I’m really excited to be working with the folks at NEA SEE once again. I’ll be heading to the Windy City this weekend and providing them some ideas for iPad use in professional communication as well as some updates from Twitter’s latest changes.  Stay tuned for an update including my presentations and any relevant links.

Sessions

Twitter Updates 2011: Learn what’s new in Twitter and available applications.Discuss how short–form communication is being used to create long–form communications. Examine best practices of NEA affiliates and other online strategists. Refresh yourself on the do’s and don’ts of Twitter, and how to get the most out of Twitter as a power user by creating feeds for varied content. Download presentation here.

iPad UnConference: Whether you’re an iPad user or not, this session will be a general hands on and open use cases for iPad in communication. Bring your iPad and share your favorite apps with the group and learn more about note taking, event organzing and more apps you just can’t live without. You’re sure to leave this session installing the latest and greatest applications. Download presentation here.

About NEA SEE

The State Education Editors (SEE) group is comprised of communications professionals who work in the state affiliates of the National Education Association and at the NEA. There are more than 135 members nationwide, and they work as editors, graphic designers, Webmasters, writers and public relations professionals. Through printed and electronic media, SEE members communicate the importance of quality public education and association membership to teachers, education support professionals, parents, politicians and community members. SEE is governed by a four-member executive committee, which is elected by the membership during an annual business meeting.

See the original article at the source.

s many of our readers know, the 2011 NCTIES conference will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina March 2-4 at the Raleigh Convention Center. For those of you who don’t know, NCTIES (North Carolina Technology in Education Society) is the North Carolina affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education, and is the state’s leading educational technology organization.

The annual conference is more than just a series of workshops and concurrent sessions. It’s a phenomenal opportunity to network with educational technology leaders across the state, a showcase of success stories, and an opportunity to celebrate our peers through awards, grants, and scholarships.

This year’s conference will feature seven featured speakers, including Ruston Hurley, Patrick Crispen, Leslie Fisher, Kevin Honeycutt, Kathy Schrock, David Warlick, and Tammy Worcester. In addition to these keynotes, NCTIES will have eight concurrent session time slots, seven technology fairs, an exciting exhibit hall, workshops, and a celebration to top off the 40th anniversary of NCTIES.

For those not able to attend this year’s conference, make sure you follow NCTIES on Twitter, as well as conference updates via the #NCTIES11 hashtag. The conversation has already begun. Want to see what sessions are being presented? Check out the conference wiki. It’s a complete guide to all of the sessions (too many to count). Dig deep enough and you’ll find sessions presented by many LEARN NC staff members. I myself will be there presenting the hot topic of mobile course processes using current technologies with Mike Shumake of NCVPS.

Barbara Moose, NCTIES President, is eagerly anticipating this year’s conference. When asked more about it, she said, “My conference thoughts revolve around three Rs this year — relationships, reconnecting, and remembering. For me, this conference has always been about relationships.Reconnecting with colleagues (educators and exhibitors) from across North Carolina is one of my favorite things about the NCTIES Conference. I only see some of them face to face during this time and it is exciting to be able to catch up with them and learn from them. This year we have invited leaders who have served NCTIES (formerly NCAECT) over the past 40 years to be our honored guests as we remember their contributions to NC educators and this organization.”

2011 NCTIES conference

Most educators know that March 2 is Read Across America day, a day that is also Dr. Seuss’ birthday. While it isn’t typically thought of as a day filled with technology enriched activities, it has become so thanks to the availability of web conferencing, social media, and even blogs.

www.readacrossamerica.org is the central location for all events and activities related to this one day. Those of you willing to make a pledge to read with your students can do so online using this year’s pledge form. Using a Google Maps interface, users can see how many pledges have been made in each state across the nation.

Schools fortunate enough to embrace social media can “Like’ Read Across America on their Facebook page. There’s a Twitter conversation already in the works, a Flickr stream ready to accept photos, and a SchoolTube channelchock full of videos. It’s exciting to see an event like this organized reading day evolve into so many interesting projects.

In the last couple of years, schools have even taken to Skype calls to have authors call in to a class and read to students. This is something that only a few fortunate schools in the country could afford to do in a traditional face to face scenario. Teachers have even buddied up with other classes to read to each other from around the country and across the globe. The Skype In Schools community recently decided to post a RAA page. This was something decided upon by the members of the group, and not a direction taken by the administrators of the site.

Random House has created an online gallery of resources to help direct ideas for Read Across America with the support of the National Education Association.

So what are you doing this year? Do your plans include a more technology enriched collaborative effort? If so, please share your ideas in the comments below. Happy Reading!

Just thought I’d share the apps on my Android phone. I use a Samsung Captivate, rooted to run Android 2.2 because

AT&T and Samsung can’t get along long enough to get their act together and roll out the update. Thanks to the screen capture application, Shoot Me, I was able to grab some shots of what I have on my phone. I’ll admit, the one feature the iPhone has by default is the screen capture option, but Shoot Me offers even greater options for capturing images.

One of the things I really like about the Android OS is the dual layering of screens. Unless you are running the pure Android experience, you are likely to have some sort of added GUI (graphic user interface) overlayed to give it the manufacturer’s custom look. Samsung uses TouchWiz, Motorola uses MotoBlur, and HTC has Sense. This added layer allows the user to add customized widgets, shortcuts, folders, and wallpapers. Below you’ll find my home pages. The Captivate supports up to 7 panels. I am only using 4 panels to keep it simple. Click on the image to enlarge.

The pane to the left is the notification window. For non Android users, you’ll notice the top bar displays notifications, connection to network(s), battery level, and a clock. When a new message or notification appears, the user just taps on that banner and pulls the ‘shade’ down. Pane 1 is just a page to remind me of my family, pane 2 contains a Facebook widgets, some applications, and a utility for managing connections and power settings. Pane 3 is my home page, complete with a clock, my 6 favorite shortcuts and apps, and my Xbox Live avatar for quick access. Finally, pane 4 has the universal search bar, 12 apps, and the 4 persistent applications across the bottom (phone, mail, browser, and all applications).

The all applications button accesses the following pages of applications. Once again, you can click on the image to enlarge it for further examination.

These are all the applications stored on the phone at this time. You’ll notice a lot forced AT&T applications. I could remove them if I really wanted, but I’d rather not push the limits of my already rooted phone.  For those readers out there less than willing to jump into tweaking the operating system of their phone, there are other social application sharing programs out there. Some options include AppBrain, Appsfire, and Appolicious.

So what apps am I missing? I know there are many out there that I’m missing. Drop a note in the comments. Feel free to share your experiences with the Android Market.

About six months ago, I posted a note to my network asking people if the iPad was only a consumption device or if would ever been seen as a truly productive device for creation. I received a mixed response and just sat on the thought for a while. On my way home, I was listening to This Week in Tech, Episode 286 where Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Larry Magid, and MG Siegler were discussing the  merits of the iPad as a creation device.  Feel free to listen or watch the podcast and make your own decision regarding this debate.

After reviewing the five iPad advertisements, I noticed an interesting trend. The earlier commercials have a 2:1 ratio of content consumption compared to content creation. As you move through the newer advertisements, the focus leans toward a 1:1 focus of consumption and creation. The final tally ended in  a count of 22 applications targeting consumption and 13 aimed at creation. It sounds to me that Apple is attempting to capture the spirit of this device as a device primarily used for consumption. I scoured the internet for articles and research. One of the simplest graphics I found outlines the features of Apple’s three mobile platforms. Take a look at it and comment on it below.

Strengths

The iPad is a very stable device. Thanks to the closed operated system, the average consumer doesn’t notice any instability or crashes in iOS. As a reader and video player, the iPad provides an adequate amount of viewing space and backlight for low light situations. Through the iTunes Store and App Store, users can access an plethora of games, publications, media, and organizational tools.

Limitations

The iPad has no means of exporting content to a USB drive, although applications like Dropbox attempt to offer a file system to transfer content. The closed operating system does create limitations to file system structure for managing photos, media, and documents. The Safari browser for iPad notoriously denounces any support for Flash content which makes millions of website impossible to render and use.

The App Store is also known as a limiting factor for advanced users. Without cracking the operating system, users can only access approved applications.  The biggest barrier to content creation on theiPad focuses around the unexplained decisions that have limited users access to a variety of creation tools. Google Docs was one such feature.  When it was originally released, the iPad’s browser didn’t support Google Docs for editing, but in recent months things have changed and users can now edit their documents (with limitations).  Users will experience mixed results in support for certain content management systems and even some online learning platforms due to features disabled in the mobile Safari browser.

What Now?

With more than 300,000 applications and 10 billion application downloads, Apple certainly has the numbers to keep going, but will their restrictive environment stifle creativity and lean more towards consumerism?  I hope not. Fortunately, Android OS 3.0, AKA Honeycomb, was officially announced last week.  Does this mean the iPad is doomed? Not hardly. But just as in the mobile phone market, competition will drive innovation. With two major platforms, users will have greater choice and see the possibilities of tablet devices. Ultimately, we will need to watch as the current generation of tablets evolve into iPad 2 and devices like the new Motorola Xoom. Either way, I can’t wait to see users pushing designers and developers to support our creativity as technology advances.

Related

http://www.thomas-fitzgerald.net/2010/04/06/content-creation-v-s-content-consumption-the-ipad-revolution/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/03/entelligence-the-ipad-as-a-productivity-tool/

http://weblogg-ed.com/2010/reading-as-a-participation-sport/

I debated where to write this post because I wanted it to reach the right audience. I settled on using my personal blog to reach a more general audience. Typically, I would love to share this with educators, but too much of the Chromium project is beyond the permissions of feasibility of classroom use due to restrictions placed upon them in their school districts.

I think I just lost half my readers, so lets get to it.  Google Chrome is a web browser designed for efficiency, simplicity, and stability. It serves as the flagship application for the Chromium Browser Project.  If you are Gmail user, you need to install Chrome on all of your computers. The benefit of using Chrome with your Google account is that it syncs your web history, bookmarks, browser themes, preferences, add-ons, and autofill data. Of course, you can customize each sync option if you panic over the idea that Google will use this data against you (maybe they will).

Features

When you install Chrome and open it up for the first time, you’ll notice that seems to lack all the ‘stuff’ that other browsers have. That’s probably because your current browser has been cluttered up with toolbars from your antivirus program, add-on toolbars, and bloatware aplenty.   Below, you’ll notice a shot of the Chrome address bar. There’s not much to it, Back, Forward, Home, the universal search box, and to the far right is the customization icon. Of course you can add gobs of additional features and fatten up your browser and it will run just as sluggishly as Firefox and Internet Explorer.

I am using the latest beta release of Chrome because I was eagerly anticipating the Google Cloud Print feature promised. The Cloud Print feature allows you to have one computer connected to printers via a network and sending the print job from another computer using Google Chrome. The print job is sent through your Google Account to the desired workstation. Just note that you should be careful sending sensitive data through the net to be printed in a location you aren’t able to get to anytime soon.  If you’re interested in doing more with Cloud Printing, just read through their Frequently Asked Questions and support.

Add-Ons

I’ve got five must have add-ons for Chrome. Of course there are many more out there, but here’s my highly biased list.

• goo.gl URL shortener – a service connected to your Google Account that gives you shortened URLs for easier sharing. It collects valuable data regarding the link you share. The data includes clicks, countries, browsers, and platforms accessing your links.
• Delicious bookmarks allows you to sign in to your Delicious account to quickly catalog, tag, and share your bookmarks.
• Chrome2Phone has got to be one of coolest tricks available to Android phone owners. It allows you to send the content you are viewing in your browser directly to your phone. You’ll need to have Android 2.2 or later, but you won’t regret adding this to your must haves.
• Webpage Screenshot helps you easily capture the contents of a web browser to share for training materials, blog entries, or general editing purposes to create publications promoting your website.
• Chromed Bird for all of you Twitter addicts who need another option to access your Twitter feed without another application.

Apps

Oh my god, another application ecosystem. I can’t take it anymore. If you have been following tech news lately, you notice that Apple has an App Store, Android has their Marketplace, and Amazon is working on their own App Store. Chrome provides a limited set of apps that you can ‘install’ in your browser. The applications are available in the Chrome Web Store. Some applications are free and others might be available for purchase. The unique thing about this app market is they install inside the browser and sync to your Google Account so it will automatically load in all your Chrome browsers. Some interesting applications I have found include the Full Screen Weather application, the Google Body Browser, and Kid Mode. The application directory is not extensive, but there is hope that more Android developers will adapt their programs to function in Chrome.

Now that I have thrown the entire pile of Chrome features in your lap, I’ll leave it up to you to adopt the latest alternative browser. There are some limitations to Chrome, mostly due to a lack of developer support. Certain financial institutions and multimedia platforms will not work properly, but with time this will change, just as it did for Firefox.

Do you have experiences with Chrome? Are they good or bad? What do you hope to see happen with this web browser in the next year? I imagine we’ll hear about it at this year’s Google IO conference. Either way, it’s up to users to decide the fate or success of this web browser.

With the ever increasing adoption of smart phones in today’s electronics market, we find ourselves trusting sub-6 ounce devices with usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and personal data. What happens when this pocket-sized device is misplaced? WE PANIC!!!!!!  While many smartphone owners have an iOS device such as the latest iPhone, many more are choosing to adopt an Android device. Even though the specifications vary greatly, the spirit of the Open Handset Alliance lives somewhere deep within each device. Despite phone insurance, password patterns and PINs, we are likely to misplace our mobile device at some point during our two year contract.

So when you misplace your handset, AND YOU WILL, I have a great solution to ease your worries (unless you dropped your phone in the Atlantic Ocean). Where’s my Droid is a free application available through the Android Marketplace.  If you have  QR code reader, you can scan this URL and get a head start.

So why would I want to download this application? It’s free, so it can’t be that great. Wrong! Where’s my Droid allows you to send a pre determined text message to your Android phone that will activate the ringer for a previously decided upon length of time. Additionally, if some ne’er do well has your phone you can send a separate message that will activate your handset’s GPS and return a Google map and GPS coordinates of where your phone is.

I doubted the rich feature set of this application, but I installed it and tried it out after hearing about it at the end of Episode 78 of This Week in Google, I had to jump into the Marketplace and dig through the four possible entries that were listed under the same name. I tested it out in my home, while my mobile device was still in my own possession (as I recommend everyone do). It worked flawlessly. I used my Google Voice account to send a text message to my mobile number and received the messages you see here.

Is this application perfect? Probably not. But it certainly is a great option if you don’t have some enterprise level of security on your device. There are many other options available as you set up the default behaviors, many of these applications even offer a remote wipe option to clear all sensitive data from your mobile phone. If you have an Android device, make sure that this is in your top five applications when setting up your applications.

As an educator, I find myself looking to the end of a calendar year in June. This year, I had the realization that I should look at December as the end of my year and January as a time to reflect and make new resolutions for my professional career.  I figure that doing this would rejuvenate me for the second half of the school year.

One of my first resolutions is to become a more committed blogger. But you might ask, “Why?” Blogs are a great medium for thought out reflections. I use Facebook and Twitter to share (and sometimes overshare), but those posts don’t typically offer the depth that a blog can. As I sat on my couch over the holidays, I picked up the latest copy of  Wired Magazine. In last months issue, Clive Thompson wrote about the importance of the short take and long take of news. Clive put it simply, “We talk a lot, then we dive deep.” My Twitter feed is my short take, an incremental collection of ideas, resources, and tidbits. My blog, however, is a way to take those parts and create more of a 50,000 foot view. But the best part of blogging happens after I publish. The commenting from my audience, the trackbacks, and the Google Analytics all providing abundant data from my subscribers.

At this point, some of you are wondering what I am getting at. I have been given a wonderful opportunity to become a guest blogger for www.edreformer.com as part of their DigitalEd column. EdReformer is “a community of advocates, entrepreneurs, educators, policy makers, philanthropists and investors seeking to promote excellence and equity in education through innovatation.  EdRefomer serves as a catalyst for innovation in education by encouraging and  promoting public and private investment in new learning tools, schools, and platforms.” This gives me great incentive to become a more involved blogger. I am not blogging for the sake of blogging, but as a means to share my thoughts and ideas about the impact of online learning, technology integration in the classroom, and instructional innovation for educators in today’s harsh economic environment.

As an educator in North Carolina, I strive to create relevant professional development to integrate technology  in the K-12 environment. My job is an amazing one. I have the privilege of scouring the web for resources that teachers can use to improve instruction and streamline their day to day work. In other words, I get to share only the best (and usually free) resources with teachers. My day to day job, at the North Carolina Teacher Academy, allows me to  research best practices in education and  create implementation plans through professional development. The Teacher Academy is funded by North Carolina legislation in an effort to provide high quality professional development for K-12 teachers across NC. In addition to face to face instruction, I also facilitate online professional development with the fine folks at LEARN NC,  a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education. LEARN NC provides lesson plans, professional development, and innovative web resources to support teachers, build community, and improve K-12 education in North Carolina. My focus at LEARN NC is to  primarily work with their Carolina Online Teacher certification program to help create a stronger community of online educators.

As I head into 2011, I hope to learn more about the barriers that teachers face in online learning and continue to develop a network of professionals interested in driving education forward. I am excited about this new opportunity to connect with new readers and learn as much from you as you do from me.

Happy 2011!

I’ve always enjoyed reading Instructify‘s blogs, so when I was asked to contribute to their wealth of “useful, free technology to utilize in the classroom. And it’s a fun place to spend your planning period.”  One of the things that has always grabbed my attention is their wonder use of the English language. When asked to write, I realized I needed to step it up a notch. The articles are designed to grab your attention and get to the point. I like to think of it at getting down and dirty with educational technology.

Today, I am proud to say, my first entry was published.  Focusing on the K 12 Online Conference, organized by WesFryer and others, I took the opportunity to show educators the value of this FREE ongoing conference. When you have a chance, take the time to read EdTech conferences persist without funding: The K-12 Online Conference.