Subscribing to Classroom Websites/Blogs

Subscribing to Classrooms Websites/Blogs

A few weeks ago I posted about making sure your classroom site/blog has a way to subscribe using RSS.  


Here is part II: Checking each teacher’s websites for updates is time consuming and unnecessary.  You can have your teacher’s important updates and lesson plans delivered right to you and here’s how.



Step 1. Create a free Google Reader account - FISD students, you already have one, just use your Google account to log in.

Step 2. Find out if your teacher has a Google site or a blog.  To find out:

1. Go to your teacher’s website
2. Look at the address
3. If the address says ...sites.google com - then you have a Google site
4. If the address says ...blogspot.com, edublogs.org, wordpress.com, Weebly.com - then you have a blog

If it is a Google site, see instructions for Google Site; If it is a blog, see instructions for blog

Instructions for subscribing to a Google Site

If your teacher has a Google Site, you will need to find and navigate to the site’s announcement page you would like to subscribe to. (See the teacher for help.)
The page you will subscribe to should have a link like the one shown here saying “Subscribe to posts.” Click on the link.	*
The page you will be taken to has the URL address that you will need copy. >Highlight the address. >Copy the address.	*
Open another browser tab/window. Go to your Google Reader account: reader.google.com
Click “Add Subscription.”	*
Paste the URL address that you copied above into the field here. Then click “Add.”	*

Instructions for subscribing to a blog

Navigate to your teacher’s blog. (Weebly sites: Be sure you are on the blog page.) Then copy the address in the address bar.	*
Click “Add Subscription.”	*
Paste the address that you copied above into the field here. Then click “Add.”	*


Reading Feed Subscriptions
There are 2 ways to view your newest feeds:

1. View all items: Unread feeds appear in bold with the number of unread items in parenthesis.	*
2. View Each subscription one at a time. Subscriptions with unread feeds appear in bold with the number of unread items in parenthesis.	*


Organizing subscriptions
To facilitate further organization, feeds can be organized into folders

While reading a feed from a particular site: >Feed Settings >Add to an existing or new folder. A few ideas for folders: by subject by student by class period

*

Other resources for using Google Reader:

• RSS secret ingedient to successful classroom site:  http://techtoolsforschools.blogspot.com/2011/09/rss-secret-ingredient-to-successful.html
• Google Reader basics:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvKFP67GwSY
• Google Reader in Plain English:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y

Amazon's newest tools for BYOD

A few weeks ago I got on my soap box and petitioned the tech industry for more devices in the sub $300 category.

Well Amazon has attempted to answer with 3 devices.  They won't ship until November 15th, but you can pre-order today.  I hope to get my hands on one soon to test and see how these devices can help students.

The Kindle Fire Tablet - $199 - Android tablet with great specs, minus cameras.



The Kindle Touch - $99 - Kindle touch screen reader



The Original Kindle - $79

Google Hangouts Get's Better...

Google plus may be the next best thing on the internet.  Hangouts is a key element to G+.  A few months ago I wrote a blog post about Google Hangouts and it's possibilities in Education.  Today Google Hangouts just got a lot better!  On the Official Google Blog Google has announced improvement #'s 92-100 and I think the potential to use Google Hangouts in the classroom is only getting beter.

#92 - Hangout on a phone - Essentially this is video chat on your phone, nothing too revolutionary, except that it is built into Google+.  The potential power of the network could be the key to education.  Allow teachers to connect students via video chat to any number of resources for purposes such as research, mentoring, etc.

#93 - Hangouts on Air - Imagine taking Hangouts with up to 10 sources chatting at once and merging it with UStream.  Google also announced that the new On Air service will have built in recording features.  This meets almost every requirement that I could have as a teacher.  Allowing my classes to bring in other classes from around the globe, with any number of guest speakers, recording it for later playback with other classes, and much more...it's just what this teacher ordered.

#94 - Screensharing - Tutoring, peer tutoring, community volunteer tutoring, sick or homebound students, presentations...

#95 - Sketchpad - Whiteboard mode, and all the examples from #94 apply here.

#96 - Google Docs - Oh heck yeah!  (Google docs fan boy, Guilty)

#97 - Named Hangouts

#98 - Hangout APIs -

#99 - Google Search in plus

#100 - Now in Beta; No invitation required - After opening the closed trial in July this is big step forward.  Now anyone can get into the network and start using this features.  Sign up here:  www.plus.google.com 

After my first post months ago, I'm starting to think that someone at Google may actually be reading my blog.  (Is that you Todd? :)

The main ingredient still missing is the Google Plus implementation into Google Apps.  I've heard that this is in the works already, and when it comes, you can be sure that I'll be using it to push the envelope on what is possible in the classroom.

Group Messaging for Teachers

Let's face it, effective communication from teacher to students or parents is harder than underwater BB stacking.  Here are a few new group messaging services that are starting to catch on for teachers.

Remind 101 - Remind 101 is a tech startup and was featured on TechCrunch this week.

Remind101 from remind101 on Vimeo.

Remind 101 even comes with pre-made handouts to give to students/parents instructing them how to use it's features.

Cel.ly - Cel.ly is a very similar, free, text messaging service that was featured on this Learn it in 5 video below:




Follow My Teacher - FMT is like a social classroom network with text messaging and email notifications built in.

Classroom social networks can easily facilitate communication between teachers, students, and parents. My 2 favorite are:

• Edmodo.com
• Schoology.com

Two other popular group messaging services that are not used by teachers but provide similar services are:

• groupme.com
• beluga.com

Setup/Configure Multiple IOS Devices

Setup & Configuration of Multiple IOS Devices

A few months ago I posted how I like to manage multiple iPods and iPads.  Since then I've learned a few more tricks...This is the fastest way I have been able to setup and manage multiple IOS devices on my campuses.

Computer Setup:

1. Login to macbook with the username/password for the particular set of iPods you are working with. (I create one mac account for each set of iPods.)
2. Create a playlist in iTunes with at least 1 sample audio file. Name “iPod sync list”. (We will setup these playlists to auto sync)
3. Create a School logo wallpaper photo with numbers that match the numbers of your devices. (easiest done in PPT)
1. Create an 'Event' in iPhoto. At least 1 for the wallpaper photos (maybe one for lessons) (We will setup these events to auto sync)
4. Turn on 'Books' & iTunesU in iTunes. (>iTunes; >Preferences; >check "Books")
5. Create a configuration profile in the ICU containing at least wifi profiles for your campus (Doesn’t hurt to add multiple wifi credentials in one profile, just in case one or more of the ssids goes down).

Initialize & Name one device:

1. Connect device to your Macbook
2. Create a naming system for your devices and name this device accordingly.
3. Choose how you would like iTunes to sync each device
1. Music - Check the box to always sync the playlist created above “iPod sync list”.
2. Apps - Check the box to always sync new apps
3. Movies - Check the box to always sync movies (if it gives you a box to sync all or everything, check it as well)
4. Books - Check the box to sync all books
5. Photos - Choose to sync the events you created in “Computer setup.”
4. Install your configuration profile from the ICU (ICU - http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/)
5. Open the iPod and go to >settings >Store > turn on OTA syncing of apps (music & books optional)
6. Sync the ipod
7. Right click on ipod and choose “Back up”
8. Go to >iTunes >Preferences >Devices  - Then check to see if there is a backup of the iPod you just setup synced.

Initialize and setup other devices from device backup:

1. Plug in one device at at time.
2. Name the devices according to your naming convention above.
3. Restore the devices from the backup created by iPod #1
4. Check the devices to see if the configuration profile came through the backup.  If not continue to the next step.

iPhone Configuration Utility - restoring from backups will NOT install a configuration profile

1. Install your wifi configuration profile(s) on each device

* To double check that everything is setup correctly, spot check a few devices to see if:

1. OTA syncing of apps is turned on
2. configuration profiles are installed
3. syncing is setup in iTunes on each device for:
1. music
2. apps
3. movies
4. books
5. photos

How to Turn in Assignments Digitally

When most of us were in school we never had to turn digital files into a teacher.  A manila file folder maybe, and I’m not talking about the folder icon.  However, teachers still used rules and procedures for putting names and titles on reports, projects, and homework, thereby helping the teacher keep things organized.  Digitally this rule still applies, but is probably more important than ever before.  So here are the basics for teachers who want to try to do things with a little less paper.

Email - This is always an option, but not very convenient when dealing with 100+ students.

Naming Conventions:

The most basic way to keep digital files like homework organized is by using a naming convention.  A naming convention is set of rules that dictate the way each file is named, so that when opened or search for, all your files are where they should be and in the order that you want them.  A naming convention can be used with any kind of digital media.

Network drives:

Many school districts have drives on their school network where students can store their files.  In this case a naming convention can still help. In the last two districts I've been in we've had a folder created with special permissions that allow students to put files into but doesn't allow them to edit anything once it is in that folder.   So the folder serves as a virtual inbox for assignments. 

To do this you need a folder with the following permissions for the user groups below:

Students - Write access only (can add files to but not do anything to them once they have been added)Teachers - Read/write access allowing teachers to access, edit/grade the files.

Once this folder is created we have teachers create sub folders by teacher name, and then by class/period.

Google Docs:

Google has many avenues through which users can share documents back and forth.  However, none of them really work well for turning documents in.  This is what I recommend:

1. Give the students a naming convention.  Ex: Project Name, class/period, lastname, first name this example lets you organize by project with all class periods grouped together and students in alphabetical order.  Although, you could choose any convention you wish, think about how you want to organize all assignments that have been turned in and remember that computers sort files by numerical/alphabetical order.
2. Once all assignments have been turned in, create a new collection.  I would title it with the name of the project.  Sub collections could also be created for class periods.               
3. Next, Organize your docs by name so that all of the assignments are grouped according to the naming convention above in #1. This can by done by using the search engine or sorting by title.
4. Then, Select all the documents you want to move into a folder (this can be done by checking the boxes or by doing a shift + click to highlight from first to last), and drag them to the folder in the left hand side bar.                                         

Now all your documents associated with this assignment are neatly organized for later grading.

It's no secret that I love Google Docs.  After spending some time on Twitter & G+ trying to find the best way for students to turn in assignments via Google Docs here is the best way we've come up with. 

Dropbox & Dropittome:

Dropbox is probably the best cloud storage/backup solution for documents.  It uses your regular folders on your computer and connects them to your dropbox account on the internet.  Then whenever you make changes to this document it syncs the changes to your folder on your computers and the folder on the internet.  Thus keeping one copy of your file no matter where you edit it from.  It's free for 2gb of data, and has options to increase storage capacity.

Dropitto.me connects to your dropbox account and allows you to "setup a unique upload address with password protection"...and "securely receive files from anyone into your dropbox account. 

Do you have a system that works better for you?  Please share.

RSS the Secret Ingredient to a Successful Classroom Website

These days just about everyone has a website of some sort.  But in education things move fast and furious for 9 months.  This also means that information on our sites and blogs changes rapidly as well.  Students can have 6-9 teachers at any given time.  Parents could have multiple children (mine had 5!) meaning the number of teachers/sites to monitor could be 20 or more!  Teachers (at the secondary level) could have 150 students or more.  Trying to manage effective modes of communication for all parties involved can become a headache in a hurry.  It is for this reason that all teachers, parents, and students should understand a simple internet technology called:

RSS stands for, according to wikipedia, Really Simple Syndication.  Sometimes also referred to as a 'feed' RSS automatically syndicates and delivers new posts or information to all those who have subscribed.  In other words, if my blog or website has RSS, anyone who needs or finds my site content interesting can have all posts or changes automatically delivered whenever new content is available.  It's the equivalent of having the newspaper delivered to your front door, except this is free and the content is exactly what you have asked for.


Site Owners (teachers): The owner of the site should choose a site with RSS or create a page within the site that uses RSS.

• Blogs - All blogs that I know of, have RSS built in.  No need to do anything.

• Google Sites - Google Sites do not have RSS built in.  However, you can create, what Google calls, an "Announcements" page.  Announcement pages do have feeds built in to them.  (To subscribe to an Announcement page in Google Sites, open the announcements page and follow the images below:

Subscribers (students & parents): Each subscriber needs to create a way to have the RSS feeds delivered to them.


Programs that receive feeds are often called aggregators.  There are lots of programs that aggregate RSS feeds, but here are a couple of my favorites:

• Web-Based aggregators
• Google Reader - With Google Reader, once you have created a free account, you click on "Add Subscription" and paste the address of the webpage that has RSS.  You can even organize your subscriptions into folders (very handy for parents with multiple students).  And since it's in the cloud you can get your feeds on any internet connected computer/device.  (Click here for a cheat sheet).

• Aggregator Apps
• Flipboard (iPad) Flipboard will allow you to connect your Google reader account and pull all your reader feeds in directly (I recommend this way).  Flipboard can also search the web for any other website or blog and pull those feeds in directly.

Teachers - Do your part by making sure you have a way to allow students and parents to easily follow your website or blog by using sites with RSS feeds.


Students - Encourage your teachers to use sites/pages with RSS.  Use the resources in this blog post to help.  Then be sure to use RSS to follow your teacher's site and stay up on everything in your class.


Parents - Encourage your teachers to use sites/pages with RSS.  Use the resources in this blog post to help. Then sit down with your child and set up your feed reader programs together.


What the heck?  You could even follow this blog :)


Have questions, concerns or suggestions?  Please leave a comment below.

Bloom's Taxonomy visual aids

I have seen visualizations, mashups and lot's of other sorts of cheat sheets for Bloom's Taxonomy and Technology tools.  I have found so many in fact, that it was hard to keep track of them all in one place.  So I did the gathering for you.  Please follow the links to the websites of the sources referred to below for more information


Blooms Taxonomy & Technology

http://www.usi.edu/distance/bdt.htm

http://digigogy.blogspot.com/2009/02/digital-blooms-visual.html

http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=3087

Prezi by pip cleaves:

http://prezi.com/gxgypkp67mka/blooms-digital-taxonomy-and-web-2-tools/

Bloom's & Google Apps 

By Kathy Schrock: http://blog.kathyschrock.net/2011/03/google-tools-and-blooms-revised.html

Bloom's & Apps:

By Kathy Schrock: http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Bloom-iPads-Apps.jpg 

https://sites.google.com/site/bloomsapps/                              

And what would be better than some good Star Wars analogies?







Have you found others that I didn't list here?  Please share the link below.