Thanks for Richard Byrne for the heads up on Inkel Writer. I’ve been looking at ways that students can publish online and this one seems to fit the bill.
Category: Web 2.0
Educlipper
I got my educlipper invitation. I almost didn’t see it because it went into the spam folder. So if you signed up and didn’t think you got the invite, check spam and junk mail folders. It’s not all smooth sailing. I can log in, but then I get a white screen.
I have to admit though, even if I get past the white screen, that I really enjoy Pinterest and can’t quite see making the change over for my educational clips to another place. I guess time will tell.
Free Technology for Teachers: Mobile Formative Assessment; A One Device Solution
Free Technology for Teachers: Mobile Formative Assessment; A One Device Solution.
Formative assessment has been stuck in a rut for years but tablets and Smartphones have the potential for increasing the amount of formative data that teachers collect and use on a daily basis.
The combination of touch screen devices and cloud storage allows teachers to create a manageable flow of connected data, collected on the fly using mobile platforms, but ultimately available for reflection and action steps on any device with Web access.
Unfortunately, not enough teachers know about the power of their own personal handheld devices. EdTech buzz is usually focused on tools that require one-to-one or at least a large amount of classroom computer availability, but so much can be done with one handheld device and access to the cloud.
I need to read this carefully and give some of it a try!
More on Electronic Portfolio’s
I found this helpful post from A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet (mentioned in the last entry). I’ve also been involved in a linkedin discussion and someone else posted this one which focuses on Google Sites. I hadn’t thought much about Google Sites as it seemed clunky when I tried it out. But recently a teacher posted her classroom website done with Google Sites on Teachers.net, and it was very clean and neat. I may have to rethink Google Sites. Here is the one I started using wikispaces.com .
My Evernote
I want to thank Lisa Jacobson-Brown @ Pearson for a review copy of this book.
First, Evernote is a nice little free app to help organize your life. It’s easy to use and it syncs on all your devices. There is an online component so you can access it from any computer with Internet access.
Evernote is not difficult to use if are at all computer savvy. But when given the opportunity to look at the book, I thought it would be loaded with the things I couldn’t figure out on my own. I’m not sure that’s true, but I did learn some things from the book that saved me some digging around time in the Evernote Forum. This is a very slick book btw. The pages are thick and glossy. It’s full of pictures and easy to use.
The book covers the very basics of downloading, making notes and editing them. I hadn’t intended to use Evernote for anything but keeping myself organized across devices, but it’s got potential to do more along the lines of word processing and publishing. You can add images, add bits of web material, make audio notes. Work is organized in notebooks and can be organized and reorganized. You can share notes with others. I did that a couple of Saturdays ago when I’d been taking notes for a meeting. I just emailed them to all the participants, and we all looked at the same digital page on what ever device was at hand.
A couple of things the book does very well: Really good tips about Evernote are noted in green boxes. Disappointing things about Evernote are noted in red boxes. On a personal note, I had an issue with spacing for a new font and size. The lines overlapped and not only was it illegible, it printed that way. Yuck. So I went to the book and couldn’t find an answer. Couldn’t find one on the forum either. Both may be that I didn’t look in the right place or use the right search terms.
IMHO, this is a pricey book for a free app with an excellent blog and forum. If you aren’t comfortable on the computer and want to try Evernote, this book will get you though the basics and into its advanced features step-by-step.
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Clear your Google web history NOW! Why and how educators should do this.
Evernote
At the suggestion of Steven Anderson, I reloaded Evernote to give it yet another chance. I think Robert Jimenez’s blog was the first place I read about it. I could see its advantages, but didn’t use it much.
All this time, I’ve been looking for and fighting with ways to keep up with myself. So, I re-downloaded Evernote on the home laptop and the phone and started making some notes. So far it’s been really helpful. I can use the web version at school (I should say so far on this count. I remember how I felt the day I walked in to find that dropbox had gotten the county ax). I know I’ve not scratched the surface of what it can do.
Right now, I’ve got to do lists for everything I’m involved in. So, maybe about 3/15, I can start reading all the articles and watch all the videos to find out what it can really do!
One coach mentioned in the comments keeping a file on conversations with all teachers. This could also be done for all students, parents, colleagues.
btw, Steven Anderson has another post today on Evernote.
My first instructional video
woo hoo!
Using google notebook for research
I’m working on a paper – Library as a place or service. Trying out google notebook to organize my research.
Sections:
- Paper basics
- Reading list
- Works Consulted – formatting as I go. Hoping this will help at the end.
- Notes and quotes for each consulted work worthy of noting
- Emerging outline
So far so good.
Web 2.0 Tools I’ve been trying out
I have really fallen for web 2.0 tools that allow me to access my work from any computer.
I’ve been using http://live.com for Office file storage. It’s got some advantages over google docs since it’s specifically designed for MS office. However, google docs is really hard to beat for sharing and collaboration.
I resurrected google notebook to help with organizing lessons and materials to go with those lessons. I like that it’s integrated with my gmail account and google docs. I hate that it is no longer supported by google.
Since I’m taking two classes this semester, I have been looking for organization tools. First one I found was Toodledo which is a powerful to-do list that allows for folders, due dates, prioritizing and notes. I like this one, but it is one more site to which I have to log in.
Looking for google integration led me to manymoon. Manymoon is a project management app that works with your email, calendars, and google docs. You are limited to one calendar, but each task can be added to your calendar. You can view by projects or tasks. You can see all tasks in a single list which is helpful for multiple projects.
I’m going to keep Toodledo and manymoon both going this semester until I decide I like one better than the other.
Jack Of All Trades 
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