Congratulations participants!

   Congratulations to those of you who have completed the 5TTT program! And to those who haven’t, thanks for trying. I hope you all got a lot out of it, and may be interested in trying it again next year. Here is the final survey for the program. Although I’m not calling it a requirement for the completion of the program, I really value your input. It’s the only way we will know how to improve our systems for bringing technology staff development to you. Thanks so much for your participation in the program and for taking the survey. I hope all of you get a chance to take a breath this summer and poke around on some of these great, free web 2.0 tools that are available to us.

   As an added incentive to participate next year, I’m checking out the iPads from our iPad cart to staff over the summer. The first people that sign up as intending to participate in next year’s technology professional development program get priority for checking out iPads. Here’s the form for that.

   Congratulations to the following 21 people who have completed the program!  Each received either a $20 gift card for Best Buy Company or a 4GB video MP3 player. If you got the gift card, you might want to check out Best Buy's Memorial Day Sale this weekend. Program graduates are: Natasha Abu-Saba, Diane Ahlberg, Jennifer Ajsenberg, Carli Andersen, Rob Anderson, Anne Beckman, Jessica Gillespie, Stacey Haas, Dhaivyd Hilgendorf, Justin Jacobs, Colin Kemmis, Jason Olson, Lauren Peralta, Bev Rath, Megan Rohwer, Scott Schugg, Manon Tam, Lori Taylor, Sue Toohey, Laura Williams, and Sally Wojahn. Your 5 technology CEUs have been posted on Keep Certified. Congratulations, also to those who tried, but couldn't find the time to make it work this year. I know that this stuff doesn't come easily to many of you, and I commend you for giving it a go. Please enroll again next year, and get even more out of it, regardless of whether you complete the program. Everyone's a winner with this program!
   Finally, the winner of our Grand Prize drawing, an Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G, was Laura Williams. I hope that you enjoy some great reading on it this summer, Laura! 

Almost done!

5TTT participants are wrapping it up for the year. Congratulations to those who managed to finish or are about to do so despite all the demands of our jobs. Thanks to those who tried out a few tools but couldn't find the time to complete the program. Please note that the final instruction for posting your Screencast on the Park Center 5TTT channel has been made optional, as I didn't provide adequate instructions. You need to be start your screencast from the channel page for it to be saved on a given channel.

We are planning to provide a similar staff technology training program at Park Center again next year, and hope that you will consider joining us again to apply your new skills to your practice and to learn a few more. Next year, one of the tools will be learning to use iPads. We will be allowing staff to check out iPads this summer to begin to get familiar with their use. Let Dhaivyd know if you are interested in getting on the advanced list for checking one out. I hope to see many of you at 2:15 on May 23 for the awards ceremony at our afternoon staff meeting. You are now qualified as technology leaders for the school. Again, congratulations.

Tool #6: Screencast-O-Matic

Tool #6: Screencasting

Screencasting allows practitioners to create a video out of whatever is done on their computer screen, accompanied by vocal narration. The resulting videos can be posted on YouTube or a website or made into a video file, including MP4, AVI, and FLV movie formats. A microphone must be connected to the computer for the narration to work. I have microphones that can be borrowed for this project, and if you decide you want to make use of this technology regularly, we may be able to check one out to you for a longer term. Teachers primarily use this tool to show students how to access information, such as documents on a Moodle page; how to operate software or online programs; or how to use online resources. Some teachers are beginning to do their content instruction this way and assign the viewing for homework so that class time can be spent helping students practice the new skill. This is known as the “Flipped Classroom.” Anything that is done using the computer can be re-created using Screencasting tools. I have chosen to use Screencast-O-Matic for this tool because it is free (up to 15 minutes per screencast), easy to use, and does not require a software download. Other similar programs, such as Jing, have more features, but often require a download, may not be as intuitive, and may charge for the service. ScreenToaster is another free option that does not require a download. 

Here is a screencast created by math teacher called "Law of Sines," as an example of what you can do.

To complete Tool 6:

• Watch some of the Law of Sines screencast
• Sign up for a Screencast-O-Matic account
• Watch at least the first “how to” video on http://screencast-o-matic.com/channels/cXhI3EVTh
• Create a screencast of something
• Upload the screencast to your Screencast-O-Matic account
• You may also choose to upload it to YouTube (optional)
• Embed or provide the link to your screencast in your blog post

Optional Challenge Activities:

Add your screencast to the Park Center TTT open channel, at http://screencast-o-matic.com/channels/clfq2LVWM To do this, you need to begin recording your screencast from the TTT channel page. 

·         Set up a webcam and include a real time video of yourself in your screencast.

·         Add captions to your screencast

     Second year participant requirements:  

·         Set up your own channel, either on YouTube or Screencast-O-Matic – or both.

     Create an open channel on Screencast-O-Matic for students to place their Screencasts for an assignment

     If you don't have a class, create screencasts to demonstrate to a colleague how to do some function on the computer, such as accessing a U-drive folder, sending an electronic copy request, or submitting a report.

Tool #5: Diigo / Social Bookmarking

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Tool #5: Social Bookmarking with Diigo

Diigo started out as a social bookmarking site, like Delicious.com: a place where you can bookmark your favorite websites so that you can access them from any Internet-connected device. It has grown to include many more functions for the collection and organizing of data of all types. It can also serve as an excellent tool for sharing information with others. To complete this tool, you must:

1.     Start a Diigo account

2.     Watch the Diigo tutorial for version V5 at http://vimeo.com/12687333

3.     Add at least 5 of your existing bookmarks

4.     Tag at least 5 bookmarks
5.  Add Diigo Toolbar to Firefox. You can do this from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/diigo-web-highlighter-and-stic/ 

6.     Save a note, a picture, highlights from a web page, and (OPTIONAL:) an online pdf document to Diigo

7.     Make a snapshot (or capture a screenshot) of a page or partial page and annotate it with highlights, arrows, etc.This can be done through the Diigo Toolbar.

8.     Share an item with one or more people, including hilgendorfd@district279.org

Additional Diigo videos and tutorials can be found at: http://help.diigo.com/home/get-started

Optional challenge activities:

1.     Install Diigo add-on browser to your most commonly used browser (Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer). Try the features from your toolbar add-on.

2.     Download free Diigo Powernote for Android or the Diigo app for iOS devices for easier access from your mobile devices.

3.     Install Diigo Offline Reader app for iOS devices.

     Second year participant requirements:

•        Search Diigo for other people's folders that contain websites pertinent to your practice. Move any contents of such folders into your own folders and share with colleagues that might find the sites pertinent.
  

•          If you have a class doing a research project - or any project that involves web sources - have them use Diigo to create folders of resources or resources with a specific tag that they share with you. Show them how to take snapshots and annotate sites.

•      If you do not have a class, create a folder of pertinent sites and share it with colleagues.  Share resources with a specific tag.

Tool #4: Google Forms

Google Forms is used to solicit responses from people. The results of surveys, tests/quizzes, questionnaires, meeting evaluations, or votes are automatically transferred to a Google spreadsheet, which has built-in result summary charts and diagrams.

To complete the requirements for tool #4:
1. Create a Google form with at least 3 questions, preferably of different types. Available question types are: text (for short answers), paragraph text (for longer answers), multiple choice, check boxes, choose from a list, scale (eg. on a scale of 1-5…), and grid.
2. Share the form with hilgendorfd@apps.district279.org
3. Mail the form to at least 3 respondents. If the form is not based on an actual need, please ask other TTT participants to respond. In this case, make your forms short and easy so we don’t overburden the TTT participants.
4. Respond to any live forms that you receive.
5. Respond to the Google form posted on the blog. It’s the entry prior to (below) this one. You can also find it in the Quick Links to the right, or at Tool #4 Google Form to Complete
6. View your Google spreadsheet on your Moodle/Osseo Apps account.
7. View the response summaries.
8. If you haven't been making new posts to your blog, write one about this tool, after you try it out. 
Here is a nearly 13-minute-long screencast showing how to do these things. This can also be viewed on You Tube here.

2nd Year Participant Requirements:
(Optional challenge activities for first year participants)
Try any or all of these, if you want to expand your use of this tool.

• Try out 4-6 questions types.
• Prepare a quiz or pre-test for your class. Use something that you would actually be giving the class. If you don’t have a class, send out a different survey that meets a genuine need.
• Embed the form in your blog (or another web page for which you have editing rights) and direct respondents to the page, rather than send this form out as an e-mail. If you use this technique and you want to know who made which response, you will want to include a question that asks for their name. To embed a form, go to the spreadsheet for the form and select “Embed form in a webpage” from the “Form” menu.
• When the results are in, use the Snipping Tool (part of the Windows 7 operating system) to copy a chart onto a Google docs Presentation slide (or more slides). Feel free to give them titles and any other information to make it clear what you are sharing and why.
• Share the Presentation with someone. Feel free to share it with hilgendorfd@district279.org, if there is no genuine need to share the information with someone else.
• If you have text answers, you may want to try copying the answers from one of your questions and pasting them into Wordle.com to create a visual image of the results. This allows you a quick visual synopsis of the words that respondents used to answer a question, with more frequently used words larger. If you do this, I also recommend randomizing the resulting Wordle until you find one that you especially like.To make a file of the Wordle, you will need to take a screenshot of it, either using the Snipping Tool or Command-Shift-4 on a Macintosh computer.

Recommended Action:

• On a semi-related note, I recommend that you forward your apps emails to your regular address. This way you don’t have to check both accounts. To do this, 
• Open your e-mail from Osseo Apps. That’s your @apps.district279.org account. 
• Click on the little gear icon to the right of your user name at the top right corner of the e-mail page and open “Mail Settings.” 
• Click on the blue “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” menu. 
• Under “forwarding,” forward a copy of incoming email to [your regular address] and “mark Osseo Area Schools Mail’s copy as read.”

TTT Google Form: Please complete as part of Tool #4

Best educational wikis of 2011

Interested in further exploring wikis? Wikispaces is probably the most popular wiki host used by teachers. They just announced their top educational wikis for last year. You can find them here.