Favourite Extension and App

I have a huge list of favourite extensions and apps that I love. My Chrome address bar is now minuscule as the result of me adding so many favourite Chrome extensions to my account.

There are only a few extensions in particular however, that I use many times a day without fail. Diigo is definitely one of them. I won't go into that now as I have written about it in the past.

Post to Blog
Diigo Groups for Student Content
My Wish Lists for Diigo and SimplyBox(now defunct)

Evernote clipper is one I plan on using more often, but funny enough one of my most useful extensions is the seemingly measly little goo.gl shortener. Now there are plenty of shortener extensions and apps out there, but this one has been with me from the on start and it works every single time. It is not only reliable, but fast and it generates a little QR code along with the shortened URL. It is this QR code that is so important to me.

Big deal you might say. QR codes are everywhere, they're certainly not new, so what is the big deal? Timeliness and reliability are both important here. I work on both a Mac and an iPad each day as do our students. Emailing links, or even bookmarking and then accessing them on Diigo (which I love) or tweeting them for example, seems to take too long, too many seconds spent opening up applications. Really,  I don't necessarily want these particular links taking up space in my Diigo account etc. Often we need the link in a pinch, while in the midst of a project.  At other times we generate them in advance, to use in directing the kids to starter activities, or as components of our online lessons.  We use one of my favourite iPad apps, i-nigma, to capture these QR Codes.

I have been loving this system for a while and decided that it deserves sharing.

Hold on....i-nigma is another application to open up, so why am I whinging about lost time?


The question is easily answered by answering another...Why do I love it?
It is free, it loads immediately, it is extremely reliable and it captures the QR Code without any kerfuffle. I don't even have to really focus it with the mobile device. I have stood at the front of my classroom and basically waved my iPad across the screen and it captures the code!!!

Getting a link to the iPad in a flash:
Basically what I do is generate the QR Code on the Mac and open it with i-nigma, that other app I absolutely love to bits. This opens it on the iPad where I can then use it in whatever project we are working on. This is great for working with citations of images the kids may have collected and sharing important links with each other.

Generating a link for starters or further investigation:
All you need to do is generate a QR code for the poll, reading selection, video etc, that you are using as a starter and having it up on your computer when the kids come in, ready to capture. I open mine in preview and they zoom very nicely, so even the kids at the back of the room can capture them with ease if needed.

Capturing on the spur of the moment:
Sometimes you may have reason to go off on a tangent and really want to share something with them for later followup or discussion. Just go to the page you want to share. Activate the extension and voila...you have a qr code for them to scan.

i-nigma is free for iPad, Android and Windows Phone, and goo.gl shortner is a free extension from the Chrome Store,so there is no reason not to try it out.

ISTE Reflections

ISTE 12 Reflections

Reflecting on the ISTE 12 experience and comparing it to prior ISTE’s I have attended.

My experiences this year were in many ways similar to those at preceding conferences. There was little time to stop and reflect, eat, and see a lot of the sessions I had earmarked as interesting. It was easier to get around the convention centre than the centres in Philly and Denver and  It was really nice to have the Bloggers Café upstairs in the Sails Pavilian along with the various sig playgrounds. These were important venues for  meet ups and networking.  I attended a variety of sessions and presented on a variety of topics, and while the large venue, lecture style presentations are often very informative and occasionally entertaining, their impact on my learning was overshadowed by the networking opportunities, discussions, and sharing that went on in more informal sessions, meet ups and social activities. My PLN has once again exploded. I look at my travel envelope and there is a certain absence of business cards, both my own which ran out in just one session and those of others, QR Codes, twitter and the reinforcement and expansion of preexisting  professional relationships  were key elements this time around. A shift has certainly happened for me and it  has been building since ISTE 11 in Philly.

There were an estimated 20 000  attendees this year and  while that seems and is a huge number of people, it didn’t prevent me from constantly running into people I knew, many of them from previous conferences. It felt good to further solidify our relationships, share new ideas for project work and tighten those professional links even further.  My conference experience was not about the big name speakers and their sessions, it was about building my branch of our learning community, with professionals, both big name and not.

I was so fortunate in being able to present 3 poster sessions which were heavily attended and work at both the Google and digital AV Playgrounds with Sigms. While time consuming and taxing  at times (I spoke for 10 hours  total often 2-4 hours at a time.) These were some of the most important ISTE12 moments for me.

That said this reflection would be incomplete without reference to some of the other sessions I was at as an attendee..   So here it goes directly from my Evernote  notebook.

About Evernote: I decided that it was time to take that plunge and do more than tinker with it.  I forces myself to use Evernote alongside Diigo and Twitter to record important experiences and finds and I have to admit that it was for the most part a great decisions.  I am going to ensure that I not only use it  often and with purpose but promote its use with other professionals  and students that I work with.

Now back to what I found. Here is a listing of all the resources that I collected during the conference that I thought notable. Some of these have been around for a while, but are worth being reminded about.

Google Docs Tutorials for Teachers

https://sites.google.com/a/viedu.org/google/home

 This resource is designed to help educators and staff learn how to effectively use Google Docs.

Learn 360 Suscription Resources Online

Interactive media on demand service

Thinkfinity

Resources and lesson plans online for free

http://www.thinkfinity.org/

Kathy Schrock's Resources for Everything

http://www.schrockguide.net/literacy-in-the-digital-age.html

Tricider

Ask a question and invite friends or colleagues.
Collect ideas and vote for your favourite.

https://tricider.com/en/t/

Instagram 

Edit and add photos to twitter, fb etc...with just one click.

http://www.destinyquest.com/ 

Schoology 

Manage lessons, engage students, share content, and connect with other educators.

https://www.schoology.com/home.php

lms social

http://www.follettsoftware.com/destiny-quest

Piclits

create poems based on pics

http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx

SketchUp

Add physical behavior, rolling, gravity, hinges act…(mac put them into library manually)

http://code.google.com/p/sketchyphysics/

Google Presentations idea:

Add hyperlinks as tocs in Google presentations

Scripts

Form Emailer Script

Use for exit tickets, digital receipt for materials checked out, feedbck durng observation, walk throughs

(tools>script gallery)

Henrique's Site

10 step procedure

https://docs.google.com/a/abc-net.edu.sv/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHc0RzhQRWxjN0lscGpjODRXSGlHeUE6MQ

integrating Google Forms in to Google sites

Historical voyages and events

YouTube

Choose your own adventure video using YouTube annotations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtG6yw2IrlI

Create a Playlist Slam

How to do this.....

select playlist and playlist slam

Make a Coin go Around the World-flip a coin

inserting gadgets in spreadsheets

https://sites.google.com/a/flippededucation.com/flipacoin/

Google Cloud Connect for Windows users and Google Docs

Set to automatic to save to googl docs.

Gadgets Worth Looking Into

flashcards gadget 

gadges gadget for real time election results

display results

The Writer's Club 

online collaborative writing projects

http://thenorthschool.com/writersclub/

My Big Campus 

A Site full of resources linked to standards

http://www.mybigcampus.com/

links to presentation resource live binder

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/418977

Since ISTE I have come across a great many other resources that I don't want to forget about. They are all in my various Diigo Groups, however I plan to post several of them here too in the next  few days.

Yolink

This is certainly something you'll want to add to your digital toolbox.

Yolink allows you to use keywords to search through numerous links on web pages, as well as specify which links you want it to search through by entering your keywords into the search bar (an add on) and highlighting. Searching through pages of online books is also possible using Yolink which facilitates easy saving and sharing of search results. This last option does require a user and password.