Haiku Deck

Do you have a presentation coming up?  Of course you do...everyday you present information to your class in a variety of ways.  For your next presentation, why not try Haiku Deck?  Haiku Deck is an app that is available for the iPad and essentially it is a presentation application but not from the same mold as it's predecessors.  Haiku Deck is a quick and easy way to create beautiful and effective slidedecks (presentations) with very little text...which is why I love it for students.  Another great selling point for Haiku Deck (don't worry...the app is free) is that you can find crisp, clean Creative Commons licensed images for your slides right in the app and it happens on each slide as you type your words.  Each image then fills up the entire slide with your words displayed over it and you can choose a layout for the text.  If you can't find an image that you like in Haiku Deck you can always import your own images from your gallery or Facebook/Instagram.

Now What?

If you have the luxury of iPads in your classroom definitely check out the Haiku Deck app and get started by transforming one of your old PowerPoints or whiteboard lessons.  Once you've modeled it for your students set them free to explore and create their own presentations for class.

Brainy Box

BrainyBox is a neat new offering from the folks at Class Tools which reminded me a lot of Museum Box without the kinks.  Using the BrainyBox tool you can build a six sided cube made up of text, videos, images, and hyperlinks.  You can even embed other multimedia such audio files from SoundCloud or Google objects.  A nice feature of BrainyBox is that students do not have to create an account to access and work with their box.  They simply create a password for their work and they can access it anytime using the URL and password (same for Fakebook).

Now What?

BrainyBox is a great sites for students to use because it forces them to think about the content they are going to use on their six sides.  There is a limited number of space on each side as well so they have to be selective in what they include.  This is another reason why I like the Twitter model so much...it encourages students to think about their writing.  This is an excellent tool for students to use for presentations.

CASBO Conference

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at the annual conference for the Connecticut Association of School Business Officials.  The topic...Technology in the 21st century classroom.  I genuinely enjoyed the opportunity to share my passion with a room full of business officials who may not get into the classroom as often as they would like.  Clearly the content of my presentation got some people thinking and some of the audience members asked some very pointed questions about how students are changing.  Questions which we as educators must address as we stand at the crossroads of what was and what will be in education.  One question that stuck with me on the drive home (hour and a half and still somehow in Connecticut?) was "How is reading less important than students going on to Facebook?".  Some context...in my presentation I showed a clip where a student said that he didn't have time to read Shakespeare.  Later in my presentation, I showed a graphic representing activity on Facebook in a 20 minute span.  This prompted the ...so reading is less important than Facebook statement.  I hope that when I left the conference that wasn't the message that was conveyed but rather that it is time to evaluate what we teach and how we teach it.  I don't believe that reading is less important than Facebook.  I really don't.  But will reading Shakespeare ever help someone to discover the cure for Cancer?  It's time to take a hard look at what we are "forcing" our students to learn and the methods we are using to teach them and assess them (in a one size fits all standardized fashion) in light of our globalized 21st century society.  Are yesterday's subjects like Shakespeare still important today in 2012?  I guess it depends on who you ask.

Technology In The 21st Century Classroom on Prezi

Smore

Smore is a great site where you can create professional looking flyers in a matter of minutes.  Smore uses a simple drag and drop interface with lots of templates based on your type of flyer (event, newsletter, business).  Recently they linked up with the audio sharing site SoundCloud so you can even add a widget with audio into your multimedia flyer.  Besides audio you can also add the following content:

Smore is currently in beta testing but has opened to the public.  You can head over and sign up for an account today using your Facebook log username and password or create a new account from scratch.

Now What?

Smore is a great site with a lot of potential.  Teachers are always creating flyers for events at school or in their classroom and now Smore eliminates the need to fuss with MS Word or Publisher.  Students can use Smore to create flyers for their own events or they can use them to create an informational flyer about an event or person they are studying.

Advanced Prezis

In a couple of days, I will be delivering a presentation to the Connecticut Association of Business Officials on the use of educational technology in today's 21st century classroom.  I have been doing a lot of reading and also pushing myself to learn how to use Prezi in a more advanced way.  I got to searching around the web and found some really amazing creations using Prezi .  I thought that I would share a few of them for those who are looking to become better at creating zooming presentations.  Take a look at each one and notice how they are presented in a different way but each use the same basic skills of zooming, panning, and incorporating creative images to set the tone of the paths

Advanced Prezi 201

Brand D Prezume

PowerPoint Man

Now What?

I have been talking to several classes about using Prezi lately and it always seems to be difficult for students (and teachers) to really harness the power of Prezi without seeing it firsthand.  It is a very daunting task to create an amazing presentation from a blank canvas.  Using the Prezi Community you can find some excellent examples like the ones above and get some great ideas to use with your own presentations.  You can even get yourself off the ground by creating a copy of a public Prezi you like and then editing it with your own content.  If you are just getting started using Prezi check out the tutorial below which will walk you through the basics.

Weekly Technology Assignment 10 - Smore

Hey what do you know...this is already the tenth edition of the Weekly Technology Assignment!  I hope that you find these mini lessons and tutorials beneficial in planning new opportunities for your students to use technology in the classroom or at home.  This week's assignment will be to create a flyer using the website Smore.  Flyers can be used to promote an event or they can be just a one page informational handout or presentation visual.


Tech Tool:  Smore

Activity:  This weeks activity is not only for your students but also for YOU.  Using Smore you will create a flyer for something that is coming up in your school or in your classroom.  How about a flyer for the graduation ceremony or field day?  A newsletter about your classroom?  Creating a flyer using Smore is quick and easy so this can just be a homework assignment for your students.  They can create an informational flyer about a reading from the previous night or a topic you are covering in class.  It can even be about a famous person or event like in my tutorial below.

Example:  Fourth Grade News

Weekly Technology Assignment 8 - Prezi

This week's technology assignment uses a website called Prezi which many of you are probably familiar with at this point.  Prezi is a presentation tool (hence the name Prezi prounounced pre zee) which has taken the world by storm in the past year.  It is easy to use and much more dynamic than the presentation types of old.

Website: Prezi

Activity:  This site is great for teachers looking for a new way to present information to their students but even better for students looking for a new way to present information to their peers.  PowerPoint is an excellent program but it can be...how should I put it...boring at times.  Prezi allows users to create a much more flashy presentation that is engaging and interactive.  A good introductory assignment for your students would be to create a simple 5 path Prezi describing a topic in class or a vocabulary word or even answering a homework question with some supporting details.  Check out the tutorial below to see how easy it is to use and publish on Prezi.

Example:  Presentation on Funnel Brain (web-based flash cards)

Tutorial: 

Easel.ly

Easel.ly is a great website which allows you to create your own infographic using drag and drop editing.  It took me a minute to get used to all of the editing tools but once I got going it was pretty easy to use.  You can drag out a template to make getting started a little easier or you can get going from a blank canvas and use their shapes, objects, text, charts or even upload your own images into the graphic.  Easel.ly offers many different backgrounds to easily present your data and then save and export your image for sharing.

For more information about using Easel.ly check out the video below.





Now What?

Easel.ly is in beta right now and looking for users to try it out and give some feedback.  I used it to quickly create a graphic for a social studies class about to study the Civil War death toll and found some bugs.  It also does not work in IE so make sure you are using FF, Chrome, or Safari when you try it out.  As a teacher infographics are excellent because they force the students to think analytically about the data.  This would also be a great project for a student to complete as well.

Prezi PowerPoint Import

As Prezi recently sailed past the 10 million mark for subscribers they offered up a revised import tool for PowerPoint presentations which makes it super easy to take your old presentations and "prezify" them with Prezi.  When choosing to import your .ppt or .pptx slides, you can use one or an entire presentation with the option to add paths between them as you upload.

For more information on this new feature, check out the tutorial video below:




Now What?

Prezi has certainly been well received by not only the Education community but also big business as the new presentation medium for meetings and content delivery.  For those teachers using Prezi in their classroom, be sure to check out Prezi U which is an educational forum which houses Prezis for educational use as well as user submitted articles about how they use Prezi in their classroom.

Present Me

Present.Me is a new beta website where you can upload your PowerPoint presentations and then record audio and video using a webcam to present your presentation.  I think Present.Me is a pretty cool site if you are into the whole flipped classroom thing.  Present.Me could also be a great tool for use in the differentiated classroom where you have students working in small groups on different mini lessons.  Creating a presentation on the site is very simple.  First you upload your PPT file and then you record your slide by slide narration using your webcam.  I really found this site to be easy to use and like the idea of creating a lesson that students could follow independently.  Check out the "presi" that I created on primary and secondary sources below...





Now What?

If you are someone who doesn't mind being in front of the camera like me you can really get into the idea of presenting your presentations for students to view inside or outside of school.  Present.Me is a great way to help students who miss class and also a time saver for you as a teacher once you have your lessons created.

Weekly Technology Assignment 3

In this week's installment, offer your students the opportunity to create a story using a very simple editor created by Google and YouTube.  Before you proceed...each student must have their own YouTube account (comes with Google account) in order to publish and share their story.  If they do not have a Google account they will not be able to share their completed story.  Check out the assignment below:

Website: Google Search Story Creator

Tutorial: How to Create a Google Search Story

Activity:  Google search story creator is a really neat way to tell a story using something we all do everyday...Google searches (websites, images, maps).  A Google search story could tell the tale of how a scientist like Mendel created their genetics theory or trace the path of a character in a book.  You could also encapsulate a current event from start to finish (makes a great timeline) or work through a math problem (don't forget that Google does more than just word searches).  This could also be a great way to create a "how to" story.  Have fun with this assignment and let your students be the creators!

Example:  My Koala

Prezi U

It seems like every year there is a new "hot" website that the students enjoy using for their presentations and projects.  Last year it was Glogster but this year it is definitely Prezi.  Prezi is an awesome presentation tool which is becoming more and more popular in both Education and corporate meeting rooms.  A couple of months ago I was invited to the private beta version of Prezi U and didn't find much happening there but with the public release comes new features and some excellent new teacher resources.  Prezi U is a space for teachers to come together and discuss best practices with Prezi.  It is a great place to share what you have created for your classes or find other lessons already created by other members of the community.  You can even register your school with Prezi U and put all of your teacher's Prezis in one convenient location.  Take a look at the presentation I found on cells for high school honor students:

Mitosis on Prezi

Now What?

I really like the idea of having one place to store Prezis and a completely different place for teacher's to post their completed lesson notes using Prezi.  It makes it much easier to find useful content for your classroom or to upload your own Prezi for other educators to view and use.  Prezi U is also a great place to get ideas for how you can incorporate Prezi into your classroom using the articles and forums as a guide.

Voice Thread

Voicethread is something that has been around for a few years but recently has resurfaced in conversation because of the release of an iOS app for iPads and iPhones.  Simply put...voicethread is a website/app where you can create a collaborative conversation around media.  So as a teacher you can upload something (e.g. video, images, PPTs, PDFs, etc.) and then students can view the content and comment using their keyboard, webcam, microphone, or even their phone).  Check out the example below of a demonstration of voicethread using voicethread.


Now What?
There are an unlimited number of ways for you to use Voicethread with your classes.  To get started you can check out this slidewhow presentation or this voicethread.  In short, you can upload a video and discuss, have a conversation about a PPT, post images and comment.  Have fun!!!