EVERYONE: Take the badges survey - And congrats to our Citizenship Badge winners!

First and foremost, EVERYONE, take this survey about the badging this semester.  I didn't know we were supposed to do it in class on Tuesday and the researcher has a deadline.  It must be be complete by TUESDAY, APRIL 12.

Click here to take the survey:
https://fsu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bNGpuQ65uM7iLfT

The researcher left a bag of chocolates for us as a thank you, which we will enjoy at our last class.

And announcing...  our Citizenship Badge winners.

Tech Helper - Ben

"Just during the last weeks class alone, I noticed how helped others when they were struggling with Excel."

"I have worked with and sat next to Ben for the whole semester and it was only beneficial for me. During the PowerPoint Interaction, I was really struggling with using buttons as the concept was new to me, not only did Ben teach and show me how to use the buttons, but he really made it easier for me to work on the PowerPoint."

Community Builder - A TIE!  (Its not just about the number of votes.  I bet you can guess what stands out about these two winners).

Lindsey

"She always comments on my assignments and blog posts with encouraging words and is always a text away when I need help with something! "

"She always provides constructive comments on my blog posts every week "

"Lindsey is always there to help me with assignments that involve programs that I am not extremely comfortable with. She and I FaceTime often to get homework done as well as to work on group projects if we cannot get together to work."


Ciara

"She is always there for me when I text her about assignments and during class when I'm confused."

"Ciara always provides positive responses to blogs and helps out in class when needed. Shows knowledge of course material by winning the podcast game."

"Ciara pretty consistently comments on my blog posts. I like to see her comments because she actually says more than just "I agree!"

Excel Survey

https://fsu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0NA3cZSc6L5ipnv

Tech Conferences: FETC, ISTE, and DigiTech

DigiTech was unlike any technology conference I have attended.  Usually, companies line the vendor halls and show you their latest-greatest products, handing out swag.  Break out sessions feature colleagues sharing tips and projects they do with their students.  If you ever get a chance to attend a tech conference, go!  It is so much fun.

FETC is the biggest tech conference in Florida.  Be sure to click on the gallery tab:
http://fetc.org/index.html

This link shows the presentations from 2016.  Note that each session has a pdf or power point from the session:

If you are so lucky, (and I have never been so lucky), you could go to the ISTE national conference.  I hear its amazing.  Check it out.

https://conference.iste.org/2016/

Palm Beach County, my home, is a big county.  We are lucky enough to have a great district-wide technology conference that is surprisingly sophisticated.  It is usually held on a teacher work day so many teachers opt to stay on campus.  If your county hosts a technology conference, I urge you to go!  You will learn so many practical tips.  And again... its fun!  I started presenting at my local tech conference my 2nd or 3rd year in the classroom.  This is a great way to formalize your thoughts, to refine your speaking and Power Point skills, and to build your resume.

So what makes DigiTech different?  Instead of sessions and vendors, the hall is all students who are displaying (excitedly) their inventions and innovations.  For example, one pair of students made an app to be launched Jan 2017 which I anxiously await.  It's sort of like Uber but for tourism.  If you have traveled much, you know that knowing a local makes the experience so much better, steering you away from the tourist traps and leading you to the best restaurants, events, stores, and "fun stuff."  With this app, you are matched with locals who will show you around, for a very low price.  Cool, huh?!?!

Here are some pictures from DigiTech

Remote-control plane that takes off vertically and the flies like a typical plane.

Combining Occulus Rift with Leap technology, you use the controller to move your character around through the scene (an Asian village), and can see your hands in front of you, with which you can touch, move, and pick up things in your environment.

I don't know the name of this tech, (its a demo, not a student project).  The swiveling base allows the ipad to capture high quality audio and video as you move around the room.  Think: videoing your lessons as you talk to various students.  COE uses this during teacher training so maybe you will get to check it out.

Maybe called a lightscribe?  Pen that records audio and any writing on the special paper into a collapsed video file so that you can hear group discussions AS the students are brainstorming on the paper.

Time to use our collective brains

These questions need some modification to make them usable in the Podcast Game. They aren't wrong, per se; they just need revision. The answers are out of order so you cannot count on answer A being the proposed correct answer.

Choose one of the questions for your comment. Respond with:

• Question number
• Propose the concern
• Suggest a revision  (use letters to denote which answers you would change)

1. Which of following was not a new technology listed by the podcast?

A. Edmodo

B.  Twitter

C.  Webinars

D.  Teacher Blogs

2.  What is professional development?

A.  Observing classrooms with seasoned teachers

B.  The kinds of life long learning teachers engage in

C.  The classes that prepare a teacher in college

D.  Googling "How to teach professionally?"

3.  What is an example of not using copyright correctly?

A.  Finding something on the internet that's labeled "for reuse."

B.  Citing a source on the last page of a research paper.

C.  Citing a picture you used in your PowerPoint presentation.

D.  Putting a quotation in a presentation with no author or quotation marks.

4.  The four main web 2.0 tools described in this podcast include all of the following EXCEPT:

A. Diigo

B.  Wiki

C.  Google

D.  Twitter

And the Weebly Awards Go to...

Congratulations to the following students for their hard work on the Web Page Design Project.

"Best in Show" (popular vote)

• Kelty - http://kennedyalabama.weebly.com\

"Gold Star" (teacher award)

• Ciara - http://cds13h.weebly.com/
• Savannah - http://savanaheme2040.weebly.com/
• Kaitlyn - http://kaitsclassroom.weebly.com/

Slide Share - Check it Out

What I really liked about this presentation is....

13 Alternatives to Using Bullet Points in Presentations from Melissa Milloway, MSIT

Good Citizenship Awards

Thanks for your thoughtful comments nominating students for the Good Citizenship Awards.  The award is decided by number of nominations and the description. The decision was tough!

The majority of you nominated for the Tech Helper Award, describing how classmates help you with the many tech challenges you encounter.  Some of you mentioned various forms of communication such as:  Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, face-to-face, and phone calls.   Keep it up!

And the winners are...


Lauren - Community Builder

Lauren is always working very hard in this class, and is always contributing to the work at hand. She is always willing to help when she is needed, and puts a great positive spin on all the work done in and out of class.

Nova - Tech Helper

Nova was proactive in linking with classmates on twitter. She was also genuinely interested in the Tech Sandbox and that may have helped others get excited as well. 

She has been really helpful with assignments. She is always quick to respond to any questions I've had about specific assignments or skill checks.

Tech Sandbox Lite

Did you have fun in the Tech Sandbox?  Do you wish you could play with these tools at your leisure?  Now you can.  Here are some free (or cheap) tools that mimic the Tech Sandbox tools.

1.  3-D Printing

The 3-D printer is definitely cool!  They are all the rage in library world as part of the Maker Space trend.  TinkerCad is a free online software for making 3-D printing designs.  Try it out as one of your ILPs.  If you are so inclined, there are places that will print your design for you (not free but fun).

https://www.tinkercad.com/ 

2.   Oculus Rift

The 3-D virtual reality provided by the Oculus Rift offers many opportunities for instruction.  But you don't need the expensive equipment to play.  Google Cardboard is a 1.0 version that can be purchased affordably.  

https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/

 3.  Sphero Robotic Ball

The Sphero ball is a great tool to introduce students to coding, a popular skill taught in many schools.  But you don't need the robotic ball to learn coding.  Here are two websites my Robotics Club students use to learn drag-and-drop coding.  The first one toggles to java coding as well.  Try your hand at coding for an ILP.

Hour of Code:  https://code.org/learn

Scratch:  https://scratch.mit.edu/ 

This bill just passed in Florida:

HB 0887  Computer Coding Instruction (Adkins) - credit in lieu of foreign language or math - passed, on House Calendar 

If you really like the robotic ball, Ozobot is a small version:

http://www.slj.com/2016/02/opinion/test-drive/tiny-ozobot-gets-kids-into-block-based-programming-test-drive#_

Coding is half the fun of the Robotics Club.  First, students build a robot with Legos.  Then they program the robot to perform certain tasks.  Here is a link to some sample projects.

http://www.nxtprograms.com/projects2.html 

And finally, here is a video of my son's group's last project, a striking viper.  They are beginners.  Advanced robot designers make very complex programs and compete.

That's What I Like...

Congratulations to Nova and Parker for receiving your votes as "Best in Show" for the newsletter assignment.  Here are some of your comments about what you liked in the any newsletter:

I really liked that each section was eye-catching but not messy or "too much". The graphics were all appropriate for the theme. I loved the organization of the spelling words and the borders around each section. Great job!

It was very colorful and bold. It drew my attention and made me actually want to read it. Very well done!

The pink hearts and little giraffe are the cutest things!!

I like the way she kept the color scheme the same.

I really liked the Valentine's day theme!

Great Quotes of the Week

I so enjoy reading your blog posts.  You are insightful and funny!  Here are some highlights from blog #2.

Nova:  " From .doc to .docx, I'd say Microsoft Word has always been an extension of myself in my educational career."


Savanah:  "Another thing I learned was how simple and educational Twitter can be (This kind of shocked me!). Within approximately ten minutes I connected with various educational and technology-related Twitter accounts." 

Oliviah:   "Twitter has been adding features such as polls which can be very beneficial in the classroom." - I'd love to see an example of this.  If you know how, please post to #FSUedtech

Kaitlyn:   "I would use copyrighted and fair use material in the appropriate manner. I'd probably be incorporating a lot of books, movies, internet sources, and pictures into my curriculum and course materials but as long as they benefit my objective goal and subject that I'm teaching I would be allowed to do that."

John:  " What is so convenient about personal learning networks is the ability to communicate on a national or even global network like twitter, to be able to communicate with teachers or companies or even future students over a network is revolutionary."

Chloe:  "I've used it in the past to make lesson plans for VBS and I use the notebooks layout to take notes everyday in my lecture style classes."  (The notebook feature is only on Mac.  In Windows, use OneNote.  Evernote is an online option). 

A Peak at Our Class

Blog #0 revealed you all are a diverse group.  Some of you are crazy techie and others are just starting to climb the hill.  This class is for everyone.  Start where you are and try new things.  Help each other out!

Here are the results from your learning styles survey.  Neutral denotes a score of 1 in either direction of the spectrum.