President Obama speaks at the ConnectEd Conference

Tech Tidbit Video: FlipSnack

A quick demonstration video on how to use the FlipSnack webtool, which allows you to upload jpeg files or PDF documents and create flippable e-books that you can share, embed, and download.

FlipSnack is part of the SnackTools family of webtools, including Photosnack (slideshows for Facebook, Twitter, and blogs); PodSnack (podcast creator & hosting); TubeSnack (custom video players & playlists); PollSnack (polls & surveys); SlideSnack (online presentation sharing); and NotifySnack (smart notifications for websites).

WCPSS Convergence Symposium Reflections: Teacher Leadership & Collaboration with Administration

It's been a little while since I posted another reflection on what I learned from the WCPSS Convergence Symposium from early November, so I better get on the stick!

One of the most insightful workshops I attended dealt with teachers proposing ideas concerning the integration of technology into their school culture, and collaborating closely with their school's administration.  The workshop was led by Kristen Combs, a 7th grade teacher at Wakefield Middle School, and her principal, Jimmy Sposato.

                                               Kristen Combs

The first piece they made when making a proposal to one's administrator is to go to the principal with a plan for how to carry out your proposal.  It will provide your adminstration with needed information and will save them time in trying to determine how to implement the proposal.  In this way, they will be more prepared to make a decision on whether to act on the proposal or not.  

1. Begin with a vision. 
2. Set goals.
3. Make a plan.
4. Get to work. 

Wakefield Middle School's principal, Mr. Sposato, added his perspectives on this process.  

Climate/Trust

• Trust is essential for successful collaboration
• Does your current climate encourage risk taking? Innovation? If not, ask why? If yes, go for it!

Leadership

• Principals are looking for leaders (we are great first followers)
• You do not have to be an expert but you need to be proficient. 
• Principals will support about everything and effective teacher proposes (Your ideas are almost always better)

In conclusion, he stressed that technology was not a substitute for a lack of planning and that when implementing a new plan into a school culture, it is important that you:

• Be specific, be reasonable, be creative
• Ground your ideas in best practice principles! Make it about the learning
• Describe how will you bring others along
• Detail what you need from your principal

Tech Tidbit Video: FlipGrid

This week's Tech Tidbit video focuses on FlipGrid, a web2.0 tool that enables a teacher to post open-ended questions, allowing students to post video responses to the question, up to 90 seconds in length.

FlipGrid cost $65 a year, which provides subscribers with a maximum of 10 flipgrids with unlimited questions and unlimited video responses.  However, if you want to try out FlipGrid for free, you can opt for a 21-day demo account which allows for a maximum of 5 flipgrids with unlimited questions and unlimited video responses.

WCPSS Convergence Symposium Day 1, part 3

Another panel I attended during the WCPSS Convergence Symposium was "The 5 W's of a Successful Student Technology Showcase (plus the How)", led by Donna Hitchings.  She discussed the successful Student Technology Showcases she had organized at Sanderson High School over the years.

Among her arguments: Student technology showcases provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate how they utilize technology in the classroom. They provide students with the opportunity to present in front of a live audience, as well as giving recognition to students who have a particular "knack" for using technology.

WCPSS Convergence Symposium Day 1 Reflection, Part 2

The second panel I attended on the first day of the WCPSS Convergence Symposium was "10 Digital Tools (and a few extra) for Library & the Classroom", led by Shannon M. Miller.  She is a Teacher Librarian and Technology Integration Specialist from Van Meter, Iowa who is a prolific blogger, tweeter, Facebooker (?) and more about all things dealing with Instructional Technology. 

Shannon Miller discusses the numerous resources she shared!

She shared a great many resources with the packed ballroom that could benefit teachers in the library or the classroom, including:

• Google Presentation (use for student presentations or for teacher collaboration
• FlipSnack (upload PDF files and create an eBook!)
• TuxPaint (downloadable digital drawing program)
• Recite (converts text into a downloadable, embeddable, sharable poster)
• StoryBird (eBook creation site)
• Piktochart (infographic creation site)
• Smore (online flyer design site)
• Padlet (virtual sticky notes/comment wall)
• LittleBirdTales (digital storytelling site)
• BuildYourWildSelf (human/animal hybrid avatar creator)
• PicMonkey (online photo editor)
• SoundCloud (audio file recorder/hosting site)
• Buncee (incorporate multimedia files into a sharable digital environment)
• FlipGrid (teachers record a discussion question video and student record short videos in response.  These videos are displayed in a grid format.)
• ThePeanutGallery Chrome app (create silent movies with new or previously created footage)

Everyone in this panel was amazed at the variety of resources Ms. Miller shared, as well as the ways in which these tools could be implemented!  This panel was well worth attending, for certain!

Tech Tidbit: Creating Multimedia Timelines

Today's Tech Tidbit video discusses the Timeline JS webtool which allows you to create multimedia timelines incorporating the use of YouTube videos, images, maps,slideshows, and other multimedia artifacts.  It can pull multimedia from sources such as Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, DailyMotion, Wikipedia, SoundCloud, and more. 

Using Timeline JS does require you to have a Google account that you use to access a Google Spreadsheet that the site generates.  You access this sheet for future use by using Google Drive.  This tool can be used by teachers for presenting information to their students, or by students for presentations. 

Video: How Does Daylight Savings Time affect the human body?

Courtesy of Smithsonian.org:

WCPSS Convergence Symposium Day 1: Mediating Centers/Stations with technology in the library

Led by Kerri Brown Parker and Bethany Smith, this session was designed primarily for teacher librarians.
They mentioned 3 types of stations or centers that could be implemented in a media center.

• Rotating Stations--Set up stations according to learning goals; set them up so they can be accessed in any order; do not have one station dependent one the previous station; utilize                               collaboration documents; possibly use Edmodo or another learning management                                 system to collect students' work; and a presentation tool station.
• Progressive Stations--Transitioning course from traditional format to asynchronous online format; progressive stations work well by having students work through stations a chunk at a time
• Independent Stations

Opening Thoughts about WCPSS Convergence Symposium Fall 2014

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I attended the Fall 2014 session of the WCPSS Convergence Symposium at the McKimmon Center on the N.C. State campus.  It was designed to offer professional development workshops for teacher librarians and instructional technology specialists.

Marlo Gaddis

  Led by Marlo Gaddis, it offered over 70 distinct workshops and featured guest speakers including Shannon M. Miller, Bethany Smith, and North Carolina Principal of the year Carrie Tulbert.  As I begin to let the information from the symposium sink in, I will post my thoughts about my reactions, ideas, etc. that resulted from the different sessions I attended.  Stay tuned!