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What Will You Learn this Summer? 26 Professional Development Resources

Posted by  on Thursday, May 26th 2011     

Part of the Cool Sites series

Photo adapted by Kevindooley's photo The Teacher Creative Commons Attributes 2.0 Generic

Photo adapted from Flickr by kevindooley licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Summer has officially started for many of you! I know that you will probably be relaxing for the first few days, but eventually you may feel the need to be inspired and motivated for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year! Social media provides us with incredible opportunities to choose the way we want to develop professionally. You can choose the topic, the medium, and who you want to learn from. You can choose the way you like to learn, because social media provides us with several multimedia experiences, such as webinars, LMS, live video, and more. The experience is usually dynamic and motivating because you are learning with others around the world! Additionally, you will be developing your Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN).

Professional Development Opportunities to Choose From…

Free Programs:

  • The 30 Goals Challenge- Over 5000 educators have participated in the 1st and 2nd editions of this global challenge for educators with the premise of getting you to complete 30 professional development goals by 2012. These are short-term goals, such as guest posting, changing your classroom environment, providing effective feedback, establishing an online presence, and more. How do you participate?
  • SEETA Courses- The South Eastern Europe Teachers Association offers several week courses with a guest author or expert in the field. You will have to register, but the courses are free!
  • 31 Days to Become a Better Edtech Leader- With his vast experience, Terry Freedman offers excellent goals to accomplish each day that help you use educational technology effectively. Goals include conducting a SWOT analysis to organizing an inservice! Here’s a handy list of each post and the links.
  • The 23 Things Project- Take Steven Anderson’s 10 week course that shows you how to use various web 2.0 tools effectively in the classroom.
  • ASCD Free Summer Boot Camp- Webinars by various guests. First one is Lisa Dabbs, @teachingwthsoul
  • Arts Integration E-Course on Education Closet- Registration is happening now for an online arts integration professional development course this summer. This was submitted by Susan Riley!
  • Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL)- provides free online workshops on Moodle for Teachers (Orientation, Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced), Professional Electronic Portfolios (PEP), WebQuests, Facilitating Online Classes, Grant Writings, TESOL, Integrating Technology and using Web 2.0 in the classroom. This was submitted by Nellie Deutsch!

Attend Live Events in Real Time!

You can attend several free conferences, webinars, Twitter chats, and presentations online with your PLN! These usually last one hour, but many conferences also offer free all day live streaming of their keynotes.

  • Free Friday Webinars- Thanks to the American TESOL Institute, I conduct free 30 minute online webinars on the Adobe Connect platform every Friday at 4pm EST (New York Time), 3pm Austin, TX, 1pm LA, California, 9pm London Time, 10pm Paris Time, 11pm Athens/Istanbul Time, Sat 8am Sydney time, and Sat. 6am Tokyo time. Check your time zones here!
  • Attend the free Reform Symposium E-Conference along with 8000 other educators from over 50 countries. This takes place Friday, July 29 to Sunday, July 31, 2011 and we hope you will join us for what promises to be our biggest yet global online conference for everyone concerned with education. With up to 60 presentations and 12 keynote speakers it is sure to be an incredible event!
  • The Educators’ PLN Ning Live Chats with Guest Experts- The Educator’s PLN is a great place to interact and learn from other educators. Join us for free live chats with various authors. In the past we featured Alfie Kohn, Howard Rheingold, Diane Ravitch, Chris Lehmann, Steve Hargadon, Jim Burke, and others.
  • Watch Live Streams of the 140 Character Conference- Jeff Pulver has been amazing in getting celebrities, educators, and leaders in various fields to speak passionately about how social media is revolutionizing their fields. If you cannot attend physically, then attend virtually. Jeff live streams the talks! Follow the hashtag, #140Conffor continuous updates.
  • Edublogs Live Events- Every week, attend a free webinar on various topics. Usually, Jo and Phil Hart hosts these free webinars that cover effective use of web 2.0 tools or instructional methodologies.
  • Future of Education- Join Steve Hargadon live as he interviews some of the greatest minds in education. Past guests included Sir Ken Robinson, Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravitch, and more!
  • Classroom 2.0 Live Events- Every week, attend a free webinar with an expert in a field or listen to some great authors speak live and ask them questions.
  • Simple K12 webinars- Attend free webinars with experts on various topics.
  • Attend Second Life Live Events- Second Life has several educational groups that meet weekly for free conferences, talks, workshops, and more. Download the software and register for free. Consider joining these educational groups:
  • ISTE on Second LifeDiscovery Educator NetworkEDTECH RetreatEDTECH CommunityVisit Edunation Island- a safe place for educators
  • #Edchat- Join over 2000 educators every Tuesday to discuss various topics you get to vote for and suggest.
  • Education Chats on Twitter- Find out the dates and times of educational conversations that occur on Twitter.

Free Online Classes:

Ever dream of studying at Stanford or MIT or being taught by George Siemens? Well you can attend several free online courses taught by authors, subject matter experts, and university lecturers. Below are useful links to find a free online course in any subject!

  • MOOC- Massive Open Online Courses where 1000s attend for free through discussion forums and free webinars. Follow the hashtag #MOOC for the latest MOOC. University professors, TED speakers, and notable educational theorists moderate these courses. You learn from the very best in our field! Topics range from Personal Learning Networks to Mobile Learning!
  • MIT Open Course Ware offers over 1900 free online courses in over 20 subjects. You can subscribe by RSS or get e-mail updates.
  • Stanford on iTunes- Download courses, faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports that will play on your iPod, iPad, iPhone, Mac or PC.
  • 17 Universities with free online courses- Find out how to access these free courses from some of the most respected universities in the world! This article also describes the experience of learning through these online classes.
  • 250 Free Online Courses- Find a list of several more free online courses from the top universities categorized by subject.
  • Edufire Free Live Online Classes- Register for free and have access to various topics such as using various web tools or learning a different language. You get a live tutor on a video.

Find several more professional development opportunities by clicking on the tabs of Mike Fisher’s Live Binder.

Challenge:

Try any of these professional development opportunities and blog about your experience. Blogging helps you reflect and decide how you can apply this learning to improve your instructional methods.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What are your favorite ways to learn online? Did I miss any other great professional development opportunities?

category: Cool Sites, Teacher Development Reflections
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A Student’s Voice about Technology & Learning: Interview with Shantanu Bala

Posted by  on Saturday, February 5th 2011     

Interview 15 of Education Voices

In the move for education transformation, we need to listen to many voices including students. I was fortunate to meet high school student and web developer, Shantanu Bala. We met online while collaborating on a project to further improve education. Shantanu is a high school student who developed this really cool software to help his fellow peers and other students worldwide, Quicklyst. Quicklyst is a free notetaking tool that does really cool things such as if you type a ? next to any word it searches through Wikipedia and other sources to find more information. I was so excited about Shantanu’s motivation to develop Quicklyst and his motivation behind joining a teacher led reform project that I asked him if he’d mind me interviewing this past week. So glad he agreed!

Bio

Shantanu Bala is a high school student in Phoenix, Arizona, and one of his interests is computer science. He learned programming when he was in elementary school, he was introduced to formal web development when he started working with the Joomla! Project. He volunteered and contributed to that free software project for about a year during his freshman year of high school, and states he really enjoyed it. He was introduced to the Joomla! Project through the Google Highly Open Participation Contest. After that, he started becoming more confident with his programming, and decided to find other projects he could work on. After looking at Arizona State University’s website for information about the university (towards the summer of his sophomore year of high school), he stumbled across an interesting laboratory called the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing , and asked for a tour of the place since he was very interested in applying to Arizona State. He found some of their research really interesting, and asked if there was anything he could work on. One of the PhD students became his mentor, and with his help Shantanu published a few research papers at a couple conferences (http://www.chi2010.org and http://have.ieee-ims.org). This past October he presented at the IEEE HAVE Conference in Phoenix.

Shantanu reflects:

Quicklyst merged a couple of my passions. I enjoyed taking part in academic pursuits at Arizona State University, but I’m also very interested in education as well. I’m currently the chair of the Education Workgroup of the Arizona Governor’s Youth Commission, and I’ve always been interested in the possibility of starting a company.

Previous Interviews

Check out the previous interviews Twittering for Education- Jo and Phil Hart, Twittering for Education- Eric and Melissa Sheninger, Twittering for Education- Will and Elle Deyamport, Connected Principals- George Couros, 1:1 Programs- Rich Kiker, Mobile Learning with Kids- Scott Newcomb, Effective Leadership: Interview with Patrick Larkin, Using Skype for ELT Lessons: Interview with Marisa Pavan, Teachers as Leaders and Continuous Learners: Interview with Dr. Doug Green, Blogging with Students: Interview with Greta Sandler, What Does the Innovative School Look Like? Interview with Dr. Tom King, How Do We Animate Lessons? Interview with Ken Wilson, Building the Twitter Academy: Interview with Kelly Tenkely, and Leading by Example and Teacher Evaluations: Interview with Akevy Greenblatt.

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for FREE!

What do you believe is the ideal education students should be receiving?

category: Cool Sites, Interviews
tags: , , , , , , , ,

8 Apps to Prepare You for Your Next Presentation/ Webmeeting

Posted by  on Wednesday, January 19th 2011     

Part of the Cool Sites series and the Presentation Tips series

I’ve read quite a lot about giving incredible presentations and have attended several amazing workshops with some of the best presenters out there. I’ll give you their number one advice for free, “It’s all in the preparation!” For this reason, my presentations consume me. Even after preparing them I go over them 1000s of times in my head. I picture how I will give the presentation and what I will say. I even imagine the questions the audience will give me. I picture every little detail even the clothes I’m wearing and the pitch of my voice. Preparation takes time. Planning slides, arranging them, finding pictures to accompany the messages, and making decisions on color schemes and templates can take hours. That is why I like to plan on the go and with mobile devices and apps, you can sketch out your presentation and rehearse almost anywhere. Here are the apps I recommend.

Free Presentation Apps

These are available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. Some of these may have Android and Blackberry equivalents.

Mighty Meeting- Manage a library of PowerPoint presentations directly from your smartphone or tablet and share them via email, blog, Twitter, or Facebook. Start or join web meetings directly from your laptop, iPhone, iPad, or Android phone. Nice interface! **For hosting a webmeeting or viewing your Powerpoint slides on your smartphone!

iClicker Lite- The paid version offers more but try out the free version. Use your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad as your PowerPoint remote clicker to view slides and slide notes as you present. Make annotations and show it to your audience as you present. Need wifi. **For navigating your Powerpoint slides during your presentation!

Presenter Pro-Professional presentation training app that includes advanced presentation skills techniques with graphics, audio, and video clips, access to Rexi Media for additional presentation skills coaching or PPT design guidelines, a “tip shaker” for accessing hundreds of quick tips and a checklist feature, which enables you to store and e-mail any topic paragraphs to refer to later. View this while traveling to your next presentation. **For preparing your next presentation!

Adobe Connect- Are you presenting a webinar on Adobe Connect? Have your audience access it through a free app supported by iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android. Your audience doesn’t have to miss any of your presentations. The free app allows them to see your slides and chat with others. **For hosting a webmeeting on your smartphone!

FuzeMeeting/ Fuze Meeting HD for iPad- Are you presenting a webinar on Fuze Meeting? Have your audience access it through a free app supported by iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Blackberry and Android. Your audience doesn’t have to miss any of your presentations. The free app allows them to see your slides and chat with others. Features include instant web conferences, live desktop sharing of files (supports Word, PPT, PDF, and others), and start meetings immediately with access to your address and personal IM contacts from multiple networks like Gmail, LinkedIn, Yahoo and more. **For hosting a webmeeting on your smartphone!

Evernote- I mentioned this in a previous post but really there are so many uses for this free app! Create text, photo and audio notes that auto-synchronize your notes to your Mac or PC. Makes text within snapshots searchable. Add, sync, access, and share files (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, and more) among the different versions of Evernote. Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry. **For preparing your next presentation! Try sketching out your presentation and gathering research with this app!

Mindblowing- I mentioned this in a previous post but really there are so many uses for this free app! Gather audio, video and photos into a colorized mindmap. Enter the main topic, title, or theme in the main node then create branches with images, audio, or video attached. Send the mindmap with the attachments through email. Free version available on the iPhone. This is my recent review of this app which gives several ideas on how to use it with students. ***For preparing your next presentation! Try sketching out your presentation and gathering research with this app!

Prezi for the iPad- Free but still has some problems and only seems to work on 4G.  You should be able to create, edit, and present your Prezi presentations. Give it a try it’s free!

If you enjoyed this post, check out 14 Apps That Should Accompany You to the Next Conference!

Challenge:

Try one of these apps for your next presentation!

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What apps do you love using at conferences?

category: Cool Sites, Mobile Learning, presentation tips
tags: , , , ,

14 Apps That Should Accompany You to the Next Conference

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 29th 2010     

Part of the Cool Sites series

You may have a conference you are preparing to attend in 2011, such as IATEFL, ISTEK, ISTE, or the upcoming EduConn conference. These are some of the face-to-face conferences, but many conferences are also free and can be enjoyed in the comfort of your home for free, like the upcoming Reform Symposium E-Conference on Saturday, January 8th.  With mobile devices and apps, you can do so much at conferences. In the palm of your hand you have the power to connect with people at the conference instantly, keep record of the speaker’s key points, collect favorite sayings, and share these key points virtually with others who cannot attend. Mobile apps are additionally environmentally friendly and make it easier for you to organize the information you gather digitally. You can keep a record of the information you gather in various forms through audio, video, images, and text. You can tag information in order to refer to it later when you need it. I find that I remember more using apps to document and share information. Moreover, toting around my iPhone is much easier than lugging around my Macbook. The apps are very easy to use, often free, and have various multimedia options. Many integrate images, audio, text and audio. I also recommend having the usual suspects for social networking and sharing images which include Echofon (Twitter), Tweetdeck (Twitter), Facebook, Flickr (Photo sharing), and 4 Square (not one I personally use but many conferences will now let you win prizes through this app).

Networking Apps

These are some of the free great apps! These are available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. Some of these may have Android and Blackberry equivalents.

My Name is E- Share business cards phone to phone or through e-mail with 3 taps. Add notes to newly received cards and view social networking information. Add new cards instantly to contacts. E saves the location of where a business card was shared. Receive updates of your contacts’ information when they update. Also share cards with those who don’t have the application. Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.

Bump- Share business cards phone to phone, even Android to iPhone, by bumping the phones together. Share contacts info, pictures, calendar events, and connect on social networks. Free version available on the iPhone, iPod, iPad and Android. Both parties must have the free Bump application for it to work.

NoteTaking Apps

These are some of the great apps! These are available on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. Some of these may have Android and Blackberry equivalents.

Evernote- Create text, photo and audio notes that auto-synchronize your notes to your Mac or PC. Makes text within snapshots searchable. Add, sync, access, and share files (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, and more) among the different versions of Evernote. Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.
** Try keeping notes of the presentations and workshops you attend or try brainstorming and planning your next presentation on this app!

Posterous- Want to blog and report the workshops or presentations in one location on a website quickly? Although, Posterous is the easiest way to blog it can also be used to effectively collect notes to publish immediately on a blog without any registration. Include a mix of text, photos, and videos as well as tags and location information. Share immediately on Facebook and Twitter! Even allow others to add to your posts (set this up through the web app vs. the mobile app). Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.

Mindblowing- Gather audio, video and photos into a colorized mindmap. Enter the main topic, title, or theme in the main node then create branches with images, audio, or video attached. Send the mindmap with the attachments through email. Free version available on the iPhone. This is my recent review of this app which gives several ideas on how to use it with students.
** Try keeping notes of the presentations and workshops you attend or try brainstorming and planning your next presentation on this app!

Free Storage Apps

DropBox- Get 2 GB of storage for free to upload photos, videos, documents, presentations, and audio. You can make these private or public (provides you a link to share for others to download). Save photos and videos taken with your phone’s camera, share and send files via email, or copy and paste links to share with another app. Export files to other apps and favorite them for offline viewing. Free version available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.
** Try storing your presentation slides or handouts and easily provide a link to your participants to download.

IBooks- I access my conference pdf programs, transportation maps, and other documents offline with this free app! You have scrolling features, zoom, bookmarking and more. You even have a great looking shelf to organize your collection. You can also have access to some free/paid books to keep you entertained during your free time! Any pdf attachments in your email can automatically be opened and immediately stored in this app! Free version available on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

Streaming Apps

Ustream Broadcaster- I always find events at conferences I want to livestream and have available online. This free app allows me to livestream and when I am finished it will be available online in case people missed the event or presentation. You can even tweet and chat while livestreaming the event. You have to register ahead of time (free) but when you do you have your own channel created that others can visit. Free version available on the iPhone and Android.

Ustream Viewer- This app simply allows you to watch Ustreamed events on your iPhone.

Challenge:

Try one of these apps at your next conference!

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What apps do you love using at conferences?

category: Cool Sites, Mobile Learning, presentation tips
tags: , , , , , ,

8 Free Apps for Creating Special Holiday Gifts

Posted by  on Sunday, December 19th 2010     

Part of the Cool Sites series

As a little girl, I made Christmas gifts for my father. He preferred them over bought gifts. Well, at least until I can afford box seats for the Dallas Cowboys games. Making gifts can be difficult for children who have to beg a parent to buy them the materials and disguise this so one parent does not find out. With their mobile devices and apps children, adolescents, and teens can create a very meaningful gift for a loved one. What I like about this idea are the apps are very easy to use, often free, and have various multimedia options. Many integrate images, audio, text and audio. The child can also easily send the message Christmas morning for the parent to wake up and see the gift. With so many families on the same phone plans the child will often have similar devices as their parents. If not, many of these apps have the ability for users to share their productions through online communities, e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter!

Creative Apps

These are some of the great free apps!  I’ll try to post in order of preference in considering the features, time requirement, and user-friendliness. These are available on the iPod Touch and iPad as well but may not be free on those platforms. Some of these may have Android and Blackberry equivalents.

StoryRobe- I love this free digital storytelling app. It’s incredibly easy for children to adults to create audio/visual stories on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Use the built in microphone, or any 3rd party microphone to create audio recordings with photos and videos. You have the option to upload to Youtube or send it through e-mail. If it’s in their e-mail, then the parents can easily e-mail their child’s production to their friends! You don’t need an Internet connection to create the stories, but you do to send them!

Fotobabble- Quickly create and easily share talking photos in 3 steps (Snap or select or a photo, speak into the microphone to record audio, share with friends via email, Facebook or Twitter). Fotobabble is really easy to use and free! It’s very similar to StoryRobe but doesn’t allow video. However, you do get various holiday themed backgrounds.

  • Idea- Create a visual holiday card!
  • Example- Here’s Rosco, my pug’s holiday card to you!

Animoto- Upload up to 10 images, choose a soundtrack from the library (many nice holiday tunes to choose from, and click a button to make a 30-second video. Sync your videos with your Animoto.com account, download videos for offline viewing, and make longer ones with an All-Access Pass.

  • Idea- Create a nice looking holiday video for your family or friends! The app doesn’t let you add text like the site does but you can always take pictures of text or signs if you’re out and about.
  • Example-My Christmas card!


    • Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

StoryKit- Create an electronic storybook by drawing on the screen, uploading images, recording sound effects and voice, laying out the elements of the story (text boxes, images, paint, and sound clips) freely by dragging them or pinching to resize, reordering pages, and uploading to the StoryKit web server. Email a link to the story. The application includes four public domain children’s books to rewrite and rearrange into a new story.

  • Idea- Create the holiday story starring your friends and family with a special message!
  • Example- Here’s a quick Christmas story I made with Rosco! Click here to read it!

StoryCorps- Listen to the weekly story; share stories via email, Facebook, and Twitter; get tips for recording stories on mobile devices; create and email a list of questions for an interview with StoryCorps.

  • Idea- Interview several friends that have great things to remember about another friend. You can also interview all your family members and collect memories about a grandparent or parent.
  • Example- Listen to this Christmas memory from World War II.

Audio Boo- Free app that allows you to record and upload audio for your friends, family or the rest of the world to hear through Facebook, Twitter, and email.

  • Idea- Share a poem, song, or story inspired by your loved one!
  • Example- Here’s a story about my father called, 2 Feet Tall Trophies! My father used to be a championship bowler!

Santa Hat Sewing is a brand new arts and crafts app that will lead you all the way to design and sew that perfect Santa Hat for your kids. This art and craft app has been specially designed for the kids to take an active role in making a Santa hat.The Santa Hat Sewing app will teach you and show you how to make a great one.

  • Idea- Create a Santa hat for a favorite doll or loved one with a cute title like Mrs. Claus!

Comic Touch Lite- Create a comic by adding various bubble captions to photos. The free version has the company logo.

  • Idea- Create a comic of your loved one as the hero!
  • Example- Below is Rosco’s example!

Rosco the pug

Challenge:

Try these apps with your students and blog about any exciting ways you use them! Or leave a link to a Christmas gift you want to share in the comments section!

You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What apps do you love using to send your friends holiday cheers?

category: Cool Sites, Mobile Learning
tags: , , , , , , ,
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