Technology Integration Specialist - Career Fair

Last Friday, I had the privilege of speaking to 100 eighth grade students during a career fair.  I was fairly certain that students knew what "technology" careers existed: computer programmer, IT, security, computer systems analysis, etc. I was also fairly certain that students didn't know what a Technology Integration Specialist was.  Starting with upbeat music, Brighter Than The Sun & Best Day Of My Life, as the students entered, followed with my enthusiasm, and my connection with many of the students through my teaching of a technology tool in their classes during the year provided an eye opening experience for them.  Students realized that a teacher in a school district doesn't just need to be in the classroom.

I didn't get into education with the intent to be a Technology Integration Specialist, however, "playing" with so many tech tools,  teaching adults and students, and redesigning educational learning environments has truly been a calling that I love.

Maybe my presentation will bring the next generation of great people into the educational world as a Technology Integration Specialist.

View Link To Presenation



Presentation Highlights:
Slide 12: My Job: Investigating New Tech Tools
Slide 13: Rapid Fire - students opened the iPads and said the name of an app, I told the students exactly what the app was used for in education - Reason? Tech Integrators need to know many tech tools to provide teachers with ideas
Slide 14: Team teaching is one of the greatest aspects of my job
Slide 15: Providing tech support
Slide 24: Responsible Online: I showed them my iPaddiction blog and asked them to guess how many views it has had since 2010...they were amazed by the amount of people who are interested in what our school is doing with technology

App Smash Options For End Of Year Projects

*All links are examples of the apps in use with different content areas.
The end of the year is upon us.  AP testing dates are passing soon.  Providing a valuable "Show What You Know" project can be an effective method for an end of the unit/year project.  Finding the right combination of apps to "smash" together can provide choice for students as they provide you with the insight that they have.

Starting with iPads, here are some suggestions for smashing apps to create "Show What You Know" opportunities.

Pic Collage + Funny Movie Maker + iMovie

Pic Collage can be a great tool to place more than one image together to make an image.  With that, Funny Movie Maker can be used to transform any image into a talking image with 30 seconds of audio.  Combine those to applications into an iMovie and students can "Show What They Know" from different character perspectives.  Since Funny Movie Maker is free, it does provide some advertisement.  Simply "cut" that portion out while the movie is opened in iMovie.  

 PicCollage + Thinglink + Explain Everything

PicCollage is a great tool to place more than one image with other images.  Take that image and place it into a Thinglink and all aspects of the combined images can be interactive.  Taking that image and placing it in an Explain Everything through the link that Thinglink provides can allow an opportunity for an audio recording that enhances the creation.

Snapseed is the premier image editing app.  It allows for many filters and alterations that can enhance the image.  Combine multiple images into a PicCollage and add that to a Haiku Deck for presentations and a challenging, yet enriching, app smash has occurred.

As always the final products can be shared with the instructor via Google Drive.

AP Stats Review Utilizing GetKahoot!

We believe that GetKahoot is a great tool for AP review due to the time element.

View Class Activities

Pulaski New Website: Fine Tune Settings

Our district site is new and running!  It's fantastic.  Some helpful hints below may help in making the transition easy and efficient for you!

View Clearing Browser History           Read Clearing Browser History


Once the browsing history is cleared, the home page for staff while logged into a school computer can be accessed by click the "home button".

The "Employee Intranet" is an internal portal with a collection of resources only available to a group of people.  Since it is restricted, you will need to use your Pulaski Google Account to view.

You can access this from any computer using: http://www.pulaskischools.org/intranet/  If you are not logged into a Pulaski Google Account, you will be prompted for your Pulaski credentials.  

Need to change your Pulaski profile?  

You may have noticed that you are not on the "Teacher's Websites"

Change that here!

Need to access school Gmail on your iPhone/iPad? View Directions
Need specific school alerts sent to your phone? View Directions
Do you still have information on your CMS4schools site that students need?  Please contact Ken at technology for details on how to view and send that information to your students.  You could also view these directions to understand what needs to be done before June 30.  Remember, you have until June 30.  After that, the information on CMS for schools will be no longer accessible.

Any other questions, please ask via email!

Gmail: Edit Subject Line in Reply or Forward

"I've always wondered how to do that!"

Here it is!

Close Reading Presented Through Movenote

Jamie Barszcz, Reading Specialist, and Becky Wellens, Reading Coach, wanted to provid some insight into strategies for successful Close Reading.  Because of past Movenote productions by our counselor, the ladies thought that Movenote would be the best tool to teach educators. Remember Movenotes can be downloaded as PDFs.

View the Presentation

Movenote On iPad

"Heartbleed" For Educators

As previously taught at a Lunch N' Learn, passwords are very important tools that need to be elaborate and at the forefront of an educators mind.  Over the last week, Heartbleed, has become a household name.

Or that's what I thought.

Most educators have not heard of it, and if they have and ask, "What is it, again?"

Here are the important things you need to know.
It is not malware, spyware, or a virus.
It is a hole in the code that writes the internet.
It deals with this:

There are SO many articles on the web like this one that help you decide what to do!

The most important thing you can do is to...
Check the listing of website that have confirmed they have been affected.  A live and updated list is
growing here!  Another HUGE list that outlines the sites affected exists here!
Major Sites You Need To Know Have Been Compromised:
Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Yahoo, Amazon Web, Netflix, YouTube, Dropbox, IFTTT, and others
FANTASTIC INFOGRAPHIC!

What You Need To Do...
Determine what sites you use and if they have been impacted.  HERE's A SITE FOR THAT!!!
CHANGE YOUR Passwords. (School computer ctrl + alt + delete will change school computer AND automatically change your Pulaski Google Account)


STOP using the SAME password for EVERY site.
Set up a password pass phrase system. (See Below)
Enable Two-Step Verification on ALL sites that have it!
Especially Your Pulaski Google Account






Another educator taught Heartbleed in a great way!

Discovery Education Board Builders

As an alternative to Smore.com, we are using Discovery Education Board Builders.

Learn About Them

Learning On The Loo - Bi-Weekly Faculty Rest Room Reading Material

Providing continuous and relevant technology integration tools and information takes creativity.  Learning On The Loo was discovered on Twitter and has been issued (and by that I mean placed in strategic areas in faculty restrooms) since February 5, 2014.

I place new editions every two weeks on Wednesday.  I have decided to use Microsoft Publisher as it seemed to be the best tool for the job.  As you can see, the design has evolved.  I have even started to be concerned about "color schemes" by Googling it!  I have also posted a copy of each "Learning On The Loo" in our "Lunch N' Learn" area which has generated discussion as well.

Archiving each edition has occurred by uploading a PDF version into a shared Google Drive Folder.  The folder is shared with other Library Media Specialists throughout our district.

View the Folder!

So far, so good!

#APPMADNESS Winner

It was truly a heated battle.  Close to 1,400 total votes.

Google Drive is the people's nAPPtional Champion!

Thank you to everyone who joined in the bracket fun!

Chrome Audio Icon

So many times audio is leaving the speakers of our school computers.  Many times sites will "auto play" audio and you may not know what tab the audio is coming from!

Chrome Web Browsers have AUDIO ICONS that will appear on the tab that audio is playing on.

The image below has an AUDIO ICON toward the right of the tab.  The icon ONLY plays when audio is coming from a resource on that tab.

Mystery Solved.

Spanish Keyboard On Chromebook

Getting Spanish characters on a Chromebook takes a few simple steps.

View The Steps

"OPEN MIC" Lunch N' Learn

Source

So many topics get presented, tomorrow's Lunch N' Learn will be different!

An open mic is a live show where audience members may perform at the microphone. In this case, you just need to submit your technology question in the form or ask the question during Lunch N' Learn.  

Even if you can't make the Lunch N' Learn, your question will get answered!

If questions are limited, a refresher on "Teacher Effectiveness" areas in "My Learning Plan" will be discussed.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS!

PicCollage To Google Drive Shared With Teacher

As students are completing Workplace Writing PicCollage projects at different rates, a video is the best resource for showing the process.  As different students complete the process, they may watch the video on their own time.

View Instructions

Google Hangout With Pulaski Alumni From Spain

Because of an idea and a training session on Google Hangouts, we were able to hangout out with one of our Alumni!

View The Video


See Modeling Google Hangout With An Educator

Impact On Students:
Collaboration: Allowing former students and experts to join students "in their classroom virtually" can add insight into the content and questions that students may have.  Google Hangouts enables for collaboration with experts!

Modeling Google Hangout With An Educator

Mrs. Brylski, high school human geography teacher, wants to connect with a former student who is in Spain.  To help Mrs. Brylski, I sat next to her desk and walked through setting up her Google + account.  (This video up to 5:00 was helpful in learning how to do this) After this, I invited her to a Google Hangout, she invited me to a Google Hangout, and finally we completed one while recording while in the same room.  The recording allowed us to explain why we were using Google Hangouts and to truly experience it under a low pressure situation.

It was also a great time for me as a tech coach to record my first Google Hangout.  I know that I'm slightly behind in doing this, but now that it was successful, I'll continue.  I have also discovered that by default the recorded video is set to unlisted.  I changed it to public.

As much as possible, I like to model tech tools and the implementation of them with teachers.

Success.

View The Hangout


View The Hangout With The Alumni From Spain


Impact On Students:
Collaboration: Allowing former students and experts to join students "in their classroom virtually" can add insight into the content and questions that students may have.  Google Hangouts enables for collaboration with experts!

Explaining Blood Flow In Heart Using Google Slides

Mr. Anderson, our high school anatomy teacher, used Chromebooks and Google Slides for students to teach and understand the flow of blood through the heart.  The simplistic, but elegant presentation tools allowed for students to use drawing tools, shapes, and text boxes found in Google Slides to annotate images of the heart.  As Mr. Anderson states, "The tool (Google Slides) made it more visual to see the steps that occurred."

View Product


View Product


Impact On Students:
Creativity: Understanding the scope and sequence of the flow of blood through the heart doesn't need to be boring.  Students were given freedom to show this sequence with whatever images or annotations they desired.
Critical Thinking: Students needed to have enough words, but not too many on each slide to establish the needed information.  Students were also required to think through the entire process so that the flow of blood through the heart could be understood by people outside of the classroom.

Final Four AppMadness Breakdown

It's NO SECRET it's been a COLD, snowy winter here in Wisco!  However, we are having a great run with our Bucky Basketball Team!

Photo Via SI

While the Final Four #AppMadness tourney didn't have a billion dollar "perfect bracket challenge" associated with it, it did have over 1,400 voters and interested educators from around the world.  So with that, iPaddiction will provide you with multiple resources to inform you about the Final Four apps.

In one match up:

Google Drive:

iDevices, Google Drive, and Over App To Document Successes

Cleaning Your Google Drive

Google Drive on iPad

Many Students Taking Video To Google Drive To iMovie

PicCollage:

Student Created PicCollage Uploaded to Teacher Blog

PicCollage For European Beverage

PicCollage For Writing In The Workplace

PicCollage App For Reviewing Math Concepts

In another match up:

Explain Everything:

Math Discussion With Explain Everything Part 1 Part 2

Explain Everything For Newton's Laws & Rube Goldberg

Summarizing Informational Text With Explain Everything

Explain Everything For Connections In Algebra I Lab

Evernote:

Evernote Researching Tool For High School English

Evernote Why?

How To...In Evernote

Evernote Web Clipper Update

NOW!  You can VOTE!

Experiencing Chromebooks As A Student

Mrs. Uelmen, our Director of Instructional Technology, presented at the Green Bay Google Summit.  She included staff as students in the discovery of Green Bay, Wisconsin.  As you will see, collaboration, Google Documents, searching, creativity, and movement are all in a day's work for teachers.

I documented the hour lesson to showcase how teachers can realistically understand how the implementation of Chromebooks is significantly different than the sit and get, lecture style of learning.

View The Learning Experience