Well, we are still in the throes of a blizzard and I have no Internet access, no Wi-Fi, no cell service, and most of what I want to work on is in the cloud. (Note to self: keep copies locally when a blizzard is approaching!)The SmartScope iGoHowever, I did have a new gadget to review, and I managed to get to that! The item is the SmartScope iGo Wi-Fi microscope. It is a handheld microscope that works with both the iPad and iPad Mini, Android tablets, and the iPhone and Android phones. You can hook up to three mobile devices at once to each SmartScope iGo.   When you turn the microscope on, it creates an ad-hoc (private) network between itself and the iPad/Android devices. You simply look at your settings in Wi-Fi area on your mobile device and chose the microscope's network. The password to join the private network is a default password that can be changed. (Quick start instructions.)Ad-hoc NetworkYou then simply launch the free Wi-Viewer app, which allows what is shown on the microscope to be shown on the mobile device’s screen. (Since you are on a private wireless network, the Reflector app will not work to mirror the iPad's screen, since the desktop and laptop have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. I connected to the ad-hoc network with the desktop, but Reflector would not allow mirroring.) To showcase what is on the iPad or Android device’s screen you will need a VGA connection to a projector or an AppleTV.Item I viewed with the SmartScope iGo View of the item using the Scope and the Wi-Viewer AppHowever, there is a simple way to solve this built right into the Wi-Viewer app! You can choose to record the entire microscopy session! The file is saved as an AVI file, which I was able to get off of the iPad and onto the Mac desktop through the Apps File Sharing section in iTunes. I could then open the AVI file in the VLC app and I also easily converted the AVI file to an MP4 file to be able to play natively on the Mac.The wireless SmartScope iGo microscope has all its features right at your fingertips when using the device. These include the focus button, the knob to increase or decrease the LED lights as needed, and a button to quickly take a snapshot that saves to the iPad’s or Android’s Photo app. The microscope comes with 3 rechargeable batteries and a charger and is rated to allow you about 3.5 hours of microscope use on a charge.Video recording using the SmartScope iGo (no sound) Screen for viewing the recordingsThe magnification choices, when using a full-size iPad, is 1x - 80x. I was using the iPad Mini, so my magnification was different. The Wi-Viewer app software has a quick start button to begin and end the recordings, the ability to view the recording on the iPad, and also has an image capture button. I can definitely see one of these devices for every two students in a lab setting, with one controlling the recording and images and the other student actually controlling the SmartScope iGo. And, as the teacher, you can hook up to each SmartScope iGo being used and both view and record what each pair of students is doing since up to three mobile devices can hook to one Scope. The mobile device and the SmartScope iGo can be up to 10 meters apart and still connect.The cost of the SmartScope iGo is $329, and there is an optional gooseneck stand available for $99 or a cradle for $49 . Contact info@smartschoolsystems.com if you want more information or wish to inquire about volume purchasing.P.S.Now, to get this project together without Wi-Fi, during the blizzard, I used Bluetooth to connect the Mover+ app on the iPhone to the iPad Mini to gather all the images onto one device. I then used the desktop component, Mover Connect, to move all the images to the desktop so I could work on this blog post. (Again using Bluetooth.) Since we still did not have Internet access, I moved the Word file, the images, and the video back to the iPad Mini via the AirDIsk Pro app and then used the Blogger app to post it. Just in case you were wondering!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I am a big believer in "paying it forward". I know, from personal experience, that helping someone out or doing something nice for someone makes the world a better place. When that person you support helps someone else, and on and on, the movement spreads.I consider Twitter a perfect example of paying it forward. I find something to share I feel my followers will benefit from and, if they think so, they send it off to their followers, and the benefits multiply! If I see some great link or idea or thought from the people I follow on Twitter, I re-tweet it to my followers, and am happy to have found something of interest for them.I don't follow everyone who follows me on Twitter. As much as I would like to, I currently have over 22,000 educators who follow me on Twitter. I consider it an obligation to provide them with links, ideas, things I discover, and upcoming events of interest. I do throw in some personal things at times. I am hoping that is okay with them.I follow 212 people on Twitter. They are educators who provide me with great ideas, have different networks than I do and retweet items I never would have seen, and are always there when I have a question or concern. Of course, unless I follow a person on Twitter, they cannot direct message me. Some followers get very upset they cannot direct message me and chide me for not following them. That's silly. I hone my PLN to what I need and keep it manageable to make sure it is useful. It is in constant flux as I follow and unfollow tweeters. In addition, my email address is in my Twitter profile (something I suggest everyone should do) and any one of my followers can email me at any time!I look at the profile of each person who follows me on Twitter as they begin to follow me. It is disheartening to me that many educators continue to protect their tweets. They are not paying it forward, in my opinion. I want to visit their profile, see the things they are tweeting, and decide if I want to follow them. I don't want to be forced into picking to follow them, waiting for them to approve me, then checking out what they post, and then decide to continue to follow them or unfollow them.Tweets from users who have protected accounts do not show up in a Twitter search. I also didn't think others could re-tweet tweets from those that protect their tweets. I actually was unsure about this, so I asked my twitter followers.My tweet: Here are the first few answers I received (read from the bottom up)I found Ben's initial comment and then follow-up interesting, but true. Although Susan said the same thing about cutting and pasting. And my favorite was from Greg, who agrees with me, that teachers need to "tweet in public" and not protect their tweets.And Ben, who tells teachers that it is their digital footprint and their choice to keep their tweets protected, also stated:(Late addition: I am getting mixed messages on whether you can or cannot re-tweet protected tweets. It may be dependent on the browser-based version or whether you are using a specific Twitter client.)I truly believe that collaboration and sharing and participating are really important in social networks. I encourage teachers who feel they have personal stuff in their Twitter account, that they don't want the world to see, to create a personal Twitter account and protect that one. Keep your professional account wide open so others can see the great things you are tweeting, easily follow you to keep up with your new ideas and thoughts, and can re-tweet your super ideas to their Twitter followers!Please pay it forward!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I continue to be impressed with the new items Ipevo comes out with to support teaching and learning.At FETC in January, I was able to see the attachment for the Perch iPad stand that allows you to use the iPad as a serviceable document camera.Snapshot from the Ziggi-HD 5 megapixel cameraThe Ziggi USB Document Camera is going to be updated soon to the Ziggi-HD model. I got my hands on one, and took at look at the output from its 5 megapixel camera (up from 2 megapixel in the previous model) with a resolution that was bettered from 1600x1200 on the original Ziggi to 2592x1944 on the HD model.The Ziggi-HD still includes a 2" macrofocus and controls on the head for exposure, snapshot, and autofocus. The iPevo Presenter software allows for a 6x digital zoom with the Ziggi-HD, too.I also used the Ziggi-HD to record a movie of a Sock Puppets presentation on the iPad to see how that would work. The other new cool thing from Ipevo is the ability to stream the images from any Ipevo document camera wirelessly to your iPad or computer with their WS-01 Wireless Station. And, with the addition of the Ipevo Whiteboard app, you can mark up the image on the iPad just like you can on an interactive whiteboard!Imagine your iPad is hooked up to a projector or wirelessly to a monitor or computer via Airplay (with AppleTV or Reflector) and your Ipevo P2V, Ziggi, or Ziggi-HD are projecting wirelessly to your iPad. It does it by creating an ad-hoc network between your device and the WS-01 Wireless Station, and you can attach your computer to that same network. How cool is that? (The WS-01 also acts as a bridge to your local Ethernet or wireless network, too, so you do not lose access to the Internet on the devices that .)Below is a short demo I made using the Ipevo Whiteboard app on the iPad and used Reflector to record the projected image on the desktop. There is no audio recording in the Whiteboard app, so there is no sound. You should be able to figure out what I am doing-- marking up, adding arrows, taking a screenshot, etc. The set-up is Ziggi-HD USB Document Camera attached to the Ipevo WS-01 Wireless Station, projecting the image wirelessly to my iPad which is hooked to the WS-01 via an ad-hoc network, marking up the image using the Ipevo Whiteboard app, and recording the whole thing via the Reflector app on the desktop. It sounds like a lot of techie stuff going on, but it is really easy! The manual that comes with the WS-01 (see it here) gives good directions.Items discussed in the blog post:Ipevo Home Page Ziggi-HD USB Document Camera (available soon at http://ipevo.com)Current Ziggi USB Document CameraIpevo Whiteboard app  WS-01 Wireless Station (manual)Reflector app for desktop  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Wacom Graphire (2002)I have had a Wacom (pronounced "wah-kum") drawing tablet for years. In our district, we had computer lab sets of the Wacom Graphire2, which came out in 2002. The Graphire2 came bundled with software, including an early version of Adobe Photoshop Elements. Having a drawing tablet and a piece of software that easily allowed students to mark up images and create their own art products, opened an entirely new way of using a computer for our middle schoolers. The ability to hold a drawing tool just like they held a pencil was so exciting for them!The tablets still work today with the Mac and Windows machines!However, Wacom has continued to develop the capabilities of their drawing tablets. The Intuos pen tablets line includes various sized graphics tablets that can be used via pen or via touch. Their Cintiq pen displays line includes 13", 22" and 24" computer displays that have the ability to be used as graphic tablets, too!The line of pen tablets that are most affordable, and I feel would work well in a school environment, is the Wacom Bamboo Capture. The Bamboo Capture has a drawing area of 5.8"x3.6" and the Bamboo Create has a drawing area of 8.5"x5.4". The Bamboo Capture would probably work best in a computer lab because of its smaller footprint, but the Bamboo Create, with its larger input area, would work well in support of a graphics lab you might have in your high school. The tablets include the drawing pen and also work as a large touchpad for controlling items on your computer's screen with just your finger.Bamboo Capture (2013)Software bundle Both of these models have similar features and come bundled with software that would be useful for schools. I have been using a Bamboo Capture, and, in the box, both Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 8 and Autodesk® SketchBook® Express were included with the tablet. When using Photoshop Elements with the Bamboo Capture, the interactive pen is pressure-sensitive. That means, if you press hard, the lines are darker and if you draw lightly, the lines show up fainter. Wireless module One of the coolest accessories for these tablets is the wireless module. With a component plugged into the tablet and a USB receiver plugged into the computer, the Bamboo Capture drawing tablet can be used while walking around the classroom. With this accessory, you can control your desktop easily while away from your desk, as well as mark up an image projected from your computer. You can even hand off the tablet for students to solve those tricky math equations from their seats!Use in online classes and Webinars I have also used the Bamboo Capture in both in my online classes and my virtual presentations. In the online classes, when I hold a synchronous session with the students in Adobe Connect, we have a shared whiteboard. The Bamboo Capture makes it easy for me to mark up this virtual whiteboard. In addition, when using any Webinar tool that allows me to share my screen (Adobe Connect, Skype, Google+ Hangouts, Screenleap, etc.), I can use the Bamboo Capture to mark up a Web page or slide, edit a student paper, or point out, graphically, items I want to the students to take notice of. Since most of these Webinars are recorded, the actions I take with the Bamboo Capture are saved along with the rest of the Webinar. I have also used the Bamboo Capture when using online screen recording tools such as Screen-cast-o-matic and Screenr, and off-line tools such as TechSmith's Camtasia and Adobe's Captivate, when creating instructional screencast videos for my students or Webinar participants. Bamboo Dock and softwareThe Bamboo Dock, which is the desktop software installed with the Bamboo Capture drivers, includes its own suite of software. This software includes Doodler, Free the Bird, and Landmarker. I tried each of them and made a few screenshots and screencasts so you can see the capabilities.Free the Bird"Free the Bird" is a physics game, but also gives the user practice picking a point with the tablet's stylus as well as drawing. LandmarkerLandmarker allows you to enter a zip code or place name and you are presented with the location on a map. You can then mark it up with the stylus and save it out as a JPEG. Bamboo PaperBamboo Paper both comes with the Bamboo Dock software and is also available as an iPad app. It allows you to take notes, bring in images, create separate notebooks for your information and much more. You can easily share the notebooks with others, too. InkwellInkwell is handwriting recognition software built-in to the Mac operating system. It turns your handwritten notes into text. Here is a quick clip of this process while using the Bamboo Capture to enter handwritten text.Win a Bamboo Capture! (US residents only, sorry...)With all of these capabilities, how would you use the Bamboo Capture graphics tablet, wirelessly or wired, in your classroom to support teaching and learning?Submit an idea to the Google Form below (or visit this link) and one lucky (randomly-chosen) contributor, will win their own Wacom Bamboo Capture! The package will include the Bambook Capture, the bundled software, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, and the Bamboo Dock software, as well as the wireless module!Submit your ideas by June 14, 2013 and the winner will be chosen on June 15, 2013. If you submit an idea, you will be agreeing to let me share that idea on the blog (without your name or email address).   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I recently received a Bakbone, a unique accessory for holding a tablet in one hand, and a HMDX Jam Wireless Bluetooth portable speaker. Here are my thoughts on these new gadgets!BakboneWant to easily carry your tablet safely with one hand while you use the other hand to tap, swipe and type on it? The Bakbone is an ingenious new accessory that works perfectly for this purpose! It is a great solution for those of you (or your students) who carry a tablet around the classroom or use the device to teach or present. The Bakbone includes two pieces. The first is a round magnet that you attach to the back of your tablet, or more likely, to the back of your tablet case.        The second piece looks like a jewelry ring that attaches VERY strongly to the magnet. Once the ring is attached to the magnet, you simply put a finger through the ring and it is easy to hold the tablet with one hand. The best part of this solution is that you can easily rotate the iPad between the landscape and portrait orientations. The ring itself rotates-- there is no need to separate the ring from the magnet or take the ring off of your finger.        (I know there are other solutions out there that have some type of strap you slip your hand into to hold the tablet, but, to change the orientation of the iPad with that type of solution, you have to remove your hand and slip it back on it to work in the other orientation.)The ring detaches from the magnet pretty easily, and instructions are also included in case you ever want to remove the maget (which is about 1/4" thick) from the back of the device or the case you have mounted it to.The Bakbone comes in white and graphite colors right now, with a pink one coming out soon. The compay plans to donate $1 to Breast Cancer Awareness for every pink one sold.You can watch a video about the Bakbone here to see it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLubSqH3OJ4And to order one, simply visit his page: http://www.holdyourtablet.com/The HMDX Jam Wireless Bluetooth SpeakerOkay, I admit it. I am a sucker for new shoes, tech bags, and portable speakers. I saw the Jam Wireless Bluetooth portable speaker at my local Bed, Bath and Beyond. The display caught my eye since the speakers are all packaged in "jelly jars" and come in many colors-- red, bright green (my choice), bright blue, purple, and some others. I did a little online research while I was deciding what color to purchase, and the reviews were mostly positive, especially in the areas of sound quality and loudness. (As with any Bluetooth device, there were mentions of some erratic connections, but I have not had that experience at all.)                                    The speaker comes with a USB charging cable and a small how-to booklet. Once charged, the speaker is said to last about 3 hours using a Bluetooth connection and 12 hours if you use the audio-in jack on the speaker. I charged it up, turned it on, and it paired flawlessly to my iPad via Bluetooth. (There is no pairing code needed, so I wonder what would happen if there was more than one BT audio source in range?)      I was very impressed with the sound quality and the volume of the speaker. I could hear it from quite a distance, as you can see in the video. (Please don't think that the iPhone video recording does justice to the sound quality to the Jam-- it doesn't. The audio quality is much better in person!)I was also able to roam throughout the house carrying the speaker, straying far away from the audio source, so one could listen to music easily in various rooms.The HMDX Jam is available on Amazon here: (or at your local Bed, Bath, and Beyond for the same price if you have your 20%-off coupon!).Anyone have any experience with either of these devices or questions? Please leave a comment!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I received a very flattering email from a school librarian today. Here is the letter...Of course, I wanted to see the site that rivaled mine, so I clicked on the link she provided. Here is that page...Hum...lots of links. I looked at the bottom of the page to see the creator, and saw the other category links you see above, and then backed off the URL and got to the home page of the site, which you see below. Nothing wrong with this dating site, but I wondered what librarian would have students use a page from this domain in class. So I visited the Pinewood Elementary School site. It had the two pages below.What school has a Web site with two pages and no identifying information? Hum...I checked the WHOIS records to see who owned the pinewoodelementary.org site and it was a company that, for a fee, keeps your identity private in the WHOIS records and puts their company's information in the record. Again, nothing wrong with that, but why would a school want to hide their contact information in the WHOIS record?Needless to say, I am not adding the link to my page. Just be on the lookout for things like this. I wanted to lead you through the process I used to determine authority of author and reliability of source. Not so much.Anybody else ever get a letter like this?FOLLOW-UP (6/13/13)I received lots of tweets and emails from others who have had a similar experience. One educator shared the letter she received.The page the sender asked the person who received the email to add to her site, again, included information with no author. You can view the suggested page here.And, when I looked at the Laramie Public Library site at http://laramiepubliclibrary.net, it was similar to the school site I had looked at above -- pretty but devoid of any identifying information. (BTW, this has nothing to do with Laramie, Wyoming. The Laramie branch of the Albany County (WY) public library can be found here.)When I checked the WHOIS records for the laramiepubliclibrary.net site, the name of the administrator of the domain was the same company who protected the identity of the school site I looked up above.Guess this is more common than I realized!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I was given the opportunity to award a Wacom Bamboo Capture bundle to an educator. (See my review of the Bamboo Capture here.)I asked teachers to submit their grade level, an idea for use of the Wacom Bamboo Capture in their classroom, and an idea, if they had one, for use of the device with online classes, Webinars, or Web 2.0 tools.I used a random number generator to pick the winner, who is a Technology Specialist in a grade 1-4 school in Texas.His idea for the use of the Wacom Bamboo Capture is:My school lets our 4th graders sign up for various clubs that meet monthly throughout our year. I'm in charge of the Computer Club, and have for a while now, set up Glogster.edu accounts for the kids to show off their creativity. They've truly enjoyed it, but I've longed for a tool that would allow them to create their own items, rather than just do the typical Google/copy/paste thing. With the limited time I've got that's been our only effective method to date. With the Bamboo Capture at our disposal, I can just imagine the difference in what my kids can create! No more borrowing my iPad to use a drawing app; upload to my cloud acct.; download to their Glog creation. Now... it shows up on their machine, they import it, viola! The kids now get to customize the products I've been dying for them to create from the beginning. This... it would be a game changer! Thanks.All submission ideas for the use of the Bamboo Capure in the classroomGrades 9-12 Editing graphics for yearbook and game design classes. Grades K-5 Technology I would love to use the Landmarker software to easily record the locations of all of the classrooms we connect with through online collaborative projects and Skype. Grades 6-8 I love the wireless feature! Would make it possible for students or teacher to demonstrate a technique in Photoshop/ Flash or share a project on the whiteboard from anywhere in the classroom! Grades 7, 9, 10 and 12 I teach Social Studies in a f2f environment and I am writing an online class this would be great for presentations. for both environments. I use maps and charts a lot and it would be great to use a tool like this to show trends and activities on maps. Grade 6I have been using the original Graphire from your picture for a long time. I use the software "Deskscribble" (http://www.deskscribbleapp.com/) which is awesome. It gives me smartboard style drawing options, screen captures and more. I am able to face my class instead of turning my back on them. The Capture with this software would free me from having to always be at my desk. This would help with class management, as well as making it easier for students to participate using the tablet from their seat. Wireless would be great and I'd love to win. I think getting 11 years out of a $79 Wacom has been pretty good and it's time to move on. Thanks for your article! If I don't win, I'll be buying one. Grades K-12 I immediately thought of the students who struggle with words for self-expression but use their hands, hearts and minds in thoughtfully illustrating their learning. Professional development The Bamboo Capture would be a fabulous tool to share with the many teachers I work with across the Northwest in my role as Technology Evangelist for Southern Oregon Education Service District, trainer Oregon Virtual School District, and NCCE Board member. Often, I use a new tool to launch a PD session to demonstrate its uses, then hand it off to a group of teachers for project-based learning activities within the PD. 12 Let students in technical writing course use it to annotate their screencasts while thinking what their audience will see and hear. Grades 5-12 I believe that pairing the capture with Microsoft's OneNote would be an ideal way to infuse the technology into a math classroom (or really any classroom). With OneNote setup on a network users can create and share a digital notebook. As a instructor he/she could keep a running notebook with chapters, sections, and pages for their class - they could even drill down to pages for individual students. Using the equation editor in MS Word educators can create problems and easily copy and paste them or just save them into OneNote. During class time this shared notebook can be opened up by the students and the problems can be solved through the use of the Bamboo tablets. The teacher can easily project each students work up onto the board and have them explain the answers from their seat, annotating the problem as the students are explaining. After class this notebook can then be easily saved as a .pdf and posted onto a Moodle or Google site - or any web product for that matter. Students can then access the problems answered during class and annotated by the teacher. The problems you complete on the board are then never lost. Teachers love annotating the problems via the bamboos also. :)Grades 9-12I am making screencasts of Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver tutorials for my Multimedia class. Using Bamboo Capture would make this process so much easier and I could demonstrate more advanced skills because its challenging to draw with a mouse. I like using layers in Photoshop because I can create a rough sketch on one layer using the pen tool and then add a layer for the fill and another layer for the outline -- then hide the sketch layer. Grade 7 With the Bamboo Capture, I will be able to write out note, especially for struggling students and send them directly to their classroom iPads no run into the problem that these student struggle to keep up in class sometimes when we are taking notes. This way, they can still try but then will receive the regular copy to study. Grade 1I teach in a Title I, large ESOL population that are learning to speak, read and write the English language. many are not literate in their native languages and have limited experiences, so vocabulary acquistion is difficult. I would use the Bamboo Capture by having my students learn vocabulary by drawing or animating words to be learned. I could also draw and animate for the students as a reference source. Grade 1I would love to use it for a class daily journal. Each child would have a rotating turn of being the day's recorder. They could write about it, draw illustrations, and add to any of the photos from the day. 1-5 We have recently added a graphic novel unit in the Grade 5A graphic novelist Skyped with us and showed us how he uses something like that to do his drawings. It would be great to have one for the students to use as they work on their own brief comics. Grades 6-12 I would use the tablets for practicing Chinese characters, so the class could write and dissect them together, everyone learning from everyone else by displaying via projector; I cold also use it to draw and projectt so that students can watch me. Grade 4I don't have an interactive whilteboard and this could get me started! It would be great to use with my document camera when we are solving math problems. I could demonstrate art techniques as well....maybe even do some cartooning with the kids. The handwriting recognition feature is great. I have the kids do math, idiom and vocabulary notebooks and I demonstrate notetaking. This would be a great way to record my notes electronically.ElementaryTeach Symmetry. Students begin a simple geometric shape on one side of a drawn vertical line and a partner continues it on the opposite side as closely as possible to create a symmetrical shape. Using graphics like butterflies, faces, etc, students can visualize how symmetry is all around them.Grades 6-12 I would use it to pass around to students to interact with Web 2.0 tools projected from my computer! We could all take part in creating a Glog on Glogster, for instance, when the classroom laptops were not available (which happens often enough during testing time!) Grades 10-12 "I would love to have this to support grammar activities. With rough drafts displayed on the computer, I could let students take turns marking mistakes using editors notes. This would save a lot of paper and increase engagement! " Grades 6 and 7I work with Life Skills students and this tool would be a valuable asset in helping these students to see their writing come to life in text. It would also help the teachers to read their writing more easily. Some of these students need to work on their fine motor coordination. Grades 9-12I want to have remote control of my laptop that will be plugged into the projector to be more interactive and walk around the room while instructing. Grades 9-12 My students will create quick group logos, using the stylized, hand-drawn initials of each member of the group. These digitized logos will be printed or projected to identify group work on the bulletin board and to select random students for participation in class activities. Grades 7-12 Use it to develop skills inside Photoshop using the paint tools. Start with landscapes then progress to free art. Grades 9-12I am planning to ""flip"" my classroom next year and will definitely need innovative photo editing in order to pique the interest of my students. When I create my short video clips, I can involve my students in the story prompts in the target language (Spanish.) I also believe that students would be happy to try this device as a way to contribute to the class with funny collage layouts of their fellow students. I think they would love to read bizarre (and appropriate) stories about each other. We could write a book as a class. Students could each add a chapter and/or paragraph complete with photos, clips, etc. in the target language.Jr. High Art Show sketching and drawing on a screen for students to watch as I sketch, rather than on an easel and drawing pad.All submission ideas for use with online classes, Web 2.0, or WebinarsGrade 6The software allows you to write on a white or black background, or what's on your screen. I write on top of pdf's everyday.Grades K-12 Professional development The Bamboo Capture would be a perfect tool to support a Flipped Classroom initiative. It would be especially useful in schools who do not yet have wireless and do not have the money to implement tablets. Also, the Bamboo Capture would be an excellent tool for online and blended classes, because it would allow the teacher to do live online demonstrations using Webinar software and also capture the demonstration or explanation to post in the online class for other students.Grades 9-12A teacher at my school uses a Bamboo pen to screencast math lessons because she finds it easier to write math problems and diagrams with the Wacom pen.  She imports the math workshop into Photoshop and then uses Jing or Camtasia to create her math screencasts on her computers. ElementaryIn a tutoring situation, I frequently use sketches to help my students visualize concepts, from math to science to history.  This tool would allow this dimension in online tutoring.Grades 1-4We don't have the infrastructure for Webinars... but... I can see myself doing the next best thing and creating an unlisted YouTube channel for tutorials over our new tool.Grades 6-12I could use it when creating screencasts about how to use different tools; it would be very helpful! My writing or drawing with a mouse leaves a lot to be desired...Grades 6 and 7Bamboo Capture would be great tool for making visual graphs as you teach a lecture or even for a student to quickly take notes and have it organized quickly.Grades 9-12You could illustrate flashcards with a photo or make a game with vocabulary. You could make flashcards involving the students in order to make the class more personal. You could illustrate a story with photos of crazy or bizarre scenes, however not inappropriately.( It might take the mundaneness out of the online courses.) You could altar a relevant photo and students must express what is wrong or missing in the photo.Thank you to all who took the time to submit an idea! Do you use use a Wacom tablet in your classroom or have some ideas to share? Please leave a comment!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I was contacted to see if I wanted to do a product review for Staples, and, of course, I agreed! I chose the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to review. The model I received has 2GB of RAM, is WiFi only (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, and has 16GB of memory storage, expandable to 64GB via a microSD/HC slot. Some other important specs include:8" screen with a 1280x800 resolutionQuad-Core, 1.6GHz processorAndroid 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) .73 pounds in weight5MP rear and 1.3MP front camerasGeneral overview The Galaxy Note 8 is just the right size to hold in one hand, so I found myself keeping it n portrait mode most of the time, except for when using email, since the extra width is helpful then. It has a beautiful, bright, white screen which is the type of screen I like. I call it a "cool" screen as opposed to the "warm" screens  of some tablets which are off-white.The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has some useful features not found on every tablet. The first thing I noticed, and wondered why all tablets don't have it, was a full QWERTY and number keyboard. It was so nice not to go back and forth between number and letter keyboards, especially for passwords! The keyboard can also be split or floating, which some people prefer.The second cool thing I discovered was the ability to use a "face scan" instead of a swipe to unlock the device. (They give you a PIN back-up plan, too!) Now, I simply look at the lock screen and the Galaxy Note 8 unlocks!I also appreciate the inclusion of a physical "home" button on the front of the device. I would rather use a button than swipe through pages of apps to get to the main page of my device! Another nice feature allows you, when typing passwords, to turn off the brief display of the characters you are typing. I wish other tablets had this feature since, when I am projecting and presenting to an audience, they can always see my password as I type it!The addition of the "S Pen" stylus adds a lot to the device. The stylus has a button on it and is not just a "dumb" stylus. For instance, to take a screenshot, you simply hold in the button on the stylus, tap and hold the screen, and the screenshot is taken. You can then crop the image from that same screen and save the result to the gallery. It is so easy! In addition, when you remove the pen from its slot, a page pops up with items specific to use of the S Pen. (You get a special page popping up, too, when you plug in headphones.) The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 also has an infrared port which allows you to turn your device into a remote control. In addition, if you have a Samsung smartphone or other Samsung device, there are ways to share your screen with those via the AllShare Cast app. I could not try the AllShare cast process since I did not have those devices.Samsung has thought of everything! On most tablets, you have to set the amount of time for when the screen will timeout. This usually causes you to make it longer than you need just in case you do need a longer period at some point. The Galaxy Note 8 includes something called "Smart stay" which causes the screen to stay on as long as you are looking at it. It looks for your eyes!Cool and useful softwareThe Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has really good handwriting recognition and turns your printed words into text. You can use the S Pen or your finger in any app that allows for text input to write your notes or emails! The tablet also comes with a Microsoft Office compatible application, called Polaris Office, for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.Polaris OfficeThe Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is, of course, tightly integrated with the Google tools and apps, including Google Drive, Talk, Google+, Picasa, Maps, Local, Latitude, and the Play Music and Book Stores. Once you are signed in to your Google account, you have access to all of your tools and media!There is voice recognition in addition to handwriting recognition on the Galaxy Note 8 and any number of Samsung apps that take advantage of the S Pen for journaling, reminders, and note taking. The S Note app includes templates for taking all types of notes at meetings, in school, and while traveling. One type of note allows you to record both your drawing and your voice in real time. The recording and the voice recording are not put together, but you can easily view the drawing as it is created and start the voice recording to listen at the same time.As far as video playback goes, I did not watch any movies on the device itself but did stream both movies from Netflix and my soap opera via the SlingPlayer app, which allows me to watch recordings from my home DVR over the Net, and it performed well on both accounts with no stuttering at all! The speakers are mounted on the front and they are very loud!Of course, there are all types of accessibility options built-in to the tablet, too, including font size, background color, length of tap and hold, etc. CamerasThe back camera is a 5MP camera, and takes good images. However, there are all types of settings you can use to enhance your photo. You can also take panoramic pictures or videos, cartoonize an image as you take it, have the camera wait until the person smiles to actually snap the photo, and more! Once the image is taken, it is easy to share it with DropBox, Facebook, Picasa, via Bluetooth, or to additional apps and sites. I was able to send the photo from the Galaxy Note 8 to a Nexus 7 tablet, but was not able to transfer it that way to my iPhone. Backing up and storage Another perk with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is that is comes with 50GB of DropBox storage space for 2 years. That comes in so handy when moving files from device to device as well as sharing documents with others.You can also use Samsung Kies, which is Mac or Windows desktop software to sync your device and move contacts, images, and update software on the Galaxy Note 8 via a USB connection or wirelessly between the tablet and the desktop. There are some additional cloud solutions for back up, but I always like to have the back up on my computer.SummaryThere are many choices for small size (7" and 8") tablets on the market right now. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8, with its large number of hardware and software options built-in to the device, has to be the most full-featured and fun one of them all! Full disclosure: Staples.com provided me with this product for review. The thoughts and opinions expressed are strictly my own. Feel free to shop their entire line of tablets online.  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I ran to my Best Buy store on Sunday, the day the Best Buy was slated to start selling the Pebble Watch. However, due to the holiday the week before, the shipping schedule was off and there were none yet in the store. However, the Best Buy employee assured me he would call me when they came in, and he did, and I was able to get one (of the two!) that arrived.It is definitely a cool device. However, since there are not a lot of them out on the street yet, it is truly an early-adopter's dream! I had to work hard to learn how it worked and, more importantly, the best ways to make it work for me. The Pebble, for those of you that do not know, is a smartwatch that interfaces with your Android smartphone or iPhone via Bluetooth to provide notifications on your wrist. I would call it a pseudo-smartwatch since you cannot use it to send anything back. You can receive phone call info and SMS messages and you can control the music on your iPhone via the Pebble, set up to four reminder alarms, and, of course, change your clock face at will!The Pebble watch has an e-ink display (like the original Kindles) and can be easily read in the sunlight. There is also a back-light for use in the dark and you can simply shake your wrist to make the light comes on.Here is an unboxing video posted on Sunday from a user who has an Android device, but the set-up on the iPhone is pretty much the same.It does not come with any real directions, probably because it is still a work in progress, but Pebble has information on their site to help you out. If you start searching for ideas, you might get confused between the Android phone owners and the iOS phone owners as to the capabilities of the watch. The new iPhone iOS 7 is going to allow notifications from third-party apps and to devices via Bluetooth which will be a boon for the iPhone/Pebble-owners crowd.Here is the link to the user guide from the Pebble site: http://help.getpebble.com/customer/portal/articles/957384-pebble-user-guideI started to use some workarounds with Pushover and IFTTT, which will work for some things, but once I realized, if I only had everything I wanted to be notified about sent to SMS, I could easily receive the updates on the Pebble.Since I already had my Twitter direct messages sent via SMS, I asked Adam Bellow to send me a DM so I could see how that worked. He is too funny!I wanted my iCal appointment reminders to go to my Pebble, but, as the iOS instructions for setting up notifications page states, that functionality is coming soon to the Pebble. However, I knew there had to be a way to make that happen and I searched "sending iCal reminders to SMS" and came up with this great workaround that totally makes sense-- just use the email equivalent of your mobile phone number (mobile phone number followed by @ mobile company designated address) and send the appointment reminder to that email address! Here are the instructions and it worked like a charm!Another tip-- if you cannot get an app or watchface to install from your phone app, use the desktop, go to the site, download the .pbw files to yourself, and install them via the email app on your device. Pick them to open in the Pebble App.Tip #3: You can make a QR code and put it as a watchface in your Pebble and you will always have your contact info ready to share! It needs to be 144x144 pixels.Do you have a Pebble watch yet? Any ideas for use in the classroom?  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I admit it...I love distressed brown leather. I guess the reason I like it is that it looks better the more it gets used and all banged up. The sign of well-loved distressed leather case is the marks it bears!When Snugg wrote me and asked me to review an item from their site, I was drawn to the Snugg iPhone 5 Distressed Leather Brown Pouch Case for two reasons. The distressed leather material caught my eye, and, even more importantly, this case was an updated version of my favorite iPhone case of all time!I always try to find a tight-fighting pouch case for my phone. A few years ago, Brookstone sold an iPhone 4 pouch case that had a tab on the back to pull up the phone for easily getting it out of the case. However, they have no plans to make one for the larger iPhone 5.I was so excited to see this Snugg iPhone 5 Pouch Case which has the same feature-- a tab on the back (that magnetically sticks to the back of the case) which is attached to an elastic strap to pull out the phone. It also includes a credit card slot on the front that will hold a one or two cards. I made the short video below which demonstrates how well the tab works. This is my dream  iPhone 5 slipcase-- distressed leather, thin and tight-fitting, protective, and an easy way to get the iPhone 5 out!The Snugg iPhone 5 Distressed Leather Brown Pouch Case comes in distressed brown leather, black leather and tan suede. It is also available for the iPhone 4 and 4S.  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Parallels Access screenshotParallels Access is the coolest new program for your iPad and your Mac or Windows computer! It allows you to work with all of the programs that are on your computer on your iPad! Parallels calls it "applifying", since the programs run full screen on the iPad, but also allow you to use tapping, pinching, swiping, and scrolling as if you were using an iPad app! When tapping, the taps are right on, even on the iPad Mini!There is also an application switcher built-in to the interface that allows you to move back and forth among the programs you are using on your PC from your iPad. And, when copying from a desktop app on your iPad, you can paste the text into a native iPad app! The on-screen keyboard shows up when needed if you want to type in the app on the desktop. There is even a drag-and-drop function! On the Mac, I liken it to screen-sharing between two of my computes, but this works between the iPad and my computer!Take a look at a quick screencast I made from the iPad running the Parallels Access Program.  9/1/13: I also had a geek-out session due to a Tweet from @AmandaDoyleTA. I connected my laptop and the iPad via ParallelsAccess, AirPlayed the iPad to my desktop, and was able to record the iPad playing a Flash video from the laptop using Reflector on the desktop. Here is a little clip from the Dante's Inferno (tech version) Flash project.The Parallels Access solution has two components. There is an app you install on your iPad (Parallels Access) and it has a 14-day trial. There is then an agent you install on each of the computers you want to access from the iPad. There is a Mac version and a beta Windows version at this time.You create an account, and connect the iPad app and the desktop. The devices see each other over the Internet, so you will need to leave your computer on (and the agent running) for Parallels Access to work.The Parallels Access subscription cost is for each desktop you want to access, so think carefully about the desktop you want to access. Of course, you can always add additional subscriptions if you want to be able to access multiple computers from the same iPad. Parallels is working on a pricing model for schools and colleges, so watch for that, too!During September 2013, Parallels gave me five year-long subscription licenses for Parallels Access to give away to K-16 educators!Here are some of the ideas that were submitted: I would use Parallels Access to demo our subscription to Questia to our 9th grade students, who are piloting an iPad program for us.Finally! Teachers and students can use Parallels Access to access (!) Flash content on the iPad. This is amazing! I provide Ed Tech and Assistive Technology support to students with disabilities. Typically they require specialized software that does not have an iPad equivalent. I will be using this to provide access to the tools they need to be successful. Have any other thoughts or ideas? Email me or find me on Twitter @kathyschrock  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I have only been a Mac user for about twelve years, so did not "grow up" with Apple computers as many of you did. I am still making discoveries about the operating system every day!I have been spending some time with Preview (I am using OS 10.8.5) and have learned many of the cool things it can do!  The first thing to know is that the Preview.app is located in your Applications folder. It is worth the effort to add it to your dock so it is always there when you need it! PDF documents and PreviewAnnotating PDFsIf you open a PDF document in Preview, you can annotate it in several ways and can use any color you wish! Go to Tools-Annotate to see the menu.Text can be highlighted with a highlighter that always stays on the line!You can easily underline and strike out full lines of text.Rectangle, oval, line, or arrow shapes can be added, re-sized, and easily moved around. Their line-weight and line-type can be modified, too, as well as being able to fill the shapes with a color.You can add speech (smooth) and thought (cloud-like) bubbles and type notes inside of them as well as adding plain text to the document.A sticky note with text can be "posted" on the PDF document.Tools-Annotate A suggestion from William Baker (@MrWilBaker) for a classroom use of one of the annotation features is to use the filled shapes to blank out student names from a PDF document you are sharing or posting.Carole (@ReginaReadsPA) tweeted to me that she uses the text annotation tool to add citations to images and documents. This is a great idea for attribution for Creative Commons-licensed images! One of the most useful annotation tools is the signature. How many times have you been asked to sign a PDF document and return it? If you have Adobe Acrobat, of course, you can use a special digital signature in lieu of a handwritten one. However, to use your own, handwritten signature, the process is easy with the Preview application!First, you have to create your signature. (You have to do this once on each computer you use.) Open Preview and go to Preferences, click Signatures, and pick the + sign to make your signature. A Signature Capture window shows up. You are instructed to sign your name in black ink (the thicker, the better) on a piece of white paper and hold it up in front of the camera on the Mac.  You will see the signature on the screen, and, when you click Accept, Preview will save it. When you want to use it to sign a PDF you are viewing in Preview, simply go to Annotate-Signature, and the handwritten signature will show up on the document for you to place and re-size. Other PDF tips If you want to save the PDF document you are viewing in Preview to iCloud, simply pick File-Move To and pick iCloud. You will be able to view these PDF documents from your iCloud on other computers, but not via the iPad. Another neat feature of Preview is, if you are using Safari 6 or better, when a PDF opens in the browser window, you can place your cursor towards the middle bottom of the document and a pop-up will appear that allows you to open the PDF document directly in Preview. (This only works if you do not have any other PDF reader set-up to open PDFs.)When you have a PDF document open in Preview, you can open the View-Thumbnails menu item and rearrange the order of the pages in your document and then save the rearranged copy! John Larkin (@john_larkin) told me you can merge PDF documents in Preview, too. I figured out how to do that. Open both PDF documents in Preview and choose to View-Thumbnails. Once you can see the thumbnails, simply pick the pages you want to merge from one document and drag them on top of the thumbnail area of the other document. (Don't put them at the end of the other thumbnails, just drag them on top.) Move the thumbnails around in the merged document if you need to and save it! Images and Preview The Preview application also has image editing capabilities, too. Here are some of them...Screen CapturesScreen-captures are easily created with Preview. Open Preview and go to File-Take Screen Shot. There will be three options-- From Selection, From Window, From Entire Screen.  Many of us use the key commands (CMD+SHIFT+4, etc.) to take our screenshots but this is another way. However, Preview has one neat feature that can help you out. When you pick the From Entire Screen option, Preview provides you with a 10-second countdown which gives you time to move things around on your screen before the screenshot is taken. This is helpful, at least for me, since I often wind up with things in the screenshot that I do not want there! In addition, if you hold the CTRL key down while taking a screenshot from within Preview, the image will be put on your clipboard to easily paste somewhere else. Editing imagesYou can crop images when they are open in Preview by picking Tools-Rectangular Selection which gives you the crosshairs to highlight the area you want, and then you simply pick Tools-Crop and save the edited image!There are also additional options available for editing images. If you open an image in Preview and View-Show Edit Toolbar the options appear right on the image, as you can see below. You can add text and shapes, change the color saturation, re-size the image, erase the background, and more. You can also rotate and/or flip the image if necessary.Image editing toolbar in PreviewPreview also allows you to change the file format of an image. Simple open the image in Preview, go to File-Export, and you are presented with the choices of saving the image as a JPEG, JPEG-2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG, or TIFF. You can also change the quality of the image to a lesser quality if you need to decrease the file size but want to keep the same dimensions. Viewing images To open multiple photos in Preview at one time, first select the images you want to view. (It is helpful if they are all in one folder!) Then right-click or CNTRL+click and pick Open In-Preview. The images will show up with a navigation bar on the side as you see below. Once items are in Preview, you can highlight multiple images and batch edit them with the image editing tools. (Thanks to @john_larkin for this tip!)  Viewing multiple image in PreviewOnce you have the images in Preview, you can also choose to view a slideshow of the images by picking View-Slideshow. If you load a large number of images into Preview, you can also view a contact sheet by going to View-Contact Sheet. This is handy for printing out or viewing many images at once. You can see a sample contact sheet below.Contact sheet as viewed in PreviewCustomizing PreviewOnce you become familiar with some of these tools in Preview, you may want to add or subtract items from the default Preview toolbar. Once an image or PDF is open in Preview, just go to View-Customize Toolbar and you will be presented with the choices below.  You can remove or add items by dragging, rearrange icons on the toolbar, and decide if you want icons, text, or both to show up. (I like to keep text on until I become familiar with the icons.)Customizing the Preview ToolbarDo you have other Preview tips to share? Do you have special ways you use Preview in the classroom? Email me or find my on Twitter @kathyschrock  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This post originally appeared in September of 2013 on my Discovery Educator Network blog, Kathy's Katch, where I pen a monthly blog post. Please take a look at it when you get a a chance. The new posts go up the first day of the month!I have finally had time to work with iMovie movie trailers on the iPad, and it is so much fun! A movie trailer is a perfect summarizing activity. It can also act as a "teaser" as an introduction to a presentation or student paper. A movie trailer can readily showcase the acquisition of knowledge of a lesson or unit. A movie trailer includes many of the literacy areas. There is a component of information literacy as students search for and gather assets to include in the trailer. There are reading and writing skills (traditional literacy) as students write out their ideas and scripts. There are elements of media literacy as students identify their audience, use words to persuade viewers, and maybe transfer another mode of publishing (like a research paper) into a video. Visual literacy comes into play with the choice of colors and font. The movie trailer component of the iMovie app for the iPad includes several themes to pick from. The transitions and animations are already built-in, but students can do some editing of these themes to showcase their work in a different way. The first step in making an iMovie movie trailer is taking a look at the script and storyboard pages. It is a good idea for students to spend some time thinking about the theme of the trailer they want to use and start gathering the pictures and videos to use in the production. One great site by Timothy Jefferson includes PDFs of all of the theme scripts so students can work things out on paper first, as they are going through the development process. Here is a sample of one of the PDFs. Some ideas for using movie trailers across the curriculum include:Have students create an "end of course or class" trailer to introduce others to the courseStudents can create an advertisement for a product they created in a STEM class.Movie trailers can put a new spin on the "all about me" presentation.Students can help create promo pieces for upcoming school events, class elections, and fund-raising activitiesA movie trailer can be a very short, but exciting digital story, summarizing the content and/or process in any curriculum areaRoz Linder's ideas for using movie trailers as a way to introduce different viewpointsFilmeducation.org's great resource about the use of film trailers in the classroomMr. Manion's Movie Trailer Analysis which could easily be turned into a rubricYou can also find many tutorials which include instructions on the process of using iMovie movie trailers on the iPad From MacLife (written)From Make Use Of (written)From Pasco Schools (video)From Jim Gates (video)Discovery Education Streaming, with its editable videos and hundreds of images, is a wonderful set of resources to use in iMovie movie trailers. I decided to utilize DES to make an iMovie movie trailer and only use the iPad. I logged in to Discovery Education Streaming, did three searches (tornado, storm, lightning) and limited the search to images. I added the images to My Content. When I had collected enough (with three personal ones also), I opened each one and "saved to library" which then put all the images into my Photos app Camera Roll. I picked the Scary trailer theme, entered the credits information, and added the images to the storyboard, as you see below. I adjusted some of the Ken Burns transitions to highlight the important parts of the photos.  I then simply sent the completed movie trailer up to YouTube! Give iMovie movie trailers a try today! Do you have some ideas for the use of iMovie Trailers across the content areas? Email me or find me on Twitter @kathyschrock  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I have been asked to elaborate on my understanding of the SAMR model, a model written about extensively by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. This model suggests a structure for the design of embedded technology use in the classroom to have a significant impact on student outcomes.My feeling is this model supports teachers as they design, develop, and integrate digital learning experiences that utilize technology to transform learning experiences. Along the continuum, the student engagement becomes more of the focus and students are then able to advance their own learning in a transformational manner.Puentedura's visual of the SAMR model is self-explanatory, as seen below. I decided to take the typical classroom process of note taking to demonstrate my thoughts for how the SAMR model might look in a classroom.SUBSTITUTION LEVEL Note taking is traditionally done with paper and pen/pencil.At the substitution level, you first have to think about what will be gained by the use of technology for the task. You want to make sure you are not advocating technology use just for technology's sake.In the case of note taking, however, the benefit of having notes in a digital format for ease of sharing and uploading, and providing access to them anywhere, any time, is a useful substitution activity. At this level, the technology substitution, with no real change in student engagement, would be the use of a stand-alone or cloud-based word processing program.AUGMENTATION LEVEL At the augmentation level, there again is a direct tool substitute, but there is some improvement in student outcomes. At this level, one of the benefits is teachers can receive almost immediate feedback on student level of understanding of material and students can also learn from others.One way this can occur is by the use of a backchannel tool (such as Today's Meet or Padlet) for whole-class note taking. The augmentation level starts to move along the teacher/student-centric continuum. The impact of this immediate feedback and collaboration is that students should begin to become more engaged in the learning process.MODIFICATION LEVEL Modification allows for a change in the task redesign. Students can be asked to take notes using a screencasting tool and then later go back and add the audio component and post these online for their peers and anyone else who wants to see them. Because they are working for an public audience with this task, each student has a personal stake in their note taking.http://screencast-o-matic.com/channels/clj6hlnqUAnother modification option for note taking using technology would have students creating mind maps or concept maps as they take notes. Again, these can be easily shared. A collaborative version of this mapping could be implemented as groups of students take notes on certain aspects of the lecture, presentation, reading, etc. and then pull all the maps together to complete the picture. (I call this the "Ancestry.com" model!)https://library.usu.edu/instruct/tutorials/cm/Samples_files/cm.gifREDEFINITIONWith redefinition, the emphasis is on student-centered learning. The student learns new skills and concepts as they complete the task. Sketchnoting, or visual note taking, is a way for students to practice listening as well as planning an organizational strategy for taking notes. There are drawing and note-taking apps for all platforms available for sketchnoting. (A lot more about sketchnoting can be found here.) A redefined task would be for students to sketchnote, share online, and provide answers to questions about the content included in the public venue.http://networkedmedicine.tumblr.com/post/43788097011/sketchnote-that-i-drew-reflecting-class-discussionMAPPING BLOOM'S AND SAMRBelow is a visual of my initial thoughts on the relationship between Bloom’s and the SAMR model. I feel teachers need to both create tasks that target the higher-order cognitive skills (Bloom's) as well as design tasks that have a significant impact on student outcomes (SAMR). It's as simple as that. Educators will argue that they have seen redefinition tasks that only target the remembering level or have a creative assessment that is only at the augmentation level. Of course that is true, but I believe we should be planning for technology tasks, activities, and assessments that include both the higher levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and the transformation area of SAMR model.I have created a page of SAMR resources if you want to learn more and come to your own conclusions about how it might be implemented in your classroom. Comments? Thoughts?  Email me or find me on Twitter @kathyschrock  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Since this blog IS the Kaffeeklatsch, I thought I should share some of the ways people have been using coffee analogies to explain the SAMR model. I cannot vouch for the analogies, but thought it was interesting this seems to be a common practice!The SAMR ModelThe image below was created by Jonathan Brubaker and appeared in a blog post here.SAMR Model and Starbuck's CoffeeSAMR vs. LatteEmail me with any other coffee analogies you find in the education arena!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

First published in the AWSA Update Bulletin, October 16, 2013. Some information has been updated below.OverviewInfographics are everywhere! We see them on the Web and in our professional journals.    Students see them on Facebook and on advertiser’s pages. How can the use of infographics be used to address the Common Core State Standards?An infographic is a visual representation of information. It differs from a poster in that it usually includes graphs and charts of information. Not all infographics include data, though. There are quite a few types of infographics, as listed below.Statistical infographic: includes a summation or overview of dataTimeline infographic: shows the progression of information over timeProcess infographics: demonstrate a process, whether linear or branchingInformational infographic: similar to a poster, but with some data includedResearch-based infographic: compares unlike items with a known data setInteractive infographic: a Web-based infographic that allows the user to have control  and modify the infographicThere are two basic ways infographics can be used to support teaching and learning. The first is showcasing already-created infographics to support a specific content area. For example, a health class might use an infographic entitled "A Tale of Two Meals" or an English class might use one called "A Literary Map of Manhattan" which includes clickable links to the places in Manhattan where famous literary characters resided.The second way infographics can be incorporated into teaching and learning is by having students create an infographic as a formative or summative assessment. By creating an infographic, students are conducting research and gathering assets to use for their infographics (information literacy) working with color, fonts, and layout to impact their audience (visual literacy), presenting their infographic to persuade, convince, or inform (media literacy), and using technology tools and data visualizations to create the infographic (digital literacy). In addition, of course, they are demonstrating mastery of content knowledge with the content-specific information they include in the infographic.Infographics RubricThe rubric below can be used for both of these purposes. When analyzing infographics, students should pay attention to the topic of the image, the type of infographic and whether it is appropriate to the information display, whether the pictorial elements of the infographic and the data visualizations are understandable, if the color, font, and layout add to the presentation of the infographic, and that bibliographic citations are included to allow access to the original source of the information. When creating their own infographic, students need to consider all of these same items while, at the same time, considering the purpose and audience for their infographic.http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/schrock_infographic_rubric.pdfCommon Core State Standards and InfographicsThe Common Core State Standards do not specifically mention "infographics", but there are many standards, both content-based and literacy-based, that can be addressed with both the analysis or creation of infographics by students. Here are a few from both the CCSS ELA Standards and the Standards for Mathematical Practice.ELA Common Core StandardsCCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.7 Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.9-10.7 Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.Standards for Mathematical Practice K-12Represent a mathematical situation with symbolsUse objects, drawings, & diagrams to create an argumentMap relationships using tools such as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowchartsFind digital content and use it to solve problems and use technological software and tools to do soGraph data and search for regularity and trends Creation of InfographicsInfographics can be created with any software program that allows layer-based image editing, which simply means images and text can be placed on top of other images. There are commercial packages, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements as well as online and downloadable tools that allow this layer-based editing. Some of these include:•       Google Drawings (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/177123?hl=en)•       Pixlr (http://pixlr.com)•       Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/)•       Sumo Paint (http://sumo.fm/#create)•       Sketchpad (http://mudcu.be/sketchpad/)In addition, presentation programs such as Microsoft's PowerPoint, Apple’s Keynote program, and Google Slides allow layers of images and text on a slide, so these tools can also be used for student creation of an infographic. There is also an iPad and Android tablet app that helps students create infographics on their mobile devices called iVisual Info Touch Light (iOS) and iVisual Touch Free (Android). The full-version of the app allows students to bring in their own images and other features. (Added 1/27/15: And there is a great iOS app that includes many publishing formats, and includes infographic creation, called Canva.There are interactive, online tools available that are meant specifically for the creation of infographics. Each tool includes templates to edit and the ability to add data or graphs to the template. Students need to have email accounts to sign-up to use these tools. Some of the online tools include: Picktochart (https://magic.piktochart.com/) Easel.ly (http://easel.ly) Infogram (http://infogr.am)Canva (http://canva.com) (added 1/27/15)Visme (http://visme.co) added 1/27/15)Venngage (http://venngage.com) added 5/29/15) Introducing Infographics to StudentsWhen introducing infographics to students, teachers should first showcase what data visualizations look like. A great site for students to become familiar with the  different types of data visualizations is the Periodic Table of Data Visualizations (http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html). When students have collected their data, they can then use Chart Chooser (http://labs.juiceanalytics.com/chartchooser/index.html) to determine how best to present their data.Students should study the infographic rubric and then, in small groups, evaluate infographics on the Web or in print. By looking at infographics with a critical eye, they will gain some insights on to how best to create their own infographic.SummaryThe use of infographics in support of teaching and learning is a natural fit. Students practice with many types of 21st century literacies. The completed infographic projects meet many of the Common Core State Standards. And students learn the important skills of meeting the needs and interest level of their intended audience by choosing the right type of data visualization. You can find more information and links to resources here: http://linkyy.com/infographics  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Screenmailer is a new screencasting/screen recording tool for Mavericks on the Mac. It is easy to use, quick to render, and can be used as an on-the-spot solution for teacher or student screencasts!As with any screencast, you should first plan your recording, get things set-up on your desktop, practice your script, and then start the recording. Setting up the screencastScreenmailer runs on your Mac, and, once installed, allows you to log-in with Google credentials or create a Screenmailer account. You will need to be connected to the Web in order to use Screenmailer.Once logged inSign in or create an accoutOnce you log-in, as you seen above, you can see your previously-recorded videos, play them, delete them, email the link to someone, or copy the link. And, of course, you can begin a new recording by picking the record button.  You then get a choice of the audio input source and whether to record the full screen or to outline an area of the screen to record. The developer of Screenmailer recommends outlining an area rather than using the full screen option, especially if you have a hi-res screen. You can record a video for up to 30 minutes and easily pause the recording to collect your thoughts or change what is on your computer screen. This comes in handy when showcasing different content during the screen recording. Also, you can see you can easily record yourself (or any other video) at the same time you are showcasing content.The screencast is saved to the Screenmailer server, and you are provided with a private URL for sharing your video and you can email the link to students or colleagues. Any video you record and post will appear whenever you log-in to your accout, so you always have access to the private URL and can delete a video if you no longer need it. Here is the latest test video I recorded. (One tip: if you are planning to show a video during a class period, load and play it beforehand so it is buffered on your computer.)One option that should be coming soon to Screenmailer is the ability to download the video either in the app or on the video play page. Until that happens, you can use the Firefox extension Video DownloadHelper to download the video to your computer for use in a presentation, putting into a content management system, or uploading to your YouTube or Vimeo channels. (Thanks to Tom Gavin for the find!) It has worked for me on my desktop with no special set-up. I suggest you pick .MP4 as the download format so it is compatible with many sites and programs.If you have any ideas or thoughts for the developer of Screenmailer, his contact information is on the Screenmailer home page. He is very receptive to ideas for future features. And follow @screenmailer on Twitter to find out about any new features!If you are going to be creating screencasts for students or having students create their own, I have a blog post dedicated to the idea, Screencasting for Educators, and a Web page, Screencasting in the Classroom, with links to successful practices, resources, and much more. If you create any screencasts for the classroom with Screenmailer, share the URL with me via email.  We can all learn new techniques for creating engaging screencasts from each other!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I was contacted to have an interview with a CNN reporter about Glass use in the classroom. I knew I could not participate in the interview because of some family events, so I just wrote a lengthy email with my thoughts. The article came out on February 10, 2014, included a a bit of what I wrote about, but I wanted to share the full text of my thoughts.An an educational technologist, a Google Certified Teacher, and in my role of ISTE Board member, I am always thinking about the role technology can play to improve teaching and learning. It is not about the technology, but about having a choice of tools available for students to support their learning. Educators are bringing blended learning and project based learning into the classroom. Students are researching, collaborating, and creating projects and products to showcase their mastery of content by using technology in meaningful ways.Wearable technologies, such as Google Glass, are  beginning to be used by teachers and students to support the instructional process. Teachers and students are sharing the ways they find to include Glass seamlessly into the curriculum via blogs, Twitter, and Google+ postings. Even though there may be only one pair of Glass in a classroom, the ability to screencast what the wearer sees and project it via an iOS or Android device, opens the world of Glass to everyone in the room. The ongoing development of applications to be installed on Glass, called Glassware, also provides various tools that can be used in the classroom.Some of the uses of Google Glass in the classroom includeStudents or teachers creating videos through the eyes of the wearer to share with others. These videos can be recorded and shared via YouTube as well as be shown in real-time by starting a Google Hangout.When wearing Glass, the wearer can use both of their hands, and can easily document a science lab, presentation, or other  class-related event and post that up to a class Facebook, Tumblr or Google+ account, all via Glass.WordLens is a Glassware app that translates what the viewer is reading to and from many languages. This can be very beneficial to a second language learner in the classroom.For students with physical handicaps, being able to search the Web via their voice as well as easily send  messages to a classroom backchannel, Twitter, or the teacher, can assist them with various classroom tasks.For students who are interested in developing applications, Google Glass provides another avenue of developing for a specialized device.The possibilities are endless as more applications are developed for the device and as Glass gets into the hands of more teachers and students. There are many educators in K-12 who are documenting how they are using Glass in the classroom. Educators are always eager to share and help one another!One great project is Margaret Powers (@mpowers3) "365 Days of Glass Project".  (http://http://365daysofglass.com/) Each day she documents how she and the students are using Glass in her schools. Recently, she recorded kindergarten students in her Maker Club, as they create flowers out of cups, cardboard, and additional materials. And the next day, after their unit on snow, the kindergarteners wore Glass to record images and videos of the snow outside and share them with classes they are collaborating with in Brazil and Singapore. The first-person perspective on her site becomes instructional for other teachers and makes it easy for them to replicate the lesson or project in their own classroom.Ms. Powers is also spearheading a global collaborative project between her K-2 students and other classes around the world who want to participate in virtual field trips and Google Hangouts to exchange cultural information and learn about other places in the world. These include classroom tours and first-perspective lessons. (http://globalclassroom2013-14.wikispaces.com/The+Global+Google+Glass+Project)An interesting pilot project that should provide teachers and students with more ways that Glass can be used in the classroom is the one at Lufkin Independent School District in Lufkin, Texas. The middle school students are encouraged to wear Glass and come up with ways for it to be used in school. As more schools get Glass in the classroom, there will be widespread sharing of thoughts and ideas.Having a single pair of Google Glass in the classroom reminds me of the days of the one-computer classroom. Everyone had to wait for a turn to use the device. I think once we see a K-12 school pilot with a classroom set of Glass, there will be many more practical and creative uses showcased.Resources for the support of Google Glass in ClassGoogle Glass in Class Resource Pagehttp://www.schrockguide.net/google-glass-in-class.htmlGoogle Glass in Education Google+ Communityhttps://plus.google.com/communities/107609996462187425150What are your thoughts about Google Glass in the classroom for teaching and/or learning? Email me or find me on Twitter @kathychrock  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

IPEVO Articulating Video StandIPEVO has come up with another winning device to help teachers in the classroom-- the IPEVO Articulating Video Stand for iPod and iPod Touch.This useful product holds your iPhone or iPod Touch in a sturdy metal stand to allow you to use your iDevice in any number of ways.The unique holder has springs which enable you to spread the holder open to easily insert the device and then gently release the springs.The holder with the springsThe holder can rotate easily to allow you to have the device in the direction you need it to be. Using the device as a doc cameraBy hooking up the iPhone or iPad Touch to a VGA projector or Apple TV, you can use it as a document camera, as shown. You can see that the articulating arms allow you to put it as close or far away from the item being projected as you need to.You can also use it for recording a video of a process for students or when editing an essay paper.Another great use of the IPEVO video stand is to use it to hold the iDevice steady when using animation software and the camera on the device to make an animated movie. When making an animation movie, it is important to be able to have the camera be steady.Using the front camera on the deviceYou can also use the front camera on the iPhone or iPod Touch and hold the item steady while having a Facetime or Skype video conference.The IPEVO Video Stand can articulate in many directions and heights to allow you to project or photograph items from small to large. The weighted base keeps it sturdy at all times!The IPEVO Articulating Video Stand comes in black or white and sells for $69.  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

This post originally appeared on the Discovery Educator blog network in December of 2013 in my blog "Kathy's Katch" at this URL: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2013/12/01/sketchnoting/.Way back in 1999, I was asked to be part of a team to craft the goals for the second version of the US DOE National Technology Plan.There were about fifty people in the room, from all areas of education. We had lots of discussions, then jigsawed to share thoughts, then shared out with the whole room, then had additional discussions with our new group, and then moved to more jigsaws to share, and then, again, sharing out publicly.However, as this was all going on, there was a gentleman who was sketching the whole-group sharing discussions on big pieces of chart paper that lined the room. I was fascinated watching him take our verbal ideas and turn them into visually-beautiful works of art that represented exactly what we were saying! He never asked a question or for a clarification of the content.During a break, I went to talk to him and asked him how he knew so much about educational technology that he could keep up with us as we both raised our hands and, sometimes, interrupted others. He told me he knew nothing about the content we were discussing and his company did this same type of visual notetaking for any content area or company. I was then TRULY amazed!On that day, these great works of art were photographed, and they were shared on the Web for a bit, but they are long gone. Fast-forward to today, and these same visual notes are starting to be created using digital tools. For whole group sharing, the visual notetaker is ususally using a tablet device, drawing software, and projecting the results to a large monitor. They are easily saved this way, but the participants cannot usually view them all at once. Even if the visual notes are created with pen and paper and then photographed or scanned, there are many new places to share them online. Visual notetaking is both an art and an organizational tool.THREE TYPES OF VISUAL NOTETAKINGThere are various ways visual notetaking can be used. The first, as my story outlines, is about the notetaker visually recording what is taking place in a meeting or lecture. The notetaker is not a participant in the conversation.The second type of use of visual notetaking occurs when the facilitator of a meeting or group is the one creating the visual notes. He or she is interacting with the others as the notes are created. As the facilitator, he or she may also be sparking additional conversation by adding elements to the visual notes to spur new avenues of thought or to keep the group on task.The third use of visual notetaking is now being used by many students and teachers and is commonly called "sketchnoting". Sketchnoting, in its purist form, is creating a personal visual story as one is listening to a speaker or reading a text. I also believe the interactive notebook, which includes the process of taking "regular" notes" while listening to a speaker and later creating a sketchnote of the text notes, should also be considered sketchnoting.My friend, Tracy Sockalosky (@tsocko) who has just begun to sketchnote, was attending the EdTech Teacher iPad Summit last week. Here is the link to the presentation she sketchnoted.  Tracy has just begun to sketchnote, but, as you can see from the image below, she is really getting it!PURPOSE OF VISUAL NOTETAKINGWhat is the purpose? Why should one draw and connect thoughts and ideas visually? The research is clear about the benefits of visually representing content and it is based on the research in the area of Allan Pavio’s dual coding theory. I am no expert in the theory, but I have found that this Education.com article by Mark Sadoski does a good job of providing a general overview and references for the work of Paivio.In addition, there is an extensive article by James M. Clark and Allan Paivio that provides some of the research into the relationship between the dual coding theory and education. It includes everything from teacher education to learning, memory, and study skills.Ben Norris created a Slideshare about sketch notes and includes his version of an image to illustrate the dual coding theory. The image was created by Sunni Brown and re-created by Norris.Dual coding theory visualINFO AND RESOURCES FOR YOU ON SKETCHNOTINGI have done a lot of reading and watching on the topic of sketchnoting, and all the tutorials and overviews state that one does not have to be an artist to sketchnote. It seems to be all about learning how to listen and how to plan and organize your sketchnoting. One way to practice sketchnoting would be to watch a short Discovery Education Streaming clip and sketchnote the content. Pretend you are in a graduate class or at a conference lecture. This would also be a great way to provide professional development for your teachers and students in sketchnoting. Their sketchnotes could serve as an introduction or summary of a Discovery Education Streaming video!Here is a well-done video about visual notetaking so you can learn more about it.I have also recently created a support page with resources for learning about sketchnoting in education and tutorials on how to sketchnote.Do you sketchnote? What tools do you use? Have you posted your sketchnotes and would like to share them with us? Have some favorite sample sketchnotes or tutorials? Email me or find me on Twitter @kathyschrock with any resources…thanks!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Black technology cases don't show the dirt, but I love red cases for my technology! I was recently forwarded two new red tech cases for review and love both of them!The Snugg Red Leather Macbook Pro 13" Wallet CaseI like to carry my laptops in wallet cases-- I don't need extreme padding since, when I travel, the laptops are always in a padded section of a computer case or backpack. The Snugg Red Leather MacbookPro 13" Wallet Case has a magnetic flap which makes it easy to open and close and avoids that noisy velcro sound! The back of the case, as you can see above, contains a full-width pocket for papers, file folders, or that new issue of MacLife or MacWorld! (This case is also available for the MacbookAir 13" and MacbookPro 15". And, maybe if we ask politely, Snugg will create the case for the MacbookAir 11", too!)Snugg has put some other thoughtful touches into this MBP 13" Wallet Case, too. Under the flap, you have a place to store business cards (or flash drives) as well as a cut-out in the case that allows you to charge your computer while it is in the case. And you can see the inside is lined with a soft material that keeps your Macbook scratch-free!Note the cut-out on the left that allows you to charge your computer while in the case!Now, if you are not a lover of red cases, the Snugg Leather MacbookAir and MacbookPro  Wallet Cases are also available in black, brown, candy pink, orange, gray, baby blue, electric blue, hot pink and white leather, too! You can order the item from Snugg's site or on Amazon. The price at this writing is $35.99 on either site. This case provides protection for your computer as well as being slim and stylish! (And I still like the red color the best!)Case Logic Griffith Park BackpackCase Logic makes a lot of backpacks for all different purposes, but I was drawn to the Griffith Park Backpack in red. This backpack also comes in black and gray.I am very particular about my backpacks. I only carry an 11" or 13" laptop when I travel, but I also have an iPad Air, my Google Glass and its case, and, of course, the chargers, cords, and dongles that are needed for presentations.The Griffith Park backpack has two main zippered sections. The back section has a padded pocket for the laptop and an additional pocket for a full-size iPad (or any 10.1" tablet). This section also has room for files, newspapers, or magazines.The second zippered section has a large pocket with two sections and another full-width pocket with a zippered, mesh pocket on the front of it with a key fob. This section has about a 2.5" width bottom. This is where I will carry my cable case, my Google Glass, or a light jacket for the plane.There are also other interesting pockets on the Griffith Park backpack. There is a felt-line zippered pocket at the top of the backback which is perfect protection for reading glasses, sunglasses, a point-and-shoot digital camera, or your phone. There is an open pocket on the front of the backpack with a quick-release clip where you can put those items you have to get to quickly like snacks, your boarding pass, or your paperback book. There are also two side pockets that can be used for storage and these are also designed to hold a water bottle.The most interesting pocket is one that is on the very bottom of the backpack. It is decent-sized, but not too deep. I might use this one for my toiletry quart-sized bag or even my small pocketbook, since it is easy to get to. You could also store cables or unbreakable items in this bottom pocket, too. I bet I can even pack my airplane pillow in it if I squish it down enough!SpecsSize:  12" x 10" x 17.3"Fits laptops up to : 9.8"x 1.1"x 14.3" I like the fact the backpack is not wide and will fit nicely under a plane seat and, of course, I will stand out in a crowd with the cool red color! The Griffith Park backpack is available from the Case Logic site for $79.99) and from Amazon.Neon image courtesy of http://linkus.flamingtext.com  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Way back in 1996, a small company, Forefront, contacted me and traded their new software, WebWhacker 1.0, for a small click-thorough to their site on my Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators page. It was the neatest piece of software. It allowed the me to download a Web page or series of Web pages to the computer desktop and the text and images were able to be accessed locally! To put things in perspective, this software was for Windows 3.1 and Mac OS 7.x with a beta version for Win 95. Those were the days when many of us were still writing HTML by hand to post our pages. It was nice to be able to download someone else's site to my computer to showcase it a workshop, since there was often not an network connection in workshop rooms. I would bring the "WebWhacked" sites on a diskette since, of course, we were all working on desktops.Nowadays, the ability to save Web page text and images to the the desktop is built right into the Web browsers. In Firefox, simply pick FILE-SAVE PAGE. In Chrome, pick SAVE PAGE AS - WEBPAGE, COMPLETE. In Safari,it is FILE - SAVE AS - WEB ARCHIVE. Don't forget to copy the original page's URL for your citation!However, the Web now has more types of information available than just Web pages that we want to archive or read locally when there is no Internet available. As students collect assets for a project, they are interested in Web pages, tweets, and videos. If students can download their assets to read and view when they do not have access to the Net, they can work on their projects anywhere. In addition, if educators require students to hand in their downloaded assets with their papers or projects, it can also be a deterrent to student plagiarism.Keep EverythingThere is a new software app for Mac computers and iPads created by groosoft that is called Keep Everything. It allows the user to locally archive Web pages, Tweets, videos, and more to the local computer or iPad. Users can simply drag the URL or Tweet to the Keep Eveything window and the archived pages are saved both locally and to a Dropbox folder and can be synced between all the user's Apple devices. Through Keep Everything, you can also get back to the original source page through a link icon. Another useful feature of Keep Everything is the choice available when downloading an article. The user can have the entire page archived or just simpler-looking page that includes the text of the article. The app is available for both the Mac and the iPad. Here is a introduction to how it works. I also made a short video on the Mac of how I saved a tweet with Keep Everything.  There are free versions of both apps to try out the product. There are in-app purchases to upgrade to the premium version. ($4.99 for iOS and $9.99 fo for the Mac.) The free version limits the user to under 100 saved items.iOS app store:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keep-everything/id786975595?mt=8Mac app store:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keep-everything/id786983884?mt=12   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I have been working with Visme.co, an online free suite of tools to help you "visualize your ideas". Once you create an account, you have the option to create a presentation, a banner ad, an infographic, start with a blank canvas, and (soon) create a product demo. Dashboard of VismeWith the Visme Free account, you can create up to three projects, which are branded with the Visme logo, and have a full set of features to use in your design; there are images, icons, and banners included, you can upload your own images, animate the elements in your project, and publish the finished project online or download it as a JPEG. There are two upgrade options that allow more projects, more storage space, more elements to use in the projects and other useful options. You can find out more about Visme Standard and Visme Complete here. Some new features that are coming soon are a Microsoft PowerPoint import into the presentation project as well as a number of new templates.I chose to create an infographic, since I have been learning and teaching about them for the past few years. I have used some of the other online infographic-making sites, but I like Visme since there are other types of visual products to create in addition to the infographic. The interfaces are all similar, so it makes it easy to move from type to type for any project I want to create.I admit that I am an infographic purist. With all of my reading on the topic, I have come to follow the ideas put forth by Eric K. Meyer in his 1977 book Designing Infographics. Meyer states a good infographic should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. He likens the visual elements in an infographic to those in a new story’s headlines and lead.In addition, he goes on to state that most readers skim both text and images rather than reading them, so a well-crafted visual image at the top of the infographic may just be the hook the viewer needs to stop and take the time to read and look at the information in the infographic. He talks about the way people read an infographic as an inverted pyramid style with the main point at the top and secondary point and supporting details down the page. Meyer also suggests any text in the title of the graphic should communicate facts rather than just label the information. Following is a sample that follows his guidelines.Sample of inverted pyramid style of infographicI view lots of infographics and many are just "infographic-like posters" with no weight to the visual information to help the reader understand what the creator thinks is the most important. However, with Visme, I could easily edit the themes to reflect the ideas from Eric Meyer that I wanted to utilize.The first thing you see in the infographics area of Visme are the themes to pick from to create your infographic. They are colorful and include traditional infographic elements like icons, graphs, and other visual elements that are easy to add, edit, color, resize, and rotate.Theme choices for an infographicI chose a template I knew I could easily work with to showcase the data I was presenting which was the overview data from the Pew Internet Research report (March 2013) on what devices students used to access the Internet. Template defaultI first came up with a catch phrase for in the top banner and a text title that was meaningful, but also left the viewer wanting more information. I played around with animating some of the elements, but decided, since I wanted to share this infographic in print form, I would not use this option. Animations would probably be better suited for banner ads, presentations, and product demos.   Beginning the infographicI took a look at the the Web icons that were included in Visme, and then decided to resize one of them to make it the focal point of the infographic. This area included the primary information from the Pew Report.Focal point of infographicI liked the graphics that were at the top of the original template and wanted to use them. One great feature was I could CNTRL-CLICK on each part of the graphics and highlight the entire section and then use the arrow keys to move it down the template to the area where I wanted to use the graphic elements.It is also very easy to add drop-shadows, layer your objects, and take advantage of many other editing features in Visme.Secondary details of infographicThe Visme projects include a chart maker that allows you to import data, pick a visualization, and add it to your infographic. I did not use the graph engine for this project since I already had the compiled data, but here is what it looks like.I decided to use one of the other infograph widgets to call out the percentages on each line of the secondary data on the infographic.And, at the bottom of the infographic I was able to insert my own image to personalize the project, include a text overview of the project, as well as the URL to the full Pew Internet Research report.Here is the completed infographic project. You can view it online at the Visme site at http://my.visme.co/projects/5eb122Give Visme a try, whether for an infographic, a presentation, or a custom project and share the URLs of your projects with me!   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

I had a PixiClip account for a while but had not yet put it through its paces. Last week, I was asked to pen a sponsored post and provide ways it might be used to support teaching and learning.PixiClip describes itself as an "interactive whiteboard" but it is so much more!PixiClip is a browser-based, screen recording tool. It is simple to use and has the added advantage of allowing the creators of the recordings to include their voice or video of themselves as part of the recording. I have been using screen recording tools on mobile devices and stand-alone computer programs for creating screen recordings. Having a browser-based tool like PixiClip, that works right inside of Firefox, Safari, Chrome (even on the Chromebook), and IE, means that once I have created an account, I can use any computer to make a screen-recording.PixiClip hosts the screen recordings you make, and registered users can keep them private or share them with the public, and they can also delete any older screen recordings as they become out of date.How it worksI recorded my screen as I created a Pixiclip screen recording. Watch the movie below to see the process. Some of the aspects I point out in the recording are:Start by picking "Start Doodling"Consider using a stylus for writing and drawing; it is more naturalStart your Webcam and make sure you are in the pictureGather your image assets to the PixiClip image drawer before you beginAs soon as you move an image to the board or start writing, the recording starts, so be ready to begin your lesson or overviewWhen complete, publish the item, give it a name and a description, have the cursor show or not, and make the item public, private, hidden or passwordedShare the link via various social networks or email, or grab the embed code to put into a blog entryVideo of processURL: http://youtu.be/Pgs5vygEPbwURL for the pen cap image and more: http://www.thisismarvelous.com/i/89-Imaginative-3D-Illustrations-Made-From-Everyday-Objects-by-Victor-Nunes Embedded PixiClip from the PixiClip serverURL: http://www.pixiclip.com/beta/c/ezfjUsing PixiClip in the Classroom: StudentsHaving access to a screen recording tool like PixiClip on every computer via the Web browser, both at school and at home, allows students to use screen recording in various ways. In addition, have the ability to post it online with or without a password allows students to share with their teachers and their peers.Each student can create a how-to for a certain mobile app to allow others to access their explanation when neededStudents can create a screen recording as a Ticket-to-Leave, summarizing what they learned and allowing them to go over what they were unsure about during that day's lessonStudents can create a introduction or "trailer" to a project that they are creatingStudents can outline the process or storyboard they are going to use to create a projectUsing PixiClip in the Classroom: TeachersTeachers can create an introduction to a daily lesson for days when they are attending a workshop and not in the classroomTeachers can use a screen recording as feedback to a student while marking up their paper on the whiteboard in PixiClipTeachers can create their own "Khan-like" screen recordings to provide students with both remediation and instructional videosCreate a screen recording exemplar representing what you want the students to create with PixiClipI have an entire page dedicated to screen recording in the classroom. It includes additional ideas, tips and tricks that you can employ when making your PixiClip screen recordings.Have you created any PixiClip recordings you would like to share? Can you think of other ways that PixiClip can help support you in teaching and your students in learning? Send me a note with your samples and ideas!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything