This week I’ve been working with the Computer Using Educators of BC on a professional learning event called Twitter Week.
The event was a way to have educators across our province engaged in great dialogue. In short, it has totally exceeded my expectations. This event was free, didn’t have any release time, was fully online and self-paced. Teachers are sure a committed bunch to carve precious time out of their day to meet (online) and discuss what they like best about education.
Using a moodle server here are the topics we discussed:
Our learning intentions; the reasons we wanted to participate
Writing a great tweet
Twitter in the classroom
Technology integration in the classroom
Two starts and a wish for the next event
Here are some of the aspects of the event that seemed to work well.
It was organized by a volunteer organization which is a provincial specialist association as part of the BCTF.
Our amazing leadership team led be president Mike Silverton where able to setup a server capable of hosting such an event.
Email advertising works but it is the personal connections and word-of-mouth that get people registered.
Here is our poster
Would be interested in thoughts/comments. What great professional learning have you enjoyed recently? What aspects made it a success?
Wondering what those square barcodes are on posters and advertisements? They are called QR codes and just like items in a grocery store, they can be scanned. You’ll need a smartphone and an internet connection to use them.
Why Use QR Codes?
They save time
They save paper
Student are engaged and enjoy using technology for learning
The first time I used them with my grade 6 and 7 students I gave them no warnings or information how to use them. I simply put the QR code you see above on a math quiz. All I asked them to do was put their cell phone on the desk before starting the quiz. It was amazing to see how students worked together to figure out how to use them and then enthusiastically answer the math question!
1. Create a QR code that links to a website. Here is a webpage that lets you create a QR Code.
2. Copy the code to a document and print it so the student can scan.
3. Students need a SmartPhone and an internet access. They need a free app to scan the code. I recommend using I-nigma which is FREE from the Android Play Store and Apple iTunes. Laptop computers with a webcam can use this QR code reader.
Optional step - create a simple webpage that displays on a smart phone. Here is a document that I’ve created that can be edited in Microsoft Word. You can then save this document to your website and send student directly there from your QR code.
Possible Uses in Education
High tech scavenger hunt. QR code to an online map with items for students to find.
Links to key websites – QR code for the homework board or links to ‘how-to’ videos on doing a math concept.
Put them in books so that students go to a site to post book reviews.
Well I can’t say we didn’t have good times. You were my first (tablet). We traveled to 16 countries together. Your 3G card was brilliant in Asia back in 2011 when every airport featured a local company happy to provide data to travellers. But even during our beginnings, I didn’t understand why you had different apps for iPad and other devices. Did you really need to charge me twice for ‘Plants and Zombies’? Even after I invested in your proprietary 30 pin cables and music players with 30 pins, you went and changed to a new cable. I really can’t start again will all new music players and cables in both cars.
I all ended last week when I found a willing new partner on Craigslist. I traded my iPad Wifi+3G version 1 for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 4G. Like most of my interactions on Craigslist, both of us left happy.
Here is what you did to me over our 23 months together. After only 23 months, you Apple decided not to allow me to upgrade my iOS to 6. This leaves me on version 5 and now some of my favourite apps stopped working as they needed updating and I was no longer part of the club.
I want to have have all my bought apps run on all the devices in my home. We are moving over to Android and it will be a long while before I consider coming back.
Not alone?
Looks like others have had the same concerns with Apple. Since the release of iPhone 5 share price has dropped 24%. This article on CNET has a few possible reasons. Here are my thoughts to make yourself relevant to others.
Make more than one flavour of a phone. Time to create a low-cost entry level phone that isn’t just the old 4s for sale. Samsung seems to have this figured out with everything from the affordable ($200ish) Galaxy Ace II to the SIII superphone. Even google has created a superphone for the sub-$400 price range with the Google Nexus 4.
Dump iTunes. With GooglePlay I can go to a website on any computer, buy an app and send it to download to all my phones and tablets with a few clicks. iTunes is way too bloated.
Put GPS and other core chips on all your devices like the iPod. Those of us who enjoy the outdoors can then use Stava and other mapping apps.
Thoughts for Education
I’m still feeling that Apple is the best option for education and here’s why. They overall ecosystem still has the best install base in North America. This means that there are educators on my PLN using iDevices in classrooms with lessons and ideas on how to integrate. Also app makers with educational apps still focus on apple devices. Of course, this may change with time as education is a slow-turning ship. Will have to reevaluate this over the coming months and years.
Feedback?
Mistake or not, the decision has been made. What are other doing with their devices?
Our class has been studying Environmental Science during the first term. We have had weekly walking field trips to our amazing parks and green spaces around our school. The big idea is that by having students complete specific science tasks they will better understand, value and respect nature.
Looking at the view from the bottom of Rocky Point inlet.
A natural archway is a great place for a photo!
Exploring the intertidal wetlands.
Journaling at the Port Moody Area. We all got cold hands at the ice rink!
Ms. Ferguson along with the class.
Doing our ‘VLogs’ in the forest. Students do ‘Video Logs’ of the environment around them.
This post is a compilation of activities, links and resources for the staff at Laity View Elementary.
BC’s Education Plan
The Ministry of Education in BC has a plan to change education in the province. Their tag line is “The World Has Changed…The Way We Educate Our Children Should Too.”
Questions – what further questions do you have about the plan? Are there details that are key to understanding and implementing the plan?
Blogging in the Classroom
Here is a demonstration of the an amazing blogging tool Posterous. Posterous can take photos in an email attachment and format them into a great looking blog post. When you send Posterous an email with a link to a YouTube video it automatically embeds the video onto the blog site. Posterous also automatically embeds documents created in Word or even sound clips too.
Be a guest blogger on my site by sending an email to workshop2012@posterous.com. Test the site by including a photo, image, a link to a youtube video or a document. Once the posts are approved by the teacher they will appear on the website.
Your turn. Create a free account at Posterous and start your first blog. Choose a template and send in your first post.
Twitter for Educators
BIG IDEA: Participating in a Professional Learning Network
Here are some of the essential twitter skills that you’ll need to build a professional learning network.
Login and view your timeline
Twitter is like a newspaper in that every time you login there is a stream of text, links and thoughts to explore. Scroll through your list of tweets from people you follow.
Then upload a picture – most people won’t follow people without the basic information.
Following others
You’ll notice right away that people start following you. Don’t be alarmed most people find you by the connections that twitter suggests. When it comes to following people back here are some suggestions:
Follow people that have similar roles as yourself. I always follow back educators that follow me.
Follow local people that you know! Obvious but sometimes overlooked.
Politicians and special organizations are all tuned to twitter now. Check for BC politicians or your BCTF executive.
News organizations that you visit will send out tweets of their headlines with a link to the full article if you are interested.
Look for people that don’t tweet too often. If they are writing about what they had at the conference lunch then move along.
Make a list to categorize the people you follow such as people from your district to join the conversation. Here are my lists.
Reply and Retweet
Now that you have a few people in your timeline it is time to send a thought, comment or response to someone. Retweeting is a way to repeat what someone else said to your followers.
Sending a Tweet
Most people spend a while ‘lurking’ and reading other tweets before sending out their own post. Looking for ideas? Here is my guide to writing a good tweet.
Search Terms & Hashtags
They sound weird but are simply a way to find people having a conversation about a specific topic. Check out #Canucks (during a hockey game), #edchat (adhoc educational conversations),#bcedplan (BC’s education plan) or ____
Advanced Skills – experts only
Use a tool like TweetDeck to personalize the experience. Twitter on your cell or other device.
Will this supplant twitter AND facebook in the future. Google thinks so. View this video that explains how G+ works. Unique features include circles, hangouts and more.
Looking to engage your students in science. Here is a very cool event being organized by the government of Canada to promote science education. I’m part of the organizing committee and wanted to get this out to a many educators as possible. Anyone in the world can participate! I hope you take 30 minutes with your students to be part of this event!
Hello,
I am pleased to send you the announcement we are now circulating to parties that may be interested in our World Record-setting event.
As you may already know, we at Science.gc.ca and our partners are organizing the World's Largest Practical Science Lesson at multiple locations. It is a world record-setting event that will take place for 30 minutes on Friday, October 12, at exactly the same time across Canada.
We are now looking for event organizers and participants to make this historic record as great as possible. Do you think that you or the members of your organization would be interested in promoting this event for young Canadians? Or perhaps you would like to join other science centres, schools and organizations across Canada in being part of this memorable and fun experience.
The event will follow a simple lesson plan about Bernoulli's Principle, and attendees will perform two very simple experiments based on it.
All participating organizations and schools will be recognized, and event certificates for awarding to all who participate will be available for downloading from http://Science.gc.ca
Please visit http://www.science.gc.ca/newrecord to find out more and register. This record-setting event will also mark the beginning of the National Science and Technology Week, which will be held this year from October 12 to 21 with celebrations and fun events for all Canadians.
Please help us by sharing this e-mail with any individuals and organizations that you think may be interested in helping out with this fun and educational science event.
I look forward to your reply, and will welcome any suggestions you might want to make to ensure that this event is a success!
Here is a problem I’m trying to solve. How do I turn a scanned document into text that I can edit in a program like Microsoft Word?
Schools are very fortunate to now have multifunction photocopiers available for teacher use. The machines make quick work of scanning multipage documents into PDF attachments. These PDF’s can now be stored on a teacher website for sharing. But what if the teacher wants to edit the document prior to posting? For example, perhaps they have lost the original word document of a newsletter and want update some of the information.
There are a number of FREE programs that provide this service. Let’s see how they work with a PDF document that I have from our copier/scanner.
Problems: needs to be installed on a teacher computer. That means jumping through hoops to get a technician to install.
Outcome: Did an almost perfect job of interpreting the document. It even found the bolded words. Only about one error/page.
Zamzar Online
Cost: FREE
Fully online and easy to use with their four-step process.
Outcome: Didn’t turn any of the text in the document into something that could be edited in word. Seems to have turned all the text to a single image. Not helpful.
Got an email from this company asking me to evaluate their product, here is my first trial. The are fully online so there isn’t software to install. They have much less distracting advertising on their site than Zamzar and they offer a straightforward three step process.
NOTE (update to original post) This free version is intended to convert originally created PDF documents rather than scanned versions. Their paid product PDF Converter Elite is designed to work with scanned documents.
Outcome: Fairly good conversion. Had errors in characters of the text that a different font in the original. Also had layout errors. For example, where a paragraph was indented it added unwanted line breaks. While the text is editable, it would take a while to cleanup for reuse.
Recommendation
Nuance PDF Reader (and converter) was the best overall PDF to word converter. For teachers it would be worth the extra effort to get it installed on a desktop for use.
Feedback/comments?
I’d be interested to hear from other teachers. What do you use and recommend for scanning and converting documents?
Well I can’t say we didn’t have good times. You were my first (tablet). We traveled to 16 countries together. Your 3G card was brilliant in 
Schools are very fortunate to now have multifunction photocopiers available for teacher use. The machines make quick work of scanning multipage documents into PDF attachments. These PDF’s can now be stored on a teacher website for sharing. But what if the teacher wants to edit the document prior to posting? For example, perhaps they have lost the original word document of a newsletter and want update some of the information.
