Great list of app based on task you want students to accomplish

I found this great list of apps and tech tools that are organized based on the task you want students to accomplish. It was out on  Twitter and I can't find the original tweet. What do you want to do...?There's a tech tool for that. pic.twitter.com/kWFciWylLP

educlipper Social Web Clipper iPad app Gets Even More Great Features

Educlipper is a great, free app from a colleague of mine, Adam Bellow, that just keeps getting better. I've written about it before ( EduClipper social web clipper gets Updated with Some Great New Features ). It started as a way to clip and share online educational resources, but it has expanded to have a huge variety of features. Take a look and try it out. The iPad app just got some great new features.

We're super excited to share with you the new update  for the eduClipper iPad app that was released today!   Here are some of the amazing new features in eduClipper Version 2.2     Whiteboard Recording   We love seeing what you create on eduClipper and students and teachers have both asked for the ability to do a whiteboard recording from within our app to eliminate extra steps when creating eduClips. So we are super excited to announce that you can now create whiteboard recordings as an eduClip from the "Add eduClip" page.  This is especially cool as students can capture their class work and then annotate and narrate right on top of it quickly and easily! Looking forward to seeing the great things you will share!   Enhanced Annotation Tools Annotating on top of images (and the new Whiteboard tool) is a powerful part of eduClipper.  We are excited to have added new tools and enhanced other ones!  Now you can pinch-to-zoom in on images while annotating them, change the colors, fonts, thickness of lines, and move items around the screen.  This is a great way to capture student work and then add a layer of explanation on top of it to showcase methods, key ideas, or anything else the viewer might want to know.  In-App Downloading of Clips Want to save the awesome eduClip you just created back to your device or Airdrop it to a nearby computer? Well, now you can! Just look for the download icon when viewing any of your eduClips.    New Notifications Center Our new notifications center lets you easily see all notifications you've gotten on eduClipper - not just the most recent ones.  Now you can search and explore all of them by loading the full-screen view from the icon on the notifications tab.      And there's a lot more too!   From new animations (which we really love), to the new caching system that will improve the overall app functionality and allow for off-line access, there are a lot of tweaks and enhancements under the hood of this new version that make it great!   Hope that you enjoy using this with your students and be on the lookout for more eduClipper news soon!   Update your app today or click here to download it on your iPad.   Happy Clipping, Adam Founder, eduClipper

It's National Get Organized Month - here are some great resources

January is National "Get Organized Month" so I decided to share some resources on getting organized. There are some great sites out there too, including the National Association of Professional Organizers.

I am a type A personality in many ways and I've always been organized at work (not so much at home). As an engineer, it was vital to be organized. As a teacher, it was too, but harder to do. I learned some great things from United Technologies when I worked at Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft. They use a system called ACE, Achieving Competitive Excellence, and parts of it are related to having an organized work space so that you can be more efficient.

Technology is also a great resource for getting organized. I'm about 99% paperless - everything is either done electronically or scanned. I use Evernote extensively for staying organized.

Below are links, with descriptions, to help you get organized.


Evernote Resources
Evernote is the i-ching for organization. Save everything here, organized by notebooks, notes, stacks, and tags and searchable. Text notes, files, documents, web clippings, etc. As a CIO, it is my main tool.

Google Apps Resources
Google apps, like email and calendar, can help you get and stay organized with the features they have.

Getting Organized Tips and Resources
I wrote this last January and it has some great tips and ideas for getting organized, along with resources. I even discuss paper planning here.

Taking Organizing and Planning Tips from Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin was great at being organized and had some great ideas that are used today.

Great Uses for Binder Clips
Binder clips can help you get organized, and not just by clipping papers together.

Tips, Resources, and Ideas for Going Paperless
Going paperless can help you get more organized - less clutter, less space needed for paper, and the digital versions are easily searchable.

All Articles Tagged as "Get Organized"
This will pull up a list of any blog post that I tagged as "get organized"

Getting Organized with Google Calendar
Tips on using calendar to get organized.

Getting your Lesson Plans and Room Organized for a Substitute Teacher
Life is much better for the sub, your students, and you when you return, when your lessons and classroom are organized.

Using Technology to Organize your Lessons and Resources
I was a much happier, more efficient teacher when I got myself and my lessons organized.

Getting Students and Teachers Organized
Some tips for students and teachers.

My Workflow as CIO - includes heavy use of Evernote

I am the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for an urban public school district. We have over 21,000 students, 3500 faculty and staff, 40 buildings, 15,000 devices, a full data center and fiber network, and an IT department staff of 15. We manage multiple large IT projects at once, including desktops, Chromebooks, Smartboards, network upgrades, Kronos, printers, new school construction, multiple network applications and software, and also consult on all technology issues and purchases in the district.

I have specific workflow that I have developed over the last year to help stay organized and on schedule.

I check emails when I get up for any critical issues (sent from monitoring software) or emergent needs. When I arrive at work, I login to my computer and check emails again, along with my calendar and tasks for the day. Then I check in with my staff and network engineers and technicians to discuss tasks and projects for the day, and anything they need from me.

I monitor the work orders in Track-It, which is our help desk software. I review work orders and reassign, add notes, comment, address the issue, as needed.

Throughout the day I answer emails, monitor Track-It, communicate with my staff on projects, consult with other district and school staff, work with vendors, manage projects, and more.

At the end of the day, I review the current day and make notes for the next day - tasks, follow-ups, and priorities. I check with with my staff and make notes on their projects.

The main tool that I use for all of this is Evernote.  I use Evernote for, well, everything. I have project management notes with schedules, tasks, attached files and more. I clip news articles for review, vendor websites, all my contacts, clip emails, with the attachments, from Outlook, notes, tech reference, personnel files, etc. You name it, it's all in Evernote for one-stop access, from any device, anywhere.

I have notebooks setup for projects, personnel, vendors, reference notes, tasks, contacts, to do later, to read later, etc. I have a main note, Project/Task Management, that I use as my task list. I can reorganize the tasks based on priority. Each task links to another note with more details. I have this note divided up with Follow Up, Priority 1, Priority 2 and Priority 3 tasks. These get moved around a lot as priorities change.

By linking to other notes, my task list is clean, but each task is linked to more details.

Each note also has attached files as needed - quotes, specs, spreadsheets, documents, and more. I also clip emails using the Evernote clipper for Outlook - it clips the email chain, along with attachments. I can then merge or link this note to other project notes and keep everything in one place. Instead of emails in Outlook, notes in Evernote and files on my computer, everything is in one place in Evernote.

I also have meeting notes, personnel files, schedules, and reference files and notes in Evernote. I clip websites and documents from online with the Evernote clipper and save them to the proper notebook. I use Evernote Clearly to clean up the page before I clip it also. You can also clip online PDF documents directly into Evernote.

I also forward emails or send files and notes from other apps to Evernote via email. You get a special email address to use.

The other nice thing about Evernote is that you can share notes with others, even if they don't have an Evernote account, for them to view. It is very easy to do. You can also share notes with others who have Evernote accounts and allow them to edit them.

I use the Evernote Scanner from Fujitsu (the Fujitsu ScanSanp scanners work to) for one click scanning into Evernote. All paper documents, print magazine articles, print brochures, conference materials, etc. gets scanned into Evernote and organized.

Meeting notes are taking in a variety of ways - type directly into Evernote, audio recording into Evernote, Livescribe Pen directly into Evernote, handwritten notes scanned into Evernote, and even notes take with other apps copied into Evernote.

If you open an attached file by double clicking it in Evernote (and it opens in created software such as Word), edit it and click "save" it updates the file in Evernote.

By keeping everything in Evernote, I can easily link or merge items, organize them by notebook and tags, easily search them and access everything - notes, emails, clippings, and files - in one place, from any device or computer. I use the Windows Desktop app at work and on my home laptop and then access my data with the Android App on my HTC One and Nexus 7, and the web app on my Chromebook and from other computers.

You can even set reminders for notes so that you don't forget to do something. Great for following up on tasks.

Evernote is available in free and premium versions. The premium version allows you to upload more data each month, have offline notes in the apps, and more. It's well worth it.

Here is a redacted image of my main Project Management note and notebook. You can also see the other notebooks I have on the left.

Here’s more information on Evernote:

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/evernote-for-education.html

Evernote Clearly:

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/11/evernote-clearly-one-click-for.html

Livescribe Pens:

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/05/livescribe-echo-smartpen-very-cool-and.html

Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanners:

http://scansnapcommunity.com/

Evernote Scanner:

https://www.evernote.com/market/feature/scanner?sku=SCAN00101

Free Evernote Training Videos on YouTube

Evernote is one of my favorite and most used apps. I use it for project management, task lists, meeting notes, reference notes, web clippings, personal tasks and more.

I just found out about some great training videos on YouTube that show you how to do different tasks in Evenrote. Check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/EvernoteScott?feature=watch

If you don't use Evernote, check it out. It's free, easy to use, and cross platform. I used it for lesson planning, lesson notes, class notes, student notes and logs, and more as a teacher. As a CIO I use it for meeting notes, project management, contacts, web clippings, research and much more.

Evernote updates Windows version with over 100 new features

Evernote, one of my favorite and most used apps, has recently updated the Windows version of their software.

If you don't use Evernote, check it out. It's free, easy to use, and cross platform. I used it for lesson planning, lesson notes, class notes, student notes and logs, and more as a teacher. As a CIO I use it for meeting notes, project management, contacts, web clippings, research and much more.

There are over 100 new features in it and I really like the new version.

Here is a link to the official announcement and below is an image with the new features.
http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/10/17/100-reasons-to-love-evernote-for-windows/

Edmodocon is Aug 7th - free online conference on using Digital Tools in the Classroom

Edmodocon is a free online conference on using Digital Tools in the Classroom. It will be held August 7th. It is hosted by Edmodo, a free online classroom management system. Edmodo features a social media section, class files, bulletin boards, and much more.

Edmodocon is a great way to get some free professional development and learn some new things to use in the new school year.

You could even attend while sitting at the beach or pool!

Click HERE to register (for free).


Related:

Edmodo - first year using it with my students - so far, AWESOME!

Edmodo - free social learning platform expands and improves

22 Great Tips on using Edmodo in the classroom

5 Great course management resources for educators

Some more great Android Apps for Education (including Edmodo app)

CloudConvert - online file format conversion

CloudConvert is a free, online file format conversion service that lets you easily convert files from different formats. Simply select, or drag and drop, your files, select options (email when done, send to Dropbox, send to Google Drive) and off you go. As it's name implies, everything is done in the cloud with no software to download. It also works in mobile browsers so you can convert files on the go to be able to view them on your mobile device.

The send to Dropbox and Google Drive are options that most conversion services don't have. Most of them send  you an email with a link that you click on to download your converted file. This makes things more streamlined.

It supports over 100 audio, video, document, archive, image, ebook, spreadsheet and presentation formats with advanced options for each.

Guest users (no login) get 5 daily conversions, with up to 2 concurrent and a 100MB file size. Registered users (can user Google+, Facebook, Twitter, or create account) get 25 daily conversions and up to 5 concurrent conversions with a 1000 MB file size.




Related:

VLC - Awesome free video and audio player (and converter)

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more

Media Converter - fast free online audio and video converter

Free Video Format Conversion Software (3 of them)

Zamzar - free online file conversion - great resource

Online Converter - convert file formats of audio, video, docs, eBooks, images and more

Google Apps and Chromebooks Training Resources

I put this list together for our district as we are going with GAFE and Chromebooks and I figured I'd share it here too. 

Google Apps and Chromebooks Training Resources


Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

• GAFE Training Center http://edutraining.googleapps.com/
• Learn how to use GAFE http://learn.googleapps.com/
• GAFE User Guides http://deployment.googleapps.com/Home/user-resources/documentation-templates
• Google in Education - Teacher Resources http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/index.html
• Google for Educators Resources http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/google-for-educators_22.html
• GCF Learn Free - Google Training http://www.gcflearnfree.org/google
• Google Apps Crib Sheets http://goo.gl/EBN5O 
• Recordings -- Innovative Chromebook Teachers - Hangout on Air Series
• 100 Tips for Google Chrome http://www.chromestory.com/100_Chrome_ChromeOS_And_ChromeBook_Tips_Ebook.pdf

Google Drive

• https://www.udemy.com/googledriveeducators
• http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home/module-4-docs
• http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-convert-microsoft-office-files-to-google-docs-on-your-chromebook
• Intro to Google Drive for Educators http://youtu.be/LcoppNExlZE
• Introduction to Google Drivehttp://youtu.be/wKJ9KzGQq0w
• How to Open and Edit Word Files in Google Drive http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/12/how-to-open-and-edit-word-files-in.html

Chromebooks

• Product Page for Chromebooks http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/landing.html
• Introducing the Chromebookhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqe8ieqz10
• Chromebook user Guide http://www.chromestory.com/chromebook-user-guide/
• Chromebook EDU site https://sites.google.com/site/chromebookedu/home
• Chromebook Central - Chromebook user group - https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=&hl=en#!forum/chromebook-central
• Chromebooks for Education Overviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSbZQNJwPuI
• Guided Tour of Chrome OS (Chromebooks)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLPcVAyNPE
• What Chromebooks can and can’t do http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/your-questions-answered-what-chromebooks-can-and-cant-do/106
• 70 Tips for Mastering Chrome OS http://www.chromestory.com/google-chromebook/

• Android for Education Resources http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/android-for-education.html

Miscellaneous Computer and Tech Help
Free online resources on computers  http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers

Wonderopolis - free resource for find the answers to what students wonder

Wonderopolis is a great, free resource that has some great resources to help students learn and explore all kinds of topics. It has topics ranging from the science of why the sky is blue to how sound effects are made to pretty much any question, or "wonder" a child has.

There are quizzes to help reinforce knowledge and connect to related ideas, mobile design and navigation, social networking features, ways for users to share ideas, and over 900 different topics of wonder.

Some ways Wonderopolis is used:

Wonderers include teachers, students and parents wondering about the world around them in a variety of ways:
· A fifth grade teacher supplements classroom work to help her students develop authentic writing skills, critical thinking and expanded vocabulary
· A third grade class taps Wonderopolis while researching and writing papers
· The mother of a first grader spends early morning quality time with her son checking out the Wonder of the Day and exploring past Wonders

Take a look at it and use it with your students. Share it with your students and parents as a resource to use over the summer to continue learning and curiosity.

Wonderopolis is run by the National Center for Family Literacy and supported by the Verizon Foundation.

PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation - great STEM resources and lessons

PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation is an Emmy Award winning program with STEM related videos, activities, games and an interactive community. There is also a Parents and Educators section with lesson plans, curriculum guides, and more. 

There are some great new features to it, including a Solar System unit with games, activities, and lesson resources about our solar system, a roller coaster project where students compete to build the best roller coaster out of poster board, and a variety of other resources. 

Topics include science, flying, hobbies, sports, and much more. 

This is a great, free resource for educators, parents and students and well worth the time to explore it. 

eduClipper social web clipper gets Updated with Some Great New Features

eduClipper is a great app from EduTecher Adam Bellow that provides a way to clip anything from the web and then share it with anyone.

It's free and allows you to clip and capture anything from the web including articles, links, videos, lesson plans and more. You then create a clipboard to organize what you have clipped and then you can share the clipboards with students, colleagues, the public or just keep it for yourself. Students can use it too and the clipboards are searchable. You can also share your clipboards via different social networks.

The social sharing aspect is what makes it different from other web clipping services and apps. You share what you have clipped with others and people can comment and discuss the clip.

It was recently updated with some great new features...

Teacher and Student Accounts : We are excited to announce teacher and student accounts. Teachers can easily set up classes of students and create eduClipboards of content to share with whole classes or groups of learners.
Teachers can also change settings to make eduClipper more or less restrictive for the whole class or individual learners based on school or classroom policies. There’s a lot there - and we really want to put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to how you wish to use a powerful tool like eduClipper with your kids.


                                                               New Bookmarking Tool : We are really proud of the new eduClip It button. This bookmarking tool lets you clip literally any type of content and bring it into eduClipper as an eduClip. It is smooth and fun to use!



Collaborative Clipboards : Sharing resources is great - but creating collaborative clipboards with users on a topic is an even better way to offer real-time collaboration in classes for students or teachers. Great for educators connecting with colleagues to create the ultimate resource board as well as for students to join each other and curate the best resources for academic or interest-based learning.

Citations : Being a “good digital citizen” starts with citing sources and we have worked with EasyBib to generate citations for all eduClipped web content. A quick and painless way to annotate your eduClips.
Those are just a few quick things - but in short... everything is 100% more awesome and we are excited to tell you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot more up our sleeve and you should be on the lookout for more cool news soon.
Take a look at the new site and give it a shot - we know you will love it!
And if you have questions or comments - we are all ears!
eduClipper exists to help bring education forward and we are eager to hear your feedback.

Related:

EduTecher - explore and share educational web tools

Google Keep note taking service launched

Google has just launched Keep, a note taking service, that is free. It is a cool note taking system, that allows you to quickly jot down notes, checklists, transcribe a voice memo, search your notes, and more.

Your notes are saved in Google Drive and synced to all of your devices. There is an Android app for Android 4.0+ and you can access, edit and create new notes on the web at http://drive.google.com/keep and Google will be adding these functions directly in Google Drive shortly.

It has a nice layout, using boxes instead of text and you can rearrange the notes based on your needs and priorities and you can color code your notes.

Knowing that I am a huge user of Evernote, many people have asked me about Google Keep. I will be using both. Evernote has many more features that I use and I have over 4900 notes in Evernote. However, I find Evernote a little more cumbersome for quick note taking on my phone or tablet. So, I'm going to be using Keep for quick notes on the go, along with voice notes, and then I can share the notes to other apps, or just access them as needed. I don't feel like I have to choose one note taking app, but rather that I can use two or more based on my needs.

Here's a nice video overview of Google Keep:

Evernote Resources

iPad Apps 4 Schools - great site with info and resources for iPads in Education

iPad Apps for School is another site from Richard Byrne, author of Free Technology for Teachers and Android 4 Schools. In this site, Richard and his guest authors will be sharing resources and reviews of apps (mostly free) that can be used in K-12 schools, along with ways that those apps can be used in the educational setting by teachers, students, and administrators.


If you use iPads as an educator, administrator, or student, or your school is looking at using them, you should check out this site.


Related:

Android SmartPhone and Apps that I use as an Educator

Android resources - information, news, resources, and more

Adobe Education Exchange educator community announces new features

Adobe Education Exchange is an online community of educators who share resources, ideas, tips, and more. It launched at ISTE 2010 and now has over 75,000 educators sharing over 4,000 resources.

They just re-launched it with some new features which you can read about here: http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2013/02/announcing-the-all-new-adobe-education-exchange-education.html.

The new version includes simplified navigation, a new design, easier browsing of resources, increased social/community features, and API's so that it can integrate with other apps and platforms. 

It's a great, free resource.

TotSplash - organize and present ideas

TotSplash is a new site that combines online mind mapping and "Prezi-like" presentations.

Users can focus on organizing their thoughts and ideas and then the app transforms them into a "Prezi-like" presentation. You can share and embed your TotSplashes also.

There is a free version with no login required.

It's easy to use and could be a great alternative for students and teachers.

Dropbox adds new features - document preview and photo sharing

Dropbox, the very popular cloud file/sync/backup/sharing service, has announced some new features, including document preview and photo sharing and sorting.

You can preview PDF, DOC, DOCX, and PPT files by double-clicking on them. This way, you can see if that is the file you want, or even view what you need, without downloading it.

Dropbox has also added some features for photos. When you click on "Camera" you will see all of the photos you have uploaded from your phone. You can then group them, email them, or share to Facebook and Twitter.

Some more great features from a great service.

Related:

Lots of Great File Sync/Backup/Share services

JustBeamIt file sharing service comes in very handy - also has links to more file sharing services

Let's Crate - easy, free, file sharing

minus - file sharing service

eBackpack - educational file sharing and backup

YouSendIt - easy file sharing, sync, and sign

LibreOffice 4.0 released - better performance and greater interoperability

LibreOffice is a free, open-source, powerful office suite software that is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it on my home computers. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has six applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw, Math and Base (database). It works great and the menu functions are similar to Office 97, so the learning curve is easy. It is built off of the same code base as OpenOffice. I happen to like LibreOffice better and think it runs faster.

One of the great features is that it can open, and save as, files in a variety of formats including Microsoft Office (multiple versions), PDF, ODF, and more. I have mine automatically set to load and save as MS Office files so that they work at school without a problem.

Support is excellent, with a great support site and user forums.

Libreoffice has just been upgraded to version 4.0 and offers leaner, faster performance, greater interoperability between different file formats such as DocX and RTF documents. Other new features  include an Android app for controlling presentations, UI upgrades and a performance improvements. You can also attach comments to text in documents, import Visio and Publisher files, get themes, ink annotations and over 1500 other changes and improvements.



Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on office software, download LibreOffice for free. http://www.libreoffice.org/




Related:
Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Why do schools still pay so much for software? Free alternatives to paid software and services.

Google for Educators resources (includes Google Docs)

Boundless - free, open source, digital textbooks

Boundless is a service that provides free, open source, digital textbooks. There are 18 open textbooks with Creative Commons licensed content, for college subjects including accounting, biology, economics and more. 

Boundless provides a free alternative to expensive textbooks and they can also be used as supplemental materials for students. The content is changed and additions made, in direct contrast to printed textbooks that are usually outdated before they are printed.

Boundless has an interesting process. They find the best free online content, have experts curate and vet it, and then deliver it in a way that is easy to read and navigate. 

They also have some great features like SmartNotes which condense the full book into the main points, terms and examples, and Interactive Notebook to highlight items and add your own notes, Flash Cards, Quizzes, Study Guides and search. 

Boundless is a great resource for college students, as well as advanced high school students and teachers. I'm a huge proponent of free resources vs. expensive textbooks and really like the fact that these free digital resources are constantly updated and improved. 

Here are all of their textbooks:

Related:

What I use with Physics classes instead of textbook

Resources to Replace Textbooks

CK-12 - free e-textbooks and more - updates and news

Google Slides now available offline!

Google Docs/Drive is a great, free resource that allows you to create, edit, share, collaborate on, and comment on Documents (Docs), Spreadsheets (Sheets), and Presentations (Slides), all online. Think Microsoft Office in the cloud with some other great features.

I use Google Slides (Presentations), the equivalent of PowerPoint, for all of my presentations. I like the features it has and like that I can easily share it online and people will always be able to see the newest version. One downside was that you needed an internet connection and some conferences I have presented at can have WiFi issues due to all of the devices being used. I would always save a copy of my presentation as a PDF file to my laptop in case I didn't have a good internet connection. That is no longer necessary.

Google has announced that Google Slides will now be available with offline support. You can now create, edit, comment, and present your Slides presentation without an internet connection. When you get an internet connection, your new presentations or changes will be automatically updated online. Docs has had this for a while already.

This is a great feature that makes Slides even more useful, along with Chromebooks, for people who need to work on, or present, their presentations where they may not have WiFi. It's also great for schools who issue Chromebooks to students that may not have internet at home. Our district is going with Chromebooks and student internet access at home is a concern. That is less of a concern now.

To enable offline Docs/Sheets/Slides, follow these instructions. If you already have offline enabled for Docs, you are all set. In order to use the offline feature, you will have to use Chrome browser or Chrome OS.

Google is currently working on offline support for Sheets as well.

Offline support has been the one reason I see many people stating as why they won't or can't go with Google Drive/Docs and Chromebooks. That reason is disappearing.


Related:

Google for Educators Resources