What is Periscope?

That's the question I've been asking myself as I've seen tweets about Periscope flying by in posts on my Twitter feed. The best way to find out is to ask others or Google it, so that's what I did!

Periscope

Periscope is a live feed video social media service. I follow a bunch of people that are using it, so this was enough information for me to give it a try....well, that and my curiosity!

After downloading the app (iTunes, Play Store), you can sign up for a free account. You are given the choice on whether you'd like to use your Twitter handle or your phone number. Personally, I chose my Twitter handle, but I like the phone number option if you do not use Twitter. I chose to use my Twitter handle as my username for continuity between all my accounts. That's it! I am set!

Tutorials

For those of you who aren't ready to just take the plunge without more information, please visit Ana Hoffman's Periscope Tutorial. It has pictures and descriptions and gives the new user a very thorough walkthrough on getting started with Periscope.

Looking to use Periscope in the classroom? Check out Tony Vincent's Scope on Periscope for ideas on how to use this with the education community.

Exploring Periscope

I decided to explore Periscope after logging in. Of all of the individuals that I follow on Twitter, none were broadcasting at the time I was on. Never fear, I was able to explore the map (worldwide!) of people live streaming their "Scopes" from across the globe. I live in Northern Michigan, and found someone live broadcasting his Scope from Sleeping Bear Dunes in Glen Arbor, Michigan. Our fourth grade visits this amazing destination every spring, but I've never had the opportunity to visit before. What a great way to see in real-time what Sleeping Bear Dunes is all about! It was really neat to visit a family hiking through the dunes to the lakeshore. I recommend trying it out!

Now I Periscope! Will you?

miGoogle Conference-Day 2

Day 2 of the miGoogle Conference was amazing! This was the first conference that I presented at. Of course, I had to go first thing, but I think that was great because everyone was excited and ready to learn. I presented about using Google Drive to blend learning in the lower elementary classroom. My slides & information can be found here.

As with any presentation process, I believe it is important to gather feedback on the presentation. My feedback was mostly good, but it definitely takes guts to put yourself out there to be analyzed and critiqued by your colleagues and peers, especially those you've just met for the first time!

If you didn't make it out for the miGoogle conference, you definitely missed out on a great opportunity to collaborate with other excited members of Michigan's educational workforce. Please visit http://www.miedtech.com for more information about this year's presentations.

Discovery Education-A Techy Teachers Dream for Content and PD!

Hello friends! I hadn't realized that it has been so very long since I posted an update on my adventures! Please forgive me. I've been so very busy learning about new ways of integrating technology, building my PLN on twitter (awesome), and managing my Facebook page, that I knew I was leaving something out.

I had the pleasure of attending the Discovery Education Day of Learning at my local ISD a few weeks back. Following this I attended DEN Spring VirtCon 2013. There was a tremendous amount of very useful information presented by amazing presenters! Learning about how others use technology in their classrooms was the best part. Second best was participating in a conference (in my PJ's) that had over 2400 people attending! Today I'd like to briefly share some of the information I learned during these Discovery Education Network learning days. There is so much to cover that my following blog posts will discuss this information in more detail.

Discovery Education Day of Learning

Teachers at my school (including myself) have, for the most part, used our Discovery Streaming accounts to find engaging science and social studies videos for our students to watch within a specific lesson or at inside recess time. Our tech PLC, our Kindergarten teachers, and our Library Media Specialist learned that Discovery Education services provide SO MUCH MORE than just videos! We learned how to dig deep within the Discovery Education website to find images files, sound bytes, lesson plans, professional development and more! It was amazing! We even used images from DE to create a PhotoPeach slideshow (great web 2.0 tool). One of our teachers brought this idea back to her 2nd grade students. They used images to create a PhotoPeach about matter. They had a great time, were engaged in their learning, and went deeper within the content than they might have otherwise. Please check back in the coming days/weeks for some instructional photos and examples of the resources to be found within this gem of a site!

DEN Spring VirtCon 2013

As I said above, over 2400 people gathered in F2F and virtual meetings to attend this Virtual Conference (VirtCon). There were many different sessions that one could attend and three keynote speakers. It was so difficult to choose what sessions to attend! Thankfully ALL of the sessions are video archived here. I attended the following sessions:

• Opening Keynote: Connecting Classroom & Community with Project Based Learning (PBL) by Susie Boss
• Digital Storybooks for Digital Kids by Mary Carole Strother (tech difficulties, but I have a website to direct you to)
• Globalizing Gen Z through Social Media and Web Tools by Kathy Beck
• Midday Keynote: Imagining Future Friendly Schools: Technology, Global Citizenship, and Student Voice by Michael Furdyk
• Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Elementary by Kathy Cassidy
• iPads for Projects with Discovery Media by Karen Ogen
• Closing Keynote: Selling the 7 "C's" of Connections by Jennifer Wagner

Believe me, each of these sessions deserve a blog post of their own. I won't even come close to doing any of these presenters justice by briefly going over what I learned. It was so worth it to attend. I hear there is a Fall VirtCon too...you can bet I'll be there! Will you?

Again, please check back in the coming days/weeks to see what I have to share. If you have a chance check out the archived video sessions from the VirtCon. You won't be disappointed!

Upcoming...

In the days ahead, besides keeping my promise to elaborate on the DE learning I've been part of, I will be attending A Day of Learning: iPads on SimpleK12's website on Saturday, May 4, 2013. I'll also be traveling to Boyne City Elementary to tour their school and see how the teachers their implement 1:1 iPads. I'm so excited!

A Day of Learning at MACUL 2013

Wow! I had an amazing day at MACUL today! The best part of the day was learning with my friend and watching her excitement about all of the new ideas and techniques that she learned. I can't wait to share some of the new technologies that I've learned about today with my coworkers, my students, and all of you! 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER 

The Keynote speaker today was Kevin Honeycutt @kevinhoneycutt. He did an amazing job of discussing how we can be the motivators for our students. He described how we can influence our student’s lives through our dedication and engagement techniques. He explained how twitter can help us teach our students how to develop their inner filter process. One idea that Kevin shared was that using apps and social platforms like Edmodo helps us to provide a safe place that our students can rehearse their social behaviors before they create their own online presence. It was a very informational, inspiring, and humorous hour!

ADVANCED iMOVIE TECHNIQUES 

The next session I attended was presented by Jon Corippo @jcorippo and Andy Losik @mrlosik. They are both ADE’s and presented a very enlightening session on advanced techniques for iMovie. Most of the discussion centered on iMovie and Keynote for the Mac, which I am new to, but they also discussed how these techniques can be used on the iPad, which I’m more familiar with. I learned about how to use a green screen, the difference between digital storytelling and cinematic narratives, and the best types of equipment to use. I would love to begin to implement a news program with my elementary kids. I’m so inspired by these two guys and all of the new techniques I’ve just learned!

APPLE TECHNOLOGIES, iTUNES U, & THE BEST APPS FOR TRANSFORMING STUDENT AND STAFF LEARNING IN A ONE-TO-ONE SCHOOL 

Fred Sitkins, Principal, and Rebecca Wildman, 4th Grade Teacher, both from Boyne City, presented this program. They recently implemented a 1:1 initiative in their school. Staff from my elementary school recently visited their school to get ideas as we rollout our 1:1 program. They are amazing! There was so much I learned here, but the point that sticks out most for me is how to create iTunes U lessons. Rebecca created units for her 4^th graders and posts them to iTunes U. This way her students can download them on their iPads before they leave school. Whether they have Wi-Fi at home or not, now they can complete their homework at home using their iPad. This is a great idea. Check out Rebecca’s lessons on iTunes U by browsing the K-12 section of the catalog and selecting Boyne City Schools.

DON’T BE THUNDERSTRUCK WITH TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY

Mindy Lynch and Tracy Lemkie, teachers from Ravenna Public Schools, shared their tips and trick for electrifying digital learning in their elementary classrooms. They shared information about Pixie, Edmodo, Voki, BrainPop, and MANY apps! These ladies are funky & spunky! They provided an inspirational and motivating session that was topped off with great swag! Check out Mindy Lynch’s blog at http://blogs.muskegonisd.org/mlynch

OSX AND iOS TOOLS FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

Mark Coppin is the Director of Assistive Technology at Anne Carlsen Center in North Dakota. He is an ADE who graced us with his presence and his plethora of knowledge on accessibility options on iPad and Mac devices. He provided so much information about the wonderful features of Apple devices and how they can be implemented in the classroom and for personal use. Check out the handouts he shared with us here!

THAT’S IT FOR THURSDAY!

I had a great day, but I’m on information overload! I’m looking forward to getting some rest and getting started again tomorrow morning. Check back here for more information about my activities at MACUL 2013.

It's Here! MACUL 2013!

I am so very excited to be attending MACUL (Michigan Association of Computer Users and Learners) in Detroit. The pre-conference began today. The full conference begins tomorrow. I'm looking forward to soaking up technology information, networking with like-minded individuals, and increasing the size and knowledge base of my PLN

Our school has begun the roll-out of 1:1 iPads for K-5 and MacBooks for 5-12. As the mindset of our teachers shifts from traditional teaching and learning to being a guide on the side that integrates technology into multi-subject lessons and student-led PBL, the demand for educators that are able to effectively implement 21st Century learning techniques grows. I am proud to be of assistance to my peers and excited to build my knowledge base through wonderful learning opportunities like MACUL.

If you are attending MACUL, you should see Erin Klein's MACUL post on her blog, Kleinspiration, for tips and tricks you should know when attending this conference. If you are attending other conferences you should still check it out because she provides some wonderful pre-planning ideas.

I am looking forward to being able to share with all of my followers the amazing information that I will learn over the next two days. Please check back for more updates in the days to follow!

Professional Development

Whenever I have a question, I tend to go to the professionals out there...my fellow teachers and bloggers. These are the people that are using the technology or resources that I am seeking answers about. TeachThought had a post about the 52 education blogs that you should follow. Many of these bloggers I have already been following, but others I have just added to my PLN. Check out the blog post and expand your Professional Learning Network.

Learnist

Hello Friends! It's my last post for 2012. Happy New Year to you all! I'm looking forward to a very prosperous and enjoyable 2013 for myself, my family and all of you.

Learnist

Last time I posted I discussed Pinterest and shared my Pinterest boards. This time I'd like to introduce Learnist. Learnist has been likened to "Pinterest for Educators." Learnist is a fairly new education, collaboration, and professional development tool. It was created by Grockit (the well-known test prep company) and released on May 24, 2012. For more on Learnist see Hack Education's post about its launch.

Where Pinterest gives users ways to "pin" websites and photos to their "boards", Learnist creates a timeline of possible learning for users. Users follow other Learnist users and can follow the "learnings," or posts/pins, of other users in a linear fashion. Learnings can be checked off as they are completed and can be commented on by other learners. In a sense it's kind of like Pinterest and Wikipedia got together and had a brain child called Learnist!

As an educator that tends to be more elementary focused, I feel that I would be more likely to use Learnist for professional development and personal learning than I would promoting use with my students. I am relatively new to this site, so I've been following and not posting. Once I feel more comfortable interacting with the site I will start creating learnings for others to follow (click here to follow TechyTeacher1 on Learnist). For more on how educators are using Learnist see Mind Shift's blog post.

I feel that Learnist is definitely an up and coming way for educators to collaborate and share. I've found some great iPad learnings, which will be a benefit when our Title I and Special Ed programs launch the iPads after January 2nd. Either way, its worth checking out and seeing whether you will personally benefit from this free service!