ISTE 2011

Day one ISTE is over and two tech tips that were gleaned today:  

• for the iPad - splashtop white board, is a remote app to your desktop or laptop from your iPad over wifi.  Works nicely even on the portable hotspot from my phone.
• Livebinders.com - check out this site for creating tabbed site.  Can be embedded in your LMS and limits where your students can go.  Good way of organizing sites for a presentation.

Lots of walking in Philadelphia.  Conference is really good.  Looking forward to learning more Tuesday.

Blackboard vs. Moodle

If you are looking at using Blackboard or Moodle as your LMS, consider several items I have experienced using Blackboard.  First, students don't like BB because of the multiple clicks to get to places in the course.  Second, BB doesn't play nicely with iPads,especially as an instructor.  Third, file management in BB is far too cumbersome and time consuming in uploading multiple files.  Finally, cost!  BB is expensive whereas Moodle is free with minimal hosting cost.  Does anyone have experience with D2L (Desire to Learn)?  Would love to hear from you about your experience.

SWPRSC

Had two great  days in Sublette, KS at the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center doing teacher training.  Day one was learning all the possibilities with Google Apps for the classroom and school.  Two of the administrators got into Google Forms and the all the possibilities with the calendar.  Special thank you to Tom for his assistant others and giving of good suggestions.  His district is fortunate to have him.  The SPRSC for hosting and taking good care of us.

Sun Valley Indian School Trip

It's has been a great week at Sun Valley Indian School in AZ working with the kids and adults.  The school is very blessed with some wonderful teachers who incorporate technology in the curriculum and have great support from Ray, the IT guy.  Ray has brought the technology along ways with projectors and SmartBoards received from the Holbrook School District.  The SV School is a unique situation serving Native American children (http://www.indianschool.org).

Free Tools for Schools and Classroom

Worked with Olathe Christian School yesterday on finding a system for attendance, grades, and common assessments. Found 2 sites that are very helpful to small schools or even for classroom teachers with limited district resources. Engrade has a plethora of tools for school wide and classroom. The other site that is very helpful is Classmarker. This site has multiple assessment tools. Did I mention that these sites are free!

Internet Speed

Students are gone, just the faculty and staff. You would think our Internet speed would be better.

 

Time for IT to find a new service or fix their network.

Faculty Workshop

Mike Ramirez, Kim Humerickhouse, and I presented to the faculty on web 2.0 resources. We had fun and the faculty was engaged trying out the new sites. These were some the resources we shared - Internet Resources.  Check out these resources to add to your toolbox.