So How Much Do You Know About Tablet Use?

I found this infograph (don't you just love these things!) on the Staples website. Thought it was interesting especially since we're getting more and more iPads into teacher's hands! Are you in any of these categories?

Exploring BYOD at CCHS

Here at CCHS we've begun to explore what it would be like to teach and learn in a 1:1 environment. We currently are running 3 BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) classrooms supplemented with a cart of laptops for those students that don't have their own device to use. As we collect data and begin to see how this will work within the CCHS educational culture, our technology committee is exploring what would be necessary to put it all into place. While doing some research I found a great video produced to introduce a 1:1 program at District 219 in Illinois. Click here to view. What a great way to share what they're doing! I hope we will be able to do much the same in the future!

Need Ideas for Using Your New iPad?

I found this site while reading a post on the SimpleK12 blog. Teacher Joe Dale, a UK Independent modern foreign languages and technology consultant, decided to create the site An iPad Idea a Day. Each day for the entire year he plans to post a podcast of something to do with your iPad. Some may apply, some may not but it's a great resource to see what's possible.

iPads in the Classroom

I'm just finishing up the setup of 10 iPads that were purchased with Title funds for our Academic Support Classroom. I thought it would be a bit of a tedious process but since we're only using free apps at this point I was able to make a backup of one and then update and restore all the others from that backup. Soon we'll also have a MacBook Pro so we can synchronize all iPads at the same time and a Volume Purchase Plan so that we can purchase some of the apps that will help our students. We also purchased ZaggFolios from Zagg, Inc. for each of the iPads as well as a DS-Netsafe-IPCS from Datamation Systems, Inc.

The ZaggFolio will protect the iPads and also has a Zagg Solo Keyboard to make keyboarding easier for the students. I'm curious however, if the students will like the keyboard or if this is something that only "us old fogies" think is necessary. I know I struggle when it comes to texting. Our students however are quite adept at inputting keystrokes only using their thumbs so I can't wait to find out which method they prefer.

The DS-Netsafe-IPCS is a wonderful device that gives us locking storage for up to 16 iPads and also provides charging and simultaneous synching with a MacBook laptop. It was easy to setup and now just have to wait to get the MacBook Pro so we try the simultaneous synch!

Moodle for Online Learning

The decision has been made and we will be transitioning this spring and summer from Blackboard to Moodle 2.1 for our Learning Management System (LMS). What is a Learning Management System? What is Moodle? Why are we switching?

Wikipedia defines Learning Management systems as "... a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content." Basically an online component for our classroom teachers to use to post assignments, classroom documents, online quizzes, discussion forums, etc. making their classroom accessible any time, any where that a student has internet access.

Our Blackboard system was such a system that is hosted through our local Kent Intermediate School District. The KISD is phasing out Blackboard and the cost was prohibitive to have our own Blackboard servers thus the move to Moodle. Moodle is actually an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It's open source software that allows us to build our LMS as we wish. We will be using a hosted solution through a company well known for it's Moodle management and support services, Remote Learner.

Today I at the MACUL conference I attended two sessions about Moodle and learned much about setting up courses. I'm excited about the move and think that, once our teachers go through training in May and June, they too will find the system extremely useful and customizable.

Have any of you had experience with Moodle? How do you feel about the move and what suggestions do you have for making sure our teachers are well trained and ready to go this summer?

MACUL - Student Showcase

Make sure you check out the Student Tech Showcase, Thursday, Mar. 8, from 11-1 at DeVos Place. Students will show off some of the fantastic tech projects that they've been working on this past year. Here is an example of one of these projects.

More Info on MACUL 2012

Are you attending MACUL12? Ron Houtman, Super Technology Consultant and REMC 8 Director, just posted an awesome survival guide for those attending the MACUL 2012 conference next week. Read it, prepare your survival kit, and get ready for 3 whirlwind days of learning!

Project Based Learning

In October of 2011 three of our teachers ventured into the world of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Students were encouraged to bring in their own technology (no cell phones) such as tablets, netbooks or laptops. They could then connect to our wireless network and use their devices in the classroom. In preparation for this teachers from both of our high schools participated in a week long training session lead by a trainer from the One to One Institute. A topic that we heard a lot about during this training was Project-based Learning. I recently viewed a Prezi presentation about this topic that I think does a pretty good job in explaining what project-based learning is and how it's different than a class project. View the presentation here: Project Based Learning and 21st Century Skills. What are your opinions on this topic? Is this something we should be doing more of in our classrooms?

Evernote Helps Me Remember

I really like Evernote. Not just because of the cute elephant icon but because it's a great product. I use Evernote to help me remember things. Snap a photo of something, record audio during a meeting, make a list of books I want to read, save webpages, and take notes. I can keep it to myself or share a note with a colleague. Doesn't even matter what device I use because Evernote syncs all my notes to all my devices. I can use it on my PC, Mac, Android phone, iPad, it doesn't even matter if I have the application installed as I can access my notebooks on line if need be. That makes this one very accessible and useful product. Oh and did I mention it's FREE? There is a premium upgrade you can purchase but the basics are all there in the free version and I haven't felt the need to upgrade yet. If you're interested in learning more, check out the Evernote webpage and the education site with lots of info on how to use Evernote in the classroom. It's a great tool!

MACUL 2012 Conference Planning

Those of you attending the MACUL conference this year will want to take a look at the conference brochure prior to getting your registration packet. The brochure is available in PDF format at the MACUL Conference website. Download it on your iPad and open it in iBooks for viewing later. There is also an online planner. Sign up for a free account and then select your sessions. You can view sessions in various layouts and also view your friends schedules and connect through Twitter or Facebook.

Other resouces available for a more enjoyable and productive conference are the conference blog and the MACUL Space Ning. If you're a Twitter fan follow the #macul12 hashtag. And now for the hard part... picking out those sessions! There are always so many that I want to attend!

Build It and They Will Read

I started this blog a few years ago after attending a MACUL conference as a means to communicate what I had learned. Every year about this time I get excited about the upcoming MACUL conference. I fire up my blog and get ready to post. I post before, during and after and then the fire fades and my blog posts begin to dry up. Mundane tasks fill in the gaps in my day and my blog sits ignored. So what do I do about that? Since one of my goals is to communicate more with you, our CCHS teachers, the plan is to post something every day. Doesn't matter if it's earth shattering or not. I'm just going to post about some tech tool, idea I read about or other find in the world of technology in education. So... Hopefully you'll find what I'm sharing useful and thought provoking and you'll return to read more. I think they made a movie about a similar situation once...

BYOD Immersion Training for CCHS and West Catholic Teachers

CCHS and WCHS just finished a 3-day workshop with Wynn Draper-Bryan from The One-to-One Institute. A group of 15 teachers and technology specialists, all participating in or interested in our upcoming Bring Your Own Device classrooms for the 2011-2012 school year, attended. We learned about several different tools to assist with project-based learning and teachers worked on incorporating technology tools to enhance student engagement. I think the following video produced by Kevin Honeycutt fits with the mindset of this group of dedicated teachers.
The goals set by our teachers include continued collaboration both amongst themselves and with the trainer through the GRCatholic wiki setup for our group.

Tagul Word Clouds

I tried out a new site for making word clouds today. As with many of these sites, Tagul allows you to simply copy and paste text or link directly to a website (I used this blog as the link) to create your cloud. What I like about it is that it creates a word cloud that you can then link to a google search of the word you click on in the cloud. You can also specify a site rather than a google search. Kinda cool! See the results below:
Do you think you could use something like this in your classroom to start a discussion on a particular topic or have students analyze the frequency of particular words in their own writing? Other ideas?

Do you Tweet?

I've been using Twitter (cctechie) to widen my Personal Learning Network for about a year now. I tend to read much more that I actually post but I've been trying to share more. Today I read a blog post on Edutopia by Betty Ray that describes how to use Twitter to grow your PLN. Her post is a good resource for those just starting out with Twitter or who need a few ideas to get more out of this good PLN resource. So... do you Tweet?

Bring Your Own Device

In the fall of 2011, CCHS is planning to pilot a program of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) as a means to move toward a one-to-one environment in certain classrooms. One-to-one means one computing device to one student, every student has their own device for productivity, research, communication, etc. While doing some research I found a post by April Weston, AZ on the Discovery Educator Network blog. I thought that this excerpt from that blog was very pertient: “We have to start thinking of these devices like pencils,” my colleague said. “Some kids have their own pencils, and we encourage them to bring them to school.” The post then goes on to talk about the "pencils", computing devices, that many students bring with them everyday yet aren't allowed to use as well as the paridigm shift that will eventually take place. She then poses some very good discussion questions that need to be answered prior to implementing a BYOD program. Administrators, teachers, and technology personnel from both CCHS and WCHS, have begun some of these discussions to prepare for our pilot program. Currently the plan is to continue the ban on cell phones but to allow other devices (laptops, netbooks, iPads or other slates) for students enrolled in the pilot courses only. What concerns and questions do you have regarding the use of student owned devices? Should we continue banning smartphones or should we allow our students to use the technology that they carry in their pockets? Are smartphones going to be enough for students or is a laptop the only way to go?

Scoop-It!

 I used this for a while but found that I have too many places to share info so I've deleted this site and am concentrating on just my blog and Twitter for now. It's still a great tool for sharing info so if you're interested create your own Scoop.it! site. I'll follow you! MO -- 2/29/2012. Found a great new tool for keeping teachers updated on cool tools that I find as I read blogs and surf the web. http://www.scoop.it/ allows you to creat a site on your favorite topic(s) and quickly post updates to keep your readers informed. It's currently in beta but so is Google and that seems to be working out fairly well! :-)
Check out my new scoop.it site at http://www.scoop.it/t/tech-tools-for-schools!

MI Learning on iTunes

Most all of us use or have at least heard of iTunes the application from Apple that organizes, plays and allows you to purchase music and video. There is a wonderful component of the iTunes Store called iTunes U. iTunes U contains free educational content contributed by top universities as well as K-12 teachers. Michigan even has their own component within iTunes U with several resources contributed by teachers and technology specialists across the state. Check out Mi Learning and you might find some very interesting and useful content. Not seeing what you need? Create and submit your own content for inclusion as part of the Mi Learning community! Share what you've created and you may even earn yourself a stipend!

Flipping Professional Development

One of the newest buzz phrases in education is "Flipping the Classroom". Basically students are assigned videos and tutorials to view in the evenings, either teacher-created or other, and then their class time is spent actually working on what they've learned. I attended a session at MACUL 2011 presented by Ryan Miller and had a bit of an epiphany during his presentation (here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/5wchncn). What about doing the same thing with professional development for our teachers? The week/evening prior to a PD session we could post videos and tutorials on what is being presented and then the PD time could be productive time spent actually discussing how the topic will affect and change what we're doing or actually using the software and tools if we're talking a technology workshop. Hmmm... What do you think?

MACUL 2011

On March 17 & 18, I attended the MACUL conference in Detroit, MI. Wow! What an information packed couple of days! I listened to national speakers, Michigan teachers and technology specialists, and various vendors and garnered lots of information about new webtools, new ways to use old tools, and great ways to incorporate more technology in our classrooms. Big on my list for sessions was anything dealing with one to one learning.  I will feature some of the information I garnered in future posts after I organize and decompress!

Wow! The Time Flies!

I can't believe that it is almost time for Christmas break! This year has flown by for many reasons but let's take a minute to look at the technology that we've added for use here at CC since last May.

Probably the technology item that has had the most impact on classroom instruction this year is the installation of several new Epson Brightlink and PowerLite data projectors. The interactive features of the Brightlinks have definitely been a big hit with teaching staff. These were purchased with Title find monies and the plan is to add even more projectors with some of this year's Title funds. Other items purchased with Title funds are a site license for ExamView, curriculum software that works with the interactive projectors and wireless remote presentation devices.


Our new Ruckus wireless campus with both private and public access was installed over the summer and is up and operational. Because of the ability to add the CCPublic segment we were able to open up the ability for teachers to connect their own personal laptop, iPad, or other device to the Internet and use it in the classroom. Student use is currently still limited to only the private network but we are hoping to be able to give more access after Christmas break.

We've also added Google Apps for Education. Each student and teacher now has a Google Apps account which allows them to create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms/surveys, websites, blogs, etc. Google Apps also allowed us to give each student a school e-mail account. Using Google Apps for Education allows students and teachers to create and edit documents from anywhere with a broadband Internet connection without having specific software installed on your Internet device. Users can also collaborate on documents and projects live from various locations. Several teachers have already begun using these new tools for various classroom projects.

This year we are expanding the use of Stoneware via DOGR Connect (affectionately called "Dogger" by most staff). Staff can access their network server space from any computer connected to the Internet as well as applications such as Infinite Campus, Outlook, etc. DOGR Connect is also being used to make school activity calendars available as well as various online forms such as work orders for maintenance. Stoneware is a powerful tool and more features will be coming later.