called Tech Savvy Writing Prompts. The idea: Everyone loves a good writing prompt + most kids love technology topics + Tech savvy geeks = Mind Blowing Tech Savvy Writing Prompts. Our goal is to provide a high quality graphic (image cited) with a thought provoking prompt. Depending on your interest, this may become a regular feature. We really want this to be a useful site to our readers and we hope this useful. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. This prompt was inspired by Jake Knapp’s My Year with a Distraction-Free iPhone. And now for the Greatest Writing Prompt Ever Created:
The post The greatest writing prompt ever created! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:16am</span>
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The Tech-Savvy Teachers are in Bozeman, Montana this morning for the 2015 Southwest Montana School Services Tech Summit! Today, we are presenting on podcasting in the classroom and wanted to share our slides:
We love this technology and topic! If you are interested in having us customize this presentation for your district and technology needs, please contact NCCE to book!
The post Slides: Join a Revolution: Podcasting in the Classroom appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:16am</span>
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The final countdown is on for NCCE 2015 in Portland! The NCCE family is thrilled to welcome Richard Achee, Google’s Strategic Partner Manager, who will be on hand discuss Google’s vision for transformation of education through technology.
Richard recent sat down with me and Mike to discuss Google Apps for Education, Chromebooks and a look at Google’s future vision for education.
Mike: Many districts we have worked with over the past 12 months are trying to decided between Google Apps for Education or Office 365. In your opinion what are the key differences between the 2 platforms?
Richard: In terms of looking at Google Apps for Education and Office 365. Most schools are making the decision on:
One of Google Apps for Education’s distinguishing characteristics is that is 100% cloud based. There is nothing installed on the device itself. Office 355 has a subset of functionality that requires a desktop solution. The first fundamental decision is do we want to install an application on the computer? Do we have the resources to do that? Philosophically is that how we want to manage our IT assets? What are the tradeoffs? There are pluses and minuses to each approach.
One of the reasons people choose Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks is you don’t install anything on the device. The reason that is an advantage is if you can’t install anything on the device you’re not getting viruses, spyware, malware. You don’t run into the update issues, patches, and those sort of maintenance items.
Chromebooks with Google Apps For Education is really a paradigm shift in deploying applications. Whereas, Office 365 is a more incremental step to the cloud in some ways.
When we talk with teachers and districts is it always come down to collaboration. One of Google Apps for Education advantages is how easy it is to collaborate in Google Apps. Why is that important? Schools are transforming the way they are teaching. Flipped classrooms have been effectively around for decades but now we have technology that allows to flip at a very high level. You can really redefine the task of whatever you are teaching.
Because the grassroots movement already exist, what we find is that many teachers are already using Google Apps in their classroom and they may have already set up their own domain. It would be a good idea for a district leader to look at first what are the teacher using today, because they most likely have rouge deployments in their district already.
Jason: There is an active campaign from some of Google’s competitors to suggest that other cloud-based services are safer with personal data. What does a teacher, district or parent need to know when picking a service to trust with their educational data?
Richard: Today more than 40 million students, teachers and administrators rely on Google Apps for Education to learn, communicate and work together more efficiently. And protecting the privacy and security of our users — including students — is a top priority and we work very hard to maintain the trust of our customers.
If you look at our service level agreements, there are no ads in Google Apps for Education services and we have no plans to change this in the future. . Additionally, K-12 Google Apps for Education users signed in to their Apps for Education accounts do not see ads when they use Google Search. I definitely recommend everyone spend time to look at the terms and conditions of their contract and hold your vendors accountable.
Many of the decisions Google has made over the years is based upon the feedback given by users. This is one of many reasons I am proud to work for Google, the integrity with which they listen and respond to customers based upon feedback. One of the cornerstones to Google’s philosophy is to put the user first. I see this everyday with Google Apps for Education, both in terms of privacy and security as well as improvements like Google Classroom. Classroom was 100% driven by teacher feedback.
Mike: What does it mean to be a Google Educator and can anyone achieve this certification?
Richard: If you use your favorite search engine and search for Google for education there is a section on training. There are really two levels of training. Level One describes the basic: How to use Google Apps. Level Two is how it is applied in the classroom. There is also the Google educators group. These groups are made up of many Google certified teachers that discuss best practices, lesson ideas, and how they are using Google Apps in the classroom. These communities are extremely valuable for getting teachers beyond the certification level to specific use cases that will help them in integrating Google Apps into their teaching.
Mike:Let’s talk about Chromebooks in the classroom. Development and redevelopment of software assets in the educational space is very slow, how do you see teachers striking a balance between using Chromebooks and still be able to utilize web based tools built in javascript, Adobe Shockwave, or other older frameworks?
Richard: We have tackled this problem in a few ways. First, we look at the developers themselves and see if we can get them to move away from these older technologies and onto HTML 5. People are moving away from older technologies for a reason, there are some challenges with these these older technologies that will not go away. The second thing is to look at the strategy of the school. What are the legacy apps that the school needs to migrate from or find alternatives? Many have found that there are similar apps, or often better apps available through the Chromebook. Finally, some schools have setup a virtual desktop environment to allow access to legacy apps on Chromebooks.
Jason: If I am starting at square one and want to consider Google Apps for Education and/or Chromebooks, what are the first steps?
Richard:
Engage a partner to get you started with Google Apps.
What are your learning outcomes?
Now look at devices. Ask yourself: Are we just going with Chromebooks or are there tablet solutions that make sense? We have found that tablets have been most effective in the K-2grade levels and from 3rdand beyond Chromebooks have been the best fit because students need a way to easily type. It is not an either or discussion, it is usually a mix of both.
When you make a hardware decision, if you go with Chromebooks, get "white glove" service. That means the Chromebooks will be delivered already setup on your domain so you can just roll them out to students. This makes for a much smoother process.
It is all about Professional Development. This will be the difference between a mediocre deployment and a highly successful one. This PD needs to be an ongoing effort and it is going beyond the point of "just getting it" to the point where your teachers can teach others.
Richard Achee is sponsored by Troxell Communications. Please visit him in the Troxell Booth #512 on Thursday and Friday.
It is not too late! Register right now for NCCE in Portland. Click here to find out more and join your colleagues and the Tech-Savvy Teachers in Portland!
The post Interview: NCCE Presenter, Google’s Richard Achee, on Making the Case for Google Apps for Education appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:14am</span>
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The following is my lesson from my workshop: Candy is Dandy! Feel free to use this with your students or for professional development. The follow link will bring you to the lesson in Google Docs. If you go to file, make copy you can freely edit and make your own. Enjoy!
Description:
Have you wanted to learn about Google Apps, but didn’t know where to start? This hands-on workshop will focus on Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Forms. You will get to participate in the lesson as the tools are being taught and leave with a weeks worth of lessons!
http://bit.ly/googlecandy
The post Candy is Dandy! Cross Curricular Lesson using Google Apps appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:14am</span>
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Good afternoon!
I am thrilled to be in Eureka, Montana today for their now second annual "GoogleFest," working with teachers from in and around the region.
Here my my slides for today’s presentation, "Join a Revolution: Podcasting in the Classroom GOOGLE STYLE:"
Join a Revolution: Podcasting in the Classroom GOOGLE STYLE from Jason Neiffer
The post Slides: "Join a Revolution: Podcasting in the Classroom GOOGLE STYLE" appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:14am</span>
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NEW AT NCCE 2016!
DIGITAL BUG & TECH-SAVVY TEACHERS, NCCE SUMMIT FEATURING GOOGLE FOR EDUCATION
NCCE is partnering with ESD 112 to host a brand new summit at NCCE 2016! You are invited to submit a proposal for a 50-minute session here. Sessions will be accepted until July 31st. If you have any questions, you can contact Kristina Wambold at Kristina.wambold@esd112.org or Jean Bengfort atjbengfort@ncce.org.
The post NCCE Summit Featuring Google Apps Call for Proposal appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:13am</span>
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As of September 1, NCCE will begin providing full-service E-Rate support for schools and libraries that are seeking federal assistance on eligible telecommunications, Internet access, and hardware expenses. Schools seeking guidance with technology planning, RFP development, and preparing forms or bid materials as part of the E-Rate program will now be able to receive assistance through NCCE. For additional information on all of the E-Rate services that are available, please go to NCCE’s website at ncce.org/e-rate.
The key to this new service is the appointment of Eric Chambers as the new E-Rate Services Director. Chambers brings with him more than 8 years of experience and leadership in working with school districts to apply for E-Rate funds and supporting them with technology planning. Most recently, Eric was the Director of Evaluation, Planning and Development for Northwest Educational Services District 189, where he successfully designed and implemented a funding program that resulted in generating over $5 million in revenue for Washington schools.
"Eric is a high-energy leader who will be an asset to our abilities to provide professional learning opportunities throughout our organization’s membership. His record for guiding, directing and executing the E-Rate process for schools is impressive." said Heidi Rogers, CEO/Executive Director. "With Eric’s expertise in such crucial areas like funding technology initiatives and Wifi, we are looking forward to providing these services to assist schools."
"I’m really excited to be joining the NCCE team—the innovative, forward thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit practiced here clearly benefits our educational community," said Chambers. "That alone would be enough to be excited about, but to also have the opportunity to expand work I did at a local level across the entire region was something no reasonable person could pass up."
"This is another step in fulfilling our mission," comments Richard Snyder, NCCE board president. "Eric will be a great resource to schools and districts that are helping students and teachers use 21st century technology. The partnerships that he will form through his leadership and knowledge will directly impact student and teacher success. We couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity."
The post NCCE can support you with E-Rate thanks to Eric Chambers! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:12am</span>
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We hope you can join us at NCCE 2016 in Seattle, WA February 24 -26th!
The post Registration Now Open for NCCE 2016! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:12am</span>
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The Zoombinis have finally made there way to touch screens! You may remember these blue creatures if you taught or were a student in the 90’s. Zoombinis is a logic based puzzle game where you have to move the creatures, each with distinct attributes, through puzzles while avoiding the evil Bloats. Deciding how to use the distinct attributes of the Zoombinis to make it through each challenge is the key to this puzzle game. If you are looking to add a logic based puzzle game to your list of apps for students, this deserves a look:
Only you can deliver the Zoombinis from the clutches of the evil Bloats, who have seized control of Zoombini Isle! Guiding the Zoombinis to their new home will require your best creative and logical thinking, as the way ahead is perilous.
Solve fun and challenging puzzles and explore a strange land packed with memorable and quirky characters. Playing Zoombinis teaches and reinforces valuable life skills, including deductive reasoning, pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, and more.
The post Logic and problem solving with Zoombinis on iPad and Android appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:12am</span>
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Happy Friday from the Tech-Savvy Teachers!
Fall means more than football and back-to-school, it is smartphone release season! Technology companies ranging from Apple to ZTE have released or will release new phone models in time to upgrade during the holiday season.
One trend that continues in the "smartphone arms race" is the higher and higher resolution on new models of smart phones. Many high end smart phones come at resolutions that are far higher than even larger monitors sitting on your desktop.
These screens might be beautiful, however, the proliferation of high resolution screens is seriously impacting battery life. I know this well: my otherwise awesome 2014 LG G3 Android-based phone can’t get through a workday with even light use.
For me, this means that I need to carry a charger with me and often plug in my phone a few times a day.
One tip I heard from a colleague that works for me in my pursuit of a charged phone: your phone charges faster turned off, or, in a pinch, in airplane mode!
The modern smartphone contains many hardware tools that provide advanced functionality. The tools that use the most battery include the LTE/cell radio, the Wifi radio, and GPS hardware. These tools are turned off in airplane mode. If you couple this with keeping your screen off during a quick charge, you can move your battery back into mobile mode and be on your way!
How’s your cell phone battery life? Hit us up in the commons below or let us know on Twitter!
The post Tech Tip: Use Airplane Mode for a Faster Charge! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:11am</span>
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a screen recording must be worth one million! We have been using a new app that is a game changer in the world of screen recording and it is called Recordit. Here is what makes Recordit life changing:
It is free
It works on Mac and PC exactly the same
It records and creates a gif image
Number 3 is the big one. A an image file now you can attach the image in things like email and text without having to send a teacher or student to an external website. As an example the following image file shows just how easy Recordit is to use:
Check out Recordit at: http://recordit.co/ and download it today!
The post Our new favorite FREE screen recording app Recordit appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:11am</span>
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Yesterday, Amazon announced several new hardware offerings, including a new 7 inch tablet, costing just $50. This price puts the Kindle firmly in "impulse buy" territory, mirroring prices that were previously associated with very low-end products from manufacturers that you have never heard of.
To be clear, this is NOT a premium product and is in no way a competitor to the iPad or the many medium- and high-tier products running Android or even Windows. A quick look at the specs reveal a low resolution screen with a modest processor. However, assuming Amazon has made smart choices about optimizing the FireOS (a version of the Android operating system) to work well with the hardware, this could be a compelling device for reading, watching video, listening to audio and even video or voice calls.
Amazon is even looking to give price breaks for those that buy in bulk: if you buy five, you get the sixth free, a Kindle "six pack." Certainly this is an interesting prospect for teachers and schools on a budget?
While it is exciting that a hardware vendor is driving down price points, the Kindle family will likely remain a device great for individuals but lacking for classroom-wide and school-wide implementations. The limitations include:
Amazon account requirements: The Kindle works best in the Amazon universe and assumes, like an Apple iPad and an Android tablet, that you are purchasing for a single end user. While I know some schools and libraries that have successfully configured Kindle eReaders and Kindle Tablets for use in a shared space, purchasing, digital rights management and other account concerns are not resolved on this platform.
Amazon app restrictions: While the Kindle platform runs on a "forked" version of Android, this is not "official" Android. You must use apps from the Amazon App Store and can’t access the Google Play Store. Although the Amazon App Store boasts a solid collection of apps, there are tons of missing apps in this environment that appear in the 1.5 million strong Google Play Store.
Stock apps are limited: As Google stock apps are unavailable on the Kindle, Amazon has developed alternatives to the Gmail mail client and Chrome browser. However, it has hard to compete with Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser. Amazon’s Silk is functional, but lacks compatibility with many web tools.
Despite limitations, I estimate that teachers and schools with or without open wireless networks will see these devices appear in back pockets and backpacks after this holiday season… because it is a $50 tablet!
We have pre-ordered one of these devices and will have it on the release day, September 30. We’ll be sure to report back here our impressions!
Are you in for a $50 Kindle? If so, tell us your thoughts in the comments below or find us on Twitter!
The post Amazon announces a $50 tablet… what does it mean to schools?! appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:10am</span>
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For those of you using Google Classroom with your students, make sure you check out the Google Classroom Chrome Extension:
Google Classroom Teachers: Save time and create a more interactive class with the Share to Classroom extension. The extension allows you to push webpages to your any of your Classroom classes, so they open instantly on your students’ computers. With this extension, you can get your students on the right page, quickly and reliably every time. You can also post announcements, create assignments, or save webpages to post to Classroom later.
Students: The Share to Classroom extension gets you to webpages your teacher shares, without you having to type out the whole URL. You can also push web pages directly to your teacher.
Below you can see just how easy it is to add a site to an assignment in your classroom:
If you are using Google Classroom, check out the Chrome Extension today!
The post Make Google Classroom Even Better with the Chrome Extension appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:10am</span>
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If you have surfing any technology-related new media this week, you likely ran into the prolific debate related to Apple’s new "ad blocking" functionality in the latest version of their operating system.
The debate is simple. On one hand, for many, advertising has become a distracting, obnoxious limitation on fast and free Internet search and surfing. Advertising tracks you and your habits, violating your privacy. On the other hand, much of the Internet is freely available to you. Advertising pays for servers, infrastructure and content creators giving you access to a wealth information for the cost of a broadband connection.
Of course, this debate takes special significance related to students. Tech-savvy classrooms often utilize the wide open Internet to encourage students to explore the massive Internet treasure trove of information. However, advertising content is specifically aimed at kids, sometimes in very subtle ways.
Thus, many tech-savvy teachers utilize ad blocking software, plugins and apps to make their experience ad-free. I also know of districts that push out adblocking software or extensions on computers and Chromebooks, hoping to safe on bandwidth costs and expose students to a better Internet. (As an aside, the current Tech-Savvy Teacher pick on blocking platforms is the open source tool uBlock).
An often ignored part of this debate is the impact of blocking ads on those that collect the bounty from hosting ads: the Web 2.0 tools, blogs, news sites and other content creators that rely on that income to pay for their otherwise free service.
This is a complex debate, however, I found this week’s episode of Note to Self from WYNC particularly interesting and thought-provoking. Host Manoush Zomorodi speaks to a content creator on the necessity of advertising and herself discusses the impact of installing ad blocking software on her iPhone:
If this topic interests you as it relates to K-12 classrooms, I will be offering a session at this February’s NCCE conference in Seattle on thoughts related to data privacy and the Internet. Registration is now open! This is an important conversation that we must discuss openly!
The post Weekend Podcast Recommendation: "Note to Self" Considers Ad Blocking appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:09am</span>
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As we announced two weeks ago, Amazon has released a $50 Kindle Fire, a color, wifi-enabled tablet based on the Android operating system.
Our pre-ordered unit arrived on Wednesday, and we have been putting it through its paces. Our first response? Incredibly functional hardware for $50!
As we write our more extended review, here is our unboxing video:
Are you in the market for this new hardware? Hit us up in comments or find us on Twitter!
The post The $50 Kindle Fire: Unboxing Video appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:09am</span>
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Are you in need of a website to help you build reading comprehension in your K-8 students? Readwork.org is a great place to start!
ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly.
The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states. Most importantly, ReadWorks is faithful to the most effective research-proven instructional practices in reading comprehension.
I was very excited to see the long list of novels featured on the site. Each novel unit is complete with lesson plans, materials, and standards alignment. Another strong feature of the site is giving a lexile level for all readings and activities. Additionally, the searchable database of reading passages span all circular levels. I can see teachers using the site to supplement Science and Social Studies with readings that are also addressing reading comprehension.
Readworks is supported by major foundations so currently the site is free to use. If you are an elementary or middle school teacher this site is definitely worth a look!
The post Great Reading Comprehension site for K-8: Readworks.org appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:09am</span>
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Would you like an activity for your students that will having them listen while utilizing technology? How about an assignment that with leave your students with a better appreciation of history? If your answer is Yes then you will want to include your students in The Great Thanksgiving Listen by Storycorps Inc!
This Thanksgiving weekend, StoryCorps will work with teachers and high school students across the country to preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans over a single holiday weekend.
Open to everyone, The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national assignment to engage people of all ages in the act of listening. The pilot project is specially designed for students ages 13 and over and as part of a social studies, history, civics, government, journalism, or political science class, or as an extracurricular activity. All that is needed to participate is a smartphone and the StoryCorps mobile app.
NPR featured this exciting event this week, have a listen:
http://blog.ncce.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/20151014_me_this_thanksgiving_listen_to_and_interview_your_elders.mp3
StoryCorps Inc has put together a teachers resource kit to help you get started:
And finally here are links to the Apple and Android Store. I hope everyone reading this blog will jump on board with this great project. Please share in the comments below any stories or recordings from you students.
The post The Great Thanksgiving Listen by Storycorps Inc appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:08am</span>
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I am constantly on the look out for easy ways to record audio. Over the years my "must have" features have changed to include support for both mobile and desktop recording. SpeakPipe covers it all. From the device of your choice go to http://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder
Once there, press the start recording button. SpeakPipe limits your recording to 5 minutes, but for most classroom tasks that should be sufficient. After you are finished recording, you will have the option to associated a name with the file and save it on SpeakPipe’s server. SpeakPipe will save the file for 3 months. After saving you then have the option to download the file as an MP3 to attach to a LMS or keep on a local device forever.
Try SpeakPipe and let us know your experience in the comments section below!
The post Super Simple Voice Recorder - SpeakPipe appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:08am</span>
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Have you ever wanted to work with your students to help them publish a book? If so, LuluJr is a great place to start:
My Awesome Publishing Company is a new online platform that gives you all the tools you need to turn your classroom into a mini-publishing company - and open the door for students to experience the life-changing impact of discovering one’s voice and creativity. Your students will be inspired to foster creativity skills, and enhance their planning, writing, revision and collaboration skills to align with the 21st Century Learning framework. All the while, you get the resources to meet the increasing demands of today’s learning standards.
The post Student Publishing with LuluJr appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.
Jason Neiffer and Mike Agostinelli
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<span class='date ' tip=''><i class='icon-time'></i> Dec 05, 2015 08:08am</span>
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