ThingLink Think-Link!

My experience with ThingLink was so simple and so cool. First, after playing around with the ones that were made by Sara KM, I immediately wanted to learn how. The video that was posted was fantastic. Richard Byme did a great job of showing how simple it is to use. My picture was easy to find because the next video that will be shown in Design Tech (after Farming Tech) will be Food Inc, so I wanted to play around with the image to see how I can put it into my Keynote presentation. It was so easy and it was terrific. Unfortunately, in order to embed the image I have to have a membership for a small fee, which I may go ahead and do it. Anyway, I highly recommend that everyone try it and learn it. It will definitely be on my list of "cool" tech stuff to teach especially for next year!!!! LOVED IT!

My experience with screenr

When doing this presentation I had to decide what I would publish. Then I remembered when Sara had told me about Screenr.com back in November after I had done my presentation at the faculty meeting on Assignment Drop Box with Peter Newmark. What a perfect time to do that presentation. I had several problems. First I had to update all of my software on my computer. That took 2 hours. Then I had to make sure that my popup block was off for Google Chrome to allow Java. Then I had to download the updated version of Java. When I finally got the chance to begin presenting, I ended up doing it about 5 times because I kept messing up. When I finally had my shot to do "The One" my brother started the leaf blower and was cleaning out the leaves right next to where I was doing my presentation, so you can hear that in the back ground. Every time I paused and waited for him to end, I would click start and shortly after he would start the leaf blower again. I finally just kept going to finish it off. Then I forget how to embed the video. I learned two things, first to export the video into my movies, and how to embed the link. I also learned again how to upload the movie (which I had forgotten how to do). Overall, it was a fantastic learning experience and I will definitely do it again.

Tech Help: Assignment Drop Box

Goggle the Search Engine

I have been using Google for a very long time and understood a little bit of how it gathers information. I already knew how it worked how it gathered its information. I also use many of its features, like Picasa, Google Docs, Gmail, Video Chat, and will be trying Multichat. What I always found overwhelming about Goggle was the scope of the information and how long it took me to find validated sources. Then I found it difficult to teach my students or have them switch to other search engines. In the end I still found it to still the easiest and most efficient. What I learned, the power of the semicolon, the dash, and the quotations when doing searches. Makes a lot of sense to add those in if I want to narrow down items, leave out words, or keep it to specific organization. I feel like I need to print out or share with my students to Google Crib Sheet. What I would like to do since "Research" is the first step in the Design Cycle Model is to take time with my students to teach them Google Search fully. Next  year I will create a better lesson plan on research and have the students practice using various Google Techniques to narrow their search. This year got bogged down before teaching researching, but next year I will make improvements. I will begin this year when students return on how to Google Search properly.

Practice, practice, practice

If you don't keep practicing all what you learn then you will forget how to do simple things.

Evernote

I have been playing around with Evernote since I was introduced to it first last June and again in September during faculty training days. I have used it to make grocery lists, to take notes in meetings on students, for advisory notes, and so on; however, when I was traveling I have found that unless I have wifi somewhere, I cannot bring it up. But, now that I have taken the time to syn all of my electronic devices that shouldn't be an issue. I cannot get used to the fact that I am all mac'd out now with an iPhone, Macbook and iPad. At time I forget that I can sync one to the other, especially through Evernote. What is nice is that I don't have to have pages or word on my phone in order to see my notes or review my notes from other sources. Extremely nice feature. I have explored some of the other offerings on Evernote Trunk and I like the SnapCal. I think I will down load that and give it a try. I am finding that my calendars on all of my devices are not sync smoothly with iCloud. I believe it is because I keep moving between several different wifi servers. I will try that and then explore other options. I am also considering that 10th grades should then move into Evernote. I cannot see my current 9th graders using it. They struggle with DropBox.com and they struggle with other apps. We shall see.

Wiki's

We used Wiki's as our first digital homework posting pages, created by Sara K-M. I really enjoyed making the page my own and had a great time adding animations and various other cartoons. I also add wonderful pictures and opportunities for students to earn extra credit. I made my page interesting so students would be more motivated to keep going there in order to get homework as well as extra credit. I keep forgetting about using wiki's. Perhaps that is what I will use for teachers to check out MacBooks from the cart. I will have to give it a try.