Hello from beautiful Eureka, Montana, just minutes away from the US-Canada border! I am here today to facilitate workshops at "Eureka! It’s A Google Fest" presented by Rob "Rocket Rob" Reynolds and the rest of the fabulous staff at Lincoln County High School.  Rob is Montana’s local Google Guru and has been preaching to the world about Google Apps, Chromebooks and Androids before those concepts were cool. I am humbled to be amongst a group of excellent presenters, including Wisconsin phenoms Michael Jabber and Dan Sitter, Beyond the Chalk‘s Jeff Crews and Dean Phillips (who was constantly confused for Mike at NCCE in Seattle… Dean is the one with Google Glass on… ) and Eurkea’s own Rocket Rob, Heather Dunn, and Angela Price. I am presenting three times today, and wanted to share my slide decks and a little of my angle.  I certainly do not need to be talked into the power of Google tools and, in particular, the Google Apps for Education suite.  However, I have been challenging myself lately to stop saying "technology is great!" and instead, talk about what you can do with technology, i.e., "technology is great for building world-changing widgets." Here are my presentations and slide decks: Presentation Zen: Google Style Inspired by the excellent work of Garr Reynolds, I take a stab at crafting simple, effective slide deck techniques using Google Presentations. I like the simplicity of Google Presentations and argue that the simple interface actually advantages those looking for clean, effective presentations. We have ChromeBooks!  Yay!  Now what??! I am now asked several times a month from teachers, "I have been stuck with these Chromebooks… any suggestions what to do with it?"  The Chromebook can be an awesome way to provide a good, scalable experience to students in a 1:1 environment but requires you evolve your expectations and integration practice to utilize this platform’s strengths.  This is my first presentation with my picks for the best tools you can adopt in a Chrome-only world. Up Your Assessment Game with Google! Similar to a number of talks I have given over the past year, I take on the notion of how a teacher can utilize Google tools to increase their effective classroom assessment practice. I am excited to be part of this event in a school district and region that embraces technology as an empowering force to help students change the world. Check out the tweets today at #googlefest… I know I will be on Twitter! If you are interested in these or other trainings in your district, contact NCCE to discuss bringing a tech-savvy teacher to your district! Thanks to Team Eureka for being excellent hosts!

The CUE conference just occurred last weekend and I wanted to use this space to summarize some of the information I gained through this conference.  It is important to understand that I wasn’t in Palm Springs this past weekend, I was in Montana. (Apparently I prefer arctic weather).  We now live in a time were we don’t necessarily need to be physically present at a conference to gain knowledge, we just have to be connected.  I  used Storify to grab a few tweets from the conference that I thought most of you would find valuable.  In addition, Mary Jo Madda wrote a great article for Edsurge about some highlights of the conference for her. Enjoy!   [View the story "CUE conference" on Storify]

We have featured Chelsie Jolley, a teacher in Stillwater, Minnesota, previously on the NCCE blog.  She has also written a guest post on this blog about geocaching with her students. Chelsie was recently featured in a video promoting the educational foundation in her district for writing grant proposals to bring geocaching technology to her classroom.  The two minute video is nothing short of amazing as you can see her students engaged in some amazing activities outdoors with technology: I am particularly interested in Chelsie’s story here.  She was first introduced to geocaching at the NCCE conference in Portland.  Inspired by the technology, she has, year after year, honed her craft to bring a wonderfully engaging platform to her primary classroom.  The ultimately result is inspired students.  That’s why technology can be so powerful: if it inspires you to think differently about teaching, learning or engaging, the ultimately winners are our students. Enjoy.

John Vaille, PSESD Assistant Superintendent/Chief Technology Officer, named CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking) Volunteer of the Year Award 2014 Winner John is the CTO at Puget Sound ESD in Washington and one of the leading champions of CoSN’s CETL certification program. As co-chair of the Certification Governing Committee, the body that oversees the program, he has dedicated countless hours to ensuring that our certification is rigorous, fair, and up-to-date. He has also built community among CTOs in the Northwest by organizing and managing CETL study groups, including a new one online. John’s volunteer commitment and spirit of innovation have been critical to CoSN’s work. Congratulations John from the entire NCCE community on your well deserved honor!

I presented a session on Twitter 101 for educators a few weeks ago at NCCE 2014.  This post is the evolution of that initial presentation.  One attendee of that session was Matt Rosenberg @MattRosenberg3. From my presentation he just created a great YouTube video building off of his learning to share with his followers.  Meanwhile, Peter, a reader of our blog, posted to the Ask a Tech Savvy Teacher section: "I’ve heard about the many promising uses of Twitter, signed up a long time ago, and every now and then am reminded by Twitter users that I should be embracing it, but I still don’t "get it". Can you recommend any good resources so I can fully/finally understand its appeal and uses. Interested in both the "big picture" WHY I want to use it, and the "nuts and bolts" HOW to make it work." This is a great example of how we can all work together to increase our collective knowledge.  By being an educator that is willing to share, ask questions, and seek new knowledge, the sky’s the limit for the learning opportunities we can provide children.  Thank you Peter for being willing to ask for more information and to Matt for creating a great online resource.  Bringing educators together is what NCCE is all about and I am so happy with how today’s post came out of collaboration.  Here is Matt’s video and to all of our readers, keep the questions coming and let us know if you create a resource for others we can share in this space.

I had a wonderful time a few weeks back in Eureka, Montana for their GoogleFest!  I met so many great teachers and Google users and I was very inspired to continue looking for ways to integrate more Google tools into my program’s workflow. I did receive a great question during a workshop sectional from a Columbia Falls teacher that is worth discussing in detail.  She uses Google Drive documents in her middle school language arts curriculum to create a back-and-forth workflow between her and students.  She currently has students share each document with her directly using the Drive sharing settings.  This works, but, is creating a massive number of documents in her main folder, creating an organizational headache.  She asked… "what can I do to make this less chaotic?" There are a number of ways you could approach this, but, my suggestion was to set up a share folder with each student and have them drop in their assignments when complete.  Depending on the tech-savvy of your students, you could either set this up yourself, or have students set up the folder and share back with you. Option 1: YOU Create Dropboxes for Your Students Creating dropboxes for your students is easy, but, will take a little setup.  Essentially, you are going to create a folder for each student and share each folder with your student directly.  When a student drops a file and/or assignment into that folder, it will be shared back with you automatically.  Nifty, huh? Step 1: Create the folder Pro tip: To help keep this process organized, you can nest these folders by period and/or subject.  In this case, I have created a folder called "Period 1," and then "Student, Sally - English I Share" for my English I class for Sally student: Step 2: Share the folder Start by right-clicking the folder, then:  Enter the student’s email address and allow "can edit."   Press send! At this point, the student will be able to log into their account and see the folder under "Shared with me:"   Now, all a student has to do is drag-and-drop documents into that shared folder and they will be automatically shared with the teacher with editing rights!  No additional sharing is required. This option is best if your students are new to Google Drive or if you don’t mind investing an hour or so of time to make it "just work" for your students. Option 2: Your Students Create a Dropbox FOR YOU The other option is to have your students create a dropbox and share it with you.  You will have less ability to decide on naming conventions, etc., but, it means you can accomplish this with a quick 10-minute lesson to start a class and then some time to clean up and organize. That’s it! There are other ways to accomplish the sharing tasks and if you have a preferred method, hit us up in the comments below. Happy cloud computing!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy! Dream X (iOS App Store)

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

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

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

There is no question that our means of interacting with technology is fast evolving, but even the most modern mobile devices and wearable technologies still have a limited interface.  What’s next in this space?  Check out this fascinating TED talk… the demo is amazing!

NCCE is offering FREE Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources workshops in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington this summer.  Two options are available - a Level I session for people who have never participated and Level II session for those of you who have attended a Library of Congress workshop in the past.  For more information and to apply today, please visit:  NCCE 2014 Summer  NCCE Library of Congress TPS Workshops 2014 Level I (Introductory) ·         July 14-17 (Billings, MT) ·         July 23-24 (Spokane, WA) ·         July 28-29 (Lewiston, ID) ·         July 31-August 1 (Ashland, OR) ·         August 5-6 (Vancouver, WA) ·         August 6-7 (Meridian, ID) ·         August 12-13 (Mukilteo, WA)                       This two-day Level I workshop will introduce you to the vast collections on the Library of Congress’s rich reservoir of over 19 million digital resources and explore how you can use them to engage students in the classroom. Two-day workshops will include information on: Navigating the Library of Congress website for digital content Searching digitized materials and lessons Analyzing primary sources and discussing lesson implementation strategies Exploring Copyright information Designing lessons utilizing Library of Congress materials Links to Common Core Standards Engaging and challenging students using primary source materials Continuing Education hours and College Credit available. NCCE Library of Congress TPS Workshops 2014 Level II Training (Advanced) ·         August 12-13 (Mukilteo, WA) Special guest Dr. Sam Wineburg, Stanford Graduate School of Education will join us one day. This two-day workshop will focus on understanding Inquiry-based teaching using Primary Source materials from the Library of Congress. Emphasis will be on developing lessons designed around the inquiry model and meeting common core standards. Thank you for your continued interest in the Library of Congress! Questions? Email Becky Firth, bfirth@ncce.org

We recently were asked about the best ways to record audio using an iPad.  This is actually a question that requires some thought as there are many solutions. Depending on your desired outcome, some ways are better then others.  Below are scenarios in the classroom and different hardware for the job: Scenario 1: Quick recording in the classroom, ideally in a quiet space. Solution: Built-in Microphone on the iPad All iPads come with a built-in microphone that can be all you need in some scenarios.  If there is background noise and/or distance between the recorded person and the iPad you will be disappointed with the built in mic.  If students have a quiet space and are close to the iPad, the built-in mic can have good results.  Below is a video made by a middle school student explaining a math concept.  This example shows the quality that the built-in mic can provide, given the correct setting: Scenario 2: Recording another person using the iPad Two Solutions: USB Microphones using the iPad Camera Connection Kit or Microphones using the 3.5 audio jack on the iPad This scenario is really where the built-in mic falls apart.  Usually the individual being recorded is too far away or there is too much surrounding noise to get quality audio.  In this scenario it is better to use either a USB microphone or a microphone that uses the 3.5 audio jack on the iPad. USB Microphones using the iPad Camera Connection Kit The iPad works with many USB microphones using an adapter called the Camera Connection Kit (*New iPads or Mini’s need this camera adapter).  It is important to realize that Apple does not list this as an actual feature.  The main reason for this is the USB connection is underpowered vs. a regular USB port and thus some power hungry USB microphones will appear to not work.  There is an interesting work around: If you plug in a microphone into a powered USB hub and then plug the powered USB hub into the iPad almost any mic will work.  This is obviously not the cleanest solution but we are all about getting our nerd on at this blog!  Luckily most USB microphone manufactures indicate if their microphone will work with an iPad at this point.  The good news with this solution is many buildings already have some USB mics lying around and for the price of the adapter you very well could be off and running with a better audio solution.  If you are interested in a purchasing a USB mic, get ready to spend some money.  Today’s USB mics are very high quality and produce great sound, but at a price.  Budget around $100-$200 for a current USB mic.  Our current recommendation is microphones from Blue.  Blue even has a microphone out called the Spark that has both the USB connection and either the 30 pin or Lightning connection.  If this seems like overkill to you then the 3.5 audio jack microphones are for you. 3.5 audio jack Microphones This solution makes sense for most classrooms.  With a wide variety of products at many different price points the microphones that plug into the 3.5 mm audio jack (Where you plug in headphones) are a great solution for schools.  Below are 3 different types of audio jack microphones that represent different price points. "Pill" type microphones  At the $2 - $10 range, the "pill" type microphone is an inexpensive way to enhance the audio recording on an iPad.  The advantage to this design is that it adds a direction to the microphone vs. the built-in mic that picks up sound from all around.  While an improvement, the pill design still struggles with distance recording.  Another drawback is it can be awkward for students to use these types of microphones while holding the iPad.  This solution is better then the built in mic, but only slightly.       Telephone type microphone   Made like a telephone handheld set, the device ranges from $5 - $20. Great sound isolation and fun for students to use, this solution can be a great fit in the classroom.  If you are using your iPad to record video and audio this solution might distract from the filming.  I have used this solution to record students reading and it has been really successful.       Shirt Clip Mic with cable extender This is a a great solution for classrooms that want to record video with audio.  By combining a 6ft 3.5 mm extender (Monoprice $1.75) with a lapel mic ($1 - $3), students can record high quality audio with their video.  An obvious drawback is the cord, but with proper management this is a great cost effective way to get great sound.     There you have it.  There are many different options and many options to keep in mind, but luckily for classrooms many of the solutions are very inexpensive.  In a future post I will explore different apps that support audio recording and offer some classroom uses.  I purposely did not add links to some of the devices unless I have used a product directly.  Monoprice is always my recommended place to start for cords, mics, and any accessories.  As always, share your thoughts, other recommended solutions, and comments below.

[This part of my series on attempting to go Chromebook only as a mobile platform.  See details about my experiment here.] I am nearing the end of my first week with the Dell Chromebook 11, the Chromebook I am using for at least the next two months as my primary mobile computing platform.  I did spend some time researching the various options, and considered everything from the yet-to-be-released (and now delayed) Samsung Chromebook 2 to the beautifully designed 11″ and 14″ HP Chromebook line. I ultimately decided on the Dell because of its Intel processor, 4gb RAM option and rugged build look.  I was also persuaded by the media that suggested that this model was "best for education" (although, really does that even mean?). On hardware only, here are my initial reactions: Awesome! The Dell Chromebook has amazing built quality.  While the build is very plastic, it feels great in the hand and is light without feeling cheep.  The screen is edge-to-edge glass and while I still don’t like the 1366×768 resolution on platform, the screensize seems good enough here to be an effective mobile tool. The ports are fine: two USB ports, an SD card slot and an HDMI out. I do wish there was an a display port, mini display port or VGA port to allow for easier external display disport. The HDMI port is very functional however.  I wasn’t able to get it to work with our office conference television, but, I did set up with an older monitor with HDMI in.  I was able to put together a functional standing workstation using the Chromebook as a base. Here is my Chromebook docking station. I could probably use some wire management. :) The hardware is speedy, which I attribute to the Intel chip and 4gb of RAM.  I regularly have 5+ windows open and there has been no real sluggishness to report. The battery life is also amazing.  I have been reliably getting 9+ hours for each charge.  This beats my previous platform (MacBook Air 11″/2012) and rivals what I am able to get from my iPad mini. Meh! So far, it has been mostly upsides but there are certainly downsides to consider. First, there is a lot of noise on the Internet about the fan noise with this specific model.  I haven’t noticed this, either using it in docking mode (which might require more processing power to run the larger monitor) or using it as a laptop.  I also haven’t noticed it running too warm or hot either. Second, I have also seen a number of references to the display, both the resolution and the the quality.  While I agree that the 1366×768 resolution isn’t my preference, that is really standard for notebooks, netbooks, and ultrabooks at this size.  More importantly, there are some emerging Chromebooks that brag about 1090p resolution, which I am sure looks great, but, I worry about the trade-off with battery life and speed. Overall Overall?  I’m impressed.  This is a well-built, speedy platform for the ChromeOS.  It is comfortable to use, and while it isn’t made of the premium materials that I would expect with a platform like Apple or a high end Lenovo machine, it is built well enough to put up with even heavy use.

          In Partnership with:       Bring you Grants, Competitions and Other "Winning" Opportunities: Share Breakthroughs in Learning Teachability, an online collaborative community for teachers, has launched the Dream STEM Classroom contest with a teacher prize package worth more than $2,000. The package includes a 3-D Printer, Telescope, Microscope, MinecraftEdu Classroom License and more. Teachability is a place for teachers to interact and share breakthroughs in the classroom. The site provides educators with STEM resources and tools to help their students succeed. Click Here for More Information SHARE:  Supplement Your Stretched Budget GetEdFunding is a free and fresh website sponsored by CDW•G to help educators and institutions find the funds they need in order to supplement their already stretched budgets. GetEdFunding hosts a collection of more than 2,300 (and growing) grants and other funding opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and available to public and private, preK-12 educators, schools and districts, higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations that work with them. GetEdFunding offers customized searches by six criteria, including 43 areas of focus, eight content areas and any of the 21st century themes and skills that support your curriculum. After registering on the site, you can save the grant opportunities of greatest interest and then return to them at any time. This rich resource of funding opportunities is expanded, updated and monitored daily. Click Here to Visit Website SHARE:  Engage Students in Inquiry-Based Projects The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) has announced a competitive grant program in partnership with theRay C. Anderson Foundation. Sixteen $2,500 grants will be awarded to schools or nonprofit organizations for the purpose of engaging children in inquiry-based projects in STEM fields that use innovation, biomimicry/nature-based design or technology in new ways to address environmental problems in their communities. Deadline: May 31, 2014 (as funds allow) for projects in the summer and fall of 2014 Click Here for More Information

I recently saw this excellent panel discussion on "the future" from the Milken Institute.  There are number of interesting propositions here: the printing of human organs, exploring and mining asteroids, and expanding the boundaries of human capability. Most applicable to education is a fascinating discussion on computers engaging in debate using the Watson technology.  We have previously covered the Watson technology previously on this blog and the response of the Jeopardy contestants that were sounded beat by it. The researchers discussing the participation of Watson in presenting arguments make an amazing claim: we are finding that the pathway of using these amazing technologies isn’t replacing human thought, but, complementing it to make decisions.  This certainly applies to any tech-savvy teacher! Enjoy:

It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week! Congratulations to all of the outstanding educators this week! In honor of National Teacher’s Appreciation Week, NCCE would like to give away two full registrations ($475 value) to the NCCE 2015 Conference in Portland. To win, be one of the first TWO people to email Bobby at bmyers at ncce dot org. The winners will be announced on Friday, May 9th!

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Exo Labs released the Exo Labs Camera and accessories to the public last summer.  There has been great buzz around this product and we were happy to get our hands on the equipment and put it to the Tech-Savvy test! The Camera: The Exo Labs Camera ($395 MSRP) shines from the minute you pull it out of the box.  We were impressed with how versatile and rugged the camera proved to be in a variety of situations.  This camera is first and foremost marketed as a way to bring your microscope lab to the next level.  The camera works with almost any microscope you currently have at your school with the thoughtful addition of multiple lens adapters.  The construction of the camera really impressed us.  Teachers know that equipment built for students needs to be durable, yet easy to use.  The Exo Camera fits that description perfectly - the aluminum casing feels like it will stand the test of time.  The process of switching lenses proved to be an easy task. There is only one way to orient the lens which makes changing lenses easy.  Turning the lens a quarter turn locks the lens into place and you are set for more exploration. Extending from the camera is a 30 pin iPad cable with a power adapter port.  The power adapter plugs into the 30 pin cord and powers both the camera and iPad.  This attentive design is very appreciated in the classroom.  By powering both the camera and iPad, a teacher can set up a station in the morning and know that it will last through the day.  If you have an iPad 4 or iPad Air, the 30 pin Lightning adapter passes both the image and power to the device. Supporting iPad 2 through the iPad Air in addition to iPod Touch and iPhone (Generation 4 and up), the Exo Lab camera ensures maximum device compatibility. The Focus App: The camera is only as good as the software and we are happy to report that the Exo Labs app is really well done.  Given the youth of this product, we thought the app may leave some things to be desired, but that trepidation was quickly resolved.  The app (iOS: Free) gives you a variety of tools that highlight the versatility of the camera.  One of our tech savvy requirements of an app of this nature is the ability to take images/videos and quickly save them to cloud based storage.  The app exceeded our requirement by supporting exports to multiple cloud based services, such as Google Drive, One Drive (Microsoft), Dropbox, and Flickr.  We would like to see the team add Evernote as an additional option in the future as many students use Evernote as their main note taking app.  Once you have linked your cloud based account in the app, capturing and saving happens behind the scenes seamlessly. The Focus App offers both Low and High Resolution settings.  The low setting makes the image more responsive (while you are focusing the microscope for instance) and the high resolution setting brings out great detail in the image.  The image on the left is of a fruit fly in high resolution.  In addition, you can add different filters to really bring contrast to the image. The app allows you to take point to point measurements, make annotations, drop pins, and create labels.  All of these features add a level of depth to the learning process that was not available before this type of technology became available.  It is easy to envision a student labeling objects under the microscope, then saving the image to his/her cloud based storage, and finally sharing the file with the teacher.  Paperless learning makes for a very happy tech-savvy teacher! In addition to still images, the app can be used to make time captured video.  In discussions with science teachers in my building, it was the time capture feature that really set the Exo Lab system apart from the competition.  Imagine capturing mold growing under a microscope for three days and have that condensed down to a few minute video.  Because both the camera and iOS device are powered from an external power source, you can leave both on for days at a time and capture amazing video.  To demonstrate the time capture ability I have a video of Skittles dissolving in water.  This is 15 minutes sped up to 15 sec.  (This video was captured using the optional zoom lens accessory discussed below) The final capture option is to grab full video of the object.  All of these formats are directly saved to your cloud based storage for your use in the future. We can see many teachers wanting to use this technology to demonstrate different concepts to the entire class.  To achieve this the Exo Focus app supports mirroring to an Apple TV. We wanted to check if we could daisy chain an iPad video out cable while plugging in the Exo camera.  Unfortunately, this is a limitation, but to be fair it appears to be the limitation set by Apple and not an engineering oversight. The app is available for Free from the iOS app store.  You need to have the Exo camera plugged in for the app to function. Exo Accessories: Exo Labs has expanded the capability of the Exo Camera by offering either the Benchtop Kit  (MSRP: $125) or the Discovery Kit (MSRP: $125).  Both kits come with a variable lens that gives a focal length of 2.8-12 mm.  The Discovery kit comes with a fix positioned stand with a built-in LED light source.  The Benchtop Kit comes with high-quality GorillaPod stand and bracket for easy attachment and positioning.  Both work well but if I had to choose I would go with the Benchtop kit to take advantage of its versatility. The Exo Accessories make perfect sense in an elementary classroom. From plant and rock investigation to time lapse video of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, the possibilities are endless.     Our Verdict  The Exo Labs Camera, App, and Accessories all get the Tech-Savvy Teacher stamp of approval.  Everything Exo Labs has produced is high quality, easy to use, and offers numerous ways to enhance learning in your classroom.  The addition of educational pricing shows Exo Labs’ commitment to the educational sector.  This is the time of year where teachers across the country spend down remaining classroom budgets and building money.  Exo Labs products should be on your purchase list, they will definitely be on ours!