Apps with Jessi Lalonde

Jessi (@jessilalonde) took us through an A-Z look at apps we can use in Education.  It was fast paced and full of great info!  Jessi brought everything back to great pedagogical uses.  Some cool tips I took away

• Her first slide was full of Scrabble tiles (see above) - each one was linked to the slide with the apps for that letter - VERY cute idea.
• Save your favourite Bitmojis in Google Keep
• Use Apple Clips to add closed captioning to videos - great for accessibility.
• DriveTunes - a new extension to me - DriveTunes allows you to play .mp3 and .m4a audio files right from Google Drive.
• She talked about ways to help student with executive functioning disorders keep organized with Google Keep - totally going home to do this with my son!
• 57 North - a choose your own adventure app for your MergeCube.
• Make challenges for students to become Chrome Kings - experts in areas of Chrome (or any app for that matter!)

See Jessi's slide deck at: bit.ly/appsohmy

Inspiring Mini Makers with Robin Holtie

I am always looking for ways to include making in the classroom.  I think the learning is so rich when learners (young and old) get dirty (metaphorically and sometimes literally).

I really enjoyed listening to Robin Holtie (@MrHoltie).  He offered some really fresh and fun ideas on making (mostly in intermediate).  From using Micro:Bits to create a Harry Potter style Sorting Hat to a Self - Contained Mars Space Station to support the reading of Weir's The Martian to Makedos in math, he offered some great ideas I had not heard before.

He also introduced me to Destination Imagination - program "that teaches "21st century" skills and STEM principles to kindergarten through university level students through collaborative problem-solving challenges."  It is a 9-month program, it is $105 to register and about $7 per student for the competition (going to finals means going to the US so prices increase there).  Totally something to check out for class or as an after school club.

You can find inspiration in Robin's Slide Deck.

Also, I sat beside my friend Laura Collins who is such an inspiration to me when it comes to coding and making (esp with littles) who told me about Klever Kutters to use when cutting cardboard.

ARVR with Mistene Clapp

A few weeks ago I called out on Twitter asking people about AR/VR apps in the classroom.  I got some great recommendations. (I am still working on my listicle - promise!)

Coming to connect I really wanted to learn more in person.  Mistene Clapp gave a great presentation showcasing many apps for AR/VR in the classroom.  A few to check out include:

• Quiver - colouring that comes to life
• 3D Bear - AR app worth checking out
• Curiscope Virtual-Tee - a t-shirt that lets you learn about the human body on a human body.
• MergeCube - Dozens of kid-safe apps for AR gaming, learning and creativity 
• Object viewer - use the Merge Cube to show 3D printed before you print!
• Jigspace - Jig Workshop is the tool to create and share interactive, 3D knowledge for anything. 

Want more?  Check out: Mistene's slide deck

CanConnected - Mad Learn - BYOApp

Session #1 is with Ms Kimberly - a rep from @madlearn (https://mad-learn.com/).

According to its website, "MAD-learn's relevant and engaging Mobile App Development program allows every K-12 student to create an app from beginning to end by empowering 21st Century technology literacy. Using the design thinking process, MAD-learn prepares today’s students for tomorrow’s careers by exposing them to all aspects of product development: ideation, planning, design, creation, testing, and launch. These vital and transferable skills are critical to today’s global technological economy."

Basically, it is a flash app.  The interface is quite user-friendly. You see a preview of the app in the middle, and the input works much like a word processor.  Overall it is quite robust.

They also have curriculum resources - although it was unclear if they were aligned with the Ontario curriculum or only Common Core standards.

Despite all this, I am not sure it is something I would use long term. The price point is high - $5000USD per building (no mention of the maximum number of students), $1750USD for a class for 30 students and $1300USD for an after-school group (no mention of the number of students).

You can get a 15-day free trial if you want to try it for yourself...and you can check out the app in the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store.

CanConnectED - My ISTE prep

About a month ago I was accepted as an emerging Edublogger for ISTE 2019!  This means that I will have a media pass and access to the conference with a chance to document what I am learning.

I have found ISTE to be overwhelming (understatement) and pulled in so many directions.  My plan is to do learning in the expo hall and in the playgrounds and document while I go.  The blogs will be microblogs - short little tidbits of sharing..longer than Tweets, shorter than I normally write.

Over the next few days, I am at the Connect 2019 conference so I am going to practice here...be prepared for a bunch of blogs! So....

Twitter - To Reply or Reply All?

A few weeks ago I shared my discovery of the "Add another Tweet" button on Twitter.  Today I have another cool share...the "Select Who Gets Your Reply" option. 

You know those times when someone hits reply all instead of reply?  I find that happens on Twitter all the time.  Sometimes I just want to send a GIF or short reply to the person who posted the tweet, not the other 15 people tagged in it.  This is possible...here is how:

When you click the reply icon, you see this screen:

Instead of just typing your reply, you can click the names to get a list of all those tagged in the tweet.  Then, you can check the box beside "Others in this conversation" to remove all others from the list of who will receive the reply.  You can also uncheck names individually to only include some of the others.

Editing the Master Slide

One of my practices, when I am delivering a workshop, is to be sure I have the link to slide deck on every slide, that way if someone comes in late they can catch up quickly without feeling they need to disrupt the flow of the presentation or any other participants.  It works well for presentation in classes as well.

I used to paste the URL on each slide, but inevitably I miss a slide, or have to move it around based on content on the slide already.

Then, I discovered the Master Slide.  By changing the master slide I can add the URL (usually a custom one made with bitly) when I make my first slide, then I know it will be there, and can place text and objects on my slides around it.

To access the Master Slide in Google Slides, go to Slide --> Edit Master.  Then I add features and make changes as necessary.

Changing the master slides in a deck has many uses...change all headers to the same font/size, change features on only one slide layout, and more.